I'll read a little here from
the Bible. There's a verse here in Deuteronomy
chapter 4 and verse 29. Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse
29. It says, But if from thence thou shalt
seek the Lord, from now, thou shalt seek the Lord thy God,
thou shalt find him, if you seek him with all your heart, with
all your soul." I think that it doesn't need too
much exposition or explanation there. It's easy to understand. Anyone that can read or knows
anything at all about words. Those, it's a promise of God
to those that would wait on him or those that would seek him.
And if those that would wait and seek would do so with all
their heart, they'd find him. Kind of reminds me of a verse
here in the book of John chapter 7, it says this, in regard to the doctrine of the Lord Jesus.
In that seventh chapter, the Jews saw him at the feast, and
they said, Where is he? And there was much murmuring
among the people concerning him, for some said, He is a good man,
and others said, No, he deceiveth the people. Howbeit no man spake
openly of him for fear of the Jews. Now about the midst of
the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught, and the
Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never
learned? Jesus answered them, and said,
My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. Now if any
man will do his will, and I think that this pertains to that verse
that I I read over here in Deuteronomy in regard to, if thou shalt seek
the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him if you seek him with
all your heart and with all your soul. And I think that this here
in the 17th verse, if any man will do his will, and doing his
will is involved in seeking, seeking the Lord with all your
heart. If any man will do his will,
he shall know the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak
of myself, if a man will do it. There's no shortcut to this.
There's no shortcut to a knowledge of the Scriptures. It comes through
your own study, through the means of grace, as Jim mentioned as
he prayed here this evening. Bible study, personal private
study in prayer. and other things pertaining to
the Bible that would maybe help shed light on various passages. It's a seeking, it's a searching. You never come to a reasonable
maturity in a hop, skip, and jump method haphazardly. It's systematically observed
and performed. It is seeking the Lord, seeking
the Lord. I found another verse in the
book of Lamentations, the Lamentations
of Jeremiah, I think it was in the third chapter, that said this in the 25th verse,
it says, "...the Lord is good unto them, that wait for him,
and to the soul that seeketh him." Knowing his will and seeking
him, it seems to me like it's all in the same vein. Then I was reading in the fifth
chapter of the book of Ephesians. come across this, which is certainly
nothing new to you. You've read it time and time
again, but sometimes we need to be reminded of some things.
Now, in this fifth chapter of the book of Ephesians, it's talking
about the will of God. What is the will of God? Jesus
said, if a man willeth to know his doctrine, or know the will
of God pertaining our lives in regard to how we are to walk
in this life? Seek the Lord. Notice down here
in this seventeenth verse. Wherefore, be ye not unwise,
don't be a bunch of dummies, but understand what the will
of the Lord is. What is the will of the Lord?
I hear people talking about seeking the will of the Lord. I'm seeking
God's will in this matter. I'm seeking God's will for my
life. Now, what is God's will for my
life? Well, here it says here, don't
be unwise, but understand, or understanding what the will of
the Lord is. What is the will of the Lord for the Christian?
Well, in the first verse, the writer says, Be ye therefore
followers of God as dear children. Walk in love. as Christ also
loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for sweet-smelling savour. Be children joined together,
bonded together by this love that's been shed abroad in our
hearts, even as Christ has also loved us and laid down his life
for us when we were unlovely and ungodly and what have you. But he said, But fornication,
and uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among
you as becometh saints, filthiness, foolish talking, or jesting,
which are not convenient, but rather the giving of thanks.
But this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetousness
man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain
words, For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon
the children of disobedience. But be not ye therefore partakers
with them. For ye were sometimes darkness,
but now ye are light. But now are ye light in the Lord,
walkest children of light." You're not in darkness. "...for the
fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and
truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. Have no fellowship
with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." The
Bible says the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto
God. The sacrifice of the wicked. Nothing that the wicked can do
is pleasing unto God. Not to be involved with the wicked.
For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done
in secret, but all things which are reproved are made manifest
by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
Therefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye
walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, don't be unwise,
redeeming the time, taking advantage of opportunity, because the days
are evil." 18th verse, "...be not drunk with wine, wherein
is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." Speaking to yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things
unto God. Someone said, I don't know who
it was, was it, I believe it was the fellow that wrote the
little book set the timing from the beginning of the creation
unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Was it Usher? Was there
a fellow? Yes. He said, I think he said,
made this statement. He's known more for making this
statement than he is for that, for the book. He said, the chief
end of every man is to enjoy God forever. That's the chief
end of it, is to glorify God and to enjoy Him. Now, we're
to enjoy God and give thanks always for all things unto God.
