I'd like to ask you to join me
this morning in the book of Isaiah, chapter 55. On Friday I was driving down
North Shingle Road coming back to the house here and one of the churches on the main
road over there, they've got those signs, you know, we see
them all over the place where people put things out there,
they put little sayings of this and little sayings of that. I
get a real kick out of the guys down here, they come up with
some pretty funny ones sometimes. But the one over here on North
Shingle, it says, what does it mean to believe God? And I read that,
and then all the way between there and here, the Lord just I actually had a different message
that I had planned on preaching today, but when I saw that I
was like, oh, it's amazing what God and how God will inspire
a message to come about. Sometimes I get something from
listening to other ministers. One of the hardest things sitting
and listening to another preacher or visiting preacher is All of
a sudden I want to get up and start preaching on a point that
he was talking about just now. We see Don Fortner doing that,
don't we? All of a sudden he starts writing stuff down, he's
got himself a message going there. What does it mean to believe
God? How would I answer that question? As I thought about that question,
and how I would answer it, these words came to mind. Are you with
me in Isaiah 55? Look at 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 he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts, God Almighty is speaking, 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. For as the rain cometh down and
the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the
earth, and maketh it to bring forth and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower, and the bread to the eater. So shall my word
be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto
me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereinto I send it." Here's the answer to that question.
What does it mean to believe God? My ways, saith the Lord, are
higher than yours. Higher than mine. His ways are
above anything that you and I can imagine. And many, many, many
have come up with a wild imagination. Have you ever stopped to wonder
how they came up with that thing they call alien? Have any of
you guys seen that movie? It's one of them scary movies,
you know? I looked at that after I got calmed down from being
all afraid of it and everything. And I looked at the detail and
I thought to myself, it had to take a lot of drugs
to come up with something that wild. That's pretty wild stuff. That was pretty much imagination
to come up with things like that. Well, that's what we do with
religion. We do the same thing. We think
about our ways, and well, you know, I like a God who's one
of the trees, or I like a God who runs swift as the wolf, or
flies as smooth as the eagle. You can come up with all kinds
of gods if you let your own imagination work at it. In fact, so many
gods were thought of at one time. As Paul was walking through Rome,
he's sitting there and he sees all these different statues of
gods, all these different tributes to their gods. And just in case
one was missed, here was the tribute to the unknown god. Just
in case we missed one in our imagination, Here's one to the
unknown God. What think you of Christ? That was the question of our
Bible study. What think you of Christ? What does it mean to
believe God? It's to believe that His ways
are above ours. To believe God is to repent You
know what repentance means? It means to turn from. But it
doesn't just mean to turn from. Because see, a lot of people
think that if you repent of your sins, if you say, oh, I'm not
going to do that sin anymore. I'm not going to sin in alcohol
anymore. I'm not going to sin in beating
my wife. I'm not going to sin in whatever
it is you can consider in your mind what sin is. I'm going to
turn from that. That's not repentance. That's
just doing something different. True repentance is turning from
something to another. Turning from what it is you think
is wisdom to the true wisdom, and that's our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. To believe God is to repent,
to turn from what we think of ourselves, and to turn to the
truth of who he is. John the Baptist preached repentance.
My title for today's message is My Ways, not John's, God's
Ways. Do you realize, have you ever
heard this statistic before? Do you know the biggest musical
hit of all time The biggest musical song of all time is I Did It
My Way, first sang by Frank Sinatra and then sang by Elvis Presley.
With the two of those two men together, I Did It My Way is
the biggest song, most money-making song of all times. Is that any wonder? You see,
that's the nature of man. That song touched so many people
because so many people thought about, I did it my way. Look
how things turned out. Turned out pretty good on this
earth. This earth that had been cursed
because of sin. All their treasure. All of those
who could put those words to their own heart. seek the treasures
of this world. This world is not our home. The
people of God are just passing through. We live in tents as
Abraham did. I'm thankful that I have running
water in my tent. I'm thankful that I have cold
food to eat, meat to eat because it's kept cold. I'm thankful
that there's a fireplace to keep me warm. I'm thankful that I
have a job to go to, but this is just stuff that's passing
by. Folks, there are two places to
go for eternity. You're either going to heaven
or you're going to hell. Our Lord says, My ways are higher
than yours. Is this all we think about anymore?
