Good morning. All right, we're
gonna continue in Psalm 23. Psalm 23, we'll be looking at
verse three. Last week, we were looking at
Christ our shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. We saw
that in verses one and two. And so, verse three, we continue
now beholding our Savior's glorious work in the salvation of his
people. And one important thing for us
to remember when we speak of the salvation of our Lord and
why we speak of the salvation of our Lord is because salvation
isn't a one-and-done thing. It's not a one-time, one-and-done
thing. And what I mean by that isn't
that our salvation is in jeopardy with the Lord, but rather that
the Lord works His will. He works His will in us in revealing
his salvation to us in Christ. He's revealing his perfect will
in us concerning Christ. And so our salvation is a continual
working out of our Lord's will toward us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Just remember that, that
the Lord is ever pleased to reveal the mystery of His of his grace
in Christ in us. And so we're continually coming,
we're continually being turned by him and to him as our shepherd. And this salvation is described
throughout the scriptures. And the one verse that came into
my mind when I was writing that intro is Romans 8 30. Romans
8 30, which says, moreover, whom he did predestinate. We were
saved when he predestinated us, but salvation was still taking
place. Whom he did predestinate, them
he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. And so we see that our Lord is
ever working his salvation in us and glorifying his name and
ensuring our salvation from beginning to end. And so our title here
is Lead in the Paths of Righteousness. Lead in the Paths of Righteousness. And we'll have two divisions.
We'll just take the first phrase, Christ restoreth my soul, and
then we'll take the second phrase after that, being Lead in the
Paths of Righteousness. All right, so look there at verse
three, Psalm 23, verse three, and it says, He restoreth my
soul. He restoreth my soul. So that
Christ, as a shepherd, is the one who restores the soul of
his people. So believer, know and understand
that it's Christ that revives your soul. He revives your soul. He strengthens us when we are
faint and when we're weak. He's the one that turns our hearts
to him when our hearts are wandering or afraid. or thinking of other
things, it's the Lord that turns our hearts to Him. He's the one
that restores us to fellowship with Him. We're told that He
sanctifies us. He's the one that separates us
unto Himself. He's the one that separates us
from the goats, from the flock of the goats, bringing us into
the flock of His fold, of the sheep of His fold, and this is
done through sanctification of the Spirit. The Spirit sanctifies
us. The Spirit separates us from
this world and the love of this world and the path of this world
unto the path of our Savior, our Lord and Savior. Now, understand
though that this tenderness that we see in our Lord, it's a tender
thing, right, for the Lord to care for us and to do for us
what we cannot do for ourselves. But understand that that tenderness
of the Lord is only because of His gracious work of salvation
in putting away our sins by the sacrifice of Himself. We know that the Lord Himself
is the one that sought us out and redeemed us on the bloody
cross to put away our sins. We're the offenders. We're the
rebels. We're the ones who earned the
wrath of God. but Christ himself put away that
wrath in mercy and in grace. And we see his tenderness. He
was speaking in Matthew 18 verses 11 and 12. He tells us that the
Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. That which is lost. And that's
where we begin. In our understanding of the Lord,
we begin lost, dead in trespasses and sins, unknowing, unknowledgeable
of the things of our God. And he says, though, how think
ye, if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone
astray, doth he not leave the 99, and go into the mountains,
or go into the wilderness, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And so, we see there just the
tenderness the mercy and the grace of our Savior. You that
find it hard to believe that the Lord should love you, think
of His tenderness, that He should leave the 99 sheep, that He should
leave His glory with the Father, that He should come into a place
where He's surrounded by enemies and those that hate Him and reject
Him. And yet, for the sake of His people, that they might know
Him and be delivered from the wrath of God He came and took
upon Him the likeness of this flesh, and He plunged Himself
into the sea of God's wrath to deliver us from the wrath of
God, to deliver us from the condemnation and the guilt which our sin has
earned for us. So Christ is the Restorer of
life and fellowship, and we understand He's the one that does it. He
is the Restorer in grace. apart from any works that we
do, the Lord is the restorer of the soul of His people. And so we understand and we pause
to think and consider it's a spiritual work. It's a spiritual work that
the Lord does for His people apart from their works. How many
times did we grow up in religion saying salvation is of the Lord
but then imagining that our restoration, our health, our peace, and our
comfort really was found in the things that we were doing or
not doing. We're always looking to ourselves, because that's
what religion teaches us, and that's what they instruct us
in, is what you need to be doing, but in spite of us, in spite
of our doing, in spite of our idolatry, the Lord actually is
very tender to us and merciful. and turns us out of the path
of the wicked and turns us into the path of the righteous because
he is our very righteousness. So it's the Lord that makes us
alive. He gives us life. It's the Lord
that gives us a willing heart. It's the Lord that instructs
us when we rebel and when we're being chastened and when we're
being taught and reminded of Him, it's the Lord that does
it, and it's He that makes His word effectual in the heart.
