God’s Guidance

Well, we are in our final section of Knowing God, and it's called If God Be For Us.! We're in the book Knowing God by J.I. Packer.

And in this section, If God Be For Us, Packer is talking about what it means for us that God is for us. Remember the very foundational promise of the gospel, and it's the promise that weaves its way through all of Scripture, is that God will be our God.

I will be your God, and you will be my people. And so this last section of J.I. Packer's book is explaining, is expounding that promise.

What does it mean for us that God is for us? That He is our God and that we're His people? Well, a couple weeks ago we saw that it means that He takes care of our sin problem.

He forgives us of our sin, and He propitiates, He soothes His wrath towards us. And He justifies us by the blood of His Son.

And so God's covenant promise, His promise that He will be our God, He'll be for us, it breaks out magnificently at the cross. And so there He shows us the depth of His commitment to us.

How far will He go to do us good? Well, He'll go all the way to send His Son to the cross. And so He offers up His Son to receive the punishment that we deserve, and we are counted righteous.

Paul said it, but God demonstrates His own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So the big demonstration, the ongoing demonstration, that we can always look back to is the cross.

So what does it mean that God is for us? It means that He will make us righteous at a tremendous cost to Himself. Now last week we saw that the greatest blessing of the gospel is adoption.

It's amazing that God justifies us, but it is more amazing that after He declares us not guilty, He brings us into His family. He adopts us.

And He treats us like Jesus. He makes us co-heirs with Christ. And He puts the Spirit of God within us, the same Spirit that is in Jesus, and so that we pray with the same affection and the same intimacy that Jesus prays.

When He prayed, Abba, Father, that same Spirit's in us, and the Spirit compels us to pray like Jesus, Abba, Father. So we aren't orphans anymore.

That changes everything about our lives. It changes who we are and our prospects. It changes our day-to-day lives and what we trust in. Well, one way that adoption transforms our lives now is that we aren't left walking through life without guidance, without instruction.

We aren't left alone to make it through this life. We have a Father who guides us. And that's what we're going to talk about today, God's guidance. That is one of the blessings that David, in the 23rd Psalm, made much of.

Listen to it again, and listen to how he put it. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters.

He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. So God guides his children through this life.

He guides you in paths of righteousness for his namesake. And so there's four points to this lesson today. And the first point is we want to make a distinction.

We want to make a distinction between the two different ways that the Bible talks about guidance. The Bible talks about guidance in two distinct yet related ways.

And the first way is that the Bible talks about God's guidance in a very full sense, in the fullest sense of the word. And by that he means that God guides us by his providence all the way through our lives.

He never lets us go. He leads us all the way through life. And so his sovereign hand takes a hold of us and he walks with us and never lets us go.

And so God will get us to the end. We will arrive safely is one of the promises of the Bible. And so our obedience, our disobedience, our wisdom, our folly, none of that can come in the way of God leading us all the way to the end.

God's will will be done in our lives by his power and by his grace. He won't let anything snatch us from his hands. He is going to get us home safely. God will guide us to the end.

And that's one way that the Bible talks about guidance. Think of Psalm 139. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

There is no escaping God's guidance in this regard, in this sense. So we can go to the east and we can go to the west and God's hand will hold us.

But normally, when people talk about guidance, when they say, I'm praying for God, God's guidance in this matter, they aren't talking about that kind of guidance.

They're not talking about providence. They're talking about a more narrow sense of the word. They're talking about how God instructs us and teaches us, how he gives us information so that we can make decisions, so that we can go forward in our life in a way that's pleasing to him.

So, in the first sense, in the broadest sense, guidance is kind of like going to the grocery store with your child. And so you have a list of things that you want to buy and you go through the door and you take your child's hand and you walk the whole way with them through the grocery store, picking out everything on your list.

And the whole time, the child is right by your side and you never let them go. And so you guide them. Imagine the grocery store. You guide them through the produce section and you go down the canned aisle section and then you go back to the meat section and their hand, you have them.

You have them in hand. And you go through the frozen food and you go back to dairy and then you go down the bread aisle and then you take them out through the checkout lane.

