Proverbs 16, nine, a man's heart
deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. It doesn't say in this verse
that a man should not devise his way in his heart. He does
do that, it says he does. That's all it says, it doesn't
say that's a bad thing. It doesn't specify whether the
man's devices here are good or evil. If a man doesn't know the
Lord, then all of his devices are evil. That's all we do and
all we are without the Lord Jesus Christ. Even the good, so-called
good, that a lost man does or devises to do, even, is evil. It has evil motive. It's either
in a religious sense, it's done in order to establish a righteousness
before God, self-righteousness, which is one of the things that
God most hates. Or it's done for some gain, to
go to heaven when you die, selfishness, not for the glory of God. A lost
man can't do anything. but devise evil and do evil.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And faith, all
faith is in Christ. If you don't know the Lord Jesus
Christ by God-given faith, we say that a lot, God-given faith,
because whenever we talk about faith, we want to be reminded
that faith is not something you're born with or something you can
come up with. It is the gift of God. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9,
not of works, lest any man should boast. God given faith. Without that, faith in Christ,
we know what kind of devices are in your heart, evil ones. The imagination, God saw what
in Noah's day? The imagination of man's heart
was only evil continually. That's all of us without Christ.
Now a righteous man, which of course is a man who does know
Christ, who is in Christ by God's will and purpose and power, who
has God-given faith in Christ, may devise good. We see that
in the scripture quite a bit. The performance of it won't be
good in the sense of perfect meritorious goodness or righteousness. We can't do anything up to God's
standard. We can't do anything that measures
up. We can want to though. You know where I'm going, don't
you? Romans chapter seven. Listen to it. Paul said in Romans
7, 18, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, I find not. I'm still
in this flesh and in this flesh, I can't do anything good. I want
to though, by the grace of God. One of God's covenant promises
is I'll put my law in your heart. It's not just a standard on cold
stone that you have to measure up to. It'll be something you're
going to want with all your heart. to measure up to, because you
love him, because you desire his glory. He saved you. He's everything to you. To will is present with me, he
told them in the garden. The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak. And then Paul went on to say,
for the good that I would, I do not, but I would. So you can
devise good in your heart and you can do relative good. It's
relatively better for you to worship God this morning than
to do whatever, you know, would have promoted your flesh or your
flesh desire. That's relatively good. It won't
measure up to God's holiness. There's sin even in our worship,
but it's better, isn't it? And it's only by God's grace
that we do, that we can worship at all. The point is this, there are
various devices in a man's heart, virtuous or not, depending on
whether you know the Lord or not, but a man does devise his
way. We do that. His way here is his
road or his direction. He makes a plan. Man purposes
things in his heart. He decides things. I'm going
to do this. He plans, he sets goals. He determines to do certain
things. What we're going to do. And that
in and of itself is not a bad thing. There's nothing wrong
with that. We should do that. We should plan to do things. We're not to understand from
our text that there's two things that we shouldn't see in this
text, because it's just not there. We are not to understand from
our text that what is exclusively meant here is that God directs
only good people's steps. And some do say that, that this
means that God just directs good people's steps. And the reason
they say that is an attempt to defend God against accusation
of being complicit in the evil that men do. You see, if he directs
the steps of evil men and they do evil, then God, they say,
would be complicit in their evil. God doesn't need you to defend
him. We need him to defend us. It
doesn't say that in this text. Nor are we to understand from
our text that God only overrules the steps of a wicked man to
prevent him from doing bad things. He does do that, but this text
is not exclusively saying that because in this sense that some
say that, that he just, he overrules what bad people do, but he just
lets good people do what they're gonna do, you know, because they're
good. They don't need any direction. That's not it either, clearly. And anybody that knows the Lord
wants him to direct our steps, don't we? How many times did
David pray that? And elsewhere in the scripture,
listen to him in Psalm 139, 23. Search me, O God, and know my
heart, and try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be
any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. That
word lead there, it doesn't mean, look, there's the way everlasting.
It means bring me that way. That's the only way you're going
in the way everlasting, if God takes hold of you and brings
you. No man can come, except the Father which hath sent me
draw him. Psalm 141.3, set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Have
you ever prayed that? Keep the door of my lips. Don't let me say anything that's
dishonoring to you. I'll do it a thousand times a
day. unless you control that and not me. Incline not my heart
to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work
iniquity, and let me not eat of their dainties. Don't let
me do it, Lord, don't let me. Don't let me go. Of course, sinners
hate this truth. because they complain that it
makes man a puppet and things like that. I'm sure you've heard
that. If God controls us all and everything, that just makes
us a puppet. Well, I'll tell you this, you're
somebody's puppet. Somebody is controlling. They
say, oh, that violates man's free will. Free will is a myth. And the sooner you know it, the
better. Saul of Tarsus, now the Apostle Paul, he's praising God
Almighty continually and will forever for violating his will. And you will too if he violates
yours. His will had him on the direct
road to hell. and God arrested him and saved
him and me too. I've noticed, I still know a
lot of religious people because I used to be in godless, freewill,
Christ-hating religion. They're not gonna tell you that
they hate Christ, but they hate this Christ and there ain't but
one. So I don't hesitate to call them
Christ-hating If you think that salvation is up to your free
will, you hate the son of God. That's your problem. It's the
same problem we had in the garden. It hadn't changed. But I've noticed
that even religious people that hate the truth of the sovereignty
of God, they still love to say God's
in control. God's in control. They say that
all the time. I know a bunch of them. Still
try to be their friend. God is in control when they need
him to be. Well, bad things are happening
and it's horrible, it looks so, but God's in control. He's gonna
work it all out for me, you know, he's gonna. But then when it
comes to whether God can save who he wants to save and damn
who he wants to damn, then all of a sudden you're in control
to them. That's not the God of this Bible. They say that can't be true because
it violates man's free will. You're not gonna find that in
the Bible now. You're either Satan's puppet or you're God's.
