God’s Thoughts and Ways Far Above Ours

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, DECEMBER 2, 1877,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,
says the Lord. For as the hea vens are higher than the earth, so are My
ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah
55:8,9.

VERY often must the great Truth of God expressed by this Scripture have
forced itself upon every thoughtful mind. Though we think and are so
far like God because, being intelligent beings, we have thoughts of our
own, yet our thoughts must forever be weak and fragmentary as compared
with His thoughts. And though, as free agents, we have ways of our own
choice–in some of which we move with great show of wisdom–yet our
ways are upon the earth and cannot attain to the ways of the Lord which
are far above us. This is true as to His proceedings in Providence.
God's designs are vast and far-reaching and His methods are frequently
strange and inscrutable, though always wise.

We have little plans to suit our little foresight and power, but His
ways are unsearchable! Oftentimes He brings light of excessive
brightness out of darkness more dense than usual and produces superior
joys out of extraordinary sorrows. In infinite wisdom He causes the
most furious storms to cast up upon the shore the pearl of peace. He is
wonderful both in counsel and in working and always chooses that way in
which His Glory is most abundantly displayed. Our way, which for a time
we think to be the best, when scanned by the enlightened eye soon turns
out to be as much beneath God's way of accomplishing the desired
purpose as the earth is beneath the heavens. Compared with Him our
wisdom is folly and our prudence madness.

Indeed, we may not compare ourselves with the Lord, for there is no
comparison! Call it a contrast and you have the word. So sublime is
Providence that we do not comprehend it! So good is it that we are
filled with wonder as we see its designs unfolded. We see its bright
side at times and sun ourselves in its warm light and then we adore and
magnify the Lord. Yet, we never knew the half of the hidden benefits
which He is working out for us, nor do we suspect the Lord of a tenth
of the goodness which He stores up for us. At other times we have felt
the night side of Providence and have sorrowed in its chill shade. Yes,
and perhaps we have even rebelled against it. And yet at that very time
the Lord's purposes have been divinely rich toward us and the night has
been the choicest season of benediction.

We have not the wings of eagles on which to soar to the exceeding
height of the dealings of the Lord. We walk below and look up
wonderingly, as men gaze on the stars–we are sure that we are safe
beneath the sublime all-covering power, but we are equally clear that
the longest experience and the most profound thought will never measure
the height of the thoughts and ways of the Eternal! The words, "As the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your
ways," are equally true in reference to the things of Divine Grace, for
there the Lord of Love has altogether left our thoughts behind.

Could man have dreamed that he was the object of eternal love and that
God would assume his nature? Could we have imagined that the Almighty
would give His only-begotten Son to die for guilty man? The Atonement
was a thought which never would have crossed man's mind if it had not,
first of all, been revealed to him by the great Father. The Divine way
of lifting up the poor from the dust and the needy from the dunghill,
by His rich, free, Omnipotent Grace, is not of man nor by man! The
Lord's thought of choosing the base things of this world, and things
that are not to bring to nothing the things that are–His thoughts of
sovereignty and thoughts of Grace–all consistent with His thoughts of
justice, are far above human invention and out of man's range of
thought.

Even when the Lord explains His thoughts and ways to us, and brings
them down to our comprehension as far as they can be, yet we cannot
fail to wonder at their elevation and grandeur–

"Great God of wonders! All Your ways

Are matchless, Godlike, and Divine."

Have you not often stood in mute astonishment as you have discovered
some fresh blessing of the Covenant unknown to you before? Like a miner
who turns over another nugget in the mine and stands in amazed delight,
so have you mingled faith with astonishment! Have you not known what it
is to do as David did when Nathan brought him tidings of the Lord's
Covenant with him–"Then went king David in and sat before the Lord,
and he said, Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have
brought me up to now? And is this the manner of man, O Lord God?"

