It's been a very distinct honor
and privilege to be here, absolutely. Appreciate the hospitality that
you've shown us. I know Marvin feels this way
as well. This is a wonderful extension of our family. We get
to see, and I'm so thankful, thankful God has allowed us to
be together and to center around Christ. You know what heaven
is? Everybody just looking at him. Everybody worshiping him. This is just the taste of heaven
here. This is what he's given us here.
Just a little taste of the joy to come. Joy to come. Pray for
me as I preach. I often covet your prayers when
I preach. Remember, worship is not just
passive. I'm up here, I'm actively doing something, but you're actively
engaged in a struggle. So am I. So am I. I'm battling the flesh even when
I'm preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's sad, but it's true. We need His strength, His power,
His grace, His presence. Without it, what are we? What
have we done? We've done nothing. Pray for
it. If you'll take your Bibles and
turn with me to Isaiah, the gospel according to Isaiah, chapter
55. Look at verse 6 and 7. And here we have a command. Not
so much a request as a command. Not so much an invitation as
a command. Here it is. Seek the Lord. Seek ye the Lord. I know a lot of times we get
into a congregation and we wonder, well, I wish so and so was here
to hear this. I wish so and so could hear,
seek ye the Lord. No, you seek the Lord. You seek the Lord. Seek ye the
Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord.
And here's the promise, he will have mercy upon him. To our God and he will not only pardon, abundantly pardon. Adjectives. Abundantly pardon.
Abundantly. That's good because I'm an abundant
sinner in need of an abundant pardon. Seek ye the Lord. Now, there are many today so-called
seeking the Lord. I'm going to take this message
as some of the old writers used to do. They used to tell you
what it wasn't before they tell you what it is. I'm going to
tell you what is not to seek the Lord, what is not seeking
the Lord. There are many saying they're seeking God. Many religious
folks saying, I'm seeking the Lord. And what is their evidence
of seeking God? They say, well, I'm seeking the
Lord because I'm going to church. I'm seeking the Lord because
I've been baptized. I've been seeking the Lord because
I'm doing good deeds. They call that seeking the Lord.
Yet they're not seeking the Lord. There are many in the pulpits
preaching and assuming that all men are seeking
the Lord. That's an evil thing, isn't it?
To stand in the pulpit and assume everyone's saved. God help us. We're not to assume
anything like that. Men are assuming that everyone
is seeking the Lord. I heard this from a person that
was in the Southern Baptist Church. They were asked, why do they
not preach the blood of Christ, the cross of Christ? Because
his answer was, because everybody knows that. They just assume everybody knows
that. Everybody knows about the blood of Christ. They're assuming
people are seeking the Lord because they don't know the gospel. They
themselves have never sought the Lord. And so what do they
do? They begin to preach about people's
needs, physical needs. They begin to show them that
God loves them and cares for them. But they have it all wrong according
to God's Word, because God's Word testifies of this truth,
no man by nature is seeking God. That's just a solid, self It's
self-evident to believers. It's self-evident to those of
us who have sought and found Him. We know this. It's self-evident
that we by nature were never seeking God. Now men seek after
the benefits of knowing God, don't they? Who wants to go to
hell? A hundred out of a hundred surveyed,
nobody wants to go to hell. I mean nobody. Who wants to go
to hell? Nobody. And so they see Christ as nothing
more than a fire escape. That's it. They check something
to check off. They seek Jesus in time of their
trouble, of physical sickness, depression, on the brink of death. It's then they say they seek
Him. But what are they seeking really?
They're seeking His healing hand. They're like those ten lepers. Ten lepers were healed. You remember
only one actually came back. There's many seeking His healing.
And I'll tell you, God is so merciful that He even heals them. But I tell you, that's for their
condemnation. All men according to God's Word
are born depraved rebels and haters of God. Men are born not
seeking God, but rather it is our nature to run from God. The
first thing our Father did when He heard the voice of God after
He had sinned is He ran and hid Himself. Have you ever noticed when you
speak of Christ, it seems as though men are like a cockroach
that the light is shined on and they just want to run and hide.
I don't care how bold they are, how smart they are, intellectual
or high, they desire to run. They desire to run because that's
our nature to do that. All men by nature rather seek
pleasure. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life is what we seek by nature. We desire to scratch the itch
of our sin. That's it. Now this is not speculation,
is it? I don't like giving my opinion.
It's worthless. Romans chapter 3 and verse 10,
as it is written, written by the pen, immutable pen of God. There is
none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
and there is none that what? Seeketh after God. This is all of us by nature.
