This is the Lord's command. What we're going to read here,
this is the Lord's command by which He converts a sinner, and
it's His command by which He keeps drawing the believer to
himself and converts us when we're in trials and when we've
sinned. Remember how when Peter, he was
an apostle, he'd been called by the Lord and been regenerated,
had faith, been sanctified. And whenever that trial started
with him and the Lord told him, you're going to deny me, Peter.
Peter said, oh, I'm not. They might, but I'm not. He said,
Satan has desired you that he might sift you as wheat, and
Satan had already started sifting him, because Peter was rejecting
the Lord's word, saying, no, I'm not gonna deny you. And our Lord told him, he said,
Peter, when you're converted, when you're converted, strengthen
your brethren. He didn't mean that, Peter was yet to be saved. But anytime we go through a trial
and trouble, the Lord has to convert us. He has to turn us
to him and draw us to his feet. And so this message tonight,
it's not only for, it is for those who've never called on
him, but it's also for you who believe. He says, verse six,
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. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts. Neither your ways my ways, saith the Lord, for as
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Concerning
a sinner who's never believed the gospel, each one that God
the Father chose in Christ before he made this world, that's who
Christ laid down his life for and redeemed. And at the appointed
time, at the predestinated hour, the Lord is gonna send this gospel
and speak this command into their heart. Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found. I've titled this the Converting
Command. This is the command that Christ
speaks in spirit. He speaks this in spirit and
thereby the sinner is granted faith and repentance and converted
to the Lord when the Lord speaks this. And it's not only for those
that he's calling the first time, it's for you and me too who believe
many times over that the Lord speaks this word and draws us
back to him. How do you know this is the word?
How do you know this is the word whereby he grants faith and repentance
and converts? Well, look down the page. Look
at verse 11. He said, the same as the snow and the rain fall
and accomplish his purpose, he said, so shall my word be that
goeth forth out of my mouth. You see that? The word that goes
out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall
accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I send it. Look back at Isaiah 52. Look
at verse six. Remember this? He said, therefore
my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in
that day that I am he that doth speak, behold it is I. When he
speaks, you're gonna know it. Go with me to John six. When
he speaks, we're going to know it. I don't like to hear people
say, when they say the Lord's trying to teach me something,
the Lord doesn't try. When he's getting his message
across to somebody, he speaks and they're going to get the
message. John 6, 63. This is when he was speaking
to that group and they began to be offended because he was
saying, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have
no life in you. And he said in verse 63, it is the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they're spirit and they are life. But there are
some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who should betray him. And
he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto
me except it were given unto him of my father. So this word
that we hear tonight, when he says, seek ye the Lord while
he may be found, Christ will speak this word. He'll speak
this into the heart of his child, and he'll make us follow him.
This is how the Lord's gonna grant the gift of faith in the
first hour, and this is how he continues to sustain our faith.
Verse six, he says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call
ye upon him while he is near. Now, we know faith is the gift
of God. We know he gives faith. Ephesians
2, eight says, by grace are you saved through faith, and that's
not of yourselves, lest any man should boast, it is the gift
of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast, it's the gift of God. But how is faith given? Have
you ever thought about that? How does faith, how is it given?
Well, it's by the Lord's word. It's by his word. Listen, faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. All right? Is that the scriptures? Is that
the word he's talking about, the scriptures? Or is it the
preaching of the gospel? Or is it the word, Christ the
word, speaking the word into the heart? It's all three of
those. He's gonna use his word, he's
gonna use his preacher to preach his word, and Christ is gonna
speak into the heart and spirit. That's how faith's given. Now
the general call goes out. Everybody hears the gospel when
it goes forth. That's called the general call.
Everybody hears it, and everybody that hears is responsible to
repent and believe the Lord. Look over with me at Acts 17.
