Several years ago I listened
to a sermon by an older black preacher on cassette tape. I
really don't have any idea what he was dealing with, what his
subject matter was. It had been a long time ago.
But I recall as he got to some aspect of God's saving grace,
he was just overwhelmed and he turned around and looked and
he said, somebody hold my Bible while I shout. That is just about
how I picture the Prophet Isaiah by the time he gets to chapter
63 and verse 7. He is utterly astonished. Utterly astonished. He has received
commission from God to go through the gates. Go through the gates
of the city of God's people. and cast up, to cast up, to make
straight the way, to remove all the debris and the stones out
of the way, to lift up a banner before the Lord's people and
declare, Behold, thy salvation cometh. His reward is with him. And then he sees the Lord Jesus
Christ coming up from the accomplishment of redemption. covered with blood,
his garment stained, but traveling in the greatness of his strength,
glorious in his apparel, having stained his garments, his raiment
with the sins of his people, as he bore all the fury of God's
wrath in our room and in our stead. And having received this
revelation of the glorious accomplishment of redemption by the Lord Jesus
Christ, so overwhelmed that he seems hardly to be able to find
words with which to express himself. He says in verse 7, I will mention. I will mention. He doesn't say
I will declare or even sing about it. He simply says I will mention. The word really is I will call
to my mind. I will remember. I will call
to the attention of my heart and call to your heart's memory
the loving-kindnesses of the Lord. I tried to deal with this
passage last Sunday night, and as I prepared the message and
got ready to preach, I knew then I was in waters over my head
and could not begin to possibly expound the text, and I have
no hope of doing so this morning. But we'll return to this passage
again, and I want to speak to you this morning about the great
goodness of our God as is set before us in this passage. The
loving kindness of the Lord is His pity, His favor, His goodness,
His mercy and grace toward His elect. And here the prophet speaks
of God's lovingkindness in the plural. I will mention the lovingkindnesses
of the Lord. Again, in the latter part of
the verse, he calls the lovingkindnesses of God in the plural. Why is
that? The lovingkindness of our God
is the lovingkindnesses of the three in one God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. All the goodness we experience
flows to us from the bounteous loving-kindnesses of the triune
God, and the loving-kindnesses of the triune Jehovah toward
us are an incalculable multitude. So liberal is our God and Savior,
so bountiful, that He heaps loving-kindness upon us, upon sinners who deserve
nothing but his wrath. So great is his lovingkindnesses
that expressing the remembrance of them in plurals is the only
way we can even think about doing so, because our thoughts and
words are utterly inadequate to express the bounty of God
our Savior. Read on. Isaiah says, I will
mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord and the praises of
the Lord. In this passage, if I'm not mistaken,
the praises of the Lord are those praises that he deserves from
us because of his bounteous grace bestowed upon us in Christ. His
praises are those attributes, those qualities of his character
that set him entirely apart from all his creatures. And here his
lovingkindness His tender mercies, His great goodness are things
described as His praises by which He is totally distinct, totally
separate, totally holy from all His creatures. That is to say,
there is no earthly comparison by which we can measure His goodness,
His mercies, and His lovingkindness. We think of mercy and we always
speak of mercy in human terms. And we think of grace and always
think of grace in human terms. It is just natural for us to
do so. We think of love and goodness
and always speak of those things in human terms. But here the
prophet says, I will mention his praises because of His distinct
goodness, His distinct mercies, His distinct loving-kindnesses,
because His are unlike any other. I will mention the loving-kindnesses
of the Lord and the praises of the Lord. Now watch this. According
to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness
toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them, according
to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses."
Oh, how I love those words, which he hath bestowed, don't you? That which God bestows upon his
people in time. He hath bestowed upon us from
all eternity. Isaiah's language here is almost
identical to that which we find in Ephesians 1. Would you turn
over there again and read that very familiar passage with me?
