Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Disciplines of Guidance

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

We’re in a series on experiencing God. Now we come to another aspect: How can you know God is leading you and guiding you?  How can you know you’re not just making these decisions on your own, but rather, that there’s a plan, and God is leading you through that plan?  Psalm 25 is one of the greatest passages on how God guides. It shows us that 1) there’s a promise of God’s guidance, and 2) there are four things that are true of a person who receives God’s guidance. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 9, 1997. Series: Lessons in Drawing Near. Scripture: Psalm 25:1-15. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What does it mean to move from following a set of doctrines or ethics to actually having God be a living presence in your life? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is teaching on how we can experience God authentically in a life-transforming way. After you listen, we'd appreciate it if you would take time to rate and review the podcast. Your rating and review will encourage others to listen so they can experience the joy and beauty of the gospel because the gospel really does change everything. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller.

There on your bulletin you've got printed. Psalm 25, could you turn to that please? Psalm 25. Psalm 25, To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. In you I trust, oh my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame,

but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me for you are God my Savior and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways. According to your love, remember me for you are good, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful

for those who keep the demands of his covenant. For the sake of your loving and pardon me, and for the sake of your, loving and pardon me, and for the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. Who then is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him. He will spend his days in prosperity and his descendants will inherit the land.

The Lord confides in those who fear him. He makes his covenant known to them. My eyes are ever on the Lord. For only he will release my feet from the snare. This is God's Word. There we go. One more click. Now, we're looking in the evening services

at experiencing God. What does it mean to move from just doctrinal subscription, ethical prescription, to actually having God be a living reality in your life, a living presence? And the last song we looked at, which is Psalm 63, and we're looking in the Psalms for this, for the answers to this question, how can we experience God? The last Psalm, 63 was really about what the old writers used to call communing with God, about not just knowing about God, not just saying my prayers, but having a sense of his presence. How can I go from, we were looking at

in Psalm 63, how can I go from simply saying my prayers, almost talking to myself to a sense that he's there? How can I actually sense him? And we talked about that. And that's the first aspect, it's one aspect of really experiencing God as a living reality in your life. But now we come to another aspect. And one of the reasons I realized it was another aspect of experiencing God was I picked up a book and read it some months ago, a very popular book over the last two years called

Experiencing God. Some of you surely have seen it, some of you have, by Black Abbey and King, I think it is, where is it? But anyway, it's called Experiencing God. It's pretty popular in a fairly new book. And one of the things that surprised me at first, it confused me a little bit, I have to admit. So I was reading through it.

And it didn't talk about what I thought of this experience in God. It didn't talk about what the old writers talked about. What we were talking about in Psalm 63. There was really no talk about the difference between knowing about God and knowing God. I said Jonathan Edwards and all the old writers used to say that the difference between actually experiencing God

and knowing doctrine about him is the same difference between actually tasting honey and just simply knowing that it's sweet. That's the difference. And to really experience God means that you don't just know his holiness, but you experience his holiness. You don't just know that He is loving, but you sense His love.

And the love comes in and becomes a reality to you and changes you. There's nothing in that book about it at all. Surprised me, even the chapters on having a relationship, a love relationship and prayer. The book though is all about how can you get to the place where you prepare so that God is using you, so that God is guiding you, so that God is guiding you, so that

you don't feel like you're just making your decisions in your life, but actually that he's directing you and he's leading you and he's moving you along a path in life. And I began to realize that's really also something extremely important and that is also an aspect of experiencing God. How can you know that God is leading you and guiding you? How can you know that you're not just making these decisions on your own, but rather there's a plan in God's leading you through that plan? That's extremely important to people and that's what we want to look at and that's what this Psalm talks about. A word of warning.

A word of warning. I got to make this, but at the same time, not too harsh. One of the things that happens if you read old books. And I think it's a good thing for Christians, not just to read books written by 20th century Christians, but to read books from every century if you possibly can. It helps you understand the things which are really seminal to the gospel. The things that have always been there that are sort of trans, cultural, and it's very important. But you'll find that up until about 50 years ago, there was almost no talk about knowing the will of God.

