because it occurred last night. Our scripture reading this morning is Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah 55. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me. Here and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. 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 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. For my thoughts 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, 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. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree and it shall be to the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. So far we read God's Holy Word. The text for the sermon is verses six and seven. 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 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. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, The text calls us to repent, to turn, and to seek the Lord, and then adds beautiful assurances of forgiveness. But as you may well be aware, there are those who have explained this text as though it is a well-meant offer of salvation to all. In fact, a high pressure offer of salvation. They explain the meeting this way. The Lord is here now. He comes to you graciously in the preaching and offers you salvation. But it is for a limited time. He is here now. So while he is here, now is the time that you must come to the Lord. Do not miss the offer. Come to him. Turn from your sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and all will be forgiven. But do it now before it is too late. That's interesting, but that's not what this text is about. The notion that the preaching is a gracious offer of God to all who hear, and that He desires to save as many as He can, that is not biblical, and that's not the text. That it's not the Bible is pretty obvious. The Bible exposes the folly of that kind of preaching that God sets out an offer for everyone, hoping they will take it, because the Bible says man is dead in sin. He's dead in sin. He cannot hear the offer, if it were given. He could not respond to it. And therefore, it would be foolish to offer salvation to one who is spiritually dead In addition to that, the preaching is not grace to all who hear it. The preaching is a two-edged sword. Yes, indeed, the preaching spirit, the spirit uses the preaching to call God's elect people out of darkness, out of their sin and unbelief into life and faith. But the spirit also uses the same preaching to harden the reprobate and to slay them. Verse 11 in this chapter shows that God always accomplishes his purpose, whatever that may be, with preaching. Verse 11 says, so shall my word be that go forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void. It shall accomplish that which I please. it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." If God determined to save everyone that came under the preaching, it would happen. But that's not God's purpose. The text says nothing about an offer, and that is consistent with everything the Bible teaches about preaching. It's a command to repent, and a command to believe likewise the text is full of commands seek call forsake return commands it adds the beautiful promise of forgiveness the assured promise that God will have mercy on those who do forsake their sins and return unto him but in no way Is that some kind of a conditional offer that man must fulfill in order to be saved? The text is not a well-meant offer of the Gospel, but it is a beautiful text. Historically, it is a word that God addressed to the Jews who were in captivity in Babylon. From Isaiah chapter 40 to the end of the prophecy, Isaiah is speaking a word from the standpoint that this is a word for those who would be taken into captivity. God promised that he would bring them into captivity because of their sins. And now this is a word from God to these captives. The Old Testament church was isolated. They were strangers in a wicked land. It's sad to say too many of the Jews who had been chastised by God as they were brought into the land of Babylon still didn't turn. They were still worshiping their images and they were now pursuing the good life that Babylon offered them. They were blending in with the people of Babylon. God's church was in captivity. Therefore, God came to comfort his people in captivity, but at the same time to call them out spiritually, be separate from Babylon. Do not live as Babylon. Seek me. Seek the Lord. So he calls them. to do that. Earlier on in the chapter, he pointed out the folly of passing up the water of life for earthly treasures. It reminds them of the great blessings that they have in the covenant that God established with David, the sure mercies of David. And so now he comes with the command, Seek ye the Lord. This comes to us as well. We are in the church that is in the Babylon of this world. And it's easy for us to be lulled to sleep by the comfortable life we have here in Babylon. The good food, the comfortable homes, the life of ease, even the entertainment of world of Babylon is attractive to our sinful natures, so that we can be more interested in enjoying the good life here as the Jews were in Babylon than to think about the blessings of the covenant and of heaven. So we knew we too need to be called away, turn, seek the Lord. We take as the theme for the sermon then, seeking the Lord while he may be found. Notice in the first place the command to seek. Secondly, the required reform. And thirdly, the promised pardon. To understand the meaning of the text, it's pretty important to notice all the parallel statements and words found in the text. So many things match here. And the first matching pair is seeking and calling. Seek ye the Lord, call ye upon him. Those are clearly related to each other. Seeking, the word literally is to trample. And that is to say, to beat a pathway to something, to go there intensely and repeatedly to beat down a pathway, seek ye the Lord. It means go to Him, stand before Him consciously, before the face of God. Calling in scripture usually refers to two different things, though closely related. Prayer, first of all, calling, and then worship. Calling upon the name of the Lord is our worship. Together, they express an activity, even a life, a life of