Watchman Radio Hour

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Watchman Radio Hour. Coming to you from Portland, Oregon, here in the beautiful Northwest. This is David Shultier, announcer. The Watchman Radio Hour is a production of Watchman Radio Ministries International, an evangelistic ministry reaching out to the peoples of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now here's our speaker Alex Dodson to bring you this week's message from God's Word.

Alex Dodson: Today, we continue in our series on Isaiah 55.

Salvation comes to those who come to the Lord. We cannot sit still and be saved. We must come to the Lord. Only He has the salvation that we need. We cannot remain in our sins, but we must turn around and turn to the Lord. Yet, because of our sinful hearts, we stubbornly refuse to repent.

Our hearts need changing. John Wesley, the great evangelist in England of the 18th century, preached the gospel to multitudes of people and saw multitudes turn from their sins when he preached. It was not his power that brought this about, but God's power.

Ian Murray wrote about what Wesley believed, "Faith is supernatural," he said. "Wrought in us, be it swiftly or slowly by the Spirit of God." He quoted Wesley in saying, "Supposing a man be now void of faith and hope and love, he cannot affect any degree of them in himself by any possible exertion of his understanding and of any or all of his natural faculties. And though he should enjoy them to the utmost perfection, a distinct power from God, not implied in any of these, is indispensably necessary before it is possible he should arrive at the very least degree of Christian faith, or hope, or love, in order to his having any of these, which on this very consideration suppose St. Paul terms the fruits of the Spirit. He must be created anew, thoroughly and inwardly changed by the operation of the Spirit of God by power equivalent to that which raises the dead and which calls the things which are not as though they were."

Murray goes on to write, "In accordance with this belief, Wesley believed in the conviction that saving results depended upon the power of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word of God." Thus, through his journals are such sentences as the following, "At Berwick, the Word of God was as a fire and a hammer. At Stanley, near Gloucester, I was strengthened to speak as never before and continued speaking nearly two hours. The darkness of the night and a little lightning, not lessening the number, but increasing the seriousness of the hearers. At York, I began preaching at 7:00, and God applied it to the hearts of the hearers. Tears and groans were on every side among high and low. God, as it were, bowed the heavens and came down."

Great things happened in England in the 18th century evangelical awakening under the preaching of Wesley and Whitfield. They preached with great power, and multitudes turned to the Lord. We need that great power of preaching again to come upon us.

This great invitation in Isaiah 55:6 and 7 is for all people and it is still valid today. And so our text then is Isaiah 55:6 and 7. "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He is near. 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."

Our Father in heaven, we thank You for the Bible that You have given to us. We thank You that it is Your infallible Word, that we can put our full confidence in everything that it says. And now, oh Father, as we come to study Your Word together, we pray that You would send forth Your Holy Spirit into our hearts. We pray, oh Father, that You would send forth Your Spirit in great power. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

God will receive all who come to Him in repentance and faith. But what about you today? Have you come to the Lord with your sins and received His mercy? You can come to Him now. Turn from your sins and turn to Christ. Now is the time. Now is the day of salvation.

Let us see in the first place today, there is a call here to seek the Lord while He may be found. Verse 6 says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He is near."

The Lord can be found in the gospel. The invitation is all to come. When the gospel comes to a people, God is there and can be found. Preaching in the great evangelical awakening of the 18th century brought God near the people, and multitudes found Him in Christ.

Murray writes, "Yet what is certain is that the year 1739 saw crowds gathering to hear preaching in numbers that had had no comparison in living memory. In London, one open-air congregation was estimated at 50,000. At Blackheath, it was said that Wesley preached to 12 or 13,000 people. At Kingswood, Bristol's Hell Upon Earth, in the bleak months of February and March 1739, numbers grew from hundreds to an estimated 10,000. And remember, that's before they had microphones and speakers."

Murray again writes, "Wesley affirmed, 'The Word of the Lord again runs and is glorified. Great multitudes are everywhere awakened and cry out, what must I do to be saved?'" Wesley wrote, "Being convinced of that important truth, which is the foundation of all real religion, that by grace we are saved through faith, we immediately began declaring it to others. Indeed, we could hardly speak of anything else, either in public or private. It shone upon our minds with so great a light that it was our constant theme."

Murray writes, "The principle on which Wesley acted was to follow providence." And by that means in 1742, he took a step which was to lead to a lifetime of itinerant ministry at the suggestion of the Countess of Huntington. Without any anticipation of the consequences, Wesley went to the North of England. At Newcastle upon Tyne, on Sunday, May the 30th, at 7:00 in the morning, he preached by the river in the poorest part of the town. His text was, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed."

By the time he concluded, large crowds had gathered and stood gaping with the most profound astonishment. Murray goes on to write of Wesley, "Especially in the early years of the revival, he was vehement, convicting, and constantly evangelistic. There was an authority in his preaching that nothing could deter."

John Nelson was present at the first time Wesley preached in the open air at Moorsfield in London and he wrote, "Oh, that was a blessed morning to my soul. As soon as I got upon the stand, he stroked back his hair, and turned his face toward where I stood, and I thought he fixed his eyes upon me. His countenance struck such an awful dread upon me before I heard him speak that it made my heart beat like the pendulum of a clock. And when he did speak, I thought this whole discourse was aimed at me."

Murray relates a soldier who was telling some women how he had become a Christian. The man reported, "As I was coming out of the country at Kennington Common, Mr. John Wesley was going to preach. And I thought I would hear what he had to say. For I had heard many learned and wise men say he was beside himself. But when he began to speak, his words made me tremble. And I thought he spoke to no one but me, and durst not look up, for I imagined all the people were looking at me."

