Our God is Good (Part 5)

That only comes if you isolate verses and you don’t look at you don’t look at the whole context, you just look at one verse and ignore the rest. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen, you know, Matthew chapter seven is of course the the big verse where it says, judge not but if you’ve ever seen sometimes in some of these pictures and things, they’ll have a picture of of of Matthew chapter seven and everything will be scratched out except that one little phrase, judge not. You know, everything else will be scratched out. So, people can kinda make fun of the way we handle the Bible and that’s actually true but here, that same principle is being applied as well.

The problem with this judgment was that the person that was doing the judgment was actually committing the very things that he was judging others for and that’s the fundamental problem. And so it says, for wherein thou judgest another thou condemn thyself, for thou that judgest, doest the same things. Verse two, but we are sure that the judgment of god is according to truth against them which commit such things.

And thinkest thou this, oh man, that that judges them which do such things and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of god. Now, verse number four is where we want to look but before we get to verse number four, let’s let’s bow and pray and then we want to kinda see the background of the first three verses before we get to the goodness of god in verse number four. Let’s pray together. Our father, thank you for the opportunity to study your word here this morning. We pray, we ask for your help and grace as we listen and hear your word. Lord, help us to understand it. Help us to stand in awe of your goodness to us and lord to see especially how it affects us and how it it should transform us and the our disposition toward others and the way we act toward others. So, help us lord. We pray. Give us the the the eyes to see and ears to hear and blessing each and every person here that’s come to hear your word. I pray that they would get a full dose, a full serving of your truth. Lord, that we might grow in Jesus name. Amen.

Alright, in verse number four or verse verses one to three rather is a description primarily of the Jews. If you look at verse number 17, we can tell that in chapter two is mainly pointed at the Jewish people. It says this, behold, thou art called a Jew and restest in the law and maketh thy boast of god. So, the people were were referring to or speaking to in in chapter two verse number one are the Jewish people who who were the who fancied themselves to be righteous.

They thought of themselves as people who kept the law and looked looked down and and condescended if you will to those who didn’t, to non Jewish people and and I know we, you know, in our world, we talk about racism and things like that and that’s the, you know, that’s a real thing but the Jewish, you talk about racism, you crank up the idea of racism. The Jewish people in the first century were extremely racist. They they would not eat with someone who was a different race. They would they barely even look at em. They didn’t wanna be near em. They didn’t wanna touch em. They didn’t wanna and when that was that was the Jewish thinking because they thought, well, we have the law. We have the the the truth of god and all of these all every everyone else is just is just a dog.

But what they did not when in that judgment, when they looked at those Gentiles who were not Jewish and who did not follow their religion and they looked at them and says, ignorant, just ignorant animals basically. That’s how they viewed others. But when they condemn those Gentiles and said, look what they do. They worship idols and they do this and they’re immoral and they, you know, they they judge them for that.

They failed to look at themselves and and see that they were doing under color of the law of god. They were doing the things that they condemned others for doing and the lord, of course, does not look lightly upon that. And so, to the Jew, he says, in verse three, thinkest thou this, oh man, that that judges them which do such things and do us the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of god.

This is not a happy or positive description of the Jewish people at all or of of people in general, is it not? Is this is this a good description of of people here? No. These these people, in other words, the whole in the whole of Romans, here’s what Paul is doing. He’s already shown that the Gentiles who who don’t know god and worship idols and those things, they are they are guilty of sin before god. They’re not righteous.

In chapter two, he’s proving that the the Jewish people, though they have the law, though they have the word of god, are also guilty before god and are not righteous just like the Gentiles. Chapter three summarizes that by combining the two and says, we have before proved that they are both Jew and Gentile, they are all under sin, which is his point in chapters one and two.

And so, the first three verses of chapter two are describing the sinfulness of the Jewish people who kept their religion. Now, you remember when we studied Titus last week, we saw how that the kindness of God was not shown to us, to mankind, because we were good, because we were righteous. The kindness of God was shown to us despite the fact that we were not good, despite the fact that we were sinners.

Okay, that’s an important point which we’ll see here as well. In other words, the goodness of God is prior, precedes. God does not wait and say, if you do good, I will be kind to you. That’s not the way it works. If that was the rule by which God operated, then he would never be kind to any of us, but he doesn’t. His goodness always goes before.

