If you have your Bibles, turn
with me please to Isaiah, the 55th chapter. We're going to
look at verses 8 and 9 tonight. The title of my message is Thoughts. Isaiah chapter 55, verse 8 and
9. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Whereas the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways, or my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we come in the blessed name of Jesus Christ, our mighty and
great Savior, who loved us and gave himself for us, who loved
us and washed us in his blood, who is the one in whom we are
accepted in your presence fully, Because our sin was imputed to
him on Calvary, and his righteousness imputed to us. We thank you that
you have indeed made him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. We rejoice in the fact that we
are saved by grace through the mercy of Jesus Christ. We know
we didn't deserve it, we never could. All we deserved were the
wages that we had earned, and our wages were sin. Payment for
that is eternal damnation. We thank you for saving us from
the wrath to come through the blood of Jesus Christ. Father,
we pray tonight for those of our company who are sick, going
through trials, those who have lost loved ones. We ask your
help for them to strengthen them, cause them in their hearts to
look to Christ for all things. We pray for ourselves as we gather
here. She might be pleased to cause us in our hearts and minds
to worship you in spirit and in truth. We ask these things
in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen. The word of God says a great
deal about thinking and about thoughts. The Bible says, as
a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. as a man thinketh in
his heart. This states that how we think,
and when he says the heart, it means our innermost being, that
which motivates us, our seat of affections, states how we
think reveals what we are. And if a person does not seek
and seek to bow to the word of God to find what God has revealed
about his thoughts, that person is a god unto himself. It's that
simple. Natural man has no ability nor
any inclination to look into spiritual things. Scripture says
he receives them not, neither can he know them nor discern
them. Natural man operates in a realm
that cannot in any way, shape or form discern anything outside
his nature or the realm in which he lives and what he perceives
or can see in his environment. That's as far as our natural
ability goes, no further at all. Man's nature informs his perception. And since he cannot know God
by the spirit, he nonetheless, by nature, requires and desires
a deity to worship. All men do. Even the atheist
who denies the existence of God does so, and in doing so, fulfills
that void in his own mind with himself. with his own opinions
and his own power and makes himself the final arbiter of truth, which
is an attribute of deity. So he's a god unto himself. He's a god unto himself. In his
thoughts, he is his own god. We often hear people of renown,
public stature, wealth, athletic prowess, or celebrity referred
to as gods or goddesses. People call them gods and goddesses.
That term is used quite a lot these days. And the reason for
this is carnal comparison. If one has reached a stature
that we believe ourselves unable to obtain, we attribute divine
status or power to that individual. This is the way our carnal thinking
goes. We cannot see God, so we have
but a human palate to assess what we perceive to be divine,
of divine stature or attribute. Thus with only ourselves as the
measure, We ultimately think that God is like us. If there is a God, He's like
us. And generally, we make Him up in our own minds. Our Lord
said in Psalms chapter 50, in verse 21, He said this, these
things hast thou done, and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that
I was altogether such in one as thyself, but I will reprove
thee and set them in order before thine eyes. Thou thoughtest altogether
I was such in one as myself. We know from the words of Romans
chapter one that Paul says when men refused to glorify God, they
instead made themselves a God like themselves, likened to man
or likened to four-footed beasts or things that slither upon the
earth. When God actually came to this
earth and dwelt among men and lived in perfect righteousness
and always went about doing good, our natural reaction to him,
because he did not fit the appearance of a Caesar or a Pharaoh or a
king or a mighty warrior, we did not call him God. Nature
does not call him God, but rather the carpenter's son or the drunk,
or the wine-bibber, or the sinner, or the insane man, or the man
who's beside himself, or nothing good can come out of Nazareth.
Nothing good. And this was God. God in human
flesh walking among us, a man who never sinned and never knew
sin, who never did a wrong thing in his life. Everything he did,
he did for somebody else and for the glory of God. We didn't
call him God. Why? Because he didn't fit the
natural way men think about deity. It's big, it's huge, it's famous,
it's like a celebrity, and that's the way men think. Our Lord walked in this world
among statues of mighty men, beautiful women, statues of the
gods of men, and He was the Almighty, and was not recognized or perceived
as such. Why is that? Because of sin. Because men's thoughts are wrong.
They're wrong. We're wrong-headed, as one man
said. Take your Bibles and let's look at a few passages of Scripture,
beginning with Genesis chapter six. Now, Genesis chapter six
and verse five gives the reason for the flood. It says in verse five of Genesis
chapter six, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth. and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. Every
imagination, and the root word there is image, so it's idolatry,
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were evil continually.
