The 19th chapter of the book
of Matthew is going to call your
attention to the middle part of the 16th verse. The part of
the verse that we talked a little bit about last Wednesday night,
taken from Mark chapter 10. But this is in Matthew 19 and
16. The context here is that a young
man came to our Lord Jesus Christ and said unto Him, Good Master,
what shall I do that I may have eternal life? Well, I wanted to talk to you
just a little bit this evening about those two words there,
Good Master. this rich young ruler, or this
young man, as referred to here, used this title, called our Lord
Good Master. Now, if he called him Good Master,
how much more you and I ought to call him Good Master. He indeed
is my master and your master if you rest in him. If you've
rested in him, he's your master. You remember this morning we called your attention to that
verse of scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 where it says, you're
not your own. You're not your own. If you rest
in him, you're not your own. You don't belong to yourself,
you belong to him who made you. You're his by creative power,
you're his by preserving power, and much more he is by the fact
that he bought you. He paid the ransom price, and
the price was his own blood. So you're not your own. If you
rest in him, you're not your own, and he is what? He is your
master. He's your master. He's your Lord.
He governs you. He disciplines you. So He is
indeed your master and my master in two ways. Number one, He is
a ruling master. He governs me. Number two, He
is a teaching master in that you and I delight to run His
errands. We delight to live for Him, to
serve Him, to be here on Sunday evening, Sunday morning and Wednesday. We delight to be here, to be
in this environment. We understand that we're a family. We're the family of God, and
we delight to be in the house of God. He's our Master. He commands
us to do so, but we love to do so. needful for us to be here. We must be here. We're not looking
for an excuse not to be here. We're looking for a way to get
here. Many people are looking for an excuse, hoping it rains,
hoping it snows, hoping someone comes about seven o'clock, hoping
that they'll have to work that night, anything in order that
they might not have to come. But the people of God who are
resting in Him, He is their Master. They're not looking for a way
to get out of coming to church, but they're looking for a way
to go, because they want to be with the people of God and hear
about their Master. He is their ruling Master, and
He's a teaching Master, and they delight to run His errands, and
they delight to sit at His feet. So then, you and I, if we are
resting in Him, the Lord Jesus, as our Redeemer, then we are
both his servant and his disciple. And it's certainly an honor and
delight for you and I to be able to own this double character
as a servant and as a disciple. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ
should ask you this evening, why callest thou me good? That's
what he asked this fellow. This fellow said, good master,
good master, good master. And the 17th verse, and our Lord
answered him like this. He said, why callest thou me
good? Now, if he was to ask you and I that question here this
evening, he said, why do you call me good? What would your
reply be? What would your answer be? and say, well, let me reflect
upon a few things here in order that I might come up with a pretty
good answer, an answer that might make some sense. Well, if he
should ask me this evening why I call him good, I believe I
have a ready answer. I believe I can give a ready
answer as to why. I call him good master. Now,
you know that God is not made good by me or by you. God is not made good by any of
his creatures. God is essentially and absolutely
good. He partakes of none, but all
things partake of him. Did you ever think of that? He
is so good that He gives all and He receives nothing. Did
you ever think of God like that? He gives all and does it freely
without a spirit of reluctancy to do so, but He gives to all. He makes the sun to shine upon
the just as well as the unjust. Those that curse Him the hardest. The sun shines just as bright
upon them as it does upon those that love Him. Those that despise
Him and use His name only in profanity. The rain nourishes
the ground that they till just as much as the ground that's
tilled by those that rest in it. God is absolutely and essentially
good in Himself. Absolutely. He gives to all freely
and receives nothing. Receives nothing. I don't think
that we should ever admit to anything to be ascribed to you
and I, which is ought to be ascribed to God Himself. That is by way
of titles. God is good. God is good. Listen, there is none good, he
says here, none good but one, and that's God. That's who's
good. God is good. Listen, when we
call one another good, we call our wives good. We ought to do
so with kind of a reserve clause there. We ought to do so understanding
what we mean by the word good. The word good is to be ascribed
to God, not to me, not to you. Paul said, there is no good thing
in me. That is, in my body of flesh,
he said, there is no good thing in me. I hear preachers continuously
talking about what a wonderful and good job so-and-so or Sister
so-and-so or brother so-and-so is doing for the Lord. What a
good job! My, they are good men and good
women. Paul said, I know that dwelleth
in this body of flesh, that is, dwelleth in me no good thing. And we are not good. We are not
good. We have more wickedness than goodness. And we ought not to admit anything
to be ascribed to us which is proper to be ascribed to God
Almighty. He is good. I was reading over
here a little bit ago in the book of Job chapter 32 and verse
22. I want you to see this verse,
two verses here. In the book of Job chapter 32
verses 21 and 22. And this pertains to what I'm
saying here. Here's a fellow that said that
I'm full of matter. That is, I'm full of words. And
the spirit within me constraineth me. He said, Behold, my belly
is as wine which hath no vent. It is ready to burst like new
bottles. I've got to say something here.