The 21st verse, "...submitting yourselves one to another in
the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands, as unto the Lord." Do it! Wives, submit yourselves
unto your husbands. Don't be unwise and be a dummy
about this. Want to know what the will of
the Lord is? All right, for the husband is the head of the wife,
even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior
of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church. and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot, nor wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself, for no man ever hated his own flesh. but nourish it
and cherish it even as the Lord the Church. For we are members
of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause
shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall be
joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This
is a great mystery, but I speak concerning the Church, concerning
Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let every one of
you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and let
the wife and the wife see that she reverence her husband." Well,
this is the will of God. Do you want to know what the
will of God is for your life? How you are to conduct yourself
toward me, toward one another, toward your wife, toward the
brethren? I'll tell you right here in the
Bible. But you've got to seek the Lord. We're looking for instant
answers. Most people, instant answers,
ask a question. Is it wrong for me to go to the
picture show? That's not the issue. Is it wrong for me to
do this? Instant answers. I was listening
to a guy on the television there today, a little bit more than
two preachers, and they got to talking about the Bible. The
interviewer asked him something about the Bible. Well, one of
the preachers began to tell him about being accepted by God in
Jesus Christ. And he was telling him right.
He was telling him about the imputed righteousness of the
Lord Jesus. But immediately, the interviewer
got him off of the subject, the whole congregation got off of
it, and you know what they spent the next 45 minutes talking about? Is it wrong? How many times can
I look upon a woman without lust and after, and still not be sin.
Or how many times can I look upon a woman, or a woman look
upon a man, and lust and not be sin? Well, finally they said,
well, it might be three times. Looking for instant answers.
You know, it takes you, a man's got to search the Bible, search
the Scriptures. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Seek the Lord. All right, I want
to tell you about four things here in regard to seeking the
Lord. I told you there in the Lamentations
of Jeremiah, it says, The Lord is good to the soul that seeketh
him. The Lord is good to him. You
seek the Lord. Seek Him earnestly. Seek Him
with your whole heart. And I'll guarantee you, by the
authority of the Bible, that you'll find that the Lord's good.
You'll find that the Lord's precious. And you'll find that the Lord
will give you that which your heart desires pertaining to the
understanding of the Scriptures. He'll not leave you in the dark.
You're a child of light. not a child of darkness. You've
been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of God's dear Son. He's not going to keep you in
the darkness, Mattie, if you seek the Lord. If you seek the
Lord. Listen, the Lord is good to the
soul that seeks Him. He's good to Him. Number one,
those that seek the Lord do so under a deep sense of need. Now a man will never seek the
Lord until he feels the need to do so. Secondly, they feel guilt and
they need forgiveness and they'll seek the Lord. Men that are genuine
about this matter, well, they feel far off and they want fellowship
and they feel sinful and they want mercy. those that seek the
Lord. Secondly, those that seek the
Lord, seek Him sincerely. This is not a religious fad,
and they're not playing games. To them, sin is real. I preached my dad's funeral here
the other day, and that's what I told that congregation that
listened to me preach. that there are some things in
this life that are absolutely real. I said there's some things
that are real, genuine. And I said death and sin and
these things are real. And they're real to the man that
seeks the Lord. Sin's real to him. He's not playing
games with it. That's the problem with the majority
of Christians now, they're playing games. That's the problem with
most churches, just playing church, playing games. It's the games
people play. You pipe the horn and I'll dance. Or vice versa, just playing games.
Ring around the rosie. Marbles and what have you. Sin's
real to the man that seeks Him sincerely. And I said to you
that old Jeremiah said, the Lord's good to the soul that seeks Him,
seeks Him with all of his heart. Jesus said, if a man wills to
know whether this be my doctrine or not, let him seek me. They know that sin is real, and
they know that death is sure, and they know that judgment is
certain, and they know that eternity is forever. Boy, if you and I,
if those things could be pounded into our hearts, those four things
right there, I believe that that would constrain us to seek the
Lord. That judgment is for a law, or
judgment is real. And death is sure, and death
is certain, if we could just believe it. and just let it kind
of sift down into our hearts a little bit, what? We'd seek
the Lord. We'd seek the Lord. Eternity is a long time, brethren. It's not just for a duration
of time, but it's forever. Eternity is eternity. I believe
the man that seeks the Lord sincerely will seek Him under a deep sense
of need, He'll feel guilt and he'll want forgiveness. He'll
feel sinful and he'll want mercy. And he'll understand that his
relationship with God is more important than anything else
in this life. There'll be nothing else in this life that will take
precedence over his relationship with God. That's the reason sin's
real to him. When he sins against God, he'll
confess it. The man that seeks the Lord.
