The Way (06/23/2002)

The Way of God in Psalm 32 and the Narrow Path

We've been talking about the fact that God is the way, it's not that the Lord Jesus points the way, but he is the way. We discussed the written word, we discussed the living word, and then last time we began to discuss the sovereignty of God in these matters of having us be in the way, and that's where we'll finish up that point today.

So let's have a word of prayer and we'll begin. Dear Father, we thank you so much for your Son, Jesus Christ, and that precious blood that is the power that allows us to come into your presence. We thank you that that blood has been applied after the resurrection and the ascension into heaven.

You applied that blood, made the judgment seat become a true mercy seat because of the blood of Jesus, and because of that same sacrificial death of his, we are able to come before you today only on the merit of Jesus' finished work.

We thank you, though, that we are able, that you have made us to be priests, believer priests, that we might come into the very holy of holies, but not without the blood. So we thank you that you have applied that blood to our hearts, dear Father, and Lord, the songs that we offered up to you, may we continue to offer up our praise and thanksgiving.

May you meet with us as we hear your words today, and draw us to worship as we sense your presence, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. Let's kind of start where we ended up last time, in Psalm 32, if you would turn there for me, Psalm 32, and follow along with me.

A psalm of David, Masjid, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I keep silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture was turned into the drought of summer, Selah.

But then I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin, Selah. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found.

Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance, Selah. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.

I will guide thee with mine eye. Verse 11 says, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. Well that's the passage that we studied last week. Now I want to take you through some other points of scripture that focus on the sovereignty of God in our lives.

I had an interesting discussion with a young man, he's in his 20's and he's doing graduate work in literature about that. You don't find many that want to major in that nowadays. He could sing and he came and helped the man that was working on our PA system.

We got into a discussion about the sovereignty of God and it was kind of new to him so we kind of took it slow, but I introduced him to some thoughts that I could tell he hadn't thought about before and he could hardly eat his lunch, he was just thinking, he was really thinking.

But these passages will take us to the sovereignty of God as well as any passages we'll find in the scripture and yet they have to, every one of them, with us being in the way, walking the narrow path as Jesus talked about and he said, few there will be who will walk that path.

Many there will be who walk the path, the broad way of destruction, but few there be that walk in the way. So that's what these passages of scripture will have to do with. So you'll have to kind of follow me through the Bible.

If you want to turn to these, it's always best if you can see them, but you will have to move quickly. Psalm 37 verse 4, delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust in him also and he shall bring it to pass. You see the phrase, commit thy way unto the Lord. Our way must be committed to him if we're going to walk in the way, which is his way.

Psalm 77 and verse 11, I will remember the works of the Lord. Now the context of this passage, he begins by saying, in the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My sore ran in the night and ceased not.

My soul refused to be comforted. That's the state that the psalmist is in and he comes down to verse 11. When you have those kinds of times where you have a night where you can't sleep and your soul refuses to be comforted and you're worried about all the things that the enemy is bringing to pass in your life, remember verse 11 here and following, I will then remember the works of the Lord.

That's all we have to do. When the enemy, the accuser of the brethren comes and slanders us and accuses us or if he comes and tries to shed doubt on your God, which is all worry is, worry is a state of doubting your God, your father.

So when he brings this to your mind, then all you need to do is remember the works of your Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. Remember the things where God has delivered you in the past and others.

And I will meditate also on all thy work and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Now that probably has a dual application or dual even interpretation. What he meant was in his day in the Old Testament times was that if you went to the assembly, if you assembled together in the temple and you heard the word of God taught, you would see God's way.

And now we ask ourselves, where is this sanctuary today? There is no temple. It's been destroyed. In 70 A .D., the Romans destroyed that temple. So we cannot go to this sanctuary to learn of the Lord's way, but where is it now?

It's in our hearts. If we belong to the Lord, the Bible says that our body is the temple of the living God. And so this means we must go into that innermost part of our temple. We must go from within our hearts and meet with the true God in that sanctuary.

And verse 13 says, Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God that doest wonders. Thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people and the sons of Jacob and Joseph, Selah.

So he reminded himself of the works of God, and he ended up with the thought that I am redeemed. I have been bought with that blood that we sang about, Brother Roger. I have been purchased with that blood, and I have been set free from all my former masters, whether they be sin habits, whether they be Satan himself, whether they be an allegiance to this world system, or our own flesh, fleshly thoughts, and so forth.

We've been set free from all that, and we have a new Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, turn with me to Psalm 139, 139 in verse 23. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way.

