Mercy & Truth

And peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table of thine heart. So shalt thou find favor and good understanding the sight of God and man.

Let's pray. Dear God, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the opportunity to take a few minutes to dig a little deeper into it this evening. Bless our time together here and may Christ be truly honored and us truly changed. In Jesus name, amen.

So we're studying through Proverbs on wisdom, and we start out this chapter similarly with some great wisdom from God. John MacArthur labels this chapter guidance for the young. We all need guidance in life, young or not. And this chapter is a collection of critical principles which we need to hear and heed if we are to be guided by wisdom, by the wisdom and will of God who never makes mistakes. I'm gonna read that sentence again.

Okay? We we all need guidance in life, young or not, and this chapter is a collection of critical principles. I think I've got five sermons from this chapter. Okay? Because it there are individual they're interconnected, but individual principles that we need to hear and heed if we are to be guided by the wisdom and will of God.

So it stresses beginning in chapter one that we need to be guided by the wisdom of God, and it is vital for humanity that we listen to the wisdom of God. Now, this chapter points out several principles, critical principles in guiding us so that indeed we will be guided by the wisdom and the will of God. Solomon begins with the overarching principle in verses one and two. Do not overlook God's law, his instructions, and his commands. So Solomon is speaking here but Solomon is speaking on behalf of who?

On behalf of God and so he says, my son, forget not my law. He's not just talking about his laws and Solomon's law. He's talking about God's law but let thine heart keep my, that would be God's commandments. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. So Solomon begins with overarching principle in verses one and two.

Do not overlook God's law, his instructions or his commands. If you desire, as it says in verse two, if you desire to have a long, fruitful, and peaceful life, listen to who? Listen to God. Listen to his word. Hear and heed his his instructions.

Now granted, there's a lot of people that don't do that. And a long, fruitful, and peaceful life does not really define a whole lot of people's lives today. Our our society is full of confusion and turmoil and more and more violence. In the past decade, suicide rates have gone through the roof. It is not peaceful, and oftentimes it is not fruitful, and sometimes it is not long.

But it is more likely to be all of those things if we will hear and heed the word of God, if we listen to God. He should know what's best saying he made us, should he not? If you ignore his instructions and go at your own way, it will not likely turn out so well for you. So, must heed this this verse here and as David wrote, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? Shall he find the right way, the way that is righteous, the way that is good by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. That verse talks about the way. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his his way? By choosing to listen to the word of God, by choosing to to hide it in our hearts and allow it to guide us in our life, we choose a better way than the way of so many other people on this earth. A way that is likely to bring us a long life, a fruitful life, a peaceful life, and praise God through faith in Christ and eternal life.

God gives instructions in his word not to hold us back or keep us from having fun, but to keep us safe and to bring us joy. We are his creation. He wants us to be safe. He wants us to have joy. He didn't create us to be miserable.

And he doesn't give us instructions to hold us back from our best life. He gives us instructions to help guide us to our what? To our best our best life. If you want your life to be something one day you can look back upon with certain amount of satisfaction and peace, start out by keeping God's commandments, by listening to his instructions. That's what we see here in verses one and two.

And again, we will see this periodically, this reminder throughout the book of Proverbs to to hear and to heed the wisdom and will of God. So, but let's look at verses three and four and so I'm going to focus on this evening verses three and four. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart. So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

Mercy and truth. Solomon draws our attention to two crucial crucial elements which must not leave out of our life, which must not be lost to us. As again, it is sometimes lost to many people and that is mercy. That's kind of the opposite of being bitter and and angry and callous and and truth, which once you start down the road of of the lies and the deceit of the world and you abandon the truth, that it's not going to lead you down the right path, obviously. So we must not forsake, allow these things, mercy and truth, to forsake our life, our decision making, or our treatment of of others.

Now, I've known some wonderful people, kind, loving people, but something happened in their life and mercy seemingly what? Forsook them. And what was left in its place was was bitterness and holding grudges. And that does not make one make for a fruitful, peaceful life. And we're not careful if we allow we're told in Hebrews to allow a a root of bitterness to spring up in our life.

Okay? It will get a hold and it will rob us of our our mercy and our peace and our joy. So, these two coupled together, mercy and truth, are mentioned several times in scripture particularly in Psalms and Proverbs. So, I didn't put these up on the screen. I'm just going to read them but I want you to get the idea of how often these two are mentioned together, okay?

