Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I'd like to this evening continue with the questions asked in scripture. Taking for our text this evening
the question that Saul, the Apostle Paul as he was to be, asked of
the Lord in verse 6 of Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9 and verse 6. The question Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do? And the whole verse reads, And
he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise,
and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou
must do. Acts 9 and verse 6. The Apostle Paul here has his
conversion recorded for the first time. There are other times that
he rehearsed it again before others. We would say this, that
every one of God's children has a time that they are converted. They're not born converted. They're
born the same as all others, dead in trespasses and sins. And there comes a time when God
brings them from darkness to light, when they are, as our
Lord insisted, they must be in John 3, ye must be born again. And here we record and have recorded
how the Lord actually did that with the Apostle Paul, his conversion. Now, you might say this conversion
is a very unique one. But really, every conversion
is unique. The same as all of God's children
are very, very different. They have different temperaments,
different backgrounds, different ways that they've been brought
up, different nationalities. And sometimes the Lord uses one
method, some another, Sometimes when they're very young as children,
other times when they're very old. And each one has its own
mark and own way that Lord deals with them. We're not to run lines
and say the Lord must work in this way or read an obituary
and say, well, that is how the Lord must work with me. Because
very often they are very different in the way the Lord deals with
His people. There are things that will be
the same in each case. Each one will be brought to know
themselves as sinners in a lesser or greater degree, but know themselves
as sinners enough so that they need the Saviour, enough so that
they are brought to Christ. And it is the work in conversion
of God to give them eternal life. Each one will be given that gift
of eternal life. And each one will, once they
have that life, then be instructed, taught, and led to Christ. No man cometh unto me, except
the Father which sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at
the last day. The Apostle Paul is a great example
of how far one may come in a study of the Scriptures, study of the
Old Testament Scriptures, And really, where there's Christ
in all those scriptures, and yet not seeing Him, not being
able to see Him, eyes hold Him. And of course, in this account,
He was literally blind for three days, but He'd been blind all
His life up to this time. And it was through the work of
the Holy Spirit, through our Lord appearing to Him, that He
was given that true spiritual sign. and brought to really see
who the Lord Jesus Christ was. And each one, like the eunuch
in the chapter before, was brought to testify that, I believe that
Jesus is, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, verse 37, chapter
eight. And so, though we may say that
a lot of aspects The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is very unique
in its dramatic way, and the Lord appearing to him from heaven,
and those who are traveling with him, they heard a voice, but
they saw no man, and they obviously didn't discern what was said
either, but for the apostle, it was the beginning of three
days without sign, and the beginning of a ministry and a work that
the Lord would have him to do, but more than that, a beginning
of spiritual life, a beginning of being truly one that has been
plucked as a bran from the burning and brought to saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is then, even though this
is a unique in that Paul saw that he was must need see our
Lord to be called an apostle as one born out of due time,
he says. But others that are called are
not called to be apostles. And so they are called in different
ways and different means. But there is this one thing that
is quite evident with all of those that are called. And that is the question in our
text, the desire, perhaps for the very first time, that they
would have to know what the Lord would have them to do. Before
we are called, before we acknowledge the Lord, before we see Him as
King, before we know that He is our Lord, our Saviour, then
we only consult ourselves. We do not care what God would
have us to do. We do not care to know whether
we're working, walking in a way pleasing to God or not. Every man does. As what is said
at the end of the Book of Judges, every man did that which was
right in his own eyes. No doubt Saul of Tarsus was like
that. He did that which was right in
his own eyes. But now for the first time, is
asking this question, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? So I want to begin, firstly,
the question Saul asks that is common with a true conversion,
that desire to know and do God's will. I want to look more deeply
at that first. Secondly, what is evident from
the verse and the context here God has a plan and a purpose
for his people. That purpose is revealed for
Saul of Tarsus, but all of his people, this people have I formed
for myself, they shall show forth my praise. He does have a plan
and purpose for them. But thirdly, the means, the Lord's
means of conveying to his people what they must do. and that is
not just confined to the miraculous way and the vision that Saul
had here, but there is a way that the Lord uses to convey
to his people his will. But firstly the question that
Saul asks, that it is common because there will be a first
time, when the people of God, as called, as born again of the
Spirit, the first time brought to view the Lord Jesus as their
Lord, and their question is, their desire is, Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do? Now we may say, well, couldn't
there not be two interpretations of this? Because very often,
when the eyes are opened, that we are sinners and in need of
salvation, then the desire is still under the law. It was like
the ruler or the lawyer that came to our Lord and said, what
good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? And their desire
was to do something that would merit it, do something that would
somehow pay the debt or bring them into favour with the Lord. And so there are times that the
question may be in that form, and yet the direction be to direct
that the work of salvation is done by Christ, it is a finished
work. But we think of how it was in
