“THE GOODNESS OF GOD” Titus 3:4 –  But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,   God has shown His kindness and love to man by sending His Son Jesus Christ to suffer and die for man.  When we were enemies of God He cared so much that He sent the very best heaven had to offer, so that we could be changed.  So that we could be His people. It is very humbling to consider the blessing poured upon us daily by God.  No one person can fully describe all the things God does for us each day.   In the Book of Psalms, David uses the phrase, “His mercy endureth forever,” approximately 32 times.   The mercy of the Lord does endure.  That does not mean that nothing can terminate it.  Unless a person complies with the terms of God’s mercy he will not receive it at all.  But as long as those conditions are met, the Lord never fails in his mercy toward man.  The fact that man can be redeemed is proof of the mercy of God.   When one complies with the conditions and terms set forth by the Lord.  One must believe in Christ, that believe will lead one to repentance, which will in turn lead one to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then that individual must be baptized for the remission of their sins, then the Lord will add that person to His Church. We should be deeply grateful for God’s grace and mercy because we are prone to mistakes.  We must never become so self-satisfied that we feel we are above are mistakes. There are two conditions that must be met before forgiveness can be given. I. Is acknowledging that we have sinned and repenting of it. John warns us in I John 1:8 –  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.   We cannot deceive ourselves into denying that there is not sin in our lives from time to time.  None of us are above sin, when have this attitude we are leading ourselves astray.  Self-deception is the worst kind of deception because it is so hard to overcome.  When we are deceived by others, the truth often comes out; but when one is self-deceived, he is so involved in his own deception that the truth is hard to accept.   Paul said in Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;   The wonderful thing is that God, in His grace and mercy will forgive us.  There is no difference between any of us, we have all have sinned.  Our actions reflect the kind of person we are and who we are trying to imitate, or trying to be like.  Paul calls man in I Corinthians 11:7 “the image and glory of God.”    Ephesians 5:8 –   For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:  We were once in darkness, but we have been “called out of darkness, into His marvelous light.”  I Peter 2:9.  Because of that, a transformation must take place in our lives.  The glory of God should be reflected by our growing and loving and knowing more about Him and His Son.        We live with the influence of a crooked and perverse group of individuals all around us.  By the goodness of God we have a way in which we can live blameless life that will be one that follows Jesus who is the “light of the world.”  John 8:12.  Thus making us a “light that shines forth through all the darkness that is around us. However, His forgiveness is conditional.  For those who never obeyed the gospel of Christ your efforts to ask God for forgiveness are in vain.  But for those who are children of God, who have been added to the Church; forgiveness is possible.   John says in I John 1:9 –  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Sin will rob us of our relationship with God.  We cannot deny the presence of sin in our lives, our attitude should be one of repentance and confession.  It is a constant action, the person who is trying to walk in the light will acknowledge his sin before God when he is aware of it and will resolve to try to change his actions.  If we do not come clean before the Lord He will not forgive us.  In the Scriptures God reveals sin for what it is.  When we commit a sin we should own up to it, admit it, and confess it to God.  When God forgives our sins, He dismisses them from His mind and removes their guilt from our lives.  He forgives and forgets.   Here is where we sometimes fall short; sometimes we like to deal in generalities, we cannot do that when we are trying to acknowledge to God that we have sinned.  We need to say, “Lord, I have done this or that and I know it is wrong, forgive me.”   We must face the facts.  When Paul wrote, “Recompense to no man evil for evil.” “ Provide things honest in the sight of all men.” (Romans12:17).  That also means to be honest with ourselves.   Daniel wrote in Daniel 9:20 –  And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;   Here is this great man of God confessing his sins.  God knows what we’ve done, so we should face it and admit it.   That is one condition for forgiveness. II. We must forgive others of sinning against us. This condition was given by our Lord in Matthew 6:14 –  For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: God can set conditions for forgiveness, we cannot.  We are to forgive those who despitefully use us, persecute us, and speak evil of us.  That is without them asking.  Humble submission to God’s will is mandatory if we seek justification. Jesus gave a very pointed message in Luke 18:10-14 –  Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Arrogance, pride and stubbornness have no place in the heart of a Christian.  We must see ourselves as we really are. After we have faced ourselves with our sins and short comings, and admitted them, do not go off on some sort of guilt trip.  There is work that must be done.  There is no advantage in beating ourselves up over something we have done  or something that we should not have.  If God forgives and forgets, so should we, not only others, but ourselves also.   