May it please God to bless us
as we meditate in his word this morning. Let us turn to the prophecy
of Isaiah, chapter 55, and we'll read verses six and seven. The prophecy of Isaiah, chapter
55, and reading verses six and seven. 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. the prophecy of Isaiah has sometimes
been referred to very aptly as the Gospel of Isaiah. Because, as we know, there is
Gospel right through the Bible, not only in the New Testament,
right from Genesis to Revelation, but in some locations it's perhaps
more obvious and more specific than others. And so here we have
this prophecy of of Isaiah, which is a wonderful prophecy, which
Isaiah was called to write and to speak to the Israelites of
old, when they were in that place of difficulty and opposition
to God. And yet there were so many wonderful
invitations, which the prophet was directed by the Holy Spirit
of God to write. And here we have in these two
verses before us this morning. A wonderful truth, a wonderful,
gracious invitation to people. And we are told therefore, Seek
ye the Lord, whine he may be found. Call ye upon him, whine
he is near. What a blessing that is, if the
Holy Spirit gives us that true desire to seek the Lord. Now, the chapter begins with
these words. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy
and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without
price. So again, it's a wonderful invitation. Ho, everyone that thirsteth. Now, naturally, you and I will
not thirst, we will not be thirsty for the things of God. Naturally,
we will be thirsty for the things of the world. We will want to
follow the things of this world, the course of this world. And
that's what naturally we will be thirsty after. What a great
blessing it is if God gives us a spiritual thirst. That means
a thirst after spiritual things, a thirst after the things of
God, and not after the things of time, which we so often look
upon and perhaps covet and think, well that would be rather nice
and that would be good and that would be pleasant. But you and
I will find that the things of time are really empty. and there's
no true happiness and there's no true peace. Whereas in the
things of God there is, because there is eternal happiness and
there is eternal peace. And so what a vast difference
there is surely between eternal things and time things. And therefore
what a blessing it is for us today to have such a gracious
and glorious invitation which the Word of God gives to those
who are thirsting, those whom God has given a thirst for the
things of God. And if we are blessed with that
heavenly thirst, the invitation is, come, come ye to the waters,
the water of life, how vital that is, how necessary it is,
how needful it is. And therefore, may we have a
thirst and hear the gracious words of God to come to the waters,
the waters of life. And they don't have to come to
try and buy it. You see, it's free. The gospel
is free. And if we had to buy the things
of God, you know, it wouldn't bring glory to God because we
would have been contributing to our salvation. And if we were
contributing to our salvation, we would claim some of the value. And we would say, well, I paid
for that, and therefore I'm entitled to it. Well, you and I have no
money, no spiritual money, no currency which would naturally
pay for these great goods. And so what a mercy it is to
come and realize we have statements like this to encourage us. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come. Well,
this morning, let us just pause for a moment and look at our
own personal life, our own personal condition before God, because
it's not before man, We're often pretty concerned about what people
think. It's a bit irrelevant, really. It's what God thinks. That's a great, important question. And so as we come this morning,
is there that thirst after spiritual things, spiritual blessings? And the Prophet goes on to tell
us that we are to come and to buy wine and milk without money,
without price. It's free. There's nothing to
pay. But we are to come. We are to seek for it, and that's
why we have these words, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Again, what a mercy it is to
be found, and to realise we are in a Gospel day, and especially
to realise here in our country at the present time, we have
a wonderful freedom to gather for worship, and often we don't
appreciate the wonderful blessing there is. We're able to come
here this morning realising that no one has any right to stop
us gathering here for worship. And how often we fail to appreciate
the blessing that it is. How often we fail to realise
what a wonderful mercy it is that we are privileged to be
able to come together to worship. May it be to be found even today
seeking the Lord. And the Prophet goes on to tell
us, wherefore you do spend money for that which is not bread,
and we really mean by that spiritual food. We waste our time on the
poor things of this world, which it won't do us any good eternally. And your labour for that which
satisfies not. It's a blessing if you and I
know what it is to labour after things which we prove do not
satisfy our soul. They may in some ways satisfy
our flesh, satisfy our natural life, but it will only be temporary. It will only be for a short time. It won't be for eternity. And
so what a mercy it is if we have such a valuable instruction as
this to labour for that which satisfies not, hearkened diligently
unto me." That's what the Lord tells us. Let us realise the
relevance of such a statement, to be diligent with regards to
the blessing of our soul, to be diligent to seek that our
souls may receive heavenly food, to be diligent in these things.
