The Goodness of God Applied

Psalm 100. Would you stand together with me for this reading from God's Holy Word. Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.! Worship the Lord with gladness.

Come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good, and His love endures forever.

His faithfulness continues through all generations. Martin and Gracia Burnham were missionaries in the Philippines with New Tribes Missions.

And in 2001, they were taken hostage by a militant Islamic group. They were held captive for over a year in the jungle. And then in a battle between government forces and the rebels, Martin was killed and Gracia was wounded but freed.

And recently, she was asked, What aspect of God's character means the most to you now? She responded, The goodness of God.

That is what I struggled with in the jungle. I didn't see how God could be good when I was in that situation. But doubting the goodness of God only led to despair, depression, anger, and feeling trapped.

And the turning point came, she says, when she began to take God at His word. She says, Scripture says that God is good.

It says God loves me and has my best interests at heart. When I finally decided, Yes, I do believe that God is good, despite my circumstances, it changed my whole attitude.

I began seeing God's goodness to us daily. I learned to look for His hand instead of focusing on how bad things were. And this has continued since I've been home.

Even when everything seems to go wrong, or I feel extreme loneliness or anxiety, I am convinced that God is good.

Circumstances don't change that. Are you convinced that God is good this morning? In your present situation, the circumstances of this week, are you sure of it?

God is good. When you suffer loss. When things go bad. When things get worse rather than better, and you don't get what you want.

Is God good then? And is that merely your theoretical view of God? You know the Bible says it, so you have to say it. Or is it, as Gracia was challenged to see, that that wasn't her functional view of God?

Is it your functioning view of God, that He is good? Such that it holds sway over your thoughts, and attitudes, and emotions, and decisions.

It's the whole way you interpret life. God is good. God is good. Last week we saw from Psalm 119.68 that God is good, and all He does is good.

He is altogether good. He is always good. And He alone is good. And we saw that goodness displayed in creation, all around us and in us.

We saw it displayed in the commands of God. His law is just and right and holy and good. And we saw it displayed supremely in salvation, that God would give His Son, that we might be saved.

Now this week we come to answer the question, what difference should this make in my life? Or the goodness of God applied.

And we have seven points. If God is good and all He does is good, then in the first place, I should enjoy Him. I should enjoy this good God that is mine.

King Solomon is praying at the dedication of the new temple. And toward the end of his prayer, he says to the Lord, 2 Chronicles 6.41, Let your saints rejoice in your goodness.

Let them rejoice in your goodness. Is not the goodness of God something attractive to you? Is it not cause for you to delight in Him?

Don't you enjoy Him because of it? We need more enjoyment of God in our lives. Let me say that again.

We need more enjoyment of God in our lives. The Puritans of the 17th century were right when they said that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

And that includes now. And He's most glorified in us when we're most enjoying Him. So we're to enjoy God.

The opportunities for enjoying Him abound. They're as extensive as His gifts. Each one of His gifts is an invitation to us to enjoy God for His goodness.

Now we need to see clearly that it's one thing to enjoy God's gifts. And it's another thing altogether to enjoy God in His gifts.

It's the difference between, wow, isn't this good? And, wow, isn't God good to have given us this?

So we need to trace all these streams of goodness back to the fountain, back to the source of it all. Taste His goodness in that food.

See His goodness in that sunset. Hear His goodness in that song. We abuse God's goodness when we love His good gifts more than Him.

When we're taken up with it more than with Him, the giver. Christmas is coming upon us, and so you're starting to see those jewelry commercials that come each time of the year.

This time of the year, you see them. What happens to the wife? What does she do when she receives the gift of diamonds? She lights up, doesn't she?

And she looks over at her husband with that warm, melting look and kisses him and hugs him and braces him. That's the way it works. But what if, upon receiving the diamond bracelet, she's preoccupied with it and its beauty.

And she starts kissing it and hugging it and saying, my precious, you see. And he's sitting over here neglected. It would be a tremendous abuse of His goodness.

