God's Way

Well, good evening, everyone. If you would care to open your Bibles with me to Psalm 27, I'd like to begin our service reading this great Psalm, Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart should not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer me. When thou saidest, seek ye my face? My heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek.

Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Teach me thy way, O Lord. and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over into the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted. I just would have quit, unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. All right, Sean. If you would turn to song number 355, and we'll sing from every stormy wind that blows. 355. ♪ From every stormy wind that blows, from every swelling tide of woes, there is a calm, a sure retreat.

Tis found beneath the mercy seat. There is a place where Jesus sheds of gladness on our heads. A place that all besides more sweet. It is the blood-bought mercy seat. There is a scene where spirits blend, where friend holds fellowship, Though sondered far, by faith they meet, Around one common mercy. Ah, whither could we flee for aid when tempted, desolate, dismayed? O'er how the hosts of hell defeated, Had suffering saints no mercy seen. Ah, there on eagle wings we soar, And sin and sins molest no more, And Heaven calms down our souls to green. ♪ While glory crowns the mercy seat ♪ Okay?

And now turn to song number 323 and we'll sing More Love to Thee. More Love to Thee. More love to thee. more love to thee. Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea. More love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to Thee. Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest. Now thee alone I seek. Give what is best. This all my prayer shall be.

More love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to Thee. Let sorrow do its work, send grief and pain. Sweet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain. When they can sing with me, More love, O Christ, to Thee, More love to Thee, More love to Thee. Then shall my latest breath whisper thy praise. This be the parting cry my heart shall raise. This still its prayer shall be, More love, O Christ, to Thee, More love to Thee, More love to Thee.

Let's open our Bibles now, if you would, to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33. Our text or our jumping off point for tonight is just two verses beginning in verse 12. And Moses said unto the Lord, see thou sayest unto me, bring up this people and thou has not let me know whom thou will sent with me.

Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people.

Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we've gathered here together tonight in the name of your precious son. Father, desiring to hear a word from thee and to be enabled by thy spirit to worship you in spirit and in truth. How I beg of thee that you would not allow us to just go through the motions of religion, but Father, that you'd speak to us through your word. Apply your word to our hearts and give us a time of true worship. Father, I pray that you would uphold me with thy spirit in this hour, that you would enable me to rightly divide the word of truth and to glorify Christ as much as is humanly possible, to glorify him, to lift him up on high. And Father, bless us, your people, that we might see him by faith, high and lifted up, and have our hearts stirred within us with love for him, faith for him, trust for him, and to worship at his feet.

Father, we're so thankful for your many blessings to us. How you've blessed us, Father, we're thankful. You blessed us in nearly every way, physically and materially, and how you've blessed your people with every spiritual blessing that you have in your son. Father, We're thankful and ask you to forgive us for ever murmuring and complaining against your providence and your provision.

And Lord, we hold up to thee those who are sick and afflicted here and in other places. Father, needs you especially. We need you every hour, every second of every day. Father, for those that you brought into the valley of trouble and trial, we know that they need you especially. We pray that you'd be with them, give them a special portion of your presence, heal and lead and guide, provide the need according to the riches of your mercy and grace and your wisdom. Now it's in Christ's name. For his sake, we pray and give thanks. Amen. Now I've titled the message tonight, God's Way.

We're getting ready to look at a very high point in scripture. where Moses has three requests for the Lord. Show me your way, send your presence with us, and show me your glory. Tonight we'll look at this, show me your way. Verse 13 says, now therefore I pray thee if I found grace in thy sight, that word if is better translated since, since I have found grace in thy sight. And that's such a great basis. for prayer, and since I have found grace in thy sight, Lord, show me your way. Since I have found grace in your sight, be merciful, be gracious, show me who you are, teach me. This is what Moses is asking.

Since I've found grace in your sight, show me your way. Now, this is a story we're all very well familiar with, but I want you to think about Moses at this particular moment. He spent 40 years tending sheep. And now he's leading three million people, at least three million people through the wilderness. And he's asked, I mean, there's lots of things that the people say he's asking the Lord here.

Lord, what's the right way to lead them? What's the right manner in which I should lead your people? What's the way I should lead your people through the wilderness so that we go where you would have us to go? Or show me your way of providence, how you lead your people and provide for your people during this time.

As Moses is here talking, don't forget this. He's talking to the Lord Jesus Christ. It says earlier that God talked to him face to face. This is not God speaking audibly from heaven so that the prophets heard him or Abraham. This is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ coming and sitting with Moses and talking to him face to face.

And Moses asks the way Lord, show me your way. Christ is the way. He's asking Christ, show me your way. Show me yourself. Lord, show me your way of salvation. Show me your way of forgiveness. You've said you forgive sin. You said you forgive your people. Lord, show me how you do that. Show me your way of forgiveness. Show me your way of righteousness.

