If you will, I'd like for you
to turn back to the Psalms with me to Psalm 27. This Psalm speaks of the goodness
of God in the land of the living. There's much said in our day
about the goodness of God, but most of what I hear and read
misses the mark. It misses the mark. And it leaves
men and women with a false concept of God. Now, I want you to remember that
when he's talking about goodness, he's talking about the very glory
of the character of God. He's not talking about goodness
as men think goodness means. A very good example of this was
the rich young ruler. He ran up to Christ, and the
first words out of his mouth was, good master. And that's
as far as he got. The Lord stopped him right there.
Because no doubt, this man was coming up to others saying, good
brother. I've been in churches. I've been
in religion all my life. I had men tell me, good brother.
Good brother, they called him. Our Lord stopped him in his tracks,
and he said, let me tell you something. Why callest thou me
good? There is none good but God. You want to know something about
goodness? Only place you're going to find it is in God, because
there's none good but God. So there's much being said nowadays
about the goodness of God. I hear it spoken all the time,
but most of what I hear misses the mark. And it leaves men and
women with a false concept of God. So by way of introduction,
let me begin reading to you from the first five verses of Psalm
26, or I mean Psalm 28. Psalm 28, verse 1. Unto thee
will I cry, O Lord, my rock. Be not silent to me, lest if
thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down to the
pit. If God does not speak to us, I came here this morning ready
to preach, but I came here ready to hear from God. It matters
very little if you hear me and not hear Him speak through me.
Nothing's going to happen. You'll come in empty and go out
empty. But if God speaks, if He's pleased
to be And here, David tells us, if God does not speak to us,
our end is inevitable. Do you understand that? Your
end is inevitable. If God does not speak to us,
we will continue on under the old curse and condemnation of
God in the lust of our fallen flesh, fulfilling its desires
both in body and mind. and manifest ourselves as children
of wrath even as others. That's what's going to happen
if God doesn't speak. We'll be just like them that
go down to the pit. That's what David said. We'll
be like them that go down to the pit. Verse 2, hear the voice
of my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my
hands toward thy holy oracle. What in the world is he talking
about when he says oracle? He held up his hands toward thy
holy oracle. Well, in Exodus 25, the Lord
said, thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark. And in the ark thou shalt put
the testimony that I'll give thee. And there I'll meet with
thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat
from between the two cherubims, which are upon the ark of the
testimony of all things which I give thee by commandment unto
the children of Israel." God said, I'm going to speak right
here. Here's where I'm going to speak.
Here's where I'm going to speak. And this is what he called the
propitiatory. And it's referred to as the oracle
of God in the building of Solomon's temple. This is what was referred
to as the Oracle of God. This is where God will speak. How's He going to speak? In the
propitiatory. What's He saying? He's saying
God will speak through the crucified Christ. That's what He's saying. If God has something to say to
you, He's going to say it through His Son. You're going to understand
it through that propitiatory sacrifice. That's what enables
God to be good to you, that perpetuatory sacrifice. And it's called that
because God speaks to His people through His Son, who is the propitiation
for our sins. And so Paul tells us in Hebrews
10, verse 19, we have boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus. by a new and living way which
He hath consecrated for us through the veil which is His flesh." And thus David made his supplications
with his hands raised toward God's holy oracle, raised toward
that crucified Christ. Now watch this, Psalm 28.3, "'Draw
me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity,
which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. This speaks of the false prophets
who have been sent a strong delusion because they would not receive
the love of the truth that they might be saved. That's what he's
talking about here. Given over to believe a lie and
to be damned because they would not receive the love of the truth.
that they might be saved. And then you will recall those
our Lord speaks of in His final judgment who began to plead their
good works, their preaching, and their self-righteousness.
They said, wait, you're making a mistake here. We preached in your name. We said Jesus. We talked about
Jesus. We talked about His sacrifice.
We talked about His finished work. We preached in your name. We cast out demons. We made proselytes. We forgive men their sins. We
preached in your name. We've cast out demons in your
name. We've done many wonderful works in your name. Depart from me. Now, I want you
to listen to this. Ye workers of iniquity. Ain't that what David said here?
