Let's take our Bibles and turn
to Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3. It's especially made aware to
my mind when we're again reminded of the very presence of our God
and to to know assuredly that He speaks, that He knows, that He guides. And I'm talking
about momentarily. To realize that the Lord does
speak to His people. They do hear His voice. Proverbs chapter 3. Verse 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. Of all of the precepts that God's
people are commanded to keep. Those precepts and commandments
that are given for our good and His glory. I believe that this commandment
is the foundation commandment. Trust in the Lord. Without obedience here, there's
no peace, there's no joy, there's no comfort, there's no hope,
there's no life. Trust, that is, hold for security. Trust in the Lord. Place all your confidence in
the Eternal One. He who is God Almighty. Now again, I must bring this
out. Trust, look in your Bibles. Trust
in the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Now you
know what that means. Trust in Jehovah. When we see
all caps, it's the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Jehovah. Trust in the Father. Now, here's the commandment,
and a believer has a heart to know this. Trust in the One who
chose you in Christ. Trust Him who eternally has purposed
to show you mercy. Trust in His providential dealings
with you, whereby He shall surely show you mercy and grace. Trust in Him who shall surely
keep His arm. Trust Him for the temporal benefits
in this life. Consider the lilies of the field.
They don't sow, they don't spend. Your Father keeps them. Solomon in all of his glory,
all that he had, all that God gave him, was not arrayed like
one flower. Almighty God keeps the flower
of the fields. Shall He not surely keep you? Trust Him in the times of affliction
and temptation and loving chastisement. Jeremiah 15, verse 21 says, And
I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked. Out of the
temptations of my own flesh. The wicked that is within. Out of Satan's temptations. And
the world frowns when the gospel of free grace is preached. And the world hears that and
frowns on that. That's the God you serve. That's
the God you love. I had someone, I think I told you
years ago, when we tried to set forth We believed in who we trusted,
and this was their answer. Your God. This God, they said,
that chooses and shows mercy to whomsoever He will. Your God
that does as He will to some and leaves others to themselves.
Your God is my devil. Trust Him. who the Scripture sets forth
in Ephesians 1.11. Trust Him. Trust this one. The One in whom also we've obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him,
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
Trust Him. Trust the Father who has promised
to deliver His people in and from the sorrow that He appointed. Almighty God, who works all things
after the counsel of His own will, for the good of His own.
He determines. He sends. He delivers His people
to show them mercy. No matter what. Whether his rod
is Satan's temptations, whether his rod of correction
is false friends, they're the Lord's ministers. It does not
matter, it does not matter, it does not matter what comes our
way. I'm telling you, the Lord. is the one who rules and overrules
all things for His honor, for His glory, and for His praise,
and for the good of His people. Let me just read this to you.
Amos chapter 3. Amos 3 and verse 6. Now you listen to this
scripture. Shall a trumpet be blown in the
city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city,
and the Lord hath not done it?" What does that mean? That means
that no matter what comes our way, no matter what affliction,
no matter what trial, No. The Lord appoints. The Lord orders everything. Is it sickness? Is it famine?
Is it trials of family? What is it? Almighty God rules. Almighty God is in control. All
things minister for His purpose. He is the appointer. He is the
Guider. Everything. Whatever we're going
through right now, I'm telling you, Almighty God ordered it
perfectly. Just like that. And it is for
our good. The good of His people. The glory
of Almighty God. Trust in the Lord. Trust the
Father. Secondly, trust the Son. Who was made flesh. The servant
of Almighty God. His chosen servant. We consider Father, Son, and
Spirit. The Father who chose, who ordained,
who elected, who predestinated, and gave all things into the
hands of His Son. And the Son who in covenant agreement covenanted with the Father and
the Spirit, I shall, I shall, in obedience to His command,
humble Himself, to be made flesh, and God Himself, the Son, the
Son, God Almighty, That body that was prepared Him, made Him,
fitted for Him. That body in which He entered
into this world, made of woman, made under the law, came and
conceived by the Holy Spirit of God. God Himself took upon
Himself flesh. Conceived in the womb of a virgin. That's what Scripture says. Nine
months stayed in the womb of Mary. Came into this world just
like every child comes into this world. And here's God Almighty
as the representative of His people, their federal head, doing
just exactly what they must do to stand before God Almighty
accepted He came into this world and as their representative,
the representative of God's elect, the representative of God's sheep,
He came into this world and obeyed perfectly every demand of God's
law. And they in Him humbled Himself. Whatever His
mama and daddy told Him, that's what He did. In obedience to God's command,
we ought to obey God rather than men. I'm telling you now, when
it comes to mommas and daddies telling kids to do things contrary
to God's Scripture, that's another thing. But in obedience to His
parents, God Almighty ordering all these things, He obeyed. He went to the synagogues. He
heard the Scriptures. He obeyed the law. He kept the
Sabbath. They kept it perfectly. Never
at one time deviated. Heard God. Spoke to His Father. Obeyed His will. And here, that's
demanded of us. To stand before God Almighty.
