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This is Pastor John Barnett inviting
you to come and take advantage of our website. All of the messages
that I teach are available free of charge for you to listen to
over your computer or to download the actual study notes that I
share with the dear saints at Tulsa Bible Church. Our website
is called discoverthebook.org. That's discoverthebook.org. If you want to turn in your Bibles,
we're going to be in a few moments in Revelation chapter 12. But
this morning we are in the fourth of our looks at Paradise Lost. There's only one thing I want
you to think about this morning, and that is that Satan wants
you and me to doubt God's goodness. And if you think about it, nearly
every sin that you and I are tempted to commit has something
to do with us doubting God. And we're going to see in just
a moment, that's the whole purpose of Satan. To make us doubt, as
we saw last week, God's Word. Now remember, you don't have
to doubt that it's inspired to doubt it. Neglect is equal to
doubting God's Word. You don't think it's relevant
or important. But we doubt God's Word, we doubt
His plan, We doubt his authority to tell us what to do, but this
morning we're going to look at doubting the goodness of God. The goodness of God is that everything
that God is personally and everything he does is good. We doubt that
sometimes. Let's study that this morning.
When Adam and Eve chose to doubt God, they began a tidal wave
of sin that floods our lives to this day. This morning is
our fourth visit in our Paradise Lost series and each of us present
in this room has felt the dreadful effects of Adam and Eve's doubt,
their disobedience, their sin, and the fall of humanity. If
we listen, we can hear the tragic results of the fall of Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden. When they began doubting God,
it was because they listened to the whisper of the dragon. And that's what we're going to
see in chapter 12 in just a moment of Revelation. But side by side
with every horrible consequence of the fall, God has always given
hope. And that's why this morning,
as we look at Paradise Lost, we see Paradise regained in Christ,
and we see the hope we have in Christ. God, as Adam and Eve
sinned, pronounced the curse that would stalk humanity in
this universe for all of time. As Eve was tempted and Adam fell,
a seed was promised, though, that would someday crush the
serpent. Abel, the Child of Adam and Eve
was murdered, but Cain, the murderer, was marked. And the race that
was begotten was drowned because it was beyond hope. But the Scriptures
tell us that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The
world after the flood united in rebellion, in religion against
God. So at the Tower of Babel, God
confounded the languages. But in the same time, He reached
down and He chose one man, Abraham, and began him. the promise of
the Redeemer. His twelve descendants, the twelve
tribes, were corrupted, the true worship of God apostatized, and
God was silent for four hundred years. But the promised seed,
Jesus, was born, even as the babies surrounding Bethlehem
were murdered. Then as Christ lived, He was
tempted in person by the dragon, the slanderer, and the murderous
liar, Satan, but He was triumphant. In Gethsemane, a second Garden
of Eden. The snake dripping the venom
again. The Savior sweating blood. But
this time, the last Adam didn't turn back. On Calvary's Hill,
he died. And at last, did Satan the murderer
win? No. The promised seed had conquered. And that's the hope we have.
