God Will Chase Them

Introduction

And oh, what a happy home it is and the blessing to be employed as a worker in the vineyard of the Lord. We want everyone in this place to know the joy of that truth we’ve sung. And hopefully, some things that I say this morning as I speak to the subject of God will chase them, will help us to appreciate that truth even more. I want to begin with a thought. And there are a number of passages today, and so we’re not going to be able to take time to deal with every verse. You might want to start writing now. And the real effect of this lesson will carry on throughout the week if you spend more time in these texts. But I want to make some observations this morning.

And the first is that God loves us more than we can even realize or even fully appreciate. For this reason, Paul says, I bow my knee before the Father. How long has it been since we took a knee before the Lord? From whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Everything that exists because of him. And that he would grant you. This was Paul’s prayer for his brethren in Christ who resided in Ephesus, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ, which is unknowable, which surpasses knowledge, and that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God, truly filled within.

Filled because you hunger and thirst after righteousness, filled up to all the fullness of God because you are aware, because you realize the great love that God and his son have for you, that he is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask for faith. Let us learn. Let us live and learn. Let us know what is truly beyond our capability of fully knowing the love of God and the love of our Savior. Go and learn what this means. One of my favorite things, Jesus said. You might need to take some time with this. Go and learn what this means. I desire compassion and not sacrifice. Whoa, blow my mind. I thought God wanted, He wanted thousands of sacrifices. He wanted a sacrifice here and a sacrifice there.

There’s blood everywhere in Jerusalem. What do you mean? You don’t understand the point of the sacrifices. You don’t understand the heart that I want my people to have for me and for others. I did not come to call the righteous with sinners. I desire compassion and not sacrifice. Let us live. Let us learn. Isaiah 55. We’re going to skim through this. Isaiah 55 and verse 1. Ho! I love that in the New American Standard. Not ho. Much better. Ho. This is an exclamation. Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. If we could just get people to come to the waters. And you who have no money.

He’s saying, it doesn’t matter if you’re destitute. If you have nothing. Come. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And your wages for what does not satisfy. Listen carefully to that and eat what is good. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Verse 6 says, I must seek him whom my soul loves. Our God chases us with his love. He asks us to come destitute, without money, without nothing to offer and bring. He woos us to him. We know that the essence of God is that he is love. 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8. But please understand, because God is love, that he is also so patient with us. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

And we are to account the long suffering of our Lord as salvation. 2 Peter 3 9 and verse 15. The message of Hosea. We marvel at the story. To be a spokesman for God in the 21st century and to preach the gospel. This is easy. What I do is easy. Being Hosea, a prophet in that time. That wasn’t easy. I want you to go marry a woman named Gomer. That’s bad enough. I can only think of Gomer Pyle. But not only is he told and instructed to go marry a woman of harlotry, okay, this is her background, but she’s going to be unfaithful. Don’t worry about it, Hosea. You’re just going to be a lesson for the people to show them my love. Oh, okay, no problem.

Tough times. Like Ezekiel. And the public humiliation that he experienced with all of his things that God instructed him to do publicly before the people. And then his wife dies in chapter 20. I mean, the prophets had it tough. And not only is his wife unfaithful to him, God says, Go love her again. Seek her out. Behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her. I will give her vineyards from there, he says.

That’s the name of their son, Loami. I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people. And they will say, You are my God. Go again. Chapter 3 and verse 1. Love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel. Though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.

Yet God loves. Yet God pursues. Yet God chastens. I must seek him whom my soul loves. And so we come to appreciate better, for God so loved the world. But he gave his only begotten son. He must chase them. Because he loves them so. And the story of Abram illustrates it so well. As Abraham is instructed to take his beloved son and offer him as a sacrifice. Oh, we’re so grateful when we read the story that Abraham does not have to plunge the knife that God provides. There is a ram in the thicket. Oh, we can go home with Abraham rejoicing because Isaac lives, the son of the promise. But a time would come when the Father would have to allow the knife to be plunged.

For the offering to be made. Satisfy the problem of our sin. He did not spare his own son. And here we are, loving our raisin cakes. Maybe Israel will wake up as they confess their loyalty in chapter 6. If we could just get more people to utter these words, so let us know. Let us press on to know the Lord. To know the love of the Lord. Ephesians 3. Let us know. Let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn. So reliable and true throughout the centuries. He will come to us like the rain. Oh, indeed, he will, because he chases us with his love. He seeks whom? He seeks those whom his soul loves. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.

