I'd like for you to turn back,
if you would, with me this morning to the book of the Psalms, chapter 31. Now, to begin with this morning,
I want us to look at verse 19. Verse 19, now David is in distress,
and he knows where to look. He knows to look up. He knows
to look to his God. And we read, now let me just
say a few things here before we get to the 19th verse. Verse
19 is our text this morning where we'll begin, but let me just
say this. I said David was in distress.
And he said over here in the 9th verse, he says, Have mercy
upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Mine eye is consumed
with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent
with grief. Verse 10. For my life is spent
with grief. Now that might be hard for you
to imagine. Here's a man who has been set
on an earthly throne, and he's king, but yet he says my life
is spent with grief, and my years with sighing. My strength faileth
because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed." Now here's
a man who's very sensitive toward what's going on around him. He's
a man who said in another place that he was chastened every day.
He said, God whips me every day. And he says, I'm aware of my
sin, and he says, I'm consumed with grief. And then he looks
over here in verse 14, he said, but I trusted in thee, O Lord.
I said, thou art my God. I know where to look. I look
to the Lord. I look up to God. I trust in
God, regardless of my trouble, regardless of the grief that
I have to live with every day, regardless of my own weaknesses
and afflictions, the trials that are brought on me. because of
the mistakes that I've made, because of my wonderings. He
says, I look to you. He said, I trust in thee, O Lord. I said, thou art my God. Thou
art my God. You're the God that brought me
forth into this world out of my mother's womb. You're the
God that laid hold of me. You're the God that saved me.
You're the God that has delivered me. Over and over again, David's
God had delivered him. My son David and I were talking
the other day and I said, has just been one deliverance after
another. That's the way I characterize
my life, is the salvation of the Lord, and it's God delivering
us day by day, experientially, God delivering His people. Well, David, here in the Psalms,
was a man whom the Lord had to deliver, and he said, Thou art
my God. And so the Lord would deliver
him. And then down in verse 19 we come to that. He says, O how
great is thy goodness! How great is thy goodness, which
thou hast laid up for them that fear thee. The Lord has laid
up a great goodness for them that fear Him, which thou hast
wrought. which the Lord has wrought out
for them that trust in thee before the sons of men." I want to speak
this morning here on this 19th verse, at least we'll begin there
and there's some other verses that we will consider as we go
along in our message this morning. But neither tongue nor pen can
ever tell the great goodness of our God. I meditated a great
deal. upon these thoughts and certainly
this morning I can say this with truth, that I don't have the
ability to begin to tell out the great goodness of my God,
the goodness of my God toward me. Now the best we can do is
to observe and declare that which is upon the surface of the experience
and revelation that we've been given. That's the best we can
do. That's all I can do this morning. That's all any man can
do is just tell what they know by experience and tell what they
have come to understand through the revelation of the Holy Scriptures. But to declare the essence of
God's goodness would be to declare the essence of God himself, and
that cannot be done. Who is it that can declare God
in the full? There is no man who has that
ability. Even a man under the anointing
of God's Spirit has not that ability. Yet I know this, and
I know this by what the Word of God says and certainly by
what our text tells us here today that goodness is that which God
laid up for His people in eternity in the purpose of His grace and
that which He has wrought is working and shall work for his
people before the sons of men. I know that. The Psalms here
tells us that and I believe in the inspiration of the Word of
God and I believe the message of God today is this to us. Now, three things I want you
to notice this morning in the outset of this message. Number
one is this, that God has laid up goodness for his elect in
Christ, in his eternal purpose of grace. That God has laid up
goodness for us. Now before the worlds were made,
God bestowed every blessing of his grace upon every sinner who
should ever believe on him. God bestowed, I say, before the
worlds began, upon every sinner that would believe on Him. He
bestowed it upon every sinner that He chose in His grace, every
sinner that He embraced. In His heavenly love, with His
heavenly love, He bestowed upon them every spiritual blessing
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, brother, sister, that's
what you call laying up something for somebody. And God laid it
up in old eternity. You and I have experienced some
of it even in this century in which we live. Now, if you just
name anything, Name anything that you might, something good,
whatever it might be. It is the property, if it be
a spiritual blessing, if it be something from God, something
about God, it is the spiritual property of every believer. If it be election, if it be redemption,
if it be adoption, if it be forgiveness, if it be justification, if it
be sanctification, preservation, eternal life, these and all of
the good things have been given to God's elect in Christ from
eternity. Is that true? All these things
have been laid up in the goodness of God for His people from eternity
and in eternal predestination. God has mapped out the way. He's mapped out the course by
which all His goodness and His grace must come to His elect
in the day that they live in God's world. God has mapped out
the way. He's mapped out the course. His
will shall not be thwarted. God's people will receive all
these things that God has laid up for them in His goodness. Now, number two is this, that
the Lord has wrought goodness for us throughout the days of
our life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the
house of the Lord, David said in that very familiar psalm.
