May God be pleased to bless us
together this evening as we consider His word. Let's turn to the second
book of Samuel, chapter 22, and reading verse 31. As for God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all them that
trust. in him. David was able to write from
a personal experience, a personal testimony, and therefore it is
very interesting for us to recognise that as David under the influence
of the Holy Spirit wrote such words as this, they would have
been true. And yet, as we might think upon
the life of David, and what a variety of situations he came into, and
for him to be able to speak in this way and say, as for God,
His way is perfect. We might question and say, well
David, surely that can't be true in your life. Surely that can't
be a fact. Surely it must be an untruth.
And yet, you see, We know that it was true. And in a similar
way, I'm sure that all of God's people, and may that include
all of us tonight, to be able to come and say, as for God,
His way is perfect. Now sometimes, of course, when
we're in the midst of a situation and we can't see the end, and
everything looks a muddle, doesn't seem to be any real way out of
it, and it seems very, very far from perfection. But what we
have to realize is that God is leading each one of us in an
individual way, and if we are God's people, that is to bring
us down to the end of our life, in a state fitted to go to heaven. Now, God's ways of bringing us
to that position in our individual lives is often very varied. But
we can thank God that there is a right way, a right way ordained
for every one of us. It is a different way so that
none of us can therefore say, well, I know what's going to
happen next, and that's what's going to occur. No, we don't
know what's going to happen next. We don't know what is before
us. What we do know is that God has
planned a perfect life for us, a life that will bring us at
last prepared to enter into heaven. The truth is that nobody comes
to the end of their life to go to heaven who is not prepared. God does that preparation. And you know, you and I would
not do that preparation in a right way, would we? You know, if we
were left to select our life, we would select a very easy way,
wouldn't we? We would select a way that just
pleased our flesh and there wasn't any problem. There weren't any
difficulties and we would want that to just occur. And what
would be the result? The result would be, that first
of all we wouldn't pray. Because everything would be going
on alright. So, God would not be inquired
of. so we can see immediately why
it is necessary that we don't know what's going to occur and
what the Lord will bring us into, so that we are able and we will
have to pray. And then also, secondly, the
Lord will direct us into a path that we're not able to control
ourselves, and in that path we will find that we're not as good
as we thought we might be. And we have to prove one important
factor, that we are born in sin and shapen in iniquity. Now,
again, that's something we would not choose to do ourselves. We'd like to have a very nice,
calm life without any acknowledgement of such a situation. The Lord
directs us into that way to realize that we are sinners. And you
may say, well, why is that? Well, I'll tell you why that
is. It's when we realize that we are a sinner and we need to
be saved from our sin. We need to be delivered from
our sin. It's then that we look out of ourselves and we look
up to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see, the glorious plan
of God then directs us to the Saviour so that He is exalted. And we truly thank God for the
life and the death and the resurrection and ascension and intercession
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, these things would not come
to pass if we planned our little life ourselves. Because we would
not choose that way. But God chooses the way. And
God chooses a way which brings this about, that His name will
be honored and glorified. His great work in our lives,
that great work of salvation, will bring to Him honor and glory. Well, I hope I've explained that
so that we can understand in some way why this word is true,
but we don't always observe it. As for God, His way is perfect. Well, you know, David's way was,
and if you think of the path that David was left in and how
he was left to himself. Now, we don't want to be left,
do we, to ourselves like David was when he committed adultery
with Bathsheba and also arranged for her husband to be killed,
a murder. A desperate situation. And, you
know, We see how easily David fell into that trap. And just
ponder that position. He was there. You see, he was
idle, really. He was wandering around on his
rooftop. And he saw Bhashiva bathing herself. And she looked so beautiful that
he was attracted to her and demanded that she come and lie with him. And we see, therefore, how we
should pray that we may not be left to be idle, but we should
always be occupied. And then that ran on, didn't
it? When she became pregnant and
she told David, then David determined to get rid of her husband. And
he tried a few simple means, but didn't succeed. And eventually
he told the leader of the army to put Uriah in the front line. where he was bound to get killed.