Well, I don't know. I can't make myself righteous. You've given us these laws that we can't keep. I can't make myself righteous. Lord, show me your way of righteousness. Show me your way. Oh, don't show me man's way. Don't let me go man's way. Don't let me go following man's logic and the way that men do things. Because as Solomon said, there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. I don't want to go the way of death. Lord, show me your way of life. Lord, show me your way.

And if you look over at Psalm 103, the Lord answered this prayer. Psalm 103 in verse seven. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. You know, Israel saw what the Lord did. The Lord showed Moses his way, why he was doing what he was doing. He showed Moses the glory of Christ. And that's, which is what Moses wrote about. That's what our Lord said, Moses wrote me. This is what Moses, why he was able to write about the glory of Christ, because the Lord answered this prayer and said, show me your way. And the Lord did. I wonder how many other people in Israel prayed that prayer.

Lord, show me your way. And he didn't show them, maybe because they didn't ask. I don't know. He just showed them what he was doing, but he showed Moses his way. And Moses prayed for it. And I've been thinking about this passage now for a couple of weeks, and this has been my prayer. Lord, show me your way, your way. And it's a good question. It's a good request to the Lord. David asked that at least three times in the Psalms. Lord, show me your way. And this is what I know. I don't know what the Lord told Moses in answer to this or when he did, but I know this for sure.

God's way is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the way. And I found several, I'm going to limit myself to six and promise I'll be brief. Six things that the scripture says, how Christ is God's way. Look first at second Peter chapter two, Christ, is the way of truth. Second, Peter two verse one.

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who shall privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. The Lord Jesus Christ is the way of truth. And false prophets try to destroy that way of truth by lying on God, by lying on Christ, by mixing grace and works.

They deny the Lord that bought them. They deny that all it takes to purchase salvation for any sinner is the sacrifice of Christ. They deny that. They say, you've got to do something to add to it. And when people hear that, they're speaking evil of the way of truth. They're speaking evil of the Lord Jesus Christ, and many will fall for it, but a believer won't. Anybody that knows Christ won't, won't, because this is what we believe.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation in truth, in truth. False prophets preach a way of salvation where God ignores your sin, where he just calls you righteous even though you're not. That's not truth, that's a lie. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation in truth because he truly paid the penalty for all of the sin all of his people. Salvation has been truly given to God's people so that they cannot be lost. Sin, the sin of God's elect, was truly charged to Christ and his righteousness truly charged to his people so that they're truly, not someday, not in some mystical imaginary way that's not true, that I call myself righteous even though I'm not, made the righteousness of God. in Christ. I think if we really understood all the ramifications of that, we'd be bouncing up and down for joy, righteous, without sin before God. And that's the only way salvation can be accomplished in truth.

The Lord Jesus, He's the only way to see the Father in truth. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And if you want to see the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ tell you what to do, go to the cross. That's where you see the Father. That's where you see the God as who he really is.

At the cross, we see God as both just and merciful. He gave his son justice for the sin of his people so that he could be merciful to sinners like you and me. In truth, We see that God has wrath against sin and yet has love. He poured out his wrath upon his son because he loves his people and he's determined to save them. That's how he's going to save them.

You can't see who God is until you see Christ. He's the way to see who the father truly is. And I'll tell you another thing, we will never truly see ourselves until we see Christ. When I see Christ, then I'm going to know how wretched and horrible I am.

I was going to say, if I want to feel good about myself, I compare myself to you. No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't compare myself to any of you if I feel bad about myself. I'll pick somebody, you know, in jail or something, compare myself to them and feel good about myself.

But when I see Christ, Now I know what I truly am. Now I know my sin. Now I know my unrighteousness. Now I know my filth. Now I know how much I need him to save me. It's the same thing our brother Job said. He said, I've heard of you with hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sees you.

And once I've seen you, I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. That's the only way we'll ever know the truth about ourself. And that can be a little bit disconcerting or uncomfortable. The flesh certainly hates it, doesn't it? To have it revealed to me what I really am. But you know what a blessing that is?

Because the only way I'll ever run to Christ and beg him for mercy is if I see myself as I really am. And I can only see that in Christ. He's the way of truth. All right, now look at Matthew chapter 21. Second, Christ is the way of righteousness. Matthew 21, verse 32.

For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and you believed him not. But the publicans and harlots believed him, and ye, when you had seen it, repented not afterward that you might believe him. Now John came preaching Christ. He is the way of righteousness. That's who John preached. And this preaching of Christ is so powerful.

Publicans and harlots were made righteous by believing on Christ. Now the Pharisees, the scribes, the religious people who had all their own works that they wanted to present before God, didn't make them righteous. But publicans, and harlots, the worst of sinners, are made righteous in Christ, the way of righteousness.

