Is God Near? (Part 2)

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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio, with pastor and author, Dr.

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Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

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Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now, let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

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Before we go farther, if John Stott was here, he'd say,

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Preaching is between two worlds. The world of the Bible here in Ruth in the days of judges.

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Everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes. No resolution until God's man comes on the stage.

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His name is Boaz. But the other world is your world. Bethlehem Bible Church's world.

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This immutable God who doesn't change is the same God who sovereignly worked out at the right time

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Christ's death and crucifixion, resurrection. But is God just as sovereign over Ruth's life as He is your life?

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That's the thing. Just think about big events in your life. Go back and go, okay, how do you...

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I mean, when I was younger, I'd think, how could I ever meet my wife? How did Dad and Mom meet? What's going on? Will I ever get married?

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Would anybody ever love me? Where do you go? What do you do? How do you find a wife? As luck would have it,

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Kim showed up at my door. Stalking me and stuff like that. I'm not kidding you.

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I don't want to be the star of the sermon. That's not my point. But I'm just trying to give you an illustration of my life. I move into this apartment.

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I see the vacuum cleaner there. I never vacuum. I'm a single bachelor living in Los Angeles.

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I asked the landlord. The last people left the vacuum cleaner. He said, well, if they come back, just give it to them.

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Otherwise, you could have it. Days go by. Weeks go by. Months go by. It wasn't years, but it probably could have been.

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I get the knock on the door. Hi, my name is Kim. I just moved in across the street. Our mutual friend who lives above you said you had a vacuum cleaner.

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I'm like... I wasn't even a believer then, but I'm like, dear God made this vacuum cleaner work. Yeah, I think

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I do. As luck would have it. It's 1996. I'd like to be a pastor someplace.

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I think I was the last person in my graduating class at Master's Seminary to get a job in ministry. And you're all like, well, we know why.

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God can use a donkey. And I get this list of churches who are looking for pastors.

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Send them out. As luck would have it, Bethlehem Bible Church responds.

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Not just in big things, but in small things as well. The point is, if you look with your eyes, they're going to fool you.

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Read the book of Ruth and say, God is sovereign over everything in my life. Of course they're responsible.

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Ruth was responsible to go. That's why if somebody says, well, I'm unemployed. What do I do? Well, go out and work for Home Depot.

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Go out and work for someplace because you know God's sovereign, so get to work. Ruth's like, okay, I've got to go out and work.

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And look at what's happening. The world of Ruth, God's sovereign. And your world,

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God is sovereign. Verse 4. Well, I told the seminary students that I was teaching yesterday, don't be a comedian.

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Don't tell jokes. Maybe once a year, then you repent and move on. So here's my once a year. I'm going to use it early. Cowboy applied for health insurance.

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The agent said, do you regularly have accidents? And have you had any in the previous year?

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No, said the cowboy. But I was bitten by a rattlesnake and a horse kicked me in the ribs.

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That laid me up for a while. The agent said, weren't those accidents? No, replied the cowboy.

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They did it on purpose. All right. Verse 4.

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Here's another marker. Here's another. Stand up and take notice.

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And behold, the point there is. When behold is used any place, you should pay attention.

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But especially in Ruth chapter 3, verse 8. At midnight, the man was startled and turned over.

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And behold, a woman laid his feet. Ruth chapter 4, verse 1.

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Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer of whom

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Boaz had spoken came by. Behold means pay attention. God's sovereign over all these issues.

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Listen up. Heads up. You just heard my football coach. Heads up. Behold. Pay attention.

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Guess who's coming to dinner? Boaz came from Bethlehem. Now wait a second.

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First of all, you've got this huge field. She stumbles upon the part of the field that he owns.

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She's been working all day. We're going to find out in a minute. And when she's basically leaving or resting, he shows up.

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And Boaz said to the reapers, What do you say to your workers after you haven't seen them for a while? What does

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Boaz say? Maybe the taskmaster boss you have says something like, you know,

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How's output? What's your quota? What you running? What you doing? Why you loafing?

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Here's what Boaz says. Yahweh or the Lord be with you.

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What a nice way to greet your employees. Would you like to be greeted that way tomorrow morning when you show up at work? May Yahweh greet you.

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And have him mean it. Well, if you treat people like that, they respond a certain way.

