You may be seated. Go with me, if you would, back
to James 4. James 4. This is a verse of scripture
that I dwell on often. I do. I dwell on this one often.
This is a verse that brings me great comfort. This is a verse
that I am so thankful to our Lord for including it in the
canon of His scripture. So grateful. James 4 verse 8
says, draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. Nothing sounds better to me than
that right there. Nothing sounds better to me than
that. Close to Him. Close to Him. Draw nigh to God and He will
draw nigh to you. I would love to do that. Wouldn't
you love to do that? I mean truly, wouldn't you love
to do that? There are so many, and I know
you may find this to be a shocking statement, but there are so many
hardships in this life. I'm sure nobody has heartache
and sorrow and those kind of things like I do, but they're
there, aren't they? So many hardships, so many heartaches,
so many sorrows, so many reasons why we need to draw nigh to our
Lord. So many reasons. They are never
going to go away. We're aware of that, aren't we?
They are never going to go away, but sometimes we just need a
break from them. That's what we need. That's why
we're here, isn't it? Sometimes we just need a break.
We need a break. Our Lord said, Come unto Me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden. In that moment, when you
are labored and heavy laden, He said, If you come to Me, I
will give you rest. I'll give you rest. Come close
to your God, and He will come close to you. I think that's
precious. That is precious. Well, where is he? I would love to draw nigh to
him. Where is he? David said, our
God is in the heavens. Isn't that what he said? Our
God is in the heavens. That's where he is. He is in
the heavens, but that's not the only place he is. That's not
the only place that He is. Look with me at Psalm 139. Psalm
139. Verse 8 says, If I ascend up
into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, if
I have to endure the grave, behold, thou art there. If I take the
wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall
hold me." Brother Maurice Montgomery, he
passed away a few years ago. He pastored the church in Madisonville,
Kentucky, where Brother David Edmondson is now. But when he was young, he was
going into the service. He had to go overseas. And when
he was leaving his family, heading out of town, getting on a bus,
his dad said, son, remember, God goes everywhere. God goes
everywhere. God is everywhere. Don't you love that? He's omnipresent. No matter where we are, God is
everywhere. There is no place. There is not a place on this
earth where we cannot draw nigh to Him. Isn't that wonderful?
No matter where we are, He's everywhere. Draw nigh to God. And He will draw nigh to you.
Well, how do we do that? How do we draw nigh to Him? First,
we can do it with this heart. We can do it with this heart.
With this inner heart. This inner, not this organ, this
inner emotion. These inner thoughts of our being. We can draw near with this heart
to His blood. When we draw near to Him, we
can draw near to His blood. With this heart, we can come
so near to His blood, we enter into it. So near to His blood. A woman
named Fanny Crosby wrote, Lord Jesus, keep me near the cross. How near? She wrote, in it. In the cross. In the cross. The cross is not
the wood. The cross is the blood. Lord Jesus, keep me near the
cross. There, a precious fountain, free
to all, a healing stream flows from Calvary's mountain. In the
cross, in what Christ gave on the cross, Be my glory forever. In what Christ did on that cross,
may that be my glory forever. Till my raptured soul shall find
rest beyond the river. We can draw near to His blood. That's a wonderful thing. We can draw near to the acceptance
that we have in that blood. We can draw near to everything
that we have in him. All of the intercession that
he's made for us. We can draw near to all of the
mercy that we have through his full, abundant payment. All of the mercy. Look with me
at 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. And that's a key to this verse
we're looking at tonight. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." He will multiply our pardon. Abundant forgiveness. Abundant acceptance. Don't you love it when we actually
draw near to that abundant forgiveness? Acceptance. Near, so very near
to God, I could not nearer be, because in the person of His
Son I am as near as He. We can draw near to the thought
and the glory of that. That's an amazing, amazing thought. How near to God are His people? as near as Christ, however near
Christ is. How near is Christ to His Father? He said, you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. I and my Father are one. In that same song, Fanny Crosby
wrote, near the cross, a trembling soul, love and mercy found me. Can't you just envision a trembling
soul? making its way up to the cross,
and finally just collapsing at the foot of the cross. And love
looks down as he hangs there, and he says, Father, forgive
her. God be merciful to her, the sinner. We can draw near, draw near everything
we have in Him. We can draw near to His Word. Look with me at Romans 8. Romans 8 verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. I have a revelation
for us tonight. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. All things we can draw near to
the promise of this word. Well, I have good news and good
news. Which one do you want first?
Just pick which one you want first. You are a sinner. Oh, no. Christ came to save sinners. I don't care what it is. You
are dead. Oh, no. And you hath he quickened. I
don't care what it is. Name something. The Apostle Paul
said, they put me in prison. I'm writing you a letter to let
you know they put me in prison. Oh, no. It's all for the furtherance
of the gospel. How could a negative thing be
for the furtherance of the gospel? How could a negative thing be
for the furtherance of the gospel? How? How could a step back be
for the furtherance of the gospel? Romans 8 verse 28 says, and we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. We can draw nigh
to that. We can draw so near to that. We can draw nigh to His blood.
We can draw nigh to what His blood means for us, that acceptance,
that forgiveness. We can draw now to His Word,
His promises, and turn with me to Psalm 122. Psalm 122. Verse 1 says, I was glad when
they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. We
can draw nigh to his people. We can draw nigh to each other. Don't you love drawing nigh to
his people? Don't you love that? He said
where two or three are gathered in my name, I'm in the midst
of you. Turn the page, Psalm 133. Verse
1 says, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to
dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard
that went down to the skirts of his garments, as the dew of
Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for
there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore."
