in my study and I was going over
the message and I kept looking at the clock and saying, oh,
I got some time. Not realizing that my clock had not moved since
I got in the office. The battery was dead on the wall.
Wow, look at all this time I've got. Boy, I've got plenty of
time to go over this again. And Terrence says, hey, it's
three after. Don't be timid. If I'm late,
come get me. You know I've done something
wrong. Before we begin the message,
we'll go to God in prayer. What a hymn that is. Nothing
but the blood. That just trims off all the fat,
doesn't it? Just trims it all off. Gets right to the point. And
that's exactly where we want to go this morning. I want to
show you again, and again, and again, I'll sing that hymn sometime,
Fountain of Never-Ceasing Grace, by Saints Exhaustless Theme. Immortal object, object of immortal
praise, essentially supreme. Christ is supreme. Christ is
supreme. Any message that does not have
Christ as its root, as its center, and as the fruit, is an abomination. When we receive, God receives
us up into glory, who's at the center of heaven? Who's at the center? Who is receiving
praise for eternity? We're giving praise for eternity,
never receiving it. Christ alone receives praise.
And as it is in heaven, it should be here. Christ should be the
center. Not just in this time that we
set aside to worship, that should be important, but in everything.
I do pray that God would help you and me to remember, not to
set Christ in the center, He's already in the center, but to
remember that He is the center. that He is the substance of our
life. And pray God give us grace to
do that. Let's remember those that are
sick, those who do not have the ability
to come or be here, those who are living in other places who
have no gospel around them. Pray for them. Pray for them. Pray for those who suffer sorrow. There's a sorrow that is so debilitating. It makes one incapable of doing
anything. And only God can heal those sorrows,
those griefs. And I know He will in time. He
will do that. He's done that before, hasn't
He? He's had sorrows. And yet He's healed those sorrows,
and when we have a new sorrow, we forget how many times He's
healed our sorrows before. So pray for those who are in
distress, and ask your prayers for me as I desire to preach
the gospel. Pray for those churches without
pastors. I say that you have probably
the least of them as pastor, and that's okay, but you have
one. And that's something to be thankful
for, that God has continued this work here. And I know he will, as long as
there's an elect people, this work will continue. His gospel
will be preached. Places are set up and places
are put down. But the gospel is preached. It's
never going to stop being preached. God will always have a witness.
He will always have a witness. And pray that God would send
out men to preach. There is surely a need. Let's go to him in prayer. Our gracious Father in Heaven,
we thank you for the ability to pray, to seek your face and
your will, to have a heart to come and listen
to the Word of God being preached and declared. Thank you for the
grace and the ability to believe and trust in Christ, the center
and the sum of your word. I confess my need of you. I confess
that without you I can do nothing. These that have come to hear
cannot hear. Accept your spirit. Give liberty. Spiritual ears. a spiritual heart to believe
and receive these things. I pray that you would guide me
in every word and every thought. Father, it would redound to the
glory of Jesus Christ, that it would cause, this message should
cause sinners to repent and believe. and that this message should
comfort the believing. This alone is within your own
power and grace. Without it, we could do nothing. But Father, I know that you will
help your people. You will strengthen them. You
will comfort them. You will save them because you
have promised it. You have decreed to do so, and
Christ has accomplished it for us. For this, we want to give
thanks and praise to your name this day. Father, for those that
are sick, we lift them up before you. We plead for their healing. We beg for their grace, for your
grace upon them, that they should return to us again. I pray, Father, for your mercy
upon those that are struggling in their minds, in their hearts,
that you would be gracious to them and give healing and comfort. I plead with you this morning,
forgive us our sins. Cleanse us of our unrighteousness,
because we know that the blood of Christ is still effectual
to cleanse us. His atonement is perfect. We pray Christ's name be honored
and magnified through the preaching of the gospel. I beg these things
in the name of Christ and for his sake, we pray, amen. All right, take your Bibles,
turn with me to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11, a text will
be found in verse 22. Romans 11, verse 22. The apostle says, Behold therefore
the goodness and severity of God on them which fail severity,
but toward thee good if thou continue in his goodness, otherwise
thou also shall be cut off. Now the Apostle from verses 11
down through verse 21, the Apostle is testifying of the fall of
the Jews because of their rejection of Jesus Christ He testifies
that the Jews had failed, that they were no longer under that
old dispensation, which they were the chosen people of God,
because they were a type, the type had now been removed, they
rejected Christ, and because of this, they failed. Now, he said, did they fall,
that all of them should be eradicated. Paul is going to make that statement
over and over again, no. Not just because the Jews as
a nation fail does not mean that they all are devoid of any hope. Why? Because God has an elect
people among the Jews. And now he tells the Gentiles,
he begins to teach them about humility. He said, look, they
fail for this purpose, not for any evil, but that you should
be saved. He said, they were cut off, like
an olive tree. He said the branches were cut
off, that you being a wild olive tree should be grafted in. And so he warns against boasting,
he says in verse 18, boast not against the branches. You weren't brought in because
you were something special. That's what he's telling them.
