I invite your attention to the
book of Proverbs chapter 21 and my text is verse 21 for the
lesson this morning. I had prepared a lesson on a
different subject as you can see in your bulletin I'd planned
to teach on the subject of it was good to have been in the
house of the Lord, but God willing we will look at that lesson next
Lord's Day. because today I want us to look
at Proverbs 21 verse 21 on the subject of following righteousness
and mercy. I prepared the proverb or the
exposition of it this past week as you know we put an exposition
of a proverb in every Lord's Day bulletin and so I prepared
this exposition and then put it in for the inclusion in the
bulletin and really did not think too much more about it, although
I spent considerable time thinking about it while preparing it,
but afterward did not think too much until this morning I went
to fold the bulletins and I read that article, it's on
the back page and I looked at the article and was struck by
a couple of things and I thought, you know, let's look at this
subject this morning from Proverbs 21 verse 21 on the subject of
following righteousness and mercy. I believe I can assure you that
what you will consider this morning is going to be different from
what you would hear in the exposition of this proverb in other circles. We endeavor to make Christ central,
even in the book of Proverbs, and that is true in this one. Proverb 21, verse 21. He who
follows righteousness and mercy finds
life, righteousness and honor. Now just think for a moment concerning
that subject. How would this proverb be expounded by a gospel preacher
if he wanted Christ to be the main theme and the thought of
this proverb. When you read the book of Proverbs,
bear in mind that it is not a book merely about morality and moral
principles. No, no, no. Christ is in the
book of Proverbs like he is every other book in the Bible. And
that is the same here also in Proverbs 21 verse 21. He who follows righteousness
and mercy finds life, righteousness and honor. So let's consider
this proverb this morning. First of all, consider this righteousness. We are to follow righteousness
if we are to receive the blessings that God has for us. What is
this righteousness? Some may say, well, it has to
do with righteous living and righteous principles and righteous
this or that. I'm going to say to you that
this righteousness is Jesus Christ. When Paul writes to the Corinthians
1st chapter verse 30, he speaks of Christ as righteousness from
God. He does not say he is a righteous
one from God. Paul says that Christ himself
is the righteousness from God. His name in another place in
the New Testament is Jesus Christ the Righteous, the Righteous
One, and he is the Righteous One in such a way that he is
said to be righteousness itself. How will you define righteousness? Well, it's Jesus Christ for us. Righteousness for us believers
in him is Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Jehovah's promised
in Jeremiah 23 verse 6 that he was going to send Messiah to
his people. It was a prophecy of the coming
Christ and he says that when he has come this is the name
by which you will call him. You will call him Jehovah our
righteousness. That's his name. That's who he
is. That's what he is. Jesus Christ
is righteousness embodied. Jesus Christ is righteousness
in a person. Therefore, he who follows righteousness
here is he who follows Jesus Christ. The one who is righteousness
from God and the one who is Jehovah, our righteousness. Now consider
the second thing to be followed. It's mercy. What is this mercy? What is it to follow mercy? Some may say, well it means to
have compassion on people. Well that's true. We should have
compassion. But in following mercy, the foremost
way you're going to follow mercy is to follow Jesus Christ. He is not only the righteousness
from God, but he is the mercy from God. Locate, if you will,
Luke chapter 1. the gospel according to Luke
chapter 1 and I'm going to bring you down to verse number 72 the
prayer of Zacharias upon the conception of John the Baptist and Zacharias verse 67 Zacharias
was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied saying, blessed
is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his
people. That's interesting. Jesus Christ
had not even come yet, but it was so certain to happen that
Zacharias says, it is done. He has visited and redeemed his
people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house
of his servant David as he spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets
who have been since the world began. that we should be saved
from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us and notice
now verse 72 to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to
remember his holy covenant. You see the word mercy and covenant
here? That mercy and that covenant
is Jesus Christ. Jehovah said in the Old Testament,
I will give him as a covenant to the people and he is the mercy
promised to the fathers. How did Jehovah perform the mercy
