God's ordering of the Christian's pathway (Quality: Good)

[0:00] Absolute dependence on the Lord for his help. I ask your attention to Job chapter 28 and verses 7 and 8.

[0:18] The 28th chapter of the book of Job verses 7 and 8. There is a path which no foul knoweth and which the vulture's eye have not seen.

[0:37] The lion's whelps have not trodden it nor the fierce lion passed by it. There is a path which no foul knoweth and which the vulture's eye hath not seen.

[0:53] The lion's whelps have not trodden it nor the fierce lion passed by it. Let's try, as the Lord will help us to, add a few more words.

[1:11] How dependent we are to the Holy Spirit to shine a light from the gloires of heaven that we may have understanding and that being led by the Spirit it may be for your encouragement and indeed I hope your confirmation.

[1:32] we began this morning because we felt persuaded that it was so that here in these two verses especially in the seventh verse is the decrees and purposes of God there is nothing that could be haphazard there is nothing which can be ever questioned or is the subjects of any doubt or any fear as for the reality of this path.

[2:13] I know it's full of doubts and fears but they are not concerning the path of which the Lord is the author of.

[2:25] It is rather than the walk and the pathway of which we shall walk. We have enough opposition from within let alone from without concerning this path but if you can see this path as I trust I have been able to see it my friends you will find that it is of God this pathway and though you and I may be accosted by the devil and tempted by the devil and tried by the devil if by his divine grace God has put you into this path then he will uphold you in it and step by step he will bring you to the end of that path if it was not of God it could never be written like this there is a path in which no fell knoweth and which the vulture's eye hath not seen if it was a path you chose for yourself if it was a path that you mapped out for yourself if it was a path which is agreeable to the flesh you can never ever expect any of the Lord's blessing within that path neither will you find help along it neither can you lean upon the Lord within it there will be no comfort there there will be no helps there will be no supports if that path is your own of your own manufacture or of your own wisdom and as I feel it is at this time and I felt during these the previous days that this has been with me there is a divine ordering of things and that to me is wonderful there is a divine ordering none can fall out and or make a shipwreck when you are found in this way my friends because it is so ordered and decreed and appointed and shielded so that it is a path which leadeth unto life we spoke of the path of the Lord Jesus this morning very briefly perhaps far too briefly but it was appointed for him as it is appointed for all the children of God not one step was too many not one was too hard not one was too difficult it was his path and he was appointed for that path and in the decrees and purposes of God he walked it out and he walked it out for his people we sang the first hymn it is based upon the word in John 14

[5:33] I looked at John 14 to whether to read it or not this night this afternoon and there we find some instruction but it speaks very simply as you will know of the way those disciples were in need of divine instruction the same as we all do and we have these words and whither I go ye know and the way ye know Thomas saith unto him Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way Jesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me the way dear friends that you and I shall walk if we are the children of God is a decreed way then but it is a pathway which it shall be for our profit and good if you are not in this path you will not know Christ but if you and I are in this path by grace by eternal choosing not we choosing the path but God choosing the path for us and putting us into it by his grace and maintaining us in that path because remember my friends what was what was read the last Lord's Day in this house where the good apostle speaks of the path or the way of grace that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it the path is stretched out the path is lengthened out before every one of his people but my friends it's walking it out that path no fowl knoweth this path no vulture's eye hath not seen this path the lion's wealth hath not trodden it nor the fierce lion passed over it it is one it is the way which he has chosen and appointed and decreed that every one of his people personally shall be walking in that path well in the way of the Lord Jesus Christ then who is the way he for his people opened the way and trod that path out and going to glory leaves behind a people who shall follow him be it at a distance they feel but shall follow him till they are brought into the eternal glories of heaven there is a path which no fowl knoweth and which the vulture's eye hath not seen we spoke of the pathway of sovereign grace how it is that every one of his blessed people are called by invincible grace

[8:44] I felt constrained I hope it was right to read that chapter or part of chapter 9 of the Acts because we have the wonderful grace of God demonstrated and what struck me and whether it did you or not I know not but you know the path of the apostle Paul or the path of Saul of Tarsus shall we say was so remarkably and wonderfully changed we have that he left Jerusalem and he had within his possessions divine instructions not divine instruction instructions of the high priest or the chief priest to hail men and women to prison who were in the way everlasting and so he sets forth on the way wasn't God's way oh my friends don't ever view the way of Saul of