What beautiful words. But what I didn’t realize for a long time when I read Hosea 6 and verse 3 is that these words are spoken in pretense. These words do not really reflect the sentiments of their hearts because God immediately responds and says, What do I have to do with you? Oh Ephraim, your loyalty is like the morning dew. As soon as the sun comes up and scorches it’s gone. Follow through on these great words and resolves to know me. So often our problem is the raisin case. God made men upright. But they sought out many devices. People so often go to satisfy their own way, as we saw in Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 31 in our recent daily Bible reading that you’re doing every week, correct?

He lets us experience the foolishness of our own way, the futility and limits of being our own God. And we wind up like the prodigal son in the pig pen of our own way. And he came to a senses. We love that story. He woke up.

There’s more than enough bread in my father’s house. In our father’s house. There is bread. And there is enough. We should never forget that. God has chased the waiver. He woos us back. He beckons us. God can reach out to the lost in ways that we cannot. Isn’t that demonstrated in the story of the nobleman and Philip in Acts chapter 8? Here he is out in a desert place and he’s reading from Isaiah the prophet and he cannot understand. And God says, Boom, I’m sending a preacher. The Spirit provides Philip on the desert road. And then it says what? He runs. Philip runs to the chariot. God not only loves us, he runs to us, and he can rescue us. So I want to make just three observations about this thought of God’s love for us and how he chases us.

1. God Delights in and Works Toward Rescue

God delights in and works toward rescue. And we come to him bankrupt, broken, as we saw in Isaiah, destitute, bound, and bad. And the reason why I make these observations here about how we come to God is that we will not appreciate the love of Christ. We will not pursue the holiness to which he calls us unless we begin to appreciate from whence we come. Bankrupt, broken, bound, and bad. And while the temptation may be, as we saw last week, to flee, to run when we consider what he’s asking of us. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in yourselves. Total commitment. Christian. Follower of Christ. The calling is high. But then there’s the response of Peter and the apostles.

You guys going to go away too? To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We know that you are the holy one come from God, as Jesus has just said in the conclusion of that speech that caused many to follow him no more. He says, the flesh profits nothing. My words, my words are spirit and they are life. Salvation is given to those who have a heart for him. Willing to yield, willing to be molded by him to let Jesus rule in our hearts and lives. And further, when we come to him, we do not yet know all that we will know about what serving him means. And so I want to share this thought with you this morning. As we come to him, a diamond in the rough.

Not on the basis of how good we are, but on the basis of knowing what we will become, on the basis of his mercy, on the basis of his kindness. And when I come to the Lord broken and bankrupt, when I come to buy wine and milk and all of the provisions that flow in abundance from our Lord, I come to him, not the man I will be or the woman you will be, but he knows. He knows when we come. He knows our hearts when we experience the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, which he pours out richly upon us. That he molds us and makes us after his will. And he may save us in a sense more than once.

He may beckon us from a poor path that we will take. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay. You are the potter. We are all the work of your hand. God chases us. He will provide opportunities. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you shall find, knock, and the doors shall be opened. And he will use the likes of us, his godly instruments. He is fashioning this treasure in earthen vessels. He will use us in his chase to seek those who have hearts for him. And it’s always and forever will be about.

A powerful deliverer of the message. It’s not about a great shepherd or shepherds that tend to his sheep. It is not about the members who serve, who do valiantly for their God. It is about him. It is about his power. It is about his glory. We must never get carried away with ourselves. May people come into this place. And may they see.

2. God Revels in Showing Himself Strong

Comes before God in 2 Chronicles 20 and says, I got nothing. We are overmatched, outmatched. We’ve got problems. You know, you didn’t let us destroy Moab and Ammon when we came into the land. And here they are, they’re wanting to take us down. We’ve got problems, God. Enter Jehaziel, the son of Zachariah the prophet. Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. Verse 17. You need not even fight in this battle. Station yourselves. Stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. And then this appeal to the people. Verse 20, put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in his prophets and succeed. That message is just as true today as it was when it was spoken in the days of Jehoshaphat.

Trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in his prophets and succeed. Oh, how are we supposed to respond to that? They praised him. Give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness is everlasting. And when they began singing and praising, okay, there’s a big lesson there, right? You don’t have to do a thing. I’m going to win the battle. Trust in the Lord. Let’s see, what should we do? How about sing and praise? Thanking God. And as they are singing and praising, God says, Now I’m going to show up. And the Lord sets an ambush. Now, here’s the thing about chasing in Scripture. You can either let God chase you in His love, or He will chase you in His wrath.

And in regard to the latter, beware lest He turn and tear you into pieces. Psalm 50. You better set things in order before His eyes. The Lord chases His enemies into darkness. He is a stronghold, though, for those who turn to Him in the day of trouble. Nahum chapter 1, verses 7 and 8. God chases His enemies into darkness. You have a choice to make. Will I have God chase me as his enemy? Or will I allow God to do what he wants to do, and that is to chase me in his life. I probably told you the story of my little sister, and that she was a pest. Wait till she hears that I just said that. I’m gonna be in trouble this week. She was a pest.

I told you, I think I told this story when she was here. So I had I’m not telling it behind her back, and by the way, it’s on Facebook now. But she was an awful pest. You know, sometimes little sisters, they just want your attention. They don’t care if it’s negative. But I have to admit, I was I was a little bit of a wimp as a kid. Aren’t you glad I grew out of it? I hated that toy plastic alligator she got on one of our trips to Florida. Hated it. I was scared to death of it. I think I had nightmares. John, what are you laughing at? You’re scared of clowns. You know what my little sister would do? She knew I was afraid of that alligator.

Besides the fact that she called me Tanya. I was scarred over that. She would chase me around with that alligator. I mean, a little sister chasing around her brother. I had some growing up to do in regard to manhood. But that’s nothing to being chased by the Lord when you’re his enemy. You know what I love about this story in 2 Chronicles 20? All the enemies start fighting each other. They all decimate each other. Israel’s just standing there. They’re just singing praise to God. And all the enemies start fighting and then start fighting each other and wipe themselves out. God will show himself strong, and he revels in it. And that’s really the point. When Israel’s in captivity, as we studied Ezekiel not long ago, God says, I am going to defend my name.

3. God Loves to Make Beauty Out of Ashes

I’m going to defend my honor. You have besmirched me to the nations, but I’m going to make something of you again. I’m going to bring you home. And there’s a glorious future that’s coming because I am going to show myself strong. I will be vindicated. My name will be regarded as holy. And so he brought his people back. Further preparing the way for the Messiah. And then this final thought. Not only does he revel in showing himself strong and delights in and works toward rescue. God loves to make beauty out of ashes. Okay. Isn’t that really the Bible story? The ashes of our sin. In Isaiah 61 and verse 3. Proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. Today, this passage has been fulfilled in your hearing, Jesus said in Nazareth, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.

So they will be called oaks of righteousness. Heard something about that not long ago. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. Oh, what follows Ezekiel 36? God revels in showing himself strong. He will vindicate his great name. He will show to the world who he is. Then there’s the valley of dry bone. Bones that he can bring to life. God makes beauty out of ashes in regard to our broken lives. He redeems what is redeemable in our world. What is a seeming end for us? Roadblock. Dead end. Hopeless. What is a seeming end to us is an opportunity for our God. Nothing shall be impossible to him. The barren can conceive. The virgin can conceive.

A sea can be parted. The walls of Jericho can fall. A hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers can be slaughtered overnight. Sinners. Sinners can be employed in his service. Do you realize what we were singing? I want to be a worker for the Lord. Strong and brave. Yeah, I probably need to do better. Were you thinking that? I probably need to work a little harder. Take one step back. It’s amazing we can even be in the vineyard. But our God delights and rescue. Our God shows himself strong. Our God turns ashes into beauty. Let him show you. Let him show you what he can still yet do in your life.

Conclusion

Speaking of chasing, as I said in the introduction, we often find ourselves chasing all the wrong things. And that’s what Solomon pointed out in Ecclesiastes chapter one. All is vanity and a striving after wind. Too often, while God chases souls, men chase the wind. Come to the fountain of the waters of life without cost. Jesus loves you. He beckons you. He woos you. While there’s time and opportunity. Leave the wind. Leave it. Come to the fountain. Be cleansed. Let God show himself strong. Your life. Let’s stand a second.