Twenty-nine is the text this
morning. Jeremiah 29. Let me just preface the text with
these words, with these thoughts. The name Christian The title Christian is so used
and widely abused in our day that it's applied to everything
and anything in such a way that I hesitate
to use that term. As a matter of fact, there's
so much nonsense that goes on under the name of Christian.
So much blasphemy. I'm almost ashamed to take the
title. I'm not ashamed to be called
a Christian. What that means, a follower,
a believer of Christ. But we don't use the term Christian
so readily as other people do because it could mean anything
in our day. And you have to qualify it when you do say it. You immediately
have to qualify it. Now what I mean by Christian,
or yet spend so much time saying what is not. But I prefer to call God's people,
Christ's followers, by one of these titles. I prefer to refer
to myself and others as believer. Believers. That's an accurate
term, I believe, those who truly believe God. Scripture says Abraham
believed God. Believed what? That there is
a God? That's not what it said. Abraham believed God. He believed God was God in the
true sense of the name. God, absolute, sovereign, controller,
Lord, sovereign, God, holy in all his character, all his attributes. God. This passage in Hebrew says,
He that cometh to God must believe he is. He is what? He is God. Beside him there's
none else. Beside him is not Satan. Satan's
not equal with God. There's no wrestling match going
on between God and Satan. Satan is under God's thumb. And man is not co-equal with
God, man's great will and God's will battling one another. Oh, no. God said, I will do all
my good pleasure. God said, Scripture says, he
worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, and
none, no man can say unto him anything, can thwart his will. God. Believers believe He's God. How much do I preach on Him? I never get tired of preaching.
My God. This is my God. My hope. My salvation is that He's God. All of my providence, all my
safekeeping, Deborah, all my comfort, all my consolation is
that God's God. And I'm in his hands. And all
things are working together for my good according to his purpose,
which cannot be thwarted, cannot be messed up. He's going to work his purpose
out. And if his purpose for me is salvation, I believe it is.
I'm saved. As sure as my God is. God is God. He's God. in his
attributes, in his ways, in his word. A believer believes God's
word. A believer believes God's word.
Everybody doesn't believe God's word. They cavil at it. They
back-talk against it. They game-sayers of Scripture
say that. They argue with it, and you just merely read a passage
of Scripture. Romans 9, Ephesians 2, Ephesians
1, Ephesians 4, all of the Ephesians. And they, and they, but, but,
but, but, but, but. Believers don't but. Believers
believe. The scripture says God is sovereign.
Believers bow. They say, I believe that. I believe
Him. They've met Him. They know Him.
They know He's that way. There's no argument. Man is sovereign. Yes, that's right. No but. Or man's responsible, I mean. Man's responsible. They don't
argue. Yes, I believe that. They're
believers. God's Christ. They've seen from
the Scriptures, God's Christ, that God sent him to earth to
do a job, save a particular people. There ain't no problem with that. He's called the shepherd. He
said, I laid down my life for the sheep. Not everybody. There's
some goats out there. He didn't die for everybody.
He died for the sheep. That's what the shepherd said.
And whatever the shepherd says, the sheep say, yeah, yeah. That's right. You're the shepherd. They believe. You say, a believer. Believer. You believe God's cry,
you believe His blood saved. Nothing else. Nothing plus or
minus. That is righteousness saved.
Surely shall one say, and the Lord have our righteousness.
Isaiah 45, Romans 10. Believers believe that Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone that believe, they
believe that. Yeah, but you got to keep the law. Not for salvation,
I don't. Christ did that for me. That's
why. They believe. Christ, Christ, Christ. Ask me
what I believe, I'll say Christ. I'm a believer. I believe Christ is all we read
it or we sang it in a song. One Lord, one faith, one birth,
one hope of your calling, one spirit. who is invincible. If he calls, you call, you say. One hope of heaven, blood, and
righteousness, Christ. If his blood shed for me, his
righteousness is on me, I'm saved. I'm a believer. There's another
term I like to use, the term seeker. Seeker, we always bear that title. A believer is a seeker. A saved
person is a seeker. A Christian is a seeker. They
seek the Lord. They seek the truth. We haven't
got the truth figured out totally, have we? We know the truth, but
we see in part, don't we? We know the Scripture says we
prophesy in part. We seek the truth, we seek to
know Christ. You know, how well you know Christ,
Stan Anderson? Paul was an old man when he wrote,
wrote the passage, Oh, that I might know him, the Philippian. He was an older man. He was up
in his fifties, an apostle, been an apostle for years, and he
wrote to the Philippian, Oh, that I might know him. Don't
you know him, Paul? Yeah, but oh, Just in part. It ain't seekers in there this
morning. Anybody want to know Christ? I'm looking for a seeker. Somebody wants to know Christ.
Somebody wants to be saved. And those of you who claim you
are, you're still looking for it? Teresa, you're not there
yet. I've seen women attend a lot
longer than you have and leave. And you too, Roberta. Been here
a long time. Doesn't mean that you're not
going to be gone tomorrow. You've seen them come and go.
So what are we going to do? We're going to seek Him. Did you seek Him with me this
morning? Are you interested? True seekers are. All right, look at Jeremiah 29,
look at verse 13. Oh, how many times have you quoted
this or heard it read? Jeremiah 29, 13. You shall seek
me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. You shall seek me and find me
when you shall search for me with all your heart. I have four
points, Jerry. You note takers out there, four
points, all right? And here's point number one. The Lord seeks us first. The
Lord seeks his people first. You see, when he talks in this
language here, you seek me, you'll find me. It's not that the Lord
is lost. The Lord is not lost. We are,
by nature. We are. We talk about seeking
and finding him. That's human language. That's
talking about man's responsibilities, what that's talking about. Man's
responsibility. Turn over to Psalm 10. Psalm
10. Back, just back a few pages,
back toward the back, or the front of the Bible. Psalm 10. Just back a few pages. God is
everywhere and in everything. That's what Romans 1 says. Listen
to Romans 1. He says, that which may be known
of God is manifest to them. His eternal power and Godhead
are clearly seen in things that are made. God is clearly seen.
His eternal power and Godhead, that there is a God. Clearly seen, there are without
excuse. Men like to say that if God would
just show himself to them, if God would just reveal himself
to them, if God would just speak, he has and he does every day. When you wake up in the morning,
God's already spoken. His mercies are new every morning.
You didn't die in your sleep. When you walk out in the sunshine,
there's that big ball of of hydrogen, big hydrogen bomb, hanging in
the, just hanging there. Hanging up in space, maintaining
life on this planet. God speak. When the sun, he walked
out and looked at the sunshine. He has, he speaks, he God has
showed himself. Look at Psalm 10 verse 4. But
the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek
after God. God is not in all his thoughts.
I'm not interested in God. What are you interested in? I've
got an idol, an almighty that I bow and worship called money, my career, or whatever it may
be. God's not in his thoughts. He
has a lot of thoughts. None of them. They're all vain,
but God's not in them. That's what he said. Psalm 14,
verse 2, look at it. Psalm 14, 2. And my words don't matter, people.
You need to look at God, what he says. Maybe he'll speak through
his word, and he won't. Not me. I'm trying to comment
a little bit on them, but it's not my comments. It's God's Word.
And I don't just have you turn to these passages to take up
space and time. Verse 2, the Lord looked down
from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand, and seek God. The whole planet wakes up under
God's sun, and it's maintained and provided for by God, and
they all wake up. And is there any that would pause
a moment and say, Thank you, Lord, for the sunshine? My car,
I step in my car and I'm going, thank you for giving me this
car. Thank you for the health to go to work, my job. Thank
you, look over at that woman or man, whoever's laying in the
bed still. Thank you for that man, that
woman. Thank you for that child. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
God, in any of you thought, thank you, Lord. Praise your holy name. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me. Bless his holy
name. Forget not all his benefit, who daily loatheth me with kindness
and benefit. Thank you, Lord." Is there any,
he said, that seek after God? No, not until he seeks them first,
because they're dead. A dead man won't seek. Try it. Try it, Henry. Go up
there to Franklin Memorial and talk to one of those fellas about
six feet down. They won't respond. God must
seek first. God—look over to Isaiah. Turn
over to Isaiah right near our text. Isaiah 65. Look at that. God must seek him first if that
person is going to seek God. Isaiah 65. Isaiah sixty-five. Look at this.
I love this. Got it? Isaiah sixty-five verse
one. God says, I am sought of them
that ask not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. I don't understand. You do if
that's what happened to you. You do if you're a believer.
If you are a seeker, you understand exactly what that's saying. If
there was a time when you did not seek God, you were just not
interested in God. And somebody would tell you,
I'm not interested. Go somewhere else with that old-fashioned
garbage. But bless God, he sought you.
