The Goodness of God (04/28/2002) | NOTE: Intermittent tape malfunctions throughout recording

Before we go there, though, I want to take you through some scriptures. We've been talking about the sensibility of God, studying the character of God lately.

We've talked about the holiness of God, the justice of God, the love of God.

Today we will talk about the goodness of God, and next time we'll talk about the truth of God.

Those five things fit under the study of the sensibility of God, the fact that he has an emotional aspect.

We are created in his image. It's no accident that we are people of emotions.

God is that way, therefore that's why we're that way. So let's have a word of prayer and we'll begin this morning.

Father, we thank you so much for your

Holy Spirit who lives within us. It is your way of walking in us and with us each moment of our lives once we've come to know the

Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for all that the Lord Jesus Christ did in his earthly ministry and is doing now as our advocate before you.

We thank you that you gave us to him as a love gift. We thank you this morning as we think of the fact that you are all powerful.

You're the all powerful creator of the universe. We thank you that you are good.

We thank you that the Lord Jesus has revealed your goodness to us and ultimately on the cross.

We pray in his name, amen. To begin a study of the goodness of God, we would have to start in Matthew chapter 19 verse 17.

Some of these other verses, we're going to end up there in the psalm I gave you, but some of these other verses you may like to turn to.

But Matthew chapter 19 and verse 17 is a familiar story to all of you.

You remember that the young man came to Jesus and said, good master, what must

I do to inherit eternal life? Rather than answering the question immediately, Jesus said, why do you call me good?

There is none good but one, that is God. And then he went on to teach the young man.

But the phrase we want to focus in on this morning is this phrase where Jesus himself says there is none good but one, that is

God. It's interesting in the Greek language when you look at this word none, where it says there is none good but one.

The word none is oudais, which means not even one.

Not even one man, woman, or thing, none, nobody, nothing.

It couldn't get any stronger. It's a very strong word in the Greek. So when Jesus said there is not even one other good other than God, he began to give us a definition for the goodness of God.

Although it's very difficult to understand for us because the way our minds think, we learn almost everything by comparison or contrast.

It is interesting as we study the goodness of God that we're going to find contrast even in the goodness of God.

Because for one thing, it's the only way that he could have revealed his goodness to us is to contrast it with evil.

A lot of people, novices, brand new baby Christians or else people who don't know the

Lord and don't plan to know him and don't want to know him, will ask the question, how can

God, if he's good, let all these bad things happen? Well a study through the

Bible of the goodness of God will answer that question. So we see to begin with that there is none good but one.

It is not so much that God is not at all that God strives to be good or that God has goodness or does good things.

It is that God is good. Acts chapter 10 verse 38, we look at this record of history because Jesus in Matthew 19, 17 said there is none good but one.

Why do you call me good? Well Acts chapter 10 verse 38 gives us the reason that we do call

Jesus good. It says how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him, we might add, and God is good.

So when God is with us, we do good. Might be a little rabbit trail we could chase there.

Let's look and see if we can think of a definition of good with respect to the goodness of God.

Sometimes it's easier to say what it's not. The goodness of God is not the absence of evil.

Did you hear what I said? It sounds a little contradictory. But the goodness of God is not the absence of evil, but rather it is the discernment of evil and the avoidance of evil.

You might like to turn with me to Genesis chapter 2 because we're going to read a few verses in these early portions of the

Bible. Genesis chapter 2 verse 9, and out of the ground made the

Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and this very interesting tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now notice it doesn't just say the tree of the knowledge of good. It says the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now I might ask you who created that tree? God. And that's why

I say that goodness, with respect to the goodness of God, is not the absence of evil.

It is the discernment of it and the avoidance of it and the hatred of evil. Because if God created this tree and it was a tree of both the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil, then

God at least knew what evil was, did he not? Therefore he was not in the absence of it.

