Good

Good evening everyone, it's really good to have you with us this evening. I think there are a few visitors, you are particularly welcome.

As Danny said, we're continuing our series looking at This is Our God, and we're looking at Our Good God this evening.

Some of you may know it, I'm a big fan of the Kindle e-reader. I find it portable, convenient and flexible, and for me that outweighs the benefits of having paper.

A lot of the features of the Kindle try to replicate what you can do on paper, and one of them is the highlighting feature.

So if you're reading a book, you might go through and underline a passage or get your highlight route, so you can be reminded of it when you come back again later.

And you can do the same thing on the Kindle, just highlight the passage, and it will remind you that this is something that's important to you.

What you can also do with the Kindle is see what passages other people have highlighted.

So you can go in and find a list of the most common passages in the Bible or any other book that people have chosen to highlight to be reminded of.

So I thought I'd do that. I did it for the NIV for the edition I've got on my Kindle.

And I thought the top two, the two most popular verses, were quite interesting.

So in second position is Romans 8 and verse 28, which says,

And then in first place, the most popular highlight in the NIV at least, is Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 11.

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

And it says,

So my not very scientific analysis suggests that, at least for readers of the NIV, one of the things that they want to be reminded of is the goodness of God.

Two verses that very much bring before us the good plans that God has for his people.

I think that probably is true of most of us as well.

The goodness of God, the fact that God is good, is something that is really important to us and a great encouragement in our lives.

But we have to ask ourselves, what do we mean when we say God is good?

The word good is very common in the English language, and it's used in all sorts of different ways.

So when we say God is good, what exactly do we mean?

Let me put up a quote from the theologian Bruce Milne, a very interesting book on doctrinal theology, Know the Truth.

And he says this,

God's goodness is a perfection which can be classed equally under holiness or love,

and as such underlies the impossibility of separating these two attributes.

Take a second to think about that while I keep talking.

But Bruce Milne is saying that goodness encompasses both God's holiness, which we looked at last week,

and God's love, which we'll be looking at in more detail next week.

And if you want to understand what it means that God is good,

you have to bring these two elements of his character into it.

I think we can maybe say that God's goodness is how his holiness and his love are seen in practice,

how they make a difference in our lives.

Now, if you were here last week, you may remember when Graham talked about God's holiness.

He talked about God as being set apart and perfectly pure.

I think it's probably the second of those that Bruce Milne is thinking of at this point.

The God who is perfectly just, upright, righteous, who can't tolerate sin.

And God's goodness must be based on God's holiness,

on the fact that he can do no wrong and that he can tolerate no wrong.

Now, God's love, I'm sure you'll have an understanding of.

Do come back next week if you have any doubts about it.

But it's these two things, I think, that we have to look at.

One is the God who doesn't do any wrong.

The other is the God who loves us and who demonstrates his care for us.

Let's examine this a bit further, looking at some of the passages and verses that we've looked at already,

maybe one or two others as well.

The verse in Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5, verse 7, that says this.

Romans 5 · chapter mention Romans 5:7

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person,

though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

But then verse 8, God commends, demonstrates his love for us in this.

While we were still sinners, Christ dies, died for us.

So I think what this verse is saying, if I've read it right,

is that goodness goes beyond righteousness.

So Paul is saying it's very unlikely to anyone want to die for someone who's just righteous,

who kind of was a holier-than-thou kind of person.

It's more likely, though still unlikely, Paul says, that they might die for a good person.

So goodness, if we take this verse, has the element of righteousness,

but goes beyond that and is reflected in care, in love for others.

If we take the passage that Sabina read to us from the Gospels,

of the rich ruler who came to Jesus and asked about eternal life,

and Jesus says, why do you call me good teacher?

There's no one good except God.

And I think he carries that thought forward into the following verses,

because the ruler is able to say, well, I'm an upright person.

I've obeyed the commands.

Now, undoubtedly, he hadn't completely obeyed the commands,

but perhaps he was an upright person relative to other people.

But what Jesus highlights then is,

yes, you may not be doing much that's actively wrong,

but are you really showing love for God and love for others?

Or actually, is the main thing in your life the riches that you have?

Righteousness must be accompanied by love.

Goodness is holiness alongside love,

when we think about God's goodness.

Or look at the other way around.

Is it enough just to love people?

If I love people, does that make me a good person?

We might in our society say someone's good because they do lots of good works.

But again, love by itself isn't enough.

There's from Jeremiah that we read,

where God is making great promises to his people,

that he has good plans for them,

plans to prosper them in the future.

