God's thoughts toward humanity are incredibly precious and numerous, surpassing the grains of sand on all the world's seashores. The sermon emphasizes that these divine thoughts are not only vast but also personal and directed towards believers, offering immense comfort and value. Knowing the Lord Jesus Christ is presented as the key to understanding and experiencing these thoughts, which are revealed through Scripture and personal relationship with God. Ultimately, the message encourages a deeper appreciation for God's constant presence and His immeasurable care for each individual, assuring believers that they are never alone.
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Shall we turn tonight to the book of the Psalms, chapter one hundred and thirty-nine, if you please? I would like to read just two verses, verse seventeen and eighteen in this hundred and thirty-nine chapter of the book of Psalms. One cannot help but think, and I often do it, as I listen to the prayers, and to the requests that are made quite frequently for those of our fellow believers and friends and relatives who are passing through deep trials physically.
It makes me think oftentimes of my beloved mother in her closing days. Many times, though she was an invalid, when we would ask her mother, how do you feel? We valued her reply. Fine, accept my body. We knew what she meant. She was enjoying the Lord, even though her body didn't feel up to it. I wonder if you and I can say that. Oh, the joy, and may I be reminded with you, I think it's of greatest comfort.
I don't know whether you ever notice it, but according to the Scripture, those who know the Lord Jesus Christ are to have a new body someday. Romans eight, verse twenty three. Then my beloved, let me say this. We have a God who cares about us. Now let me ask a simple question, and yet it's not simple. It's very deep. Do you and I know God in all the greatness and the glory and the might of his power?
Who he is? I'm reminded and I would remind you. We're made of dust. As one said in the book of Job, can't thou by searching find out God. But beloved, thank God we have a book in which he is revealed and through which he is revealed. And as we heard tonight in the message we sang with the children, the truth of the gospel is that God loves us.
May I read these two verses in Psalm one hundred and thirty-nine and refer to that wonderful love. Verse seventeen and eighteen of Psalm one thirty-nine, the psalmist writing, and note the opening words, How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, How great is the sum of them? If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.
When I await, I am still with thee. Can I read the words again? Here very deep. they are beyond your full comprehension and mind. As by divine inspiration the psalmist has written, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great, not how small, how great is the sum of them?
And then he adds, If I should count them, they are more in number than there's sand. There's sand by the seashore throughout the whole world. And then he closes. He may have been meditating in the night time about God. But then he closes with the expression, when I awake, I'm still with me. His heart was overwhelmed. If you've ever read this psalm, I say it very briefly and thoroughly, in the opening part of the chapter, God is mentioned as being omniscient.
He knows everything. Do you know anyone else who knows everything? Do you know everything? Do I know everything? Absolutely not. Never shall. But God knows everything, and that's the opening of the psalm. A second great truth he refers in that opening of the psalm. God is everywhere. No matter where we might go, and even make the statement, even if I make my bed in hell, thou art there. God is everywhere.
Are you and I everywhere? Never. Could never be. But may I say God is. Aren't you glad he's here too tonight? Do you value him and do I value him each day? He's always with me. And the third thing he mentioned in the opening part of the chapter, God not only knows everything, God not only is everywhere, but he can do everything. He is omnipotent. My beloved, these are some, not all, but some of the attributes, qualities, and powers that belong to God.
But then I want you to note the contract when we come to verse seventeen. What does the psalmist refer to? Does he refer to God's omnipotence? No. Does he refer to God's omnipotence? No. Does he refer to God's omnipotence? No. He refers to it, ah. saying how precious also, in addition to all you may be and are, in addition to our precious of thy soul.
Do you know what God's thinking about? My beloved fellow believer, how much do you, how much do I enter into God's soul? Is it possible? I think of the words of Isaiah when he wrote in chapter fifty-five and God spread through him as he addressed his words to the people of God of that early day. My thoughts are not your thoughts. I mean, there are your ways, my ways. But as the heavens are above the earth so great are my thoughts and my ways compared to beloved.
May I give you the thought? Take it in. What? And who? It's the greatest thing that you can think of. And have thoughts of God. Know what the promise says about this thought. Precious. Many years ago, I haven't heard it for a long time. In my early days, I often did. There were times when people greeted one another, or they may have consented one another, and they met one another, and then I heard them saying, a penny for your thought.
Or somebody in the family has been sitting there quietly, and somebody has come along and said, a penny for you. Let me ask you the question. Are your thoughts worth a penny? Sometimes they're not worth a penny, quite often. But how about God's thoughts? Precious. It indicates their value. Now let me ask a question and search your heart and mind. Do you and do I not, do I value? God's thoughts. Where can I find them?
Well, beloved, I'll tell you one thing. This precious Word of God you can find them from cover to cover. And then further, may I go deeper and deeper still, when you and I know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. We know the one who came from heaven above to inform us and reveal to us God. The Lord Jesus Christ.
You know the Son of God is your Savior. Let me quote John one eighteen. We know apology for the repetition that often done. No man has seen God at any time. But the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him or revealed him or made him known. I can say on the ground of the Holy Scriptures, since that night I trusted the Savior for my salvation, I now know God.
What a joy to know him. Well, did the apostle Paul write, I know whom I have believed. Well, did he pray that I might know him more and more? Let me raise the question again. Are you and I concerned? Do we give any heart and thought to the fact that we have a great God to learn about? And his thoughts, the psalmist in Psalm ninety four, I have to believe, in verse nineteen, made the statement, In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comfort delight my soul.
My beloved, how we need to learn what the Psalmist said in Psalm one hundred and four. Verse thirty four. My meditation of him shall be sweet. Philippians chapter four. How dare in that epistle the Apostle Paul writes to the Philippian believers and to all believers, telling them what? For who to think of? May I raise the question again? How much did you, how much did I today think of my Lord?