And then God set afloat and killed all the human race except for
eight people. And after the flood, you would think that God's estimation
of man coming from Noah and his three sons would be something
different. But in Genesis chapter 8, in
verse 21, Noah has offered up a sweet-smelling sacrifice to
God. And the Lord smelled a sweet,
in verse 21, the Lord smelled a sweet-smelling savor. And the
Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore
for man's sake. And why? Because nothing has
changed. For the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite any
more everything living as I had done." Because punishment doesn't
change people. The threat of punishment may
change a little bit of behavior, but punishment doesn't change
the heart of the mind. It doesn't change the heart of
the mind. Our Lord said of Israel in Isaiah
chapter one, why should I punish them more? They just revolt more
and more. They just revolt more and more.
So that's what our Lord said there in that passage of scripture. If you turn over to the Psalms,
Psalm 10, in verse four says this, the
wicked, through his pride of his countenance, will not seek
after God. God is not in all his thoughts. God is not in the thoughts of
men. It's simply not there. If you look at Psalm 94. Psalm 94 in verse 11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts
of men, and they are vanity. How many times in the New Testament
when men secretly spoke around the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
knew their thoughts. He knew what they were thinking.
The Lord knows the thoughts of men. Well, what are the thoughts
of men? They're vanity. What is vanity? It's emptiness. It's groundless. There's nothing
to it. It's a vapor. It's lighter than
a vapor. There's nothing to it. These
are men's thoughts. This is what man thinks naturally.
Now we know he can have great thoughts within the realm of
human wisdom. He can think of things and come
up with things. I thought the most marvelous
invention on Facebook the other day, it was a gun that shot salt. And it was for killing house
flies. And I thought that would be so much more fun than a fly
swat. just loading your salt and popping that fly and killing
him dead. I thought, that's a great invention. Some guy in his mind
thought that up, what a thought. But think of all the things that
men are able to think of. We live in a very amazing generation. AI, artificial intelligence is
coming on the scene. Did you know that an artificial
intelligence robot was actually accepted as a citizen of Saudi
Arabia, actually accepted as a citizen of Saudi Arabia. This
is a robot, this is man-made, but because this man-made creature
is so intelligent and has facial features and makes faces and
all this stuff, they've actually made that robot a citizen. Well, some man thought that up,
but in all that greatness of his thoughts, he cannot ever
think of God. Not in reality. He can only think
of the imagination of his own heart and his own mind. And his
thoughts, according to God, are vanity. They're vanity. They're empty. Look over at Proverbs
chapter 15. Proverbs chapter 15. In verse 26, the thoughts of the
wicked are an abomination to the Lord. The thoughts of the
wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but the words of the
pure are pleasant words. The thoughts of the wicked are
an abomination. That abomination is a gross word, because it actually
speaks of human gas. That's what it is. It stinks,
in other words. You think about the comparison then. The thoughts
of men are gaseous odor. Whereas the thoughts of Christ
sacrifice is a sweet smelling savor, we have a big difference
there. So the thoughts of man and his best thoughts are an
abomination to Almighty God. And our Lord made it clear to
the Pharisees who thought they did all things well. In Mark
chapter 7, verse 21, he says, For from within, for from within,
out of the heart of men, precede evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these things
come from within, from the heart, and they defile the man. What
are man's thoughts? They're no value to him whatsoever.
No value. Likewise, the ways of men are
products of their thoughts, and thus tainted and informed and
motivated by sin. The Bible teaches us that there
is a way that seems right to men, but the end thereof are
the ways of death. And the ways of men are merit-based,
and our perception is that if one rises to a high status, it
is because he merited it. We like to think that. That seems
reasonable, but that high status may have been attained by all
sorts of specious means. Our Lord says promotion neither
comes from the East or the West, it comes from the Lord. It comes
from the Lord. There are those who actually
earn the rank they've achieved, I'm sure of that, and this merit
pans out in the thinking of the ways of men. The logical end
of this reasoning plays into thoughts of merit for salvation,
or justification, or righteousness before God. And this is the mother
of free will, self-righteous religion. The thoughts of men,
that's where it comes from. How they view things that they
think are and how they ought to be. Seems the right way, doesn't
it? For a man who works hard to get
what he works for, it does. But that's man's thoughts. That's
man's thoughts. Logically, a good man should
have a better standing before God, if you use human logic,
than a bad man. Doesn't that just make sense?
That a good and kind and philanthropic individual ought to have a better
standing before God than a vile, wretched, drunken, drug abuser
and a whoremonger on the side of the street, lying in his own
vomit? Sure, you say, that's got to be right. That's man's
thoughts. and their vanity. Their vanity. It seems the right way, but it's
just another way to die in sin. These are man's thoughts and
ways, and they are the world's wisdom that we've seen in 1 Corinthians. And they are doomed to destruction.
God says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. Now our text
here, however, lays the ax to the root of man's thoughts and
ways. In the previous verse, in verse seven, he talks about
man's thoughts and his ways. He says, let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Forsake them.