[9:44] Tarsus as a way which the Lord approved the end was better than the beginning the wise man said in his writings didn't he better is the end of the thing than the beginning but it doesn't make the beginning right you know Saul of Tarsus was led of Satan put into that way which was going to Damascus and he was put there so that he should do Satan's work and attempt to destroy the church of Christ but there was an intervention and it was a divine intervention my friends when you walk you go back some of you that believe you're called by grace have the evidence in your soul of that remarkable change that grace brings you set forth in life's journey you walk this path of personal of a personal way you would decree at a point that this was your way and this was what it was going to be but blessed be God like Saul of Tarsus my friends when you can trace the Lord's intervention oh he set forth with hatred in his heart he set forth with to distress and to trouble

[11:13] God's people he set forth with a mission as we might put it to try to overthrow the church of Christ and I'm sure that was in his heart to do so but before he came to his destination well as the poet said his heart was changed that there was a change made and God made the change and put him in the way everlasting that way my friends which leadeth unto life eternal wonderful when you can trace that that gracious change you know and try to find that hymn where the hymn writer speaks of that remarkable and blessed change which comes across the path of every child of God the appointed time rolls on a pace not to propose but call by grace to change the heart and renew the will and turn the feet to Zion's hill

[12:24] I wondered what Saul of Tarsus would have said if you had met him as he left Jerusalem and would have said to him now when you get there you will be a changed character well with all the venom and spite and evil in his heart against the church he sets forth but you know as in all cases of divine blessing of grace there was that command that issued from heaven thus far and no further and the future steps of this blessed apostle apostle was decreed from all eternity the future steps and Ananias was to learn obedience and he was to go to Saul of Tarsus and he was to tell him what God said to him my friend this is the way there is a path and it is divinely appointed and every one of his blood washed family are brought into that path they do not choose it and they wouldn't choose it because they have not the grace to choose it their natural mind would not want this way which leadeth unto life the contentment of a natural mind is this world and the things of it but God had mercy

[13:49] God had chosen Saul of Tarsus out of Adam's lost race and had appointed a time and a place when he shall enter into the way everlasting well he was to know what he was he was to know what he was to walk out by what the dear Lord said to Ananias but the Lord said unto him go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake he went from the broad way to the narrow way he went from Satan's broad pathway of destruction to that gospel narrow way which leads unto heaven there is a path which no fell knoweth of which the vulture's eye hath not seen now my friends every vessel of mercy is little or much brought into the same gracious teaching there must be a change or this would not be a right path the change is made by

[15:12] God the path is set before his people the pathway to life the pathway to glory the pathway to untold blessing indescribable blessing a pathway which is strewn with trials troubles afflictions oppositions and most of that comes from within I said this morning that the way is a path of peace and a path of joy and of comfort my friends I'm not going back on what I said the ways of grace are blessedness the ways of grace known and walked out by a child of God is sacred seasons sacred seasons oh my friends when you're in the way everlasting and the Lord shines on your soul and shines on your pathway and love is poured into the heart there's a willingness to walk this way and there's a love to

[16:15] Christ and to his people that they shall walk this way willingly so they overlook as we might say or do not see the many obstacles that are put in that way oh it's a blessed path because it is the way the saints have trod from Adam's day to this but as I said every one of the children of God have a personal path we would call it a path of experience some are led in the depths and some in the heights some in the lengths and some in the breadth but the Lord is sovereign in what he teaches and how he teaches and he's also sovereign in this respect my friends so that you and I don't lean on someone else if all our pathways and experience were identical we would then soon start to compare as it were to those things which others had and we would not lean on our beloved it and I said again

[17:25] I said this morning I would say it again too my friends the way that the Lord's people walk is personal it is not for you nor me to ever to seek to find that as we might indeed be tempted that their way was a little more easier than ours you don't know and I don't know either the depths of which such walk whose outward appearance might seem to be more free and easy than ours is you know when Christian in that account of the pilgrimage to heaven he was walking a rough and rugged path and he aspired another way and it looked better it looked better and we read he climbed over the hedge to this other path and for a while it seemed to be quite convenient to his nature and then he realised that it wasn't going the same way it was turning back towards the city of destruction and he had to return the way he came and go back into the path which he was originally on or it is a temptation you know to look at other people's pathways and say well it's much more easier than mine well you don't know there is a path which no foul knoweth and which the vultures eye hath not seen but blessed be

