? Oh, for grace to trust Him
more ? Oh, for grace to trust Him more. That's actually the subject of
my message this morning, trusting in the Lord. Would you turn with
Proverbs chapter three with me? Proverbs chapter three. Beginning
here in verse five, we have a word from God through Solomon. Very familiar passage of scripture. Let's look at them together and
let's consider these verses this morning and ask the Lord that
he would enable us by grace to trust him most. In verse five,
we read these simple words. 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. Be not wise in thine own eyes,
fear the Lord and depart from evil. and it shall be health
to thy navel and marrow to thy bones." I was thinking this week,
because of man's fallen sin nature, men and women have never seen
that the self-existent and sovereign God, the Lord God Almighty, the
one who spoke these worlds into existence, was perfectly happy
and perfectly content before he ever created anything. Before
he ever created heaven, before he ever created earth, before
he ever created man, God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit lived eternally in perfect harmony, perfect communion,
perfect perfection. They needed nothing more than
each other to make them happy and content. And God, it would
do us good to think about this. God, for no reason other than
his own purpose of grace and glory created the heavens and
created the earth and created man. And God saw that everything
that he created, everything that he made was very good. But by
one man's disobedience, Adam disobeyed God. He broke the one
commandment that God gave him. God gave him one single commandment
and he disobeyed God. And therefore he brought upon
himself spiritual death. and all mankind fell with him
into sin and death by sin. And instead of trusting in God's
mercy and asking God's forgiveness to be restored to life, man covered
himself, man hid himself from God. But God, who is rich in
mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, and for the glory
of his own great namesake, well, he clothed Adam and his wife's
nakedness with the covering of a blood-bought lamb. And it was
then and there that God promised the Lamb of God through the seed
of a woman. God promised the Messiah. God
promised to send his Son into the world to save, elect, and
chosen sinners from their sin. And when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law, why? To redeem them that were under
the law, that those who come to Christ might have the adoption
of sons and daughters. And again, God, for no reason
apart from his own goodness, His own grace, His own glory
in the person of His Son became the substitute, the sacrifice,
and the surety for chosen sinners so that He might justly save
them from their sin. God couldn't just sweep our sin
under a rug and just look the other way. It had to be dealt
with. God is too holy and too just
to just forgive sin. Sin has to be paid for. And our
Lord Himself paid that debt. God's glory is His mercy. God's
glory is His grace, His compassion and redemption given to those
of His own choosing. And that's why you and I are
to trust in the Lord with all our heart. That's why we're to
fear. That's why we're to reverence. That's what the word means. That's
why we're to respect. and worship our Lord and depart
from evil. Oh, may God enable us by His
grace to make this our one and our only priority in life, that
we might know Him. Now Solomon here gives us the
wisest counsel that was ever given to mortal men and women.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. This is the wisest counsel
ever given to sinners. Believers and non-believers alike.
We're told to trust in the Lord. How are we to trust in the Lord?
With all our heart. We cannot trust in ourselves.
We can't be trusted. We cannot trust in our strength. We're without strength. We cannot
trust in our faith. Why? Even our faith like ourselves
in its best state is altogether vain. Why must we trust in the
Lord? Well, first and foremost, He's
the only one that can help us. He's the only one that can save
us. Jesus Christ is the object of our trust. Jesus Christ is
the object of our faith. Faith is not blind. Faith is
in a person. Jesus Christ is the reason for
our believing. Christ is the object of all God's
grace and mercy to us. All spiritual blessings are where?
In Him. and through Him. In times of
affliction, in times of trouble, in times of temptation, in times
of darkness, in times of sickness, in times of poverty, in times
of death, we are to trust in the Lord Jesus with all our heart. If we trust in Christ our Lord
with all our heart, it's obvious that there'd be no room in our
hearts to trust anyone or anything else. That's why we are to trust
Him with all our hearts. Our hearts cannot be divided,
and they shouldn't be, not with the God and the Savior that we
have. If we trust in Christ with all our heart, our heart can't
be divided. It's consumed with Him. Christ
has earned our trust. He's earned the trust of all
our heart. When we consider all that He's
done for us, He deserves the love and the trust of all our
heart, does He not? And if you trust in someone,
there's a reason why you trust in them. We all have friends
that we trust. First, we trust them because
we know them. They've been faithful to us.
