How Good is Good Enough?

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All across the world, we would agree. In order to get to heaven, you’ve got to be dead. The question on how we get to heaven is a different matter altogether. And when you pull the world, you would find that most people are in agreeance that heaven does in fact exist, and heaven is a real place. But within religion, what we find is two major philosophies and ideas and theories behind how a person is to get to heaven. And this morning I’m going to explore one of those theories with us together. We’re going to enter into a series. This is going to take a couple of weeks, uh, asking one single question, how good is good enough for God? Right. That’s the determining factor for us to be able to answer the question in our own lives on what it takes for us to be able to get to heaven and to have that eternal communion with God. If you’re like me and you’ve shared or talked about your faith with anyone in the world, um, you probably have come across a pretty common occurrence that happens when you speak about your beliefs with other people. Me being a pastor in Utah, I find a lot of times that people automatically want to start talking about religious beliefs because of my position, which is a good thing in itself. But I think most people assume that I just don’t know anything about anything else in the world.

I’m a pastor. I don’t know anything about sports. I don’t know anything about fixing things. You got to talk about religion with me. But a common conversation that always happens when I engage people, especially of other faiths, in in a discussion with me, is that they always try to find common ground. They always try to find a happy medium for us to be able to talk on and with one another. And it basically it goes along these lines, well, it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe in something good. Really, in the end it’s it’s good that counts and good. All good people are going to go to heaven. If she follows this line of thinking that there is more than one way to get to heaven. In fact, there are multiple ways to get to heaven. Now, that’s contrary to what biblical Christianity would teach, but I’m not so naive as to think, if you’re a Christian and you’re here today, that some of you might assume or think that there are more than one way to heaven. Most people believe that there are multiple paths. The notion kind of supports this idea. There are many ways to heaven and that good people are what go to heaven. Good people like Catholics or or Protestants or Buddhists or Muslims or even non-church people. If you’re a good person, that’s the determining factor in deciding how good.

Good enough is for God and and how a person gets to heaven. It’s interesting when you begin to examine and function under that philosophy or idea that the common denominator, that that brings that identity together and brings those religious thinking together into one uniform idea isn’t isn’t a system of beliefs. It isn’t the God that they worship. It isn’t how they pray. It isn’t the identity of who their God is. The common denominator is that they’re good people. They say that we’re not limited to one system or form of thinking. You know, the interesting thing about the good people go to heaven idea or philosophy is that everyone then assumes that they are that good person that’s going to heaven. Have you ever heard someone say, well, I believe you know, as long as you’re good, good people go to heaven. And I’m not that good person. It’s not me. That conversation doesn’t exist. Along with the assumption that good people go to heaven. Everyone then assumes that they are that good person that they’re talking about and which would go to heaven. So our theory this morning I just want to examine with us is that good people go to heaven. And in talking about they’re really represented in Scripture and even in this world, in the philosophy of religion. Two ideas on what? What requires a person into getting to heaven. Both of them take place within the Book of Genesis.

Teaching and preaching that philosophy and the first philosophy is the theory that we’re talking about this morning. That is good people go to heaven. It took place in Genesis chapter three and verse seven, when Adam and Eve began to adapt and follow in this philosophy. It says in verse seven, the eyes of them both were opened, and they know, and they knew, excuse me, that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. If you were to read this in in the Hebrew language in which it first was written, you’ll understand that the the word aprons here literally means armor. It’s the Hebrew word for battle garments. And essentially this is what took place in Genesis chapter three. God told him in two not to eat of the the tree of good knowledge, because in so doing they would surely die. And Eve then partook of the fruit that God told them not to. Having been tricked by the serpent. And then Adam shortly followed. When they ate of the fruit, they realized sin was in their lives. When they realized sin was in their lives, they began. One of the first things they noticed is they weren’t wearing any clothing, so they made aprons for themselves. They made armor. And essentially what Genesis chapter three and verse seven is telling us that Adam and Eve invented the first man made religion in this passage of Scripture.