The whole way, you have them at hand and you're guiding them all the way to the end. And that's kind of like the first kind of guidance. God never lets us go.

He's going to get us to the end. But the second kind of guidance, the guidance that most people talk about, it's kind of like giving your list to a teenager and dropping them off at the grocery store or sending them to the grocery store and telling them to pick up everything on the list and to come back home.

And so, there you are. You're this teenager. And your list says green beans and you look at the list and you know how it is. There's like a hundred different kinds of green beans and you have to decide which one to pick.

And you look again at your list and it says 12 ounce cans. Now, you have a choice right there. You can choose the 12 ounce cans according to the list.

You can obey or you can go down to the bottom of the shelf and they have that huge five pound can of green beans. You could pick that one and you would disobey. You have guidance but your obedience or your disobedience comes into play.

Or, so you pick out the 12 ounce can and we'll say that you obey and now there's, you know, in our grocery store there's lots of choices. What kind are you going to buy?

You're going to need to have wisdom. Are you going to buy the name brand or are you going to buy the generic? Are you going to buy, you know, the French cut or just the regular cut? Well, you're going to need wisdom to decide what does your mom or your dad want.

Now, so in the second sense, our, God's guidance, our wills come into play. Our obedience or our disobedience, our wisdom or our folly.

Now, in reality, both kinds of guidance are actually going on at the same time. And that is a mystery.

Moses said it in Deuteronomy 29, 29. The secret things belong to God but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may follow all the words of this law.

So God's guidance includes the secret things. But that's not where our focus is supposed to be. We are supposed to think about what our duty is.

Duty is ours and the consequences belong to God. And it's the second kind of instruction, choosing, using wisdom that we're going to talk about today.

That brings us to the second point. How does God guide you? How does God guide you? Now, this is where so many Christians are confused.

So let me ask you, when Christians normally pray for guidance, what are they looking for? What are they hoping to have? and that's for your response.

Chuck. They're looking for a sign. They're looking for some sort of circumstances to happen and they'll judge what they should do by that sign.

What else are they looking for? Okay. They're looking for an internal state of being. They want to feel like this is the right thing and so when they come to that feeling, when they arrive there, they take that as God's will for their lives.

What else are they looking for? Can we add some things to that? Mark. Okay. Yeah, everyone has a way of when they want something, I don't know if this is exactly what you mean but this is where I'm going with it.

When they want something, they like to go to people who agree with them, don't they? And if they can find enough people to agree with their decision, well, that must be the Lord's will. And you know what?

That can actually be good and that can be bad. What else are they looking for? Dare. Okay. Sometimes they look for that.

That's true. That's the right way, right place to look. Stephanie. Okay. Right.

They're praying for open doors and shut doors. And that's actually a very normal way of saying, you know what? If I have an open door here, this is God's will. If the door is shut, this is God's will that I don't go that direction.

If you look at how that term is used in the Bible, sometimes Paul, for example, he goes through shut doors and sometimes he doesn't take open doors.

and so the status of the door is really, it plays a part but it's not the decisive part. One other place that they're looking or one other thing they're looking for and I think this relates to what Stan is saying, is if they're Christians, they're looking for the Holy Spirit to be prompting them.

They're looking for a prompt, a feeling, a hunch and normally the key is that they're looking for the Holy Spirit to give them a feeling and it's apart from the word of God.

This is how it normally works in Christian circles and this especially comes up in areas where there's no right or wrong answer and these are the places where it's the hardest to make a decision.

I mean, between right and wrong, it's obviously pretty clear you should do the right thing but what do you do when it's right and right? It's a lot harder. Well, this is where people kind of go crazy trying to make a decision.

Should I marry? Should I marry this person or should I marry that person? Should we have another child? Should I take this job? Should I look for another job? And so folks get all out of shape.

They're bent all out of shape trying to determine God's will for their lives as if, and this is what they think, that most of the time God has the secret will for your life, that it's your responsibility to find it.

And if you find his secret perfect will for your life, God will bless you. And if you make a mistake and you fall out of that secret perfect will, well, you're in trouble.

And so, they put out fleeces, they look for signs, they make a big deal out of open doors and closed doors, and they pray to have peace. They're looking for promptings from the Holy Spirit, but the whole time they're not doing what God's word tells them to do.

