Isaiah chapter 55. The message is, what is it to
seek the Lord? What is it to seek the Lord? In Isaiah chapter 55, verses
6 and 7, We have this command here, the
command of God through the prophet Isaiah. And this is the command, Seek
ye the Lord. Now when are you to seek the
Lord? While He may be found. Call 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."
Oh, and here's the wonderful result of seeking the Lord, of
finding Him. and of returning and forsaking
all, this is the result. He will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for He will,
He will abundantly pardon. That's good news for an abundant
sinner, isn't it? An abundant pardon. I have an
abundance of sins. Good, because I have an abundant
partner, one that pardons all my sins. Now, this command here,
seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Today, there are
many claiming to seek the Lord. They may be religious people.
They may be doing good deeds. attending church, and even reading
the Word of God. Yet while doing all these things,
they are not seeking the Lord. You can do all these things and
miss this. You can be in church, you can
read the Word, and yet you can be seeking something else besides
the Lord. I know this even in my own flesh.
As I prepare the message, a lot of times I'm seeking the message.
No, I should be seeking the Lord, and the Lord will give me the
message. Seeking the Lord. This is all harsh deceptive,
isn't it? Seek the Lord. Today in many
churches, they just are assuming men are seeking the Lord. Well, you're in church, so I
guess you're seeking the Lord. And what do they do? They don't
demand of men to seek the Lord. What do they do? They go on. They go on to talking about how
you need to be living and what you need to be doing. A lot of people are in church
not seeking the Lord, but rather physical things from Him. There's a lot of people that
just seek health, wealth, and prosperity. They come to church
for that purpose, that they'll be healthy, wealthy, and happy
in this world. Now you're talking about millions of people, friends.
This is not just a few. This is most religion in the
world, are seeking only physical things. Isn't that what those
men that came, the Lord fed them those 5,000. They sailed all
the way across the sea for what? More bread. There they had the
Savior, God manifest in the flesh. The only one that could save
their souls from hell, and they wanted bread. Multitudes are doing that today. But I'm telling you the truth,
that no man by nature is seeking the Lord. If you're seeking the
Lord today, believe me, it is a supernatural event. It is not
a common thing to truly seek the Lord, to seek Him. Now, they may be seeking after
physical benefits, A lot of men think of Christ nothing more
than a fire escape from hell. Something to check off their
list. Well, I sought the Lord when I was ten and everything's
okay. No. One who really seeks the
Lord will continually seek the Lord and never stop seeking Him. They seek the Lord when they're
in trouble, sick, depressed, on the brink of death. And they may even have a sincere
desire to go to heaven, because who wants to go to hell? Nobody wants to go to hell. They may stop trying to live
in sin and call that seeking the Lord, isn't it? Well, I turned
over a new leaf. I'm going to start doing this
and stop doing that, so I must be seeking the Lord. No. That's
not seeking the Lord. All men, according to the Word
of God, are not seekers of God, but haters of God. Haters of
God. Men are not born seeking God,
but running from God. Isn't that what our Father did
the first time He heard the voice of God? What did He do? He ran
and hid. And that's exactly what men do
when they hear the voice of God and their conscience is pricked.
If it is not the Holy Spirit coming in spiritual conversion,
that's all that a man will do by nature is run from God. He
will not seek God. The only thing man seeks is sin. The only thing man wants is to
please himself. as it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
now listen to this, there is none that seeketh after God. Now men can argue as much as
they want, there is none by nature that seeks after God. Now listen, they are seeking
after God by their own ways and thoughts. That's why the Scripture
tells us that he must forsake his ways and his thoughts. Because
his ways and thoughts of seeking God are completely wrong. This is us by nature, it's who
we are. And even if you hear of Christ, even if you seek the
Lord to come to God by Christ, this is the only way a man can
truly seek the Lord, is by Christ. Jesus said, no man knoweth the
Father save the Son. You don't know anything about
the Father except through the Son. And you won't know the Son
unless the Father reveals Him, you just won't do it. You just
won't know Him. You won't know God except if
He revealed Him to you. Jesus said, no man can come to
Me. I was explaining this to a young
man the other day. Can just has to do with ability,
doesn't it? No man has the ability to come
to Me. Except what? God, which has sent
Me, draw him with omnipotent power and might. Remember, your
eyes and your understanding being enlightened according to His
exceeding mighty power, divine power. The man is not converted in his
early life. Usually they run after sin like
wildfire. They strive to satisfy the flesh.
When you're young, you're young, you're not seeking after God,
are you? No, you're invincible. Death is something that happens
to someone else, not me. That's something far in the future. You don't know that, but yet
you really think that. And so what does a young man
do? A young man, he follows the anthem of the world. You know
what the anthem of the world is? Obey your thirst. Just do
it. Whatever it is. Follow your passions. Follow
your dreams. All the while your passions and
dreams are nothing but sin and vice. A man seems to get older and
he starts thinking about his responsibilities. She becomes
a wife, he becomes a husband, they have children. They start
thinking, well, I need to straighten this life up a little bit. I
need to start getting better. So he starts going to church
and he starts doing better and he starts trying to turn over
that new leaf, only realizing it's the same old filthy leaf,
just different side, nothing new. And there's some men that just
go on in excess. They just don't even have that
ability to see that they need to straighten themselves up,
and they go after all kinds of vices, and they get themselves
into a whole bunch of trouble through drugs, alcohol, living
sexually immoral lives. Have you found anybody living
that life to be just so happy? Have you found anybody? Does
that end well for anyone? No. When they come to the end
of that, what do they come to? They come to the same thing that
other person did, well, I need to straighten my life out. They start going into rehabilitation,
they start joining the church, drug treatment programs, getting
sober, and all the while they're thinking what? I'm seeking God
now. Now I'm seeking God. Friends, God ain't found in a
drug rehab facility. He's found where the gospel is
being preached. Any man finds God there, he's
not found God. If the gospel is not being preached
in that place, he's not finding God. In all these cases, they're just
seeking rather to satisfy the guilt of their conscience, rather
than seeking the Lord. talking with a man whose life
was ruined by drugs and alcohol and many sins. He's just a very
vile, wicked fellow. And he called to come talking
to me about this matter of Christ and asking questions. And I remember
asking him, if these sins had no effect on your life, would
you still do them? If you could do these things
that you've been doing, and they had no effect on your body or
no effect on your family, if they had no consequences for
them in this world, would you still want to commit them? Of
course. You see, what he was doing is
seeking to be relieved from the consequences of his sin. He wasn't
seeking God. He wasn't seeking God. So what
is it then to seek God? We see what it's not. Then what
is it? What is it to seek after God?
Because look, this is where salvation is found. Salvation is of the
Lord. If anyone is going to be saved,
he must come to God. God is the only one to whom salvation
belongs. It belongs to Him and He gives
it to whomsoever He will. So if you are to be saved, you
must seek it at the hand of God. For you to seek God, there's
something must take place in your heart. Seeking God doesn't
work from the outside in. It's something that works from
the inside out. It's something that God must
give you, something that God must put in you. And the first
thing that God does for a man to seek Him is He causes him
to be made aware of his sin. Not just the effects of his sin,
not just the consequence of his sin, but really the root of his
sin. What is the root of your sin?
It's the heart, isn't it? Jesus said, from the heart come
all of these evil things. Sin is not, does it just come
by outward things? It's something rooted in you.
It's a nature. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Rather, I have sinned. You know,
that's not what the Pharisee said, is it? He didn't come to
the Lord, be merciful to me for all have sinned, and come short
of the glory. No, I have sinned. Personal. Personal. Depravity, when God
touches a sinner's heart, depravity no longer is a doctrine, it's
a personal, intimate fact. Not that everyone is depraved.
I am depraved. I am a sinner. And so then, all
I do is sin. And he also shows me this, that
God is holy. God is holy. He shows me that
God will, now listen, will punish sin, without a doubt. God will
punish sin. Listen, if you don't know those
two things, you'll never come seeking God. These are the two
core principles by which God uses to first initiate our seeking
Him. So what does God do by these
two things? He creates in us a need. A need. You'll never seek God
if you don't need Him. Look at verse 1 of your text.
These are the people who seek God. The one He's calling Him. Ho! Everyone that thirsteth, come
ye to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye
buy and eat. Ye come buy wine and milk without
money and without price." Who are these people? They are thirsty
and poor. Thirsty and poor are the ones
the Lord calls to seek Him. And God commands them. This is
not a request. This is a command. Oh, everyone
that thirsteth, come. Come is the command of God. With what? Without money and
without price. What a blessed command this is
to those who are spiritually thirsty and spiritually poor. What is it to be spiritually
thirsty? This is when a man's eyes is opened to his need of
righteousness, that God is holy, and must punish and will punish
sin, and he finds out that all that his religion, all his goodness,
all his righteousness is nothing but stench in the nostrils of
God. It's then that a man understands
his thirst for what God demands, righteousness. God demands righteousness
of every one of us. Unless He shows you that, you'll
never come. Have you not seen that God, who
created all things, demands of His creatures absolute perfection
that they cannot provide for themselves? You know, that's
the Word of God, isn't it? God demands holiness that you
cannot provide. You know what men say there,
that's just not right. That's just not fair. How can that be? Surely God doesn't
demand something of me that I can't provide. Yes, He does. You see,
Adam, when he sinned, we all sinned in him, and when he lost
his ability, so did we. But God never lost His right
to demand. his creatures perfection and
he will therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified in his sight this is why no man is justified by law
you can't come to God by law have you seen That you are not
waiting to be condemned, but rather are already condemned.
That's what God uses. He uses this to show you that
condemnation is not something future, it's something now. Listen
to what Jesus said. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. Now that's somebody who's seeking
the Lord. That's somebody who found the Lord. That's somebody
who has been shown mercy and pardoned abundantly. He said
they're not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned to win already. What's this condemnation? Because
he had not believed on the Son of God. That's the condemnation.
All that are not believers in Christ are already condemned.
This was our state when we first were born into this world, and
if we continue in this, hell will be our portion. So then, are you thirsty? for righteousness. Are you thirsty for righteousness
of God? Now, I'm not asking you thirsty
for your own righteousness. That's drinking sand, friends.
That's not drinking water. That's sand. That's a mirage. For a man to truly seek God,
he must thirst and hunger. Remember that woman at the well?
She came and had a physical thirst. Now she came, you suppose she
got up that morning and said, you know I need to seek the Lord.
I think I'll just go down the well and seek the Lord. She didn't
know what she's doing. She's going down there just like
she did every day to get water. The Lord was seeking her. And
when he found her, what's the first thing he did? He told her
of this water. Spiritual water. You drink this,
you'll never thirst again. And she thought, physical water. He said, give me that water. He said, oh no, this is not physical,
it's spiritual. And the first thing he had to
show her, before she knew she needed this water, is her sin.
He said, go get your husband. He said, I don't have a husband.
That's right, because you're living with a man. You had five, and now you're
living in adultery. I know your sin. And what'd she
do? She got religious. She started
talking about, you know, well, you Jews say this, and we say... He said, no, no. The hour is
coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God, and they that hear shall live. And she said, that's a
Christ. She said, when Christ comes,
then He'll... He said, I am Christ. She said,
oh yes, now I see. What'd she do? She sought Him.
When she found out who He was, she sought Him and found Him
to be Christ. And that well of living water
sprang up inside of her the moment she believed in Him. The moment
she trusted in Him, life sprang up. Life sprang up in her. She realized her need of righteousness
and found it only in Jesus Christ. Are you thirsty for the righteousness
of God? Then I tell you, seek the Lord. Where? In the face
of Jesus Christ. In the face of Jesus Christ.
As God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, it shined
in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God. Where? In the face of Jesus Christ. Listen, if you want to seek the
Lord, you must understand who you are, your condition, and
then by this need, you will pursue Him. You will seek Him. Because He is the only way a
man is made righteous. He obtained righteousness by
His obedience. Look, if you want to seek the
Lord, you have to look away from yourself. yet look away from your family
yet look away from your friends yet look away from the preacher
look away from everything and look to christ crisis all crisis all he's all wisdom righteousness
sanctification and redemption so if you see god you must first
of all be thirsty for righteousness not on this you gotta be broke
you'll seek the lord you gotta be broke No money. Come and buy. Now how can you buy without money?
I remember working for my dad and he would tell me to go get
plumbing supplies for him. And I would walk up to the counter
and I would tell them exactly what I needed and they would
bring it out to me. But you know what? I never went
in there with money. I never had it sent to my name. You know
why? My dad had already paid for all
that. So I could have as much as that as I needed. It was already paid for. You
see, you can come and buy wine and milk, both joy and nourishment,
because Christ has already paid the debt. Christ has already
bought these things for His people. If a man is to seek God, he must
come with this. Nothing. Nothing but his sin. He must come begging mercy. Is there any other way to ask
for mercy than begging? Can you think of anything? Can
you demand mercy? You can't demand mercy. You must
beg mercy. You must come begging penniless
and broke, seeking only grace. Dear poor bankrupt sinner, come
and buy and eat of forgiveness of sins by the payment of Jesus
Christ alone. This is what it is to seek the
Lord. It is to see that all sin has been redeemed by the blood
of the Son of God. That's what it is to seek the
Lord. If you don't know that, you'll never seek the Lord. If
you don't have a need for His blood and righteousness alone,
without any merits of the flesh, you'll never seek the Lord. To
seek the Lord is to see Him. Isn't this what it says in Isaiah
53? Look over there at Isaiah 53. Look at this in verse 4, "...surely
He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did
esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He
was wounded for our transgressions." He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." Yet, even more
than this, He had pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Isn't that
amazing? We could see by His stripes we
were healed. But even deeper, the Lord was
pleased to bruise Him. He had put Him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.
He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul,
and shall be satisfied. That's an important word. Satisfied. How can God be satisfied with
me? Only as I was in His Son, and
God was satisfied with His Son. That's the only way God can be
satisfied with me. He was satisfied, and by His
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for He
shall bear their iniquity. So, you thirsty and you broke
sinners, seek the Lord. How? By faith in Jesus Christ. Well, that's Him we just sang.
Venture on Him. Venture wholly. Let no other trust in truth. Is this what you long for? Then
seek the Lord. Now then, to seek the Lord is
to not only seek Him out of a need, but it is also, there must come
repentance. When one is seeking the Lord,
he must turn from something in order to turn toward the Lord. To seek Him you must abandon
everything and cleave only and always to Him." Isn't that what
our text says? Here it is, verse 7, "...let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto the Lord." You that are unrighteous, and
say you seek after the Lord, listen, you must forsake your
way and your thoughts. You must. Those who seek after God must
repent of their sin. Now, listen, I'm not talking
about turning from one sin or another. That's what people think
about repentance. Well, I don't commit adultery anymore. I've
repented of that sin. Well, you obviously haven't repented
of lying, because you have. In other words, that sin's still
just as vital inside of your flesh as it ever was. That lust, that passion is still
there, lurking about in our soul. So no, that's not what it means,
repentance, just turning from one sin to another. Listen, turning
from complete self. Since I am sin from the top of
my head to the bottom of my feet, I must repent of me. Turn from
myself. and my own thoughts as to how
to get to God or please God. Now, everybody's got an idea
of how to please God. Ask them. Why do you think people
love study groups? What they call study groups,
they're just opinion groups. That's all they are. People get
together, read one passage of Scripture, and then they all
just shoot out their opinion and leave. They all think they know how
to get to God. No, you've got to get rid of
that. If you're going to seek God, you must repent of your
thoughts and your ways. Remember what Naaman said? Naaman
the leper. What did he say? He said, I thought
it should be this way. And he was wrong, wasn't he? But you see, his need outweighed
his thoughts. And so his thoughts took a backseat
to his need. If you ever seek the Lord, your
need will take precedence, and you will come to Christ abandoning
how you think things should be. There is a way that seemeth right
unto man, but that way leads where? Unto
death. Unto death. Man by nature believes
that coming to god is by works or we'll that's how natural man
in religion today see coming to god seeking god but see we know this that anyone
who comes to seek god must be given a new nature a new heart
by the holy spirit he must be understand that he can by no
means please God in the flesh. Therefore, we gladly, like Paul,
abandon it, don't we? Paul had all those religious
things in Philippians. He lists all those wonderful
religious things he did. And what did he say? He said,
that's crap. He said, I do count that but crap. That's what it
is. Done! That I may win Christ and
be found in Him. Doesn't that sound like Paul
forsook his thoughts and his ways and returned unto the Lord? Religion is worthless if it's
trusted for salvation. Forsake it. Repent of it. It's a vain hope. And return
unto the Lord. Believe on Jesus Christ. And you know what? This is a
promise. Look at the promise. To all who
forsake their ways, their religion, their thoughts, and turn unto
the Lord and believe God's ways, God's works, He will have mercy
upon you. He will abundantly Pardon. Abundantly pardon. Listen, I want everybody to hear
this. If you come to Jesus Christ right now, mercy. You read the same thing I did?