We are born and dead in trespasses and sin and altogether unrighteous
and unwilling to seek God. It's not only that we're not
seeking, we're unwilling to do it. Unable to do it. Jesus said,
you will not come to me that you might have life. And he also
said this, no man can come to me, except the Father which has
sent me, draw him. And most men in this life, they
seek to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind. and
are by nature the children of wrath, even as others. That's
our testimony. That's my testimony. I'm identifying
with this. I'm not saying that these men
are separate from me. This is my lot. This is who I
am by nature. I remember when I was young,
I thought I was impenetrable. The military taught you that.
They taught you you were 10 feet tall and bulletproof. I thought
I was. We live in our sin, we love our
sin, we desire by nature to adhere to the anthem of the world. Obey your thirst. Just do it. Whatever it is, whatever you
feel is right, whatever you think is right, do that. We all had
our conversation in time past, according to the lust of the
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
And then you take that same man, and he comes later in his life,
and he gets a family, and he starts thinking about responsibilities. Well, I'm getting older now.
And so he kind of shucks off the old lifestyle of sin, and
he takes on that family and the responsibility, and he says,
you know, I just need to get religious. I need to start thinking
about my family, get my kids in church. And what does he think? He thinks he's seeking God. All
the while, he's not seeking God at all. In fact, he's only seeking
the approval of men. When men join the church and
get religious, that's what they want. They want the approval
of others. Somebody else made them feel guilty and they need
to be in church. So they start doing this and stop doing that.
That's not seeking God. And you have another man. He's
out there and he doesn't stop in his sin. He continues on in
his sin. deep in drugs or sexual immorality
or whatever it is, but he finds out that that life,
there's no satisfaction in it. He starts getting sober, he joins
a rehab, and what does he say? I'm seeking the Lord. Nope. No. You know the Lord ain't found
in a rehab. He's found where the gospel is
preached. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Where is He
found? He's found where His gospel is
declared. That's where He said, where two
or three are gathered in My name. There am I in the midst of them. And so they say that's seeking
God, getting their lives straight, doing good. That's not seeking
God. That's not seeking God. In both cases, they're just trying
to satisfy their conscience or escape the consequences of their
sin. Listen, escaping the consequences of your sin is not seeking God.
Everybody does that. That's just natural, isn't it?
You find out that sin is like a fish. You bite on the bait
and there's a hook there. And you feel the sharpness of
your sin. It's then they start looking
for religion. That's not seeking God. That's not seeking God. So what is it then to seek God?
If it's not in religion, if it's not in getting your life right,
what is it to seek the Lord? Seek ye the Lord! What is it
then to seek the Lord? For you to seek the Lord, you
must be first made aware of your sin. Not just the consequences
of sin, but the very nature of sin. that sin is not what I do
as much as it is who I am. The Scriptures are very clear.
From the sole of my foot to the crown of my head is nothing. Nothing but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. Nothing good. Nothing good at
all. If you don't ever see your sin,
you'll never see God. You must know who you are. That you are a sinner and all
you do is sin. So that there is none will come
seeking God unless they have a need. Isn't that what it says
in verse 1? It says seek the Lord. Who's
going to seek the Lord? It tells us who seeks the Lord,
verse 1. The Lord's calling a certain group of people to seek Him. Here it is, ho, everyone that, thirsty. There's a first qualification. If you're gonna seek the Lord,
you gotta be thirsty for it. Thirsty. And the second one is
this, he that hath no money. You gotta be broke. Only the
thirsty and broke will seek God. You ain't thirsty. You ain't
broke. You ain't going to see God. And
what is it to be thirsty? It is spiritual. This is a spiritual
thirst. This is when a man's eyes are
opened and he sees his sin, which means he also sees his need of
righteousness. For this, the Word of God comes
in the power of the Holy Spirit to show us who God is. who God is. You'll never know
who you are till God exposes who God is. Otherwise, you're
just comparing yourself to other people. You're comparing yourself to
another filthy wretch and you might have a little less dirt. No, you need to compare yourself
to God. God's got to show you who He
is. God's got to show you He is holy, He is sovereign, and
that God demands of His creatures absolute perfection. Absolute holiness. Be ye holy
even as I am holy. Do you know this? Have you seen
this? That God who created all things will and must judge all
men And all men must give account of all their works to God. Nothing's
sacred, friends. All those sins you had that you
thought are hidden, they're not hidden from God. They're not. You must give account. This is
why we cannot come to God by law. Because by the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified. The law has a purpose. And that
is only to expose sin. It cannot help you. That song we just sang, to Sinai's
fiery mount I flew. This mountain cried with frowning
face, this mountain is no hiding place. Have you seen that the law, in order
to fulfill the law, you must fulfill it not only in deed,
but in thought, intent, and motive. Impossible. Impossible. And God says this, that if you
have not done all of these things, you are worthy of only one thing,
eternal damnation and death. That's it. You know, we speak
of the sovereignty of God and how God chose a people and people
say, that's not fair. Listen friends, I don't want
fair. If I got what I deserve, it would
only be justice. It would only be hell. Our Lord Jesus Christ said this,
He that believeth on Him is not condemned. That's good news,
man. That's somebody that's seeking
the Lord. Somebody that believes on Christ. He's the one seeking
the Lord. But he that believeth not, listen,
is condemned already. Isn't that amazing that the world
was already condemned? I didn't come to condemn you.
