Mans Devices and the Lord's Counsel

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"There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." Proverbs 19:21

Divine sovereignty is stamped upon every page of the Scriptures. I do not mean that the doctrine of divine sovereignty is stated in every chapter of God's Word, but that we shall not find a chapter in which divine sovereignty may not, more or less, be traced. If we open, for instance, the prophecies, divine sovereignty is the basis of them all. If we read the historical books of the Old Testament, divine sovereignty is to be traced in the actions which are there recorded. If we look at the promises which are made to God's people, divine sovereignty is stamped upon them, for they all rest on the immutability of God's counsel; and therefore we may take almost any chapter of the Scriptures at random, and we shall find divine sovereignty engraved upon it.

But divine sovereignty is not merely a matter of inference--not merely a doctrine to be gathered from the prophecies and their fulfillment, from the lives of the patriarchs, or from the promises that God has given, and has accomplished to His people. If divine sovereignty were a matter of mere inference, the enemies of God's truth might challenge us to bring forward direct passages of Scripture, where the sovereignty of God is set forth; and, therefore, besides the general current of the Scriptures, we have express texts, so as to leave the enemies of God's truth without excuse, and to afford us power to answer their challenge, when they demand of us something more positive than inference. Thus we read, that the Lord will "fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power" 2Th 1:11; that He "works all things after the counsel of His own will" Eph 1:11; that "He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth--and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What are You doing?" Da 4:35. And in the verse which I have just read, and from which I hope, with God's blessing, to deliver a few thoughts, we have the same doctrine declared, "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand."

Now this doctrine of divine sovereignty, nature can never brook. It is so contrary and so repugnant to every feeling of our carnal minds, that nature will not submit to it as a truth from God. But say some, "I do you think must be mistaken in this assertion. Is it not a matter of daily experience, and do we not hear from the mouths of ministers, yourself among them, that there are many characters in the professing Church of God, who have received the doctrine into their judgments, without feeling the power of it in their hearts?" Certainly. But is that any proof that nature can receive the doctrine of divine sovereignty?

Let those very persons who have received this doctrine into their judgment, be tried to the quick upon the point; let them be put, for instance, into that situation where Job was placed, let God "put forth His hand, and touch all that they have;" then those who have received the doctrine of divine sovereignty into their judgment, but have never had the feeling power of it in their hearts, would do that which Job did not, "curse God to His face." It is one thing to receive the doctrine as a doctrine, and another thing to submit to it as the truth of God; and no man knows this who has not felt God's eternal and unalterable counsels clash with the purposes of his heart and the intentions of his will, and overturn well near every scheme and plan that he has chalked out; and so to have come, by inward experience, to the spot to which the Lord brought His prophet Jeremiah--"You are stronger than I, and have prevailed" Jer 20:7. "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand."

Now the Lord, in these words, seems to open up to us a little of what the real state of the case is between man and Himself. He gives us a glimpse of what is going on in the restless bosom of man; removes the veil, as it were, from that busy workshop, displays to us the craftsman in full operation, and shows us what is transacting in that busy scene. "There are many devices in a man's heart;" and if you and I know anything of our hearts, we shall say, that God has well depicted what they are, and that which takes place in our minds, day by day, continually.

We gather also from these words that there is an opposition and a conflict between the devices that are in a man's heart, and "the counsel of the Lord;" that these do not move parallel with one another--are not in strict accordance--do not run side by side in concurrent harmony, but that there is an opposition between the two; and yet, though there is this opposition between the "devices in a man's heart" and "the counsel of the Lord," yet "the counsel of the Lord" must stand, and the "devices of a man's heart," when they are opposed to that counsel must go to wreck.

If we look a little through the Old Testament Scriptures, we shall see how the Lord frustrated, in a way of divine sovereignty, the devices that were in a man's heart. For instance, there was the device of the brethren of Joseph; their secret thought was to bring his dreams to nothing, to frustrate, if it were possible, those intimations which the Lord had miraculously given, and to overturn those purposes of God, whereby He was about to manifest Joseph's superiority and their inferiority. They had many devices in their hearts, but "the counsel of the Lord" stood; and He made use of their very device to sell Joseph into the hands of the Ishmaelites as a means to bring to pass that which He had purposed in His own eternal mind.

We have another striking instance in the case of Haman. Haman had purposed to cut off the whole nation of the Jews; that was the "device of his heart;" that was the darling project which he indulged in his mind, for the gratification of which he was willing to make the greatest sacrifices, and to run the greatest hazards. But "the counsel of the Lord" stood, and "the counsel of the Lord" was, that Haman should be hanged upon the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai; "the counsel of the Lord" was, that Mordecai should be "the man whom the king delights to honor," and that Haman, who hated him, should be the very person that should put that honor upon him.

But perhaps the conduct of the Jews, when Christ was upon earth, was one of the most striking instances of the devices in a man's heart, and yet of "the counsel of the Lord" standing in opposition to these devices. What was their infernal project? It was utterly to destroy and get rid of Him, who, by His preaching "tormented" them; it was to remove Him out of the way, by putting Him to a violent death. Well, these devices in part succeeded. They were allowed to do that which they had purposed, but the Lord wonderfully overruled the very devices of their hearts, that they, by fulfilling their own purposes, might fulfill His and that His counsel might yet stand, though their devices seemed for a time to succeed.

Now, these which I have mentioned, are cases in unregenerate men, but we find it also to stand good in regenerate men, that "there are many devices in a man's heart," but that "the counsel of the Lord" alone shall stand. What a crafty device there was in David's heart, to hide his adultery! What base methods he took to conceal that crime from coming to light! But "the counsel of the Lord" was that that crime should come to light, that it should be made manifest before the eyes of men; and therefore, whatever were the devices of David's heart, the Lord took care that His "counsel should stand."

So in the case of Abraham and Sarah, there was a device in their hearts, that they should have a son in some way which was not appointed of the Lord, that they should hurry the Lord's work, and hasten the Lord's time, and thus introduce the child of promise, not, as the Lord had purposed, in a way of miracle, but in a way accordant with nature. Such was the device of their hearts, but "the counsel of the Lord still was made to stand." Isaac must be the seed of promise; and their devices, in a measure, succeeding, only served to introduce bondage and misery into their house.

But to come to those particulars which more immediately concern OURSELVES.

Let us look then at a child of God, before the Lord is pleased to quicken his soul into spiritual life. Though dead in sin, he is "a vessel of mercy prepared beforehand unto glory," yes, chosen before the foundation of the world as a vessel, to be made fit for the master's use. But how many devices are there in that man's heart, to frustrate the purposes of God concerning him! How he would have damned his soul a thousand times, if the Lord had let him! How he was suspended continually, as it were, by a hair, over the very brink of the precipice, and how in those times, though he knew not the Lord, yet still the Lord "girded him," as He girt Cyrus Isa 45:5, and he was preserved in Christ, before he was "called" Jude 1:1 to the knowledge of "the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent!"

All through the life, then, of a vessel of mercy, before the Lord calls him by His grace, there is the standing of "the counsel of the Lord," in opposition to the "devices" that have been working in that man's heart.

But we will now look at him, just a little before the Lord begins the work of grace upon his soul. I believe in most cases, there is a concurrence of providential circumstances, often in a way of affliction; the Lord perhaps brings down the body by disease, or removes some idol, or cuts off the desire of his eyes at a stroke, or brings him into circumstances of temporal distress, and thus, usually speaking, there are some concurrent circumstances, which, though they do not prepare a man's heart to receive grace for "the preparation of the heart in man is from the Lord", yet they put a man into a certain posture, place him in a certain position which is the most suitable place for God to meet his soul in, and to visit him with the Holy Spirit.

Well then, here is one whom the Lord is about to meet with His grace--whom He is about to quicken into spiritual life. Now the Lord shall perhaps give a stab to all that man's worldly prospects; he shall make, as it were, a cut at every fond desire and every airy vision and every lofty castle, which that man is endeavoring to erect--or He shall bring sickness and disease upon him; or some cutting disappointment, so as to separate him from the world--so that the things of time and sense shall wear a sickly aspect, and he shall find no pleasure, and take no comfort in them. Yet all this time the man is devoid of spiritual life--destitute of the grace of God, but still, through a concurrence of providential circumstances, brought into that posture, and into that place where the grace of God, when it comes into his heart, will find him in a position suitable to receive it.

I have often thought of the way in which the Lord seemed pleased to begin His work of grace in my heart. I was, at that time, a young man at Oxford, not indeed what is called "a gay young man"--not living an immoral life, but still utterly dead in sin, "without God and without hope in the world," looking forward to prospects in life, surrounded by worldly companions, and knowing as well as caring absolutely nothing spiritually for the things of God. Well, the Lord, in His mysterious providence, removed me from that place, and took me to Ireland, contrary to the wishes of my friends, and shut me up, as it were, for more than a year and a half away from the society of the world, brought me into great natural affliction of mind, and then, in that affliction of mind He was pleased, as I trust, to communicate His grace to my soul, and quicken me into spiritual life.

Now I have looked sometimes with wonder upon the circumstance of His taking me from all my former companions, and putting me there in quietness and solitude. When life came, this quiet and secluded nook seemed to be like a little nursery, where the infant plant of grace might for a while be fostered, before I was thrust out into a crude world. It seemed to be a little spot, where the Lord might not merely begin His work of grace, but strengthen it in some measure, that when I was thrown back among my old companions, I might have power sufficient to resist their wiles, and that I might be separated, as indeed I most effectually was, from them. And thus looking at the Lord's dealing with my own soul, and at His way of working with others, I have sometimes seen what a concurrence there has been of providential circumstances, which, though they were not grace, yet were so necessary in the chain of divine appointments, that could one link have been broken, the whole chain must have fallen to the ground.

But we pass on to look at the first beginning of the work of grace upon that man's soul whose case we are attempting to describe. "There are many devices in that man's heart" when the Lord first begins with him--and one of his first devices is to please God, and to work out a righteousness which shall be acceptable in His holy and pure eyes. Not knowing in its full extent the breadth and spirituality of God's law, not being deeply and powerfully acquainted with the corruptions of fallen nature, not being led into "the chambers of imagery," so as to see all the idolatrous tracings upon the wall, he seeks for the most part to establish his own righteousness, and thus, in some manner, to conciliate the favor of God.

Well here is a device in a man's heart; but the "counsel of the Lord" is that he shall not establish that righteousness, that his attempt shall not prosper; and therefore by bringing powerful convictions into his conscience, by thrusting "the sword of the Spirit" into his "joints and marrow," by laying open the requisitions and spirituality of His holy law to his soul, He frustrates those devices, He roots up those plans, He breaks down those airy castles; and this foolish creature, who was fostering a pleasing device, in some way to gain God's favor, He levels and prostrates as a ruined wretch before Him. Well then the devices of this man's heart have been frustrated.

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