Would you look once again at
this fifth verse of Psalm 40? Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us. I've entitled the message for
this evening, The Thoughts of God. the thoughts of God. Now, if someone announced that
as their title, the skeptical part of me would be saying, who
are you to try to bring a message like that? You're too sinful. You're too stupid. You're too shallow to bring a
message on the thoughts of God. And to be quite honest, I would
take all those descriptions of myself. I am cynical. I am stupid. I am shallow. I feel that way about myself.
I'm not just blowing smoke. I really believe that about myself. But this message I'm bringing
is not my thoughts. We're going to look at what God
says his thoughts are in his word. Now, this book could be
called The Thoughts of God. This is the inspired, inerrant
word of God, and it can be called The Thoughts of God. They're
recorded here for us. Now, God is spirit. not bound by space or time. There's something else we can't
understand, but God is spirit. And there are things that we
can know truthfully with regard to this spiritual being that
we cannot see simply by looking at the light of nature. We can
see he's very powerful in creating this universe. We can see he's
very wise in creating this universe. And we can see that he's eternal. Nobody created him. Something
had to be the cause of everything. And he is the cause. We can see
accurate things regarding him without the Bible. But we cannot
see his true character without this book, the Bible. where he reveals to us who he
is in his word. He's holy. I love the definition
for holy. He's other. He's not like me
and you. He's holy. He's independent. He has no needs. He's solitary. There's none like him. He's omnipotent. Whatever he desires, he has the
power. to have. He's omniscient, all
wise and all knowing. Think about this. He's never
had a new thought. He's never had a new thought. He's omnipresent. You can't go
anywhere where he's not. He's sovereign. That means his
will is always done. He's infinite. He has no limitations
like you and I. He's immutable. He never changes. He's faithful. He's good. He's just. And listen to this
scripture. God is love. We would never know those things
simply by the light of nature. But he's revealed his character
in this book called the Bible. Now, the reason we have thoughts
and we have thoughts, we're made in His image. That's what separates
us from the rest of the created living beings. They can't think
like us. We're created in the image of God and we have thoughts. God is a person who has thoughts. Now the word thoughts is taken
from the Hebrew word which means To think, to plan, to esteem,
these are ways it is translated. To make a judgment, to reckon,
to count, to impute, to be mindful of. It's the same word. In Psalm 32 verse 2, blesses
the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. He won't
deem it. He won't think it. He won't count
it. I love the way the word is used
where it says Israel should not be reckoned among the nations.
God puts a difference between Israel and everybody else. God
thinks differently of Israel than he does everybody else.
And understand this, Israel is not that piece of real estate
in the middle of the East. Israel is all of God's people,
all of the elect, all who believe. Now, the nations are accounted
as a drop in the bucket in the small dust of the bounds to God,
but not Israel. Israel is not reckoned, is not
thought, is not deemed, is not considered among the nations. Now, when I was thinking of this
message, I couldn't help but think about Naaman, the Syrian. Naaman was a great man, mighty
man in the Syrian army, the general, and he was a leper. Now let me
remind you something about Naaman. Naaman thought he was a great
man who happened to be a leper. He didn't understand he was a
leper who happened to be a great man in God's providence. But
he's stricken with leprosy and he hears that God's prophet is
in Samaria. He goes down to Elisha's home
with gifts and money and changes of garment and just sits out
there and waits outside of Elisha's home and waits for Elisha to
come out to see him. And Elisha didn't bother. He
sent out a servant. Now I'm sure Elisha was offended
by this. Why isn't he coming out to me?
He sends out a servant? And the servant said, go wash
seven times in Jordan and you'll be clean. You know whose reply
it was? I thought. There's where you went wrong,
Naaman. thought. He thought it was going
to be different than it was. Name it. It's not like you thought
it was. Now in Psalm 40, and let me remind
you who's speaking in Psalm 40. Who is the only one to ever wait
patiently on the Lord? You never have, have you? I never
have. We're impatient. But the Lord
waited patiently and being brought out of the miry pit is talking
about the resurrection. He makes this statement in verse
six, sacrifice and offering that it's not desire. Mine ear has
that. I opened burn offering and sin
offering. That was not required. Then said,
I low. I come in the volume of the book. It's written of me.
