Jas 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.
Draw nigh to God.
Heb 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.
How do we draw near to God? ONLY through JESUS CHRIST.
Heb 10:22 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.
Only our Savior can save us, cleanse us.
In the old testament times right up to the time before Jesus' death, the way to draw near to God was through sacrifice, and through the yearly cleansing. People would bring sacrificial offerings to God's temple and have God's priests minister there as they offered their sin offerings. People KNEW there had to be a shedding of blood, or else there would be NO remission from their sins.
Heb_9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Once our Savior took on the role of our Sacrifice it was through HIM, through HIS BLOOD that we are saved, that we are cleansed.
So here in this verse James 4:8 we are told to… CLEANSE our hands and PURIFY our hearts.
Before we can present ourselves to God we must feel the weight of our filthiness, of our impurities.
So many people feel the horrible weight of sin and wish for that weight to be lifted off them, because to have it lifted off means that we've been forgiven and that sin is no longer upon us, right? Yet for how long after you are forgiven and all the weight is removed from your spiritual shoulders do you remain cleansed and pure? A second? A minute? An hour? A whole day? More? Until the next sin, which could truly take place the second after you've been forgiven, couldn't it? It only takes a moment for an impure thought to stain ourselves once again.
People love the idea of once forgiven always forgiven because they feel they now have a free pass to forgiveness and every sin committed after accepting Christ as their Savior, repenting, and being baptized, is automatically forgiven. It's not true. You can TURN back from God, and sin does that. Un-confessed, unrepentant sin is a separator between us and God.
We need to forever recognize our need for our Savior. It's a constant need, an endless need, a need we will have forever. There will never come a time when we no longer need our Savior and the gift of His forgiveness.
We only have hope in our submitting to God, and we submit to God by drawing close to Him and as we draw close to Him we are able to see just how vile and filthy we are. When we recognize our sins we MUST ask for forgiveness with a true heart full of repentance, only then can we be cleansed, and our hearts made pure. To think that we have something of our own that can cleanse and purify us is a fallacy. We are made clean and purified by growing closer and closer to our Savior.
Recognizing our sin put the nails through the hands and feet of our Savior and drove that spear into His side, is realizing the horror of sin, and by the grace of God we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit to recognize the filth of every sin in our lives. There is NO sin that is pretty and clean. There does not exist a sin of a pure heart. Sin is filth and stains everything it comes in contact with.
We need to really see the awfulness of sin- every sin- so that when we do sin it produces a true repentance, a true desire to no longer sin.
Drawing nigh to God- recognizing our NEED of God. When we recognize our NEED of God, He will acknowledge us and draw closer to us.
Just as it is truly wonderful to be clean physically, it is truly wonderful to be clean spiritually, purified. We MUST wash in the blood of our Savior so HE can cleanse us with His blood. We wash in His blood by recognizing Him as our SAVIOR, accepting that He sacrificed His life for us, knowing He lives for us and will not be complete until we are with Him once again when He returns to bring All that are His home with Him.
All in HIS amazing LOVE.
Draw nigh to God.
Heb 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.
How do we draw near to God? ONLY through JESUS CHRIST.
Heb 10:22 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.
Only our Savior can save us, cleanse us.
In the old testament times right up to the time before Jesus' death, the way to draw near to God was through sacrifice, and through the yearly cleansing. People would bring sacrificial offerings to God's temple and have God's priests minister there as they offered their sin offerings. People KNEW there had to be a shedding of blood, or else there would be NO remission from their sins.
Heb_9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Once our Savior took on the role of our Sacrifice it was through HIM, through HIS BLOOD that we are saved, that we are cleansed.
So here in this verse James 4:8 we are told to… CLEANSE our hands and PURIFY our hearts.
Before we can present ourselves to God we must feel the weight of our filthiness, of our impurities.
So many people feel the horrible weight of sin and wish for that weight to be lifted off them, because to have it lifted off means that we've been forgiven and that sin is no longer upon us, right? Yet for how long after you are forgiven and all the weight is removed from your spiritual shoulders do you remain cleansed and pure? A second? A minute? An hour? A whole day? More? Until the next sin, which could truly take place the second after you've been forgiven, couldn't it? It only takes a moment for an impure thought to stain ourselves once again.
People love the idea of once forgiven always forgiven because they feel they now have a free pass to forgiveness and every sin committed after accepting Christ as their Savior, repenting, and being baptized, is automatically forgiven. It's not true. You can TURN back from God, and sin does that. Un-confessed, unrepentant sin is a separator between us and God.
We need to forever recognize our need for our Savior. It's a constant need, an endless need, a need we will have forever. There will never come a time when we no longer need our Savior and the gift of His forgiveness.
We only have hope in our submitting to God, and we submit to God by drawing close to Him and as we draw close to Him we are able to see just how vile and filthy we are. When we recognize our sins we MUST ask for forgiveness with a true heart full of repentance, only then can we be cleansed, and our hearts made pure. To think that we have something of our own that can cleanse and purify us is a fallacy. We are made clean and purified by growing closer and closer to our Savior.
Recognizing our sin put the nails through the hands and feet of our Savior and drove that spear into His side, is realizing the horror of sin, and by the grace of God we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit to recognize the filth of every sin in our lives. There is NO sin that is pretty and clean. There does not exist a sin of a pure heart. Sin is filth and stains everything it comes in contact with.
We need to really see the awfulness of sin- every sin- so that when we do sin it produces a true repentance, a true desire to no longer sin.
Drawing nigh to God- recognizing our NEED of God. When we recognize our NEED of God, He will acknowledge us and draw closer to us.
Just as it is truly wonderful to be clean physically, it is truly wonderful to be clean spiritually, purified. We MUST wash in the blood of our Savior so HE can cleanse us with His blood. We wash in His blood by recognizing Him as our SAVIOR, accepting that He sacrificed His life for us, knowing He lives for us and will not be complete until we are with Him once again when He returns to bring All that are His home with Him.
All in HIS amazing LOVE.
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