And here it is again with the Jewish people. Now in Titus, we’re talking primarily about people who are Gentile people who are non Jewish, are idolatrous and things like that. And God says the kindness of God appeared to them. Here we’re talking about now religious people in chapter two. And notice that, again, the Lord knows that He’s showing goodness to people who are not worthy of it. Just because a person keeps a religion does not make them good.

And sometimes it’s actually worse because it has the front of being good when actually they’re not, they have cover, the Bible describes a cloak of righteousness. In other words, it looks righteous, but it’s not. Yesterday, we were out, I think I was out with Ben or, who was I talking, was it Ben? Oh yeah, when we went to Brother David’s house, we were commenting on the clouds and how everybody was calling for rain all day and it didn’t actually rain until much later in the afternoon, but all the clouds were there and we talked about, we were mentioning how the Bible talks about clouds without water.

Clouds without water. You’re expecting rain, you’re expecting there to be something good, but it never comes. In other words, and that is a description of these religious types. It looks religious, it looks holy, it looks righteous, but there is not good. There’s none righteous, it’s still without any goodness, without any righteousness. This is the people in chapter two verses one through three, verse number four. Or speaking to the same people, the Lord says, or despisest thou the riches of his, what does it say, goodness and forbearance, that is God putting up with us and tolerating us. Now, remember who The Us is, it’s talking about the religious Jews.

That God is good to them even though in verses one through three, they are not good. In fact, they’re hypocrites. They condemn others for the very things that they do, they themselves do. That is not righteousness, that is unrighteousness with a religious veneer. And God says that even though that’s the case, his goodness is still shown to them or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of god leadeth thee to repentance.

So what do you see? So here’s what you have, the picture you have here. You have these Jewish people who are religious hypocrites, they are not sincere, they condemn others though they themselves commit the very same sins they condemn others for, and they are driving headlong for the cliff of god’s judgment. God is going to judge them, right? Because that’s what verse three says, if you remember, that verse three says, god’s gonna judge them according to righteousness. So, if you can picture them as they’re pedal to the metal thinking that they’re right with God and they’re gonna go right off the edge, they’re gonna go right off the edge and God’s gonna judge them.

But all the while, the goodness of God is at work calling them back. Do you see that? In other words, they’re doing what they’re doing, but the goodness of God was already there trying to call them back from their sin and from their destination. It precedes the wickedness of these Jews. Because God and His goodness is leading sinners to repentance That means they’re already sinners. So, it’s not like, okay, well, if I reform myself, then God God will show me goodness. The Jews didn’t reform themselves and yet God is calling sinners, calling religious hypocrites back to Himself.

This means that the source and the cause of this goodness God chose them, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. So based upon that in verse four, if you look at verse four, I wanna ask a question, have these religious hypocrite Jews repented yet in verse four? No.

But is God good to them in verse four? How do we know? Because God is, He’s leading them. So they haven’t repented yet. They’re still in sin, they’re still doing the wickedness. They’re still being the hypocrite and yet God’s goodness is active, drawing them back, drawing them to repentance. That means the goodness of god is first. It precedes.

So, god is not waiting for them to repent, to be good to them. Now, don’t misunderstand. Because the goodness of God precedes the goodness of man, right? And God shows goodness to sinners, that does not mean that God overlooks their sin. No, no, it’s not that. In fact, in this case, how is the goodness of God shown? In verse number four, how is the goodness of God shown? Is the goodness of God shown by saying, oh, you know, I know you’re doing some, you’ve made some mistakes, but you know, I’m just gonna overlook it. No.

That’s how we, this world wants the goodness of God to be. This world wants to create a God that has goodness, but by that goodness they mean, God lets me do anything I want and gives me all the blessings that I demand and has nothing to say about the way I live at all. In other words, God is good and he approves of everything that I do, but that’s not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible shows His goodness, look at verse four, how?

How did He show His goodness? The goodness of God is leading them to repentance. That is the good thing. Because what if God were not good? We’ve already looked at this before but just briefly, what if God were not good? In verse number four, if God were not good, what not would do? He lead men would to repentance. And what would be the end result of that? Conviction.

