Over the past six years I’ve asked many people while out street witnessing “are you a good person?” About 99% of the people have said yes to that question. I even talked to one young man who told me that he had just gotten out of prison one week earlier where he had served three years for stealing a car. I talked to him for a while and before I asked him the question I thought surely he will admit that he’s not a good person, but he didn’t. I asked him if he was a good person and he said yes, he was. I reminded him that he had just told me that he served three years in prison for stealing a car. So I asked him how he could still be a good person and he said that the reason he stole the car was because his family was hungry, so he didn’t consider it to be a bad thing since his motive was good.
I also talked to a woman a few years ago that admitted that she had been a drug addict and a prostitute in order to support her habit. With tears in her eyes she told me that she was a bad person and that God could never forgive her because of the life she had led and because she had lost her kids to the state. This poor woman had the opposite problem. Instead of thinking that she was a good person, she thought that she had been so bad that God could not forgive her and that He would not love her. She was wrong on both accounts. God did still love her in spite of her past and He was willing to forgive her if she repented and put her faith in Jesus.
But I want to ask you tonight the question: Are you a good person? Do you consider yourself to be a good person? Maybe 99% of you out here tonight would also say yes. Most people really do think that they are good. You do what you do because you think what you are doing is right, even if it really is wrong. The Bible even backs this up. Most men proclaim themselves good in their own eyes (Proverbs 21:2). Everyone did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25).
But are you really good? How do you know? What standard do you use to compare yourself to? Most of us probably are good by our standards. I doubt if we have very many killers running around the streets of Springfield tonight. Most of us probably are good by our own moral standards. But are we really good?
Well our Creator God gave us a way to see if we are good. He gave us His Law – the 10 Commandments. We can look at the 10 Commandments to see how we measure up; to see if we measure up to His righteous, Holy and perfect standard.
- You shall have no other gods before me.
What do you love in this life? What do you love more than anyone or anything else? It could be a boyfriend or a girlfriend, a sports team, a car or any possession. If you love anything more than you love God, then that is your false god that you worship.
- You shall not make any graven images.
Now I doubt if very many of us have actually fashioned a false god out of wood, stone, silver or gold. But have you made a false god in your own mind? Do you have a god that overlooks your pet sin, whatever that sin may be? Is your god so loving that he ignores your habitual sin? Maybe it’s alcohol, drugs, pornography or whatever your sin of choice may be, does the god in your own mind overlook your sin? If so, then you have graven a false god in your mind and you are not following the God of the Bible.
- You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Have you ever used God’s name as a curse word? If so, then you have blasphemed God and He will not hold those guiltless who do so.
- Do you remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.
Do you honor God on Sunday? Do you worship Him and spend time with and for Him, one day a week?
- Honor your father and your mother.
Have you always honored your father and your mother with your thoughts, words and actions, your whole life?
- You shall not kill.
Again, most of us are not murderers. But have you ever been angry at someone without a righteous reason? Have you ever hated anyone? If so, then you have murdered that person in your heart.
- You shall not commit adultery.
Maybe you are not even married, so you say that there’s no way that you’ve broken this commandment. Jesus said Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Have you ever lusted after someone? If you are around 12 years old or older, you have probably lusted at one time or another.
- You shall not steal.
Have you ever stolen anything? Even it was something small or not of much value? Have you ever looked at someone else’s answer on a test?
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Have you ever told a lie? The question really isn’t have you ever lied, but how many lies do you think that you’ve told in your lifetime? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands?
- You shall not covet.
Have you ever wanted something that belonged to someone else? It could have been someone’s girlfriend or wife? Maybe a car, a house or a job or someone else’s life?
God gave us the 10 Commandments so we could look at them and compare ourselves to them. Just like we look at ourselves in a mirror to see how we look, we can look at the commandments to see how we measure up. So how did you measure up? If you are honest with yourself, you have to admit that you’ve broken the commandments. None of us have kept all the commandments perfectly our whole lives. None of us measure up to God.
