ES2PeJ03 Seek the Lord while He may be found

2 Peter and Jude  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  25:37
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Isaiah 55 NIV
1 “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 you will delight in the richest of fare. 3 Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. 4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. 5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”
It is my intention to spend a little time in
Hosea 10:12 NKJV
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
Break up your fallow ground
Where ground is broken up on a yearly basis the soil becomes soft, rich and healthy but soil that has not been broken up is hard, unfruitful and can only bring up weeds and thorns. The former gives a harvest when seed is sown – the latter just cannot. A ground that is continually turned over keeps the ground fresh and ready for a future harvest. To break up fallow ground means to get the land ready to work. This is obviously about our hearts and lives: “Break off your evil ways, repent of your sins, cease to do evil, and then the good seed of the word will have room to grow and bear fruit.” 1 To break up fallow ground was to prepare ourselves for righteousness. It is time to be renewed.
1 Easton, M. G. (1893). Easton’s Bible dictionary. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Sow for yourselves righteousness
The action of breaking up the fallow ground is an internal action. The action of sowing righteousness is an external action, that is, to live a righteous life. This involves me being righteous to my neighbour, my family, my fellow believer, and my fellow church member. To live a righteous life among one another is to live a life of truth. No good comes from ploughing a field if you don’t plant something in it.
We must be people who sow righteousness, who do right things in response to our salvation. God expects our obedience. Sowing righteousness is simply obeying God and doing what he has called us to do. When we do, God will do great things among us. We are the body of Christ...as a body we can do everything...but as individuals we can only do some things. In other words; we may have a gifting in one area but not another – we fill the gap where we have a gift and someone else fills the gap where we are lacking. However don’t be proud that you have a gift that someone else does not because that someone else has a gift that you do not and the first of those is probably humility!
We reap what we sow so let us be very careful how we sow:
2 Peter 1:5–9 NKJV
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
We have to sow to righteousness and this list in 2 Peter is part of that. And over the next few weeks we will look a little closer at this passage, God willing.
It is time to seek the Lord.
No matter how well things are going or how bad there is no time like the present to seek the Lord. We read earlier that we should seek Him whilst He may be found. As we are in a time when He can be found then now is the time to seek the Lord.
How do we do this? Some think that there is some mystical secret thing that you need to do but really it is more by trial and error than skill; it is learned at the cutting face. There is no secret knowledge or some secret ritual for seeking God otherwise the ordinary Christian who does not have access to this knowledge or skills are left out. Seeking God is not for the elite or super-spirituals – it is for all of us. We are simply to look for Him, to seek Him and to wait on Him.
I’ve made one basic assumption about seeking God that I think is backed up by Scripture and that is God wants to be found. So this should encourage us – He really wants to be found by us – He is not going to hide Himself from us. How do I know?
1) He came to seek and find us...we were lost and His seeking of us led Him to send His own Son to turn us back towards him. If He came for us then it is logical to say He wants us to come to Him.
2) His desire is for us – He desires all to be saved, all to know Him – in Jesus’ prayer in
John 17:3 NKJV
3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
3) In various places He declares that if you seek Him you will find Him especially when we seek Him with all our hearts. For instance in
Jeremiah 29:11–14 NKJV
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
What are the reasons for seeking God?
1) We seek Him for Himself. He is God. He is the highest one we can seek. He is all powerful, all wonderful, all beautiful. Our God is an awesome God.
2) We seek Him to know Him better
3) We seek Him to get answers, for direction in our lives. Jesus made some crucial decisions after spending the night seeking God such as the choosing of the 12.
4) We seek Him on behalf of others
5) We seek Him to be refreshed
A favourite Scripture with this theme is
Isaiah 40:28–31 NKJV
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
The fact is we all fall down. We all sometimes find the going tough.
The fact is that we need to be filled with His Holy Spirit and to continue being filled because we are inclined to get ourselves muddy in the deep waters of our minds and hearts and this can lead to sin or being duped by the devil.
1 Peter 5:8 NKJV
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
3a. The Holy Spirit “…seeks to show you that your infinite worth and value to God make Him desire your fellowship,” while Satan, “…seeks to convince you that you are so bad God wouldn’t want to have anything to do with you” (Mark I. Bubeck, Overcoming The Adversary, published by Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois; pg. 51).
3b. The Holy Spirit “…seeks to show you that there is forgiveness and restoration available no matter how bad your sin,” while Satan, “…seeks to convince you that there is no forgiveness for you. You’ve committed the unpardonable sin” (Ibid, pg. 51).
