LIVING IN HIS PRESENCE: Come With Clean Hands:
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?"
Focus Scripture: James 4:8
"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; . . . ."
Admonition
In my own part of Nigeria, Southwest, there is a popular adage by which the people encourage the younger folks to be of good behaviour. The adage goes thus: "a child who knows how to wash their hands will dine with the elders". And while growing up, you dare not start eating without washing your hands. Scientifically too, it is believed that germs could hide under one's nails, and if hands are not properly washed, the germs could contaminate foods and cause diseases in the body. So, we can now see that the importance of having clean hands is not only divine and spiritual, it cuts across almost all facets of life, and it cuts across all ages.
Out anchor Scripture since last week, Psalm 24: 3 is asking a very pertinent question of who qualifies to come into the presence of God. Kind as He always is, in order not to live us in limbo, or to avoid anyone giving their own answers, God quickly provided the answer in verse 4, and one of the major attributes is having clean hands. Our Focus Scripture bear the attitude of the anchor Scripture in that it also opened with drawing closer to God before it quickly put the clean hands caveat.
Notice the pluralisation of "hand" in that verse, which means that both hands must be sparkling clean; remember Galatians 6: 7.
In the Old Testament times, only the Priest goes into the Holy of Holies, and he dared not if he knew he had uncoffessed sins. Else, he won't come back alive.
Having clean hands in the spiritual parlance is simply to say to be unblemished or blameless before God. But specifically, it refers to the works of our hands. In the church today, we have in our midst abominable things like lying, envy, strives, backbiting, fraud, fornication, adultery, bitterness and many others, things that the Bible warns that we should not even mention them with our mouths let alone doing them (1 Cor. 1: 10 - 11, 3: 3, 5: 1; Eph. 5: 3; Gal 5: 19 - 21).
And with all these, we are still made to believe that whenever we gather, we are in the presence of God. It's a lie! Anyone found in any of all those can not enter God's presence because their hands are unclean. Some people, instead of going to their houses after having a wonderful time in the presence of God, washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ, they will stay back after service to gist with their gist brethren. In the course of the gisting, the cleanliness achieved during service will be gone, for the Bible says that in much speaking, there is sin.
As we close this morning, let us know that our FINISHING STRONG is dependent on our qualification to enter His glorious and Divine presence, and one of the things that determine this is the cleanliness of our hands. Please, remember that David wanted to build house for God, but God rejected it, close as they were, simply because David's hands were full of blood. It was Solomon, his son, a man of peace, that eventually built the house. So, finally in closing I refer you to Hebrews 12: 14 saying, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:" Without these, our hands may never be clean and FINISHING STRONG may become herculean.
Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please keep keeping on in Him.
N. B. Please, pray that the blood of Jesus Christ will purge of everything that is keeping your hands filthy before God.
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