And that is to go to God's word and prayerfully meditate on it and find out what principles apply and decide based on the word of God.

Now, I want to be very careful here. The problem is not essentially that they are looking for the Holy Spirit's promptings to help them make a decision.

I hope we're not so disillusioned with that mistake that we throw the baby out with the bathwater and say that there's no way the Holy Spirit can prompt us and they shouldn't look for that.

The mistake is not that they're looking for the Holy Spirit's prompting. The mistake is they're looking for the Holy Spirit's prompting apart from the word of God. And so, how does God guide us through life?

How does he instruct us in the way that we should go and those hairy, difficult decisions of, should I marry this person or who should I marry and should we have another child?

Should I take this job? Should I move on? What should I do? How does God guide us? It's primarily through instructing our hearts and our minds through the word of God.

Now, listen to what Packer says and you're going to need to listen carefully because he makes a subtle distinction that will make all the difference. Listen to what Packer says.

The fundamental guidance which God gives to shape our lives is not a matter of inward promptings apart from the word, but the pressure on our consciences of the betrayal of God's character and will in the word which the spirit enlightens us to understand and apply to ourselves.

So, did you catch that? It's not a matter of inward promptings apart from the word. It's about pressure, internal pressure on our consciences and our hearts as we see who God is and we see what he tells us to do.

As the spirit enlightens us, that's how we make a decision. So, let me ask you, does that mean that there is a subjective personal feeling, and for lack of better word of feeling, an aspect to guidance?

Does that play a role? What do you think? Yeah, it does. God guides us by shaping our minds and our consciences to obey him, to follow in the way that pleases him.

And so, as he shapes our mind with his word, as he shapes and fashions our hearts, there's a growing pressure on our consciences to obey him, to know what the right thing to do is in this circumstance.

And so, that means that at least at some level, there should be a peace that comes from obeying. And we're not talking about the superficial feeling in your tummy, but it's a biblically informed peace.

There should be a peace rooted in knowing that I'm obeying God. And so, there should be a certain feeling of rightness about it, a biblically informed feeling of rightness about it.

So, let's back up a little bit and we'll review all that. You see, we don't decide based on our feelings. We, the ultimate authority is God's word.

But my feelings should go along for the ride. My feelings are ultimate, God's word is ultimate, and I'm not trying to ferret out God's providence and I'm not trying to read the signs or anything like that.

I'm not seeking a hunch, but I obey. So, the secret things belong to the Lord, but the things given to us, the things revealed, they belong to us.

So, is there a question about that? Does anyone have a comment? Stephanie, oh boy. Right. I think that is the difficult question, isn't it?

When we come to circumstances, and there are two rights, you know what, there's usually a better and a best. And I guess that's the circumstances that I'm talking about.

Now, if, let's say there's two exactly identical right choices, you know, this is really a bad, example.

You know, I have a blue shirt and I have a red shirt, they're both equally well. There are some people that get all torn up about what's God's will for me in this shirt decision. The right thing to do in that situation, when there's two exactly right things to do, where it doesn't matter, is one, do what you want, because it's going to be better if you do what you want, in that circumstance, right?

I mean, you're going to be happier. And make a decision. You know, Ecclesiastes has something to say about the brevity of life.

We don't want to get caught up making, getting all torn up about decisions that we don't have to get torn up about. That where it's just make a decision, get on with it.

does God care whether you wear a blue shirt or a red shirt? He doesn't. So just pick a shirt. Roger. Right.

And I think you're hitting on something very important. A lot of times when you're stuck there between two really right answers, there's no, you look, you ask, you seek guidance, you ask advice, you're praying, and it comes down to you can't make a decision based on the facts, the pros, and the cons.

You have to make a decision and trust God. A lot of times indecisiveness is just the fact that you're not trusting God, that he's going to take care of you, that he's guiding you in that first sense that we talked about, that he's going to do you good.

Yeah, Mark. Sorry, Mark, go ahead. That's a good point. Yeah. You have 31, don't you?

Yeah. Yeah. When, when God gives us lots of good decisions, or good choices, you know, that's a sign.

