Morning to the book of Isaiah once again chapter number 55 Isaiah chapter 55 as you're turning there let me once again welcome you to our worship service certainly pray the Lord's blessing on this portion of our service I Say Isaiah 55 once again because it is the same chapter we were in last week I'll be at a few verses down below where we were then and This will be the fourth and I expect the last of kind of a short series or so concerning some of the great invitations in the book of Isaiah, almost said the gospel of Isaiah. It has been called the gospel of Isaiah by many commentators because it almost reads like a New Testament gospel many times. I felt impressed to do this back at the men's retreat in September, when the Lord saved Brother Caleb. And I thought about, because I used one of these passages when I was talking with Caleb that night, and the Lord just impressed on me again to go back and go remind myself, remind us all of some of these great passages of Scripture. It is astounding. I'll just say that. I mean, you think about it. Think about God inviting sinful men. I don't know how to say it better than that. I understand many times it's more in the form of a command, but I also see it as an invitation. Think about that. I'm talking about a righteous and holy God, a thrice holy God. Why in this world would he want anything to do with depraved man? And yet he does it all the time. And throughout, and I will not go any further than this, and I don't want to go back and just repreach and rehash old messages to you. I've made a concerted effort not to do that in these passages. Several years ago, about six years ago, I went through the scriptures and did about 13 or 14 messages on the invitations. This, listen, this is a book of invitations. God invites sinful men. Wonder of wonders, God invites sinful men to come unto him. But I have not made too much effort this morning to change this passage up too much I I or change the subject up too much. I want to stay very plain. I want to stay very Foundational I want to stay very simple. I I hope I don't bore you that maybe consider yourself to be mature in the Lord Listen, I I just confess to you. It's been good for me to go back and remind myself of these glorious passages of Scripture and Like anybody else, I think sometimes I get... I don't want to say cold-hearted because God knows my heart. I desire to see sinners saved. But I will at least say that many times I get so wrapped up in all the details of life that I forget what really is important, you know. I lose sight of the big picture. And so I want us to look at this text again and just listen, folks, we should not be afraid. to invite the sinners to receive and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We should not be afraid to do that. I am asking every sinner, every lost person here this morning, I'm asking you, I'm pleading with you to respond to this gracious invitation that we have in my text this morning. Now we began in Isaiah chapter 45 where God said, look on to me and be you saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. That is a glorious passage. That relates to John chapter 3 when Jesus said, listen, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We went from there with no particular order over to Isaiah chapter one, when God says, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Listen, though your sins be as scarlet, man, they shall be as white as snow. That's glorious. And though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. I'm not ashamed to say the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. We went last week, you hear, into the beginning of this 55th chapter where he says, Oh, everyone that thirsteth. That's the question. Are you thirsting for something more? Are you thirsting for the things of God? He said, If you're thirsty, then come ye to the waters. Revelation chapter 22 says, And the spirit and the bride say, Come. Right and let him that heareth say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever Will let him take of the water of life freely That's in there. Well in my text this morning is another great and the last one I think I will look at but I love this passage in verse number six It says seek ye the Lord while he may be found Call ye upon him while he is near and Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Listen to what he says. For my thoughts, he says, are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, saith 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. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth, and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, I love this verse, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. Think about what he says. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man he has sought, so let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. Now, I don't want to start out on a negative note, because I love this passage of scripture, but I understand the abuse, and can I say the misuse, of this passage of scripture. There are those you understand that take this text many times to justify this hellish doctrine of sending away the day of grace. If you've never heard that term, there are preachers today trying to coerce professions out of people. And they'll say, well, you know, God will only try to save you for a period of time, and then if you continually reject Him, then He will go away and never to return. And they call that sending away the day of grace. Listen to me, folks. There is no such doctrine taught in the Word of God. It is not in there. Listen, what the Bible does say, today is the day of salvation. That's what the Bible says. But listen, we should not be afraid in spite of the abuse. Can I say this to you? God does not ever try to do anything, you know. I know of the abuse of this. By the way, I also know the misuse of this text. I know some preachers in our Baptist churches that will not even try to preach from this passage because it makes them sound, I don't know, like an easy-believe-ism, you know, type thing or Armenian or free will. Listen, you understand, man does not have absolute freedom of will. Man's will is in bondage to his nature. He can only choose that which is wicked. We are sinners by nature and by practice and by choice. And some of our preachers won't preach this passage because it makes them sound free will. Listen to me. I am not afraid to say, listen, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him. I'm not afraid, listen, today is the day of salvation. I read something a while back, and forgive me for using this as an illustration. I'm speaking as a man. I hope you understand that. I'm not turned freewheeler. I'm not turned Armenian. But as the story goes about this man who owned his own aircraft, and he was out flying one day, and he found himself in trouble. He called the radio tower, said, pilot to tower. Said, I am 300 miles from the airport. I'm out of fuel, I'm losing altitude, and I'm descending fast. He said, please advise. Well, it went several seconds. And finally, the tower came back and said, tower to pilot, repeat after me. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Now, how would you like to be in that pilot? But I thought about that, folks. Listen, don't wait until you're about to crash before you seek help. I think I can say that and be on safe ground. Today is the day of salvation. You understand? That's what the Bible does say. Can I also say this? What is needed in our churches and in our ministry is a balance in our doctrine and in our theology. We must not get too lopsided. There are so many people that struggle with this and it seems like they never achieve that balance in their life and in their ministry. The balance is this, God is absolutely sovereign. Folks, God is in charge. God is running the show. God is in control of everything and everybody. That's what the Bible says. He doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven, Daniel chapter 4 verse 35. He doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. I got a news flash for you, that includes you. Sure he does, and he says none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Get rid of your bumper sticker that says let go and let God. You don't let God do anything. God does what he wants to. God is sovereign. The Bible does teach God has, he is elect. That is known only to God, you see. But here's what we gotta remember. The balance is just do our job and that will be enough. You say, what do you mean? I mean by that we do not know who will be saved and who will not be saved. C.H. Spurgeon said one time, he said, if the elect had a yellow stripe down their back, then we'd know who to preach to. Obviously, that's not gonna happen. We do our job. We preach to all. Invite all. And some will come. Can I say that again? Preach to all. Care for all. Love all. Some will come might be some here this morning. I don't know but see therein lies our downfall we act many times like we just don't care and We get this birth of better than you mentality. And we look down our noses at the so-called undesirables. And we act like we just don't care. Like this young preacher that was known as a fire and brimstone kind of preacher. And man, every service he was preaching on hell or in judgment or something like that. And listen, there is a place for that. My Savior taught more about hell than he did about heaven. But this preacher acted like he enjoyed it. I mean, he was, man, he'd spit and he'd sputter and he'd carry on and seemed like he was having a good time preaching about hell. An old preacher went to him and said, son, I got a piece of advice if you'll take it. He said, what is it? He said, don't act so happy when you preach about hell. Listen, folks, there ought to be some tears. There ought to be some sorrow when you think about hell. Somebody said, if you live in a graveyard too long, you stop crying when somebody dies. I think that's the way we are. Where is our compassion? Where is our burden for lost people? You know, I may have told you this story before, and I'm going to try to get all this in in time, but I thought of this story this morning. I don't like most things this fellow's got to say, to be honest with you. The name Tony Compallo, I don't know if I pronounced his last name right or not, He likes to have shock value when he preaches. I've heard him use filthy language, dirty language in the pulpit before trying to shock people, you know. I don't like that stuff. But he did tell a story one time when he was flying to Hawaii and said, man, the jet lag like to killed him. And his body still thought it was daylight. It was like 2 o'clock in the morning. And he said, I should have been sleepy, but I was more hungry than anything else. So I went into this greasy dive one time in the city of Honolulu to try to get something to eat. The only place open in the whole city, it seemed. And so while I was in there, it was just me and the man behind the counter when five prostitutes walked into