Now this message is an exhortation
and a command that every sinner who hears the gospel should follow. It is simply stated in verse
6 in the first line when he says, Seek ye the Lord. Now that's
what we're here to do tonight. Many of you have sought the Lord
for many, many years, and you'll continue to seek Him. And you
have found Him because He's revealed Himself to you. But let me set
it off this way. Now think about it this way.
In these first five verses, you had the call of God to the needy. That's who God calls to salvation. Those who need Christ. Do you need Christ? Well, if
you know anything about yourself, if I know anything about myself,
then I know this, I know that without Christ, I'm nothing.
Without Christ, I'm condemned. Without Christ, I'm dead. And without Christ, I have nothing
to look forward to but a sinner's hell. Isn't that right? If we
know anything about who we are, what we are, our thoughts, our
motives, our state by nature, our weaknesses, our impotence,
our sin, we know that salvation must come by the grace of God
for the best of us. You know, many religions spend
their time majoring on the differences that exist among men and women.
This one's better, this one's even better, this one's worse,
whatever. It doesn't matter in this area of salvation. We're
all sinners, we all need salvation equally by God's grace. Well, here's the good news. God
has made an absolute promise. When I say an absolute promise,
what I mean is this. It's a promise that cannot fail. Whatever God promises will come
about. It will be so, won't it? It's
a promise of salvation. And it's a promise of salvation
to sinners. Now, if it's a promise, an absolute
promise, of salvation to sinners, which means it cannot fail, there'll
be no failure here. Put that out of your mind. You
won't find that in God's Word, this thing about Christ trying
to save people but failing to do so. You won't find that in
God's Word. Now, you'll find it in a lot
of the pulpits of America, but not in the Word. But if it's
an absolute promise to sinners, Then it must be, therefore, an
unconditional promise towards the sinner. It's God's absolute
and unconditional promise. Now, in the book of Isaiah, he
said it this way, it's an absolute and unconditional promise to
save people whom he identifies as all Israel. You remember over
in Isaiah 45, he said, all Israel shall be saved. And they're going
to be saved by the redeeming work of Messiah, the Anointed
One, the God-man, the Christ. You see, when I say, now listen
to this very carefully too, when I say that it's an absolute and
unconditional promise, that doesn't mean there are no conditions
to be met. Somebody asked me that one time,
said, well, there's got to be conditions. Well, yes, there
does. But you see, the conditions are
not upon the sinner. The conditions are upon somebody
else. And that's what makes the promise
absolute, sure and certain. You see, if it's conditioned
on you or me, it wouldn't be sure and certain. As I've said
before, it'd be sure and certain to fail. If God told you, if
the gospel said, now, I will save you if you do certain things. Now, I know people say, well,
the Bible does say, if you believe. Well, do you hold on to that
thought now? Yes, it does. But here's the key, if you believe
what? See, that's the issue. It's not just believing, it's
believing what? Believing whom? So it's an unconditional
promise towards the sinner, but all the conditions were placed
upon somebody Now, who were they placed upon? Placed upon Christ.
This is a covenant of grace in Christ. This is a salvation that's
of the Lord in the person and work of Christ. And it's all
of grace. You see, that's what sets us
apart in our gospel. It's a gospel that teaches that
salvation is not just part grace. It doesn't teach some conditions
on Christ and then some conditions on you. as if this is a cooperative
effort. But it's a salvation that is
all of grace. All of grace. Now, the Jews thought
that this promise pertained only to the whole nation of Israel,
that physical nation, the physical seed of Abraham. And they thought
it was universal to all Jews. And that God's favor and blessings
were gained by their physical connection with Abraham, by their
circumcision, and by their attempts to obey the law of Moses. But
God made it clear that He did promise to save a people. It
wasn't just one particular nation here on earth, but it was the
promise of the salvation of sinners out of every nation, out of all
nations. That's why He says here in verse
5 of Isaiah 55, 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." God has a people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. The nation Israel
on earth during that time period under the Old Covenant was a
type, was a picture of God's spiritual nation, God's spiritual
people known as spiritual Israel. Now, who is part of spiritual
Israel? Well, they are those who believe. They believed that God promised
to save sinners conditioned on Christ. And they believed Christ
met and fulfilled all those conditions. That He did it. He did it all.
He finished the work. Now, from the beginning, God
made a distinction between national Israel, natural Israel, physical
seed of Abraham, and spiritual Israel. the elect of God, a multitude
of sinners, Jew and Gentile, all who believe in Christ and
rest in Him. That's the spiritual seed of
Abraham. So now, where is the distinction as it pertains to
each individual? That's what we're going to talk
about tonight here, beginning at verse 6. What does the gospel
command me to do? What does it command you to do?
Well, simply put, it commands me and it commands you to seek
the Lord. Seek the Lord. The Gospel commands
all who hear the Gospel to seek the Lord. The Scripture says,
Seek Him sincerely. Seek Him with the whole heart.
The Bible promises every sinner who seeks the Lord shall be saved. That's a promise from God, and
that's an absolute, unconditional promise. Every sinner who seeks
the Lord, truly seeks the Lord, with the whole heart shall be
saved. Look over at Acts chapter 2. Peter stood at Pentecost here,
and he preached that great gospel message. And after he was finished
there in verse 37 of Acts chapter 2, It says, now when they heard
this, when they heard the word of the Lord, when they heard
the gospel of God's grace in Christ, whom we crucified with
wicked hands, but God meant it for good, to save much people.
It says, when they heard this, in verse 37, they were pricked
in their heart. Now that means they were convicted
in their heart. Now who does the convicting?
Huh? Who does the convicting of the
heart? Well, the Holy Spirit does the
convicting. That's what His office is. He's
the comforter. But before He brings the comfort,
He brings the conviction. In other words, before He shows
you the cure, He's going to show you the disease first. Before
He shows you the fullness of grace, He's going to show you
your need of grace. Man doesn't convict himself.
Anybody who convicts themselves, that's not Holy Spirit conviction.
That's just temporary. A person can have a guilty conscience.
Society can convict you. They can make you feel pretty
bad, can't they? Society? Family can convict you. Family
can make you feel real bad. But you see, all those convictions
are not salvation. Those are just convictions of
the natural conscience. Are there people who cannot even
be convicted in the natural conscience? The Bible says there are. They're
called reprobate. Reprobate mind. Their mind, their
conscience has been sheared over with a hot iron. And they can't
even be convicted in the natural. They're far gone. That's how
far God let them go. But you see, there's a lot of
conviction, you see. But only the Holy Spirit convicts
savingly. And this is what this is, it
says, when they were pricked in their heart and said unto
Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what
shall we do? What are we going to do? We're
in a mess. We're lost. We're without hope. We're unrighteous. What are we going to do? Well,
look at verse 38. Then Peter said unto them, Repent. Now, change your mind, change
your heart, you see. Now, we know by nature man cannot
do that, but it's the Holy Spirit who grants repentance unto salvation. It's a gift of God, the Scripture
says. And that repentance had to do with their thoughts concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. When we crucified Him, how did
we think of Him? A malefactor, a criminal, cursed
of God. He deserved to be there, in our
view. But then when the Holy Spirit
shows us the glory of Christ, what does He show us? We deserved
to be there. He was there for our sins. He
went to the cross to die for my sins. And that's what He says,
repent, change your thinking about how God saves sinners.
We thought that God saved us based on our efforts to do something,
whether it was work or whether it was faith. Most people today
think that it's faith that makes the difference between saved
and lost. No, it is not. It is Christ who makes the difference
between saved and lost. Now, you believe in Him. You
see what I'm saying? You say, well, that's just splitting
hairs. Well, you better split that hair. That's one hair you
better split. Because He's going to get all
the glory, you see. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you
shall be saved." Now, he says, "...and be baptized, every one
of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of
sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Now,
this baptism doesn't save you. That's the confession of Christ.
Notice it doesn't say, be baptized for the remission of sins. It
says, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins. The remission of sins goes back
to Christ, not to baptism. But look at verse 39. Now listen
to this. He says, "...for the promise is unto you and to your
children." Now that's that absolute, unconditional promise that we've
read about in Isaiah. And he says, "...the promise
is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off,"
that's the Gentiles, he's a spiritual Israel, "...even as many as the
Lord our God shall call." Is He calling you? Well, now go
back to Isaiah 55. Remember I said that last time?
Is He calling me? Is He calling you? Well, look
at verse 1 again. Oh, everyone that thirsteth.
Are you thirsty? Spiritually thirsty? Are you
spiritually dry and parched? And you need the water of life.
