Let's open tonight's worship
with hymn number 229. 229, tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His
love. Tell me the story simply as to
a little child For I am weak and weary and helpless and defiled
Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. Tell me the story slowly that
I may take it in, that wonderful redemption, God's remedy for
sin. Tell me the story often, for
I forget so soon. The early dew of morning has
passed away at noon. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. Tell me the story softly with
earnest tones and grave. Remember I'm the sinner whom
Jesus came to save. Tell me the story always If you
would really be In any time of trouble A comforter to me Tell
me the old, old story Tell me the old, old story Tell me the
old, old story of Jesus and his love. Tell me the same old story When
you have cause to fear That this world's empty glory Is costing
me too dear Yes, and when that world's glory is dawning on my
soul, Tell me the old, old story, Christ Jesus makes me whole. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. Please be seated. Good evening. Eric, it's good
to have you with us tonight. Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
31 for our scripture reading tonight. Psalm 31. That hymn
was especially meaningful to me tonight, just thinking about. The story of redemption. The
story of our Lord and how He meets every need. Every need. The theme for the service tonight
is trust. Trust. It's the foundation of
every relationship. Trust is. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver
me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me. Deliver
me speedily. Lord, I need help now. Be thou
my strong rock. for an house of defense to save
me. Lord, save me. I asked you Sunday,
when was the last time you asked the Lord to save you? Did you
do it every week, every day, every hour? Oh, isn't that our
experience? For thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for thy namesake,
lead me and guide me, for I've got no claims on you. If you
don't do it for your namesake, that's the only hope I have. Pull me out of the net that they
have laid privately for me, for thou art my strength. Unto thine hand I commit my spirit. You know these Psalms speak of
Christ, and they are our experience as well, aren't they? And here,
the Lord's trusting in His Father, and He's committing His soul
to His Father. But it's the same thing we do.
The faith that He had is the faith that He gives us. And the
trust that He has is the trust that we have. from faith to faith. Into thine hand I commit my spirit,
for thou hast redeemed me. Hast redeemed me. Not trying
to redeem me. Redemption is accomplished, O
Lord God of truth. I have hated them that regard
lying vanities We hate those messages of salvation that rob
Christ of His glory, don't we? Rob us of our hope, of our comfort. So we hate lying vanities, but
I trust in the Lord. My trust is in Him. I will be
glad and rejoice in Thy mercy. For thou hast considered my trouble,
thou hast known my soul in adversities, and hast not shut me up into
the hand of the enemy, thou hast set my feet in a large room. Lord, you've provided sufficient
grace, mercy, all that I need. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. For
I am in trouble. Is this your prayer? Todd did well in his surgery
today and he's in, he's recovering in his room now. So I have a
picture that Lynn sent me of him after his surgery. If anybody
wants to see it, I'll show it to you. All right, let's pray
together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
oh, how we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit in power
and give to us the grace to trust you, to lean not on our own understanding,
but in all our ways to acknowledge you and to have you, Lord, to
lead our path. We thank you for the surgery
that Todd received today and for your mercies on him. And
Lord, we pray that your hand of healing now would be upon
him and give him full recovery. We ask it in Christ's name. Number 488, 488, let's all stand
together. My Redeemer. ? I will sing of my Redeemer ?
