"HE LEADETH ME"

PSALMS 23:1

A. "HE LEADETH ME"
  1. The need of guidance is a real fundamental human need:
    1. Life is so strangely perplexing, appearances are so misleading, errors and mistakes are so easy and their consequences so serious that our need for guidance is imperative
    2. Most of us have lived long enough not to trust human wisdom including our own
  2. Divine leadership is so necessary:
    1. In this hour of gross darkness - Is. 60:2
    2. In this hour of great confusion B. "HE LEADETH ME"
  3. Is it not a great comfort to know that there is an infallible Guide whom we can always trust:
    1. One who understands our weaknesses and suits His leading to our needs - Ps. 103:13-14
    2. The great leader adapts His leadership to our every need and leads us accordingly. There was a great difference in the temperaments of Thomas and Peter, yet the Lord led both of them
  4. How the good Shepherd leads us:
    1. He leads by laying a strong hand on us - "And the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand" - Is. 8:11; Examples: when the Lord began to lead Saul to reverse his ways, He did it with a strong hand - Acts 9:3-6
    2. Sometimes He leads us by hindering us - that is how he led the apostles when they were minded to go into Bithynia, "But the Spirit suffered them not" - Acts 16:7
    3. That is how the Lord led Belial when he sought to curse Israel - Num. 22:22
    4. Sometimes He leads us with His eye - Ps. 32:8; we pass from the grip of the hand to the glance of the eye; from the nipping frost to the gently beam of the sunlight
    5. How wise and how gracious are the ways of the Lord; His leadership provides safety and assurance of reaching the haven of eternal rest C. GOD'S MEANS OF LEADING HIS CHILDREN
  5. He leads us by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead:
    1. "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth" - John 16:13
    2. "For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought so say" - Luke 12:12
  6. He leads us by the Holy Scripture:
    1. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" - Ps. 119:105
    2. "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple" - Ps. 119:130
    3. "O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacle" - Ps. 43:3
  7. He leads us through earnest and persevering prayer:
    1. How often do we find ourselves in darkness with seemingly unsolvable difficulties not knowing what to do - then earnest prayer brings guidance to us
    2. This was true in the experience of ancient Israel before the Red Sea - Ex. 14:10-14
    3. That was true in the experience of Hezikiah when the army of the enemy surrounded the city of Jerusalem - Is. 37:15-36
    4. "Call unto Me and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not" - Jer. 33:3
    5. "If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God, who giveth liberally, and upbraided not; and it shall be given him" - James 1:5
  8. He leads us by the counsel of the brethren - the church:
    1. This is an important truth to keep in mind as we think of God leading us
    2. "Ye are the light of the world...Let your light so shine before men, that thy may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven" - Matt. 5:14-16
    3. It is the light of truth in the lives of God's children that guides the people on the way to the eternal city
    4. Bible prophecy is a mighty search light pointing the way into the kingdom of God 2 Pet. 1:15-20


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