The Goodness Of God, Part 2

How has God revealed His goodness? It’s one thing, I can tell you, if you actually come to believe that from your head down to your heart, obedience will be completely different. Trusting Him becomes completely different. The fear of the future, we always have some, it will begin to dissipate.

Because if God has your best and He is sovereign and He is in control and He is an all-wise God and He is for you and He is leaning forward on the throne to bless your life and to help you and give you the very best, well then, whatever He says is, Well, that’s what I want to do.

Now, by the way, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have some emotional fear. It doesn’t mean the front end might be really hard. But it means that you trust His promises because He is a good God.

He has revealed it to us in three ways. And let me encourage you to let these ways sink in and begin to practice them in a new way because you’ve got to do some things to move: “I believe God is good,” to here.

First, it’s through natural blessings. Psalm 145:7 through 9 says, “They celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.”

Does the “all” include you? He is good to all. This little phrase is repeated all through the Old Testament. “He is gracious, compassionate, abounding, multiplying, exponentially available, lovingkindness.” The word is hesed. It’s a steadfast, loyal, commitment love to give you the best. That’s how God is with His creation.

Later, in the same psalm, verse 16 says, “You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways and faithful in all that He does.” And here’s what I would say is pause to look around. We get so busy, so focused.

Just observe people. Observe people at a restaurant, observe people walking on the streets now. The whole world does this. A family sitting together in a restaurant. There are four phones out.

When was the last time, no, I’m serious. When was the last time you saw a sunset? You. When was the last time you saw a sunrise?

If you don’t bask in the goodness of God, in the natural surroundings, then you unconsciously, we will become the center and the focus. And you will believe life is about pressure and productivity and getting things done.

And there is a place for that. But the place for that is, it’s Tozer’s great words, “It’s living under a sky that is friendly and knowing that this God, though exalted in majesty and power is eager to be friends with you.”

David says, “This one thing I will do that I will seek to behold the beauty of the Lord.” Literally, the word is the delightfulness. To meditate in His temple.

There is part of the goodness of God you just have to stop and I wrote a couple things down here. I wrote: “For health, for food, for love, for people, for beauty, for life, for air, for opportunity, for the talents, for the education that you have, for the opportunities God has given you, that you live in this country.

Those are little things. But God reveals His goodness through natural blessings.

The second way He reveals His goodness is through deliverances. And I am going to ask you to turn to Psalm 107. It’s a very long psalm. I want you to study it, but I am going to give you the structure of the psalm. It is the classic passage on the goodness of God in the Old Testament.

The psalm will open with a call to honor God’s goodness and then what you are going to see are there are four specific vignettes and the author is going to say vignette number one, vignette number two, vignette number three, vignette number four. In each one of these vignettes, people find themselves in an impossible situation. They are desperate.

In three of the four, they are in an impossible situation because of their own doing, their own sin. In the fourth one, God sovereignly seems to be working through some sailors.

After, so there is a vignette, it talks about a situation, it’s really bad, it’s impossible. Then the process in each one is the same. They cry out to the Lord in the midst of their desperation, in the midst of their trouble, and then God delivers, delivers, delivers.

And then there is a repeating phrase that says, “Let them give thanks to the Lord for He is good.” And then vignette, vignette, vignette. It’s really powerful. Have you got it? Psalm 107.

Look at verses 1 and 2. He says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble.”

Now he is going to give four pictures of trouble, look at verse 4. “Some wandered in the desert waste, finding no way to a city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty; their souls fainted within them. They cried to the Lord in their trouble; He delivered them from their distress. He led them by the straight way, until they reached a city to dwell in. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing of the soul, the hungry soul He fills with goodness.”

Vignette number two: “Some sat in darkness and and the shadow of death – prisoners in affliction and irons – for they rebelled against the Word of the Lord and they spurned the counsel of the Most High, so He bowed their heads with hard labor and they fell with none to help them. They cried to the Lord in their trouble; He delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and out of the shadow of death and He burst their bonds. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love, His wondrous works for the children of men. He shatters the doors of bronze,” talking about breaking through judgment.

17, “Some were fools through sinful ways and because of their iniquities, affliction,” and we’ll find out it becomes physical affliction. He delivers them, verse 21, “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His wondrous works.”

Skipping down to verse 23, “Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord, for His wondrous works in the deep. He commanded and raised up a stormy wind; He lifted up the waves of the sea.” And then the sailors cry out in their distress, God delivers them, verse 31, “Let them give them give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love; His wondrous works to men.”

