I find it utterly amazing that
God condescends to reason with sinners. Sinners who live in rebellion
to Him. Sinners determined to go to hell,
despising His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering. Think about
that. Don't you find it amazing? God
stoops to reason with men. The Holy One bows to reason with
sin. The judge of all the earth who
always does right condescends to reason with criminals deserving
his wrath. The pure lowers himself to reason
with the impure. That's amazing to me. But oh,
how I rejoice that it's so. Oh, sinner, will you hear how
God reasons with you? How God reasons with you. Come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. He says, put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare
thou, declare to me what I promised. Declare to me what I've said.
Declare to me my own word, that thou mayest be justified. Look
unto me, the Lord God says, and be ye saved. All the ends of
the earth, for I am God and there is none else. Oh, everyone that
thirsteth. Wonder if there's anybody thirsty
for life. for righteousness, for salvation,
for forgiveness, for acceptance with God. God reasons this way. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat ye. Come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do you spend your money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? Why do you waste everything on
that which will never do your soul any good? Hearken diligently
unto me, and eat ye that which is good. Let your soul delight
itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Here and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. He says, seek
you the Lord while he may be found. Call you upon him while
he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord
and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly
pardon. Now listen to how he reasons.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways
my ways sayeth the Lord. Wilt thou not from this time
cry unto me? My Father, thou art the guide
of my youth. The Lord God says, I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn
from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways, for why will you die? The Lord Jesus speaks plainly
and reasons with sinners. He says, come unto me. All ye
that labor enter heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in
heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls." Oh, Jerusalem,
Jerusalem. Our Lord looked over the city
and killed his prophets and stoned them to death. He looks over
sinners and says, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a head gathered her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not. Hear how God reasons with men. and understand our God delights
in mercy. Oh how he delights in mercy. He so delights in it that he
reasons and pleads with sinners to seek his mercy. How willing
God is to save. Therefore will the Lord wait
that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore will he be
exalted that he may have mercy upon you. What a word! God waits
to be gracious. God is exalted in showing mercy
to sinners. For the Lord is a God of judgment. The Lord is a God of discernment.
He is a God of justice. He is a God of judgment. Blessed
are all they that wait for Him. As God the Holy Ghost will enable
me, I want to preach to you today about the riches of his goodness
and forbearance and long suffering. My text is Romans chapter two
and verse four. Romans chapter two and verse
four. Here again, the Lord God speaking
by his servant, the apostle Paul, stoops to reason with sinners. Sinners determined to go to hell. Will you hear him? The title
of my message is goodness, forbearance, long-suffering. Goodness, forbearance,
long-suffering. Romans chapter 2 verse 4. Despises
thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance
now notice this first what a personal word God's Word is to you despisest thou despisest thou
do you despise It is as though Paul fixed his
eye on one man, on one person. He's writing to this church at
Rome but it's as though he fixed his mind and his eye upon one
person and addresses himself to that one person. Despises
thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering?
Do you despise God's goodness, God's forbearance, God's long-suffering,
not knowing that it's the goodness of God that leads you to repentance? That's the way the gospel ought
to be preached all the time. It should always be the preacher's
determination to deliver God's message to each person who hears
his voice personally. I am always hopeful and very
thankful when you leave here thinking to yourself, who's been
talking to him about me? How did he know that? Somebody
must have spoke to him. Maybe somebody did. Maybe somebody
did. I hope he did. As I preach to
you, every time I preach, I try to
preach as though I were sitting in your front room, just you
and me together. And I scoot my chair right up
next to you, look at you eye to eye and face to face and deliver
God's word to you. I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. Oh, Holy
Ghost, speak your word to each one here today for Christ's sake. There's nothing profitable in
those indirect essay-like sermons that preachers give out that
address everyone in theory and no one In reality, such preaching
is kind of like sheet lightning in the summertime. It's dazzling
for a minute. It lights up the sky as it flashes
across the sky for a minute, but it hits nothing, touches
nothing, and leaves no scar. I'm aiming at your heart, Bob
Duff, at you particularly. at you. Did you hear that? I mean it's
your heart, at you particularly. I have a word from God for you. Will you hear it? I pray that
it will strike your heart, leave a scar and heal it by God's grace. If we live under the experience
of the riches of God's goodness, the riches of God's forbearance,
the riches of God's long-suffering, and are not by God's goodness,
God's forbearance, and God's long-suffering turned to him,
then skip we despise his goodness, his forbearance, and his long-suffering. To live daily upon God's goodness
and under God's goodness. To live daily upon God's forbearance
and under God's forbearance. To live daily upon God's long-suffering
and under God's long-suffering and not be turned to God by those
things is to despise God. Despises thou the riches of his
goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. The goodness of
God leads men and women to turn to God. First, the apostle mentions
the riches of his goodness. Not just his goodness, but the
riches of his goodness. How on earth can I talk about
that? I can hardly talk about God's goodness, let alone the
riches of his goodness. Goodness is the character of
God. And the goodness of God gives
hope, comfort and strength to sinners like you and me in the
midst of our trials and sorrows in this world. Mark asked me,
as he was coming in this morning, to tell him what is patience. And I sat down before Lindsay
started teaching and thought about it as much as I could so
quickly. Patience. Patience is a confident
reliance. The peace of a confident trust
in the goodness, wisdom, grace and power of God, learned by
the experience of God's providence under the teaching of His Spirit.
Tribulation worketh patience, but only as we experience God's
providence and are taught by the experience of God's providence
by God the Holy Spirit. The goodness of God suggests
the idea of benefit from God. Nahum declares the Lord is good. The prophet of God in chapter
one of Nahum had been discussing storm, the storm of God's wrath,
the terror of his justice, the greatness of his anger, whirlwinds
shaking the mountains, melting the hills and burning the earth.
Nahum looked out in his generation and saw God's judgment, God's
just judgment. He saw God destroying men, destroying
cities, destroying nations, just as we do today. He saw moral
perversity and idolatry all around him, just as we do today. And
he describes God's judgment concerning those things. And then he comes
to a blessed calm, a serene island of rest. He read his morning
newspaper about everything that had gone on through the week,
and all the troubles anticipated for the next. And then he writes,
the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Trouble everywhere. Darkness
everywhere. Judgment everywhere. Deserved
judgment everywhere. The Lord is good. The Lord is
good. Oh, learn that. And you've learned
more than I could possibly tell you. God told you this. The Lord
is good. I can no more explain God's goodness
than a thimble can hold the ocean. But I can tell you some things
I know. Some things I've learned about God. God is goodness. God is goodness. Whatever else
God is, God is goodness. He is essentially good. So that were he not good, he
would not be God. Men often look at things that
God does and question his goodness. Questioning his goodness, they
question his being. How often unbelieving rebels
will see hurricanes, tornadoes, pestilence, disease, war, famine,
poverty, and say, how can there be a God in heaven? And these
things come to pass. The good God of heaven brought
them to pass. God is good. God is good. All that he does is good. Without
goodness, there would be no God. John Gill observed, there's nothing
but goodness in God, and nothing but goodness comes from God. But pastor, there's so much evil
in this world. The Lord ordained, allows, and
permits evil. Indeed, he says, I create evil,
but he overrules it for good. He says, surely the wrath of
man shall praise God, and the remainder of wrath God will restrain. The Lord God graciously and wisely
afflicts his children and brings many evil things upon us. Yes,
he does. Our dear brother, Ricky Dale, we've learned to love him. Actually,
this man's loved him all his life. And we wouldn't, for the
world, have put on him the affliction he has. Would you? Of course
not. Of course not. His heavenly father,
who loves him infinitely more than you can imagine, brought
the evil. Yes, God afflicts his children
with wisdom known only to God. He brings many evil things, many
physical, earthly calamities, many bodily pains, many soul
troubles, many heart-wrenching difficulties. But he makes all
the evil to work for good to them that love him. and those
who love him are those who are the called according to his purpose. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. God's promise by the wise man,
Proverbs 12, 21, is there shall no evil happen to the just. There shall no evil happen to
the just. No evil from hell, no evil from
men, no evil in time, no evil to eternity. There shall no evil
happen to the just. But you don't have any idea what
people are saying about you and doing to you. I've got some idea,
but it's only good. You have no evil what trouble
men go through. I've got a little idea. But if
you're God's, it's only good. You have no evil what heartache
I bear. If you're God's, it's only good. Only good. Joseph was the object
of God's goodness. God loved him. God set him apart. as the head of his family, and
the head of the nation, and the head of the race. God set him
apart distinctly. God exalted him. God had good
things in mind for Joseph. And the Lord gave him some brethren
who despised him. Oh, they were envious of Joseph.
