Take the Step

Intimacy With God - Who Draws Near

Old Covenant - coming near to God = sacrificial system; New Covenant = Jesus CHrist Sacrifice has given access to all believers freely

Hebrews 10:19–22 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near 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.”

Near = approach

cleanse = clean/pure /to sift

The Letter of James V. A Summons to Spiritual Wholeness (4:4–10)

often refers to approaching God in worship in the OT (e.g.,

The Letter of James V. A Summons to Spiritual Wholeness (4:4–10)

Clearly, he sees his readers as both Christian and in need of a wake-up call that will bring home to them the seriousness of their departure from godly attitudes and behavior. “Double-souled,” NIV double-minded (Gk. dipsychos), captures a key motif of the letter as a whole. James used this word (which, as we noted, may have been coined by him) in 1:8 to depict the person whose faith wavers and vacillates. Its repetition here underscores especially James’s accusation that his readers are attempting to be “friends” with both God and the world at the same time (v. 4): a conflict of basic allegiance that our jealous God will simply not tolerate (v. 5). The Christian, living in the “overlap” of the ages, is pulled between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan, the realm of Spirit and the realm of “flesh.” To allow “the world” to entice us away from total, single-minded allegiance to God is to become people who are divided in loyalties, “double-minded” and spiritually unstable. James’s readers, by exhibiting a jealousy and selfishness typical of this world (cf. 3:15), by failing to act on what they hear and say (1:19–2:26), in their “double” use of the tongue (3:9–10), and in their violent disputes with one another (4:1–2), are guilty of this “double-minded” attitude. They must repent of both this external behavior—wash your hands—and the internal attitude that leads to such behavior—purify your hearts. The imagery of both “washing” and “purifying” stems from the OT provisions for priestly purity in ministering the things of the Lord (the verbs have this sense in the three verses where they occur together:

But true intimacy with God is not simply a feeling on a par with a romantic relationship. It goes much deeper than emotion, down to our very souls and reflected by our actions. “For the LORD detests the perverse but takes the upright into his confidence” (Proverbs 3:32 “For the devious are an abomination to the Lord; But He is intimate with the upright.” ). God cannot have an intimacy with evil or with disobedient Christians. True intimacy with God begins with drawing near to Him.

 God will never draw near in intimacy with the unrighteous, but those who have been cleansed by the blood of Christ and have received His righteousness at the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” ) have the hope of intimacy with God. In fact, it is only those who have been saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” ) who have that hope, because Christ is the hope through which we draw near to God (Hebrews 7:19 “(for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.” ). Jesus is, in fact, the model of intimacy with God because He and the Father are one (John 10:30 ““I and the Father are one.”” ), and no relationship can be closer than that oneness with the Father that Jesus experienced. His relationship with the Father was characterized by love and obedience. In love, Jesus came to earth to do His Father’s will. He did nothing on His own, but in all things did the will of His Father (John 5:30 ““I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” ). This was most evident in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. Suffering the agony of anticipating what was to come, Jesus asked that the fate He was about to suffer might be removed from Him, but He ended the plea by saying, “Yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42 “saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”” ). Here we see a perfect example of true intimacy reflected in obedience as Jesus yielded His will to that of His Father. If we hope to attain true intimacy with God, Jesus must be our model. We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” ), and we prove our love for Him by obeying Him. Jesus told His followers, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15 ““If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” ). When we obey Him and keep what He has commanded, He promised that we will remain in His love, just as He remains in the love of the Father by doing the Father’s will (John 15:10). There can only be intimacy with God when we are in good fellowship with Him through obedience. Then we can know the joy and peace that comes from trusting Him and yielding to His will, just as Jesus did.

Draw near - Come close to God by entering His courts with prayer, praise and thanksgiving, by spending time with Him in His Word, by spending time with Him in corporate worship. But don't confuse one time Sunday worship as what James means by his command to draw near. To be sure, worship on Sunday can be a special time of drawing near to God, but the practice of drawing near needs to saturate, permeate and "marinate" our lives throughout the week. If we only draw near to worship God on Sunday, we are not really drawing near, but only making an occasional "visit".

David explains to his son Solomon the prerequisites for drawing near to God (finding God)…

As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever. (1Chr 28:9)

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44 ““No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” ).

In case we missed it, He repeated, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father” (John 6:65 “And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”” ).