It’s as if they’re saying to God, okay, God, we’ve sinned and we’re going to take care of this on our own. Let’s cover ourselves up. Let’s prepare for battle, and let’s make war against sin. People who follow the philosophy of Genesis three seven or or just the idea that good people go to heaven usually enter with phrases like I’ve always tried to, or I’ve never done this in my life, or I keep doing this, or I believe in God, but I like how they always clarify. But I’m not perfect, but I’m doing the best I can. There’s there’s some maybe some logical reasoning, if I could phrase it that way for holding to this theory why it’s helpful to believe that good people go to heaven. The first being it seems fair. And by fair I mean good. People who do good deserve good things, right? That’s how America functions. As long as you go out into this world and you attempt to accomplish good things, great things and good things will happen for you, right? If you do well in school and you perform good, then you get scholarships to go to college. If you do good in your job performance, you get promotion. And so it only seems logical then that God would operate under the same system. And and that being good according to my standard of what good is, then it seems fair. Next is you make the cut.

Everyone assumes that they’re in, right? We don’t give a whole lot of thinking into the idea that good people go to heaven, and whether rationally it it figures into our mind. I mean, most religions follow along this philosophy and idea. And so according to what they believe, it gives me comfort that there’s a majority of people who tend to believe this idea. And so to me, it seems like I’m going to make the cut. The third being it motivates you towards good living. I mean, I think of any other alternative that I could make other than good people go to heaven. And what it seems like in this world is we’re going to have a moral free for all. And so what we need is incentive. If I told you, I’m going to give you $1 million to go for a whole week and not argue, then for a whole week, you could probably not argue with people. And so what we need in this world is just good motivation towards heaven. And so if I, if I know that there’s a standard of good that God wants me to live up to in order to make it to heaven, it motivates me to live towards that good, or at least it should. And last, it follows this notion there is a good God, and he dwells in a good place with good people. If heaven were full of bad people, then it wouldn’t be heaven, would it? And so people, and starting with Genesis chapter three and verse seven, have begun to hold or have historically held to a theory which is good people go to heaven.

But every once in a while something will force us to look into the mirror, whether it’s a funeral, a health scare, a birthday. The older we get, if we hold to this theory, the more that we try to conceive in our minds as if we’ve been really good enough according to what God would require of us to make it to heaven. And really, anyone that follows that philosophy can never say with 100% certainty that they are one of those people who are going to make it into heaven. And this morning, I just want to accomplish one purpose in asking this question, and that is to begin to get you to challenge the theory of how good is good enough for God and that good people make it to heaven. See, because if you’re like me, at some point in your life, you’ve probably engaged in a conversation dealing with religious thinking with someone else who held this idea, if it not being you yourself. And I think the more that we challenge this theory, and we begin to examine and look into, what we discover is that the good people go to heaven. Theory doesn’t really hold a whole lot of water. And your notes this morning, you’ll see just the first point that I brought up with us.

And that is simply we are looking for a standard of good. If we’re going to say that good people go to heaven, what we need to know really is how good is good enough? I mean, what does God require of us? Let me just say, and if if God has a standard for us, for how good good enough is for us to earn our way into heaven. I mean, he is doing a stinking poor job in our lives of communicating to us what that standard is. Now, I know if we hold to that theory, we’ll say to ourselves in our lives, basically all religions are the same. They’re promoting good. But really, when you when you examine religion in itself, they essentially in their own doctrine and teaching are miles apart from one another. I mean, even within religion, we have had wars fought over ideology and beliefs that people have held. If you go to one group who is fighting in a religious side over a religious battle and you ask them who you’re fighting a favor for. They’ll say we’re fighting to honor God. And you go ask the other side. Who are you fighting in favor for? In the same answer, we’re fighting to honor God. And in the middle of God, schizophrenic God is just sitting there wondering which side he’s actually for.

Religions really are avenues apart from one another. Some people follow five pillars. Some observe Ramadan, some follow laws and commandments, some do pilgrimages, some pay homages, some literally inflict pain on themselves. Some take ritual baths and spiritual rivers to cleanse themselves. Others help the needy. Some make sacrifices. Some groups literally run around naked in Canada and light things on fire because they think it pleases God. I mean, what is the standard of good? If there is a standard, I think God owes it to people to communicate to us on a first hand basis of what we need to do to accomplish our lives and to see ourselves progress into heaven. But what we see is as a mixture of religious leaders and disparity in their in their and their pretty dress, robes and cloaks, communicating to us what they think that God wants us to know and understand and observe in our lives in order to earn our way to heaven. Not only do religions not agree with one another, but people in themselves, from culture to culture and person to person, don’t even hold the same standard and values of what is good. This week, if you’re able to walk past a newsstand and you were able to see the time magazine, the front cover of time magazine on the very front, they had an Afghanistan lady, and she’s in the normal Afghanistan attire. But what they have revealed on her face this time is that this lady doesn’t have a nose.

She had her nose cut off by religious zealots in Afghanistan because she wanted to leave the country and leave the Afghanistan culture behind. So they have a standard of what they think is good and right within their own culture. I have a standard of what I think should happen to guys who do things to ladies like that. Who’s right? I think I am, and they think they are. If we were to go through a historical understanding just in history the last couple hundred years, Nazi Germany against the Jewish people completely in their minds thought that they were standing in the right. America when the country was founded, shortly thereafter, decided that we had the right to make slaves of people upon giving them their freedom. Then we had the right to segregate to the point. If you were even to visit churches in the Deep South, they would. They would separate themselves according to congregation and and segregate. There would be churches for African-Americans and churches for the white people. No black person was allowed to worship with the white people and vice versa. Who’s right? We came to America to establish a country based on religious freedom, but we meant freedom, not for the Native Americans kind of freedom. And we sent them on a trail of tears. Many of them lost their lives. I mean, what is the standard of good? Because to us, standard of good changes from culture to culture, person to person and time to time, not only as as people can we not agree, even within our own selves as individuals, we can’t come up with an own standard of good.

I mean, what does God use to judge us? Is it the the, the single and free stage that we use to gauge our goodness? Is it the a young and married couple stage? Is that the married with children stage, or is it the too old to care stage? I mean what part of our lives does God use to to judge the standard of good? And speaking of good, is it 50% good that requires God requires of us? Is it is it maybe 10%? Is it 70% good? I mean, what if you’re short of one? Good work and getting into heaven? And some of us who are later in years. What if we haven’t been doing good and we’re about to run out of time and we don’t know what tomorrow holds? What if God grades on a curve and Mother Teresa really messed it up for all of us? I mean, what is God’s standard of good? How do we know what’s important to God? When does he start keeping these scales of how good is good enough? Is it when we hit the age of five? I mean, what is the age of accountability to God? Where is that standard? How good is good enough? What part of our lives and what individual thinking according to our moral values and what age group are we in? Is God determined that we understand what good is? West Virginia, the state where I’m coming from.

Let me just give you an awesome fact about West Virginia. Had a had a US senator, age 92, who entered into office. He recently died within this past year. He served forever. I think he was alive when Noah built the Ark. But something interesting about his past is that as a young person, he was involved in the Ku Klux Klan. A US senator. And later on in years, we understood, according to Wright, thinking whatever our standard of good is, that that wasn’t a good group to join, especially him claiming to be a Christian. What standard in our life does God use to judge and determine what is good? Our standard changes with life stages. In the Bible has an interesting thought towards all of these thinkings that man has on what is good and religion, from person to person and culture to culture. And that is simply our moral conscience is corrupt. I believe God put within us the innate ability to have some sort of moral compass to gauge the difference between what is right and wrong, but I think in Romans chapter five, it tells us that we have received a sin nature through Adam’s sin, and that moral compass has greatly skewed our understanding of what God would desire for us to do in order to determine what is right and what is wrong.