Nowadays, if you go to a Christian conference and there's 27 ours, and one of them is, how to find God's will for your life. You know, all the other seminar leaders might as well go home. I mean, they just, you know, I've been there before. You know, I'm teaching on this and I know that somebody over there is teaching a seminar on how to find God's will for your life. And I know I'll get three people to come to my seminar. Everybody will be over there. In the last 30 or 40 years, there's been almost an obsession on the part of Christians, especially true of young Christians, especially true of people like yourself, so many of whom have

to make decisions about career, have to make decisions about marriage, have to make decisions about where I want to go next, you're at a kind of wet cement part of your life where nothing is set in. And it's natural, but on the other hand, it's striking. When you look at Augustine, look at Anselm, look at Luther, look at Jonathan Edwards, look at any of these people, you'll never find a sermon on finding God's will for your life. You'll never hear, you'll never see an essay on how can I know that I am on the plan A for that God has for me. You just don't hear it. And the rise in interest amongst Christians, and see on the one hand I'm trying to tell you that I'm going to address it,

there is stuff in the Bible about it, but one of the reasons why there's such a rise is because in the 20th century people want control. Very important they want control. They don't like the idea that somebody's up there programming things, and I want to know about it. I want to be part of it. Did you see the front page of the city section today of the New York Times? There's one about fortune telling.

And the writer, the writer, who he says he's skeptical about it, he goes to a palm reader and the palm reader was saying, he was so upset when he saw his daughter born. As soon as she came out, he right away looked at her fingers and it says, I saw her hand and immediately, my eyes filled with tears, their short index finger meant very low self-esteem. And I knew I'd have to spend a terrific amount of time with her and give her the

support she needed as she was growing up. He was a palm reader and he really, in other words, through palm reading, through various sorts of fortune telling, there is a tremendous obsession almost and passion today to be able to figure out your future so you can aim for it. The idea that I'm just going to go along and somebody's arranging this for me and we don't like that. We want to be partners, we want to be part of it, we want to put our finger, you see, in the pie here, we don't want somebody cooking it for ourselves. And even though the Bible speaks to it, we have to be very careful about an obsessive

concern. And it is a fairly new concern. Christians in the past were not nearly as concerned about it as we are today. That's okay then to ask questions that are modern to the Scripture, when the Scripture has things to say, but we also have to try to put in perspective. Now, the passage we have in front of us, pardon me, is probably maybe not the greatest, but at least one of the greatest passages on how God guides. First of all, let me show you that there's a promise of God's guidance. And you have it in verse 12 and 13.

Who then is the one that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him. Now, what this means is, God takes a person who fears the Lord, and by the way fearing the Lord even though that would be a whole sermon in itself in the Old Testament fearing the Lord is really the totality of what it means to live in faith. It means not just to believe but it means to out of an awe, awe-inspired, joyful delight before the reality of who God is you're living a life of faith.

So it's the whole thing. In other words, the believer. And it says, the believer, God will instruct in the way chosen for him. And right there, you have it. God's got a way chosen for us. There's a way and God will show you it. He will instruct you. He will pardon me. He will move you along through it. Now, you know, the new testament hasn't even a stronger example of that as usual. And perhaps the best place where it talks about it is in Ephesians 2, verse 8 to 10. And in verse 10, you read this, Paul says, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to walk in. And one of the great things about this verse,

there's two great things about the verse. The first thing is it says, we are God's workmanship. And it would be a better translation to say, we are God's craftsmanship. Because it says, in the Greek, you are God's poema. And the poema, which means a work of art,

it's the word from which we get our word what? Poem. And what it's saying is that you are a work of art, it's the word from which we get our word what? Poem. And what it's saying is that you are a work of art. That everything about you is designed. Everything about you has been part of God's craftsmanship. Now, by the way, this is unbelievably different than the spirit of the age. When the Bible says this about you, that God has a design for you. He's made you something exquisite, something unique. Here's unique as a thumbprint, as unique as a snowflake. Everything about you, your gifts, your capacities, your temperament, even