[19:03] God it's a pointed way but oh that way itself what is needed my friends the Lord grant you grace I know this in the early days of blessings when the Lord is pleased to come and bring you into the liberty of the gospel you see not the hardship of the way and neither do you realise the depths of evil that is to be known against you as one called by grace when the Lord smiles you know on his people and his enemies are silent and they if they're not very careful can be lulled into a state of indifference and they can say well if this is the way to heaven well I can well walk it now your pathway will not be any different from Jesus Christ other than in the intensity of it what will you and I need to walk in this path there is a path which no fowl knoweth and which the vultures eye hath not seen well my friends I tell you this what you need is not in yourself not in yourself those words came

[20:30] I will go in the strength of the Lord God I will make mention of his righteousness even of his only it will be a way my friends where grace is needed and where grace is sought for it will be your prayer and exercise of soul my friends if you are found in the way everlasting that you will depend on his grace grace will put you in the way that's saving grace but grace will enable you to walk out that way which is appointed for you that narrow way which leadeth unto life that way which no fowl knoweth and which the vultures eye hath not seen my friends it is an evidence of the right way if you find it to be much need of grace I said to you before many years ago

[21:33] I heard a minister say and it's remained with me if you are where the Lord would have you be it will be a way you can't manage and I've proved it again and again almost to say I prove it every day well at least every time I go out to speak in the Lord's holy name it's a way you can't manage but oh blessed be God who put his people in the way he will maintain it in the way and he'll maintain it by his grace because the way being as it is leading unto life will be a way of difficulty and a way of hardship a way of trial and there are parts of the way you know and I was going to say nearly the majority of the way may be I cannot and must not try to impress what is not according to the scriptures upon you but you know there will be times in that way when it will be dark and then what my friends you will not only need grace but you will need faith because I do believe there will not be any gain in the way any profit in the way when we are sometimes willing to halt the hymn writer said the way I walk cannot be wrong if Jesus be but there but what when it's a dark way when you can't see a hand in front of you as far as spiritual things are concerned what it is it then when it is like we quoted this morning from John chapter 6 it was now dark and

[23:30] Jesus had not come because it is dark do you stand still my friends do you stand still just because it's dark every step of the way is appointed whether it's in the dark or in the light oh his way was much rougher and much darker than mine but my friends your way though it is dark is still the right way and it will be my friends when you will find the need of grace and faith more and sometimes we have to find this that struggling on in the way it is looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith that is the only way I find we must go on now what is there in the way to cheer what is there in the way that is there any comfort or consolation to us well not only the presence of the Lord Jesus may be found at times to be our comfort and our strength but here and there he will drop a word in season here and there he will drop great and precious promises to encourage the people of God as they go along this way promises which will suit your soul's experience promises which you will have to use before the throne of grace and plead a word in season that shall cheer you though the way be as rough and as hard and as difficult still oh this pathway my friends the Lord is pleased to encourage his people by his word and by his promises and akin to this pathway too is a path of exercise because that is indeed in union to the way in which the Lord will have his people walk a path of exercise a path where there will be as it were and inquiring unto the

[25:40] Lord what is the way for to walk and what is the grace that is needed for to walk in that way I know this by experience my friends that where there is an exercise there will be a constant eye upon God and a constant looking unto him for guidance and direction so that you may not be left to misunderstand the way or that you might be left to go in your own strength and in your own wisdom if the Lord exercises you in this way my friends you will listen for his voice you will wait on him for direction so often people find words suitable and they snatch at scriptures and they steal a word which seems so suitable to the occasion which they're in and in the strength of that they go my friends such a sacred time when there is an exercise in the soul and you want to know if it is the will and purposes of

[26:58] God and in what direction does it take and it may be true that when the Lord reveals the way to you you find that within you you have that fear because of the way oh I thought those words which are they not on the calendar and the Lord he it is that doth go before thee he will be with thee he will not fail thee nor forsake thee fear not nor be dismayed although the way may be indeed rough as it sometimes is my friends though the way is dark as it sometimes is and though it's a way which is impossible my friends and it's always impossible to old nature if you are in the way everlasting it ever will be impossible to nature but these are the blessings and these are the comforts a word in season to help you on the way and a word which will be the strength that enables you to continue there is a path which no fell knoweth and which the vulture's eye hath not seen and that blessed gift of faith which is of God which my friends will see the way set before you will be sometimes a tried faith when you think of those times in the scripture you know my mind went to

