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THE GLORY OF GOD SERIES
THE GOODNESS OF GOD
Exodus 33:18 and [Moses] said, “Please
show me Your glory.” Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you,
and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will compassion.” And
shortly after in Exodus 34 the Lord did exactly what He promised to Moses. In
verse 5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and
proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed,
“The Lord, the Lord, God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding
in goodness and truth.
We are looking at the glory of God. When God manifested His glory to Moses, He mentioned five attributes. The Lord came down and proclaimed the name of the Lord, saying, “The Lord, the Lord, God, merciful, gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.” This tells us that the glory of God that came down consists of five ingredients - mercy, graciousness, longsuffering, goodness, and truth. We have already seen mercy and graciousness earlier.
In this message, we want to look at the
word goodness, which is one of the ingredients of God’s glory. We desire to grow in God’s glory. We want
more of God’s glory upon our life. The bible prophesied that His glory would be
on His people. All the Gentiles shall see the glory of God. We need to grow in
glory and in order to do so, we need to understand what glory consists of. We
must grow in these five elements of God’s glory in order to grow in glory. We
must grow in mercy. If we stop growing in mercy, we will stop growing in glory.
We must grow in graciousness. If we do not grow in graciousness, we will not
grow in glory. We must also grow in
goodness. Otherwise, we cannot grow in glory.
In the last message, we saw that graciousness is tied up to holiness and righteousness. They are the impartation of God’s very nature and being into us. In fact, all five would have relevance to God’s nature but each has its special aspect. For example, holiness and righteousness has its own aspect, which we have touched on in our previous message.
Do you notice the God summarizes all the
five ingredients into one general word goodness too? In Exodus 33:19 I
will make all My goodness. I did not know goodness is a substance. But God
says goodness is a substance. I will make My goodness pass before you. Is
goodness an attribute or a substance? It is both. Goodness is an attribute of
God, which consist of His attitude. Do you notice that most of the time we
understand goodness either in two forms? This reminds me of the Chinese operas.
The musicians would sound the Chinese instruments and the main actor makes a
dramatic entrance, saying, “I am a good
man.” They always make an entrance this
way.
So when we say a person is good, what do
we mean by good? A good person usually means that he or she does not do evil.
Again, it is a negative perspective. It does not define what it is. It defines
what it is not. He is a good man that means a person did not do anything wrong.
It does not give a definition. It gives a non-definition. It tells us what it
is not. The same way like we were trying to define holiness and righteousness
in our last message. Most of your answers about holiness and righteousness were
non-definitions. Non-definitions tell us what the term is not but they do not
tell us what the term is. Holiness is the very nature of God Himself. It is not
the absence of sin but it is the presence of God. And righteousness is both a
right standing with God and in the New Testament it became a substance through
Jesus Christ a gift of righteousness.
When we say that someone is a good person,
people think about what that person did not do. The other aspect is we think
that the attitude of a good person is being kind, benevolent, amicable, meek,
gentle, and all kinds of positive words to describe a person. So, we sometimes
think of goodness in terms of attitude.
When God speaks about goodness, He speaks
about substance and attitude. Your
answer would be half correct if you refer goodness to be an attitude like
kindness. The other half is that
goodness is a substance. Otherwise how can Ps. 23 say, “Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me.” Something following me cannot be an attitude. If
the attitude is following me, it should be my attitude. It should be in me, not
following me. But there is something following us. Surely, goodness and
mercy is following me all the days of our life. And I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. So goodness and mercy are powerful things.
Here is why it is powerful. Ps. 37:23 says
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and He delights in his ways.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. Now, don’t you think
that is powerful? A good man may make mistakes and fall, yet the Lord will
raise him up again. But if you are a bad
man and you fall, you fall. You lack the substance of goodness to prop you up
in troubled times.
But apparently there is something powerful
about goodness. When it gets a hold of us, it preserves us. It preserves us in
imperfection. It preserves us when we make mistakes. It preserves us when we
fall. So, it is powerful. If we understand goodness and apply it in our lives,
we become essentially in substance and attitude, a good person. The quality of
goodness has a preserving power in our life.
Let me illustrate something more powerful. You remember Abraham. Essentially, he is a good man but he did stumble and fall. He is human. Essentially, he is good but he is still made of flesh and blood. He makes mistakes. He went with Sarah his beautiful wife into king Abimelech’s territory. When he went into Abimelech’s territory, Abimelech took one look at Sarah and said, “Get her for my harem.” When the armed men approached Abraham and said, “Our king wants her,” Abraham was thinking about his life. He has made an agreement with Sarah saying, “If any body ask who you are to me, say that you are my sister. Don’t say you are my wife otherwise I will be killed.” So, these guys came and asked him. He says, “She is my sister,” so they took her and Abraham did not do anything about it. Some of you look innocent as if you never told a lie before. What about half-truths? People call it a white lie. A white lie is a partial truth given so that you will not know the whole truth. You have given incomplete information in such a way that your hearer will be misled to a wrong conclusion. It is true that Sarah is his sister as she is Abraham’s half sister. But that is half the truth. Abimelech concluded that therefore Sarah is not Abraham’s wife if she were his sister. Abraham was afraid that the other half of the truth would get him into trouble. So he refrained from speaking the other half of the truth and he fell into sin.
But the amazing thing is our Father God.
King Abimelech took Sarah to his harem and when king Abimelech was asleep, God
gave him a dream. In Gen. 20:6 God told Abimelech in a dream. God said, Yes,
I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. Now Abimelech
apparently has some integrity too. That is also why God worked a dream in his
life. See God preserves the man of integrity too. The righteousness of the
upright will deliver them (Proverbs 11: 6) For I also withheld you from
sinning against Me, therefore I did not let you touch her. Now therefore,
restore the man’s wife. Abraham was the one responsible because Abraham
told a lie. He could have trusted the Lord to defend him. If he dies for
telling the truth, so be it but tell the truth. He told a lie and Sarah went
along. And He says, “Restore the man’s wife for he is a prophet.” God is
defending a liar. God is defending a man who has fallen. Question, why? -
because essentially he is a good man. The steps of a good man are ordered by
the Lord. And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly
cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand. (Psalm 37:23-24)
Now when you fall you pay a price for it.
I am not saying you do not pay a price for sin to a certain extend. But the
fact is there is restoration. Why is God working restoration so fast? Abraham
walked in goodness. He would qualify the description of a good man in Ps. 37:23
whose steps are ordered by the Lord. See it does not mean that you failed once
that you are a failure. It does not mean that when you told a half-truth, which
is wrong, and a lie in some pressurized situation, you are a liar. But if you
continue at it, you may become a habitual liar but the fact is those who are
good do not intend to continue that habit of lying. That is the difference.
It is because of goodness that God worked
in Paul’s life. In the book of Acts, Paul was a cruel man from the outward
perspective. He took Christians from their homes, threw them into prison,
separated families, killed, and was involved in the killing of Stephen. He was
on his way to
Paul recognized his former life in I Tim.
1:13 when he wrote, although I was formerly a blasphemer. We are not
saying that his former life of cruelty was not wrong. It is still wrong. Wrong
is wrong, sin is sin. But restoration is possible when there is essential
goodness. Don’t we do that to our children all the time? It is a different
thing when you punish a child who persistently and constantly chooses to do
evil. But it is a different thing when your child failed under fear of
pressure, so they came back and told a lie. Essentially, they do not intend to
do that. But they yielded to the pressure of fear. Evil may try to creep into
their hearts but essentially, they are good.
Now let me draw a careful line here. If we
constantly repeat our failures, sins, or shortcomings, it can turn us into an
evil person. So what we are teaching is not an excuse or license for sin. But
what we are teaching is to understand the mercy and goodness of God and how He
deals in our life. I believe if not for the mercy, the grace and the goodness
of God, not one of us would be sitting here. Who amongst us here can say, “I
have never fail.” Who can say they have never faulted. None of us. But God
continued working in our life. He searches the deep things of the heart. He
knows essentially you are good.
Essentially Paul was good. He really
wanted to do well but he was self-deceived. He was doing evil things while
thinking he was doing good. This is what he says in I Tim.1:13 although I
was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. He did not do it purposely.
He did it ignorantly and out of lack of knowledge. If you understand this
truth, you would be more merciful to others than you ought to. We write off
many people because we look on the outward, and do not see on the inward. If
God adopts that attitude towards us, we will all be finished. That is why
sometimes people may hurt us with their words and in their actions but we need
to see beyond their words and actions. If we do so, we can see their love and
intention and we can nurture fellowship too.