That's a horrible way to say it. I don't know, for lack of a better word, it's a sign that, you know what, we've grown up. He's not, he's giving us lots of choices, and don't we do that with our children.

You give them lots of good choices, and it means that they're growing up, they're having some responsibility, they have freedom. Roger. And I think that's exactly what we're talking about.

How do we start to really make good decisions? How do we know what he's instructing us when he's shaping us after Jesus Christ?

And we start to make choices that Jesus would make. And there might be something ultimately very mysterious about how that works in our hearts, how God guides us in our decisions, and how his sovereignty and how his instruction work together.

Well, we need to move on. I hope that didn't actually muddy the waters. So the point is that instruction primarily comes from the word of God.

And so here's the application. if you want God's guidance for your life, then meditate deeply on the word of God.

Let the word of God cut deep ruts into your mind. I heard somewhere this week that there's a sign along the road somewhere in Alaska that says, choose your rut wisely.

You're going to be there for the next 200 miles. purpose-driven life. And we want to be in the right rut. And we want to be in the ruts that God's word makes in our lives and our minds.

And so get the word of God into you. Let the word of God shape your mind, your heart, and you'll learn to follow God's guidance. The second application, a way that we can apply this is lead a proverbs- driven life.

You've heard of a purpose- driven life. And I'm saying live a proverbs driven life. And there's even a book by that title. Maybe you should get it. I don't know. The fact is that most of the time we don't need a good feeling in our tummy.

We need wisdom. That's what we need. And so where do we get wisdom? Well, from the wisdom literature, from the word of God. Wisdom is supreme.

Therefore, get wisdom though it costs all you have. Get understanding. And so as we learn to fear the Lord, as he is exalted in our eyes, we begin to live a life that's pleasing to God.

We begin to think his thoughts after him. So lead a proverbs driven life and then here's another way to apply this lesson. Live a gospel shaped life.

So how does God want us to live? The biggest, the simplest answer I think is he wants us to live like Jesus. He wants us to live a life that reflects the gospel.

So what do you do? Well, you meditate deeply on the gospel. You think about sin and the cross and what Jesus gives up and how he exchanges his righteousness for our sin and how he sacrifices himself in love for us.

And as you meditate on the gospel, it begins to rearrange your priorities. You start looking for ways to imitate Jesus. You're looking for ways to give up what you have in order to love someone else.

And as you meditate on those promises, as you meditate on the gospel, your life begins to take on the reflection of Jesus Christ. And so you make decisions like Jesus would make.

So if you're focusing on those three things, meditating on the word of God, living a proverbs driven life, living a gospel shaped life, then you are prepared, your ears are prepared to hear God's guidance, so to speak.

Your heart is ready to follow him. And really, it's no different than with our children. Is it? We guide them in the same way.

You don't expect them to probe through life like blindly looking for the ways that they can please us and the way they can follow us. We tell them, listen to me.

Listen to me. Listen to what I'm saying. Now imitate me. Now think about what I've done. Use your mind. And so when they come, our children come to a fork in the road, all that instruction, all that guidance, all those words have shaped their hearts so that they make a decision that reflects how we would make that decision.

that's God's normal way. It's our normal way and that's God's way. It's when we get out of that normal path of listening to God in his word that we get into all sorts of dangers.

We fall into all sorts of pits. And that brings us to our third point. We're going to talk about six pitfalls that people often fall into when it comes to this matter of guidance.

These are six common areas people slip into, especially when they're making those hard decisions in life. And all six pitfalls begin with the word unwillingness, an unwillingness to do something.

And the point here is watch out for these things. Watch out for them in yourself. Because this is the way our hearts have a tendency to fall. The first is watch out for an unwillingness to think.

An unwillingness to think. So many people, like we've said, they want impressions. feelings. They want feelings. And they want it without thinking. And so let me ask you.

When people make a decision based on their feelings, what kind of words do they use? How do they explain their decision to you? Dare.

Okay, my gut instinct, that's good. Heavy. Okay. Yeah. I didn't feel that.

What's something else that they say? Mark. My heart's telling me what to do. That's good. The Lord told me.

