Thank you, Tony. Thank you, brother. I appreciate that prayer so much.
Bless my heart. That's my prayer. I want to guide
your attention this morning to a text of scripture that's been
a great help to me in recent days. It's found in the book
of Proverbs, chapter three. I trust the Lord will bless this
time of study of his word to your hearts, to my heart. As
our brother said when he prayed, we need to hear God's word. I count it a great privilege
to stand before you this morning. I want to thank you for the opportunity
to speak to you this morning. And it's always a great privilege
to be enabled To meet with God's people where the word of God
is opened and it's read and studied and it's preached and Christ
has set forth. Christ, our hope of eternal life
and accounted a great privilege just to be here. And I know you
do too. I know there's a lot of great,
probably great events taking place throughout the world today,
but there's no better place to be. and the top side of this
earth and where we are right now. And as believers, we know
that. And we thank God that he's given
us a desire to be here and to be where his word is preached
and Christ is set forth. But my text is found in verses
five and six of Proverbs chapter three. 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. Before we get too far into the
message, I want us to look at this first few words. Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart. That all is three letters, but
it's a mighty big word. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. Well, you mean to say that there's
nothing else? There is nothing else. Tell me
how there is anything else if our heart is fully engaged in
trusting the Lord. This is the very word of God.
And the word of God tells us, trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. How can our heart be engaged
in anything else if we're fully trusting in him? You see, the
believer's life never departs from that principle. The believer's
life consists of trusting, believing, hoping, resting, looking. The work is done. There's no
work to be done. He who did the work is seated
at the right hand of the Father, and he's done all the doing. And we come to him, we look to
him, we trust him to provide our every need, our every need
for time and eternity. And if we can remember this word
of God, as we live our lives, trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. that in every situation would
be brought back to this one thing, looking to Christ, our Redeemer. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and further, lean not to thine own understanding, and
in all thy ways, acknowledge him. These commands, this word
of God, draws me from myself to him. Trust in him, acknowledge
him, And don't lean to your own understanding.
Everything we need is found in Him. We must look to Him. And
the promise is, He shall direct thy paths. That's been a help
to me, in recent days especially. But this word of God, this word
from God instructs me, encourages me, and strengthens me in my
faith in him. As I said a minute ago, it draws
my eyes from myself to him, to trust in him, to lean not to
my own understanding. Scripture says there is none
that understandeth. Lean not to your own understanding
and in all thy ways, acknowledge him. In Christ alone, can I find
rest? There's no rest in this world.
I cannot find any rest in myself. When I look to myself, I find
no rest. I find no peace, no comfort,
no assurance. It's only when I look to him,
can I find any of those things. When I'm looking at him and trusting
him. And I love the simplicity in
these verses and the plainness that it presents to my heart
and my mind. And I want to consider these
two verses for a few minutes. I believe it will encourage us
as believers to continue to trust him, to trust him more And I
will pray that there's some here that's not yet believed that
will be encouraged and led to and enabled to trust Christ,
enabled by the spirit of God to see Christ in his beauty and
lay hold on him. Let me say this first, that the
gospel we preach, it points men to Christ and it's a simple gospel. It's simple in this respect.
That it's not many things, it's one thing. Rather, it's one person. It's one object of faith. One
person, one savior, one Lord. And true faith lays hold of Christ
alone. and turns loose of everything
else. To lay hold on something, you've got to turn loose of everything
else. And we do that, there's no room
for anything else. And thus we read the word of
God, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Do you trust him
at all? Trust him more. Do you desire to trust him? You
may, you must, you must trust him. You may do so without hesitation. There's no conditions. There's
no qualifications that have to be met. Trust in the Lord with
all your heart and don't hold anything back. We must pause here and say this. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the object
of our faith, him whom we trust, who is he? He's he, he's he whom we must
trust because he's the anointed one of God. The anointed one
of God, God's beloved son in whom he's well pleased. He's God in human flesh. And
he gave his life a ransom for many. He paid the debt due our
sin. He bore the wrath of God that
was due our sin. He's the substitute for sinners,
the substitute, the only substitute for sinners. And we're all sinners and we
need a savior. And I love to say this, there
is a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. I need a Redeemer,
there is a Redeemer, none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, God
in human flesh. And God says, trust in him whom
I've set forth, him who was sent to die for sins of his people. Trust in him with all your heart. Can we take this too far? Can
we trust him too much? Not when he says, all your heart.
