I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 3 is where we're going to consider tonight. That's found on page 627 in the Pew Bibles, if you're using the Pew Bible. We're going to consider Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 through 8. But for the sake of context, we're going to begin our reading at verse 1. proverbs 3 beginning at verse 1 my son do not forget my teaching but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you bind them around your neck write them on the tablet of your heart so you will find favor and good success in the sight of god and man trust in the lord with all of your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight be not wise in your own eyes fear the lord and turn away from evil it'll be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones well with everything going on in the world today i think it's an obvious statement to say that we are people who need wisdom the world can be a dangerous place it can be a dark place it can be a place of strife, enmity, conflict, and war. The war that's going on today in the Ukraine is making this point clearer and clearer to us. And as we sit here in Southern California in San Diego County it would seem as if maybe we feel safe and so distant from that war but the reports that are coming in is that more and more it looks as though this war can easily spread and so we are people who need wisdom we need comfort we need peace well where do we get our wisdom do we get it from the daily news do we get it from the internet do we get it from social media hopefully not true wisdom comes from god's word does it not and particularly the book of wisdom the book of proverbs this text before us is a powerful reminder and comfort to christians in all times whatever it is that christians face we're called to trust in our lord to acknowledge him to fear him. And so I want to consider this familiar text with you by looking at those three points with you tonight. Wisdom in trusting the Lord, wisdom in acknowledging the Lord, and wisdom in fearing the Lord. As I said, this is most likely a familiar passage to many, if not all of us. Maybe you've had a parent or a mentor write this passage down in your Bible or in a book to you. This is a passage that people like to put on posters or placards and hang them in their homes. And because of the familiarity of this text, it's easy for the truths that are stated here in this text to kind of get lost for us. Familiarity will do that to us, right? We become so familiar with something that we forget the real truth of what is saying in a passage like this. It's so easy that this passage can become a kind of bumper sticker statement for our lives. It's easy for truths like this to become platitudes instead of comforting rich truth. But this text and its truths have become so popular for a reason. There's rich comfort and hope in these truths. There's rich comfort and hope in this passage. One commentator calls this passage the polar star of a child of God. The polar star. And verse 5 reminds us of what we need to do as Christians in all times, in all circumstances. Not just in our present difficulties, not just in times of trial, but at all times, in every circumstance, we are called to trust in the Lord. And trust in the Lord is no bumper sticker statement, is it? When you really think about it, what we're being called to here is real action. Trust in the Lord. Trust. Now, what does it mean to trust in the Lord? What it means to give ourselves over to Him in an abundance of confidence, with a sense of security and peace. Listen to some of the ways this word trust is translated in other places of the Bible. It's translated as to be bold, to be careless, to be confident, to fall down. Listen to that. To cast yourself before God, to be secure, to rely upon him, to be safe. This is the way Psalm 4, 8 uses the word trust. It says, in peace, there's our word, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep. for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Children, some of you know that at night when you lay down your head, it could be difficult to find peace, right? For various reasons, you might be afraid of the dark or something that you watch, but whatever the case may be, it may be difficult to lay your head down in peace. But it's not so difficult when we trust the Lord, when our trust is in Him. we can have that peace we can rest assured we can lay our head on our pillows and be comforted by the fact that we trust in our faithful god listen to psalm 27 and the way that it uses the word it says though an army encamp against me my heart shall not fear the war rise against me yet i will be confident there's the word trust confident that's the same word that proverbs 3 uses for trust. So the call here in Proverbs 3 is really a call to confidence. Confidence in the Lord. It's a call to be secure to Him, to have peace in Him. That's what it means to trust Him. And if you ever, if you think about it, if there was ever a command that comes both with force and comfort, it's a command like trust the Lord. And I'll tell you, knowing my own trials, my own struggles, I find sweet comfort in this command. Because in this command is the reminder. In this command is the assumption that our God is trustworthy. You see, this command assumes that the Lord is worthy of our trust, that He is trustworthy. He is worthy of all of our trust. He's worthy of our confidence. He's worthy of the assurance that we can have. He's worthy of the security that we can have in him and he really is isn't he he is our strong tower of refuge and strength he is where the weary find rest in their difficulty he is hope for the hopeless there's peace for the restless there's security for those who doubt and struggle so brothers and sisters in christ trust the lord trust in him trust in him in our present circumstances trust in him today trust in him tomorrow and trust in him in the coming weeks and coming months even though we don't know what those months have ahead for us because here's the thing about trust in every trial in every difficulty every hardship