How sad it is how often we are not diligent, not at all. Now you see, the word tells us
here then, to hearken diligently unto me. When God speaks, to
hearken, to hear, to hear his word. See, we're here this morning,
wonderful privilege to hear the word of God. You may not think
it much, you may not really appreciate it, But a wonderful thing if
the Holy Spirit convinces us that there is a great blessing
in listening to what God speaks to us. And then he says, and
eat that which is good. That means take spiritual food
and eat that which God provides through his word. And let your
soul delight itself in fatness. That means to be delighted in
the things of God, delighted in the Gospel. Rejoice in what
the Word of God instructs us with regard to the Gospel. And
what is that? When it must lead us to Christ. There is the fatness of the Gospel. And what a blessing it is if
you and I, by the grace of God, can delight ourselves in what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done, in what he did in coming into
this world to satisfy the demands of the holy law of God and to
die in our place to atone for our sins so that we might stand
free from the condemnation of the law of God that tells us,
the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Well, this morning, may
we delight ourselves in the fatness of the Gospel, recognizing it
directs us without fail to the Lord Jesus Christ. Incline your
ear, come unto me, hear, and your soul shall live. And I will
make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David. Yes, a wonderful thing to know
that God makes with his people an everlasting covenant. It's
not something that just lasts for our life on this earth. It
lives and it is throughout eternity. I'm sure we don't need to be
very clever to understand the vastness between time and eternity. to realise here we have that
which is everlasting and he'll make it with us even the sure
mercies of David behold I've given him for a witness to the
people a leader and commander of the people and as you and
I read through the especially the Psalms of David you will
see what a wonderful witness he gives to us it is a witness
which is very full and very complete. And just to remind ourselves
of the wonder of these things, just a couple of references in
the Psalms, the Psalms of David and Psalm 14, where we read the
second verse, the Lord looked down from heaven. Isn't that
wonderful? The great God, he looks down
from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. When if God looks down this
morning upon us here, and we see those who are seeking God,
and you also see those who are not seeking God, and we're told
they are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy,
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Naturally, we all
turn to the things of the world. What a blessing if we are found
amongst those who do indeed truly seek God. And then another reference
in the 27th Psalm, where again, David speaks to us. He says in
verse seven, the 27th Psalm, hear O Lord, when I cry with
my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me." We get a very clear impression, don't we, that David here, he
wasn't just saying a few words, some kind of traditional prayer.
He had an earnestness. He wanted God to hear him. And he wanted God to answer him. He says, hear, O Lord, when I
cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me, and
answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my
face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Well, what a blessing for us
today when we hear such a word as this. Seek ye the Lord, while
he may be found. By the grace and mercy and favour
of God, we're able to confirm with David, who was a man of
God, my heart, said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. Well, this morning we've come
here. Have we come to seek the face
of the Lord? And that really is in two ways.
