May it please almighty God to
bless us together as we meditate in his word this morning. Let's
turn to the epistle of Paul to the Romans, chapter two, and
we'll read verse four. The second chapter in the epistle
of Paul to the Romans, and chapter four, which says, or despises
thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Now we read together this chapter
this morning which tells us something of the judgments of Almighty
God which come upon the true believers and those who are not
believers, and also we have this statement in the end of the fourth
verse, not knowing the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Now, in meditating on this, I
thought that the 103rd Psalm gives us a very wonderful statement
about the goodness of God. So rather than branching into
it halfway through the sermon, I thought I would read now 103rd
Psalm. So you can turn with me if you
like to Psalms and it's Psalm 103. It's not a very good long
Psalm but it does speak there about the goodness of God and
it's good as we read this Psalm for each one of us to think whether
those points that the Psalmist David recounts have reference
to us and therefore we recognize the goodness of God, and if that
is so, to be blessed with repentance for our sins. So let's read Psalm
103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all
thine iniquities. who healeth all thy diseases,
who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness
and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so
that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord executes
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made
known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous
in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. As the heaven
is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that
fear Him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear Him. For He knoweth our frame, He
remembereth that we are dust, as for man, his days are as grass,
as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. The wind passeth
over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know
it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting. Upon them that fear him and His
righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep His
covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them.
The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom
ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye His angels,
that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of His Word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye His
hosts, ye ministers of His that do His pleasure. Bless the Lord,
all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. Well, that's the 103rd Psalm
and we have a reading there very clear that David had much to
be thankful for and much to bless the Lord for. And it's good,
therefore, that he concludes with these words, Bless the Lord
all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. And so, coming back then to the
Romans and the second chapter and the fourth verse, it's good
to realise And here we have a wonderful statement, not knowing that the
goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Well let's just
concentrate perhaps on the end of this verse before we go back
to the beginning. And it is important for all of
us in our lives to remember and be mindful of the goodness of
God. As you and I look in our lives,
just like David did here in this 103rd Psalm, there were many
occasions when he was able to recall the goodness of God. And it's good for us in our lives
if we can also think of that. And we can think of that, it
doesn't matter if we're young, if we're children, if we're at
school, if we're at college, if we're at work, For at home,
it matters not. It's good to realise that God
shows us his goodness to us. Sometimes thinking of you children
at school, thinking of the examinations you have to take, and perhaps
you pray to God that he would help you in answering the questions
adequately and well, that you find that the questions you are
able to answer And it's good therefore to realise it's because
of the goodness of God. Because it means that he's enabled
you perhaps to revise the right things. And that's the goodness
of God. And to perhaps discuss certain
points with your friends at school and to understand the answer
better. And so surely we see this is
the goodness of God. And then so many things He directs
us in our lives. He directs us what to do in our
further education, where to go, what college to go to, what university
to go to, what we should do when we start work, what job to apply
for, where to apply for a job, and we see how So often God appears
for us, and God blesses us. And what do we say? It's the
goodness of God. And we should recognize that
you and I don't deserve mercy, we don't deserve direction, but
how wonderful when God gives it to us. We can go on, can't
we? with regard to finding husbands
and wives in our life. What a blessing it is when God
provides us with husbands and wives. Again, it's the goodness
of God. And we should recognise the relevance
and not forget to pray that God will indeed supply us with these
wonderful blessings. It's the goodness of God and
then places to live in. We should realise the relevance
of that. and to find that God has gone
before and has supplied our need and provided a suitable place
to live in. We should be thankful, should
we not? The goodness of God. And as we are blessed with these
wonderful evidences of God's mercy toward us, what should
the effect be? The effect should be that we
then consider our life and consider whether in our lives we are honoring
God, we are pleasing God. You know, we expect God to honor
us and answer our prayers. But the reality is, do we desire
to honor God in the commands that he gives to us? in the directions
that He gives to us, and not to just please ourselves in this
world, but to recognize that we have a God who has laid down
gracious and wonderful instruction for us right throughout the Word
of God, the Old Testament and the New Testament. And what a
good thing it is when God gives us a desire to do the will of
God. Well, you must answer. that question
this morning, I can't answer for you. But what a blessing
if God has given you a desire to do His will. Have you ever
thought of that? Have you ever thought that you
and me live on this earth for one reason, and that is to bring
honour and glory to God? I wonder if you've thought about
that. You see, we live in a pretty
evil age, don't we, where people are only concerned about enjoying
themselves. They don't really want to please
God. They don't want to do the will
of God. They want to please themselves,
don't they? And as I mentioned in prayer,
you only have to look around and see our nation today, full
of idolatry in regards to the European Cup final. It's all
people are thinking about. And yet, you see, here we are,
on the Lord's Day, such an event taking place. Just to let you
know, when I was a boy, there was no football matches of any
consequence on a Sunday. There was no cricket on a Sunday.
