Our Goodness Comes From God Alone

Would you turn your bibles with me to psalms 16 verse 2. This is a psalm written by King David and he recognized early in life that God Almighty was his Lord and there is no good besides him. That means we don't get any good thing nor can we do any good thing besides God. He realized that early in life that what Paul says that in my flesh dwells nothing good. He realized that that he couldn't do any good thing apart from God. So it is good for us to realize that early in life because we hear many people boasting about the good that they do for people and for society. They say I did this, I did that and I have built this one for the poor. I have given so much to the poor so on and so forth and the glory in that and whenever we hear people like that we can be sure that it smacks of pride and selfishness. It's always the result of getting a name for oneself that one does good things for others. And the bible says that God recognized that and the bible says in Isaiah 64 verse 6 that all our good works or our righteousness are like filthy rags. Whatever we do before we come to know the Lord and before we recognize our depravity and recognize that there is no good in us besides him then it will be different. We have to come to a place early in life and to know that all that I do I can do only for the glory of God and that too by the power of the Holy Spirit. When I come to Christ like Paul came and acknowledged that all that he had done was counted as rubbish. We read about that in the book of Philippians. He says all that I did before my conversion his zeal and his sacrifices whatever he did he counted them but dung he said. He recognized that then after he came to Christ and God forgave his sins and made him a new creation in Christ the Lord poured out his Holy Spirit into him and the fruit of the Holy Spirit one of the ninefold fruit of the Holy Spirit is goodness and then when that is poured into him when he was able to do exceedingly abundantly for the glory of God and he realized that it was not him who did it but it was the grace of God that enabled him to do all that and then he gives all the praise to God and at the end of his life he says I am the least of all apostles and he says I am the chief of sinners was he sinning till his last day no he knew the holiness of God like Isaiah when he had that vision in Isaiah chapter 6 when he saw the glory of God this man prophet went about preaching and condemning nations up to chapter 5 go on to this nation on to that nation and all that when he saw the glory of God and God being lifted up high and holy he couldn't stand the sight of God he fell down on his face and cried out from the bottom of his heart he said wretched man that I owe unto me he said and we will stop glorying in our goodness when we come to that place that all our goodness comes from him and most of the Psalms that David wrote he wrote when he was running away from cave to cave and place to place being hounded by King Saul and before he became king he wrote most of his psalms and this is one of it and he realized early in life probably in his teens or so or in his 20s that he has no good besides God and David made mistakes he made blunders compared to what King Saul did David's sin was far greater and by any human standard Saul could have been you know set free and given a clean chit because his was only partial disobedience but whereas David committed some grave crimes according to human code of law he could have been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment or probably even death but God sees not as man sees God saw Paul's attitude towards sin he confessed no doubt but his heart was not right with God he didn't humble himself in in all that he was so proud and arrogant that he sat the next few decades on the throne when he realized even when he realized that the spirit of God had left him and he was being tormented by a demon spirit the rest of his life and Saul when he was confronted with his sin he even tore the robe of the prophet Samuel whereas when another prophet came and spoke to David about his sin and confronted him David didn't lock him up in jail like some kings did in Israel he humbled himself before the Lord and he repented so thoroughly that he was not ashamed to make it public and wrote a Psalm Psalm 51 confessing his sins to the whole nation of Israel and even till today the whole world knows what he does or did he was not ashamed people would have thought what David you're going to let everybody know about it he said yes not only Israel the rest of humanity will know about my foolishness about my sin for the next two thousand years and we still have what he wrote it's not just that he wrote the Lord is my shepherd and things like that he also wrote Lord do not take away your Holy Spirit from me you want to take away you can even take away my kingdom I'm willing to give it up but do not take away your Holy Spirit from me Lord and because of his attitude the Lord liked him restored him loved him so much and called him a man after God's own heart a title or an honor which God has not given to anybody God has not called anybody a man after is his own heart like he called David even though he sinned so gravely what is the thing that makes David stand out apart from all the saints and the prophet we can see a few things about him in the way he conducted himself with some people in one Samuel we read one Samuel chapter 24 verse 10 you know King Saul became his enemy because people started liking David and they started singing Saul killed a thousand but David killed ten thousands and that made King Saul furious and he became so jealous of David and his popularity that people liked him more than the king King Saul and he became jealous after that the rest of his life he just wanted to finish off David and he was after David's blood and he was hunting him and hounding him wherever David went and he came to know David is in this place in that place he went there with his army to capture him and to kill him but God in his mercy saved him twice God gave him in his hand here in chapter 24 of one Samuel verse 10 it says David says to Saul in verse 9 why do you listen to the words of men saying behold David seeks to harm you behold this day your eyes have seen that the Lord had given you today into my hand in the cave and some said to kill you but my eye had pity on you and I said I will not stretch out my hand against my Lord for he is the Lord's anointed you see what respect he had for King Saul even though somebody told him see your enemy is here right in your power you can finish him off why are you running from cave to cave we can put an end to that today but he said no I will not stretch out my hand against