Good morning. The more I get
to know your pastor, the more I love and appreciate him. Thank
the Lord for him. I appreciate him asking me to
come. It's my privilege and honor to do so. And you need to know
that the coffees represent all of you very well with their hospitality
and generosity and just their genuine Christian care of us
while we're here. You do have to keep needles away
from Becca. Most of you may know that by
now. She checked all of our blood sugar this morning, which is
all fine and well, but she just enjoys it a little too much.
She greeted us with a needle. John 8. We'll kind of jump into
the middle of a passage here. The Lord is dealing with a group
of people, the Jews, called the Jews. In this chapter, the religious
Jews, the Pharisees and Sadducees. We know who they are. And in
John 8, verse 21, we'll start there, but we'll refer to several
passages in the book of John. But he said in verse 21, then
said Jesus again unto them. He had spoken to them quite a
bit here. He said, I go my way. Aren't you glad the Lord Jesus
Christ went his way? They tried to constrain him and
hinder him, tried to kill him. But he said, I go my way. He
always does. And I'm grateful for that because
his way is my salvation. His way is the way of grace for
His people. And things didn't go their way.
And I'm grateful for that. And He said, you shall seek Me
and shall die in your sins. Can you imagine the Son of God
saying that to you? You are going to die in your
sins. Where I go, you cannot come. Then said the Jews will he kill
himself because he saith whether I go you cannot come He said
unto them you are from beneath aren't we? We prove it every time we open
our mouths Every time we can do anything we prove it. We're
from beneath. I'm from above You are of this world. I am NOT of this world Said therefore
unto you that you shall die in your sins For if you believe
not that I am You shall die in your sins You notice the word
he is in italics. That means it's not there in
the original. It's provided. It's not necessary here If you
believe not that I am you shall die in your sins I Then said
they unto him, Who are you? Who are you? And Jesus saith
unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning."
The Apostle Paul's declaration in 1 Corinthians 1.23 is beautiful
and clear. He said, we preach Christ crucified. He said to them in chapter 2,
I determined when I came to you, I determined to know nothing
among you, Jesus Christ and him crucified And we we know that
we've heard that and rejoice in that clear profession that
clear claim But the greatest example of that truth as in all
things is the Lord Jesus Christ himself Christ They asked, who
are you? And he said, I'm the same one
I said I was from the start. He declared himself to them. And he did it over and over again.
From the beginning, he said, from the beginning of his ministry,
he declared himself. He told them, in chapter 5, you'll
read that they tried to kill him. Why? Because he said he
was the son of God, making himself equal with God. But here they say, who are you? They said, Moses gave us bread
in the wilderness. What miracle will you show? What
sign do you give to it? He said, Moses didn't give you
that bread. My father gave you that bread,
and I am the true bread. that came down from heaven. Don't
seek the bread. Don't seek the earthly. Don't seek that which goes in
the mouth and goes away and doesn't do your soul any good. Seek that
bread, that spiritual bread that results in everlasting life that
I'll give to you. And then he said to them plainly,
I am that bread. And yet here they say, who are
you? Who are you? He said, I am the
light of the world. The world lies in darkness, but
I am the light of the world. He's told them. He preached to
them. Let me say it as clearly as I
can. Christ preached Christ. And He did it to them. He did
that from the beginning. He said, I'm who I said I was
from the start. And yet they said, who are you? In the next chapter, John 9,
we read of the blind man that we all are familiar with. Blind
from his birth, it says in the beginning that Jesus passed by
and saw a man that was blind. That's my testimony to it. We couldn't see him. We couldn't
see anything. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see. But Jesus saw him and had compassion,
had mercy on him, healed him. And you recall in that passage
there at the end of that chapter, the Pharisees had a lot of different
questions for him. You know, is he a sinner? Who
did this for you? And they asked him all kinds
of things and grilled him. And they didn't like his answers.