They hated that young boy, because he was the object of his father's
affection and tender love. They hated him. I mean, hated
him. And they saw an opportunity one
day, said, let's kill him. And one of them said, well, let's
not do that. It's not because Reuben was any
more fond of Joseph than the others. He was scared to death
to kill him. That's all. He said, let's sell him to these
Midianites. And they sold him into slavery.
And Joseph was exalted in Potiphar's house, and oh, how he loved Joseph. And Potiphar's wife accused him
of trying to rape her. And Joseph's thrown in prison.
And he spends all those years in prison, in bondage, because
God loved him. Because God had a special purpose
for him. Because God was going to use
him. So God put him in prison in Egypt. about the last place
a Jew would want to be. He was in prison in Egypt. And
then one day, Pharaoh had a nightmare. He couldn't sleep. And all the
wise men of Egypt, all the magicians and soothsayers, all the palm
readers and astrology followers, they couldn't figure out what
Pharaoh's dream was or what the meaning of it was. He says, there's
nobody who can tell me about this dream. And one of the fellows
who was in prison with Joseph said, I remember. There's a fellow down there,
a Hebrew boy. He's been in prison for a long
time. He told me exactly what God was going to do because of
a dream I had. Pharaoh said, go get him. And they cleaned
Joseph up, brought him into Pharaoh, and Joseph told him his dream.
And Pharaoh was astonished and set him up as prime minister
in Egypt so that Joseph had the rule of everything. You want
some corn? Go to Joseph. You want some beans?
Go to Joseph. You need a little something to
get through the winter? Go to Joseph. He's got everything.
He rules all the storehouses of Egypt. Everything's under
Joseph's control. And at last, Joseph's brethren
got hungry, and they came to Egypt. How come? Because God
said to Abraham, God said to Abraham long before
Joseph said I'm going to send your children down into Egypt
and they're going to stay there for 400 years and I'm going to
bring them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and I'm going to
destroy the Egyptians in doing so and I'm going to save your
seed and preserve your seed until the Messiah the Redeemer is born
of your seed and comes into this world to save his people from
their sins and Joseph's brethren When all was done and they were
all gathered before him, he said, I'm Joseph. Look at me. I'm Joseph. And the boys were
terrified. And when the old man died, they
thought Joseph's going to kill us. And Joseph heard their whisperings. He said, don't be afraid of me.
Don't be. I am in the place of God. You meant it for evil. God meant
it for good. Patience is the calm trust of
God's providence. You meant it for evil. God meant
it for good. I am here by the hand of God
to save much people alive. Yes, God punishes sin. He punishes
sin with vengeance. Justly so. But even the punishment
of sin is good. For sin not punished, God could
not vindicate his justice or protect his kingdom from chaos.
God is good, essentially good. Really, God is the only one who's
good. He's the only one who's good.
Do you remember how the rich young ruler came to our Lord
Jesus and said, good master, And the Lord Jesus hadn't been
to seminary, and he hadn't learned how to be a good soul winner,
or a good evangelist, or a good counselor, or a good preacher. He said, why did you call me
good? Wow, what an affront. Don't you
know there's none good but God? That's his language, isn't it?
There's none good but God? Don't you know who you're talking
to? Everybody knows I'm good. I know I'm good, and everybody
else knows I'm good. Why don't you know I'm good?
