SCRIPTURE LESSON.

THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Psalms 32-8.

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God. Romans 8, 14.

He calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. St. John, 10, 3.

The Lord shall guide thee continually. Zach. 58, 11.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Psalms 37, 23.

Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psalms 37, 5.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth. St. John 16, 13.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. James 1, 5.

1. We know that Abraham left his kindred and country and was guided to a home which he knew not.

2. We know that the Israelites were led for forty years in the desert sands and wastes of the wilderness.

3. We know that Joshua was led to overcome the enemies in Canaan because he looked to the Captain of the Lord's Hosts.

4. We know the early church was able to solve the most difficult problems because they were led by the Holy Spirit; and yet there are some people who fear this subject because others have gone into fanaticism; but it is just as wrong to neglect and ignore an important subject as it is to become fanatical about it. It is not sensible to freeze to death because other people have been burned to death. It is not wise to starve to death because others have eaten too much and become winebibbers and gluttons, yet it is wiser to both starve and freeze than it is to refuse and ignore the Divine Guidance because some people have been fanatical on the leading of the Spirit.

This world is a dark and trackless wilderness and millions have lost the path of life and perished, and thousands are now off on tangents because they have neglected this infallible guide. It is a great advantage in this dense, unknown wilderness not only to have a chart but a faithful guide. The Lord has given us both a glorious guide book and a glorious Guide and “he will not miss of endless bliss, who takes these helps to guide by.”

I. We believe it is our privilege to be divinely guided because God has given us so many promises of guidance.

“He will keep the feet of his saints.” “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” “Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him and he shall bring it to pass.” “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye.”

“And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all truth. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him.,,

These and many more that I cannot mention here give us a foundation surer than the everlasting mountains that God will guide us all the way from earth to heaven.

1. To whom are the promises given for guidance and who may expect to be divinely guided? “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way.”

The guidance is not given to us as men, but as Christian men and women. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him.

Their heart is waxed gross. Their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should be converted.

Conversion opens the eyes and ears and enables sinners to receive the Divine Guidance.

2. In order to be led there must be a complete surrender of all the being to the will of God. Every sin in the heart is a great hindrance to the divine leading — it is like dust in the eyes or wax in the ears which blind the eye and deaden the hearing. Nothing is more reasonable than that if a man does not surrender and give his heart, ears, his eyes and feet and his life to God, he cannot be led of the Spirit, for how can a man take the second step if he will not take the first.

3. In order to be divinely guided there must be a commitment of your ways unto God. “Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass/’

He, who employs a physician or an attorney puts the case fully into their hands and follows their instructions. If you say you will not do so, you will not get their services. The Lord is the lawyer for every troubled soul and the sick soul's physician, and unless it is settled that we will clearly follow the Divine Guidance we will never be clear in our relation to the Guide and our souls will often be in the dark. So many times we ask direction when we merely want approval. We do like the young man who was praying for a wife, he said “Lord, give me Hannah. She will make me a good wife. If it be thy will give me Hannah, but Lord whether it is Thy will or not I am going to have her if I can get her.” He wanted the Lord's approval. I have prayed for direction many times when I was afraid the answer would come the /wrong way and I have not waited long enough to find out what the Lord's will was; but I never sought His will when I was as ready to take no as yes, but the Lord answered me clearly and promptly.

4. Another condition of guidance is this, we must acknowledge Him as Guide.

In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. As forgiveness is conditioned on confessing sins and receiving Jesus as your personal Saviour, as perfect love is conditioned upon your receiving the Holy Spirit as the only One who sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, so Divine Guidance is conditioned upon confessing that you have taken the Spirit as your Divine Guide. God will not honor people who want His counsel, but are ashamed to own that they are divinely directed. In all thy ways, big ways and little ways, plain ways, mysterious ways, private ways and public ways, personal ways, business ways, home ways and social ways, “in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths”

5. We must receive guidance by faith. There must be a belief that God will make His guidance known. If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and unbraideth not and it shall be given him, but let him ask in faith nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. Let not that man think he shall receive anything of God. When you commit all your difficulties unto the Lord you must believe that He is willing and able to guide you and you must expect the direction needed and look out for the divine guidance; unless you do this you will not receive anything of the Lord, but will be like a ship at sea with no helm, at the mercy of the wind and waves.