Accept it. But now how are we accepted?
We are accepted in the Beloved because His righteousness, His
obedience, imputed to us, charged to us. Trust in the Son. Trust Him who has ever stood
as the surety of God's elect. Trust Him who obeyed the Father. His meat, His will, His joy,
His desire, was to do the will of Him that sent Him. His desire. What was the Father's will? He
said, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me. Now you
listen. What was the Father's will that sent Him? My meat is
to do the will of Him that sent Me. Now you listen to His will.
Listen to the Father's will. This is the wonder. of Almighty
God's grace to His people. He speaks to His people through
His Word. You want to know what God has to say? Here it is right
here. Does God speak any other way
except through His Word? No. No. This is the testimony. This is the Word of Almighty
God. Now listen to the will of God. My meat is to do the will
of Him that sent me. John 6, verse 39. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me." Boy, I tell you what, if we're ever going
to listen to something, we ought to listen to this right here. This is the
will of the Father which hath sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. What is the Father's will? What is the Father's will? Here
is the Father's will. The Lord Jesus Christ said, that
of all which the Father hath given me. Now let me ask you
something. Did He just say that the Father
had given Him a people? Yes, He did. Did He say that
the Father's will was that of all that the Father has given
me, I should lose nothing." Yes, He did. Now, let me ask you this. How many that the Father has
given the Son are going to be saved? All of them. All of them. This is the Father's
will which has sent me, that of all which the Father has given
me, I should lose nothing. Well, then the question could
be, well, what if someone perishes in unbelief? They weren't given
to the Son. They weren't given to the Son.
This is what God has to say. Trust in the Father. Trust in the Son whose blood
was shed in the redemption of His sheep. Put Him away. Putting
away. Answering for. Honoring the law.
And putting away the guilt because of Adam's fall and their own
transgression. Trust Him whose righteousness
robes everyone that believes upon Him concerning justification
before the law. Trust. Him whose righteousness
was earned as the obedient servant. Remember this, when He came into
this world, that is God Almighty, that is totally man. God-man. And as a man, He obeyed God. And I'm telling you that right
now, it's the Son of Man God in human flesh. God Almighty. A man seated in the heavenlies. There's a man seated in glory.
There's a man sitting on the throne of God. There's a man
chosen of God. Ordained of God. God Almighty
that fitted him. There's a man that's sitting
on the throne of God. And let me tell you who He is.
He is our surety. He is our Lord. He is our King. He is our Husband. The Husband
of God's people. The Husband. Trust Him, whoever
liveth to make intercession for all that came into this world, chosen of God, ordained of God. Trust that where He is, That's
where His people are going to be too. Father, I will. John 17, 24. Father, I will that
of all that Thou has given me should be with me where I am
that they may behold the glory that I had with You before the
world began. Trust Him who was raised from
the dead as the first fruit of all those that sleep in Him,
of all those that believe Him, die believing the gospel of God's
free grace, sovereign grace. Trust Him. Trust the Father.
Trust the Holy Spirit. He who has in that eternal covenant
of grace entered in, in agreement, in a covenant I shall. Of all that the Father chose
and the Son redeemed, I shall call them out of darkness. The
Spirit of God, like the wind, He just blows where He will. He moves. He directs. He guides. He orders. He quickens. He calls out of darkness. This
is what God has said. This is the gospel that Paul
said, I'm not ashamed of this gospel. I'm not ashamed of this
truth. I'm not ashamed of the message
that gives God all the honor and all the glory and all the
praise. I'm not ashamed of it. It's the gospel set forth by
God's Spirit. I'm not ashamed of this message.
This is the message. The Father chose, the Son redeemed,
and the Spirit of God is going to direct, move, and guide, and
put, and He's going to get the objects of God's mercy under
this gospel right here. This gospel, the gospel of God's
salvation. This is the gospel, Mitch, in
which God's righteousness is revealed. This is the message.
How do you know? He said it was. going to put
them under the gospel. And this is going to be the way
that I'm going to call them out of darkness. They're going to
hear the gospel of Christ, the message that honors Christ. And
I'm going to give them a new heart. I'm going to give them
a heart to believe it. I'm going to give them a new
will. Not that so-called free will that men think. It's not
free. It's not free, as I've said before.
