Their beauty is this, their glorious
dress. So the title of my message this
morning is People of This Way or The Way. So as I said earlier,
it's the designation of the early church. until later on in Acts
they are called Christians at Antioch and Peter describes them
as Christians. But throughout the rest of the
New Testament they are most often described as the people of the
way. And so it is good for us to ponder
the way, isn't it? And so Paul, when he describes
His activities here is Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or
women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And I wonder
sometimes if Saul came to Nara, breathing out threatenings against
the people, who would he arrest in a town like this? Very, very
few, I would suggest. I want to be one of these people
of this way. It's literally, it means a travelled
road. Metaphorically, it means a course
of conduct. It's a manner of thinking. It's
a way of feeling and deciding. God's children know the way to
God. That's the most important piece
of knowledge on all of this planet, to know the way to God, to know
the way of God. So it's more than just knowing
about a way, it's actually being in the way, it's being people
of the way. When it says in our passage,
it says, He found any of this way, that word of in the scriptures
often means origins, that they were the people whose origins
are traced to those gospel declarations in Acts chapter 2 and 3. They
are people who were persecuted. In Jerusalem, there were people
who were being put to death. Saul had authority. The Jewish
leaders had authority from the Caesars, not just to have authority
over the Jews in nation Israel, but the Jews in the other regions
around. And so Paul's going out of Jerusalem
all the way to Damascus because he has authority. He has authority
to arrest these people. And he puts them to death. He
arrests them to put them to death. He says, I persecuted, in Acts
22.4, he says, I persecuted this way unto death, binding and delivering
into prisons both men and women. This way is a way that was spoken
evil of in Acts chapter 19. It's a way that there was no
small stir about in Acts 19.23. It's a way that has stirred the
people up. But God's children are in that
way. They're on that way. The way is a way It's a road. It means a travelled road. And as we'll see in Acts again
and again and again, it's a well-travelled road. There is a pattern of the
Lord's salvation amongst his people. Paul, who we'll look
at in this next little while, next few weeks, Paul describes
himself as a pattern. His life, his conversion is a
pattern to them hereafter would believe. It is to be on this way, to know
where you've come from, to know where you're going, and to know
whom you are travelling with. Because the way is a person. The way is a person, isn't it? And therefore the way, the way
is a personal journey. It's personal for each and every
individual Christian, isn't it? It's a journey to be taken by
individuals. And if you're going to be on
a journey and you're going to follow someone, you need to make
sure that you can trust them. You want to be able to trust
the way. The simple fact of the Scriptures, the simple declaration
of God is that if you follow someone who is a blind teacher,
then you are blind as well, and the Lord Jesus promises that
both will fall into the ditch. And so that's why the injunctions
are all over scripture, that you test the spirits, you test
the one who is preaching, you test the message, and you have
an infallible guide to test it against. You have this Word,
this completed and perfect Word of God. Simply to be in the way
is to be someone who follows and knows the Lord Jesus Christ
as he's described in this book. as he was described to the Ethiopian
eunuch. I love what he said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And the passage that
you will no doubt think of often is in John 14. This is maybe
where, as well as Isaiah 35 and a multitude of other Old Testament
passages that describe the way of God and the way of his dealing
with his people, But in John 14, the Lord Jesus made a statement
which caused there to be a question from Thomas, that famous question.
But the question came from a statement the Lord Jesus made. He said,
and whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. He said to his disciples in that
upper room, after Judas is gone, that night that he was to be
betrayed, Before he was to be crucified, he says, the way you
know, because the way is a person. They had known him for that three
and a half years, and they knew him then. And Thomas, verse John
14, 5, Thomas saith unto him, Lord, We know not whether thou
goest, and how can we know the way? It's a lovely question,
isn't it? Prompted by a statement of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. I am the way, I am the truth
and I am the life. What a great question that Thomas
was caused to be asked and what a wonderful answer from the Lord
Jesus Christ. The thing to know of course and
note in the scriptures is that the way is always singular. There
are many other ways that men go, multitudes of other ways,
but the way is always singular because the way is always about
one particular person, one particular God. And that one way, this one
way excludes all other ways. He is the way and every other
way is a false way. He is the truth and all other
ways are lies. He is the life and all other
ways lead to death. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. To come unto the Father by him
is to come to the Father in him, to come to the Father in the
very presence of God. He describes himself in John
chapter 10, he says he's the door, he's the way of entrance
into the very presence of God. To be with the Lord Jesus on
the way is to be in the very presence of God in all of life's
journey. He says in John 10, he says,
I am the door He says, starting at verse 1, let's go back there.
