Proverbs 16 and verse 9 reads this. A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. A man's heart deviseth his ways, but the Lord directeth his steps. And then Romans 14. And verse 12 that we have just glanced at in the past couple of weeks where we read this, Romans 14 and verse 12. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Dear friends, we have been looking at the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and especially in the past little while about man's will and man's responsibility. And we need to concentrate on these things because oftentimes people become imbalanced in their views. Sometimes it is that they emphasize too much on our responsibility as if everything depends on us and and forget the fact that actually God is sovereign and we lose sight of the fact that actually God is in control of our lives. And so you need to get the balance right. And then there are those who emphasize the sovereignty of God to the extent that there is no responsibility. We just need to sit and watch. And we should be farmers who don't sow the seed, who don't till the ground, but we just have to sit there and hope for the best, that we will have a great harvest. And it is both of us ludicrous and it is debilitating and it is damaging. Two people. The balance is both found in the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament here, just a sample text we read together in Proverbs 16 and verse 9, it says you have the both sides. A man's heart deviseth his way. There are things that a man does. He's thinking through, he's hopefully praying about it, and he's making certain decisions, he's working out and wondering what he ought to do and take certain steps. But, he says, but ultimately it's the Lord who directs his steps. The Lord directs his steps. So that's the balance that you get here in the word of God. And then the Romans, the apostle Paul, recognizing that God is in control of all things and is the judge of all the earth. He says every single one of us. We are accountable to him. We must come before him one day. So let us have the right understanding of who he is and realize that there is a day that is coming that we're all going to stand before him. And so here is something that I want us to think again. To what extent and in what ways is God in control of our lives? And to what extent and in what ways are we responsible? And we have looked at a number of things thus far and I'm not going to recap because it's all recorded and you will be able to listen God willing to what you have missed. But I want us to think about the decree of God and our responsibility that God has made a decree. His plan has been set from eternity past. He knows the end from the beginning. And so He has planned everything in our lives. Again, can you understand it? Can I explain it? No. But the Bible tells us so, that this is the great God. He's outside of, as it were, this world. He sees everything. He's planned everything. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Bible says. But have you ever wondered how God can have complete control over everything, including human actions, yet still hold people accountable for their actions, for their sins, for all that they do? How is that possible? God who controls everything. It's a big question, isn't it? And we've come to it again and again. And this evening we want to think through this again from the word of God. And there are a couple of examples I want to show you. One is Judas Iscariot. And another is the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. How God's decree set, how he has already set his plan, what he's going to do. But then people are actually responsible. They are the ones who are doing it. without God pushing them, without God forcing them in any way. It's a great mystery. But think about Judas and his betrayal of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know about him, you know what he did as one who betrayed our Lord Jesus. But did you know that this part of God's plan, it was all God's plan all along. The crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ wasn't a plan B. It wasn't something that happened accidentally. No, it was planned by God. The sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, the agonies of the cross that he felt at the end, so forsaken by God that he said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? We can never enter into that. And yet, this is what the Lord Jesus Christ experienced, but it was all said, and even the fact that someone betrayed him. Many hundreds of years before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the scriptures spoke of Judas, that Judas would be born. The prophet Zechariah spoke of this in Zechariah 11, for example. We read of the fact that there is when the Messiah comes that he would be sold for 30 pieces of silver. So in Zechariah 11 and verse 12 we read this. And I said unto them, if ye think good, give me my price, and if not, forbear. And then it says this. So they weighed for my price 30 pieces of silver. And that field was the field of blood. The scripture also says in the Old Testament. This wasn't just a prediction, dear friends. Hopefully this will happen but it was God revealing his eternal decree that Christ the Messiah would be sold for 30 pieces of silver. That was his betrayal money. So here's a big question. Was Judas responsible for his actions? Absolutely he was responsible. Am I responsible for my actions? Are you responsible for your actions? Absolutely you are responsible. I am responsible. Judas was responsible. Why is that? Because responsibility comes down to our motives. Imagine you accidentally hurt someone. It's very different from hurting them on purpose. You've done it, haven't you? You've hurt someone. It's been an accident. You didn't mean to, but it's happened. We nearly had an accident over tonight. And the person who nearly drove in front of us didn't mean to. But we take responsibility, don't we? And so it is. But if there is a purpose, if that lady was to purposefully come after me, to crash into me, that would be something