It's like out of the air. The Lord told me. Actually, it's not out of the air. It's out of my heart. The Lord told me. What else? Ah. That could be very subtle.

People have twisted God's word to do and say all sorts of crazy things. How about this? I felt the Lord leading me. Now, you know, I'll give you, give them a break.

There are ways that we could use those words and they don't mean something terrible. people, but when you hear those things, sirens should be going off in your head. And you should be thinking, wait a second, where are those feelings coming from?

Are they coming from themselves or are they coming from the word of God? Perhaps those feelings are from the Lord, but perhaps they're not. They want guidance without thinking.

And that isn't how God made us. He made us thinking beings. He didn't just make us emoting, feeling beings. He doesn't bypass our brain and go right to our heart.

He speaks to our minds in His word. And it's a pitfall to think otherwise. And if you do think otherwise, you're going to end up in places that you don't want to be.

It's a shortcut you don't want to take. Second, an unwillingness to think ahead. An unwillingness to think ahead. And isn't this the button that Proverbs pushes over and over again.

So the and is wise because he says the winter is coming and so I better get busy. He's thinking long term. Now the fool says I might as well eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow I die as if tomorrow he's going to die actually when there might be many days ahead.

often times we can only see what is right and what is wrong what is best and what is better those kind of questions only when we think long term.

And so choosing to use a credit card can bring instant gratification but there may be long term consequences that you don't want anything to do with. And so if you're unwilling to think ahead then you can expect all kinds of trouble.

And see that's God's way of doing things is to think long term. Right? He gives his children all sorts of trials and difficulties not because he likes those things but because in the long term that's the wisest course of action.

That is the best thing long term. And so think ahead. Third pitfall unwillingness to take advice. Unwillingness to take advice.

The scripture is emphatic at this point about taking advice. And you should be too if you want God to guide you. The way of a fool seems right to him but a wise man listens to advice.

Isn't that strange? The wise man who probably maybe could go without hearing the advice of all sorts of people listens to it.

He seeks it out. And the fool who desperately needs advice he doesn't want anything to do with it. He knows what's right. And so there's all sorts of people out there who understand us who understand the Bible who understand human nature who understand circumstances better than we do.

And there would be nothing but good that came from it if we would listen to them. You know what? We might not take their advice. At the end of the day, we might not do what they say.

But it still would be better to have heard them out. So how many young people are in majors, are in marriages that really they have no business being in.

But they wouldn't take their parents advice. And so young people, you show your wisdom when you take advice. People aren't going to say, oh, that person is so needy, they're always asking me for advice, I wish they quit bothering They're always asking me.

When you ask someone older, someone wiser for advice, they're going to say, that young person, that young man, that young woman, has a good head on her shoulders. So take advice.

Listen to what people say. The fourth pitfall is an unwillingness to suspect oneself. An unwillingness to suspect oneself. And this is where the whole feelings-oriented way of guidance gets into all kinds of trouble.

This is where evangelical Christians get into all kinds of trouble a lot of times. They want feelings. And like I said, all feelings aren't bad, but this is what they want exclusively.

They want peace, or they want happiness, instead of wisdom. And so, when they get those feelings of peace and happiness, they mistake that for God's guidance, for wisdom, for doing what's right.

So, basically, if I feel it, it's right. I should go ahead. God. And this is nowhere more dangerous, and this is especially true, in sexual feelings.

Listen to what one biologist, theologian, put it, how he put it. The joy and general sense of well-being that often goes with being in love can easily silence conscience and inhibit critical thinking.

how often people say that they feel led to get married when all they are really describing is a particularly novel state of endocrine balance, which makes them feel extremely seguine and happy.

So, their hormones are coming together, and they feel happy, and so now they feel led. And young people, you probably don't need to hear this, but don't date based on how you feel, completely on your feelings anyways.

Hormones are real, and they are powerful, but they are not necessarily wise. So, you have to ask yourself, why do I feel this way? Why do I feel this way?

And you can ask any married person here, that the emotional feelings of being in love go in and out. And they are greater at some points, and they are lower at some points.

And to be honest, it would be really dumb if you based a marriage on them. And don't get me wrong, they should be there, they better be there, I wouldn't get married if they're not there, but suspect yourself.