Like that woman at the well. Christ told her about the water
of life. Living water. That's what you need, woman,
even though you don't know it. He told Nicodemus, you need life,
Nicodemus, even though you don't know it. Do you see yourself
as spiritually dead without Christ? I need life. I need living water. I need living bread. Do you hunger
and thirst after righteousness? Well, where's that need going
to be fulfilled? There's only one place that need
can be fulfilled. In Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. That's how you know if the Spirit's
calling you. Now, what's the Spirit going
to stir you up to do? Well, He's going to stir you
up to seek the Lord. Verse 6, seek ye the Lord. Now,
what is it to seek the Lord? There's a lot of people out here
in religion trying to be religious, reading their Bibles, memorizing
their Bibles, a lot of preaching going on, a lot of morality. I know there's a lot of the other
stuff, too. Don't get me wrong. But I'm going
to tell you something. There's religion, too. Religion's
popular today. I know that the immorality is
popular, too, but religion is, too. It's there. It's prevalent.
It's going out just as much. on the airways. You know, people
talk about, you know, sex on TV, and it's bad. But there's
religion on TV too. It's all over TV. You can't get
away from it. It's there too. Now, are these
men who are religious, are they seeking the Lord? Are they? Well,
what is it to seek the Lord? How do we seek Him? Let me ask
you, when do we seek Him? Where do you seek Him? Why do
you seek Him? Well, let's go to Isaiah here
and find out the answers to these questions. Now, we know, first
of all, man by nature will not seek Him. I mean, that's just
the fact of the matter. That's what God's Word says.
We read it in Psalm 53. God looked down from heaven to
see if there's anyone that sought after Him. If there's any that
did good, He said there's none. Romans 3, that's what Paul said
when he was talking about the universal depravity of all men
by nature. You want to see total depravity?
Listen, total depravity does not teach that all people are
as bad as we could be. We could all be worse than that.
But total depravity teaches that men are spiritually dead without
God's grace. None righteous, no not one. None
that doeth good, no not one in God's sight. None that seeketh
after God. Now, men will seek a God. That's
what you see in religion today. They're seeking after a God,
but not the true God. What's the problem? Well, wherever
there is a sinner truly seeking the true and living God, you're
going to find these things. You're going to find, number
one, there's already a seeking Savior. Christ said that He's
the Great Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd.
What's he doing? He's seeking his sheep. You know,
he already knows where they are. He's just using that kind of
language just to give us some idea of his love and mercy for
his people. He told his disciples one day,
he said, I must need to go through Samaria. Well, why is that? Why do you have to go through
Samaria? No good self-respecting Jew would go through Samaria
to get where you're going. He'd go a hundred miles out of
his way to avoid Samaria, that awful place. Christ said, I must
need to go through Samaria. You know why? Because there's
a sheep down there. And He knew she was there. Knew who she was, knew her name,
knew what she'd been doing, knew what she was going to do, knew
where she'd be and what she was coming there for. And He met
her. He'd already sent the disciples
in to buy bread. He met her. He got a sheep there. He came to seek and to save the
lost sheep of the house of Israel, hence sheep in Israel. He has
sheep all over this world and he knows where they are and he's
going to go out and he's going to find them and he's going to
bring them into the fold. So wherever you find a seeking sinner,
a truly seeking sinner, you're going to find first there's a
seeking Savior. Secondly, you're going to find
the gospel of God's grace clearly preached, heard, and understood
by the power of the Spirit. How are you going to seek the
Lord through His truth? Thirdly, you're going to find a heart
truly broken over sin, convicted. Men and brethren, what shall
we do? I'm bricked in the heart, convinced that I'm a sinner,
that I can't earn salvation and I don't deserve salvation. And
if God were to give me what I've earned and what I've deserved,
I'd be in a sinner's hell forever. But broken over sin to the point
that knowing that I need mercy. Oh God, be merciful to me, the
sinner. That's a seeking sinner. I need
righteousness. I don't have it. I can't get
it by my best efforts. I need Christ. And that's the
fourth thing, a humble expectation of salvation. in Christ based
on His blood and His righteousness alone according to God's promise.
