The God of Infinite Goodness

Review and the Third Assertion Introduced

0:00 Our study in the Word of God this morning is the fifth in a series which I have entitled Here We Stand. And looking out this morning I see visitors whom we certainly do welcome in the name of Christ and are glad for your presence among us and particularly for your sake or your sakes, I will very briefly try to give you some indication of where we've been in the previous four studies, and then move immediately into the area of concern for this morning. The substance of this series of messages is basically that of a brief overview of what we

0:48 as a congregation of God's people believe and confess to be our understanding of the Word of God. Here we stand. This is, in that sense, a manifesto, a public declaration of the fundamental principles by which we seek to live and work as a people of God. My goal in bringing this series is to confirm those of you who have been with us for some time in your understanding of and commitment to these truths, more simply to confirm the old-timers.

1:26 It is to initiate those of you who are new among us, who come from various backgrounds, both in terms of your general experience and religious exposure, and we want to initiate you into the essential pivots around which all of our life turns and moves as the people of God. And then thirdly, to inform those of you who are looking on from the outside, wondering what we're all about and what we're up to. We have nothing to hide. It is our joy to say, here we stand.

1:59 This is what we understand to be the truth of the Word of God. Thus far, we've introduced two areas under this general theme, here we stand. First of all, the book we believe and obey, which was a study in what we understand the Scriptures to be, the inspired Word of God, authoritative, regulative in all of its directions, the infallible revelation of the mind and will of God to his creatures. And now the second major category with which we are concerned is that of the God whom we worship and confess.

2:37 For upon opening this book that comes from God, we discover that its central theme is the being and works of that great God who has given the book. The great theme is not man nor the devil, but God himself. He is introduced to us in the opening words of that book, in the beginning God. And right down through to the last words, It is the unfolding of that God in his works and ways, particularly with reference to sinful men.

3:13 And thus far we have discovered from the Scriptures concerning that God, that there is but one true and living God, and that that God is a God of absolute perfection in himself, in his attributes, in his ways and works. Secondly, he is a God of unrivaled sovereignty. That is, he wills constrained and coerced by none, and then he performs restrained and hindered by none. He is the God who works all things after the counsel of his own will, Ephesians 1.11.

3:50 Well, that's all we're going to do for review. I'm sorry. You may be thinking, well, what did you mean by this and that? and I just commend to you to get the tapes and listen to the detailed unfolding of these things.

4:02 We come now this morning to the third assertion concerning this one true and living God. He is revealed to us in Scripture not only as the God of absolute perfection, the God of unrivaled sovereignty, but as the God of infinite goodness. In contemplating God as a God of unrivaled sovereignty We beheld the one true and living God Father, Son, and Spirit As seated upon a throne In contemplating God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit As a God of infinite goodness We are looking into the heart of Him Who sits upon the throne

4:49 There is progression in our study. From the contemplation of an enthroned God, we now seek to penetrate something of the mystery of what is the heart of that God like. That He holds a scepter of absolute sovereignty, that He wields that scepter hindered by none, the Scriptures are clear. but what is the heart behind the hand that is upon the scepter and the scriptures reveal that that heart is a heart of infinite goodness now at the very outset let me say that I'm aware more than anyone else is in this building this morning of the difficulties and the technicalities connected with this aspect of biblical revelation

Method: Assertions, Definition, Manifestations, Inferences

5:41 If I were giving a theological lecture, I should first of all acquaint you with some of the issues involved. Some of the theologians contemplate the goodness of God as a general heading under which they would range such things as His love, His grace, His mercy, etc. The great theologian Shedd does this. I always wondered why in the definition of God in the shorter catechism, love was not mentioned as one of His attributes.

6:08 Does that ever bother you? What is God? God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. It always bothered me why they didn't put love in there.

6:21 Well, I believe the answer is they shared that theological conviction that under the goodness of God were ranged his love, his mercy, and his grace. And this is precisely how some of the theologians treat the subject. Well, I say if I were giving a theological lecture, I would acquaint you with all of that material and the pros and cons, etc. But my purpose is not to give a theological lecture this morning.

6:46 Rather, it is to set before you some of the broad biblical concepts so that our hearts will run out with intelligent praise to God for His infinite goodness, that we shall be overwhelmed and brought to new dimensions of repentance because of that goodness. Now, how in the world can we in so brief a time even begin to set forth the biblical witness to the infinite goodness of God? Well, my attempt will follow these four lines of consideration. First of all, we shall consider several clear assertions of the goodness of God in the Old and the New Testaments.

