SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thankful for the privilege and the honor to be with you this morning. This was not the intent, Brother Chris. I came to hear. But I would be lying if I didn't say that I hopefully have something to speak about. When my girls were younger, Courtney and Rachel, we would make travels. Used to have an appointment out here. We would drive all the way from Willow Park to come to services here once a month many years ago. The girls were much smaller. Not just traveling from Willow Park to Snyder, Texas, but in other travels, my youngest would often ask, Daddy, what are you going to preach on today? And I would say, hopefully, Jesus. I trust that you come praying today that God will bless us together and for a little while that we might be able to have our minds, as the brother prayed this morning, have our minds released from the cares, the trials, the difficulties of the world. There are plenty of those. And I don't want to dismiss any of those. For I know as well as you that they are real. Your personal, the shoes that you're wearing today, I can't fit. I can't fit. Meaning that the problems, the trials, the situations that are unique to you as an individual. Maybe I've never put those shoes on. Maybe I've never had shoes that look like yours. But I can tell you of one today who knows. The blisters on your feet, the calluses on your hands, the aches of your heart. And his name is Jesus. In the fifth chapter of the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul writes in the eighth verse, Romans chapter 5, verse 8, that God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And for a little while, just for a little while, if God will bless you and bless me together, I want to visit with you about God's goodness in saving sinners. When we think of God's goodness, one of his attributes, God is good. When I was a child, my parents, my mom was a believer. Never know for sure if my dad ever was. But my mother taught me that child's prayer. The only time we prayed it was every time we'd sit at the table. We don't sit at the tables much anymore to eat, but God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen. God is good. He's not good just from a child's point of view at the dinner table. God is good. We think of his goodness in his provisions for us. The life that he has given us. One of our favorite psalms, it's not just ours, it's not just mine, but many believers throughout the world. We hear it, we see it. The Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 23. And that psalm speaks of the goodness and the care of a shepherd's love for his people. And for the longest time, as a youngster, I didn't understand, I shall not want. Because it's pretty human nature, as a child especially, that we don't want. Mom says to do this, I don't want. Dad says, do this, I don't want. We learn pretty quickly, we better want, right? But that's not what the psalmist is saying. That psalm speaks of provision, it speaks of safety, it speaks of compassion. All in that one psalm. And when you read that psalm, you cannot help but see the goodness of God. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, meaning I shall not lack. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. Not only is there safety there, but there's provision there. And he leads me beside the still waters. There's safety there, and there's provision. And he cares that even in the valleys of the shadow of death, or when we decide on our own as those little sheep that we shall go astray, he guides us back with his care and his concern for us. So certainly we see God's goodness in his provision for his people. We see his goodness in his care, compassion for his people, and we see his goodness in his protection of his people, just as we do in that Psalm 23. But I want to tell you that there's no better picture of seeing God's goodness than when we see his salvation of his people. In God's saving of his people, a holy God that would look upon sinful men such as you and I are, and yet in his goodness, he would send his only begotten Son into this world to bleed and to die for us. That is the goodness of a holy and merciful God. I want to turn to Romans chapter 3, if you will, just very quickly. And brother Chris stepped away, so I'm sure he can hear me, but I'm not going to take much time. I'll give him a chance to get back to his seat. But Romans chapter 3. We see God's goodness in the condition of man. And you say, well, how in the world do we see that? If you'll turn with me to Romans chapter 3 and we'll read that well-known verse in the 23rd verse of that passage of scripture, we will skip to that verse, but we could start back in verse 10, this beautiful, wonderful passage of the Apostle Paul's writings to the church at Rome. And he's laying out, describing for you and me our understanding of the humanity or the uh the situation of man's humanity. And it begins in verse 10, and he says like this, and I don't know if I said that correctly, that it begins in verse 10, but the description of mankind, our our situation. We've been talking at Abilene uh a month ago or so. Um I like to visit the doctrines of grace from time and again, time and time again, as a rehearsal or as a reminder, a refresher, I certainly say rehearsal, a refresher, of the things that we we hold to believe and that we we firmly believe in, and why we believe those things. Why we believe the doctrine of total depravity, why we believe the doctrine of unconditional election, why we believe in limited atonement and irresistible grace and the preservation, and I'll say it again, the preservation of the saints of God. And I back up whenever I begin to visit with those doc uh with congregations about those doctrines that we hold so dear and near to our beliefs, that we have to understand, first of all, about the holiness and the justice and the righteousness