As Jesus Christ rose from the dead, defeated death and the
devil, and vanquished God's Great enemy, Satan. And the plan of
redemption was paid. And what we see this morning
in Revelation 12 is that the doubter can now be comforted. Revelation 12 verses 7 through
11 tell us Satan's current operation in this world is accusing us,
is pointing his finger every time you and I fail, and pointing
out our failures to God. He is the accuser. He is the
bringer of guilt. He is the slanderer. He is the
one who wishes to debilitate us and make us doubt God. But
God has promised us that He is defeated. Let's read these verses
as you join me standing. Remain standing for prayer. If
you want to follow along in your copy of God's Word, I'm going
to read Revelation 12, starting at verse 7, and I'll read through
verse 11. And war broke out in heaven,
this is in the tribulation time, this is a future event. Michael
and his angels, Michael the archangel always doing God's bidding, fought
with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they
did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven, notice
what it says, any longer. That means up until this point,
they are in heaven, and Job tells us Satan comes before God and
accuses us. Now look at verse 9, it's one
of the more important verses on describing Satan in the Bible. The great dragon was cast out,
that serpent of old, so the serpent in Genesis 3 is the dragon. So
where we're looking at Paradise Lost, same individual, called
the devil, that's the one who came and tempted Christ, and
Satan, that's who the apostles talk about, our adversary Peter,
Paul, the apostles talk about him. What is he doing? He deceives
the whole world. Don't think people cook up all
these ridiculous things going on in the wickedness. Satan is
deceiving the world. He was cast to earth, his angels
were cast out with him. Satan has demons, these angels
that followed him in the rebellion, and I heard a loud voice saying
in heaven, now, salvation and strength from the kingdom of
our God and the power of his Christ have come. And here's
another line, for the accuser of our brethren, that's what
Satan does constantly. Most people say, oh, the devil
made me do it. No, no, no. Probably he's never been near
you or me. He's accusing saints in front of God's throne, pointing
out Every time we fail, every time we sin, every time we transgress,
He's pointing it out and seeing what Jesus will do. Of course,
Jesus, our great High Priest, intercedes for us and says, Father,
I paid for that one, I paid for that one. But the accuser of
our brethren, who accused them at the end of verse 10, before
our God, day and night, has been cast down, and this is a climactic
future moment when Satan is confined to earth. It's going to be awful.
It's bad enough on this planet where he's kind of flitting around
here and there, and the demons are too. They're all going to be...
God's bringing in the barrier, and they can't get off the planet.
And that's when, literally, all hell breaks loose in the tribulation.
But look at verse 11. Here's the hope. overcame, that's
the Tribulation Saints, by the blood of the Lamb, because they
were cleansed. Remember, when we are washed by the blood of
Christ, we have no condemnation. God does not condemn us. He never
makes us answer for our sins. We never have to be judged for
our sins, because Christ was judged. So the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses us. And by the word of their testimony,
they lived it out, and they did not love their lives to the death. You see, they trusted God so
much. The Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve doubted God. But here
we find saints, because of the resurrection of Christ and His
power, who trust God. And they say, God, You're more
valuable than even my life, and I'll live for You. What a great
hope. Let's ask the Lord to put these words deeply in our hearts.
Let's bow together. Father in Heaven, we don't want
to doubt You. We don't want to doubt Your Word
by neglect. We don't want to doubt Your plan
by not seeking it. We don't want to doubt Your authority
by refusing to yield to You. And most focused this morning,
we don't want to doubt your goodness. We trust you. We love you. And
your goodness is a refuge. Everything you are is good. Everything
you do is good. And we yield to your goodness
this morning. Help us to not be doubting you,
O God, but trusting. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated. As you're seated, let's turn
back to Genesis chapter 3 again to those first five verses. In
Genesis 3 we find paradise lost and we find that every day we,
like Adam and Eve, face the same temptation The temptation from
Satan, it's from his own evil nature, is for us to proudly
doubt God. To doubt that God knows what's
going on, to doubt that God is in charge, to doubt that God
knows more than we do, to doubt that God is truly good. That's
what Satan wants. But humility is a virtue of trusting
God. And I want to just sift through
the crash site as we began last week looking at this. In the
first five verses of Genesis 3, we find where human race crashed
into sin, the fall we call it, when paradise was lost. This
is where doubting began. And as we sift through these
verses, we can see how Satan caused Adam and Eve to doubt.
In Genesis 3, 1 through 5, Satan plants four seeds of doubt into
the lives of Adam and Eve. Number one, he says in verse
one, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the
field which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, Has
God indeed said? Number one, focus of Satan, make
us doubt God's word. We doubt God's word when we doubt
that he has given us his revelation. We think this book is nice and
helpful. We don't think it's absolute. And we avoid the Bible. That's doubting God's Word. Satan
wants us to neglect God's Word. Whatever it takes, he wants us
to not have regular exposure to this book. And that's doubting
God's Word. Going on down to verse 4, a second
area of Satan's wanting us to doubt is he wants us to doubt
God's authority. He says in verse 4, you'll not
surely die. Satan wants us to doubt God's authority, to believe
God's not in charge, that he's not interested in what we choose,
we're in charge, we determine our fate, and that God will not
hold us accountable. That's doubting God's authority.
