Mercy and Truth

Introduction: The Precept of Mercy and Truth in Proverbs 3:3-4

0:07 Now turning, please, to the third chapter of Proverbs. We'll resume our studies in this particular chapter, which contains, for the most part, a variety of practical precepts enforced by very strong motives. The first of those precepts and the motive attached to it we have already considered, verses 1 and 2. It is a command to be not forgetful of God's law and His commandments with the promise that obedience and perpetual remembrance of the ways and law of God will bring long life, true life, and peaceful life. Now we come tonight to begin our study of the second of these commandments, these precepts, which do not necessarily have any, intimate connection one with another. The commandment comes to us, or the precept, in verse 3. Let not kindness and truth forsake thee.

1:17 Bind them about thy neck, write them upon the tablet of thy heart. Then the promise, so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. It's obvious that the main thrust of this passage, of Scripture, focuses upon these twin virtues of kindness, or mercy, and truth. Hence, I'm giving the title, a rare thing for me, to our study tonight and next Lord's Day evening, Mercy and Truth in Precept and Promise.

1:58 First of all, then, let us address ourselves to the precept found in verse 3, and then, God willing, next week we shall see the precepts of mercy and promise. We shall see the precepts of mercy and promise. We shall see the precepts of mercy and promise. We shall see the precepts of mercy and promise.

2:06 We shall see the precepts of mercy and promise. Seek to open up the promise as found in verse 4. Now, it's obvious, as I've said, that the whole precept, as well as the promise, hinges upon these two graces, or these two virtues, translated either mercy or kindness and truth. Well, you see, if that which binds the whole text together, both the precept or the command, as well as the promise, are these two commodities, mercy or kindness and truth, then the key to understanding the entire passage is coming to grips with these two words and what they mean in the Scriptures.

Mercy and Truth as Siamese Twins in Scripture

2:48 When Solomon says to his son, Don't ever let mercy and truth forsake you, what would those words convey to the mind of his son? When he says, Bind them about thy neck, what was that commodity that he was to bind about? His neck. When he says, Write them upon my heart, what was the son to write upon his heart?

3:11 When he promises the result of this will be favor in God's eyes in man, understanding in the eyes of God in man, what is the thing that is conditioned prior to that promise? Well, it's obvious, I hope, that we cannot then penetrate the meaning of the passage unless we spare no pains in getting to the heart of the meaning of these biblical words. And the thing that interested me when I began my study, and as often I just started with the concordance, looking up all of the usages, if not all, many and most all of the usages of the particular Hebrew words for mercy or kindness and truth, the first thing I discovered was this, that mercy and truth, kindness and truth, again and again come to us in the Scriptures as Siamese twins. Or, if I may not be errant, irreverent in saying it, the mutton Jeff of this particular category of Christian virtue. Wherever mutt is, Jeff is. And if you've got Siamese twins, where other Henrietta is, Harrietta is there as well.

4:19 And let's look at a couple of instances in which we find mercy and truth in this Siamese twin relationship. We're not yet seeking to discover what they mean, but we want to know is that when Solomon said to his son, let not mercy and truth, forsake thee, he was not introducing some new concepts. He had often seen mutton Jeff walk together in his previous experience. He had often seen both heads of that Siamese pair.

4:48 All right? Turn, please, to Genesis chapter 4, which is perhaps the first reference in the Scriptures to these two virtues found in connection one with another. You remember the general setting of Genesis 24? It's that beautiful story, of how Jehovah guides the servant of Abraham to find a wife for Isaac.

