“And I will bring him near, and he will approach Me,

for who would dare on his own to approach Me?”

declares the LORD. vs21

God is a great God. These notions of Him being tiny are stupid and vain. He is the absolute sovereign, He rules the world, and He gives the kingdom to whom He pleases; it has nothing to do with man [Dan 4:17]. He'll take fishermen, thugs, and prostitutes, and He'll bring us into the kingdom. He sets us on high because of His sovereign pleasure.

Fear God, and give Him glory. Draw near by the grace that He gives you.

First, it takes grace to draw near to God. The God of the Bible is far different from the idol invented by man! He is absolutely holy, and He punishes sin. He is inflexible in justice and pours out wrath forever. He PUNISHED HIS OWN SON, when sin was found on Him, and without a Mediator, we perish forever.

You'd never draw near this God for grace and mercy, except He extended it to you by faith in Christ. If there was no One to pay for our sins, then we'd run like Adam and hide in vain.

Secondly, draw near because He's gracious! He's afflicted you, but you deserved it.

All your lovers have forgotten you;

they no longer seek you,

for I have struck you as an enemy would,

with the discipline of someone cruel,

because of your great iniquity

and your numerous sins.

Why do you cry out over your wound?

Your pain has no cure!

Because of your great iniquity

and your numerous sins

I have done these things to you. vs14-15

You sinned against His counsel and ran from His mercy. You despised Him to live your own life. You loved sin and drank iniquity like water. You loved self-righteousness and lording yourself over others [1 Pet 5:3]. We were an abomination, ego inflated against God, and we gave our flesh dominion. We would not have Him rule over us.

Therefore, He gave us guilt, shame, and the bondage of corruption. He allowed us to spend our years in vain, until we learned our helplessness, and could resist Him no more! He allowed us to see that we're failures: our righteousness is depraved hypocrisy, our will is captive, and we need a Savior outside of ourselves to come into us with power. We need the Holy Spirit by free grace. We need God.

Now that you're here, don't despair! He'll receive you. He's the Savior of sinners, and He saves when we have no hope.

For the LORD will vindicate His people

and have compassion on His servants

when He sees that their strength is gone

and no one remains, slave or free. [Deut 32:36]

Thirdly, He will receive you! The mercies of God run high, reach low, and help the sinner. He's not stingy and casts out no one, but He brings us down to lift us up [1 Sam 2:6-7]! Grace is glorified in delivering the sinner, and this makes us love Him. He gets glory, as Rolfe Barnard said, "By saving the wickedest sinner out of hell!"

Love will spring up by this gospel, drawing your heart to man, as you think about obtaining mercy, rather than your own greatness, and you show compassion, rather than despise others.

This is the gospel that's unto godliness. Holiness is the fruit of His love.