If you would, turn back to Isaiah
chapter 55 with me. I heard a story of a missionary. I don't remember what country
he was a missionary into, but he was back in the States. And he was traveling to the congregations
that supported him, and he was in one fairly large one. The pastor called on him, and
he stood up, and he preached for about 30, 40 minutes, and
he preached Christ's honor and message, preached Christ crucified,
preached Christ is all, and then he sat down. The pastor of that congregation
told him afterwards, he said, He said, our people are disappointed
in you. He said, why? He said, because
you didn't tell us about your missionary trip, everything going
on in the mission field. And he said, well, he said, I
have to answer to God one day. And I had the opportunity to
stand up and declare Christ. And that is what matters, that
I'll have to give an answer to God why I didn't if I don't.
That stuck with me, and I pray that the Lord will give me a
message every time that's Christ-honoring, that preaches Christ crucified,
and that Christ is all in all. That's all that matters. That's
all we need to preach. Going through, I told you last
time about going through the class with the young ones, the
younger group. Paul, the apostles, they went
preaching. All they did was preach Christ.
And the Lord had people scattered everywhere, and he saved people
everywhere. Some believed, some did not,
but it was all of the Lord. In the end, I think of 1 Corinthians
that, in 1 Corinthians someplace, Paul tells that Apollos that
he planted the congregations. He's the one that went out, started
like Corinth, Philippians, and others. Apollos was the preacher
at Corinth, and he watered, but the Lord gave the increase. All
they did was what God had told them to do, what God had showed
them, and that's all I can stand here and tell you tonight is
what the Lord has done for me. I'm a sinner. I'm saved by grace,
only by grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that He'll
give me words tonight from this scripture. I need this. This is one of the reasons that
I went to this and the Lord led me to it. But I noticed in this
chapter, I don't know whether you noticed it when I was reading
it, the Lord The first thing he does, everyone that thirsts,
everyone that thirsts, that's who he's calling. Are you thirsty?
Has your sin got you parched and dry? Are you thirsty? But
he gives several commands to his people. They will heed his
word because he chose them, he called them, and he'll have them
heed his word in his time. But some of the commands that
he gave, he said, come ye to the waters. He tells them another
place. He said, come unto me. He said, hearken diligently unto
me, and eat that which is good. Another command. He said, incline
your ear. Hear. Come unto me and hear. And he said, seek ye the Lord. That was his commands to his
people. Only his people will hear it. Christ himself said
that no man can come to him except the Father draw him. I'm not
preaching anything of works here. These will be done because of
the faith of God, the faithfulness of God. That is the reason these
will be done by his people. They will not do it perfectly.
They can't. We're still sinners. But then after he gives that,
then he gives all kinds of promises. He tells us to come ye to the
waters. And he said, he who hath no money,
come ye, buy and eat. Yea, by wine and milk, without
price, without money. The Lord has paid it all. Our
Lord Jesus Christ paid it all. Before the foundation of the
world, he chose a people. He chose to come down here as
a man for 33 years, live perfectly by the law he created, do something
that no other man could do because he was in his sin, laid down his life, raised it
up again, and went and sat down at the right hand of the Father. But that's one of his promises.
The other promise, he said, hearken diligently unto me and eat ye
that which is good, and so that your soul delight in its fatness. He's given us that fatness, the
fatness of his Word. From Genesis One to the last
chapter of Revelations, it's all about Christ. It's Christ's
story. That's all it is. If we're not
reading it, if we're reading it as history, we're reading
it wrong. It's all about pictures of Christ
in there. All about pictures of Christ.
He tells you to incline your ear, come unto me and hear, and
your soul shall live. Hear the Lord. Listen. Listen
for the Lord, incline your ear. I take incline your ear, I may
be wrong, but I take your, you know, people put their hand up
to the ear, they want to hear better. Cup their ear, incline
your ear and come unto me and your soul shall live. And I will
make an everlasting covenant with you. Another promise. And then he says, seek ye the
Lord while he may be found. call upon him while he is near.
And he goes down into the next verse and he says, and he will
have mercy upon him. That's what we need. We need
God's mercy. We need God's mercy. Our Lord said in speaking of
thirsty and telling us to come to the waters. Are you thirsty?
