That song is right out of Revelation
chapter 5 and verse 12. And I should have asked you to
turn to that passage. You could read the words as she
sang the words. And that's a great hymn honoring
our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, Isaiah, the book of Isaiah,
chapter 45, is a portion of scripture I want
to direct your attention to this morning. Isaiah 45, and specifically
one verse, which is Isaiah 45 and verse 19. Isaiah chapter
45, and verse 19. I've brought you
a couple of messages from Isaiah 45, actually preached last Lord's
Day at Brother Shepard's church from a different verse. But I've
been reading this passage of scripture over and over and It
just seems like our Lord is impressing upon me different verses in this
great chapter. And here's the one I want to
deal with this morning is verse 19. God said, I have not spoken in
secret in a dark place of the earth, I said not unto the seed of Jacob,
seek ye me in vain. I, the Lord, speak righteousness.
That is, he speaks of full and free justification by the bloody death of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Justification is to be forgiven
of all of our sins and declared by God to be righteous in Christ,
who is the Lord, our righteousness. He says, I, the Lord, speak righteousness. And then he says, I declare things
that are right, that which he speaks. are words that are always
true. Now here's my subject this morning. I want to talk to you about things
or what God has not said. We often speak about what God
has said. From this portion of scripture,
I want to talk to you about what God has not said. What he has
not said. Now to introduce it, Look at
the verse just before this. For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens. So who is the one speaking here?
It is the Creator. This is the one who spoke all
things into existence. Creation is to bring into existence
that which had no existence before that. He further sets himself
forth by saying God himself had formed the earth and made it. He fashioned it. He shaped it. He provided for it just as he
would do according to his own goodwill. He hath established
it. He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited. And then he says, I am the Lord,
there is none else. We know that before God made
the world back in eternity, our God chose to save a people through
the doing and the dying of the Son of God who would humble himself
and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
That required his incarnation. It was necessary, therefore,
that He come to do a work that would satisfy God and save His
people from their sins. And those people that God chose
unto salvation and His Son, whom He appointed to be the Savior
of this people, all of this great salvation, it had to happen in a place. And therefore, God
created the earth. You see, this earth is the location
where God would bring to pass the great drama of redemption
and salvation. Yes, his son had to leave heaven,
but where is he going to go? He's gonna take upon Himself
our nature, our flesh, a perfect man without sin, of course, and
He's gonna redeem a people, but where is that going to happen?
Well, God created the earth. He formed it, He formed it not
in vain. In other words, the existence
of our world, our earth, It wasn't a haphazard thing that God did. He just spoke creation into existence,
and here are all these planets out here, and here's the Milky
Way, and here's one He'll call the earth, and He spoke it into
existence. He didn't create it in vain.
He created it to be inhabited. He created it as that location
to which He would send His only begotten Son to redeem the people
that He chose in grace before the world began. And those people
that He chose in grace unto salvation, they've got to live somewhere.
They've got to exist somewhere. And so God, in His infinite wisdom,
He fashioned this globe upon which we live. wasn't created
in vain. It was created for the inhabitants
who are the people of God and the rest. In fact, this earth
will go on existing forever, though not in the form and fashion
that it is now. Because you see, this earth and
the heaven as well has got to be renovated by fire. And one
day there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. John
in Revelation chapter 21, he said, I saw the new Jerusalem
coming down from heaven. Where is all the people of God
coming from? Where are they now? Those who
have departed in Christ, where are they now? They're in heaven.