the 2nd of Acts, at the Day of Pentecost, and that was when
The Holy Spirit fell, and they spake with new tongues, and as
the Spirit gave them utterance, and Peter, he stood and preached,
and he preached Christ, and he charged them, the Jews of Jerusalem,
with slaying the Lord Jesus Christ. Says in verse 22, you men of
Israel, hear these things. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know,
him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain. We have joined there God's purposes
in sending his beloved son. The sacrifice was an appointed
one and freely given, but it was brought about by wicked hands,
and they were wicked hands, and that was charged upon them. And
he goes on, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of
death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. And he preaches then, the Lord
Jesus Christ sets him forth as the way of salvation and he says
in verse 36 therefore that all the house of israel now assuredly
that god had made that same jesus whom you have crucified both
lord and christ so they had clearly said before them the evil that
they had done in slaying jesus of nazareth But we read, now
when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, said
unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? And I believe in that it was
not what shall we do to earn salvation, what shall we do to
merit it? I believe they fell completely
under the condemnation and to realize what they had done. And
it is hard for us to really enter into it We think these are some
different people, different to us. But imagine in our lives,
in our lives, if we had someone come amongst us, if we'd have
lived in that day, and we'd seen this person, we'd heard them,
we'd seen the miracles, we'd seen the things they'd done,
and we had had a hand in having them slain and killed, And then
we found out exactly who that person was. How would we feel? What would be our guilt, our
regret? Wouldn't we think, oh, if only
we'd have known. How we would have spoken to him.
How we would have seen him and known his company. How we would
never have dealt in this terrible way with him. it seems hardly
to describe what they must have been feeling when it says they
were pricked in their heart. And so what they must do, no
doubt they felt really at a complete loss. How could ever they be
redeemed and saved from this terrible thing that they had
done? And Peter said, unto them, repent and be baptized, every
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ." In other words, turn
from that way that they had been walking in complete unbelief
and hatred to the Lord Jesus Christ and turn unto Him and
look only to Him for salvation and trust in Him and in that
which Peter had set before them, the sacrificial death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. and he says before them that
path, the Lord Jesus Christ is exalted to give repentance and
remission of sins unto Israel. We find the same thing was asked
of Paul and Silas when the earthquake shook the prison where they were
and the jailer was going to kill himself. Paul, he cried out and
said, do thyself no harm, we're all here and there in that Jail
in Philippi, that man was brought to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, to be saved and all his house and be baptised. And his desire as well was, what
must I do to be saved? That desire to be saved. And
sometimes it could be leaning in a doing of works, others What
must it be that I should do in believing in being brought to
be saved? And when anyone is under conviction
of sin, like they are in Acts 2, like they are there with the
Philippian jailer, then they are appointed to the Lord Jesus
Christ, to believe on Him and to repent, turning unto Him.
And that is the direction. It is those that are dead in
trespasses and sins that need the law, need to know first that
they are sinners. But when they know they're sinners,
when God has given them light and given them life, then they're
appointed directly to the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe in
Him. But there is the other aspect
to it, and of course, I feel with the Apostle Paul we have
a little glimpse in Romans especially. The Apostle Paul had by then
a very, very clear understanding of the working of sin on the
one hand, and the working of grace, the new man of grace,
the old man of sin, and how that we are saved. Not by works of
righteousness what we have done, but by faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he says in chapter 10, he
says, my brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. But he says that they
are ignorant of God's righteousness. They had a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. And they were going about to
establish their own righteousness. They were trying to fulfil the
law, make themselves acceptable to God. That is not the way of
salvation. That is not the way to be saved. It is by faith in Christ alone. And so he says that Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. Paul was very clear on that,
and he taught that. But we have also very clearly
said before us that faith without works is dead, and there will
be the fruit of the work of God in. And if we are to be the Lord's
servants, the Lord reproved those in His time on earth. He says,
He called me Lord, but ye do not the things that I say. And
if one is truly converted, there will be that desire not to obtain
salvation, but to do that which is pleasing in the sight of the
Lord. Paul went from yielding his members
as instruments of unrighteousness, persecuting the people of God,
hailing down men and women to Jerusalem, to then using his
members for not unrighteousness, but righteousness, doing that
which was pleasing to the Lord and preaching clearly The Lord
Jesus Christ is the only name given among men, whereby we must
be saved. And so I believe in the words,
the question that is asked here, and also implied in the answer
that is given, that he desired to know the Lord's will for him. His whole life had changed. All of his plans, as it were,
up to that point, all of his life of hailing men and women
to prison and a zeal and everything, that had all just stopped. And
from now on, as it were, there was a vacuum. What if we had
all our plans and all our ideas of what we're going to do in
the next month or years, and suddenly our outlook so completely
changed, we had to take our diaries and wipe them clean, and then
say, what are we going to put in that diary now? How are we
going to walk now? And really that is what Saul
was asking. What am I doing now? What am
I to do? What will Thou have me to do?
