Address—G. Hayhoe
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Fill in the appendix.
Savior, lead us by Thy power, faith into the promised rest.
Choose the path away whatever seems to thee, O Lord, the best.
Be our guide in every peril. Watch and keep us night and day, else our foolish hearts will wander from the straight and narrow way. 42 in the appendix.
Save your laid our.
Joy. Joy.
Yeah.
My friend.
Saw.
Play.
Sorry, and your.
And I pray presently.
Our way down.
Laundry from the way we are.
00:05:03
Yeah.
Enough to the Lord for the last time.
I'd like to turn to Psalm 119.
Psalm 119.
Verse 9.
Well at all shall a young man cleanse his way.
By taking heed thereto, according to thy word, the 11Th verse, thy word, have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
And in the 105th verse of this same Psalm.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
And in the 17th Psalm.
And the fourth verse.
Concerning the works of man by the word of thy lips.
I have kept me from the powers of the Destroyer. Hold up my goings and thy paths that my footsteps Slipknot.
Well, I'd like to turn later to some other scriptures. While I was thinking this afternoon of the importance of the Word of God and also of guidance for our pathway as we go through this world. How often were confronted with certain matters and we have to make decisions? How often we find the need of wisdom for our pathway through this world, and especially those who are young because so often.
That path that we start in youth becomes part of us. We tread that path, and very often the if we could say the dye is cast while we're young, the position that we choose, the friends that we choose, the partner that we choose, how these things mold our lives, and how important dear young people that we should be guided by the precious word of God.
So the first one that we read said, Where at all shall a young man cleanse his way? And that question might well be asked by each one here, young man or young girl, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? How are we going to know that which is pleasing to the Lord for our pathway? How are we going to send out? Well, God has given to us His precious and holy word.
He has given us this book and we haven't got a greater treasure anywhere, as we were remarking this morning.
Than this blessed book it says, His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. And I believe that you will find in this wonderful book, dear young people, wisdom for every step of your pathway, not only the way of salvation. Thank God for that, that's the most important, but for our whole pathway. And while it's true, the word of God may not speak uncertain subject scientific subjects.
Nevertheless, whenever God does speak about any such matters, he always speaks with authority.
He speaks with accuracy because of who he is and so how wonderful it is. And I would like to say before I start, how important that you acquaint yourself well with what God has said in His word, how many young people, and I believe I can say, older people.
Have never read God's Word through. Never read it through even once.
Men are gone through from Genesis to Revelation. What would you think of me if I got a letter from my wife and I just picked out parts of it and this letter was conveying to me her whole mind and I just picked out the parts that I liked. You would say well, he doesn't have much concern about his wife's mind or will and anything. Lenny would just picked out the parts that he likes, you would say.
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Surely love would lead him to read.
All that she has been pleased to write well and dear young people, how much more when God has given to us in His Word, His revealed mind, all that we need to know for our pathway through this world God has given to us. In this blessed book there isn't a question that concerns life and godliness that we will not find the answer for in God's word God hasn't left us.
To our own wisdom, to our own discretion, he has been pleased to reveal his mind.
Millions of dollars are spent by men, the wise men in this world, to try and find out where this world came from, to try and find out what is at the end, where it's all going to end. And yet God has told us on a few simple words how in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He's told us how it fell into a state of ruin, and if it concerned life and godliness how that came about, He would have been pleased to tell us that too.
But saying it wasn't necessary for us to know, he has not been pleased to tell us.
And it wouldn't gain anything for us to surmise to suppose, because he hasn't been pleased to let us know about those things. But it's what he has told us that is important, as one person said, that it wasn't the things that God hadn't told him that concerned him. It was the things that God had told him that he might know them, that he might walk in the good of them and in communion with the Lord. And so do your young people Again, I would say, if you have never read your Bible through.
If you've never really appointed yourself with God's revealed mind, isn't it a good time to start right now? Isn't it a fine thing if you should decide right now that you were at least going to read through what God has told us? Because how can you cleanse your way unless you know what God has said about your way and about His way at all? That he would have you to know, and then it says.
Thy word have I hid in my heart.