And one of these days, all of the saints of God are going to
be gathered together before God in the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, having been washed in His sin-atoning blood. And
we're going to come down from heaven to this earth. This earth
is going to be renovated. It's going to be glorious. I
would ask you, what is the problem with the earth right now? And
the problem is S-I-N. That's the problem. And if I
might be more specific, it's us, because we're sinners. But when we come back with Christ
in glory, we will have glorified bodies, And therefore, this earth
that is so cursed, according to Genesis chapter 3, due to
sin, this earth that groans for redemption, this earth that longs
for that day when God's going to renovate it, and He's going
to get rid of everything that is not pleasing to Himself. And
when God does that, It will be just right for the inhabitants
that God will have to occupy this earth, not only the saints
of God. But if you'll read in Revelation
chapter 21, not only are the saints of God going to dwell
and inhabit the earth forever, so also will the Son of God. Because as John says in Revelation
21, He shall tabernacle among them. He will be with us. So you see, the Lord fashioned,
He made this earth in a manner that He didn't make any other
world, any other planet. He made it for the inhabitants
to dwell in. And specifically a place where
His people would live and dwell and someday hear the gospel of
His free and sovereign grace. And he made it in such a way
that one day, 2,000 years ago, his son descended from heaven. He found the womb of a virgin
in which he was formed. And in that womb, he dwelt for
nine months like any other baby. And then he was born and he grew
in this earth, the inhabitant, the inhabitant of all inhabitants,
our Lord Jesus Christ lived in this earth. God didn't form it in vain. He formed it for a purpose. And
if you're a believer, you're a child of God, You've been brought
by grace to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He formed this
globe for you. For you. He didn't create it
in vain. There was nothing empty about
God's design in making this earth so that we could inhabit it.
It has all of the things necessary to sustain human life. and animal life, and plant life. He made it for us to dwell in. I'm thankful, aren't you? Now,
I'm not a worshiper of the earth. I don't refer to the earth as
Mother Earth. She's not our mother. But God has blessed us so as
to put us in a place where every physical need that we have is
met. And in this earth, on this earth,
in this place, we live, we dwell, all of our physical needs are
met. But more than that, all of our
spiritual needs are met. through Him who also came to
inhabit this world, who ate food, who drank water, who breathed
the air that God gives us every day. God made it not in vain,
but to be inhabited. You see, this is where He would
accomplish salvation. You know, people argue and say,
well, God could have, He could have put us in some other world.
I'm not going to get into all that because the fact of the
matter is He put us here. He put us here. I'm not a scientist. I'm not a geologist. I'm not
into those things. But I know God made this earth.
In six days, God made the earth and all that in them is. In the
beginning, God created. What did He create? The heavens
and the earth. The heavens where He dwelt. Of
course, He dwells in eternity. But we generally think of the
throne of God as being in heaven. And we dwell on this earth. And
He didn't create this in vain. He created it on purpose where
we would dwell, where His elect people would live, would grow
up. And He made certain that we hear the gospel of the grace
of God. And it was to this earth His
Son came. He dwelt among us. John said,
He dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory. The
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Yes, it is true. For nearly 34
years, give or take. Our Lord Jesus was on this earth,
the greatest of its inhabitants. He came and saved us from our
sins. Now, who did all of this? The last
statement of verse 18 says, I am the Lord and there is none else.
I don't care what the evolutionists say. I don't care what they preach,
what they teach. I'll just take God's word. I
just believe what God says. I am the Lord, he says. There
is none else. And then he says this in the
next verse, I have not spoken in secret. Now, the heathen,
the heathen had their gods. And generally, as you read back
through some of these, some historians who speak of the idolatry of
the heathen, generally their gods would speak to one person,
a false prophet, in a cave or in a cavern, in secret. And then
he would tell everybody else. But they never spoke in the light
of day. In fact, those gods couldn't
speak at all. They have mouths, David said,
but they speak not. They can't convey their minds.
They don't have a mind. They don't have a will. They're
just idols, the figments of somebody's imagination. But our Lord says, I'm not like
the idols that you say speak to you in dark places. I speak publicly. I speak out
loud. When God gave the law, He didn't
give it in a cave. It's from a mountaintop. His law was published. The Word
of God, the prophets read the Word of God every Sabbath day. God doesn't speak privately.
