Seek The Lord

Introduction

I’d like to encourage you to be opening your Bibles to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 55, to be exact. We welcome all who are in our audience today. We’re certainly blessed with many who are visiting, and we’re thankful for your coming. And to God that all of us are able to have the kind of health that enables us to come together. In Isaiah chapter 55, particularly as a text today, I want us to consider verses six and seven. Where the prophet of God said, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

The expression, while he may be found, implies that there may come a time when the Lord may not be found. There may come a time when men would call unto the Lord for deliverance. But God will not respond. He will not be there at that time. That’s a fearful thought. Isaiah prophesied in a time that was very similar to ours. Relatively speaking, it was a prosperous time. People had houses to live in.

Particular period of time, some 700 years before the coming of Christ, Isaiah spoke to a people who had become rather indifferent toward God. They were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were the chosen people of God who had been blessed indeed with a favor from God. But by this point in time in their history, they had become rather apathetic, somewhat indifferent. You might say, even taking God for granted in their lives. Consequently, even their worship had become somewhat hypocritical. Oh, they worshiped all right, they made sacrifices, and they prayed to God alright. And yet in chapter one, God would say, I am weary of your sacrifices. In fact, when you pray, I will not hear you. That’s a fearful thought, also, isn’t it? In fact, in Isaiah chapter 29, Isaiah through the Lord, verse 13, said, You honor me with your lips, you draw nigh with your mouth, but your heart is far from me.

In vain you worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. We may remember that verse probably more because uh our Lord repeated it. In Matthew chapter 13, verses 14 and 15, we find that same quotation from Isaiah, and Jesus applied it to his generation. Although it was some 700 years later, what that really says is people haven’t changed that much. And even today, that verse could probably be quoted again and applied to many people who are religious, who draw nigh with their mouth, honor with their lips, but their heart is far from God. They they follow commandments of men. You see, we are people like people of the past. History has a way of repeating itself. And that’s why even coming to passages like this in the Old Testament are of great value.

Because we serve the same God. And we can fall into the same footsteps of error like people who even then claim to be serving God. The prophecy of Isaiah is filled with warnings from this good man. Some have called him the prophet’s prophet, who spoke about the coming of the Christ. But it was in anticipation of a generation that had turned their backs against God. In fact, Isaiah, for example, in Isaiah chapter 59, again a verse that we often quote from Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot say. Neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. What a terrible picture of people who were God’s people.

Indeed, could there come a time when men would not be able to find the Lord, though they thought they were serving him, but it was in a hypocritical way. I often wonder when I speak to an audience of this size. How many times there may be some in the audience who are sort of outwardly in a formal way rendering service to God? We’ve had some good singing this morning, and you participated. We’ve had good prayers. We protect him of the Lord’s Supper. But it could it be that there are those in this audience, even now, who, if we heard the last trumpet sound and we knew it’s the end of time, the Lord is coming, we would say, please wait, Lord. I’m not really ready. I’m afraid there’s so many people in our generation of time, or I sometimes describe it this way.

1. Seek the Lord Now: A Message of Urgency

We intend to serve the Lord. We want to go to heaven, all right. And we know the train, so to speak, in figurative language, is going by, but we’re waiting to catch the caboose. We want to get on the train, but not right now, Lord. Not right now. And so the plea from this prophet of God is seek the Lord now. While he may be found. You might say it’s a message of urgency. Don’t put off things that you know that the Lord wants you to be doing and that you ought to be doing. Now is the time to give devotion that is sincere to the Lord. How much do you spend time in prayer? How much do you spend time in the just the reading of his word and seeking what is the Lord’s will in your life?

In Isaiah chapter 55, in fact, if you have your Bible open, I’d like for you to follow along much of what is in this chapter. You might notice the urgency, even as you read the first three verses, where there is the idea, hear and your soul shall live, in verse 3. But notice particularly, in verse 1, the word come. Come to the waters. And you have and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Three times. The word come is found in that verse. In verse 2, in fact, he says, Listen carefully. In verse 3, incline your ear. Hear, and your soul shall live. In verse 6, seek the Lord. Call upon him while he is near.

And in verse 7, return to the Lord. Some eight times in these first few verses of chapter 55 is that plea, don’t wait till later. Now is the time. In fact, the chapter opens this word, short word, H-O-H. It’s kind of an attention getting word.