He merely was in the hatred of it and the avoidance of it. Go into Genesis chapter 3 and let's pursue this a little further and maybe we can learn a little bit more about our

God. He certainly is not the God of America today in the sense that it's taught in many, many churches because in most modern churches the goodness of God is taught as if it is fluff.

It is goody -goody two -shoes, it's ice cream and Sunday school picnics and so forth.

It's as if they would think that God created the tree of the knowledge of good only, not the knowledge of good and evil.

Most modern Americans and people in the world today are not aware of the fact that God is who he is and it's not like we like to define him today.

We don't like to define the side of God that has to do with severity. We like to define the side of God that has to do with goodness and we like to define goodness in our own way and yet we can't because we're faced with the scriptures.

Look at Genesis chapter 3 verse 4, and the serpent, the devil, said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die.

Now God had told Adam that they would die if they ate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Satan comes to her and lies and says you won't really die. Now what basis can he say that to her upon and why does he have any hope of her believing it because Eve had the same problem as the modern church.

She misdefined the goodness of God and Satan comes and tells her what she really wants to hear that God is only a

God of goodness in your definition of goodness. He would never do anything to harm you because the definition of goodness means that he could not and that is how

Satan defines the goodness of God. Satan defines the goodness of God as if it includes no evil and no severity and Eve believed it.

Satan said you shall not surely die because how could a good God kill you?

Doesn't that make sense? From Satan's viewpoint as long as we let him define the words it makes pretty good sense doesn't it?

But let's follow this a little further. He says for God doth know that in the day that you eat thereof your eyes will be opened and you will be as God's knowing good and evil.

Now Satan told Eve that God and notice he says God he opens the idea of the possibility of other gods other than the true

God. This is perhaps the very beginning of idolatry but he goes on and it says and the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise.

She took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.

This particular verse comes into play this afternoon as we speak about the role of women in the church.

I hope you'll all be with us for that. Look at skip down to about verse 22 in chapter 3 of Genesis and the

Lord God said behold the man is become as one of us.

Now you might say it's interesting because God seems to agree with Satan when he says us because Satan said you'll be like the gods knowing good and evil.

God says man is become as one of us to know good and evil. Well it is true that God knew good and evil but it is not true that there are multiple gods because what

God speaks of when he says us is me, myself, and I. He's speaking of the

Holy Spirit, he's speaking of Jesus, and he's speaking of the Father. And he is one

God who subsists as three, the Father, the Son, and the

Holy Spirit. It had to be that way or God couldn't be loved.

You remember studying that last time when we studied the love of God? Love has to have an object and there was a time before God created anything, not even angels.

All that existed as far as we know was God. We can't know much information back beyond that point.

God didn't give it to us but we can hypothesize that there was a time before he created anything when just God existed.

And the Father loved the Son. And the Son of God who is deity was loved by the

Father. So there was love and God had even before anything was made. So that's what

God means when he says they become as one of us. They are like me, they are like my son

Jesus to know good and evil. And the story goes on and we know that they were free of life and partake of that and then live forever in this sinful state which would have been a tragedy for them.

So we see that the goodness of God is not the absence of evil. It is the discernment of it, the hatred of it, and the avoidance of it.

But it's not as if God was ignorant of evil or didn't know about evil. In fact that would be totally ridiculous when you consider that everything that we have had to first come out from God.

There was a time when there was only God. When God created that tree, he created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Satan comes back, tries to define the goodness of God as a goodness that does not include severity or that it cannot include hatred or that it cannot include correction or chastisement or wrath.

Satan says God's not like that. He'd make a pretty good preacher nowadays, wouldn't he? We hear that a lot and yet it's not the truth.

In fact, 2 Samuel 14, 17, you don't need to turn it out. There's just one little phrase I want to give you.

It's really speaking of an earthly king but it is said of this king that he is godlike or godly and look at the definition here of this wise king.

Then thine handmaid said the word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable for as an angel of God, she says you are like an angel of God or a messenger of God.

