after the morning service and
dinner and no evening, no afternoon service. So remember that, put
that on your calendar. I remember the family of Deborah
Lindsey, her mother died. Is that right? Her mother died,
so remember her and their family in prayer. And also Dee Parks
got the word back from his chemotherapy treatment on his cancer in the
stomach. It didn't do anything to it. It's actually growing,
so it's not good. So remember Dee Parks, Moose,
Sandy, Christie and the kids, they're going through a hard
time right now. As you know, Dee was a vital,
strong, young veteran. And it's tough. It's tough. Breaks my heart,
I know that, because I've known him since he was a little boy.
We used to play ball together down on Tortola Island when Moose
was a missionary down there. He was a sweet and wonderful
young man. It looks like the or might be taking home i did
not have to prepare for a miracle hope you will to member to the
lord the parks and also member of the family uh... other than
that i don't think we have any other announcements let's begin
our worship service with hymn number two hundred and sixty
eight Now firm a foundation, ye Saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent Word. What more can he say than to
you he has said, Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed. For I am thy God, I will still
give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my gracious omnipotent
hand, When through the deep waters I call thee to go, overflow. For I will be with
thee thy troubles to bless and sanctify to thee thy deepest
distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, my grace The soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will not, I will not desert. That's so, though all hell should
endeavor to shake I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Oh, Lita, I meant to ask you,
how's your mom doing? Well, that's the way it is when
you've got a brain thing going on. Continue to remember I and
Es in your prayers. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to Exodus chapter 34. We'll sing hymn number 63 after
Scripture reading and prayer. Exodus chapter 34, I'm going
to read one verse of Scripture. I'm going to read two, verses
6 and 7. And the Lord passed by before
him, that is before Moses and proclaimed, this is the Lord
proclaiming, the Lord, that's Jehovah God, the Lord God, Jehovah
Elohim, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, and that by no means that will by no means clear the
guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
and to the third and the fourth generation. Let us pray. Our
father, we praise you and thank you for
the clear declaration of who you are and what we are in scripture. We are thankful that you have
put us in the cleft of the rock. and allowed us to see your hand
of parts, those things that you have done for the good of your
people. We thank you for the perfect
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which satisfied your law and justice.
We thank you for the effectual call of the gospel, whereby your
spirit took the things of Christ and revealed them unto us, gave
us life granted repentance and faith, taught us, Lord, and continues
to teach us your ways. We thank you, Lord, that you
are indeed good, long-suffering, abundant in mercy, for we need
mercy. Father, we pray for those who
are sick. We pray for our shut-ins. We ask, Lord, you be with them.
I pray especially for Dee Parks as he's found this news out about
the chemotherapy. We ask Lord that you would heal
it. We don't know what your will
is. We can't know that until it's already accomplished and
we see it. But we know your ability. Nothing
is too hard for you. And we ask for you to heal. We
know you can. And if it would bring you glory
and honor, do so. but we bow to your will knowing
that the judge of all the earth should do right. Pray for Debra
Lindsey's family at the loss of their mother. Pray for Inez,
for the others who requested prayer. Ask Lord your help for
them. And we ask for your help this
hour as we gather here to worship you in spirit and in truth. Enable
me to say right things concerning thee don't leave me here by myself,
uphold me by your power and strength and fill my mouth with the truth. Forgive us our sins and transgressions.
We say that because we know that you are just to forgive us and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness because of what Christ has done.