And in passages of the Bible, Jeremiah 17 nine came up on the screen. Now it says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Meaning this the goodness that you thought your heart possessed, it really doesn’t. Proverbs 1412. We can even deceive ourselves into thinking what what we believe is right is truly right, when in fact God knows it’s wrong. It says there is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end is the way of death. Proverbs says this a few different times throughout the book of Proverbs in different ways, but they are totally right. And in talking to these religious leaders and talking from culture to culture and person to person, all of these people would identify in their beliefs and their system, and what they’re following is right. But the Bible tells us, even in believing that it’s right, they can still be wrong. And in the end, that way of living leads to death. Paul said this, I would I would agree or say to myself that Paul was single handedly, probably one of the greatest Christians to ever live, if not the greatest Christian, to ever serve our Savior. And he said this. He made this statement about himself in Romans seven, for I know that nothing good dwells in me.

If anyone were deserve to deserve heaven for the sacrifices and the life that they’ve lived in order to please God, I would say it would be the Apostle Paul. But here we find him making this statement about his own life. Leave me just to think, maybe, possibly towards this conclusion. When we look for a standard of good, there is no standard of good by which we can check our progress. That’s right. We’re fooling ourselves into thinking and arbitrarily placing all religions together and saying, well, as long as we live a good life, that’s all that God really counts. But wait a minute. Let’s let’s pause for a second and just think a little bit deeper on the topic of how good is good enough and the theory That good people go to heaven. See, we’re Christians. Or at least if we’re at church, I’m going to assume that we are just for a moment and we follow the Bible. Right? If we were to go into America, especially Judeo-Christian America, and interview people today on the streets, and we were to ask them, how are you getting to heaven? One of the most common statements that people often make about how they get to heaven. I follow the Ten Commandments. If I ever heard that I follow the Ten Commandments, I follow what God has taught within His Word. And let me just tell you, let me let a cat out of a bag early.

There is no connection in Scripture. You will never find this ever written in any place within your Bible whatsoever. No connection between the Ten Commandments and Heaven. In fact, everywhere in your Bible that the Ten Commandments are written, every book that the Ten Commandments are contained. When you read that book, you will never find the word eternal life, and you will never find an afterlife, or you never find the word heaven mentioned This. This form of teaching was so popular even among a religious group known as the Sadducees. If you read Jesus’s interaction in the Gospels, you’ll see a lot of time two religious leaders coming before Jesus, one being the Pharisees, the other being the Sadducees. The Sadducees followed the first five books of the Bible, which were the books written by Moses. The Torah was, I mean the most sacred books in Israel’s all of Israel’s Old Testament. To them it’s not old, it’s still new. But those Sadducees, in reading those five books came to this conclusion after reading the five books, one of which contains the Ten Commandments, which is Exodus, that there is no afterlife whatsoever for man, because they saw no connection between God’s law and an afterlife, because it wasn’t mentioned in the books of Moses. There is no relationship whatsoever between the law and living forever. I mean, just think about the Old Testament law for for just a moment and people expecting to get to heaven by living to these ten commandments, Usually within the first four we do okay because it all deals with the relationship with God, and you can’t really measure that in a lot of ways.

Sometimes it’s a little arbitrary and we have to take take people’s words for it. But thou shalt have no other gods. Okay, I can worship the Christian God. Thou shalt not worship any idols. I only worship one God. Thou shalt not take his name in vain. Don’t do that. I occasionally come to church, so I keep the Sabbath holy. Then where it gets tricky. Honor your father and thy mother. Thou shalt not kill. You’re still doing pretty good, right? Most people. Except for if you’re some of the major Christian leaders in the early church, or even the Old Testament heroes that you would call. Some of them were murderers. But. But maybe God will just let those by. We’ll let those one slide. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. That’s lying. And thou shalt not covet. Uh, you know, I don’t know where we fall on the list, but usually eight, nine, and ten people are pretty good at at not only sending in those at one point in their lives, but pretty much every day doing some breaking, some form of eight, 9 or 10 on the list.