It could in fact be interpreted you are like the Lord's Messiah, the messenger of God.

So is my lord the king to discern good and bad. The difference between good and bad.

You say well we can all do that. It's not as easy as you think because we live in a world that defines good as bad and bad as good all around us.

For as an angel of God so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. Therefore the

Lord thy God is with thee. The only way he can have that discernment. So we see that God's goodness has the ability to define the difference between that which is evil and that which is good.

Romans chapter 11 in verses 21 and 22.

It speaks of the fact that God's goodness is not the absence of severity.

It actually uses the word for if God spared not the natural branches that would be the

Jews, the Jewish nation. Take heed lest he also spare thee not. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but toward thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness.

Otherwise thou shalt also be cut off. That is a warning to the church today which is predominantly a gentile church.

It is a warning that the church not look at the Jews and say look at them they're total idiots.

No wonder God cast them off. God says be very very careful when you speak that way.

Boast not against the branches it says. But if thou boast thou bearest not the root but the root thee.

In other words he says Israel was my people first. Thou wilt say then the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.

Yes that's true isn't it? Paul taught that that the Jews were broken off and taken into unbelief so that the gentiles might be brought in to the family of God through the

Abrahamic promise. Well because of unbelief they were broken off. And thou standest by faith.

Be not high minded but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not thee.

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God. You see his goodness is not like we like to define it.

His goodness is like one side of the coin and his severity is like the other side of the same coin.

If we use some human examples we can see how that's true. The devil tries to find goodness as a coin with just a head on it and no tail.

We all know that a coin like that is worthless. He says God is just purely goodness which means to you sweetness and the absence of any type of wrath or correction or severity.

That's what Satan says but God says of himself that the other side of the same coin is in fact my severity.

You gentlemen if you were locked in safe and sound in your home late at night and a rapist broke through your front door and came into your home where your wife and your daughters and your sons were and you love your wife and your sons and your daughters with love that God placed in your heart as he made you the husband and their father and you see this man coming in and you know what he will do.

Would it not be love and goodness on your part to be as severe with that man as you could be?

As a matter of fact to take his life and to avoid the danger that he brings to your love and to your goodness.

In fact goodness has always included that type of severity and it does with God as well.

So it is false doctrine and false preaching today when they try to define God in any other way.

Job said if you remember in Job chapter 2 it says that in verse 9

Then said his wife unto him Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die!

You see she had accepted Satan's definition of the goodness of God. She had decided that since evil had come to my husband surely

God doesn't love you surely God is not good therefore curse him and die!

She had been deceived by the same one that Eve was deceived by in the garden. In fact he may have given her the very same message and she believed it again.

Satan doesn't really need he's like a comedian he doesn't need new jokes he just needs new audiences.

He doesn't need new tricks he just needs new generations. Every generation that's born we fall for the same things again and again.

So she fell for it she says curse God and die! But Job said unto her

Thou speakest as one of the foolish women. What shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive also evil?

In all this did Job not sin with his lips. Now I ask you this morning if we're going to have a definition of God's goodness like the world defines him and like Satan defines him how in the world could

Job say the last part of that phrase? If we're going to receive the good things that God brings us shall we not also receive the evil that God brings us?

Now he says that from a human viewpoint of course and to us there truly are evil things that happen in the world and bad things that happen to us but what

Job was wise enough to know having walked with God and studied God and come to know God the best he could with what information

God had given him in his day he knew more than the modern preachers of today. He knew that what we perceive to be severity sometimes even what we perceive to be evil that comes to us by the hand of God is really for our good.

Because God is good. Therefore it cannot truly be evil even though it may appear to be at the time.

Don't be duped like Eve. Don't be duped like Job's wife.

Don't ever let Satan come into your hearts and minds young people listen to me don't ever let

Satan come and tell you God is not good. The very thing that you're in the midst of is what will draw you closer to Him than you've ever been before.

