If you had every pleasure and everything you could ever wish for in this life but did not know God, then you are the sorriest being in the universe (this is the case with many); however, if you had nothing at all, and lived on the streets with only clothes and food for the day, but you knew God intimately (as it was with the rich man and Lazarus) then you are the most fortunate and blessed creature in the universe. It is better to be near to God with nothing than to have all things and be far away from him as so many are.

When speaking about being near to God, this is what really defines a person’s state; you are not truly at peace until you have peace with God. You may feel that you have peace, but it is not true peace.  JI Packer defines true peace like this, “The peace of God, then, primarily and fundamentally, is a new relationship of forgiveness and acceptance – When Jesus came to his disciples in the upper room at evening on his resurrection day, he said “Peace be with you”; and when “he said that, he showed them his hands and side” (John 20:19-20). Why did he do that? Not just to establish his identity, but to remind them of the propitiatory death on the cross whereby he had made peace with his father for them. Having suffered in their place, as their substitute, to make peace for them, he now came in risen power to bring that peace to them.” This is the only peace that is worth having, peace with God.

This is what God wrote through James over 1000 years ago, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God….“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4:4–10)

Reading the above (James 4:4-10), you cannot fail to see/notice the urgency and seriousness in what is written. It can be staggering when first read, and this is the first thing we must realise: the matter of drawing near to God is a very serious one, hence, James says things like “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.”  This is a call to a serious, humble and sober assessment; it is a call to reality. You have nothing to be happy about if you are far from God.

In this year, I have attended two funerals and last week, It is a sobering reality that we all someday must die and stand before God. If we live for 10 years or 100 years we must die, and the sooner we realise this and live in light of it, the better for us.” William Gurnal said, “We can soon run from ourselves as to run from death.” and Hebrews 9:27 says, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment…”.

James therefore shows that for someone who has realised the seriousness of not being close to God, there is repentance: they are called to “cleanse their hands” and “purify their hearts”. “Hands” has the general idea of the things you do, and “hearts” has the idea of your motives, the things in your heart. God calls not just for an outward show of religiosity, like the self-righteous religious rulers of Jesus’ time did, but calls for a true change of heart: a single heart that is set on truly, honestly knowing God, and following him whatever the cost. This is echoed in the above passage where James says, “draw near to God and he will draw near to you”, then he immediately says “cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded”. This is what you may call being born again, where God by the power of his holy spirit changes the heart of a person in such a way that it can be said of that person that they are a new creature. Have you been made new born from above? Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “God will not pardon for repentance yet NOT without it”, says Thomas Watson.

No one who is seriously seeking to draw near to God will go chasing after the very things that has caused that individual to be far from God in the first place, namely Sin, because any real desire to draw near to God is based upon a realization to some degree that God is the most precious being in all of the universe and that drawing near to him and being on his side, is the only acceptable way to exist. Thomas Brooks, an old preacher understood this when he said, “A greater hell I would not wish any man, than to live and not love the beloved of God”. A lot of people claim to have a belief in God, but if the things we say are tested by the way we live, this would prove not to be true. If you believed that you would die if you jumped out of an airplane, you would not jump, but if you didn’t believe it, you may jump. Some claim to believe God but live as if God does not exist, and so James in effect calls us to a reality check: to approach God in the right way, and with the right attitude, coming humbly before God to recognize his greatness as God and our nothingness as man, and to seek his friendship. He basically says what the call to the gospel is, repent and believe the Gospel. And reading this, some may say well, I want to draw near to God, I want to know God, and if this is your earnest desire, I am thankful to God for that, and my conscience will not give me rest if I do not explain to you the way to truly know God; the only way there is, the only way there ever have been or ever will be.

First I ask you a question, do you believe Romans 3:23 which says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”? You may say yes. Let us examine that claim; a lot of individuals say they believe themselves to be sinners, however, when accused of a crime like lying, they fume with anger as though they are absolutely innocent of ever lying. Do you truly believe yourself to be a sinner – someone who has deliberately broken Gods laws, from when you were young till now? Have you ever faced that reality honestly? Have you realised that every time you have told a lie, it has been recorded, against you, as a crime against God? When I was younger I would imagine that I would sin against God all my life, and just before I die, I would quickly say sorry for all my sins. That kind of thinking shows how much sin has affected our minds. I wouldn’t have even fathomed the idea of doing that to a person I knew or a friend I knew, because it would be crazy to imagine that I would deliberately wrong someone all my life and then just before I die, quickly say sorry! Is this what you are doing? Do you think that somehow, you can get away with any sin you have ever committed? God sees all, and every wrong deed or thought you have ever had is recorded against you and will be brought before you in God’s courtroom. My dear friend, do you believe this? If you do, then I will ask you another question: have you ever read Romans 6:23?  It says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.  Just as you work, and at the end of the month, you would expect any good and just organisation to pay you the wages you deserve, the same way, as you have sinned, God, being a good and Just Judge, MUST pay you the wage you deserve, and that wage is death; not only physical death, but eternal death. The last book of the bible, Revelations, looks ahead for us and tells us what will happen and it is terrifying “”But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”.” (Revelation 21:8). Friend, are you on that list? I was also on that list, and though this may seem all gloomy and dark, this is NOT where the message ends. In fact, the gloom of the above, and the sad state of all described in the above is what makes the message of the Gospel a joyful and happy one. Let me explain…

