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[0:00] This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang. Thank you for joining us.!

[0:10] Well, this morning, as we begin, you see in your sermon insert that Jeremiah chapter 17 is where we will be. I want to ask you a question as we begin.

[0:21] How many of you have ever participated in the Trust Fall game? How many of you have ever participated in the Trust Fall game? Okay, all right.

[0:32] Wow, we have a bunch of people who don't trust folks. So, if you're familiar with that, a lot of companies will use that in leadership development or team building, bonding time where we will grow in our trust for one another.

[0:47] And so, the basic premise behind it is you would stand and then you would just fall backwards trusting that the people behind you are going to catch you.

[0:59] Now, I thought about demonstrating that this morning with our pastoral staff and having them come up, but I just really don't trust them. And so, no, I do.

[1:10] I feel like I do, but I did not want to try and demonstrate that. But I think about that game and I also think about another game maybe you were a part of when you were younger, standing on the side of a pool.

[1:26] Maybe your father, mother, or a grandparent was in the pool and they were saying, jump, jump, I'm going to catch you.

[1:40] And when you're young, you hesitate. You think if they don't catch me, then I'm going to go all the way under. And I know that I can't breathe underwater. And so, you see it there.

[1:54] You see the hesitation that am I going to jump? Am I not going to jump? And it all comes down to a matter of trust. Do I trust the one that I am jumping to?

[2:12] And of course, when we muster up the courage, we find ourselves jumping. And then those famous words follow when we've been caught.

[2:22] Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Well, this morning's passage is going to take us to an important matter.

[2:32] And it's a matter of trust. Just to give you a little bit of background in the book of Jeremiah to help set the stage for our text under consideration this morning.

[2:46] The background setting for this book is found in 2 Kings chapters 22 to 25. You can also find it in 2 Chronicles chapters 34 through 36.

[3:02] That gives the background for what is going on with this Old Testament prophet. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. He prophesies against Judah and the impending doom of the fall to Babylon and ultimately even to a host of nations as well.

[3:22] Of impending judgment. Jeremiah spoke more about his own life than any other prophet. It's almost autobiographical if you read the book.

[3:34] You read of his suffering, of his pain, of his anguish, of the turmoil that he's in in the midst of persecution, in the midst of opposition, in the midst of even the message that he's been given to deliver to the people that God gives him.

[3:52] He's mentioned some nine times outside of the book of Jeremiah. He's quoted in both the Old and New Testaments.

[4:04] Jeremiah also served as a prophet and priest. Love what John Calvin had to say. The Jews had long hardened themselves in false confidences.

[4:19] So that they disregarded God in two respects. They despised his threatenings. And also made no account of his gracious promises.

[4:35] They despised his threatenings. God was faithful. He repeatedly sent prophets and messengers to declare his word that you need to listen.

[4:47] Thus saith Yahweh. I am who I am. The covenant keeping God to his people. Warning them. If you don't repent, judgment is coming.

[5:01] And yet they despised his threatenings. And they also made no account of his gracious promises. You remember back in Deuteronomy 26, 27, 28 was the blessing of obedience.

[5:16] And the curse that follows or the punishment that follows disobedience. God was clear with his people. If you walk before me in faithfulness and obedience, there will be blessing.

[5:30] If you disobey me, then there will be punishment. Much like we would do with our own children or grandchildren. When we talk to them and let them know there are consequences for your actions.

[5:45] We teach them that hopefully at a very young age. But Jeremiah does something even more specific in our present text.

[5:57] And so I want before we look at Jeremiah 17, just turn the page back to chapter 16. And look with me in verse 10.

[6:11] Jeremiah 16, verse 10. See, even the people.

[6:42] The Lord of hosts declaring through the prophet Jeremiah. Even the people are wondering. They're self-deceived. They're thinking to themselves, what have we done?

[6:57] Well, Jeremiah 17. Look with me beginning in verses 1 through 4. So I'm going to give you just kind of an outline of this text.

[7:07] But we're just going to hone in on two aspects found in verses 5 through 8. But verses 1 through 4 are the deceitful heart overcome with sin.