God always makes the first move toward us… these words in James are written primarily to believers. It is easy even for believers to drift away from the Lord. James’ point is, “Guess who moved?” It wasn’t God! If you’re engaging in continuing quarrels and conflicts (Jas 4:1), you are not close to God. You’ve drifted. He is calling you to draw near to Him, with the promise that He is ready and waiting to draw near to you. The thought of not enjoying sweet fellowship with our loving Lord should move you to clear up whatever stands between you and Him. You cannot be close to God at the same time that you’re angry or bitter toward someone else. That’s why immediately after teaching how serious the sin of anger is, Jesus said (Mt 5:23,24), “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.” You can’t draw near to God until you first clear up, as much as it is in your power, any relational difficulties. If you think that you’re close to God, but you’re angry and bitter, you’re deceiving yourself! Submit to God; draw near to God. (James 4:7-10 Resolving Conflicts God's Way)

Arthur Pink notes that…

It is one thing to know theoretically the legal way and right of approach unto God—but it is quite another to enjoy conscious access to Him. For that, the aid of the Spirit is imperative—but He will not perform His gracious operations within us if He is grieved (Ep 4:30-note). If we have spent the night in ransacking the newspapers, in worldly conversation—or in backbiting the servants and saints of God (Ed: In other words, we let an "unwholesome word proceed from" our mouth! Ep 4:29-note)—do you think that the Holy Spirit will draw out your heart unto the Father, when you perform your evening devotions? Not so, unless you penitently confess those sins, and sincerely determine there shall be no repetition of them. "Draw near to God—and He will draw near to you" (James 4:8). (Access to God)

Ephesians 4:29 NASB95

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 4:30 NASB95

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

ILLUSTRATION - Some of us have tried to have a daily quiet time and have not been successful. Others of us have a hard time concentrating. And all of us are busy. So rather than spend time with God, listening for his voice, we’ll let others spend time with him and then benefit from their experience. Let them tell us what God is saying. After all, isn’t that why we pay preachers? …If that is your approach, if your spiritual experiences are secondhand and not firsthand, I’d like to challenge you with this thought: Do you do that with others parts of your life? …You don’t do that with vacations… You don’t do that with romance… You don’t let someone eat on your behalf, do you? [There are] certain things no one can do for you. And one of those is spending time with God

If you go after God he will go after you

Prodigal son Luke 15:20 ““So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

Inch toward God and He will step toward you- step toward God and He will sprint toward you; Sprint toward God and He will fly toward you

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

As His children and in his Son, we are near —> There is a nearer nearness available to all

James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

If you take a step, a new nearness to God will be yours

Two Commands - external and internal

External = cleanse your hands you sinners

Internal = purify your hearts, you double minded

Clean-Up ones acts and inner life

Double minded = two souled = double allegiance with world and God - spiritual impossibility

Lord calls us to single mind allegiance to Himself - Matthew 5:8 ““Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

See God in this life because purity of focus invites deeper spiritual understanding

two souled Christians have wandering eyes - one raised on heaven and one focused on earth

The prophet Isaiah issued a similar call to Judah…

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil (Isaiah 1:16-note) (Note: Four commands in this verse and five more in Isa 1:17-note. Remove… cease following wash yourselves make it clear that the washing Jehovah is calling for is a spiritual cleansing from the filth and stain of sin.)

How appropriate that cleanse and purify follow God drawing near to us who are sinners, whether we be saved sinners or unconverted sinners! Holiness always highlights the heinousness of sinfulness. It is a spiritual maxim that the closer the Holy One draws to us, the greater is (or should be) our sense of sinfulness. Those who are most conscious of His holiness, logically are those who are most acutely convicted of their sin. Oswald Chambers was right when he said that we should "measure our growth in grace by our sensitiveness to sin". In fact, is not the antithesis of God's holiness, man's sinfulness!

Cleanse (2511) (katharizo [word study] from katharos = pure, clean, without stain or spot; English words - catharsis = emotional or physical purging, cathartic = substance used to induce a purging, Cathar = member of a medieval sect which sought the purging of evil from its members) means to make clean by taking away an undesirable part. To cause to become clean as from physical stains and dirt (Mt 23:25). To cleanse from filth or impurity. Click here (and here) for more background on the important Biblical concept of clean and cleansing. This word group conveys the idea of physical, religious, and moral cleanness or purity in such senses as clean, free from stains or shame, and free from adulteration.

Double-minded (1374) (dipsuchos from dís = twice + psuche = soul, mind) is an adjective which literally describes one who has two minds or one who is two-spirited. In context it is the "sin of being two-faced with God, of wavering inconsistency" (Motyer). Double psyche. See also notes on use of dipsuchos in James 1:8.

James sharply reproves those readers who had divided affections, on one side longing for the world's trifles while all the while trying to hold on to God! This "spiritual schizophrenia" is exactly what Jesus had warned against in Matthew 6:24 (note). Speaking on behalf of the Holy One of Israel, James is saying that God demands not only undivided affection (single minded heart) but undefiled conduct ("clean hands").

v.5 - in verse 4 God becomes and advesary of those who pursue friendship with the world - James tells us this that this also provokes God to jealousy

New American Standard Bible (1995) Chapter 4

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

most difficult passage to interpret - Scripture —> not found in canon or non-canonical writings —lost apocryphal text? Most likely James referring to the General theme of God’s jealousy

Exodus 20:5 ““You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,”

Zechariah 8:2 ““Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.’”

