David's Holy Wonder at The Lord's Great Goodness
A sermon
(No. 773)
Delivered on Thursday Evening, SEPTEMBER 19, 1867, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Oh how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for them that
fear You, which You have worked for them that trust in You before the
sons of men."- Psalm 31:19.
YOU will observe in reading this Psalm that David was in deep distress.
These are the words of his lamentation: "My life is spent with grief,
and my years with sighing: my strength fails because of my iniquity,
and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among all my enemies, but
especially among my neighbors, and a fear to my acquaintances: they
that did see me outside fled from me. I am forgotten as a dead man out
of mind: I am like a broken vessel."
In this forlorn condition he found consolation by turning his
contemplations away from his present trouble to the goodness of his
God, even as a mariner turns the helm and so escapes the rock. Herein
he was wise and instructed us to be wise, also. To ruminate upon our
sorrows is but to increase them. To turn them over, and over, and over
again is but to squeeze from them the most bitter drops which they
contain. The more the turbid pool is stirred, the blacker will it
become. Relieve your thoughts, then! Trade in another market! Let your
minds exchange the pressing sorrow for sustaining consolation.
And what can be better, what nobler as a theme for inspiring hope, what
mightier as a lever for uplifting the mind than reflection upon the
amazing goodness of God? It has been said by a great physician that
when persons find much difficulty in sleeping they have sometimes been
able to win the embrace of "tired nature's sweet restorer," by fixing
their minds upon a single sublime subject, a grand absorbing topic, a
master theme or thought. As soon as the mind has been thoroughly
absorbed in contemplation it has been at rest, and the body has rested,
too. I know not how that may be, but certainly, when God would give
"His beloved sleep" in times of distraction, and would lull their souls
into a calm repose, there is no better sleeping pill which His hand can
administer to the troubled spirit than a meditation upon the amazing
goodness of the Lord our God.
Or, to change the metaphor, we know that when young lads first go to
sea, if they have before been unaccustomed to climb to elevated places
they are apt to grow dizzy when called to perform their duties on the
mast. Then the experienced captain instructs them to "look up," for if
they look down, and measure timidly the height of the mast, and count
the waves as they roll against the sides of the vessel, and terrify
their minds with thoughts upon the heaving of the ship, and the terrors
of falling from their hold, they are most likely to fall! But, looking
to the motionless stars, and the calm, blue sky, the brain grows calm
and the foot maintains its standing.
We would say, then, to any who are tossed upon the sea of trouble
tonight–imitate the example of David and "look up." Turn away your
minds from the slanderer and the persecutor. Forget awhile the fever
and the need, and remember the loving kindness of Jehovah. You may find
it almost impossible to keep your minds always tending upwards, but at
any rate, while you are here, "look up" with eyes uplifted to the hills
from where your help comes. Happy will it be for you if, by the good
Spirit of God, you can but get your eyes so fixed upon the goodness of
God that you shall become so fascinated that your attention cannot be
taken off that glorious object! It will be a blessing to you, a great
blessing which will bear you through all your trials and make you suck
honey from the rock and oil out of the flinty rock.
Now note the text carefully. David thought of the goodness of God till
he was lost in wonder, and being quite unable to express his feelings
he uttered an exclamation, "Oh, how great is Your goodness!" We will
consider, first, the subject of holy wonder mentioned in the text.
Secondly we will consider the partakers of this Divine goodness. Then,
thirdly, we
shall note some general matters which tend to enhance our admiration of
the goodness of God. And fourthly, we will notice sundry teachings
which flow from the whole subject.
I. In the first place, observe in the text THE SUBJECT OF HOLY
WONDER–"Your goodness." We here perceive God's goodness in a twofold
aspect, as laid up in store and already displayed in a measure, "Oh how
great is Your goodness which You have laid up!" And secondly, "Oh how
great is Your goodness which You have worked before the sons of
men!"
1. We shall devoutly take the first of these. David is astonished at
the great goodness of God which is laid up–the goodness of God which
David had not as yet tasted, had not actually received–but which his
faith realized and looked upon as its fixed and settled heritage. The
spirit of our text is that of Miss Waring's delightful hymn in which
she exclaims–
"And a 'new song 'is in my mouth,
To long-loved music set; Glory to You for all the Grace I have not
tasted yet."
