Tonight we're going to be in
the book of Proverbs, the 11th chapter. Proverbs chapter 11. In the book of Matthew, chapter
13, the disciples asked the Lord Why do you speak to the people
in parables? He had just got done saying,
he that hath ears, let him hear. He that hath ears, let him hear.
And they said, why do you speak to them in parables? Now much like them. His parables
or his sayings, they would go right over our head if the Lord
is not the one that reveals them. And even the dark sayings of
scripture, the mystery therein, the Lord has to be the revelator
of that. He does this by his spirit. We can't, who can search
out the things of God? Who can understand the hidden
mysteries and the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ and the finished
work of the cross? Except God be the teacher, except
God be the teacher. If he does not reveal them, If
it does not reveal it, it would just go right over our head.
How many people did the Lord come into contact with him? They
watched him perform miracles. Remember in John chapter five
and then chapter six, he says, you come to me not for the bread
of life, but to have your bellies full. There's something they
wanted more bread because he took the five loaves and The
fish and he fed 5,000. They wanted to see that. They
wanted some more food. They wanted a handout. They wanted a handout. But none
of these individuals could see he was God. He was God manifest
in the flesh. He was the fullness of the Godhead
bodily and they couldn't see it. Now you and I, could not
and would not see that as well. And thus the Lord and His determinate
counsel, by His determinate counsel and His infinite mercy and grace,
chooses to say unto us, seek ye my face. He chooses to say
unto us, hear, for the Lord speaketh. And that's my hope tonight, is
that He would speak to you and I. We're told the disciples, he
said, why do you speak them parables? And this is what he said, because
it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven. But to them, it is not given. It is not given. We can see the Lord's election
all throughout Scripture, and especially when the Lord makes
statements like that. The Lord said, I'm not going
to reveal it unto them. He said, I didn't come to reveal it, but
even prayed, Father, I thank Thee that You have hid these
things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto what?
Babes. Babes. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, but sinners. To repentance, everybody hated
that message. I'm not a sinner, what are you
talking about, me a sinner? No, I live a good life. People,
that's the attitude now, today, isn't it? I'm living better than
I ever have. No, we're sinners by nature,
by practice, by choice. And here we on it say, they seeing,
see not, and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand.
They seeing, see not, and they hearing, hear not. Neither do
they understand. I had a woman one time come up
to me and she said to me, I have ears and eyes and they work just
fine. I saw what happened tonight and
I heard everything you said and I thought you didn't hear a word
I said. because the whole point was it's spiritual ears he's
talking about. You can hear with this ear, but
if the Lord doesn't make it effectual and give us his spirit, we won't
hear his truth. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. This is the Lord's doing. It's
wondrous in our eyes. We are completely, entirely,
wholly dependent upon our God, giving us this ability to hear
his voice, to see his face. You that were in false religion,
you read the scripture, you went through the scripture, you didn't
think of all the types and shadows of the Lord. No, I didn't. I
didn't see the Lord Jesus Christ in these types and shadows. We
always talked about the great men of old. We talked about David.
I want to be more like David. I want to be more like Moses.
All of those were a type and a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Joshua was the same thing. Moses in different times, same
thing. The Passover lamb, all of that pointed to one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet in religion, we couldn't
see it. We couldn't see it because the
Lord, I've not revealed it to the wise and to the prudent,
he's past finding out. Our wisdom doesn't even, well,
our wisdom is nothing compared to him, nothing, nothing. Unless he makes us to know his
truth, calls us to believe it all for his glory, we'll never
hear it. Now here in Proverbs, by way
of introduction, but here in Proverbs, parables. They're parables
of peace that we've seen so many times. They are mysterious in
the way that they're given because they're not given so that you
can figure it out. The Lord has to be the one reveal
it. The Lord has to be the one reveal
it. All these oracles of wisdom and instruction by his grace,
he has to be the one to give us eyes to see and ears to hear. And that is my heart's desire
tonight, that he would do that. And let's read our text together.