Yeah, you would die in your sin, He would judge you. So His goodness of God is actually working against His judgment. He prefers forgiveness. He prefers repentance, not judgment, He prefers goodness. But see, the goodness of God is not a past, the goodness of God is the means that and the reason that we come to God, the reason that we repent. Now, Psalm 25 verse number eight says this, listen to this, in fact let’s look at that, that’s a good verse we need to kinda get our eyes on. Psalm 25.

You know, one of the kindest things I think, God does all kinds of good things for us, as far as our food and our shelter, our family, all these things, God provides for us, and those are all marks of God’s goodness, but those are also all temporal things, they deal with this life.

When you look at eternal things, what is one of the kindest things that God can do to you? What’s that? Keep you out of the lake Yeah, do what’s necessary to keep you out of the lake of fire, that’s a good direct way to put it, exactly. That’s one of the kindest things God can do. You can say, well, why don’t He just like give me a pass and just say forget about it? Well, because He’s also just and holy. He cannot, will not do that.

So He shows His goodness by leading us to repentance so that we don’t end up in the Lake Of Fire. And often, is that not what people hate the most? They hate, they hate being told by God man that they’re on a path that’s gonna lead to destruction, that their sin is offensive to God and that God is gonna judge them. But that itself is goodness. When Jonah went to the Ninevites and and his message was not happy and his message was not good. His message was, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

That was a message of judgment But that message embedded in that message is goodness because that leads to repentance which they did and were spared. Do you see the goodness of God in that? Now, that same message might be preached to a different people and they reject it, it’s hateful, it’s mean, we don’t wanna hear it. It’s interrupting our lifestyle or it’s interrupting our values or whatever.

And so it might be rejected, that’s what he’s talking about. So the Jews, here’s what God’s doing. God’s calling the Jews away from their hypocrisy to see themselves as sinners before God like they are and they hate it. Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Look at verse four if you would one more time. What is the beginning of verse four? What is their feeling toward the goodness of God? What does it say?

Despisest thou. See it? The goodness, forbearance, and long suffering of God. How do they feel about God’s goodness? They hate it. They absolutely detest someone telling them that their righteousness is at filthy rags. They hate it.

I mean that’s the way people react. Is it not? I mean we’re just being real here, nobody likes to be told that they’re not righteous. Everybody wants to live in a fantasy world that they think they’re good. Are you a good person? I’m a very good person. And God says, no you’re not, you are fit for the lake of fire. You have earned every last moment.

Well, that’s offensive to me. But that message itself is goodness to you. Now, we might not view it like that, but that is actually the truth. Psalm 25 verse number eight, look at that if you would.

Psalm 25 verse eight says this, good and upright is the Lord. Good and upright is the Lord, notice the goodness of God there, Now notice the therefore. Therefore, because God is good and upright, therefore will He teach sinners in the way. That’s, is that not Romans chapter two verse four? Because God is good, he teaches sinners in the way. He teaches sinners. Now, aren’t good people, these are bad people. These are people who are, they’re sinners, they’re caught in the trap of sin, they love sin, that’s their lifestyle, That’s what they do.

But those are the ones He’s teaching. Those are the ones He’s teaching. Just again, I know I’m repeating myself a little bit but we’re about to move on and we’re not we’ll not look back. Again, god does not show goodness to good people. He’s because there aren’t any. He shows goodness to sinners. He teaches sinners in the way. Why? Because he is good. The other option is to leave them alone.

And that would not be to their good at all. So, he teaches them. Sometimes, they wanna hear the message. Most of the time, they don’t because it puts them in a bad light. The darkness hates the light and so they reject it, but it’s actually God’s goodness. He teaches sinners in the way.

And so we see the goodness of God is always prior, It is always previous. And so that’s how we see the goodness of God related to the gospel when Christ came. But also, not only the gospel that Christ died in the place of sinners, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day. That’s that’s the gospel message. And we saw that in Titus three, but also in the very receiving and if you will, the process whereby a sinner, an unconverted sinner passes from death unto life, that process is also marked by the goodness of God, right? What Christ died for sinners two thousand years ago, which is true, but in 2026 God was never actively working with a sinner who was intent on sin and intent on going to hell to bring that person to repentance in 2026.