There was really, by nature, no difference. In fact, the Jews
naturally were better people than you. They were more moral people than
you were. Don't boast yourselves because
you've been grafted in. Thou wilt say then, verse 19,
the branches are broken off that I might be grafted in. Well,
they were broken off for one reason, unbelief. That's the
reason they were broken off. Thou standest by faith, be not
high-minded. That's what he's getting at in
these verses, humility. That this bringing in of the
Gentiles is an act of grace, an act of grace. Now then, in verse 22, he comes
to the conclusion of what he had just said. He says, Behold,
therefore, because they were cut off and you were grafted
in, the apostle by this is going to show two distinct characteristics
of God. Two characteristics of God. Listen,
severity and goodness. By displaying what He did to
the Jews, it shows His divine justice. And by what He did to
the Gentiles, shows His divine grace. Two characteristics, and
that's what we're going to look at this morning, two characteristics
of God. Goodness and severity. Goodness and severity. First of all, the severity of
God. He says, Therefore the goodness and severity
of God on them that fail, what? Severity. Severity. This act of God's severity, or
justice, or holiness, is an aspect of His character that's much
ignored today. Men don't mind hearing about
God being good. They don't mind hearing about God loving people.
They don't mind that you talk about, well, God gave me a new
car. Boy, that was great. Or God gave
me a new house. Or boy, God's so good to me.
I was healthy today. They don't mind talking about
God's goodness and all those things surely were gifts of God,
there's no doubt about it. Anything you have is a gift of
God. This matter of severity, when
it comes to severity, it's then that men part from what God says
about his severity and use their own reasoning. They use their
own logic about it. They say, well, if God has so
much love, if God has so much goodness toward
men, if he cares so much about us and he has all power, then
surely he doesn't want us to hurt. He doesn't want us to feel
pain. He doesn't want us to be sick.
He doesn't want us to die. He doesn't want us to go to hell.
He won't punish us. These men cry, peace, peace. The problem is, there is no peace. There is no peace. This is a
tragic lie from Satan designed to wreck the souls of men upon
the sharp rocks of God's justice. These that presume God's love
is equally distributed upon all men, that God desires to save
all men. Listen to me, that is a lie.
If God determined to save all men, you listen, all men would
be saved without exception, if that's what He wanted to do. We know that that's not the case. Now, I do believe in God's compassion
upon men. I do believe God's compassion.
One manifestation of God's compassion is this, everybody that's breathing
is alive. That's a manifestation of God's
compassion. The fact you're breathing is only by compassion of God,
only by the will and decree of God. In Him we live and move
and have our being. I believe His mercy in this carnal
sense, in giving us life and breath and pleasures and joys.