Proverbs 11, 22 through 31. As a jewel of gold in a swine's
snout, so is a fair woman, which is without discretion. The desire
of the righteous is only good, but the expectation of the wicked
is wrath. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there
is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made
fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. He that
withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him. but blessing
shall be upon the head of him that selleth it. He that diligently
seeketh good procureth favor, but he that seeketh mischief,
it shall come unto him. He that trusteth in his riches
shall fall, but the righteous shall flourish as a branch. He
that trouble with his own house shall inherit the wind, and the
fool shall be servant to the wise of heart. The fruit of the
righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is
wise. Behold, the righteous shall be
recompensed in the earth much more than the wicked and the
sinner. I titled this message Seeking
Goodness. Seeking Goodness. Look at verse
27 again. He that diligently seeketh good
procureth favor. He that diligently seeketh good
procureth favor. stood out to me, that struck
me. Because what does it mean to seek good? If I'm gonna have
favor with God, and that is the requirement, what is it to seek
good? I need to know that. Because
I know there's in me, that is to say in my flesh dwelleth no
good thing. I know that the Lord hath said there's none good,
no not one. So what does it mean to seek goodness? To seek goodness? Many believe
goodness is good works that you do in the flesh. I do good works,
therefore I have goodness. That's not true. The Lord doesn't
look at our works and see them as good. The Lord looks at our
works and sees them as sin. We must be found in Christ who
is perfect, Christ who is holy, Christ who is righteous, or we
have no righteousness. Many think that their good works
cause them to have evidence of salvation or they're the cause
of salvation. And that's not true. They think
that that's goodness that they've acquired. They have attained
because they've done this or they don't do that. And that
goes back to the taste, not touch, not handle, not mentality that
comes from the law. And they justify themselves that
way. But that's not the goodness we're talking about tonight.
And we're not seeking that kind of goodness. Most, if not all, in false religion
require affirmation for the decisions that they've made. I remember being a pastor in
false religion, there's many times people would come up to
me and say, how do I know I'm saved? And we'd have to go and talk
about what they had done. That's embarrassing. It's embarrassing
to admit, but it's true. Did you pray this prayer? Did
you do this? Did you do this? Okay, it's a
done deal then. I had no idea the ignorance in
those statements. I had no idea how ignorant I
was making those statements. Oh, that's utter foolishness,
and it's not true. You come and ask me, Pastor,
how do I know I'm saved? My response is gonna be, who
are you looking to? You're looking to yourself? That's not good. That's not good. If you see anything in yourself
whereby God should save you because of goodness, because of merit,
because of something you've changed, you haven't seen Christ yet.
When the Lord saves a person, he makes them a sinner, a complete,
utter sinner, abases every notion of self-righteousness in them
and points them to the righteousness which is found in Christ Jesus
alone. So we're not talking about goodness
that we have gained by allowing God to do something. We're not
talking about goodness by our obedience, our obedience. I'm not talking about that. As
far as obedience under works, I'm not talking about that. Otherwise, we'd be things that
we can see. Then some, it's things that they have, they think is
goodness, or how happy they are. People think, well, because I'm
really happy, I must have favor with God. These are just common
things that I'm mentioning tonight. As by way of introduction before
I get to the meat of the message, but these things are things that
you're going to deal with with people that they're going to
come to you and have these conversations with you and tell you what their
hope is, and they're not even meaning to tell you that that's
what their hope, but you're looking at them thinking, you just told me what
your righteousness is. That's sad, that's terrible.
There's a man I was with this week, he kept telling me how
blessed he was. He's like, oh yeah, I own a company,
I do this, I'm blessed. He was talking about his family,
and family is a blessing, I'm not going to say that it's not.
but he was talking about the favor that he had with God based
upon the life that he lived. Brethren, our favor, that's the
message tonight. We're seeking goodness, but those
that seek goodness have favor, and it's actually those that
seek goodness, it's because they've already had the favor. But to
have favor with God, it can't be because of something I do.
