If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God.
Conversions encouraged
I. First, then, there is a time mentioned. “If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord. .. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee even in the latter days.”
1. The time in which the Lord bids you seek Him, O you unforgiven ones, is, first of all, “from thence”--that is, from the condition into which you have fallen, or the position which you now occupy. Today, even today, He bids you seek Him “with all your heart and with all your soul.”
2. With regard to the time of turning, it is well worthy of our notice that we are specially encouraged to turn unto the Lord if we are in a painful plight. Our text says, “When thou art in tribulation.” Are you sick? Does your weakness increase upon you? Are you apprehensive that this sickness may even be unto death? When thou art in such tribulation, then thou mayest return to Him. A sick body should lead us the more earnestly to seek healing for our sick soul. Are you poor, have you come down from a comfortable position to one of hard labour and of scant provision? When thou art in this tribulation, then turn to the Lord, for He has sent thee this need to make thee see thy yet greater necessity, even thy need of Himself.
3. Notice further, when you feel that the judgments of God have begun to overtake you, then you may come to Him: “When thou art in tribulation and all these things” - these threatened things - “are come upon thee.”
4. There is yet one more word which appears to me to contain great comfort in it, and it is this, “even in the latter days.” It is a beautiful sight, though it is mingled with much sadness, to see a very old man become a babe in Christ--to see him, after he has been so many years the proud, wayward, self-confident master of himself, at last learning wisdom and sitting at Jesus feet. They hang up in the cathedrals and public halls old banners which have long been carried by the enemy into the thick of the fight. If they have been torn by shot and shell, so much the more do the captors value them: the older the standard the more honour is it, it seems, to seize it as a trophy.
II. But now look at the way appointed. To find mercy, “what are we bidden to do? “If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God.”
1. We have not, then, to bring anything to God, but to seek Him. We have not to seek a righteousness to bring to Him, nor seek a state of heart which will fit us for Him, but to seek Him at once. Salvation is not by doing, nor by being, nor by feeling, but simply by believing. We are not to be content with self, but to seek the Lord. Being ourselves unworthy, we are to find worthiness in Jesus.
2. We are also to grasp the Lord as ours, for the text says, “Thou shalt seek the Lord thy God.” Sinners, that is a part of saving faith, to take God to be your God; if He is only another man’s God, He cannot save you; He must be yours to trust and love and serve all your days, or you will be lost.
3. Now, mark God’s directions--“If thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” There must be no pretence about this seeking. If you desire to be saved, there must be no playing and trifling and feigning. The search must be real, sincere, and earnest, intense, thorough going, or it will be a failure.
4. The text further adds that we are to turn to Him. Did you notice the 30th verse--“If thou turn to the Lord thy God”? It must be a thorough turn. You are looking now towards the world--you must turn in the opposite direction, and look Godward. It must not be an apparent turn, but a real change of the nature, a turning of the entire soul; a turning with repentance for the past, with confidence in Christ for the present, and with holy desires for the future. Heart, soul, life, speech, action, all must be changed.
5. Then it is added, “and be obedient to His voice,” for we cannot be saved in disobedience; Christ is not come to save His people in their sins, but from their sins.
III. Thirdly, the text contains very rich encouragements. How does it run?
1. “For the Lord thy God is a merciful God; He will not forsake thee.” Catch at that, sinner,--“He will not forsake thee.” If He were to say, “Let him alone, Ephraim is given unto idols,” it would be all over with you; but if you seek Him, He will not say, “Let him alone,” nor take His Holy Spirit from you. You are not yet given up, I hope, or you would not have been here.
2. And then it is added, “Neither destroy thee.” You have been afraid He would; you have often thought the earth would open and swallow you: you have been afraid to fall asleep lest you should never wake again; but the Lord will not destroy you; nay, rather He will reveal His saving power in you.
3. There is a sweeter word still in the 29th verse, “Thou shalt find Him if thou seek Him.” What more, poor sinner, what more dost thou want?
4. Then there are two reasons given: “For the Lord thy God is a merciful God.” Oh guilty soul, the Lord does not want to destroy you. Judgment is His strange work. Oh soul, God has such a care for man. He waits to be gracious, and His Spirit goes forth towards sinners; therefore return to Him.