We magnify the Lord for the Grace which is yet to come–the laid up
goodness, the corn that is in the granary, which the good Joseph is
keeping till the time of famine comes–the water which is but just
bubbling from the spring and has not yet come streaming down to the
plain–where our thirst will by-and-by require it.
Now think, Christian, of what God has laid up for them that fear Him!
First, how much He laid up in His eternal purpose when He chose His
people, and laid up for them the grand intention, "They shall be Mine,
says the Lord, in the day when I make up My jewels." Think of electing
love, and of all the consequences which well up from that eternal
foun-tainhead. Here you have a subject for a life-long wonder–
"Father, 'twas Your love that knew us
Earth's foundation long before:
That same lo ve to Jesus drew us
By its sweet constraining power,
And will keep us
Safely now, and evermore.
God of love, our souls adore You!
We would still Your Grace proclaim,
Till we cast our crowns before You,
And in Glory praise Your name
Hallelujah, be to God and to the Lamb!" Oh, how great is Your goodness
which Your eternal purpose ordained and settled upon Your saints by an
everlasting decree that it should be theirs–for so You had decreed it
according to the counsel of Your own most wise and sovereign will. How
great is Your goodness that You should choose us and predestinate us to
be conformed into the image of Your Son, that He might be the
First-Born among many Brethren, and we the happy Brethren who should be
transformed into His likeness! How great is the goodness of God which
He laid up in the Covenant of Grace! He determined to bless us in a way
of Covenant relationship into which He entered on our behalf with our
federal Head, the Lord Jesus.
To attempt, my dear Brothers and Sisters, to read to you the treasures
which God has made over to us in the Covenant of Grace were to attempt
an impossibility. The catalog is far too comprehensive. Behold, He has
given all things to you in the Covenant of His eternal love, for all
things are yours, whether things present or things to come–life and
death, time and eternity–no, more, God Himself is yours! "I will be
their God, and they shall be My people." The Father is your Father! The
Son of God is your Brother! The Spirit of God is your Comforter who
abides with you forever! In that golden case of the Covenant of Grace
all the wealth of the Eternal is stored up for the chosen!
David laid up in store for the temple, but Jesus has treasured up far
more for His Church. Jacob gave to Joseph one portion above his
brothers, but our heavenly Father has given to all the family an
inheritance surpassing all conception. Angels, nor principalities, nor
powers can fully estimate the infinite wealth of blessedness laid up in
the Everlasting Covenant. Think, too, of what God has laid up in the
Person of His Son–the same treasure, only now more clearly revealed to
us and brought forth in the Person of the Well-Beloved so that we may
the more readily partake of it. In the ark
of old there were laid up the golden pot of manna and sundry other
marvelous things–but what is there laid up in the ark of our Covenant,
the Lord Jesus Christ?
Beloved, there is laid up in Him all things that are necessary for you!
Pardon for all you sins! Justification through faith in His Sacrifice!
Life through His death! Sanctifying power is in the blood of Jesus!
Your preservation is in Christ's hands! Your acceptance depends upon
Him–a daily intercession goes up from the heart of your Lord Jesus on
your behalf and He constantly represents you before the golden throne!
All that you can want for the whole journey from the place where you
now are, right up to the right hand of the Most High–all this is laid
up for you! You are complete in Him. "It pleased the Father that in Him
should all fullness dwell."
If you fear Him and trust Him, though meanest of all His people, yet
all needful Grace and promised glory is laid up for you in the Person,
work, offices and relationships of the Lord Jesus Christ. And think,
Beloved, of what is laid up for you in the work, office and mission of
the Holy Spirit! You have not yet realized what the Holy Spirit can do.
You have been regenerated by Him! You have been made to pass from death
unto life. You have been taught somewhat of the Truth of God–He has
revealed some of the things of God to you. You have been somewhat
illuminated, somewhat strengthened, somewhat comforted, somewhat
assisted in prayer–but none of you are aware of all that the Holy
Spirit can do!
