Our knowledge of God affects our relationship with God and the way we live.
• And it is affected by: (1) HOW YOU SEE GOD
(2) HOW YOU THINK GOD SEES YOU
To really know Him, then we need to look at what God has revealed.
• The Bible mentioned 3 ways God reveals Himself – through nature, His Word and in the clearest form, Jesus Christ.
• I want to talk a little about nature –
Psalm 19:1-4
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
Rom 1:20
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 that men are without excuse.
By looking, observing and studying nature (creation – nature, animal, human), we can come to the understanding of the existence of God.
• That is the reason why many scientists and doctors are usually theists.
• It is really difficult for one to enjoy nature, study animals and the human body, and not see the hand of a Designer behind it.
• It takes more faith to believe that all these existed by random chance.
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But nature is not a complete revelation. We need God to speak. We need to get into His Word (revealed through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) and through Jesus Christ.
• The God we worship is a GOOD God. We are going to look at the GOODNESS of God today.
There is an old story about a Chinese man who lived on the border of China and Mongolia. In those days, there was constant conflict along the border. The man had a beautiful horse, but one day she leaped over the fence and ran across the border, and was captured by the Mongolians. His friends came to comfort him – “That’s bad,” they said.
“What makes you think it’s bad?” asked the Chinese man. “Maybe it’s good.”
A few days later, the horse came back into his farm, bringing with it a beautiful snow-white stallion. His friends crowded around, “That’s good!”
The old man asked, “What makes you think it is good? Maybe it is bad.”
Later that week, his son was riding the stallion, trying to tame it. He was thrown off and he broke his leg. The neighbours came. “That’s bad,” they cried.
“What makes you think it is bad?” asked the Chinese man. “Maybe it’s good.”
The next week, war broke out with Mongolia, and a Chinese army general came through town drafting all the young men for the war. He took them all, except for the young man who couldn’t go because his leg was broken.
The Chinese man said to his friends, “You see, the things you thought were bad turned out good; and the things you thought were good turned out bad.”
Everything is circumstantial to them. But God cannot be understood from the circumstances.
• God is good, because His character is such. It is His nature, it is His being.
• God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.
How do I know that? He reveals Himself that way – through the Scriptures.
• God’s goodness is taught and implied on every book of the Bible.
• God’s goodness is proven through the acts of God in history, through His dealings with His people.
I have chosen Jeremiah 29:10-14 to highlight the goodness of God.
10 This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."
(1) God’s goodness is a FAVOUR
It is not dependent on you. It flows from His very nature.
• It is unmerited and spontaneous. You cannot buy it, you cannot earn it; it is God’s kindness bestowed to men freely.
• “I will come to you and fulfil my GRACIOUS promise.” You see similar expressions many times in the Scriptures. Particularly in the prophetic books, you’ll read lots of “I will” statements.
• It is not a blessing deserved by the Israelites, but a favour granted to them.
“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matt 5:45-46)
• In other words, God never gives in order to get. His goodness towards you isn’t condition nor manipulative. God wants to be good to you, period.
• He says, “I want to bless you and give you a meaningful life, not because you deserve it, but because there is something about me that would bring me great joy in being good to you.”
God thinks that way because THAT IS WHO HE IS. He is just being Himself when He is good to you.
• A. W. Tozer (1897-1963): “Divine goodness is self-caused, infinite, perfect, and eternal. Since God is immutable He never varies in the intensity of His loving-kindness. He has never been kinder than He now is, nor will He ever be less kind. He is no respecter of persons but makes His sun to shine on the evil as well as on the good, and sends His rain on the just and on the unjust. The cause of His goodness is in Himself, the recipients of His goodness are all His beneficiaries without merit and without recompense.”
Imagine God thinking of you this way, like a loving father towards his child. Not just sometimes, but all the time.
• We are the object of His affection. And there is no change to that, forever!
• Don’t you feel like DRAWING near to Him? The right view of God will draws us to Him.
(2) God’s goodness DRAWS us to Him
We drift from God because we have not gotten the RIGHT view of God. We need fresh revelations of God. We need to see that God is good, in the midst of our pain and suffering.
