Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)

In this section of his letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul wrote as if speaking to those who have generally moral lives, yet don’t think they need the salvation only God can give. They think that because they are better morally than many people, they can be good enough to earn a right standing with God.

Paul points out that this generally moral person presumes upon the goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering of God, which all should bring the moralist into a humble repentance instead of an attitude of superiority.

Goodness may be considered God’s kindness to us regarding our past sin. He has been good to us because He has not judged us yet though we deserve it.

Forbearance may be considered God’s kindness to us regarding our present sin. This very day – indeed, this very hour – we have fallen short of His glory, yet He holds back His judgment against us.

Longsuffering may be considered God’s kindness to us regarding our future sin. He knows that we will sin tomorrow and the next day, yet He holds back His judgment against us.

Considering all this, it is no surprise that Paul describes these three aspects of God’s kindness to us as God’s riches. Strangely, these riches of God’s goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering are despised by many people.

Sometimes people think of these as examples of weakness in God. They say things like “If there is a God in heaven, let Him strike me dead!” When it doesn’t happen, they will say, “See, I told you there was no God.” Men misinterpret God’s forbearance and longsuffering as His approval, and they refuse to repent.

Knowing how great God’s kindness is, it is a great sin to presume upon the graciousness of God, and we easily come to believe that we deserve it.

God’s purpose in all this goodness is to lead us to repentance. Wise men and women see the riches of God’s forbearance and longsuffering and understand:

– God has been better to them than they deserve.
– God has shown them kindness when they have ignored Him.
– God has shown them kindness when they have mocked Him.
– God is not a cruel master and they may safely surrender to Him.
– God is perfectly willing to forgive them.
– God should be served out of simple gratitude.

All this should lead us to faith and repentance, instead of presuming that God will forever hold back His judgment.

Are you waiting for God to drive you to repentance? He doesn’t work like that; God leads you to repentance. Don’t despise the riches of His goodness to you. Instead, regard every new day as a generous gift from God, giving humanity more time to repent from their sin and trust in Him as Creator and Redeemer.

O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the LORD. (Isaiah 2:5)

The first four verses of Isaiah 2 paint a beautiful picture of the glory of the coming reign of the Messiah. These wonderful promises tell us that during the reign of the Messiah, there will be no more war. Conflicts between nations and individuals will be justly and decisively resolved by the Messiah and those who reign with Him. When the Messiah reigns Israel will be exalted, the people of the earth will acknowledge and submit to the Messiah, and war will be no more.

After painting this wonderful picture of the glory of the Messiah’s reign, Isaiah then challenged the people of God to live in the Messiah’s reign right now. Instead of waiting for a coming golden age, the prophet tells us to come and walk in the light of the LORD.

To walk in the light of the LORD means to order your life after God’s truth and God’s ways. The ultimate reign of the Messiah may be many years away, but Jesus can reign in our lives, in our minds, and in our hearts right now. We don’t have to wait for the enforced righteousness of a millennial kingdom to have the blessing of Jesus’ righteousness in our lives right now.

To walk in the light of the LORD means you enjoy the blessings of the Messiah’s reign right now. You don’t have to live a dark, depressing, discouraged life with God. You can walk in the light of the LORD!

We can make a mental list of all the things in our life that get us down or seem to bring darkness into our life. We can think of the damaged relationships, the money problems, the unrewarded effort, the spiritual dryness. Yet when we think of these things that get us down or seem to bring darkness in our life, what can they compare to the light of the LORD? Is the darkness of spiritual attack, of unfaithful friends, of bad circumstances, of shame, of guilt, of anything greater than the light of the LORD?

Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of Victorian England, saw in this passage a promise of a life lived with God that was full of light and blessing instead of darkness and gloom. The opportunity to walk in the light of the LORD was open to all, but sadly not all take the opportunity.

Spurgeon said it like this: “You know that, if you were to go to Australia in a good sound ship, you would get there even if you were always to lie down in the hold among the luggage and the rats; but I should like to go in a first-class cabin, and I do not see why you and I, if we are going to heaven, should not go first-class.”

Today, you can head towards your heavenly destiny going first class – as you walk in the light of the LORD.

Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island. (Acts 27:25-26)

Some two years before this, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem on the false charge that he had started a riot on the temple mount. In Roman custody, Paul eventually took his right as a Roman citizen and made an appeal to have his case heard by Caesar.

That meant Paul had to go to Rome, and the ship carrying him was caught in a terrible storm. For two weeks the ship was driven on the violent, storm-tossed waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The passengers and crew lost all hope and waited for the worst.

All of them – except for the Apostle Paul. During the literal storm, God sent an angel to Paul to bring good, encouraging news when all else seemed hopeless. Through the angel, God told Paul to put away fear and be confident that he would make it to Rome. God also promised Paul that everyone on the ship would survive.

Paul couldn’t keep this hope to himself. He had to pass it on. That’s when Paul spoke to all the passengers and crew and said, Therefore take heart. It was as if he said, “You have reason to take heart – God has given me assurance of your safety, and I believe God.”

Paul explained, I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. Paul’s confident words express the essence of what it means to put our faith in God and His word. God said it to Paul (through an angel) and Paul said, “I believe God.”

Paul didn’t say, “I believe in God.” Every demon in hell agrees with the existence of God. Paul declared his total confidence in God’s knowledge of his crisis and God’s promise in his situation.

Paul was not ashamed to say that he believed God, and he believed God when there was nothing else to believe. He couldn’t believe the sailors, the ship, the sails, the wind, the centurion, human ingenuity, or anything else – only God. This was not a fair-weather faith; he believed God amid the storm when circumstances were at their worst.

Paul’s unshakable confidence in God made him a leader among men, even though he was a prisoner.

Yet, Paul also told them the truth from God: we must run aground on a certain island. This was mixed news, and in these circumstances to run aground might be fairly called to shipwreck. Paul essentially said, “We’re all going to shipwreck on an unknown island, but everyone will be alright.”

God didn’t promise Paul, the crew, or the passengers an easy journey. It would be rough, but God would be with them and they would make it.

Today, can you hear God make the same kind of promise to you? Jesus promised to be with you until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Take that promise and say, “I believe God.”

So Paul said, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged… I appeal to Caesar.” (Acts 25:10-11)

It was a complicated situation.

Paul was held in Roman custody in the coastal city of Caesarea, waiting for a trial over a crime he didn’t commit, based on false accusations from those who hated Paul and the gospel of Jesus he preached.

When Paul was first put in custody, the Roman governor was Felix, who was eventually replaced by Festus. Felix was happy to delay the proceedings, hoping for bribes. When Festus came, he wanted to have a trial and resolve the matter regarding Paul.

When it was time for the trial, Paul faced powerful and corrupt adversaries. They wanted to have the trial in Jerusalem instead of Caesarea, knowing there was a secret plot to assassinate Paul on the way to Jerusalem.

Acts 25 doesn’t make it clear if Paul knew about this plot against his life. Whether he knew or not, God guided Paul to appeal to his right as a Roman citizen to be tried by Caesar in Rome. When Paul said, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged…I appeal to Caesar” perhaps it was through supernatural knowledge, or perhaps through God-given common sense and deduction. One way or another, Paul demanded to stand trial before Caesar.

Rightly and wisely, Paul wanted to avoid martyrdom if he could. He wasn’t afraid to face the lions, but he didn’t want to put his head in a lion’s mouth if he could avoid it.

It was the right of every Roman citizen to have his case heard by Caesar himself, after initial trials and appeals failed to reach a satisfactory decision. This was in effect an appeal to the supreme court of the Roman Empire.

Paul’s appeal made sense. He was convinced that the evidence was on his side and that he could win in a fair trial. Paul appealed specifically to Caesar Nero, who was later a notorious enemy of Christians. But the first five years of his reign, under the influence of good men around him, Nero was regarded as a wise and just ruler. Paul had no reason at this time to believe that Nero would be anti-Christian.

I am fascinated by the fact that there were times when Paul refused to appeal to his rights. In Philippi, Paul could have stated his Roman citizenship much sooner and saved a lot of suffering (Acts 16:19-24). Paul had the right to be supported by the churches he served, but often gave up that right (1 Corinthians 9:3-7).

Yet there were times when Paul stood on his rights, such as here and in Acts 22:25-26.

We should be grateful for the rights given to us by God, and even more grateful if our government recognizes some of those rights. We should also pray for the Spirit-led discernment to know when to stand on our rights, and when to give them up.

But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.” (Acts 23:11)

This must have been a difficult night for Paul. His greatest desire was to see the salvation of his fellow Jews (Romans 9:1-4), and two great opportunities to present the gospel to large and influential groups among the Jews had come to nothing.

It was in the darkness of that night when the fears came upon Paul; when his trust in God seemed to falter; when he worried about what God was going to do and if he was going to make it. It was in the darkness of that night that Jesus came to Paul and stood by him.

Paul was alone, but he wasn’t alone; if everyone else forsook him, Jesus was enough. Better to be in jail with the Lord than to be in heaven without him. Paul had been miraculously delivered from jail cells before; but this time, the Lord met him right in the jail cell.

We often demand that Jesus deliver us out of our circumstances when He wants to meet us right in them. We sometimes think we are surrendering to Jesus when we are only demanding an escape. God wants to meet us in whatever we face now.

Jesus was not only with Paul; He gave him words of comfort. The words be of good cheer tell us that the night brought with it an emotional and perhaps spiritual darkness upon Paul. Jesus was there to cheer His faithful servant after he had spent himself for Jesus’ sake.

Anyone can be of good cheer when everything is great; but the Christian can be of good cheer when everything is rotten, knowing that God is mighty and wonderful no matter what the crisis of the moment.

Paul could have been discouraged about the lack of results from the sermon in Jerusalem. But the results were not his responsibility. His responsibility was to bring the Word of God and to testify of Jesus; the results were God’s responsibility. You have testified for Me in Jerusalem means that Jesus complimented Paul on a job well done.

Yet, though Paul had done a good job, there was more to do. Rome was Paul’s next assignment. The greatest words a faithful child of God can hear are “There is more for you to do.” Those words grieve the lazy servant but bring joy to a faithful servant.

It can be said to every child of God: There is more for you to do. More people to bring to Christ, more ways for you to glorify Him, more people to pray with, more humble ways to serve His people, more hungry people to feed, more needy people to clothe, more weary saints for you to encourage.

Today, receive the encouragement Jesus has for you – then continue with His ongoing purpose for you.