When we see some men who have become eminent in Divine Grace. When we
read their heavenly biographies and observe how they walked with God,
and seemed to live a life above the common lot of earth-born mortals,
we should remember that they enjoyed no monopoly of Grace! The bread on
which they fed is common to all the household– whatever Grace the best
of men have had, you may have as much and more! When we measure the
abundance of Divine power in the Holy Spirit by what we see in eminent
martyrs, confessors, Apostles, and saints–we may cry with the
Psalmist, "Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for
them that fear You!"
How happy, how blessed, how holy might Believers be if they would but
come and receive of the fullness of the Spirit's power! Do not imagine,
my beloved Friends, that the standard of your attainment is the maximum
of a Christian! Do not consider that you have obtained all that God is
willing to bestow! "You are not straitened in Him, but you are
straitened in your own heart." There are loftier degrees of
sanctification! There is a more eminent nearness of communion than the
most of us are aware!
The laid-up treasures in the Holy Spirit are probably vastly greater
than any of us have ever been enabled to conceive. I shall pause but a
moment to observe that the greatest goodness of all, we sometimes
think, but perhaps improperly, is that goodness which is to be revealed
when this life is over which God has laid up for them that fear Him. I
am not sure that this is the greatest since eternal love, itself, as a
cause already given, is greater than the effect which is to follow.
Courage, my Brothers and Sisters! The night lasts not forever–the
morning comes. See you not the day star? Do you not see the hind of the
morning leaping over the hills of darkness? The Lord Jesus Christ has
said, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also."
Now whatever may be the splendor of the millennial reign, we shall
share in them. And I confess that the Word of God seems to me to reveal
much of coming glory–but to reveal it in such a manner that it is not
possible for any of us to cast it into a mold and to say, with decisive
certainty–"That is just what the prophecy means." The glory that comes
is too excessive for us to point to details. It is a blaze that might
well blind those who seek to look upon it and count the flashing beams.
But there is a glory coming such as the world never saw, and a kingdom
which will swallow up all other kingdoms as Aaron's rod swallowed up
the rods of the pretenders.
There is a glory to come that shall be brighter than the glory of the
sun, though that sun should flash forth with the light of seven days. A
glory comes which excels and endures and in this Believers shall, all
of them, have their share. I am inclined to think that they do err from
the truth and pierce themselves through with many sorrows who teach
that some of God's people will be shut out from this glory. There is
nothing which God will give to some of His people, which He will not
give to all His people. They shall all be with Christ where He is, that
they may behold His glory. They shall all have a share, and I think an
equal share, too, in all the excellent things which God has laid up for
them that fear Him.
Whatever those things may be–and surely the most glowing language
fails to picture them for they are all too rich and rare for words–we
can say of them without fear, "Oh, how great is Your goodness!" Then
ponder well the glories of the eternal state. Think of–
"Jerusalem the golden
With milk and honey blest." Let your faith bear you on its wings to the
bejeweled city where–
"They stand, those halls of Zion, Jubilant with song, And bright with
many an angel, And all the martyr throng.
Those many mansions, the haven of rest, the shrine of holiness, the
home of happiness, the summit of perfection, the abode of love, the
royal palace, the Throne of the great King. Long you not to soar? Pant
you not for the better country? Do not heart and voice feel the sweet
oppression of too much anticipated joy? Is it not a relief to cry, "Oh,
how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for them that fear
You"?
Let us, dear Friends, before we leave this subject, rejoice in what God
has laid up! It is a pity that we should rejoice in nothing but our own
experience for this will sadly narrow the sphere of our praise. Our
experience may be very slender as yet but we should rejoice in what is
laid up! If I cannot rejoice in what I am, I will rejoice in what I
shall be, remembering the precious thought, that, "It does not yet
appear what we shall be." If I cannot rejoice in what I have in the
hand of experience, yet will I glory in that which I can grasp with the
hand of faith, for even now it is mine, though it is laid up till I
reach my majority, and have come to years when I shall be fit to
receive it!
2. Now we must note that it is not all laid up. It is not all light
that is sown for the righteous. We have some wheat that has grown up
and yielded sheaves. There are some treasures which we enjoy now, and
therefore we find David saying, "Oh, how great is Your goodness, which
You have worked for them that trust in You before the sons of men!" The
last few words look in our translation as if they belonged to the
words, "Them that trust you," but this is not the correct reading.
There are certain reasons which render it necessary to read the
sentence thus–"Which You have worked before the sons of men for them
that trust you."
