If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Psalm 31. Psalm chapter 31. And tonight, we're going to be
looking particularly at verse 19. Psalm chapter 31 and verse
19. The title of the message is, The comfort of God's goodness.
The comfort of God's goodness. Let's read this text together.
Psalm 31, verse 19. Oh, how great is thy goodness,
which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast
wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men." I have three points tonight from
this message, and this text could be easily divided into these
three points. And you'll see them as we go
through this. Very simply, it is God's goodness,
and goodness that is laid up, and goodness that is wrought.
God's goodness, God's goodness that's laid up, and God's goodness
that is wrought. First of all, God's goodness.
God's great goodness. Oh, how great is Thy goodness. God only is essentially good. Essentially good. Before God
created anything, when God dwelt in eternity all by Himself, God
was good. He was good all by Himself before
anything was created. He was absolutely and perfectly
good. God is goodness itself. God is goodness itself. For he
has never obtained any goodness from anyone else. If there was
a creature higher than God, who bestowed goodness on God, then
God would not be God. Whoever bestowed the goodness
would be. But that's not true of our God. Our God is essentially
good in Himself. He always was perfect and the
best. He is the best being. God is essentially good and goodness
only belongs to Him. He is completely, absolutely,
perfectly and utterly good alone. He by Himself is good. Oh, how great is the goodness
of God! If you remember in Matthew chapter
19, the Lord Jesus Christ was approached by that rich young
ruler. And the rich young ruler came to him and said, good master,
what must I do to inherit eternal life? I'll tell you what, most
preachers today would have seen that as a great opportunity.
A great opportunity. But the Lord knew the motive
of his heart. He said, Why callest thou me
good? There is none good but one, God. You see, this man did not recognize
Jesus to be God. And therefore Christ asked him,
He said, Why are you calling me good when you have no idea
who I am? Jesus was not denying His own
goodness, but He was exposing this man's lack of understanding
concerning who He was, that He was God manifest in the flesh.
Friends, God is the chiefest good and there is no good thing
or good person outside of His goodness. There is nothing good outside
of Him. In other words, He is the fountainhead
of all goodness. If there is any goodness in this
world, if there is any goodness that can be experienced or felt
or known, it flows from God Himself. He is the chiefest good. And so then all goodness, the
psalmist says, is thy goodness." Friends, God is good. God is good. Well, how then is
this goodness manifest? Well, first of all, it's manifest
in creation. God's goodness is manifest in
His creation. You see, if God had created nothing,
He would not be any less good. He would still be good, wouldn't
He? But God, in His own will, of
His own sovereign goodness, He purposed to create. He purposed
to create all things that are made and He did it for Himself. This is the mistake of men. They
think God is there for them. Friends, we are here for Him.
He made all things for Himself. That's what the Scripture says.
The Scripture says in Proverbs 16, 4. Proverbs 16, 4. The Lord hath made all things
for Himself. And listen to this. Yea, even
the wicked, even the wicked, God made for Himself. God allows
these things for Himself, for His own glory. When God created the heavens
and the earth, the sun, moon, and stars, the angelic host,
and man, what did God say about His creation? He said, Behold,
it is very good. Now, I can't say that about anything
I do. When I do something, I'm sure
that there's some mistake in it somewhere. But God, being
essentially good when He created, He could create nothing but good. Nothing but good. And so when Adam, our father,
was in his holy state, when the first man was created, he was
created holy and upright and good. But where did he get that
from? You see, Adam was not essentially
good. Adam did not have goodness in
himself, but his goodness was derived from God. He received
goodness. And that's how it is with all
creation. If there is any goodness, it
must be received of God. He must give goodness, or there
is no goodness. And if God made Adam in his own
image and Adam needed the goodness of God, how much more do we after
the fall? How much more now that sin has
entered into this world? How much more do we need the
goodness of God? We need the goodness of God. If there's any good that a man
can receive, if there's any happiness of life, any pleasures in experience,
if there's any good, it all must come from the gift of God Himself. James says that all things, every
good and perfect gift, cometh down from the Father of lights
in whom there is no bearableness nor shadow of turning. Every
good thing, everything. All men that live and move and
have their being in God must confess, that's a good thing. How many people do I come across,
a lot of people, and I say, how are you doing today? They say,
well, I'm above ground. They think it's good to be above
ground, so that's good. It's good if you're breathing
today, isn't it? Where'd that come from? Do you
breathe on your own? Or does God give you breath?
