Commit thy way unto the Lord (Quality: Good)

[0:00] As I may be helped, I shall hope to make a few remarks this evening on the word you will find in Psalm 37, verse 5.

[0:14] If you commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.

[0:32] Psalm 37, verse 5. I've been greatly concerned as to what I might have to come to you with, but I have had to do, of course, as the servants of God must do.

[0:55] I ask the Lord to give the word which he will condescend to use to those at Bethesden this evening.

[1:08] Well, this is the word that I was given, and so I must venture to make a few remarks concerning it, leaving the issue, as always, with the Lord to bring about his own purposes, which he inevitably will.

[1:28] But what a privilege it is to be enabled, I've sometimes said permitted, to commit our way to him. It's a great favour. Not everyone does this by a very long way.

[1:43] Rather, rather would I say, how favoured are the few who are drawn to the mercy seat, to the throne of grace, to commit their way to God constantly, but fully, leaving the issue in his gracious hands.

[2:05] Not seeking to bring about our own purposes, which we're so liable to do. I don't want to get sidetracked too far this evening, but just a brief mention here to prove what I have said.

[2:21] Even faithful Abraham, you know, rather meddled with matters to his own hurt. It would have been best in looking back, as some of us have found ourselves.

[2:34] Had we not meddled, but let the matter run the course that God had purposed it should run and leave all issues with him.

[2:48] Well, I want to emphasise, first of all, for your encouragement and comfort, that those who are called to the throne of grace are blessed. Yes, they're blessed people, and should be grateful for this.

[3:04] What is the word to confirm this? Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causes to approach unto thee. Well, that's what we've got to do, my friends.

[3:17] That's why I wanted to come along this path, in order that we may commit our way to the Lord. It must be done in prayer, at the throne of grace, his wondrous appointment for poor sinners to come to him, and let their requests be made known unto him.

[3:37] Pouring out their heart before him is encouraged in the word of God. And as you started with the refuge, so you will find in that verse that there is this method of proving that God is a refuge for us.

[3:58] The word, if I quote it now, is a little previous to what the text is, but I'd better quote it while it's in mind. Trust in him at all times, ye people.

[4:12] Pour out your hearts before him. God is a refuge for us. What a comfort that has been to some of God's people that the way to be found in the first verse of the 46th Psalm is by prayer and earnest supplication.

[4:33] Have you been there? You need to be. Much need to be on all counts today. The days in which we are living call for prayer from those who fear God about the various matters which concern us each, and in particular that we may be kept faithful and trusting our whole soul's salvation in God and in his dear Son, well, to commit.

[5:09] The dictionary says its first interpretation is to entrust. Well, that sounds quite comfortable and comforting. Entrust thy way unto the Lord.

[5:23] But I still feel, and I did when I was thinking about it this afternoon, as well as entrust, there will be some entreat. Who will, my friends?

[5:35] And not once or twice. There will be some entreating, even using, though not in the same case, the words of Hezekiah, O Lord, undertake for me.

[5:51] I would have you ponder, as you may be helped, on that word undertake. That's just what we want the Lord to do when we commit our way to Him.

[6:04] Undertake for me. Work mercifully, O Lord, on my behalf. Isn't this the case? Sure it is.

[6:16] The Lord will undertake your case and calls what good hands you are in. How well things are sure to proceed. His wisdom is unsearchable.

[6:31] His knowledge is complete. He is that God who knows the end of the thing from the beginning, because He has appointed the whole, in an especial way, the pathway of His people.

[6:48] And He will still hear the united cries of His people in communities, that He will appear for them and work on their behalf. And so there is every reason why all of us who profess to fear God should commit our way to Him.

[7:12] Because He only knows our way. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. How can he? He doesn't know what the next step is.

[7:24] But if he has God for his guide, how can he err? He will not err. If his hope and trust is in God as His guide.

[7:38] And some of us are proving, in a variety of ways, the need today to seek for a guide. A guide to protect.

[7:49] A guide to trust. You know who He is written of in Him. But such a guide is our need today. There are so many winds of doctrine, so many powerful forces, so much allurement, so much of desire in an easier path, and a more comfortable way to heaven, whereas, and I plead guilty here, we should more often seek to commit our way entirely to God and be much more concerned not about our way, but about His honour and glory.

[8:33] Why has He gone to such an extreme length in the salvation of poor sinners other than that they should show forth His praise?

[8:45] O may He so lead us that in all the matters concerning us we seek first His honour, His glory, and I believe He will assist us in deliberations, in walk, in decisions, always supposing and providing that we have committed the issue to Him and are leaving it in His gracious hands.

