A Way That Seems Right To A Man

Lord, this is the day that you've made. We rejoice and we're glad. We're grateful. You're pleased to meet with us today. Your presence is among us as we seek you with all the heart in Jesus name. There's a scripture that says there's a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is destruction. Another scripture says a man plans his way, but God directs our steps. If we're yielded to the Lord, then he's able to bring that about in our life. But if we're constantly find ourselves fighting him in the flesh and resisting the Holy Spirit, we can't expect anything from God. You know, there's a scripture that says you stiff neck and hard hearted that Stephen preached when the Jews were there listening to him under the unction of the Holy Spirit. He said, you always resist the Holy Spirit. We have to be cautious that we don't resist the Holy Spirit in our life. Does the Holy Spirit come to lead us in the way in which you should go to obey the things that Jesus taught us and to walk worthy of the calling of God? Read a passage, Matthew 15. There's two covenants. We've been beating this drum for a while now. The old covenant, which is governed by the moon, which is the law. The new covenant, which is governed by the sun, which is Jesus. The Pharisees were the rulers of the day. They were the guides to the blind. Yet Jesus, in confronting them, he came to expose the fact that they themselves were blind and they themselves were practicing sin. May we be found in him, not having our own righteousness, like the righteousness of the Pharisees. Because Jesus himself said, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees, you will in no way enter the kingdom of God or inherit the kingdom of God. So this is what was happening in Matthew chapter 15. Now the scribes and the Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. And he answered and said to them, and why do you also transgress or sin against the commandment of God because of your traditions? For God commanded, saying, honor your father and mother, and he who curses father and mother, let him be put to death. But you say, whoever says to his father and mother, whatever prophet you might have received from me is a gift from God. Then he need not honor his father and his mother. Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites. So the Pharisees were finding fault with Jesus and his disciples. Hypocrites always find fault with others. And they go around talking about others to make themselves feel just a little bit better. It's like one ant that can push a little more weight, mocking another ant because he finds fault with it. In comparison to God, we are like ants. We are small, and we need to consider ourselves little in our own eyes, lest we measure ourselves among ourselves and compare ourselves by ourselves. Not too long ago, I seen a video of a guy, he was deadlifting. And then I saw a video of my son, he was doing some deadlifting as a man. And then another fellow came along and he says, if you're going to deadlift like that, you're going to break your back and then you're going to have trouble like me. We think ourselves to be something and all of a sudden we find ourselves crippled because God does not allow us to exalt ourselves in his presence. Let no flesh glory in his presence. So it doesn't matter how strong we are spiritually, how great we are and what great things we've done for God. God looks at the heart. It doesn't matter what measure we've attained to in leadership. God looks at the heart. Men can appoint people into positions. God appoints people into ministry. And so we can go all over the world and fulfill the commission to preach the gospel to every nation. But if the Holy Spirit didn't send you and you just went, you're not working for God. You're working for yourself or for the devil. These Pharisees were trying to find fault with Jesus so that they could elevate themselves a little bit higher than Jesus and put him in his place because who is Jesus and who are his disciples? They're nobodies in their opinion. And Jesus challenged them on the state of their hearts. And he said, according to the word of God, what you do is you've made some kind of tradition of man. So when it says honor your father and mother, specifically means we shouldn't curse our father and mother. But also in this passage, it means when your father and mother have worked and they turn whatever age where they cannot work anymore, they're 60, 65, 70, they cannot provide for themselves anymore. Then the children should help their parents and provide for the parents so they don't go hungry. You should look after them when they're old. This is honorable to God. And this is what it means to honor your father and mother. But the Pharisees, it says we're lovers of money. They love money and they came up with the tradition of men so that what would happen is they'd say, listen, you don't have to give your parents the money. What you do is you can do something one better and you can give it to God. In other words, put it into our offering plate so that we can get a hold of it. And then you're released from your obligation to do anything for your mom and dad, even though they don't have food to eat and a roof over their head. And Jesus is exposing their love of money. He's exposing the