Alright, if you take your Bibles
and turn back with me to Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs chapter 3, we'll be
looking at verses 5 and 6 this morning. Title of the message, Trusting
and Acknowledging God. Trusting and Acknowledging God. The Scripture says, in the Lord. How much are we to trust in the
Lord? With all thine heart. And what's the opposite of trusting?
The Lord is simply this, leaning on your own understanding. When
we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture it said,
Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts
and let him return unto the Lord and he will abundantly pardon. We trust in the Lord with all
our hearts. And the opposite of trusting
him is to lean on our own understanding. So he says the opposite. Don't
lean on your own understanding. And what's the fruit of this
trusting? In all thy ways acknowledge Him. In everything, in every providence,
in every difficulty, in every trial, in every joy, in every
minute of peace. What are we to do? Acknowledge
Him. Trusting Him always acknowledges
He is our Savior. He is our God. He is sovereign
over all things. We acknowledge Him in all our
ways. And what is His promise? He shall
direct thy paths. Now, we know this trusting the
Lord. To trust the Lord and to acknowledge
Him If you do not trust the Lord, it is a moot point to acknowledge
Him. There are many who are lost that acknowledge God exists.
Men know there is a God, but they do not worship Him as God.
Instead, they form a God of their own imagination. This is what
we all have done. Now, I understand I'm talking
about those who are outside of Christ, but you that are in Christ,
you understand this. Because you, yourself, and I,
myself, have made gods of our own imagination. And they acknowledge the God
that they make. But this God, is not one that
can be trusted. A God made in our own minds is
not a God worthy of trust because He's not real. A God
that's imaginary is not to be trusted because He's not real.
The God of this world, friends, the God of this world is Satan. And He leads His children as
they have been taken captive by His will, and He is the one
that directs their paths. This God of this religious age,
He promises salvation, but has no power to save anyone. That, my friend, is not a God
to be trusted. It's not a God to lean upon. A God that requires something
from his worshippers in order to be able to save them is not
a God that can be trusted. Why? Because then salvation is
dependent upon the worshippers and not upon God. Their God needs their will or
their works in some form to save them. But we know this, that
is not the God of the Bible and that is not the God in whom we
trust. This is the God in whom we trust.
He said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then, here's the conclusion
of this. So then, it is not of him that
willeth. nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy." This is the God in whom believers
trust. We believe the God of Scripture. We believe the God as He has
revealed Himself in His Word. He reveals Himself as a sovereign
God, a merciful God, a gracious God. And this God says, I'm going
to have mercy. Thank God for that. But who is
He going to show mercy to? Whomsoever He will. That's whom He'll show mercy
to. He shows mercy by His own sovereign will. And His mercy
is not dependent on him that willeth or him that runneth.
A God that showeth mercy. I trust in the only God that
saves and not a God that makes salvation possible. Friends,
I don't need a God that can only make it possible. Because then
there's a possibility He can't. I need the God of this book that
declares this, that He doesn't make it possible. He actually
accomplishes salvation. This is the God in whom we trust. We trust in a sovereign God. We trust in an omnipotent God
who has all power to do whatsoever He pleases to do. I trust in
a God who has elected His people from eternity. I trust in the
God who loved them with everlasting love. That song they just sang,
oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus. It's as an ocean. He's trying
to emphasize the magnificence and the majestic amount of God's
love. How infinite is God's love? Remember, God doesn't change.
And so however He loved us from eternity, He is still loving
us right now, and He shall forever love us with the same amount
of love. He doesn't change, and neither
does His love. His love for His elect is eternal. And you know this. How do we
know He has an elect people? How do we know that He loves
them? In the manifestation of His Son
coming into this world. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. He sent His Son into the world
to be the propitiation for our sins. He sent His Son to be our
righteousness and offering for sin. Therefore, I trust in the
God who was crucified. Jesus Christ is God manifest
in the flesh. And friends, it was the God-man
who hung upon Calvary's tree for our sins. I trust in His
death for our sins. And I know that His death, I
trust His death satisfied the justice of God forever. Why?