That's what Satan wants. Verse 5, We saw last week, Satan
wants us to doubt God's plan. Notice what he says in verse
5. He says, God knows in the day you eat of it, your eyes
will be opened and you will be like God. That wasn't God's plan. He didn't want them to follow
in Satan's rebellion. And when we doubt God, we doubt
His plan. And Satan wants us to believe
there is a better way to get to God, an easier way to go to
heaven, a quicker way to be happy on earth. And that's an attack.
on the character of God, because he's revealed himself as having
his authority and his plan. But let's look at our focus this
morning. It's the end of verse 1. And this is going to begin
a walk through the scripture, because I want to underline in
your mind the concept of the goodness of God, and specifically
how Satan caused Adam and Eve to doubt God's goodness. It says
at the end of verse 1 of Genesis 3, Satan speaking, he says, Has
God indeed said, You shall not of every tree of the garden.
You notice, just the way it sounds, is it wrong to eat fruit? I mean,
is this some new diet? Immediately it sounds funny.
What does it mean you can't eat all this fruit? And doubting
God's goodness is, He says, I want you to believe God is robbing
you of something you should have. He's robbing you of that fruit.
Look at it. Why would He ever tell you not
to have that? And you start wondering. Why is God limiting me? Why is
it that God doesn't want me to be happy? Why does He allow me
to continue in this condition I'm in, whatever it is? See,
it's just planting those seeds. And He planted in Adam and Eve's
mind, God is not good. Why? Because He's limiting me.
And you know, we're tempted the same way. Young people are tempted
that way. Every day, young people are tempted
with a world that they are supposed to operate under rules and everything
and wait, and specifically, in the moral realm, love can wait
but lust can't. And they say, oh, God's trying
to take away. I want my pleasure now. And that's
Satan's lie. Well, when Satan makes us doubt
God's goodness, this is a direct attack. on the moral attribute,
the character of God. It's called His goodness. God's
goodness can be defined, and I'll read from the dictionary,
the goodness of God means God is the final standard of good
and that all that God is and all God's does is worthy of approval.
That's what the dictionary says. What does that mean? Everything
God is, eternally, is good, and everything God does is good. Now, that's important to think
about. Why? Because the way He made
us, And the way He directs us through life, in our eyes, doesn't
always appear good. But everything God does is good. And so what we have to learn
is how to conform to seeing things in the perspective of God. How do we do that? Turn to the
middle of your Bible. Just open right in the middle to the Psalms.
Some of you might be new at this. If you just flip right to the
middle, maybe a little to the left if you've got a lot of concordance
stuff. You'll find the book of Psalms
and find the 34th Psalm. Now this is the first of about
10 verses we're going to look at this morning. You might want
to mark them. These are all teaching us about the character, the goodness
of God. Psalm 34, verse 8. Now, if you
can get this concept, it becomes very powerful in your lives because
God's goodness, the Bible teaches, is a refuge. Did you know we're
involved in a storm all around us where Satan is putting out
his horrible lies and saying, God is not good. God is not good. And so what are we supposed to
do? Flee to a refuge. Look at verse 8. This is a beautiful verse.
O taste and see that the Lord is good. Now look at this. Blessed,
or how blessed, is the man who takes refuge in Him. When we flee to God and throw
ourselves wholly upon Him and say, you are good, and all you
do is good, we find refuge. Because what we've done is, we're
not proudly going our own way, we're not choosing our own way,
we're not saying, I don't like this, and I don't like that,
and I'm going to change this in my life. We yield to God and we say, God,
you have said that you are good and that if we come to you, that
you will be our refuge so that we can see what's good in a situation
that looks horrible. And you say, what do you mean
by that? Well, turn to the next one, Psalm 84. Turn to the right.