But if we look at the context of that,

it's in the context of God's judgment,

of God's righteousness.

Because the people are going to be in exile for 70 years,

and then says, God, you will turn to me,

and you will get all the benefits that I have promised.

Or Romans 8, the other verse that we highlighted,

that talks about God works everything for good for those who love him.

The context of that, if we read on a verse or two,

is about people being transformed into the image of Jesus,

of being justified before God.

In other words, alongside the love that is there,

there is also God's justice, God's holiness.

So God's goodness combines both his holiness and his love.

Let me then put up a statement.

I think one of the other who have taken this read

have done something similar.

So here's where we're going this evening,

the things I want to talk about as we think of our good God.

God is good.

This is evident through his actions,

his gifts, and his commands.

And his goodness never changes.

God is good.

God's whole character is good.

It's not that God is good sometimes and not good other times.

God is always good.

And that's the point Jesus is making, I think,

in the passage from Luke,

when he says,

there is no one good except God.

We can all do good things.

We can all show love and concern for others.

And yet by nature we are not good.

By nature we are sinners who have rebelled against God.

And God is the only one who is truly good.

And how do we see this?

We see this, I'm suggesting,

through his actions, his gifts, and his commands.

So what are the actions of God?

Let me just highlight two.

God is our creator.

God made the universe and everything that's in it.

And if we read through Genesis chapter 1,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

we find again and again God comes to the end of the day

and he looks at what he's made

and he sees it is good.

Or he sees it is very good.

God has made his creation good.

Now this is, I suppose, another quality of goodness,

the quality of excellence to be able to do things well.

But it is also, I think, when it says what God made is good,

it means that it's more than just functional.

It's not just in this world that we have food to eat.

We have food to eat that, by and large,

we can enjoy and gives us satisfaction.

We can hear.

We can hear music,

as God has created our ears and the world around us

so that we can hear and can enjoy things.

We can see, we can look around us,

and we can see the beauty of nature.

And God's creation is not just functional,

it's beautiful,

it's there for our enjoyment,

and it gives him pleasure too,

the fact that he has made something,

he's made everything,

and it is good.

Psalm 100 verse 3 that we read earlier,

Psalms 100:3

Know that the Lord is God,

it is he who made us,

and we are his,

we are the sheep of his pasture.

Our God is good,

and he has shown it through his creation.

And if we knew nothing else about God,

but what we can see in creation,

then we should still be attracted to him.

Romans chapter 1 and verse 20,

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Paul says,

For since the creation of the world,

God's invisible qualities,

his eternal power and divine nature

have been clearly seen,

being understood from what has been made,

so people are without excuse.

In other words,

just looking at creation

should lead us to believe

in a God who is great,

in a God who is good.

But of course,

we can look beyond that

when we think about God's actions.

And we think of God

not just as our creator,

but as our saviour.

And God's greatest action

was in sending his son

into the world

to be the saviour of the world.

He sent the one

who is most precious to him

to live a life of poverty

and to die on the cross

for our sakes.

And that action demonstrates

above everything else

the goodness of our God.

It satisfies his holiness

in that reparation was made for sin,

the punishment that was due for sin

has been taken.

And it demonstrates his love,

the love that was willing to give

the one who was most precious to him

for our sake.

God is good

and his goodness is shown

in his actions.

Then God's goodness is shown

through his gifts.

Now two ways again for that.

God gives us

what we need physically.

I suspect few of any of us

will go away this evening

and won't have a shelter,

a warm bed,

food to eat

and all that we need

for our daily lives.

And much more beyond

a lot that can give us

additional pleasure

that God has given to us.

Our God is a God

who gives and gives

and gives more

than we could ever need.

And he also gives to us spiritually.

He gives us spiritual gifts

that will help us

to be fulfilled in our lives,

will help us to serve others,

to show goodness

to others that God has shown to us

and that will help us

to serve him

as we should.

And these gifts too

are a sign of God's goodness

to us.

He doesn't need us.

He doesn't need us

to exercise the gifts

that he's given us

but he has chosen

to give us these gifts

so that we can glorify him

and so that we can enjoy him

and enjoy being used by him.

So we see God's goodness

in his gifts.

And then also thirdly,

we see God's goodness

in his commands.

Romans 7 verse 12 says,

Romans 7:12

The law is holy

and the commandment

is holy,

righteous,

and good.

And it may not seem so obvious

that we see God's goodness

through the commands

he's given us.