And we need him to come as the way of righteousness, because God created Adam, the first Adam, representative man. And Adam is the way of unrighteousness, isn't he? Adam is our representative. We all did what Adam did. And by Adam's disobedience, he made every last one of us unrighteous. That's how we became unrighteous. That's how we became sinners.

So Christ came as the way of righteousness. He is the representative of his people. And by his obedience to the law, he made all of his people to be righteous. He's the way of righteousness. God's way of righteousness is to send his son into flesh, to work out a perfect obedience to the law. and giving that obedience to God's elect.

And then Christ took the sin of his people away from him. He gave them his righteousness. He took their sin and he put that sin away by the sacrifice of himself. Now for God's elect, whoever it is that Christ took their sin away from them into his own body on the tree, there is no more sin. There's no sin left. The blood of Christ had put it away. And that's how a sinner is made righteous.

And I tell you, that makes me so happy that Christ is the way of righteousness, because that tells me I don't have to contribute my own obedience to the law in order to be righteous. Because at 61 years old, I think I finally learned this. I can't do anything good. I can't do anything righteous. But to trust Christ is all my righteousness.

Oh, what a gift of God. This is good news if you're a sinner. You can be made righteous simply by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the way of righteousness. All right, now look at Acts chapter two. Thirdly, Christ is the way of life. Acts chapter two, verse 28. Thou hast made known unto me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Now we know Christ is the way of life. He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Christ doesn't just give us life. The apostle Paul said, he is so much our life, he is our life. Christ is our life. And anyone who trusts Christ, They have eternal life, right now. Right now, they have eternal life. Now how can that be? Look, I'm like Moses, okay, show me your way. Show me your way of life.

How is it that you can make a dead sinner have life? Well, it's through the death of Christ. Christ died for the sin, the death that the sin of his people deserves. Christ died as a substitute in the place of his people so that his people will live. Now look back what Peter's saying earlier here, verse 25. He's speaking of the death of Christ. Well, look up at verse 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death Because it was not possible that he should be holding of it.

For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face. For he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope. Because thou will not leave my soul in hell or in the grave, neither will I suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life, and thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

What a gracious way of life that the way God's people have life is Christ died for us. And he rose again the third day. He rose again because he put all the sin of all of his people away. And when he arose, all of his people arose to new life, eternal life in him. Now you, Just ponder for a minute how gracious that is. The one that we have sinned against died in our place, died the death that we deserve so we could have the life that he deserves, that he earned.

That's the Christ, the way of life. All right, fourthly, look at Isaiah chapter 35. Christ is the way of holiness. Isaiah 35 verse eight. And a highway shall be there and a way, and it should be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. Now this way of holiness, God's way of holiness, it's not a road that you got to put yourself on in order to make yourself holy. Kind of like, you know, you got it going somewhere down south and you got to find a way to get to I-40 and then you can, you know, kind of go where you want to go. That's not what this is. We don't put ourselves into this way. God puts himself, his people, into this way. Everyone that God has saved has already been made holy. They've already been made holy in Christ.

Much like righteousness, God's way of holiness is to take the sin of his people away from them and charge it to his son. And the blood of Christ took that sin away and made God's people holy. And when a sinner's born again, they're born again with a new holy nature, a nature that cannot sin.

See, that's God's way of holiness. God's way of holiness, I go back to my first point, is the way of truth. God's not just gonna ignore sin. He's not just gonna accept sin and call it holiness. He makes his people holy by taking their sin away and by giving them a new nature, a nature that's holy and will always trust him. Now, to be made sinners now, sinners like us, I'm talking just common, ordinary people are made holy in Christ.

That's God's way. What a way. What a way of holiness. And you don't have to worry about missing it because God's going to put all of his people in that way, in the way of Christ. All right, fifth, look at Luke chapter one. Christ is the way of peace. Luke chapter 1 verse 76. And thou child, this is Zacharias speaking of his new baby, John the Baptist, and thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest.

For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day sprang from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace. God sends his preachers to tell sinners who have declared war on God there's a way to have peace with God. And God's peace must come through justice, has to come through justice.

It's not going to come by compromise. If you look at what's going on in the Strait of Hormuz and all that stuff over there, I mean, this is a hornet's nest. And if we're going to have peace, eventually what somebody's going to do is compromise and nobody's going to get everything they want and it's just going to kind of be You know, we didn't really want this to turn out this way, you know, but that's what we got to do. We got to compromise, not God. He's not going to compromise in order to have peace with a sinful people.

So God and his wisdom and his mercy and his goodness, we're the ones that declared war on God, but God made peace for his people. God's the one that made peace and he did it through the blood of his cross. You see, the blood of Christ removed the sin that made God angry. Don't ever mistake this. People talk about God being love and how he wouldn't hurt anybody. God's angry with the wicked every day. God hates sin, he's holy. But the blood of Christ took away the sin that made God angry. And God's at peace. There's no reason for him to be at war anymore. And when that blood is applied to our hearts in the new birth, now we're at peace. We surrender. I'm not angry with God anymore either.

