I'm going to show you another
opportunity. I'm going to show you another
opportunity. Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with a hymn that's in our hardback hymnal, number 23.
Let's all stand together, come we that love the Lord. Let's
all stand together. Come, we that love the Lord,
and let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord,
and thus surround the throne. Let those refuse to sing who
never knew our God, the children of the heavenly King may speak
their joys abroad. The hill of Zion yields a thousand
sacred before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets. And let our songs abound, and
every tear be dry. We're marching through Emmanuel's
crown, Good evening. Apologize for the sound equipment. We're working
on getting everything moved and some have asked about the messages
from last Sunday being uploaded to YouTube and sermon audio and
Seems like there's a glitch with that now with this equipment.
So we're gonna figure it out Hopefully we'll be over there
soon that the equipment over there is much better than what
anything we ever had here. So Okay, I'm gonna put them on
in just a second. Let me read a passage of scripture
and then when I come back up to preach I will. Thank you.
Lord Grace is giving me instructions on what I need to do. All right, let's open our Bibles
to Psalm 40, Psalm 40. I believe I have a message that'll
be an encouragement to us tonight on trusting the Lord, what it
is to trust the Lord. And this passage of scripture
speaks to that as well. Psalm 40, verse one, I waited
patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my
cry." The Lord puts us in a position where we have to continue knocking,
continue seeking, continue asking before sometimes he's pleased
to make himself known. He proves the sincerity of our
hearts through that, doesn't he? Look at verse two. He brought
me up also out of a horrible pit. out of the miry clay and
set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. He took me out of
my sin, put my feet in a firm place in Christ. He hath put
a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall
see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord." What is it to trust
in the Lord? Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn
aside to lies." Everything the world offers for wisdom and truth
is a lie. And the Lord speaks the truth
and calls on us to trust him. Trust me, that's what the Lord's
saying. Scott and Christine, glad to have you all tonight
from New Jersey, and Brad and Pam, always a blessing to have
you guys here. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you would be pleased
and merciful and gracious to put into our hearts that grace
of faith enabling us to put our trust in thee. Lord, you've told
us not to trust in man, yet we so oftentimes trust in ourselves. We pray that you would send your
spirit and power and that you would speak truth to our hearts
and that you would cause us to trust you, to rest in Christ,
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to follow after you. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 19 in your Spiral Gospel
Hymns hymn book, number 19. Let's all stand together again.
19. Sovereign ruler, lord of all,
Prostrate at your feet I fall. You are holy, wise, and just. I'm a creature of the dust. All things move at your command,
Governed by your mighty hand. Heaven, earth, and hell I see
Fulfill all your wise decree Dares a man resist his lord Stand
against the sovereign God I will bow before your throne Seeking
grace in Christ your Son Through his blood and righteousness,
Lord, I plead with you for grace. If you will, you can, I know,
grace and mercy to bestow. Will you, Lord, my soul forgive? Grant this sinner grace to live. I've no other hope but this,
Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now I'm conquered by your grace. In the dust I hide my face. Give me Christ or else I die. I upon your grace rely. Oh, for mercy now I plead. Grant me, Lord, the grace I need. Turtle, turn to me and say, all
your sins are washed away. In my son, your debt is paid. Before you, the ransom made. Please be seated. We're going to be looking at
a good scripture tonight, which is about the Lord's going to
speak to us. He's going to speak to us by
his word. And I want to begin with Proverbs chapter three. I've titled this message, trust
in the Lord, trust in the Lord. Proverbs chapter three at verse
five, trust is this God's command. And what he commands, we know
that he must provide. So when the Lord calls on us
to trust him, we cry out, Lord, make me to trust you. Make me
to trust you. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and lean not on your own understanding. But in all your
ways, in all your ways, in life, both physical and spiritual,
in all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct that
path. Oh, what hope? This is a precious
promise that the Lord gives to his children saying, trust me,
I'll take care of you. I'll provide for you. Unbelief is really nothing more
than just saying, Lord, I don't trust you. I trust my abilities
and trust my understanding and trust my schemes and my ways
better than yours. That's all unbelief is. And how
offensive it is to God for one of his creatures, and particularly
for one of his children, to say to him, I don't trust you. You
know what that's like. Somebody says to you, when you're
being sincere and faithful and they imply that you're not trustworthy,
you're offended by that. And yet oftentimes we're not
trustworthy. The difference between us and
God is that he is always faithful. 100% of the time, he can be trusted
with all that he's promised and all that he's done. Psalm 118, we saw this a few
weeks ago in verse eight. It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in man. And yet how oftentimes we
put our confidence in ourselves rather than trusting the Lord.
