Sermon Central
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The Nearness Of God.
Contributed by Christopher Holdsworth on Mar 27, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: Popular religion speaks about man reaching up to God. However, the reality is that God is reaching down to us. Yes, Christ is stretching out His arms to us upon the Cross.
THE NEARNESS OF GOD.
People sometimes talk about somebody who ‘found God.’ God was never lost; it is people who are lost. When the prodigal son returned to his father, the father said, ‘this my son was lost, but now is found’ (cf. Luke 15:24).
Yet, in their distress, people will call upon a God in whom they do not believe, have not trusted. ‘This calamity,’ they ask, ‘where is God in it?’
The fact of the matter is, that God is never far away. He constantly speaks into our situations saying, “Behold me, behold me” (Isaiah 65:1). ‘Where art THOU, Adam?’ (Genesis 3:9).
He calls a people who are not, after all, His people, and spreads out His hands toward those who are walking “in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts” (Isaiah 65:2; cf. Romans 10:20-21).
Yes, Jesus stretched out his hands upon the Cross (cf. Romans 5:6-10). This, this is the way of salvation!
‘Come unto Me,’ said Jesus (Matthew 11:28). ‘I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me’ (John 14:6).
The LORD says, ‘Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else’ (Isaiah 45:22).
‘This is the way, walk ye in it,’ says our prophet elsewhere (Isaiah 30:21).
The prophets pointed to the LORD, but the people, even His own covenant people, went merrily on their own way, sacrificing in gardens, dwelling amongst graves, eating pig flesh and all (Isaiah 65:3-5a). Even today people seek God in all the wrong places and all the wrong ways, telling God to His face that their way is better than His.
All this excites the indignation of the LORD (Isaiah 65:5b). The separation between God and man is not of His making, but ours. There must be a day of reckoning, even for His own covenant people (Isaiah 65:6-7; cf. Jeremiah 16:18).
There is, after all, such a thing as a generational curse (cf. Exodus 20:5). Even Jesus says (to the scribes and Pharisees), ‘Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers’ (Matthew 23:32).
Yet even in judgment, the LORD is merciful. He is still reaching out to a people within His people - a remnant if you will (cf. Romans 11:5). He will not destroy the whole bunch of grapes on account of a few bad ones - what farmer would? There is yet “a blessing in it;” “I will not destroy them all” (Isaiah 65:8; cf. Zechariah 13:8-9; Mark 13:20).
The Lord is ‘long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish’ (2 Peter 3:9). He names His “elect,” “My servants,” and they begin to possess the promised land (Isaiah 65:9).
Those who were 'not My people' are now called 'My people' (Hosea 2:23), including both Jews and Gentiles (Romans 9:25).
The prospect ahead for those who are His is ‘a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness’ (2 Peter 3:13; cf. Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1).
