This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:04] When I was growing up, I heard this phrase get tossed around, "Goody two shoes." Anybody else ever hear that growing up?

[00:00:10] Usually. It was weird to me because it was like meant like a good thing.

[00:00:14] But they were saying it in kind of a bad way. You know what I mean? It wasn't like, oh, it's such a good thing you're a goody two shoes. It was more like, I hate you. Goody two shoes. Why did you tattle on me to the teacher? