So long before the first Christmas, we know that God's redemptive story had already begun, right? In the fullness of time, Galatians 4 says, God took the initiative. And what was his initiative? What did he do that was so magnificent? Well, he sent forth a son. And this son's arrival is gonna change the course of world history. Arguably, there's no other three decades in time that changed the course of world history. Another chapter of God's redemptive story is unfolding here, right? Prophecies will be fulfilled and the hope of the gospel. So Christmas does mark the birth, but yet the glory of Christmas is that it's not the beginning of Christ, is it? It's not the beginning of Christ. For no other human in history has or ever will share this unique position that we're talking about in Christmas. Jesus's eternal preexistence is like no other. There will never be another. Christ, the man, has come. Today's sermon will be referencing many scripture verses. It's not a Christmas theme, but it is Christmas because Christ is what? He is the greatest gift to man. There is no better gift. So when you speak of Christ, you're speaking of Christmas. I hope our enthusiasms for this week to come, the excitement, the festivities, I hope that is surpassed by this gift of Christ. I hope that is your heart today. The title of today's sermon is The Goodness of an All-Good God. And so here's my goal today. Today that I hope that we believe and we know and we rest that God is good. That's my hope today, because if we know this, then we're motivated and we're moved to what the psalmist says. See, the psalmist invites us and he says, taste and see that the Lord is good. And so that's my hope today. So let's not be too quick, I hope, and say, well, of course, God is good. That's easy. Those are simple words. That tiny little statement is foundational to scripture, though, is it not? That theme runs throughout all of scripture, that God is good. In fact, some of you may be familiar with Stephen Charnock, 1600s. He wrote 130 pages on the goodness of God in this book. more than on the holiness of God. That's how important the goodness of God is. So the outline points for today, two points. First is the being and perfection of God, knowing that that is good. And then the second point is his benevolent care is good. So his being and perfection is good and his benevolent care is good. So where do we begin? where we begin talking about this topic. So in philosophy classes, you're gonna get different answers to the root question, what is good, right? Is good objective? Is it a set of principles? What is the driving forces when you're thinking of what is good? Is good in the eye of the beholder? Well, for the Christian, that's not an option, is it? And so where do we go for what is good? Well, we go to scripture. We go to scripture. So the concept of good and goodness must be informed biblically. So I'll be referencing many verses today. So why do we need to know? Why does it matter if we know in our heart that God is good? So, practically speaking, every morning you wake up and the non-believer wakes up. And you all have common pressures, you have struggles, maybe their finances, maybe their jobs, maybe there's conflicts, maybe there's family struggles. But for the believer, we cannot live through that being Christ-centered without knowing that God is good. It's almost as if this knowing and trusting that God is good drains away like a leaky bucket. I have this image of a bucket over there and life and my sin is taking rifle shots. And my understanding of God's goodness is just leaking away over time. Does that not happen? I think it does to all of us. Paul in Philippians 3.10 says this, you know these verses. He says that I may know Christ and the power of his resurrection. See, Paul here is not just talking about simply being on the correct side of a balance sheet here, of God's salvation balance sheet. He's talking much deeper here, is he not? He's saying to know Jesus is of surpassing worth. It's surpassing worth. And so these little trinkets and flashes of what I think is good, they're going to be gone tomorrow. And a new one's going to be popped up tomorrow. So what is my foundation for what is good? No, Paul says those should be counted as what? You remember the context? Rubbish. So these things that I am gravitated towards, Paul says, count them as rubbish. And later, Paul even gives us a pretty stern warning. He says, don't walk this way. And here's the picture of the other way. He says, their end is destruction, their God is their bellies, and they glory in their shame. Remember the last phrase here? With their minds set on heavenly things. That's a picture of an image chasing the wrong thing. So when we see and believe that God is good, that shapes us. When we know that the sovereign of the universe, the God of very gods that we just sung about, when we know at our core that he is good, that changes me. So that's why we need to know God is good. For some of you, I know many of you well, and this idea that I'm talking about today, that God is good, this is not typically a struggle for you. And if that's you, bless the Lord. But there's others, because I've spoken to you privately, that this is not an easy question. God takes us on a difficult journey sometimes. A.W. Tozier was counseling someone, and he basically said this. He said, I know you won't understand what we're talking about right now, and it may take you five years for you to comprehend this. And do you know what he was talking about? Simply that God is good. It may take people years to this simple idea. In the Psalms, nine different Psalms, I looked them up, nine different Psalms declare that God is good. Not that he does good, there's a difference, but he is good. Psalm 106 and 107, oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Good, his steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 104, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting. Psalm 119, you are good and you do good. So see the distinction, Psalm 119 actually distinguishes that he is good and he does good. Mark 10, Gabe taught on this in Sunday school recently about the rich young ruler. Good teacher, interesting question there. What must I do? to inherit eternal life. And so let me just pause here. If you are here today without Christ, this is the question for you. What must I do to inherit eternal life? There's really no other more important question for you if you're here without Christ. So call out to him, ask him, to save you? That is your question today. But Jesus replied to the rich young ruler, why do you call me good? There's no one who is good. And the sad truth of that story, standing before that man was God incarnate, the essence of all good, right? The one who could fill this man with all that is good. And what does that man do? He turns and he walks away to what he thought was good. It's quite a sad story. So one point of application here, if there are idols in your life, maybe when Mike's been preaching through First Samuel, if there are idols in your life, we need to count those as rubbish, right? We need to count those as rubbish. What we are looking to as good Paul says, count those as rubbish. Theologian Thomas Manton, again from the 1600s, he wrote about this essence of God that we're trying to think on today. Listen to this, this is great language. He said, God is good, not only good, but goodness itself. He is the essence. No one, no thing is equal in comparison. Listen to this, he is pure good, absolute good, inexhaustibly good, infinite good. He is the fount of everything good. Wow, that should change how I think when he is the essence of everything good. You know, we trip up on this word good, right? In the English language, it can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb. So don't stumble on this idea that I went to a good movie or I had a good dinner. That's not what we're talking about here, right? That's used as an adjective. Those statements imply a measure or a preference, right? You don't do that with God. We don't apply that to God. There is no relative goodness in God. So sometimes we talk about the attributes of God, right? And so we know that all of God's attributes fit together. They don't rival each other. They're not at odds with each other. And so just as we say his justice doesn't conflict with his love, they're in harmony with each other, so his holiness and his goodness go together. And for me personally, as I was studying this, this really hit home. It helped me to think that his holiness in light of his goodness. And so let me explain what I mean. We know that God is holy. So due to that, he cannot become more good, right? He can't become more good. And extending that, he can't act in more good ways because he is holy, right? So a lesser than all pure God is what? A lesser than an all pure good God isn't holy, right? An all good pure acting God cannot be perfection. Does that make sense? A lesser-than-all-good God causes his righteousness to crumble, right? And if he's not righteous, then we don't need a Savior. And what is Christmas? And what is John 1, 27, where it says, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin? What is that? If we don't have a righteous, all-good, holy, God, they crumble. So I can't think of my life saying, well, God wasn't good here because he's holy and he executes perfectly. I think if we try to reason any other way, we must grapple with that. And he is pure good. and he acts in holy good, H-O-L-Y, he acts in holy good. I encourage us to study this idea of God's essence. So I was looking in Genesis about when did good begin in that context. How many verses do you need to get into in Genesis before God introduces good? Four verses. And then we know in chapter one, seven more times, he's going to declare something as good. And then in chapter two in Genesis, he establishes marriage. And what does he say is something good in marriage? Absolutely, it is not good. And then in chapter three, the fall. And this is what struck me. What is the framework of the temptation there? Was it, you can be like God and when you're like God, you'll be all powerful and you'll be omniscient and all these things? No, what was the framework of the temptation? The framework is you'll be like God in the