And he was, of course, killed. You see, David then thought that
none of these things would be remembered, but God knew all
about it. And God brought these things
to light when Nathan the prophet came and spoke to David and explained
the situation where there was two people that had, one was
very rich and one was very poor. One just had one new land. And
David was told by Nathan that the rich man took that little
single lamb from that poor man and used that to entertain. And
David was very angry. But then the Lord said through
Nathan, thou art the man. He realized what he'd done to
Bathsheba. And that's why we then are able
to read Psalm 51. And there in Psalm 51, David
explains his position. And we see that as he explains
his position, he cries for mercy from God. Now, he wouldn't have
done that if he hadn't been in that desperate condition. Now,
we would trust that we wouldn't be left to such a terrible sin
as David was. But nonetheless, we are left
to ourselves We are left sometimes to do those things which bring
us to a place where we have to come and to cry to God for mercy,
in a very similar way to the way that David prayed. We should
not think that the Word of God is just a collection of writings,
which is of little consequence. Everything is ordained by God
for the benefit of his people. And so David comes and he speaks
and he says, have mercy upon me, oh God. you and I will bless
God if he brings us to that place where we realise we need God's
mercy. I wonder tonight if we've been
there, or if we are there perhaps, you know tonight if you're there,
have mercy upon me. I remember when I was a young
lad, I couldn't pray very much, but I could pray, God be merciful
to me a sinner. And I remember those nights praying
like that. Not any clever prayer, was it?
But it was a real prayer. And it would be a blessed situation
if you know the reality of coming before God and having to pray,
not a fancy prayer, no one else hears it, only God. just like
that publican, have mercy upon me. Well, David cries out, have
mercy upon me, oh God, according to thy loving kindness, according
unto thy multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. He wanted God to blot out those
sins which he had committed. And you see, it brought him to
this confession. Now that's why we can understand
the truth of those words, as for God, His way is perfect.
God ordains in our lives those situations that bring us so that
we have to pray to God for mercy. Now that's not a very comfortable
position, is it? Because if you're praying for
mercy, you'll be very fearful that you may not receive mercy.
You'll be very fearful that perhaps God won't hear your prayers and
perhaps you'll end up in hell. Now you see that condition will
make your prayer more urgent and more real. Now you understand
perhaps why God's way is perfect. He brings us into that need,
that situation where we have to pray. Because we know if we
do not receive answers to our prayers, we shall be eternally
lost. And perhaps, you know, hell may then become a very real
consideration. You may tremble, you may fear
that you might wake up in hell. and you will need God's mercy.
Well, David had to pray for God's mercy. And my friends, every
child of God will have to pray for God's mercy. No one is accepted
from that. This is the ordained way of the
whole church of God, to be brought to a condition, to a situation,
to cry unto him. And it often is a cry, have mercy
upon me. And then he desires, he says,
wash me throughly from my iniquities and cleanse me from my sin, for
I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
Now, we don't like to confess sin, do we? You may say, well,
I don't find that too hard. Well, I'll tell you, you will
find it hard. It's not easy to confess your
sins. Why? Because we don't like to
admit we've been wrong. One of the hardest things is
to say sorry to people when we've done wrong. Yes, we try to justify
ourselves and think perhaps we've done right, but what a wonderful
thing it is when the Spirit of God comes and points the finger
at ourselves and we realise that we are the one that's done the
wrong. And we need to confess our sins
and to acknowledge before God, like David did here, my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. You know, you won't be able to
just shake these things off. You won't be able to think, well,
I'll go to sleep tonight and get up in the morning and I shall
forget about them. When the spirit of God is upon us, my friends,
you can't get rid of it. It'll stick with you, and you'll
need to cry out. And you see, David goes on, because
now he's standing before God. And he's saying, against thee
the only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that
thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when
thou judgest. Well, he had a good view of God,
didn't he? He had a good view of the righteousness
of God. And then he tells us, behold,
our desire is truth in the inward parts. That means in our very
heart. That means it's not just a mere
confession of our lips to say, well, I'm sorry for that. When
the Lord convicts us, it goes much deeper than that, and we
are really sorry for our sin, and we really cry for mercy,
and we really cry for forgiveness. Again, it's between your soul
and my soul and God. And so here was David, you see,
in this deep need, and it will be a deep need, in bringing you
to that position which you have to acknowledge As for God, His
way is perfect. Because if it was not for God's
gracious dealings with you and dealings with me, we would never
come to a position to recognize how bad we are and how we need
forgiveness. We just sail on in a general
way, satisfied with just what we might call a lip confession,
just words which don't really mean anything. But when the Spirit
of God comes and convicts us, and as it were, just like Nathan
told David, thou art the man to whom God speaks to you and
me, and convicts us so we can't look anywhere else, and we know
that we are the guilty sinner, and we need forgiveness, and
we need cleansing. What a blessing, isn't it, that
God deals with us in such a way. so that we have that personal
evidence that God is dealing with us. God is dealing with
us. Not a very comfortable situation,
but you know when the Lord does come and does show to us that
He has died for our sins, that our sins are washed away, what
will that produce? It will produce this, as for
God, His way is perfect. And the way that God deals with
you And the way that God deals with me and the way that God
deals with everyone is different. But it all comes to the same
thing, that we recognize ourselves as a perishing, lost sinner and
find ourselves crying. to the Lord Jesus Christ as our
all-sufficient Saviour. Well, here we have then, and
I won't go through it tonight, but you can read it in Psalm
51, it's fairly familiar, and it gives the true heart feelings
of David. As for God, His way is perfect. Now then, this perfect way will
direct us, without any doubt, to the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Saviour. And it may be that we don't understand
very much about the Gospel. You may not understand very much
about the Gospel. You may feel to be very ignorant.