He says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not
by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way,
the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name,
and he leadeth them out. And when he put forth his own
sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of
strangers. He says in verse 7, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came
before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. What a great description. I am
the door, by me if any man enter in. To enter in is the work of
God. He is the door, He is the entrance,
He is the way. He's the way of access to God. He's the way into the holiest
of all. You enter in with Him and you
enter into the holiest of all. We have a way in. We have access to the Father. What a remarkable, remarkable
privilege it is to be the children of God. And we have access, it
says in Ephesians 3.12, in whom we have boldness and access. We have a way in because of him
with confidence. And what's the confidence that
causes our entry into the very presence of the throne room of
God right now? We enter with confidence by the
faith of him. When you speak to people who
are tied up in religion, so often the biggest struggles they have
is about their activities. And continually they are told,
He has done so much for you, and what are you doing for Him?
He has exercised all these things, and what is your life like? What
is your life in response to that? And they are put under a burden
of guilt and shame, and they bear enough of it in themselves.
If they're children of God, they are burdened by their sin, sinful
flesh all of the time. But they're continually told
it's about their activities. And when you talk to them, the
first thing they want to talk about is how much they've done. And then when they come to be
honest, they want to talk about how little they're doing and
how much they're struggling as the ice breaks. But we have boldness. Listen to what the verse says
in Ephesians 3.12. We have boldness and access with
confidence. by the faith of Him, by the faith
of Him. I love how John describes it
in 1 John 4, 17. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that we
may have confidence in the day of judgment. We used to be continually
told that on the Day of Judgment there would be this DVD, this
video up there, it would show all of our lives. Don't you remember
being told that? All of the sins of Simon Bell
would all be voyeurs gazing at his sinful life. And he was meant
to feel guilty, and we were meant to feel guilty. What a load of
nonsense. What a shocking thing to say
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he promised to put away
the sins of his people forever, he put them away forever. And
on the day of judgement, on the day of his marriage, he's not
going to hold up the sins of his people. The DVD is the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ, a life of perfect love for God, perfect
love for the people of this world, perfect obedience to the law
of God. That's the life of God's people,
isn't it? The life I now live in the flesh,
says Paul. I live by the faithfulness of
the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The day
of judgment for the people of God in the scriptures is a day
of rejoicing. It's a celebration. It's a celebration
of the mighty victory of our Lord Jesus Christ over sin and
death and hell. It's the way into the holiest. We have a way into the holiest
of all by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 10,
19, if you turn there, it's such an amazing passage of scripture. Hebrews 10, 19. Our great apostle writes these
remarkable words. He talks about this way. Again,
he talks about boldness. He says, verse 19, "...having
therefore, brethren, boldness, confidence to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus." Verse 20, "...by a new and living
way." a new and living way which he
hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his
flesh." This is the new and living way which is being consecrated.
To consecrate something is to cause something to go into effect
with the implication of something being newly established. It's
put into effect, it's put into a force, it's established. But
the word that is remarkable here is that word, new. That word,
new, literally means freshly slaughtered. That's the literal
translation of that word, to be freshly slaughtered, the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. that freshly slaughtered blood,
that blood that speaks forever of redemption, that blood that
speaks again and again, that blood that God the Father declares.