7:26 In other words, we're going to look at some texts and examine what they assert concerning the goodness of God. Then secondly, we'll make an effort at obtaining or constructing a working definition of the goodness of God. And then the bulk of our study will be taken up with the third line of thought to trace out some of the manifestations of the goodness of God. And then as time permits, to consider some of the practical inferences derived from this teaching.

Old Testament Assertions: Exodus 33-34 and Psalms

7:55 First of all then, the assertions of Scripture concerning the goodness of God. We shall look first of all to the Old Testament. And the passage to which I would direct your attention is the book of Exodus, chapter 33, and then on into chapter 34. You remember the setting.

8:20 Moses is receiving the two tables of stone from God. He's in the mount and the people of God sin in his absence under the weak leadership of Aaron. Moses comes down from the mount, beholds this, and is full of anger. The Lord manifests his displeasure by withdrawing his presence.

8:41 Moses takes the place of an intercessor and pleads with God on behalf of the people and says, in essence, God, if you don't bring back your presence, I'll not lead this people. I cannot lead them without your presence. And so he prays in the 33rd verse, I'm sorry, chapter 33 and verse 13. Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I found favor in thy sight, show me thy ways, that I may know thee, to the end that I may find favor in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people.

9:14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, that is Moses said unto God, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Then his prayer advances, For wherein now shall it be known that I have found favor in thy sight, I and thy people? Is it not that thou goest with us, so that we are separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are from the face of the earth.

9:40 In other words, he says, Lord, the one distinguishing mark is that you're with us, that your presence is manifested to us. Any old group of people can build a center of worship and can set up a rubric of worship and ceremony and all the rest. But Lord, if you draw near sovereignly and graciously and visibly, that will set us apart as a totally unique people, which was one of the elements of the promise that God gave in his covenant to his people that he would dwell among them. And then God goes on, verse 17, And Jehovah said unto Moses, I will do this thing that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found favor in my sight, and I know thee by name.

10:23 Now Moses' prayer reaches its height of spiritual desire. And he said, that is Moses, Show me, I pray thee, thy glory. Oh Lord, I have the assurance of your presence. I've been in the mount with you 40 days and nights, but oh God, I want to penetrate deeper into the mystery of your essential glory.

10:48 What you are, the outshining of your perfections. What a prayer for the man of God to pray. Show me thy glory. Now notice the answer of God, verse 19.

10:58 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. Show me thy glory that is the outshining of the perfections of your person.

11:15 God's answer is, I will make all not my glory but my goodness pass before thee. and will proclaim the name of Jehovah before thee, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And then God goes on to qualify the manner in which this revelation will come. And then the record of that revelation of His glory equal to His goodness is given to us in chapter 34, verse 6, or verse 5, And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

11:56 And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation. What is all of this? It is the manifestation of God's glory which is the setting forth of His goodness. Show me thy glory. God's answer is, I'll make all my goodness to pass before thee.

12:38 And in what does God's goodness consist? All the display of all of His glorious attributes of mercy and of loving kindness and of justice that punishes the wicked. All of these things are manifestations of His goodness. So God is inherently good.

13:03 It is what we would call an essential aspect of His own being. Therefore, we should not be surprised to hear the proclamation upon the lips of psalmist and prophet throughout the Old Testament extolling God as the God of inherent goodness. Just a couple of quick examples from the Psalms. Psalm 86 and verse 5.

13:31 For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive and abundant in loving kindness unto all them that call upon thee. The 100th Psalm, so familiar to many of us. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Serve the Lord with gladness.

13:52 In the light of what things are we thus to come before Him? Well, we're told in verse 5, For the Lord is good. Come before Him with praise and with adoration and worship and songs of joy. Why?

14:05 Because of what God is in Himself. The Lord is good. Psalm 106, verse 1. Praise the Lord.

14:14 Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. for He is good, for His loving kindness endureth forever. Psalm 107 and verse 1. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His loving kindness endureth forever.

14:30 We could quote many references. Take your concordance and just look up the word good in the Psalms and you find again and again and again there is this celebration of the goodness of God. You find it upon the lips of prophet Jeremiah 33, 11. Nahum 1 7 the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble It is accurate to say that woven into the fabric of the consciousness of the pious Israelite that is the one who was a true worshiper was this awareness that Jehovah in his essential inherent being was a God of infinite goodness.