That's already been done. It was done in your father, Adam. So all who do not believe on
Christ, they are condemned already. Friend, are you thirsty? You
know what you need? You need righteousness. Righteousness you and I cannot
provide. You need absolute perfection.
Jesus said this, Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst,
after what? Righteousness. Perfection. Perfection. Christ said those
that hunger and thirst after this are blessed and those who
have been in the wasteland of sin and found that sin does not
satisfy the empty void of the heart, then I've got a good news
message for you. Seek the Lord for in Him is righteousness. Righteousness. Those that hunger
and thirst for righteousness, what does Christ say? They shall
be filled. Filled. And I'm going to tell
you, the only place to find the righteousness of God is in one
person. Jesus Christ. This is what it is to seek the
Lord. It is to seek the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ.
For God hath commanded the light, and if God commands the light
to shine out of darkness and shine into your heart, What will
it reveal? It will see the face of the glory
of God, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's
where it is. Righteousness is only found in
Jesus Christ. The only righteousness God will
accept. Friends, are you thirsty for
righteousness? You know that scripture in John, it says this,
as many as received Him. You know what it is to receive
Him? Don illustrated it. I thought
it was good. He said, look, there's some water. I'm thirsty. I received it. That's it. Faith in Christ is
to receive righteousness. Righteousness merited by Him. Righteousness obtained by His
own hand. The righteousness of God. Are
you thirsty for righteousness? See, only the thirsty are going
to seek the Lord. They are only going to come to Christ. He has
obtained righteousness by His own hand. And so then, what must
you do? You must look away from yourself.
It's not going to be a combination, friends. Seeking the Lord is
not a combination, cooperation between you and Christ. It's
either all of Christ or it's all of you. If it's some type of cooperation,
you're not seeking the Lord. You're not seeking the Lord.
All who seek the Lord thirst for Him. And all who thirst for
Him, what do they do? They drink. They drink. And they are what? Filled with
righteousness. You know I'm filled with righteousness?
You know I cannot get holier? Fools running around thinking
they can get holier. That's because they ain't seeking the Lord,
they ain't found Him. You find Him, you don't need any more
righteousness. He has it all. He has it all. And I tell you, if I feel like
I'm lacking anything, it's because I'm looking at myself. I look to
Him, I see full righteousness. Not only that, you must be poor.
Look at that, He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit. He said,
They that come, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters. He that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come
buy wine and milk, joy and nourishment. With what? Without money and
without price. Look, you seek the Lord, you've
got to come with this. Empty. In my hands, no price I bring. Well, what do we do? What do
we bring? Simply to thy cross I cling. I come seeking the Lord based
on the sacrifice of another, on the offering of another, Christ. This morning are you seeking
the Lord based on any amount that you could pay? Is there
any penance that you can do that you would pay the debt of sin
you owe to God? Friends, I'm here to tell you
God's done it all. In Christ, God has paid the debt
of our sin. Not only has He positively given
us and made righteousness for us, Jesus Christ has also taken
the negative. He has taken our sin and by His
death, completely paid the justice of God for our sins. I like to
see when Christ says it's finished, you know what I see? I see the
justice of God exhausted. Just as God looked at him and
said, I can't ask for no more. I can't ask for any more. He
took it all. He paid it all. He paid it all. Dear thirsty sinner, come and
drink. Dear poor and bankrupt sinner, come and find, what?
Forgiveness. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thought.
Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy. Look, that's what I need. Mercy. Anybody seeking the Lord that
doesn't need mercy is not seeking the Lord. Anybody seeking the
Lord needs what? Mercy. And mercy by definition
is free. You can't have it any other way.
If you can pay for it, it's not mercy. If you can earn it, it's
not mercy. Our Lord Jesus Christ was wounded
for our transgressions. Isn't that wonderful that the
justice of God didn't just pass over us, it didn't just excuse
us, did it? No. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes
we are healed. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He hath put Him to grief. I shall
make His soul an offering for sin. He shall see His seed."