When I was young, I was very ignorant of the Gospel. Really,
I was very ashamed. I didn't understand the great,
simple truth of salvation. I'd been to chapel all my life,
but you know I had deaf ears. Never listened. May have listened
as it were, but never heard anything to the saving of my soul. Ignorant
of the things of God. Do you know what a blessing in
our lives, if there's a time like this, when, as a hymn writer
said, not to propose, but to call by grace. The Lord comes and he calls us.
And we may wonder what it is about to start with. What a mercy
when that call finds us out. And when that call finds us out,
we then begin to seek. We begin to seek. I wonder tonight
if we look back in our lives and can find ourselves seeking. Seeking for mercy. Seeking for
salvation. Seeking to know that one day,
by his grace, we shall go to heaven. Because that will be
your real concern, won't it? It'll be your concern to know
that you're right when you come to die. Maybe the Spirit of God
is working in your heart to produce that concern that if you were
to die, what would happen to your soul? The truth is that religion then
doesn't become just a theoretical exercise. It becomes a reality. You may find yourselves trembling
before God. Well, what a blessing if God
brings you into that place to tremble before God and it's part
of His perfect way of leading us and directing us safely through
this life to bring us at last home to glory. Well, and then
you see to be directed to this great work of salvation. And
to think, well you may not think, you may not know, You may not
realize that in fact, way, way back in the garden of Eden, when
of course, Adam and Eve sinned so sadly, so terribly, when they
committed that, what we term original sin, the first sin that
entered into the world was when Eve disobeyed the word of God
and listened to the devil. and obeyed the devil. She didn't
obey God. She'd been deceived. And let's
not forget today that we face the same devil, and the same
devil is trying to deceive you and to deceive me today. Well,
we're thankful to God that in that Garden of Eden, the Lord
Jesus Christ came and spoke to Adam and Eve and told him, or
told them rather, what would occur, that the seed of the woman
should bruise Satan's head. That means, as the babies were
born, eventually there would be that one born who would come
and conquer the devil. And so, after many years, it
came to pass that Lord Jesus was born of a seed of a woman,
that Virgin Mary. And of course, that had been
prophesied, that had been mentioned many times in the Old Testament.
As you read the Old Testament, you'll find many occasions when
that situation is spoken of. not in perhaps clear terms, but
as it were, hidden in the Word of God. The prophets of old were
directed to speak of the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was that one who would indeed
conquer the devil. And because he would conquer
the devil, he would conquer sin. And that's why the Lord Jesus
came. Now just think of this for a
moment. The Jewish people expected Jesus
to come as a great king, and they expected Jesus to reign
on the earth. My friend, the Lord Jesus is the King of kings,
and he reigns in glory. But he came into this world as
a human being. Most people didn't realize it
was the Messiah. Even though those shepherds had
seen that glorious view, the angels had come and told them
that it was the Messiah. And yet you see how few believed.
And when Jesus was then revealed, when he was 30 years of age,
as the true Messiah, How few recognise Him as such. Well,
the blessing is today, if you and I are given grace to recognise
the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, personally. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, as
I have sometimes said before, had to come in that way that
He came. And one or two things. First
of all, He was born in the very lowest form, That was, he had
no place, he wasn't born in a home, he wasn't born in a hospital.
