Draw Near To God

Introduction

Being a preacher has its positives and its negatives. I’m not sure which one this one is, but I have very few secrets from you. I’ve shared much of my life through my illustrations and preaching, and so you know so much about me. And so I was trying to think this morning what’s something that maybe they don’t know about Ken. And I don’t think I’ve ever told you this. I had a brief stint in acting. I tried a little bit of an acting career. It didn’t last long. Uh, but I have to say it was pretty good. Uh it was in the third grade Thanksgiving play. I was in Mrs. Rogers’ class, and I can’t remember if it was just Mrs. Rogers’ class or if all of the third grade was involved in this Thanksgiving play.

But I can remember it like it was yesterday. I had three parts in the third grade Thanksgiving play. I played a background Indian, and then I played the lead role of one of the pilgrims who was hunting a turkey. And then the part I want to tell you about particularly this morning is I was also the narrator for the play.

I can still see and even smell that mimeographed sheet of paper that I read from as the narrator for the Thanksgiving play. And I can remember in the gymnasium there at West Point. Elementary slash high school. Our school was all on one big campus that we shared. And we were in the gymnasium, and I was standing at the podium with that mimeographed blue sheet of text and was reading it, and I was nervous as I could be. Because we had practiced it, but there was nobody in the gym when we practiced it. Now everybody’s parents were there, and many of the teachers and ministrators were there. But I remember one thing in particular that will always stand out to me. Mr. Tom Burleson was sitting front and center.

Now you don’t know Mr. Burleson, but Mr. Burleson was the principal at West Point High School. He was what we called the high principal. Like I said, we shared the campus, the elementary, and the high school was all on one campus. We had an elementary school principal, Mr. Skinner. I didn’t like Mr. Skinner. Mr. Skinner had an electric paddle. And everybody was afraid of Mr. Skinner, or at least that was the legend. But Mr. Burleson was the principal of the high school, and therefore the principal over all of the school. And for a third-grade elementary school teacher, he was a big deal. He was important. And I was standing there nervous reading that text, and I happened to look over at Mr. Burleson, and Mr. Burleson just looked at me, smiled, and winked.

And for whatever reason, that gave me all the confidence in the world. And it calmed me down. But Mr. Burleson did something else important that day. I was supposed to read the text, and then there was an assigned seat for me to set in while some of the play went on, and I was supposed to get back up, read more text. And this was to happen three or four different times. But late parents had come in, and you know how rude parents are at these kind of functions. They came in, somebody sat in my seat that I was supposed to sit in. And so while I was reading this text, I was worried about where am I going to sit? There’s no place to sit when I’m done.

And Mr. Burleson, to his credit, I think sensed that and knew what had happened. And so when that reading was over, Mr. Burleson scooted over he and his wife a little bit, and he indicated for me to come and sit by him, giving me a way out of that embarrassment. But more than that, here I was just this lowly third grader. And I got to sit by the high principal. That was a big deal to me. It meant probably very little to him, but it meant a whole lot to me. Because this was a time and an era where kids respected teachers and administrators, and certainly the high principal was to be looked at with great admiration. And it meant so much to me that he noticed me, cared about me, and wanted me to sit by him.

James chapter 4. We’re going to be looking at that text as our study this morning. An even more profound statement is made. When through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God says that He wants us with Him. That God wants us by Him. When James encourages us to draw near to God. And you know, that’s the story of Scripture, isn’t it? It begins in the garden when man had that perfect, uninterrupted fellowship with God, and it was broken by sin, and the rest of Scripture is all about what’s that important biblical word? Reconciliation. It’s all about God getting back to that relationship that he wants to have with us. I’m gonna tell you, that’s mind blowing. That God would even want to have us with him and near him.

But for some reason unfathomable to me, he wants me. And he wants you in his presence. He desires to have that relationship with us. And so he says there in James chapter 4. James says, this is what you ought to do. James 4 and verse 8, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Let’s talk about that concept this morning of drawing near to God. Let’s start here with understanding that this is the most fundamental and foundational thing about our Christianity. So much so that I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that this is what it’s all about. Drawing near to God. It’s not all about obeying his commandments. It’s not all about being baptized to have our sins washed away, even.

And it’s not even all about going to heaven when we die. Those are important concepts that cannot be removed from scripture and from our relationship to God. But they are not all a means to an end. Or they’re not the end themselves. They are the means to the end. And that end is to have that relationship with God. I keep his commandments so that I can be near to him. I want my sins washed away in the watery grave of baptism so I can be equipped to be able to be in a relationship to God. And don’t miss this. Heaven is going to be heaven, not because there’s a street of gold and a pearly gate, and not because I’m going to be reunited with my friends and family that have gone before.

Heaven’s going to be heaven because God.

And so foundationally, that’s what it’s all about being near to God. A few other foundational aspects before we get into the particulars of this lesson is first of all, again, that’s what it’s all about. Draw near to God. But then there’s also this concept that God is expecting me to do something. He has not forced himself upon me.