He doesn't speak over in a corner somewhere or in a cave where
nobody can hear Him speak. God speaks publicly. God's got
something to say. He speaks through His Word. You
got a Bible? This is very public. I was in a dollar store and I
saw Bibles for sale for a dollar. All that God has left on record
for us to read can be purchased for a dollar. Isn't that amazing? And you can get an app on your
telephone and read the Word of God anytime you want to. He says, I've not spoken in secret. If you're not hearing what God
has to say, it's because you're not paying any attention. The heavens declared the glory
of God. That's not private. That's public. Go outside and look up. You see
that bright sun up there? Day unto day it showeth forth
the wisdom and the power of God. God is speaking publicly. Behold
my might, behold my power, behold my wisdom. What's our problem? Well, he's not paying any attention. But he speaks publicly. When our Lord Jesus was in this
world, he spoke very publicly. His very first message, the Sermon
on the Mount, thousands of people. He didn't just go in a cave somewhere
or in a cavern or in some dark corner and speak a few things
to one or two people. He proclaimed the Beatitudes
from a mountain. He told the Jews in chapter 18
of John. I've spoken openly. I've spoken to the world. I've
spoken to you from the temple. I've spoken to you from the synagogue. You see, the reason they hated
the Lord Jesus Christ was because of the gospel that He preached
in a very public manner. He didn't speak in private. He
spoke openly. He went to the temple. He went
to their synagogues. When he went back to Galilee,
to Nazareth, he spoke in a synagogue. He wasn't hiding anything. And then when he died, that was a very public display of God's justice and
a man's hatred of God. You remember in the book of Acts,
I believe it's chapter 26, Paul's talking to Herod, Herod Agrippa
II. He's talking about the death
of the Lord Jesus. And he said to Herod, he said,
I know, I know that you're aware of all the things that happened
in the crucifixion of Christ. He said, because these things
were not done in a corner. They weren't done in secret. You see, at Calvary, God really
was speaking. And if you listen, you'll learn
what God is saying at the cross. He's saying, the wages of sin
is death. That's what God was saying in
the death of Christ. He was saying, I'm a just God
and a Savior. He's got to be just if He's going
to save. He's got to punish a suitable
substitute in the stead of poor guilty sinners. You see, the cross, the cross
of Calvary, God speaks. God speaks. It's just that nobody's
listening. And nobody will listen unless
God gives ears to hear. He says, I've not spoken in secret
in a dark place of the earth. And then he says this, I said not under the seed of
Jacob, seek ye me in vain. Now, what he's saying here is
simply, I have never said to you, seek me, but know that I
might reveal myself to you or I might not. I've preached to people who have
been, who were taught about seeking the Lord, and it's like the Lord
dangled a carrot out in front of them, and when they go to
reach to get it, he just moves it a little further away. God
doesn't do that. He says, I didn't say to you,
seek ye me in vain. God has never said to anybody,
you seek me. Maybe you'll find me and maybe
you won't. And he's never said, seek me
with all of your heart, but most likely I won't reveal myself
to you. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter
29. I tell you, this thing of seeking,
seeking the Lord, it's something you don't hear a lot of today,
but we need to be saying more of
it. He hasn't said, seek me, but
you might seek me in vain without finding me. or seek me, but many
have sought me and have not found me." The Lord has never said
anything to in any way discourage anybody who seeks Him. You say, well, so this is just
to the lost people. This is to the children of God,
too, because we don't stop seeking Him. We're always seeking His presence.
We seek His blessing. We seek His mercy. Jeremiah 29, are you there? Look
at verse 11. God says, 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 and desired end. 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 search for me with all your heart. If you're seeking the Lord, you
cannot seek Him in vain. Because if you are seeking To
know God, if you're seeking the Savior, if you're seeking salvation,
you're seeking righteousness, you're seeking forgiveness, if
you're seeking the Lord, your search will not, cannot be in
vain. You have God's word on it. You
shall seek me. How does God know that we shall
seek him? Because he purposed that we would.