He sought you. And then you began to seek him.
You see, all who seek the Lord, he first sought them. Any who
call on the Lord, preachers say, if you call on the Lord, he'll
save you. He doesn't call in first. If you decide, oh no, no, he
did the deciding first. Any who call, Joel 2.32 says,
they'll call because the Lord, as many as the Lord our God,
shall call. All who choose, if you want to use that term, choose
Him, it's because He first chose us. All who love Him, it's because
He first loved them. He's called the author, the author
of our faith. I'm not the author. I did nothing
to decide. An author decides to write a book, and he writes
a book, and he finishes the book. No, no, no. Well, he says, the
author of our faith. Our faith? He gave it to me,
John. I didn't have any. I was dead. He came in the gospel,
raised me to life, gave me faith in Christ. He did it all. Salvation's
up the Lord. He said, Call. I said, I called.
He said, Seek. I seek. He said, Repent. I repent. Goodness of the Lord led me to
repent. He said, Believe. I believe. He said, the Lord
seeks us first, and all he seeks, they seek him. They seek him. And under that same point, the
Lord seeks his people, his people. Look at Ezekiel, the book of
Ezekiel. Turn over there quickly. Ezekiel
chapter 34. Any seekers this morning? Turn to Ezekiel 34 if you're
a seeker. Ezekiel 34. Anybody want some answers? Get
you a Bible, God's Word, and put it in your lap, and let's
look at it together. Speak, Lord! I've got your Word
in front of me. Speak! That's how the Lord speaks,
through his Word. Ezekiel 34, verse 11, "...Thus
saith the Lord, Behold, I," yeah, even I, not you, "...I will both
search my sheep," who? God wants everybody to be safe.
No, that's not in the Bible. He said, I'm the good shepherd,
and I seek my sheep. I know them, and I call them, and they'll
hear my voice, and they'll follow me. Sheep. I seek my sheep. I seek them out. Are you a believer? Then you believe God has an elect
people. And that's what he came to say. I will seek my people. Verse 12, As a shepherd seeketh
out his flock, not another, his flock, in the day that he is
among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep. I'll seek my sheep. Do you ever
get tired of hearing me talk about God having people, elect
people? I love that. Oh my, you see at
this time there's a remnant according to the election of grace, and
if it's of grace it's sure to all the elect. How do you know
you're an elect? Preacher, how do you know somebody's
one of the elect? They seek him. I just said a while ago, nobody's
going to seek him unless he first seeks them, and he seeks his
sheep. And all his sheep seek them.
His sheep. Are you seeking? Then you're
one of the elect. That's good news. He said, I'll
find them. And we can read on. And he finds
them. That's my next point under that point. He finds all that
he seeks. It's not the Lord doesn't. Our
Lord gave this parable over in Luke 15. Over in Luke fifteen, the parable
of the lost sheep and the lost coin, the lost son. Remember
those three parables in one? Pictures of salvation. A lost
sheep. And here's what he said. He said,
which of you having a sheep that's lost does not leave the ninety-nine
and go after the one in the wilderness? You go out looking. for that
lost sheep. Well, here's what it says about
what the Lord said about himself, the Good Shepherd. He said, He
goes out till he finds it. He goes looking for a sheep till
he finds it. He doesn't come back and say,
I couldn't find it. He finds it, and when he hath found it, When he hath found it, that's
his name. Call his name Jesus. Why? He'll
find his sheep. David never lost a sheep. Killed buyers and lions. Killed
everything coming and going that would get at the sheep. Didn't
lose a one. Saul lost those asses. Saul wasn't a king. David was.
And a good shepherd never loses a sheep. Christ is called the
great shepherd, chief shepherd, never lost one. He finds them,
everyone he looks for. You understand that? Everyone
that the good shepherd seeks, he finds. You ought to pray with
me right now, out loud. Seek me, Lord! Seek me! Everybody he seeks, he finds.
Pray with me in your heart right now. Seek me, Lord. Nobody else
says it. Say, seek me. He says, and when he finds it,
he lays it on his shoulder. Not footprints in the sand. There
are no two sets of footprints in the sand. Throw that stupid
thing away, if you have it on your wall. There's one set of
footprints. There's scripture all through
Isaiah that says that he finds a sheep and lays him, and he
carries him in his bosom, or lays him on his shoulder. When
he hath found it, he lays it on his shoulder, and when he
gets home, the Bible says when he comes home, takes that sheep
all the way home. Doesn't lay it down when he gets
to the doorstep and says, you can make it the rest of the way.