And God puts up with that sort of thing every day. And I'm afraid He puts up with it with my heart. He gives and He gives and He gives. And we fascinate over His gift to the neglect and forgetfulness of Him.

We obsess over the gifts and neglect the giver. We're no better in that case than the brute beast who just stands there and chews the cud and doing so with enjoyment, but whose thoughts never rise higher than the earth.

Now, he's enjoying the good gift of God, all right? Look at him. Look at him enjoy chewing that grass. But he's not enjoying God in the gift.

He doesn't have that capacity. But we do. And so we should not stoop to the level of brute beast. We've been made to enjoy God Himself in His gifts.

Let your saints rejoice in your goodness, not just in the gifts. Now, we all took in a lot of God's good gifts this last week.

I trust that you were aware of that as I challenged you at the end of last week, without the applications, just at least begin to see and train your eyes to see the goodness of God all around you.

The earth is full of it. And it's all meant to draw our hearts heavenward to the giver, the supreme good. The gift is to take us to the giver.

How conscious were you this week of God's goodness rather than just God's gift? How often did you consciously make the connection between the good thing you enjoyed and the good God who gave it?

That's the challenge. We must train our minds to think this way, to make the connections between the good things and the good God who gives them.

That his good gifts might lead us to him at once, to him whose heart is overflowing in generosity and kindness and benevolence to us, that we might be enjoying him in the enjoyment of his gifts.

That's the first application. We need to enjoy God more. Secondly, if God is good and all he does is good, then we need to thank him and praise him.

Kids, when do you say thank you? Is it not when someone gives you something or does something that benefits you in some way? Do you know God is always giving to you?

Do you know that he's always doing things for you? He gives you life and breath and everything else. Every breath is a gift from God.

God's giving you. Even as you're sitting here, you're not even thinking about it. You know every time you breathe, you've been given a gift. And some of you kids say, wow, if every breath is a gift from God, then I should be saying thank you a lot.

And you're right. The Apostle Paul says that very thing in 1 Thessalonians 5.18. In everything give thanks. Colossians 2.7 says we should be overflowing with thanksgiving.

It should be gushing out of us. Psalm 100 that we had read for us tells us we should never come into his presence without thanksgiving. Because since the last time we've talked to him, we've been on the receiving end of a whole host of fresh gifts.

So when we consciously come and seek him, it ought to always be with fresh thanksgivings. Be sure to enter his gates with thanksgiving and come into his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and praise his name. Why? For the Lord our God is good. He's good. And so we thank him and we praise him.

There's the reason for praise and thanksgiving. And that's repeated time after time in the Psalms. Praise the Lord for he is good. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.

Who like me his praise should sing. And so in praising him, we're acknowledging his goodness. I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me.

Psalm 13.6 I will praise your name, O Lord, for it is good. Psalm 54.6 Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness. It's four times in Psalm 107.

So his goodness just provides us with continual cause for praise and thanksgiving to him. Now most of this should be done directly between you and the Lord.

You receive something. You enjoy something. And you should immediately come to him in your heart. If not with your lips. Say thank you, Lord, for your goodness.

I enjoy that, Lord. Thank you for helping me through that business deal. Thank you for helping me in that difficult meeting I just had. Thank you. Thank you for the face of my child that I can see today.

Just constantly you thanking the Lord. Most of your thanksgiving and praise will be done that way. But then you praise him here in the congregation. You tell your brothers and sisters with your words how good God has been to you.

They celebrate your abundant goodness. Psalm 145.7 And together we praise God for his goodness.

And then you praise him for his goodness out there. Out there in the world where his goodness is not appreciated. Where his goodness is slandered. Where people don't have a high view of God's goodness.

Where they blame him for all the bad things and don't thank him for the good things. You thank him and you praise him out there. When you have opportunity to give thanks to God and to tell people how good he is to you.