[7:23] The deceitful heart overcome with sin. So 17, verse 1. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron.

[7:35] With a point of diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart. Take note of that. That's important. It speaks to permanence.

[7:48] This has been etched in their heart. If you know your Old Testament, you know back in Deuteronomy chapter 6, the people were implored to keep the teaching of Yahweh, keep the teaching of the Lord before their children, and you are to impress it upon their hearts.

[8:10] The law of Yahweh was to be impressed upon their heart. And here the contrast is that the people have impressed on their hearts sin. Rebellion against God.

[8:23] He says not only is it engraved on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars. Even the place that they would worship, it was etched, their idolatry was etched into the corners of the altars.

[8:41] While their children remember their altars and their ashram beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains, in the open country, your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory.

[9:01] You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know. For in my anger, a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.

[9:19] Now listen folks, it's important for us to understand. God is angry with sin. Lest we think He's just omnibenevolent and He winks at sin.

[9:32] He's okay with sin. He kind of sweeps it under the rug, so to speak. No, God is angry with sin. And God declares through the prophet Jeremiah to Judah, listen, your sin is etched upon your heart.

[9:51] So what's going to follow? Punishment. Punishment is coming. You're going to be overcome. Come. I'm going to use a foreign nation to come in, and they are going to overtake you.

[10:08] Remember, repeated warning after warning. Jeremiah is just one of the prophets who's declaring warning from the Lord. And yet the people continue on in their sin.

[10:20] They are overcome with their sin. Now verses 5 and 6, we look at trust in man, or trust in the flesh.

[10:31] Thus says Yahweh, Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come.

[10:48] He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. And so you have here, point number one for our present text.

[11:02] This is point number two in the outline. Verses one through four, the deceitful heart that's overcome with sin. But here we have the first part of our comparison and contrast.

[11:16] And it is trust in man. One commentator said this, he said, during their centuries of apostasy, the Israelite kingdoms often supposed that adopting Canaan's indigenous practices would lead to the prosperity of the land and thereby strengthen their foothold there.

[11:40] It's a repeated cycle throughout the Old Testament. God says, you fear me and fear me alone. You worship me and worship me alone. I will bring you into the promised land. I will pour out blessing upon blessing upon blessing.

[11:53] If you don't, there comes punishment. And what do the people do? They trust in man. Repeatedly, they go back to those who inhabit the land and they think, well, you know, maybe if we bow down to some of their gods, maybe we're not supposed to intermarry, but maybe if we intermarry, it won't be as bad as we've been warned.

[12:17] And they think they'll have a stronger foothold by adopting these practices. The opposite, though, has been true. You don't need to turn there, but you could confer with Hosea chapter 2, verses 5 through 9.

[12:33] Yahweh warns that life in the land has always been a gift predicated upon continuing and exclusive loyalty to Him. Since Judah has failed to uphold its covenantal obligations, contented life in His good land must give way to cruel life in a foreign land.

[12:57] Contented life in the good land, instead cruel life in a foreign land. So we see in these first verses of trust in man, it is to have confidence in.

[13:16] It is to feel safe. It means to feel secure. It's the idea of being careless. You don't have a care in the world. We are confident in those in whom we placed our trust.

[13:31] And yet, Yahweh says, cursed is that man who trusts in man and then makes flesh his strength or the arm of the flesh his strength.

[13:43] And take note of what happens here. It's a two-fold action. When you put your confidence, your hope, your trust in man, the natural result is you turn away from Yahweh.

[13:59] Those two go hand in hand. You can't serve God and mammon, Jesus would say. The idea is that we either trust in the Lord or we trust in man.

[14:11] If you trust in man, you turn away from Yahweh. And there are just a host of biblical examples that we could just an overview.

[14:22] You see this even in a sense with Cain and his offering before the Lord compared and contrasted with Abel and bringing an offering that was rejected by the Lord.

[14:33] And yet, he is warned then that sin is crouching at your door and take mastery of it. And yet, what does he do? He turns to himself and he takes it out on his brother Abel and kills his brother Abel.