Oh, he carries it all the way. The song says, all the way my
Savior leads me. All the way. And when he gets
home, as Scripture says, he says to all, rejoice with me. My sheep that was lost, I found
it. I found it. You know what that
sheep is saying? He found me. He found me. See, all we like sheep have gone
astray, with every man gone his own way, but He found me. That's what all the sheep are
going to say in glory. Not, I, I, I preached, I did
this, I did that. He found me and carried me and
saved me. Make no mistake about it. All men and women are lost and
are not seeking but God. There's salvation in two words,
but God seeks his lost sheep and finds them. Point number
two. Back to Jeremiah 29. Back to
the text. Jeremiah 29. All he seeks, seek
him. That's point number two. Already
touched on it, but all he seeks, seek him. Look at Jeremiah 29,
verse 11 through 13. I know the thoughts that I think
toward you. Oh, I like this. Do you like this, John Davis?
I know the thoughts I think toward you. What are they, Lord? I'm
guilty, I'm vile, I'm wretched, I'm a sinner, I'm no good. I
know. What are your thoughts toward me? Wrath, judgment, no,
thoughts of peace. Not of evil. I'm going to give
you an expected end, an inheritance. Look at verse 12. Then shall
you call upon me. When? Look at verse 10. I will visit
you and perform my good word toward you. When's a person going
to call on Him? When the Lord performs His good
word to them. when God preaches his good word,
his gospel to him. I'm getting ahead of myself.
But he says, You shall call on me, you shall go and pray unto
me, and hearken unto me, and you shall seek me. I love that. And you'll search
for me with all your heart. I love that. I love the I wills
and you shalls. That's our gospel in the John. The difference between our gospel
and the one preached today is, they say out there, if you will,
then God shall. The Bible says, God says, I will,
and therefore you shall. I like that. I know my will. It's dead. Dead. But when God said, you
shall. I did. I did. I did, or I would have you turn
to Psalm 27, but let me just read it for you, OK? If you're
tired of turning, Psalm 27, verse 8 says, When thou saidst unto
me, Seek ye my face. When thou saidst, when you said
unto me, Seek ye my face, unto my soul, my heart said, Thy face
will I seek. When he said, Henry Sword, to
you one day, seek my face. Quit playing religion, Henry,
and seek the Lord. Henry said, I think I'll seek
the Lord. When he said it. No doubt about
it. No doubt about it. That's the
reason I'm not trying to collar people and shake them and and
follow them home and call them and visit them and all that,
trying to get them to do something. Oh no, when the Lord says something,
when the Lord seeks them, they'll be seeking. They'll come to me.
I don't want to go to them. Baptism, you know, I tell people,
this is, the scripture says this is the mode of confessing Christ.
I don't have to beg and plead to, you need to confess, you
need to, oh no, when the Lord ever reveals himself to somebody,
they'll come to me. Preacher, I want to be baptized. And don't I, some of you know,
and I kind of, why? Modern preacher jump up and down,
goody, goody, goody, oh boy, another notch. I said, why? Why do you want to be baptized?
What do you do? What's this mean to you? Do you
believe this? I mean, you really? You sure? Think about it a while before
we do it. Because it's a mockery of God
to do this, just be doing it. Think about it. You really believe
this God's God, this Christ is Christ? This is the gospel, there's
no other. You really, you really believe
this Christ, going to follow this Christ? Yes, yes, get me
in the water. And some of you wrestled with
it a long time, didn't you? until you couldn't, because the
Lord wrestled with you, until you said, I've got to do this.
Why? I want to confess this Lord that
I believe. What the Lord does is obvious.
That's what I'm trying to say. When the Lord starts to work,
it becomes clear the Lord's doing this. The reason I don't corner people and go after your
children. I can get some professions and
your children that's what these hucksters are doing to their
own blood and make my blood more than you if you send Andrew down
one of these modern day meeting somewhere on these vacation bibles
we've come home having made some kind of a jerk a professional
they're jerks one of the jerk profession that. I can do that I could show the
the the that film Burning Hell and scared the hell out of our
children for a while, until they grew up and took off. Don't do
that. Let's preach the Word, preach
the gospel, and stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
And when God does something, that's the only one I won't do
anything anyway. What God does is forever, Scripture
says. And when God does it, I don't
have to do a thing. When God does it. Man saves you. He'll have to keep you safe.