[9:20] I have, as well as the word mentioned already concerning Hezekiah, pondered on the first part of a word that Asaph gave utterance to as we have it in Psalm 73.

[9:40] I see in that particular word all that any poor sinner can need in this life's journey, and I see in it the spirit in which I believe it was uttered or caused to be written a gracious submission after a most grievous time of envying.

[10:04] But the word is this, Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel. There's resignation to the guidance and will and mind and purposes of God.

[10:19] Oh, may He grant it to each of us. Things will go so well with us if we have committed our affairs to Him and now are relying upon Him.

[10:34] May He grant us to help us along because we're so weak and feeble, I know this, just a word here and there of His goodwill to encourage us still to watch, still to wait, still to pray, and may He deliver us, each of us, from devising.

[10:58] That word is often with me. A man's heart, note what it is, it's his heart, deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.

[11:14] Now, this is the very thing we want Him to do, isn't it, if I may say so, reverently, yet simply, earnestly too. This is just what we want Him to do because so many times I have immediately thought or desired from the heart in mercy, direct mind.

[11:33] You feel the same? I'm sure some of you do. You don't want to miss the way, do you? You don't want to turn aside, do you?

[11:46] And worse than that, you don't want to be left to go back and walk no more within. Nature's strong, oh, very strong. And we shall prove this as we journey on, especially if the Lord allows us to prove it for a while.

[12:03] There is a word, I sometimes wish it wasn't with me so often, it's rather trying, you know. And let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

[12:19] Yes, you know, that's a good word. If we may act upon it, it will be the means of making us cautious, keep us walking carefully, help us to obey the word in the epistle, let us walk circumspectly, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

[12:44] And so, you see, there are so many things in the word of God which point to the advisability and the profitability of having our trust absolutely in him.

[12:56] believing that he will guide, will provide for, will uphold, will sustain all who put their trust in him and therefore there is this outstanding reason why at all times we should seek to commit our way to him.

[13:21] Now, it's all very well to keep emphasizing this, but it comes to the time when one feels an urge within to put a question or two.

[13:34] And I would put it kindly too. Have you done this? Do you usually do this? Do you know what it is to start the week that way?

[13:47] It's a good way to start any week. So it is any day. If the Lord help you, commit your way to him. You'll need his care. You'll need his watchful eye over you.

[14:01] You'll need his support. And if you're like some of us, you'll need his strength. He does strengthen the weak. He does support the feeble.

[14:12] He is so very tenderly concerned about his weaklings that we read he carries the lambs in his bosom. Well, that has a spiritual meaning, you know.

[14:27] And it's sometimes a great privilege to freely acknowledge, if it's true and sincere, that you are one of God's little ones.

[14:39] they are the very ones who find it necessary, not to say advisable and helpful, to commit their way constantly unto God.

[14:52] this will be of great assistance to my young friends in matters providential. The way of the young people today is not easy.

[15:05] We who are older realise this. We're not so unconcerned as might appear. Indeed, I believe I may safely say that the reverse is true in most cases.

[15:19] We've come along life's pathway, some of us, just far enough to know somewhat of the perils, somewhat of the difficulties, somewhat of the trials of the way, and how very necessary it is, but how very profitable it has proved to have constantly committed our way into the hands of God and ourselves.

[15:42] I feel I must add that now. Not only commit your way to him, commit yourself as well into his greatest hands, sin, but how he does it do it.

[15:57] For sinners to do this, and there is an open way by which we may approach God, even in our greatest distress and direst need, most hopeless and helpless condition, the remedy is still the same because the exhortation remains the same and because the speaker changes not.

[16:26] The favorite text of mine, and you wouldn't listen to me very often for what you'd hear this come out again, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

[16:41] you try striving along on your own, you try striving to make your own pathway, choose your own way and see where it leads you, and you'll find the burden if you're a child of God is so heavy that you'll willingly lay this responsibility aside and join Asaph, thou should guide me, with thy counsel, strength is thine, might is thine, and thou canst, thou hast provided.

[17:16] You see, I've tried earlier on in life, in speaking to young people, to impress on them that this God is the guide of his people, but he is a guide who does more than what most guides can do.

[17:34] He's a guide who provides. Turning on in the way of his appointments, that what he provides his best, it's always at the right time, it's always the most suitable.

[17:49] You may say, I haven't always felt that. No, neither have I. But I've had to come to it after a while, and you probably will too. It's quite an error and a great mistake indeed to think that God can be mistaken in any way.