I delight to do that. We'll Oh God. Yay. Thy law is
within my heart. Now remember this about every
song. First it's Christ speaking. every single one of them. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. And this psalm is preeminently
a Messianic psalm. They're all Messianic psalms,
but this is so special. And it's quoted in Hebrews 10
in the New Testament as being the direct words of Christ. Now,
read verse five. Once again, this is Christ speaking.
Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast
done, and thy thoughts which are to... What's that word? Us-ward. Not me. Us-ward. You see, when the Lord
Jesus Christ speaks, He never speaks independently of His people. Everything He does, He does as
an us. I love what he said to John the
Baptist. Suffer to be so now when he came
to be baptized of him and John said, I have need to be baptized
of thee and comest thou to me? He said, suffer to be so now
for thus it becometh. us to fulfill all righteousness. And Jesus Christ is always an
us with his people. He doesn't say many of your wonderful
works and your thoughts toward me, though they were, but to
usward. I love to think of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, he says in this psalm,
my ear has thou opened, talking about the bond slave. When the
bond slave, uh, city, I'm not going to leave
my master. I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children.
I never want to be separated from them. At all times, Christ
is with us. We're with him. We're united
to him and he does not ever want to be thought of separately from
his bride, from his people. what great thoughts those are
to usward. The reason God is pleased with
me, the reason God is pleased with you, if He's pleased, it's
because you're an usward. You're in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, turn back to Psalm 33. Verse
11, the council of the Lord standeth forever
the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Now understand
this, God is God. You know what that means? That means everything that takes
place takes place because he willed it to take place. He decreed
every event before time began. Now, somebody says, how could
that be? Well, how could it not be? If he's God, he's all powerful,
he's sovereign, he's altogether glorious. How could it not be?
It must be that way. There's no such thing as anything
that's not under his complete control. He's God. And he has
decreed before time everything that takes place in time. He
is God. The counsel of the Lord standeth
How often? Forever. Now, one decree, I don't
understand this. I'm talking about things I can't
grasp and believe. All the decrees were comprehended
in one decree. God decreed everything, and that's
why everything is. The decrees of God are over all
things without exception. They're eternal. They're all
wise. They're free. They're absolute. They're immutable.
They're invincible. The thoughts of his heart to
all generations now. Everything he's thinking of you. Number one, he's always thought
it. And number two, he's thinking it right now. Whatever his thoughts
are toward you, He's always thought them. And He is thinking them
right now. His thoughts stand to every generation. Now, the example of this, God's
thoughts being done in time, is the cross. That's the best
example. Terminate counsel and for knowledge
of God. You have taken them with wicked
hands and crucified and slain. God determined it. You did it.
You did it wickedly. It's all your fault. But the
reason you did it is because he determined it. I love that
passage in Acts chapter four, verse 27, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered
together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. Every blow of the nail in his
hand and feet, God determined before for it to be done. It all happens according to his
counsel. Look in Psalm 92. Psalm 92, verse
five, O Lord, How great are thy works and thy
thoughts are very deep. A British man knoweth not, neither
doth a fool understand." Psalm 147.5, Great is the Lord of great
power. His understanding is infinite. It knows no limitations. His
thoughts are very deep. Now, we talk about men who are
deep thinkers. Compare them to God. They're
so shallow. They're so stupid. That's why
I say when I'm beginning a message like this, I ought to feel this
way every time I preach. A British man can't understand
this. A fool doesn't understand, you know, the way he said that.