Quit on them. Stop thinking that way. Stop
doing that way. Man is commanded to forsake his
thoughts and ways, and our text is the reason why he has to do
it. Because God says in verse eight, for my thoughts, or because
my thoughts, are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heaven is higher than
the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
than your thoughts." Now I've often desired to be able to wrap
my mind around the words that are spoken here in verse eight.
However, since God's thoughts and ways are not mine, and mine
not his, I can never truly grasp the gravity and the power of
these words. Occasionally, as I'm reading
them, it just sort of strikes me somewhere down near the core
of my brain, and I think, oh my soul, that's just it. No matter
what I think, unless it's God's thoughts repeated, they're of
no value. They're not God's thoughts. I
can't think like God. I can only think like a man.
Even though I have the mind of Christ, that mind has to do with
knowing and understanding where all things come from, and the
purpose of all things are in God. But to think God's thoughts,
he said, that's not going to happen. That's not what's going
to happen. His thoughts, you see, always
end in fruition. Always. Our thoughts, we think
a lot of things. You know, I'm a daydreamer from
way back. My mind is always running through
screwy scenarios in my head of things that I'd like to do or
things that I'd do a certain way or this or that or the other.
And that never comes to anything. Never gets outside this gray
head. It just stays right in there and bounces off the walls. My thoughts don't go anywhere.
And I might think a right thing, but not be able to accomplish
it. I might think away and say, this is what I need to do and
never end up doing it. But that's not the way with God's
thoughts. I mean just His thoughts. According to Isaiah chapter 14
and verse 24. He says this, the Lord of hosts
has sworn saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to
pass. As I have fought, so shall it
come to pass. And as I have purposed, so shall
it stand. So shall it stand. There is here
in our text a great separation, a holiness, if you will, a chasm
as a great gulf fixed between God's thoughts and mine. And
the metaphor that God uses to describe this vast separation
is found in verse nine. He says this, for as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Heaven and earth are
about as far apart as two things can be. That's how he describes our thought
in comparison to his. Not only physically, but God
often employs the language, this kind of language to discern between
the natural and the spiritual. Our Lord said in Colossians chapter
3 and verses 1 through 4, He says, set your affection on things
above and not on things of the earth. Above is where Christ
dwells. The earth is where we dwell.
And that is a great separation. And to have or mind the thoughts
of God is to follow that rule completely. Because the things
below are of no value. The things below will pass away.
Don't set your affections on things down here. Set your affection
or your love on things above. Our Lord also employs this language
to tell us the difference between spiritual and natural in reference
to Jesus Christ. If you'll look over at 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. beginning with verse forty seven
he says the first man is of the earth now remember heaven and
earth that's the separation that's the language the metaphor he
uses the first man is of earth earthy the second man is the
Lord he's from heaven and he's talking about Adam and this last
Adam the Lord Jesus Christ and he is uh... and is the earthy
As is the earthy, are they also which are earthy. And as is the
heavenly, such also that are heavenly. And as we have borne
the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly. They're speaking to believers.
But the difference is real. It's flesh and spirit. And these
two are always contrary to each other, and you can never in the
flesh do a spiritual thing, and you can never in the spirit do
a fleshly thing. And yet, we can't draw a line
as to what is what and see what is what. We can't say, well,
this is a spiritual act, though we intend it to be. How much
of our flesh is involved in it? That's why Paul wrote in Romans
chapter seven, that which I would, I do not, that which I would
not, that's what I do, because a principle dwells in me, a law
of death dwells in me, that when I would do good, evil is present
with me. Therefore, I will to do good,
But I can't do it. So with my mind, I serve the
law of God. That's the heavenly part. And
with my flesh, I serve the law of sin and death. That's the
earthly part. That's where my thoughts naturally dwell. But
not God's thoughts. Not God's thoughts. This also
reveals the source or the genesis of God's thoughts and our thoughts.
His thoughts are from heaven. All his thoughts are from heaven,
all our thoughts are from the earth. Gill described the difference
of God's ways and our ways saying this, the ways which God prescribes
and directs men to walk in are different from theirs. His are
holy, theirs unholy, his are plain, theirs crooked. His are
ways of light, their ways of darkness. His are pleasant, theirs
not so. At least in the issue His lead
to life, theirs to death. And therefore there is a good
reason why they should leave their evil ways and walk in His
way. It's a good reason. Moreover,
the ways which he takes in salvation of men are different from those
which they naturally pursue. And especially in the pardon
of sin, he pardons freely, fully, without any reserve or private
grudge, forgetting as well as forgiving." They don't. They
don't. Even in natural religion or in
organized fundamentalist religion, they tell men that they're still
going to pay for the sins that they do on this earth. They tell
men who supposedly believe on Jesus Christ that there's punishment
left for them at the judgment seat. I've heard men say, well,
you're going to come out of there smelling like supple because
you're going to be so close to hell. Not for a child of God. But that's the way men think.