? And His wondrous love to me ? ? On the cruel cross He suffered
? ? From the curse to set me free ? ? Sing, O sing of my Redeemer
? of my Redeemer. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon. Paid the debt and made me free,
and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story,
how the lost estate to save. In His boundless love and mercy
He the ransom freely gave. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer With
His blood He purchased me On the cross He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free. I will see, praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I'll tell, How the victory He giveth over
sin and death and hell. He purchased me with his blood. He purchased me. He sealed my pardon. He sealed my pardon and made
me free. And made me free. ? I will sing
of my Redeemer ? ? And His heavenly love to me ? ? He from death
to life hath brought me ? ? Son of God, with Him to be ? ? Sing,
O sing of my Redeemer ? of my Redeemer. With His blood, He
purchased me. On the cross, He made my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. Please be seated. You open your Bibles with me
to Proverbs chapter 3. I mentioned a few moments ago
that the theme for this message and for the whole service tonight,
Scripture reading, is trust. Trust. There's another way to
say it, faith, I guess. But Scripture sure speaks a lot
about trust. and how we trust the Lord for
all our salvation. And He knows those who trust
in Him. He's given to them the faith
to trust Him, to rest their soul on His finished work and on His
glorious person. And I think this passage of Scripture
will expose to each of our hearts whether or not we're trusting
Him. Are you trusting Christ? Are
you trusting Christ? I want to know that. And if the
Lord be pleased to speak to our hearts and give us comfort and
hope in the trust that He's given to us, then we'll leave here
with some assurance, assurance of salvation. That's what I want,
don't you? Don't you want to be sure? This proverb begins with, My
son, My son, Oh, the sons of God, the sons and daughters,
the children of God, behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. We are His children. And he speaks
to us. And one of the ways we know that
we belong to him is that we hear his voice. We hear his word. We don't add if, ands or buts
to it. We rejoice in what he said. We,
we respond by saying amen. We're not, we're not rebelling
against what he has said. We are rejoicing and finding
comfort and hope in the words that our father has spoken to
his children. And so he says, my son, my son,
forget not my law, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. Let thine heart keep my commandments. Now, how is it that we keep the
commandments of God? Turn with me in your Bibles to
John chapter five. The Lord has made us to be a
sinner. We know that sin goes much deeper
than our behavior. We want our flesh to be restrained. We want our outward behavior
to honor the Lord. We want to obey Him. But we understand
that this sin problem that we have is an issue of the heart. And we don't comfort ourselves
in thinking that because we've experienced some outward obedience
that therefore the law of God has been kept. Christ is the
only one that kept the law of God. And the only thing the law
of God says to me and you is guilty. by the law is the knowledge of
sin. And so the law just exposes the
problem that we have in our hearts with sin. And the Lord speaking
to these self-righteous Pharisees who had made the law of Moses
their rule of life and had comforted themselves falsely in thinking
because they had some outward obedience that therefore that
They were children of God. That was the exact same thing
Paul had a problem with, isn't it? He said, you know, concerning
the law, I was blameless. There was no one who could point
to any outward behavior in my life and make accusation against
me for having broken God's law. And yet he goes on to say in
Romans chapter seven, when the law came, sin revived and I died. What was that law? Thou shalt
not covet. So the law of God spoke to his
heart and he realized then that he's never kept any of God's
laws in his heart. And that's our experience too,
isn't it? So we don't get assurance of our salvation by thinking
that we've kept God's law. That we're doing our best to
keep God's law. That's who the Lord's speaking
to here in John chapter 5 and look what he says to them John chapter 5 Beginning at verse
42, but I know you that you have not the love of God in you. I am come in my father's name
and you receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. You'll listen to false prophets.
You'll believe a lie, but you won't believe me. You won't come
to me that you might have life. How can you believe which receive
honor one from another and seek not the honor that cometh from
God only? See, this matter of boasting
in one's obedience is nothing more than an attempt to impress
men. It's all it is. How can you hear
me? How can you believe on me if
your desire is to get praise from men? Do you want the praise
of God or do you want praise from men? Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one that accuses you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. I didn't come to condemn the
world, I came to save the world. The world's already condemned.
Why? Because they're trusting in Moses.
They're trusting in their adherence to the law for the hope of their
salvation. For had you believed Moses, had
you understood what it was Moses was saying, you would have believed
me. For he wrote of me. But if you
believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words? It's
not that Moses brought a message of law, and now I have brought
a message of grace. The message that Moses brought
was a message about me. It was a message of grace. The
law never has saved anybody. It didn't save anybody during
the days of Moses. It didn't save any of these Pharisees. It's not going to save you and
me, is it? The law is holy, just, and good. We love God's law.
