We're going to be looking at
a portion of God's Word in 2 Samuel chapter 22, 2 Samuel 22. And before we do, I'd like for us
to go before the Lord in prayer together. And Jeanette, so thankful
to have you here today. Jeanette had back surgery this
week. and seeing that the Lord was
pleased to bless it and give her strength to be able to be
here. Also, I'd like for us to pray
for Claire, Adam's dad, Claire Sharon, most of y'all know him.
He's finished chemo and radiation and will be having a scan coming
Tuesday to see what the progress is from that. And then they are
going to be doing immunotherapy for him after that. And we've
prayed before for Zobey's sister, Audi. I just found out from Hugo
this morning that she is now in hospice. And so, I pray for that family. Let's pray together. Our gracious heavenly Father, you have put in our hearts to
desire worship. Lord, we know that If you did
not do that, we would have no interest whatsoever. All you would have to do is leave
us to ourselves and we would go our own way. Lord, we pray
this morning that even as you have made us willing to come
and provide the means for us to be here, Lord, that you would
be pleased to meet with us and speak to us that you would cause
your word to be alive and effectual in our hearts. Lord, we thank
you for your hand of healing for our dear sister, Jeanette,
and pray, Lord, that you continue to give her full recovery. We
pray for our brother, Claire, and thank you for for the testimony
of grace that he has given to you in this very difficult time.
Lord, we pray that you would continue to provide for him both
physically and spiritually and for Annie and Adam and the boys
and the family. Lord, we lift our body to you
and ask Lord that you would speak to her heart and remind her of
those things that she's heard and cause her Lord to find her
hope and comfort in Christ. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. You have your bowels open to
2 Samuel chapter 22. We were looking at this passage
of scripture last week and In verse 33, David says, God is
my strength. He is my strength. Without him,
I have no strength. I love the verse of scripture
that reminds us that when we were yet without strength in
due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He doesn't come in order
to bolster some efforts that we make, he comes to exchange
our strength for his. And he's my power. He's the person
of that strength. And that's where we finished
up last Sunday. Let's look at the rest of this
verse. And I just want us to concentrate our thoughts and
comments on the last part of verse 33. maketh my way perfect. He maketh my way perfect. Our God is a just God. He tells us that he will by no
means clear the guilty. tells us that all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God and that the wages of
sin is death. He must exercise his righteous
judgment against all sin. All sin must be paid for. He will not be satisfied with
anything less than a perfect sacrifice. And so any thoughts
that we might have of atoning for our own sins or doing our
best or trying to obey the commands of God are all in vain because
the Lord requires perfection. And here's what he tells us in
Romans chapter three, that our God is both just and justifies. He's the justifier. He is the
one who satisfied his own requirements for justice by the sacrifice
of his son. God will provide himself. lamb that what Abraham told Isaac
when we're there on the mountain God will provide himself God
is the providing he provides himself to himself and what the
Lord Jesus did on Calvary's cross was he was doing business with
God with his father he was fulfilling the that the covenant promises
by making himself to be that sacrifice, that perfect spotless
lamb. And that's what the word perfect
in our text means. The most often times that this
word perfect is translated in the Old Testament is translated
in concerning the sacrifice when we read the words without blemish,
without blemish. That's what this word perfect
means. We could never stand in the presence of God without blemish.
No, to the contrary, we are leprous, left ourselves in our own natural
state. We are leprous from the top of
our heads to the bottom of our feet. What God requires is a
perfect sacrifice. And the Lord Jesus Christ made
himself an offering, not to us, to be accepted or rejected by
us or to be added to by something that we do. He was making himself
an offering to his father to satisfy God's justice. And God
saw the travail of his soul and God said, I'm satisfied. And
the Lord Jesus cried, it is finished. It is finished. And that's why
David said in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I shall be in want of anything
for he provides for me everything that God requires. He maketh my way perfect. Remember in the book of Job,
Job had what he refers to as miserable comforters. They were
friends who were trying to get Job to come clean. They were
accusing Joe of hidden secret sin. Joe, if you would just quit
justifying yourself and be honest with God and with us about your
real, the things that we know must be wrong. In order for these
things to be happening to you, you must have done something
that we don't know about. And the whole book of Job is
written to us in order to show us that there is no direct correlation
between the circumstances of our lives and the behavior of our lives. There's
no direct correlation there. And so Eliphaz, one of Job's friends, makes this statement to him.