your experiences, you're absolutely unique. And none of it is random. It's all design. There's an interesting book, came out recently, by Daniel Dennett, called Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett. Was he kidding? But anyway, all the days, Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Dennett. But in the very beginning of the book, he starts out this way. And he says, when he was a little boy, his favorite campfire song was, tell why and I've never heard this by

the way but this is how it went the first verse goes tell me why the stars do shine tell me why the ivy twines tell me why the sky so blue then I'll tell you why I love you but at the very end the last verse says because God made the stars to shine because God made the iv verse says, because God made the stars to shine, because God made the ivy twine, because God made the sky so blue, and because God made you, that's why I love you. And he says that that was his favorite song,

but then he goes on, he says, what he's learned is he's grown up. This science tells us, and he would say common sense tells us, and all intelligent people now know, that the living world, and you yourself, with all of sense tells us, and all intelligent people now know, that the living world and you yourself, with all of its apparent beauty and all of its apparent wonder, and you yourself, a human beings,

which seems so precious to us and seems so special to us, and this is the way he put it, they're all produced by a blind, unconscious, mechanical, and algorithmic process. Nothing means anything. There's nothing special about you. No one's designed you. Everything, everything, though, is designed

through this algorithmic process, which he calls natural selection. You're still an accident. Nobody's designed anything. Not a bit. The Bible comes and says, gives you the utterly opposing view, and says there is no accident

about what you are today. Nothing. You have been designed and then he goes on, Paul says, you see, this is the way he's chosen. David has a sense of it, but Paul lays it out for it. Not only are you guys working ship, but the second thing he says is, and God has created good works beforehand for you to walk in. And that's exciting too. What it means is there is a set of deeds for you to do. And Paul wouldn't be using this idea of workmanship and then good works to walk in unless what he was saying is you've been designed to do certain things that you can do. In fact, only you can do. You see, your experience is even your troubles, even your suffering, even the bad things

that have happened to you. Because of who you have become, there's things that you can do, there's speeches that you can make, there's people that you can address, and only you can do, and only you can make, and only you can address. There's good works out there. There's deeds for you to do, and there's a path of them, and God has prepared them beforehand, and He has prepared you so that you will walk in them. That's just an amazing statement.

That's really remarkable. Now, that's something that we people, we modern people in the West, are individualistic little souls. Our self-conscious, need-oriented little souls, we love that part of the Bible. We love it. That's great. I like that. Tell me more. And so there it is. It's tremendous. If you turn away from God, you turn to the secular worldview, you've got nothing. You've got nothing. But a blind, algorithmic process.

And there's nothing about you that's special in any way. It's all an illusion. And there's nothing about you that's special in any way. It's all an illusion. And there's nothing special about the person next to you. So why are you acting as if there is? You see, however, the Bible comes and says, no, no, no, your God's workmanship. So there is a path, there is a way, there is a plan for your life. There is an incredible plan.

It is unbelievably detailed, and it is unbelievably crafted. God is an artist. And you are a work of art. And any of you who are artists know one thing that when you have sweated and twiled over this work of art and it's come out of your creative, you know, soul and all that. How do you treat that work of art? It's unbelievably precious. It's unbelievably precious. In fact, it's more precious to you than anybody else because it's an expression of the inner being of the artist. And that's how God looks at you. But, and that's

the part we want to hear. But the rest of what this long tells about guidance is really not what we want to hear because it tells us about patience. And that's the very thing that fortune telling hates. That's the very thing that almost everybody hates. Because what we want when you go to a palm reader and what you want in many cases, when you go to a church service and say, I would like a word from the Lord about what I should do here. Same basic impulse sometimes.

And that is, I want a shortcut, and I want abstract guidance. I want guidance, but I don't want the guide. You see, I know God a little bit, and I know I need to know more, but what I want is I want the map. I want the map. And Jay Packer put this many years ago in the best possible way. I said, he says, if you are lost and you're driving around and you drive up to a corner

and you see somebody who looks like he's local and he knows the way. He says, I'm trying to get to X. The guy looks at you and says, that's going to be mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty hard. That's going to be pretty difficult. So he draws you this unbelievable map and you look at the thing and after a while you're looking at him, he's looking at you and finally says, I can give you the map. But what if I'm going that way myself? Why don't I just get in the car? He doesn't give you the guidance, he gives you the guide. And of course, that's much better, much, much better. Except you still have no, you don't have any idea where you're going, but it doesn't bother you anymore.

