I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Proverbs, chapter
3. Proverbs, chapter 3. I'd like to read verses 5 and
6. Proverbs, chapter 3, verses 5
and 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Let's pray together. Our Father, as we call upon you
this evening, We thank you and praise and bless your holy name
for allowing us the privilege to be able to assemble ourselves
together as your people in your presence. We pray that as we
consider this scripture tonight, Lord, teach us, help us, and
forgive us for Christ's sake. Amen. The older we get, the more we
realize this particular truth. This life is quickly fading. It's a vapor. And age has a way of proving
that. We're frail creatures of the
dust. And we don't know what tomorrow
brings. This may be the last time that
someone, or numeral, Numerous someones may be in a service. There's been times when I have
thought back at a funeral and thought we were just together
just last week. We were all together and now
here we are at a funeral. We're living in a world that
despises the gospel that we preach, the God that we love and serve,
and the people that we associate with. We're living in a world that
we're just traveling through, we're just pilgrims, we're sojourners
here. And we're looked at this mainstream religion as being
strange people. We believe strange doctrine. But this blessed gospel that
we preach is the absolute declaration of our hope in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, here's something that we
all need tonight. We need some encouragement as we see ourselves becoming
more and more frail. We need some encouragement because
we truly see ourselves coming to the end of our lives. And
so tonight I want us to just consider this passage of scripture.
one time more and ask the Lord's blessing on this reading of this
two verses of Scripture. In this passage of Scripture,
I've got three points. There is a divine admonition
from the Lord. Then there's and thanks be unto
God for this, there's a divine explanation of that admonition. And then lastly, there's a divine
promise that the Lord gives to his people. Now, this is for
all of God's people, the ones that need some encouragement. ones that need to have some hope
for tonight. Now listen to what the Lord has
to say. Here's the divine admonition.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. That is to say, have confidence
in, be bold in, and be secure in Jehovah. With all of your will, with all
of your understanding, with all of your resolution, seek for
your temporal and your eternal refuge only in the Father who
chose you. Now, listen. For you that believe, Listen
to this. The Father, before the foundation
of the world, chose, according to His good pleasure, to show
you mercy. It was nothing that He saw in
you that moved Him to set His affection and love upon you. He chose you to glory. He chose you to salvation. He chose you to eternal life
in Christ. Trust Him. Trust Him who absolutely has
promised to show you mercy and grace. Trust Him in the time
of affliction. Trust Him who has promised those
that He loves, He's going to correct. Chastened. That's the word. Chastened. Correct. We are in a continual correction
of heart in walk and in attitude. Now listen to what the Lord says. Trust Me. Trust in Me. As we walk through this world,
our heart, that new heart, that new mind is continually being
corrected. I say that new heart, there is
a heart that sin is not, let me correct myself. There is an
old man that is with us and that new man is continually realizing
the correction that we need. The new man knows it, the old
man doesn't care. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Son, who absolutely
betrothed us to Himself eternally, redeemed us from the penalty
and the power, and soon from the presence of sin. Listen,
He has bought us back. He's paid the debt. He has removed
the reason to fear death. We're going to die. I don't know what's going to
happen when I die. I've never crossed that bridge
before. I've never been there before. I know what the Scriptures has
to say and I know that there's going to be an immediate absence
from this body and there's going to be an immediate presence with
the Lord and at that moment, We who know Him are going to
see Him. We're going to see Him more clearly
than I'm looking at you. And we're going to know Him.
It's the Lord. And we're going to be like Him. He said, trust. Trust Me. Trust in the Lord. Trust Him
who has power over all flesh, John 17, 2, that He should give
eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. Trust Him. He's working all things after
the counsel of His own will. He's moving everything. Trust
Him who lived in holy obedience before God the Father and earned
the righteousness. with which we are clothed and
robed. Trust Him, whoever liveth right
now, seated at the right hand of the Father, our elder brother,
made like unto us, yet without sin, he whoever liveth. pleading His own merit imputed
to us on our behalf. He who takes the prayers of the
saints as the Spirit of God helpeth us because we don't know what
to pray, helps us with groanings that cannot be uttered, feelings
that we don't know how to express, and those prayers The prayers
of the saints are offered before the throne of God to the Father
in the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and accepted. Accepted. He said, trust me. Trust in the Holy Spirit. who
according to the everlasting covenant of grace quickens God's
people, God's elect through the means of the preaching of the
gospel. The one who has given us a new heart, given us new
eyes, new ears, gifts by which God's people perceive the Lord
of glory who before could not be perceived. We did not know
Him, couldn't know Him. The Spirit of God who is granting
faith now, as we hear the gospel preached, as we reflect on what
we've heard, as we converse with one another. How precious is
that confession between two believers. The Lord hears it. and regards
it. A book of remembrance is written. He said, trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. That phrase, with all thine heart.
Now listen, it does not speak so much as the strength of faith. Because everyone of us is really
aware how weak we really are. But it speaks of the sincerity
of faith. I can think of no better scripture
to prove this point after the Lord was forsaken of Peter and
the other apostles too. Peter said, I go fishing. The
others said, we're going with you. And the next morning after
they had fished all night, hadn't caught anything, The Lord saw
them, asked them, said, children, do you have any meat? No. Cast your net on the other side.
