Drawing Near (part 1)
The author of Solomon said, "Come, follow after me." Jesus said to His disciples, "Come, follow after me." God wants us to get to the point where regardless of where we are at we know He is there. When we can't see, we know He's leading. When we don't hear His voice, we know He's there. I believe the Lord wants us to get back to what the Word of God talks to us about, and that is, wanting us to draw near.
Several of the choruses this morning mentioned wanting a nearness with God, wanting a closeness with God. Wanting isn't enough. Jeremiah tells us, "When you seek Me, you will find Me, when you search for Me with all of your heart" (Jer 29:13).
I believe the Lord has shown me somethings and He is trying to teach me and I am trying to learn them. I believe the Lord would have you to learn these things too. If we'll learn them we will be drastically changed. You won't be frustrated with your life in Christ any longer. The Word of God won't seem dry, prayer won't seem like the heavens are brass like you won't ever get an answer. Worship won't seem stale and just like it is a duty, giving won't be out of a sense of responsibility. The era that we live in, this last century has proven to be the most Bible-centered age since the day of the Pharisees. It also rivals their age for being the least Christ centered. Men today get just as mad as the Pharisees did when you point that out. Making the Scriptures the center of your life, making worship the center of your life, isn't of Christ, it always tends to give you an ornery disposition. Not that that is the only record that our century (this last one) has set, we're setting a whole wraft of records. For instance, until today the 1500's held the record for being the most financially corrupted age in history, that was the day, for cash you could have your sins erased by buying indulgences. We don't do that any more, but with brochures, foundations, professional fundraising tactics, "living by faith and sowing seed" into certain ministries and every sermon on stewardship. By the time that most preachers reach 35 or 40 they are as "slick an oil salesman" as there ever has been. The same can be said for intellectualism, the 1700's have been considered the high water mark of intellectualism in the Christian faith, but today more men walk the earth with doctorates of theology than in any other time in history. Unsatisfied with their spiritual depth, that this intellectual climate has produced, these men cry out that the solution is more and better and higher education. This is an age of endless reams of books and paper on a variety of subject, an age of doctrines on prayer that boggles the mind but never leads to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. Sophisticated, distainful, sterile, passionless. We've taken the trophy from the 17th century. We live in a day when churches look like storybook castles and the servants of God live in mansions for homes, they drive the latest and most expensive automobiles, cushioned by all of their retirement funds and applauded as pillars in the community. The present day ministry has the same hobby as her cousin the Pharisees with some local money making scheme or derelict into fashion of teaching of faith never thinking that a life of owning nothing like Jesus would be a good thing to follow. So secure oriented are we, so money conscience are we, the Lord servants today have a mentality unwittingly so twisted that he automatically looks upon every new wind of God, every new sermon idea, every new Christian experience as something to lay hold of, to package up and to sell as a commodity. Whether it be tongues, casting out demons, smuggling Bibles into Russia or China. The newest and latest spiritual experience or worship phenomina, "there's got to be a way of making a living off from it.
We can be grateful that God didn't send His Son in this century, for if He had people would have conjoured up tours to follow Jesus around, sell vacation weeks with Him. There would have been guided tours following in the footsteps of Jesus, they would have sold tickets to the crucifixion and the resurrection. There would have been national conferences armed with the latest technology to show how to do "it." The Lord's servants today have hands-down won the trophy for being the wealthiest, most commercial, sophisticated, worldly-minded, materialistic and comfortable age in all of the history of religion. All other ages blush and draw back in awe. There is one trophy that this century hasn't chosen to lay hands onto yet, we'll get to that in a moment.
More corrupt than the dark ages before Luther, more impotently intellectual than during the hay-day of Calvinism, more financially perverted thatn the day of John the Baptist crying out and Jesus when He went in and whipped the money changers to drive them out of His house. More intoxicated with a drive for spiritual power than any other age yet exercising that outward power with less internal transformation than anyone since King Saul. We are enamored with the gifts and power we don't even want to know the Giver. More people have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ in this last century than in any other time, but they have stayed with Jesus the least amount of time in history. In the 1800's whne God raised up tremendous men and women of God, a tremendous revival happened across America. When Charles Finney preached 1858-1860 over 100,000 people came to know Jesus as their personal Saviour 85 out of 100 of them stayed true to Jesus Christ. Today the national average is 1 out of 30. We've adopted the rational of the decision card and abandoned the "whole abandonment of our life" into following the excellence of Jesus Christ.
