Would you turn back to Psalm
40? I have entitled this message,
God's Thoughts. God's Thoughts. God is a person. God has thoughts. What are his thoughts of me? What are his thoughts of you?
God's thoughts. Now in this 40th Psalm, who is
speaking? Look in verse six, sacrifice
and offering, thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me, I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, yea, thy
law is within my heart. Now, is there any question regarding
who is speaking? This is quoted in Hebrews chapter
10 as the direct words of the Lord Jesus Christ. And whenever
we read the Psalms, we ought to remember that the first application
is Christ speaking. That's the first application.
And then it's what David says. Both, let's read this whole psalm
in light of that. Remember, this is Christ speaking
first, and this is David speaking. I waited patiently for the Lord,
and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also
out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet
upon a rock, and established my goings, and He hath put a
new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see
it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that
man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the
proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God,
are thy wonderful works, which thou hast done, and thy thoughts,
which are to usward." Now, who's the usward? Who's he speaking
of? You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
can never be separated from his people. He was saying great and
glorious. Your thoughts to me and every
one of my brethren, every one of my children, the Lord can
not be separated from his people. We're his bride. We're his body
where his church. Now, look how many thoughts there
are. These thoughts, which are to
usward Christ and his people, they cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, there more than can be numbered. This is the Lord
Jesus speaking, and he's talking about him and his people. Now, how God thinks of Christ. How's God think of Christ? And all God thinks of Christ
and how often God thinks of Christ is how all and how often he thinks
of the believer. Delphus, he's thought of you
today. You've been on his heart. That's a hard thing to get hold
of. Isn't it? That God. The God of glory actually thinks
of me. It almost seems impossible. We
say with David, when I consider the heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou has made, what is
man that thou art even mindful of him or the son of man that
thou visitest him? Mankind, an ant. Me, an ant. How much significance
is there to that? And yet the Lord thinketh upon
me. Look in verse 17. This is the
Lord speaking, and this is David speaking. David says in Psalm
40 verse 17, but I am poor and needy. Yet the Lord thinketh
upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer,
make no tarrying, O my God. Now how often does God think
of Christ? There's never a time when he's
not thinking about him. Never a time. And that's how
often the God of glory is thinking of me. Because I am united to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Psalm 139. You see, the
Lord knows our name. Psalm 139. Now, once again, you
see this as referring to the Lord and you see this as referring
to us. Psalm 139. Oh, Lord, thou has
searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting.
and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought
of far off. You know, I don't understand
my thought, but he does. That's a comforting thing to think.
He knows me through and through. Thou compass my path and my lying
down and art acquainted with all my ways. For there's not
a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together. Thou has beset me behind and
before and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It's high. I can't attain unto
it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee
from thy presence? If I send up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me. and thy right hand shall hold
me." Don't you love that hymn? He leadeth me, O blessed thought,
what words with heavenly comfort wrought. He leads me, whether
I'm aware of it or not. Verse 11, if I say, surely the
darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about
me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee, but the night shineth as the day, and the darkness
and the light are both alike to thee. Oh, the Lord so glorious,
for thou has possessed my reins, my kidneys, my affections, you've
possessed them. You've covered me in my mother's
womb, put your hand on me before I was even born. I will praise
thee for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works
and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid
from thee when I was made in secret. And this is talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ and this is talking about the believer.
My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret,
and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine
eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book
all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned,
when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are thy
thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they're
more in number than the sand. When I awake, I'm still with
thee. Now this can't much be understood,
but it can be believed. His thoughts toward me. Now, can we know his thoughts?
Well, can you know my thoughts? There's only one way you can
know my thoughts, if I make them known. If I let you know what's
going on in here, you can know my thoughts. And God has made
known his thoughts. Amos 4.13 says, He declareth
unto man what is his thought. And the Bible is the thoughts
of God. That's a good way of describing
the Word of God. This book we call the Bible,
the Holy Scriptures, it's the thoughts of God. As a man thinketh
in his heart, the scripture says, so is he. And as God thinks in
his heart, so is he. Now where we get into trouble
is when we start depending on our own thoughts. Now that's
where we really mess up. Turn with me for a minute to
2 Kings chapter 5. Verse 9, 2 Kings chapter 5, verse
9. So Naaman came, remember Naaman
the leper. Naaman was a leper. He thought himself to be a great
man who happened to be a leper, and he didn't realize he was
a leper who happened to be a great man. All he was was a leper.
This represents his sinfulness. So Naaman came with his horses
and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
And Elisha sent a messenger unto him. Now, wait a minute. Naaman
was somebody. Naaman was a powerful man. Naaman was an important man.
Won't Elisha even go out and answer the door? No. He just
sends a servant. You see, he knew he needed to
be humbled. He knew he had way too high an opinion of himself.