And if we’re desiring to get to heaven based on how good we are, and we’re observing the Ten Commandments, and we can’t even keep the Ten Commandments, where does that put our position before God? Exodus 2117 says, if anyone curses their father or mother, they must be put to death. Think about the harshness of that. If you were to go to Exodus and read Exodus chapter 20, see the Ten Commandments and go into 21. See how the ten commands are played out. Basically, Moses, when he writes in verse chapter 21, nearly everything that someone does wrong is deserving of death. If a young lady were to have premarital sex outside of marriage, they would literally take the young lady to the father’s doorstep and stone her on the front door of her father’s house, because the father was to take care of that young lady and make sure that didn’t happen. Death seemed pretty imminent in the Old Testament for people who didn’t observe the law. In Isaiah 64 and verse six, it says, all your righteous deeds are filthy rags before God. I mean, if God has the standard and you’re trying to raise above the standard of law in which God sets for you, it seems impossible. In fact, it is. This morning, I just want to encourage you this way and say, if you think good people go to heaven and you believe that the Bible is that measure in order to get there, um, the Bible declares to you that it is impossible.

Your righteous deeds are filthy rags. The Bible says that if you break the law that you are deserving of death. You don’t want to believe the theory that good people go to heaven and hold the standards of the Bible, because the standard of the Bible is much too high in order to achieve what God considers good. You say, well, we just don’t have an Old Testament, Nathaniel. We also have the New Testament, and the New Testament brought Jesus, and there’s a lot of love that came up with that. So. So what about the New Testament belief? I mean, can we say as a, as a group that we follow that and earn our way into heaven? Here’s what the New Testament standard is for living. Romans 323 says, for all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. Standard meaning Here’s God’s standard in the New Testament, and here’s where everyone else stands in order to appeal to God and appease God. It says in Romans 310, there is no one righteous, not one. And it would include everyone in this room. But he says this listen, no one is righteous, which would make you an unrighteous person in God’s eyes. Okay. And then throw that into Romans 118. The wrath of God is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

Not only are you not meeting God’s standard of good, but it’s also sharing with us that that we can’t meet God’s standard of good. And his wrath is against everyone who is unrighteous, meaning every person stands in God’s wrath and judgment. Romans 623 tells us the wages of sin is death. Romans 320 there is no one, therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law. I mean, if you take a system of rules and you put them before God and say, God, this is going to be my standard. I’m going to live up to the standard that you’ve given us. God is saying it is impossible. And Romans, Romans, I know I’ve read all verses from the book of the Bible, but look at other places. This isn’t just found in one place within the Bible. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is a man is not justified by the works of the law. Galatians two. Galatians 310. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. If you take God’s law as your standard in order to achieve to heaven, you have to take all of the law. You can’t pick and choose. It tells us, and in so doing, you can’t live to the standard Galatians five, for you have been severed from Christ.

You who are seeking to be justified by the law, you have fallen from Grace and James 210. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of the whole law. So the standard is too high. If you’re thinking that all that requires anyone to get to heaven is to be a good person, the Bible doesn’t agree with your thinking. It’s not accurate for a believer in Christ to hold to a standard that good people go to heaven. I know it’s a popular philosophy and it’s a popular theory, but it’s not God’s theory. Conclusion. When we consider the biblical laws of good standard, there is no clear standard of good by which we can. Oh, that’s not sorry. That’s not biblical law. Let me give it to you. Biblical law does not show us our goodness. It only reveals to us our sinfulness. I’m sorry. That was a typo. Biblical law does not show us our goodness. It only reveals to us our sinfulness. Let me throw out one more test for us. What about the teachings of Jesus on the theory of good? Good people go to heaven when we talk about Jesus. The two words that always follow are grace and love. Jesus was. And he was so merciful. And he was so loving. He was gracious. And the answer to that is, yes, he was.