And there's peace with God. Now, because of the blood of Christ, I love Christ. I willingly follow him. I want to be in his way. You think of the joy of going through this life, having peace with God. That ought to give us such peace of mind, peace of heart. There is a multi-billion dollar industry, medically, trying to give some people peace. If you trust Christ, you have peace with God. Peace with God.

To think that God's not angry with his people? God's not out to get you. Now, he'll correct us, won't he? He'll chasten us, but he's not gonna punish you for your sin. He already punished our substitute for our sin. and to think of laying down on our deathbed and not being afraid to meet God because God's not angry because of the blood of Christ. Oh, what a way, the way of peace. And I saved this one for last on purpose. It might be my favorite. Look at Acts chapter 16. Christ is the way of salvation. Acts 16, verse 16.

And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel, possessed with the spirit of divination, met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation. I think it's very interesting this damsel possessed with a demon could tell everybody these men are God's servants. Telling us the way of salvation. Nobody else saw it. Nobody else saw it. And I looked at this Christ being the way of salvation. And we won't take the time to turn to all these. I'm going to read them to you.

I want you to hear how God's word describes salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2 verse 3 says this, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Salvation in Christ is so great. It's greatness because of the Savior who accomplished it, isn't it? It's great because he paid what a great price for the sin of his people. He paid it in full. No matter how great we think our sin is, this is always our comfort. God's salvation is so much greater. This is a so great salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's so great, it can never fail. Hebrews 5 verse 9 says, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. The salvation of God's elect is eternal. There's never been a time God's seen his people outside of his son.

The lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now I know in time, Christ had to come and actually shed his blood. He actually had to suffer and die. In time, God had to send us a preacher and give us faith, faith to believe Christ. So in our experience, we can see a time where I did not believe and now a time where I do believe, but God's salvation is eternal.

And you know what that makes, that encourages me to think about this, if it's eternal, I can't mess it up. And believe me, I would if I could. But it's eternal, so I can't. An eternal salvation. Not only will it last from here throughout eternity future, it began in eternity past.

Hebrews 7 verse 25 says this, wherefore he is also able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us. That word uttermost means complete and perfect. Christ completely and perfectly saves his people from their sin. Christ did that. Christ saved his people to the uttermost. Again, that makes me so glad. That means I don't have to do anything to make it effectual for me. I don't have to do anything to finish the work. I don't have to contribute something.

Christ has already saved his people to the uttermost, to the uttermost, completely and perfectly. In Luke 3, verse 6 says this, all flesh shall see the salvation of God. This is God's salvation. Salvation purposed by God, salvation purchased by God, salvation applied by God, the Holy Spirit, salvation that God will perfect one day. when He brings all of His people to be with Him in glory. This is God's salvation. Now, I know whatever God does is perfect. It'll be right, it'll be perfect, it'll be eternal. If this is God's salvation, then He cannot fail to save anyone He intended to save. This is God's salvation. And not only is it God's salvation, it's your salvation. Philippians 2 verse 12 says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And that doesn't mean go do good works, it means that you examine yourself and see, do I trust Christ? Is he my only hope? Is he my only foundation? Is he my only plea?

God made his salvation to be your salvation, because he gave it to you. Just like the righteousness of Christ, he earned it, but he gave it to you, so it's yours, isn't it? This is your salvation. And if it's yours, you know what that means? God saved you on purpose. On purpose, he meant to do it, and he did it, and he'll never let you perish, never. And then last, I've been waiting to get to this one.

Romans 13, verse 11. Now it's high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Salvation's near, isn't it? It's near. Scripture talks about us. We were saved, we're being saved, and we will be saved. We're being saved, aren't we? God's revealed himself to us, he's given us faith in Christ, and we're being saved. We're being brought through this world here below, to be saved when we finally appear with Christ in glory.

Through many dangers, toils and snares, I've already come. I've already come through them all because God is saving me. By His grace, He's gonna bring me through them and bring me safely home. And it's gonna be soon. It's gonna be soon. Our salvation is nearer every day. Every day. My daughters have told me that I'm not allowed to say I want to die. So I won't say that. I'll say I'm ready. And I look forward to it, don't you?

Our salvation is nearer today than it was when we first believed. All right, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you for your way, your perfect way, of salvation and righteousness and eternal life and how you put it all in your son. He is the way. Oh, father, make him our way. Put us in Christ. Put us in the way by your mercy, by your grace and by your power and cause us to walk in him. It's in Christ's name for his sake and his glory. We pray.

God's Way

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God's Way

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