Scripture says, He says, My sun shines on the just as well as
the unjust. My rain falls upon the just as
well as the unjust. Do you not realize that when
a person is born, there is enough sin in them that they deserve
death? immediately. Every child that's
born, if God were to give them what they deserve, they would
die. To the natural man, that is just
intolerable to say such a thing. David said that he was even conceived
in sin. He said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. And if God, listen to me, if
God had not chosen a people as a sovereign act of divine
will, then there would have been no
mercy given to anybody. Had God not chosen to save a
people among the human race, the moment Adam sinned, our race
would cease. But because God had determined
to show mercy, man continues. Man continues. Because there
are some of this race that God has determined to save, the rest of humanity continues
to live. Don't you see this, that all
things are for the elect's sake? Everything is moving in time
and eternity for the purpose of God in this one thing, to
save His people. That's it. Everything else that's
going on is moving to that purpose. I don't know how everything's
connected. They are. They are. God is going to save His people. He's going to use men in the
calling of His people. Now, God is a God of love. There is no doubt about that.
Why? Because the scripture declares God is love. God doesn't just
love, but God is Himself love. Himself love. But I want you
to see this. He is not only love, but He is
also just. Holy. Holy. What does that mean when I say
God is just? It means simply this, that God will
and must punish all sin. So the Scriptures are arguing
two distinct things that seem to be contradictory to one another.
God is good, God is merciful, and God is holy, and God is just. Isn't this what He revealed to
Moses in Exodus 34? He said that He's a God of mercy,
showing mercy to thousands. Let's go over there, Exodus 34
and verse 6. Look at that. Look at what God
says about Himself. He's going to declare exactly
what Paul is saying here, goodness and severity. Exodus 34, look at verse 6. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God. What's the first
thing? Merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant, goodness
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression of sin, and people want to stop there. Oh,
that's so good. And what? That will by no means clear the
guilty. The quandary of all religion
is that. How can God be just and, at the
same time, show mercy? Think about it. If a judge were
standing before a guilty, convicted murderer, ready to sentence him,
and all of a sudden, without reason, showed mercy and let
him go, would he be just? No, the judge himself would have
broken the law. Yet if he sentenced him, how
then could he show mercy? Now we do it all the time. We
do it without why? Because we're not just. Our forgiveness is never just. Usually we forgive because it
benefits us. Somebody do something to you?
What do they need to do? Well, they need to do this, this,
and this before I forgive them. And a lot of times, if it's too
much, and you want to forgive them, you'll just expense, you'll
just do away with that. Well, you love them, and you'll
just do away with that. How many times do you do that
to your kids? All the time. All the time. They do something
wrong, you tell them, don't do this, and they do it, and then
what do you do? You say, oh, well. They're just
kids being kids. What, you dispense with justice?
Now how can God do that? How can He be merciful and just? How can He be severe and show
goodness? Yet this is what God says, He
says, I am merciful and I won't clear the guilty by any means. We know that God's mercy will
never then contradict His justice. God will never show mercy at
the expense of His justice. He can't. He can't. And I want you to know this,
there's no conflict with God about this. In us, there's a
conflict. Always a conflict of how mercy
and justice could be together. How mercy and truth could kiss
one another. There's always a conflict. But
in God, there's no conflict. There's no struggle within the
Godhead about this. God will and must punish all
sin without exception. This is so vital because if God
were not to punish one sin, if one sin was to escape His justice,
He would cease to be God. He would cease to be just. Is that true? Will God punish
all sin? Are you sure about that? God's sure about that. He said,
the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. He must punish sin. God's wrath
and severity will fall upon all who abide in unbelief. Isn't this what he just said
about the Jews? The reason they were cut off was what? What sin
was it? Unbelief. Unbelief. In verse 20 it says, Well, because
of unbelief they were broken off. Listen, men must believe in Christ
or they will face the severe justice of God. Just as upon the Jews who rejected
Christ, who did not believe on the Son of God, the scripture
says, on them fell what? Severity. Severity. Now, we know that the nation
of the Jews, they have suffered ever since this. Has it not been
clear, have you not seen this in the centuries following the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have not the Jewish nation suffered? Is that not proof? And this suffering began in A.D.
70. In A.D. 70, The Romans besieged Jerusalem
with such severity, such cruelty. And this was because they rejected
the Christ. Go to Matthew chapter 24. Our
Lord prophesied about this, this destruction, this severity upon
the nation of Israel. Look at verse chapter 24 and
verses 1 and 2. Jesus went out and departed from
the temple and the disciples came to him to show him the building
of the temple. They were bragging on this temple.