[14:47] We see it in even Abraham with Sarah. And you remember when they'd go into the land and Abraham would say, Sarah, you say you're my sister. Lest the king take you and kill me if we say you are my wife.

[15:03] And it starts the spiral that would pass on from generation to generation of lying and deceit. And then we see this even, that's in Genesis chapter 20, but we see in Numbers 13, the ten spies while spying on the promised land.

[15:22] Save Caleb and Joshua. They go and they spy out the land and then they come back with the report. And the report is what? The report is they're giants and we're as grasshoppers and they're going to kill us.

[15:35] And yet, Joshua and Caleb are saying the Lord is on our side. We've been given this land. We are to go forth. And yet, the ten spies spread the word and they trust in flesh and not in Yahweh.

[15:54] You see it with King Saul in 1 Samuel chapter 13 with the unlawful sacrifice that is giving instead of waiting on Samuel.

[16:05] He turns to the Lord and he offers a sacrifice. He was not supposed to do that. In fact, when Samuel comes, he says, what have you done? Today, the kingdom is ripped from you.

[16:19] You see it even in Hezekiah. We see a good report with Hezekiah, but we also see a bad report with Hezekiah when he made an alliance with Egypt to protect against Assyria.

[16:36] We can read it even in Isaiah chapter 31. Verse 3 says, The Egyptians are man and not God and their horses are flesh and not spirit.

[16:51] When the Lord or Yahweh stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble and he who is helped will fall and they will all perish together. See, not only throughout Old Testament, but then you walk into the New Testament and then you go into church history and perhaps even in our own lives is this constant struggle of are we going to trust Yahweh, our God, or will we trust in the arm of the flesh?

[17:21] Or even in ourselves? Just going to read these off. There's a host of passages of Scripture that point to this.

[17:33] Psalm 146, verses 3 and 4, Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth.

[17:45] On that very day, his plans will perish. Proverbs 28, verse 26, Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

[18:01] Isaiah 2, verse 22, Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he? Ezekiel 29, verses 6 and 7, Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am Yahweh, because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.

[18:25] When they grasped you with the hand, you broke and tore all their shoulders. And when they leaned on you, you broke and made their loins shake. 2 Chronicles 32, verses 7 and 8, Be strong and courageous.

[18:42] Do not be afraid or dismayed. Before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of the flesh, but with us is Yahweh our God to help us and to fight our battles.

[19:01] And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah as well. You see, in this overview of Scripture, we see that when we compare and contrast trusting in man versus trusting in Yahweh, it is a fool's errand to trust in the arm of flesh versus our Lord God.

[19:29] John 15, 5, Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, He it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.

[19:42] Now one commentator said, before we get to verses 7 and 8, the noxious weeds must first be taken away before there can be any room for the corn to grow.

[19:56] The idea is let's pull the weeds first. Trust in man. Let's look at trusting in man. And what is the end result? You see it in verse 6.

[20:07] He says, He's like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land. He paints the picture.

[20:19] He illustrates this in such a way that He wants you to know if you were to look on a barren land and to see a tree there that's all shriveled up. It's not producing anything.

[20:31] That's what trust in man will do. Now let's look at some present day application for this.

[20:45] Lest we think it's just the Jews who struggled with this. How do we struggle with this today?

[20:56] Trust in man instead of trust in Yahweh. I think one way that we struggle with this is we look for the latest quick fixes.

[21:11] We look for the latest quick fixes. Right? It could be weight loss. Okay, we've got a miracle shot now. We've got a miracle pill now. We've got... And you just fill it out.

[21:22] Fill in the blank. It could be financial. This is the way to invest. If you invest this way you're going to be a millionaire by the age of 30. But just follow this plan.

[21:33] No, it's just $179 for you to follow my plan. We look for the latest quick fixes. It could be financial. It could be losing weight.

[21:44] It could be even in the spiritual sense. Fads. Fads. How can I grow spiritually? How can I do it in 30 days? How can I do it in 40 days?

[21:55] What is it that I can look to that will help me grow just seemingly overnight? Forsaking the ancient practice of the spiritual disciplines as laid out in Scripture.

