Freshbrook Church Podcast | 02Aug26 | Who Is God | Dave Davison

Dave Davison continues our Summer Series - The Characteristics of God (Todays characteristic is 3) Goodness/righteousness).  

Today's passage is - Mark 10: 17-23.

Transcript

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Our Bible reading is taken from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, and it can be found on page 1014 in the Church Bible. If you need a church Bible to follow, just put your hand up and someone will bring you one. We're going to start reading in verse 17 of chapter 10 of Mark. As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. Good teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered. You know the commandments, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud. Honour your father and mother. Teacher, he declared, All these I have kept since I was a boy. Jesus looked at him and loved him. One thing you lack, he said. At this the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. This is the word of the Lord.

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So let us come to our text this morning. We are thinking on who is God. We're in week three, the sermon series slide is on the screen. And the characteristics of God that we'll be thinking about today are God's goodness and his righteousness. And if there's a big idea that sets a scene for what we're going to try and achieve today, it is this God's goodness. It's not measured by my circumstances, but by his unchanging character, revealed most clearly in Jesus Christ. Now here's one area where I did make a particular effort for the children. Here is that, in plain and simple language. And I'll repeat this two or three times through the thing. So the big idea, the simple version. If you want to know how good God is, look at Jesus. That's what we're going to do together today. But before I say anything more as I move into the text of what I want to share with you, can I take you back to the beginning of our service? Because Laura, open God's word in one chronicles. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Then we've sung together when darkness seems to hide his face. So perhaps without even realizing it, we've already been wrestling with a question that lies at the heart of today's sermon. Can I still trust God? God's goodness when life is hard. So the diamond that's on your sheet, if you're following that. And if you're uh watching live uh online uh and you want that worksheet, it's on our website in the the series link. If you go there, you'll see that the Who is God. You can go click that link, take you through, you can download the page, uh, print it yourself. Um if you come here, I'll print one for you. But otherwise, it's accessible for you at home, nobody is missing out. So as we look at this diamond and we look at a third facet, we're not looking at another God, but simply another facet of the one God. And we began our service uh with that reading from Mark, and I'll uh bring to you again from verses 17 and 18. That's the text that we're just going to be looking at. We won't read the rest of it, it won't be referenced in the rest of it. Uh the other verses just set the scene for this exchange with Jesus and the rich young man that came to him. Uh so verse 17. As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. Good teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered, No one is good except God alone. And then Jesus asks a remarkable question in that text. Why do you call me good? Jesus isn't denying his goodness. What he's doing for that young man and us now is he's inviting us to think much more deeply about what God's goodness really is. So, what does it mean that God is good? Well, we could answer that question from a number of different places in the Bible, but we'll don't ask someone who asked to see God himself. Let me take you to the story of Moses. Moses in Exodus 33, Moses and God's people are on the threshold of going into the Promised Land. They're at Sinai. And Moses is about to receive the Ten Commandments the second time. If you don't know about that, go back and read it. It's a fun story. He's about to receive the Ten Commandments the second time, having broken the first two stone tablets. And that wasn't a clumsy moment. Uh, but again, go and read the story yourself in Exodus. Moses is looking for assurance that the Lord will go with them into the promised land. And having received it, he said to the Lord here in Exodus 33, verses 18 and 19, now show me your glory. And the Lord said, I will cause my goodness to pass in front of you, and you will proclaim my name the Lord, and I will proclaim my my name the Lord in your presence. Did you catch that? Moses asked to see the glory of God, and God's answer to him was, I will reveal to you my goodness. And then notice how God does that. He uh doesn't describe his power or his greatness or his wisdom. He describes his character this way: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Verse 19 shows that though the goodness of God is met in a merciful and a compassionate God. And then Exodus 34, next chapter on, we read this the Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Now, this theme here that we're just touching on is the theme for next week. So come along if you want to encounter the mercy of God as Mike shares with us on behalf of OM. So coming back to today, when God chose to introduce himself, this is how he wanted to be known by his goodness. So do you see the connection for where Laura began with this in 1 Chronicles 16, the verses that we open the service with? This God, there, is the same God introducing himself to Moses. Let me say again that this uh overarching uh big idea of the service, God's goodness is not measured by my circumstances, but by his unchanging character, revealed most clearly in Christ. And then again, for you children uh in the room, uh, or for you adults who prefer the short version, if you want to know how good God is, look at Jesus. But here's where life becomes difficult. If God really is like that, why do faithful believers sometimes struggle to trust him? We come back to the question we asked earlier. Can God's goodness still be trusted? I want to say to you, this isn't just our question, it's not my question, it's not just your question. It's been the question of God's people throughout history. I want to take us uh to listen to four voices across the breadth of Scripture that will uh just speak into this question. And let's hear what they have to say. And we won't turn to all of it, but the first of those voices we're gonna listen to this morning is the voice of Job. He asks, Can I trust God when there are no answers? And if you're not familiar with the story of Job, uh his book is just before Psalms. Turn to the middle of the book, find Psalms, thumb back a few pages, 42 chapters, uh, that gets off to a wild start, has a very troubled middle, as Job's friends help him, and ends with God as he shows himself to Job. Job in his story, in all his searching, never receives an explanation for the loss of almost everything: his children, his livestock, his servants, his livelihood, then his health and almost