God Is A God Of Goodness

This is why we Christians tell others about the GOD OF THE BIBLE AND HIS LOVE AND GOODNESS.

The reason some do not talk more about the God of the Bible than they do is because they really do not know Him well enough to talk about Him!

Illus: Dr. Odell Belger said that he arrived his first year in Bible College with all the other freshmen who thought they knew a great deal about God.

One of his professors could detect this “KNOW IT ALL ATTITUDE”, so the first thing he did was ask everyone to open their notebooks and start to write all they knew about God. He, along with all the others, smiled and thought this would be an easy assignment. They started writing such things as:

• God is great

• God is love

• God is patient

• God is kind

And what they discovered was that everything they knew about God could be easily be written in one paragraph.

DO YOU KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT GOD THAT YOU COULD FILL A SHEET OF PAPER?

If you really know Him you should be able to describe Him.

Illus: If I asked you if you knew a certain person and you told me that you did, then I would assume that you could tell me some things about that person.

For instance, I would think you could:

• Tell me the color of their hair

• Tell me approximately how tall they were

• Tell me approximately how much they weighed

• And, if you knew them well enough, you might be able to tell me what color eyes they had

Many claim to know God, but they know so little about God they have a hard time describing Him to someone else. They can only tell you things they have heard from others.

Illus: Speaking of knowing someone, a school teacher asked her class about the Mason Dixon line that divides the North from the South. She asked what this line divided.

One little boy raised his hand and said that the Mason Dixon line described two kinds of people.

• The ones that live on one side that say, “You all”

• The ones that live on the other side that say, “Youse guys.”

Illus: One of the things we are known for in the South is for having rednecks. They say YOU MIGHT BE A REDNECK IF...

• You’ve been married three times and still have the same in-laws

• You tell Grandpa he has something in his teeth and he takes them out to see

• You punish your children by taking away their chewing tobacco

• You lost your wife in a poker game

• You had a receding hairline in the sixth grade

• Your Thanksgiving centerpiece has been prepared by a taxidermist

• You refer to your dog as your youngest

• You select a date’s corsage to match her tattoo

• You’ve slow danced at a Waffle House

• Someone asks, "Where’s your bowling bag?" and you answer, "She’s at home with the kid.”

• Your wife has a set of earrings that you use as a fishing lure.

• You stare at a can of orange juice, because it says "concentrate."

• You use channel locks for a nose hair trimmer

• The best five years of your life were in the second grade

• A full tank of gas doubles the value of your truck

• Your wife is so ugly you take her everywhere you go so you never have to kiss her good-bye

Many can describe someone they know as a redneck, but they do not know enough about God to describe Him to others.

When we talk about knowing God, we are referring to the fact that we have learned certain characteristics that are unique to Him from HIS WORD, and through PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

Let me show you some things the Bible teaches about the God of the Bible and His GOODNESS. We see . . .

I. THE BIBLE DECLARES GOD'S GOODNESS

There are many scriptures that tell us about the GOODNESS OF GOD. One of my favorites is Psalm 25:8, which says, "Good and upright is the Lord..."

But even if there was not one scripture in the Bible that told us of His goodness, the way He deals with evil man is proof that He is a God of Goodness.

We SEE AND HEAR ABOUT OUTWARD sin every day. We hear about it from our family and friends.

• We read about it in the newspaper

• We hear about it on radio and television

• Every day, OUTWARDLY we are aware that we live in a world that is full of sin

However, we do not SEE OR HEAR ABOUT INWARD sin. Even though we see and hear about all the OUTWARD SINS, every day there are millions of INWARD SINS that only God can see. And the fact, that God can look down and see …