It was always a rest day. So it was a wonderful situation.
But nowadays, of course, it's counted just as another day.
And sadly, People are given over to idolatry. Well, my friends, let us be very aware that Almighty God reigns. He knows
what's going on and He knows the hearts of everyone in this
whole world. He knows your heart and my heart,
whether we're taken up with idolatry or whether we desire, especially
on this Lord's Day, a day when we can set aside all the things
of this world. That's why the Lord's given us
the seventh day to rest, a day when we can come away from all
the things of this world, separate ourselves unto the things of
God. Well I'm sure today there are
so many so-called Christians who won't do that at all. You'll
find many people won't have a service tonight and want to spend it
watching the football. The service will be irrelevant
to them. And yet you see it's the most important thing. What a blessing therefore if
we realise the truth of these words. The goodness of God leads
us to repentance. His mercy toward us, His favour
toward us, His grace toward us, His love toward us. There are
so many things, aren't there? And if God has shown us these
blessings, what a mercy. Therefore, if His
goodness in these things leads us, directs us to repent. That means to be sorry for our
sins. I'm sure all of us can look back
in our lives to many occasions that we wish hadn't happened.
Many times perhaps when we ignored God. Many times perhaps when
we disobeyed God. Many times when we've pleased
ourselves, we haven't been acting as Christians at all. We've been
acting as unbelievers. And what a mercy if God has given
us a changed heart, given us a new heart. And that heart then
desires spiritual blessings. And you may say, well, why is
that important? It's so important because you
and I have a never-dying soul, a spirit, which lives forever,
and it will live forever, either in heaven or in hell. There's
no alternative. And that soul that you and I
have, which is within us, never dies. And how tragic it'll be
if you and I die without the evidence of God's love and mercy
toward us in forgiving all our sins. You see this 103rd Psalm,
it is very wonderful and it's very broad in its statement.
We read in the 8th verse, the Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Well, I wonder if you
understand that. You young people, I wonder if
you understand that. God's been merciful to you. If
you've done things which are wrong, and you know whether you
have or not, perhaps you've thought wrong things, perhaps you've
spoken wrong things, perhaps you've done wrong things, and
you have to realise God hasn't dealt with you as you deserved.
And you come and say, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow
to anger. He could have been very angry
with you. and plenteous in mercy, full
of mercy. What a blessing! And we're told
he will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. And then David goes on to say,
he hath not dealt with us as our sins, nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities. Well that's worth thinking about,
isn't it? It's worth all of us just thinking
about God's goodness, that He hasn't dealt with us as our sins
deserved, nor rewarded us, neither paid us according to our iniquities. He gives us an illustration,
a very complete illustration, for as the heaven is high above
the earth, so high we can't fathom it, so great is His mercy toward
them that fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
What a great, wonderful God we have, who doesn't deal with us
as we deserve. And it's good this morning if
you and I are able to just ponder these things and realise God
has been merciful to me, He has been gracious to me, He hasn't
dealt with me as I deserve. What a wonderful blessing it
is to realise God's favour and mercy. And so here Paul the Apostle,
who well knew the experience that he wrote about, because
Paul had pleased himself. And he thought he was doing good
things, in actual fact he was doing bad things. Sometimes you
and I may think we're doing good things, but we're not doing good
things, because all we're doing is satisfying our own selves,
satisfying our conscience. We're not really pleasing God,
we're not really doing His will, we're not really following the
pattern that He set before us in the Word of God. Well, what
a mercy therefore, if God is gracious to us. And recognise
then this great truth, not knowing, not knowing, And that's where
you and I've been. We haven't known. But how wonderful
now if God looks upon us and we do know then that God's goodness
to us has directed us to be sorry for the things that we've done
and said and thought wrong. What a great blessing that is. And you must answer this morning.
I can't answer for you. You must answer before God. Personally,
real religion, as I do say, is personal, between our soul and
God. And what a blessing then for
us today, if we come along and are able to recognise that the
goodness of God leadeth to repentance and we can chalk up times when
that has been so and we can bless God for it. Well, this fourth
verse starts off with or despises thou the riches of his goodness
and forbearance and long-suffering." Well, I wonder whether you and
I have despised the ways of God. I have no idea. You may be here
this morning just suffering it, wishing you didn't have to be
here. And what a blessing therefore, if therefore you recognise that
you come under such a category as this, despising these things. It's good if you and I can look
back in our lives to those times when we did despise. Despise going to worship. Despise
reading the Bible. Despise speaking about the things
of God. You may have despised people
that did speak about the things of God. You may have despised
your peer group for those who speak about the things of God. Well, what a wonderful if we
have this, or you see the previous verses tell us Therefore thou
art inexcusable. Sometimes we think we can excuse
ourselves. Well, you and I cannot excuse
ourselves. We are inexcusable. O man, whosoever thou art that
judgest, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the
same things. But we are sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth against them which commit such
things. See, God is an honest judge. God is a faithful judge. We can be dishonest in our judgment
and not faithful in it, but God is. And then he says, And thinkest
thou this, O man, You see, the Apostle digs into our heart,
digs into our heart, and thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest
them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt
escape the judgment of God? How foolish so often we are.
