The Ways of God

Scripture Text: Isa. 55:6-11

Intro: By His nature, God is eternal and supreme. He is the Sovereign Almighty God. He is perfect in all His ways. We are flesh and blood, created by God and placed in the context of time by Him. His ways are different than our ways. If we value the opinions and approval of society more than God’s ways we are doomed to fail this coming year. Victory and success come when we look to God’s word and seek His ways in our lives.

I. God makes Himself available. 

Isaiah 55:6 (NKJV) Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.

 a. People might say God is always available but scripture says He is not. In the old and new testament there are times people sought God but He said it was too late. Jeremiah 11:14   "So do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble. Luke 19:43-44 (NKJV) 

⁴³ For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side,
⁴⁴ and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation." We are not to presume upon God, His ways are not according to our thinking. God says there are some things that need to be in place if God is to hear us and respond the way He wants to. We must be seeking God with all our heart and soul while we still can!

 II. God’s way is for us to rid ourselves of all He opposes.  Isaiah 55:7 (NKJV) Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

 We know from experience that wickedness and evil bring destruction. We must abandon not only our wicked ways but our unrighteous thoughts. God will never bless or condone sin.

Psalms 66:18 (NKJV) If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.

III. God’s way is mercy and grace. (V:7b) Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.

 a. When we forsake sin and evil and turn to the Lord He will have mercy and He will abundantly pardon us. Forsake means we quit the sin and evil we are committing.

b. Why will God pardon our sins?  Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV) ⁸ "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. ⁹ "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. God's way is different from man's way. His ways and thoughts are higher than ours.  Pardon is God's way. It is not man-made. No man could ever have devised it. Repenting and turning away from confessed sin in our lives brings God’s mercy. God in His mercy is willing to forgive us and remove the penalty that we deserve. God’s grace gives us what we do not deserve and that is exemption from His judgment. God in His wise ways can justly forgive us because His perfect and righteous Son Jesus Christ paid for our sins by shedding His precious blood on the old rugged Cross. Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

IV. God’s way is in and through His word. Isaiah 55:10-11  ¹⁰ "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, ¹¹ So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

 a. Every expression of the ways of God in the bible seems to go directly against the ways of man. You remember Peter in his human way of thinking was ready to prevent the sacrifice of Jesus because a wise teacher and good friend might be lost in death. (Matt. 16:22-23)

     The cross was God’s way. Peter’s ways were not God’s ways. Jesus died sacrificially so that He would rise to live again and provide eternal life for all believers for centuries to come.

    Since man’s ways are not God’s ways we must daily read God’s word and seek His ways for every  decision we will have to make in this life. When we do God has promised in these verses that His word will produce fruit in our lives. By reading and obeying His word we will accomplish His will for our lives and we will discover that His ways are truly greater than ours.

Invitation: God says to be forgiven by Him you must confess and repent of your sins against Him and ask Jesus to forgive you and save you from Hell. God says there is no other way to be forgiven but through His Son Jesus Christ. John 14:6 (NKJV) Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

If you have been forgiven by God’s grace His way for you now is: Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. (Ephesians 5:1)