If I had a free will, Again, let me remind you what free means,
just so we can understand. Bound by nothing. Bound by nothing. Free will. You tell me something
I don't like, I'll just say nothing. I just don't believe that. I
just don't want to accept that. That's not for me. I have a will
that's bound by nothing. No, I have a will that's bound
by death. There's where it kind of binds
it. It's dead. The Spirit of God
gives a man a new heart, a new mind, a new will. He makes him
willing in the day of His power. And they hear this message. And
God Almighty's Spirit gives them a heart fight. And they believe
it. And they love it. And they trust
Him. And everything that they formerly
trusted in, they cast it as Paul the Apostle. One of the most
religious people that you'd ever meet. He said, they think they've
got something to glory in? I'm more. I circumcised the eighth
day and I was Benjamin. My mama was a Hebrew. My daddy
was a Hebrew. And you know what all that was
to him after the Lord called him out of darkness? Dung. Dung. He said, I considered it
refuge. That's what it is. Refuge. Trust the Spirit of God. Trust
Him who carries on this work of grace in your heart and gives
you faith to believe right now, and right now, and right now. He that gives you faith to come,
come. He that cometh to me. I'll tell
you how God's people, I'll tell you how they come to Him. They
come just like they came the first time. Weak. Needy. I listen to a believer talk. And this is how you hear a believer
talk. The more they grow in grace,
the lower they get. I just don't hear believers talking
this high and mighty talk. hoopla and all this kind of stuff. They know what they are by nature.
And thankful for what Almighty God has revealed them to be,
who they are in Christ. But a believer, that's a brought
down person. That's a brought down sinner.
You love to talk to somebody, and when you hear them talk,
you think, boy, that just has the savor of grace. Grace, sovereign
grace. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the
Lord with all thine heart. Oh boy, now there's a question. What does that mean? With all
thine heart. That portion right there, with
all thine heart, denotes not so much the strength of my faith
as it does the sincerity of my faith. What do you mean when
you say that? I know. I know. You don't understand,
Marvin. You don't understand how I struggle. You don't understand. I think
I do. I think I do. With all my heart
does not mean how strong I am in the Lord, but how weak I am
in myself. With all thine heart Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 2.10, for when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. When I see myself, when I'm like
that Syrophoenician woman, here was a Gentile woman and her daughter
was sick, grievously sick. And she came to the Lord and
she sought the Lord. And for a while there, it appeared
as though he wasn't even going to hear it. It's not neat, not
fit that I should give the children's bread to dogs. You call a believer a dog, and
they're going to say just what this woman said right here. You're
right. I'm a dog. But I heard someone
say, but I'm your dog. I'm your lap dog. You tell that
to an unbeliever, and I'm telling you they'll bow up and they'll
just, you know, don't call me that. A believer will be the
first one to step up and say, that's me right here. You're
looking for a dog? What did Mephibosheth say? Mephibosheth. Now, you have to remember. Remember
when Saul was trying to kill David. Saul was the king. David
was the anointed king. God had anointed David to be
king. And here's Saul. And Saul's mad at him. Saul's
trying to throw spears at him, trying to run him down in the
mountains, and David's trying to hide. But Saul had a son,
Jonathan. And Jonathan knew. He told David,
he said, you know, I know God's going to make you king. He's
going to take the throne away from my daddy. And Jonathan would
have been next in line to be king, except that God made David
king. And Jonathan came to David and
he said, when you become king, when God puts you on the throne,
would you remember my family? Would you have mercy on my family? And David said, I will. I promise
you I will. Covenanted, I will. Well, Saul
died. So did Jonathan. Jonathan had
a boy, Mephibosheth. You remember his nurse had him
one day and the enemy was coming and she was trying to run away
and protect him and she dropped him. Broke both his legs. He
had no way of escape. Here he is. Jonathan's boy. David becomes a king. And David
said, is there any left of the house of Saul, the one that wanted
to kill him, the one that hated him, is there any left of the
house of Saul that I might show mercy to for Jonathan's sake? Yeah, there's a boy named Ephibosheth.