So he just sent his messenger saying, go and wash in Jordan
seven times and thy flesh will come again to thee and thou shall
be clean. But Naaman was wroth. He was offended. He went away
and said, behold, I thought. There's his trouble. Behold,
I thought, surely he'll come out to me and stand and call
on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over this
place and recover the leper. Are not Havana and Tharfar, rivers
of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not
wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in
a rage. He thought. God said in Psalm
50, 21, thou thoughtest. that I was altogether such in
one as yourself. Now, listen to me real carefully.
I want you to hear this. You take every thought you've
ever had about God that you've known by your intuition and you
can write this down. It's wrong. Every one of them. God's not like me and you. He's utterly unique. Holy, that
means many things. Among other things, it means
other, other. He's altogether different. The Lord said, that which is
highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of
God. Now, I want you to think about
that. That which is highly esteemed among men, God sees it as an
abomination. Turn to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. 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. His thoughts, the things he thinks.
Forsake it, it's wrong. And let him return unto the Lord,
and he'll 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, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts. Now this is what is called repentance.
Changing your mind. His thoughts are not my thoughts. You see, my way, let the wicked
forsake his way. My way is the wrong way. There
is a way that seemeth right to a man, the way of salvation by
works. It's natural. But the end thereof
are the ways of death. Forsake your thoughts, your wrong
thoughts about yourself. You think too highly of yourself.
Forsake your wrong thoughts of God. You bring Him down on your
level and you think He's like you are. It ain't that way. My
thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher
than your ways. Forsake your wrong thoughts about
mercy and pardon. Look once again at verse 7. He says, Our God
will abundantly pardon. He will have mercy upon Him and
to our God He will abundantly pardon. Now here's the way we
think. I know this. Lord, have mercy on me. I need
mercy. Have mercy on me. I won't do
it again. Have mercy on me, because really, there were extenuating
circumstances, and it's not altogether my fault. If I hadn't been placed
in this position, or have mercy on me, it's really not all that
bad. I mean, have mercy on me. You know how David prayed? Lord, for thy name's sake, pardon
mine iniquity, for it's great. Not it's not all that bad. Oh,
pardon my iniquity for it's great if you don't do something for
me. It's over for me. You know, here's what we think.
Here's what every natural man thinks. They think forgiveness
of sins is something we end with. If we do this, if we do that,
if we quit doing this, if we get this straightened out, if
we stop going here and going there, If we believe, we'll have
the forgiveness of sins. And the gospel does not end with
the forgiveness of sins. The gospel begins with the full,
free, frank forgiveness of sins for Christ's sake. He doesn't
forgive you because you're sorry or because of anything in you.
He does it for Christ's sake. And this is where the gospel
begins. It's not the end. It's the beginning. My thoughts are higher than your
thoughts. That's just a fact, isn't it? My ways are higher
than your ways. That's just a fact. Now, here's
here's what we think. God, because he is gracious. Endures me. And puts up with
me. For Christ's sake, but I'm not
somebody where he actually desires to have me as his company. You know how some people are
hard to love. Some people are just hard to love. You love them,
but it isn't easy. They make it difficult. Well,
I'm one of those people who are hard to love. God loves me in
Christ, but he is disgusted by me in myself. That's what I think. He endures me. He puts up with
me for Christ's sake. I kind of liken it to Let's say you want to get a date
with a beautiful girl and the only way that you can get that
date is if her little brother comes. And you've got her little
brother there. You endure him being there. You
don't like him being there, but he's got to be there or you don't
get the date. And I think that's somehow what
we think of the Lord's view of us. He endures us. He, he, he,
endures us for his son's sake, but he really doesn't want us
around. Not, not in reality. He couldn't actually desire our
company. And what that demonstrates is
how low our thoughts of God really are. Thou thoughtest that I was
altogether such a one as thy self. This is how we would be. Therefore, we think this is how
the Lord is, but my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither
are my ways your ways. Now how he sees his people is
a whole lot different than how we think he sees us. I love that
passage of scripture in Romans chapter 6 verse 11. It says,
Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God. through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, would God tell us to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to
sin? Sin has nothing to say to me.
My sin's put away. I stand perfect before God. Sin
has nothing to do with me. It's over. Now, would God tell
me to reckon myself to be dead indeed to sin if I weren't in
fact dead indeed to sin? And somebody says, I don't feel
dead indeed to sin. I'm not asking you to feel dead to sin. I'm
asking you to believe you are. Because God says, reckon yourselves
dead indeed to sin. I really believe that when Christ
was raised from the dead, I became dead to sin. All my connection
with sin was gone. Turn to Jeremiah 29. Now let me give the, uh, what
was going on here in Jeremiah 29. Verse 10. For thus saith the
Lord that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you
and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return
to this place. Now think of the position that
we're in. They were banished. They were in Babylon. They were
mistreated. They were under bondage. And
they felt like God had forgotten them. They felt like they were
under God's punishment and God had driven them off. And they
felt all alone.