GOD'S THOUGHTS

GOD’S THOUGHTS

Job 34:13-15; Luke 1:1-4; John 1:1-5, John 1:14; Revelation 19:11-21

I want, dear friends, to speak of some of God’s thoughts. One is conscious that we could speak of very few tonight, for we are told by the Spirit of God that God’s thoughts are innumerable; that they are precious. It says, “How precious are Thy thoughts ... how great is the sum of them” (Psalm 139: 17). If we would count them, they are more than can be numbered; so that I could not speak of many in an hour; but with the Lord’s help I trust there will come into our hearts some sense of the preciousness of God’s thoughts, even if we only speak of one or two of them.

We are told that they are wonderfully elevated. It says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55: 9). I wonder how high the heavens are! You boys who go to school — how high do you think the heavens are? I do not think anybody knows except God. The sun is said to be 93 million miles away. A man went up ten miles recently; that left 92,999,990 miles. And it was cabled all over the world that this man had travelled up ten miles. Sirius is said to be 92 million million miles away; and I do not think we are in the third heaven then. God uses the heavens to teach us something of the elevation of His thoughts; they are not puny like our thoughts; they are great thoughts. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” God also says, “I know the thoughts that I think” (Jeremiah 29: 11). We cannot know all that God thinks; indeed it says, “Who has known the mind of the Lord; who has been His counsellor?” (Romans 11: 34). Do you think the wise men of this world gave God any counsel when He created the universe? The Spirit of God says, “Who has been His counsellor?” Man did not render counsel to God. God says, “I know the thoughts I think.” And another thing, before I touch on what is in my mind; it says the thoughts of God will stand; ... “the thoughts of His heart for ever and ever.” Man’s thoughts keep crumbling. In yesterday’s paper it was said that scientific men would have to revise many of their thoughts. They said last year positively, “This is a fact.” Yesterday they said, “We were mistaken.” What evidence that you cannot trust man’s thoughts! Apart from everything else, death comes to the greatest thinker. It says, “In that day, his thoughts perish.” He is gone; his thoughts have perished. It says of God that the counsel of the Lord will stand, and the thoughts of His heart for ever and ever. So that it is well to take account of God’s thoughts; to let go man’s thoughts and to think of God’s thoughts.

The passage I read in Job is full of instruction. The best rendering of that verse makes it a little clearer. It says if God only thought of Himself, and withdrew His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish altogether. Supposing God only thought of Himself from today (it is evident He has thought of others hitherto) — but supposing God ceased to think of man and think of others, and do what men and women often do — just think of Himself — what would happen? What do you think would happen? If from tonight God ceased to think of anyone but Himself, what would happen? You say, “I would get on all right.” Would you? Do you know what would happen if God ceased to think of others, and only thought of Himself? There would be no tomorrow, no dawn. God wanted Job to understand that. He says, “Do you command the morning?” “Do you make the dawn know its place?” Could Job bring the dawn? Could he command the sun to come up and shine upon the evil and the good? Why does God do it? Because He does not only think of Himself He thinks of everything on the earth. It says of the sun: “Nothing is hid from the heat thereof.”

What would you do, dear friends, if God did not send the rain? Supposing there was no more rain, what about man’s boasted science and that sort of thing — all man’s inventions? Supposing there was no more rain from today, all flesh would perish and return to dust. That is what would happen. Nothing that man could do could prevent it. It would but be a question of a very short time, for there is on the earth as an average only 18 months’ supply of food at any one time. If food ceased to be produced, in 18 months everybody on the face of the earth would be dead. But God does not only think of Himself. An eminent scientific man claimed recently to having discovered that the universe came into existence by the accidental explosion of chaotic gases; it did not come from the hand of God; it was an accident. This was cabled round the world! Marvellous accident, was it not? Do you think man ever gets accidents like that? Can any really believe creation is an accident? Can an accident go so far as to consider, for a camel that has to live in a desert — to provide it with provision within its body to carry a large quantity of water — to provide large tear-bags to remove the sand of the desert from his eyes — and large eye-lashes to keep the sand out? Indeed, we do not need to go as far as that. Look at yourself; think of your eye. Do you think that is an accident? Indeed, dear friend,

