Go back with me, if you would,
to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. The last entry in this book,
the Lord used men to pen letters and and record events that happened
and our God compiled them into his holy word. They were all
moved by the Spirit of God. And the last entry into this
book was John on the Isle of Patmos writing the book of Revelation,
the last book in the Bible. John penned that around 100 A.D. Different men say different things,
96 A.D., 98 A.D., somewhere around 100 A.D. And that was a long
time ago. All right? That was a long time
ago. So as we read these stories,
as we read about and think about these men and women in the Scripture,
We naturally think of these things as being the past. Right? Over. But do you know what the good
news of the gospel is? It's not over. It's not over. This book was finished 2,000
years ago. 2,000 years ago, but we are still in
the day of salvation. Today is still the day. Isn't that wonderful? We read where God spoke to Isaiah
and God spoke to Moses and God spoke to His disciples while
He walked on this soil for 33 years. We read that and we naturally
think, oh, he used to be so near. Is that what you think? He used
to be, he used to be on this earth. He used to appear to men. He used to be so near. You know
what the good news of the gospel is? He still is. He still is. He has not shut
the door of mercy yet. God's mercy and grace are just
as near and just as abundant as they ever were. While there is still time, While there's still time before
it's too late. Before he withdraws himself from
sinful man and he finally makes the decree, no more mercy. While there's still time, here
is the commandment to every soul on this earth. And this is the
loving call to His sheep. This is the commandment to everybody. And this is the loving call to
His sheep. Look with me at Isaiah 55 verse
6. He said, Seek ye the Lord while
He may be found. Call ye upon Him while He's near. Blind Bartimaeus did, didn't
he? Don't you love that story? That
poor blind man, he'd heard about him. He'd thought about him, he'd
dreamed about him. Oh, if I could beg from him,
if I could just beg from him. If I could somehow get to him,
one day there he sits on the side of the road and he hears
all this commotion going on and he asked somebody, what in the
world is going on? And somebody leaned over and
said, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Oh, help me. Isn't that what
he said? Lord, help me. Help me. You ever cry that from
the depths of your soul? Lord, help me. The Lord stopped and looked at
him and said, Would you bring him to me? Call on him while he's near. Call on him while he is near. That woman with the issue of
blood, she did. This woman had been to every
physician in the land. Nobody could do anything for
her. Nobody. She seemed to be a hopeless,
impossible, incurable case. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
came to town. And as soon as she heard that
He was there, she said within herself, If I may but touch the
hem of his garment, I'll be made whole." You know what she believed? Whom
is able. That's what she believed. And
she committed herself. She went out to the crowd. There
was a big press of people around him. They were all pressing into
him. And she got down on her hands
and knees and crawled up under all those people. I thought about
how difficult that might be. You think about how difficult
that could possibly be when people are packed in that tightly and
all those legs are that close. Here this woman is crawling,
trying to make it through people's legs. Can you imagine how annoyed
they were? What is that? And here comes
this woman. Can you see him kicking her, stepping on her? But all of a sudden she sees
the feet of the master. And she keeps crawling. She says,
these light afflictions are not worthy to be compared to getting
to Him. And she made it all the way up
and she reached out and touched Him. She was hope. Seek ye the Lord while He may
be found. Call ye upon Him while He is
near. That thief on the cross did,
didn't he? He had lived an entire life of
rebellion and sin. That's all you can say about
him. Rebellion and sin. And now, here
he hangs. Hours. may be minutes away from
standing before God, the judge of the earth. And the whole time
he's hanging there, he's railing on the son of God, God himself. But God and his mercy stopped
him. All of a sudden that man was
railing and railing and railing and God in mercy, just like when
he knocked Paul off of that horse, God went. And God opened his eyes. And
he saw Christ crucified. And he said, Lord. Would you please, oh, would you
please remember me when you come into your kingdom? And he said, I'll see you soon.