[22:11] That's one way that we may trust in man. How about this? Pragmatism. If it works, do it. If it works, do it. So again, we could just follow logically right out of the latest quick fix and the fad.

[22:26] And if something works, then this has to be of God. If we attract the crowds, then it has to be of God. Pragmatic approach, not only for churches that are in danger of this, but also for ourselves personally.

[22:46] It's another side of trusting in man. How about entertainment? It's all about the way that I feel. Just let me feel good.

[22:58] It's all about warm fuzzies. It's all about having goosebumps. And it's all about that wonderful feeling of peace within. That it's all emotion driven.

[23:10] That's another way that we fall to trust in man. How about this one? We run to secular therapists for help with your soul rather than to the God who created your soul.

[23:32] It's another way that we trust in man. But surely they're going to give me the answers. It may have nothing to do with what God has laid out in his word, but they've found the secret.

[23:44] They've found the behavioral modification for my life. They have found the secret sauce, if you will. Or maybe even that I'd be medicated in such a way that my life will be changed.

[23:58] Now listen, I'm not anti-medicine. Don't get me wrong with this. But understand this. Your trust and your hope should never be in a pill, but in Yahweh, in God.

[24:12] We go to the doctor. Our hope and trust is that they'll be able to help us with a diagnosis, but our hope and our trust is not in them because they can't heal us. Even if they perform surgery, they're helping us.

[24:26] But God is the one who provides ultimate healing. How about this one? Now this one, this is a good one.

[24:38] Ready? Follow your heart. Follow your heart. Well, I don't know. What is your heart telling you to do? Well, I'm glad you brought that up because look down at verse nine with me.

[24:53] Verse nine, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?

[25:08] How's that for trust your heart? Right? Yet that is a modern mantra that just, listen, at the end of the day, just whatever your heart's telling you to do.

[25:19] Well, listen, your heart could be telling you to do something that runs contrary to what God has clearly laid out in his word. You don't believe me? I've listened to people who have said, my heart has told me I'm to divorce my spouse because I don't love them anymore.

[25:39] And what does God say? Or people who do other ungodly actions and say, well, I just was my heart. I was following my heart with this.

[25:51] Well, at the end of the day, you don't follow your heart because your heart is deceitful above all things. It is desperately sick. It means it's incurable. We don't follow our heart.

[26:07] We follow Yahweh. Ultimately, a failure to trust God and his promises. That's what this all boils down to. God is to be our foundational hope and trust.

[26:21] Will we continue trusting in ourselves and in the arm of the flesh or will we trust in Yahweh? Well, here comes point number three or the comparison here in verses seven and eight.

[26:35] Trust in God or trust in Yahweh. Verse seven, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord or Yahweh, whose trust is in Yahweh.

[26:46] He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes for its leaves remain green and it is not anxious in the year of drought for it does not cease to bear fruit.

[27:01] Now again, we can see, we can do a quick overview in scripture of those who did trust in Yahweh. We see it in Abel. We contrasted that with Cain.

[27:12] You see it with Abel and his offering before the Lord. You do see it with Joseph and his life and his trials and his suffering that he went through.

[27:23] There was a trust in the providential plan of God, even in the midst of not having all of the answers. You see it with Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, when God tests Abraham and saying, bring your son, your only son, and present him as an offering before me.

[27:42] And Abraham moves forth, trusting in Yahweh. I mentioned this already, but we do see it in Hezekiah as well, when Sennacherib was about to overtake them and he was taunting them, the people of God.

[27:59] And Hezekiah reminds him what the word of the Lord has said, that victory belongs to me. Psalm 34, verse 8 says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

[28:13] Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Your confidence, your security, your hope, your trust is in Yahweh. And blessed is He who takes refuge in Him.

[28:27] Psalm 40, verse 4, Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh His trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.

[28:38] Psalm 84, verse 12, Oh, Yahweh of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you. You see, blessing after blessing after blessing for those who trust in Yahweh.

[28:52] Psalm 92, verses 12 through 15, The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of Yahweh.

