A Sermon Published on Thursday, August 25, 1910,
Delivered by C.H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington,
On Lord’s-Day Evening, July 19, 1863
“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” — James 4:8
Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, upon the same text, is No. 2,795, “The Double Drawing Nigh,” with which in included an Exposition of the chapter from which the test is taken.
NOTICE the sentences immediately preceding our text: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” Wherever we are, we must come into contact with the unseen powers either for good or evil. Go where we may, we cannot shut ourselves away from them. If we could take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, spiritual beings would still be all around us there. Doubtless there are many invisible spirits, good or evil, in our midst at this moment; and when we go forth to our homes, or tomorrow go to our business or other duties, they will still attend us, the evil spirits seeking to lead our souls astray, and the holy angels carrying out their sacred commission, “to minister for then who shall be heirs of salvation.”
These spiritual beings are divided into two bands. One band is under the leadership of that great fallen spirit, — great, though fallen, — who, by his masterly genius, has secured control over multitudes of other spirits, who do his bidding and yield to his will with unquestioning obedience. You also may surrender yourself to him if you will; he is the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air; and you may, if you will, be his slave, you may be girded with his chains, you may serve in his servitude, and you may earn the wage which he will pay you at the last, for “the wages of sin is death.” But, surely, the admonition of the practical apostle James is a wise one, and we shall do well to take heed to it, and revolt from our old master. Let us break his bonds asunder, and cast away his cords from us, in the name of Jesus, let us resist the devil, and he will flee from us. Jesus has a far greater host of spirits under his leadership than Satan has; and, at his command, they shall keep us in all our ways, and bear us up in their hands, lest we dash our feet against a stone. His legions are far mightier than those of the black prince of darkness, and their services shall all be at our disposal, whenever we need them, as soon as we have renounced all allegiance to our former tyrant lord.
Now, having noted the connection of our text, I am going to apply it to three classes of persons; first, to the believer, secondly, to the backslider; and then, last of all, to the unconverted.
I. First, then, we have here, A MESSAGE TO THE BELIEVER: Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.”
In Scripture, drawing nigh has various meanings. First, it means, draw nigh to God in worship, in prayer, and in praise. When the hen sees a hawk in the air hovering over her brood, she gives a peculiar warning cluck, calling her little ones to come to her, while at the same moment she herself draws nigh to them. In a far higher fashion, the voice of God calls you to him, warning you of the danger that lurks all round you; and while you run to hide from peril beneath the shadow of his wings, he on his part runs to meet you as the forgiving father ran to meet his prodigal son. You draw nigh to him in the fearfulness and feebleness of your supplication, and he draws nigh to you in the faithfulness and almightiness of his everlasting love. I am afraid that we often pray as if our God were at a distance from us; this can never be prevailing prayer. I do not despise that prayer which is like shooting an arrow up to the throne of God, but I love better still the prayer that grips the Angel of the covenant, the prayer that stands foot to foot with him, and wrestles with him until the breaking of the day, and even then cries, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” If you can draw nigh to your Lord in prayer like that, he will certainly draw nigh to you, and you will be like a prince who has power to; prevail with God and with men.
Let me encourage you, dear friends, who have been backward in your private prayer, or who have cried to him as though he were a long way off. “Draw nigh to him.” There are no bounds set around this mount of grace as there were around mount Sinai. You may climb up to the place called Calvary, and clasp to your bosom the Christ who there died upon the accursed tree, for he is your Brother, your Friend, your Savior, your All-in-all, if you are truly trusting him. So to you I say, as Paul wrote to the Hebrews, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” Come near to him, and you shall soon have an answer to your prayers.
