Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 2 as we look at the goodness of God because many people have a misconception regarding this attribute of God or may even doubt it as they look at the things that are happening around them. And that truly is a big issue, for as people look at the world today they do wonder what has happened with the goodness of God. As they look at their own lives and think about all they have gone through or are going through right now, they may wonder, you may wonder where the goodness of God went because you are not seeing it in your life right now!
I truly believe that in each of our hearts, as Christians, we believe in a good God even though at times that thought may be buried deep in our hearts. And yet, as we think about the goodness of God how shallow our understanding of His goodness we have, especially when we see many things that seem to deny it, and we then become overwhelmed. I think Corrie Ten Boom truly clarifies this issue for us as she said the following regarding the goodness of God towards us:
Often I have heard people say, “How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!” Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart.
I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. “No, Corrie,” said Betsie, “He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: ‘For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear him.’” [Psalm 103:11]. Corrie concluded by saying, “There is an ocean of God’s love available – there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love – whatever the circumstances.”
- Corrie Ten Boom
Thus, we are going to look into God’s Word and see what His goodness is all about, what it does in our lives. With that said let’s begin reading in Romans chapter 2 starting in verse 4 and see what the Lord has for us this morning.
As Paul starts out he is speaking of people who “despise the riches of His goodness” which speaks of neglecting or thinking against the goodness of God. And here Paul is saying that they have perverted God’s goodness, they have abused it, and they have come to a faulty conclusion because of it. You see, because God did not judge them immediately for their sin they saw God condoning their actions, that they were okay, they were innocent before God. It is as Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
Peter also spoke of this issue in II Peter 3:3-4, “knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’” Because of God’s rich goodness towards man, man uses it to continue on in his evil ways instead of allowing it to draw him to God!
God’s goodness, CHRESTOTES (khray-stot'-ace) in the Greek, speaks of His moral excellence, it is good, it is right, it is perfect, there is no darkness or evil in God at all, only goodness! It is as Paul said in Ephesians, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ . . .In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace . . . the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.” Ephesians 1:3, 7, 18-19.
But man has despised the goodness of God and that has allowed them to come to the conclusion that all these blessings that God is bestowing upon them means they are doing fine, they are not guilty before God. That, of course, is a wrong concept of God for God allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust not to keep them in the state they are in but to draw them to Him!
Paul not only speaks of the richness of God’s goodness but also the richness of His forbearance, ANOCHE (an-okh-ay') in the Greek, which speaks of self-restraint, tolerance. God is holding back or restraining His displeasure against sin. Think about that, God is holy, He is righteous and the minute a person sins He would have every right to destroy that person but instead He holds back or restrains His judgment – why? Because His desire is to see you saved!
From there Paul speaks of the richness of God’s longsuffering, MAKROTHUMIA (mak-roth-oo-mee'-ah) in the Greek which speaks of a slowness to anger, patience. Again, the idea is that God spares people from death because of their sin, a death they deserve because God is longsuffering. Peter tells us in II Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Why is God longsuffering? Because He wants all to come to Him for the forgiveness of their sins, the tragedy is, all won’t but all do have the opportunity!
Maybe you heard the story of the Atheist who said, “If there is a God, may He prove Himself by striking me dead right now!” When nothing happened to him, he boasted, “See, I told you there is no God!” His friend responded back by saying, “My friend, you have only proved that He is a gracious God!” How true that is! Without God we would just fall apart, become a blob of chemicals but as Paul said, “. . . He gives to us all life, breath, and all things.” Acts 17:25.
Then, back in Romans 2:4, Paul says, “not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” That phrase, “not knowing” speaks of a willful, voluntary ignorance. You see, they know that God exists, they suppress that truth. They know of His goodness, but they choose to ignore it, while all the while God continues to pour out His goodness upon their lives in order that they might repent, METANOIA in the Greek, which speaks of turning around, turning back to God, a change of mind, a turning from sin.
That is God’s desire but man, because of his hard heart towards what God is doing, is treasuring up, by their evil practices, the wrath of God upon their lives that will come to pass, they will see the judgment of God if they don’t repent as Peter tells us, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” II Peter 3:10-13.