The Lord said, suffer the little children to come unto me for
such is the kingdom of God. He went on to say, lest you become
as a little child, you shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven. One thing about little children is they trust. They
trust what their mom and dad tell them. They trust what adults
tell them. Little children haven't learned
to be cynical. They haven't learned to question
people's sincerity or the truthfulness of people's words as adults have. They just trust implicitly, they
trust what they're told and they believe what they're told. And that's what the Lord's saying,
except you become as a little child. You've got to be before
me the way small children are to you. He has never violated
to any degree, any trust that anyone has ever put in him. He
is 100% faithful. He can be trusted 100% of the
time. What a beautiful thing. What
a comforting thing trust is. And contrary to that, what anxiety
and uncertainty there is when trust is lacking. People violate our trust and
we don't We don't trust them after that. We violate someone
else's trust, and they don't trust us. And trust is a hard
thing to be won back, isn't it? And let me say this, there's
a difference between forgiveness and trust. I can say, and I think
every child of God can say, by the grace of God, By the grace
of God, whatever anyone's ever done to me, I can say with sincerity,
with honesty, before God as my witness, I have no animosity,
no unforgiving spirit towards anybody for anything. You know, the Lord's forgiven
me. And who am I to hold a grudge or an unforgiving spirit towards
anyone else? And yet there's people in this
world I don't trust. Doesn't mean I don't forgive them. Doesn't
mean I don't love them. Doesn't mean I want the best
for them. But they've proven themselves to be unworthy of
trust. And with you, what do we say?
First time, shame on you. Second time, shame on me. Well,
you know, don't do it second time, but maybe third or fourth
or fifth time, you know, you come to the point to where you
say, you know, I love you, I forgive you, but I'm not going to extend
my, that's two different things. Two different things. But here
we have the Lord telling us, you can trust me. You can trust
me. All the time, under every circumstance,
the scripture says in Proverbs chapter 29, the fear of man bringeth
a snare, but whosoever putteth his trust in the Lord shall be
safe. Shall be safe. That's a safe
place to be. It's the only safe place to be.
To have our trust in the Lord. Relationships have to be based
on trust, don't they? What a beautiful thing it is
when believers trust one another. And that's the reason why the
Lord has told us if we violate that trust, we're to ask forgiveness
from our brother. and reconcile those differences
so that that trust can be re-established. Here's the glorious truth, brethren. The Lord has never, ever violated
His trust. He's always faithful. And however
cynical we may grow up to be because of the offenses of man,
remember the Lord said, you thought that I was altogether such a
one as thyself. Don't make God out to be like
man. Whatever man's done to cause
you not to trust him, the Lord's not like man. And what he's calling
on us to do is trust him, believe him. All the time, trust the
Lord with all of your heart. In all of your ways, acknowledge
him and he will direct thy path. And to not believe God is to
say to him, I don't trust you. I can handle this myself. When we're not sure of a situation,
we have a plan B, don't we? When we're not sure we can trust
the situation, we've got a backup plan. Don't have a backup plan
with God. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him. I've entrusted everything to
Christ. I've got all my eggs in one basket.
I'm trusting Christ. I'm believing him to save me. And I'm believing him for everything.