rottenness of their heart through the traditions of men. Many times we have all kinds of rules and these rules have a form of godliness. They make us feel like we're really spiritual. But then in the process of time, God manifests that our hearts are not right. And so God is interested in the heart. He's not interested in the outward show. He's interested in the heart. Because it's with the heart one believes under righteousness. And it's also with the heart one believes in unrighteousness. And you are known by your deeds. It says in Titus in chapter 1, verse 15 and 16. It speaks about people who profess to know God. But by their actions, they deny God. You can deny Jesus, not just with your lips and say, Jesus, leave my life. You can also deny Jesus and say, Jesus, leave my life by going back and practicing sin. There's two ways to deny Jesus. To profess to know God like the Pharisees, but by their actions, they are denying God because there's greed in their heart. And so they're standing in the door. And they themselves don't want to go through the door. And they're hindering any serious people from going through by bringing rules of men and keeping them from going through with God. We have to be careful that we don't follow men like these. And we don't become the men like these. Having traditions of men. And being lovers of money. This is a dangerous thing. And we're susceptible to it in our society. Because you know, we want to be wise. We want to make good choices. We want to save. We want to be good stewards. But then it can turn into the love of money. And you know what, if you start loving money, God will discipline you. And the next thing you know, you'll be losing money. This is an area where God's dealing with me from time to time. All of a sudden, I start thinking, hey, okay, I'm getting ahead. Next thing you know, I'm losing money. And then I start to think and sit back and I say, Lord, do I have a love of money in my heart? Because you know what, we don't even know our own hearts. We think we know our hearts until something manifests. And then we get light on ourselves. God knows our hearts, but we don't know our own hearts. Just as it says, a way seems right to me. Boy, I should do this. I get ahead. But the end of it is destruction. And the Lord's able to keep us. He's able to preserve us. He's able to help us to stay in that narrow way. But we have to give him the right to be Lord. We can't profess to know him and then by our actions deny him. We have to be careful in this regard. So here the Pharisees are and Jesus is, he's in a spiritual war with these men. And he says, hypocrites. It's interesting. He calls them hypocrites. That's like fighting words. Someone calls you a hypocrite. That's a fighting word. He says, this is what Isaiah prophesied about you. And he says, specifically, Isaiah prophesied about you, exactly you. That's what he was speaking about. He said, these people honor me with their mouth. They say they love God. They honor me with their lips. They say, Jesus, I love you. But in their hearts, they're so far from me. And when they worship me, whatever that means of worship is, that means of worship is an outward show, teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. It's outward worship. It's not true worship. Jesus said, and through the passage where Paul preaches in Romans in chapter 12, he says, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord, pleasing and acceptable to him, which is your reasonable act of worship. When we surrender our bodies to the Lord, to be obedient to the word of God, this is worship. But then the opposite of worship is the doctrines of men, obeying the doctrines of men, having an outward form of godliness, but denying the power of God to change your life so that your life from the inside causes your hands and your feet to become godly. Because we're to serve God, both spirit, soul, and body. There's sanctification that has to happen, spirit, soul, and body. And if they're not lining up, then we have a problem with our teachings. We have some other way worked And so we tell ourselves, I love you, Lord. We stand up and worship and we sing these songs, but our bodies are not lining up with the word of God. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And then he went on to talk about these things. Hear and understand verse 10. It's not what goes in the mouth that defiles a man, but it's what comes out of your mouth. These are the things that defile a man. Gossip, slander, envy, jealousy, bitterness, drunkenness, all these sins, the sins of the flesh, fornication, adultery. He lists them here. These are the things that come out of the heart and they defile us and make us unclean. But what you put in your mouth, it does not make you unclean. So eating with your unwashed hands or eating or drinking from cups that are not as clean as you think. This is a form of godliness. This is religion. But what comes out of the heart thinking ourselves to be just a one millimeter higher spiritually than someone else. This is what it'll take you to hell. This living by rules and regulations, dotting i's and crossing t's, thinking ourselves to have attained to something. It's no different in the sports world. You know, if you can just be a little bit better than the next guy, then you get the opportunity. And the same thing in the spiritual sense. We take that competitive spirit, we bring it into the church, and then we ourselves to be something when we're nothing. May God help us to understand that the greatest among us shall be least and servant of all. Let's have a look in Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12 verse 35. Let your waist be girded. What is our waist to be girded with? With truth. It doesn't say it, but we understand scripture from scripture. That's why it's important to study the word of God, to show yourself approved to God. So when you read something, the Holy Spirit is able to grab and to pull from other scriptures to enlighten us, so that we might walk as Elaine shared in the light. Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning. Now in the church, or in God's house, the light has to be burning continually. And so we need to have the word illuminated in our lives by truth and by the Holy Spirit. And here it speaks of good stewards, faithful stewards. Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning, and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master. The master is Jesus. We're waiting for him to come. And he says, and when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and he knocks, we may open to him quickly. I think of another passage in Revelation 3, he says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man opens the door or hears my voice and opens the door, I will sup with him and eat with me. That's the communion. That's the fellowship that we have in Jesus. And if we're watching and he's knocking and we know the voice, we know the master, we know the difference between our master and a thief. Because the thief comes to rob, to kill, to steal and destroy. We're not opening up to him. We're opening up to the master. And the only way we're going to come to know his voice is if we love truth. Jesus said, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And if you have a purpose and a call of God in your life, then you need to be a lover of truth. Because Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. You're going to have life when you're walking in truth. If you're walking in another way, you're not going to have the life because he who has the son has the life. And so if I don't have the life, then I have to back up the bus and say, am I just doing some things in religious duty and it's left me discouraged? Or am I doing things from the Holy Spirit, which would always leave me encouraged? And so it's good to examine and to test whether we're in faith or whether we're doing some works and trying to please God by our duties, because that will leave us discouraged. There's a teaching here that I just got this morning, which connects to another teaching. I want to bring it out right now here. Blessed are those servants. These are ministers whom God has called, like you and I, whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. The wastes are girded with truth and their lamps are burning. We're full of the Holy Spirit and we're watchful. The light's on. And surely I say to you that he will gird himself. That's you. You're going to gird yourself. You're going to have them come. The Lord is going to come back. The master is going to come back with his servants and have them sit down. And you will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch and the third watch and find them blessed are those servants. We're watching. The knock comes. The door opens. We gird ourselves and we serve them. This is the stewardship and the responsibility of the servant. The one who's in charge to serve others. Lord, when were you hungry? And I fed you. When were you thirsty? And I gave you a drink. When were you sick? And I visited you. When were you in prison? And I came to you. What you did to the least of the brothers you did to me. But then there's another parable that says there's a man who went out in the field and when he comes in, he expects that the Lord, the master, would have him come and sit down and that the Lord would serve him after he worked all day in the field. Get all this for the Lord, for the master. And he says, does he thank that servant when he comes in for all the work that he did that day? He said, I think not. He says that the master is going to sit down and after you've worked all day in the field, then you're going to come in and then you're going to serve him some more. Does he thank that servant? No, that servant did. He's just going to say, I am an unprofitable servant doing what was my duty to do. And he's going to continue to serve and then he's going to eat his supper. But you know what? We have this wrong understanding. We worked all day in the field. Now we're going to sit down and Jesus is going to do something great for us. No, we're going to continue to serve because we are just unprofitable servants. When they're watching, he's been watching, he's been faithful, he's been waiting. And then Jesus comes and then he girds himself and he serves them. But you know what? We get this wrong thinking that now we're going to get served. We have this wrong understanding that if you want to be great in the kingdom of God, you've got to become least and servant of all. And Jesus gave us that example when he called the brothers to sit down and he girded himself in a certain way and he humbled himself and he washed all the brothers' feet. And he gave them an example in which they should also do likewise. And they didn't understand it at the time, but that's the way it was going to be. And that's the way it's going to be for us. We're always serving. We're always giving. We're always laying our life down for Jesus because that's the way of the cross. That's the mystery of the gospel because Christ is in you. You're also able to wash others and we can never be bitter with the Lord because we did all this for him. What has he done for me? That will take you to hell, my friend. That's working for wages. That's legalism. And God allows these things in our life to show us that all that we did, we did expect him to get. We cannot expect anything except to love God from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith because we've been bought with a price. We spoke last week of Joseph. He was sold into slavery. He went into Potiphar's house in shackles and God elevated him to be head of that house. He was a faithful and a wise steward in the prison. As soon as he got there, he was elevated to be in charge of the prison. He was a faithful and wise prisoner. And then when he got out of that prison, he was elevated to be over Pharaoh's whole estate and the country. He was a faithful and a wise servant. This is what we need to become faithful and wise stewards. Otherwise, we will never fulfill the purpose and call of God for our life. Psalm 81. Psalm 81 verse eight. Hear all my people and I will admonish you. I don't know anybody who likes admonishment. My kids don't like it. I don't like it. I've given admonishment to others. It's a bitter pill to swallow at the moment. But you know what? If we can receive it, if it comes from the Holy Spirit, if we can receive it, it will yield the peace of the fruit of righteousness. Whenever the word of God is speaking to us, it's admonishment. It's for comfort. It's for edification. It's for reproof. It's like looking in the mirror and saying, Lord, this is the way I need to be. Help me to become that man. And not forgetting about who we are and the kind of man we're to be and go and do our own thing. This is a deception. Hear all people and I will admonish you. Oh, Israel, if you will listen to me, there shall be no foreign God among you. Now, this is something that is in our culture. We would say we don't have really any foreign gods. Some of the other religions do. But you know, we're Christians. We don't have any foreign gods. But you know what? Every single one of us have a close second or we have a strong first. And it can be an idol. And these foreign gods are among us. The gods of the nations. I don't care what it is that the Holy Spirit speak to you what it is. And we have to guard against this thing that this thing does not get a hold of our hearts. Because God cannot bless us. And we will not prosper if we worship other gods for one of the commandments is you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. If we're serving self or serving idols, God cannot bless us. And he says here in exhortation, you shall have no foreign gods among you, nor shall you worship any foreign God. What is worship of a foreign God look like? It's the time and the devotion that we give to it. For every one of us, it's different. It's the time and the devotion we give to it. It has no life in it. But yet, we all battle with this thing in one form or another, whether it be money, whether it be an object, whether it be a sport, whether it be hobby, whether it be a woman, whether it be a son, it doesn't matter. Even good things that God gives can become idols in our life. And we need to be, we need to hear the voice of God in regard to this thing, so we don't get tricked by it. And so what happens here that he says, I am the Lord, your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. When he says I brought you out of the land of Egypt, he brought us out of bondage. We came out of bondage. He calls them the house of Israel. We are now the people of God. He brought us out of bondage. We're to not go back into bondage by going and serving other gods or idols. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. In other words, don't get fed by what you can get out of the things of the world. It says you don't love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. But come to me and he said, I would feed you with the finest of wheat. So if we will just open our mouth and seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, then he's going to fill our mouths with good things and satisfy us with the finest of wheat from his word, from his spirit. We drink from the fountains of life, but my people would not heed my voice. When it says would not heed my voice, it means they won't listen to me. So when you spend time in the word, stop thinking, oh, I wish that was for my sister. Oh, that's for my uncle. Well, that's for my brother-in-law. Well, that's for my stepdad. Well, that's for my grandson. This is for you. The word of God is written for your admonition and instruction. And when you look into the mirror, the perfect law of liberty, this word is written for us not to analyze or to text it or send it to everybody else, but to obey ourselves. And as we find fellowship with the Lord and the