Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, March 6th. Have you ever felt like God is trying to spoil your fun? Too many rules, too many thou shalt nots? Well, today, let's see how God's laws are an expression of his kindness and love. All through the Old Testament, you'll find verses that speak of the goodness of God.

In fact, Moses said that as God passed by him, that he revealed to him his goodness.

And you'll recall in the 23rd Psalm, surely goodness and mercy, you'll follow us all the days of our life.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

And you remember that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 that God would give good things to those who ask him.

So he says in the Psalms here, verse 19, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast stored up for those who fear thee, which thou hast wrought for those who take refuge in thee.

Now let's read it again. Notice what he says. How great is thy goodness, which he has stored up

for those who fear thee. Now, when the Bible talks about fear in the Old Testament, we're not

talking about being scared or being afraid of, but those who reverence him, that is those

who obey him. So we could say, how great is thy goodness, which thou has stood up for those who

obey you, which you have wrought for those who take refuge in you, who rely upon you, who look to you,

who trust you. So the psalmist says that the goodness of God is great. Now, when we think about

the goodness of God, I want us to think about it in terms of two things. First of all, in the terms

of goodness as an attribute. That is, goodness is characteristic of God. Now, what is that goodness?

Goodness is the highest standard of good,

which God himself is and can perform. And so when somebody says, well, how good is God?

Here's how good God is. God is as good as absolute perfection, absolute holiness,

absolute purity can possibly be, which means that not only is God good,

but God is the standard of all goodness. All goodness has to be compared with God's goodness

because he is the only one who is absolutely perfect. He is the only one who is absolutely holy.

He is the only one whose standard is absolutely perfect.

And so when we talk about whatever God approves us as good is certainly good, why?

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