He's over in Lodibar, over out in the pasture. And David said,
you fetch him. You go get him. Why go get him? Because Mephibosheth couldn't
come. There's Mephibosheth. There's a perfect picture of
the objects of God's mercy. Both legs broke. Lame on his
feet. You go get him. They came and
got that boy and brought him before David. And here's the
one who historically, traditionally, is going to wipe out any opposition. Ain't nobody going to oppose
me. Going to kill them. But David said, for your daddy's
sake, I loved your daddy. I made a promise to your daddy
that I was going to show mercy to his family. I was going to
show mercy. I was going to show grace. And
you know what that did to that boy? It broke him. It broke him. Here was the one David had the
right, had the power, had the power and the right to kill that
boy and not think a thing in the world about it. And here
was David showing mercy to Mephibosheth, and here's what Mephibosheth
said, How is it that you show mercy to a dead dog such as I
am? A dead dog. That's what I am. That's all I am. David showed
mercy to him. Trust with all thine heart, that
heart that knows that without Him, I can do nothing. This is
all the heart of a believer. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart that knows that He came into this world to save sinners
and bless the Lord for that because He's made me to know that I'm
one. That's all thine heart. I'm not talking about one that's
arrogant, trusts in self and looks to self. Look what I've
done. All thine heart that says, I
know this. If He doesn't save me, I'm lost. If He doesn't show mercy to me,
trust in the Lord with all that heart. That heart. That new heart. And lean not into thine own understanding. I know that it's not in man to
direct his past. I know that. I know that. Don't think that you can support
yourself by your ability or your discernment or your power. Man's
understanding concerning the things of God is darkened to
a man because of blindness, death, sin. I can't trust in my faith. Lean not unto your own understanding. My faith is struggling with sin
within. My understanding, that's a false
guide. What do I know? Well, I just
think this is the way it is. Well, it's wrong. I must, as David said in 2 Samuel
23, 5, I must trust Him who is able to accomplish that which
He has eternally purposed. David said, Here is all my salvation. He made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, ensure this is all completely
my salvation and my desire. I trust Him. Who said, Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He that comes to the
Father as the Father says He is. Who comes to the Son as the
Father has given record. He that comes by the Spirit of
God that the Scriptures reveal to be God's Spirit. What does
it mean to come? What does it mean to come? It
means to look by faith. Every sinner that comes to Him
comes as a beggar. A beggar. Lowly. Brought down in self. Humbled
before God. I can't understand enough. I
can't be faithful enough. I can't keep myself enough. I
need the Lord to show mercy to this helpless sinner. Lord, help me. I'm going to perish. In all thy ways, acknowledge
Him. In all thy ways, know Him. Recognize Him. He is to be acknowledged. I know this. In all thy ways,
acknowledge Him. Romans 8.28 is always so. All
things. Work together for God. For them
that love God. Psalm 37.23, the steps of a good
man are ordered by the Lord. And he delighteth, the Father
delighteth, and the steps of those regenerated by grace delighteth
in His way. Oh, it's settling to the heart.
to know that the Lord sends all things to cross my path, the
path of His people, for their good, His glory. And God's people in all thy ways
acknowledge Him. They consider Him to be present
in every trial, every chastisement. They don't want to take a step
without His advice. They consult His Word, His Scriptures
to be their counselor. I love this, Psalm 119, 24. Thy
testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. In the margin
of your Bible, it may say, the men of my counsel. Your testimonies
are the men of my counsel. Lord, that's how you direct.
That's how you keep. In all of our ways, acknowledging
Him, believing that He orders and guides, keeps our steps,
to walk after His Spirit. What does it mean to walk after
the Spirit? To believe God. That's what it is. People say,
well, I've been walking after the Spirit. I'm telling you,
you find a man or woman brought down in self, taught by God. They go through this life struggling,
struggling. puffed themselves up, struggling. Walking after the Spirit is to
believe God. Believe what He says about me.
Believe what He says about Himself. What He's done. In all thy ways
acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path. We have no other counselor. God's
people have no other counselor. What else does a believer want
to hear? except what God has to say. We
ask for and we prayerfully consider the Spirit of God to shed his
light of understanding in our hearts. Rest assured, his counsel,
prayerfully considered, prayerfully sought after, will always prove
to be for our good, no matter what. I know we're going to stumble. We do. We stumble in thought. We stumble in word and deed.
We stumble in our walk. But His goodness, power, and
mercy is going to prove to be that even in our stumblings,
they're overruled for our good. You know, it's a marvelous thing
to have a heart that wants to trust God. And even in trusting
Him, A believer is going to admit, oh, if I had to stand before
Him and be judged upon the faithfulness of me trusting Him, I'm not going to make it. I fail
even in my trust. I trust. Here's what I trust.
Lord, I am so thankful that You look to the Son for obedience. And you have taken that obedience
and charged it to me. Lord robed in His righteousness.
Lord taught by Your Spirit. Lord kept by Your power. Lord,
that I would stand before You accepted in Him. Lord, I'm so
thankful that there's nothing that is left to me Lord, I'm thankful that there's
nothing that you demand of this sinner in the establishing, the
keeping, the final perseverance of salvation before you. Salvation is of grace. All of
grace. Totally of grace. Trust in the
Lord. Trust in the Lord. God Almighty
saves His people for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. Amen.