God’s Goodness Exodus 33:18-19, 34:5-7; Psalm 103 Taste and see that the Lord is good
- God is good
- All of creation comes from God’s goodness
- Rejoice in the ways God expresses his goodness towards you
Good morning church family!
(Introduce self + welcome guests) This December we’re studying the character of our God in a series titled
Let God Reign. I appreciated how Frasier pointed out the cheekiness of the title last week. As the Only Sovereign being in the entire universe, we do not let God do anything. He is the One in charge. However, we are still responsible for our response to Him! Your response to God must align with the reality of who He is.
Does the way you live indicate that you are “letting” God reign in and through you? *pause* Over the course of the month, we are getting to study some incredible truths about who God is. (Click through images as I mention them) He is sovereign. He is good. He is immutable (unchanging). He is all-knowing (omniscient). God the Son came down and took on flesh and dwelt among us (incarnate). He is all-powerful (omnipotent). (Sermon graphic with all 6 attributes) These realities are not true some of the time. They are always true. God is always sovereign. He is always good. And so on… That should blow your mind! I hope that we will walk away each Sunday with a BIGGER view of our God. A view that helps us combat the temptation to live for and worship lesser things throughout our weeks. Even better that this is the Advent season, and we are actively preparing to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ! I want to encourage you to use the church’s Advent devotional to cultivate this God-centered way of life this month. (Title slide)
Dismiss 4th + 5th graders Ushers + Bibles (Exodus 33; page 87) I’d like to pose a scenario to you. Please try to imagine this as best you can…
Can you imagine being defined by a particular quality? For example, you are ALWAYS grumpy. Everything you think, say, and do is characterized by your grumpiness. You wake up muttering under your breath about having to face a new day. You kick the cat on your way to the restroom for simply existing and being in your way. You slam the toilet seat up or down, frustrated that no one else has the common courtesy to leave it the way civilized people like yourself want it. Your grumpiness doesn’t stop there, it continues into the day. Your family makes it their aim to stay out of your way. Your co-workers disperse from the breakroom when you walk in. You are a walking minus sign. You get the idea. Grumpiness is your way of life – it never lets up – day after day, week after week, year after year. You are ALWAYS grumpy. The point of this is to demonstrate how unrealistic it is. None of us is ALWAYS one particular way. We change. Our attitude and actions are often influenced by our changing circumstances. Perhaps you came in here this morning a bit downtrodden but will leave encouraged. Change is a part of humanity. But now let’s consider that God is unchanging! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In fact, we’ll study God’s immutability (unchangeableness) more next week. But for today, I want you to consider this in light of God’s goodness. God is always good. He has always been good and always will be good. All that he is and does is informed by His innate goodness. God will not and cannot do anything that is not coming from his goodness. And that is how it ALWAYS has been, ALWAYS is, and ALWAYS will be. You see, unlike us, God is consistent and steady. He is reliable. And when it comes to the reality of His goodness, this is a very powerful truth indeed.
How often do you slow down to meditate on such a wonderful truth? To let the reality of God’s goodness sink into your heart and influence your life… That’s exactly what my aim is today. I want us to…
Taste and see that the Lord is good This was the invitation of King David in Psalm 34…
Psalm 34:8 (ESV) 8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Put another way - savor this truth about God’s goodness like your Thanksgiving feast. Look intently into the reality that God is good and seek to understand it! Our study begins in the pages of Exodus. Look with me at Exodus 33:18-19. The context of this passage is Moses having led the nation of Israel out of Egypt and arriving at Mount Sinai, where God gave him the 10 commandments. Unfortunately, Israel had committed grave idolatry by fashioning a golden calf while Moses was up on the mountain with God. Now Moses is seeking reassurance that God will still go with them. Let’s read the text.
Exodus 33:18–19 (ESV) 18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. What a fascinating interaction! God speaking directly to Moses, answering his request to see God’s glory.
And how did God respond? “I will make all my
goodness pass before you…”
Why goodness when Moses asked for glory? Because God’s goodness is his moral perfection, and it encapsulates so much of what man experiences in his relationship with God. Pastor Kevin DeYoung says, “God’s goodness is the overflowing bounty of God’s essence expressed to us.” And this overflowing bounty of God’s essence is glorious! Look at the very next chapter in verses 5-8 when this comes to pass.
Exodus 34:5–8 (ESV) 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Do you hear the goodness and glory of God revealed here? He is a merciful God. A gracious God. A patient, slow to anger God. A God who abounds in steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness (truth). He is a forgiving God, yet also a just God. These are all outworkings of God’s goodness and they are glorious! What a brilliant and pure picture they paint of our Creator. I look forward to unpacking this further as we go today. But first… It probably goes without saying that our first takeaway in our study of God’s goodness this morning is the reality that…
- God is good
This is our baseline from which we will build today.
But what does it mean to say that God is good? When we say that God is good, what that means is that His essence (His intrinsic nature) is admirable, attractive, and praiseworthy. Theologian and author J.I. Packer wrote, “When the biblical writers call God good, they are thinking in general of all those moral qualities which prompt his people to call him perfect, and in particular of the generosity which moves them to call him merciful and gracious and to speak of his love.” (Knowing God) So earlier, when we heard King David invite the people to taste and see that the Lord is good, he was doing so in reference to the deliverance that God had provided to him from Abimelech. God had proven to be a trustworthy refuge in time of need, which was evidence of God’s goodness! In Psalm 107, the psalmist pens:
Psalm 107:1–2 (ESV) Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble This time the Lord’s goodness is revealed in his steadfast love which has benefited those whom he has redeemed from trouble. And on and on we could go with example after example from the Scriptures. We’ll take time to go in more depth on specifics of God’s goodness later in the sermon. For now, I simply want you to see and hear that God is good. This is affirmed over and over again in the Scriptures. In fact, it must be true about Him because He is God. God is perfect in character. Goodness finds its origin in Him. God is known as the greatest good because there is no one more morally pure than He! And from his perfection of character (his goodness) he only does good (perfection of activity). If you were here last week, you may recall that Frasier ended his sermon with the doxology, which begins with, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” This is true because God is good and the source of all good in our universe. Theologian Wayne Grudem adds a helpful perspective when he explains it this way, “God is the final standard of good, and all that God is and does is worthy of approval.” This is exactly what we hear coming from the throne room of heaven in the book of Revelation. As God sits on his throne, the magnificent beings in his throne room cry out:
Revelation 4:8–11 (ESV) 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, 