Go back to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. As I had said, this
subject of seeking the Lord has been on my mind for a few weeks. The highest pursuit in this life is to seek the Lord. I know we seek higher education,
we seek a lot of things in this life, but the highest pursuit
is to seek the Lord God of heaven and earth, to seek to know Him,
to be accepted of Him, to stand in His presence, You would think that God Almighty being the Creator
of Heaven and Earth, that everyone would have an interest
in knowing Him, knowing the Creator. He made all this. He created
all this. We created none of it. And yet,
Unless God gives us a man or a woman an interest in seeking
Him, we won't do it. We'll seek everything else, but
we will not seek Him. And it's amazing to me that the
Lord condescends and in His grace calls upon sinners, because in
verse 7 He calls them the unrighteous and the wicked, He says, seek
Me. Search for Me. Search for Me. I'll show you in Scripture a
little bit. Over in Jeremiah, He said, He that seeketh Me with
all his heart shall find Me. God has promised. He has promised
that the person who seeks Him with all the heart... This is
not a half-hearted venture here. This is with all the heart. And
God has promised that He will be found of those who seek Him
with all the heart. One of the things concerning
God that amazes me, which everything about God is amazing, but the
longsuffering of God. To watch how this creation, to
watch how humanity, the ungratefulness of it, the ingratitude of it,
to see that, and yet God is so long-suffering. Long-suffering. Now it says in Isaiah 6, "...Seek ye the Lord while He
may be found. Call upon Him while He is near."
My first point is this, who should seek the Lord? Who should seek
the Lord? Well, first of all, everyone
ought to seek the Lord. Every person on this earth ought
to seek the Lord. All of humanity ought to. He
made us. Listen to Psalm 24.1. The earth
is the Lord's. It's not ours. Your home is not
your home. It's his. Your car is not your
car. It's his. Your children are not
your children. You say, oh, yes, they are. Well,
I know that. But I know they're not also.
They're his. When he took Job's 10 children,
did he ask Job if he could? He didn't ask Job a thing. And if you go in there, whenever
he does ask Job questions, when he questions Job, he doesn't
question Job about Well, can I do this? Can I do that? When
he began to question Job, he said, where were you when I created
the heavens and the earth? Where were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth? Where were you? No, God doesn't ask us for anything. He's the Lord. Seek ye, listen,
the Lord, the sovereign, the Sovereign, the Sovereign Savior. He's Lord and Savior. He is a
just God and a Savior in that order. And He is a Sovereign
Savior. We saw this last week in Romans
9. He has mercy on whom He will
have mercy and whom He will Yardens. That's just who God is. What
that is saying is that God is God. We are the subjects, not God.
He's the sovereign. We are His subjects. Seek ye
the Lord, He's the Lord. That's who you seek. And everyone
ought to seek Him, for the earth is the Lord, the fullest thereof. That's what I said, your home
is not your home. Everything's His. Everything. And the world
is this... Listen. The earth is the Lord,
the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein."
You know, and you've heard this many times, and I've heard it
several times, these televangelists, make Jesus your Lord. Forget
it. God beat you to it. God beat
you to it. Jesus Christ is your Lord whether
you believe Him or not. Whether you like Him or not,
love Him or not, He's Lord. He is Lord, it says, both of
what? The dead and the living. Everything, everyone will answer
to the Lord Jesus Christ. So it would be wise for every
one of us to do what? Seek the Lord. To seek the Lord. He is Lord of all and He deserves
our respect and our gratitude. He deserves our worship. It says
in Hebrews chapter 1, Let all the angels of God worship Him. Why? Because He is God. God would not say, let the angels
worship Him if He Himself were not God. He's God. He's Lord and He's
God. But now listen, who should seek
the Lord? More specifically, you. You and
me. You. The Word is being preached
to you right now, this morning. You. God is speaking to you and
me this morning. And note the character here.
Let's define this a little more. He gives the character of the
ones He's speaking to. He says in verse 7, "...let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Who's He speaking to? The wicked, the unrighteous. Brethren, this opens the door
wide open to sinners. Now, most people won't go that
far and say, I don't count myself as wicked. Well, God does. I don't see myself as unrighteous.
