Seek the Lord While He May Be Found
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“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).
Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Unless the Lord shall
return in your lifetime, the day will come when you will no longer be able to join
with your brothers and sisters to worship here in the presence of the Lord. It
could be because you decide one day, for one reason or another, that you’re not
going, and you just never make it back. You might become ill or incapacitated and
no longer able to make it to worship.
Though it once seemed
impossible, it’s also not so hard to imagine the day may come when you cannot
join with your brothers and sisters in the presence of the Lord because no one
will let you worship here, perhaps because of health mandates or because what
we teach here does not meet with “established community standards.”
Or it could be that you
can no longer join with your brothers and sisters in Christ because this
congregation is closed. Congregations, like people, have lifespans. None of
them (or us, as individuals) will go on forever. And as we’re all aware: the
fewer people who gather with their brothers and sisters to worship in the
presence of the Lord, the harder it is for a congregation to continue.
Which brings us to the
final reason why you would no longer be able to join with your brothers and
sisters to worship in the presence of the Lord: you have “shuffle[d] off this
mortal coil,” you’ve kicked the bucket,” you’re “pushing up daisies,” you’re
dead. At this point, you can’t do anything, certainly not seek the Lord!
Now, here’s the thing:
most of these scenarios you don’t have much control over or say about. You can
take the best care of yourself, but you can still get ill, become
incapacitated, or die. Someone could make it difficult (even impossible) for
you to gather with your fellow believers in the presence of the Lord. But you
can make sure that you seek the Lord while He may be found; you can be certain that
you call upon Him while He is near. You see, the Lord is not hiding from you.
Neither is He lost. He wants you to seek Him. He wants to be found. He actually
finds you and places Himself in a place or position so you will see Him because
you do not have the natural ability to turn to God. He has to, because you can’t,
you won’t.
Luther has it right: “I
cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come
to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with
His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls,
gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and
keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He
daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.”[i]
God can be found by humans only by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word
of the Gospel. In the Gospel, the Lord comes near.
In face of stubborn
resistance to Him and His Word, God, however, does withdraw His Gospel
at times. Jesus withdrew Himself from those who openly opposed Him. His
withdrawal meant a severe judgment upon them because His absence removed their
opportunity to repent. On his missionary journeys, Paul would first visit the
Jewish synagogues to share the Gospel, but as opposition arose, he would leave
and go to the Gentiles. God urges sinners to seek Him before their rejection
prompts His departure.
Through His prophet,
the Lord urges sinners to turn away from their wicked ways and turn to Him. For
the one who does so, the Lord pledges to have compassion on the sinner and to
pardon him abundantly. The words hold out the bright jewel of forgiveness for
the grimy, stained hands of every sinner to grasp. What a comfort to every
sinner! God looks tenderly upon sinners and, because of Christ, forgives us!
This sounds too good to
be true. It doesn’t make sense to sinful human reason. No wonder: “For
My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares 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” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
The connecting link
between this and the previous verses are the words thoughts and ways.
God speaks again and declares the superiority of His thoughts to those of any
and every human. Like God, His thoughts are holy and righteous, just and merciful.
The ways and thoughts of humans are wicked and evil by nature. Moses writes
about the times of Noah: “The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually” (Genesis 6:5). Over the centuries nothing has changed. Jesus says,
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality,
theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19).
Besides the problem of
sin, human thoughts and ways are limited by time, space, and other factors. No
one, in a lifespan of 70 or 80 or even 100 years should expect to be able to learn
what God, who is eternal and all-knowing, knows. No one who can be in only one
place at one time should expect to have the knowledge of an infinite, omnipresent
God. But this text gets us deeper into the profound difference between God and
humanity. Our natural perverse nature struggles against God. All thoughts that
flow from us are nothing like God’s thoughts. The deepest thinkers of
the ages cannot achieve the high and lofty ways of God or understand God. Left
alone and without God’s Word, no human can imagine that God would send a Savior
to die for unworthy sinners. God’s grace remains a mystery to human
intelligence and research. Yet God does make it known to us in His Word.
