Part 2: Pursuing God

"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."
Hebrews 10:22

"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded."
James 4:8

Introduction:

The Avis Car Rental motto is, "We Try Harder," and this seems to be the common misconception among many of today’s professing Christians. There is a common belief that "if we do our best, God will do the rest." Yet, if we desire for that close, intimate walk with the Lord, one which involves an awareness of His daily presence in our lives, then we must pursue God not in a deceptively pious or sanctimonious manner, but rather, one in which God is in us to will and to work His good pleasure. However we must ever keep in mind that "we pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit" (A. W. Tozer). "The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him. All the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand" (A. W. T.).

Psalm 84:2 says, "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." Our pursuit of God is created by our hunger for righteousness. For those that drink deeply from the well of righteousness there is a longing for God that produces a healthy heart relationship with the Lord. Our heart is not painfully unsatisfied, but rather has found the source by which nothing else could supply its needs. Where the soul desires the refreshment of finding God as Psalm 42:2 says, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:" there shall be contentment. Therefore, our willingness, becomes His willingness, our working is His working, and our holiness is His holiness. Our pursuit of God is a natural progression of that which has already been worked out in us by virtue of our position "in Christ." We seek righteousness because of our imputed righteousness as Matthew 5:6 says, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Our hunger is a result of our desire or thirst for the living God; our filling is a result of our position.

Draw Near:

The Greek word for "draw near" is prosepcwmeqa  (pro-ser‘-cho-me‘tha) and means that we should "approach" with an element of willingness where our complete attention is engaged and pledged to turn from the things of the past and to cleave to, and hold fast to a personal relationship with the Lord. To "draw near" to God is a pursuit whereby one’s heart seeks out the enriching knowledge of God by means of an intimate fellowship with the Most High. This means that we continually seek a closer walk with God through the recognition of his presence in our life all the time. We must seek God with a determination of the soul throughout our Christian walk. Everything does not stop with the initial conversion experience, regardless of the spurious logic that says that "we have found Him and we need to seek Him no longer." First, I did not realize that He was the One that was lost and second, complacency in longing for God, following after Him, or pursuing Him, is the deadliest foe of all spiritual growth. "Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. To bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain" (A. W. T.). Where there is no desire to draw near unto God through a personal relationship with His Son, there has been no extrication from the old nature, regardless what one might say concerning their conversion experience.

It is a great privilege for Christians in that they may "draw near" unto God as accepted worshippers. It is both an act of the mind and heart whereby the soul is under the sweet influence of the Spirit and it irresistibly turns to God in Christ as its only center and rest (A. W. P.). "There is, therefore, no condition of heart more to be sought after than this desire to draw nigh to God, since his law or requirement is that we furnish this evidence of a genuine longing for the special blessings He desires to give us. This being true, we must agree that the highest state is one of hunger and thirst, intense desire for more life, more holiness, more power, closer communion with God, more of the divine likeness in the soul" (J.J. Blackburn). Psalm 63:1-4 says, "1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name." Here the Psalmist indicates that he is not able to do without God. His greatest desire is to seek out the hungering and thirsting that he has for the mere pleasure of looking upon Christ. It is with the whole of the soul that he seeks God; it is his wish to seek God in such a manner as a merchant would seek that which is most precious to his trade and profit. Such should be our desire to draw nigh unto God. With our every effort we should seek that close and intimate relationship that would fulfill the desires of our soul. We should seek to gaze upon that which is holy, to run headlong with blind desire into the arms of our loving Father.

The Heart:

Christians, of all peoples, should be a happy people. If we are not happy, the fault lies within our hearts. It is not right with God. James 4:8 says, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." We are to engage ourselves in a moral purification as to live our lives under a vow of abstinence from the desires and pleasures offered by the world. There must be a sincere, genuine, honest desire and determination to render unto God that which is due. We are not to act out of words that are pleasing to our ears or meets the requirements of an amoral society but we are to act out of genuine faith and seek God with "our whole heart."

James 1:8 defines one that is double minded; "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." The lack of stability lies solely within the heart; it is weak, inconsistent, fickle, and cannot guard against the attacks of Satan and the old weaknesses of the flesh. He may best be described as a man with two souls, or a double heart; a man who asks without the sincerity of faith and speaks with a "forked-tongue." This is the man that is described as "halting between two opinions, and is uncertain of what to do or say and what to ask for" (J. Gill). The double minded person is guilty of attempting to look at God and also the world (he is driving forward while looking over his shoulder); he is guilty of spiritual adultery, which is a matter of the heart. He is the man that "draws nigh to God with his mouth, and honors Him with his lips, but his heart is far from Him" (J. Gill). Therefore he is in reality unstable in all his ways. His mind constantly operates in a confused state and he is unsettled in his designs on life as it relates to his relationship with God. I remember when I was a child and my family went on a tour of some famous swamps in Florida. As our tour progressed, the guide in the boat in front of us approached a small island, and as part of the tour, stepped out on what seemed to be solid land. However, much to his surprise, as well as ours, he immediately disappeared under the island. I tell you this because it relates to one that is unstable in all his ways. On the surface things may appear to be normal, but once pressure of any type is placed on such a one, he immediately manifests his unstable tendencies.

The heart must therefore be cultivated. As a gardener would weed his garden, so must the Christian tear out the weeds of the past life by the roots. Jeremiah 17:9 & 10 says that, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." Therefore we must "keep the heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23). The heart must be cleansed and rendered pure by the expiation of sin and error, it is to be pronounced ceremonially clean! Yet, this is a one time willful dedication which is to be lived out and sustained by the power of God. A true heart is opposed to a double, doubting, distrustful, and hypocritical heart. It is in opposition to the heart that allows us to approach or draw nigh unto God. We have nothing that enables us to present our praises and petitions unto the Most Holy God if our heart be impure. Only a true saint of God may exercise his sacerdotal right as a priest of God to fitly approach the God on High. Such is the heart that is enabled to approach God in the "full assurance of faith" for it is resting in, and relying upon the absolute sufficiency of the blood of Christ, which was shed for sins, and His present intercession in maintaining a right standing before God.