It is the same with praise; and I am afraid that, often, we do not really draw nigh to God when we are professing to praise him. I know that, sometimes, when we are singing God’s praises in our great assemblies here, we are drawn very near to the gates of heaven. At such times, I have felt as though I were swimming in an ocean of sacred delight. It should be so with every act of worship; it should all draw us nearer to our God. There are times when we feel more closely drawn to him in the closet of private prayer shall in the public services of the sanctuary; but, still, there is a special blessing attending united prayer and praise which is not to be realized elsewhere. I remember reading of a Jew who would not open a business in a certain town because there was no synagogue in it; and I wish that Christians would always be as careful to settle down, if possible, in a place where they would not lack religious privileges, for prayer and praise, like the two wheels of the chariot which carried Jacob down to Joseph, bring us near to our beloved Lord and Master, and he, at the same time, comes to meet us, and draws nigh to us.
But I find that, in Scripture, the term “Draw nigh to God” is often used in the sense of asking counsel of God. Thus the Israelites, when they were in perplexity or difficulty, consulted the priest, and he, wearing the ephod, and the breastplate with the mysterious Urim, and Thummim, was able to interpret the will of God as it had been revealed to him; and now, though no sacred ephod or breastplate is worn by mortal man, though the ancient oracles are dumb, and though no earthly prophet speaks infallibly according to the will of God, you may still draw near to God himself, in the flame of Jesus Christ his Son, and seek the guidance of his ever-blessed Spirit. I hope you will do so at every step of your life, for what step is there that is not important? Those that seem to us to be of the least significance may be the very ones that will the soonest lead us into mischief. But there are certain periods in our history when it is absolutely necessary that we should say to ourselves, “Let us consult the Lord about this matter.” Many of you would never have been in the trouble in which you now are if you had but waited upon God before you took a certain course which has brought you nothing but sorrow. We heedlessly run before the fiery-cloudy pillar moves, and when we find that we have rushed into the waste howling wilderness, we lay the blame for our own folly at the door of God’s providence. Let it not be so with any of you, dear friends; let every morning’s plans be spread out before the Lord to see whether they meet with his approval, and let every evening’s joys and sorrows be brought to him that he may show you how to glorify him in all that happens to you. Solomon truly said, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool,” and David just as truly said, “but he that trusteth in the lord, mercy shall compass him about.” You need never lack divine guidance, for you can have it by asking for it. God is willing to guide you if you will only seek his guidance. See to it, then, that you practice the text in the sense of asking counsel of God: “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.”
There is a third meaning to the phrase “Draw nigh to God;” it is used in the sense of enjoying communion with God. There are some here who do not understand what I mean by communion with God; they are completely puzzled by the very simple language of the apostle John, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” There are hundreds and thousands of people, constantly attending church or chapel, who do not know the meaning of the word communion.” If you were to ask them what they understand by it, they would probably say that it means eating a piece of bread and drinking a little wine at the Lord’s supper. And more than that, if they were to ask me to explain to them what true spiritual communion with God means, I should probably fail to make them comprehend it; yet you who, by grace, have been enabled to drink of these cooling streams, know well what that communion means. Some of you, who have been the most deeply taught of the Spirit, could sing through the whole Song of Solomon, and see your Beloved in it all, while to others it is only an Eastern love-song which is to them quite incomprehensible. You know Christ, not only by faith, but by a sort of second sense which makes him very real to you. You have drawn nor to Christ, and talked with him; and he has drawn near to you, and talked with you, and he has been nearer to you and dearer to you than any earthly friend has ever been. Oh, what joy believers know when they realize Christ’s presence, when his left hand is under their heads, and his right hand doth embrace them! Talk of heaven, — such communion is heaven begun below. When heaven’s gates are opened wide, and the celestial sunshine comes streaming through, it falls upon the eyes that have been illuminated by the Holy Ghost; that is true spiritual communion, and the glorified spirits above do but know that bliss to the full in knowing God, and rejoicing in the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps, my dear brother, you have been reading Rutherford’s letters, and you have said to yourself. “Alas! I cannot hope to enjoy such communion with Christ as Rutherford enjoyed.” But why should you not? Read our text again: “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” You, my draw sister, may have read the life of Madame Guyon, and you have said, “What an angel in human form that woman must have been!” But if you draw nigh to God, you may have as much love to Christ as she had, and you may enjoy as much fellowship with Christ as she had, for “he will draw nigh to you.” You have envied Mary because she sat at Jesu’s feet, or you have wished that you had been John, to lean your head upon your Master’s bosom: well, you may do both these things in a spiritual sense, and that is better than the carnal. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” To you, even to you, the very feeblest of those who resist the devil, will God draw nigh if you draw nigh to him.