Because we hear it, and we hear it, and we hear it, and one day,
He makes it effectual in the heart. And then thankfully, He
returns and makes it effectual again in the heart, and turns
us again to Himself as well when we forget what He's already taught
us. You know, over in John 6, if
you turn there, John 6, versus 44 or 45. At the beginning of that verse,
it reveals to us our heart. It shows us what we are, the
condition and the state that we're in. When you see it, you
see it. When you see what the Lord is
showing us that we have nothing to boast in, you see it throughout
the scriptures. And he says in John 6, 44, no
man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw
him. The Father has to draw him. And
yet, hearing that, knowing that it's God that must draw us, we
hear grace. Because the Lord then says, and
I will raise him up at the last day. So that, as far as we're
concerned, from our perspective, there is no coming to salvation. There is no coming to Christ.
But our Savior speaks in terms of definite grace. I will raise
him up at the last day. In other words, there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. He's going to cause his
people to hear his word. He's predestinated us, and he
shall call us according to his will and purpose. And then he
says, verse 45, it's written in the prophets, and they shall
be all taught of God, every man. Every man. In other words, the
all that are taught of God, he's now defining them. He's distinguishing
them grace by saying every man therefore that hath heard and
hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. It's a gracious thing
for our Lord in that that he's the one that turns and every
one of his chosen elect sheep to himself. And he teaches them,
and he turns their hearts, and they do come to Christ. And we continue to come to Christ. And stay there in John 6, but
we see that our Savior, he restores our soul continually, he keeps
us coming, and he feeds us with Christ. As we saw last week in
verse 2, that he maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He
leadeth me beside the still waters. It's Christ that does that, and
he's feeding us. And now verse 51, read that with
me, John 6, 51. Our Lord says, I am the living
bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Now, how do we eat? How do we
partake of this heavenly bread? How are we to eat of this heavenly
bread? It's heavenly bread, and we're
physical. How do we eat of it? Is it by
the preaching of do's and don'ts? Is it by looking to the law and
looking to Moses for our salvation? No, we feed upon the heavenly
bread in the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. in declaring
Him, in exalting Him. Over in John 12, if you're still
there in John, John 12 verse 32. Our Lord said in I, if I
be lifted up will draw all men unto Me. He'll draw His people. And we know in the context there,
It says right after that, that this he said, speaking of his
crucifixion, how he should die, that he would be lifted up on
a cross. But it's no less true that we
lift up and exalt our Savior through the preaching of the
cross of Christ. That's how we lift him up. Our
Lord said he taught He taught Paul, you know, and Paul, we
all know that one verse where Paul said, and I knew nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, 1 Corinthians
2. But he says that in other places
as well when he was speaking to the Galatians. He said, and
I, you know, brethren, before whose eyes Christ hath been set
forth evidently crucified among you. When Paul was there preaching
to them, he set forth Christ. Evidently set forth Christ in
the preaching. When he said, crucified among
you, he's saying, we preached and declared to you Christ crucified. Because when we preach Christ
crucified, the proper understanding therefore is that, wow, That's
how wicked I am. That's how evil I am, how unable
I am to save myself by keeping some set of laws. There's no
law which God gave that could have worked righteousness in
me by my doing. Otherwise, that would have been
sufficient. But the very fact that Christ came and was crucified,
not for any sins that he did, declares and affirms for us that
we ourselves are the rebels, we ourselves are the sinners,
in need of that grace, which he has shown to us in his Son,
Jesus Christ. And so, because, you know, they
look at this, at Christ crucified, and they think that's just an
initial piece to it all, and that it's just something to be
tossed behind you, after you see and believe that Christ was
crucified. And they think that that's just
something that we pass on behind us. But the Lord, he's declaring
that this is our very salvation. What Christ has done, what he's
accomplished for his people, was to work righteousness in
that. He saved us and he makes us holy by himself. So, many in religion, they're
always looking to the things that they are doing or not doing
to trust in those things for our righteousness and our holiness
and our sanctification. But it's the Lord who is, as
our shepherd, our holiness, righteousness, and sanctification. And so, All
that are the shepherd's sheep know that he restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. And because it's him, because
it's his name on the line, because it's his glory at stake, he does
the work. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 3.