And yet is it not right

that God has given us

guidelines of how we should

live our lives,

how we are able to please him,

how we are able to get the most

out of being

in this world.

One of the greatest chapters

in the Bible,

as well as being the longest

in the Bible,

is Psalm 119.

And the great theme

of Psalm 119

is that the psalmist

loves God's word.

He loves to go to his Bible,

however much of it he had

in those days,

and to enjoy

what God has said there.

Let me reduce a few verses,

verses 14 to 16.

The psalmist writes,

I rejoice in following

your statutes

as one rejoices

in great riches.

I meditate on your precepts

and consider your ways.

I delight in your decrees.

I will not neglect your word.

I delight in your decrees.

Do we take great delight

in what God has given us

through his word,

the pathway to life

that he sets out before us

as we serve him

and seek to obey

what he has given to us?

God's commands,

along with his actions

and his gifts,

are good

and are beneficial to us.

Our God is good.

The key to that

is that God's goodness

goodness never changes.

It never fails.

And even in the difficult times,

even when life is hard

and we're finding

it's a real struggle,

we can go to God

and we can rejoice

in his goodness to us.

And that's the key difference

between us and God.

We can do an element of good,

not on the level that God can.

We can do an element of good

in our lives.

God constantly does good.

God is good.

And where we are temperamental

and very in the way we live,

God never changes.

Over the last three or four years,

I guess,

many of us have become familiar

with the name Edward Colston.

I think if you lived in Bristol

before that,

you would have been familiar with him,

but not probably elsewhere.

Edward Colston,

for many years,

was considered a great hero

in the city of Bristol.

He was a great philanthropist.

He built schools,

he built hospitals,

he built churches,

he built homes for pure people,

and he was seen as someone

who was good.

And they named streets after him,

they named a concert hall after him,

they put a big statue up

in the middle of the city.

And then it emerged

that Edward Colston

had got his fortune

through the slave trade.

That because he was a slave trader,

he was able to build

by the vast amount of money

and was then able to use it

for good things.

And these days,

he's probably best remembered

because his statue

was thrown into the harbour

at Bristol,

and all the call

and everything named after him

has been renamed.

He was someone

who did good

in some ways,

but also did bad

in other ways.

And in a less extreme way,

I guess we are all

like that.

We have some good things

in our lives,

we have some things

that are virtuous,

we have lots of things too

that we're ashamed of,

and that are certainly

not good.

Our God

is not like

that.

Our God

is perfectly good

all of

the time.

Now I say that

with confidence,

but if you went out

into the street,

there will be a lot of people

who would disagree

with that.

The so-called

new atheists

would tell us

if there's a God,

which they say there isn't,

but if there's a God,

he must be really cruel

and caring

because of all the suffering

in this world,

and indeed

all the suffering

that those who trust in him

suffer alongside

everyone else.

Just because you trust

in God,

you're not exempt

from suffering,

and the atheists

would then say,

well, that proves

there's not a God,

or at least that he

doesn't care for you

if there is.

Now before we dismiss

that out of hand,

let's just take a second

to reflect on the fact

that Christians

do suffer.

In this world,

Jesus says,

you will have trouble,

and that is certainly true.

If I look at this church,

the church post-pandemic

will be in many ways

quite different

from the church

pre-pandemic

because there are

a large number of people

who have been pillars

of the church

for many years

who are now going

through times

of great suffering

and are entable

to be with us.

The names will mean

something to some people

or a lot to some people

or nothing to others,

let me list a few.

The Wilsons,

the McMillans,

the Millers,

the Greys,

the Pontons,

all in their families

and not just one person

generally,

have suffered

and are suffering

a great deal.

Does that then demonstrate

that actually God

isn't good

all the time?

That actually

we shouldn't be saying

God is good

because Christians

can suffer greatly.

Let's move away

from the immediate

local situation

and let me introduce

you to this couple.

Their names are

Joey and Rory

and if you didn't get it

from the name

or the picture

they're an all-American

couple

and very clean cut

they're singers

and came to prominence

in one of these

television music contests

had some success

following that

and went to live

on a farm

and pursue their music

alongside farming

and were all set up

to live happily

ever after.

And then Joey

was diagnosed

with cancer

and it wasn't

either a short

sharp cancer

or a cancer

which got better

over time.

It was a cancer

which lasted

for a couple of years.

She suffered

a great deal

of pain

both from the cancer

itself

and from the chemo.

Here's one thing

that her husband

Rory said

when you see

someone with

so much faith

go through

something so painful

you wish that

somehow God

would exempt them

from so much

heartache

and pain.