of a holy God. That until we can understand that God is sovereign and that God is sufficient, then all those doctrines, I believe, just don't align themselves. If we come to a place of agreement, then we can say together and we believe wholeheartedly that the word of God teaches us, and not just that the word says it, but we believe it, that God is righteous, that God is holy, and God is sufficient, and that God is sovereign. And going back to the book of Daniel and seeing that God does whatever he pleases, when he pleases, and what are we but, as Nebuchadnezzar said, we are as but grasshoppers in the field compared to the holiness and the righteousness of this sovereign God. When we begin to understand that, then we begin to understand the doctrines of total depravity, an unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the preservation of the saints of God. So Paul writes in Romans chapter 3, as we understand the goodness of God in saving sinners, we first begin and we take this little stop looking at the humanity of man. And we see the goodness of God displayed against the darkness of man's sin. When we see the darkness of man's sin, then the glory of the goodness of God shines effervescently and brightly as the noonday sun. He begins in verse 10, and he says this about you, and he says this about me, and he says this about all of humanity, and then we ask the question, how great is our God? O Lord my God, how great thou art, the songwriter says. When we can see this, the goodness and the glory of God, with a backdrop of the darkness and the sinfulness and the wickedness of man, then we are in a position that we might say, God certainly he is good. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. They were all together, they are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no not one. And he continues and he says, Their throat is as an open sepulchre. With their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. You ever talk to somebody and try to explain total depravity? Talk to them and talk to them about their children, that they're depraved individuals. You know, I've been called once or twice as a child a hoodlum, you know, acting like a hoodlum. A wild child, you know. I don't know if any of you have ever been that doubt it, but but I was. But you talk to somebody about their child being depraved, and those are fighting words, aren't they? They're fighting words. Well, the word of God says so. In verse 23, in the backdrop of God's goodness and God's glory, Paul says, look at man. So we see God's goodness, not just in the provisions that he provides for you and for me, not just in the protection that he watches over you and keeps you, not just in his compassion that he loved you with an everlasting love. And he cares for you day by day. But we see ourselves and we see the goodness of God. Verse 23, Paul says this for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And yet we see the goodness of God that before the foundation of the world he chose you and loved you with an everlasting love and covenanted with his son in glory, that Jesus would come and he would lay down his life for you. I cannot fathom the the first inkling of thought to understand why he would lay down his life for one like me. When I read this description, it is my biography. It is our biography, it is what we are by nature, and that God would send forth his son. We think oftentimes of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross of Calvary, but I want to tell you about the sacrifice, remind you again, not tell you about it, but remind you again of the sacrifice of God the Father, who loved you before the foundation of the world, that he sent his only begotten son, knowing full well what he would endure on the cross, and before he would get to that cross, all the agony that he would suffer, the week leading up to that cross, and even before that week, those three or so years of his life, all of the temptations and those things that were cast at him, and how many times he said, again and again, mine hour is not yet come. Until it came. And when it came, my friends, we see the greatness of the goodness of our God on display for us. Who Paul says, We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. If you'll turn with me to Titus, I believe it is. Not only do we see the goodness of God in saving sinners as we look at ourselves, undeserving as we are, black as we are by nature, full of sin and wrath, our oat, our throats being, as Paul said, as open sepulchres. We see the goodness of God displayed in his compassion for us. Paul would write to Timothy to Titus and Titus, and he says in Titus chapter 3, encouraging the minister to put them in mind, to be subject to principalities and to powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work. And as he continues, he says, instruct them to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. Read with me. For we ourselves also were sometimes what? Foolish. Again, the backdrop of man's nature, with God's glory and goodness shining brightly in the forefront. We were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceiving, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that. So not only do we see God's goodness in the backdrop, shining brightly in the forefront, as in the backdrop, we we have the dark shadow of man's sin and sinfulness and our nature and and and all that we are by nature. But we see him in his we see his goodness in saving sinners, in his compassion that he has uh extended to mankind, to those for whom he loved. And he says, but after that, the loving kindness of God and the love of God, our Savior, toward man, appeared. If you will, the curtains were draped open in the darkness of the night, in the darkness of the sin, in the darkness of this all uh uh uh awful situation of fallen man, uh, the curtains drape open and the love of God