Tonight we want to talk about the benefits of walking with God and we really could just go right back to chapter 42 of Job and look at the many benefits. We'll go to Job at some point this evening looking at his bold familiarity with God but what a tremendous encouragement the way the Lord restored to Job all that he had lost and not just what he had lost but doubled it. Even having 10 more children the Lord took care of him in every way. and truly the benefit, one of the benefits, one of the wonderful benefits of walking with God and living before God's face. Well, last week we began this new short series about walking with God. We looked at what it is, and tonight my goal is to encourage and motivate you to take up a walk with God more intimately and sincerely than you have before. I wanna encourage you to have a walk and to seek a walk like Enoch. In Genesis chapter five, like Hezekiah and Noah and Abraham and Job and David, men who walked with God, lived with God, and appealed to God for the walk that they enjoyed with him, as we looked at last time. So I wanna encourage you and I'll be offering you several benefits of such a walk. We'll talk a little bit more about the first two or three, then the others will run through pretty quickly and letting scripture do the talking for us. The first is this, walking with God makes the ways of God easy. We hinted at this a little bit last week. But walking with God makes the ways of God easy. What do I mean by that? Well, why do you think it is that we have such a hard time sometimes of obeying God by saying no to sin and yes to holiness? Why do you think it is that we sometimes simply do not want to do what God says? We know clearly what his word calls us to do, but we just do not want to do it. Why do you think we sometimes find the commandments and the duties of God to be so hard? Burdensome even, even though John says commandments of the Lord are not burdensome. Well, the reason is very simple. And again, we hinted at this last time. I want to take a little more time on it tonight. The reason is this, because our heart is pulling so hard in the other direction. Our heart is pulling so hard in the other direction. The ways of God cannot be easy for the feet when the heart is going in the other way. Why is it so hard to forgive your brother 70 times 7 for the very same thing? But that we want to nurse revenge and malice in our hearts a little longer. Have we not at least thought and maybe even said, I don't want to forgive you yet because I'm not done being angry. We can't imagine moving away so quickly from our anger. There is something that we like about that, something that feels good about that anger, that feeling of discord in our hearts because it's justified because someone has mistreated us. We don't want to forgive. We're nursing anger. Why is it so hard to deny ourselves? Why is it so hard? But because our heart is bent on pleasing ourselves. And the questions are endless. Why, why, why? But the more we yield our heart over to God, the easier it is to walk in His ways. The more we yield our heart to God, the easier it is to walk in His ways. Psalm 119 verse 32. I will run in the way of your commandments. When? When you enlarge my heart. David's prayer is this very thing. Lord, the problem is not with my feet. The problem is with my heart. My feet will follow my heart. The reason I have such a hard time running in the ways of God. And there he means with alacrity, with ease, with joy, with comfort, with encouragement, with zeal. To run in the ways of God, it implies all of that. But what needs fixing if David is to so run? His heart. His heart needs to be enlarged in a way that embraces the commandments of God, loves the law of God, which is all of Psalm 119. Loving his laws, his rules, his statutes, his precepts, his commandments. Loving God's counsel from his word. The problem is a heart problem. When the heart is enlarged, when the heart is walking with God, what do we suddenly find? We suddenly find the strength to do God's will. We suddenly find contentment in our providence, whatever it is. We're okay with it. Because God has changed our heart. Our heart is in step with God. We suddenly find the patience to wait upon God. Impatience ate us alive before, but now we're patient with the Lord. It's gonna be okay. God's timing is best. The Lord knows what I need. How do we get to that place? There's a heart fix. There's a heart change. Enlarging our heart so that when we walk with God, which begins at the heart, that's the point here, it makes the ways of God easy. And it's not because we all of a sudden find this strength or patience in ourselves, but because when we walk with God, as we talked about last time, and we go the way God goes, we turn the way God turns, we make His will to be the rule of our life, we find that there is always right at hand a storehouse full of all the grace and the strength that we need. Because we enjoy more of what it means to be united with Christ. That is, we enjoy more fully the communion that grows out of that union. We tap into, it's really the best way to put it, we get better at tapping into Christ's strength, tapping into Christ's graces, tapping into Christ's power, tapping into Christ's contentment, Christ's desire to please the Father. We tap into our Savior's perfection. Really, we tap into Christ's holiness. And that holiness becomes more and more infused into our life. Mystically, spiritually, yes. We can't understand it, but that's the way it works. So that we become, as Paul says, further conformed to the image of Christ, we become more like Him. So the point of all this is this. Nearly all the trouble we have in the ways of God has nothing to do with what God's called us to do. It has everything to do with our heart toward it. It's the aversion of our heart. The problem isn't with the command itself. The problem, even as we saw on Sunday School this morning, looking at the fall of Adam. The problem isn't with the command itself. There's nothing wrong with God's commands. Paul says in Romans 7 very clearly, in all of that context, the law of God is holy, right, just, and good. There's nothing wrong with the law of God. The problem is sin lives in me. And again, John, the commandments of our Lord are not burdensome. Jesus himself said, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. There's not a problem with the command itself. The problem is, with our own pride, our own selfishness, we want to go our own way. That's the essence of sin. The essence of sin is the desire to be God, to take God's place, to, as we saw in the garden, to decide for myself what is right, what is good, or what is evil. Just think of what a difference it would make if we simply humbled ourselves and resolved by God's grace just to walk with God, just to go the way He goes, to turn when He turns, not pulling against Him in the opposite direction so that the yoke galls at our neck, but rather just simply turning when He turns, going which way He goes. Imagine how easy that is. Just think about that for a moment, how simple that is, how easy it would be. Think of what a difference it would make if we stopped praying for God to do what we want in life and instead prayed like David did. Lord, unite my heart to fear your name. If we prayed with David that he would give us joy in his ways, like we find in Psalm 119, give me joy in your commandments. Make your law pleasing to me. Make your ways a blessing to me. Give me happiness and contentment and delight in your ways. Just think of what a difference it would make If we stopped praying for God to change and stopped begging God to walk with us and instead prayed for God to change us and give us the grace to walk with Him. And this is the promise of the gospel, isn't it? Turn to Ezekiel 36. This is exactly what the gospel says. This is the picture of God's work in us. I guess we could say this is God's intention. This is God's will for your life. Ezekiel 36, this is the ideal picture, this is what God has in mind. Verse 25, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart. and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and will give you a heart of flesh and I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules this is God's plan for your life to fill you with my spirit so that you walk in my ways in all of my ways you walk in all the ways of my statutes Which leads to what? Enoch chapter, or Genesis chapter five with Enoch, a life pleasing to the Lord, right? It pleases the Lord, as we saw in Hebrews 11, Enoch walked with God. So this is what God intends, this is God's picture for us, is that we walk with him and he causes us to do so. So where's the problem? Where's the problem with all of our struggle? Where's the problem with all of the heartache and all of the pain and all of the grief? It almost always boils down to God's calling us to go one way and we're working so hard to go the other. We don't want to walk with God. Or we try to walk with God externally to please men. But internally, our heart's not in step. Internally, we're discontent, we're murmuring, we're grumbling, we're complaining. We're not with God at all. We're not on the same page. We don't want this. We don't like this. We're not happy at all. And we have this battle. The Lord is gracious, He's patient with us, but He will also win. God will win. If you are His, He will have His way with you. And He will do whatever it takes, out of love for you, He will do whatever it takes to break your pride, to break your selfishness, to humble you, and to cause you to come to the place where you realize, as Israel realized in Hosea 2, after God hedged up their way with thorns, It was better when I was with the Lord. It was better then. And we turned around and we walk in God's ways, more humbly this time and more careful. So walking with God, the first benefit is it makes the ways of God easy. Secondly, turn to Psalm 16. Walking with God is satisfying to the soul. Walking with God is satisfying to the soul. Psalm 16 verse 11. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. All three of these are somewhat synonymous. To walk with God is To find the path of life, it is to find the fullness of joy, it is to find pleasures forevermore. This is what it is, to be with God, to walk in His ways. To not pull in the opposite direction. Think of a child holding on to his father's hand, tugging in the opposite direction. Father says, no, we're going this way. It's a very unpleasant experience for the child. But dad's gonna pull the child in the way they need to go. No, we're not going that way. We're going this way. Walk with me, my son. Walk with me. Stop making it so hard on yourself. You're hurting yourself. Walk with me and it becomes easy. No tugging, no pulling, no resistance, no heartache. Satisfaction to the soul. Because we realize the care that God is giving us. The protection. And if we are able to see it, we submit to the wisdom of God. That God really does know best. If we just walk with Him, He'll take us in the right paths. He won't lead us astray. God's never led anyone astray. He's never lied to anyone. No one has ever been the worst for walking with God. No one, ever. That's why we have the occasion of Enoch. He walked with God and was not for God took him. That's how beautiful it was and how wonderful it was to be walking with God. God just simply took him. What a