James chapter four. I mentioned
this verse and specifically one line in this verse last Wednesday
night, in the message last Wednesday night. And I'd like to look at
it for our Bible study this morning. It's James four, verse eight. It says, draw nigh to God and he will
draw nigh to you. Draw nigh to God and he will
draw nigh to you. That is good instruction. That is a good exhortation. That is the wisest, safest, most
comforting thing that a child of God could do. Draw nigh to
God And he will drawn out of you. That is a command. And that is a promise to God's
people. That is a command. And that's
a promise. This command and this promise
is only to God's people. It's only to God's people, only
God's elect will draw not to him. And it's for this reason
right here. Turn with me over to John chapter
six. We're going to turn to a few
places this morning. Only God's elect will draw nigh
to him. And this is the reason why John
six, verse 44 says, no man can come to me. This is the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking. And he said, no man can come
to me. Come means draw nigh and draw
nigh means come. No man can draw not to me. No man can come to me. No man is able. No man is able. Now, why is that? Sin. Sin, that's the reason why. Man's sin. Sin has made it so
that man cannot come to God. Cannot, he's not able to come
to God. He's not able, he cannot. And he may not. He's not allowed
to, he's not able to, and he's not allowed to. When Moses approached
the burning bush that God was in, the Lord Jesus Christ was
in that burning bush. And when Moses came up to it,
this is what God said to him. He said, draw not nigh hither. He said, do not come near. That's
what he said. He said, put off thy shoes from
off thy feet, humble yourself, get down in the dirt. For the place whereon thou standest
is holy ground. You're approaching, when you're
approaching me, you're approaching holy ground. Sin has separated
all of mankind. Sin had separated Moses, the
man Moses, from his God so that he could not, he was not allowed
to draw nigh. So when we say draw nigh to God
and he will draw nigh to you, The first thing that we need
to understand is in our natural condition, the way that we're
born into this world, the way that we come forth, just how
we are in the flesh, humanly speaking, we can't draw nigh
to Him and we're not allowed to draw nigh to Him. We're born
dead in trespasses and sins. James said in our text, he said,
draw nigh to God, God, the Holy God. He's talking about the Holy God. We are low and sinful and he
is high and Holy. And man cannot just draw nigh
to him or judgment will come to man. We need to take this
very carefully. We need to approach this very
carefully. When the Lord descended on Mount
Sinai, when he came down, that whole mountain exploded with
fire. And this is what the Lord said.
He said, Moses, you tell all the people that if they put one
foot on this mountain, they'll be killed on sight. Tell them,
do not come near this mountain. Do not step foot on this mountain. No man can come to me. No man is allowed to come to
me, not in his sin. Not in his sin. Now that includes you and me. That includes all of us. We're not allowed. That's the
first thing I must say to every person here. You are not allowed
to, you cannot, and you may not, not in your flesh. All right,
well then, where's the comfort in the verse? How can we draw
nigh to God for this comfort and this peace and this safety
that we're hoping to receive from Him? Right here in John
6, verse 44 says, no man can come to me except the Father
which hath sent me draw him, draw nigh to God. Well, no man
can draw nigh except the father which hath sent Christ. Draw
that sinner nigh. And the Lord said, I will raise
him up at the last day. If we draw nigh to God, what
that means is God is drawing us nigh to him. It means if we draw not a God,
we're not the one doing it. He's the one doing it. If we
do draw not a God, he's the one doing it. You say, but I thought
we would be judged on sight. Well, that's why the father sent
the son. No man can come to me except
the father, which hath sent me. Draw him, that's why the father
sent the son. The father sent Christ to be
judged for us. The father sent Christ to step
foot on that holy ground for us in our sin. The father sent Christ to lay
all of the sins of his people on him and then for him to step
foot on that holy ground. And he did that so that we, all
of his righteousness, all the righteousness of Christ could
be laid on us. And then we could step foot on
that Holy ground. Only in Christ can a sinner draw
not a God and only God's elect are in Christ. So that's who this command and
this promise is to, every elect soul that God the Father placed
in Christ. Turn with me over to Ephesians
chapter two. Ephesians two verse 13 says, But now in Christ Jesus, ye who
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. That's the only reason we can
draw nigh. That's the only reason. That's
the only reason we're allowed to draw nigh. It's because we
were made nigh by the blood of Christ. In John 14, our Lord
