Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Old Testament Lesson just read, from Isaiah 55. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- We all have an inner sense of “right and wrong,” what we generally refer to as conscience. God’s Word informs us that this is a gift from God, that “the work of the law” has been written on our hearts. Now it is true that this knowledge of God’s law can be corrupted, but generally it is quite accurate when others have wronged us. We recognize this right away – and our response is anger.
- All of this comes very naturally to us – and also the assumption that God is on the same page as we are, in full agreement in regard to the wrong perpetrated against us and also in regard to our anger and sense of the need for vengeance and retribution. And many people live just this way, “tit for tat,” demanding full repayment for any wrong committed against them. And we are very often tempted to think and act just this way.
- However, the hypocrisy of this should be very apparent to all of us – when we consider our own sins and the wrongs we have committed over the course of a lifetime, wrongs which simply cannot be repaid and remedied. And of course there is no way to make up for all of our sins against God. So when we are tempted to succumb to a vengeful spirit toward others we must also become afflicted with utter despair in regard to our own sins – or else highly adept at deceiving and deluding ourselves.
- Thankfully, God’s Word – including our text – assures us that “God’s thoughts” are different than our own, much “higher” than our own, nobler, loftier, more loving, and far wiser. And we are invited to find great comfort and relief from His Word, and also great wisdom for our own hearts and minds, to also adopt “GOD’S HIGHER THOUGHTS” as our own way of thinking.
- Although many people think of the Old Testament as being harsh – and the prophetic condemnations of sin, impenitence, unbelief, and rebellion against God certainly are harsh – our text from Isaiah is a wonderful assurance of God’s love, for in “GOD’S HIGHER THOUGHTS” we are assured that:
I. God is Near, Eager To Be Found, And Eager To Have Compassion Toward Us And To Pardon Us
Text: ‘Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him when He is near. . . . that He may have compassion on him . . . for He will abundantly pardon.”
A. It Is True That Genuine Repentance, And Commitment To Forsaking Sin And Wrong Thinking Is Required
Text: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord.”
B. But God Abundantly Pardons The Repentant – Far More Than We Are Willing To Think
Text: “Let him return to Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares 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.”
Statement: We are often crushed by the weight of thinking of the evils we have done, or even by the evils that come across our minds – and that it is so difficult for us to truly live by faith and trust in God, and to bring our thoughts, perceptions, and judgments in line with God’s Word. We tremble to think, or at least we should, of what kind of punishment and justice we are deserving, and of how God should be required by justice to simply destroy us. Often it seems that we just cannot be healed.
Application: But this is not what God is thinking, nor what He judges. He certainly is aware of our sin, and much more understanding of just how wretched and damnable it truly is. But again, He assures us: “My thoughts are not your thoughts . . . My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” What are His “higher thoughts”? Compassion, mercy, pardon, forgiveness, and eternal and enduring love. This is what His gift of Jesus is to us, and when Jesus – in love for us – laid down His life for us as “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world,” all of this was accomplished once and for all, completely and forever.
This is why He instructs us to come and hear His Word, to study His Word and learn it, to keep His Word [which conveys His thoughts] in our hearts and minds – so that we do not despair or fall into the darkness of delusion. And it is His will that in this way we become infected with His thinking and come to adopt it as our own, for:
II. It Is God’s Will That We Keep His Higher Thoughts And Ways In Mind, And Make Them Our Own
A. So That As We Live Always In The Assurance Of His Forgiveness And Love
1 John 2:1,2 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the blood atonement for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
B. Then We Will Also Have The Right Mind And Attitude As We Approach Others – In Admonishing Them To Repentance And Assuring Them Of God’s Forgiveness And Of Our Forgiveness
Matt. 18:15 “If you brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”
Gal. 6:1-3 “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”
Col. 3:12,13 “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
Statement: These are not our natural reactions to those who sin against us, or even those we know we must admonish. We often think that if we are to act in a “godly” fashion we must be harsh and judgmental – but nothing could be further from the truth. It is true that sin must confronted – especially sin that is unrepented, and especially sin that leads to unbelief and falling away from God. However, we must always remember “GOD’S HIGHER THOUGHTS,” that He is eager and willing to have compassion, to pardon and forgive. If we are to represent God properly, in accord with His thoughts, then we too must be gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love and compassion, and eager to forgive just as God has forgiven us!
Application: This is part of our own ongoing repentance and “forsaking” of our evil ways; it is part of forsaking evil thoughts and bringing our thinking into line with “GOD’S HIGHER THOUGHTS.” If we remain strong and honest in our own repentance, and firm in our faith and trust in God’s wondrous forgiveness and mercy, then we will grow in extending the same love and compassion to others. We will still confront – as Isaiah did, but with the purpose of bringing others to God’s compassion and forgiveness.
Conclusion: No matter how we grow in this regard it will always remain true that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways higher than our ways. It is impossible for us, in our sinful condition, to fully and completely grasp just how great God’s love toward us truly is.
But His Word is given to us to draw us into His thoughts and His ways, and the more we dwell on His Word and receive His Sacrament, the more our hearts and minds will conform to His own. And obviously, this is His good and gracious will for us.
So we pray that God would grant us continued growth in knowing His higher thoughts and ways, and having them as our own. Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.