this morning, turn to the book
of Proverbs, chapter 3. "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus."
There's only one place, folks, that we have to go for any trust of anything in
this world. I love this woman dearly. I would
lay down my life for her if that were necessary. I love my children dearly. But quite honestly, they're just
flesh. That's all I am to her. I have
no doubt she loves me as well, but I'm just flesh. There's only
one place that you can fully put your trust in, and that's
in the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. The very one who
gave himself for a people, laid down his life for that people
that he had loved from before the world was, shed his own blood
so that they would be washed clean in his righteousness, and sitting on his throne right
now, working everything out, according to his counsel for
our good. Sure seems to be a lot of deep
sorrow going on around us in the world today, doesn't it?
Mike and I were just talking earlier about, you know, Brother
Scott in the hospital, Brother Art Olive, who was in the hospital. We were concerned that he was
having a stroke. Friday night was when we received the word
that he was in the emergency room. So it wasn't until this
morning when we were relieved of that thought that he was having
a stroke. Our sister, Jamie, As you, those
of you who know, she's lost many members of her family to different
things lately. One was killed in a motorcycle
accident. An uncle who was close to her
is now diagnosed with an incurable cancer and they don't expect
him to last much longer. Just seems like there's one thing
after another, doesn't it? I can't remember who it was that
was talking about it just recently, the last couple
of days. You turn on the news and somebody's getting shot somewhere,
aren't they? Some guy's gone off crazy and decided to take
a gun to a place that wouldn't hire him for whatever reason
and shoot up a bunch of people, kill a bunch of innocent people.
It just seems like no matter where you turn today, Something's going on that's hurting
people. People are doing things to each
other. And to a sinner who is saved
by grace, we've got to get out of bed every morning and face
this flesh that we live in, don't we? Aren't you thankful that
he is faithful? He says he's going to save some
people. He's faithful. He's going to save that people.
And as God does, it's going to get in his way. It says in John,
no man plucketh them out of my hand, the Lord says. No man. You know, when I first
heard that, I remember listening. I remember how I felt about that
when Pastor Gene first mentioned, as far as I can remember, way
back when, 20-something years ago. I thought to myself, no
man can pluck them out of my hand, saith the Lord. That means
I can't do anything to take myself away from God. That's good. I
like that. Because I try all the time. I don't know about you guys.
You guys may walk perfectly. I don't. I don't. I struggle. I get up
every morning and I see the sins in the flesh. At least I can stop myself at
some point there when I get out of bed and say, thank you, Lord,
for being faithful and taking care of things for me. Because
I'm just blowing it. I just blow it in myself. We
were reading there in the Psalms. I want to read that again. I want to read that again. And I know I'm supposed to read
it without comment. Well, that was then. This is now. When David
writes in verse 4, concerning the works of men by the word
of thy lips I have kept from the paths of the destroyer, I
have called upon thee, well he cries unto the Lord to
keep him, keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the
shadow of thy wings from the wicked that oppress me. Now,
David had plenty. He had plenty of men around him
that were trying to kill him. His own son tried to kill him,
didn't he? Who do you think David's worst enemy was? Who was his
worst wicked enemy that was trying to oppress him? He called him,
from my deadly enemies who compassed me about. It's like I said a
moment ago. You folks may not, but I do.
I got the greatest enemy of this world right here inside of me.