Listen to what he said. Jesus said to them, see you not
these things? Verily I say unto you, there
shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown
down. look at verse 14 15 and you see
the reason for his prophecy look at this when you therefore shall
see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet
stand in the holy place whoso readeth let him understand then
let them which be in Judah flee into the mountains and Let them
that be on the housetops come not down and take anything out
of his house, neither let him which is in the field return
and take back, take his clothes. Woe unto them that are with child,
to them that give suck in those days, but pray you that your
flight be not in winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For then
shall be great tribulation such as not has since the beginning
of the world to this time. No, nor ever shall be. And except those days be shortened,
there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake those
days shall be shortened. I want you to get a picture of
the severity because this is a physical type of a spiritual
thing. When the Lord told the Romans
to besiege, decreed that the Romans besiege Jerusalem, It
was so severe that women were eating their own children. It was so severe that children
were stealing the food out of the mouths of their parents and
letting them starve to death. It was so severe that parents
were withholding food from their children so they could live. was one of absolute cessation. No food was to be allowed into
this place at all. So when they had eaten all of
the animals, there was nothing left to eat but each other. And
Christ said, except those days be shortened, the whole nation
of Israel would be destroyed. But because there is an elect
people among the nation of Israel, that's why it was let go. That's
why some escaped. Can you not see the severity? You see what happened when they
physically rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and crucified Him?
Their nation was all but almost extinct. Behold the severity of God then
upon those that reject Christ physically. But now then, think
about this. What is the severity of God upon those who reject
Christ spiritually? Those who will not believe on
the Son of God. Mark chapter 16 and verse 16
says, Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He
that believeth not shall be damned. Severity. Severity. Look at 2 Thessalonians, chapter
2. Verse 7, For the mystery of iniquity
doth already work. Only he who letteth will let
until he be taken out of the way. Then shall the wicked be
revealed. whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness
of his coming, even him who is coming after the working of Satan
with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness, in them that perish." He's talking about the
Antichrist, but also he that is in them. He's only using what's
in them. Wickedness. Sin. And what's going
to happen to them all? They'll all perish. Why? Why shall men perish? Look, because, because they received not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. What is that? They
did not believe the gospel. This is the reason for the severity
of God. They did not believe the gospel. You that are under the sound
of my voice, I want you to see the severity of God. I want you
to understand it. Because it's real. It's true.
I'm not trying to get you... This is what religion does. They
try to make you be so afraid and so fearful that you make
some emotional decision out of fear. That's not going to work.
It never works. All I'm doing is displaying a
true characteristic of God, that God will punish sin. And not
just, not just high sin. You say, oh well the murderers
and rapists and, no, all liars. Anybody lie? Shall have their part in a lake
of fire which burneth forever and ever. Behold the severity of God on
all who continue to rest in their refuge of lies. If you're trusting
in yourself, listen to me, you have sealed yourself up in a
refuge of lies. That's what you've done. You
said, you say the overflowing scourge of God's justice is not
going to get me. I'm a good person. I'm not bad
like these other people. Surely God would be kind to me. Listen, if you trust in your
works, you will be cut off. You will be consumed. You will
experience the severity of God yourself. Remember when the Lord
said in Matthew 25, when He gathers all men together, the sheep on
His right hand, the goats on His left hand, and He says to
the to the sheep. He says, Come, you blessed of
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. Why? You're righteous! And they say
what? Lord, when were we ever righteous? Then He turns to the weak and
He said, Depart from Me, you that work in iniquity. And He
said, Lord, when were we not righteous? That was their answer. When I was hungry, you didn't
feed me. When I was sick and in prison, you didn't visit me.
And they said, Lord, when do we not do those things for you?
And he says this to them, Depart from me, you that work iniquity.
