I'd like for you to turn in your
Bibles again to the book of Psalms, chapter 27. As we walk life's pathway in this ministry of the gospel, we hear things that move us and
motivate us, some more than others. I think one story that moved
me as much as any that I've ever heard, and I trust did motivate
me also, was a story Brother Barnard told about a man whom
he knew in Memphis, Tennessee. He was pastor of a fairly good-sized
church there and had been pastor for about 10 or 12 years. And in his congregation was a
lawyer. And this lawyer was very faithful. He served in different capacities
in the church but was a friend of the pastor's. And if he was
out of town on the weekend on Friday or Saturday. Sometimes
he'd drive all night, Saturday night, to be back for services
on Sunday morning. He was always there. Just like
some of you, when the service started, there he was in his
place. He wasn't very old. He was in his forties, early
fifties. And he got sick. The lawyer did. And he went to see a specialist
put him in the hospital and the specialists examined him and
put him through all the tests and came in and sat down beside
his bed and he told him that he had just a few months to live. This happens every day. Last Wednesday morning when I
got to Nashville I went by the St. Thomas Hospital to see Brother
Norbert Ward. He got sick last Friday. They
operated on him Monday. He has incurable cancer of the
brain. He had a tumor removed. The doctor
told him he had maybe three months to live. You know, I went in
that hospital room. Norbert was lying there. He was
operated on Tuesday morning. He asked to see me. He knew I
was coming in town. His head was bandaged. This was
Tuesday morning's operator and this was Wednesday morning. He
was alert, keen. I walked in the door, Brother
Clark and Brother Sasser and I. He looked up at me and smiled. He said, God's been good to us,
hasn't he? I said, he sure has, Norbert. And I'll tell you, he
was good to me when he said that. I wanted to hear that. I like
to hear a believer praise the Lord. And there he was lying
there. They removed a large tumor First
words out of his mouth, God's been good. God's been good. Well, anyway, this lawyer, the
doctor told him he just had a little while, not very long at all,
but it was hopeless. And he called his pastor in.
He hadn't faced this before. He'd been busy about religion,
and he'd been busy about his law
practice, and busy with his children, family, wife, had an interest in religious
things, but he'd never faced death before. And suddenly here
he was, right on the threshold, just like Norbert is now, unless
God performs a miracle. Right on the threshold, just
about to leave. He called his pastor in. The
pastor sat down. He said, Pastor? He said, you
and I have been friends for a long time, about 10 or 12 years. I've listened to you preach,
and I've been faithful. I've been there almost every
service." And he said, Pastor, he said, you've failed me. I
hate to tell you this, but you've failed me. And the pastor wanted
to know how he'd failed him. He said, well, Pastor, he said,
I'm dying. I don't have long to live. I'm
dying. And you haven't prepared me for this time. I'm not prepared
to die. I don't know how to die. I'm
afraid to die. And it's your fault, I think,
because you haven't prepared me for this hour." Well, that
would break my heart. Maybe some of you will say that
someday. Maybe you think that. But one
thing of which I am certain The message that I'm going to try
to preach to you tonight, if you can be prepared, I hope this
will be used of God to prepare you for whatever tomorrow brings. Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. I don't know what
it will bring forth. But I do know this, in Psalm
27 verse 8, God said, Seek my face. Seek my face. When you said, Lord, seek my
face, now it's the natural duty of all men to seek the Lord.
I don't care who you are tonight, what's your profession, what's
your pattern of life, what's your denominational preference,
what's your theology, it's the duty of every son of Adam to
seek the Lord. Now the fact that men don't seek
the Lord and won't seek the Lord has nothing whatsoever to do
with it. It is the duty of all men to seek the Lord. It's my
duty and your duty and responsibility to seek the Lord. Men are commanded
to seek the Lord. Surely when God gives a man life
and God sustains that life day after day, who do you think enables
me to breathe? God does. Who do you think enabled
me to come into this world? God did. Who do you think provides
the sunshine and the rain? We read about it in a study a
while ago. Russell read it in the Psalm 147. God does. And when God gives life to a
man and sustains that life, it's a matter of right that that man
ought to seek the Lord. The creature should reply. When
God says, seek my face, the creature, every creature ought to reply,
Thy face, Lord, will I see. Let the stars praise Him. Let
the sun praise Him. Let the cherubims praise Him. Let every creature and everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. Brother Barnard used to say,
you hear preachers say, Christians ought to worship God. He said,
I don't believe that. He said, I believe everybody
ought to worship God. Everybody. Yes, sir, everybody
ought to worship God. There's no man and no woman,
no boy and no girl who is dismissed from this responsibility to praise
God, to worship God, and to seek God's face. And I'll tell you
this. I know this to be true. I know that's true. First of
all, it's the duty of all men to seek the Lord, the living
God. The true God, not the Baptist
God, not the Methodist God, not the Catholic or Presbyterian
God, the living God. It's the duty and responsibility
of every son of Adam to seek the living God, to seek to know
Him. It's your personal duty. It's
not my duty to seek Him for you. It's your duty to seek the Lord.
It's your responsibility. Secondly, I know this is true.
If you are If you are led to seek the Lord, if you are motivated
to seek the Lord with a sincere heart, I promise you, you'll be found
of Him. I know that. He says, you shall seek Me and
find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I'm not
saying seeking a benefit, I'm saying seeking the Lord. I'm
not even saying seeking an experience or seeking to be saved or seeking
to go to heaven, but seek the Lord. And I promise you, if you
are led to seek the Lord, He's plenteous in mercy. He delights
to show mercy. He says, seek and ye shall find. Not you might, you could, you
shall. I will be found of you. That's
what He says. I promise you that. I know that
so. I don't promise any man if he comes to the front he'll be
saved, but if he comes to Christ he'll be saved. I don't promise
any man if he makes a religious profession that he'll be saved,
but if he embraces Christ he'll be saved. I don't promise any
man if he comes to me and makes a profession of religion that
he'll be saved, but if he can get to Christ and embrace the
Son of God with a sincere heart, he'll be saved. You don't have
to have great faith, you just got to have a great Lord. It's
not how strong the branch is, it's how strong the vine is. There'll come a day when men
will seek the Lord. This is a sad, awful time, but
if you'll turn to Proverbs 1, there'll come a day, I promise
you, every person, every son of Adam, every living creature,
believer and unbeliever, there'll come a day when men will seek
the Lord. He says in Proverbs 1, verse
24, he said, I've called. How does God call me? He calls
all men. I know there's an effectual call,
but brethren, there's a general call to it. God calls by creation. The heavens declare the glory
of God. God calls by law. The law is written on the heart.
God calls by judgment. He says in Amos, I've smitten
you with blastings and mildew. withholding the rain when it's
yet two or three months to the harvest. I've brought nations
to war against you. You young men have been slain
with a sword and yet you haven't repented. You haven't returned
to me. God calls me in through judgment. God calls me in through
providence. And yet he said, I've called
and you've refused. I've stretched out my hand in
mercy and no man's paid attention to me. Nobody. You've said it not, my counsel,
you wouldn't listen to my reproof. Now, I'll laugh at your calamity,
I'll mock when fear overwhelms your soul like the tide overwhelms
the beach. God said, I'll laugh. That's
an awful fearful day, isn't it? And when your fear cometh as
desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind and distress
and anguish cometh upon you, then shall you call upon me. I will not answer. You talk about
the heavens of Bryce. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me. Yes, they'll come a day. Christ
said, when once the master of the house is risen and shut through
the door, and you stand without and knock and say, Lord, open
to us. He'll say, I know you not whence you come. There'll
be a day when all men will seek the Lord. Then, when distress
and calamity and anguish, then when fear cometh as desolation,
then when your fear engulfs you, you'll seek me, but you will
not find me." Well, God says, seek my face,
and all men ought to. All men ought to. And God said,
if you seek, you'll find. And there'll come a day when
men will seek, but some seek Him now. Now wait a minute, some
seek Him for the wrong reason. And this is what scares me about
present-day religion. They want His benefits, but not
Him. Now this frightens me, and I'm
sincere in this. They want the bread that perisheth,
but not the bread of life. We have a motive. We run to God
when we're in trouble. And if he'll solve our trouble,
then everything's all right. We run to God when we're in need.