But let me just ask, did he teach the thought or idea that good people go to heaven? You know, I think Jesus often taught that God did not give people what they deserve, but he gave to people what they did not deserve. Matthew chapter five. One of the popular leaders of the day were the Pharisees. They were considered the religious teachers for Israel, and they taught everyone how to observe and follow the law. These guys were were so religious that they put laws in front of God’s laws that already existed. And they said to themselves, listen, these are God’s laws. We don’t even want to get close to breaking those laws. So let’s invent more laws to keep us from even getting close to breaking God’s laws. That way we know that we never break the law of God. And these guys just lived in a system of of rules upon rules. Just just trying to observe what it meant to be holy. There was anyone in this world that that was good enough for God. It had to have been the Pharisees. I mean, the Pharisees. They understood God’s Word. They could quote it chapter and verse, and they made those extra rules. The Pharisees, they were good people. And then Jesus in Matthew five makes this comment for I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

And the reaction of the people. The Pharisees walked away angry, and the people walked away depressed. I mean, if our religious leaders aren’t good enough to get in to heaven, who in the world is? I mean, what kind of what kind of laws is God going to take for us to live up to his standard in order to please him? The Pharisees, if they didn’t deserve it, then no one does. And after making this statement, Jesus not only talked about the law, he elevated it. Everything that we saw in the Old Testament that seemed difficult for man to achieve and impossible for man to achieve. Jesus took that standard and made it even higher. He said in Matthew 521, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Jesus equates murder and anger on the same plane. He goes on in Matthew 27, you have heard that it is said, do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Jesus is revealing to man something significant about them. And it’s not that we can’t observe God’s law. We can’t observe God’s law, but it’s that the wickedness of our heart reveals truly where our position is before a holy God.

If you’d harbored anger in your heart, anything ill willed in your heart, that would break the law. Jesus considers it sin. What’s interesting about what Christ taught about the good people, um, increases as you look at what Jesus taught about the bad people. Jesus essentially was teaching in this passage of Scripture that good people don’t go to heaven. But what was so thought provoking about Christ towards the people around him, and what the Pharisees really hated about Christ, is that Jesus also taught that bad people do go to heaven. You remember on the the day Jesus was crucified, as he ascended up into Calvary with the cross on his back and he was hanging from the cross, there was a conversation that took place between him and two other criminals that were there on the cross with him. Uh, on the crosses beside him. Excuse me. And and one of the criminals was anti-jesus, if I could say that. And the other one had compassion towards who Christ was. It says one of the criminals who were hanged there in Luke 2339. There was hurling abuse at him, saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other answered and rebuking him, said, do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.

But this man has done nothing wrong. And he was saying, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. If you read this in the King James, you’ll notice that the people were referred to in the King James as thieves. Thieves was a common phrase. I think it’s the most accurate translation from the Greek, but what it represented was a thief during the time of Christ wasn’t someone who just stole something. You could think what it would take for someone like this to be hung on a cross. It’s not just stealing something. You can imagine the people that are gathered there at the foot of the cross, and they’re there not necessarily to see Christ crucified, but to watch these criminals die because they had caused some offense to their family, whether it was murder or rape or whatever it might have been. They were there to watch these criminals die. And here Jesus is on this cross as this guy mentions to him, Jesus, remember me when you get to your kingdom. Now, if you believe in the theory that good people go to heaven, Jesus response here to this thief on the cross should be sorry man, you’re out of luck, out of time. You can’t live up to the standard that I’ve set for these people, so you’re not going to be there on the other side. I’ll catch you later. But that’s not Jesus’s remarks at all.

In verse 43, Jesus says this truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise. Now the response of the people on the cross listening to to this criminal who is now getting a free ticket with Jesus into heaven, must have been a severe anger towards God and trying to live some sort of standard of righteousness and watch this guy his entire life not attempt at all to live in any sort of godly standard whatsoever. Leaving us to think this either Jesus is crazy, or there’s some different theory that God is operating by for us to determine whether or not we’re going to spend eternity in heaven with him. And he says, this guy, you will be with me in Paradise. And your notes. There’s a couple of verses that are mentioned for you to, to understand what what the word Paradise means. Paradise is only used in the Bible three times, one of which in Corinthians. Second Corinthians 12, where Paul is called up into heaven, literally refers to as Paradise. Paul is called up into the third heaven where God dwells. Paradise Paradise was a Persian word. It was a. It was a word used to resemble a garden. If you imagine a in this area, a land, there was a lot of desert, and a garden was a particular beautiful form of an oasis in the middle of a desert, and usually a Paradise, was owned by the wealthy.