Otherwise, there is no fellowship.
So, Paul obtained mercy because of his
essential goodness. He acted out of ignorance and lack of knowledge. Many people do things and say things that
they should not say or should not do because they know not what they do and
know not what they say. Sometimes what
they do and what they say is hurting. It cripples, depresses, and discourages
others. It could actually cause people to turn away from the Lord. And normally
we would say that such sin is worthy of the punishment. But yet, God looks at
the heart. He sees goodness in a spark there. He deals with it. He would step
in. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, though he fall, though he
fall, he will not be cast down.
Paul also says this in the book of Acts
22:3 I am indeed a Jew, born in
Some of you sitting right here are on your
way to Christian perfection. You fall from time to time. And you wonder how you
are going to pick yourself up and press on. When some people make a mistake,
they dare not face anybody any more. They feel like hiding at home. All of us
make mistakes but what makes the difference is to get out of it quickly. We get
back on the right track and we press on. Of course, it demands a teachable attitude.
It demands that we are able to correct what we did. Paul was very frank about
it. He admitted that he was wrong. I think one difficult sentence people have
to say is, “I really love you with agape love.” Not many people really can say
that and mean it. The other is, “I am wrong. Please forgive me.” Human pride
does not want to say that.
From the time of Adam’s fall, God asked,
“Adam, Adam, where art thou?” Do you know that God knows where Adam was? Of
course, God knows where Adam was. Don’t tell me God doesn’t know. Then what
kind of God are we talking about? God knows where Adam was but God wanted Adam
to respond and say, “I have failed you, I have made a mistake.” Adam did not do
such a thing. Adam was hiding and God asked, “Did you eat of that tree? See God
knew the answer. He wanted an answer from Adam. Adam did not even say, “I did.”
He said, “The woman gave me to eat.” God asked the woman. The woman said, “The
serpent.” But every one of them cannot come to God and say, “I am sorry. I was
wrong. Forgive me.” See that demonstrates whether you are a good man or not. A
good man though he falls will not allow himself to be cast down he will get up
again and walk off. Goodness is powerful. We have to develop goodness in our
lives. Goodness is both an attitude and a substance.
While we are on the subject of Adam and
Eve, I want to digress and share some prophetic significance for our times.
There is a local church where every first Saturday of the month, the pastor
sends some of his members on study tours to heaven. Since we are fast
approaching the end times, the Holy Spirit wants to accelerate our learning.
These study tours of heaven will reveal many secrets for our times. Under the
direction of the Holy Spirit, the pastor walks up and down the aisle and picks
a few members who were chosen by the Holy Spirit to make a trip to heaven. He
asks them to prepare by confessing their sins and asking for grace. Once they
are ready, the pastor points his forefinger at them, one by one, and they fall
to the ground like dead men and women. He asks the ushers to examine them and
roll them on the floor and there is no response from them. Their breathing and
their heartbeats even slowed down considerably. They are then carried to the
stage for an hour or so before the pastor claps his hands to wake them up. They
then go to the mike to make their reports to the congregation.
In one of the reports, a member described
how he was taken to a computer screen by an angel to see what really happened
in the Garden of Eden. He saw that Adam was very, very handsome and Eve was
even more beautiful and pretty. She was so beautiful that Adam loved her very
deeply. Adam loved her so much that he did everything to please her. He obeyed
her every desire to the point of even being submissive to her. Eve had a
peculiar penchant for snakes. She would
carry a snake about her and let it twirl around her body. She loved to play
with her pet snake. She would constantly talk with the serpent too. Of course,
this was before the fall, and the animals were friendly and harmless. The
serpent was not seen to be evil and there was nothing squeamish about it. It
may have been very beautiful and attractive as well. Eve also greatly admired
Adam for his knowledge and wisdom. She yearned for that kind of wisdom that
Adam had. She saw that Adam could name all the animals and administrate the
Garden of Eden with great knowledge and wisdom.
