The God Who Draws Near - Selected Scriptures

0:42And I look forward to all that God has placed upon my heart, and hopefully that some of it will come out in a rather coherent manner. But so we want to get reoriented to John. I want to share some highlights from our recent trip. One of the things that impacted me at this trip that I took was that God is the God who draws near to his creation. That is something about God that you need to know, that you need to understand, because it dramatically affects your life. We don't define God. God is.

1:31He is, period. And we must relate to him. And one of the things that's very clear in Scripture is that God is the God who draws near to his creation. He created us. He is the one who initially wanted a relationship with us. And when that relationship was severed through man's disobedience, he continued to pursue a relationship with his creation, and he continues down to this day pursuing a relationship with people, with you and I. This morning, this gathering is about a God who is drawing near to you.

2:28That's your situation in life. That's my station in life. That's clear throughout Scripture, and it's certainly clear in John's gospel. John has made it clear through using several different images that God is the God who draws near. And I want to talk about some of those images this morning. He doesn't introduce new images. He doesn't just think them up. They're actually images that. Have already been revealed in Scripture. But the plain reality is that God draws near.

3:11And all of us must deal with this reality. This is who He is, and it impacts us. There is no other option. God draws near. He draws near to each one of us. That's the situation that we're in, and we must respond. And whether you respond positively or negatively to the fact that God draws near to you doesn't change the fact that God draws near. The fact that God draws near is irrelevant to your response. He is the God who has made himself known. Information about himself is pressing in on us on all sides. In the creation around us, in the way he made us, in the way we, in our own consciences, in our own self-reflection, and certainly in the scripture, God draws near. That's our Unable situation we find ourselves in as God's creation.

4:36And some find this as God's imposition. Now, who does God think He is putting me in this situation? Right? Some see this as an imposition. Be mindful and be careful of that because that is the way Satan thinks. See, the problem with that thinking is that deep down you want to be God. Who is God to think He can co-impose? He should have checked with me first, right? What does that say? I myself want to be God, and God better check Himself with me before He does anything.

5:21That's satanic at its fundamental root. No, God is. He draws near to His creatures. And there is a good way to respond to that, and there is a bad way. There is a positive response and a negative response. And I hope that we will become people who will respond positively to the fact that God draws near. And when you taste and see, you recognize that He is good and that He. The fact that he draws near to you solicits a positive response because of his goodness.

6:10And so it is my prayer, it is my hope for everyone in this room and who is in earshot of me to be one who responds positively to the advances of God into your life because that is what he is doing and how blessed you are that such is the God who made you. Well, as I said, I just want to reframe our thoughts around the Gospel of John. First 12 chapters is about God advancing himself through the one he sent to make himself known. And you get to the end, and even though he did all of these works, in chapter 12, they were not believing in him. And so, beginning in chapter 13 and on, there is a focus on those who did believe in him and instruction to the disciples. And I want us all to become people who do respond positively to the light that has been revealed and that we walk in the light. That's what life is about: to walk in the light. There's going to be much instruction from chapter 13 and on to those who believe.

7:31But John has already touched on four images that reveal this reality that God is the God who draws near. So, a little bit of thoughts about our time in Israel. Let's shift gears. Don't want to fail to mention that we celebrated our 25th anniversary there in Israel. And you see, we celebrate it by giving each other new rings, you know, silver, you know, silver theme. We got some new rings, and they are inscribed in Hebrew. It says, I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine. In fact, it says this: Ani, Ladoti, Wadoti, La'i.