Otherwise, I can please God in and of myself, and Christ died
in vain. Christ died in vain. To seek goodness is to truly
seek the favor of God. It's to seek the one that God
favors, the one that God is pleased with. It's to seek Jesus Christ.
To seek goodness is to seek Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of
his people. That's the first point tonight.
To seek goodness is to seek the Lord Jesus Christ. All false
religion points to self. Everything about God's goodness,
everything about His grace, His mercy, everything about the finished
work on the cross, His salvation, His gospel, points to the Lord
Jesus Christ. It doesn't point to me, and it
doesn't point to you. It points to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it actually makes us, His people, point to the same thing
that He points to, to speak the same thing He speaks. To seek the goodness of God is
to seek Christ. Moses asked the Lord, and you
know this story well, Lord, show me your glory. I want to see
your glory. The Lord said, no man can look
upon me and live. But, aren't you glad for the
interjections of the gospel? But for the grace of God, there
go I. But, he said, there is a place nigh unto me. of rock,
a cleft of a rock, and I will put you on the rock in the cleft
of the rock. And whenever my goodness passes
by you, you will see my hundred parts, my goodness. You desire
the good. That's it right there. You have
to be in Christ. To have the goodness of God. To seek goodness is to seek the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's not to seek what we do,
but what he has done. It's not to seek our own works,
but to seek the finished work of Christ. How do you seek it?
By faith, bestowed faith. We don't seek it with these hands
and these eyes. It's the heart with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession
is made into salvation. The Lord is the one that gives
faith to believe and to seek after him. You know what he told Moses,
Exodus 33, 19, he said, I will make all my goodness pass before
thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee
and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and show mercy
to whom I will show mercy. I'm gonna make all my goodness
pass before thee. Well, what is that? That's the
finished work of the cross, the salvation of God's elect, the
full redemption that was wrought by Christ alone, that's the full
goodness for the believer. We want nothing else besides
that salvation. Scripture tells us clearly, neither
is there any other name whereby men must be saved. There is no
other salvation. This is it, this is the only
one. The only way we, or Moses, or
anyone could see God and not be destroyed is to be in that
cleft of the rock, to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as Noah
was in the ark, we've got to be in the ark. Just as Moses
was in the cleft, we have to be in the cleft. And just as
we were in the Lord Jesus Christ when he died upon the cross,
The wrath of God did not harm us, and he satisfied its demands
for his people. This is the goodness that we
seek. It doesn't get better than this. This is the goodness. This was the substitution that
took place. We cannot see him, we cannot
hear him without him first being the cause. We must be found in
him. We must be made to see him. You tell somebody, that they
cannot come to Christ unless he causes them to. And some people
get really aggravated about that. They believe that they have power
in themselves. People will tell me, I have a
will, I have a will. Yeah, we do, but it's bound to
our nature. That's the biggest problem. So
that's why Christ said, you will not come to me that you might
have life. They didn't want his goodness, they wanted his benefits.
Think about that. They wanted the bread. Remember,
we talked about that just a minute ago. He told them, he said, you
just want your bellies full. You just want more food for your
stomach. You don't want the bread of life, the goodness, the salvation
that I brought. You want the handout portion
of it, the benefits of it, without having Him. But it doesn't work
that way. It's so amazing that We desire
grace and mercy. We desire righteousness and peace. We desire truth. We desire Christ
who is all of those things for the Lord's people. That's what
we look to and hope in. That's what we desire the most.
That's what we seek is him and him alone. We cannot have his goodness without
him being the giver of it, meaning it's his to give. It's his to
give. It's not yours to acquire. It
has to be freely bestowed by grace alone, freely bestowed
by grace alone. We cannot have his favor without
having his goodness and mercy, but there is a place found in
the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, where
the goodness of God is given to his people on behalf of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because of what he did, taking
every sin, every stain, everything that we are, taking them into
himself and putting them away by the sacrifice of himself,
all that's left is goodness, the goodness of the Lord. What
did David say in Psalm 23? Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Why? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. That's why.
