WWUTT 1329 Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart (Proverbs 3:5-8)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

00:07

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.

00:13

When we understand the text. This is

00:25

When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature

00:33

New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

00:39

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Well, it's been a month since we've been in our

00:44

Old Testament Study, but what a great way to come back into this study because today we're looking at Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

00:53

Last section that we looked at back in October was the first four verses of Proverbs 3.

01:00

I just jumped into the chapter and then we had to stop, but we're restarting again with two of the most popular verses that come out of the book of Proverbs.

01:09

Let me begin by reading Proverbs 3, verses 1 through 12. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.

01:20

For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.

01:30

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.

01:41

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

01:47

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes.

01:55

Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

02:04

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce. Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine.

02:16

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of His reproof.

02:21

For the Lord reproves Him whom He loves. As a father, the son in whom

02:28

He delights. Let's quickly do a recap here of these first four verses of Proverbs 3.

02:36

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.

02:41

And this instruction is not merely like, just remember what I have commanded you, but to say, let your heart keep my commandments, means may you be obedient to the word of God but from your inside out, right to the very core of yourself, you desire to obey

02:59

God's word. It's not just something you do on the outside to receive the approval of man, but you stand in the fear of the

03:06

Lord and desire to obey all that He has said. Loving the Lord your

03:11

God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

03:19

And we know that we have peace with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

03:25

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

03:33

We have that instruction once again, that it would be at the very seat of a person, that we would be transformed from the very core of ourselves so that we may do all that God has commanded us.

03:46

So that you will have good success in the sight of God and man.

03:53

So if you're just desiring to do what pleases others, then you're just going to live in a way that looks good to other people.

04:03

It's just going to be an exterior sort of a morality or system of ethics. It's not really going to be from the heart of who you are.

04:11

It's all on the outside, which of course makes you a hypocrite. You say that you love God, but you don't with your heart.

04:18

On the outside, you're trying to please man. But if you have the commandments of God to the very core of yourself, right down to the very center, everything that you are from the inside out is transformed because you have put your faith in Christ.

04:33

Then you will find good success in the sight of God and man.

04:40

There will be something about you that will be pleasing to others. Now, it's not like that will be in every instance or every circumstance, because as I just mentioned yesterday,

04:49

I closed the podcast yesterday by reading from Matthew 5, where Jesus said, Blessed are you are persecuted for righteousness sake.

04:57

So there are going to be people who will hate us for the godliness that we have and we pursue most definitely.

05:03

But if all you are after is to try to please other people, then you will find yourself on judgment day out of favor with God.

05:12

And you will hear from him. Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness. I never knew you. But if you are transformed on the inside and you desire to please

05:21

God, then you will find good success in the sight of God and man. And that is how we are to live in the fear of the

05:29

Lord. And if you fear God, then you fear no man. You fear nothing else for you know that your salvation, your eternity is secure in Christ alone.

05:40

We go on from there to these verses. And these are the popular verses from Proverbs that I talked about at the very beginning.

05:47

Proverbs chapter three, verses five and six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

05:54

There we have it again, calling attention to loving God with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

06:08

This instruction itself flies in the face of a worldly culture that will tell you, be true to yourself, believe in yourself, follow your heart.

06:21

You know, these, these are the platitudes of our worldly culture. And when you think about those things, they don't mean anything.

06:29

Have you really contemplated follow your heart? Have you really contemplated that basically the definition of that is do whatever you want.

06:38

It's the same thing. Follow your heart means do whatever you want. Look, uh, serial killers follow their heart.

06:47

A woman who wants to get an abortion and kill her unborn child. She follows her heart all the way to the abortion clinic.

06:55

Everybody who works at Planned Parenthood, they are following their heart. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who are likely our next president and vice president, respectively, they're following their heart.

07:06

All of the evil policies that they will enact in, in leading the government of the

07:11

United States, they will do it with all their hearts. The leaders of the murderous communist regime of China, they're all following their hearts.

07:21

The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, he's following his heart. Castro followed his heart.

07:28

Hitler followed his heart. Stalin followed his heart. Everybody who lives in sexual immorality is following their heart.

07:37

Whether you're talking about homosexuality, sodomy, lesbianism, transgenderism, or you're talking about heterosexual sins, a man who has an adulterous affair with a woman who is not his wife is following his heart.

07:52

So that advice, that advice is absolutely worthless. It means nothing to hear from the culture.

08:00

Follow your heart. Jeremiah 17, nine says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

08:10

Who can understand it? Later on in Proverbs, we will read in Proverbs 28, 26, whoever trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

08:22

So given this, that the heart is so deceitful and wicked, and how can you possibly trust what it is that your heart says?

08:28

How are we to trust the Lord with all our heart? If we cannot trust our heart, we'll understand that if you're following your heart, you're following your own desires.

08:40

You're following yourself. That's why, that's why that advice is so worthless.

08:46

It's subjective. You are the creator of your own truth, your own world, your own destiny.

