I want to speak to you on the
goodness of God. The goodness of God. From verse 4, King James, Or
despisest thou the riches of His goodness? The riches of His goodness and
His forbearance and His longsuffering. How many of you know that God
has been all of those to you? Forbearing, good, and longsuffering. Let me put it a different way.
How many of you really, really know God should have killed you
a long time ago? There we go. Now we got it. Forbearance of
God. Not knowing that the goodness
of God leads you to repentance. God does not bring people to
repentance through legalism. You can have all the rules in
the world. Rules are for the breaking. Amen. It is human nature. It is man's
nature to disobey. We are born totally depraved
creatures. It's just natural for us to do
what we're not supposed to do. That's why you have to be born
again. I remember 28, 29 years ago when I came to Grace
Centers of Hope Pontiac Rescue Mission, all men. There were
no women and children. Basically, all men. And they
had the Ten Commandments posted all over the mission. that thou
shalt not. And I'd been there about two
weeks, and they arrested 27 guys out of the big dorm who had a
car theft ring going. We had fed, clothed, and sheltered
them for three years. They ate our food, slept in our
beds, and stole our cars. But we had the Ten Commandments
on the wall. The problem with the Ten Commandments
is simply this. It's not to make you better.
It's to cause you to see you have a dirty heart. You have
a dirty heart. You're not grateful. You're not
thankful. You're not appreciative. And
you don't acknowledge God as the Creator. And that's what
Paul says in chapter 1 of Romans and verse 22, professing themselves
to be wise. They became fools. and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image and made like
corruptible man to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping
things. In other words, instead of worshiping
the true God that has made Himself manifest through the stars and
the skies and the sun and creation, creation declares there's a God.
There's really no such thing as a heart atheist. There's only
verbal atheists. And the atheist, against all
evidence, denies a God and makes Him a bird or a cow or something
of his own choosing. He carves out a wood and worships
and bows before a God that he himself creates. That's the depravity
of man. So, legalism does not bring us
to repentance. What is it that really saves
the sinner? What is it that a sinner sees
that causes him to repent? To turn from his evil ways? What
is it that will sanctify you? You know, people get baptized
and do the same things they did before they got baptized. So
it's not water baptism. There is no hocus pocus that
a priest or rabbi or pope can give you that's going to change
you from the inside. Only God can do that. And when
He does that, you begin to acknowledge the goodness of God. And it keeps
you repenting. That's what sanctifies us. Not
legalism. Not threats. Not even the knowledge
that without Christ you'll go to hell. Really, what sanctifies
us is God's so good. God's been so good. God's been
so good to me. Now, Paul here does not speak
in general, but is intensely personal. He has his eye on a
single person. And in the King James, he speaks
to him as the And thou art inexcusable, verse
1, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest another. Have you
noticed that about religious people? I think especially about
religious people that don't know Christ. They're quick to judge
other people and judge them being guilty of the very same thing
that they're judging the others for. Hypocrites, we might say. religious Pharisees. The Pharisees thought themselves
better than others. They quoted Scriptures. They
had Scriptures written on the hem of their garments and on
their sleeves. And they were religious. And
when they were going to... By the way, it was not the harlots
and the drug addicts that killed Jesus. It was the Pharisees. The self-righteous. The goodness of God. Have you ever seen yourself a
sinner? If you've never seen yourself a sinner, you've never
seen the goodness of God. It's in the Gospel of Jesus Christ
that you see the goodness of God. And you began to see His
goodness once you've seen His goodness one time and trusted
Jesus Christ. and bowed to Him as Lord and
Savior, you continually repent because you continually sin and
fall short because in your flesh dwells no good thing. And it's
the goodness of God that breaks your heart. And so the Apostle
points out this person in an individual way. It's such a blessing
when men and women begin to think of themselves in this manner. It's not my brother or my sister,
but it's me, O Lord, standing in the knee of prayer. If you
hear the Gospel in a general way, it will profit you nothing. But if you personally touch the
hem of His garments, like the woman in the Gospels with the
issue of blood, though He's bumping shoulders with others in the
crowd, you personally will be made whole. It takes a personal
touch. You have to be a personal sinner
lost and undone. And it's only through sinnership
that you come to know you need a Savior. If you're not a sinner,
Jesus didn't die for you. He only died for sinners. I've got a feeling you are, though. Note the apostle singles out
this individual who had condemned others for transgressions in
which he himself indulged. There's so much hypocrisy in
religion. The greatest mission field in
the world today is the church. There's more hypocrites in the
church, more lost people in the church judging other people.
