Good morning, or good afternoon,
or good evening. Let's start all over again. Good evening. All right, brethren, take your Bibles
and let's turn to Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah 55, and I'm gonna read
our text with you now, which is verses seven through nine. Here the Lord, speaking to his
people, says, 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 he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Why,
God, why would you do this? He says, 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. We thank our God for His grace
to us undeserving sinners. What we have here in verse 7
is a revelation of the mystery of God revealed to us in the
gospel. This verse here is the will of
our God for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we see here, we see
into that work of the Spirit of God working in the heart of
his child who is dead in trespasses and sins, has no life, but is
given an ear of faith to hear what the Lord is saying. and
given faith to believe what is being said, and they come in
faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. through the calling of our God,
being separated unto this salvation by the gift of the Holy Spirit,
washing us in the blood of Christ. So this is the work of our God
in giving life to dead sinners who are now born again by the
grace of God to hear this word of God, because this is the revelation
of God's will for us. He's declaring his purpose, just
as he said, in Peter when he says, Be thou holy for I am holy. And that's the will of God for
us. He's declaring what he's accomplished
for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I say this because
our salvation is not a work which is brought about by the works
of this flesh, by the hearing of this flesh, by the mustering
up of strength in this flesh, by the will of the flesh, by
the running of the flesh. That's not how we're going to
be saved. were saved by the grace, the power, the glory of our God
revealed in the face of his Son, Jesus Christ. And our Lord said
in John 6, 44, no man can come to me except the Father which
hath sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day.
It's written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught
of God, every one of God's children, come to God being taught of God. We hear His voice. We're moved
by His power. We're given life by Him. And
our God is the first cause of all things. We're not the cause
of God saving us. He's the first cause and the
reason why we're saved. It's by His grace. Every man
therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh
unto me. So from the first of our seeking,
And from our hearing and believing and calling upon our God for
mercy and grace, it's all of the Lord our God. It's all of
His grace. And so the main emphasis of this
passage that we're looking at here tonight, it reveals the
truth of our God who said to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom
I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I will have
compassion. And so that truth, that truth
of God who is purposed and determined to save a people for himself
goes contrary to the ways of man and contrary to the thoughts
of man because our God's ways and his thoughts are not our
ways and not our thoughts and so we that have no spiritual
understanding are brought to witness and rejoice in the grace
of our God given to us freely in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
I've titled this message, The Higher Way and Thoughts of God
in Salvation. Now last time that we were here
in this passage, we saw that these words of our God are spoken
to us in the context of reconciliation. Our God is revealing to us his
work and his purpose in reconciling his people. And what reconciliation
means, it's a reestablishing of friendship where there had
been enmity. where there had been a broken
friendship. There's a reestablishing of that
friendship, of that unity, of that love, of that fellowship
which had been lost in Adam and upheld by us in our enmity and
fighting and warring against our God. And so to reconcile
the people of God, first our Savior came and put away that
sin which God must punish. God who is holy had to punish
that sin, so Christ came and put away our sin by the death
of himself. He came, he was crucified to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2, 17.