Because God, before it even happened, declared He would satisfy it. He shall see of the travail of
His soul and be satisfied. And so when Christ died upon
Calvary's tree, you bet this, I trust this, God was satisfied
with His offering. I know this, whoever Christ died
for, God's satisfied with them. That's sure. I know that God,
how do you know? Because God raised him from the
dead. God raised him from the dead,
seated him on the throne of heaven where he now rules all of the
affairs of men to do whatsoever he pleases. The psalmist says this, our God, trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. Why? Because our God is in the heavens
and hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Whatsoever he hath pleased. The world and its religion will
not have anything to do with a sovereign God. They don't want
anything to do with a sovereign God. They don't want a God that
violates their will or the exercise of their sovereignty. Why? They
want to be God. They want to be God. But this
is the only God that true believers trust their souls to, is a sovereign
God. Any God that relies on man's
will and cannot save is not God and not to be trusted. But the
God of this Bible is one that saves, not based on man's works,
will, or religious exercise, but He saves them according to
His grace. And listen, when He saves them,
He saves them forever. This is why you should trust
the Lord. Because He not only chose a people, He not only saved
them by Jesus Christ, He not only rules all things to call
them to Himself, but once He calls them to faith, they never
leave. They never leave. They do stumble. They do fall. They fail. They even confess
their unbelief. Lord, I believe. Help Thou my
unbelief. But yet they never depart from
Him. Go to John chapter 10. Go to John chapter 10 and see
that our God in whom we trust, He keeps His people. John chapter
10. And look at verse 26. He's talking
to these Pharisees that didn't believe. And He says this, But
you believe not. Because you are not of my sheep,
as I said to you. Is that not plain language? Anybody
miss that? He said, this is the reason people
won't believe. You're not my sheep. You're not my sheep. My sheep, this is the distinction.
My sheep hear my voice. And I know them. And what is
the result of hearing his voice? They follow me. They trust me. They believe on me with all their
heart, with all their soul. They set all of their hope on
me. This is that sheep. You know,
a sheep is a dumb animal. But the one thing he knows is
a shepherd. He doesn't know how to add. Doesn't know how to jump
through hoops. They're just ignorant, man. I
watch videos on sheep just to see myself. You know, they'll sit in one
area of pasture, and they'll eat that grass and eat that grass.
If the shepherd don't leave them out, if he don't lead them to
new pasture, they'll starve to death. They'll just stay right
there, numb. They'll get so fat and woolly
that they'll roll over on their back. They'll call it a cast
sheep. They'll just roll on their back, and if they're left there,
they'll die. They can't right themselves.
Anybody like that? When you fall, you can't right
yourself. What do you need? You need the shepherd. You need
the shepherd. We hear His voice, we follow
Him, and this is what He gives us. I give unto them eternal
life. They didn't merit it. They didn't
earn it. I give it to them. Freely give it to them. And they shall never perish. And listen, what about the outside
influences? Now, Lord, I know you You tell
us you give us eternal life and we're not going to perish, but
man around us, look at all these evils, look at all these wolves
that are around us. Listen, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. Why? My Father which gave them
me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Our sovereign God will keep us
in His hand and no man can deliver us out of His hand. He gives
us eternal life. Friend, when did that begin?
You know, eternal life. Eternal life is without beginning
or without end. I give them eternal life. This
is the God in whom we trust to save us by His blood and righteousness. We trust Him to keep us for all
eternity. If there's any here today that
does not believe on Christ, I know this, that doctrine of
election never stopped one sinner from coming to Christ. People
are so fixed on not talking about the election of grace. Oh, you
don't want to start out with that? Listen. Election never stopped anybody. Listen, without election, there
would be no one coming to Christ. But because the God of all mercy,
because of God's mercy, all that see their need of Christ and
come to Him, He will never cast you out. Do you see your need
of Christ? Then come to Christ. Believe
on Christ. Trust in Christ with all your
heart. Don't lean on your merits. Don't
lean on your understanding. Forsake what you think you knew
and trust Christ. Trust Him and He will not cast
you out. Matter of fact, the only way
we know we are His elect is this, if the Spirit draw you to Him.
You know, I know my election simply because of faith. You
believe? Well, there's the evidence of
your election. It's faith in Christ. And all
who trust in the Lord, what do we do? We turn to Him. That's what it is to trust Him.