Because you have the guide with you. And as a result, you're only getting the map in pieces. He says, go down to that stoplight. And then turn left. And that's all I tell you. It doesn't tell you the rest. So all you know is while you're going down that block, where are you going to go?

And after that, it's up in there. And then he says go here and he says go there. You get the guide. Elizabeth Elliott, who was a Bible translator in the jungles of South America many years ago. She was a missionary. And she wrote a book called A Slow and Certain Light, it's a book on guidance. And she remembers once years ago when she was still in the jungles,

and a couple of adventurers from America came who were going to cut through the Amazon and all this sort of thing, and they came because they heard that she was American, she spoke English, and they came and they asked her for directions, and she spoke English, and they came and they asked her for directions, and she said directions, you don't need a map, you need a guide. Oh, no, no, we can make our way. She never saw them again. She was, no, I didn't.

Maybe they made it, maybe they didn't. But you see, what she was saying, you don't need guidance, you need a guide. You don't need the whole map. You won't even understand the whole map. You'll probably have set with a whole map. You'll probably have overwhelmed with the whole map. You need't even understand the whole map. You'll probably have set with a whole map. You'll probably overwhelm with a whole map. You need a relationship with a guide that's so constant,

that at every point you get the next piece and the next piece, you need a guide. You don't need, and that's what you get here. In other words, the Bible teaches us. The guidance is really not something God gives you. It's something He does for you. So the guidance is not something God gives you, it's something he does for you. So the guidance is not something God gives you, it's something God does. And the Bible doesn't talk that much about how to get guidance, it talks about the kind

of person that's guided. And until you understand that, you're going to be very, very frustrated. And it's one of the reasons why, in some ways, up until the last few decades, Christians didn't even come to the Bible and notice the issue of guidance. They didn't have a category for it. We do. And now that we have it, we've got to make sure that we let the Bible inform us. Now, there's four things the text tells us that have to be true of you.

If you want to be a person who receives the guidance of God. First of all, go back here and now look, this is starting verse 4, show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths, guide me in your truth, and teach me for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all the day long. The first thing is you have got to be a person who knows the truth of God inside out. If you look carefully, you will see that this is not the same way that's mentioned in verse 13. In verse 13, it's a pardon me, verse 12,

it says, who is the man that fears the Lord? He won't instruct him in the way chosen for him. There's a way chosen for you. That's a plan will. But the Psalm doesn't start by saying, oh Lord, David says, show me your plan will. But the Psalm doesn't start by saying, oh Lord, David says, show me your plan will. In the beginning, what he really says is, saturate me in your command will. Show me your ways, teach me your past, God me, your truth. Now what he's saying is, before

he says, I want to know who I should marry and where I should go, before you tell me your plan will, what I want to know, I want the command will, the revealed will, the Word of God, the law of God, the promises of God, the summons of God, I want to know them. I want you to teach me, before I ask you about my way, I want to be saturated in your way. The Psalms can profoundly shape the way you approach God. Even Jesus relied on the Psalms to face every situation,

including death. In Tim and Kathy Keller's devotional book, The Psalms of Jesus, you'll find daily readings through the Psalms with fresh biblical insight. If you have no devotional life yet, this book is a wonderful way to start. And if you already spend time in study and prayer, reading and praying through every verse of the Psalms

can help you discover a new level of intimacy with God. We'll send you Tim and Kathy Keller's devotional as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the love of Jesus with more people. Just visit gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. And by the way, if you again as usual, there's a wonderful New Testament version of this. And the best, the New Testament version of this is in Hebrews 5, 13 to 14. And there, here's the Hebrews writer, there are author of the Hebrews is is berating the church a little bit, and he says, anyone who lives on milk,

being still an infant, is not acquainted with the word of righteousness, but solid food is for the mature, who by constant use, have trained their faculties to distinguish between good and evil. Now, you know, and the word faculties, I kept, I looked this thing up, and I was trying to get at it,

