Let's read the first sentence
of this 8th verse again. Draw nigh, come near to God, and He will draw nigh. He will come near to you. You draw nigh to God and He will
draw nigh to you. And the first thing I'd like
to say about this statement is it's a command. I see a conspicuous absence of
the word if. If you draw nigh to God, then
he will draw nigh to you. You see, if makes me the initiator. If I do my part, he'll do his
part. If I draw nigh, then he will
draw nigh. Doesn't work. Doesn't work. If salvation, if drawing nigh
to God, is dependent upon me or you initiating something,
it won't work. This is a command. Draw nigh
to God. And He will draw nigh to you. Now who is commanded to draw
nigh to God? Me. You. Believers. Unbelievers. Baxillian believers. Atheists. This is a command. You draw nigh
to God. This is his command. You draw
nigh to God. and he will draw nigh to you. In the context, look at verse
8. Draw nigh to God, and he'll draw
nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Now he's speaking specifically
to sinners. Sinners. Draw nigh to God. sinners, lawbreakers, people
who are evil, draw nigh to God. You double-minded, two-souled,
straddling the fence, draw nigh to God. You're commanded to,
not to sit back, not to wait for something to happen, draw
nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. I don't care who
you are if by the grace of God you draw nigh to God. He, God,
will draw nigh to you. Now I'm interested in him drawing
nigh to God. And draw nigh to God. Draw nigh to God. In the beginning, God. I love that passage of scripture
in Hebrews chapter 1. The chapter begins with this
word, God, who at sundry times and in diverse
manners, spake in times past to the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken to us by a son. God. You know something I love? I
love that the Bible makes no attempt to prove the existence
of God. You see, God's not on trial. He is. God, if you're out there, prove
it to me. He doesn't need to. You know God is. You know somebody made all this
and nobody made him. He's eternal. Everybody is born
with that knowledge. The Bible makes no attempt to
prove the existence of God. Do you know atheism is the most
intellectually undefensible position there is? I mean, it takes a
great leap of blind faith to believe that somehow all this
just happened. It doesn't work that way. God
is. He that cometh to God, the writer
to the Hebrews said in Hebrews 11, 6, he that cometh to God
must believe that he is. Not simply that he exists, but
that he is. He is as he says he is in this
book. I'm so thankful for this revelation.
God wrote this book to reveal himself. Somebody says, well,
how could God, how could you believe that this book is inspired
by God? Well, how can I believe that
God created the universe? It's the only thing that makes
sense. That's not why I believe it. I don't believe it simply
because it makes sense, but it does make sense. And if God can
create the universe, God can write a book, inspire men to
write a book, and preserve it so that you and I can find out
who He is from this book. God is holy. That's what this
book reveals. Holy, holy, holy. is the Lord
God of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. You know
what that means? That means He's not like me and
you. He's not in any way like me and
you. He's altogether other. God is
sovereign. He doeth according to His will. In the armies of heaven, and
among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can say His hand.
None can stop Him from doing His will. None can say to Him,
What doest Thou? God is all-powerful. Whatever He's pleased to do,
He does because He has the power to do it. God is all-wise, omniscient. He's never learned anything.
He knows Everything. He's never informed. He's never
taken by surprise. He never learns anything. He's
all-wise. God is omnipresent. That means you can't go anywhere
where He's not. David said, If I take the wings
to the othermost parts of the heavens, behold, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, thou
art there. Anywhere you go, that's where
God is. You can't get away from Him.
God is absolutely just. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty. Don't you admire that? Under
no circumstance will He clear a guilty sinner. God is independent. That means He doesn't need you.
God is immutable. He never changes. Think how many
times you change in the course of a day. God never changes. He's the God of all grace. He's
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the God of
glory. You know, glory is such that I don't even know how to
define it. But He is, as Stephen is called, the God of glory.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Creator. The
Sustainer of all things. The One in whom you live and
move and have your being. God. Draw nigh to God, and He
will draw nigh to you. What a promise! And remember
this is a command. You say, how am I to go about
doing this? Well, He commands you to. And if He commands you
to, He'll give you the grace to do it. You know, there's a
scripture in Matthew chapter 28, verse 9. It's after the resurrection of
the Lord. No, it's in the temple. I'm sorry,
Matthew chapter 21 in the temple. And the scripture says, the blind
and the lame came near to him. Now, somebody says, I'm blind. I don't see how to get there.