Have not such fits of astonishment been upon you, also? Have you not
cried with the Apostle, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways
past finding out!"? Hundreds of times between now and Heaven will the
same glad astonishment seize us–and perhaps in Heaven, itself,
wondering will be a leading part of our enjoyment! We shall–

"Sing with wonder and surprise At His loving kindness in the skies." Do
not the victorious hosts which stand upon the sea of glass, having the
harps of God, sing the song of Moses, the servant of the Lord and of
the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God
Almighty"? The thoughts of God will even, in Heaven, be above our most
sublime thoughts and His ways, even then, above our most heavenly ways.
How exalted is the Lord! His glory is above the earth and heavens!

How tenderly does He overpower us with the splendor of His goodness,
soothing where He might confound! In Grace and love, who is like You, O
Lord? Among the gods who is like You? Understanding faints in
attempting to ascend to You! Imagination, to which You have given a
half-creative faculty, cannot beget a thought of equal height to Your
thoughts, nor conceive a way which may bear comparison with Your ways!
What better can we do, great God, than bow our heads and reverently
adore?

This morning, in trying to discuss our text, we will endeavor to
illustrate it by its own connection. There are many ways of handling
Scripture, but to my mind the freshest and most instructive is to
expound it by its surroundings. To pick out a plum here and there is
the children's method, but hardly satisfies students of the Word of
God. "Let us not tear it," is exceedingly good advice with regard to
Scripture, which is, in some sense, the garment of God. I will take
hold of the central part of the rich piece of silken Truth contained in
this chapter and I will lift up the whole fabric before you and bid you
observe its texture and note how wonderfully it is worked throughout.

Exposition is ever nourishing to the Lord's people and this it is which
we shall aim at. I think there are three things which are very clear in
the text if viewed in its connection. First, in the text there is
rebuke administered. Secondly, there is repentance encouraged. And,
thirdly, there is expectation excited.

I. First in the text there is REBUKE ADMINISTERED, for thus it
runs–"Let the wicked forsake his ways, 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 are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways." Do you not observe a
sort of ringing of the changes upon the words, "thoughts," and, "ways"?
This proves to my mind that the connection mainly lies in this first
point.

The Lord says, "Forsake your ways, for they are not My ways. Leave your
thoughts, for they are not My thoughts. Your ways ought to be My ways.
Your thoughts ought to be My thoughts, so far as the weakness of
creatureship will allow. But it is not so. You have wandered away from
Me. You think not such thoughts as I would have you think. You walk not
in such a way as I would have you choose–therefore forsake your ways
and your thoughts and turn unto your God." It is a remonstrance
tenderly administered, mixed up with such sweet exhortation that no
degree of bitterness is perceptible in it. The rebuke is enveloped in
love and made into a sugar-coated pill. The sweet promise of abundant
pardon conceals the reproof.

Now let us take the rebuke and notice, first, the fault of man's
thoughts–"My thoughts are not your thoughts." As between each other,
God's thoughts are not man's, though they ought to be. God's thoughts
are love, pity, tenderness. Ours are forgetfulness, ingratitude and
hard-heartedness. He thinks of us as lost sheep are thought of by the
shepherd, as a prodigal child is thought of by his father. But our
thoughts are not of the same kind. In its wandering state, the sheep
has no thought of returning to the shepherd and the prodigal son, until
converting Grace meets with him, has no

reciprocal affection towards his father. It is sad that the God of Love
should have to say, "My thoughts are not your thoughts."

God's thoughts to us are thoughts of love, but not so ours to Him. He
is tender of our comfort, but we are not tender of His honor. He
considers our interests, but we think not of His Glory. He watches over
our safety, but we are not watchful to keep His statutes. He loads us
with benefits, but we only load Him with our sins. He has given us all
that we have, but we bring Him cold thanks in return. You love, O
ungodly men, to live without remembering God! He is not in all your
thoughts. You have no consideration for your Maker, no deference for
your Preserver, no care for your best Friend. He feels your ungenerous
conduct, for He says, "If then, I am a Father, where is My honor? And
if I am a Master, where is My fear?"