We're memorizing Psalm 103 aren't we? As a congregation. What's David after in that Psalm? He's after a praising heart.

He's not satisfied. Just have lips that praise the Lord. He wants all that is within him to praise God's blessed name. The goodness of God. So what does he do?

He reminds himself of the goodness of God. Praise the Lord oh my soul. And forget not all his benefits. And he starts to think of his benefits. And he's mentioning them.

He's talking to himself. And the undergirding assumption is that a God this good is to be praised. Praise the Lord oh my soul.

And forget not all his benefits. You hear that bene in the Latin. It's good. What's he reminding himself? Of all the goodnesses of God.

And so if you would keep your heart in a praising frame. If you would have your whole heart and all that is within you to praise him. And you must keep your heart under a sense of how good God is.

And constantly thinking of his benefits. His goodnesses to you. And that will keep us from heartless cold.

Singing of his praises. And giving of thanks. Think of this. That the reason we thank and praise the Lord so little. Is not because his goodness is so sparse.

But rather because it's so constant. And plenteous. The earth is full of the goodness of God. It's the element we live in. We're constantly in contact with it.

It's like the air that we breathe. Indeed our breath is his good gift. And it's because his goodness is so pervasive. That we give so little thought to it.

It's because his gifts are given so regularly. That they're missed. And taken for granted. It's like your health. Like a day without pain.

Like a good night's sleep. Like three meals a day. We often miss the goodness of God. Because it comes so frequently to us.

When the Israelites were without food in the wilderness. How thankful they were when they woke up in the morning. And found manna. Food. All over. That had come down from God. Very thankful.

Oh how they praised him. But their thanksgiving eventually. Turned to complaining. Why? Because God didn't give them enough? No. Precisely because God gave them so much.

So regularly. Every day. So that they no longer felt their hunger. We overlook so much. Of his regular goodness to us.

Simply because he is so generous. And regular in giving to us. So let's train our eyes to be on the lookout for God's goodness. And to see it in the little things every day.

That he does every day for us. Let's spot it. Let's identify it. And then with a mouth let's confess it. The Lord is good.

The Lord is so good to me. Like a sailor. And there he is kids. Up in that crow's nest. And what's he doing up there? Well he's looking for land. He's looking all over for land.

He knows it's out there. And when he spots it. He shouts out. Land ho. Let that be you Christian. Let that be you young person. On the lookout for God's goodness.

You know it's out there. It's all around you. And when you spot it. To have a mouth to declare it. God has been good to me. How much of our murmuring and complaining would dry up on the vine.

If we simply were more conscious of how good God is to us. So enjoy him. Thank him. And praise him. And then thirdly.

Trust him. If God is good. And all he does is good. Then trust him. Dear Christian. Whatever God is doing in your life.

He's up to something good. He's up to something good. You may not know what he's doing with you. But you can know.

That it is only good. And therefore you can trust him. He's so good that he makes even our worst things. Work together. For our good.

Romans 8. 28. We know in all things. He's working for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. All things.

If it won't promote our good. Then he won't allow it to come into our lives. He's that good. That even our bad things must work for our good. Even when others meant it for harm.

He works it for good. Genesis 50 and verse 20. Joseph's brothers meant him harm when they sold him into slavery. But God meant it for good and worked it for good. Even the keeping of many alive.

Potiphar's wife meant him harm when she falsely accused him of rape. But God worked it for good because it was in prison where he met his introduction into Pharaoh's court.

And then to such blessing. And even in taking from us he comes to do us good. Even God's painful discipline is for our good.

Hebrews 12. Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best. But God disciplines us for our good. That we may share in his holiness.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on however it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace. For those who have been trained by it. And so the psalmist who had been under the disciplining hand of the Lord.

Can tell us in Psalm 119.71. It was good. For me to be afflicted. That I might learn your decrees.

What a good God we have. That even our discipline is for our good. Even our afflictions are for our good. So brother and sister are you enduring hardship as discipline.