2 Corinthians 3. And verse 3. That's what he's saying here
when he says, 2 Corinthians 3.3, for as much as ye are manifestly,
ye are manifestly, it's evident, it's evident that you are declared
to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us. You're Christ's epistle. He's the one writing his law
on your heart. It's the law of faith. It's the
law of Christ. He's the one that's turned your
heart, taken out your hard heart, which needed to be whipped and
beaten and driven by the law. He removes that hard heart and
gives his people a heart of flesh, a soft heart that hears his word,
that obeys his voice, and that loves him and is constrained
by his love. And so that Christ is the one
that's writing his epistle in each of our hearts. gathered
us together in the body, not with ink, but with the spirit
of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables
of the heart." And he meant to say not in tables of stone to
let us know it's not by the law. It's not by the law that we are
driven and taught and do works of righteousness and bear fruits
of righteousness. Not at all. It's not by the law,
but by the Spirit of Christ in you. The Spirit of Christ in
you. He's the one teaching us and
leading us and guiding us in the paths of righteousness for
his name's sake. The reason why we speak of Christ,
the reason why we preach him is because the letter killeth,
but the spirit maketh alive. All right, and so our Lord makes
us witnesses of these things, of his righteousness, of his
work, how that he is the one who is the restorer of his people,
the restorer of my soul. All right, now let's move on
to the second point here, this being led in righteousness. Look
back in Psalm 23, verse three. He says, he leadeth me in the
paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Now, what we're
confessing here, when we say this with understanding, with
a new heart by the Spirit, We're confessing that Christ is all
my salvation. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. We're declaring and confessing
that Christ is all my righteousness. He's all my salvation. I have
no confidence in my flesh and what I do. One of the ways we
see this is that Christ does lead by example. He does go before
us and he does lead by example. But Christ is so much more than
an example for us. He's so much more than just an
example for us. There are some out there that
preach Christ as an example. They preach him as an example.
of how we are to walk and how we are to conduct our lives here. But to preach just Christ as
an example for us is to deny the efficacy and the power of
his sin atoning blood sacrifice. When he died, he has power and
authority and he works that power and authority in us, in us. And he's the one that transforms
us and turns our hearts by his power. And so to preach Christ
only as an example that we're to follow, really when you think
about it, if I'm just telling you, look at what Christ did
and do what he did, I'm preaching work salvation. I'm telling you
this is how you're going to save yourself by doing what he did
and that's works salvation. And so it's nothing more than
just teaching you how to live morally and telling you that
if you, you know, he set an example and you're to do your best now
like him and to live moral lives. And there are preachers out there
that that's, that's their ministry is teaching people how to be
moral. And that's just creating more
Pharisees in the world and getting you to be more pharisaical and
thinking that that's your salvation in doing these set of laws and
these practices. But the scriptures teach us that
Christ is the very righteousness of his people. He is their very
holiness and their righteousness and we that know that and believe
that, we're resting in Christ. We're not laboring for righteousness. We're not laboring to justify
ourselves. We're not laboring to sanctify
ourselves. We're looking to him who is our
very righteousness and holiness and saying, Lord, that's how
I must be. I must be perfect as he is perfect.