And surely the Lord has wrought goodness for us throughout the
days of our life. Now as I speak these words, I
know personally people who are suffering great and heavy trials. They're suffering with illness,
affliction, sickness, bereavement in this world. There are some
who are suffering with wayward children. We just heard the testimony
the other night. Brother and Sister Hodge have
been down to Livingston and some of the problems that they talked
about with some friends whom we know, wayward children, unfaithful
companions, slander, financial problems, all the financial troubles
that even this nation is having at this very time and many, many
families individually are having financial ruin at this time in
this world. Well, I speak these words talking
about the fact that God has wrought out goodness for His people throughout
the days of their life. Yet I know many people who are
suffering as I just explained. Well, how can we say that these
afflictions of God's providence are works of goodness? that they
have come from the good hand of the Lord. Well, we are believers,
are we not? We believe God. We believe what
God said in His Word. Now, listen to me, we never interpret
the events of our lives by, let me say it another way, we interpret
the events of our lives by the word of God. That's what a believer
does. Now you just think about that a little bit. We interpret
the events of our lives by the Word of God. We never interpret
the Word of God by the events of our lives. Now that is a very
important rule and you'll have to get that fixed in your heart. Get it fixed. Write it down if
you must. And look at it over and over.
Because if you go to the Word of God and attempt to interpret
the Bible by what's going on in your life, and by the circumstances
that you're undergoing and experiencing in your life, then you are going
to find yourself greatly, greatly confused and discouraged. But if you, my friend, will interpret
your life by the Word of God itself, allow the Word of God,
believe what God says, And God says that he's wrought out a
goodness for his people and that that goodness they are experiencing
in this life. Now we are to read the book of
divine providence through the light of the book of divine revelation. Did you get that? We're to read
the book of Providence by the Bible. Read the Bible and see
what the Bible says, and then judge your situation and your
circumstances. And we know that all things are
of God. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 18
says, And if all things are of God, they must be good in their
ultimate end, because God is good. God is good. Now in James 1.17, James says,
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. Now what that means is that every
good and perfect gift that you can name, that it comes down
from God, He's the author of it, and He never casts a shadow. By varying, He always sends good
and perfect gifts. He doesn't cast a shadow by turning
about. He doesn't turn bad one day and
then good the next and good and then bad. But God's gifts and
blessings are all good and they come down from His hands. Now looking back over the pages
of our lives, God's people are made to realize that in all things
The Lord has indeed surely, according to the book of Revelation, that
God surely has wrought out goodness for us. Now, beloved, there are
some things that are very easy to forget. Some things, as God's
children, that are very, very easy in this connection for us
to forget. How easy it is when trials seem
to multiply and the skies grow dark with the clouds of affliction. How easy it is to forget that
our God is the one who regulates the sunshine and the rain for
His own glory and for our eternal good. How often we forget that
God's blessing does not always mean comfort and ease, here and
now. We sometimes look at the blessing
of God and say, well, it can only bring comfort and ease.
That's not the truth. That is not true, because the
Word of God doesn't teach it and our spirit certainly has
revealed that such is not the case. Sometimes the good hand
of the Lord upon a man is a trying hand, it's an afflicting hand,
it's a testing hand, it's a hand that is a chastening hand. And
how often we are taken in by this satanic accusation of our
own consciences when we are made to hear in our own ears that
we're just getting what we deserve here in this world, and that
we're actually and really being punished by God for our sins
and our mistakes. And that's why things are the
way they are. that we have our law because we're being punished.
God is dealing with us because of what we've done. Now it's
a shame to admit, but sometimes we seem to forget that the chastisement
of our peace, that is the punishment of our sins, was laid on the
Lord Jesus Christ when he hung on Calvary's cross, and the only
chastisement that a child of God receives in this world is
for his correction. Never, never, never for punishment. God does not punish His people
in this world. The punishment of their sin fell
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that which we experience,
the rod upon our backs in this life, is for correction. It's
not for punishment. Now, there are four things quickly
that we ought to remember. that we must remember as God's
children living in this world believing that God has wrought
out goodness for us every day of our lives we're to look for
it and believe it and to believe it now number one we're to remember
that we are his children That we're the children of God. We're
not slaves in this world. We may be bond slaves, willing
bond slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ, but we're not slaves
in this world. We're children. We're the children
of God. We're the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus and we must not despise or look down
upon his providence because all things that is Now get this,
all things that is was necessary for His glory and our good, or
He would not have ordered it to be so. Do we believe that? Are we believers? This is the
question. It's a matter of faith, my friend,
whether or not we believe what God said or not. Now then, also,
we must not faint when He rebukes us. Because we're His children
and we must submit to Him as we submitted to our earthly fathers,
because we know that our Heavenly Father knows what is best. And whenever he would rebuke
us, we must not judge his providence and say, well, the providence
of God is bad towards me. No, my friend, we must recognize
that our God is all wise and he knows what is best. Number
two, we must remember that chastening is proof. of His special love. That's what it is a proof of.
It's proof of His love. Somebody said, God don't think
much of me. Well my friend, if you're using
chastisement as the basis of your statement Then, my friend,
you're wrong. You're entirely wrong. Chastisement
means just the opposite. It means that God especially
loves you. And that the more God loves you,
the more it will appear in time and in life that God loves you
because He will not spare the wrong. He loves you and He knows
what is the best for you in the long run and therefore He will
chasten you. So chastening is proof of His
special love and so in this Believing that God has laid up goodness
for his people and that he has roared out this goodness For
his people all the days of their life. We've got to consider these
things that the chastening of the Lord is Indicative of the
degree of love that God has for us because the Bible says for
whom the Lord loveth he chastened Was there any? in Scripture,
any of the patriarchs, any of the characters of Scripture,
anyone who believed God in the Word of God, such as Noah, Abraham,
Joseph, Moses, Job, Jacob, David, Daniel, name whoever you will,
the apostles, who did not have chastening of the Lord, who did
not have trials and afflictions and temptations in their lives. There was not one of them that
did not have them. Not one of them. We just read
here of David and how that he was grieved and how he was afflicted
and how that he lived with it. My friend, none of the people
of God. And so if you're being chastened
of the Lord, then my friend, you're in good company. You are
in very good company because God is just dealing with you
as he's always dealt with his children. And this is the way
that God will continue to deal with those that He has set His
special love and affection upon. Now, so we're in good company
then, if the Lord chastens us. Amen? Can we say that? Amen?
Can we believe that? Alright, now the third thing
is this. Remember that chastening conforms
us to the image of Christ. It conforms us to the image of
Christ. I'm trying to get you to the
place where you won't think hard thoughts against God. Where that
you'll believe that His goodness has been wrought out for you
and that God is good unto His people. Now this chastening of
the Lord, according to Romans 8.29, this is our predestinated
end. God said, I'm going to conform
those that I have called, those I've justified, I'm going to
conform them to the image of my Son. Now is this not the desire
of our hearts to know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings? Philippians 3 and verse 10. Now
this is the desire of our hearts. We understand this is the end.