Now, that is, we don't read it. Just like a cold textbook, I suppose. When the time came in the spring when school was over, when everybody went on vacation, that everyone was glad to take their school books and put them on the shelf and say, glad to have them out of the way. Well, because what you learn in school doesn't find a place in your heart particularly. It's necessary for your education, It's necessary to pass those examinations.
But it doesn't find a place in your heart. But this blessed book tells you about one who loves you infinitely more.
Than father or mother or any person else in this world. It reveals a person to you. The God who made you, who gave you life and breath and all things, is looking down upon you this afternoon. And you're an individual before him and he knows you. He knows your whole family background. He knows your disposition. The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. There isn't a thing in your life or mine or a whole family background.
That he is not thoroughly acquainted with. And so it says Thy word of thy hid in my heart. A business letter may not mean very much to you, but a letter from someone who loves you, that is of great importance, reminds me of a young lady, and she had a book in her bookcase that she had bought some time just to read out of passing interest. As time went on, she met the young man who had written this book.
She fell in love with him and she was going to marry him. What do you think she did?
Why? She went to the bookcase and said, I must read that book through again. I have an interest in that book I never had before. Why our heart now was taken up with the young man who had written that book? Well, he hadn't written that book for her. But dear young people, God has written this book for you.
Isn't your heart touched by the fact that he should not only tell you that he loved you?
And that it costs far greater than you and I could ever know. He has redeemed us. God could speak worlds into being by just his his own power. He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. But when it was a question of your salvation and mine, the cost was no less than the giving up of his own beloved Son. Think of it. How much He loves us. Thy word have I hid in my heart.
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Dear young people, what place does the word of God have in your heart? Are there verses in the Bible that you say? Well, I don't like those verses. They they bother me. Oh, I want to tell you that God has written those very verses for your good and for your blessing. Every part of this blessed book ought to find a place in your heart and mind. They're written by one who loves us infinitely.
And whose love will never end. Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them on to the end. And then it says, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light under my path around to my feet means that it gives light step by step. God doesn't just give light for your whole pathway from now until the moment of the Lord's return, and all until.
Death should come into your life. He hasn't been pleased to reveal all that's ahead of you in that time. We don't know what's ahead of us. It's a good thing we don't. But he does. He does, And he gives a lamp to our feet, one step at a time.
And as you take that step in communion with him to please him.
Then he gives life for more, just as the light of the car why it shines so many feet.
And then as you move forward, it keeps on shining, keeps on lights the whole way.
So God's word, it's a light to the feet, it's a lamp to the feet, and it's a light to the path. Some have trodden the pathway right to the end. They're at home in the glory with Christ, and they found that the light never failed all along the way, every step of the pathway.
There was light given until the very end. Yes, thy word is a lamb under my feet and a light unto my path. It'll give you wisdom. And that's another reason why it's so important to store your mind with it. Supposing when I was driving along with my car, I said, well, I've seen the light for quite a while, and then turn the lights off. Now see how I get along. Well, I wouldn't get along very well, would I?
We need it constantly. And so with God's Word. Read it, become acquainted with it. And as you go on step by step and turn to the Word of God, you'll find in it guidance for your pathway. And then the other verse that I read was in the 17th song. It says, concerning the works of men. By the words of thy lips have I kept me from the path of the Destroyer.
This is a warning because the word of God which gives us instruction at all, tells us that there is a destroyer. There is one who is seeking to ruin your life and testimony. That is Satan. He is the destroyer. He's speaking to ruin your life and testimony. He doesn't want you to go on for the Lord. He doesn't want you to have a path in which you have the blessing of the Lord.
And his sword says, by the words of thy lips, have I kept me? It reminds me of the that well known book called Pilgrims Progress. There was a certain point in the in the.
Travels of the Christian to Celestial City, where he came to a place where there was a lion, and when that lion roared at him, he became very afraid, but he looked up his chart.
And he found out that in the chart that was given him, telling him the way to the Celestial City.