Well, God does. You know how things really are?
The way God sees them. That's exactly how they are.
And that's what I am by nature. And when I read that, that gives
me hope. He didn't say, he doesn't say here, let the rich forsake
his way. Well, that would exclude me,
exclude most of us. He just says the wicked and the
unrighteous. Well, boy, that just opens the
door up there. That opens the door. But most won't go that far. The
self-righteous will keep their self-righteousness. That's why
the Pharisees were offended. They said, we'd be not sinners.
We're not sinners. They were offended that the Lord
was speaking to them as sinners. And they said to Him, we'd be
not sinners. They said, God is our father. These are the most
self-righteous people in town. These were the most moral people
in town. And they said, God is our father.
And the Lord said, no, the devil is your father. He gave it to
him just as it is. The devil is your father. If God were your father, he said
in one place, you'd believe me. If God were your father, you'd
love me. You'd believe me, you'd bow to me, if God were your father. You remember that rich man? That
rich man, that rich young ruler, he came to Christ and he said,
all these things have I kept from my youth up. You know what's
sad, is his morality became his undoing. He saw no need of Jesus
Christ. He saw no need of His righteousness. I need His righteousness. I don't
have any. I have zero righteousness. Self-righteousness
is no righteousness. Self-righteousness is just another
form of sin. It's probably the highest form
of sin. It's the sin that robs God of
His glory. A drunk, as I told you last week,
is not going to rob God of His glory. But self-righteousness? Self-righteousness says, let
me tell you what I've done. You and I haven't done anything
without sin. We haven't even had a thought
without sin. Not even a thought. The gospel is for sinners. It's
for sinners. It's for the poor. Blessed are
the poor in spirit. There is the kingdom of God.
It's for the afflicted, it's for the young, it's for the old,
the gospel is for sinners. Whether they be young sinners,
old sinners, afflicted sinners, it's for sinners. That's why
it says here back in verse 1, "...whoever thirsteth, thirsty for God, thirsty for
righteousness, thirsty for forgiveness. Come to the waters, and he that
has no money, come ye buy and eat, yea, come buy wine, milk,
without money, without price. You know, that's a real good
news to somebody that just went bankrupt. If you're absolutely
bankrupt, that's good news. But if you've got a bank account
that's fat, it's not good news. You'd rather go to the restaurant.
But to the bankrupt sinner, that's good news. He that has no money
coming by, how is that? Only God can do
that. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread,
that which satisfies not? Why do you do that? Why do you
spend your time on religion that's without Christ? A Christless religion satisfies
no one. Religion in and of itself will
just make you... I'll tell you what it'll make
you. It'll make you self-righteous and mean. Look at history. Look at history and see some
of the wars that were done in the name of God. All the murders
and all the things that people do in the name of God, but Christ
is not in it. Just because somebody uses God's
name doesn't mean God's in it. Might be have the wrong God.
Now, if you're going to talk about God, let's talk about the
God of the Bible. And he has to fit the description
of the God in the Bible. The gospels for sinners. And
to seek, listen, he says here, seek ye the Lord. To seek implies
that I'm lost. Have you ever been lost? Have you ever been lost? That's a terrible place to be,
but it's a good place because Christ said He came to save the
lost. He didn't come to save anybody else. He came to save
the lost. Christ died for sinners. He didn't
die for anybody else. He died for sinners. That's what
Scripture says. He died for the ungodly. And He says here, "...let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return unto the Lord, You know, have mercy on him.
Let me give you just a couple of thoughts here on this matter
of repentance, because that's what he's talking about. When
he's saying, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon
him while he's near, and let the wicked forsake his way and
the unrighteous man his thoughts. Repentance, as I told you last
week, It's to turn from sin, it's to turn from a sinful life,
sinful way of life, it's to turn from that. But it's also to change
your thoughts of God, the way you think of God, who He is,
Jesus Christ, who He is, and yourself. And yourself, that's
the hardest one to change. None good, no, not one. I put
out by that verse, even me. I wrote that out by that verse,
even me. It's not, no, I know my neighbor's
no good. No, even me. Always apply the word
of God to yourself first. Always apply it to yourself first. And then why should I seek him?