That's why. Oh, we seek his goodness. The goodness that says, but God
committed his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. That's his goodness. That's his
goodness, that he would die when we were yet sinners. He didn't
wait till we were living good. He didn't wait till we were doing
right. He didn't wait to, that's what he said, I come not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. They that are whole
need not a position, but they that are sick. This is a faithful
saying worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Oh, that's his goodness. That's
his goodness. We seek the goodness of the Lord. That's only found in the in the
Lord Jesus Christ only found in him. Christ died for us. And
that is the result of his goodness. This is whom and what we seek.
We seek oneness with him. We seek Christ as all all our
wisdom, all our righteousness, all our sanctification, all our
redemption. We seek his goodness. We seek him as all. The second point, that's the
end of the first point, to seek his goodness is to seek Christ
alone as all our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Second point, to seek his goodness is to seek his kingdom, his kingdom. The reason we seek his kingdom
is because it was entirely built by his own hands. It was entirely
built by his own doing. It was entirely made by his will
and pleasure, all for his glory. We had no part in the creation
of this city, this kingdom. The disciples were talking to
the Lord and they said, we're gonna fight, we're ready. And
he said, well, if my kingdom was of this world, then they
would fight. My kingdom's not of this world.
My kingdom's not of this world. No, this is a spiritual kingdom.
This isn't a physical kingdom that the Lord came to set up.
When men preach health, wealth, and prosperity, they're dishonoring
the Lord by their message. The message is, in this world,
you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. That's the message. No, this Zion is the kingdom
of God, the kingdom by where all the occupants are the elect
of God saved by grace alone. This is the kingdom of God, the
kingdom of God, that the Lord Jesus Christ has become the head
and chief cornerstone. So he's the foundation of this
city, but yet he's also everything in this city. This is all about
him. This is his goodness that we're seeking here. This is what
is blood accomplished on the cross of Calvary. This is the
finished work whereby you and I have all the benefits of his
suffering, of what his suffering actually bought. We have all
the benefits and he took all the suffering. We have all the
pleasure, if you will, and he took all the pain. And yet here
we have this city built by his own hands where the builder and
maker is God. It's God and we worship him in
spirit and in truth. This is the city where all the
occupants are redeemed, then called all by his grace, the
kingdom of God. Turn to Matthew chapter six where
the Lord speaks about this. Look at verse 24 with me. First, let me say this. This
is a contrast of they that seek mammon, they seek gain, they
seek money, they seek power. And it's a contrast between them
and they that the Lord hath made to seek his kingdom, which is
also what's going on in Proverbs. If you remember, it said the
wicked do this, but the righteous do this. This is the same message
right here. So look at verse 24 with me.
No man can serve two masters, for either you will hate the
one and love the other, or else you will hold to the one and
despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what
you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body,
for what you shall put on, is not the life more than meat and
body than the raiment? Behold the fowls of the air,
for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather in barns,
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not much better
than they? Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one cubit into his stature? And why take ye thought of it
for arraignment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto
you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like
one of these. Wherefore? If God so clothed
the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast
into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith? Therefore, take no thought saying, what shall we eat or
what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after
all these things, the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father
knoweth what ye have need of all these things. But, 33, seek
ye first. the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore
no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow take thought for the
things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. If you want to seek goodness,
then we seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Now where
is that found? That's in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone, isn't it? So it's the same thing as before,
it doesn't change. We seek the kingdom of God. What
does that mean? We seek Him. We seek Him. This contrast here of they that
go after the things of the world, that's the false religious is
what that is. They're gaining what they can gain based upon
what their standing is in society. And whether it's monetary things
or valuables that they possess, they're gaining popularity with
men and they enjoy that. They enjoy that popularity. Don't
worry about your clothes and your food and all the things
that these people are worried about, making that the priority.
