Every hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. Thank you, John and Robin. Go
with me to the book of James now. The book of James chapter
4. We're going through the book
of James, and I read through it a few times actually. And this
verse 8 stuck out to me, and I've been
wanting to deal with it ever since, and I can't wait until
we get to it. It's that important. Verse 8,
draw nigh to God. And He will draw nigh to you. This is a word of salvation to
the lost. Draw nigh to God. And He will
draw nigh to you. This is a word of restoration
to the backslider. Draw an eye to God and He'll
draw an eye to you. This is a word of comfort, a
word of instruction, a word of communion for the believer. Draw
an eye to God and He'll draw an eye to you. What a promise. All that God is – love, peace,
gentleness, goodness, mercy, grace. Draw nigh to God. Near to God
are all those things. Far from God is the opposite. The opposite. In the eye of God,
you'll find peace. You'll find safety. You'll find
protection. You'll find assurance. You'll
find freedom from fear, freedom from worry, a help with sin,
a help with adversary. Draw an eye to God and He'll
draw an eye to you. Scripture says that thy right
hand are pleasures for evermore. Now and then, draw nigh to God
and He'll draw nigh to you. All found near to God. Near to God. Our peace within
and peace without. Peace of heart, mind. Peace with
others. Peace in the home depends on
this. An eye to God, you have these
things. Far off, none of these things. That's how important it is. Do
you want to know how to draw an eye to God? Now, it is true. I must say this. No man, our
Lord said, can come unto me. except the Father which hath
sent me, draw him." And yet the Scripture says to us to pray,
draw us, and we'll run after you. David said, when you said,
seek my face, that's when I said, thy face I'll seek. So draw an
eye unto God. This command, this permission,
draw nigh to God, and He'll draw nigh to you. Now, here's a word
to the lost. And there's always someone that
doesn't know the Lord in every single gathering, every single
one. You know, when Adam and Eve sinned
against God, The first thing they did was they ran from God. In the garden, they hid from
God. You cannot hide from God. David wrote a whole psalm about
that, Psalm 139, Whither shall I flee from thy presence? And
if you're one of his people, be glad that you can't run and
hide from him. But Adam and Eve tried to, and
ever since, they failed. Ever since sin entered into our
bloodstream, into man, man doesn't want to be in the presence of
God. Man doesn't want anything to do with God. God is not in
all his thoughts. He does not like to retain God
in his knowledge. That's why people hate to come
to church. That's why our children, that's
why our loved ones don't know the Lord. That's why the natural
man receiveth not the things of God. They're foolishness to
them. It doesn't want anything to do with God. Like Adam and
Eve. They ran, don't want the presence
of God. Don't want a Creator. Don't want
an owner. Don't want a sovereign. Don't
want a ruler. Don't want a Lord over them. Don't need a Savior. How foolish is it for a creature
who is in the hands of his Creator to bite the hand that feeds him? To rebel against the one in whose
hands his breath is? How foolish is that? How dangerous is that? To reject
God? and try to get as far away from
God, but God. Weren't Adam and Eve so glad
that God came after them? That the Lord Jesus Christ came
walking and said to Adam, where art thou? Oh, how glad Adam and Eve were
that God came looking for them because they didn't want anything
more to do with God. A man lost three things in the
garden. He lost the image of God. He lost the knowledge of
God, understanding of God. He lost the communion with God. And Christ gives us all that
back. When God, Lord Jesus Christ came to them in the garden, the
first thing He did was convict them of their sin, didn't He?
He said, what have you done? Caused them to acknowledge their
sin, didn't He? At first they denied it and then they had to
confess it, didn't they? The goodness of God led them to repentance.
And He clothed their nakedness with the skin of an animal. I
believe it was a lamb, don't you? Quite sure it was. Covered their nakedness, covered
their sins, and sent them out. He had to kick them out of the
garden, remember? But he sent them out with a promise,
with hope, that there's somebody coming. The woman's seen. And you've brought sin into this
world. He's going to come in the end of the world to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now go. But you can come now
