I don't really have a text this
morning. I have several passages of scriptures
I'll be quoting to you and some I'll be turning to. I've often
had people to ask me, and I've often thought about this myself. And still, even to this very
day, it's something that I think about and probably you think
about too. And someone will ask, how does
God lead His people? How does the Lord guide His people? Or someone will ask, how can
I know the will of God in my daily life? And that's something
all of us are concerned about, isn't it? Because we all recognize
the need of it. And we have the promise. So many places in the scriptures,
let me quote to you this morning concerning the promise that the
Lord has given His people, His children, His blood-bought ones,
the promise of His guidance. And you can look this up in your
concordance. And so many places in the scripture,
He promises this to His people. Listen to Psalms 25 and 9. The
meek, that is the humble. will he guide in judgment, and
the meek will he teach his way. That's a promise. Psalms 32 8,
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt
go, I will guide thee with mine eye. That's a promise. And Psalms
48 14, for this God is our God forever and ever, He will be
our guide even unto death. Then the Blessed One over in
Psalm 73, 24, Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward
receive me to glory. In Isaiah 49, 10, They shall
hunger nor thirst no more, neither shall the heat nor sun smite
them. For he that hath mercy on them
shall lead them, By the fountains or springs of water will He guide
them, lead them and guide them. Isaiah 40, 11, He shall feed
His flock like a shepherd. He shall guide the lambs with
His arms and carry them in His bosom and gently lead those that
are with young. And Isaiah 42, 16, I will bring
the blind by way they knew not. I will lead them in paths they
have not known. I will make darkness light before
them. I will make crooked things straight.
These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." So these
promises and more we could spend such a long time reading where
the Lord has promised to guide or to lead His children. And
these promises, because we have them, you often see the saints
praying to this end, asking the Lord to lead them and to guide
them. And why do we do that? Why do
saints pray to that end? Because we see the need of it.
Do we not? We see our own utter weakness
and our blindness in taking one step without God's leadership
and God's guidance. Listen to some of these scriptures,
just a few, where the saints are praying to this end. Psalms
25 and 5. Here's what David said, Lead
me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation,
on thee do I wait all the day. Psalms 27 11. Teach me thy way,
O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of my enemies. Psalms 43 3. O send out your
light and thy truth, and let them lead me Let them bring me
unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacle. Psalm 61, 2. From
the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
Lord, lead me to that rock that is higher than I. For thou hast
been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemies. And one
more in Psalm 139, 23. And I think this one of all of
them shows how sometimes we feel the need of the Lord guiding
us. He says, Search me, O God, know
my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there is
any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way that's everlasting. So the Lord that has promised
to lead His children, He puts it in their heart to pray for
that leadership, to pray for that guidance. And He says, when
I hear, I'll answer. I will answer their prayer. How
does He lead His people? How does He guide His people?
How does He make them to know His will in their daily life? Well, some ways that God has
led His people in the past. We'll look at that just for a
minute because I think it's important from what we're hearing so much
today. In Hebrews 1-1 it said, God who
at sundry times, different times, and in divers manners, different
manners, He spake unto the fathers by the prophets. In the Old Testament,
the Lord used to speak in so many different ways, especially
to His prophets, and they would relate God's instructions and
God's will to the people. As you read the Old Testament,
two ways that you realize that the Lord spake unto people was
by dreams and by visions. Listen to Numbers 12 and 6. Hear
now my words. If there be a prophet among you,
I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and I will
speak to him in a dream. But my servant Moses is not so,
who is faithful in all my house. With him will I speak, face to
face. In the Old Testament, you often
find the Lord giving a vision to His prophets, or letting them
have a dream. You see that in the book of Daniel
and Ezekiel. Sometimes the prophets dreamed,
sometimes they saw these visions, sometimes the common people dreamed
and had visions. The Lord instructed them and
taught them His will so many times. Even when you come over
to the New Testament, and begin to read in the New Testament,
you see this is still the way the Lord was teaching people.
