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Paul Mahan

Hear & Live

Isaiah 55:11
Paul Mahan December, 8 2024 Audio
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Isaiah

In the sermon titled "Hear & Live", Paul Mahan addresses the critical theological doctrine of the necessity of hearing and responding to God's call for salvation. He emphasizes the life-or-death significance of genuinely listening to God’s Word, as expressed in Isaiah 55:3, "Hear, and your soul shall live." Mahan argues that while many hear the Gospel, not all truly listen or respond, which he illustrates through various Scripture passages, including Romans 10, Mark 16, and Proverbs 1. He underlines the importance of personal confession of Christ for salvation, reiterating the Reformed doctrine of God's sovereignty in choosing His people while simultaneously affirming the human responsibility to seek and call upon the Lord. The practical significance of the sermon lies in urging listeners to take the Gospel message seriously, suggesting that neglecting it could have eternal consequences.

Key Quotes

“Here and your soul shall live. That means it's life or death, doesn't it?”

“If you don't call on the Lord, you're not going to be saved.”

“You've heard my voice so many times? Here, the instruction of a father.”

“The soul that sinneth shall surely die. Awake! Hear, and you'll surely live.”

What does the Bible say about hearing God's Word?

The Bible emphasizes the importance of hearing God's Word for spiritual life, as shown in Isaiah 55:3, which states, 'Hear, and your soul shall live.'

In Isaiah 55:3, God Himself speaks, urging His people to incline their ears and hear Him. This call is not just a casual invitation but a crucial matter of life and death, signifying that listening to God's Word directly impacts the soul's survival. The act of hearing is foundational in the Christian faith; as Romans 10 articulates, 'How shall they hear without a preacher?' This underlines that engagement with Scripture is paramount, for through it, we understand God's will and gain life.

Isaiah 55:3, Romans 10

How do we know that God's sovereignty is true?

God's sovereignty is affirmed throughout Scripture, emphasizing that He does all things according to His perfect will, as seen in Isaiah and Romans.

The sovereignty of God is a central tenet of the faith, clearly articulated in Isaiah who proclaims God's authority over creation. Scripture affirms that 'God works all things after the counsel of His own will' (Ephesians 1:11) and that every event unfolds under His sovereign plan. This is essential for understanding salvation, as God's choice in electing a people for Himself highlights that it is not man's will but God's divine decree that ultimately prevails. Such assurance reinforces believers' trust in God's unwavering purpose and plan for creation and redemption.

Isaiah 55:11, Ephesians 1:4-5, Romans 8:28-30

Why is confessing Christ important for salvation?

Confessing Christ is crucial for salvation, as Romans 10:9 states, 'If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.'

Confession of Christ is a vital expression of faith, directly linked to the process of salvation. Romans 10:9 emphasizes this by making clear that belief in the heart must be publicly acknowledged to result in salvation. This confession demonstrates the believer's trust in Christ's work and aligns with the biblical teaching that true faith manifests in actions. Moreover, without confession, one remains outside of the community of believers and lacks the assurance of salvation, as Jesus Himself stated, 'If you do not confess me before men, I will not confess you before My Father' (Matthew 10:33), making it abundantly clear that outward acknowledgment is as vital as inward belief.