What did he say about their righteousness? What did he say about their good
works? In that day, what is he going to say about your good
works? Their iniquity. Their sin. You that work iniquity. Your
righteousness is nothing but sin. And the root sin is this,
unbelief. I want you to see that. The roots
of all sin is unbelief. Why do you lie? If you lie, why
is it? Because you're afraid of the
truth. You don't believe the truth will
serve you. So you do what? You lie. It's
unbelief. People who commit adultery, why
do they do that? Because they don't believe that
God's design will satisfy them. They want to go elsewhere. Unbelief. Why do men reject the gospel?
I mean, is there anything more gloriously wonderful than free
salvation? And yet men despise it. I will
not have a free salvation. Really? Yet why do they despise
the gospel? Because they don't believe God
is God. They believe they're God. They believe that they can also
have a part in this. And thus they reject the gospel.
This sin of unbelief is the damning sin. And all sin is worthy of
hell, but the final and fatal sin is this, they would not believe
the Son of God. And so then, God's punishment
of sin is the punishment of your sin.
You're not going to be able to blame God for your sin. Look
at Romans 2. Look at Romans 2. Verse 6. When God judges you,
He will judge you based on your works. Who will render every
man according to his deeds. To them who are by patient continuance
and well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality and
eternal life. Now that's something none of
us do by nature. But unto them that are contentious,
and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation,
and wrath, tribulation, and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth
evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." This is saying
this, whether you believe it or not, God is holy. and he must punish all sin. Listen to me, he will punish
all sin. And the root of this is unbelief.
Now you say to me, well preacher, listen, you say this all the
time, no man has the ability to believe on Christ. No man
can believe on God, Christ, except God come and give him grace to
believe. That's exactly what I preached
to you. Why? Because that's exactly what Jesus
said. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. No man is able. No man has the ability to come
to God. And then you say, well, how then
can he be responsible? We've already answered that in
past messages if you want to look back and Romans chapter
9, the apostle answers that question, who are you to reply against
God? That's the first answer. But what I'm talking about is
not ability, but responsibility. This is of vital importance.
Simply because man has no ability, doesn't dismiss his responsibility. When man fell, did God lose His
right to demand perfection? That's what you're saying. That
somehow, because man sinned and man died spiritually, that God
somehow lost His right to demand perfection. God did not lose
His right. It is the responsibility of every
man to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because God commands
it. The scripture says, God commandeth
all men everywhere to repent. Our Lord Jesus Christ preaching
to those people before Him, some were His people and some were
not, and yet He preached to them all. And He said, the time is
fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent you. and believe the gospel. Friends, justice is coming. Justice is coming. And listen to me, it's severe. It's perfect. It's holy. And I'll tell you, even today,
all around us lost souls are falling off into hell as I speak
to you. And so as an ambassador for Christ,
I do beseech you, you, be you reconciled to God. And I'm going
to give you grounds for this. I'm going to give you a reason
why you should be reconciled, for God hath made Him to be sin
for us. There's a reason right there.
Because Christ bore our sins in His own body, on the tree.
He, for He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we, who
only knew sin, who only deserve the justice of God, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's how one is
reconciled. So hear the words of God. God
will punish all sin. But see how God commends us in
His grace, appealing to our hearts. He says, I'm going to punish
sin, and therefore you should repent. Is that not a reasonable
statement? Anything unreasonable about that?
God says this, why will you die? Why will you die? Turn and live. What He says, look unto Me, Christ says, and
be you saved. From what? What are we saved
from? Have you ever thought about that? You say, well, I'm saved
from hell and I'm saved from burning and pain and suffering
of eternity. You're saved from God. You are saved from the divine
justice of God that you deserve. Look into me and be you saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. But the question is, how then
could God be just and still show goodness? How can he show kindness? How can he show grace to someone
who is really guilty? Yet he displays it here by the
Gentiles, the Gentiles who were by nature the vilest of people,
the worst of people. And yet God showed upon them
not severity, but goodness. How could this be? How could
this be? To them which believe not fails
severity, but to those that believe, God shows goodness. And I want
you to know that this goodness that God shows is not what men
think goodness is. Men think goodness is having
a good life, or a smooth life, or a healthy life, and all those
things, we don't deny they're good, they are, but this is not
the goodness of God that is displayed here. The goodness of God is
in a person. The display of God's goodness
is only in Jesus Christ. If you want to see God's goodness,
you can only see it there. If you try to find God's goodness,
trace it out. Providence. It's what we do,
don't we? We try to trace providence and try to find God's goodness.
