Immanuel Church

Ray Ortlund, Jr.                                                                                                         

Immanuel Church                                                                                                     

Nashville, Tennessee                                                                                                              

16 May 2010

 

            Trust in the LORD with all your heart.  Proverbs 3:5

 

            Why are we studying the book of Proverbs?  Because we need more than hard and fast rules.  The right choice isn’t always obvious.  We can even do “the right thing” in clumsy and harmful ways.  We need wisdom.  Wisdom fills in the blanks as we hurry from one decision to the next day by day.  Without God’s wisdom, we’re left to our own theories and even moods.  With God’s wisdom, we get the hang of how life really works. 

 

            Today’s passage is about that – how life works well.  The wisdom of Proverbs chapter 2 offered to deliver us from evil.  It offered protection.  But this glowing chapter 3 is positive.  Proverbs chapter 3 is an education in life at its best – how to live well in every area, at home, at work, all around.  God is showing us the way into shalom (verse 2), good success (verse 4) and refreshment (verse 8).  It isn’t a matter of earning God’s love.  After all, the passage begins with “My son” in verse 1.  God is speaking to us as his beloved ones, his adopted children.  He wasn’t stuck with us.  He chose us, because he loves us.  Let’s remember our gospel mantra here at Immanuel: “I’m a complete idiot, my future is incredibly bright, anyone can get in on this.”  Proverbs 3 is for idiots loved by God, and now he’s coaching us in how life works really well.

 

            But there’s a problem here.  Let’s address it up front.  The passage offers us “length of days and years of life” (verse 2), “favor and good success” (verse 4), barns filled with plenty and vats bursting with wine (verse 10), “riches and honor” (verse 16).  Is this “the prosperity gospel”?  You know what I mean – the idea that God is out to make you healthy and rich and comfortable and put you on top of the heap, because you’re his child.  Is this passage saying that?  Can we trust this passage?  Can we swallow it whole?  Two answers.

 

            One, the prosperity gospel is nowhere in the Bible.  The prosperity gospel is cold-hearted materialism in religious disguise.  It chooses Bible verses selectively to fit a name-it-and-claim-it theory, but it doesn’t love God.  It wants to use God for selfish, infantile purposes.  Where does the prosperity gospel say, as the gospel says in Philippians 3:7-11, “I have suffered the loss of all things, and I’m cool with that, because I’m gaining more of Christ.  I have been stripped bare.  I have nothing left.  All I have is Christ, and I’m happy, because he loves me, and that satisfies my heart”?  That is the gospel, and that is prosperity.

 

            Two, the rewards God offers us here in Proverbs 3 are real and wonderful.  He will give them out to his wise children, as he sees fit.  But every believer’s life is complicated.  God sends us pain too.  Verses 11-12 are clear that God disciplines us.  God sends both earthly blessings and earthly sorrows.  Think of Jesus.  He both suffered at the cross and prospered in the resurrection.  The resurrection is the prosperity you’ll want when your health fails, as it will, very soon.  If your story is limited to the blessings of the here and now, you’re in trouble, because your vats bursting with wine will also run dry.  But if your life in this world is only the title page to your eternal story, and God also gives you some barns and vats for the present, okay.  Just be sure you set your heart not on the gift, which will fail you, but on the Giver, who will never fail you.  C. S. Lewis counseled us wisely:

 

The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world; but joy, pleasure and merriment he has scattered broadcast.  We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy.  It is not hard to see why.  The security we all crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God; a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bath or a football match, have no such tendency.  Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.[1]

 

            The passage is organized around two themes: the shalom God gives (verses 1-4), and the trust God demands (verses 5-8).  That’s obvious.  But look more closely.  Do you see how the wise Father links his counsel with incentives all along the way?  For example, in verses 1-2,

 

            Counsel:        My son, do not forget my teaching

                                    but let your heart keep my commandments,

            Incentive:       for length of days and years of life

                                    and peace they will add to you.

 

Step by step, the father gives his counsel and then adds an incentive.  He is not saying, “Do this, because I say so.”  He is saying, “Do this, because it will help you.”  This is the gospel for sinners God treats as his own dear children, guiding us, counseling us, urging us on, blessing us.  How does he want to help us?

 

            The shalom God gives

 

            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.  Proverbs 3:1-2

 

            What is the Father saying?  “Pay attention.  Pay attention to me.  You’re going to pay attention to something.  But only my teaching will lead you into shalom, wholeness, peace.”  God is not saying we have to be smart.  In fact, if we are wise in our own eyes, that’s a problem (verses 7-8).  It’s okay to be incompetent.  But we do have to pay attention to his gospel. 

 

In all the noise of our culture, what are you listening to?  And is it working for you?  Or is it a mirage, leading you on with false promises, always just out of reach?  Mark Rutherford, in his novel The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane, says this: “If your religion doesn’t help you, it is no religion for you; you had better be without it.”[2]  Whatever it is you’re paying attention to, is it leading you into peace?  Be honest about that.  If it isn’t helping you, there is a reason.  Drill down there.  Look closely at yourself.  Are you paying attention to the Father’s teaching in the gospel, or are you paying more attention to some popular but defunct theory that cannot possibly work out?