But He does both. His goodness shown in Christ coming and dying for sinners which was absolutely required without which it is impossible to see heaven. But then in real time in our life, His goodness of God leads us to repentance and to receive that Savior also. So you see both sides, Romans two, Titus three, you see both sides, the goodness of God related to the gospel. For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. Thou preventest him, which means he goes before.

Now last thing we wanna cover is the goodness of God related to practice, that is our actual daily walk, our walk with God, the goodness of God. Look at Romans chapter eight.

Romans chapter eight. Look at look at chapter eight verse number 28. It is hard to exaggerate, probably impossible to exaggerate, the import of chapter eight verse 28. There’s a reason why that’s such a well known verse, it is profound, it is profound. And probably the most profound, one of the most profound parts of this verse is the word all. Now look what it says, Romans eight twenty eight, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. Now notice there is a requirement, a prerequisite, which is to them who are called according to His purpose, so we’re referring to a believer, right?

For an unbeliever, all things do not work together for good for them. So you can’t look, you can’t look and say, I know the the Billy Graham, the Billy Graham evangelistic method was, God has a wonderful plan for your life. Well, unless you don’t have Christ and then he has terrible judgment for your life.

I mean, it’s true. Amen. That is dreadful. That’s not goodness. That’s severity. That that that’s but the reason that god tells us is because he’s good to us, right? But for a person who finally and ultimately dies without Christ, there is no goodness there. It is judgement.

That’s frightening. But to a believer, on the other hand, so you can’t apply this verse to everybody to make them feel better. That is the worst thing you could do. That’s the worst thing we could do. But to a believer, man, it’s profound. Because we know that all things, we think of good things, and we know that good things work together for good to them that love God. No, it’s not good things. We like good things. Good things are good, right? We like the raise in our pay or the new job or the new baby or we like the good things that God gives us, we like that.

But the fact that it says all includes the bad things. But because we’re the called according to his purpose and because our our eternity, our final outcome, that’s what Romans eight is talking about. The final outcome, our destiny, our fate is sealed. It is done. To god, it is finished. We are with god in heaven forever already in in the lord’s mind. That’s amazing, isn’t it not? And so that means that every single thing, all I can do is I can just state it.

I can’t touch the hem of the garment of this truth. All I can do is state it. Every single thing that happens in our life, everything has as its end good to us. No matter what it is.

Every single thing. The goodness of God is behind all things that happen to us. You wanna talk about how the goodness of God affects us in a practical way? Remembering that every single thing, the good and the bad, every illness, every sorrow, every grief, every setback, everything, all things work together for good. Now all things are not good, but they work together for good. That make sense?

That is a mark of the goodness of God to us. The fact that He makes in His wisdom, in His providence, in His power causes the good and the bad to all redound to good. So in the end, is it good or is it bad? It’s good. It’s good. But not only that is the goodness of god behind all that happens to us but the goodness of god is in us as well.

The effect of the good of God’s goodness to us, which we already saw. Titus three, Romans two, right? God’s goodness before we were good, when we weren’t good, when we were wicked and evil, when we didn’t want God, didn’t know God, God showed goodness to us. The effect though of that goodness of God is that that goodness is that the goodness of God produces goodness in us. First of all, because we have a pattern.

Do we not see that in Luke chapter six where Bible says we should do good to those who wrong us, right? That’s what our Lord said. And He said, when you do that, you’re a child of your Father which is in heaven. In other words, you’re mimicking the Father who does good to those that do not do good, which is what we’ve already seen.

But that pattern, how god is good to the unthankful, to the unlovely, to the unholy, to the unrighteous, that pattern is the, it actually produces goodness in us because we see that and we think that’s what I’m supposed to be as a believer. Even if we don’t have anything else, we have that pattern. Now, but there’s more, There’s more because I said the goodness of god is in us. So, it’s not just we see the pattern and we work at being like our lord although that’s part of it. It’s beyond that even, it is god himself in us producing goodness and making us to conform to that pattern.

It is God at work. We talked about that last Sunday. The operation of God in our heart as a believer. The power of the resurrection of Christ at work in us now at this moment to push us toward righteousness, to conform us and mold us to the image of Christ. Well, of that, what is the image of Christ? You know what it is in part? It is goodness that God is working in us because he’s making us more like himself and that is goodness.