We don't. Everything's going well and phew! Takes a right hand turn. Everything
seems to be so straight and all of a sudden it's crooked. You
say, how can that be good? You can't trace God's goodness
out by that. God's goodness is only seen in His Son. Go to Titus.
Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3 and verse 3. I'm getting the right book. That
would be the reason. Here it is. For we ourselves
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts
and pleasures, living in malice, envy, hateful and hating one
another." Now listen, if anybody deserved the severity of God,
we did. This is the confession of everyone
who believes. But, after that the kindness, that
word could be translated goodness, after the goodness and love of
God our Savior toward men appeared. When God came to you, you were
in your darkness. You were only deserving the severity
of God. But then when God revealed to
you Christ, when the goodness of God finally was revealed to
us, in the new birth. The light shined out of darkness. Well, how did this happen? Look,
He's going to give us a negative. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. But according to His mercy, He
saved us. Who did the saving? He saved us by works Oh, by grace,
by mercy, means by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, by giving us spiritual life, creating in
us a new and holy nature, which He shed upon us abundantly, here's
the means, through Jesus Christ our Lord. that being justified by His grace,
we should be, that better translated must be, must be made heirs to
the hope of eternal life. The goodness of God is only displayed
in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the only place you're
going to find the goodness of God on display. We deserve the wrath and severity
of God, but behold, God sent his son. He sent him to be our
federal head, our high priest, our surety. When the angels came and announced
it to those shepherds, he said in Luke chapter 2, he says, we
bring you glad tidings of good things. Unto you is born this day, in
the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord. He is the manifestation
of all God's goodness. And we who have seen His goodness,
we worship Him, we sing to the glory of God in the highest.
Peace on earth. Do you understand that that doesn't
mean that everybody's going to get along? That's what the world
thinks about that statement, peace on earth. No, he was saying
peace on earth is saying Christ on earth. Christ is a peace. Christ is the one by which the
severity of God is dealt with concerning his people. He made
peace. You know the scripture says those
shepherds made haste. They got up in the middle of
the night and they ran. They ran to find Him. They ran
because they knew He was the Savior had been born. Behold
the goodness of God in the life of Christ. When you want to see
the goodness of God, you behold the life of Christ. You see how
He endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself and
by this He obtained righteousness for us. I told you God is holy
and He's not going to accept you except you be righteous.
You have to have righteousness. You and I confess that we can't
have it on our own. I confess this, I can't even
contribute to it. Behold the goodness of God that
God made provision for us. He made righteousness for us.
How? By Jesus Christ. came into this world as a man,
isn't that a sign of God's goodness? That he became a man and in humility
suffered? He was despised and rejected,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Nowhere else is the goodness
of God displayed except in Jesus Christ. Behold the goodness of God, and
consider him that endured such suffering for us. And not only
his life, but behold the goodness of God in his death. We did that,
we went over that Wednesday when Peter The Lord said, I must go
to Jerusalem and suffer and die. And you know what Peter said?
God, Lord, be that far from you. Don't go and die. And the Lord said, you don't savor
the things that be of God. The only way, this is the only
way, the answer to that question we began with. How can God be
just? How can He be severe and show mercy? How is that possible?
This is the only way. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world not just to provide our righteousness, but to die
under the sentence of God's severity. Behold the goodness of God, the
wrath of God. You want to see God's wrath?
You have to look at the cross. That when our sin was made to
meet on His only Son, severity fell on Him. Wrath fell on Him
without mercy. as He bore our sins in His own
body. And by His substitutionary death,
in the place of God's elect, we may behold the goodness of
God. In Romans 8, in verse 2, For the law of the Spirit of
life hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what
the law could not do in the weakness of the flesh, God sending His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, listen, condemned
sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us. You see how then God might show us mercy? How God might
display His kindness and goodness to us is that Christ endured
the severity. He paid the price. He paid the
penalty. And therefore we believe that
He alone is all my righteousness. You that believe, is He not all
your righteousness? Or do you still have somewhat
to contribute? Anything to contribute, anything to add? No. We believe in His righteousness.
