All right, go back to James with
me, the book of James. We have looked at the book of
James together two, three or more times. I remember the last
time we looked at it was I think two years ago, and this passage
really, really did helped me a great deal. And others were too. I hope you
were. I've got some response from others,
some fellow preachers that listened to it. And they said they were
words of one older man that had been preaching longer than me.
He said, I really learned something from that. So let's hope we do. There's something here. We greatly need. Look at verses
7 and 8 again. James 4, 7 and 8. Submit yourselves,
therefore, to God. Resist the devil. You know, he's
the one that desires to sift us like a roaring lion, seeking
to make it made to devour. He says, resist him, and he will
flee from you. Draw nigh to God. Far off from God, there's nothing
but trouble in it. And He will draw nigh to you.
So that's our subject tonight. Submit. Resist. Draw nigh. Now look back up at chapter 3,
verse 18. And this is what we hope and
want and need so much, is peace. Peace. James 3.18. Fruit of righteousness. Righteousness. The Kingdom of
God is in righteousness and joy, peace and joy of the Holy Ghost.
The Kingdom of God is righteousness. We're going to a place wherein
dwelleth righteousness. There's nothing wrong with anybody. Everything's right, holy, and
just, and true. You look forward to that. We
live in a world where everything is wrong with it. But righteousness,
the fruit of righteousness. Galatians talks about the fruit,
doesn't it? The fruit of the Spirit. Love,
joy, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, longsuffering.
Fruit. Good things, aren't they? Good
things. Well, he says it's sown. Look
at verse 18. This fruit is sown, the seed
is sown and grows in peace. of them that make peace. Now,
our Lord Jesus Christ, he gets the preamble instead. He's the
one that made peace. He is our righteousness. He is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, isn't it? He made peace for us. And the Spirit of God reconciles
us or makes us who were enemies in our mind by wicked work. That's
what the scripture said. Dead and trespassing, it said.
Children of wrath, even as others. But God. The Spirit of God, through
the Gospel, shows you your enmity against God, and God's goodness
towards you, and His mercy, and He shows you Christ, your substitute. How the chastisement of our peace
was laid on Him, and by His stripes we're healed. And the Holy Spirit
takes that and breaks down that enmity and makes you a lover
of peace, a lover of Christ, and a lover of peace, and one
that makes peace. Breaks down that enmity and leads
us and guides us in all truth, which is Christ. Christ is not
only made unto us righteousness, that is, He is our righteousness
before God. He is. He is our substitute. But He is made, He is the personification
of what is all righteous and good and holy and just and true. He is the supreme example. He is made. He is the pattern.
Then Moses says, see that you make all things according to
the pattern. This is the way it's supposed
to be. Well, we want to be conformed, and God is. There's a new creature,
and yet this new creature is still being conformed. He's growing
in grace, and that is more like Christ. We're complete in Him,
but we're growing up in these graces, aren't we? We need that.
So the Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows them unto
us, not only His blessed death and crucifixion, which is our
salvation, but his life and everything he said and everything he did,
it shows us the beauty of that righteousness and makes us want
to walk in those paths of righteousness. Like the children in that book,
Blunt Bunyan's Holy War. If you've never read that, if
you've read Pilgrim's Progress, it's a wonderful book, wonderful. But there's one just as wonderful
to me, if not more so, it's called The Holy War by John Bunyan.
And in that, Immanuel comes and rescues the people from captivity
to the adversary. And he rescues them, and they're
all so happy, so glad that Immanuel has come, God, and taken them
out from under the captivity of Satan. And it says he started
walking down the street, he's headed to the castle to set up
his reign. It says as he's walking down
the street, all the people in town get in behind him. And they
like, they love so much everything about him, the way he walks.
It says each one of them wants to walk exactly in his footstep. So Christ has made unto us our
hope, our desire. what we want to be, like Him. Grow up into Him in all things.
It talks about the wisdom from above. Look at verse 17 of chapter
3. The wisdom that's from above
is pure. Doesn't all this describe our
Lord Jesus Christ? Pure. You know, the world It's
anything but pure. It's the opposite of that. It's
filthy. It's abominable. Filthy. That's what it says.