He says, when I see the blood, I will pass over. The people
inside those houses in Egypt, when they put the blood on the
doorposts and the lintel, they were inside the house. They did
not see the blood. God says, when I see the blood,
I will pass over. you. It's a new way and it's
a living way. It's lovely, isn't it, that Lord
Jesus Christ has declared himself to be the life. It is a new way
and it's a living way. And if it's living, it's always
active. It's always moving. There are
always things in action where there is life. And that life
is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the life of God
in the very souls of men. That's why Peter describes this
as the right way. In 2 Peter 2.15, he says, it
is the right way. Those false teachers and those
who have followed them have gone the way of Balaam. They've forsaken
the right way, 2 Peter 2.15. Jesus Christ, our Lord Jesus
Christ, is the right way and all of the others are the wrong
way. There's a verse I quote out of
Jeremiah 6.16 often. It's remarkable in its promise
and it's even more remarkable in its response to it. But it
says, thus saith the Lord, he says, stand in the ways, there
are many ways laid out before the people in this world, stand
in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, old paths. Where is the good way? And walk
therein and ye shall find rest for your souls. It's the promise
of God, isn't it? You ask for the old path, where
is the good way, and walk therein and you'll find rest for your
souls. The people of Israel, in response to that, said, we
won't walk therein. We will not walk therein. This way is the way of life. It is the right way. It's the
way of truth. It's the way of God. It's described in the scriptures
again and again as the way of God, the way of the Lord. John the Baptist was prophesied,
wasn't he? He says, prepare ye the way of
the Lord, make his paths straight. The enemies of the Lord Jesus
Christ described him truthfully when they said in Matthew 22,
16, Master, we know that thou art true and teach us the way
of God in truth. Neither carest thou for any man,
for thou regardest not the person of men. They were there trying
to entrap him and to deceive him, these hypocrites. But they spoke the truth. He
did speak. He teaches the way of God in truth. He speaks the way of God and
he doesn't need man's opinion or man's consent. He speaks the
way of truth and that's the end of the matter, brothers and sisters.
What he speaks is truth. He doesn't require my opinion
to validate it, nor yours. One of the things that is greatly
freeing in this world if we would learn that our opinions mean
nothing. And God's opinion means everything. I don't need people to approve
of my opinion. We need people, if the Lord would
allow it, to approve of Him. What's He say of us? He says
of mankind, doesn't He? You think that I am altogether
like you. Our God is separate from sinners. His ways, His ways as we see
in Acts are not the ways that we would choose. There's this
Jerusalem church growing like a mushroom, the fellowship of
all of those saints, the fellowship of the apostles, the presence
of the temple and all of those things, and God scatters them,
scatters them like seed. And they're scattered to places
they never would normally have gone and felt comfortable in.
Places like Samaria, a road in the desert. He scattered them
as individuals, and he scattered them, and wherever they went,
they went proclaiming the word of God. He scattered them. And
then, Philip, in the midst of all of what was happening there
in Samaria, is scattered yet again. And in the midst of all
of that, this man saw, with all of that murderous and all of
those threats, all of that blasphemy against God, all of that rejection
of the simple facts of scripture that were laid out before him
and the simple facts of history, that man who had a heart as hard
as adamite stone, It was God's way, God's way of bringing him
to himself. To hear that sermon of Stephen
and be approving of his death was God's way. As for God, Psalm
18.30 says, As for God, His way is perfect. As for God, His way
is perfect. His way is perfect in all of
your lives, brothers and sisters. His way is always perfect. The
word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all those
that trust in Him. He goes on to say, it is God
that girdeth me with strength and maketh my way perfect. When God has made your way, your
way is perfect. We might look around and we might
be concerned about all the things that don't seem right to us. But God's way is perfect. My daughter Kate and her family
were caught in a cyclone in Darwin yesterday. I was supposed to
arrive yesterday and there was a cyclone and I sent them that
verse out of Nahum. The Lord is slow to anger, great
in power, and will not acquit all the wicked. The Lord hath
his way in the whirlwind. All of the activities of creation
are the Lord's way. Or when you next see one of those
tornadoes or cyclones spinning around, every tiny little leaf
and every fleck of dust that's spinning around there, big or
small, is God's way, isn't it? He hath his way in the whirlwind
and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He
has his way over redemption. He has his way over all the covenant
obligations and blessing. He prepares. He prepares the
way. John the Baptist prepared a way
for the Lord. And he shall suddenly come to
his temple, even the messenger of the covenant. When He comes,
He will reveal this covenant, this eternal covenant that we
rejoice in, that His ways were perfect always. The way of the
Lord is the strength to the upright. It's the way, I said earlier,
it's a living way, it's the way of blood. The way into the presence
of God is through the flesh, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a way that He has consecrated
for us. And it's the way of the Spirit
It's the way of the Spirit. It's the way the Spirit directs
His people in this world and directs them in ways that should
cause us to both be wonderfully expected of what God might do
and look back with wonder and awe at what He has done in the
lives of His people. Who would have charted a path
or known the path that led us to being here? I'm preparing
