Amen. That sure puts some joy
in my heart. I thank you ladies for that.
I never get weary of listening to that song. Several of you
were doing exactly what I was doing. I was just singing under
my breath the whole thing, and I know many of you were also. Well, I want you to go to Isaiah. this morning, chapter 55. Isaiah,
chapter 55. And if you were here last Lord's
Day, you'll remember that I dealt in general with the theme of
seeking our Lord. I want to kind of keep up with
that this morning, sort of a continuation. But you didn't have to be here
last Sunday morning to hopefully get something out of this one.
So don't dismiss in your mind by saying, well, I wasn't here
last Sunday, so I don't know where he's going, so I'll just
think about something else. Well, if you weren't here, we
missed you. You're here right now, and I
want to talk to you. It's a new message, but it's
on a glorious old theme. My subject is lost and found. Lost and found. Last Lord's Day,
I dealt with a verse. earlier in Isaiah, Isaiah 45,
where the Lord said, I didn't say to you, seek me in vain. He never said that to anybody.
He never said, if you seek for me, maybe you'll find me, or
maybe you will not. He never said that. And I want
to begin this morning by reading two verses actually that were
read to us last Lord's Day. Ron read several verses out of
chapter 55, but look at Isaiah 55, 6 and 7. Isaiah says, he
says, seek ye. Who do we seek? The Lord. And
that's Jehovah Jesus, okay? Let's understand it. Seek the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says, seek ye the Lord. This is an individual thing,
not seek ye, seek you. I'm not talking, I'm talking
generally, of course, to everybody, but I hope that God the Spirit
will speak specifically to you. He says, seek ye the kingdom
of God in Matthew. And here he says, seek ye the
Lord Jesus. Well, when should we seek him?
While he may be found. And then he says to call ye upon
him while he is near. He's not far from any of us. And then he says this in the
seventh verse, he says, let the wicked forsake his way. Make sure you understand nobody
is saved who doesn't forsake their way of salvation and turn
to him who is the way. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. You got to turn from the way
that you think is right and turn to God's way, and that's Christ
our Savior. Let the wicked forsake his way,
forsake it, give it up. Cause it's not gonna get you
to heaven. It's not gonna get you to God.
It's not gonna get you to righteousness. It's not gonna get you any forgiveness
of sin. You gotta forsake your way. And then he says, and the unrighteous
man, his thoughts. See, the unrighteous man is a
self-righteous man. And he says here, you've got
to forsake your own self-righteousness. That's why he talked about seeking
the righteousness which is in Christ. Now, if you seek the
Lord, if you call upon Him while He's near, If you forsake your
way, if you as an unrighteous person
forsake your self-righteousness and turn to Christ who is the
Lord our righteousness, well then the Word of God gives you
this assurance. He will have mercy upon him. Whoever you are, ye, ye, He will have mercy upon him and
to our God. And he gives us this wonderful,
wonderful assuring promise. For he will abundantly pardon. Let me get right into the message.
And the first thing is this, here's a divine command. We are
commanded to seek the Lord. This is not a request. It doesn't
say when you feel like it. The Lord says, Seek ye. This
is the Spirit of God who inspired Isaiah to write this. Seek the
Lord. This is an imperative statement. I don't care who you are, what
you've done, where you are in life, whether you're young or
whether you're old. You are commanded to seek your
God who is Jesus Christ the Savior. Nobody else can save you. Now
nobody else can present you before the throne of God in righteousness
and with all of your sins forgiven and put away. He commands you,
seek ye the Lord. We're commanded to seek Him.
To seek Him is to seek the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jeremiah 29, the Lord says,
and you shall seek me and find me when you search for me with
all your heart. Search means to thoroughly investigate
and look into. And it really carries the same
general idea as when Moses told those people who were bitten
with fiery serpents, he said, look, look to the serpent of
brass and live. That's not a casual glance, that's
focus on him, keep your attention on him. And the same idea here. and also in Jeremiah 29. You'll
find me, God says, when you search for me with all your heart, when
you're serious, when you mean business, God says, you search
for me. He said, you'll find me. You'll
find me. To search, our Lord is to search
for Jehovah Jesus. To search for him is to renounce
every other God. And He commands us to seek Him
because He says this, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. And this, I tell you what I see
here, this is what is implied. There'll come a day when you'll
seek Him and you won't find Him. You better seek Him right now
while He may be found. Doesn't this make this implication
of you? If He says, seek you the Lord
while He may be found, then that sounds to me like if you don't
seek Him right now with all of your heart, there'll come a time
when you'll seek Him and you won't find Him. I'm going to be in earnest about
this. I don't know about you, because He says you may be found
right now. right now while he may be found. And if you want to find him,
you need to go where he can be found. If I wanted to—let's say
it's early in the evening. I wanted to find one of you.