II. Satan offers to guide us in many ways.

1. The devil wants to guide us by our feelings. Many people do things just because they feel like it. They will do very unscriptural things because they feel like it. I protested to a minister the other day about needlessly spending money. “Oh,” said he, “I don’t drink and I don’t smoke and I feel like spending a little money; a man must do something.” A man who tests his life by his feelings is like a man who takes his case out of a wise and righteous court and gives it to a crying child to decide for him. A young minister was strongly impressed when he went to his appointment that he would find a wife during that year, and going along the street one day he felt sure that a lady ahead of him was to be his wife. The Spirit, he thought, led him along after her. Imagine his feelings when he saw her face and found out that she was a colored woman. Had she been white and beautiful and rich he would have felt the Lord had led him, and she would have had no end of trouble with the fool, but as it was he: flew the track, and thought he was mistaken. Never go by your feelings.

When at Fort Wayne I felt like I must go and see a strange family. Wife didn’t want to go, but I insisted and off we went. When we got there they had moved away and the house was empty. When I was calling, on one of my charges and praying with one of my parishioners, it came over me very strongly to pray for the husband that he might be converted and be a little better husband and I laid myself out in good earnest. When prayers were over imagine my mortification when she said with streaming eyes that for five years he had been dead. There are hundreds of thousands out of Christ today, and to the question, “Why are you not a Christian?” they will answer they do not feel like it.

That is the devil’s reason for doing things or not doing them. No wonder Wesley said: “Trample under foot that fanatical doctrine that you are not to do good unless you feel like it”

2. An accidental text of scripture, will be the reason of other misleadings of the Devil. I have known people in this city who would open their Bibles and try to make something out of the first verse they saw, not knowing 1 that they were led of the Devil in doing this thing! Suppose a Judge should open Blackstone and decide in favor or against a case by some chance sentence he found in the volume! Suppose a physician should give a medicine to his patient according to the first prescription that his eye falls upon in his medical directory!

The come-outer falls on this text by chance: “Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord,” and Satan throws that text into both his eyes and out he goes. Another person hits upon this verse: “I suffer not a woman to

teach” and that settles the whole question. Passing over all the examples of women helpers and workers and leaders he rests upon that one passage.

Search the Scriptures. Don't fool with them, is the Divine command. God does not want us to go into religious gambling and make a “toss penny” of the Bible.

3. Satan will guide by dreams. Some people justify their conduct by dreams which they have had and they do some very foolish things. There is no Scripture warrant for depending on dreams for guidance. They may be from God, they may be from the Devil, or they may be from a mince pie.

4. Signs is another method of his satanic majesty. A great many people live by signs. If a bird flies into the room, or a looking glass is broken, they are sure some one is going to die. If they find a pin with the point towards them, they must pick it up. If a fork falls from the table and sticks in the floor it is a bad sign. They have horse shoes tacked up over the door. They ought to be tapped for the simples, following such vain superstitions and yet the Devil fools and deceives a great many people by just such nonsense.

III. Some of the Methods of Divine Guidance:

1. The Holy Spirit will guide us through our sanctified common sense. He has given us reasoning powers and He appeals to our reason from the start. “Come,” he says to the sinner, “Let us reason together.” “The meek will He guide in judgment.” When a man gives his brains to the Lord he has a right to believe that God will respect his reason and his judgment. The sun may be shining clearly in the heavens, but when I go into the cellar I must take a lamp with me. So there are many places where you must take the lamp of reason and exercise your own consecrated judgment.

When I walk on the street I must open my eyes, or else I will stumble and fall over many things in the way. If you have an impression that you ought to do something, do like you do with a watermelon, thump it, rap it on the head and see if it has the right sound, thus testing it. If your impression is not sensible wait till it gets ripe.