Maybe we can identify

with that thought.

Anyway,

after a couple of years

Joey lost her battle

with cancer

and she passed away

leaving her husband

Rory

with a two-year-old

daughter with

Down syndrome

and quite a number

of valid challenges

I won't go into.

One of our closest friends

was a songwriter

and wrote a very

personal

quite sad song

about her suffering

and her death.

And for our purposes

tonight

these are the two

key lines in it.

The song says

I don't believe

that Jesus

that you love so much

would put you

through such pain.

Take a thing

to think about that.

What the song

is saying

is that

Joey

loved the Lord Jesus

but either

he couldn't

or he wouldn't

save her

from the pain.

And so the songwriter

says,

I think he's concluding,

she can't have

a saviour

who is good

all the time

who really

loves her.

Rory recorded

that song

as a direct

with Dolly Parton

but actually

it wasn't

his own sentiment.

He was doing it

recognising

the honest feelings

of a friend

but it wasn't

the way

that he felt.

here's what he said.

Just because

things don't

work out

the way

that you hoped

they would

doesn't mean

that God

isn't still

in charge.

It's still

his plans

and not ours.

So I don't

feel like

my faith

has wavered

at all.

You see

the difference

between these

two viewpoints.

One is looking

at the suffering

of the person

and concluding

from that

there isn't

a God

who cares

and is able

to help.

There isn't

a good God.

The other

is starting

from the point

of view

that there

is a good God.

That we know

God is good

but we don't

always understand

his ways.

And so although

we can't understand

the suffering

that many people

go through

and it's not

for us in this life

to be able

to understand it

yet we can

cling on

to the confidence

that God

is good.

God cares

for us.

The difference

is how we

view things.

Do we start

from the viewpoint

that says

I know God

is good

and we'll come

back to why

in a minute

I know God

is good

therefore there

must be

a reason

for what's

happened.

Or do we start

from the viewpoint

that says

this thing's

happened

it's terrible

that proves

there isn't

a good

God.

So how do

we know

that God

is good?

Well we know

it for the reasons

I said earlier.

We know it

through his creation

we know it

through his

daily provision

for us

and we know

it above all

through the

Lord Jesus.

Our good

God

our saviour

God

Jesus

was willing

to suffer

much more

than we

ever will.

And the

confidence

that we can

have in his

goodness

comes primarily

from our

knowledge of

Jesus

and the

fact that

he went

to the

cross

he took

the punishment

for our

sins

and he

demonstrated

there

in an

absolute

way

the

goodness

of

God.

A couple

of verses

on from the

verse in

Romans that

we quoted

earlier

it says

this

he who

did not

spare his

own

son

but gave

him up

for us

all

how will

he not

also

along with

him

graciously

give us

all things.

So no matter

what the

storms of

life may be

no matter

how much

pain we

may experience

or see

other people

suffering

no matter

how much

we may

pray for

something

and it

seems that

God hasn't

answered our

prayers

certainly not

in the way

that we

expected.

We can

still be

confident

that our

God

is good

and even

in a time

of suffering

we can

experience

his peace

and we can

know that

although we

may have

a thorn

in the

flesh

that we

have to

endure

yet his

grace

is sufficient

for us.

he never

leaves us

he's never

not there

for us

and everything

that happens

ultimately

will fulfill

his good

purposes.

God

is

good

and we

need to

hang on

to that

in every

aspect

of our

lives.

As the

psalmist

said

in what

we read

earlier

the Lord

is good

and his

love

endures

forever.

his

faithfulness

continues

through

all

generations.

Let's

pray together.

Father we

thank you

that you

are a

good

God.

We

thank you

that you

are a

God

who cares

for us

in every

aspect

of our

lives.

And

although we

may not

always

understand

your

ways

we

thank you

that they

are always

good

and they

are always

right.

Thank you

for your

holiness

that you

are so

far above

us

in your

purity

and your

greatness

and your

majesty.

And we

thank you

for your

love

for the

love that

sent Jesus

to be

our

saviour

and to

die

on the

cross

for our

sins.

Help us

to understand

more

of your

goodness.

Help us

to rejoice

in it.

And when

the time

of trial

comes as

it will

for all

of us

help us

nevertheless

to be

able to

continue

to have

confidence

that you

are a

good God

and that

you care

for us

that you

never

change.

Thank you

for your

presence as

we've

looked at

your word

together.

We pray

you'll be

with us

now as

we come

to remember

the Lord

Jesus

together.

We give

you thanks

in his

name.

Amen.