He'll have to make you happy. He'll have to keep you happy.
He'll have to make you a Sunday school teacher. He'll have to do something
for you. Keep you in church. Right? Well, she's going to leave if
I don't, you know, if my wife doesn't have her over for dinner
or something. Make her head of the women's missionary. If God
saves somebody through the preaching of the gospel and Christ becomes
dear to them, they'll come to hear the preaching. Whether anything
else goes on or not, they'll come to hear the preaching. What
God does. And He doesn't do things in a
corner. That's what Paul said. These things weren't done in
a corner. They weren't done in a corner. They were done in secret. When
God says, let the light shine, This is what I'm saying. When
God... You know, and people talk to
me about various people, aren't you? This, that, so-and-so looks
interesting and all. Not yet, I think. I think because when God really
works on, when God really starts to work, it'll be obvious. It'll be obvious. What God does
now, is obvious, like the light coming on. When darkening, you know, light's
pretty obvious when you're in darkness, isn't it? Huh? When
the light comes on. And the Scripture says, God has
shined in our dark parts to give the light. Buddy, when a person
ever sees the gospel, I mean sees it, always see it, well,
yeah, I believe that, yeah, it looks like, that's from the Bible,
yeah. But when they ever see it, they'll say that, that's,
I see! Right? When a person ever hears
the gospel. He said, that was from me. The
Lord spoke to me. I heard him. When the Lord healed blind people,
it was obvious, wasn't it? Wasn't it obvious? Everybody
said, that looks like Him. I think it's Him. But He was
blind. She was what we partied to get. Look at her. That can't be her. What the Lord does is obvious. All right, my next point is,
what is it to seek the Lord? Anybody interested? Everybody
he seeks, seeks Him. All right, what is it to seek
Him? What is it to seek the Lord?
Our text said in verse 13, it says, Seek Him. You'll find Him
when you search. How? That's right. With all your heart. With all your heart. And I would
read several. I wrote down several scriptures,
but I'll not read them to you. Time is fleeting. Let me just
illustrate what it means to seek the Lord with all your heart.
And I'm talking about a person now. I'm not talking about an
escape, a fire escape from hell. I'm not talking about, you know,
heaven. Everybody wants to go to heaven.
There's no fool who doesn't want to go to heaven. He doesn't want
to escape burning hell. That's not salvation. Salvation is somebody that wants
Christ. He wants to know Him. He wants to be with Him. All
right, here's an illustration. Salvation. What is it to seek
the Lord? Take a young suitor. I tried to think, I still can't
think of a word for that. Dating, a fellow who's dating
a girl, suitor, courting a woman, courting a gal. All right, this
young man, he thinks he's in love, he thinks he's in love
with this woman. Well, it'll be obvious, I believe,
for you. He's courting this girl. What if, now he claims to be
interested in this girl and he wants this girl. And he broached
the subject of marriage and started thinking about it. What if this
fellow never called that girl up? What if he just never called
her? Just all the way up and down there. Once a week. Once a week. On Sunday morning. He'd call
her up. Say, honey, it's me. Who? Me. He calls her once a day. What
if he never shows up? Heather goes to visit her. He's
got other things to do. He's busy. He's out with the
guys. He's having fun. He went skiing. There's other girls he's seeing. John? Let me ask one of you ladies. Heather? What if that had been
John? Would you have married that old
boy? Huh? What would you have concluded?
He's not interested in me. He's not seeking me. I don't
know. Well, you might know what he
is seeking. But he's not interested in me. Not seeking me. Now, but what if? What if that seller called every
day, called you at home, called you at work, called you when
you got home from work, called you and said, called you in the
wee hours of the morning? And you wouldn't hang up if you
loved him. But what if he could never get
enough of your company? Remember that, Mindy? What if you had to do two in
the morning? Oh, one last kiss. I gotta go. One more for the
road." And you've been kissing for six hours
straight, as it is. Kissing, mind you, young people,
kissing. The Bible doesn't condemn kissing,
as long as it's a holy pure kiss, show of affection. But what if you just couldn't
get enough? Just couldn't get enough. And you forsook all. That fellow, he had some friends,
and there's a dog dropping him. Why? That girl. Where's old Billy, Bob? He's
with that girl. Tell him it's a party! What would you conclude? He's
seeking that girl. He's seeking that girl. And so
it is with everybody who's seeking the Lord. So it is. We're so and so he's
out. He's good. She's up there. I
ain't seeking the Lord. Lord says I'm going to be or
two or three guys my name. Secret going to be there. You
mean Christ is going to be there? I can't get enough of him. Hear his voice and we'll call
on him. Right? This is just it. It's just it.