You've heard me say this before, the Gospels tell us the story of how sinners flocked to Jesus by the multitude and religious people hated Him. Now the church is filled with religious people and you can't get a sinner near the door of the house of God. That summary came from Gene Edwards' in his summeration of the book that Madame Jeanne Guyon wrote called, Experiencing the depth of Jesus Christ. She was one of many through-out history of Christianity that God raised up and the church killed because they spoke of a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and they didn't want to follow after what the then church was doing because it was like the blind leading the blind and both winding up in the ditch. You can name famous godly-people after famous godly-people that God has raised up and the Church has closed their ears and killed them. Every movement that came along that was a response from God through prayer and a deeper life in Jesus Christ has been persecuted and thrown out and rejected by the church. The Moravians, they were rejected. The Salvation Army and even the Moravians rejected them. The Friends Movement, the church rejected them. The Quakers and the Shakers. In the early 1920's a young Chinese pastor got a hold of some of the writings by Madam Guyon, Teresa of Avila, most Christians don't like to read his books because they are too deep, his name was Watchman Nee. He spent most of his life in prison. Most people just brush off his writing as being too deep for them.
Why are we so satisfied? Like the song, the old hymn of the church saying, "launch out into the deep, Oh let the shore line go and be lost in the fullness of God." Don't just hang around by the seashore that is where all the trash and the corruption, the stuff that the ocean brings to you, get out there in the deep, the river where there is room to swim, where you can get lost in the fullness of God. If you people will some and pay attention, these next few weeks I promise that what I give you from the Word of God won't be shallow. I'm not so sure that I understand it all myself, but God wants to make a difference. It is time that His church begins to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. That happens not by hiring an evangelist to some but when, "My people, which are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray" (2 Chronicles 7:14). Do we want to draw close to God? It isn't enough for me to sing, "Draw me close to You." If we're going to sing, "You're all I want, You're all I have ever needed," then prove it! Prove it!
Churches are filled with millions of people today and they are as lost as lost can be. If we are going to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Jesus there are some steps that need to be taken. The first step is the step of humility. God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble. The abomination that just urks God the most is a proud look, but a broken heart and a contrite spirit He never despises. Many people think you start out with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, but no. God showed me that come along a little bit down the line. You have to decide that you want to search for Him and find Him. Our half-hearted way of going about it isn't going to cut it anymore. Me telling you to pray and read your Bible is so much rhetoric. In the present state that we are in spiritually, our reading the Bible and praying does us little to no good whatsoever. It's time, as Jesus said, "that the ax got laid to the root." And the root of the problem, now that we have come to know Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, is our flesh.
In the last days men are going to heap teachers to them who will tickle their ears and make them feel good. This morning there are 30,000 people gathered in Joel Olsteen's church, he is not preaching what I am this morning. You know why? That place would empty quick. He is preaching "Your Best Life Now." That is what I'm preaching too, but the subject matter is a whole different story. Aren't you tired of reading the Bible and walking away frustrated because you didn't get it or it didn't change your circumstances one bit. Aren't you tired of getting up from prayer and feeling like 'what then and who then.' I am. A few weeks ago I started talking about something that is just not me, silence and solitude. I don't liek being by myself. I'm loud and noisy. If I am sitting in the pew next to you, sometime during the service that I am sitting there I am going to bounce the whole pew, because that is just the way I am. If they would have had ADHD when I was a kid in school, they would have said I had it. They would have wanted to give me some ritalin. Telling people that reading the Bible and prayer is the answer, without further explanation does just as much good as ritalin. Oh, it will keep you down for a little bit and calm you down but it doesn't sure the problem.