It is to lay everything on Him. You know who's responsible for
my salvation? He is. Who's responsible to obtain my
righteousness, my redemption, my everlasting life, my eternal
inheritance? Who merited all that? He did. Christ did. Paul says to the Thessalonians,
for they themselves show us what manner of entering we had unto
you, how you turn to God from idols. to serve the living God. Isn't that what you did when
you trusted Christ? You turned from everything else. You turned
from everything else. Now I want to give you an illustration
of trusting God. I'll give you an illustration
in Scripture about trusting God. Go to 2 Kings. 2 Kings. And look at chapter
18. We talk about this king, Hezekiah,
and use him as an example of those who trust in the Lord with
all their heart. And then we're going to see how
he acknowledges God in all that happens to him. Look at verse
3. The scripture says, And he did
that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all
that David his father did. He removed the high places, and
broken the images, and cut down the groves, and broke in pieces
the brazen serpent that Moses made. For in those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it Nehishten. He trusted in the Lord God of
Israel, so that after him was not None like him among the kings
of Judah, nor any that were before him, for he cleaved to the Lord
and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments
which the Lord commanded Moses." This is the contrast of all those
who serve the God of this religious age and the believers of Jesus
Christ. Here you've got a contrast. All
that served another God are like those that served the serpent
of brass." You realize this has been hundreds and hundreds of
years since Moses made that serpent of brass? And you know they kept
it. They kept that serpent of brass. God commanded Moses to
make that, didn't He? Moses made it and God used it,
but the children of Israel They kept it 400 years, and it became
an object of worship. But you remember what the purpose
of that brass serpent was, don't you? It was a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. And so then the thing that pictured
the atoning work of the Messiah, the thing, the object, became
a source of worship. Is this not clearly how this
is the same among churches and people who take objects, crosses,
pictures, relics from the old saints? I don't know. I'm sure that some of this may
be true. They had a comb of a saint that
they kept this comb and they believed that this comb had some
kind of magical power. I think it had a piece of his
hair in there or something. And they just worshiped things.
Why do you think we don't have those objects like the nails
on the cross or the cup that Christ literally drank from the
Holy Grail? Why? Because people would bow
down to a cup. They would bow down to a nail.
They would bow down to a piece of wood. They got that shroud
they believed that Jesus was covered in. What did they do?
They worshiped the object and forget Christ. They don't trust
Christ. They take the Lord's Supper. What do men worship? They worship
the bread. They worship the wine. They don't
worship who it represents. They take the object and worship
it. This in contrast that men would
look to anything but Christ. Men would believe and trust in
anything but Christ. That's how ruined this nature
is. But this king, he did not trust in that brazen serpent. He did not trust in their groves
and their idols. Scripture says he trusted in
God. That's verse 5. He trusted in
the Lord God of Israel. And what was the manifestation
of this? Verse 6, He claimed unto the Lord and departed not
from following Him but kept His commandments. He trusted the
Lord. He claimed to the Lord. And that's
what it is to trust God. It is to claim to Him. You that believe on Christ, how
hard do you hold on to Him? I hold on to Him as though my
soul depends on Him. I cleave to Him. I trust Him. I believe His Word. That's what it is to cleave.
Jesus said in Matthew 7, 24, Therefore, whosoever trusteth
these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, and likened Him a wise man that
built his house upon a rock, Those that are founded upon the
rock, Jesus Christ, are blessed. They that hear the word of God
and believe it and do it, these are blessed. I believe God's word, don't you? Do you believe this word? I trust God is working all things
after the counsel of His own will, don't you? I trust Him. I believe Him. I trust that Jesus'
blood is sufficient to cleanse me of all my sins. I believe
His righteousness is the very righteousness of God, and that
righteousness has been given to me. Not by any merit, not
by any works, not that I have distinguished myself among men
so that I should earn it. It was given me by the free grace
of God. I believe and trust the word
of God. And as we walk in this world
as believers in Christ, we continue to trust God in the troubles
and trials of this life. A person that believes once you
become a Christian, everything's easy is deceived. I never want
to deceive men of this. Just like the Christian in Pilgrim's
Progress, remember him? Christian in Pilgrim's Progress,
he's living in that city of destruction. He's doing fine until what? He
had a burden on his back. He felt the guilt of his sin
and everyone looked at him strangely. What is your problem? They couldn't
see the burden. The world feels no burden for
sin. But if God ever gives you grace
to feel a burden, you won't find relief in this world. Matter of fact, you'll find trouble.
And just like Christian, you will flee to Christ for salvation. This world that was once your
friend will now be bent on your destruction. In our illustration, this is
exactly what happened to Hezekiah, the king of Israel, who trusted
in the Lord. It was not long after he trusted,
after this Scripture was declared, he trusted in God. He tore down
all those idols. He burned that brazen serpent. He declared, he cleaved unto
God, and he obeyed His commandments. You that believe, what are His
commandments? His commandments are simply this. Believe and
love. Faith and love are the commandments
of believers in Christ. And we keep these commandments.