And that's, yeah, I confess. But the Bible still says his
thoughts are very deep. His thoughts are infinite. They're
eternal. They never had a beginning. They're
immutable, they never change, and they're continual. Now, how
many times have you gone through a busy day, and you laid your
head down on your pillow at night, and you realized, I didn't even
think about the Lord today? Didn't even consider Him. Went
through a whole day without even thinking about the glorious Lord
and about the Lord Jesus Christ, and you feel, what is wrong with
me? How could something like that happen in a full day? Well,
it can. It's called the flesh. But you know, the Lord has never,
under any circumstance, at any time, before time, during time,
and time will be no more, He's always been thinking about you.
There's not a, not At all times, behold, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee." Now, we're not able to think of so many
thoughts, are we? I mean, we're just limited beings.
You know, I can't multitask in my thoughts very well. I get,
I'm thinking about one thing and if I start thinking about
the other, that, that thing disappears, it's gone. We're just limited
in how many things we can think about, but the Lord is infinite
in his understanding and his thoughts are continual. They never cease to be. Thy thoughts are very deep. Now turn to Isaiah 55. This is
a passage of scripture I'm sure you're familiar with. Verse eight. 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. Well, you can say amen to that,
can't you? His thoughts are higher than
our thoughts. Now, we've all been guilty of
what the Lord said to the wicked. In Psalm 50, verse 21, thou thoughtest
I was altogether such a one as thyself. There's a certain way
we are, and we attribute that to God. Well, if I think this
way, God must be thinking that way. No, no. You thought I was
altogether such a one as yourself. And I'm nothing like you. My
thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher
than your ways. And looking at this scripture
in this light, I thought, what is my greatest need? Personally. I don't have a hard time answering
that. My greatest need is the forgiveness of sins. I know all
of God's salvation is comprehended in that blessing, but my greatest
need is the forgiveness, the complete forgiveness of all my
sins. And I start thinking about, how
do you, how are you about forgiveness? How are you about forgiveness?
Well, I know I ought to forgive. You know that dude, don't you?
You ought to forgive people. You ought to forgive people freely.
You ought to. Well, I know I ought to, but
what they did to me was especially evil, especially malicious and
intentional. I know I ought to forgive them,
but they keep doing it. They keep doing it over and over
and over again, a whole lot more than 490 times. I didn't deserve the way they
treated me. I've been treated unjustly. I
didn't deserve this. That person really doesn't have
a sufficient sense of guilt and sorrow for what they've done.
It's kind of hard to take them seriously because of that. He
really doesn't understand what he's done. And the consequences
of what he's done is still before me all the time, even though
I forgive it, it's still right there. Where would we be if the Lord
was like that? We'd be in trouble, wouldn't
we? Oh, his thoughts are so infinitely
above our thoughts. And his ways above our ways. I love what Luther said to Erasmus. He says, Erasmus, your God's
too human. He's too much like me and you. And that negates
everything about him. You think of the difference in our thoughts and his thoughts.
We think things like this. Why couldn't God forgive everybody?
You ever thought that? Sure you have. Why couldn't God
forgive everybody? Why does he just forgive the elect? Why didn't
Christ die for everybody? Why did he just die for the elect?
Why couldn't he have just saved everybody? We think things like
that, but the truth of the matter is, if it were in our hands,
nobody would be saved but me. You could sit against me, and
against me, and against me, and against me. I might forgive you
491 times, but 492, I've had it. Send him to hell. I'm not
having anything to do with him anymore. Nobody would be saved
if it was up to me and you, except ourselves. And yet we think those
harsh thoughts of God like we're more merciful, and we're more
gracious, and we're more compassionate than he is. You think of the
thoughts we have of the Lord, of thinking He's harsh in His
sovereignty. He's glorious. He's good. He's altogether lovely. And we're altogether unlovely.
That's the truth of the matter. His thoughts are higher than
ours. Don't you think of the way men bring God down to their
level and make Him human. And He's so high and glorious.