else. That's the intention. She wanted to. And people can hurt one another intentionally as well. And human laws recognize this. And so does God. Now think about Judas. when he went to the priest to betray the Lord Jesus Christ. Was he thinking, well, I'm fulfilling God's decree. I'm just simply doing what God has said. I'm just doing it obediently. Of course not. He wasn't thinking like that. His heart was full of greed. The Bible says he was a thief. He had been stealing from the money that the disciples had. No, and he also hated the Lord Jesus Christ. His heart was filled with evil. His motives were entirely his own. And they were wicked motives. They were not good motives. And that's why then he cries at the end when he's found out because he is found out. He's not crying out of remorse and out of sorrow that what he has done, no, no. And that's why he later on admits, he says, I have betrayed innocent blood. He admits to it. I've done it. I wanted to do it. So he takes responsibility over that. And yet the scripture says that there will come one who will betray the Messiah for 30 pieces of silver. But then another example that is given, we have in the scriptures as well as many others, but these are clear examples. One is the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's an amazing thing, dear friends. When you think about it, is the Bible true? Of course it is true. But one of the reasons it is true is because of these prophecies in the Bible that they came to pass, they were real. I listened to this lady earlier on this morning of an old debate that this atheist woman was having with an old theologian in America called Carl McIntyre. She had made her own church, atheistic church. And she was the woman who had managed to go through the courts to ban prayers in schools in America. This is in the 1950s or something of that nature. And she simply said, the Bible cannot be true. God doesn't exist. The Bible cannot be true. And the Lord Jesus Christ did not exist. And yet this man, Dr. Carl MacIntyre, he said it is foolishness to reject facts that Jesus Christ did exist. He did live. People, friends and foes spoke of him. There is more literature about the Lord Jesus Christ than any other person in the history of the world. And this woman was adamant that she was right. How sad that is. And yet, the Lord Jesus Christ. These things did happen, dear friends. They're not figments of people's imagination. These enemies didn't write about nobody. They wrote about Christ and the scripture says this in Acts chapter 2 and verse 23. Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost and he says of the Lord Jesus Christ that the Lord Jesus Christ was delivered, it says, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. He says, determined counsel, God determined, God had already planned, He had already set everything in motion from before that Jesus Christ would be delivered and would be crucified. So in other words, God had planned it all. Even the details like the Roman soldiers dividing his clothes. They sat there and they were dividing it up and then they had to cast lots for his inner garment because it could not be divided. They didn't want to rip it. And even that detail was given in the scriptures beforehand. And I remember reading first time these passages and I used to get goosebumps because I used to think how amazing this is. I've never read anything like this, but it's true. So it speaks about the fact that it was of the determinate counsel and for knowledge of God. But does that mean that those who crucified the Lord Jesus Christ weren't guilty? Not at all. The Bible also says that he was killed, Peter says, by wicked hands. They intended to murder him. They intended to harm him. They laughed at him. They did it. God didn't force them to laugh and mock the Lord Jesus Christ. God didn't force them to put the crown of thorns on his head. God didn't force them to drive the nails in his hands and his feet. No. By wicked hands. Why wicked? Because the people who crucified the Lord Jesus weren't thinking, let's obey God's plan. That's not what they were thinking. No. Their intentions were purely evil. So then you might be wondering, well, if God decrees these things, how could Judas or the people who crucified the Lord Jesus Christ have done anything else? Doesn't that make them innocent? They're just simply fulfilling what God has already decreed. Well, here's the answer. God's decrees don't force people to sin. God never forces people to sin. He allows them to act according to their own sinful desires, but He guides their actions to accomplish His purposes. He doesn't force them to sin, but The Lord is the one who manages and he makes sure that they don't go beyond what he has intended. Augustine, the early church father, he explained it like this in a quote, that men sin proceeds from themselves. That in sinning they perform this or that action is from the power of God, who divideth the darkness according to his pleasure. that man's sin proceeds from themselves, he says. And so we need to have this balance of a scripture. Does it all make sense? Can you work it all out? No, no, it doesn't. We may not be able to. And you and I, we may be in different stages of our thinking and God's dealings with us. And so some people might understand these things in a better way or be able to explain it in a better way. Others may think, well, it's too much for me. And that's fine. That's okay. for you to think like that. Because these are very heavy and weighty doctrines of scripture. But they need to be taught so that people don't become imbalanced. At least for you to know, I can't work it out. It's like your watch, you don't know how it works. But you trust it. You don't have to work it all out to actually help you to get to places in time. And so, But you trust those things. You're trusting in so many things in your life every day and you don't understand it. But you don't get frustrated about those things. I don't understand it. I have to know how this works or else it's all a nonsense. I'm not gonna use it. No, you don't deal with that