Glen Bond
Sunday Night
Sept. 9, 2007

Picayune MS

Subject : 

Are you saved?
Did you ever seek the Lord?

I Chronicles 28:9   if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; 
This is Gods word: ..if thou seek him, he will be found of thee;
These were the words of David to Soloman. They are just as valid to us today as they were to him then.
This is repeated by our Lord in 

    Mat. 7:7  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
              and it shall be opened unto you:

Are you seeking the Lord and still not saved?
Look at the rich young ruler:

Mat 19:16   And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?

He sought the Lord and found him. He came to the Lord wanting eternal life.

He came and reasoned with the Lord.
But when the Lord told him what he must do, he 'went away sorrowful'.
He didn't want to give up his prized possesions.
He valued his money more than eternal life.
To him, being rich was a greater thing than salvation.
Is that you? 
Do you value your earthly possesions more than eternal life?
The disciples recognized that problem when Christ told them about it.
Christ told them how difficult salvation is.

Mat 19:24 
 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 

They said 
Mat. 19:25 
 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 

Christ is talking about a rich man, but this applies to all of us.
Though we have little money - we will make ourselves rich with pride or selfrighteousness.
To be rich in pride is no different than to be rich with money in Gods sight.
If you have been seeking the Lord and you are not saved, you better look at yourself.
You may see pride or selfrighteousness.
When Nebucadnezzar boasted in pride of all that he had done, then is when the Lord took it all from him.

Being rich with money won't stop you from being saved.
Being rich with pride will.
The Lord has saved many rich people, but the proud must always leave their pride.
The Lord may let you keep your money, if it is not a god to you, but he will always make you forsake your pride.
This rich man put his money above God, and in effect, made his money a god.

I think the Lord knew all of this and thats why he made the first commandment.
The first commandment says "Thou shalt have no other gods before me".

We make pride into a god when we won't forsake it.
selfrighteousness - the same

When the Lord opens your eyes to see yourself, the pride and selfrighteousness goes out the window.

In Acts 9 we see Saul, a proud and selfrighteous person going about persecuting the Lord.
Saul was blind to what he was, proud and selfrighteous.
He didn't know what he was doing.

The first thing that the Lord does is humbles him - The pride goes out the window, and we see Saul on his face before the Lord.
then in vs 6 we see that he trembled.
The Lord opened his eyes and showed him a little of his heart. This caused him to tremble.
He saw in that heart - that there was nothing but wickedness and continual evil. Gen. 6:5
That wicked heart only wanted to persecute the Lord.
Now he stood before a righteous God - guilty, and condemned.
it is no wonder that he was trembling.

When the Lord opens your eyes to see yourself, you will tremble too.
You will be just like Saul, scared to death and pleading with the Lord, what do you want me to do?

Here we see the words of the Lord went to Saul and those that were with him.
vs 7 says they heard a voice but saw no man. These men heard the same words that Saul heard, but they were meaningless to them. Acts 22:9 says they heard not the voice. it was meaningless to them.

That same voice goes out week after week from this place. It goes out many times like it did to the ears of the men who were with Saul. They heard but it had no meaning to them.

But then there are times when the Lord is pleased to open the understanding, and the voice goes out like it did to Saul. Loud clear and plain. We don't see Saul saying "What, I didn't quite understand that". NO, it was unmistakeable.

One thing I want you to notice here, the voice was the same, only the hearer was different.
The Lord made it to be understood to Saul, and left it un-intelligible to the others.
Ask the Lord to make the word plain to you.

The same words that left all the rest lost, worked salvation in Saul.

You that are lost have heard the same preaching as those that are saved.

You are blind and see no need to seek the Lord.
When you see a need, then you will seek Him.

Deuteronemy 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.

In Danial 5:34 -  Nebuchadnezzar's understanding returned to him.

This was a better understanding than he had before because before it did not work salvation in him.


The prodigal son:

Luke 15:17   And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18   I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
19   And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.


He came to himself: vs. 17  and was able to see that he was a sinner. vs.18