communion. We all know the joy, we all know the happiness of Fellowshipping with happy and joyful people. We love being around happy and joyful people, don't we? It just cheers you up. When you're down, sometimes there's a person, I just need to call so-and-so, they're just gonna cheer me up. And they do, they cheer you right up. They help you see maybe the bright side. They pray for you, they change your perspective, they help you see something that you're not looking at, because we're looking at the wrong things. They're joyful, and we love it. We gravitate toward those people. Well, what is it to walk with God? God is happiness itself. God is joy itself. Any joy and happiness we find in those happy people is but a drop in the ocean compared to the happiness in God who is happiness. With God we find a peace that calms the soul. We find a comfort that quiets the storms in our hearts and minds. Turn over to Psalm 36. What David says in 36 verses eight and nine, Verse 7, How precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights, for with you is the fountain of life. In your light do we see light. How much better is it to walk with God than to walk with the best of men? So much better. To have a dear friend, to have a happy friend, an encouraging friend, that's a real treasure. That's a blessing from the Lord. But no one can take God's place. No one can be as precious to the soul. When we learn to feed on God and take from Christ, Christ loves to give. He wants us to come and take. Take from me, he says. He wants us to come and take. We learn to take from Christ. None is better than the Lord Jesus to us. You remember Philip, what he said to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father and it'll be enough, it'll suffice. It was enough for Philip just to see the Father. What would it be to walk with the Father? How much better would that be? Not to see maybe at a distance, to behold maybe at it, but to walk. And isn't that exactly what Christ pointed out? Haven't I been with you so long? Have I been with you? Do you not know but to see me is to see the Father? You have seen the Father. You've more than seen the Father, you've walked with the Father. You've eaten with the Father. As John says in 1 John 1, we touched him, we beheld him, we heard him. Life itself. We had fellowship with him. John really came to understand and see that. Philip says, show us the Father, but Jesus says, you've got more than sight. You've got fellowship and communion. Those who learn to walk with God, they walk in the light. They walk in the truth. They walk in the Spirit, they walk in the way of life, they walk in the paths of righteousness, they walk in the way of peace, they walk in the way of salvation, they walk in the way of eternal life, they walk in the way of everlasting joy, and on and on and on. The inexhaustible fountain of life, fountain of all good, every blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus to those who walk with God. That's what we learn to enjoy. That's the communion that we learn to enjoy when we learn to walk with God. We feed on that. Turn to Psalm 89. Psalm 89, verses 15 to 18. Listen how David describes it here. Or Ethan the Ezraite, actually, as far as the superscript goes. Verse 15. Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face, who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted. For you are the glory of their strength. By your favor our horn is exalted. For our shield belongs to the Lord, our King, to the Holy One of Israel." What blessing! What blessing comes to those, as it says, in the light of God's face. There's such a great deal of good that is to be had in walking with the saints. As we said, blessed friends, dear friends, the fellowship of the body of Christ is so wonderful. And to find those bosom friends that are so dear and so encouraging and so uplifting and such a strong support and help, especially in a day of trial. But what an infinite satisfaction it is to walk with God. Who of us that has walked with God on a Lord's day would trade that for anything? The taste of what it means to commune with God. Jeremiah Burroughs tells the story of Dr. Taylor, probably Jeremy Taylor, who was put in prison. Taylor rejoiced that he was ever put in prison because it brought him into the fellowship of that holy man of God, John Bradford. not the Plymouth John Bradford, the English John Bradford from the 16th century. If you've never read the story of John Bradford, there's a single volume of his writings, highly, highly recommended. What a holy man of God. He rejoiced that he was sent to prison to be in the company of John Bradford. What must it be then to come into the fellowship of God himself? What must it have been to the three Hebrew children to go into that furnace and meet Christ? Never, never had those guys met Christ before. But they saw him in the furnace. What must it have been for Daniel to meet the power of God in the closing of the mouths of the lions? Daniel probably slept on him like kittens. He met God there. You see, God brings us into places We tend to look at the place and say, oh, my life is ruined. There's no good in this place. How can anything good come out of this place? This is a terrible place to be. I can't expect anything good to come from this. But it's in those places that we walk with God. It's in those places that God meets with his people in special ways that he doesn't meet with you in other ways. God puts you into those places because he is there ahead of you. This is the beauty of the grave, or for Christ as he went into the tomb, he seasoned the tomb, he went ahead of us, right? What is the grave now but a dormitory, a sleep house, just a place to rest your head for a little while until you're raised up again. Christ seasoned it for you. He went ahead of you. When we walk with God, we learn that we can rejoice in the valley of tears. We learn that we can brave the most difficult of sufferings. We find that we can navigate the shadow of death and the shadow of humiliation. when we walk with God. Isn't this what happened to Christian in Pilgrim's Progress? How did he make it through some of those great trials as you trace his journey in Pilgrim's Progress? He made it through because he wasn't alone. He was never alone. He walked with God in those paths. In the face of all the temptations, in the face of all the trials, his soul was satisfied. And he navigated all of that by the grace of God, upheld by the one who is with him. This is God's promise to Abram in Genesis 15. I am your shield. I'm your protector. I am with you. We tend to think, of course, and the world always thinks, we tend to think that the things of life and even the paths of sin offer so much satisfaction, so much happiness. That's why we turn out of the ways of God, right? Isn't this what happened again at Pilgrim's Progress? By Path Meadows seemed to offer so much more pleasantries than God's path was offering. They turned aside. But how many times do we need to taste the bitterness of sin and come to the empty promises of the world before we learn our lesson? Why do we keep turning aside? Why do we keep going after the World's Cup, expecting anything else to be in it? but the bitterness and the misery of sin's wages. Yet we keep trying. We keep telling ourself it's gonna be better this time. We never seem to learn our lesson. But we know, if we know anything from our own experience, and we know because scripture tells us, nothing satisfies like God. Because we were made by God, we were made for God. Shorter Catechism, question one. What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That's our purpose. It's a meaning of life. Genesis 1, 26 and 27, male and female, he made them after his own image and after his own likeness. For what purpose? As we even said this morning, for the purpose of fellowship and communion. We were made to commune with God. We were made to have fellowship with God. We were not made to be like a beast and grovel on the earth. We were not made to suffer under the curse of Satan and eat dust all our life, our face buried to the ground. We were made to look up. We were made to behold God. We were made to converse with God. This is why God said to Abram in Genesis 17, one, when he came to him to make his covenant with him, walk before me. We find this in Psalm four, verse seven, that wonderful passage when he compares the joy that we find in God with the joy that the world finds in anything and everything. Psalm four, verse six. There are many who say, who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, oh Lord. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety. Let the world run after whatever good they think they can find. Let the unbeliever run after the good the world promises. But for the man of God, for the child of God, this is our prayer. Lift up the light of your face upon us, because you have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound." We find more joy in God, more satisfaction in God. God is pleasing to the soul. A third benefit of walking with God is it fulfills, in essence, it fulfills our part of the covenant of grace. Again, we hinted at this last week. You remember the covenant of grace, especially when God makes it with Abram in Genesis 17. What does God promise? God promises to be a God unto us. He promises to be our provider, our sustainer, our caregiver. And we read in Genesis 17, one that it requires nothing of us but this, to walk in fellowship with him. Look at this in Micah, right? Micah chapter six. Verses six to eight. With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. This is the call of the covenant of grace, to walk with God. This is, if you will, our part. And again, we said last time, this was the comfort of Hezekiah when he was told that he would die. It was his comfort, in Isaiah chapter 38, that he had walked with God. Hezekiah, you remember, humbly challenged God's covenant promise by reminding the Lord that despite all his infirmities, he had kept his covenant. He had kept his part. He had walked with God. As we said this morning, if you were in Hezekiah's shoes and you were suddenly told that you're on your deathbed, would you be able to look back as he did and say, Lord, I have walked with you all my days. I have walked with you all my days. That's been my life. I've lived my life walking before you. That's what we need to be able to say. That's what we want to be able to say. But we need to grow an understanding of what it means and we need to strive and pray for this very thing that God would bless us with such a heart that we would walk with Him above all else. Let nothing else matter but to walk in the presence of God, to live in God's presence. Number four, there's a blessed safety in walking with God. Turn to Psalm 23, of course, then to Psalm 138. We all know the blessed 23rd Psalm. What does verse four say? Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You are with me in my walk. How is God with us in our walk? But if we are walking with God, because he leads the way, he takes the initiative. It's his paths in which we want to walk. It's his ways and his commandments in which we want to run, if he'll enlarge our heart to do so. The reason there's no fear, the reason there's comfort, the reason there's peace and contentment despite the valley of the shadow of death is because the walk is with God. Nothing can go wrong because even the wrong is turned to good. Even the wrong becomes a blessing. Even the wrong is twisted as it were by God to bring about good in our lives. That's the blessing of the cross. Psalm 138 verse 7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me." Again, why? Because the walk is with God. Every step the wicked take in the ways of sin is a step full of dangerous snares, and it's one step closer to hell. But for those who walk with God, we're always safe. Always. That's the point of Psalm 23 verse 4. We are always safe. In the worst of situations, Psalm 138 verse 7, in the midst of trouble. It doesn't matter where we are. If it's the path on which the Lord has placed us, if we're following God, we're walking with Him, then we're safe. This is a great promise of Isaiah 43. I will be with you. Changes everything. We're always safe because God upholds us in the face of danger. God will never let our foot slip. Psalm 121, a blessed psalm, a travel psalm, as it's been called. Psalm 121, verse three, he will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Turn over to 1 Peter chapter five. Look at this passage of The great dangers in our walk, even though the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, notice the peace. Notice the safety, the security that's ours, and notice why. 1 Peter 5, we find the same charge we heard this morning in verse 13. He begins, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith. knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. The walk is with God, even though the devil is at our heel, chasing, prowling. A walk with God is still a safe walk. and always will be. Turn over to Job chapter 10. Number five, the soul comes to enjoy a bold familiarity with God when it walks with God. Job chapter 10 verses one to three, I loathe my life I will give free utterance to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, do not condemn me. Let me know why you contend against me. Does it seem good to you to oppress and to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? And then chapter 13, verse 15, Job says, though he slay me, I will open him. Yet I will argue my ways to his face. We find this bold familiarity with God that Job has. We talked about this in several of the sermons that we looked at in Job, this ability to come before God, even with our anger, even with all of our confusion. with our heartache, to be able to come before God and know that whatever is going on in our hearts, we can bring it to God. There's not a place for irreverence, there's not a place for sin, but it's the ability to be able to be real before God and even raw before God, which is what we see in Job. We see the same familiarity even in Abraham, although it's marked by these notes of humility. Remember Abraham when he prays for Sodom and Gomorrah. Oh Lord, behold, I am who am but dust and ashes plead with you. If there be yet 30, will you not destroy? Oh Lord, if I can't just speak one more time. Oh, you see this familiarity with God. There's a boldness and yet a humility that even dares to approach God and beg and bring it down and bring the number down and down and down. What a communion Abraham enjoyed. And again, walk before me, the Lord said to Abram. It's the same thing here with Job, this familiarity. to be real with God. When we learn to walk with God, we learn we can be real with God, not fake. God hates hypocrisy. God would rather us admit our anger than to say we don't have it because He knows it's there. God would rather have us admit our discontent than to say we're content and it be a lie. God would rather have you lay your sins before Him in all honesty and in all their ugliness than to pretend they're not there. That's bold familiarity, realizing that It's safe in God's presence. And if I can talk to anybody about what's going on in here, the mess that it is, I can tell him. And he's not going to kick me out. He's not going to make me an outcast. He's not going to say, oh, I didn't know you're going to be like that. We're done. I quit. God knows already. He knew long before. He knew where you would be. He knew how you would respond to that trial and that it would not go well with you on your part. He knew what it would reduce you to, to bitterness and anger. He knew that. Now we can deal with it, can't we? Now that you're there, and you know what I know about you, now we can be real, now we can talk, now we can do surgery, right? We've got to get to the place, and I talked about this in the sermon, we talked about Job's boldness. We've got to get to the place where we say, okay, Lord, I now see what you see, get it out. You get yourself on the operating table and you're ready for God to go to work. But as long as we're covering ourselves, they look, don't you see how good I am? I'm not that way, I'm not angry, I'm not bitter, I'm not discontent, I'm happy. I love your sovereignty in my life. When that's not really what's true. The Lord can't work in us in the way that he can when we are open entirely. So this is a really important point. But we only come by that when we learn to walk with God and God becomes a familiar friend. Two can't walk together unless they agree, right? When God becomes a familiar friend, and when God's presence is a familiar place, the throne of grace is a familiar place, and we learn to be able to talk with God, and be open with God, and honest with God, boy, the work that can be done in us, the growth and the maturity that takes place in us all of a sudden, because you can't come into God's presence and not be changed, unless you want to retain your hypocrisy. But if you're ready to be done with all that, you can really grow. And that rolls right into