[29:04] They flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age. They are ever full of sap and green to declare that Yahweh is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

[29:18] See the imagery that's carried out in that psalm related to Psalm 1 that Joey read earlier and related to Jeremiah 17 as he illustrates this by pointing to the tree that's planted by the water.

[29:33] A few more verses here for you. Psalm 118, verse 8, It is better to take refuge in Yahweh than to trust in man. Psalm 125, verse 1, Those who trust in Yahweh are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.

[29:52] Proverbs 16, 20, Whoever gives thought to the Word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in Yahweh.

[30:02] We're in the Lord. Isaiah 26, verses 3 and 4, You will keep in perfect peace Him whose mind is stayed on you because He trusts in you.

[30:15] Trust in Yahweh forever, for Yahweh our God is an everlasting rock. See, repeated verses all throughout Scripture pointing us to the blessedness of trusting in God compared to trusting in man.

[30:36] One man put it this way, The living tree does not fear when the pressure of heat is on. So glad that John pointed this out because in these verses you'll take no.

[30:47] Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes.

[30:59] Heat will come for the believer and the unbeliever. It's part of living in a fallen world. Heat will come our way. This does not say, Blessed is he who trusts in Yahweh so he won't have any heat in his life.

[31:15] It's gone. The absence of heat. It's like living in San Diego where it's 78 degrees all year long. That's what you're going to enjoy. No.

[31:26] No, he says, the tree is not going to fear when the heat comes. Why? Because its roots are drawing nourishment from the water that it's near.

[31:39] for its leaves remain green and it will not be anxious in the year of drought. Years of drought will come. That's why we don't live by our feelings.

[31:52] We live by faith. Because when drought comes, your feelings will tank. But when drought comes and you trust in Yahweh, you know, Yahweh, you have a plan for me.

[32:05] in the midst of this suffering, you have a plan and it does not cease to bear fruit. Yes, you will bear fruit in the midst of your suffering, in the midst of drought.

[32:17] Why? Because it was never about the tree and its strength, but about its source. Take note, it sources water.

[32:32] It sends out its roots by the stream. It's drawing nourishment from the water. One man said, fear is quelled by its location.

[32:48] Our faith is in God, not in faith. Your faith is not in faith. Your faith is not in yourself. Your faith is in God, where you're drawing that nourishment from the water, from the streams.

[33:05] So, how does this apply to my life? How do I trust in Yahweh?

[33:15] His word says that the blessed one is the one who trusts in Him. He gives the illustration of this tree that's planted by water. How do I trust in Him?

[33:26] Well, I think number one, we looked at verse nine, that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. And he asks a question, who can understand it? Look at verse 10.

[33:39] I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. We turn to the Lord.

[33:52] We turn to Him and He is the one who searches our hearts. We're not following our heart. We're not looking for warm, fuzzy feelings. We are trusting in God.

[34:03] Now, specifically, how do I trust in the Lord? Well, here, I want you to go back with me. Turn back to Psalm 1.

[34:14] because I think Psalm 1 will show us directly how I grow in trusting in God.

[34:27] Psalm 1, verses 1 and 2, he begins with the negative. Blessed is the man. And then he walks not in the counsel of the wicked.

[34:40] He stands, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. Okay, verse 1. He's not going to walk in the counsel of the wicked. He's not going to stand in the way of sinners.

[34:51] He's not going to sit in the seat of scoffers. This is, in biblical counseling language, put off. This is putting off. Because when you walk, stand, and sit, you're influenced by the wicked, the sinner, and the scoffer.

[35:10] Instead, our influence and that which will cause us to grow in our trust in Yahweh is found in verse 2.

[35:22] His delight is in the law of Yahweh, the law of the Lord. You delight in it. So that means, number one, you're going to read His Word.

[35:34] You're going to take and read His Word. That's a basic point, but it's one that's often missed.

[35:46] Listen, if your daily intake of the Bible is about three minutes long compared to how many minutes you spend scrolling TikTok, where do you think the stronger influence is going to come from?