Alas, man returns not according to the benefit received, but often
renders evil for good! When the Lord deigned to visit earth as the
Incarnate God, the acts of man proved that His thoughts are not God's
thoughts. God's thoughts were all goodness to men, but men found Him
here in human form and their thoughts and ways were full of enmity and
murder towards Him! They cried, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" How
terribly has man departed from His God! Your thoughts as to your
conduct are not God's thoughts. He considers that the creatures He has
made should obey Him, but you judge that it matters not what a man does
towards His Maker so long as he is just towards his fellow men.

God declares that no conduct can justify a man unless it is absolutely
perfect and wholly conformed to His Law. But man imagines that if he
does his best it will suffice and that even if he does not do his best,
a little profession of repentance will wipe off old scores and he may
stand self-justified before God. Man thinks that he has done wondrously
if he gives, now and then, a little attention to outward religion, even
though his heart may be far from God. But the Lord looks at the heart
and searches the secret places of the mind. He values nothing but what
is done out of love to Him. Man slights the inward and only regards the
outward, for God's thoughts are not his thoughts. Oh you that are
satisfied with your own conduct and perfectly content that things are
well enough with you, I beseech you to remember that your
self-congratulatory thoughts are not the thoughts of God! He looks into
the soul's secrets and He is not deceived by the words and professions
of those who draw near to Him with their lips, but in secret continue
in their iniquity!

God's thoughts, again, as to the life which a man needs in order to
salvation are very different from man's thoughts. Did you notice how in
this chapter He says, "Hear, and your soul shall live"? He reckons,
then, that man is dead till he has heard the Word of God in his soul.
Man reckons that he is alive enough–he is perfectly satisfied with the
mental life which he possesses and does not desire spiritual life–for
as yet he cannot apprehend it. Here is a wide difference! God thinks of
you, O Sinner, as dead and beginning to corrupt! He thinks of you as we
think of a corpse when we cry, "Bury my dead out of my sight."

But you think of yourself as of a creature fair to look upon, filled
with beauty, abounding with ability and able to perform all spiritual
acts at pleasure. Your boast is that you have freedom of will and force
of heart to set all things right whenever it pleases you–and courage
and resolution to right every wrong which may assail you. You are as
strong as Goliath and as brave as David in your own esteem! But God
doesn't think so. His eternal Spirit knows that you are dead–and He
has come to bring you life–take heed that you do not reject it! Do not
say in your heart, "I have life enough and need nothing from the Most
High," for this would be your sure destruction!

God's thoughts are not our thoughts, again, in reference to the Truth
of God. God's thoughts of His Truth are evidently not man's, for
nothing but Divine Grace can bring man to believe the doctrines of the
Gospel, or keep him faithful to them. Each generation seems to bring
forth its own set of men who set themselves to oppose God's Truth from
some fresh point. These scribes and counters of the towers are
wonderfully busy just now. We have among us a great company of men who
have attained repute through daring to assail established Truths of
God–wise men if we take their own judgment of themselves–for they are
never more at home than when sounding the praises of their own culture
and breadth of mind.

These Philistines have intruded into the temple under the pretense of
trimming our lamps but their aim is to put them out. Evangelistic light
is too clear for them and they seek to obscure it–therefore they give
new readings to texts which are translated by better scholars than they
will ever be and put new interpretations upon the doctrines which their
fathers held–interpretations which their sires would indignantly
repudiate! Roughly speaking, these men deny everything which faith
holds dear and yet expect to be considered to be Christians! They tear
the vitals from every Truth

of God and yet pretend to believe it! Their advanced thought, like a
vampire, sucks the blood out of the veins of Truth and he who would
drive away the foul thing is called a bigot and a fool!