So it is the desire of the converted soul that they might be taught
by the Lord what they should do, how they should walk, How
they should act. How their new life in Christ
should be. Being new creatures in Christ. Old things passed away. All things
become new. What is that new life going to
look like? With new friends, we read in
this account how difficult it was for Saul to join with the
disciples. They were all frightened of him.
Barnabas took him. and introduced him, but this
is part of this new life, new friends, new acquaintances, new
enemies, the enemies which were once his friends are now his
enemies. Everything is changed. And instead
of now having it all mapped out by his own will, it mirrors that
which our Lord said in the Garden of Gethsemane, nevertheless not
my will, that thy will be done. Or in the prayer, the form of
prayer that our Lord bid us to pray, that thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The very first
words of that is mirroring this desire to do the will and that
the will of God be done. So the question that Saul asks
is common with true conversion. I wonder how much it does reflect
those of us that are called, converted, that it was our question
when the Lord began with us. And those whom the Lord is beginning
with, maybe that is your question this evening, wanting to know
what to do, how to act, How your life is going to be from this
time on? Who should you join with? Who should you walk with? What
should you do? How should you order your life?
What is a Christian's life like? So this question, Lord, what
wilt thou have me to do? That realization there is a path
to walk, And the old things that are passed away, all things become
new. What is that new? May this then
be as a token for good to us, to look back, to realize that
this language is not just the apostles, but has been ours as
well. And you know we'll never wear
it out. I hope we don't. I hope all the way through life,
And we come into new paths when we make our plans. We have in James that if we make
plans to go from one city to another, we should ask, if the
Lord's will, we will do this or that. And we should seek the
direction and guidance of the Lord. There are many promises
that the Lord would do that. And so I hope we don't wear it
out and start to go back and think, well, we know the way
now. We'll choose the way. We'll make our own decisions.
We have enough experience, enough wisdom. We know what to do now. But I hope we still have that
which features in our prayers, in our petitions. Lord, what
wilt thou have me to do? Crossroads to night, maybe not
knowing which way to take, what to do, a particular trial, a
difficulty, a mountain before you, maybe feeling like the children
of Israel and you come forth out of Egypt and there you have
the Red Sea before you, mountains each side, the Red Sea in front
and the enemy coming behind. What should they do? gave him direction, he opened
the way and he made them walk through that water in which he
divided. But he might feel the same in
such a way, shut up, he said, I don't know which way to take,
I don't know which way to go, what to do at all. You know, Jehoshaphat felt like
that when the enemies came against Judah. And he prayed and said,
neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. No, we
won't wear this out. Saul is beginning to ask this,
and it will be that which he desires, whether asked in the
same words, but right through his life. Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do to make me be renewed to ask this question and to seek
of the Lord and guidance and direction in this way. I want to look then secondly that
God has a plan and a purpose for his people. Now the answer
that was given to Saul here, the Lord said unto him arise
and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou
must do. Already we have it shown that
the Lord does have a plan for Saul, and it's not just might
be, may be, it was something he must do. And this is very
evident later on, because in verse 15 and 16, where Ananias was told to go
to Saul and he made objections first and said that we've heard
all what this man has done, all the evil he's done. But the Lord
said unto him, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me
to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of
Israel for I will show him how great things he must suffer for
my name's sake. So the Lord had a plan, even
before he converted him, even while he was hailing men and
women to prison, Saul, the apostle of Paul as he was to be, was
appointed to be an apostle, and for this work that we've just
read, the Lord had for him to do. And we only can look back
through the Scriptures and realize that Abraham, the Lord had a
work for him to do. From him was to be the children
of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Hebrews. Abraham, the Hebrew,
was to be the beginning of that nation. And so he called him
out of the Chaldees and told him to go into the land that
he would show him of. And he had a purpose, he had
a plan for him. And so it was for Isaac and for