Where do you think I ought to look first? At your house, maybe? Would that make sense? I expect
I'd find you at your house. Well, you know what? The house
of God is where the people of God worship. We are the house
of God. If you're earnest about seeking
the Lord, seek him in his house. That's where he can be found.
Right here's where we're talking about Jehovah Jesus, the only
Savior. This is where we're singing about
His bloody death, His sacrifice, that One who is the righteousness
of His people, the One who put away the sins of all of His children
when He died for us on the cross of Calvary. When He shed His
blood, He washed them all away. He's going to be found among
His people in His house. That's where you can find Him. Seek him where he may be found. Did he not say where two or three
are gathered together in my name, I'll be in the midst? That's
what he said. That's what he said. And here's a great incentive
for seeking him. Listen to what he says. While
he may be found. You know, Hold your place, well,
you don't have to hold your place there, but I want you to turn
to Hebrews chapter 11. I was looking at this verse this
week, and this is greatly encouraging to me. I love the promises of God because
He can't lie. Every word that he speaks is
true. And I was led this week to look
at this verse in Hebrews 11 and verse six. But without faith, it is impossible
to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, watch this, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. I love that. If you diligently seek him, here's
the reward. You will find him. Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found. This is a divine command. Now,
let me move quickly. to the second point in this message,
and I'll have you go back to Luke chapter 15. The first thing
is, here's a divine command. Here's the second thing I want
to talk to you about. A human impossibility. Luke chapter 15. Ron read the first two thirds
of the parable. It's a very lengthy chapter,
so I'll only ask him to read the first two parts. But it's
really one parable with three parts. It's about a lost sheep,
a lost coin, and then the most lengthy section is about a lost
son. Each of them are indeed lost. And each one of them is indeed
found. Look with me here at verse six. This is the shepherd who goes
out seeking the lost sheep. He finds it, verse five, when
he hath found it, he layeth it upon his shoulders, rejoicing.
And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors,
saying unto them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep
which was lost. I sought and I found the sheep
that was lost. Remember, our subject is lost
and found. Now here, this shepherd is a
picture of our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the great shepherd
of the sheep, the good shepherd who laid down his life for the
sheep, who redeemed us to God by his bloody death. He is the
shepherd. He is the one who sought and
found the sheep by his substitutionary death upon the cross of Calvary.
He says, rejoice with me. The lost has been found. And then the second part of the
parable is about a woman who's seeking for a lost coin. And
she pictures the Holy Spirit who uses the searchlight of the
gospel in order to find the coin. She uses a light to find the
coin. Even so, God the Spirit uses
the Word of God in the preaching of the gospel to find those who
are lost. I can't find the lost. I can't
save anybody. I can't lead anybody to Christ. Yesterday, it was a wonderful
day of celebration for our family. Angelina graduated from University
of Louisville. And we loaded up and went, and
we had a joyful day. And of course, Nancy was in a
wheelchair, and Austin volunteered to stay with her. He had to stand
up. There wasn't a seat for him,
and then we sat down in front of her. And my daughter spoke
to the man who was seated beside me. I'm sorry. And she said something to this,
don't worry, he's a preacher. I'm not ashamed of what I do.