These reverend infidels are to be tolerated as our ministers, or if we
decline to reckon those to be Christian ministers who spend all their
energies in undermining Christianity, we are in danger of being
ridiculed by the sage party which now clamors in the public ear. Well,
it was always so! Man thinks himself so wise and good that he does not
like God's thoughts concerning himself–his fall, his guilt and his
danger. He tries to think Revelation over again. He places it upside
down and then he calls his maundering, "culture," and, "thought." To
get away from the plain teaching of Scripture he babbles about
advancement–an advancement which consists in going away from the
Light–an advancement which will bring us back to stark naked
infidelity unless God, in infinite mercy, shall stop it. Man likes not
the thoughts of God!

If God thinks of man as depraved, he will not have it–he feels that it
is a shameful thing to speak thus of such a noble being as himself! If
God declares that man is so fallen that he must be born again, he will
not have it–he will sprinkle a few drops of water on a baby's
face–say some mumbo jumbo and presto!–The thing is done! If God
thinks that the sinner shall be cast into Hell where their worm dies
not–men's fears are quieted by being assured by some great Divine that
there is no Hell–that he cannot find mention of it in the Bible and
that at the worst, he will only cease to be. Thus do they think, in
opposition to the Divine thinking, for it is always true, "My thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord."

In the matter of salvation, God's thoughts are not man's thoughts, for
God thinks that man has so sinned that he must be condemned unless a
Substitute is found. Man doesn't think so. God sets before him pardon,
freely presented through the precious blood of Jesus Christ–man thinks
to buy it by his devotions, or to win it by his merits! Therefore the
language preceding our text–"Why do you spend money for that which is
not bread? And why do you labor for that which satisfies not? Hearken
diligently unto Me, and eat that which is good and let your soul
delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto Me: hear, and
your soul shall live" and so on. Those verses hold in solution the
thought of our text–"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways My ways, says the Lord."

See then, dear Friends, that this is a call to repentance! Man, if you
think rightly, you will submit to think as God thinks! If your thoughts
are what they should be, they will not contradict God's thoughts, for
He knows more than you and knows better than you. The Infinite, the
Eternal–is He to be judged by man's judgment? Is He to be analyzed in
the chemist's laboratory? Are His thoughts to be ridiculed because they
are contrary to the reigning philosophy which is probably no more true
than the many other forms of human ignorance which have come and gone
in the centuries of the past? Will not the present dreams of mortal
wisdom melt like a mist before the sun of Gospel Truth? Is God's great
system of Salvation and Providence to be called to the bar of the
scientists, who can do no more than dote after the manner of their
predecessors?

Shall Divine Revelation be judged and condemned as men try a thief? No,
worse than this–these sages so despise the teaching of the Lord that
one would think they were a committee of doctors examining a maniac!
Let us abhor the presumption of skepticism and let us be wise enough to
know our folly! We must be rational enough to feel that God is to be
obeyed and not questioned–and that His Revelation is to be believed
and not criticized. Though we think crookedly, God's thoughts are
upright. Though we think grovellingly, God thinks sublimely. Though we
think upon a finite and erroneous scale, God thinks infinitely and
Infallibly! It is our lot to continually correct our thoughts by the
Infallible Word of God so that our minds are kept in harmony with the
sure utterances of the Holy Spirit.

Now, the text advances to say that man's ways are not like God's–"My
ways are not your ways." Our ways are the outward actions which spring
out of our thoughts. God's ways are ways of holiness and purity. God
has never done anything unjust to His creature or unrighteous to
Himself. But our ways are not so–they are full of error, marred with
evil, polluted with impurity. By nature we love that which we ought to
hate! We often put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Oh, Brothers
and Sisters, when you think of the Character of God and then think of
the best man that ever lived–truly "as high as the heavens are above
the earth" are His ways above our ways!

God's ways are ways of love and tenderness. He is very loving and full
of compassion. But our ways are not so–we are often very harsh to one
another and we do not return a filial love to God. I mean not unless
His Grace meets with us. And even then we fall far short of walking in
the love of God as He walks in love toward us. God's ways are ways of

truth–He never lies, He has never been unfaithful to us or untrue to
His promises. But we, on the other hand, have proved false to Him many
times. "You have dealt very treacherously," said the Prophet of old,
and the charge lies against us to this day. We have been traitors to
God, but He has been fidelity, itself, to us!

Our good resolves have dissolved in air. Our promises have been broken.
Our vows have all been forgotten. God is all truth and faithfulness to
us and we are all mistrust and doubt and treachery towards Him! Were it
not for His Divine Grace we would have even fallen into apostasy–and
been like the son of perdition who betrayed his Lord! God's ways are
ways of forgiveness and peace. He does not desire the death of the
sinner. He is very patient, He suffers long, He bears continually with
our provocations. He is desirous that men should acquaint themselves
with Him and be at peace. His ways are ways of reconciliation, ways of
forgiveness, ways of love and kindness!

But you can see, can't you, that the ways of the natural man are
perverse? By nature we do not desire to be at amity with God. On the
contrary, we seize upon anything that can aggravate our transgression
and widen the breach between ourselves and our offended Lord! We have
no patience–we cannot even bear with a little suffering or trial from
Him without complaint and murmur. There are men around us who will turn
round and curse Him to His face when His hand is smiting and correcting
them for their own good–yes, and they will do it wantonly without a
shadow of reason. Our ways are not God's ways. This is true of every
sinner under Heaven and, in some measure, true of the best of men– "My
ways are not your ways, says the Lord."

Well, now, Beloved, two cannot walk together in Heaven except they are
of one mind! Therefore our ways and God's ways must be made to be alike
in character. Now, it is not possible for us to conceive of God's
making His thoughts to be like our thoughts. Who would wish such a
thing? Who would desire that the wise and good should stoop to think
our folly and act our madness? Who could wish that the Glorious and the
Perfect should come down to think and act after the manner of unjust,
unrighteous man? His thoughts cannot be reduced to ours–what then?
Why, we must rise to Him! Not, of course, to His majesty and sublimity,
but we must rise to His holiness, truth and love. Therefore the command
which comes before our text, "Seek you the Lord while He may be found,
call you upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his ways and
the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord."

If infinite purity cannot be expected to become impure, let us ask that
our impurity may be taken away and that we may be made clean in the
Lord's sight so as to hold fellowship with Him! And now I ask you to
consider the difficulty of this. "As the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are My ways higher than your ways." Turn your eyes here, O
Self-Sufficiency! Can you vault into Heaven? Standing here upon this
lower earth can you, with a spring, leap above yon stars, ascend into
the holiness of God and become a partaker of the Divine Nature?

Surely you have a task set before you which will make you confess your
inability! Yet such a rising up must be accomplished if we are to dwell
with God and have fellowship with Him! These miry, filthy ways of earth
must become like the pure and perfect path of the thrice Holy One or we
cannot walk with Him! How, then, are we to be lifted up from earth to
Heaven? The word that answers the question is that matchless syllable,
"Grace." God in Christ Jesus, by His almighty Grace, must raise us up
together with Christ! He who brought, again, from the dead, our Lord
Jesus Christ, must stoop down to lift us up from the grave of sin and
quicken us into eternal life –or we shall never think His thoughts or
follow His ways!

Into the Light wherein He dwells, we can never go except by the
operations of His Divine Spirit. Jesus says, "No man comes unto the
Father but by Me," and, "No man can come unto Me except the Father
which has sent Me draw him." The Holy Spirit must quicken us out of our
trespasses and sins! He must deliver us from the ways in which we walk
according to the course of this world! He must redeem us from the
dominion of the carnal mind which is enmity against God! By
sanctification He must deliver us from our indwelling corruption and
continue the process till He conforms us perfectly to the image of the
peerless Son of God! And likeness to Jesus He will work in all
Believers! And it shall be said of us–"They are without fault before
the Throne of God!" And Christ, Himself, shall say, "They shall walk
with Me in white, for they are worthy." It is clear, then, that our
text is a gentle but earnest rebuke, veiled in abounding love!

II. Now, secondly, we shall view the text under another aspect. Here we
have REPENTANCE ENCOURAGED. Kindly look at the 7th verse–"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 are not your thoughts."
It is clear that there is a connecting link between the

abundance of pardon and the lofty Character of God–and that men are
encouraged to forsake their ways and thoughts by the hope of pardon
derived from the greatness of the Divine thoughts and ways.

First, O Sinner, turn from your ways at once, and seek the Lord! Do not
stand back because you cannot understand God. It is not necessary that
you should comprehend His ways and thoughts–you are not asked to do
so! In fact, you are told in the text that you cannot do anything of
the kind! You are bid to forsake your ways and receive mercy by hearing
His Word and believing it, for as the heavens are high above the earth,
so high are His ways above your ways. You cannot understand it–you
waste time while raising this question and that, prying into God's
eternal purposes, gazing into the dazzling light of
sovereignty–questioning electing love, diving into mysteries of the
Trinity and the like! You are to "hear, and your soul shall live."

Return unto your God and He will abundantly pardon you. Though you
cannot grapple with His sublimity, submit to His mercy! You may
conclude that it is not intended that you should understand the
Infinite, for you are told that His thoughts and ways are far above
you. But you are required to seek Him while He may be found and call
upon Him while He is near! Come and close with His free invitation to
give you wine and milk without money and without price! Forsaking your
sin, come and be at peace with Him at once! Do not stand back because
you cannot find a parallel to the Grace which God declares that He will
display towards you. What if you have looked over all the history of
man and you can find nothing among men that can equal the abundance of
Divine pardon? Do not, therefore, hesitate to believe, for God's
thoughts are above all human thoughts.

Man finds it hard to forgive at all. One of the sternest lessons which
some men have to learn is to forgive their brothers unto 70 times
seven. Man can, with difficulty, forgive repeated offenses–but he
usually draws an argument for anger from the repetition of the
provocation. Nor can he forgive a large number of offenders–he might
pardon one– but to forgive many is more than most men will even
attempt to do! They are filled with indignation and resist those who
annoy them. When offenses are aggravated willfully, when they provoke
by being committed against love and against kindness, men will not
forgive. Even the most forgiving become, at last, incensed–but God
passes by myriads of transgressions! Do not wait until you find a man
who will forgive you–God can do what man never dreams of doing. His
thoughts are above your thoughts and His ways above your ways.

Perhaps conscience has been busy as to your shortcomings and you feel
yourself to be self-condemned. In the honesty of your judgment you have
felt compelled to cry, "I could not do otherwise than pass sentence of
condemnation upon myself if I were made my own judge." 'Tis a right
verdict, but do not forget that Jesus died for sinners and now, far
above all thoughts of ours, Mercy's wing can mount! Yes, for time
everlasting, mountains of Jehovah's forgiving love are above the
heavens–Divine Grace is above all things! Think of this, O repenting
Sinner, and be encouraged! Man's forgiveness is seldom free, like that
of God's, who delights to pardon sin! No sooner do we transgress than
God is ready to forgive!

Man's forgiveness is never so full as God's, for the Lord harbors no
resentment. He preserves no memory of our transgressions–He casts them
into the depths of the sea and remembers them no more! Man's
forgiveness is seldom so real as God's, for though man says he has
forgiven, he does not, afterwards, delight in the offender as he may
have done before. There is a chill in his heart towards the person who
injured him and by his cautious dealing he shows that he remembers the
wrong. But the Lord God so effectually and wholly forgets transgression
that He presses the offender to His heart, adopts him into His family
and lifts him up to dwell forever with Him above!

Now, Beloved, according to our text, whatever your ways towards God
shall be in the future, He will exceed them! Are your ways now right
towards your Father? Do you begin with trembling footsteps to seek His
house? Lo, He runs to meet you! The prodigal's Father meets him far
more than half way, for His ways are above our ways! Do you stand
before Him weeping? It is well–these ways of repentance are good, but
better are the ways of God–for Jesus stands before you, bleeding for
your sake. He gives blood instead of tears! Do you love the Redeemer
because of His dying for you? Alas, you do not love so greatly as He
loves you–His love is a sea and yours a tiny brook. Will you, from now
on, give Him all your life? Yet not such a life as He gives to you–a
life perfect and eternal–and all for you!

He lives for you and says, "Because I live, you shall live, also." Come
back, O Penitent, for when you do come back, if Divine Grace has put
some goodness into your ways, yet there shall still be infinitely more
goodness in the ways of God! And as to your thoughts–can you think of
how He will receive you? Oh, you cannot dream how gladly He will meet
you and how kindly He will receive you! You are about to cry, "I am not
worthy to be called Your son," but He will

say to His servants, "Bring forth the best robe and put it on him! Put
a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet!" You hope that there will be
gladness when you are restored, but you have no idea of the music and
the dancing which will flood Heaven, itself, with rejoicing!

You faintly hope that God will love you, but you have no idea how much,
nor what great things His love will do for you! The half has never been
told you by the most faithful witness for God. Those who have
experienced most of the Divine Love have never been able to communicate
to you any idea of what that love is! God's thoughts are above your
thoughts as much as the heavens are above the earth! Come, then, to
Him! Infinite Grace awaits you. A tender reception, a perfect
cleansing, a Divine adorning–eternal security and endless bliss shall
all be yours! Why do you linger? The life of God shall be in you and
the joy of Christ shall fill you to the full! If this does not
encourage men to repent, what can?

III. And now let us touch upon the third point, which is
this–EXPECTATION EXCITED. I said I was going to keep to the connection
of the text and so I will. But this time the link is forward instead of
backward. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways
higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For"–you
see there is the link word, "for," to join our text to that which
follows–"For as the rain comes down and the snow from Heaven and
returns not there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and
bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so
shall My Word be."

Now, if you listen to the Lord and take His thoughts to be your
thoughts–and earnestly pray Him to make His ways to be your ways from
this time forth and forever–you may justly indulge the highest
expectations and they shall be exceeded! This chapter tells you what to
expect. First, you are to expect that the Lord's Word will be unfailing
to you. What is this "Word"? You see we have had "thoughts" and "ways"
and now we come to "Word." God's Word is His thoughts spoken, and God's
Word is, also, His ways, for, "He speaks and it is done. He commands
and it stands fast." His "Word" is "thoughts" and "ways" put together!

Now that "Word" of His shall never be broken to you, poor Sinner.
Forsake your ways, forsake your thoughts– and come and trust in God
and His Word shall be like Himself–Immutable, Eternal, Infallible and
full of boundless blessing to you! It shall be powerful to bless you,
mighty to grow you–it shall be like rain and snow which go not back to
Heaven, but sink into the earth to make it bring forth and bud. From
that day forward, when you are reconciled to God, you may take any
promise you find in the Word of God and say, "Lord, fulfill this Word
unto Your servant which You have caused me to hope," and it shall be
so. Come and trust Him–and promises which now appear before you as far
too rich for such a poor worm as you are, shall be fulfilled! They
shall come down upon your soul like gentle showers and make you full of
gladness. Such is the fullness of its power that you shall be able to
respond to God's Word by a holy and gracious life–and your soul,
barren as it now is–shall be made to bring forth and bud. That is one
blessed thing which you may confidently expect, for you are coming to a
God of great ways and thoughts!

The next is that you are returning to a God whose ways are so much
above your ways and His thoughts so much above your thoughts that your
heart shall be filled with joy–"you shall go out with joy, and be led
forth with peace." God will not merely break off your chains and say in
cold accents, "You are free," but He will release you amid the music of
the spheres! And angels shall lead you forth in peace and your tongue
shall sing, "I am forgiven! I am forgiven! I am accepted! I am
redeemed! Behold, now do I go forth out of my captivity with joy and
God's angels lead me forth with peace." Who would not be a penitent if
such things may be expected from the sublime grandeur of the goodness
of God?

