I'm going to be in Isaiah chapter
55. Isaiah 55. And I want to read verses 6 to
9. Isaiah 55 and verse 6. Seek ye
the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord
and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for him For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." I've preached from this before
and spoke about the thoughts of God, actually probably a couple
of times, and I suspect I will again. But today, I want to actually
kind of focus on another part of this, which is definitely
related to his thoughts. My title is The Ways of God. The Ways of God. Now, I've been
pondering and thinking about the ways Christ my Lord, His
ways, for quite a while. I actually took out my calculator
and did the additions and in 41 years that I have known the
Lord. Now, I think I know a lot more
now than when I started. However, considering how little
I knew, that's not saying a whole lot. Because I knew now exactly who I knew then, 41 years
ago. Understand, Jesus Christ hasn't
changed. My comprehension has changed,
but it's still the same God-man and the same Lord. Oh, I like
that part. I spent the last 41 years learning
at my slow pace to find out one thing. I don't know very much. I don't know very much. Now,
I've said this before, and I'm sure I'll say it later. The further
I go, the behinder I get. You've heard that. But what I
mean by that is this. The more I learn, the more I
find out I need to learn. The more I find out that there's
stuff there that I haven't seen before, I find it out every week.
Earl Cochran told me that years ago, Paul. He was right. Matter of fact, he's still right.
Actually, he told me that decades ago now that I think about it. See, my problem is my thoughts
and my ways. God's ways are not a problem. Now, if they're a problem to
you, it's your problem. God's ways are not a problem. Now verse 8 is where I'm going
to start. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways my ways, saith the Lord. I'll give you a conclusion
right here at the start. Our thoughts and our ways are
always wrong. Wrong. And God's thoughts are
holy, just, good, perfect, righteous, and every other good adjective
that I couldn't think of when I was writing this down. God's
ways are holy, just, good, righteous, perfect. Perfect. His ways are
perfect. And the sooner we learn this,
the better off we will be. Now, I said our and we when I
was reading that because I include myself in this. God's thoughts
and ways are infinitely better than ours. What does he tell
us? Verse nine. For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. You understand? Never forget, God remembers we
are dust. That's all we are. It says it
in the scriptures. We're like the dust of a small
balance. You can use a breath to blow
it off, you can leave it there, and it's not going to change
the measurement one way or another. We don't make change. God does. If there's any change to be made.
And He, Himself, never changes. But what I want to bring forth
today is a message about the ways of God. But before I get
into that so much, I do want to talk a little bit about the
ways of man. Okay, this is the bad part, then
we'll get to the good part. Okay? The ways of man are well
known. Man's ways are self-centered
and selfish. Pretty much, if you want to,
you can put a period right there. Some of our ways may seem more
noble than others, and some of them may be more noble than others. But man, still, even at his noblest,
as charity work and whatever else, you know, doing good deeds
for people, helping little old ladies cross the street. Shriners
Crippled Children Hospital, which is a wonderful thing. I have
nothing against it. But you understand, everyone
that works in Shriners Crippled Children Hospital, everyone that
donates to it, is still totally depraved in heart. In heart. Instead still in my
flesh dwelleth no good thing in my heart Dwelleth no good
thing and out of the abundance of the heart man speaks And it's
usually not good now Matter of fact Isaiah goes on to say later
on here the ways of man's are wrong Even our best deeds are
always garbage in the sight of God. I'm talking about the sight of
man. In the sight of God, our ways are wrong, are garbage. Excuse me. We imagine ourselves, we imagine ourselves the center
of the universe because in our brain, this is all we know. This
is all we know. programs. Some of them are good,
some of them are bad. That's just the way of it. But
I'm going to tell you something. They're going about, not to establish
their own righteousness, but they're going about to establish,
trying to establish, that God doesn't exist. And that this
whole thing come into being as an accident. And I don't believe
that for a minute. It doesn't bother me how old
some bones are. It doesn't bother me how old,
you understand, I don't know what happened before Adam and
Eve were formed. I have no idea. But it doesn't
change my thoughts of Jesus Christ. And it doesn't change, here it
is. This is part of the ways of God. I'm gonna tell you this
right now. He shall send them strong deluge. Now, he's got different lives
for different people. He always has. But that's neither
here nor there. Here's the problem. We're the
worms he's got. We're the dust, a drop in the
bucket. is for as the heavens are higher
than the earth, where do the heavens end? Nobody knows. But that high compared to the
earth is how much his thoughts and his ways are higher than
ours, better than ours. Now, so much for man's ways.