You see, you remember we talked about and we’re kinda wrapping it up, wrapping it all up now, but do you remember when we talked about the goodness of God and we saw how that man, mankind is not good, but God shows kindness to those who are unkind. So, God’s goodness is shown to man not as a response to them being good, right? We saw that. So, if God is not doing it in response like sinners, sinners are good to sinners, right?

They’re responding to goodness, done to them. But God has no goodness done to Him, yet He’s good, so where does that goodness come from? As review. If He’s not responding to the good done to Him, but yet He’s still good, where does it come from?

Himself. It comes from within his own character, okay? Now, because we have the Spirit of God in us, He put Himself in us and so therefore we exhibit that same principle in our lives where we, the Lord instructs us from within by the power of his spirit to do good to others, to be good to others, to be kind and benevolent to others not because they are good to us, but because there is goodness in us, not in us natively, but the goodness in us is God in us.

And so we do good out of the same reason, because goodness is in us put there by God. Look at Romans seven eighteen, the Bible says this, Romans seven eighteen, For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for the will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. Notice he says, in my flesh, that is the old man. In other words, natively, as we were when we came into this world, the praise, sinful, corrupt, there is no goodness, none none zero, not one ounce, not one speck of goodness. That’s what some Romans seven eighteen says.

But yet the Lord wants us to to have that same benevolence and kindness and goodness in us, in our character. So, if it’s not in us natively, where does it come from? Well, it comes from god, period. That’s it. If there’s any good in us, it is there by god. It god is the source of it. As a believer, we have a new nature because we have been created anew in the image of Jesus Christ.

This is what we mean when we talk about the resurrection power. That’s what we’re talking about last Sunday. Therefore, in Christ, we have goodness because we have the spirit of Christ, the spirit of god in us. And so there is goodness in us put there by god.

Now, look at Galatians chapter five. So if you have God in you, if you have the spirit of God in you, it will that fact will manifest itself. Galatians five verse number 22, yeah, verse 22, the Bible says this, But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, what? Goodness.

Faith, meekness, temperance. Fruit of the spirit, that means so long as you and I who have the spirit of God are walking according to the spirit of God and yielded to the spirit of God’s operation and working in our life, we will exhibit the same goodness that God himself exhibits because it is God in us, you see.

Alright, not just that, look at Ephesians chapter five, we’re right near there. Ephesians chapter five verse number nine. Ephesians five verse nine says this, For the fruits, that’s what we just read, right? Galatians five, the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.

Now look at Romans 15. Romans 15. This will be our last verse. Verse number 14. And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness. Now if our flesh, our old man has no good thing, where does this goodness come from? It’s obviously God in us, that’s it, that’s the only source.

He says, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another. You see, if we are filled with goodness, if we are bearing the fruit of the spirit who is in us, the evidence of that of that that spirit will be the exhibition, that is the showing of the same character, good character of God, goodness of God in goodness, kindness, and benevolence toward others.

And when we talk about doing good to others, we’re not just talking about the outward works although it includes that. Outward works are kindness are are or at least can be a demonstration of of goodness. But it also includes our words. Our disposition and our attitude toward others as well. You know, sometimes, you know, you have these people who are nasty personally. They are just nasty and unkind and not gracious at all, unmerciful, and yet they drop money to the United Way or to whatever, you know, whatever thing. But they them, in other words, the act of kindness is a front for lack of kindness.

But if we are evidencing, if we’re if the fruit of the spirit of God who is in us is being shown, it not only is shown in the acts of goodness, but also is is shown in a graciousness of word like what it did in the Lord Jesus who they said was his words were gracious and also in the kind and benevolent tone and attitude we have toward others.

It is a disposition, it is a character, not just a thing we do, but a thing we are. Because the Spirit of God is in us and His goodness is in us and His goodness comes out through us. Does that make sense? So indeed, Christians, those who have God in them should absolutely be, in the right sense, because it can be abused, but should absolutely be the kindest, most gracious, and benevolent people in word, in attitude, in tone, and in deed that there are. Because God Himself is that and He is in us.

Let’s pray together.