I've got to speak. That's what he's talking about.
He said, I'm so bottled up with words given to me by the Spirit
of God, I must speak or I'm going to burst. I will speak that I
may be refreshed. I have to have some relief. I
will open my lips and answer. Let me not, I pray you, accept
any man's person, neither let me give flattering titles unto
men. He said, I'm not ascribing titles
unto men that belongs to God. Flattering titles. I wonder where these folks get
this idea of reverend so-and-so and the right reverend so-and-so
and father so-and-so. Flattering titles unto men. Certainly you can't find that
in the Bible. He says, neither let me give flattering titles
unto man, for I know not to give flattering titles. In so doing,
my Maker would soon take me away." Well, there is none good but
one, and that's God. And when we call one another
good, why, we just flatter one another because we have more
wickedness in us than goodness, and it's part, I think, of idolatry
to give men titles which are due to God Almighty Himself. Oh, that we need most of all
to meditate, I believe, on the goodness, oh, the goodness of
God. Well, I said to you here at the
outset, I said this. I said, He's our ruling master. He is our teaching master, he rules us,
he teaches us, and he asks us the question here this evening,
why callest thou me good? What kind of an answer could
we give? What could we say? Well, I know
that it's true that there's none good but one, and that's God.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, He's God. The Lord Jesus, He's God,
and all the goodness of deity shines forth in Him, the Lord
Jesus Christ. In my experience, now, in my
experience, I have found Him good. I've found Him good. I have found Him good, so good,
indeed, that all the good I have has come from Him. I don't feel
like I've got anything. Anything in this world, I can't
think of anything right now, offhand, and I don't believe
I could if I could give it 24 hours of solid thought. Anything
that I have, anything that I hope to be, want to be, desire to
be, or will be, that has not come from the bountiful hand
of a good and loving and kind Heavenly Father. I'll tell you
why I call Him good, because He's been good to me. He's been
good to me. He's so good to me, I can't get
along without Him. I really, I can't get along without
Him. You know, when we're talking about preachingers, I think about
me preaching from time to time here in the morning and evening
and middle of the week and other places and other churches and
other times and other cities and all. I think, what would
I do if I didn't have that? What would I do if I wasn't able
to preach? What would I do? I'd just well
die. I'd just well die if I couldn't
preach. Just as well die. I'd be dead while I was living
if I couldn't preach. That's a fact. I don't come here
on Wednesdays and Sundays and so forth because I have to in
the sense that I serve for pay. That's not it at all. here because
woe is me if I preach not the gospel. Necessity is laid upon
me. I found of the goodness and the
mercy of God, and I must preach. I must preach. I've got to preach.
I want to preach. I desire to preach. And if I
couldn't preach, I'd just as well be dead. If I couldn't preach
and I couldn't enjoy what I enjoy now, I'd just as well be dead.
I'm not interested in anything else. I use the world, I don't want
to abuse the world, but I want to use it to the glory of God,
but to have a lasting, abiding interest in the things of time,
I have not. I tell you this, before God,
my interest is in preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
of this one who is a good master who said, Why callest thou me
good? Don't you think you'll retire?
A man only retires from that which he doesn't like. That's
the reason a man retires. You retire from your job is because
you're tired of it. You're tired of it and you don't
like it, so you quit. Am I going to retire? I'm not
going to retire. The only time I'm going to retire
is when I can't preach. When I can't preach, when I just
can't preach no more and the people won't listen to me, then
I'll have to quit. But I'm not going to retire from
something that I like. something that I enjoy, something
that's my life. This is my life. This is all
I've got. It's my life. If my wife doesn't
fit into this, she'll not be able to have a part of it. That's
all there are to it. If my boys can't fit into this,
they can't have a part of it. Because this is my life. I'm
dead serious about this. I'm not playing, I'm serious. This is all I want. It's all
I need. The Lord Jesus Christ, I found
Him to be good. I want to exalt Him and I want
others to hear about Him. I want to tell the story over
and over and over. I found Him to be good. Why callest
thou me good? Why do you call me good? Well,
in my experience, I found Him good. I found Him good. So good
that everything that I have comes from Him. Oh, let me tell you
just a few things here, and I'll not keep you long here this evening,
just a few things. Listen, He is good to me. He was good to me in that He
chose me before time ever was. That's being good, isn't it?