unto me. One what? By the blood of a sacrifice. How can a sinner come nigh unto
a holy God? How? Go with me to Isaiah chapter
2. Isaiah chapter 2. We come to
God in fear and humility. Isaiah chapter
2. Look at these verses with me.
We come to God in fear and humility. James said in James 4, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. He said, humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Isaiah chapter
2, verse 10, verse 11 says, The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down. And the Lord alone
shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts
shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, upon everyone
that is lifted up. He shall be brought low." You
cannot come nigh unto God in pride. You can't come near. God will hold you at arm's length
if you are proud. Pride is the ugliest, most repulsive
thing to us, isn't it? Pride is a repulsive thing. How much more is it to God who
does all these things for us? It's rebellion and unbelief is
what it is. Isaiah 57, go over there, and
God has purposed it, the Scripture says, to stain the pride of all
glory and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
But here's how you draw nigh unto God and how He will draw
nigh unto you. Isaiah 57 verse 15, Thus saith
the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name
is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with Him also. It is of a contrite and humble
spirit to revive the spirit of the humble. and to revive the
heart of the contrite one. You come to God in fear and in
humility. We come to God in repentance
and faith. Look at Isaiah 55. We come to
God in repentance toward God. David said, Against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. That's
how we can't come to God otherwise. Now Isaiah 55, verses 6 and 7,
"...Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him
while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts." That's repentant. "...And let
him return unto the Lord." He's so good. He will have mercy upon
him. And to our God, He will not only
pardon, but abundantly pardon. He delights to show mercy. We
come in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said this in quoting
Isaiah. He said, They shall all be taught,
all thy children shall be taught of God and everyone that hath
heard and learned of the Father cometh to me. Repentance toward
God, Paul said, I preached. with tears, warning you, repentance
toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. You may come
to God in fear, in humility, you may come to God in repentance
and confession, and you may come to God one way. Christ said,
I am the way, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are all
taught, all of God's people, are taught there's one way to
come to a holy and offended God, and that's by the blood and the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. One way. Jesus Christ,
God's beloved Son, the Lamb of God, for without the shedding
of blood there's no remission of sin. It is the blood that
maketh atonement for the soul. You cannot come to God without
the blood. But you may come freely with
the blood. Listen to this. Let me just read
it to you in Hebrews. We'll look at this Sunday, Lord
willing. But it says, having boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath
consecrated for us through the veil by his holy life, by his
blood shed for our sin, that is to say his flesh. We have
a high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near by that
blood, by faith in Christ. as a sinner by faith in Christ,
with a true heart. God is nigh unto them that draw
near unto him in spirit and in truth, with a true heart, in
full assurance of faith, fully expecting, fully believing that
he'll receive me. Christ said, come unto me. We draw nigh unto God by fear
and humility. We draw nigh unto God. This is
for the lost and the found. We draw nigh unto God in repentance
and faith. We draw nigh unto God by calling
on the Lord. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. We won't be saved unless we call
on the name of the Lord. If someone's not saved, they
have not called on the name of the Lord. Whosoever, though,
the promise is, the blessed promise, the merciful promise is, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord, no matter who it is, no
matter what they've done, shall be saved. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
of glory who came to this earth to do a great work, who spent
twenty-four hours a day doing that work and only had thirty-three
short years to do a work of eternal salvation in, walked on this
planet and every single step he took was divinely ordered
by God. He was ever about the Father's
business, slept very little, ate very little, always about
the Father's business, always at work, doing this work. He
said, I must work. The time is short. This work
is great. I must work. He who was about
the Father's business, busy all the time, working and walking.
He was walking along one day in the midst of a great crowd
of people, and somebody cried out from the depth of their heart,
Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And the Lord of glory, God Almighty,
who came to this earth, stopped in his tracks and told his disciples,
gave the command, said, go get that person and bring him to
me. And they said, Lord, he's nothing
but a blind beggar. Get him. Draw now unto God. Call on the name of the Lord.
He'll stop what he's doing. Here is a word to the backslider. Turn to Jeremiah 3 with me. Jeremiah
chapter 3. Draw nigh unto God and He will
draw nigh unto you. The backslider is all of us.
All we like sheep have gone astray. Our Lord said, My people are
prone to backsliding. All we like sheep. have gone
astray, turned everyone to his own way, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love. Satan, sin, self, the world,
the flesh, and the devil tempt us, allure us away from God. And we often fall to those temptations
like our parents and end up far off, it seems. far off. In Jeremiah 3, listen to the
merciful and gracious words of the Lord whom we leave, whom
we run from. Verse 12, Jeremiah 3, ìGo and
proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ëReturn, thou
backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine
anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful.íî saith the Lord, and
I will not keep anger forever, only acknowledge thine iniquity,
that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God." Look at verse
22, return ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. Behold, we come unto thee, thou
art the Lord our God. Draw nigh unto God. no matter
how far off. Yet we wander off, don't we?