You can trust God. You can trust him. He's good to the core. He's good all the way through. And he's good in all that he does. He's doing you good.

In and through. And by that trial. Or it wouldn't be there in your life. So trust him. Trust him. So I thought about this point.

And thought about the next scripture that we're going to look at. I came to see that the goodness of God ought to make us all optimistic about the future. It ought to make us optimistic about the future.

And I say that not because I'm an enduring eternal optimist. You who know me best know that I rather tend to the end of the pessimist on the spectrum. I see that the glass is half full.

Or half empty rather than half full. I'm always thinking of what could go wrong rather than what could go right. But is not God's truth to sanctify even our personalities?

You see I'm not the optimistic kind. I still say that the goodness of God ought to make us generally optimistic. And optimistic about the future.

Psalm 52.9 In your name I will hope. For your name is good. That's what David said.

I don't know what his personality type was. But I know this. That he was optimistic about the future. Not because of his circumstances. But because of the name of God. He's good.

He's good to the core. And so David is optimist. He has hope. And what is hope? It's the confident expectation of future good. And David says. I have hope.

In your name. For your name is good. The circumstances were not hopeful when he wrote that. In Psalm 52 you can read the title of the psalm. Which says. When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul.

And told him. And David is gone to the house of Ahimelech. And the psalm goes on to say. He whose tongue plots destruction. Talking about Doeg. Who loves evil rather than good.

Falsehood rather than speaking the truth. Who loves every harmful word. A deceitful tongue. He had lied about David's intention. In going to Ahimelech. The high priest. He says. He's gone there.

To get food. And to get sword. And to arm himself. In his battle against you Saul. He's out to get you. King Saul. Doeg the liar. And yet it's in that psalm that David says.

In your name I will hope. For your name is good. David's expecting good. He's confident that good's around the corner. Why? Because it's God's good.

And he only does good. Whatever Doeg has planned to the contrary. You see he can be optimistic.

In the very presence of his enemies. He can be optimistic and hopeful. Even in the very valley of the shadow of death.

That's Psalm 23 and verse 6. Listen to his optimism. Listen to his confidence of future good. Psalm 23, 6. You know it so well.

Maybe you haven't seen it. Surely. Goodness. Will follow me all the days of my life. Did you see that?

Surely. This is something he knows is going to be happening. He knows that goodness and mercy will follow him all the days of my life. And after this life.

It will pursue me all through eternity. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Because his goodness endures forever. We should not expect to outlive it.

God will never leave me. And he's good. And so his goodness will dog my tracks. This day. Every day. All through the day. Surely. Goodness. And mercy will follow me.

Sheep of Christ's foal. Look for his goodness. It's there. And it will be there. Expect it. Hope in his good name. For his name is good.

He is the good shepherd. After all. Jesus says. I am the good shepherd. Trust him. I will yet see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Nahum 1.7. The Lord is good. A refuge in time of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. What's your refuge in time of trouble?

It's the fact that God is good. He's a refuge to you. He's a safe place for you. And he's not about to abandon the care of those who lean on him. Not on your life.

He's too good for that. But. So trust him. And when his good promises seem too good to apply to you. Believe him.

He's just that good. That when we sin. If we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do you believe God's that good? You don't have to go through penance. You don't have to go through so many good deeds to outdo your bad deeds. That straight from your sin.

You can come to this God and say. Oh God forgive me. What I just said. What I just thought. What I just did. It was wrong. It was sinful. It was against you. You wash and cleanse me for Jesus sake.

And it's done. As far as the east is from the west. So far as he removed our transgressions from. Believe it. That's what the psalmist says in Psalm 86.5.

You oh Lord are good and ready to forgive. Believe it. Believe that he's ready to forgive you. Right now this morning.

Maybe on the way to church. You sinned against your wife. Your husband. Your parent. He's ready to forgive. He's just that good. You Lord are good and ready to forgive.