They've proven themselves worthy and they've proven themselves
capable of being trusted. How much more so is that with
the Lord Jesus? How can we not trust the one
who provides everything for us? The next heartbeat comes from
Him. The next breath comes from Him. How can we not trust Him
with all our heart? He provides everything physical
in this world. Take no thought for what you
shall eat, what you shall drink, what you shall put on. Take no
thought for having a roof over your head. Your God will supply
all these things by His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. He provides everything physical
in this world and everything spiritual for the world to come. He's certainly worthy of our
trust. He's certainly deserving of all our trust. He's deserving
of the whole of our hearts for in Him, in Christ, we live and
we move and we have our being. all the comforts and blessings
of life, external and internal, whether body, mind, soul, and
spirit, all are of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone should trust
in the Lord with all their heart. The unbelieving should trust
in the Lord, that they may be the children of your Father,
which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise
on the evil and on the good, and he sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. Now we had better trust in the
Lord and let me tell you why. There's no other way to be saved.
There's no other way to be kept, but by His sovereign power. Oh
God, be merciful to me and enable me to trust in you with all my
heart and lean not to my own understanding. We can't accomplish
redemption by the strength of our own wit, our own wisdom,
our own carnal confidence. That would be to lean on our
own understanding. It's impossible to lean, support
ourselves, rely on ourselves or any other man or any group
of men, including man's religion in order to find rest or peace. That'd be to trust in man and
not in God. There is no peace. There is no
rest. There is no hope. There is no assurance found in
trusting a God that wants to do something but can't without
your cooperation. That's not the God of the Bible.
There can be no peace. There can be no rest, no assurance,
no comfort found in a God that wants to do what you won't let
him do. Believing such nonsense is to
lean on your own understanding. And men and women in their fallen
state think that God is altogether such a one as themselves. But
God said, I'll reprove you and I'll set things in order. Psalm
50, 21. Someone recently asked me how
I was dealing and coping with the COVID virus. They asked me
what measures I was taking to be safe. And my reply was sincere
and it was simple, and I meant it. I said, I'm trusting in the
Lord with all my heart, with all I can muster. I'm trusting
in Him. And that's what we must always
do concerning everything. Every trial, every trouble, every
inconvenience, every fear, every care, we must cast upon Him. Cast upon the Lord Jesus who
cares for us. That's what Peter said. Cast
all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. That doesn't
mean that He just cares about you. That means that He's the
one caring for you. You tell folks that you're trusting
in the Lord and they'll most often say things like, yeah,
I know that we're to trust in the Lord, but you know, God has
given us some common sense and some discernment and some understanding
to do certain things for ourselves. But Solomon, the wisest man to
ever live other than the Lord Jesus himself, he didn't say
that. Solomon said, trust in the Lord
with all your heart and lean not Depend not on your own understanding. And then when you don't take
the advice of the world and men and women, they'll often come
at you with the accusation of tempting God. Well, brother,
that's just, that's tempting God. Listen to me on this. I've looked into this in great
detail. I've sought God's word on this. Believing and trusting
in God is not tempting Him. Did you hear what I said? Believing
and trusting in God, that's not tempting Him. Every single time
the subject of tempting God is found in the scriptures, it has
nothing to do with believing and trusting God. Tempting God
is always mentioned in the context of not believing and trusting
God. In Matthew chapter 16, let me give you a couple examples.
We're told in Matthew 16 verse one, that the Pharisees also
with the Sadducees came and tempting Christ. desired him that he would
show them a sign from heaven. That's nothing but unbelief.