It was for these reasons – that Eve was
friendly with her pet snake, that Eve admired Adam for his wisdom and that Adam
was submissive to Eve – that the devil pounced upon to bring the downfall of
man. He had been observing this for many years and finally when Adam and Eve
were about thirty years old, the devil used the serpent to talk to Eve about
getting the wisdom of God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. Eve fell for it since she trusted her pet snake and since she wanted to
be Adam who had such great wisdom. After Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, she
gave some to Adam to eat as well. By this time, Adam had already cultivated the
habit of obeying Eve all the time because of her great beauty and he too fell
into the devil’s trap and obeyed Eve. The sin of Eve is greater than the sin of
Adam.
Recently, there seems to be a craze for
keeping pet snakes. I watched a Discovery Channel documentary that showed many
teenaged girls buying pet snakes. Ironically, when Discovery Channel
interviewed them, many of the girls said that their keeping pet snakes had
nothing to do with the serpent and the devil and “stuff like that.” You would
notice that their minds were automatically led to associate the serpent with
the devil. I believe that their consciences were pricking them and warning them
but they chose to drown out their inner voice by saying it is ok to keep pet
snakes. They do not realize that a bigger picture was being played out and they
were the mere pawns of the devil. The devil is leading them to adopt the habit
of Eve, who also loved to play with pet snakes. At the time when the devil was
permitted to test Adam and Eve, he used Eve’s pet serpent to speak to her. So
will it be in the last days. Satan will use these pet snakes to communicate
with their mistresses, perhaps by telepathy or ESP, to mislead them to accept
the Antichrist and rebel against God. Christians too who keep religious
statues, icons and pictures at home have also to beware. In the last days too,
Satan will speak through these statues and mislead them to accept the
Antichrist. It is much better to get rid of them than allow them to be your
stumbling blocks. Do not be surprised to find that your devout mother or wife
is kneeling before the altar, and there is a religious picture or statue there.
Suddenly, she hears a voice coming from that statue or picture saying that the
Antichrist is a great and holy leader sent from God. She believes that
deception, tells everybody what she heard, and lead the whole family and
neighborhood to worship the Antichrist. Terrible deception will take place
during the end times and woe to those who do not have the Spirit of truth with
them.
Many bible teachers teach that Adam should
have exercised his headship over Eve and commanded her to obey God rather than
listen to the voice of the serpent. He should know what God has commanded and
he should command his household to obey God. All this is true but we should
understand the hold that Eve had over Adam. In fact, the heaven’s report states
that Eve was domineering over her husband, Adam. She was constantly ordering
Adam around, and Adam was being very submissive to her. So it should not be a
surprise that Adam obeyed Eve when she gave him the fruit to eat and that was
the fall of mankind. Like a chess game, the devil had already studied his
opponent’s weak points and placed his pieces in strategic locations before
springing the checkmate on Adam.
This same heaven’s report states that the
devil will use this same tactic to trap mankind in the last days. Satan has
always used women to bring about the downfall of man. Witness the number of
ministers and ministries, families, government leaders, even businesses
collapsing because of an illicit liaison with a woman. For by means of a
harlot, a man is reduced to a crust of bread; and an adulteress will prey upon
his precious life. (Proverbs 6:26) Just as the devil used Eve to bring down
Adam, so will he use women to lead in the rebellion against God and side with
the Antichrist in the last days. It is no coincidence that you see the rise of
many woman politicians and government heads in the last decade. It is also no
coincidence that feminism, feminist theology, the worship of goddesses has
gained ascendancy in many societies. All these are part of Satan’s chess moves
to spring the final assault on mankind. This number will increase as the world
heads rapidly towards the final scenario.
Now, let us come back to our topic. Like CNN, sometimes I will have to interrupt the topic to bring you the latest from heaven. We need to keep up with what God is doing in our present times. I am sure you will not mind.
Lets look at Exodus 33:19 Then He said,
“I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of
the Lord before you. When God said, “I will make My goodness pass before
you,” and then mentions mercy, graciousness, longsuffering, goodness and truth,
He implies that goodness covers all the five aspects of His glory. Then in
chapter 34 he repeats again in verse 6 And the Lord passed before him and
proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and
abounding in goodness and truth. Do you notice among all the five
attributes, goodness was emphasized?
There are five attributes mentioned there they are mercy, graciousness, longsuffering, goodness and truth. But goodness is the one that has a word placed next to it that says, “abounding.” There is an emphasis on goodness.