I'm constantly hearing this. Those who attend this church,
for the most part, are those people. Addicts are those people. People who have failed are those
people. God bless you, Pastor, for what
you're doing for those people. But this Bible declares there
is no difference. All have sinned and missed the
mark. This man had enough light to
know right from wrong and used his knowledge to judge others. If you're in here, you know right
from wrong. That's why I say there's no atheist. You know
there's a God. The psalmist said, the fool has
said in his heart, no God for me. There is a difference between
saying no God, there is no God, and there is no God for me. It
shows outright rebellion. The heavens declare the glory
of God. Affirmaments declare the glory of God. I've learned
this over 50 years of preaching that all men think all men guilty
but themselves. I've learned that. Consider,
dear friend, your own personal sin. Will not God judge you? Do you think you're different?
That God will not judge you for your personal sin? May God save us all from this
fatal infatuation with self. Once you begin to downplay your
own sin and magnify the sin of others, you'll think lightly
of the goodness and forbearance and longsuffering of God. Once
you start playing it down, I'm not much of a sinner. A little
bit. I've used crack, but I haven't
used heroin, praise God. Once you begin, you feel no gratitude
toward the One who is good to you. Forbearing and long-suffering
with you. Think about the riches of His
goodness to you. Just think about it. I don't
care who you are. Whether you're over at Grace
Centers of Hope and you've only been clean a week. I don't care
who you are. Or you live in Birmingham. Think
about how God's been good to you. You're breathing His air. Walking on His earth. Eating
His food. Driving his car. You've got a
good job. You've got enough sense to play
the radio. That's a good thing. The goodness of God. Have you
accumulated great wealth? Some of you in here have. Some
of you are tremendously successful. God has permitted you to be a
winner in the race for wealth. You're wealthy. Well, at least
one or two of you in here. Or think about this. You have
health. Think what it means to have health. You have vigor of mind. You have
comforts. This is true of so many who do
not love God and have never responded to the riches of His grace. Don't
you know you have what you have and are what you are by the grace
of God? That it's God's gift to you?
It's His unmerited favor? You could have been in an insane
asylum. Am I right about that? Your business
could have turned the other way. You could be bankrupt. Think
of the opportunities. You have had of knowing Christ
and still you walk in darkness and in gratitude. You will not
claim Him as your Lord and Savior because you despise His goodness. You see, despising His goodness
is really sin. To ignore God. We used to sing
the little song and still sing it here sometimes. Thank You,
Lord, for saving my soul. Thank You, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank You, Lord, for giving to
me salvation so rich and free. Are You amazingly grateful and
thankful? And do You bow before Him and
own Him and love Him as Your God? Some of you have been like the
child who runs back to the fire. Think about how many times you've
relapsed. Just think about it. And God, you're still here. You
despise the riches and the goodness of God time after time and run
back to the fire. And yet, God has blessed you
with life. Should have been dead, sleeping in my grave. A long
time ago. But God is long-suffering. Many of you who are unbelievers
would long since have known what it is to fall into the hands
of an angry God had He not kept you alive. Think about it. Slipping out into eternity like
that. And I have learned over the past
eight weeks that death is real. and can happen to you and to
me at any moment. I'm glad I know Him. The hands
of an angry God. You know yourself, you wouldn't
keep a dog if it never followed at your heel. If it was always
snarling at you. Nipping at your heels. You wouldn't
keep a glass in the cupboard if it wouldn't hold water. If
it was no service to you, you'd throw it away. And yet, that's
exactly what God has done for you. He's kept you alive when
you're no good and you're rotten to the core. No matter where
your status is in life, you will not acknowledge Him. The goodness
of God that keeps you alive. I trust that tonight when you
go to bed, you'll hear Him say, I'll give you another good night's
rest so that in the morning you will turn from your sins and
believe on My Son. When you go to lunch today, hear
Him say in His goodness, I have to support your body. that still
you may have space for repentance. It's the goodness of God. You
will eat food. He will bless you to purchase
that food to strengthen your body. And you will not acknowledge
Him. His goodness is tugging at you
today to lead you to repentance. He says to you today, I have
given you health and wealth. I have sustained you. Will you
continue in disobedience to Me? Will you not acknowledge that
I am a good God and that salvation is by my grace and mercy? Will
you not say hallelujah? Thank you, Lord. Now I want to turn from the unbeliever. And I want to say things to you
who are believers. God is so good to you, believer. Think about His choosing you
long before you chose Him. His goodness is what has led
you to choose Him. He chose you, the Bible says,
before the foundation of the world. Read it. It's Ephesians 1.4, "...according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world."
And 2 Thessalonians 2.13, "...but we are bound to give thanks for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the
beginning chosen you." And then consider this, how good He is.
Why would He choose you? If you have a reason for that,
you probably don't know Him. Only those who are caught up
in the wonder, He chose me. Why would He choose me? It will
lead you to repentance. I'm chosen of God. Many have
said over 50 years of preaching that what I preach leads men
to sin. And I say this, I sin all I want. In fact, I sin more than I want.