Romans 10:9, Matthew 10:33

Sermon Transcript

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Isaiah 55. Turn with me there. Isaiah 55. Read one verse with
me. Isaiah 55. You have it? Isaiah 55. I hope
everyone, young and old, has a Bible. I hope you look at it.
You need to not only hear the Word, but you need to look at
it yourself. Read it. Search it. Isaiah 55, verse 3,
incline your ear and come unto me. This is our God speaking. Here and your soul shall live. Here and your soul shall live. How important is this, what I'm
doing this morning? Here and your soul shall live. How important is this? How important
is it what you're doing? Hearing. Hear, and your soul
shall live. That means it's life or death,
doesn't it? I'm not trying to be dramatic
here. But it really is that important, isn't it? Just another sermon,
just something. Nope. I mean, it is another sermon,
but it might be our last, right? Here and your soul shall live. There was an old preacher years
ago that said this, and every preacher should take it to heart.
I preach as one that may never preach again. What if this were my last message?
It might be. Brother Joe Terrell. Same age, we were born in 1955.
He had no idea that that Sunday was his last message. I preach
as one that may never preach again, as a dying man to dying
men. How important is it? Here, and your soul should live. Call, the Scripture says, Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." How important
is it? This is the gospel call I'm going
to give. How important is it? Many are called. Many are called. Come. He said, come, buy wine,
milk, without money, without price. Come. He said, return
unto me. Return. How important is this,
what we're doing? Confess. Romans 10 says, How shall they
hear without a preacher? Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call on Him whom
they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him
whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? Hear, and your soul shall live. Mark 16, the gospel, he said,
the Lord sent preachers out such as myself. And he names pastors
and teachers right along with the prophets and apostles, doesn't
he? He sent those men out to preach.
He says, go into all the world and preach the gospel. And whosoever
believeth, and you quote the rest of it, and is baptized shall
be saved. He said, if you hear, you call,
you come, you believe, you confess Him, you'll be saved. How important
is that? How important is it that you
confess Christ? There's some in here that have
been coming and hearing, but I don't think they've heard.
I don't think they're calling. I don't think they're... They
certainly haven't confessed Christ. How important is that? Our Lord
said, if you don't confess Me, if you don't come to Me, when
I come back, I'm not taking you with Me. If you don't confess
Me, He said, I won't confess you. Isn't that what He said? How important is this? Some in here have not called
on the Lord. It's obvious to me. They have
not confessed Christ. You must not have heard this.
You must not have heard. This is especially needful. This message is especially needful
for this group of people. You hear the truth. You hear
the truth of who God is. God is sovereign. You hear the
truth, that God is absolutely sovereign over things. It's not
up to man. It's up to God. He does all things after His
own will. That God has chosen a people,
elected a people, and chosen a people. And every single person
that God chose, He gave to Christ in a covenant. And Jesus Christ
came down here, not to try to save anybody, but to save the
people that God gave unto Him. And he said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come unto me. And him that cometh to me, I
will know where is cast out. And everyone whom God gave and
chose and gave to Christ, Christ came down here and died for them
and shed his blood and put away their sins by the sacrifice of
himself on Calvary tree. And every single one of them
shall be saved. He didn't try to save. He came
to save and he saved them. He said, I've saved them even
before we went to the cross. And they'll come. They won't
come unless He calls them. They won't come unless He chose
them. They won't. You've heard that over and over
again, haven't you? You believe that, don't you? Our children
believe that, don't you? But if you don't call on the
Lord, are you listening to me? If you don't call on the Lord,
you're not going to be saved. If you personally don't call
on the Lord and say, Lord, have mercy upon me. Please take me.
If you don't come to Christ, If you don't confess Jesus Christ
in that pool in baptism, you're not going to be saved. Say, I don't understand. Yeah,
you do. Yes, you do. How important is it? Turn to
Proverbs chapter one with them. You know, the Scripture says
fornicators shall not inherit the kingdom of God. That's those
who have sex outside of marriage and live together and so forth.
They're not going to be in heaven. Adulterers. Not going to be in
heaven. That's what the Scripture says.