That's how it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, love,
peace, harmony. The Spirit of the Lord. We do
love being together. We love being together. We love
each other. But the reason we come together
is to be near to Him. Isn't that right? It's to be
near to Him. Through prayer. He's given us
prayer. What a gift prayer is. We can, at any moment in time,
go directly to the throne of His grace. Isn't that right? We can be in Kingsport, Tennessee,
somewhere, and at that moment in time go straight to the throne
of His grace. that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need." Whenever that moment is,
wherever that moment is, our Lord said, draw nigh to God and
He will draw nigh to you. He will draw nigh to you. This is what God said, He will
get closer to you. Draw not to God, and here's my
promise, I will get closer to you. How close will He get to
us? How near will God draw to us? Turn with me to Luke chapter
5. Luke chapter 5, verse 12 says, And it came to
pass, when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy,
who seeing Jesus, fell on his face, and besought him, saying,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. He drew near to
him. That's what he did. Verse 13 says, And the Lord put
forth His hand and touched him. Touched him. How near will the
Lord get? He'll reach out and touch you. Saying, I will, be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed
from him. He said in Isaiah 41, I'll hold
your right hand." Isn't that what he said? I will literally,
you draw not a god, and I'll hold your right hand. Whenever
you need me, I'll hold your right hand. He touches us with his
word. He touches us by His Spirit.
Romans 8 verse 16 says, His Spirit bears witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God. When we need it at that moment
in time, His Spirit comes and says to our hearts, you belong
to me. You belong to God. You are a
child. Draw nigh to God and He will
draw nigh to you. He will communicate His love. He will truly help in time of
need. He will. That is not theory. He will. That's not doctrine. He will. He will. If we are his children, he will. He said, this is my promise.
I will. He'll take His gracious words
and He'll speak them to our hearts. These gracious words. Look back
one page to Luke 4, verse 16. And he came to Nazareth, where
he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read."
I thought about that today while I was reading over this. As his
custom was, for 30 years, every Sabbath day, he went into the
temple. And at the age of 12 years old,
they recognized, this young man knows something about God. And they called on him to read.
The pastor of the church called on him to read and they'd hand
him the book. And every Sabbath, as his custom was, read it again,
verse 16. He came to Nazareth, where he
had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And there
was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when
he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed
the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down. And
the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened
on him. And he began to say unto them,
This day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bear him
witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth. Gracious, gracious words. We draw nigh to him through his
word and he draws nigh to us through his word. Through his
word. Now this right here is the beauty
and this is the glory and this is the sweetness of drawing nigh
to God. This is the glory. This is the
sweetness. of drawing nigh to God. We cannot
draw nigh to God before He draws nigh to us. We cannot draw nigh to God before
He draws nigh to us. If we desperately need Him, if
we find ourselves in a moment in time when we desperately need
Him and we draw nigh to Him, it means He has already drawn
nigh to us. We cannot draw nigh to Him before
He draws nigh to us. We can't do it. If we are begging,
if we're in that moment where we believe we're alone. Lord,
I'm drowning. Where is my God? Isn't that what
David said? Where is thy God? My tears are
crying. Where is thy God? If we're in
that moment begging and hoping and pleading and needing to draw
nigh to him, then it means he has already drawn nigh to us. If we draw nigh, then we don't
have to wait for Him to draw nigh in return. We don't have
to wait for Him to return the favor. He started the favor. If we draw nigh, He started the
favor. We didn't know we needed Him.
We were out in the world doing our own thing, just getting more
lost and more lost and going deeper into the pit and deeper
into the pit. We didn't know we needed Him.
He started the favor. God loves first. We love him because he first
loved us. God always moves first. God always visits first. David said, what is man that
thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest
him? Why on this earth, Lord, would
you make a move toward us? Draw nigh to us. God draws first. As a matter of fact, our Lord
said, No man can come to me at all. No man can draw nigh to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. If we draw nigh to God, it means
He's the one drawing us. If we draw nigh, it means He
already has His hand reached out. That's kindness. That's just
kindness. Here's the reality. If God draws
nigh to us, we'll draw nigh to God. That's the reality. If God draws nigh to us, then
we will draw nigh to God. Turn with me to Psalm 65. Psalm
65 verse 4. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. That's a blessed man. The man that you choose and cause
to approach unto you. The man you cause to draw nigh
to you. We sang a minute ago, I am thine,
O Lord, I have heard thy voice, and it told thy love to me. But
I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to
thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. The closer that we
are to our Lord, The more we need him, isn't that right? The
closer we are to our Lord, the more we need him. If we need
him real bad, Lord, I need you real bad. That means we're real
close. The closer we are to our Lord,
the more we need him. The farther we are from our Lord,
the less we need him. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. Here's the commandment
to us through His Word. Draw nigh to God because He has
drawn nigh to you. That's the commandment and that's
the gospel. Draw nigh to God because He has drawn nigh to
you. Now we'll close with this. Precious, precious. Go to Luke
15. Luke 15, verse 1 says, Then drew near
unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him. Here
they all come drawing nigh. Then drew near unto Him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear Him. And the Pharisees and
scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth
with them. They were so upset about that.
Here they all come, all these horrible, horrible people. They
come drawing nigh to God, and all the Pharisees got mad. He
receives them, and sits down and eats with them. Draw not to God, and He will
draw not to you.