Now the Hebrew words for goodness
found in Exodus 33:19 and in Exodus 34:5-6 are different. The word in Exodus 33:19
where He says, “I will make all My goodness pass before you,” is the Hebrew
word tob. The Hebrew word tob is the essential word for goodness.
All the five attributes of God’s glory come from tob and are available
because He is a good God.
Exodus 34:6 where He says, “abounding in
goodness,” is a different Hebrew word for the word goodness. There is a
play on Hebrew words here. The Hebrew word for the word goodness in
Exodus 34:6 is the word hesed and that word is normally not translated
as goodness. The normal word for goodness in Hebrew is the word tob but
this word hesed occurred 240 times in the Old Testament, and has been
translated as kindness 38 times. Hesed is also translated as
loving-kindness, steadfast love, grace, mercy, faithfulness, goodness and
devotion. I like the word where the bible uses the word kindness because
it conveys two things again - attribute and substance. So, the second goodness
in Exodus 34 should strictly be translated as kindness, “abounding in
kindness.”
We all sing the song “Thy loving kindness is better than life.” What do we mean by “Thy loving kindness is better than life?” If we can understand that, we can understand goodness also because they are related. See loving-kindness is a substance as well as love. So the meaning is this God’s loving-kindness is so long you could say that God’s loving-kindness starts from eternity to eternity. So everything is God’s kindness; it is one long line of loving kindness, of all His goodness and kindness. Our life is only that short. You could live for a thousand years and you would not have tasted the fullness of what God can do for you.
We are talking about goodness compared
with kindness, or rather comparing tob and hesed since they are
connected. In the book of Gen. 1 it tells us here that as God created this
planet earth, there was one word God always uses. It tells us in verse 10 And
God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He
called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then verse 12 And the earth
brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the
tree that yields fruit, whose seed in itself according to its kind. And God saw
that it was good. Verse 18 He makes the light to rule over the day and
over the night and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it
was good. Then verse 21 So God created great sea creatures and every
living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their
kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was
good. Verse 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its
kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth
according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Verse 31 Then God
saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening
and the morning were the sixth day.
God made all these things and He says that
it was good. He made some more and says that it was good. When He made and
women He says very good. Notice that all the creation of God is summarized by
the word good. Everything that God gave is because He is good. That
expresses an attribute of goodness. Goodness and being good is not just
refraining from evil. When we say, “I am good to you,” or, “He is a good man,”
we should not use it in reference to just somebody who refrains from evil. That
is how the world measures goodness. The world uses an incomplete yardstick to
measure goodness. The world does not add the spiritual dimension. But when God
speaks about something being good, it means it has the ability to do something
that improves you. It is not just the ability to refrain from evil. Goodness
does something that makes you happy. So a good man is not just a man who sits
down and do nothing. The bible qualifies a good man to be somebody who reaches
out of his way, who makes a sacrifice for himself, who pays a price that you
can enjoy.
All of you mothers know what it is like.
You cooked hot tasty meals for your family. You sweated it out. It took one
hour of planning, one hour of cutting the vegetables and meat and one hour of
cooking. You prepared a great feast and when your husband and children sat at
the table, they devoured the food in just five minutes. However, you did not
mind. You feel satisfied that your family enjoyed your cooking. You did not
cook to please yourself. It was for your loved ones to enjoy. You knew that
your husband loves corned beef and cabbage and your children loved
spaghetti. So you cooked these dishes so
that they would have a very satisfying meal. That is the essential meaning of
goodness.
So are you good to people? Goodness is not
just having a quality of non-retaliation and non-evil. Goodness in a person
says, “Let me see what I can do to improve your lot. Let me see how I can bless
you. Let me see how I can solve your problem. Let me see how I can increase
your happiness. Let me see how I can add something to you so that you can have
a great day.”
You see God did not create man and woman
to work 8 to 5 only. God did not make man and woman on the first day so that
they have to help God to create the rest. God made them on last day, the sixth
day so that when everything was created, man just had to come and enjoy God’s
creation. That is goodness. That is also mercy because the general word for
goodness called tob refers to everything that God has revealed,
everything God has given of His love, of His blessing, of His mercy, of His
graciousness, of His truth, everything He has given is classified by the word
goodness. That is why He told Moses in Exodus 33:19 I will make My goodness
pass before you. And that that goodness or tob consists of the five
attributes including hesed, which is kindness.