Now God has worked out many marvelous things for us before the sons of
men. I will not stay long, for your thoughts are often there upon that
which Christ worked out before the sons of men in Gethsemane's sweat
and blood, in Gabbatha's scourging, in Golgotha's death. Worked out!
Ah, indeed, He worked out and brought in an everlasting righteousness!
He has perfected forever them that are set apart. That one sacrifice of
His secured the perfect salvation of all for whom He died as a Surety.
What did He not work out then? "It is finished!" He said, and He knew
what He said. He knew that he had worked out, then and there, the
perfect redemption of every one of His people.
But we may remind you tonight of what God has worked out for you in
your own experience in the work of the Holy Spirit upon your soul. Do
not forget, doubting Christian, that there was a time when you had not
enough Grace to doubt. Do not forget, poor trembling one, that there
was a time when you had not enough life to tremble. Be thankful, then,
for the little Grace which you can perceive in yourself. Do not hide
from your eyes what God has done. Be grateful for what you have!
Remember what I have often said to you–be thankful for the starlight,
and you will get moonlight. Be thankful for the moonlight and your God
will send you sunlight.
We must prize the smallest degree of Divine Grace. We often neglect
what we have and bemoan ourselves much because we are not
perfect–though there is a measure in which we are to do that. But it
were well not to do this too much or too exclusively. We must think of
what God has done and be grateful and bless His name, and then be
encouraged in faith to ask for more. Blessed be God, with a thousand
imperfections and faults I still find in my soul some inkling of love
towards His name. I feel some desire for the promotion of His glory.
One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see–I see my
sinfulness, see my weakness, see that Christ is just such a Savior as I
need and I do with my whole heart rely upon Him!
Shall I not be thankful for this? Is not this far more than nature
could have given me? If you can honestly use such language as I have
just uttered in your hearing, be thankful and in deepest humility
rejoice! Be grateful for Grace within, and say, "Oh, how great a thing
is this–for a dead soul to be made to live! For a filthy soul to be
washed in the blood! For a naked soul to be clothed with heavenly
righteousness! For a lost sheep to be brought into the fold! For a
prodigal to be made to sit at his father's table! Oh, how great is Your
goodness, which You have worked out for me, which has taken me away
from my evil companions–turned me away from haunts of vice and
iniquity, and made me to love what once I hated–and to delight in that
which was once dreary and dull to my soul."
But, Brethren, we have also another instance of what God has worked out
for us in the shape of Providential mercies. How great is the goodness
of God as shown in what He has worked out for us in Providence! We have
all some Providence to remember which seems very special to us. But all
Providence is special if we look at it from the right point of view. A
certain father had agreed to meet his son at a spot halfway between
their residences which were far removed from each other. When the son
reached the halfway spot, he said, "Father, I have great reason to
bless God, for I have met with a very special Providence. My horse
stumbled and threw me three times, and yet I was not injured."
"Thanks be to God," said the father, "and I have met with a very
special Providence, too, for which I thank God, and that is that my
horse never stumbled once, but brought me safely all the way." If you
happen to meet with an accident and are almost killed, you say it is a
special Providence if you are preserved. But is it not a Providence
that you go many and many a journey and no harm befalls you whatever?
Let us bless God for the mercies we do not see–the innumerable dangers
from which we are preserved–the great needs which are supplied before
we know them to be needs! From childhood up to youth and on to manhood
what flowers of mercy have bloomed in our pathway! What tender hands
have led us! What mighty arms have upheld us! What a watchful eye has
been fixed upon us! "How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O
God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are
more in number than the sand."
Perhaps you do not perceive any great goodness of God in your
particular position at this present crisis. You are very poor and very
lonely. Well, there will be a day, if you are the Lord's child, when
you will see superlative love in the lot marked out for you. For the
present believe it, and, believing it, you have an opportunity of
honoring God in your distress which would not be yours if you were in
another condition. When you shall know the end as well as the
beginning, you will see that it was better for you to have been poor
and needy than to have been rich and increased in goods. Meanwhile
count it enough reason for perpetual song that you possess–
"What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, The soul's calm sunshine
and the heartfelt joy." There are other aspects in which I might have
brought out the text, but I prefer to leave each one among you to tune
his own harp and give to his Lord the sweet spontaneous music of a soul
aglow with gratitude.