It's either through his word, which we are able to read. And it also is through the wonderful
facility of prayer. Prayer is the true breath of
the true Christian. If there's no true prayer, there's
no life, there's no evidence that you and I are a true Christian. But if the Lord confirms to us
that we are a true Christian, we will have true prayer, true
earnest prayer before our God. And not only does David speak
to us through the Psalms, he also speaks to us, and we can
read about it in the Chronicles, and in the first epistle, sorry,
the first book of the Chronicles, and right towards the end in
the the 28th chapter we read and David is speaking to Solomon
his son he's speaking to encourage him what a good thing it is this
is what he says 1 Chronicles 28 verse 9 and thou Solomon my
son know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect
heart and with a willing mind But the Lord searcheth all hearts,
and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek
him, he will be found of thee. But if thou forsake him, he will
cast thee off for ever. Well, that was wise words given
to his son Solomon. Surely they are wise words for
us today. to truly desire that we might
be found serving the Lord with a perfect heart and with a willing
mind. Not grudgingly, not unwillingly,
not saying perhaps this morning I don't really want to go to
chapel, I really want to stay at home. See that's not a willing
mind, that's an unwilling mind. What a blessing it is if we come
with a willing mind. Remember the Lord searches our
hearts. You see, you and I can fool our
friends, our parents, everybody. They don't know what we're thinking,
do they? But God does. He knows very clearly. He searches
our hearts. Our heart is, as it were, open
before God. It's not secret at all. It's open before God. He searches
it. the heart and understandeth all
the imaginations of the thoughts." Well, we can often have some
very evil imaginations, can't we, in our minds, and think very
many wrong and evil things, and it's a very tragic scene if it
is so, but it is very often so. And here we have in this seventh
verse where Isaiah says, let the wicked forsake his way and
the unrighteous man his thoughts. We must be concerned that we
do not have evil thoughts, wrong thoughts, wicked thoughts, but
we have those which are good. Because the Lord looks, he knows
what our imaginations are, And yet he comes and says, and this
is the glory of the gospel, but if thou seek him, he will be
found of thee. This is the truth of God. This
is the wonderful blessing that we have. If God gives us grace
to truly seek him, may we have faith to believe that we will
find him. We don't want to seek and not
find, do we? We don't want to just pretend we're seeking and
we're not at all. That won't do us any good. We
want to be found amongst those who are truly seeking the Lord. Seek him, he will be found of
thee. But if thou forsake him, he will
cast thee off forever. Now that's a very solemn word.
And you see the devil will tell us to forsake the Lord. He will say, like many people
do today, it's all fairy tales. It's not true. It's all false. Don't you believe what the Bible
says? And the devil will make out as
many contradictions in the Bible where there aren't. It may appear
so sometimes, but there aren't. The Word of God is true, and
it's complete, and it is full. And there's no error in the Word
of God. So be encouraged by that. But
let us not forsake him. Because if we forsake him, what
a terrible, terrible statement. He will cast us off, not just
for a half an hour, just not for the odd day, but forever. Forever. So here we have then
these wonderful encouraging words. that we have here before us.
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while
he is near. You see, we live today in a gospel
day. Especially in our country, we
have freedom of worship. We have the Bible to read. And
realize there are many, many millions, perhaps billions of
people today who still don't have the Bible in their own language
and definitely have never seen a Bible and definitely not seen
the Bible as we are privileged to have. And so may we be so
thankful that we have the truth of God and therefore that we
may be found calling upon Him while He is near. Oh my friends, let us not find
the Lord has turned his back upon us. Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found and call ye upon him while he is near. We often
underestimate the wonderful privilege that we have of being found in
a Protestant land and having the Bible to read and being able
to gather together for worship. It is an amazing blessing. an
amazing blessing. And so, as we have such a statement
as that, you know, there are so many encouraging words. We
just mentioned a few words of encouragement to seek unto the
Lord, but it's not limited, of course, to those. And just to
turn to one of the famous prophets, Jeremiah, who had a difficult
life, a hard time, to preach and to speak to the people and
yet you see he was faithful in all that he said and we can read
in the 29th chapter of Jeremiah he tells us this from verse 10
for thus saith the Lord that after 70 years be accomplished
at Babylon that was the tragic result of their turning their
back upon the Lord they were to go and be in Babylon very
unhappy place for 70 years but here the Prophet is speaking
to them to encourage them after 70 years be accomplished of Babylon
I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing
you to return to this place isn't the Lord merciful he is still today he was to Israel
of old He is still today. And this were the words, yes,
I will visit you and perform my good word unto you in causing
you to return to this place. And then he 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 end. Well, isn't that encouraging?