Or as John tells us in Revelation 6:12-17, speaking of the sixth seal judgment and the wrath of God upon a Christ rejecting world, “I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’” And the idea is that no one will be able to stand before a holy and righteous God apart from Christ, no one will be able to stand the wrath of God, they will not be able to escape it apart from Christ!
The thing is, how can we believe in, how can we serve a God who is suppose to be full of goodness, who is suppose to be kind when we see people die young, all kinds of diseases, tragedies in the lives of so many people, all kinds of suffering, all kinds of wars? That is a great question the only problem with that is you are looking at the goodness of God with the wrong perspective. You see, His goodness is based upon who He is and truly what He has given to us – HIS FORBEARANCE, HIS LONGSUFFERING!
Think of the goodness of God like this. A holy and righteous God became flesh and dwelt among us, our Immanuel – God with us! He was tempted with sin as Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin.” The King of Kings and Lord of Lords was mocked, beaten, His beard was plucked out, His face was so badly beaten that Isaiah tells us that He no longer looked like a man, He was flogged and finally crucified for one reason – YOU! If that does not show the goodness of God then nothing will. You see, sin separated us from God but Jesus came to be the mediator between God and man by paying in full the penalty for all our sins so that we could become the righteousness of God in Him!
It is as Paul tells us regarding Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
You see the goodness of God in the cross of Calvary and Paul explains this to us once again in Ephesians 3:16-21, where he says “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
What is the love of Christ that passes human knowledge? It is the width, the length, the depth and the height; it is the cross as I have said. It is hard for us to imagine dying for someone who deserves our help, but Christ died for us when we were still sinners, totally unworthy of His love and yet, that is how much He loves us – His arms are stretched out wide to embrace you – THE GOODNESS OF GOD!
But what about the evil in this world? Can’t God do anything about it? Or does God not care about the evil in the world? Or is God the one who created evil in the first place? First of all God does intervene as He wills and yes He hates evil, in fact He sent His Son to pay the debt for our sins so that one day, not only man but this world will be cleansed of sin, cleansed of evil, all of creation! Paul put it this way in Romans 8:20-23, “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
Evil will be done away with, righteousness will fill this land, and all creation will be redeemed from this evil. But the question still remains, if God is a God of love, if God is a God of goodness, then why is there so much evil in the world? First of all God did not create evil as some would like to have you believe. Let me illustrate this for you with this story and I think you will have a good grasp of what evil is all about.
At a certain college there was a professor with a reputation for being tough on Christians. At the first class every semester he asked if anyone was a Christian and preceded to degrade and mock their statement of faith.
One semester he asked a question and a young man raised his hand when asked if anyone was a Christian. The professor asked “Did God make everything young man?” “Yes He did sir” the young man replied. The professor responded “If God made everything then God made evil. And if we can only create within ourselves, then God is evil.” The student didn’t have a response and the professor was happy to have once again proved the Christian faith to be a myth.
Then another man raised his hand and asked “May I ask you something sir?” “Yes you may” responded the professor. The young man stood up and said “Sir, is there such a thing as cold?” “Of course there is! What kind of question is that? Haven’t you ever been cold?” The young man replied, “Actually sir, cold does not exist. What we consider to be cold is really the absence of heat. Absolute zero is when there is absolutely no heat. But cold does not really exist; we have only created that term to describe how we feel when heat is not there.”
The young man continued, “Sir is there such a thing as dark?” Once again the professor responded “Of course there is!” And once again the student replied “Darkness does not exist. Darkness is really only the absence of light. Darkness is only a term man developed to describe what happens when no light is present.”
Finally the young man asked, “Sir is there such a thing as evil?” The professor responded, “Of course! We have rapes and murders and violence everywhere in the world. Those things are evil!” The student replied, “Actually sir, evil does not exist. Evil is simply the absence of God. Evil is a term man developed to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. It isn’t like truth or love which exists as virtues like heat and light. Evil is simply the state in which God is not present, like cold without heat and darkness without light.” The professor had nothing to say!