You see how he talks about a wicked way in me? That's the same thing Paul said in the New Testament when he said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. In the self-life dwelleth no good thing. Search my heart and see if that self-life is active.

See if that self-life has brought about a wicked way, which would be my own self-way. And if you find that Lord, then lead me away from that, and lead me in the way everlasting. There's only one everlasting life, and that is the way.

Now Psalm 143, turn right over a few pages to that, and look at verse 8, and notice who it is that causes the hearing. He is addressing, not his own heart here, but he's addressing God, the God of the universe, and he says, cause me to hear.

That's the only way we can hear God's word, is if he causes us to hear. The only way. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning, for indeed do I trust. Cause me to know the way. Isn't it amazing how many times you see that phrase when you start looking for it?

The way. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies. How many times in these three sermons that we've gone through all the scriptures that talk about being in the way, how many times have we seen that it's in connection with protection and deliverance from the enemy?

We must be found in the way, because the enemy is always roaming to and fro, seeking whom he may devour. And so we must be in the way. So he says, therefore deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me.

Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God, thy spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, in other words, make me lively, O Lord, for thy name's sake. For thy righteousness' sake, bring my soul out of trouble, and of thy mercy, cut off mine enemies, and destroy them, all them that afflict my soul, for I am thy servant.

Now turn to Proverbs 2, and verse 6, Brother Roger, that guitar of yours is jumping around today. I'd stay away from it if I were you. Four churches, more than Brother Roger, tried to catch that guitar, and he rolled his chair right off the platform while he was sitting in it, and he didn't catch the guitar either.

So both, they both fell. Okay, Proverbs 2, 6,. For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. You know, humanism teaches us that the human has his own wisdom and understanding.

In the schools today, the prevalent theory of education is that we no longer need to teach children rote facts. We just need to teach them to go out and find the stuff when they need it. We just need to teach them where it is, and they'll go find it.

They don't need to learn anything, they just need to have wisdom. And to them, wisdom means you need to be able to find it on the internet and read it, and you've got the information. You don't have to learn anything.

What a ridiculous state of affairs when the Bible teaches us that knowledge has to come before wisdom, and all of it is from God, and none of it is found on the internet. Unless you can find the Bible out there on the internet, which I know you can.

For the Lord's the one who gives wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and, look at this, preserveth the way of his saints.

You see the phrase, the way? Your way is preserved by God. Your way, it's like you think of the ladies that do preserves, they'll go get some strawberries or something, and seal the little bottle and preserve it, make preserves.

Well God preserves you. God preserves all of his children. We're like preserves. We cannot go bad, we cannot be rotten, we cannot be destroyed. And so he preserves not only us, but the way of the saints.

That means he keeps us in his way, he keeps us on that narrow path. Then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgment and equity, yea, every good path. Then while God is preserving you in the way is when you'll understand every good thing.

You'll know how to discern right from wrong for the first time in your life. You'll know how to, when the world says that good is bad and bad is good, you'll know they're wrong when you're in the way.

When wisdom entereth into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee, why, to deliver thee from the way of the evil man. Isn't it amazing?

The enemy always comes back. And it's important to be in the way because of the enemy. The enemy is outside waiting for you to get off the way. But God is working, keeping you in the way. Now I want to move into some very specific verses now and these are going to be what some people call proof texts because I'm not going to read and go verse by verse through the whole passage because you don't want to sit here that long.

I like doing it. But for your sakes I'm going to let you trust that I have checked out the context and if you don't then take it home and check it out yourselves later, which I know not one of you will do.

Because I've had preachers tell me, now when you get home I want you to read this passage. I never did it. But I had read it before or maybe I would have. Point is, these are in context. You can check them out for yourselves when you have time to make sure you agree with me on that.

But I want to go through some things in your life that God in his sovereignty controls. Then I want you to ask the question when we finish this, what's left? What's left for me to control? And I want to begin with Proverbs 16 in verse 1 and we will also end with this verse.

So I just gave you a clue about answering certain questions. But Proverbs 16 1, the preparations of the heart are in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Now notice what happens in this verse.

God is placing the right for you to prepare in your mind, in your heart. He's given you freedom to think, hasn't he? But you know what he does with that bit of freedom that you have? He places responsibility on it.

So when you think and you decide what you're going to do, you are then responsible for what you do at that point. Some people say that Calvinists don't believe in the responsibility of man. No, that's hyper-Calvinists that don't believe in the responsibility of man.

Calvinists do believe in the responsibility of man. The Bible says that the preparations of the heart are in man. God wrote that verse. God said that. God made it to be that way. So now you're responsible.