Whoremongers. Illicit sex and pornographers
and all that. Homosexuals. Not going to be
in heaven. Somebody needs to tell this generation
this. It's over and over in the Scripture, isn't it? Not going
to be there. Thieves, murderers, drunkards.
Not going to be in the Kingdom of Heaven. That's what it says
over and over again. Paul says, don't let anybody
fool you with vain words. They're not going to be the people
that live like this and live for these things and live in
them. Don't come out of them and repent and turn from their
wicked way like you forsake them. You're not going to be in the
kingdom of heaven. You're not going to be there. If you don't believe Christ,
if you don't call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, if
you don't confess Jesus Christ in believer's baptism, and come
to Him and follow Him and worship Him, you're not going to be in
the Kingdom of Heaven either. Just like Bill. It's the same. It's the same. You won't be in
the Kingdom of Heaven. In Proverbs 1, you know, we think, young
people think, well, I've got tomorrow. No, this is why the
Scripture says today is the day of salvation. No, no. Over and over again. Not tomorrow.
No, it's not thyself of tomorrow. You don't know what tomorrow
may bring. Proverbs chapter 1, look at verse
7. The fear of the Lord. Proverbs
1. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools
despise wisdom and instruction. There are young fools and there
are old fools. Verse 8. My son, hear. Are you listening? Hear. Are you hearing? And we hear. We come and we sit and we listen
and we hear and we don't hear. It's like living next to a train
track. Isn't it? And after a while,
you know, when you first hear it, it gets your attention and
you can't sleep. I've told you this, but my grandparents lived
in a little one horse town. It wasn't even a stoplight in
town. Tecumseh, Georgia. Way down south of Georgia. Tecumseh,
Georgia. You know where that is, Robin?
There wasn't even a stoplight there. Old country, old general
store, and a nail keg, and they played checkers and all that. And my grandparents' house was
right beside a railroad track. I'm talking from here to the
front door there. And buddy, when we first went
there to spend the night with them, we couldn't sleep. You
know, that train come through, all four of us, all four of us
kids, Becky might have, the three boys slept together. Becky might
have slept with Dad and Mom. But we had a, she had a, Granny
had a feather bed. And we all slept in that feather
bed. And we all, it all sunk in the
middle, you know. But that train come through and
we thought it was going to run over us. The second night, Same
thing. Third night. After a while, we
never heard that train at all. Here, you heard my voice so many
times? Here, the instruction of a father.
Look at verse 24. The Lord says, Because I have
called and you refused, I stretched out My hand, No man regardeth. You have it. You've said it not. My counsel would none of my approve.
Oh, I'll think about it later. I will laugh at your calamity. This is one of the most terrifying
scriptures in the Bible. This is God speaking. I will mock when your fear cometh
and it will come. When your fear cometh as desolation,
your destruction as a whirlwind, distress and anguish cometh upon
you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but
they are not going to find me. They hated knowledge, but did
not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel.
They despised all my reproof. Therefore, that you're going
to eat the food of their way. You're going to get what they
wanted. They wanted the world. There
you are. Are you listening to me? Young
Addo. You know, I don't like to read
scriptures like that. You don't? Do you enjoy reading that? Be
honest. Should I? There's some people in here that
haven't come to Christ. And it may be the last message
you hear. I started going through funeral
messages. I've preached a bunch of them
now. A bunch of them. Henry Mahan,
92. Well, he's an old man. Yeah,
old men die. Martha Ballard. These are people
that I had a part in a funeral. Martha Ballard, 97. Roger Crawford. You don't know him. 38. Preached
his funeral. Linda Stoniker. I did the gravesite. 48. Brenda Pendry, 81. Old people die, don't they? Young
people do, too. Anthony Sheasley, 35. Andrew Huff, 28. Joe Parks, 62. That's young,
isn't it, Stephen? It's young to you now, isn't
it, Stephen? That's how old Stephen is now. Garnet Guthrie, 83. Virgie Jones,
80. Ellen Fralin, 82. I think somewhere,
80-something wasn't she? Jill. Curtis Stanletch. Hooker. Anybody remember Curtis?
I know somebody does. 70. That's my age. That's young. Barbara Ross, 88. You remember back? Anybody remember
back? Gone. Heard the last message. Shannon Parks, 26. How important is this? Are you hearing me? Have you
come to Christ? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you? Then why haven't you confessed?
It's kind of like marriage, you know. Baptism is like marriage.
You don't love someone if you don't confess them before everybody. And you're living in sin if you