2. Come to the Waters

Come listen. Come and hear. Come and come unto me. And in fact, he says, if you will hear, your soul shall live. In verse 1, he puts it this way. Come to the waters. Now that may seem like a strange invitation. Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. What does he mean by that? I believe that actually when he speaks about coming to the waters, he is indeed speaking about the very source of life itself, spiritually. Now literally, we understand how important water is. The scientists say that our body is consist of 75% water. And we all know that in fact we wouldn’t last very long. We wouldn’t live very long without water. But while that’s true in the physical way, in a spiritual way, it is as the Lord is inviting, come to the source of life.

You may remember the story how in John chapter 4, when Jesus and his disciples, traveling through Samaria, came to Jacob’s well. And as the disciples left Jesus there, they went into the city to buy food. There was this Samaritan woman who came to draw water. And to her, Jesus said, Give me to drink. She was rather surprised. Why, in fact, she said, You being a Jew would ask of me a Samaritan for water? In fact, when Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans, Jesus really responded to her, if you really knew the gifts of God, and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Again, that puzzled the woman. What does he mean about living water?

She said, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself as well as his sons and his livestock? Then Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

3. Seeking Things Money Cannot Buy

Don’t just think in terms of material things. Think in terms of the spiritual, the life that God would provide through the sacrifice of his son, the living water. And even the Bible speaks also of heaven as having a river of pure water, the water of life. And so it is God uses this term of the waters. But you notice back in Isaiah 55, where he says, Come, buy and eat, you who have no money. How can you buy if you have no money? What is he speaking about? Yes, come by wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money, verse 2, for what is not bread? And your wages for what does not satisfy. The prophet here really is speaking about seeking things that literal money cannot buy.

There’s no way you can buy the grace of God. You may be a millionaire and give it all, but that of itself doesn’t purchase the kind of water that is water of life. What is the kind of things that money cannot buy? It has to do with the Lord’s invitation to come unto him. Indeed, do not seek things that are just only in a physical temporal state. I think one of the problems of our generation. We live in a great period of time, and certainly a great country. And relatively speaking, there is peace and prosperity. We have food, we have houses to live in. But the kind of things for the most part that we seek after are things that are temporary. I mean, so you buy food.

You get hungry again, don’t you? I expect if you eat lunch today, by evening time you’re going to want something again. And certainly by tomorrow. It doesn’t last very long, the things that we may eat physically. And so it is with life itself here and now. What values do you have? What is the most important thing to you? I’d say far too many of us are like the little rhyme that goes like this, like simple Simon. You may have heard the story. Simple Simon went fishing for a whale. But all the water he had was in a pail. Are you like simple Simon? And you say, Well, why was simple Simon simple? Well, I’d say, first of all, it’s not because he went fishing. Many intelligent people go fishing.

In fact, some even make it their occupation. Neither was he simple because he went fishing for a whale. In fact, whale fishing is a profitable industry that supplies and provides many useful products for mankind. You know why simple Simon was simple, though. Because all the water he had was in a pail. And a pail of water is not enough water for a whale. But he was simple. He had it all mixed up. Are we sometimes acting like Simon when we have our values reversed? And we laying up for ourselves, oh, we’re successful because we not only have a nice house, we have a real nice house. Or we have the very best car in the land, or we have the things that we’ve dreamed about, and what we’ve dreamed about are really material in their nature.

What are you thinking about? What are your plans? Do they include only things of this life or of this world? Don’t be like simple Simon. In fact, Jesus in Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 and 20, said, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and seal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. The admonition, therefore, is get your value straight in life. Oh, it is true that if you have in a physical way, maybe you’re a wealthy person. And it may be that you can buy or have hire the very best of medical science, but you know, even the wealthiest of the wealthy will also die.

You cannot buy eternal life. And you cannot buy even physical life beyond what maybe even the poor would find. Death comes to us all. And so realize what things are given to us to enjoy in this life, but they’re temporary. They’re momentary, they’re passing away. And what will you do when you face death itself? It is from that perspective, I believe, therefore, that the prophet again is saying, Incline your ear and come to me. Hear, and your soul shall live. And I’ll make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David, verse 3. When he speaks about the sure mercies of David, this is a verse that’s actually quoted in Acts chapter 13 and verse 34, where the apostle applies it to the resurrection of Jesus.

And the point is that God made a promise to David, how that through his lineage the Messiah would come, of his seed. Out of his lineage, Jesus was to come. And we’re able even now to trace who is the right one. Is Jesus the Christ really the one that God had promised through Abraham? And we know for sure, because we can trace genealogically even his lineage. That’s one way. That’s not the only way. But we know that the mercies of David were that when the Messiah would come, that he would provide eternal life, the means of eternal life. And we know, of course, through the scriptures, how that Christ died for us.