New Testament Assertion: Mark 10:18

15:12 Well, what of the New Testament? Stephen Charnock, the great Puritan theologian who wrote 125 pages of fine print on this theme, the goodness of God, begins his treatise by expounding that statement of our Lord Jesus Christ found in Mark chapter 10 and verse 18. When the rich young ruler came to our Lord and called him good master, our Lord responds by saying, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one God.

15:45 Mark 10 and verse 18. Why callest thou me good? None is good save one, even God.

15:57 Now without going into the problems of interpretation, suffice it to say that the Lord Jesus is not denying his Godhead in this passage. But for our purposes, what we want to see in the passage is that our Lord makes two fundamental assertions about God. One is that God is essentially and immutably good. There is none good but God.

16:20 At every point that God has been God, He has been good. It is a characteristic that inheres to His very existence and being as God. The second assertion is that none but God possesses this quality or attribute. There is none good but God.

16:41 He is essentially, eternally, and immutably good. But no one shares in that essential, immutable, and infinite goodness that God is and that God possesses. And so the goodness of God is affirmed by Him who is truth incarnate in this very simple and yet powerful statement. There is none good but God.

17:06 Now you say, Pastor Martin, why get so excited about all of this? Well, for the simple reason, my friends. The only worship God seeks is worship in spirit and in truth. God's not in the business of just wanting people, quote, go to church and do something that bears something of a resemblance to something called worship.

17:25 Our Lord says the Father seeks a people to worship Him in spirit and in truth. That is according to reality. And if the God whom we worship is the God who can say to Moses, In showing you my glory, I will make all my goodness to pass before thee. If the God whom we worship is the God revealed in Jesus Christ, the God concerning whom Christ himself said, There is none good but God.

17:52 If the psalmist would stir us up again and again, all that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. then you see our worship is not God-pleasing worship unless it has as an integral part of that worship a self-conscious awareness of the goodness of God.

18:16 And if you are concerned at all about rendering acceptable worship to God, then you must be concerned about knowing something and having some definitive concepts of what the goodness of God is. And then of course the second reason is In our proclamation of God One of the great privileges and tasks of the church To say to people, behold your God That proclamation is not accurate Unless it not only declares that this God is a God of infinite and absolute perfection A God of unrivaled sovereignty But we must also proclaim with equal vigor and clarity that this God who is perfect and is sovereign is the God of infinite goodness as well.

19:10 Well then, having looked very briefly at some of the fundamental assertions of His goodness in the Old and the New Testaments, how shall we try to conceive of the goodness of God as far as a definition is concerned? Well, Charnock again is a help when he writes, By goodness is meant the bounty of God. When we say of a certain person he's a good man, we mean one of two things. Either he is a holy man, that has reference to his character Godward, or we mean that he's a benevolent and kind man to others.

19:42 He's a good man, that is, he does good to his fellow men. Now, when the goodness of God is set before us in Scripture, it is speaking most frequently of this second aspect. that is not so much what God is in Himself, but what God is in relationship to His creatures and His creation. Quoting from Charnock again, the goodness of God is His inclination to deal well and bountifully with all of His creation.

20:18 Goodness in relation to His creatures and His creation is that perfection of God whereby He delights in His works and is beneficial to them. Now do you see why many range the mercy, the benevolence, the grace of God under goodness? Benevolence is goodness manifested to all His creation. Mercy is goodness manifested to those who are in a state of misery.

20:48 Love and grace are goodness manifested to particular sinners in seeking and securing their salvation. Now obviously you see there is overlapping and interpenetration in all these aspects of the character of God. But I believe we are safe in thinking when we think of the goodness of God. of that perfection in God, whereby He delights in His works and is beneficial to them.

21:21 He is inclined to deal well and bountifully with all of His creation. Now let's leave formal definition and come to the heart of our study this morning, the manifestations of the goodness of God. Where the Scriptures are stingy in yielding the materials for formal definitions of the goodness of God, and for you advanced students where they are stingy in giving to us the materials for metaphysical or philosophical concepts of the goodness of God. Stingy there.

Working Definition of Divine Goodness

21:57 Ah, but listen. The Scriptures are prodigal. That is, generous and lavish in living descriptions of and manifestations of the goodness of God. So if you've been a little bit weary trying to hang in there with the formal definitions, I hope you'll perk up now as we turn to the manifestations of the goodness of God.

22:21 For the goodness of God is a truth taught to us not so much by formal or philosophical definition and description, but by living manifestation from Genesis to Revelation. Now how can we hold it all together? Well, I suggested last week, when we try to hold together the great bulk of biblical materials relative to the sovereignty of God, it is convenient to think of His sovereignty in three realms. Creation, what He makes.

22:49 Providence, how He takes care of what He makes. And grace, what He does to some of the creatures whom He made who turned away from Him. Well, let's follow that same outline. Let us behold the manifestations of the goodness of God in the realms of creation, providence, and grace.

Manifestations of Goodness in Creation

23:07 First of all, then, in the realm of creation. Turn, please, to Genesis chapters 1 and 2.

23:18 With but one exception, that being verses 6 through 8, a record of the second day of creation. after each epoch or day segment of the creative activity there is this description of what God feels and I use the term properly how God himself reacts to his own work verse 4 of Genesis 1 and God saw the light that it was not beautiful but that it was good. Now it was beautiful. It was a lot of other things.

24:01 But when you put all the things that it was together God says it was good. They have the same thing again in verse 10. And God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters called he the seas and God saw that it was good. Verse 12.

24:17 And God saw that it was good. And verse 18. and God saw that it was good. And the latter part of verse 21, God saw that it was good.

24:28 The latter part of verse 25, and God saw that it was good. And then when He's done with the whole thing and the crowning work of His creation, man Himself, verse 31, and God saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good. In other words, the creation was above all else according to this record, a monument of the goodness of God. Now think of what went into creation.

24:59 There was this interplay and harmonious exercise of almighty power, and God said, let there be. And out of nothing it came to be. What an exercise of power! the God who brings galaxies into existence by the word of His mouth.

25:22 There's the interplay of power, certainly of wisdom, with all the advanced technology of the 20th century, of our present day, and computers and instruments to analyze distances in the expanse and in the intensity of the atom. we stand back amazed at the wisdom of God in the whole machinery of the universe. The interplay of power, but not raw, undisciplined power, but power so delicately balanced with wisdom that it can create an atom. Think of it.

25:57 See, when I see one of these huge bulldozers knocking trees, I say, man, that's power. But it doesn't leave behind it a wonderfully sown, beautifully graded log. I mean, it's a pretty jagged mess that's felt the raw power of the blade. But you see, there's not raw power in creation.

26:15 It's power disciplined by wisdom. And then woven into the fabric of power and wisdom is beauty, harmony, order. Oh, dear people, do you contemplate the creation? I've been having my mind blown all week just looking.

26:33 And some of you are going to have to tell us what it is. I can't remember the name of that flower bush that's out right below our picture window. But I've been fascinated. There are all those things in their bud, and then when they burst open, every single flower in the whole cluster of flowers has five petals, same number of beautifully arched little, I want to call them little wands, like little fairy's wands coming out.

27:00 The center one always the longest, the two either side, just like the bridesmaids and her attendants. and the best men, all lined up beautifully. And then wonder of wonders in the top leaf of the five, never the first one to the left or the right, always the top, is this beautifully etched, and the only thing I can say it looks like, is a peacock's tail spread open. And yet you look at that thing when it's in the bud stage, and then there seems to be no water, they're all sort of gnarly, yet when each one opens, and there may be 20 flowers in a cluster, never is the one with the peacock's tail one side.

27:35 I've just been blowing my mind. Now think God put all of that in the seed. All of that's in the seed. The wisdom of God.

27:45 The sense of beauty. The harmony. But my friends, what have we read today? That when it was all done, God beheld that it was good.

27:55 Now it was beautiful. It was a monument of power, of wisdom, of harmony. but the sum total was it was good.

28:05 And if I may use a metaphor that in some ways is incongruous but I don't know a better one to use. When God was done with His creation the creature was immersed in a sea of divine goodness when he was placed in the Garden of Eden. A perfectly balanced ecology a wonderful diversity of sights and sounds and tastes, perfectly balanced appetites and senses and capacities to appreciate everything, and God looks at all of it without and everything within, and He says it is all very good. Why, of course, how could it be any otherwise?

28:48 Because the God who designed it and brought it to pass is inherently and essentially good. the goodness of God in creation. Ah, but you say, Mr. Martin, Genesis 3 says that sin entered.

29:03 Yes, it did. And interestingly enough, this is a little aside. The first attack of the enemy came at this precise point, didn't it? Once there was doubt cast upon the validity of God's statement, yea, hath God said, the next attack, and really the one that had to penetrate the armor of Adam and Eve before they could ever sin.

