Lean Not on Your Own Understanding

Introduction: The Familiarity and Importance of Proverbs 3:5-6

0:05 ...to our studies in the book of Proverbs, and in particular Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6.

0:15 This unit of thought that forms the third couplet of command and promise in this third chapter of the book of Proverbs. Very familiar words, let me read them again in your hearing. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths.

0:48 In our first study of these verses two Lord's Days ago, I mentioned that which I'm sure is obvious to all of us, that these verses are well known among Christians. The people of God and our cherished verses.

1:05 And they are well known and cherished for the simple reason that they touch one of the most sensitive nerves in the life of the believer. Namely, the matter of knowing the will of God. The subject of divine guidance. For when God saves us, he implants within us this longing to know and to do his will.

1:30 One of the great blessings. For the new covenant, God says, is that he will take out the heart of stone. He will give us a heart of flesh. He will put his spirit within us, write his law upon our hearts, and cause us to keep his statutes and his judgments.

1:46 And so it's essential then that we not shy away in some false itch for novelty when preaching through a section of the word of God, such as I've been attempting to do with the book of Proverbs. I say we must not shy away. We must not shy away from a passage that is familiar for some kind of reasons of desire to be novel. But verses that are familiar are familiar to the people of God because they are able to bear the weight that the people of God rest upon them.

2:17 And so it's essential for us to come to the text pleading with God for light and trusting him to give us understanding of its meaning. In our previous study, I suggested that an understanding of the text was impossible without some perception of the climate of the text. And the whole climate of these two verses is the climate of the biblical doctrine of God. He is worthy to be the object of exclusive trust.

2:45 He is the God concerned with the details of the lives of his people. The climate of the text is the climate of the biblical doctrine of man. Man is inadequate to make his own way through life. Man's mind...

3:01 His mind is insufficient to be the final bar of authority. It's the biblical doctrine of communion with God. The whole text breathes of the blessed reality of a man so walking with his God that he can know that his life is being governed by God and his steps directed by God. Then we began to look at the first division of the text, which is the commands of the text.

Defining the Command: 'Lean Not Upon Thine Own Understanding'

3:30 Verse 5, and the first part of verse 6, and then, of course, we have the second major division, the promise of the text. And the commands are three. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart. A command to reliance upon the living God as he's revealed in Scripture.

3:49 A command to trust him with the whole heart. The measure of our trust is that it's to be all, and the source it is to be the heart. Now we come tonight to the second, of these commands. Namely, lean not upon thine own understanding, or the part of the text that I'm calling the call to repudiation.

4:13 We are not only called to a life of reliance upon God, but we are called to a life in which we repudiate our own understanding. As we think our way through this part of the text, I shall, first of all, attempt to define the key words in this part of the text. Having done that, we shall then seek to establish the meaning of the text and apply the principles as we move through. First of all, then, when Solomon wrote to his son or to his pupil and said, If you would know of a certainty that your life is being directed by God,

4:55 you must not only trust in him with the whole heart, but you must not lean upon yourself, or your own understanding. What did those words mean to Solomon's son? Well, take first of all the word understanding. It basically means comprehension, insight, or perception.

5:16 It is the word used in 1 Chronicles 12.32 concerning the men of Issachar who had understanding of the times that they might know what Israel ought to do. That is, they had perception, of the times. They had insight of the times.

5:35 They had comprehension. They did not merely see events and people and circumstances and be able to report them. They saw the relationship of one event to another, one circumstance to another. They had insight into things as they really were.

5:52 It's the word found right here in Proverbs 4. And verse 1, Hear the instruction of a father, and attend to know, through understanding.

6:03 So then, what the writer is saying is that we are not to lean upon our own comprehension, insight, or perception. Then the word own. It's a key word in the text. Lean not upon thine own understanding.

6:21 That is, the understanding that has its origin in human thought unaided by the word and the spirit. Solomon, is not speaking of the understanding that is ours by the acquisitions of grace. Rather, he is speaking of the understanding that is ours by the deposit of nature. And those are two totally different things.

6:48 You have an understanding, if you're a Christian, that is the deposit of divine grace or the acquisitions of grace. You also have an understanding that is merely the deposit of nature. And as we know, we shall see in unfolding the meaning of the text when he puts the emphasis on thine own understanding. He's talking about that understanding which is native to his son or his pupil as a creature, even more so as a fallen creature.

7:19 Then the words lean not.

7:24 It means to lean upon something so as to be supported by it. As a cripple leans upon his chains, and as a drunk leans upon a lamppost. So he says, lean not. Do not make the place of your support and your resting to be your own understanding.

7:48 It's interesting that it's this precise word in the Hebrew that is found in the account of... Amazing.

8:01 Samson, there it is. I kept wanting to say Solomon. I can see him leaning on the pillars. But that's the situation.

