We will continue our mini-series on Isaiah 55, and we're now in verses 8 and 9. So let's read these two verses, which we often quote, but I'm afraid that we quote these verses out of context. And so it's helpful to study these verses in light of the entire chapter, chapter 55, especially the preceding verses. God says in verse 8, Isaiah 55, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, says 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. May the Lord bless the reading of his holy, infallible word. In the previous verse, verse 7, God says, look at your Bible please, let the wicked forsake his way, notice the word way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, notice the word thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. Then when we come to the next verse, which is verse 8, God provides a reason why we must forsake our ways and why we must forsake our thoughts. Verse 8, for, you see, for, in Hebrew that word for is kozal. which means it provides a reasoning, can be translated as because. because my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways says the Lord what God is saying is this I want you to forsake your ways to forsake your thoughts you ask me why here's the reason in verse 8 because my thoughts are not your thoughts my ways are higher than your ways. I think differently than you do. I do things differently than you do. We are different. I am not like you. And then verse 9, 4, here comes again another reason. Because as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. God is making a comparison between His thoughts and man's thoughts, His ways and man's ways. And the comparison that He gives here is like that of the heaven and the earth. Using common sense, boys and girls, you know that the heaven is far, far higher than the earth. And God is saying to us now, look, that's the case with you and me. Your thoughts are not my thoughts. Your ways are not my ways because my ways are higher than yours. And so what we have here in our text is a comparison between God's thoughts and our thoughts. How God thinks and how He does things versus how we think and how we do things. Now, we see this difference between his thoughts and our thoughts in four areas. First, in our view of ourselves. Second, in our view of sin. Third, in our view of salvation. And finally, in our view of the Savior. So they all start with letter S, so you can easily remember them. We differ from God in four ways. First, in the way we view self. Second, in the way we view sin. And third, in the way we view salvation. And finally, in the way we view the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let's look at our first point here. Self. Self. May I ask you this afternoon, how do you view yourself? How do we view ourselves by nature? In our natural condition, who are we? Who are we before God? How does God view us from His point of view? Well, first of all, He views us as thirsty people. Look at verse 1. Ho, everyone that thirsteth! Ho, everyone that thirsts! In other words, God is saying, you are thirsty people. Of course, not literally, not in a physical sense, but figuratively. In a spiritual sense, it's a figure of speech showing what we are by nature. That we are by nature unhappy, unsatisfied. Something is lacking in us by nature. There is no water in us to satisfy us. And there is no true joy therefore. I don't know if you really experience to be so thirsty. So thirsty that all that you wanted at that very moment was water, was water. And if you are thirsty, you become restless. You cannot really sit comfortably. Can you sleep well if you are thirsty. No, you can't. Maybe you had that experience. You were really thirsty and you wanted to sleep, but you couldn't. And so you found water to quench that thirst. And so God says, we are thirsty people. We are dry spiritually. Deep within us, we are empty. Yes, we may be outwardly successful materially and physically abundant, but at the end of the day, deep within you, you know that something is lacking. There is that emptiness in you. because there's no satisfaction, because you are thirsty. Now, when you go to the store, go to the airport, or to your workplace, you meet people who are thirsty spiritually. But you know what's interesting? They don't know it. They don't know it. Because if they do, then they will look for water. They will look for the living water, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's how we differ from God. We think we are okay by nature. We think we don't need the living water. We think we are satisfied. We think we are happy. We think we're fine. I don't need water. I don't need the Lord Jesus Christ. But God says, you see, your thoughts are different from mine. So we are thirsty people. Second, we are foolish people. Foolish people by nature. Look at verse 2. Verse 2. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not." Now in verse 1, God describes us as thirsty people, needing water. Now in verse 2, by implication, God is describing us as hungry people, needing bread. And so here's a picture of a sinner here, so thirsty, dehydrated, so hungry, starving to death. What a miserable condition! And yet, God says, this person who is thirsty and hungry is so foolish. Why? In four ways. In four ways. And really, this is our foolishness exposed in four ways. First, look at verse 2 again. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread?" In other words, we spend money on what cannot nourish us. Maybe an example that I can give to you is something like this. So let's say you are so hungry and you are literally starving to death. You are so, so thirsty dying from dehydration. But at that very moment, all that you think about is your money in your bank account. All that you think about is wanting to have a new cell phone, or a new pair of shoes, or a new house, or a new car, or a new boat. Like, what? You're dying, my friend! And you're still thinking of the pleasure of this world? Don't you need to eat and drink right now? That's your immediate necessity. And unfortunately, people think like that. We're foolish. Again, look around. Look around. You see people. They are dying, they are perishing from spiritual hunger and spiritual dehydration. But all that they care about is what? Money, worldliness, sex. They don't care about their need. They need Jesus. So foolish. Now second, Exposure of our foolishness. Again in verse 2. And your labor for that which satisfies not. What God is saying is this. You spend your labor. And by the way, that word labor implies toil, hard work. You're working so hard. You're working so hard. Spending your energy, spending your strength, using your time on what does not really satisfy you. How foolish that is! How foolish that is! You wake up in the morning, you work hard to earn money. You spend your time Earning money, earning money, earning money, earning money, and yet there is no true satisfaction. How foolish! And then, third exposure of our foolishness. Still in verse 2, the third part. And eat ye that which is good. So God is saying, You need to eat what is good. Because what you are eating is not good. You are spending your money on that which cannot satisfy you. Instead of bread, instead of buying bread, the Lord Jesus Christ, you are wasting your time on something that cannot really make you truly happy. And so God says, eat that which is good. Do you know the implication of that? Eat what is good. What is the opposite of that? If God is telling them, the covenant people of God, to eat what is good, it implies that at this very moment, they are eating that which is not good. They are eating what's the opposite of good, boys and girls. you might say bad, but the ultimate opposite of good is evil. In other words, the people of Israel are eating evil. Could you imagine that? They are eating evil, which again implies that they are enjoying sin. They are enjoying sin. Now, when you eat something, you eat something that you want. You see, you eat something that you like. You eat something that really makes you happy. But that's what the people of Israel are doing here. They are eating evil, finding delight in sin. Now, isn't it true that when we sin, We show that we find delight in that sin. One of the problems of many churches today is pornography. They're saying 7 out of 10 among the men are into pornography. You talk to them, why are you doing that? Why are you looking at this malicious clip or picture? They will say, I actually like it. I enjoy it. They are eating evil. Finding pleasure in that wicked image. Foolishness. Because you know that that image cannot really make you truly happy. And that's why they say, the level of pornography gets worse. Because you always crave. You start with this little. Young people, be careful. You don't say, well, I'm just looking at this. You start with that. And then you crave for more. Because that will not make you truly happy. Well, I want more. And then, you get to the next stage. Well, I want more. More, and more, and more, and more, and more. But there is no satisfaction. There is no end. You are eating evil. Foolishness. Fourth exposure of our foolishness. Last part of verse 2. God says, let your soul delight itself in fatness. Now, the word fatness is figurative here. It's a figure of speech referring to abundance and richness. What God is saying, why eat evil? Why eat sin? Eat fatness that I provide. This abundance. Eat bread, the bread of life. Drink from the fountain of life. have Jesus Christ, the One who can satisfy your soul. And so yes, it's good that you are looking for something to satisfy your deepest need, your deepest longing, but you are finding it in the wrong place. Not in Christ. How foolish! Now, ironically, people don't think that they are foolish. No. But God says, that's how we differ. Because I think that you are foolish. You see, your thoughts are not my thoughts. Your ways are not my ways. My ways are higher than yours. Now, let's move to the second point. how we view sin. Here too, we differ from the Lord. Now, I said earlier that by implication, when God exhorted His covenant people here, eat ye that which is good, it implies that they are eating evil. They are finding their delight in sin. And why do you think they do that? Do you know why? Because they think evil is good. They think evil is good. For them, sin is good. Now they started considering evil good. They started calling good evil. They make that confusion. Judges 21 verse 25 says, In those days there was no king in Israel. And listen now please. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Not in God's eyes, but in their own eyes. And so they look at this sin and they say, well, it's okay. For instance, the sin of fornication. It's okay to basically live together, even if we're not married. Let's first try. Maybe we're not compatible to each other. You see that in the world. It's so common. Like, I met a lot of people. If I say, so are you married? No, no, no, no. I have a boyfriend or I have a girlfriend. We live together. And you know exactly what they mean by that. They're living together outside the bounds of marriage. It's okay. We don't need to get married. It's so expensive to get married. After all, maybe after two years we're not compatible to each other, then we can just part our ways, separate. It is okay. No, it is not okay. You see, that's how you think. But that's not how God thinks. You see, your thoughts are not God's thoughts. Your ways of living are not God's ways of living. His ways are higher