Now Satan would have us doubt his goodness. He would do it to trouble us. And to dishonor and discredit God. Perhaps more of that next week. But the more that Satan tempts us to doubt his goodness.

The more we must affirm it. Remember his gracious burn and thong. The turning point was when she came to her Bible. I don't know if she had a Bible.

I think they were just thinking what they'd memorized. And she thought again of what God had said in his word. That he is good. And she had to overcome all those doubts about his goodness.

Satan sows those seeds. But it's when we doubt his goodness that we get into real trouble. Gratia testified to it in her testimony. Asaph testified to it in Psalm 73.

Didn't we? Didn't he? He nearly slipped and fell. He doubted God's goodness. Why? Because here I am a child of God. And I've got troubles.

Every morning. They stick with me like my shadow. I can't shake them. And then he looked over and he saw the wicked. Don't have any time for God. His worship, His praise.

And they're flourishing. And they're getting on fine without any troubles. And Asaph says, I started doubting the goodness of God.

And God teaches him and deals with him. And at the end, he sets his feet back on solid ground. This man who was slipping. What's the first thing that he says as a man recovered on solid ground?

Surely, surely God is good to Israel. To those who are upright in heart. I doubted it. I thought it wasn't true.

But surely, it's a certainty. He is good. And we get in trouble when we doubt it. Here's the foundation for trusting God. Circumstances may change.

May not change. Same old trouble every morning. But God is still good. Spurgeon says we must never tolerate an instant's unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord.

Whatever else may be questioned. This is absolute certainty that Jehovah is good. Amen. Then trust Him.

Fourthly, pray to Him. And here we return to our text. Psalm 119.68. You are good and what you do is good. Teach me your decrees.

Do you see what David's doing? He's hanging his petition upon the goodness of God. You are good and what you do is good.

Then do me this goodness and teach me your decrees. It's a good thing to be taught the word of God. In more than human wisdom.

To have the God who gives the word to come and to teach us. And David wants that good gift. And so he hangs his petition upon the goodness of God. He appeals to it as the basis for asking for new good things.

What can we not expect from such a good God? Who's good and who does good. So you see a bit of what a difference the goodness of God should make in our praying.

And is it any wonder then that the devil's trying to undermine our conviction in the fact of God's goodness? Is that not one of the reasons we do no more praying than we do?

Because we secretly doubt the goodness of God. And we really wonder if he's all that willing to give. We think he's a bit reluctant to give to us. Maybe to this Christian beside me.

He's always thanking God for his goodness. But he seems to be reluctant to give to me. And we doubt his goodness. Well, we need to come back to his word.

He tells us over and over. Ask. Seek. Knock. He's urging us to pray. But we do little of this.

Thinking he's reluctant to give. But he promises us otherwise. If you ask, you will receive. If you seek, you'll find. If you knock, the door will be opened. And then he says, don't drag my goodness down to your level.

If you, fathers, though you be evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?

Don't think he's less good than you, you evil fathers. No. He's far better than you have yet imagined. So ask and ask and seek and seek and knock and knock.

And his pleasure in giving is greater than ours in asking. His pleasure in giving even exceeds our pleasure in receiving.

He says in Jeremiah 32. I will never stop doing good to them. I will inspire them to fear me so that they will never turn away from me.

I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul. God's wholehearted. His whole heart's in it when he gives to us.

He rejoices to do us good. There's nothing of reluctance here. He longs to be gracious to you. He loves to be generous. He rejoices to do you good. The lions may grow weary and weak and hungry.

But those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. So if we believe God is good, then we ought to ask like it.

We ought to pray with expectation. And then fifthly, if God is good, then imitate him. Imitate him.

This is another strain of application that comes throughout his word. Third John 1 and verse 11. Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.

None is good but God. There's no one so good as Jesus. And this good God became flesh and dwelt among us so that we could see him. We could touch him.