my Lord this man whom the Holy Spirit left and an evil spirit came and dwelt in him and he still calls him the Lord's anointed and he saves his life in contrast we read in 2nd Kings chapter 9 about a man called Jehu he was also anointed to be a king of Israel the next king and David had already been anointed to be the next king after God rejected Saul but David didn't take things into his hand he waited for God's time he waited for God to give the kingdom and the throne in his time but whereas Jehu when he was anointed he mounted his horse and went about killing all who were against him he just immediately took action but whereas David didn't take action for probably more than 20 years I mean 10 years he was in his teens when he was anointed when he killed Goliath and when David became king he was about 30 years we read and until he was 30 years he waited for God to give him the kingdom and the throne and authority and he didn't kill him and we read again in chapter 26 verse 9 another time this was the second time that Saul was in his power he said or maybe we can read from verse 9 so David and Abishai came to the people by night and behold Saul lay sleeping inside the circle of the camp with his spears stuck in the ground at his head and Abner and the people were lying around him Abner was Saul's general chief of the army they were all sleeping that night and Abishai said to David today God has delivered your enemy into your hand now therefore please let me strike him with a spear to the ground with one stroke and I will not have to strike him the second time you see these three brothers Joab Asahel and Abishai they were David's nephews sisters sons they were all strong people and Joab was the general of David's army he did so many exploits for David and victories he won for David and here Abishai says just give me one opportunity I will just pin him down with one stroke but David said to Abishai do not destroy him verse 9 for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be without guilt see again he recognizes him as the Lord's anointed even though he was a backslider and God had forsaken him and sent an evil spirit to torment him the rest of his life still David didn't take things into his hands he waited for God and his time why because he knew he had partaken of the divine nature as it were here is a man a new covenant man living in the old covenant having the spirit of the new covenant forgive your enemies pray for those who persecute you Jesus said that and this man knew it by the Holy Spirit that it's not good for me to take vengeance because vengeance belongs to God and we read of another time where is we see how he dealt with another enemy that is in 2nd Samuel 2nd Samuel chapter 18 you know the story at one point of time his son Absalom he usurped the throne he won the hearts of the people and turned them against his father David and he wanted to be king and he became later on he became king and David had to run for his life 2nd Samuel 18 verse 9 onwards and the war was going on between David's few men who came with him and Absalom's army and here is king David charging his general army general Joab in verse 5 he says to Joab charged Joab and Abishai and Ittai saying deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom even though he was his enemy and he threw him from the from the throne and usurped his throne and got the kingdom by stealth and deceit it when his men wanted to go to war he cautioned them deal gently with this young man my son for my sake and they didn't listen to that when his donkey was he was mounted on a donkey and the donkey went under a tree and because Absalom had long hair his hair got stuck in the tree and he was kept there dangling because the donkey went off and he was dangling in the air and Joab saw that and he finished him off and when Absalom died you know what David says he didn't rejoice in the heart of hearts you read that in verse 33 last part of verse 33 David was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept and he said as he walked oh my son Absalom my son my son Absalom would i had died instead of you oh Absalom my son my son this is how a true father's heart he revealed we see a taste of the forgiving heart of David and we read of another instance where Abner who was like i told he was the general of Saul's army enemy's army's general Abner when he died actually after after the death of Saul Abner wanted to come and join King David and he came and met him and at that time Joab and his brothers were not around and when they came to know after Abner had left that Abner had come and met King David Joab sent for him called him and he killed him because he was his enemy and also he was going to join David's army probably there would have been clash between the two of them generals so he saw that and he wanted to finish him off and he did finish him off we read about that in second Samuel chapter 333 second Samuel chapter 333 when Abner died and Joab killed him by deceit and when Abner died and you see the attitude of King David what a man he was he said in chapter 33 he lamented over Abraham I mean Abner and said should Abner die as a fool dies Abner your hands were not bound nor your feet put in fetters as one falls before the wicked you have fallen and all the people wept again over him and verse 35 then all the people came to persuade David to eat bread while it was still day but David said he vowed saying may God do so to me and more also if I taste bread or anything else before the sun goes down and all the people took note of it and it pleased them see the attitude of a man of God even when his enemies die he doesn't rejoice over it there's a verse in Proverbs it says when anything bad happens to your enemy do not rejoice do not rejoice when anything bad happens to people whom you don't like that's not the spirit of Christ Jesus said father forgive them for they do not know what they do you think only Jesus can say that but after that Stephen also said when he was being stoned to death Stephen said father do not lay this charge against them same something similar words that Jesus said on the cross about his enemy and there was another man Shimei that's in 2nd Samuel chapter 16 when David was running away from Absalom when he lost his kingdom Shimei came Shimei was a distant relative of Saul he thought David you know had manipulated and engineered the death of King Saul and he sat on his throne he thought he didn't know how long David waited for God to give that throne to him but when he lost his throne and he was running away from Absalom in chapter 16 verse 13 Shimei meets David on the way and he was happy in his heart that finally David was thrown out and he's he comes and meets David on the way and