I almost laughed when I looked over at Sarah just a minute ago. And she's had the sweetest spirit by the way because she knows that whatever this is it's a wonder she'll know

God better. A great example sitting on the front pew. So the goodness and severity of God is also spoken of in Joshua chapter 23.

And behold verse 14 says this day I am going the way of all the earth.

So he was in his last days life Joshua the great warrior of God.

The great man of faith. And he says and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the

Lord your God spake concerning you. Joshua said think back on your life and you know and your heart knows that not one good thing that God promised you did he ever withhold.

He says this towards the end of his life. All are come to pass unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof.

But listen how he ends this thought. He says therefore it shall come to pass that just as all good things are come upon you which the

Lord your God promised you so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the

Lord your God hath given you. That was somewhat prophetic wasn't it? What Joshua warned them about he says yes

God is love and God is good and just as he always brings the goodness that he promises he will also bring the correction.

If you get away from God in your life and you turn to other gods false gods, idols and you begin to think more about them and love them more with your heart than you do the true

God and for us today the Bible says clearly in the New Testament that idolatry is covetousness it's things and we get our eyes on the things of this world and the things that our flesh desires and we begin to love them whether they be things or people more than we love

God be very very aware of the fact that just as God brought good his goodness will bring what

Joshua and Job called evil. Now he is not evil but there are evil instruments in this world one being called

Satan one being called the demons even the world philosophical system that we live under Satan is the little g god of this world and even bad people children of Satan all of these are like chess pieces in God's hand to bring into our lives whatever needs to be brought to bring us back to him and so this is not truly evil it's only evil from man's viewpoint from God's it is perfect goodness and perfect kindness and perfect love sometimes when you spank your children you may have felt a little bit evil but you knew in your heart that you weren't you knew in your heart the opposite is true that God said that the parent that does not chase his child hates the child hates the child that is a good definition of what it is to love the child it is to love the child when we correct the child this comes from God another thing about the goodness of God is that it kind of tags on to this line of thinking is that God does in fact work all things together for good even the things that we perceive to be not good

Romans 8 28 and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them that are called according to his purpose in Genesis chapter 50 is one of the greatest examples and teachings of this aspect of God do you remember

Joseph when his brothers threw him into that well we're going to leave him for dead and finally they decided no we'll make some money out of this so they sold him into slavery and he went into Egypt years later they met him again didn't they and they were a little bit uncomfortable to say the least and in this context in Genesis 50 18 it says and his brethren also went and fell down before his face and they said behold we be thy servants don't kill us that's what they're thinking and Joseph said unto them fear not for am

I in the place of God you see how Joseph dealt with these circumstances he never blamed

God he knew that God knew best and even when he was in the bottom of that well and later in the prison in Egypt he knew that God was good and he trusted

God that's a large part of faith is to trust that God is who he says he is he is good but as for you he says to his brethren ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good you see how if you look at that from his point of view how could he possibly have looked up from the bottom of that well and said

God is good today well he could have now in his youth

I don't know if he did or not that day but I know that later on by the time he met his brothers he had learned that that was truly the good hand of God that put him in that well because he goes on to say what you meant is evil

God meant for good to bring it to pass as it is at this day to save much people alive and he was able to feed the whole people of Israel so it was in fact good

Deuteronomy 624 says and the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the

Lord our God for our good always it teaches that even the severest laws of God that seem severe to us and difficult they're for our good in Deuteronomy 30 verse 4 if any of thine be driven out now

I want you to be thinking of this here we have a scene where it seems to be bad in fact from a human viewpoint we could only say it is bad and it speaks of the time when the children of Israel were driven out of Jerusalem and if you ever read

Josephus the historian and you read what happened when Rome put them under siege in the year 70

AD and it was also done earlier when they went into Babylon probably a very similar scene where they put them under siege and they couldn't eat they couldn't drink some of the women ate their own babies and all of these horrible things began to happen and then

God drove them out from the land and they went into captivity now if that doesn't seem evil and bad what does?

