Let us turn again to God's Word
and directing you this morning to words that we find in the
book of Proverbs in Proverbs chapter 19 and taking for our
text the words of verse 21 Proverbs 19.21 There are many devices
in a man's heart nevertheless the counsel of the
Lord that shall stand there are many devices in a man's heart
nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand before
we come to the text let me just speak a personal word and say
something about this text first came to me many years ago now,
over 50 years ago I'd gone over to Northern Ireland to serve
as best man for a friend and that time he passed a volume
of sermons to me by J.C. Philpott and I remember quite
vividly whilst over there reading one of the sermons in that book
of Mr. Philpott's and he took for his
text these words that I've read this morning it's remained with
me ever since really. By means of that friend had come
to some better understanding with regards to the doctrines
of sovereign grace but I was rather shocked when I read Philpott's
sermon because he didn't only seek to expose the errors of
our minionism but he also exposed what he referred to as letter
Calvinism those whose Calvinism was only something in the head
as it were just an exercise in mental gymnastics with the great
truths of God's absolute sovereignty it rather shook me at the time
but it brought me to see the importance of us knowing what
it is for these truths to enter into the very depths of our souls
that we have to experience those doctrines of God's sovereignty
in salvation. When we think of the little mnemonic
tulip, that summary of the doctrines, total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, the perseverance
of the saints. We have to experience these things
and feel something of the truth, such as the truth of God's sovereignty
but also the truth of our own complete inability, our total
depravity, our impotence to do anything, that salvation must
be of the Lord in every aspect or there's no salvation at all. As I said, it's a text then that
has meant something to me over the years because I feel that
even in our day there are so many who might pay lip service
to these doctrines and yet in their practice, their methodology,
they're still very much Arminian in the way in which they seek
to conduct themselves. May the Lord help us as we come
to look at these words for a while this morning and I want to take
up the theme, the simple theme as it stands before us in the
text of Man's devices and God's decree. Man's devices and God's
decree. And you will immediately notice
that there is a contrast here. We have the plural with regards
to men. Many devices, it says. And then we
have the singular with regards to God. The council. of the Lords I know that we do
tend to speak in terms of the decrees of God because of course
living in this world with all the limitations of time and of
space we see how God is working out his purposes historically
as it were but we have to remember that God is in fact eternal and
his decree really is but one His decree is singular, as we
have it here in the text. Many counsels in the hearts of
men, but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand, that one great
purpose. And what is it? It is His own
glory. As Paul says at the end of Romans
11, for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to
whom be glory forever and ever. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He pleased says the Psalmist. Well let us
come and consider these two aspects of the verse First of all, to
say something with regards to the devices of man. There are many devices in a man's
heart. We're reminded, are we not here,
of the seat of all those devices. It's the heart of man. Elsewhere,
of course, in this book of Proverbs, we have that word there, keep
thy heart with all diligence. for out of it are the issues
of life keeping the heart because all the issues of life proceed
from from the heart what is to be understood by this word the
heart not just referring to that particular organ that so vital
of course to the flow of blood throughout every part of our
bodies. No, it's referring to something far greater than that.
It's referring to the seat of personality in a man, the central
force of the man's life. That's what the heart is. When
God created the man, he makes his body out of the dust of the
earth, but he breathes into his soul the breath of life, and
he becomes a living soul. And the Lord Jesus himself reminds
us, it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. All manner of evil, where does
it come from? It proceeds from the heart. This
is how we are to understand the word as we have it here. It refers
then to the very seat of the man's personality. It refers really to the soul
of the man. and there are many, many devices
there in man's soul. The Lord speaks through his servant
Jeremiah. There in Jeremiah 17.10, either
the Lord search the heart or God searches the hearts of
men. God knows the thoughts of men. We're told, aren't we, in the
New Testament how the Word of God is quick and powerful and
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit into the joints and marrow, a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart." Now there in Hebrews 4 the word
that is being spoken of really in the context is clearly the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. If you look at the context of
those words there in Hebrews 4.12, he goes on to speak clearly
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God. He is
the Word of God incarnate. He needed not that any should
testify of man. He knew what was in the heart
of man. but we can also understand those words in Hebrews 4 in terms
of the scriptures how God time and again finds us out by His
word it is like a two-edged sword, it pierces sometimes and it separates
it brings conviction into the soul of the sinner or with those
who recognize Him what is being spoken of here in the text the
many devices in a man's heart and how God can expose these
things. They're all exposed to his sight.