Why callest thou me good? Well, you're good, Heavenly Father.
You're good, Lord Jesus, because You chose me before I was born. You chose me before time ever
was. You chose me before there was
one blade of grass ever come through God's earth. You chose
me in Yourself before there was one drop of rain that ever hit
this ground. You chose me before there's one
star pinned in the sky. You chose me before there was
one cloud that hovered over this land. You chose me before the
sun and the moon and the stars and all the galaxies. I'll tell
you, why callest thou me good? Because He chose me in Christ
before time ever was. That's one reason I can give
for why I call Him good. And the second thing I can say
is that He chose me and loved me while I was an enemy. I was
an enemy. The Bible says that the natural
man The natural man, the carnal mind, is enmity against God. That is, the carnal mind in its
carnal state, the natural man in its natural state is at enmity,
is hostile towards God. Our Lord Jesus Christ loved me
when I despised Him. When I despised Him and hated
Him and had no use for Him, yet He loved me. He loved me and
gave Himself for me. You ask me why I call Him good
master? I call Him good master because
He chose me in Christ before time ever was. I tell you, I
call Him good master because He loved me and gave Himself
for me while I was yet an enemy, opposed to Him, opposed to God,
hated Him and despised Him, and would not even mention any good
thought about Him. apart from profanity. I'll tell
you, brethren, he was good to me when I was dead in trespasses
and in sin. Dead before God for the wanton
lack of love to Jesus Christ, God's Son. Dead, dead. D-E-A-D. I was going to say D-E-D. D-E-A-D. D-E-A-D. Dead. How dead can a man be? You can't get him dead enough
before God. He's dead. He's dead, he's stinker! He's dead! Oh, poor God. Oh, why callest thou me good?
Well, He was good to me when I was dead in trespasses and
in sins. He raised me! He came along by
and through His Spirit, through the Word. And He raised me by
His power. Quicken me from this dead state
and give me a heart to love Him. Give me a mind to understand,
a heart to accept, a mind to believe. The willingness to submit,
the willingness to bow down. He came and turned me from one
direction and sent me in another direction. He gave me, I had
physical life. I lived and moved and had my
being and was able to talk and was able to have appetites and
all of that. But I had no spiritual life. I was dead in trespasses and
in sins. But He is good to me. God, He
could have passed me by. He could have passed me by. He
was so good to me that when He came in my direction, He came
where I was and He stooped. He stooped and He stuck His hand
into the innermost being of my heart and touched me and gave
me life and said, Come, my child. He could have walked on by me.
He wasn't obligated. There wasn't anything in me that
would entice His favor. Just the opposite. Just the opposite. I was nasty. I was nasty and
dead and abominable in His sight. But it came where I was. It came
where I was, like the leper. Here comes the leper down off
the mountain. And he fell at the Savior's feet. He said, Lord,
you can if you will. Lord, you can if you will. Make
me whole, you can if you will. You are, Lord, dead. That leper,
that despised, filthy, diseased leper that no one would touch. His family wouldn't even touch
Him. His children wouldn't even hug Him and kiss Him and tell
Him goodnight. Couldn't because He was so defiled. So defiled. But God, who is absolutely,
essentially pure and holy, God, the Lord Jesus Christ, He came
down there, He touched. Our Lord. Can you see our Lord
putting His hand on that filthy leper? Nobody else had anything
to do with him. Everywhere I went, he said, unclean,
unclean. Don't come near me. Don't breathe
the same air I breathe. Don't do it. Get out of here.
