United Church of God

The Goodness of God

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The Goodness of God

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The Goodness of God

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God is the exact same kind of good in every circumstance and in all situations, whether you and I are in times of prosperity or trial.

Transcript

How many of you have ever been to the grocery store or market place and you've walked around the store and you see people here and there (I think they even do this in Walmart, if I remember right) who have some sort of a food product there in their little cart or station and they're trying to entice you to come by and taste the food? Of course the hope is that you will taste it, you will like it and then you'll go buy some. It works, not for me but it does for some people.

Did you know we're admonished to do the very same thing with God? Really! This is kind of an introduction to this split sermon today. Go over to Psalm 34:8 "O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him." We are told in this scripture that we are to taste and see that the Lord is good, of course this is metaphorical language, we can't literally taste God like you can food. The Hebrew word for 'taste' means to evaluate, to perceive, to discern. We find similar words in the New Testament translated as 'good', 'goodness', best, etc. But, you see, throughout the scripture we are admonished; to try, to test, to taste (if you will) the Lord; to see if what we're experiencing is good. That's what He wants us to do.

Throughout the scriptures this concept of good and goodness is used in our relationship to God. But the question we want to look at today is, "WHAT REALLY IS THE GOODNESS OF GOD?" How do you and I perceive God's goodness? Maybe it's not quite what we think it is. So does God's goodness toward you and me mean certain things in your mind when you think about that subject? If you don't think about it, maybe you can for a moment.

You see for many people in the world God's goodness is simply measured by how little pain, how few difficulties, how few troubles, or illnesses or poverty they are experiencing in their lives. To some God's goodness is only seen or tasted (if you would), when things in their lives are going reasonably well. Then they might say God 'tastes' good. When things aren't going so well, we find that God's involvement in their lives becomes suspect. In fact, sometimes it gets to the point where they even blame God for the misery they may be experiencing. It might be easy for us to say and believe that God is good when things turn out well for us, but we must know that God is always good, even when we are dealing with adversity or prosperity. God's goodness toward us never falters. But, you see, we have to understand God's goodness from HIS perspective.

From the very beginning of time, from creation, we find the concept of good. Remember when God created; He said that everything that He had created was 'good'. And in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were, what do we find? We find the tree of good and evil. So from the very beginning of man's existence on this earth we've had this concept of good or goodness and evil… two opposites. The goodness of God could be considered as just one facet of God's glorious nature and his character, but really the scripture reveals it's more than that.

In fact in Exodus 33 when Moses asks God to 'show me your glory', God said, "I will make my goodness pass before you." So here we see that God reveals that his goodness is a result of his glory. One might say that his goodness is an expression of his glory. In Psalm 16:2 David said, "My goodness is nothing apart from You." In other words, there is nothing good in man except that which originates with God.

That's why James says, "Every good gift and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father" You see, scripture reveals that no man is good. That's what Christ said to the young man when he asked him a question about eternal life. Christ said, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is God." So everything that is good comes from, originates with God… not man.

God also tells us in Psalm 84 that nothing good, that God rightly perceives for us, will be withheld from us when we are living lives that please him. We simply cannot separate good or goodness from God. God is good; good is God. Apart from the divine revelation of the scriptures, we cannot recognize true goodness. It cannot be understood apart from knowing God and seeing events in our lives from his perspective. You see, our perspective, all too often, is wrong. This can be true of how we see God's goodness, also. So, I want to try to help us understand this today by looking at one of the Psalms.

You can be turning over to Psalm 73, a psalm attributed to Asaph, a chief musician under King David. Asaph is credited with authoring a number of Psalms. This is one of those psalms. We're going to see here a drastic change in how Asaph understood God's goodness as we go through this psalm. There's a radical change in his understanding in the term 'good' or 'goodness' as it related to God's goodness toward his people and all people in general. So we find that here is a period in his life that he was going through when he had serious struggles with his belief and faith in God's goodness toward him and his people. I know we can all relate to that at some level. Asaph is confessing here in this psalm what he experienced during his struggles with understanding the goodness of God.

Psalm 73:1 "Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart." So, in this first verse, we get the premise on which Asaph is writing about God's goodness. What he is saying is that, this truth: that God is good to Israel, means that because God is good to Israel, God's blessings would consistently and constantly be poured out on his people. On the contrary, the unrighteous could expect to not receive God's goodness, God's blessings, but they would receive lives filled with difficulty.

Now, there is an element of truth in that, as the scripture makes very clear. Disobedience to God can and does lead to difficulties in many different ways in people's lives. But, this is where the concept, our concept of God's goodness can become skewed, as it had with Asaph. IT WAS NEVER GOD'S INTENT THAT HIS PEOPLE WOULD LIVE FREE OF TESTING AND TRIALS. The word of God does not teach, as many believe a message of health and wealth for his people. In fact one scripture tells us we will suffer: 2 Timothy 3:12 "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution."