We run to God when we need a benefit or a blessing. Turn to John 6,
and let's look at these folks over here. Some seek the Lord
for the wrong reason. In John chapter 6, our Lord said
in verse 26, Jesus answered them and said, verily, verily, I say
unto you, you seek me. You seek me, not because you
saw the miracles. There were some more folks that
came because they wanted to see some more miracles. But he said,
you seek me because you did eat of the loaves and were filled.
This is that crowd that he fed with the five loaves and two
fish. And they, he said, I know why you're seeking me. You're
seeking me for these loaves and fishes. And I just wonder if
that maybe is what motivates much religion today. You don't
want to go to hell, do you? Well, who does? You'd like to
have good health, wouldn't you? Well, who wouldn't? You'd like
to have prosperity and plenty? Most folks would. But he doesn't
say, he doesn't say here, seek my blessings and seek my benefits
and seek my commandments and seek my church and seek my abode
and seek my throne and seek my habitation. He says, seek my
face. My face. Now, what does he mean,
seek my face? Well, turn to 2 Samuel. I think
this will illustrate it. I think this will help us to
understand it. 2 Samuel chapter 14. 2 Samuel 14. In other words,
I'm saying this. What the Lord is saying here,
seek my face, is to seek my favor. my favor, my communion, my fellowship. John talks about this in 1 John
quite a bit. He talks about our fellowship
is with him, that your fellowship might be with us in him. Commune,
seek my face, my presence, my favor, my acceptance. Now, David
had some sons and daughters. Some of them were kinfolks and
only by David had different mothers. And there was a boy named Amnon,
David's son, a boy named Absalom, David's son, and a girl named
Tamar, David's daughter. And this boy, Amnon, who was
a stepbrother to Absalom, I suppose, fell in love, he thought, with
this girl, Tamar, and he forced her. And Absalom found out about
it. It made him so angry that he
plotted, over a long period of time, he plotted the death of
Amnon. He made up his mind because he
forced his sister, he was going to kill him. And finally he did. And the word came to David. And of course Absalom fled. He
left town. He left the kingdom because he
feared the king. But the king loved Absalom and
he comforted himself. Well, Amnon's dead. Nothing I
can do about that now. Amnon's dead, but I love Absalom.
And Joab came and pleaded with David to let Absalom come back
to the kingdom. And finally the king decided
to let him come back to the kingdom. Look at verse 24, 2 Samuel 14. The king said, let him turn to
his own house, but let him not see my face. He will not live
in my favor. He will not abide in my presence.
He will not see my face. Let him come back. So Absalom
returned to his own house. He saw not the king's face. Now
look down at verse 28. And Absalom dwelt two full years
right there in Jerusalem and saw not the king's face. He was
out of favor, out of fellowship, out of communion because of his
sin. And this is what David's talking
about over here in Psalm 27. God says, seek my face, seek
my favor, seek my approval, seek my fellowship. It's not enough
to move in religious circles. It's not enough to embrace the
right doctrines and concepts and principles and morality.
It's not enough to study the Bible and biblical history and
prophecy and these things. We've got to walk in his favor. I've got to walk with the King. I've got to walk with the King.
It's to seek his favor in Christ. That's where it is. Turn to 2
Corinthians 4 and this tells us with the New Testament illustration
where that favor is. Whose face that is that we seek. He says in 2 Corinthians 4 verse
6. It says here, God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek my face. Seek my favor. Seek my righteousness. Seek my
acceptance. Well, where, Lord, will I find
it? You'll find it in Christ. You won't find it in the church.
You won't find it in the ordinances. You won't find it in the doctrines.
You won't find it in the law. You won't find it in your own
self. You'll find it all in Christ. He said, I'm the way. No man
cometh to the Father but by me. I'm the door. By me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved. He shall be saved. This is what
he tells us to seek, his face. Seek my face, my favor. my acceptance, my fellowship,
my righteousness to be received into the fellowship of the Father.
