II. When will the Lord be found of his people?
II. When will the Lord be found of his people?
The answer is, When they seek him, And can they expect he should ever be found of them, when they do not seek him? it is not reasonable. If they seek him, he will be found of them.
There is no finding out God unto perfection; that is certain. As Elihu says, Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out. Something of God may he found out by the very light of nature: more by the light of divine Revelation; still more by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. But, after all, there is no finding him out unto perfection: not in his nature, essence, perfections, and purposes: no, nor in his works of nature and providence. They are past finding out, as Eliphaz says to Job. And New Testament saints agree in this. The great apostle of the Gentiles says, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways are past finding out. Not, only the works of nature and providence are past finding out; but the works of grace are so. The love of God hath heights and lengths, and breadths, and depths, which are not to be found out. Yet God is to he found by his people. He is found of them in conversion; found to be their covenant God and Father. He was so from everlasting; but in effectual vocation this appears plainly. Then, under the influence of his Spirit and grace, they are enabled to claim their interest in him, as their covenant God; and he owns, acknowledges, and claims them as his people. He is found of them in Christ, as gracious and merciful, pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin. So he was found of the poor publican; when under a deep sense of sin, and humiliation for it, he smote upon his breast, and said, God be merciful to me a sinner. So he was found of the apostle Paul; when made sensible he was a blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious, he said, I obtained mercy. He found God to be gracious and merciful to him.
God is found of his people also at the throne of grace, as a God hearing and answering prayer. For he hath never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain. Sooner or later he always hears the prayers of his people; and sometime, while they are yet speaking. He is found of them as the God of all grace, which is his title; and he is able to cause all grace to abound towards them. They apply to a throne of grace: they may seek him there, and there they find grace and mercy to help them in all their times of need. He is found of them in his ordinances. This is the desire of their souls, in waiting upon him, that they may behold the beauty of the Lord, while they are inquiring in his temple: that they may see his power and his glory, as they have sometimes seen him in the sanctuary. They are favored with a sight of the footsteps of their King and their God in the sanctuary. There the glorious Lord is a place of broad rivers and streams unto them. He sheds his love abroad in their hearts; which makes the house of God more eligible than any other place, because there the Lord is a sun and shield; there he gives grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Therefore, blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
But when is he found of his people thus? why, when they seek him; that is the answer to the question: If ye seek him, he will be found of you. It is true, indeed, that he is found of some that never sought him; nay, he is always found of his people in the first instant of conversion, before they seek him. I am found of them that sought me not. I am sought of them that asked not for me. Man is quite passive in the first instance of conversion. It is the Lord that finds him. The Great Shepherd looks up his lost sheep, that were scattered in the dark and cloudy day of Adam’s fall. It is not in the nature of sheep, that have lost their way, to return to the fold. Hence our Lord, comparing his people to sheep, and himself to a shepherd, says, How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of then be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go into the mountains, and seek that which is gone astray? Now, we are like lost sheep, and which should never find the Lord; nay, we should never seek after him, if he did not seek after us. This is more manifest in the parable of the lost groat, recorded in 32. The owner must seek after it, or it will never be found. The woman lights up a candle, sweeps the house, and at last finds it: then she calls her neighbors to rejoice with her. Thus it is in conversion. The Lord is found of them that sought him not.
After conversion, when he is pleased to hide his face from his people, they seek him; and it is often a long time before they find him. It was so with Job: Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. Behold I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He made use of all proper means, looking backwards and forwards where he had seen appearances of his providence or of his grace. So the church, when she had lost her beloved, sought him in the broad places and streets. Elsewhere she is represented as seeking him, and could not find him; as giving charge to the daughters of Jerusalem, if they found him, to tell him, that she was sick of love. Yet sooner or later the Lord is found by them that seek him: for he has promised it, and he is faithful that hath promised. Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Those, particularly, that seek him early, shall find him: i.e. seek him in the first place, and above all things else; that seek him earnestly, and with their whole heart. Some there are that draw nigh to him with their mouths, and honour him with their lips, when their hearts are removed far from him. They seem to take delight in seeking after God, in asking of him the ordinances of justice; but this is only outward shew. However, as for those that seek him with their whole heart, it is promised they shall find him (Proverbs 8:17). Those that draw nigh to him with true hearts, in the uprightness of their souls; that seek him, as they would any thing the most valuable; such, the wise man says, shall find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:5) .
They seek after a greater degree of spiritual and experimental knowledge; knowing that he is a rewarder of them that diligent seek him: that seek him in a right manner, while and where he may be found. But where may God be found, as merciful and gracious by a depraved and guilty creature? In the Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life no man can come to the Father, but by him. By him we have access to God, and in no other way. Thus God is to be found in his house, in his ordinances, and among his people, where he often shews himself, and affords his gracious presence. If ye seek him, he will be found of you, sooner or later.