They kicked him out of their fellowship. It says when they
kicked him out, when they had excommunicated him, the Lord
Jesus Christ found him and had one question for him. Do you
believe on the Son of God. And do you know how He responded
to that? Just like these Jews did. Same
question. He said, Who are You? Who is
He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? And of course, the Lord
answered him, Thou hast both seen Him. And we know why He
answered that way. Not long ago, this man hadn't
seen anything. He was blind from his birth.
But the Lord said, you're looking at Him. You're seeing Him. And
it is He that speaketh with thee. And do you know what that man
did? He fell on his face and worshiped
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I believe. I believe.
And worshiped Him. How many times did the Lord have
to tell that man who he was? You guessed it. But he spoke
to these to the Jews and he told them over and over and over again,
I am, I am, I am, I am the light of the world. I am that bread
that came down from heaven. And yet they believe, how come?
What's the difference? Why not? Well, the Lord answers
that in our text here. He said, I am from above. You are of this world. I am not
of this world. unto you that ye shall die in
your sins. But for if ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in
your sins.' Then said they unto him, Who are you? And Jesus saith
unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning,
I have many things to judge of you, but he that sent me is true.
There will be judgment, but right now, he said, there is gospel.
There's gospel. I speak to the world those things
which I have heard of him, what the Father, the message the Father
gave him. They understood not that he spake to them of the
Father. Then said Jesus unto them, when you have lifted up
the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am, and that I do
nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak
these things. And he that hath sent me is with
me. The Father hath not left me alone.
For I do always those things that please Him." Now, the Lord
Jesus Christ wasn't mysterious in His proclamation to them of
who He was. The Lord Jesus Christ preached
Christ to these Jews. But they could not hear Him. They could not believe. But this
blind man believed. What's the difference? Well,
look at verse 43. he said to them the same folks
why do you not understand my speech why i think how can i
say this so clearly so plainly declare who i am in a even sought
to kill him because of who he said it was god almighty the
father spoke from heaven and said that's my son and they didn't
believe it and they still said who are you why don't you understand
my speech even because ye cannot." You cannot. You cannot. Does that sound familiar? Do
you remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2? And remember
this now. The Lord told these same folks
in 6, verse 44, no man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent me, draw him,
and I'll raise him up at the last day." If the Father draws
you, again, He preached Himself, didn't He? No man can come unto
Me. He stood on that last great day
of the feast and said, if any man thirst, let him come to Me. That's what I'm preaching. Are
you thirsty? Go to Christ. Christ preached
Christ, and His preachers preached Christ. We preach Christ. No
man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw
him." And what does that say? If the Father draws you, if God
Almighty does something for you, He'll draw you to Christ. That's
what He does. That's salvation. That's life. And He said, if
He does that, I'll raise him up. I'll raise that one up at
the last day. It won't be an effort. It won't
be that He kind of, you know, kind of draws everybody a little
bit, and some respond and some don't. He said, if He draws you,
I'll raise you up. I'll give you life. You'll be
with Me forever. And so it's clear, isn't it?
And then in chapter 5, a little bit before that, John 5. These
same folks now. We're right here in the book
of John. He's talking to these same Jews. John 5 and verse 40, what
did He say? and you will not come to me."
You search the Scriptures because in them you think you have life. Their hope was in their knowledge
of the Scriptures. But he said, they are they which
testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. That word will not in the original
language is interesting. It doesn't mean that you don't
have permission to come. It doesn't even mean here that
you're not able to come. What he said in John chapter
644 means you're not able. But you know what this means
here? You will not come to me. You don't have any desire to.
You don't want to. You have no will to come to me. All right, now I asked you if
that sounded familiar. These are the exact two reasons that
the Apostle Paul gives for the blindness of natural man in 1
Corinthians 2. If you want to turn there, you
can. I'll read it to you. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, the
Apostle said, But the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God. Now, we're asking the question,
why did this blind man, the Lord Jesus, answer this question?
And he told him, I'm the Son of God. Do you believe on me?