Can't take it too far. We read in Psalm 62 verse eight,
trust in Him at all times. Trust in Him at all times. Trust
Him with all your heart. Trust Him at all times. Trust
Him in life. Trust Him in death. Trust Him
in health. Trust Him in sickness. When things
are going well, when things are going tough, look to Him, trust
Him. Let's read a few verses over
there in Psalm 62, beginning in verse five. I'd like to read
that to you and with you. I think this goes along with what
we're trying to say here this morning. Beginning in verse five,
my soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense, I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, ye
people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Oh my. And we read over in 1 Peter 2,
you don't have to turn there, but it says in verse 6, wherefore
it is always, or wherefore also it is contained in the scripture,
behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect, elect of
God, chosen of God, he in whom my soul delights, mine elect,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I've laid that chief cornerstone
and he's elect, mine elect, and he's precious. And he that believeth
on him, listen to this, shall not be ashamed. He that believeth
on him shall never be ashamed. Can a man ever be found wanting
who trusts in Christ? Emphatically no. will not be
disappointed, will not be confounded or confused or disappointed. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. And it goes on and says this,
unto you therefore which believe, he is precious to the believer. He's precious to the believer,
in the believer's eyes. Those of us that believe him,
can you stop believing him? Would you stop believing him?
We can't. We can't not believe. We can't not believe. Those that
know thy name, know the Lord's name, it says in the Psalms,
trust in thee. Those that know him, trust him.
To know him is to trust him. We can't not trust him. God's
revealed his son to our hearts. He's trustworthy. He's worthy
of our trust. And oh my, the preacher of God,
the preacher of Christ, the preacher of the gospel delights to point
men and women to this man, this Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ,
to him who they themselves trust and fully contend in commending
the eternal souls of men and women into their hands, into
his hands, I'm sorry. And then lean not to our own
understanding That's contrary to trusting in Christ to lean
on to our own understanding. To lean on in our own understanding
is to follow our own judgment, follow our own will. But we say, Lord, not my will,
but thine be done. And the scriptures plainly declare,
we can read in Romans 11, there is none that understandeth. And
I want you to read a scripture over in Jeremiah with me. Chapter
four, Jeremiah chapter four. In verse 22. says here, for my people, it's
foolish. They have not known me. They
are soddish or silly children, and they have none understanding. They are wise to do evil, but
to do good, they have no knowledge. Oh my, why would we lean on our
own understanding when we have no understanding? You know, Scripture
also says there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, lean
into his own understanding. The end thereof is the ways of
death. You know, man has many thoughts,
many opinions about many things and has settled things in his
own mind. And many times has strong convictions
about what he or she believes. But I want you to look at a scripture
in Psalm 146. And we all have convictions and
thoughts about things. Beginning in verse three, this
goes along with what we're trying to say here. Put not your trust
in princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth. He returneth
to his earth. In that very day, his thoughts
perish. Now that's a humbling thing.
We think a lot of what we believe about things, but the word of
God endures forever. Our thoughts perish when we perish,
and they're gone according to the scripture. And did you know
that no matter how much you know, how much you believe, that your
soul sits in darkness, until God in his time and by his sovereign
will turns the light on and is pleased to reveal, come and reveal
Christ to our hearts and our minds. Look in Luke chapter one in verse 76. This is speaking of John the
Baptist at the first here. He says, and thou, child, speaking
of John, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for thou
shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. to
give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of
their sins through the tender mercy of our God, whereby, here's
the Lord Jesus Christ, the day spring from on high hath visited
us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. Until that
happens, We sit in darkness. We may think we know some things,
but we don't know anything. We have no understanding. So
let us flee and abandon every high thought of ourselves and
lay ourselves prostrate at Christ's feet. and acknowledging that
if we're ever to be saved and he must act for us, he must come
to us and save us according to the good pleasure of his will
and by his grace alone. And that all that we have to
plead is our sin and our helplessness and asking him for mercy. We
become mercy beggars and that's a good place to be. In all thy ways, acknowledge
him. This means that every believer says in his heart, not unto me,
O Lord, not unto me or not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. It is he that has made us and
not we ourselves. And we are what we are by the
grace of God. Acknowledge him in all your ways.
