Amen. Please be seated. The psalmist continues, "'Teach me thy way, O Lord. I will walk in thy truth, unite my heart to fear thy name.'" And again, certainly he's done so positionally as he saved our souls, he's united us to him. But in a practical way, he continues that good sanctifying work of progressively maturing us or uniting us practically in our walk with him. The means by which he does so is the Word of God. It is by no other means. It's the Word of God and the power of the Spirit using that Word as a sharp, two-edged sword in our life and the work that he does. And so I would encourage you to give due attention to the Word of God, the teaching, and continue, as we often say, pondering the Word of God, that you may use it in your life to perfect us. Amen. you. It is good to be with you again this day and to turn to our God together to look at his word. I'm going to read first a short couple passages from Psalm 90 because it sets the background for the sermon. It touches on the brevity of life. And in your bulletin, I listed a passage in 1 Peter and in 2 Peter. And we'll cover lots of passages, but I hope that those stick in your heart, that those two passages go with you. Listen to God's word from Psalm 90. Now read one through six and then 12 through 16. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever, you had formed the earth or the world. From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You return man to the dust and say, return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight. are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with the flood. They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and is renewed. In the evening it fades and withers. So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, Lord, we do need the power of your Spirit. to lead our hearts in worship, to turn our hearts to you. And Lord, it is our desire to rejoice in you, to be satisfied with you, as it says in this psalm. And so Lord, we ask that you would be with us, that you would teach us, that you would put your word into our hearts. And Lord, that you would comfort us, and assure us of your goodness as we consider your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, actually, this is a sermon that I preached at Park Hill before Christmas. And my thought at the time was for families who have lost loved ones and face family gatherings and they look and there's a gap. where a father, a mother, a child, a brother, a friend should be. And I know that here you face a very specific loss that you feel deeply. But I also know that there is not one of us who escapes facing the loss of someone we love. And at such times we consider and we ask, is God good? Where can we find his goodness when the foundations seem to crumble around us? Can we trust him in life? Can we trust him even in death? Can we cast our lives into his care? Is he good to those whom he has called home? And how will we face a future without wife or mother, father or child. And where can we look but to this book and to this book alone? And by God's grace, this book is full of the assurances and the promises and the hope and the compassion that God gives. So it is my hope that we can find the assurance and the compassion and the hope that comes from this book at this time. And I know that in this body of believers that you folks know the scriptures. And you know that salvation is real, that Christ actually died on a Roman cross at a specific point in history. And so you know that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And you know that God has come to earth. And so is God's timing. Even the last enemy, death itself, will be no more. Let me read from 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 and 4. His divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. You see the problem is this, we of ourselves are tiny human beings. Psalm 103 says God knows we are but dust. Psalm 90 that we just read says that life is fleeting like grass, that God sweeps away our days like a flood. And it says teach us to number our days. And how can we do that from our small perspective? How can we learn to number our days when it's hard for us sometimes to even see tomorrow? And the answer is this. Although we are small, God is the Almighty. He knows all things, He sees all things. You see, God loves His children, and so He does not want to keep hidden from us His glorious goodness. He wants us to see His glory and His promises and all of His goodness. He gives us His precious and very great promises. This passage says, so that we might escape from this world, that we might become partakers of the divine nature. In other words, that we might see life as God sees it. He gives us his precious and very great promises so that we will know the joys of being called into his glory and excellence. And by these promises, it says that we might escape the corruption that is in the world. That is, we may get a glimpse of real reality and thereby turn our hearts from the troubles of this life to the God who gives life. And in this way, we might number our days and find our place of rest in him alone. For he is the living God, and there is no other. You see, God says precious in his sight is the death of one of his saints. Why? Because one of his children has come home forever to be with him. He's finished the race and entered the peace of his Savior. And we cannot see this from our human perspective. From here, all is lost. The foundations do crumble. But by God's precious and his very great promises, we can see just how good God is in all that he does. and he will give us a glimpse into his