his mind. He presses God earnestly for an answer, but God doesn't answer the question he's asking. What he does get, and you read it in chapters 38 to 42, is a greater vision of who God is. And then you read, and for Job that's enough, and we're like, oh, but Job, press him, and but no, that'll do. That'll do. Just something of the glory of who God is. And then our second voice is King David. He wrote so many of the Psalms, and it's Psalm 23. Many of you will be familiar with that. I said to you earlier, this was Chaz's uh favorite psalm. And there we read, The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. That's a great start to a psalm. You think I want to read this psalm? But as you read on through, uh David is still asking the question, can I trust him in the valley? Have you noticed in that psalm how God doesn't remove the threat of evil or enemies, neither does he remove the valley, but rather the good shepherd, through whom we lack nothing, walks beside us through that valley. And then our third voice this morning is the voice of Martha from John chapter 11. We have there the story of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And we read there how Martha and Mary had sent for Jesus. And the question that they are struggling with is can I trust him? Can I trust God when he seems to be late? See, according to Martha's plan, Jesus would arrive and heal a brother, but that isn't how the story played out. We read in that chapter later on how they say, see how Jesus, how he loved them. And yet, despite his love for Mary, for Martha, for Lazarus, he delayed. And when he arrived. And they showed him to the tomb, and Martha is weeping, and Mary is weeping, the crowd around are weeping, and Jesus weeps with this story has a happy ending. But not before Lazarus dies, and there have been four days of mourning. Martha has trusted when he seems to be running late. And the fourth voice is the voice of Paul. Now, children, uh, if you don't go home and read any of the other stories, read this short little bit. See if you'd go traveling with Paul. Uh, because his record in 2 Corinthians 11 of the troubles uh he experienced are shocking. Paul has known beatings, he's known imprisonment, he's known hunger, he's known loss, and that barely scratches the surface of the tale he tells in 2 Corinthians 11. Yet he writes in Romans 8, in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. Romans 8, verse 28, in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. Now we might assume that means God will make life easier. But if you've been around the Christian faith for any length of time, you'll know that's not the way the story goes. And then Paul writes in verse 29 of Romans chapter 8 that uh what it is, the good really is. The good uh of Romans 8 to 28 is this to be conformed to the image of his son. That's verse 29. You see, God's greatest purpose is not simply our comfort, rather, it is our Christ life. And perhaps that's the key that unlocks everything we see. Job never understood all that God was doing. David walked through the valley without seeing where it would lead. Martha couldn't understand why Jesus delayed. And Paul. Paul doesn't erase any of their pain, but he helps us understand it. He tells us that our good God is always at work, even when we cannot yet see what he is doing. Shaping his people into the likeness of his son. It brings me to an illustration I want to share with you as I was thinking about this text. It caused me to uh to look up something. I didn't know what it was, uh so I a rough Google search. Lapidary. And I've been looking into the work of a lapidary, a craftsman who cuts and polishes precious stones. Precious stones don't look precious out to the ground. It is only by the careful work of a skilled lapidary that they become something beautiful. Take a rough diamond. Every cut removes something, every grind feels destructive. If the diamond could speak, it might ask, why are you cutting me? But the craftsman sees what the diamond cannot. He isn't destroying it. He's revealing the beauty that he already sees. The stone experiences every cut the craftsman sees every facet. And perhaps that's what Paul is helping us to see. Our good God wastes nothing. Every joy, every disappointment, every unanswered prayer, every valley, and every cut in his hands, they are shaping us into the likeness of his son. But how do we know this isn't simply wishful thinking? Well, if Paul is right, if God is at work, how then can I know beyond all doubt that God is good? Look at Jesus. Romans chapter 5. Make a note. Read Romans chapter 5, verses 1 to 11 later, and you will see the cross is God's public demonstration of his goodness. Verse 8 there tells us that God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And then forward a couple of pages to Romans chapter 8. Verse 32 tells us this he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? So this God, who has already given us his greatest gift, his son, the Lord Jesus, in our place. If he would give us that much, why would he stop being good to us now? In John chapter 10. Jesus there speaks for himself. He says, There, I am the good shepherd. You read that in verse 11. David standing in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The shepherd David trusted is the shepherd who stands before us now. So let's see how all of this comes together this morning. The goodness that Moses glimpsed, the goodness Job struggled to understand, the goodness that David trusted, the goodness that Martha discovered, the goodness Paul preached. It's no longer simply a truth to believe. This goodness has a faith. His name is Jesus. Everything we've seen today finds its fulfilment in him. Remember what I've been saying to you throughout. If you want to know how good God is, look at Jesus. This morning our service began with these words: give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Today we've listened to Moses, we've listened to Job, we've listened to David, we've listened to Martha, we've listened to Paul. And above them all, we've listened to Jesus. That diamond that's on the back page here that we've been looking at over these last three weeks. We've seen these different facets of God. Firstly, his self-existence and his holiness. And this week we see his goodness and his righteousness. God is good. The diamond itself hasn't changed. We've simply turned it a little each week so that the light catches another phase. So to an application this morning. If today life feels confusing, if today you're struggling to trust God's goodness, don't begin by trying harder to believe. Begin by looking at Jesus. Because when we see Him clearly, we see the goodness of God. Let me pray. Father, today there are people among us who have quietly wondered whether you are still good. Some are carrying burdens no one else knows about. Some are walking through valleys they never expected. Thank you that your goodness is not measured by our circumstances, but is revealed perfectly in your Son. Help us to look again at Jesus. And as we see Him more clearly, teach us to trust you more deeply. And may we know the life our good shepherd came to give in his precious name. Amen.