The penalty for sin is death. And therefore all of us have sinned, and all of us therefore need the forgiveness. And so he’s saying, if you’ll come and hear, if you’ll seek the Lord, then you’ll have the mercies even promised through David. That is to us it would be the salvation of our souls. Therefore, how important is it when we find the prophet saying, seek the Lord. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Now I want you to stop and think about that for a moment. Is that a thought that maybe, you know, it may be that we will seek him and it’s too late? Are you some person perhaps in this audience even today? That would be fearful. If the last trumpet were to sound and and and this is the time, are you ready?

4. A Time When the Lord Cannot Be Found

I think when we read the scriptures, Jesus gave us many warnings. In fact, to be prepared. And we could raise the question will a time really come when the Lord cannot be found. If you have your Bibles open with me to Matthew chapter 25, I believe Jesus taught us of a time. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus speaks a parable. We sometimes call it the parable of the virgins. Reading in verse 1, the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight a cry was heard.

Go out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there should not be enough for us and you.

Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Assuredly I said to you, I do not know you. Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. Now I know customs back then are different from today. But understanding this parable, Jesus illustrated what was a very common experience in that period of time. As the time for the wedding actually came, the bridegroom would go and perhaps with the with the bride, and there would be sort of a procession to the home of the bridegroom. And there there would be a feast, and there would be the consummation, you might say, of the wedding itself. But the illustration is there were ten, ten virgins.

I think representative of ten good people. Pure virgins they were. So you might say they’re the Lord’s people. But could five of the Lord’s people, could half of them really not be giving their best for the Lord, preparing for his coming? Could it be that they didn’t prepare? They didn’t have enough oil. There were five who were wise because they took extra oil. But as the time came, the signal that here comes the bridegroom. And they began to trim their lamps, and indeed those who hadn’t taken any extra began to ask, would you give us some of yours? And they said, Nay, you know, there’s not enough for us and you. You go and buy your own. But it was too late, wasn’t it? The bridegroom came, they went to the feast, and I think one of the sobering comments or sentences in this parable is the door was shut.

The door was shut. You ever gone to a place and maybe you’d like to enter and too late. Couldn’t be the end. Can’t go. Lord, Lord, open to us. Lord say, I don’t know you. The time has come while they cannot be found. The time has come when it’s too late. Don’t be like those who just carelessly go on your way and say, Oh, yeah, you know, the Lord loves us all, and somehow everybody’s going to be saved. That’s the kind of thinking that many in our generation have. The Lord said, it’s going to come a time when the door will be shut. And you may be of the five who are already children of God. Maybe you say, I’ve obeyed the gospel, but you’re sort of casual, just sort of coasting along, not giving of yourself to encourage other brethren, providing for yourself as you ought.

But not only in that verse, look back in chapter 24 if you have your Bible open. Where in chapter 24, Jesus has been talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, a time in which you might say the system, the Mosaic economy, was going to come to an end when the temple would be destroyed. Indeed, since A.D. 70, the Jewish economy or system has no longer prevailed. Even since then, there have been no animal sacrifices. And since then, there have been no historical records of genealogies that have been destroyed. And so it was a significant point in time that the Lord predicted when and the signs that would come. But then as though to illustrate how that judgment. But not only I believe every judgment of the Lord will be like.

In verse 37 of Matthew 24, he said, As the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. And did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Few words about it describing the time of Noah. From Genesis chapter 6, we’re left with the impression that maybe there was something like what we might count 120 years in the time of the ark being built. In the New Testament, 2 Peter 2, the apostle says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. And it would seem that during that period of time, can you imagine the ark is being built?

And Noah is beginning to say, Why? Preaching. But there’s a reaction. I’ve tried to think about that for some time. You suppose there were maybe some who were saying, you know, Noah, he thinks there’s going to be a flood to come. There’s never been any rain like that before. I’m not worried about a flood. Things are going along good. So they’re eating and drinking, marrying and giving and marriage. Life’s going on. That’s normal. But the door was shut on the ark, too, wasn’t it? There were only eight people who were spared. In fact, the scripture says, took them all away. No doubt those who were saying, Oh, silly Noah, they were taken away. There were probably some who were saying, you know, maybe Noah’s not so foolish after all.