And if we do, we're going to have trouble. Look at verse 22
in 2 Kings 18. In verse 22, it says... Now, what has happened in these
other verses here is that the king of Assyria sent this man
Rabshakeh. He came up there and they surrounded
Israel. They had burned all of their finned cities. And all
their defenses were gone. They were at the gate. They were
surrounded them. There were so many that they
could not win. And this man, Rav Shecka, he
says up there in verse 22, and he says, But if you say unto
me, We trust the Lord our God. Is not he whose high places and
whose altars Hezekiah had taken away And hath not Judah said
unto Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? And the king of Assyria sent
this messenger to defy the nation of Judah in their trust." They
trust in God. They mocked the Lord God of Judah
saying, look, we already destroyed your brothers in the north. Didn't
they trust in God? And look what we did to them.
No, not really. They didn't trust in God at all.
That's why they were destroyed. In other words, they didn't know
the difference between God and gods. They didn't understand
the difference. In verse 28, he says, Rabshakeh
stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language and spoke
to them, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of
Assyria. Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you,
for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand. Neither
let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, the Lord will
surely deliver us, and this shitty shall not be delivered into the
hand of the king of Assyria. They said, look, don't trust
God. Trust what you see. Look around you. Look what we've
done to these other kingdoms. Don't you trust God to deliver
you. The messenger then promises this. If they surrender, look, if you
surrender to us, we're going to give you peace. We're going
to give you the land. Dear brother in Christ, is this
not a constant temptation of the world, the flesh, and the
devil to us? Does not trust God. It is our constant temptation
not to trust Him. Is this not the case when all
appears hopeless and dark? When there seems to be no way
out? When we seem outnumbered? Surrounded? When our soul sinks
deep into the mire of doubt and fear? Sin comes in. Temptation comes
in. Look, if you just not trust God,
I'll give you peace. If you just follow your flesh,
you'll have peace. You follow your reasoning. You'll
have peace. That's what it promises. This was a case of the nation
of Judah and the eyes were hopeless. There was no earthly way out.
But look, Hezekiah was trusting in the Lord. And he did something
that our text exhorts everyone who trusts in the Lord. You that
trust in the Lord with all your heart. What do you do? Don't
lean on what you see and what you feel and what you think. Lean not to your own understanding. And that's what Hezekiah is going
to do. He's not going to lean on his own understanding. Instead,
he's going to acknowledge Him in all His ways. Trusting this,
He shall direct his paths. Hezekiah acknowledged the Lord.
in this, and he knew that God was the only one who could save
him. There's not anything that comes
to us in our life, believer, that God has not designed to
come to pass. You think the Assyrians were
there by accident? Why didn't they come there before?
What took them so long? God brought them there. God determined
to show His power and love toward Judah. And he did it through
the assault of the Assyrians. When troubles come upon us, let
us then, in trusting God, acknowledge Him. Let us know that all things
that happen to us are of the hand of God. When troubles come
upon the child of God, we are to be comforted in the fact that
God has allowed it. What is your trouble? How did
it come? Acknowledge Him. Don't be afraid
to acknowledge that God has brought these difficulties, these troubles,
because He has. Acknowledge His sovereignty in
this matter. Nothing happens to the child
of God by chance or accident, but only by the divine appointed
hand of God. If sickness, sorrow, pain, heartache
come, then we are to comfort ourselves by acknowledging it's
God. Listen, sickness, pain, and grief
come upon all men. But when it comes upon God's
children, we have promises. We have promises to trust in.
We have a promise that God is working all things together for
your good. Acknowledge this. By trusting
Him, we acknowledge His sovereignty of this and acknowledge His promises
that this thing, whatever it is, is going to work together
for our good. All things work together for
good. To them that love God, to them
are the called according to His purpose. Now listen, all things
do not work together for good to everyone, but only to those
who trust in the Lord, to only those who believe in Christ,
who are called of the Spirit to love Him and believe on Him. And this is true then, all things,
all things, friends, all things will work together Not individually. Something evil, something horrible
happens to you. And you say, well, how can that
be good? I don't say it's good. I don't say, Terrence, you know,
it's good you're sick. I wouldn't say that. That wouldn't
be good. We'd say that's horrible. We
don't like that. But we know this, that it's going to work
together with something else for your good. For your good. I like this illustration. You have a pharmacist. You're
sick. And there's a medicine you need
to cure you. And what the pharmacist does,
he has to take two things that by themselves would kill you. But when he combines them together,
they heal you. It's exactly what God does. That
bad thing by itself He would kill you. But God works it all
together to heal you. If God kills you, did He hurt
you? Did He really hurt you? Not if
you're a believer in Christ, He didn't hurt you at all. As
a matter of fact, He made you better. He made you whole. So all things work together.