[18:07] And therefore, we have need of grace and faith to believe what we see. What he wills is best. What my wisdom sees most fit must be surely best for me.

[18:24] It's the same in a community. If God is your guide and your provider, you may be sure that the opening of his hand will be for your good and his glory.

[18:35] I should have had that the other way around. His glory and your good and my good too. If only he will open his hand in mercy and guide by his wisdom.

[18:50] You see, all things are in the hands of God. There isn't anything that a poor sinner needs or a community of people need that he cannot do if it's his good will.

[19:06] My prayers, if I may venture to say so, may perhaps encourage some of you, are rapidly proceeding along these lines today. Thou canst, if thou wilt.

[19:23] I'm no longer asking doubtfully. I know that God can do all things. What I don't know is whether he will. not until he reveals it.

[19:34] But I ask that he will. After all, I am surely allowed to do this. If it be thy will, grant this petition. I know thou canst.

[19:46] God will know that God's will be to do this. If you find yourself going along that way, in all matters which may concern you at any time, I don't believe you will find the Lord is offended with you.

[19:57] I believe you will find that he is, through his condescension, honored by the trust you put in his ability. You do acknowledge that there is nothing too hard for God. You acknowledge that all things are possible with him. What your prayer really is, will thou do it for me, isn't it? Or for us, or for thy people, according to the circumstances, at the time of the petition.

[20:27] And so you will see that you can, almost unconsciously, or perhaps quite unconsciously, be committing yourself to God in prayer, and afterwards realize, well, the Lord will do what I've been asking him to do, how favored I should be, what an honor it will be, conferred upon me to receive some, some of the blessings.

[20:57] I've asked the Lord to do for me. Well, it's encouraging when you feel to have gained his ear. And I have recently had calls to give this word of advice. If prayer is a burden and you labor on, don't multiply words for the sake of it.

[21:22] But my friends, if you feel to have gained his ear. And if you feel nearness to him, if, in other words, this happens to you, which is in James, the epistle of James, draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

[21:42] Ask, well, it is such a golden hour as the hymn has it. Yes, let your requests be known freely then, and only leave off when you can go on no longer.

[21:55] It's a time to say, well, it's a time to say, but I've wondered as I sometimes do, but I hope not without purpose.

[22:07] Commit thy way unto the Lord. It's a personal matter. It's thy way. I don't know what thy way is.

[22:19] You may be thankful from the very start that the Lord does, because he has so far led you along in it. And having done so, he will not forsake you now.

[22:31] But you may fall. You may stumble. If your eyes are turned away from him, or you no longer trust in him, or are concerned about it, there's such a lot of weakness in us that we don't realize until we've fallen, you know, or turned aside or become cold toward God.

[22:55] A word that troubles me is the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe it is so operative in these solemn times. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

[23:10] Isn't it the case? Isn't it the case? I'm afraid it is. And we shan't have to look outside of ourselves for the proof of this. Oh, may he stimulate his work within us.

[23:26] I try to believe in prayer to seek this. Some of us are realizing we need to be stirred up to be more earnest in prayer, more sincere.

[23:38] I believe it's possible to get into a groove. I believe it's possible to get into such a state of real unconcerned that there's no life in our petitions, no life in our prayers, no urgency.

[23:56] And I would be careful. I'm as fearful as anybody else of trouble and sorrow and affliction. And I'm aware that this will, oftentimes the way the Lord hears prayer, this is the way he'll answer if you ask to be stirred up.

[24:13] Don't expect it to be pleasant, sweet to the taste, until afterwards when it's sanctified. We read something about correction, didn't we?

[24:26] It's there for a purpose, and the Lord will because he loves his children. However, if we're enabled to commit our way to him, it will be because God has given us a confidence in him.

[24:43] No trust, naturally speaking, is ever offered to some we have no confidence in whatever. How many people are there that you would willingly commit yourself to, and your private matters to, or let them undertake for you?

[25:04] And why is it? Because today there's so much unreliability. You don't know who you can trust, do you? I'm speaking now in a very general way.

[25:18] But it is the case. It will be the means of me more carefully and strongly emphasizing the second part of my subject.

[25:32] Trust. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him. One might also say, Trust alone in him.

[25:49] You'll have to if it's a spiritual matter. You will have to if it's your soul's concern. And this is the main thing. This is the main great thing.

[26:02] That the child of God must commit into the hands of God. Had I completed Psalm 37, which was at one time in mind.

[26:15] I should have ended in this way. But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time of trouble.