The law can't save us. And so, in Proverbs, when the
Lord says, My son, forget not my law, but keep my commandments
in your heart. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
3. We do keep God's commandments
in our hearts. In that we believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ who is the law keeper. But we also believe in his commandments
in that we really believe what his commandments say. We believe
what they say. And the evidence of that is that
we know that we've never been able to keep one of them one
time. that God's commandments are so holy. You see, the person
who doesn't keep God's commandments in their heart has perverted
the commandments, they've weakened the commandments, they've lowered
the commandments and made them to be nothing more than the commandments
of men. We understand what those commandments say. And we know that we've never
been able to satisfy any of them. Look at 1 John chapter 3 at verse
23. And this is the commandment that
we should believe on the name of the Son of Jesus Christ and
love one another as he gave us commandment. Now those two things
that I do. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I trust him. I really do. I know that I've
got no place else to go. I can join my voice with the
disciples and say, Lord, where else can we go? For you alone
have the words of eternal life, and we know and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. I'm just certain
of it. Absolutely certain. If there's anything in life,
anything in this world that I know for sure, it's that. It's that. If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest." My new man and your new man, if you're a
child of God, your new man's got perfect faith. And your old
man's never believed a minute. And that's your conflict, isn't
it? That's your conflict. But you can say, Lord, I believe. I do believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. My old man, help him. Restrain
him. Or keep him from evil. Lead me not into temptation,
Lord. I know that if I'm tempted, I'm gonna fall. Why? Because
of my old man. Help my unbelief. Help that old
man out. Restrain him. Hold him down,
hold him back. Because the new man believes.
And the new man loves God and loves God's people. Don't say
that you love God and love not your brother. If you do, you're
a liar. For how can you love him whom you've not seen if you
don't love him whom you have seen? God's people do love one
another. They love one another. This is
the commandment. What he says, and this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he gave his commandment, and he that
keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him, and hereby
we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given
us. has the Holy Spirit confirmed
in your heart by causing you to cry from your heart, Abba
Father. Abba Father. I've got no place
else to go. I cast my immortal soul on your
mercy and on your grace. It's the only hope I have and
the only place I can go. And oh, what comfort, oh, what
hope. And I genuinely, and you do too,
you genuinely love everyone who loves the gospel and who loves
Christ. You do. And it's not something,
it's not a feigned love. It's not something you have to
pretend. It's not like what we did in religion when we acted
like we loved people that we didn't love. We genuinely love
God's people. They're so few and far between.
We rejoice in being able to delight ourselves with one another in
the gospel. And so here's the commandment,
keeping the commandments in your heart, is seeing the commandments
for what they are, holy, just, and good. A picture of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, a commandment that from your heart you've never
been able to keep. And your cry to God is, oh Lord,
restrain my old man. Hold him down. Forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life
and peace shall they add to thee. Oh, Lord, Keep me, keep me right
there. Keep your law written on my heart
so that I see the beauty of it. When I look to the law of God
written on my heart, I see a picture of Christ. It's who he is. The one who loved the Lord God
with all his heart, all of his mind, and all of his soul, all
the time. He didn't have an old man that
he was struggling with. He was God's perfect man. And he loved his brothers as
himself. Greater love hath no man than
this. He laid down his life for his friends. That's what he did. Here in his love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and gave himself as a propitiation
for our sins. Oh, what a, what a lovely savior
we have. And what length of days will
this commandment give to us? Days far beyond the days in this
world. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. Here's my hope, a hope for not
just the life of God's blessing and presence in this life, but
more importantly, in the life to come. And that's what he's
promising here. For length of days and long life
and peace shall they add to thee. I want peace, don't you? I want
the peace of God that passes human understanding to keep my
heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. And here's what the Lord says,
this commandment that I've given to you, to believe. You're believing,
you're resting in, you're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ who
kept the law of God. And this commandment is gonna
give you peace. I have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my prince of peace. He's the one who satisfied the
demands of God's law. He's the one who put away my
sin by the sacrifice of himself, all by himself, without any contribution
on my part. Oh, what peace, what comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Tell them what? Tell them that
warfare is accomplished. Law stood in judgment. Now the
law has been silenced. The law can't say anything. The
law can't condemn. The law is going to speak anything
to us now. It's going to speak peace, peace, true peace. Not a peace that's based on something
I've done, but a peace that's based on what he has accomplished. Let not mercy and truth forsake
thee. Now God's holy. He can't show
mercy by denying truth. He has to withhold, He has to
uphold truth and be able to show mercy. How can you do that? Well, Psalm 85 verse 10 says,
mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Where did that happen? Happened
on Calvary's cross, didn't it? Where truth suffered the full
wrath of God's justice. in order for him to be able to
show mercy towards those for whom he died. Righteousness had
to be fulfilled. And peace kissed each other right
there on Calvary's cross. God did not have to sacrifice
his righteousness in order to give us peace. He did not have
to sacrifice his truth in order to give us mercy. He was able
to satisfy all the attributes of his divine nature in one place
at one time. And he says, don't forget it.
