Let's 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 God's thoughts. Now, in this 40th Psalm, who
is speaking? Look in verse 6. 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, O 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 the 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 cannot be separated from his people. We're his bride.
We're his body. We're his church. 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 does 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. Delphuses 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 hast made, what is
man that thou art even mindful of him? For 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, that I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh
upon me. Thou art my health 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, O Lord, thou has searched
me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting
and my uprising. Thou understandest my thought.
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 compassed 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 hast 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 ascend 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 word 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 hast 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 am fearfully and
wonderfully made. Marvelous that thou work'st in
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 declares 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, naming came. Remember, naming 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,
which 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 shalt 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 Tharpar, rivers
of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not
wash in him and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a
rage. He thought. God said in Psalm 50, 21, 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. Wrong. God's not like me and
you. He's utterly unique. 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 six. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, his thoughts, the things he thinks
forsaken is 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 if 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's
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 seven.
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. And I won't
do it again. Have mercy on me, because really there were extenuating
circumstances and thought all together my fault. If this, if
I hadn't been placed in this position, or have mercy on me,
it's really not all that bad. I mean, if it, have mercy on
me. You know how David prayed? Lord, for thy name's sake, pardon
my 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. I'm, it's over for me. You know, here's what we think.
Here's what every natural man thinks. They think forgiveness,
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. Now, 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 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
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 endures us for his son's sake,
but he really doesn't want us around. 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 thyself." 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 is 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 Turn to Jeremiah 29. Let me give you what was going
on here in Jeremiah 29. Verse 10, For thus saith the
Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I
will visit you and perform my good work toward you in causing
you to return to this place." Now, think of the position they
were 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.