************ Sermon on Belgic Confession Article 1g ************
Doctrine: God is Good
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on Nov 9, 1997
B.C. 1(g)
Psalm 145
"God is Good"
Introduction
God is good. What do we mean when we say this?
"Good" is a word so common we use it without thinking. "How was school today?" I ask my sons. "Good," they always say without thinking. "How are you doing?" someone asks. "Good," you answer. I was in the hardware store on Friday. "Have a good weekend," said the cashier. "What do you mean by that?" I asked. "What is a good weekend?" She gave me a funny little smile.
We use the word "good" often enough, but what exactly does it mean? If something is good it measures up to the ideal, the ultimate. When applied to God it means that God is absolute perfection and perfect bliss in and of Himself. This is what Jesus has in mind when He says to the young ruler, "No one is good — except God alone" (Mk 10:18b). God is good in Himself.
God is good. The chief concern of Scripture is not God's goodness in and of Himself; rather, the chief concern of Scripture is how God's innate goodness touches the lives of His creatures. For His creatures, says the Belgic Confession, God is the "overflowing source of all good." Every good thing which we and all creatures enjoy in the present and expect in the future, flow from the fountain — the inexhaustible fountain — that we know as God.
God is good to us. He is our overflowing source of all good. More specifically, this means that God provides, He is gracious, and He is patient.
I God Provides
A To be "good" means, in part, that you want to share what you have with others. When a husband and wife want a baby to share their life, their love, their laughter, their faith, their home, they are being good. They are being good because they want to share themselves with smaller persons.
Those who share their food with the needy, who give of themselves to the sick, who visit the prisoner, who care for the elderly, they are being good.
God is good, says Scripture. God is good so He wants to share Himself, His life, His love, with others. In Genesis 1 we can read all about God's goodness. God — Who exists without beginning or end — decided, at the beginning of time, to share Himself — His being, His life — with fish, birds, livestock, insects, wild animals, and man. Says the Psalmist, "The LORD is good to all ... he has made" (vs 9). In making all His creatures we have to say God is good.
B God is good. This means He not only shares His life with us. It also means He satisfies us, fills us to the brim, and meets our God- created needs. God is good, so He satisfies the needs of all His creatures. The Psalmist says,
(Ps 145:15-16) The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. (16) You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
We all experience this goodness of God. We all have food, shelter, and clothing. We have jobs and incomes. We have luxuries and extras in our homes. We have cars and trucks. We can take vacations and trips. We enjoy freedom. We have to say that God is good.
C God is good. This especially means that He satisfies our biggest and greatest need. Do you know what this need is? The Psalmist speaks of this need:
(Ps 42:1-2) As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. (2) My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
It is God Himself Who we need. God is our biggest and greatest need. None of us have really experienced life, none of us have come to know life's purpose and meaning, unless we have come to realize that God is our greatest need. That is why the Psalmist can say, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing" (Ps 23:1). If I have the Lord, I have the most important thing in life. If I have the Lord, nothing else is really needed.
Topic: God
Subtopic: Power of
Index: 3808-3811
Date: 11/1992.22
Title:
A Sunday school teacher who asked her group of children if any of them could quote the entire twenty-third psalm. A golden-haired, four-and- a-half-year-old girl was among those who raised their hands. A bit skeptical, the teacher asked if she could really quote the entire psalm. The little girl came to the rostrum, faced the class, made a perky little bow, and said: "The Lord is my shepherd, that's all I want."
She then bowed again and sat down. She may have overlooked a few verses, but that little girl captured David's heart in Psalm 23.
God is good. So He satisfies our need for Himself. Says the psalmist:
(Ps 145:18-19) The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. (19) He fulfills the desires of those who fear him ...
To satisfy this need, our need for Himself, God had to come to us in Christ. There was a time that man could come to God without Christ. In fact, he lived and talked and walked with God. He was so completely in God that he had no knowledge of life without God. But then came his tragic fall into sin. Now man was incapable of coming to God on his own. Now man was incapable of satisfying the deepest need of his heart — fellowship with and in God. So God had to send Christ Jesus. Christ took on human form and died on the cross so that we could again fellowship with God and satisfy the deepest need of our heart.
In speaking of God's goodness here we can speak of God's love. You know what John says:
(Jn 3:16) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God loves us. That's why He is so good to us in Christ.
D God is good. He is so good. Think of God's goodness in connection with His immutability. God is faithful or immutable in His goodness. He continues to share Himself with us, He continues to satisfy all our needs. He doesn't change course in mid-stream. God is always good. For us He is always the "overflowing source of all good."
Think of God's goodness also in connection with His almighty power. Because God is almighty we know He is more than able to satisfy our needs. He's got the whole world in His hands. He is able to do anything. He is more than able to be the overflowing source of goodness for us.
God's goodness combined with His immutability and His might, do you know what it means? It means we can trust God; it means we can have complete confidence in God; it means we may not and can not doubt that God will provide whatever we need for body and soul.
Topic: Trust
Subtopic: In God
Index: 1214-1218
Date: 11/1997.101
Title: Where are Your Umbrellas?
A drought threatened the crop in a village of Crete. The priest told his flock: "There isn't anything that will save us, except a special litany for rain. Go to your homes, fast during the week, trust in God, and come on Sunday for the litany of rain." The villagers heard him, fasted during the week and went to the church on Sunday morning, but as soon as the priest saw them, he was furious. He said, "Go away, I will not do the litany. You do not trust in God." "But Father," they protested, "we fasted and we trust." "Trust?" he said. "Then where are your umbrellas?"