Come, the price is paid. Don't bring your works. Don't
bring what you think of religion. Don't bring your beliefs. Listen
to what the word of the Lord says. Christ said, if any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He tells us to come, but he draws
us. and that marvelous that he would
have mercy on any, but especially me. Are you thirsty? Has your sin
left you dry and parched? Are you poor in spirit? That's
who the Lord called, poor in spirit. He told us in Matthew, Turn under the mouth, he said,
the poor in spirit shall inherit the kingdom of God. That he would think on a worthy
sinner to save his soul, to make him righteous. It's all the Lord's
righteousness. All the Lord's righteousness. Turn with me to John chapter
4. This was the woman at the well. We'll start in verse 10. I want
to read 14 verses, or through the 14th verse. It said, Jesus answered and said
unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that
saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water. Here sat the living
water, the Messiah, the Christ, was in front of her. We're blinded
by our sin. We can't see, we can't see the
God that's right in front of us. We can't see any of these
scriptures and see Christ in them, except Christ revealed
to us. And then in verse 11, the woman
saith unto him, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the
well is deep from whence then hast thou that living water. Are thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and
his children and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto
her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. If
I pick up this bottle and take a drink, I'm going to get thirsty
later. But if we drink from the Lord
Jesus Christ, we'll never thirst. said but in 14 says but whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but
the water that I shall give him shall be in a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. He gives us through the Lord
Jesus Christ everlasting life. Saves our souls. That's the only
thing lethal. I was talking to somebody earlier
that Doesn't matter about our health, what kind of health we
have in this life. The only thing that matters is,
is our soul saved. That's the only thing that matters.
That's the one thing needful. That's why we stand. Our pastor
faithfully stands and declares Christ message after message. That's the one thing needful. But this lady, after Christ revealed
himself to her, In verse 29, she went running into town. She
ran back into town, and she said, come see a man which hath told
me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ. That's
what Christ does. When he sends that spirit of
revelation to a person's soul, the first thing he does is show
them their need of a Savior, shows them their sin, opens their
blind eyes to the fact of the sin that they're in. They realize they have no good
deeds. And then I love this in Isaiah
65. I knew it. I'd heard it. And
when I was searching, I saw this. Verse 24 says, and it shall come to pass
that before they call, I will answer. And while they're yet
speaking, I will hear. Reminded me of Daniel when he
was praying. The Lord sent Gabriel to speak
with him before he finished his prayer. It says, while he was
yet speaking, Gabriel came to him. The Lord had sent his messenger
to comfort his prophet, his beloved that he had had. and back in
our text. So we need to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. But we can't come with anything
of ours. We need to come, follow His feet. We are His servants
and He will. All the promises that He's given
us. This whole chapter was promise after promise. But He tells us
Some words of warning. It says, Wherefore do you spend
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfies not? Man is constantly out here searching
for religions, searching for beliefs, doing things his way,
thinking he's living the right life. It's all for naught. All for naught. Yes, we should
try. If Christ has saved us, yes,
we work our works for Christ. But it's because he saved us
not to be saved. These things will not satisfy. Christ is that thing that's good. And that's what he tells us.
He said, hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is good.
That's Christ. Eat this word. Come in here.
Every time this word is preached, be here. Be here. That was another
reason I thought of the thirsty was a few weeks ago, we didn't
have a Wednesday night service. You know, Sunday to Sunday is
a long time without sitting here, seeing y'all and hearing the
gospel in a setting like this. I can listen to the sermon audio
all day long and a dozen different preachers. It's not the same
as being here amongst brothers and sisters, listening to Christ,
listening about Christ and how Christ is. That he's salvations
of the Lord, that's all I can say. Colossians 2, 9 through 10 tells
us this, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. And because that of all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily, ye are complete in him, which is the head of
all principality and power. The Lord Jesus Christ makes us
whole. We will not see that fully until
he calls us home. But I believe it with all my
heart because he said it, because he does it. I know where I came
from and I know he changed my path
and showed me Christ and give me a desire to be here and that's
it. Verse three, he tells us to incline
your ear and come unto me. There again, he tells us a command
to come unto him, incline here and your soul shall live. Our
soul shall live because the Lord Jesus Christ called us and we
came. We was made willing to come. That's what, uh, in Samuel, first Samuel, when
the Lord called Samuel, he called to him three times and three
times he got up in the middle of the night, went to Eli and
said, yes, master. What? Eli realized that the Lord
was calling him and dealing with him. And he told him, he said,
the next time, the next time that he speaks
to you, say, speak Lord, for thy servant heareth. And that's
what Samuel did. Samuel saved him. Samuel made
him a great prophet. He's the one that anointed, the
Lord had anointed David. wasn't the first one that Samuel
wanted to choose, but it was the one the Lord chose. That's
what's miraculous, is who the Lord chooses. And he says, and I will make
an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of
David. The sure mercies of David. Second
Samuel 23, 5, David on his deathbed, He said, God's everlasting covenant
is all my salvation and all my desire. This were the sure mercies
of David. The sure mercies of David. And I have five more sure mercies
of David. Turn with me to Jeremiah 31. Look at a couple of places there.
