Our scripture reading from this morning is taken from Proverbs 3, Proverbs chapter 3. We will read together verses 1 through 12, and we find there six appeals to wisdom. And rather than deal with all six this morning, we'll focus in the sermon on verses 5 and 6 and that appeal to wisdom in trusting the Lord. Before we read, let's ask God to bless His Word for us. Our dear Father, what a joy it is to be in Your presence that we do not have to come in hope of earthly, physical things, but that we can come seeing beyond the things of this world into the reality of heaven itself, being with You in that temple, with Jesus Christ, our mediator. What a joy, dear Lord, to be Your own people, part of Your family, And now hearing Your Word, please send Your Holy Spirit that these would not merely be words upon a page or simply heard, but understood and bringing significance to our lives as Your believing people. For Jesus' sake we pray. Amen. Proverbs chapter 3, beginning with verse 1. My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commandments in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He'll make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline and do not resent His rebuke because the Lord disciplines those He loves. As a father, the son, He delights in. May the Lord bless now the reading and preaching of His Word. Well, brothers and sisters, you may have heard a common concern sometimes spoken from the lips of skeptics and quite often spoken from the lips of fellow believers. That concern that one can be so heavenly minded that he is of no earthly good. You've heard that, right? We've dealt with it a little bit in our men's Bible study. I've heard this same concern from ministers in our classes and others who love and pray for Westminster Seminary, California, have written or called to talk about this. It's a good concern. It's relevant to our context today. These Reformed friends are concerned, if we might state it a little bit differently, that God's Word is disconnected from His world. Or that God's Word is disconnected from life, from our living in this world. It's interesting that in her book, Quitting Church, author Julia Doon shows that this Reformed concern has become indeed an evangelical epidemic. As she argues, thousands and tens of thousands of Christians are leaving the church, are leaving the local expression of the body of Christ because they don't find the Word to be significant or connected to their daily lives. And if you don't see the significance and the connection, why bother? Let's set aside that evangelical epidemic and pick up the concern of our Reformed friends and step back and notice that this is a fair question. Not only is the issue a reality today, but the concern being described is a biblical concern about the connection between the Word of God and our life in His world. Now, we could respond to this concern a number of ways, couldn't we? We might appeal to Genesis 1 and the doctrines of creation. We could appeal to the doctrines of grace and the book of Romans. Or maybe, as we've done in our adult Sunday school, we could walk through the book of Revelation and see how incredibly valuable the Bible's teaching on last things are for our understanding of life. We could appeal to those things, and I think we most often do. And in the process, we might miss another appeal that we could make, namely the appeal of Proverbs and its wisdom. We have in our text, chapter 3, six appeals to wisdom. And this morning, let's take a special look at the one we find in chapter 3, verses 5 and 6. A good example, I think, of what Proverbs is trying to communicate to us in its pages. Here, it's an appeal to trust the Lord in all of life. To begin, notice that this appeal is covenantal. This appeal is covenantal. It may be the most important, obvious, and yet overlooked point in the whole text. Maybe the whole book that this appeal to wisdom, trusting the Lord in all of life, is first and foremost covenantal. It does not say, you notice, trust in God. In fact, Proverbs never says simply trust in God, but rather trust in the Lord. That personal name of God referenced over 90 times in the book of Proverbs is a frequent reminder of that personal relationship God has established with us, His people. A relationship that he's established according to his word and especially his promises. When we are called to trust the Lord, friends, we are reminded that the sovereign God of heaven and creator of this world made a covenant with us. As a man gives himself to a woman through the covenant of marriage, So God gives Himself to us through the covenant of grace. Through that loving, enduring, and binding covenant of grace. You see, by virtue of that relationship, a special connection has been made between heaven and earth. Between God and man. So that we can truly know our Creator. the origin of all things and our purpose for life. Entrusting the Lord. We trust the One who has given us life and graciously committed to preserve us throughout. From birth to death, God is near. Likewise, in a good marriage, a wife will trust the word of her husband, right? She knows him. He's good for what he says. What he says is true. In the same way, the special relationship we have with our God, there is a word given. And we, as those in covenant with God, trust His word. We believe what He has spoken because He is faithful and true. So when our God says that all things were created out of nothing by the power of My Word in the space of six days and all very good, we believe what our God has spoken, don't we? And when he says that man and woman were created in his image and knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and yet sinned, and therefore no one remains righteous, holy, or good, we believe the Word of our God. Likewise, when our God responds to the depravity of our nature and calls us to loving obedience and worship of Him alone and service to one another, we don't doubt the goodness or truthfulness of that Word of God, do we? And when he says that there is a great end coming, a climax to all that has made that will bring about judgment of all people, Of all times and of all nations and ethnicities, we do not doubt the Word of our God, knowing that such a judgment will indeed one day come. We trust His Word, especially in light of His Gospel. We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and there we are reminded by the Apostle Paul there we have assurance that