there's an opportunity for our trust to grow, to increase. You see, trust is a lot like strength. If you exercise, if you work out, you know that the way you strengthen your muscles is by tearing them down so that they rebuild and they build back stronger. Trust is a lot like that. Trust grows through adversity so that we can know in our suffering that our endurance will produce character and character produces hope think for a moment think about someone you know who has a hearty trust i'm guessing that person that you can think of probably hasn't had an easy life their trust their faith has been tested it's been proven as we heard this morning as as a gold through the fire that faith that trust has been refined. When I think of someone in the scriptures who had a hearty, strong trust, I think of King Hezekiah. Are you familiar with King Hezekiah? Turn with me briefly to 2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 18. If you're using the Pew Bible, you can find it on page 382. King Hezekiah is a favorite king of mine. He's a man of trust, And yet he was a man who needed the grace of God as well 2nd Kings 18 beginning at verse 1 It says there In the third year of Hosea son of Ella king of Israel Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign He was 25 years old when he began to reign And he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it. It was called Nehashtan. And now listen to what verse 5 says. He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah or after him, nor among those who were before him. What's the distinguishing mark and characteristic of Hezekiah here? Trust. Trust in the Lord. And then shortly after this passage, we're presented with an example of the proven trust of King Hezekiah. Look down with me at verse 13. In the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherim, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Now down to verse 17. And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan and the Rapsaris and the Rapshaka with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. Now verse 19. And the Rapshaka said to them, say to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, On what do you rest this trust of yours? do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war and then he says again in whom do you now trust that you have rebelled against me behold are you trusting in egypt that broken reed of a staff which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it such as pharaoh king of egypt to all who trust in him and then if you go down to verse 22 you see that this man even questions hezekiah's trust in the lord god so there is king hezekiah with one of the greatest armies that the world has ever seen on his doorstep and the question that the text presents us with is who will king hezekiah trust in who will he trust in will he trust in himself will he trust in a foreign leader the the the pharaoh king of egypt will he trust in his uh his military might will he trust in his fortified walls who is it that hezekiah will trust in hezekiah trusts in the lord doesn't he and because of that his trust he is known in scripture as a man of trust characterized as that trusted in the lord his trust was tested it was refined and it was strong and the fact of the matter is we too need a kind of hearty trust like king hezekiah don't we and we too as men and women of the lord can trust him and have that strong trust in all circumstances at all times you see we may not be faced with what king hezekiah was faced with today we might not have the russian army on our doorsteps that might be in the future but maybe right now we have our own trials that we're faced with a sick loved one a difficult rebellious child struggling spouse a disappointment at work strife with a dear friend whatever it is that we might be struggling with we need to like hezekiah to trust in the lord and when we do that our trust will grow. It will grow. Not because of the strength of our trust, but because of the person, the one in whom we trust. You see, our trust is only as good, it's only as good as the one in whom our trust is placed in. Who is it that we will place our trust in? It should be the Lord God. In God we trust, right? That's an American motto. It's printed on our money. There's been a lot of talk about that in the last 20 years, whether we should have that on our money or not. Do we? Do we trust in God? Our Lord has always shown himself to be trustworthy. When we trust in him, our trust will be proven. It will grow. It will increase. Now, given the fact of what the Lord has done for us in Jesus Christ, don't we have the greatest of reasons to trust in him? He's certainly worthy of our trust. He's proven that He is trustworthy by giving His Son for us. He's given us a salvation. He has saved us from the greatest enemy we could ever face, our sin. He's delivered us from that, saved us from that which separated us from Him. He's certainly trustworthy. Now notice the extent. The extent of what our trust should be. Our trust should be exclusive trust, shouldn't it? It says in verse 5, Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. How much of our heart should we trust the Lord? All of it, right? Every facet, every aspect, every part of our heart should be given over in an abundance of confidence and peace to our trustworthy God. And what this means is that our trust should be exclusively upon him. As I said, King Hezekiah had reason to trust in other things. King of Egypt, his walls, his soldiers. What is it that we are tempted to trust in besides the Lord? What are we tempted to mix our trust with? Maybe it's our physical abilities. Maybe it's our intellect, our wisdom. Or maybe it's something external to us, our bank accounts, our personal success, the connections that we have in this world. Or maybe it's our family name and heritage. Maybe it's something that is so often a stumbling block for us. Maybe it's our own righteousness that we trust in. Yes, we say that we trust in the Lord, but at the very same time, we're tempted to trust in other things along with trust in the Lord. But you see, a mixed trust is no trust when it comes to trusting God. His text calls us to exclusive trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Give yourself fully and completely over to Him. Remember, when the Bible speaks of the heart of man, it speaks of the innermost part of man, doesn't it? It speaks of the part of man where all your desires, all your thoughts, all your actions flow from. So when the text here calls us to trust in the Lord with all of your heart, it's saying all of who you are, all of your being, trust in Him, rest in Him, take confidence in Him. So naturally, the next part of this text says, do not lean on your own understanding. Why should we be suspicious of our own understanding? Why shouldn't we lean upon our own understanding? And the truth is because our understanding, which is part of our heart, is tainted with sin, isn't it? It's tainted with sin. Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately sick. Who can understand it? Our hearts are tainted with sin, and therefore our hearts can deceive us. Our hearts can be polluted with sinfulness, lead us astray. And so we should be suspicious of our own understanding. Now, this doesn't mean that we throw out our understanding altogether. Christians are not anti-intellectual. But what this means is that we should seek to renew our understanding. To renew our understanding with the thoughts of God. To think God's thoughts after Him. Not leaning on our own understanding means that we bathe our understanding. We bathe our thoughts. we bathe our minds in the word of god we bathe our thoughts with knowing god with knowing who he is and that's why this text says next to acknowledge him acknowledge him for six in all of your ways acknowledge him now what does it mean to acknowledge well this literally means know him know the lord but this doesn't mean just know facts about him if you've ever read the book knowing god by jr packer that great book you'll know that he makes a an important distinction between knowing about god and knowing god knowing about god is just knowing facts data about god being able to quote chapter and verse being able to hold a theological conversation but not really knowing God intimately personally seminarians we have a number of seminarians in our congregation right seminarians are always tempted to forget that distinction in their studies but you see if you're a seminarian and you have really thought of your studies and preparation to be a minister as simply an academic intellectual endeavor then you're really participating in an exercise of fertility, foolishness. Come to know your God personally. Come to know Him as He is, who He is, as He has revealed Himself. You see, this word know that is used here is often used as a way of describing the relationship between a husband and wife. Husband and wife know each other. I've come to know a few of you, and I've come to know in my short time here that a few of you been married for quite some time and you know that when you're married for any amount of time really you get to know your spouse don't you my spouse knows me i know her and knowing your spouse isn't just about knowing how tall they are knowing the color of their hair or eyes knowing their favorite food to eat or what they like to do knowing them means you know them personally you know what they will say or think at any given moment because you know who they are that's the kind of knowledge that is being mentioned here that's what the text means know your god we can know god this way we can know our sovereign lord as the lord who loves us and cares for us and because we know him we can see that in every situation he's taking care of us. He will take care of us. We know that in every situation his glory and supremacy is on display. He is the God of all things. He's the God of all wonder. His plans will be fulfilled. His purposes will prevail. He watches over us in such a way that not a hair can fall from our head without his will. What comfort there is in this, right? What comfort we have and knowing who our God is. Now, yes, this does mean that we have to know some things about our Lord. And one thing that's comforting to us that we find comforting in trials and difficulty is that our Lord is sovereign, that He's in control, that no person, no event, no seemingly meaningless situation, disaster or blessing, difficulty or sadness is out of his complete control and this means that whatever plans a man has whether he is the president of russia or a construction worker in san diego county whatever plans a man has unless the lord ordains those plans those plans are fruitless that's proverbs 19 right many are the plans in the heart of man but it's the purpose of the lord that will prevail now this doesn't mean that we should be fatalistic about our lives it doesn't mean that we throw our hands up and say well then what will be will be no our lord calls us to carry out our plans with wisdom and with acknowledgement of who he is and that's why we pray as god's people we pray in seeking him we pray in acknowledging him prayer is part of that acknowledgement children you may be tempted to think at times prayer is just useless especially since god knows everything before i even ask for it god's plans will prevail anyways but you see our good and faithful god ordains to use our prayers in the midst of his plans to bring about the plans that we are planning and praying for and so we cast ourselves before him we acknowledge him we submit ourselves in our plans before him we we ask for his blessing we ask for his guidance we ask that his will would prevail and that we might be humbled enough to accept that will well it's not only the sovereignty of god that we should know about but we also need to acknowledge that our god loves us that he cares for us he cares for you christian do you know that he loves you and he cares for you listen to that statement not even a hair can fall from your head apart from his will jesus after saying those words referenced two sparrows being purchased by a penny and he says you know two two sparrows are purchased for a penny and not one falls to