5. Now dwell upon that last argument - “He will not forget the covenant of thy fathers.” The covenant always keeps open the path between God and man. The Lord has made a covenant concerning poor sinners with His Son Jesus Christ. He has laid help upon One that is mighty, and given Him for a covenant to the people. He evermore remembers Jesus, and how He kept that covenant; He calls to mind His sighs and death throes, and He fulfils His promise for the great Sufferer’s sake. God’s grace has kept His covenant on the behalf of men; God is even eager, to forgive, that He may reward Christ, and give Him to see of the travail of His soul. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Seeking God
I. What is involved in seeking God?
1. A sense of dissatisfaction with distance from Him. When men have all they want they do not set out upon a quest. Only the heart that feels the destitution and misery of being without God will address itself to this quest.
2. A conviction that God is to be found. Men do not seek for fruits and grain upon the ocean, but they seek them with assurance from the soil they till. Doubtless many, searching in the wrong direction, have exclaimed, “Who can, by searching, find out God?” But those who look for the Eternal in His Word, and especially in the person of His Son, cannot look in vain.
3. The seeking for God to be successful must be sincere, earnest, diligent--i.e. “with all thy heart and with all thy soul”--more eagerly and resolutely than men in the East sought for hidden treasure, than men seek for health, knowledge, wealth or fame. Those who thus seek for Christ--“the pearl of great price”--are not far from Him.
III. What is promised to those who thus seek God?
1. They shall find the Object of their desire: “They that seek Me early shall find Me. Not like the search for the philosopher’s stone, which men foolishly wasted life in endeavouring to find.
2. They shall find God in Christ.
3. In Christ they shall find “rest to their souls,” joy, life eternal. They who find Christ find Him never to lose Him, or aught that He bestows. (Family Churchman.)
Great sinners encouraged to return to God
I. A few cases to which this language applies.
1. “I have gone great lengths in sin. I was a drunkard and blasphemer. God has now brought me into trouble; I cannot live long, and yet fear to die.” “But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord,” etc.
2. “I was born of religious parents, I was long weary of religion, and wished to be free. At length my father died, and I gave myself up to evil, and now no one cares for my soul.” “But if from thence,” etc.
3. “My conduct has been correct and orderly; but I have prided myself upon it; I have lived a Pharisee. Now I feel the need of something with which to appear before God.” Well, “If from thence,” etc.
4. “I have made a profession of religion and thought well of my state, but indulged in secret sins, and afterwards in outward transgressions, and now I am all outcast; everyone shuns me.” “But if from thence,” etc.
5. “Though I have not lost my character, yet I have lost my peace of mind; I am a backslider.” “But if from thence, etc.
II. The grounds on which this encouragement rests. (A. Fuller.)
The penitent certain of acceptance
I. Now, the first thing that strikes us in this address is, that it is based upon the anticipation that the Jews would abuse their Maker’s blessings; that comfort would breed luxury, and luxury would wean the heart from God; that His place would be usurped by idols, till He should be provoked to withdraw His favour and protection. All this is foreseen as the natural propensity of the human heart. And yet, though evil is spoken of as the inevitable consequence of sin, the case was not desperate; however disgraced they might be by the tyranny of men, or degraded by the bondage of Satan, they might still find mercy from the Being they had incensed. But there is another feeling which is met by the gracious assurance of our text, which is very apt to prove a stumbling block to those whose eyes are newly opened to their sins.
II. We might persuade ourselves that God will not utterly cast off those who seek Him in sincerity and truth; but how can we tell whether our feelings are earnest enough, and pure enough, and abiding enough to prevail with Him to listen to our prayer? As long as we thought we might trifle with safety we put off religion to a more convenient season; and it was not till our fears became intolerable that we besought Him heartily that He would save us; but terror is not conversion, and who will ensure that the present feelings will be lasting if the danger be withdrawn? or who can tell whether, indeed, they are anything but a foretaste of eternal torment? Again, would not the world continue to be dear to us if its gifts were not embittered by Providence? We turn to God in our trouble; but it is the mere selfishness of those who find that they have no other comforter. Will He be satisfied with such a worthless offering as this? Oh! well may Scripture say that “His ways are not as our ways,” when it declares at the same time that such applications are welcome to Him. We bring to Him little but disappointed hopes and blighted feelings and enfeebled health; we have tried every broken cistern before we would apply to the fountain; and even when we come at last, we come rather to escape impending punishment than from any regret for having violated our duty towards Him; and yet He scorns us not. The aged sinner, who is tottering towards the tomb, he may bring the poor remains of an ill-spent life, and find himself received at the eleventh hour. The widowed mourner, who placed all her happiness below till death snatched it from her, she may turn to the God of all consolation, and find Him a husband to herself, and a father to the fatherless around her. The convert, in all his newborn indignation, though he is sensible that he is more anxious to escape the wrath to come than the evil which provokes it, shall be accepted according to that he hath, and more shall be imparted for his improvement. I do not say that such motives are the purest or the strongest by which we can be actuated; but I say the question is whether our hearts are really changed or no, and not in what motive the change may have originated. Do you ask, then, whether your feelings are such as will prevail upon God to listen to your prayers? Prove them by acting immediately and perseveringly upon them. The tree is known by the fruit which it produces; and those, be sure, are proper feelings which bring you in a state of humiliation to the Cross of Christ. (J. Stainforth, M. A.)