God means to conform us to the image of His Son. He's going
to make us into the image of Christ and it'll be through our
chastening and through our suffering that this is brought about largely. Now then the fourth thing is
we must remember that it will be worth it all afterwards. Afterwards, in the by and by,
it's going to be worth all that we go through. It's so easy to
forget that these troublesome times are so very brief and that
they're so very light compared with the glory, with that eternal
weight of glory that we will enjoy afterward. It's so easy
to forget that, isn't it? We get to look at these things
and say, oh boy, these are mighty heavy weights we're carrying.
These afflictions are mighty heavy. But my friend, according
to the Bible, they're light compared with that weight of glory that's
coming after a while. That's coming by and by. Now,
I want you to look back to Psalm 31 and 19, and we see here that
He shall work His goodness in us before the sons of men. It's for those, it's brought
out for them that trust in thee and it says before the sons of
men. Now I like this and I believe
I know what this means. I believe that I know what it
means. I do not know how the Lord's going to do this. I don't
know how He's going to do it, but in the last day, when God
spreads the trophies of His grace before a wandering world, if
you please, throughout eternity, the Lord will cause His enemies
and our enemies to see the works of His goodness upon us. He'll cause them to see it. Now,
the rich man in hell will never cease to behold the works of
God's great goodness upon Lazarus in glory. Now can you understand
what I'm saying? As that rich man, as he looks
across that great gulf that's fixed, so that you can't go from
one side to the other, and he looks upon old Lazarus in Abraham's
bosom, that rich man will see the goodness of God brought out
for old Lazarus all throughout eternity. And our enemies are
going to see the goodness of God brought out for us. Those
enemies of God will see that His people, while tested, afflicted,
tried, tormented, grieving, and mourning over their sin all their
days in this world, that God has laid out a goodness for them
that they'll never be able to get over. God has laid out a
goodness for his people throughout eternity. Oh, how great, David
said, is thy goodness. How great is thy goodness. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, John said. There is a glory coming such
as the world never saw. Oh, the laid up goodness of our
God. The poet said, and a new song
is in my mouth. the long-loved-to-long-loved
music set. Glory to thee for all the grace
that I have not tasted yet. There's grace coming. There's
grace being given. There's grace coming afterward. Brother, sister, these things
will be better for us because God is going to show His goodness
toward us even before the world. Now there's a word I would like
you to consider with me, if you will, at this time. Look to Psalms
36 and verse 7. Psalm 36 and verse 7. There's
another word that's closely connected here to the goodness, the word
goodness, that I want you to look at. In Psalm 36 and verse
7, we read this, How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. The lovingkindness
of God. Now what is the meaning of this
word lovingkindness? Well, Arthur Pinck said that
God's loving kindness is his paternal favor to his people,
his tender affection toward them. Now, Thomas Matten, one of the
Puritans, he described God's loving kindness like this. He
says, it's his disposition to do good upon his own motives. Now you think with me, now don't
just pass over this library. It is God's disposition to do
good upon His own motives or His self-inclination to do good
unto all creatures, but especially unto His own children. It is
His native willingness to employ what goodness is in Him for the
good of His people. That's what the word loving kindness
means. God's native goodness, His native
willingness to employ what goodness is in Him on the behalf of His
people and for the good of His people. Loving kindness is the
kindness of God arising from and directed by His love for
His elect is what it is, the loving kindness of God. I want
you to turn over to Isaiah chapter 63 and look at verse 7. Isaiah 63 and verse 7, and here
the writer of the prophet says, I will mention the loving kindness
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 New Covenant Baptist Church which He hath bestowed on them
according to His mercies and according to the multitude of
His lovingkindness, if you bear with me. Beloved, this is a tremendous
verse of Scripture. Now, let me say this, that lovingkindness,
like holiness, and like justice and like immutability and infinity
is an attribute of God. It's a characteristic of His
being. Without loving kindness, God
would not be God. Without this willingness to employ
His goodness on the behalf of His elect, God would not be God. This is a word used in the Scripture
exclusively with reference to God and to God alone. In the
Bible, loving-kindness is never applied to men or angels. It
is an attribute that belongs to God alone. Now you get that. Loving-kindness. It's an attribute
that belongs to God exclusively, to God alone. Now this word loving-kindness
is used 30 times in the Bible. Now all 30 times it is found
in the Old Testament. And 23 times out of these 30
references are found in the Psalms of David. 23 times out of the
30. Now that fact suggests to me
that God's loving kindness is to be an inspiration. to the
Lord's people, it's to inspire faith in their hearts, in their
God, it's to inspire hope, it's to inspire prayer and worship
in the hearts of these people. That's what this is, loving kindness.