There there was a place marked on it where the lions would come out against him. But he also found that there was a path that went right through and those lions could not touch him as long as he stayed on the path. As long as he stayed there, the lions were chained and the lions chain was not long enough to reach him. If he stayed on the path, perhaps you'd gone to a house to call on somebody and there was a dog there, the one you saw. The dog was chained. Why? You said well.
I'll stay at such a distance from that he can't get to me, he barked, and he made a big fuss. But you weren't afraid because he couldn't touch you as you walk down the path to the house.
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He was chained and dear young people, God has a path through this world where Satan cannot touch us. He has a path through this world, I say where Satan cannot touch us and we have that path marked out in the word. Do you think you can disobey God's word and say well he won't do anything to me. Satan can't touch me all Peter, he was so self confident, he boasted.
But he didn't realize that in that path of self-confidence the enemy.
Could get him, the enemy could get him and all. How many a young person in self-confidence has thought he could disobey the word of God? Young people have said, well I can go with that unconverted friend and perhaps you'll get saved. And then they've had to reach the rest of their lives married to an unconverted partner and they found out that if they had walked in obedience to the word of God.
They wouldn't have got into such a path. All dear young people, I warn you, there is a path and it's obedience to God's Word. And if you go in disobedience to God's word, there is a watchful foe. He's too clever for me. He's too clever for you. And he knows our weaknesses. He knows just exactly what each one of us are prone to. And he has a a trap laid for us.
But he can't touch us. We walk in obedience to the precious word of God. So it says, by the word concerning the works of man. By the words of thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the Destroyer, and the fifth verse hold up my goings in thy path, that my footsteps Slipknot. This tells us of dependence, not only knowing the path, but walking in at independence on the Lord.
Because only the Lord can preserve anyone of us, young or old. The Lord alone can keep us and preserve us. Do you look up and ask Him to preserve you? Did you ever ask him to keep you in the path of obedience to His word? All He delights to hear? A prayer like that?
He delights to hear one look up and say, preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust, and if we are seeking that of Him, He delights in our blessing. His word has been given that we might know His mind.
Now I'd like to turn to a couple of verses in the New Testament.
In acts, I think it's.
The 22nd chapter.
Acts 22 and verse 14.
And he said, The God of our fathers has chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one, and should just hear the voice of his mouth.
And in Ephesians chapter 5.
Verse 17.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is?
And in First Corinthians again in the.
Second chapter.
The 15th verse.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. If you have a margin, it says, discerned for he For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ.
Well, we're told that God has given to us His Word and the other passages that we had and the importance of that word.
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And how it keeps us now it speaks about the understanding of that word.
Perhaps some young person says, well that's my problem. I've read the Bible that I find in it so many verses.
But I just don't understand verses that I can't seem to realize what the Lord is seeking to tell me in those verses. Well, it tells us that when solid Tarsus was saved that Ananias said to him that thou mayest know his will. So the great question is, does God want us to know His will? Does it all depend on our intellect?
Does all depend on how clever we are? Or does God desire?
That we should know his will. Does he intend us to walk in uncertainty through this world?
Not knowing his mind and all these verses show us that one for all of Tarsus was saved and that his the desire of the heart of God was that he should know his will. And so God hasn't just written his word now just to give us many interesting stories.
And to leave a large part of it that we must expect never to understand in our lives, you young people. He wants us to know his will. That's the reason he has written it. And he would teach us, as we shall see in looking at some other verses. And I want to press first of all this thought that not only has he given us his word which reveals his will, but he wants us to know His will. And it says we're not to be unwise, but.
Understanding.
What the will of the Lord is, He would have us to have spiritual intelligence to understand what he has said in His word. Well, of course this is connected with growth and God doesn't teach us everything all at once. When God brought His people, Israel, into the Promised Land, I was just reading the other day and it struck me how he told them. He said I won't drive your enemies out all at once.
Lest the wild beasts multiply upon you, Bodies said little by little I'll drive out your enemies and give you to possess the land. All this showed that there was two things on their part. There was room for spiritual growth on the other part, that there was to be a continual conflict because the enemy would never desire that they should go ahead and possess this land more and more.