Today, you're going to be in paradise with me. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Life is tempting. The world is tempting. It has a lot to offer this flesh. This flesh wants it. This flesh
goes for it. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. call upon him while he's near. Now the fact of the matter is,
this is a general call to every soul on earth. The commandment
goes out. But this is an effectual call. This is a saving call. When God's spirit speaks, something happens. This is a regenerating, life-giving
call to only a particular people. For the rest of our time, I want
us to look at two things. Number one, who is he talking
to? Who is this effectual call to? And number two, How does a sinner
seek the Lord and call on him? The commandment is seek the Lord. How does a sinner do that? All right, first, who is he talking
to? He tells us in verse one, he said, ho, everyone that thirsteth. Now, he's not talking about the
water that this world has to offer us. In Matthew five, he clarified
it by saying he that is thirsty for righteousness. He that is thirsty for Christ. Thirsty for forgiveness. Thirsty for mercy, thirsty for
eternal life. Eternal life. He said, that's the soul that's
going to come. That's the soul that my father
has drawn. He makes him thirsty. He said,
I'm talking to the thirsty. And he said in verse one, I'm
talking to he that hath no money. And he's not talking about money. He's talking about the soul that
has earned nothing before God. What have we done? that's of
any value to God. You know why we want money? It
has value. If something has no value, we
try to sell it to somebody else in a garage sale. And if they
don't want it, we just throw it away. What have we earned that's of
any value before Him? He said, I'm talking to the soul
that has Nothing to offer him. I mean nothing. The soul that
cannot pay his sin debt, he has nothing to buy his own redemption
with. Nothing. Is that us? Is that us? Can we say, no, that's
not me? Can we say that? Nope, not me. Are we thirsty? Do you want eternal
life? No, this one's good enough. I'll
take three score and 10 and then be done with it. Eternal life. Are we begging and thirsting
for mercy and forgiveness? Lord, please forgive me. Are
we broke? I mean broke. Do we have no choice
but to say, in my hand, no price I bring. I'm not bringing anything. If that is us, then he's talking
to us. He's talking to us. His effectual
call is to us. And here's what he says. He says,
come, seek me, call on me. Now, how do we do that? How does
a sinner seek the Lord? Turn with me if you would to
Jeremiah 29. It's the next book over. Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29 verse 10 says, For thus saith the Lord, that
after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you
and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return
to this place. 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. I'm going to do. I'm going to
do. I'm going to do. I'm going to do. That's where salvation starts.
That's all our hope. I'm going to do. What all have
you done for God? I'm going Verse 12 says, Then shall you call upon me, and you
shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And
you shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for me
with all your heart. He said, I'm going to do, I'm
going to do. And you know what he's saying?
I'm going to seek you. I'm going to search you, I'm
going to find you. And then after that, you're going
to seek me. And you're going to find me when
you search for me with all your heart. A sinner seeks God with
the heart. With the heart, out of the heart
are the issues of life. He said, I'm going to do every
bit of this for you, and then you're going to seek me and you're
going to call on me. After it's all done, then you're
going to start calling, you're going to start crying. David
said in Psalm 27, when you said, seek ye my face, that's when
my heart cried, thy face, Lord, will I say. After you said, seek
ye my face. We seek him in the heart. We
call on him in the heart. We come to him in the heart,
in the heart. Now let's take that a step further.
And ask the question, what does that mean? What does that mean? We seek him in the heart. What
does that mean? What is it to truly seek and
call with the heart? What is in the heart of a seeker
and a caller? We just looked a minute ago at
what does a true believer believe? Well, I have the same message. What makes a true seeker a true
seeker? What is in the heart of a true
seeker? I have five things. I want to
give you five things that true seekers acknowledge to God and
believe in their hearts. This is what it is to seek the
Lord. Five things. I want to be a true
seeker. Don't you? I want to be a true
seeker. Five things. Number one, if we
are seeking something, then it means we don't currently have
it. Everybody has religion and salvation
and God and heaven all figured out, don't they? If we are going
around seeking something, then it means it's not right there. Isn't that right? True seekers believe in their
hearts. As I stand here in my flesh,
in the flesh just as I am, I don't have Christ. I don't have Christ. You know what a scary realization
that is? When we see Christ is all, you
know what a scary realization it is to realize? I don't have
Christ. I don't have Christ. People naturally
but wrongly assume they have Christ. They assume that they
have God's favor. We can't have God's favor outside
of Christ. And they assume that they have
God's favor. But when God calls a sinner to
be a seeker, they'll never see otherwise until God calls them
to seek. And when God does that, that's
the first thing he reveals to them. As I stand in my flesh, I have no righteousness before
God. I have no merit. I have nothing to cover my sins. And then God reveals Christ. He reveals Christ to be all of
those things for a sinner. We need righteousness. Christ
is the only one we have. We need merit before God. Christ
is the only merit a sinner has. We need a covering for our sin.
Christ is the only covering a sinner has. That's it. When God calls a sinner to see
that, that sinner becomes a seeker, a seeker. I need what I don't
naturally have. That's when sinners become seekers,
when they need, when they need what they don't have. Go with
me back over to Isaiah 55. Here's the second thing that's
in the heart of a true seeker who's calling on the Lord. In the heart of a true seeker,
there is a real desire for mercy. There is an actual desire for
mercy. Most people do not have a real,
deep, burdening desire for mercy. Most people just don't have it.
