Good morning. It's good to see
everyone with us and glad to have you visitors with us this
morning. If I'm not mistaken, I believe you folks might be
here from Jim Byrd's church. Is that right? And this is a
Coleman family. They came all the way from Michigan
to be with us this morning. So actually, I think we were
in route, but we are pleased to have you with us. So welcome,
and glad to have y'all with us this morning as well. Walter
and Carolyn, if y'all hadn't noticed, it's good to see old
folks back here. So in any event, thank you for
being here. In Proverbs chapter 3 verses
5 and 6, we read a familiar passage. It reads, trust in the Lord with
all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Now these two verses speak to
us concerning the life and the walk of God-given faith. The Bible teaches us that all
those blessed with eternal salvation in Christ, those bound for heaven's
glory, they're given the blood-bought gift of faith at some point in
their respective lifetimes. And with this new revelation
of faith, in belief of God's gospel, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, they place their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for
all of their salvation. And so, having been born of the
Spirit, they embark down a new path, a pathway to glory, as
I've titled this morning's message. And I want to consider this subject,
a pathway to glory, from two perspectives. First, we know
there's a path or a way of salvation. That's what the gospel of God's
grace sets forth, the one way in which sinners are eternally
saved as it's set forth in God's Word, the Bible. So God's way
of salvation could certainly be referred to as the one pathway
to heaven's glory. And by initial God-given faith
in belief of God's gospel, that is his one way of salvation,
regenerated born-again believers first trust in the Lord. And
so they thereby embark on a new path, a pathway to glory. But this is just the beginning
of their journey. But it's the beginning of a life
everlasting. They've been given spiritual
life. They've been given eternal life. And think on that. True believers
have in them the immortal seed of eternal life, a life which
cannot perish. So by God-given faith in the
new birth, they begin a new journey. A new life of faith begins, an
everlasting one. A life that shall never end.
And so as they continue then on this leg of their journey
here on earth, each of these justified sinners, of them the
scripture declares that they, the just or the justified, meaning
those who are declared righteous, not guilty, the just shall live
by faith. An old preacher described that
life of faith this way. The life of faith is glory begun. And I like that. And though our
faith is weak and often far from what it should be, by faith,
the born-again believer actually can experience in this life a
taste of what will be the unspeakable joy that awaits him or her in
heaven's glory. And so having begun by faith,
believers walk in this world. continue by faith. And as they
live out their lives, they each do so with very unique life experiences. My path through this world is
not the same as yours. And so in that sense, our paths
to glory are all different. Those who come to Christ for
all their salvation, now having been begun by embracing the one
way, the one pathway to heaven, all who are coming with like-minded,
God-given faith, whereby they see their certain title to heaven's
glory in Jesus Christ and Him alone, well then they proceed
to live out the remainder of their respective lives here on
earth in a variety of ways. These are various life experiences. They take many twists and turns
before we depart this world. So true believers are traveling
different paths in that sense. While all the while, where there
remains that sense that they're proceeding on the one pathway
to glory, in this sense that all of them without exception
are looking solely to Christ for all their salvation. As Christ
Himself said in John 14, 6, He said, I am the way, not a way,
but the way, senior, the truth and the life. No man cometh to
the father, but by me. So we're going to be considering
this morning what it means to trust in the Lord in acknowledgement
of him first in his one way of salvation by initial God given
faith. And then two, in the various
circumstances or pathways that believers encounter as that walk
of faith continues here on earth. So look again at our passage,
Proverbs 3, where we read, trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not unto thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge
him and he shall direct thy paths. Now if we're to claim this promise
of scripture, absolutely essential that we accurately identify the
Lord in whom we are to trust. Like some of you, I memorized
these two verses here years ago, and I tried to claim that promise
for myself at a time in my life when I had not even heard God's
gospel of grace whereby sinners see, come to know the Lord as
He is uniquely revealed. in the person and work of Christ,
as He is revealed to everyone He saves. But at that time, I
still, I took some comfort, you see, from the promise there in
Proverbs. I thought I was being directed
by the Lord. But by God's grace, I now know
that it was my thinking that way. was like I was reading somebody
else's mail, you see, because it was not the Lord that I was
trusting in. Now, in my mind, I thought my
trust was in the Lord, but as I leaned to my own natural understanding,
to the way of salvation that I was taught, but a way that
always had seemed right to me. My point is, here is, You obviously
can't be trusting in something or in someone you do not know.