Rubber meeting the road right here. He's seeking with the means. Listen to me. And I'm going to
quit here in just five minutes, give or take a minute. He's seeking
by means. What is it to seek the Lord?
You're seeking by the means. Verse 12, look at it. It says,
You shall call on me. You shall go and pray unto me.
Go and pray. Go and pray. What do you mean,
go and pray? Can I pray right here? Yeah. He just said that.
You'll call. But you go and pray. Where do
you go and pray? What did the Lord say where this
house where people pray is? Right, Vicki? My house should
be called House of Prayer. You go and pray. And I would
read to you Deuteronomy 12. And you read for yourself. Deuteronomy
12 all the way through verse chapter 17. It's mentioned numerous
times. Deuteronomy 12, 13, 14, 15, all
the way through 17 says there's a place. There's a place where
the Lord God has chosen to put his name there. And he said, and everybody that's
seeking the Lord, that's where they'll go. Everybody's going
to worship the Lord. That's where they'll go. And he said, those
that are too far from that place, he said, you sell everything
you got and get there. men that are seeking women. You
know, I hear people all the time, well, the gospel is just not
around here anywhere. There's no church for me to go.
Go where one is then. Everybody expects the preacher
to drop everything, sell his house and quit his job and go
where three people are meeting. Some do that. It's fine. But
you know, somebody's really seeking. I was seeking that woman and
she lived in Kalamazoo. Buddy, I'd get in my car and
I'd go to Kalamazoo. Why? I've got to have that woman. And I wish I could turn, but
there's a passage that says, don't seek everywhere you see.
It said, don't stop everywhere you see. But there's a place
where the Lord God has chosen to put his name there. A lot of so-called churches out
there. It's only a few places that God Almighty has chosen
where His name is declared, where His name is exalted and magnified,
where His Word has the preeminence, not the music, not the programs,
not the preacher. The one He's preaching is magnified
and extolled and exalted. His name is declared, and every
time they meet together, His name is there. He says, whatever
it takes, get there and worship. That's the means. That's the
means. He said, where two or three are
gathered, that's where I am. All right, I want to hear from
the Lord. I want to be saved. The Lord said, where two or three
are gathered together in my name, I'm going to be right in the
middle of them. Then, Sherry, if I want to be saved, I'm going
to be there. Right? Or I'm playing games. Right? Stan loves you, he's dating
you, he's seeking you. If he wants you, he's going to
go where you are. And he did, didn't he? He couldn't
run him off. He tried, but he couldn't. Why? He was seeking you. He was
in love with you. And I'm not trying to beg and
plead people to come. I'm just stating a fact. And I know, this is why I know,
I say, you know when I get excited about people? When they're here
an hour early. Or when they're here, they pop
up on Wednesday night, Sunday night. Just always, I say, you
know, I believe the Lord's doing something. I believe the Lord's
doing something. Another means is the word. He
said there in that verse 10, he said, I'll perform my good
word toward you. And it's not enough to go to
church, but the gospel must be proclaimed and the word. We're
talking about the word of his power, which is the gospel. You've
got to hear the gospel. And I've already said it. Who
God is, who Christ is, what we are. A real seeker hears the
gospel and he knows it's the gospel. If he's found it, a seeker,
he'll find it. That's my last point. Other things, they'll seek continually. They'll seek when young. Ecclesiastes 12 says, Remember
your Creator in the days of your youth. And I was going to have
you turn over to 2 Chronicles. There was a fellow named Josiah,
a young fellow named Josiah. He started reigning as king when
he was eight years old. an eight-year-old king. Whew! At any rate, he was a good one.
The Lord had mercy and grace upon him. It says that after
he'd reigned eight years, he set his heart to seek the Lord. He was sixteen years old. Reigning
over a kingdom, he could have anything at his disposal—wine,
women, and song, and Ferraris, if they'd have had them. Everything! A sixteen-year-old boy just got
his license there. He said he set his heart to seek
the Lord. When young, that's the time to
do it. That's what Ecclesiastes says, Remember now thy Creator
in the days of your youth. Andrew, when you get older, other
things may tempt you, and you'll not give a flip about the Lord. Now's the time, buddy. Now's the time. When the evil
days come, Now, you say, I have no pleasure in these things.