We're gonna see that in a moment. But man has a backup plan just
in case the Lord's not sufficient. I'll add my works or my wisdom
or my free will or whatever it is that man thinks he can do.
My beauty, you remember in Ezekiel chapter 16 when the Lord's speaking
of Israel and he said, I found you cast out into the field in
thine own blood. You've not been swaddled, you've
not been cleansed. It's a picture of us and our
sin. And as he passed by, he said,
I said unto thee, live, for your day of love has come. And then
the scripture speaks of what the Lord's done to provide everything
for his children. He's robed them in His righteousness. He's given them the necklaces
of grace, and He's made them beautiful in His beauty. Their comeliness is by virtue
of their union with Him. And the contrast is they were
a child cast out into the field, a baby, a deformed baby, if you
will, left in its own blood. and here we have the Lord. And
then that story ends with this, but, but thou didst trust in
thine own beauty. You didn't trust me. You trusted
in yourself. What a shameful thing it is for
us not to trust God. There are times and situations
that trust may be questionable among men, but the Lord said,
you trusted in your own beauty. You didn't trust in me. Saving
faith, saving faith is trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for all
your acceptance before God. That's what it is. Hey, Lord,
I've got no place else to go. You alone have the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure that thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. Lord, I can't trust myself. I can't trust my
works. I can't trust my beauty. If I'm
going to find acceptance before God, saving faith is not believing
that you're accepted before God. Saving faith is believing that
Christ is the only hope of your acceptance before God. That's
what saving faith is. That the Lord, gee, if I'm going
to if I'm going to find acceptance before God, it's only going to
be in Christ. I've got to trust him and him
alone. Turn to John, chapter five. John, chapter five. Here's. Here's the call of our loving,
faithful, trustworthy, heavenly father with whom it is impossible
for him to lie, with whom all of his promises and all of his
purposes are sure and steadfast and yay and amen in Christ. And
there's no reason for us not to trust him. So, Lord, if I'm
gonna have any acceptance before God, it's gonna have to be in
Christ. Look what the Lord said in John
chapter five. And we'll begin reading in verse
45. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There
is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust. Now
that's what the Lord was saying to these self-righteous Pharisees.
You think that you're going to get acceptance before God because
of your keeping of the law. And so the Lord speaks very clearly
to them. He said, I'm not here to accuse
you. I'm here to save you. You've
already got somebody to accuse you and he's the one you're trusting.
You're trusting your obedience to the law for your acceptance
before God. Look where he says it. For had
you believed Moses, have you understood what Moses was saying?
If you believed the law, You would have believed me for he
wrote of me, but if you believe not his writings, how should
you believe my words? You claim to be followers of
Moses, but you don't even believe Moses. And Moses is gonna stand
in judgment of you because what Moses wrote was about me. Moses
pointed to me and Moses believed me. And if you believe Moses,
you would believe me. also. The scripture says, in
him shall all the Gentiles trust. Trust. You see, this matter of
trust is what it means to believe. To believe on Christ means to
trust him for all your acceptance before God. Do you have any other
options? You have any other, anything
else you want to add to? the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ for your acceptance before God? You want to offer
up your law keeping? You want to offer up a decision
that you made? You want to offer up some knowledge
that you have? Or is Christ the only one you're
trusting for all your acceptance before God? Saving faith is trusting the
Lord Jesus Christ for all your righteousness. You have no righteousness
outside of him. We have a righteous advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. If the Lord
Jesus Christ doesn't present himself to God on my behalf,
if his obedience to the law and to the Father are not for me
and not acceptable to God, then I've got nothing else I can add
to that. I can only trust Christ. Psalm 4 verse 5 says, offer the
sacrifice of righteousness unto God and put your trust in the
Lord. Putting your trust in the Lord
is what it is to offer the sacrifice of righteousness unto God. The
Lord Jesus Christ is all my righteousness. I have no righteousness outside
of him. He's the end of all. Men go about trying to establish
their own righteousness, being ignorant of the righteousness
of God, not knowing, not knowing. They're zealous, but without
knowledge, without knowledge. And the child of God says, I've
got no place else to go for my righteousness before God other
than trusting Christ. And if his righteousness is not
sufficient for me, then I'm hell bound. I've got nothing, no other
place, no other option. That's what faith is. Don't think that, you know, people
have been hurt. People hurt people. And, you
know, every time we interact with somebody, we're evaluating
the truthfulness of what they're saying. We're reading their tone,
their body language, what they're saying. You're doing that right
now with me. I hope that over the years I've
earned your trust. But we do that with one another.