That's not how God thinks. God said to you, to Stancroft, I've pardoned you, I've forgiven
you, and I will never remember your sins. I'll never charge
you with sin. No charge ever laid against you
will stand. You'll never be condemned. That's not what religion says.
Religion says this salvation business, what they call walking
down an aisle to the preacher, that's the beginning. And then
you have to work out a righteousness that's good before God. And that's
how you'll make it to heaven. If that's going to make for me
to make it to heaven, I'm never going to go. You see, salvation
ain't just this thing when God awakens you to your sin and awakens
you to Jesus Christ. Salvation started before the
world began in election and predestination. It started before the world began
when Jesus Christ became our surety and took responsibility
for our sin. ratified on the cross by the
blood and death of the Lord Jesus Christ and revealed to us not
that something could be but that something had been done since
before the world began that ended in us realizing our salvation
because it was always our salvation. And we believed after we heard
the truth that God had redeemed us by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Those thoughts are from heaven.
They have to be. I could never come up with something
like that. And religion won't. Religion says pooh-pooh on the
predestination and election. We believe that when a person
believes they're there, that's when God's elected. We believe
that God looked down through history and saw who would believe
and then chose them to salvation. That's what A.D.Mews called God
being a highwayman, a highway robber, taking credit for something
he didn't do. But that's what religion holds
to. That's natural thoughts. You know what it is? It's vanity. It's vanity. You know why they
call that mirror that women sit in front of, and some men too,
a vanity mirror? Because they're looking at themselves. That's why they call it vanity.
They're looking at themselves and not at God. Thankfully, God has revealed
his thoughts to us to some degree. The thoughts which he'd have
his people to know by giving us this book, his word, and the
gift of faith to believe it. Now, the secret things of God,
according to Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things of God
belong to him. But that which is revealed belongs to us, his
children, his children. And God has given us faith to
believe. Isaiah chapter 45 our Lord said this Verse Verse 18 he says for thus saith
the Lord that created the heavens God himself that formed the earth
and made it He that established it and created but not in vain.
He created for it to be inhabited I am the Lord and there is none
else. I have not spoken in secret. He's revealed something or in
a dark place of the earth. I said not to the seed of Jacob,
seek ye me in vain. I, the Lord, speak in righteousness.
I declare things that are right. Then if you go down to verse
22, he says, look unto me, if there's none else, and I'm the
one that spoke right, and I'm the one that told you, I didn't
tell you to seek me in vain. I told you to seek me and you'd
find me. Look unto me, therefore, and be ye saved. All the ends
of the earth. For I am God, and there is none else. He said,
I have sworn by myself, the word is going out of my mouth and
in righteousness. And it shall not return that
unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely
shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength.
Even to him shall men come, and all that are incensed against
him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified and shall glory. That's the promise of
God. That's his thoughts revealed right to us. You reckon all Israel's
gonna be saved? I reckon they are. You talking
about the natural Israel? No, I'm talking about spiritual
Israel. There'll be some of natural Israel. Because Gentiles are
grafted into that root, there'll be some of natural Israel. But
true Israel is the church of the living God, called God's
Israel. God's Israel in the word of God. But that's the clear setting
forth here of the word of God. His thoughts toward his people
are thoughts of grace. They've always been that way.
Thoughts of mercy, and thoughts of kindness, and tenderheartedness,
and good. That's always been that way,
and they've never been otherwise. In Jeremiah, the prophet, in
verse 29, or chapter 29, verse 11, The Lord says, for I know the
thoughts that I think toward you. You know, saith the Lord,
what are his thoughts? Here are some of his thoughts.
They're higher than our thoughts. Thoughts of peace, not of evil,
to give you an expected end, or to bring you where I've ordained
you to be. bring you where I've ordained
you to be. That end is the conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
it is His ordained counsel. For in Psalm 33 says the Lord's
thoughts and His counsel are the same. His thoughts and His
purpose are the same. There's no differentiation between
the two. And we can rejoice by God-given faith to know and to
understand and appreciate God's thoughts toward us, toward His
beloved. David did. Look over to Psalms for a moment,
just two Psalms and I'll finish up. Psalm 40, verse 5, Many, O LORD my God,
are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts
which are to us worth. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more then can be numbered thy thoughts toward
his people. Then Psalm 139, verse 17, how
precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is
the sum of them, if I should count them, They are more the
number than the sand. When I wake, I'm still with thee. I'm still with thee. To God be
the glory. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
His way's not our way. But toward His elect, He said,
my thoughts are toward you, are toward you. And they're good
and not evil. And I'm gonna bring you to that
expected end to be just like my son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.