Drawing Near to the Son

James 4:7-8 “Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God and He will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Hebrews 10:22 “Let’s approach God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Other support texts: Psalms 73:28; Hebrews 7:19; 1 Peter 2:4

Introduction

The impetus for my message today, as with many other messages that I’ve preached, is a desire to prepare the Church for the challenges that we are facing within our society and culture. I see our children being assualted with a multiplicity of issues simultaneously, and crying out for answers that are not readily available. We don’t always have the opportunity to address it in our sermons, or in bible study- but it must be addressed. This is where the absolute NEED for discipleship becomes evident. The placed this on my heart to initiate the conversation; leaders, teachers, parents, mentors…please listen closely to the questions being asked and continue the conversation. And I want to say from the onset that you do NOT have to know everything, right now. “I’ll get back to you” is a perfectly acceptible answer, as long as you keep your promise! Peter gives us this principle in scripture as a mandate to ALL believers. Not just the Pastor, the Deacons, teachers & Evangelists- but ALL of us. 1st Peter 3:15 “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect;”

With that in mind, let’s take a look at our text in James. In this portion of the scripture, James has just given us a list of things to avoid. I do not wish to focus on the list- the “what” we should avoid…instead I want to go directly to the “how” we avoid things that move us out of a space where we are effective in our Christian witness, and successful in our personal walk with Christ. Then we will explore the connection of the text in Hebrews to this.

James is the type of person who likes to get straight to the point- you’ve likely heard me make this point before. It is probable that he develops this approach due to his personal development in his relationship with Christ. Jesus is his half brother; one can only image the barriers that had to be broken in order for him to transition his view of Christ from his brother (natural) to seeing Him as Lord and God (natural & spiritual). I believe this process shaped James into a very direct person, unwilling to entertain distrations from lesser things. True to form, James gets right to the point- or points, which I will now share:

Come close to God [and He will come close to you]. Charles Spurgeon once said, “The old preachers used to illustrate nearness to Christ by the planets. They said there were Jupiter and Saturn far away, with very little light and very little heat from the sun, and then they have their satellites, their rings, their moons, and their belts to make up for that. Just so, they said, with some Christians. They get worldly comforts—their moons and their belts—but they do not have much of their Master. They have gotten enough to save them, but such little light. But, they said, when you get to Mercury, there is a planet without moons. Why, the sun is its moon, and, therefore, what does it need with moons when it has the full blaze of the sun’s light and heat continually pouring on it? And what a nimble planet it is; how it spins along in its orbit because it is near the sun! Oh, to be like that—not to be far away from Jesus Christ, even with all the comforts of this life, but to be near him, filled with life and sacred activity through the abundance of fellowship and communion with him. It is still coming, but it is coming after a nearer sort.” -Charles Spurgeon, 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon Spurgeon’s point- and that of the preachers of old he refers to- is clear to see. Just as the planets need to draw near the sun, so does the Christian. There are benefits to light and heat:

Heat from the SON allows impurities to rise to the surface. Malachi 3:1-3 ““Behold, I am sending My messenger, and he will clear a way before Me. And the Lord, whom you are seeking, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of armies. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap. And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.” and when we draw near the Son, we are purified; we will experience the process that Job describes in Job 23:10 ““But He knows the way I take; When He has put me to the test, I will come out as gold.”

The heat purifies us; but the light directs the world to Him. I like Spurgeon’s mention of this analogy, this comparision of the Christian to planets. Like them, we too revolve around the Son; no other force impacts us more than our proximity to Him. And like the planets described, the closer we are the more from Him we receive, and the less we require to “revolve around us.” Have you ever been so broken, so in despair and in need of the Lord’s warmth and comfort, that through your pain and discomfort you are brought into the sweetest communion with Christ you have ever experienced? Let us reflect on our lives honestly; it is not typically the blessings that draw us closest to God, it is the challenges we face- not the mountain top experiences, but the it is in the lowest valleys that we that we yearn for fellowship with our Lord. The “moons and rings” around us- the earthly comfort, the fortune and fame we acquire all falls short. They are so insignificant in comparison to the Lord, that when we are in His presence we forget our urgent requests- because we have Him. In that moment, He all we need and want. But the heavenly body that more closely represents us in our current is not a planet, in my opinion. It is the satalite which orbits our planet. In my humble opinion, we have much in common with Earth’s moon. Consider the following charicteristics of the moon:

Because it lacks a life-giving atmosphere, it received damage from passing meteors, which gives it the crater-covered appearence with which we are familiar.

It is lifeless, although it is in close proximity to the richest life bearing & sustaining planet in the known universe.

It has no light of it’s own; yet it is often the brightest light in the night sky, because it reflects the light of the sun.

It shines brightest in the darkness, when it’s light is needed the most.

Is not the reasoning my correlation between the moon & the Christian apparent? Before Christ, we were “impacted” by the effects of of our choices; we bore the marks of our sin. BC, we were lifeless, but so close to the richest source- and only source- of life in all existence. And now, although we had no light of our own, He is our light- and we “reflect” His light to the world- and that light shines brightest in the darkest places of this world, to which we are sent. So I say again, the heat purifies us; but the light directs the world to Him.

James also reminds us to Cleanse your hearts [and your hands]. Our hearts are referred to as the “seat of our emotions”. Its a way of referring to the part of our minds where our desires, our hopes, our dreams, and our intentions dwell. When we submit our hearts to God, we are asking Him to check our motives- to reset our thinking so it aligns with His thoughts- what we refer to as “having the mind of Christ”. It allows us to “approach God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” as the text in Hebres tells us. We are assured because our desires align with His- and God will accomplish His will!

First God deals with out motives and intent- then He cleans our hands- the tools/talents/gifts/abilities He has given to us to execute HIS purpose for OUR lives.

Are you ready to draw near to the Son? If you are, you can rest assured that altohugh the process may not be comfortable, the closer you get the more God’s peace will be established in your life- the peace that comes with knowing. “I may not know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.”

Let us pray.