II. I shall now, very briefly, take you on to the second point, which
is THE FAVORED PERSONS WHO ENJOY THE LORD'S GREAT GOODNESS. "Oh, how
great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for them that fear You,
which You have worked for them that trust in You." As you know, the
phrase, "the fear of God," is used especially in the Old Testament for
the whole ofpiety. It does not signify merely the one virtue of
fear–it does not signify that feeling at all in the sense of slavish
fear–but it takes a wide sweep.
The man who had the fear of God before his eyes was one who believed in
God, worshipped God, loved God, was kept back from evil by the thought
of God and moved to good by the desire to please God. The ungodly were
the wicked ones–those who had no God. Those who had a godly fear were
found diligently walking in holiness. The fear of God, I say, was the
expression used for the whole of religion!
Still, fear itself is a very important element in the Christian's
character if it is the right kind of fear. We have nothing to do with
the terror of the bond slave, for we are free and "have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear." Blessed be God, we have no fear
of Hell. It is not possible for a Believer to be there! Talk of casting
a Believer into Hell? As well talk of casting the Redeemer Himself
there! It is impossible. We have no fear, even, of losing our standing
before God, for we do not stand before Him in ourselves, but in the
Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot fall, finally and fatally,
unless Jesus can fall. "Because I live," He says, "you shall live
also."
But this is our fear–the fear which a dear child has of a tender
father. It is not afraid that its father will kill it, or cease to love
it, or banish it and turn it out of his house. It knows better! It
trusts its father too well to indulge in such mischievous suspicions.
Because it loves him, it fears to offend him. This is the very
atmosphere in which a Christian breathes. He fears God and consequently
desires to keep His commandments. But you notice that the synonym used
in the text is "trust," and therefore it is plain that trust in God is
the sum and total of religion.
Why is it put so–"Laid up for them that fear You. Worked for them that
trust in You"–unless it is true that he who trusts God fears God? The
whole compass of the fear of God is gathered up into a center in that
point of trust. Why so? Why, my Brethren, because trust is the root of
true fear! To trust God is the root of all genuine religion. "Without
faith, it is impossible to please God." Faith is the foundation of all
the other Graces. Faith unites us vitally to the Lord Jesus Christ and
then from Him, as from the trunk, the sap of Divine Grace flows into
the branch and the fruit is produced. But take away faith and we are
separated from Christ, and then there can be no fruit. Therefore,
because faith is the root, the seed containing the whole of the
substance and essence of piety–it is put for the entire fear of God.
Then again, faith, or trust is the test of the genuineness of religion.
He whose religion is everything else but trust in God has no true
religion. He may be very precise in ceremonies. He may be exceedingly
exact in morality, but if he is relying upon these things, then he has
no true trust and he has no right fear of God. But he who observes the
Lord's will and at the same time rests upon God, and upon Him,
alone–depending upon the precious blood of Jesus as his only
confidence–he is the man whose fear of God is such as God can accept.
So you see, because trust is thus the touchstone of true religion,
therefore it is put for the whole thing.
Moreover, trust is the flower of the fear of God. After all, the
grandest thing that a man can do is trust God! I should be prepared to
prove, if there were time tonight, that there is in trust in God the
whole compass of all the other virtues. Or, to put it in other words,
if you will put trust under the necessary conditions, it will educe out
of its own loins all the other attributes of the perfect man. Only let
a man trust in Christ, and he has done the grandest thing that can be
done! The highest morality is to trust Christ. What did the Master,
Himself, say? The Jews asked Him, "What is the work of God?" They
wanted to know what was that highest work which man could do that was
worthy to be called God's work, the work of God, the highest work and
the best. And Jesus said, "This is the work of God, that you believe on
Jesus Christ, whom He has sent."
When you have trusted God you have done more than they who have kept
the ceremonies of the Law to the letter. When you have trusted God you
have done more than they who cringe at Moses' feet, and shake and quake
before the mountain that was altogether on a smoke. They crawl like
slaves, abjectly, at their Master's feet–but you stand up like
freeborn sons! You do the Lord far higher homage when you trust His
love, His power, His Truth than legalists do with all their toiling and
their striving and their works! The grandest virtue, the very highest
point of all excellence is to trust in God as He reveals Himself in His
Word.