That flesh that I wake up in. There's trouble. There's trouble
in this world to a sinner. If your sins don't bother you,
I have concern for you. And you
should have concern for yourself. Our sins bother us, those of
us who know God. I know that God's paid every
one of them. I know that He's laid every sin that I can think
of in my mind that I'm going to commit and that I've committed
upon my Savior, the Lord Jesus. I know that my Lord Jesus has
taken everything that I deserve. So I have some
kind of peace, a little bit, As all of God's people do, we
have a little bit of that peace knowing that that sin that I
just thought, that just went through my mind a moment ago,
was laid upon my Savior. But that doesn't give me any
comfort from that sin, other than the results of what that
sin would be. I'm comforted to know that I'm
going to spend an eternity with Him. But I don't like what I
was just thinking. You better not be liking. You
better not be liking the sin that's going on in your life
today. So if it's bothering you, if you're having a bit of a trouble
getting out of the bed in the morning with that sin that's
in this flesh, Listen to these words. Our Lord says these words
in Isaiah chapter 40. We'll get to Proverbs in just
a moment. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Here's some comfort for you.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. That's the people of God. That's
the ones that he chose from before the world was to lay down his
life and shed his blood for. Jerusalem. Speak comfortably
to them and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. Great is His faithfulness. Great is His faithfulness. What a friend we have in Jesus. What a friend. Your iniquity is pardoned. As children of light, we do struggle
with the pains of this world, the loss of loved ones, the fear
of the unknown. That's right. We have fear of the unknown,
don't we? If I stood here before you
right now and told you that I feared nothing in that bed, in that
hospital bed, I'd be lying to you. Was I ready for the Lord to take
me from this world? As ready as any human in the
flesh can be. But that did not mean I didn't
fear what was unknown, what the beyond was. I stopped thinking
about what the Lord says is beyond that river. My Savior, His throne,
And all I could think about was what was behind a closed door. There's fear. My heart breaks right now for
Scott as he lays in that bed. There's fear of the unknown. We have pain of death. The course of this country, the
evils of the world, but most close, Our biggest is what's
close to our heart is the wickedness that we see within. I want to
talk, I'd like to talk to you this morning about our great
weakness. Look at Proverbs chapter 3 verse
5, one verse. One verse. Mark your Bible. We'll come back to some more
verses afterwards, but right now just verse 5. Trust in the
Lord with all thine heart. Now I want to stop there for
just a minute. Do you know every time our dear brother, and that's
who he is. He's a brother in Christ. David.
King David. This great psalmist, every time
he wrote, in a messianic form. In other words, speaking as though
He was Christ. And every time He talked about
His strength in leaning on God, you know who was faithful in
leaning on God with all of their strength? Our Savior. Did not
the Savior cry unto God the Father, Lord, remove this cup from me,
nevertheless, Thy will be done? Did He not cry out those words?
Remove this cup from me, yet nevertheless, I will be done. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. I shared that with you a moment
ago, because even our trust, we can't count on. Even our faith,
we can't count on. But it is faith. It's believing
who it is that said the words that we read in this book. It's
believing the one who speaks of himself as almighty in this
book. It's believing in him. But yet
our belief is not going to save us. He saved us. He did it all,
folks. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. Oh, how I wished I could. But I don't. Thank God for my substitute.
But here's our great enemy right here next to the left in this
verse, and lean not unto thine own understanding. Lean not unto thine own understanding. I gave this message about two
years ago in 2021. As I was going over the notes
again and rewriting it for today's message, I thought to myself, you know, this is the heart and the meat
of every message, is it not? I come to the Lord's table. to
remind me not to lean on my own understanding, but to trust in
Him, to look to Jesus, to turn my eyes upon the One whom my
salvation is embedded in, assured in. Lean not, trust not, have no
confidence is what that's saying. What an unnatural thing to do,
isn't it? Some of us have been around a
little while. Sorry, Polly, I didn't mean to
look at you personally. I love you, dear. Some of us have been around a
little while, haven't we? Lean not unto your own understanding. That has got to be, Lord, how? How can I not lean on something
of, okay, I know better than getting on
a roof and hammering with the nails. You know why? Because
I've done it once and smashed my finger. And how am I not supposed
to lean upon that knowledge? Get up there, hammer it anyway,
trust in the Lord. That's a tough thing to do, folks,
is it not? Do you get what I'm saying about
that? Do you not struggle with that yourself? How can I lean
not? Don't I have to get up and do
something, God? Don't I have to get up and start
going to church on Sunday? Isn't there something I've got
to do like that? God's Word says to you and I, lean not. Let's
read that again. Let's see. Trust in the Lord
with all Thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. Folks, that is in fact an impossible
thing for any natural man to do. That's impossible. Under our
original minds that we came into this world with, our dead and
trespassed hearts, We leaned upon what we thought was our
natural abilities, our natural knowledge. And to turn away from
that is impossible. Every part of our mind leans
on what we know, what we've experienced, and what we see with these natural
eyes. How can I throw all that out?
