I would like to say before you
turn to Proverbs 3, I'd like to say before we begin
how much I appreciate the generosity of this assembly. It is absolutely
an evidence that is exhibited of the grace of God that the
Lord would put it upon your heart to want to, under the leadership
and direction of your pastor, whom I love dearly. This man
I told you the other night has been my friend. He's been my
friend a long time. He's stuck with me in some tough
times. Times that some of you know better
than others. Tough, tough times in my life
There were some stands that had to be made, and I'm going to
tell you something. You have a faithful pastor, and
he'll stick with you. I'm telling you from experience,
he'll stick with you. Different ones like Ken, Todd,
Caroline, different ones of you have known me for a long time.
But thank you for your generosity. It's expensive. It costs money,
it costs time, it costs effort. And what it has cost, the Lord's
provided. And I thank you. I've been so
encouraged by what I've seen this weekend. I'm thankful. Mama
Castro, thank you for that song. My heart was blessed. My pastor,
in Fairmont, I'm trying to think where I am, made a statement
one time. He said, I didn't shout out loud,
but I did in my heart. I want you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to Proverbs chapter 3. I want to read a passage of Scripture. out of the Gospel of John. Just
listen to this passage. You hold your finger right there
in Proverbs 3. Our Lord said in John 14 verse
21, He said this, He that hath My commandments and keepeth them
He it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved
of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself
to him." Now we talk and hear often this
truth. And this is truth. We are not
under law, but under grace. That's the truth. Now let me
tell you what that means Lord willing, in a statement or two.
Believers are not under the law for the keeping of it in the
establishment of their righteousness. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. All that was required by Almighty God for obedience
to His law, the representative of all that the Father everlastingly
loved and chose and gave to Christ, who was their surety. You know
what a surety is? I go down and I want to borrow
some money and I can't make good on it. The surety, the cosigner,
One that will make good on the loan. He's been the everlasting
surety. We never could make good on God's
demand. The everlasting surety. He alone
has obeyed God. The man. There is a man that
is now seated on the throne of God. God-man. This man, the Son
of Man, Christ Jesus, the Son of David, Jesus of Nazareth,
He who is God, He who is man, totally God, totally man. Great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. There's a man who has absolutely
answered every demand of God's law. Now when I say law, I can
say commandments, I can say precepts, words. We get this thing in our
mind, we get law. What are we talking about? Let
me tell you something. Everything that Almighty God has ever commanded
It's His law. It's His word. If I told my kids,
don't go outside. What do you want to call that? You want to call it my law? You
want to call it my word? You want to call it my command?
You want to call it my precept? That's my demand? Call it what
you want to call it. Just don't you disobey me. Now we find in John that I just
read. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them. All of a sudden, you just, all
you that believe, you took a little breath there, didn't you? You
just, you thought, hmm. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them. He it is that loveth me. I may find myself in a dire strait." No. God's people, they keep His commandments. What do you mean? Proverbs chapter 3. I want to read two passages of
Scripture for you, and as we read, These two passages of Scripture,
I want you to listen to the commandment of the Lord that God's people
keep. Now, do they keep this for the
establishment or the maintenance of their righteousness before
God? No. I thought we just settled that
about five minutes ago. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. But the Lord said, he that keepeth,
he that heareth, he that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, holds them dear, cherishes them, hears them, loves them,
keeps them for obedience unto righteousness, no. By the deeds
of the law shall no man be justified, but keep them. Hold them. Cherish them. Long after them. Hunger after them. Yes. He that hath my commandment and
keepeth it. Do you think our Lord said that?
Just to hear Himself talk? Father, I've given them Thy words. Adam, they kept them. How, Lord? How is that? We could start in
Genesis 1.1 and go through the Bible and find the command. But
I don't think we'd have time this morning. I'm going to just
look at two verses that I'm telling you God's people keep. Proverbs 3.5 begins like this. It says, Trust
in the Lord. with all thine heart." Now, I'm going to tell you something.
That's a commandment. That's a commandment. That's
God's law. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. Put your confidence in. The confidence that is concerning
the eternal state of your soul. Psalm 37.5 says, Commit thy way
unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall
bring it to pass. Trust, hold for security in the
Lord. Now I want you to notice something
in that word trust in the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital
D. When you see capital L-O-R-D,
Jehovah. Trust in Jehovah. Trust in the
triune God. Trust in the Father. Let me ask
you this, you that believe. Do you trust that the Father,
before the foundation of the world, chose you? In Christ, that He chose in accordance
with His own will and His own purpose to show you mercy. Do you trust in His providential
dealings with you? Do you trust Him for all temporal
and eternal blessings in Christ? Do you trust that He's everlastingly
loved you? Do you trust that He cares for
you? Do you trust that He will surely do you good? Do you trust that in times of
affliction, temptations, darkness, do you trust that He absolutely
orders all these things in accordance with His will for His honor and
Your good? His glory, Your good. Do you
trust in the Father? Do you trust the Son that when
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, I'm just asking you,
do you trust that when He came into this world, when the Word
was made flesh, that He came into this world and walked upon
this earth right here, and in absolute obedience, do you trust
that when the Father said concerning Him, that's my beloved Son, in
whom I'm well pleased, do you trust that that's all your righteousness? That's all you've got? That's
all you've got. I'm telling you that robed in
His righteousness, that's all you've got. Trust in the Lord. Trust that when He lived in absolutely
obedient walk and state that He earned. When we speak of the
righteousness that is imputed, do you know what we're talking
about? That the man, Christ Jesus. As the man that a man obeyed
God, a man disobeyed God, and this whole world was plunged
into darkness, dead. In the second Adam, the man,
Jesus of Nazareth, earned a righteousness as a man, that a man obeyed God. And that man's obedience is imputed
to me. and that robed in Him, I stand
absolutely blameless before God. As He was obedient, I am obedient. Do you trust the Holy Spirit? The Spirit of God who covenanted
together with the Father and the Son, who said, I will surely
quicken All that the Father chose, all that the Son has redeemed,
I will, in time, call them out of darkness. I will give them a new heart.
I will indwell them. I will teach them. I will seal
them. I will bring back to their memory
all the things that you trust that right now the Spirit of
God is teaching you. You know why you remember what
you remembered from last night, night before night? Do you know
why you remembered this morning, Clay? Because He's taught you
afresh right now. He said, without me, you'd do
nothing. Oh, surely I could remember. No, no. Nothing includes that
too. Here's a commandment. that you
keep. You do keep. You that believe.
You keep this. I've given them your word, Father, and they've
kept it. He that has my commandments and keeps them. He it is that
loveth me. Are you doing this to establish
a righteousness? No, no, no, no, no. No. I trust
in the Lord. I trust that the Father chose
me. Son, redeem me. Spirit of God, save me, quicken
me. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. Oh, but Marvin, you don't know. You don't know my heart. Oh,
all my heart? Oh, this has absolutely nothing
to do with strength. The strength of. it has to do
with the sincerity of. A Syrophoenician woman came to
the Lord. She said, my daughter's sick. And the Lord said, it's not fit,
it's not meet, that I should give the children's bread to
dogs. Can you imagine? I mean, she's
asking him. She's asking him for, I mean,
her very heart. That's her daughter. My daughter's
sick. Would you help her? Not fit. Not proper. Lord, you're right. I'm a dog. But I'm your dog. I'm your lap
dog. And I'll stay right here. I'm going to sit right here.
I'm going to just look. I'll wait. I'm your dog. I admit it. I confess it. I know what I am. But even the dogs get the crumbs
that fall from the master's table. Surely there's some crumbs for
me. How strong was that woman? She's
so weak. She couldn't hardly even get
it out of her mouth. Surely, surely, there's some
crumbs for me. She was one of only two people
that the Lord ever said, great is your faith. There was only
two. The other one was a Roman soldier. Great is your faith. To trust in the Lord with all
thine heart. To trust in the Lord with all
thine heart is to reveal that I can't trust myself. When it
says with all thine heart, don't be puffed up. I tell you this, I know with
all my heart that without Him I can do nothing. That's it,
all my heart. I'm a feeble creature. that doesn't even have enough
sense, enough ability to be able to be consistent in prayer. I try and find myself often coming
back to starting point and saying, Lord, I'm so sorry. I don't even have sense enough
to know how to thank You that You chose me before the foundation
of the world, that the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed me by His grace.
The Spirit of God has called me out and kept me and I don't
have enough ability to be able to know how to thank you. That's all my heart. Oh, I know with all my heart
that He came into this world to save sinners. For that, I'm
thankful. Because I can find myself in
that category. With all my heart, I know this.
that if He doesn't save me, I'm lost. I've never been sincere enough.
I've never prayed through enough. I've never read my Bible enough.
I've never done anything enough to realize that He saved me by
grace, by Christ. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. There's another one. Lean not
unto thine own understanding. Let me read something out of
Jeremiah 9. Lean not unto thine own understanding. Jeremiah 9, 23-24. Thus saith the Lord, Let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, Neither let the mighty man glory
in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but
let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness,
judgment, righteousness in the earth. For in these things I
delight, saith the Lord." Don't lean to your own understanding. I've never been wise enough.
How did I ever figure out? How could I ever figure out that
Almighty God would choose to show mercy to one and to leave
another? That the potter has the power
over the clay. I went to art school and dabbled
around a little bit in art stuff. I've watched people throw pots. Take a lump of clay and they
get that wheel going. And I look at that and I think, wow,
how did you do that? Why did you make it like that?
