Intimacy with God

Last week I began a short series by talking about the fears many Christians live with at various times in their lives – fears that disturb and even rob their joy in the Lord. I cited a few of the fears that often trouble Christians, such as the fear they are not really saved, or the fear that their sins are not all forgiven, or that they cannot really be fruitful in their walk with Christ, or that they’ll never be intimate with Him in this life.

Of course, and it should be expected that the Christian need not give place to ANY such fears. Why? Because the Lord Jesus promised us, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.” Luke 18:27. And again, in 2 Corinthians 1:20a): “For all the promises of God in [Christ] are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:20a)

If we are in Christ because of our faith in Christ’s substitutionary atonement for our sins, if we’ve been baptized, practice ongoing repentance and strive with His help to live a holy lifestyle – then we can be fully assured by God's sacred and immutable word: We ARE in Christ, and all the promises of God to us for a holy walk are “Yes, and Amen” in Christ.

Last week I talked about the impossibility of failing in our walk with Christ for anyone who wants a successful walk with Him. And I hope I was successful in demonstrating from the Scriptures that it is impossible to fail because it is our supernatural God who holds our hand. It is the supernatural Creator of worlds and galaxies who holds us in His arms and guides us in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake – not for our sakes.

I want to continue this series and address another area of our walk with Christ in which it is impossible for us to fail – if we don’t want to fail. Specifically, it is impossible for the Christian who WANTS to grow in his or her intimacy with Christ to fail to do so.

When my friends and I were in our late teens, we often joked with each other, quoting a then popular phrase, “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” I don’t know where that asinine idea originated, but now that I’m in my 70s, I look back at those days before I met Christ and sadly shake my head to realize how stupid, and self-deceptive AND ultimately self-destructive that idea was and is.

To paraphrase the Lord Jesus, “What does a profit a person to gain the whole world –to have the most toys – what is the profit of them when you lay on your hospice bed facing eternity?” (See Mark 8:36 in context)

Long before Jesus spoke those words to His audience in Galilee, Solomon spoke of the futility of filling one’s life with toys. Listen to what he wrote toward the end of his life:

Ecclesiastes 2: “I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.” And behold, it too was futility. . . . . I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; I made gardens and parks for myself . . . I bought male and female slaves, and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men—many concubines . .  All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure . . . and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.”

Solomon ended his message this way – and we who want to grow in our intimacy with God would be wise to heed:

“Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them” . . .[and] the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity!” . . . The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person; For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”

Vanity of vanities. Futility of futilities. Striving all our lives – some of us even to this moment – trying to fill a God-created emptiness with things that can satisfy only for a short while but ultimately will taste like ashes in our mouths.

St Augustine knew what he was talking about when he wrote: “Great are You, Lord, and greatly to be praised . . . You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

And so, the Lord Jesus offers all who are restless: “Come to Me and you will find rest for your souls.” (See Matthew 11:28 context)

There is no intimacy with Christ without a DESIRE for intimacy and a WILLINGNESS to do what is required for that intimacy, which is obedience to His word. And there is no growing in that intimacy without also a true desire to grow in our obedience to His word.

And it is along that line of thought of growing in intimacy that I now say what I am about to say: The book of Romans is arguably the most systematic statement of Christian faith that’s ever been written. But yet Paul confessed several years LATER, in his letter to the Christians at Philippi, that he still had much to learn about intimacy with his Savior. Listen to what he wrote:

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. (As an aside, think of ‘toys’ in this context. Paul could have said, “However many ‘toys’ I have, I count it all as loss for the sake of Christ).

Let me now continue with the text, back to Philippians 3 and verse 8: “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

I pause again to make another comment: Paul confessed to his readers – including you and me – that all he wanted to do was to gain Christ, to be found in Him – we might say – to be as intimate and as close to Him as our breath is to us. And then notice what he says next: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:7-14

Isn’t that a word both of advice AND encouragement to us who long to be close with Jesus? If PAUL did not believe he’d ‘arrived’ at the place with Jesus that he wanted to be, then who among us should think poorly of ourselves that WE have not yet arrived at the place of intimacy with Christ that we want to be?  And so, the question: “Are we willing to do what it takes to grow closer to Christ?

And, you might ask, what might that be? What is necessary for us to do in order to draw closer to Him who created us?

Well, first – we need to know in our heart of hearts that God created us for intimacy with Himself. Parents understand that principle. When a man and woman fall in love and marry, they usually want to have children with whom they can share their love and the close intimacy of a family. In a similar way – though much deeper than we can hope to understand – God wants to be intimate with us.