Psalm twenty five ten, all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth under such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. Psalm fifty seven three, he shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that should swallow me up, Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. Psalm fifty seven ten, for thy mercy is great under the heavens and thy truth under the clouds. Psalm sixty one seven, he shall abide before God forever.

Oh, prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him. Psalm sixty nine thirteen, but as for me, my prayer is under thee, oh Lord, in an acceptable time, oh God, in multitude of thy mercy, hear me in the truth of thy salvation. Psalm eighty five ten, mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Psalm eighty six fifteen, but thou, oh Lord, are to God full of compassion and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

Psalm eighty nine fourteen, justice and judgement are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. I'm I'm I'm getting near the end of the list. Okay? Psalm ninety eight three, he hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Psalm 105, for the Lord is good, his mercy is is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. Psalm a hundred and eight four, for thy mercy is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Last verse, Proverbs sixteen six, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. All of those verses, each one of them, we see mercy and truth coupled together.

Do you think God is trying to make point? Yeah. These two go together and these two are very important because if you're all mercy but you have no truth, then that's gonna lead you the wrong way. If you have truth but you have no mercy, you're gonna end up a person who has a lot of knowledge but is bitter in his heart and callous. We need to have both mercy and truth.

God is both merciful and truthful, and we need to demonstrate that. It needs to be in our heart and it needs to be demonstrated in our life towards other people, To be full of mercy and also be full of truth. These are two attributes of God which we should stand up and take notice. These are the foundation of all our hope in Christ. For it is according to his everlasting mercy and his enduring truth that we can be saved, secured, and know it.

Because he is mercy and because he is truth, we are saved. If he was mercy but not truth, if he was truth without mercy, it would change everything. Let's look at mercy first. Okay? So the first of these is mercy.

Mercy is the attribute of being kind, loving, and compassionate. The word used for mercy in the Old Testament can be translated kind or compassionate or loving kindness. That is often translated mercy or merciful in the Old Testament. That attribute of being kind, loving, and compassionate then results in being merciful, gracious, and forgiving toward others. If we are the heart full of kindness and love and compassion, then it will become natural for us to what?

To forgive. It will become natural for us to not become bitter and bent out of shape over every nitpicky thing that somebody does that rums us the wrong way because we're not thinking just about ourselves, but we have a compassion for others. So many times, as Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees, He said, judge not that you be not judged, and what he meant by that, he explained in the following verses in Matthew seven. If you have a log in your eye, don't try to take the speck out of somebody else's eye. First, take the log out of your eye, he said, ye hypocrites, and then you can take the what?

The speck out of the other person's eye. We are so quick to judge others and not ourselves, and not by the same rule. We often judge others more harshly than we judge ourselves. We should understand, you know, that other person you know, they're a human being just like me and sometimes I mess up and sometimes they do too. A merciful purse person chooses to treat others not based solely on merit but also on love and understanding.

No, they didn't come through this time. No, they could've done that better. But you know something? I'm going to be kind and merciful and caring because I understand what it's like to be a human being. Mercy gives us the ability to be empathetic towards the plight and the failings of others, sort of putting ourselves in their what?

In their in their shoes. Mercy helps us to hold back on dealing out punishment that made it be deserved. Okay, I may be right. Okay, they may deserve it. But where would we be if we got what we deserved?

Praise God for his mercy. A, when we see Christians, when we, as Christians, hear the word mercy, we immediately think of the mercy of God demonstrated towards us as we should. Titus three five says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his what? His mercy. He saved us.

Where would we be without God's mercy again? In, Luke 18, Jesus told a a story. Yeah. Luke eighteen ten through 14. There Jesus said, two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican.

The Pharisee was a a strict religious observer. He practiced all the religious things he was supposed to do. The publican, on the other hand, just by virtue of being a publican, he was not a very religious person who followed the law. Elsie would not have been collecting taxes for Rome from his own people and in all likelihood cheating them while he did the same. At least that was the reputation of publicans, tax collectors.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. I think it's an interesting he prayed thus with himself. In other words, he's really not talking to who? He's really not talking to God. He's he's just talking to hear his own voice.

God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust adulterers, even as this publican. Verse 12, I mean, he goes on, I fast twice in the week and I give tithes of all that I possess. In other words, God, I thank you, you know, I'm a pretty good person. Verse 13. Sorry.