Remember Joseph, Mary's husband? One of the chief ways that the
Lord spake to him was always in dreams. He was always having
dreams. You come over to the book of
Acts and You remember Ananias? The Lord told him to go over
and visit Saul. See, Saul had come into the street
called straight and put your hands on him. He spoke to him
in a vision. And then he turns right around
and he speaks to Saul of Tarsus in a vision. And he saw Ananias
come in and lay on his hands. Peter had a vision. in chapter
10 of the book of Acts, as well as Cornelius. So even in the
New Testament, the Lord often spoke to men in dreams and in
visions. Now if I stood up here this morning
and I said that God absolutely never in no way teaches us or
instructs us by dreams or visions, then you would ask me to prove
that by the Scriptures. And I said, I can't. I would
never limit the Lord and say that He could never give you
a dream or He could never let you see a vision. He could well
do that in our time today. But it seems like when He finished
this book and sealed it, He doesn't work that way very often anymore,
does He? I tell you, most of the dreams
I've had means nothing. So many of the dreams I've had
is foolishness. And most of the dreams I've had,
probably at least some of them, need to be repented of. I'd never
receive them as instruction. But we would never say the Lord
would never speak to anybody or give anyone a vision. We just say this, He would never
give anybody a dream or a vision contrary to His blessed Word. I heard a man on the radio the
other day, and the reason I wanted to look at this just for a minute,
he was dealing in prophecy, and he said he didn't have any advice
or instructions from the scriptures on what was going to happen in
the near future, and he was calling out for people to call him on
the radio, on the telephone, if they'd had a vision. Or if
they'd had a dream concerning the future, and all of them were
sharing the dreams and the visions, and everybody was having them.
I thought, that's very strange. You know, you understand that
in the Bible days before the Word was sealed. But you know,
visions can be very deceitful. And dreams can be very deceitful. And the reason I bring this out
was because even though the Lord spake and taught people in the
Old Testament and the New Testament by these means, there were also
false prophets that had dreams and had visions. And it wasn't
the truth. I want to just show you that
before we go on to the second thing I wanted to look at. Look
over in Jeremiah. In Jeremiah chapter 14 and verse
13. Jeremiah chapter 14 and verse 13. Well, Jeremiah was having a battle
out of these false prophets. He was telling them that they
were going to be taken into captivity. And these fellows were having dreams
and said, No, there's going to be peace. We're going to have
peace. We're going to stay right here
in the land of Israel and have peace. And the Lord was giving Jeremiah
visions and dreams, and when compared to these other fellows'
visions and dreams, they just weren't lining up. And look at
what the Lord confronts them with in Jeremiah 14, and look
in verse 13. Then said I, O Lord God, behold
the prophet said to them, You shall not see the sword, neither
shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this
place. Then the Lord said unto me, The
prophets prophesy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither
have I commanded them, neither spake unto them. They prophesy
unto you a false vision, and divination, and a thing of naught,
and the deceit of their hearts. So he rebukes them and he says,
the vision you're having is nothing but out of the deceit of your
own heart. And look over in chapter 23 of
this book. Chapter 23 in verse 25 of the
book of Jeremiah. Throughout this book, he's rebuking
these fellows that's having these dreams and these visions. Look
in chapter 25 and look in verse 25. Chapter 23, I'm sorry. Chapter
23 and verse 25. Jeremiah 23, 25. I have heard
what the prophets said, that prophesize lies in my name, saying,
I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the
heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets
of deceit of their own heart. which think to cause my people
to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man his
neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten me by my forgotten
my name for Baal. The prophet that hath the dream,
let him tell the dream. And he that hath my word, let
him speak my word faithfully. Now I love that, don't you? He
makes a distinction between these dreams of these false prophets
and his word. What is the chaff to the wheat,
saith the Lord? Is not my word like a fire, saith
the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord,
that steal my words, every one from his neighbor. Behold, I
am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their thought,
use their tongues, and say, he saith. Behold, I am against them
that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and
cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them, therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith
the Lord." So even though the Lord had taught people by dreams
and visions, their own deceitful heart had deceived them and caused
people to err about because of the dreams they had and because
of their false vision. So that's one of the ways the
Lord taught people. He taught people by dreams and
by vision. And I don't at all exclude that. But boy, I tell you what, we
have to be careful, don't we? We really have to be careful. And secondly, think of this.
Sometimes, sometimes the Lord really teaches people by impressing
them. And this is something else that
we have to be careful with our impressions and our feelings
and our desires. Sometimes the Lord can reveal
His will by these things. He can teach us by these things.