But the problem arises for us when we are content to hold Him at arm’s length -- mostly because we don’t like His rules for intimacy – just as children of loving parents who, when they grow older, grouse about their parent’s rules and as a consequence distance THEMSELVES from the closeness their parents still desire to have with them.

That was the problem – so to speak – that God faced with His Chosen People, Israel. He created them, and He covenanted with them to be their God, lover, protector – yes, even their Father. Isaiah 64:8 is only one example in the Old Testament of the relationship God wanted with Israel: “But now, O Lord, You are our Father . . .  all of us are the work of Your hand.”

But we learn throughout the writings of the Old Testament prophets, the people – for the most part – did not want that kind of intimacy with God. Listen again to Isaiah: Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the Lord speaks, “Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me. An ox knows its owner, And a donkey its master’s manger, But Israel does not know, My people do not understand.”

Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity.” (Isaiah 1:2-4)

As I’ve said several times in different ways during this message, our Father in heaven created us to have an intimate relationship with Him. That’s why He gave His Son, Jesus, to reconcile us to Himself by Christ’s substitutionary death on that cross.

God certainly did HIS part. But we who want a close relationship must do our part, too. If we want intimacy with God, if we want to be as close to Him as our breath is to ourselves – as I said earlier – we must strive to live according to His way, His design, His commandments, because His commandments and design are all designed for our good, our benefit, our wholeness.

It is not enough to read the Bible and pray and do good works – all very important to our walk with Him. But without OBEDIENCE to His commandments, such things will never grow us closer to Him. We cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God. Indeed, being a friend of the world makes us enemies of God. St James put it quite succinctly:

“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God . . . . Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts.” (James 4:4,7-8a) 

If we want intimacy with our Lord, then we must enter and remain in that relationship His way – not ours. The Lord said on more than one occasion, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” (John 14:21)

Obedience. That’s the key to intimacy. The more often we obey Him, the closer we draw near to Him. The more often we disobey, the more distant we grow from Him. As the scripture again tells us: (Proverbs 3:32) “[God] is intimate with the upright.”

Don’t we know – and if we do not know this then we need to learn this: Our sin nature distorts every part of our lives. It distorts our ability to think and reason correctly about sin, righteousness, and God's judgment. And our sin nature interferes with our ability to consistently make godly choices.

Jeremiah said it clearly enough: (Jeremiah 17:9) “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” God also tells us through apostle Paul: “The person you used to be will ruin you through desires that deceive you.” Ephesians 4:22 (NOG version).

THAT is why our knowledge of -- and more specifically – our obedience to the Scriptures, as guided by the Holy Spirit, is our only truly safe haven from ourselves. And so, Paul counseled his readers: “Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” Become sober-minded as you ought and stop sinning.”

In plain language, God wants us to stop making excuses for our sins . . .  sins of gossip, sins of sexual immorality and lust, sins of anger, sins of lying, sins of refusing to forgive others, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. Just as a husband and wife cannot be intimate with each other if one is unfaithful to the other, so too, neither can we be intimate with God if we are unfaithful to Him and his Word.

It doesn’t get any simpler than that; Nor does it get any more difficult because our sin nature recoils against the idea that he is Master and we are His bondslaves. And it doesn’t get any simpler than knowing that we all – and at all times—need the Holy Spirit’s supernatural help to adhere to HIS singular Truth over the many and varied so-called ‘truths’ of our culture.

The Psalmist certainly understood the vital role of the Holy Spirit in keeping us close and intimate with God. For example, pay attention to the verbs in this section of Psalm 119:33-38

“Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law and keep it with all my heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
for I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to dishonest gain. Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity and revive me in Your ways. Establish Your word to Your servant, as that which produces reverence for You.”

Intimacy with Christ. Is that our goal? Is that our desire? If so, then are we willing to do what is necessary to reach that goal? Are we even willing TO BE MADE WILLING by the Holy Spirit to do what we need to do to become more intimate with Jesus?

As I’ve said, God created us for intimacy with Himself. He WANTS intimacy with us. So, let’s come to Him, humbly, confessing our sins and our weakness to obey Him as we ought. Confessing also how much we need Him to make us walk in the paths of His commandments, to incline our hearts to His testimonies, and to turn our eyes away from looking at vanity and chasing after toys – things which can never fill the God-created hole in our hearts.

My brothers and sisters – Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Take His yoke upon ourselves and learn from Him – for He is meek and humble in heart, and we will find rest for our souls and a deepening intimacy with Him who loves us with a love immeasurable.

Amen.