Lord speaks to us and we heed his voice, we're going to become like Christ when we submit ourselves to the dealings of the Holy Spirit in our life. And you'll become broken in contract. Yesterday, I was listening to that new song I sent to some of you from 40 Cards About the Blood. Driving down the road, I just start bawling. He was just ministering to me. And I didn't really know what it was about, but I knew it was all about him and it wasn't about me. We have to come to that place where the word of God speaks to us and we get a revelation of what Jesus has done for us. How he sacrificed his own life and he shed his own blood for us so that we could have life. We can never lose that. That's what communion is all about. That we would feed on his flesh and drink of his blood so we might have his life. Ezra would have none of me. So I gave them over to a stubborn heart. How many of us find ourselves sometimes having a stubborn heart? We used to have a pup who was a bullmaster and we put a leash on him and we tried to get him to go and he would just put all fours down and we'd have to drag him. He would not move because he wouldn't want to go where we were going because he was a dog. People who are dogs and pigs, they have stubborn hearts. They don't want to go where the Lord is leading them to go because they have another way they want to go. And they want God to go their way and make it work their way. But that's not the way it works. You take the yoke. He yokes us together with Christ. He said my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me because I am humble and gentle at heart. Will you receive his yoke? Will you learn of him? Will you do it his way? Or will you just be ball-headed and just put your feet down and say I'm not going to like it or I'll obey but I won't like it one bit. This is not what the Holy Spirit wants for you in your life. If you allow yourself to be broken and take the yoke, he'll have much use for you if you'll let him. But his people here they had stubborn hearts. They would not walk in his counsel. They wanted to walk in their own counsel. It says in verse 12. Oh that my people would listen to me. This is the heart of a father. Oh that my people would listen to me when I get up in the morning and I give my kids instructions. Everybody sits there and they keep doing what they're doing. I just have this in my heart. Oh that my people would listen to me. I would soon have subdued their enemies. How many of you have enemies? We don't wrestle people. We have spiritual enemies. We don't wrestle flesh and blood, principalities and powers. We have struggles. Some of us battle with lust. Some people battle with the love of money. Some people battle with the guy and their boss at work. Some people battle with other brothers. Everybody has a battle. But the enemy is working through it to try to get us out of the way. Try to bring division and divide and conquer us. Any army that can bring division in the ranks to divide and conquer is a defeated army. Any army that is unified under one commander, behold now I have come, the commander of the army of the Lord. Are you for us or for them? No, behold now I have come. Jesus has come. If we come in line with Jesus and we all follow after him, we're going to find ourselves getting tighter together and getting unified. One can chase a thousand and two ten thousand. A quarter three is not easily broken. May the Lord give you understanding in these things. Oh that my people would listen to me. That Israel would walk in my ways. I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries. But this is the issue. This is the key point. Verse 15. The haters of the Lord would pretend obedience to him or submission to him, but their punishment would be forever. Love you Lord. But when it comes to being obedient to the word of God, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to do it my way. Jesus you're going to do it my way or it's the other way. That's a hater of the Lord. He pretends to be obedient to the Lord, but his punishment, his fate is everlasting destruction. He said also in Luke 14 verse 15. If you love me, you'll obey my word and I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty. I'll send you a helper, a comforter who will abide with you forever. If you love him, obey his word. But the haters of the Lord, their punishment is forever. They pretend obedience. They have another way worked out. They have commandments of men that they're working by. Whatever it might be, we have to be careful that we don't profess to know God, but by our actions we deny him and we raise our hands and we say I love you Lord while we're practicing sin and living like devils and while we're doing our own thing and walking according to the flesh and we're just having a form of godliness, but we don't have any power over sin in our life. We don't have any power over the flesh. We don't have a real love for the lost. We don't have a burden for hurting people. We deceive ourselves and our works are in vain. Our works and our worship toward him are in vain, teaching commandments of men as doctrines. But I would have fed you with the finest of wheat and with honey from the rock I would have satisfied. There's so many riches that are in Jesus, so many promises that are made to you through Jesus to us when we're