that restaurant. He said it got kind of uncomfortable. I could tell they were prostitutes by the way they looked, by the way they talked. They started telling stories about their exploits that evening. He said it got real uncomfortable. And so I got up to leave when I heard one of the prostitutes say, you know what? Tomorrow's my 39th birthday. And the other one kind of got smart and says, well, what is that to us? What do you want us to do, throw you a party or buy you a cake? And the other one said, no, no. I wasn't asking for anything. I've never had a party, never had a cake my whole life. And he said, the preacher said, he went and talked to the man behind the counter and got permission. He said, does these ladies come in here every night? And he said, yes. So he got permission from the owner of that diner. So next night, they decorated the whole diner up. And when these five prostitutes came in, he said, you should have seen the shocked look on that prostitute's face when everybody shouted happy birthday. And we carried out a cake and started singing. Man, she lost it. She said, this tough as nails street-walking prostitute started bawling like a baby when we came out just singing Happy Birthday. And I asked them to bow their head and ask thanks for the food. And the owner of the restaurant, he said, run us out of the restaurant. He said, if I knew you was a Bible thumper, I wouldn't have let you in here. He said, when I went outside, this prostitute came to me and said, mister, I've just got to know what kind of church do you go to? He said, I looked at her and I told her, I go to the kind of church that cares about prostitutes. And I shared the gospel to her and that prostitute in the middle of the morning in the streets of Honolulu was saved and she's no longer a prostitute. I thought about that story, folks. You never know what God will do if we just care, if we have compassion. folks. And so that really is kind of the genesis of these messages. I find myself, I don't know if you've faced this or not, I find myself as a preacher of the gospel, getting so wrapped up in all the little minute details of ministry, and I forget the big picture, I forget what is important. This is an invitation to justification. Listen, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. If the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, the Bible says God will have mercy. It is an invitation. Now, if you don't know what justification means, I don't have the time to go into a theological dissertation of what's involved. I'll just simply tell you this. God works such a wondrous work of grace in you, he makes it like you have done nothing wrong. That's amazing. God makes it like you have not ever sinned, you know. He makes it like you have done nothing. God can make you just, you see. That's what I thought about when I thought about this passage of Scripture. Now let me divide it very quickly in four ways. I've spent so long on introduction, I don't have long to preach the sermon. In the first place, I want you to notice the call. This always jumped out at me. When God is saying, Seek ye the Lord. Now I know the Bible enough to know that the Bible also says no man seeketh after God. It does not come natural. And yet God said seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Now, I don't have the time to go into the long dissertation about the literal meaning of this verse of Scripture. I will say this, we should not be afraid to apply this to man. Don't be afraid of this verse of Scripture, you know. I am told, however, that the literal translation, the literal meaning in the Hebrew is this. And listen, it changes the meaning dramatically. In the Hebrew, it literally means, Seek ye the Lord because He may be found. Call upon Him because He is near. It is not while. It is because He can be found, because He is near, the best thing we can do then is seek Him and call upon Him. Isn't that glorious? Folks, I serve a compassionate God. I serve a loving and compassionate God. I do. I know He is a God of judgment. I know He is a God of justice. God cannot just look over your sin. Somebody is going to be held accountable for that, you see. But I serve a compassionate God. I'm glad He is a God of grace. I'm glad He is a God of mercy. Aren't you? Jesus said, listen, I have not come to call the righteous. I didn't come to call the good people. I have not come to call the righteous. I've come to call sinners to repentance. You say, preacher, you don't know what I'm like. God does. You don't know what things I have done or things I have said or things I have thought. God does. But I got news flash for you. If you think of the most rotten person in the world, the good news is you're exactly the kind of person he came to save. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I have come to seek and to save that which was lost. It goes like that throughout the scriptures. Paul said one time, listen, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me for he calleth me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Brother Willie's experienced this. Brother Mike has experienced this. Anybody that stood behind this desk, folks, has felt sometimes absolutely impotent, absolutely unworthy to stand and try to preach something to people. I feel like that all the time. I do. But that's how Paul felt. He said, man, he hath enabled me, put him into the ministry. Who was before? A blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. But he said, listen, I obtained mercy. Hallelujah. I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. In fact, he said also, this is a faithful saying and worthy of our acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners of whom I am chief. That's the kind of God I serve. God calls people out of darkness. I'm talking about people who are in darkness and blinded. God calls them out of darkness and into light. Peter says, He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. It's a marvelous thing, you know. God calls people who are in bondage Some of you may look at me cross-eyed when I say there's no such thing as freedom of the will. Folks, no, no, no. You don't have a free will. Your will is in bondage. You are servants, Paul said, to whom you yield your members to obey. You are. You're in bondage to your sin. But that's exactly the kind of people God calls. He calls them out of bondage and sets them at liberty. If the Son, therefore, shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. He calls those people who are laboring, you know, and struggling in their sin and in their bondage. He says, come on to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. You know what he said? I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I'm meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest for your souls. He calls them out of labor onto rest. He calls people who are dead in trespasses and sins. Dead is dead. I'm talking about somebody who has no spiritual life whatsoever, who will not, cannot seek God on their own. They are dead. I've never yet seen a corpse jump up and take the first step. They are dead, and yet God calls them from death onto life. Ain't that a glorious call? No, no, no, I'm not afraid to say to the sinner, seek ye the Lord while ye may be found. Call ye upon him while ye is near. I know that it's God that puts the seek in him. I know it's God that puts the want to in there. I'm not afraid of that. That's the kind of God, folks. That's the kind of call we have. Listen, if you're saved, why in the world do you walk around so miserable? God has done a wondrous work in your life. You're children of God. You're a child of the King. Isn't that glorious? You ought to act like it. You ought to act like it. This Buddhist lady one time was in the depths of despair. She went up to the Buddhist temple and they did whatever rigmarole that they do. Anyway, the wise man says this to her. I mean, she was utterly desperate and in despair. The wise man said to her, lean on your own shadow and go in peace. What good does that do? You know, to the Buddhists, nirvana is blessed nothingness. As I said to you before, what good is that? Who wants to reach a state of nothingness? So he said, lean on your own shadow and go in peace. She said, I left there more desperate and despondent than ever before. I looked up at the sun in the day and the moon at night, and I thought there had to be something more. And she said, in the providence of God, a missionary came to my house. and just began to tell me about a heavenly father that loves me and began to share the gospel with me. And when he did, I hit my knees and said, I knew there had to be more. Listen, there is a God like that. Seek ye the Lord because he may be found. Call ye upon him because He is near. That's the call, you see. Second of all, notice the conversion. He said, I like verse 7, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. Now, listen, there are so many things wrapped up in that statement. There is contrition, there is repentance, there is conversion, there's all those things. wrapped up in that one statement. God does a wondrous work of grace in your heart, folks. He does. I know. Listen, that is what forgiveness is all about. That is what Justification is all about. That is what repentance and conversion is all about. I went to Bible college. I know there are subtle differences in some of those words, but I'm not giving you a theology lesson this morning. I'm just telling you what God can do in the heart of a sinner. To God, in the Word of God, we see a distinction in those things, but man, they happen instantaneously in the heart of the sinner. God can do wondrous things. God, as I said to you often, His only one can take an old vile sinner and make him a victorious saint. Sure can. Or as I'll often say, He can take a murderer and make him a missionary, a persecutor and make him a preacher. Ask the Apostle Paul. He can take an old drunkard and make him a disciple. G. Campbell Morgan one time told the story of this young man and his church who came to him. And so Dr. Morgan said, will you come with me? Do you have time to come with me to the house of a drunkard? And Morgan said, I sure will. And said, yeah, I went with this young man to this little rundown shack. We got there, just nothing more than a rundown shack. And as we walked up on the porch, two little raggedy children ran away from us and hid. And we knocked on the door, this woman came in and disheveled and dirty in appearance, had a bruise on her face. And she said, I'm sorry for the children running and hiding. When they heard your footsteps, they thought it was Daddy again coming home drunk. And so he said, she invited us in. We hadn't been there a couple minutes and Daddy shows up. I said, I was frightened at first. You know, you automatically get kind of apprehensive. But for once, Daddy was not drunk like he normally was. And he went in and sat down, and I shared the gospel and had prayer with him. And I invited him. He said, we're