And our Lord, pure. Don't you want to be pure? Scripture
says you purified yourself by looking to Him, believing on
Him. Well, Christ is wisdom and everything about Him pure, peaceable. Peaceable. Gentle, easy to be
entreated or approachable, always approachable, free access, come
with boldness, always receive you. One of the, I want to be
like that, don't you? I'm glad he's like that because
I need access all the time, even at my worst, especially at my
worst. One of the brethren came over
to see me and said, I don't want to bother you. Oh, and I want
to be like our Lord, don't you? No one ever bothered Him. His
people. Pharisees did. But humanly speaking,
they didn't really bother Him, but He had nothing for them. Gentle. A gentleman. Gentleman. Easy to be entreated. Full of
mercy. It's merciful. Good fruits. Oh, he is the fruit. He's the
tree. He's the vine. All our fruit
comes from him. Without partiality, that is prejudice,
no preference. He loved Mary Magdalene as much
as he loved David. Without hypocrisy. Sincere. The fruit of righteousness is
sown in peace of them that make peace. Well, this wisdom from
above, look at chapter 1. You remember how this book starts? It starts about asking for wisdom. And in chapter 4, he's ending
this thing up by saying, why don't we have it? We're asking
for the wrong things. We have one thing needful. Whether Ron read from Proverbs
4, if you haven't read it, I'm so glad the Lord let him read
that. It just doesn't go perfect with
it, does it? And it says there, with all thy
getting, get wisdom. It's the principle thing. It's
the main thing. And you could say that's crying.
It is crying. And we want to be wise as he
was wise, don't we? James 1 verse 5, if any of you
like wisdom, Anybody? Is there anyone in here that thinks they have any wisdom?
I don't, really. The more you know, the more you
know, the more you realize you don't. Whatever he says, let
him ask of God. Ask. Now, if you ask for the
wrong thing, he may let you have it. He teaches some terrible
lessons, hard lessons. Let him ask of God. This is the
one thing Nephi, he gives liberally. He gives it liberally. I need
a lot of wisdom. Well, ask, ask. Alright, go back to... No, I
want you to see this. 1 Kings chapter 3. You remember
the story of Solomon. He was a young man at the time,
around 30 years old, which is very young, isn't it? The Lord appeared to him in a
dream. Obviously, Solomon was like his father David. He'd walked
with the Lord and was in close communion with the Lord because
the Lord appeared to him in a dream. Verse 5, 1 Kings 3, 5. In Gibeon, verse 3 says Solomon
loved the Lord because the Lord loved him. But anyway, verse
5, The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God
said, Ask what I shall give thee. Do you remember the Proverbs that
says, Desire the Lord, and He'll give you the desire of your heart?
I'm not quoting it just right. My mind's escaping me. It says,
Cast your cares upon Him, He careth for you, and whatever
your desires are, He'll give you the desire of your heart.
Their right desire. He said, ask what I shall give
thee. In Solomon 6, verse 6. Thou hast shown. Look at how
he prays. He's praying. Look at what he
is thanking the Lord for and what he desires. You've showed
unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy. According as he walked before
thee in truth. See, the Lord is nigh unto them
that call on him in truth. Sincerity, truth, true heart,
and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart. He's talking
about David, his father. Solomon wanted to be like that.
And you've kept for him this great kindness. According to
thy loving kindness, David prayed, didn't he? Brought out my treasure. You've given him a son to sit
on his throne. That's me, Solomon said. And
now, O Lord my God, you've made thy servant king instead of David
my father." And us in here, husbands and wives, but fathers and members,
we, Lord, I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm a member of the church. I've got responsibilities. Look
at this. He says, verse 7, I don't know
how to go out or come in. Anybody? And thy servant is in the midst
of thy people, which thou hast chosen a great people that cannot
be numbered or counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an
understanding heart. If you have the Cambridge Bible,
another reason I like it, the margin says a hearing heart. Make me a good hearer. Make me
ready to hear. Slow to rap. Slow to anger. Ready
to hear. Swift to hear. Slow to speak. Ready to hear. So, that's what
Solomon asked for and that's what we need. We need the same
wisdom that Solomon asked for. Though our responsibilities,
though our little kingdom is much smaller, yet We still need
the same wisdom, though. Out in the world, how to walk,
how to talk, how to act, how to react, how to... our mind,
our heart, everything. Without Him, we can do nothing.
Lord, give me this wisdom from above. He said He'd do it liberally. Liberally. He gave it to Solomon,
because Solomon asked for that in truth. God says, I'll give
you more than anybody before you or after you. And then he gave him what he
didn't ask for. And for a while at least, Solomon
had the wisdom to not let these things get a hold of him. It
takes wisdom to keep these things from getting a hold of him. But
every man has his best day. And Solomon ended up... So that's
how dangerous things are. And that's what James is going
to talk about. All right, look at our text, James chapter 4.
