God the Chief Object of Search
Acts 17:27
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:


I. IN WHAT SENSE IS IT TRUE THAT GOD IS NOT FAR FROM ANY ONE OF US? He is nigh —

1. In the creation around us.

2. In the sense of creaturely dependence and trust.

3. In that He is the Being towards whom the soul tends.

II. Is WHAT SENSE DOES MAN FEEL AFTER GOD?

1. In every search for an object of love there is a groping after God.

2. The intense longing after human fellowship is feeling after God.

3. So there is in the instinct of acquisition.

4. In the awful necessity there is in man for worship.

III. ANY CERTAINTY THAT MAN WILL FIND HIM?

1. Sin has separated both man and God.

2. Man desired not to retain God in His knowledge.

3. But God wants to find man.Witness —

(1)  Incarnation.

(2)  Provision for the new birth.

IV. THERE IS NECESSITY LAIN UPON EVERY SOUL TO FIND GOD. No matter how wise and cultured, if a man does not find God, he has missed the object of existence.

(B. M. Palmer, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

WEB: that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.




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