We place God as someone like ourselves. We don't recognize
that God is high and lifted up and holy and just and righteous
and in charge of everything in this whole world and in complete
charge of your life and my life and that great judge before whom
you and I must stand one day. And you and I won't be able to
then make excuses. We'll be speechless because we're
recognised We've been guilty. And so we come down. And thinkest
thou this, O man, that judgest them that do such things, and
doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? We
won't. We won't. Don't think you will. Don't think there's some back
door where you can escape, some staircase that you can suddenly
disappear down. There's no escape route. no escape
route. Well I should perhaps rectify
that and say well there is an escape route but that's only
through this situation of repentance. Repenting, sorry for our sins,
coming to God, bowing down before Him, acknowledging that we've
disobeyed Him we've gone our own way, just like the Apostle
Paul did. He thought he was pleasing himself,
he thought he was doing that which is right, but he wasn't.
He was walking contrary to God. And so then we come down to this
statement, or despises thou the riches. It's interesting how
Paul words it, the riches of his goodness. And then, and forbearance
and long-suffering. Well, you see, by nature, men
and women, boys and girls, despise the riches of His goodness. And how easy it is for you and
me to despise the riches of His goodness. You know, Paul mentions
it here, he also mentions it in the Ephesians and tells us
about this situation and in the first chapter of the Ephesians
he tells us verse 6 says to the praise of the glory of his grace
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence." Well, what a blessing that is, in whom
we have redemption through His blood. That's why the Apostle
says the riches of His goodness, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, the riches of His goodness. Just think of it my friends,
the forgiveness of sins. You and I have sinned against
light and knowledge. Never try and excuse yourselves,
never try and excuse yourselves. Pray that you might be blessed
with the spirit of repentance to recognise then that by the
grace of God we have redemption. Through His blood our sins taken
away, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His
grace. That's in the 7th and 8th verses
and then moving down to the 17th verse. Or perhaps the 16th verse, the
Apostle says, Cease not, this is what the Apostle says about
himself, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you
in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him. My friends, that's the riches. Wonderful, isn't it? The riches
of His goodness. The knowledge of Him. How wonderful
it is. And then the same thing follows
on in the second chapter. The second chapter is a well-known
chapter. I hope you know a little bit
about the second chapter. But the fourth verse tells us,
But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love Wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins. Well, you and I have all been
dead in sin. We've all been spiritually dead.
What a blessing when we've been in that position. This has been
true. God who is rich in mercy. He hasn't cut us off. He hasn't
cast us away. He's rich in mercy. Why? For His great love wherewith
He loved us. And if you just think about that,
just ponder that, and look into your heart and see how bad you
are, how evil you are, how sinful you are. You have to come to
this conclusion for His great love. Great love. wherewith He had loved us, not
because of any good deed in ourselves, but because of His grace. Oh, my friends, what a great
and kind and gracious God we have. And then he tells us, verse
7, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches
of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. And as the Lord deals with us
in love to our souls, we realise how unworthy we are of any favour,
and He directs us to the great and glorious Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who amazingly was willing to die upon that cross
at Calvary to take away our sins, so that through His death we
are made just. not through anything you and
I do ourselves." Well, it comes back, doesn't it, to this great
statement, the riches of His goodness. Goodness and mercy,
as David says, shall follow me all the days of my life, and
I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Well, I wonder
if that's a good prospect, if that's something you look forward
to, or something you don't look forward to. Well, David was looking
forward to it. And what a blessing it is therefore
if you and I can come and look forward to that same blessing.