We forget God. Scripture says we go a-whoring through covetousness. That which
is idolatry, the Lord says, the world and these things take up
our affection and our thoughts and our time that should belong
to God. And we feel as far off as we
ought to feel. And we often feel like we're
completely lost and without hope, without God and without Christ,
don't we? And David, one time when he got
in that way, his own fault, read Psalm 107. But you see, fools
through their transgression are brought low. David one time,
when he got in a bad state like that, he said, the heavens are
brass. He's not hearing a thing I say.
He said, are His mercies clean gone? And you feel forsaken, you feel
cast out, you feel too far gone, like Jonah. but God. You know, you can't get too far
off from God because His arm's not short. You know, He's able to save to
the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He's willing. And He's willing. He's not only able, But he's
willing. He's willing like the father
to the prodigal. He's willing that those afar
off come back to him. That's what we just read there.
Return unto me. Return unto me. He said in Jeremiah
4, if thou wilt return, I wish you would return unto me. Return
unto me. I heard this story one time a
prodigal son that went out into the world and wasted his substance
like the one in the Scripture. And he hadn't called home for
a long time. Hadn't been in touch, been out
of touch with his parents for a long time. And then until he
got to the point where he was ashamed, he came to himself like
the prodigal. And he wanted to come home. He
wanted to be restored to fellowship with his family. And so he called
home and nobody answered the phone. And he left a message
on the phone. He said, Dad, he said, Mom, I'd
love to come home. This is John. I'd love to come
home if you'll have me. I'm sorry for everything. And
I'd sure like to come home, if you'll have me. And I'm coming
in tomorrow on the noon train. And if you'll have me, I'm coming
home. And if you'll have me, just put a white towel on the
clothesline. Just hang a white towel on the
clothesline." So he did. He came in on the
noon train. And he walked a short distance from the rail station
to his home and he looked and there was a white towel on the
line and white sheets and white pillowcases and white underwear
and white handkerchiefs and everything in the house that was white was
hanging on the line saying, welcome home son, welcome home. God delights to show mercy. If you don't need that now, you
will. Because you will be a far off.
Guarantee it. Guarantee it. On the way back
to the backslide are those the same as the lost through fear,
humility, repentance. Father, I have sinned, and the
Prodigal said, I have sinned against heaven and against You
and everybody else. And all I want is just to – what
did the Father do? Draw nigh unto God. And He ran
and fell on His neck. Fell on His neck. How near will
He draw to you? He'll fall on your neck. What a gracious God we have.
We read that He will abundantly pardon. That father didn't say,
well, you've got to sleep in the barn from here on out. No,
no. He said, kill the fatted calf. Bring the best roe. Well, here's a word for the child
of God. Here's a word for believers.
Draw nigh unto God. Go back to our text. Draw nigh
unto God and He will draw nigh unto thee. And what we're talking
about here now is something vital. Vital. Words of life. These aren't vain words. This
is life. Life more abundant. We're talking about close communion
with our Lord. Now, if you need this, listen
up, okay? We're talking about close communion
with our Lord. I talked about how so many things
depend upon it. Close communion with our Lord
like Enoch, like Noah, like Abraham who walked with God. Abraham
was called the friend of God. Enoch and Noah walked with God,
which gives great peace and great joy and great calm and great
contentment and great assurance and safety and courage. How? How do you draw nine together? Well, number one, prayer. Prayer. That's communion with God. Prayer
is, yes, praise, thanksgiving. Our Lord said, after this manner,
pray, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. We've come to Him in fear. We've
come to Him in humility. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done. Worship and praise and thanksgiving and petitions. Give
us this day our daily bread. Forgive us. That's repentant.
But prayer is just this. Talking with God. Talking with
your Father. Talking. Like a child talks to
their parent. Like a wife talks to her husband. Like a sinner talks to his priest.
Prayer. It's talking to God. And our
Lord said men ought always to pray. You know how close our
Lord Jesus Christ was with the Father as a man on this earth.
