“The Lord is Good”

Nahum 1:7

“The Lord is good!” Oh, I like that! Our great God is good! Goodness is as essential to God’s Being as is his sovereignty, his justice, his truth, and his holiness. In fact, the very name “God” is an abbreviation of the word “good.” Yes, goodness is essential to God. Without it, he would not be God. John Gill rightly observed, “There is nothing but goodness in God, and nothing but goodness comes from him.” God ordains evil that he may overrule it for good (Psalm 76:10). He afflicts his children and brings many evil things upon us in providence, but he makes the evil accomplish good (Romans 8:28; Genesis 50:19-20). God must punish sin; but even his punishment of sin is good, for it is the vindication of his holiness, justice, and truth (Psalm 11:6-7). God is singularly good (Matthew 19:17), immutably good (Malachi 3:6; James 1:13-17), good in all his acts of grace (Ephesians 1:3-14), and in all his works of providence (Romans 8:28; 11:36). God is infinitely, incomparably, immeasurably, eternally good! And he is particularly, distinctly good to his own elect. Pastor Don Fortner

Rejoicing in Trials and Afflictions

1 Peter 4:12-13

Verse 12“Beloved believers, do not be amazed and bewildered by difficult trials and afflictions which come upon you.” Afflictions, trials, and sufferings are the common lot of God’s people in all ages. God has only one Son without sin – none without suffering! For even Christ our Lord suffered hatred, reproach, and contradiction (Jn. 16:1-3; 33). Trials in the life of a believer are not by chance but are by appointment and according to the will of God (Phil. 1:29). Trials and afflictions try the graces of believers.

1.) They try our faith, which becomes more precious through trials.

2.) They try our love for Christ, which cannot be dimmed or drowned in the floods of suffering.

3.) They try our hope of eternal life, weaning us from fleshly foundations.

4.) They try our profession of religion, revealing whether it is in Christ’s person or in the loaves and fishes He provides (Jn. 2:23-25).

Trials are not strange and unusual for the true believer, but they are the common lot of all who will live godly in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 3:12).

Verse. 13 Rejoice and glory in trials and afflictions brought upon you by the will of God and for the sake of the gospel of Christ (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

1.) Rejoice that the hand of God is upon you in mercy, making you like Christ, creating saving graces in you, and counting you worthy to suffer for His glory.

2.) Rejoice that you are blessed to share the sufferings of Christ, being identified with Him in a world that rejects and hates Him (Jn. 15:18-20).

Pastor Henry T. Mahan (bulletin 1986)

Faith, Hope And Love

“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Cor. 13:13).

What great blessings the Lord has freely and eternally given unto His church (Rom. 8:32). Indeed, Christ has blessed us with all spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3). The apostle Paul makes mention of these three great and spiritual blessings that abide in every believer; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Why would Paul say that? Because it is true!

Every believer lives by faith (Rom. 1:17), walks by faith (2 Cor. 5:7) and will die in faith (Heb. 13:5), always looking and trusting Christ (Heb. 12:2). But one day faith will end in perfect and complete sight, when we behold the Lord Jesus Christ face to face (1 John 3:2).

Likewise, every believer lives with a fervent hope, a living hope and a blessed hope (Titus 2:13); because it is a good hope through grace (2 Thes. 2:16). Hope springs from faith in Christ (Heb. 11:1), for He is our hope (Col. 1:27; 1 Tim. 1:1). But the good hope we have in Christ, that too will one day come to an end in the certain expectation of the reality of that hope being predestinated to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29-30).