Now, it appears that the goodness of God is laid up for them that fear
Him, and worked for them that trust Him. Dear Hearer, will you ask
yourself anxiously whether you fear God, and further, whether you fear
Him in such a way as to have trust in Him? Have you these two
indispensable spiritual gifts? Are you believers in Jesus Christ, dear
Hearers? Some of you are, I know. I rejoice with you that God has
brought you into the ark of salvation by the door of faith. But are you
all such as shall be saved? There is no salvation except by faith,
remember–all other methods are delusions. It is faith in Jesus Christ
which brings eternal salvation to you! Without this, despair is your
portion.
If you have not this precious Grace, may the Lord bestow upon you the
faith which works by love and purifies the soul, that you, believing in
Him, may have the power given you to become the sons of God, which
power He gives to as many as believe on His name.
III. And now, only two or three words upon the third point, and that is
coming back to the first reflection–the greatness of God's goodness to
the people who have been described. There are ONE OR TWO THINGS WHICH
MAKE US SEE THAT GREATNESS. First, observe the multitude of these
people. God's people have been 10,000s times 10,000s in number. They
are a "little flock" in comparison with the outside world, but no doubt
they shall be, at the end, "a multitude that no man can number." Now,
the goodness of God to any one of them is quite unsearchable and not to
be estimated. But what must be the great goodness which He has laid up
for all His people, for all them that fear and trust Him?–
"Great God, the treasures of Your love Are everlasting mines!"
It is no small task to water one garden in the heat of the summer so
that every flower shall be refreshed, and no plant overlooked. How
great is the might of Him who, from the salt sea, extracts the precious
clouds of sweet rain to fall not only on gardens, but the pastures of
the wilderness and the wild forest trees till all nature laughs for
joy, the mountains and the hills break forth into singing and the trees
of the field clap their hands! Brethren, it is a great thing to put a
cup of cold water to the lips of a disciple–it shall not lose its
reward. To refresh the heart of one of God's saints is no mean thing.
But think how great is God's goodness which puts a cup of salvation to
every Christian's lips! Which waters every
plant of His right-hand planting so that everyone can have his leaf
continually green and his fruit ever brought forth in due season!
Think again, dear Friends, of the undeservingness of each one of these!
There is not one of those who feared and trusted Him that was worthy of
the least grain of His mercy. They were many of them the chief of
sinners–some of them peculiarly so–and yet this goodness, this great
goodness, came to them exemplifying its greatness because of the
greatness of their transgressions. Was there anything of worthiness
about the prodigal who had devoured his substance with harlots in his
riotous living? Was not his prodigality a fire to set off the
brightness of the father's love, who said, "Bring forth the best robe
and put it on him. And put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
and bring here the fatted calf, and kill it. And let us eat and be
merry: for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and
is found"?
When God saved Jonah by the whale which was prepared for him, did He do
it because Jonah was deserving of it? Very far from it! He was fleeing
from God's Presence and the path of duty, and God's goodness to him is
thrown out in bold relief by the dark unworthiness of that unfaithful
and timid Prophet. Well may we say, as we notice our own waywardness
and folly, and contrast it with Divine mercy, "Oh, how great is Your
goodness!"
Remember, too, the need they were in. You can measure the greatness of
the goodness of God by the distance from the place where Adam left his
fallen posterity, broken by the Fall, to the position at the right hand
of Christ where God's eternal mercy shall place them forever! Picture
to yourself a place full of all manner of vile and loathsome diseases,
where the deadly fever and the living-death called leprosy, are found.
See yon man who enters, braving all the dangers of infection that he
may heal the sick and restore the wretched ones to health and life! How
great his goodness!
But is even that to be compared to the goodness of God's Son who not
only ran the risk with no chance of escape, but deliberately "was made
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him"? "He
bore our sins in His own body on the tree" willingly, deliberately, and
came of set purpose to die for us–
"This was compassion like a God, That when the Savior knew The price of
pardon was His blood, His pity never withdrew."
Think, Brothers and Sisters, of the great goodness of God to His
saints–and this will help to make it greater–in contrast to the great
evil of man to them. Some of these saints have died cruel deaths. The
most of them have had to pass through disgrace and scorn, but oh, how
great is Your goodness which You have worked in them, sustaining them
all, and making them more than conquerors through Him that loved them!