And that's what this urgent call to faith and repentance is all
about. Look at verse 6. He says, Seek ye the Lord while
He may be found. Call ye upon Him while He is
near. When should you seek the Lord? I'll tell you exactly when. Now. Now. Now. Right now. First seeking now while He may
be found. While He's near, there'll come
a time that men will seek Him and not find Him when it's too
late. He's here now in the preaching of the Gospel. He's here now
in the fellowship of His people. He's here now in the hearts of
His people. He's here now in His truth. Seek
Him right now. Don't delay. Don't wait. Why
is this so urgent? Well, you know, as far as I can
tell from the Scripture, there are three times when it's too
late to seek the Lord. The first one is this. when sinners,
individual sinners, go past the point of no return. Is there
a point of no return? It seems to say that in the scripture,
in the book of Genesis chapter 6 and verse 3, When the Lord
was surveying the world and the wickedness of it, before He announced
that the flood would be given, and before He announced that
Noah had found grace and that He was going to build an ark
by Noah, it says in verse 3, And the Lord said, My spirit
shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,
yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. Do you know
what He is teaching there? He's saying in 120 years this
world is going to be destroyed. And that's how long it took Noah
to build that ark and he preached the gospel during all that whole
time according to the New Testament. And he said the Spirit's not
always going to strive. And he brought the flood down
on this earth. Then it's too late. It's too late. He told
his disciples Our Lord did when He sent them out two by two.
In Matthew 10 and verse 14, He said, Whosoever shall not receive
you nor hear your words when you depart out of that house
or city, shake off the dust of your feet. They won't hear you. It's too late. In the parable
of the ten virgins, five wise virgins and the five foolish
virgins, you remember when the Lord came back, they knocked
on the door, but it was shut. It was too late. Romans 1 speaks
of God giving men and women up to their own unbelief. There
comes a point of no return. Now, when is that point? I don't
know. I don't know. I just know that
the Bible seems to indicate that with some people there's a point
of no return. That's what I believe he was
telling the Pharisees when he said, let them alone. Leave them
alone. They're the blind leading the
blind. Somebody says, well, has the point of no return come for
me? Well, again, I would ask you
this question. Are you thirsty? Are you hungry
for the bread of life? Are you thirsty for the water
of life? Do you hunger and thirst for the salvation of God? Then
it's not too late for you, friend. Seek the Lord. But don't presume
upon God. There comes a point of no return
with a lot of people. And I don't know when it is,
but I know this. You would be wise to seek the
Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He's near.
The second time when it's too late is when sinners die in unbelief. Listen, you know you're not promised
one more breath. Take that next breath. You're
not promised the next one. The rich man in hell. lifted
up his eyes, and he knew it was too late for him, and he begged
God, send Lazarus back to preach to my brothers, because they'll
listen to somebody who's been raised from the dead. And Christ
said, no, they won't. They've got Moses and the prophets.
If they won't hear them, they won't hear another person, though
he rise from the dead. Christ rose from the dead. How
many people listen to him? How many people even believe
it? See what I'm saying? Listen, when death comes to your
door, It's too late to repent. People say, well, let's talk
about deathbed repentance. You better go to the scriptures.
I know the thief on the cross gives us some hope there, but
don't presume upon God. If you die in unbelief, it's
too late. Paul stood before Felix. And
he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.
Felix trembled, and here's what he said. Go thy way, Paul, for
this time. When I have a convenient season,
I'll call for you. Felix never called for him. Never
called for him. When sinners die in unbelief.
And here's the third time when it's too late. When the Lord
comes back to gather His church and to bring judgment. You don't
know when that is. But my friend, it will be too
late. Well, how should we seek Him? Well, the rest of this chapter
simply tells us this. Here's how to seek the Lord.
You seek the Lord by revelation from God in His Word. That's
how you seek the Lord. Listen to this. First of all,
we must seek God as He reveals Himself in His Word. Not as we
think Him to be. Here is a lot of people have
a lot of ideas, a lot of philosophies, a lot of doctrine, a lot of theology,
a lot of opinions about God. You know what it all means? Nothing. It means nothing. You might as
well have an opinion about the election. You see, it all means
nothing if it's not revealed by God in His Word. Now, that's
what he's talking about here in verse 7. Look at it. He says,
let the wicked forsake his way. You see, now I might say, well,
this is the way I think it is. Well, that's foolishness, you
see. My way. I need to forsake my
way. Whatever my way is, forsake it. It's no good. Put it out of your
mind. It's wicked. It's evil. It's dishonoring to
God. What is the way that man thinks? There's a way that seems
right unto men. It's the way of destruction.
It's the way of religious works aimed at salvation. It's the
way of self-righteousness. It's the way of unbelief. Let
the wicked forsake his way. Let the unrighteous man his thoughts.
