Proverbs 22:21

That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth.

Certainties

This is an age of inquiry. The ideas of the ancient world are the ideas of the childhood of the race. The Bible is a human book, which we reverence and love as a sacred treasure on account of the Divine spirit which pervades it. Do not place the Bible on the altar of superstition and imagine it to be God. Seek God in it, but with this caution--that all of it is not the actual Word of God. Why should any man seek by unfair means to force another to think as he does? Does not Christ give us an example of mental freedom? He seeks the voluntary and unprejudiced consent of mind, heart, and will.

I. Know the certainty of the words of truth.

1. That God is the heavenly Father of mankind.

2. Our heavenly Father is just, merciful, and loving, and every man may have free access to the great parental heart.

3. Never attempt to escape from any penalty by doing wrong.

II. Wherever there is a penitent soul there is also a kind and forgiving God. Penitence is not perfection.

III. The transgressor must bear the penalty of his sin. It is a just and merciful law of God that the transgressor shall bear the penalty. The Lord Jesus will not save you from the physical penalty of your sin; but He will give you grace to bear the thorn which your own sin has thrust into your life. (William Birch.)