From whence come wars and fighting among you? Don't they come from
the lust at war in your members? Paul said that, didn't he? He
said, I see another law of warring in my members, bringing me into
captivity to the flesh. That is, the lust of the eyes,
the lust of the flesh. A desire for pleasure, a desire
for things, covetousness, which our Lord calls idolatry. That's
why He calls us adulterers and adulteresses. And we're supposed
to have eyes for Him only. We're supposed to desire Him
only, but. And that's why He's written this.
He knows our frame. Why is He telling us this? Because
He knows our frame. He knows our sinful tendencies.
So we need this, don't we? Anybody
doesn't need this? Reminded of this? It says in
verse 2, you lust and have not. You want, you desire. Lust is
insatiable desire. I'm not going to be happy, I'm
not going to be content, I'm not going to be satisfied until
I get this thing. How many times, how many things
have we been that way toward? You get your mind set on something,
you get your heart set on it. And you can't function until
you get it and you no sooner have it than it starts to diminish
all the beauty and what you thought you needed. And then after that,
your foolishness sets in and you get your first scratch on
that thing. And you think, what was I thinking? Why? Did this consume me? It's just
a thing. Anybody? That's me. It's all
of us. And he says, what causes us to fuss and fight
between ourselves is stuff. Is that not right? Trying to
get it? Trying to keep it, trying to
pay for it, and you lose it. All right, Abraham and Lot, they dwelt together in harmony
and unity and union. They loved each other. Well,
the stuff started piling up. They started getting all this
land, not land, but cattle and all this stuff. And they started
having conflict. It's Lot with Abraham. How do
you know? Because Abraham's the one that
wanted to make peace. Abraham's the one that said,
here, you take all this. You take it all. Take what you
want, Lot. Let's just not be... Why is there
strife, division among us? We're brethren. This stuff's
not worth it. Let's be brethren in it. And
so Abraham said, Lot, you take what you will. What'd Lot go
after? His heart wasn't right at the time. Neither was David's. That's why David said, see, don't
trust your heart. Don't trust your heart. I don't rightly understand. God
gives a new heart, and yet the scripture says the heart's deceitful
above all things. But if you know the plague of
your heart, you know it so. There's a new man, yet there's
an old man, and the heart of that old man ain't right. He ain't right. And as David
said, he got in a bad way. And he said, create in me a clean
heart. Renew within me a right spirit.
He got in a bad spirit attitude. And we all do. And I'm going
to tell you why. The Lord already had. James had. Stuff. Things of this world. One time, well Paul wrote, if
riches increase, and they do. All of us are a whole lot richer
materially now than we were when we started out. I bet you to
say every married couple in here started out pretty meagerly. Very meagerly. And now look at
us. You ever have any fussing and
fighting? Man, oh man. Where am I? So he says, verse
3, we ask amiss, ask and receive not, God graciously doesn't grant
us everything we ask for, but we ask amiss to consume it upon
our lips. And that's why he says, the adulterers
and the adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the
world is enmity with God? Now this is a serious statement. Did that strike you? Whosoever
therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy, the enemy
of God. Well, that ought to scare us. Our Lord said, lest they that
tremble at the word. What's that mean? Well, look,
we've dealt with it before. A believer, a believer is the
best friend that the world could ever have. Like Christ. But the world didn't call him
their friend. See, we endeavor to be a friend
to the world. And the best friend is one who
tells the truth The best friend is one who will warn and reprove
and rebuke and tell that person the truth, warn them of impending
danger. Like Noah, he condemned the world,
but yet everything he was saying, he was the best friend the world
could have ever had. They just listened to him. But
now, the one who's a friend of the world, One who takes great
delight and pleasure and loves the world. Our Lord said in 1
John 2.15, He said, Love not the world, neither the things
of the world. If any man love the world, love the Father, not
any. Do you understand that in light
of John 3.16? See, they seem to be opposite
of it. God so loved the world, but then
1 John 2.15 said, If any man love the world, love of God is
not any. Do you understand what that means? Very few people do.
