Title: Seekers vs. the Sought Out; Rev. Tim Beck
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Seek the Lord while he may be found. This word from God is clear. It tells us three things. It commands, warns, and promises. 1) This sentence commands, “Seek the Lord.” We are His creation, He is God. He is God! Therefore, what are we to do but arrange our lives around what pleases Him? 2) This sentence warns, “While, seek the Lord while…” The Lord will not always be willing to be found. There is a Day of Judgment. So we should fear now. We should also turn and run the right direction, the righteous direction. 3) This sentence promises, “God is near, ready to hear whoever calls on Him.” God can be found! Hearing this, we have reason to rejoice. And that’s the bottom line, the reason to seek, that God wills to be found.
First, the commandment is common sense. “Seek the Lord.” With zeal, we seek lost cars in parking lots, lost children in grocery stores, misplaced papers, lost computer files and misplaced tickets to the ball game. But when it comes to the greatest matters, the eternal score, what’s the batting average in common sense, in a common seeking? As they say, where is common sense if it is so common? Why do folks, including us, spend so little time seeking the LORD? How well do you know the Bible? Do you read it daily? If we agree that we ought to seek the Lord, we also need ask, “where does God chose to be found?” A couple years ago, after service an elderly visitor at Mt. Zion looked and looked for her car in our parking lot, walking in circles round and round with another member from our congregation. Finally, she called the police and said it was stolen. When the officer arrived, he listened to the woman, glanced across the street and asked, “Is that it?” It’s not enough to seek; we need to look in the right place. When Israel Israel
Why is that so important? Because secondly, 2) the sentence warns, “God will not always be near to be found.” There is a Day of Judgment. Hearing this, we should not only fear, we should turn and run the right direction, toward righteousness. Seeking the Lord is more than the anxious cry, the desperation of one adrift at sea begging God “I’ll do anything if you rescue me…” unless I see land. Let the wicked forsake his way. Let the wicked bear the fruit of repentance, as John the Baptist said. That’s not common sense to the world, the devil or our sinful nature either, to turn around and run uphill... and ultimately, not to our own efforts, but to a cross. As for repentance in our world for example, if a politician admits fault, what happens? He loses votes. That suggests it is not better to change direction. For example, if a pastor preaches “church is not about ‘me’ it is foremost about God,” how often does he hear this downstream drift, “boring!” For example, if we believe “blessed are the rich in spirit” not “blessed are the poor in spirit” what happens? We will not find the Lord while He can be found. That’s why God mercifully drives us to repentance with the law. The law teaches common sense, what pleases the LORD, before it is too late. But there’s a problem here. While the law teaches us what pleases God and teaches us to fear, can it give us the goodness of God, His mercy, His love? Only the gospel can do that, by giving us the righteousness of God, His righteousness not against us, but for us. We are not told, run to the law for comfort and strength, although the law is righteous. To run to the righteousness of the law is to hit a brick wall on the nose, full tilt. We are told, run to Christ’s righteousness for you, imputed to you, given freely to you. That’s what we are to seek, that is, the heavenly Father’s uncommon sense.
Thirdly, 3) this sentence promises “the Lord is near, ready to hear whoever calls on Him.” The Lord Jesus Christ means to be found! Hearing this, we have reason for joy. We have reason to rejoice because the true God sends a personal invitation. He didn’t use the U.S.P.S sixth class mail. He came and said, “Here am I.” Certainly, when Isaiah preached these words he spoke of what was to come. Isaiah, like all the prophets until John the Baptist looked forward to the Christ. At the same time, the prophets taught how to seek, and where, when, why, what and whom; seek the coming Christ, who came to them in His Word. They were told to seek by believing the promise, receiving what the Lord revealed for faith. And to this day the repentant received the benefit of the promise, namely forgiveness, and hence life.
Consider how folks of old were to seek the Lord. In ancient days the patriarchs offered sacrifices, God appointed sacrifices. They didn’t wave offerings before unknown goddesses, but to the Lord of the promise. Moses was given not only commandments but a definite form of worship promising grace, mercy, and peace on the basis of the coming one. The prophets affirmed the coming promise with signs, calling for repentance and announcing forgiveness. At last in the fullness of time, God sent His Son, born of woman, born under the law, born to fulfill the law, born to be the sacrifice for all who violated the law. God’s uncommon sense provided an uncommon salvation, a righteousness we can call our own, a righteousness received by faith, a righteousness that makes us uncommon. For God revealed himself lifted up, on a cross. This is where He wills to be found; for if you have seen Jesus then you have seen God as the Father, as your Father. In the days of His sojourn, Jesus commanded, warned, and promised. He said, “Turn from your evil ways,” then bid us turn toward his beckoning face. He declared to those smitten by the law, “Whoever calls on my name shall be saved. I forgive you all your sin.” Today He speaks through the same word, granting salvation in the ways He promises to be present.
That’s how, where, and when God can be found… in His word that invites us and at the same time carries us over the threshold to His wedding feast. He reveals what we do not seek and gives what we cannot find. This God goes to the market place not for cheap labor, but to find all who have no way to make a living. There He proclaims, Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that has no money, come! buy and eat; yes, come! buy wine and milk without money and without price. (Isa. 55:1)
We enter His vineyard at quitting time and He pays us with what he earned. Otherwise, how could we sinners, we rebels, find the true God? We choose wrong ways because we do not understand His way. That’s why He revealed the righteous way nailed high on a tree for all to see. If we look first in self-help books to become rich, filled, and proud, He mercifully turns us toward a criminal’s crucifixion; then gives us His word with common water, and with bread and wine; and supplies pastors who proclaim and administer these gifts. He fills our lives with Himself, bringing us into His fellowship, bringing us into His presence. He does even more by His uncommon sense, in ways that are not our ways, but are ways that bring us into divine life, to share His eternal life. As the dear Martin Luther said, Grace and life were given you; but it meant bitter work for Him. It cost Him much. He earned it at the greatest expense with His own blood, body, and life. For to put down God’s wrath, judgment, conscience, hell, death, and everything evil and to gain everything good could not be done without satisfying divine justice, paying for sin, and really overcoming death. (SL 11, 422)
The boss who did the work gives away his profit. So hold out your hands, the workman who does not labor is generously paid. God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense pours out the earnings of another for you, for you who cannot pay enough or even find work. He washes away your pollution from guilt and shame, promising in forgiveness resurrection life, a perfect, righteous life, a life of fellowship in the LORD; for He gave you a new name in Holy Baptism, the uncommon identity of “saint.” This grace makes no sense to us sinners, until named saints. That’s why the admonition, seek the Lord while he may be found. First the law teaches us the LORD is God. It tells us what we must do, and threatens punishment. Then the promise reveals how, what, where, why, when, and whom to seek. The promise not only shows these things, it delivers them to us. What uncommon grace! No wonder the Apostle Paul responded in this way: to live is Christ, and to die is gain. That’s an extraordinary word too, revealing this wonder of grace, namely faith. Faith receives the Saviour, and despite Paul’s suffering, rejoices. Consider the uncommon joy Paul has because He belongs to Christ. Consider how much hope he has in this life and for the next. That joy is ours too through uncommon mercy. Jesus Christ comes to feed your faith with His very presence, his bodily presence promising forgiveness.
Better than signs old, of sacrifice, tabernacle, and prophesies pointing ahead, the ascended Jesus Christ gives Himself to you today, free and fully. He promises to be found where He tells you to seek Him. He gives Himself to you now. He promises that one day you shall see Him as He is. Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that has no money, come! buy and eat; yes, come! buy wine and milk without money and without price. (Isa. 55:1)
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Amen)
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