That's the first part of that reconciliation, to remove that
debt of sin that stood between us and God justifying us. It had to be removed. And then
the second part is the grace of our God, our Savior, sending
the gift of the Spirit to remove that enmity that is in our heart
and in our minds toward our God. He had to put that away, that
we would be reconciled unto our God by the blood of Jesus Christ. They're both acts of reconciliation,
both performed by our Lord Jesus Christ. And our God, He always
purposed to reconcile His people. It was His will, His purpose. He determined to save a people
whom He chose for the Son in eternity. and to reconcile them
to himself by his son, that we might know the glories of our
God, and give him praise and thanks for his unspeakable gift
given to us in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 18 through 19
says, all things are of God. He's the first cause of all things,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, to know that God was
in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them. and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation." That's what we're sent to preach, to
declare God's reconciliation for his people in the Son, in
Jesus Christ. And so we read now in Isaiah
55 verse 7, in this context of reconciliation, our Lord says,
let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. let him return unto the Lord
and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly
pardon." So this is not God's appeal to your flesh or my flesh. It's not God appealing to the
flesh of man. These are words of reconciliation. They're spoken to a chosen people
by the power and glory of God. And they're made, his people
are made to hear the voice of the Son of God who loved them. and gave Himself for them, who
has put away their sin, who has put away the enmity that is in
them, and made them to hear the Word of God, speaking to them,
calling them, drawing them unto the Son, unto the Savior, the
Mediator, whom God has provided freely, in grace, to save His
people. And so hearing and believing,
they come to their God. You know, there's a picture of
this in Acts 18, verse 8. It says, and many of the Corinthians,
hearing, believed and were baptized. And that's how the Lord does
it. He causes his people to hear what he has done for his people
in the Son, in the Lord Jesus Christ, his Messiah, his Christ,
the Savior whom he's provided for his people. He causes his
people to hear and to believe what God has done, that I'm the
sinner, and God's provided the salvation in His Son. Lord, I
believe. And we come to Him, following
Him, being led out of darkness into the light of God, to understand
and to know the things that our God has freely done for us in
His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, When the gospel of God
is revealed to the people of God, it's because the Spirit
has come and scattered our darkness and delivered us out of the chains
of bondage of sin and death and the pit that we are in by nature. He draws us out and brings us
into the light to behold and to see all that our God has done
in providing everything necessary for our salvation. by his grace
by his mercy so that we are returned unto the Lord as he says let
him return unto the Lord because our God has reconciled us in
Adam having put away all that was done in Adam and has restored
it all in the second Adam the Lord Jesus Christ Isn't that
a glorious thing? Isn't that wonderful what our
God has done for us so abundantly, so freely in His Son? Who can appeal to the flesh?
Why would we appeal to man's flesh? Why would we be trying
to provoke man to do something in his flesh which he can not
do? God's not working with man's
ways. He's not just tweaking man's
ways or tweaking his thoughts or doing little adjustments on
them. No, he's delivering us entirely out from our ways. We're forsaking our ways. We're
being delivered from the way of death and darkness and destruction. We're being taken away from those
things. And that's because in Romans
8, 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject
to the law of God. Neither, indeed, can be. So man's way is a way of corruption. Man's way is a way of death. Proverbs 14, 12, there is a way
which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death. In other words, man finds his
way. He goes the way that he thinks,
and all it is is just one of the many ways on the broad way
that leadeth to destruction. It doesn't save. And man just
picks that way that he thinks is good and sounds right and
fits who he is and what he likes, and he goes that way, and it's
just one of the many ways, plural, of death and destruction. And
so, the Lord in power delivers his people from man's way. removes
him from man's thoughts. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts." And one of the ways that man
tries to go to find salvation, to save himself, to deliver himself
and make himself acceptable unto God is he finds religion. He tries to get himself into
religion and become clean through his religion and clean up his
ways through religion. And that's because the carnal
mind is fully capable of being religious. A man or woman being
religious is no reason to think that we are accepted by our God,
because there's many people that are religious. So when the carnal
mind hears this phrase, let the wicked forsake his way and the
unrighteous man his thoughts, oftentimes he's thinking about
the things that he's doing that he thinks God would have him
to stop doing. He thinks God's saying, stop
your drinking, stop your smoking. Stop your lying. Stop your cheating. Stop your murdering. Stop doing
these things. Don't do those things anymore.