I'm lame. If I could see how to get there,
I couldn't move myself in that direction. How can I draw nigh
to God? Well, the scripture says the
blind and the lame drew near to Him. They're the only people
who drew near to Him. Draw nigh to God. You can't say, well, I can't
see or I can't get there. If God tells you to do it, you
can do it. Draw nigh to God. Now there's something that hits
me about this thing of drawing nigh to God. There's actually
two things that hit me. Number one, he's holy. And number two, I'm sinful. Now how can a sinful man draw
nigh to a holy God? I'm commanded to. You're commanded
to. Everybody in this room is commanded
to. I don't care what your condition is. Draw nigh to God. That's
a command. I don't want to give you some
impetus. I'm going to do it by His grace. You're commanded to. Draw nigh
to God and we have this promise. You draw nigh to God, He will
draw nigh. He will come near to you. He will embrace you. Now, okay,
I'm sinful. He's holy. How do I go about
this? Here's the first scripture I
want to give you. John chapter 6, verse 44, the Lord said, No
man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw
him. Now let me repeat that. No man
can. No man has the ability. to come to me, to draw nigh to
me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him." John 6, 44. Now there's two ways you can
look at that verse. The first way is you can say,
I can't come unless he draws me. And the other way you can look
at that verse is say, Draw me. Draw me. Lord, draw me. I want
to draw nigh to you and here's what I need you to do. Draw me. Cause me. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach to thee. Lord, draw
me. I can't get there unless you
draw me. Now we can all begin right there,
can't we? Draw me. And the second thing that comes
to my mind is Luke chapter 15 verse 1 you can look this up
if you want it says then drew near all the publicans and sinners
for to hear him now I want to draw near to hear what he's got
to say I want to hear what the gospel really is been through
near all the publicans and sinners to hear him. Don't you want to do that? I
want him to draw me and I want to draw near and hear what it
is he actually has to say. You know the Pharisees criticized
him for this. This man receives sinners, and
he even eats with them. He embraces them. He takes them
to himself. Oh, what good news that is. Now,
here we go. First, draw nigh. Well, how do
I go about it? If he's holy and I'm sinful,
the first thing I'm going to do is, Lord, you said in your
Word, you said this, no man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me. Draw him. Draw me. Draw me. Oh, draw me, draw us, the little
shootle of my woman said, and we'll run after thee. If you
draw us, we'll come running for you. Draw us, cause us to approach. And I want to come and draw near
and simply hear what he has to say. Now, I remember the scripture
speaking of two blind men in Matthew chapter 9. Two blind
men. They were plumbing blind. They
couldn't see. They were completely in the dark. But they came to Him saying,
Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. Now, how did they come
to Him? They couldn't see Him. You can't
see Him right now. They heard. They heard. And He said to them, Do you believe? I love to think of these fellows
groping their way, listening to his voice, or tell them what
all they ran into trying to get there, but they got there. They
knew, Son of David, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. They
knew the only hope they had was for him to have mercy on them. Mercy, oh, that's what they wanted,
mercy. Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Do you believe I'm
able to do this? Do you believe I'm able to give
sight? Do you believe He's able to save you? Now there's what
it is to draw an eye. Do you believe that He is able
to save you? You know what? I really believe that
He is. I believe that he is able to
save me with no help from me. The lame came to him. They brought
a stranger, I mean a lame man on a stretcher. You remember
that in Matthew chapter 9? He was lame. He couldn't walk.
He couldn't get to Christ. And the Lord looked at him without
him asking the Lord for a thing. The Lord looked at him and said,
Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. And the Pharisees said, Who is
this? He thinks he can forgive sins.
What if I told you your sins are forgiving you? You know what
you ought to do? You ought to get up and walk
out if it's because of some pronouncement I make. I can't. They were right when they said,
Who can forgive sins but God only? Only God can forgive sins. You remember what the Lord said?
He said, what's easier to say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or
rise up and walk? You know, it's easier to say,
thy sins be forgiven thee, because you don't know whether they are.