Why? Because we've learned by experience
that men cannot always be trusted. But hear the Lord say, don't
make me like that. You just cast everything in. You put it all on me because
I'm all of your righteousness before God and I'm all of your
acceptance before God. You're going to have to trust
me 100%. You know, this is not a misplaced
trust. You know, I think there was about
1500 people that misplaced their trust in the fact that the Titanic
was supposed to be unsinkable. You know, that's misplaced trust,
isn't it? They're just confident this ship
can't sink. And we have those experiences
in life. And then we realize, you know,
we've got to be careful who we trust and how we trust and what
we trust. And the Lord's saying, cast caution
to the wind and trust me for everything, for I am faithful. I can be trusted. And that's
all faith is. That's what faith is. Faith is
trusting Christ. Don't bring your cynical, questioning,
doubting spirit before God. That's what the Lord's saying.
Don't do it. I'm not like that. Saving faith is trusting His
finished work for all of your redemption. And men go about
trying to redeem themselves. They atone for their own sins.
They try to make up for the bad things that they've done. Maybe
they've not been trustworthy, and so they think, well, I'll
do this or do that. Saving faith is trusting the
Lord Jesus Christ's finished work. It is finished. Everything that God requires
for the putting away of my sin was accomplished by Christ, or
I'm still in my sin. I'm still in my sin. That's what
it is to say, I'm trusting the Lord with all my heart. That
doesn't mean you have perfect faith, but it means when you
hear these points, that all my acceptance before God is in Christ,
and all I can do is trust him. That all my righteousness before
God is in Christ, and all I can do is trust him. And all my redemption
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said in Hebrews chapter
four, enter into my rest for the work was finished before
the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. The
only hope of redemption that we have, the only hope of having
our sin put away is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you hear
these things, you say, yes, If I have all my heart in anything,
it's in that, it's in Him. Turn with me to Daniel chapter
nine, Daniel chapter nine. Daniel's prophesying of what's
gonna happen between his day, which was 5th century BC, and
the time of the coming of Christ. And the Lord uses this symbolic
language of 70 weeks, which was 490 years, which was the exact
amount of time that expired between Daniel's day and Christ's day. So 70 weeks are determined God
speaking, he said in verse 24, 70 weeks are determined upon
thy people and upon thy holy city to do what? To finish the
transgression. In 70 weeks, the transgression
is gonna be finished. 490 years, the transgression
is going to be finished. He's gonna make an end of sins.
And he's going to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in
everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy
and to anoint the most holy. The anointed one's coming. He's
going to make an end of sin. He's going to finish the work.
Though those Old Testament believers, all they had was prophecy. They
didn't have the actual event. They had to believe God. They
had to trust God based on His word. And they trusted Him for
the fulfillment of His promises that would come when the Holy
One would come and make an end of sin and put away transgression.