In fact, I don't want to sin. I want to serve God because I
love God, because I know He first loved me. The message of grace
is not a message of what you merit. It's unmerited favor. It's undeserved favor. It's God not giving you what
you deserve. Not only He chose you, but think
how He sought you out. Some of you had such great hiding
places. All hunkered down in the crack
house. God sent the Holy Spirit to seek
you out of your lodibar. You didn't first find Him. And I know we say this. Among
evangelicals, we always say this, but it's not true. I found the
Lord. He wasn't lost. You were lost. And He left the
99 sheep and came seeking that one lost sheep that had gone
astray. And He found you. And think about this. When He
found you, what a mess you were. What a mess you were. Your mind
was all messed up. You actually thought you were
earning things yourself without God's goodness. You didn't understand
that He's the One that keeps you sane. He's the One that sustains
you. He's the One that opened doors
and closes doors. Think about how He sought you
out. and gave you life, born you again. The wind, the Bible
says, the wind blows where it pleases. So is everyone that's
born of the Spirit of God. You were born again by sovereign
grace. It wasn't anything you did. It
was sovereign regeneration. You were dead. And I know that
meaning now, too. Dead. Helpless. Hopeless. Ungodly. No life in
you. And He came to you when you would
not come to Him. And He said, Live! And spiritual
life was brought on the inside of you. Have you ever been born
again? I know. It's kind of an old-fashioned
term. But you must be born again. It's
still true. Something has to happen on the
inside of you that you can't make happen. It's the gift of
God. It's regeneration. It's the new
birth. It's the quickening. It's the giving of life. And
God's done that for you. Think about this. And He that
hath begun a good work in you will accomplish it. I know you
as a Christian have thought at times you were going under. But
it's not true. He that began the good work in
you Though you fell off the wagon. Though you're falling off the
wagon. Though you're messing up. You know why you as a Christian
don't quit? Because you can't. Because greater
is He that's in you than he that's in the world. I can't tell you
how many times I've quit. It's a good work. God begins
it. Think about the good gifts He's
given to you. James 1.17 says this, Every good and every perfect
gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights. Think about the gifts He's given
you. You're wearing shoes today. Some of you have a coat on today.
Pray for a new furnace. Amen. Think about God's gifts to you.
And He gives all His kids gifts. You're really good at something.
You really are. You have gifts. The Apostle in
Ephesians 1-3 says this, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us, with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. Have you thought about it? You
have a special gift. God's already bought them and
paid for them. Some of you who do not think
that you're going to amount to anything, God has something out
there that He purchased at Calvary for you. You can come up out of this.
You may be at the lowest of low right now. But think about this. Your God, the sovereign God,
the mighty God, has plans for you. He said in Jeremiah, I know
the plans I have for you, or the thoughts I have toward you,
and they are good and not evil. We can do all things through
Christ that strengtheneth us. Somebody ought to say amen in
here. You've got to quit playing this down. God's not through
with you. You're still under construction. Don't ever give up. Amen. And I know you won't because
you can't. I say this and I've realized
this more probably in my 50th year. Dream dreams. Dream dreams. In your lowest times, God's getting
you ready for something great. I believe that. I do believe
that. Think about this. You doubt so
much, but He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that you
ask. Are you asking? Are you thinking? He's able to do far more than
you think or ask. Think about it. I often think
about this and I pray this prayer. I want to be filled with the
fullness of God. The Bible says and the Apostle
Paul says that you might be filled with the fullness of God. What
do you think that would mean? I don't know. But I'm shooting
toward it. I want it. I want to find out
what it means to be filled with the fullness of God. I believe
this. It would be joy unspeakable and full of glory. I believe
this. If I was filled with the fullness
of God, I would not say, another day, another dollar. I would
not say, good Lord, it's morning. I would say, good morning, Lord.
I would say, this is a day the Lord's made. I'll rejoice and
be glad in it. Think about His amazing grace.
In relation to what I said, I want you to think about this. This
is a verse we often say around here. And we know... Oh, do we? That all things... I was talking to Mark Webb this
morning on the phone. He's lost the dearest on earth
to him. And he quotes Romans 8, 28. I'm crying. I'm weeping. I'm
sobbing. But I do know that all things
work together for good. Everything you're going through.
We don't think about it in this life. Sometimes we just think
about the good things. But you know the dark side of life? The
things you don't understand Miss Pam's death and life has
changed my life. I think I told you during the
conference, I cried out, God, what are you doing? What's your
purpose? But there was a purpose. And
I'm so excited because we don't know what it is yet. But I know this. It must be a
big purpose. There must be something big going
to happen. At 70, I know something big is
going to happen. I know I'm not through. I mean,
that's the way we should think. God's working things for good. All things for good. Everything
that's happening to you, believer, is for your good and God's glory.