What was going on right here with us? Or do we stop to think
about where we're going for eternity? Sin came into this world because
Adam did it His way. And mankind has
been doing it their own way ever since. Can we take a moment to
consider what His ways versus man ways? Can we take a moment to consider
His ways versus man's ways? First of all, the Creator is
not bound by the things of earth. We live by what we call the laws
of nature. Natural things that happen due
to that's what their nature is. For instance, you hold an apple
up and it drops. You hold an apple up and it drops
because that's what it does. Water flows along the least resistible
path. Why? Because that's what water
does. Night follows day, day follows
night over and over again. Why? Because that's what it does. Moisture turns to clouds, clouds
turn to rain, rain turns to snow, and so on, and so on, and so
on. If you consume certain products,
your body is nourished. If you don't, well, All you have to do is look at
me and see the results of that. I think you get the picture,
don't you? The God of all creation owns all that is, and He does
whatsoever He pleases with it. Nothing is beyond His control. Did he not turn wine or water
into wine? Did he not make the sun stand
still? Did he not make the Red Sea stand
upon each side that the people of Israel would walk across on
dry land, and then cause the very same ground that Israel
walked on to be muddy again, so that when Egypt came across
there Chariots would sink in the mud? Did He not heal the sick and
raise the dead? The one thing that we need to
do is to put away what we see in the flesh and look to what
is eternal, and that is that God rules everything. As I said in Bible study, the
most important thing that came to my mind when I first heard
this gospel preached was the man standing here spoke
of a God who deserved to be called God. I didn't hear the story
about how God has done something and now it's up to us to do something.
I heard about a God who had done something. I heard about the
word shall. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. No ifs, no ands, no buts. There
is a God in heaven sitting there right now working everything
out according to His own counsel. According to His rule. Not according
to ours. His ways are above ours. God's people have no confidence
in the flesh. You know why? Because the flesh is weak and
foolish. He is Lord of all. He is called
God because He is God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Spirit, three distinct persons, yet one God. How can
we explain such a thing? How can we explain the three
in one? His ways are above our ways.
That's the only way I can explain it. We were born by the coming of
man together, men and women, man and wife. He was born of
a virgin. God became flesh, how is that
so? His ways are above ours, that's
how so. He who knew no sin was made to
be sin. He who is perfect and holy in
every way was made sin. He who cannot even look upon
sin was made sin. How can that be? His ways are
above our ways. He who is eternal God died for
His chosen people. How could God die? How could
He who is eternal die? How can I explain that to somebody
who has never heard it? I can't. All I can say is His ways are
above our ways. This God-man was raised from
the dead and He sits in heaven ruling all things according to
His will, according to His counsel, receiving all glory unto Himself. Turn back to a page, if you would,
to Psalms 53. How can this be? His ways are above our ways. Verse 1, Who hath believed our
report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he
shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root of the dry
ground. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows, acquitted with grief, and we hid, as it
were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. Surely He had borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of peace was
upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. How can this be? His ways are above our ways. Folks, today is the day of salvation. May God turn you from the ways
of men that you might see the true and
living God. Men want you. They want you to
come to God. They want you to make a decision.
They want you to get baptized. They want you to worship on Saturday. The way of men is to come to
God. The way of God is that God comes to you. I must go through Samaria. That's what the Lord said. Why? Because there was a lady
there. A lady who would come to a well.
A sinner chosen by God before the world was, just as each of
you and I have come to a place where God's preacher has preached
the truth of who God is, just as you and I have been brought
to a place to hear the truth of God preached, our Lord had
to preach the gospel to that lady. There was a sinner who
would be saved by grace at that well. Men want you to make a decision
for God. God's way is you were chosen
in Christ before the world began. The world hates that. They do not
like that at all. What do you mean? I don't have
a right to choose. It's my decision what I want
to do. Leave us to that and we'll all go to hell. It's our nature. It's the sin that's in us. And
as children of God, we see that nature for what it is. Our Lord
allows us to continue to see that in our flesh for this reason,
so that we will continually, over and over and over again,
because it's never going to get any better in this flesh. We
must put this flesh off. And we continue over and over
again to see the sin that's in this flesh so that we might praise
the Lord and Savior who has gone to the cross and paid for that
sin. Lord, help me not to sin. But
if I say I'm not a sinner, if I say I don't have any sin, then
I lie and God is not in me. That's God's Word. Men want you to do something
to be saved. God is wanting for nothing. I am here to tell you, thus saith
the Lord, if Christ died for you, He will have you. Turn over to the 111th Psalm,
please. been the way of God from the
foundation of the world to bring people unto himself. A people
predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son, Christ
Jesus. A people who would spend eternity
glorifying and singing praises to the Lord for our salvation. For the shedding of His own blood
for our sins. For taking those sins into the
grave as they were His. Making them His own. Bearing
those sins in His own body is what the Word of God says, yet
He had never sinned. His way has always been to call
those for whom He died unto Himself, revealing the truths of God to
them, giving them life, being once dead in trespasses and sin,
yet now we liveth unto God. We looked at this in Bible study,
but I want to repeat it. Matthew 16, 15, you don't need
to turn there, I'll read it for you. He saith unto them, our
Lord saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? He had asked the disciples, who
do the people say that I am? Most of the people in the world
around them said that He was a prophet of some kind. But who
do you say that He is? And Simon Peter, one that was
chosen before the world was, just as every one of us are,
just as every one of God's people have been chosen before the foundation
of the world, Simon Peter answered because God gave him the answer
and he said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And our Lord's words that come
next are the words that He speaks to each and every one of His
people. Everyone who hears and believes who God is, the true
and living God, our Lord says this to you, blessed art thou,
blessed are you, because you I have given myself
for. Blessed are you, Simon Barjona,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven." But he doesn't stop there, he goes
on and he says, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter
and upon this rock, not the rock of Peter as the Catholics would
like you to think, the rock of Jesus Christ being the Son of
God. The only true rock, the only
rock that anyone can stand on. Upon this rock I will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not prevail." What does
it mean to believe God? It means to believe His Word. This Bible, in the beginning
was the Word. You start reading in Genesis
1 and you go all the way to Revelations 22 and you'll read about Christ
if you know Christ. It's to believe His Word. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever Faith is a gift of God. It's not something we just conjure
up and all of a sudden start thinking, you know, today I'm
not going to be as foolish as I was yesterday. I'm just going
to start following God. I'm going to believe Him now. The natural man cannot believe
God, for the natural man is enmity against God. You must be born
again. It means believe His Word. It means to have the God-given
faith that His Word is truth. We talk sometimes about philosophy
at work with some of my fellow employees. You know, my philosophy is built
on now, it's not on a bunch of hogwash about what men can do.