Do you see the point that he made? God did not create evil it is just the state of man who is apart from God and their evil then touches many lives, all those they come in contact with! That is the correct perspective to have on evil. You see, when God judges man for His rejection of Jesus, the Savior of the world, it is not evil, it is a righteous judgment. Thus, we all deserve death, but because of the richness of God’s goodness, the richness of His forbearance, the richness of His longsuffering, His judgment is delayed to give you a chance to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior and thus, this judgment of God is not for you, as Paul tells us in I Thessalonians 5:9, “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
But still, there are times when we are not overcome by the goodness of God but by the situations we find ourselves in. And as we dwell upon those things the goodness of God gets farther and farther from our grasps, we lose the perspective that God is good, even getting angry at Him for what has happened to us!
I can tell you, from my own personal experience, how a situation was overwhelming me, I was losing the perspective of the goodness of God. This happened some 10 years ago or so as my wife was experiencing some major health problems after she had a very bad allergic reaction to the drug Sulfa. It was so bad that the doctors in Illinois weren’t sure what to do anymore so they sent her to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to see if they could figure out what was going on, to give them some insight on how to treat her.
So off we went, the only problem was I had almost no vacation time from work. So I drove Julie up on the weekend and I had to drive back down so I could get back to work. It was a 5 to 6 hour drive back home and one of the hardest things that I have ever done in my life, which may seem strange but it was true. You see, I had to leave my sick wife, all alone in a hotel, waiting to see the doctors on Monday morning!
I don’t know how much my wife knows regarding how broken I was because I tried to keep a smile on my face as I left. I didn’t want to make it harder for her than it already was. And as soon as I left and was out of Julie’s sight, tears welled up in my eyes. I couldn’t understand why I had to leave, why God would leave her all alone, over 300 miles away from me! And as I drove the Lord spoke to my heart and He told me that she was not alone nor would He ever leave her alone. He was with her and He loved her more than I could ever love her, more than I could ever know.
Well, the tears of sorrow now turned to tears of joy, peace filled my heart, I saw the goodness of God and I just thanked Him and praised Him for His goodness, for His love not only toward me but more importantly, towards my wife! And you know what God also did, He sent one of Julie’s girlfriends up to stay with her, she was like an angel sent from heaven! The goodness of God!
Jon Courson tells us the following regarding what happened to him that was overwhelming and yet the goodness of God was always with him. He said:
On our way to a day of skiing at Mt. Bachelor, in the spring of 1982, I told my wife Terry, a joke. We laughed, and then suddenly our car hit ice, spun around and hit a redwood tree. My beautiful wife died right next to me. We were both 29. The next thing I remember is crawling down Highway 42 about a half-mile from the wreck on my hands and knees. Being very early morning, no cars were on the road. The first car that came stopped, and the driver called an ambulance. I don’t remember anything after that until I was in the ambulance.
“How’s my wife?” I asked.
“She’s doing fine,” said the ambulance attendant.
“No,” I said. “She’s in heaven.”
“You’re right,” he said. “She’s not with us any longer.”
At that moment, something happened to me that had only happened a few times in my life. I heard what seemed to be an audible voice, speaking to me a verse I had never heard: “I know the thoughts I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to bring you to a glorious end.” After that, I drifted into unconsciousness.
In the hospital, the voice on the other end of the phone was Chuck Smith’s, saying, “Jon, I have one thing to share with you. God would say: I know the thoughts I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to bring you to a glorious end.” The very verse I had heard in the ambulance was now being spoken into my ear by my pastor.
I clung to God’s promise of Jeremiah 29:11 that first hour after Terry had been taken. And for the following three years as Christy, not yet two: Jessie, just three; and Peter John, almost five; were carried along with me into a foreign land of new experiences, God proved to be faithful to his Word. . .
Recently, the woman sitting next to me on the flight home from Chicago, where I had been speaking at a Men’s Retreat, was planning to move from Cape Cod to the Oregon Coast.
“Is Gold Beach like Boston?” she asked.
