When Our Way Meets God's Way (06/02/2002)

Okay, Joshua 1A, I want to speak to you this morning about when our way meets

God's way. When our way meets God's way. First thing that is of ultimate importance in making sure that our way is in line with God's way in our hearts is the written word of God.

The written word. The second important thing that we'll talk about this morning is the living word, the

Lord Jesus Christ, and the third point will have to do with the fact that there's no way that we can walk in God's way unless we are in God and God in us, because he is the way.

Let's pray. Father, we ask this morning that you would guide us as we go through these scriptures, lead us to the actual scriptures that are the most important for us this morning.

Father, we pray your Holy Spirit would teach us that he would be more powerful in our hearts and lives and minds than any other thing in this world at this time, that we might truly sit at Jesus' feet and learn this morning, that it might benefit us in this life, in this walk, in time, in these last days, because Father, we are here for you and all of it is that you may be glorified.

We want our path to be in the way, that you would be pleased with us, that we would be obedient children before you, that our hearts would be right before you, and that you would be glorified in our lives.

And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. The importance of the word of God.

Look with me first in Joshua 1, 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, so we're talking about the book of the law, the word of God, shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.

You know what's interesting? We've been part of this church since 1980, and doing various things,

I don't know what all we've done. Pastor, I guess, for about 11 years or so at this point, and so we've seen a lot of different people come and go, and some stay and so forth, but this particular group, out of all the 20 years, 22 years

I guess at this time, is interesting because exclusively this group, when you're with them, by the way, whether it be at the coffee shop or at the ball game or wherever it is, the word of God comes out of mouths from time to time.

There's never a time in conversation with any of you that I can think of in this room, whether it be about business or about sports or pleasure or whatever we're doing, that somebody doesn't mention the word of God or a

Bible verse or something God's done. Hasn't always been that way in our church, and I know that there's a growth process that people must go through to get to that place, but that's where the

Lord is taking us, is to the place where the word of the law shall not depart out of our mouths, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.

It's not enough just to know some Bible verses and to have read through the

Bible. We must also study. Studying is a little different than just reading, but study is not enough either if we don't meditate on what we've learned.

And so we are supposed to meditate on God's law day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written, the goal, the end, the end of it is the doing that we may do.

You see, there are a lot of places, I think, where people have Bible studies and they set them up throughout the week and they think that's what makes them be a good

Christian, is that they go to a lot of Bible studies. Well, there's some truth in that. It can have that result, but in and of itself, it is not the end.

The end is that we may do what we've learned, that it becomes a part of our lives, part of our walk, and that's what we're talking about, about being in the way, in the way.

Look what it says, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and thou shalt have good success.

Do you know why your way will be prosperous? Because it will be in his way at that point.

Have not I commanded thee, be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, that's a good message for us in America today, isn't it?

For the Lord thy God is with thee, whether so ever thou goest.

That is a great definition of what it means that God is the way. Jesus said,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. God is life, God is love, God is spirit, but God is the way.

As we said last time, he's not a pointer of the right way, he's not just an example of the right way, he is the right way.

And so the first part of taking advantage of that in our own lives is to understand the importance of God's written word in our lives.

We must not get so used to it that we stop studying and reading and meditating. It has to remain new every day in our lives, and as that comes to pass, we get to the place where it becomes a part of our lives more and more, and we find that our way becomes prosperous because we are in his way.

Now turn with me to Psalm 119, that's chapter 119 and verse 1, still discussing the word of God, the written word.

I want you to look at, as we read through this passage, there's not a whole lot of teaching that needs to be done because it's just so clear, just a vividly clear passage.

Some passages in the Bible, like we talked about in Sunday school this morning, are difficult. They require an understanding of a lot of other passages to understand what that passage means.

This passage is not like that. This passage is crystal clear. Every child in this room, every adult, all of us, and brand new

Christian could glean from this chapter. The predominant theme of chapter 119 is the written word and its role in our lives, but I want you to look in this at the interplay of God working and then us responding and doing something that's right, and then

God working and then us responding to his work in our lives. Read it from that viewpoint of God's work in me,

God's work in you. God is the way. He's not just pointing us the right way to live in this chapter.