and yet read the passage or follow along with me if any of thine be driven out unto the uttermost parts of heaven he said if you be driven out to the furthest end of the universe from thence will the

Lord thy God come and gather thee and from thence will he fetch thee and bring thee back to himself and the

Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed and thou shalt possess it again and he will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers and the

Lord thy God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your children to love the

Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul that thou mayest live tell me that's not good you see if he hadn't scattered them if he hadn't brought destruction and seeming evil to them they would have let

God go forever and all been lost to an eternal damnation and separation from God and because God let what we sometimes whine about and cry about and shake our little fist at and God said you're not a good

God how could this happen is the very thing that brings us to him we don't know evil we never will know what hell is all about Jesus suffered separation from God when he was on the cross and he said my

God, my God why hast thou forsaken me he knew what that was so that we'll never have to know but we can imagine can't we we do have imaginations we can imagine a little bit what it would be like to be separated from God all that there is in the universe there is none good but one

God and to be separated from goodness forever hell can't be described as just fire that's not enough to put you in a place where there is zero goodness the opposite of it is surrounding you forever the fire won't seem that hot compared to the effect of being away from a good

God and all that is good forever and so God sometimes brings severity to us in this life to drive us to himself to do us right we call it a whooping in Texas I don't know what you call that you can see probably pretty much the same thing, a whooping but this is part of the goodness of God let me give you some things that are associated with the goodness of God in the

Bible in Exodus chapter 33 verse 22 verse and then following this is where Moses asked to see

God and God said well no man can see me and live but I'll put you in the cleft of a rock and I'll cover you with my hand and I'll pass by and you can see my hinder parts remember that story?

this is in this story and then down in chapter 34 then in verse 6 it says as he passes by Moses it says the

Lord and that is all caps so that's Jehovah passed by before him and proclaimed the

Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious and long suffering and abundant in goodness and in truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving the iniquity and transgressions and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children do you see the goodness and severity of God in the same sentence?

he mentions mercy he mentions grace he mentions patience he mentions abundant goodness and truth and mercy and forgiveness and he says and he'll know by no means clear the guilty he will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children unto the third generation and the fourth generation and Moses made haste and bowed his head and fell to the earth you see the severity of God causes us to fall to the earth before him in Romans chapter 26 verse 11 it says and thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the

Lord thy God hath given unto thee and to thine house thou and the Levite and the stranger that is among you 1

Chronicles 28 20 says God even my God will be with thee he will not fail thee nor forsake thee

I'm giving you some things that are associated with his goodness 2 Chronicles 30 22 the

Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord Ezra chapter 7 verse 9 it says for upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon see they had been placed into captivity and on the first day of the fifth month came he back to Jerusalem God was about to deliver the remnant back out of captivity away from what pictured

Satan what pictured the world system and the sins the sinfulness of our flesh he's going to deliver them back to Jerusalem which pictures victorious

Christian living and it says that on the fifth month came he to Jerusalem according to the good hand of his

God which was upon him you know that that good hand of God was upon him when he was back in Babylon too and that same good hand brought him out of the chastening back into the promised land and that's what the chastening was for Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 17 then

I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me as also the king's words that had spoken to me and they said let us rise up and build you see when

God's good hand is upon us we can build so they strengthened their hands for this good work verse 20 says then answered

I them you see the enemies of God Sanballat and Tobiah and the

Ammonites and these Arabians that were the enemies of God laughed at them when they said they would come back in and build this wall they laughed them to scorn and said you'll never be able to do it we'll destroy you the enemy is always saying that to us and yet then answered

I them and said unto them the enemy you could picture Satan the

God of heaven he will prosper us therefore we his servants will arise and build that ye have no portion nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem you can pray and ask the

Lord Jesus to rebuke Satan and remove him because he has no portion he has no right he has no memorial in your life because you belong to the