The world in John 3.16 means every tribe, kindred, nation,
tongue under heaven. People out of the world. God
doesn't love every single individual in the world. God loves mankind
as a species, but He doesn't love every single man. I love
dogs, but I don't love all dogs. And the love of the world. See,
the world hates God. The carnal world hates God. It's enmity against God. That's
what it says. The natural man is enmity against
God. The world is an enemy of God. The God of this world is
an enemy of God. God doesn't love the devil, does He? God doesn't love your seed either.
They're enemies. But some of those enemies, God
in mercy and grace, some of those enemies, He breaks down the enmity
and reconciles to them and makes them friends to God. Makes them friends to
God. This is why Paul says, how can
light have fellowship with darkness? How can Christ and Baal get along? Can't do it. You can't love somebody
that hates your husband, can you? And the only way you can
get along is never bring him up. That's how you can get along. And that's not why we're here,
to get along. We're here to bear witness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Hopefully the Lord will use us
to save their soul. So that's what that means in
just a little bit. It'll be a friend of the world,
as the enemy of God. And he says in verse 5, Do you
think the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth
in us lusteth to envy this old man? Does he say it in vain?
Boy, I know it's not in vain, don't you? Like Paul said, I
see Allah and I remember warring. I feel very really the pull and
the tug of this world and the God of this world, His temptations. It's exalted from the minute
I wake up to the minute I go to bed. Aren't you? He's no figment
of man's imagination. He's a very real adversary. God's
people know it. People are under His bondage
completely, under His dominion. There's no struggle. Right? There's no war. They're doing
just fine. And he leaves them right there,
thinking they're fine. Satan knows when the Lord removes
one of his from him. Because what does it take? A
strong man, stronger than he, binding him, taking his goods
from him, taking one of his captives away from him. He knows that.
And yet he's not wise. He doesn't know that he can't
get that person back away from Christ. He thinks he can steal. He actually
thought he could mess up God's kingdom. He actually thought
he could ascend to the stars, didn't he? So he's not all wise. He's a fool. And I'm not speaking
evil of dignities like these preachers that don't know what
they're talking about. I'm just saying the truth here. He knows
when one is taken from Him, and that's the one whom Christ has
taken, led captivity captive. That is one of Satan's, taking
them from Him. And Satan knows that, so he goes
after them. Simon Peter didn't have a problem
with Satan until Christ took possession of Simon Peter. Then, our Lord said, Satan desires
to sift you like wheat. He wants you back. We know this
very real struggle. Very real struggle. Galatians 5 says, the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh so that you
cannot do the things that you would. You cannot. You cannot. We cannot. Paul says,
the things I would, I cannot do. But I can do all things. How? Through Christ who strengthens
me. Without Him, we can do nothing.
But with Him, near Him, we can resist. So he says in verse 6,
he gives more grace. Oh my! I need the grace of wisdom,
don't you? To give us more grace. I need the grace of humility.
He's going to talk about humility. God resisted the proud. Look
at it, verse 6. God resisted the proud. And that's
another one of these things. Lust of the eye, lust of the
flesh, and the pride of life. God resisted the proud. And that's
the thing that we struggle with the most. That's why we get so
upset with other people and things. Pride. That's why we fuss and
fight. That's it. Pride. Yes it is. You've offended me. Our Lord said, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me, I'm meek and lowly. No one could offend
Him. He didn't need the praise of
people, and their insults didn't offend Him. And if we're the chief of sinners,
nothing and no one should offend us. Realizing God's mercy, anything
He does with us should not offend us. Does this offend you? Well, it says, He giveth more
grace. We need humility, don't we? Give
grace to the humble. God is near the humble. To this
man will I look. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken and contrite heart. You know, the life of
a believer, the life of a child of God is one long continual
series of lessons in humility. And most of it we learn through
our own foolishness, our own sinful pride. Those that walk
in pride, He is able to abase. And He'll do it. And we need
it. We need humility. But like the
article in Sunday's Bulletin, it was by Brother Robert Trail
in Scotland years ago, he said, don't make the Lord resort to
more difficult means. Yield. Humble yourself. James said that didn't he? Humble
yourselves, verse 10, in the sight of the Lord. Don't wait
on Him to have to do something to really humble you. Did you hear that? Man, am I
ever preaching to myself. God resisted the prayer. Submit
yourselves therefore to God. Submit, submit, submit. Look
at Romans 6 quickly. Romans chapter 6. Submit, submit, submit. It means
yield. Look at Romans 6 verse 12. Let
not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should
obey it in the lust thereof. Now, thank God He said sin shall
not have dominion over you. Well, then why does He say don't
let it reign? Well, because we have a hard
time resisting. We can't resist any temptation
without Him coming. We're going to get to this in
a moment. What it means to draw an eye to God. To resist. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof.