The ways of God are higher. The ways of God are better. The ways I want to speak to you
about today in context of Isaiah 55, I want to look at verse 3. I'm just going to back up a little
bit from where I read it. Well, I'm going to read verse
1. That's a good one. Ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money,
come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight in fatness. unto me here and your soul shall
live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure
mercies of David David now this is the he says, gets into my thoughts
are not your thoughts. What's he saying? He says, incline
your ear, come unto me, here in your soul shall live. This
is what God says before telling us of his ways. Understand, this
is a way of God. What he wrote, what he said in
verse three. Now, if you want to talk about
here in your soul shall live, okay? Incline your ear. That's
what he said, that's what he meant. But here's the thing. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God. I just want to say it boldly. I want to say it plain out. The
natural man cannot hear the Word of God from God. What's it say? Stephen told them
fellas, who were getting ready to throw rocks at him and stone
him to death. He said, this is in Acts 7, 51,
ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ears, ye do
always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit,
come to you in power, speak to you in power, there is no hearing
ear until He gives you one. Because the Lord alone gives
hearing ears and seeing eyes. I'll get it right. Here in ears eyes to see and
what is it a heart to understand? Now the natural man man as he
is born man before God moves in him man before the Holy Spirit
comes to him Proverbs 20 verse 12 the hearing
ear and the seeing eye the Lord hath made even Both of them that's
where it comes from him then and only then I with hearing it. Christ himself
said it several times. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. And what's the implication of
that statement? The implication of that statement
is that not everyone has ears that hear what Christ says. Oh, is that true? Yes, it's true. Christ said it,
it's true. Whether we believe it or not,
it's true. You'll read in Acts, I didn't
mark it down, but I still remember it to this day. Paul preached,
talking about Paul preached, Luke wrote it down. And what's
it say? After Paul preached, Some believe
and some believe not. That's what it says. That's exactly
what it says. And that's what it means. Some
will hear. Some have a hearing ear. Some
have a seeing eye. Some have a heart that understands.
And some do not. It's part of the ways of God.
Because what does it say? If you look back, you see, promising
here, we're talking about the sure mercies of David. What?
Incline your ear and come unto me. Here in your soul shall live,
and I'll make with you an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies
of David. What did David say? 2 Samuel
23, verse 5. Very familiar piece of scripture,
it should be. be not so with God. Yet He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. For this is all my
salvation, and all my desire Although he make it not to grow. Oh my. First thing I want to
tell you here. These sure mercies of David. This covenant. Everlasting covenant. The covenant of God is particular. Even under David, although my
house be not so with God, the Lord made with me an everlasting
covenant. And it wasn't because David was
better than them. David, no. You can read the account
of David for yourself. David sinned a great sin after
God had made him king. Not going into that, but here's
the thing. Says, he didn't make this covenant with those in David's
house. That's what David said. Although
my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant. God's covenant is particular. And let him that hath ears, let
him hear. Let him hear. Oh. He didn't make
it with David's house, he gave it to David. What's God saying? When he says a little later,
this is my covenant. It's my covenant. I'll give it
to whomsoever I will. That's the way God works. That's
the ways of God. You understand, he does say,
now I know this is Old Testament, But I can tell you this right
now, he's not talking about the law when he talks about an everlasting
covenant, ordered and sure, ordered in all things and sure. Hebrews
8 verse 9 says this, not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to leave
them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in
my covenant and I regarded them not. saith the Lord. For, this is verse 10 of Hebrews
8, for this is the covenant that I will make. With the house of
Israel after those days saith the Lord, I will put my laws
into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be
to them a God. and they shall be, what? To me, a people. A people. That's quoted in the Old Testament
in Hebrews chapter 8. It's quoted in the Old Testament
there. But I'm going to tell you something.