What were my thoughts? Ah, beloved, let me say this. Thoughts of God are precious. Their incomparable value. Once you think, you'll never buy them with money. You'll never find them in this world with all that he may offer. And may I repeat what God says about the world in which you and I are still living. All that is in the world, not something. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, And the pride of life is none of the Father.
And the world passes away and the lusts they're on. But he that doeth the will of God abides with her. Please may I put it this way. I can't take the world to heaven. But thank God I can take every thought God gives me of himself to heaven. They're precious. They'll never be lost. Then I want you to notice what he goes on to say. Not only are precious what I thought, but I like the expression that follows the two words. Onto me, O God. What? They're inconceivable direction.
We find that children's image. We often do, and I don't think we think we know much about it as we ought to. The truth of the words. Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me. How much do we dwell and meditate upon it? I think of the words of Paul in Ephesians chapter three in his prayer to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying that the believers might know the knowledge of the love of God as it is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In his breath in its length, in its depth, and in its height.
My beloved, let me say, you never be able to measure the breadth, the length, the depth, and the height of the lovers of all Jesus. But I tell you what, it's a lot to think of. And they're in conceivable direction. They're for me. I think the best emphasis in that little song we sang. Jesus loves who? Me! And who is me? Me. And I'm sure you must be a me.
Take the word then. The Psalmist states, thou treasures all thy thoughts unto whom? Me. Oh God. How much have you ever learned about God's thoughts of you? How much have I learned of God's thoughts concerning me? My beloved, tell him, please let me save again. How many thoughts does he have? Have you found them all? Well, look what follows the third thing. Not only their incomparable value, their precious.
Not only their inconceivable direction. I don't have to throw them over my shoulder and say they're not for me. I have to say they're for me. But also, how great is the sum of them? Can I count them? I can if I can count the number of the sand on the seashore. Have you ever been down to the seashore? I'm sure you have. And even if children perhaps, you've had the joy of playing in the sand and reveling in it.
Let me give you a story of that which once happened to a missionary. One of our servants of Gord who went to the land of Arabia, a Mohammedan country, to be a missionary and preach the gospel of Christ. He tells how he was on the seashore of the Arabian Sea one day, how he looked and saw something very strange happening on the sand. There seated, sitting in the sand, was an old, old man. And the remarkable thing was that dear old man was playing with the sand, lifting it up in his hands, and letting it fall down again.
Time after time he would lift it up and let the sand caught through his fingers, stacking it into the ground, and do it again. And again and again. He watched a strange procedure. And he was so curious, he went over to the old fellow and asked him, What are you doing? That old Arabian looked at him and said, Leave me alone. I'm thinking. Then he was more curious. He raised another question. What are you thinking of?
What am I thinking about? He asks. I'm thinking of eternity. Which is a surprise to the missionary. To find an old Arab. Even though he wants. Thinking of eternity. Then he asks him another question. What is eternity? What is eternity the old man said? I'll tell you. If a bird of the air came today and took one grain of sand away from the seashore and did that same thing every day, only one a day, by the time he took the last grain of sand, Eternity will be just beginning.
God's thoughts last for eternity. May I say lovingly, and I do it gratefully. There are a lot of things in this life we're going to be glad. We're going to have to, we're going to be able to forget them. But oh, the joy you have known. We have a God who is so infinitely great. It's thought for us to consider, to enjoy.
They are more in number. Has anyone been able yet to count the grains of the sand in all this world? Never. You can go down the Myrtle Beach and never count them there. Please. Can you conceive how many thoughts God has concerning those with no worries, people? Let me repeat the words again before we close. How precious also are thy thoughts unto Neil Gaughan? How great is the sum of them? If I should count them, they are more in number than the sum.
Their incomparable value, you could never put a price on them. They're inconceivable. And this is amazing. For me. For me. Oh, beloved, let me say this. I thank God for that moment when I found for the first time the Lord Jesus loved me and died for me. But may I say lovingly and earnestly, I've never been able to find out many good thoughts God has about this. They're too numerous.
God help me to keep finding them. They're incomparable, incomprehensible numbers. But then I say as we close, I wonder if the psalmist must have been meditating in the night, unable to sleep. And God's thought to have been filling his heart. And then when he awoke in the morning, he said, when I awake, I'm still with thee. Beloved believer, let me say this, I said it to my heart with joy, I'll never be able to get away from it.
He won't let me get away. When I awake every morning, or if I don't sleep every night, He's with me. No wonder the psalmist wrote, The Lord is my shepherd, and even in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art where? With me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. I'm always with God. May I say it lovingly, I know you and I have some loved ones we're looking forward to meet in heaven. But our greatest joy in heaven is not the knowledge we will meet them.
We're going to be with God forever. Shall we pray? How dearly, beloved Father. No wonder the Lord Jesus made this statement. This is life eternal. This is eternal life, knowing thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. We pray one for the other, and we pray for our dear fellow believers, and those who may not be with us tonight, unavoidably as some are, and some may not unavoidably be away.
But we ask thy blessing upon every one of thy people. And say tonight, O Lord, help us all to do what the hymn writer wrote. Nearest, still nearer, close to thine heart. Draw me, my Savior, so precious thou art. Fold me, O fold me, close to thy breath. Shelter me, say, in that haven of rest, Blessed Lord. Thank you. We rejoice you'll never lose us, but we also rejoice we'll never lose you, either God.
Our Father, our Lord Jesus, and the blessed Spirit of God. We say as we close, how precious. Please offer to know more of them. Are thy thoughts unto me, O God, For the name and the glory of the Lord Jesus, we ask him. Amen.