29:28 God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, you'll be like Him. What was that than an attack upon the goodness of God? Adam and Eve looking around, you think God is good. He's given you eyes to appreciate the full spectrum of color.

29:43 He's given you taste buds to appreciate the full spectrum of all the things that He given for food He given you each other Everything seems to say God is good But He really not good There's a mean streak hidden in the heart of God. And I'm coming to let you in on it. And the mean streak is this. He's made that tree in the midst of the garden a no-no because He wants to keep you under His thumb.

Attack on Goodness in the Fall and Continuing Goodness After Sin

30:13 he knows that there's something for your good that you can't have unless you eat that tree. And it would be good for you to be like God, knowing good and evil. You see, it was an attack upon the goodness of God, immersed in a sea of goodness. They believed the devil's lie.

30:36 But did that mean that God would cease to be good? No. Though sin introduces the active exercise of certain attributes of God that hitherto Adam and Eve knew nothing about, justice, righteousness, were in the heart of God, essentially in the being and nature and character of God. And they had been actively exercised to fallen angels and to the devil.

31:02 But Adam and Eve had never seen them in exercise. They lay, as it were, dormant.

31:08 In that sense, their sin called forth God's anger and God's justice. And you read the account of that in Genesis 3. But it also called forth manifestations of the grace and mercy of God in new dimensions. And God continues to be good.

31:29 How do we see His goodness? in now we consider it in the providence by which He governs and preserves all of His creatures and all their actions. Sin is entered, a creation in which goodness was the primary or the essential or the overriding declaration. He beheld all that He made and it was good.

31:53 Sin is now entered and called for the exercise of other attributes of God toward the creature. But does it cancel his goodness? No, my friends. The goodness of God is amply displayed in Providence.

Manifestations in Providence: Preservation

32:06 Let me trace out several lines of biblical truth under this heading. First of all, in the preservation of the world from destruction and disintegration. Turn to Genesis chapter 8. Why does this world exist right now?

32:22 In the month of May 1976, why has spring sprung on us again?

32:31 Why can we anticipate the coming of the warm, humid summer months, and then the turning of the leaves and the falling of the same and the first snow? Why can we anticipate all of these things? The answer is here in the word of God, that after the state of mankind became so aggravating to the righteousness and justice and holiness of God that he blots out the whole existing creation except one man and his family. We read in Genesis chapter 8 these words, verse 20, Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast and every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings in the altar.

33:15 And the Lord smelled the sweet savor, and the Lord said in his heart, Here we are given a peek into the heart of God. I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. Here God is showing concern for the ground and for man. For that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

33:39 In other words, God knew that the flood, though it blotted out the existing world of mankind, except Noah, who was a gracious man, it did not purge the remains of sin from Noah, and sin would be a constant and tragic reality in all whom Noah propagated. for that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite any more everything living as I have done, while the earth remaineth. That is, until the final conflagration, when the Lord comes and in flaming fire consumes the existing order in all his enemies, while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

34:35 And then God goes on to amplify. Verse 8, and God spake of chapter 9. God spake unto Noah and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you. Now notice, and with every living creature that is with you, God's making a covenant with beasts and birds and cattle, and of all that go out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.

35:03 And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood, neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy the earth. What a manifestation of the goodness of God. His disposition to be kind and beneficent to His creatures and to all creation. You see what God is saying?

35:31 God is saying, I know that the race will become such as to provoke me to bring another cataclysmic judgment. And therefore, unless I interpose, may I say it reverently, to tie my own hands from such activity, I must surely draw forth my arm and bring judgment again. But God says, I commit myself never again to destroy the earth by a flood. As long as the earth remaineth, there will be seed time and harvest.

36:09 And so the goodness of God is manifested in providence. How? In the preservation of the world from destruction.

36:18 It's not preserved because of some innocuous, detached, quote, laws of nature. It's preserved because of this unilateral covenant God has made with mankind and with the beast and the birds and with the ground itself.

36:39 You say, I never thought of that. Well, you ought to. So when you go out and put your foot on that earth and say, Lord, why is it not inundated with the flood? You say, it's a manifestation of your goodness.

36:54 Of your goodness. Of your goodness. But not only is his goodness seen in providence in that he preserves the world from destruction and disintegration, but also in the provisions he makes for all of his creatures in that world. What a manifestation of divine goodness.

37:12 Look at Psalm 65, verses 9 through 13.