Jacob as well. So it was very clearly for Moses,
born in there in the time when Pharaoh was causing the male
babies to be drowned in the Nile. Then it was that he was put into
an ark of bulrushes. and found by Pharaoh's daughter
and kept alive, brought up for 40 years as Pharaoh's son, and
then pursued because of his defending the children of Israel, and they
sought his life, so he had 40 years in the desert looking after
sheep. But then he was sent to bring
the children of Israel out of Egypt and through to the Promised
Land. And you cannot read of that account
there in Exodus of the Lord raising up Moses without knowing right
from the start that the Lord had a purpose for him and he
was appointed for that work. And so it is with all of God's
people Those especially that are to have offices in the church,
those that are to be missionaries, or those that are to be raised
up to deal with things, maybe in the churches, to those that
are to be pastors and elders and deacons, the Lord has appointed
that for them. But we must not think that it
is only those that have an office or a work that the Lord has a
work for them to do. Now all of the people of God,
they are to be fruitful in the knowledge of the Lord. All of
them are to be salt and light. All of them are to be witnesses
of the Lord. All of them are to show forth
the praises of Him who hath called them out of nature's darkness
and in God's marvellous light. He doesn't have His servants
that have no way that they do serve Him. Sometimes it may be
one or two acts in their lives, if you like. You think of John
Baptist, he spent most of his life in the backside of the desert,
and then just a year or so, ministry pointing out the Lord Jesus Christ,
and then locked up in prison and beheaded, and his work is
done, his whole life's work for just a year or so. And you think
of others that when we read of Nicodemus who came to the Lord
by night as a Pharisee, ashamed of being seen with the Lord,
another time reproved by those of his contemporaries for standing
up to the Lord. But at the last, when our Lord
was crucified, when he had died, the sacrifice offered, Then it
was Nicodemus coming along with Joseph of Arimathea, another
secret disciple. And they're the ones that are
appointed by God to be bold, to take down the body of our
Lord and to lay it in a sepulcher. A work that no doubt from eternity
had been appointed for those two to do. And the Lord has his
people. Are we not to think, well, because
we are not, maybe have a life of service, like some of the
Lord's people, that will never be used or not used. Some of
them, like the Lord's servants, exercised for many years of being
a servant of the Lord. I remember reading of Fred Windridge,
and he was a great help to me, because he went into the ministry
before He felt he should have and he had to stop preaching
and it was not until he was 54 years of age that he went out
into the ministry and all the time he thought, well my life
is going away, my usefulness and yet he couldn't go until
the Lord directed him. But you know he preached and
he ministered for 40 years and he preached to within a week
of his death at 94. And so he did have a long ministry,
even though he was older when he went into the ministry. And
the Lord chooses when and where to send his people and when to
use them. But one thing is sure, that he
does have a plan and does have a purpose for his people. It might not be in service immediately,
but for later on. It might be in some obscure way
which is not noticed by hardly anybody, or it might be in a
very public way. But it's a good thing for us
to have this question and desire, Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do? And not then be questioning and
saying, well, I don't really think that that's not what I
expected. I want something better to do
than that and something other than that. May we truly know
that having asked such a question, the Lord directs us and guides
us in it, that we know that we are walking in the will of the
Lord. Really all of the Lord's children
will be walking first where they are taught, instructed, built
up, established in the faith. where they are brought to a faithful
church and a congregation and where they are established in
the faith. If this is a question asked by
one who has received a Bible, who is just awakened to their
need of a saviour, what should they do? And it is very evident
that there should be a seeking, Word of God and those that shall
explain it, teach it, where it is preached and set forth, that
they should seek to be with the people of God and leaving the
worldly companions and those that do not desire the things
of God, those who are opposite to it, and cleaving to those
that love the Lord and are His dear people. That desire to read
the Word and to pray and to walk in a way that the Lord would
have them to go. Walk in ways of holiness and
uprightness and godliness and walking in the fear of the Lord. The Lord has this plan and purpose
for His people. He doesn't just convert them
and say, now it doesn't matter, how you walk through this life.