Is that right, Jim? Won't he confess his sins? He'll
confess the sins of his heart. The Bible says there's forgiveness
for the man that will confess them. If we confess our sins,
that's right. If we confess our sins, He'll forgive us if we confess
them. Well, it's because our relationship
with God means something to us. We understand that we've just
got one soul. We understand that eternity is
a long time. We understand that there's a
heaven to gain and a hell to shun. We understand that. We
know it. We feel it. It's in our hearts. It's in our heads. It's been
taught to us by the Spirit of God. And so we want to seek the
Lord. They search the Scriptures. They
hear the Word preached. And they seek the counsel of
those that know the Lord. They ask questions. They're not
afraid to ask questions. They ask questions. They say,
Have you got anything that would be of any help to me? I'm looking
for something here. I'm trying to find the answer
to something. And I've looked here and I've
looked there and I can't find it. Can you help me? I'm on the
right track, but I just can't seem to pin it down. And they'll
seek counsel. from the wise men of the Lord." Well, I think those that seek
the Lord, as old Jeremiah stated, those that seek the Lord, they
seek him continually. That is, it's not a, as I said,
a hop, skip, and jump method. It's just not today or a week or so and then
it burns off and dies off and you don't see them anymore. Like
we have some, we have had people that were very zealous here,
very zealous. Every time the door was open
they were sitting there asking questions, raising their hands.
Would you come to my house? I want to talk to you. And asking
questions. Is it wrong to drink whiskey?
I said, yeah, guys call me. Yes, I've got problems. Is it
wrong to do this? Is it wrong to do that? Boy,
I'm studying the Scriptures. I've read the Bible through two
or three times, or I've read the Bible through once, or I'm
going through it. A fellow just told me the other
day, with whiskey on his breath and his eyes glassy, he said,
boy, he said, I'm coming over to see you some of these days.
I said, well, that'd be fine. He said, I'm reading the Bible
through. I've got about that much of it read now." He said,
I'm reading so much every day. I'm coming over sometime and
talk to you. I'm telling you here this evening
that those that seek the Lord, seek Him continually. It's not
a hop, skip, and jump method. It's not on again, off again,
finigan. It's not zealous for one week,
burning things up for one week. like an exhibitionist, but it's
continually, perpetually, constantly. Listen, many religionists, religionists
I call them, they show concern today, but tomorrow it's gone. On fire today, on fire today,
but tomorrow it's gone. They shed a few tears and quickly
wipe them away. They reform their ways but soon
grow weary of the way. They grow weary of the road.
They grow weary. It's too much for them. The preaching
is boring to them. They don't understand what the
preacher says. He's talking about the election
of God. He's talking about the immutability
of God. He's talking about the character
of God. He's talking about these things
that my heart does not hunger after and they grow tired of
the way. He talks like they ought to come
to church three or four times a week. He talks like they ought
to give of their money to support the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's always talking about that. talking about praying, talking
about reading the Bible, talking about a certain pattern, a certain
conformity that you conform yourself to. I get tired of that. I get
tired of that. They grow weary of the way. But
the true seeker of God, the true seeker, he seeks Him continually. And he clings to the Lord like
Jacob, like Jacob, until the blessing comes. He wrestles and
holds on and says, I will not let go. He does it continually,
continually. When the sun is a-shining or
when it's a-raining or storming or whatever it is, in days of
prosperity or in days of adversity, he's seeking the Lord continually,
continually. And lastly, and the most important,
is those that seek the Lord, Jim, seek Him in Christ. They
seek Him in Jesus Christ. That's the only way you're going
to find Him. You can't find Him anyplace else in Christ. You
can't find God apart from Christ. That might come as a revelation
to a lot of people, but that's right. Amen. You cannot find
God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the reason
I've got no time to waste upon these universalists, these liberal
preachers and liberal churches, that God loves everybody and
all you've got to do is to be sincere about what you believe. It doesn't matter what you believe
as long as you believe and you're sincere about it. Just think
it in your head and it'll be so. Just think it in your head
and it'll be so. I remember reading one time where
a Sir Thomas More, who was a Roman Catholic theologian, and who
was a great proponent of the doctrine of transubstantiation,