And that's only in Christ. It's only because of who Christ
is and what Christ has done and because of what Christ has given
to us. He has enabled God to be just
and justifier. He has reconciled us to God. Seek my face. How shall I seek
his face? When he said this in verse 8,
Psalm 27, seek my face, David replies, thy face, my heart said
unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. How? Well, I'll give you two
words. First. First. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, seek
ye first the kingdom of God. Now, brethren, Christ Jesus has got to be and
will be and must be first before my family. I'm talking about
before my wife and children. I've got to seek him first. He
said if you love mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife
more than me, you're not worthy of me. Christ Jesus has got to
be this seeking the Lord, this seeking a right relationship
with Christ. It's got to be before my family.
And it's got to be before my business. I know somebody says, well, fellas,
gotta make a living. I suppose there's a half-truth
to that. I guess we're sentenced to live here in this dungeon
and sin and cesspool of iniquity. I don't know whether a fella
has to make a living or not, but I know a fella has to meet
God. I do know that. It's appointed.
It's not appointed unto me to stay here, but it's appointed
unto me to meet God in judgment. And so it's actually ten times
more important that I seek the face of God even if it costs
me my job. I said this not so awful long
ago and felt a little static. I hear, well, I'll tell you an
illustration. A man came to visit me not long
ago and he sat in my study and I said, where are you from? And
he told me, I'd seen him before at Bible conferences, he said,
but I'm so, I'm so hungry to hear the word of God preached.
I want some tapes. I said, we'll get you some tapes. I said, how did you get in touch
with me? He said, well, you used to live in Fairmont, West Virginia.
And I went to Brother Scott Richardson's church. I said, he's a good preacher.
How come you leave there? That's a good place to go to
church, hear the gospel every Sunday. He said, well, I got
a better job. I got a big raise, and I had to move. I said, you
didn't have to. Oh, he said, it's just such an
opportunity. I couldn't pass it up. But he
said, I'm out there now, and I got no place to worship and
no place to hear the gospel. What would you do? I said, I'd
resign that job and ski-daddle back to Fairmont, West Virginia,
where you belong. And that's the truth. That's
the way I believe it. And I'll tell you this, some of you, if
you want to leave here, I don't care if they offer you the biggest
salary in the world and the finest home. What shall it profit a
man if he gain the world and damn his soul? And this is what I'm saying.
You seek the Lord. Now this is seeking the Lord. Seek ye my
faith. Christ said you'll be found to
me when you seek me. And you've got to seek him first.
I mean above your family, above your profession, your job, your
living, your social life, I know a church that has a rule
you can't join it if you're a member of the Masonic Lodge. I don't
believe in rules like that. That's like telling a baby he
can't live in the house if he sucks his thumb. Let him live
there. He'll quit sucking it when he
gets something better to do. And this is what I'm saying to
people who belong to social organizations that are not in the will of God.
Come on, unite with the church of the Lord Jesus, but I guarantee
you God will replace those play pretties, and he'll give you
a circle to move in, a circle of grace, not a circle of works. And light can't have fellowship
with darkness very long. That's right. It'll fall off.
You won't have to quit them, they'll quit you. You don't like
to talk about the things they like to talk about, you don't
like to do the things they like to do, You're not the same kind
of person, and you seek fellowship with people who love your Lord,
and you avoid those who don't. That's so. It'll fall out. But only when Christ becomes
first. First. First. Seek ye first the
kingdom of God. And the second word, the first
word's first. The second word's heart. He shall seek me and find me
when you search for me with all your heart. What does that heart
mean? Well, it doesn't mean perfection. No perfection here. I don't claim
any man perfection. I wish I did love God with all
my heart, don't you? I wish I did. I will someday,
but I don't now. I wish I did. But what is this
seeking God with all your heart? David said, Lord, when you said
seek my face, My heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I see. My
heart said that. What does it mean? It means sincerity
and dedication. Sincerity and dedication. Listen
to Charles Wesley's old hymn. Listen to it. Oh, for heart to
seek my God. A heart from flesh set free. A heart that always sees His
blood so freely shed for me. O for heart, submissive, meek,
before my Savior's throne, where only Christ is heard to speak,
where Christ reigns alone. O for heart, a lowly, contrite
heart that knows the folly of sin, a heart that life nor death
can part from Him who dwells within. Thy nature, gracious
Lord, impart. Come quickly from above. And
write thy name upon my heart, thy name is mercy, thy name is
love, O for a heart. That's where it's done, this
business of salvation, seeking the Lord, embracing Christ and
fellowship with Christ. It's a heart work. It's a heart
work. When thou saidest, seek ye my
face, my heart said, thy face, Lord, will I see. But I'm sure
of this, I'm as sure of this as I'm standing here. He'll be
first. He that puts his hand to the
plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God. Christ
said if you save your life, if you deliver your life, you'll
lose it. In other words, if I begin to
consider the things of this world, well, I can't commit myself.