2. God guides us by His written word. “Thou wilt guide me by Thy counsel” “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.” What fools we must be to expect a new revelation from God when we won't read what He has already given. When we disregard the plain commandments what right have we to look for God to give us special revelations to suit our different cases. And yet there are a great many companies of people who talk about walking according to the inward revelation, while at the same time they discard nearly every truth that has been divinely revealed. The fall of man — original sin — the need of the atonement — the personality of God — justification by faith — regeneration — the witness of the Spirit — sanctification by faith and the resurrection of the body are all flatly denied or glossed over and perverted so as to make the Word of God of none effect.

It is certainly true that men cannot have direct and special guidance from God who reject and disobey God’s written word.

When God says: 'Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not lie,” “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” “Thou shalt not kill” or “Thou shalt love the Lord,” that is guidance enough without a special revelation and whoever refuses to obey the written revelations will get his inward revelations from the devil and not from God.

3. Another method of guidance is the ministry of others. God lays his hand upon some men and makes them the instruments for the guidance of His people. “Thou leadest thy people out of Egypt like a flock.” How? “By the hand of Moses and Aaron.” The Scriptures are full of illustrations where the Lord sent one man to help others.

When Saul was smitten on the way to Damascus, the Lord sent Ananias to tell him what to do and to impart unto him the Holy Spirit. Peter was sent to Cornelius for the same purpose and Philip was sent to the Eunuch who said that he could not understand the Scripture unless some man explained it, and Paul gives special directions for this Divine Guidance by the ministry when he says: “The things that thou hast heard of me, commit thou unto faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.” For any one to say that he has no need to be taught of others is simply to say that he is in the whirlpool of fanaticism, but does not John say in His First Epistle, 2nd Chapter and 27th verse that: “Ye need not that any man teach you,” yes, but he did not mean that they needed not the true ministry, but only that they must not listen to men who would pervert the scripture, for he says in the preceding verse, “These things are written concerning them, that would seduce you.” It was simply listening to men as men only and not as holy men sent from God.

No matter how holy, wise and prudent you are you will often need to be guided by some of God's chosen ones, for this is His method of guidance.

4. The Holy Spirit shall guide you into all the truth. The direct guidance of the Holy Spirit is the subject of great trouble to most people. A great many Christians want the Holy Spirit to guide them by revelations or by impressions, or by some thought, or by some word, or by some special sign or manifestation. They want the Spirit to guide them, for instance, in the performance of some duty, or in the decision of some doubtful question, or to enable them to judge which of two things ought to be done when both seem to be proper. They think they get an impression from the Spirit and when they have done it they find they have been mistaken. So the guidance of the Holy Spirit instead of being the end of all trouble and the solution of all difficulty, is really itself a grievous perplexity, and the troubled Christian does not know how to be guided nor when he is guided by the Spirit. I want to show you, if I can, what the difficulty is with us. The trouble is that we are seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit by impressions on our minds, on our thoughts, on our feelings, rather than the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our life. We are wanting the Holy Spirit to guide us by some external impression rather than guide us in the life. “He that followed! Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.”

The Holy Spirit guides us in our life — not through an impression made on our mind, but through the new life that we are living. This was what Jesus meant when he said, “In him was life and the life was the light of men.” When the life of Jesus is brought unto you by the Holy Spirit, then the life of Jesus in you becomes the light that illuminates your mind and proper decisions are brought forth; and in that way you know not by impressions but by the Holy Spirit that dwells in you. Your life illuminates your mind and right decisions are made.

The leading of the Spirit and the indwelling of the Spirit are intimately connected together. When Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit then was He led of the Spirit into the wilderness. How? By some impression from heaven? By some revelation from the skies? No. It was by the Spirit that dwelt in his body, that permeated his soul, that took possession of his life and led him into the wilderness. Thus intimately connected are the life of the Spirit and the leading of the Spirit. Paul says: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice,” and when you have presented your bodies a living sacrifice you can “prove what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God.” “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Do you see that the leading of God does not come from the outside, out of heaven upon your mind but that it comes from the Spirit that dwells within you? Down deeper than your thought, deeper than emotions or feelings of your body, down in your very spirit in the labyrinth of your very soul, there dwells the Holy Spirit. There he moulds your will, there he works upon your character, and there he moves, there he impels, there he inspires you, so that out of your very life and not down from heaven or from some impression that may come from other sources, but out of your very soul is the way the Spirit guides you.