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Not a single one of us have kept these commandments. James said that if you break one, you are guilty of breaking all of them. We are all guilty.
This is the bad news that you need to come to grips with. That you have fallen short of God’s high standard. But when you recognize that you have broken God’s Law, that you do not measure up, then you can receive the Good News. The Good News is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, Galatians 3:24 says Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. The Law points us to the need of a Helper. The fact that we can’t keep the 10 Commandments directs us to the One who did and that’s Jesus Christ.
Even though we have all rebelled against God by breaking the 10 Commandments, He loves us so much that He sent His only Son to suffer and die on our behalf. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God sent Jesus to walk this earth a little over 2,000 years ago. Jesus did what you and could never do; He lived a perfect and sinless life. He never broke the 10 Commandments in His thoughts, words or actions.
Then He willingly laid down His life as a ransom for many. He became sin, who knew no sin. God saw His own precious Son as a guilty sinner because of your sins and because of my sins and God poured His anger over our sins out upon His only begotten Son as Jesus was beaten unmercifully and then hung on the cruel cross. Jesus paid the sin debt that you and I owe.
Jesus died on the cross, bearing the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). Then He was buried and rose from the grave three days later. He now sits at the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for His followers. Even though Jesus died for the sins of the world, there is not universal salvation. Not everyone is saved because Jesus suffered on the cross for guilty sinners like you and me. No, you must receive salvation. It is a free gift and freely offered by God to us, but you must receive the gift. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
There is nothing that you can do on your own to get back in a right relationship with God. You can only be good through the goodness of Jesus. You can only be made whole, by the shed blood of Jesus. Your sins can be forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and you receive salvation through repentance and faith. We are to have repentance toward God and faith toward Jesus Christ our Lord (Acts 20:21). You have to stop believing that you are good and admit that you are bad. You need to recognize that your sins are an affront to our Holy and righteous God. You need to cry out to Him to have mercy on you. You have to quit believing and trusting in yourself and start believing and trusting in Jesus.
Only Jesus can save you. You can be saved tonight. You can be cleansed. Come to Jesus tonight. Surrender your life to Him. There was a young man recently who jumped out of an airplane and he had an epileptic seizure. He was barreling toward the earth at 120 miles per hour, unconscious and he was facing certain death. But the professional sky diver that was with him saw what happened and he dove to the young man and grabbed him and pulled his parachute. The young man landed safely and came too again. He was only alive because the instructor pulled the ripcord for him and he landed safely.
Jesus Christ is the only parachute that can save you. You can land safely in Heaven when this life is over if Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. You can’t just claim Him as your Savior, He has to be Lord of your life. You surrender your will to His will when you are saved. You are either a servant of Jesus’ or you are a servant of Satan and Satan is the father of lies and he will keep on lying to you. Don’t listen to him. You are either in bondage to Jesus or you are still bound in your sins. Turn from your sins and live. Turn to Jesus Christ. Repent by turning away from your sins and put your trust in Jesus. Trust Him just like you would trust a parachute if you jumped out of an airplane.
Trust Jesus today and live. Live eternally. Choose life today. You have life and death before you tonight. You can continue barreling down the broad road to destruction which is not only physical death, but spiritual death – forever. Or you can receive eternal life tonight and that is only found in Jesus Christ. Choose life. Turn away from your sins and put your faith in Jesus.
Believe in Jesus. Trust Him and then you can be seen as a good person, through the goodness of Jesus. You will still be a sinner saved by grace, but God will see you as being holy or good through the goodness of Jesus because Jesus bore your sins while He suffered and died on the cross, in your place. He became sin who knew no sin that you might become His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Be right with God tonight. Repent and believe the Gospel. Surrender your life to Jesus. Do this tonight and be saved.
(A rough draft of this message was lifted up on the square in downtown Springfield, MO on March 6, 2015)