John wrote, when lust is conceived, dwelled on, indulged, acted on, it brings forth sin.
Oh, the consequences of sin. And sin, when it's finished,
it goes on. Death. Now, you'll either feel
dead, and God will have to quicken you again, or you're dead in
sin. Period. And die because of it. It's a serious thing. It's not
something to be toyed with. Verse 13, neither yield Romans
6.13, neither yield or submit your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin, but yield. Submit yourselves unto
God. Submit. Lord, here am I, here am I. This is why we love the Psalms
of prayer, don't we? Lord, make me. Teach me, lead
me, guide me, keep me. Lord, don't let me loose of me. Don't let me go. Make me, keep
me, teach me, lead me, guide me, humble me. Lord, help me.
I submit. Please, put the yoke. That's
what submitting is. Bow your head. Lower your head
and say, Lord, put the yoke on me. Don't let me go wild. I'll destroy myself. I'll destroy
everybody around me. I'll bring reproach on you. Lord,
please. That's what submitted me. Brother
Kelly, these poor people know what submitted me. If you'd be
willing, obedient, you'd eat the good of the land. But if
you're a bell, raise that head in pride, buck and hump up. I'm going to take a good whipping. I'm going to get chased now.
Right? So submit to gentler means. Go back and read that article,
huh? I don't write those for me. I put them in the book. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. They're
for me. I read them and eat them and digest them and look at them
and think, oh, that's so good. They'll love that. Robert Traylor. Resist. All right, look at this.
Resist the devil. And he will flee from you. Oh my! Oh my! Now, I am, as I said, I am not
like one of those that Jude speaks of. Jude speaks of filthy dreamers
who speak evil of dignities or that lofty language. Peter talked
about the promised people liberties when they're captive. I'm not
one of those filthy dreamers. I make no pretense of having
any power whatsoever over the devil, or one demon of his, or
one sin of mine. Not any. No power whatsoever. You hear these false preachers,
don't you? Just tell the devil. Michael the Archangel, Scripture
said, would not contend with him. But here's how he resisted. He said, the Lord rebuked thee,
Satan. Satan already was working on
Simon Peter. And the Lord turned to Simon
Peter and said, get thee behind me, Satan. Can Satan use that
in one of us? Talked about something being
devilish. Can he? He did Simon Peter. He's
a better man than I am. And our Lord is the one who turned
to Satan and said, get behind me. And that's who I need to tell
him. And so what we say is, Lord,
help me resist. I can't resist. Lord, please,
tell him to leave me alone. You know, that didn't even seem
to... I don't know what it did to Silent
Peter, but you know, it doesn't tell of any reaction of his.
You'd think... How was that going to happen?
That Satan was using... You'd think Silent Peter... You
mean Satan was using brethren from whence come wars and fighting
and strife? Satan's the one, the demon, he's
the one. Can he use that? Absolutely. Pride, scripture says, about
a novice. Don't let a novice be a pastor
of a church lest he be lifted up in pride and fall into what?
The condemnation of the devil. That's when he's got you. That's
when he's got you. The Lord resists the proud, starting
with that proud devil. All right, verse 8, draw nigh
to God and He will draw nigh to you. All right, now listen, God is
love. God is love. Not near to God,
hate. You'll feel hateful, you'll be
hateful. Nigh to God, God is love. You'll
feel love. You'll be a lovelet. You'll be
a lover. Far off, God is holy. Far off from God, estranged from
God, full of sin. God is righteousness. Right. Far off from God, everything
will go wrong. Everything about you is wrong.