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And how do they respond? Here's how the workers responded. The Lord bless you. Wow. The Lord bless you.

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Behold, God is sovereign over all these things. And now Boaz, compassionate, godly,

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Maybe he's the answer to these barren wombs and the barren land and anything but barren tombs.

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And again, ultimately, when you telescope back a little bit, The reader of the

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Bible knows there's going to be a Messiah who's going to come. A great redeemer. They see the corporate redemption of God taking a nation through the

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Red Sea and out of Egypt. But what's the personal aspect of Jesus the

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Messiah? What does a Messiah look like? What does a redeemer look like? Do you know what?

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He looks like Boaz. The Lord be with you.

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The Lord bless you. I've worked in a lot of fields in Nebraska.

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I never really heard that one time. Maybe this is the one. Then, verse 5,

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Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, Your break's too long.

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Get back to work. You're loafing. He said who was in charge of the reapers.

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Whose young woman is this? You'd think he'd check on the work, check on the production, see what's going on.

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Who is this? She must belong to someone. Hey, supervisor.

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Who's this young lady? Where does she fit in?

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What the writer is trying to do is create suspense for you. Yeah, who is she? He doesn't know.

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You know. He doesn't know. The narrator withholds information.

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And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, She is the young Moabite. Remember the cave?

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Who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. Where else do

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Moabites come from? I just learned the other day that if you're from Utah, what are you known as?

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A Utahan. I didn't know that. By the way, a side note.

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I did learn that Utah, 92 % white, doesn't matter.

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62 % Mormon. And some of the highest rates of what we would call mental illnesses in all the

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United States. The side note there is you put people under law without the grace of Christ Jesus, And you're going to have a mental illness.

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You bet your life you will. But people from Utah are called Utahans. People from Moabite are called what?

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Moabites, as if you're a woman. Why does he say it twice? You know the answer. She's from Moab.

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There's a little flashback here as the foreman speaks, Recalling an earlier conversation. She said, now remember this is the foreman talking to Boaz about what

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Ruth said earlier. She said, pretty boldly

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I might add, For a foreigner, for a woman, Risking a lot. Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.

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Let me take some of the stuff that they drop. Let me pick some of the stuff up from the corner. Could I please do that? So she came.

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Man, she's a hard worker. She has continued from early morning until now, Except for a short rest.

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And you showed up. She asked for permission. She's a hard worker.

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Basically moved in here. Godly. He could have said. So as I think about this,

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I think about Ruth going to meet Boaz, the Redeemer. I think of this.

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Charles Spurgeon said, When Ruth went to glean in the fields of Boaz, It was the most gracious circumstance in her life,

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That Boaz turned out to be her next of kin. Temporally speaking.

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That's the greatest thing that ever happened to her. And then he turns it, does Spurgeon. And we who have gleaned in the fields of mercy,

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Praise the Lord that His only begotten Son Is the next of kin to us, our brother.

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Now you just trace back your testimony. How awesome is God that just by luck

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You had that praying grandmother. Just by chance that open ear preacher said

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Repent or perish. Jesus Christ is the only Savior. By serendipity, you met an evangelical friend and said,

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You think your baptism is going to save you? Friend, you're deluded. And remember, you got mad and then all these other things.

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You just look at your life. Could there be a better providence than God perfectly working

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To have you hear the general call Before He gave you the effectual call and made you alive?

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Every one of us would stand up and say, Do you know what? Given that microphone, This is how God sovereignly orchestrated my salvation.

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No greater spiritual mercy than that. And He did it through a man.

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Man sinned in the garden. Man had to undo the sin. Well, how does that work if we're all fallen?

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The representative man fell. There has to be another representative man To earn what we lost.

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And that representative man is named Jesus Christ. That is why

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Wayne Grudem rightfully says, Regarding the incarnation, It is by far the most amazing miracle in the whole

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Bible. Far more amazing than the resurrection And more amazing than the creation of the universe.

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The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal Son of God Could become man and join

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Himself to human nature forever So that infinite God became one person with infinite man

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Will remain for eternity the most profound miracle And the most profound mystery in all the universe.

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God sovereignly orchestrated the whole thing. John Howe the Puritan said, The wrong that man had done to divine majesty

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Should be expiated by none but man And could be by none but God.

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George Whitefield, Jesus was God and man in one person That God and man might be happy together.