Verse 13, the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven but smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man, that is the publican, went down to his house justified, that is forgiven, rather than the other. For everyone that exalted himself shall be abased and he that humbled himself shall be exalted. What did the publican do? He just cried out for God's what?

Mercy. Because we need God's mercy. Jesus said he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. What is he saying? Well, the righteous, he was referring to the Pharisees and other religious people who tried their best to keep the law and thought much of themselves.

Okay? They were not truly righteous, but they were righteous in whose eyes? In their own eyes. Right. Jesus said, I haven't called the righteous, those who are righteous in their own eyes, but sinners, those who recognize that they're sinners and are not deserving of heaven, I have come not to call the righteous but sinners to what?

Repentance. Repentance is an act, a humbling act whereby one calls upon the mercy of God. Mercy of God and and how we do need it. God grants mercy to those who call on him in repentance and sincerity. Throughout the Old Testament, people called out for God's mercy and he heard them.

In the New Testament, Christ tells us to do the same, to cry to God for mercy and not merely for what we deserve. But for his graciousness and his goodness and his kindness even though we have fallen, we have fallen short. Blind Bartimaeus in Jericho as Jesus passed by, he said, Lord, have what? Mercy. Son of David, have mercy upon me.

The Syrophoenician woman that came to Jesus with a a child that was in dire straits, she came to Jesus and she said to him, Lord, have mercy upon me and my son. And God grants mercy, praise the Lord, to those who ask for him because he is a merciful God. That's a b. However, it is not only the mercy of God demonstrated in his sacrifice and acceptance of us, but the mercy of God which should be evident, an evident attribute, an ornament about the neck of those who are the children of God. So while we thank the Lord for his mercy, we also need to learn what?

Mercy ourselves and reflect that trait to others. A character trait which every child of God should cultivate and demonstrate in their lives toward others as we testify to the mercy of our God in heaven. And I think that's what this verse is saying here in Proverbs. Do not forsake mercy. Do not do you need to nurture mercy in your heart and life.

Practice mercy and beware lest mercy forsake you because you become bent out of shape about something and you forget to be merciful like your heavenly father. As we have been shown mercy, we should also display mercy towards others out of a merciful and compassionate heart. I don't have it up here but James three seventeen says, but the wisdom that is from above and again, we're talking about wisdom in the book of Proverbs. The wisdom is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. That is the wisdom and how wisdom one of the ways wisdom demonstrates itself in the life of a child of God, manifests itself through these attributes, pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be, entreated, full of mercy, without partiality.

These are things that should be practiced in our life and nurtured in our heart. So don't let mercy forsake, but mercy is also coupled with what? With truth. So mercy is necessary and it's good, but you also need to have truth along with with mercy. Secondly, there is truth and though mercy is of great value, mercy cannot properly work apart from truth.

Truth is something which we must and I have several things up here on the screen which we must treasure. Okay? Treasure it. Psalm nineteen nine. The fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever.

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Treasure the truth, particularly the truth of God's word. Number two, defend it. Jude one three, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered for the saints.

We are to defend the truth, especially in a world that is trying to twist the truth, deny the truth, undermine the truth, particularly the truth of what? The truth of God's word. If you undermine this, if you take this foundation out, then we just we don't have that foundational truth to which everything else connects. In the in Ephesians six where it talks about the armor of God, the first piece of the armor is the what? Is the belt of truth because it is what holds all the rest of the armor together to protect us.

We should live by it. Teach me thy way, oh Lord. I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in what?

Walk in truth. Speak it. Ephesians four thirteen, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him and all things which is the head, even Christ. We need to speak the truth in love, which is very close to mercy. Okay?

So those two are are sort of connected there against. We need to speak the truth and it is the truth that what? That sets us free. John eight thirty two, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. The truth is very, very, very, very important And a lot of people don't live their life today based in truth and even in reality.

They spend all their time consumed with entertainment and amusement with things that are on do not really exist. They take drugs and alcohol. They they live their lives sometimes based upon what they wish was the truth but is not the truth. What they wish reality was but it's not reality. And until we come face to face with the truth and reality and we accept reality and truth, then we will be often be living a what?