and it's not an easy word to get a handle on, but what it's saying is, the Hebrews writer is saying, you're still on basics. You're still like babies. You're still getting basic truth. You need to get deeper into the Word of God. You need to get deeper into the truth of God. You need to get deeper into what he calls the Word of righteousness. Why? Because that is the way that you train your faculties. And the word faculties means your ability to perceive exactly what he says, the good from the bad, the wise from the foolish. The first, the person who gets guided is a person who, over a long period of time,

has, because of this saturation in the word of God, got faculties that can make distinctions and make wise decisions, frankly. And see, this is the thing we don't want to hear. We don't want to hear that. We want to know, what am I going to do now? I'll get to that at the very end. But what am I going to do now? I've got to decide what school to go to.

How do I want to hear that? That's the way it always starts. Imagine this. Look at how some of you... I don't know how this happens, but so often the passage I chose in the morning, the passage I chose in the evening have a relationship. Imagine, here's, I love to hear French,

I love to hear people speak French. On the other hand, I don't know anything of French at all. And what that means is when you don't know another language, when you listen to the language, you cannot distinguish words. It's a blur. I can't tell when a sentence is over. I can't tell where one word starts and other one stops.

It's a blur. I cannot make distinctions. My faculty is on a train. Now, what if I decided I want to be able to understand French? I want to be able to make distinctions. What if I decided to buy French English dictionary in every morning for five minutes to buy a French English dictionary in every morning for five minutes to get a little inspiration

from it? Just read it, pray over it, little inspiration, and then go on out there and say, boy, now I'll be able to understand French. I don't think so. And a lot of people say, well, I read the Bible a little bit for inspiration. I'm glad you come to Redeemer, a lot of you

who come to Redeemer, and a lot of people will say, well, I learn so much more Redeemer, and I hope you do. I hope you do. But I'm still wondering. You think 30 minutes a week. In the French English dictionary is going to catch you to be able to understand French. You've got to be saturated in it. You've got to be immersed in it. It takes an enormous amount of time to train your faculty so you can know of this word from that word. I don't even know enough words to tell you the difference. I don't know.

They use their nose. As Henry Higgins says, the French don't care what they do actually as long as they pronounce it properly. And you see, I can't tell those differences. I can't tell the all sound is same to me. Chinese I know is tell those differences. I can't tell the, they all sound the same to me. Chinese, I know, is very tonal, right? Same word written out, if you go, eh, versus, eh, you're talking about a cow

or a bunch of grapes. And I cannot make huge distinctions. You know Chinese, you hear it, you can make the distinctions, your faculty is trained. There's a huge distinction between a cow and a set of grapes. But I can't tell the difference. And I'm not gonna find out by five little minutes in the Chinese dictionary every week.

You want to know how to make decisions. You want to know how to tell the good from the bad. You see, the wise from the foolish. The first thing he says is, teach me your paths, show me your ways, guide me in your truth, teach me me Lord. That's the first thing. There has to be a saturation in the command will of God. If you're ever gonna be able to discern the plan will of God.

Okay, that's the first thing. The second requirement for a person who gets guided and the second is not just saturation, but obedience to the command will of God. Now you may think that's obvious, but here you have several places. You notice how many places he's asking for guidance. You see the word guide comes up in a number of places. You know guide me. Show me the path chosen for me, but he's continually confessing his sins. You notice that? What's that got to do with guidance? Everything and then in verse 9 he says, I love it. He guides the humble and See the word humble does not mean it's difficult to translate some of these words

This was a word that means teachable. This is a word that means compliant. This is a word that means obedient Not a person with low self esteem. it's not talking about your attitude toward yourself, it's talking about a person who listens and obeys. You know, about a year ago, but I want to put these two things together, about a year ago when I was preaching morning, I guess they're morning sermons, not one with an evening sermon. I told you about two little girls, let me put them together. If you ever read the book by George McDonald

called The Princess and the Goblin, it's a great book. I quoted this last year and people have written me ever since saying, where's that book? You can get it almost any children's section of a bookstore. He wrote about 100 years ago and it's a fairy tale, but it's just a great fairy tale. And George McDonald, who was a Christian, and in this fairytale, you have a little princess named Irene. And her father, the king, sends her to a little house in the mountains to keep her safe because there's a great goblin kingdom underneath the ground.