Now it is the loving kindness of God that encourages poor sinners
to draw near to God, to put their trust in Him and seek from Him
the mercy that they need. If you remember there As we read
that, it says the children of men put their trust under the
shadow of thy wings. Therefore, because of thy excellence,
he says, how excellent is thy loving kindness, O God. Therefore,
the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy
wings. And so sinners draw near to God. We draw near to God and put our
trust in the Lord and we seek from him the mercy that we need. Now, beloved, listen, the justice
of God gives sinners what they deserve. the loving kindness
of God gives them what they need. It gives them what they need,
what they must have, the thing that's good for them, the loving
kindness of God gives them. It's engaged to give to
you that approach Him in faith and love and confidence. It's
engaged to give you what you need. You'll get what you need
from the Lord. You'll get it from him. Don't
ever believe that you won't trust him. You'll get what you need
because of his loving kindness. How excellent is thy loving kindness,
O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Psalm 17 and 7,
and I think we should adopt this prayer as our own, it's one of
David's, and he says, Show thy marvelous loving kindness, O
God, that save us by thy right hand, them that put their trust
in thee from those that rise up against them. And so them
that put their trust in thee, David said, Lord, he said, show
thy marvelous lovingkindness and save them by your right hand.
Deliver them by your right hand. There isn't anybody in this building
this morning who don't need deliverance. You say, I don't need deliverance,
preacher. Well, you just don't know it. But you need deliverance.
You need to be saved and that every one of us here, that of
any age had enough time to mess our lives up somewhere or another,
we need some deliverance from the hand of God. And if you're
honest, you'll admit it and say, well I just need God to deliver
me. There's oppression here, and
there's oppression there, and there's affliction here, and
I've got things going on in my body that I know is going to
eventually going to land me in a bad place, and I just need
God to remember me, and I need for Him to show His loving kindness
to me, and I need for Him to deliver me with His right arm,
with His right hand. I mean with His right arm, His
arm of strength. I need God to deliver me. Now
this is very important that we understand, beloved, we're just
not filling space with words. We're talking about something
that is real to God's people. Now, beloved, I'm amazed that
God who is so infinitely above us, so inconceivably glorious,
so ineffably holy, should not only allow such worms as we are
to live in his universe, but also show us such marvelous loving
kindness as to set us in a position, his heart being toward us, his
heart upon us, give his Son to redeem us, send his Spirit to
dwell, to indwell our hearts, and to patiently bear with all
of our infirmities and to bear with all of our sins, promising
never to remove his loving kindness from us. Isn't that amazing?
Isn't that a wonderful and marvelous, oh how excellent is thy loving
kindness, oh God. And God said, my heart's set
toward you, it's bent in that direction, that's my nature to
do it, and it's toward my people, I'm gonna give them all they
need, and there ain't nothing gonna keep me from doing it.
I've laid it up for them, and I'm gonna give it to them. I'm
gonna see to it they get it. Now beloved, love is seen best
in its deeds. Love is not visible, I don't
think, except in its deeds. I hear a lot of people talk,
you know, they want to hear somebody tell them that they love them. And there's nothing wrong with
that, but there's some people that think that that, beloved,
is the, what we might say, the most love is in the words themselves
I love you well beloved listen to me the weight of love is in
the deeds of that that love produces. And you know love by the acts
and the deeds that that love brings forth. Now is that true
or not? I believe it's true. And you
turn back with me to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 7. You
bear with me now. Deuteronomy chapter 7. And let's
read here three verses. Beginning with verse 6, For thou
art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people
that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his
love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number
than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But
because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath
which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now when we talk
about the love of God, the loving kindness of God, the goodness
of God, I said in the outset of my message here this morning
that I believe that the goodness of God moved God to lay up for
his people in the covenant of grace all spiritual blessings,
every spiritual blessing. And I come to the, you know,
close here to the, getting to the end of my thoughts this morning,
and I wanted to show you some of these deeds, and talk to you
a little bit about these deeds of love which God has given us,
And I believe that these things are very important, that we reflect
upon them, and I think that they will give us an anchor for our
soul. We know the love of God by the operations of His love
which is performed on our behalf. That's what I'm trying to say.