He says, is it gain to the almighty that thou makest thy way perfect? In other words, Eliphaz was challenging
Job because Job was justifying himself before God and Eliphaz
was saying to Job, are you being, are you profiting your position
with God by claiming yourself to be perfect? There is a way. there is a way that seems right
unto man. But in the end, that way leads
to death. The way that seems right unto
the natural man is that he would be able to earn God's favor and
merit God's grace by something that he does, by his own law
keeping. And so the Lord tells us that
man Men go about trying to establish their own righteousness, being
ignorant of the righteousness of God, not knowing that Christ
Jesus, the Lord, is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believe it. That's what David's saying here.
The Lord maketh my way perfect. He makes my way perfect. The law requires perfection.
Its sentence is death, is unyielding and unforgiving. And you and
I have never been able to satisfy any of its demands. And so the
Lord tells us in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, God made him sin,
who knew no sin. The Lord Jesus took in his body
on that tree all the sins of all of God's people, and satisfy
God's justice, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. There's that word perfect, the
righteousness of God. We can't make our way perfect
before God. If my way to heaven is to be
made clear, God must impute to me, He must charge to my account
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, my position before
God must be perfect. I believe what David's telling
us here is that not only does God make my position perfect
before him, but he makes my possession perfect before him. Now, what
do I mean by that? Well, the scripture says that
it is Christ in you that is your hope of glory. And that we possess
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, not only, I love what,
I think it was Charles Spurgeon that once said, if I died and
found myself at the gate of heaven, And God required of me to take
the final step, I would go to hell. I can't make that final step,
nor can I make the first step. We hear people say now, you don't
make the first step and God will take you the rest of the way.
I can't make a step. He must make my way perfect. But here's the glorious truth. We walk by faith. And this way is not just our
way to heaven, but it's our way in this world. And he maketh
my way perfect. Oh, there's so much reason for
fear and anxiety and so much unknown. in our lives and in
this world, so many things that would cause us to be afraid. And yet when the Lord gives us
faith to look Christ, to look up, we don't look back to a profession of faith in order to get assurance
of our salvation. We don't look around us to see
what our lifestyle has been in order
to get assurance of our salvation. We look up. We look up. We look Christ. Abraham believed
God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. The Lord tells
us whatever is not of faith is sin. And so in this sinful world
and living in this sinful flesh, the Lord has given us the possession
of his son and enables us to look in faith to him. And just
as God credited that faith to Abraham for righteousness, he
credited to us for righteousness, perfection, perfection. It's not just our position with
God's perfect as a result of Christ being our righteous before
God and fulfilling all the demands of the law. Our way is made perfect
in that the believer walks not by sight, but by faith, by faith. We have the spirit of God who
causes us to look in faith to Christ. In him. In him. Though all the details
of our way concerning concerning God's providence and concerning
our circumstances are unknown and often cause us to be afraid. That when We're able to set our
affections on things above, where Christ is seated at the right
hand of God. He becomes our way. He becomes our way. And we're
able to rest. We're able to rest in Christ,
regardless of whatever else might be happening. And we're able
to say, He maketh my way perfect. Perfect. I quoted Psalm 23 verse 1 a moment
ago. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. You remember the rest of that
verse? He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He maketh
me. What a blessing. The Lord Jesus himself is our
way. He didn't say, I'll show you the way. He said, I am the
way. And just as the children of Israel in the wilderness,
as they being bitten by those viperous snakes, those poisonous
snakes. And what did Moses do? He made
a serpent and put it on a pole. And the Lord told him to declare
to the children, look, look, and you'll live. And we live in a world that all
the snakes all around us aren't there. And how much of our time
we spend trying to kill snakes when what we need to be doing
is looking up, looking up. When they looked, they lived.
