Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Proverbs chapter 19 and reading
for our text verse 21. Proverbs 19 and verse 21. There are many devices in a man's
heart, nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand. Proverbs 19 and verse 21. Perhaps to the benefit of the
children, I just explain, I try to simply, what this word means. It says there are many devices. What is a device? Well, we might
think of a device as being something in a kitchen, an aid, something
to help us do something. But what this actually means
is a cunning plan to bring something to happen. cunning plan, a device,
an idea, a scheme to bring something to happen. And then it says man's
heart. That doesn't mean the heart that
pumps the blood around our bodies, but it is a man's will, his feelings,
his intellect even. What makes a person what he is? We see a nice, gentle person. It's not just things they say
and things they think. That is what they are. If we
see a real angry person, then that is what they are. Whether
they're in a chapel or whether they're in work or wherever they
are, that comes out. It's separate from the things
that they think or even the things that they say. If we say the
heart of something, sometimes we mean the center of it. Heart
of a lettuce, a heart of a cabbage or something, it's the center.
So our text, it says, there are many devices in a man's heart. So there are many cunning plans
in a person deep in him, what he's scheming and wanting to
do. Then we have the counsel of the
Lord. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord that shall stand. That is the Lord's plan, the
Lord's advice, what he advises, and his purpose. And of course,
the counsel of the Lord is in the word of God, it is the Bible,
that is the counsel of the Lord. To give one example from the
word of God, after the flood, God told the descendants of Noah
to spread out and replenish and fill the earth, to go in all
of the earth. That was God's counsel, what
he had told man to do. But man had a different design
and a different plan, and they said, come, let us go too. We'll
build brick, and we'll make some bricks, and we'll build a tower
that reaches into heaven And the reason why we're going to
do this is so that we don't spread out everywhere throughout the
earth. And God saw that tower and he
came down and he confounded the language. He made everyone have
a different language and they couldn't understand themselves.
So they stopped building the tower and they had to spread
out through the earth. So man's device was to build
a tower to do something what God did not want them to do,
but God's counsel stood because in taking away the one language
and giving them many languages, he made sure that they did what
he wanted in the first place, what his counsel was, and went
throughout all of the earth. We read in the Book of Psalms
what the Lord says concerning Psalm 32, 3 and verse 10. The Lord bringeth the counsel
of the heathen to naught. He maketh the devices of the
people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever the thoughts of his heart to all generations. We think of the Apostle Paul
when he gathered the elders of the church at Ephesus together
to say goodbye to them. He says to them that he had not
shunned or not turned away from declaring to them the whole counsel
of God. So we know in the writings of
Paul, the word of God, it is the whole counsel of God. All that God would have us to
do is described and set forth in the Word of God. So I want
to try and confine our thoughts to three headings this morning. Firstly, man's devices and the
Lord's counsel in the way of salvation and worship. And I think we'll include in
that, too, experience. We've sung of it. In the hymn
we've just sung, the experience of God's people, which is very
different to what they thought it would be. And then secondly,
man's wicked devices. In the Word of God, we have several
instances where man devised very wicked things, especially against
the people of God, but God's counsel that stood. And then
thirdly, in the way of providence, that is, in our lives. What happens
in our lives, the plans we make, the things that we say that we're
going to do, and the Lord has different plans than what our
plans are. So our text says, there are many
devices in a man's heart, nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that
shall stand. And this means you and I. Not just any man, it's every
man. And we know that by nature as
well, that the heart is deceitful above all things, it is desperately
wicked, it is fallen. We have fallen and gone away
from God. The amazing thing is that we
will actually knowingly even try to deceive ourselves and
try and deceive others and try and deceive God and think that
we're going to get away with it and that everything will be
well. And of course this is a terrible