Jesus, while here upon this earth, would offer that invitation, come unto me. James would reiterate and re-word that invitation by saying, draw near to God. God desires this relationship, but an all-powerful, even all-sovereign God does not force himself upon his creatures. Though he longs for that relationship, he asks for us to come to him. But then James would also foundationally want us to know that if we’ll draw near to him, he’ll draw near to us. That all we have to do is come to him, and he will welcome us home. And he will have fellowship with us. And he’ll be our Father. And we can be his children. And so James tells us to draw near to God. But I believe also in this text that we read before us is the formula of how we are to draw near to God.

1. Leave the World, Resist the World

Or maybe another way of saying it are some requisites, some requirements that God has placed upon this transaction if we are to draw near to God. James chapter 4, verse 8 says, draw near to God. I think we’re going to see that James chapter 4, verses 4 through 10 are going to tell us how we can draw near to God, or maybe another way of putting it is the type of people who will draw near to God. The first thing required in this text for us to draw near to God is that we’ve got to leave the world, resist the world. Back up in your reading in James chapter 4 and in verse 4, he uses very strong, but maybe a little bit curious language when he says, James 4, verse 4, adulterers and adulteresses.

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Kind of strange language because he uses a term that we and they would have been very familiar with. A pejorative, an adulterer. In that society as well as in the outliers of society to find even people in the world who would look positively on the subject of adultery and an adulterer. Most of society universally looks at that as a negative thing. But James is not using that term in its most classic sense. He’s not accusing these Christians of being unfaithful to their earthly spouses. Very quickly, after calling them adulterers and adulteresses, he identifies the type of adultery he has in mind, what we call spiritual adultery.

You, as Scripture has pointed out, he says, you are wed to God. Scripture also would point out, and you are wed to a jealous husband. But now James says, but you’ve been unfaithful. You are unfaithful to that husband, to that spouse. And so he just punches them right in the face with a term and an accusation and a slur that would have caught their attention and made them set up and say, What? What are you calling me? Adulterer? Don’t you know, he says, that friendship with the world puts you at odds with God? You can’t have it both ways.

And so if you’re going to draw near to God, that He’ll say in the next few verses, if you’re going to draw near to God, the first thing you’ve got to do is to make up your mind and choose. Choose. Who’s it going to be? And you know, life is all about choices, isn’t it? It’s all about choices. Now I’ve often been perplexed about that subject that life is about choices. Because it seems like the most important fundamental choices come when we’re so ill-equipped to make those choices. I’m in my later 50s now. And no chuckling and no comments, but I think I’ve amassed a certain amount of wisdom as I got into my late 50s, approaching early 60s. But most of the big choices are behind me.

Choices like who am I going to marry? Where and if I’m going to go to school, and what education and degree to pursue, what profession to put myself into.

Sorry, young people, when I had no wisdom and no idea what I was doing. But now that I’ve got a little bit of wisdom, my toughest choices is oatmeal or toast. But that’s kind of the way life is. Life’s full of choices and sometimes tough, life-altering choices. And James says this is one of them. Who are you going to choose? You’re going to choose friendship with the world, that John would say is an enmity with our Father. You cannot love the world and love the Father. And you’re trying to have both. And you know what we call that? Adultery. Nobody likes that. If you’re going to draw near to God, the first thing you need to do is to realize that you need to divorce yourself from the world is to make that choice.

2. Be Humble and Submit to God

The second thing he says is if you’re going to approach God, you better be humble. Notice how he says this there in verse 6 and 7. Verse 6, but he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he’ll flee from you. Two words in verses six and seven humble and submit. Submit to God in humility. That’s required before we come to God. Before we have a relationship to God. That should be fundamental in this relationship that God is God and we are not. And so any approach we make to that high and holy creature must be on our knees. In our heart, we must approach Him. And that’s really what the word worship means just bow down before Him.

And we read in Scripture in Romans, excuse me, Revelation 4 and 5 of those heavenly beings bowing down before God as He’s on His throne. And I’ve wondered when you see those scenes and picture those scenes. Are those creatures, are those elders, are those angels bowing down before God because that’s a taught behavior? Or is it because that’s just the natural thing to do before one is as powerful and as mighty as God.

When you’re in his presence, you don’t know anything else to do but just to fall down and bow before him. Be humble. Be humble and submit. It’s on the forefront of my mind because we’re studying in our auditorium class, the book of Acts, but one of the greatest examples of humility is in Acts chapter 8, the story of the Ethiopian. You remember the story of the Ethiopian, he’s heading back from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, and he’s in his own chariot. He’s reading a scroll. We know very little about this man, but we can deduce a few things. He’s a powerful man. He’s the head of the treasury of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia. He has his own chariot. He’s wealthy enough to have a scroll of a copy of the scroll of the scriptures.

He’s got some power. He’s got some wealth. And he’s reading this text in Isaiah. And remember Philip the evangelist comes to him and says, Do you know what you do you understand what you’re reading? And a reply to that question is going to change his life. Because he answers it in the most humble way possible. Says, how can I? Unless somebody explains it to me. I’ve made the observation before that I think he’s a better man than I am because I don’t know that I’d have said that.