I think, however, that there is another meaning in our text, and that is, “draw nigh to God” in the general strain and tenour of your life. We all know that the sun, the great center of the solar system, has several planets revolving around him, some of them comparatively near, others at a greater distance, and some still more remote; and Jesus Christ, the great Sun of righteousness, has his people revolving around him as the planets circle round the sun. Some of them are very near the great central Luminary; others are far away, at a vast distance from him, and others are neither very near nor very far off, but somewhere between the two. There are some believers who are like the planet Mercury. You do not often see that fast-revolving planet, because it keeps so near the sun that it is usually lost in his bright rays. So is it with some Christians; the world knows little of them, they make no noise as they move along in their appointed orbit, and they keep so near to Christ that they seem to be absorbed into his radiance. Their thoughts are so much occupied with Christ, their heart’s affection is so fully given to him that they do not talk much about earthly things; their great desire is to live in close and hallowed fellowship with their Lord. There are others who are like the planets that are far away from the sun, yet some rays of light and heat reach even them; and those believers who are living at a distance from Christ have some of the divine light and heat within them, but oh, so little compared with what they might have! Oh, that you, who are so far off from God, would leave your distant orbits, and draw nigh to him, for then he also would draw nigh to you!
You know, dear friends, that there is almost as much difference between some Christians and others as there is between Christians and worldlings; — I said almost, for there is not quite the same difference, though there is nearly the same. There are heights of lofty consecration and of intimate communion with Christ, to which some believers have attained, but of which others have not yet even dreamed. There is an inner circle of fellowship into which only a few privileged saints have ever entered; these are the elect out of the elect, who have been distinguished above all the rest of Christ’s disciples by the loftier grace which has been their peculiar characteristic. Oh, that we had many more such Christians indeed in all our churches! There are a few of them scattered about Christendom, like grains of salt, but we want many more of them; — men who, like Moses, have their faces made to shine with a supernatural brightness because they have dwelt with God upon the mount of secret communion; — men who are not afraid to die because they have looked without alarm into the face of God, through Jesus Christ their Lord, — and men who have learnt how to live as becometh the gospel of Christ, and there is no higher life than that. Brethren and sisters in Christ, “draw nigh to God:” press towards the highest degree of godliness that it is possible for you to obtain, seek to have the closest communion with Christ that mortals can ever know while here on earth. Do not be content to be in the outer courts, the lobbies, the ante-chambers of religion; strive to gain admission to the very holy of holies itself, for that is where your Lord would fain have you to be. You know that there is a sort of border-land where many professors live, where a man is thought to be a Christian, but all the while he is not half a Christian. He is counted amongst the saved, yet he lives on the very borders of damnation; and if at the last he is saved, we shall sorrowfully have to add, “yet so as by fire.” In some respects he is a righteous man, as Lot was, yet, like Lot, he dwells in Sodom. He is in some ways a good man, as Noah was; yet, like him, he falls into shameful sin. Oh, that we could all rise above this wretched condition, and live continually so close to Christ that men would take knowledge of us that we had been with Jesus, and had caught something of his spirit, and had been so changed by grace that we were far more like him than we now are!
There I leave my text with the believer. I would fain draw you nigh to God, beloved, by my words, if I could; but I know that he must himself draw you by his grace if the drawing is to be effectual. So let this be your prayer and resolve this very moment, “Draw us, and we will run after thee.”
II. Now, in the second place, we have in our text AN ENTREATY TO THE BACKSLIDER: Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” I must speak but briefly upon this point, but I want to be as earnest as I am brief.
