“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5

There are so many things about life, that even though you believe in them and want to do them, YET you still have to learn how to do them. Take learning to ride a two-wheeled bike, for example. If you do not approach this as something you have to learn to do, your first attempt can be very surprising.

When it comes to trusting in the Lord, even if we believe in this truth with our whole heart, yet still, as the song says, it is all about “Learning to Lean.”

The learning process usually involves both trial and error. Sometimes, we learn convincingly, from our mistakes. Abram believed in trusting in the Lord. So much so that (Genesis 12:1) in following the Lord, he forsook his native country, left his kindred and his father’s house: “….and went out, not knowing whither he went.” Hebrews 11:8

But as he was sojourning in the land of promise, due to trusting in the Lord, on two occasions he was confronted with circumstances (Genesis 12:10-20 & Genesis 20:1-18) where he failed to lean on the Lord. By trusting in his own understanding, he would have lost his beloved wife, Sarah, had God not intervened.

Divine intervention (deliverance) has been and is essential for all of God’s children, time and again. But after sufficient time and opportunity has passed for us to have learned to lean, eventually we will have to stand by faith, or suffer the consequences.

THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE to learning to lean on the Lord, is the leaning unto our own understanding. This creates skepticism, even unto unbelief. We all have our own ways, our own thoughts, that we rely on for our everyday living. Our conscience and intelligence serve us well, if we use them (they are from God for this purpose.)

But when it comes to spiritual understanding, God tells us it will be necessary for us to forsake our ways and our thoughts to accept His. We must follow Christ’s example, “Not my will, thine be done.”

All too often, our deep-seated views and feelings may not agree with what God’s Word places before us. We are commanded, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Following God out of trust and leaning not unto our own understand, will prove to have been the right way: “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.” Hosea 6:3

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

“And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” Luke 7:23

ONLY BELIEVE!

“Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.” Titus 1:9

“Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 1:13

“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so…” Jeremiah 5:31

Any position taken that is a step away from sound doctrine, is loved and praised by man: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” 2 Timothy 4:3. Since man’s ways and thoughts are not God’s ways and thoughts, he has an inner appetite for any religious justification that will move things a step away from God’s way unto a step closer to man’s ways.

We see working in our society, the revolution against God’s moral laws. The same spirit is working in religion against God’s spiritual laws. God’s laws are no longer considered suitable to be the constitution for church doctrine and practice. People have closed their ears to the fact that God’s Word is eternally righteous, and God’s wisdom is omniscient, and that God’s laws are omnipotent! Instead, they are putting their trust in the lies of men-pleasers, who preach that God’s Word is outdated and no longer fitting for today’s world.

So the religious excitement and energy is unto moving everything a step away from the way the Bible reads. The idea is to still maintain a form of godliness, but approve the opposite of the way God’s Word reads.

The acceptance of new versions of the Bible, which God’s Word forbids, is justified and lauded on the grounds it is easier for man to understand than the KJV. Yes, a first grade reader is easier to understand than a legal document. Should we abandon legal documents and let the first graders decide how they should be written?

Churches are moving a step away from the local church ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, allowing any of the same denomination to partake. God’s Word on separation and dress has been nullified and voided. The verse by verse study of the Bible has been set aside for “topical studies” that only emphasize the preferred point of view. Local churches have surrendered their positions and functions into the hands and visions of the fellowships, conventions, and associations.

To take one step away is to abandon the principle of true faith in God’s Word. This little hole in the dam will lead to a total washout.

“Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.”  Ephesians 3:21

It has been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  In the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ, the local New Testament Church is beautiful, it’s worth determined by it’s purchased price, the perfect shed blood of Christ!  See Ephesians 5:25-27

Modern man has set the local church aside as being too insufficient and has put his trust in his multi-funded, big business religious organizations.  How long would those big organizations last, if there was to be hard times?

The Lord’s work has come down through the ages in the form of the local church, with one church making possible the perpetuation of another.  It has proven itself to be sufficient, with not even the gates of hell able to prevail against it, because the Lord has been (and is) with it always.  (Matthew 16:18 and Matthew 28:19-20)

God has always used a plan that has been considered foolishness by the wisdom of man-  1 Corinthians 1:26-31.  This is so “That no flesh should glory in his presence.” and “That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

Those who would turn from the glory of the plan of God, unto the ways and means of men, are not visionaries, but rather those who do not see what God sets before man.  Eternity will manifest the difference, as God judges all things according to His Word.

The spirits of our day are projecting that man needs to be catered to, in order to get him to take up with God.  The idea being, since men have no interest in the local church, then we should give them a religious program outside of the church, suited to their tastes.  So, rather than preaching that sinners need to repent and be born again in order to see and enter the kingdom of God, the idea is to give them a god and a religious kingdom they can see and partake of with the eye and desires of the flesh.

The proud sinner is saying, “God if you please me, I’ll recognize you.”  But God’s position with sinners is:  “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:  and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”  Isaiah 55:7 The sinner’s alienation from God’s way, is due to his spiritually dead and blind condition.  To be saved from this sin condition, one must repent, i.e., have a complete change of mind about himself, see himself unworthy before God, and in contrition and godly sorrow, seek unto God with all his heart, receiving Christ as both Saviour and Lord.  Then one can see the beauty of the local church that Jesus purchased with His own blood!

Colossians 3:1-17

Christians, in accepting the ordinance of scriptural baptism, are entering into covenant with God and the local church, “…to rise to walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Thus, we are saying we are going to continue to walk with the Lord, in spite of difficulty, opposition, human failure (both our own and that of others), and that we will be steadfast in purpose and persistence, in proving God’s will to be good, acceptable, and perfect for our life.

1 Peter 3:20-21 teaches us that to walk with the Lord, we must have a good conscience in carrying out God’s will for our lives. This necessarily involves loving and serving Him with all our heart and soul.

Baptism pictures that we understand and will do our best in the way we live, to respect the sufferings and death of Christ for us: “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” 1 Peter 4:1-2.

Just as we know it took the authority and power of God, over all things, to bring Christ forth triumphant from the grave, we know it will take our honoring the will, the authority, and the power of God, to produce the victorious Christian life.

Thus, baptism is the pictorial ordinance of a resurrected life. The ultimate reason for resurrection is to live unto the One by whom we are raised up. It is to have our lives live out the Divine plan and purpose, “not my will, thine be done.” Proper maintenance is essential to anything being in good working order.  A farmer could go bankrupt with a barn full of equipment in tip top shape, unless he uses them for the purpose for which they are designed. Good, clean living falls short of everything, unless it is coupled with the work God has called us to do.

Baptism preaches that a victorious life comes by walking with Christ, according to the will of the Father. This is done by keeping our eyes on Christ, and off of the world. We may see failure in men, but Jesus never fails. We are to not only look unto Him, but also live our lives by means of waiting upon Him. We are never to grow weary in our devotion to Him.

We must set our affections on things above, not on things in this world. It is not the struggles that defeat us, but when we allow ourselves to lose interest in God’s will and we become indifferent. We don’t serve God due to legal obligation only, but we must have real interests that are fixed on things above. How successful are you in Christianity? Christ defined it this way, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:21