Seek Christ. That's the most important thing.
Your father's gonna give you what you have need of. Seek his
goodness, his goodness. He's telling us, don't seek your
own righteous. Don't seek a kingdom that you
can have part of in building it. Don't seek a kingdom wherein,
and understand kingdom and salvation, it's the same thing. This isn't,
I'm not using words to confuse. This kingdom is what the Lord
built on the cross of Calvary. This was what he accomplished,
his finished work. That's what this represents.
So we don't seek to add to or take away from that. So don't
seek a kingdom. Don't seek a salvation where we put our hands to it.
We're not seeking the goodness of God. We're seeking our own
goodness. We're seeking our own righteousness.
He's saying, seek ye first the kingdom of God, His righteousness,
not ours, His. Seek His goodness. See, His righteousness
can't be earned or bought. He earned it. He was righteous,
but He earned our righteousness on the cross of Calvary. We can't
earn that. We can't earn being redeemed. He earned that. He
bought that with his own blood. When our substitute charity took
our place on the cross, I've already talked about him enduring
the wrath of God. He satisfied the law's demands. He did everything
necessary for our salvation, for the salvation of the Lord's
elect. Not one sin remains upon them. That's the Lord's goodness.
Seek that. Don't seek the things of the
world and become distracted. There's a lot of things that
happen in the world. You have any joy whatsoever, turn on the
news. You'll lose it real quick. That's true, isn't it? I mean,
I've done it many times. I don't mean to. You turn on
social media or something. Well, there I just feel terrible
now. I'm not thinking of heavenly
things. And Lord, cause me to seek your
goodness. Lord, call me to seek your face.
Don't leave me to myself because I'm gonna get distracted like
these were doing. They were going after different
things. Don't let me do that. Cause me to seek Christ and his
righteousness, his kingdom. The glorious goodness of God
is that he saved his elected children from their sin, from
their self, from their own righteousness, from their own goodness. He saved
us from our own goodness. We don't have any goodness anymore
in ourselves, do we? Now we have His goodness, that's all we want.
We don't have any righteousness whereby we boast of what we have
done. He is our righteousness. That's
what the Lord's people rejoice in. Seek that, seek Him. Scripture says this, there is
none good but God and all good and perfect gifts come down from
the Father of lights. So if I'm going to have goodness,
it's going to have to come from him. I can't earn it. I can't acquire it. I can't attain
it, but I can receive it. If he is so inclined, if he is
well pleased to cause me to receive it, I can receive it. If he's
made me a vessel of honor, capable of receiving it, he has to do
all the work, all the work. I love the rest of that verse.
It actually says, all good and perfect gifts come down from
the father of lights in whom there is no variable and it's neither
shadow of turning. He don't change. That's his goodness. That's his
goodness, isn't it? If he could change, we'd be hurting.
We'd be in trouble, but he can't change. And he can't lie. That's
goodness, isn't it? To seek goodness is to seek his
kingdom, not one that we've corrupted by contributing to it in any
way, but one that's perfect, perfect in every way, the one
he built with his own hands all by himself. To seek goodness
is to seek Christ first, and second is to seek his kingdom
built by himself. Lastly, to seek his goodness
or to seek goodness Is to seek salvation alone by grace alone. To seek salvation by grace alone. not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, hath he saved us. You want to seek goodness, we
seek Christ, we seek his kingdom, and we seek salvation found in
Christ Jesus by grace alone. That's what the Lord's people
seek after is him. This is all him. It's just three
different ways of saying the same thing, really. He's the
focal point. He's the focal point. God only
saves one way, and that's without mine or your contribution at
all. God only saves one way, and that's by grace alone. Grace doesn't need to be reformed.