But you know, even good desires can be deceitful. It's not always
because we have a good desire that we can say, I think I'll
just do that. If I really desire to do it,
it must be the Lord's will. It must be Him impressing me
to do this. How many of us have had desires
to do something and found out later it just wasn't God's will
for us to do it? Remember David that had a desire
in his heart to build the Lord a house? And he was talking to
Nathan the prophet and he said, Nathan, now for a long time I've
had this longing and this desire to build God a house. Here I
am, and I've got a beautiful house, and he lives in a tent.
And I want to build him a house." And Nathan said, I really feel
impressed for you to do that. Whatever you have in your heart,
David, do it. And the Lord sent a message to
Nathan, and He said, Nathan, both of you fellows are wrong.
You're wrong by your impression, and David is wrong by his desires.
And He would not let David build a house with it. Even though
the desire was good, nothing mattered with the desire, but
we have to have something to rule, to guide our desires by,
don't we? The desires aren't enough. I
tell you, there's been people... How many women do we know and
have we heard of that desire to preach the gospel? And how
many do we see sometimes on our TV that's trying to preach the
gospel? They've got to desire bread to do it. But what does
the Word of God say? No. No. And there are some dear
men, bless their heart, that desire to preach. They desire
to pastor. But God hasn't called them. And
if they follow their desires, they'll get themselves into trouble.
So impressions, the Lord may impress upon us and may lead
us by some impressions or He may put a desire in our heart. If any man desires the office
of a bishop, he desires the good work. And a man shouldn't enter
into it without a desire, but a desire can be deceitful. Can they not? One thing, your
pastor used to put a lot of stock in, but I don't put much stock
in anymore. I examine it at least much clearly. I used to put a
lot of stock when I was impressed by a passage of Scripture. I
remember I had a pastor friend of mine, this had probably been
15, maybe 20 years ago, and he had brain surgery, and we thought
he was dying. They didn't think he was going
to make it. And that passage of Scripture come to me in Isaiah
57, verse 1, where the righteous, is taken away from the evil to
come. And I thought to myself, boy,
he's not going to make it. You know, he's going to die.
And I called a pastor friend of mine and I said, you know,
here's the Scripture that come to me, the righteous are taken
away from the evil to come. That's been probably 15 years
ago and that old man is still living. So I come to the conclusion,
even though that Scripture had impressed me in that time, I
couldn't rely on that. And I looked at the context of
Isaiah 57, and many of the righteous were taken away from the evil
captivity of Jerusalem, Israel, that was coming. So I had taken
that completely out of context simply because it impressed me.
Does God teach us with His Word? He does. But boy, He doesn't
pull it out of the context, does He? He doesn't get a little tidbit
here and a tidbit there and teach us. Even when we're trusting
in the Word of the Lord, we have to trust in it rightly divided
and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. You've all heard
probably about this fellow that randomly opened up his Bible
and stuck his finger at the first verse. You heard about that fellow
that did that? He opened up his Bible one day
and he stuck his finger on Matthew 27, 5 and Judas went out and
hanged himself. And he shut his Bible right quick
and opened up again and he stuck his finger down on Luke 10, 37.
Go and do thou likewise. That ought to break a fella from
doing that shit. We don't just randomly open the
Bible and pick out a verse and apply it and say, boy, that must
be the Lord leading me. It must be the Lord's will. Look
at all the different religions that's in our community and in
this nation today. And you know the overwhelming
majority of them use the Bible? So somebody's got to be misinterpreted. Somebody's got to be taking the
Word out of context. So even the Lord, as He uses
His Word to teach us, we have to study it, don't we? We rightly
divide the Word of Truth, and we sure keep it in its context.
There's just some of the ways that the Lord has taught His
people, and even though He teaches them today, we have to be very
careful with it. But let me give you three ways
right quickly in which God does guide His people. Ways that can
be trusted in. The ways that He leads His people
and reveals His will in just three ways. Just three ways.
First of all, He guides them. He leads them by His decrees. Now I love this. You talk about
an infallible rule now. You talk about a rule that none
of us will never err in because God's decrees will never err.