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No wonder. Romans chapter 8 says, For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do

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By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. This great redeemer

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Boaz, the near kinsman, Right now we only know him as a relative But soon we're going to see him as this great redeemer kinsman.

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And we need a savior who's our representative. Pilgrim's Progress, if you haven't read it, you should.

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Here's what faith said, But good brother, hear me out. So soon as the man

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Moses and the law overtook me He was but a word and a blow

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For the law knocked me down and laid me dead. The law struck me another deadly blow on the breast

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And beat me backward So I laid at his foot as dead as before So when I came to myself again

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I cried him mercy But he, the law said, I know not how to show mercy

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And with that he knocked me down again. He had doubtless made an end of me But that one came by and bid him forbear

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I did not know him at first But as he went by I perceived the holes in his hands and in his side

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Then I concluded that he was our Lord. God has to be a man.

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He has to be the near kinsman. Congregation, may I also encourage you Not to seek after signs and wonders

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But to revel in God's sure quiet providence. Don't be a sign seeker.

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Actually, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 says that's not a good thing. I just need a sign. God is intervening even if you don't see signs and wonders.

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Some would say, you know what, you've got an absentee God You've got a deistic God If he's not doing all these signs and wonders.

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I don't think that's true at all. I think providence answers that question. He's personally present.

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Constantly present. Infallibly present. Exhaustively present.

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Through providence guiding. Phil Johnson chronicles some folks who Are after those who teach that signs and wonders

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Were mainly done around apostolic times. At least the ones through people. David Miller said in his article

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God told me that the Bible does not teach The cessation of these signs and wonders

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Through spiritually gifted men. He said, I think that some in the cessationist movement Have adopted what

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I call biblical deism. Deism believed in an impersonal God One who created the world then stood back

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And let it operate according to certain principles. Biblical deism creates a somewhat impersonal

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God today. He does not walk with me and he does not talk with me. But when you read Ruth you say

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God is involved And there's no spectacular miracles. Darren Sumner, PhD from Aberdeen In an article entitled

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I'll just read the title of the article, you get it. Can cessationism be Christian? Mark Driscoll said cessationism is worldliness.

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And he is making it akin to atheism and deism. But the common denominator of every one of those men is

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They have a faulty view of God's quiet providential working.

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Appreciating the eminence of God, his closeness. So you say, okay Mike, that's fine.

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But I've been living my life through Gideon fleeces for decision making. What do I do now? How do

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I make decisions? God opened this door, God closed that door. God put the water on the fleece, off the fleece.

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What do I do? How do I live my life knowing that God is providential guiding? Providentially guiding me.

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What's the answer? Someone would come to you and they'd say, I have a huge decision to make. How do I make the decision?

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What do you tell them? What do you say? Let me just give you my paradigm for decision making and we've got to wrap this up.

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Super simple. What does the word say? What does wisdom say? What do you wish to do?

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In that order. Word, wisdom, desire. Scripture, wisdom, and what you desire to do.

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So you'll say, what does the Bible say about the decision? Well it says, don't do this or do that.

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Okay, now I know what to do. What if the Bible doesn't say anything about it? What if the Bible doesn't tell me exactly?

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Well, let's find wisdom. If I were to ask you how to get wisdom, where should you go to get wisdom?

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It'd be easier if there was some sign or wonder or miracle. But if that's not coming, then what do

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I do? How do I get wisdom? It can't be bought, Job says. And I need it.

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By the way, one of my favorite verses is Proverbs 4 -7. I almost like to tell this to kids. The beginning of wisdom is, get wisdom.

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Thanks, Dad. Solomon wrote it. The beginning of wisdom is acquire wisdom.

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Okay, how do I get it? Two -fold way to get it. James 1 -5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should what?

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Ask God. Ask God for wisdom. It doesn't say ask God for some sign.

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Close the door. Do this, do that. Well, if you just say, you know, this door's shut, doesn't that mean something?

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Well, maybe. But I can't read Providence. Maybe that shut door means kick it down.

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I don't know. I've got to go back to the Word and then back to wisdom. Lord, please give me wisdom. And you've said in your

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Word that if I ask with faith, you'll generously and liberally give me faith.

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It isn't with duplicity give wisdom. And then the other way you get wisdom is, you ask other people.