How can I lean not on what I've learned over the time and the
experience of my lifetime? You can't. You can't do it. Especially
when the word of God is so against, so against. The Lord says to
us, he says, my ways are not your ways, and your ways are
not mine. Everything about God Almighty,
everything true about who He is, what He's done, and where
He is right now is so against the natural mind of men. You
say, now wait a minute, John, that's not true. I know people
who go to church and believe in God, and they do this and
they do that. No, they don't. No, they don't. They believe in something, but
it's not the true and living God. And many of us were right
there with that and would be right there with that today if
it wasn't for the grace of God. You see how every message comes
right back around to that? Isn't that wonderful? Our Lord is gracious and merciful
to a people. Isn't that wonderful? You cannot turn away from what
you naturally are in the flesh unless something unnatural happens. Turn over to John chapter 3 if
you would. How can I throw all of that out?
How can I lean not on what I've learned over time and experience? How can I turn from all that
I have known and put my trust in what is here in a book written
of men? And that's what it is. God's
people know that God Almighty inspired these men to put this
book together. I've had this explanation given
to me twice in my life, and the first time I just like, you know,
whatever. That's it, you know. All the
different men that wrote the Bible over all the different
years have all written the Bible about the same thing. Now that's
not natural to any man. That story was given to me once
before God spoke to me and He was given to me again after the
Lord spoke to my heart. The second time I said, that's
right. I gave you my first response a moment ago. How can I turn from all that
I've known and put my trust in this book that we hold in our
hands, in this letter to God's people? If you've never heard this message,
I pray that God would be pleased by His grace to give you ears
to hear this morning. If you have heard this message
before, I pray once again that God, by his grace, may be pleased
to bring you comfort if your heart is aching. Look with me
at this example of man in his natural state and the explanation
of salvation. Beginning at verse 1, we read
in John, you know what? I've got to get there with you,
don't I? In John chapter 3, beginning
at verse 1, there is a man of the Pharisees. This is a man
who was a religious man. Folks, the Pharisees were the
most religious people that walked this earth at that time. You
know, everybody else had gods made with hands. Everybody else
had carved their little gods out of wood or stone or whatever. But the Pharisees claimed to
be believers of the true and living God. They didn't believe in Jesus
Christ as being God. They didn't believe in His will
over their will. But they did believe in a God
that you could not hold in your own hands. They were the most
religious people that walked this earth. I express that to you because
you and I all know people just like that, don't we? Maybe. Even one of us were just like
that. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night. Did you notice that? He came
by darkness. He didn't come out in the broad
daylight. No, his religious friends would have seen him. He came
to God by night and said unto him, Rabbi, We know that thou
art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered, he
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, Nicodemus
heard those words. He heard those words, and like
any natural man, any man in their natural state, anyone who is
leaning on their own understanding would say, that's flat out crazy.
Nobody's ever gone back into their mother's womb. In fact,
isn't that what Nicodemus says next, verse 4? Nicodemus says
then to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter
the second time into his mother's womb and be born? See there?