It needs to be declared plainly. It doesn't need to be changed
or added to. Grace is just as good now as
it's ever been. It's not gonna change because
our God's unchangeable. The Lord's people don't seek
salvation in and of themselves. They seek the salvation of Jesus
Christ by grace alone. For by grace are you saved through
faith in that not of yourself. It's the gift of God, not of
works. Or we'd boast about it, wouldn't we? We would boast about
it. This is his goodness. Romans
chapter two verse four says, despiseth thou the riches of
his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance, leadeth thee to
repentance. It's the goodness of God that
leadeth men to repentance. This is why we seek his goodness.
Lord, you have to give me, you have to give me your goodness
or I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be able to repent. In false religion,
they would put men underneath the law, and they would say,
oh, you better repent, for it's too late. There's people I've
seen in street corners, even in our little town, with a megaphone. They're saying, repent, repent,
repent. Repentance is a gift from God. It's not a decision
that we make. Repentance is something that
God has to do by grace in the heart. It's a work that shows
us we're sinners, not that we have bad habits or that we've
committed a sin and we need to say sorry for that sin. That's
what false religion does. It scares people by putting them
underneath the law saying, you're guilty, you're doomed, you better
do this. You know what the goodness of
the Lord says? For by grace are you saved through faith in that
not of yourself, it's the gift of God. Oh, that's the goodness
of the Lord. That's the goodness of God's
salvation, that we're saved by grace alone, period. You mean
I don't have to know? You don't. Matter of fact, if
you do, it's iniquity. Don't do it. Doesn't matter what
it is. Well, I don't do this anymore.
I don't do that anymore. Well, now you're looking at evidences for salvation,
and that's just as bad. Look to Christ. Look to his goodness. Look to his finished work alone. This is the message tonight.
Seek goodness. It's only found in one, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember men preaching hellfire
and brimstone just to try to scare people to an altar, try
to scare people to do this and do that. The intention was to cause them
to live in fear, but we preach Christ because he's the goodness
of God, and the goodness of God is the only thing that can lead
a man to repentance. You can draw a confession out of somebody.
That's not repentance. Repentance is God changing your
mind, God changing my mind. Repentance isn't just praying.
Repentance is a heart transplant, and God's the surgeon. It's mysterious,
gracious work of salvation. That's what the goodness of the
Lord does. He alone gives faith, the gift
of grace. God's people are made to seek his face, make to seek
his goodness and his salvation by his grace alone. Now in closing,
I wanna go back to Proverbs chapter 11. Let's read this again in the
light of everything I've said tonight. The Lord be merciful. Maybe we can see his face here.
Proverbs 11, 22, as a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so as
a fair woman, which is without discretion, the desire of the
righteous is only good. Now what does that mean? The
desire of the righteous is only his goodness. It's only him. He's the only one good. The believer
knows this. God's elect have been made to
know, I'm not good. I am the unclean thing. I'm leprous
from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Unclean, unclean. You know what the Lord says?
Truth, be you made whole. And he heals us by taking our,
he healed us by taking our sin and nailed him to his cross.
The righteous, the desire of the righteous is only good. Now
here's the opposite, but the expectation of the wicked is
wrath. There is that scattereth and
yet increases. Is it not true that our Lord
scattereth his grace and his mercy and his love abundantly
upon his children? And we increase because we're
the benefactors of that grace and mercy. Not because we deserved
it, but it's by grace and mercy. We increase. And we say with
John, when we hear that information, oh, I must decrease, but he must
increase. And yet here he is. Just holding
us up by his unchangeable hand by his grace and mercy continually
scattering that grace and mercy and it never runs out. You know,
you think of a sower that goes out with seed and takes out of
the bag eventually he's gonna run out of seed. Not the Lord.
His mercies are renewed every day. His grace is sufficient
for anything. It always will be. There is that
scattereth and yet increases, there is that withholdeth more
than is meat, but it tendeth to poverty. There's those that
don't preach the gospel, they withhold more than necessary. They don't preach the gospel
and what does that lead to? Poverty. Poverty. Having nothing, being empty,
not having the goodness of God. Oh, we're charged with preaching
the gospel as clear as we can do it in love, And God has to
be the one that does the increasing. He has to be the one that gives
the increase. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that
watereth shall be watered also himself. He that withholdeth
corn, the people shall curse him, but blessing shall be upon
the head of him that selleth it. I love the thought of Joseph
being down in the land of Egypt. When his brothers came to him,
he had all the corn. He had every bit of it. They
were in need of exactly what he had. They couldn't see him. It says he knew his brothers,
but they didn't know him. They didn't know Joseph. Why?