He says there, call on him while he's near. Look here in Acts
17, Paul was preaching to them at Mars Hill in Athens, Greece,
and they were so steeped in idolatry, they had a statue to the unknown
God, just in case they missed one. They had one to the unknown
God. Paul said, that's the one I won't tell you about, the one
you don't know. And so he starts preaching Christ
to them, and look, he says up there in verse 26, he said, God
hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the
face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and
the bounds of their habitation. He said the time you're gonna
be born, the time you're gonna believe, the time you're gonna
die, And he says that they should seek the Lord, if happily they
might fill after him and find him, though he be not far from
every one of us. Now listen now, remember Romans
10, he said don't think the word of faith is who's gonna go up
to heaven and bring Christ down, or who's gonna go into the deep
to bring Christ up. The word is nigh thee. It's in
your mouth, it's in your heart. God is near. Seek him while he
may be found. Call upon him while he is near. He's near. There may come a day
when the Lord shuts the door, but as long as this sinner is
alive, I said, call on him while he's near. Call on him while
he's near. But they had all these gold statues
and all these idols, and he told them, he said, verse 30, the
times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent, because he's appointed a day. in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead." See, all men are commanded to repent,
and all are responsible to repent. You say, well, Clay, you're always
preaching that a man doesn't have the ability to repent. Inability
doesn't negate responsibility. Though we don't have the ability
to call on Him of ourselves, we're responsible to. Why tell
a sinner that? Well, if God blesses that word,
a man will hit his face and beg the Lord for mercy. He'll beg
Him for mercy. The Lord Jesus is God's way. Turn from your way, turn to God's
way. Christ is God's way. He's the
only way. The only way of salvation is
the Lord Jesus. There is no other way. There's
no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. He's the only way of salvation
that glorifies God. If you and me add one thing to
Christ's work, we're attempting to rob God of his glory because
we're attempting to rob the glory from his son. He's the only way
that God gets all the glory and salvation. Christ is the only
way of salvation that declares God just and the justifier of
the believer. He made righteousness and peace,
kiss and harmony. He satisfied the law and brought
in mercy and grace for his people and made God just to show mercy.
He's the only way a sinner is redeemed and set free from the
curse of the law. He's the only way we're set free
from our sin nature. He's by the Lord Jesus. He's the only way to God. There is no other way to God.
Look at John 14. John 14 and verse 6. Jesus said to Thomas, I am the
way. See that definite article, the,
that means there is no other way. I am the way. The truth, that means there is
no other. Christ is the truth. And the
life, there is no other. Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. No man comes but by me. Sinners
like to blame God. You know, you preach God is sovereign,
that he has to give us faith, so I'm just going to sit here
and do nothing until he gives me faith. It's not God's fault
that men will not believe on Christ. It's not his fault. God doesn't have to do anything
to a sinner to make that sinner rebel against God. He didn't
have to do anything to make that sinner try to shut his own ears
and turn away from hearing the gospel. God doesn't have to do
a thing to make a man do that. He looked at him and he said,
you'll search these scriptures trying to find life by your hand,
but you will not come to me that you might have life. You will
not come to me that you might have life. They're not willing. A sinner's not willing by nature.
Some talk about this text and they call it an offer. They say
this is an offer God's making. We don't preach a free offer.
I'm gonna tell you why. If this is an offer and it's
left up to the sinner, and that's what it sounds like when every
man I've ever heard preach a free offer, putting it in the hand
of the sinner to take a little bit of the offense out. Well,
if this is an offer left up to a sinner to seek the Lord, nobody's
going to ever be saved. Because Romans 3.11, Paul said,
there's none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after
God. So, if this is an offer just
left up to the sinner, nobody will be saved because nobody's
seeking the Lord. Nobody's seeking the Lord. When
a sinner seeks the Lord, it's because the Lord has first sought
the sinner. When a sinner seeks the Lord,
it's because the Lord has first sought him. Go with me to Psalm
27. Psalm 27. Look here at verse 8. He's speaking to the Lord. When
thou saidest, seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy
face, Lord, will I seek. And when the Lord speaks and
says, seek my face, that's when your heart's gonna be turned
to the Lord to seek him. I'll tell you what, brethren,
for you and me that believe, that's good news, because you
ever had those seasons where you just couldn't believe? You just full of unbelief? Who's
gonna save you from that? The first step and every step
of the way, it's Christ saving us. Him speaking into the heart
and saying, seek my face, seek me. That's how we're turned to
him the first time and every time. And that's the Lord. That's how he keeps us coming
to Christ, keeps us repenting from our sinful self, keeps us
calling our Savior to save us. It's him speaking that word.