don't. And if you don't confess Christ, He's not going to confess
you. And that's not the reason you do it. But if you really
love someone, believe someone, you confess them. Look at our text. Isaiah 55,
look at it, ho, it begins ho, ho. I remember one time reading
that, Violet Byrd, Violet Byrd, forgot about, there's a bunch
of them, Henry Soares and on and on it goes, Virgie. I remember quoting that one time
and Violet wasn't paying attention. I said, ho, she, I saw her literally
jump. It's a term to get your attention. Ho! It's also a term like you
use with a horse. You horse people. You know, a
horse needs restraints, doesn't it? Reins and ropes and halters
and all that. Why? If you own them and you've
domesticated them, and yours, you don't want them to run away,
you keep them restrained from running away and getting into
trouble and hurting them and hurting other people. You restrain
them. And you use verbal command. Ho! Ho! Stop! That's what this means. Stop
now. You remember Jeremiah 6? Stand and see. Look around. Everybody, young
and old, look around. Look at this world. This thing's
a mess, isn't it? It's frightening. If you don't
know and believe what we know and believe, who do we know and
believe? This place is frightening, isn't
it? If I didn't believe, brother, if we didn't believe what we
believe, we'd be building a cave somewhere and stacking it with
guns, wouldn't we? I told somebody, if I didn't
believe God is God, I'd be politically active. If I didn't believe you
know, and Christ and eternal life and need Him, that He's
my life and that God sustains my life and I need not worry
about anything. I wouldn't eat anything but healthy,
holistic, you know. Man, I'd be so health conscious,
I'd want to live forever. I'd make sure I'd eat right so
I could live as long as I could if this is all there is. But
I don't believe that. So I don't worry about any of
that. And if you don't, you better
hope you live as long as you can. Hope. Stop. Look around. Look. Over in Isaiah 30, you've looked
at it with me so many times, it says, Their strength, their
help, their hope, their confidence is to sit still, to stop, stand still. Never been a busier, more active
world. People don't like to sit. They
sure don't like to come and sit and hear this. But this is where
your peace is going to come from. This is where comfort comes from.
This is where rest comes from. This is where freedom from fear
and worry and all that is going to come from. The worry of the
Lord because the help of Egypt, the world is vain. Nobody has
any answers to all these things that are happening in this world.
Not none, zero. What are we all going to do?
What are we going to do? He's not going to stop it. He's
not going to save this planet. And you're not going to live
one day longer than the Lord has purposed for you to live.
You're not going to do anything to make yourself live one second
longer than when the Lord says, you're coming back to me. Your
life's over. Like all those people I just
mentioned to you. It's appointed. And you can't
stop it. That's serious. And so how serious
is it? How important is it? He said,
in returning and rest shall you be saved, in quietness and comfort.
That would be your strength. But it says, no, you would not.
You got on to flee upon horses and said, no, we're going to
ride. We're going to leave. We're going to run away. No, you're
not going to run away from trouble. Like that horse I was talking
about. They don't run away. Horses are animals of prey and
their natural defense of God is to run. But if you own one,
you're trying to keep it from running away and into trouble. And you and I can't run away
from trouble if our strength is, our peace is, our comfort
is, our salvation is to come run to Him. It says, they'll
run unto thee, unto the Lord thy God, to come to Christ and
just sit and lie down in green pasture and follow Him and you
have nothing to worry about the rest of your days. Nothing. He's
got the reins. He's got the rope. He's got a
hold of you. And he's telling you, you just
follow me. And don't run off if you run
off. Where are you running to? What
are you running to? What are you going after? Those two little cats, you know,
Ruth and Grace. Just illustration after illustration. Ruth's older and Ruth's one like
Ruth in the Scripture. She came and I took her in and
she was skin and bones. She's so, so thankful. Man, she
loved me and I love her. She's right now down there in
the study. I didn't have the heart to kick her out. She's
getting so fat. She's happy. She doesn't want
to leave. She wants to stay right there with me. It's just, I'm
her life now. And I leave, and I kick her out,
and I leave, and she stands there and looks at everybody. Why are
you leaving? Now, Grace is young, and a whole
big wide world out there. And she's gone sometimes four
days at a time. I don't know what's happened
to her. Has the coyote got her? Ain't going to happen. Raccoon? Dog? It's going to happen. What's her safety? If she'd be