We are his by his sovereign choice and by his saving grace. It is
he that has done it. It is he that has saved us. And we have no standing before
him outside of our standing in Christ, where he himself put
us by his mighty power and grace. So all glory and honor belongs
to him. We acknowledge him in these things. And all that we have, he's given
us. What do we have that we haven't
received? It's freely given. In all thy
ways, acknowledge him. As we live our lives, we are
wise to acknowledge him. And only I heard Scott Richardson
say this a lot. He said, a man would have to
be an insane person not to believe God and natural man is insane. That's the truth of the matter.
He's insane. It will not look to God, his
creator. And we read this in James four.
Go to now ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go into such
a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain.
Whereas ye know not, we think we know, the scripture says you
know not that what shall be on the morrow. For what is your
life? It's even a vapor. that appears for a little time
and then vanishes away. For you ought to say, if the
Lord will, we shall live. We may even die, but if the Lord
lets us live, we'll do this or that. That's what we ought to
say. You know not. We think we know,
but we know not. In Proverbs 27, we read, boast
not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may
bring forth. Acknowledge him who does know.
He does. He knows. He has purposed the
end from the beginning. Our Lord, whom we must acknowledge,
does know. And our life's in his mighty
hands. And the life that we now live
is the life he provides for us. And he has the right to do with
us as he sees fit. We must acknowledge him as sovereign
Lord and bow at his feet. We must acknowledge him as he
is, as he's revealed in scripture. And that His eternal purpose
is being brought to pass by His eternal decrees and in every
detail. And it cannot be changed. It's fixed. His purpose is fixed. And I must acknowledge His purpose
And all that it brings to me and all that it withholds from
me, I must acknowledge God's will and purpose in all these
things. I must acknowledge my time is
fixed from all eternity. The life I live is the life he
gives me. He gave me life. He will take
my life. He will take me from this earth.
in his time, according to his purpose, acknowledge him in all
thy ways. And then in our coming to God, when we first believed, And as
we continue to believe, the scripture says, he that cometh to God must
believe that he is. We must acknowledge him with
whom we have to do and look to him alone for salvation from
sin and ruin. Acknowledging if thou wilt. you can make me clean. That's
the cry of a mercy beggar who acknowledges God's right to do
with him as he sees fit. And if he's to be saved, God
must save him by his sovereign will. And then lastly, the blessed
promise, and he shall direct thy paths. Oh, isn't that music
to your ears? We don't know the way. He knows
the way, He is the way. This is the earnest, sincere
desire of the heart of every believer. It's why we wholeheartedly
trust Him. Aren't you thankful for this
promise? Because we realize, it's been taught us as God's
people, we cannot direct or command anything. God controls everything, we control
nothing. Jeremiah 10 verse 23 says, oh
Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It's not
in man that walketh to direct his steps. Therefore we pray
as we read in Psalm 31, for thou art my rock and my fortress.
Therefore, thy namesake, lead me and guide me. Isn't that the
prayer of every believer? Oh, Lord, lead me, guide me. Don't leave me to myself. Don't
leave me to my own will, my own way, my own thoughts. Guide me. Pastor Donnie Bell says this,
that I love to hear this. The first time he said it, I
just latched onto that. See if this doesn't thrill your
heart. He said the shepherd is responsible for the sheep. We're
not responsible for ourselves. Our shepherd's responsible for
us. What a good place to be. The shepherd's responsible for
the sheep. He who knows the way, he who
is the way, shall keep us in the way in himself. So in light of what we've considered
as I close, what can you find any reason to hesitate to trust in the Lord with all
your heart? And I heard another dear pastor,
Pastor Scott Richardson, say this many times. It's never presumption
to believe God. A man may say you're presuming
too much. Salvation is all wrapped up in
looking to Christ, trusting Christ. But it's never presumption to
believe God. It's presumption to do otherwise. It's presumption not to believe
God. Cast thy burden. He can bear your burden. He can
bear the heaviest burden that you have, your sin. He has borne
that burden. Cast thy burden upon the Lord
and he shall sustain thee. Trust in him with all your heart. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. Amen. Thank you.