knowledge of what? Good and evil. Isn't that interesting? And in verse three, it tells us that Eve, quote, it was a delight to her eyes and a desire to make one wise. Wow, I do this every day. I delight in my eyes what I think is good. No. We say, no, God, I don't want that. No, God, that's not good for me. My good is over here. Do we not say that? I think we might. It's kind of striking to me that an element in the fall deals in this grounds that we're talking about, an element in the fall. And I've even had this thought, is do I reject what God has declared as good? And I wonder if the delighting of my eyes, if there's something underneath that, at its core, where I say, God, are you really good? See, if I'm delighting in my eyes and something over here, is my heart not in a way saying, God, you're not good because you're not giving me what I want? I think there's something there that Eric needs to think through. So we've seen that his essence is good. We've talked that he is wholly good. And God defines what good is. That's an idea that we need to grapple with. God defines what God says is good. So outline point number two, his beneficial care is good. His beneficial care is good. So because God is perfect in goodness himself, then what would we expect to flow out of him? Okay, so his beneficial care for us that flows out must be good as well, right? We just kind of talked about that. So true, false, true, false question. There is a bounty of goodness that God expresses to us. True, false? Absolutely true. Ah, church, there's a bouncy of goodness that God expresses to us. So many that this little sermon could be many, many sermons expounding upon this. Let me just highlight two ways that I want to focus on how this expression of goodness flows to us. So the first one is what I call, he fills with spiritual riches. So he fills with spiritual riches. So we're about to celebrate Christmas and we're gonna have stockings that typically are filled, are they not, on Christmas morning. we must be so much more excited about God's filling us with his goodness. I hope my heart is so much more filled with what God has done and can do and will do in my heart. I'm gonna read you some verses here. Listen for three common elements in all of these verses. and we'll talk about them in just a minute. So listen for three common elements in these verses. The first one is what Louis read from Luke 1. He has filled the hungry with good things. That was from Luke. Psalm 107. For he has satisfied the hungry soul, and the hungry soul he has filled with good. Psalm 84, no good thing does he withhold for those who walk upright. Psalm 103, he satisfies your desires with good things so that you will be renewed like the youth. Matthew 5, blessed is those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, I think you know the rest of that verse, for they will be filled. So what are the three common elements there that we were talking about? Did you hear, what were the three things? There's a hunger, and that's man. All of those verses had about a hunger. There's a filling. And who is initiating the filling? God is initiating the filling with what? What is the filling? Well, the passage calls it good things. So Matthew Henry said, what is that good things? What are these good things? Well, he called them spiritual riches. And that's where I get that word from, spiritual riches. And he says this. Those who see their need for Christ, is that you? Those who desire to grow in righteousness, he fills with good things, with the best things, he gives them liberally and they will be abundantly satisfied. Wow. He fills with good things, the best things, and gives them liberally, and the abundant will be satisfied. In Old Church, we know that the best gift to fill us is Christ himself. Is he not the absolute best? So, I asked you this. This is, as you might remember, I like to give family devotional topics. So here's the family devotional assignment, if you so care to take it up. Make a list of the spiritual riches, these good things that God has given you. Make a list of that. Write them down. And then the challenge is, are you willing to work and nurture one of those into next year, into 2025? Are you willing to do the work and the nurture to grow one of those spiritual riches? Make a commitment. Email me. Tell a friend. What are we wanting God to do in the next year in this light? I have some friends, and they often select a word for the year. You might have remembered that. I'm gonna study a certain word for a year. So personally, my word needs to be rest, rest in the Lord. That's what Eric needs. I need to rest in the Lord. Philip Keller, in his book, A psalm, excuse me, Philip Keller in his book, A Shepherd's Look at the 23rd Psalm wrote this. He says, sheep will only lie down to sleep when they are calm and at rest. Wow, sheep lie down only when they're at calm and at rest. So here's how I'm tying this together. So a direct result of knowing that God is good, I should be able to rest. Right? I should be able to rest. So maybe your word might be goodness. We've been talking about goodness. That's a fruit of the spirit, right? So since God