Don't sit where I've been sitting. Don't rub up against me. Unclean,
unclean. Our Lord reached up to him and
touched him. He said, be thou clean. Be thou clean. That's the way he did every sinner,
every sinner. See how filthy you and I... Why
callest thou me good? Because I was dead in trespasses
and in sins, because I was an enemy of God, and hated and despised
God in my heart, and was determined to go in my own direction. Yet
God came where I was and touched me, touched me, and revealed
His Son in me. Why callest thou me good? I can
give you a number of reasons. Oh, when the black finger of
sin marred my soul as well as yours, when selfishness defiled
our tears, and the best thing we ever did only swelled the
number of our sins, when we were the most pure in our own sight. Yet God loved us. The Lord Jesus
Christ touched us. Oh, He's unspeakably good, unspeakably
good. Thanks be unto God for His unsearchable
riches. Pure as gold is the truth that
this our Savior teaches. Well, listen, He was good to
me because He made me to see. What? He was good to me. Listen to this. I want you to
remember this. I want you to write this down. Listen, He was
good to me in that He made me to see that I had no goodness,
for that was good. He was good to me. You get this
now. This will open up some things
for you. Listen to me now. He was good to me in that he
made me to see that I had no goodness. If you ever come to
that place that you see you have no goodness, I'll tell you, you're
on the threshold of entering in. Oh, he was good to me that
he made me see that I was filthy and impure in his sight, and
my righteousness at my very best state, at the apex of my experience,
was as filthy rags in his sight. He was good to me in that He
laid down His life for me." No man took His life from Him. No,
He was God. He had all power over things
in heaven and things in earth, and they came to Him. And it
looked like that they were going to take Him, but they came to
Him with lanterns and sticks and staves and so forth. And
it says that that whole legion of them just fell down right
there in His presence. A whole legion of them. He could
have just walked off. walked over top of Him. They
didn't take Him. They didn't take Him. He laid
down His life, willingly, voluntarily, gladly, cheerful life. He laid
it down. No man took His life from Him.
Why callest thou Me good? Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
who had power over death and power over life, who is the Prince
of life, laid His life down. For me. That's why I call him
good. Oh, because he said, he'll never
leave me nor forsake me. Why callest thou me good? Because
he said, fear not, I'll never leave thee. I'll never forsake
thee. Turn with me, if you will, to
John chapter 15. I want you to see this verse.
John chapter 15. 15th chapter of the book of John, the 9th verse. Found that? That's a good verse. John 15 and verse number 9. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. Let me talk to you just a minute
about this love. Why? Why callest thou me good? Why call you good, our Heavenly
Father, the Lord Jesus Christ? Because you love me. Because
you love me. He loves me! Boy, God Almighty
loves me! That can't be. That can't be.
You're just one insignificant grasshopper here. Creature of
the dust. You mean God who cannot be comprehended? The vastness of God is so great
that the heavens cannot contain Him, and you stand up there as
one little old peanut brain, finite creature, and say that
God actually loves you? He loves everyone who rests in
Him. Listen, He loves me. not because
of what I'm able to do. I know that's contrary to what
most think. Most think that, well, you know,
if they do something, why? Then that obligates God to do
something for them. Well, He loves me, and if you
rest in Him, He loves you not because of what you're able to
do, but He loves you and He loves me because we are His children. That's the reason He loves us.
He loves us because we are His children. We have been begotten
by Him, and we are His children. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we might be called the children
of God. Let me give you an example here.
Look at this helpless, tottering baby. The object of constant
care and attention. Can't leave this baby. Got him
in this little crib here. You've got to be running in every
little bit to look at the baby. You've got to see, maybe he's
got the cover too far on his face, maybe he'll smother. Maybe
he'll get turned over and get in the pillow, mixed up in the
pillow and smother. His pants has got to be changed. He's got to have milk. He's got
to be fed. Constant care, the object of
constant care is this helpless, tottering baby. Wholly unable,
now listen to me, wholly unable to promote his father or mother's
interest in any one single solitary way, yet he, this tottering,
helpless infant, is so loved by His Father and His Mother
that He would not exchange Him for 10,000 worlds like this. If it is like this with our earthly
parents, our earthly Father, what must it be with my Heavenly
Father? He loves us not for what we are
able to do, but because we are His Children. Isn't that good? He loves us because we're His
children. You say, well, I'm not a preacher,
and I don't spend five hours every day in prayer, and I haven't
read the Bible through 40 times, and I'm not able to quote all
the Scriptures. But listen, you're resting in
Him. You're resting in Him. Why callest thou me good? God
loves you. Because you're His child if you're
resting in Him. He loves you. He loves you. Well, you say, preacher, what's
this 9th verse of the 15th chapter got to do with that? All right,
look at it. As the Father hath loved me. Now, there may be some
conjecture on your part as to whether God loves you or not.
But I'll tell you this, there cannot be any conjecture as to
whether the Father loves the Son. Now, there can't be no questions
there at all. No room for argument or debate
there. God loves His Son. That's all it is. This is my
beloved Son. Isn't He? Hear ye Him. Do what He tells you. It's my
Son, the Son of my love. He's the darling of my bosom.
He's the apple of my eye. He's the rose of Sharon. He is the fairest of the fairest.