God to be found by seeking
I. Notice a few cases to which this language applies.
1. The openly profane and immoral.
2. Those who were religiously educated.
3. The formal professor.
4. The backslider. The dying sinner.
II. Observe the grounds on which the encouragement rests.
1. The character of God.
2. The work of Christ.
3. The promises of the Gospel.
4. Scriptural examples of pardoned and accepted sinners.
III. Improve the subject.
1. It takes away all ground of excuse from the impenitent.
2. It takes away all ground of despair from the contrite. (G. Brooks.)
Those that seek God shall find Him
At one place to which I went I saw a dear soul to whom I put the question, “Are you converted?” “I was once”--given with, oh, such a disconsolate aspect!--“I was once, but that is all gone. I was a worker for Him once,” he said, with a sob, “but it is all different now.” My heart went out to that one. Why? There is a fire in a room, and you are crouching in a cold comer, far away from the fire. You do not say that the fire has forsaken you. Oh no, you have left the fire; conscious of that fact, you go back to it, and are soon again basking in its warmth. Ah, those who seek Him find Him, and He is so loving and so forgiving, in spite of all the hard thoughts which you had of Him. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (W. Haslam.)
Earnest seeking successful
Success in this world comes only to those who exhibit determination. Can we hope for salvation unless our mind is truly set upon it? Grace makes a man be as resolved to be saved as the beggar was to get to Jesus and gain his sight. “I must see him,” said an applicant at the door of a public person. “You cannot see him,” said the servant; but the man waited at the door. A friend went out to him and said, “You cannot see the master, but I can give you an answer;” “No,” said the importunate pleader, “I will stay all night on the doorstep, but I will see the man himself. He alone will serve my turn.” You do not wonder that, after many rebuffs, he ultimately gained his point. It would be an infinitely greater wonder if an importunate sinner did not obtain an audience from the Lord Jesus. If you must have grace, you shall have it. If you will not be put off you shall not be put off. Whether things look favourable or unfavourable, press on till you find Jesus, and you shall find Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Trouble often drives people to God
There is a story told that in the olden time Artaxerxes and another great king were engaged in a furious fight. In the middle of the battle an eclipse happened, and such was the horror of the warriors that they made peace then and there. Happy will you be if your trouble will cause you to fly to the arms of God. If you tell your troubles to Him you put them into the grave; if you roll your burden anywhere else, it will roll back again like the stone of Sisyphus. The springs at the base of the Alpine mountains are fullest when the summer sun has dried and parched the verdure in the valleys below. The heat that has burned the arid plains has melted mountain glacier and snow, and increased the volume of the mountain streams. Thus when adversity has dried the springs of earthly comfort, the saint has the fulness of the springs of salvation.
The heart reached by adversity
The four seasons once determined to try which could quickest roach the heart of a stone. Spring coaxed the stone with its gentle breezes, and made flowers encircle it, and trees to shoot out their branches and embower it, but all to no purpose, The stone remained indifferent to the beauties of the spring, nor would it yield its heart to its gentle caresses. Summer came next, and caused the sun to shine on the stone, hoping to melt its obdurate heart; but though the surface of the stone grew warm, it quickly became cold again when not under the influence of the summer sun’s rays. Summer thus being unable by any degree of warmth to penetrate the flinty nature of the stone, gave place to autumn. Believing that the stone had been treated with too much kindness, the autumn withered the flowers and stripped the trees of their leaves, and threatened and blustered, but still the stone remained impassive. Winter came next. First it sent strong winds, which laid the stone bare, then it sent a cold rain, and next a hard frost, which cleaved the stone and laid bare its heart. So many a heart, which neither gentleness, warmth, nor threats can touch, is reached by adversity. (A. Freeman.)