---

I. THERE IS REBUKE ADMINISTERED. The Lord says, "Forsake your way, for it is not My way; leave your thoughts, for they are not My thoughts." The rebuke is enveloped in love, and made into a sugar-coated pill; the sweet promise of abundant pardon conceals the reproof. Let us take the rebuke, and notice —

1. The fault of man's thoughts. "My thoughts are not your thoughts."(1) 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.

(2) 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.

(3) God's thoughts, again, as to the life which a man needs in order to salvation are very different from man's thoughts. 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.

(4) God's thoughts are not our thoughts, again, in reference to the truth. Man thinks himself so wise and good that he does not like God's thoughts concerning himself, his fall, his,guilt, and his danger.

(5) In the matter of salvation God's thoughts are not man's thoughts, for God thinketh that man has so sinned that he must be condemned except a substitute be found. Man thinks not so. God sets before himpardon freely presented through the precious blood: man thinks to buy it by his devotions, or to win it by his merits.

2. The text advances to say that man's ways are not like God's. Our ways are the outward actions which spring out of our thoughts. God's ways are ways of holiness and purity. God hath never done anything unjust to His creatures 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. Two cannot walk together in heaven except they be of one mind; so that 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. What then? We must rise to Him.

3. 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." How 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.

II. WE HAVE REPENTANCE ENCOURAGED. "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.

1. Do not stand back because you cannot understand God. It is not needful that you should comprehend His ways and thoughts.

2. Neither start back because you cannot find a parallel to the grace which God declares that He will display towards you.

3. According to our text, whatever your ways towards God shall be in the future, He will exceed them. And as to your thoughts — can you think of how He will receive you?

III. EXPECTATION EXCITED. This time the link is forward instead of backward. "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither."! You are to expect that the Lord's word will be unfailing to you.

2. Next 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 — "ye 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.

3. Next to this, all your surroundings shall minister to your gladness. "The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing" etc. 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.

4. And then, there shall happen to you wonderful transformations. Evil habits shall be withered and holy principles nourished.

5. This mercy is to endure for ever.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

---

---

KJV: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

WEB: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," says Yahweh.