These five are all found in Jeremiah. And there's such a comfort that
the Lord would give us scriptures like this to point his people
and comfort his people. Jeremiah 31, 33. He says, but this shall be the
covenant that I will make with thee with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord,
I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their
hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people."
Notice the Lord says, He will. He will. Doesn't ask us to do
anything. Says, I will. Says, they will,
and He will be their God, and they shall be His people. I've
heard men say it, and I know it's true. I love the wills and
the shalls of the Lord. He does it all. He does it out
of His good pleasure. In the next verse, in 34, And
they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man
his brother, saying, Know the Lord For they shall all know
me from the least of them unto the greatest, saith the Lord,
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin
no more. He will remember our sin no more. He's forgiven us
our iniquity to the point to where he will remember it no
more. What a sure mercy that David had. What a sure mercy
we have that the Lord Jesus Christ would pay our sin debt. And then in Jeremiah 32, verse
39, just a couple of pages over, it says, and I will give them one
heart. Again, he says what he will do. And one way that they
may fear me forever for the good of them and of the children after
them, I will give them one heart and one way. that they may fear
me. What a sure mercy. And in verse 40 says, I will
make an everlasting covenant with them. Again, he tells us
what he will do. That I will not turn away from
them to do them good. He will not turn away from us,
but he will do us good. But I put my fear in their hearts,
and they shall not depart from me. We can't get away, even if
we want to. If we're the Lord's, we can't
get away. I'm always praying that the Lord
will keep me. But as long as I'm one of his,
truly one of his, I can't get away. He won't let me. If I do, he won't let me go,
but so far, and he will bring me back. That's his promises. He will keep us. But those are
the sure mercies of David. And in verse five, he said, or
verse four, I'm sorry. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. The everlasting covenant is made
with our surety. The great shepherd of the sheep,
Christ Jesus, the Lord gave him for a witness. He is that prophet
that was manifest in the flesh and is risen. He is our leader. He's a great high priest. After
the order of Melchizedek, he's our shepherd that leads us in
the paths of righteousness. What a great Savior we have. Is it, there's nothing wrong
with having salvation of the Lord. I'm glad he did it all. If he'd have left any part up
to me, I guarantee I'd have messed it up. Guaranteed. I couldn't
get it right if I had to, but I don't have to worry about it.
He called me. He made me willing in the day
that he chose me. Chose to reveal himself to me.
He's our commander. He's the commander, he's the
king of kings. Verse five, behold thou shalt
call a nation that thou knowest not and nations that knew not
thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the
holy one of Israel for he hath glorified thee. All that Christ is, does, and
will do for his people will be for the glory of God. Turn with me to John 17. He, everything Christ did on
earth was to glorify the father and everything the father did
for the Christ was to glorify him. And that's what he said
in his prayer here in the first four verses. Our Lord speaking, praying, he
said, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, and thy
son also may glorify thee. And thou hast given him power
over all flesh, and he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Our Lord Jesus Christ. took our
sins, bore them upon that cross before the Father, reconciled us to the Father through
His blood, through His blood. In verse 3, and this is life
eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. We don't know anything else.
