Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #22 of Romans 3,  and we will read Romans 3:11-12:

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

I will stop reading there.  In our last study, we were discussing the end of verse 11 which tells us that there is none that seeketh after God.  I mentioned that there are so many billions of people in the world.  The world is approaching a total population of eight billion.  Out of that number, about 2 billion are professed Christians.  There are 1.8 billion Muslims, and 1.5 billion are Hindus.  So right there we already have over 5 billion, and then there are another 535 million Buddhists, bringing the total to 5.5 billion.  I am sure that with all the other various religions, we could probably add 500 million or 1 billion more, for a total of about 6 billion.  Overwhelmingly, the people of the world are “religious,” and religion is a form of seeking God, but these do not qualify according to what God is saying when He says, “There is none that seeketh after God,” because God is referring to “true seekers,” or those that would seek Him in a right (biblical) way, in the proper manner.  All mankind are in a sinful condition and of himself it is a fact that none seek after God.

And yet it is also true that God commands the people of the world to seek Him.  Let us go to Matthew 6.  There are a lot of Scriptures in the Bible that have to do with seeking God, and when we look at some of the verses we can see how natural-minded people can come away with a wrong understanding.   But that is not an excuse.  That is how God has written the Bible, and the natural-minded person will take it the wrong way, and they will have a lack of understanding about what is really being said.  We read in Matthew 6:33:

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

That is a command: “…seek ye first the kingdom of God.”  Do not seek wealth.  Do not seek love.  Do not seek whatever is in the world regarding your desires, your goals, and what you have your mind’s eye on, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  Then God says, “…and all these things shall be added unto you.”  That is, everything else you require or need to be a servant of the Lord in this world will be taken care of by God.  We are to concentrate first on seeking God and the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.  And we know that Christ is the “righteousness” of God.  So we are to seek the Lord Jesus Christ that He might have mercy upon you.  This would have all been applicable to the “day of salvation.”  Seek the Lord. 

In the next chapter, we read in Matthew 7:7-8:

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Is that misleading?  Is God simply not being open with the reader of the Bible?  Here, He is commanding and telling people that come to the Bible that if they seek Him, they will find Him.  And yet in Romans it says that there are none that seek Him.  You know, this is God’s Word, and He is verily a God who hideth Himself.  He is truth, and He hides the truth.  He allows the wicked to come to the Bible and read it superficially, and to take it at “face value.”  They can run after it and follow what they think the Law has told them to do, but in reality, they fail.  They did not understand what was really being said.  They did not compare Scripture with Scripture, and they did not harmonize their conclusions with the whole of the Bible.  In other words, if we read these verses in Matthew 7, we also have to read what we just read in Romans 3 where it says that none will seek Him.  Then you have to go to God if you lack understanding: “Lord, you tell me to seek you first.  You tell me to seek, and I will find, but in Romans 3, you say that there are none that seek you.  How can I understand this, O, Lord?”  We are not going to try to answer that question now, but that is what should be done when we come to the Bible, and we find what appear to be contradictions – things that do not agree together. 

Then you can take out a piece of paper and in one column write down the verse that says, “Seek ye first kingdom of God,” and then in another column, write down, “There are none that seeketh Him.”  Then we go on from there, and so forth.

But even more than what was said in Matthew 7, God says in Hebrew 11:6:

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Again, this is a verse that can cause misunderstanding.  Someone might think, “I get it.  When God says there is none that seek after Him, He means that none seek Him diligently, so I am going to seek diligently.”  No – that would also be wrong.  It is not that you have to put extra effort into seeking Him.  That is not the solution to harmonizing these things.  But, again, we can jot that down and keep reading, and as we keep reading, we can turn to the Old Testament to the book of Amos.  It says in Amos 5:4-6:

For thus saith JEHOVAH unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. Seek JEHOVAH, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

We can see it is the same Gospel, is it not?  It is the same command that is in the New Testament: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”  It is in the Old Testament, too: “Seek ye me,” God says, “and ye shall live.”  But the qualifying statement must be that we must only seek Him in a way that is acceptable to Him, but no human being is capable of doing that, and, therefore, none seek Him.

Here, we are given a little inkling of part of the problem for those that think they are seeking God.  Again, it says in Amos 5:4:

….Seek ye me, and ye shall live.

Then it says in Amos 5:5:

But seek not Bethel…

And Bethel was a city where a false system of worship was set up in the days of King Jeroboam of Israel.  But the word “beth” means “house,” and “el” means “God,” so it is the “house of God.”  And the house of God identifies with the church, as judgment began first at the house of God.