Now notice Asaph's confession in Psalm 73:2 "But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped." So, we see that Asaph had allowed himself to stray off course. He was so far from the truth that he came close to destruction; as he says, his steps had nearly slipped. He considered giving up the faith, so to speak, and forsaking the way of righteousness. Why would he do this?? In verse 3 we begin to see the answer. He said, verse 3 "For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

So, what Asaph is confessing here is that in his heart God's goodness wasn't what he expected it to be. He saw the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer loss. His faith was shaken because he misunderstood the goodness of God. He had a distorted perspective of how God works in people's lives. He was envious of the wicked. Can you imagine that? Unlike Lot whose righteous soul was vexed by this sin all about him, Asaph apparently wished he could be like the wicked. He did not hate their sin; he envied the success he saw in them.

Notice how he saw the wicked beginning in Psalm 73:4 "For they have no pains unto death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others. They are not stricken like the rest of mankind." You see, he saw the wicked as living lives that were carefree, that were free of the troubles that he and others seemed to face in their lives. He actually saw their lives as being better than his. Verse 6 "Therefore, their pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness. Their hearts overflow with folly; they scoff and speak with malice loftily; they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue struts through the earth."

You see, his distorted thinking that all the wicked lived lives of abundance that they denied themselves nothing that physical pleasures could bring. He thought they all were filled with pride and arrogance and boasting; filled with earthly wisdom and that they saw themselves as being the sum total of wisdom. He continues in verse 10 "Therefore, his people turn back to the wicked and they find no fault with them." (His people, Israel) They did not see the works of the wicked as they should have seen them. Verse 11 "And they say, 'How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?' Behold! These are the wicked always at ease; they increase in riches."

So again he believed the wicked live lives with absolutely no regard for God. They were satisfied with their own human efforts and accomplishments. They seem to dare God to give them any regard whatsoever. Asaph perceived their attitude as 'Who is God that He should rule over us?'

Psalm 73:13 "All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence." What Asaph is saying here that he, in his mind, deserved God's blessings and because of what he was suffering, he concluded that his righteous living had all been in vain. Obeying God seemed to have no value to Asaph. This is a terrible frame of mind to get into. You find Job had a similar attitude before his encounter with God.

Continuing in verse 14 "For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning." See how he felt about himself? It seems he viewed his suffering as actually coming from God. In his mind, God was punishing him for being godly. What we see him getting into is a frame of mind of self-pity. When we get into the attitude of self-pity it becomes almost impossible for us to see the goodness of God as God is attempting to plead with us to just trust in him. Asaph then makes his sweeping generalization about all the wicked, about how they all prosper while all the righteous (which included himself) suffer.

Asaph sees the world as being filled with arrogant people blaspheming God, even daring God to know or care about what they're doing. Because of his trials and his difficulties he was experiencing at this time, he had allowed his view of God and God's goodness to become distorted. But Asaph's view was wrong, as he finally came to realize before it was too late for him to turn his heart around.

Let's notice how this came about, because I think it's a valuable lesson for us. Psalm 73:15 "If I had said I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of my children." If we go back to verse 2, what did we read? He said, "My steps had nearly slipped." So, he had not allowed himself to firmly and fully believe what he had been thinking in his heart. He began to realize that his perspective of God's goodness was distorted. On the one hand he knew God was good to Israel; that was true and he believed that, yet what he witnessed around him was God's apparent goodness being given to the wicked. That was a great bother to him because he did not understand why this was the case. Notice what he said in Verse 16: "But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task." He questioned why, and he struggled to grasp why this was true. He struggled with it to the point that he had almost turned away from God.

WHAT WAS IT THAT HELPED ASAPH BEGIN TO REGAIN A RIGHT PERSPECTIVE? Verse 17: "Until I went into the sanctuary of God.” This is a beautiful expression of one receiving godly wisdom and insight into the amazing workings of God. You see Asaph turned to God with all his heart, soul, and mind; he turned to God to seek the answer to this troubling reality that weighed so heavily on his heart. One would have to conclude that Asaph seeking God included prayer, study, meditation, and the most important thing of all… repentance. This is no different from what we have to do when we are seeking understanding in our lives. The true wisdom and understanding must come from God.

Notice after Asaph set his heart to seek God, it says in Verse 17: "Then after I began to do this; then I discerned their end." He then began to realize what the end of the wicked was. He now viewed this temporary, physical prosperity of the wicked in light of God's eternal plan of salvation for all of mankind. He was beginning now to have God's worldview as his worldview.