08:52

So there's nothing outside of yourself that you are relying on. You're depending upon yourself for everything, including your own ethics.

09:00

So that doesn't work. But when you trust the Lord, you are given a new heart. It's not your heart that you are following, but the heart of God.

09:09

So when you trust the Lord with all your heart, what you are asking for is a heart that is transformed, not after the pattern of this world, as we talked about yesterday,

09:19

Romans 12 too, but we are conformed to the mind of Christ. We desire to think like God, love like God.

09:26

And so we have a heart that is conformed after God, patterned after his thinking and what he wants, not what we want.

09:36

So when we trust the Lord with all our heart, we are asking God to transform our heart.

09:44

Do not lean on your own understanding. So you're not following your heart.

09:50

You're following God's heart. You want to understand what the mind of God, and in all your ways, you acknowledge him, not going after the things that you want, but desiring all that God desires for you.

10:03

And he will make straight your paths. God will set you on the way that you are to go.

10:11

And that way will be clear to you. We know what is pleasing unto God when we read it in his word.

10:17

Consider what we've read Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week in Romans 12, 1 and 2. That in view of the mercies of God, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship.

10:34

We worship God with the way that we live, even the way that we conduct ourselves in our bodies.

10:40

Verse two, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

10:46

And then you will be able to see God's will for you, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

10:53

All of this laid out for us in scripture. What pleases God, whatever God desires for us, that's what we should desire also.

11:02

My friends, consider this. If it is a sin for you to do it, then it is a sin for you to desire it.

11:11

If in doing a certain thing you would be sinning, then why should you also desire that thing that you know that you should not do?

11:20

The desire for it would be just as much sin as doing it, for you would want something that is contrary to everything that God gives to us in Christ.

11:33

It would be to say to God, what you have given me is not enough. I desire this other thing in order to be happy.

11:40

If you're not satisfied in God, then you're going to turn yourself toward the way of following your own heart and falling into sin.

11:49

I said something like this on Instagram earlier this year, I believe it was. Well, it would have to be this year because this year is when

11:56

I started an Instagram account. Anyway, I made a short video where I said, if it is a sin for you to do it, then it is a sin for you to desire it.

12:04

And there were people that jumped all over me for saying that, accusing me of being the thought police. But I said to a couple of those individuals,

12:12

I have no idea what your thoughts are. I'm not even asking you what your thoughts are, but God does.

12:18

And if you're desiring something that is contrary to the will of God, you don't desire God and you're following your own heart instead of the heart of God.

12:27

The scripture directly confronts this, that we not be after our own desires, but that we desire the things of God.

12:34

This is what Jesus means when he says in Matthew 6, to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, have a heart that desires the righteousness of God.

12:46

And then all the things that you need in this world will be added to you as well. When Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love the

12:53

Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He's talking about being after God from your very heart, that your very desire would be for everything that is pleasing unto the

13:06

Lord. If we desire things that aren't pleasing to God, then we're sinning, even in our thoughts, even in our desires.

13:14

Consider what's said here in Colossians 3, 5, and I believe I read this passage on, it was either Monday or Tuesday.

13:20

Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

13:32

On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming. Notice there that with the exception of sexual immorality, just about everything in there falls into the category of the way you think, not necessarily what you do with your body, but what you think with your mind.

13:51

And therefore, we can also group sexual immorality in that as well. Since that's the context of what

13:58

Paul is addressing there. You can be sexually immoral with your thoughts, even if you don't do with your body what you're thinking with your mind.

14:08

So once again, you must put these things to death. You must not walk in them. Do not pursue them. Do not follow your heart in these things, but let your heart be after the things of God.

14:17

So put to death what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, that's sex outside of marriage.

14:24

God created sex to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife in marriage. That is an act of intimacy that he's created for the married couple.

14:33

And no one else, anything else is sexual immorality. It's impure. It makes your body unpure, unholy.

14:41

And as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 6, in the context of being sexually pure, he says your body is a temple of the

14:50

Holy Spirit whom you have from God. So honor God with your body.

14:56

If you put your mind and your body towards sexual immorality, you make yourself impure.

15:02

You are desecrating the very temple of God that is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

15:08

Put to death sexual immorality, impurity, passion, and then you have evil desire and covetousness.

15:14

And those two things in particular, you can't take any other way but talking about the mind, what you want with your mind, evil desire and covetousness, wanting what does not belong to you, what

15:28

God has not given to you, what you see someone else possessing, and that is what you want.

15:34

My friends, if you watch movies in which sexual immorality is taking place in the movie, maybe it's not even explicit pornography, but you've got a man cheating on his wife with another woman, and you think that woman in the movie is pretty attractive, and you're kind of thinking to yourself,

15:52

I wish I could do that. I wish that I could do what that guy's doing in the movie and have this affair with this woman and not have to deal with the consequences, because that's how movies go.

16:02

There's never any real consequences for the sexual immorality that they engage in. They're just following their heart, right?

16:08

So anyway, if you're watching that movie and you desire what you see on the screen, I like that those characters can do that.