They couldn't see him. They couldn't recognize him.
This is the same message as we started out saying, we could
not recognize the Lord, yet he has the storehouses of living
water and bread of life that we must have in order to live
eternally. He has to give it. And this is
his goodness unto us. Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, that's
food. He leadeth me beside the still waters, that's drink. He
restores our soul so that we're not destroyed. He restores us. He maketh me to, well, turn to
Psalm 23. Instead of me trying to quote
the whole thing. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth
me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness. Why? For his name's sake, not
mine, his. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with
me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a
table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. What is that anointing with oil? That's the spirit, is it not?
When the Lord sends his spirit and power, reveals his truth
by his gospel, oh, the cup runs over. We're abundantly full. Now go back to Proverbs chapter
11. I'm reminded of Joseph being
in Egypt. They couldn't recognize him. He had everything that they
needed. But Psalm 23 is the promise to the believer. We're not going
to be without because we have Christ who is our goodness. We
have him. That's why we seek him. He has
the corn. And the good news is he says,
come. He's selling corn. He says, come
buy without money and without price. How can that be? It's
already been paid for. Verse 27, he that delighteth,
he that diligently seeketh good, procureth favor. That's the text
we took. And I'll say this, the word procure
here means to beg. or desire. I loved that when
I saw that. It means to beg. Now let's read
it in that light. He that diligently seeketh good begs for favor. You desire favor with God, you're
desiring the goodness of the Lord, you're begging for it.
We're just mercy beggars. No, it's not saying that you're
gonna have goodness. If you seek goodness, then you're
gonna get favor. That's what men would say in
false religion. He's saying, no, if you're seeking goodness, You're
gonna be begging for favor. Lord, give me Christ, because
you know he's the only one that has favor with God. Without him,
we have no favor with God. But he that seeketh mischief,
it shall come unto him. He that trusteth in his riches
shall fall, but the righteous shall flourish as a branch. Now,
how can that be? Well, I am the vine, ye are the
branches, he said. So the righteous will flourish
as the branch. He that troubleth his own house
shall inherit the wind, and the fool shall be servant to the
wise of heart. The fruit of the righteous is
as a tree of life. Why? Because it's his fruit.
It's his fruit. And he that winneth souls is
wise. Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth,
much more the wicked and the sinner. We obtain favor because,
we do not obtain favor because we seek goodness. I'm trying
to say this as slow as I can because sometimes it becomes
a tongue twister, or can. We do not obtain favor because
we seek goodness. We seek goodness because God
has favored us as his people in Christ. If God has favored
you, he has elected you, he has predetermined your salvation,
You're going to seek Christ. You're going to seek goodness
that's only found in him. This is why we beg for him. We
seek him who is all the goodness of God. We seek the goodness
in seeking his kingdom. We seek goodness in seeking salvation
by grace alone. We seek his eye on built by himself. His salvation wrought on Calvary.
We seek Christ. We seek. Him alone. This is the glorious salvation
whereby God does all the choosing, all the saving, all the calling,
and all the keeping. This is the goodness of the Lord.
This is what the Lord's people desire is this salvation. This
is the person and work of Christ. This is his goodness. We as his
people seek because God is the doer of it. Therefore, we have
favor with God. I love the therefores. How can
you have favor with God the same way that a sinner can be made
righteous in Jesus Christ alone, by his blood alone, by his grace
alone? This is why we seek goodness. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take these words and that you would get the glory.
May you teach us the unlearnable goodness of your son. You must
be the teacher, we can't learn it. In Christ's name, amen.