Simple Faith

Guest (Male): Coming up today on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: God will never say, "Hey, I know it says in my word this, but I'm allowing you to go off into this sin because I want you to be happy. I'm going to allow you to go into unrighteousness." And I've heard people tell me that very thing. "Well, God told me he wants me to be happy. So I'm going off into this sin and I'm going to go do this sin. I'm going to live in adultery or fornication. I'm going to live in homosexuality. I'm going to divorce my wife or husband because God wants me to be happy."

You see, beloved in Christ, all those things are unrighteousness, and God will not lead you there.

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. Glad you could join us today as Pastor Bill continues his series in one of the best-loved chapters in all of the Bible, Psalm 23. Today we're going to look at verse 3: "He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake." Righteousness is a disappearing commodity in the world we live in. I think we can all agree on that. So this is an important study, for a righteous life is a life pleasing to God. And that should be the goal of every Christian. Here's Pastor Bill now in Psalm 23, verse 3.

Bill Henry: This morning, we're going to be honing in on verse 3, the last part of verse 3, but let's read the whole Psalm and then come back to verse 3. A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

As we come and look at verse 3 here, "He restoreth my soul," which we talked about last time we studied that, and then he goes on to say, "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." We read in verse 1 that the Lord is our shepherd, and then again in verse 2 that he leads us beside the still waters. One of the key things to remember in this blessed Psalm is to allow Jesus Christ to be our shepherd, to be following him. Notice it says earlier that he leads us, and here again in this verse that he leads us.

We need to be those who are humbled before the Lord, have humble hearts, humble minds, and come to him to follow him each day, our good shepherd. He will lead us beside the green pastures to eat, the still waters to drink. He restores our souls. Also, notice as we come again here this morning, "He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." Let's note three things here. First of all, his paths restore the soul. It starts with, "He restores the soul." Secondly, his paths are righteous. And thirdly, his paths are righteous, and the righteous paths are old paths.

First, let's look here that his paths restore the soul. We really covered this a couple of weeks ago, but it's always worth noting that as we are walking in the paths of the Lord, the righteous paths, that our souls will be continually being restored, strengthened, and refreshed. If you're here this morning and you're not being continually restored, not being continually refreshed, and you're parched, come back to the Lord. You've gone a little too far off. You're starting to try to find your refreshment in other things, and they always lead to being parched. They always lead to being thirsty.

One of the things we like to do with our kids is bring them to the Clark County Fair. We've done this ever since we moved up here many years ago. One of the things that we like to get as we're leaving is cotton candy. We'll always get two or three things, different flavors, and we'll split it up. But I tell you what, we never get full on cotton candy. Why is that? It's just pure sugar being spun into this wonderful little webby kind of substance. But it's not filling. It does nothing but rot your teeth.

But again, that's how many of us go to the world looking for restoration. People go to psychologists or different things looking for restoration. We dig into this sport or this hobby or this person or whatever it is looking for restoration, and it's just like eating cotton candy. We'll never be full. We'll always just be hungry, and it rots away at us. So again, beloved in Christ, we need to understand that God's paths are righteous and they restore the soul.

This doesn't mean we won't grow weary at times. This doesn't mean that we won't be cast down at times, but it does mean that we won't stay there because God leads us away from that. God strengthens us and he restores us. So again, we looked at that last time. First, his paths restore the soul. Secondly, his paths are righteous. Notice here that he leads us in the paths of righteousness. Notice once again he's leading us. The question comes: are we following him?

A lot of us like to say, "Yeah, I'm following Jesus." And then I'll sit and talk: "When's the last time you read your Bible?" "Oh, I just read it the other day." "Well, what day was that?" "Well, actually it was about a week ago." "Well, what day last week?" "Well, actually it was a couple of weeks ago. Well, really about a month. I just don't read it that much, but I go to church a lot. I follow Jesus. I love him." That's impossible to say. If I say I love my wife and it's like, "When's the last time you talked to Talia?" "I talked to her, I think, today. Oh no, what time? Oh no, maybe yesterday. No, I didn't talk to her yesterday. Maybe it was last week."

And then I say, "But I love her. I can't be without her." A lot of us say that about the Lord and yet we're not following him. We're not allowing him to be our good shepherd. So we need to understand that where he leads us, when he leads us, it will always be leading us in paths of righteousness. We're all walking on paths. Raise your hand if you're walking on a path in this life. Every single person here is walking on a path, and we're all probably at different places at different times, different things in our lives. Sometimes they'll intersect: we're young this time, we're old together, we're married, we're single.

