“Seek the Lord while He May be Found”
Isaiah 55:6-7
By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© August 28, 2016
Isaiah 55 is an amazing chapter. Written some 700 years before Christ, by the Prophet Isaiah, the first two verses issue a call for anyone who can hear, to come and drink freely of the Water of Life. The Holy Spirit had inspired Isaiah to use this beautiful analogy of God’s continuing resource promised to those who were God’s Children. We explored more of the depth of these two verses in last week’s message.
In verses 3 through 5 Isaiah reminds the Children of Israel of the everlasting Covenant that God made with King David and the benefit this would have for them in the future. This reminds us of how those in the Old Testament only partially understood the hidden plan (Col. 1:25-27; Rom. 16:25-26; Eph. 3:8-10) that God was going to reveal through the sacrificial redemption of His Son, the Messiah, from the linage of David, and His Kingdom, which would be eternally established in the end.
Hebrews 11 enumerates a number of examples of those who trusted God by faith such as Isaiah – well before the Messiah and the mystery of Salvation was revealed:
· Able, who was killed by his jealous brother Cain, for offering a sacrifice acceptable to God. Whose faith still speaks to us.
· Enoch
· Noah
· Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
· Sarah
· Joseph
· Moses
· Rahab
· Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, etc., etc.
Hebrews 11:13–16
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:39–40
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
In Isaiah 55:6-7, the prophet makes an appeal to “seek the Lord”. This appeal is applicable to us today, just as it was in Isaiah’s day.
Isaiah 55:6-7
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
(See also Deut. 4:29; 2 Chron. 15:2; Jer. 33:3)
Isaiah the prophet called out for those in the nation of Israel to seek the Lord…to seek the Lord while He may be found! All people do not seek God. There seem to be many other things to “seek” in life.
We may seem to seek God by some of the things we do…like going to church; but, as we know from the Jewish people, their religiousness did not always reveal their desire to seek the true and living God.
The wicked person does not seek God.
Psalm 10:4
4 In his pride the wicked does not seek him [God];
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
The wicked do not have a genuine “thirst” for God…only enough to satisfy a show for other’s expectations, and to potentially improve their own personal benefits.
Those who have been given a heart to seek God, find their spirit reaching out to God:
We reach out, seeking God…
· When we submit to God,
· When we resist the forces of darkness who want to capture our heart and mind;
· When we desire to know God and to come near to Him,
· When we walk away from evil and wash our hands of it;
· When we seek to purity our hearts and minds;
· When we grieve over sin, and
· When we honestly repent before God.
James 4:7–9
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (See also Ps. 73:28; Zech. 1:3; Mal 3:7; Heb. 7:19)
God Wants Us to be Redeemed and Delivered from Sin – not live in it.
God expects faithful pastors to honestly teach people the truth and encourage them to repent before God if they are caught up in that, which will destroy them. It is not an easily accepted thing to let people know that they should repent from sin, but this is what a pastor honorable to God’s Word will do. Each person will some day stand before the Judgment Bar of God. (See God’s word to lying prophets, Jeremiah 23:25-32)
Isaiah 55
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
How Do You Know if the Lord is “Near”, so He may be “Found”?
1. “The Lord is Near,” because He IS, and we are.
God is near us because He made all things and at this moment holds all things together with His powerful Word. (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:17)
We want to understand if our life has purpose and meaning greater than ourselves. The profound, exquisite creation and expanse of the universe around us together with our God-given ability to reason creates our fundamental “need to know”…which reveals the fact that God is “Near”.
“He IS, and we are.”
Psalm 19:1–4
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
Romans 1:20
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Paul, speaking to the Athenian philosophers spoke about the nearness of our Creator God in this way:
Acts 17:24–28
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
2. “The Lord is Near,” because everyone has an inherent inward spiritual emptiness, which can only be filled by God…(spiritual impostors try).
o This may be recognized through a personal spiritual longing;
o Sometimes an intense or tragic situation points our eyes to God and away from ourselves;
o Sometimes it is recognized through someone who comes alongside us to lead us to Christ.