If we believe that God is good in His being, if we believe that God is the fountain of all good for His creatures, then we will trust God and not doubt either His care or His promises.
E God is good. He is so good. He is the "overflowing source of all good." Jesus reminds us that God's goodness is not restricted to believers alone; unbelievers too — whether they admit it or not — also experience the goodness of God. God is the overflowing source of all good for the believer and the unbeliever alike:
(Mat 5:45) ... He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
But the Christian alone appreciates every good thing as a gift from God. And, we know that we must praise and thank God for all His goodness. So, with the psalmist we say and we sing,
(Ps 145:1-3,21) I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. (2) Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. (3) Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom ... (21) My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.
II God is Gracious
A God is good. The greatest goodness God shows to us is grace. Now, no child of God should be able to hear that word "grace" without getting a lump in the throat and a tear or two in the eye.
What is grace? Grace is the greatest and best display of God's goodness. Grace is the source of all God's spiritual blessings. It is by grace that the Gospel is proclaimed. It is by grace that sinners listen and believe and are justified. It is by grace that sinners will one day be glorified. Grace is the key to salvation.
B There is a very important question that we all must ask and answer. This question is, "How am I saved?" In answering this question for yourself you must not give such answers as:
-because of my brush with death in the car accident
-because of my fight with cancer
-because of the outreach of the church
-because my parents raised me as a covenant child
-because I attended Christian schools
Anyone of these may have been used by God to lead you to Christ, yet none of these have saved you.
When asked, "HOW ARE YOU SAVED?" there is only one answer you can give: "By grace!" That's the only answer to this most important question. The Apostle Paul says, "it is by grace you have been saved" (Eph 2:5). And, in one of my favorite answers the Catechism says,
without my deserving it at all,
out of sheer grace,
God grants and credits to me
the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and
holiness of Christ ...
(Q & A 60)
God is so good. Like a bookkeeper He credits to our account the work of Jesus. When you get a credit slip from a bank, or a store, you have money added to your account. God credits to us the work of Jesus on the cross. And this He does out of "sheer grace"!
"By grace" means that God saves us through Christ Jesus. With Christ I died, and with Christ I arose. That's how I am saved, and that's how you are saved.
"Grace" is God's undeserved favor. We do not get what we deserve. In fact, we get exactly the opposite of what we deserve. Grace is the unmerited, undeserved, unearned goodness of God for condemned people.
III God's Patience
A The last element of God's goodness I would like to mention is His patience or His longsuffering or His forbearance.
God is good. He is so good. He postpones the judgment of the unbelieving. Says the psalmist:
(Ps 145:8) The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.
The apostle Peter can say,
(2 Pt 3:9) The Lord is ... patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
It isn't negligence on God's part but patience that delays the Judgment Day. It isn't slackness on the part of God but longsuffering that delays the day of the Lord. Not impotence but mercy is the reason for God's delay.
B God is so good. He does not wish any person to perish. The Apostle Paul can say that God "wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4). God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked — rather, He waits for the wicked to turn from their ways and live. In the prophecy of Ezekiel we read:
(Ezek 18:23) Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?
The day of the Lord is delayed, then, because of the goodness of God. Out of goodness God is longsuffering and patient. He wants to give all men a chance to repent.
C God is good. God is longsuffering. Therefore we must repent before it is too late. Do you know what the two most important questions in the world are? The first question I already asked: "How am I saved?" A second question we all should ask is, "Am I saved?" This is an intensely personal question. It is a question that every person here at one time or another has to answer for themselves. No person here can see the hidden depths of your heart or mind. Only you know the secrets locked deep within. So I ask you, "Are you saved? Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior?"
"Are you saved?" God is good. God is patient. He wants you to repent. He gives you time to repent. But let me warn you, there will come a time when His patience will run out, when this aspect of His goodness will be no more. So I say again, you must repent and believe before it is too late. Yes, the Bible does tell us about a deathbed repentance — that of the penitent thief, a message that none should ever despair and that none are ever beyond repentance. However, this is the one and only deathbed repentance recorded in Scripture — a message that none of us should presume or dare to presume that we can wait until our deathbed, that we can put repentance and faith off until later.
Topic: Accepted Time
Subtopic:
Index: 26
Date: 6/1989.19
Title:
Dwight L. Moody, by his own admission, made a mistake on the eighth of October 1871 -- a mistake he determined never to repeat.
He had been preaching in the city of Chicago. That particular night drew his largest audience yet. His message was "What will you do then with Jesus who is called the Christ?"
By the end of the service, he was tired. He concluded his message with a presentation of the gospel and a concluding statement: "Now I give you a week to think that over. And when we come together again, you will have opportunity to respond."
A soloist began to sing. But before the final note, the music was drowned out by clanging bells and wailing sirens screaming through the streets. The great Chicago Fire was blazing. In the ashen aftermath, hundreds were dead and over a hundred thousand were homeless.
Without a doubt, some who heard Moody's message had died in the fire. He reflected remorsefully that he would give his right arm before he would ever give an audience another week to think over the message of the gospel.
Too many times, congregation, people go into a Christless eternity, simply because they wait for tomorrow instead of doing it Today.
Conclusion
God is good. He is so very good. For us He is the "overflowing fountain of good."
God is good. He is so very good. He provides, He is gracious, and He is patient.