Young people, if you don't know anything else, Learn who the
true God is and learn who Jesus Christ really is. Learn who he
is. Verse four, I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And the Lord said he had glorified
his son. It was his son in whom he was
well pleased. All the glory was between them
two. They shared none of it. Our God
gets all the glory. or he gets none, we need to give
him all the glory. That's why we stand to preach
and teach, is to give him the honor and the glory. It's not
about ourselves, not about any one of us, anything we've done,
it's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse six, What we've seen here to start
with, are we thirsty? Are you thirsty? Come to the
waters. Are you hungry? Come and eat
bread without price. With all these things that he's
told us to do, have you inclined your ear and
heard? Have you beheld Christ the Messiah? Do you know what
is meant by salvation is of the Lord? Then seek the Lord. Seek ye the Lord. It says, seek
ye the Lord while he may be found. He said where two or three are
gathered in his name, that's where he'll be. That's why we can listen to the
messages over Mixler sitting in our house by ourselves. We
can listen to sermon audio driving down the road in a car by ourselves. But it's not the same as being
here because Christ said, where two or three are gathered, that's
where I'll be. The two men walking down the
road of Emmaus, the Lord walked with them. How greatly blessed
they were that Christ was there teaching them the scriptures,
speaking from the scriptures. That's what we need is the Lord
to speak to us. Men are always seeking something,
seeking better jobs. Our young people are seeking
the next thing in their life to get out of one school to get
in another school or start work in the world. Too much seeking
is going on in the world. To seek of the world. We need
to seek the Lord. Where will he be found at? He
will be found where his gospel is preached. Where he has set
a man to declare his word. That's where he'll be. That's
where, if you're seeking the Lord, be there. Search these
scriptures. Christ is on every page. Ask
the Lord to show you Christ on every page. Don't look at it
as a history lesson. Don't look at it as, well, that
happened way back then and doesn't apply to today. No, these are
all pictures of Christ. All pictures of Christ. And it says, call upon Him while
He is near. He is near. In this life. If we were not
promised tomorrow, if we go out of this world. And we don't know
the Lord Jesus Christ. He hasn't revealed himself to
us. He's no longer near. We need to call on him while
we're able, while he may be found and while he is near. And then
the Lord goes on to tell us. Well, I'm still in. What is it
to seek the Lord? It's to discover by nature. And
I took this from Henry Mahan's commentary. I'm sure he wouldn't
mind at all. He had four points. Discover
that by nature, I do not have him and I need his grace. That's what the Lord reveals
to a sinner by nature. We don't have him, but we need
him. We need a savior that can save us. We don't need one that
has no hands, but our hands, no, we don't need that. Our hands,
our God's hands are not too short. His arms are not short. He reached
down, he found me. I know they're not short. Acts
15, 11, Peter, he said, we believe through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. The apostle was
speaking of the Gentiles, and he said that we will be saved
even as they. He didn't say that they'll be
saved the same way he was, no. He'll be saved the same way they
are, by the Lord Jesus Christ, by
the grace and the power of him. Number two, what is it to seek
the Lord? It is to desire His mercy and
fellowship with Him more than all. More than all. I fall short of this at times,
but it is my desire to always be here. There's times where
things come up and you're like, well, yeah, I could just not
go. Fortunately, the Lord has given
me a desire to be here. Sometimes it's even harder, but
I'm glad that he gives me that desire. Number three is to be
made willing to be saved on his terms, that he might be just
and justifier. Our God allowed sin to enter
this world. He chose to save some people
from that sin. And the way he chose it was for
him to be the justifier. Our God come down here as a man,
put on flesh and bones like we have, tempted as we were, that he might justify his people.
It was the only way to do it. And number four, be willing to
part with all that oppose Christ. There was a time, sad to say,
I had a head knowledge of the doctrines of grace, but I could
hang out with anybody. And now, I can't hang out with
just anybody. I want to be around people that
love the Lord. I don't find any comfort in being
out there with people that don't love the Lord. And verse 7 says, let the wicked
forsake his way. That's what he does for us, is
he makes us forsake our wicked ways. We're still wicked. We're still sinners. But we try
not to let it show through so much to everybody. The unrighteous man, his thoughts.
Oh, our thoughts. Just what we thought in the last
30 minutes that we've been in here without a Savior will put
us in hell. And said, let him return unto
the Lord. Our Lord said in another place,
I will draw them. I will cause them to return unto
me. And because he does it, he will
have mercy upon him. I'm glad He will have mercy upon
him. And to our God that He will abundantly
pardon. He will abundantly pardon. Turn with me to Micah chapter
7. Micah 7, starting in verse 16. We'll read through the end of
the chapter on it. This touched me when I read it.