whatever that means. I think it means the taking of
the bread and the wine, and it literally turns into the body
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was defending that, being
a Roman Catholic theologian. Erasmus, is that his name, James? Erasmus. Yes, Erasmus. He, of course, was making light
of that particular doctrine. He was a Protestant at the time,
or it was the beginning of Protestantism. And he said, how can that be
to this Sir Thomas More? How can that be? He said, just
think it in your head and it'll be so. Just think it in your
head and it'll be so. Just think about it, and dwell
upon it, and believe it, and it will come to pass. That's
what he was talking about. Well, as this Erasmus took his leave
from the place of Sir Thomas More, the Roman Catholic theologian, he took Sir Thomas More's horse
with him. Sir Thomas Moore went and heard
about him stealing his horse and he was having a fit and he
sent word after him and all that and said what the hell he was
going to do to him. So Horace, when he heard about it, he just
wrote back to him and he said, well just think it in your head
and it will be so. He told him just think about
it and it will be alright. Forget about me stealing the
horse. Everything's going to turn out all right. Don't worry
about it. Just think it. Think I didn't do it, and it'll
be all right. Just think you got a horse there,
and it'll be there." Kind of making light of his particular
doctrine of transubstantiation, of taking the cracker, the bread,
and eating the bread, and the bread literally turning into
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Taking the wine and drinking
it, and it literally turning into the blood. Jesus, of course,
the Roman Catholics believe that, and they believe it even to this
day. But those that seek the Lord
seek Him in Christ. They can't find Him apart from
Christ. They seek Him in Christ. They
can't find Him in the law. There's no hope in the law. There's
no hope in the works of the flesh. There's no hope in ceremonies
and ordinances of religion. who seek the Lord and seek him
in the Lord Jesus Christ, they must have a righteousness that
only Jesus Christ can give. They must have his righteousness.
They understand that God demands a perfect obedience. Those that seek the Lord, seek
Christ, or seek God, find him, in the Lord Jesus Christ and
don't find Him apart from Christ. And they understand. They understand
before they can be accepted by God and with God that they must
have a righteousness which is as perfect as the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus. They understand that. They see
that. Not very many do. In light of
all the religionists of our day, there's not many see that. There's
not many see that God will not accept anything less than what
He is. Not very many see it. Not many. They talk about Jesus, and they
talk about Jesus dying, and they'll talk about Jesus forgiving sin,
and they'll talk about Jesus and His blood atonement. But
there's not many, now you mark it down, there's not many that
know and understand that they must have a righteousness which
is as perfect as the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ." Now,
many see it. If you see it tonight, thank
God. You can say like Peter, or like the Lord said unto Peter,
when Peter said, the Lord said, Who do you say? He said, Thou
art the Son of God. That's who you are. He said,
Well, blessed art thou, Peter, or Simon, son of Barjona for
flesh. and blood hath not revealed that
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." If you see it
tonight, flesh and blood, you didn't get it from the preacher,
the Lord gave it to you. The Lord revealed it to your
heart. Those that seek the Lord, seek him in Christ. They must
have a righteousness that only Jesus Christ can give. They must
have an atonement that only the Lord Jesus Christ can provide. Christ Jesus is their only mediator,
and no man can come to the Father but by Him. They know that. They
understand that. Oh, Paul said that I may win
Christ and be found in Him. Seeking Christ. Seeking Him. Like the merchant. You remember
there in one of the Gospels, who found the pearl of great
price, and he was willing to part with anything and anyone
in order to possess that field. And we too ought to be like that
merchant, be willing to part with anything or anyone in order
that we might possess him, the Lord Jesus. truly seek the Lord, and I believe
if we truly seek Him in this fashion, with these thoughts somehow as
our guide, I believe we'll find Him. I believe we'll find Him. If we seek the Lord. No shortcut.
We've got to seek Him. Seek the Lord while He may be
found. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. see and cry out, Oh, Lord. My mind and heart's in darkness
in regard to this matter. Oh, Lord, give me light. Give
me light and understanding. Teach me, Lord. The Lord will
not turn his back on you. He'll teach you. He'll let you
know. He'll give it to you. Well, all
right.