a speech for my daughter, Jennifer, and her wedding, and it's just
remarkable. I can't speak about her life and our life as a family
without going back to those events when the Lord called me to himself. And all of a sudden, our family,
which was settled in Terrera and comfortable at the school,
and we had the delight of watching our four little kids and Sophie
walk across the lawn to the school every day, I still can't remember
how they got backwards and forwards across the road. But nevertheless,
our paths were directed by the Lord in His providence, and we
left that, and then we went to that church, and then we left
that church and went to India, and over in India I heard the
Gospel. And then you come back, not wanting to come back. I wanted
to spend the rest of my days, if the Lord allowed, in India
or in Asia or somewhere just being in that part of the world. The Lord directed all of our
paths. If you think of your path to
you being here, every single one was particular and personal. And every single one of them,
whether it's Brad coming down to join us from Maitland after
years of trials and troubles, or whether it might be our friends
coming from Bega to worship and fellowship with us, or our friends
coming from Canberra. The ways of God, I love what
Spurgeon said, he said, the hinges of history are microscopic. The hinges of history turn on
little tiny things that are ignored by people. And God's people have
the pleasure and the delight to look upon all those things
and see the hand of a sovereign God, directing our ways by His
way and directing us into His way. That's exactly what we read
in Acts chapter 40. You know, Philip was founded
as though it was passing through. He preached He was just moved
by God the Holy Spirit to meet with that man. It is the way
of the Spirit, but also it's the way of the Word of God. The Spirit directs his people
through the Word of God. As the psalmist says in 119 verse
133, order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have
dominion over me. It's the way of the Spirit. It's
the way of His Word. It's the way He leads and He
guides. It's the way of Him hedging us
in. As He did with Gomer, it might
be hedging us in with thorns, that we are kept on the way to
heaven. So many Christians think that
getting to heaven is like walking on a tightrope. And if you're
swaying all the time and you're uncertain of how you're going
to get across. But the way of God is like a
highway. We read it in Isaiah. It's a
highway with great big concrete walls on either side. You can't
get out, brothers and sisters. If you've been put in the way,
you've been put in the way by God. And I don't know what the
paths are before us. I know the promise of scripture
is that there will be trials and troubles. There'll be times
of great rejoicing and there'll be times of great despair. But
it's God's way. It's His way. No wonder Paul
prayed in 1 Thessalonians 3, he said, now the God himself,
now God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct
our way unto you. It's a great prayer to pray,
isn't it? That God would direct our hearts into the way of people. and that we would be caused in
that way with those people to have conversations about the
Lord Jesus Christ, that we might have yet again the privilege
of bearing witness to Him. He answers that prayer, brothers
and sisters. He does answer that prayer. Paul wouldn't have prayed it,
the Holy Spirit wouldn't have written it, unless it was answered. And he goes on to say in 1 Thessalonians
3.12, And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love,
one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward
you, to the end. See, the way has an end. The
way has a purpose. The way is some people going
somewhere, to the end, He may establish your hearts, unblameable
in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, with all His saints. He prays that God
would direct His way to them. It is. It is a remarkable thing,
isn't it? What an amazing thing the election
of God is. What an amazing thing that God
chooses people and He causes those people to approach to Him. He causes them. We read conversely
in the scriptures of that other way. We read about it again and
again. There is that broad way to destruction. It is a narrow way, isn't it? The Lord Jesus says in Matthew
7, 13, Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there
be that which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that
find it. It's narrow. There's an article
in your bulletin this weekend from Maurice Montgomery. It's
narrow. People think that it's narrow
because it's restricting sins. It's so narrow that you can't
get in with any of your righteousnesses. It's our righteousnesses, our
supposed righteousnesses and our supposed wisdom that keeps
us out of heaven. We get in, as we saw earlier,
we get in through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We get
in, in Him. The Lord puts His people in this
way. We don't get in with Him plus
my experience, with Him plus my works, with Him plus my worth
or my will, not Him plus my learning and my understanding, not Him
plus my faith or my faithfulness. It's just simply the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. It's Him. Christ alone, grace
alone, faith alone, the glory of God alone. And for God's people
in this way, it's the way of peace. It's the way of peace. The promise in Luke 1.79 of the
Lord Jesus coming was to give light to them that sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet in the way
of peace. In Romans 3, the description
of those those reprobates is the way of peace they have not
known. It's the way of peace. It's the
way of God. It's the way of salvation. Even that demon-possessed girl,
the demon was called to cry out. These men are the servants of
the Most High God which show unto us the way of salvation. It is also, as we see in Acts,
and as that verse that I quote so often in Acts 24, it's the
way of persecution. The way is not going to be peace
with the religious people of this world. In Acts 24, Paul
says, but this I confess unto thee, that after the way which
they call heresy, they is all the religious world around us.