So, backslider, you have come in here to-night; a friend, who is up from the country, persuaded you to accompany him, or you would probably not have been here, for you have almost given up going to a place of worship, and you think there is no hope for you. Friend, do you know what your doom will be if you continue as you are now? Have you ever read the story of Judas? Do you know what became of Demas, and Simon Magus, and Alexander the coppersmith, and others who turned aside from the faith in the days of the apostles? Remember those terrible yet inspired words, “If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” It would have been better for you never to have had any knowledge of the truth, shall to have known it, and then sinned wilfully against it, and so, after all, to be a castaway. If you are a true child of God, though a wanderer from his ways, you will be brought back to him, and I pray that you may be brought back to him this very hour; but if you are an apostate, a backslider in heart, you will be filled with your own ways. Having filled up the measure of your iniquity, You will be driven from God’s presence into the place of woe where hope and mercy never can come.
Yet listen to me, backslider; this terrible sentence has not yet been pronounced upon you. The voice of God still cries unto you, “Draw nigh unto me.” Whither art thou flying, my brother?
Art thou seeking to escape from God’s righteous judgments? That is impossible, for his thunderbolts will soon overtake thee, and seal thine eternal doom. Run not away from him, but draw nigh to him; cast down thy weapons of rebellion, and fall prostrate before him, seeking the forgiveness which he is willing and waiting to bestow upon thee. Let me take thee by the hand, and try to encourage them to come near to the Lord this very moment. Do you ask, “How can I come near to him?” Come just as you came to him at the first. Perhaps you reply, “But I never really came to him aright.” Then come to him aright just now. I came to him as a sinner, and he gave me a hearty welcome, and he will receive you just as graciously if you only come to him with wholehearted repentance for your sin, and true faith in Jesus Christ as your only Savior.
But here is one who did run well, yet she has been hindered. Backsliding woman, remember that thy God is married unto thee, and that he bids thee return unto him. Backsliding man, thou hast turned aside from thy God, yet he loves thee still, and cries out to thee, “Return, return, return.” The Lord still says, as he did in Jeremiah’s day, “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” Oh, that you would reply even as they did, Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God”! I am sure that you are not happy in your present condition; on the contrary, you are as sad and miserable as you can possibly be. This very house of prayer reminds you of your former privileges and joys, of the days when you delighted in God, and felt that you were indeed on your way to heaven. You cannot be content to live in the far country among the swine that are no fit companions for you; leave the husks to the pigs, they can never satisfy your hunger. Come back to thy Father, poor prodigal! Though thy clothes are in rags, though thou art steeped in filth, though thou hast sinned most grievously, come back to thy Father, and he will receive thee with open arms and open heart I will not act towards thee as the elder brother did to the prodigal, but I will welcome thee as a brother if thou art indeed a brother; and if thou art not a brother, thou art a sinner, and this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” even the very chief. So, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Put thy soul’s affairs into his hands, ask him to be thine Advocate, to plead thy cause before the King; He never yet lost a case that was entrusted to him, and he will not lose yours.
III. I have almost anticipated the last division of my discourse, but I must close by giving from my text AN INVITATION TO THE UNCONVERTED: Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
The great gospel rings out again, and the same note sounds to the sinner as to the saint; not that there is any implication in this text that the sinner can draw nigh to God by his own unaided power, or that he comes first, and God comes next, or that there is any natural willingness in the sinner to come to God. The text seems to me to show the difference between the law and the gospel. God said even to Moses, the chosen leader of his ancient people, “Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” But under the gospel God says to the sinner, “Draw nigh hither; ‘tis true that this is holy ground, but it is sprinkled with blood, the blood of my only-begotten and well-beloved son and if the blood is also sprinkled upon thee, thou mayest draw nigh, and thou canst not come too nigh, so come and welcome, sinner, come.” If it were a question of merit, or of justification by the works of the law, the sinner might well try to fly from the avenging hand of divine justice; but on the ground of divine love, and pity, and mercy, and free and sovereign grace, the sinner may draw nigh to God though he has nothing to recommend him, he may come just as he is, and God in mercy will draw nigh to him. Should there be here a swearer, a drunkard, or one who has committed the foulest of sins, the text says to him in the sense in which I have explained it, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” Sinner, if thou repentest of thy sin, and trustest in Jesus as thy Saviour, God will not spurn thee, and drive thee from him, but he will draw nigh to thee as thou dost draw nigh to him.