Help us now to worship you. You are worthy. In Christ's name,
amen. Hymn number 63. Take the name of Jesus with you, child
of sorrow and woe. It will joy and comfort give
you. ? Within where'er you go ? Precious
name, oh how sweet ? Hope of earth and joy of heaven ? Precious
name, oh how sweet ? Hope of earth and joy of heaven ? Of Jesus ever ? As a shield from
every stare ? If temptations round you gather ? Breathe that
holy name in prayer ? Precious name ? Oh, how sweet hope of
earth Oh, how sweet the hope of earth
and joy of heaven. Oh, the precious name of Jesus,
how it thrills our souls with joy when His loving arms receive His songs our tongues employ,
Precious name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
Precious name, O how sweet! hope of earth and joy of heaven. At the name of Jesus bowing,
falling prostrate at his feet. King of kings and emperor when our journey is complete. Precious name, oh, how sweet. Hope of earth and joy of heaven. Precious name, oh, how sweet. Hope of earth and joy of heaven. May I stand and receive the altar
this morning, please? Let us pray. Father, again we
approach in the name of Christ, that blessed name that is above
every name, the only name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. We thank you for the unspeakable
gift for we know with him you've really given all things to your
people and ask nothing of them. All we have are gifts. Everything
this side of eternal perdition is mercy. As we return to render
unto thee that which belongs to you, let us do so with joy.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen. the the I invite your attention back
to Exodus chapter 34. In chapter 33, the Lord said to Moses that
he would stand upon a rock and proclaim his name. When Moses asked the Lord to
show him his glory, the first thing he said, I'll make my goodness
pass before you. The title of my message this
morning is The Goodness of God. God doesn't ever do anything
bad. He creates evil, but that's a good thing. He creates darkness,
and that's a good thing. Because every bit of it, according
to His great power and sovereignty, will work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
Providence, as I've said many times, doesn't feel good very
often. But it always is good. It always
is good. The first seven verses of this
34th chapter are the record of God commanding Moses to renew
the tables of stone and then meeting with him on Mount Sinai.
And the words that are here spoken by God are a more detailed declaration
of the glorious word he spoke in Exodus 33, 19 when he said,
I will make my goodness pass before you. I will reclaim the
name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. This is God's servant prerogative. These words are in truth an explanation
of just how God will make his goodness known and show mercy
unto whom he will show mercy. These words are promised throughout
Scripture and are fulfilled in the cross of Calvary. where the
psalmist wrote, mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness
and peace have kissed each other in Psalm 85. And here our Lord
proclaims His mercifulness. He says, I'll proclaim my goodness.
And we find in verse six it says, the Lord passed before him and
proclaimed. So here He's proclaiming His
goodness. That's the promise that was part
of His glory, the first thing. He proclaims His graciousness,
His long-suffering, and His abundance in goodness and abundance in
truth. Now, many would find no difficulty
in agreeing that the first part of this verse 7 is assuredly
a proclamation of the goodness of God. Everybody would agree
with that. When they just read the words,
they say, That's got to be. Yet some may find difficulty
in seeing that the last part of this verse is also the proclamation
of His goodness. Or he said, I will have mercy
on thousands, but I will not, in any case, in any way, or in
any form, clear the guilty. I will not do that. Some people
have difficulty with that. The human mind needs to pit justice
against mercy, but the word of God does not ever pit justice
against mercy. if you read the old puritans
they like to do that, they like to say well justice over here
said kill the sinner and mercy over here said save the sinner
and somewhere got to meet. That's not true. That's not true. Not for the elect of God. Jesus
Christ was their surety before the foundation of the world.
Their surety, their guarantor that their debt would be paid.
He signed his name to it and he's God so he's going to pay
his debts. What he says will always come to pass. So in truth,
the elect, I can't understand it, it's a wonder when I think
about it, it's too great for me, hard for me to wrap my mind
around it, but the elect, sinners all, worthy of death, vile and
unclean and undone, were never responsible for paying their
sin debt. Christ had assumed that responsibility
before the world began. And yet it says here, God will
not clear the guilty. He will not clear the guilty.
As far as the goodness of God goes, His goodness is expressed
in the fact that He will in no wise clear the guilty as it is
likewise expressed in the fact that He will keep mercy for thousands
and will forgive iniquity and transgression and sin. Those
are the three expressions of how sin is spoken of in Scripture.
Iniquity is crookedness, transgression is breaking the law, sin is missing
the mark of God's glory. David said, Blessed is the man
whose sins are forgiven, whose transgressions are forgiven,
and whose iniquity is forgiven. That's the blessedness in this
world. Paul wrote, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute iniquity. He will not charge with sin.
They're both demonstrations of the goodness of God, His mercy
and His justice. Both are demonstrations of His
goodness. The goodness of God is as long-suffering
as the salvation of the elect, according to 2 Peter chapter
3. In this text we see the salvation
that is of the Lord and how it is wrought by God and His Son.
