Sermon: Proximity …a sermon about drawing nigh to God
by Chris Cumming

On the 18th of January of this year (2020), I presented to you the sermon, “Double-down” which shared with you a hands-on perspective to repentance.  I began that sermon with this statement:

“Back in July and August of 2014, I gave four sermons as part of a
Holiness series.  You can see all these sermons at the Las Vegas site.” 

Today’s sermon is the ninth in the Salvation series which was born in the Holiness series  Each Salvation Series sermon is stand-alone sermon on the same overall subject: Holiness and Salvation.”

The “Double-down” sermon is part of the Holiness series of four (4) sermons.  From this one sermon, I have put together fourteen (14) sermons in what I call the, “Salvation series.”  You can see these sermon titles and subjects on the Sermons page of the Las Vegas site.  Each sermon has a key verse or two you heard in “Double-down.”  Again, today’s sermon is the ninth sermon in this series. 

Note: Any scripture you see with an asterisk (*) is one found in the sermon “Double-down.”

Let us begin.

This entire sermon derives from a key verse given in the Double Down sermon.  Let us read that key scripture:

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.


Double-down Phrases:
--Draw nigh to God
--Cleanse your hands.
--Purify your hearts.
--Do not allow yourself to be double minded.

The title of this sermon is, “Proximity.”  This word means, “nearness in place, time, order, occurrence or relation.”  The purpose of this sermon focuses on our relationship to God.

Looking at our key verse again in James 4:8, we could ask some questions:

1] How to I draw nigh to God?
2] How does God draw nigh to me?
3] What is the meaning of the phrase, “cleanse your hands”?
4] How do I purify my heart?
5] How does a firstfruit prevent becoming double-minded?

We will answer all these questions as I encourage all of us to be in close proximity to God.


Be in proximity to God.

Let us look at scripture that speaks to each of these double-down phrases.  I am giving you one for each right now.   We will get into several others shortly.

Double-down Phrases:
--Draw nigh to God
--Cleanse your hands.
--Purify your hearts.
--Do not allow yourself to be double minded.
 

For Draw nigh to God:
Hebrews 10:22-24*
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.
23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

For Cleanse your hands:
Psalm 18:20-24*
20 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.
23 I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.
24 Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.

For purify your hearts:
1 Peter 1:22*
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

For double minded:
James 1:8*
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.


 


The entire concept and purpose of this sermon is to put in one place many scriptures that speak to the phrases we see in James 4:8.  Let us go through them now.

 

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

1 Chronicles 28:9 

And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

 

2 Chronicles 15:2 

And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.

 

Psalm 73:28      ...what does it mean, "declare all thy works."

But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

Commentary:
Declare all thy works - of providence and grace, by proclaiming the wisdom, power, goodness, and faithfulness of God in them; by giving him the glory of them, and by expressing thankfulness for them, both by words and deeds. ~John Gill

You declare the Work of God in your words, deeds, and actions.  You become the living metaphor of God.  The idea is that deep in their minds they do not see you but the God in you.

 

Psalm 145:17-21 

17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

18 The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

20 The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.

21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

 

What does it mean to "call upon Him in truth."

Commentary:

To all that call upon him in truth - In sincerity; not hypocritically; worshipping him as the true God, and with a sincere desire to obtain his favor. See John 4:24. We can have no hope that God will hear us unless we are sincere in our worship. He sees the heart, and he will act toward us as we are, and not as we profess to be.

 

Quoted verse:

John 4:24

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

 

Isaiah 55:6

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

 

Hosea 6:1-3

1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

 

Zechariah 1:3

Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.

 

Hebrews 7:19

For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

 

Cleanse your hands
See the 3rd sermon in the Salvation Series, “Lave.”

 

Job 17:9

The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

 

Psalm 24:3-5

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

 

Psalm 26:6

I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD:

 

Note: "compass thine altar" means that we, in worship embrace the thrown of God and therefore His being.

 

Zechariah 1:4  …notice I gave you verse three in “draw nigh to God.”

Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.

 

Malachi 3:7, 10

7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

 

10  Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

 

2 Corinthians 7:1*

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

 

Hebrews 10:22

19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

21 And having an high priest over the house of God;

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.

23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

 

Purify your hearts
See the fourth sermon in the Salvation Series, “Edulcorate.”

 

Psalm 26:6 …same verse I used in “Cleanse your hands with focus, this time on the second part of the verse

I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD:

 

Note: "compass thine altar" means that we, in worship embrace the throne of God and therefore His being.

 

Psalm 51:6-7

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

 

Isaiah 1:15-16*

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

 

Ezekiel 18:31*

Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

 

Ezekiel 36:25-27

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

 

2 Corinthians 7:1* …used in “Cleanse your hands.”  The last phrase is fitting here

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

 

1 Peter 1:22*

Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

 

1 John 3:3

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

 

Avoid being double minded
James 1:8*  …the key scripture
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.


 

1 Kings 18:21 

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

 

Matthew 6:24 

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

 

2 Peter 3:16-18

16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

 

 

I will leave you with the words of Abraham Lincoln:

My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.

'I have been 
driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.

Be in proximity to God.

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