Is God Good?

Sermon by Mark Johnson of Steiger Minneapolis

Then the men rose up from there and looked toward Sodom.  And Abraham was walking with them to send them off, and the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.  For I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about.
And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.  I will go down now and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to me, and if not, I will know.
Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham was still standing before the Lord.  Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city.  Will you indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?  Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike.  Far be it from you.  Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?”
And so the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.”
And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, though I am but dust and ashes.  Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five.  Will you destroy the whole city because of five?”
And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”
And he spoke to him again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?”
And he said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.”
Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I will speak.  Suppose there are thirty found there.”
And he said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
And he said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord.  Suppose twenty are found there.”
And he said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.”
And then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once.  Suppose ten are found there.”
And he said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.”

Genesis 18:16-33

            Last month, we looked at a scene where three divine visitors, one of whom is apparently God himself, arrived at Abraham’s home.  They tell Abraham (who is 99 years old) that at the same time the following year, Sarah (who is 89) will give birth to a son.  Obviously, this is an impossible occurrence according to natural laws, so Abraham and Sarah were confronted with the question, “Is anything to difficult for the Lord?”  I encourage you to read last month’s message if you haven’t had a chance to, because it sets the stage for this month’s passage.

            After Abraham has entertained these three visitors, they are leaving to head to Sodom, and Abraham is walking along with them saying goodbye.  At this point, God begins pondering aloud whether he should tell Abraham that he is about to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Abraham hears God talking and gets a bit concerned, because his nephew, Lot, along with his wife and daughters, live in Sodom.  So he gets his courage up to ask God about his plans.  But his question isn’t just because he is concerned about his family; the real burning question he has is: “God, are you going to destroy the righteous along with the wicked?  Is that who you are?”  So he starts to ask questions.  And I think that God likes Abraham’s boldness here.  It’s like Abraham is saying, “God, I need to know your character!  I have to know!” 

            So the main question that is asked in this section is the same question that Abraham asks: Is God just?  Does the God of the universe deal justly?  I think this follows from the section we looked at last month, where the question was: Is God powerful?  Those are big questions, and we need to settle them.  Because if God is powerful and nothing is too difficult for him, but he is not just or good, then we are in trouble.

            I remember many years ago, sitting at a café discussing these questions with a guy I knew, and as the conversation went along, he began to really be disturbed by the possibility that God might be evil.  It was freaking him out, because we don’t know how to live in a world where God is powerful but evil.  But I pointed out that if we are able to look at God and say that he is evil, then there must be something above God that we are measuring him against.  But if he is the creator, then the standard of good and evil must come from him.  And I don’t think that God would create a world where he comes off as the evil guy.

            So my guess is that when we encounter situations where we are challenged by the question of whether or not God is good, either I don’t have all the information about what is going on, or my idea of what is right and wrong, or good and evil, has gotten a bit twisted.

            One of the foundational ideas in Scripture is that God is good.  It’s his character.  It’s who he is.  And if I have not come to that conclusion yet, I’m going to have a really hard time following him, because I won’t trust him.  If I don’t think someone is good, I’m not going to be vulnerable with that person, and I won’t want to listen to that person.  But Scripture says over and over again that God is good and that he can be trusted.  Psalm 34 says: “Taste and see that God is good.”  It’s almost like a dare.  “Taste!  I dare you!”

            So Abraham did that.  He tasted.  He challenged God.  “This doesn’t make sense to me.  If you’re going to destroy the city with the righteous people in it, it doesn’t make sense to me.”  So God explains to him that he’s not going to do that, that no, he won’t destroy innocent people.

            I think this issue is where we stumble sometimes.  Most of us believe that God is powerful, that he created everything, that he is in control.  But is he good?  Well, maybe for everybody else, but I’m not sure about for me.  I’m not sure he’s good in my life.  We struggle with that, to be able to trust God.  But the great thing about God is that he is big enough to deal with our questions about whether he’s good or not, big enough even to deal with the temper tantrums that we have sometimes.  And if I know nothing else about Scripture, I know that it teaches that God is good, and that he can be trusted. 

            So the answer to Abraham’s question - Does the God of the universe deal justly? - is “Yes, he does.”  Do we always see it clearly?  No, we don’t.  Do we always understand it?  No.  But I don’t think we can follow a God who isn’t good.  And if God is not good, I would not follow him.  I wouldn’t do it, and I wouldn’t want you to.

