Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawa Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. I've entitled this morning's
message, Seeking the Lord. Seeking the Lord. I'm reading
from Psalm 27 verse 8, when David, the man after God's own heart,
said, When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto
thee, Thy face, O Lord, will I seek." When God says, Seek
ye my face, this will be the response of everybody He says
it to. Thy face, O Lord, will I seek. Now, everybody seeks the Lord's
hand. Everybody to ever live seeks
the Lord's hand, His help. Well, what do I mean by that?
Well, when we get sick, we pray for the Lord to heal us. Or if
a loved one is sick, we say, Lord, heal them. We're asking
the Lord to do something for us. We pray for Him to restore
broken relationships or bad marriages or bad relationships. If we're
in a mess financially, we ask Him to get us out of it. We ask
Him for things. We pray for Him to bless our
homes. We pray for Him to bless our
children. We seek His help and His blessing. Everyone seeks the Lord's hand. There's never been a human being
to ever live that at one time did not seek some kind of blessing
from the Divine Being. Even an atheist, when he's in
trouble, will say, oh, prove yourself and prove you're real
to me by getting me out of this mess, as if he needed to prove
anything. I love that statement, there are no atheists in foxholes. And I know that's so. Everyone
to ever live has sought the Lord's hand in some way. I couldn't help but think of
what the Lord said in John 6, verse 26, when He said to some
people, you seek Me. They were seeking Him. You seek
Me, not because you saw the miracles, not because of any true conviction
concerning who I am, but because you did eat of the loaves and
were filled. You sought Me because you got
your bellies filled, not because of any conviction concerning
who I am." That's most people's seeking. They seek the Lord's
hand. They seek His help. They seek
His blessings. But how few seek the Lord's face. When thou said, Seek ye my face,
my heart said unto thee, Thy face, O Lord, will I seek." Now,
I'd like to read a passage of Scripture from Acts chapter 17
that tells us something of the importance of seeking the Lord
and what it means. Now, Paul was preaching to some
people on Mars Hill. in Acts. And we read in verse
16, now, while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was
stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Everywhere he looked, he saw
idols and religious shrines. The city wholly given to idolatry. Now, in verse 22 of the same
chapter, when Paul begins to preach to them, Then Paul stood
in the midst of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive
that in all things you're too superstitious." Now that word
superstitious is religious. You're too religious. Is it possible
to be too religious? Yes, it's the wrong religion
it is. You're too religious. Now, here's what he meant by
that. He said, for as I pass by and beheld your devotions,
I found an altar to this inscription to the unknown God." Now here's
what they did. They said, we're going to cover
our bases. We'll worship this God. We'll worship that God.
And if there's a God we've forgotten, we're going to cover our bases.
Here's an altar to Him too. An altar to the unknown God,
just in case we left out something. He says, oh, you're just too
religious. You're blind in your religion.
He says, whom therefore you ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you."
Here's the God that you haven't worshipped. God that made the
world. And all things therein, seeing
that He's Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples
made with hands. God doesn't dwell in human edifices. We make temples and sanctuaries
and cathedrals. You think God is impressed when
He made the world? He doesn't dwell in temples made
with hands. Neither is worshipped with men's
hands as though He needed anything. If you've got a God that needs
you, you've got the wrong God. That's not the God of the Bible.
If you've got a God that needs anything, He's not the living
God. God is not worshipped with men's
hands, men's works, as though He needed anything, seeing He
giveth to all life and breath and all things. and hath made
of one blood all nations and men, for to dwell on the face
of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and
the bounds of their habitation." He determined when you'd be born,
when you'd die, where you'd live. He's determined everything about
you. You're in His hands. And here's why, verse 27, that
they should seek the Lord. Now here's what you and I should
do. We should seek the Lord. He's the Lord. He's the Creator. Our breath is in His hands. He
can take it at any moment. All we have, He has given to
us. Men should seek the Lord. Now, to not do so is evil. To
not do so is ungrateful. Men should seek the Lord. You and I should seek the Lord. Now I realize that no man by
nature will seek the Lord's face. Romans chapter 3 verse 11 says
there's none that seek it after God. Oh, they may seek God's
blessing. They seek God's help. They seek
God's hand. But none seeks the living God to know who He is. Many seek His hand. Few seek
His face. And no man will seek His face
until he says to them, Seek ye my face. And I know this. This
is such an encouragement. The Lord said, Seek and you shall
find. ask and you shall receive, knock
and it shall be opened to you. Everyone, without exception,
whoever seeks the Lord finds Him. You see, the only reason
you seek the Lord is because He said to you, seek ye My face. And you say, Thy face, O Lord,
will I seek. There's never been anybody who
truly sought the Lord that did not find Him. I think of what
God said. He said, I sayeth not to the
seed of Jacob, seek ye Me in vain. He never tells anyone to
seek Him in vain. If you seek Him, you'll find
Him. And if you would say, well, I've sought Him, but I haven't
found Him, you didn't seek Him. Because you were seeking something
else. You weren't seeking Him. You weren't seeking His face.