8:07 In Judges 16.26, where it speaks of Samson making a request that he might lean upon the pillars. He calls for someone to guide him to these pillars that he might rest upon them. For they have been making sport of him and he's physically weary.

8:28 That's the picture. Do not make the place of your trust, that upon which you rest your weight. Putting the three key words together then, what do you have? You have a prohibition, a call to repudiate all leaning upon natural human reasoning as a basis of governing our lives.

8:52 And if you and I would know the fulfillment of the promise to have Almighty God, Jehovah God, direct our paths, we must learn what it is to repudiate all resting upon unaided humanism and reason as the basis of governing our lives. So much for the definition of the key words. Now let's come to the meaning of the text. This is what the words say.

What the Command Does NOT Mean: Avoiding Hyper-Spirituality and Rejecting Sanctified Sense

9:20 What do they mean? And we're touching a very delicate area tonight. The whole area of the relationship between true religion and the human mind. And in the scriptures and in the history of the church, we can see that there have been errors, on the left hand and on the right, because people have not been able to find that razor's edge understanding as to the precise place of human wisdom and understanding in relationship to vital saving religion.

9:56 And this text brings us into a head-on collision with that very aspect of biblical truth. So I want to begin by saying what the words do not mean. And we'll start by the process of elimination. And I'll start by the process of elimination.

10:09 And I think this will be helpful. Sometimes preachers do that when they're bluffing it and haven't done their spade work and their homework and they can't tell you what the text means so they spend all their time telling you what it doesn't mean. Well, I hope I'm not guilty of that. I may have exposed some preachers, including the one standing before you, but I hope, before God, that's not my motive.

10:29 I do feel this will be helpful in arriving at a precise understanding of the meaning of this repudiation to which we are called. First of all, then, taking the negative, this is not a call to jettison the use of our minds in general. Great harm has often come by a hyper-spiritual perspective which regards the use of the mind as an enemy of grace. Within this perspective, the less you think and use your mind, the more spiritual you have become.

11:08 And in the place of the mind and its sound judgments, you know what is offered in this philosophy? The vicious tyranny of being driven by impulses, urges, whims, and subjective inclinations.

11:26 The scripture says, the commands of God are not grievous, but when people forsake a Christian experience in which they are led by the rational dictates of a mind illumined by the Word, for something, quote, more spiritual, they enter into the vicious tyranny, the driving whiplash of impulses, urges, whims, and inclinations. In the place of a calm, rational response to the Word of God written in seeking to know the will of God, there is the almost occult attempt at reading providential circumstances, and you have Christians treating providential circumstances

12:10 like a fortune teller, treats tea leaves, fills them out, and then she tries to see the relationship, and out of that mess of soggy leaves brings some kind of oracle. My friend, it's just as futile when a person throws out the use of the mind and says, I'll read the will of God in providence.

12:34 Now, this is no distant heresy. It's one very much with us.

12:42 Let me give two current expressions of it. One man has recently written, in a book, suggesting how the church may come back to apostolic power. He's written saying words, something like this. This is not an exact quote, but it's close enough to say this is what he said.

12:59 He said, you know what the problem with Christians is? Using their heads too much. So his suggestion is, and this is the near quote, take that computer that resides up there in your skull called the brain, put a rocket and shoot it to the moon and let it stay there. Then you're prepared, you're prepared, you're prepared to begin to believe God and make real advances spiritually.

13:22 You see what he's saying? He's saying a mind that is working is the enemy of spiritual progress in reality. Another expression of it, in the midst of what was supposed to be a great moving of the spirit of God in another continent, went something like this. The leader said, when he gathered the Christians together, now you know what the problem with your Christians is?

13:44 It's your head. You've got so much truth and so much theology in your head, you can't believe. God, you can't make any progress. And then he turned them to Genesis chapter 1 where it says, darkness was upon the face of the deep.

13:56 Then the next verse says, and the spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters. He says, if you want the spirit of God brooding upon the face of your life and bringing order out of the chaos, there must first of all be darkness upon the face of the deep.

14:13 Oh, listen, we laugh, but listen, there were people held spellbound by this and hundreds came under the power of that philosophy. You must take all that theology you think you know and all that understanding and you must pray, God, drive it from my mind until my mind is nothing but a mass of passive darkness and then I will yield to the spirit and light will begin to come. Now that's what we might say a very gross expression of this philosophy, but there are varying degrees of it right here in our own assembly where there is the idea that to lean on the spirit of God and to lean not upon the, oh, our own understanding means

14:57 that we must jettison the use of the mind in general. Now, how do we know that this cannot be the meaning of this text? Well, we could spend the rest of the night showing how foolish it is. Let me just throw out several lines of biblical thought, I hope sufficient to answer the question.

15:17 What is the first command? When Jesus was asked, what is the first and great commandment, how did he answer? I have this recorded in all three of the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Or in Matthew 22, 37, and 38, Jesus said, this is the great commandment, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy what?

15:41 Mind. That in itself should indicate that whatever it means to know and to love and to serve God, the mind is never pushed down and relegated to some place as being sort of unnecessary, or evil that we carry along with us. Never. What's the very purpose of the book of Proverbs?

16:03 Look at chapter 1 and verse 2. He said, I'm writing these things for what purpose? To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the words of, same word in the original, to discern the words of understanding. Would he say, I'm writing all of these things that you might have understanding, then turn around and say, but look, get rid of your understanding, I don't want you to have it.

16:25 Now let's credit Solomon, the wisest man upon the face of the earth, a little, more good sense than to do that, to give away with the right hand what the left hand, or to take away with the right hand what the left hand has given. Then, of course, you have the whole thrust of the epistles of the New Testament in particular. What does Paul say in Romans 12? How do you prove what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God?

16:48 He says you do so, what? By the throwing out of your mind? By putting your mind on a rocket and shooting it to the moon? No, no.

16:55 He says, be not fashioned according to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God. What does James say? If any man lack wisdom, shout hallelujah, you're on the borders of a new spiritual breakthrough.

17:19 He says if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, what? Ask for wisdom, and it shall be given him. Paul says, I pray that your love may abound in more, what? Knowledge and discernment, that ye may approve the things that are excellent.

17:37 The passage we're studying, Lord's Day Mornings in Ephesians 1, he prays that the Spirit shall be given to them, that they may what? That they may know, that the Spirit may function upon the mind. And so you see, the whole idea that a text like this is pointing us in this direction of what I call a hyper-spiritual perspective, calling upon us to jettison the use of the mind in spiritual disciplines, that perspective, I say, is not supported by this text nor any text in the entirety of the Word of God. So it is not a call to jettison the use of the mind in general in the Christian life, nor is it, secondly, here's the second negative, it is not a call to throw out

18:21 good, sanctified sense in particular when dealing with matters of guidance.

18:29 Some who are quite sound in their general views of the place of the mind in the Christian life get all fouled up when they try to apply those general principles to the specific matter of guidance.

18:45 Such words as I shall now quote from the Scriptures are very, very jarring to this kind of an individual. It seemed good unto us and to the Holy Ghost. You ask the group there, how did you come to that decision? They say, well, it seemed good to us as we talked things over and reasoned things through, this seemed to be the right thing to do.

19:08 Well, that sounds like they're using their understanding. They sure were. Paul had to write to the church at Rome and say, I have purposed many times to come unto you. He didn't say, I felt great divine compulsion to make plans.

19:23 He said, I felt like coming to you lots of times. And I made plans to come. But he said, I've been hindered. That's very unspiritual, isn't it?

19:32 How did Paul get guidance to go to Rome? He didn't bat a thousand in guidance. He didn't. He didn't just keep waiting and praying until he could go around.

19:42 He said, I know God wants me to go to Rome. He said, I purposed many times to come, but I've been hindered. So if you'd ask Paul, what are you going to do? He said, well, I think maybe next month I'm going to Rome.

19:54 You see him next month, hey, I thought you were on your way to Rome. Well, so he said, I thought I might be, but I've been hindered. He wasn't embarrassed, you see. Now that sounds very unspiritual, I know, but it's biblical.

20:06 It's the indication that as he viewed all of his circumstances and viewed the desires of his own heart within the framework of his general commission from the Lord and prayerfully contemplated these things, he made decisions, he made plans, and not all of them panned out and he accepted them as being the providential dispositions of God. He speaks of, I have determined to spend winter at such and such a place. And I was reading this week in Corinthians. And this passage really shook me from a lot of standpoints, but 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13.

20:42 You want to see something very, very human in this matter of guidance in which Paul not only uses his mind, but even follows the inclinations of his affections. 2 Corinthians 2, verses 12 and 13. Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened unto me in the Lord, I had no relief for my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother. But taking leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia.

21:13 He doesn't mention the Holy Spirit. He doesn't mention God. He says here was a great door, but apparently he says as I moved into it, I felt that I needed my companion in the gospel, and when I didn't find him, I felt I better not labor here for now, so I took leave of him. Now that's all very natural like talk, isn't it?

21:32 It doesn't sound very spiritual. He didn't have a vision. He didn't have a revelation. He said here was an open door.

21:40 I had no relief for my spirit. That is his human spirit, because I found not Titus my brother. Now what are we trying to say with all of this? Well, what I'm trying to say is that when this text says lean not upon thine own understanding, it is not calling us to repudiate good sanctified sense, or our own particular God-given desire, with reference to the matter of getting guidance, this matter of knowing the will of God.

What the Command DOES Mean: Recognizing the Mind's Limitations (Created State)

22:14 Well, if it is not these things, what is it? And let me suggest three positives. First of all, it is a call to recognize the inadequacies and the limitations of the human mind in three areas. When Solomon says, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord with all thy heart, lean not upon thine own understanding.

22:42 He's saying to his son or his pupil, recognize the inadequacies and limitations of the human mind. In what sense are those inadequacies and limitations to be recognized? First of all, in terms of the human mind as a created faculty.

23:04 Thank God for the biblical doctrine of creation. It's not a matter of just a starting point of all other issues in life. Let's go back to the Garden of Eden and let's see what God intended for Adam's mind in the original creation.

23:26 Remember, sin does not enter until chapter 3 of the book of Genesis. So whatever you find in chapters 1 and 2, you're looking at man as God intended he should function. Man as a perfect creature. Man as a creature but a sinless creature.

23:42 A sinless creature in the midst of a perfect environment.

23:47 Now, how was Adam to learn what God wanted him to do? Was he simply to trust upon his own innate understanding in order to know the will of God?

24:00 I think we shall see in a moment that though Adam's understanding was clear and untainted by sin, the light of his understanding was not adequate to know all the will of God. Hence, even before sin entered, Adam could not lean upon his own understanding because it was inadequate and limited as a created faculty. Turn to Genesis 1 for an example of this.

24:32 As you read all of the other areas of God's creation, God speaks and it was done. God blesses the various facets of His creation but something utterly unique enters the picture in verse 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in His own image.

25:05 In the image of God created He Him. Male and female created He them. And God blessed them. And now a phrase utterly unique in the whole creation account.

25:15 And God, God said unto them.

25:22 Of everything else that is said and God said it is good but it's never said God said to the birds. God said to the other creatures. But to this unique creature made in His image with intelligence, with a faculty of will and rational comprehension. God spoke to him and said giving him direction be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it.

25:48 And have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold I have given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of the earth and every tree in which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed and to every beast of the field etc. Now do you see what He did? Having created the man and the woman He did not simply place them upon this earth and let them out of the storehouse.

26:18 Out of the storehouse of an infinite mind dip in to discover what God would have them to do. Though they are sinless and though the light of the understanding is not in any way dimmed by sin it is not adequate to know what God would have them to do. God reveals His will by direct, verbal, propositional words. Revelation.

26:45 God said do this, do that. Further, when we turn to chapter 2 we find in verse 16 and Jehovah God commanded the man say, He speaks to him and I see no way to understand this but that God spoke audibly so Adam could hear what the Lord God is saying. God said to him of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day of the Lord God is saying in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Now what does this tell us about the human mind?

27:27 It tells us that Adam could have sat in that garden looked at all of the trees and if there was anything different in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as to its form or as to its fruit something we don't know. But even if it had been a totally different color with a totally different kind of fruit some strange shaped exotic fruit that set that tree in motion that tree off from all others Adam could have sat there for a millennium and never understood the significance of that tree it was not stored up in his mind God had to reveal it to him.

28:05 You say, what in the world are you getting all excited about that for? Well it tells us something about the limitations and the inadequacies of the human mind in its created state. It was never created to be an infinite reservoir of all truth and understanding into which man could dip at any time and bring out of it and draw from it infallible directions. It was never created to be a faculty wrenched loose from dependence upon God and still be able to function properly.

28:42 When Solomon says, My son, if you would have your paths directed of God lean not upon your own understanding he's saying, My son, you're a creature with a creature's mind you're not God.

28:59 And what Solomon says to his son the Holy Ghost says to us sin has so perverted us we don't like that message. I'm a creature and even as sin never entered I would be creature still with a mind that was not omniscient but would have to wait in humble dependence upon its God to reveal what was the will and the purpose and plan of that God.

What the Command DOES Mean: Recognizing the Mind's Limitations (Fallen State)

29:28 But it is not only a call to recognize the inadequacies and limitations of the human mind in its created state but it's a call to recognize those same inadequacies and limitations in its fallen state. When mankind fell the totality of his humanity was affected by sin. That means his affections were affected. His will was affected.

29:55 And his mind was affected. When we speak of the doctrine of total depravity we do not mean nor have theologians ever meant to say that the Bible teaches man is as depraved extensively or intensively as he could be. What we are simply saying is that as one drop of poison pervades the whole glass of water and makes it wholly poisoned so the entrance to the Bible the entrance of sin pervaded every faculty of man's being so that sin comes to light in the functionings of the mind. So what does the Bible say about man's mind

30:39 in a state of sin? Well it says things like this Ephesians 4.18 Having their understanding darkened. Romans 3.11

30:50 There is none that understand it. Then there is a strange phrase in Ephesians 2.2 Fulfilling the desires or the lust of the flesh and of the mind and we were by nature the children of wrath even as others. Here the mind is looked upon as something so affected by sin that it has inordinate desires as much as the flesh does.