That is why the book of James did not just
say, “Every perfect gift is from above,” but it says, “Every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above.” (James 1: 17) Goodness means a gift that
enhances you, that blesses you. That is the meaning of goodness. So according
to the bible qualification of goodness if you are someone who just sits around
doing nothing, the world may call you a good man. Why? Because he didn’t sin,
he didn’t smoke, he didn’t drink, he didn’t do this and do that. But that is a
non-definition. But in God’s qualification, a good man is one who constantly
looks for things to do for others, things to bless others, things to enhance
others. A good person is actively doing good to others.
Do you know Abraham was such a man?
Abraham constantly looked for strangers to take in. Roland Buck mentioned in
the book “Angels on Assignment” that when he went to God’s throne room, God
pulled out three files belonging to Abraham, Paul and himself. God told him a
hundred and twenty things that he would experience before he die. But God also
pulled out Abraham’s file. He read all the records of Abraham’s file. Of
course, the shortcomings and sins were washed out and were no more in the
record. So Abraham’s failures mentioned in the Bible were not in his file since
they were washed under the blood. But an emphasis was mentioned in his record up
there. That Abraham was a hospital man. He was a man who always took in
strangers. You saw a glimpse of that in the bible. When he sees these people,
he would run to them and ask them to come in. He went out of the way to welcome
his guests and told his wife to slaughter the fattest calf.
How many people will do that today? We
will just give one dollar to a hungry stranger and tell him to buy his own
lunch. Abraham was that kind of person to reach out to make people happy, and
blessed them. He loves to bless others. That is what it means to be a good man.
Goodness is the attitude of seeking to enhance somebody else’s enjoyment. It
seeks to make life better for others. That is goodness. It is an attitude.
The other part is that everything that
comes from God of His spiritual blessings, of His mental blessing and of His
physical blessing are all categorized as His goodness. So when you have a
financial blessing, it came from God’s goodness. When you are blessed with a
car, remember it is God’s goodness to you. When you are blessed with a house,
it is God’s goodness. When you are blessed with a revelation, it is God’s
goodness. When you are blessed with musical talent, it is God’s goodness. When
you are blessed with a good voice, it is God’s goodness.
Everything of substance is also included
as goodness. The thing is that goodness is a substance that produces all the
other blessings. Psalms 23 says, “Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life.” If goodness was just an attitude, it would have been
worded as, “Surely, goodness and mercy shall be in me all the days of my
life.” Instead, it says, “shall follow me,” indicating that goodness is
like a person following you wherever you go.
In Exodus 34:6, God mentioned the five
attributes of His glory and one of these is the word hesed or kindness
in. What do we mean by kindness? Is it someone who is gentle? It is someone who
gives you things easily. Kindness includes generosity. You would not call a
stingy man, kind. So all the things that God has given in our life are not
because of what we have done. You show mercy when somebody has done something
wrong against you. But you show goodness to someone when there is nothing for
or against you at all. You just desire to start the relationship by being good.
God started the ball rolling when He made this world. Mercy is needed when
there is a fault and judgment is required. But goodness is when there is
nothing to begin with. For example if somebody sinned against you, you could
pronounce judgment on them or you could take action against them. But in this
case, you show mercy instead and the glory of God increases in your life. But
showing goodness begins when there is no record of indebtedness to one another
or obligation to show favor or when a person has not done any wrong to you.
Goodness is when you reach out and say, “Let me see how I can bless that
person.” Goodness is willing to be generous. So, God has been generous to us.
When we say, “Thy loving kindness is better than life,” it means that God’s
loving kindness is bigger, wider, longer lasting than our lives. See life is
only that short. His kindness is better than that. Now we know the meaning.
When we say that God’s loving kindness is better than life, it means it is
longer and greater than life. God’s kindness is so powerful.
God’s loving kindness is something active
that flows from God’s essential nature of goodness. God is a good God and He is not sitting up on
His throne with a big stick waiting to punish somebody. No, He is sitting up on
His throne with a handful of blessing looking for persons to pour His blessings
upon. Don’t get the worldly image of God; get the bible image of God. God is
looking for places and peoples He can put His blessings on. God has so much
blessings that if He gives to every single human being it will only touch a
drop of water in the ocean of what He could give. So great is His kindness and
goodness onto us.