Man looks on the outward appearance, the Lord God is looking upon
the hearts of men. But when God comes and deals
with us, And if God does come and have dealings with us, we
will respond to that. We see how David responds in
the 139th Psalm. His prayer there at the end of
that psalm, Search me, O God, and know my thoughts. Try me, know my ways, see if
there be any wicked way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting. Or are we those who desire that
the Lord should come then and expose something of our hearts
to us, reveal to us the true condition of our never-dying
souls? He that doeth truth cometh to
the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are
wrought in God. Is that what we want? That God
would come and manifest to us what we are, where we are? If
we have any religion at all, if it's a real religion, Or is
it just a matter of mental exercise? The seat then of these devices is set before
us here in the text. The central force of a man's
life, all that the man is, all that proceeds from the depths
of his soul. But what do we see? It's not
only the seat of these things, it's the awful sinfulness it's
spoken of. many devices it says many devices
and they are sinful and what is it? it's confusion all that
the man thinks all that the man plans, all that the man invents
how solemn it is when we read those opening chapters in the
book of Genesis God's great work of creation how God has made
the man in his own image, created him after his own likeness set
him there in the garden, the paradise of God and then in chapter
3 the awful transgression, the fall of man, the entrance of
sin we just go on a few chapters and we come to the 6th chapter
there where God sees the wickedness of man that it is great in the
earth and every imagination of the thought of his heart is evil
continually And God will visit a judgment, a universal judgment
in the form of the flood upon that creation that he had pronounced
so very good. And it's all because of man.
Oh God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
And every imagination of the thought of his heart. It's a
Hebraism. Every imagination of the thought
of his heart. Not only his imagination all
he purposes, all he desires evil and evil continual the heart
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked it says all
the language that we have there in the book of Ecclesiastes God
says lo this only have I found God made man operant But they
have sought out many inventions. All the inventions of men, and
you know something of them. The invention of the theory of
evolution, in order that there is reason to deny the very existence
of a creator God. The folly of man, anything to
deny the truth of God's work. Oh, the wickedness of men, it's
spoken of here, it's confusion. Many devices, a multitude. The
wicked like the troubled sea which cannot rest. Waters casting
up mire and dirt, it says. Oh, no rest for the wicked. Their
sinfulness. And not only confusion, but also
enmity. The carnal mind, says Paul, it's
enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. The natural man, he doesn't receive
the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him.
Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
And these are the sort of truths, you see, we have to come to terms
with. Not just with our minds, but in our hearts. To feel what
we are as those who are born dead in trespasses and sins,
having the understanding darkened, says Paul, alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their hearts. Or the language of scripture,
it's hard. It's hard for the sinner. It's condemnation. There's no
hope for the sinner in himself. many devices in the man's heart
sinful devices, confusion, enmity, alienation but then the other
part of the text the counsel of the Lord God's decree man's
devices and God's decree and there are three aspects to that
decree that I want to mention this morning. Oh, that decree
is great. Oh, there's something glorious
about it. It's good. And then thirdly, it's gracious. First of all, to recognize that
God's counsel is indeed great it must be so because of who
he is himself he is of course the I am that I am or when he
reveals himself to Moses there at the burning bush in the third
chapter of Exodus how he declares himself he declares himself simply
in terms of the verb to be God says, I am that I am. And we say, He speaks in the
first person of course, we speak in the third person, we say He
is. I am, He is. And you know, the name Jehovah
really is the Hebrew form of that third
person of the verb to be. and we have that name Jehovah
of course throughout the Old Testament in our authorised version
as Lord in capital letters. Every time we see that word then
it is simply saying to us He is. I am that I am. This is my name
forever. This is my memorial he says unto
all generations. how great God is, how great God
is then with regards to His counsel, with regards to His decree. And when God's servant, the Prophet
Jeremiah is challenging the children of Israel in all the folly of
their idolatry, what does he say? There in Isaiah 40 verse
13, Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his counsellor
hath taught him, with whom took he counsel, and who instructed
him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge,
and showed to him the way of understanding, or the counsel
of the Lord, you see. It must stand, it is His alone,
the Great I Am. And there the Prophet goes on,
as God's mouthpiece, to challenge these people with the folly of
their idols. To whom then will ye liken gods? Or what likeness will ye compare
unto him? Or with whom took he counsel?