31:20 That's the biblical doctrine of the mind in a state of sin. 1 Corinthians 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of the flesh but the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them. The mind has no ability to grasp spiritual things.

31:38 Then 2 Corinthians 4.4 says the mind is darkened by the God of this world himself the devil in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. Then the classic statement Romans 8.7 The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be.

32:04 You see that's a very humbling doctrine. Man who boasts of his own ability to understand himself and understand his environment understand his world understand his problems God says no you're blind your mind is at enmity against me your understanding is darkened you cannot perceive the truth of spiritism and the spiritual things. I need not remind you of the vivid examples of that in our own day. People making pompous pronouncements about everything from such sacred things as the home male and female relationships the role of fathers and mothers the role of women and men in general

32:48 making pronouncements about sociological problems and they're just showing their folly with each passing pronouncement. Blind!

33:00 You see the evidence. Now this text is a call to recognize the inadequacies and the limitations of the human mind in its fallen state. If I'm speaking tonight to someone whose mind has never been illuminated by the Holy Spirit in what the Bible calls the new birth the work of regeneration what Jesus called being born again in the third chapter of John you cannot know what it is to have your paths directed in a way that will be pleasing to God because your mind that faculty by which you gain perspective and collate materials

33:43 and make judgments and decisions is utterly darkened and it will be that way until you're born of the Spirit of God. You'll never know the meaning of life the way of peace the way of fulfillment until you turn to Him who is truth who is made unto those who believe in Him wisdom even Christ who is called not only the power of God but the wisdom of God. So this text lean not upon thine own understanding it's a call to every unconverted person to remember you'll never know the meaning of life the fulfillment that perhaps you think you are so desperately seeking until you repudiate your own ideas

34:27 as to how that fulfillment can come and you turn to Him who is truth and say Lord Jesus you must teach me how I can find fulfillment you must teach me what life is all about Lord I've tried I've sought to pursue in my own folly the way of peace and the way of knowing what life is about and I failed that's a humbling thing especially if you have a college degree or two but God saves in a way that undercuts all human pride for after that in the wisdom of God wisdom of the world the world by its wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe

What the Command DOES Mean: Recognizing the Mind's Limitations (Imperfectly Sanctified State)

35:12 where is the wise where is the disputer of this world hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world that's the language of the apostle in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 but this is not only a call this is our first positive not only a call to recognize the limitations and inadequacies of the human mind in its created state and in its created state and in its fallen state but this is the real focus of the text upon Christians tonight it's a call to recognize the inadequacies and limitations of the human mind in its imperfectly sanctified state in believers to believers

35:55 who now have the mind of Christ 1 Corinthians 2.16 it is to believers that this word comes lean not upon thine own understanding John? says in 1 John 5.20 we have an unction and we know all things we have been given an understanding but ah my friend just as the transformation of grace in the realm of ethics is not complete it's not complete in the realm of the mind thank God we've had a basic transformation in our minds through grace the Bible sometimes describes salvation, conversion as an illumination of the mind Acts 1.6

36:39 26.18 to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light that's the description of conversion and opening of the mind in another place Paul says he has brought us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son Peter says he called us out of darkness into the realm of light but oh my friend listen though there's been this basic transformation that transformation is not complete or perfect and it's because of the remains not only of creaturely mind which we'll have through all eternity but the remains of sinful mind that we need to learn

37:23 what it is to lean not upon our own understanding I want to take you to a classic example of how the same mind within the same context can have a powerful and stupendous revelation of the spirit and be held in the grip of the grossest kind of fleshy ignorance at the same time the same mind in the same person turn to Matthew chapter 16 here we see this state that I'm trying to describe to you why it is that we must lean not upon our own understanding you remember the setting the Lord Jesus is on the borders

38:08 of Caesarea Philippi and he asks his disciples whom do men say that I the son of man am or who do men say that I the son of man am and they said verse 14 of Matthew 16 John the Baptist Elijah others Jeremiah one of the prophets and he said unto them but who say ye that I am and Simon Peter speaking of course for the other apostles Simon Peter said thou art the Christ the son of the living God Jesus answered and said unto him blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my father who is in heaven Simon

38:52 how did your mind come to that understanding that I Jesus of Nazareth am the Christ the son of the living God God incarnate the only Messiah I'll tell you Simon Peter you did not come to this discovery by leaning upon your own understanding my father's revealed it this is the result of a direct inward work of my father through the spirit opening your eyes then he goes on to speak of Peter's unique place in the purpose of God and notice what happens immediately after immediately after that confession verse 21 from that time that precise historical event when the confession has been made

39:36 of who Christ is a confession rooted in the revelation of God to Peter's mind Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and the third day be raised up and Peter took him began to rebuke him saying be far from thee Lord this shall never be to thee and he turned and said unto Peter get thee behind me Satan thou art a stumbling block unto me now get the next phrase for thou mindest not the things of God but the things of man

40:19 a very accurate and warranted translation would be thou thinkest not the thoughts that originate with God but the thoughts that originate with man now do you see residing in the same mind in the same historical context is a powerful work of divine revelation and the remains of carnal wisdom and understanding is it Peter you're leaning upon your understanding as to how I as Messiah will come to my kingdom I say I must come to my kingdom by way of a cross and an open tomb

41:03 you stand in my way and say no Lord never any way to the crown and to the throne but not through the cross Peter you're leaning upon your own carnal understanding oh yes you've been wonderfully blessed my father's revealed to you that which is the most fundamental of all revelations who I am son of the living God the Christ of God but oh Peter at this point in terms of how I will come to my full inheritance as Messiah your thinking is so shaped by carnal thought that you've become a very embodiment of the devil get thee behind me Satan

41:46 there are other examples of this God willing we'll look at them when we study the phrase in all thy ways acknowledge him where good men godly men children of God in the old and the new testament because they were illuminated by the spirit but did not learn to repudiate their own understanding in this sense were guilty of tragic mistakes that scarred themselves and brought reproach to the world to the living God the best summary I know for this first positive call to repudiate the inadequacies of human

42:30 wisdom and understanding is Jeremiah 17 and verse 5 look at it for a moment if you will Jeremiah 17 and verse 5 thus saith the Lord cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord he shall be like the heath in the desert and shall not see when good cometh but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness of salt land and not inhabit it cursed be the man that trusteth in man what part of man man's wisdom lean not

The Positive Alternatives: Diligent Inquiry into Scripture

43:13 upon thine own understanding this is not a call to jettison the use of your mind in general it is not a call to jettison the use of good common sense in particular when it comes to guidance but it is a call to recognize that your mind has limitations limitations rooted in creation in the fall and in the imperfect state of your sanctification but it's a call also to a diligent inquiry into the mind of God as found in Holy Scripture if you do not trust in your own unaided judgment the proof of this will be that you will be

43:56 constantly seeking the judgment and the mind of God in the only place it's found in Holy Scripture if someone says oh no Pastor Martin I don't mean upon my own understanding the immediate question that I want to ask is how diligently do you inquire into the mind of God as found in the Scriptures for that's the only valid alternative if you are not leaning upon your own understanding then you will have the spirit of the psalmist and let me just read several portions briefly from the 119th Psalm for in a very real sense the 119th Psalm is a continuous commentary

44:41 on this second positive this call to a diligent inquiry to the mind of God as found in Scripture listen to the prayer of the psalmist I've picked out several verses almost at random verse 19 of 119th Psalm I'm a sojourner in the earth hide not thy commandments from me my soul breaketh for the longing that it hath to thine ordinances at all times thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed and who are the proud those that don't need to seek God's commandments those who have so much confidence in their own wisdom that they do not

45:25 diligently inquire into the mind of God in Scripture that's how he describes them that do wander from thy commandments look at verse 24 thy testimonies are my delight and look at the marginal reading and the men of my counsel David says when I need counsel what do I do? he said I don't take my own experience and my own judgment and my own notions and sit down and consult them he said I go to my council of counselors and he says they are the testimonies of God the law David didn't even have the prophets all he had was the law he had Moses and the Levitical system and a few other smatterings but he said I go to them

46:09 and I sit down and I say counsel me I must not lean upon my own understanding I've known something of communion with God in the past and I think I know something of communion with God in the present and I've had experience of his grace and I think I know something of his ways but I would not lean upon my own understanding and so he says thy testimonies are the men of my counsel verses 31 and 32 I cleave unto thy testimonies there's the the spirit you see of diligent inquiry to the mind of God O Lord put me not to shame I will run the way of thy commandments verse 37 turn away mine eyes

46:53 from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy ways what is vanity anything that does not line up with the ways of God in all thy ways sorry lean not upon thine own understanding this is a call to diligent inquiry into the mind of God do you live just doing what seems to be right and commonsensical just doing what comes naturally as a Christian or do you have that sense of holy distrust even of your best commonsense

47:37 that even before you exercise what would seem to be a commonsense judgment you say O God O God I would not lean upon my own understanding my own commonsense if there's some principle of your word that I've missed Lord bring it to remembrance if it's an area where you know the Bible speaks explicitly to the subject before you make a decision you go to the word you don't sit down and just try to use your present state of affections and emotions as some kind of a spiritual Ouija board you go to the word but you go with that sense of childlike trust and cultivated distrust

