In preaching you can, in a kindly way, put this across: that our attitude must be one of reverence. We need a mediator and cannot just come unrepresented before him. When we are in a tight corner and in need, we don’t consider that we are sinners, and far from God. Our lives are polluted, and we cannot just come rushing into his presence, ask what we want, and then rush away. We are not worthy to be in his presence at all. The foolish have a notion of God like a gigantic punchbag. You can mistreat him any way you like and then come to him as if you had done nothing. No, you have to start listening. On what terms can you approach him? He has set down a particular route. If you don’t listen to God’s way of dealing with you, then it is called the sacrifice of fools. Watch your step. Take care, listen; just be quiet, for your soul’s sake.
Sometimes people go with a very haughty spirit: ‘I will apply my intellect and see if this makes sense.’ No, you can’t go like a great scientist investigating some minor phenomenon. Secondly, the sacrifice of fools could be nominalism – this person does worship, but it doesn’t really mean anything. You can go through the motions of worship without worrying if it’s right. ‘Oh,’ says one, ‘I believe God is pleased by my worship; I believe I am good enough for him.’ The things we say! God is real, not a figment of our imagination. You speak of sin: ‘Yes, I have done certain things, but I had a bad start in life’ – excuse after excuse. But forget all that when you come to God. We have to say, ‘I am the weak one, the sinful one.’ He knows the truth about us. No excuses, no glib promises, and no contempt towards God. Absolute sincerity is what we need. God is the holy and high. We are on earth. He has the right to judge us. Let me warn you: don’t criticise him, or show contempt, by turning away from him in unbelief. The ABC of divinity is that we must be pardoned, forgiven, transformed. But we think we can get a bit of help from God when we need it. It is like a child that thinks he can walk to France. Children can talk nonsense and so can we. Such worship is pointless. Be careful: if you slip here it could cost you eternity.
Do we foolishly imagine that God expects a benefit from us, or that we can possibly have anything to give him which he does not already have? He is the self-sufficient, eternal living God and we cannot add to him in the smallest degree. We come because we need a benefit from him; we do not come to give but to receive. We are desperately ignorant and urgently need to be instructed by him. The only sacrifice that he accepts is the one he himself has provided: the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.