Don't forget it. Look what he says. Let not mercy
and truth forsake thee. Don't lose sight of this. This
is the only place we're going to find hope. Bind them about
thy neck. Write them on the tablets of
thine heart. Oh Lord, bind them on my neck. Make them a string of pearls
around my neck that would that would be beautiful and write
them on my heart. Let me not forget them. Mercy
and truth, righteousness and peace. So shall thy find favor and good
understanding in the sight of God and men. I'm concerned about My reputation
with men? I'm concerned about your reputation
with men. I want our lives to exemplify obedience. I do. And yet, that comes after having
our favor and good understanding in the sight of God, doesn't
it? In the sight of God. We don't live our lives in bondage
to the opinions of men. We live our lives in relationship
to Christ, and we get our understanding and our reputation from Him.
And so He says, so shall thy find favor, grace. mercy before God and a good understanding. Now I want to be a trustworthy
person, don't you? Every relationship is based on
trust. I've seen people in marriages trying to patch up perceived
problems without getting to the heart of the issue. The heart
of the issue is that trust has been lost. and they're trying
to fix these other problems and the real issue has to do with
trust. When you meet somebody for the first time, consciously
or unconsciously, you are sizing them up as to whether or not
they're a person that you can trust. By the way, we had the
locks changed on the church today. If you need a key, you ought
to see me for it. But the locksmith that came and changed the locks,
he introduced himself, hey, I'm Mike and I'm a Christian. And
right away, the flags went up. I hope this guy doesn't make
a key for himself to let himself in here sometime down the road. Isn't that true though? And we
want to be trustworthy? We want to be trustful in our
relationships with men? That's what the Lord's talking
about here. And in our marriages, and once
trust has been violated, it's very, I had a young man I was
doing business with several months ago, and he said, he said, my
daddy taught me, he said, it takes a whole life, he was building
a business, his own little business, and he said, my daddy told me
that it takes a whole life to build a good reputation, and
you can destroy it in one day. And I said, that's good counsel.
That's good counsel. You know to be a man of your
word and to be trustworthy and you can destroy that with one
lie, can't you and And so the Lord's saying, you know, we this
is This is the foundation of all our relationships But most
importantly, it's the foundation of our relationship with God
To trust him Trust him Look what he says in the next verse. Trust
in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Nahum chapter
1 verse 7 says the Lord knows them that trust in Him. The Lord knows them who trust
in Him. Do I trust you Lord? Do I trust
you? Do I trust you for all my holiness
before God? Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
2. Verse 11, for both he that sanctifies,
you know that word means holy, he that makes you holy, who is
that? It's Christ. He's the one that
presents you before God. He's the sin bearer. He's our
substitute. Are you trusting him for all
your sanctification, for all your holiness, for both he that
sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause
he is not ashamed to call them brethren. He doesn't look down
at His brethren. He considers them equal with
Him before God, because He's made them beautiful with His
comeliness. He's imputed to them His righteousness. And so He says, He that sanctifieth
and that are sanctified, all is one, whereby he's not ashamed.
He doesn't have to say, well, yeah, that's my brother over
there, but you know, just disregard him. No, it's my brother. Look,
he looks just like me. He looks just like me. Is that your trust? Look at what
he goes on to say. Saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. Now that's Christ speaking. Christ
is saying to the Father, I'm going to proclaim your name among
my brethren. And the church will sing praise
unto thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I am the children
which thou hast given me. So the Lord's saying, I'm going
to trust the Father for my holiness. God made him sin who knew no
sin. Now the mystery of that goes
beyond our understanding. But what the Lord's saying here
is that though I was charged with the sins of my people, and
I owned them as my own, and felt the full burden of their shame
and guilt and fury of God, yet, I trusted that God would judge
me because of my holiness. My holiness. I trusted the Father. Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. He was able to draw his dying
breath trusting the Father to reward him because of his own
personal holiness. And he says, He that sanctifieth,
and they that are sanctified are all as one. These are my
brethren. Look at them. They're perfect. They're holy.
And they're going to sing. And I'm going to trust God. And
look what he says. Behold, I and the children which
thou hast given me. So, how do I know if I'm a child
of God? I'm trusting Christ for all my
holiness. I'm not trying to add to it.
I'm not trying to whip up some feigned obedience in order to
try to impress men or impress God with any holiness outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my holiness before God.