No matter what stripes they are, the whole lot of them call the
way that we describe and the way that we declare and the God
that we declare, they declare it heresy. They have a whole
bunch of other words that they throw at us all the time, antinomian,
hyper-Calvinist. You know them, don't you? You
hear them? After the way which they call
heresy, Paul says, so worship I, the God of my fathers. To worship the God of the scriptures
is to be persecuted by the religious world around us. They won't understand
us and they will say that we are heretics. They said that
of Paul. They called the Lord Jesus Christ
demon possessed. His servants aren't going to
fare any better in this world, so don't be perturbed when it
comes along. So worship I, the God of my fathers,
believing all things that were written in the law and in the
prophets. We have a simple declaration,
don't we, again and again. We declare the wonders of God's
eternal covenant of love, that in the Lord Jesus Christ he chose
some of Adam's race from before the foundation of the world to
be presented holy and spotless and blameless. And when they
fell in their father Adam, they died. They were dead spiritually. They didn't have the opportunity,
they didn't have the ability to respond to some some offer
and some invitation. They were dead and God by the
Spirit comes and gives them life and by that life they see and
in that life they hear the words of the gospel. We love to declare
the fact that in God's choosing there was a choosing in the Lord
Jesus Christ and when he died on Calvary's tree he bore under
the holy justice of God all of the sins of all those and he
declared those sins to be his sins and God in justice slew
his son and therefore God in justice having slain his son
with that infinite wrath of a holy God can never can never punish
one of God's children ever again. It's an injustice for God to
punish us, having punished his son. This stupid notion of universal
redemption, that somehow, in some manner or other, the Lord
Jesus died for all of humanity, and that death becomes effectual
when they do something, is a blasphemy against the character of God.
It's a denial of the simple word of God. and let them call us
heretics. They call Paul that. We love
to declare that the grace of God is irresistible. When God
works in the hearts of someone, I was talking to a fellow the
other day who for years has been hardened against the gospel and
it seems as if there are great trials happening in his life
at the moment and for the first time in all of these years, he's
actually listening to the word of God and finding some delight
and some comfort in it when there's no comfort anywhere else in the
world. The path might be tortuous. The path might be through thorns
and briars. He might have to take you through
rivers and fire, but he'll bring his people to himself by irresistible
grace. They were his before the foundation
of the world, and he'll keep them. He'll keep them. That's
what Paul described, isn't it? He worshipped the God of his
fathers. The indication of God's blessing
upon the people of God is not their popularity. The indication
of God's blessing is not their popularity but their persecution,
according to the Scriptures. We don't wish to be persecuted.
We don't go out so that we can get our heads kicked in again
and again. But we go out trusting God, and we know that the natural
man finds the things of God an abomination to his righteousness,
and especially to his religious righteousness. They have their
natural minds. Until the Lord opens their hearts,
their enmity is just the expression of a natural man's response to
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll just read some of
these. You know that verse that we quote
out of Proverbs 14 and Proverbs 16. There is a way which seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. There are ways that seem right
to men. Every way of a man is right in
his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the hearts. The way of a fool
is right in his own eyes, but he that he that he that he that
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he that he that he There is a way. There is a way that seems right
unto men. There is a religious way that
seems right unto men. And there are multitudes, according
to the Lord Jesus, there are multitudes that go down those
roads. But God is sovereign over all
of that. These are His ways. Jeremiah
23.12 says, Therefore their ways shall be unto them as slippery
ways in the darkness. And they shall be driven on and
fall therein, for I will bring evil upon them, even the year
of their visitation, saith the Lord. He sets them in slippery
places. They think it's firm and solid.