He sought us first. And therefore we seek him. Are you a seeker with all of
your heart? God says, you will find me. Look
at the next verse, verse 14. And I will be found of you, saith
the Lord. And I will turn away your captivity. I will gather you from all the
nations, from all the places whither I have driven you, saith
the Lord. And I will bring you again into
the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. I'll
bring you back to Jerusalem is literally in view here. But he's talking about people
who seek Him, seek Him from the heart. This is people who are
serious about salvation. So, well, Jim, who will seek
the Lord? Well, who will seek a great physician? People who are sick, right? I'm going to see a podiatrist
in the morning. You know why? I'm having foot
trouble. I ain't think about going to
them till I had foot trouble. I got a little foot, nothing
serious. Nothing's falling off as far as I know. But I saw a
nurse that I know, I saw her at Cora's funeral and said, well,
come on by, you're a diabetic and we'll treat you. Oh, OK,
all right. I'm only going because I've been having some troubles,
right? And who will seek out the great
physician? People that the Lord has revealed
to them. They're sick. I'm sin sick. I've got an incurable disease. I need healing. To whom shall
I go? The great physician. Who needs a Savior? A sinner. Who needs a ransom? Those who
are in debt. Who needs forgiveness? Those
who are guilty. Who needs righteousness? Those
who are unrighteous. That's who will seek the Lord. He says, seek me and you'll find
me. And he says over here in our text, I didn't say to you
in vain, just seek me and well, Maybe you'll find me and maybe
you won't. God didn't say that. Now listen carefully to me. I
fully believe in the eternal purpose of God and God's predestination
and God's election. But there are some men who are
enemies of the gospel that will put that as an obstacle before
people and say, it's no use in you seeking the Lord. If you're
predestinated to be saved, you're going to be saved. If you're
predestinated to be lost, you're going to be lost. That's the
end of the story. No, that's not the end of the story. The
secret things of God, that is the eternal purpose of God is
known only to Him. You do not know what God has
predestinated. You don't know who the elect
are. But you do know what God has
told you. Seek Me. That's what God said. Say, Jim, I disagree with you
on that doctrine. You're disagreeing with the Word
of God. In our efforts to exalt the sovereignty
of God, we must not forget that the sinner is responsible to
God. I'm not talking about ability
now, because we don't have the ability, but we have the responsibility. You better seek the Lord. I'm
telling you, you better seek the Lord. You better call upon
Him while He's near. Whatever the purpose of God is,
whatever the counsel of God is, that is going to come to pass.
But really, that is none of your business. What you best concern yourself
with is your state, your condition before a holy God, and a holy
God says to you, seek me with all your heart. Where can I find
you, Lord? In His Son. That's where you'll
find Him. Where can I find you, Lord? In
His Word. Read His book. Or can I find
You, Lord, wherever my gospel is faithfully proclaimed? Come
and hear! Come and listen! If you're not
playing church, if you're not too busy to have some good done
to your everlasting soul, come and hear the Word of the Gospel
of the grace of God found for sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't tell me you're serious
about the things of God, but you don't come to hear Him proclaimed. If you need Him, I promise you,
if He has created within you a need to know Him, to know God
through the crucified, buried, risen, exalted Savior, if He
has created that desire to seek Him, you will come out to hear
His blessed gospel. What does it mean to seek the
Lord? Another question. Well, I'll tell you what, if
you want money, and you want a job, you can sit
home and watch television all day, but you ain't gonna find
a job. But if you want it bad enough, you'll seek it. You'll
seek it. Don't tell me, Boy, I tell you,
I don't have money in my checking account. I don't even have a
savings account. I don't have anything. So what
are you doing about it? Well, nothing. Well, I tell you what, you'll
produce nothing then. In fact, I used to sell insurance,
Aflac, quack, quack, the duck. Okay, I used to work for Aflac.
And we went to all these motivational classes, you know, And one of
the speakers told us about Colonel Harlan Sanders. Ever heard of
him? I've eaten a good bit of his
chicken. When he was 40 years old, he
worked at a gas station. He had many jobs, actually. But
he worked at a gas station, and he fried chicken and would sell
it to people, and then people said, boy, this is finger-lickin'
good. So he decided he bought a motel
with an attached restaurant, fixin' his chicken. And the motel and the restaurant
burnt up. You think he gave up? No. He decided he'd go on the road
And he went on the road, and here was his sales pitch. I really, I've got a recipe for
all these herbs and spices to make fried chicken. And tell
you what, I'll give that recipe to you if you will give me a
part of the proceeds or part of the profits from your increased
sales of fried chicken. Went to the first guy and said,
you've got to be kidding me. Hey, see you later. He went to
1,009 different restaurant owners,
and all of them shut the door in his face. But he didn't quit, because he
was seeking something. And he knocked on the 1,010th
door. I got a recipe that's finger
licking good, makes good chicken. Tell you what, I'll give you
the recipe if you'll enter into a legal contract with me that
I'll get a portion of the proceeds. Okay, where do I sign? You see, that's somebody who's
seeking something. With all of his heart, that's
what he wanted. And the same goes for any, you
want an education? So I'm too poor. Been a lot of
poor people educated. Seek, search. It's that way with
lots and lots of things, but what I'm trying to drive home
to you is the necessity of seeking the Lord, seeking Christ. Don't sit down and do nothing
because I'll promise you this, you ain't going to find Him if
you don't seek Him. You say, well, if I'm one of
the elect, He'll find me. Now you're talking like somebody
who doesn't understand the Word of God. Seek ye the Lord while
He may be found. You seeking? Well, no. Well,
you ain't going to find Him. It's when you search for Him
with all your heart, not just a passing fancy, a little dabble of religiosity.