Trust in the Lord with all mine heart. Lean not on thine own
understanding, but in all thy ways, in all thy ways, acknowledge
him and he shall direct thy path. Do you acknowledge him for your
holiness? Now I know like the children
of Israel in the wilderness, we often murmur when it comes
to the providence of God. That having been said, the child
of God can say, I know, I know that all things work together
for good for them that love God and those that are called according
to His purpose. I know that my God is on His
throne and He does all things well and whatever He does is
right. I'm sure of it. Turn with me
to 1 Timothy chapter 6. Verse 16, who only hath immortality
dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto, whom
no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power evermore. And you're speaking of the glory
of Christ. And now look at the next verse.
Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not
high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but their trust is in
the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Charge them that are rich in
this world. Compared to the poverty that
most believers throughout most generations have had to live
under we're also we're filthy rich We are I mean we we enjoy
We we enjoy comforts in this world that that Kings didn't
know anything about a hundred years ago, you know, well, we
just And so he says charge them don't put your trust in uncertain
riches That's what they are. They're just uncertain. Charge
them not to put their trust in uncertain riches, but to trust
in the living God who giveth to all things, all things that
you need. And you're saying right now in
your heart, yes, Lord, I know that's true. I know that's true. I am certain that you're going
to provide me with my needs in this world and that if I Being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto my children. How much more
will you give good gifts unto them that love you? Lord, I know
that's true. Trust in the Lord with all mine
heart. Trust him for your holiness.
Trust him for your providence. Turn with me to Daniel chapter
three. Daniel chapter 3 Do you trust God to provide for
you the things that you need in this life? Now, I know, you know, your flesh
rears its ugly head and you murmur and you complain, you worry and
you think, well, I don't have enough. But I'm talking about
right now, in faith, trusting God, saying, yes, yes, I know
that what He's given me is good. And I know that He's going to
provide for me as His child. Look what Nebuchadnezzar says
in Daniel 3, verse 28. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and
said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath
sent his angels and delivered his servants that trusted him. You remember what Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego said? When Nebuchadnezzar built that
big statue and they said, you bow down and worship them and
worship me as God, and they said, we're not gonna do it. We're
not going to do it. And he said, well, I'm going
to throw you into the fiery furnace. And they said, well, you know,
do what you have to do. We're going to trust God. And
we know that he can deliver us if he wills. You know, he may
let us die, but we're going to trust him anyway. We're going
to trust him. That's faith. Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart. Live or die. Live or die. Lord, I've got no place else
but to trust you. Heaven or hell. You've got the sovereign right
to cast my soul into hell if you so choose. But Lord, I still
must trust you. I've got no place else to go.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge
Him. Look at the rest of verse 28.
And have changed the king's word and yielded their bodies, that
they might not serve nor worship any god except their own god.
I can't bow down to another god. Can't do it. tempted every day. My flesh is constantly accusing
me and guilty of idolatry in my flesh in that I look away
from Christ. I can't keep my eyes on Him.
I can't be perfect in faith. And yet I can't bow down to another
God. I can't do it. Therefore, I make
a decree that every people, nation, language would speak anything
amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be
cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill because
there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then
the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province
of Babylon. They trusted God and God promoted
them for it. Trust the Lord with all your
heart. You do trust him, don't you?