And he tells us again in the same second chapter of the Ephesians
in verse 16. And that he might reconcile. That means brings us together. Those who were aliens, those
who were enemies. You and I were an enemy with
Christ at one time. We were disobeying. our blessed
Saviour, we are pleasing ourselves. And then he tells us, and that
he might reconcile both unto God in one body, how? By the cross, having slain the
enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were
far off, and to them that were nigh. It's good when you and I recognise
there was a time when we were far off from God. We didn't want
God. We may have pretended we wanted
God, but in reality we didn't want God because we knew if we
were to follow God we'd have to depart from many things, give
up many things, sacrifice many things. He came and preached peace to
you which were afar off. How many people today struggle
to find peace in this world? There's only one place of peace
and that's at the foot of the cross. He came and preached peace
to you which were afar off and to them which are nigh. Well, the riches of His goodness. It's wonderful, isn't it? To
think of that. Or despises that. Well, you must
answer. Were you a despiser? Are you
a despiser? We're in one of the two places,
aren't we? We either were, and are, or we
are not today. By the grace of God, we are no
longer a despiser. Or despises other riches, of
his goodness and despises the forbearance and long-suffering
of God. Well, again, it's good to think
of that in our lives. How long has God foreborn with
us? How long? And how long has he been long-suffering
with us? Perhaps he still is today. Well
I'm sure he is, because we still sin, we still fail, but what
a blessing it is to have such a kind, good and gracious God. The Apostle gives us a little
illustration on this as we read on in verse 24 of the third chapter. Being justified freely by his
grace, through redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God
has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. My friends, our sins
were such that they should have condemned us to an eternity in
hell. But God forebared with us. Oh how wonderful that is. Just
think of it, you and I in our perhaps days past, perhaps today. Perhaps God's forbearing with
you today. Perhaps you're walking contrary
to God today. And He hasn't taken your breath
away. Has it cast you into hell forbearance
of God? Oh, my friends, it's rich, isn't
it? What a blessing it is to realise
that we do have such a kind and such a gracious God who is indeed
forbearing. It's a wonderful mercy to realise
this is the God who deals with us in love to our souls. When he addressed Timothy, it's
interesting how he speaks in the first chapter of the first
epistle. He tells us in verse 15, This
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Well, it's an honest
statement, wasn't it? And it's good if you and I can
follow the footsteps of the Apostle. And he goes on, how be it? For
this cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might
show forth all longsuffering. Does it apply to you and me? First Jesus Christ might show
forth all longsuffering for a passion to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting. I want to bless you my friends
if God gives you and me grace. Longsuffering, wonderful mercy
isn't it here? Forbearance and long-suffering. Our God is gracious. Our God is merciful. What a mercy to have such a God
and to realise that that God is the same today. He's not dealing
with us as our sins deserve. No, He's long-suffering. And in the second epistle to
Peter, Peter knew God's long-suffering towards Him and He tells us this,
He says in the third chapter of the second epistle, verse
14, Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things,
be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot,
and blameless, and account that the longsuffering of our Lord
is salvation, even as our Beloved brother Paul also, according
to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you, as also
in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which
are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned
and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto
their own destruction. Well, what a mercy it is therefore
if you and I possess this mercy and goodness of God toward us. Wonderful fable. And let us not
be, therefore, those who despise this great and glorious truth.
I hope we don't, or if you do, I hope you'll stop. By the grace
of God, or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering, not knowing the goodness of God, leadeth
thee to repentance. We have one perhaps very outstanding
example which I'm sure is familiar to all of us and it's called
the parable of the prodigal son. And it's a parable that Jesus
gave and the parable is very simple. He had two sons and the
one wanted to have his inheritance and wanted to go and leave his
father's house and go and please himself. So his father very graciously
gave him the inheritance, the money which would have been due
to him, and off he went. And it wasn't very long, it was
quite a short time, when he spent all his inheritance, all the
money that he'd been given, in a riotous living, that means
wicked living, spending it on things like prostitution and
and nightclubs and all that kind of thing, and he used his money. And when it had all gone, we're
told he began to be in want. He would have been happy to have
eaten the pig's food, but anyway he began to be in want. And then
it was that God, in his love, in his goodness, in his forbearance,
on long-suffering came to him and he thought of his father's
house and he thought of the favour it was to be there. And he then
came and said that he would return to his father and he would say,
I'm not worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired
servants. And so by God's grace he packed
his bags, returned to his father. His father was on the outlook
for him and saw him coming. He made a great feast to receive
him, gave him a new robe, new clothes, and rejoiced to see
him when the son said, Father, I'm no more worthy to be called
thy son. But he stopped there. He didn't
say, make me as one of thy hired servants, because he was a son. What a blessing it is when you
and I come to that situation. There he was at one time despising
the things which now he rejoiced in. What a blessing it is for
you and me today. If we recognise these words that
Paul wrote to the Church of Rome and the relevance of them to
you and me today, And may they be blessed to us and be able
to come and say, not knowing that the goodness of God, his
goodness toward us, gives us this spirit that leads us to
be sorry for our sins, to plead for mercy, to plead for forgiveness
and be found looking unto Jesus, praying for mercy, pray for forgiveness
and find that great and glorious freedom in union with Christ. Utterly unworthy. Well, it's
a wonderful thing that we have the Gospel, we have the truth
of God set before us to encourage us and let us not be therefore
among those who despise the truth of God, despise the Bible, despise
the things of God, despise the Church of God, but earnestly
pray that we may be found a true believer and be blessed with
God-given repentance. Amen.