Not at all. That opens a floodgate for a
lot of things to be said. Oh, he says, oh, you're a preacher. Yes, yes, I am. He said, of what
faith are you? Well, my first thought was to
say I'm the faith of God's elect. But I didn't figure he'd follow
me on that. I said, well, I'm Baptist. I'm historic Baptist. I'm sovereign
grace Baptist. Oh," he said. He said, you know,
a friend of mine has a son and he wanted me to win him and to
lead him to Christ. So he told him, he said, I'll
try. He said, well, his son wound
up joining a Russian Orthodox church. And his friend went to him and
said, I wanted you to lead him to Christ. And this fellow who's
sitting beside of him, he said, well, you know, Christ visits
a variety of churches. And I said, he only uses the
truth. That was the end of the conversation. He only uses the truth. But nobody, nobody can seek and
find a lost coin. But the one who has the searchlight
of the gospel of God's grace and who puts it to work through
the preaching of this gospel, that's what the Spirit of God
uses. to search out the lost. You see, the sheep is not gonna
come back on its own, right? Sheep's not gonna come back on
its own. I remind you the words of Isaiah,
all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned every one of us
to his own way. and the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all." We've gone astray. Sheep don't come
back on their own. It's the shepherd who goes out,
there's no hill too high, there's no valley too deep, there's no
river that would overflow him, there's nothing that will stop
his search for his lost sheep. That's our Savior. And the woman,
Pictures the Holy Spirit who uses the Word of God and she
will search, the Spirit of God will search until that appointed
time when that coin will be found. And here's what she says in verse
9. When she hath found it, she calleth
her friends and her neighbors together saying, rejoice with
me. A lot of rejoicing in this passage. For I have found the peace that
I had lost, lost and found. And then the third part of the
parable is about the prodigal son who wants his inheritance
early and the father gives it to him and the son, as you know,
goes out, he wastes it all and He's a miserable wretch. He winds
up what we used to call slopping the hogs. Anybody ever do that? Slop the hogs? Yeah. I've done
that too. I actually beat my father-in-law
in raising the biggest hog. We had a contest one year. I
had the biggest hog. But that poor prodigal son, He
was mired up in misery. But all along, his father was
looking for him, keeping an eye out for his wayward son. And the Spirit of God worked
in the heart of that boy, and he said, I am such a fool. I'm
out here in this mess. Why, even my father's hired servants,
they're doing a whole lot better than I am. I'm just in misery. But you see, the father knew
what had happened. This boy was lost. And you get down to the end of
the chapter, verse 32. He tells the older son, and the
older son, he's a picture of a Pharisee. I never left you. I never did anything bad. He
can't rejoice over this son coming home. The father tells him, it
was right that we should make merry and be glad. It's the time
for rejoicing. For this thy brother was dead
and is alive again and was lost. He was lost. And he's found. Lost and found. You know, our Lord said to the
Jews in John 5 39, he says, you will not come to me that you
might have life. The sheep, sheep's not gonna
come back to the shepherd. Not unless the shepherd goes
after him. That coin up under the bed, I
bet there's a lot of dust bunnies under there, don't you imagine? Oh, she searched under there.
Where'd she find that coin? In the filth under the bed. That's
where God finds us. And he uses the searchlight of
the gospel of the grace of God to sinners in Christ. Christ
the Savior, Christ the surety, Christ the substitute, Christ
the sin offering, Christ the sacrifice. And she reaches under there and
she said, there's that coin. And that's what the spirit of
God does with lost sinners. He says, I found you. Oh, it
wasn't that he didn't know where you were all along. It just wasn't
the right time. It wasn't the time appointed
from old eternity. She reached under that bed and
took hold of that coin, took it out. She went to her neighbor and
said, hey, I found that coin. I've cleaned it up. That's what
God does for sinners. That's what he does for lost
sinners. He finds us in our filth, and the Spirit of God pulls us
out from under the bed of distress and despair and sinfulness and
depravity, and He washes us in the blood of the Lord Jesus,
and He robes us in His righteousness, and the Spirit of God says, I
found that lost coin. It's mine. That's what the Lord's
done for you. So many of you, He's done that
for you. And the same Spirit of God worked
in the heart of that prodigal and brought him home, and the
Father was awaiting on him. And here comes that prodigal.
He's heads down. He's so sorry. Well, he ought to be. He ought
to be. But I tell you, the father, the
father, he sees him when he is yet a long ways off, and the
father breaks into a run. I don't know how old he was.
I don't know how fast he could move, but he moved pretty fast
out there, and the prodigal had prepared his little speech. I'm
sorry. I'm not worthy to be your son.
