Now Paul had commended the church
at Rome for their obedience. And he, we considered that last
week. And then he says, this is what
I desire for you. I desire for you that you would
be wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil. I've entitled
this message, Wisdom Concerning Good and Evil. Now, in the immediate
context, he's talking about wisdom in discerning what I'm hearing. Look back in verse 17. Now, I beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which you've learned. And avoid them. Now obviously for me to be able
to do that, I'm going to have to have some discernment regarding
what I'm hearing. For me to be able to mark someone
that's causing divisions contrary to the doctrine I've learned,
I'm gonna have to have some discernment, some spiritual understanding,
some spiritual wisdom. Discernment takes spiritual maturity,
which always manifests itself with a sensitive ear. You're
sensitive to that which detracts from Christ's glory. You're sensitive
to that which gives him all the glory. And you have a sensitive
ear, and you can hear. You know, I've seen people who
I believe are believers where they would lose their spiritual
sensitivity. They would lose their discernment
and stop being able to hear. Let me show you this in Hebrews
chapter 5. Now, what happens if I lose my
first love? And it can happen, can't it?
If I espouse the lukewarm spirit of the Latticeans and think myself
to be rich, increased with goods and have need of nothing, I say,
I'm okay. Don't nobody worry about me.
I'm in good shape. And the Lord says, you don't know that you're
naked and wretched and miserable and poor and blind. If I get
myself into that shape and I can get myself into that shape and
you can get yourself into that shape too, we lose the ability
to discern. Now look here in Hebrews chapter
5, verse 11. Of whom, speaking of Melchizedek,
we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you
are dull of hearing. Now he's speaking to people who
he considers to be believers. And he says, you've become dull
of hearing. Go on reading. For when for the
time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach
you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of
God, the ABCs, the foundational truths. And it becomes such as
have need of milk and not of strong meat for everyone that
uses milk is unskillful, unexperienced in the word of righteousness
for he's a babe, but strong meat, Belongeth to them that are a
full age, that are mature, that are perfect. Even those who by
reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good
and evil. They can tell the difference.
Turn to Philippians chapter one. Look what Paul prayed for the
Philippians. beginning in verse nine. And this I pray, that your love
may abound, not your knowledge, but that your love may abound. Yet more and more in knowledge
and in all judgment, or the word is discernment, that you may
approve things that are excellent and my marginal reading says
that you may try things that are different. That you may know
the difference is what he's saying. That you may be sincere and without
offense to the day of Christ being filled with the fruits
of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and
praise of God. Now may God give me and you this
sensitivity to what we hear, to where we can discern the difference
between law and gospel, grace and works, good and evil. That's a gift of God's grace.
It's not something that we can just work up. May the Lord deliver
us from being dull of hearing, like the writer to the Hebrews
said to the people he was writing to. Good and evil. Good and evil. There is such a thing, isn't
there? Good and evil. And Paul says to the Roman believers,
I want you to be wise concerning that which is good. And I want
you to be a simpleton. I want you to be inexperienced
with regard to that which is evil. Now regarding good and
evil, Do you know the natural man does not understand the difference
between good and evil? Now I know he might know that
crimes that people are putting in prison for are evil. And when
people give stuff away and help people in need and so on, they
know that's good. They would look at it in that
light. But they don't have a real understanding
of good and evil. And the best example of that
is the rich young ruler. Now do you remember the way he
came up to Christ? Scripture says he came running.
He was in dead earnest. And he said, good master, what
good thing can I do to inherit eternal life? And how did the
Lord respond to him? Why call this out any good? There's
none good, but one only, that is God. Now, why did the Lord
say that? Because the Lord knew that this
man was coming to Him as a mere man, and He was calling him a
good man. What good thing can I do to reach
your level of goodness? And the Lord rebuked him. Why
are you calling me good? If you knew what good was, you
wouldn't be calling a mere man good. There's none good, but
God only. This young man demonstrated a
complete ignorance of good and evil when he said, what good
thing can I do to inherit eternal life? If he had any understanding
of what goodness was, he wouldn't have asked that question because
he would know that everything he did is bad. He'd know what
Paul said when Paul said, I know that in me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Now someone that has any understanding
of what goodness is, they understand they're bankrupt of it. They
don't have any of it at all. Turn with me for a moment to
Isaiah chapter five, verse 20. Isaiah says, woe unto them that
call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and
light for darkness, to put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Now there are people who view
the gospel of grace as evil. They hear it and they say, well,
that promotes sin. That'll lead to sin. If you preach something
like that, you'll make people indifferent about good works
and about obedience. That kind of preaching will lead
to sin. That kind of preaching is evil.