This is not a chapter of rules where if you could write down, I did write them down, I mean I've got about 15 of them listed in this little chapter, but they're not listed there so that you can memorize those and then just go do them.

The fact is God is doing them in your life, and you'll see that if you think about it while we read it.

The blessed are the undefiled in the way. First thing it does is it's going to start out and give us the characteristics of people that are in the way, and then it's going to come and show you how you got to be there, how that came to pass.

Most people in the world would read this as saying, okay, this is a list of what I need to do.

I need to go out and do these things so that God will be pleased with me. God never wrote anything like that, really, because he knows that we are not capable in and of ourselves of doing anything that can please him.

The greatest Christian perhaps that ever lived, the Apostle Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.

So that's not what it is. It's not a list. What it is, it's a revelation of God's working within my life and yours.

But first it starts and shows the result, gives the end first, and then comes and shows you the means.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. The Word of God, the written

Word, is an active, living part of this person's life. That's one of the reasons he's blessed.

Blessed is the closest word the Bible has to happy. We have happy too much in America, you know, everybody wants to be happy, that's the focus of everything.

You don't get happy by seeking happiness. You don't receive blessings by seeking the blessings.

They come because God is in you, and because He's in you, He creates, number one, a hunger and thirst for His Word.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, they are the ones who walk in the law of the

Lord. The Word of God is an active, continual sense, it's in the continual sense, or tense, part of their life.

It's not something they learned 25 years ago, and so they know it all now. It's like Jesus said, a good teacher of the

Word brings forth both old and things that are new. There are new things for you, no matter how long you've been in this book.

Brother Otis has been teaching for 40 years. Brother Otis, do you ever find anything new? That's what

I thought, because I usually get a new question just about every day. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the

Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies and that seek Him with a whole heart.

It's not the keeping of the law. It's not the keeping of the works.

It's the fact that He is sought with the whole heart, and the good works spring forth.

They also do no iniquity. They walk in His ways. Now, why is it that they do not do iniquity?

Because when they're in the way, they won't. Now, if we know full well, as we discussed in Sunday School, if we get in the flesh, and we get outside of this way, we can do iniquity, but this is talking about a person who, at this point in their life, is walking in the

Word of God and in the way of God, which is the living Word. They won't sin in that point.

I love what Brother Rocky used to teach. I've heard him preach at many churches in the country, and he would get an argumentative tone.

He preached like a prophet anyway. He'd halfway make everybody mad before he got through every time he preached. That's why he had to move on to the next church.

He would not make a good pastor, I don't think, but that's okay because he didn't think I'd make a good evangelist, but Brother Rocky, that's a fact.

But you know what he used to say, he'd say, show me in the Bible where it says you have to sin every day.

And he said, you probably will, but show me where you have to. Show me where God's Word says you can't go for a season without sin.

And he would go on to teach what it means to walk spirit -filled and how for minutes or hours or days or weeks a person could go without sinning as long as he walks spirit -filled in the way.

Unfortunately, he never thought that the likelihood of that was very high for most of us, but it could be done.

In fact, it is God's heart's desire that we walk this way, and therefore it says they also do no iniquity.

They walk in His ways. It'd be very difficult to sin while walking in His way, wouldn't it?

It'd be impossible. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

Now, verse 5, now we move into the section where we see the means to this. How do we get to the place where we live in verses 1 through 4?

Well, the first thing starts with the word, oh. You know what that tells me?

The psalmist is saying, I'm not always there. I'm not always in verses 1 through 4.

I wish I were. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.

Well, he just got through saying that the undefiled in the way are the blessed ones.

He said, oh, I wish I were that way all the time. You could add in parentheses.

Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Now, start to notice as the psalmist moves on under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit that we begin to see that the possibility of being in verses 1 through 4 has totally to do with God working in and throughout your life.

It is God working in us that causes this to happen. I wish

I were directed to keep your statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed. You know what he's saying?

God, if you would, with your sovereign hand of power, work in my life to cause me to keep your laws,

I wouldn't be ashamed of myself in front of everybody else and you. You see, he acknowledges

God's hand must be there first. God's work and power, the urges, the energy from God that causes even the gifts of the

Holy Spirit to work. God is the sovereign. The Father is the sovereign who turns those on and off.