like Ruth, just come and sit. Lie down. You keep coming. Keep
coming. Keep coming. Don't run away now.
You can't run from trouble. You're going to run into it.
What are you going after, young people? What are you after? I've
been there. Ain't nothing but trouble out
there. You come to Christ. How important
is this? Ho, if I don't get past that
word, will you hear me? Stop. Ho, ho. It goes on to say, though,
come to the waters. He that hath no money, come,
buy, eat, milk, wine, milk, without money, without price. Waters.
You know this planet. This planet, God created this
wonderful planet. It is still a wonderful place,
isn't it? It really is. This planet, not the world because
of man and sin, but this planet is beautiful, isn't it? God made
all things. Ecclesiastes. Turn to Ecclesiastes
2, okay? Ecclesiastes 2. All of you, especially
young people, I hope you'll look at this. It's just two books
back from Isaiah. Ecclesiastes 2. The Lord made
this planet and He put water on it. It's the reason it's the
only place that sustains life. It's the water of life, right?
Waters. Oceans. This world is full of
water. Is it two-thirds water? You've got oceans, you've got
seas, you've got rivers, lakes. Don't you love water? I was taking
a shower this morning. It was cold. Came over here early
to feed the cat. Went home, took a hot shower,
and I'm just in that hot shower thinking, I was actually saying,
Lord, thank you for hot water. Thank you. How many people thank
the Lord for water? Where does it come from? I remember
them asking somebody that one time, and they were from New
York City, and they looked at him like, he said, silly, you
turn on the spigots. That's where water comes from.
They didn't say spigot, they only say that in Alabama. They
said you turn on the faucets. That's where water comes from.
Really? In our text it says it comes
from heaven. Like the rain cometh down and
snow from heaven and waters and gives fruit and seed. It comes from God. It comes from
God. Everything in this life is the
mercy and grace and the goodness of God. Why should we be here? We're giving thanks to our God.
Aren't we? We like water, don't we? Wrong.
We like oceans. We like to fish in the ocean.
We like to fish in the river. We like to fish in the lake. We
like to fish in streams. Fish. There's fish in it. Where'd that
come from? He feeds everything. He's so
good. God's so good. Waters, creeks and rivers and
all that. Yeah, waters. Well, He says,
"...whoe him that thirsteth." And, you know, thirst and hunger
is a sign of life. First, for water, if you're healthy,
you need water and your body knows it and you need to drink
water. And the Lord has given this wonderful
thing called water. I took it for granted. I used
to take it for granted. I thought it only came out of
a faucet, but until we had to dig a well on the farm. And one time I left the faucet
spigot running outside for the horses, and it overflowed, and
I came back, and there was no water coming out of it. And,
Wesley, I literally, I laid beside the well where that gauge is,
begging the Lord to turn that, let that gauge start going back
up. I thought, Ron, I thought, I've run the well dry. There's
not going to be ever any water in it again. I worry. I didn't
know where a well came from. You know where the water in a
well comes from? It's a river of water running. It ain't a
pool. It's a river running. Where's
that come from? God. He said, I'm not going to
let that well run dry. God's so good, isn't He? The
Lord gives us all things richly to enjoy. Look at Ecclesiastes
2 verse 24. There's nothing better. Here
in this life, a man that he should eat and drink, young people,
make his soul enjoy the good in his life. It was from the
hand of God. Verse 26, God give it to a man
that's good in his sight, knowledge, and joy. Down in chapter 3, look
at verse 11. He made everything beautiful
in his time. There used to be a song I liked in the 60's, 70's. Everything is beautiful. That's
where that came from. Verse 12, I know there's no good
in this all here, but for a man to rejoice and do good in his
life, and every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good
of his labor, it's the gift of God. It's natural, young people,
it's natural to thirst for life, marriage, home, Family, children. By the way, you do know that
Teresa is a grandmother now, don't you? You already love that
grandmother? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It's just wonderful. God has given us richly all things
to enjoy. in us for these things, you know,
of life, marriage and children and home and family and kids
and pleasure and these things. God made these things. Food and
all that. Nothing wrong, there's nothing
evil in things. But they won't satisfy you. No matter how much you get. No
matter how many children you have. If you lose one, and you will. See, there's something
that taints all this. There's something that ruins
all this. There's something that ruins
it. Something that turns happiness I mean, joy unspeakable in this