This is a reference to the true covenant of salvation. the everlasting
covenant, the sure mercies of David. Oh, I like that. This
is the ways of God. This is the way God works. Oh, and again, even here, he
makes it with whom he will. I will put them in their mind,
I will write them in their hearts, and I'll be to them a God, and
they, those that I will. Those that I put my laws in their
minds, those that I write them in their hearts, I'll be to them
a God. And they shall be to me a people. Oh, I like that. I do. It's good
stuff. What did David say about this
covenant? Everlasting. Everlasting. You know something about the
ways of God? They're everlasting. They're everlasting. Oh, nothing
can be put to it. Nothing can be taken from it.
God does it. That man should fear Him. They don't. They don't, but they
should. Oh, they should. But the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord a covenant with you. David didn't
make a covenant with God. God made the covenant with David.
Understand, this is a one-way street. God didn't ask David
for help. God didn't ask David for a contribution. God didn't ask David for his
assistance. I have made with him an everlasting
covenant, and it was ordered in all things, ensure The only
way it can be ordered in all things and sure as if David had
nothing to do with it. It was the work, the ways of
God. It's the covenant of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's the covenant of God. And
that's why it's everlasting. You understand? God said it's
my covenant. That's what God said. But that don't make it your covenant.
It's still my covenant. Ah, I tell you. How precious. Here's a good thought. I'm going
to wind up. I'm not going to keep you long.
Here's a good thought. How precious also are thy thoughts
unto me How great is the sum of them.
Now that's from a Psalm of David. Psalm 139 verse 17. You understand, David was not
just writing of the thoughts of God in this place. I love
this part. He said, how precious also are
thy thoughts unto me. To me. You understand, you read
Jeremiah, I think it's chapter nine. Don't hold me to it, I'd
have to look it up. Thought about it, but I didn't.
Because you talk about God's thoughts and God's ways. And
there's a verse in there that Walter read when he was looking
at the book of Jeremiah. And I thought, oh, please don't
preach on that, because I wanted to. And I did. He said, God said,
I am going to think thoughts to you. Thoughts of peace. Thoughts of love. Thoughts of
an everlasting covenant. And he says, you know what it
says next? How precious are thy thoughts
unto me? God says, I'll think thoughts of peace unto you, then. Then. Then you'll turn. Then
you'll come. But you're not coming until God
thinks thoughts of peace unto you. How precious are thy thoughts
unto me? How great is the sum of them?
You understand? This is where I want to be. This
is where I want to be. I want God's thoughts unto me
and God's ways unto me to be precious to me. The thoughts of God and the ways
of God are precious. I want them to be precious to
me. I want them to be precious to you. This is where we are
because Some of his ways are told us
in this book. We don't know them all. We don't
even know what all is written in here. There's no way a man
can understand this book, the whole thing. But I know this. It's a book about his son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, from beginning to end. You understand? That's who made the everlasting and a savior oh And we're told
to say to show that self-approved a Workman that is not be ashamed
rightly dividing the word of truth Well, here's one of the
truth God's ways are holy Now let me just give you a couple of them Psalm 145 verse 17 says
this the Lord is righteous and in all his ways. I like that. The Lord is righteous in all
his ways and holy in all his works. In all his works, in all
his ways, the Lord Jesus Christ is righteous. In all his works,
the Lord Jesus Christ is holy. His election of some. I know a lot of people hate that
word, election. But His election of some, an election of grace,
the scriptures say, is holy and righteous. His making vessels,
some to honor and some to dishonor. The illustration, the potter,
makes vessels on the honor and vessels on the dishonor out of
the same load. That's holy and righteous. That's
God's ways. He's giving up his life for the
sheep. It's holy and righteous. But
here's this, the plowing of the wicked being sin is holy and
righteous. God says it's sin. God says anything
the wicked do is sin. That's the definition of wicked.
