“FOUR SOBERING REASONS FOR SEEKING THE LORD”
ISAIAH 55:1-7
TEXT VERSE: ISAIAH 55:6
INTRO: There are many reasons why people will not seek the Lord. For some
it is the pleasure of sin. For others it is the price of seeking the Lord.
But the sad reality is that many who are involved in sin never
consider permanent loss that awaits all who fail to seek the Lord in
this life. The Scripture makes it perfectly clear that there are con-
sequences for not seeking the Lord. Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the
wages of sin is death…” In 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 we are told that
the Lord Jesus will return, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them
that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”
In this life and this life only has God given man the opportunity to
seek Him and know Him. In our text in v6 we read, “Seek ye the
LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.”
Matthew Henry said, “Here is a gracious offer of pardon, and peace,
and of all happiness. It shall not be in vain to seek God, now his word
is calling to us, and his Spirit is striving with us. But there is a day
coming when he will not be found. There may come such a time in
this life; it is certain that at death and judgment the door will be shut”
(Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary). Friend, now is the time to
seek the Lord. Notice the words in v6, “..while he may be found...” In
this day of Grace while the door of Salvation stands open wide to
receive all who will come in! Rab. David Kimchi gives the true sense
of this passage: “Seek ye the Lord, because he may be found: call
upon him, because he is near. Repent before ye die, for after death
there is no conversion of the soul” (Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the
Bible).
Friend, if you are lost today I want your special attention. Those who
are saved I want your attention also so that God’s Spirit might move
us to seek out the lost around us more fervently. Let us consider this
morning “Four Sobering Reasons for Seeking the Lord.”
SEEK THE LORD NOW BECAUSE:
(1) THE SOUL IS ETERNAL
A. THE SAVIOR SPOKE OF THE ETERNALITY OF THE SOUL. In Luke
16:19-31, Our Lord Jesus spoke of the eternality of man’s soul. He
says of the rich man in v23—“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in
torments…” J. C. Ryle says, “this verse clearly teaches, if words mean
anything, that there is no hope of deliverance from hell for those who
die in sin. Once in hell, men are in hell for ever” (1). Charles Spurgeon
said, “the soul sees written over its head, ‘You are damned forever.” It
hears howlings that are to be perpetual , it sees flames which are
unquenchable; it knows pains that are unmitigated” (2).
ILLUS: Clarence E. Macartney, in his stimulating book, <Preaching
without Notes> gives the substance of a dialogue between a lost
soul and its resurrection body, in the judgment, as imagined by
Samuel Davies, noted preacher of the Colonial days. . . . .The
soul curses the body, and blames the lusts of the body for the
soul's eternal undoing, and cries out against the loathsome
prospect of being reunited with the body. The body makes
answer, bitterly accusing the soul of having prostituted the
body to sin, forbidding the knees to bow before the throne of
grace, and overruling every inclination of the eyes and ears to
read and hear the Word of Life. In consequence, the body
recognizes itself to be the just instrument of the soul's
everlasting punishment, while crying out against the necessity
of being bound together by chains which even the pangs of hell
and the flames of unquenchable fire can not dissolve.
The Savior spoke of the Eternality of the soul, also…
B. THE SAVIOR SPOKE OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. The
Lord Jesus spoke of the immorality of the soul in Matthew 25:46,
“And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous
into life eternal.” The soul will live on: either in heaven or in hell. As
Daniel 12:2 tells us, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt.” The rich man which Jesus spoke of in Luke
16, is still burning in hell today. He has never or will never get a
reprieve for you see friend, hell is forever. Friend, your soul is
immortal. It will spend eternity somewhere. The question then is,
Where do you want to spend eternity?
The Savior spoke of the Eternality and Immortality of the soul and
also…
C. THE SAVIOR WARNED MEN TO PREPARE FOR ETERNITY. Jesus
said in Matthew 10:28—“And fear not them which kill the body, but
are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear them which is able to destroy
both body and soul in hell.” Warren Wiersbe says, “V28 is not talking
about Satan, for he does not have the power to destroy both body and
soul in hell. God does, and Christ tells us to fear Him and Him alone.
When you fear God, you need fear nothing else” (3).
ILLUS: We are told in the parable of the sheep and goats (Matt. 25:31-
46) that those whom the judge rejects go away into everlasting
punishment. The New testament always conceives of this
eternal punishment as consisting of an agonizing knowledge of
one's own ill desert, of God's displeasure, of the good that one
has lost, and of the irrevocable fixed state in which one now
finds oneself. The doctrine of eternal punishment was taught in
the synagogue even before our Lord took it up and enforced it
in the Gospels. All the language that strikes terror into our
hearts -- weeping and gnashing of teeth, outer darkness, the
worm, the fire, gehenna, the great gulf fixed -- is all directly
taken from our Lord's teaching. It is from Jesus Christ that we
learn the doctrine of eternal punishment. --James Packer, Your
Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.