Why? He was always in constant communion
with his Father. He prayed always, didn't he?
And he told us, you ought always to pray. Your peace depends on
it. Your faith depends on it. Your
joy depends on it. Freedom from fear depends on
it. Your relationships with others depend on it. Your thoughts,
your words, your actions, everything depends on it. Talking to our God. You know,
amongst ourselves, if there's no communion with one another,
we don't have a relationship to Him. We don't have a relationship. We're estranged, aren't we? If
we don't talk to one another, we're estranged from each other.
And if I don't talk to you, you're not going to talk to me, are
you? Draw an eye on the God. He'll draw an eye on you. If
I don't call on the Lord, He's not going to talk to me. It's
just a fact. If there's no communion, close
communion, there's no relationship. If there's no close communion,
there's no understanding of the person. There's no constant communion. There's no nearness. Draw nigh
unto God. Call on the Lord and He'll draw
nigh unto thee. He'll speak to you through His
Word. Our Lord said in Proverbs 1,
of some people I called and you refused. You wouldn't answer
me. You know, some people you call
on, you call on, you call on, and they never call back until
eventually you quit calling on them. You think they don't want
my company. Don't you? You just do, don't
you? Thank God he's not... Like us, He's long-suffering
even when we don't call on Him for extended periods of time.
But how can that be? Why do you think men like Moses
and Abraham and David and Daniel and these others are so full
of faith and so full of wisdom and so full of patience and kindness
and so forth? Why do you think that? They were
close to God. They talked to the Lord. They weren't better men than
us. They just called on the Lord. Draw an eye unto God and He'll
draw an eye unto thee. You know, if we spend more time... Our Lord called covetousness
idolatry. That's just what He called it.
He said other things and people talk to them more than we talk
to God. listening to men rather than
God, and company with the world, it's no wonder we don't have
any pain. It's no wonder. Draw nigh unto
God. Where is God? If we want to draw
nigh unto God, where is God? Well, God, He said, I dwell in
the heavens, I am the high and the lofty place. But he said,
God wrote this in the Psalm 46, and he said this, the city of
God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High, God is in the
midst of her. What is that? Jerusalem over
there? It's the church. It's a church where two or three
are gathered together in His Name. He promised to be there
always. Draw nigh unto God. He'll draw nigh unto you. What
if He said, I'm promised to be? Well, He did that. He told His
disciples, He said, tell My disciples to go before Me in Galilee and
I'll be there. What did they do? They skedaddled
on to Galilee. And He was there, and when He
showed them His side, He showed them His hands, His feet, He
spoke peace to them, He revealed things to them, and they had
faith as never before. Thomas, remember? If he wasn't
there, he was full of doubts and fears and bitterness Oh my,
draw an eye unto God. His people, His church, that's
His temple. That's where He promised to be.
Tabernacles, little local congregations where the Lord is. It doesn't
matter the number, just two or three. That's where His Word
is heard. That's where He speaks. That's
where He is worshipped. That's where the Holy Spirit
is. The Holy Spirit preaches. Christ is lifted up. That's where
sinners are healed, communion of His body and His blood is
eaten. Scripture says, God loveth the gates of Zion more than all
the dwellings of Jacob. That's where He just abides.
Draw nigh unto God. But if we cannot have fellowship
with those who don't know our God and have fellowship with
God, we can't do it. God's not in the midst of them.
Those He knows are far off. You want to be a far off? David
said, I haven't sat with the ungodly. That's not where I'm
sitting. I'm not walking with sinners and sitting in the seat
of the scornful. No, no, no. I'm with God's people. Well, that's where God's going
to be. You draw an eye unto God, He'll draw an eye unto you. And
you know, if you have fellowship with those who are close to the
Lord, That's who you want to be with. Old Lot should have stayed with
Abraham in the mountains, shouldn't he? He wished he had never left
Abraham's side. And he almost perished. Draw
nigh unto God. He'll go, Draw nigh unto God in this way.
We draw nigh unto God. Look at James 4, over there,
James 4. I need to turn myself. In verse
6, it says, we giveth more grace. God resisteth the proud, but
giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to
God. We've already said we draw nigh unto God in fear and humility. We draw nigh unto God in the
right spirit and attitude. Look at verse 8, "'Cleanse your
hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Be afflicted and mourn. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning, your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord. He shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another.'"
Brethren, it's all connected there. We draw nine to God with
the right spirit and attitude. God dwells with the humble. God
dwells with and is nigh unto the merciful. God dwells with and is nigh unto
the peaceable. Blessed are the peacemakers.
They're the people of God. Draw nigh unto God. I'm not saying
clean yourself up to come to God. I'm not saying that at all.
But our Lord said to the merciful, He'll show Himself merciful.
But to the forward, And so on and so forth. Draw nigh unto
God. Drawing nigh unto God is a close
relationship, and it means, as I said, peace in the heart, peace in the mind. There's no
peace to the wicked. That means not just those outwardly
wicked. That means those who don't think
on God. are those who are hypocrites. Peace of heart. Peace of mind. Peace in the home. Peace in the
church. Relationships are better for
it. Husbands are better husbands. Wives are better wives. Children
are better children. That's just so. There's protection
from the adversary. If you want protection from the
adversary, draw nigh unto God. No safer place than right beside
Him. Christ-likeness, you want to
be like Christ? Draw nigh unto Him. John was
called the beloved disciple, wasn't he? Why? His head was always on his breast. John wrote several books in which
he talked much about love, didn't he? The beloved disciple. He was always close to the Lord.
Draw nine to God. Worries and fears will diminish. Faith will increase. Assurance
will increase. Wisdom and understanding will
increase. Distress and despair will decrease. Are you listening to me? This is vital. I'm talking about
distress diminishing and assurance increasing. Anybody need this? Love and forgiveness and forbearance
and patience and long-suffering will increase. Nine to God will
regulate your thoughts, regulate your words. You'll be careful
what you say in His presence. You'll be careful what you say
about others. You'll be careful what you think about others.
You'll be careful what you do in the sight of God. Nine to
God. It will regulate your thoughts,
regulate your speech, regulate your actions. That's right. My
old dog used to, as long as he was by my side, he was a good
dog. When he went running off, he was liable to get into anything. And so are we. Draw an eye unto
God. Forgiveness, forbearance, all
these things. The Kingdom of God will be nearer.
Eternity will be more desirable. Our love will increase. As Peter
said, it will hasten the coming of our Lord. Worldliness will
subside, yes, near to God. Don't think about this world. Draw an eye unto God. He'll draw
an eye unto you. All your fears and worries about
the cares of this world, As long as those disciples were walking
with the Lord, they didn't have a care in the world. They did that close to the Lord. And when He was gone, they thought,
oh, we'd better go fishing. No. Draw an eye unto God, He'll
draw an eye unto you. Draw us, O Lord. And we'll run
after you. We'll follow after you. Draw
us. Pray without ceasing. Every day, every hour, hear His
Word. Right here, you get a double
portion. The Spirit of God is promised to be present. With
His people, where two or three are gathered, God is promised
to be there. Draw nigh unto God. hearing His Word, reading His
Word, listening to sermon, I'm telling you, from experience.
I'll tell you what my pastor said to somebody one time when
they asked him, how long did it take you to prepare that message?
I'll tell you how long it took me to prepare this message. He
was about my age when he said that. It took me 35 years. It took me 35 years to learn
this. And this is the most important
thing you could ever hear. Draw nigh unto God. And God,
who is love, peace, joy, everything, life, will draw nigh unto you through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Stand with me. Our God, our Father, in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You for the blessed promises
Oh, how we thank you that thou art so merciful and gracious
and long-suffering and ready to pardon, ready to forgive,
and delight to show mercy to them that fear thee and hope
in thy mercy. Oh, Lord, draw us. How's everyone in this room
tonight? Some perhaps didn't hear a word,
Lord, but Thou art God over this, over all, and whose hands everyone
is. This is Your Word You promised
would not return void, would accomplish what You send it to
do. O Lord, send it into the hearts,
the minds, the spirits of Your people. Cause it to sink down
deep and draw them to Thyself away from this world out of sin
and darkness unto Thyself, to Christ, with Christ, in Christ,
in Thee, in God, with God, at His right hand is salvation. O Lord, help us, save us from
this untold regeneration, us and our children. Cause us to
call upon You. Cause us to walk with Thee. Cause
us to seek Thy face while You may be found Cause the backslider
to come back. Save the lost is our prayer in
Christ's name. Amen. You're dismissed.