Why should I seek him? There has to be a reason for
us to seek Him before we will seek Him. Well, first of all,
He said to. He said to, "...Seek ye the Lord,
while he may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.
And then seek Him, because He has what I need." He has what I need. God demands
perfection. God demands righteousness to
stand in His presence. This is what God demands. God
has provided it in Jesus Christ. He has made unto me wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Everything I need, He has. Listen, everything I need, He
is. That's what He is to me. It's
not what He just gives me. This is what He is to me. He
is my wisdom. He is my righteousness. He is
my sanctification. He is my redemption. He is these
things to me. I don't have any of these by
nature. I don't have any of them. And then seek you the Lord because
He is life. We don't have spiritual life
apart from Jesus Christ. We don't have it. We have this
natural life. We have this natural life. It's
a sinful life. It's not a spiritual life. To
have Christ, now listen, to have Christ is to have God in the
soul. It's to have the life of God.
That's what it is. To have Christ is to have the
life of God. And then thirdly, when should
I seek Him? When should I seek Him? Well,
the Scripture says here, while He may be found, while He is
near, that means now. That means right now. That doesn't
mean get up out of your seat and come up here to the front.
No, that's not what that means. That means from the heart, from
the heart seek Him, from the heart look to Him. Look unto
Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and
there is none else. Look to Him right now. Seek Him
right now. Right now is the only time I
have. I don't have the next second. If I do, God gives it to me,
but I don't know that I'm going to have that. David said, my
times are in your hands. God has measured out my time
from the first second to the last second. It's that close. Some say, well, he's going to
last about a week. God knows exactly how long I'm going to last. He knows exactly how long I'm
going to last, right to the second. I only have right now. That's all I have. I have right
now. And right now, he's near in his
word. Well, I am near. The Lord said,
where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am
I in the midst of them. Are there two or three, are there
at least two or three believers in here this morning that's gathered
in his name? The Lord is here. That's what he says. That's his
word. He's given us his word. I take
him at his word. I take God at his word. And He
said, where there's two or three gathered together, there am I
in the midst of Him. And right now, He is near. You've
got the Bible in your lap. You've got the Word of God in
your lap. It can't get any more near than that. It's right there
in your lap. There'll come a time, listen,
there will come a time when He will not be near. He'll be far
off. You remember Esau, how he sold
his birthright for a bowl of soup? He said, if I'm going to
die, what good is this birthright? He gave it to Jacob for a bowl
of soup. And then later on, as time went by, it was time to
give up the birthright for Isaac, his father. And it says that
Esau sought the birthright bitterly with tears, but he found no place
of repentance. Though he sought it bitterly
with tears. It was too late. Isaac wouldn't
change his mind. He said, I've already given it
to Jacob. And Esau tried to get him to
change his mind, but he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. There's
a time when he won't be near. There's
a time. And David wrote this, listen,
I said, when should I seek him? David said, we saw this Thursday
night, David said, early will I seek thee, early, early in
life, youth, or that the young would seek
the Lord. There is no life like a life lived for Christ's sake. No life like a life that follows
after the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no life. I wouldn't go
back and change a thing. The Lord brought me to a saving
knowledge of Him around 22, 23 years of age. I'm so thankful
for that. I'm so thankful. Because that
is one treasure I'll never lose. I cannot lose my life in Christ. There was a man said to me one
time, and he didn't believe anything. He was a rascal. He was working
for me, but he was a, but I liked him. He's an under rascal, but
I liked him. He and I got along real well.
But he said to me once, he said, you haven't lost anything until
you lost your life. I said, you don't know what you
just said. I said, you don't even realize what you just said. In Colossians it says, speaking
to the believer, your life is hid with Christ in God. The one thing that God told Satan
he could not touch concerning Job, you know what it was? His life. His life, because Christ
is my life. Christ was his life, is his life. Seek him early. Look over in
Proverbs 8. Let's see if I can find this. Proverbs 8, look in verse 17. I love them that love me, and
those that seek me early shall find me. She'll find me." There's a promise
to every person here. He says, you seek me, you'll
find me. You'll find me. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6,
2, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.