Be living a lie. And guess what? If you live a lie, it doesn't end up well in the end because eventually, the truth is gonna what? It's going to catch up with us. It's so important and that's why Satan is so determined to destroy the truth and to get people to believe a lie.

Because if you can get them to believe a lie, you can pretty much get them to do anything. And that, of course, has happened to our world. This is how this is how many come to the conclusion that despite the truth declared by God in Genesis, we evolved from monkeys that evolved from basic life forms seated here by aliens. And and by the way, that's what the I I think is the consensus of science is coming to now is that life was seeded here by aliens. The other option that evolutionists hang on to is the idea that life spontaneously erupted from non life.

Well, that is completely in opposition to their own law that says life cannot non life cannot produce life. That's a law of science. And yet, well, I guess somehow we abandon the law of truth or we just say, well, the aliens must have done it. So by the way, if aliens did see life in our galaxy, where did the aliens come from? And, you know, it is just okay.

This doesn't make sense. Like, okay, something exploded that made the big bang and caused the universe. Okay? Where did the thing come from? Where did the antimatter and matter came from that exploded?

You still have not answered the question. You've just pushed the quest you've kicked the can further down the the road. Okay. This is how many have come to conclusion that homosexuality, same sex marriage, polyamory, which is more than two people in a marriage, are healthy. This is their conclusion.

Are healthy moral and acceptable behavior, that people can be gender fluid or non binary and we must cater to their illusions. It is an illusion of Satan. It's not based on something very important. The truth. The truth is God made us man and woman, male and female, and he brought the woman to the man and they became one married couple.

Note, there is there is a point, however, to be made. Sometimes we get all ex you know, all upset at at these things, and we should be. However, the point is to be made back to mercy as well. We leave the judging up to who? We leave the judgment up to God.

These people are being lied to. Kids are being told they can change genders. They are being lied to and twisted by the world and the devil. Supporting the lie is not merciful and compassionate, but neither is being hateful and hurling insults or treating them poorly, that is not merciful either. Giving them the truth in what?

Love. That is the merciful thing to do, and that is something we need to learn sometimes to do better than we do. This is how back to the denying of the truth. This is how many have decided that aborting unborn babies is not murder, but is simply a form of birth control and the right of every woman to choose. Consider this, try walking into the hospital and demanding that they cut off a perfectly healthy arm.

So your body, right? Do with it what you want. Walk in the hospital and say, I don't want my left arm. Cut it off. How likely are they to oblige you and cut off your arm?

Most hospitals won't do that. Now, I bet you, you can find somebody if you pay them enough money, they'll be glad to cut off your arm. But generally speaking, the doctor's not gonna just cut off a healthy arm because you don't want it. Why not? It's your body.

Do with it what you want. See what they would do if you take your spouse and demand that they kill him or her because they're a drag on your lifestyle. See? You know, I just really don't. This person's just aggravating and dragging my lifestyle.

So, take the police. Now, would you please kill them because they're they're a problem. Okay? Are they going to do that? No.

They're not going to do that. Shouldn't they do that? No. That'd be murder. But abortion's the same thing.

Abortion's the same. You have no right to take the life of another human being. It's not an issue of your body. It's their body, and it's their life. And that is the what?

That's the truth. But again, at this point, half of our society in The United States believes that that is okay. Now, they might say, well, it's not okay in the third trimester or maybe it's not okay in the second trimester. Maybe they're trying to split hairs. If it's rape and incest, it's it's it's okay to do it then, which I have a problem with because it's not the baby's fault that they were conceived that way and you're still taking a what?

A human life. Now, doesn't mean it's not going to be hard on the person who has to give birth to that child. They need our mercy, our love, our kindness, but they don't need us to tell them the solution is to what? To kill their baby because it's still it's still wrong. It's still wrong.

Abortion is murder is the truth but like even the garden, so many have believed the lion so committed unbelievable atrocity unaware of what they've done. Praise the Lord. His mercy extends even to those who have committed abortion and come to him in repentance. We have all committed many sins and God forgives. And when others cry out for mercy and repentance, we should show them compassion and mercy as God our Father in heaven does.

But if they had only known the truth, they may have never done it in the first place. This is why many choose to believe the lie of the devil. Again, back to the why truth is so important. This is why many choose to believe the lie of the devil that many religions lead to God and eternal life, though they'd be in irreconcilable differences between them. Mutual exclusive facts are just that.