thing, to sorrow unspeakable, where you can't weep anymore.
Something here in this world, and something that happened that
just ruins it all. It's called sin. That turns our
happiness into sorrow. Joy into sadness. Life into death. And you can't escape it. And
something had to be done about it. Death. No matter how much happiness,
how many years you live with that husband in happiness, and
you'll never forget it. You'll never forget that husband.
But something happened that severed you two. It's called death. Why? Because of sin. How important
is what I'm talking about? You can't escape it. You can't
escape it. But here's what you can know.
Now go back to our text in Isaiah 55, okay? Go back there. Here's
something you need to know. There is someone that God sent
to this earth to do something about this thing
called sin. And the Scripture says he's abolished
death. What if I announce in the world,
what if I announce there, I'm going to preach the message how
death, no more death ever again. We couldn't hold the people in
this room. Well, that's what I deal with
every Sunday. Here and your soul shall live. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. Awake! Hear, and you'll surely live. That's it. You'll never die.
Christ said, He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Do you believe that? Married? He said that to a woman
named Mary, our Lord. He was sorrowing, deeply sorrowing.
When Shannon passed away, she didn't die. She passed away. By the way, she was a troubled
young lady. She was single. She wanted to
be married like all young ladies do. Troubled living in this world. Single. It's hard for a young
man. It's doubly hard for a young
woman. And there's nothing wrong with
wanting a husband and all that. God has done that. And she wanted
a husband. She wanted, you know, life with
family and children and all. And God took her. She's got a husband now. She
wrote me before. I've still got her letters. I've
still got her picture in my drawer. Every time I open my drawer,
I see Shannon right there. In fact, beautiful, 26 years old. She wrote me a letter telling
me how she was troubled and her sin bothered her and all that,
but she confessed Christ. She got in that pool and confessed
Christ and believed it was baptism. And she believed. She was here
every afternoon. She worshipped the Lord. And I have every confidence
that Shannon is with the Lord, with her true husband. How important is this? How important
was it that she hear this Gospel? He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die, says Christ. Christ is the only one that ever
walked this planet that couldn't lie. All men are liars. He couldn't
lie. He said, I'm telling you the
truth. He's called the faithful witness.
Look at this. He said, incline your ear, verse 30, come unto
me. Who said that? Christ said that.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give
you rent. Your soul shall live. I'll make an everlasting covenant
with you, the sure mercies of David. I've given him, verse
4, read it with me. I'm going to close. I've given
him for a witness to the people. Who's he talking about? David?
David had been dead for 300 and some years before then. Isaiah is not talking about David.
He is talking about Jesus Christ, the Son of David. He said, I have given Him. Does someone
want to live, need to live? He's the covenant head. He is
the mercy of God. The sure mercies of David is
what David heard about Christ. Covenant head. He said, I've
given Him for a witness to the people. He bore witness. Faithful witness, Revelation
1. Christ said, I'm the faithful witness. He came from God. He told His truth. Only one ever. I'm telling you the truth. The
way. The truth. Life. Christ said, it's in me. It's
nowhere else. It's happening. He's a leader. You need somebody. You know,
amazingly, when Barack Obama was elected, he was running for
election and had a great big word under his picture, hope. Hope. You better not hope in a man,
any kind of man. You better not put your trust
in any kind of man. You better not hope and trust
and hope for peace in this country and prosperity and security and
all that in a man. And the president to become,
he's going to make it all great again. He's going to fix everything.
You better not put any hope or any trust for your future or
your children or your security or financial and all that in
any man. My hope, I'll tell you what my
hope is, okay? And I'll tell you what this scripture
says. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His
righteousness. I dare not trust anything or
anyone else, but wholly lean on His name. Why? Because He
is the Lord God of heaven, who cannot lie, has promised eternal
life to all that come unto God by Him. This is a covenant. This is a
sure mercy. He's the true witness. He's the
leader of His people. He's never led anybody astray.
He's led every single one of His sheep all the way to glory,
all the way home. He's the commander. I need a
commander, don't you? He's a commander. I'm going to