Pray, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, know my thoughts, see if there's any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. You can't distrust yourself too much.

You just cannot distrust your sinful heart too much. Fifth, an unwillingness to discount personal magnetism.

So, some godly men and godly women have great personal charisma. They are leaders, and they are easy to listen to, and they're easy to follow.

And some misguided folks begin to take their word as god's word, as god's leading and guidance. And so, they take everything they say as god's word to them.

And it's just not true. Just because, you know, John Piper and Alistair Begg and John MacArthur and Mark Driscoll say it is this way, it doesn't mean it's god's guidance for you.

Outstanding people, people with a lot of charisma, are not necessarily bad. In a lot of places, then a lot of times they're very good. But they aren't necessarily right either.

So, what did Paul say to the Galatians? Do you remember? Help me out. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be anathema, eternally cursed.

So, if Paul or an angel preaches a gospel other than the one given, their gospel is to be thrown out, and they, Paul says, that person, that angel, me, if I preach another gospel, if I don't preach up to the word of God, to the standard of the word of God, then let me be thrown into hell.

And so, do you understand? It's God's word, it's not any teacher that has the final say. And so, many folks today, and as always, are disciples of this man or that man, but Jesus made a point that says, you know what, you only have one teacher, and that's the Christ.

And so, if Dave Ramsey or Glenn Beck or anyone else says something that doesn't align with the word of God, then it's not God's guidance for you. Sixth and last, an unwillingness to wait.

An unwillingness to wait. When we are faced with those hard decisions, where we're really struggling to know what's right and what's wrong and what's better and what's best, it's often really easy to just make a decision to get it over with.

And this is, you know, I feel this way a lot of times. I just say, let's just choose something and we'll trust God. And when I'm saying that, really I'm saying I don't want to be responsible for this choice.

But how many times does the Bible, does Psalms say, you know, wait for the Lord. Wait for the Lord. See, God isn't in the same hurry that we're in.

He's not. He knows that sometimes the process is much more important than the objective. And so some of the, one of the wisest things that we can do is just to say, I don't know what to do yet, I'm just going to not do anything.

I'm going to keep praying. I'm going to keep waiting. I'm going to keep asking for light. Packer says this, when in doubt, do nothing, but wait on God. When action is needed, light will come.

And so those are six common pitfalls. And when I look at those things and I know my own heart, I am so glad for Jesus. Because I know my tendency to trust my feelings and to trust what I think is right and to look at other people and ask them for advice.

when all I'm really asking is for a confirmation of my own opinion. And so when I look at those pitfalls and then I look at my sinful, reckless heart, I am glad for Jesus. Because Jesus is my righteousness and he is my wisdom.

And at the end of the day, God is going to get me safely to the end despite all my mistakes and all my folly because of Jesus. Jesus. And that's our fourth point.

And it's guidance in the gospel and it's really quick. You know, we are going to drive our car off the road. We're going to make mistakes that would ruin us and that will ruin us.

And when we're sitting in the bog, God is going to come and pull us out for Jesus' sake. He might not do it right away.

But Jesus has won God's good for our lives. He has won God's commitment to us. And so because of Jesus Christ, God is all for us.

And so we can never stray so far that God can't come and find us, that he won't come and find us. And that's the blessed promise of the gospel. And so Jesus has won us heaven and whatever path God takes us to get there, we know that we're going to make it because of him.

And so we're going to slip and fall, but his arms will hold us. We're going to drive into the ditch, but he's going to pull us out. That's God's promise. And so we can go in confidence, not in our own wisdom, not in our own ability to make all these wise decisions, but in God's love.

God loves us and he treats us like his son and so he won't let us ruin our souls. And the wonderful thing is we don't have to ask for guidance based on our security anymore.

Like, I want to keep safe and so I need to make a decision. We can ask guidance based on what will glorify God because you know what, our security is taken care of. And so be encouraged then.

God knows the plans he has for you. The plans to bless you, to not harm you, to give you hope and a future. And just like David said, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

And so you can be confident going forth and making all these decisions that God is for you. Well, we are dismissed. may may may may may