How can that be? That goes completely against
what I have lived with all my life. All the things that I have
learned, that it's my decision to make my own destination, that
it's up to me to decide which path to walk, How can I go against that? That's
against the rules of nature. How can I be born again? Am I
going to climb in my mom's womb again? You see what I'm talking
about? You see how the things of God
go right against the very nature that we come into this world
with, right off the bat. Look at verse 5. And Jesus answered
and said, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom
of God. Unless you're born of the Spirit,
you cannot. Born of water and of the Spirit. That's water. That's the Word
of God. That's the preaching of the Gospel. Everywhere you
see water in scriptures, you see it flowing, doing what it's
supposed to be doing. The Gospel goes out and flows. through God's people. Preaching of the gospel and of
a spirit who comes and makes that gospel effectual in the
hearts of men, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That
word enter means to proceed. It means to understand. Then he goes on in verse 6, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's your nature. That's your natural thoughts,
the very thing the Lord warns us of there in Proverbs chapter
3. Do not lean upon your own understanding,
upon the understanding of the flesh. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. The Lord is teaching here that
unless you are born again, I understand that you can't comprehend what
it means to be born again getting into your mother's womb, but
that's not what it's talking about. Our God is spiritual. We must worship him in spirit
and in truth. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel
not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. In other
words, quit struggling with that. Here comes the answer to it.
The wind bloweth wherewith it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but can't tell which way it cometh, and whither
it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Oh, what beautiful words to hear. You know what that says in plain
language? I know you know. I know you know. How many of
you sit there thinking in your head, salvation is of the Lord? You're
right. That's exactly what that's saying. How many of us have, you know,
Kathy and I were out here blowing leaves yesterday. You noticed
we didn't quite finish vacuuming it all, but we got as much as
we could before dark. The roof was just covered. Those leaf
guards we got when we got our new roof, I went out and bought
some for the other building over there. They're working great. But every time we would blow
the leaves off and get it all cleaned off, The Lord would send
a wind from a direction that wasn't coming a moment ago, and
then BOOM! Here comes all of these down on us together. Ha!
I give up! I give up! No I don't. I'll just
come back and clean them up again later. Folks, we can't tell where the
Lord is going to send a wind from. You can't tell who the
Lord is going to save next. Verse 9, Nicodemus answered and
said unto him, How can these things be? And Jesus answered
and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things? Are you not in charge of things? Buddy, I'm in charge,
is what he's saying to this religious man. He goes, Everything, including
the wind, is under my sovereign will. That's good news to a sinner
who needs saving. A sinner who can't do anything
themselves, that's great news to hear about there's a God who
works all things out according to his counsel, who works, who
wills the wind to go where he wants it. Are you not a master
of Israel? Do you not understand what it
is to tell somebody to go here and do something, and they go
and do it? He says in verse 11, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify
that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. Remember what He says over in
John chapter 10? Over in John chapter 10, He says to some unbelieving
Jews, some religious folks who don't believe in the Word of
God, He says to them, After they ask him if thou be
the Christ, tell us plainly, he says to them in verse 25,
I told you and you believe not the works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. If I have told you earthly things,
in verse 12 of our text, John chapter 3, if I have told you
earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if
I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up into
heaven, but that came down from heaven even the Son of Man, which
is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life. Turn back to our text in Proverbs
chapter 3 if you would, and I'll try not to go too much longer
here. You all know the story of the demonic man. Lord crossed
the sea, got over there on the other side of the sea, the Gadareans,
where the Gadareans were. I think I said that right. I
may have been wrong. But you know what I mean. And
the man in the tombs, he was cutting himself. He was crazy.
He was wild. Nobody could bear it. And the
Lord spoke to him. spoke to the devils that consumed
him. You know what that is? That's us in the flesh. That's
what's in us. That's what the Lord did to us
when he saved us, when he called us out of darkness into the presence
of his light. He spoke to that devil that was
in us and cast him out. He cut out the old stony heart
that said, I will not have this one to rule over me. And He gives
us a heart that's willing to come to Him now, willing and
loving Him, because He first loved us. So the Lord did that. Where was
this demonic man after all that was over? Where was he? He was
at the feet of Jesus, in His right mind, worshiping the Savior. That's the difference. That's
the difference between God coming and giving life, spiritual life,
to one of his people. To lay all of our cares at his
feet, to lay our sorrows at the feet of Christ, to turn from
what we have as natural men, we must be born again. In other
words, we must be given a new understanding of all that is.