The Positive Alternatives: Fervent Crying to God for Light and Direction

48:19 of your own understanding the measure of your refusal to lean upon your own understanding is in precise proportion to the measure of your diligent inquiry into the word of God and then thirdly it's not only a call to recognize the limitations of the mind a call to diligent inquiry into God's mind in scripture but it's a call to a fervent crying to God for light and for direction and I direct you again to the 119th Psalm he doesn't say I will turn to the word alone

49:04 but mingled with that turning is the constant cry teach me the way of thy statutes give me understanding he longs that God would illuminate his mind because you see there is a subtle form of leaning upon your own understanding even when you're reading the scriptures as though you had the stuff to really understand what's here whereas the teaching of the Bible is that reading the word in itself is no assurance that you'll understand the word it's in thy light that we shall see light it's as the spirit

49:48 opens up to us the meaning of the word that we understand and then are enabled to walk in its light and so if you're not leaning upon your own understanding it will be evident not only in your turning to the word but this is a call to fervent crying to God for light and direction even in your treatment of the word of God perhaps this is a little bit what Paul meant when he said the mark of the true people of God Philippians 3.3 is this we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh lean not

50:32 upon thine own understanding many of you who've had occasion to counsel with me in my own study will often wonder or maybe you have wondered you shouldn't say you do but perhaps you have why is it that when one has had the privilege of dealing with God's people in their many problems for many years but before we ever talk about your problem we bow in the presence of God and we acknowledge and say Lord you know the heart of the one who's come you know the need you know the portions of your truth which apply to that need now Lord we throw ourselves upon your mercy we call on you we cry to you for light why do we do that is that some kind of a little gimmick that we were taught to do in a pastoral counseling class

51:16 no no no it's the thing one must do if he's walking in the light of Proverbs 3 5 and 6 and I'm convinced that some of you wouldn't need to be coming to my study if you'd start doing that you know why you come to my study because you've tried to figure out your own problem with your own understanding and God's not directing your paths because you're leaning upon your own understanding and then you get on the phone absolutely frustrated and say Pastor I can't figure out my problem will you help me now I've never said no but maybe I ought to begin to do that with somebody and ask you this very simple question why can't you plumb the depths of your problem is it because you're leaning upon your own understanding I'm not trying to drive you away or discourage you

52:01 from coming to counseling not that no don't abuse what I'm saying that way but I am trying to go to the heart of what I feel is a problem with some of you that you're not getting answers to your own problems because you are leaning upon your own understanding I never thought of that well that's what you come here for to learn that's how the Father sanctifies through the Word as it points out the sins does that make sense what did you do with that crisis you faced last week did you sit down and start figuring oh God what in the world how am I going to and you just tried and you thought did you really get on your face before God and say now Lord

52:46 I do trust in you as best I know with all my heart I don't understand but Lord I trust you and Lord as I try to understand how to find my way through this present maze of confusion I'm not going to lean upon my own understanding I don't know if this is discipline I don't know if it's a trial of faith but Lord I know this much I must not lean upon my own understanding oh God give me light to understand my circumstance is that where you start do you sit down and start trying to untangle that hopeless mess and then in your frustration get on the phone and call the pastor and my friend some of you need to grow up I'm not going to be here forever

53:29 I hope to be here another 20-30 years till I go home to glory but that's not forever and part of spiritual maturity is you begin to learn to get your own problems resolved and then as you learn the spiritual principles then God can start dumping some people on your lap with problems and then you teach them how to face them until until until until until until until until until When the time comes when they should be able to face them themselves and then you see it's that process of multiplication we ought to be developing that's one element in Mr. J. Adams' book that I endorse without any reservation that the church ought to be an assembly of those who can counsel one another not professionally in the professional sense but in the biblical sense

The Positive Alternatives: Seeking Godly Counsel

54:13 that you've learned something of what it is to have God direct your paths as you've come into relations in which you trust him with the whole heart and you lean not upon your own understanding so it's a call to a fervent crying to God for light and direction may I stick a fourth thing in quickly I'm going to do it anyway whether you say no that's a rhetorical question it is a call to seek the godly counsel that God may give to others I want to balance off what I've said the same book of Proverbs says in a multitude of counselors there is safety lean not upon thine own understanding

54:58 in so doing I should recognize that perhaps God has been pleased to give wisdom and understanding about my circumstance to someone outside of that circumstance so the whole biblical doctrine of the necessity of seeking counsel from men wise men godly men or in certain circumstances women as we find in Titus that the aged women are to teach and instruct the younger women there is a legitimate place for the human instrument as the vehicle through which counsel comes to us but never as that upon which we lean our leaning is upon the Lord