Now, salvation is by grace. It's entirely by grace. No sinner
can boast of any aspect of salvation. Salvation is accomplished by
Christ, not by the will and the works of man. And if you look
at everything involved in salvation, where's the election? It's in
Christ. God the Father chose Christ and
He chose the people in Christ. Where's redemption? It's by Christ
our Redeemer. He was made a curse for His people
and redeemed us from the curse. Where's justification? Our justification
is Christ our righteousness. He's the one that justified us
and He is our righteousness. What about regeneration? Regeneration
is Christ the life in you. Remember He just said, I am the
life. When you have spiritual life,
it's Christ entering into you in spirit and giving you life.
What about sanctification? It's Christ our holiness being
formed in the center. That new man is holy because
Christ's indwelling. What about preservation? It's
by Christ our shepherd. He never leaves us. He never
forsakes us. He's hedged us about on all sides.
He goes before us and he comes behind us. What about resurrection? Christ told Martha, I am the
resurrection. Glorification is the glorified
God-man, Christ Jesus, that's gonna come again and take us
into glory and let us be partakers of His glory in that day. Salvation is of the Lord. When
Scripture says salvation's of the Lord, that's what it means.
Beginning to end and all points in between. So if you seek the
Lord, God's gonna make certain you know He's the one that caused
you to seek Him. so that you give him all the
glory and all the praise and all the honor. Isn't that so
with you? Didn't the Lord work it for you to where you knew
it was the Lord that you didn't do it on your own? That's what
he does for his people. You know, and really here's,
I kind of was trying to think of how can I, as Don used to
say, puts us in shoe leather. So you walk around with it, think
about what it says. Really what it comes down to
is, You sit there and you hear the gospel and you have no interest. You're just waiting for it to
be over. But then one day, you find yourself being interested
in what's being said. And then you start looking into
the word a little bit more. You start following along in
the word a little bit more. Then you go home and you start
looking things up. Then you start wanting to hear
sermons in between the service time. And next thing you know,
you can't get enough of listening. You can't get enough of reading.
And it's starting to delight your soul. That's what the Lord
has spoken. And that still small voice, He's
told you, seek the Lord. And He's made you do it. He's
made you start seeking Him. And that's when you're going
to call upon Him. That's when you'll call upon Him. You know,
Saul of Tarsus, he had said his prayers many times. You gotta
say your prayers. He had said his prayers many
times. But then when the Lord called
him, he told Ananias, behold, he prayeth. For the first time,
he prayed to the Lord. There's a big difference in praying
to the Lord and saying your prayers. And that's true of every believer.
When we err, when we backslide, when we're just in a lukewarm
state, when we're In a trial, whatever the case is, that we
need to be turned to the Lord, it's the Lord speaking into our
hearts, saying, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon
him while he's near. That's when we start seeking
him and calling him. Now secondly, when our Lord speaks
this word into the heart, that's when we repent. That's when we
repent. When he speaks this word to the
heart, that's how repentance is given. Look here, verse seven.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto the Lord. Just like faith is the gift of
God, so is repentance. In Acts 5.31, Peter said, speaking
of Christ, Peter said, Him hath God exalted with his right hand
to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel. and forgiveness of sin. When
you repent, who gets the glory? Christ gets the glory. He's the
one that grants repentance to his child. Faith is not a one-time
thing, and repentance is not a one-time thing. We're coming
to Christ in faith from the first hour he calls you to the last
on this earth, and we're continually repenting as he calls us to repentance. And it's all to His glory and
His praise. It's by His power and it's by
His grace. Now, who are the wicked? Who
are the wicked? And who is the unrighteous man?
Every person born of Adam. That's who the wicked are. That's
who the unrighteous is. Every person that came from Adam. Me, you, and everybody else on
the top side of this earth. That's what we all are by nature.
Everyone are wicked and unrighteous. Some are wicked and they're going
in a way that is obviously wicked. You know, some are wicked and
they're just wild, like a wild ass is cold and they're just,
it's obvious that they are wicked. Others are wicked in a very moral,
religious way. but they're just as wicked. All
are wicked and unrighteous with wicked and unrighteous thoughts
of who God is and what God requires. That's so of everybody as we
come into this world. All are wicked and all are unrighteous
and all are going the way of the wicked and the way of the
unrighteous by nature. You notice here, God puts the
self-made religious man in the same camp with a wicked sinner. He puts the self-righteous man
on equal footing with a wicked, outwardly wicked, notoriously
wicked person. The Pharisees and the scribes,
they were the most moral outwardly. I mean, they appeared outwardly
to be righteous. And our Lord Jesus said, you
have to have a righteousness that exceeds theirs. He is that
righteousness. He wasn't telling them, if you
just work harder, you can excel them in righteousness. He was
declaring He is that righteousness. Christ is that righteousness.