look everywhere, and ask yourself can an intelligent person deny that God is? Indeed, the Spirit of God says, “The fool” (it matters not what reputation such may have for intelligence) “hath said in his heart — there is no God”; such professing themselves to be wise become fools. That is just where we have reached today. Look again, and you can see that God does not only think of Himself. He thinks of us. He thinks of all His creatures. Think of the precision, the forethought that is evidenced in all the work of God from the tiniest ant to the largest elephant; it is beyond the mind of man to fathom. Everything has been thought out perfectly. So that it says if God only thought of Himself, all flesh would perish; it would return to dust if He withdrew His breath and His spirit, for, dear friends, these represent the power of life. I read not long ago a definite statement in a journal that shortly men will be manufacturing life. Don’t you believe it. Life is through the breath of God and the Spirit of God; and the issues of life are in the hands of God. This was indicated when God put cherubim with a flaming sword turning every way round the tree of life; it means God will not allow man to get control of life. Men may think they have just got it within their grasp, but the sword of the cherubim will interfere. Men will not get it. God will retain that in His own hand. People say they only believe what they can see. I do not believe it; it is not true, although they say it. Because they do not see God, they say there is no God; but, dear friends, it is not true that the invisible does not exist. I wonder who has ever seen life. We have in this room some of the producers of wheat — perhaps tens of thousands or millions of grains. Open up a grain and find life. Where is it? You can analyse it; you can reduce it to its elements; where is the life? No one has ever been able to see it. Are you going to say there is no life there because you cannot see it? Put the grain into the ground, and you will soon find out whether there is life or not. Who has ever seen electricity? No one. The most eminent electrical engineers admit they do not know what it is; but who would deny that it is? The evidences of it are everywhere. It is there in that light; there is the proof of it. That you and I live is the proof that God is. The whole universe is the proof that God is. There is no possible explanation, dear friends, of the universe but God, Who is and ever will be the invisible God. None who have any intelligence, true intelligence, but must recognise that God is. What I had in mind is to show that God does not only think of Himself. He thinks of you. You may not know His thoughts, but He knows yours. Indeed, He can divide between a thought and an intent; I do not suppose anyone else but God can do that. It says His word divides between the thought and intent. Everything is open before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do. While you may know little or nothing about God’s thoughts — and none of us know much — God knows everything in your mind and thoughts. As David says, “Thou art acquainted with my thoughts afar off,” and the thoughts of millions of others. God knows your thoughts, dear friend, whoever you are, and He wants you to know His. If you ever learn to know them in the present period, you will say how precious they are! how great! how elevated are the thoughts of God! There is only one way that thoughts can be expressed as far as I know — that is, by “word.” You all have some thoughts at the present moment, but unless you speak I would not know — I could not know them. We could never know what God thinks except as he is pleased to express them in word. It is in His word that we learn His thoughts; that is what took me to these other three scriptures. In each of them the Lord Jesus Christ is personally called the Word. In Luke, those of you who read the New Translation will see certain were eye-witnesses of the Word — referring to Jesus. In John it is still more clear in all renderings. “The Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.” In the Revelation you have the same thing. His name is called the Word of God. That is to say, in these three connections God is telling us what He thinks, not in writing merely, and not exactly in speaking, but in a living Person; in a Man. You can understand, dear friends, that that becomes intelligible to men. When a Man is the expression of God’s mind, of His thoughts, then what is expressed comes within our range, though we may not understand what is expressed fully. I only wanted to touch a little on these three scriptures — Luke, John, and Revelation — as bringing before us God’s mind, expressed in His Word, Christ personally.

The great thought in Luke’s Gospel — and particularly in one’s mind tonight — is that what is expressed in Jesus in the most perfect and wonderful way is that God’s thought for everybody on earth is to forgive them. That is what comes out in Luke’s Gospel. This is the mind of God — the thoughts that are in His mind expressed in Jesus are that God has no other thought towards any man or woman on this earth than to forgive them. That is His thought. I would that you would let that into your heart. I wonder if there is someone here troubled about their sins. God grant there might be, for you need to be troubled. David was troubled. He says, “For mine iniquities are gone over my head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me” (Psalm 38: 4). They were like a great load that he carried on him. He says they are too heavy. What about your sins? What are you going to do about them? You say — Leave them in the past. There is nothing past to God. You may think you will leave the ones you think are major ones a year or ten years or fifty years behind. That does not make any difference to God. He does not live in time, and in any case it says, “He requires that which is past.” That is no solution. The only way to get rid of your sins — the burden of your sins is to have forgiveness. That is the only solution — to have them forgiven. Scripture speaks of those who die in their sins — those that take them into the presence of God. They still have them. What I want you to see is that God has forgiveness for you. As it says “But there is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared” (Psalm 130: 4. N.T.). That “fear” is the fear of reverence. David describes the blessedness of the man whose transgressions are forgiven. He describes it. Can you describe it? If you could hear what is in the hearts of dozens and dozens — perhaps hundreds — in this room, and what they could say about forgiveness! I speak to the dear children — when you have done wrong in the sight of your parents, and the matter is put right by confession, and your parents have forgiven you, what a sense of happiness! Indeed, in some respects the position is better than before the sin.