God gives it to you. God gives it to you. He gives
us life and breath. He gives us the food we eat,
the clothes we wear, the mind and reasoning that we have. It
all flows from the goodness of God. If we're smart, if you have any
intellect at all, you know that comes from God. That comes from
Him to allow you to be that way. I know that there are a lot of
people that have trouble studying, that have trouble with intellect
or reasoning. If we have these things, it's of
God. You're in Psalms? Flip over to Psalm 145. Psalm
145 and verse 9. Let's look at verse 8 and we'll
go down. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow
to anger and of great mercy. Notice this, the Lord is good
to who? To all. To all. and His tender mercies
are over all His works." What does that mean? It means that
God is good to all. That's what it means. It means
that God is good to everyone. His tender mercies are upon everyone. He maketh the sun to rise on
the just as well as the unjust, doesn't He? It's His Son. And yet every morning it rises. And you know, you set your clock
to it. They know when the sun's going
to rise tomorrow. If it comes up at all, they'll know exactly
what time it is. Why? God's faithful to bring
that sun up every morning. He's faithful. And that sun feels
good, doesn't it? I walked outside today and the
sun just hit me. And it felt good. Well, you know
what? It felt just as good to the evil
man who walked out in the sun today too. It's God's Son. He makes it to rise on all men.
The fact that God does not send all men to hell at birth is a
good thing. Isn't it? Is not that graciousness? Is that not longsuffering with
man? It is. I'll tell you, if we suffer throughout
this whole life, if we live a life of complete suffering, is it
not less than what we deserve? Sin deserves everlasting damnation,
and yet God allows us to still be born into His world to breathe
His air. God is gracious to all men everywhere
in that He gives them life and breath. and not hail from birth."
That's long-suffering. That's graciousness. Well, pastor,
if God is so good, then how come there's evil? How come there
is evil in the world? Well, because God is essentially
good, we know that God is not the author of evil. God did not
create evil. Nor can we say that God can tempt
any man with evil. God doesn't tempt men with evil.
We are drawn away of our own lusts, the Scripture says. If something sinful comes along
and I'm drawn after it, it is because of my sin, not because
of God. I can't blame God for my sin.
It's mine. It's the only thing I've got.
It's the only thing we've got as humans is sin. But I'll tell you this, God allowed
sin to enter into His creation by divine permission. By divine
permission. You see, God is light and in
Him is no darkness at all. Now, I've never seen a perfect
light like that. Every light that we have even
casts shadows, doesn't it? But He is a perfect light, and
He doesn't have any evil. And yet He allows sin. Why? That He might manifest His goodness
in overruling it. That's why. God always overrules
sin for good. Why? He's essentially good. The Scripture says in Amos 3,
6, there is no evil in a city that the Lord hath not done it. Let me illustrate this from a
Bible from the Scriptures. You remember Joseph and how he
was sold by his brothers into slavery and went into Egypt.
Now his brothers hated him before they sold him, didn't they? They
hated him. They desired nothing more than
to do away with Joseph. He was their father's favorite
son. And they were envious of him.
And they wanted to destroy him. And one day they had their opportunity. Here comes Joseph in his nice
coat that his dad had given him. And they're all jealous and angry
at him. And they said, ah, let's get
him. Let's throw him in a pit. and kill him. And one of the brothers said,
no, let's not kill him, let's just sell him to the slave traders
that came by. What they did was evil. They committed sin in selling
their brother into slavery. They did exactly what they wanted
to do. But God allowed them to do what
they wanted to because He had a purpose for Joseph. Joseph
was to go to Egypt and God raised him up to be second in command
to Pharaoh so that he might save those wicked brothers and his
father from famine. You remember there was seven
years famine there. And his dad and his brothers
were starving. And they had to go to Egypt where
Joseph was in control of all things. You see, God overruled them. And Joseph said to his brothers,
you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And that's
what God does with evil all the time. He always overrules evil
to save His people, to do good. To do good. God who determined to show His
goodness shall always overrule sin. And listen to me, if you're
a believer in Christ, listen. God even overrules our sin. Isn't that great? God even overrules
our sin for our own good. He does. Constantly we think,
well, this is the best thing for me. And then we come to find
out it's not. But somehow God always turns
that to our favor. Always. Well, God manifests His
goodness to all men in providence and in creation. But in this text, We see how
God manifests His goodness by His grace to a very specific
people. A particular people. Look at this. Oh, how great is
Thy goodness. Back in your text, verse 19.
Oh, how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up. You see, there is a goodness
that is laid up for who? For them that fear Thee. For
them that fear Thee. God has laid up a goodness that
is different from all the goodness that He bestows upon all men.