[36:03] He says, you're delight. You delight in this. You see, there's a passive side of scrolling social media that I can just scroll and scroll and scroll and then something grabs my attention and it's very passive and we can find ourselves just doing it over and over and over and over again, but there's work that's involved when we go to the Word of God and we delight in the law of Yahweh.

[36:27] Why? I think, number one, because there's opposition. The world, the flesh, and the devil don't want you in the Word. But then it's also, as so many people have said, it's just, I find it difficult.

[36:42] I find it hard to understand. Well, listen, you go to the Word in order to commune with God and you pray for understanding, but then you ask for help.

[36:56] you look and ask pastors and teachers for help with understanding. You read and study Bibles that will give you some understanding because at the end of the day, it's not about just checking a box, but it's about communing with the God who gave us His Word.

[37:16] This is how we grow and trust in Him. When I read His Word and I become familiar with all that He's done in His Word from Genesis all the way to Revelation, my relationship deepens with Him.

[37:30] I understand Him more. See, now, as a child that's standing on the side of the pool and then my confidence is in my dad, is my dad going to trust me? Is my dad going to catch me?

[37:41] Well, when I'm young, I don't have years of experience that dad's going to catch me. That's why when you're young, you're wondering, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, but the older you get and the more relationship is built, now the trust has been deepened.

[37:57] Now, think about that spiritually. If you're casual in your approach to knowing God through reading His Word, then your level of trust will be shallow.

[38:12] He says, delight in the law of Yahweh and on His law, He meditates day and night. So we read His Word and I would say we memorize His Word because memorizing His Word leads right into meditation on His Word.

[38:30] Psalm 119, verse 11, I have stored up your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. See, we memorize the Word, but then it leads to a meditation on the Word.

[38:42] We're churning it over in my mind. I've shared this with you many times, but verses of Scripture will become part of your life. When I am afraid, Psalm 56, 3, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

[38:59] So when fear grips me, not fear is absent, but in the midst of fear, what am I going to do? I put my trust in you. Lord, I look to you. I trust you.

[39:11] When I can't sleep, in sleep I lay down and I recall and recount the promises of God in His sovereignty, in His providential hand.

[39:24] When suffering sweeps over me in wave after wave, I'm reminded that there's a plan and a purpose in the midst of this. And God, you're using all of this and you're working it together for my good, for your glory, and you're conforming me into the image of your Son in the midst of this suffering.

[39:44] See, I can go through suffering when I know there's one who's in control and he has a purpose in it. See, and just over and over again, Scripture then becomes part of you.

[39:57] The Lord is my light and my salvation. Of whom shall I be afraid? These are all verses memorized and then meditated on and then what happens is the result is you will be like a tree planted by streams of water.

[40:14] You see, folks, whenever you go to the Word and you read the Word and you memorize His Word and you meditate on His Word, you are extending roots toward its source of nourishment, which is water.

[40:33] You're growing in your trust in Yahweh. If God be for me, who can be against me? When I feel condemned, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

[40:46] This becomes a very part of my life. I'm living this out, which ultimately is living out trust in Yahweh and not trust in man.

[40:58] Now let me bring this to a close. Back to Jeremiah 17. If you didn't leave your finger there, that's all right. Verse 14. Jeremiah prays for deliverance.

[41:10] This is hope in Yahweh. Hope in Yahweh. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall be saved. For you are my praise.

[41:25] Ultimately, our hope is in the Lord. We look to Him. We trust Him. Now as I close, I already mentioned this, but I want to take you back to Mount Moriah for a powerful demonstration of trust in Yahweh.

[41:43] See, Abraham's been called of God to sacrifice His Son. And the passage in Genesis 22 emphasizes your only Son.

[41:56] What about Ishmael? He's a son. But Isaac is his only son because he's the Son of Promise. And God says, I want you to take Him and go up on the mountain and you're going to sacrifice Him.

[42:13] As they journey upward, Isaac looks at his dad and says, My father? And he says, Here I am, my son.

[42:25] He said, Behold, the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

[42:41] See, they're journeying upward to sacrifice, to present an offering to the Lord. And here, Abraham's son says, Where is the lamb?