The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might. They shall lay their hand upon
their mouth and their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the
dust like a serpent. They shall move out of their
holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord,
our God, and shall fear because of thee. Who is a God like unto
thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgressions
of the remnant of his heritage? Isn't that something to think
about, that our God pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgressions
of the remnant of his heritage. We didn't stop being sinners
because he saved us, but he doesn't see them. He puts them away, the past and
the future ones. He makes us like him. He retaineth
not his anger forever because he delighteth in his mercy. Our
Lord delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities,
and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
I heard the other day something I come across. They was talking
about how deep the ocean was. There's a point in the ocean
that's seven miles deep. Think about being seven miles
deep. He cast our sins into the ocean. Man has no vessels that'll
even go close to getting them back. Thank goodness the Lord
will not, he's hid them from himself. Says, thou wilt perform
the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn
unto our fathers from the days of old. We have the same promises
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had. There's a Savior. There's a Savior. He will save us. He will save
his people. We have nothing to fear. The
only thing we should fear is a God that can destroy our souls. That should be a fear. That's
why we fear God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Back in our text, in verse 8, he said, For my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are my ways. Neither of your
ways, my way, saith the Lord. I had a man tell me, I tried
to point him to scriptures. I tried to show him the Lord
Jesus Christ in scriptures. Just what God said. And the only
thing he could say to me the whole time we were talking was,
I believe, I believe this, I believe that. He didn't back it up with
any scriptures. But by that same token, if the
Lord hadn't saved me, I'd be just like him. I'd be just like
him. It takes a merciful Lord to show
me that my thoughts are not his thoughts. My ways are not his
ways. Not at all. His thoughts are higher than
mine. That's what he says in the next verse. It says, for
as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Our God is
out to do us good. That's what our pastor keeps
saying. That's what David Edmonton says. He is out to do us good.
His people, he's out to do good. And his thoughts are so much
better than ours. We can't, man tries to be and
make his God to be like him. I don't want a God like that.
I did it one time probably, but I'm glad the Lord opened my eyes,
showed me I don't want a God that's like me. There's no salvation
in a God that's like me. It says in verse 10, for as the
rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not
that hit thither, but watereth the earth, and make it to bring
forth, and bud that it may give seed to the sower, and bread
to the eater. Our Lord, he sends the rain on
the just and the unjust. Not just his people, he sends
it to everybody. Everybody benefits from the rain.
He withholds the rain, everybody suffers. But he gives us the
water, to bring forth the seed that we may have bread to eat.
This bread we need is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is spiritual
bread we need. It says, so shall my word be
that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing where to I send it. study in the book of Acts, I
have seen the Lord's Word in that, learning the early churches. These men went out, they preached.
Some places they beat them. Some places they threw them in
prison, shackled them up, left them for dead. They got up and
they preached again. The Lord honored these men with
sheep there to be saved. There was sheep that needed to
be saved, and the Lord had sent these men to them to preach. Most every place they went, there
was at least one or two believers. Just like where our Lord went,
he went through and found his sheep. While he was on the earth,
everywhere he traveled was for a purpose. He had sheep there
he had to go find. I'm glad that we have a great
shepherd that will not turn us away or forget about us just
because we're lost. That he comes and finds us. He
knows where we're at. He comes, he finds us, puts us
on his shoulder, and carries us back. That's what he does.
Does it all. And he says in verse 12, for
ye shall go out with joy and be let forth with peace. The
mountains and the hills shall break forth before you in singing. And all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands." I read this and it reminded me I was
out trying to do some work in the yard Saturday and it was
windy and those trees were clapping their hands. I mean our Lord
has made the mountains sing and the trees of the field clap, all for his joy, his honor, his
glory. Instead of the thorn shall come
up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the
myrtle tree. The thorn and the briar aren't much to look at,
but boy, a fir tree trimmed up nice Myrtle tree and all its
bloom chores chores beauty beautiful. That's our Lord Jesus Christ
What beauty is in him what beauty is in our Lord Jesus Christ?
And it shall be to the Lord for a name and for an everlasting
sign that shall not be cut off The Lord done it he purposed
it and hat he will do that's what he told us he said that
I will do I So are you thirsty? Do you need to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ? Come without money. Come without
price. Don't bring anything. That's where that song, Just
As I Am, is so beautiful. Just as I am, a sinner in need
of a Savior. Come to the Lord. Seek the Lord.
Seek the Lord. Incline your ear here. Be where
the Lord is at. Search for him while he's near.
Tomorrow may be too late. Search today. Search while he
may be found. And call upon him while he is
near. Thank y'all.