said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man
comes to the Father but by me. Hebrews 7.25 says, he is able
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them. So outside of Christ, no man
or woman can draw nigh to him. But in Christ, in his blood,
in that covering of his blood, in his cross, in his work, in
his righteousness that he robes us in, in him satisfying the
law for us and satisfying God for us, if we draw nigh to God
in the Lord Jesus Christ, In the Lord Jesus Christ, He will
draw nigh to us. Now here are a few things for
us to know about truly drawing nigh to God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Number one, turn with me to Isaiah
55. Isaiah 55 verse 6 it says, Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. While he is nigh. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Here's the first
thing we can know about drawing out of God. There is still time
to. There is still time to. Isn't that wonderful? I think
about when God told Noah to build the ark and he left that door
open for seven days. Noah and his family sat in there
for seven days. The message was there's still
time to. There's still time to. Now, no
man came because the father didn't draw any. No man can come except
the father draw. But the message of good news
is if God has put a desire in any soul's heart to draw nigh,
that's the father drawing. If you hear this and say, I want
to draw nigh, there is still time to. Christ said, I'm the
door. And that door's open. There is
still time to. He may be found right now. Right now. If you have that desire,
God put that desire in you. Because if God didn't put that
desire in you, it wouldn't be there. We're totally depraved
sinners. So if that desire is there, it means God is drawing
you. Obey His command. Heed His exhortation. Find comfort in His promise.
Draw not of God. There's still time to. He is
still receiving sinners. That's the best news I know. He is still receiving sinners. Sinners the Lord Jesus will receive. You ever get to that place where
you're just so fed up with yourself, saying, I loathe myself. We're
about to, in a moment, see a man who felt that way. Just loathe
myself. I'm just such a sinner. Well,
sinners, the Lord Jesus will receive. Sound this word of grace
to all who the heavenly pathway lead. This is one of my favorite
lines in a song. You tell all who the heavenly
pathway leave. You tell all of them who linger
and all who fall. Sing it o'er and o'er again.
Christ receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain.
Christ receiveth sinful men. Draw nigh to God. Draw nigh. All right, that's the first thing
to know. There's still time to draw nigh to Him. Now turn with
me to Isaiah 29. This is talking about the Lord's
judgment on Jerusalem for this reason right here. Isaiah 29,
verse 13, it says, wherefore the Lord said, this
is the reason why, he said, for as much as this people draw near
to me with their mouth and with their lips do honor me. but have removed their heart
far from me. And their fear toward me is taught
by the precept of men. If we are going to draw nigh
to our Lord, it must be with the heart. It must be. It must be. And every now and
then, the Lord reveals to us, everything I'm doing right now
is with the head. Everything I'm doing right now is with the
mind. Everything I'm doing right now is with the hand and the
foot and the motion. Brother Henry used to say, salvation
is about 18 inches to get from here to here. And it's so, and
you know, Lord calls me to worship with my heart. caused
me to seek with my heart. It must be with the heart or
we won't be received. Lip service, a show of hands,
you know, that's not, this is not drawing night of God. That
is not drawing night of God. Not at all. Truly drawing night
is a heart. This is drawing night of God.
That's drawing night of God. It's a heart thing. Some things take place in the
heart. This is what those things are. Turn with me to Psalm 145.
Psalm 145, verse 18 says, The Lord is nigh, He's near unto
all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in
truth, in truth. He's near the soul that's truthful
before Him, saying, Lord, I acknowledge what you are, which is holy,
high and holy, unapproachable in my condition, because I acknowledge
what I am. Sin, I acknowledge my need because
of my sin. Truthful, truthful, just like
when that woman came to him and he said, it's not meat to give
the children's bread to dogs. She said, amen. Truth, Lord,
I'm a dog. Truth, truth. Psalm 119, David
said, let my cry come near to you. Cry of my heart. I'm crying
from the depths of my soul. Psalm 130, he said, out of the
depths, I'm crying to you. Psalm 69, he said, draw nigh
unto my soul and redeem it. What he's saying is I acknowledge
it's ruined. I acknowledge it's sin. I acknowledge
the fact that I need for you to draw nigh to me. This is drawing
nigh to God. I acknowledge that I can't come
to you. And my only hope is that you will come to me and redeem me. That's coming
from the heart. That's not just lip service.