And you think of the higher thoughts men have of themselves. that
bring God down because the higher you bring yourself up, the lower
your view is gonna have of God. And the lower you bring yourself
down, the greater view you'll have of God. He says, my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither your ways my ways. Aren't you
thankful? As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my thoughts higher than your thoughts and my ways higher than
your ways. Turn to Jeremiah 29. I love this scripture. Jeremiah 29. Now he is speaking to Israel
after they had been in Babylon for 70 years, but this is what
he says to every one of his people, verse 11. For I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil,
to give you an expected end. Now, when you think of the Lord's
thoughts of you, if you're anything like me, and I kind of suspect
you are, you think of him being disgusted with you. weary of
your sinfulness, weary of your repetitive falls and your repetitive
wrong ways of thinking, and just almost had it with you. He'd
cut you off. The Lord says, I don't think that
way. I know the thoughts I have of
you. Thoughts of perfect and complete peace, satisfaction,
contentment, joy in who you are. I don't look at you in disgust. I look at you in complete satisfaction,
in complete love. Thoughts of peace. That's the
way the Lord looks at his people all the time. thoughts of peace. You see, if Christ is my peace,
all the thoughts of the Lord toward me are peace. If I am
in the Lord Jesus Christ, if He made my peace with God, Scripture
says He did. And because of Him making my
peace with God, every believer is described in Colossians chapter
1 verse 22 as holy, Unblameable and unreprovable, nothing to
get mad at, nothing to bawl me out for. I know the thoughts
I think of you, thoughts of peace, joy, satisfaction, contentment,
beholding your beauty. I know the thoughts I have of
you, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to bring you to an expected
end. Now what is that expected end?
Perfect conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. He looks at
me, He looks at every one of His people, and this is His expected
end. He's working everything together
for our good and His glory to bring this expected end. Perfect
conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom He did foreknow.
them he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. I know the thoughts that I think
of you, thoughts of peace, not of evil, bring you to an expected
end. In Psalm 138 verse 8, David said,
the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Whatever concerns
me, My concern is to being found in Christ and being made like
Him. And here we have this promise. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endures forever. Here's why I have this hope.
It's because His mercy endures forever. And then He says, forsake
not the work of thy hands. I'm the work of thy hands. You're
the potter. I'm the work of your hands. Perfect that which concerns
me. Psalm 139. Verse 17, how precious also are thy thoughts
unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them. How precious
are his thoughts. You know, I love that scripture,
precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints. I'm looking at some people who
when you die, it's going to be precious in the Lord's sight. What a wonderful thought. Now,
His precious thoughts. You know, the thing about the
Lord's thoughts is His thoughts are His actions. His thoughts
are His decrees. Everything begins with His thoughts.
Precious are thy thoughts to me, O Lord. I think of the precious
blood You're not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver
and gold received by the vain conversation of your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ. How precious is his blood?
How precious is his blood to you? Not enough, but it is to
the father. It ought to be more precious
though, shouldn't it? I think of the precious promises. Oh,
the precious promises of God where every aspect of salvation
is according to his promise. All the promises of God in him
are yay and amen to the glory of God by us. They're all positive.
There's not anything that's contingent or conditioned upon us doing
something. They're all yay. They're all amen. I think of
the gift of like precious faith. This came from his precious thoughts. What a joy it is to be able to
simply look to Christ and know he's everything and I don't need
anything else. What a joy that is. Well, that comes from his
precious thought, this like precious faith, his gift. To you that believe, he is precious. I love that verse of scripture.