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Ask godly people. I'll just give you a few verses. Proverbs 12 -15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

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Proverbs 15 -22, without consultation, plans are frustrated. But with many counselors, they succeed.

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Heads up, congregation, when you want wisdom, make sure you don't do this thing that we all fall short and often do.

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Let's see. Who's going to give me the advice that I want to hear? I'll go to them. How about this? Since God is sovereign, you have to make a decision.

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You've read the Bible. You've soaked yourself with the Word. You've saturated your mind with the Bible. You're trying to think about things theologically now from God's perspective, what

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His glory is, what His will is versus His will for my life. I'm going to ask for wisdom and then pick somebody who you know is going to give you the advice you don't want.

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That's what I would do if I were you. Because God's providentially sovereign anyway. You're not looking for yes people.

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I need wisdom. I'm dumb in this area. I'm not smart. I'm living in myself.

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I trust myself. I can't get out of myself. Help me. Proverbs 27 -9, a man's counsel is sweet to his friend.

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And friends, remember, when you go ask that person for advice and they don't tell you what you want to hear, be nice to them.

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You ask them. A while ago, I gave some advice to someone and they got mad at me that I gave them the answer.

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But you know, here's the sweet thing about it. Four months later, they came back and said, that was the right thing to tell me.

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Thank you. I was glad for that. You seek out mature people and ask them.

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You don't look around and say, okay, God, I need to know whether to go get that new job today. And if it's over 13 .5

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degrees today, I know that's a sign. I'll go do it. I mean, we've all done things like that.

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Trying to just find a word from God in the Bible. Let's just try it for once and see what happens. I'm just going to try it. It's not made up.

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For though your people of Israel will be as a sand as a sea, only a remnant of them will return. Is that for my, like, tax deductions or what?

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Tax income? I only get a remnant of return. It's a sign. So what does the word say?

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That wasn't in the first sermon. I had a different verse for that. Ask wisdom from God.

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Ask wisdom from other people. And then now here is the punchline.

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The third one, W, is do what you want. Do what you wish.

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Do what you'd like. Turn to Psalm chapter 37. Of course, we've looked at the scriptures.

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We've asked God. We've asked others for wisdom. And now we have to make a decision. Ruth had to go out.

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And here I just love this verse. What a great father we have.

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What a providentially wonderful Lord we serve. When your mind is filled with scripture, when your hearts are renewed with the word of God, when you've asked

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God for wisdom, found wisdom from other people, then you've got to make a decision. Just go ahead and make the decision.

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Not presumptuously, well, I'll just go do this and test God. But knowing if I even mess up the mistake,

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God cares for me and will work it out. Delight yourself in Yahweh the

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Lord. And what? He will give you the desires of your heart. Since you've been walking by the

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Spirit and you're in Christ, the desires you have often and regularly are the desires

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He's given you. So go make a decision. You don't need a sign.

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Gary Friesen said, Does the wise father guide his child by formulating a plan that covers every detail of the child's life and then revealing that plan step by step as each decision must be made?

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Of course not. The father who is truly wise teaches his children the basic principles of life.

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He teaches what is right and wrong, what is wise over against what is foolish. He then seeks to train the child to make his own decisions, making proper use of those correct guidelines.

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Such a father is overjoyed when he knows that the child has matured to the point where he is able to function independently as an adult, making wise decisions on the basis of principles learned in his youth.

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The grown -up son or daughter is thereby prepared to live in the real world and make responsible choices with respect to mate, vocation, and other decisions.

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If you hanker after signs and wonders, I believe God does supernatural things.

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But I don't think He gifts people anymore with the gift of miracles like He did in the

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New Testament. So how do I make a decision? How do I plan my life? Simple. God, I know you're providentially working.

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I'm going to be in the Word. Ask wisdom from above. Ask wisdom from other people. And then, with John Calvin, love

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God and do what you please. What pleases you? Love God and do what you please.

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Just for a split second. I want to end there. That's the end. But if God wasn't sovereign, what

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Calvin said would be blasphemous. But since God is sovereign, we can look at Psalm 37 and say,

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Delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart. Go delight yourself in the

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Lord this week. You don't need one sign. You need to read the book of Ruth to say,

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That's the God who saved me and has allowed me to serve Him. The Bethlehem Bible Church is a

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Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please, come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m.

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We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org

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or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE itself or management.