And then they'll turn around and call what is evil, salvation
by works, salvation by grace, salvation by Christ. They'll
say, I don't believe that. But when they hear salvation
by works, they say, that's good. When they hear salvation by free
will, they say, that's good. When they hear men brought under
the law, they say, that's good. That'll help people with obedience.
You know, it's interesting. I looked up this verse of scripture
on sermon audio just to see if I could find any sermons on it.
And there were a lot of sermons on it. A lot of sermons on woe
unto them that call good evil and evil good. And guess what
they were all about? the Supreme Court, allowing abortion,
and allowing gay marriages, and things of that nature. That's
what every one of them were about, to woe unto them that do such.
Now listen, I'm not justifying that kind of action. I'm against
abortion. I'm against gay marriages. But let me show you a passage
of Scripture in Matthew chapter 11. You know, it's always easy
to get on the bandwagon of something we believe we're not doing and
just wear everybody out. You know, I, by the grace of God, I'm not
homosexual. By the grace of God. And so what
am I supposed to do? Start wearing everybody out that
is? Because I'm not? That's just a wrong attitude. I can't stand that kind of thinking.
Well, Matthew chapter 11, I think this will answer that question
very powerfully. Beginning in verse 20. Then began
he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were
done, because they repented not. No change of mind after hearing
what he said. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe
unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of
judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, This is
where most of the Lord's miracles were done. And he preached here
so many times. Thou Capernaum, which art exalted
unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty
works which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom. What's Sodom? What's it known
for? Homosexuality. Remember the way
they said regarding those angels? Bring them out to us, that we
might know them, a bunch of morally, desperately wicked people. But what does the Lord say about
these people of Sodom? He says, thou Capernaum, which
are exalted into heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For
if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done
in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto
you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the
day of judgment than for thee. And that answers that question
very powerfully, doesn't it? To reject the gospel, to reject
how God saves sinners by Christ. As bad as that stuff that was
going on in Sodom was, this is worse. and Sodom will have it
worse, I mean better on Judgment Day than those people who heard
the Gospel and repented not. Now, what is good? Men don't know, and men will
find something that they think somebody else does that they
don't do, and they'll attack them for it and feel good about
themselves and say, I'm good, and they're not. The yes, them
kind of thing. What is good? What is good? That's easy to answer. God is
good. There is none good, but one only,
that is God. There is none, with regard to
the sons of Adam, there is none that doeth good and sinneth not. They are all gone out of the
way. They've together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. But God is good. He's originally good. He's always
been good. He's essentially good. He's infinitely
good. He's immutably good. He's eternally
good. He is the highest good and His
goodness refers to the perfections of His nature. All of His attributes
are good. His sovereignty. How many times
have you heard the statement, absolute power, power corrupts
and absolute power corrupts absolutely? Well, God's got absolute power.
Hadn't corrupted Him absolutely in any way. His sovereignty is
a good sovereignty. It's good. His justice is good. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? His omnipotence is good. Everything about him is good.
His grace is good. His mercy and his kindness is
good. God is good. Every attribute
of God is good because the Lord is good. There's none good, our
Lord said, but one only, That is God, and everything that emanates
or comes from Him is good. You know, His decrees, His irrevocable
decrees that He made before time began, you know, every one of
them are good, aren't they? Because He made them. His creation is
good. Remember what He said after He
looked at everything that He made? Behold, it was very good. His laws are good. What if everybody loved God with
all their heart and they loved their neighbor as themselves?
What kind of place would this place be? It'd be paradise, wouldn't
it? All of his laws are good. His providence is good. Everything that he does is good.