In the process of sanctification, the heart is to be conditioned through avoidance and maintenance. First, we are to avoid an evil heart. We are to so condition our way of thinking and avoid those thoughts that are sinful in themselves. Our Lord warns us that our very thoughts are as though we had committed the act itself; Matthew 5: 28 says, "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after here hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Furthermore we are to avoid the impenitent or evil heart that can spring up at any time. Bitterness can manifest itself in families, churches, and relationships. Where there was once love, bitterness will take over. As weeds in a garden that spring up without warning, so does bitterness; and once weeds take root, they become ever increasingly difficult to get rid of until they finally choke out the fruit of the garden.. Second, the heart must be suitable for maintenance by means of correction. Christianity is a religion of the heart. A heart of stone must be replaced with a heart of flesh. The heart cannot be "deceitful above all things" and "desperately wicked," but must be honest and forthright (Luke 8:15; "But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience") and easily entreated (James 3:17; "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy").

The Conscience:

"When the conscience is purged from dead works, we serve the living God in a lively manner; and this begets a holy cheerfulness in the soul, and we are freed from that bondage that otherwise would clog us in our duty to God" (Thomas Manton). The conscience is that "faculty" which includes a moral sense or power of discerning right and wrong. This faculty judges according to a divine law of right and wrong. It is not like the intellect, sensibility, and will, but it is that which constitutes the way in which one acts whereby he knows himself in connection with a moral standard or divine law.

Second Timothy 1:3 says, "I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience. . . " In other words, the apostle was thankful that he served God according to the mandates of the law in the hands of Christ, as they were written upon his heart by the Spirit of God (J. Gill). The apostles’ conscience was free of guilt because of the nature of the heart which enabled him to serve God in a manner that delighted the inward man. From this example we can readily see that we are to serve God with a "pure conscience" thereby rendering our service to God as holy and acceptable, being our reasonable service. We are to act according to his standard as defined by His Word. There is a very distinct line drawn whereby we do not act capricious or spontaneous based on the universal depraved standards of the world. Rather we make judgments on the wrongness of an act based on the law given to the conscience. If one has been redeemed from the flesh pots of Egypt, he should rightly adhere to a moral law that is given according to his "new nature." Not to thus act is evidence to the fact that our nature is wholly unchanged. Therefore, in our pursuit of God and in our sanctification, our decision making process is determined by moral reason based on a proper standard. Now, one can see that the duty of enlightening and cultivating moral reason, so that the conscience may have a proper standard of judgment, is of utmost importance, but yet wholly dependent upon God first instilling within us a proper standard. When we act contrary to God’s will and our conscience does not condemn us, then we are not of God and our pursuit of God lies solely within our own efforts.

"Conscience, in the proper sense, gives uniform and infallible judgment that right is supremely obligatory, and that wrong must be forborne at every cost, it can be called an echo of God’s voice, and an indication in man of that which his own true being requires" (A. H. Strong). If we operate in a state that is contrary to the revealed will of God, and believe that we are justified before God, then our conscience operates according to our depraved affections and desires; hence we have virtually a deceiving as well as a latent conscience (A. A. Hodge). "Notwithstanding this however, the normal sense of the distinction between right and wrong, as an eternal law to itself, lies indestructible even in the most depraved beasts, as it cannot destroyed, so it cannot be changed; . . . (A. A. H.).

This being true, what conditions and maintains the conscience? The answer is God, and God alone. In our pursuit of God, our soul thirsts after Him. God then is the strength of our soul; He is our sufficiency; we then believe that we are not self-sufficient in the changing of the heart; we cannot on our own come to a self-resolution; we cannot institute the change without the power of God. He works in us both to will and to do, and that of His good pleasure. In our pursuit of God we grow close to Him, we become more holy, and in the process, our definition, understanding, and application of the divine law so conditions the soul that we operate according to a "pure conscience."

Conclusion:

Many of those that are committed to and are involved in the innumerable and diverse ministries of the church believe deeply that their involvement is due to the fact that their love for God demands such. They believe that their commitment to God is being fulfilled through their involvement. However this is not in itself a meter that gives the most accurate reading. Scripture tells us in Matthew 6:33, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Now I realize that this verse of Scripture means that we are to first seek God "rather" or "instead of" those things that were our focus and priority as unbelievers. Nevertheless, the idea of "seek first" the things of God can only be fully realized through a close personal relationship with God. Do we really know God, do we fully understand God in a way that He is not only our Savior but also our closest and most intimate Friend? "To most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate, but He remains personally unknown to the individual" (C. Holmes). People have a tendency to make up their own creed using various "odds and ends" and develop their own understanding of an "ideal" God and then call this relationship.

John MacArthur in his commentary on Matthew says, "To seek God’s kingdom is seek to win people into that kingdom, that they might be saved and God might be glorified." To this I wholly disagree! Our seeking after God is a desire of the soul that we seek Him that first sought us. Our desire is for Him. We thirst after Him. Our prayers are direct to Him. Yes, as a result of our relationship and our newly imputed righteousness we shall do the things of the kingdom but we must never think by merely doing, what is defined as Christian duty, we therefore are pursuing God. Our pursuit of God is to bring about an inward revelation of the Godhead. Jesus says in John 14:7, "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also:" There are many that claim to know the Son of the Father without knowing the Father of the Son.

Providence Baptist Ministries © copyright_date PBM Desktop Publications © copyright_date All rights reserved Revised: April 13, 2009