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Saturday 27 April 2002 - "Bound to Christ" - wedding of Danny & Ingrid

(Summary of sermon by Rev Erlo Stegen)

Prov 3:5 - 6

5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

When I read this portion, I could not get past the first word - "trust" - to trust in the Lord with all your heart. What does this mean? In the Hebrew we find that it can have various meanings:

• bound to
• secure
• safe feeling
• protected
• assured that all is well

When a ship went through a terrible storm at sea, the shipmaster used to bind himself to the column of the wheel, so that he will not be thrown around, but be able to control the ship.

In the same way we must bind ourself to God, so that when storms arise, our ship would not loose direction.

It might be that you have children that turns there back on the Lord, rebells and are little devils, and, if you are not bound to the Lord, you will be shaken to the core.

It might not even be your children. Today you are becoming one flesh, but not necessarily one spirit. The one might pull one direction and the other in another direction, and you will be shaken, unless you are bound to the Lord.

Now you should not only be tied to each other, but to the Lord above all. Ananias and Sapphira was tied to each other, but not to the Lord. Achan and his family was tied together in their evil, but not to the Lord, and see what the consequences were.

God must be the first. He is the Alpha and Omega. The wife must not be first to the husband, neither must the husband be first to the wife, but the Lord. If God is not first, you will be disappointed in people, your wife or husband, or your children, and you will be shaken. But if you are bound to the column, which is Jesus Christ, you will never be disappointed.

Also, as we read further, lean not on your own understanding. Our own insight is very bad, and we need to trust on God's insight. Some people even lean on their conscience and make that their God. The man who builds on his conscience alone, will be a poor man spiritually. Many people's consciences are bad, eg. the Muslims will have a clean conscience when killing Christians. In fact, they believe that they are doing a good deed, and pleasing God. So too, Paul had a clean conscience, when persecuting the church. He said that he lived blameless according to the law. But when the Lord had opened his eyes, he realised how his conscience misled him. We read that he even says that he does not care whether he is judged by people, or what people say of him. In fact, he did not even judge himself, but God was his judge. John says, even if our conscience condemns us, God is still greater than our conscience, and He knows all things. Our conscience must always be under the control of the Holy Spirit and agree with God's Word.

Peter, for example, after denying the Lord Jesus, was humbled and knew how he failed when he trusted himself. So, when the Lord Jesus met him after His resurrection, and asked him whether he loved him or not, eventually only said, "Lord, you know all things - you know that I love you". He realised finally that Jesus knew him better than himself, and he was no longer self-confident, leaning on his own understanding, but trusted Jesus alone.

When an eagle is chased by its enemies, it flies right into the sun, and so its enemies are blinded and cannot follow it. So we need to always go straight according to God's Word and be bound to the Son of God, and none of our enemies will be able to touch us.