Who instructed him? He is God alone. My counsel shall
stand, he says, and I will do all my pleasure. I have spoken
it. I will also bring it to pass
I have purposed it I will also do it well this is the one who
speaks to us here in Holy Scripture there are many devices in a man's
heart yes but the counsel of the Lord that shall stand he
is not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should
repent, hath he said it, shall he not do it, hath he spoken
it, shall he not make it good. And there we see that this is
the God who is able to humble the greatest men on the face
of the earth. Think of a man like Nebuchadnezzar,
the great Babylonian emperor. And think of the seven wonders
of the ancient world, and amongst them, of course, the hanging
gardens there in Babylon. Do you remember how in the fourth
chapter of Daniel we see how the Lord God is able to humble
this proud man? His reason is taken from him,
and he begins to behave like one of the beasts of the earth. There in verse 29 of Daniel's
4, we're told, at the end of 12 months, Nebuchadnezzar walked
in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spoke and
said, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house
of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of
my majesty? While the words was in the king's
mouth, There fell a voice from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar,
to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. And they
shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the
beast of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass
as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until they know
that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth
it to whomsoever he will. and the same hour was the thing
fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and
he did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet with the dew
of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagles feathers and
his nails like birds claws and then God restores his reason
to him and he has to make that great confession how he praised
and honored the Most High that liveth forever whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, his kingdom from generation to generation. And here is his confession now,
this humbled man concerning the Lord God of Israel. All the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. Can he do as according to his
will in the army of heaven? And among the inhabitants of
the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him, What doest
thou? All God's counsel stands, even
with regards to the great men of the earth. Do we believe that?
As God showed us that blessed truth, His absolute sovereignty. All God's counsel is great. And it's interesting to remember
that though it be great, yet there is that that is so simple
with regards to the will of God. God's will is one. God's will
is one. There are not two wills in God.
Some like to speak of two wills in God. But there cannot be two
wills in God. There's a certain simplicity
really when it comes to the doctrine of God. God is one. Hero Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord. Yes, God is one. but God is also three persons.
That doesn't mean that there are three separate wills, there
is but one willing God. Now when it comes to the incarnation
of course, where the second person in the Godhead, God the Son,
becomes a man, we know that the Lord Jesus Christ has a human
will, as well as a divine will. But how that human will is always
subject to the divine will. He comes not to do his own will
but the will of him who ascended and to finish his work and there
as he is in the garden of Gethsemane wrestling with God in prayer
contemplating the cross how we see the struggles with regard
to that human will but he's brought to that place thy will, not mine,
be done. But God's will, when we think
in terms of the deity, the three persons, all there is at blessed
simplicity, it is one. He is in one mind. And you can
turn it. And what his soul desireth, even
that he doeth. We read there in Jeremiah, sorry,
in Job, in the book of Job, chapter 23 and verse 13. He is in one
mind. and who can turn him? Oh, there is a simplicity. There
is a simplicity in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a simplicity
then in the Christian religion. God's will is one. And we have to recognize how
God's purpose therefore stands. The counsel of the Lord that
shall stand it says and we read that ninth chapter in Romans
where the Apostle unfolds something of the wonder of these things
he speaks of Rebecca and Isaac and the twins conceived in her
womb the children being not yet born neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. Esau was the first
born to him. But the elder shall serve the
younger Jacob. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he said to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. All the sovereignty of God and
it's an absolute sovereignty, it's a double predestination
that we see there. Solemn as it is, but how true
it is. The absolute sovereignty of God,
His purpose must stand. Who is a rock, save our God. Or in that song of Moses in Deuteronomy
32, what does he say? He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all His ways are judgment,
the God of truth. And without iniquity, just and
right is her. His counsel, his purpose, it
stands. And it stands forever. There
is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord.