37:19 This ought to form part of our worship. We are not only to bless God for the distinguishing blessings of the new covenant, the forgiveness of sins and the law written upon our hearts. If God had not made that covenant to preserve man and beast, there'd be no rejoicing in the new covenant, we wouldn't be here. We'd have all been blotted out a long time ago.

37:43 Psalm 65, 9 to 13, Thou visitest the earth and waterest it. You see what he's saying? There's no water upon the earth apart from the visitation of the personal God to the earth. None of this thinking, well, there are certain laws and ecology just operates like a machine once in a while.

38:03 Somebody throws a monkey right now. No, no, my friends. Thou visitest the earth and waterest it. Thou greatly enrichest it.

Manifestations in Providence: Provision

38:11 The river of God is full of water. Thou providest them grain when Thou hast so prepared the earth. Thou waterest its furrows abundantly. Thou settlest the ridges thereof.

38:23 Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness.

38:35 You see how wickedly secular we are in our thinking? Aren't we? Wickedly secular in our thinking. Oh, we say, it's raining today.

38:48 The psalmist would say, thou waterest the earth.

38:51 That's right. Thou waterest the earth. Oh, it's raining today. Indefinite pronoun.

39:01 It's raining today. In that industry. It's raining today. Thou waterest the earth.

39:09 Now change your attitude to a rainy day. From one of an inconvenient intrusion of some kind of meteorological accident to a manifestation of the goodness of your God. Thou waterest the earth. Psalm 104 is a psalm which in its entirety celebrates the goodness of God over all His works and over all His creation.

39:36 Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord, my God, Thou art very great, Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. And then he goes on to describe what God has done. And all the way through from describing God giving drink to every beast of the field, verse 11, God watering the mountains from His chambers, verse 13, look at verse 14, He causes the grass to grow Oh how secular we are in our thinking Well the grass grows when you get rain and you get sun and you fertilize The grass grows He causeth the grass to grow It doesn't operate by some brute laws that are just out there Hanging on the sky It's a manifestation of the goodness of God

40:24 In the provisions made for all his creatures Psalm 145, verse 9, a celebration of the same.

40:35 The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. We read in Matthew 5, today God sends His rain. That's His rain. Causes His sun to shine upon the good and the evil.

40:54 Think of it. It's His rain. He sends it, not only upon the righteous, but upon the unrighteous. Jesus said, your Father feedeth them.

41:04 Who? The sparrows. Think of it. Your Father feedeth them.

41:07 What about the lilies? He said, your Father clothes them.

41:14 That's why the sight of a flower ought to cause you to be brought into worship when you look at it. He clothes it with that beauty. Oh, you say, that's poetic language. Yeah, but poetic language to describe what?

41:27 Fantasy or reality?

41:30 The purpose of poetic language is to set in bold relief realities.

41:37 The reality is that God in His goodness makes provision for all His creatures. The Apostle Paul makes much of this when preaching to the heathen. Acts 14 and verse 17. He left not himself without witness.

41:51 And what was the witness of God? What should men know about God from what He does to them? In that He did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness. You see, even the gladness that unregenerate men know when they have a good harvest and a good meal, He says it's God who filled your heart with gladness as well as your belly with food.

42:20 he's telling unconverted people you are objects of the goodness of God he does it again in Acts 17 speaking to these Athenian philosophers he says the God who made heaven and earth what does he do? the latter part of verse 25 seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things that is he continually gives he did not simply give it in the beginning and now man has it as his own gift to handle at his own whim. He continually gives. This is a statement of the imminence of God.

42:55 Thank God he is transcendent above us and beyond us, but he is imminent. So imminent that Paul can say in him we live and move and have our being, and he was no pantheist. What is all of this? is it not a manifestation of the goodness of God?

Manifestations in Providence: Pity Toward Creatures

43:15 Goodness in the realm of providence, preserving of the world from destruction, provision for all His creatures. And the third aspect of this under providence is, and I'll just touch on it quickly, in His pity to His creatures in their misery. Do you know God because He is good and is disposed to be kind and beneficent to all his creatures, not only preserves the world of men and beasts in the earth, not only makes provision, but he's moved with pity to his creatures in their misery. You ever wonder why in the Levitical law God made some strange laws about what would happen if you were walking home from church today and you found a bird

44:01 sitting on some eggs and you said, well, I know that those eggs are a lovely delicacy. I'd like to have them for my snack tonight after church. You know what God said in the Levitical law, Deuteronomy 22, I think it's verses 6 and 7? He said, if you take the eggs, you can't take the bird.