Isn't that what that is? There was a day when none of
us understood that God means he's God. Like the rest of the
world, like all the rest of the folks that walk this earth, we
thought God meant whatever we wanted him to be. We thought maybe the world came
into being on its own, Big Bang Theory. Maybe some fishes grew
feet and walked, maybe? Folks, we don't think those things
anymore. Something's changed in us. We've been given a new understanding.
We've been given the gift of faith to believe. And it doesn't
matter if that faith is as small as a mustard seed. You see, it's
not your faith that matters. It's the faithfulness of Him
who has given you that faith. Our God rules not just in most
things, but He rules in all things, and that includes the hearts
of men. This is the result of His love.
We are brought to love him because he first loved us. We are brought
to see by grace we are saved through faith, and that it's
not of ourselves lest we should boast. His love for his people
is so great that he gave himself as a ransom for us. He became
flesh as we read in 1 Timothy 3.16, and without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, and believed on in the world and received up into
glory. Romans 5, 6, we read these words,
for when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. Ephesians 2, verse 4, but God,
who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved
us even when we were dead in sins, had quickened us together
with Christ. Down in Romans chapter 8, we
read these words, if God be for us, who can be against us? This
is how we lay natural things. Things of this world that we're
not to have any trust in. This flesh that we walk in, what
do we do? We lay it at the feet of Jesus. We lay it at the feet of Jesus.
Philippians 3, 3, for we are the circumcision which worship
God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have what? Some confidence? Any confidence? No, Paul says it right. We have
no confidence in this flesh. We turn from our own understanding
and we lean upon him. We lean upon his word. And folks,
I'm here to tell you today that God does not make mistakes. That
includes how much faith he's given you. I'm going to go a little bit long.
I apologize. How much faith did Joseph, Mary's
husband, have when he found out she was pregnant. How much faith? Those of you who know the story
know he had three options. He was a just man, and he took
one of the three options, which were options of this world. Number
one option is he could have put her away in divorce by going
to the court, going to the leaders of the area at that time, the
religious leaders, and publicly divorcing her. Or he could have had her stoned
to death. or he could have privately put
her away. He chose to do privately. God overruled that, though, didn't
he? He came to Joseph in a dream
and told Joseph why Mary was pregnant. Up until that point,
up until that point of that spirit, Holy Ghost coming to him in a
dream. Up until that point, he thought Samaria had sinned against
him. He leaned upon what he knew of
this world until God interceded. That's the point I'm trying to
make. Trying to make the point of but
God. Back in our text of Proverbs
chapter 3, and I'll make this quickly, Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and lean not unto thine own understandings." Folks, in
Isaiah 53, 5 we read this, but he was wounded for our transgressions. Here's why we can trust God.
He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. In 5311 we read
this, he shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied.
In verse 12, therefore will I divide him a portion of the great. All the fullness of the Godhead
dwelleth in this one who has made intercession for you and
I. And he says to you and I, In His way, for I am the Lord,
I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. So
we read in Hebrews 13, 5, Let your conversation be without
covenants, and be content with such things as ye have. For He
hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So we
walk, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. And I
will not fear what man shall do unto me. Now let's close what
these words instructed us over here in chapter 3 of Proverbs. Look at verses 6-10 with me.
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. It shall be health to thy navel, and morrow to thy bone. Honor the Lord with thy substance,
and with the firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy
barns be filled with plenty, and thy precious shall burst
out of new rest." Now remember, we're talking about spiritual
things. We know that God speaks to you and I in spirit and in
truth. You may be here today going,
my barns aren't full. This is talking about our spiritual
partners. If you have Christ, folks, you
have everything. You have all that is needed.
When the world around us gets rough, turn your eyes upon Jesus. When the sorrows of this world
become as a wave of the sea pounding down upon you, turn your eyes
upon Jesus. As Moses lifted up the brazen
serpent in the wilderness to be bitten, If you've been bitten
by the sin that's within you, and as Moses had lifted up the
brazen serpent in the wilderness and the people looked upon it,
turn your eyes upon Jesus. What does our text say one more
time? And I pray God will take these words from Proverbs 3-5
and put them in your hearts as you go about your way through
this world this next week. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.