Get in there and “fight the good fight of faith.”    If we think we have bad things in our memory, think about the apostle Paul.  He said in I Corinthians 15:9 –  For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. He also said in I Timothy 1:15 – This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Again in Ephesians 3:8 he said, “ Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;” Talk about looking back on your personal error.  He said he was exceeding mad against the Church and its members, he left Jerusalem to after Christians and put them to death.  Although God forgave Paul and forgot what he had done Paul never forgot his terrible sin.  But, Paul did not let it get him down, he proceeded on after his conversion with a zeal and desire for the cause of Christ that had no equal.   After Paul had said that he was the least of the apostles, not worthy to called an apostle, he said in I Corinthians 15: 10 –  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. The kindness that God bestowed on him was not deserved by him, but by it, he is what he is.  Paul determined to show that the kindness and grace God showed him was not in vain.  It was not fruitless or without effect.  That is why Paul labored, he worked harder than the other apostles.  Paul willing admitted his personal inferiority to the other apostles; however he is not going to make a similar admission about his work for the Lord. Paul never boasted about his efforts, he always gave the Lord the glory and honor for what he was able to accomplish.  For what the Lord had done and was doing for Paul he felt like he could not do enough for the Lord.   That is the way we should feel also.    Paul wrote to the young evangelist Timothy and said in I Timothy 1:12-16 –  And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; 13. Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 15. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 16. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Paul was true to his convictions and his conscience was clear.  He considered it an honor to serve God.  Paul did not try to conceal his wrongs, he was open and free to confess his wrongs.   This shows that no matter what one may have done, the Lord will forgive us of it it we will come to Him on His terms, and continue to live a faithful life.  Just as Paul was grateful and full of joy for the mercy and grace that was shown to him by the Lord; that same grace and mercy and kindness is there for all of us if we will take advantage of it on God’ s terms.   we cannot do enough for God,  for all that He has done and does each day for us.  Each day we need assess our lives and if there is something in it that should not be we should want to rid ourselves of it as quick as possible.  Job expressed the proper attitude in Job 42:6 –  Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Each of us our on a journey, for the journey will a long one, and for others it will a short one.  It will be a journey no matter how long or short filled with victories and defeats.   We cannot give up until we have reached the goal.   Paul makes the point that he never gave up and that Christians should never quit, never get tried or weary in serving the Lord. Philippians 3:13-14 – Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul saw the Christian life as a runner running a race and he tries to get the brethren to see in the same light.  He never lost sight of the goal which was eternal life, a home in heaven.  His mind was focused on one thing, and nothing would divert his attention from the course he has set out to follow.  Just as a runner as he runs the race and stay concentrated on reaching the finish line; he cannot not continue to dwell on the part of the race he has already completed.  His focus must be on what lies ahead.  We cannot dwell our sinfulness before we became a Christian or let our success , our failures as a Christian hinder our efforts to continue to race to the prize.   Paul also describes his effort as one that is always “reaching forth.”  Which illustrates the intense desire for reaching the finish line.  A personal exertion and intense focus to achieve the goal.  Every Christian needs to have that same determination.  The term “pressing forward” is another strong indicator that Paul is still in the race, he has not reached the finish line.   We are not the race just to be in it, we are in the race to complete it.  So ones effort must be with a purpose, it cannot be a haphazard effort.  The prize is one of “high calling” which means it comes from heaven.  The great hope that sustained Paul and should sustain us is salvation.   I Corinthians 9:24 –  Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. Paul describes the Christian life as race and he encourages Christians to work hard all the time so that they will receive a reward.  In training for a sporting event the participants must be willing to sacrifice certain things in order to be properly conditioned to compete.  The Christian life is one of preparation and participation.  One difference between and a sporting event is that only one person wins first place but in the Christian life, everyone who finishes the race receives the same prize. Do not let anything get in your way from making it to the finish line where you can receive your prize.  It is not worth the cost. Hebrews 12:1-2 – Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.      Is there something in your life that is hindering you from running the race as you should?  By the goodness of God we can get rid of that weight if we will go to Him and admit our shortcomings and ask for His forgiveness.   If you are not speaking terms with God, get on the right track, obey the gospel and then your prayers will be heard.