And now you and I have the blessing of being able to look back, say,
yes, the Lord was faithful. He was faithful. He fulfilled
all those prophecies, everything He promised He did. And I believe
him, I trust him. I trust him. Saving faith is trusting his
shed blood for all your justification before God. Again, we justify,
we're very quick to justify ourselves, aren't we? You accuse me of something I
didn't do, I'm gonna justify myself really quick. I'll justify
myself if you accuse me of something I'm guilty of. But, you know, we're just that
way. But how are we going to be just
before God? You see, we can fool one another. We can fool ourselves when we
try to justify ourselves. But God knows everything. How are we going to justify ourselves
before Him? Well, the Scripture says we are
justified by His blood and shall be saved by His life. The only
justification that we have is the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ for the covering of our sins. We can't make up for our
sins. We can't excuse our sins. We
can't convince God that we're not guilty of our sins. No, we
are justified. Saving faith is trusting the
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for all of our justification
before God. And the believer says, if my
whole heart is in anything, it's in that. We know the heart is wicked and
deceitful and above all things. But we can say, yes, yes, the
Lord's given me faith to trust Christ. I've got no justification
outside of Christ. I've got no acceptance before
God outside of Christ. I've got no righteousness with
God outside of Christ. I've got no redemption outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I can trust him. And if I'm
going to be redeemed, and if I'm going to be re-justified,
and if I'm going to have acceptance before God, and if I'm going
to have any righteousness in the presence of a holy God, it's
going to be in Christ. Saving faith is trusting His
grace for all your forgiveness. You know we, for by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not yourselves. It's a gift
of God, not of faith. lest any man should boast." We're
not trusting the sincerity of our confessions, though we confess
our sins. Spirit of God convicts us of
our sin, and we've got no choice but to confess our sins. And
I remind you of that passage over there in 1 John 1, 9, where
it says, if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just
to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you of all of your unrighteousness.
That word confess just means to agree with God that you're
a sinner. Agree with God that everything about you is sinful.
And that's what we do. We come before the Lord. Lord,
I don't have any righteousness. Everything about me is sinful. And if you don't save me by your
grace, I won't be saved. And the Lord says, my grace is
sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient for thee. And the child of God says, saving
faith is trusting Christ and His grace for the forgiveness
of my sin. I've got no other claim on God
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. If His grace doesn't forgive
me, I won't be forgiven. Saving faith is trusting His
mercy for all our blessings. We're not, we're not deceived in thinking
that we can, that we can make God bless us by something we
do. I'm gonna, I'm gonna force the
hand of God. I'm gonna, I'm gonna obligate him to bless me. No. Now all the blessings of God
are in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, seated at the right
hand of God right now. If God's gonna bless me, it's
gonna be in Christ. I'm gonna have to trust him. Turn with me to Psalm 37. Look
at verse three. Psalm 37 verse three,
trust in the Lord and do good. Trust him and do what's right.
So shall thou dwell in the land and barely thou shall be fed.
Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires
of thy heart. You know what he does? He changes
the desires of our hearts and then he fulfills those desires.
when He causes us to trust Him, to trust Him, to believe on Him. That's what we're in need of. Lord, you've got to turn my heart.
You've got to give me right desires. Because if you give me the desires
of my evil, sinful heart, I'm going to make a mess out of everything. But if you trust the Lord and
and rest in Him and delight yourself in Him, delight yourself in Him,
then He will give you new desires and then fulfill those desires. Saving faith is trusting the
Lord Jesus Christ's mercy for all your blessings, and it's
trusting His power for all your deliverance. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the accomplished
work of the glorious person of Christ, but for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. To the Jew first
and also to the Greek. Lord, are you gonna give me ears
to hear? And you're gonna have to exercise your power and your
grace in my heart in order for my sin to be put away? That's
what saving faith is. Lord, if you don't deliver me
from my sin and from my selfish ways by your power, I've got
no power in myself. What'd the Lord say to Paul when
he said, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my grace is made,
or my strength, my power, my strength is made perfect in your
weakness. And the Lord said, all power
has been given unto me in heaven and earth. If he's got all the
power, then that means you and I don't have any power. Isn't
that clear? He's got it all. We don't have
any. And yet in our pride and self-righteousness and unbelief
and refusal to trust him, we flex our wimpy muscles and act
like we can do things that Oh, the Lord has to put us down,
doesn't he? What a blessing it is. It's good, what we see Sunday
from Psalm 119, it's good for me that I've been afflicted,
for I've learned now to keep thy word. Lord, if you don't deliver me
by your power, I won't be delivered. Trusting, you see, this is, This
is what saving faith is. It's trusting the Lord with all
your heart and leaning not on your own understanding, but in
all of your ways, acknowledging Him. It's trusting His holiness
for all your sanctification. We don't believe that we're saved
by grace and we're sanctified by works. We don't believe that
our life of sanctification is a progressive work of cooperation
with God so that we become better and better. No, we believe that
he that sanctifyeth, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and sanctification
is holiness. It's being set apart. And they
which are sanctified are all as one whereby he's not ashamed
to call. He hath sanctified us. Lord,
if I'm going to be holy, if I'm going to be set apart, if I'm
going to be sanctified, I'm going to have to trust you for that.