Lord, I believe that he is the very salvation that you have
provided for your people. And that's faith, resting right
there, just resting in Him, believing that His works are sufficient
to cleanse me of all my sin and to make me righteous, to make
me acceptable to the Father. We're resting in His works. That's Him that leadeth me in
the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. He is our very
righteousness. He is the path that we go by
faith. We believe Him and rest in Him.
Now, our God and wisdom put us in Christ. It was wisdom that
gave us to Christ and put us in Christ and entrusted our salvation,
our very life, all our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
one that did that. Our Savior was made under the
law, and being made under the law, He obeyed the Father in
all things. He obeyed the will of the Father
in all things, even unto the death of the cross. And so, He's
the one that has obtained our salvation and glory in Himself. Turn over to Galatians 4. Galatians
4. Go to Galatians 4, and we'll
start in verse 3, because I want us to see how this is outlined
for us in the scriptures. In Galatians
4, verse 3, first he says, even so we, when we were children. And that's a sweet term, isn't
it? When we were children. He's talking about you that are
elect, you that are the chosen of God, you that are hearing
his word and believing his word, trusting in him. Even so, when
we were children, we're in bondage under the elements of the world. And what he's declaring there,
our election, even when we didn't know the truth, Even when we
were dead in trespasses and sins, we were his people, his children. And look there back at Galatians
3, 29. The children being Abraham's
seed and heirs according to the promise. See, so the children
were in bondage, but we were Abraham's seed. We were children
of the promise even back then while we were yet dead in trespasses
and sins. But when the fullness of the
time was come, verse four, God sent forth his Son, made of a
woman, made under the law. He made Christ a fit sacrifice,
a fit substitute for his people, being made of flesh and blood,
yet without sin, verse 5, to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. so that Christ
our Savior, he's the one that delivered us. He shed his blood,
he gave his life to deliver us out of the bondage of sin and
death, out of our prison, out of our deadness and inability
to do anything to save ourselves before the Lord. And so he obtained
forgiveness. He obtained life for his people
in himself. Verse six, and because ye are
sons, sons and daughters, God hath sent forth, this is important,
God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying,
Abba, Father. And so what the Lord is saying
there is, well, that's the leading us in the paths of righteousness.
He gives us his spirit, whereby just like a newborn baby, who's
newly born, comes forth and they begin to cry and make those noises
and gasp for breath and cry out. And it's in that same way that
having the spirit of Christ now, we cry out, Abba, Father. daddy
have mercy upon me Lord be gracious to me a sinner and so that right
there that's the faith that's faith that that's the cry of
faith whereby we are now even now on the very paths of righteousness
because it's Christ Christ is the paths of righteousness that
he brings us through all right so Christ spirit regenerates
us and we're born again made alive to the things of God, because
before we were dead to these things, we're made alive to the
things of God, and we cry out for Him, and we leave our own
fleshly path, we leave our own way of death, we leave our own
walking in the course, in the ways of this world, under the
prince of the power of the air, doing those things that the children
of disobedience do, and the children of wrath were taken out of that,
and brought into the paths of righteousness, wherein the fruit
of the Lord is born in us by the Spirit of Christ in us, so
that we now follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth. And we
follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth. So Christ is our righteousness. He's not showing us how to be
righteous. He is our very righteousness. And that's what faith believes.
Lord, he's my righteousness. in your son. Receive me in his
blood. Receive me in what he's done
to satisfy you and please you. Not in what I do and what this
flesh does. So I'm going to quote from a
couple portions in Romans 10. Romans 10 verse 6 is where I'll
start and I'll go down to verse 8 through 10. Verse six, it starts,
but the righteousness which is of faith, speak it on this wise. All right, the righteousness
of faith, speak it on this wise. And then Paul. Says there in
the rest of verse six and verse seven, what he's talking about
there is he's saying faith doesn't look at the outward. Faith doesn't
look at, well, who's gonna send up to heaven? Well, I'm doing
these things, I'm religious now, and I'm following the law, or
I'm going to church now, so I'm going to heaven. I've been baptized,
so I'm going to heaven. Faith doesn't talk like that.
