Deo Gloria
Sermon for August 9, 2020
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Proverbs 3:5-6
Theme: The Seven Wonders of the Spiritual World
Wonder #2 – God Can Be Trusted
Has this ever happened to you? You’re walking out to your car in the parking lot of a store and someone pulls up and asks for directions. “Sure,” you say, “I know where that is. Just go out here and take a right. Then go straight for about a mile till you come to a stop sign. Take a left. Then go down another 5 or 6 blocks and turn left at the gas station. And it’ll be about 2 blocks down on the right hand side. You can’t miss it.” “Thanks,” they reply and off they drive. But then as you watch them drive away, you suddenly think to yourself, “Oh, wait a minute. I should have told them to turn left out of the parking lot. Now they’ll be going in the wrong direction. Oh well. When they get lost enough, they’ll stop and ask someone else.” Has that ever happened to you? My guess is all of us have probably given bad directions like that or received bad directions like that from someone else at one time or another. Of course, it wasn’t intentional. We didn’t mean to give them wrong directions. We made an honest mistake.
The sad reality, however, is that there are many people in our world today, including the devil himself—there are many in our world who will gladly give people wrong directions, who will intentionally lead people down the wrong path so they can take advantage of them. Remember all of the corporate scandals that were in the news a number of years ago—Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, just to mention a few? Investors lost millions and billions of dollars because the people running those companies were dishonest and lied to them about what was really going on. Even after storms and disasters there are people who try to take advantage of others. They go around to various neighborhoods, offering to fix people’s homes that have been damaged. They start the work. They take the people’s money. And then they take off and never finish. Or have you ever had a friend or relative ask to borrow some money and they promised to pay you back, but they never did? It hurts when people deceive you like that or take advantage of you. And after you’ve had it happen a few times, it’s easy to become rather skeptical and cynical. You start to wonder whom you can trust. You wonder if you can trust anyone anymore. Can you even trust God? Solomon answers that question for us this morning in the verses of text. He answers it with a sure and emphatic “Yes.” The second wonder of the spiritual world is that God can be trusted. He can be trusted with all our hearts. And he can be trusted to make our paths straight.
When I think of smart people, I think of the scientists and engineers who work for NASA. Every time I watch one of those rockets blast off into the sky, I can’t help but marvel. Every time I watch one of the astronauts go for a space walk, I can’t help but marvel. The things they have thought up, the things they have designed and developed—it’s just amazing. And yet the brain power of those NASA scientists doesn’t even hold a candle to the brain power of King Solomon. Solomon was the smartest person who ever lived. When Solomon asked God for wisdom so he could rule the people of Israel, God replied, “I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be”(1 Kings 3:12). The Bible tells us that kings from all over the world sent the smartest people in their countries to Jerusalem to sit at the feet of Solomon and listen to his wisdom. During his life time, Solomon wrote some 3,000 proverbs and more than a thousand psalms. Many of those proverbs are recorded for us in the Bible, including the verses of our text. If anyone could have gotten by on his own brain power, it was Solomon. And yet, in these verses Solomon cautions us against putting our trust in our own wisdom and our own understanding. Instead, he urges us to trust in the Lord, to trust in him with all our heart, because he can be trusted.
In the NIV the word Lord is printed in all capital letters: capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That word, LORD, stands for a very special name for God, a name that is often translated Jehovah or Yahweh. The word literally means “he is.” The children of Israel came up with that name for God, because of what God had said to Moses in Exodus ch. 3. If you remember the story, you remember how God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and called him to go back to Egypt and deliver his people from slavery. Moses, however, started making excuses. One of things he said to God was: “OK, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
And this was God’s answer: “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you’”(v. 14). The name God used for himself was “I am.” So the Children of Israel referred to him as “He is.” That name for God, the name that means “He is,” tells us some very important things about God. For one thing it tells us that he is eternal. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln—all of them were great people, great leaders of our country. But did you notice I used the past tense in speaking about them. They were great leaders of our country, but not anymore, because they’re dead. God never was anything. He just is. He always is. There has never been a time when God has not existed. There will never be a time when God does not exist. He is the timeless one, the eternal one, the one who always is. As it says in Psalm 90, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God”(v. 2).
A second thing that name tells us about God is that he is unchanging. The weather changes. Our health changes. Relationships change. You and I change. We grow up and learn and get smarter. And then we grow old and become forgetful. We never remain the same. God always remains the same. God never changes. As the Bible says, “[He] is the same yesterday and today and forever”(Hebrews 13:8).
What a comforting truth that is, to know that God never changes! The same God who ruled the world last night is the same God who rules it today—same plan, same principles, same love and concern for his people. And if God always remains the same, that means his Word always remains the same too. What he said more than 3,000 years ago at the time of Moses is still what he says today and what he will say 3,000 years from now. God never changes his mind. God never has to go back and revise something he said: “Oh, did I say that I created the world? What I meant to say is that I created all the matter in the universe and I triggered the “big bang,” but then evolution took things from there.” People do things like that. People change their minds. People try to change their words or go back on their words; but not God. We can count on his Word. We can rely on his Word.
And we can rely on the promises he has given us. When he says he will provide for us and take care of us, we can count on it. He did yesterday. He is today. And he will tomorrow. When he says that he will be with us, we can count on it. He was with us yesterday. He is with us today. And he will be tomorrow. When he says that he will forgive our sins, we can count on it. He forgave us yesterday. He forgives us today. And he will forgive us tomorrow. We can count on God’s promises. We can rely on them with all our hearts.