Because everyone who seeks Him shall find Him. That's the Lord's promise. Ask
and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Everyone
that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. Now what
does it mean to seek His face? If I'm seeking His face, that
means I'm seeking to know Him. That means I'm seeking His presence. I've got to have His presence. I'm seeking His will. What is
His will? Give me grace to do Your will. I'm seeking His wisdom. If any
man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally
and upgrades not, then he'll have it. I'm seeking His approval
if I'm seeking His face. I'm seeking His grace, His favor. When you're seeking His face,
that means you're seeking His favor. You want God to be for
you, not against you. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now, His favor is His unmerited
grace. And if you know Him, you know
the only way He can have favor for you is if it is unmerited. Because if it has to be merited,
you won't have it. Because you don't have anything
to merit it with. It's got to be free on His part. Now, who I thought about was
Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, the chief of the publicans. Very rich.
You can read about him in Luke chapter 19. He was a very wicked
man. The chief of the publicans, that means he was a leader of
the most despised, dishonest profession there. The chief of
the publicans, he was very rich. He was rich from ripping people
off, from stealing from people. He would charge them much more
than they actually owed the Roman government to pat his own pockets.
He was a wicked man. He was a despised man. He was
a hated man. He was a small man. The scripture
says, and Zacchaeus sought to see Jesus who he was. All of a sudden, he wanted to
know who the Lord was. And you know what it says next?
He could not. For he was little of stature. He'd heard that Jesus was to
pass that way. And he wanted to see who He was.
But he couldn't see over the people because he was little
of stature. And any time someone truly wants
to find out who the Lord Jesus Christ really is, I want to know
who He really is. I want to bow to Him as He really
is. I want to see who He really is.
Anytime somebody wants to know who the Lord Jesus Christ really
is, they find out they can't. They're too little of stature. They lack the ability. They're
so far off. Can't stay out by searching,
find out God? The answer is no. They find out
they can't. Now, if the Lord ever says, to
you. Seek ye my face. You're going
to say, I'm going to seek him. I'm going to seek his face. And
you're going to find that you can't find it. You can't find
out who he is. You can't do this. But we don't
stop there with that story. You see, the Lord intended Zacchaeus
to come to know him. So Zacchaeus goes up and climbs
up in a tree and waits for the Lord to pass by. And the Scripture
says that when the Lord came to that place, He knew exactly
who Zacchaeus was. He put it in Zacchaeus' heart
to seek Him. He looked up, the Scripture says,
and said, "'Theus, make haste, come down, for today I must abide
at thy house.'" And Jackie has made haste. If you can wait on
this, the Lord never spoke to you. And he came down to find
out who the Lord is. You're always going to have to
come down. It's not up. It's down to the dust, seeing who
you really are. And when you're down like that,
you'll receive Him joyfully. You'll receive Him and all that
He is. He sought to see Jesus who He
was. Now when you seek to see the
Lord Jesus, who He is, here's your cry. Lord, turn to me. I can't get to you. Lord, bend
down to me. I can't reach up to you. Speak
to me. Give me ears to hear. Lord, do
something for me because I can't get to you. And if you don't
do something for me, I'm lost. I won't be saved. That is the
attitude of that person who is truly seeking the Lord. Psalm
105, verse 4 says, Seek the Lord and His strength. seek his face
evermore or at all times. You see, a believer is someone
who is always seeking the Lord's face. And they're so troubled
when they feel like he's hiding his face. When a believer feels
Alone, he's been left to himself. His cry is, oh, I sought him
whom my soul loveth. A believer always wants to seek
the face, the presence, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
so sad, I believe, to see people who at one time seemed to seek
him, and now they don't. At one time they seemed to desire
to know Him and to hear His Word, and now they seem apathetic and
indifferent. That's so sad to see that. Oh,
seek the Lord evermore at all times. Now, before we get into
how the Bible tells us He's to be sought, there are some Scriptures
that tell us how He is not to be sought. And those Scriptures
are very important. The first one is found in Romans
chapter 9, at the end of the chapter. Paul says, but Israel,
verse 31, but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore,
because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the
works of the law. Now, what is meant by the works
of the law? If any aspect of salvation is dependent upon you
doing something, That's the works of the law. It may be keeping
the Ten Commandments. It may be an act of your free