David speaks in one of his Psalms of his enemies as besetting him "like
bees." And in another place he says of his God, "You have beset me
behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me." Now, how great the
Divine goodness must have appeared to him in contrast with the stinging
malice of his foes! Or, when the Master said to Peter, "Simon, behold,
Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat: but I have
prayed for you, that your faith fail not." The love of his Lord must
have appeared to him, if not at that time, yet afterwards, in brighter
colors, because of Satan's dark designs against him.
If Daniel mused in the lions' den, or the three holy children in the
fiery furnace, they must have thought, all of them, as we should,
amidst all our trials and conflicts, "How great is the goodness of God
in opposition to the cruelty of man." There was a great purpose. There
was a great Covenant. There was a great Sacrifice. There is a great
Providence. There is a great Heaven, and there is a great Spirit to
bring them there. Oh, how great is Your goodness to Your people!
I shall not further preach on that topic. I put you at the river's edge
and bid you wade in, hoping that you may proceed as far as the Apostle,
when he said, "Oh, the depths!"
IV. And now, lastly, WHAT SHOULD THIS TEACH US? Should not this make us
grateful to God for such wondrous kindness? The Lord has not given His
people to drink of a twinkling rivulet, but He has been pleased to give
the river of Himself to them that they may drink to the full! Did you
ever get the meaning of that passage, "That you may be filled with all
the fullness of God"? Oh, that is a text that one would like to preach
from in Heaven! If there are pulpits there, and congregations, give me
that for a text above all others, except that best of all, "Unto Him
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His blood, to Him be
glory."
"Filled with all the fullness of God!" Beloved, have you learned this
wonder? Will you now bless the Lord that there is such a marvel of love
for you to learn? You have already had as much as you could bear of
God's goodness! You have
had Providential goodness and spiritual mercies. Is there no spark of
gratitude in your soul? Can you not afford a song–at least a stanza? O
you who think yourselves banished tonight, and are in the dark–lift up
your heads! Sing of the light you once had and of the light that is yet
to be revealed–that is laid up for them that fear Him, and which shall
yet bless your eyes. Be grateful.
In the next place, when you think of the great goodness of God, be
humble. I know of no consideration which tends more to humble us than
the great mercy of God–like Peter's boat, which floated high in the
water when there was nothing in it, but when it was filled with fish it
began to sink–our minds are humbled by a sense of undeserved love–
"The more your mercies strike my eye, The more humble I shall be."
A sense of Divine goodness will never puff us up but will mightily pull
us down. It tends to make the Believer say, "I am not worthy of the
least of all the mercies, and of all the Truth which You have showed
unto Your servant!"
And, lastly, let this inspire us with confidence. If tonight we are
bowed down and distressed, let us think of the laid-up goodness of God
and go to Him for it. He will surely give, for He has laid it up! He
will not deny, for He has prepared it. God seems to say to His people
tonight, as of old He said to the multitudes outside His banqueting
hall, "My oxen and fatlings are killed, come to the supper!" All that
you can want is provided in Christ. Come in, come in! "Eat, eat," says
the spouse in the song, "drink, yes, drink abundantly."
Beloved, you cannot diminish the fullness of Christ! Come, now, and put
your mouths down to the wellhead and drink a draught such as old
behemoth drank when he said he would drink the Jordan dry at a draught.
You may have all you can take, Believer! There is no stint or limit
here! "Open your mouth wide," says the Lord, "and I will fill it." Be
not slack concerning the promise, in receiving it, for God will not be
slack in keeping it. Only be strong, and full of trust, and you shall
live to bless the Lord your Rock, in whom is no unrighteousness nor
unfaithfulness, but who keeps truth unto His people forevermore.
1 would to God that all of you had experienced this great goodness of
God, but if you have not, and I know some of you have not, there are
three thoughts, at least, I would leave upon your minds which should
make you feel that He is great and good–"The Son of man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost." "For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life." "He that believes and is
baptized, shall be saved." Trust the Master, and you are saved! May
boundless goodness magnify itself in us all, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
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A Sharp Knife for the Vine Branches
A sermon