 

            In the second line of verse 1 the word “keep” means more than “obey”; it means “guard, maintain vigilance.”  “Let your heart guard my commandments.”  Your heart is your security system.  And every day there are thieves trying to rob you of length of days and years of life and peace.  The Bible calls them “idols.”  What are they?  Just obsolete ideas that can’t help because they’re made up.  Our own hearts produce them.  For example, ask yourself, “What life scenario will make me say, ‘I have finally arrived’?  What does ‘arrival’ look like to me?”  Whatever that scenario is, if Christ is not the life-giving center, your heart has already been penetrated by a life-robbing idol.  There is a reason why the sage is telling us to stay alert and pay attention.  When we forget Christ, we are not released into freedom; we submit to false teachings that fill our lives with regret.  For example, if you believe you’ll finally “arrive” through your career, then you can never relax, you have to be compulsive, because you are literally working for your salvation.  If you believe your family will “make” your existence, you’re your “arrival” is insecure, because your kids will break your heart.  However you define your shalom, if it isn’t Christ, then it is an idol.  It will demand your all.  If you do obey it, it will break its promises.  If you fail to obey, it will not forgive you.  It will punish you.  Here’s the point.  Our problem is not just our wandering wills; our problem is our false beliefs.  Our minds give credit to lies.  That is why our Father is saying, “Stay alert to what you’re believing moment by moment.  My teaching alone can make you lie down in green pastures and beside still waters.  Pay attention to the gospel of the finished work of Christ for sinners.  If you’ll let my teaching go deep, you will experience it as your true shalom.” 

 

            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.  Proverbs 3:3-4

 

            The key here is “steadfast love and faithfulness.”  Those words describe God himself (Exodus 34:6).  What are we counting on about God?  We’re staking everything on God being steadfastly loving and faithful to us forever, because he promised to be.  Proverbs 3 is saying, “You know that’s who God is.  He told us so.  Okay, let who God is change you.”  So much American religion isn’t about who God is.  We think we’re the immovable ones, the center around which God orbits.  That’s why American religion is not about us changing and repenting and adjusting to who God is.  It’s about God making us feel better about ourselves without having to change.  But the truth is, God is who he is, so that we can become more like him.  And after all, isn’t that what we really want?  A person of steadfast love and faithfulness can be trusted.  You have nothing to fear from such a person.  You have everything to admire in such a person.  God is in that person.  

 

I believe there is deep spiritual exhaustion in our city.  So many people have been let down by Christians.  They haven’t seen the reality of God in God’s people.  Nashville Christianity is a façade.  It’s people wearing crosses around their necks without binding steadfast love and faithfulness around their necks.  It’s a fashionable appearance without the reality.  The fraudulence of it makes people angry.  They have a right to be angry.  So the Father is saying here, “My steadfast love and faithfulness to sinners – let it change you, let it be your persona.  Wear that reality in public, because it’s who Jesus is.  And I want you to be like him right out in the open, for other sinners to see and have hope.”  When people see Jesus in us, we find favor and good success.  There is no other way.  We wouldn’t want it any other way.

 

            That’s the shalom God gives.  It’s personal (verses 1-2) and social (verses 3-4).  Now here’s how we get there:

 

            The trust God demands

 

            Trust in the LORD 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.  Proverbs 3:5-6

 

            These are the most famous verses in Proverbs.  What are they saying?  They’re saying that our confidence is not some impersonal cosmic order but the Lord Jesus Christ himself.  And the kind of trust he deserves and demands is wholehearted trust: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart.”  One of my seminary professors told about his father crossing the Susquehanna River one winter’s day.  His dad didn’t know how thick the ice was.  So he was crawling along on all fours, gingerly feeling his way forward, when he heard some racket behind him.  He looked back and here came a wagon pulled by four horses and the driver was whipping them along at a pretty good clip.  The guy was a local.  He knew how thick the ice was.  So many Christians are like the man down on all fours, creeping along, way too cautious.  Their trust in the Lord is half-hearted.  Then along comes a wholehearted Christian, and he changes the tone for everyone around.

 

            This Hebrew verb translated “trust” is cognate with an Arabic verb that means to throw oneself down on one’s face, to lie down spread-eagle in complete reliance – to make it as graphic as I can, to do a belly-flop on God with all your sin and all your failure and all your fears.  You stake everything on the gospel promises of God.  If God fails you, you’re damned.  If God comes through, you’re fine.  It’s that blunt and daring and simple.  A. W. Tozer nailed it:

 

Pseudo-faith always arranges a way out to serve in case God fails it.  Real faith knows only one way and gladly allows itself to be stripped of any second way or makeshift substitutes.  For true faith, it is either God or total collapse.  And not since Adam stood up on the earth has God failed a single man or woman who trusted him.[3]

 

            I’m calling you today to trust in the Lord with everything that shames you and terrifies you.  Let your full weight down on him.  He will never fail anyone who trusts him.  No pseudo-faith, because he’s no pseudo-Savior.  He’s real.  He is all he claims to be.  He is right now all he has ever been to anyone anywhere.  And he offers himself to you wholeheartedly today on terms of grace.  What he deserves and demands is your wholehearted trust – a belly flop, spread-eagle on the love and mercy and wisdom of God in Christ alone.