We shouldn't be surprised that it's very similar because it
is the language of God the Holy Spirit in both places. In Ephesians
1, The Apostle Paul speaks of the loving-kindness and the mercies
God has bestowed. He says in 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 under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, and that which God has bestowed upon us. that which
He once bestowed on us in eternity and has bestowed upon us in the
experience of His grace, He will never take from us and will never
allow to be taken from us. For the gifts and callings of
our God are without repentance. Oh, sometimes He appears to turn
and fight against us as an enemy, but He has bestowed His great
goodness. He has bestowed His lovingkindness
upon us. And when He appears to fight
against us, it is only because of the mercy, the goodness, and
the lovingkindness He has bestowed upon us. Has He bestowed His
love upon us? Then He loves us without end. Has He bestowed upon us His electing
grace? Then He will never turn from
us. Has He bestowed upon us redemption
through the blood of Christ? Then He will never make us unredeemed. He will never impute sin to us. Has He bestowed upon us the adoption
of His sons? Then, beloved, now are we the
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.
Has He bestowed upon us acceptance in Jesus Christ our Lord, making
us accepted in the Beloved? If He has, there is never a point
in time, there can never be a point in time, there has never been
a point in history when we were not accepted in the Beloved. as He bestowed upon us meekness
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, then
we are now and shall forever be in Jesus Christ worthy of
God's acceptance, of God's approval, of the bounty of all God's house. Now read back here in Isaiah
63, 7 again. Here are two more words. in our
text that are absolutely thrilling to my soul. Twice in this one
sentence, Isaiah tells us that all the lovingkindnesses, great
goodness, and tender mercies of our God are things which he
hath bestowed upon us. And twice he tells us that all
the bounteous grace of God is bestowed upon us because it hath
been bestowed upon us. He hath bestowed upon us His
goodness. Now watch this. According to. According to His great goodness.
According to the multitude of His tender mercies. Isaiah says,
I will call to my memory I will call to my heart the lovingkindness
of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that
He hath bestowed on us. Let us always measure God's lovingkindnesses
and His praise according to His lovingkindness and His praise. Read on. and the great goodness
toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according
to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses."
You mean everything that God bestows on us has bestowed on
us in Christ, and shall bestow on us in Christ, everything that
has been ours from eternity, and is ours in time, and shall
be ours forever, is altogether according to his lovingkindnesses,
and according to his mercies. I think that's what he said.
His praise is according to all that he bestowed. And all that
he has bestowed is according to his great goodness, his mercies,
and his lovingkindnesses. All the gifts of God's great
free grace in Christ are bestowed upon chosen redeemed sinners,
not according to our worth, our merit, or our deserts, but according
to his great goodness, his mercies, and his loving-kindnesses. You
see, there really is no worth in us. Sometimes we look at someone,
and I just used the expression the other day, a mother neglecting
her family, I said to Shelby, it's a worthless human being.
God forgive me. We are all worthless human beings. Well, buddy, that sure takes
away man's pride. It might lessen it a little bit, but you're going
to keep hearing it because you need to keep hearing it. We are
all worthless human beings. Completely so. Completely so. Our righteousnesses Apply that
just for the moment, just to the best good works we can and
do perform, our filthy rags before God. Not of value, not of merit,
not of worth, just filthy rags. Therefore, we recognize that
all we receive of our God flows to us freely, without any cause
whatever, except in His great goodness. All that we receive
from our God is a matter of sovereign mercy, pure grace, free unmerited
love, abundant, boundless, and infinite in Christ Jesus. Isaiah
seems to pile up words in heaps to express the wonderful kindness
of God in acts of grace and goodness to his people in Christ. And
still as he piles up heaps of words, they're inadequate to
express the goodness of God. Let us remember and make mention
of these things continually in his house, in public and in private,
for the good of our souls and the glory of his name. And when
we have told all and told all his praises to the best of our
abilities, even in the glory of heaven for all eternity, we
will acknowledge with joy, behold, the half hath not been told. Oh, how great is thy goodness. Now, let's focus on these words
found in our text. His great goodness. It is called here the great goodness. You mean there is only one goodness? It appears that way. Do you remember
what the rich young ruler said to our Lord Jesus? Good master. And the master said to him, why
did you call me good? You know if you read this book,
there's none good but God. Now we speak of good men and
good husbands and good wives and good children, and us older
folks especially, of good grandchildren. But when we use that word good,
let us ever beware we're using it in a terribly relative sense. Good as compared with other things
and other people like ourselves. But there is only one who is
really good. In fact, the very word God is
but an abbreviation of the word good. And when Isaiah speaks