God uses many things to individualize each person’s need for Him.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Don Richardson’s book, Eternity in their Hearts, gives incidents of this throughout the world.
3. “The Lord is Near,” because God has given us His Holy Spirit to create a thirst for and an understanding of Himself.
The Bible gives us a clear understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit within the lives of those who have been redeemed by the Blood of Christ and transformed by His Spirit.
· The Holy Spirit is our Comforter (John 16:7; 2 Cor. 1:3-4).
· The Holy Spirit is our Teacher (1 Cor. 2:9-15).
· The Holy Spirit intercedes with “groaning” for us before the Throne of God (Rom. 8:26-27).
· The Holy Spirit illumines Christ’s Word to our heart and mind (John 14:26).
· The Holy Spirit leads us and guides us (John 16:13; Rom 8:14).
· The Holy Spirit gives us understanding about the future (John 16:13b).
The Lord is “Near” a believer, because our body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).
The Scripture also gives us the underlying understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in the world – for the unbeliever and the believer.
What are four primary evidences of the Holy Spirit in the world?
· The Holy Spirit brings Conviction of sin
· The Holy Spirit gives clarity and undergirds Righteousness
· The Holy Spirit reinforces the reality of Judgment
· The Holy Spirit illumines us regarding Things to come
John 16:7–11, 13
7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
When we wonder whether or not “the Lord is Near”, we could be asking ourselves the following questions, based on the Holy Spirit’s work in this world.
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•Do you feel great guilt, remorse and conviction because of your sin?
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•Do you want to live a Righteous, God honoring Life, but have trouble doing so?
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•Are you afraid to die and face the Judgment of God?
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•Are you seriously afraid of tragic things that may happen in the future?
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•Do you have a heart to Know and Seek God?
If you are experiencing a great conviction of sin, there is a strong possibility that God, the Holy Spirit is convicting you, encouraging you to repent before God. You can certainly expect that “God is near”, if this is the case.
God does not seem “near” to those who callously live lives full of sin. They seem unaffected and unaware of God.
Is God unaware?
(note: When we confess our sin we should do so to God, and honorably, if others are involved, only to those affected by the sin.)
If you have dealt with a particular sin issue, repented from it, and have removed yourself from it, but still experience the feeling of horrific guilt, then you may need to renounce, through the Blood of Christ, the “accuser” (Rev. 12:10-11). Satan and his demonic host, our accusers, want to counterfeit conviction and cause a forgiven Child of God to fall into the downward emotional slide of continuing, consuming false guilt, including depression and suicide, instead of experiencing the freedom of Christ’s grace and forgiveness.
Colossians 1:13–14
13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Psalm 32
1 Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
2 Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night
your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer. Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the Lord”—
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin. Selah
6 Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you
while you may be found;
surely when the mighty waters rise,
they will not reach him.
7 You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you and watch over you.
9 Do not be like the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
or they will not come to you.
10 Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the Lord’s unfailing love
surrounds the man who trusts in him.
11 Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous;
sing, all you who are upright in heart!
The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost to transform those who believe in Jesus Christ, through New Birth, into Children of the Most High God. This means we are all growing and maturing in our Christian faith. Failing at times, confessing our faults to God and others, and building each other up in the faith.
Christian maturity is a matter of becoming more like Christ:
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•Growing
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•Overcoming
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•Maturing in our walk with God
The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin against God. If we harden our hearts from His conviction, we will find ourselves facing the righteous justice of the Living God.
Hebrews 10:26–31
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
God has a continual call for the wicked to repent and turn to Him for pardon and forgiveness.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
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1. “The Lord is Near,” because He IS and we are.
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2.“The Lord Is Near,” Because Everyone Has An Inherent Inward Spiritual Emptiness, Which Can Only Be Filled By God.
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3.“The Lord Is Near,” Because God Has Given Us His Holy Spirit To Create a Thirst For and an Understanding of Himself.
Isaiah 55:1-2, 6-7
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
Are we actively seeing God?
Are we growing in our Christian Faith?
Are we building and encouraging the faith of those around us?
Are we looking forward and ready for the Lord’s Return?
I have never regretted seeking God. I have always regretted when I have not.