Don't draw me away with the workers of iniquity. Don't let me be
drawn aside by this world's anti-Christ religion. Prevent that from happening.
It's so easy to go with that. It's so easy to follow after
that. Everybody believes this. It's
the broad road. Multitudes are on it. They just
don't know that it leads to destruction. And David prays looking at that
perpetuatory sacrifice with an understanding of who Christ is
and why He came and what He did. He held his hands up and he pleads
with God, don't let me go with them. Don't draw me away. Verse 5, Psalm 28. And let me say this, if God doesn't
speak, we'll be just like them and we'll be drawn away with
the workers of iniquity. Psalm 28, 4, give them according
to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. Give them after the work of their
hands, render to them Their dessert. Give them exactly what they deserve. I had a man tell me that one
time. He said, all I want is what's coming to me. Oh, you
don't want that. You don't want that. And this
is what David says about these false prophets. You let them
get what they wanted. All they want is what's coming
to them. Give them what's coming to them. Verse 5, because they
regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands. Because they regard not the works
of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy
them and not build them up. They totally ignored what Christ
said He did. They totally ignored why God
said he sent his son into this world. They ignored the testimony
of God. They ignored the manifestation
of God. They ignored the judgment of
God on him. And they ignored his resurrection,
and they ignored the preaching of the gospel. They regard not
the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands, and therefore
he's going to destroy them. and not build them up. You see
what David's saying here? If God does not speak to us,
our end is inevitable. There's only one hope for fallen
men and women, and that is for God to speak. This world, because
of their depraved natures and because of the lust of the flesh
and because of the deceit of Satan and his anti-Christ religion,
are cursed of God and going down the broad road. that leads to
destruction, thousands upon thousands. And this is what David is describing
in his verses, and it reads like this morning's newspaper to me.
I used to accuse Henry. He'd say certain things and quote
us word for word down that old Arminian church, just, I mean,
word for word. And I accused him one time of
standing outside the window and listening. And that's the way this psalm
reads. It reads like this morning's newspaper. If God does not intervene, if
God keeps silent, if God leaves men to themselves, they'll be
drawn away into perdition. Your children and mine. Your
neighbors and mine. Your friends and mine. Now with this in mind, let me
read my text and see if it doesn't make a little more impact. Psalm
27, 13, I had fainted, threw my hands up, fell down
on my face. I remember one time, I don't
even know if I ought to tell this, but I'm going to anyway. I remember one time my children, some of my children, put it that
way, making a mockery out of my love
for them, questioning my love for them. And it so tore me up
that I threw myself on the ground and began to weep. That's what
David's talking about in this psalm. I had fainted. I had fainted. Unless I had believed to see,
now listen, the goodness of God in the land of the living, I
threw my hands up. But God said He's going to speak.
Did He not? He's going to speak. I don't
know who he's going to speak to, but he's going to speak.
Somebody's going to hear him. Somebody's going to hear him. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
It's not the fear of hell and everlasting punishment. It's
real. I wish I could press it upon
your hearts as hard as I could until it entered in that there
is an everlasting hell. There is an everlasting punishment,
and the Bible's perfectly clear about it. But it's not the fear
of hell and everlasting punishment, nor the mere thought of the benefits
of heaven. There are benefits in heaven.
There's no more sin, no more tears, everlasting life, eternal
life. But it's not the mere thought
and benefits of heaven that lead men to repentance. It's the goodness
of God. It's His manifestation of His
goodness. And His goodness comes by His
Word He speaks. That's the only way you're going
to know it. You're not going to find it. Goodness is all around
you. He causes His rain to fall on
the just and the unjust. He caused corn to be in Egypt. Now wait a minute. Isn't that
where Pharaoh had Israel and punished them and had them in
bondage and worked them as slaves? Yeah, that's where it happened. And
the only place there was any corn was in Egypt. The Egyptians received of the
goodness of God, not because God respected the Egyptians,
but because His elect were in Egypt. Huh? Why has God caused
His reign to fall on the just and the unjust? For the just
sake. That's right. This world receives
the goodness of God because God in his providence preserves this
world until he calls out all of his elect. And so in the meantime,
they enjoy that government that was put there for their protection.