 

            But how can you tell if your trust is wholehearted?  None of us wants to be half-hearted.  You men, when you were ten years old and someone asked you what you want to be when you grow up, you did not say, “When I grow up, I want to wishy-washy!”  We want to be all-out for Christ.  So let’s examine ourselves.  Here are three diagnostics. 

 

One, do you let the Bible overrule your own thinking?  It says here in verse 5, “Do not lean on your own understanding.”  Do you agree with the Bible, or do you obey the Bible?  My dog sometimes agrees with me, but she never obeys me.  If you merely agree with the Bible, then your response is not obedience but coincidence.  It’s just that the prejudices you’ve soaked up from your culture happen to line up with the Bible at that point.  But what do you do when the Bible contradicts what you want to be true?  If you’re looking in the Bible for excuses to do what you want anyway, you’ve already rejected God.  When was the last time you prayed, “Lord, I ask you to correct me from your Word”?  If you trust the Lord wholeheartedly, you will let the Bible get up in your face and challenge your most cherished thoughts and feelings.  The wonderful thing is, the Lord loves to be consulted.  He loves to hear from you.  He cares about your questions and problems.  He wants to speak into you life in ways that will help you.  Will you let him? 

 

Two, do you believe someone somewhere without Jesus will still go to heaven?  Do people really need Jesus to have peace with God?  Or is it okay with God if they’re just sincere, well-meaning people?  If you think so, you’re probably putting yourself into that scenario, because you’re not sure about Jesus.  You’re not trusting Jesus to save you; you’re hoping Jesus will flatter you.  But if you trust the Lord entirely, you will also trust him exclusively, as your only Savior, as anyone’s only Savior. 

 

Three, when was the last time you took a risk to obey Christ?  When was the last time you diminished your future – socially, financially, professionally – for his sake?  When was the last time your life looked obviously different from the life of someone who doesn’t trust Jesus at all?  If you never surprise an unbelieving friend by your sacrifices for Christ, it’s probably because what you’re living for is the same earthly pay-off they’re living for.  But if you trust the Lord entirely, you will also trust him exhaustively, across the whole of life.  You will acknowledge him in all your ways.  You will not be a fragmented person.  You will not think piecemeal.  You will (verse 6 literally translated) “know him” in all your ways.[4]  If you will, he promises to direct the course of your life straight on to where you want to go.  “He will make straight your paths” is a wonderful assurance.  If you will let Jesus rule as Lord over the whole of your life, ultimately, you will make no mistakes.  He will so enter into your story and so make straight your paths that all things will work together for your good.  Will you trust him with all your heart? 

 

I saw this at my twentieth high school reunion.  I loved high school and I had missed my friends over the years.  But I saw a difference among them.  Some had thrown themselves into the craziness of the sixties, and they had aged prematurely.  I have to hand it to them.  They tried with all their might to have a good time that night.  But it was forced.  Then I saw other friends who had walked with Christ.  I remember one girl in particular.  She had been painfully shy and locked up in herself.  But now she was an outgoing, radiant, lovely woman with sparkle and charm.  She had trusted the Lord with all her heart, and she was living proof of his wisdom.    

 

Here’s the price – if we can call it that – here’s the price we pay to walk with God:

 

            Be not wise in your own eyes;

                        fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.

            It will be healing to your flesh

                        and refreshment to your bones.  Proverbs 3:7-8

 

Maybe you remember Frank Sinatra’s old song, “My Way.”

 

And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case of which I’m certain
I’ve lived a life that’s full, I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Yes there were times I’m sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out

I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way

For what is a man, what has he got?  If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows, and did it my way

 

That’s stupid.  But it has over 3.6 million views on YouTube.  We glorify the know-it-all who does it his own way.  But the Bible says, “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 26:12).  A spirit of self-assurance will destroy you – and everyone you love – because it doesn’t listen.  It cannot work.  The universe will not cooperate with self-centeredness.  But fearing the Lord and turning away from evil – not experimenting with evil but turning from it – is healing and refreshment.  It’s not just that you’ll avoid pain; you’ll enjoy positive energy.  Here’s the irony.  The more you fear the Lord, the less you’ll fear man.  The more you depend on the Lord, the more independent you’ll be.  The more you resemble Christ, the more an individual you’ll be.  The more you obey him, the more rebellious and the freer you’ll be.  And life will work for you.

 

Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.  It’s simple, but we need to be told, because it’s radical.  The first of Martin Luther’s 95 theses was this: “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, in saying, ‘Repent,’ intended that the whole life of believers should be repentance.”  You have a to-do list for this coming week.  Here are the top priorities God wants at the top of your list in terms of urgency.  #1: fear the Lord.  #2: turn away from evil.  #3: breathe.  That is the business of your life this week.  It will add greatness to your life.  It will add life to your life.  John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, said this:

 

Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of God upon earth.[5]

 

If you want your life to count now and forever for Christ, here is all you need to do.  Fear the Lord.  Turn away from evil.  Do that alone, and your life will be magnificent.