So, we're going to spend much of our time this morning examining
how God's Word identifies the Lord in whom we're commanded
to trust. The word that's translated LORD
there, it may be in your Bible like mine, in all capital letters.
And when you see that, it's meaning this same word, Hebrew word Yahweh,
which means Jehovah God. Now, Jehovah refers to the self-existent,
eternal, triune, and as we heard Bill say in the 10 o'clock hour,
the covenant God as he set forth in the Bible. He's one God subsisting
in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, we're instructed
here in Proverbs to trust in Him. And this trusting, see,
is the essence of faith. All who are truly saved, they
come by God-given faith to first trust in the Lord. But years
before I heard the true gospel, you know, I believed and I sincerely
felt that it was by faith that I was trusting in the Lord. But
faith's not a feeling. Hebrews 11 1 declares that faith
is the substance of things hoped for. Faith has substance. True faith believes God and God
speaks to us through His Word. So by faith, we believe what
God reveals in the Bible concerning Himself. You see, thus saith
the Lord. That's good enough for true faith.
But faith presupposes an object. Faith has no meaning except when
we know of its object. To have faith, then, is to believe
something or in someone. And of the faith that trusts
in the Lord, we read in Romans 10, 17, faith cometh by hearing
and hearing again by the Word of God. And so by the Word of
God, through the preached gospel in faith, believing sinners hear
of and they're convinced of, first, the guilt of their sin.
a guilt that would bar them from heaven's glory. But graciously
also in that gospel they have revealed to them a pathway to
glory, a way of salvation that's contrived from everlasting by
Jehovah the Lord, Father, Son, and Spirit, in what the scripture
refers to as an everlasting covenant. It's an everlasting covenant
of grace. In God's Word, we learn by faith
that in order that all the perfections of the Lord might be beheld in
their infinite and eternal glory that God the Father covenanted
and determined to honor and dignify His law and justice, His faithfulness,
and His holiness by insisting that the objects of His eternal
love, those chosen by Him from among all of fallen humanity,
His elect, that they would appear at His bar of justice in the
perfect righteousness of God, the perfect righteousness of
the law. But these chosen sinners, that's what they were, they were
sinners, they would have no righteousness of their own. We read of that
in Romans 3 where it says there's none righteous, no not one, and
that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Well
how can Such unrighteous, ungodly sinners then be saved. How can
they be justified, found not guilty before God's strict and
holy justice? Well, there's some more good
news from the Lord, the triune God of the covenant. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, co-equal and
co-eternal with the Father, He undertook to be their Savior.
He agreed in that everlasting covenant to be the head and the
surety of His people, that is, all those given to Him by God
the Father in that covenant, those chosen unto salvation in
Christ, His sheep or His elect as they're called in God's Word.
And by faith we believe God's Word. I marvel how many people
claim to believe the Bible and then at the same time when they
come across passages like Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 that speak of
God's sovereign choice of a people in Christ's election, they'll
go, well, I'm not sure I can go there. Well, just admit then
you just don't believe God's Word because it's pretty clear
there. But by faith we believe God's Word. God the Son, see,
covenanted to stand in the place of each one of those chosen sinners. to stand in their nature, to
take in the union with his deity, humanity, body and soul. Scripture says he's made like
them in every way except without sin. In Galatians 4, we read
he was made under the law. He was put under the same jurisdiction
that he might redeem them which were under the law. As he walked
on this earth, the incarnate Christ, God-man. God and man. The one suitable
mediator between God and man. He obeyed God's law. All of the
Father's revealed will. And he did that with an infinitely
precious perfection. He did that as a substitute.