The gifts are always there. But the sovereign God switches the switch. Now, a lot of people in this world try to fake the switch.

We don't want to go there. But if God flicks the switch on, it's an awesome thing to see.

So he says, oh, if you would direct me to keep your statutes, then I would not be ashamed when

I have respect unto all thy commandments. Does that not teach us that only when

God is directing do we have proper respect for his commandments? This relationship, this walk with the

Lord Jesus. By the Holy Spirit's dwelling within us.

And to take it a step further, by the fellowship that we have with the Holy Spirit when we are connected spiritually as one spirit by walking in the

Spirit and not in the flesh. Then and only then do we have proper respect for the

Word of God. Then and only then will we pick it up and study it and read it and love it like we ought to and sing about it as we ought to.

So we must, as David did, pray that God would direct us into his

Word, into his statutes. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when

I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. Only when I have learned from God.

The Holy Spirit is the teacher. First John says you have not any need that any man teach you. But he that dwelleth in you will teach you.

Now it helps if you have a God -gifted human teacher. You can go faster. But if you were off on an island and you had even a portion of the

Word of God the Holy Spirit would be your teacher and you'd become quite a theologian after about 40 years of walking in that desert.

It only took Paul three years, but he was unusual. He says, when

I shall have learned thy righteous judgments then will I praise thee.

Verse 8, I will keep thy statutes. Now look at this, he tags on at the end.

He doesn't just say, I'll keep your statutes. I'll never break your laws. He says, oh forsake me not utterly.

See, the psalmist has come to the place in his life where he probably has tried keeping the rules.

He's tried the religious method of so many churches have, especially the independent Baptist where they have all the, what do you call those things they have,

I forgot. Standards, yes, they call them standards. No, we're not legalistic, but we have standards.

And you can go and you try to live those standards. And it's a great exercise, a great practice.

Because you'll see it fails every time. In fact, many of those preachers end up in adultery.

They end up out of the ministry because those standards did not keep them clean.

They minister to the flesh. They look good on the outside. They allow them to have a show of will worship, flesh worship, as they show to their other pastor friends, their little flock that dresses like them and acts so well and never looks out of line.

It's a very boastful, prideful thing. But it doesn't work. And I believe

David had tried this because he's come to the place in his life now where he says, yes, I'll keep your statutes.

But he said, no, forsake me not utterly. If you forsake me, I won't keep them. So God's hand is in the keeping of the statutes.

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed unto thereunto according to thy word?

We're still talking about the written word and its role in keeping us in the way.

This is how a young man, any of you in here feel like you're young still, this is for you.

This is how you can keep your way clean, young men, by taking heed to the word.

You get outside of the word and away from the word and living on your own, off the memory of what you studied last week, last month, can be very dangerous, especially for young men.

With my whole heart have I sought thee, O let me not wonder from thy commandments.

Do you see this? Do you see the interplay of David's spirit and God's spirit working together for God's will and God's glory?

David brings in his own heart and his own spirit and he says, with my whole heart

I do seek after you. But don't let me wonder. That's God's part.

God, don't let me get to the place where I'm not seeking after you anymore and wandering off after other things because David implies

I will go there if you let me. So don't let me. At least he's to the place where he doesn't want to go there.

Aren't some of you to that place now? You've tried just about enough of the world, you've seen where it'll take you and you don't want to go there anymore.

I'll seek you with my whole heart. Let me not wonder from thy commandments.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou,

O Lord, teach me thy statutes. You see, David says, well,

I have done this. I've studied the word and hidden it and memorized some of it and meditated on it and learned the principles and they're hidden in my heart.

But he doesn't stop there. He says, blessed is God who taught me what they meant.

You see the interplay? The spirit of David and the spirit of God working together.

The spirit of God's doing the teaching. David's doing the learning. He's willful to learn.

He wants to learn. He's a ready student. That's his part. But he can't do it alone and he knows it.

And he says, only will I learn more as you teach me. Verse 13, with my lips have

I declared all the judgments of your mouth, of God's mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches.