And this great goblin kingdom is trying to come up and take over and cast out the kingdom above ground. Well, ends up happening is Irene comes to realize the goblins who are down deep under the mountain are coming up underneath the house they're burrowing under the house and they're trying to try to come and capture her. It turns out that Irene has a beautiful fairy godmother only they call her a grandmother. She lives way way high up in the in the house except you can only find her certain times. She disappears other times, you know, like all respectable fairy godmothers.

And one day Irene comes all the way up to the top and she sees the grandmother and grandmother says, I'm going to give you something special. Well, what is it? She gives her two things. She gives her a beautiful ball of thread that is so, so perfect and sheer and thin that you can't see it when it's stretched out, but you can feel it. She can, Irene can feel it, and gives her a ring. And she says, I give you the ring, and I'm going to put the little ball of thread in the drawer. And she says, well, why in the world are you keeping my ball of thread up here? She says, I'll tell you why. I've tied the other end to your ring. And she says, now, whenever there's trouble, put the ring underneath your pillow.

Feel for the thread, which you'll be able to feel only when you feel for it. And follow the thread, and the thread will bring you to me to safety. Oh, she's very excited. She says, she says, that's so wonderful. I feel it. It'll be great to go to you, grandmother.

And the grandmother says, yes, but make sure you follow the thread. It may seem very round about way indeed. You must not doubt the thread. Just remember, because you're holding on to one end, I hold on to the other. Well, several days later, she wakes up and she realizes some creatures had broken up into the house. She hears the snarling of creatures.

It's a fairy tale. So who knows what kind of monster could be? It was real life. You wouldn't worry. But if you're in a fairy tale, you know who knows? So what she does is she sticks the ring under the pillow and she starts to follow the thread. Very excited But instead of taking her up the back steps, which is the way she's always found her grandmother, it takes her outside. Not only that, it takes her right across the backyard. It takes her up toward the backyard, it takes her up toward the mountain, it takes her toward a little cave going right down to the mountain where the

goblins are, and Irene says, what in the world? But she decides, I've got to follow my thread. Very well, they said, don't doubt the thread. And you know what she does? She goes down, and she goes deeper and deeper into the mountain. It seems like it's taking her into danger. And finally, it goes all the way to a dead end. And it goes right into a bunch of rocks. And she falls down and she cries and she says, I don't understand. This was wrong with grandmother.

This was taking me to safety. It's putting me worse. And finally, she decides the only thing I can do. She tries to go back, but the thread disappears if you try to go back. You can only go ahead. So finally, she says, I guess all I can do. She tries to go back, but the thread disappears if you try to go back. You can only go ahead. So finally she says, I guess all I can do is start to tear these rocks away and she tears the stone down and talks about how her fingers, little fingers are getting bloody. But as she tears the stone down suddenly she finds that she has freed her friend, Kirti, who's the other

protagonist in the story, who has been trapped by the goblins. And Kurti looks at her and says, how in the world did you ever find me? Well, Irene says, my grandmother sent me. I had no idea why she'd come to me in this way, but now I know why. And then Kurti comes out and she says, great, let's go over the way you came. She says, no, the thread goes back into the way in which you were imprisoned. He says, wait a minute. Are you crazy? That's the way of danger. There's no way out of there. She says, I've got to follow my thread.

I've got to follow my thread. The only reason I was able to do this great deed and rescue you was because I was trying to follow my thread. So eventually she comes on out and she keeps on going. He leads the humble. Kerti keeps saying, this is ridiculous. Why are you obeying the thread? He leads the humble. Kerti keeps saying, this is ridiculous. Why are you obeying the thread? He leads the humble.

Let me tell you about another little girl. In 2 Kings 5, in 2 Kings 5, we're told about name in the great Syrian general. And he's like the Prime Minister of Syria and he's the head of the military, but he has leprosy. And we're told in that chapter that he used to send out marauding bands into the north of Israel, it was in this interesting Syria in Israel. Oh, oh, oh, 5,000 years of this.