If the forgiveness is whole-hearted on the part of the parent, and the confession whole-hearted on the part of the child, the position is better than it was before. I know it is from experience. The position of a sinner that has been forgiven is better than Adam’s position in innocence — a happier position. David describes the happiness of a man whose transgressions have been forgiven and whose sins are covered. That was the Word as expressed in Jesus. One dear woman who had a great burden of sin understood the Word. She saw the thought of God’s heart expressed in Jesus. She had followed Him in His movements. It says she came behind Him weeping. The tears denote that she felt her sins. They were real to her; but she had discovered the heart of God, the mind of God in Jesus, and she came behind Him weeping, and kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment. There was another person in the room named Simon. He neither knew what was in the mind of God nor did he understand the expression of God’s mind in Jesus, nor did he know his own heart. He was thinking. He said in his thought, “This man, if he had been a prophet, would have known what manner of woman this is, for she is a sinner.” It says Jesus perceived his thought. He sees your thought. If you think, “I am not really a sinner; I am not like the poor wretched ones with a big load of sin,” the Lord is looking into your thought. It says, “He perceived his thought.” Then He says, “Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. A certain man had two debtors; one owed 500 pence and the other owed 50 pence. Both were bankrupt; neither could pay one penny; but the creditor frankly (frankly means with a free absolute gift from his heart) forgave them both. Tell Me who will love him most?” The Lord was telling Simon what the woman had already understood — that God’s thought for Simon and God’s thought for the poor woman of the city who was a sinner was forgiveness for both. It does not say Simon got the blessedness of it. The Lord turned to the woman and said to her, “Thy sins are forgiven, by faith hath saved thee ... . Go in peace.” That is the mind of God — God’s mind to you at the present moment. I beg each heart to come into touch with Jesus, with a sense of your own sins — how many they are! I defy anybody in this room to stand up and give a list of their sins the last few years. Not a person in this room wants his or her life laid bare. You who say, “Thank God I am not like other men” — let every act and every thought come into the light here in this room so that every man may know it. You know very well you would not like it for one moment, and if you thought it was going to happen, you would leave at once. God knows it, and it is much more serious for God to know it than for me to know it. People are anxious to keep a good exterior towards their fellows; they have no thought of God. God wants to forgive you. That is His mind. Luke’s gospel confirms it all through. Think of Calvary; think of all who were there. Pilate was there. What a sinner Pilate was! — wicked, heartless, self-seeking Pilate, who could say three times, “I find in Him no fault whatever.” Then He scourges Him and delivers Him to be crucified. Pilate is there. Herod is not far away — a man who only was interested in Christ by curiosity; he thought he would see something wonderful done — that is all the interest he had in Christ. The soldiers are there, in their wickedness mocking the Lord, spitting upon Him, plucking the hair off His face. The criminals are there, casting insults into the teeth of Christ with the little strength that was left in the closing moments of their life. The priests, the religious leaders, that should have protected One who was wrongfully assailed — they were energising the people to ask for a murderer rather than the Life-giver, for a robber rather than the blessed One who gave His all. The Lord looks upon all in the gospel of Luke, and He expressed what is going on in the mind of God. It is in these words: “Father, forgive them.” The Lord did not say, “Leave Pilate out.” He did not say, “Leave Herod out.”

He did not say, “Leave Peter out,” who, with oaths and curses, had denied he ever knew the Lord. He did not say, “Leave the priests out,” or “Leave the robbers out.” He said, “Forgive them.” Dear friends, can you measure how high that thought is? Put that alongside man’s thoughts and try to measure it. It is as high morally as the heavens are above the earth — the thought that would think nothing but absolute forgiveness towards everyone. That is the Word of God. That Word is Jesus.