Clean up your ways and do that which is good and right in the
eyes of man. And he thinks he's just being
called to be a better person, to be a more religious person,
to be a more acceptable person in his ways and the things he
says and does or doesn't do. There is a reason why our Lord
said that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven. You're not going to enter the
kingdom of heaven except your righteousness is greater, more
perfect, more perfect, holy, perfection, without any fault. It must be perfect holiness. And so, our God isn't calling
us just to be more holy. or rather, more righteous by
our works, by the putting away of sinful things and filthy acts
and filthy deeds. He's calling us to see that righteousness
by the works of man alone, that's not going to save us. In fact,
that's just another way of man's ways. That's just what man thinks
is his salvation. And yet it was righteous men
who took our Lord and crucified him. thinking they were doing
God service, thinking they were doing the right thing. You know,
when we look at a man like Saul of Tarsus, we're reminded he
was a religious man. He was a religious man. He was
righteous in the eyes of his fellows, of his fellow countrymen,
and those with him in his religion. We're told that in Acts 7.58,
they took Stephen, who preached the truth, preached the truth
directly to those men, declared the truth of our God to those
men. And they were cut to the heart,
and they cast that Stephen out of the city, and they stoned
him. But before they went to stone him, it says that the witnesses
had laid down their coats at the feet of a man named Saul,
a man named Saul. And we're told this little detail
about Saul, who is Paul, who would become Paul the apostle,
delivered by our God. We're told this detail to know
that this man was considered so holy, so righteous, so good,
that you could lay your coat down and not worry about that
little gold piece or silver pieces in your pocket, so that when
you were done, Killing a Christian, murdering a Christian, you could
come back and know that all your belongings would be returned
to you because Saul of Tarsus was such a good guy. And so righteousness, man's righteousness
is not going to save anyone. It says in Acts 8.1 that Saul
was consenting unto his death. And so men commit horrible crimes
in the name of religion for the law. the Ten Commandments, if
they think that you despise the law, the law of Moses. And they'll
treat you the same way they treated Paul, and they'll cast you into
prison, and they'll speak ill of you, and they'll try to kill
you and murder you. Our Lord said in John 16, two
and three, they shall put you out of the synagogues, where
they preach and teach the law. And they say, this is the way
of salvation. This is your righteousness. Yea,
the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he
doeth God's service, and these things will they do unto you,
because they have not known the Father, nor me." So man has his
religious way and it is the way of death. After his conversion
Paul, by the Holy Spirit, declared to us that all his ways, all
that he had done in religion, and all that his parents did
for him in religion, and everything he did and practiced in religion,
he said, I count it all done. It stinks. My works stink. They
don't do anything for me with God. I haven't contributed or
added anything. I can't add anything to what
Christ, my Lord and Savior, has done. And that's because that
one who confesses Christ and believes on Him and leans wholly
upon the Lord, it's because our God has done a work of grace
in him. And that man wants to follow
Christ, doesn't want to walk in darkness anymore, leans upon
his Savior in faith, confessing that we're nothing. Nothing without
the Lord. We need him every day, every
hour, every moment. We're nothing without our Lord
and Savior. And so man, he naturally thinks
that God is pleased with his works of carnal righteousness. He thinks that God is pleased
with his efforts. He thinks that God is pleased
with his following of letters and doing those things according
to the law and attempting to please God. But it's all a stinking
abomination unto our God. Paul, when he was speaking to
those philosophers, the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill in
Acts 17 verses 30 and 31, Well, he acknowledged first that
they were a superstitious people. They were a religious people,
having many gods and many traditions and tried to cover all their
bases. And he said, the times of this
ignorance in which you Gentiles labored in your superstition
and your dead religion, your false ways, your evil thoughts,
God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere. He's not
just speaking to the Jews, no, he's speaking to Jews and Gentiles. All men everywhere to repent,
because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead. so that by the grace of God there
were some there that heard that certain men clave unto Paul and
believed even though many turned when they heard of the resurrection
of the dead and thought this is nonsense. They didn't hear,
they didn't believe, but others heard and others believed. And
that's because God had worked true repentance in his chosen
people who heard that word. That word was spoken for them,
spoken to them, and they heard it and turned from their dead
works and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's
the work of our God. who works in the hearts of his
people to turn them unto himself. And so the Lord says back in
Isaiah 55 7, 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 he will abundantly part him. There is a people who will hear. There's a people who will rejoice. A people who will come and who
do believe on the Lord, who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the
one whom he's provided to save his people. They shall be reconciled
to our God. This is the word of our Lord
saying, let them come. Let my people come. because I'll
abundantly pardon them because I've put away their sin, I've
reconciled, I've restored them in my son whom I've sent and
spared not to deliver them by the shedding of his blood to
give them life and so all that remnant seed which fell in Adam
and lost that fellowship were and gained enmity in their hearts
against the true and living God, our Savior came and redeemed
them and delivered them. Turn over to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 and look at verses
five and six. This is the first, this is that
first reconciliation which he puts away the sin. of his people
and he says he was wounded, verse 5, for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He's speaking to a people. Look
down at verse 11. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. He's not just bearing some general
blob of sin. He's bearing their iniquities.