having services tonight. Will you come to church? He said, to be honest, I left there without everything. I thought I'd never see that man again. The man promised me he'd come like folks do. How many times you visit somebody and say, come on to church? Well, I might do that. You usually don't see him. He said, I thought I'd never see that man again. That night he showed up to church and said, you know what? I didn't preach at him. There's a difference, young preachers, in this. I preached to him. I told him that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. I told him of the power of Christ that can break his chains and set him free. I want to tell you God's more powerful than the alcohol. And at the end of the service that man came up in those prostrated himself before church. Told that he had been set free. He said a few months went by And the young man came to me and said, Dr. Morgan, will you come to the house, with me to the house of an ex-drunkard? Don't buy the lie, folks, that once you're drunk, you're always drunk. And so he took me a different direction. I said, we're going in a different direction. He said, yes, that's because they've moved. So we got there, and I walked up to a quaint little cottage, well kept, clean. And I knocked on the door, and here came this woman, immaculately dressed. Beautiful woman. Said, behind her I saw that man with his children on his knee, singing, Jesus loves me, this I know. And I couldn't help but think, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. This building is filled with people that can testify to you folks of that great work in their life. So I'm not afraid to share this text with you. Now, the third thought, and I'll just go this way quickly, is what I would call the confusion. God says, listen, my ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. Do you ever sit and just marvel at the way God does things? Sometimes I think, man, I wouldn't have done it that way. God, it's a marvelous thing. And you marvel at the way God works. Listen, I'll tell you one of the greatest marvels of all. God has chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. You are not here by accident. There's no such thing as accidents. There's only providence. You're not here by accident. God chooses by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Marvel, marvel. Last thing, notice the confidence. In verse number 11, so shall my word be that it goeth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper into things whereunto I send it. I love that verse of Scripture. Sometimes we're prone to get defeated in the work of the Lord. And I've talked to preachers who've been in the ministry for years, and they've got this defeatist attitude almost, because nothing ever seems to be happening. And I confess to you, sometimes I get discouraged. I get in the flesh like anybody else. I get discouraged, folks, from sinners and also from saints sometimes. You say, what do you mean? Sometimes I can't help but wonder, how in the world can a sinner sit in church? Some of you have been sitting in church all your life. and you've heard the gospel about any way it can be preached, how in this world can you walk out and reject such a gracious invitation as that? I'm speaking as a man. I'm speaking in the flesh. I know that. But I think like that. I get discouraged by lost people, but sometimes I get discouraged by the Lord's people also. I'm talking about people who claim to be children of God and has had this wondrous working of grace done in your life. and you sit there like a knot on a log. You're never moved. Folks, if anything ought to move you, it ought to be the grace and the mercy of God that he showed to you. But I want to tell you, folks, we're not the victims here. We are victorious. God's word shall prosper. Some will be saved. I don't know who that is. You don't know who that is. And I cannot coerce someone into being saved. But every time the Word of God is preached, it's going to accomplish exactly the purpose it was sent for. We're on the winning side, folks. Don't be afraid to apply this. I can tell you, lost person, regardless of who you are, regardless of what you have done, God can make it like you've done nothing wrong. Sure can. Seek ye the Lord while ye may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy. For our God will abundantly pardon. Ain't that glorious? I don't know if I've told you this, but it always rings my bell. Little girl one time, young girl, made a profession of faith. Presented herself before the church for baptism. And the men met with the pastor after service and told her, said, listen, she's too young. So I feel like, I've heard people doing this. I feel like, we feel like she's not old enough to understand what she's doing. And we want you to go talk to her and try to explain it to her. Preacher went to that little girl, told her to wait a while, that the church felt like she was too young. The little girl started crying, looked at that old preacher that she loved. She said, but preacher, I'm not too young to die. And that broke him. Broke down all opposition. He went back and told the church. They baptized the little girl. She was added to the church. A few weeks went by. She got sick. and she died late one night. They engraved on her tombstone those frightening words, I'm not too young to die. Think about that, folks. Think about that. Seek ye the Lord because he may be found. Call upon him because he is near. Not afraid to use that verse of scripture. Father.