But I'll work for you as your hired servant. And the father,
grabs a hold of him, gives him a big old bear hook, and he kisses
him on the cheek. And in essence, he says, all's
forgiven. And you know what he does? That boy,
when he said, I've sinned against heaven and I've sinned against
thee, the father says to his servants, bring the best room.
Now, where you think that is? That's a righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Put that best robe on him. I bet the other servant said,
on that fella? He wasted everything you gave
him. He left here like he was never
coming back. Father said, don't you worry
about that. I got a robe for him and it's the best robe because
you see it's the robe of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, put a ring on his finger.
The ring of the family. It's the ring of the family of
God. It's the ring of sonship. I'm not ashamed of him. I've saved him by my grace. He said, put shoes on his feet.
Oh, he's gonna stand steadfast now in the gospel of the grace
of God to sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says,
bring the fatted calf. Yeah, that one. He's not just
grass fed, he's grain fed. The fatted calf. And I'll tell
you, that's a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ who was smitten
for sinners. He said, kill it. God killed
his son to save us lost sinners. Isn't that amazing? I can't get
over that. Don't wanna ever get over that.
He says, kill it. And God killed His Son. Now you
hear me, God killed His Son in order to save us wretches. Us
lost sheep, us lost coin, us lost sons. See, He was a Son
before He fell. He was a Son when He fell. He
didn't cease to be a Son. He is still a Son. He is just
a lost Son. And the father welcomed him back.
He told his brother, he said, this is the time to rejoice.
Why, daddy? Don't you know what he's done?
I know what he's done. This is the time to make merry
and be glad. All's forgiven. All's forgotten. The lost is found. But I'll tell you what, the sheep
didn't find itself, and the coin didn't find itself, and the son
didn't find himself either. Each one of them were found. What I want to tell you here
in closing is about the seeking Savior. And I'll give you two
or three more examples. that it's the Lord. Listen, I'm
taking nothing away from seek ye the Lord while he may be found. That's God's command. But know
this, the only reason you are a seeker, if indeed you are,
is because the Lord has sought you to seek him. That's the way it is. Adam and Eve, they sin. Go out there and try to hide
behind a tree. Well, let me ask you this, who
sought whom? Were they seeking the Lord? Come
on now, give me a break. I may be a fool on some things,
but I'm not a fool on this. It's the Lord, it's the Lord
who went seeking. Where art thou? And the Lord
never asked a question for information. He knew what oak tree there's
behind. He sought them. Zacchaeus. Give you a New Testament
illustration. Was a wee little man, and a wee
little man was he. The Sunday school teachers, have
taught that, probably taught that little course. I learned
it when I was just a wee little fella. But out of sheer curiosity,
having heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, while he climbed
up into a sycamore tree, he wanted to see this Jesus man. The Lord of glory passed under
his tree Aren't you glad he passed under your tree? And he looked up. Let me tell
you something. That's the first time Zacchaeus
ever laid eyes on Jesus of Nazareth. But our Lord had been looking
on him from eternity. He knew his name. He knew his name. His name was
written down in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation
of the world. He said, Zacchaeus! Yep. Come down. That's not an invitation either.
That's another command. Come down, for today I must abide
at thy house. And as they say, he come down
that sycamore tree so fast, peeled the bark off of it. He said, for today I must abide
at thy house. He told the people looking on,
he said, salvation has come to this house. And that's not just
merely what happened to him, it's who, Christ who is salvation,
went to that man's house. And they said, wow, can't believe
this. Christ said, the Son of Man has
come to seek, huh, and to save at which was lost. Who did the
seeking? The Lord did. Who did the saving? The only one who can save, that
is our Lord. And he finds people Through the
gospel. Through the gospel. This morning I was looking over
my notes again. And I remembered an old song. And I showed it to David this
morning. I said, maybe Susanna can learn
this song and sing it as a special. It was written, the writer is
anonymous. It was written in 1904, and whoever
wrote it, he didn't leave his name on record. There are three
stanzas to it. I'm just gonna read you the first
one. I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew. He moved my soul to seek
him, for he was seeking me. It was not I that found, O Savior
true, No, I was found of thee. That's your testimony, isn't
it? He found you, washed you, cleaned
you up, drew you to himself. This is a sweet gospel, I'll
tell you. Well, let's sing a closing song.
262, trusting Jesus.