thing when it comes in the way of salvation and worship. When we in Adam sinned and death
entered into the world by sin, and the separation from God and
man banished from God's presence, then the whole Gospel plan is
to reconcile God and man and bring together again. The Lord
Jesus Christ was brought forth to save His people from their
sins, those people that were chosen in Christ from the foundation
of the world, those that were given Him by His Father, He has
come to save them, and to save them in a way that He has chosen,
and not the way that man has chosen. He's come to put away
those sins, to forgive, be able to forgive sins, to be able to
give eternal life to His people. He has come that He might make
the law of God honourable, showing that it can be obeyed, it can
be fulfilled, and He has done so in Himself. The life of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was perfect and spotless, no
sin in thought, word and deed, all the way through His life. And the Lord has that plan of
salvation, that He should stand in the place of those that had
sinned, that he should bear their sin in his own body, that he
should be judged, and that he should then die and lay down
his life as a sacrifice, as a ransom, to pay the debt that was owed
by his people, and that the gospel is to be proclaimed the good
news of salvation, that the Lord Jesus Christ has done what we
cannot do, He has done what God requires, without the shedding
of blood there is no remission, and he has brought in an everlasting
righteousness. The whole Word of God shows how
God designs to save sinners. It shows how he can be holy and
just and good and loving and be able then to bring a people
that were sinners, were lost, and under the curse and under
condemnation to be in heaven with himself and to be there
spotless and pure and holy. And that is described in the
word of God. It is God's plan and it is God's
work. The name of Jesus was given to
his only begotten son for he shall save his people from their
sins. That crown is on the head of
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And throughout the Word, the
preaching of the Gospel, it declares the counsel of God, that we are
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. We are to
trust in what he has done and not what our works are. and we
are to look to Him for salvation. Our Lord testifies that there
is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Our Lord said, if ye believe
not that I am He, ye shall perish in your sins. There is no other
way of salvation. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by Me. Our Lord is very clear on that.
What is the way? I am the way, the truth and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by May. He is the Way, He is the Truth,
and this is the counsel of God. This is His Word to us. But man has many devices, and
man's devices then extend to how we are to be saved. Very, very quickly, after the
fall and after God had shown that sacrifice was needed, that
blood needed to be shed, Adam and Eve were clothed with the
skins of animals, animals were shed, blood was shed, they were
clothed. And then we have an illustration
of worship, not only of worship, but also of an indication of
how man understood God's message and would go along with his counsel. And that was in Cain and Abel. They both worshipped. They both
brought a sacrifice which was to prefigure the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice at Calvary. Abel, he understood
God's plan and God's counsel and he brought a lamb. That land
was slain, the blood was shed, and the land was sacrificed before
God. And God was pleased with that
sacrifice. But Cain, he didn't want a sacrifice
with blood in it. And he brought to the fruits
of the land a bloodless sacrifice. And as he brought that sacrifice,
which was a device of his own heart, he thought that would
be pleasing to God. He thought though God had said
one way, he would go another way. And when God did not accept
it and did accept his brothers, then he was very upset. Then
he was angry. And he took that anger out on
his brother. Though the Lord gave him the
opportunity, he said, if thou do us well, will thou not be
accepted? Cain could have changed his sacrifice. He could have taken a lamp. He
could have offered one, the same as his brother, but he didn't
want to do that. And rather than doing that, he
killed his brother. What a solemn thing, to have
a device in our hearts so different than God's way, and we'd rather
kill our own brother than to let go of that device, let go
of that plan, of that scheme. Right at the very beginning then,
We have in the important matter of salvation, of saving, man's
device, God's counsel, Cain solemnly was lost. He could not be saved
eternally. He one day must die. He has died. He will, like you and I, be brought
before God's judgment throne at last, and with no blood to