So there are two areas of goodness - one
is in attitude and the other is in substance. We could learn to receive the
attitude of goodness. And it is not something that will come immediately
because goodness is developed through meekness, which involves “teachability.”
Turn to Ps. 23 before you can have verse 6
you must have verse 1 The Lord is my shepherd. And goodness starts when
you partake of the Shepherd’s heart. And that means letting God break down your
self life. The book of Isaiah says, “Heaven is My throne and earth is My
footstool. Where shall I dwell? says God.
Then He says He will dwell with those of a humble and a contrite spirit.
We realize the humble shall be exalted. The proud shall be brought down. We
need to come to God and allow Him to transform us like sheep by the Shepherd.
We need to follow the Shepherd’s heart. The Lord is my Shepherd. Then you can
have verse 6, “Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life.”
Do you notice everything after verse 1 has
to do with what the Shepherd done? So, the essential thing is the Shepherd. In
verse 2 it says, He makes me lie down in green pastures - that’s the
work of the shepherd. He leads me beside still waters - that’s still the
shepherd. He leads me in the path of righteousness - that’s still the
shepherd. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death -
that’s still the shepherd. For you are with me. What is with me? Your
rod. In verse 5, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my
enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over, - that’s still the
shepherd. See everything listed that is done is the work of a shepherd. You
must allow the shepherd to lead you.
Let us read how to get into goodness. In
verse 2, you must enter the shepherd’s rest - lie down in green pastures.
That’s the way into goodness. He leads me beside still waters also that talks
about stillness. So verse 2 talks about rest.
Verse 3 talks about putting something in
you. When you restore a soul, you put something inside. He leads me in the
paths of righteousness - you follow righteousness. You cannot truly be kind to
a person if you do not understand holiness and righteousness. If a person is
unrighteous and selfish, how can he really be kind? Everything he does,
outwardly the world calls good and kind, but his actions are full of ulterior
motives. You cannot move into goodness before you move into holiness and
righteousness. In other words, you have to move into holiness and righteousness
before you can really move into goodness. Unless God transform our hearts, we cannot
produce one ounce of goodness. See, goodness must come from the inside out not
from the outside in. So, if your heart is essentially evil it needs to be
touched by God. And if this day you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior,
just ask Him in and the Shepherd will come and touch you. He will touch the
inner core of your being. See now there is no more ulterior motive and it is
pure goodness coming out. So there must be purity before goodness.
So verse 2 you must cease from all you can
do by yourself. That is why Eph. 2:8-9 says that we are saved by grace through
faith and that not of our own self but it’s a gift of God. But the very next
verse says we are His workmanship for good works. So, you must die to your own
work before you can do God’s work. That is why the rest can only come after you
have holiness and righteousness.
Verse 4 shows that you must go through
testing. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I
am not talking about disease or calamity. Like Paul says the tribulation worked
character. You die to yourself. In dying, there is resurrection. In yielding,
there is strength. Before goodness can come out of you, you must know what it
is to die to self.
Abraham knows what it is. He was tested on
his relationship with his kinsfolk, told to get out from his kinsfolk. I mean
it is not easy to separate from your loved ones. It is hard to say good-bye to people whom you
love. But the greatest test was in the book of Gen. 22 God said, “Give me
Isaac.” That was the test of his very love. That was the valley of the shadow
of death. The valley of the shadow of death is when your Isaac die. You started
your business because you dedicated it to God and God blesses you but half way
along God may ask you, “Is it still yours or is it mine?” God will ask you and test you. Isaac came
from God any way. But the valley of the shadow of death is when your Isaac dies
and God gives you a new Isaac. Unless you have tasted that dying to self, you can
never be gentle. You can never be gentle to people. You will be rough and tough
because you have never died to self. Gentleness can only come from a vessel
that is crushed, broken and contrite before God. So that is No. 3 the valley of
the shadow of death.
No. 5 the anointing that comes. That, my friend, is the glory of God. So verse 2 you rest. Verse 3 holiness is imparted in your nature. Verse 4 your Isaac die in the valley of the shadow of death. Verse 5 the anointing of God, the glory of God. You may still have many enemies but it makes no difference now because the anointing runs over you. And finally verse 6 the goodness of the Lord shall follow you all the days of your life.
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