You see, in order for a person's way to be in God's way, he must have a proper understanding of the value of God's way.

God's way is more valuable than all riches and gold and things that this world has to offer.

David says, I rejoice in your way as much as in all riches.

Very few people come to that place in this world where the glitter and the wealth and the things of this world come to the place where they're not as exciting as God's word and God is.

This is where David has come. It's a great key to making sure your way is in God's way. I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways.

I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. That's if all these other things have come to pass.

If God has been my teacher, if God has been my director. Skip down to verse 27, if you would.

Make me to understand the way of thy precepts. You see? He says,

I delight in your precepts. I don't forget your word. Then he comes right back and says, Lord, you please make me to understand the way of thy precepts.

It is not enough just to read it, is it, ladies and gentlemen? I mean, it's healthy and good to read it, but it's not enough just to read the word.

We have to ask the Lord to give us understanding and to teach us his word. Teach me the sense of your mind,

Lord, when you wrote this. What was the sense of it? What are you saying to me? Beyond just the raw sense of it, personalize it.

What are you telling me in my life with this today? Make me to understand the way of thy precepts.

So shall I talk of thy wondrous works. I'm going to share it with others when I learn something new, aren't I? Don't you do that?

God gives you something you've never seen, and the first thing you want to do is share it. That's healthy.

Helps you remember it better. Helps them maybe be exposed to something they haven't seen yet and to think about it.

My soul melteth for heaviness. Strengthen thou me according to thy word.

Remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy law graciously.

I have chosen the way of truth. Isn't it interesting? You see,

David's part and God's part. God's part is to remove from David the way of lying.

David's part is to choose the way of truth. Isn't that beautiful? Thy judgments have

I laid before me. He's got his word open in his lap. He leaves it before himself.

God's word is important in being in the way. I would dare say you can't be without it.

You can't be in the way without God's written word. I have stuck unto thy testimonies,

O Lord. Put me not to shame. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart.

We did a sermon within the last year on the enlargement of the heart, if you remember. That's when we run in the way of his commandments.

It's after God enlarges our hearts and makes us have the desire to consume and digest his word and then he places it in.

And as we grow and mature spiritually, he gives us a larger understanding, both a mental and heart understanding of his laws.

Therefore, we can go from crawling to walking to running in the way of his commandments. Teach me,

O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it. But only if you teach it to me.

You see the relationship of the Holy Spirit in our life as we want to learn.

We must ask him to teach. It has to be both going on at the same time.

Give me understanding, then I shall keep thy law. We have a cause and effect going on throughout this chapter.

Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart, but only after you've given me the understanding. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments.

He's talking about my life being in his way. It has a lot to do, it has everything to do, with the sovereignty of God moving me in the way of his commandments.

And my response to it in my mind depends on whether I'm going to be happy, blessed in other words, or whether I'm not going to be blessed.

As Brother Otis has taught so many times so well, I'm not going to change God's history with my outer actions, but I can certainly change my happiness by my inner response to what

I'm supposed to do. I can do it willingly or I can do it unwillingly. How many times have you asked one of your children to go do something, and they did it.

But you could see on their face they did not get a reward in heaven for it. Have you ever seen that happen?

Well, we adults, do we ever have that happen? When we know what God wants us to do. We'll go ahead and do it anyway, usually.

Sometimes on the inside we're fighting it. Verse 35, make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do

I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies.

He's saying, look, I don't want to just outwardly do this stuff, like the Pharisees. David was far from a

Pharisee. I don't want to just outwardly keep your law. I respect it, Lord. I understand and respect the fact that I need to walk the walk, and I need to keep it, but I don't want to just keep it.

Please incline my heart to where I want to keep it, where I do these things for you because of my love for you.

Put that in my heart. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness. Incline my heart to love your things, not the things of this world.

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in the way. Establish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.

And if you skip all the way down to verse 100, you'll see some more results. It started with results and ends with results, and all through the middle are the means.

And the means is always God. The goodness of God working in our lives.

But look at the result. You'll see some I's. You might want to circle all the time and see the word

I. But remember, this did not begin with verse 100. We had verses 1 through 99 before he could say

I. Because all the way from verse 1 through 99, he's asking

God to do all this in his life, to teach him, to deliver him, to direct him.