The Lord Jesus said, there's none good but God. There's none
that doeth good, not a one, not a one. I've told you this before. One day I was speaking to my
nephew, trying to witness to it. He's a lawyer down in Charlotte,
North Carolina. He's considerably older than
our daughter. I guess Michael must be 50 years
old now, maybe better. And I said to him concerning
his mother, he's talking about how good she is, and I said,
she is. My older sister literally spends
her life, she has for as long as I can remember in her adult
life, she spends her life doing stuff for other people. I mean,
she runs folks to the doctors, runs them to the grocery store,
runs them here and there, and she feeds folks, works on soup
lines. She spends her life doing stuff.
I know one particular occasion, Old lady, she used to carry the
doctor and carry the grocery store and the gal griped and belly
ached about everything. Even her carrying the doctor
grocery store, but she just cheerfully went about doing it. And I said
to him, I said, Michael, your mama's goodness ain't going to
count for one thing before God, because it's all evil. It arises
from a corrupt heart. Yours too. And he was shocked. He was shocked. I pray God will
cause Michael to hear this. There's none good but God. God's
good. He's the only one who is. God's
goodness. William Tyndall. Shelby just
read a biography, coming back from England, of William Tyndall,
a fellow to whom we owe our thanks for this Bible we have in front
of us. He translated it into the language
of the people. He said, God's goodness is the
root of all goodness. Our goodness, if we have any,
springs out of His goodness. Not only is God alone good, He's
immutably good. He said, I'm the Lord, I change
not. God never changes. The one good, the one abiding
good, The one never-changing good, the one permanent good
is God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. God's good, especially
good in all His acts of grace. Turn to Ephesians 1. Let's read
about it one more time. I don't think you'll mind reading
this. Here's the riches of His goodness. Ephesians 1 verse 3. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he hath 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 into beloved. Oh, what goodness! In whom we
have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded. What's this?
God has abounded in the riches of His grace toward us. What's
this? In all wisdom and prudence. Frank, God leaps out, bounding
toward us in goodness, in grace, in the riches of his goodness
and grace, in all the wisdom and skill of God. In all the wisdom and skill of
God. It's one thing for a person to
work to do good. One thing for a person to try
to do good. One thing for a person to desire
to do good. It's another thing for a person
to have the ability at all times, in all things, and with all things,
to govern all things with wisdom and skill, always doing good. That's exactly what our God does.
Watch this now. Verse 9. Having made known unto
us the mystery of his will, according to His good pleasure which He
hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times, that is, when God gets done with everything, He might
gather together in one all things in Christ a day of restitution,
when everything is going to kiss the sun, everything is going
to redound to God's glory, both which are in heaven and which
are on earth, even in Him, in whom also we have obtained an
inheritance. being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory
who first trusted in Christ. God is good in all His works
of providence, in everything He has done. Isn't it a wonderful thought?
In everything he has done, in everything he is doing, and in
everything he shall do, of him, through him, and to him are all
things to whom be glory forever. Amen. You see, it is by all the
works of God's providence that he brings about and accomplishes
the salvation of each of his elect to the glory of his name. I just caught Skip Gladfeld's
eye, and Lindsay's eye. Skip, raised in a family, respectable
family out in Kansas. Worked IBM all his life. travel
all over the world. Men are raised by God-fearing,
godly parents. All your life. All your life. And I was raised in a hellhole,
where God's name was most commonly used as a byword in blasphemy. How can that be? How can that
be? All the hell that men endure in this world. How
can that be good? God Almighty ordained everything
exactly as He brought it to pass that we this day might sit here
at His throne and worship Him, redeemed by His blood, saved
by His grace. And not possible, not possible
is our salvation except for everything by which God brought it to pass. Now would you tell me why I shouldn't
trust his goodness? Oh, God, will you tell yourself
why you shouldn't be patient with his providence? Thou, oh
God, has prepared goodness for the poor. Oh, how great is thy
goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee. Thy
goodness, which thou hast wrought for them that trusted thee. The Lord is full of goodness. God is good to all his elect. good to his people. David said,
the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I love the
way little Sunday school girl stood up to quote Psalm 23 and
she didn't get it quite right. She said, the Lord is my shepherd.