No, he did that not for himself. As a substitute, he did that
for all whom he represented. those who are collectively referred
to in the scripture as the election of grace. Christ, see, also stood
in their place to suffer for them, to bear the penalty due
unto their sin. He shed his precious blood in
payment for their sins. You know, in Hebrews, his blood
is called the blood of the covenant. Precious Savior then lived and
suffered and died and rose again as a representative of and a
substitute for his people and his perfect satisfaction in so
doing to the law and justice of God. That's what righteousness
is. It was established by his life
of sinless perfection even unto death that would be their title
to eternal life. And the righteousness of his
sufferings and death was to save them from all the sufferings
that were justly due unto their sins. So thereby, see, the law
and justice of the Father would be glorified in His pardoning
of them. And His faithfulness and His
holiness all would be made honorable in saving them in this precise
one way whereby He might reveal Himself as He is, as He is to
be worshiped. as truly just and still the justifier
of these otherwise ungodly sinners. We see again God's chief design
and purpose in everything that he does is his own glory. But how then is this revealed
or made known to these sinners in each respective generation,
these sinners for whom Christ died? After all, God's Word,
doesn't it declare to us that we all come into this world as
spiritually dead sinners, spiritually blind, in spiritual darkness,
alienated from God, enemies? So how will any of them come
to trust in the Lord of this covenant? Well, in the everlasting
covenant of grace, the third person of the Trinity, God the
Holy Spirit, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and with the
Son, He undertook the gracious office of quickening, or giving
spiritual life, and convincing sinners in their conscience of
first, how guilty they were, and so how desperately they were
in need of this Savior. And then the Spirit further covenanted
to so convince sinners that they might believe God's Word, where
it declares how able he is to save all who come unto God through
Christ and convince them in their hearts to embrace Christ and
to believe Him unto righteousness, trusting in His righteousness.
And He, the Holy Spirit, agreed then to lead them in their walk
of faith along their respective pathways to glory, to live upon
His grace and In the office that's assumed by the Holy Spirit in
this eternal covenant is described by Christ in John chapter 16. There in verses 13 and 14 we're
taught that when the spirit of truth has come, that is when
God the Holy Spirit comes in each respective life to those
he saves and opens their eyes to the truth of God's gospel
by the revelation of faith. When that Spirit of Truth comes
to a center, it says He will glorify Christ. Christ said,
for He, the Holy Spirit, shall receive of mine and shall show
it unto you. So that is when the Spirit comes
to convince a center of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
That's how His work is described in the verses just prior to these
in John 16. When He does that, He's taking
of the things of Christ. and glorifying Him by showing
the sinner, oh, what necessity, what all-sufficiency, what fullness
there is in Christ to save. The Spirit points sinners to
Christ because Christ is to have the preeminence in all things.
As it's said in Colossians 1, He, Christ, is the head of the
body, the church, they're the members of the body. Christ who
is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father, that
in him should all fullness dwell. God the Holy Spirit leads each
of God's elect into all necessary truth in their judgments, both
concerning their own sinfulness, their guilt, their helplessness,
and also concerning the almighty power of God the Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and His lawful authority to make use of His
infinite power for their salvation. So the Holy Spirit opens our
understandings to comprehend this covenant of grace. and thereby
he draws out our affections for Christ, and he ables us with
the heart to believe him unto righteousness. Now, I realize
I've spent some time here describing the Lord, the covenant God in
whom we're to trust, but this is important. As we read in Psalm
25, 14, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. That
means that's referring to that reverential regard for the honor
of his character. Those who come and instead of
saying, well, have you accepted Jesus? They're thinking from
God's perspective, how could a holy God accept me? And it says of them, and he will
show them his covenant. The Lord is revealed in the gospel
of grace that sets forth the terms of the everlasting covenant
of grace. It sets forth a salvation fully
accomplished for all those who are saved. by Christ's obedience
unto death on the cross. In covenant mercy, see, the Lord
determined from all eternity that the demerit or the guilt
of all the sins of His sheep would be charged or imputed to
Christ, who would in time pay the just penalty due unto them.