[26:26] And the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him. Well, my friends, those of us who have done quite a lot of committing in their journey so far, and have hope in their hearts that we shall continue to do so, are learning now to trust more implicitly in a wise, faithful, promise-giving, promise-performing God, and lay hold at times with sweet enjoyment and comfort of heart to that word he himself spoke through the prophet, I am the Lord.

[27:17] I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. An unchanging God. The last time I was speaking, I concluded in this way.

[27:33] The promise is the promise of a faithful God. That's the secret of its fulfillment. Well, my friends, that's why we trust in him.

[27:47] Because we have proved his faithfulness, proved his loving kindness, proved his absolute knowledge, proved his wisdom, had some proof of his love.

[28:02] If the Holy Spirit should favor you, as I hope he did me on one occasion, I wish I might have a renewing of it, you will rejoice, you will feel, then there is nothing that I cannot take to God.

[28:29] Whatever trouble, difficulty, trial, temptation, fear, I come in, or sin that I'm burdened with, I may go to him.

[28:40] What was the word? The Father himself loveth you. Oh, my friends, there's nothing like love, especially divine love, to draw forth trust.

[28:56] You know who you can trust when you know who loves you, and whom you love too. I do hope that love in us, especially divine love when given, will prove to be mutual.

[29:10] I believe it will. It flows from God, but it will return to it. We've no capacity for holding it long, but oh, to feel it occasionally.

[29:24] It will be this that will enable you to trust. A Father's hand prepares the cup, and what he wills is best.

[29:35] You may say, if you're in trouble now, it's all very well for you to stand there and talk that way. Ah, my friends, I know the other side a little, and consequently I do not speak in an unkind way to people in trouble, nor the afflicted, nor the aged and infirm and weary.

[29:58] I know how they feel, and my desires are that they may still commit their way and themselves into a gracious God's, marvelous, marvelous, strong hands.

[30:11] I'd like to remind my older friends at this juncture that the word is still true. Underneath are the everlasting arms, and they are there to receive you when you are very weak, very feeble, and it's a great privilege to fall into them.

[30:36] So trust him. Put all your trust in him. But you're going to find, as I found, that the word already quoted, and I said it was in, I've reached it now.

[30:46] Now, it's to trust in him at all times. Especially those times when it looks as if everything's gone wrong, and there seems no hope of it ever being put right again.

[31:03] Everything seems in a state of confusion. And the only thing that seems to prosper is the very thing you didn't think would. And that's the thing that's wrong.

[31:17] And it seems to keep going on powerfully and increasing in strength until you know not how to continue. And what can you do then?

[31:30] We'll get right back to Hezekiah. O Lord, undertake for me. I need thy assistance now.

[31:43] I need that faith which will enable me to trust walking as I am in sorrow, trouble, and in the dark. I see not my signs.

[31:55] I cannot feel thy nearness. I feel thy hand at times against me. I read Lamentations 3, the early part, and I say that's where I am. O Lord, wilt thou forgive?

[32:10] Something must be grossly, terribly wrong in me. And yet, I must come to thee. To whom else can I go in my present dilemma, in my present great need?

[32:25] Well, my friends, has it altered at all? No, it hasn't. No, it's still there. Let this be your comfort as it has been mine.

[32:36] Come unto me. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. And you'll be able to say, I'm coming, Lord, very willingly.

[32:49] You'll join the hymn writer, in fact, in hymn 144. Lo, glad I come, and thou blessed land shall take me to thee as I am.

[33:00] Nothing but sin I thee can give. Nothing but love shall I receive. Trust in the Father's forgiveness. For Jesus Christ has wrought this forgiveness for you.

[33:14] For me, I hope. I've greatly needed it. I fear I shall again before long. But there it is. God is faithful. And his mercy is forever sure.

[33:28] And his forgiveness is like all of his other gifts. It's without repentance. Oh, how I've been tempted.

[33:38] Like some of you have been just the same. Ah, the sins were forgiven up to that time. But look where you've been since. Look what you've done.

[33:49] Look at the things you've said. Look at how you've behaved. And you think it can still last through all this. Well, you know who says that, don't you? But oh, it hurts, doesn't it, because you've got no answer, have you?

[34:03] Only guilty. What do you do when you're guilty? Prove that your trust is in God. It's a hard way, but it's the way you'll prove it.

[34:15] You'll say, I come to thee again, O Lord, a sinner great, a sinner vile. And yet you'll seek that his forgiveness may be extended to you still.

[34:27] And when you feel it, down you'll go. Humber you'll lie than ever before. It is a good place to be in. A very good place to be in.

[34:39] I wouldn't exchange those few moments, and they are few, when the Lord in his mercy and his love has really put me right down at his footstool. And I felt thankful to be there.