This is a rule for those who love God and who are called according
to His purpose and it will never fail. One man said this, he said,
God sovereignly decrees and designs circumstances so that we end
up where He wants us to be. even though we have no conscious
part in getting there. And I'll go one step farther
than that. Sometimes we're led to that place and we go there
kicking and screaming. But the decrees of God puts every
child of God in the place where God wants them to be and when
He wants them to be there. Now let me give you two simple
examples. of that illustrations in the
Bible. You remember Joseph, the son of Jacob? He was hated of
his brethren. He was betrayed of his brethren.
He was sold down into Egypt. He got down into Egypt. He was
falsely accused. He was put in prison. And the
Bible says they hurt his feet in the stocks. From the time
his brethren sold him and put him in that pit until he left
the prison and was exalted as governor, he wept. He wept. He never prayed, Lord, do this
to me. He never desired, Lord, bring
me to that place. He wept all the way till God
revealed to him, this is what I've had planned for you and
my people all along. And when he got on the throne
out of prison, and the king Pharaoh put the chain of gold about his
hand and a ring on his finger and gave him a house and a wife,
he looked back over all of his life, what all had happened to
him, and he said, even though everybody meant it for evil,
God meant it for good. God got him there by His decrees. God's decree never errs, does
it? And it always leads us, but most of the time, it leads us
kicking and screaming. Let's be honest about it. It
does. Remember Paul and Silas? How they were beaten for preaching
the gospel? With their bleeding backs, they
were thrown back into the jail? Do you think they prayed for
that? Do you think they desired that? Well, they did not. They
had to look in retrospect even to know this is what God is doing. He's bringing us right where
He would have us by His own decrees and purposes. And the good of
that poor jailer and his family who heard the gospel and was
converted there that day. This is a rule that is discerned
after the fact if we can even discern it at all. But it's an
infallible rule. Listen to this. God works all
things after the counsel of His own will. Listen to this. Remember
the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like
Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all My pleasure, my counsel. David said he shall
guide me with his counsel and afterward lead me to glory and
receive me to glory. And the wise man said there are
so many devices in a man's heart. That word devices means plans
and purposes. So many things that we're going
to do. But he said the counsel of the
Lord that shall stand. Aren't you glad brothers and
sisters? that God's decree, God's purposes, though they're so secret
to you and me, yet He's leading us by those decrees. You know,
man thinks he's really smart. Man thinks, boy, I'm the master
of my fate. Is that what they used to say?
The captain of my soul? But you know God's will is being
done. His decrees are being accomplished,
and He's leading His people by these decrees. One brother, Larry,
got home, I guess it was Thursday evening or so, and told me about
his brother, and I went up to visit him. And I just sat down
in his living room, and as he often does, he got his Bible
out. And he said, I want to show you a verse of Scripture. And
he turned it over to Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and verse 8. And he
said, I was standing on the bank of that lake, me and my brother
Roger. And we were watching my brother,
Rick, swim to come to shore. And all of a sudden he looked
up at us and said something and his head went right down in the
water. And he never moved again. He never moved again. And he
said, Bruce, I was perilous, Roger was perilous, and Rick
was perilous to stop what was happening. And this is the passage
that Brother Larry read to me. There is no man that hath power
over the Spirit to retain it, neither hath he power in the
day of death, and there is no discharge in that war, neither
shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. He was
perilous. His brother was perilous. His
brother who drowned was perilous. We cannot retain the Spirit. Why? When death comes, it comes
at God's decree. It comes at God's appointment.
It's appointed unto men once to die. And after this, the judgment. And you and I are just pawns,
aren't we not? Humanity is just pawns, even
though they exalt themselves. And think, boy, I am something.
I am the master. I am the captain. Now, buddy,
I tell you, death, death is the last proclamation that God is
indeed sovereign, for He holds it in His hands. And you here
this morning, and your trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you are happy to have it so, aren't you? And you'll never
try to take it away from Him and say, let me have the reins.
Let me lead the way. Let me trust in my own counsel.
When you hear that the Lord is directing you by His counsel,
oh, your heart finds rest in that. Because you know, in the
sovereign God, there's no mistakes. He's too wise for that. He'll
never err in His decrees. His purposes are sure that He's
purposed in the Lord. Jesus Christ. So there's the
first way. The second way is this. The Lord
guides His people by His infallible Word. He guides them by His infallible
Word. Does that mean we never err?