Yet, we live in a postmodern society in which people are convinced that diametrically contrary facts or opinions can both be what? True at the same time. So it can be true that you get to heaven by believing in Jesus. It can also be true that you get to heaven by keeping the law without Jesus. It can be true that you get to heaven by trusting in Jesus or it be true you get to heaven by trusting in Allah.

They're not the same person. It's not the same God. And we can go on down the list. Okay? Two competing truths that are contrary to each other, they're not both what?

They're both both truths. One of them is true and one of them is false. And yet, we live in a world today that basically says, well, you live your truth and I'll live my truth. Well, that's not true at all. That's why we must not allow mercy and truth to forsake us because if they forsake our mind and our heart, we're left aimless and we make all kinds of terrible decisions.

And thus, we see that in our world today. We could continue till the cows come home. The the fact is truth matters. If there is no truth, then we can be sure of nothing, but praise the Lord, there is such a thing as truth and we therefore can be confident of eternal life in Christ as well as many other important things in life declared to us. First of all, in the book of what?

In the book of truth. We who know and have received the truth should cling tenaciously to it without apology. And then that's important because I'm afraid there's a lot of Christians today that they don't cling to it without apology. It's like, well, yeah, I believe it's this is what I believe. That's what you believe.

No. This is the what? This is the truth. And I shouldn't compromise. I shouldn't apologize for for the truth.

We should proclaim it and defend it without shame. As Paul said in Romans one sixteen, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and salvation to everyone that believeth. I he's not ashamed and we should not be ashamed to speak the truth. But again, there's there's mercy. We need to speak the truth in what?

In love and with understanding. And then finally, I think this verse means even more than that. For it is not only in receiving and embracing the truth that we have favor with God and man but it is being truthful and honest and trustworthy people. If if this is going to be true that it says in in in chapter three and verse four, so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Truth isn't just something we accept and cling to but being truthful is something that we want.

We practice. The same as mercy. We're saved because of God's mercy but we need to be practicing mercy in our lives and the same is true with truth and if we practice and embrace both mercy and truth, we will find favor with God and to a certain extent with man as well. Someone who is truthful and trustworthy in the things that they say and do is a reflection of the character of their creator and hopefully savior. God is truthful.

He's just and righteous in all his dealings. So we should be just and righteous in what? In all our dealings. Yeah. And because he is, he is therefore trustworthy in all he declares and says that he will do.

We can trust him. We can count on him. We can depend on him. We can believe in him. We can rest in him.

We can share him with others knowing that it is the truth and that he will be true to his word for he is just and true in all of his dealings with man. So we can we can stand on that. We can be assured of that. We can be confident in that because God is true. And the same thing needs to be true of God's children.

Likewise, his children should also be true and just in all our dealings with others, showing ourselves to be trustworthy also. If we will bind truthfulness, honesty, and integrity around our neck, holding it close, counting it dear, and displaying it to those we deal with daily, then we will find favor with man. Say what you mean. Yeah. Be careful to check your facts before you open your mouth and speak.

I'm afraid sometimes we don't do that and then it becomes more like gossip. Follow through with your commitments. Yeah. Do when you commit to it, do it. Okay?

Be fair and just in your business. Be real and genuine in your actions. Don't be a what? Don't be a hip hypocrite. Yeah.

Don't be two faced or hypocritical and show mercy and kindness and compassion even to our what? To our enemies. That's what sets us apart as the children of God. As Jesus said in Matthew five, even the Pharisees, even the publicans love those who love them, but we are called to love those who don't love us, to pray for our enemies and those who persecute us. That is the mercy of God exhibited in our lives.

So wear mercy and truth about your neck daily and write it upon your heart. Let it not be foreshow, but let it be by God's grace who you really are. If so, then you will not only find favor with man, but more importantly, with your creator and with your God. And we will make a difference for him in this world in which we live. We just need to hang on to mercy, and we need to hang on to truth.

Like handlebars on a bicycle, you gotta you hang gotta hang on to those things through life. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you, Lord, for the reminder to hang on to mercy and truth and be the children of God in our heart and in our actions for the world to see the mercy and truth of God, know it, so that they can be set free as we have been. And we thank you for your mercy toward us in sending your son to to take our place and to offer us something we could never earn for ourselves.

May we live in light of that mercy and love, and may we speak the truth and live by it each and every day. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.