The Lord Jesus had said, I and my Father are one. If you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. By every work of grace that he
did, every miracle that he wrought, proved that he was God the Son. Instead of trusting in Christ
and believing who he claimed to be, the religious world in
our Lord's day tempted him by wanting to see a sign. Nothing
but unbelief. What unbelief and lack of trust
that is. It's leaning on man and the world's
understanding. Another example, in Matthew chapter
19, verse three, we find another Pharisee coming to the Lord,
tempting him, asking, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife
for every cause? And the Lord said, for this cause,
and he was talking about marriage, a man and woman being joined
in holy matrimony. He said, for this call, shall
a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife,
and they, twain being two, shall be one flesh. Wherefore they
are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let no man put asunder." But that didn't satisfy the Pharisees. So they tempted Christ more by
arguing and asking, then why did Moses command to give a writing
of divorcement? Why did Moses permit a man to
put away his wife? And the Lord said this, because
of the hardness of your hearts, because of your unbelief, because
of your unbelief in the union of marriage, which pictures the
believer's marriage in union to Christ. Because you do not
belong to Christ and you don't belong to His church, God lets
you have your own way, leaving you alone and to yourself. And
it's the equivalent of God spiritually granting you a writing of divorce
from Him to whom you were never married, to Him who you never
loved and never trusted. You think about the words that
the Holy Spirit gave Solomon here, trust in the Lord. Verse
five, be confident. That's what the word means. Be
secure and sure in him, in the Lord. Rely, rest, and have hope
that Christ will provide every need that you have. Is he not
able? Is God not able to provide all
our needs according to his riches and glory? That's what he's saying.
Is God not able to work all things together for the good of them
that love Him who would be called according to His purpose? You
better believe He is. He's God. He's willing and He's
able. Solomon said, lean not on your
own understanding. Don't lean, don't depend, don't
support yourself on what you think. It'll get you in trouble
every single time. Don't be relaxed to the point
that you trust anything to your own understanding. Well, the
Lord's given you some understanding, some common sense. Don't you
dare trust in it. Don't you dare lean on your own
understanding. Let me tell you something about
your understanding. By nature, it thanks God to be
altogether like unto yourself. Verse six, he said, in all thy
ways, acknowledge the Lord. That word acknowledged means
know, recognize, observe, and be aware of Christ in everything
you do. Acknowledge Him. What are you
going to do about this? I'm going to trust in the Lord
with all my heart. I'm not going to lean on my own
understanding, and I'm going to acknowledge the Lord, who
He is, what He did, where He is now, and what He's now doing.
He's God in the flesh. He died the just for the unjust.
He rose from the dead. He ascended on high. And he's
right now on the throne of God, at the right hand of God, making
intercession for those that he loves. I'm gonna trust in him. God enable me to trust in you.
Help thou my unbelief. In all your ways, your thoughts,
your actions, acknowledge Him. Take no step without seeking
His will. Consult His word. Trust Him as
your guide. Why? Because He shall direct
your path. He'll lead you through that straight
and narrow gate. He'll put you on the right road,
the narrow way, the way of Christ, who is the way, the truth, and
the life. And it's been revealed to God's
people that no man, no woman comes to the Father, but by Him. I think we ought to trust in
Him with all our hearts. Lean not on our own understanding
in all our ways. In everything we do, acknowledge
Him. When trouble comes and fear follows,
submit to His sovereignty. You know, it's easy to say God
is sovereign when everything's going well, but He's still sovereign
when they're not. Will we ever learn that He's
the one that sent the trouble? Be still and know that He is
God. Our problem is we can't stand
still. We can't wait on the Lord. We
can't wait to see the salvation of the Lord. We got to try to
help God out. It's He that has made us, not
we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture. And He knows His sheep, and He
loves His sheep, and He cares for His sheep. Why, He laid down
His life for His sheep. And what do His sheep do? Follow
Him. I'm gonna follow Him. I'm gonna
trust in the Lord with all my heart and I'm gonna follow him.
There are a lot of strangers willing to give you advice today,
but what does the Lord say? Well, in verse seven, he says,
be not wise in thine own eyes. That's the same as saying, be
humble, be submissive, lean on Christ, cast all your care on
him. Be not wise in thine own eyes. That always gets us in trouble.
You know, only pride holds on to its own care. Only a careless
sinner keeps their care. Cast all your care on him. And
we cast it on him and we take it back. And we cast it on him,
then we take it back. Cast it on him and leave it there.
Cause he cares for you. That's what it is to trust in
the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. That's what it is in all your
ways to acknowledge Him as God. He who works all things after
the counsel of His own will. Be ready to admit, be ready to
confess that you're nothing, that you have nothing, that you
can do nothing to earn, merit, or deserve God's love and mercy
and grace. Salvations of the Lord, trust
in Him. Be not wise in your own eyes.
Think not of yourselves more highly than you ought to think,
but think soberly according as God hath dealt to you the measure
of faith. Nor trust uncertain riches, meaning
the uncertainty of riches, but trust in the living God, now
listen to this, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Do you enjoy life? You never
will by trusting in the world and the riches of the world.
