## Finding Forgiveness

## Isaiah 55:6-9

" Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith 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."

If you ask God for forgiveness, can you be sure that He grants it? What are the qualities to which God responds? With what urgency should you seek Him? This passage presents one of the great assurances in the Bible that God does hear and respond to sincere request for forgiveness.

I. Seek the Lord with an Intense Priority.

A. Seek the Lord actively.

1. Isaiah 55:6 speaks of the pursuit of God as primary, not secondary.

2. It is a pursuit actively, not passively.

3. To pursue God is to allow nothing to stand in the way.

4. The word "seek" originally pointed to a deliberate stepping toward God in prayer and sacrifice.

Deuteronomy 4:29, "But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul."

B. Seek the Lord urgently . Our seeking must be "while he may be found . . . while He is near".

1. God is not always equally accessible.

2. God would not be God if He were no more than a cosmic houseboy to be summoned at our whim.

3. There are moments of time and windows of opportunity when we must seek God.

4. Second Corinthians 6: 2 insists, "now is the accepted time...now is the day of salvation"

5. Jesus warned His disciples of the urgency for decision now:

John 12:35, " Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth."

6. There is a critical, spiritual moment when the God deals with the soul of an individual and that moment must be grasped.

II. Seek the Lord with a Positive Expectancy.

A. We may believe with security that God will have mercy, that He will pardon.

1. What are the conditions of that pardon?

a. Pardon relates to the sincerity of the seeker.

b. Outwardly, the seeker must lay aside an habitual course of sinful living.

2. Repentance is the missing note in much modern, Christian proclamation.

a. Inwardly, there must be a radical change in disposition.

b. External reformation without internal change in thinking is not enough.

3. When we come to God, or come back to God, there must be sincerity that embraces both the outwardness of our visible life and the inwardness of our unseen disposition and thinking.

B. Pardon relates to the certainty of salvation.

1. The very act of turning to God is an expression of His mercy.

2. His grace met us more than halfway, or we would never have returned.

3. But God’s pardon is not scant, stingy, or begrudging."He will freely pardon".

C. God delights to multiply and make great His pardon when we come to Him with repentance: "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Rom. 5:20).

III. Seek the Lord with an Assured Certainty.

A. God’s forgiveness is better than mere man can imagine.

1. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord" (v. 8).

2. To the guilty man, the reality of absolute forgiveness appears impossible.

3. The narrow confines of guilt-ridden minds cannot imagine the goodness of God.

4. The Lord assures us that He is indeed better than we can imagine, as the heaven is high above the earth.

B. God’s forgiveness is more certain than man can imagine.

1. Isaiah 55:8-9 provides us an assurance that God’s purposes and promises are irrevocable.

2. It is a universal and timeless principle that He will forgive. 1 Samuel 15:29, "And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent."

C. The assurance of our forgiveness rests in the character of God Himself.

1. To be God, He must stand true to His promise.

2. We can be sure of seeking and finding forgiveness.

God’s pardon and forgiveness is:

- Available to all
- Abundant and free
- Amazing and certain