You remember Agrippa? Paul preached to him. And Agrippa
said, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, almost.
Well, almost only counts in horseshoes and grenades. It doesn't count
in anything else. Almost. Almost, you know what
almost is? It's altogether lost. And he
never did, as far as we know, he never did hear of Paul again. Felix, Paul preached to Felix
there in Acts 24. And he said, I'll call you again when it's
a more convenient season, and we'll talk about this. He told
Paul when it was a convenient season, he'd have him back. Did
he ever have him back? No. Paul went on to Rome. But Paul preached a gospel to
that man, to both of those men. What do you think they remember
now, Doug? You were just saying that back then. What do you think
they remember now? You think they don't remember that message
that Paul preached to them? Oh, yes, they do. While he may be found and while
he's near, we are saved on God's time and God's terms, or not
saved at all. Then here's a promise to those
who seek Him. He says in verse 7, Let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God he will abundantly
pardon. Our God, through the blood and
righteousness of Jesus Christ, can forgive and be a just God. See, God's got to be just in
forgiving. He's not going to just forgive. He's got to do
it in a way that's just. And He can do so through the
blood and righteousness of Christ, of the vilest person that ever
walked on this earth. He can do that. That's how effectual the blood
of Christ is. It will wash away all our sins. And we have God's
Word that He will have mercy, He will show mercy to the chief
of sinners. Turn over to Jeremiah 29.13. I'll wind this down. Look at verse 12. Verse 11, verse
11. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, this is God speaking, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon Me,
and you shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. He's already telling them exactly
what's going to happen. And you shall seek Me and find Me, when
you shall 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've driven you, saith the Lord, and I'll bring
you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away
captive. But you seek me, he said, you
seek me with all your heart and you'll find me. That's a promise
of God. And then this brings me to the
last two points that are short. I got this from Henry. I listened
to this message, Ginger sent this to me, but I'd already listened
to it. But how to seek the Lord? Well, seek Him with all your
heart, with all your heart. You know, if you were hungry,
I mean, if you were starving, if you were starving, and you
knew there was some food in that house over somewhere, you would
knock the door down and you would seek, you would tear that house
apart till you found that food. That's with all your heart. And
then seeking continually. You know, I started seeking the
Lord as many of you many years ago. I'm still seeking Him. That's
why I said this message to me, I still need Him. I need Jesus
Christ more now than I did when I started. At least I feel that
way anyway. I have just as much sin in me
now as I've ever had. I need Him. And I seek Him. I seek Him for daily mercy, grace,
and forgiveness, and guidance, Seek Him continually, and then
seek Him in His Word. You're not going to find Him
anywhere else. You're not going to go out there in the woods, or
you're not going to get in some kind of meditative state. You're going to seek Him
in His Word. He's found in His Word. And then you seek Him with a
single purpose, and that's, Lord, save me. Save me. And then, if the Lord, by His
grace, enables us to seek Him, How do we identify with Him?
Well, the way that Scripture gives us to identify ourselves
with the Lord Jesus Christ is baptism. It's not the mourner's
bench. Christ is our altar. Our altar
is Jesus Christ. Paul said, we have an altar that
they have no right to eat of. And he's speaking of Christ.
He's our altar. But the way we identify with
Him is baptism. Look over in Acts chapter 8.
This is just one of my favorite parts or stories in the Scriptures. Philip meets this eunuch and
he's reading Isaiah 53, and Philip takes the Scriptures and he preaches
Christ to him from those Scriptures. In verse 35, Then Philip opened
his mouth, and began as the same Scripture, and preached unto
him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain
water. And the eunuch said, Here is
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Evidently, Philip
had mentioned to him about baptism. And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and he said,
and here it is. He didn't mention a doctrine.
He didn't mention any doctrines that he believed.
He said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe he's the one that Isaiah
is speaking of. That one that Isaiah is speaking
of is Jesus Christ. And I believe that with all my
heart. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both
Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. That is how you
identify with Christ. That is a public confession of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But our Lord this morning, has said, seek me, seek me, and
you'll find me. And my heart, I'm telling you
what, my heart says, Lord, enable me to seek you. Draw me, turn
me, and I'll be turned.