He's all I want. She got it just right. The Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want, because the Lord is my shepherd.
Surely, surely, without question, goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. Goodness and mercy, like hounds
on the trail of a rabbit, will chase me to glory. goodness and
mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life. How good God
has been to me. How good God has been to you. We live upon and experience the
riches of his goodness every day. Now, all of this that I've said, some
of you cannot possibly enter into. Some
of you are as confused by it as a cat looking at a new gate.
You don't have any idea what I'm talking about. Know nothing
about it. You've lived all your life upon
God's goodness. He's the one who gave you life.
He's the one who keeps breath in your nostrils. He's the one
whose food you eat every day, whose water you drink every day.
He's the one who sustains your limbs and health. He's the one
who keeps you alive and keeps you out of hell in the midst
of your rebellion. God, in His goodness, in His
goodness, feeds you every day. Not only that, in His great goodness,
God has established in your presence, in your life, the hearing of
the gospel of His free grace. the proclaiming of his goodness
that ought to lead you to repentance. And if it doesn't, in the day
of judgment, you'll answer to God for despising his goodness. Next, our text speaks of the
riches of his forbearance. Forbearance. I spent a good time
trying to figure out what Paul is speaking of here. what the
Holy Ghost intends by this word forbearance. What's his meaning? Despises thou the riches of his
goodness and forbearance. Forbearance means self-restraint,
tolerance. Forbearance is the suspense of
wrath, the suspense of judgment. This particular word, Do you
have any idea how many times it's used in the Bible? Just two. Just two times. Paul explains it for us if you'll
turn over one page to Romans chapter 3. Here's the only other
place where the word's used. Verse 21. Now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested. That is the righteousness of
God in Christ Jesus the Lord. The righteousness of God, which
is ours by faith without the works of the law, is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and prophets. That is the law and
prophets pointed to this, witnessed to this. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, by the faithful
obedience of God's own Son as our substitute, unto all and
upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Verse 24. Being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. Whom God has sent forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. To declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past. Now watch this. Through
the forbearance of God. God declares His righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, through his forbearance,
to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Now this is what God the Holy Spirit teaches about the riches
of his forbearance. Are you listening? God holds up the world. God preserves the world. He holds back his wrath today,
just as he did through all the ages past, that he might exercise
and display his great goodness in the forgiveness of sin, in
the salvation of sinners by the perpetuatory sacrifice of his
darling son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God holds up the universe. Because He's determined in this
world of fallen sinners, like you and me, to show the rituals
of His forbearance in forgiving sinners through the blood of
His Son. That's the reason the world exists,
for God to show His glory in saving such things as we are. Why didn't God destroy the world
when Adam said? He said, in the day thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die. But Adam walked out of the garden.
How come? Because in Adam's loins was the
seed of a generation of men. all the human race and in his
seed God would scatter through the world his elect through all
the world and he will in time gather them from the four corners
of the world according to his purpose in the free forgiveness
of sin by Jesus Christ the Lord. Therefore God is forbearing. Don't ever say, don't ever say,
don't ever think Well, if the Lord doesn't come soon, if God
doesn't soon end this world, then he's going to have to apologize
to Sodom and Gomorrah. Don't ever talk that kind of
nonsense. Only folks who have no idea who God is and what God
does talk like that. No, no, no, no, no, no. The reason
Sodom and Gomorrah existed was so God could show his forbearance
in bringing Lot out. And the reason this world exists
is so that God can show forth the riches of his goodness and
forbearance in forgiving sinners through the blood of his Son.
And that brings me to the third thing. Paul mentions in our text
the riches of his long-suffering. Despises thou the riches of his
goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Oh, what riches
of long-suffering we see in our God. How little we think of his
long-suffering, how much we ought to think of it. The Apostle Paul
said, I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show
forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Paul says, boys, y'all want to
know about long-suffering? Y'all want to know about long-suffering?