And he identified himself clearly, didn't he? Couldn't be any doubt
in this man's mind. Well, there couldn't in these
Jews' mind either if they had ears to hear. Who are you? The same that I said unto you
from the beginning. I've told you time and time and
time again, and there are those probably here this morning who
have heard the truth clearly, clearly preached time and time
And time again, there are those that I love very dearly that
have heard the truth preached time and time and time again. Why don't they hear? Why don't
they respond the way that blind man in John chapter 9 did? Well,
Paul said, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God for two reasons. First of all, their foolishness
to him. That's what the Lord Jesus said to them in John chapter
5 verse 40. You will not come to me. You
don't have any desire. It's nonsense to you. You have
no desire, no need, no will to come to me. That's what Paul,
their foolishness. It's ridiculous. The gospel is
foolish. It's nonsense. It's completely
discredited by them. And then, secondly, neither can
he know them. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me drawing. You don't have the ability,
you don't have the desire, and you don't have the ability by
nature, and neither does anybody, not myself or anybody else. No
man can. And so for those two reasons,
these folks, he preached himself to them. He declared himself.
He called them to Himself. He exalted Himself. He revealed
Himself. Why don't you understand? And
then He answered the question, you can't. You can't. He has
revealed Himself from the beginning. Now there's a little more to
that than just that He had been telling them from the beginning
of them meeting Him and His ministry on this earth. Turn to Exodus
chapter 3. The Lord Jesus Christ has been
declaring from the beginning, literally the beginning, since He ever revealed Himself
to anybody, He's been declaring Himself. He declared Himself
in the garden when He slew those animals and covered the nakedness
of our father Adam and our mother Eve. But in Exodus 3, verse 9,
Now therefore, behold, The cry of the children of Israel is
coming to me. God heard the cry of his people.
Aren't you glad? That's us right there. If you
have the same faith that Abraham had, Paul said, you're sons of
Abraham, you're children of Israel. He heard our cry. He said, I've
seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them.
Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou
mayest bring forth my people. the children of Israel out of
Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go unto
Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel
out of Egypt? And listen to the Lord's answer
here. This is interesting and instructive. Moses said, Who
am I? And here's the answer. Certainly
I will be with thee. You see that? Not, oh, Moses,
your speech impediment is not as bad as you think it is. I'll
tell you who you are, Moses. You're the one that I'm with.
And that's who you want to hear, too. That's who you want to pay
attention to, is the one that the Lord is with. Isn't that
what Moses said later? He said, Lord, how will people
know us from all the other nations of the world? Is it not in this
that you're with us? You're with us. What's different
about this church? Oh, well, they know some things that they
don't know. No, that's not it. I'm with you. There it is. That's
who you are. You're the one that the Lord
is with. And he said, this will be a token under thee that I
have sent thee. I have sent thee. That's all
they need to know about you. That's all Pharaoh needs to know.
He doesn't need to know your qualifications, Moses, your resume. Don't bother. What he needs to
know is you're speaking for me. For me. When thou hast brought
forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this
mountain." Sounds like a foregone conclusion, doesn't it? Not if,
not, you know, if this works out. When this happens, when
my people are delivered, then you'll serve God. And Moses said
unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto
you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall
I say unto them? In effect, the same question
in it, who are you? Same question. And he answered
it exactly the same way that he answered these Jews in John
chapter 8. He said, if you believe not that
I am, you'll die in your sins. And they said, who are you? And
he said, I'm the one I said I was from the beginning. All right. What shall I? And God said unto
Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am, hath sent me unto you.