In the gospel of John, the great expression of what is in God’s mind is not forgiveness, but it is life. As God looks upon this death-stricken world, the thought that is in His mind, translated in His Word, is that man should live — not die. I do not mean “exist” — that is not living. Everybody in this room is existing; they have not actually died. You never know when you may die. David says (1 Samuel 20: 3): “There is but a step between me and death.” That may be true of anyone in this room; there may be only one step between you and death. That is not what I mean, and it is not what John’s gospel means. John’s gospel is that we might live. It says, “That believing ye might have life in His name.” Through the greatness of this wonderful Person, as believing in Him, we have life according to God. That is what is in God’s mind. A person who has no joy is not really living. I say it again — a person who has no joy is not living according to God; he is existing. He is not dead, not in the grave, I admit; but he is not in life. Life, according to God, is to be happy. Are you happy, dear friend? Are you really happy? God wants you to be happy. That is what is in His mind; according to His Word, the Person of Jesus. The very first sign He did was to make people happy. He gave them wine. They had had other wine, but when they tasted what He gave them, the master of the feast enquired what had happened. God’s mind for you is that you should be happy. The Lord provides true eternal happiness, and pleasures for ever more. That is one of God’s precious thoughts. How precious are Thy thoughts! Then there was a man who was lying on his bed for 38 years — he was not living, not really living; to be lying helpless on a bed for 38 years is not living. God wants man to be superior to all around, to walk and move here according to God. The Lord comes in as the Word and tells this man God’s mind. He says, “Take up thy bed and walk.” That was God’s thought — that the man should go about in power, not be helpless. People who are hungry are not living; people who have no food are not living. That is not life — not the life that God has in mind. God wants men to be fed, to have plenty of good food. I would just like to ask each one — what do you eat? What do you feed your heart and mind on? What you feed on will disclose whether you are alive. The man who eats asses’ heads is not living. At the siege of Samaria there were three kinds of food — asses’ heads, doves’ dung, and each other’s children. That represents what people are eating in this world. It is not really food at all. One represents folly. What a lot of it is devoured. Absolutely nothing but unadulterated rubbish is being devoured in this besieged world! The other is filth. Many books of today are brim — full of filth; the theatres and pictures are handing out either folly or filth. People are eating it and dying. The Lord is the living bread, the true bread, the bread from heaven. The mind of God is that we should eat it and be satisfied. Everyone was filled when He gave them the bread, and there were 12 full baskets taken up afterwards. That is what I call living. The Lord came in in John that we might live. One cannot pursue it any further. The Word of God in Luke’s gospel, which is the expression of God’s thoughts to us is that we should be forgiven. That is God’s mind. Get it into your heart; repentance and remission of sins, as Luke says, is preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. As God’s Word in John, He wants you to live; He does not want you to die. It culminates in the resurrection of Lazarus. The final expression of God’s thought is that the whole power of death is to be set aside; expressed in the One whose name is the Word.

In the Revelation you have another scene, another view of God’s Word. It says of the One who sat on the white horse, out of whose mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and was followed by the armies of heaven, all in absolute purity, that His name was the Word of God. He expresses God’s mind at that moment. God’s mind in Luke is forgiveness; in John His mind is that we should live; and in that part of Revelation when the time comes (it is very near), God’s mind is unqualified and unsparing judgment. His thought will stand then just as truly as the other stands. What is presented there also is the Beast, the coming world leader. All, whether rich or poor, free or bond, that come under the control of that power will know what the mind of God towards them is, expressed in the Word of God; it is absolute and unqualified judgment. The beast was taken, and the false prophet, and cast into the lake of fire, excluded for ever from God’s universe of blessing; and all that came under their power and authority are cut off. That is the mind of God. We are nearer to it than many think. The world is about to receive both the beast and the false prophet. The giving up of God is spreading like a plague; the apostasy from Christ is awful beyond words, and another is taking His place, and he is going to have a following, alas! alas! but God’s mind fully expressed then in the One whose name is the Word of God is unsparing and absolute judgment. You will never be in that scene if you will only listen to His Word now. Let His thought expressed in His Word in Luke come into your heart. God has forgiveness for you. Listen to His Word in John; God wants you to live, and He has brought in a Life-giver for you — Jesus, the last Adam, the life-giving Spirit. But — let God be true and every man a liar — if you reject Christ, and find yourself under the power of the beast. God’s mind in respect of such is the sword of Him who sits on the white horse — is to bring unsparing judgment on those who reject God and Christ, and accept the leader who is about to appear. The Lord help us to listen to His thoughts, for they are precious. “How precious are Thy thoughts unto us, O God; how great is the sum of them!”