I love Him. I love my Son. I love Him. Listen, as the Father hath loved
me, so have I loved you. So have I loved you. As the Father loves the Son,
in the same manner Jesus Loves His people. Why callest Thou
me good? I call you good, our Savior,
the Lord Jesus. I call you good, Heavenly Father,
because you love me. You love me. You love me just
as you loved your Son. Your Son loves me as you loved
Him. Well, that's what it says. As
the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Just as God,
just to the the measure of love that the Father has to the Son. The Son says the same measure
have I to you. Have I given you any reasons
here this evening? If the Father would say, why
callest thou me good, could you be able to tell Him why He is
good? Well, you could tell Him here,
because the Savior loves me. because the Savior loves me just
like you love the Savior. Well, what is this divine method?
All right, number one, God loved the Son without beginning. There
is no beginning to the love of the Father to the Son. Does not
the Scripture say that God loves His Son with an everlasting love?
It certainly does. He loved Him without beginning.
You can trace. You can trace. I'm sure, the
beginning of human affection. You can trace the beginning of your feelings
of love towards your wife. You can go back. There was a
time you didn't love her. As a matter of fact, there was
a time you didn't even know her. But there was a time that came in
your life when you said to yourself, you said to yourself, you said,
well, before God, before God I can't live without this woman.
I can't live without him." You know what Glenn said? Glenn said
that fella came to him and he said, he said, you tell me you're
going to get married. Glenn said, that's right, I'm
planning on getting married. Who are you marrying? Marrying Gene,
Gene Graham up to Rachel. He said, well, I want to tell
you something. He said, what's that? Speak on. He said, well, listen. He
said, they look good enough to eat before you marry them, but
he said, after you marry them, you wish you had him. That's
what he said. But Glenn told me since then,
he said, that's not true. He said, there's never been any
change. And I know there hasn't been. I know there hasn't been.
I know that. Well, you see what I'm talking
about? I'm saying that there's a time, there's a time that you
can trace your affection to your wife. Your wife can trace the
beginning of her affection towards you. You can do that. That's
right. You can easily find the beginning
of your love to the Lord Jesus Christ when you first loved Him.
You can find that. But listen, His love to us, God's
love to us is as a river whose stream or whose source is hidden
in the vastness of eternity past. You can't find that. You can't
find it. Three things here and then I'll
quit. God loves the Lord Jesus Christ without any change. He
loves Christ without any change. Take this for your comfort here
this evening, that there is no change in His love to you and
I in whom we rest. No change. No change. You know,
now you say, Boy, I feel so good tonight. I feel so good. I love
the preacher. I love my wife. I love my children.
Tomorrow you may not feel that way. You say, well, I wish the
preacher hadn't said that. That made me mad. I don't think
near as much of him right now as I did last night. My wife,
I wish she hadn't crossed me like that. I just don't feel
right towards you. And we get to equating our feelings,
earthly feelings, and try to bring God into the picture and
make God feel like we do. I want to tell you here, if you
can get anything there this evening, learn this, that the love of
God in Christ to those that rest in Him never changes. Never! Bless God that's good. I love may grow cold and dim
and change and rise like the thermometer up and down, but
this is the grace of God. This is the good news. This is
the gospel. Listen, as the Father hath loved
me, so have I loved you. God has never been angry with
His Son. He never fell out with His Son.
He never looked upon his son and said, well, I disagree. Well,
he's my child and he's blood of my blood and so forth and
I'll just leave him go. I won't say anything, but I just
know he's wrong. They were in perfect harmony
and union and agreement and all things. God always loved him. He had no beginning. God always
loved him and always has loved him and always will love him.
and the same measure of the love of the Father to the Son, Jesus
said, even so have I loved you. Oh, why callest thou me good?
Because you love me. You love me without change, you
love me without end, and you love me without measure. Love
me without any end. That is, you'll never cease to
love me. Never cease to love me. Well, he will if God ceases
to love his son. If you can conceive that there'll
come a time when God will turn his back on the Lord Jesus Christ
one more time and say, I don't love you, I have nothing to do
with you, desert you and your cause and your claims, kick you
out of heaven, well, then you have reason to fear and reason
to worry. I don't think you're going to have any reason like
that. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue
in this love, this same type love. Jesus loves without change. God loves His Son without end,
and God loves His Son without measure. That is, that the whole
heart of the Lord Jesus Christ is dedicated to His own, to His
own. Everything about the Lord Jesus
Christ is completely dedicated in one direction to one object,
and that's His own people. Let me tell you how much He loved
us. Why callest thou me good? Cause you love me? Cause you
love me? How much did you love me? Well,
he gave himself for me. That's how much he loved me. He gave himself