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thou shalt say unto the children
of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever. And this is my memorial unto
all generations." And here stands in John 8 a generation of the
Jews asking him, Who are you? And as he said to Moses, this
is my name and my memorial to all generations. And he answered
them the same way. If you don't believe that I am,
you'll die in your sin. I'm who I said I was when I first
spoke to my people, Israel. And he still is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. But let's look back at the first
verse that we read there. Then said Jesus again unto them,
verse 21, I go my way and you shall seek me and shall die in
your sins. Now here are some Christ-seekers who will not find Him. He told
them flat out, you're not going to find me. And where I go, you're
not coming. You can't do it. Does this sound like a contradiction
to you? Are you familiar with Matthew 7? Matthew 7, verse 6,
the Lord Jesus said, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,
neither cast you your pearls before swine, lest they trample
them under their feet. and turn again and rend you,
ask." Do you see the context there? The ones you preach to,
the ones you speak to, the ones you give the gospel to, this
is who you're looking for, the ones that ask. And He said to
them, ask, and it shall be given unto you. Seek, and you shall
find. knock and it shall be opened
unto you it shall in no uncertain time it shall for everyone that
asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that
knocketh it shall be opened now when you come to something like
this in the scriptures that seems to be a contradiction and that's
the key word seems to be it seems to be to us because we don't
know anything Don't shy away from it. Don't forget about it. Don't hide from it. Don't, you
know, don't let it frighten you. Find out. Find out why it's not
a contradiction, because it's not. There are no contradictions
in the Word of God. Find out why it's not, and truth
will be taught you. You'll end up rejoicing in Christ,
I guarantee you, if you search it out. In your mind, if God
is gracious, we don't understand anything, we don't get anything
without His grace. Without me, you can do nothing.
Without Him, we know nothing. Without Him, we are nothing.
But if He's pleased, truth will be more clearly defined if we
seek out the meaning in these so-called seeming contradictions. What do I mean by that? Well,
Matthew 7, where we read there, verse 7, is a wonderful promise,
isn't it? Seek and you'll find. You'll
find. But unless we look into this
John chapter 7, we might not understand that there's a way
of seeking Christ that results in finding. And there's a way
that does not. There's a way that does not.
And that's what I'd like to talk about for a little while. this
morning. If we pursue this apparent contradiction,
then we will, if God is pleased, understand what true spiritual
seeking is. Seeking that results in finding. And then we'll have a better
understanding of Matthew 7-7, won't we? Seek and you shall
find. We'll know even deeper what He said there by His grace. So let's look into it. What is
this? Well, there's another promise regarding seeking that we need
to look at. Look at Proverbs 8. Turn over
there for a little while. Proverbs 8.17, one verse. The Lord Jesus said, I love them
that love Me, and those that seek Me early shall find Me. Well, maybe this is the key then
to seeking and finding if we seek Him early. What is an early
seeking? Does that mean get up early in
the morning and seek Him? Well, that would be a good thing
to do, wouldn't it? But that's not what it says here.
The word early here means diligently. It means earnestly seeking. And
this is important. This is important. A lackadaisical
attitude toward the things of God. is a sure sign of spiritual
death. Christ told the church in Revelation,
I would that you were hot or cold. Lukewarm, it makes him
sick. He said, I'll spew you out of
my mouth. It'd be better to be cold dead than warm dead. A lackadaisical, a hit and miss.
Well, if I don't have anything better to do, I'll worship the
Lord Jesus. It's a sure sign of spiritual death. Seeking him
early is key now. You know what the Lord you know
what a believer will do when he's disappointed in some way
or the flesh is somehow discouraged or Something stands in the way
of him worshiping Christ or seeing Christ or enjoying the fellowship
You know what a believer will do he'll cry louder That's what
he did in Luke 18 Verse 35, let me read you that. It came to
pass that as the Lord was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain
blind man sat by the wayside begging. And hearing the multitude
pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus
of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried. The Lord's near? The Lord said if we gather together,
He'll meet with us? He cried saying, Jesus, thou
Son of David, Have mercy on me. What is a sinner grateful? Mercy. Still crying for mercy, aren't
we? And they which went before rebuked him that he should hold
his peace. Don't bother him. Don't bother
us. You're troubling us. But what did he do? He cried
so much the more. He sought the Lord early. Early. He cried so much the more thou
son of David have mercy on me. You know why because he needed
mercy He had to have mercy believers have this same attitude all believers
seek early there are there hindrances to the attending the worship
of Christ a believer will be all the more determined to worship
him by his grace and There are reasons to believe that our prayers
may not be answered. Oh, I could never expect that
from God. But what do we do? Just pray
more for it. Pray the harder for it. Be importunate in our
prayers. Pray the more earnestly. The
more obstructions we find between ourselves and Christ and the
discovery of and the enjoyment of His fellowship and worship,
the more we see our need of Him. The more we see, Matthew 11,
12, you're probably familiar with this verse. From the days
of John the Baptist until now, the Lord Jesus Christ said, the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.