eternal glory. And so this will be our focus this morning, to consider God's precious and very great promises, to consider his goodness that we might see from God's perspective, that we might grow in our love for him, and that we might experience his compassion and comfort that he wants for us. And so we will consider this in three points. First, God is good. Second, God is good to those whom he has called home. And third, God is good to us who remain on this earth. And so firstly, we see that God is good. And in Exodus 32 and 33, we read the story that the Israelites built a golden calf. and they worshipped it. Even when God had just brought them out of Egypt and brought them through the wilderness, they turned to an idol. And at this very moment, one of the very low points in Israel's history, we find Moses pleading with God that God might go with his people, that God might not abandon his people, that God might take them into the promised land. And listen to what happens. And the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken, I will do. For you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name. And then Moses said, please show me your glory. And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. Now, don't you just love Moses here? He's pleading with God and as soon as God says, this very thing I will do for you, Moses says, please show me your glory. I want to see your glory, O Lord. And it's very interesting, God doesn't say nothing to him. God answers and says, I will make all my goodness pass before you. And do you see the theme? God does not want us to be in the dark. God wants us to know his goodness and his glory and to experience it. And this passage continues, and the Lord passed before him. and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. Now think about all that God could have answered to Moses. Show me your glory. You know, God could have said, casting a billion galaxies across the heavens. God could have said, weaving the intricacies of the atom. He could have said, maker of the mountains and the seas. But God said, merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. See, this is God's glory. And if you think about what this says about God, it says that God is personal. It says that he is near to us. He says that he sets his heart upon his people. It says that he is love. This is God's goodness. See, God loves to save his people, to draw them close to himself. Scripture even tells us that it was a joy for Christ to die on the cross for the joy set before him. And that is his people that he is forgiving and drawing to himself. Now there's another part of this declaration of God's goodness. It says that he forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. And yet, he will certainly not clear the guilty. You know, when God says that he forgives, It's saying that he will not count the people's sins against them. Although they just rejected him, those sins will be no more. And the actual image in the Hebrew here is that sin is like a weight that God lifts up and just casts aside. And sin is a weight. It's a weight that we cannot lift ourselves. But it's a weight that God can and does lift. And so we ask, how can this be? How can God hold the guilty guilty and still forgive the guilt of iniquity, transgression, and sin? You know, it's only the guilty that need forgiveness. How can this be resolved? And the mystery is this. God does not clear the guilty. God is perfectly just and righteous. He cannot just clear the guilty. He doesn't say, oh well, we'll just let that go. That would not be just or right. God cannot brush it off as though the assault on his glory doesn't matter. And so he does not ignore sin. He executed perfect justice in the death of Jesus on the cross. All of our sins went to Jesus. It says in Romans 8 3 that Jesus condemned sin in the flesh. That is, God takes all of the sins, as you've heard, of those who call upon him and places them on Christ, that they might be no more. counted against you and I. The penalty for the guilt of sin was actually executed on Christ. And this is the goodness of the gospel. This is how God can forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin, and yet not hold the, be perfectly just in holding the guilty guilty. And we think about, what would it mean if God were not perfectly just? If God could just change his mind tomorrow, if he could arbitrarily ignore sin, well, then he could arbitrarily ignore forgiveness, and all would be lost. Heaven and all of God's promises would rest on a foundation of sand, and it would be no different than this world where the foundations crumble. but God is just and so eternity is secured and safe in his care. You see God's love is secured and held fast by his justice and isn't this the point that we need to know in facing the brevity of life, that God's promises are forever, that God does not change, that the promises he gives for good are permanent, that we can count on them. And so not only is God merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love, but all his promises rest on the foundation of his justice. God does not change. Now secondly, I want to consider some of God's specific promises of good to those whom he has called home so that we might be comforted when we find a loss of a loved one in our life. Consider 2 Corinthians 5.8. We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. You know, this promise is no little matter. It means that the suffering of those who have passed into glory ended immediately at death. And all that was sorrowful was swallowed up in Christ's victory over death. And this is a great