This is a particular goodness of grace. Of grace. It is a goodness that is laid
up. Now this word, these two words
laid up, they mean to store. Like you would put grain in a
barn house. They also mean to reserve. To
reserve. Or to be favorable and protect. To be favorable to and protect. It was the heart of God in goodness
to store up all the blessings, all of His mercy, all of His
love, all of His treasures of salvation in one sure, safe place,
in His Son. God laid up all the blessings
of salvation in Jesus Christ and nowhere else. God laid up and secured and reserved
all spiritual blessings for the objects of His grace to manifest
His goodness to them. Look at Ephesians chapter 1.
Ephesians chapter 1, you know it well. Ephesians 1, verse 3, "...Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings." How many spiritual blessings
is that? All of them. Whatever that entails, it is
all God's blessings. Whatever God has to bless man,
He laid it up in Christ for us, for His elect people. In Jesus Christ alone dwells
all the fullness of God's goodness to His elect people. And this was given to them and
laid up for them in Christ from all eternity. These were His
chosen children and they were supported by Christ. They were
made sure by Christ. He was their surety and Savior. In Colossians chapter 2 and verse
3, in whom in Christ is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You see, God, in the eternal
covenant of grace, laid up all the blessings of His elect in
His Son, and He made a promise. It was the promises of God were
in Christ, and the Scripture says they are yea and amen in
Him. These promises of God are immutable. They are perfect and they are
just. They're right. So much so that God, who promised
and cannot lie, did more than promise, He swore by Himself.
God said this, All my elect, I put all their salvation in
Christ. And Christ agreed to be their
representative. When? Way back yonder. Way back in
eternity, God did this. God laid up, He stored up all
the blessings of salvation in Christ. And not only that, He
swore by it. He signed His name to it. So then the promises of God were
laid up in Christ. What are these promises? I don't
have time to go into all the promises. There are so many promises. I want to just look at three.
Just three. The promise of righteousness.
The promise of righteousness. Now, we were not born in a righteous
state. We were born dead in trespasses
and sins. We were born haters of God. And
I'll tell you, any man that does not believe in Christ, he is
a hater of God. He is a hater of God. And He
is unrighteous and evil in every thought, word, and deed. Proverbs
21 verse 4 says, The plowing of the wicked is evil. What does
that mean? Plowing is good, but if I touch it, it's evil. It's
wicked. Everything I do has sin mixed
with it. But all of God's elect who are
in Christ have righteousness from all eternity, according to the good pleasure
of His will. The Scripture says He hath chosen
us in Christ that we should be holy and without blame before
Him. He chose us to be holy. He chose us to be righteous. When? In eternity. He laid up
righteousness for us in Christ. Second of all, forgiveness. It was by the goodness of God
that He put His elect in Christ, who is said to be the Lamb slain
from before the foundation of the world. When Christ agreed
to be our representative, He agreed to be the surety for our
sins. He agreed that He would be the
Redeemer of His elect people, that He would pay for their sins. When? In eternity. And God laid
up our forgiveness in Him from all eternity. Hebrews chapter 7 says this,
He is the surety of a better covenant. A better covenant than
what? Works. Works. He is a surety
for a better covenant. A covenant of grace. And it was
laid up for us. Forgiveness was laid up in eternity.
And eternal life was laid up for us. God purposed that we
should forever be with Him, and He laid that up, He stored it
up in Christ before the world began. He purposed it. He declared
it. Titus 1.2 says, "...in hope of
eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the
world began." This righteousness, forgiveness
and eternal life was laid up in Christ and not because of
the good of the elect, but because of the goodness of God. You see,
God didn't look at me and say, well, hey, he's going to be a
pretty good fellow. I'll lay up eternal life, righteousness
and forgiveness for him. No. God looked at himself and
says, I'm good, I'm going to lay this up because I desire
to. Because I purpose to. And these that are laid up in
Christ, and every one for whom these good things are reserved,
they shall be revealed. God not only purposed to lay
these things up, but He purposed to reveal these things. How then
is the goodness of God manifest? How does God manifest His goodness
toward all men, toward His elect? He not only laid it up, He worked
it out. That's how. He worked it out. He did it. He accomplished it. Little track in the back, I only
got one of them now. It's called, Do and Done. These are the two religions.
Do and Done. If you have to do something for
your salvation, You belong in works religion. That's where
you are. But we don't believe that we have to do anything.