all the promises of God are yes and amen for us through the life, death, and resurrection of our incarnate Lord. The forgiveness of sins, justification, the hope of glory and eternal life are promises we can bank on because they have been paid for by the blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. You see, if we miss this basic point, this appeal to a covenantal understanding of God, His Word, and His promises, if we miss this basic point, proverbs the bible and all of life it falls apart all of life misses these crucial connections that hold it together showing origin and purpose and definition maintaining a covenantal perspective forms a crucial connection between the things of god and Christian living in this world. It is a connection that He made in the covenant. One that He shapes by His Word. One that He empowers through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So that when we live each day, we don't have a question about who rules all things. Our Lord. who shapes and gives direction His Word and how we are to live as sinful people and the power of His Gospel. This appeal to trust the Lord then is covenantal and in the second place, it is comprehensive. It is covenantal and it is second, it is comprehensive, bringing shape to our heart, mind, and life. Look at verse 5 of our text. It's the appeal to trust the Lord with all of our heart. This is an appeal to the heart, the whole heart, and more than a bodily organ or even the seat of affections, we find that heart in the Old Testament especially is the most important anthropological term in the Bible. In other words, it's the most important term that describes man and women and their activity. According to Proverbs, the heart controls facial expressions, the tongue, feet, and it controls the whole body. From the heart flow the things of life. and this appeal moves beyond the heart and the body, of course, to the mind. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. And this appeal to the heart develops this idea of a comprehensive application of life before God. for understanding in Proverbs helps to develop the practical implications of truth as truth is embraced by wisdom. Wisdom embraces truth and as a result, there are activities that flow from it, from a clear understanding of how to apply truth to the various things of life, to this situation or that decision. Understanding the Word of God along with the things of His world bring about a wise life. For me, leading our men's Bible study has been a great return to on-the-ground experience. After years in seminary and going through the examination process, it was so good a few years ago to come back to the men's Bible study and dialogue together about what we're preaching and teaching and believing as a church. And I found that what, using me as an example, has been preached or taught is not always digested in the way that I think it would be. For example, trust the Lord. When we think about trusting the Lord, Most often, we would go to a text like Isaiah 12, Trusting the Lord for Things of Salvation. That text says, God is my salvation. I will trust in Him and will not be afraid, for the Lord God has become my salvation. You see, when we think about trusting God, we immediately go towards those specific doctrinal truths that apply to salvation. Justification, sanctification, and glorification. We think of glorious things addressing our spiritual and eternal reality yet with little application to the physical and temporal lives we're called to live. And you see the disconnect forming. Sometimes the way we hear the Word of God naturally develops into a disconnection between the spiritual things of God's Word and the lives we're to live in His world. But for Proverbs, trust the Lord is comprehensive. It's an appeal to the heart and the mind and daily life we find. In verse 6a. In all of your ways, acknowledge Him. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all of your ways, acknowledge Him. Connections are being made, right? As you may know, the book of Proverbs can and is often summarized in two ways. The way of the wise and the way of the fool. And though this is also presented in terms of the righteous and the wicked, we shouldn't reduce its message to simple obedience or disobedience. Proverbs is more complex than that. We should step back and, as we read it, appreciate the entire panorama that Proverbs has on life. Everything from the massive God, the Creator, to the seeming minutiae and the daily activity of ants. This fall, Westminster has been conducting a series of chapels where our faculty have been dealing with the topic Christian liberty and wisdom in the Christian life. Professor Van E. recently did one on our use of alcohol taken from Proverbs 20, reminding us to be cautious about our use of alcohol because, as we're told in Proverbs, wine is a mocker. Strong drink causes trouble. Professor Vendrunin did a study on Proverbs 12, verse 23, dealing with our freedom of speech, we might say, reminding us that a wise man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly. And then there's Proverbs 15, reminding us that a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. So many examples, right? About this comprehensive nature to Proverbs and trusting the Lord. Even going to the point of rest. Calling us to value the rest that God gives to us. And yet, don't love sleep lest you come to poverty. We find in the book of Proverbs an appeal to trust the Lord and His covenant in all of life. And yet, we are not given the definitive way of doing so, are we? It's interesting that we don't find categories like church and state or family and academy. We love those categories. Martin Luther, John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper had remarkable wisdom to know the Word of God and the things of God's world and the way that they interacted to help us bring categories in the way that we see and understand life. And yet Proverbs doesn't mandate those categories. Its one mandate is to engage with the whole of this world in light of God's Word. No segregation. No common ground. God's Word enlightens all things. And yet, it's not a user's manual. We are not given answers to every or even most of the questions and situations we face, are we? What job? What doctor? What school? What spouse? How to date? We are not given answers to every situation. Proverbs cannot be reduced into a simple manual or a message of simple obedience