plead, with no trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, he must perish
eternally. Then we think of the children
of Israel, that though they'd had God's plan shown unto them,
just the same as Adam and Eve and Abel and Cain, and they were
taught the sacrifices that pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, they
chose out ways of idolatry. And in many of the chapters in
the prophecy of Isaiah, we have the ridiculous image of a person
cutting down a tree and using part of it in the fire so that
they could do their cooking, using part to perhaps build their
house or so, and the other part they make a god and they shape
it into the form of a man or something else, put it on their
shoulder and carry it and put it where they want and they bow
down and they worship it and they say that this is their God
and it can help them and it can save them. And even God's people,
Israel, who had all the teaching and instruction of God, yet this
is what they had in their hearts. Even at the foot of Mount Sinai,
they made a golden calf, saying that that had brought them out
of Egypt, when God had brought them out, very clearly, in wonderful
miracles. And yet, in their hearts had
come this device, this cunning way that, yes, they would say
we're serving God through the idol. The Roman Catholics use many
idols and images and also will say that they worship Mary. But one of our neighbours, he
said to me, you mistake us Roman Catholics. We don't worship Mary,
we worship the Lord Jesus through Mary. And I said, but that is
worse because you're putting a sinner in between yourself
and the Lord Jesus Christ, we may come straight to the Lord. He is the only mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That is clearly taught in the
Word of God. But man designs another way and
likes to put a creature in the way. Many that have idols or
pictures will say it helps them to worship God. helps them to
understand or have something to focus on. But the Word of
God is very clear that we should not make images and worship them. We should not have pictures.
We should not make any similitude. We're told that God has not given
us any similitude whatsoever of God. We have no picture of
Him at all. We're not to imagine those things. We do not need it. The Lord was
clear. If we believe not Moses and the
prophets, if we receive not the Word of God, neither will we
believe, even if we saw one rose from the dead. Those sort of
things do not help us, they do not bring faith at all. So man's device, and right through
the Word of God and through history, is to go to an idol. An idol
is a good thing in many people's eyes, Because it can never reprove
them. It will always tell them what
they want to hear. It can't hear them when they're
doing things wrong. It can't see them when they're
doing things wrong. It is just what they want it
to be. And to have a God that has a
strict standard, has a counsel and purpose and laws, and that
will enforce those laws, and can see what we're doing and
hear what we're doing and will reprove us and can touch our
hearts and lives, men do not want that. We will not have this
man to rule over us. That is the counsel of a fallen
heart, a wicked heart. But then we have those that even
profess that they are seeking the Lord, and are seeking to
be right with God. The Apostle Paul speaks of those
in Romans 10, of his own countrymen, who had a zeal for God, but not
according to knowledge. Their zeal was according to their
own thoughts. They were going about to establish
their own righteousness, and had not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. That is, they were looking to
their own works to save them. Paul is very clear in writing
to the Ephesians, by grace you are saved through faith and that
not of yourselves it is the gift of God. So it's not of works,
it's not our works do not save us, our good charity works do
not save us. Many have the device in their
hearts and say well there's some parts of our lives are not quite
right, we know that, But we're good people and we do charity
works and we do things for nothing and for the community and God
will surely accept us because that will balance out what is
wrong in our lives. But that's man's device, that's
not God's counsel. God's counsel is that all our
righteousnesses, that is all our good works, are as filthy
rags. So what we are bringing before
God to balance our bad works, God says they also are bad, and
they actually are adding to our sin. But man's counsel is like
that. His fallen heart wants to accommodate
his sins, his lusts, the things he wants to do, and have God
as well. So he devises and he makes up
a way that he can even deceive his own heart. Sometimes his
own conscience is telling him, what you're doing is not what
the Word of God says. You're making up plans and thinking