So our paths can go along, but we're all on different paths. The question is, are we on the paths of the Lord? Are they righteous paths, or are they paths that we have made up? Notice here the word "path" is not singular, but plural. There are many paths that the Lord leads us on. He leads us through paths through his word. He leads us through paths through prayer in our lives, a path through being in fellowship with one another and other believers, a path through witnessing, a path through obedience to him and his word, a path through love, a path through holiness, a path through forgiveness, a path through our sanctification, a path through our marriage, a path through work and school, a path through our lives.

We can go on and on, and every path that our Lord would lead us on will be righteous, beloved in Christ. We need to understand this. God will never lead his sheep into unrighteousness, never. God will never say, "Hey, I know it says in my word this, but I'm allowing you to go off into this sin because I want you to be happy. I'm going to allow you to go into unrighteousness." And I've heard people tell me that very thing. "Well, God told me he wants me to be happy. So I'm going off into this sin and I'm going to go do this sin. I'm going to live in adultery or fornication. I'm going to live in homosexuality. I'm going to divorce my wife or husband because God wants me to be happy."

You see, beloved in Christ, all those things are unrighteousness, and God will not lead you there. If you think God led you there, you're being lied to, you're lying to yourself, and you're deceived. We must understand that not all paths are righteous just because we're on them. I think sometimes as Christians we get born again and we think that every path we take will be righteous just because we're on it. "Well, Lord, I'm going down this path. It looks really good to me, and I know you're just going to bless it," instead of, "Lord, will you lead me down whatever path you want me to go?"

Now here's the beauty. If we do choose the wrong path, God doesn't stand at the path entrance and say, "Well, see you later, bro. See you later, gal. We'll see you on the other side. You're going through that." No, he will come with us and sometimes he will rebuke us, sometimes he'll chasten us because he chastens those whom he loves, and he'll try to get you back onto the right path, onto the righteous path. It's an interesting thing. Again, we may not understand this, but not all paths are righteous. Just because we're on a path right now in our lives does not mean it's righteous.

As a matter of fact, do we understand that most paths are unrighteous in this world? The vast majority of paths in this world are unrighteous, and I believe those paths are growing more and more every day. Think about it. Even 20 years ago, there was no path on the internet. Well, actually, there was 20 years ago. Not 30 years ago. I have to go back and date myself even more. There was no such thing as PG-13. It's interesting talking about the rating system and how it's just imploding. This is how corrupt and immoral the rating system has even become. There's a new movie coming out pretty soon against abortion, and they rated it R because it's against abortion. There you go.

We need to understand that most paths within this world are unrighteous. Proverbs 14:12 says, "There is a way which seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." These ways seem right to people. There are people out there protesting, people out there trying to lead in our politics or in entertainment or in places of power, and it seems right. These are ways that seemeth right to a man. It seems right that we should have no borders. It seems right that we should just come, go, and we should all just have this utopian society, but it is not reality. It is not righteous. It's a sad thing to say. I long for those days. I can't wait till the time that Jesus is ruling and reigning here upon the earth.

There are many ways that seem right unto a man, but the end of the ways thereof are death or destruction. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13, "For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many." You hear that? Let's say that one again. "For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many." The paths of unrighteousness we note here that Jesus said are very easy. They're the easy paths. They're the easy roads.

These are the ways that most people within this world are going. Why do they go that way? Because it's easy, because it takes no work. We simply follow our base instincts, and we go off and we live our instinct for food or for water or for sex or for things, and we forget about God and we live the easy way, the way that gratifies our flesh, the way that makes me feel good. We must also note that this is the path, the easy way, the wide way, the way most people are taking, and it leads to destruction. It leads to death. It leads to hell for all eternity where Jesus described it there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

We also read in the book of Job. Matter of fact, why don't we turn there, please, to Job chapter 8, verse 13. "Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish." Christian, could you do me a favor and underline that in your Bibles, highlight that verse? Because there are many even here this morning, maybe perhaps listening by radio or watching via the internet, that even as Christians, we still are walking down these paths of unrighteousness. Notice how it said: "Such are the paths of all who forget God."

A lot of us will forget God all throughout our day. We forget God as we go to school, we forget God as we go to work, we forget God as we turn on the television, we forget God as we open a book, or we forget God as we go to play video games or to go shopping or to play golf or do whatever it is that we're doing. A lot of men will come home from work. You're tired. You've had a hard day. I understand that. So your first thing you want to do is relax. "I need some time to chillax. I need to relax." Because we know your wife hasn't been doing nothing all day. Amen? They don't need to relax. Can I have an amen, guys? Come on.

We may not say amen, but inside we're like, "Yeah, that's about how it is, bro." Because when we get home, what do we do? We head to the couch, we head to the workout place, we head to this place or that place, and we don't head to say, "Hey, am I bringing my children up? Am I bringing my wife up in the ways and admonitions of the Lord?" What do we do? We forget about God. We forget about his righteous ways, his paths, and we just push them off to the side. We need to remember that even Christians, we can forget about God, and that's usually when we go into sin. We forget that God is there. We forget what God has called us to.

Notice, "The hope of the godless shall perish." We need to be careful because if we're doing that too often, it might show that we have no God at all in Jesus Christ. Be careful, beloved. Be careful, guys and gals out there, every young and old. Job 24:13: "There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways and do not stay in its paths." You see, there are those that take the easy way. Notice they rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways and do not stay in its paths.

Proverbs 4:14 and 15 say, "Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on." Can I say that that's what most of us should be doing when we're flipping through the channels on TV? Keep going. Don't stop. When you're sick, with me I can't read. I have dyslexia and when I'm sick it's hard, so I'll try to turn on the television sometimes. I usually go to the benign shows, or I'm building something, cooking something, some documentary of some sort. But you have to be so careful these days.

You turn on a show on a regular network and next thing you hear the F-word. Next thing they're putting forth this agenda or that agenda. To be honest, it doesn't take too much anymore to see because the veil is coming down. They don't really care anymore if you like it or not. But we need to be careful, guys and gals, what paths you go down. Do not walk in the way of evil, especially as Christians. I'm going to talk about video games for a minute. I remember years ago I used to love video games. I actually had to give away, back in '91 or '92, one of my video game consoles because I was so into it. Took it across the street and gave it to the kids across the street.

And yet I've always enjoyed video games, but I was always careful too not to get into ones like Grand Theft Auto. Just an example, why didn't I like that game? Because it was killing people. It was killing police officers. You got extra points, by the way, for that. I don't like to play games where you're killing other people. Killing aliens, yeah, that's a little better. They're just aliens, green slime balls or whatever. But here's my point. You don't think that they're trying to do something there when they're showing you how to kill other people, what to do, how to do it? You don't think that they're numbing us down a little bit to be able to kill other people or do different things? Is that a way of righteousness, or is that a way of evil? Be careful.

"Yeah, but that's the game everybody's playing." Who cares? "Well, that's the movie everybody's seeing." Who cares? Really, who cares? "Yeah, but you mean you haven't seen that movie? You haven't seen this TV show?" No, didn't look very good to me, bro. Looked kind of ungodly. "Well, it's not that ungodly," as the other Christian tries to tell you. I remember years ago being told, my wife and I, "Oh, go see this movie." Okay, by two people we respected and loved that were Christians. "Oh, this is a great movie." We go in there and halfway through they're on top of each other half naked. Let's get out of here.

But this was recommended to us by some people we loved and respected. It was only PG-13. Remember John Courson likes to call PG movies "Pretty Gross." Pretty Gross. Turn with me, please, to Romans chapter 3. By the way, if you find yourself on some of these paths this morning, don't feel condemned, but may you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God and change and get off those paths. Don't numb your hearts, beloved. Do not numb your hearts.

Romans 3, starting in verse 10. There's a lot of Christians that once we are born again of the spirit, we believe that we can go off on whatever path we want and God is good with it. And that's not true. We think that whatever we think, that God's good with that, whatever we say, whatever we do. That's not true. Notice in verse 10, "None is righteous, no, not one." Even though we have a new heart and we've been born again of the Spirit of God, we still have the old fleshly man, the old fleshly woman who wants to do unrighteousness.

Notice in verse 11, "No one understands, no one seeks for God." Again, this is talking about the world in general, but this is still our flesh as well that we contend with. Verse 12: "All have turned aside; together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." By the way, this is describing your favorite television show right now. This is describing your favorite secular musician right now, your favorite secular sports star or writer.

"Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths," notice in verse 16, "in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known." That YouTube star that you like to follow that's not a Christian, in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. These are the paths of the world, guys and gals. These are the paths that we are being tempted into every single day.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. And if you'd like to share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can even download an audio MP3 version. We have a large number of Pastor Bill's messages archived, and you can find them at simplefaith.org. That's simplefaith.org.

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Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have two services on Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:45, and a great time of study in God's word Wednesday night at 7:00 PM. We'd love to have you come visit us and make sure you say hi to Pastor Bill and let him know you listened to Simple Faith. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org, and you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. This program is brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.