the ground without the will of your father aren't you worth more than many sparrows jesus proved that point didn't he he proved that we are worth far more than sparrows because it was he who purchased us purchased us with his blood purchased us with his life god showed his love for us in this that he gave his son for us god so loved us that he gave his only begotten son for us and so that i passages like isaiah 43 we find so much comfort in right he who created you oh jacob he who formed you oh israel fear not for i have redeemed you i've called you by name you are mine god has proven his love for us in Jesus Christ, displayed his love so remarkably beyond a shadow of a doubt to us in the work of Christ. God loves you. He's created you. He's redeemed you. He's saved you. He's paid the cost of your salvation. Acknowledge him. Know him. Know the love of this sovereign God. no greater love do you have than god's love for you and not only does this display god's love but it really displays who he is right he's a faithful god the god who is willing to go the furthest extent to give his son the life of his son for us his people that's who he is that's the god that we're called to trust in that's the god that we're called to acknowledge to know and so because of who he is we're called to acknowledge him in all of our ways the extent of our knowledge is all or our acknowledgement is all of our ways what what's being referred here by the by the text when it says our ways. That word ways can refer to a pathway, a road, a course of life, or a mode of action. Here in Proverbs 3, I think all three are being referred to. So that simply put, all of our plans, all of our purposes, all of our cares, all of our desires, everything we do, the way that we do, whatever we do, we acknowledge him. We're mindful of him and who he is, remembering his ways in the midst of our ways. I mean, remembering Jesus Christ and his life for us, remembering that we don't belong to ourselves. We've been bought with a price. Remembering that he is in control of all things, working all things for his glory, for our good. And so, yes, we can surrender to him yes we can accept his providential care for us because he's worthy of that yes we can acknowledge him and in doing that we we see a promise in this text it says he will make our paths straight he will make our paths straight straight paths here are not referencing easy paths what's being discussed here is not the shortest distance between two points a straight line the paths here that this text is speaking of is righteous paths the paths of the lord the ways of the lord isaiah 26 7 says the path of the righteous is level you make level the way of the righteous or maybe we think of psalm 1 the lord knows the way of the righteous but the way the wicked will perish do you desire righteous paths do you desire the way of righteousness know your lord acknowledge him in all that you do now trusting in the lord acknowledging in the lord leads to the final point tonight which is fearing the lord verse 7 says be not wise in your own eyes fear the lord turn away from evil now the call here to fear the lord is a call that begins with a contrast doesn't it notice that in the text in contrast to fear of the lord it first speaks of a kind of worldly wisdom being wise in your own eyes what does that mean what does it mean to be wise in your own eyes being wise in your own eyes is really referring to a kind of conceited heart a heart that is so proud that it it can't see that it is in fact wrong nor will it accept the correction of god or anyone for that matter and because of that conceit and that pride we think of ourselves as being wise this is worldly wisdom and this is worldly wisdom that man is so familiar with because this really goes back to the garden doesn't it it was adam and eve who thought that them eating the fruit would grant to them a kind of wisdom that they thought would be good for them. Sadly, if they only knew. If they only knew that trust in the Lord was in fact wisdom. But their wisdom led to foolishness, right? Foolishness. And really, that's what the text is speaking of here. Proverbs 26, 12 says, Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? there is more hope for a fool than for him. And so now, because of sin, all men are given to overestimate themselves, to think they know best, to think they're right in every situation. I think of the man Vladimir Putin, a man who is wise in his own eyes, a man who is willing to tear down a nation, to kill people to tear down buildings all because he thinks he's right in his own eyes the book of judges speaks of a whole generation of people who thought they were wise in their own eyes right they did what was right in their own eyes but you see it's not only adam and eve it's not only putin it's not only people in the time of the judges but we too can be tempted to be wise in our own eyes can't we we too can be given to worldly wisdom above godly wisdom even christians have hearts that can have pockets of conceit and pride in them pockets which tempt us to to refuse to be corrected to overestimate ourselves think we're right we can have such hearts when we pray for something that we desire something that we want and although the lord seems to not give that to us we pursue it nevertheless i think of abraham and sarah the lord promised them a son but they weren't patient they took it upon themselves they were wise in their own eyes weren't they i see people doing this all all the time in regards to their own happiness people want to be happy their wisdom says a good god wants me to be happy and so i will pursue happiness and i'll pursue pursue happiness at all costs i want what i want and my happiness depends on upon what i have so i will have that being wise in our own eyes it's not only towards the lord that we can be this way we can be this way towards each other can't we husbands can be wise in their own eyes towards their wives wives can be wise in their own eyes towards their husbands children can certainly be wise in their own eyes towards their parents and sadly even parents can be wise