I lived my whole life as a proud, boasting Pharisee. I lived my
whole life thinking I was so good. God couldn't possibly not
have me. God couldn't possibly not accept
me. You've heard folks say, The Lord
enriched heaven today. He took my better glory. Paul
thought worse than that. He said, when God takes me to
glory, he's going to enrich himself. Oh, he was a good man in his
eyes. And everybody else thought he was good. And he hated Jesus
Christ. Oh, he hated the name. He hated
the name. He was standing by holding the
clothes of those men who picked up stones and stoned Stephen
to death. You don't want to know about long-suffering? You don't
want to know about God's long-suffering? He said, I spent my life persecuting
the church. Determined to rid the world of
the name of Jesus Christ. Until the day God appointed when
He struck me down on the Damascus road and revealed His Son in
me. And now look here, look here.
This is why God put up with me all those years. Because he was determined to
save me by his grace. That's all. God's long-suffering. The Apostle
Peter tells us that the long-suffering of God waited in the days of
Noah. And most people greatly mistake
the meaning of those words because they failed to read the entire
verse. The long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
listen now, while the ark was a-preparing. God said, I'm going to destroy
this world. God, I'm going to destroy this world, and this
is the time I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. But all the
while, Noah was nailing that ark together until he put the
final touch of pitch on it, and God shut him in the ark and shut
the door. Judgment didn't fall because
God's long suffering, long suffering to save his elect. Look at 2
Peter chapter 3. I'll show you the meaning of
God's long suffering. Verse 9, The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. Now if that verse is read and
understood to mean God is not willing for anybody to go to
hell. God is not willing for anybody
to perish under his wrath Then I suggest you throw your Bible
away and go fishing on Sunday Because the Word of God's meaningless
if that's what that verse means Because there are some folks
who go to hell there are some folks in the in the pit today
and Some fixing to go Who are sitting right here? That's exactly
right. Exactly right. Yes, God sends
people to hell. And if he weren't willing to,
he wouldn't do it. People say, well, God doesn't send men to
hell. They send themselves to hell. Where'd you get that foolish
notion? Read the book. Read the book. God sends sinners to hell. Read
what God says. Read what God says. Pay no attention
to what you heard your grandma say. Read what God says. Well,
what's this mean then? The Lord is long suffering. to
usward. Well, there you sit. Been with
us about a year now, haven't you? And God preserved you all these
years. All these years. Why? Why didn't God send you
to hell in a drunken stupor in the midst of a fight sometime?
Why? Why? Because God's not willing
that any chosen, redeemed sinner perish under His wrath. No matter what. No matter what. And He'll fix it so they won't.
He'll fix it so they won't. How do you know that? Look at
verse 15. Look at verse 15. And account that the longsuffering
of our God salvation. The long-suffering of our God
is salvation. All the riches of His goodness
and His forbearance and His long-suffering God sent his angels to destroy
Sodom. But the angel said to Lot, I
can do nothing until I bring you out of this place. God was good to the Sodomites
because Lot lived down there. They had sunshine and rain because
Lot lived down there. Their crops grew because Lot
lived down there. Their cattle thrived because
Lot lived down there. The water, the plains were well
watered and luscious because that was a place for Lot to live.
Lot lived there. Lot stood in Sodom. But Sodom
was a wicked city. And God said, I'm going to destroy
it in my wrath. And he sends his angel to destroy
it. And the angel said, I can't do anything until you come out.
I can't do it until I bring you out. And Lot lingered. Lot said, man, I know I ought to, but I don't
want to go. And he kept holding on. And he
kept holding on. He had sons and daughters in
Sodom. And he had riches in Sodom. and he had cattle in Sodom and
he had property in Sodom and he held on and he held on and
he held on until the angel took him by the head and brought him
out so it shall be with you you'll hold on to this world and death
and corruption and ungodliness until God breaks your hand from
it and delivers you in his grace by his Long-suffering. Oh, the riches of His goodness. The riches of His forbearance.
The riches of His long-suffering. Now, O God, cause Your goodness to turn us
to You. Amen.