Remember Joseph? Joseph and his brother. Take
each individual thing that happened to Joseph. The Lord gave him
a promise. He said, look, you're going to
be the Savior of your family. That was His promise. He said
all these sheaves and this dream, they bowed down to His sheep.
He was going to be their Savior. Which is a picture of Christ,
obviously, but that was the vision He got. Then He got that coat
of many colors. Everything seemed to be going well. Daddy loved
me. He sent me out to rule over my
brothers. And all of a sudden, everything
turned bad. His brothers grabbed him, threw him in a pit, was
debating whether to kill him or not, sold him off into slavery.
Then he gets there and God blesses him. He gets into Potiphar's
house. Everything's going well. He seems, ah, now this is it. This is how it... Next thing
you know, Potiphar's wife accuses him of sexual things and he gets
put into prison. Then, in prison, He has those
two men, the butcher and the baker. He saves the one. He has that dream. He says, when
you get to Pharaoh now, you remember to tell him about me. Oh, everything's
looking up. And then what happened? That
man forgot all about him, didn't mention him at all. Then Pharaoh
had a dream. And then he goes to the... Now
he reminds him. He says, oh yeah, I got a guy
down there in the prison that told me my dream. He'll tell
you yours. And sure enough, he gets exalted up there and he's
king over all of Egypt. Pharaoh's the only one that has
any more power over him than anybody. He's in charge of everything.
But you know what he doesn't do? He doesn't go out and try
to find his brothers. You ever thought about that?
He didn't go out and try to find his brothers. He believed God
and God brought his brothers to him and fulfilled exactly
what God purposed. Consider the greatness of the
end of that was much better than all of the smaller victories. God used every bit of that to
put him up there to do what he purposed him to do. And you know
what he says, you meant it for evil. But God meant it all for
good. So no matter the circumstance
you find yourself, acknowledge God, trust Him. He's working
all things together for your good. The psalmist says, the
Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed. A refuge, listen,
in time of trouble. When do you appreciate a refuge
most? When would you appreciate a refuge
the most? In a sunny day? Or in a storm? When would you cleave to the
refuge the most? In a peaceful day? Or the day
of battle? Which? You see why God allows
troubles to come? Why He tests your faith by these
troubles? Do you trust Him when all appears
to be opposite of what God promised you? Do you trust Him? Hezekiah trusted Him and cleaved
to the Lord. Gil said this about our refuge.
A refuge in time of trouble of which saints have many. As when
God hides His face, when corruptions prevail, when grace is low in
exercise, when temptations are strong. Yet even then Christ
is a refuge from the storm. The salvation of His people is
of Him. He is their strength in every
time of trouble. And so Hezekiah in this time
of trouble, I want you to see this, he acknowledged God. He
not only trusted Him, he not only obeyed Him, he not only
cleaved to Him, listen, he acknowledged Him by the things he did. Look
at chapter 19 now. It's the first thing he
did when he heard of trouble. Where did he go? And it came
to pass when King Hezekiah heard it that he rent his clothes and
covered himself in sackcloth. And where did he go? He went
to the house of the Lord. Now listen to this. In that day
there was only one place that God manifested Himself. The tabernacle. the house of
the Lord. That's where he went. This was
the only place where God would meet with men. This is the place
where God chose to dwell. And he went to God through the
offerings. How do you go to God when trouble
comes? How do you acknowledge him? You
acknowledge him by going to him. You go to God. The only one that
can help you, the only refuge for your soul, the only help
for your body, the only help for your mind is God. You go
to Him through Christ. That's the only way you go. You're
not supposed to go any other way. In trouble, who are you
going to go to? Those that trust the Lord go
to the Lord. They acknowledge that He alone can help and only
by the merits of Christ. Secondly, he went where God was,
and second, he heard the Word of God. Verse 5, So the servants
of Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said unto him, Thus you
shall tell your master. Thus saith the Lord. When you go to God, where do
you go to hear Him? Where do you go to find His answer?