of goodness, goodness, he looks around him and he says, now let
me tell you about the great goodness. It is the goodness of God our
Savior. Having said all that, I want
to call your attention, your heart's memory and my own, to
the great goodness of God our Savior. And there are three things
revealed in our text about God's goodness that ought to appear
obvious to all when you just read it. First, the goodness
of God is saving, redeeming goodness. When we talk about God's goodness,
We're talking about that goodness by which Jesus Christ accomplished
redemption. That goodness that sent him into
the world. The goodness of God, as Peter
speaks of the long-suffering of God, the goodness of God is
salvation. You read the passage in its context
and that becomes obvious. The Lord says, Thy salvation
cometh. The Lord points us to the Lord
Jesus Christ who accomplished redemption. He later tells us
that we shall be his people because he saved us and redeemed us and
carried us all the days of old. He says the goodness of God,
this great goodness, the great goodness is saving goodness. Secondly, the goodness of God
is distinguishing goodness. Look at what it says. It is the
great goodness toward the whole world. You're shaking your head no.
I'm glad you saw that. Oh no. Oh no. People talk about
God's universal benevolence. His general goodness. His common grace. toward all
men. Hear me. God helped you to hear
me. Apart from Jesus Christ, there
is no goodness for you. God's goodness is distinguishing
goodness. It is altogether laid up in Jesus
Christ, bestowed upon sinners in Christ, and comes to sinners
through Christ. And if you live and die without
Christ, everything, everything that here you thought was good
shall only increase the eternal torments of your soul among the
damned. Universal goodness is universally
worthless. Universal grace is universally
worthless grace. Universal mercy is universally
worthless mercy. I have said myself, errantly
so, everything this side of hell is mercy. Oh, no. Oh, no. Here, for the damned, God is
but preparing damnation. All goodness is distinguishing
goodness. God is good to his own and only
to his own. It is goodness bestowed upon
the house of Israel. Goodness toward the house of
Israel. That is goodness bestowed upon
and goodness toward his chosen. Now this is not something that
is just taught here and there in scriptures. This flows through
the whole volume of Holy Scripture. God Almighty puts a difference
and makes a difference among men. There were two men mentioned
in the first opening words of Genesis chapter 4, Cain and Abel,
both sons of our original parents, Adam and Eve. God chose Abel
and rejected Cain. There were two sons born to Abraham,
Isaac and Ishmael. God chose Isaac and cast Ishmael
out. There were two sons born to Isaac,
Jacob and Esau. God said, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. And so it has always been, is
now, and always shall be. God sends his gospel here. Paul
is laboring, and he desires to go here, and he desires to go
there, and these folks wanted to come over there, and God the
Holy Spirit said, no, no, no, go there. Why? Because He sends
light to some and darkness to others. Because He sends His
Word to some and withholds it from others. Because He is pleased
to reveal His Son to some and not to others. The gospel of
His grace is preached in a place like this this morning. And here
sit people, men and women, very much the same. Different in many
ways, but very much the same. Our lives are a common lot. We're just ordinary people with
common troubles and common difficulties and common heartaches, with a
common background. Nothing distinguishing really
about any of us except God's distinguishing grace. I stand
here to call you to Jesus Christ. I call every one of you to Christ
by the preaching of the gospel. I call you to believe on the
Son of God. And some of you will, and some
won't. As Paul preached the gospel at
Antioch, I believe it was, we're told some believed and some believed
not. How come? How come? Because many are called but few
are chosen. Why do you believe? Because Christ
chose you. Because of His great goodness. And third, the goodness of God
bestowed upon us is great goodness. This is how it's spoken of repeatedly
in the scriptures. Nehemiah said concerning God's
people that He caused them to eat and were filled and became
fat and delighted themselves in Thy great goodness, in Thy
great goodness that Thou gavest them. The psalmist sings, O 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. Psalm 145, we read, they shall
abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness. Oh, how great is thy goodness,
the prophet said. As one transported in a state
of spiritual ecstasy, Isaiah explains in our text, I will
mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord. and the praises
of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on
us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel." Now let
me see if I can call to your memory God's great goodness. If we looked at nothing, if you
and I who believe our Savior, if we trust the Son of God and
looked at nothing except the physical things God has done
for us in this world. Oh my soul, how great is His
goodness. He gives us life and sustains
us in health and blesses our lives in incalculable ways. I received an email from a friend
who is forever trying to promote health. We have for years lived
with the warnings about tobacco, not healthy, not healthy. Some legislature in California
decided to start forcing potato chip companies to put a warning
on the potato chip bags and boxes. Because it's not healthy. What
fool thought they were? They're just good, that's all.