No. No, it doesn't. But you know,
it does mean this. When we do err, it shows our
fallibility, not the Word. It shows sometimes our unbelief
or our rebellion when we err. But we have an infallible rule
that God leads His children by. Listen to some of these passages.
To the law and to the testimony, to the Word of God. If they speak
not according to this Word, it is because there is no light
in them. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall
not pass away. Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is
settled in heaven. Concerning Thy testimonies I
have known of old, that Thou hast founded them forever. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but My Word shall not pass away. All flesh is grass, and all the
glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But listen to this, the
Word of our Lord. Endureth, it standeth, it's unchangeable
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. John Newton said this about the
word leading the Lord's people. Here's what he said about it.
He said, The word of God is not to be used as a lottery, nor
is it designed to instruct us by shreds and scraps. that is, verses taken out of
context, which detach from their proper places, have no determinant
importance. Rather, the Word of God is to
furnish us with just principles and right apprehensions, to regulate
our judgments and our affections, and thereby to influence and
direct our conduct. They who study the Scriptures
in a humble dependence upon divine teaching are convinced of their
own weakness, are taught to make a true estimate of everything
around them, they are gradually formed into a spirit of submission
to the will of God, discover the nature and duties of their
several situations and relations in life, and the snares and temptations
to which they are exposed. Now, I love that. I hope you
got that. I love that. The Word of God sets before us
God and His Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ and His character.
It sets before us the way of salvation that's in Christ alone. It sets before us the providence
of God, His rule over all things, our utter dependence upon Him.
The Word of God sets before us who man is, how he should think
of himself, who and what the church is, and our attitude towards
it, and what our attitude is towards this world. And the Bible sets principles. It gives us principles. It won't
tell you ladies what day to go to the grocery store, and it
won't impress upon you what to buy when you get there, but I'll
tell you what it will do. that will impress upon you and
instruct you how to live while you're there and what to think
while you're there. Listen to some of these general
principles taught in the Word of God and this is the way He
guides His children. If we want to know how He guides
His people, here are some general principles. Listen to these passages. Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness. And all of these other things
shall be added unto you. not on things on the earth. Be
ye followers of God as dear children, and walk in love. Be ye kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. O lo, man, anything but to love
one another. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in
all holy conversation and godliness? Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, and listen,
every man that hath this hope in him." See these beautiful
principles? And this Word gets in our heart,
and it forms a holy character. It forms a godly integrity in
us, and it is by that that God rules our lives and guides us. The integrity of the upright
shall guide them, but the perverseness of the transgressors shall destroy
them." So how does He guide us? This Word. This Word. It gets in our heart. It's a
lamp unto our pathway. It's a light unto our feet. And
it gets in us. And it gradually and slowly conforms
us to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. You've experienced this
in your own heart, haven't you? You've got these holy principles.
As you grow in grace and knowledge, you've got these principles.
And these principles, they guide your daily life. What you do
at home, what you do at work, what you do on your own vacation,
the Word is an infallible rule to guide us. And finally and
lastly, God leads us not only by His infallible Word, but by
His sovereign Spirit. What would we be if we only had
the Word? We'd err so badly, wouldn't we?
We couldn't understand it. We'd have no interpreter. But
we have the Spirit. He's sometimes called a teacher.
He's sometimes called the revealer of the deep things of God. He's
our sealer, He's the seal, and He's our guide. He's the guide. Listen to John 16, 13. The Lord
Jesus said, How be it when He, the Spirit of truth is come,
He will guide you. How does God guide His people?
He gives them the Spirit of Christ in their heart, and He guides
them into truth. Galatians chapter 5, verse 18,
If you be led of the Spirit, You are not under the law. Without
the Spirit, we're dead in sin. Without the Spirit, we cannot
be formed to Christ's image. Without the Spirit, the Word
would mean little or nothing. The Holy Spirit sheds abroad
the love of our redeeming God in our hearts. And what a safe
guide that is! You know what love does when
it gets in your heart. You know what it will guide you.