He was born and where was he? He was laid in a manger where
the animals fed. Very humble, exceedingly humble. In fact, if you think of it,
there could not be a more humble birth, could there? No one could
therefore come and say, well, Jesus, of course, was born in
a wonderful accommodation. No, he was born in the very lowest
circumstances. So, my friends, to think, therefore,
that Jesus, in that instance, met the very lowest case, the
very poorest person, the very weakest person, wherever
that might be in the world, can realize the Lord Jesus Christ
came right down to their level, to be born, that human life. And then of course he lived that
perfect life, didn't he? That perfect life, that sinless
life. Wasn't that wonderful to read
as you read the New Testament? You can see how the Lord Jesus
was tempted so many times and what hardship he lived in. Didn't have his own home. Only
had the clothes that he stood up in. Didn't have anything else.
No possessions in this world. My friends, the world was not
his rest. He was doing the will of his
Father. And that will was to save his
people from their sins. Let's just move on. Move on to
his death. Let's ponder that. His death. The very worst, most painful
death that anybody could die being crucified. And again, the
reason no one would have to be able to say, well, of course,
Christ didn't suffer very much. It was an easy death. No, my
friends, it was a most agonizing death. You see, we have these
words, as for God, His way is perfect. Perfect in the life
of the Savior. Perfect, therefore, for the Church
of God. but realise that we have such
a wonderful saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, almighty God himself. It's a wonder which is really
totally beyond our understanding to think that almighty God himself
should come down into this world to save his people from their
sins. As for God, his way is perfect. Well, I hope we can understand
a little of why this way is perfect. But then David tells us, the
word of the Lord is tried. That means it's tested. That
means it's refined. And by that, it means this, that
you and I, are blessed, if we are God's children, with a personal
testimony of God's work in our heart. And my friends, the devil
is always trying to confuse us. The devil always tries to bring
false things before our eyes. False things. Well, the Lord
has told us here that the word of the Lord is tried, it's tested.
And that's all part of this perfect work of God in your life and
my life. Those things which we hope and
trust and believe God has given us, they'll be tested. Tested. And the testing is illustrated
in the word of God by a furnace and gold. And the example is
given of gold being put into the furnace And it's not pure
gold and there's something mixed with it which needs to be burnt
up. And the Word of God in Zechariah
tells us that of one whole thing, only a third came through. Two thirds were lost in the furnace. So perhaps in your life, your
word that you may have been relying on, You find it's being tested. And you may find it's being burnt
up. And you may think, well, I don't
seem to possess that which I was relying on. Well, let me give
you a test. A test to see whether it emanates
from God or not. And the test is very simple.
If that word was from God, if that direction came from God,
What was the result? Or what will be the result? Was
it to bring honour and glory to God? Or was it to bring some
honour and glory to yourself? Let me just put it this way.
Sometimes people have prayed for a long time for a specific
blessing and they've never received it. And you may say, well, why
is that? Well, the reason is this. If
perhaps that particular blessing had been granted, they may have
said, well, of course, I prayed for that all this long time.
And what's the effect? The effect is that there was
pride and therefore people were really patting themselves on
the back for what a wonderful Christian they were and what
wonderful prayers they offered up. My friends, God's work receives
his honor and his glory. And you and I will be so thankful
it is so, and we'll bless God for it, but realize that we couldn't
put our hand to it. It was God's work. And you see
the test of the reality. And therefore, if perhaps you
are finding that something in your religion that you thought
was from God is now being really tried and tested, perhaps it's
disappearing, it's being burnt up. Don't forget the illustration. Only one third came safely through
the fire, and that was refined, and that was pure. The blessing
was, it was real. My friends, that's what you and
I want, don't we? We don't want anything which is false, anything
of our providing. We want that which is from God.
And therefore we will be thankful to be able to say, as for God,
His way is perfect, because His word has been tried. It's really
been put to the fire. And I realize now, yes, it did
emanate from God. And perhaps some things that
I thought were from God, I've had to lose. But my friends,
you won't lose that which God has given you. You won't lose
it. And remember this, hold fast that which is good. Hold fast
God's work. Rejoice in it. Bless God for
it. As for God, His way is perfect.
The word of the Lord is tried. And the clear inference there
is that we will find our religion tested again and again. It doesn't
mean to say that the Lord won't give you assurance. Assurance
is a wonderful thing to have. And it's right to seek after.