What fool imagined they were healthy? Matter of fact, I'm
convinced anything good is not. But God graciously preserves
us in health. Preserves us in life. It is He
who gives us a sound mind. He has not given us the spirit
of fear. but a sound mind. It is God our Savior who daily
furnishes our tables and clothes our bodies and refreshes us day
by day with rest. It is the Lord God who has given
us our families, keeps our families in domestic tranquility. It is
our Heavenly Father who fills our lives with Friends who are His friends. Oh, how thankful I am for you,
my friends. I once heard a preacher. Sometimes
preachers can be the leaders in bitterness. I was sitting in a room in his
office. First time I'd ever met him.
He said, I'm going to tell you something, young man. I was just
a boy. He said, if you go through this world, And God ever gives
you one real friend, you've got a rare thing. There are not many
people who have one real friend. I thought, oh my soul, how miserable
that man's life must be. Oh, thank God for one real friend. But God has given us a multitude
of real friends. Friends who are His friends. And His friends are real friends. God in His gracious, watchful
eye protects us from countless visible and unseen dangers. The numbering of our hairs assures
us of His care. He gives His angels charge over
us to keep us from evil. More numerous are His mercies
than the stars of heaven. There's no section of our life,
no circumstance of our existence, no aspect of our daily experience
on this earth, past, present, no aspect to which we cannot
fix our eyes and say, I will call to my mind the great goodness
He bestowed on me. The great goodness. But when
we lift our thoughts above earthly things, His great goodness toward
the house of Israel seems utterly incapable of expression when
we talk about redemption. In the redemption of our souls,
the great goodness of our God is most fully and most constantly
displayed. This is what ravished Isaiah's
heart and mind. I pray that God will make it
rubbish mine. How often I start to pray. When we're at home in private,
over Doug's base, we're at home in private, we always take care
to give thanks before a meal and to pray. not a matter of
duty, a matter of great privilege, honoring our God. But I suspect
you know what I'm talking about. Most of the time, when I try
to lead my family in prayer, most of the time, my soul is frozen, not ravished. My thoughts of His great goodness
are thoughts that hardly seem to have any connection with my
heart. Oh, be ravished, my soul, by
His great goodness, the great goodness He's bestowed upon us. This redemption, wherein we see
His great goodness, His covenant goodness, covenant redemption. God, in purposing and planning
the great work of redemption, shows the great goodness. The eternal three-in-one God
was not moved by anything outside Himself. He was not motivated
by anything outside His goodness. People often want to know why. Why would the Lord choose to
save us? Why would the Lord choose to
redeem? Why would the Lord choose to
have mercy? And we start looking for reasons.