Here's the problem today, that people want instant Christianity. Quaker Oats gave us instant oatmeal. And let's see, what else is instant? Coffee. They gave us instant
coffee. It's quick, see? And that's what
people have done in religions, what churches have done in religions.
Make it quick. Let me make my decision for Jesus
and go on my way, and then when the time comes for me to die,
I can go back and think back 30, 40 years ago. Oh yeah, I
made my decision in that church years and years ago. I know I'm
okay. Instant Christianity is no Christianity. When the Lord works in your heart
and leads you to seek Him, He burdens you with your own sin,
that you're unfit for the presence of God, and He teaches you about
the only sacrifice that satisfied God, the substitutionary death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Spirit of God pours into
your heart spiritual life, and you then have this attitude,
I must have the Savior. and you're dead serious about
it. That's what it means to seek
the Lord. Be real serious about it. And how must I seek the Lord?
Continually. And I'm talking to the people
of God now. Continually. I seek him every day. I seek His grace. Oh, God, be
gracious to me again today. I seek His forgiveness. Oh, God,
forgive me through the blood of Christ for my many, many sins. And I must seek Him now because I don't have any promise
of tomorrow. if you'll hear his voice. That's
what he said. And you read Proverbs 1 at the
judgment, God's gonna say to a bunch of people, I called.
You weren't interested. He calls in a general way through
the preaching of the gospel like what I'm doing right now. Will
you hear? Will you come? Will you bow? Will you worship? Will you submit? And I'll tell you this, if you
want to know more about God, go to Calvary. Huh? Go to Calvary. There you see
the love and the justice of God. Want to know more about yourself?
Go to Calvary. For whose sins was Christ dying? Not His own, He didn't have any. If you want to know more about
salvation, go to Calvary. There you see pardon and righteousness. If you want to know more about
Christ, go to Calvary. He's the savior of sinners. Seek him now. And who is this
one who speaks? He's the one who speaks righteousness.
Righteousness. The doctrine of free justification. forgiveness and a perfect standing
before God that involves nothing you do. And he speaks right things. He
speaks the truth. Well, seek him like the publican. God
be merciful to me, the sinner. Can you seek Him in that way? Seek Him like drowning Simon
Peter, Lord, Lord, save me. Seek Him like the dying thief
who said, Lord, remember me. Boy, he's seeking Him. Because
he saw himself going out into eternity. I expect he had visions
of hell opening up her mouth to swallow him up. Oh, Lord,
remember me. I don't want to perish. Seek
him like the leper, if thou wilt. Thou canst make me whole. Seek
him wherever ye are. Seek him now. And go to him and say, Not this word-for-word prayer,
of course, but with this attitude. God, be merciful to me because
of the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I'll tell you, every day, every day I pray, I go to the Lord,
it's always as a sinner seeking mercy in the Son of God by his
bloody death. God said, I didn't say this in
vain, seek ye me. I meant business. And if you, whoever you are,
whoever you are, people who are watching, you seek him with all
your heart. Seek God in Christ. Seek him
in his words. Seek him through the preaching
of the gospel. Seek him as the exalted one upon
his throne. You seek him in that way, God
says, I will be found of you. That's God's word. He can't lie. That's his promise. Well, let's
sing the closing song.