We could handle him. We could watch him. And what do we see when we do watch him? The summary statement on his life found in Acts chapter 10 and verse 38 is that he went around doing good.

He went around doing good. Oh, did he ever. Here's this man that has never seen before and he's 40 years old.

He heals him. He makes him see. There's this filthy leper. Ten of them. He cleanses them all.

Oh, what goodness in the heart of Jesus. What's he telling us? There's this lame man. Rise, take up your mat and walk. He's showing us the heart of God, his benevolence, his goodness.

He went about doing good. Our Lord was no stick in the mud. Wherever he went, he left behind a trail of good deeds. You couldn't meet him without receiving some good from him.

Everyone who was in his presence after he was gone, they came away. With something of having tasted something of the goodness of God. Even children.

Even children. He blessed them, didn't he? Took them in his arms. He talked to them. Even strangers. He met along the way, profited from him. Even enemies.

To be with Jesus was to receive some good. Now, is that true of you? Anyone who spends five minutes with you, do they leave with some good having received?

Because they bumped into you that day. The more we become like Jesus, the more we will go around doing good.

We need to stop and think about that. The one we want to be like went about doing good. This is part of the fruit of the Spirit that he's producing in our lives.

Patience, kindness, goodness. We're to add to our faith goodness, Peter tells us. Now, Dorcas was a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

She, too, was a follower of this Savior who went around doing good. And she must have learned from him. I don't mean that she was part of the group that literally followed him. She's a disciple of Jesus like you and I are disciples of Jesus.

And we learn of him, don't we, through his word. And she had learned of him. Because it's said of her in Acts 9.33 that she was always doing good and helping the poor.

Jesus went around doing good. Dorcas was always doing good. Huh. Isn't that something? There's a likeness there. She's imitating her Savior. And so at her funeral there were many widows who came to grieve for her.

And they had all the clothes that she used to, while she was living, that she had made for them. They'd been the recipients of her goodness. It was goodness drawn from the fountain.

God. And so with us, good works are to characterize our lives. That's why God has saved us. Not by our good works, but for good works. For you are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works.

Which he has before ordained for us. Ephesians 2.10 This is the reason Christ gave himself for us on the cross. Titus 2.14 To redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people who are his very own, eager to do what is good.

We're to be zealous and eager for good works. It's something we're to be ready to do. Titus 3.1 Be ready to do whatever is good. What is good now.

What is good tomorrow. Whatever the situation is, we're to be ready. Are you ready? To do what is good. It's something we're to be devoted to. Titus 3.14 Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good.

It's something we're to spur one another on to. To love and good deeds. Hebrews 10.24 It's something we're not to forget. Hebrews 13.15 Do not forget to do good.

Do not forget to do good and to share with others. For with such sacrifices God is pleased. Have you ever thought? Have you thought recently that the reason God shares his goodness with you?

Is so that you might in turn imitate him in sharing those good things with others? You're to imitate him. And one of the reasons he bestows his good gifts on you is so that you might do that.

You'll have the wherewithal to be like Christ. To be like God who goes around doing good. Make every effort to add to your faith goodness, Peter says.

Christian women, you're to be well known for your good deeds. Such as bringing up children. Showing hospitality. Washing the feet of saints. Helping those in trouble. Devoting yourselves to all kinds of good deeds.

Have you ever heard people say, oh he's up to no good? Well just the opposite ought to be said of us. We ought to always be a people who are up to something good.

We've got something up our sleeve. We've got some plan we're waiting to hatch of goodness. Something in planning state. Something in execution state. We're up to something good.

Because my God is that way. And I am to imitate him. What people will receive good from you this week? May the beauty of God's own goodness abound in our lives.

So that others might see our good deeds. And praise our Father in heaven. Sixthly, if God is good and all he does is good. Then obey him.

Obey him. First Peter 2, 1-3. Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit. Hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind. And like newborn babies.