And faith doesn't say, and you're not doing those things, so you're
going to hell. Right? Faith doesn't do those things.
That's not the word of faith. But look at verse 8. The word
is nigh thee. And I stopped and I was thinking
about that. The word is nigh thee. In other words, what he's
saying is it's a spiritual work. The work is nigh thee. It doesn't
matter whether you're a Jew who had the law or you're a Gentile
who didn't have the law. and didn't have the prophets,
and didn't have the oracles, and all those things that God
gave to the Jews, because the word is naive. It doesn't matter
where you were born, or who you are now, or what you had growing
up, it doesn't matter, because the word is naive, naive because
it's spiritual. Like our Lord said, he said to
the woman at the well, woman, the hour cometh, and now is,
when the true worshipers shall worship God neither in this mountain,
nor yet in Jerusalem. It's a spiritual thing. It doesn't
matter where you are, what you've come from, where you think you're
going. The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy
heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach. Thinking about the one who sends
the spirit of Christ into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." In other words, that's simply saying, he's making
it as simple as possible to remove all things from the flesh. The
Spirit of Christ in us looks to Christ We believe Him. We
believe the Lord. We believe His testimony that
He is the Lamb of God sent to take away the sin of the world.
The sin of His people scattered throughout the world. He's the
Savior. That's why He sent Him. Believe
Him. Trust God. Believe Him. He's
not a hard, wicked man who's an exactor. He will be an exactor
of all His creation. who come before him in their
own works, but those who come knowing, Lord, I'm nothing. I've
got nothing. I'm not faithful. I'm not able
to save myself. But you sent your son for this
very purpose. And those that believe him, rest
in him, trust him, believe him. That's why he's telling you this
beautiful gospel word, because he loves his people and is willing
to receive all that come to him by faith. calling out upon Him,
having no confidence in their flesh. That's the believing of
man. And therefore, because you believe,
you confess it. It's just going to be so. You're
going to confess it. Lord, I believe. He's my Savior.
He's my hope. I have no other hope but the
Lord Jesus Christ. So faith trusts Christ and His
work, sometimes very weakly, sometimes very imperceptibly,
but faith trusts his work. Because we know, what else do
we have? We have nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
we know that he's done all things necessary for his people. Necessary
for salvation. Everything's accomplished in
him. Everything that was necessary, the Lord has done it. And that's
why I said in the beginning, he continues to do it. Everything
necessary is going to be done. It's already done. It's already
accomplished. He cannot fail. You are his epistle,
and he will not fail. He will not fail, and you shall
not fail to come into that glorious end which he has purposed to
do for all his people. All right, so even now, the next
thing I want us to understand is just that Christ has made
us holy. We don't become more holy. We don't do things to make ourselves
more holy. And probably the best way to
understand that is when you have a baby inside your belly, you
mothers, when you have a baby inside your belly, is that baby
Not a human being? Is that baby, when it comes out
and grows up, it's no less a human being. It's not going to be any
more of a human being when he's 20 years old. Alright? It's still
a human being. From the beginning to the end,
it doesn't become more of a human being. It's a human being from
the start. Alright? Just like your little
children, they're human beings right now. They're going to grow.
They're going to grow with strength and wisdom. and various gifts
and things like that, they're gonna grow, but they're still
humans. All the way from the beginning,
it is. And that's how it is with Christ. We are already, we're
already holy in Christ. And we're not gonna be more holy
than we are in him. He's our holiness. All right,
so we do grow. Peter said at the end of 2 Peter
3, the very last verses, he says in verse 17 and then 18, He says,
ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before,
beware, lest ye also, being led away with the air of the wicked,
fall from your own steadfastness. All right, there's those that
hear these things and are led away. They don't have the spirit,
they have just a good religious discipline about them, and so
they stay in it for a while, but then are eventually led astray
by the way of this world. And what he's saying to you that
do believe, what we hear is we're reminded, we're humbled, we're
put in our place so we don't think of ourselves too highly
than we ought to think, we're reminded salvation is of the
Lord. Don't think that this is of us,
it's something that we've done, it's of the grace of our God
toward us. And so we seek, we continually
seek Him, we're reminded, of we see how cold we get, we see
how hard we get, we see the indifference that we have by nature and the
flesh. But, verse 18, grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him
be glory both now and forever, amen. So that the Lord is the
one who receives all the glory. Now, he tells us to grow in Christ,
to grow in Christ. And we ought not to miss that,
that we are growing in grace, we are growing in knowledge,
but in my experience, that growing in knowledge was, again, forgetting
about Christ. He was just an afterthought.