All the oppositions of men, all the oppositions of science so-called,
they cannot stand before this great God. all his counsel then
is great just as he himself he is the great I am that I am but
his counsel is also good oh it's good it's the good pleasure of
his will that he's spoken of there in Ephesians chapter 1
that sovereign will of God it's all in accordance with his own
good pleasure but I like the way in which Paul expresses it
in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 11 he says there
the good pleasure of his goodness all the emphasis you see on the
goodness of what God has willed and what God has purposed the
good pleasure of his goodness we think of the the words of
the 119th Psalm and there at verse 68 they are good and they
do us good His counsel is a good counsel His decree is a good
decree and what is it? is it not revealed to us in scripture
in terms of the covenant it's the covenant of His grace Zephaniah
speaks of the council of peace that shall be between them both
all that is the father and the son they've
entered into covenants that great covenants of redemption that
great purpose to save a multitude of sinners this is what God has
done and going back to the experience
of a man like Moses remember there in Exodus the matter of
the golden calf when Moses was away in the mount 40 days and
40 nights and the children of Israel are wearied where is this
man? what's become of him? and Aaron
makes the golden calf and they Imagine they can worship God
by means of a golden calf. It's contrary, of course, to
the commandment they're not to make any graven image. And God
speaks of disinheriting them. Moses comes down from the mount
with two tables in his hand and breaks them there at the foot
of the mount. The covenant is broken. God will disinherit,
but Moses stands in the breach and prays for them. And how does
Moses pray? Well, there at the end of Exodus
33, I beseech thee, it says, show me thy glory. Oh, he's pleading
for the people he wants God not to disinherit them, he wants
God yet to forgive them, to restore them. And he's pleading, show
me thy glory, and what does God say? I will make all my goodness
pass before thee. Oh, that's the glory of God,
his goodness. There is forgiveness with this God, and we see it
there, they're not disinherited. I am the Lord's, I change not,
therefore ye children of Jacob are not consumed. God is good. Many devices in a man's heart,
nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand. What a word is this, nevertheless?
Have you ever marked some of the neverthelesss that we have
in Holy Scripture? Here there is a contrast, is
there not? Between man and his devices and God and his counsel
and of course we see it we see it in the history that's unfolding
to us here in Scripture we think of Joseph and his brethren and all the hatred that they manifested towards
him they wanted rid of him you don't need me to go through the
history that's recorded there in the latter part of the book
of Genesis we're familiar with that history they would kill him but then
they sell him into slavery, into Egypt they go back and they deceive
their father Jacob make out that some wild animal has killed his
favorite son and they present the bloodstained coat of many
colors that was Joseph's to his father and Jacob thinks his son
is gone. The mystery of God's dealings
eventually of course he comes to that place of great preeminence
in Egypt and he's the saviour really of the whole household
of Jacob and then at the end of the book when Jacob dies and
now the brothers think that Joseph will wreak his revenge upon them
what does he say? fear not for am I in the place
of God ye thought evil against me But God meant it for good
to bring to pass as it is this day to save many people alive.
Ye thought evil. God meant it for good. Oh friends, do we not sometimes
think that God is doing evil in our lives? He's not doing
the things we want. He means it for good. He means
it for good. But think of that man Joseph. And what we read concerning his
experience here in the Psalms, Psalm 105 and verse 19. Until the time that his word
came, the word of the Lord tried him. When the Lord deals with
his people in terms of his word, he tries them many times. Until
the time that his word comes, there's an appointed time. It's
God's decree. It's God who is sovereign. And
we have to bow to that. Here is the contrast you see.
The devices of men, the decree of God. We see it in Joseph. All that evil that his brethren
meant. And yet, God overturns it all. It's all ultimately for good. But of course we see it primarily,
do we not, in the Lord Jesus Christ. and his experience. He comes
to his own, to the Jews, his own receiving lords. They will not have this man to
rule over them. Away with him! They say. Crucify him! What does Peter say when
he comes to preach there on the great day of Pentecost? And here
are this great company of Jews and proselytes at Jerusalem it's
a feast of weeks, it's Pentecost and there in Acts 2 we have the
record of his sermon him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and full knowledge of God ye have taken and with wicked
hands have crucified and slain or they were culpable, they did
it. With wicked hands they took the Lord of Glory and they crucified
Him. They nailed Him to the cross.