Final Application and Warning to the Unconverted

55:42 the means that Lord may use may be godly counsel may I now direct your attention to two texts of scripture as we close first of all Job chapter 18 in verse 7 conscious that in a group this size there are no doubt men, women, fellows and girls who've never been converted who've never repented of their sins and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ this final application to you of the words of Solomon lean not upon thine own understanding what will happen if you go on leaning on your own understanding your ideas of how to get forgiveness your ideas

56:27 of how to find peace your ideas of how to be ready to live and to die you reject the gospel truth concerning the necessity of knowing Christ and being forgiven by the virtue of his blood and his righteousness you're going to rest upon your own wisdom listen to what God says to you tonight Bildad the Shuhite is speaking in his discourses with Job verse 5 yea the light of the wicked shall be put out and the spark of his fire shall not shine the light shall be dark in his tent and his lamp above him shall be put out the steps of his strength shall be straightened now notice this last phrase

57:11 and his own counsel shall cast him down am I talking to some denied who say look I got no business for this no use for this business trust the Lord repent believe I don't need that to find fulfillment in life you're going to lean upon your own counsel a counsel of your own unregenerate sin loving heart which will ultimately cast you down into the pit of eternal or perhaps you're one who says oh yes I'm concerned about forgiveness and eternal life but I'll go about it my way like the Jews spoken of in Romans chapter 10 who going about to establish

57:56 their own righteousness did not submit to the righteousness of God listen to the words of this text his own counsel shall cast him down lean not upon thine own understanding God who made you knows your need and in grace he says your need is the salvation of my son repent believe embrace him as your only hope of salvage oh dear sinner friend don't lean upon your own understanding upon your own counsel of how you can make it or whether or not you need to consider the gospel heed the counsel of God

Final Application and Warning to Believers

58:41 and repent and believe in the closing text for every child of God here tonight Hosea chapter 10 and verse 6 the prophet Hosea chapter 10 and verse 6 right after Daniel God is speaking the judgments that God has made for Israel for her sin in the midst of it he says Hosea 10 6 it also shall be carried

59:25 into Assyria for a present to King Jareb Ephraim shall receive shame and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel you remember what part of that counsel was prophet Isaiah alludes to it again and again chapter 30 when Israel faced her need and began to realize her position of danger she did not trust in the Lord with all her heart lean not upon her own understanding and cry to God for help she said oh we're in bad shape but there's Egypt that great nation with many chariots and horses

60:10 and war men we'll go down and strike a deal with Egypt and God said for that very sin of seeking to escape the entire impending judgment of the invading armies by leaning upon human counsel God says that very counsel shall be Israel's undoing oh child of God how often God has allowed us to go into some area of captivity and spiritual bondage and a state of being spiritually crippled because we lean upon our own understanding there was a circumstance in our family a need in our homes and oh the curse of it

60:55 in the Christian church today when there is barrenness and lack of evangelistic fervor and passion and increase and we have all the experts telling us how to strike a deal with Egypt instead of falling upon our faces and turning to the word and saying Lord what's the answer to our need God's word is Israel shall be ashamed of his own my heart has been caused to bleed and I don't take delight in doing this recently received the latest literature on this key 73 project and here was the big blurb from the New York greater New York

61:39 New Jersey metropolitan area committee and on the front page shows a Salvation Army officer a liberal clergyman and a Roman Catholic Monsignor all joined in prayer at the breakfast that launched key 73 to present Christ to our nation as he's never been presented before Israel shall be ashamed of her own cuts Almighty God is committed to make time prove that this is one big fiasco and I'm no prophet nor the son of a prophet thou go on record as saying

62:24 there'll be nothing of Holy Ghost power upon that kind of an undiscerning mishmash of professing Christianity organize get everybody together this is the way to confront the world with the reality of the gospel that's leaning upon our own understanding God's ways are not our way the heavens are high above the earth so high are his thoughts above our thoughts and his ways above our ways oh dear child of God if you've got some scars from leaning upon your own understanding

63:08 I don't need to as it were reopen those wounds you know inwardly what I'm talking about today tonight may God teach us all that the way to have our paths directed so that we can say all of his paths drop fatness the lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places is to lean not upon our own understanding how can you best serve God go to the word how can you best do the work of God go to the word how can we best advance in holiness go to the word how is the church to increase and multiply go to the word lean not

Conclusion: Embracing the Directives for God-Directed Paths

63:52 upon thine own understanding that's the second directive the positive commands the command to reliance trust in the Lord with all thy heart the command to repudiation of all unaided human wisdom lean not upon thine own understanding God willing next week we'll consider together the third of those directives no we won't I won't be here Mr. Morey will be taking into the 23rd song I should be out at Geneva College preaching there to a group of Reformed Presbyterian churches and I would covet your prayer for that ministry but the Lord willing two weeks from tonight then we shall consider together what it means in all our ways

64:37 to acknowledge him may God help us to understand and to embrace these directives to the end that we may know the joy of having our paths guided by the living God