I can't commit myself to this identification, this assembly,
or this gospel, or this Christ. Look what it'll cost me. The
friends it'll cost me, the business it'll cost me, the difficulties,
the family problems and all. You save your life, you deliver
it. In time of trouble, you'll lose it. But he that loseth his
life for my sake shall find it. That's what he's saying. Christ
is first. I know that. I'm as certain.
That's what these, what do you think these scriptures mean?
What do they mean? If any man loved mother, father,
husband, wife, brother, sister, yea, his own life, he cannot
be my disciple. Would you want to give a discourse
on that? I'd be happy to hear it. I know John 3, 16 by heart,
but I want to know something about those scriptures. I want
to know something about these scriptures that if a man seeks
to save his life, or deliver his life, or protect his life,
he'll lose it. What does that mean? But whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. What does this
scripture mean? Accept the corn of wheat, fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone. What does this scripture mean?
When it says strive to enter in, for many shall seek to enter
in and shall not be able. What does this scripture mean?
The violent take the kingdom of heaven by force, you know. I think I know what it means,
and some of us don't like what it means, but I think I know
what it means. I think it means what it said. That's what I think
it means. That I can take this life and
protect it and sustain it and watch over it and preserve it
and avoid conflict and difficulty and peace at any price and go
along with the tide and sweep down with the line of least resistance,
you know, like the old muddy creek, or I can seek the Lord. First, with all my heart, if
I have to dig ditches, I'm going to seek the Lord. If I have to
worship with five people, I'm going to seek the Lord. If there's
not a person left in the world that wants my company or fellowship,
I'm going to seek the Lord. I'm going to seek the Lord. Though
my mother and father forsake me, I'm going to seek the Lord,
whatever it costs, with all my heart. Well, I know this, and
I'm going to close with this. Who spoke first about this seeking
business? Not David. God did. You see that? It's all the way
through the Word. Verse 8, When you said, Seek
my face, then my heart replied, Thy face will I seek. Who spoke
first? God did. God must begin the work. Before
man will close with Christ, God must begin the work. God seeks
me before I seek Him. God said, Seek my face. And then,
and not till then, did my heart reply, Lord, thy face will I
seek. That's the theology of the Scripture. There are four things always
true, never fatal. You can put this down. It's always
so. Where you find a seeking center,
you'll find a seeking Lord. I don't care where it is, if
you find a seeking sinner, you will find a seeking Lord. Let
me show you something interesting. If you will, turn over to the
book of John, chapter 1. This is always true. John, chapter
1, verse 43. Where you find a seeking sinner,
you find a seeking Lord. My, my, how He has favored us
by allowing us to seek Him. How He has favored us by inviting
us to seek Him. How He has favored us to put
Himself in the position so that we can seek Him. How He has favored
us to even pay any attention to us. Lord, when I consider
the heavens, the stars, the moon, the sun, the work of Thy hands,
what is man that Thou art mindful of Him? In John 1 verse 43, the day following
Jesus would go forth into Galilee and findeth Philip. And he said,
Philip, follow me. That's one side. That's God's
side. That's what Christ said. Let's hear Philip's version.