They did. They couldn't. They just couldn't
hardly pull it in. 153 fish, Scripture says, they
had in that net. John said to Peter, it's the
Lord. It's the Lord. Peter dove in
the water. No words were spoken until the
Lord said to Peter, or asked Peter, Peter, lovest thou me
more than these? Three times the Lord asked Peter
that, lovest thou me? Scripture says that Peter being
grieved concerning the Lord's knowledge of his weakness said,
Lord, you know all things. You know me better than I know
myself. And Lord, you know that I love you. I realize that I
have not exhibited the appearance of loving you as I should, as
I desire, or as I will. But Lord, you do know I love
you. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart speaks of the sincerity
of our faith. While we're grieving over the
lack of strength of our faith, We do love him. We love him. After that divine admonition,
trust in the Lord with all thine heart. What I would desire and
what the Lord graciously provides is a blessed explanation of exactly
what he was saying. Here's what he was saying. Number one, he said two things.
This is what it is to trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
Number one, lean not unto thine own understanding. Now to trust
in the Lord with all our heart is to A, not support ourselves. That's what he's saying. Lean
not unto thine own understanding. Some things in these scriptures
that we absolutely fail to grasp the reality of. I cannot explain,
as I've said, the Trinity. And anyone that says they can
is just deceived. You cannot. Finite cannot understand
the fullness of infinite. I cannot perceive the depth of
the only begotten of the Father. And the only begotten, the firstborn
being the eternal God, who has eternally been generated from. God, generated from God, God
who was never created, the eternal I Am, The Lord Jesus Christ and
the Father who is one, I and the Father are one. I cannot
perceive, but I do know something of that only begotten of the
Father. He who came forth from the Father
for the purpose of redeeming and saving God's elect
in their nature. He's the only begotten, He's
the only one. But I cannot perceive the depth of that. I cannot perceive
the depth of He who knew no sin was made sin. And upon the cross at Calvary,
there the holy, harmless Lamb of God was made sin and God dealt
with him being made sin on our behalf. He absolutely was our true substitute. You and I can't substitute for
one another. Neil gave the best example I've
ever heard of. It's like a football player coming
out and a substitute goes in for him. But that's just somebody
else. That wasn't me. I came out and
he went in. That's not this. This is actually
me. Me. The substitute. I can't understand that. But
God's just. He dealt with sin. I can't perceive
the depth that He was made sin that we might be made to become
the righteousness of God in Him. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. Here's a second explanation.
of trusting in the Lord with all thine heart. Verse 6, in
all thy ways acknowledge Him. That's the second divine explanation
of that. Trust in the Lord. How do you
do that? Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways
acknowledge Him. What do you mean? What do you
mean? Take notice and recognize Him. to be the author and the
director of our ways. In all thy ways, acknowledge
Him. How often do we forget? Now,
we're all guilty right here. Especially, we're all guilty
on all of it. But especially, how often do we forget that He
orders the steps of His people? and we pray and we ask the Lord's
leadership and help, we ask His direction, we ask His guidance,
and how soon our thoughts are completely misdirected to other
things and we find ourselves acknowledging ourselves thinking
that we're capable of handling our lives and then complain about
the things that come our way and fall out concerning us. And
we've said, Lord, we're trusting You and waiting on You, and then
when it doesn't go our way, then we complain. Now, we're guilty. In all Thy ways, acknowledge
Him. Does not the Scripture say that
He is truly working all things after the counsel of His own
will? So whatever is working out in our lives is according
to His will. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. All things work together for our advantage for good. That's what good means. All things
work together for good, for our advantage. If you want to know
the best thing that could have happened for a believer, well,
what happened today? Whatever happened today, now
isn't this comforting? Whatever happened today was the
absolute best thing that could have happened. Wouldn't you hate
to know you had it in your hands to try to... I mean, what are
the possibilities? I mean, the possibilities are
endless. I could have done this, I could have done that, I could
have met... All things work together for good to them that love Him.
To them who are called according to His purpose. Believer, in
all our ways, acknowledge His presence. Now you know the Lord
is here. Acknowledge His promises. I'm
not going to leave you. I'm not going to forsake you.
You may think that you've been, but you haven't. But if you want
to know the best thing that's been for you, it's whatever I
ordered for you. Acknowledge His power to accomplish
His will. He's got all power. In all thy
ways, acknowledge Him. Acknowledge His purpose and His
will. It's going to be done. And then
lastly, to those who trust in the Lord with all their heart,
who lean not to their own understanding and they acknowledge Him. in
all of their ways. Here's the third point. It's a blessed promise. Now, listen. He shall direct
thy paths. He shall, that word direct, cause to be right. He shall Cause your way to be
pleasant, and he shall cause your path to be prosperous. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart sincerely. Lean not unto your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,
And He shall direct thy paths. He's going to make our paths
plain. We may not understand that which
the Lord is doing in our lives now. We may be wondering why
we're experiencing these things. But by the grace of God, if we're
found trusting Him, not ourselves, not leaning on our own understanding,
not supporting what we think is right, what we think is true. In all of our ways we acknowledge
Him, thanking Him, coming to the end of the day, starting
the day, during the day, thanking Him. Thank you for the mercy. Thank
you for the grace. Thank you for the comfort. Thank
you for the direction. Thank you for the love that you've
shown me. Lord, I don't have sense enough
to get out of the rain. And you'd show mercy to one such
as me. Lord, where you put me, this
is the best place I could be. Safest place I could be, right
here. Because this is the Lord's way. because this is the Lord's
choice. This is the Lord's will. Teach
me, Lord, to be thankful for Christ's sake and my good. Amen. All right.