than yours. The world will tell us, well, it's okay for a man to marry another man. Or for a woman to marry another woman. No, it's not okay. That's how you think. But God thinks differently. And you know what's sad? People who think this way, they even take pride in their sinful relationship. They parade. They parade their wickedness. Let's have a month of parade. To parade what? To parade our pride. Pride in what? In sin. Could you imagine that? Have we lost our common sense in this world? Man and man coming together. Woman and woman coming together. How are you going to raise children? Are we that foolish? That's why God says, you see, your thoughts are not my thoughts. You think it's not sinful? I call it wicked. I call it unrighteous. That's why I forgot to mention this in our first point, but look at verse 7, how God describes those who practice this kind of evil, those who eat sin. Let what? Let the wicked forsake his way. And let the what? Unrighteous man his thoughts. They are wicked. wicked, unrighteous. Some people would say, well, it's okay to abort that child in your womb. Especially if that child is becoming a problem for you. Well, you're not ready yet to have a child, it's okay, just abort that. It's so inconvenient to have a child. The world accepts that practice. We call it abortion. But God calls it wickedness. It's evil. You see how we think differently? So God says, My ways are different from your ways. My thoughts are different from your thoughts. And so forsake your thoughts, forsake your ways, and return to Me. How about the way we view Lord's Day, Sunday? For many people, it's just okay to do other things. You don't need to go to church. Why be in the house of the Lord? They desecrate the Lord's Day. No, no, no, no, no. That's how you think. But God says, do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We need the fellowship of each other. So self, sin, now salvation. Here too we see how we differ from the Lord when it comes to salvation, the way we think. God's way of salvation is compared to our way of salvation here. And we see this being contrasted in two key aspects. First, when we consider God's ways of salvation, comparing His ways to our ways, We think that God's ways do not make sense when it comes to salvation. Especially the universal call of the gospel. Because there is a universal call of the gospel here. We learned this already. But let me stress this again. God is calling us to come to Him. Look at verse 1. Ho! Or listen, everyone that thirsteth, Come. It's a command. It's a call from the Lord. Come ye to the waters. And he that has no money, come ye. Come. Come, God says. Now, when we allow our thinking, we might say something like this. Lord, wait a minute, Lord. You have called me dead. I am dead in sins and trespasses. I am spiritually lame. And yet you are asking me to come to you. How can a lame person stand up and come to you? That doesn't make sense. Lord, here's my advice to you. Why don't you first heal me? Heal me first, heal first my spiritual lameness here. Quicken my dead soul first so that I might be able to come to you. That makes sense, right? That makes sense. And let's apply that in evangelism. Think of what God is asking us to do in evangelism. God is asking us to evangelize, to proclaim the gospel to whom? To the wicked? To the ungodly? Who are they by nature? They are dead in sins and trespasses. How can you reason, how can you talk to a spiritually dead soul? How can you ask that person to come to Jesus, to believe in Jesus, when that person is dead? And so the way I think is this, Lord, how about this? I'm fine with you doing the work of evangelism. But before you ask me to go out and preach and proclaim the gospel, I want you to first quicken those dead souls. Then I will go because then I know that they will respond. That's how we think. But God says, that's not how I think. My thoughts are not your thoughts. That's your way of salvation. your way of evangelism but that's not my way of evangelism even if you are dead spiritually i am commanding you to come to the water to come to the lord jesus christ for salvation even if you are lost lost in sin like like lost sheep We have gone astray. There's no way for us to return to God, to God's fold on our own. We cannot do that. How can you? You are lost. And yet God is asking us in the same chapter, we learned that last Sunday, seek the Lord while he may be found. Lord, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. I am lost in sin and yet you are commanding me to seek the Lord, to seek you. How about this? Why don't you first come to me, find me, and then once I find you, then it's a lot easier for me to also seek you. That makes sense. God says, no, you see, your thoughts are not my thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways. And that's why this is, by the way, one of the problems of the hyper-Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinists would not evangelize because they say, well, what God is asking us to do doesn't make sense. Remember, we learned about this. I think two Sundays ago, hyper-Calvinist will proclaim the gospel, but they will not offer the gospel to all. They will preach Christ to all, but they will not offer Christ to all. They will hesitate to call sinners to repentance and faith. Many of you came out of that. Many of you came out of that background, hyper-Calvinistic. You know exactly what I'm talking about here. There's no free offer of the gospel, precisely because of this. They are unwilling to submit their thoughts to God's thoughts, their ways to God's ways. And then here's another area where we differ from the Lord, when it comes to salvation. Look at verse 1, the second part, please. And he that has no money, come ye, buy