Joshua discovered that during his lifetime. You see, he was a member of the Children of Israel. He was one of those who were delivered from slavery in Egypt. He saw the plagues that God brought on Egypt. He saw how God parted the waters of the Red Sea, so they could escape from the Egyptian army. He saw how God provided for them during their 40 years of wandering in the desert, how he provided manna from heaven and water from rocks. He saw how God helped them enter the Promised Land and how he caused the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down. He saw how God was with them and helped them defeat all their enemies so they could take possession of the land. After seeing all of that, Joshua made the following observation at the end of his life: “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed”(Joshua 23:14). Joshua had learned what Solomon had learned: God is trustworthy. We can rely on his promises.
A fourth thing the name LORD reminds us about God is that he is the God of our salvation. He is the God who planned our salvation already in eternity. He is the God who promised Adam and Eve, and Abraham and Sarah, and David and Bathsheba and Solomon, that he would send a Savior one day to rescue them from their sins. He is the God who kept that promise and sent his own Son to be that Savior, to suffer and die on the cross for their sins and the sins of the whole world, that we might be forgiven. Can we trust in a God like that, a God who kept his word and sent a Savior to save us from our sins? Can we trust in a God like that, a God who loved us so much that he was willing to give up his own Son for us, that we might be his both now and forever? The answer is “Yes,” a resounding and unwavering “Yes.” We can trust in the LORD. We can trust in him with all our hearts. He will never let us down.
We can also trust in him to make our paths straight. Summer is my favorite season for a number of reasons. One of the things I don’t like about summer, though, is the road construction and the detours. You know how it goes. You have this nice vacation trip all planned out. You know exactly where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. You know which roads you’re supposed to take, what will be the most direct route. And then there’s construction. And they send you on this detour that takes you miles and miles out of the way. And it ends up taking you much longer to get where you were planning to go. It’s so frustrating.
It’s very frustrating in our spiritual lives as well, in our journey to eternal life in heaven. In fact, it’s more than just frustrating. Wandering off the right path and taking one of the devil’s detours often brings heartache and sadness and confusion into our lives, and may even lead to eternal death in hell. That’s why Solomon urges us to follow the paths God lays out for us. He can be trusted to make our paths straight. “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight”(v. 6). Literally the Hebrews says, “In all your ways know him.” Obviously, if we’re going to know God and his will for our lives, we have to know what his Word says. That means hearing God’s Word regularly. That means reading and studying God’s Word on our own and together with our families.
Knowing God in all our ways also means applying what God says to our lives. It means taking what God says about honesty and applying it to ourselves at work, being an honest employer or employee, doing an honest business and making honest deals with people. It means taking what God says about his gift of sex, that it is to be enjoyed only in the context of marriage, and applying it to our lives with our boyfriend or girlfriend. It means taking what God says about greed and contentment and applying it to our lives. I don’t have to have all the things my friends have or my neighbors have. I can be satisfied with what God has given me.
So how have you done? Have you always followed God’s path for your life? Have you always acknowledged God in everything you have done, in all your ways? If only we had, right? How much trouble we could have avoided! How much grief we could have been spared! But we didn’t. All too often we relied on our own understanding. We thought we knew better. We chose to go our own way and do our own thing. And God certainly would have been justified to just let us go, to let us go our way of sin and corruption and end up in hell. But he didn’t. He loved us too much. When we were lost in our sins, Jesus came looking for us. He forgave us for our sins and our failures, and he brought us back into a right relationship with God. Now, out of thanks to him and with his help, we strive to live a life that honors God. We strive to acknowledge him in all our ways and follow him in all our ways, because we know that he can be trusted. He will always lead us on the right paths in this life. And he will lead us on the right path to eternal life in heaven.
There is so much confusion about that now days, so many detours, so many dead ends. Some people say it all depends on you and what you do, if you live a good enough life and strive to do what’s good and right, then you will go to heaven. Other people say that God loves everyone and will take everyone to heaven. Still others say that there are many different paths to heaven—Jesus is one, Allah is another, Buddha is anther. In the end they all lead to the same place. So let me ask you this: Would you trust the directions someone gave you if they had never been there? If they gave you directions to the Science Museum in St. Paul, for example, but they had never been to the Science Museum, would you trust their directions? Wouldn’t it be better to get directions from someone who has actually been there? Jesus has been there. You and I have never been to heaven. Your friends at school have never been to heaven. Your professor at college has never been to heaven; but Jesus has. He came from heaven, so he can tell us how to get there. And that’s exactly what he does in his Word. He gives us the directions. “I am the way,” he says. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”(John 14:6). It isn’t very complicated or confusing. Jesus doesn’t take us down some winding road. He makes a nice, straight path for us. The way to heaven is through him. And we can believe his directions, because he’s been there.
Michael Faraday was a very bright man. He was a scientist who made many great discoveries in the fields of electricity and electromagnetism. When he became gravely ill at the age of 75, a group of fellow scientists came to see him—not so much to talk about science as to talk about death. At one point one of them asked him, “Mr. Faraday, what are your speculations about your future?”
“Speculations?” he replied with a note of surprise in his voice. “I don’t have any speculations. I’m resting on something certain.” And then he quoted Paul’s words from 2 Timothy, ch. 1: “For I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day”(v. 12). Michael Faraday had learned what Solomon had learned, the second greatest wonder of the spiritual world: that God can be trusted, trusted with all our hearts and trusted to make our paths straight all the way to heaven. Amen.