Everything that he brings your way is good. It may be painful,
it may be difficult, it may be a trial, but it's good because
the scripture says all things work together for what? For good. To them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. Most especially,
his salvation is good. I love it when Moses says, show
me your glory. He's asking God, you show me
what you identify as that which is most glorious about yourself. And how did he answer Moses?
He said, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. And I proclaim
my name before you. That's my attributes. And I will
be merciful to whom I will be merciful. I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. His goodness is his capacity
to save people like me and you. That's the goodness of God. I
love thinking about this. If salvation were in my hand
or if it were in your hand, no one would be saved. That's just
the truth. Oh, you say, how could that,
why doesn't God save everybody? Well, if salvation were in your
hands, nobody would be saved but you. And if it was in my
hands, nobody would be saved but me. Because if you crossed
me, one time I'd forgive you, another time I'd forgive you,
I might forgive you, who knows how many times, but at some point,
I'd say, that's it. That's it, I'm not gonna have
mercy on that person. And you do the same thing. But
God is good, that's his capacity to save someone who's not good.
like me, someone who's sinful like me, someone who can do nothing
for his glory like me, but he does it anyway because he's good. The Lord is good. This is his reason for everything
he does. I think of what the Lord said.
We could learn something from this. We learned something from
everything he said. But he said in Matthew 11, I
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you
have hid these things, the things of salvation. He made it to where
they couldn't see them. You have hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes even so father. Why? For so it seemed good in
thy sight. You know what the Lord does is
what seems good in your sight. Everything He does seems good
in his sight. That's his mode of operation. Whatever seems good in his sight,
that's what he does because he's God. God is good. He is essentially good. And all
who love him believe all that he is and all that he does is
good. We may not understand what he's
doing. You know, I never understand what he's doing in Providence.
I really don't. But I know it's good. All the
things that I believe regarding the character of God that are
revealed in the Word, I can't intellectually grasp them, but
I believe them and I believe everything God is and everything
God does is good. He is good. Now, the natural man finds fault
with God The believer bows before and adores God. He is worthy
of worship, whatever he does. Now, God is good, amen? God is
good. You know what else is good? His gospel is good. It's called good news. Not bad news, but good news. How beautiful are the feet of
them which preach the gospel of peace, that bring glad tidings
of good things. Now there's only one thing that
will prevent a man or woman from hearing the gospel as good news. What is that? Self-righteousness. That is the only thing that will
prevent a man or woman from hearing the gospel as good news. Now, if you are a sinner, if
you are evil, if you deserve to be damned, If you can't bring
anything to God that He can accept by what you do, you know what's
good news? It's good news that Christ is
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It's good news
to find out before there was any sin there was a Savior. And
there was a provision made for sin, an accomplishment, even
then. It's good news that Christ stood
as a surety. Guaranteed salvation for everybody
that the Father gave him. That's good news. It's good news
that God freely elected a people without any reference to their
works at all. Is that good news to you? I mean,
it had nothing, the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. That's good
news, isn't it? It's good news that Christ came and became a
man and kept God's law perfectly. It's good news that He died on
a cross as the sin-bearing substitute, that all my sin became His sin
so that He actually became guilty of it. And He bore the full equivalent
of hell in my room and place, and now I don't have to. That's
good news. It's good news that He actually
justified everybody He died for so I stand before God sinless. without guilt, perfectly righteous
in God's sight. It's good news that God preserves
all those people all the way to the end. It's good news that
