Turn with me back to Isaiah 55.
Isaiah 55, let's read verse 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Does that not give you so much
hope? He may be found. He is near. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. This message tonight is for every
soul here. And I want to especially include
you young people. Children, teenagers, young adults. I think about you. I think a
lot about you. Sometimes it takes a little while
in life to learn what our true need is and how everything else is vanity,
as a brother just read in my study. I think about your futures and
I think about your eternal souls. just like I do the adults. I think about the adults, me
included, and our futures and our eternal souls. And what I want to say tonight
to all of us is while we're here, here we are, here we are. Everybody who's here is here
right now. And while we're here, while I
have your ear in this moment of your life, while we're still on this earth,
while we're still under the gospel, what I want to say to all of
us is, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon
him while he is near. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Hold your place right here and
see if you can find the book of Amos. It's page 1143 in my
Bible. Toward the end of the Old Testament,
Amos. I would tell you what's around
it, but all of them are hard to find. It's kind of in the middle of
what they call the minor prophets. Page 1143, again, Amos chapter
five. Verse four says, for thus saith the Lord unto
the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and you shall live. Seek me, and you shall live. That's what the Lord God Almighty
has to say to the house of Israel, to his chosen, peculiar, special
people. You seek me, and you shall live. See if you can find a book called
Zephaniah. It's page 1165. It's to the right,
just a few pages. Zephaniah, chapter 2, verse 3 says, Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek
of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness, which is a person. Seek meekness. It may be you shall be hid in
the day of the Lord's anger. Boy, that's a verse right there,
isn't it? Seek the Lord, seek the Lord. Go with me back to
Isaiah 55. Seek the Lord. One man made the
statement that Isaiah 53, you adults especially know Isaiah
53. Anytime somebody says Isaiah
53, we know what that says. If you wanna look at it, you
can. Verse seven in Isaiah 53, it says, he was oppressed, he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb
to the slaughter. Look at verse five, it says,
he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, we are
healed. Verse 10 says, it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. That's talking
about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's talking about
the sacrifice that God made. the lamb of God that was slain
to put away the sin of his people. One man said, Isaiah 53 is the
gospel provided. That's what Isaiah 53 is. The
gospel provided. My son, God will provide. Abraham and Isaac went up to
the top of Mount Moriah. Father, I see the fire, I see
the wood. Where's the lamb? And he said,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb. Where's the lamb? God
Almighty will provide himself to be that lamb for a sacrifice. Isaiah 53 is
the gospel provided. And he said Isaiah 54 is the
gospel promised. Look at Isaiah 54 verse 10. For the mountains shall depart
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace. be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Verse 17 says, no weapon
that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that
shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness
is of me, saith the Lord. I love that that is indeed the
order that our God worked in. He provided before he ever promised. Think about that. He provided
before he ever even promised. Most people promise and then
provide, or they try to provide. They hope to provide. You know,
they make promises. And then they hope they can fulfill
that promise and provide. That's not our God. Our God provided, and then he promised. And that's
why his promises are so sure. It's because every promise he
has ever made was provided before he ever even promised it to us. So this man pointed out that
Isaiah 53 is the gospel provided. And Isaiah 54 is the gospel promised. And he said Isaiah 55 is the
gospel proclaimed directly to the heart of every needy sinner
that God sends it to. Isaiah 55 is the effectual call
to every one of God's sheep. That's the effectual call to
every one of God's sheep. In John 10, our Lord said, my
sheep will hear my voice because I know them. And they'll hear
it through this word. He said, I've known them from
eternity past. I've known them in love. I have
known them by choice. And because of that, in their
effectually appointed time, each one of them will hear my voice.
For every soul in this room, if we are children of the Father,
if we are the sheep of the shepherd, there will come a point in time
when individually each one of them will hear His voice through His Word. He will speak
to us. He will speak to our hearts.
He will speak to our hearts. He will call us. He will draw
us. We will know He's speaking to
me. He is speaking to me. We will
hear Him say, look to me, come to me, follow me, and we will. We will. We will follow Him. We will need Him. We will see Him as being our
everything. We will see Him as being everything. Our only hope of salvation. Our
only hope of everything. We will see Christ to be all. And He will give us eternal life. That's what will happen. Our Lord said, they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Not
going to happen. Now, if Isaiah 53 is the gospel
provided. And Isaiah 54 is the gospel promised. Isaiah 55 is the gospel proclaimed. from the spirit of God himself
directly to the hearts of God's people. And this is the proclamation,
okay? This is the word of God's spirit
to our hearts. Verse six. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him. while he is
near, seek him. That's what God's spirit, God's
spirit points all of God's people to Jesus Christ. When God's spirit
enters the heart of a child of God, he says, seek him. Call on him. Seek him, call on him. And that's what I have to say
to all of us. Seek him, call on him. Call on Him. Seeking the Lord and calling
on the Lord is not the cause of anyone's salvation. It is the final evidence of salvation. The only people who will seek
the Lord and call on the Lord, and I mean in truth, I mean in
truth, The only people who will seek the Lord and call on the
Lord in truth are those who salvation in the blood of Christ was provided
for and promised to. Those are the only ones who will
seek and call. I really want us to understand
that because most people naturally do not understand that. Most
people do not understand that they get it backwards. They think
we need to seek the Lord and call on the Lord so that salvation
can be promised to us and provided for us. And that's not how it goes. That's
backwards from the truth. That is the opposite of the truth. God's people will seek. And they
will call. because that salvation was provided
and promised to them. Now, if our Lord has spoken to
us, if he has provided for us and promised to us, if he speaks
this word to our hearts, if he says, seek me, if he says that
to us, seek me, how will we do that? What is it really to seek
the Lord? We talk about seeking the Lord.
How do we do that? I want to give you a list of
things from the scripture. How do we seek the Lord? Okay,
turn with me to Song of Solomon, chapter three. It's just, it's
the book before Isaiah. Song of Solomon, chapter three. Song of Solomon 3 verse 1 says,
by night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loveth. I sought
him, but I found him not. I will rise now and go about
the city in the streets and in the broad ways. I will seek him
whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him
not. The watchman that go about the
city found me, whom I said, saw ye him whom my soul loveth? Have you seen him?" What she's
saying is, I'm seeking the one that I do not have in my possession
right now. That's what she's saying. Seeking
the Lord starts with us realizing that we do not naturally have
Him. We do not naturally have Him.
People very wrongly believe that they do naturally have Him. People think that we're born
into this world naturally having God and Jesus Christ. They're just there waiting just
in case we need them for anything. But that's not so. And seeking
the Lord begins with us realizing that's not so. That's where the
whole thing starts. The fact is, no one ever seeks
anything that they already have. Nobody ever seeks anything that
they already have. Have you ever gone searching
for something that you had in your hand? Have you ever really
gone searching for something? And I'm not talking about a moment
of insanity. You know, like when people go
looking for their glasses and they had them on top of their
head the whole time. I was talking to, I was watching
somebody talk on the phone one time. This person was talking
on the phone and I was just watching him talk on the phone because
this person was frantically searching the house, just all over the
house. And I finally said, what are you doing? And he said, I'm
looking for my phone. And I said, you're talking on
it. I'm not talking about a moment of insanity. with sound mind, have you ever
truly searched for something that you already had in the palm
of your hand? Searching the Lord begins with
the realization that I do not have him in the palm of my hand. This is God Almighty we're talking
about. Ephesians 2 says, we are born
into this world aliens from the commonwealth, strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God. And that's a fear that will cause
a child of God to start seeking the Lord. That fear is the beginning
of wisdom that will cause a child of God to start seeking the Lord.
Verse 4 right here in Song of Solomon 3 says, it was but a
little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul
loveth. I held him and would not let
him go. I would not let him go. Go, I would not let him go. To seek the Lord, number two,
is to seek him. It is to seek him, not his things,
not what we can get out of him, him, him. Turn over to Matthew
6 with me. Matthew 6 verse 33 says, Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. That's a person. Righteousness is a person. That
kingdom is a person, the king, the life, it's all a person.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and
all these things shall be added unto you. Just seeking heaven,
what most people generally seek is heaven, not hell. That's what people are seeking,
not hell. Heaven, that's what I want, heaven.
If a person is seeking heaven, that person will not find it. That person will not find it.
If a person's desire is heaven, that person will never make it
there. If a person is seeking golden
streets and pearly gates and mama, That person is not seeking Him. And there's no hope of glory
for a person that's not seeking Him. It is all about Him. It's
all about Him. He is all. He is heaven. He is heaven. And all that heaven
has to offer to seek the Lord is to seek the Lord. Seek ye
the Lord while He may be found. The Lord Jesus Christ. Call on
Him. To call on Him is to say, Lord,
I need you. That's what it is to call on
Him. I need you. I'm here for you. This is not about just being
spared in eternity of condemnation. This is about not living in eternity
with you. I need you. I cannot be without you. To truly
seek the Lord is to seek Him, not what we can get out of Him,
Him. Turn with me to Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29, verse 10, it says, For thus saith the Lord, that
after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you
and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return
to this place. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon
me. After I do all that, then shall
you call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will
hearken unto you. And you shall seek me and find
me when you shall search for me with all your heart. To truly seek the Lord is to
seek Him with the heart, not the lips, not the hands, the
heart, the heart. Seeking the Lord is not about
all of this religious lip service that goes on in the world. And
it's not about all of the works of our hands. Out of the heart
are the issues of life, out of the heart. In Matthew seven,
our Lord said, in that day, many are going to say to me, Lord,
Lord. He said, who are not going to
be saved. Well, isn't that seeking him
in that calling on him? Isn't that calling on him? Our
Lord said, no. He said, because all they're
doing is giving the lip service of all the good works that they
think they have done for me. Everything they think they have
done for me. They're going to say, we did all these things
for you. We sought the works of our hands
for you. And he said, I will say unto
them, that's not seeking me apart. Seeking the Lord is realizing
because of my sinful nature, I don't have him, but I need
him. I need him with all of my heart. So I'm gonna do this. I don't have him, but I need
him with every fiber of my being. So this is what I'm gonna do.
All right, go back to Isaiah 55. Verse six says, seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. To seek the Lord is to say, I'm
gonna get rid of every way in me. Every thought, every opinion,
every doctrine, that I now see is contrary to this word. I'm going to get rid of all of
it. And I'm going to cling to him and I'm going to cling to
his word. I'm going to cling to his terms,
whatever he says, amen. Whatever he says. I'm going to seek him on his
terms. What are his terms? I'm the center.
He's the savior. What are his terms? He does all
the work, I do none of the work. What are his terms? I'm the beggar,
he's the great giver. What are his terms? He gets all
the glory, and I get to say all glory be unto him. Those are
his terms. Amen. Amen. I'm gonna seek salvation
on his terms. I see it's not my righteousness,
it's his righteousness. So I'm getting rid of my righteousness.
Just filthy rags anyway. Verse eight, I see that my thoughts
are not his thoughts and his thoughts are not my thoughts.
So I'm getting rid of my thoughts. I'm gonna cling to his thoughts.
Verse nine, I see that as the heavens are higher than the earth,
his ways are higher than my ways. I'm getting rid of my ways. I'm
clinging to his ways only. What are his words? What are
his ways? Christ alone. Christ alone. Every soul that
God provided salvation in Christ alone to, and promised salvation in Christ
alone to, will hear that proclamation from God, and will respond to
it, and will receive it, and I pray that's us. I pray that's
us. I pray this word from God will
speak to every soul here. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord
and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. I'm so glad he put the word abundantly
in there. Pardon would be fine. But abundantly
pardon. If he's had mercy on us, and
if he's pardoned us, we will seek, we will call. Lord, cause
us to do it. Cause us to seek. Cause us to
call. For Christ's sake. Amen. Let's
all stand together.