And he had captured a little slave girl who was now in his service. And when a little slave girl realized that he had leprosy, she says, oh, that my master would go to the prophet in Israel. I think that's the word. Yeah, basically, when the little slave girl hears about it, she says, if only, yeah, if only my master would see the prophet who was in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy.

Now, last year I listened to a tape by Dick Lucas on this text, and it amazed me. It was a great insight. Here's what he pointed out. He says, listen. He says, this little slave girl, almost for sure, was captured by the military in charge of this man, Naman.

Secondly, almost for sure, Naman and his men probably killed the rest of her family. That's just the way it was done. You killed the rest of her family. That's just the way it was done. You killed the rest of the family, at least the male members of the family. Now she was a slave. She'd never see your homeland again. And this is the man who had ruined her life. This is the man who had killed her family probably.

And who knows how many nights she cried herself to sleep on her little bed. But the fact of the matter is when she says, oh my master, if only my master. Instead of sitting on her bed saying, I can't wait to see one more finger fall off, I can't wait till his nose falls off. May he rot in hell for what he's done to me. Dick Lucas pointed out why she was useful, why she did this great deed, why she was able to tell him to go to a Lysian, then eventually he found healing there. Why 5,000 years later or whatever it's been, we know about her. Why did she obtain the greatness? Why was she useful in the life of Naaman? He's because she forgave him. And she paid the price of usefulness, Dick Lucas said. She paid the price of usefulness. Now listen, she

followed the thread. It went down into a mountain to obey God in that situation. Look like, what in the world could that do? But because she obeyed, she was in a place where she could do a good deed. He leads the humble. He guides the humble. If you are so concerned about what my decisions are going to be, meanwhile there's an area of your life where you know, well, you're not obeying, you're bitter against somebody. You're sleeping with somebody you shouldn't sleep with. You're not being generous with your time. You're being selfish in this or that way. There's things, I know I'm being disobedient over here. I want to know the plan will of God. You haven't paid the price of usefulness. It's the humble He guides. You see. And to some of you, some of you know this, some of you

say, if I wasn't a Christian, I'd be married by now. I say goodbye to some pretty good people, because I couldn't. You're going down deeper into the mountain. What good is it doing you? That the only place you're gonna find your good works. You are God's workmanship, but you're never gonna find the things He wants you to do unless you're willing to follow the thread,

unless you're willing to obey, unless you're willing to pay the price of usefulness. He guides the humble. Now I have to do, gee, look at the times up. I'll tell you what, the first is you have to be saturated with the word of God. I told you you weren't gonna like this. How do I make my decision?

Saturated with the word of God so your faculties can make distinctions. Secondly, obedient because it is down there. Down there, very often, at the end of the thread in places you don't want to go, where the great deeds that you've always aspired to are really waiting for you. But thirdly, verse 10, all the ways of the Lord, all the ways of God. See that? All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of His covenant. In brief, what's that saying?

Do you know what that is saying? That's the same as Romans 8, 28. All things work together for good to those who love God. What it is saying is, don't have such a tiny narrow view of God that you think that somehow God's plan for you is such that he's got five or six things you've got to do. You've got to marry the right person, you've got to get in the right career, you've got to go to the right school, and what if you do one wrong? Oh my gosh. What if you marry the wrong person, what if you go to wrong school, what if you do something and you realize you've missed

it? What if you missed the person that you're supposed to marry? You know, and all that, and a lot of people feel like God's plan is a little bit like a train ride with eight or nine connections, and if you missed the first connection, you never get there. You know, I'm on Plan B now. And this says, all the ways of the Lord, everything that you do, even your mistakes, everything that happens to you, is what? Not pleasant, doesn't say that. Oh my no. If you make mistakes, if you

do stupid things, there'll be consequences in your life, there'll be brokenness in your life. It doesn't, it'll be unpleasant. That's what it says all the way to the Lord are loving and faithful. So those who follow the demands of the covenant. What that means is, look at, you know, the illustration I often use in the Q and A. Look at Jacob. Jacob sins against Isaac. He sins against he saw. He lies. He cheats. Has a result he has to leave his home. And he really has a crummy life from then on. I can see there's all sorts of problems that come into his life because of that deception.