with your normal life, do you? From morning you get up. Various things that you use today, you did not know how it works. But it does work. And you use them. And you didn't get frustrated. But it is the same with the things of God. If it is too much for you, some of these doctrines, yet hold them, and know the Bible speaks about them and pray that God would in his own time teach you these things. Our problem is, and my problem was and is probably now, that I need to work it all out. I need to have the answers now. But the things that God has put right in front of me, I miss it. And I don't fulfill those things that God has said right there in, it's right in front of my nose. I miss those things, but then I want to work at all the deep mysteries. And then through time, then I come back again to the first point and realize the Lord brings me down and down and down until I deal with the basics. Are you doing all right with the basics? The basics are very hard in themselves. A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. God did not make Judas a traitor. Judas already had a sinful heart. Jesus already even called him a devil. And long before the betrayal, that was the case. And God simply used Judas's wicked intentions to fulfill his perfect plan. So what does this teach you? It teaches that it's a very humbling truth, isn't it? God is sovereign, he's in control of everything, but he's never the author of sin. We can never ever blame God for sin of people, for the wrongdoings of people. He doesn't plant evil desires in people's hearts. Instead he directs the sinful choices that people make using them for his glory and our ultimate good. So you have it in the whole story of Joseph and how he was wickedly dealt with by his brothers. For 25 years he was in prison. Have you been in a situation like that? And yet Joseph at the end is brought to say, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Now that's the grace of God. You can't work that up. You can't read it in a book. You can't listen to enough sermons to produce that kind of a feeling. It's the grace of God working in your heart. And so let us be praying for this. This doctrine should bring us to our knees and make us be humble people and make us to feel we have only the Lord. I have nothing of myself. There is nothing in me that is worthy, but I must trust in him. And so next time you see evil in this world, you don't have to go far. You don't have to go far to see evil. You do evil. I do evil. Oftentimes it is, I think to myself, I should have said this. And for my own pride, I didn't say it. I could have encouraged this person or something like that. Or at other times, I wish I didn't say this. Why did I say that? And you don't have to go far to recognize, my heart is still wicked. And I can't wait for heaven, I can't wait for this heart of mine to be completely perfect, be made perfect. The scripture speaks about those in heaven, they are the spirits of just men made perfect. So they were just men because they received justification by the blood of Jesus Christ in this world. They're covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they struggled and struggled and struggled in life. But when they arrived in heaven, they're made perfect. So that's, this is, the Bible speaks about this world is a veil of tears. It's a valley of tears. And so, and Christians feel it the most. the evil of it and the wickedness of it. And we get at times more heartbroken than ever before we were converted. Sometimes Christian's life becomes harder, certainly mine did. I'm sure yours have done as well. And because you begin to see things. And yet there are times that the Lord gives you peace and joy. Those kinds of things come as well. But oftentimes, It's something that the Christians need to think about and focus their attention on things of heaven, not on the things of this world. Because if you do, your cup will be not half empty, it will be, you keep thinking it's 90% empty. It's just I only have a couple of drops at the bottom of my cup. But if you look at heaven, look at the Lord Jesus Christ, see Him, then you get the balance. So that's what we need to do, dear friends. So we've gone off the track a little bit, but this doctrine, does it make us to trust the Lord more? It should. It should. Because I say ultimately the Lord is in control of my life. I don't at times see it. Often I struggle with it. but to know that he's in control even though everything seems to be spiraling off into things that I cannot understand. But also it should make me check my heart because it makes me responsible. I'm still responsible for my actions. I'm still responsible for my thinking and the way I think about people, about God, about myself. But something else I want to say in the time that we have, and it's this. Our responsibility, man's responsibility to still receive the Lord Jesus Christ. It is our responsibility to do that. Even though the Lord has his sheep. Have you ever thought, How can God hold sinners responsible for rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ if He's already decided their eternal destiny? How could God do that? It's a difficult question, isn't it? But the Bible gives us the answers for that. There are a number of reasons that you and I are made responsible and accountable to God. One of them is this, that nobody, no person knows their eternal destiny. Nobody, no sinner can come and say, I know for sure where I'm going. Except those who've experienced salvation, been born again. I can say, I know whom I believed. I know where I'm going, as the Apostle Paul said. I don't know exactly all the steps that's going to take place, but I know my destination. I know I'm going to get there because of Jesus Christ. There are people who might not be Christians and they get worked up about this. And they say, well, no, I'm not going to be saved. I'm never going to go to heaven. But no sinner alive knows for sure if they are one of those that the Bible calls the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Bible calls of those who are condemned to death. They're vessels of