A Place Close To God
Matthew 19:14 "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
At least this language is used. Its import was to
impress upon men the desire of God to have those who had learned of Him
to come near to Him.
One time Jesus invited men to come to Him. This
accords with his being the expression of the Father on earth among men.
Matthew 11:28 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:1-3).
Hebrews 10:22 “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.”
How often has God tried to speak to your heart. How personal does He seem to you in your quieter hours.? If one has read the Bible much he has seen that God is reaching out to those who are in need of Him. Even to alien sinners does He attempt to get their attention. Read Romans 1:16-23. The very Gospel, the good news of the coming of His Son to earth and then giving Him in sacrifice for men should give us pause and make us know that He cares. He is concerned about us. Much of the world at the time did not know about this Person who was born of a virgin and dwelt in Judea. But the events of His life soon spread in news about His works, His ministry, and then of His disciples. Since that time the world has continued to hear about Him.
Even where the message has not had such direct human
deliverance God has reached out to deal with men who in the creation have
been able to see His eternal power and Godhood. The record of the bible
now tells us about His speaking to men who have no Bibles, who have not
heard a preacher. His wrath is in unrighteousness. revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth
Of whom could this be speaking? If all men have been enabled to know His
wrath from heaven it surely is revealed in some way which can be understood.
As far back as the earliest written record of inspired Truth, the Book
of Job, men were knowing that the power of God was evident in the storm,
in the strength, even the deportment of mighty living creatures, yet all
of these were under His control. Such Truth came home to Job’s heart. How?
Doubtless the Spirit of God directed His thoughts and he came to a wonderful
conclusion regarding his former boldness: I abhor myself, and repent in
dust and ashes.
The details of this story unfold to us God’s methods referred to in
Rom. 1:20. We may marvel that the wise men from the East who came to offer
gives and praise to the Messiah in the Gospels could know by looking at
a star, or all the stars. Some of the constellations are mentioned in Job
as reflecting such wisdom as only a supernatural God could make (cf. Job
9:9; 38:31; Amos 5:8). Perhaps man in natural wisdom is not able to get
the lessons from these which God wanted men to have in days before the
Bible. Not even today has our telescope search revealed such Truth. But
when the hearts of men are willing for God to speak and they are willing
to listen, God speaks to their hearts. The wise men knew not only that
there was a God, but that HE had a chosen people and that the Messiah promised
to that people was coming into the world.
His place may be described simply as in the heavens. >From there He appeals to all the kingdoms of the earth. Men in ages gone by and wise men today recognize His sovereignty over all the earth to this day. His purpose, however, is that all in the earth recognize Him as Sovereign and willingly draw near to Him.
A Nearer Sense Than This
James 4:8 "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded."
Hebrews 10:22 “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.”
James had not learned the modern way of speaking so gently that men could take it or leave it. He meant for them to take it. Submit yourselves to God (v. 7). Resist the devil. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners (v. 9). This must mean stop your reaching, grabbing, maybe taking what is not yours. Purify your hearts, you double minded. James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Double souled. They were living two lives. One was strict; the other was not. How many believers today live like this. One set of standards for Sunday; another for the week days. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Quit your gleefully shaking off your unholy lifestyles. Is someone saying that James must have thought he was very righteous to speak in such a way to people who likely were still members of the church he pastored in Jerusalem. Their profession of faith back there was not showing itself now in the area to which some of the scribes of the dispersion had been scattered. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord (v. 10) and He shall lift you up.
So many of us are going blissfully on in our worldly wisdom, taking from others unjustly and covering it with legal excuses. Any sin ought to break the heart of God’s people. These people to whom James wrote had professed to believe in God, even in the Messiah, Jesus. But their lives did not show it. Here we deal with a problem and a remedy which we want to recommend to every believer out there who are going on carelessly living an unchanged life.
The standards for men of the world are worse now than when men were concerned more about God and righteousness. We are the victims of a revolution which may be easily explained, but people simply have gotten away from the standards of our parents and theirs before them. This is the problem. Without going into just how this happened, may we look at the remedy for anyone who professes to be a believer. James was addressing believers. He has spoken words which describe a turning back to the Lord.