It doesn't matter what you say, what you think, what you do.
No, the Lord does have a plan for his people in how they should
walk, how they should live, how they should glorify God, how
they should be as true Christians, born again, renewed by His Spirit. So may we be persuaded of this,
that right from the start the Lord has a purpose for His people,
as His people, and in some then He has a work for them to do,
some great and some small works that they should do. May we never
overlook that which is and seize upon those things,
those places where we may glorify the Lord. One thing that is clearly
set forth in the Word, that unless it is in a very sinful occupation
and place where it is evil to remain in it, that the Lord's
people are to remain in the calling wherein they're called. So if
they're an engineer, they stay an engineer. If they're a postman,
they stay a postman. If they're a gardener, they stay
a gardener. And that the Lord would have them serve Him in
that occupation and in that way wherein they were called. On
to look then thirdly, that the Lord's means of conveying to
His people what they must do. Each one then that is called.
How would we know? How would you know what to do? The first means is through the
Word of God itself, through the Scriptures. In the Holy Bible,
from Genesis to Revelation, is the only revelation of God to
man. The only way that he speaks to
men. Yes, we read in this account
of the miraculous appearing of our Lord to the Apostle. It is
unique in that we are not to expect and indeed to be very
wary of anything that appears to be a fresh revelation, especially
if it contradicts or goes against the Word of God. how a Christian
is to walk, how God's people are to walk before the world
and before Him, is clearly set forth in the Scriptures. And
we should search the Scriptures, we should read the Word of God,
and read it with this desire, Lord, show me how I am to live,
how I am to walk, especially in the Gospels, especially from
Acts through to the end of the Word of God where we have the
Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter and John writing to the
churches and directing them and teaching them how they are to
walk and to please God. Those things to avoid, those
things that are things of the flesh and of the world and those
things that are of God. And it is that which is to be
our guide and instructor. We're not to look for some fresh
revelations or dreams or wonderful ways that these things are shown
us, but to read. We read with the Bereans when
the Apostle Paul preached, they searched the Scriptures daily
whether these things were so, and therefore many of them believed. For we are to search the Scriptures
not only to be strengthened in our belief and in the doctrines
of God's grace and mercy, and in our Lord Jesus Christ as the
only way of salvation, trusting solely in His blood to atone
for our sins, and solely in His perfect life and obedience as
our righteousness before God, not what we do, not how we act. That is not to be what is to
be our badge when we attend and appear in glory, no, our righteousness
is the Lord Jesus Christ. But the work that we do here
is to glorify the Lord, though it be mixed and can only be mixed
with sin in all that we do. Sin is mixed with all things.
But in the Lord Jesus Christ, in seeking to obey his word,
then we shall walk in ways that pleasing to the Lord and bright
in His sight. So, to the Word first. The second
is the preaching of the Word. Our commission as preachers is
to preach the Word. And in that is the whole counsel
of God, how men are saved, how we can be just before God, and
how we are to walk and to please God. The ministry, is to fulfill
that purpose, to be an instruction and teaching to the people of
God. Those that are asking this question,
what will thou have me to do? They should have a Bible, read
that Bible, pray over that Bible, study that Bible, but also attend
a faithful ministry, a congregation where there is the fear of the
Lord. There's many today where there lacks that reverence, that
fear of the Lord. But God is greatly to be feared
in the assembly of the saints, to be had in reverence of all
them that are about him. The many so-called churches,
they're not separated from the world. They bring the world's
music into the church, its dress into the church, its attitude
into the church. And we have to test all of these
things by the word of the Lord. discern what the Spirit is, and
whether it is the Spirit of the world, or whether it's the Spirit
of the Lord. Another way is with the people
of God. The Apostle Paul, he joined himself
with the disciples, the Lord sent Ananias to him, and the
great blessing that the Lord has said to his people that they
should assemble together, they should join together, and forsake
not the assembling of themselves together. And as iron sharpeneth
iron, so the countenance of a man his friend. The Apostle Paul,
he had those that he termed sons in the faith. Timothy was such
a son, that he taught him as a father would a son, instructed
him in the way that he should go. You know, when I was first
starting out in engineering and did an apprenticeship, and I
had a fitter, a qualified fitter, that I was under, and he taught
me. Now, yes, I went to trade school,
and I could do all my studies and pass all my exams, but, you
know, one of the greatest things that I learned was actually following
and be taught by example of that man. that the Lord appointed,
and he was a very good boss, very good fitter, and showed
me very clearly how, how to do things, how to work. And we need
to think of this in a spiritual way as well, to find those that
shall be a guide to us. If you have a pastor, that pastor
can, but a deacon, maybe a parent, maybe a friend, I'd be very wary
if there's a number, a group of, say, young people or early
believers and they just meet together on their own, whereas
that may be good. It's good to have an experienced
and seasoned Christian to guide and to direct, rather than just
those that are feeling their way for the first time. Seek
out a One of the Lord's dear people that has known by experience
the way and truly shows in their life the grace of God and the
fear of God. Another way of direction that
the Lord gives is through providence. You might say in this, Joseph,
you read the account in Genesis and from chapters 35 through
to 50, But you find there especially how Joseph's life was more shepherded
than given the word and direction what to do. And this of course
is speaking more of where we should go, what we should do.