You know what it will lead you to do. to do no man any harm. Love is the fulfilling of the
law. And how does that love get in
our hearts? It is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit
which is given unto us. Romans chapter 5 and verse 3. And think of this. Think of this
also. Not only does the Holy Spirit
conform us to the image of Christ by bringing home the words to
our hearts and and working with us in the Word. He sheds abroad
the love of God in our hearts. But think about this, peace,
not only is love a good guide, but peace is a good guide. That's
a good guide. God guides His people by giving
them His peace in their hearts. I know this may be a little bit
hard to understand, but remember when John the Baptist was born
and Zechariah, his dad, began to preach He was filled with
the Holy Spirit and began to preach. And here is what he said.
He said he will be a preacher. John is going to be a preacher.
And he is going to prepare the way of the Lord. How is he going
to do that? He is going to tell you some
facts. And here is what he is going to tell you. By giving
knowledge of salvation unto his people. How is salvation coming? By the remission of their sins. How is that going to happen?
Through the tender mercies of our God. And then He says to
give light to them that sat in darkness and in the shadow of
death, and listen, to guide our feet in the way of peace. For peace will guide you. And
I tell you how it will guide you. When you hear the gospel
of peace, and you find out and you believe that Christ has reconciled
you to God, I tell you what, nothing else will satisfy you.
If you start hearing all this noise that disturbs your conscience,
you won't listen to that, will you? You'll seek out your place
where the gospel of peace is preached. And that's where you'll
sit down and that's where you'll listen. Why? Because He is leading
you in the way. of peace. He's guiding your feet
in the way of peace. I always like to think of Christian
life being like a narrow path. It's just a narrow path through
this world. And it's a path of peace. And
on both sides of this little narrow path, there's all kinds
of racket. There's all kinds of disturbance
and chaos. And as soon as the child of God
edges off into that chaos, it's sort of like Christian going
out and bypassing meadows and getting into Dowling Castle.
What did he want to do? I've got to get back on the path.
Why? He lost his peace. And when the
Lord sets our feet in this way of peace, we don't want to go
off to the left hand or to the right hand. We want to stay where
there's peace. He leads us in that way. I told
you about the old fellow that when the Lord saved him, he said
it was like birds coming and lighting on his picket fence,
and he said they just sang all the time. The birds just sang,
peace, tranquility. And one day he went down to the
train station to buy a ticket, and the fellow in there wasn't
feeling very good, I guess, and they got in a fuss. And the dear
old man lost his temper and just told the fellow off. And he went
outside and he came right back in. And he said, I come back
to apologize. I am sorry for speaking to you
as I did. He said, what made you come back?
He said, the birds flew off. The birds flew off. I tell you,
peace is a pretty safe rule, isn't it? To live by. It's a
safe way to God to guide us because when he gives us the peace of
Christ in our hearts, boy, you just don't want to lose that.
I mean, you'll put up a fight before you lose that. And I tell
you, it's a good rule among ourselves, because Paul said, Endeavor to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. I want
peace with the Lord's people, don't you? And I tell you, there
may be some people that gets us off and causes confusion,
but boy, they'll drag us there kicking and screaming, and we'll
get back as quick as we can, because we want peace. Paul said,
Be at peace among yourself. And it's this peace that the
Lord guides His children with. How does God guide His people?
He guides them by His Word. He guides them by His Holy Spirit.
And His Holy Spirit works in so many ways in their hearts,
guiding them and leading them. He's infallible. The whole problem
lies with us, doesn't it? And I love what Randy said this
morning. Boy, it doesn't mean we'll never fall. The righteous
and the just, they fall maybe seven times. But what happened,
He leads them to get right back up, doesn't He? He doesn't leave
them to despair. They get right back up. They
put their nose to the grindstone and they go at it again. Why?
When He is come, He will guide you. He will guide you. And you
can be sure of this, if you're here this morning and you're
lost, You're without Christ. You can be sure of this. If He's
put it in your heart to seek Him, seek Him. Seek Him. If you feel the guilt upon your
conscience, you want peace with God, then the Holy Spirit is
the one that's causing that desire to be there. Therefore, yield
to Him. Give yourself to Him. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And there you'll see He's laid
in me. He's leading me. If any man ever
comes to Christ and trusts Christ, it's because the Blessed Holy
Spirit has led him to Christ. Because you'll never come there
without Him. You don't even know the way there, do you? He has
to lead us to Christ. I hope that's a profit to you.
The Lord bless His Word. Let's pray.