After hearing this soldier's testimony, John Nelson, who would later assist Wesley in preaching, returned hearing Wesley and later said, "I found power to believe that Jesus Christ was shed His blood for me. And that God for His sake had forgiven my offenses. Then was my heart filled with love to God and man."

The gospel brings the Lord near us. Jesus came to us in the gospel, or Jesus comes to us in the gospel. The time to believe is when He comes near. The time to believe is now. Second Corinthians 6:2 says, "I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." The gospel brings us light. It brings us Jesus.

In John 12:35, then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light before darkness overtakes you." In Romans 10:8 it says, "The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith we are proclaiming."

John Calvin wrote, "Call upon Him while He is near. But we must attend to Paul's definition, who tells us that it denotes the preaching of the gospel. The Lord is nigh and exhibits himself to us when the voice of the gospel cries aloud."

Listen to this voice of the gospel and believe it in your heart. Now is the time to believe. Don't put it off. Believe the Word of God. In Luke 16:19-31, we have the account of the rich man and Lazarus. It says there was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried.

In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and he saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. And so he called to him, "Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire." But Abraham replied, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us."

And then he answered, the rich man answered, "Then I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my brother's house. For I have five brothers. Let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment." And Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to them." "No, Father Abraham," he said, "but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent." But he said to him, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."

We have God's Word. It is all sufficient. Listen to it and believe. Don't wait another moment. God is near right now. He's at the door. His Word is coming to you right now. Believe from your heart. Romans 10:10 says, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

And then let us see in the second place, this invitation is a call to repentance. Verse 7 says, "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 abundantly pardon."

Forsake your way. Turn from your way. You're going the wrong way. You're going away from God. Turn around and come to the Lord.

E.J. Young in commenting on this passage says, "The two expressions together signify the repentance of faith and obedience." They involve an abandonment of the old way of life, the way of the wicked and the man of iniquity, and a whole-souled turning to the true God in humble repentance.

John Calvin wrote, "Hence we infer that the doctrine of repentance ought always to be accompanied by the promise of salvation, for in no other way can men taste the goodness of God than by abhorring themselves on account of their sins and renouncing themselves and the world." Indeed, no man will sincerely desire to be reconciled to God and to obtain pardon of sins till he is moved by a true and earnest repentance.

Forsake your sinful way of living and turn to the Lord before it's too late. Maybe you're living with someone who is not your spouse. You're involved in a sexual relationship, but you're not married. That's sin. The Bible says it is. The Bible is clear on this matter. In Hebrews 13:4 it says, "Marriage is honorable among all and the bed is undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge."

The Bible condemns fornication in no uncertain terms. Repent of your sin. Turn to God for forgiveness and leave behind your life of sin. Then you need to change your heart. Verse 7 says, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts."

Man is sinful to the core. He has a sinful heart that needs to be changed. His thoughts, his inner man, needs changing. In Matthew 15:19-20, Jesus says, "For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what makes a man unclean."

Matthew Henry, the great Puritan commentator, wrote, "There must be not only a change of the way, but a change of the mind. The unrighteous must forsake his thoughts. Repentance, if it be true, strikes at the root and washes the heart from wickedness. Change your hearts, you sinners. Your heart is sinful. Your heart needs changing. Repent from your heart."

James 4:8-10 says, "Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up."

A great mourning needs to go up in this land. This nation is full of sin, full of sinners who are rebelling against God. We're doing what is right in our own eyes and ignoring God's commandments. There are parents in this land having their children mutilated for the sake of a false and a dangerous ideology and medical doctors doing the mutilating.

There are people shaking their fists in the face of their Creator and trying to change their sex if that were even possible. In Mark 10:8 it says, "But the beginning of creation, God made them male and female." This is God's doing. When we try to change what God has instituted, we are turning against our Creator.

Repent your rebellion against your Creator. Mourn and weep. Turn from your evil and change your heart. Romans 2:28 says, "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly. And circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit and not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God."

In Deuteronomy 10:16 it says, "Circumcise your hearts therefore and do not be stiff-necked any longer." In Jeremiah 4:4 says, "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord. Circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or My wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done, burn with no one to quench it." Change your heart. Turn from your evil before it's too late.

God's judgment is upon us. And will he increase if we as a nation do not repent of our great evils, of our great sins? Now let us see in the third place, there is here an assurance of pardon in verse 7.

It says, "Let him turn to the Lord and He will have mercy on him." "And to our God, for He will freely pardon or abundantly pardon."

Come to the Lord for mercy. God will not turn you away if you come to Him in repentance and faith. He is merciful and He forgives sin. Come with your guilt and He will take it away. Jesus came that sinners might be saved. Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

In Romans 5:20 it says, "For where sin abounded, grace abounded much more." Matthew Henry wrote, "What encouragement we have thus to repent? If we do so, God will have mercy. He will not deal with us as our sins have deserved, but will have compassion on us."

John Calvin wrote that men cannot be led to repentance in any other way than by holding out assurance of pardon. "Whoever then inculcates the doctrine of repentance without mentioning the mercy of God and reconciliation through free grace, labors to no purpose."

Come to Christ and He will have mercy upon you and receive you unto Himself. Are you under conviction of your great sin? Then come to Christ now and cast yourself upon Him.

Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Free grace goes to all who come. Free grace is for all who come.

Again, verse 7 says this, "Let him turn to the Lord and He will have mercy on him and to our God for He will freely or abundantly pardon." Jesus said in John 6:37, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me and whoever comes to Me, I will never drive away." E.J. Young writes, "God is"