44:20 God says you have a right to take the eggs, but you can't take the bird. God's taking thought for that poor mama bird. She's bereft of her eggs, but God won't let you take her life.

44:32 There might be a preservation of that particular species. God made that a law for people in Israel God said when you turn your ox loose to grind your corn you can put a muzzle on it Because he said I would feel for the misery of that poor ox who in performing legitimate work for you and is hungry feels the frustration of not being able to partake of the fruit of his own labor. So God says, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. What is God saying?

45:09 In his goodness he has pity and compassion upon beasts. You know how the book of Jonah closes? It closes on a strange note. That whole strange story about this strange man and his strange mission.

45:23 You know how it ends? Where God rebukes him and says, Ought not I to have shown concern for this great city of so many people with so many children and much cattle? God says, listen, my erring prophet, you want me to send fire from heaven and judge the city? Listen, I'm not only moved with compassion and pity for men and children, but even the beasts that would fall under the rod of my anger.

45:58 Jonah, your heart's too narrow. Mine's big enough to take in man and beasts. Yours is so narrow it can't even take in man. that's why the righteous is described in the book of Proverbs as the one who regardeth the life of his beast because one of the fruit or fruits of the spirit is goodness and gentleness that's why Jesus said love your enemies why?

46:30 in that way you'll be like your father because he shows what? mercy and pity and compassion even upon the unjust.

46:41 That's why we read in the Gospels that our Lord looked out upon many who were not the elect of God, but it says He was moved with compassion. When He saw them hungry, He was moved with pity. When He saw them with no instructors, He was moved with pity. Now, dear people, these are but a meager sampling of the biblical materials that declare to us that God is good.

Manifestation in Grace (Previewed)

47:09 A God of infinite goodness. A goodness manifested in creation, in providence, and yes, a goodness manifested in grace. And I'll just hint here, because the time is gone, and when we come to the salvation we receive and confess, we'll develop this much more fully, but let me just say this much. If we consider the grace of God as an aspect of His goodness, this is the proper way to do so.

47:35 Grace is the goodness of God focused upon individual sinners with a design to bring them out of the state of sin and misery and into a state of everlasting salvation. If the goodness of God to all His works is that which preserves and provides for them, then the goodness of God in the realm of grace is His free, sovereign determination to fix His love upon a certain number of sinners and to bring them out of a state of sin and misery into a state of glory, salvation, and ultimate glory. But now, my final word of application.

Application: Worship, Daily Attitude, and Romans 2:4

48:21 What does all this say to us? Here we stand. We confess our faith and confidence in the God of the Bible, who is a God of infinite goodness. Well, it has great implications for our worship.

48:35 Do you see how narrow and unbiblical is the worship that focuses only upon distinctive redemptive mercies? That's why we need the book of the Psalms to regulate our praise. There are very few hymns in the average evangelical hymn book that praise God for watering the earth. And the few that are there are imported usually from what we would call liberal hymn writers.

49:01 but you see the Psalms are amply sprinkled with such ascriptions of praise to God if God's goodness is manifested in creation in providence then our worship must reflect a loving sensitive appreciation of that goodness for apart from those manifestations of goodness you wouldn't be able to come to sing praises to him who died upon a cross and rose again and sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for you. So our worship as the people of God ought to reflect our appreciation. Our general attitude ought to reflect this. As in the garden, so now.

49:47 Though we, even in a sinful, disordered world, are in a sea of God's goodness, the enemy comes again and again and again saying, The reason God has hedged you up in this particular way is He's not good.

50:06 You can trace almost every willful act of sin to a de facto denial of the goodness of God. God says, Thou shalt not, not only for His glory, but our good. We convince ourselves it will be for our good to indulge in the area where God says, Thou shalt not. You see, a heart presently filled with a loving awareness of the goodness of God is wonderfully preserved from many sins.

50:38 And then, of course, I cannot preach a sermon like this without having, and it's taken some discipline to hold it till now, that text of the Apostle Paul in Romans 2 and verse 4. Look at it in closing. The apostle is reasoning with men concerning the claims of the gospel, their need of the gospel. And he says in verse 4, Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth he to repentance?

51:16 Why is God good to the just and to the unjust? Well, the answer to that question could be simply because He's a good God. And in that sense, He is true to Himself when He shows kindness to the evil as well as to the good. And that would be accurate, I believe, according to the Scriptures.