Verse 18: "Truly you set them in slippery places, you make them to fall into ruin." Remember, he had almost allowed his feet to slip, his steps to slip. Now he realizes that God had placed the wicked in slippery places. He now saw that the unrepentant ones would ultimately be judged for what they do in this life.

Verse 19: "How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors", what does this mean? Well, Asaph realized without God's overseeing care, the demise of the wicked could come at any moment. The Bible uses the term 'sudden destruction'. They are consumed with terrors because the wicked, unlike the righteous are living their lives seemingly carefree and apart from God, but in reality they are filled with fear whether they admit it or not, of what will happen in the future because they don't have the truth that God has given his chosen right now. The truth of God that we have been blessed to receive frees us from so much fear in this life today and of fear of what tomorrow holds for us.

Verse 20: "Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord when you arouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms." There will come a time, as Asaph understood when God, here described as being asleep, seeming to just allow the wicked to go on with their lives with no consequences, will 'awaken' and deal with the wicked. They will disappear like a bad dream that a person does not want to bring back to their memory.

Verse 21: "When my soul was embittered" (This was the attitude that Asaph realized he had gotten into) "when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a wild beast before You". He begins now to see how foolish, how stupid he had actually been for what he had been thinking.

We see in these words here in verses 21 and 22, repentance, a heart of repentance coming forth from Asaph. He saw himself as he said here: no better than a wild beast in comparison to God. He was truly humbled now by the great goodness that God had shown him in his life.

Psalm 73:23 "Nevertheless" (here is the heart that Asaph now had) "I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory." He acknowledges now that his heart's desire is to be forever with the Father. He then receives what we can receive from our loving Father with our repentance, His mercy and his grace. We receive his assurance that He will always be with us and we receive the hope of eternal life in his family. Verse 25: "Whom have I in heaven but you and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. MY FLESH AND MY HEART MAY FAIL, BUT GOD IS THE STRENGTH OF MY HEART AND MY PORTION FOREVER."

Asaph, now more than ever realizes that apart from God he is nothing. Nothing in the universe can compare to a right relationship with God. Everything in this physical life will end, but with God we have the promise of an eternal inheritance. Verse 27: "For behold! Those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you." For those who reject God's offer of salvation, who are unfaithful in their worship of God, they will ultimately perish, never to be known again, the fate, hopefully, of very few.

So Asaph is able now to see how the prosperity of the wicked has in reality hardened their hearts toward God. They had allowed the riches and blessing that they enjoyed in this life to make them proud, arrogant, and independent of God. He now could see that his affliction, whatever it was, was really a source of blessing. His suffering and agony could draw him closer to God if he would allow it. Asaph would have no trouble understanding what James wrote many, many years later in James 1:2-4 "My brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect," (perfect means spiritually mature), "and complete, lacking nothing".

Allowing the goodness of God to be our strength through our trials brings to each of us a great reward. Spiritual maturity comes through being tried and tested. Like Asaph, we must know and believe that our struggles have a wonderful spiritual purpose. They lead us to a deeper intimacy with God and therefore they are worth all the agony and distress that we might have to endure.

Remember what Paul wrote in Philippians 3:8 "Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ."

Asaph came to understand the goodness of God in a different way. In verse one he understood God's goodness toward his people as meaning the absence of adversity, heartbreak and pain but now notice Psalm 73:28 "But for me it is good for me to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all thy works." Now Asaph saw the nearness to God, having an intimate fellowship with God, was God's greatest expression of his goodness.

James 4:8, instructs us. It says, "You draw near to God." That's something we have to do, draw near to God, and when we do, God will draw near to us. Whatever hinders our ability to fellowship with God, to worship him in spirit and truth is evil. Whatever draws us into a deeper fellowship with God is good.

Romans 8:28 assures us that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those called according to his purpose. God allows nothing to happen to his children that it is not good. Whatever comes into the lives of those who belong to Christ is part of his purpose to bring about our good and his glory. He uses every situation that you and I might endure for our good, because it is God's desire that He be our Father and that we be his sons and daughters.

So, whenever we are facing adversity in our lives, no matter what the source of that adversity might be… our confidence in God's goodness should never be diminished. Instead, we should be reassured of his goodness toward us.

2 Timothy 2:25, tells us it is God who grants us repentance and He does this because of his goodness. That goodness is revealed in no greater way than in the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ.

We commemorate that sacrifice each year at the Passover. We understand that repentance is at the heart and core of what we experience each year as we partake of the bread and wine, symbolizing the complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our individual sins. For us John 3:16 has tremendous meaning "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish" (as the wicked will do) "but have everlasting life."

God is truly good to his people, Israel, and just as God makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and unjust, He also extends his goodness to all of his creation. GOD IS TRULY GOOD!