They don't know they need it. But seekers do. Seekers do. True seekers Seek mercy more
than anything else in this world. It's true. All right, now our
flesh says, oh, I don't know, my flesh is weak, I don't know
about that. True seekers seek mercy more than anything else
in this world. Let me ask you a question. I'll ask everybody
through you. If you could only choose one,
would you take a million dollars or God's mercy? If you could only choose one,
would you take $100,000,000? There are men in this world who
have $100,000,000. Would you take $100,000,000 or God's mercy? Which would you choose? Look right here in Isaiah 55
verse 7. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord,
and he'll have mercy on him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. True seekers seek God's mercy
above everything else. Everything else. That's the greatest
desire in their hearts. God's mercy. They all cry, God
be merciful to me. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Here's the third thing in the
heart of a true seeker. True seekers bow to. They are willing. To be saved. On his terms. If he says salvation is of the
Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. If He says we are to come as
beggars, thirsty broke beggars, then we come as thirsty broke
beggars. Isn't that right? If the scripture says He must
increase but I must decrease, then He must increase and I must
decrease. Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way. Thou art the potter, I'm the
clay. Mold me and make me after thy
will while I'm waiting, yielded and still. Thy will be done. Men naturally want their own
way. Not, I'll do it my own way. That's what the flesh wants,
his own way. The truth of the matter is there's only one way.
There's only one way. It's the way of Christ. It's
the way of the cross, God's way. And true seekers seek his way. They just do. If God says he
will only accept me in the blood of Christ, then cover me head
to toe. Do you want to come any other
way than covered in the blood of Christ? If God says that's
the only way I'll accept you is if you're covered in the blood
of Christ, I think I'd rather come another way. No. That's
the only way I want to come. Thy way. We need what we don't
have. We need mercy. and we'll take
it anyway he'll give it to us. I will be done. You are my God. You are my king. You're my owner. You're my controller. I bow to
you. I bow to you. Here's the fourth thing that's
in the heart of a true seeker. True seekers of Christ are willing
to part with anything or anyone that is opposed to him. Anything or anyone that is standing
between Him and His Lord, even if that person is His own self. Even if that person is His own
self or that thing is His own self. Do you see in verse 7 it
says, Let the wicked forsake His way. Lord, please don't give this
old man over to my own way. Please don't. Verse 7 says, And the unrighteous
man his own thoughts. Lord, please keep me from myself. Don't we say that? Please. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
That's what verse 8 says. The Lord is saying that to us
and we acknowledge. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
Therefore, I don't want my thoughts. I don't want my way. Please make
my way your way. Make me willing in the day of
your power. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Please don't
let me leave the God I love, please. Lord, if this is a hindrance,
remove it from me. Isn't that what God's people
say? If this is not your will and
your way, shut the door. Please shut the door. Don't let
me walk through it. If this will take me away from
you, don't let me have it. I'll part with it. If it's going
to take me away from you, just let me part with it, please.
Solomon said, and this is so wonderful, he said, give me neither
poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient
for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal,
and take the name of my God in vain. That leads us to the fifth
thing. The fifth thing that's in the
heart of a true seeker. A true seeker seeks Him. If most people would be honest,
they seek those golden streets. Really, it's flashy. If most
people would be honest, they want to live in a mansion. That's
what it is. Really. They all want the things that
they can get out of the Lord Jesus Christ. True seekers just
want him. They just want him. If he's in
a place that has golden streets and mansions, then that's heaven.
And if he's in a place that has nothing but dirt, that's heaven. They just want him. A true seeker is actually in
love with the one who saved him. That's what it is. he is seeking if you look at
verse six it says seek ye the lord that's what he's seeking
he is seeking the lord while he may be found a true caller
is calling upon Him while He is near. May God cause every
single one of us to forsake our way. You know, once God reveals
to us the sin that we are, we acknowledge all of my ways are
wrong. May God cause us, may God cause
me to forsake my way. Please, Lord, may God cause us
to forsake our thoughts. Because if He does that, He'll
bring us back to Him. He'll let us return unto the
Lord and to our God and He'll have mercy on us. He'll have
mercy on us and He will abundantly pardon. He said, if you seek,
you'll find. You know why? It's because He
already did the seeking. He said, I'm going to do. I'm
going to redeem. I'm going to buy. I'm going to
bring back. I'm going to draw. And after
you're safe and sound and under the blood and covered and secure,
you're going to cry, God save me. You're going to start running
inside Christ already. So he said, you seek. And if
God's spirit moves on that heart to start seeking, I don't have
what I need, not not in the flesh. I need mercy. I'll take it anyway
you'll give it to me. I'll completely be saved on your
terms, Lord. I bow to you. I just want to
be with you. He said, you seek, you're going
to find. It's not a possibility not to.
He said, you seek me and search me with all your heart. Oh, let's
all do that. Let's do that. Let's not take
the word and the call for granted. That call's gonna go out, it's
gonna go into the ears of people who God does not cause to heed
it. Lord, let that not be us. Let's all seek the Lord while
he may be found and call on him while he's near. Okay, let's
all stand together.