Crave pure spiritual milk. So that you may grow up in your salvation. Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. See what Peter's doing.

He's got this string of things that we're not to do. And then some positive commands that we are to do. And then at the end we have this motivation. Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

If you've tasted the Lord's goodness. That should be added incentive to obeying these commands. Children, one of the things that ought to make it hard for you to disobey your parents is how good they are to you.

Now you ought to obey them because of their authority over you. Their dad, their mom, and you're under them. But there's another whole line of reasoning that you ought to have. That ought to make it hard for you to disobey them.

And that's just how good they are. And how much they provide for you. And how much they care for you. Their goodness ought to make it hard for you to disobey them. And if that's true on the earthly level, how much more is it true in the heavenly family of God?

Dear Christian, the goodness of God ought to make it hard to sin against him. It ought to be a difficult thing we do. Here comes the temptation.

And we ought to respond, what? And sin against the one who's been so good to me? Is this how I am to repay him for all of his goodnesses to me?

Be gone, tempter. Be gone, temptation. My God has won my heart with his goodness. And he alone shall have my obedience. So if you would be shielded from temptation and sin, then keep your heart under a sense of just how good God is to you.

The more goodness you see, the harder it will be to sin against him. And the more you'll want to obey him. And lastly, if God is good, then repent. Repent.

It goes hand in hand with the sixth one, really. His goodness is not only meant to keep us from sin, but when we have sinned, it's to lead us to repentance. Romans 2.4.

Do you show contempt for the riches of his goodness and his tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's goodness leads you to repentance?

God's goodness leads you to repentance. When we sin, we sin against God's authority. And it's called rebellion.

But every time we sin, we also sin against God's goodness. And it's called ingratitude. Did you know that? You can't sin against God without sinning against his goodness.

And it's his goodness that makes your sin so much worse. It aggravates your guilt that you would sin against someone who's been so good to you.

He's given us all the trees in the garden. Here, freely eaten. But no, we will eat of this one that he's forbidden. What ingratitude. It's just like the people of Israel.

Their sin was aggravated by the goodness of God received. Nehemiah is confessed. In Nehemiah 9, we have their prayer of confession. They're in the promised land.

God gave them this good land flowing with milk and honey. And they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things. Wells already dug. Vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance.

They ate to the full and were well nourished. They reveled in your great goodness. But they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They put your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets and committed awful blasphemies.

Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them, in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways. All this goodness, it should have led them to repentance.

But instead, they just turned their backs on their good God. And it made their sin all the more aggravated. Lost friend this morning, think of all the goodness of God and how that increases your guilt.

He's been giving to you, giving to you every day of your life. You've been on the receiving end of all these blessings. Every day you take them out of his hand. Breath, life, food, family, freedom, mind, health.

All these blessings you're every day just taking, taking, taking. And then you bite the hand that feeds you. You reject his son. You say, I don't want your son, but I'll take your freedom.

And I'll take your food. I'll take your sunshine. I'll take my family and all the good things. But I don't want your son. How long would you keep a dog that bit the hand that feeds him?

But how long has God been putting up with your ingratitude to his goodness every day, goodness coming to you? And you turn your back and you bite the hand that feeds you when you do not receive his son.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. And believers, go on tasting and recognizing how good the Lord is and then enjoy him and then thank him and praise him and trust him and pray to him and imitate him and obey him and live a life of repentance before him.

Let's pray. Our good and gracious God, that is our desire. Would you come and satisfy our desire with this that we've asked to so overwhelm us with your goodness and to see that all of your goodness that we see in the creation is just the streams that are found in you, the fountain.

So come and help us that our great concern would be just to love you and to enjoy you and thank you and praise you and please you, obey you, imitate you.

Work it in us for your glory. Shatter the lies of the devil who would convince us and even lost people here this morning that you are not very good.

Teach us. Teach us, Lord. You are good. And what you do is good. So teach us about your goodness. We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Amen.