[28:36] Gideon the man that God raised up to overthrow the Amalekites was it all the Midianites the Midianites I think it was well the angel came to Gideon and spoke very encouragingly and Gideon said if the Lord be with us why is all this befallen us Israel had sinned that's why it had befallen them this is why they were in the hands of the Midianites because Israel had sinned they were deprived of even their stuff that they grew they were in captivity under the Midianites they were hemmed in and they were unable to go about in the freedom of Israel should and God raised up a man called Gideon now in that remarkable occasion in

[29:38] Gideon you know I sometimes felt that he is very descriptive too of those of all those whom God raises up even in gospel times I think of those words when I sent you without purse or script or shoes lucky anything and I said nothing well Gideon was raised up and he had all those thousands that came to him that was going to be his help and in the end he won the battle with 300 men my friends if you're in this way you may wonder how it is that you seem to have no reserve no reserve of spiritual strength no reserve of faith no store of grace you know you set out on what you may say is a journey here will you take all you want with you I went to a chapel once to preach and I let it out that the text

[30:45] I got was when I parked my car in a car park and the man said to me afterwards I'm a carpenter he said when I go to do a job I take everything with me and I said well you're not a preacher because I have to wait for mine it's just a simple illustration my friends do you wonder sometimes when you look at this pathway which you have a hope that the Lord has put you in a pathway which stretches before you into the unknown a one that you step day by day into the pathway of experience and then you wonder that you've got so little or you think you've got so little as it were to be your strength or your comfort or your help and it is a pathway which you go and to use the expression that people understand a hunter mouth existence my friends he doesn't call to the fact that the way the Lord directs his people is a way which is right but it's a total way of dependence you ask any minister of the gospel where are their stories you know when we write out engagements for the year 52 weeks of preaching weeknight and sabbath day my friends where is their store it's not within them they go dependent on their

[32:17] God and so will you if you're in this way you take little with you you rest on little there is no part there is no place in this pathway for props or supports other than the Lord himself his word will be your strength his present will be your comfort his grace will be all sufficient and his mercy shall be seen day by day but it's a path of absolute dependence you know that poet says this depend on me thou canst not fail make all thy wants and wishes known fear not his merit will prevail ask what thou wilt it shall be done oh my friends the path is so opposite to nature there is a path which no foul knoweth and which the vulture's eye hath not seen the lion's whelps have not trodden it nor the fierce lion passed by it it is so totally opposite to nature

[33:31] I said this morning too that the professor in all his emptiness and yet in all his jail is not in this path the unregenerate of course are not in this path I will go in the strength of the Lord God as we mentioned just now my friends this way that you will walk in this path your cry will be how shall I stand a trying day but the answer is as thy days so shall thy strength be there is a path which no foul knoweth it's wonderful my friends really it is wonderful because what does it reveal to those in the way well it will reveal their insufficiency of course it will reveal their poverty it will reveal their nothingness and it will reveal also my friends that they shall fail their long that's how they feel but it also reveals a faithful

[34:42] God a faithful God and oh that's the blessing of this way you know oh whatever is in it it wouldn't be right to say you'll find this and that as obstacles this and that as as crooks in the lot this and that as hard places is because as I said it's personal what is in my path isn't in yours and yours I'm not walking in and you're not walking in mine but be sure of this that you will learn along the way absolute dependence and you'll learn along the way too and that this way shall be because of his faithfulness his goodness his unchangeable nature oh the wonder of wonders my friends I was given a promise when I was received into the church and this was the promise be content with such things as ye have for he has said

[35:47] I will never leave thee nor forsake thee now my friends in the heights of the blessing of his grace you may say well now that's all I need and really that is all you need but you will find this my friends that the pathway shall be such that you'll have to go back to those times and you'll have to tell the Lord his promises remember what it says or you can recall what is written in the heart Psalm 119 remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast called me to hope this is my comfort in my affliction there is a way which no fell knoweth and which the vulture's eye hath not seen and the lion's welts have not trodden it nor the fierce lion passed by it