Because I wanted to. If I wanted to make a bowl, I
would have made a bowl. If I wanted to make a vase, I
would make a vase. The potter has the power over
the clay to make one vessel and to honor. Honor. Definition of honor, worth the
cost. Worth the cost. What did it cost
to make one vessel? that God Almighty would bring
to Himself. What did it cost? The blood of Christ. Lean not
to your own understanding. Don't think that you can support
yourself by your ability or your discernment or your power. I can't trust my faith. Man's
sin is mixed with all I do. It just seems like every once
in a while, just for a fleeting moment, Brother Jaime, I think
I almost was able to trust him. Just a moment. I thought I did.
I thought maybe just for a minute. Almost, I mean, when I was singing
these songs of Zion, every once in a while I read something and
I think, Oh, that was so good. Sometime I'd be studying and
reading something and all of a sudden my heart just rejoiced
and my eyes just welled up and I'm thinking, Lord, that was
so good. Before I know it, that's over. Lean not to your own understanding. Oh, as David said in 2 Samuel
23 verse 5, He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things." All things were in order and
sure. This is all my salvation and
my desire. This is all of my salvation right
here. Almighty God, according to His
own will and purpose, chose to show mercy to me. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world
in the mind and will and purpose of Almighty God came into this
world in time. And the Father who first trusted
in Christ justified me freely by His grace in eternity and
never looked upon me in wrath, never, never. If He ever looked on me in wrath
the first time and then He looked on me without wrath, then He
changed. He changed in His attitude and
He said, I don't change. If there is no condemnation to
me right now that be in Christ Jesus, there is therefore now
no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus. You say,
well that's now. How long have you been in Christ? How long have you been in Christ?
Well, there's never been any condemnation to you. The Spirit of God called me out
of darkness and told me what God had already done. The Spirit of God taught me what
God Almighty had eternally done. Don't lean to your own understanding.
Don't lean to your own wisdom. Don't lean to your own purpose,
desires, heart. Verse 6, In all thy ways acknowledge
Him. There's another commandment that
God's people keep. In all thy ways acknowledge Him. Recognize Him. Recognize Him. Has He said that He orders all
things after the counsel of His own will? Has He said, Romans
8, 28, all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. Do I believe that Almighty God is ordering all things in this
world, in the government, in the nations, in Iraq, here, in
this government, Is Almighty God working all these things
for my good? He said He is. In all thy ways,
acknowledge Him. Eli was told by young Samuel
what the Lord said He was going to do to his two boys. And Eli
said, It's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good.
It's the Lord. God's people know that God's
sovereign. In all thy ways, in every way that He's ordered me,
the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Not that His ways
to my flesh are always easy. These things that we go through
in this life are often grievous. And they're hard to the flesh. But with our new mind, we bow. Lord, You've dealt well with
me. In all Thy ways, acknowledge
Him. It's a settling of the heart
to know that God Almighty sends all things that cross my path
to be for my good and His glory. I can settle down there. I can
go to sleep at night. He settled. I'll ask Him, Lord,
would You settle my heart down? Because if You settle me... I used to tell my kids, a situation
never changes, only the way you look at it. If Almighty God has settled your
heart, then you've settled in. You say, it's the Lord. It's the Master. He's going to
temper every trial and chastisement that comes my way with mercy. Everything comes my way. He will
surely do me good. All thy ways acknowledge Him.
I don't want to take a step without His advice. I don't want to walk
without His counsel. I truly do consider Him to be
present. He said, I'll never leave you,
I'll never forsake you. Then I can settle down with this
thought that He's there. Thy testimonies also are my delight
and my counselors. Take God's Word. I find great
comfort in God's Word in trials. In all thy ways, acknowledge
Him. Jeremiah 10.23 says, O Lord,
I know that the way of man is not in himself. It's not in man
that walketh to direct his steps. How do I know? How do I know? How do I know what would be best? In all Thy ways acknowledge Him. We prayerfully consider the Spirit
of God and ask Him to direct us, help us. Lord, teach us of
Yourself. Lord, direct us. Do you realize
what we've just asked? Lord, whatever it takes. Lord,
I want to know You. Lord, I want to be able to trust
You. You just asked something that,
as far as your understanding, I know it may sound very simple.
But to trust the Lord, you're going to be placed in a situation
to trust the Lord. But you want to. You do. We surely
should see Him as our Lord, our Master. In all Thy ways,
acknowledge Him. And He shall direct thy paths.
What a promise. He's not going to leave me to
myself. I'm so glad. This life is but
a vapor. This life. 70, 80, 90. Like I told you the other night,
He gave Hezekiah 15 more years. Those 15 years have been gone
so long. Your life is just a moment. Just here, gone. Here, gone. The only thing that matters,
what think ye of Christ? Not where you live, not what
you drive, what you've got in your bank account. What think
ye of Christ? Trust in the Lord as a commandment
that God's people keep. Trust in the Lord. with all thine
heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Amen.