And that's clearly, clearly, unambiguously taught in the word
of God. Man's free will is a myth. And
our text is just one of the many places in scripture where we're
taught this. A man plans, he devises, and that's good. I've
got plans for tomorrow, and I hope you do too. Don't just go through
life drifting on a sea without direction. You know, there's
a sense in which we just commit our way to the Lord and whatever,
you know, we say if the Lord will, and we're gonna see that
in a minute. And that's fine, but have some direction. God
may well overrule it, and if he does, praise him for it. You
was fixing to mess up, weren't you? If God changed it, he's
smart and you're not. Listen to Jeremiah 10, 23. Oh
Lord, I know, and this is only known by the grace of God. Oh
Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is
not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Man walks, but he
ain't the one calling the steps. It just, and I know that too,
by God's grace, I know that, I know that. That's why I don't
say what James said, don't say. I don't wanna say it. And by
God's grace, I'm not gonna say, I'm gonna go do this, this, this,
I'll do this, I'll do that, I'll do that. James said, don't say
that. We'll see that in a minute. Listen to Psalm 37, 23, and I'm
not having you turn. If you want to turn quickly,
you can. Psalm 20, 3723, but we've only got 10 minutes. So listen, the steps of a good
man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. Now
that text is used by at least one commentator that I trust
to say that our text is just talking about good people. He
don't direct the steps of bad people. He don't do that. Well,
of course he does. A man, if you're a man, mankind,
he's directing your steps, no matter what your plans are. But
listen, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he
delighteth in his way. But if you look at that Psalm
37, 23, you'll notice that the word good is in italics, it's
not in the original. So I looked up that word man
and you know what it means? A strong man, a mighty man, a
willful man, a proud man. And so what it's simply saying
is that it means to show oneself mighty or proud. I'm going to
boast. I'm going to do this. I'm going
to do that. And I'm able to do it. Boy, I'm strong. I can do
whatever I want to do. God is directing your steps to. No matter how strong, no matter
how mighty, no matter how proud, No matter how determined you
are, you are controlled by God, and I am too. They translated it good man,
likely because of the last part of the verse where it says, and
he delighteth in his way. Sounds like he's talking about,
you know, his elect. But what it's simply saying is
this. He delighteth in their way. That just means that it's God's
pleasure being done and not yours. It doesn't matter what kind of
man you are, how big and mighty and bold and strong and able
and determined and proud, God is directing your steps and he's
doing it for his pleasure, not your pleasure. That's Psalm 37,
23. And the outcome is what he wants
it to be, not what you want it to be. And if you know him, you're
real happy about that, real happy about that. And the thing about it is, if
I'm his, then whatever his good pleasure is, that's my good pleasure
too. And that works out real good,
doesn't it? He does what he wants. And what he wants is what I want.
That works out great. But regardless, whether that
works out great for you or not, God is in control. Religion loves
to say that. I mean it by God's grace. God's
in control of you, me, everything, everybody. He doeth all things
after the counsel of his own will. He raises up one and puts
down another. You can't roll a pair of dice,
but he determines what comes up. Nothing is up to you. They're saying it this morning,
it's up to you. God's done all he can do and
now it's up to you. And here we are, those of us who know
him are saying, thank God, nothing's up to me. You'd mess up something that
can't be messed up. If it had anything to do with
you, you'd mess it up. So James 1413, we could talk
a long time about, turn to that one with me if you would, we
got a few minutes left. James 413, did I say 1413? There ain't 14 chapters in James,
so don't try to turn to that. James 413. James 413. Listen to this now, and this
is just, look, this isn't deep theological doctrines and theories and, you
know, this is just every day simple stuff. This is just what
you're gonna do the rest of this day, what you're gonna do while
you're here, what you're gonna do tomorrow. He said, go to now,
you that say, today or tomorrow, we'll do this. And listen, that
go to now, that literally means come on now. Come on now, you
that say that, what are you talking about? In other words, what are
you talking about? Come on now. That's what that means, look
it up. Come on now, you that say today or tomorrow, we will
go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell
and get game. Listen, four things are being
said there. Where I'm gonna go, how long
I'm gonna be there, what I'm going to do when I get there,
and what the outcome is of what I do is going to be. Don't even
talk about that stuff. That way, I will, I will, I will. Whereas you know not what shall
be on the morrow. You don't know what God's gonna
do. That's what it's saying. You don't know what's gonna happen
because you don't determine what's gonna happen. We talk like we
do, we act like we do, we think we do, but it ain't up to us. For what is your life? It is
even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes
away. Come on now, here's what you
ought to say. If the Lord will, not we will,
not I will, if the Lord will, we shall live. You may not be
going anywhere tomorrow. You might not even be alive tomorrow.