To comfort his heart. To create an inclination in his heart after the things of God.

He has recognized he can't do any of this. And he has asked the Lord to work in his life.

Then we come to verse 100. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.

I know more than the older men. I have refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word.

I have guarded my life against sin, he says. I have not departed from thy judgments, for thou hast taught me.

I've studied the word. I've been diligent. I've kept the word of God in front of me. And I have placed a proper importance on the written word.

And I have studied it. How sweet are thy words unto my taste. Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.

Why? Because he had asked the Lord to incline his heart towards them. Through thy precepts

I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Young people, teenagers, if you want to get to where you hate sin and the ways of the world and the false way, you first must get understanding and a love for God's right way.

Only through loving God's right way and the word of God will you ever gain a hate for the wrong way.

Or even know what the wrong way is. Through thy precepts, through the written word of God, I get understanding, therefore

I hate every false way. It's not enough just to be saved. I hate to use the word just to be saved because that encompasses more than we can discuss in a lifetime what it means to be saved.

But it's not enough to think that just because I'm saved, I'm safe. Young people, you get out there someday, you go to college or whatever, and you get a little bit outside the nest, you're not going to be able to rely on what you learned six months or a year or five or ten years ago.

You're going to have to rely on what you got from the Lord this morning out of the word of God.

And as you have this lively, quickened walk in the word, you gain understanding and therefore you begin to hate every false way that comes from the other students, comes from the professors, comes from the work, comes from everywhere you go in this world.

You hate it because you've seen the good, you've seen the goodness of God, and because the goodness of God is in you.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.

Well, we obviously didn't get past Romans 1, did we? But I want to close with this.

We'll stop with that. We won't go into the second point, which is the living word. We'll talk about Jesus next time.

And we talked about the written word that he has given us this time. But I want to close with this. John 17, 20.

If you would turn to that with me. Look at verse 20 through 23.

Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.

That's us. That they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee.

That they also may be one in us. That the world may believe that thou has sent me.

That little step -wise logical order that you see in that verse where Jesus says the

Father is in me and then he says I am in you, us, his children.

And then that causes a unity where we are all one and it also makes it where everyone understands that we, meaning

Jesus and the Father, are in us, the children. This unity is what brings us to a place where we can walk in the way because he is the way.

And he's praying here that we would be in him and he in us. And the glory which thou gavest me

I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and thou in me.

That's the Father in Jesus. Jesus is in us. The Father is in Jesus. Therefore the Father is in us.

That they may be made perfect, complete, whole, mature in one.

And that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.

That is the bottom line of walking in his way. As he loves us, he dwells within us, he does all these things that the psalmist asks him to do.

He teaches, he guides, he delivers. He inclines the heart towards his word. He does all of this terrific, fabulous, unbelievable, present tense work in our life right now.

We're not just saved, we are being saved. There's a present tense to salvation.

And because of that, it causes us to move towards the word more lovingly, more often, more diligently.

And this causes our way to be in the Lord's way. Well that's not the end of the sermon because you have to go to the other two points but that's the first point.

The effect of the word of God on our lives with respect to this desire for our way to be in his way.

Let's stand and have prayer together. Father, we thank you for your word.

It is a miracle that we have it complete and true that you have given it to mankind on this earth, in time, space.

You've given us the written word. It is objective. It is our right and wrong.

It is that which causes us not to have to rely upon the subjectiveness of man's idea of what may be right today and wrong tomorrow.

But we can look at your eternal word and see the way. We thank you that the

Lord Jesus is the way for us and for all men. He is the way, the life, and the truth.

The only way, the only life, the only truth, the only way for any man to have any part of you.

Thank you for calling us to the Lord Jesus, for opening our eyes, for causing us to desire him, for bringing us to the place where we would receive him in our lives.

Thank you that he is now our way and the only way. May we walk in him, live in him, breathe in him, and find our being in the

Lord Jesus Christ in these last days. Bless our fellowship together and the meal we're about to have and Father, bless our time this

Wednesday night but also this Friday night as we attempt to minister to some of our brothers and sisters over in Bahia.