[34:54] That's the trust in the Lord, though, when you feel that there's little, if any, hope for you, and yet you still go. Yes, you'll still go. Why is it? Oh, faith is a precious gift.

[35:07] It really is. It enables you to believe in God. Believe that he is God. And all that that means to you, that God is God, and change is not.

[35:21] And that the work of his Holy Spirit is so effectual, that, I must keep quoting this apparently, lately, the vilest sinner out of hell, who lives to feel his need, is welcome to the throne of grace, the Savior's blood to plead.

[35:46] I seem to remember that you sung something very similar to this in the first hymn. Oh, what a mercy it is to be a comer in those solemn conditions.

[35:59] And you go, because of what God has wrought inside, hope through Christ. I ask my people, on some occasions, why do you pray?

[36:16] You tell me you haven't got any faith. You wish you had. Well, you must have, or else you wouldn't pray. Why ask without any hope of receiving?

[36:30] And you say, yes, that's hope. What's hope? Well, faith is the substance of things hoped for.

[36:41] Have you forgotten that? The evidence of things not seen. So you go to God because you trust in him.

[36:51] He's given you faith to believe that he's still able to pardon, if it be, that is well. So you'll say, Lord, pardon me, even me.

[37:07] You won't be turned away. The Lord Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.

[37:21] I wonder how many there are today who really know what it is to feel lost and yet to know that there is a Savior and a great one.

[37:33] Yes, a mighty Savior. He is our trust. He is our hope. And I've been speaking lately too, and I'll tell you the same thing, how sweet it is to feel that Jesus is God and man.

[37:52] I never realized until a short time ago what a privilege it is that our Savior is a man. You feel as if you can go to him now.

[38:03] He's a man. But you feel you won't go in vain because he can do what you want him to do for you because he's God. So ponder over the wonder of our Savior being a God-man.

[38:18] It will help you to go to him and pour out your heart before him and it will help you to trust in him too. Why? Because as a man he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin.

[38:37] As God, he triumphed over the tempter and for his people triumphs too. He's able to succor them that are tempted because he was man.

[38:54] Because he is God. Trust in him. He shall bring it to pass is the last part of my subject. I had a look at it again before I left home and I couldn't see why they needed to put it in it at all.

[39:10] It's in italics. It reads just as well without it. It does to me. Trust also in him and he shall bring to pass.

[39:23] What will he bring to pass? Well, it says it as if it's the thing you've committed to him. It may be. One thing I'm certain of it will be his own will and his own purposes.

[39:39] Herein is your trust. I hope and mine too. What he has designed what his will is what his purposes are he will bring to pass.

[39:53] So let us ask in the way already indicated for any and every blessing whatever that may be along the lines of if thou wilt thou canst and then leave it to him.

[40:14] You may be perfectly sure that the design is already laid the path is already appointed his preparations have begun in that which he designs.

[40:27] Everything's working out according to his will and purpose and all we need is trust. Trust in God as well as hoping in God.

[40:41] Well, I've made a poor attempt I fear this evening to bring this word before you but I do feel comfortable about just this. The word is there still unmutilated it's still there exactly as it was and if that's the only thing I had to bring to you this evening why it's quite good quite suitable good advice and it will accord with the mind and will of God because it's his word.

[41:12] Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring to pass bring it to pass if it's his will no doubt about that but I said if it's his will however I must leave the matter may the Lord forgive all that's amiss anything said that is wrong but I hope he'll bless his own word and cause it it shall be seasonable to you Amen Let us end our evening service I sing in number 247 to daily life 925 O Lord I would delight in thee and call my care to be in every car of clean by best by everything in 247 to 1929

[42:14] O Lord I would delight in thee and from my care he came to the heavenly добр The price

[43:15] Like all that is the same May I with this Be satisfied and glory in thy name.

[43:46] Why should the soul of your believers who has a field of conking which will ever run with water sweet and clear?

[44:28] No woody creatures have me found but they become in me.

[44:50] I must bear hold things and profound while woody's gone gloomy.

[45:09] O that thy hand of stronger faith through the faded flowy.

[45:35] To credit hold my day of death who's watched and never failed.

[45:57] He that hath made my hands secure will hear our good provide.

[46:18] O Christ is great I found before What can I want to be inside?

[46:42] O Lord I cause my care there on thee I triumph and adore And for thy grace God's love shall be True love and praise thee all Now O Lord as we separate we ask to be taken into thy kind care and keeping seeking that thy blessing may rest upon thy word

[47:48] May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all Amen.

[48:25] Amen.