or disobedience because it's an appeal to wisdom which requires us to study the Word of God and the situations of life in His world and act in a way that is honoring to God, trusting Him to provide. This appeal is covenantal. It's comprehensive. and it's encouraging. Proverbs is an encouraging book. We don't find in here the demanding words of Sinai, but rather we find the appeal of a father to a son, right, in our text. Or in chapters 8 and 9, we find the sweet words of lady wisdom wooing us to pursue the wisdom of God that He offers. There's a sweetness to the call of wisdom that we need to hear. And we get a taste of that in the last part of verse 6. It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding and He will make your paths straight. He will make your paths straight. This is not a Gospel promise. It's a pattern. It's not a gospel promise because we have just heard that the covenantal promises of God are guaranteed by the blood of Jesus Christ so that we need not ever doubt our relationship to God, our right standing before Him as sons, and the heir or the inheritance that we will receive as His heirs. This is not a gospel promise, but rather, it is a pattern. The father of Proverbs would remind us that this makes no guarantees, right? And Job would most certainly agree. And how many of us would concur? This is not a certain promise. Rather than a promise, think of these last words as a pattern, especially following the patterns of creation. On this side of the garden, the wise will not always meet success any more than the ground will always bear fruit. And on this side of the garden, gracious words will not always gain favor any more than the rain will always come. But friends, the ground often gives fruit, doesn't it? And more often than not, the rain will come in season. God's world has patterns that the wise can read and anticipate. That is why we learn the discipline of farming, isn't it? Because there is a pattern to the harvest. It's why we choose words with care. because there's a pattern. Gracious words gain favor. And it's why we're cautious with wine because wine is a mocker and strong drink can cause trouble. God's world has patterns. If we rely on our own understanding or on our own wisdom and we carve out for ourselves a little place in life we'll miss this if we think that our life at school matters but our life at work doesn't we'll miss it if we think that our life within the family and the church matter but what we do with our friends and social engagement don't we'll miss it we'll miss this beautiful pattern this covenantal and comprehensive and encouraging pattern that proverbs lays out for us because the Word of God, just like His creation, has patterns too. As we grow in the wisdom of God's Word and the things of His world, we'll see a path of blessing that has patterns. When we trust in the Lord with heart, mind, and life, He makes paths straight. He makes straight the crooked, brings clarity in the midst of confusion and encouragement to the wise, right? Often, but not always. On this side of the garden, we have Proverbs and we have Ecclesiastes. We are reminded that the ground will not always bear fruit. The rain may not come. And the wise will suffer and die. In the midst of this season, Psalm 44 says, O Lord, all this trouble has come upon us. Though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant, Our heart has not turned back and yet you have broken us and covered us with the shadow of death. And we may be reminded of Psalm 73 and how the faithful covenant servant despaired as he looked at his own trouble while the wicked world around him was in prosperity. With the corruption and curse of the fall, Even the faithful need more than the patterns of Proverbs and its wisdom, don't we? We need the covenant Lord incarnate, the cross and empty grave. We need the gospel of Jesus Christ to remind us each and every Lord's Day and as we preach it to ourselves every day that by the power of His Gospel we live and have certainty of a sinless, joyful future with Christ and His glory. And until that day, by that power of God and His Spirit, we are enabled to trust our covenant Lord with all our hearts, our minds, in all life. So that over this last week, we praise Him. We praise the Lord for another year of fruitful lands, prosperity and business, the healing of our diseases and satisfying our desires with good things because we see comprehensively that God is at work through the means of grace today and He's at work through His people and the structures of creation every day, right? providing for us and sustaining us as our faithful covenant Lord. Faithful and true. As we trust the Lord with all our heart, leading not on our own understanding, but in all of our ways acknowledging Him, He makes paths straight, doesn't He? It was true for Job, the Father of Proverbs, the early church, and each of us here today. And so as we grow in the knowledge of God's Word and the things of this world, we will grow in wisdom and enjoy all sorts of wonderful patterns in life as our eyes are opened to see the manifold works of our sovereign God through His Word and the world that He's made. We'll come to enjoy those wonderful patterns in life while on the other hand avoiding the often painful patterns of foolishness and being upheld when we ourselves find Psalm 44 and Psalm 73 to describe the current season. You see, some of us are concerned that the heavenly things of God's Word are disconnected with life in His world. We shouldn't be concerned. It's a good concern. But we don't need to be concerned about a disconnection between the heavenly things and earthly things because as we trust in the Lord and all that we'll do, we'll see that crucial connection by faith and He'll make the paths of our lives straight. Let's pray. Our dear Father in Heaven, the world that You made is beyond comprehension. The Word that You've given is indeed profound. And so we ask that You would give to us wisdom a knowledge and understanding to see how our lives of faith meaningfully engage with life in your world. And Father, we ask because we long to bring honor and glory to you in all things and good to ourselves, our family, and those around us. Lord, as we endure difficulty, uphold us and encourage us with the assurance that You are near, that Your plans are being fulfilled and that we rest upon the rock-solid foundation of Christ and Christ alone. We ask these things in His name. Amen.