Isn't that wonderful? You that have sought the Lord,
you know what He sees when He saw Christ? He saw you. I was
in Christ. He saw His seed. He shall prolong
His days. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in His hands. He shall see of the travail of His soul
and be satisfied. Satisfied. Dear thirsty and broke sinner,
hear the command of God. Seek the Lord. When? While He may be found. Listen, He may be found today. Gospel is preached here. It's
where He is. That's why the scripture says
today is the day of salvation, isn't it? Now is the only important
time that matters. That's it. Seek the Lord. But what is it to seek? He said
this, let the wicked forsake his way. If you must seek Christ,
if you are thirsty for righteousness, if you have nothing with which
to pay, what must you do? You must seek the Lord by looking
to Christ and you must forsake something. You must leave something.
In order to turn this way, I must abandon that way. You cannot have God and your
sin. You know, that's the Nicolaitans,
the one the Lord said, I hate. You know, those were probably
Calvinists. They were. But they were licentious. They said, grace, grace, all
the while living in their sin. Can't do that. That's not seeking
the Lord. You've not sought the Lord. In
order to seek the Lord, you must abandon your sin. You must abandon
your ways. I know of a man, he's always
trying to, he's trying to get me to tell him he's saved. What
do you want my opinion for? You don't want my opinion? But
I know this, he's not. By their fruits you shall know
them. This man, he's crying, cries, grace, grace, grace, and
all the while, he's living with a woman. You know, that woman
in the well, she had that problem, but when she was saved, she wasn't
living with that man no more. No, she abandoned that. Why?
Because sin is grotesque to one who has found the Lord, to one
who is found of Him. We forsake our sins, and we turn
completely to Him But this also means to turn from our religion. More than anything, it's to turn
from our religion. I remember a man in our congregation,
the Lord saved him when he was 66 years old. And after a while
of hearing the gospel, he came in my office. He was quite upset,
very, very angry at me. And I said, what's wrong, brother? And he said, you know, from what
I understand, You're telling me that all those years before
I came here, I was lost. I said, well, I've never said
that to you, but you're right. And he said, well, how do you
know that? I said, well, have you ever heard the gospel before you came here? No. How can you be saved? Have you ever heard the gospel? You know what he did? He immediately
abandoned all his old religion. Counted it but done that he may
win Christ. Is that what Paul did? He said,
I count all things but loss that I may win Christ and be found
in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but the
righteousness which is by the faith of Christ. That's the righteousness
I want. I want to be found in Him. And
so therefore we who seek Him, We gladly abandon, we gladly
turn, we gladly repent of our religion and self-righteousness
and our thoughts. I always think of Naaman when
I read this scripture. You know, he was that leper that came seeking
healing of God and he came and the prophet told him how he should
be healed and he went away mad. Why? He said, I thought. Stop thinking. thinking and seek the Lord. Why? Because when you find Him, you
find mercy, you find abundant pardon. And listen, we who have
found Him, do you stop seeking the Lord?
This morning, what are you doing here? I know it's not to hear me, better
not be. You better hear Him. You better
be seeking Him. And you know what I find every
time I seek Him? Mercy. I need mercy today. I need abundant
pardon today. I need His presence. I need His grace. I need His
mercy. I need His love. And I know this. I've sought Him. I've found Him. He's had mercy. He has mercy
abundantly. What's greater than this is He first sought me. If you ever seek Him, this is
the truth that keeps your heart and breaks your heart is this,
I wasn't seeking Him. He sought me and found me. I'll
have you turn to this place and I'll close with it. Ezekiel 34.
Ezekiel 34. Look at verse 11. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep
and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered,
so will I seek out my sheep. and will deliver them out of
all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and the
dark bay. Believer, are you not prone to
wonder as a sheep? You know why God uses sheep?
Sheep are dumb. They're just stupid. You don't see sheep jump
through heaps. You don't see them at the circus,
do you? I saw a chicken at a circus. Never saw a sheep. Now you pet
them, they're petting things, but they, no tricks, why, they're
stupid. If I didn't have a shepherd,
you know sheep, interesting, a sheep, he'll just stay in this
one area and eat that grass till it goes down and he'll never
move if the shepherd don't lead him out. He'll starve to death
right there in that pasture. It's stupid. But I have a shepherd who sought
me when I was lost and he found me. He found me. And friends, I have a shepherd
who keeps me. Keeps me. The reason I'm seeking the Lord
today is because He keeps me. The reason I believe on Him today
is because He keeps me. I sought Him because He sought
me. I found Him because He found
me. I love Him because He loved me. I'm righteous because of
His righteousness. If there ain't anybody to seek
the Lord today, please, may God give you grace to seek Him. And listen, He'll be found. Isn't
that amazing? Isn't that amazing? May God bless.