It is important to remember that this is spoken on the heels of
the people's idolatry. The blood of 3,000 idolaters
still dappens the soil and sand at the base of Sinai. the golden
calf that the people have made and ascribed the attributes of
God to, call them Elohim in Jehovah, is destroyed. The first phrase
of chapter 34 and verse 7 declares the salvation that belongs to
God. He says this, keeping mercy. Now if he's keeping it, who's
got it? He's keeping it, who's got it?
He's got it. Because He is keeping it, keeping mercy for thousands. This is the first phrase. Three
things are declared in this passage of Scripture. Mercy, forgiveness,
and justice. These three things are declared
clearly. Mercy, forgiveness, and justice. And we may apply
the word grace to forgiveness. First thing is mercy. He saves
sinners by keeping mercy for them. That is what he says, keeping
mercy for thousands. Now here it is speaking of keeping
mercy. This is actually a term of distinction.
Thousands represent a large number that does not include all. He
does not say I keep mercy for all, I keep mercy for some. I
keep mercy for thousands. Mercy is not kept for all, but
it is kept for many. The word keeping means preserving.
So mercy is preserved for these. In other words, God says that
He preserves mercy for thousands. It may be kept for centuries
before it is shown, but it is still as affectionate as it was
the first time it was shown because it is God who keeps it. It is
God who preserves this mercy. The fact that it is kept by God
reveals that He is in control over it. There is no doubt about
that. If it is His mercy and He keeps it, He has control over
it as to who gets it, which He said is part of His glory. I
will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And in Romans chapter
9 He says, I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy and
whom I will harden. I will harden. So God does not
need to harden people's hearts, but He says He hardens them.
people talk about predestination, they talk about double predestination,
that's not used in scripture. But as much as he says he surely
saves his people, he always says some are appointed to death,
appointed to it, ordained to this condemnation. He's God.
Don't question what he does. Don't get into his business.
Some may find that such arbitrary dispensing of mercy to be unpleasant
and unfair. I've heard that accusation. how
far it is far better, even perfect, for mercy to be absolutely controlled
by the good and long-suffering God than for it to be the subject
of whim, the whim of those who by nature neither understand
nor seek mercy. Man by nature does not seek mercy.
He does not want it. There is none that seeketh God. Psalm 14, Romans chapter 3. Mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is keeping back sinners
from what they deserve. That's what mercy is. Keeping
back sinners from what they deserve. Well, what do they deserve? Well,
this being true, it indicts the recipients of mercy as deserving
something other than what they receive. Because that's what
mercy means. If then mercy acts in this manner,
the thought of deserving mercy is utterly foolish. Yet I hear
people talk about that. Deserving mercy? Nobody deserves
mercy. Nobody deserves mercy. It is
impossible to deserve mercy. God saves sinners by keeping
back from them what they deserve. What do you and I deserve by
nature as we're born into this world? We deserve an eternal
hell separated from God, where the worm dieth not and the fire
is not quenched. That's what we deserve. That's
what we merit in this world, no matter how our life pans out.
We may be philanthropic. We may be good mamas and daddies.
We may be generous to a fault. We may take care of people. We
may do jobs that put us in a position to care for the sick and the
wounded. Those things are all good on the natural level, but
none of them meet the requirement of perfection that God has set
forth. It must be perfect to be accepted.
So no matter how good you are, how good you think you are, though
the Bible says there is none that doeth good, no not one,
no matter how good you think you are, you and I deserve eternal
damnation. What keeps us from that? Mercy. God keeping us from what we deserve. Rest assured that if you have
received mercy, you deserve to die for your sin, if you have received mercy. Second,
we have the concept of grace. Grace, forgiveness. God saves
sinners by bestowing grace upon them. And note that no condition
is placed upon man anywhere you see the term grace in scripture.
This text does not say that God forgives conditioned upon repentance
or faith or the exercise of the will, because that's not how
it happens. In both the showing of mercy and grace, the language
sets forth a sense of being and continuance and being God's prerogative. He does not say that he keeps
and forgives, though clearly he does. He declares that his
goodness is defined by keeping and forgiving. That word forgiving
is often the word bearing up, aro, bearing up under our sins. And what He does is forever,
and since it is forever, both mercy and grace are ETERNAL attributes
of God, as well as His continuing manifestation of them for poor,
wretched sinners. He is now, at this moment, KEEPING
and FORGIVING because He ALWAYS WAS and IS and ALWAYS SHALL BE
a KEEPING and FORGIVING God. with the use of these three words
that describe sin throughout scripture assures the sinner
that all his sin, every aspect of his sin is forgiven, all his
sins in the past, present, and future. I got in trouble for
saying that one time. I used to go to Far City and
preach at a fella's house. He invited me. I didn't invite
myself. I've never invited myself to
preach somewhere. In fact, I don't even tell people I'm a preacher
unless they press me because I know it's going to ruin their
day. Yeah, you say, I've seen the faces, you know, you tell
them you're a preacher. Well, I'm sorry for what I said, you
know. God showing mercy for sinners. And sin is described
in three ways here, sin, transgression, and iniquity. but all of it is
forgiven after I preached that simple thing that night that
God forgives our sin past, present, and future. There was an old
lady there in a wheelchair. She was 87 years old and died
about a week and a half later. She was a primitive Baptist.
As I was walking out, she shook my hand. She said, that's the
gospel. with the fellow that held the
meeting, called me the next day and said, I'll never hear you
again. I'll never hear you again. I
said, how come? He said, you said that God, that Christ forgives
our future sins. He paid for our future sins.
And I just said, well, if he didn't pay for them, who's going
to pay for them? You can't pay for them. If you
paid for them, you'll spend eternity in hell and never pay for them. because hell ain't final judgment. Hell is God getting what he can
for eternity because you and yourself and your character and
your person can never pay your sin debt. It takes a perfect
sacrifice. There's only one of them that
ever occurred in all of human history. That was 2,000 years
ago in Calvary's tree. All sin whether manifest in missing
the mark, or crookedness, or breaking the law, is what God
is forgiving. He said, I've forgiven. I've
forgiven the transgressions, forgiving iniquity, transgression,
and sin. That means He's forgiven all of it for His people, for
those thousands that He will show mercy. Men cannot deserve
grace, for it is bestowed freely upon the undeserving. The word
grace means undeserving, unmerited favor. If any think they deserve
God's favor, they know nothing of the grace of God. If any presume
that they can obtain grace by personal merit or decision or
plea, they know nothing of the grace of God, nothing whatsoever.
It's either by works or by grace. And if it's by grace, it's no
more works. If it's by works, it's no more
grace. Romans chapter 11. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourself. That faith is not of yourself.
It's not of works, lest any man should boast. By grace are you
saved. The cause of grace. What is the
cause of grace? God. It's just that simple. He's the cause of grace. He's
where it comes from. He's the Lord that owns it. I
will be gracious unto whom I will be gracious. And you have the
concept of justice. This is absolutely necessary. She's pinching that baby. Justice is absolutely necessary.
You can't be saved without God being just. God's got to be just
because He's God. God saves sinners by justice. Grace and mercy fly on the wings
of satisfied justice. He will by no means clear the
guilty. For it says, if you're guilty
before Him, you will not be cleared. That's a powerful and a singular
phrase. And this is an enigma. All who
are shown mercy and grace are shown mercy and grace because
they're guilty sinners. Yet he will in no wise clear
the guilty. In other words, part and parcel with the goodness
of God is that the guilty will not go unpunished. They will
be punished somehow. They will be punished. That's
His goodness demands that. Yes, any men think that there
might be an exception to this fact. God assures us that it
is not the case. He said, In no wise will I clear
the guilty. I will not clear the guilty.
There will be no sin or sinner that goes unpunished, and yet
those who are sinners are shown mercy and grace and are forgiven
their sin. That is an enigma. It is a conundrum.
It makes no sense at all except to faith. The only reason faith
understands it is because God has said it. in his word. We couldn't come up with something
like this. Can you imagine a human being trying to figure this out? There will be no sin or sinner
that goes unpunished. Now this flies in the face of
all that is holy to natural humanity and is against the natural law
of God, for God said it's wrong. In Proverbs chapter 17 and verse
15 it would be a sin for one to let a guilty man go
free and to punish an innocent person. You say, my goodness.
That's what he says. That's what he's saying. Mercy and grace, though undeserved,
is shown to the guiltless. That's what he's saying. It's shown to the guiltless.