“No,” I said, “there’s quite a big difference between the two,” and went on to share with her the blessings of living in Oregon. “It’s a great place to raise a family,” I continued. “In fact, I just happen to have some pictures of my family with me,” I said, opening my backpack.
“These are my kids, and this is my beautiful wife,” I said proudly. “The Lord has blessed me so much with her. She’s absolutely perfect for me.” And as I continued to talk about my family, tears came to my eyes because the photographs I held in my hand were pictures not only of Tammy and the kids, but of the expected end to which God had so lovingly, graciously, and faithfully brought us.
For over 40 years, Jeremiah faithfully proclaimed this word from God to His people: The Babylonians are coming and will carry you away to a foreign land. Yet, although the people rejected Jeremiah’s message in favor of those who predicted peace and prosperity, the Lord continued to speak through him, saying, “When you find yourselves in the land of Babylon, I don’t want you to be confused. I want you to know that My thoughts towards you are not of evil, but of peace – to bring you to a certain end.
- Jon Courson, A Future And A Hope, pp. 175-177
Folks, I can tell you how God comforts the brokenhearted, how He lifts the downcast, His goodness, but if you have never experienced it for yourself, it will be hard for you to understand. The Psalmist said in Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” And in the Living Bible I am going to read from Psalm 34:8-10 and listen carefully to what the Psalmist is saying. We read, “Oh, put God to the test and see how kind he is! See for yourself the way his mercies shower down on all who trust in him. If you belong to the Lord, reverence him; for everyone who does this has everything he needs. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those of us who reverence the Lord will never lack any good thing.”
I can tell you that the Caramel Peanut Crunch is filled with streams of sweet caramel swirled into fresh vanilla custard and tossed with Spanish peanuts and waffle cone pieces is out of this world! Or how the Caramel Cashew is legendary – filled with fresh creamy vanilla custard swirled with streams of sweet caramel and loaded with lightly salted cashew splits! But unless you taste and see for yourself, you will never know how good it really is! And by the way, the flavor of the day at Culver’s is Just Drummy! I bet we have a good size group going out to lunch today at Culver’s!
Anyway, before I see a stampede for the door, the same is true with the Lord, you must taste and see, you must experience the goodness of God yourself and then you can share that goodness with others so they might go and taste and see that the Lord is good! You see, it is one thing to read about the goodness of God, but it is truly another thing to experience the goodness of God yourself. Taste and see that the Lord is good!
In Lamentations 3:21-26 Jeremiah tells us, and this is from The Living Bible, “Yet there is one ray of hope: his compassion never ends. It is only the Lord's mercies that have kept us from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day. My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him, to those who seek for him. It is good both to hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”
As I close this morning may you never forget that God is good and His goodness should cause us to serve Him, a service that is done out of love, not the law, to surrender our lives to Him as we see here with this story of the faithful missionary:
One of God’s faithful missionaries, Allen Gardiner, experienced many physical difficulties and hardships throughout his service to the Savior. Despite his troubles, he said, “While God gives me strength, failure will not daunt me.”
In 1851, at the age of 57, he died of disease and starvation while serving on Picton Island at the southern tip of South America. When his body was found, his diary lay nearby. It bore the record of hunger, thirst, wounds, and loneliness. The last entry in his little book showed the struggle of his shaking hand as he tried to write legibly. It read, “I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God.”
- Source Unknown
May we be overwhelmed with the goodness of God as we go forth and serve Him, as we live our daily lives knowing that His loving arms are wrapped around us, that He is leading us, that He has good for us, which may not be what we think we need, but He knows best! Remember our opening story regarding Corrie Ten Boom as she doubted the goodness of God, that God had forgotten them as she and her sister were in a German concentration camp, “No, Corrie,” said Betsie, “He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: ‘For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear him.’” [Psalm 103:11]. Corrie concluded by saying, “There is an ocean of God’s love available – there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love – whatever the circumstances.” May we not forget the goodness of God or allow circumstances in our lives to cover up, cloud over the goodness of God, for it is always there if we would only look for it!