Wrong spirit, wrong attitude, wrong everything. God is light. Far off from God, darkness, dimness,
anguish of spirit, vexation, anxiety in the dark. Things are
bad in the dark, aren't they? God is joy. Joy. Far off from God, fear, sorrow,
worry, doubt, everything. How important is it? Draw nigh
to God. Alright, how? How do we draw
nigh to God? Number one. Number one. Repentance. God is nigh to them that are
of a broken heart. We're all guilty of all of these
things. Alright, we draw nigh unto God. Ask Him for mercy. We draw nigh
unto God as undeserving, hell-deserving, unworthy, guilty, ashamed sinner. God be merciful to me, a sinner. That's how we draw nigh unto
God. Repentance. You know, He's a God ready to
pardon. He is ready to pardon. He delights to show mercy. but
only to repentance. Does repentance ever stop? I
have a wonderful book by Thomas Watson on repentance. Man, I
wish everybody could read it. We start this life in repentance
and it never ends because we never quit sinning. Repentance. And it's repentance not because
of the consequences. That's not repentance. That's not repentance. Because
we get in trouble. That's not true repentance. Children
of Israel kept calling in their trouble, and God delivered them
out of it. But finally He didn't. Because they weren't calling
on Him in truth. Here's repentance. Not for getting
in trouble, but for what made them do what they did. David
said, Have mercy on me, O God, against
thee, and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
You're going to be justified when you speak. You're going
to be clear when you judge me. Oh, what he said, have mercy
on me. This is why all grace preachers
say this, that you may be nearest to God when you feel the farthest
away. Because God is nigh unto them
that fear Him. God is nigh unto them that are
of broken heart. And that means over sin. And,
yes, God is very near and near to those sorrow and troubles
of trials. But repentance, we draw nigh
unto God in repentance. And we all need it. All the time. Every day. We draw nigh unto
God, secondly, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what
we preach in repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. Hebrews 7.28 says, He is able
to save to the uttermost. We need God to save us, don't
we? From ourselves, from sin, from this world, from Satan.
We need saving. Lord, I can't resist. Save me
or I perish. Save me from this world or it
will overcome me. Save me. Well, He is able to
save to the uttermost. Them that come unto God by Him,
by Christ. So we come unto God by Christ.
We come unto God by faith in Him. We need a substitute. This
is repentance also. We need a substitute. We're guilty.
Lord, would you accept Christ on my behalf? I'm sinful. He's my hope. Yes, He will. Lord,
He's my righteousness. Mine a filthy rag. I try to do
the best I can, but it's no good. Would you accept His righteousness? God's well pleased for His righteousness. We need a mediator, don't we,
Lord? Who am I to take your covenant in my sinful lips? But, oh, would
you accept my substitute on my behalf, my mediator? You know,
you can't be proud if you need a mediator. You know, you can't
be proud and need a mediator. If you need a mediator, you're
not proud, you're broken, like in a court of law, okay? If you're
not guilty, you don't need a lawyer. I've often thought this, if I
was wrongly accused and there was no evidence against me and
they brought me in a court of law, I thought, I think I can
defend myself. I mean, the truth will defend
itself. But now guilty, a guilty person
needs a lawyer. Christ is our advocate. Little
children, John said, I write unto you that you sin not. That
your lips, your eyes, don't do it. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate. That the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, the judge's son is our advocate. Faith in Christ, we draw nigh
unto God by faith in Christ. We draw nigh unto God thirdly.
I didn't bring my watch, I'm sorry. And I can't see through
these glasses. I didn't bring my glasses in.
These are reading glasses. This is good. We draw nigh unto
God in prayer. Call on me, he said. Call on
him. He's a very present help unto
them that call on him. Call, seek, knock, come. Nigh
unto them that call on him. And truth, from the heart that
may. And truth, those with a real need. Alright, our relationship
with our Lord Jesus Christ. When we're talking about God,
we're talking about Christ, too. He is God. In fact, He's the
only God we'll ever see. It's a mystery. The godliness
of the Trinity. Have you ever thought of the
Holy Spirit, how mysterious He is? God's the Spirit, the Father. Well, so is the Holy Spirit.
But they're different people. Explain that. Mysterious, isn't it? But the
Son has a body. He has a body. He's the body
of a man. And He's the one that we're going to seek, and handle,
and touch, and be with, and handle us, and talk to us. He's the
one, always has been the one to talk to human beings. The
Son, not the Father, not the Holy Spirit, but Christ. It's called a marriage though.
Christ is our husband and we're the bride. How do marriages grow? Love and unity, how do they grow
together, grow closer together? Communication. Talk. Talk to one another. And you
need to be a... I'm sorry, this is true, I'm
not good at it, but men aren't good at it. You need to be a
good listener. Right? Oh, do we, as the bride
of Christ, need to be better listeners? And this right here,
you can't listen when you're talking. You can't learn anything. But you grow together by communicating. It's communion with one another.