And likewise, we read of this in 2 Corinthians 5.21, likewise
He determined from all eternity that the merit of Christ's perfect
obedience unto death, rendered on their behalf, his righteousness
would be theirs. He would be reckoned or imputed
to their accounts. Now, that's good news. In Romans
4, verses 6 and 7, where King David is being quoted, it describes
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven. and whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin." You're blessed if you're
among those whom the Lord will not charge with their sins. Now,
this is the Lord. This is the one true and living
God in whom we're commanded to trust, not leaning on our natural
understanding as we imagine Him to be, but acknowledging Him
our covenant God as He's revealed in this word in all our ways. So we've covered now how this
trusting, this life of faith begins with our acknowledgment
of God and His one way of salvation by grace in Christ. And I hope
in that, you see, there's no legitimate claim that can be
made to this promise in Proverbs until we become acquainted with
the Lord. Our Lord prayed in John 17, this
is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true Christ,
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. We must become acquainted with
this sovereign God who saves a people solely according to
His own purpose and will. You know, back when I assumed
that salvation was in part conditioned on that which proceeded from
me, in my case it was my exercise of faith, and that graciously
later was exposed to be a faith in faith, not a faith in the
Lord. You see, I thought the Lord lived
and died for everyone, even those that perish in hell. So it had
to be in something else. I was trusting in my believing
to make the difference. Well, then I certainly was not
acknowledging then, and neither are those of that mindset today
acknowledging the Lord. They're not trusting in this
covenant God of the Bible. At that time, unwittingly, I
believed, as so many do, in a covenant of works. Something I imagined
proceeding from me, that work of my hand to make the real difference
and my being favored and eternally blessed by God." Well, that's
not trusting in the Lord. That's not trusting in the God
of the everlasting covenant of grace. That's trusting in a counterfeit,
an idol of our imaginations, because the true and living God
sees uniquely revealed now to those who are saved in the gospel
of grace that sets forth the terms of the everlasting covenant,
that sets forth that all of the conditions or requirements for
the salvation of God's people were fully met in Christ. They were accomplished by His
finished work of righteousness on their behalf on Calvary's
cross. The scripture tells us that in
Him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So only in Christ, as He set
forth in the Gospel, then, is the Lord revealed, the triune
Godhead in whom we are to trust. By faith we believe God by believing
His Word that declares how He is both a just God and a Savior
who eternally saves His sheep, all based on the doing and dying
of their substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's briefly consider more verse
5 there. There we're told to trust in
the Lord with all thine heart. You know, I imagined once that
as a sinner I could actually muster up enough dependence on
the Lord, or what I may know to be a figment of my imagination,
I call the Lord. I could muster up enough of a
dependence on him that I thought it equated with trusting the
Lord with all my heart. See, thinking that that was referring
to the intensity of my faith. As if I, sinner now, could trust
Him with perfect faith, I suppose. But that's not what is meant
here. The trusting or believing with all our hearts is clarified
for us in God's Word in Romans Chapter 10, verses 9 and 10,
we're told 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. Now, you know, I used
to stop right there, and I would use this to witness to folks,
and I'd say, do you believe Jesus lived and died and actually rose
again a year ago? Are you willing to confess that
by joining our church and confess him in believers baptizing? baptism? Because if so, you can be saved."