I got all that stuff when I was young. I'm going to see the world. After you see it a while, you'll
realize, oh, that I were, as in day, months
past, a little child again. It's a lifelong thing. A lifelong
thing. When a person grows old, they
don't quit seeking the Lord. I really worry about people when
the gospel becomes old hat. I really worry about
those people. I worry about those people more
than I do people that have never made a profession, certainly.
I fear people become gospel-hardened. I've heard that before. I don't
need to hear it again once. Lastly, I want you to turn back
to Ezekiel 34, in closing. Ezekiel 34, last point. Where will I know I've found
him? I had somebody ask me this question,
and that person ought to be asked, when will I know that I've found
him? I'm seeking the Lord. When will I know? How do I know
what I'm saying? I don't mean to laugh, but as I said, when God begins a
work, it becomes apparent to others. Other people see it. Those who have had the work done
to them. Right, Charles? If you've had the work done to
you, Like a parent seeing a child go through something, and you've
been through it before, you say, I know what he's going through.
It becomes obvious, doesn't it? Well, same thing in salvation. Those that have experienced it,
when they see someone else experience it, they say, hmm, hmm, hmm. It's not so apparent to the person
it's happening to, though. They're confused. Somewhat confused. This thing's going on. They know
something is happening, and they don't know what. They feel like
two men, and they feel these two pulls. They have interests and desires
they never had before, but they have still some of the same old
desires they used to have. And let me tell you, when the
Lord truly speaks, He's found of the seeker. He'll
be found and he'll know it. They asked me that. I used to
ask preachers that before we came here. Remember, I used to
preach at a little church up in West Virginia, and they'd
ask me to be their pastor. Oh, I wrestled with that. I drove
up there for over four hours every Sunday, preaching to that
people. Oh, I wrestled day and night.
Many didn't even see me ever. Didn't see me. Time I wasn't
working on the railroad, I was studying. And time I wasn't studying,
I was traveling. Oh, I was asking the Lord, get
on, Lord. And I called every preacher,
every pastor I called, every pastor I knew. I had confidence
and said, how do you know? I said, how do you know when it's
the Lord's will? I'm looking for the Lord's will.
How do you know when He's called me to this place? They want me. I want to go. And how do you
know? And you know what most of them would
say to me? That's right. The best thing they could say
to me was, you know. That's what Eli said to Samuel,
wasn't it? Samuel, are you speaking to me?
That may be a young person or somebody in here think, preacher,
you're talking right to me. No, I really, your face never
entered my mind while I was preaching. Maybe somebody else is. Maybe
somebody else is talking to you. Go home and ask. Well, they say,
you'll know, you'll know, you know, when I came down here, The first time, driving home, I knew. I knew. And Mindy and I were both too
scared to talk about it, but she knew, too. Later on, Mindy
said, I knew. She said, I was ready to pack
up. You've got to understand, this
daddy's girl and this Kentucky gal To this sake, I'm leaving
everything. I'm going. That's where I'm headed.
That's what the Lord does, you see. When the Lord calls a person,
when the Lord begins a work of it, how will you know? Look at
Ezekiel 34, verse 30. Oh, I like to read the old chapter. What do I read? Well, he says,
verse 13, I'll bring them. out from the people and gather
them for my people." Verse 14, I'll feed them. They're going
to eat something they never thought was good before. And they're
going to love the taste of it. Verse 15, I'll feed them. I'll
cause them to lie down. Oh, they were so busy before.
They were going here and going there. And they came here and
sat. Is there time to go yet? No, I'm
going to leave you. Verse 16, I'll seek them, I'll
bring them. Verse 22, I'll save them. Verse 23, I'll set up a shepherd
over them. Verse 25, I'll make peace with
them. Oh, verse 26, I'll make them, the places around them,
I'm a blessing. Everything and everybody's a
blessing. Family they never had before. Sisters they never had
before. Brothers they never had before. Verse 29, I'll raise
up a place. Verse 30, Thus shall they know
that I the Lord God am with them, and that they are my people. They'll know. They'll just ask somebody that's
had the experience. How do you know? How will you
know? How will you know? How will you know, Vicki? You'll
know. Isn't that about what you'd tell
some young seeker? You'll know. You'll know. You'll
know. All right. Let's hear if you'll
come up. Number 234.