the next couple of points. Number six, the Lord opens his heart more intimately to those who walk with him. Look at Galatians chapter one. Look at Paul's story. Paul gives the account of himself in Galatians. Galatians chapter one, verses 11 to 12. Paul says, for I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." You know, Paul went away for three years to be with God. He went into the school of Christ and came back an amazing apostle. Paul walked with God. He learned. Christ taught him. And hence we have such an amazing apostle. But what happens is the Lord opens His heart to us when we come to know what it means to walk with Him. We come to know His mind and His will more thoroughly. We come to have greater insights into the Word of God than those who walk with God by halves. We walk with God by halves because we want to hold on to something. But ask yourself, what are you holding on to? What is it that you can't let go of? What are you afraid of losing by a total surrender to God? What's the worst that could happen? What are you afraid of giving up? What is so important that we can't totally surrender to God and just give it all and be all in? Why do we walk with God by halves? Enoch walked with God and because it pleased God, the scripture says God took him. What do we think we're going to gain by walking with God by halves? We don't really gain. until we learn to walk with God by fools. A full surrender. All in. Because guess what? God's already all in. He gave His Son. And Romans 8.32 says, if He gave His Son, how will He not also with Him give everything? Right? If anybody could say what Paul says, God can. My heart's not constrained toward you. Your heart's constrained toward me. Open your heart, Paul said to the Corinthians. You're the one that's pinched here. Open your heart. We've got so much more we want to give you. This is what God says to us. Open your heart to me. Do you even realize all that I have to give you? Do you realize the fullness of the blessing that I want to give you? Open your heart to me. What are you holding? Why are you holding out? The Lord could reason with us and he does reason with us that way in the scriptures. Why are you holding out? Why are you holding back? Why won't you just come all in? The Lord is gracious to save us when he knows, when he knows, still knows that we're going to be so much trouble. and we're gonna wanna kinda walk by halves. God is still so patient with us. It's amazing His mercy. None of us is all in right away. It takes a lot of work, but God is committed to that work, and His Spirit is committed to that work, and God continues to break us down until there's nothing left but that happy surrender that we wish we would've done the first time. It's so much easier. Another benefit, number seven, A glory will be put upon the soul and life of him who walks with God. Do you remember Exodus 34, 29? Moses was with the Lord. Remember when he came back down among the people, his face shined. Why did his face shine? He didn't even realize it, of course. Everyone else did, and he had to veil his face, remember? But why did his face shine? Because he had been with God. He had been in the presence of God, and the glory of God shone about him. Look at Acts chapter 4. It's great testimony. I love this passage. Acts 4, beginning in verse 8. You know the story of Peter and John before the council. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man, is standing before you well. This, Jesus, is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." What a bold statement. What glory shone through this fisherman. What an amazing testimony of boldness, right? Look what happens in verse 13. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men, fishermen. They were astonished. Ah, now we get it. They recognized that they had been with Jesus. They'd been with Jesus. They were shining, if you will, with the glory of Christ, the boldness of Christ who stood up against the religious leaders and simply spoke the truth. That's all Peter's doing. He's not being disrespectful. He's just speaking the truth. You've been with Jesus. You've been hanging out with Jesus. That's what they see. And that's what happens to us. Look at 2 Corinthians 3. This is a tremendous passage. There's a lot going on here. But what we want to see is clear enough. 2 Corinthians 3. Talking about the new covenant in comparison with the old covenant. It talks about Moses' face shining even in this context, of course, and what glory Moses had and what glory the Old Covenant had. But the New Covenant has so much more glory, it's as if the Old Covenant had no glory at all, given the comparison. Verse 18, and we all, with unveiled face, unlike Moses, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." You see what happens? Being in fellowship with God, as Moses was, and the glory shone about him, and he had to veil his face. But we, with unveiled face, are able to come into the presence of God, and we behold the glory of the Lord. And it's very clear through the context. How do we behold the glory of the Lord? With unveiled face. We come to the Scriptures. This is where we behold the glory of the Lord. And by taking in the glory of the Lord, walking with God through his word, letting his word be the means by which we are taught to walk with God, we are being transformed mysteriously and mystically. We are being transformed from one degree of glory to another. What's happening? What happens when we walk with God in his word? We are conformed to the image of Christ himself. That's what happens. A glory comes to shine about us. It's beautiful. Number eight, the presence of God will draw out our graces into vigorous exercise. Remember