that you're going to be saved, when in actual fact, you know
that you're going against God's counsel, against His Word. It's
just a device, it's a plan of your own, not the plan of the
law. And at the last great judgment
day, our plans, our device, our scheme of being saved will not
save us. God will take us away into everlasting
darkness for those schemes that are not his plan, not his counsel,
not his provision for man. So we have then in Romans 10,
Those instead of trusting what the Lord Jesus Christ has done,
they're trusting their own works. Then we have, going back in Romans
6, we have those that believe in the grace of God, the free,
unmerited favor of God, and that we are saved by that way, not
our works, and they abuse that. And they say, well, if that's
the case, It doesn't matter what we do. It doesn't matter about
our sin. We can live what we like. And
the apostle says, shall we sin that grace might abound? God forbid that if we are dead
to sin, how can we live any longer therein? How can we still be
servants of him? But our deceitful hearts will
try and do that. Even though we may love the doctrines
of grace and love the way of salvation, Our own deceitful
heart will try to make a provision for the deeds of the flesh, try
to make a way that we can, in our own mind, get to heaven,
but still have our sins, still walk in the ways of our fallen
heart. So we have these ways that our
deceitful heart will have many devices. Paul wrote to the Galatians. They had a device. that they
thought they could believe the gospel, but they would also keep
the ceremonial law. They would insist that for a
person to be saved that they had to be circumcised because
that was part of the law for Israel. The apostle says, if
you feel that you need to keep one part, then you are duty-bound
to keep it all. You are either saved by the deeds
of the law, or you're saved by faith in Christ alone. And so
again, with the Galatians, the apostle was dealing with a device
not from the scriptures, not from God's word, not from his
teaching, but from man's own heart. And what a solemn thing
that is, when it is in the matter of our soul's salvation, it is
how that we are saved. And we think of worship as well. God has not prescribed in the
Word of God how long the reading of God's Word is in a worship
service, how long the sermon should be, how many hymns or
psalms we should sing, how long our prayers should be or how
many prayers in our worship. But all those ingredients are
in worship. And we trust that in our churches
we get the balance right in how much time is actually spent doing
each. And as it has pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that belief, it
is in order that the preaching be the predominant part of our
worship. We come to hear from God through
the minister of the gospel preaching the word of God and yes we have
a sing the hymns and we sing praise and we come to the Lord
in prayer and in supplication but there are many today that
would devise many things in worship making it just like a religious
social club or like an amusement where man's aim really is just
to magnify the skills and gifts of the musicians and the band. And all of that does not have
a reflection in the Word of God and in what the Lord would have
us to do in our worship. The children of Israel in many,
many aspects had devices in worship. In those that were appointed,
God appointed Moses. They said, has the Lord spoken
to Moses only? Is not Aaron? Is not Miriam? Are these not all God's people?
And God had to show very clearly, no, he had appointed Moses. He had set him forth. It is common
in in many places to think, well, you might have a minister, but
all of the congregation can take part. And they can say this and
they can do that. And the authority in the Church
of God and the calling and appointing of the ministers, elders, deacons
is laid aside. But God clearly sets that forth
in the Word of God. And so there's many different
ideas where the children of Israel, they offered strange fire, that
which did not come from the Lord, that which wasn't kindled off
the altar, and they were consumed in that. Many times through the
40 years in the wilderness, the children of Israel showed that
they were doing things that were opposite from what God had told
them to do. It was rebelling against authority,
rebelling against His Word, going their own way, and we need to
search and examine our own hearts, our own ways, as to where we
are getting our guidance, our instruction, our teaching from. Is it the counsel of the Lord,
or is it a device from our own heart? So the first point then
is, the way of salvation and worship. I want to just add to
this that of experience, the experience of God's children. We're told in the Word that the
fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, and that
we must through much tribulation enter the kingdom. The Apostle