in covenant with him. May the Lord help us to become the friends of Jesus, to walk in a manner pleasing unto him, putting off the former man with his lusts and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, putting off the grave clothes. You know when they called Lazarus forth out of the tomb and Jesus wept and he called Lazarus forth, the people said well he's been dead for days. He's already stinking in there. He said this is for the glory of God and he called Lazarus forth. How can a dead man hear? What a miracle. Sometimes we're shooting texts to our buddies and we're trying to exhort everybody. You know you're exhorting dead men. You're exhorting deaf men. You're trying to show the truth of God's word to blind men. Are we ignorant? Do we understand that there's absolutely no way that they can inherit the kingdom of God because flesh and blood can never inherit the kingdom of God. There has to be a voice of one crying in the wilderness preparing the way for the Lord, making his path straight. We need to hear the voice. Lazarus come forth. That's when dead men hear. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of man and live. You be a preacher that speaks the words of Jesus. You speak life and people will come out of their graves to be obedient to the word of God. Otherwise it's impossible for them to obey the word of God unless the spirit enlightens them, unless the spirit illuminates them and quickens their spirit and they become alive. He says in Ephesians 2, you were dead in your trespasses and sins just as dead as Lazarus was in that grave. But he made us alive together with Christ. He seated us together with him in heavenly places. Us in him and he in us. This is the mystery of the gospel. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Not the traditions of men in you, not the doctrines of men, not the keeping of the commandments of ordinances and rules and regulations. This is not the liberty that comes from Christ. This is a burden that comes from men. May the Lord help us to understand that he who has the son has the life. We need to have Christ in us, the hope of glory. That's where change comes and if we have another way worked out then we're going to find ourselves bringing men back into bondage. Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and don't get entangled again in a yoke of bondage. May the Lord give you understanding in the things that I say. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. It's by faith. The Holy Spirit quickens you. Hey, go and make a reconciliation with that brother over there. Hey, go and share a word with that brother. I don't know that brother. Just go and share. It keeps coming. You take a step of faith. That's the way and then all of a sudden it bears witness to the truth and it brings forth life. It's like giving an hour to someone who's dead or who's discouraged or who's in bondage and liberating them by the Spirit. This is the way that we need to walk. We need to learn his voice to follow him and when we walk in a way like that, then you yourself who water will be water. You will be refreshed. Jesus said, the last day, that day of the great feast, anyone who thirsts, come to me. If you have a thirst for something, maybe you've been satisfying it at the well, going there to draw and always being thirsty, going back to draw, trying to find your joy out of natural things, trying to water yourself, but Jesus said that you would have asked of me and I would have given you living water, so you would stop thirsting and having to come here to draw to get your joy and your peace and your life. You can ask of me. That woman dropped her pot and she ran to speak of a man. Don't you think there were some proper women in that city that he could have shared that with? A hundred percent, there were many proper women he could have shared that with, but he chose to speak that thing to an improper woman who had five husbands and was shacked up with some man and she took a drink of living water and she ran and told everyone about a man. She's talking about men again. No, no, this is a different man. He told me all about my sins. He exposed everything that was in my, he brought light into my life and he did it in such a way that caused me to want to go near him, to go after him, to have what he has. She left her water pot at the well. When you get a drink of that living water, when you thirst and you get a true drink of the living water, you will leave your water pot and you'll follow after him. The reason many of us still carry around our water pot as a backup plan is because maybe we've had a little taste of it, but we still think there's more out there, something different, something better. Let me try to have another way worked out. Forget that water pot, follow Jesus. In him is life, that life is the light of men. You have everything pertaining to life and godliness, which is in Christ Jesus. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Babylon for me and you are complete in him who have received the firstfruits of the spirit. We are eagerly waiting for the fullness and the Lord give you understanding in these things and continue to seek him. Don't become discouraged and sit on the side of the road like blind Bartimaeus. Press on with God. Repent and get up and keep going in Jesus name. Amen.