It is possible to come to Christ in a sense which one did not do fully when he first believed. He did not then know it was possible. He possibly only thought of getting ready to go to see God when he should die. But while we are still alive we are to come to Him. This is the sense of the text in Matthew 11:18-31 which was referenced above.
Near, Close, Intimate
Perhaps the problem with people today is that so
few are genuine saints. The many could be saved, but only when one
shows a willingness to have Him abide in the life of the soul and raise
up a witness to the good things which we may claim when we are drawn
close to God. That hand guides. Or it may chasten. How precious when we
learn the language of the Bible well enough to know when God is close,
when our very thoughts show our consciousness of His presence.
Not many in these days have enough of the King James style of English
in their memories to hear the words at all hours. It would be well if the
thought in those words were distilled into our conscience so that the words
of Jesus, or of an Apostle, or even of a Prophet of the Old Covenant, could
be heart echoing the voice of the Father, whether for rebuke or for
comfort and instruction.
How can one become permeated with the words and phrases of the Lord in His Word? Do you give up on the number of words, the difficulty of names, the restraint upon one’s having his own way.? How did you learn the language of your parents? Was it not when you were quite young? And you did not know the words at first. But your mother spoke to you at all hours, until you were obviously asleep. But as soon as you awoke you heard her begin again. If you did not have a talking mother you lost something. But it was not just words. Even the mother who did not speak because she had never heard used the sense of touch. You learned. The lessons were not hard. They met a need in your life. You were hungry, or dirty, or cold, or hot, or lonely. She could tell and remedied the situation with hands which were efficient. You interpreted her mind in every action. You did not have to know the meaning of the English word love to know when you were loved. Maybe it did not happen the first day of your life, but you got it soon. As you grew older you depended on her love. She had to teach you other things, as what is right and what is wrong. You learned. Let’s hope you got the lessons for life. If she remembered what her mother had taught her she passed this on to you. The same goes for a father. Children get all the things they need in the way of character in the first three years of life. These came even before you left to go to school and other human beings began to talk to you. You learned attentiveness (to listen), obedience (to mind), contentment (to be calm and wait), reverence (to look up to and appreciate parents, then teacher, etc.), faith (much you could not do, so you depended on trusted others), patience (to wait without complaining, paying attention to the tones of the voice), truthfulness (to know the difference between fact and fiction or play), meekness (to accept your own weakness and submit to the stronger), a sense of being secure (even the dark proved to be safe). These are the essential elements of character which every child needs to go away to school. They will never have to be changed. They will serve well as long as one lives.
These things came when you were too young to argue about it. You may have set up a wail but the coming of the remedy or help was so quick and so satisfying until little or no explanation was needed to make you understand. At first you accepted the ideas without the words, but as time passed a language which enabled you to think and then to speak of these things was acquired. You were getting an education.
We did not say this was religious education. Satan might tell you that. But these are life principles. They are good and they will be needed as long as you live. Having learned in some tragic circumstance that there are principles in the accursed earth which are different, you may have allowed yourself to accept substitutes which, hopefully, you have learned are wrong or false. This part of education is very dangerous. A lot of the language of wrong, as against right, is used in these days. Happy is he who has learned the right acceptably and well. You will need to build on the right more and more as you get older
We have been speaking of things which pertain to the spiritual elements of life. Spiritual elements parallel the natural in many, maybe all, areas. This is why proper learning for the natural life is so important. This is why a right start with two parents, in a home, and in a country of freedom, is so important. It is important not just to those who had Christian parents, homes, churches, and America It is essential to life even when Christians were missing, or slack, in those early days. Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” What parents consider “the way he should go” will be influenced by whether or not either or both were brought up in God’s thatway one should go.
Since a man is an individual. A day comes when he must learn that responsibility makes requirements which extend to others. Those character elements which we mentioned above may sound like Christian elements, but these are right whether or not parents are Christians. But when they have learned of the Savior and come to trust Him, the real world will become a lot easier for us to handle. We pray for every reader the disposition of faith, trust, even hope, so that love, genuine love, may become an experimental reality in your life.
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Ben Byrd for Edward Byrd