The snakes had no power over them as long as they were looking. The Lord Jesus himself is our
way. And here's our hope, because
it's our sin that causes most of our problems, isn't it? It's
our sin and our unbelief. And the Lord's given us grace
to find Him to be our way. And why was the serpent put on a pole, made of brass. What was that a picture of? The
Lord Jesus said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And if I be lifted up, I
will be lifted up, amen to me. When the Lord Jesus was lifted
up on Calvary's cross, God made him sin. That's what that serpent
represents. Goes all the way back to the
garden, doesn't it? And he bore all the sins of all of his people,
and he satisfied God's divine justice once and for all. And
so, how does the Lord make our way perfect? By his spirit, he
enables us to look to Christ. He's seated as a successful sovereign
savior at the right hand of the majesty on high. Why was he accepted
back into heaven? Why did the father say to him,
sit down here by my right hand until I make all thine enemies
thy footstool? Why? Because he accomplished
what he came to do. He put away our sin. And here's
how He makes our way perfect. When our sin is ever before us, we look to Christ and we see
that in Him, in Him, our sin's been forgiven. Our sin's been
put away. We have no reason to live in
the shame and guilt of our sin. We have a Savior. That's when the Lord healed blind Bartimaeus.
And the last thing he said to Bartimaeus was, Bartimaeus, go
thy way. And the rest of that verse says,
and Bartimaeus followed Jesus in the way. All of a sudden,
Bartimaeus' way became Lord's way. And wherever the Lord was
is where Bartimaeus wanted to be. God had given him eyes to
see. He wanted his affections. He
wanted in his sight the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
David says he maketh my way perfect, he's not just talking about our
position in Christ being made perfect so that we have the hope
of glory. We have the righteousness of
Christ. And we have the acceptance of
God. We're accepted in the beloved. He's talking about our way in
this world. The possession that we have of
the Lord Jesus by faith. And how he makes our way perfect. The gospel is called the way
of truth. It's called the way of righteousness. It's called
the way of life. And the early believers were
called the people of the way. That was one of the identifications
that the Gentile world gave to these Christians. They are, they're
people of the way. And it wasn't meant as a compliment. It was meant in the same way
that when they first called them Christians, that wasn't a compliment.
It was intended as an insult. These people are running around
trying to be little Jesus's and they think that they're the only
ones that got the way. You ever been accused of that?
You think you're the only ones that have the way. They're just
the people of the way. Yes. Yes, there's only one way. There's
only one way. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
that way. When the Jews brought Paul, the
apostle Paul, it's in Acts 24, before Felix, the governor, and
they brought charges against Paul to have him arrested and
put to death. And Felix gives Paul an opportunity
to defend himself against the charges. And Paul stands up and
he says to Felix, that Roman governor, he says, the way, that
they call heresy, the way that they call heresy, I confess the
way that they call heresy, so worship I, God of my fathers,
believing all that is written in the law and the prophets. God gives us faith in Christ.
The Lord Jesus becomes the way. Let the world call it heresy. Let them accuse us of whatever.
Christ is my way. He's my way into glory. And he's my way in this world. I have no way outside of him. He's the way of truth. He's the
way of life, He's the way of righteousness, and I will quickly
lose my way if I take my eyes off of Him. I've had enough experience
of that in everyday life to know that when I take my eyes off
Christ, I lose my way. If I can ever be given grace and sight and faith to set my
affections on him. My way is perfect. My ways are
perfect. Can't get any better. Can't get
any better. God makes us perfect through
the miracle of the new birth. He makes us willing in the day
of his power. He maketh my way perfect. If
I'm gonna be perfect, God's gonna have to make it that way. And
he doesn't, when the scripture says that he makes us willing,
it's not that he drags us along kicking and screaming. No, he
gives us a new heart. He gives us a willing heart.