in their own eyes towards their children even though the lord teaches us and tells us out of the mouth of babes and yet if our child corrects us we think to ourselves no child will not correct me no and we prove ourselves to be wise in our own eyes brothers and sisters in christ we need to guard ourselves from this temptation we need to guard ourselves from this worldly wisdom and so what's the answer to this worldly wisdom it's the fear of the lord the fear of the lord do not be wise in your own eyes but fear the lord the answer to a conceited proud heart is the fear of the lord remember the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, isn't it? And so contrary to worldly wisdom, the text calls us here to godly wisdom. And godly wisdom begins with fearing him. And what exactly is fear of the Lord? Listen to how one commentator puts it. He says, The fear of the Lord is an affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his father's law. The fear of the Lord is the affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his father's law. Fear of the Lord is a controlling, affectionate reverence that God's people have for him. And that's why the fear of the Lord is described as reverence, as awe, as respect, as love, honor, adoration. It's the kind of fear that Isaiah experienced in Isaiah 6 at his commission when he saw a vision of God where the angels were declaring holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And Isaiah responds by saying, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. That's a kind of fear of God. a controlling adoration and reverence. It's the kind of fear that would immediately be provoked in our hearts if Jesus was to walk into this chapel tonight. We'd be blown away. We'd all fall on our faces in fear of who He is, in reverence, in awe, in worship. That's the fear of the Lord. And just as that fear was a controlling factor in the life of Isaiah, it allowed Isaiah to go out to a people and declare a message that would harden their hearts. He was able to do that because of the fear of the Lord. He wasn't going to fear people. He feared the Lord. That's what the fear of the Lord can do for us, can strengthen us, can be our wisdom, can be our confidence, our assurance. We know who our God is. Proverbs 8 speaks of the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. It's a controlling reverence to the Lord. It keeps us from evil. It helps us, it aids us to deny sin, to turn from it. Job 1 speaks of Job described as a man who was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil. Do you have this fear? Do you fear the Lord? What do you fear? Do you fear anything more than the Lord? It's the fear of the Lord that's what we should pursue. That's what we should have in light of who He is, in light of what He has shown us. It'll guard us. It'll keep us. It's what verse 8 says here is healing to our flesh and refreshment to our bones. do we have that how do we how do we gain the fear of the lord how do we cultivate it we cultivate it by submitting ourselves to god again to who he is to reading his word submitting our our whole self all of who are we are acknowledging him with all of our hearts just as james speaks of being doers of the word and not just hearers of it remember the deception that comes from leaning on our own understanding deception that comes from being wise in our own eyes trust in the lord acknowledging him that will cultivate fear of him and that's why scriptural study must be a wholehearted endeavor it's not just an intellectual pursuit it's growing in the grace and knowledge of the lord jesus christ and that's why christ is not distinct from this pursuit of fearing the lord in fact our fear of the lord is enhanced when we think about christ it was christ who was the perfect model and embodiment of what it means to fear the lord listen to isaiah 11 which says there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit and the spirit of the lord shall rest upon him spirit of wisdom and understanding spirit of counsel and might spirit of knowledge and the fear of the lord and his delight shall be in the fear of the lord now as we hear a call to fear the lord as we hear a call to acknowledge him in all of our ways as we hear a call to trust him if we're honest with ourselves we know we struggle in these areas don't we and that's why we can say thanks be to jesus christ because in christ we have one who represents us one who lived up to all of this call in this passage perfectly trusted in his father's will perfectly acknowledged his father he was one who was full of the fear of the lord and Christ being our representative is meant to motivate us meant he's meant to to cause us to all the more pursue these things wholeheartedly for in Christ we have the greatest reason to trust in the Lord in Christ we have the the perfect revelation of who God is we can acknowledge and know God through Christ and in Christ we have the forgiveness of sins and so as Psalm 130 says With Him there is forgiveness so that He might be feared. Christians, we certainly need wisdom today, don't we? Here is our wisdom. Trust in Him. Acknowledge Him. Fear Him. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You tonight that You are worthy. Worthy of all of our praise. worthy of all of our honor, worthy of our deepest trust and acknowledgement and affections, Lord. We pray that through a passage like this and its truths, Lord, we pray that you would magnify yourself in our hearts. Train us to give ourselves over to you fully and completely. Make us, Lord, to fear you above all else. Teach us, gracious Father, by your word and spirit, not to be wise in our own eyes, but in humility to always be ready to submit ourselves to You and to find in You our comfort, our hope, our security at all times. Whatever is going on around us, Lord, give us hearty trust and faith. Lord, we thank You for Jesus, our Lord. We thank You for proving Your love to us and giving Him for us and for our salvation. We thank you that because of Christ, at all times we can be a people of trust and confidence. We pray this in his name. Amen.