the iniquities of his people, whose sins he put away by the
death of himself, so that Christ redeems his people. He silenced
the law, so that we may be married to another, even to Jesus Christ,
our husband, our head, our Savior. And look at that last verse,
verse 12. This here speaks of that enmity
in us which is put away when he says at the beginning, therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide
the spoil with the strong. So that those resurrection gifts
which are given to our champion, our Lord, our Savior, he gives
to his people severally as he will. and all of them receive
that mercy and grace in being delivered out of darkness, being
delivered from that enmity, having that enmity and darkness scattered
from us, whereby we may see the light of our Savior and rejoice
in Him. We're reconciled to our God by
His grace and power. And it comes to us who are undeserving
unworthy sinners who have no strength, no power, no ability
of ourselves to work this salvation. It's not simply that we've sinned
in our sinners and God is making it possible for us to be saved
now and just inviting us who care not and have no sin, have
no need, have no desire for him. He's not speaking to those who
are not covered, whose sins have not been put away by the blood
of Christ. He's speaking to them who have had their sins put away
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We were enemies warring
against our God. in darkness, with fists in his
face, fighting against him. We had our own way of doing things,
we had our own thoughts about righteousness and how we would
go about to save ourselves, but the Lord came to us, shining
his light in the darkness by his gospel, sending his gospel,
sending his preacher, sending his word into the darkness, where
his people are, and calling them out, them seeing it, while others
remained in their prisons, blind and ignorant of the things of
God, even though their cell was sitting right next to those that
did hear. That's because sovereign grace
came and chose you, and spoke to you, and revealed the light
to you, and called you out by faith to believe, to behold the
glory of your God, the salvation of your God in Christ. In John
3 verses 19 through 21, here we're told Go there to John 3. 19. This is the condemnation, that
light is coming to the world and men, having their own way
and their own thoughts, love darkness rather than light because
their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. But there is a people. He that
doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God. our faith, our coming, our believing
is the work that is wrought by our God. So then we conclude
with the scriptures. that our God deserves all the
glory, all the praise, and the honor for our believing Him,
when He said unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it's not of Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. And so man can have his thoughts,
full of what he wills to do. He can run in his own way of
religion to try and please God, but if God shows no mercy, then
that man simply runs in darkness, in vanity, and he'll die in his
sins, because he has not believed on the Son of God, the salvation
whom God has sent to save his people. Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, Let him return
unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon." And so these words come to the
sinner whom God has saved and delivers that sinner to forsake
his way and to forsake his thoughts. And He gives him that cry of
God in which we seek our God and cry out for mercy, for forgiveness,
for deliverance from our sins. Because our God will have us
to know what He has done for us, what He's brought in us by
His grace and power through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the purpose of our God
for the sinner. And the reason that our God does
this, he says in verses eight and nine, it's because my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith
the Lord. We're not gonna have the glory
for this. God is gonna receive all the glory, the praise and
the honor for our salvation, for our coming and believing.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
And so our God does this in mercy and grace. And some might wonder,
why? Why would God do it this way?
Why doesn't he just make his people to hear it right away
and just come? Why is there such a struggle
for them? make it so difficult and why
is there such a fight and a war that goes on? If God was in control,
if God could just do this, why doesn't he just do it right away
for his people? Why do they get born into different
families and come from all different places and through different
experiences, and different ways, and different religions, and
different false ways. Why does it work that way? The Lord says, well, my thoughts
are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. It's
as simple as that. I have my purpose. I have my
way of doing it. And it brings glory to the Son. Your trophies of my grace, He
says. I'll save you however I want
to save you. And you'll give me all the thanks and praise.
And you'll see that it's of God, so that we can't point to any
one person and say, well, that's one that's saved by the Lord.
Because it's oftentimes the one that we doubt the most we'll
ever hear and believe, the one who's the biggest scoundrel,
the filthiest sinner. the one whose heart is darkest
and most evil, and the Lord delivers them from their evil ways. It testifies just to how wicked
we are, but it declares how glorious, how magnificent, how gracious,
how wonderful our God is to save us, how patient he is with us,
and how he teaches us so that we learned it in the heart. We
learn it. By His grace and patience, we
learn and receive the knowledge of our God and the wisdom of
our God and all His ways of peace and love and kindness to undeserving
sinners. that we learn His grace through
those things. We're not robots. We learn it
by His grace because of how He saves each one of us. He gives
us gifts and instruction and teaches us in such a way so that
we really do know Him and love Him and are thankful to Him for
how He saved us so mercifully, so graciously, and with such
kindness. Man is so proud and so easily
lifted up, and our God does it in such a way so that we will
not be lifted up, but be humble and be brought low in self, that
we might be raised up by the hand of our God. best I can say
is there's a reason why our God says that that it's a way of
faith it's a walk of faith because it doesn't appear easily to our
mind but it's it's wrought in us by the the grace of God and
we receive it by faith by faith and so that so that the flesh
says well maybe you're just seeing it the wrong way, or maybe you're
making connections where there's no connections. Oh, no. Faith
receives the word of God, and faith believes our God and knows
that without the grace of God, this would never have been wrought
in my heart. He's God. He's almighty. He's
powerful and wonderful. So you might say, well, I wouldn't
do it that way. And you're right. You wouldn't.