It was a display of their wealth. They would attach to the side of their house as a place to go out and relax and enjoy and have comfort. And Jesus, being the king of all kings, the most wealthiest of all, refers to his kingdom as Paradise. And here he promises this condemned criminal that he has a ticket to heaven with him. As Jesus. Right? If Jesus is right, his teachings on how a person gets to heaven contradicts everyone else. And if you embrace the teaching that good people go to heaven, you can embrace the teachings of Christ at least, and still be honest with what Scripture says. Jesus could guarantee people to heaven because he claimed the ability to forgive sins. Jesus didn’t teach that good people go to heaven. Jesus taught that forgiven people go to heaven and this drove the Pharisees crazy. In Matthew chapter nine, there’s a story of the paralytic that comes to Christ. And and he Jesus says, your sins are forgiven. And the Pharisees get mad at Jesus because he just forgave someone’s sins. And they say, no one can do that but God. No one can forgive offenses against God except for God himself. When someone offends you, another person can’t forgive them for offending you. You’ve got to forgive that person. And the Pharisees said the same thing to Jesus. You’re forgiving sins against God. No one can forgive sins against God except for God Himself.

And Jesus is saying, which is easier to do for this paralytic man? Is it easier for me to say his sins are forgiven? Or say, rise to get up and walk? Take your pallet and walk. And so Jesus, proving himself to be God to the Pharisees, tells the paralytic man to stand up and take his pallet and walk. And Jesus proved to these people, it is not good people that get to heaven. It is forgiven people. Conclusion. On the teachings of Jesus. Jesus says, good people don’t go to heaven. But he does say bad people do go to heaven. The second conclusion that we have two conclusions for Jesus the good people goes to heaven. Theory makes a liar out of Christ. If you want to hold, if you want to leave today and hold to the theory that good people go to heaven, here’s what I want you to do as you leave. Just say Jesus is a liar. And that’s essentially what we’re saying by holding to a belief like that. Jesus is a liar. It’s not as easy to say as it doesn’t flip off the tongue very well, does it? I mean, there’s just something about Jesus, isn’t there? Something about Christ that we just can’t let go of him? There was something special about him. Every religion in the world has some statement of Jesus, holds some form of of prophetic reference towards him, some sort of, uh, identity of him as being a great religious teacher.

And we can’t just say Jesus is a liar. He was a good person and he taught good people go to heaven. But to say that makes a liar out of Christ. Last thought I want you to consider today as we just think about good people, go to heaven. Just some final thoughts on the theory. As you have to deal with murderers in heaven, if good people go to heaven, I would assume that your standard of who good people are are not murderers, right? Moses was a murderer. Exodus chapter two and verse 14. King David was a murderer and an adulterer. He broke quite a few commands of the Ten Commandments. Second Samuel, chapter 11. Paul was a murderer. Acts seven and verse 58. I would agree that those people are in heaven. But yet they’re murderers. If good works gets me to heaven, then there is no need for Jesus to die. In fact, Galatians two verse 21 says that I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness, if you can look right to God through observing the law, then Christ died needlessly. There is no point in Jesus’s death if you can earn your way to heaven. Let me just ask this one question. Then maybe you’ve posed in your mind. If obeying rules don’t get me to heaven, then what in the world is the purpose of the law? And why in the world did God even give us a law to obey? Tells us in Exodus chapter 19 and verse five and six that God bringing the nation of Israel out of Egypt.

If you remember in Exodus, when you begin to read that book, if you’ve ever read that book, Israel has been a slave to the nation of Egypt, serving the nation of Egypt for several hundred years, and God sets them free. And now they go into the Promised Land. The area of Israel. Over 2 million people made the journey from Egypt into Israel. You can imagine what it would have been like having 202 million people being Moses now, trying to dictate to these people how God wants them to live. They need some sort of government form to operate by. And so in Exodus chapter 20, as soon as they are released from Egypt, and as soon as they get to the promised land, the first thing God does is is still for them a law to observe and follow by as a nation. The law primarily exists in the Old Testament to help Israel understand how they needed to function as a people who followed God. The second thing the law does is just reveal to us our sin problem. So we all have a problem in our relationship with God and that is sin. Sin stops that relationship with God and it destroys fellowship with God.