Of the land that God had given to them. So we don't expect, and we shouldn't expect, that we're going to understand everything of God's will all at once. It's little by little lying upon line, precept upon precept. But if we are walking in the my His mind, as it's been made known to us, then He will teach us more. And it was said to Saul of Tarsus, But thou mayest know His will.
And might just hear his voice. Oh, that's a precious thing to to know his well and to hear his voice, because it's a person that's brought before us in the word. It's a person. That person, the Lord Jesus, the one who died for us, the one who loves us.
And it was soon coming to claim us to be with himself. And so Paul, in exhorting the dear Ephesian believers, he said that not to be unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And then in this passage in First Corinthians chapter 2, it says, But he that is spiritual discerneth all things well. What does this mean to be spiritual, to discern his mind?
Well, I believe we could say it means walking in communion with God by the Spirit.
Perhaps to make it a little more simple, I might say at the word communion means common thoughts, Common thoughts. We know what it is to have common thoughts with a friend. Did you ever meet a new friend? And then you started talk things over and you were surprised to find out?
How you had common thoughts about many things. Well, God has made known His mind to us.
And he has given us His Holy Spirit so that we might enjoy common thoughts with him. I don't know that there's anything sweeter in this world than to go through life having common thoughts with God, common thoughts with God in connection with everything for your pathway. And he that is spiritual, or he that, if we could put it in this way, who walks in communion by the Spirit.
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Who has common thoughts with God, Why he deserves all things. He discerns the Lorde mind. He's able to discover his mind because he is seeking to be guided, not like the horse of the mule, it says in psalms. Be not as the horse of the mule, who have no understanding whose mouth must be kept in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. God doesn't want to use the bitten bridle of unpleasant circumstances to guide us.
He says, I will guide thee with mine. I will guide thee with mine eye. You have to be near a person to be guided by his eye. You have to be acquainted with the person too. And when you're acquainted with a person, you can just watch their eye. You can tell by the look in that person's eye, whether there's approval or disapproval. Immediately when you know the person, when you're in the habit of walking in that person's company.
You just watch their eyes. I'm sure all of us, if we have a very close friend, we've done that. When someone raised a question and we weren't just sure about what our friends attitude would be, we looked straight in that persons eye. And when we saw how they listened to that story being told, we knew it once, whether our friend approved or disapproved, guided by the eye, well we need to be close to the Lord to be guarded by his eye.
I'm sorry, he says.
He himself is discerned of no man. Others may not understand you too often. Too often the reason we make mistakes is because we're anxious to please everybody, and we can't please everybody if we're going to please the Lord.
We can't please everybody. We're going to displease somebody. And the question is, are you going to displease the Lord, or are you going to displease your friend? If you're putting your friends before the Lord in order to please them, you may displease the Lord. You may dishonor the Lord. But if you're seeking to please the Lord about everything else, if it's to please Him, then you're able to discern his mind. Even though others don't discern you, they don't understand why you do things.
Because it has been said that the motives that govern the heart of the Lord Jesus.
We're not the same motives as govern the heart of the natural man. Paul the natural man is governed by entirely different motives. Everything he does are to satisfy one of the three lusts or the whole 3. When Adam took of the tree, it was because it was pleasant to the eyes, good for food, and he wanted to be watched. That's why he did it. And when unsaved people do things, those are the controlling factors in their lives.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Every advertisement that you see in magazines, newspapers, or anywhere appeal to 1-2 or three of those lusts. That's the the whole motivating principle of the natural man. But as a Christian, you and I are not to be motivated by such principles. We are to do what we do to please the Lord.
If you buy a new car.
I hope you don't just buy it because it's nice looking. I hope you buy it because you want to please the Lord with that car. If you build a house. I hope your thought in building the house is to honor the Lord in it, to please Him. In it, the Christian is delivered by the motives that govern the harm of the natural man. He has no motives at the world. Can't understand the Christians motives. If he is seeking to please the Lord, well if we understand His will, if we discern His will.
We must then expect, we must remember, that others may not understand us. And one of the greatest snares that I know for young people is that they want to be pleasing to everybody. And you'll hear this expression all Daddy, why can't I do it?
Everybody's doing it. Why can't I go here?