It may be he often talks about the Lord, and we have reason to believe in the Lord, and you know, someday I’m going to go down and help Noah build that ark. But they never got there. And therefore those who were taken away. Indeed, the time will come when some would seek the Lord and he would not be found. He is not there any longer. In fact, again, if you’re in chapter 24, look down at verse 42. Watch, therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

At an hour you do not expect. It’s easy for us to say, well, you know, times have gone along pretty good. We indeed are a blessed people, aren’t we? And indeed, uh, why, there’s no sign that the end is right near. If we have any fear, our peers are probably more about, you know, in a military way. What about ISIS or what about other countries that might seek to overthrow our country or that’s the things we think about. But how many of us think about eternal things? Lord’s promised to come again. And we ought to seek him while he can be found. In fact, maybe we’re like those the apostle describes in 1 Thessalonians 5, where he said, concerning the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. When they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. Peace and safety. No doubt every one of us in this audience can say, Well, you know, I believe it’s time of peace. Time of safety. I see no sign of the Lord coming today. I see no sign that the flood is about to occur. I see no, and we can say those things. And it isn’t that we ought to live constantly in a dreaded fear or in a state as though, hey, any moment now he’s coming. I’m not saying that, I don’t think the scripture is saying that.

5. Seek the Lord: Not Something to Put Off

But it is saying this. Brethren, seek the Lord. It’s not something for us to put off. Are there things you need to be doing as a Christian that you’re not doing? Are there things that maybe just a little more zeal for Him? A little more time of sacrifice in your life, time to say, Lord, what would you have me to do? Maybe there are those in this audience who’ve never become a Christian. You’ve never obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it isn’t that you don’t know what to do. You’ve heard enough about Jesus to believe He is the Son of God. You know enough about the Scriptures to know that He He died on the cross for your sins. And someday you intend to obey.

Why do we put off? When Jesus made a simple statement, he who believes and is baptized shall be saved. He who believes not shall be condemned. Why put off doing what we understand is God’s will that we ought to do? Don’t take God for granted. Don’t just say, well, I’d take care of that later. In fact, going back in the scriptures in Acts 17, the apostle Paul on Mars Hill was preaching about the Lord, the true Lord of heaven and earth. He was talking to a people who were idolatrous, had many idols in Athens. But he said, I want to tell you about the God you do not know, the unknown God. He’s the one who made the world and everything in it. And since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worship with men’s hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things.

6. God’s Ways Are Higher; His Word Will Not Return Void

And he’s made from one blood, every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him. Though he is not far from each of us. That’s a significant point. Even Paul referred and used this very phrase as we’ve come from Isaiah 55, but then he says, He’s not far from each of us. He is near unto us. Simply takes from our point of view, Lord, here am I. I want to serve you. But let’s go back to Isaiah 55 in the last few verses of that text. How do we really find the Lord? When in verse 8, God would say through his prophet, my thoughts are not your thoughts.

Nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Instead of saying, Lord, my will is to learn what is your will. And sometimes we have eye trouble. Our trouble is I just can’t see why baptism is necessary.

Bonging to a congregation and being an active member in it is essential. And over and over there’s the I this and I that rather than saying, you know, God’s ways aren’t our ways. If we’re not willing to simply come and say God’s word is what is important. And only through obeying the word of God are we going to find the Lord. But even more than that, in verses ten and eleven, as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and do not return there. But water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

The word of the Lord will not return void. I would have to say when I was a younger man, I used to think, oh, if we just preach the word, it’ll bear fruit. Oh, there are people today who hear it and they don’t obey yet, but you just give them time, they’ll obey. That’s not what that verse means. I do think there are some who have put off and may later obey.

And maybe you choose not to obey it, you choose not to be a faithful, zealous servant of the Lord, encouraging others, you choose that’s your choice. God’s word won’t return void. What that means is you will face it in judgment. It’ll be the standard by which you are judged. Jesus said in John 12 48, He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, the same has one that judgeth him in the last days. The word that I have spoken will judge him. God’s word will not be void. You will face it, whether you want to obey it now in this life, or whether you want to face it in the day of judgment itself. So I ask you as we close our lesson today, are you seeking the Lord?

Conclusion

Or are you waiting maybe till it’ll be too late and the Lord will no longer be there? The song selected for our invitation today is called Kneel at the Cross. If you’re not a child of God, why not this morning come kneeling at the cross of the Lord who gave himself for you? If you’ve been unfaithful as a Christian, come back to the Lord. Give him your heart, give him your best. If you’ve never become a Christian, now’s the time. Don’t wait until it’s too late. You’re subject to the invitation, we bid you come round while we stand, while we sing.