going to God. Humbly seeking His face in prayer and worship. Going to Him. Asking for forgiveness. requesting the blessings that we need in our life day by day, enjoying sweet fellowship with him. When you go to seek someone, it may be because you need something. That's true. Of course, we need something from God. So we go to seek him. But also, it implies that you go there. You can go there because you delight in being there. You want fellowship with him. That's what this all includes here. And so it's living unto him also in glad obedience. Seek ye the Lord, call ye upon him. And then the next two parts that are parallel, while he may be found, while he is near, those clearly are related as well. Now understand, and this is what throws out again the whole idea of a well-meant offer, The word while here, it's probably the best translation, but that's not literally what it says. Seek ye the Lord in His being found. Call ye upon Him in His being near. So that the emphasis is not on time or a space of time that you have to find Him or to draw near, but in His being near to you, in His being found of you, that's the idea of the while. It gives a picture of a child that is lost, and he realizes to his horror that he cannot find his parents, and he cries out to them. And when he hears his father answer him, he is flooded with relief. He has found his father. He's not lost. God comes near. And when God comes near, the idea is he reveals himself to his people. He speaks to them. God, of course, is always near. in the sense that his almighty power upholds and sustains and is all around us. Paul said that to the heathen on Mars Hill in Acts 17. Though he be not far from every one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being. He's upholding us. He's right here. He's not far away from us. But that's not the sense here of being near. He cannot be known, though He is right here next to us and around all of the ungodly of this world. He cannot be known, He cannot be found, unless He comes near, unless He reveals Himself and speaks to His people. Throughout history, God did that. In the Garden of Eden, God spoke with Adam and Eve. He spoke with Noah. He spoke with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. To the Israelites, He revealed Himself. He came near to them and showed Himself in the law and in the types and the shadows. In Jesus, God came near. In the incarnation, God dwelt among his people. And that really, of course, is the climax of all the other revelation, because truly the heart of all the revelation is Jesus himself. And now when Jesus came to the earth, there's the fullness. There is God showing his perfect plan of salvation for his people. Now, ordinarily, all these things go together. Seeking, calling, being found, being near. The Bible puts them together really quite a bit. Psalm 105 verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him. He's near to those that call. David instructed his son Solomon, if thou seek him, he will be found of the seeking finding. That implies that there is a time when he cannot be found. That he is not near. And that, of course, is true. For all the nations round about Israel, that was True. God did not reveal himself to them. He did not speak to them. He was not found of the Philistines, the Amorites, or the Edomites. But also Israel had times like that. When David said to Solomon, if thou seek him he will be found of thee he added immediately but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off forever. The prophets warned Israel of that. Hosea chapter 5 verse 6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find him. He hath withdrawn himself from them. Terrible word. Or again, in Isaiah chapter 54, Isaiah 54, 7 and 8. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. The Lord can withdraw himself from his people. When was Jehovah not found of Israel? When Israel did not seek the Lord with their whole heart. When they went through the motions, they came to the temple. They offered their sacrifices. But their worship was hypocritical. It was an outward form only. They worshiped the idols of the nations around them. They despised God's revelation, His holiness, and His glory. And God, knowing the heart, withdrew from them. He was not near them. He did not speak to them. And God judges His people when that happens. The time of the judges, cried Israel rather cry to the Lord. But he would not answer. Before the captivity, God sent prophets to warn God's people and rebuke them. Turn from your idols. Worship me genuinely from the heart. They would not hear and God gave them over into the hands of their enemies. They were now in captivity. He was not found. Isaiah Chapter 59. Behold, the Lord's hand is not short and that it cannot save, neither is ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. What is true of the nation of Israel is just as much true today. A nation that despises God's truth, and not a nation, a church, a church that despises God's truth, that no longer teaches the youth in catechism, that no longer maintains the truth of the scriptures, that comes to worship as a formality, but the true idols that it's serving are the things of this world. God removes himself from that church. He cannot be found. This can also happen to an individual. Someone who walks impenitently in sin and maybe still coming to church. Maybe he's still opening the Psalter and singing and putting money in the collection plate and everything seems fine from an outward point of view, but his heart isn't in it. And the preaching comes and it has no impact except to harden even more. God withdraws himself from that person. Jeremiah chapter 18. speaks of that hardening with a with a boldness that you can hardly imagine jeremiah 18 verse 11 now therefore he says to jeremiah go to speak to the men of judah and the inhabitants of jerusalem saying thus says the lord behold i frame evil against you and devise a device against you return ye now everyone from his evil way make your ways and your doings good they said There is no hope But we will walk after our own devices We will everyone do the imagination of his own evil heart These are God's this was the church So hearted they can become This is dreadful Absolutely dreadful. When you see someone that you love becoming hardened in sin. When you see a denomination that you love becoming hardened. We need to take heed to the command. Seek ye the Lord. While he is near. Obey his voice. Now, not in the sense of the Armenian, you only have a little bit of time here before you can when you can be saved. But the point is now, not next week, not next year. There does come a time when the Lord takes his word away, when the church will not listen, when the individual will not listen. Then there is preaching maybe on Sunday, but it's not the preaching of the word of God. It's the preaching of men. That does not say. The call, therefore, to the center. Maybe a center who has not sought the Lord before this call comes. The call comes to those who are impenitently walking in a particular sin. The call comes to every single one of us. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. That requires reform. That's the second thing we want to look at today. That's verse 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. forsaking sin. The text addresses both a man's attitude as well as his walk of life. But the wicked forsake his way. That is someone who has departed from the Lord. The word wicked there has at the very core the idea of rebellion. Rebellion. He has departed from the way of the Lord. He walks in every evil. Deliberately he rebels. Deliberately he seeks the paths of sin. but addresses the law but it addresses the heart the thoughts of the unrighteous man his thoughts forsake his thoughts the unrighteous man is literally a man of vanity a man of spiritual falsehood his thoughts are filled with plans and purposes on how best to see and that's what man naturally is filled and you think in the book of ester and hayman and his complicated plot to kill all the Jews but that's nothing new because God told us that already in Genesis chapter 6 that the imagination of that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart are only is only evil continually every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart evil So God calls seek, but he says. First. In that seeking. Part of that seeking. Forsake your evil way. Forsake. Your evil thoughts. And then turn. Turn unto the Lord. Turning his conversion. turning from sin, turning unto God. That's conversion. This can only be done because God has done something inside that man, really turned him already from within. changed him from death to life from one who was dead in sin to one who is alive unto righteousness god works that in the sinner and then he comes with the command turn and the spirit uses the command of the preaching of the gospel and he applies it to that person and that person turns consciously deliberately in a in a Knowing what He needs to do. Thinking it through. I must turn. And He does. And it comes out. It comes out in His speech. It comes out in His actions. He's obedient to God. He's now seeking God's face. Wanting to please Him. Living for God's glory. Not His own pleasures. to the Lord all capital letters to Jehovah turn to your covenant God and then to emphasize that the text says and to our God our God and that clearly indicates this is this is addressed to us beloved this is addressed to God's people I do not deny that the command goes to everyone who hears the preaching of the gospel, of course it does. The command to repent and believe, the canons say, must be preached promiscuously wherever God in His good pleasure sends the gospel. And all men stand before the demand, love God, worship Him, turn from your sin, turn unto the Lord. But the special address of the text is to God's people. People to whom God has revealed himself. They know the Lord. He has drawn near to them. He has spoken to them. But the problem is they're not seeking him with their whole heart. They are not walking in genuine obedience and gratitude. that it is addressed to God's people is evident from the names Jehovah this is the covenant God return to your covenant God and when he says our who can call God our God only those who are chosen in Jesus Christ the church believers this is to you and me seek ye the Lord the prophet addresses us who so easily can live our life in the midst of this world and imagine that everything is well, everything is fine. And he says, no, you need to turn, turn away from your wicked ways, turn away from your evil thoughts. Seek the Lord with all your heart. The way of turning and forsaking is required of God as we seek Him. It's required of God because God is holy. In His holiness, God cannot dwell with sin. He cannot. He is too holy for that. He hates all workers of iniquity. The book of Proverbs says what God hates, and one of the words is the word found in the text. In Proverbs 6, verse 16, six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed blood, innocent blood, and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. That's the text. Your wicked thoughts. A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. He hates that. Feet that are swift and running to mischief. A false witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among brethren. These things the Lord hates. To dwell with God. The man must be holy. In his words, his thoughts. His actions. The book of Hebrews emphasizes that when it says, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. You must be holy. Therefore, turn, turn from your sins. Seek ye the Lord. God is not only holy, but He's all-knowing. He knows everything. He hears everything. He knows the heart. Psalm 94 says, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men, that they are vanity. He searches the heart. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me, says the psalmist, and we sing that with him. So put away sin. An outward show of humility, an outward show of godliness will not do with the Lord. The Israelites thought that. They had fasts. They had elaborate fasts. sackcloth, ashes on their head, tears in their face. God said that's not what I'm interested in. Isaiah chapter 58, verses 6 and 7, God said this, is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, get rid of your sin. Undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, that ye break every yoke. Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out of thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou coverest him, that thou dost hide not thyself from thine own flesh, And two verses later, He says, Then thou shalt call, and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am. Seek Him. He will be found in the way of repentance, turning. It must be with our whole heart not clinging to old sins, not clinging to the things of this world, but confessing them all, renouncing our pride, our self-seeking, our desire, must be for God alone. And then God gives the most beautiful promise of pardon. A beautiful promise of pardon. This is needed for the center full, free, gracious, guaranteed. Pardon. Again, the parallels, the parallels. And he will have mercy upon him. And he will abundantly pardon the mercy and the pardon. explain each other. He will have mercy. That is so reassuring. He will not push you away. It does not matter who you are. It does not matter what your sinful life is. He will not push you away when you turn, when you put away your sin, when you seek Him. That's what we deserve, of course, Our sins, we may think, are not all that bad when we think of all the horrible things people are doing in the world, but you understand that from so many points of view, ours are much worse. Because we know better. Because we have the Bible. Because we've been raised in the sphere of God and of the true religion, and now yet we still sin against Him? And we sin against His grace? But the word mercy has at its very core the word soft. God will not greet us with a hard and flinty face when we come to Him. He will deal gently with those who seek Him. He will deal gently with them. He welcomes them. as the father of the prodigal son, he embraces his people. Mercy is God's attitude. It's an attribute of God, of course, an attribute, but it includes pity, compassion, that God looks upon his people in their misery, and his heart goes out to them, and he pities them, and he wants to lift them up out of their misery. He does. He desires to bless. And he will. How will he do that? Concretely, he will abundantly pardon. They go together. He will have mercy. He will abundantly pardon. Pardon is simply to forgive. Not hold the sins against them. Not requiring payment, not saying we have to earn this. You've got some works to perform here and then I will. No, it's free. A free pardon. Abundantly. I love that. Abundantly. The opposite of that, the contrast, I think of a hard woman who had a child that broke the rules and she scolded him. And the child comes back later with tears in his eyes and said, I'm sorry, Mom. And the only word she has is, OK, don't do it again. No love, no embrace, no restoration to fellowship. That's not God. He abundantly pardons. The word abundantly is literally multiplies. He multiplies pardons. He does so more than we could even think possible. The Lord forgives more sins and greater sins than we would ever think He could do and repeatedly multiplies pardons. He graciously restores us to the experience of love. The sins separate us from God. It does damage to our relationship. But He sweeps them away. He says, I forget about them. I don't hold them against you. I pardon you. They're gone. We need to hear that promise. Because we know our sins. And if we properly examine ourselves this week, we will see many sins and we will see more sins than anyone else sitting in the auditorium or anybody we know. So many sins we will see. Now. Seek ye the Lord. Seek his face. Call upon him. Come to worship. Come to the Lord's table. But we say, but my sins, they're so awful. How can I? How can I possibly come? So God assures us He multiplies pardon. He wipes away all our transgression. His mercy is more than enough to put away all our sins. Do you believe that? Yes, you do. You must. Not only because the text says it, but because all of this is grounded in the cross of Jesus Christ. The love and the mercy of God is what moved God to send His Son. It was His mercy toward us and His love to save His people from their sin, to redeem them, and to bring them unto Himself, to bless us in ways we can't even imagine. Jesus, in His mercy toward us, took every one of our sins upon Himself. He paid the price. He bore the agony of God's wrath and paid for them all. They're gone. That's why God can forgive so abundantly. The sins are gone. They're not on your account. So do this. Seek ye the Lord. Turn from sin. Turn from your self-centered life. Turn from drifting perhaps farther and farther away from God into the world. Look at the sins in your life and say, I must, I must put them out. I must rip them out of my life. And draw near to Him. Seek Him with all your heart and you will know the blessedness of God's forgiving mercy, His amazing love, And what the chapter talks about, the sure mercies of David. Covenant life with God. Amen. Let us pray. Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for Thy abundant goodness. Thou hast redeemed us and given us a new life. And yet we stray. And we can stray a long ways. And go for a long time without recognizing how far we are from Thee. Without us, not let us go. Without us, call us to come back. Lord, we need this every single day. Daily conversion. Help us. Turn us and we shall be turned. For Thou art the Lord our God, Thou alone. Lord, hear us in Thy mercy, for Jesus' sake. Amen. We sing Psalter number 187. 187, thy loving kindness, Lord, is good and free. In tender mercy, turn thou unto me. Hide not thy face from me in my distress. In mercy, hear my prayer. Thy servant bless. All the stanzas, 187. ♪ For it is good and free ♪ ♪ In tender mercy ♪ ♪ Turn the law to thee ♪ ♪ Hide not thy face from me in my distress ♪ We have sorrow all to thee I cry. ♪ Holy being ♪ ♪ I'm thankful, son, my mercies have no end ♪ ♪ With joy of peace, now see my soul restored ♪ Here else I'd be ♪ Grace and glory tell ♪ ♪ Better than seeing ♪ ♪ All that live and grow ♪ ♪ Salvation to His people God will give ♪ ♪ Enter away ♪ ♪ Blessed be the mighty one ♪ ♪ For he of old has wond'red some ♪ ♪ And he's in glory that has come ♪ ♪ And blessed be his glorious name ♪ ♪ Long as the ages shall endure ♪ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. you