You're talking to one another. If you quit talking, what's going
to happen? If you quit talking, what's going to happen? If you
quit communicating, you'll grow apart. You'll get distant. There'll
be a separation. Then what? Strife. And generally when that
happens, this person goes after this, and this person goes after
that. And then you have what they call
irreconcilable differences, meaning they don't want to reconcile.
Right? And the scripture says if you
really love, it never ends. Love never fails. True love.
So it never was love to begin with. It was infatuation. It
was lust. But now this thing of this relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And what if, alright, prayer.
Prayer. Draw an eye unto God and He'll
draw an eye unto you. God is very near unto them that
call upon Him. That call upon Him. What if you
never call on Him? What if we rarely call on Him?
And you know what He's going to do? He's going to hide His
face. And you're going to wonder if
you belong to Him or not. Right? I know from experience.
He said, men ought always to pray. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He prayed all the time. All the time. You wouldn't think
He'd need prayer, would you, Brother Dan? He and the Father
won. But He did. Where's that put
us? Nothing was a temptation to Him.
Nothing had any allure to him. And yet he prayed. What was he praying for? Others. And here's the key. You pray for others. God delights
in that. Not just for yourself. Bless
me and mine. Everybody does that. Our Lord was immediate. He came
down to the intercessor. He prayed for his brethren all
the time. All the time praying for them.
He said, Peter, Satan hath desired to sift you like wheat, but I
have prayed for you. Evidently, Simon Peter wasn't.
He got lifted up in pride, didn't he? Pray, pray, pray. The Lord is nine. We draw nine
to God fourthly in worship. Where is God? Where is God? God's in heaven. Can you get near Him? Hold on. You know what he said? Where
two or three are gathered, I'm there. Didn't he? God is in the
midst of his church. That's where he is. He has promised
that. Alright? Those that know and
love the Lord. He says, I'm going to be at this certain place.
I promise you. I promise you, I'm going to be
there. Do you want to meet with me? Do you need to be spoken
to by me? Do you need to see my glory?
Do you need peace? Do you need joy? Do you need
comfort? Do you need hope? Do you need reassurance? Do you
need faith? Do you need all these things? I'm going to be in this
certain place where two or three people love me. Where was Christ
when He was here on earth? Find His disciples, you'd find
Him. Wouldn't you? You see His disciples, there
they are. Look, there's Christ. Where's Christ? There's His disciples. They're always together with
Him. Always! You want to meet with Him? You
need love, you need this joy, you need this communion where
two or three are gathered. And that's the closest. You're
going to have more communion there. You're going to get more
light, more comfort, more joy. Do you not? Do you not gather
more here than you do alone? Huh? Why? Because heaven is a congregation. Heaven is a vast number of people. Sheep, love of the sheep, that's
the nature of the animal. They're gregarious. They love
to congregate. Sheep can't stand to be alone,
unless it's with the shepherd. But other than that, they've
got to be coddled together with sheep. That brings me to my next
point. The Word. The Word. This is how He speaks. Tell me,
does God speak to you as much in your private reading of God's
Word as He does here? Me neither. I can't tell you
how many times when we're looking at this together, There it is. I didn't see it in private. There
it is. We're seeing it together. Why? Because that's how he spoke
when he was here. He would speak to his disciples
intimately, 12, 20, 120, whatever. And he got up publicly before
a whole vast crowd of people. Bless it. Wouldn't you like to
have heard that message? You can. You can. Right here. If he's here, He'll
be blessed. He'll be blessed. That's why
He's promising His Word. This is how He speaks. God doesn't
speak to us in dreams and signs and visions and all that. He
spoke to the prophet, like Solomon. But no, He speaks to us through
His Word, through His Word, and principally the Word among His
people. It's the grass He makes all His
sheep lie down together in. The Lord, when He was on the
Sermon on the Mount, or not the Sermon on the Mount, but when
He fed the 5,000, Says he divided them up in fifties, didn't he? Five thousand. He divided them
up in little groups of fifty. Not one, one here, one there.
He got them in groups of fifty. That is prophetic. Spurgeon said,
that's typical of an average Christ Church. Fifty people. Boy, that's fifty blessed people.
Fifty blessed people. Fellowship. Fellowship, that's
the last point. Fellowship with your fellow travelers. Fellowship with those who are
going out, like the children of Israel in their houses of
Israel. What were they talking about? Now if you go into the house
of the Egyptians, they're of the world, and therefore speak
they of the world. And that's all they're talking
about. And Brother John, they perished. But now you go into
the house of the children of Israel, what are they talking
about? Going out. What are they talking about?