The Lord said it's harder. Now look, He talks about the
wicked, He talks about the unrighteous. But he's putting the self-made
religionists in the same camp with the wicked, with the harlots
and the publicans. But listen, this is what the
Lord said. He said it's harder for the self-made religious man
to repent than it is for the outwardly wicked. He said it's
more difficult. Let me show you that. Go with
me to Matthew 21. He said this on many occasions. He said right along this same
line, but right here, Matthew 21 and verse 31. He said, look at the second part
right here. Verily I say unto you that the publicans and the
harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. He was talking
to the Pharisees. He's talking to the most pious,
the most righteous of all men, outwardly speaking. And he told
them, the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom before you. That means it's harder for A
self-made religious man to repent that it is for a wicked, notorious
sinner. Both takes the power of God,
but remember when the rich young ruler came to the Lord Jesus
and he was boasting that he had kept all the commandments. That
was his great riches. He was richer in his works, in
his esteem, in his own esteem of himself. He was rich in good
works. And that's right after he departed,
the Lord exposed him to show him that you have not kept my
commandments. He said, sell everything you
have and follow me. And he couldn't do it. And the
Lord was showing him by that, your covetous, and if you've
broken one commandment, you broke them all. That's what the Lord
was showing him. And when the Lord turned to his
apostles and he said, he said, it's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter
into heaven. And he's speaking of the riches
of that man's works in keeping the law. That's the worst of
his riches. That was the worst of his riches.
The man whose thoughts are that he's rich by his religious works
is worse off than the man who walks in wickedness. Now they're
both outside of Christ and they're both in danger, but the one who
thinks he's righteous He's in far greater darkness because
he thinks he has light. Remember the Laodiceans? Look
with me at Revelation 3. Here's what the Lord told them. And here's the problem that the
self-righteous, why it's so desperately wicked. You can't detect it. You can't detect it. Look here,
Romans 3, 17. He said, Thou sayest, I am rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest
not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire. that thou mayest be rich, and
white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame
of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve
that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. When is a man gonna repent? It's
gonna take the Lord coming to us and speaking this word into
our heart. And when he speaks and says,
turn to me, That's when you're going to turn. We're going to
repent when the Lord says, let the wicked forsake his way and
the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord.
Now I want you to look at that statement. Go with me back to
Isaiah 55. God's telling us what repentance
is right here. Let the wicked forsake his way. Leave your way. And the unrighteous
man his thoughts. The way is the outward walk,
the thoughts is the inward. Put those together because it's
not like there's some wicked and there's some unrighteous.
We're all wicked and all unrighteous by nature. So we have to forsake
our outward walk and we've got to forsake our inward thoughts.
In other words, true repentance is repentance from anything about
ourselves. That's what it is. He makes you
repent of our sins, and then he makes you repent of your sin. Your sins is the things you've
thought and done and said, but your sin is what you are, your
whole nature. Our Savior makes us repent of
our sins, what we've done in thought, word, and deed. Listen,
a high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked
is sin. Until a man's brought to Christ,
everything he does, everything he thinks, everything he says
is sin. But then it's worse than that,
and this is what we have to be taught. We are sin. Our nature
is sin. We have to be taught that. And
I'm telling you, brethren, you'd be real surprised. People can
sit around the gospel a long, long time and never hear that
we are sin. Our nature is sin. That's what
our nature is. God has to give us a new heart.
And when He gives you that new heart, you still have that sin
nature. So you never stop depending on
Christ to speak faith into your heart and speak repentance into
your heart and keep you turning from yourself to Him. He makes
us repent not only of our sins, not only of our sin, which is
our nature, He also makes us repent of our righteousnesses.
This is where the self-made religious man has the biggest problem,
because he don't realize his best deeds are also sin. We all are as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do
fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
Now that's repentance, turning from your sins, turning from
your sin, your nature, and turning from your righteousnesses. Your
righteousnesses have to be piled up in the same lump with your
sins and leave it all. Come to Christ with nothing.