Well, all the acts of God's grace performed for His people in time
are expressions of His love for us from everlasting. Anything
that God done for us in time was because He loved us in old
time. Anything that happens in your
life, anything that God gives you, any blessing He gives you,
is all because He loved you with an everlasting love in old eternity. Now, there are four expressions
of the goodness, the loving kindness, the love of God, which we can
lay hold of. And I say we can lay hold of
it, we dead sure can lay hold of it and these things will be
an anchor for our souls until the Lord calls us out of this
world and takes us home to glory if we can just keep our eyes
open long enough to lay hold of these things. Number one,
the very first act of God toward his people is his choice of them
to be his own. God's choice of them to be his
own. No one believes in the goodness,
the loving kindness, and the love of God who does not believe
in what the Bible calls election. You mark it down. There's nobody
that really believes in the love of God who does not believe that
God chose his people being motivated by love. That the motion of his
love was toward his people and he chose them. No one can talk
about the love of God in Bible terms without talking about covenant
love and electing love and predestinating mercies. This is the language
of somebody who believes in the goodness, the loving kindness,
and the love of God. When he chose his people, he
laid up for them this grand intention. He said this, they shall be mine. They shall be mine, saith the
Lord, in the day when I make up my jewels. When I make up
my jewels, these will be mine. They are mine exclusively. They belong to me. I have chosen
them. Think, if you will, of the electing
love and all the consequences of that love which well up from
that eternal fountainhead. This is a subject I believe for
lifelong wonder and amazement. That God loved me and He chose
me. Jesus said, you've not chosen
me. He said, I have chosen you. And
the songstress said this, Father, t'was thy love that knew us Earth's
foundation long before. That same love to Jesus drew
us by its sweet constraining power and will keep us safely
now and evermore. Now and evermore. God of love,
our souls adore Thee. We would still Thy grace proclaim
till we cast our crowns before Thee and in glory Praise thy
name hallelujah be to God and to the land Now below that's
the very thing that that I feel best sets forth What it is that
I want to say to you this morning about God choosing his people
This is an act of love on God's part and it's because of his
goodness and loving kindness now the second thing is this
the goodness and the love of God is spelled out and in the
redemption of our souls by the life of Jesus, the life of Jesus
Christ, laid down. Oh, the precious blood of Christ,
of that Lamb that was without spot or blemish or any such thing,
that incorruptible blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, listen
to me, the love of God is not revealed. and not made manifest
in Christ's incarnation, some preachers might lead you to believe
that, nor in his example, nor in his doctrine, nor in his prayer,
not even in the righteous life that he lived, but only in his
bloodshed, in his blood poured out. Listen, had Christ done
everything else and left this undone, and he had not poured
out his life's blood unto death for the atonement of our sins
and the redemption of our souls we could have never known the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord it was that act
the pouring out of his life's blood to atone for our sins to
save us there is where we know the love of God there is where
we really understand God's love for us. Him willing to lay down
his life for us. Die in our room instead in place. Die for me. that I might not
suffer the vengeance of the Holy God and die for all eternity. Die that second death on my behalf
and die the death that God appointed for sinners to die. Christ died
that death for me and His death is my death to sin and unless
He died for your sin then you must die for all eternity, the
wrath and judgment of God upon you forever and ever. And oh,
beloved, when we get to glory and when we're around that throne
singing them hymns unto Him who loved us and gave Himself for
us, washed us from our sin in His own blood, it'll then sink
in on our hardened hearts that Christ loved us, God loved us,
and that Christ gave himself for us. He gave himself to spare
us that awful and eternal death. Oh may our hearts be softened
and moved by this. Now then the third thing is this.