The blood on the door. What are they talking about?
The Lord's mercy to them. If you would ask every one of
the children of Israel who had very little, they had food, they
had raiment, they had mercy, they had grace, they had God.
If you'd asked every one of them, sitting in those little houses
in Israel, eating that lamb, talking about God's mercy and
Christ's blood and all that, they would say, we're the most
blessed people on earth. Isn't God good? Let me ask you a question in
closing, as your husbands and wives. Husbands and wives, what is your
conversation between the two of you? We all talk about it when you're
at home. I know, we've got responsibilities,
we've got jobs, we've got children, and this and that and the other,
and we have to do these things, take care of these things, and
we love to talk about our children and things like that. But now,
do you? Do you? Is your conversation
in heaven? Do you talk to one another? After
this service, after this service, do you go home in the car talking
to one another about these things? This is building up one another
on this most holy thing. This is the conversation of God's
people. This is what Peter said, seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of The person we ought to be
in all wholeness and godliness, our conversation. For we look
for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
We look for His coming. He should be. And He is. He is, isn't He? You read the
Scriptures. Wife, husband, you read the Scriptures. You must. You do. And do you talk to your mate
about what you've read? Let me show you what the Lord
showed me. Do you? That's two people together, two
or three together. That's two people. God said,
He'll bless you. He'll bless that union. You'll
grow together. You're always exhorting one another. or tearing down. Building up
on its most holy faith, that's what we need to do. You know,
the children of Israel, a lot of them were just doing nothing
but murmuring in their tents. They had tents. And all they
were doing in them was murmur. And God was angry. Let me ask
you something. Do you talk about how bad things
are? Or how good God is? You talk about how bad the government
is, and it's about as bad as it can get. No, it's not as bad
as it can get. You weren't under Manasseh, Ahab,
Jeroboam, Nebuchadnezzar. It's bad, all right, but God
reigns. This will build us up. This will
help us out, Brother Stephen, won't it? We talk about how bad
the government is, or how glad we are that God reigns. Now he
did it, and he set up now. Well, we've got to worry about
it. What are we talking about? It's
communion with one another. So we're helping one another
out. I love Pilgrim's Progress, and
I'll close, I'll quit, I'll stop after this. Pilgrim and his companion. See, God puts companions. He
had the disciples go out by two. Husband and wife, you know the
Lord, you're each other's companion. And we're to dwell together and
help one another and build up one another. That's what this
is all about. It's not accumulating stuff.
It's building one another up in this post-holy faith and helping
one another on this journey to Christ. That's what this relationship
is all about. And God's there. God's going
to be there. God's going to be right there in the midst of that.
Pilgrim and his buddy, I love, love, love that. Pilgrim and his buddy were faithful. They were walking along and Pilgrim
said, what shall we talk about, brother? And Faithful, I think his name
was, he said, let's have some edifying and profitable discourse,
my brother. And they did. And have you read
it? Oh, was it good. Oh, was it good? And you know what? Both those
fellas, they made it. They helped one another. They
helped one another. That's why the Lord's given us
a helpmate. Help us to do what? On this journey. On this journey. Is that profitable? Draw nigh unto God. Several ways. There's really just one. Call
on Him. Help me, help me, help me. All
right, stand with me. We'll close in prayer. Our Heavenly
Father, thank you, thank you, thank you. Your Word is wonderful. It's wonderful. We thank you
for it. It's quick. It's alive. It's your voice when
you speak to it. We so thank you. So thank you. It quickens us. We feel dead
and it quickens us. It livens us. Healing balm is
the balm of Gilead. The gospel of Christ is the balm
of Gilead. It's an ointment to mollify these
wounds, bruises. Oh Lord, we thank you for your
word. Thank you. But Lord, don't let it pass through
our ears. Let it sink down deep. Write it on our hearts. Let it
be that wellspring of water that you said will spring up when
we need it, when we're dry in a dry and thirsty land, when
we need wisdom from above. Recall, bring these things back
to our mind, to our memory, we pray. And oh Lord, we're in a
land of sin, and we've got sin in us. We need to love one another.
We need to love you. We need to be out of love with
this world. So, Lord, these things that we've
just learned, let us really learn them, we pray. For Christ's sake,
for Thy glory, for our good, save us, Lord, or we perish.
In Christ's name, amen.