If you're a child of God, you know you do. You know you do. You know you can't go worship
another God. You've got to worship Christ, and you've got no place
in your heart or in your life for false worship. This is the
one and only true God, and you're convinced that your only hope
for promotion is in Him. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. Do you trust Him for having chosen you? Or do you think that there's
just a little bit that you had to do with that? You know, maybe
I had to pray a prayer, maybe I had to make a choice, maybe
I had to concede, maybe I had to agree with God, whatever. Or are you trusting Him for doing
all the choosing? Do you believe with all of your
heart that the only hope of any of us being saved is that God
would choose us in Christ before time ever began? And you believe
that, you're trusting Him for that. You're trusting Him for your
holiness, you're trusting Him for your providence, you're trusting
Him for your election, you're trusting Him for your redeeming. You know you can't add anything
to the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed on Calvary's
cross. That's the only payment that
God's satisfied with. The only way that your debt for
sin can be paid for, the only way that you can be redeemed
is if God sees the blood. If God sees the blood and passes
by you. There's nothing else for Him
to look for. There's nothing else for Him to find in you for
your redemption. You're trusting Christ for all
your redemption. for all your holiness, for all
your election, for all your righteousness, Luke chapter 18. And he spake
this parable unto certain which trusted themselves that they
were righteous. What was the parable? The publican
and the Pharisee. Two men went into the temple
to pray. And one prayed unto himself and
said, God, I thank Thee that I'm not like other men. I'm sure
he looked over there at that publican and said, but for the
grace of God, there go I. I tithe, I fast, I pray, I do
all these wonderful things serving God. And the publican would not
so much as even look up, but smote himself upon the breast
and cried, God have mercy on me, the center, the center. And the Lord said, which of the
two went down to their house justified, but he spake this
parable unto them, which looked to themselves for their own righteousness. Are you trusting Christ for all
your righteousness? Nothing else. None of your obedience,
none of your works, none of your prayers, none of your efforts,
none of your sincerity. If the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not sufficient to satisfy the demands of God,
you're without hope. If God's not looking to Christ
for all your righteousness, you've got no place else to go. If the
Lord should mark iniquity, who should stand? Lord, all my justification. Turn with
me, let's look at one other psalm, two real quickly. Psalm 78, look
at Psalm 78. Here's the children of Israel
in the wilderness. Look, verse 19. Yea, they spake against God. They said, can God furnish a
table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock that
the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can he give
bread also? Can he provide flesh for his
people? Therefore the Lord heard this
and was wroth, so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger
also came up against Israel, because they believed not in
God and trusted not in his salvation. Here we are in the wilderness. We're in the wilderness of sin.
That's where they were actually, you remember that? They left
Sinai, they went to the wilderness of sin. And that's where we live,
isn't it? They trusted not God for His
salvation. Can God provide meat in the wilderness? Can He provide bread for this
hungry people? Yeah. Yeah, He can. I am the bread which came down
from heaven. And they jeered at the Lord Jesus
Christ when He hung on Calvary's cross and said, He trusted in
God. Let Him deliver Him now and we
will believe. The Lord Jesus Christ trusted
the Father perfectly. And saving faith, saving faith
does trust God perfectly. All your heart, all your mind,
all your soul. The new man. You've got no place else to go.
You're not adding to or taking away from the glorious person
or finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ for any of your
holiness, any of your righteousness, any of your justification. And
even in Providence, you know, you know that he's working all
things, don't you? Your justification, your redemption,
your regeneration, If you've been given saving faith,
if you're trusting Christ, you know that it was a miracle of
grace that your eyes were opened and that you were made willing
and that you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. That was a
miracle of grace. Now, Eric and I were talking
about this the other day. We're just becoming more and
more convinced that if God doesn't speak, it doesn't matter how
persuasive you are. It doesn't matter how many arguments
you give. It doesn't matter what you say,
what you do. God doesn't open a blind man's
eyes. He's not going to see. He's not
going to see. Do you believe that was true
of you? You're not adding anything to
what the Spirit of God did when He gave you life, caused you
to be born again. You know that you won't remain
faithful if God doesn't keep you, don't you? Trust in the
Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding.
Lord, I can't, I can't maintain faithfulness to you. You're going
to have to keep me. You're going to have to keep
me. Keep me from falling. You're
going to have to restrain my old man. You're going to have
to stir up my heart. You're going to have to give
me more faith. You're going to have to give me love for Christ. You're going
to have to keep me from falling. And you're going to have to present
me faultless before the throne of God. Because I can't do it. I can't do it. I'm trusting you
wholly, wholly for that. So this proverb three was written
to the sons of God, the children of God, who keep the commandment of God
in their heart to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And, and they're trusting in
the Lord with all their heart. They're leaning not on their
own understanding in all their ways. They are acknowledging
him and he's directing their steps, promises his presence
and his blessing. Are you trusting Christ? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for your word, and we thank you for the miracle
of grace that causes your children to trust you. We pray, Lord,
that you would help our unbelief. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together. Number
224. I know not why God's wondrous
grace to me his own. But I know whom I have
believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. I know not how this
saving faith to me he did impart, nor how believing in his word
brought peace within my heart. But I know whom I have believed
in, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've
committed unto Him against that day. I know not how the Spirit
moves, convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word,
creating faith in Him. But I know who Whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not what of good or ill
may be reserved for me. Of weary ways or golden days
before his face I see. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not when my Lord may come
at noon or noonday fair, nor if I'll walk the vale with Him
or meet Him in the air. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able To keep that which I committed
Unto Him against that day. th th