And if you're going to make me your workmanship in Christ Jesus
unto good works which you've ordained for me, or you're going
to work in me, causing me to will and to do after you a good
pleasure in my life of faith, Lord, that's all on you. That's
all on you. I'm going to have to trust you
for it. And that's what the Lord's saying. It's all on me. Trust
me. Trust me. You ever had somebody
say that to you? Trust me. That's all the Lord's
saying. He's calling every one of us.
And for us to not trust Him is to say, nope, I got this figured
out for myself. I can do a better job of it than
the Lord can. How blasphemous and offensive
that is to a sovereign God, a holy God, a loving God for His children. to say, no, I'm not gonna trust
you. It's to trust his promises for
all your expectations. Do you expect to be forgiven
of your sins? Is that an expectation? Well, it's to trust the promise
of God. I've already quoted this verse.
If you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
you of your sins and cleanse you of all of your unrighteousness.
Come unto me, all ye that labor. Get in the yoke with Christ.
My burden is light. My yoke is easy. Why? Because
I've already satisfied all the demands of the law, and I've
already justified you with my shed blood, and it's all on me. Come. Come. In life, we trust His promises. We have people make promises
to us, and they don't always keep And we become suspicious
and we become cynical in our relationships. And, you know,
my heart goes out to a child that has been abused because
it's very, very difficult for them to ever really trust anybody
after that. But, you know, that's the experiences
that men have in this world, isn't it? But the Lord says in life, in
Him, in Him, we live and we move and we have our being. He provides everything for us,
not only in salvation, but all the provisions that we need in
this life. We trust His promises for our
expectation of heaven. the expectation of our reward. The Lord said, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God. You trust
God. Believe also in me, for in my
father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there you may be also." Do you believe that?
You believe he's faithful to his promises? Can you rest all
the hope of your salvation in the precious promises that he's
given us? That's what faith is. It's trusting
his promises. It's trusting his word for the
ground of all our hope. Where do we get these promises?
Where do we get these words from God? Where do we get these things
in which we're to trust? Right here. Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet. It's a light unto my path. How
many times we've seen that in the Psalms, particularly in Psalm
119, where the Lord's just reassuring us over and over again, how faithful
he is to his word. What's he saying? Trust me, trust
me. Don't trust in man, don't trust
in yourself. Don't trust in princes, trust
in me. They will let you down, I never
will, ever, ever. Saving faith is trusting His
love in all our trials and chastisements. Hebrews chapter 12 is very clear.
Despise not the chastening of the Lord. The Lord chasteneth
them whom he loves. Lord, this is hard. I know it
is, child, but it's because I love you. Lord, I'm gonna trust you. I don't know what else to do,
but just trust the Lord. And if we'd be not chastised,
the scripture says we're bastard. But at the end, at the end of
the day, it works the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It causes
us to trust Him more. That's the peaceable fruit of
righteousness. Trusting Him more is the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Believing Him, resting in Him,
Saving faith is trusting His wisdom in all our confusions. This world is full of confusions.
Our hearts are full of confusion. Sin is full of confusion. Satan
and the philosophies and the words and the things of this
world are just confusing. They can't be trusted. But the Lord said, you lack wisdom.