Verse 45. Philip found Nathanael and said,
We found him. What's that, Philip? Would you
repeat that, Philip? He said, We found him. Who found
whom? Well, I found him, Philip said. Well, now, who was seeking
whom? The Lord came down there after
Philip. That's right. So both are true. There's no
conflict there. It's true Philip did find the
Lord. But I'll tell you the Lord found Philip. All that my Father
giveth me Christ said will come to me. Turn to John 6 and let's
read that, starting with verse 37. I could quote it But I want
you to look at it. John 6, 37. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my will, my own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is my Father's will which is sent me, that of all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up
at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him,
may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up to the last
day." Both are so. All that my Father giveth me shall come,
and him that cometh. And all that my Father giveth
me, I'll raise him up, and all that see me and believe on me,
I'll raise him up. Where you find a seeking sinner,
you find a seeking Lord. So if any of us tonight can say,
preacher, whatever the cost, And brethren, it's no cost. It's
no cost. I know we talk about what I gave
up to stay in Ashland and hear the gospel. We haven't given
up anything. Everything has been gained. There's
no giving up. Give up something that'll damn
you? Give up something that'll condemn you? Give up something
that'll drag your soul to eternal condemnation? That's not giving
up anything. We've received everything. Everything. There's a seeking Lord. Secondly,
where you find a seeking sinner, you'll find a gospel preacher.
That's so. He says in Romans 10, turn over
there a minute. In Romans chapter 10, verse 14,
he says, Verse 13, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? Now this is so important. Any
preacher won't do. Any preacher won't do. I believe
men who are seeking the living God are going to not be satisfied
until they hear from the pulpit the truth about the living God. There are some who are seeking
someone to tickle their ears. Well, that's easy to find. There
are some who are seeking someone to salve their consciences. Well,
you can find plenty of those. There are some who are seeking
somebody to brag on them. Well, you can find plenty of
those. But the man who is seeking the Lord, is seeking to hear
somebody get in the pulpit and tell him who God is, and what
man is, and what God's been pleased to do, and what this Word says
about redemption, and heaven, and hell, and salvation, eternal
life. Now, when Philip was in Samaria
in that big revival, and God came to him, the Spirit of God
came to him, told him, leave Samaria and go down into Gaza.
into a desert place. And he went down there and there
was one black man, one black man, riding in a chariot in a
caravan headed for Ethiopia. And he was reading the Bible.
And the Spirit of God said to Philip, go join yourself to that
chariot. And he went over there and evidently was walking along
beside it and he saw the man up there reading. And he said,
do you understand what you're reading? And the man said, well,
how can I except some man show me? And Philip got up in the
chariot and sat down beside him and took the same scripture,
Isaiah 53, and preached unto him Jesus Christ. And the man
was converted. And that man was seeking the
Lord. He'd been to Jerusalem to worship. He didn't know anything. But God sent him a preacher.
God sent him a man to tell him the truth about God, the truth
about salvation, the truth about himself, the truth about redemption. And this is what I'm saying,
you and I, we're going to have to, whoever it is, maybe it's
me, maybe it's somebody else, but my heart will respond. When
I hear a man preach the truth of God's Word, my heart responds
to it. And my heart's not responding to much I'm hearing today. But
we're going to have to hear about God. Where you have a seeking
sinner, you have a seeking Lord. Secondly, where you have a seeking
sinner, you have a gospel preacher. A man who preaches the Word of
God, not somebody who stands up and talks about how many we're
going to have next Sunday and how big a building we're going
to build and how we've got to sell this brick and that brick
and this piece of land and that piece of land and straighten
the government out and straighten out the morals of Ashland. Those
things will be straightened out if men seek the Lord. God will
provide. God will provide. Let's preach
the gospel of Christ. Let's point men to Christ. And
God will provide our needs. He always has, He always will.
He knows them better than we do. Some things we think we need,
we don't need. And some things we don't know
we need, we need. If we just leave in the hands
of the Lord, He'll take care of our needs. And He'll always
be there. And He that honors me, Him will
my Father honor. Me and who glory in the cross,
God will exalt. The third thing, where there's
a seeking sinner, there's always a quickening spirit. A revealing,
teaching Holy Spirit. You hath be quickened who were
dead. Trespasses and sin. You know, 1 Corinthians chapter
2. Let's glance at that a second.
1 Corinthians chapter 2. Here's our problem. Here's the
problem of natural man. It says here, verse 14 of 1 Corinthians
2. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. He can receive the things of
men and the things of flesh and the things he thinks are right.