and eat. come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Is this how we think? No. The picture that we have here, you need to realize too during this time, the culture, they would have a public market. And in that public market, You have several vendors, by the way, several vendors. So let's say you have vendor one here with a table. Vendor two with his own table. Vendor three with his own table. Vendor four, another table. And all these vendors will really plead with the people there. Come, come, I'll give you the best deal." Now, it's probably hard for me to describe this to you, but in the Philippines, we still practice that. You go to a wet market, a lot of vendors, they sell and you can bargain with them. If they say, if they say, $20, oh, I can get it for $15. Ari knows that. When we were in the Philippines, I said, if they say, if they say, 100 pesos, that means 80 pesos. I sometimes feel bad, but, you know, they want to earn, but I want to get the best deal. And so, during this time, you had vendors like that. Come, come, come, come. Come here, come here. I'll give you the best deal. And then another vendor trying to compete with that. No, no, no, come. Come here. This is better. Or another vendor will say, no, no, no, this is the best deal that you can ever have in this market, public market. Now, there is one vendor in the public market that calls the buyers, saying, come, he that has no money. Come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Imagine if you hear that. I will go to that vendor. The other vendors, they can give you a good deal, but still you need to pay them. But this vendor, this one vendor, he's saying, you come to me, you can come for free. You can buy for free. You don't need to bring money. That's what God is saying to us. God is the vendor here. He is the seller. He's saying, come! Now Satan is also another vendor. He has his own table, trying to compete with God. And he's saying, no, don't listen to God, as God said. No, come! This is the best deal. This will make you happy. This sin, eat this sin, eat this evil. The world also will say, now come, this pleasure. I'm thinking now of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. When Christian is being enticed in that vanity affair. Come, come, this will give you joy. Now, you would be so foolish not to come to this vendor who is offering his products for free! For free! Now, let's be honest. If you hear someone like that, you would suspect that, hmm, there must be string attached to this, especially nowadays. Ooh, maybe something is underneath. Something's being hidden here. My wife and I, we went to Florida, and yeah, we met this company, and they said, yeah, you can stay in a hotel for a week for just $50 or $60. I said, wow, look at that. And they got me, by the way, they got me. I said, from now on I'm not going to listen to them. I said, 60 dollars? But even today, my wife and I, we're not still using that because you can't really use it. You can't really use it. They wanted you to be part of them. That's how they get you. It's like a hook. But you see, there's no string attached here. When God says, come, He means it. It's a sincere, free offer. That if you come to Jesus, you will be saved. You will receive life. But then, again, this is not how we think. Because by nature, we want to bring money. our good works. That's why in reality, in this world, there are only two religions. There are only two religions. You have the religion that says salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And then you have this religion that says, yes, we don't deny that, but you need Good works. Salvation by good works. Well, God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways. And this is where we need to submit to the Lord and say, Lord, I don't get it, Lord. Too good to be true. But I know it is true that salvation is free. Because Jesus paid for it. He purchased it for me. And what I need to do now is receive that free offer of salvation by faith, with thankfulness to the Lord. God says in verse 3, Come unto Me, and your soul shall live. And that echoes what Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28. Come to Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. You labor, you work hard, but you're still heavy laden. That burden on your back is still there. Come to Me, and I will take it off your shoulders off your back, and I will give you rest. I will give you joy. I will give you peace that passes all understanding. It's free. Come. So we differ from God when it comes to how we think of ourselves, sin, and salvation, and then finally, of the Savior, of the Savior. Who is God? Who is our Savior? Look at verse 5, verse 5. There's one important word there describing who God is. Did you spot that word? The word holy. The Lord thy God and for the holy one of Israel. God is holy. Let us not forget that. Because He is holy, He will not and He cannot tolerate our wickedness and our unrighteousness. He will punish us for our sin. Well, some people think this way. Well, that's true, but is He not also the God of love? Love wins! And that's why you have this doctrine called universalism, which really means that at the end of the day, all people will be saved, because God is the God of love. How could the God of love punish people in hell forever? That does not make sense. Can you fathom that? If God is the God of love, how did He even create hell? Why did He create hell? And why would He send souls to hell to be punished forever and ever and ever? That doesn't make sense. Let's have a solution. Universalism. This makes sense. That all will be saved at the end of the day. You see, that's how you think. God does not think that way. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are different from our thoughts. Another thing here too, with all the imperatives, all the gospel calls such as come, buy, eat, seek, that tells us that our God is approachable. He's approachable. Like the vendor here standing with his stable. He's saying, come, come to me. Don't hesitate. And I will give you rest. I am approachable. Now some people think differently. I still remember when I was in Michigan, I might have shared this with you in the past, a young man called me and wanted to meet with me. And he wanted to join our church when I was in Michigan. And I said to him, are you a member of a local church in the area? Yes, I am, he said to me. By the way, he had been attending our church prior to that, prior to our meeting. He had been visiting our church. And so I said to him, so if you are a member of a local church here, why do you want to join our church? Don't you want to stay in your church? He said, well, you see, the kind of God I often hear in our church is an angry God, he said to me. A God who stands like this, so angry. No, you cannot come to me. You disobeyed me. You transgressed my law. I am a holy God. Depart from me. And I said, well, it's true that God is an angry God. He's angry with those who does not kiss His Son. Remember Psalm chapter 2? Kiss the Son, lest He be angry with you. But the beauty of the Gospel is this, the moment you repent of your sin, the moment you kiss His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that is to say, the moment you put your faith in Jesus, God will save you and pardon you and forgive you. As one hymn writer says, Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood to every believer, the promise of God, the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus, a pardon receives. Hallelujah. The moment you repent of your sin, that very moment, you will also receive pardon from God. That happened to that thief on the cross who repented of his sin and trusted in Christ. Jesus said to him, today you will be with me in paradise. He was saved. He was saved. You see, God is rich in mercy. We see that in verse 7. Look at verse 7, the last part of verse 7. He will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Here's a gracious, gracious God who pardons abundantly because we sin abundantly. Our sin abounds, but his mercy also abounds even higher. higher. All His ways are higher than our ways. And so in conclusion, what we need to do is forsake our ways. Maybe this evening you are here and you are still thinking with your old mind. You've heard the gospel several times in this church, but even today, it's just hard for you to come to Him. And that's so evident whenever we have the Lord's Supper. You remain seated there. You're not coming to the Lord's table. What's wrong with you? What's the problem? Obviously, the problem is not God. The problem are not His ways or His thoughts. The problem are your ways and are your thoughts. You must abandon, forsake all your sinful, unbiblical thoughts and ways and accept God's ways as the only way to salvation. And say, Lord, I've heard the gospel many times now. Lord, I will come to you. And thank You that if I come to You, Your promise is that You will not cast me out. That if I come to You, You will, You will forgive me. You will cleanse me. There is a song, when I was an unbeliever, I used to sing this song. Perhaps maybe not even conscious, fully conscious of the message of the song. It was written by Frank Sinatra. My way, my way. In the opening of that song, Frank Sinatra says, and now the end is near. And so I face the final curtain. In other words, He's dying in this message, in this song. He's showing the end is near. So I face the final curtain. My friend, I'll say it clear. I did it my way. And I'm afraid that many who will be going to hell would say the same. I did it my way, not God's way. It's not yet too late for you. You're still alive. Don't do it your way. Do it God's way. And I tell you, when you do God's way, that's when you will have true meaning in your life. That's when you will find true joy, true peace, true rest. in your soul. And for us believers, we also need this kind of message because we also have this tendency to go back to our old thinking. And that's why I remember what Paul says, Romans 12, verse 2. And that verse is addressed to believers. He says, be not conformed to this world But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." We need to be transformed. How? By the renewing of our minds. And notice how Paul constructed his sentence here. Be ye transformed. It's passive. Paul is not saying transform yourselves by the renewing of your mind. No. Paul says be ye transformed. Because Paul knows that at the end of the day, we cannot transform ourselves. We cannot renew our minds. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. And so we pray, we come to the Holy Spirit, begging Him and saying, My blessed Holy Spirit, please renew my mind daily. Transform me. I don't want to be conformed to this wicked, ungodly, unrighteous world. And as you know, the Holy Spirit transforms us through His Word. Yes, it is the Holy Spirit who transforms, but we have the responsibility to read His Word. And that's why something like this, meditating on God's Word, is so important. And I pray that with this preaching of His Word, your mind has been renewed. Let us come to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank You for those two verses which we have just studied, showing us that Your ways are not our ways, your thoughts not our thoughts, for yours are higher than ours. Lord, help us to do things your way and not our way. Not to be wise in our own eyes, but to submit to your eternal perfect wisdom and will. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.