They enjoy the jobs that he gives to work with your hands so you
can give to those who are in need. They enjoy a certain portion
of his goodness. But seeing that goodness won't
have anything to do in your heart. You have to hear Him speak of
His goodness in particular to His elect. And all that goodness
is channeled through the Lord Jesus Christ. If anyone is to escape the curse
of God upon Adam's race, God Himself will open their eyes
and their minds and their hearts and show to them the goodness
of God. in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
there's seven things that I believe I can say from my heart that
I know about the goodness of God. Now, I know that David was
a man after God's own heart, and he knew something about the
goodness of God because he sings about it all the way through
the Psalms. There were so many, I couldn't quote all of them
to you. But you can read through there for yourself. Get a concordance.
Look that word goodness up and go through the Psalms. But I know something about this
goodness of God, and what I know gives me confidence that some
of this fallen race, and especially myself, might be saved by seeing
this goodness of God. Might be. First of all, in the fact of
its origin. I quoted this to you a few moments
ago. It's over in Matthew 19, 17. Our Lord said to the rich young
ruler, why callest thou me good? There's none good with God. You
want to know what goodness is, go to the source. Go to the origin. The origin of all goodness is
God. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Go learn that goodness there, and I don't care if the
rest of the world stands up and spits on you. It's the truth
if you learn it in Him. Preacher, are you saying that
in all the billions of children that descended from Adam that
there's none good? No, I'm not saying that. God
said that. God said that. Listen to this,
Psalm 14.2. He quotes this over in Romans
3. He said in Psalm 14, 2, the Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men to see if there was any that did understand
and seek God. They're all gone aside. They
are together become filthy. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. Not one. Goodness is not something
inherited in men. You can only find it in God.
And that's why when you talk to men about the goodness of
God and they look at you and they say, well, that don't seem
right. Where's that judgment coming from? Coming from their
own experience, coming from their own heart. But goodness is not
inherent in you. So what do you know about it?
Huh? Until God opens your heart to
the truth about man's fall, you can't imagine what a dark and
miserable place this world is. You can't imagine. I know the
first time I heard it, I shot down to my shoes. That can't
be so. That can't be right. But it is. It is. If we're to see the goodness
of God, God Himself must be willing to show it because there's none
else good but God. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse
11, Paul says this, what man knoweth the things of a man save
the spirit of man that's in it? You don't know nothing about
me unless I open my mouth. You don't know anything at all
about me. You can look at me and say, well, he looks like
the kind of guy, you can say that, but you don't know it.
You don't know it until I open my mouth and tell you. That's what you know. Now watch
this. Even so, the things of God knoweth
no man save the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
Spirit of the world, not the testimony of men, but the Spirit
which is of God that we might know the things that's freely
given to us of God. So this goodness, which we must
see lest we be like them that go down to the pit, must come
from God because he's the source of it. You see what I'm saying?
He's the source. Secondly, I know that all God's
goodness is channeled through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm
talking about that goodness that leads you to repentance. What Paul tells us in Colossians
1.17, that Christ is before all things, and by Him all things
have a continuance, all things consist. He's talking about our
Lord's office as the one mediator between God and men. Everything
God did was through the God-man, Christ Jesus, the Lord. And everything
God is doing, and yet shall do, is through Him. He said, I'm
Alpha and Omega. I'm the beginning and the ending.
I'm the author and finisher of your faith. And therefore, all
goodness is channeled through Him. There is a goodness. It's kind of a temporary goodness
and a goodness that comes by virtue of God's elect. And we
talked about that a few minutes ago. But in particular, I'm talking
about the goodness of God in Christ, His goodwill, His good
pleasure. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will. When Christ was born in Bethlehem,
the heavenly hosts began to sing, and they said, peace on earth,
good will toward men. When God created the world by
His Son, He used only one word to describe it. You ever thought
about that? God looks over creation. He sees
man, and He sees the oceans, and He sees the trees, and the
firmament, and the skies, and the stars, and the sun, and all
these things that He's made. And He made them according to
His redemptive purpose. And He made them through His
mediator king, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He observes all these
things. And you know what He said? One
word, good. It's good. It's good. We are eternally blessed with
all spiritual blessings according as He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. All God's goodness comes to us
through Christ. I know that God has purposed
to reveal His goodness to chosen sinners through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. I asked my wife to look
up Romans chapter 10, and it says a long line of things there. And then it says, and how shall
they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of what? Good things. Good things. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. What in the world are these good
works? Faith is the good work of God
which He creates in us. Did you know that? Repentance,
that's the good work of God. Love is the good work of God.