Life is enjoyed only by trusting in the living God who richly
gives us all things to enjoy. And it's only by God's rich grace,
and that's what it is. It's only by his rich grace that
we enjoy all things in this life and in the life to come. Eternal
life will be gloriously enjoyed. My, my. To be with my Savior
without sin can even fathom the thought, because sin affects
every single thought that goes through this carnal mind of mine. Again, verse seven, fear the
Lord and depart from evil. Now that word fear is not tremble
in a way of being afraid. It simply means to revere. It
means to respect. It means to worship the Lord.
Worship the Lord, revere the Lord, respect the Lord. To fear
the Lord is to reverentially respect Him. You cannot think
of the Lord too highly. You can't do it. To fear the
Lord is to praise Him from whom all blessings flow. Every good
and perfect gift coming down from the Father of light, Father
in heaven, in whom there's no variableness nor shadow of turning. God said, I'm not a man that
I should lie or a son of man that should repent. The Lord
of hosts has sworn saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it
come to pass. And as I have purpose, so shall
it stand. God swore to it. You can trust
what He says. What He thinks comes to pass,
that which He purposes always stands. So let's trust in the
Lord with all our hearts. In everything that we do, let's
acknowledge Him. And verse seven again says, and
depart from evil. How does one who sees themselves
as evil depart from evil? How can one who knows that they
are sin depart from their sin? Well, it's important to understand
that this is referring, this depart from evil is referring
to the evil of self-confidence. This is referring, talking about
the evil of self-conceit. This is talking about the lie
of self-righteousness. Depart from that. While we have
no confidence but that which we have in Christ, We have no
righteousness but that which He brought for us. He was made
to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God and Him. And this departure from evil
is not looking to our will and our way, but acknowledging and
trusting the Lord in everything. We must depart from this evil. So let me finish up this morning
by asking you sincerely, what is it to trust Christ? Well,
let me show you as briefly as I can from Ephesians 1. Turn there with me. You can let
your place go in Proverbs. But here in Ephesians 1, the
apostle Paul tells us what it is to trust in Christ. And he
does so in just three sentences. They're three long sentences,
and they contain a lot of commas and semicolons and all that.
But there's just three periods, just three sentences. And I want
you to notice that after every sentence ends, we're told that
it's to the praise of God's glory. That's why God enables us to
trust in Him. Did you know that? To the praise
of His glory. When we trust in the Lord with
all our heart, God gets all the glory. Now in verses three through
six, we have the first sentence. The first sentence shows us the
purpose of God and the salvation of sinners. Look at verse three.
Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Is that the end of the verse?
No, he says in Christ. That's where all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places are found, in Christ. Verse four, according
as he had chosen us, in Him, in Christ, before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Why are we to trust in the Lord
with all our heart? Because he's going to make us
holy and without blame before him in love. Verse five, having
predestinated us, having predetermined us, having determined us beforehand
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. And then he says, to the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
below. Why do we trust in Jesus Christ?
Verse three, because God's blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in Christ. Why do we trust in Jesus Christ?
With all our heart. Verse four, because God has chosen
us in Christ. We've not chosen him, but he's
chosen us. John 15, 16. Why do we trust
in Christ with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding? Verse five, because God predestinated
us to be adopted by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure
of His will. Why do we trust in Christ? Why do we in all our
ways acknowledge Him? Verse six, because God has made
us acceptable, and then He accepted us in Christ the beloved, and
it's all to the praise of the glory of His grace. That's why.
The second sentence is found in verses seven through 12. And
it's here that we see that Christ Jesus is our salvation. Our sin
is forgiven only in Him. Now our sin was not simply forgiven,
but our sin was put on Christ and He paid the wages of sin.
Our sin was paid for. That's why the law and justice
of God has no claim on us. Why is the sinner made humble
and not wise in their own eyes? Verse seven, Christ redeemed
us. We didn't redeem ourselves. Our
redemption and our sins are forgiven and pardoned in Him. In whom
means in Christ. When you see that phrase in whom,
you know who it's talking about. And it's through His blood, and
it's according to the riches of His grace. Verses eight and
nine, God gave us wisdom and prudence, that means spiritual
judgment, and made known unto us the mystery of His will, which
He purposed in Himself. It was God's good pleasure to
make us His people. It pleased the Lord to do so.