God knows the thoughts he thinks towards you and me. Then shall
he call upon me. Well, at the time of Israel,
there was to be a change. They were going to be there all
those years. And then there would be a time when they would turn
again. They would turn to the Lord. They would call upon his
name. Then shall they call upon me,
and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. Again, a wonderful promise. and ye shall seek me and find
me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Well,
that's a very solemn condition really, because our hearts tend
to be two values. We tend to think,
well, I will seek the Lord, but I'll just carry on and I'll just
enjoy the world. because I really think it's rather
nice to be able to do two things. Well, you won't find that very
successful. You'll find that unsatisfactory,
because there won't be any true happiness in the things of this
vain world. And yet, here is the glorious
promise, when you shall search for me, and find me when you
search for me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith
the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather
you from all the nations And from all the places, whether
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."
Well, what mercy that was of Israel. We only have to read
the history of Israel and you can read it. It's very fully
covered in the Word of God how Israel again and again were told
about the truth of God told again and again about their situation
in turning their back upon God, turning their back upon the glorious
signs that were shown to them in the temple, that of course
all those wonderful sacrifices of animals and meats and the
incense all directed the hearers to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what they turned
away from. They turned away from it. They didn't see any beauty
in it. They didn't see any necessity
of it. They turned from it. Well, we
see the mercy of God. The mercy of God. And my friends,
isn't it glorious to think today that mercy has not changed. The Lord is still graciously
merciful if we have turned away from the Lord Jesus Christ. If we've seen no attraction in
him and the old devil has shown us the things of the world and
sidetracked us to those poor things which have no real blessing. And yet here we have this statement
before us this morning. Let the wicked forsake his way. Forsake those things which are
wrong. Forsake those things which are evil. Forsake those things
which take us away from Christ. And the unrighteous man, his
thoughts. It's a very important little
statement that. Because as I said already, it's
only God who knows what our true thoughts are. And we can sit
in chaplain and you and I can look very wonderful and very
proper. We can dress in all the right gear and look all right
and nice and sober. But our hearts can be miles away. Miles away. No more worshipping
than the man in the street. Nothing at all. Yes, well, here
is the word. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. The Psalmist in the 119th Psalm,
he says this, I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. And the difference between those
two statements is enormous. I hate vain thoughts which will
never profit our soul. But thy law, and of course the
law in those days, referenced that which consisted of the glorious
ceremonial law. And all those ceremonials pointed
to the Lord Jesus Christ and to all that he did in his suffering
to redeem sinful men. And there it was before them,
and there it was, They turned their back upon it. My friends,
today may our thoughts be directed to Calvary and the Lord Jesus
Christ. May our thoughts be directed
to what the Lord Jesus did to redeem our souls from all our
sins, to realise what great blessings were accomplished there on that
time, on that day. when the Lord Jesus was crucified
to atone for all the sins of his people. And so then our thoughts
be directed to Calvary, and always be concerned that they are to
view the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore let us forsake wrong ways, wrong ways, you know
what's wrong in your life, Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts. Now there's not a vacuum. There's
not something that says, well that's it, that's finished. No,
no, no, no. And he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. That's the fullness of the Gospel,
isn't it? The Lord doesn't say, well, I'll pardon a bit. No,
the Lord pardons fully. He's paid the price. Take away
all our sins. And it is an abundant pardon. You see, when you and I appreciate
the cost of that forgiveness and realize the cost was the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It involved him shedding his
most precious blood on your behalf and my behalf, utterly unworthy
as we are of the least favour from God. Why should God look
upon us, a wretched sinner, wandering from God, far off? Why should God look upon us. Well, he looked upon Israel. Be encouraged. Perhaps we feel