Seeing His goodness is a good work of God in us. Gratitude
is a good work of God. We're created. in Christ Jesus
unto good works. These are works which the rest
of this world cannot perform, only believers. And there is
a goodness that's unto life eternal. This goodness has to do with
seeing the riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus, Ephesians chapter 2. Listen to this, Psalm 31, 19. Just a few pages past where my
text is, Psalm 31, 19. David said, 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. How great is that goodness. And then think about this, back
in Exodus 33. Moses stood before God on that
mountain. And he said, Lord, if I found
grace in your eyes, if I have, I wasn't caught sure like these
Christians today. I know what I know. Well, not
Moses. This is one of the greatest men
who ever lived. This servant of God commanded
millions. God gave him that holy law through
Moses. And Moses stood before God and
he said, if I found grace in your sight, show me your glory. And the Lord said, because you
found grace in my sight, I'm going to do this thing that you
asked. You know what he told him? All
my goodness is going to pass before you. Huh? That's it, ain't
it? It's the goodness of God. It's
not fear of hell. It's not benefits of heaven.
I don't know anybody who wants to go to hell, and I don't know
anybody that wouldn't go to heaven. You don't find anybody who don't
want either one of them. But it doesn't have any impact
on your soul. What has an impact on your soul is when God shows
you his goodness. To ill-deserving, hell-deserving
sinners, I'm going to cause all my goodness to pass before you. Oh, my soul. And when his goodness
passes by before you, you're going to understand this. I'll
be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful. And I know this, the goodness
of God is seen through the eyes of new creatures in Christ, men
and women born of the Spirit of God. So what do we know so
far? Well, I know that all goodness
must come from God because He's the source. I know that. Secondly,
I know that the goodness of God is behind all things. It's behind
creation. It's behind providence. It's
behind salvation. This is the goodness of God.
And thirdly, I know that all God's goodness is channeled to
sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the mediator. He'll
take this goodness of God and the love of God and the mercy
of God and mediate it according to God's will. And fourthly,
I know that God is purposed to reveal his goodness to chosen
sinners through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. Here's where you're going to find the goodness of God in
the preaching of the gospel, because that's all I'm going
to talk about. That's all I'm going to talk about. I don't
have anything else to say. And then fifthly, I know this. I
know that the revelation of God's goodness to us in Jesus Christ
marks the turning point in every believer's life. This is when
the turn begins, when he sees the goodness of God toward him,
the sinner. This unbelieving world hears
the preaching of God's sovereign mercy and grace, and they receive
it as an assault upon their God and a breach of all man's so-called
God-given rights. Isn't that what you experienced
this past week? It's exactly right. Paul stated it this way
in Romans 2.4. He said, despisest thou the riches
of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. When a man
or a woman sees God's goodness in Christ, they see His love,
His mercy, His kindness and grace in everything that God has done
for them in Christ. God could have cursed you the
same way He did the rest of the world, but He didn't. Why not? Because He made His
goodness pass by before you. That's why. In all Christ's appointments,
in the glory of His person, in His condescension, in His humility,
in His obedience, in His shed blood, in His resurrection, in
his ascension into glory and especially in the preaching of
the gospel, everything that is would be without purpose or benefit
without the goodness of God which he purposed in Christ Jesus. And this is where gratitude and
love is born. It's born when a man sees the
goodness of God. He was good to me. There's no
reason in me for Him to be good. And this is what religion says,
do good and the Lord will bless you. That ain't so. That's a
lie. That's a lie. God's good to you. He's good to you. But you'll find that goodness
in Christ. And you won't find no reason
in you for it. where gratitude and love is born. Let me read you just a piece
of an article that Henry Mahan wrote years ago. Somebody compiled
his old bulletin articles and put them in booklet form. And
I was able to get a hold of one the other day. But here's just
a piece of one of the articles that he wrote. He said, the Calvinistic
message of God's electing love in Christ Jesus has produced
generations of serious, God-fearing, persevering, and obedient love
of Christ. Men who are obedient and lovers
of Christ and one another. For it's by that love for Christ,
his word, and his people, that we know that we pass from death
unto life, and by which our calling and election is made sure. Is that not true? Oh, the goodness
of God. And I tell you that you can know
doctrine and not know God, but you can't know God and not be
moved by His goodness and love to serve Him. You just can't.