8:25So, if you start hearing me refer to my wife as Dodi, I'm really saying, my beloved. And so, we celebrated our 25th anniversary there on the Sea of Galilee. There we are, and you can see the sun setting right behind us, and there is Mount Arbel right behind it. You can see it, and that is a site that many believe is the place where Jesus gave his great commission to his disciples to go out into our. The world to make disciples. In fact, it was on the Sea of Galilee, if you'll remember, where Jesus first met up with his disciples and said, You follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And I'm glad they followed him because here we are, fishered, fish, caught through the apostolic testimony. We heard their message, and 2,000 years later, we are drawn to the very Christ that they proclaim. And as we, it's not just us, the duet became an octet, right? And there we are, and I can rejoice in the fact that we are even a greater catch held under the persuasion of the truth of the Christ that the apostles proclaimed. And I can say with great joy that all of my children have evidenced, have produced fruit that is evidence of genuine faith. And we are a family caught up in this great commission. The words have been entrusted to us. The apostolic testimony has been entrusted to us, has drawn our hearts, has captivated our hearts. And so, why do we proclaim? The Christ to Scripture because he is the one who catches.

10:35He is the one, he is the only Christ. We do not preach a Christ of our own imagination. We preach the Christ that the apostles who walked with him, who saw him, who detailed his life for us, sufficient enough for us to know him and to be drawn to him. And that is why we proclaim the Christ to Scripture. He is the one that has the drawing power. He is the one that we are to follow. And as we follow him and know him, we become caught up in this great commission of being fishers of men and women to the glory of God.

11:23So I want to talk to you about the God who draws near. He draws near. One of the first images that John really reflects to, reflects upon, is this idea of the tabernacle. And certainly, one of the images that is certainly revealed very early in Scripture, if you'll turn to John 1:14, John 1:14, you'd receive, you'd read these words, and the word became flesh and Dwelt among us. And we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. There are two actions of the word that demonstrate that God draws near.

12:17Number one, he became flesh. That is, he took up on our total nature. Do you see a God who's advancing towards us? When he takes up our total nature, and he doesn't just, it's not just an addition, I mean, it's not just a temporary addition, but a permanent one. He takes up on our nation, our nature in the incarnation. It's not just an alteration. He doesn't morph into humanity. No, he picks up an addition, a permanent addition. He became flesh. Second action, he dwelt among us. Literally, he pitched his tent. He tabernacled among us. That's what he did. And that is action that speaks of the God who draws near. He isn't content with the relationship that's just chiseled words into cold stone, but he inserted himself into our humanity by taking on our humanity. It's not chiseled, cold words, but warm-blooded humanity.

13:30That he draws near, that we might relate, that we might hear, that we might understand. And so, John, early on, he's picking up this language. He tabernacled among us, and we saw his glory, the one, only one, sent from God, full of grace and truth. I know, and one of the things that impacted me upon this trip, this recent trip in Israel, was this whole idea of the tabernacle. And we spent some time wandering in the wilderness, and it was hot, 115 degrees on one phone, and supposed to get up to 119.

14:15I never measured it, but that's what was forecasted. But it was hot, and we were out there wandering in the wilderness. We had an air-conditioned bus, which was kind of nice. But this is what we read about this tabernacle in Exodus 29:42. It's there where I will meet with you to speak to you there. I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by my glory. Verse 45, I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. They shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord. Simple reality: God wanted to dwell among people. That's what we see in the tabernacle imagery. In fact, we had the privilege of going to a dig site. And this is the man I interviewed who's leading the dig. He's not too far from here, and may end up getting him to come up and speak to us. But the dig site is there at Shiloh, where the tabernacle resided for over 300 years. This is the place where Hannah would have come to inquire. And so it's one of the most significant digs, I think, going on right now. And so, if you could just play, I just want you to hear a little bit about the dig.

15:48My wife wanted to make sure I told you that we actually dug there. We actually spend time there. And what was nice about that, and he actually didn't, he was a little more reserved because I was publicly interviewing him. But he's, we've got the site here. We've got the tabernacle here. It is exciting. And we were able to spend some time digging on the site. In fact, I had this big mound of pottery. He let me bring home chunks of pottery from Samuel's time, this big, big, and I've got several. Maybe I get my kids to paint it on it or something. But anyway, the idea being this is the place. This is the place. Place where it was for 300 years and very significant. But all of this speaks about the God who wants to be near to his creation.