Lord so the things that were mentioned in those passages that are associated with God's goodness are mercy grace patience truth forgiveness justice good things that he brings in our life faithfulness good knowledge of God and the good hand of God and I'm sure there would be many others good with God is not based upon any supposed human goodness let me talk to you about this the world doesn't understand this about God either the world tries to approach

God by building a stairway to heaven a stairway of good acts and good deeds and religiosity and the world thinks that they can approach heaven because they think that God's definition of goodness can be defined in man or by man or by good acts that man might do look at Romans chapter 9 in verse 11 it's the last time

I'll ever tell you to start out in Psalm 144 that will be next week next month sometime

Romans chapter 9 verse 11 I would like you to see this one if you would take a moment to turn to it this above all passages in the scriptures prove without any doubt at all that the goodness of God is not based upon any supposed human goodness that might be found in man of course there is the verse over in the

Old Testament I think somewhere Jeremiah where it says even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags there's that one but in Romans chapter 9 verse 11 it says for the children being yet born not yet born these two children not yet born speaking of Jacob and Esau they had not even been born yet neither having done any good or evil so they had never done what man defines as good or what man defines as evil so that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that call it it was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger as it is written

Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated said

God and it was not based on any good works either one of them had done because they weren't born yet so God's goodness does not look for goodness in man it only looks for God's own goodness and I think

I love what the black lady said so much and I quote it in almost every sermon but they ask her how do you know you're going to heaven she said because when

God looks down at me he sees me all dressed up in Jesus you see God can't look for our righteousness because it would not please him at all what he looks for is the righteousness of God in Christ as we have received him as our own

Numbers chapter 23 says God is not a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent in other words change his mind hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good behold

I have received commandment to bless and he hath blessed

I cannot reverse it he hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel the

Lord his God is with him and the shout of the king is among them this was spoken by the false prophet

Balaam as God had told him you better not tell them a lie Balaam when you go to him you tell them the truth is

Israel is going to win this battle and the reason Israel is going to win this battle is because I God have not beheld iniquity in Jacob nor have

I seen perverseness in Israel but you and I know having read the Bible that there was perverseness and iniquity in Israel was there not but God didn't behold you know what he beheld he was going hundreds of years into the future beholding the cross that had his son dying on it for their sins for their sins in the place of them as full payment for those sins and God also was taking that very righteousness from Jesus and somehow transcending time and bringing it back of course this applies to us forward in time but taking it back to these sons of God in the

Old Testament and placing his righteousness in their bodies and as he looked at them he saw the perfect lamb the perfect son of God and he was satisfied

God's goodness and his wrath God's love and his justice were all satisfied when he looked at the cross and the blood of the cross and the lamb of the cross and when

Jesus was resurrected on that third day it proved that God was satisfied and so when

God looked down at Jacob and Israel he saw no iniquity and no perversion and he said

I'm not going to let the enemy destroy you that's all we have time for this morning there's more about the goodness of God but that's enough for us to think about this week isn't it?

God's goodness is accompanied by severity because that's the true definition of goodness but that severity is backed by what

God is and God is love so it's all meant in love and it all brings us to a better closer relationship and you have that this morning if you've ever received the

Lord Jesus Christ as your own you can behold the true goodness of God let's stand and pray together

Father we thank you for your goodness we stand in awe of your severity we do have a healthy proper fear of you because we know the same hand that can bring us what we perceive to be good things can bring us chastisement when we need it so we fall before you this morning in our hearts and we worship you but we also rejoice in the fact that you love us as the

Lord Jesus told us when he prayed to you that you would give us the same love that you had for him that you would have that same exact love for us tender mercies loving kindness and gentleness and patience and a love that we can only talk about we cannot comprehend fully that love is behind your goodness and your goodness is what motivates you to do all that you've done both in our lives and in the life of the world and in history we thank you that you've called us to yourself

Lord if there's anyone with us today that has not yet received the Lord Jesus would you please move them in that direction would you please woo them