[36:50] I want to just say a moment or two of the ordinances of God's house there is a path and whether it is in the ordinances of God's house or whether it is in the exercise of your soul and I mean that by God working an exercise in your soul concerning the pathway that you are to walk remember the word which we read in Acts 9 remember what the dear apostle in his very dark and distressing state as being called by grace and he trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do and the Lord said unto him arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do and yes in chapter 10 also there is an account there quite remarkable where a certain man a centurion named Cornelius saw a vision and in that vision he was a godly man was Cornelius in that vision an angel spoke to him and we read these words thy prayers and thine arms are come up for an immoral before God and now send men to Joppa and call for one

[38:33] Simon whose surname is Peter he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner whose house is by the seaside he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do I've often thought and you must also have these thoughts the angel didn't tell him the angel was not to tell him he was he was doing God's service the angel he was speaking from for God on God's behalf he was speaking to Cornelius and like this one in this verse in the ninth chapter arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do and I say it in absolute reverence dear friends the Lord Jesus knew what he was to do because he appoints all his servants he appointed the apostles and he knew what the apostles pathway was to be now whether it is that or whether it is the ordinances of God's house you know there is one word which is very very necessary to remember remember the way which the Lord will teach you and guide you along the spiritual path remember those things which will be the evidence of the pathway but you know as we walk along that way my friends is not in our own strength but in the comfort of the knowledge that the

[40:12] Lord is with us there is this blessing my friends this blessed word and it's called obedience it's something my friends which faith will lay hold of it is something that grace is needed to indeed fulfill what the Lord says for you and I to do you and I will need grace to do it but there is also this if you are in this way my friends it isn't you will be put into the way by persuasion or by any means which is so contrary to his grace that he will be as he is pleased to come and constrained by his love now when the Lord does that you know when he when he constrains when he works in the soul by his love he fulfills what is written in the psalm in the psalm we read this thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power now in the fulfillment of those words my friends it will be by the constraining and sacred influence by the love of

[41:35] Christ working with him and those that have felt his love and I use a word you all understand my friends the word is motivate that's a very popular word in business but it is also a word that is to prove the influence of love in the soul of God's dear people it moves them and it moves them into obedience it constrains them into obedience there is a path my friends and it is a path of obedience whether it's in the ordinances of his house or whether it is in the exercise of the soul in any place or spot of the churches in the church of God what the Lord will have you to do he will constrain by his love in your soul to do it and to do it willingly and not to count the cost well the time seemed to have gone quicker than I thought it would there is a path which no fowl knoweth and which the vulture's eye hath not seen the lion's whelp hath not trodden it nor the fierce lion pass by there's one thing

[42:58] I want to say my friends it is a pathway of a child of God has got one or two things which make it to be his path first of all you know it is a path which is to be walked in the world and sometimes before the world but it is also a path which is secret and that secret is between the soul and God it is so because then no man could put his hand to it no man should ever try to put his hand to it but the Lord in secret will so lead and teach his people in this path if you find a child of God you know you only see the outward appearance you see his attendance on the house of God and if he is called by invincible grace you see the way he walks according to the scriptures of truth my friends but you don't know the secret parts of his pathway the secrets of his soul that is before

[44:11] God and God alone and no one else and no one else can put their hand to it or indeed try to persuade in any other way but it is a path decreed and appointed well I must leave the word because the ordinance is before us but oh may it please the Lord that you and I might examine our path to see whether it lines up to see whether it agrees with the holy word of God to see whether these evidences and these tokens that we have spoken of this path leads to life and it leads to glory and everyone in the path will come home safe to glory at last Amen preaching service with him 544 all by nature can no man be just sin since all are conceived in sin no room is now left us to boast for works cannot

[46:17] God's favour win but such who in Jesus believe are justified freely by grace united to Jesus their head he's made unto them righteousness in 544 all Jesus woe things at the church they are God, Lord, God, we trust.

[46:57] To sin shall, the ball, give us the same way.

[47:09] God, Lord, God, we trust.

[47:21] Thank you.

[47:51] Thank you.

[48:21] Thank you.

[48:51] Thank you.

[49:21] Thank you. Thank you.

[50:21] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[50:59] Comeichtert Muckus Let WhoLAU Ti 눈물 lows Gina says come when thy both hurts Thank you.

[52:06] Thank you.

[52:36] Thank you. May we be brought to obedience to, not to do it out of duty nor habit, to do it out of obedience, out of love to Jesus.

[52:50] Oh, forgive now all that's been amiss. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God the Father, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and always.

[53:08] Amen.