The Lord says, “When we know that I have good plans for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you, to give you a hope and future, THEN you will call upon Me.”
• This is revealing… ONLY THEN, will I call upon Him.
• It is this realization that will bring me to Him; this understanding of His goodness that will motivate me to draw near.
• When we see, remember, and comprehend the goodness of God, a revival takes place in our hearts. I will not draw near to someone I am suspicious of, but I will give my life for someone is has my good at heart!
Moses really wanted to know God, and made this very daring request in Exo 33:18-20.
33:18 Moses said, "Now show me your glory."
19And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."
21Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen."
• You will die if you see my righteous glory, my face. But you can still see a part of me.
• “I will cause all MY GOODNESS to pass in front of you… you will see my back…”
• It seems that God’s goodness is the next closest thing you can see of God. If you can see His goodness, you are as close as seeing God himself.
Do you want to really see God? See His goodness. Think about His goodness.
• Count your blessings. Remember what He has given you.
• If He has given us 5 days of sunshine and 1 rainy day, thank Him for 10 good days.
• If He has helped you passed 5 subjects but failed 1, don’t grumble about that one failure. Give thanks for the 5 good results.
• If He has given you 5 friends and 1 who is always against you, thank God for the 5 good friends.
HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO GOD’S GOODNESS?
(1) REST in His Goodness
Psalm 31:19-20
19 How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.
20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues.
There is a picture here. Life is hard. Bad things happen to good people. We cannot deny them, but we need not be affected by them.
• In God we find a refuge, a shelter, a safe dwelling. We hide in the GOOD in the midst of the BAD.
• You can CHOOSE to do that. His goodness will see us through. But in the meantime, we will REST in His goodness – we wait, we pray, we enjoy His protection.
I do not know all the specifics of God’s will – why this happens, why that happens – but I do know (as the psalmist says) ‘how great is His goodness that He has stored up for me, my loved ones, for those who fear Him!’
• In my suffering, I’ll rest there. He is an eternal God with an eternal plan.
• He does not always work things out this side of heaven the way I want Him to, but I can count on this – He is good! His goodness is awesome! And I need to see that!
(2) RELY on His Goodness
Psalm 84:11-12
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favour and honour;
no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
12 O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
He is the One who provides you light and energy, protects you, and bestows favour and honour, and gives you the assurance that He will NOT withhold any GOOD thing from you.
• See God’s goodness and we can face life with confidence.
• The promise is clear – it is for those who fear Him, for those whose walk is blameless, who trusts God. The choice is clear – walk out on God and you are on your own.
• Do life God’s way and you will enjoy His goodness.
• Life becomes good when you understand that God is good.
Chip Ingram shared this testimony:
He once met a young woman who had just been through a messy divorce. The husband had left her for another woman. The situation was bad and he was not sure if he could offer her much comfort.
“As we talked about her future, she displayed a sense of calm that caught me by surprise. She hadn’t been a Christian very long, and she didn’t have an impressive amount of Bible knowledge. Her life, in fact, had been marked by repeated experiences of extreme pain and disappointment. But when I asked her about her situation, she answered in an unexpected way.
“I know life may be hard,” she said, “but things will be great for my children and for me. I don’t understand it all, but I know what God is like. I know he would never do anything to hurt me, and I know he has a great plan for us.”
It wasn’t so much the words she said – although they were profound – but the sense of confidence that flowed with her statement. It was almost as if she had just walked out of an adjoining room where she had enjoyed a personal conversation with God, who had assured her that all was well. She was convinced that her future looked bright even though her present was filled with pain and questions. She knew something more real than her immediate suffering.
This young woman’s biblical knowledge may have been limited, but what she knew was pure gold. She understood with all her heart that God is good. She is like a beautiful tree standing in the midst of a harsh, desert landscape. Everything around her looks ruined, yet she thrives. She is so alive that she looks out of place. She is filled with life because her roots tap into an underground river – the goodness of God!
God takes delight in being good to you. We can REST in His goodness. We can RELY on His goodness.
PRAY: Thank God for being good to us.