16:47And there is some of our Southern Baptist brothers down in this area in Timna, and this is the wilderness of Paran, literally the wilderness where they, the Israelites, would have spent 40 years wandering around. And boy, it was hot. Did I tell you how hot it was? At one point, our bus driver said, Why don't you get off for about 40 minutes and walk around and just pray alone and just imagine what it would have been like? And we're there 40 minutes, and hardly anybody could make it that long.

17:23But they were there 40 years, and just oh, the pain of being disciplined by the Lord, right? Let us be a people who respond quickly. Let us walk in the light as he gives the light. Let us be quick to receive, quick to obey. Let us not be a people who have to be disciplined. He disciplines those he loves, but his discipline is not pleasant. So there is an evangelical witness in the form of a tabernacle that our Southern Baptist. Friends have placed there, and they are evangelical, and they have been pretty much blackballed at every site that they've gone to, and you can't find them, but they do show up at one national park, not even on the literature there, but they do have a little area there. And what they have done is they have prepared a replica of the tabernacle. And so, just walk you through a couple of pictures. This is what the wilderness would have looked like, and that's why you needed water from rocks, and that's why you needed manna from heaven, because it is just a place chock full of nothing. Did I tell you how hot it was there? Oh, to get back to the cool Texas summer.

18:53But you get a picture of what this looks like. There is a temple, I mean, there was a tabernacle, the tent, bronze labor, and a sacrificial altar. Very humble in appearance. In fact, especially after touring Greece in recent years and just seeing the incredible ornaments and magnitude of some of these pagan temples, when you see this, this isn't anything to look at at all. It's what's inside. And such is the way of our Lord, right? He is not grand and opulent, but he comes humble. He comes in humility. And certainly you see that in the tabernacle. To give you an idea of what the scale of this, just look, you can see some people standing there at the altar. The altar, here's again a picture where you can see what two people look like. That's the size of it. Very small. We get in our minds everything grand and everything big, but it's pretty small. In fact, if you've ever been at some of my bonfires at our house on Christmas time, the bonfires that we would light in our backyard would be bigger, or certainly about, certainly the tabernacle blaze wouldn't get any bigger than that. Certainly much bigger, if any, in fact. But that's it. And very humble in appearance. And then you come into the inside. It's more of an inner beauty. You see three, again, very small. There's a couple mannequins in there. You can see some scale of the priest. You see the menorah, the incense of altar, table of showbread, all of this. And then you have this curtain there that separates the Holy of Holies from the holy place. And so it's a very, very humble, very small in scale. Significance is what's behind the Holy of Holies. You have there, behind the curtain, you have the Ark of the Covenant, and which only the priest. Could the high priest could enter that once a year. In the ark, there were several items. And of course, the lid is the mercy seat. And of course, it's a little more polished than what we would expect year after year, blood being sprinkled on it. It probably looked more like a butcher's shop with blood sprinkled everywhere than maybe a fine polished gold.

21:28But certainly, this is what it would have looked like at its inception. What's in it is significant. You see three articles. You see the tablets on which God wrote. You see a jar of manna. And you see Aaron's rod that budded. I think these communicate simple truths. This whole picture of the tabernacle communicates the simple truth that God advances towards his people. And the elements at their basic level communicate three things that man needs. Number one, provision. Number two, instruction. And number three, fruitfulness. Fruit-bearing capacity from God Himself. We need a source of fruit-bearing capacity. So provision, instruction, fruitfulness. And you see at its basic level, this is what God is. God covenants to give, right?