Shimei went along on the hillside parallel with him and as he went he cursed and cast stones and threw dust at him and this is something you read in next in chapter 16 chapter 19 of the same book verse 23 when Absalom was killed and David's kingdom was restored and David was coming back to Jerusalem to claim his throne here comes this man again Shimei in chapter 19 verse 23 he comes or maybe we can read from 21 but Abishai the son of Zerui that's David's sister answered and said should not Shimei be put to death for this because he cursed the Lord's anointed here is a really anointed servant of God whom Shimei cursed which David didn't do to a man who was once anointed but had lost his anointing but what David says here what have I to do with you sons of Zeruiah that you should this day be an adversary to me should any man be put to death in Israel today for do I not know what do I not know that I am king or Israel today and the king said to Shimei who had cast dust and threw stones at him when he was going away running away from Absalom now he's coming back he is telling to Shimei you shall not die and the king sold to him and he didn't kill him till he died this is the attitude of a man of God because he said there is no good thing besides the Lord what all I have today is all because of you it's not my goodness it's the goodness that you have poured into my heart that's why he was able to say my cup runs over when he's filled with the Holy Spirit his cup runs over he he was able to know because of that goodness that was running over in his heart he was able to forgive all his enemies Saul and Absalom Abner and here Shimei and I don't know how many more this was the attitude of a man of God no wonder God identified himself with this man even though he had committed grave sins and repented so thoroughly young people just think about it if you take God's word seriously like King David took when he was in his teens he composed so many songs in his teens and 20s so many Psalms and he was a man after God's own heart and God saw what he was doing in the field while he was tending sheep and his family almost forgot that he was existing when Saul Samuel came to anoint one of Jesse's sons all the seven passed by and the Lord said no I have rejected all of them when Jesse wondered is that all you have then Jesse says no there is one more fellow there is a little one who is tending sheep in the field then Samuel said please call for him then when he came he was anointed king over Israel he was maybe 17 or 18 that time young people God can anoint you in your teens and you can be a strong man of God doing exploits in the book of Daniel we read those who know God shall take action and do exploits for him you can do that in your generation God can bless you and use you like he used David and made him a man after his own heart you can become one too because God is not partial what he has done for Jesus he is able to do to us so don't think that you're too small or too young for God to use you God can use anybody whose heart is completely his give your life to him and then you'll be able to obey what Jesus said love your enemies when the Holy Spirit's love is poured into your heart then you will be able to do that otherwise you cannot we in our own strength we cannot forgive our enemies you know how rotten our flesh is when our heart changes the Lord changes our heart and gives us a new heart and a new mind and puts a new spirit within us the Holy Spirit then we will be able to partake of the divine nature and be able to forgive our enemies and pray for those who persecute us and God like God we will be able to do good to everybody friends or foes like God does makes his sun shine and rain fall on the good people as well as the bad people and Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 Matthew chapter 7 verse 17 Matthew 7 7 17 he said even so every good tree bears good fruit but the bad tree bears bad fruit every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire John the Baptist he said the axe is laid to the root of the tree it's already laid at the root of the tree the tree that doesn't bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire Jesus said the same thing and Jesus said every branch in me that does not bear fruit my father will prune them and cut them off and throw them in the fire if we are sitting here in cfc coming only to listen to some great messages from brother Zach brother Ian etc you're deceiving yourself brother and sister wake up before the Lord trims you and throws you into the fire wake up let the axe be laid to the root and cut you off and be grafted in the real wine that is Jesus Christ then you'll be able to bear much fruit Jesus said I'm the wine and you are the branches if you abide in me and my words abide in you then you will be able to bear fruit for him and that is what God intends for us and God has picked us up and He has chosen us and created in Christ Jesus unto good works not because of good works Ephesians 2 10 it says we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works and whatever we do thereafter after having been born again and after having received the Holy Spirit and being empowered by the Spirit whatever good we do that will be counted or before that whatever we did like we saw in that verse in Isaiah 64 verse 6 all our good works are considered as filthy rags and only what God does remains and stands that's why Jesus said you can do nothing apart from me what does he mean by that so many people without Christ do so many things but what Jesus was referring to is you cannot do anything apart from me that will last for eternity that will count for eternity if you want your good works or whatever you do to be counted for eternity you have to do it by abiding in Christ and by the help of the Lord and the Holy Spirit and since all goodness and all grace and all the virtues of the Holy Spirit come only through Him we have to run to Him and ask Him and be honest with Him absolutely Lord I'm a wretched man like Paul said in Romans 7 towards the end he said the very old wretched man that I am if we come to the Lord and acknowledge our wretchedness and confess our sins and ask His forgiveness then He is able to cleanse you as it says in 1 John 1 9 that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our iniquities and then you will be a new creation in Christ and you will be sons and daughters of God Almighty then you can ask what you will and the Lord says I will do it for you that is concerning our spiritual growth may the Lord bless these words and challenges and encourages us encourages and hear our prayer and grant our request and change your lives from today and make us more than conquerors through Christ who loves us amen