appears. And then he goes on and he says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to God's mercy. He has saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Turn back with me to Romans chapter 5, and lastly, we see God's goodness as it's seen in our condition, we see God's goodness as it's seen in his compassion toward us, and we see God's goodness at the cross. At the cross. Paul writes like this in verse 8. But God commendeth his love toward us. The word commend means to demonstrate. How did God demonstrate his love toward us? Here Paul says, but God commendeth his love toward us. In that. Now, if I did something good for you, I might expect something good in return, right? If I did something good for you, I would expect maybe that there might be something good in return for me. Uh that's the way our society is. We work, we work for a pay raise, we work for commendation, we work, we work to achieve uh the next level. Whether that's uh being recognized for the work we've done or if that's just uh helping others in the work that we do, um just just to be recognized for the work we do. But but that's that's that's not our condition, is it? That's not our situation. And here's what Paul says about the cross. Here's what Paul says for uh the goodness that we see, not only in contrast to our darkness and our sinfulness, but in the compassion that God has shown toward us through his son Jesus Christ, but we go to the cross and we see the cost and the penalty for our unrighteousness. We see the cost for that compassion that he extends to those that he loved before the foundation of the world. And Paul describes it like this. If we could go to the cross on Calvary in that day, in that moment, if we had a time travel machine, if that was possible, that you and I could board that machine and we could dial back the dial to that day and that date and that year and that moment in just a moment or two or an hour or so prior to all of that unfolding. And we see what Peter saw as he followed afar off. We hear what John heard as Jesus spoke to him from the cross. We hear what the mother heard as her son was agonizing and writhing in pain. We see and we hear and we witness. Whether we're at the foot of the cross or whether we're afar, we recognize and we see that. How would you, how would you describe what you see? How would you describe what you witness? How would you describe what you were experiencing? Paul writes it like this. But God commended, demonstrated his love toward us. How do you show love? Here's how God showed love. He loved you with an everlasting love. So everlasting that he sent his son to preserve it, to purchase it, to redeem it. God commendeth his love toward you, if you don't mind me saying that. Sometimes I read the words and I scan over them, glean over them just so quickly. It needs to be personal. When it says us, it means you. It means me. It means we. So God commanded his love towards me. Towards you. Toward us. In that, see, it really does get personal. Because now it turns it a little different, doesn't it? Not only is his love toward you, but in that while you were what? While we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. That's love. That's the commendation of God's love for you. That's goodness. That's the goodness of God in saving sinners. Before the foundation of the world, can you can you fathom that? Born in 1963, there you go. Do your math, you can get somewhere close to within a few months of how old I am. 1963, I can go back to that date. There were a lot of things happened in the last 60 years. That I can remember some of those things and other things I've forgotten, Brother Chris. I remember not too long ago you visiting us at Gorman, Texas, when Brother Clifford Goins was visiting us for our weekend meeting. Remember that? It's been a while. I remember it. Little country church out in the country and folks coming out to worship and to hear about Jesus. Sometimes I don't remember things exactly the way they were. Not only in that day, but even beyond that. But God doesn't forget. He remembered that before the foundation of the world, that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, in their goodness and in their righteousness, and in their holiness, they made a Covenant together. God didn't forget that they made a covenant together. And then whenever Jesus came at the appointed time, Galatians chapter 4, verse 4, when the fullness of the time had come. Not a moment too soon, not a moment too late, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to what? To redeem them that were under the law. The law required execution, death. That's what it required. And God made the great sacrifice of love for you. He didn't forget. In his goodness, he didn't forget. And Jesus came. And Jesus didn't forget. And Jesus said, My work is this: that I came down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him which hath sent me. And this is the Father's will. We agreed before the foundation of the world, and I didn't forget. I came down from heaven to do my Father's will, and this is my Father's will of all that he hath given me. I'll lose none of them. I shall lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. I won't forget. The Holy Spirit says, I'm not forgetting either. Of all those that the Father's given Christ in covenant to die for, to redeem in his goodness, I will make them alive in Christ Jesus. I'll quicken them, make them alive to the things of God, his holiness. That's what makes the change that God doesn't forget. And his goodness, he looks upon sinners such as we are, and he saves us by his grace and his mercy. He went to the tree, and upon that tree, he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they've done. And he said with a loud voice, It is finished. And he gave up the ghost, completing that which he was sent here to do. In his goodness, God saved sinners.