This is without question. This is without qualification. Those who seek the Lord forsake
their ways and their thoughts. He said, I will have mercy on
you. I will abundantly pardon. Now who needs mercy? Sinners.
Who needs to be pardoned? Sinners. So guess who's the only
one coming? Sinners. Sinners are the only
one coming. They're the only ones who seek
after God. Jesus Christ is the only way
to God. He is the only way. I beseech you then to forsake
your thoughts and ideas and cleave unto God. I pray that none here is trusting
in their own heart, in their own feelings, in their own thoughts.
What does the scripture say about your heart? Deceitful and desperately wicked
above all things, who can know it? But yet I want you to know
there's no sin too great, no sinner too black, that God cannot show mercy to. And that's a wonderful gospel. Isn't that such a wide gospel
that would accept the worst of sinners, the most abundant sinners? should he seek the Lord and forsake
his ways and his thoughts. But I want you to know this lastly,
those who have found him You and me, who are believers. All
of this stuff, I'm not telling you anything new, am I? This
is all your experience. You understand this because this
is what God has called you. You don't understand a thirsty
sinner. You understand a needy sinner. You understand forsaking
your thoughts and your ways and seeking the Lord. But do we not
still seek Him? Is this a one-time thing? Seek
the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him when He is near.
No, this is something God affords to every true believer to seek
Him daily. To seek Him daily. Psalm 27 and verse 8, When thou
saidest, Seek my face, my heart said, unto thee, thy
face, Lord, will I see. Isn't that the first thing when
you heard the title, seeking the Lord, did you not want to
seek Him? Did your heart not cry out, it's
me, I'm seeking, I want to know Him. Paul said that I may know
Him and be found in Him. Now Paul knew Him, But Paul wanted
to know Him. And so what must we continually
do? We must continually forsake our
ways and our thoughts of this old flesh. Remember, that old
man's still there. He's still trying to pull us
away, pull us back to our thoughts and our reasoning. And no, the
new man presses on and says, No! We will not turn aside from
the way. We must have Christ. We must
seek the Lord. And listen, what does that text
say? Seek the Lord when? While he may be found. Why do you suppose the scripture
says today is the day of salvation? Because nobody's promised tomorrow. May God be pleased to touch every
heart here. And listen, when you seek the
Lord, who's really seeking who? I got this one text I'd like
to quote to you. This is a In Ezekiel 37 it said, For thus
saith the Lord, Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep
and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered,
so will I seek out my sheep and will deliver them out of all
places where they have been scattered in a cloudy and a dark day. I'm so thankful that I sought
the Lord, but really I'm thankful the Lord sought me. I never would
have sought Him had He not come to that woman at the well. Had
He not come to her, she never would have sought Him. But He
came to her. He found her. And when He preached
that gospel to her, she sought Him. I pray you'd seek Him. He's near. While there's life, there's hope. Pray for your family members.
Pray that they might seek Him. And you know what? Pray your
pastor and seek Him. I want to know Him more. I want
to seek Him. I want to find out more of His
love. More of His grace. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.