84th Psalm in our theology of the goodness of God. Psalm 84. And I just want to show several
points. This is a psalm that you should
have marked and underlined. I mean, this is a key psalm for
your worship. It talks about worshiping the Lord. How lovely
is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts. Verse 2, the cry of a
worshiper. My soul longs and faints for
you. My flesh cries out for you. I
mean, it's just saying, I'm totally seeking you, God. When we come
to God and yield to Him as our refuge, He takes care of our
problems. Verse 3, even the sparrow has
found a home. That deals with worthlessness.
A lot of people feel very worthless. I mean, in the animal kingdom,
the sparrow, in biblical literature, is the worthless object. It's
a picture of worthlessness. And God says, if you feel worthless,
come to me. The swallow, verse 3, has found
a nest for herself. If you know anything about birds,
swallows are restless. They're just flitting all around. They
never finish their nest. They're very restless. He said,
if you're a restless person, you come to me. Look at the end
of verse 3. your altars, O Lord of hosts."
That speaks of God's blessedness coming to him. Now, look at verse
11. For the Lord, restless, worthless
people that feel so detached from God's goodness. For the
Lord is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. Look at this. No good thing will he withhold
from those who walk uprightly. Yeah, that's a great promise.
The goodness of God is that if I will walk uprightly, if I will
walk in His light, if I will walk in yieldedness to Him, if
I will come to Him with my hands, as George Mueller used to say,
off from the scales. You know, most of us, when we're
praying about something, we've got our finger, you know, like the proverbial
butcher. You ever seen the Norman Rockwell
picture where the butcher is pushing on the scale and on the
other side the woman is pushing? up on the scale, you know, they're
trying to change the weight of the chicken she's buying. I mean,
he always captured those, you know, and, you know, the butcher
knows what she's doing, so he's, and she's pushing up, and he's
pushing down. You know, in prayer, it's kind of like that. We say,
God, whatever your will is, but we're pushing that one down,
right? We want that one. And if we do not push our way,
look at this, no good thing will he hold back from those who walk
in his way, walk uprightly. You know what that means? You
want to have a godly husband or wife someday? If you say,
God, with my whole heart I'll seek you, and I want your choice,
I will wait, and I will trust, and I will obey, He will not
withhold from you that great thing. Bonnie and I were celebrating
our anniversary, and I remember last year we talked through our
whole 15 years, and I said, honey, there's nothing in my life I
ever prayed for more than a godly wife. She said, well that explains
something. She says, because as soon as
I saw you the first time, my heart was drawn to you. She says,
and I never knew you. I just saw you preaching and
my heart was drawn to you from the beginning. And when I met
her, I just said to her, I said, you're the one I prayed for my
whole life. How would you like to introduce yourself that way?
Hi. First date. I prayed for you my whole life.
You know, kind of like, oh, I've heard that story before. But if you
do it, it's true. No good thing will God withhold
from you in any realm of life if you walk uprightly, if I walk
uprightly. Now, turn to Psalm 119. Here
we go. Keep going to the right. A theology
of God's goodness. Psalm 119, longest chapter in
the Bible. Look at verse 68. This is what the Lord says, Thou
art good, and doest good. See, that's the goodness of God.
Now look at this, teach me your statutes. I'm not good, and I
don't do good, and I'm not headed the right way. I want to. Do
you see something about the goodness of God? There's a yieldedness
to God. You are good. And God, I don't
make good choices sometimes, and I don't always go your way.
So, you're good, and I want to yield to you, God. You see, the
non-biblical but very true little statement is, God gives the very
best to those that leave the choice to Him. Now, the American
way is, we do it our way, and we get it now. God says, if you
leave the choice to Me, nothing good will I withhold from you. And the psalmist said, that's
what I want, God. Psalm 119 verse 68, you're good, you do good,
teach me your way. Okay, now turn over to Matthew. We're going
to continue in our theology of God's goodness. The Gospel of
Matthew, New Testament. Keep going to the right until
you get there in the New Testament. Chapter 7, verse 11. If you then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
and I think most of you that have children are planning and
thinking about gifts you're going to give them, He said, if you
earthly, fallen, sinful creatures know how to give good things
to those you love, how much more will your Father, Matthew 7,
11, who is in heaven, give what is good to those who ask Him?
Now, you notice this is unfolding. This is the theology of goodness.