That's already been done and taken care of. Now it's time
to go on to memorize and learn the Bible stories and the good
moral lessons in these things and to start putting these things
into practice. Christ was just an afterthought. Or, if I'm talking
to some of you, I know that sometimes Christ is down the road. You
come in first doing the religious things, you know, jumping through
the hoops and doing the somersaults and doing everything they tell
you to do, and then one day, down the road, you can get to
Christ. He's in the past, others, he's down the road when you get
yourself holy enough for him. Either one is a lie and it's
not the truth. But Christ is who we're looking
to. We're growing in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And if that's
not a testament to why we preach Christ, then I don't know what
is, because we're growing not in knowledge of religious things,
not in the knowledge of dead letter religion, but we're growing
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
which means we're lifting him up and preaching him and declaring
him to sinners because that's how we're gonna grow in our Savior. So there is growth, there is
growth. We do grow and we do mature and
we do learn about the Lord and so that we are growing in love,
we grow in knowledge, we grow in judgment, right, the sense
of these things so that When trouble and afflictions come,
we understand the Lord is doing His work and He settles us so
that there's patience and experience in trusting Him in what He's
doing, even though it may be painful in the flesh. And so we do bear fruits of righteousness. In Philippians 1.11, Paul said,
being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by
Jesus Christ. And always connecting everything,
every growth, every fruit we bear is always connected to the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's all produced of him unto
the glory and praise of God, right? So it is our desire. He turns our hearts. He does
give us a desire to walk in Him, to be faithful, to be found faithful,
not to be troublemakers, not to be just committing sin and doing
those things which are not convenient and that we ought not to do.
So we don't walk after the flesh in this world but we walk after
Christ. We walk after Christ and we should want to walk in
his footsteps. We should look at what he did
and have a desire to be like him, have a desire to treat others
the way he treats us and the way he treated sinners and those
that had nothing to give to him. So we're We do think of these
things and we do pray that the Lord help us in this, but we
know that it's worked in us not because of what we do and not
how we do it, but that we're trusting He's the one stirring
up the heart and causing us to look to Him and causing us to
seek Him in this so that we're growing in grace and the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, let me just say
a few practical things and then we'll end. One thing that we
do is understand that we do influence others, right? By the things
that we do, by the things we say, by how we act, it does influence
other people. And we influence people either
for good or for evil. And we do. It's just what comes
out of my mouth, what I do, it's going to influence people. It's
going to have an impact. So remember that we do influence
influence people, especially young people. Especially young
people who watch us and are looking to see whether what we believe
and say is true. It will influence them, what
we say and what we do. And so we do take care in our
interactions with one another. If you turn over to 1 Corinthians
10, look at 1 Corinthians 10 and go to verse 31. Let's look
at a couple verses here. He says, whether therefore ye
eat or drink, this is 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31. Whether therefore
ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of
God. So even in the most basic thing
of just eating and drinking with others, remember that you're
the Lord's and do those things to the glory of God. And so think
of it even in terms of how we speak with one another, right? You know, sometimes, well, all
the time, after I've said something harshly to my wife, I hear it
after, and I can see the look on her face, and that hurts me.
I don't want to hurt her. I don't want for her to think,
well, what a jerk. But I do say those things, but
I don't want to do those things. And so that's how we remember
when we're dealing with one another. And even careless words, we want
to be careful with, with careless words and not just to go about
being crass and vulgar in our speech, even when we're in the
midst of one another, because again, people are listening.