Then, next, the text shows the sinner what God means to do for him. He means to draw the sinner nigh to himself, and then himself to draw nigh to the sinner. This is done in two ways; it is done, first, by what Jesus did for us when he rent the veil that separated us from God; and it is done, next, by what the Holy Spirit does in us when he rends the veil that hides God from us. There are, or were, these two veils, — the veil that concealed the visible manifestation of God from men, which was rent asunder at the moment of Christ’s death, — and the veil that is over our own hearts, which conceals God from us until the Holy Spirit takes us away, and we see God in Christ Jesus reconciled to us by the death of his Son. I fear that there are some even in this congregation who are living just as if there were no God at all. If there really were no God, you would probably not be any different from what you now are. God is not in all your thoughts; or if you ever do think of him, you say, with the fool of whom the psalmist tells us, “No God; no God for me; I want no God: and, so far as I am concerned, there is no God.” Well then, if you are ever to be saved, you will have to be brought nigh to God by a power altogether outside yourself, you will have to be made to feel that God is One whom you must love, you will be reconciled to him by the death of his Son, and your heart will be filled with love to Christ through the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit.
The text further shows what God will lead the sinner to do for himself. Ungodly man, if thou art ever to be saved, thou must draw nigh to God in prayer. Go to him at this moment, just where thou art sitting, and confess all thy sin to him; there is no need for thee to utter a word that any of us can hear, for God can read the language of thy heart. Then thou must draw nigh to Christ by faith. Just as that poor woman in the crowd touched the hem of his garment, and was immediately made whole, so must thou, by faith, get into contact with Christ. Trust in him as thy one and only Savior, and he will certainly save thee; and this shall be the grand result of it all, thou wilt draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to thee. Oh, that thou wouldst now cry unto him, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” That will be drawing nigh to God in penitence and contrition and supplication, and he will draw nigh to thee in gracious acceptance and blessing; and then one day, he will call thee to draw nigh to him in heaven itself, to sit at his table in glory, to feast with him in his kingdom. Then shalt thou, even thou, wear a crown, and wave a palm, and for ever adore that matchless grace which first drew thee nigh to him, and shall draw nigh to thee.
If there is one here who will go home to pray, “Draw me nigh, O God!” or better still, if there is one anywhere in this vast throng, whose heart is praying, “Lord, save me; draw me with the cords of a man, (even the man Christ Jesus, the Friend of sinful man,) with the bands of love; O God, draw nigh to me, for I would fain draw nigh to thee;” — if there is one here whose eye has in it the tear of penitence, I point that one to Jesus hanging on the cross, and say, —
“There is life for a look at the Crucified One;
There is life at this moment for thee;
Then look, sinner,-look unto him, and be saved, —
Unto him who was nailed to the tree.”
Remember that the Son of God, the Lord of life and glory, suffered indescribable shame and ignominy, and at last, death itself, for sinners for every sinner who trusts in his great atoning sacrifice. If thou art trusting in him, that is proof positive that he cried for thee, died in thy room and place and stead, died that thou shouldst never die, for he bore all the punishment that thy sin deserved, so there is none left for thee to bear. He drank to the last dregs the cup of wrath that was thy due, so there is not one drop left for thee to drink. He suffered all that could ever have been thy portion even in hell itself, for being infinite, there was no limit to his agonies; and now, for thee, there is no hell, no torment, no condemnation. Thou mayest know assuredly whether Christ did die for thee or not; dost thou trust him? Wilt thou trust him now? Wilt thou say,-
“Just as I am,-and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come”?
If thou hast said that from thy heart, thou art now a saved soul, and thou mayest go to thy home rejoicing in the Lord, for thy sins, which were many, are all forgiven, and thou art on thy way to heaven. God grant that it may be so, for Jesus Christ’s sake!