There are four things here that I'm going to mention here about
the acts of the loving kindness and good. The first is God's
choice of us. The second was the life of Jesus
laid down. His proof of his love and of
his goodness and his kindness. The third is the new birth. That's
how we get into the family of God. We must be born again and
we get into the family of God in this world, in this way God
regenerates our hearts. The results of God's love toward
us from eternity is that in time He lays hold of us and He quickens
us. He brings us out of sin's death
and brings us into life and we're made alive in Christ. And we're
alive indeed in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ only can men
live. Life is His to give. And He gives
life in regeneration. Our regeneration came in the
time of love. I don't have time to read these
scriptures, but you mark them down if you're writing them down.
Ezekiel 16 and verses 6 through 8. Our regeneration came in the
time of love. And then the effectual call by
which we were given faith was the fruit of God's love, Jeremiah
31 and verse 3, and our adoption into the family of God was the
work of our Heavenly Father, it's the work of His eternal
love, our adoption into the family of God. God loved us. Now, you know this is something
that I wanted to say this because I believe it will help you a
little bit. Larry and Sue adopted Little Mitchell. Now when they
adopted him, they had a measure of love. They love children. And they had a measure of love
for this little boy. But their love for this little
fella, and all of us that know him, there's a degree of love
that we didn't have the first time we looked at him. He appealed
to us and all of that, but He's growing on us. And our love,
as it were, is more fervent toward Him now than what it was when
He first came into our lives. But that's not the way it is
with God. That's not the way it is with God. He's not the
way that you got here to find out whether or not He's going
to love you or not. And he didn't have to wait until he was born
again to find out whether you'd just be just what he wanted you
to be. He knew you'd be what he wanted
you to be when he regenerated your heart, when he made you
new. He knew you were his child. He's going to set a process to
work. And he said that he would perform the work until the day
of Jesus Christ. He begun it. He will finish the
work. And he loved you as much before you were ever born. He
loved you in the council halls of eternity as much as He'll
ever love you. You'll never be loved more of
God than what you are right now. But it's the love of the Father
that adopted us into His family and gave us eternal life. And
His love, no variation knows. His love don't vary. His love
remains the same. Our love varies. but God's love
does not vary. Now, the poet said, foreknown
in love and justified, foreknown in love and justified, and called
by grace in Christ, before all worlds redeemed by blood and
glorified with Christ, not by my works, but by His grace, God
chose me in His Son, by His decree He gave me life, in Christ His
darling Son. Now, here's the proof of God's
free grace and everlasting love. He gave me life and faith in
Christ in His own time of love. That's the proof of it. Alright,
now then, let's go on here if we can. The fourth thing, act
of the goodness, kindness, loving kindness of God and love of God
is our preservation in grace. This is the work of God's goodness,
our preservation, our being kept, our being preserved. I just mentioned
that verse in Philippians 1, 6 where that God has begun a
good work and will perform that work until the day of Jesus Christ. Many waters, Song of Solomon
chapter 8 verse 7 says, many waters cannot quench love, neither
can the floods drown it. The floods can't drown it. Many
waters cannot quench it. God's paternal love toward his
elect is invincible and it is unquenchable. That's tremendous. Those are big words, but you
know what they mean. Okay, now listen. There is no
possibility that the love of God will ever expire. God's going to keep his people.
He's going to keep His people. He's going to keep on being long-suffering,
patient. You slip and you say, I'm ready
to give up. God's not ready to give up. He's
not going to give up on you. He's going to keep on. He's going
to keep on. Now the Lord may deal with you
because He loves you. He may put you flat on your back.
Or He may do this, He may do that. I don't know what God's
going to do with me. I don't know what God's going to do with
you. But I do know this. that the love of God will never
expire. There's no possibility of it.
The black waters of my sin cannot extinguish the love of God. It cannot and will not. God knew
more about me before I was born into this world than I know about
myself now. God knew everything there was
to know about me before I was ever born. Took it all into account.