The unrighteous man is the unbeliever. He's the one who doesn't know
God, doesn't know who he is, and doesn't know his own frame,
doesn't know his need. He's not hungry and thirsty after
the righteousness of God. He's trying to make himself righteous.
by his works. And it says, let him return unto
the Lord. You see, you've got to look to
God. And he says, and he will have mercy upon him. There's
mercy with God. And our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. There's abundant pardon, forgiveness
with God. Well, how is that so? Do you
know the worst thing a sinner can do is try to find God by
his own thoughts and his own ways? You see, the way to seek
the Lord involves repentance. That means forsaking every false
way, forsaking my way. To seek the Lord is to follow
after righteousness, not to try to establish one. God abundantly
pardons all who will come to Him pleading the blood of His
Son. Look at verse 8. He says, for my thoughts are
not your thoughts. You see, what I need to know
in this thing of seeking the Lord is I need to know God's
thoughts. Well, somebody says, well, how
in the world are you going to know God's thoughts? Right here they are. This is the mind and heart of
God. Old Scott Richardson used to say that if you're going to
preach a true gospel message, a preacher has to preach, number
one, from the heart of God. Preach the Word. This is the
heart of God right here, from Genesis to Revelation. And he
said that preacher's got to preach from his own heart. He's got
to preach what he believes, from the Word, what God's revealed
to him. And then he preaches to the hearts of men. And he
has no control over that. I may be preaching to the walls
tonight, but I hope that God reaches your heart. You see what
I'm saying? And this is it, you see, he says,
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts. I need to know God's way, which
is much higher than my way or your way. I need to know God's
thoughts. God can never be known unless
he's pleased to reveal himself to us in his world. And man's
natural thoughts of God are too low. God said, thou thoughtest
that I was altogether one such as yourself. You got it wrong,
he said. Therefore he seeked natural man,
seeks God through his own efforts, through his own works. God's
way of grace through Christ is much higher than us. It's got
to be revealed to us. So we've got to seek Him as He
reveals Himself in His Word. What does God say about Himself
in His Word? You say, well now, I don't understand
a lot about what God... It's not necessary that you understand
everything about God. That's not what I'm saying. I'm
just saying you've got to believe what God says of Himself. If
God says He's sovereign, and man is totally responsible, if
that's what God says in His Word, and it is, then you believe it.
You say, well, I've got to go figure that one out first. You'll
never believe it then. You'll end up either denying
it or mangling it up. God chose a people. That's exactly
right. Divine, sovereign, unconditional
election. God chose a people before the
foundation of this world. Somebody said, well, how can
He hold men responsible? He does. You know how I know
that? He says he does. Now, let me
tell you what else he says. He says, now my thoughts are
higher than yours and my ways are higher than yours. And, you
know, approach him like Job did. Lord, I can't figure this out.
That's basically Job's message from his viewpoint. Lord, I can't
figure this out. Here's God's answer. Job, shut
up. I'm God and you're the creature.
That's basically the answer God gives. He said, I'll tell you
what. He did tell Job this. He said, Job, I'll sit down with
you and I'll discuss this with you if you can answer these questions
in the positive. Where were you when I hung the
stars in space? Where were you when I put Leviathan
in the sea? Where were you? What were you
creating? What were you doing? Well, Job, he wasn't even around
then. So God says, all right, then
shut up. I'm God, and you're the creature.
I set the standard. I say what goes. And my friend,
thank God, he's the one who's the author of salvation. He's
the author. He's the sovereign of it. He's
the completer of it. Christ is the author and finisher
of our faith. Now you seek him. Next, seek
Him as He is according to His Word. Seek Him as we are according
to His Word. Come as you are. He used to sing
that song, Just As I Am. That's not a bad song. I mean,
I know they used to run in the ground trying to drag people
down an aisle with it. But that's not what that song's
about. Just as I am, without one plea, but that Christ died
for me. I don't have anything to plead.
I don't have anything to defend myself with. Anything on my behalf.