Psalm 34 says, you've got to taste and see the Lord is good.
You meet Him. And if you take refuge in Him,
you'll learn about the goodness. Then in verse 11 of Psalm 84,
if we walk uprightly, He won't withhold the good from us. Psalm
119, we have to trust He is good and does good, and then He will
teach us how to walk in His way. And now Jesus said, how much
more will your Father in Heaven give what is good to those who,
what? Ask. So often we don't have what is
good in our life because we don't ask. We don't ask because we
don't want to give up going our own way. We're pushing on the
scale so hard, we do not come and ask before God and say, I
want your way in my life. Your partner, your plan, your
direction, your career choice. I don't want to be molded by
the world. I want to be molded by you. Now,
turn to Romans. Here's a very big piece in our
theology. Romans chapter 8. Keep going
to the right. Romans 8. This is the omniscient God who
is sovereign. And we absolutely believe that.
Don't worry about the stuff we don't understand, the little
tiny details of whatever election and predestination mean. We do
know this. Look at verse 28. We know that
God causes He causes. He is sovereignly able to cause
all things to work together for good. The active agent is God,
and He is causing everything in our life to work together
for good. Look at this, to those who love
God. You know, when St. Augustine
or Augustine read this in the 5th century, Augustine, a hippo,
he lived in northern Africa, over in Libya and Tunisia area.
When he read this, he formulated his life's philosophy. He said,
love God supremely and do what you please. Now that's the Christian
life. Did you know, if we love God
more than anything else, we should love the Lord, that God, with
all their heart, with all their mind, with all their spirit, and we love our
neighbors, ourselves. If we love God in that way, God
is causing everything to work together for good in our lives.
He is making it work together. We just need to see that. Look
at verse 32. He underlines how committed he
is to us. He says, He who did not spare
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not
also with him freely give us all things? That's the goodness
of God. Well, keep going to the right. We have just about three
more elements in our theology of goodness. 1 Thessalonians.
Go to the right through the epistles. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Now, this is an important one.
It says this, In everything give thanks, for this is the will
of God for you in Christ Jesus." If I am in the refuge of God,
and if He is teaching me His statutes, and if I trust Him
as good, and if I am seeking Him above all else, and if I
am asking Him for good things, and if my life is walking in
harmony with Him, then everything He brings into my life, I say,
Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you, I did not
expect that, but that is part of your plan, and I want that,
and I embrace that, and I yield to you." That's why Paul says,
in everything give thanks, this is God's will, that we be a thank-filled
people. Now keep going to the right,
Hebrews 12.10, you say, does that mean that God's always promised,
sky's always blue, and flowers strewn pathways all my life through,
as the psalm writer put it? No. Hebrews 12.10 says this,
keep going to the right, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 10, He says,
for they, the writer of Hebrews talking about our parents, disciplined
us for a short time as seemed best to them. So that means godly
parents discipline their children. But the end of verse 10, but
He, that's God, disciplines us for good. What happens when we
doubt Him? What happens when we go the wrong way? What happens
when we make wrong choices? What happens when we love ourselves
more than Him? What happens when we aren't trusting Him and we're
doubting Him? He chastens us. You say, really? He chastens
us for our good. He pulls the wheels off of our
life. We crash, we have flat tires. I'm not talking about literal
flat tires, I'm talking about in our life. But all of a sudden
there's this inexplicable resistance, and God is resisting me. That's
His discipline. What's He saying? I want you
to get back on the pathway. I want you to go my way, because
I want to work everything together for good in your life. And He
disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. You see, what this progressive
theology of goodness is, is that goodness, number one, is a refuge
if we'll taste and see the Lord, but He won't withhold anything
if we'll walk uprightly. If we'll learn His statutes,
if we'll ask Him, if we'll let Him work all things together
in our life, and if we'll give thanks in the midst of it, but
when we won't do those things, when we don't let Him, when we
don't listen, when we don't yield, He disciplines us because He
wants us to share in His holiness. Well, to distill all this down,
Satan wants us to doubt the goodness of God. In theological terms,
we could say this, God's goodness can be seen in His mercy, and
that would be His goodness toward people in distress. God is merciful. God's grace is His goodness toward
those who deserve only punishment. That's us, sinners, who come
to Christ. And God's patience is His goodness
toward those who continue to sin. And God is so patient. You know, God told Adam and Eve,
in the day you sin, you'll die. They didn't. He gave them 900. in 50 years. That's his patience. And look at what God's doing
in our world now as people blatantly sin in the face of a holy God.