It's about what God has done. It's about the truth of my Lord
and Savior who created everything that is. His Word is truth. It means to
know the rock that the church of God is built upon. It means
to know who Christ the Lord is. He's God Almighty in the flesh.
God became flesh. He put His glory of the Spirit
away for just a moment in time that He could walk this earth
perfectly. Be born of a virgin. Fulfill the law completely for
His people. Not one dot was left undone. And once He had completed that,
He went to the cross. What does it mean to know God?
It means to know what Christ the Lord has done. To believe
God is to know what Christ our Lord and Savior has done by sacrificing
Himself, by providing Himself our sacrifice, shedding His own
blood, the pure blood of God, so that you and I would be righteous
in Him. What does it mean to believe
God? It means to know what Christ the Lord is doing right now.
He's sitting on His throne, doing exactly what He wants to do,
according to His will and purpose, making intercession for all that
Father hath given Him. When we sin, our Lord says, that was Mine. Don't get me wrong. Don't even
think for one second that I'm saying it's okay to go out and
sin. God help us to turn from those things that we know as
being sin. God help us. But when we fail, and we will.
When we step in it, and we will. Our Savior sits on the throne
right now and he says, I paid for that already. This one is
clean. This one is washed in my blood.
This one belongs to me for the God the Father has given that
one to me and I shall lose none. Can you think of any better assurance
than that? Oh, but God What does it mean to believe
God? It means to see His ways are above our ways. It's to see that His ways are
true and right. It's to see His Word as true
and right. Bill and I were talking earlier
about how my brother and wife his wife
when they lost their child. They leaned so heavily on that
very fact that all that the Father giveth me, I mean, that all things
are for the good to them that love the Lord, to them that are
called. That verse got them through that
deep sorrow that one goes through when losing a child. It was God's purpose to put Lee
and Shirley in this church where they would hear and sit under
the preaching of a man who had lost his own child in his own
arms. And in private was able to come. God's ways are above our ways. The Lord of Glory has chosen
to reveal Himself to you and to give you faith to believe
you shall not die in your sins. In Joshua 1 verse 5 we read this,
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee. This is
our Lord speaking. God Almighty is speaking to Joshua,
but He's speaking to all of God's people. There shall not any man
be able to stand before Thee all the days of Thy life. As
I was with Moses, so will I be with Thee. I will not fail Thee,
nor forsake Thee." In Jeremiah 24-7 we read this, And I will
give them, speaking to God's people, an heart to know Me, that I am the Lord, and they
shall be My people. And I will be their God. And if that's not enough for
you, let me read one more. 2 Corinthians 6.16, For ye are
the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be My people. I'm telling you here this morning. Thus saith the Lord. If God before
you, who or what can be against you? Before I read this praise written by the psalmist in 111,
allow me to read for you from Romans 8.31. What shall we then say to these
things? If God before us, who can be
against us? This is reassurance to me, folks,
when I read these words. This reminds me that when I've
stepped in the hole on my path and I've stumbled, my Lord will not forsake me.
If God be for me, who or what can be against me? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us? Do you hear the assurance
God gives his people? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Who shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all things
we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us,
to separate me. If God be for me, what can be
against me? Nothing shall separate me from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. If God is pleased
to reveal His ways to you, you will sing with this psalmist
who writes, Praise ye the Lord, verse 1, Psalms 111. Praise ye
the Lord, I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly
of the upright in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great,
sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious
and His righteousness endureth forever. He hath made His wonderful
works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. He hath given meat unto them
that fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His
covenant. He hath showed His people the
power of His works that He may give them the heritage of the
heathen. The works of His hands A variety
in judgment, all His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever
and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto His people.
He hath commanded His covenant forever. Holy and reverent is
His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. a good understanding have all
they that do his commandments, his praise endureth forever." What does it mean to believe
God? It's just as simple as that.
His ways are above ours. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Amen?