How the verse is translated —> issue with the Word Spirit - human spirit or holy spirit?

Human spirit - NIV = verse refers to the universal tendency we all have toward envy and jealousy of on another or it could mean God yearns over the plight of our human spirits which were given to us in creation - ESV

If referring to the Holy Spirit - means the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is jealous that we not fall into error of friendship with the world

NIV footnote - the spirit caused to live in us longs jealously

NKJV - the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously

the Holy Spirit’s jealousy over us - best fits argument - grand truth of NT theology = indwelling of the Holy Spirit - understanding the Holy Spirit jealously for us to open to heart-changing truth = even when we sin by seeking our pleasure in friendship with the world - we are greatly loved, for jealousy is an essential element of true love

We are the brides of christ and the Holy Spirit does not want us to go somewhere else to have our needs met

The Holy Spirit’s true love for us evokes a proper intolerance of straying affection

Jealous spirit is inside us - when we sin He is pained - its passionate

Jealously (5355) (phthonos) in most NT uses describes not just wanting what another person has, but also resenting that person for having it. Phthonos thus is generally given a negative connotation in biblical usage. Carson says that phthonos was occasionally used in secular Greek to describe "the jealous feeling of a lover towards a rival." Such a meaning would be compatible with the NAS interpretation that it is the Spirit of God Who jealously desires.

Hiebert adds that…

the nouns phthonos [envy] and zelos [zeal, jealousy] were sometimes used interchangeably. "Phthonos was occasionally used in Greek writers of the jealousy of the Olympian gods," (Douglas Moo - "The Letter of James") and both terms were "often used for the `jealousy' of God (1Mac. 8:16; T Sim. 4.5; T. Gad. 7.2; 1 Clem. 3.2; 4.7; 5.2)." (Ralph Martin, Word Biblical Commentary) So understood, the expression (jealously desires, NAS) could be used to describe God's unwillingness to share man's affections with the world (Ed: The affection for which James has just warned his readers in Jas 4:4-

Holy Spirit, indwelling us, is longing after something: namely, to make us wholly Christ's, to bring us to the place where we have no divided allegiance. The Holy Spirit has just one envy, one desire, one longing; that is, our entire devotion to Jesus Christ. God warned His people of old time to have no other gods, neither to bow down to them, for, said He: "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God" (Dt 5:1-9). This is the intense desire of divine love, and the dispensations do not alter it. God's pure and perfect love for us yearns over us, for He too longs to be loved by His own. This is the consistent teaching of all Scripture, and it is not mere vain (or empty) teaching. No teaching in the Word of God can be labeled meaningless.

Realize - the awesomely holy God who transcends the universe and is wholly other and self-contained is at the same time peronsally and passionately and lovingly jealous for our affection - this realization should stop any of our affairs with the world and causes us to prostrate our souls

GOD'S JEALOUS SPIRIT - Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"? James 4:5

Shep, the newest member of our family, is a young Shetland sheepdog who openly displays his jealousy when I kiss my wife. He doesn't snarl or bite, but in the language of barking he seems to be saying "Hey, Master, you belong to me!" His jealousy gives me a good feeling. After all, don't we all like someone to care that much about us?

There's another kind of jealousy -- a righteous jealousy -- at work in the life of every Christian. It's not the yearning of a subject for his master, like that of my dog Shep, but of "the" Master for His subject. Some has rephrased James 4:5, 6 to read, "Do you think that Scripture says without reason that the Holy Spirit, whom God caused to live in us, jealously wants us exclusively to Himself in order to pour out His grace on us generously?"

When we lust, covet, and create strife, we embrace the world's values (Jas 4:1-4), and this stirs up God's jealousy. He continually longs to keep us near to Him. He corrects, rebukes, comforts, guides, and urges us to get to know Him better. This pure possessiveness doesn't stifle or demean us, but uplifts and liberates because it is full of grace and truth. That's why He

wants us all to Himself. Thank God for His jealous Spirit. - Dennis J. De Haan (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

ACTION SUGGESTION- Since we are aware of God's righteous jealousy, what steps should we take so that He can bless us? (James 4:7-10)

There's no room for double occupancy in the Christian's heart.

How are we loved and how we ought to love - 1 John 4:19 “We love, because He first loved us.”

greater grace = not saving grace - greater grace - answer to life’s problems = more grace! Augustine: God gives what he demands

Always for the believer - greater grace Hebrews 4:16

Hebrews 4:16 NASB95

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Whatever our condition - always gives us more grace

insurmountable obstacles - more grace

grace to do the impossible

Psalm 139:17 “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!”

James 4:6–8 “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Matthew 6:24 ““No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Psalm 89:7 NASB95

A God greatly feared in the council of the holy ones, And awesome above all those who are around Him?