I’m just brushing, I’m teaching a class on this when I get back home. Who are you? Where did you come from? And you know what that attitude would have gotten me? I’d have gone home to Ethiopia dry and lost. But his humble answer, no, I don’t. Can you help me? There’s so many aspects of our life where humility could change our life for the better. When you’re struggling, and you need help.

Just that humble, can you help me? And I’m going to tell you this about your fellow man, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. That for the most part we’re good people. And we want to help. And maybe I’m just speaking for myself here, but for the most part, we’re clueless people. We want to help, we just don’t know how. Or we don’t know whether we should. I don’t know if I want to. Should I insert? And you know what good, clueless people are crying out for? A clue. Just give me a clue. Just say, hey, Ken, I need some help. That’ll ring my bell. Oh, sure. Be humble. And certainly in your approach to God, be humble and submit to Him and say, God, whatever you want me to do, however, you want me to change my behavior, however, you want me to mold my character, I will do it.

3. Cleanse Your Hands and Purify Your Hearts

God, there’s nothing off limits. There’s nothing I won’t sacrifice. There’s no part of me I won’t change. Because I want to draw near to you. Next is in verse 8, where he says, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Cleanse and purify, I take to be no difference between those, the idea of just clean up. Clean yourself up. I’m going to start in reverse order from the way James has worded them. He says, Cleanse your heart and your hands. I think we can easily understand that. The heart’s the inner man, the hands is the outer man, and really that signifies what we do, our actions. So you cleanse yourself inside and out. You cleanse your motives and your actions.

And those things that we we always wonder why, why the emphasis on that in the old testament, about cleaning. Those priests must have had the driest skin in the desert. They were constantly washing, cleansing and washing, and because you had to.

Not your literal hand. God wasn’t worried about their germs and about the dirt under their fingernails. He was worried about teaching them a lesson.

Cleanse yourself. You want to come in my presence. Be ye holy, for I am holy. There’s going to be some changes in your heart and in your action. If you want to draw near to God. Well, then we’ve got to approach this maybe from the back end. I have to value God’s presence enough. Because he’s really asking a lot.

4. Lament and Mourn and Weep

To humble myself and submit to Him to change really, not just what I do, that would be cleansing my hands, but to change who I am, cleansing my heart. God’s asking a lot. But he’s giving so much more. Because he’s saying, Come. Come be with me. And the last thing he demands of us might seem strange and out of place. Because when I think about drawing near to God, because it was God’s idea that I draw near to him. And that I’m welcome there. Yes, some conditions have to be met. We’ve talked about those, but still, God not just allows me in his presence, but he has invited me into his fellowship. That’s a joyous thing. But then he tells us this is required. Verse 9, lament and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. And he finishes up by saying, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. Draw near to God. Lament, mourn, weep. What does that mean? Here’s what I don’t think it means. I don’t think God is saying we need to be a sour puss and no joy in life. Because we talked a couple lessons ago about how many times we counted, how many times the word joy and rejoice and blessed and happy are found in Scripture. God wants that for us. He’s given us the pathway through holiness to have that joy and blessedness. I don’t think God is just saying, I don’t want you to be happy. Wipe that smile off your face.

Don’t have a good time. Well, then what does it mean? Lament and mourn and weep. I can’t read that without thinking of the beatitudes of Jesus, where Jesus says, Blessed are they that mourn. So there’s something to be said for mourning. Then I think of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and in verse 10, where he says, Godly sorrow produces repentance. Maybe that’s what James has in mind. Not this universal sense of doom and gloom and sorrow that we just walk around like some cartoon character with this ever present cloud over us. But if we’re to come before God, as we’ve said, it requires this humility and submission, and a part of that is to me just recognizing what a pitiful state I’m in.

Because I’m not just going to be with God because I want to be in his presence.

I’m drawing near to God because what he has to offer. And this makes it a little bit easier on that first point why I can leave the world. Because the world, I found out, can’t offer this. And that’s a solution for my sin and my guilt. But before I can make that, I don’t mean to cheapen it, but before I can make that transaction, I need to see the state that I’m in. Part of that humility is I just mourn and weep for my sin. And I mourn and weep and lament that I have to draw near to God because I’m away from God. That’s not God’s fault. That’s my fault. I’m the one that left him. He blessed me and blessed me and blessed me.

And I cursed him. That justifies a little bit of mourning and weeping on my part. A little bit of what Paul called godly sorrow. A little bit of a recognition that the only way to fix that is in God. That He by His grace alone can fix this mess that I’ve become. And so I’m going to weep for the mess that I’m.

Conclusion

And look at my dirty hands and my dirty heart and say, God, cleanse me. Because I want to be with you. This life is tough. Its struggles are real. But as we’re struggling in this life and unsure as to what to do, through the eyes of faith, we can see our Father. Through our tears, we can see our Father smiling and welcoming us home. Because for whatever reason, and I dare not question it too much, God wants me with him. Will you draw near to God this morning? Cleanse your heart, cleanse your hands, humble yourself and submit to him. And he’ll draw near to you. If we can help you in that approach, let it be known as together we stand and as we sing.