is good, then we are to be fruit producers. We are to produce goodness. And in that context, goodness is not a humanistic characteristic, is it? Christians, we are called to be image bearers. Image bearers. And so how to tie these ideas together? A direct result of knowing that God is good, I should be living out this image bearing goodness to others, right? Does that make sense? Because he is good. I, sorry, I am to live it out. I thank this church because every week I hear of goodness getting lived out. I get texts, I hear, pray for this. I see how God is answering prayers. I see, I hear, thank you church for living out God's goodness to others. So that was kind of benevolent care number one. Benevolent care number two, I've called God's goodness over hardships. God's goodness over hardships. So inside of suffering and hardships, God doesn't give us the whole picture, does he? We don't always understand his ways. They're mysteries sometimes inside of suffering and hardships. A.W. Tozer said this, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. And so again, when we're thinking of hardships, we must start with the nature and the character of God. See, we don't fashion a God out of my image. and take that God and look at a life situation, do we? We start with the nature and the character of God. So let's exercise for a moment this idea that Tozer introduced. I ask you to take a minute now and think over this past year. Think over the past year. Think in relation to your faith, your attitudes, and in the goodness of God in that context. Is this next statement your clear and loud testimony that God has been good to me? Is that your testimony? I know a few people, I won't call names, but this is their loud and clear testimony, even in the midst of hardships, that God has been good to me. I want this to be my testimony. On Monday, I was fairly convicted of this, and I just had to ask forgiveness Because I know my heart, I know my tendencies recently. So I need to put some spiritual things into my life, because this should be our testimony, should it not church that God has been good to me. But let's take another step of this. Let's go a little deeper. Let's think about actually maybe some pain or suffering that you've had in this year. Did anyone wrestle with this question? We don't talk about this publicly, but anyone wrestle with this question that was this hardship inside of God's goodness or outside of God's goodness? We all know the right answer to that question, don't we? But our hearts can get murky. Our hearts can get tangled and twisted and the things of the world and the flesh and the devil make that question a little more hard sometimes. So if we believe or think that hardships are outside of God's goodness and outside of God's hand, then that leads us to some other questions about his sovereignty. And there are questions there that you've got to grapple with, too, isn't there? But if we believe that these hardships are inside of God's goodness, then scripture then has an answer for that. And these verses that we read can strengthen and build my faith, should they not, like Colossians 117, for he holds, excuse me, For he is before all things, and in all things are held together by him. How about that? Hebrews 6, 9. We have this hope, and it's anchored for my soul, a firm and secure hope, and that hope is bound to the glory seat of Christ. And Psalm 121, my hope, excuse me, my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. These are glorious passages that we see inside of hardships, inside of him. But sometimes, as I say, we might have doubts. And if anybody remember, the disciples had doubt. Disciples had doubts, did they not? How about Mark 4? Disciples were in a pretty difficult situation. Matter of fact, it was a life-threatening situation, was it not? There was a great storm. And the text says, water was coming into their boat. And what did they ask Jesus? What did they ask Jesus? Do you care? They didn't ask him if he was powerful enough to deal with a storm. No, they asked him a heart question, it seemed, if he cared. And in a sense, I don't know this, but in a sense, it got me thinking, was the question more grounded, God, are you good inside of storms? So I wonder, is there water coming into your boat today? Is there water in your boat where we have to call out to the Lord? In John 6, the bread of life, we don't have time to unpack that whole dialogue. But both the Jews who wanted more of that magic good bread, right, remember that, and the disciples, both of them end up grumbling. They were complaining about things. In verse 60, disciples said, these are hard sayings. Who can listen to them? And another sad verse in scripture, many disciples did what? They turned. They turned. And Jesus then says, asks this very pointed, hard question, will you turn too? A commentator on this verse got me thinking, and I need to think on this more. He said, in a deeper sense, this hard saying is actually an invitation to the gospel. Wow. This invitation, this hard saying, is an invitation to the gospel. And then Peter responds, what blessed words he responds, to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? You