will. It may be your sincere obedience. It may be you stopping
something and starting doing something else, turning over
a new leaf. That is the works of the law, seeking to gain God's
acceptance by what you do. And when we do that, we make
God our debtor. We make God obligated to save
us. God, I've done my part, now you need to do your part. God's
no man's debtor. He's God. Now, if I seek Him
by the works of the law, I'm not really seeking Him. Now, I can tell what someone
believes about grace and works by what they believe about election. And that's in this passage of
Scripture in Romans chapter 9 where he says, they sought it not by
faith but by the works of the law. Now, maybe it's time for
somebody to deal with the holy truth of election. You've seen
it in the Bible and you just say, I don't understand it and
you go on to the next verse. You see it again and you say,
I don't understand it, I go on to the next verse. And really,
election is not hard to understand. When people say that, it's because
they don't want to bow to it. They don't want to deal with
it. But may God give you and me the
grace to deal with election, because that will demonstrate
to us what we really believe about works or grace. In Romans 9, verse 11, God says,
and I was reading in a commentary about this verse of Scripture,
and they said, well, that's talking about nations. That's not talking about
individuals. Well, that's ridiculous. He's talking about individuals.
For the children, being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil. Now these two kids, Jacob and
Esau, twin brothers from the same womb, they hadn't been born,
and they didn't have any good works to recommend them to God,
and they didn't have any sin to disqualify them at this time.
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works." but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it's written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. That's God speaking. Now, what's
the purpose of God according to election? Not of works. Now here's what election says.
Election says before time began, God sovereignly selected individuals. He didn't select everybody. He
didn't choose Esau. He chose Jacob. God sovereignly
chose Jacob and all of the rest of the people that would be saved,
that He designed to save, the elect, those He chose before
time began. And if He chose them before time
began to be saved, obviously it had nothing to do with works
because they didn't have any works to be saved with. They
didn't have any bag works to disqualify Him. He chose them
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Accordingly, He
has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before Him. So if I try
to seek God, bargaining with Him, Lord, I've done this. I've done that. Make Yourself
known to me. Lord, I've quit this and I've
started doing that. Make Yourself known to me. As
an act of my will, I've done this. Now You need to respond,
No, that's not seeking God. Now just forget it. That is not
seeking God. Now, when Uzzah, you can read
about this in 1 Samuel, when Uzzah, The ark of God was being
carried on an ox cart back into Jerusalem. It had been away and the people
were rejoicing. But you know the Bible told how
the ark was to be transported. There were staves And the priests
would carry it through the staves. It had rings on it. They put
the staves through it. The priests would carry it. It was not to
be put on an ox cart. But here they were. They didn't
pay attention to what the Scripture said. They were mindless of what
the Scripture said. And as the ox cart is going,
all of a sudden it hits a rut. And the Ark of the Covenant gets
ready to fall off the ox cart. And Uzzah puts out his hand to
keep it from falling, and God kills him right there. God kills
him. That's in the Bible. God kills
him. Why? Well, here's what David said. David said he did it because
we sought him not after the due order, carrying the ark according
to the scripture. So understand this. If I seek
the Lord, it better be according to the scripture, not by my works,
but according to the scriptures. The Lord said to the Pharisees,
how can you believe which receive honor one of another and seek
not that honor that cometh from God only, being more concerned
about what men think than what God thinks? If that's me, more
concerned about what men think than what God thinks, I'm not
seeking the Lord. I'm not seeking His face. Now, what does the Bible say
about seeking Him? I want to be somebody who seeks
the Lord's face, don't you? I really do. Now what does the
Bible have to say about seeking Him? The first thing I thought
of is when the angels said to the disciples, why seek ye the
living among the dead? You can't find me. Why seek ye
the living among the dead? Now you're not going to find
him in anything that has any connection with man-made anything. Man-made religion, man-made...
Men are dead in trespasses and sins. Religion is an evil thing. Listen to me, I don't care if
it's Baptist, Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, what... Men's religion
is an evil thing. And the Lord will not be found
in men's religion. Now when John the Baptist came
preaching, he wasn't in the temple. He wasn't among the religious.