If you've walked on slippery rocks, you know how easily and
quickly you can just fall, just with your own weight. There is
this way. It's called by 2 Peter, the way
of truth, but also he describes it as the way of righteousness. I love what Psalm 71, 16 says,
I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention
of thy righteousness or even of thine only. That's the testimony of the children
of God, isn't it? We speak of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ because there is no other righteousness. It's a nonsense to talk about
the righteousness of man. There is no such thing. The righteousness
of God. It's a way of righteousness.
And it's the way of faith, isn't it? He said unto that man, the Lord
Jesus said unto that man in Luke 17, he said, Arise, go thy way,
thy faith has made thee whole. You might remember the story
of Bartimaeus when we did Mark chapter 10. It's a glorious story,
isn't it? A blind Bartimaeus. The Lord
Jesus was on his way, on his way to Calvary. on his way to the cross, and
he comes to blind Bartimaeus. Blind Bartimaeus calls out, when
people are mercy beggars, they can't be shut up by the crowd
around them. They'll keep crying out for mercy. And he cries out, and he cries
out. Thou Son of David, have mercy
on me. Son of David, have mercy on me. When sinners, chosen sinners,
cry out for the mercy of God to fall upon them, Jesus stood
still. The God of this creation stopped
on his journey to Calvary at the call of Bartimaeus. And he called him to him, and
Jesus said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? Not what you should do to me,
but what would you have me do to you? And the blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said
unto him, Go thy way, thy faith has made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight and he followed Jesus in the way. When God has mercy on a sinner
that calls out to him, he will follow Jesus in the way, the
way to Jerusalem, the way of the cross. It is a straight way. There is just one way. It is the way of love. It is God's way. It's the way of His working in
the hearts of His people. I'll finish by going back to
where we started in Isaiah 35. and the parched ground, the parched
ground of unbelief shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs
of water." The Lord Jesus says, come unto me all you are thirsty
and all you are weary and heavy laden. Come, come, come freely
and receive freely. and there'll be grass and rushes
where the dragons lay. And a highway shall be there,
and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean
shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those. The wayfaring
men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be
there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon. It shall
not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed
of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting
joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness. Sorrow and sighing shall flee
away. God's people are put in the way. He is the way. He keeps His people
in that way. He makes that way for them in
this world and He continues to make it in all the little events
of our lives. And I love what Ecclesiastes
9.7 says, and I'll finish here. He says, Go thy way, eat thy
bread with joy, drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now
accepteth thy works. God now accepteth thy works. Our works are the works of the
Lord Jesus Christ. God is perfectly satisfied with
them, abundantly pleased. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you that you put your people in the way and you
cause the Lord Jesus Christ to be the way that brings us into
your presence, holy, spotless, unblameable, unreprovable. Heavenly
Father, we praise you that the way of holiness is a way that's
been marked out by the steps of the Lord Jesus Christ in this
world. And he treated your law as holy
and good and righteous. And in him, Heavenly Father,
and by faith in him, we fulfil that law. We walk before you
perfect. We walk before you having confidence
of entry into your presence by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we praise you Heavenly Father
that he has risen, risen again for our justification and he
lives to reign now over all the affairs of all of the things
of this universe. and he causes his people to walk
in a way that reminds us again and again of the depths of our
humility before you, the depths of our gratitude to be recipients
of this remarkable grace, to be like Blind Bartimaeus, recipients
of that mercy that causes us to follow the Lord Jesus Christ
in this world. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
you would get great glory for your holy name and cause your
people to rest in peace as they find themselves just simply trusting
the finished work of your dear and precious Son and nothing
else, our Father. Protect us in this way. Keep
us in this way, Heavenly Father. Until we find this way that we've
been in takes us to heaven's glories, to be eternally with
our Saviour, to see His face, to be like the saints of heaven
rejoicing in His presence and singing the songs of redemption
forevermore. Help us, Heavenly Father, to
find ourselves simply looking to Him and relying on Him for
all things. Make that our way, our Father,
for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.