Any offering that you want to make besides His? Anything you want to offer? to
contribute to His blood and His death? No. Why would we? The scripture says,
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's what
Christ did. Behold the goodness of God. The goodness of God in removing
His severity. The goodness of God in Christ
enduring the severity so that we might receive the goodness. Therefore this is true. The goodness
of God will be manifest to all His elect. Severity fell on the Jewish nation,
but not completely, because there were the elect. And I tell you, among our nations,
the Gentiles, there is still an elect people. And I know this, that the goodness
of God will meet His people, and they will believe, without
exception. The goodness of God, they'll
see it. They'll see the goodness of God in Christ, and they will
believe. This is the work of God the Holy Spirit on every
one of His elect. He comes to them and gives them
faith, and they will believe. And not only this, this goodness
is not a one-time act. It's a constant act. This goodness
that God has given us in Christ is a perpetual goodness. It never
ceases. It never ceases. The Scripture
tells us that we who believe, this is my hope every single
day, that I'm kept. I see the goodness of God in
the life of Christ, in the death of Christ, and in the resurrection
of Christ. Remember, the resurrection proves that it's finished. God ascended, He ascended to
the right hand of God where He now sits on the throne, moving
all things after the counsel of His own will, for the purpose
of showing His goodness to His people. And when He shows you
His goodness, He will continually be good to you in this fact.
He will keep you. Nothing will move you. He said,
I know My sheep, and have known of Mine. They follow Me, and
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. Now is that true?
Is there any way that God, you would ever be removed from His
hand? Is there anything that should
move you? Is that not goodness? On you fell the goodness And not only this, God says,
I'm not only going to keep you, but I'm going to help you. He says, I will help you. You need help as a believer. Does any believer need help?
I had a phone call from a lady
that she says, I just try to pray. I get tired, or I fall asleep,
or I don't know what to say, or I don't know what to do. You know what a good prayer for
me is this? Help. I'm sure you can say that before
you fall asleep. I will help. I will strengthen. Need strength? Need strength? I will strengthen. I will be with you. Is that something you need? You need Him to be with you. He says, I will be with you.
Now how can He do all these things for me? Seeing He is a just God,
and I am a sinner, how can this be? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Behold Christ, the goodness of
God, on display. He's all my righteousness. He's
all my atonement for sin. He's all my acceptance with God. And so we who believe Him, we
know He is the source of all the goodness of God toward me.
And if you are outside of Christ, listen to me, you will only receive
the severity of God. I'm just stating a truth, a fact,
not conjecture. This is true. If you remain in
unbelief, you will die in your sins. If peradventure God gives you
faith and repentance, you will see clearly that Jesus Christ
is the goodness of God towards sinners. That's what I see when
I hear Him. That's exactly what I see. He
is all the goodness of God. And I have hope. I'm troubled
just like you. I have difficulties just like
you. I have struggles and strifes, and this flesh is constantly
at warfare within my own soul. But my hope of overcoming these
things is only found in His power, in His grace, in His goodness. And I'm thankful for the justice
of God. I am. You know why? Because God's just. Listen to this. He cannot demand
twice payment for sin. Isn't that a good thing? Christ
has already paid for my sin, so He will not ever demand it
of me. That's good. That's good. Behold then the
goodness and severity of God. I pray God bless this to you. Stand and be dismissed in prayer. Holy Father, thank you. Thank
you for your mercies and kindness to us. Thank you for sending your spirit.
Thank you for the grace and liberty to preach the gospel of Christ,
to declare that he is the goodness of God, sent toward sinners. Oh, Father, if there'd be anybody
outside of Christ, that you'd be gracious and give life And if any of your people are
distressed, I pray you would help them. Comfort them with
this message. For if you've given us your son,
how shall you not with him freely give us all things that he has
provided? Forgive us our sins and our unbelief.
We pray these things in Christ's name.