To you that believe, he is precious. David said in Psalm 40, the last
verse that we've read, he said, I'm poor and I'm needy. I'm poor, I don't have anything
to bring to the table, nothing. And I'm needy, I have great needs,
yet the Lord thinketh. Not, he thought, or he will think. The Lord thinketh on me. Right now, my Redeemer, seated
at the right hand of the Father, is thinking of me. He knows I'm
poor, but he's my riches. He knows I'm needy, but He's
my all, and He thinks on me. Turn to Genesis chapter 50. Well, to get the setting of this,
let's start in verse 15 of Genesis chapter 50. And when Joseph's brethren saw
that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure
hate us and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did
unto him. Now, as a man is, so he thinks others to be. They
knew this is what we would do. And so we're afraid this is what
he will do. Verse 16, And they sent a messenger
unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee, now the
trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto
the evil. And now we pray thee, forgive
the trespasses of the servants of the God of thy father. You
know, I don't believe, I believe they're lying. I don't believe
Joseph ever said that to them, but they're, I can't prove that,
but it just, the setting of it and the way it's, I think they
were just making this up, trying to cover for themselves. And
you know what Joseph did when he heard this? And Joseph wept
when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and
fell down before his face. And they said, behold, we be
thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am I
in the place of God? No. But as for you, you thought,
now here's where your thoughts were. Here's what you thought.
You thought evil against me when you betrayed me, when you put
me into the pit, when you sold me into Egypt. You thought every
thought you had toward me was malicious and evil. That's the
truth. As for you, you thought evil
toward me, but God meant it unto good." Yeah, you meant evil, but not
God. You see, his thoughts were different.
He let this happen for good. to bring to pass as at this day,
to save much people alive. Now his thoughts are omnipotent
thoughts. We may have meant it for evil,
but his power is such that he does what only God can do. He brings good out of evil. Oh, his thoughts. There's nothing like the thoughts
of God, is there? They are toward Christ and those
in him. That's first. That's really the most important.
Everything else flows from that. How great are thy thoughts to
us for it. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
of him and those united to him that he will never be separate
from. You know, when he became flesh,
he said, I'm never going to be separated from them. I'm with
them forever. They're always with me. They're
always in me. They are, his thoughts are his
decrees and they extend everything. They control everything. And
you know, somebody doesn't believe that, you just got a useless
God. You got a weak God, a God that's not even worthy of worship.
This is the God of the Bible. I love this God. I love him being
this way. I wouldn't want him to be any
other way. I'm so thankful. His thoughts are very deep. Oh, how deep they are. His thoughts
are higher than our thoughts. We can all say amen to that.
His thoughts are infinitely higher. than our thoughts. Their thoughts
of peace, not evil. The thoughts of peace, complete
contentment and satisfaction. His thoughts are precious. His
thoughts are all powerful. I purposed it. I will do it.
I will bring it to pass. That's the thoughts of God. Now,
what should our response be? Real simple. Number one, submission. Submission. Eli, God's going to kill your
two boys. It's the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. We really believe that whatever
he does is right. Whatever he brings our way is
right. That's what meekness is. Meekness is that attitude towards
God that really believes that whatever he does is right. Secondly,
thankfulness. Thankfulness. Don't you have
a reason to be thankful? His thoughts toward you. Thankfulness. Third, confidence. confidence in God, confidence
in his thoughts, confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's God. What a reason we have for confidence,
not worrying and fretting and fearing, but confidence. And the next word I thought of
was hopefulness. It's all going to be good. Hopefulness. I wouldn't use the word optimistic
because that doesn't quite get it, but I'd use this word, a
confident expectation. All of God's thoughts will be
brought to pass. And thank the Lord we have his
thoughts in this book. Let's pray together. Lord, how thankful we are that
your thoughts are not our thoughts and that your ways are not our
ways. Heavens are higher than the earth. So are your thoughts
higher than our thoughts and your ways higher than our ways.
And we give thanks. And Lord, we're so amazed at
thy thoughts toward us. We give thanks. Lord, I ask in Christ's name
that you'd unite our hearts all in asking in his name that everybody
in this room might be enabled to rejoice in thy thoughts. And Lord, we confess that Christ
Jesus is your thought. He's your word. He is who you
are. And we give thanks in his name. We pray. Amen.