And then notice he will begin and say, “Let them extol His congregation of the people, the praise of the assembly of the elders,” and then verse 33 through the end of the chapter, he is going to reach back and take the deliverances of God, historically.

Because this psalm is written to a group of people who have missed God’s goodness and their focusing on circumstances and their lives aren’t working. And the only way, it’s to pull back our perspective and to realize, Oh! In the midst of our trouble in the past, one of the ways that God expresses His goodness is He delivers us. He reaches in and delivers us when we don’t deserve it. The first three times it’s because of their sin.

In fact, in your notes, I put a little summary. He rescues us from our enemies, He rescues us when we are spiritually adrift, He rescues us from the shadow of death, He heals our diseases, He saves us in the storms of life, and then notice at the very end, after he highlights these big moments in Israel’s history, when they were in the desert, when He delivered them from the enemies.

Verse 43, “Whoever is wise,” by the way, in biblical literature, the word wise, especially in the Old Testament, it’s not intellectual. Wisdom, the book of Proverbs, or even the New Testament book of James, wisdom is understanding how God designed life to work. It’s a skill. And it’s following that.

So this is the pattern or the path of God says, “This is how relationships work.” Wisdom is: I am going to follow that path. Wisdom is: This is how God designed money to work in our life. I am going to follow that path. Wisdom is: When I have made a mistake, here’s the path for reconciliation and forgiveness. I’ll follow that path.

So he is saying, “Let he who is wise attend to these things. Let them consider, let them ponder the steadfast love,” that’s our word – lovingkindness – “of the Lord.”

There is a path or there is a way that seems right to men but it ends in death. And there is a path that is the Lord’s that is fullness of joy, where His pleasures are forever.

The third and most profound way, for sure, is God has demonstrated His goodness through His Son. Jesus is the proof of God’s goodness. And I love it, it’s His goodness before we did anything. It’s not a cause and effect.

There certainly is a clear relationship in Scripture between the blessings of God and obedience and the discipline of God and disobedience. But even the discipline of God is out of His goodness and out of His love. He disciplines not because He is mad or punishing us. All of the just wrath and punishment of God was placed on Christ at the cross.

If you are a son or a daughter, He may discipline you and bring you through very difficult times, but it’s out of His heart of goodness and love to give you the best. Whenever you are discouraged, whenever you wonder if God is good, there is an historical moment, the cross is the greatest revelation of the goodness of God in the universe. The cross.

While we were yet sinners, not when you cleaned up your act, not when you did better, not when you didn’t have problems. While you and me were rebels and we could have been far from God and angry at God or we could be a rebel being passively indifferent thinking we don’t need Him. Both are rebellion.

In that moment, in that state, Christ demonstrated His love for you. He died in your place. It’s the proof of God’s goodness.

Jesus is the guarantee of future goodness. The proof of present goodness is the cross. The guarantee of future goodness is the cross.

“He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up,” literally or, “over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” It’s called a priori logic.

In other words, if someone would forgive a five-million-dollar debt, you think you could trust him if you went out to lunch and said, “Oh, gosh, I don’t have my wallet.” Oh my gosh. You think he’ll pay for it? In other words, if God has demonstrated His love through the cross, how will He not with Him...?”

He has loved you, He has rescued you, He has paid for you. How will He not with Him give you wisdom to be in the right relationship, give you direction for the right job, give you grace in the midst of a difficult situation?”

Psalm 84:11 was the promise, but this verse, Romans 8:32, was why I turned from a path that was wrong, got on the exit ramp of repentance, and turned around and got on God’s path.

I was in college and had been a Christian about three years and I knew Jesus was Lord, but He wasn’t my Lord. I knew I was in a relationship that was wrong and I couldn’t trust God. And a young couple that had been a Christian about nine months or a year…

It was a small school, three or four thousand, out in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t, it had a red church, a white church, and a bar, not even a gas station.

And you couldn’t get anything decent to eat. So when you’re a college student and a young couple says, “Would you like to come to our house for dinner?” It was like, “Yes!”

And so we, I’ll never forget it. And so they were new Christians and looking back, they were very poor and they had a little farm. Picture Norman Rockwell, old barn, reddish, rusted door, white farm house, very simple. I think it’s cool and vintage now but remember the tables that are plastic on top and with the curved legs that are steel and then when you sat on the thing, you stuck to them? They didn’t have doors. They took a little wire and they put a sheet because they didn’t have doors. I think they only had two or three rooms in the house.

