God is Good

Intro

You guys have heard the saying right God is good…. All the Time, All the time…… God is Good. Or maybe some of you even were taught a prayer for the supper meal. God is good, God is great, thank you Lord for this plate. We have had these little reminders and sayings to keep in the fore front of our mind that God is Good. But what is good.

Plato the Greek philosopher sought to figure this out. He said that the Highest form of good had to be something perfect, eternal and changeless existing outside of space and time. He concluded the ultimate good is God. Now I promise you that what you read on the internet will actually vary. Some will say exactly what I said and others will leave out the fact that Plato landed on the fact that good is God. But books published pre internet days will give you what I said above.

What Plato conclude is exactly what theologians have concluded. But of course theologians had to go a step further with their thinking. They want to know if God is good then is there a law or a standard that He has to conform to, to be good, or does He exist outside of this standard of good. They concluded that God does have to conform to a standard of good. That standard of good is Himself, therefore God being the standard he can not break it or change it because it is Him. His character is good. His nature is good. He is actual good. He doesn’t do good because He just so chooses, He does good because He is the literal Good.

You say TC why are you hitting this hard so much. You’re making our head hurt so early in the morning. Well, it’s because if God is literal good, if He is the standard, and He can do no other, then this means that in His wrath, He is good. In His justice, He is good. In His judgment He is good. In His law He is Good. In His discipline, He is good. His goodness encompasses everything because it is who He is. God is good. We have to get this point. We have to know and understand the goodness of God. This also means we can’t base what we call good or feel is good to be the standard. God has to be the standard. We might not always understand it, but we have to know it, trust it, believe it. God is good.

Psalm 119:68 You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.(law). Since God is good He does no wrong or evil. Everything He does is good. Of this attribute of God, the basis starts right here, God is good and does good. That sums it up. That is the foundation. He is good and does good. Then David goes further and says, teach me your laws. He is saying, teach me how to be good. If you are good God and this means you do good God, then teach me how to be good. God’s goodness can be found in His law and commandments; Romans 7:12 So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

God is good and does good. God is good to His people. So good that in all circumstances in all things “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28. God has our best interest in mind. He wants good for us. Good for us is His purpose, His will. Why? Because He is good.

Not only to His people is He good, but to all His creation. Again remember that God can do no evil. His benevolence is shown to all His creation. Think about it. The non believer still gets to enjoy God’s goodness. They get to enjoy the food that is created. They get to enjoy sunsets and rainbows. They get vacations to the beach or mountains. They get to enjoy promotions at work. They get to enjoy the miracle of child birth and raising a family. All of us get to enjoy that amazing taste of coffee first thing in the morning. God’s goodness can be enjoyed by both the just and the unjust.

Psalm 145:9 The Lord is good to all and His mercy is over all that He has made.

Mathew 5:45 For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

Why would God do this? Why is it that all man kind gets to take part in His goodness? Not just that, but sometimes it seems that the unjust or wicked get more pleasure than pain. In Psalm 73 We see that Asaph almost feel into the snare of sin. He started to envy the arrogant who were prospering even though they were wicked. He notice that they were eating so well that he said their eyes swelled with fatness. They had no troubles he said, no pain until death. Asaph started to contemplate this and wonder why and it became wearisome to him, until he went into the sanctuary of God. It was there in the sanctuary that he was able to discern their end.

Psalm 73:18-28

“18Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. 19How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! 20Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. 21When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, 22I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. 23Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 24You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. 25Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 28But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.”

At times Gods goodness to all can be hard for us to handle. It almost is a stumbling block to paraphrase Asaph. But God does this for His glory. He does this and shows goodness to the unjust and the evil to lead them to repentance or even their ruin. Romans 2:4 God’s kindness(goodness) is meant to lead you to repentance. And we need not to forget that this is what God used to draw us to Himself also.

But it isn’t only mankind that He shows His goodness to, but it is all His creation. “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor real nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them: Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Mathew 6:26, 28-29

God does this because He is good. Everything He creates is Good. In Genesis we read that after creating everything each day He looked back and said it was good. Why? Because God creates Good. I Timothy 4:4 For everything created by God is good.

James says in 1:17 that Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

However, I do not think we can talk about God’s goodness without wrestling with this one question, If God is good, then why do bad things happen to good people?

Well the overarching answer, and the most straightforward answer is this, they don’t. Bad things do not happen to good people. The late RC Sproul said he wished that his publisher would ask him to write a book about why bad things happen to good people. He said you would see that nice cover with that title and open it up and the one and only page would have written on it. They don’t. They don’t because no one is good. You remember the rich young ruler running up to Jesus right. He runs up and he says good teacher, what must I do to be saved. Jesus quickly pointed out, Why do you call me good. No one is good but God alone. Mark 10:18

Psalm 14 tells us that no one does good no not one. So the straight forward answer is bad things do not happen to good people. How can I say that because the Bible states that no one is good except God alone. So because none of us are good, then the premise of the question is faulty.

But TC how could you say that to someone suffering on this earth. Someone just lost a child or someone is going through cancer. Well for a non believer it is tough. There is nothing to put their trust in. But for the Christian, even in the most suffering moments in their life, we can say to the Christian that our hope is found in a good God. We can put our trust in the fact that in this life we are not promised a painless life but we are told that God works all things out for the good fo the believer.

This is why it is important for the Christian to know about the goodness of God. We need to be able to point to the fact that no matter what is happening in some ones life that God is good. Nahum 1:7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him.

But hear me now. Hear me now church. Do not be mistaken and think that Gods goodness could exist with out His justice. Do not be mistaken that His goodness could exist with out His wrath. Yes of course His goodness falls and is made available for all to see. God loves His creation as a hole and His goodness is acted out and even shared by all in His common grace towards all. However, God’s love is towards His Son and those whom He gives His Son. And towards the ones whom are not His Son’s they are hostile or at enmity with God. Romans 8:7-8 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed it cannot. This who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You see for God to be good, there can be no evil in Him at all. For Him to be light there can be no darkness at all- 1 John 1:5

So this is man’s ultimate dilemma. The very fact that God is good puts us as mankind at odds with the creator. Because of the fall and now our birth into sin and darkness there is no good in us. Romans 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.

None of us are righteous and none of us do good no not one. Romans 3 and Psalm 14.

But thanks be to God Almighty, a good and merciful God. That in His goodness He saw fit to send His very Son to redeem His people. That His Son who knew no sin would become sin. That He would allow them to crucify Him so that His blood would wash Gods people clean. That even though we are born into sin, we could repent and believe in Him. That now because of God’s goodness shown in His Son Jesus, there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen! Amen! And Amen!

Now how must we live. In light of God’s goodness lavished on us, how must we then live. 1 Chronicles 16:34 say, Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever. Also same thing found in Psalms 107, and twice in Psalm 118. We give thanks.

Isiah 12:4-5 says And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples, proclaim that His name is Exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.

We must give thanks to the Lord and show His goodness to all people. We must make His deeds known among all people on this earth. We must rejoice and sing of His goodness.

We do this because we were once blind and lost and now we must proclaim to others how to be found and to see. They must know of the goodness of our God and the salvation He has given us. We must let the light He has given shine before men, so that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

As for the lost, the blind, the ones at enmity with our Lord. They must be shown the statutes of God. They must know of His wrath that awaits the sinner. They must know of the anger He has towards evil. They must know of the goodness that awaits the repentant wretch. They must. God has commanded us to share these very things with all people. God has commended us young and old to share His Goodness. To share of the evil at hand and the good news of God. The good news of the cross.

My we like the Psalmist proclaim, Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Let us Pray