If the Lord will, we shall live and do this, or we may do that. It's gonna be according to God's
will. And we ought to talk like that. I know that we use everyday
common language when we say, I'm gonna go to the store. Tomorrow
I'm gonna work on the, I'm gonna fix that toilet tomorrow. I've been saying that for a while.
I'm glad Vicki's not in here. The Lord's directing my step.
No, we can't use that as an excuse. It's not an excuse, is it? Oh boy, we blame everything on
God, don't we? If we could get away with it,
we would. But listen now, come on now. But now you rejoice in your boastings. People do, don't they? They got
big plans. And again, there's nothing wrong
with having plans as long as you're able to bow to God's will
in that thing. In specific thing, bow to his
will in it. If God will. And that's everyday
stuff. And that's in salvation too.
Lord, if you will, you can save me. There's nothing I can do
about my problem. There's nothing I can do about
my sin. It's not up to me. Lord, if you wanna save me, you
can save me. Will you save me? Have mercy
on me. To refuse, and listen, all such
rejoicing is evil. It's evil, you know better. That's
why he's saying, come on now, people know better than that. To refuse to acknowledge God's
sovereign will, power, discretion, and to submit your will to his,
to refuse to do that is evil. That's what our text is talking
about now. I can plan and devise, and there's nothing wrong with
that. It may be good, it may be bad. If it's bad, there's
something wrong with it, but in and of itself, making plans
and determining things, there's nothing wrong with that. But
understand this, don't boast. Don't be boasting about what
you're going to do and what you're not going to do. Simon did that,
didn't he? I'm not gonna deny you, I will
never deny. Don't start boasting about it. It's evil, it's not a misunderstanding,
you know, because people say, oh, the doctrine of God's sovereignty
is too complicated for me. That's too complicated, we don't,
you know. How can God's sovereignty and
man's responsibility, how can you reconcile the two? Well,
I wanna say three things about that before I close, and I don't
have near enough time to do that. I got one minute, but listen.
First of all, you don't have to reconcile things that are
in perfect agreement with one another. What you do have to
do is trust God. Just because you don't understand
something doesn't mean it can't be true. Believe God. You're
dumb and he's omniscient. Believe him. Secondly, it's not
complicated at all. God's on the throne and you aren't.
Does that confuse anybody? Regardless of what man has thought
since the fall, you're not on the throne, he is. You don't
run things, he does. God does as he pleases, you do
not. And thank God it's that way.
Man's will is defined by the evil of the cross. We murdered
God. It doesn't get worse than that.
God's will is seen in the eternal, infinite good and glory of the
cross. He gave himself for sinners. Thirdly, here's what you do.
See if this confuses you at all. Here's what you do. Seeing that
God is sovereign, Here's what you do, bow, fall at his feet
and worship him as that leper in Matthew eight. If you will,
you can make me clean. Listen, and behold, there came
a leper and worshiped him saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. That word worship there means
to kiss the hand. but it's pronounced proskuneo,
proskuneo in the Greek, and that prosku, the ku part, means dog. Here's Strong's definition of
it, to kiss like a dog licking his master's hand. Which brings me to the second
thing you do, believe him and trust him. If he says you're
a dog, you say, truth Lord, can I be your dog? If he says you're a worm, what
do you say? That's right. If he says you're
a sinner, you know what you say? God be merciful to me, I'm a
sinner, have mercy on me. The third thing is this, give
him the glory in everything. Him being sovereign means he
gets the glory That's what it means For by grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves? It is the gift of
God not of works lest any man should boast or glory God gets
it Romans 3, 24, being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. In other words, salvations of
the Lord from start to finish. And the next question is this,
where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No. If you say, I did,
you know, the Lord did all he could do, but I, you know, I
had to pick up the slack. There's, then you're glorying
in the flesh. God doesn't save sinners that
way. First Corinthians 1 26, and this is the last thing I'll
say. You see your calling brethren,
you who know the Lord this morning, not many wise men after the flesh,
Most of us are idiots, aren't we? God might've saved a wise
man here and there, it wasn't this one. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world. And the things which are despised
hath God chosen, and yea, things which are not, They're nothing,
nothings. He chose a bunch of nothings
to bring to naught the things that are in their own eyes. That
no flesh should glory in his presence. Now you think about
his sovereignty. He runs everything and everybody, and when he saved
people, he saved who he wanted to save, and he saved the worst
of the worst, that no flesh should glory in his presence, but of
him, of Him, of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us, who of God, of Him, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's
not complicated, is it? Bow. Trusting believe him And give him all All of the glory
all of it. He's gonna get it anyway, whether
you like it or not And by his grace, I kind of like it Let's
pray