You go to His Word. His Word. What does his word,
what does his preachers tell you when you're in trouble? What
is our message to you? Be not afraid. Be not afraid. Don't fear the words which you
have heard, which the servants of the king of Assyria blaspheme
me. Hear his words. Most believers ask the question,
what is God's will for my life? When you ask that, what do you
think they're asking for? They want to know something secret. They want a crystal ball telling
them what's going to happen. God doesn't do it that way. It's
been revealed those things belong to God, not you. But let us live not according
to the things we don't know, but live according to the things
we do. What do you know? You only know
what God said. You only know what God promised,
what God has revealed. Therefore, let us then not neglect
the worship of God. The worship of God. Where the
Word of God is preached, let us not neglect our private study
of the Word of God, our private reading of this Word. It's important. And I know this, if a man is
neglecting the worship of God publicly, you know why he's doing
that? Because he's often neglected the worship privately. He's not seeking God privately,
therefore he won't come and seek Him publicly. Hebrews 4 and verse 12, it says,
for the word of God is quick. That's why you listen to the
word of God. It's living. The Word of God is quick and
powerful. Isn't that what you need? Don't
you need power in times of trouble? You need power. Where do you
get it from? You need strength. You need encouragement. Your faith is waning. You're
feeling tempted. You're being drawn away. What
do you need? I need encouragement. I need
strength. I need to trust God. And we trust Him by hearing His
Word. quick and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing into the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joints
and marrow, the discerner of thoughts and the intents of the
heart." How many times have you ever heard the Word of God and
all of a sudden said, how did He know what that was? It's not me. I don't have any idea. God does. There are those of
us who believe on Jesus Christ. We understand that God's Word
is living. It's powerful. And what is His
Word? What does He command us to tell you? What did He command
Isaiah? Don't be afraid. He says to His
ministers, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Why? Because they
need comfort. They need it. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her. Here's your comfort, that her
warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned. Isn't that what troubles you
the most? I know that outside things trouble you, but what
troubles you the most? What troubles me the most when
I am tempted and sin is this, am I His or am I not? Do I have union with Christ or
not? You tell them they do. You comfort
them that their sins have already been pardoned because they have
received of the Lord's hand double for all their sins. And as he acknowledges the Lord,
God swears to him that He's going to turn those people in Assyria
back. And He did that. He said, I'm going to send a
rumor, and I'm going to destroy them, and you're not going to
have to do a thing. Isn't that the promise of God
to us? Salvation is done. The victory is won. And you have nothing You have nothing to add. That's
what you'll hear when you hear the Word of God. And the last
thing he did in acknowledging the Lord was he prayed. Hezekiah, he had heard this Word
that God promised and what did he do? Those letters that that
man sent him, that letter saying we're going to kill you, we're
going to destroy you, what did he do? He took them before the
Lord and he laid them out. To acknowledge God is to lay
out your troubles before Him. And listen, leave them there. How often do you lay your troubles
down and then pick them back up? Cast all your care upon Him for
He cares for you. Okay. And then you take them
back. Well, that's not acknowledging Him. That's not trusting Him. Hezekiah laid Him out before
the Lord and said, Lord, You have the power. Isn't this what
we do by acknowledging Him? We pray. Prayer is our communion
with God. And all who acknowledge Him have
this promise. Listen. He shall direct thy paths. Who's directing your path? Who's
steering you as you go through life? I acknowledge it is God. And
I trust Him wherever He leads me. I know where it ends. I don't know the path, I just
know where it ends. It ends in Heaven. He's bringing me to Himself. That's the path. and our paths
are full of troubles, but in the trouble acknowledge God."
Trust Him. Trust Him. Who do you trust more,
yourself or Him? I'd be foolish to trust yourself.
Trust in the Lord. How much? With all your heart.
Trust in Christ with all your heart. Don't lean to your own
understanding. In all your ways, in all your
troubles, in all your dark providences, acknowledge Him. Worship Him. Come to Him. Worship Him. Praise
Him. And He promises, I will guide
you. I will lead you into life everlasting. I pray God will bless us. Let's
stay and be dismissed in prayer. Father, dismiss us with Your
blessing. Pour out Your Word upon our hearts. Give us grace
to trust You, to lean upon Christ with all our weight. Acknowledge
Him in all our providences. Trust Him for His grace. I pray
it in His name.