He's patient because his mercy and his grace are operative.
Well, what should we do in response to God's goodness? Turn back.
Our last Psalm 116. Okay, back to the middle of your
Bible. Psalm 116. I hope it becomes
a friend of yours this morning
if you haven't discovered this psalm. Most people only know
the 15th verse. That's when you read when someone
dies that you love. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. That's when a Christian dies.
But all the rest of the psalm is fabulous, and I'll show it
to you in just a second. But we should respond to God's
goodness by appreciating it. We should count our blessings.
We should not take our natural benefits and endowments and pleasures
for granted. We should thank God for them
all. We shouldn't slight His word. We shouldn't be casual
toward God. Rather, we should reflect. Verse 12. Look at verse 12 of
Psalm 116. What shall I render to the Lord? for all His benefits toward me. The answer, verse 13, I will
take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the
Lord. In other words, I'm going to
drink Him. I'm going to participate in Him. I'm going to bless His
name for saving me. Did you know that's what you're
supposed to do at the Lord's Table? The Lord's Table is not an add-on
to the service that's kind of like, oh yeah, we've got to do
that. The Lord's Table is a literal worship, experience. In the tabernacle,
this table of showbread, which had unleavened bread like our
communion bread, that showbread was called the bread of the face.
And the priests would come in and stand on one side of the
table, and God was on the other. And so when you're coming to
the Lord's table, you're literally coming in God is sitting on one
side of this table and you're sitting on the other. And God
is meeting with you for a meal. And what does He want from you?
He wants you to render thanks. He wants you to, verse 13, call
on His name. Drink of Him. Thank Him for what
He has done. That's not all. Look at verse
14. He wants us not only to drink Him in worshiping His salvation,
but verse 14, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of
all His people. He wants us to obey Him. Keep our word to Him. If you said you're going to meet
with Him, meet with Him. If you say you're going to give your life
to Him, give your life to Him. Obey Him. Look at verse 16. O Lord,
truly I am your servant. He wants us to serve Him. Verse
17, I'll offer you the sacrifice at Thanksgiving. He wants us
to be thankful. Verse 18, I'll pay my vows to
the Lord in the presence of His people. He wants us to live every
day walking before His sight. He sees us. And how does He do
that? Well, it says in verse Kind of
what is in all of our hearts. Look at Psalm 116, verse 8. You
have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears. I no longer
am sad, thinking my life is worthless. I'm not restless. I don't doubt
why you made me. My feet from falling. We're more
than conquerors through Christ. Therefore, I will walk before
the Lord in the land of the living. What does he want us to do? He
wants us to follow him. So we follow Him, we obey Him, we serve
Him, we thank Him, we live in His sight, all as we drink this
cup that reminds us of our salvation. Are you doubting God's goodness?
You doubt God's goodness when you don't come to Him for refuge,
when you don't learn His ways, when you don't walk in His ways,
when you don't thank Him for how He made you and where He
has led you, and when you don't yield to Him the reins of your
life and say, I want your way more than my own. Teach me your
way. I will walk in it. No good thing will you withhold
from me if I walk that way.
Doubting God
Series Paradise Lost – From Creation
Satan is in an all out attack to make you and me doubt, reject and become deafened to the voice of Jesus. We are not listening to the voice of Jesus when we think wrongly about God! Will you listen to that voice? Adam and Eve chose to not listen to God.
Instead of following God obediently in Paradise, Adam and Eve listened to the Devil, doubted God, disobeyed God's Word, fell into sin, and Paradise was lost. Please look with me at Rev 12:7-11
| Sermon ID | 1404161411 |
| Duration | 31:04 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Genesis 3 |
| Language | English |
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