We can't subject God's Word to our thoughts. We've got to subject
our thoughts to God's Word. God is the measurement of righteousness
and right. God doesn't do anything because
it's right, because we think it's right. It's right because
God does it. He's right. We're wrong. There's
a way that seems right unto men, and the end is death. Our minds
are so twisted by... I know this is hard for us to
comprehend, but our minds are so twisted by sin, we don't know
what's right. What we call light is darkness,
and what we call bitter is sweet. What we call sweet is bitter.
We don't have the right conception of what's right. God is right,
Let God be true and every man a liar. That's what Scripture
says. But what we're doing, and here's what modern religion is
doing, and some of you may be guilty of it, we're trying to
subject God to our thoughts of what's right. I hear people say,
I don't believe in election because it's not right. Now wait a minute.
Right according to who, Charlie? Well, I don't think it's right.
Well, you're all wrong anyway. You don't think right. You don't
talk right. You don't walk right. Your heart's
not right with God. How can your thoughts be right?
How can your theology be right? You're wrong. You're born wrong.
You've been wrong from your mother's womb. And here you are subjecting
God's purposes to what you think is right. You see what I'm saying? Boy, that's so clear to me. I
don't know why that's not clear to everybody. I can't read the
Bible and say, I don't think that's right. It's not right
to me because I'm wrong. But I'll tell you I can get right
if I'll get with this book. If God says it, it's right. Because
God says it, it's right. Because God is righteous and
God is holy and I'm not. The natural man will not receive
the things of the Spirit of God. Look at verse 14. They're foolishness
to him. Man's wisdom is foolishness with
God. The smart that I have is total
foolishness. And I've got to become a fool.
I've got to lay aside my wisdom. And I've got to become a fool.
And neither can he know them. They're spiritually understood.
And who's going to be the spirit to Give us understanding of the
Holy Spirit of God. This is where we've got to come
to this place in seeking the Lord. Seeking the Lord. I don't know why I look up, because
He's everywhere. Just that's more right, you know,
in my mind, that God's up there. He's here. There's God. In His Word. In His Son. There's a quickening spirit.
I've got to be taught by the Holy Spirit. I've got to forget
everything I think and just bow to this Word. And then fourthly,
and I close, where there's a seeking sinner, there's always a forgiving
Father. That old boy, he'd wasted his
living. In righteous living, he'd wasted
his money, wasted everything. He's sitting on the railing of
the hog pen. So hungry he would fain eat the
husk that the hogs were eating. And he said, this is not, this
doesn't make sense. This is not, this doesn't make sense. Here
I am, I have nothing to eat and the hired servants in my father's
house have plenty to eat. I got ragged shabby clothes and
the hired servants in my father's house have good clean clothes.
I have no place to sleep and the hired servants, here I am
a son. And the hired servants have a good place. He came to
himself. This is a mess. I'm headed in
the wrong direction. I'm living in the wrong place.
I'm following the wrong thoughts and wisdom. This is foolishness.
I'm going to get up from here and go back to my father's house
and I'm going to say, Father, I've seen him. And I'm not worthy
to be called a son. But Father, Just make me a hired
hand because the hired hands in your house are better than
the sons in the devil's house. And you know what he found? He
found a forgiving father. He found a father that would,
you know, he saw him coming a great way off. I'm sure that father
spent a lot of time by that window looking for that boy. Looking
for that boy. And just soon as he, he recognized
his walk. And when he saw him, he ran to
meet him. And he threw his arms around him and kissed him. Kiss
of forgiveness, kiss of compassion, kiss of affection, kiss of acceptance. And he said, my son was dead
and he's alive. Let's kill the fatted calf. Put
a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet and a robe on his
back. Forget the past. Welcome home. The seeking center. But I'll
tell you this, that boy didn't come halfway and say, Father,
send me some more money and I won't live in the pig pen, but I won't
live in your house either. I'll just live halfway. Now see,
he came all the way home, and he was willing to be a butler. He was willing to be a ballet.
He was willing to be nothing, but he wanted to be in his father's
house. Are you?