Do you want to hear about it? Do you want to learn it? Then this is what you are going to have to do. You are going to have to learn to go from the outside in and let Jesus work from the inside out. Here is what I mean by the outside in: What Jesus taught regarding the reading of God's Word and prayer, we do not do today. For example, when He talked about prayer, He said, "When you pray, go into your closet and shut the door and pray in secret and those who pray in secret God will reward openly," (Matthew 6:6). We don't do that. God said, "meditate on the law day and night and then thou shall make thy way prosperous, and thou shall be successful," (Joshua 1:8). I might be prosperous if I could get a bunch of idiots to send me a thousand dollars, like those on "Christian television" today and there are suckers sending them a thousand dollars or more. That is not how you prosper, that is how they prosper. Meditation, not transcendental, not yoga, not some eastern mysticism, you don't empty your mind, you focus it, not on the Bible, but on the Living Word (Jesus).
Here is what I have learned this week; tonight I am going to continue on then next week we will go further than that and I don't know how long it is going to take for God to work through me, so I can begin to practice it myself then I can tell you about it. Afterall, would you want a brain surgeon doing the surgery on your brain or a general practitioner?
We tend to learn by our senses, by our soulish realm. Most Christians in churches today, even those in Pentecostal and Charasmatic churches, their worship makes them feel good, that is soulish, that isn't going to get the job done. Now is worship bad? No, it's great, but is becomes effective when the style doesn't matter; when who is leading doesn't matter; all that matters is you just can't wait to get back and talk with Jesus and be in His presence. The soul learns by it's ears and by it's eyes. The biggest trouble with Christianity today is we do everything, our worship, our duties and our service to God out of our emotions. That is why a lot of people aren't here today, they got emotional and left. They are still emotional today. They will be the first to blame the church, but what they really should do is look in the mirror and see the real cause of their problems. No outside stimulus can cause you to do anything, but what you do not decide to do yourself. You make the choice to get offended; to get emotional; to walk by taste, touch, and sight.
We have to learn that God is not going to make you whole by you coming down here and having me slap some oil on you and you winding on the floor for a while, and when you finally get up you become totally changed. That will start it sometimes, but that isn't the whole process, that is what we want it to be. We are in a fight, we are in a war. "The thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy," (John 10:10), he doesn't care, he doesn't go by the Geneva Convention spiritually. He is going to do whatever it takes to get you to slide into hell and if you won't slide into hell, he is going to do whatever it takes to make you so ineffective that you won't take anyone with you to heaven.
This is the beginning of what you need to do: You go in, you shut the door. Start with your body. Jesus and Paul in the Bible were our good examples. If you look through the Gospels everytime Jesus had something major to face or to do, He withdrew Himself. Jesus's secret place was in the garden or on the mountain. Paul found a secret place ont he back side of the Arabian Desert. Where is your secret place? You have asked God to teach you to pray, haven't you? Well, it starts out by finding the secret place. Your body, you go in, you close the door. All the outside distractions are gone. Now it is time for your soul. Your mind, emotions and will are running rampant, so you have to quiet your inner person so that, Spirit to spirit Christ can minister to you. I'm talking about stuff that has an adverse effect on the flesh. Reading your chapter and checking it off doesn't do anything against your flesh, but going in and shutting the door where there in no phone, no cell phone, no computer, no X-box, no TV, no stereo system blaring, there is just quiet, you and God. What would happen if we took all the money that we spend on all those distractions and put it into the Lord's work? Just a thought.
Next you have to quiet your mind down, because your mind is racing and you are going to remember those things that you always forget to do, or you might say, "I rebuke that thought in the name of Jesus." You will soon discover that your prayer time is gone and all you have done is rebuke the devil. Take a little note book in there with you and when a thought comes to you, jot it down the focus back on Jesus. We are going to renew our minds. We are going to learn how, it is going to be tough, but we can do it and our spirit-man can be available.