But you know what? As you begin to say a word, where does that word now go? It becomes a part of history, doesn't it? You say, well, not words. Words don't become a part of history. Well, I think you could think of some that did.

When you think of men like Lincoln, you think of men like that and they give a little speech and say a few words. Does it ever become part of history? In fact, every word you say becomes a part of history.

In fact, every word you say is recorded in the heavenlies. It is, in fact, a part of history. Now let me ask you a question. Who controls history? Man or God? God. And that's why God says you think what you want in your heart, but even if you say a word I'm controlling that.

You won't say one word that God doesn't have to happen in the history. Think about that. The young man yesterday, 20 years old, 20-something years old, right in that ballpark, he said, well, what about free will?

And I said, you're going to have to answer the question, not me. What about it? What is it? And he never could tell me what it was, so I never had to answer his question. I didn't want to answer his question because he wasn't ready to hear it yet, but he couldn't even tell me what free will meant.

Well, may I share with you what it means because you're ready, you're prepared. You have another person that kind of prepares you for these kinds of discussions, I started to say destructions. Free will, in the truest sense, means sovereign will.

It means a mind that is able to think freely with absolutely no input from anywhere else in the universe. And let me ask you, who has that? God is the only one who has that. Now if you want to bring that down another level for human discussion, we say, was there ever a man who had free will in that truest sense?

If you say in the truest sense, you'd have to say no. Not even Adam had that because he was influenced by things he saw and so was his wife, wasn't she? Before the sin nature. She was still influenced by things she saw, so she was not free.

She was moved to think things by input from another. But if you want to compare them to us, they did have more free will than we do, didn't they? Because on this side of the fall, every thought you have is energized by a power higher than you.

Think about that. You don't like to think that, I know, because you like to think, no, I generate some of my own thoughts. I mean, I have the power to generate my own thoughts. And yes, there is a sense in which you do.

You have a remarkable organ called the brain that God created and gave you as a gift, and it does function. It computes, doesn't it? But how many computers will compute if you don't plug them in? Have you ever tried operating one when you forgot to hit the on button?

And what about if you turn that thing on, what happens to it? If you just turn that on and you sit back and look at it, what will it do? It's going to sit there and wait for you to tell it something else, isn't it?

Tell me my next order, please. And you hope if Windows is working right that when you click the next thing, whether it be the little, what do you call those things on the desktop, the little icons, if you double click that thing, what's it telling the computer to do?

To start thinking, right? I hate to tell you, but your brain is very similar to that. You get up in the morning and you drag out of that bed, you're more in the flesh than you've been all week. And you make it into the restroom, you start brushing your teeth and you look at yourself and you even get more carnal.

What is it that flips the switch of your spiritual life and turns it on, all of a sudden you're aware of God's presence and you speak to him for the first time that day? Do you think you flipped it or did he flip it?

Well, somebody had to turn it on. But you can think when he turns it on because the Bible says the preparation is the harder in man. So he turns your computer on, double clicks the icon and gets you in the mode where you can think, you can start thinking, you can think what you want to think and you're responsible for everything you think.

Haven't you ever felt like throwing a brick through your screen on your computer? I usually want to do that when it throws out those error messages. We throw them out to God all the time, don't we? What if he just threw a brick through us?

But we're his children. The answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Now here's what I want to say. Point number one, the very words that we say are from the Lord. Now look at verse three. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established and the implication is by God.

He will establish your thoughts. And I think you could use the word thoughts to almost mean the same concept as plans. Your plans. If you commit your works, if you say, Lord, I want my life, my life work, I know if I'm the man in the house, I have to make, I may have to have a job, make some money for my family because that's part of my religion too, says I'm worse than an infidel if I don't take care of my family.

So Lord, I know I have to do that, but I want the predominant way of my life to be for you, for your work in this world, in your kingdom. I want my life to be for that. And you've committed your works.

I want the things that I do with my life to be unto you, Lord. You commit your works to the Lord. The thoughts shall be established. God will begin to put plans in your mind. He will put thoughts in your mind that will help you go down a road of planning to know what you ought to do in the way.

Now, sometimes he doesn't go way out there with them. He may just tell you, here's what you need to do for this afternoon. But when you get there, he'll tell you now for in the morning, you might need to do this.

But the point is, if your life is committed to the Lord, the thoughts shall be established by him. So now we've seen that the very words that we say are from the Lord, and we see that the very thoughts that we have are established by the Lord.

Now look at verse 9. I skipped an interesting verse. Let me read verse 4. We'll go into verse 9. Look at verse 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Isn't that interesting?