51:38 But this adds another dimension. Do you despise, treat lightly, regard with no appreciation and understanding why God continues to funnel goodness upon your impenitent head? He says, do you not know that this goodness of God is calculated to lead you to repentance? Listen, my unconverted fellow, girl, man, woman, child, listen.

52:04 Why does Almighty God let you breathe His air? He gives to all life and breath and all things. Why does He let you suck His air into your lungs? Why does He let you eat the food that He causes to grow upon the earth, that He Himself waters,

52:25 that you might take the breath and the life sustained by that breath and the food giving you energy to act, to think and to work? Why does He give you all of that and allow you in return to use those gifts to defy His law, to trample underfoot the blood of the covenant, to despise Christ and His gospel. Why? Why does He continue to shower goodness?

52:54 Why does He keep your mind in a state of sanity? Your body in a state of health? Why, my friend? Do you ask yourself why?

53:04 You better. God says He does this, that beholding such goodness, it might break your heart. And bring you to His feet, saying, Oh God, what a miserable creature I am. Here you've given me life, and long before I had existence, when you made that covenant back there in Noah's day, you had me in mind, that I would be preserved, that I would not be cut off by this unnatural calamity of a flood.

53:34 O Lord, what a miserable wretch I am, that I have not loved you and served you and received your goodness with thanksgiving and praise and humility. O God, I would seek forgiveness in the only place that you extend forgiveness to needy sinners, in the greatest manifestation of your goodness to a sinful world, in sending your beloved Son for sinners, and then giving the commission to every servant of Christ to say that that Son who was thus offered up on behalf of sinners is sincerely set before you and offered to you as an able and a willing Savior. Think of the goodness of God, O children, teenagers, adults.

54:21 Think of the goodness of God in putting in the heart of a fellow sinner a genuine desire for your salvation. Think of the goodness of God in putting you in a family where a mom and dad or a husband or wife pray and even weep for your salvation. Think of the goodness of God in putting you in a church where the truths of sin and grace in heaven and hell are believed and preached with earnestness and with some degree of conviction that they're real. God could have let you be born in a family that lives like a herd of animals who this day do not sanctify the Sabbath, who this day will not sit under preaching, who this day will not open a Bible, let alone from Monday to Saturday.

55:06 Oh, unconverted man, woman, boy, girl, do you not see the goodness of God funneled upon your impenitent and unworthy head?

55:18 Will you go on despising that goodness?

55:22 Or will you say, Oh, God, have mercy upon this despiser of thy goodness. May God grant that not only shall the hearts of the people of God be inflamed to new and intelligent worship of this great God who is absolutely perfect, unrivaled in His sovereignty, but who is infinite in His goodness. and some of you who've come to appreciate biblical particularism that is that when goodness is manifested in saving mercy it is distinguishing it is particular don't be embarrassed

56:08 with the biblical teaching concerning the goodness of God when someone says how can God be good look at the famines hey wait a minute my friend you wait a minute you put your blasphemy back in your throat and swallow it I don't see you asking questions when God sends rain and good crops upon a given area that is presently under famine and year after year the creatures who receive His goodness worship sticks and stones against the dictates of their own conscience and the witness of creation why don't you come forward then and say why does God tolerate this you swallow your blasphemy friend I don't ask the question how can God be good and there be famines and wars? I ask the question,

56:54 how can God be of such infinite goodness that there are fewer famines as divine judgment and fewer wars as divine judgment and fewer twisted bodies and fewer deformed children? My friends, the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord to wretched rebel sinners.

57:19 you better swallow your blasphemy and fall upon your face in the presence of so good a God. For when the last day comes and He banishes all sinners to a place called hell, it will not only be an act of goodness, an act of justice, but an act of goodness.

57:42 Exodus 34 I will proclaim all my goodness, the Lord, showing mercy, compassion, who will by no means clear the guilty. That's a manifestation of divine goodness.

Closing Prayer

58:00 Let us pray.

58:03 O Lord, our Lord,

58:14 whose name is excellent in all the earth, many of us feel keenly the shame and self-reproach of our secularized minds forgive us for being so nearsighted that we've not beheld all of the manifestations of your goodness constantly surrounding us we pray particularly for those who despise that goodness that would lead them to repentance.

58:49 Oh Lord, have mercy.

58:54 Seal to our hearts the word preached. Draw from our hearts that worship of which you are worthy.

59:06 May the benediction of your own presence rest upon us, causing the Word to work in us that which is well-pleasing in Your sight.

59:21 We ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

59:41 Thank you.