far off. Not too far. Not too far. You may remember the parable
that the Lord spoke about what we refer to as the prodigal son. There he was in his father's
house and he looked out and thought, oh, it's very beautiful over
there. I'm going to go away. He asked for his money that was
going to be his inheritance, and off he went. And he spent
it all in, we're told, riotous living. Was he happy? No. And then, you see, with it all
gone, he then began to be in want. And he realised all they'd
been doing was of no value. Then he remembered his father's
house. He remembered the blessings that were there. So he said he would return and
he would go to his father. So we have these words, Annetim,
return unto the Lord. Well, as you know in that parable,
his father was looking for him, rejoiced to see him, and made
a grand and glorious feast for him. What a mercy that is. What a blessing we have. Such
a lovely parable to make this clearer, give us a better understanding
of it. And he would have mercy upon
him. Let him return unto the Lord. And the Lord gives grace
to return. You know, many have never returned. They follow their own way. They've
gone their own way. For the mercy of the Lord looks
upon us and blesses us with that humble desire to truly turn to
him. What wonderful words they were
in that sermon we read, that Sermon on the Mount, the Lord
Jesus Christ, in that 5th, 6th and 7th chapter. If you're not
very familiar with it, go home and read it because it's a very
wonderful, wonderful statement. Great truths it contains. And
so, the Lord speaks and he says, Ask and it shall be given you.
Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. It's a full statement that, isn't it? Ask, knock, and
it shall be opened. And to seek, ask, seek, and knock.
For everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it
shall be opened. Blessed words of the Saviour,
aren't they? Wonderful words of the Saviour. So may we be encouraged this
morning and He will have mercy upon him. Now, mercy is welcome
news, isn't it? It's a lovely word, mercy, isn't
it? How often we need mercy. Perhaps we need mercy from our
friends, perhaps we need mercy from people we may have offended. We've offended God. We've offended
God. We need mercy from God. Without
mercy we shall be eternally lost. We need God's mercy. So let us
seek for it. Let us pray for it. Let us return
to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God
for he will abundantly pardon. abundantly. See God doesn't pardon
by halves. He doesn't say well now I'll
just watch you for a bit and see how you're going to get on.
No. He abundantly pardons and he
abundantly pardons because he has paid the full price to take away all our sins. There
aren't one or two left remaining there. The Lord Jesus pardoned
all our sins. Everyone. None too bad. Not too many. Abundantly pardoned. It's a glorious
word, isn't it really? If you and I just think of it.
If we look at our sins, it's a good thing when we do look
at our sins and see our sins, in the past. Perhaps there are
mountains of sins and we think, well, what's going to happen? You and I can't dissolve those
sins ourselves. You and I can't rid ourselves
of them ourselves. But you know there was that lovely
little example in the Pilgrim's Progress of Christian. He had a great burden on his
back of this sin and he was trudging along with it. And it was a real
burden to him and it's a good thing when sin is a real burden
to us. It's not something which is something trivial which we
just think, oh will I carry on with that? No. Christian had
a burden. And do you know when he lost
that burden? He lost it when he looked to the cross. And he saw by faith there the
Lord Jesus Christ dying to take away his burden. my friends,
the burden fell off and disappeared in the pit to be seen no more
forever. When God graciously and mercifully
forgives, it's done. I will abundantly pardon and
let us never underestimate the cost of our salvation. Let us
never underestimate the cost of the Lord Jesus Christ dying
upon that cross to forgive our sins. Just ponder and think of what it cost the Lord Jesus
Christ, the agony he endured, the spitting, the weight of all those punches
that were put upon his face, all the blood Yes, the scourging,
all the humiliation. And I think that wasn't just
another person, it was the Lord God Almighty who condescended
to endure that for rebellious sinners. What a mercy today, if you and
I can count ourselves amongst those for whom Christ died. He rather rose again so that
by his grace one day we should be with him in glory rather than
with the devil and all his angels in that place that you and I
by nature deserve. So this morning may be encouraged
by these words. May be thankful for the gracious
invitation the gospel has. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him, pray unto him
what 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. Amen.