But you look in vain for reasons. He said concerning Jacob and
Esau, the children being not yet born, neither having done
either good or evil. God said, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. The reason for his goodness is
all together in his goodness. No angel made the proposal to
redeem our souls. God was not stirred and moved
to compassion by the pleadings and the prayers and the cries
and the tears of needy sinners. Oh no, it was the great goodness
which He had bestowed upon the house of Israel that moved Him. God the Father in great goodness
chose us, inscribed our names in the Book of Life of the Lamb,
slain from the foundation of the world, and made proposals
of grace to His Son as our surety. And in the great goodness, God
the Son stood forth as our surety and said, I will redeem I will
save them. I will bring your people home. And in the end, I will bring
them to you holy and without blame and present them to you
saying, Lo, I and the children which thou hast given me, not
one of them is lost. And in great goodness, God the
Holy Spirit condescends in grace from all eternity to be the seal
of these things to our souls. to effectually, graciously, experimentally
bring them to us for the comfort of our souls. That's the reason
he's called the Comforter. I recall, well do I recall, the time when it appeared to
me that God had turned against me as an enemy. When he fought against me. When
every word I read in this book seemed to be against me. When
every expression of God's being seemed to be damning to me. My
soul was filled with terror until God the Spirit took the things
of Christ and showed them to me. Revealing Christ in me. Assuring me in His blood. And I've been walking in comfort
ever since. In comfort, oh, blessed comforter
who takes Christ and reveals Him to men. It is great, great
goodness in God. that condescends to such things
as we are to redeem us. His goodness, His love, His mercy
is fixed upon a people from old eternity from whom he never expected
any good return. And never got any. He set his heart from old eternity
upon a people he knew would despise and reject him in every revelation
of his grace. He set His heart from old eternity
in the great goodness upon a people whom He knew, even after He bestows
His grace upon them and makes them to know they are the sons
of God, the children of the Almighty, heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ, even after the experience of His grace, would return to His love, Ron
Wood, what we return to His love. Oh, be astonished, be ravished,
O my soul, at the great goodness He hath bestowed on the house
of Israel. God's goodness, the greatness
of His goodness, certainly is to be seen in the patience he
bears with the objects of his goodness. The Lord Jesus, the God of glory,
set his heart on me from eternity. And he has never even considered
the possibility of changing his mind. Having loved his old which were
in the world, he still loves them to the end and never considers
not loving them. Though we sin 70 times 7, Every hour, He still freely and
fully forgives our sin. Though we fall a thousand times
a day, He still graciously lifts us from our falls. He teaches us, if a brother be
overtaken in a fault, You that are spiritual, restore such one
in the spirit of meekness. Oh, what an example he sets before
us, Larry. He who is spiritual and strong
takes thus his fallen brethren. And in the spirit of the meekness,
of true meekness, as the servant of God, he stoops to restore
our souls. not now and then, not only after
we have made up our minds to return to Him, but constantly,
freely lifts us up by His omnipotent grace. The greatness of His goodness is utterly incomparable. Never was there a man, so good
to his family as Christ is to his. Never was there a woman
so good to her child as Christ is to his. Never was there the
thought of goodness in the heart of man that can compare with
the great goodness of God our Savior. The goodness by which
we are saved. It is utterly, utterly, utterly
free. That's the great goodness of
God our Savior. It's free. It's free. It's language is HO! Come ye to the waters, buy milk
and wine without money and without price. Are you thirsty? Drink. Are you hungry? Eat. Are you weary? Heavy laden,
come to me. It's free. I bid you lay hold on the great goodness. Free. I urge you, lay hold on the Son
of God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the great goodness
is yours. But I know, I know you won't. You won't do it. Because I know you can't. At the end of the sermon, I won't
give you an invitation to try to twist your arm and massage
your emotions and talk you into a profession of faith. I'm not
so deceitful, not so cunning and crafty, but I'll tell you
what I have done. This very morning, I've called
your name, every one of you, I've called your name to God
my Savior. And rather than pleading with
you after I'm done preaching, I pleaded with Him before I started
preaching. Oh, great goodness lay hold on
every chosen redeemed sinner here. Lay hold on your own and
cause them to lay hold on the great goodness. Oh, I pray that
God will cause His great goodness to lay as a Great weight on my
heart this day forward forever with unceasing, irresistible
pressure squeezing from my heart constant devotion and praise
to Him and gratitude for the great goodness He hath bestowed
on the house of Israel. Amen.