Absolutely with nothing. And here's conversion. Our text
says, and let him return unto the Lord. The Lord's gonna bring
you to him. You've left your sin, you've left your thoughts,
you've left your righteousness, you've come to Him. You've come
to Him. Listen to this now. When He makes
you do this, there's going to be something that you once loved
that you're going to hate now. When He's granted you this. Go
to Ezekiel 20. I'll show you what it is. Ezekiel
20. Something you once loved you're going to hate. What do you think that is? I'll
show you right here. Something you love you go hate
now see here 20 Look here in verse 42 he says in Ezekiel 20
42 and you shall know that I am the Lord when I shall bring you
into the land of Israel into the country for the which I lifted
up my hand to give it to your fathers and When he brings you
into his kingdom, that's when you're gonna know he's the Lord.
And there shall you remember your ways and all your doings
wherein you've been defiled, and you shall loathe yourselves
in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed.
and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought
with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked
ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O you house of Israel,
sayeth the Lord God. We're gonna, we start hating
ourselves. You'll hear people say, well,
you know, God hates the sin, but he doesn't hate the sinner.
That's not so of those that the Lord grants repentance. He said,
you're gonna loathe your own selves. You're gonna loathe your
own selves. And don't you hate your sin? I hate my sin nature, and worst
of it, I hate the self-righteousness. I hate that. Brother Ralph Barnes
used to say, he said, I never preach the message, I don't preach
against self-righteousness. And he said, I can't put it down
in me, and I can't put it down in anybody else either. I can't
preach it down. He said, it's just always there.
Now lastly, let's go back to our text. What does the Lord
promise to those now that come to Him? So He's spoken, He gave
you faith, He's granted you repentance, He's converted you and brought
you to Him. Verse 7, And He will have mercy
upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways my ways, saith
the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts and your thoughts. If somebody trespassed on our
property or offended us very, very badly, our thoughts and
our ways are to give them what they deserve. Is that not right?
Is that not the first thought you have? If somebody trespasses
against you, steals something of yours, offends you in some
way, well, I'm gonna give them what they deserve. God's way
is to withhold from his child what we deserve. He said, you
come to me and I'll give you mercy. My thoughts are not your
thoughts, my ways are not your ways, God said, I'll give you
mercy. If somebody offends us, man's thought, man's way is to
be slow to forgive. God said, you come to me and
I will pardon you. My thoughts are not your thoughts,
I'll pardon you. If we offended somebody by somebody,
man's thoughts and man's way is, well, he might forgive the
lesser sins, but you know, there's some greater offenses and if
there's bad enough, we got a limit. No, I can't forgive that. God
said, you come to me, I will abundantly pardon. I will abundantly
pardon. all your heap of sin, I'll abundantly
pardon you. We're slow to forgive, God's
quick. His ways are not our ways. Our
forgiveness has limits. God's is never-ending, never-ending. The mercy of the Lord's from
everlasting to everlasting unto them that fear Him. We find it
hard to forgive some things. God forgives all our sins for
the sake of His Son. God's thoughts are not our thoughts.
His ways are not our ways. We forgive, but we don't forget
now. When God forgives, He doesn't remember our sins anymore. His
ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
We forgive, and yet we're going to retain a little bit of our
anger. God said, fury's not in me. He poured it out on His Son,
and His Son bore all the wrath of God. So God says, I'll never
be angry with you again. Fury's not in me. We may be persuaded
to forgive. Somebody talks to us and, you
know, really puts the pressure on us and gives us some sad stories
and they can constrain you to forgive. God stands ready to
forgive freely, freely. Who is a God like unto thee?
pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage. He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy. That's our God, that's his ways,
that's his thoughts. He's able to save them to the
uttermost. They come unto God by Christ
Jesus, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. I
pray he speaks tonight and tells you, seek the Lord, call upon
him while he's near, Leave your unrighteous thoughts and your
wicked ways and come to the Lord. You'll find abundant pardon.
You'll find free forgiveness, never-ending mercies, because
God's ways are not our ways. Whatever your first thought is
when you're offended, mark it down. Think about what it is
and realize God's way is not my way. His way is not my way. All right, Brother Adam,