Did you know the wicked are in God's will too? Now don't say that anywhere other church. They won't agree with us. Oh, they're out of God's will. They got out of God's will, and you can get out of God's will too.

Well, we'll ask you if you can when we get through with these scriptures today, and you can answer it however you think you should. But I'll tell you this, whatever the answer is about you, I know what the answer is about what the wicked do.

They do exactly what God wants them to do, because he put them here for a purpose. And many times that purpose is to take us through chastening and tribulation and trial, and it becomes the very hands that mold the clay to make us be what we will be, in fact, to the Lord.

There's no chance that we won't be what we're going to be. It is determined exactly what we will be both in this life and in the next one, and we will be that, and you can't mess with it. And God uses these evil, these wicked people for the day of evil, and that day of evil is what makes you strong and me strong.

But that's maybe a rabbit trail in this message, although maybe not, but let's look at verse 9. So we've talked about how that the words, once we say them, they come into existence in history. The words are from the Lord, and the plans are established by the Lord.

And now look at verse 9. A man's heart devises his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Here once again, just the same as verse 1, we see that the Lord grants a measure of freedom in our computers, in our minds, and we can think.

I know he has to turn the button on, he has to energize that computer, or we die. What can a computer do without a power plug? It becomes a very good paperweight, a little too big, but other than that, it's worthless.

Good garage sale material, sold as is. A man's heart devises his way, okay, you can think about it, you can do some planning, but what happens when you start to do things with your physical body in history, in time and in space?

The Lord directs that. The Lord directs the steps. So now we see that the very words we say are from the Lord. We see the plans that we make are from the Lord. We see that the steps that we take are directed by the Lord.

Look at verse 33. I wonder why he chose to put, pack so many of these in this one chapter, wow. Sovereignty of God, read Proverbs 16 if you want to see it. Where am I? Verse 33. It helps if I know where I am, okay.

The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole dispensing thereof, now I want you to notice the word whole. How much does that leave out? None. So the whole dispensing of those items that were cast into the lap is of the Lord.

Now I want you to picture this. I know Brother Otis has taught me this so much. He takes all of the issues of life and lays, let's pretend you have an apron, I think he's wearing an apron. Okay. I'm still, let me just do it real quick.

Okay, I got an apron. I take the apron and I hold it up like this and I create a little holding plate and all the issues of life go into that holding plate. Now, that's what this is picturing. The lot is cast.

The lot in human terms means chance. But is there really any chance? Is there any luck? Or is God in control of all events? So all of the events are placed into the lap. All of the choices are placed there.

You might picture your mind as this lap. All of the choices that God wants you to have are placed within that lap and they're in your mind and they are there, but the disposing of them are of the Lord.

When it comes out your mouth, when it comes out your body language, when it comes out your steps, when you walk into history and in time, God disposes or uses all of these things that he has placed within that lap.

So you do have the lap and you do do things with them, you shift them around, you think about them and you're responsible for every thought you have and what you do with those things. But once you step out and you actually in the physical world live out something that was in that mind of yours, God is dispensing that.

You will be responsible for the thought that you had and the desire that you had to do that. Amazing, isn't it? So now we see that the very words we say are from the Lord, the plans that we make, the steps that we take, and now we see in verse 33 the choices that we make from the choices that we have.

Now go to Jeremiah, that's all we can find in that Proverbs, let's go to Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 23. Now in this verse, we don't see the Lord presenting a new thing or point to our message this morning, but it strengthens point number three, where it says the Lord directs our steps, the heart devises the way, we have freedom to think, but the Lord then directs our steps.

Jeremiah 10, 23 puts it this way, oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps. Can you imagine a verse like that? Predominantly the world has not seen this verse, and I mean the world of religion today has not seen this verse.

Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 23, the young man asked me, well what about free will? And I asked him to find free will, and he would have had to go back and tell me what means sovereign will, and only God has that, but he didn't know that, so he's thinking about that.

He may figure it out. I'll see him again, he may figure that out, but until he does, we can't discuss it any further because he won't understand, will he? Because to him free will means can we think, well obviously we can think.

That's what, that's not the true definition. Now when we look at this verse, I ask you, do we have true free will today after the fall? Look what this says, I know that the way of man is not in himself.

It is not in man that walks to direct his steps. So who does direct them? Well, go back to Proverbs 16 verse 9, a man's heart devises his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Isn't that fascinating? And now look at Proverbs 20 and verse 20, Proverbs 20, 24, I said verse 20, I meant verse 24, chapter 20 verse 24.

