Understanding God's Goodness: A Call to Repentance

Now we are dealing here as you remember with the objections which the Apostle imagines the Jewish to put forward indeed which he knows they put forward to his doctrine of the wrath of God upon all and godliness and unrighteousness of men their endeavor was to prove that this had nothing to do with them that because they were God's people because they were Jewish that therefore they need have no fear of any teaching about the wrath of God and they were certainly in no need of any teaching concerning justification by faith only through believing in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. [00:29:11]

This attitude is guilty of despising God's goodness and forbearance and longsuffering also in this respect that it obviously regards God's goodness as something which as it were gives us license to sin and license to go on sing silly in other words it regards gods that love and goodness and mercy and compassion and forbearance as being something weak and flabby something which has no element in it of a righteousness and of justice at all it's just the sort of indulgent idea. [00:38:21]

To hold that view of God's goodness and forbearance and longsuffering is rarely in the last analysis to despise God himself because these attributes of God cannot be separated from God himself from his personality there are expressions of God so to hold this view of God's goodness is a really tantamount to despising the very character of God it really means that we are saying that God Himself is indulgent towards sin and that is again precisely what so many people do. [00:47:04]

Using God's goodness as a license and the Liberty cloak and an excuse for their own sin and that is I say simply to use God even God to serve our own ends I say once more that I can imagine nothing more appalling than this and yet it seems to me to be the controlling idea most people today with respect to God they are manipulating or trying to manipulate even the character of God to serve their own ends man is in the center what men wants to do what men likes doing that must be supreme and God has got to be modified to fit in with what I want to do and what I like. [00:48:05]

The goodness of God is designed to lead men to repentance it doesn't do so it never has done so men will always use God's goodness to serve himself he'll trade on it he'll make merchandise of it the last thing he does is to sow to see it as to repent that isn't what makes a man repent it is the operation of the Holy Spirit I say in giving a men a new mind and a new outlook a new understanding the first truth that a man has been born again is that he repents and believes the gospel that is the order. [00:36:29]

The Apostle is teaching that God manifests a positive favour even to the unbeliever and that is where the importance of being clear about these methods comes in it is I say again a parallel with what our Lord teaches there in the Sermon on the Mount I've just quoted it Matthew 5:45 he causeth his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth his rain on the just and the unjust and at that point you remember he's talking the Lord was talking to the disciples and he tells them that they are to be perfect even as their father which is in heaven is perfect. [00:54:43]

The goodness of God leadeth to repentance first it's the first thing the thing he puts in the forefront and you know the whole gospel does the same who's the first creature in the New Testament he is John the Baptist what did he preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins that's the first note always in gospel preaching the first business of the preacher of salvation is the cone into repentance look it's not only their true of John our Lord did the same thing. [01:04:21]

The Apostle says is that God's goodness exercises this kind of constraining influence on men to bring them to repentance now then we again have to ask what exactly then is he teaching here because it is important that we should be clear about our terms and the first thing we notice is this that he is talking about unbelievers these are the people who are not brought to repentance therefore they are the unbelievers and what the Apostle says is that they're without excuse that they are despising the goodness of God because that goodness of God was meant to bring them to repentance. [00:55:24]

The distinction between God's wish and His will is a profound mystery, highlighting the depth of His grace and the complexity of His divine plan. This underscores the importance of approaching these truths with humility and reverence. We must tread carefully, approaching these high and great and abstruse matters with reverence and with godly fear, above all, let us be careful in passing our judgments upon God and what he does. [00:59:31]

The Apostle's statement is that God's goodness leadeth thee unto repentance now what does he mean by this why does he use this term leadeth well you will find that he uses exactly the same term the same word in the 8th chapter of this epistle in the 14th verse where he tells us that it is they who are led by the Spirit of God who are the sons of God for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God now that's the same word exactly as we've got here where we are told that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. [00:56:20]

The goodness of God is intended to lead us to repentance, an active, constraining force meant to draw us towards salvation. However, the mystery remains that while God wishes for all to come to repentance, not all do. This distinction between God's wish and His will is a profound mystery, highlighting the depth of His grace and the complexity of His divine plan. [01:01:58]

The goodness of God is a manifestation of God's grace to all men sinners and believers included by these things he would lead all men to repentance and therefore to salvation for as I've already quoted here it is in 2 Peter 3:9 he does not wish that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. [00:57:36]