This is the way our God does it. Who said, my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the
Lord. And so He does all these things.
All things are working together for our good. Now in closing,
Isaiah 55, 9. As the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts. And our Lord gives a parable
of a rich man who died and was now in hell and separated. And he's speaking with Abraham,
and he's asking for a little bit of rest from his torment,
just a little bit of respite, a little peace from his torment.
And Abraham says to that man in Luke 16, 26, He said, well,
we can't do that. I can't do that. And he said,
beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed,
so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot. Neither
can they pass to us that would come from thence. And that's
a picture of us by nature. Between us and our God, there's
a great gulf fixed that we cannot cross. We can't span it. We can't
build a bridge by our works. There's no Tower of Babel that
we're going to make for ourselves to reach unto our God. But our God has sent his son. Jesus Christ is the Savior whom
he sent, by whom he reconciles his people unto himself. And he accomplished that salvation
by the death of himself, by putting away our sin, by the shedding
of his own blood, to put away that sin, and has sent his Holy
Spirit to reconcile us by removing the enmity that's in us, that
we might be reconciled to our God. And so there is but one
way to God. And we're going to forsake our
way. And we're going to go the way that God has provided us,
if we are His. And we believe. Those who hear Him, believe Him. And trust Him. And follow the
Son whom He sent. Because our God will be gracious
to whom He will be gracious. he'll be merciful, to whom he'll
be merciful, and he'll show compassion, to whom he'll show compassion,
and we will follow him. And so you that do believe, rejoice. Give thanks and praise to your
God for his great salvation in Christ. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy. We thank you for your grace,
for reconciling your people who are undeserving sinners. who
have nothing to recommend ourselves to you. But Lord, you don't want
it, you don't need it, and you don't want it. You've provided
everything in your Son, Jesus Christ. And Lord, we thank you
that you've given us an ear to hear. You declare what you've
done, and you bring us to yourself, and that We can't put ourselves
into your hand and we can't get ourselves out of your hand. It's
all a work of your grace. And we thank you, Lord, for this
work. We thank you for your mercy and your grace in your son. Lord,
keep us ever looking to Christ. Keep us ever resting in your
son, Jesus Christ, for the reconciliation you provided in him. And Lord,
we continue to Lift up to you our brethren who are sick and
not feeling well, Lord have mercy. Heal our bodies, give us strength,
keep us ever hungering and thirsting for the word of our Lord, to
hear the voice of your son, your salvation, Jesus Christ. Keep
us ever looking to him. Lord, heal your people, strengthen
your people, and Lord, draw your people out of darkness. Draw
your people out of dead works and bring them here, Lord. Establish your work here. Lord,
we pray that you would be pleased to pour out your spirit upon
us and upon this work here, strengthening those that are here, comforting
us and anchoring us in the sun. And Lord, that you would bring
out your people who are hungering and thirsting, that they may
feed upon your Son, Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. Let's all stand to sing a closing
hymn, 144, when this passing world is done. 144. When this passing world is done,
when as young, yon radiant sun, when I stand with Christ on high,
looking o'er life's history, then, Lord, shall I fully know,
not till then how much I owe, When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own, When I see thee as thou art,
Love thee with unsinning heart, Then, Lord, shall I fully know
Not till then how much I owe. ? Chosen not for good in me ? ?
Wakened up from wrath to flee ? ? Hidden in the Savior's sight
? ? By the Spirit sanctified ? ? Teach me, Lord, on earth
to show ? ? By my love how much I owe ? Oft I walk beneath a
cloud, dark as midnight's gloomy shroud. But when fear is at its
height, Jesus comes in all his light. Blessed Jesus, bid me
show, doubting saints how much I owe. When the praise of heaven
I hear, Loudest thunders to the ear, Loudest many waters' noise,
Sweetest hearts' melodious voice, Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then how much I owe,