3c. The Holy Spirit “…uses God’s Word to give you hope and assurance of God’s love and forgiveness,” while Satan “…uses God’s Word out of context to convince you that there is no hope for you” (Ibid, pg. 51).
3d. The Holy Spirit “…builds faith, hope, and love in your heart and increases your confidence and assurance of salvation,” while Satan “…creates despair, doubt, resentment, and anger toward God, His Word, and His people. You feel that no one as bad as you could ever really be saved” (Ibid, pg. 51).
We see that we need to come back to the Lord for cleansing and forgiveness – every single one of us. Confess our sin to Him and He is willing to come in a moment’s notice and to cleanse us as if it had never happened. This is almost too good to be true but God is good and God is true. There is only one condition for forgiveness to come in this way – if we are forgiving one another.
Colossians 3:12–14 NKJV
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Why would this passage speak of all these things? Because we are all apt to wind up each other the wrong way...Paul had to say this for he knows himself and others well enough to know that each one of us is sinful...but we were shown mercy by God when we were his enemies – how much more then do we need to show mercy to one another.
But don’t let the devil convince you that forgiveness cannot be found in God for it can, though only through Jesus Christ.
Our love for the Lord needs to be renewed as well as our love for one another and our love for those in the world. We may have forgotten that our sins have been forgiven, that we have been rescued and in the midst of it forgotten others:
Reap in mercy
Once there was a small group of people who had been rescued from drowning of a rocky shoreline. They were so grateful for being rescued that they decided to build a rescue station on the coast with the mission of saving others who may get into trouble in the dangerous, rocky waters of the coast.
As time went by the members of this rescue station were able to rescue a great many people, and inevitably some of those they rescued were so grateful that they chose to stay and be a part of the rescue station crew. They too wanted to make sure that others were rescued from the dangerous waters along the coast.
As the station’s crew grew in number they were able to affect more and more rescues, but in order to do so they needed more equipment. They raised money, they gave their own money, they even found benevolent people to donate to the cause and they were able to build a larger and nicer rescue station.
As their work continued the members of the station crew also began to develop strong friendships. After all they had a lot in common. They had all been rescued. They were all in the business of rescuing others. Soon a strong social life began to develop among those at the station.
They would have nice activities to celebrate where they had come from. They would have parties to enjoy one another’s company. They would have nice get-togethers just for the sake of getting together.
As time went by and the station was remodeled, added to and it got nicer, and as the crowd became friendlier and friendlier with each other they began to lose sight of their mission.
They still rescued some people, when they had the time, but before the rescuees could enter the beautiful new station they had to clean up. The people being rescued couldn’t be allowed to get the station dirty you know.
Before long the rescue station evolved into a beautiful club. The rescue motif was strong, lots of life preservers and boats and nets. It was all very quaint, but rescues didn’t take place anymore. Only people of certain status and breeding were really accepted in the club. Oh, anyone could come in, but not all were warmly welcomed.
In the meantime hundreds and hundreds of people crashed on the rocky shoreline and drowned because the rescue mission was no longer rescuing people.
Now, let’s be honest. Is this a picture of us here?
It is very easy to get caught up in the me culture. My needs. My Church. My life. And forget we are here to serve God and others:
Ezekiel 22:30 NKJV
30 So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.
The Lord was seeking someone who would mediate on behalf of others. There is a grand mediator who stands before God the Father on our behalf and that is Jesus, God the Son. He was one willing to stand in the gap for the needy, for the lost, for us. Can we do the same? Are we willing to carry the cross?
He will rain righteousness on us.
The next thing that happens is rain; water for the seed. This is Gods revival. If we will break the ground and sow the seed, God will draw near and water that crop, refresh the earth and a bountiful harvest will result. God guarantees it. We can’t make it rain. But we can prepare the soil, sow the seed, and trust God to send his rain. God is a great God who always keeps his promises. If we will break our hard heart, or allow him to, and if we will sow righteousness in adding to our faith, he promises to pour out his rain...revival will come.
Hosea 6:3 NKJV
3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.
Hosea 10:12 NKJV
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
[God wants to rain righteousness upon Manselton and we are here for such a time as this. But there are conditions that we need to fulfil...Jesus has to be our first love, we are to break up our hard hearts, sow righteousness, to love each other with fervent love and those in the world by doing to them what we would have them do to us, and God will give the increase, God will build His Church.]

Benediction

Isaiah 55:12–13 CSB
12 You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided; the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will come up, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will come up; this will stand as a monument for the Lord, an everlasting sign that will not be destroyed.
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