So we can see what God is saying.  He is saying, “Seek me.  Seek not the church.”  And that is a distinction that masses of people are unable to make.  And this would also be true for the Muslim.  Seek JEHOVAH, the God of the Bible, and seek not the mosque or the Muslim system of worship.  It is true of the Buddhist system of worship.  It is true of the Hindu system of worship.  It is true of the Jewish system of worship.  Seek God, the true living God, the One who has given us the Bible, and do not seek a religious system or religious trappings.  Do not get caught up in the formula or institution of religion.  Go directly to God.  When the Lord ended the church age, that was His intention for that great multitude of people that were saved outside the churches and congregations.  They were scattered among the nations of the world, and God was dealing with people on an individual basis, one on one.  God sent forth His Word apart from “Bethel” or apart from the “house of God” or any organized religion.  It went forth via the true people of God, and it primarily went forth via the electronic airwaves, and it was broadcast to the people of the world leading up to May 21, 2011, with the warning that Judgment Day would occur on that day.  So God caused it to be proclaimed to come to Him – go to the Bible, and seek JEHOVAH alone, and live.  That is, potentially God could have had mercy and saved you if you came humbly to Him because it was the proper time to seek Him. 

The Bible also tells us that there is a set season for seeking God.  It says in Ecclesiastes 3:1-2:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die…

We can understand the “time to be born” to refer spiritually to the time when God would save people by giving new hearts to His people.  There is also a “time to die,” which would refer spiritually to our present time in Judgment Day.  All of these statements have spiritual meaning.  And we read in Ecclesiastes 3:6:

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

The Hebrew word translated as “get” is Strong’s #1245, and it is a word that is often translated as “seek.”  And it is more helpful to understand it that way in this context: “A time to seek, and a time to lose…”  There is a set period of time the Bible refers to as the “day of salvation” when God made Himself available by opening the door of heaven and sending forth His Word to save sinners.  When it comes to “true seeking,” Christ is essential, and He declared in the Gospels: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10)  The true Seeker is God Himself.  God seeks those He has elected to salvation.  Jesus also said, “I am not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Again, there is a time to save, which was the day of salvation, wherein God commanded to seek Him: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”  Seek JEHOVAH, and you will live; that is, if you can seek Him properly, which would require God to first take action.  But again, we do not want to get into that discussion yet, but suffice it to say there was a time when seeking was to be done, and this would agree with Isaiah 55:6:

Seek ye JEHOVAH while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

You see, “while” is a time reference, and there is a definite implication that there would come a time when He will not be able to be found.  We will look at Scriptures that say that very thing.

So seek JEHOVAH while He may be found.  The time to seek is the day of salvation.  Then God opened up His Word at the time of the end to reveal that the day of salvation was coming to an end.  He declared that the day salvation would end across the face of the earth for evermore would be on May 21, 2011, Judgment Day.  We were to seek JEHOVAH while He may be found up until that point because the door (to heaven) would then shut, and it would be a vain and empty thing to seek Him after that time.

Another passage that emphasizes seeking God within a certain time period is in Zephaniah 2:1:

Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth…

What does it mean when it says, “Before the decree bring forth”?  That is, it must be before the appointed Day of Judgment arrived; before God shut the door of heaven; before He darkened the light of the sun, spiritually; before he dried up the Gospel waters of the earth.  It must be before these things took place.  Again it says in Zephaniah 2:2-3:

Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of JEHOVAH come upon you, before the day of JEHOVAH'S anger come upon you. Seek ye JEHOVAH, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of JEHOVAH'S anger.

(It says, “seek righteousness,” just as Matthew 6 encouraged us.)   And all God’s people are “hid” because we are “hid with Christ in God.”  That is what salvation has accomplished.  It has guaranteed us eternal safety and security from the wrath of God and the destruction that is destroying the earth at this time.  It will not harm us.  It will not destroy those that God has saved.  We have sought the Lord.  We are the “meek” that have a heart after God’s own heart, and the heart of Christ, who is most meek.  We have that characteristic, and by God’s magnificent grace and mercy, He has hidden us, and He is protecting us even though we have been left and remain on the earth during this prolonged Judgment Day.  Yet no (spiritual) harm can come to us.

So there was  the “day of salvation.”  It was the time while God could be found.  It was the time “to seek.”  But now is the “time to lose,” immediately following the beginning of Judgment Day.  There was a “time to be born,” but now it is the “time to die.”

We cannot “stick our heads in the sand,” and run from these truths.  They are unpleasant and grievous.  It is so terrible, and we weep for our loved ones, but it is the truth.  It is what the Bible says, and we have to submit to the things the Bible tells us.  It is the Word of God, so although we are saddened, and we would desire to bring the Gospel (of salvation) to our family, friends, strangers, and enemies if we could, we cannot because that time in which God was to be sought has passed.  The time to seek the Lord has ended.