Peter He says that the trial of your faith, being much more
precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
shall be unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And we are told as well that
all thy children shall be taught of God, and the Lord teaches
by experience. At the end of the wilderness
journey in Proverbs 8, we are told to remember all the way
that the Lord thy God had led thee these 40 years in the wilderness
to try thee, to prove thee to know what was in thine heart,
whether thou wouldst serve the Lord or no. And so the Lord in
those things we pass through in our lives is searching our
hearts, through trials, through sicknesses, through providences,
through the things that we go through, he tests, he tries us,
and so the heart is searched. When we walk contrary to him,
he chastens us, corrects us, and causes us then to search
and try our ways. And it is all the experience
of God's children, so that they're kept and delivered from the devices
of their own hearts, and brought to know the Lord's way and the
Lord's will." Very often the things that they go through,
he doesn't tell them beforehand what is going to happen. He didn't
tell Jacob that his son Joseph was alive all those years. He
didn't tell Abraham, though he told him that his seed would
be in a strange land, yet he didn't tell them how they would
go into Egypt, that it would be a famine. that Joseph would
be sold there, that they had to walk out. And in the middle
of it, Jacob says, all these things are against me. But they
weren't against him. God's counsel, his purpose, was
bringing the children of Israel into Egypt. And so that experience
in God's children's lives, it will be like we have sung. Sometimes
it seems to be so opposite. so different than what we expected,
like it was with Nahum and the Syrian when he came to be healed
of his leprosy. I thought, I thought Elijah would
do this and that, but he was very different because Elijah
didn't even come out and see him himself. He sent a messenger
and told him to wash in Jordan. Nahum even despised Jordan. He thought it'd be better to
wash in Syria's rivers. But in obeying the counsel of
the Lord through Elijah, he was cleansed, he was healed. But
he began with having his own device, his own thoughts taken
down, removed out of the way. And you and I, we are not born
with right devices in our hearts. We are born with wrong ones,
different ones. And unless the Lord delivers
us and saves us from them, will go on just like so many do, on
the high road to destruction and hell, nourishing some device,
some scheme in their own hearts, how they're going to be saved
and yet be lost at last. If we are saved, we'll be saved
on God's terms, not ours, by His work, not ours, and by His
work in us. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. So, man's, man's devices and
God's counsel in the way of salvation, there are many devices in a man's
heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord, that shall stand. We are blessed if the Lord opens
our eyes to see devices, schemes and ways that we make provision
for the flesh and seek that we're going to get round God's work,
get round His counsel. I want to look then secondly at
wicked devices. God's people have to be in this
world. And the Lord said in John 17,
he prays, Father, I pray not that thou shouldst take them
out of the world, but that thou wouldst keep them from the evil. And yet, when he gives them the
word, he says, I have given them thy word, and the world hath
hated them. And men will have many devices
against the people of God, many schemes. You think of the case
of Haman. Haman, he hated the Jews. He didn't like it that Mordecai
would not bow down to him, so rather than just destroy Mordecai,
he wanted to destroy all the Jews. So the device that his
scheme was, he would say that he would pay money into the king's
treasury, that there was a people, and he didn't name them, but
they weren't worthy to live, and that they should be destroyed
on a certain day. And the king didn't question
him. He allowed him to go on with
it. And it seemed that it was going to work. The Jews were
all in distress and sorrow, that this death sentence was over
them all. But God had a counsel he'd already
placed Esther as the Queen, and Esther was a Jew. And it was
through her intercession, through her speaking to the King, that
it ended up that instead of Mordecai being slain and the Jews, Haman
was killed on the gallows that he made for Mordecai. And the
Jews had joy and gladness because the King turned that wicked device
of Haman on his own head and help the Jews, and they were
saved. You can read that in the book
of Esther. But we have evidence of a man
that had such a wicked device trying to bring it to pass, and
yet the Lord's counsel was not that his people should be destroyed.