have the words of life. So the gospel calls us. The gospel gives us strength to help us in these hard events, to see past, if you will. And by grace, we persevere. We persevere in these hard things. We persevere in these hard things because we stand back and we say, you are pure good. You are pure good. You are holy good. And then by grace, we stand and we get help through these hard things. So in closing here, let me give you five takeaways from real life hard situations, five takeaways perspectives, if you will, in this idea that God is good. So my takeaway number one is come alongside, come alongside. I get this from Johnny Erickson Tada, and she said this, she said, when God lobs your grenade into life and it rattles your faith to the core, we wonder how he's gonna work out the shrapnel for good. As I read that the first time, that was a hard saying to me, right? Wow, shrapnel. And does she know a little bit about God's goodness inside of a hard place? Bless the Lord. So come alongside, befriend, pray, look for those who are in these hard, hurting situations, and let's band together as the body of Christ. So that's number one. Number two is maintain thankfulness. Maintain thankfulness. Matthew Henry was assaulted and robbed by a group of thieves one evening. And in his journal that night, in his diary journal, he wrote this. He said, let me be thankful for four things. Listen to these four things. So in the midst of getting robbed, he's journaling about thankfulness. And here's the four things that he wrote. He said, I'm thankful that I had not been robbed before. I'm thankful that I only lost possessions, not my life. I am thankful that I did not lose too much. And the fourth one, I am thankful that I was robbed and I was not doing the robbing. That's a thankful heart in the midst of getting robbed, is it not? He just bounded, he just flowed with thankfulness. Eric's heart needs a couple doses of that. Number three, have a heavenward vision, a heavenward vision. I take this from my friend Chris Mercer. I've spoken of him before. Seven years of brain cancer. I estimate that I got together with Chris over 150 times in those seven years to walk with him through brain cancer. And he never once grumbled about the goodness of God. Never. Matter of fact, last week, I was with these men. Chris is in heaven now, but I was with these men, and I brought this up, and every one of them testified. Chris never complained. And actually, he exhorted Eric, God is good. God is good. I can literally hear his voice. God is good. What a testimony in the midst of suffering. Chris's overwhelming Vision, that's where I get those words, were on two things. It was on Christ above, and it was the salvation of his family. Everything else didn't matter. That was what he wanted. So that's number three takeaway. Number four is hold fast to the promises of God. Hold fast to the promise of God. Pastor Andrew Wilson, He pastors a church in London. It's a reformed church. And he wrote this. He goes, we've had the devastating experience of severe autism in both my five-year-old and my three-year-old. Medical, educational, marital, financial, social, and above all, emotional hardships. It's easy to affirm the goodness of God in the abstract and when things are going well. But when your children are going backwards, it's a little harder. It can be a spiritual challenge to squeeze out the simple words that God is good. And this is a pastor. Singing becomes a fight. Pastoral ministry becomes a fight because it involves exhorting others onto things that you're struggling to hold yourself. Well, that's an honest pastor. But over time, my way through was theological. Basically, later in the article, he talks about holding on to these promises of God. So that's what he meant by that statement. Over time, my way was theological. You wrestle with what it actually means when the psalmist declares that Yahweh is good. So that's number four, hold on to the promises of God. You know, there's a depth of maturity to these four believers, is there not? There's a depth of maturity that we can strive for, we can build towards, we can support each other in these four. And the fifth one is the cross, the cross. The worst evil done, God meant for what? God meant for good. He meant it for good for his glory, for his kingdom, for his people. The suffering of Christ was God's appointed way, was it not? That's the gospel. So as we close, I want our hearts, as Mary in that song said, may my soul magnify the Lord and my spirit rejoice in God my Savior. May Christmas be that we see God afresh. that he is good. So let's speak often of that, that God is good. Let's make that our testimony, that God is good. And let's rejoice in that. Let me pray. Oh, Lord, you are light, and you, there is no darkness, and that is good. You are not a mix of conflicting ways, and your good hand abounds. You graciously overflow, and it's most seen in Christ. May our hearts just overflow this season. May our voices speak that you are good. And as Romans 8 said, he who did not spare his own son, how freely will he give us all things. And in Jesus I say, amen.