Seek the Lord because THE SOUL IS ETERNAL…
(2) THE SAVIOR IS TRUE
*Jesus said in John 14:6—“I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father; but by me.” Charles Spurgeon said about that
passage: “Christ is “the Way,” but if you will not tread it, you shall not
reach the end. Christ is “the Truth,” but if you will not believe him, you
shall not rejoice. Christ is “the Life,” but if you will not receive him, you
shall abide among the dead” (4). Jesus said in John 8:40 to those who
rejected Him, “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the
truth..” What did Jesus teach concerning man’s seeking of Him?:
A. CHRIST TAUGHT ABOUT THE TRUE CONDITION OF MAN. Jesus
said in Luke 19:10—“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost.” Every man without Christ is LOST. What does
it mean to be LOST? It means to be standing on the brink of eternity.
An eternity without Christ and those who are His!
ILLUS: It is said that a man was lost in a mining section. There were
shaft mines -- great holes hundreds of feet deep and very
thick. The man realized his danger. He knew that if he
continued on, seeking to find his way out, he was very liable
to step into one of these holes and be crushed hundreds of
feet below.
So he decided not to take another step. He stopped
immediately and lifted up his voice with all his might and
cried, "LOST! LOST! LOST!" He was heard by some miners,
who came with their lanterns and rescued him. This was a
wise decision.
Sinner, you are lost, lost now! Another step may plunge you
into the pit of damnation. Stop, and cry, "Lost!" He who came
to seek and save the lost will lead you out.
To be LOST is to be under the condemnation of God now! Jesus said
in John 3:18—“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God.” The LOST “continues under the
condemnation which Divine justice has passed upon all sinners; and
has this superadded, He hath not believed on the name of the only
begotten Son of God, and therefore is guilty of the grossest insult to
the Divine majesty, in neglecting, slighting, and despising the salvation
which the infinite mercy of God had provided for him (Adam Clarke’s
Commentary on the Bible). What a horrible condition to be in: LOST!
Charles Spurgeon said, “It is a very remarkable fact that no inspired
preacher of whom we have any record ever uttered such terrible words
concerning the destiny of the lost as our Lord Jesus Christ” (5).
CHRIST TAUGHT ABOUT THE TRUE CONDITION OF MAN, also..
B. CHRIST TAUGHT THAT HE ALONE IS THE SOURCE OF ETERNAL
LIFE. We read in John 3:36—“He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life;
but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Christ alone is the source of
eternal life. Without Him, there is no life!
ILLUS: In November 1993 Esquire magazine carried an article entitled
"How to Live Forever." The article said that if all gerontogenes
are deactivated, if cancer and heart disease are conquered, if
genes can be tricked into regenerating organ tissue, and if all
causes of senescence are eliminated, the median life span will
increase to 1,200 years! That is a very long list of "if's." And
1,200 years is a long time, but it is considerably short of
eternity. The fact is that our bodies were never intended to
last forever and we were never intended to spend eternity on
earth. Jesus told us how to live forever. In chapter 4 of John's
gospel He spoke of water that would bring eternal life. In
chapter 6 He spoke of bread that would bring eternal life. In
chapter 17 He said plainly, "Now this is eternal life; that they
may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you
have sent." - Robert C. Shannon, To Illustrate, Preaching,
Sept-Oct, 1994, p. 49
1. Christ alone has the POWER TO SAVE. The Apostle Paul said in
Romans 1:16—“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is
the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the
Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Notice it is called The Gospel of
Christ. Because Acts 4:12 tells us, “Neither is there salvation in
any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved.” The gospel is God's only
appointed means of salvation. The name of Jesus Christ "is the
only name . whereby we must be saved." All God's saving power is
manifested through the gospel (The People’s New Testament
Commentary).
ILLUS: A Christian from China was giving his testimony and he
said, "I had slipped into a great ditch and the ditch was
sin." Buddha came along and said, "Come up half way and
I will lift you up." Muhammad came along and said, "Here
are five pillars that will get you out." But I couldn't get up
those five pillars. Confucius came along and said, "You're
not really in that ditch, you just think you're in that hole."
But I was still there in the ditch of sin. Then Jesus came
by and saw my predicament. He didn't say a word but laid
aside his regal robes and got down in the ditch along with
the sin and the mire and he lifted me out of it by his grace.
The difference was his love and who he was! He was who
was God was willing to come down to my level in order to
lift me out of sin.
2. Christ alone has THE WILLINGNESS TO SAVE. Jesus said in
John 10:10-11, 18, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to
kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they
might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. No man taketh it from me: but
I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have
the power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my
Father.” He willingly came to bear our sins and die for us on the
Cross! He gave himself for man of his free will. He laid it down on
the cross; He took it up when he rose from the dead (The People’s
New Testament).
ILLUS: It was May 21, 1946. The place - Los Alamos. A young and
daring scientist was carrying out a necessary experiment in
preparation for the atomic test to be conducted in the waters
of the South Pacific at Bikini. He had successfully performed