The plowing, what's wrong with plowing? The wicked does it. And he does it for the wrong
reason. He doesn't do it in the glory of God and he doesn't do
it in the thankfulness of God. But his ways are righteous and
his works are holy and we can't see it. without him, without
him. Now listen, any difference of
opinion, any discrepancy with that statement is your problem. The scripture's clear. His ways
are righteous and his works are holy. Oh, I like that. His thoughts are holy, his ways
are holy, his works are holy, and ours God's thoughts and God's ways.
And yours, mine, and everybody else's are not. And we got to
deal with that. This is a fact. It's not an opinion. That's what the scriptures say.
We have to deal with it. We have to get over ourselves.
Because God is right and we are sinners. Romans 11.33 says this. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
His judgments and His ways past finding out. Oh, I like that. You understand, His ways are
still, right now, past finding out. Even with all this we have
in this book, His ways are past finding out. Now we have what he's given unto
us, okay? And the only reason we have is
because he has given to us. He said of some, I think at the
end of Luke, he opened their eyes, opened their understanding
of the scriptures, of the scriptures. the things of the Spirit of God.
It's a gift from God, a revelation from God. He saves His people
for His glory. He establishes His covenant with
them for His glory. And they come to Him. They come,
what? Sinners, sinners, believing Him. Oh, I like that. He came to save
sinners. Oh, He came and He did. And He
does and He is and He shall. Oh, I like that. They call on
His name for the forgiveness of sins. The ways of God are
glorious and righteous and holy and good because He is but by Him. That's His way. And He is the
way. Oh, I like that. The ways of
God are glorious and gracious and merciful and holy. The last thing about the ways
of God, that's about David. said before he talked about his
ways, his thoughts and his ways. Well, look what he says after
he talked about his thoughts and his ways. Verse 10. For as the rain cometh down and
the snow from heaven and returneth not thither, but watereth the
earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give seed
to the sower and bread to the eater. What's it say? Verse 11.
So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall
not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which
I please. shall prosper it shall prosper
in the thing where in where to I Sent it The word that goes
out of his mouth. Oh It's not gonna return void
to him to him It's gonna accomplish My ways God's ways it's gonna
accomplish God's ways that which I please and God's ways. God's ways. And it shall prosper
in my intentions. My ways. It's going to prosper
what I send it to. God's word does exactly what
God expects it to do. What's that mean? God is sovereign. A lot of people don't like that
word. Well, you're going to like this even less. Bow to it. Bow
to the Lord. You understand? We're not talking
about, hey, shake a preacher's hand. That won't do you any good. But you have to kiss the son
lest he be angry. And you perish in the way. And
you perish in the way. Oh, I don't know. Well, he's
sovereign whether you know it or not. And you need to bow to
him now. Otherwise, you won't bow to him
later. And that's not going to be as pleasant. What is it? His will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Oh, his ways are sovereign. My father, we're thankful again
for this time and this place. Lord, bless your word. I know the mistakes I make, some
of them, but your word will not return
unto you void. I've preached your word, told
your truth from your book about your son, our Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Bless it. Bless that word to
our hearts and our ears. Walter, as he goes to speak in
Danville, be with all your men everywhere that they would preach
your truth, your son, proclaim Christ Jesus and him crucified. Oh, Lord, give us the power. Lord, help us to proclaim your
word and help us to receive your word proclaimed. In Christ's
name we pray, amen. I don't know yet. I think I'm just cutting two
now. Well, that one was still pointed
right at me. That one there, yeah. Is that better? No. It's still there, but it's
not as bad as it was. It don't matter. I mean, either
way, that still sounds funny. Joe, if you want to sit there,
you can. There's dog hair, I think, everywhere else. Well, that's
my cat hair. Like you want to sit in dog hair.
Yeah, they don't bother me. Trust me. I was sat in worse
things. OK. It's your turn now. All right. Did the thing show
up on the broadcast? I don't know, it shouldn't show
up on the recording that I would think. I'm going to cut it off
soon and separate mine and yours.