That's heart service, heart service. Look at Psalm 85. Psalm 85 verse 9 says, surely
His salvation is nigh them that fear Him, that glory may dwell
in our land. Nigh Him, His salvation is nigh
them that fear. Nigh them that fear not being
near to Him. That's a great fear for God's
people, not being near to Him. fear standing before him outside
of the blood of Christ. That's, oh man. Psalm 34 says, the Lord is nigh
unto them that are of a broken heart. It's a heart issue. If we're gonna draw nigh to God,
it must be with the heart. So there is still time to draw
nigh. We can draw nigh from the absolute
sincerity of our heart. just as I am without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come
to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. I draw nigh. There's still time
to. We can draw nigh from the absolute
sincerity of our heart, and it is a good thing to do it. It is such a good thing to do
it. Turn over to Psalm 73. Psalm 73, the last verse, verse
28, it says, but it is good for me to draw near to God. I've put my trust in the Lord
that I may declare all by works. It is so good to draw near to
him. It is so good. And here's the
reason why this is what he said. He said, come unto me. You can now in my blood and what
I've done for you draw nigh unto me. All ye that labor and are
heavy laden and I will give you rest. I'll give you rest. Could you use just a little bit
of rest? Draw nigh to him, draw nigh to
him. Blind Bartimaeus, that precious
man, sat on the highway side and heard he was passing by right
now. He cried, Jesus, thou son of
David, have mercy on me. And the Lord stood still, said,
bring him to me. Bring him to me. Every person
in the scripture, you won't find one person, even that woman who
came to him and he was saying, it's not meat to give the children's
bread to dogs. She still got what she came for. Every person who drew nigh to
the Lord Jesus Christ found compassion. This is who this man is. Every
person found compassion and healing. He healed them all. Salvation,
comfort, peace, rest. A man named Charles Wesley in
the 1700s, the story is told that he was in his house in the
upper second floor of his house and sitting there writing and
he had his window open. It was a shutters, shutter windows. And all of a sudden this huge
storm came up just immediately. rain, lightning, thunder, wind,
everything just huge. And he went to the window and
reached out to close the shutter windows. And when he did, a bird
flew into his coat and just sat there. He looked at that bird
and that bird looked at him. And he pulled that bird into
his warmth and into his safety. And he sat down and he started
penning, Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly. Just like that. Let me draw nigh
to you. Let's draw nigh to him from the
heart in prayer. Pray to him from the heart. Let's draw nigh to him in reading
his word. Read his word from the heart. Let's not get on schedule. Read
his word from the heart. We're not going for quantity.
I don't care if we read one word, if just the word Christ sinks
into the heart. Let's draw nigh to him in hearing
his gospel preached. And let's draw nigh to Him in
gathering together in worship. This is drawing nigh to Him.
He said, where two or three are gathered in my name, and I believe
this, I am in the midst of you. I believe that. I believe that. Those two on
the road to Emmaus, it says the Lord drew near to them. Two were
gathered together, talking about Him. And it says, the Lord drew
near to them, and by the time their encounter with Him was
over, they looked at each other and said, did not our heart burn
within us? Was Him being with us not just
wonderful? Every person who draws nigh to
Him will say, wonderful it is to me, truly wonderful. Let me close with two scriptures,
all right? Two scriptures, and I'll close
this out. Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verse 22, it says, Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Because of what Christ did for
us, he sprinkled us, he covered us in his blood, and he washed
us from our sin in his own blood, and now he washes us with the
pure water of the word. Because of what Christ did for
us, let us come with boldness. Not arrogance, but confidence,
assurance. Let us draw nigh with boldness
to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. And with that boldness, that
assurance to draw nigh to him, the last scripture is James 5.
Turn with me just a couple of pages over to James chapter 5. James 5 verse 8 says, be ye also
patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth
nigh. Draw nigh to him because he will
draw nigh to you. He is about to draw very nigh
to us at his coming. He said, if you see me go away,
I will come again. I will come back. I will draw
nigh again. It's coming very soon. Let's
just be patient. Wait for him. And in the meantime,
draw nigh right there. All right, you're dismissed.