Well, yeah, I'll strike that into the deal. I'm with you on
that. But think now. Even Satan and all the demons,
all his legions, they know that God raised Christ from the dead. They know it as a fact. So that
can't be what this means. As the passage continues, we
learn what it means for it describes it that what he meant when he
said God raised Christ from the dead in verse 10 as he says for
or because with the heart man believeth unto righteousness
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation consider
that it was what Christ accomplished righteousness that demanded his
resurrection Romans 521 teaches that just as sin demands death,
the wages of sin is death. Christ died a real death. That's how real the imputation
of sin is. He died due to sins imputed. And yet His obedience unto death
established a perfect righteousness that Romans 521 also tells us
demands life. And so He had to come out of
that grave. God was satisfied and He was satisfied for all
the people that Christ represented, so that, with a certainty, they
too shall live. You see, they too shall be given
both spiritual life, eyes to see and ears to hear, hearts
to look to Christ alone, and eternal life. They'll be raised
to heaven's glory. Well, consider that what he accomplished
there, the righteousness, that demanded his resurrection. So the true believer, one trusting
in the Lord, has revealed to him the righteousness of God
in Christ in the gospel. We often quote from Romans 1
how the gospel, Paul said he's not ashamed of the gospel there,
for it's the power of God unto salvation, and in verse 17 he
says, because therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
So as we consider what this means to trust in the Lord with all
thine heart, think of how the scripture's full of encouragements
for believers to grow in faith and grow in grace and knowledge
of the Lord. We read of those who are strong
in the faith and we read of those who are weak in the faith. So
what we know is that due to remaining sin, none can trust are believed
perfectly in this life due to remaining sin. So again, what
does it mean when it says to trust in the Lord with all thine
heart? In commenting on that phrase, John Gill wrote this.
He said, it denotes not so much the strength of faith as the
sincerity of it. It signifies a faith unfeigned. In other words, it's signifying
a genuine faith. He's not even speaking of, if
you read him in the context of the intensity of our sincerity.
So, I too believe that this phrase, with all thine heart, is not
to be understood as a reference to the intensity of our faith,
but rather it's communicating how we trust in the Lord. We do it with the heart. So our
trust is with our whole heart. Again, that's not the intensity
of our trust or the strength of our trust, but that means
it's with all that we are, our entire being, our minds, our
affections, our wills. Listen, if today, whatever today,
if you sincerely are banking your eternal destiny on something,
listen, at a time when I banked my eternal destiny on my faith,
not the Lord, I was doing that with my whole heart. I'm doing
it with my mind and my affections and my wills. So what's different
here? This is to trust in the Lord,
this covenant God, and he said, he's saying if we trust in Him,
then it will have us the saved sinner believing, trusting with
all our hearts unto righteousness, as we just read from Romans 10. That's the distinguishing mark
of how we trust with all thine heart." Now look again at verse
6. There we read, "...in all thy
ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." I want
you to notice the word there, ways, is plural, as is the word
paths. So clearly this has to include
more than what we've covered so far, more than the acknowledgement
of the Lord in the one way of salvation through which our various
pathways to glory begin. And so, as such, I want to spend
the remainder of our time discussing the walk of faith that a true
believer experiences throughout his or her remaining time on
earth. That means after having been given faith to believe God's
gospel. So I'm speaking of the pathway
on to glory for regenerated, born-again believer who's evidenced
that by already having been blessed. so as to believe on Christ from
the heart unto righteousness. So to acknowledge him, believers,
in all our ways, first of all, to acknowledge him is just to
think on him, have him in mind, meditate upon him, the one true
God. And he says in all our ways,
in all our circumstances. We're to acknowledge and proceed
through this life with an understanding and an awareness that our sovereign
God remains in control. know and see that in His infinite
wisdom, not leading on our own understanding or what is often
our lack of understanding, we often go, why am I going through
what I'm going through? But rather knowing that in His
infinite wisdom and engaging all that He is as Almighty God,
He's determined to bring about every experience and circumstance
that we go through. And listen, and for those blessed
in that everlasting covenant, all of that for our eternal good. David wrote in 2 Samuel 23 5,
he said, He, the Lord, that same Jehovah, hath made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. But this
is all my salvation and all my desire. See, David knew of his
being blessed in that everlasting covenant because of God-given
faith. Because he was trusting in the
Lord with all his heart. He was believing unto the righteousness
that his promised Messiah would establish years later at Calvary's
cross. And how do we know that? Because
David says it's all his salvation. It's all his desire. And I pray
we all can honestly say the same. in reference to this covenant
which is ordered in all things. And sure, God declares in Psalm
89, 34, My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that
is gone out of my lips. Our covenant, God is telling
us, He's determined and ordered all things. He's not leaving