Next to this, all your surroundings shall minister to your gladness.
"The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing.
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." In your journey
through life, mountains have, up to now, been hard to climb and forests
tangled and dark have been your dread. But now so greatly good is God
to those whose ways become His ways, that the mountain which you feared
shall break forth into song and the forest at which you trembled shall
become an orchestra in which every tree shall clap its hands for joy!
You do not know what awaits coming sinners!

You that are willing to hear that your soul may live–you that are
willing to accept the Covenant which God made with great David's
greater Son–you shall see the whole world robed in the garments of
praise and your heart shall be so filled with gladness that it shall
overflow and flood all Nature with joy! And then there shall happen to
you wonderful transformations. Because God's ways are above your ways,
He will do what you never thought could be done! The thorns shall be
transmuted into fir trees and the briers into myrtles! There shall be a
change in you, such a wonderful change,

that all things shall become new! There shall be a change in all that
concerns you–the Bible shall become a treasure and the Sabbath a
delight! The Mercy Seat a loved resort and the path of obedience a way
of pleasantness!

Sin shall be uprooted and virtue shall be implanted! Evil habits shall
be withered and holy principles shall be nourished! You do not know and
you cannot guess what honor, pleasure, dignity and glory it is to be in
Christ! You who have never come to God cannot conceive the bliss of
life with God by Jesus Christ! As a deaf man can have no notion of
music. As a man born blind can have no conception of the splendor of
the rainbow, so you deaf and blind, you do not know what the Christian
life is for excellence and happiness–but you may guess that it is
surpassingly delightful when you hear that as high as the heavens are
above the earth, so high are the Lord's ways above our ways!

Last of all, this mercy is to endure forever. Man's thoughts are
temporary and his ways but for a season. God is eternal–when He
thinks, His thoughts abide forever–and when He acts, His ways are
everlasting. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance–He
never changes His mind! Perhaps you think that salvation is a thing to
be found and lost, to be gained and forfeited, to be enjoyed today and
deplored tomorrow–and truly, there are some who tell us so. But so
speaks not the Word of the Lord, for it is written, "It shall be to the
Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

Once come and walk in the ways of God and His Grace will keep you in
them and you shall find a growing delight in them! Once come and learn
the thoughts of God and surrender your intellect and heart entirely to
His supremacy–and if it is a sincere surrender–His Holy Spirit will,
from now on, guide your thoughts and direct your beliefs so that you
shall continue steadfast in His fear and your path shall be that of the
just which shines more and more unto the perfect day. Oh, who would not
yield to such a God as our God, whose goodness excels our largest
desires? If I were engaged upon the wretched errand of charging you to
submit to a remorseless tyrant who would never forgive, my message
would be hard to deliver! But because Jesus, the Son of God, has died
and by His death has expiated sin, we are authorized and empowered to
cry in the name of God, "Let the wicked forsake his ways 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."

If all this should seem to be too good to be true, as often it has
done–if the sinner should feel unable to believe that he can obtain
immediate forgiveness for a long life of transgression–we are then
commanded to tell you that you must not measure God by yourself. You
must not calculate what He can do by what your fellow man can perform.
The Lord can forgive what otherwise could never be forgiven. He can
pour out mercies so multiplied as to baffle human arithmetic! He can
bless you beyond your desires. He can delight you beyond a dream and He
can finally give you a Heaven which "eye has not seen nor ear heard,
neither has entered into the heart of man."

Close in with Him, Soul, at once, while yet in the Person of the Lord
Jesus He commands your faith! Go not about by good works and prayers
and tears to obtain forgiveness! Spend not your money on that which is
not bread, but come, penniless and poor as you are, and buy the wine
and milk of Covenant blessings without money and without price!! Lend
the willing ear and yield the believing heart. "Hear, and your soul
shall live!" Believe, and you shall be saved! Through Jesus Christ we
proclaim the Good News and, for His sake, we implore a blessing upon
it. Amen.
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