If Only We Knew How Good God Is (Pt.2) (352) - May 30 2026

We began last week to talk about reflecting on how Good God is, and how Good He is to us, in the face of us rebelling against Him as we trace back our original lineage to Adam and Eve and the decision that day at the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil, to reject the Lord and obey the devil (Genesis 3:6). This was the great fall of mankind, and the earth fell with us because we had been given dominion over it, and we gave it over to Satan in the great mistake.

All babies born to this day and until Christ returns are born from that polluted lineage, fallen in nature, growing up selfish, and committing various forms of wickedness because we were following after our father the devil. John 8:44 shows us that we had his characteristics. The decision that tragic day caused a huge chasm to form between us and our loving, Mercidul, Graceful, Holy, Great, Glorious, Forgiving, Creator.

This program covers the following Scriptures from the Amplified Classic version (AMPC): Lamentations 3:22–23, Isaiah 30:18, Psalm 103:1-13, Romans 10:9, 1 Peter 1:3,  1 Peter 1:19, Ephesians 2:4–6, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:5, Romans 5:1-3.

Transcript

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) And a good day to you. This is Pastor Marc Whelan with Touch of God, and it's great to have you here. Welcome along this week. Lord, we thank you for being here. We invite you here, Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We welcome you. We invite you to spend with us, Lord, these next 30 minutes or so. And we ask, Lord, that you reveal your truth through this teaching, through your scriptures. And Lord, we thank you for speaking to our hearts. We thank you for revealing your steps on the path that you have set before us. As we trust in you with all our heart, lean not to our own understanding, but in all our ways, acknowledge you so that you can direct our paths. We thank you, Lord, for Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6. Thank you for that path that you've blessed before us. For those of us who are your children, your sons and daughters, we are blessed to be the righteousness of Christ in you. And Lord, we thank you for ordering the footsteps of the righteous. We thank you for ordering our footsteps on the path that you have planned for us since before the foundation of the earth, that we may walk with you, that we may follow your Holy Spirit and be obedient to your statutes, to your commandments, to your leading of your spirit. Thank you for showing us if we are missing it, if we are veering off your path, Lord. And we bless you, Lord, this day for being so beautiful, wonderful, merciful, graceful, forgiving, and loving. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, we began last week reflecting on how good God is and how good he is to us. In the face of us rebelling against him, as we trace back our original lineage to Adam and Eve and the decision that day at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, to reject the Lord. What was that decision? It was to reject the Lord and obey the devil. As it says in Genesis 3, verse 6, where Eve ate of the fruit of that tree, and so did Adam, that the Lord warned them not to touch. This was the great fall of mankind and the earth fell with us because we had been given dominion over the earth and we gave it over to Satan in that great mistake. You see, all babies born to this day and until Christ returns are born from that polluted lineage, fallen in nature, growing up selfish and committing various forms of wickedness because we were following after our father the devil and his characteristics. Even Jesus teaches on this in John chapter 8, verse 44. The decision that tragic day caused a huge chasm to form between us and our loving, merciful, graceful, holy, great, glorious, forgiving creator. We were touching on the book of Lamentations last week and I just wanted to repeat those two verses in chapter 3, verses 22 and 23. It says, It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving kindness that we are not consumed, because his tender compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great and abundant is your stability and faithfulness. Now we know that the word consumed according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary means to do away with completely, to destroy. So it is because of the Lord's mercy and loving kindness that we the human race are not done away with completely and destroyed because and only because the Lord's tender compassions fail not. As we look in the Old Testament at the book of Isaiah chapter 30, verse 18, it says, And therefore the Lord earnestly waits, expecting, looking, and longing to be gracious to you. And therefore he lifts himself up that he may have mercy on you and show loving kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed, happy, fortunate to be envied are all those who earnestly wait for him, who expect and look and long for him, for his victory, his favor, his love, his peace, his joy, and his matchless, unbroken companionship. Wow, this is amazing that the Lord waits and longs to be gracious to you, expectantly looking for you and I, waiting for that relationship through Christ Jesus. In Psalm chapter 103, verses 1 to 13, verse 1 says, Bless, affectionately, gratefully praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is deepest within me, bless his holy name. Remember that we are reading out of the Amplified Classic Version of the Bible, so some of the verses you will be familiar with, but some of the words that are in addition to what you remember are because the Amplified Classic Version expands on the scripture, whilst remaining accurate to the original texts. Verse 2, bless, affectionately gratefully praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not one of all his benefits. Verse 3, who forgives every one of all your iniquities, who heals each one of all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercy, who satisfies your mouth, your necessity and desire at your personal age and situation with good, so that your youth renewed is like the eagle's, strong, overcoming, soaring. Verse 6, the Lord executes righteousness and justice, not for me only, but for all who are oppressed. Verse 7, he made known his ways of righteousness and justice to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and loving kindness. He will not always chide or be contending, neither will he keep his anger forever or hold a grudge. He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. See, that was verse 10. The Lord has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. The Lord has not punished you for something you did wrong. He punished Jesus for something you did wrong. But only if you receive Jesus as Lord and confess those sins to the Lord will he forgive you those sins and cleanse you of all unrighteousness according to 1 John 1 verse 9. You see, the blood of Jesus has paid for all humanity to choose Jesus to receive eternal life through his shed blood, through the forgiveness of sins. But not all of humanity will come to the cross and receive the free gift of eternal life by making Jesus their Lord. Many will continue to reject Jesus to their last breath, and they will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. So if you're wondering why things are happening to you, it's not the Lord doing it to you. You are sowing and reaping what you sowed. Or there is an all-out demonic attack against you through someone else that is an enemy that the devil is using to get to you. But if you have a relationship with the Lord Jesus, according to what Jesus said, as recorded in Luke chapter 10 verse 19, nothing shall by any means hurt you because you are able to trample over serpents and scorpions and trample over all the ability, the power of the enemy. If you have a relationship with Jesus and you're seeking him and not the things of the world, if you're walking according to the Spirit, there should be nothing that the devil has in you. So the devil has no right to you because you are the Lord's and you are focused on keeping Jesus your Lord every single day. Seek the Lord for understanding. Seek the Lord for deliverance. Seek a minister who knows how to perform deliverance, to cast out demons, who is simply believing what Jesus told us in the Bible to do, to cast out demons. Seek the Lord. Get understanding. Seek him in prayer. Seek him in the secret place in your home or wherever there is a secret place and a quiet place and have conversations with the Lord and listen to your heart for his reply. The Lord also speaks through other means, through nature. Later in the day you see a sign on the street that is actually the answer to the question you had. The Lord is able to speak to you through different ways, but you have to be observant and listen and watch for his voice and for his response. He loves you so much. He wants to help you. All you have to do is give him your whole heart. Don't hold anything back. Let him have all of you because we are able to have all of the Lord. Verse 11, For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great are his mercy and loving kindness toward those who reverently and worshipfully fear him. That fear is a reverential fear, not an anxious fear. We should be fearful of him in a reverential way. That he is the Lord, the Most High God, Almighty God. He is holy. He is righteous. He has a wrath. That wrath is saved up for the sons of disobedience. I pray that that is not you. If you are currently a son of disobedience, if you are not knowing of the Lord, if you are not seeking the Lord, if you do not have the Lord as your Savior, all you have to do is believe that God raised him from the dead. Decide and make a decision for the Lord. Start confessing Jesus as Lord and say, Jesus, please help me. Please guide me. And you make a change. You repent. You change from south to north, which way you are facing. The north is the Lord. Turn away from every other direction and face due north. And remember, there is 360 degrees on the compass and true north is only one degree. It is zero degrees or 360. 358 or three degrees is the north. The east is not focusing on Jesus. Focusing on Jesus is true north. Verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. If you are still wondering about your past, the Lord has already removed your past and your transgressions from you. Further than the east is from the west, which is a long way. So if he has removed it, then there is nothing there for you to dwell on anymore. Focus on today, however few we have left on this earth before the Lord returns or we utter our last breath. But seek the Lord. Confess Jesus as your Lord. Have this beautiful relationship with him that he so painfully suffered for because the Father so loved you. Verse 13, as a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear him with reverence, worship and awe. You see now through the resurrection power of Christ Jesus and his finished works through the tree at Calvary, we can open our fallen heart to the Lord and ask for his rescue from sin, sickness and death, all of which he has conquered through his shed blood. Romans chapter 10 verse 9 says, because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe, adhere to, trust in and rely on the truth that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3, praised, honored, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah. By his boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 19 says, but you were purchased with the precious blood of Christ the Messiah like that of a sacrificial lamb without blemish or spot. Remember the Bible says that we are not our own, we have been bought with a price and that price was the precious blood of the Son of the living God, Christ Jesus the Messiah who has never done anything wrong but took our wrongs on him that we may receive eternal life and forgiveness of sins and become a new creation. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 to 6 verse 4, but God so rich is he in his mercy because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which he loved us, even when we were dead slain by our own shortcomings and trespasses, he made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ. Remember the word made, he made us alive, we don't have to come alive, we don't have to wake up to be alive, he made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ, he gave us the very life of Christ himself, the Bible says here, the same new life with which he quickened him for it is by grace, his favor and mercy which you did not deserve that you are saved, delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation. You see this is why I really like the Amplified Classic version of the Bible, you get these extra words that help you understand the meaning of the verse. So if you have any doubt as to what it means, the Amplified Classic really helps that. You may have a favorite version that's not the Amplified Classic and that's completely fine, as long as you understand the meaning. But if you are still struggling with certain words in the Bible and you think this is what the word means, but you're not 100% sure, yes you can look at the commentaries of biblical scholars, theologians, and get their opinions, but even some commentaries conflict with each other and sometimes there's a consensus and sometimes there's not. So lean on the Amplified Classic version or the normal Amplified and ask the Holy Spirit every time before you start reading the word of God, ask the Holy Spirit to show you and teach you and help you understand what it means. And for those of you who are baptized in the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues, which is completely biblical, I recommend that you speak in tongues for a short while before you read the word of God because it will sharpen your spiritual senses and you will be able to discern a little easier what the Bible is meaning. Verse 5, Even when we were dead, slain by our own shortcomings and trespasses, he made us alive together. The word he there is the Father. He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ. He gave us the very life of Christ himself. You see, you didn't get some 50% version of the life of Jesus. You got the very life of Christ himself, the same new life with which he quickened him, the Father quickened Jesus. For it is by grace, his favor and mercy, which you did not deserve that you are saved, delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation. Made partakers, not offered, but made partakers of Christ's salvation. The Lord offers his free gift of Christ's salvation. All we have to do is make a decision with our own free will that was given by God for us to make choices in our life and decisions. To make a decision for Jesus, to change from wickedness in the darkness, from serving Satan, knowingly or unknowingly, to serving the Lord Jesus, to seeking him, to receiving and confessing him as our Savior and our Lord. Because 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 also has another benefit of being saved by the Lord, being partakers of Christ's salvation. It says, therefore, if any person is engrafted in Christ the Messiah, which by the way, all born again believers are, we are all engrafted in, as Paul explained, he is, he the person, is a new creation, a new creature altogether. The old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come. Amen. So you are no longer the person you used to be. You are a new creation. You say, yes, I look in the mirror, it's the same old me, and I still remember doing those bad things that I used to do. And to some extent, you might say that you're still doing some of those things and you're struggling. Well, first of all, the old self has passed away. The old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away according to verse 17 in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. So it's just as though your old self went back to the dust. And now you are brand new. You have a brand new regenerated spirit undeservingly from the Lord. Now your mind is still the same. You still have the same mind, will, and emotions. But as time goes on in the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, you will find that as you spend time with the Lord, your heart doesn't feel the same. It feels like a burden has been lifted, that you don't have a desire to do wickedness anymore. Yes, the devil will still tempt you and I, but if we are obedient to Christ, we should be in the word of God, seeking the Lord in the secret place every day, worshipping him, thanking him for protection from darkness, from evil temptations. And the Bible says that even if we are tempted, we're not tempted by God, for he cannot be tempted. But we are tempted by evil. But we still have the ability to say no to every temptation. Just because you're tempted doesn't mean that you've sinned. It means that you've been tempted to sin, but it's only if you go through with that temptation that you then are in sin. So no condemnation, amen, for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, as it says in Romans chapter 8 verse 1 and 2. Verse 6 of Ephesians chapter 2 says this, And he, the Father, raised us up together with him, Jesus, and made us sit down together, giving us joint seating with him in the heavenly sphere, by virtue of our being in Christ Jesus, the Messiah, the Anointed One. And 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 says, Therefore, if any person is engrafted in Christ the Messiah, he is a new creation, a new creature altogether. The old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come. So you're brand new. You may have the same mind, but what you need to do is to renew your mind by reading the Word, so that you are transformed. Accept the truth of the Word of God and be who God says you are, and you will live in the fullness of who God created you to be. And you will be transformed in your thinking, in your being, by what you think and what you understand to be the truth, which is the Scripture. It's God's will, not our will, amen. So even while we are a new creation, we still have issues. We may be new in spirit, but we are not completely transformed yet in our soul, our mind, will, and emotion. Our soul is a work in progress to the degree we want to read the Bible and accept it as truth and live it out. You can give your life to Jesus, receive eternal life with the Lord in Christ, not read the Bible and never really be truly transformed, but you may get to heaven. But I say may because the Bible also says that Jesus was saying, there are many who say, Lord, Lord, haven't we done great and mighty works in your name? And then he says that he will tell them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. So we need to know the Lord. It should be a joy to have a relationship with the one who created you. And we want the Lord to know us, not so that we escape hell, but because we need to see that this relationship has so much potential. The one true relationship with the Creator that needs to be explored, it needs to be enjoyed. The Lord will show you great and mighty things that you know not. Titus chapter 3 verse 5 says, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of his own pity and mercy by the cleansing bath of the new birth, regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. You see, we cannot be saved by our own works. As much as we think if we do right and we give to charity, nothing can come up to the level of expectation of the Lord to be able to enter heaven without Jesus, without being in Christ first. Because we were fallen, and even though we may be saved now, our mind is still to a certain degree at enmity, at odds with the Lord. Even after being saved, there is still a part of our mind that's carnal, and a part of our mind that's renewed to the truth of the Word of God. The Lord does not change your mind, he changed your spirit. He renewed your spirit at the new birth, but he did not renew your mind. He will renew your mind when you decide that you want to renew your mind, and you read the Word, and the Word itself will renew and transform you. Because whom the Son sets free is free indeed, and the Son is Jesus, and Jesus is the Word, and he is the way, the truth, and the life. Romans chapter 5 verses 1 to 3. Therefore, since we are justified, acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God through faith, let us grasp the fact that we have the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. Through him also, we have our access, entrance, introduction, by faith, into this grace, state of God's favor, in which we firmly and safely stand. And let us rejoice and exult in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the glory of God. Verse 3. Moreover, let us also be full of joy now. Let us exult and triumph in our troubles, and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. Lord, we thank you for your scriptures today. We thank you for your sacrifice for us. We thank you so much for transforming us from who we were to who you always saw us becoming through your grace, your mercy, and the sacrifice of your Son Jesus. Father, we lift your holy name up high. We bless you. We thank you for your sacrifice. Help us understand this truth. Help us realize who we now are in you. Help us hear your voice when we spend time with you in the day and in the nighttime hours. Lord, today I thank you for touching and delivering those who need deliverance and those who need restoration of their physical body. I command all sickness and disease to be gone from those who are sick. We thank you, Lord, for paying by your stripes for new body parts to replace harmed body parts. We thank you, Lord, that there shall be no one dying short of their time. They shall live and not die in your name, Lord Jesus. We bless you today for your almighty power resident within them, resident within those who believe in you. We give you the praise and honor and glory in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. All right. If you would like us to pray for you, we would love to hear from you. Get to our website by going to touchofgod.world. That's touchofgod.world and tapping on the button that says send prayer request. So until next week, you have a blessed week. Amen.