one single thing out, not even the least circumstance of our
individual lives. You believers, think of the various
details of divine providence, all the things that God had to
order and bring about just to get you under the sound of His
gospel that's preached in this place. See, God has settled and
determined all that shall happen by His infinite, unerring wisdom. And He will fulfill all that
He has purposed by His wisdom by His almighty power. He tells
us in his word of himself how he, the true and living God in
whom we're to trust, he says, I'm God and there's none like
me. He said, I declare the end from the beginning. He says,
my counsel, that's his all wise purpose, it shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. Isaiah 46.10. This ordering of
the circumstances of our lives includes even the most minute
details. You know, God gave us a brain. We make decisions. And this is
a mind-boggling thing to me that, you know, I decided to wear this
tie today. But God ordered that. I can't
explain that. His ways are so far beyond me,
I couldn't begin to scratch. I'm at a loss to tell you but
by faith I believe God." Christ said that. That's why
I know it's true. He said as much in Matthew chapter
10 when he tells us, he says, a sparrow does not even fall
from the sky except by his divine decree. He says that every hair
on our heads are numbered. Now, how safe and secure are
true believers in having come to trust and continued to trust
and depend upon such a sovereign covenant Almighty God. You know, when a believer first
comes to Christ, staking now their entire eternal destiny
on Him and His righteousness, that's believing with the heart.
Think of the certain assurance that is theirs in seeing that
their salvation is fixed by the immutable, unchanging, that's
what that means, His all-wise purpose, and it's also fixed
by His sacred unbreakable oath, His promise of our triune covenant
God. You can read more about those
two immutable things in Hebrews chapter 8, but for now, listen,
the same teacher, God the Holy Spirit, who enables believers
to see the certainty of their salvation in Christ, He leads
them onward, but He leads them to continue with their trust
placed in the Lord. As we read in Hebrews 12, 2,
ever look into Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith. Recall
earlier, I read from Colossians 2, 9, that declaration that Christ
is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Well, in the previous
chapter in Colossians 1, 19, we read, for it pleased the Father
that in Him should all fullness dwell. And then think, add to
that what John the Baptist said in John 1 16 when he was referring
to Christ and said, And of his fullness have all we received,
and grace for grace. Now this fullness is an infinite
ocean. There's no grace to be found
anywhere else but in Christ and he has it all in himself. The
Scripture says, but my God shall supply all your needs according
to his riches in glory. So what abundant grace do we
find in ever looking to Jesus as the author and finisher of
our faith? Now look, believers, if you truly
stake your entire eternal destiny on the promises of a covenant
God to save you in the Son for the glory of the Father by the
power of the Spirit, If you've done that, if you're a believer,
you have, should we not trust Him, trust Him in and acknowledge
and think on Him in all our ways as we progress down this pathway
to glory? Remember, faith believes God's
Word. 1 John 1 says, John wrote, and these things write we unto
you that your joy may be full. Now, make no mistake, I'm preaching
to myself right now as much as to anyone. And I pray for more
faith. I pray that God would grow my
faith so that I might experience just a bit more of what will
be the unspeakable joy of heaven while I'm here on earth. You
see, there's joy to be had in believing. Well, our text today
indicates that if we trust in the Lord, If in all our ways,
in our circumstances, we acknowledge or think on Him, the Lord, our
covenant God, that He then will direct our paths. And yet, we've
established that whether we are acknowledging Him or not, there's
a sense in which our paths through this life are already ordered
and set. He declared the end from the
beginning. He determined and set in motion all that was necessary
to draw us unto himself in regeneration and conversion under the sound
of the gospel before we ever had heard the gospel, before
we knew him as he is revealed in that way of salvation. So
in considering this, I was thinking about these two ways of considering
him directing our paths. History event came to mind from
my business days. I recalled how we once hired
this high-level manager That didn't work out He was a guy
that was more than willing to assume the leadership role for
which we hired him he had all the credentials he had the proper
education experience and by our judgments he certainly seemed
to possess all the traits of a strong leader and And yet,
this guy failed in this role, and we eventually kind of parted
ways. And in hindsight, as my partner and I were reviewing
this, how we had missed this, I came to this obvious conclusion
that I shared with him. I said, you know, no matter how
qualified, a person's not a leader if no one will follow them. Well,
I have similar thoughts here as it pertains to being under
God's direction. You see, I believe here that
when it's said God is said to be directing our paths in this
context, under the condition, see we know he's ordered all
things, but this I believe then since it's in response to when
we are acknowledging him, I believe it's, he's referring to when
we are proceeding under his direction. when we're mindful of Him, so
that as we go through these events, things that, a lot of them, we
wouldn't choose for ourselves, and we wonder why they're happening,
we're acknowledging Him and understanding, this is somehow good for me.
We get our directions, though, where? From God's Word. So we need to be in the Word,
just as we are today. seeing what God has to say about
himself in this way of salvation. Remember, faith believes God's
Word, and that's what we're talking about, the walking life of faith.
The psalmist wrote, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a
light unto my path. So the Lord we trust in and acknowledge
or think upon, he better be the Lord, the covenant God of this
Bible. So as we close, I want us to
consider just a few passages from God's Word. In Isaiah 54.10,
God says, For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed,
but my kindness shall not depart from thee. Neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy
on me. By faith we believe that. In Jeremiah 32.40-41, God says,
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will
not turn away from them to do them good. but I'll put my fear
in their hearts that they shall not depart from me." Look at
this, "'Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good.'" Did you
hear that? God delights. He's rejoicing
in doing me good. Faith believes that. In Romans
8, 28, we're assured that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. By faith we believe that. A few
verses down from there, in verse 31 of chapter 8, Paul writing
to fellow believers, he continues saying, What shall we say then
to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Faith believes that. In 1 Peter
5, verses 6 and 7, we're told, Humble yourselves, therefore,
into the mighty hand of God. that He may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Faith
believes that. Then lastly, in Hebrews 13, 5,
we're reminded that He, God, has said, I will never leave
thee, nor forsake thee. Faith believes that. Listen,
we go through a lot of difficulties. I'm sorry I've kept you so long,
and I had more here I wanted to deliver to you, but let me
just close with this. We know from God's Word that
all our circumstances are ordered and foreordained, that for the
believer, those called according to his purpose, that all things
are working together for good. But think of this. We just read
where God said He was rejoicing to do us good, that it's His
delight. Now what that means is when you're burdened down
with the most difficult of circumstances, God is rejoicing in them. You
and I are probably doing anything but rejoicing in them. Having
purposed them by His infinite wisdom, you see, He rejoices
in His knowledge of what we can't discern, how even the difficult
circumstances that we never would choose for ourselves are in fact
for our eternal good and benefit. I know that by faith, we can
get and receive more of that sense of joy that's to be had
in believing. So listen, my prayer is this.
God, increase my faith that my joy may be full, that I may be
more and more mindful of the truth that you, Lord, in your
infinite wisdom, you've determined my pathway all the way to glory.
And may I, by faith, so trust that it's for my good, my benefit,
no matter what the circumstance. simply because God you say so. That's faith. That I may rejoice
seeing, knowing that you and your infinite, eternal love for
me, that means you engage every attribute of your being, your
power, your wisdom, all that you are to ensure my good, my
well-being. So, Lord, direct my paths through
belief of your word. Find me always resting in the
truth of Romans 8.32, that you that spared not your own son,
but delivered him up for me, I show you then not with him,
also freely give me all things. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, lean not into thine own understanding, in all thy ways
acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths, the pathway
to glory.