5:11 If your heart is really moved at beautiful love stories that have about them such marvelous indications of the providence and guidance of God, Genesis 24 is your cup of tea. Now, in Genesis 24 and verse 27, we have the prayer of the servant of Abraham who begins to see the hand of God in Providence, working out a fulfillment of his mission in finding a bride for Isaac. Now, I read from Genesis 24, 27. And he, the servant of Abraham, said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, who hath not forsaken, now here are the two words, his lovingkindness, or his mercy, and his truth toward my master. As for me, the Lord hath led me in the way to the house of my master's brethren. As he sees God answering his prayer, and the promise, the covenant promise to Abraham, that in Isaac would his seed be blessed, and in Isaac would his seed be called, that Isaac would be the next factor, the next person in the channel of the covenant promise, as he backs off and beholds what God has done, or, and is doing, in fulfillment of his promise,

6:39 the two attributes of God, or the two characteristics of God that he particularly praises and recognizes, are these, mercy and truth. So if you came to Abraham's servant and said, What did God do in fulfilling his purpose in giving a bride for Isaac? He'd say, God has displayed his mercy and his truth. Now, keep that in mind.

7:05 It will help you when we go to attack the precise meaning of these words. Now, in the same chapter, in verse 49,

Mercy and Truth as Characteristics of God and His People

7:13 we see the servant speaking to the father of the proposed bride, and notice what he says, verse 49, And now, if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me, and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the righteous, to the right hand, or to the left. As he expects a favorable response from the father of the proposed bride, he expects a response to be favorable if it comes within the context of mercy and of truth. So you see, this is not only a characteristic inherent in God, and expressed in the ways and the dealings of God, it is a characteristic expressed in creatures who reflect the image of God. And those two references form, as it were, almost the pivot upon which everything else then turns. But a couple of more references to see how they're joined together. 2 Samuel 2 and verse 6.

8:25 I hope you don't find this boring.

8:28 If you do, I'm sorry, we're going to do it anyway.

8:32 Because we've got to find out what this mercy and truth are all about. 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel, chapter 2 and verse 6.

8:45 Perhaps we should back up to catch the thread of thought in verse 4. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, The men of Jabesh-Gilead were they that buried Saul. And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabesh-Gilead, and said unto them, Blessed be ye of the Lord, that ye have shown this kindness, unto your Lord, even unto Saul, and have buried him.

9:18 And now the Lord show loving kindness and truth unto you. And I also will requite you this kindness, because ye have done this thing. As David seeks to express his well wishes, his good wishes toward these people who have shown kindness in burying Saul, he wishes that they shall experience the loving kindness and the truth of God. And he says, I likewise will express something of that kindness of God to you.

9:51 Well, you have a similar reference in chapter 15, verse 20. And then there are four, five, six references in the Psalms. I'll only take one as a specimen passage. Psalm 25 and verse 10.

10:04 Psalm 25 and verse 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy or loving kindness and truth unto such as, keep His covenant and His testimonies. All the paths of the Lord, wherever you look at them, and we're going to exegete that verse a little more thoroughly later. He says, all His paths, wherever He's been, wherever He goes, there is the evidence of mercy and of truth.

10:32 Psalm 57.3, 61.7, 86.15.

10:37 Now what do we conclude from this? Well, we conclude this much, that when Solomon is sitting down with his tutor, the person whom he is tutor to, his pupil, Solomon being the tutor, if he's sitting down with his son, when he said to him, let not kindness and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck, write them upon the tablet of thy heart, he was focusing on a primary and a dominant biblical concept. And again I was struck with how ignorant I am of the Bible when I began to ask myself, what is mercy and truth? Or what are?

11:13 Mercy and truth in a biblical context. Don't run to Webster and pull down and get a little definition and pass that off as preaching. No, no. No, no.

11:22 Solomon was speaking as one whose mind was steeped in the very passages I've read to you. His mind would recall these instances and these pronouncements. So whatever they are, they are vital issues bound up in the very character of God and they form an essential element of anyone who is reflecting the image of God. That's the first thing we notice.

Mercy and Truth as Essential to God's Character

11:45 The second thing we notice, when we study these words in the Old Testament in particular, they are spoken of as essential to the very character of God Himself.

11:59 Loving kindness or mercy and truth are essential to the very character of God Himself. Look at Genesis 32 and verse 10. Genesis 32 and verse 10. I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindness and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant.

12:25 This is the confession of Jacob as he beholds all of God's dealings with him. He summarizes them all under two heads. Loving kindness and truth. He doesn't mention any other characteristics or attributes or virtues that God has displayed.

12:41 He said, I'm not worthy of all the things you've done in a way of mercy and in a way of truth. Turn please to Psalm 89 and verse 14 where you have a similar indication that mercy and truth are inherent and essential to the very character and nature and hence the ways of God. Psalm 89 and verse 14. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of thy throne.

13:11 Mercy or loving kindness and truth are the foundation and truth go before thy face. That is, whichever way the face of God turns. Loving kindness and truth are always there because they come out of the very character and nature of God Himself. And this I would have you notice within the framework of praising God for His covenant faithfulness.

13:34 I will sing of the loving kindness of the Lord with my mouth while I make known thy faithfulness. Verse 3, I've made a covenant with my chosen. It's within the framework of praising God as the God of the covenant that He says the mark of God in His covenant administration is mercy and truth. Psalm 117.

13:58 And I have a confession to make that this psalm is very familiar to me back when I was an unconverted, deceived, professing Christian. And knowing that Christians are supposed to read the Bible, my conscience wouldn't let me go to sleep at night unless I read my Bible sometime during the day. And this was the psalm I would turn to and read many, many a night to say I had read my Bible. I'm not fooling you.

14:22 I'm dead serious. That's how hopelessly deceived I was. Thinking that threading the words of this psalm through my eyes would sort of pacify the deity to let me get through the night so I could wake up to the next day. But it's a great missionary hymn.

14:38 It's a great psalm that looks beyond Israel as being almost the exclusive recipient of the light and mercy of God. And the command goes out, O praise the Lord, all ye nations, laud Him, all ye peoples. Now, what are they to laud Him for? As the gospel comes to all nations and all people, what does it reveal of this great God?

15:03 This is what it reveals. For His loving kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. You see what he's saying?

15:15 As God is revealed to the nations, the predominant revelation of this God will be as He comes in saving and covenant mercy. It's the God of loving kindness and the God of truth. And then one other reference, Psalm 115.

15:34 Here you have the contrast between the things that are called gods, the idols of the heathen, and Jehovah. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory. For Thy loving kindness and for Thy truth's sake. You see?

15:53 As he thinks of God and what He is in Himself, contrasting Him with the heathen idols, the two things that stand predominant in his mind, loving kindness and truth. Now we've come up with two conclusions, I hope. First of all, that loving kindness and truth are found together often in Scripture as a very dominant biblical concept. Secondly, whatever they are, they are something essential to the very character of the living God.

Defining Mercy and Truth in God

16:23 Now, it's as we see what these things are in God that we can begin to understand what they ought to be in us. For we must never forget that the pattern of our holiness is always the character of God. Be ye holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Be ye therefore blessed, perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

16:50 He that saith he abideth in Him ought to walk even as He walked. So that the understanding of mercy and truth as virtues commanded to us in this precept must begin with an understanding of what they are in their perfection in the living God. What then is mercy or kindness in God? Well, basically, it is His disposition of benevolence to His people.

17:22 His purposeful power and concern for His own. One very careful, learned student of the Hebrew words states that it has the same meaning as agape in the New Testament. That intelligent, purposeful, sovereign love of God exercised to His people. This is mercy.

17:46 This is mercy. This is kindness. It is that disposition in God that moves in a way of active pity and concern to His people in a framework of covenant love and responsibility. Now, what is truth?

18:05 Well, it's not what you think it is on the surface. It doesn't mean, though this is true of God, that He doesn't lie. But it's speaking of His truthfulness, that is, His trustworthiness and faithfulness to His covenant promises. What He says His mercy will do, He actually does.

18:26 He is the God of mercy moving to us in mercy and then committing Himself to that mercy in His covenant promise. Spurgeon in his exposition of one of the psalms in which we have the phrase mercy and truth or all His ways are mercy and truth, states it this way. All of the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. That is to say, God all has shown the truth of His word.

18:58 He's never been false to His pledges. He has done according to His word. Moreover, the blessings which God has promised have always turned out to be as He represented them. We have followed no cunningly devised fables.

19:13 The blessings of grace are not fancies or frenzies, exaggerations or mere sentiments. The Lord has never fallen short of His promise. He has never kept His word to the ear and broken it to the heart. All the ways of God have not only been merciful and true, but they have been essential mercy and truth.

19:38 We've had truth of mercy, verity of mercy, substantial, solid, essential mercy. I have found no delusion in trusting in God. I may have been a dreamer in some things, but when I've lived unto God, I have then exercised the shrewdest common sense and have walked after the rule of prudence. It is no vain thing to serve God.

20:01 The vanity lies on the other side. And then he goes on to give an exhortation based upon it. This is the concept of truth. Trustworthiness.

20:12 What he says is not only so accurate as to fact, but it can be counted upon to be performed. So we see that God, and I hope you can picture it this way, that which moves Him toward men is His mercy. In sovereign love, He comes to us as the God of mercy. Then He undertakes to meet our needs, enters into covenant with us, commits Himself to covenant promise, and then He shows Himself to be the God of truth, fulfilling everything, that His mercy has promised.

20:50 So as the psalmist surveys the ways of God, and I want you to turn back to that text in Psalm 25 and verse 10. This is how he does it. Psalm 25 and verse 10.

21:03 All the paths of the Lord are loving kindness and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. The root of the Hebrew word all His paths is one which brings brings the idea of the tracks, the ruts that are cut by a cart or a chariot.

21:26 And so David says, wherever the chariot of God has gone, the two ruts that are always cut are mercy and truth.

21:37 All mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. The framework of this concept is not a discriminant mercy and truth to all men, regardless of their relationship to the living God. No. Again and again as you study it through the Old Testament, just as you study through the word love, agape in the New Testament, you find that the framework is the framework of covenant love and covenant promise.

22:10 Two texts that indicate it. Micah 7 and verse 20.

22:15 Micah 7 and verse 20.

22:26 Micah 7 verse 20.

22:31 Perhaps we should back up to verse 18. Micah is lost in prayer. Praise of His great God. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?

22:45 He retaineth not His anger forever because He delighteth in loving kindness. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

22:59 Thou wilt perform the truth unto Jacob. Covenant promise. And the loving covenant is to Abraham. Covenant promise which thou hast sworn.

23:11 Covenant pledge unto our fathers from the days of old. You will prove yourself within the framework of covenantal arrangement to be God of mercy, God of loving kindness, and God of truth, God of trustworthiness. And you have a similar reference. We won't take time to look at it in 1 Kings 8 and verse 23.

Defining Mercy and Truth in Believers

23:35 Now then, having seen, I trust, thus far, mercy and truth, Siamese twins, the Mott and Jeff of biblical truth as they come to us, having seen that they are essential to the character and the ways of God, that mercy is His disposition of kindness and love, His truth is His trustworthiness, the veracity of His promises in the framework of the covenant, if that's what they are in God, now you begin, begin to see what they are to be in us. My son, let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Let them be characteristics of your life, continually bind them about thy neck. Don't be content until they become the inward disposition of your spirit. Write them upon the tablet of your heart. What are mercy and kindness to be in us?

24:31 Well, as we have our absolute sphere of reference in God, let's see what they are to be in us. What is mercy or kindness in us? Well, it is that disposition to will and to seek the good of men. It's the opposite of hatred toward men, indifference to men in their need, callousness to men where there ought to be pity.

24:56 I think the best illustration of this is found in the Gospels when you find people pleading for mercy. Here are men in need and the Lord Jesus passes and they cry out, Son of David, have mercy upon me. Look upon me and see me in my need and then in the light of what you see don't be indifferent to that need but respond to it in terms of the measure of your own ability. Now, when a blind man pleads for mercy from the Son of God, he is asking for his sight.

25:28 Now, I don't have the power to give men sight. But to be merciful, to show kindness is to be sensitive to need in terms of the God-given ability I have to meet that need. Not to be indifferent. Not to shut up.

25:43 To use the scriptural term, the bowels of my compassion. If you see your brother have need, John says, and shut up the bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in you? You see what he's saying? The path of God's love is seen in God so as to give.

26:04 If that love is in you, it will not lead you to zip up your heart according to the measure of your ability. So it is an exhortation to cultivate this grace, this disposition to will and to seek the good of men, to be sensitive to the need of men. And what is truth? It is that commitment to our word so that not only do we speak the truth in the sense that we do not lie, but we can be counted on to perform according to our ability what we have said and what we have pledged.

26:45 To use the words of Jesus, he said, let your yea be yea and let your nay be nay.

26:53 He says, you shouldn't have to prove to people that you mean what you say by saying, I swear by the God of heaven and earth and by the temple and all things therein. He says, no, no, no. Don't go swearing by the temple. Be the people when someone asks you a question and you say no.

27:07 Your no is certain and truthful as though you swore by everything in heaven, earth, and beneath the earth. He says, let your wa...

27:16 That's what our Lord is saying. Yea, let your nay be nay. This commitment to our word. Notice how these two things are brought together in the New Testament.

27:30 In the epistle to the Ephesians, in the practical section in which Paul is giving detailed instruction as to what it means to walk worthy of our high calling. He says in verse 25 of chapter 4, wherefore putting away falsehood, he truths each one with his neighbor. For we are members one of another. Be characterized as men and women of truth, but not only of truth, but of mercy.

28:00 Verse 32, be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving. Be ye kind one to another, kindness, mercy. These are the things that are to characterize the people of God. Now, having defined the words, and I trust illustrated that those definitions were not arbitrary, that I did not simply impose them upon you, but that they've come from the Scripture, themselves.

The Negative Command: Let Not Mercy and Truth Forsake You

28:27 What does Solomon tell his son he's to do with these two virtues? Well, let's look. There's a negative and then two parts of a positive.

28:37 Let not mercy and truth forsake you. That's the negative. Then the positive. Bind them about thy neck.

28:46 Write them upon the tablet of thy heart. Let's look at them in that order. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Isn't that a strange word?

28:55 The word forsake simply means abandon. Leave you. Go away from you. The picture being that the presence of mercy and truth in the heart of his son is not so settled and certain a thing as you can count on it being in God.

29:10 Never have need to worry that mercy and truth will forsake God. Never. They're inherent in his very nature and character. He's the God of mercy and the God of truth.

29:23 But not so with us. And here you have, at least indirectly, a confirmation of the realization, Solomon had, of the doctrine of human depravity and sin.

29:36 There is no grace and truth in us by nature. Sin has twisted us so that we are liars from the womb.

29:48 And we're indifferent to human need.

29:52 And when grace,

29:56 fruit of the Spirit, has begun to be made manifest in us, there is still remaining corruption so that these graces will not grow and flourish and blossom if they're not attended to. All the plans of God and the human heart are like plants in your garden unless they're cared for. The weeds will grow up with them and choke them. And the garden of the believer's heart must be constantly cared for if it is to bring forth lush, full fruit to the praise of God.

30:27 So he's reminding his son of this. He said, you're just not going to wake up morning after morning and find mercy and truth, your constant companion, simply because your name happens to be whatever the son's name was. No, no. You must, you must make it a conscious part of your spiritual discipline that these virtues do not forsake you or leave you.

The Positive Command: Bind Them About Thy Neck

30:50 Then he gives the positive and the only way to keep the negative is to comply with the positive. How is it that we can keep mercy and truth from forsaking us? Well, he gives two beautiful figures of speech. The first one, bind them about thy neck.

31:06 Now, as I've tried to trace this down to its, what we'd say its historical setting, what did Solomon have in mind? The most satisfying explanation I've had, and I've had it from enough sources that at the mouth of two or three witnesses it's been confirmed in my own mind, that what Solomon probably has in mind is a reference to something in the culture of that day which sounds very strange to us. The men were not given to wearing jewelry in Bible days. They would wear sometimes the ring, a signet ring, but it was basically a utilitarian thing.

31:41 It wasn't jewelry. And there are times when the signet, which a man would carry with him constantly, would be hung about his neck with a cord or with a chain. You seem to have a clear reference to this in Genesis 38, 18 if you want to look it up, where this man gives as a pledge to the harlot his signet and his cord and his staff.

32:05 Implication being that the signet was upon the cord around the neck and he also gave the staff. So wherever the person went, his signet there in his ring was with him. Wherever he was, there it was bound with him. When he got up in the morning, went out to shave, went out to work, took the 707 into work and caught the 623 back home, wherever he was, there was his signet, which in a very real sense was the symbol of his person.

32:34 And whenever he wanted to leave the mark that he had been there, some of you remember a little after the Second World War, on every fence, all over the place, Kilroy was here. Everybody wrote their little sign somewhere. Well, if you want to know that he was there, the signet was the sign that that person was there because it was never separated from his person unless in some instances as Pharaoh gave his signet to Joseph and made him, as it were, his representative. But there was this close identification between the signet and the man who stood behind it.

33:09 Now do you see what he's saying? He's saying, my son, let not mercy, and truth forsake thee, but just the opposite of that. Let them be constantly with you and to be visible before men. The signet hung about your it was a visible thing.

33:26 And he says, I want mercy and truth to be possible graces that mark you as you go out into life. Now let me say by way of pointed application, God says to you and to me, as the God of covenant mercy and truth, O my children, be ye holy for I am holy. Be like me. I'm the God whose ways are constantly the ways of mercy and truth.

33:56 Be like me in your home. Let mercy and truthfulness be the mark of the administration of your home as a Christian father. Don't be a tyrant insensitive to the needs of your wife, her emotional needs, her physical needs, her spiritual needs, little unofficial boat, wanting everybody to kiss your ring in your left toe.

34:28 Be a merciful father. Move with pity to the needs of your wife and your children.

34:37 But be a truthful father. When you say son, daughter, if you don't do this, these are the consequences. Stick your children and your wife in the church, whatever it is you may have. One thing you can count on with daddy when he says something immediately, means it, and when he said it and means it, he sticks with it no matter what the cost.

35:14 That's what it means to bind mercy and truth about your neck as a signet. A constant and visible display of these virtues in the home, in your place of business. Oh, how desperately these virtues are needed in the business world today. Dog eat dog, cut throat practices, find them about thine neck.

35:41 My son, as you go out into the world and take your sphere as a responsible wage earner and part of the great machinery of society, let mercy be about your neck as a signet. The constant virtues in all your business dealings so that when you say something all above you and beneath you in your place of business, know that that word is as good as though it were bound with 25 affidavits and 1,500 notaries. You're a man of truth, but you're a man of mercy who when you could break a man's back legally, you'll show pity.

36:25 You'll know that behind the business contract and the business dealings are people with mouths to feed and wives and children. Just that practical. That's what he's saying to his son. Find them about thine neck as you go out to establish yourself in the home, in the place of business.

36:45 Now may I touch a very sensitive area? I'm speaking particularly to you young people. In the area of your romantic involvements, let mercy and truth be bound about your neck.

36:58 Be merciful in your treatment one of another.

37:04 Be merciful. Don't lead that girl on beyond what you have right to lead her on. In assuming certain things about you and about your ability to assume the responsibilities of a home and a husband, be merciful. Don't run the risk of breaking your heart just so you can be comfortable knowing you've got a steady girl.

37:27 Be merciful as you would that others do unto you. Even so do unto them. Then be truthful. Don't let those words I love you slip out of your lips carelessly as an excuse to get a kiss a little bit earlier than you might get it if you didn't say them.

37:43 That's what he means. My son, when you date those girls, always date them with the signet of mercy and truth hung around your neck.

37:54 The first time you take that girl in your arms to kiss her, remember, your signet is going to press against her. Is it mercy and truth?

38:05 That's just that practical. Yes, just that practical. Bind them about thy neck in your social context. At school, in our life together, in the midst of the church.

38:19 Need I go into greater detail? Do you see? People talk, let's get out and witness. This is witness.

38:25 The people of God in the midst of darkness and what is a community of saints with the signet of mercy and truth hung about their necks constantly and visibly to the world. What are they but light in the midst of darkness, salt of the earth, light of the world. That's what it means to be witnesses.

The Positive Command: Write Them Upon the Tablet of Thy Heart

38:51 Well, I must hurry on to the second part of the positive instruction. Not only does he use this beautiful figure of the signet ring tied about the neck with a chain, but then he says, write them upon the table, the table or the tablet of thy heart. And the word for table or tablet is the one used almost exclusively in the Old Testament for the tablets, the tables upon which the finger of God wrote the Ten Commandments. So the picture is very clear.

39:19 He's let your heart be a writing board and on that heart write mercy and truth. Now why, why does he use this phrase? Well, I hope it's obvious after our study last Lord's Day morning. That whenever the word heart is introduced in the scripture, it's bringing us into the seat of a man's whole being.

39:42 The heart is the seat of the intellectual and the emotional and the volitional life of the man. Out of the heart proceed the issues of life. Now there's a popular idea in our day that the Bible, the Old Testament religion as found in the scriptures is all external and you've got to wait to the New Testament to get to the heart. Now nothing could be further from the truth and the only reason men say that and other people parrot it is they don't study their Bibles.

40:11 Now I'm sorry, that's the only reason or they're deliberately refusing to see what the Bible very obviously teaches. The Bible is concerned in the Old Testament as well as the New with the heart. Listen to the reiteration of the law of God as found in Deuteronomy chapter 6. See how God is concerned about the heart.

40:34 Deuteronomy, chapter 6,

40:38 verses 6 and 8.

40:42 And these words which I command thee this day shall be upon thy and he goes on to say verse 8 bind them for a sign upon thy hand and they shall be for frontlets between thy eyes they shall be upon thy doorposts. Listen. The internal external God said first of all lay them to your heart and then to help keep them in the midst of the heart set them before your eyes. But God was never concerned with just the external.

41:22 You find the same emphasis in chapter 11 in verse 18 of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 11 in verse 18 therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul that's the inward and you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And the same emphasis you see in the text. The text before us it's as though Solomon says to his son my son I want these virtues to be visible in your life I want them to be constant in your life but my son I want you to know that they are not to be there in terms of some kind of a practice response to need in some kind of a wooden artificial way I want them to flow out of a heart upon which mercy and truth have been written. They are to become part of your inner life but now there's a problem he says you write them upon the table of your heart how can I write on my own heart? Isn't that God's work?

42:28 Doesn't God say in Jeremiah 31 in verse 33 I will take out the heart of stone I will put my law on their hearts and upon their minds will I write them? Now God tells me to do it but how in the world can I write upon my heart? If that's God's work how can I do it? Well we're back where we were this morning in the life of the redeemed people of God God's working and our working are not exclusive they are concurrent and confluent if I may use a word I don't know if it's a proper one but they flow together they flow together work out your own salvation with fear and trembling why? For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do this good pleasure I am God I can do all things who doesn't? Paul says I do through Christ who strengthens me on the inside well who does it? Christ or me?

How to Write Mercy and Truth on the Heart

43:34 we both do now ultimately of course all the praise must be to God why? because He is working in me giving me the very desire to perform to do to will to choose but His working does not cancel out the necessity of my working it secures both the reality and the success of my working without the assurance that He is working out in the framework of covenant faithfulness His purpose is toward me why should I work? at the end it might all come to naught what's the use? but it's the fact that yea I to the end shall endure as sure as the promise is given it's the certainty that I shall endure that makes me roll up in my sleeves and say I must endure you say you're talking double talk well I'm sorry that's bible talk you work out because He works in now see it in the text my son write them upon the tablet of thy heart sure ultimately only God can write the thing upon the heart it's the fruit of the spirit these graces of mercy and kindness and truth will howl then upon my heart we come back to the means by which God performs these things as one commentator has I think

45:03 accurately said as workers under the spirit we're required to write the law of kindness and truth upon the tables of our hearts by one maintaining deep impressions of these virtues coming back again and again in our worship and saying oh God all thy ways are mercy and truth make me like thyself oh God keep before me that you're this kind and by your grace make me like you maintaining deep impressions of these virtues secondly by constantly meditating on the motives which should move us to attain these virtues Lord I would have good favor and understanding in your sight and in the sight of men Lord in the light of those motives which we'll study in detail next week God willing God help me the motive is meant to be an incentive to perform the duty keep the motives before your mind God works by motives He preserves us by means of motives among other things and then in the third place by endeavoring through the grace of Christ to have our hearts habitually disposed to all those duties which are the fruit of mercy and of truth saying oh God

46:31 make me sensitive to what mercy will do and what truthfulness will do and be such as the Ephesians four passage which we read but above all and if I had to reduce it all to one fundamental principle how do we write these things upon the table of the heart 2 Corinthians 3.18 is the answer but we all with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into that same image from one stage of glory to another even by the Lord the Spirit if Jesus Christ is the perfect revelation of God no man hath seen God at any time the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him we beheld his glory glories of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth he that hath seen me hath seen the Father then these attributes of mercy and truth shine most brightly in the face of Christ and it's as we behold the Lord Jesus particularly as we read of him in the gospel record we see mercy and truth abundantly demonstrated not in the abstract but in the concrete of his dealings as a man amongst men and it's as we behold him and we pray Lord to be like him the Spirit is operative

Call to Regeneration and Final Exhortation

48:00 writing mercy and truth upon the tablets of our hearts that's how you do it you're responsible to do it to engage in the means by which mercy and truth will become increasingly the inward dispositions of that renewed heart which God in grace has granted now some of you have a insurmountable problem here because you still have a heart of stone upon which nothing can be written and that's why you have to take out the heart of stone and that's the picture the Bible gives of the heart of every unregenerate man or woman God says I will take out the heart of stone and my friend the same God who says I will take out the heart of stone says in the prophet Ezekiel make you a new heart how can I make a new heart by going to the only one who can give a new heart and that's Jesus the mediator of the new covenant who lives as mediator of the new covenant to apply the blessings of that covenant what are they? I will take out the heart of stone put my spirit within them I will completely forgive their sins and iniquities and remember them against them no more how do I get a new heart upon which can be written mercy and truth go to Jesus mediator of the new covenant go to him cry to him

49:29 Lord Jesus thou must give me a new heart this is work only for those who are who have fleshy tables there in the heart those who have been renewed by the spirit they and they alone are able to write mercy and truth upon their hearts may God grant that we shall stand as did Solomon's son or his pupil and hear this word coming through to us with power let not mercy and truth forsake thee bind them about thy neck as you go out into your life this week whatever your sphere of legitimate calling is will there be constant visible demonstration of mercy and of truth that's God's will ah but you say pastor you don't know the guy I have to work for I'd like to tear the signet off and put on daggers instead yes I know you would I know you would and Solomon was fully aware of that as we further study in the book of Proverbs he's not viewing life from the standpoint of somebody who sat up in an ivory tower stroking his scraggly beard and dreaming he's a realist there's an earthiness about the book of Proverbs at times that is almost shocking to us who live in the propriety of our 20th century

50:58 niceties in certain areas no no he knows he's sending his son out into that kind of world in which it's not natural but nonetheless he says bind them about thy neck write them upon the tablet of thy heart and what's the greatest incentive thou shalt find favor and good understanding in the sight of God that should be enough but he says there's also some fringe benefits in the sight of man as well God willing we'll attempt to open up the promise next week but tonight the precept there it is before you may God help us to embrace it to our hearts let us pray