quote it again, John. Psalm 71, 3. He's given commandment
to save us, buddy. Almighty love. Arrest that man. Watching one of our young people
pull into the parking lot this morning. Pretty fast. Pulling
in pretty fast. Too fast. Anybody guilty? I thought, and
I was standing watching, I thought, Lord, arrest them. Grab hold of him. That's me. Don't holler for him. Get a hold of him before it's
too late. How important is this? How serious
is this? Oh, my. He said, look at verse
6. Seek the Lord while He may be
found. You have it? Our text, Isaiah
55, 6. Seek the Lord while He may be
found. What's that mean? It means call on Him. It means
read your Bible. Oh, Brother Bruce, Bless his heart. He's a blessed man. All the time
I say, read your Bible. Read your Bible. Young people,
you have a Bible. Do you just open it when you come here on
Sunday? Read it. Your parents can't do anything
for you. They pray for you, but they can't
do anything for you. Mine couldn't. You need to call
on the Lord yourself. You need to read the Bible yourself.
You need to ask Him yourself. Seek the Lord yourself. While
He may be found, call upon Him while He's near. He's promised
to be with His people. And He is. Those that know Him
know it. Let the wicked forsake His way.
He'll have mercy on you. He'll abundantly pardon. Isn't
this the most wonderful passage in the Scripture? The most serious,
the most needful, the most sobering, yet the most joyful. He said,
here in your soul shall live. He said, here, you come in here.
You come in here. If you come in here poor and
needy and hungry and thirsty. There was a woman at the well.
I was going to turn there, Irene. You wish I had. Oh, every one that thirsted,
our Lord went to a well. And a woman was there being married
five times. Is there happiness in marriage?
Ask her. She married that first husband and thought, this is
wonderful. Didn't last. Married the second
one. This is it now. This is the one.
Yeah, right. The third one. I'm going to try
another one. Five times. And he said, well,
I won't get married now. I'll live with this fellow. You
don't do that. You don't love that person if
you won't marry them. And God condemns that. But anyway,
so she came one day to a well. There's somebody waiting on her. And she had that same old water
pot she bought every day. And she's going back to that
same old house, new fella, same old house, same old water pot,
trying to get something thirsty for what she didn't know. Thirsting,
thirsting, thirsting for love. Thirsting for happiness. Thirsting
for contentment. Thirsting for security. Thirsting
for this. Thirsty for that. She came to
that well. Fella, somebody's waiting on her and she didn't
know who this fella was. And he said, woman, this water you're
trying to get satisfaction from is going to leave you thirsty
the rest of your life. But the water I give unto you
will be like a well springing up. You'll never thirst again.
She said, sir, would you give me that water? He said, that's why I came. That's
why I'm talking to you. That's why you heard this, sister.
That's why you're hearing it this morning. That's why you're
hearing it this morning. Sisters, brothers, that's why
you're hearing it. You have come to the well. And Christ was waiting
to be gracious. And he said, I've got water.
You'll never thirst again. And she went home. You know what
she did? First thing, she dropped her water pot. I think she went
home and dropped that fella, or at least told him, you need
to come here, man. You need to come here. She confessed
Christ to everybody. You need to come here, the one
that came to me. She came there that day thirsty. In verse 12 it says, you hear
this, verse 12, you go out with joy. You come in dragging, you
go out with joy. You come in low, you go out high. You come in full of doubts and
fears and worries. The trees will clap their hands
when you're heading home. Instead of thorns and briars. And that's all this world has
to offer you. That's all that's going to happen
to you. Whatever you lay hold of is going to prick you. It's
going to pierce you with sorrows and troubles. But he's going
to turn that into a fir tree. You know what fir was used for?
You know what David did with fir? He made instruments of music. Not a briar, not a bramble, not
a thorn, but a fir tree, a myrtle tree for beauty, a fir tree for
music. And this is just going to be... If you hear, if He gives you
ears to hear, you're going to go out singing. And never really thirst again.
Now that is not lust for this world so much, but it's going
to be a wellspring in you. This is a vital message. I hope
the Lord give ears to hear it. Call. Have you heard this? Call. Seek. Come. Come to Christ. Confess Him. Be adept at it.
There's joy and there's peace. Okay, let's sing in closing number
252.
Paul Mahan
About Paul Mahan
Paul Mahan has been pastor of Central Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia since 1989; preaching the Gospel of God's Sovereign Grace.
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