by irresistible grace and power He glorifies them. Now the only
thing that will keep anybody from rejoicing in that is they
don't really believe they're a sinner. Because if you don't
really believe you're a sinner, you're looking for something
other than Other than this, you're looking for some other hope that
something you've done and that takes away your hope. But if
you are a sinner, the gospel is good news. Here's an example. You know, Paul said the gospel
is how the Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
Well, let me give you one of those scriptures he's speaking
of. God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Is that good news? Is to this
sinner, all God was looking for was the blood. And when he sees
the blood of his son, he promises, I will pass over you. The gospel is good. The gospel
is his work for us. You know what else is good? His
work in us is good. God is good. His gospel is good,
his work on our behalf, but his work in us is good. Paul said in Philippians 1, 6,
knowing this, that he which hath begun a good work in you. What a good work that is. Being
born of the Spirit, being given a new nature, being partakers
of the divine nature, being given a new heart, being made a new
creature, a new creation. That's all His work. You can't
make yourself a new creature any more than you can create
the universe, but He can, and He does. And bless His holy name,
it's a good work. He that hath begun a good work
in you, We'll perform it, we'll complete it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. Now think about this. When we
read of the four hearers, the Lord talks about the good ground
hearer. Well, who made this hearer a
good ground hearer? Was it any natural goodness in
him that made him different than the other three? No, no, you
know as sure as you're sitting here that you would be one of
those other three hearers apart from the grace of God. And what
about when he talked about this good ground here, who in an honest
and good heart received the word. Honest. You're made to be honest
before God. And the only time you and I are
ever honest before God is when we face him as a sinner. That's
the only time. This honest and good heart. That's
the good heart. That's an honest heart. The heart
in which there is no guile. What about the good man, the
scripture says, who out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth
forth good things, and the evil man? who out of the evil treasure
of his heart bringeth forth evil things. Now, who is this good
man that brings forth the good things of the gospel? It's the
man that God has saved. He's been given a holy nature,
a new nature, and he's got a good treasure. Oh, the good treasure
of his heart. He brings forth good things,
the things of the gospel. What is good? All the good things
he gives. I love it when the Lord looked
at His disciples and He said, if you then being evil. Now, if the Lord said that to
you, what would be the response of your heart? You'd know it's so. If you then being evil. Know how to give good gifts to
your children. How much more shall your heavenly
Father give good things, good things to them that ask him? And I think of the good things
that he gives, the good hope we have in Christ Jesus. I have
a hope. I have a hope that when I stand
before God, I will stand before God sinless. And I've got a hope
that everything between now and then is working together for
my good and his glory. Now that's a good hope, isn't
it? What about the good conscience? He speaks of the good conscience,
and understand it's a good conscience. It's not a conscience that says,
well, my conscience is clear in that matter. No, what your
problem is, you've got a seared conscience. You've got a bad
conscience. If you can look at anything you've
done and think, well, I've got a clear conscience about that.
No sin in that. Nobody believes that. A good
conscience is a conscience that has nothing to feel guilty about.
And that's what justification does. In Christ, I have nothing
to feel guilty about. I'm without sin. I'm in a state
of sinlessness. I think of the goodness of God,
according to Romans 2, 4, that leads thee to repentance. That
repentance that you experience, that change of mind, the gift
of God's grace, it's born of the goodness of God. That's why
you repent. That's why you're in a state
of repentance, because of the goodness of God. I think of all
the blessings of this life. Here's good providence. It's
all good. It's all good. That's the promise
of the Scripture. Health is good. Aren't you thankful
for health? Man, I'm thankful for health.