There's ears listening. And look at what it says in the
next verse, verse 32. Give none offense, neither to
the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. And,
you know, we still experience that here, you know, even here.
When people come in through these doors, You'll have Jews that
come in through the doors. You'll have people that are very
self-righteous. You'll have people that are very
committed to the law, very trusting in those things. So try not to
do those things that you know are going to offend them, because
we want them to hear the gospel. We want them to hear the gospel
and not find an excuse to say, that's not the truth. That's
not the truth there. Same thing with Gentiles. There's
others that are very loose and liberal and free and never had
that experience or exposure we're going to influence them as well
by the things that we do or say or how we act, nor, and then
this one especially, nor to the church of God, to one another.
We don't want to influence one another in a bad way. And then verse 33, this has to
do with submitting to one another, but he says, even as I please
all men in all things, even the apostle pleased all men in all
things, as much as lied in him that he could, not seeking mine
own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved."
Or as he told Timothy, I do all things for the sake of the elect.
We don't know who they are, so we do all things for their sakes.
So Christ leads us therefore, he's leading us in paths of righteousness.
Remember those things, pray about those things, because who are
we but nothing, and we struggle with things. But pray, because
we want to follow the Lord. We want to grow in grace and
in the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ and walk rightly
towards one another. And then we are to walk in love
and faithfulness. He says in Ephesians 5, 1 and
2, Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and
walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us. and hath given
himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling
Savior." So, remember as we confess Him and walk in Him, we're praying
that the Lord help us to walk in the Spirit, because that's
how we walk. We walk in the Spirit. He is our righteousness. We can't
make ourselves any more righteous than what He's made us. But we
trust that we have His Spirit, And next week we'll see, when
we go through Romans, we'll see that more, because that's again
what Paul is saying in Romans 6, verse 5, and I think we'll
look at a few verses there. And we see that we're raised
in the Spirit. We have a spirit to walk in newness
of life. And so we'll see that. And so
I pray that this meditation of these things, that the Lord will
bless them to your heart. And that He'll, you know, because
it's Him that gives us the heart. And it's Him that turns us, restores
us, gives us a willing heart to hear, gives us a willing ear
to hear it, and to want to walk in our Savior. in adorning the
doctrines of His grace in us and what He's done for us. And
so I'll just close reading our text, Psalm 23, three, He restoreth
my soul, He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His
name's sake. Amen. All right, let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank you for your grace and your mercy. Lord, we thank you
that it's not by the works of the law and that it's not by
our perfection in the law that we are saved, but it's by the
perfection of your Son, Jesus Christ, that we are purified
and cleansed and delivered of the bondage of our sins. And
Lord, we pray that you would indeed stir in our hearts that
you would cause us, Lord, to seek you, to seek your face,
trusting you, resting in you, and walking in that newness of
life which you have borne in us by your Spirit. Lord, we pray
for your people here. Lord, that you would settle us
in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would teach us and grow us
as a body with having many members but as a body of in Christ we
pray that your name would be glorified among us as it's to
it's for your praise and glory and honor that we pray this lord
knowing that we ourselves are nothing but that you are all
and that you are the salvation of your people and we pray that
you would be pleased to bring many others here, many others
that need salvation, that need the salvation that is provided
in Christ alone. Let us remember them and pray,
Lord, that you would indeed set up this place and establish it
as a beacon of light where your gospel is proclaimed and declared.
It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Stand with me as we sing our
closing hymn 224, I Know Whom I Have Believed. I know not why God's wondrous
grace to me he hath made known, Nor why unworthy Christ in love
redeem me for his own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not how this saving faith
to me He did impart, Nor how believing in His word brought
peace within my heart. But I know my head believeth
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. I know not how the Spirit moves
convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word, creating
faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed
in, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've
committed unto Him against that day. I know not one of good or
ill may be reserved for me. Of weary ways or golden days
before his face I see. But I know my heavy livin' and
am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not when my Lord may come
at night or noonday fair, Nor if I'll walk the veil with Him,
Or meet Him in the air. But I know whom I have believed
in, And am persuaded that He is able To keep that which I've
committed Unto Him against that day.