comfort to know. You know, in 1 Corinthians 15.52, Paul says that we shall all be changed in a moment. And what is a moment? It comes from the Greek word for Adam. It is a time so small that it cannot be divided any further. A thousandth, a millionth, a billionth of a second. No, infinitely fast. You see, we know sadness in this life, but the transition to glory is instantaneous. God does not allow his holy ones to see corruption. Psalm 1610 gives us this promise, for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy ones see corruption. And this is a promise to Christ, but it's also a promise to all who are holy in Christ. You see there's not even a real corruption. The corruption of death will not be seen, even for the slightest moment of time, by those who belong to Christ. When the thief on the cross called out to Jesus, remember me, Jesus answered, today you will be with me in paradise. And so it is with all who are in Christ Jesus. And not only is the transition into glory instantaneous, but it is attended by God personally. Revelation 21.4 says, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. You know, in order for God to wipe away every tear, he has to attend to every one of his children very personally. You know, we can picture a father or a mother tenderly wiping the tear from their child's eyes. And how much more wonderful is the picture of God himself attending in such a personal way to those whom he loves and whom we love in the very moment of passing into glory. Psalm 1611 says, You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And in his presence there are pleasures forevermore. for there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more pain. The shackles of sin and death have been stripped away forever. Jesus sets the prisoner free. In 1 Corinthians 15.35 it says someone will ask how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? And God tells us that the closest thing we can imagine is a seed dying in the ground and growing into a great plant. The seed is ordinary. It appears to die and yet there comes a beautiful plant. And verse 42 says, so it is, just like the plant. With the resurrection of the dead, what is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust. and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. And did you notice that we will no longer be of dust? We will no longer be small and frail, but we will take on the glory of heaven, incorruptible. You know Jesus walked this earth in his resurrected body. His disciples could touch him in the new heaven and the new earth. All whom God calls home will be given their own body, which was sown in corruption and decay. but which will be raised imperishable, glorious. And, of course, this means that not only will we see the Lord, but we will know each other. You know, when God created mankind, he made us in his image specifically so that we could love him and he could love us and so that we could love one another. You know, we think about the two great commandments. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now if these two commandments reflect the very nature of God, and they do, then isn't it true that these two commandments will be active in heaven? And it is. we think of the Lord's prayer, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You see, God commands us to love on earth, and so we know that this is his will in heaven, and we will be overwhelmed by the love of God, but there will be real love between brothers and sisters. And this is a great comfort to know. In heaven, we will love. We will love God with a pure heart. And I suspect you know what a blessing that is, because it's your heart's desire to love God with a pure heart now. And yet you see the working of sin that gets in the way. But in glory, all of sin and corruption will be stripped away. and our love for God and for each other will be pure as God intends. Now I want to consider one more passage of God's precious and very great promises by which we can know the good that he has bestowed on those whom he has called home. Listen to 1 Peter 1, 3-7. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So this passage gives three promises that pertain directly to how God is good to his children. First, it says that God has reserved an inheritance for all of his children that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. The picture is this. Perhaps you've been to a wedding reception, and you go, and there on the table, there's your name. And that place is reserved for you. This passage says that God has in heaven, there's your name. There's the name of all whom he has called home. And there's the special place that God has reserved specifically in his presence. God has reserved an inheritance for all of his children. And then it says that God will safely deliver home all those who trust in him. You see what good is an inheritance if you never get there to enjoy it? And this passage says that God himself assures that all of his children will be delivered safely home. You do know that God knows you by name. After all, Psalm 19 says that it's God himself who knit you together in your mother's womb. In other words, when God welcomes you home, when God welcomes any of his children home, he's not welcoming a stranger. is bringing home a child that he knows that he himself knit together. Now, finally, this passage says to every believer, your faith, more precious than gold, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So here's the picture. At the end of the age, all that is hidden will be revealed. And it will be found that the faith that God, well, gave each of