The above has shown us that all have sinned, and all anyone deserves from God is their wages, which is nothing less than eternal punishment to satisfy God’s perfect Justice.  If someone killed a member of your family, you would expect a good Judge to give that person a Just punishment for their action, and so it is with the Lord; he is a good God and he is a Just Judge. Once there is sin, that sin must be paid for, and he is Just therefore he cannot let you go free, he cannot let your good deeds cancel out your bad deeds – perfect justice must be done. And this is where we get to the heart of the message of the Gospel: because God is infinitely wise, and infinitely merciful, he created a way whereby he can still be Just and show perfect mercy to poor, helpless and hopeless sinners! And that is through Jesus Christ. When Jesus was on that cross, although the Roman soldiers nailed Him there, that was NOT the greatest thing he suffered there on the cross. Isaiah tells us that, “it pleased the Lord to Crush him” and that “God has laid on him the iniquity of us all”, on the cross. The most dreadful reality was that Jesus was bearing our sin, he was taking the wages that we deserve, and he was doing this for us. It is fascinating to consider who Jesus was and what he did. He was God himself, he made all things, and held all things together, yet he willingly subjected himself to the Roman insults, nails, and his father’s wrath to bear the guilt of all who would come to trust in him for their salvation. He never sinned, or told a lie like me and you have, rather, he was utterly perfect, he knew no sin. Yet God laid on him the iniquity of us all so that his righteousness may be given to us just as our sin was laid on him. As such for all who have come to turn away from their sin and put their hope in Jesus Christ for salvation, fully acknowledging that he is none other but the Sovereign Lord, the rightful King and Ruler of their lives, they are looked upon by God as perfectly forgiven of all sin! past, present and future! They have the perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ.

Imagine a story of a man and his wife: Every day he wakes up and says to her, “I love you”, and she says, “Well you always say you love me, don’t just say you love me, show me you love me.” One day she has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital, she needs a new heart. Her husband comes to the hospital and without thinking asks for his heart to be given to her. She is restored to health, he dies by sacrificing himself, and she is at his funeral; amongst everything that may be going through her mind, that wife would be able to put her finger on that event and say, “by this my husband has shown me he loves me, by this he has shown is care for me”. This is what Paul wants us to get when he says, “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7–8). The infinite greatness of God’s love is not shown by him becoming unjust and pardoning everyone’s sin (as some say), but by him sending his Son to be a perfect sin bearer for anyone who would believe in him and trust him for salvation.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Friend, which one do you want? Do you want your wages or will you cast off your wages and thankfully accept the free gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus? Jesus said eternal life is to know God through him. This is what it means to truly be near to God and have peace with God.

God is holy, your sin has put a dividing wall of hostility between you and God, but Jesus Christ through his death has made peace. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1). “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Romans 5:1).  To be justified means to be taken to court and to be made free, to be acquitted – free of any guilt. And so, because of Jesus you can stand free from any guilt or condemnation if you will but leave off sin and put all your hope in Jesus’ Death and Resurrection as your only hope of forgiveness. Just like a person who is dropping down from an airplane will hope in a parachute as his only hope, so you must cast all your hope on Christ death and you shall be saved. “He hideth our unrighteousness with His righteousness, He covereth our disobedience with His obedience, he shadoweth our death with His death, that the wrath of God cannot find us.” said Henry Smith.

And even with the forgiveness we receive by faith in Christ, there is also a joy and satisfaction that comes from knowing him that can never be found outside Christ, you shall remain empty until you have come to know the Lord. You may try to satisfy yourself with one sin after another, but true satisfaction is found in knowing the Lord, and he calls you to come and take forgiveness freely. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live….” (Isaiah 55:1–3). “In all their Jollity,” says Richard Sibbes, “they are but as a book fairly bound, which when it is opened is full of nothing but tragedies. So when the book of their consciences shall be once opened there is nothing to be read but lamentations and woes.”

What are you doing to do? Are you going to act like you have never read this? God forbid! If someone came to you and said an individual stood in your place yesterday when you were going to be shot and took your bullet, would you just ignore it as though nothing happened? Surely you would at least investigate to see if it is true? And if you are not moved in the least at what you have read, this only shows you the dreadfulness of your state, and your need of the grace of God, so I urge you friend, leave your sin and fly to Christ and find true peace with God.

Or else you will be one of those spoken of here “Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Rev 6:15-17 ESV). Hebrews tells us “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God” (Heb 10:31).

An unbeliever shall have a double condemnation; one from the law which he hath transgressed, and another from the gospel which he hath despised: as a malefactor, that being condemned and dead in law, rejecteth his prince’s pardon. But it is otherwise with these that are in Christ Jesus. The law cannot condemn them, because they have appealed; the gospel cannot because they have believed. – John Trapp.

Do not waste any time, flee to Christ at once! He receives sinners!