Luke 24, 32, when Jesus walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and he spoke to them and shared the scriptures, opened the scriptures to them. Remember what they said in verse 32? Did not our hearts burn when he spoke with us? Did not our hearts burn when he spoke with us? Their graces, if you will, were drawn out, right? After this man and the story he told, unfolding the scriptures, revealing the truth of God's word, The truth of the Old Testament, his truth. Who doesn't envy these brothers? Who wouldn't do anything for that experience? To have their hearts burn at the word of Christ. Well, walk with God and you can have that experience. Has your heart never burned? The ministry and the preaching of the word of God? Has your heart never been warmed? Have you never met with God in this way? I believe we have. If we've ever fed upon the Word of God and gotten our souls changed and transformed by the preaching and teaching of God's Word, we know what this is like. And that comes from walking with God. Ninth, walking with God, the day of judgment, will not be a terror to us anymore. We've got 2 Timothy 4, Hebrews 9, but turn to Revelation 6 and we'll compare that with 1 John 3. The day of judgment will not be a terror to those who learn to walk with God. Compare what we find here in Revelation chapter six, verses 12 to 17. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked and behold, it was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Notice seven classes of people are listed here, which means all mankind. Seven, the number of completion. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand? This is the terror. We talked about this a little bit this morning. This is the terror of the day of judgment for the world. He's coming and he's coming to judge. There is no more mercy, no more grace. The door is shut and he's coming to judge all those who are left outside. But compare that, the very same coming, mind you, the very same coming in 1 John 3. It's not a different coming, it's not a second or a third or a fourth appearing. There's one coming of Christ, that is, one return of Christ. Look at what John says in 1 John 3. Beginning in verse 1, see what kind of love the Father has given us? That we should be called children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, We are God's children. We are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him, think of this morning's sermon. Everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself even as he is pure. You see that? Everyone who hopes in Christ and looks forward to His return. What happens when you have your hope fully set on the revelation of Christ? You become purified. You grow from one image of glory to another. You change. And you become purified, even as He is pure. You become like Him. You're being transformed. You're being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son, and when He comes, that conformation and transformation will be done. And you will be like Him. And He will raise us up with the power that raised His own body. He will raise us up, and we shall be like Him. The Day of Judgment is a terror to the world, to those who do not walk with God. But to us who walk with God, it's a day of salvation. Hebrews 9, 27 and 28, He comes to save. He dealt with sin the last time He came. That is, He dealt with sin for His people. When He comes again, He's not coming to deal with sin again. He's coming to save. That is, to bring the consummate and final phase of our salvation. Just what we heard this morning. Finally, number 10, the benefit of walking with God. We know where walking with God leads. Again, turn to 1 Peter 1. Let's hear this again. What is the benefit of walking with God? We know where walking with God leads. Verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. We know where walking with God leads. If a man were going to possess a kingdom, and he met with many, many difficulties on the way. Knowing what his destination was, it would overshadow all the hardships he had getting there, wouldn't it? Isn't this what brought even our forefathers into the new world? The hope of the new world gave them the courage to brave the open sea. Danger, maybe possibly death for many of them. But you see, the destination overshadowed all the pain in between. And so it is with the people of God. We can have comfort in our daily walk wherever the path leads, wherever God turns, and we seek to follow because we know the place at which it ends. And this is the very story of Pilgrim's Progress. All the troubles Christian met with along the way, even when he himself brought troubles on himself, yet he was encouraged And every time, by God's grace, got back in the way and continued on. Why? Because I'm going to the celestial city. The one who met with me, Evangelist, told me that this path would lead me home. I'm on the path and I'm gonna stay on it until it takes me to my destination. And he braved every hardship and every heartache and every loss and every cross. Why? Because the end overshadowed it all. This is exactly what Peter tells us here. It's what we learn in the sermon this morning. This brings us full circle, doesn't it? We know we're walking with God leads. We know where we're headed. We know where the Lord is drawing us to. Wasn't this Jesus' hope given to the disciples, his encouragement given to them in John 14? I'm leaving, but it's okay, because I go to prepare a place for you. And if it wasn't going to prepare a place for you, would I have told you? I'm going to prepare a place that where I am, you may be also. And then we see this come around again in his prayer in John 17, 24, as he prays to the Father. that all who