            The second thing I think needs to be pointed out in this section is that a few good people can save a city.  Wow.  Let’s think about that.  You know, Jesus looked at his disciples and said, “You’re the salt of the earth.”  It means that you bring flavor, and you preserve.  And if that was true for the city of Sodom, that God would have spared the city for only ten righteous people, how much more is it true today, when we have the authority and power of the Gospel.  That message of the Gospel, spread among just a few good people, has the potential to rescue a city.  I believe that’s true.

            My question, though, is: “Do we have a few good people?”  Maybe ten people was just for Sodom.  How many is it for our city?  How many is it for our country?  Do we have enough?  What if judgment is coming to your country?  Will it be saved because of the righteousness of the people there? 

            God was willing to show mercy to a city that was filled with unrighteous people who were living in defiance of him.  He was willing to have mercy on the whole group if there were just ten righteous people.  Just ten.  A few intercessors can save a city. 

            So can we come to the conclusion, then, that God looked at Sodom and couldn’t find ten righteous people, and that, therefore, he was just in his judgment?  I think we can. 

            The third thing that jumps out at me in this section is that God does not keep secrets from his friends.  He looked at Abraham and said, “Abraham is my friend, so should I keep what I am about to do from him?”

            I don’t know how intimate a relationship is if you never tell the other person what is on your heart.  I know that some of us don’t talk about our feelings because we have issues and are all emotionally bound up.  But God doesn’t have any issues!  He doesn’t struggle with emotional problems or wonder if he should talk to people or not.  He’s emotionally healthy.  He knows how he feels, what he is going to do, and he’s not indecisive; so if I am his friend, he’s going to talk to me about the things that are important to him, the things that are on his heart.  Obviously, as human beings, we don’t have the capacity to understand all of what God thinks and feels and plans to do, but he will reveal himself to us, because he wants us to have an intimate relationship with him.

            We need to recognize that sometimes, the way God reveals himself to us is through other people.  He tells other people what is on his heart, and they share it with us, so that we need each other.  Not only does this give us a fuller picture of what God is doing, but it also allows us to more truly become the Body of Christ. 

            Later on, in Amos 3, it says that God doesn’t do anything without telling his prophets.  I’m pretty sure that whenever judgment is coming on a city or a nation, God speaks about it ahead of time.  He has done that throughout history, and I believe that he will always reveal what he is about to do.  Now, that doesn’t mean that people will listen, or even that everybody has heard, but if God is about to do something, he will reveal it to his people.

            So my question is, Are we listening to the prophetic voice of God speaking to the church today?  And are we being the prophetic voice of God to our city, our nation, or our world?

            I believe that we need to be ready for the judgment of God.  I don’t know if we have enough righteous people to save our city or our country, so we may come under his judgment in that way.  We need to consider that and prepare for it.  But even if that doesn’t happen, I do know that for all of us, judgment day is coming, since all of us are eventually going to die.  So I think that we need to listen and see what people are saying in the church, and have discernment.  Because at one point, we’re all going to stand before God, and it will be judgment day.  And at that moment, it’s going to be revealed whether I’m one of his friends or not, whether I know him or not.

            So no matter what, I believe that the church - the Bride of Christ - needs to awaken.  And my question for all of us is: Are we ready?  Are we ready to face God’s judgment?  Are we awake?  God wants his church to be fully alive to him, not sleeping.  And so I encourage you to ask yourself if you are ready, and if not, you need to start with repentance, get on your knees, and ask him to wake you up and make you ready.

            If you are struggling with the character of God, I really think you need to have someone pray for you.  I believe that God can reveal his goodness to you, even if your life is difficult at the moment.  The character of God is such a huge question, so you need to have people pray with you and really struggle to get that settled.

            And if you are reading this saying, “I don’t know if God is my friend.  He’s never said anything to me, and never revealed anything to me.  I read the Bible and there’s nothing there,” it’s possible that maybe you’ve never surrendered and begun that relationship with him.  So maybe today is a good day for you to move into that.

            And if you’re realizing that you’ve been sleeping, that you’ve just been coasting, and haven’t experienced God’s mercy or anything else from him for a long time, I want to encourage you to cry out to him.  He wants to answer.

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