How do you take heaven by force? Well, I think that has something
to do with what Jacob did when he had wrestled all night with
the Lord. The Lord Jesus wrestled with Jacob. all night long not
because jacob was strong and you know was able to endure through
the night when the lord got ready touched him and it was over okay
uh... you we know that but the lord
does that then he wrestles bears with us told so it's hard for
you to kick against the goads and so the lord jesus wrestled
all night with jacob as the dawn approach the lord said jacob
let me go The dawn is approaching, let me go. And Jacob said to
the Lord, I will not. I will not. Well, that's awful
bold, isn't it, to say to the Lord of glory, what's he going
to do, kill you? You're already dead unless he
blesses you. You've got to have his blessing.
Got to have it. And Jacob did. And he said, I
won't let you go unless you bless me. That's seeking the Lord early
right there. That's what it means to seek
Him early. That's what it means to take
heaven by force. Not presumptuously. Not busting
in there like the Pharisees saying, I deserve to be here. Look what
I've done. That's not taking it by force. That's taking it
as payment. That's taking it as reward for
service rendered. Look at what I have prophesied
in your name and done many wonderful works. No, you won't take it
that way. He said, depart from me to those who spoke such. You
workers of iniquity. But out of a sense of urgent,
violent need, the kingdom of heaven is taken by force. And every believer, every believer
seeks early. But that's not the answer to
our dilemma here. Listen to Proverbs 128. Then
shall they call upon me, the Lord said, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me. Oh, what about that? It's the
same word. They'll seek Me diligently. They'll
seek Me earnestly. But they will not find Me." So
seeking early is important. It's vital. You won't find Him
without seeking Him early. I'll tell you that right now.
But you may seek Him early and not find Him. Does that make
sense? How is it that a sinner can diligently
and earnestly seek the Lord Now, this is the God of all grace
we're talking about. He's not the Lord, the Jesus
that we're accused of preaching, you know, that carries a big
stick with Him. And if somebody comes to Him
that He doesn't, you know, not particularly want them to come
to Him, He'll just, you know, beat them off and knock them
away. No. We're talking about the one that
said, Oh, if any man thirsts, let him come unto Me. you seek
me you'll find me he promised so how do you seek him diligently
and earnestly and not find well the answers in the context as
it always is of that verse there in Proverbs chapter 1 and verse
28 it's if you back up to verse 20 let me read it to you quickly
Proverbs 1 and verse 20, Wisdom crieth without. She uttereth
her voice in the streets. She crieth in the chief place
of concourse, in the openings of the gates. In the city she
uttereth her words saying, How long, you simple ones, will you
love simplicity? Oh, who are you? I've told you
over and over and you said it not, all my counsel. And would none of my reproof
I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh.
When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then
shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall
seek me diligently, earnestly, but they shall not find me." It has to do with why they called upon me. Then
shall they call upon me, when? When your destruction cometh.
When your destruction cometh. For that they hated knowledge,
verse 29, and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would
none of my counsel. They despised all of my reproof.
Therefore, they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and
be filled with their own devices. We begin to see here in this
context, don't we, that it's not so much The way Christ is
sought, He was sought diligently and earnestly. But why? Why did
these ones in Proverbs chapter 1 seek Him? Fear. Fear. I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. Because then, when your fear
cometh, you'll seek Me. But you won't find Me. What are
sinners afraid of? Well, there's no secret there. Paul said, And he also himself likewise
took part of the same flesh and blood, that through death he
might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the
devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage." We fear death, don't we? We fear
death as the wages of sin, as the consequences, when their
calamity cometh, when they saw that their wickedness and their
vileness before God was going to cost them something. They sought the Lord. They sought
the Lord. But it's not just death. It's
not just breathing your last that we're afraid of, is it?