Sickness is good. It's a blessing. Whenever God
blesses you with sickness, it is a blessing. Whatever it is,
it is a blessing. It's a blessing of God for you. Intended for your good and His
glory. It's not a punishment. It's a
blessing. Charles Spurgeon said the greatest
blessing in life is health. The only greater blessing is
sickness. And I believe that. Prosperity is good. I'd rather have prosperity than
adversity, wouldn't you? Prosperity is good. Adversity
is good. It's the best. Trials are good. We're instructed
in James to thank God when we fall into them. And good times,
where I don't feel like I'm being tried, those are good too. I
prefer those. But whatever God does is good. Because of His grace, there are
good men and women. Paul said, I'm persuaded of you
that you're full of goodness. And that's talking about his
grace. You know what he's talking about when he says that. Now
turn with me to Micah chapter six. Micah chapter six. Are you there? Micah is right after the book
of Jonah. Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, then Nahum. Micah chapter 6,
verse 8. He has showed thee, O man, what
is good. And what does the Lord require
of thee? Here's what's good. To do justly. to love mercy and to walk humbly
with thy God. And that's what God requires
of you. That's what is good. First of all, to do justly. Somebody says, well, I always
try to do the right thing. Nobody believes that. Nobody
believes that. Well, I know that I ought to
do justly. Well, I believe that. I believe
that too. He doesn't say to know it's the right thing to do justly
or to do your best to do justly, but to do justly. That's what's good, to do justly. Now there's only one way I understand
that, and that's in light of justification. If I'm justified,
know what that means? I've done justly. Everything
I've done, never sinned, Always done that which is right. I've
never done that which is wrong. And that's good, isn't it? To
do justly. Secondly, what does God require
of you? This is good. To love mercy. Do you love being saved by the
sovereign saving mercy of God? Where he says, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. Oh, I love his mercy. You see,
his mercy is not an offer. His mercy is saving mercy. And I love mercy. I love being saved by mercy rather
than my works. I love that. And you know what
else? I love being merciful. Blessed are the merciful for
they shall obtain mercy. What is good? Well, first to
do justly means to be justified. And secondly, to love mercy,
to love God's mercy, to love being merciful by the grace of
God. I want to be a merciful person. And thirdly, this is
what's good, to walk humbly with thy God. Now we have a walk with God.
Every day, a walk with God. We walk by faith and not by sight. And there's only one way to walk
with God. In humility. No other way. What is humility? Best definition I've ever heard
is a just estimate of yourself. And if you have a just estimate
of yourself, you're going to know the only way you can be
saved is by the grace of God. If you're a sinner, it's only
by the grace of God that you know that. If you're justified,
you know that that's the work of the grace of God. If you're
redeemed, if you're forgiven, you know it's because of the
grace of God. Now, if you have a just estimate of yourself,
you'll say with Paul, by the grace of God, I am what I am. Now, that's good. That's good.
To do justly. And that's how real justification
is. It doesn't mean that I just had doing justly charged to my
account and I got it on a piece of paper that says I'm like that.
No, it means I really, I've done justly. Go on and love justification. And to love mercy. And to walk
humbly with thy God. Be wise concerning that which
is good. And I'm just gonna spend a couple
of minutes on this one. Be simple concerning that which
is evil. The word simple means unmixed. Unmixed. If something is simple,
that means it's not compounded. It's not a compound element.
It's unmixed, it's pure. Now I realize with Paul that
when I would do good, evil is present with me. I realize that.
There's not a time when I can't say that. When I would do good,
when I would be wise concerning good, evil's breathing right
down my neck. He's always there with me, my
old man. But I want to be simple and unmixed
regarding this, Christ. It's not 99%. Christ is all. He's all that God is. He's all
that God requires. He's all in the scriptures. He's
all in my salvation. And he's all in glory. Unmixed. No 99%. No Christ and. Christ is all. Evil is to be corrupted from
the simplicity that's in Christ. Remember when Paul said, I fear lest by any means as Satan
beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity the singleness, the onlyness of Christ. Now this
word, simple, is used two other times in the New Testament, and
the two other times it's translated harmless. Remember when the Lord
said, be ye as wise as serpents and harmless as doves? Harmless. He prayed that the
Philippians would be blameless and harmless, the sons
of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse
nation." Now, being evil is being harmful, being mixed. Oh, how harmful it is to yourself,
how harmful it is to anybody that's around you. I would have
you to be wise concerning that which is good and simple. regarding evil. Not an expert
at mixing things, but someone who looks to Christ only, rests
in Him, and they want His glory, love to Him, to be the only motive
they have for any action. May God make me and you wise
concerning that which is good. and simple, harmless, concerning
that which is evil. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name,
that glorious name of your Son, the only name by which we come
into your presence. Lord, we ask in his name that
you would enable us to be wise concerning that which is good
and simple concerning that which is evil. Lord, as we face this
coming week, we ask that you would enable us to walk in humility with our God. And we ask that you would open
up doors for us to preach your gospel. And Lord, we ask that
you would give your gospel a hearing in this place for Christ's sake.
Lord, how we thank you for the forgiveness of sins we have in
your son. In his name we pray. Amen.