Man's goings are of the Lord. Now you see, once you've thought it through and you begin to walk, you're now going somewhere, aren't you? You're doing something. Well, that is of the Lord because God is sovereign and you're not going to change history away from his predetermined history.

You do realize that God is the I am, he is ever present tense and it's all happened to God. You're not going to change that. Man's goings are of the Lord. How can a man then understand his own way? How can the computer itself understand how it works?

It can't. And yet, the Arminian today believes man does everything. Man starts it all. The young man had told me he had gone to Assembly of God Seminary, which I don't have a problem with where he goes to seminary, I guess, they're probably all pretty much equally dangerous places to go for a young man.

But he said, well, they, you know, they believe you can lose your salvation there. I said, well, you can't. He said, well, it's something to think about, though. And I said, no, it's not something to think about.

You can't. I said, God knew you before the foundation of the world. If you're his, check out Ephesians 1, Romans Chapter 8, Deuteronomy Chapter 6, 1 John Chapter 5. When you get done with that, come back, I'll give you some more.

I told him, and I said, you know, God knew you, if you're saved, you were God's before he made anything. That was a choice he made, not you. I said, you know, what about, you know, your mother gave birth to you.

What choice did you have in that matter? Did you choose your mother? And he began to understand that. So he said, well, it's not really a good thing to think about that you could lose your salvation, is it?

I said, not unless you think you can crucify Jesus again. He said, well, that would put him to open shame, wouldn't it? I said, that's blasphemy. He's beginning to see. I said, he's in the wrong seminary.

You know, he needs to go to a different seminary. He needs to get around some people that know doctrine. Man's goings are of the Lord. How can a man then understand his own way? Amazing. Now, how about 1 Corinthians, I'm sorry, let me take, I got another psalm before we go into the New Testament.

Look at Psalm 21, verse 2. Now, we looked at, we read this one already, but I'm going to put it together with Psalm 37, 4. So, Psalm 21, 2 and Psalm 37, 4. Psalm 21, 2 says, Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips.

Psalm 37, 4 says, Delight thyself also in the Lord. Now, you can think, and you can decide in your heart and mind whether you want to delight in the Lord or whether you don't want to. You can decide whether you're going to delight in selfishness and the flesh or whether you delight in the Lord.

But if you delight in the Lord, the Bible says, he shall give you the desires of your heart when your heart is in the mode of delighting in the Lord. Because he's in the new man when he's in that mode.

The new man is attached vitally in vital union to the Holy Spirit. The mind of God is connected to your spirit. And therefore, when you have desires, when you're in that state, those desires come from the Lord.

So, what we've seen so far is that the very words we speak are from the Lord. The very plans we make are from the Lord. The very steps we take are from the Lord. The very choices that we make are from a group of choices that are placed in the lap, but God dispenses them.

The very desires that we have are from the Lord, Psalm 37 and verse 4 says. Now, that's not the only place in the Bible that says that. Think about Philippians chapter 2 and verse 13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure.

The to will part means the want to in your life. It is God which makes you want to do his good pleasure and then to do his good pleasure. So now the Lord shows very clearly, yes, many of the verses we've read show very clearly that the dispensing of the things out into history are of God, but God says I take it further than that because God says I made you and I know you and I know you're not going to do anything without it coming from here first.

So now I'm going to even touch your will. Now I'm going to cause you to want to do what I will have you do. Let me ask you a question, what about free will? It is free, it's a gift from God, he just put it there, but you didn't think it up.

So if that's why you have to define what do you mean when you ask me what about free will? Are you talking about your own will, being sovereign? Are you just talking about you have thoughts, what are you saying?

There's a lot to be discussed in this matter. But if what you mean is that I as a man in my fallen state, totally without God and totally without Satan, totally without input from the world or my own flesh can make a sovereign choice totally on my own, no, I don't believe in free will, I don't believe we have it anymore after the fall.

I don't believe Adam even had that kind, only the sovereign God of the universe has that kind. But I'll tell you what's interesting is that with sin comes less and less freedom. Have you ever thought about the fact that Lucifer had more freedom than Adam even before Adam sinned?

Lucifer before he sinned had more freedom of thought, it was still not sovereign, because there's only one, but it was a lot more freedom than Adam had before his sin and then Lucifer fell and became Satan.

Adam then, if you want to say Adam had free will, it was a lot less free will, and this is bad grammar, I understand, you can't say less, either free will or it's not, I understand grammatically, but the only way I know how to talk is as a human, as a man, and I'm saying that Adam had less free will than Lucifer did even before Adam fell because the devil was in the garden.