The Jews were not to be, and he delivered them at that time
out of his hand. We think of the wicked device
of Jezebel, Naboth, he had a vineyard. Naboth was a godly man. His vineyard
was next to the palace of the king Ahab, who was a very wicked
king, and his wife was Jezebel. And when Ahab asked Naboth that
he would have his vineyard and he'd give him another better
one, but Naboth refused to give it him. It was his inheritance. It must not be sulked. That was
God's law for the children of Israel and the Judah there, that
it was to be passed down from one generation to another and
not sulked. And so he refused to give it
him. So Ahab went and he sulked on
his bed. And Jezebel came, his wife, and
asked him why he was sulking and sad. And he told him that
Nabal wouldn't give him his vineyard. So she said, that she would get
it for him. So she gets wicked men and she
makes out that Naboth had blasphemed against God and against the king. And she brings these people and
proclaims a farce and sets Naboth on high. And then they bring
him in as guilty of things he's never done. And then they go
and they kill him and his wife and his children, his whole house.
and then Ahab is given the vineyard. But our Lord said, we are not
to fear them that kill the body and after that there's nothing
more they can do. And God sent to Elijah and sent
Elijah to Ahab and God told him the solemn sentence against Ahab. And Ahab had the Lord's judgment
and wrath on him and Jezebel, and both of them died under the
wrath of God, most solemn, eternal wrath. Many have been permitted,
like they did to the martyrs, to kill the people of God. But that is not the end, and
we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Man
might seem to, with their device, achieve their end, As with the
Jews, with Mordecai, they were preserved and they didn't die.
But sometimes God's people do die. And it is still God's counsel
and his way, like it was with John the Baptist, the wicked
device of Herodias, to ask the king when her daughter danced
and if she knew, the king would ask what she wanted, he would
give it to her. And so she instructed her daughter,
it was a very clever plan, to trap the king so that he couldn't
deny what she wanted. The king, Herod, he wouldn't
kill John Baptist on his own because he knew that all men
esteemed him as a prophet. But when he got trapped into
doing it because he'd said and promised to give her even to
half the kingdom, he had to do it for the oath's sake. And so
it was a very wicked device, but in God's counsel, in God's
purpose, that was how John the Baptist should finish his course
here and be brought to heaven. No wicked man may seem to gain
their device, yet there is a judgment day that is coming. You think
of how it was with Daniel. And Daniel was greatly preferred
by the king, Darius. But then all of the other presidents
and wise men were very jealous of Daniel, and they hated him. And they said that they would
not be able to do anything against him, except it was a matter concerning
his god. So they worked out a device that
they would get the king to sign that no man could offer any prayer
or supplication to any god except the king or any man for 30 days. And if he did, then he would
be cast into a den of lions. They knew that Daniel would keep
praying, and Daniel did keep praying. And even though the
king tried to deliver him, he had to send Daniel to the lion's
den. But God sent his angels to stop
the mouth of the lions. And then in the morning, Daniel
was brought up out of the lion's den, and the men that had the
wicked device, they were cast in, and they were destroyed by
the lions. But you see to what extent man
will go to cunningly devise a way to entrap God's people and to
bring a false accusation against them, and in some cases seem
to really succeed in it, but in the end they will not deceive
God, they cannot overcome His counsel. We think of our Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ. While He was upon the earth,
We read of those that came with a device, a plan, to entangle
him in his talk. In Matthew 22 and verse 15, we
have them with the Pharisees and took counsel how they might
entangle him in his talk. This was their device, this was
their plan, to trip him up. And they flatter him, then they
bring a question to him and say, is it lawful to give tribute
to Caesar or not? Should we pay our taxes or not? And the Lord just asked for a
penny, asked whose superscription, whose picture was on it, and
they said Caesar's. And he says, render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's and the things that are God's
to God. And he overturned their wicked
device. He knew their thoughts, he knew
what they were trying to do, but he gave an opportunity for
the Lord to really show his counsel, his wisdom, and to show also
that they should be paying their taxes and their tribute to Caesar. But then later on we hear of
how they planned to take the Lord Jesus and have him crucified. In Matthew 26, and in the first
few verses there, then assembled together the priests and the
scribes and the elders of the people under the palace of the
high priest who was called Caiaphas, they consulted that they might