16:14

I wish I could do what they're doing. That is sin. That is wicked. It's so wicked to covet that, to want to have that sin that these people are engaging in.

16:27

They look like they're having fun. I bet you that would feel real good in my flesh. No, don't do that.

16:34

Don't be after those things. Don't even put yourself in a fantasy world where you start contemplating different scenarios and things and building yourself in your imagination this place in which you can exist and do all of this with your flesh and not have to suffer any of the consequences for it.

16:52

My friends, even if that's your thoughts, you don't do it with your body, but it's in your mind, there will be judgment for you on the day of judgment.

17:00

Don't let your thinking even go that way. Let your thoughts be conformed to Christ.

17:07

Desire what God desires for you. Don't desire sin. Desire righteousness, holiness, that even with your mind you would honor the

17:18

Lord. The wrath of God is coming against even the desire for sin.

17:23

Even those who want sin will perish. Don't think about it. Cut yourself off from it.

17:28

Distance yourself from it so that you will not put your mind in a place that you will be in sin and far from God.

17:34

Don't even tiptoe around it. Don't fool yourself into thinking that, hey,

17:40

God is gracious and he's merciful and he's just going to forgive me for it anyway. You do not know how weak your flesh is.

17:48

You continue to flirt with that stuff, you will fall right into it and you will convince yourself that it's fine because that's the way of your heart which has convinced you that God does not hate sin and won't judge you for this sin.

18:03

Don't even go there. With everything that you are, by the power of God that has been given you, his

18:09

Holy Spirit that dwells within you, desire none of that, but come to the Lord. Submit all yourself to him and say,

18:16

God, I desire holiness. Let me not think about or dwell on these things anymore, but even with my mind, make me a servant to you.

18:27

Paul said, in all of these things, you once walked when you were living in them. This is Colossians 3 .7, but now you must put them all away.

18:34

We all lived this way when we were slaves to our flesh, but now as we read about in Romans 6, if you are a slave to righteousness, you must submit your members to God as slaves to righteousness, doing the righteous thing instead of the unrighteous thing, having a heart that is after those things that God loves and hating those things that God hates.

18:58

Trust the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

19:08

Verses seven and eight. Again, this is still like the antithesis to follow your heart, right? Proverbs 3 .7

19:15

and eight, be not wise in your own eyes. That's another way of saying, do not lean on your own understanding.

19:23

Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. If you fear

19:29

God, then you will not so easily fall into those evil things that you know the judgment of God is coming against.

19:39

I said this another way earlier this week. I said, if you fear God, you will fear no one else. That's absolutely true.

19:45

But the fear of God also keeps you from evil. So fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

19:52

It will be healing to your flesh. It will be refreshment to your bones.

19:59

There are so many people out there that are struggling with depression and anxiety that has been brought on by sins that they've committed.

20:08

Now, I'm not saying everybody who deals with depression and anxiety has done something wicked and that's why they are depressed.

20:14

Don't hear me saying that. But a great deal of it is caused by that. It's caused by people relying upon themselves, following their hearts, doing something wicked, and now they're suffering the consequences, even when it comes to a conflict of conscience.

20:28

And this has caused massive depression and anxiety in their lives, which they are trying to cover up by taking various prescription drugs or with alcohol or with illegal drugs, or maybe they're trying to find something in this world that will just occupy them or give them joy so that they won't have to think about the wickedness that they've done that has caused all this anxiety that they're dealing with.

20:53

True healing in this case is only going to come through Christ. It is only going to come when a person believes in Jesus, when they acknowledge that they have done wickedly, and they come before God and they say, forgive me of my sins.

21:08

Here's my sins. Here's what I have done. Forgive me for this. Do not let me walk in this way anymore, but teach me to walk after Christ.

21:18

And it's when a person starts pursuing those things that they will experience true healing in their soul, knowing they have peace with God through Jesus Christ will also provide healing to the flesh and a refreshment to the bones.

21:33

Now, that doesn't mean that faith in the gospel means you'll never experience depression and anxiety again, because I know plenty of Christians that struggle with those things.

21:41

I've struggled with those things before as well, but it does mean that you will have no fear of the judgment of God because of your sin, and that in and of itself is a healing even to you physically when you know in your soul that God is for you.

21:56

Who can be against you? Even you can't be against yourself when you know the love of God in Christ Jesus, our

22:04

Lord. Trust him with all your heart. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will be with you.

22:12

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this good word today, a verse that we've heard many times before, surely,

22:18

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. And I pray that our hearts are refreshed by this word today, and we desire to walk in the way of Christ, not desiring our flesh, but desiring

22:29

God with all that we are. Heal us of our guilty conscience.

22:36

Let there not be any wicked way in us. Give us repentance so that we would not follow sin anymore, but we would desire righteousness in all that we say and do.

22:47

Let it be honoring to God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. This is

22:53

When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours.

23:00

But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family. Find a good, Gospel -teaching,

23:06

Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study