Isaiah 62:12 And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and you shall be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken. In a fuller and more spiritual sense the Church of God may well be called "Sought out"; and the like title may truthfully be applied to every single member of that dearly-loved and dearly-purchased family. I. THE NATURAL CONDITION IMPLIED IN THE TITLE, "SOUGHT OUT." 1. If the Church of God has been "sought out," then it is clear enough that originally it was lost. 2. We were so lost that we did not seek the Lord. 3. As we had no thought of coming to God, so we never should have willed to return. 4. So far from seeking God, we did not desire Him to seek us. 5. Our being sought out, considering our condition, was one of the greatest wonders ever known or heard of. I have heard this expressed in words occasionally; when a man has come to join the Church, he has said to me, "If any one had told me six months ago that I should make a profession of being a follower of Christ, I would have knocked him down.' And yet the thing did occur. II. WE HAVE SURPASSING GRACE REVEALED. This grace lies in several particulars. 1. That they were sought out at all. It is very wonderful grace on the part of God that He should plan a way of salvation; but there is something more gracious than this generous summons. One would have supposed that after the invitation had been freely given and the preparation for the feast had been generously made, the Lord would leave men to come or not as they willed. 2. But this grace appears even more conspicuous if you consider the persons sought out. That any should be sought out is matchless grace, but that we should be sought is grace beyond degree. 3. Nor must I fail to bring to your recollection, that the surpassing grace of God is seen very clearly in that we were sought "out." The word "out" conveys a mass of meaning. Men go and seek for a thing which is lost upon the floor of the house, but in such a case there is only seeking, not seeking out. The loss is more perplexing, and the search more persevering, when a thing is sought out. We were mingled with the mire; we were as when some precious piece of gold falls into the sewer, and men have to gather out and carefully inspect a heap of abominable filth, to turn it over, and over, and over, and continue to stir and rake, and search among the heap until the thing is found. Or, to use another figure, we were lost in a labyrinth; we wandered hither and thither, and when ministering mercy came after us, it did not find us at the first coming; it had to go to the right hand and to the left, and search hither and thither, and everywhere, to seek us out, for we were so desperately lost, and had got into such a strange position, that it did not seem possible that ever grace could come to us. And yet we were sought out! No gloom could hide us, no filthiness could conceal us, we were found. The lives of some of God's people, if they could be written, would make you marvel. The romance of Divine grace is infinitely more interesting than the romance of imagination. 4. The grace of God is illustrious in the Divine Agent by whom we are sought out. It was not the minister; he might have sought thee year after year, and never have found thee. Thy tearful mother, with her many prayers, would have missed thee. Thine anxious father, with his yearning bowels of compassion, would never have discovered thee. Those providences, which like great nets were seeking to entangle thee, would all have been broken by thy strong dashings after evil. Who was it sought thee out? None other than Himself. The Great Shepherd could not trust His under-shepherds; He must Himself come, and oh! if it had not been for those eyes of omniscience, He never would have seen thee; He never would have read thy history and known thy ease: if it had not been for those arms of omnipotence, He never could have grasped thee; He never could have thrown thee on His shoulders and brought thee home rejoicing. 5. Remember that the glory of it is that we were sought out effectually. We are a people not sought out and then missed at the last. III. THE DISTINGUISHING TITLE JUSTIFIED. How were we sought out?. Let us justify the name. 1. We are sought out in the eternal purposes and the work of Christ. 2. This seeking out, as far as we know it, began by gracious words of mercy. A godly mother told us the truth with weeping, a holy father set us a good example; we were sought out by that little Bible we were taught to read, and that hymn-book which was put into our hands. We were sought out when we were taken to the house of God. We were sought out while the preacher called the Sabbath-breaker, the hard-hearted, the hypocrite, the formalist, the abandoned, the profane. According to our case we felt that he was calling us, and the eyes of Jesus were looking on us, and His voice was bidding us repent and live. 3. Afflictions sought us out. The fever hunted us to the Cross. When the cholera came, it carried a great whip in its hand to flog us to the Saviour. We had serious losses, a decaying business, all which should have weaned us from the world. Our friends sickened; from their graves we heard the voice of invitation, "Come unto Christ and live. ' We were disappointed in some of our fondest hopes, and our heart, riven for the time, yearned after a higher life and a deeper satisfaction. 4. Then came mysterious visitations. It was in the night season when all was still, we sat up in our bed, and solemn thoughts passed through us; the preacher's words which we had heard years ago came back fresh as when we heard them for the first time; old texts of Scripture, the recollection of a mother's tears, all these came upon us. Or it was in the midst of business, and we did not know how it was, but suddenly a deep calm came over us. 5. But after all, these visitations, these providences, these preachings, and so on, would all have been nothing, if it had not been for the appointed time when the Holy Spirit came and sought us out. IV. A SPECIAL DUTY INCUMBENT UPON THOSE WHO WEAR THE TITLE, "SOUGHT OUT." If it be really so that you are such debtors to Divine seeking, ought you not to spend your whole lifetime in seeking others out? We are not to preach merely to those who come to listen. Let us hunt for souls by visitation. Where all other means fail, seek men. by our prayers. As long as a man has one other man to pray for him, there is a hope of his salvation. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken. |
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