When we do get into the spirit realm the reason we don't get anything is because we don't have eyes to see and we don't have ears to hear. Why do you think Paul kept talking about enlightenment, illumination. He wanted us to have eyes that can see spiritually. Psalm 19:7-8, "The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes."
You would think if we are going to obey the command of the Lord to be perfect like our Father is perfect, that this would be a good place to start, "restoring the whole person." We want to be whole don't we, restoring the whole person, the law of the Lord is a place to do that with. Do you know what that word "enlightening" means? It means daybreak, dark is over light time begins. You use to stumble along in the dark, but the Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. He turns the light on so we can see. Daybreak, no more darkness. Dawn. Light.
This is how our meditation is going to be unto the Lord: Jesus talking to Pharisees said, "You search the Scriptures, because in them you think you have eternal life and these are they that testify of Me, but you don't come to Me," (John 5:39-40). The reason why our bible study doesn't help us much, is because the end result is knowledge. Paul said, "knowledge puffs up," (1 Corinthians 8:1). The end result in our study should be Jesus. Jesus. When you are doing your devotions don't just check them off, take that Scripture and let it lead you to Jesus. Don't be so apt to always have to find out what it means. The whole purpose of the word is to have it bring you to Him. Let he Author explain it to you, He'll give you the best explanation, He knows why He had it written that way. Do you see and understand that one of the things that is going to happen to us, our eyes are going to be opened.
Now turn to Psalm 40 and I'll close with this. I learned this on Thursday. I came in and began to read this, and I knew that was not what it actually meant. I was dissatisfied with what I was reading. God puts that dissatisfaction there so we will learn the truth. This is what is says, Psalm 40:4-6, "Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; cannot be recounted to You in order. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require." We try to do our spiritual duty, come to church, pay our tithes, do a little witnessing, read the Bible and pray, but those are "burnt offerings and sacrifices." It says "He opened our ears." I wasn't satisfied with that so I went to the Hebrew. There are over 50 times in the OT that the word 'opened' is used, this is the only time that it is used with this definition: the word 'opened' means to dig or to bor a hole. Here we are like spiritual blockheads, not getting a clue so the Lord says, "Oh, let Me dig you some ears so that you can hear. Let Me bor a hole through ther so that you can hear." Is it a wonder than that Jesus said, "He that has an ear let him hear." Is it a wonder that to all seven churches in Revelation that the ending of each message was "he who has an ear." Now how are you going to get ears. It isn't because you read your Bible and pray. Where does faith come from? Hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. How do we get hearing? God digs us a hole inour spiritual head so that we can hear from Him, not in our soulish realm, not through the mind or the emotions, but through the spirit. Then our ears can hear, then daybreak comes and our eyes can see. Can you see in the dark? No. That is why daybreak has to come. God's law will bring you daybreak. God's Word will bring you ears spiritually to hear, but there is a process that has to be gone through. Over the next couple of messages we will explain further.
As Paul said, "hearing they did not hear and seeing they did not see." That is what is wrong with most people in churches today, they're hearing but they don't, they're seeing but they don't. I have a solution for you, daybreak, spiritually and you will see. Let God dig some ears through that blockhead of our so that we can finally hear. You are not going to hear with these physical ears, that is not what He is talking about. You're not going to see with these physical eyes, that is not what He is talking about. He is talking about spirit-man to Spirit. The first step in all this is humility, saying that you don't know. It is better to say that you don't know, than to don't know that you don't know. That is the trouble with most people, they don't know that they don't know. But if you do know that you don't know there is a place that you can come and you can find knowing it isn't listening to me, because I don't know but I am finding out cause Someone is teaching me.
It isn't in the thunder, it isn't in the lightening and it isn't in the shaking of the mountain, that is what Pentecostals want you to think. They want the thunder and lightening and the shaking of the mountain. It is a still small voice that He digs a hole down through and then He whispers into it and says, "Come, My beloved, come after Me, holy one call to Me and I will find you." Hasn't it ever amazed you that His sheep know His voice. We have a bunch of deaf sheep. It's time you let Him dig you some ears. Do you want to draw near, then it takes humbling.