You lack wisdom, ask it of God. He'll give it to you liberally. And he upbraideth it not. He
doesn't really, you say, well, Lord, I've asked for wisdom before
and I've abused it. I'm not very trustworthy, Lord,
before you, hey, just keep coming. When the scripture says, he upbraideth
it not, you know what that means? He's not like us, not only in
that he's not trustworthy, that he's always trustworthy, but
also he's not like us in that he ever gives up on one of his
children. You know what? You have somebody
come to you a hundred times and violate you a hundred times,
and you're going to just say, sorry. And next time they ask
you in a roll your eyes and say, I can't believe it. And the Lord
saying, I upbraid, that's upbraiding is what that is. Upbraiding is
when you, is when you turn somebody away or when you scorn their
request. And the Lord said, you've asked
for wisdom before and you didn't use it very well, did you? But
you know what? Just keep asking because I upbraid
if not. I don't scorn my children. I'm
delighted when they come into my presence and and ask again
and again and again and again. I remember that they're made
of dust. I know what they're like. I'm not caught off guard. We're caught off guard when someone's
unfaithful to us. The Lord's not caught off guard.
He knows what we're like. And that's why he keeps saying,
keep trusting me, keep coming, keep believing. You haven't been faithful. but
I always will be. Saving faith is trusting His
omniscience for all our ignorance. We don't really know anything
about anything very much, do we? The Lord knows everything
about everything. He knows our thoughts before
we think them. He knows our words before we speak them. He knows
our going out and our coming in. You know, every molecule,
every atom, the Lord has placed exactly where they're supposed
to be. He lacks no knowledge. And so in our confusions and
our lack of understanding, the Lord says, trust me, I know what's
going on. I've got this. You can believe
on me. I'm not confused. I've got perfect
understanding and perfect knowledge about everything's happening. Turn with me to second Corinthians
chapter one. Saving faith is trusting His
resurrection for our deliverance from death and the grave. If the resurrection of Christ
is not sufficient to open the grave for me, then I'll go down
into the pit. Look what Paul said in first,
second Corinthians chapter one at verse nine. But we had the
sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God, which raises the dead, who delivered us from so
great a death and doth deliver us in whom we trust that he will
yet deliver us. If I'm going to be delivered
from death and held in the grave, he's going to have to do it. He's gonna have to do it. I'm
gonna just put all my trust, right? I've got no other place. Turn with me to Psalm 119. I'm
gonna read two more passages of scripture and then we'll close. Psalm 119. Look at verse nine. Wherewith the shallow young man
cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Lord, how am I gonna trust you? By believing my word, by believing
my word. With my whole heart have I sought
thee. Oh, let me not wonder from thy commandments. Lord, keep
me. Thy word have I here to my heart
that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, oh Lord,
teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared
all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of
thy testimony as much as all riches. Lord, I've got no place
else to go but your word. And that's what, when you trust
someone, you're trusting their word, are you not? David said in Psalm 125, they
that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot
be removed, but abideth forever. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is Mount Zion. It can't be moved. It abideth
forever. Nations come, nations go. Companies
come, companies go. People come, people go. Everything's
temporary in this world, isn't it? But that which is eternal,
that which is eternal, the salvation of God's people, they that trust
in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion. As the mountains are round
about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from
henceforth and forevermore. Child of God, the Lord said to
you and me, trust me. Trust in the Lord. with all of your heart. Lean
not on your own understanding. Don't try to figure this out
with worldly wisdom and worldly advice. In all your ways, acknowledge
Him and He will direct your path. What a promise. He can be trusted. Amen. Our Heavenly Father, we
thank you for your word. Forgive us for our unbelief,
for our doubting spirits. Work grace in our hearts, causing
us, Lord, to trust you. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 272, 272, let's stand
together. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. When in trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand All other ground is sinking sand
When darkness veils his lovely face I rest on his unchanging
grace In every high and stormy gale My anchor holds within the
veil. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath is covenant. His blood supports me in the
whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand.