Mercy and Truth for Them; Grace and Truth for Us

Proverbs 3:3-6

“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:” (Proverbs 3:3). The combination of the words “mercy” and “truth” is not unique to this passage. It is actually a very common theme particularly of Psalms and Proverbs, often used to describe God’s dealings with man. His mercy is described as “everlasting” and His truth as enduring to “all generations” (Psalms 100:5).

This combination is foreign however to the New Testament, not being used even once. The closest that we get is 2 John 1:3, when the Apostle John uses the two words in the same verse, but not in connection with one another. The New Testament equivalent of this phrase is found in John’s writing as well, this time in his gospel:

“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

Notice that instead of truth coupled with mercy, it is now joined with “grace”, and the method of this combination coming to us is not given through a doctrine, but is brought by the man, Jesus Christ. We know that Jesus is truth, for He told us as much in John 14:6, but why the change from “mercy” to “grace”?

In the Old Testament, man was judged by his keeping or breaking of God’s law. This is the same law that our previous verse told us was “given by Moses”. This law was so holy, just and good that men could not possibly keep it, so they were constantly seeking God for forgiveness by the offering of sacrifices. If not for the mercy of God, man would have gotten what he deserved many times over. God never ceased to be “true” to His holy nature, even though He was merciful to mankind.

When Christ met all of the demands of the law, He offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the whole world, satisfying the anger of His Father (1 John 2:2). While mercy is us not getting what we deserve, grace is us getting what we could never deserve. The cross is what we deserved, for it was death for sin, but God’s mercy killed Jesus instead of us. God’s unconditional love and favor is what we can never deserve, but the cross brought us those things and God calls it grace. With no law to keep in order to please God, we now walk in His grace and truth, thus the New Testament preaches these concepts for the believer.

When you function under His grace, you are giving Him your whole heart, and not leaning to your own understanding (Psalm 3:5). The more we learn this dependency, or “learn to lean”, the clearer that His path will become, leading us to even more of His glory and grace.

Thank the Lord today for His mercy which has spared you from judgment. Thank Him as well for His grace and truth, which has given you all things and blessed you with joy unspeakable.

Like A Tree Planted By the Water

Psalm 1:1-6

Some of my earliest memories from growing up in church are the songs that we sang each week from the old hymn books. One of those songs was titled, “I Shall Not Be Moved”, and it contained a line from the 1st Psalm:

I shall not be, I shall not be moved;
I shall not be, I shall not be moved;
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters,
Lord, I shall not be moved.

The line, “I shall not be moved” is actually from Psalm 62:6, but I have always had the imagery in my head of a tree planted by the waters because of that chorus. As I grew older I learned that a tree planted next to running water is not nearly as solid as one farther away, because the roots of the river tree do not run deep; they don’t need to, there is plenty of water on the surface. Actually, the tree planted by the water often has too much water, and many species cannot grow there at all.

It was many years before I realized that when the Psalmist wrote of this tree, he was not writing of its immovability, that was the songwriter’s vision. David was writing of a tree that has such a constant water source that it is always bringing forth fruit when it is time; its leaves are healthy and colorful and people can find rest beneath its prosperous branches.

Jesus stood in the temple in Jerusalem on the 8th day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and as the high priest poured the water from the pool of Siloam, out of the golden vessel and onto the altar, He shouted, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37, 38). When we accept Christ, the Holy Spirit is our river, bringing forth streams in the desert of man’s existence (Isaiah 35:6). When we delight in the law of Christ and meditate on him, we are truly blessed (Psalm 1:1, 2).

The three characteristics of this tree by the water are that it produces fruit, it is an evergreen and whatever it does shall prosper. These three things are better characterized by three distinct trees: the fig, the olive tree and the vine. The fig produces fruit, the olive tree is an evergreen and the vine produces wine which represents prosperity. We can break it down further by seeing that the fig tree represents righteousness; the olive branch represents peace and the vine produces the wine that brings joy. Based upon this information, this tree brings righteousness, peace and joy. Now look at Paul’s description of the kingdom of God:

“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:17).

In the water of the Spirit, there is a boldness that enables the Christian to stand in the face of giants and enemies. When the sinner comes before the Judgment of God, they will fall prostrate in humiliation and guilt, but the Psalmist says that the Lord knows the way of the righteous (Psalm 1:5, 6), and John commented that we can have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). In other words, we have nothing to fear of God or His Son; we have been partaking in His goodness our entire Christian lives.

May God’s abundant grace follow you today as you grow in the knowledge of who you are in Christ.

Don't Blame God

Job 1:9-12

The book of Job gives us an inside look at the throne room of God, prior to Jesus’ death at the cross. The first two chapters describe the sons of God and Satan appearing before the Lord, with Satan having just returned from “going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it” (1:7). The Lord asks Satan if he has considered Job, and Satan responds that Job is good because he is blessed, and that if the Lord would attack Job, he would turn on him. Notice that God doesn’t go after Job, but allows Satan to, telling him, “All that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand” (1:12). Later, God will allow Satan to physically harm Job, but not to kill him (2:6).

The Lord did not have to allow the reader to see these events transpire, but He obviously wants you to know that everything that is about to happen to Job will happen as a result of Satan’s attacks. Satan has challenged God’s ability to make a man righteous by faith, as Ezekiel will tell us that Job is (Ezekiel 14:14, 20). The entire book of Job is the playing out of this challenge, and Job passes to perfection, never once doing what Satan said that he would do, which was curse God to His face.

Look at how quickly those men blame God for things that He does not do. When fire falls from the sky and burns up the sheep and the servants of Job, only one man escapes to tell it as, “The fire of God is fallen from heaven” (Job 1:16). Why does he assume that it is the fire of God? Why do insurance companies call tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes, “Acts of God”? The scripture clearly shows that God gave Satan all power as it regarded Job (Job 1:12). To this day, a great trick of the enemy is to convince people that the things that he does are actually being done by God.

Job did not see the events of chapters one and two, but he refuses to believe that God is angry with him. His testimony is solid as he identifies the source of these problems, “God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked” (Job 16:11). He knows that it is an attack of Satan, not the righteous retribution of God, stating that these things were, “Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure” (Job 16:17).

The strength of Job’s character is in his faith in the virtue of God, and in a coming redeemer. He knows that he has trusted God, and he believes that God is faithful to that trust, stating, “My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high” (16:19). Then, in a look forward to the New Covenant, he pleads for what you and I have, “O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor!” (Job 16:21) Saint, you and I have this one to plead for us with God, and His name is Jesus (1 John 2:1).

God rewards this faith by giving Job a glimpse of his soon coming redeemer, and the blessed assurance that Job will meet Jesus in heaven:

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25, 26).

The believer should have confidence that whatever they are going through shall pass, and that their redeemer is their constant advocate before the Father. He lives, and you shall live with Him!

Require Nothing and Get Grace and Favor

Esther 2:15-17

There is no mention of God in the book of Esther, but that does not mean that His influence is not felt. The book centers on the title character, and her rise from obscurity to queen in the court of Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes). Her ascension to the throne provides relief for her people, the Jews, who have been scattered in this foreign land, and are under threat of death by a maniacal servant of the king named Haman.

When the king becomes infuriated by the insolence of his wife, the queen Vashti, he appoints officers to go to all 127 provinces in the kingdom and gather the fairest young virgins to be brought to his palace at Shushan, and placed under the custody of his chamberlain, the eunuch Hegai. Hegai is in charge of preparing the women with whatever they desire, in order to present them, one by one to the king. The king will then choose one of these women to replace Vashti as the new queen over all of the land.

When it was Esther’s turn to prepare for the king, she asked for nothing, but took whatever recommendations were given to her by Hegai, the king’s chamberlain. As chamberlain, Hegai was the keeper of the bedroom of the king, and he had a better knowledge than anyone as to what the king desired in a woman. When Esther asks for nothing but Hegai’s advice, she obtains, “favor in the sight of all of them that looked upon her” (2:15).

The king loved Esther above all of the other women, “and she obtained grace and favor in his sight” (verse 17). In both Hebrew and Greek, the definition for grace is “favor”. Paul uses that thought when he tells believers that they should reign in this life because they have received “abundance of grace” (Romans 5:17). The power to reign in life over all vice, sin and sickness is found in receiving the abundant grace of God in every area.

How does one receive that abundance of grace? I believe that the answer is found in how Esther prepared herself for her night with the king. Christ is our “king”, and we want to be well-pleasing to Him. When the Holy Spirit, who knows what is pleasing to Christ, begins to work in us, we are better served to allow Him full control. When we require nothing more than what the Holy Spirit wishes to bring out of us, we will be in a position to receive, and walk in, God’s abundant grace and favor.

When our flesh enters the picture, and we try to work things out with our carnal minds, we grow frustrated, and produce dead works (Romans 8:5-7; Galatians 5:19-21). When the Spirit does the work, the branch produces fruit, and we walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25).

Grace and favor are yours today, by the price paid by Jesus at the cross. You have the hand of God leading and guiding you, providing you with all good things. God is on your side, ready to fight your battles, so relax in His peace, let the Holy Spirit do the work and you do as Esther, put on the royal crown.

Far As the Curse Is Found

Nehemiah 10:28, 29

The great hymn writer Isaac Watts penned the words to “Joy to the World”, nearly 300 years ago. I do not know if he intended for it to be used primarily as a Christmas song, but I do know that it is full of theology. The third verse in particular, emphasizes a point that I believe should be brought to light often:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

With the arrival of Jesus and His subsequent death on the cross, we now have the power to “no more let sins and sorrows grow”, but we do still have thorns infesting the ground. However, the price paid by Christ with His precious blood has given us a guarantee that someday all of the curse against this earth will be lifted (Revelation 22:3), and that His blessings will truly flow, “Far as the curse is found”.

Man has had the knowledge of the curse on the ground, and the sorrow of sin, since the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, but he has not had the knowledge of the curse of the law forever. Until Moses gave the law, sin was not imputed (Romans 5:13), though it did exist. With the advent of the law, came the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20), and the oppressive weight of the curse of death.

Fourteen years after the return of Ezra to Jerusalem, Nehemiah led up a company of Israelites to restore the walls and civil authority. The book that bears his name is the record of those events, and its ninth chapter is the prayer of repentance by the people, while they observe the Feast of Tabernacles. The 10th chapter opens with the people and the priesthood signing a covenant, which they have written, basically, promising God that they will not sin again, and verse 29 describes what this covenant represented:

“They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes.”

The moment that Israel entered into this covenant, they identify it as a curse! This covenant is not a blessing; it is a curse, which is exactly what breaking the law brings. It is viewed as a curse because the people were confident in only one thing when they entered into it: they could not keep it.

For the believer under the New Covenant, we have the assurance that God has removed the curse of the law from us, because Jesus took the curse upon himself (Galatians 3:13). The Father did not cut covenant with you and I, because we are notorious for not keeping our end of the deal, so He cut the covenant with His Son (Galatians 3:16). Now, you and I have no fear of the curse when we fail because Jesus has taken the curse for us.

May His blessings flow for you today, “far as the curse is found”.

Stir Up The Gift

2 Timothy 1:6, 7

From time to time, it is necessary for us to “stir up” that which is inside of us. Paul tells Timothy to “stir up the gift of God” which is in him. This is the only usage of this phrase in the Greek in the entire New Testament, and it means “to rekindle anew” or “to enflame one’s mind or strength or zeal”. When Peter makes a similar statement in 2 Peter 3:1, he uses a different word in the Greek for “stir up”, meaning “to wake one’s mind”. Peter is saying “wake up”, while Paul is saying, “fire up”!

I believe that the gift or at least a portion of the gift, which Paul is speaking of in this text, is the gift of speaking with other tongues. I lean to this belief because it is the one gift of the gifts of the Spirit that the Bible specifically says can be used whenever you like (1 Corinthians 14:15), and it is the one that is used to build up the speaker (14:2).

The encouragement to use the gift is followed by, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). “For God…” shows us that the previous verse is linked to this one. Whatever the gift is inside of Timothy, it holds the answer that overcomes the spirit of fear. In that gift, is the power and love and sound mind that Paul says that we have received.

When you pray in tongues, you are communicating with God in your prayer language. You are praying in words that you do not know, and it is the Spirit in you that is making intercession (Romans 8:26). These prayers can be long or short, there are no rules that govern how you pray in your own prayer time, but they will always edify and build you up. The reason for that is found in verse 7.

God has not given us the spirit of fear, so any fear that we have cannot be from Him, but must be from the enemy. Instead, He has given us power, love and a sound mind. These three gifts from God are stirred within us every time that we “stir up the gift”.

God’s power begins to move in situations when we pray in the Spirit. That power enables us to do what we could not do on our own, independent of fear of failure. This power overcomes the enemy and glorifies the Father.

The love of God flows outward from us whenever we stir up the gift, for He teaches us to love in ways that we do not know. You cannot love by force, there must be something that motivates you or “turns you on” to love something or someone. Christ is that something and praying in the Spirit stirs His love up in you.

Finally, the sound mind is such a glorious promise, because the battlefield of the mind is where so many saints are losing. The phrase in the Greek actually means “self-control”. Many people have told me, “Pastor, I feel like I am losing control. I can’t even think straight.” This is an attack of the enemy meant to frighten and confuse. Use your prayer language to bring sanity back into your soul, and watch as your mind calms and begins to think on the things of the Spirit.
I pray God’s abundant blessings on you today as you walk in Him.

Unlawful Usage of the Law

1 Timothy 1:4-11

Timothy was a young preacher who was saved under the ministry of, and mentored by, the Apostle Paul. Paul felt a special closeness to this young man, and reserved some of his finest instruction for ministry and preaching in the final two letters of his life, both addressed to Timothy.

The first few verses of his first letter to Timothy are rich in good advice about what not to preach. He tells him to avoid fables and endless genealogies, which only cause people to ask questions that lead nowhere (verse 4). On the contrary, he instructs Timothy to edify the hearers, challenging their faith (verse 4).

Paul’s instruction to Timothy is not unlike Jesus’ very simple command to Peter, when He asked Peter if Peter loved Him. When Peter said that did indeed love Him, Jesus replied, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17).

Then Paul begins to get specific with Timothy as to how to edify the listeners. Every preacher, pastor, evangelist, and even lay person would do well to grasp what Paul says about the “glorious gospel” (verse 11). He tells him that the end of the commandment is “charity out of pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned (not pretending)” (verse 5). The Law demanded that men love the Lord with all of the heart, mind and soul, but no man was able to do that without a heart reformation. Christ entering into us gives us that reformation, thus completing the demand of the Law. Paul then warns that some preachers have turned aside from preaching that, to “vain jangling” or “useless talk” (verse 6).

What a bold thing to say! By continuing to preach the commandments, Paul says that a preacher is presenting useless talk. To further the argument, he continues in verse 7 with this powerful comment:

“Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm” (1 Timothy 1:7).

Now Paul wants to make sure that no one thinks that he is against the law, so he says that it is good, “if a man use it lawfully” (verse 8). Wait a minute! If there is a lawful way to use the law, then there must be an unlawful way to use the law. Paul says, “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane…” (verse 9). In light of this instruction, why is the law so frequently used against Christians? When a saint fails, we often hear the same condemnatory remarks used, citing the Law of God, as we do against the sinner. Instead, we should edify the believer, reminding them of who they are in Christ. Only the grace of God is going to teach them how to live righteous in this present world (Titus 2:11, 12).

Saint, receive no condemnation today. Let the love of God and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son silence the voice of condemnation in your spirit. God’s Law is just, holy and good and it shows people their sins. You are clean in Jesus, so see His grace and favor, and walk therein.