He was out in the wilderness. And if you were to hear from
God, if you wanted to seek God, you were going to hear, not in
man's organized religion. It's an evil thing. Why seek
ye Him that lives among the dead? Well, where is He found? He's
found in His Word. And it's the first place to look.
He is found in His Word. He is in this book, the Bible,
the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ, this is
a religion of this book called the Bible, the inspired, infallible,
inerrant Word of God. Now somebody says, can you prove
to me that it is the inspired, inerrant Word of God? No, I can't. But I know it is. I feel no need
to prove. This is the Word of God. The
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good
works. He is found in this book. He said to the Pharisees in John
5.39, he said, you searched the Scriptures, and indeed they did.
They read the Scriptures, memorized the Scriptures. They brought
their phylacteries with the Scriptures. You search the Scriptures, and
in them you think you have eternal life. You think, if I can just
learn to obey His rules, right down to the letter, I'll have
eternal life. He says, they are they which testify of Me. You
see, this book is a hymn book. It is about the Lord Jesus Christ
as concerning Him, and He's found in His Word. To Him give all the prophets
witness. He's in the public assembly of God's saints, where two or
three are met together in my name. There I am in the midst
of Him. I'm preaching on TV. I'm thankful for the opportunity.
I pray the Lord blesses it. But if TV preaching is all you're
hearing, and you're not concerned about meeting with God's people,
You're in the wrong. You're just in the wrong. He
said, where two or three are met together in my name, there
I am in the midst of them. He still walks among the seven
golden candlesticks, the church. He inhabits his people. Where they meet together, there's
something about public worship that you can't, you can't substitute
it with TV preaching. Public worship. where two or
three are met together. This was where He speaks. He
speaks it from His Word. God has manifested His Word through
preaching, Paul said. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. I need to hear a preacher
sent from God. I need to meet with God's people.
Because He's promised every time two or three meet together, that
means more than one, there He is in their midst. He is in public
worship. I'm going to be in public worship.
I'm not going to just listen to things on the radio or TV
or listen to sermons on TV. No, I want to be in the public
assembly of God's saints. Sheep were meant to be in flocks.
A sheep by itself is either sick or lost. Sheep were meant to
be in flocks among the public assembly of God's saints. Isaiah
55, 6 says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. and call upon
Him while He's near. I don't want to presume on this
thing. You know, you could presume. I'm going to call on Him right
now. Seek the Lord while He may be found. It could be that He'll
hide Himself from me. It could be He'll hide Himself
from me. He can do it. There's a time when God turns
the lights off. Seek Him now while He may be found. Seek Him
early. Don't wait till tomorrow. Tomorrow may never come. Don't
look back to yesterday. And I sought Him then. Don't even think about it. What
are you doing right now? Are you seeking the Lord right
now? He's to be sought in faith? Without faith, it's impossible
to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is
and that He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Now,
if I seek Him by faith, what that means is I seek Him knowing
the only way that He can have anything to do with me is for
Christ's sake. I know that. I know He can't
save me or won't save me because of my works. I look only to Christ
as the only reason God would make Himself known. You seek
Him in faith, believing what He said, believing His Word,
believing His Gospel. And if you come in faith, you'll
also come in repentance. You'll have a change of mind
about yourself. I think of what Daniel said when he was seeking
the Lord. He said, I set my face unto the
Lord God to seek Him by prayer, supplications, fasting, and sackcloth
and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my
God and made my confession and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful
God, keep Him in covenant and mercy to them that love Him and
to them that keep His commandments. We've sinned. And when you seek
the Lord, you confess your sin. We've committed iniquity. We
have done wickedly. We've rebelled even by departing
from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments. Now when you seek
the Lord, you seek Him confessing your sin before Him, taking sides
with God against yourself, and looking to Christ only. Now we
have this promise. That person who seeks Him in
faith, believing the Gospel, calling upon His name. That person
who seeks Him in repentance, a change of mind about God and
Himself and sin. That person who seeks Him, they're
promised, he that seeketh, findeth. All who seek shall find this
is the Lord's promise. So, oh, may I be somebody who
seeks the Lord's face. When thou saidst, seek ye my
face, my heart said, thy face, O Lord, will I seek. And we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, write,
email, we'll send you a copy. If it's Todd Muskett, then God
will be pleased and then he's of no need. That's our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at ToddsRoadGraceChurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen. Mmm.