Mercy and grace are shown and bestowed to those who've been
punished for their sin and cleared of its guilt. There could be no understanding
of this apart from the principle of imputation and substitution,
which was first revealed in the Garden of Eden when God slew
the beast to cover the sinful pair, and every blood sacrifice
slain throughout all of time in the Old Testament, and finally
and fully accomplished on Calvary's tree by the Son of God when He
was made to be sin for His people. They were made the righteousness
of God in Him. That all took place between God and His Son
You were not involved and neither was I, except as recipients of
those things. It's a wonderful thing. Christ
gave himself for our sins. Christ took our sins upon his
body on the tree. Christ put away our sins by the
sacrifice himself. Christ perfected forever them
that are sanctified by his one sacrifice. He perfected forever
those. What a wondrous thing! This act of Christ made it so
that God could look on His people as guiltless and show them mercy
because He will in no wise clear the guilty. He will in no wise
clear the guilty. Mercy is kept for thousands.
Forgiveness is kept for thousands. They are reserved and preserved
for thousands. The Lord said in Jeremiah 50-20,
He will pardon whom He preserves. How good it is for God to satisfy
His own implacable justice. He did it Himself and set the
sinner free because before Him the sinner is not guilty. And so Proverbs 17 does work. Christ was not set free. He was
punished for our sin. He was counted guilty, not a
committing sin. but are bearing the responsibility
of sin. Christ committed no sin. He was
without sin. But one of the meanings of guilt
is bearing the responsibility. And we were set free because
God put our sin away. Mercy and grace flow like a river
when justice says to the sinner, I find no fault nor blemish nor
spot in this one. You must stand and I must stand
before the holy law of God and it must scan us from the top
of our head to the bottom of our feet. It must scan our spirit
and our soul and not be able to find one thing that it can
charge us with for us to be guiltless. You see, we are dead to the law
by the law. The law, when it looks at a person
who is not guilty, says, I ain't got nothing to do with them.
The law was added because of transgression. All laws have
to do with finding people guilty of something. They don't have
anything to do with finding people innocent. If they're innocent,
the law has nothing to do with them. It's for those who break
the law. But that law must say to you, thou art lovely, there is no
spot in thee. No blemish, no wrinkle, or any
such thing. So in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, God did
not punish the innocent because Christ has made sin. He was counted
as guilty and does not let the guilty go free because they are
made the righteousness of God in Christ. They are made that
way, and both of those things are acts of God, not of you. If you or I have received mercy
and grace, it is because in God's sight we are not guilty because
He will in no way clear the guilty. And if we are not guilty before
God, it is because we have been punished in our substitute. We died in Him because death
was the price for our sin. sold center that shall not so
we were punished in him we died in here and our life is here
with him i know people talk about the christian life i know they
got it defined they get all the numbers categories they got the
list all that stuff but i think what i know about my life is hid from me i don't know when
i'm doing something good or doing You know, I don't know when I
think I'm doing something good if it's actually bad. I don't
know that because my life is hid with Christ in God. He is
our life. My life sits at the right hand
of the Father in heaven. He's my life. He's my life. If we're not guilty before God,
it's because we've been punished in our substitute. Now this is
the riddle. We are cleared because we've not been cleared. Think about it. We are cleared
because we've not been cleared. This is a sweet mystery. I didn't
clear myself. God declares me cleared because
He didn't clear me. He punished me in my substitution.
Finally, a word of warning to those who remain in their idolatry
we still kind of want to hang around the golden calf who would
manufacture a god of their liking and then suspend all rational
thought and give it creation power to such a god. God says you may see your children
and children follow your vile and wicked ways. That's what
he's talking about when he says visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children upon the children of the children
upon the third and fourth generation. Parents, you have a responsibility. you may see your children, this
is what it says in the Targum, you may see your children and
your children's children follow in your vile and wicked footsteps. Be visits your father's sin upon
you. The Targum of Jonathan said,
visiting the iniquity of ungodly fathers on rebellious children. Keeping mercy for thousands. Forgiving iniquity. and transgression,
and sin, and that by no means clear the guilty, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's
children to the third and fourth generation. This is the word
of God, the God of justice, God of mercy, God of grace, the long-suffering
God who's abundant in goodness. That's the God we worship. just
God as he said in Isaiah 45 and the Savior. A just God and a
Savior. Father bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name.