wrath, vessels of God's wrath fitted to destruction. Nobody can say that's what I am. Sadly, I've heard people say that, but you can't know for sure. That's part of God's hidden plan, His secret will, which He hasn't revealed to us. But what God has revealed, what has He revealed, is His word, the Bible. And in the Bible God's will is clear and it's very simple it is. He commanded all men everywhere to repent. That's what his will is, his desire is and he's commanding it. Every sinner who is hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is commanded to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is his commandment, John says in 1 John 3 and verse 23. This is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. Simple, isn't it? A child can understand it. So a child can say, this is the will of God. His will is that, and his command is that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. He doesn't need a commentary to explain that to you. Do you? And this is the wonderful news. It's a good news that everyone who actually does truly repents and believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, believes on what he has done, will be saved. That means no one can say, it's not my fault, I'm destined for condemnation. Every sinner is responsible to God's command to repent and to believe. And something else is this that we know is that the Bible also teaches us that we are to be searching the scriptures. Everybody is called to search the scriptures. So nobody knows Those who are unconverted, they don't know their destination. They can never say for sure, oh, definitely I'm going to be condemned. No, my friends, there have been many, many who have said such foolish words and at the end, their mind has been changed. How many young men have said, I'm never going to get married? And then a couple of years later, they have got married. And those who have said, I'm definitely going to get married and haven't got married. Strange, isn't it? Some of the things, and we say, never say never. But, so there's that part, and then there's another part is that this, that everyone is responsible to search the scriptures. And have you ever wondered why the Bible is so central to Christianity? That's why we are preaching it. We're not preaching psychology, human wisdom. And it's because the Bible is where God reveals the way of salvation. The Apostle Paul told Timothy that the Scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Now think about this. God has commanded us to search the scriptures. The Lord Jesus Christ himself said, So if God has given us his word, the Bible, and told us to search it, doesn't that make us responsible to obey that? Imagine someone saying, well, I don't know how to be saved. I don't know how to be right with God. But they've never opened the Bible when they had a Bible. They never even asked for the Bible to be read. And in our day of technology, they didn't bother to listen to it even, to read it on their devices. Wouldn't you agree that they are without excuse when they've had access to it, nobody held it from them? God has given everyone these opportunities. And so think about that. If someone refuses to do so, their ignorance is self-inflicted. The Puritan Thomas Manton put it this way. He said, let us do what God hath commanded and let God do what he will. So do what God has commanded and let God do what He wills. Just think about it for a moment. You don't know if God, you might say, I don't know if God will save me. But you do know He commands you to seek the scriptures and to seek Him. You do know that God commands you to do that. God is calling you to do that. Isn't it better to obey and trust Him with the result? Just obey Him. Trust Him in it. He says to you, knock and it shall be opened to you. Keep on knocking. Some of you young people maybe, you say, well, I prayed to God or about anything, not just salvation, about anything. I prayed to God. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ says, knock. And that word knock, it doesn't mean just once. Have you seen postman like that? We've had some postman like that. Hopefully not the one who is sitting here, but they go and just knock once. They don't even ring the bell properly. And then they leave a box outside or worse than that, they put the thing through the door saying we came and you were not at home. We were at home. They didn't knock more than once or they didn't wait. My friends, that's spiritually the case as well for us. And how much I have been discouraged in my life that I didn't wait on God. And I prayed once, well, no, it's not God's will. And then you see people, individuals, and you see these people keep asking the same thing. They keep asking the same thing. And then in God's time, it is answered. And me, as a foolish young man, I used to think, I remember this Mr. Green, his name was, in this Brethren Gospel Hall, and he prayed the same prayers. I could pray that for him. He just said the same thing over and over and over again. I thought, well, why does he keep saying that? And he was really sincere and tears were coming down his eyes. And he said, I am knocking. That's what I'm doing. I'm just knocking every time. I'm knocking day after day after day. And do you know, before he died, that prayer that he was praying was answered. It's amazing, I was so chastened by that. The Lord had to deal with me not to judge other people's prayers. Sometimes we do, don't we? Sometimes we can judge other people's prayers. But here it is. Again, I've gone off the track. But isn't it better to obey and trust God with the results? Again, Thomas Madden, the Puritan, put it like this. He said, a farmer doesn't know for sure if he'll get a good harvest, but he still plants his seeds, trusts God to bless his work. Or he talks about a soldier. A soldier cannot guarantee victory in battle, but he fights courageously, leaving the outcome to God. No soldier goes to battle believing they are going to lose. That destroys their morale. But every soldier goes, no, I'm going to do my best. I'll fight courageously as best as I can. Or a person