And if he had, he would have never started the business of
transforming me into the image of his son if he didn't mean
to finish it. He's gonna finish it, come hell
or high water, come what will, God's gonna finish that work
and the floods of our unbelief cannot drown God's purpose and
cause it to be thwarted, cause it to throw up his hands and
say those people won't believe me and I'm not gonna finish the
work, no. God's gonna finish the work. Now with men, nothing
is stronger than death. But with God, nothing is stronger
than love. With God, anything can overcome
his love. When God loves somebody, when
God loves his people, ain't nothing gonna overcome that. You can
overcome it. God loves His people. His love
for us overcomes every obstacle that might stand in the way of
everlasting glory. Every obstacle, whatever it might
be, His love for us is going to overcome it. Is that alright?
You find any fault with that? You got a problem with that?
I don't have any trouble with that. That's a blessing to me.
Now, to sum it up, every sinner that's loved of God for whom
His goodness was laid up To whom his loving kindness was shown
from eternity, was redeemed by Christ at Calvary, shall be called
by the Spirit in time, and saved with God's salvation forever. Now that pretty well sums up
what I've said here this morning. Now then, what should all this
teach us, hurriedly? What should all that we've said
this morning about the goodness of God that's laid up, about
the loving kindness of God, which is the nature of God, the nature
of God to be willing to give us all that we need, what should
all of this teach us? And the acts of His love, what
should it do? Well, number one, I think it
should make us grateful to God. Make us more grateful to God
than what we've ever been in our lives. And I think this is
a good place and a good way to start out the new year, to be
more grateful to God and to be looking for ways to express that
gratitude. If I can just express a little
bit of the gratitude I've got to God before the goodness that
he's laid up for me, that's been brought out for me, that he's
going to reveal before the sons of men. If I can just find a
way to express that gratitude. And
then secondly, it should inspire us with confidence. If he has
laid it up for us, surely, surely he won't leave it on the shelf.
Surely he will give it unto us. David, we're told in the Bible,
laid up for the temple that Solomon was going to build. He laid up
for that temple during his lifetime. He didn't get to build that temple,
but he laid up for it. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
laid up for his people. And he'll see to it that we receive
it. It's going to come. He'll see
to it that we receive it. And I like that because that'll
help you understand a little bit more about what I'm talking
about, about laying up. You've heard of people laying
up for a rainy day? God's laid up for his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then thirdly and lastly,
I think this should humble us. It should humble us. Oh, pride. It gets in the way of so many
things, doesn't it? Pride. How awful this stuff is. This business of pride. There
was a verse here that I noticed a while ago. I thought it was
in Psalm 31. My brother read about pride. Somebody can find that? says
let the lying lips be put to silence, speak grievously, think
proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. But there was
another verse I thought there that had something to do with
pride. Well, anyway, we ought to be more humble as God's people.
And this pride gets in the way. Undeserved love. No need to be proud, is there?
We ought to be humble. Undeserved love. Undeserved merit. Grace. All undeserved. And that ought to humble our
hearts. You didn't get it because you deserved it. God didn't set
his love on you because you were more numerous than other people,
he said to Israel. No, God set his love upon you
just because he loved you. He wanted to and he did it. Now
that's plain, but that's undeserved love. What verse was it there?
Verse 20, okay. Thou shalt hide them in the secret
of thy presence from the pride of man. There it is, praise God,
thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife
of tongues. Pride is indeed an awful thing. We're thankful for what protection
God gives us from it, and we certainly need more of it. Because
there isn't any man that's more proud than the man that says
he don't have any of it, or that says he don't have a problem
with it. That fellow's got a real problem with it. Now, the more
thy mercies, the poet said, strike my eyes. I'm talking about being
humble. Because of the undeserved goodness,
loving kindness, and love of God, the more thy mercies strike
my eyes, the humbler I shall lie. And I think that's probably
a good place for us to lie. It's humble before the Lord,
His goodness having been revealed to some degree to us this morning. I started out and I told you
that No pen or tongue could express the goodness of God. I told you
that the very essence of God is goodness, and there's no way
in the world a man is going to exhaust that theme. But I hope
this morning this is a place where you can say, well, I've
got something that I can hold on to in this coming year, and
this is an anchor for me. the undeserved merit, love, goodness,
kindness of our God. May the Lord add his blessing.