[42:54] Abraham said, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. And what happens later on in that chapter when Abraham raises the knife and God stops him and He says, Look, I've provided a ram in the thicket.

[43:15] I love what Sinclair Ferguson says here. I wonder if Abraham ever thought back on that account and said, the lamb will be provided and yet a ram was provided.

[43:33] You see, there was a lamb that was going to be provided. Fast forward with me to another mountain, Golgotha, the place of the skull, where what John the Baptist said, Behold, when he looked upon Jesus, the Son of God, the lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

[43:58] You see, God has been true to His Word. God has been faithful. God can be trusted because He provided a way for us to trust Him. And the ultimate way that He provided a way for us to trust Him is by sending His Son to die on a cross, the death that we deserved for our sin.

[44:18] You see, we're just like Judah in the opening verses. We are overcome with the sin in our lives. And yet, God provides a lamb who would die in our place so that we may have access to the Father.

[44:41] You see it even in Jesus' life before He went to the cross, when He prayed, if at all possible, let this cup pass from Me. And yet, in trust, the Son says, nevertheless, Thy will be done, not My will.

[44:56] Thy will be done. And so, this morning, maybe you're here and you resonate with trust in the flesh. It may be the trust that you put in others.

[45:09] It may be the trust that you put in yourself. You may be even trusting in the fact that you're in church on Sunday morning and that gains you standing before God. Listen, folks, I'm glad you're here and we need to gather together.

[45:25] But understand, that can never justify you before a holy God. Your prayer life can't. Your church attendance can't. The tithe that you put in the offering boxes can't.

[45:37] There's only one way for you to stand justified before a holy and righteous God and that is through the righteousness of another, the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

[45:48] That's the only way you stand justified and that's by faith alone. And so for you, if you're here this morning, that is the first step of trusting in God is trusting in His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life and no man gets to the Father except through Christ.

[46:10] You understand, I'm a sinner. I'm in need of a Savior that I can't save myself and the road has been hard and I continue to walk down this path and my life looks like this barren shrub.

[46:27] Step number one is turn to Christ. Look to Christ. Call out to Christ. Now for you believer, you say, well, you know, you're just emphasizing those who stray and those who drift.

[46:41] Well, listen, all of us are prone to that. Every one of us are prone to trust in the flesh or trust in ourselves rather than trust in Yahweh, trust in God. So what do we do?

[46:53] We, again, go back to even what Psalm 1 points us to in delighting in His Word, in meditating on His Word day and night. Why? Because when we do, we grow in our relationship with Him and the trust is deepened.

[47:10] We are sending forth roots to the water. So it's not rocket science. Right? These are basic. Read His Word.

[47:21] Memorize His Word. Meditate on His Word. And yet, how often we fail to do that. And then our lives look like verses 5 and 6, verses 7 and 8.

[47:36] So may it be said of us that we turn to the Lord and our lives demonstrate that we are like a tree planted by the water that sends forth its roots to the streams.

[47:50] Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank You for this time together in Jeremiah 17. Father, I pray that we would be a people who are marked by trust in You.

[48:03] we would live lives that point to the fact that we're drawing our nourishment from You and knowing You and not from the arm of the flesh, not from ourselves.

[48:19] And so, Lord, would You do a work in our hearts, examine our hearts as only You can do. Draw us closer to Yourself. We pray in Jesus' name and all God's people said again, Amen and Amen.

[48:31] Thank you for being here this morning. Let me encourage you, please come back this evening. Jeremy's going to be preaching out of 2 Timothy 2. Your bulletin says Psalm 46. That's next week.

[48:42] So, 2 Timothy chapter 2. Look forward to seeing you back tonight. God bless you. Thank you so much for joining us via live stream this morning.

[48:55] If you have any questions whatsoever about our church or the ministries that our church provides, please visit us at fbcmustang.org. We would love to follow up with you and get to know you better.

[49:08] As always, we try to emphasize if at all possible, if you could be here physically present with us, we would love that and that'd be a joy to serve you in that way.

[49:18] But thank you again for joining us via live stream today. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you.

[49:59] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[50:10] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[50:20]  Thank you.