Tribulation. You don't see it. You don't see
why. You don't understand it. But
if you can hang on to this, God is a good God. I know His eye
is on the sparrow and He watches over me. I know that. I know that. I look out there
in the future and can see great things happening in this congregation.
We almost got today where we had to have people set upstairs.
Almost. We've got to pack these seats
in a little more when we go upstairs. But God is drawing people here.
He's a good God. His people are going to be drawn.
We're going to keep pounding and preaching this grace message. The goodness of God. The forbearance
of God. The long-suffering of God. Some of you have come to know
Christ. You think about this. What did Melissa say, 12 years
old? That's humanly speaking, a kid gets past 12. And humanly
speaking, they say that that child will not come to know Christ.
Think about this. If you're 45 years old and have
just come to know Christ, you're an exception. God has really
blessed you. Right? Because your brain for
45 years and heart has been filled with all kinds of mess. Think
about this. If He brings you out from under
addiction, whatever the addiction is, and by the way He can. And this is the way He's going
to do it. God's been so good to me. How can I get drunk? God's been so good to me. How
can I use again? God's been so good to me. How
can I commit adultery? Think about the goodness of God.
I want to say to you in closing, you that are without Christ,
you're in a bad fix. You're no good. The world's no
good. You have nobody working for you,
seemingly. You say, well, how can I know
God is good to me? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's really just that simple. Bow to Christ. That's the call
of the gospel. Bow to Jesus Christ. Trust Jesus
Christ. Quit trusting yourself. Lean
on the everlasting arms. Believe on Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved. It's really. Think about it.
It really is simple. It really is simple. Quit trusting
yourself. And believe on Christ. You know,
the amazing thing is, and I know that some of you, and I love
you and care about you, and you're not going to be put out of grace
centers or anything else because you don't believe in God. And
there are some of you who are verbal atheists. Several of you
here are verbal atheists. And very, very intelligent. You're very intelligent, humanly
speaking. But you're a complete idiot. Because, let me tell you something,
Ms. Pam gave me this watch. You see on the back all those
little wheels turning, you can see through it. You probably
can't see it that far up here. I want to tell you it took 85
billion years for this watch to come together. This is a total
accident. That's what makes it so expensive.
How many of you in here believe that? That this watch came together
by accident? No. The watch doesn't come together
by accident. Right? Somebody made the watch.
Look at your bodies. Look at the earth. Look at the
beauty of the planets. Look at the stars and the moon
and the skies. Look at the maple trees turning
colors. Look! And you'll have to say,
somebody created that. See? Some of you are following
that scientific stuff that you think is really intelligent.
But if you're denying God, the Creator, and you're going to
die. It's appointed unto man once
to die. And after that, the judgment. There's going to be a judgment.
Every sin and every disobedience must receive a just recompense
of reward. Is that right? God is a just
God. He's a holy God. So somebody
has to pay. There is a judgment day coming. There is a day coming when God
is going to judge. I hope you're hid in the cliff
of the rock. I hope you find yourself in Christ
Jesus. I hope you're able to say this,
my faith is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust my own. I dare
not. I cannot trust myself. I trust
Him. And then watch as He blesses
and blesses and blesses. One of the things the devil doesn't
want you to know, he wants you defeated. And after you become
a Christian, all kinds of things begin to come your way. You even
begin to doubt your own salvation. You don't even know whether you're
saved or not. Because the devil throws stuff at you. We have
to learn this. Two things. In my flesh dwells
no good thing. After I'm saved, after I've been
born again, my flesh is still flesh. It's a wild ass that's
cold that can't be tamed. It's still bucks and snorts.
But greater is He that's in me. You can quit smoking pot. You
can overcome crack cocaine. You can defeat heroin. You are an overcomer in Jesus
Christ. And I'm learning this too. The
more you trust Him, the more He blesses. The more you live
by faith and not by sight, the more He does. It's true. And you Christians, What is it
you want? What are you dreaming about?
What do you believe about yourself? I used to say quite often, you
need to run for city council here. And Don did and won. You've
been a tremendous help. You need to be on the school
board. Some of you have come to know Christ since you've been
here. But you've lived a total defeated life. You cannot let
your past mess up your present. You see, in Christ Jesus, you
have no past. He doesn't remember all that
mess. He says, your sins and iniquities will I remember no
more, even if it was yesterday. Is that right? Even if it happened
yesterday, you messed up yesterday and today is bearing on your
mind. Let it go. Trust Christ. The goodness of
God will lead you to repentance. It will. It will change your
life contemplating on His goodness and what He's done for you. Remove
your sins as far as the East is from the West. Never to be
remembered against you anymore. Let's stand and sing together.