But nonetheless, sometimes that assurance will be tested. And
it's good that it is so. And it's part of God's gracious
work, so we're able to say, as for God, His way is perfect. You see, you and I would never
test our own religion, would we? We'd just be satisfied with
it. We'd say, that's a wonderful experience. That's a wonderful
situation. My friends, God will have all
the glory. Don't forget that. It's a very vital consideration.
You and I will not be able to glory in ourselves, but what
we will do is this. We'll glory in what God has done.
And we desire that his name will be lifted up and praise him for
his gracious and glorious work in our soul. Because God will
do that for you and for me, which we cannot do for ourselves. Another
good test of the reality of our religion. And then he says, the word of
the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all them that
trust in him. Well, this word buckler perhaps
is not a very familiar word. Really, it means a shield or
a protector. So the word of the Lord is a
trident, he is a shield, he is a protector. In actual fact,
it has a meaning which might be interesting, that you know,
a crocodile has a very, very tough skin, doesn't it, to protect
it. Well, the inference is here that
God is so wonderfully strong to protect his people. And that's
a glorious truth, isn't it? Because let's realize that Satan
is going about and we're told it's a roaring lion, not something
to be messed about with, a roaring lion, and yet to think that here
we have a great God who is a shield, a protector to us. that trust
in Him. What a blessing if God comes
and gives us that grace to trust in Him. We are told, trust in
me at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart unto me. If we are trusting in God, we
would need to be praying to God. You won't be able to just go
and say, well, I trust in God, everything's going to be fine.
No, you'll be concerned and you'll desire to pray to God. And, you
know, in praying to God is a blessing. Why? Because it brings communion
between your soul and God. Communion in prayer. It's a wonderful
blessing to be granted true, prevailing prayer. True prevailing
prayer. We are told to covet earnestly
the best gifts, and that's one of the best gifts, prevailing
prayer. And to be found between your
soul and God, pouring out your heart. You know, it's a wonderful
mercy, isn't it? That you and I can pour our heart
to God, and we can tell Him everything. We can tell Him all the bad things,
and we can tell Him our sorrow, and we can tell Him all about
us. It would be too a shame, perhaps, to tell other people.
We can come to our God. He is a buckler to all them that
trust in Him. We might think, you know, we
can trust this person and we can trust that person, but sometimes
they fail. Sometimes we prove we thought
we could trust them and we find we made a mistake. My friends,
you and I can trust our God. Because our God, He doesn't vary. He is the same yesterday and
today forever. I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. We have an unchanging God. And
my friends, what a blessing it is, therefore, as we journey
on through life to realize that this is our wonderful blessing,
to have an unchanging God that we can come to in every time
of need, pour out our heart unto Him, Yes, he is a Bhakra. To all them that trust in him,
he can preserve your soul. You may sometimes feel, remember,
like a Christian. in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress
there was the occasion when Christian was travelling along when he
was attacked by Apollyon and he fell over and he lost his
sword and he was fearful but what he did, he stretched out
his arm and managed to Get hold of his sword again, and thrust
at the devil, thrust at Apollyon, and he went away. Well, what
is that? The sword of the Spirit is the
word of God. And perhaps the devil has come
into your life so that the Bible has slipped out of your hands. And perhaps it's not where it
should be. And instead of reading the Bible, you're reading everything
else under the sun. Well, my friends, may God give you that
strength as it were to reach out your hand and take hold of
the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, and to read that.
And, my friends, be able then to resist the devil that he may
flee from you. Oh, the Lord's given us His Word,
the sword of the Spirit. What a wonderful thing it is.
And it's that which is there to defend us. He is a buckler
to all them that trust in Him. Well, my friends, may we be found
then trusting in our God. Here we have the truth explained
by God's servant David all those years ago. And what a good thing
it is if tonight we can come and we can believe the great
truths which are contained in the Word of God and be able to
say, Perhaps you may not say now. Perhaps you may say, well,
I can't really say that. Well, bless God, there will be
a time when you will be able to say it. As for God, his way
is perfect. That means when the crooked things
have been made straight, and the mountains have flowed down,
and you've seen the Lord appear for you in a wonderful way. What
a blessing it is to have such a God that you and I can come
to, a God who we know lives eternally, a God who does not change, a
God loves to hear and answer prayer. And so when we bless
God tonight for this truth, as for God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried,
expected to be tested, don't be surprised, but bless God because
of it, and that He is a buckler, He is a shield, He is a protector,
He is a defense to all them. that trust in him. May we all
tonight be found amongst those who truly trust in the Lord. Amen.