He that loveth not knoweth not God, because God is love." I'd
say the same thing about his goodness. Seeing the goodness of God in
Christ marks the turning point in every believer's heart. And
then, sixthly, I know that God only reveals his goodness to
sinners, not by man's definition of the term sinner. But according
to the testimony of God, He reveals His goodness to sinners. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
9. Matthew chapter 9, verse 10. And it came to pass, as Jesus
sat at meat in the house, Behold, many publicans and sinners came
and sat down with him and sat down with his disciples. And
when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, why
eateth your master with publicans and sinners? Don't he know who
they are? Don't he know what they are? They said to that woman, here
she is, she's weeping on his feet and drying his feet with
her hair. They said if he knew what kind
of woman that was, he wouldn't permit that. That's what these
Pharisees said. Why is your master eating with
publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but they
that are sick. Now you go learn what that means. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice
for I've not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. And what leads men to repentance?
The goodness of God. You see what he's saying? I'll
tell you who's going to know something about the goodness
of God. Sinners. Sinners. There's a preparatory work performed
by God in the hearts of chosen sinners. It's called conviction
of sin. You're not going to hear about
that in every church. They don't know anything about
that. Conviction of sin. But I tell you, if the Holy Spirit
ever convicts you of sin, you won't have a bit of problem with
election. You'll jump up and down in joy
when a man starts preaching on election if he's convinced you
of your sin. It's such that preaching and
the power of the Holy Spirit that lays the axe to the root
of all man's goodness, hope, and beauty, and it leaves him
empty, stripped, and naked before God. I tell you, you take that
diamond, that beautiful diamond. Isn't there one called the Hope
Diamond? It's a huge stone. How is that stone best shown? On a black velvet. Take a black
backdrop and set that stone on there and it shines like the
sun. Huh? You know where God's goodness
shines the brightest, where you can see it the best? In centers. That's where you see it, in centers. Christ both was and still is
a friend of publicans and sinners. While we were yet sinners, the
Bible said Christ died for us. Paul said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And I know the publicans. He
prayed with God. He said, be merciful to me, the
sinner. He went home justified while
that Christian, that self-righteous Pharisee, stood up there and
prayed with himself. And he went home condemned. Goodness is best seen in hell-deserving
sinners when it's displayed. And then here's the last thing.
The last thing I know about the goodness of God, it accompanies
us from the day we're born till the day we die. God's goodness. He said His love on you to do
you good. And He's going to do it. Isn't that what David prayed?
The Lord's my shepherd. He learned that in time. He didn't
know it when he was born. But the shepherd's benefits were
already given to him. God's goodness was being, God
followed him around as a shield. Somebody said Christians are
immortal until God takes them out of this world. They would have taken him out
and thrown him off the brow of the hill, but his time was not
yet. And you can say that of you too. If you're here this
morning, you're a believer. But there come a time when God
did make it known to David. that the Lord was his shepherd.
And then he got to thinking about all that the Lord had done with
him all his whole life. When he talks about walking through
the valley of the shadow of death, preachers use that talking about
funerals. He's not talking about funerals there. He's talking
about his walk through this world. This is the valley of the shadow
of death right here. We're surrounded by it. And he
walks through the valley of the shadow of death. But he said,
I won't fear any evil. And he said, here I am in the
valley of death, and the enemy's encamped round about me, and
the Lord sets a table before me. And I said, I haven't eaten.
Is that what you're doing this morning? Eating. Eating. Eating the bread of God. Oh, and then he says this at
the end. He said, surely, goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. May the Lord
make it so this morning in every heart that's here today.