hoping for children doesn't know if God will grant them, but they marry and they trust God's will. And in the same way, people like us and sinners are called to search the scriptures, seek God, and trusting him with the results. So don't be so concerned about the results, but keep on asking, keep on knocking, keep on going to God again and again and again, pleading the same things. And you know, the unfortunate widow, some of you children, you keep asking the same things of your parents. and they get so tired of you, and then because they get tired of you, they buy it for you, whatever it is. Maybe you have been, some of you have been like that too. You just nag and nag and nag until your parents give in. And so it is, the Lord gave that illustration as well. The unjust judge, and God is not unjust. The unjust judge, if he was willing to, change his mind. He's saying, but your Heavenly Father will hear you. But the timing of it is the best. There are many things I've asked in my life. I'm so thankful God didn't give it to me. And I was so heartbroken at the time. Why doesn't God listen to me? And later on I realized it wasn't the right thing I was asking. I didn't know what I was asking for. I'm sure you felt the same at times. It's hard at the time to to actually accept these things, but it is true. Now let's, time is gone and I'm nowhere near the end, but I think you have taken it, you have understood that even though God is in control and he is in full control, he's absolutely in control, and we can trust our whole life on him, And yet he says to us, call upon me. He says to us, wait upon me. He says to us all of these things. It's the same God who says, no man can come to me except the father which hath sent me, draw him. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, he says. What if people say, well, just wait until you come to us. We're wanting you to come to us. But the Lord Jesus says, no, you come to me. So these are all very important. God is the one who's calling us to obey him. He has the right, he has the authority to do that. And God is not going to lower his standards for you and me. He's not going to do that either. So he says to us, be ye perfect. Be ye therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. He says, these things I write unto you that ye sin not. So these are the standards of God. And yet we fail in them. And yet he says to us that if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Christ Jesus the righteous. And we are to go to him, confess our sins to him, and he will forgive us. But what happens to somebody who doesn't go, who doesn't confess his sins, who doesn't turn to the Lord? And yet the scripture says, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's in Philippians 2 verse 13. God is the one who works in you. And so God is working. And you might think to yourself, and it's an amazing thing I think, some of you who've been here for quite some time, I've seen how God has been working in you. Some of you used to say certain things, used to think certain things, and made certain decisions at the time, and yet now there has been growth. Even though you faced many dead ends, you faced many, many trials, And yet through it all, God was working in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And you've been growing, you've been maturing. You don't talk the same way anymore. You don't think the same way anymore. And that's the grace of God. And if you're a young Christian, maybe you've been saved six months, maybe a year, maybe two years, maybe three years. Some of these things are too much for you. Remember, dear friends, that God is working in you. Be encouraged by that. And it is not always the way that we feel or think it should be. But it is our responsibility. God commands everyone everywhere to repent. So he's saying to you, if you have fallen, if you have fallen on the ice, you have broken your hip, don't lie there, you'll die. Don't just stay there, you'll die. What would you do if you've fallen on ice and you've broken something? You can't get up. Do anything for yourself. You must call out to friends. You must call out for help. And the Lord is saying that's what we ought to be doing. Call out until you get help. So I am saying these things because the Lord is saying to all of us, every single one of us, it doesn't matter what age you are, what has been your background, it's the same kind of answer. that the Lord is giving to all of us. That those who cry out for mercy will find God to be a very present help in trouble. So dear friends, here the scripture speaks about the man who is devising his plan, his thought, how he's going to take his future steps. It's the Lord who ponders their heart, who plans things for them, who guides them, who provides for them. And all of these things, as inside of the old watches, when you opened it up as a child, I used to open up, my granddad used to have this big, big old watch, and the top of it would twist off, and we were not allowed to touch inside of it, but we used to watch all of these. different things going around, but it's all different ways. Some of them this way and some of them that way. And you thought, how could then this all work? They're all going backwards against each other and yet the time was going, you know, was being kept. That's the way God works, dear friends. I can't figure it out. but I don't have to praise God. God is the one who is doing it and I trust Him and I take every step trusting in Him and He is the one who will hold me. And so friends, we need to stop here now but think on these things and as you have questions, let us never have wrong thoughts of God but always have high thoughts of him, for he is the one who is over us, and he is the one whose thoughts are beyond our understanding. Well, may the Lord bless these few things to us. Amen. And God willing, next time we'll be speaking about sovereignty of God and prayer. How does God answer prayer? Well if he has planned everything, then what should we pray? Why should we have a prayer meeting? And so on. So trust that will be a blessing to you as well.