the Father had given Him would be with Him to see His glory, His eternal glory, and to be where He is. That's where He's headed. That's where He's taking us. That's where we're going. As you think tonight upon all these benefits and blessings of walking with God, walking in the ways of God, let me encourage you, whatever heartaches and hardships and struggles you have found in the way of Christ, Let me encourage you to bring your heart to your condition. Bring your heart to your condition and be in love with the Christian walk. Bring your heart to the Christian walk. Don't complain. Don't murmur. Don't give up. Persevere and be thankful. As we said this morning, be thankful that you ever have come to know Christ. But be thankful that you're in the Christian walk, that you're in the paths walled with salvation, says the prophet. Be in love with the walk along which God has you. It's a right path, because the reality is there's no real good in any other path. This is the way of real good. And all the bad with which you meet is turned into good. So it's a win-win. You can't lose in the Christian path. And it's so easy to complain because we look at our circumstances. It's so easy to complain because we want our comforts and we want these things and those things and when we don't have them, our God brings hardship and crosses and difficulties and trials. It's so easy to focus on those things and forget the great blessing that it is to even be on the right path because how much of the world is not? So we really do need to bring our heart to our condition and to love the Christian walk. to love the right path. It is a mercy to be where we are because others are not. There is no real good in any other path. The devil lies to you when he tells you there is. The world is deceiving you when it promises you there is. There is no real good to be found anywhere else. The only real, lasting, satisfying, good, happiness, joy, and comfort. is found in walking with God. That's why Enoch is put there, so strange, so odd. He was not for God took him. God is telling us in that wonderful catalog of saints, in the line of Shem leading to Noah, leading to the destruction of the human race outside of Noah's family, God is saying, there is a way to live pleasing to me. It is to walk with me. And for all the mysteries surrounding Enoch's walk, about which we know nothing. There's only four verses on the man. But that mystery is explained all throughout the rest of scripture as we see what it means for Abraham to walk with God. Noah to walk with God directly in the next chapter, but as we see Abraham walking with God, as we see Hezekiah walking with God, as we see Job walking with God, as we see David walking with God, as we see Christ walking with God. Now we can read back and say, aha, that's what it means to walk with God. And this is why Hebrews 11 is put before us, to go back to the saints, and Enoch is listed there, to go back to the saints of the Old Testament, to read with a new light back into all those mysteries, and say, now do you see? Now do you understand? There is blessing in the Christian life. So don't ever forsake it. Don't be discouraged. It can be discouraging sometimes, but that's just because we're looking at the wrong thing. But trust in the Lord that has called you to be on the path you're on. And don't envy the world. Fret not because of the evildoer. Don't fret over the world. Don't fret over the wicked. Psalm 37, don't fret. Focus on what God has given you and highlight your blessings for they are more than you can even count. We only lose sight of them because we become envious of what the world has. Bring your heart back to where it belongs. Be content with the path the Lord has you even if it leads to prison, the lion's den, to death itself is still the right path. And you'll find that out more clearly as you go along. Amen. Let's close tonight with Psalm 23C. There's three versions of Psalm 23 in our Psalter hymnal. We're more familiar with the other two, but we're gonna try Psalm 23C tonight. So maybe play it through for us if you will, Paula. Let's stand and sing together. ♪ O Lord, as I shall prepare ♪ ♪ What shall I wear ♪ ♪ Who wills me find ♪ to pass through the water's flood. I love her, he said, she brings back to his word. If she is your righteousness, This battle, where darkness is nigh, He goes to war with you, O people of faith. ♪ We will rejoice in thee, O Lamb of God ♪ ♪ Thou who art with us, graciously grant ♪ Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Father, we confess tonight, oh Lord, that we have not walked as we ought. Indeed, oh Father, we we know that we have so often stepped out of the way. We have not believed in your ways. We have not believed them to be good, good for us, good at this time, the best. We have desired other ways and we have often turned into them. For that, oh God, forgive us. And we confess that by your grace, it is our heart's desire to walk in your ways, to walk with you more faithfully, more truly, more sincerely and honestly. We desire that we may bring honor and glory to your name above all else. by showing that your ways are right and good and worthy to be in. And we ask, O Lord, that you would bless us for your mercy's sake that we may enjoy these benefits that we've talked about tonight. We might know the joy and the comfort and the blessing and the safety and the encouragement and the glory and the strength of walking in your ways, walking with you. Help us in this as we go into our week, Give ourselves to our work, our study, our play, all that we do. Bless us in fellowship with one another and in fellowship with you, and encourage our hearts, for we need it. For Jesus' sake, amen.