But it was all the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. God's sovereignty. He must suffer
in that way. He must be obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. But it's not just in the preaching. It's interesting we later in
chapter 4 of the Acts see how the disciples pray in terms of
these things. In chapter 4 and there at verse 26 and the
following verses their prayer in the face of all the persecution
that they're suffering from the Jews these early Christian believers
is part of the prayer in that fourth chapter the kings of the
earth stood up they say to the Lord God in prayer the kings
of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together
against the Lord and against his Christ for of a truth against
thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and
Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were
gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done and now Lord behold their threatenings and
grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak
thy word by stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs
and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus."
praying and pleading with God and they do it in terms of God's
purpose. Or they make reference to what was done in the crucifixion.
But it was all to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. And this is the God, you see,
who can do all things. Behold their threatenings. Oh
grant that with all boldness we may speak. They want God to
stretch forth his hand. Oh it's a pray over all these
things. To pray over God's counsel. As
I said only the other week, if we really believe in the sovereignty
of God, we'll see the vital necessity of real prayers. Because this
is how God accomplishes his purpose. I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel. to do it for them. I will increase
them with men as a flock. He has not only ordained the
end but the means whereby He will accomplish that blessed
end. Or do we believe that? In Isaiah,
what does the Lord God say to His people concerning the works
of My hand? Command ye My. Yes, His sovereignty
is absolute and yet He will have His people come and speak to
Him, so boldly. That's what we have in Christ
as our mediator, boldness, access with confidence by the faith
of Him. All God's counsel then, it's
grace, because of who He is, He's the glorious God, He's good.
Because God is good and does good. And then finally, just
to end on this note, that counsel is gracious, is it not? As I've
already intimated. We're to recognize his counsel
in terms of the covenant. What do we have here in the text?
What is the name that is given to God? He's the Lord. He's the Lord. there are many devices in a man's
heart nevertheless the counsel of the Lord Jehovah the I am
that I am that shall stand oh we are to think and we are to
pray in terms then of the covenant of grace can we not learn from
the experience of David when David comes to the end of his
days And we have his prayer there in 2 Samuel 23, although my house
be not so with God, he says, yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant ordered in all things and sure. This is all my salvation
and all my desire. All the everlasting covenant,
the counsel of the Lord. David's house, what confusion
in his house. thought he had sinned so greatly
in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite and the sword
was never to depart from his house out of God's hand and how
it was so the sad account of Tamar and how Amnon was lusting
after his sister and Absalom's rage because Tamar was to him
a full sister of course, not a half sister. They had the same
mother. All the confusion that came into
the house of David, even at the end when Solomon was to become
the king it was Adonijah, another of the brothers who was trying
to seize the throne. Always confusion. The devices
in men's hearts. but the counsel of the Lord stands
and here is David's comfort at the very end of his life he hath
made with myrrh an everlasting covenant ordered in all things
and sure this is all my salvation all my desire friends are we
those who would bow to the sovereignty of God and as we look at our
poor lives and consider our poor lives we think what confusion
all the confusion of our sins all the enmity and the alienation
of our sins and yet that God who is good oh that he might
have gracious dealings with us each one that he might come and
accomplish in us all his goodwill and pleasure but let us pray
that the Lord would indeed do such a thing and visit us and
bless us with this great salvation. There are many devices in a man's
heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord, that shall stand. Amen. Now sing together as I'm concluding
hymn this morning, hymn number 66 to his Riveau 396. Deep in the everlasting mind
the great mysterious purpose lay of choosing some from lost
mankind whose sins the land should bear away. Hymn number 66. He may never last in my death to grace and glory be obtained,
gave them a throne which cannot move, and chose them both to
be In these he holds resolve to
lay, The bridges of his goodness known. These he accepts for Jesus'
sake, And gives them righteousness, We say it not so from here, but
from heaven above. Faith and repentance he bestows
on such as he