In Joseph's life, the Lord gave him at first dreams that gave
him an intimation what was appointed for him to do. That was very
dark as to how it should be brought about. But then his brothers
took that out of his hand when they took him and threw him into
a pit and then sold him as a servant. Then when he's brought as a servant
and he served his master, then when he is falsely accused and
cast into prison, then when he is forgotten as a butler, and
then when Pharaoh had his dream, the butler remembered and Joseph
was brought out of prison, and nowhere in any of those steps
do we read that Joseph had an opportunity to actually be saying,
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And to make a decision
going this way or that way, all taken out of his hand. And sometimes
we can have that. We may ask this question, Lord,
what wilt thou have me to do? And instead of the Lord giving
us direction, it's taken out of our hand. Events happen, things
happen, and we're shepherded along, and we have no say in
it. And so the Lord uses that way
in making it known. And we may discern God's will
in actions in providence. So if
we're buying a house or getting a new job, we test it first. Is it according to the Word of
God? Will it be? a good move, a right
move? Is it within my means? Is it
in employment that is not going to be bringing me into conflict
with the Word of God, working on the Lord's Day, accepting
the essential services? Or is it going to be in immoral
things? Asking those questions. And if
there is a right way, then venturing You know, if the door is shut,
we can't open it. A shut door is as good a direction
as an open one. And I don't believe the Lord
will ever leave His people make a wrong choice where they have
consistently brought it before Him in prayer, asked for direction,
asked for guidance. And it may be they have several
choices and they look and they walk in one of those choices.
Sometimes people make the mistake and think, well, if it is the
Lord's way, it would be the least pleasant. But no, that's not
right. If it is the way the Lord would
have us to go, we read, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. And we are to look at those three
things. Are we willing? Is it according
to the word of God? and does it open up into providence
so that actually we can walk in that way. When those three
things line up, very often it very clearly shows this is the
will of the Lord. So we do need to think of how
the Lord uses these means. And I'll just note one other
thing in the context here. The Lord directed Saul of Tarsus
by steps. In the immediate verse in our
text, the answer to Saul was, arise and go into the city and
it shall be told thee what thou must do. So there was a step,
there was a first stage and he might have stopped and said,
Lord, I'd like to know what I'm going to do now, not in the city.
But the Lord said, no, you go into the city first, and then
you'll know, then you'll be told. And so it's done in steps. And
that may be so with us as well. We're seeking the Lord's direction,
and he gives us one step, but we'd like to see the next step,
and the next step, the Lord says, no, you take that one step, and
then I'll show you from that step, To the next step, which
way to go? The Lord has said, when he put
forth his sheep, that is the Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus
Christ, he goeth before them. We read in Psalm 170, he led
them forth by the right way that they might go into a city of
habitation. We can be sure when the Lord
has a purpose for his people, He will make them to know it,
and He will bring them to walk in it, and He will make them
willing, even though they may not be at the first, like Jonah
wasn't, but He'll bring them to do what He bids them to do. So, maybe think of these three
things, remembering the question that Saul asked is a common question
and should be a question. that we ask many times in our
lives as we desire to do the Lord's will. Lord, what will
thou have me to do? But secondly, to remember God
does have a plan and a purpose. And it may not be what we think.
It is God's. It is God's will, God's plan.
And may we be as passive in his hands and not all the time kicking
against it, rebelling against it. wanting to do our own way,
and may we then be able to clearly understand the Lord's means and
ways of showing what His will is and purpose for us. Lord, what will Thou have me
to do? The Lord at His blessing. Amen.