And yet when he's out there, far away in exile, he meets the love of his life Rachel and from her comes the Messiah. That's plan B. Think about it. Was it, that means it's all right? That he's sinned? No, of course not. The sin hurts in the rest of his life. But does that mean that the Messiah's Plan B, my goodness, think if he had done the right thing?

When we got Jesus Christ out of the wrong thing, just think, no, you can't talk like that. And be logical, be logical. What if you have married the wrong person? That means you're having all the wrong children. Their lives are screwed up forever. They shouldn't even be here. Now look, all the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful.

You can't screw up your life. It's impossible. He's too great for that. He's not looking down from heaven and saying, I'm like, what am I gonna do now? And therefore, the third thing, for people who are guided, you have to be saturated in the Word of God. You have to be following the thread and thirdly.

You have to relax. You've got to relax. You've got to say, if your faculties are really in good shape, you're going to make good decisions. If your faculties are still mature, you may not make good decisions, but you're going to relax. Then last of all, last of all, verse 14,

the Lord confides in those who fear Him. He makes His covenant known. You know what, that's a pretty good translation. Literally, the Hebrew says, the secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him. And the word secret means the inner councils of God. And this means if you are willing to commune with God, if you do all the stuff we talked about in Psalm 63,

if it is habitual with you to come close and sense his presence, he's going to tell you his secrets. And what that means is last, last, last, in the end, you can trust very often the promptings of God. Sometimes you can actually trust your feelings, but it comes last. It comes last. In other words, God will show you things. God will move you in certain ways.

God will prompt you, but I tell you, and if somebody wants to ask me questions about this afterwards, okay, but I would say it comes last. You can never set a feeling over against the word of God. You can never set the feeling over against obedience. You can never set your feelings over against wisdom. You can never set a feeling over against the Word of God. You can never set the feeling over against obedience. You can never set your feelings over against wisdom. You can never set your feelings over against what other people say because your feelings can be wrong.

And you mustn't take a strong prompting and automatically say it's God's will. You don't know that. But the closer you get to Him, the deeper you go with Him, my, my, the more and more you're going to be able to trust the way in which your heart goes. It says, the secret of the Lord, the secret of the Lord, is with those who fear them. So who gets it? Who gets the guidance of God? The ones who think, because they're saturated in the Word of God. The ones who obey, because they're humble, and they're following the thread. The ones who relax, because they know all the Word of God. The ones who obey because they're humble and they're following the thread. The ones who relax because they know all the ways

of God are loving and faithful to those who obey His commandment. And last of all, the ones who know Him. The ones who are working at their communion with God. So that they find that more and more what's going on, when you're praying and you're experiencing as presence, it purifies your motives. It humbles you into the dust. when you're praying and you're experiencing his presence, it purifies your motives.

It humbles you into the dust so that you're careful, you're very, very careful, and so that you all the other ways of guidance work. You know, there's a great place in Psalm 57, verse 2, where the psalmist says, he performed all things for me. Do you know what that means? He performed all things for me, every leaf that falls from the ground, because the Lord who is out for your holiness and happiness, you are the work of his art, you are his work of art, and he has prepared your way for you, and you can't mess your life up, and you can't muck it up. That's the reason why the Psalmist

was able to say, that's my father, the one in charge of everything. He performs all things for me. He guides the humble in his ways. It's humble ourselves, let's pray. Give us, O Lord, grant us O Lord, an experience of your presence, in guiding and directing us. And we ask that you would train our faculties. You would humble our hearts. You would console us and show us that you truly are the guide.

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah. Pilgrim through this barren land. We're weak, but you're mighty. Hold us with your powerful hand. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. We hope you enjoyed today's teaching on experiencing God, and we hope you'll continue to join us throughout this series. Before you go, if you were encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it so more people can discover the hope and joy of Christ's love.

Thanks again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 1997 and 2013. The sermons and talks you here on the Gospel and Life Podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor Everdeemer Presbyterian Church. you