22:33He's drawn nearest to his people. He knows what we have need of. You have need of God's provision. Listen, you cannot survive much more than a month without food. You can't survive much more than three days without water. You can't survive a couple of minutes without air. We are very dependent upon him for our being, both physically and spiritually. We need instruction. We don't know, we don't have all the answers to the universe, right? We need the God who created them, who created the universe, to communicate to us. We need instruction. And we need to be joined to that faithful high priest, mediator, that source of fruitfulness. We need to know who is the faithful, who is the blessed. In fact, if you spend any time in Numbers 17 and Aaron's rod that budded, it was God's way of saying, Here is the faithful priesthood that I have appointed and that you must stay in for fruitfulness. But at its basic level, fruitfulness.

23:56So, what is the right response? What is the right response? Well, it's to be recognizing your need. In fact, the very first thing and all this that God has covenanted, he draws near to his people. He promises provision, instruction, and a fruitful, ongoing relationship. But as you walk in, the very first thing you're met with is this altar. As you walk through the gate, because there's something between you and God, something between man and God, and that is our sin. You see God drawing near, but there's something that must take place. And you're confronted with that every time you walk through the curtain. The first thing you come to is the reminder of your sin.

24:54Sacrifice. Sacrifice. There is a problem of sin. Man cannot naturally come to God. We cannot come on our own merits. We must come and be connected to Him at the price of an innocent life. But you see the God who comes near. So how do we respond to this? What is the right response? This is the God who draws near. First, you see this imagery in the scripture. In the tabernacle, and then John, even more graphically, that Jesus Himself, the Word, became flesh, tabernacled among us. The reality of His drawing near, but there's still this problem of sin that must be dealt with. So, how do we respond to Him? Well, we recognize our need, right? We recognize His desire to be near to us, we recognize our need for Him, our deficiency to be able just to waltz right in on our own merits because He is holy. And so, we must approach Him on His terms. We must trust in His supply, we must receive His instruction and approach Him on His terms. We must look to Him for provision, for fruitfulness. So, we are to approach Him on His terms, trust His supply, and behold His glory.

26:33Behold His glory. That is His greatness. That is His good, majestic being. We are to behold that. That is why He wants us to come in. And we are to enjoy His presence. Listen, much of the glory of the tabernacle was the inner beauty, and only those. Who came near and came into it saw it. There is a kind of glory that the tabernacle may have given from a distance, but it could have been frightening. Obviously, Pharaoh saw that kind of glory. It was frightening. It is only those who come in, who come and trust his supply and approach him on his terms that really see the inner beauty. And such was Christ in his incarnation. I think he was all that much to look at externally. The glory was the inner beauty. Well, God is the God who tabernacles among us. He was, and he is, and will be again the God who walks among us.

27:56So the tabernacle is not just a place of physical proximity, but one of spiritual proximity. And he draws near right now that you may meet him in Christ. Listen, two people can be pretty close together in the same room and be worlds apart spiritually, right? You see that all the time. And just because two people, I see it all the time in marriage counseling. You can certainly see two people who are in the same room, and sometimes there could be very. Far apart spiritually. So physical proximity isn't just what God's interested in, it's spiritual proximity. And the meeting place is Christ.

28:43Okay, well, let's go on. There's more images in John. And turn to John 1:1. Just turn back a little bit. And another, I'll move more quickly on these others. But second image is that of light. John 1:1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. That is, life is because God is, and because God is, life is. God is eternal, and so life is. And the life was the light of men. Because God is, there is information, there is truth about the living God. Because God is, there are certain things about Him that are true, and that is light. In Him was life, and the light, and life was the light of men. And what does light do? In verse 5, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. So you see this picture of light shining. It's advancing. That's again a picture of the God who draws near. He invades our world as light invades the darkness. He draws near.

30:08And the light comes into the world. It's a depiction of God who draws near to the world he created. And what does light do? It shows, it illumines, it reveals, it shows what the darkness hides. And what is the right response to the light? Look at verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but God. So verse 12, but as many as to receive him, to them he gave the right to become children, even to those who believed in his name, believe in his name. So the right response to light is to receive it. Let it illumine. Don't close your eyes. Don't hide yourself from the light. That's the wrong response. God is. He reveals who he is. Respond to that light. Receive that light. They'll say, you know, God, that's really not the way I imagined you to be or the way you should be. So here, you be like. X, Y, and Z, and you start defining God on your own terms. It's not the right response.