He causes us to desire his will. If he didn't do that, we would
always choose our will over his will. But as God makes us willing,
we're able to say, with the Lord Jesus who is our way, not I will,
but thy will be done. Lord, I've had enough experience
in choosing my will over your will. And it's brought nothing
but pain and suffering and heartache and confusion and lost of the
way. Lord, make me, make me know my
way. Make me to lie down. Ezekiel
chapter 16, the scripture says that the Lord passed by that
bay that had been cast away, a picture of God's people. And he saw that child polluted
in its own blood. And he said, live, for your time
is time of love. Your time is the time of love. When he shows us his love, he
causes us to love him in return. He causes us to desire his way. He works in us, causing us to
will and to do of his good pleasure. We have the good promise of knowing
that he will in no wise cast us out. He will never leave us
nor forsake us. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10, Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 16, Hebrews 10, verse 16. This is the covenant. That word
covenant means promise. God is faithful to all of his
promises. He cannot lie. This is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I
will put my laws into their hearts and in their mind, I will write
them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. There's no more running
to and fro, trying to atone for our sin and fearing that we've
never done enough. Having therefore brethren boldness,
We have confidence. What is our confidence? Our confidence
is that when the Lord Jesus bowed his head on Calvary's cross and
said, it is finished, that God was satisfied. That's our confidence. Our confidence is that he was
successful in satisfying God's justice and putting away all
the sins of all of God's people. He's our confidence. And so we're
able to come boldly. before the throne of grace and
find help in our time of need. We're always a needy people. Having therefore brethren boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say his flesh, when the Lord Jesus bowed his
head and cried, it is finished. The scriptures tell us that that
veil that separated the ark of the covenant, the holies of holies,
where the mercy seat was, where the high priest would go in one
year on the day of atonement and put the blood of the sacrifice. And God said to Moses, here,
I will meet with you. And on that moment, the very
moment that the Lord bowed his head and said, it is finished
father into my hands, I commend my spirit. That veil was rent. It was rent, not this way, but
this way from top to bottom, God rented. Those priests were stationed
outside that holies of holies constantly warning people, stay
away, stay away. Once God rent the veil, the spirit,
And the bride say, come, come, come. The way has been made. Look. Verse 20, by a new and
living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say his flesh, and having a high priest of the house of
God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure waters. The strength of sin is the law.
The strength of sin is the law. If we're trying with shame and guilt for sin
to atone for those sins by going back to the law, all the law
is going to do is aggravate our sin. It's gonna make it worse. Not only is it going to add more
shame, which drives us deeper into our sin, but it's gonna
add to that the self-righteousness that we have in thinking we might
be able to satisfy God's law. So the law only aggravates sin. The strength of sin is the law. What's the law telling us? Thanks
be to God. Through Christ Jesus I am free. We come before the throne of
grace knowing that our sin's been put away, knowing that God's
satisfied, justice has been fulfilled, righteousness has been established.
And we come with a true heart and full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. That's the
only thing that can, only thing that can salve the conscience
before God. is the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering
for he is faithful that promised. The Lord make me. Go back with me to our text. Maketh my way. Perfect. Now, that word maketh, as is
often the time when, one of the things I love about the King
James is a lot of the verbs will have an ETH at the end of them,
which is taken out in every other version. And that ETH is significant. It indicates a verb that has
continual action. A bird that has a continual act.
So, yes, he made my way perfect. When he established my righteousness
once and for all, that's a continual act. When the Lord Jesus said
it is finished, that was finished, nothing else to be done. But
now, David's saying, he continually makes my way perfect. He brings
me back to Christ. I'm like Lazarus. I was raised
from the dead by the voice of God. Lazarus, come forth. But I spent the rest of my life
needing to be taken from the grave clothes. Loose him. Loose him and make him free. Matter of fact, this word maketh,
I've read, I looked up other places in the Old Testament where
this word maketh is used. And it's translated to be loosed
or to be set free. To be set free. To be set free
from the penalty of sin. To be set free from shame. To
be set free from guilt. To be set free from the power
of sin as I'm able to look to Christ and walk my faith so that
sin does not have dominion over me. He maketh my way perfect. And
he continues to do it. And I'm always in need of having
him to make my way perfect. I'm always in need of having
him to make me to lie down in green pastures, because if he
doesn't make me lie down, I'm going to run around and do everything
I can to try to fix every problem in my life on my own. He's my
strength and He's my power and He maketh my way perfect. Perfect. I can't make my way
perfect. David said in Psalm 22 also,
thou did make me to hope. Thou did make me to hope. You
know, we often wonder as believers, What do unbelievers think? Where's their hope? How can they
not be in total, complete despair all the time? How come depression
doesn't drive them to suicide? I mean, how could you live in
this world and not have the hope of everlasting life? And the
only conclusion that we can come to, they're just blind men groping
in the dark, and they're living in denial, and their hope is
for a better tomorrow. You know, tomorrow's gonna be
a better day. And I hope, you know, hope this and hope I get
that. And you and I'd be the same way. We would put our roots
down in this world, and we would live in a false hope and in denial. And David said, He maketh me
to hope. If He didn't make me to hope
all the hope I would have is the shallow false hopes of this
world, that's all I'd have. He maketh me to hope. Psalm 39
verse 4, Dave said this... Make me pray. Make me to know my end and the
measure of my days. Yeah, I talk to people my age
that aren't believers and suggest to them that We're not going
to be here much longer. You know, our days are numbered.
We're already in overtime, three score and 10. And they can't get away from
you quick enough. Oh, no, no, don't talk like that.
Talk to 80-year-olds, 85-year-olds about the brevity of life and
how few days. Oh, no, no, no, no. Don't talk
like that. We're OK. We're gonna be here
a lot longer. And you would think the same
way if the Lord did not make us to number our days and to
measure our life. And when he does, oh, it becomes
a vapor. It becomes, it's just here for
a moment and it passes away. And the older you get, the more
you appreciate that, don't you, brethren? It's just a blip on
the radar. What is your life? It is a vapor.
It is a vapor. Psalm 51, make me to know wisdom. Make me to know wisdom. And again, this make me is not
the kind of make me that that I would say to my older brother
when my parents would leave him in charge of me and he would
command me to do something. And out of defiance of his authority,
I would say, make me. It's not that kind of make me.
No, when the Lord makes you, oh, you're so thankful that you've
been made. You've been made to know wisdom.
You were relying on your, on their own understanding. Make me to hear joy and gladness.
Make me to hear joy and gladness. All that I can hear in this world
is fear and sadness. And the superficial happinesses
that the world has to offer are just that. They're shallow. They don't satisfy the soul.
It might entertain the mind and excite the emotions for a period
of time, but when it comes to needing to hear joy, Lord, you're
gonna have to make that happen. I don't see it anywhere else. He maketh my way perfect. Psalm 119, David prayed this, Make me understand thy precepts. Make me understand thy precepts. Lord, cause your word to be effectual
and alive. Lord, don't let the Fouls of
the air pluck away the seeds that you've sown in my heart.
Don't let the vines of this world choke out the fruitfulness of
your word. Lord, make my heart fallow ground
and make that seed to grow and be fruitful. Make me to know
and to understand thy precepts. Make me to go in the paths of
thy commandments. Lord, I'm weak. I'll take the
path of least resistance. I'm like water. Lord, that wide
road is a downhill slide and I can get on it very easily.
But the pathway, the pathway to glory, narrow
and uphill, Lord, you're going to have to make me. Make me. David said in one place, he made
me to have hind's feet. Aren't you just amazed you see
the picture of these mountain goats hanging on to a little
tiny crevice? They're on the side of this cliff
and they're just walking around like they're on the old flat
ground. How in the world did they do
that? Make me to have those kind of feet. And I might be able
to climb the mountain of faith without falling. without falling. And then Isaiah prayed this,
Lord, recover me and make me to live. Every time, every time we find
sin overwhelming, Lord, recover me, make me to live. Lord, I've been in a dark place. You're gonna have to recover
me. You're gonna have to make me to live. How can we think
about the Lord making us without considering that upper who came
before our Lord and said this, Lord, thou wilt. Thou can make me clean, make
me. He maketh my way perfect, perfect. Let's take a break.