No, there's more to it than that. It's what happens after death.
It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. That's what we're afraid of.
We see that from the very beginning, don't we, in the book of Genesis.
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, Genesis chapter
3, 6, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and
did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did
eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that
they were naked. And they sowed fig leaves together. We can fix
this. I've done some bad things, but I'm going to turn over a
new leaf. I made a decision. And they made themselves aprons,
and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves."
They'd heard his voice before and run to him and had fellowship
with him and enjoyed the presence of the Lord God, but not this
time. The voice sounded different this
time. It was a scary thing. This time, they hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord God. Why would anybody want to
be away from the presence of the Lord God? Fear. Amongst the trees of the garden
they hid themselves. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, Where are you? And he said, I heard
your voice in the garden. And I was afraid. Afraid of the consequences. Afraid
because I was naked and I hid myself. But wait a minute, Adam.
He said, I was naked and I hid myself. He wasn't naked. Wait,
Adam, what about verse 7? You'd already made yourself an
apron. You'd already covered up your nakedness. You made yourself
an apron of fig leaves. You had clothes. His own efforts
to cover up his guilt and shame were futile. And he knew it. He knew it. Likewise, sinners
everywhere have woven their fig leaf aprons of self-righteousness
and decision-making and free will resolutions and call it
whatever you want to call it. And still they stand before God
naked and shameful and afraid and yet unwilling and unable
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the garment, the robe,
the covering. Who are these that are arrayed
in white? Thou knowest. These are they which have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Christ
is the wedding garment without whom there'll be weeping and
wailing and gnashing of teeth. But on the authority of what
we read in Proverbs 1, verse 28 particularly, I tell you right
now, if the Lord Jesus Christ is nothing more to you than a
fire escape from hell, then you have never sought the Lord in
such a way that He will be found. And that's what He is to most
people. To my shame, when I was younger, I went around with folks
that were winning people for Jesus. And I think God was gracious
to pretty much shut my mouth during that. I was a spectator
through most of it. But the whole issue that they
present, and I'm sure they're doing the same thing now, is
this. They knock on the door, somebody answer. Just wanted
to ask you, if you died today, would you go to heaven or not? Have you done wrong? Are you
a sinner? Do you want to go to heaven? You don't want to go
to hell. Nobody wants to go to hell. If that's all Christ is
to you, He will say of you, you'll seek Me early and you won't find
Me. You won't find Me. It's the motive
that makes the difference. Why do you seek Him if you indeed
do seek the Lord at all? Is it because you want to go
to heaven when you die? Or because He has revealed Himself to you?
And you have fallen in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, and you
will have Him just as He set His affection upon us and determined
to have us at all costs. And I mean all costs. It's the
same with us. The kingdom of heaven is like
unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. And when he found that
one pearl of great price, He didn't have anything that was
worth that. He went and sold everything that he had because
he had to have that pearl. Is that why you're seeking him? Are you like that rich young
ruler? Oh, I've kept all these for my youth. Look what I've
done for him. I've sought the Lord. I've done all I need to
do. What else do I need to do to go to heaven when I die? Go sell everything you have. Give it to the poor and come
follow me." There again, Christ preached Christ, didn't he? But he couldn't do that. He went
away sorrowful. But in the next chapter there,
Zacchaeus did that very thing, didn't he? And the Lord never
asked him to. The Lord said, come down, Zacchaeus,
I'm coming to your house today. And you know what Zacchaeus said?