We believe it is done, that God worked out all that He purposed
to do for us in eternity. He worked it out by Jesus Christ. He laid us up in Christ and He
worked out our salvation by Christ. By Christ. Going back to Ephesians
1, it says, "...according as He that had chosen us in Him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before Him, in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the blood, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace." He did that by
Christ. Not only in Christ, but by Him. He worked it out, His goodness,
by His Son bringing in righteousness. He not only purposed our righteousness,
He did it. He did it. When Jesus Christ came into this
world, He honored God's law above measure. Most folks are just barely trying
to get by, aren't they? They're just barely trying to
make it into heaven by the skin of their teeth. They say, oh,
if I could just do this, I'm just going to make it barely
in. No, not me. Christ not only obeyed the law
barely, He excelled in the law. He magnified the law and honored
it in every thought, word, and deed. He didn't just do the bare
minimum. He magnified it. The Scripture
says, Isaiah 42, 4, He shall not fail nor be discouraged.
Failed and discouraged in what? In magnifying the law. In honoring
it. In verse 21 of that same chapter
in Isaiah 42, it says, The Lord was well pleased for His righteousness
sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. And He has. He's done it. He's
done it. For who? for everyone that God
put in Him in eternity. That's who. He honored that law
and perfected it. And He brought in an everlasting
righteousness. Second of all, we see the goodness
of God not only in the life of His Son, but the death of His
Son. Jesus was delivered by the counsel
of God and His soul was made an offering for sin. His soul was made an offering
for sin. Why? Because God could not be
just and justify the ungodly without payment. God can't be
just and forgive sin unless sin is paid for. It must be paid. Sin must be punished. And God
in goodness sent His Son so that He might suffer in the stead
of the guilty. God, not willing to impute our
sins unto us, imputed them to His Son and made Him guilty for
the sins of His people and God punished Him. in their stead. God punished him. We were redeemed by His blood. If God purposed it but He didn't
accomplish it, what good would that be? But God purposed it
and accomplished it. And to show everybody that He
was well pleased, He raised His Son from the dead and sat Him
on the throne of God. And now He rules over all things
by the Word of His power. Jesus Christ is risen from the
dead and He sits on the throne and rules all things for the
good of His people. And we see the goodness of God
that was wrought by Christ in not only bringing in righteousness,
not only does His blood cause God to forgive our sins, but He also gives us eternal
life. Go to John 17. John chapter 17. Verse 1, And these words spake Jesus,
and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is
come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee, as Thou hast given Him power over all
flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast
given Him. How many are going to receive
eternal life? As many as the Father gave Him. They shall receive eternal life. How is this eternal life? How
does a man come to know if he has eternal life, if he has righteousness,
if he has forgiveness of sins? How can he know? Only by the
power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit must come and give
us life and faith in Christ. And He does this for all of God's
elect. Everyone that God laid up, righteousness,
forgiveness and eternal life, everyone for whom Christ died,
shall come to faith in Christ by the goodness of God. The elect of God were purposed
of God to receive the blessings of God. Jesus Christ accomplished
them and the Holy Spirit shall reveal them. You know, God, I
was always righteous in the eyes of God, but I'll tell you this,
I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know anything about
it. Everything God has done, He will
bring to the experience of His people. If you've not come to
faith in Christ, you have no right to say that, that God laid
that up for you. You have no right to say Christ
died for you unless you've come to faith in Christ by the gift
of the Spirit. And this is a powerful thing. It's not something that we can
muster up ourselves. It's something that God must
give us. It's something that God must
do for us and in us. He must create something. A new
nature. A new heart. A heart that loves
Him. A heart that wants to serve Him.
A new nature that is holy and righteous as God Himself. And He does this by His goodness. You know, the more I read the
Psalms, the more I see the person of Christ in the psalms. In this psalm, it is a psalm
of Christ. In that verse 5, it says, "...into
Thy hands commit My Spirit." Is that not what Christ said
on the cross? Yes. And even while He was forsaken
of God, Even while men spit on Him, He still said, Great is
Thy goodness. Even in the midst of His suffering
and agony, our Savior still recognized the goodness of God. Even so
should we if we have come to faith in Christ. If we believed
in Christ, we should recognize God's goodness in everything.
He's good no matter what. Our circumstances don't determine
God's goodness. Our situation does not determine
if God is good or not. God is always good. And if we
would remember that God laid up for us salvation in Christ,
that God accomplished salvation in Christ, and God wrought a
new nature of salvation in us, we should be thankful every day
for God's goodness. God is good, no matter what. No matter what. Therefore, let us praise the
goodness of God and let us remember His goodness for us. That God
is essentially good. That God laid up our salvation
in eternity in Christ. That God did everything that
is necessary to bring us to Himself. And God is right now working
all things for our good. Everything. Pastor, I'm sick. That's good. I don't know how. But God is good. God is good in everything He
does. And we must remember that God will always overrule evil
to bring it to our good. Always. Always. Friends, God is truly good. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.