Even the way God works
in the human heart lies beyond the human imagination. The Holy Spirit works the
miracle of conversion through the Gospel—simple words that announce forgiveness
and life through Christ. The Word is powerful. For God’s dealing with men and
women, the Word is everything. Yet words appear so weak and ineffective—only
sounds that travel through the air to an ear or a series of lines on a page or
screen perceived by our eyes. But God’s ways are higher than ours. God’s way
works through the words of the Gospel not only to convert sinners but to
strengthen us and preserve our faith against the many temptations and
distractions in this life. Simple words that announce God’s love for sinners
have more power than all human ways and thoughts because God’s Word changes the
heart and offers life and forgiveness to all believers.
God is seeking sinners,
so that they would repent of their sins because God wants to forgive
sinners—sinners like you and me. He wants us to seek Him and His forgiveness
and to call upon Him in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving while He is still near
to us. If God departs from us, we are in seriously deep spiritual trouble. What
does this mean? It means that, if we do not seek the Lord where and while He is
found, we are in danger of spending eternity in hell. We risk eternal
condemnation when we do not seek Him where He is found.
Where God is found is
where He has willingly bound Himself for our sake. God, who is without limits, has
put Himself in a box, so to speak. God, who is infinite and omnipresent, has
freely and willingly bound Himself to His Word and Sacraments. It is there and
nowhere else that the Lord is to be found giving His gifts. This is sure,
certain, and iron-clad guarantee, for God has promised this to us in His Word.
When it comes to our souls, we need certainty.
When we look elsewhere
for Him, somewhere He has not promised to be found, we have doubt, and
doubt is never a good thing where our salvation is concerned. When we look
somewhere else for God instead of where He has promised to be, we are telling
God that we don’t think His gifts are good enough for us, that we want Him to
deal with us on our terms, not His.
We’ve heard the excuse;
we may have made these excuses ourselves: “You don’t have to go to church to
worship God.” We may think we can worship God when we’re on the lake or when
we’re out camping. If this is true, then how do you hear your sins are
forgiven? Remember that St. Paul tells us that faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Out in nature, we can see the beauty of God’s
creation, but we don’t hear the forgiveness of our sins. Though God, in is
everywhere, He has not promised to be everywhere with His grace and mercy but
points us to where He may be found—in His means of grace.
We may also think, “We can
hear the Word of God when we’re watching Main Street Living or the service streamed
on Facebook.” While such media may be helpful for the short-term, and I thank
God that we have them available to us, they are not meant to be a long-term substitute
for our being in the Lord’s house, especially if one is physically able to be
here. Our Christian faith is meant to be shared in community. While God’s Word
can be received in many forms, one cannot receive the body and blood of Christ
virtually.
For those not able to
come because of health concerns or complications of age, the Church has an obligation
to go to them, as their pastors have the charge to bring them the Word and the
Lord’s Supper. If you find yourself or a loved one in this situation, please
give me a call so we can figure out a way to best meet your spiritual needs
according to your circumstances. This important to your spiritual well-being!
In Isaiah’s day, the
Lord was found where He promised to be—in the temple in Jerusalem. The temple
was the place that God promised to be with His people as long as they sought
the Lord and listened to His Word. There, He promised to hear their prayers and
forgive their sins. Sadly, they often did not seek the Lord or call on His name,
and Isaiah’s call in our text was just one of many pleas the Lord made through His
prophets over the years for His people to return to Him. Time and again, they
refused to listen. They refused to repent. They refused to turn from their
wicked ways.
Finally, God sent His
Son. Jesus lived a perfect obedient life in our place. He fulfilled the Law,
loving the Lord with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength and loving His
neighbor as Himself. He gave Himself into death on the cross, exchanging His
righteousness for your and my sin. Three days later, He rose from the dead,
giving us the certain hope of eternal life. As He ascended to the right hand of
the Father, He promised: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given
to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the
end of the age” (Matthew 28:18–20).
Where is He now? Here. With
us. Always. As we gather with our brothers and sisters around His Word and
Sacraments.
Jesus has promised that
“where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them” (Matthew
18:20). He is right here now as we gather in His name and Word. He speaks to us
through the voice of His called and ordained servant in the Absolution. In His
Supper, He feeds us with His true body and blood for the forgiveness of our
sins and the strengthening of our faith.
In these means of grace,
you have forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. In these means of grace, the
holy, righteous Lord comes to you in mercy and compassion with pardon and peace.
So, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him
return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He
will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).
Indeed, for Jesus’
sake, you are forgiven for all your sins.
In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture
quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001
by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
[i]
Luther, M. (1991). Luther’s Small
Catechism with Explanation. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia
Publishing House.
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