you, will result in the praise and glory and honor of Jesus Christ. In other words, it will be proclaimed from the rooftops, look what God accomplished in this life. And we will see it together. And so every one of our loved ones whom God has called home, God has given faith, God has taken them through the troubles of this life, and it will be proclaimed just what God accomplished in that life. And we will rejoice together. to know together. You see, there's much that's hidden on this earth and it's hard for us even to see our own heart, to know all that God has accomplished in bringing us to Christ. But all will be made clear and it will become clear that the faith that God gave will result in His glory. And He will be praised Listen again to what this passage says. Who, that is all who belong to God, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. You see, just like our love will be pure, our praise and glory to God in eternity will be pure and good. And that is a great joy because, again, we desire to praise God in this life. And we know the troubles that get in the way. But in eternity, all whom God has called home will glorify Him with a pure heart. Now finally, let me touch on a few things that God says to those who remain on this earth. In Psalm 68, four through six, it says, sing to God, sing praises to his name, lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts. His name is the Lord, exalt before him. father of the fatherless and protector of widows, is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious will dwell in a parched land. You see, God has ordained in this life, he has created us to enjoy certain pleasures. He has designed husbands to enjoy the love of their wives and wives to enjoy the love of their husbands. He has designed us to enjoy the love of children and for children to enjoy the love of parents. God knows that we need these relationships. It was him who created them. And Psalm 68 says that God is a father to the fatherless and a protector of widows. In other words, God knows you personally. He knows what you need. And he has promised to fill up all that is missing with he himself. That he might be all in all in your life. It's not that the sorrow vanishes. But because of the sorrow, God himself becomes for us all that we need in the midst of sorrow. This is the work of God. And this is why Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. The point is that if you have God, you have everything. God will never let you go. But God also says to we who are left behind, if we turn to Philippians 1.21, Paul is saying, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor to me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart, to be with Christ, for that is far better. but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Now think about the awesome privilege of what this passage is saying. It's saying that we who are here have a place in God's purposes. If you are here on this earth, it means literally that God is not through with you yet. That God has purposes for your life. and God equips us to bring glory to Him in this life. It is a great honor and a great privilege to be even a small part of God's plans, to bring Him glory and to enjoy Him forever. Now, without question, The goodness of God is shown most abundantly in the gospel. In Romans 5, 6 says, for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore We have now been justified by his blood. Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. What was the right time? The right time was while we were still weak. While we were still sinners. That's when God pulled us out of the pit of sin. That's when God saved us. That's when God adopted us as his child. And in Romans 5.1 it says, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now think about that, peace with God. You know, I can hear that and every muscle relaxes, peace with God. What a joyous thing. Isaiah 40 says, the warfare is ended. As many as our sins, so much double is God's forgiveness. We can have real peace with God on this earth. Let me conclude with this. Romans 8.31 says, What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Did God go to all the trouble to destroy sin and death and then forget to supply all of our needs in Christ Jesus? No, God is good, and that is a foundation far deeper, far more stable than any foundation on this earth. And so we think, where would we be without him? And praise God, we will never need to know, for Jesus promised that he will be with us even to the close of the age. And so what do we do when we gather and we have a loss and there's a gap where father or mother, child or brother should be? We turn over here and we see a baby in the manger and we know that God has come to earth. That Jesus came to take away the sins of the world. And so we know that our foundations in heaven are secure. And we can know that the last enemy, death itself, has been defeated and will someday be banished forever. And we can know that God is good. And by his justice, we can know that he never changes. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, we are grateful that you are good, that you have revealed yourself to us, that you do not keep us in the dark, that you give us your precious and very great promises, that we might soar to see as you see, to rejoice as you rejoice, to know that although it looks as though all is lost in this life, that nothing is lost. that all your purposes are good and right and true, that we can trust in you, that we can entrust our whole life, that we can entrust all those whom you have called home into your care. In Jesus' name, amen.