The only way I can come is as a naked sinner to be clothed
in His righteousness. As a sinner to be washed in His
blood. As a sinner in need of mercy
and grace. Come as you are. That's how you
seek the Lord. Don't bring your experiences,
your dreams, your visions, your works, with you. You're not seeking
the Lord if you bring them with you. You're seeking some kind
of favor from a false god that way. Come as a sinner seeking
mercy. And then finally, seek Him where
He's near. That's what He said, where He
may be found. Where is that? In Christ. That's where. At the cross and on the throne. His Word If you seek Him in His
Word, if you seek Him as He is in His Word, seek Him as you
are a sinner seeking mercy from His Word, I'll tell you exactly
where you're going to end up. You're going to end up resting
in Christ, the Sovereign Redeemer. You're going to end up believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading His blood and righteousness alone,
and doing exactly what the Apostle Paul did, say, I count all things
but done that I may win Christ. He's my all in all. You see,
God says my thoughts are higher. You see, God must be just when
He justifies. He must be righteous when He
shows mercy. How can He do that? My thoughts
can't reach that high. My ways are not that high. But
His thoughts and His ways are. And He shows us in the person
and finished work of His Son. Seek Him in Christ. That's where
his word will always lead you. He told the Pharisees, you search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life,
for there they which testify of me. He said, Moses wrote of
me. He said, Abraham rejoiced to
see my day, and he saw it and he was glad. He opened up to
his disciples the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms,
the things concerning himself, how he must go to Jerusalem,
suffer and bleed and die for the sins of his people, be buried
and raised again the third day because of their justification.
He's seated at the right hand of the heavenlies, ever living
to make intercession for us because He's already done the work of
propitiation. He's satisfied law and justice.
He is our all in all. And we must seek Him expectantly.
Now look at verse 10. He says, For as the rain cometh
down, the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither or there,
watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth bud, that it may
give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, 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 things whereto I send it." There's two things
about those verses. Number one, from God's perspective,
when God sends His Word as the power of God unto salvation,
to call one of His elect, one of His sheep into the fold, it
will hit its mark. That person will seek the Lord.
He will come into the fold. But from our perspective, here
it is. My friend, if I seek the Lord, truly seek the Lord in
His Word, what does that mean? There's going to be salvation.
That's what he said. He's going to send forth a seed
to the sower, sown into the ground. And it's going to grow. It's
going to bring forth. It's going to bring bread to the eater.
Are you hungry for the bread of life? Well, here it is. Christ
is the bread of life. Now feed upon Him. Christ is
the water of life. Now drink from that well. He
says, my word goeth forth. It shall not return void. It's not going to be sent out
in vain. And even when those who refuse to believe and refuse
to seek, Let me tell you something. It's not that God's Word returns
vain, for it will accomplish in their lives death unto death. Paul said that. He said it's
the savor of life unto life or death unto death. It will be
to their damnation. Very sad. But his purpose in
sending forth his Word is also accomplished in those who stubbornly
refuse to believe. But my friend, We pray and desire
that it be for the salvation of his people. God has never
failed to accomplish what he desires since he works everything
after the counsel and purpose of his own will. He calls on
men to repent and he gives repentance to his people as he pleases. He grants repentance. He calls
on men to believe and he grants faith to believe. And look at
verse 12. Here's the result. He says, for
you shall go out with joy. You're convicted in your conscience,
in your heart, by the Holy Spirit. You see the despair of trusting
in men, trusting in yourself. But when you look to Christ,
you go out with joy and be led forth with peace. There's peace
now between God and sinners. There's peace in the heart with
Christ. And the mountains and the hills
shall break forth before you in the singing, and all the trees
of the fields shall clap their hands. In other words, you'll
see this whole creation working under God's sovereign power for
His glory and your good. And he says in verse 13, instead
of the thorn shall come up the fir tree. There's going to be
a bearing of fruit here. It's the fruit unto God. It's
the fruit of the Spirit by the power and grace of God. And instead
of the thorn, there's going to be the fir tree. Instead of the
briar, shall come up the myrtle tree. And it shall be to the
Lord for a name. It's going to be for His glory.
It's going to make a name for the Lord, not for you. He says,
God forbid that I should glory, saving Christ and Him crucified.
And He says, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. In other words, when you come
to faith in Christ, when you seek the Lord and find Him, that
means this. That means you are eternally,
everlastingly saved without fail. It won't be cut off. There will
be no losing it. That fellow that wrote me the
letter and wanted to know. He said he wanted to know one
word. He said, yes or no, do you believe once saved always
saved? I'll just quote him that verse there. There's an everlasting
sun that shall not be cut off. You see, your hope is in Christ.
And you can no more lose your salvation than he could be knocked
off the throne in glory. He's going to reign forever and
ever and ever. And so the command is seek the Lord. Seek Him now.
Don't wait. Don't wait.