promised to the fathers? He did it by sending Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself is the mercy
promised from God the Father to his people repeatedly and
The Old Testament as in Psalm 85 verse 7, Jehovah's people
say, show us your mercy, Lord. Show us your mercy. Well, if
God ever lets you see mercy, I mean actually see mercy before
your eyes. What will you see? What does
mercy look like? Jesus Christ. He is the mercy. When we say, show us your mercy,
what we're saying is, let us see Jesus Christ. He is the mercy
promised to our fathers. He is the mercy that has come
to us in the salvation of our souls. In Psalm 13 verse 5, the
psalmist says, I have trusted in your mercy. How do you trust
in Jehovah's mercy? by believing in Jesus Christ. In what are we to trust? We trust
no one but Jesus Christ. And he is the mercy in whom we
trust. So he's the righteousness from
God. When we pursue righteousness,
we pursue Jesus Christ. And when we pursue mercy, We
pursue Jesus Christ. He is the mercy from God. Third, he who follows righteousness
and mercy is he who pursues Jesus Christ. For that is the meaning
of the Hebrew verb here translated follow. The text would read,
he who pursues righteousness and mercy. What is it to follow
Jesus Christ in the sense of pursuing him? To follow him does
not merely mean to tag along behind him as though he has to
look back and say, where are you? Oh, don't worry, Lord, we're
back here. We're following you. You just
keep going. No, no, no. No, no, no. To follow
him is to pursue him. What is it to pursue? Imagine,
if you will, a police car going after someone who has broken
the law. What do we say the police car
is doing? It is in pursuit. Not merely tagging along behind
him, but trying to overtake, trying to be able to grab hold
of the person who has perpetrated the crime. We'll turn this around
in the pursuit of Jesus Christ as something desirable. Him who
is righteousness and mercy, what is it to follow Him in the sense
of pursuing Him? It means to run the race that
is set before us with Jesus Christ before us. It means to run after
Him. It means no dawdling, no saying,
you just go ahead, we'll keep our eyes on you and don't worry,
we'll be along later. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no. It is to pursue him in the sense of wanting to grab hold
of him and never letting him go. That is the way that we pursue
righteousness and mercy, for that is the way we pursue Jesus
Christ. Now consider that the fourth
point, he who pursues Jesus Christ finds three things, life, righteousness,
and honor. If you pursue Jesus Christ, the
righteousness and the mercy from God, you're going to find these
three things. What are they? Life, righteousness,
and honor. And guess what? Jesus Christ
is all three of them. All three. He's the life. First of all, this life is Jesus
Christ. He tells those who pursue him
that I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.
In fact, the New Testament text there in John chapter 10 verse
27, he says, my sheep know my voice and they follow me. There's that word follow. Just
go ahead and put in pursue. The lambs and the sheep of Jesus
Christ pursue Him. They're not dawdling off like
a bunch of goats. No, no, no. They're pursuing
Him. They are close behind Him. They
know where He's leading them. In the green pastures, beside
still waters, into the fold of safety. They know that. They
do not want to be far from Him, behind Him, and miss these blessings. Well, the three blessings that
are here put before the people of God are, first of all, life.
They follow me. I give them eternal life. What is eternal life? Someone
says, well, that's life that never ends. True, true. It's more than that. It not only is life that never
ends, it is also life that never began. Eternal life! Eternal life! I will give them
that life that not only will never end,
it never had a beginning. What kind of life is that? That
is not the kind of life with which we were born. When we were
conceived in our mother's womb, when through that marvelous work
of conception we were brought into being, we were Well, we
were made to be a living creature. But it was a life that had never
existed before. And with regards to this earthly
existence, there is a time when it will never end. You can go
to a tombstone and see He began to live on this day. He ceased
to live on this day. Not so with everlasting eternal
life. It is a life that not only never
ends, it is a life that never began. What kind of life is that? That we may have. I give them
eternal life. They shall never perish. What
is this life? This life is Jesus Christ himself. The Holy Spirit says in 1 John
chapter 5 verse 20 that Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal
life. You cannot get much plainer than
that. It's a hated verse. Some say,
no, no, no, he's not the true God. And others say, no, he's
not the eternal life. You may be saved today, but lost
tomorrow. Alive today and dead tomorrow.
No, no, no, that's what he is. Jesus Christ is the true God.