Why do we trust in the Lord with all our hearts? Verse 10, that
in the fullness of time, God will gather together in one all
things in Christ. You see, it's in Christ that
we're born of God. It's in Christ that we're adopted
of God. Even in him, it says. It's in
Christ that we're born and adopted. That's why we trust him. Verse
11, it's in Christ that we've obtained an inheritance. And
it's only because God predestinated and purposed all things after
the counsel of His own will. That's why we're humbled. That's
why we don't lean on our own understanding. That's why in
all our ways we acknowledge Him. He predestinated and purposed
to save us. While He made His way our way,
He made His will our will. He made us willing in the day
of His power. He didn't have to. God could
have just let us go right on to hell and been no less God. But He's a merciful God. He's
a gracious God. He's worthy of our trust in Him. In verse 12, again, we see it's
all to the praise of His glory. And then we come to the third
sentence found in verses 13 and 14. And it's here we see the
work of the Holy Spirit. Verse 13, in whom? In Christ. You also trust it. You put your
full confidence, your faith, your safekeeping in Christ. When? After that you heard the
word of truth. the gospel of your salvation,
and whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise." When did we trust in Christ?
After we heard the gospel, after we heard the word of truth. When
did we lean on Him alone? After we heard this glorious
message of what Christ has done for sinners. It's by the foolishness
of preaching that God saves those who believe. of His, God's own
will, beget he us with the word of truth. This is why we trust
in the Lord with all our hearts. This is why we don't lean on
our own understanding. Verse 14, God gave us the Holy
Spirit, which is the earnest. That word means pledge, it means
token. the earnest money. The Holy Spirit
is the pledge, the token of our inheritance until the redemption
of the purchased possession. One day, God's going to give
us glorified bodies without sin, and then we'll be fully saved.
completely say, without sin and to the praise of His glory. Christ
gave us the Holy Spirit to be our guide, to teach us, to reveal
Christ to us, to bring all things concerning the Lord Jesus and
His salvation to our remembrance. What a earnest token and pledge
that He gives to us by giving us the Holy Spirit. And that's
why we trust Him. with all our hearts. That's why
we take sides with God against ourselves. That's why in all
our ways, we acknowledge Him. That's why we reverence the Lord
and desire and strive to depart from evil by not trusting in
our own righteousness, which is filthy rags, not by works
of righteousness, which we've done, but according to His mercy,
He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost. That's why we trust in Him. Are
you trusting in Christ with all your heart? That's why we don't
lean in any way to what we think or what we understand or trust
in anything we do in order to be saved. We acknowledge Christ
alone as our savior, as our substitute, as our sacrifice, as our surety. It's our savior who directs our
way. Now listen, if he's directing
your way, it's a good way. Nothing in us motivated God to
save us. The reason for saving us are
all found in Christ, who by Himself purged our sins. And it's all
to the praise of the glory of His grace. May God be pleased
to enable us to trust in Him, to lean on Him, to acknowledge
Him, to fear Him, to reverence Him, to depart from evil. You
know, sometimes in our lives, the Lord calms the storm and
sometimes the Lord lets the storm rage, but he calms his people.
I have such calm in all that's going on around us. I really
do. And I don't apologize for it. It's God that gave it to
me. Come to Christ. He said, I'll
give you rest. He said, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me and you shall find what? Rest for your souls.
He will make you lie down in green pastures. He will lead
you beside the steel waters. He will restore your soul. He
will lead you in the path of righteousness for His name's
sake, for His own glory. And surely goodness and mercy
shall follow every child of God all the days of their life. And
they will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I was reading
recently that in 1988, when they had the Winter Olympics, blind
skiers were featured in that Olympics. Can you imagine someone
blind skiing down those giant slopes that they have in the
Winter Olympics? But these blind skiers, they
were paired with skiers who could see. And those that could see
would simply ski along beside them and yell, left! or yell
right when the time came to turn. The blind skiers obeyed their
direction without question. Though we may not see what God
has purposed, we may not understand what God is doing in all the
things around us. We know that in order to be safe
by God's grace, we've got to listen and obey His word. That's
what it is to trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not
to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him.
That's what it is for Him to direct your path. Be not wise
in your own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. Oh, may
God, I sincerely mean this. May God be pleased to make these
things so for Christ's sake. Amen.