But to say, rise up and walk, and somebody rise up and walk,
only God can do that. And then he said, young man,
I say unto you, rise up and walk, because I want you to know that
the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins. Now remember,
in this thing of drawing nigh to God, there's some kind of
movement you make, but it's only lame people. You've got to know
which way to go, but it's only blind people that make it to
Him. But doesn't Scripture teach that
no man can come? Yeah, I just quoted it. As a matter of fact, let's turn
a little bit to John 6, verse 44. I don't want to just quote
it, I want you to see it. No man, John 6, 44, no man can
come to me. No man has the ability to come
to me except the Father which has sent me, draw him. And I'll
raise him up at the last day. Lord, draw me. That's my only
response to that. Lord, draw me. Now, if you stay
in that chapter, I can tell you who will come, who will be drawn. The Lord said, you see me and
believe not. He says to his detractors, you
see me and you don't believe. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Now, in drawing near, Draw near
to God. In drawing near, there's something
that first has to be settled. Now let me repeat that. In drawing
near to God, now he said draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh
to thee. In drawing nigh to God, there's something that first
has to be settled. There's no drawing nigh unless
this is settled. Matthew chapter 28 verse 9 after
the Lord's resurrection it says they came to him and the word
is they drew near to him they came to him and held him by the
feet and worshipped him and this thing draw nigh there
is no drop and draw nigh until this is settled He is to be worshipped
without any reference to what he does or does not do for you. He is to be worshipped. Remember when that leper came
to him, there came a leper to him and worshipped him. Now, we know this leper was worshiping
because the Bible says he was worshiping. You know, people
said, well, we had a worship service. I don't know whether
he did or not, but he did. He did. The Bible says he did. He came and worshiped him, saying,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now, I don't know whether
you will. if you don't, you're right. If
you let me stay in my leprosy, if you let me go to hell, you're
right. I don't know if you will, but
if you will, I know this, you can. You have the ability to
make me clean. Now what I want us to notice
is that man worshiped the Lord. before the Lord had ever done
anything for him, before he knew whether or not the Lord would
do anything for him. Now I want to ask you a question.
I want you to consider this carefully. If Jesus Christ sends you to
hell, is he still worthy of worship? That's the question. If Jesus Christ sends you to
hell and has no mercy on you at all, is he still worthy of
worship? Now until that issue is settled,
there's no drawing nigh I think of what he said to that Syrophoenician
woman. She said, Jesus, our son of David,
have mercy on me. And he answered her, not a word.
Did she give up? Lord, help me. He said, I'm not sent but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He said, I didn't come
to save everybody. People talk about God wanting
to save everybody. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. You can't get that from the scriptures.
If he wanted to save everybody, everybody'd be saved. Amen? Amen? God, he can't want something
and it not happen. He's God. You say, well, how
come he doesn't want to save everybody? Well, you'd have to
ask him about that. But whatever he does is right,
holy, just, and good. Now, I believe that. Do you? I believe that whatever
he does is right. He said, I've not said but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You know what she said?
It says concerning this woman. First, he didn't answer her.
And then he said, I've only come for a particular people. Then
came she and worshipped him. She drew near. She drew near. And she worshipped him, saying,
Lord, help me. If you don't help me, I will
not be helped. I think of the woman with the
issue of blood. The Scripture, oh, what a view
she had of the Lord Jesus Christ because she said, if I can just
touch the hem of His garment, if I can somehow come into contact
with Him, I'll be whole. What a high view she had of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And she came crawling through
the crowd and reached forth her hand and touched him. And immediately
she was made whole of her plague. Now, worship is the response of a
revelation of His person. If you ever find out who He is,
you will worship Him for who He is. There's no drawing nigh
until that issue is settled. Now, what I want to spend the
last few minutes of this message considering is how do I draw
near to God? I see worship must first be settled. I can just forget drawing nigh
unless this thing of worship. Worshipping Him for who He is. He's the Lord. He's the Creator. He's the Son of God. He's the
Sovereign of the Universe. He's holy. He's altogether lovely. And He's to be worshipped without
reference to what He does or does not do for me. Now, how
do I draw nigh? Well, turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 7. Now, if you listen to a religious
person, they say, here's how you draw nigh. You draw nigh
by reading the Bible more and by by denying your sinful practices
and start becoming holy and start becoming righteous and then all
of a sudden you can draw nigh by what you do and by changing
your ways and then you draw nigh. If you have even a clue as to
how sinful you are you know that's a bunch of you know what. I mean
you can't come into God's presence like that. There's nothing you
can do that would make yourself worthy of coming into his presence.
You realize that that's not drawing nigh. That's just a proclamation
of how ignorant you are and how you don't even know who he is
if you think something like that. I know a lot of preachers present
it that way but that's just because they don't know him. How do I
draw nigh? Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25. Wherefore He is able. I love to think of his ability.
He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come, and
that word is draw nigh. He is able to save them to the
uttermost that draw nigh unto God by Him. Now what's that mean? In John
chapter 14, verse 6, the Lord said, I am the way. Not I'll show you the way, I'm
it. I am the truth. Not I'll tell
you the truth, you're looking at the truth. I am the life. Not I'll give you life, but I'm
it. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Now let me tell you what that
means. When Christ comes to the Father, everybody in Him comes
to the Father. And the only way Me or you are
going to draw nigh to God as if we're in Him. We're totally
shut up to the Lord Jesus Christ. If He draws nigh to the Father,
if I'm in Him, I draw nigh to the Father. If I'm not in Him,
I can't draw nigh to the Father. The only way I can come close
to God is if I am in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's what
salvation is, is being in Christ. If you're in yourself, you won't
be saved. If you're in Christ, that's my
only hope, being in Christ so that what he did, I did. When
he kept the law, I kept the law. When he died, I died. When he
was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. When he
ascended back to heaven, I did too because I'm in him. And the only way I can draw nigh
to God is if he draws nigh to God and I'm in him. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Turn to Hebrews 10. Whereof, verse 15, whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. Well, what what is he a witness
to us of? Well, look at the previous verse
that whereof tells us that he's speaking of what was said previously
for. By one offering. By his death
on Calvary three. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. And do you hear what that says? He, by that one offering, if
I'm sanctified, and what that means is if I'm set apart by
God, if I'm one of his people, if I'm a believer, if he set
me apart, if he set me apart in eternal election, if he set
me apart in redemption, if he set me apart in regeneration,
sanctified. By His one offering, He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. You know what that
means? That means if Jesus Christ died for me right now, I'm as
perfect as I'll ever be. Somebody says, you don't look
that way to me. Look at the thing on your head. Yeah, I know. You know, I thought
I'd be able to take the band-aid off today, and I banged it last
night in the car, and I banged it this morning on the shower,
bloodied it both times, and Lynn said, what's wrong with you?
I don't know. I don't know. She says I've got
Asperger's, so you can figure that out. But at any rate, you
don't look perfected. I know I don't. That doesn't
mean I'm not. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. It might not be seen that I'm
perfected, but that's how God sees me. Holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight. And His sight is the way things
really are. Let's go on reading. This is
what the Holy Ghost is a witness of. For after these said before,
this is the covenant that I'll make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts. Lord,
put them in mine. And in their minds will I write
them. Lord, write them in mine. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now, where remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. Now, what people try
to do, they try to draw an eye to God with an offering for sin.
Don't try it. There's no more offering for
sin. There's only one offering for sin. Don't come bringing
something you're doing. Don't come bringing some intention.
His offering is the only offering for sin. So don't you dare try
to bring anything else. Verse 19, having therefore brethren
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Now, what is it that creates
boldness? That's an easy thing to answer.
The removal of sin. The complete removal of sin. What did the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ do? It completely removed my sin
so that I can come into God's presence with boldness. by a new, and that word new means
literally freshly slaughtered. Now the blood of Christ is just
as poignant to the father right now, just as powerful, speaks
to the father right now just like it did when he first shed
his blood for the remission of sins. Freshly slaughtered. Oh, the blood of Christ is so
powerful and living as opposed to dead. And my marginal reading
says newly made. You see, the blood of Christ
made me newly made. It gave me a new history. It
gave me a new, the Lord said, behold, I make all things new. which he hath consecrated for
us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having
in a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near." There
it is. That's how you draw near. Through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the high priest over the house of God,
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. Now that's how I draw near, through
the blood of Christ. By this priest, whoever lives
to make intercession for me, he's consecrated through the
veil and made it open for me. I draw near through the success
and the power of His blood. Let's draw near with a true heart,
in full assurance of faith. Turn to Hebrews chapter 7, verse
19, For the law made nothing perfect, Let me tell you something about
God's law. The Ten Commandments. All it does is condemn you. Well, I tried to keep it. Well,
you failed. You failed. And all the law does
is condemn you. It made nothing perfect. Well, I think we ought to try
to keep the law. Would I say you shouldn't? No. But I'll say this, you won't.
You won't. All it does is condemn you. The
law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope
did. By the which we draw nigh. There's
that word. By the which we draw nigh unto
God. Now we're given two pictures.
The law. Salvation dependent upon what you do. It's not going
to work. The better hope. Salvation dependent
upon what Christ has done. Only. By that better hope, we
draw nigh unto God. Salvation really is finished
by Christ and there's nothing for me to do. I can draw near through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4, Let us therefore come, draw near,
same root word, boldly under the throne of grace that we may
obtain mercy and find grace and help to help in time of need. Now how is it that I can draw
near boldly under the throne of grace? We'll back back up
to verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that's
passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast
our confession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was at all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Now let me tell you something.
Whatever you're going through, whatever you're feeling, Christ
has felt it much more acutely than you ever have. He was tempted
in all points like as we are. Now he never sinned. Well, how
could he be tempted then? Because he was made sin. And
everything about sin he experienced. All the guilt, all the shame,
all the abandonment. Everything that there is about
sin. The embarrassment, the humiliation, the feeling forsaken. He experienced
it all. He's at all points tempted like
we are. Much more acutely than you or
I could ever be. Yet he never sinned. And his not sinning is my righteousness
before God. However his life is, that's my,
remember he said I'm the life. His sinless life is my life before
God. In light of that, let us therefore
come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. One last scripture. Turn with me to Romans chapter
10. Now what I want to say by this
is that this journey of drawing nigh to God is not a long journey. It's not a process. It's not
something that takes a lot of time. There's not a bunch of
stuff you need to do in order to draw nigh. Romans chapter
10 verse 8. Well, let's begin in verse 6. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise. And I think it's interesting
where it begins, the righteousness of faith. It tells us what not
to say in our heart. Now, there's things we say in
our heart. God always sees it. And he tells us what not to say. You might not verbalize it exactly
like this, but it's the principle. Say not in your heart, who shall
ascend into heaven, that is bring Christ down from above. Don't
say in your heart, what can I do to get Christ to come down here
and save me? Don't say that. Or verse 7, who shall descend
into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead.
Don't say what can I do to make what he did work for me. Now that's what most religion
has to say. What can you do to make what
Christ did work for you? What can you do to make what
he did when he died be applied to you? The apostle says, don't
say that in your heart. Quit thinking like that. It is wrong thoughts. You see that? It's wrong thoughts. There's nothing you can do to
get him to do anything. All that is is another form of
salvation by works. What can I do to get what he
did work for me? Verse 8, but what saith it? The word is nigh thee. This thing of drawing nigh to
God, it's nigh to you right now. It really is very near. It's
not something you got to reach out for. It's near you right
now in this thing of drawing near to God. The word is nigh
thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of
faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth,
the Lord Jesus. Do you believe he's the Lord? Now, that's no empty title. If
you believe he's the Lord, you believe he's the Lord. That means
you believe he's the controller. He's the dictator. He's in charge. He has absolute sovereign control
of everybody and everything because he's God. We're talking about
the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thy heart that God
raised him from the dead." Now it's not only believing that
God raised him from the dead, that's certainly part of it,
but it's knowing why he raised him from the dead. You know why
he raised him from the dead? Because he was completely satisfied
with what he did. He put away sin. He established
righteousness. God raised him from the dead
because God said, I'm satisfied with what he did, and everybody
did it for complete satisfaction. And the word is nigh thee. Even
in thy mouth and thy heart, the word of faith, which we preach,
that thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the
dead. Thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
to salvation. Now, what's that mean? With the
heart man believeth unto righteousness? Well, your heart is your whole
man. It's your understanding, it's
your affections, it's your will. Righteousness. There's one righteousness,
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now with my heart, first of all,
I understand that the righteousness of Christ is the only righteousness
I have. Do you understand that? Is that
in your understanding, that the only righteousness there is,
is the righteousness of Jesus Christ? Not only do I understand
that, I love his righteousness being my personal righteousness
before God. Not only do I love his righteousness
with my heart, not only do I love his righteousness being my only
righteousness before God, I will if I'm given the choice. Would you rather be saved by
Christ's righteousness or your own righteousness? You know,
I don't hesitate there. I'd whole lot rather be saved
by His righteousness, because I know I don't have any. So that's
not a hard question to answer. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made,
we confess what we believe in our heart, don't we? Undo salvation. Here, drawing nigh to God, Him drawing
nigh to me, Near, so near to God, nearer I cannot be. In the person of His dear Son,
I'm as near to God as He. Dear, so dear to God, dearer
I cannot be. In the person of His dear Son,
I'm as dear to God as He. Now, you draw nigh to God. You
draw nigh to God saying, Lord, draw me. You draw nigh hearing
what he says. You draw nigh by him. You draw nigh by his blood. You draw nigh by that better
hope. Now you'll notice I didn't give you anything to do. If I did, you wouldn't be drawing
nigh to God. You'd be going away from him.
May God give us all grace to draw nigh to God and believe
this glorious promise. He will draw nigh unto us. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's blessed
and holy name, that you will, by your grace, draw us and cause
us to draw nigh unto thee. Lord, cause us to know that we
draw nigh through thy Son, and we draw nigh through his blood. We draw nigh through this better
hope. Lord, what a thought that you
draw nigh to us. We give thanks. Bless this message
for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.