31:39We are to receive the light that He gives and let it illumine who He is and not us try to make Him to what we think He ought to be. But those who receive that light, those who are believing in His testimony, these are the children of the light. So let the light shine. Be receiving the testimony and be believing. That's how you respond to the light, recognizing that we are in spiritual darkness and in need of spiritual truth. Listen, you don't have it all figured out. You don't got this.

32:27Be receiving His testimony, be believing. Another image that He uses, John, is that of bread. We saw this in John chapter 6. You can turn to John chapter 6, verse 32. And I'll begin reading there. Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down. Out of heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.

33:18So the bread of life is not something, Jesus is making it very clear, it's not something you pick up and eat physically. It's a much more profound sustenance than just physical nourishment. It is spiritual life. It imparts spiritual life, spiritual nourishment. It's that which is coming down. Verse 33. Bread of God is that which is coming down. Again, you see this picture of the God who draws near. It's not just that he provides you something to eat, he provides himself for you, for your spiritual supply.

34:04And he is necessary for human life. And the bread, if you kept reading in verse 51, bread is his flesh that he gives for the life of the world. You see, man's access to God was never intended to be purchased by an animal or to be purchased by. Man Himself. It was intended to be purchased by God Himself. And all of that imagery that He is going to give His life, His flesh. Another thing we see about bread of life is here in verse 35: It's something that completely satisfies man. He says, I am the bread of life, and He who comes to Me will not hunger, and who believes will never thirst. So the one who comes, the one who believes, will never, ever anywhere in any capacity at any time. This is a profound statement, will never, ever be spiritually needing something else from another source. That's what Jesus is saying. Talk about complete satisfaction in Him.

35:26Not only does Jesus promise salvation for His people, but complete contentment in Him. So, how do you respond to this? Well, two ways: He wants us coming to Him, He wants us to be coming to satisfy our hunger. He wants our routine to gravitate to those places, to those events, to the people. Where God's word is esteemed. This is how we draw near. We draw near. We let our routine gravitate towards the place where He is, where He is revealed, where He is esteemed, where He is talked about, whether it be in your songs that you listen to or sing, or whether it be in the church that you fellowship in, or whether it's the people, or friends, or entertainment, or thoughts, whatever it is, let your routine be gravitating to the Christ of Scripture. That's what coming to Him, let that be your food for thought. Let that be the thing that occupies your mind. That is what coming to Him is about: soul movement to Him. And it also is a picture of walking away from those routine or those habits or those patterns where He is despised, where He is treated lightly.

37:02That's what coming to Him means. It doesn't mean you're to be taken out of the world, but in all of your dealings in the world, to be one of gravitating to Him. And even when you find yourself in those places and amongst those who do not know, you're there for evangelism purposes to make Him known. He wants us to be coming to Him, and He wants us to be believing in Him. He wants us to be taking him in.

37:34Well, what I thought was going to be a very short sermon, maybe a little bit longer than I thought. A fourth image that John uses is that of water. And you can turn to John 4, 13 if you prefer. I'll be looking again then at John 7, 37. But you've got the tabernacle. That communicates the God who wants to come near. You've got light that's invading the world, that wants to disclose what's there, speak about realities. You've got bread that comes down, that wants to nourish, supply, provide, give what man needs. All of that is imagery of the God who draws near. And certainly, water is one of that, specifically living water you see, and is very much along these same lines. And after being in Israel for a little while, water is everything, right? It is everything. It's everything everywhere, but certainly you see it more pronounced in Israel. And John 4, 13, Jesus spoke to the woman there at the well and said, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.