Everything I've stolen from everybody, I'll restore it to them fourfold,
and the rest I'll give to the poor. And the Lord never asked
him to do that. You see the difference? The difference
is sovereign grace that woos the sinner and causes him to
fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation begins with God's love
for the sinner. Is that right? You can trace
it back. You can ask why? Are you saved? Yes. Why? Well,
because I believed on Christ. Why? Well, because he revealed
himself to me. Why? Why? Why? You know what
you'll trace it back to? Whom he did foreknow. Whom he
did love. Whom he did set his affection
upon. He also did predestine. you'll trace it back to the love
of god and you can't go any further than that can you you say why
did that why did he love you i don't have any idea he just
did he just does he loved me and gave himself for me that
verse there in proverbs chapter eight that we read where it says
those that seek me early shall find me remember the first part
of that verse he said i love them that love me And those that
seek Me early for that reason shall find Me." Do you seek Him
because you love Him or because you don't want to go to hell
when you die? That's the difference. And He has made the difference.
Have you fallen in love with the Lord Jesus Christ? By His
grace, may we just keep preaching Him until we do fall in love
with Him. There's one more issue I have
to raise. I'll be brief. Look back at Proverbs 1 again.
Verses 20-22. When wisdom crieth without, and
she uttereth her streets in the voice, that's Christ. That's
Christ preaching Christ and His people preaching Christ and Him
speaking when we preach Him. They'll hear my voice, he said.
My sheep hear my voice when he's preached. Wisdom is still crying. She uttered her voice in the
streets. This thing wasn't done in a corner, was it? The Lord
told him plainly who he was. Who are you? I told you. Crying in the streets, she cried
in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates,
in the city. She uttered her words saying,
notice these two words, how long? How long will you do all that's
said after that? How long will you refuse my reproof? How long will you set it not
all my counsel? How long will you love your lies
and hate me? How long? There's a timing issue
here, isn't there? There's a timing issue that can't
be ignored. Isaiah 55 6 the Lord calls to
sinners this way seek ye the Lord while While he may be found Call you
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 he'll have mercy on him and To our God for he will abundantly
pardon Why are you seeking the Lord? But let me impress this
thing of timing upon you. How long will you not seek Him?
Was it Joshua that said, How long? Halt ye between two opinions. If you're wanting one of these
other false gods, choose which one you want. But make that stand
right now. As for me and my house, he said,
We're going to serve the Lord. But you choose. How long will
you not do so? When is it that Christ may be
found? He says, call upon Him while He may be found. When is
that? There's not but one answer to that. It's right now. How can I say anything else to
you? If I told you tomorrow you could call upon Him, I'd be lying
to you. I'd be lying to you. If I told
you later, if I told you five minutes from now you could call
upon Him, the only answer to the question is right now. That's
why Paul quoted this scripture in 2 Corinthians 6. He quoted
from the Old Testament. He said, For he saith, I have
heard thee in a time accepted, in the day of salvation have
I secured thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Now. Behold, now is the day of
salvation. And notice the way he said that.
He didn't say today is the day of salvation. We might think,
well, we got the rest of the day. No, now is the day of salvation. You see that? It can't be any
clearer than that. And we know who makes the difference,
and we know why. We know that, you know what Paul
said about this same thing, you know, coming to know the Lord.
He said, when it pleased God, when it pleased God, He revealed
His Son in me. That's when you'll come to know.
That's why these ones He said, you'll seek me and you won't
find me. I've told you time and time again who I am and you can't
hear me. Why not? Because that doesn't
happen until God is pleased for it to happen. We know that. We
worship Him in that. We rejoice in that. With the
Lord Jesus who said, I thank Thee, Father, that You've hid
these things from the wise and prudent. He does all things well.
It's the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth Him good.
But this Lord also, He calls upon sinners. And he says, come
now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Concerning what,
Lord? Your sins and how they can be
put away. Though they be as scarlet, they
should be as wool. Though they be red like crimson,
they should be as wool. Though they be scarlet, they
should be as white as snow. Come right now and let us reason. Seek the Lord early. And seek Him this way, because
that's how He's found. Seek Him out of a need, a desire. You've got to have Him. A violent,
urgent need. And seek Him because you love
Him. But seek Him now. Seek Him now. The message is clear. Amen.