Now let me ask you this. Did the true God ever have a
beginning of life? No. Will he ever have an end
of life? No. Is Jesus Christ the true
God? Yes. And he is the eternal life. The
eternal life that God gives to his people, those who pursue
righteousness and mercy, is Jesus Christ himself. They who have
found this life, they who have pursued him, Found him they speak
of him as Christ who is our life Colossians chapter 3 verse 4. What is my life? It's Christ
Christ is my life I Tell you the things you learn
I when you attempt to make Christ the central point in all your
preaching and in what you study of God's Word. Alright, second
thing we find when we pursue righteousness and mercy in following
Jesus Christ is this. This righteousness that we find
is Jesus Christ. Now observe, we pursue Him the
righteousness from God, and when we find him, we find righteousness. What is this righteousness that
we find? It's Jesus Christ. But preacher,
I thought that you said that he's the righteousness that we
pursue. That's true. Now you say he's
the righteousness We find that's true, but then again, you did
not expect them to be two different things, did you? But there is a difference here
with regard to the righteousness that we find. It is Jesus Christ,
but in a different way than what we consider to be for. The righteousness
that we find is set before us in three different ways. First,
we find imputed righteousness. Second, we find implanted righteousness. And third, we find divine righteousness. Now let me set forth these three
unto you. When we pursue Jesus Christ,
Jehovah our righteousness, we find imputed righteousness. That is the righteousness that
Jesus Christ wrought. while he lived here on this earth
2,000 years ago. He was born under God's law and
he fulfilled it in every jot and every tittle. Someone may
say, I read the law to find out what
I should do. Not me. Not me. I read the law
to find out what Christ has done. I read the law and I see that
he fulfilled this. He fulfilled that. He did this
requirement. He abstained from that prohibition
and in so doing, being born under the law, he fulfilled it in every
jot and tittle until he could stand before his father and say,
I have finished the work you've given me to do. By that he meant,
I have wrought a perfect righteousness that perfectly and completely
accords with your law. And God says, and I'm going to
give it to my people. And Jehovah takes the righteousness
wrought by Jesus Christ and imputes it to them, and then they are
said to be clothed in it. We are clothed in His righteousness. On the other hand, we're clothed
in Him. because he is his righteousness. Paul says, oh, that I may be
found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Jesus Christ, that
I might have Christ imputed to me as my righteousness and that
I may be clothed in him. All right, that's the first righteousness
that we find. The second righteousness we find,
addition to imputed righteousness is implanted righteousness or
some call it imparted righteousness and this righteousness is a righteous
nature that is put within us. Peter says we have become partakers
of the divine righteousness and John tells us that that he who
was born of God has that life. He that is born of God cannot sin, must do righteousness,
for God's seed remains in him. What is God's seed that remains
in him? The seed of God here is Jesus
Christ himself. He is in us. We say Christ lives
in me and the life which I now live, I live by the faith of
the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That new
nature that God gives to us in our salvation cannot be separated
from Jesus Christ. The divine nature of which we
have become partakers is Jesus Christ. Christ lives in me. For me to live is Christ. Third, in addition to this imputed
righteousness which is Christ, this implanted righteousness
which is Christ, we are said to be the righteousness of God
in him. 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 21, God
made him to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness
of God in him. You say preacher, the words of
that kind of sound like that we are God's righteousness in
Christ. Yeah, it sounds that way to me
too. That means that we are divine righteousness in Christ. Yeah, that sounds that way to
me too. We are the righteousness of God in Christ. Some people
say they stumble at that phrase that God made him to be sin. Can't understand it. Well, I
have difficulty understanding how it is that God calls me the
righteousness of God in Christ. But there it is. There it is.
And I tell you that if you pursue Jesus Christ, the righteousness
and the mercy from God You're going to have an addition to
life. You're going to have imputed righteousness, implanted righteousness,
and become the righteousness of God in Christ. And you're
going to find all these blessings in Christ, the righteousness
that you find. Third, this honor is glory, and
this glory is Jesus Christ. Now, our English text has the
word honor. You'll find honor. The word,
the Hebrew word here translated honor is more often translated
glory and that is what it means. This honor is glory. In Christ is fulfilled the prophecy
that Jehovah will be to you your God, your glory. Isaiah chapter
60 verse 19. Jesus Christ is our glory. He is our God, our God is our
glory. Isaiah chapter 60 verse 9. In
Christ is fulfilled Jehovah's promise to his church that I
will be the glory in her midst. Zechariah chapter 2 verse 5. Notice, I will be the glory in
her midst. That's Jesus Christ, folks. Saints
confess to God that Christ is the glory of your people Israel. Luke chapter 2 verse 32. Christ is our glory. Therefore,
what is it that we here are taught in this proverb? Proverb 21 verse
21. We are to pursue righteousness
and mercy, and we do so by pursuing Jesus Christ. He is the divine
righteousness. He is the divine mercy. And if
we do so, we're going to find those three great blessings.
We're going to find life, and Christ is that life. We're going
to find righteousness and Christ is that righteousness. We're
going to find honor or glory and Christ is that glory. This proverb promises that all
who pursue Christ will find Christ and all who find Christ discover
in him more than they sought. O God, our Father, may we pursue
Jesus Christ, your righteousness and mercy, and may we find in
him life, righteousness, and glory. And this, our Father, we pray
in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. You are dismissed.