It says in Romans 320, rather, through the law we became conscious of sin. Paul very poignantly identifies for us the purpose of the law and New Testament believers. Is for you to understand you have sin in your life, and when you see God’s standard of holiness in order to attain to to him and who he is and his standard, you just look sinful. And then seeing our sin, it shows us our need for a Savior. Paul said in Romans chapter seven and verse 24, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? It says in verse 25, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It says in Galatians three, therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ. Second Corinthians five he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him in Jesus. Philippians three nine and may be found in him, referring to Christ, not having a righteousness of my own, derived from the law derived from living good, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. This morning I’m going to excuse me. Next Sunday, I’m going to dive into the second theory that is forgiven people go to heaven. This morning, as we conclude, here’s what I want you to think about.

Good people go to heaven isn’t a God standard, and it certainly isn’t what Jesus taught. What God taught is that while good people can’t go to heaven, there is a way to get to heaven. And that’s through everything that Jesus has done On, on your behalf. People that hold to the theory that good people go to heaven just kind of, sort of lean into Christ a little bit and hold on to him just as a good moral teacher and the the Bible sort of a morality book to teach us how to be good people. And if you hold on to the Bible and you believe that, and you’re holding something contrary to what Scripture teaches, the Bible isn’t a morality code for us to operate by in this world. The Bible, its sole purpose is to point to us the redemption of man through Jesus because of what Jesus has done for your sins. That is the story of the Bible from beginning to end. And the book of Genesis and Genesis, chapter three and verse seven, you saw what Adam and Eve’s remark was to God. They were to they put fig leaves on themselves. They prepared, and the soldiers battle of armor. And they ran, and they hid from God, wanting to fight sin on their own. And what you see just a few verses later is God coming to the garden, God making a sacrifice of animal skin.

He clothed them in the animal skin, took off the garments that they made, and the Hebrew word for that garment is priestly garments. And Jesus gave him this promise I’m going to come to this earth, and I’m going to die for your sins. It literally says, Satan will bruise his heel, but Christ will crush the head of Satan. The Bible isn’t just asking you to lean a little bit into Christ. The Bible is asking you to give everything that you are to what Christ has done for you. Good people don’t go to heaven. Forgiven people do. And whether you’re a thief on the cross who has murdered countless people and and raped and pillaged and stolen, are you that guy who’s sitting here today that’s just lived a good life? Either way, God’s standards are much too high. And you need Jesus. I came to a point in my life when I realized that my way of living isn’t going to get me there, and I just got on my knees and I said, Jesus, I realize what you’ve done for me. Wherever you’re going. Wherever you are. Whatever you want from me right now. God, I’m giving it to you. I believe that you died for me. I believe you alone. Take me to heaven. God, I’m placing my trust in that right now. Jesus said I am the way. I am the truth.

And I am the life. He didn’t point to a religious system. He pointed to himself as the solution. John the Baptist agreed when he looked at Christ coming on the Jordan River, and he said, behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Let’s pray. God, I just thank you that you made a relationship with you so simple. God, I pray that whatever we’re holding to today, that’s anything other than what you desire for us. God, anything other than just placing our trust and faith in you that we just lay it all aside. God help us to be confident in the hope that we have in you. God, if anyone here doesn’t know you, it hasn’t trusted in you. God is holding any anything else in this world other than saying, Jesus, I’m trusting in you. God, I pray this morning that they can just talk to you face to face and say, God, I’m giving it all up and I want to trust in you. God, I thank you for this morning and I pray as a church family, God, that you give us boldness when we’re entered into conversations with people who hold to the thought and teaching that as long as you’re good, that’s all that matters. God in a loving way, um, in a compassionate way. We can share your truth. We can share the hope that we have in you. God, I thank you for this morning, this church. We just pray that you keep building your work and your kingdom here. God bless us this week. In Jesus name, Amen.