38:54We toured many sites, and one of the old ancient sites and I can't tell you how many cisterns we walked through, how many tunnels we walked through, how many water supplies. It's almost like the main part of any city and any city that really endured for any length of time had a flowing water supply. It didn't just rely on cisterns to catch rainwater. There isn't enough rainwater for a city to thrive over time. Those are the cisterns, good for temporary measures, but you really need a flowing well, a supply, an eternal supply, a lasting supply of water. And those cities that had that thrived. Same is true about the soul.

39:42Listen, if you're looking at drawing life from your own cistern, from your own being, from your own intellect, from your own passions, it's for temporary measures only. You need to tap into that flowing well, that comes from the King's Spirit Himself, His Spirit in us, coming out. And those who drink of what He gives will never thirst. They will be satisfied. In fact, in John 7, 37, at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus says this. On the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood out and cried, saying, If anyone is Thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for the spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. And so Jesus draws near to abundantly satisfy those who will take what he gives, who internalize, who drink in by believing. That's the image, by believing, by drinking in who he is.

41:09Jesus abundantly satisfies to such an extent that those who drink of Jesus is not only satisfied themselves, but become a conduit of blessing and satisfaction to others. The soul watered by Jesus is then used to water others. Rivers of water come out. And a vessel cannot overflow until it is full. It cannot be full until it is filled. You must drink to satisfaction in Christ before you will ever be a conduit of blessing to others. And how do we respond? Well, he wants receptiveness. Coming, believing, drinking. I noticed this last week that once you get a flood, those waters can't be stopped, can they? And when your soul Has been thoroughly watered by Christ, ministry will happen.

42:06It will come. Cannot help but it, because the soul that has found its satisfaction in Christ will become a conduit for others to find satisfaction, become fishers of men. Those who have found him, we have found the Messiah. And they learned and then they proclaimed who they found. 2,000 years later, here we are, caught up in the nets, the good nets, the wonderful nets of the apostolic testimony of the Christ they walked with. So four images that John gives to us, that of the tabernacle, the light, bread, and water, all of this speaks of the God who draws near. And that's what is so horrifying about these words we read in John chapter 12, verse 37.

43:13And I pray that this will not be us. But though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him. They were not receiving. They were not coming. They were not believing. And so they remained in their darkness. They remained under judgment. And so Jesus' exhortation: walk while you have the light. Let us be people who walk while we have the light. You have a certain amount of time, certain amount of days. Be responding to the word. Be gravitating to his word and be believing that word. Take it in. Let him shape you. Walk while you have this, while you have opportunity to walk in the light.

44:10Be understanding. How do we respond to all this? Well, just in addition to what I've said, or to summarize everything that I've said, how are we to respond to the tabernacle, the light, the bread, the water? Let's not miss the big picture as we mine the small truths. How are we to respond? Well, number one, you need to be understanding that God desires an eternal relationship with you. Understand that. Know that. That's our created situation. And He draws near.

44:46So be approaching. Be approaching Him on His terms. Don't try to make up your own. Approach Him on His terms. You need instruction. You need His provision. You need His fruit-bearing capacity. His source, fruit-bearing source abiding in you. Be receiving the scriptural truths that reveal who he is. Be coming to him, be believing. Let us respond appropriately to the God who draws near. What a tragedy it is. When, after so long, he was with them that they would not believe him.

45:34But on the contrary, those who did receive, as the Gospel of John is going to go on to show, they entered into the inner beauty of this great King. Let us be like them. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for coming and drawing near. We thank you even now that we're not just reading dead letters on a page, but that these speak of eternal realities that are true today as they were ever true. True today, you are the God who draws near. You draw near, even through the proclamation of the word this morning. This is your idea to advance towards us.

46:25Father, forgive us of our sin. May we approach you on the merits of Christ and On his merits alone. We need your provision. We need your covering for our sin. Be our supply in all things. Forgive us where we have trusted in others and ourselves, sought to redefine you. Father, please come. Glorify your name in us through faith in your Son. In Christ's name.