And they invited me over and a home cooked meal and, of course, they had a garden. And they were really old, like, twenty-eight or thirty. When you’re nineteen, they are completely over…they are still romantic? People that old?

And we talked around the table and I watched how these two people looked at each other. And there was this gleam and this love and she just reached over and touched his hand. A married couple really, really in love.

And then he said, “Excuse me, we are going to have ice cream and apple pie that she has made. And we will be right back but we are doing something new with our kids.” And they had a five-year-old, four-year-old, maybe a two-year-old. So they went over and I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop but it’s a sheet, you know?

And so you could see through the sheet and a little, single bed. And all four of them got down like this and they all held hands and they taught the little kids a tiny, little prayer, “Dear Jesus. Thank You for today. Thank You for Mommy. Thank You for Daddy. Thank You that You died for us.” And then the husband prayed and it was not all that long and then they came back in and they sat down at the table and I had great apple pie.

And I had a green, little Volkswagen at the time and the roads are really windy in West Virginia, so I came to our campus and it was called Bartell Hill. And it was just straight down and I lived in the dorm, Bartell and I can still remember I was having a talk with God, God, that’s what I want. That’s what I really want someday. And I just heard the Holy Spirit whisper, Chip, I would love to give you that. But it’s on My terms, not yours.

And I said, Well, I just can’t believe that if I give up this girl that You have someone better for me. And I was with a group that was big into Scripture memory but I was not very big at sticking with the group. So I was slow. But I just started memorizing Scripture.

And Romans 8:32, as I was in the middle of that hill, came to my mind. Just out of the blue. I didn’t know the Holy Spirit did this stuff. Chip, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not with Him freely give us all things?”

And I don’t know why, intellectually, it went, Oh. So You’re willing to die for Me, you could actually get me the right wife? And I got to the bottom of the hill and Jesus was the Lord of my life. Not because I was stronger, not because I made some big commitment. It’s because God is good.

There are three very specific responses and we will wrap up our time.

Response number one is for those of you you have an intellectual relationship with God and... But the fact of the matter is is that if I asked you, “Do you know for certain that if you died today you would spend eternity with the Lord Jesus because of His death on the cross and you receiving that free gift of God? And is He a vital, living part of your life?” You would just, just you and me with coffee you would look me in the eye and go, “Nah. I’m not sure. I don’t know.” This is for you.

Repent and receive the greatest gift ever of eternal life. Romans 2:4 says that it is God’s kindness and His goodness, His forbearance and patience that leads us to repentance.

God has been so good and so kind and done so much in your life, it has all been to say, “Would you come and let Me give you the best gift ever? You can’t earn it. I want to forgive your sin, I want to come into your life, and I want to change your life and I want you to become My son or My daughter.” And if you have never done that, right now, I would just turn Ingram off because what he says doesn’t matter.

And in my heart of hearts I would say, Almighty God, I had no idea You were so good. I had no idea You loved me so much.

I want to turn from my sin and in the empty hands of faith, I ask You to forgive me based on Jesus’ work on the cross and resurrection and come into my life right now. And He will. And then tell someone and we will help you get on the new path.

Second is surrender your life and future fully to the lordship of Christ. This is God’s will. God’s will is not you’re a little bit better, moral person and you try really hard and go to religious services. God’s will is that, “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, rooted in His goodness, that you offer your body as a living and holy sacrifice, pleasing to God. That is your spiritual service of worship.”

What God wants is not your money, what God wants is not your religious activity. He wants you – lock, stock, and barrel. He wants you.

And what that will do is that will reorient your time, it will reorient your life, it will reorient your money. But it will be out of a love relationship, not trying to earn His favor. If you have never fully surrendered, He brought you on this day from your heart of hearts to bow your knee and say, Lord, I want to tell You I am afraid, but on this day, at this place, I offer myself, all that I am, all that I have, all that I will ever be – You have full rights to my life. I am signing the bottom of a check, I am ushering it underneath the throne room of God, You fill in the top – whatever and I will obey because it’s the best and wisest plan because You love me, You are good, You are all-knowing, and You are all-wise.

And, finally, I would just encourage those of you who say, I’m a believer and I have surrendered. Claim God’s promise that you will never miss out on any good thing.

Because you lose it, don’t you? Just because you have surrendered doesn’t mean you don’t fear that you are going to miss out, that you aren’t tempted. Claim today, Lord God, You are my sun, You are my shield, You are my grace, You are my glory. No good thing, ever, will I miss out on as I walk uprightly before You.