DRAW NEAR TO GOD
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (James 4:8).
In his great hymn, Rock of Ages, Augustus Toplady writes about Christ:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, - Let me hide myself in thee; -
Let the water and the blood, - From thy riven side which flowed,
- Be of sin the double cure, - Cleanse me from its guilt and power.
The message that Christ came to preach was a message of repentance leading to forgiveness, and each of His followers have been given the task of taking the undiluted message and sharing it with others, so that they too might claim salvation through Christ. Our inheritance from Christ is there to be claimed not only for us, but also for the vast army of unsaved souls that we walk amongst every day. However, in order for people to repent they need to be shown the need for repentance, and that means that they must recognise that there is sin in their lives. To attempt to share the message without the benefit of the Holy Spirit makes it an unenviable task, one that is well nigh impossible for many people. How easy it would be to give up before we begin, convinced by a spirit of doubt, sent by Satan himself, of the sheer futility of our task.
There can be no question about our being commissioned to this work of mission, and Jesus has promised that once we have accepted Him as Saviour and Lord then we have the Holy Spirit to be our guide and comforter, and to remind us of all that we have been taught, so why is it that so many Christians fail miserably in the task?
Let us consider the following points.
Who are we saving it for?
Sometimes it appears that people are waiting for the ‘right’ person to come along before we share the message. We keep on waiting for them to appear, eager to share the life-changing message with them, yet, because we are judging people by their appearance we can wait for ever. It’s so easy to decide that someone whom we are prompted to declare Christ's goodness and grace to simply doesn't look the sort of person who would respond to the message, and so we don't bother to deliver it. Perhaps we even convince ourselves that the people are too far into a life of sin to be rescued, or that it needs someone stronger than us to fulfil the task.
Are we really strong enough?
When we reach out to others we do so in the Name of Jesus Christ. His is the only name by which anyone will receive forgiveness and be brought to salvation. Acts 4:12 reports the words of Peter, There is no other name under heaven which has been given amongst men, by which we must be saved. When we speak out in the name of the living Christ then we are empowered by that very name. The very words that we use will be given to us by the Holy Spirit, and we are assured that the word of God always achieves its intended purpose. God says of His word that ... It shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11).
Does everyone have a need to repent?
The only person whose life was untainted by sin is Jesus. Everyone else has a life that bears the stains of sin upon their heart. Scripture teaches us that God punishes sin by death, and so every sinner must die in that case. But because God loves us so much He has also provided the answer for us whereby we can be redeemed to Him from sin, and that answer is Jesus Christ the living Son of the Living God. When we come to Christ in true repentance, confessing Him as our Saviour, then we learn the meaning of the Cross for ourselves, and understand that He has borne the punishment for our sin, and that, through the shedding of His blood, our redemption has been bought.
Is repentance as simple as saying sorry?
No, but it is as easy as really being sorry. Words come too easily for people, so it is simple to expect that simply using the word sorry is all that there is to repentance, but it's much more than that. To be truly repentant require time in prayer coming face to face with the sin in your life, facing each area of sin one by one, and then in all humility, confessing it to Christ. It is not an easy task and it is a task which is likely to lead to tears, so great is the sorrow, but today's tears of sorrow will bring about tomorrow's tears of joy. So much as the joy of truly living with Christ in your heart is unspeakable joy, so the sorrow at realising how much you have offended Him by sin, unspeakable sorrow. But always the latter will be superseded by the former, joy always being found after sorrow.
What if I feel too ashamed to face Christ and say sorry?
If this is the feeling that faces you then you are not alone. One of the subtle ways that the devil uses in order to try and prevent loosening us from his grasp is to try and convince us that we are not worthy recipients of Christ's grace. Once we try to face up to the sin in our lives then we start to question whether we can confess it all, thinking perhaps that something is simply too big to be forgiven. But whilst we may measure sin according to size the important thing is for us to recognise sin simply as sin, no matter what the size. Whether by our standards a particular area of sin is small or large then to God it is straightforward. It is SIN! All sin needs to be confessed, for it is once all of our sins have been confessed that we can truly claim Christ as our Redeemer. Of course it's not easy, but then anything of real value is not easily secured!
So we confess our sins. We name them before Christ, and as we name each one so He will forgive us of each one, and He will plant His words in our hearts to Go and sin no more. Think of His suffering and pain on the cross every time that you are tempted and it will become easier to turn aside from sin and send Satan packing!
Every month we come together to share the Sacrament of Holy Communion, giving us an opportunity to renew our relationship with Christ afresh. We have an opportunity to declare His love as we join in the Communion Feast; an opportunity once again to be cleansed of any sin that has entered into our lives. When we sit down at the Table we do so in the presence of Christ, and in the knowledge that He is with us we need to ensure that we can face him without the shame of sin. Because of our very nature we find it impossible to be totally blameless, but because of the nature of Christ, His capacity for forgiveness is beyond measure. Ask and it shall be given to you ... (Matthew 7:7).
Before coming to the Table we both ask and receive.
· We ask for His forgiveness;
· we ask for His blessing;
· and we receive all by His grace.
Amen.
Posts