take Jesus by subtlety and kill him. But they said, not on the
feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. It was a device,
a scheme, a plan that they might take the Lord. The Lord has said,
it's recorded in verse 2 of this chapter, you know that after
two days is the feast of the Passover and the Son of Man is
betrayed to be crucified. He was delivered by the determinate
counsel and full knowledge of God, taken by wicked hands, crucified
and slain. They thought They were bringing
their device, but really they were doing God's will. Most solemn
thing, but God does turn the curse into a blessing again and
again. Solemn thing for those that walk
in that way. But then later on, when our Lord
was brought before their council, then we read the chief priests
and elders, just like Jezebel did, they sought false witnesses
against Jesus. to put him to death. When they
did eventually find these false witnesses, then even then they
didn't agree amongst themselves. And so the wickedness of man,
the counsel of man, man's heart is wicked, it is deceitful and
it will be levelled against the people of God. If you and I fear
If you and I seek to walk according to the counsel of the Lord, we
will know that as there are many devices in the heart of man,
there are many wicked devices, and those will be brought against
us. But may we remember the words
of the text here. Though there are many devices
in a man's heart, nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that
shall stand. And may that be. our comfort
and our refuge. Just a few thoughts, lastly,
on providence, that is our lives. You might say, well, we do have
to make decisions and we do have to guide and we do have to know
what we are to do. Well James, he says to those
who say that we're going to go into this city and that and buy
and sell and make gain, he says, what you ought to say is if the
Lord will, we will do this or that. Bearing in mind that whatever
we attempt to do or desire to do, the counsel of the Lord that
shall stand. And in one way, for the people
of God, is a great comfort because they know, above all people,
that their hearts are deceitful. They know they do make mistakes. They know they don't know all
the facts. And it's a great comfort that
the Lord will overrule for their good. And we think of the beautiful
word in Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together
for good, to them that love God, to them that are called according
to his purpose. But how easy it can be that our
devices, they don't stand. We think of when Jacob had deceased
his father Isaac, enraged his brother Esau, and his brother
was thinking that, well, Isaac would soon die and then he'd
kill Jacob. And so Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau's
mother, sends Jacob away, just for a few days, she says, until
he saws forgotten what you've done to him. Then you can come
back. Why should I be bereaved of both
my children? Well, Rebecca never saw Jacob
again. He didn't go away for three days. He went for over 20 years, and
she never saw him again. man's device, her thought, her
device in preserving her son Jacob turned out very very different
than what she thought it would. Then later on with the devices
of Joseph's brothers, Joseph had told them his dreams, they
hated him for his dreams, they hated him for the favoritism
that Jacob showed to him, and so They thought that they were
devised to sell him, sell him to the Ishmaelites. They thought
then what will become of his dreams. We know in the account
of Joseph how God used that to bring Joseph next to Pharaoh
and to preserve their lives by great deliverance. And later
on, Joseph is able to say to them, ye thought it for evil,
but God meant it for good. And in all our devices, what
we might think in Providence, in our jobs, in our schooling,
in where we live and what we'll do, there are many devices in
a man's heart. There are many schemes and plans. If we're honest with ourselves,
we do. We're going to do this and going
to do that. Many plans. But if we are the
people of God, the Lord has a counsel and purpose towards us. He knows what we are to do with
our time and our energy and our money, where we are to live and
where we are to serve Him. And that counsel will stand,
not our own device. And that will be our comfort
to look back over life's journey. And we'll see many things and
we'll say, Lord, I thank Thee that my device did not take root,
that I wasn't able to do that, but Thy counsel was better, and
that worked out so much better, and that will be a comfort for
us. But may we be wary of a heart that is a deceitful heart and
has many devices that often are, as implied here, very different
than the counsel of the Lord. And may our desire be that we
run our lives where we live, guided by the word of God. Thy
word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. That we have a desire that Paul
had when Saul, as he was met on the Damascus road, Lord, what
wilt thou have me to do? And there's a desiring to seek
counsel of God. Well, may the Lord bless this
word to us. Man's devices and the Lord's
counsel. There are many devices in a man's
heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord, that shall stand. Amen.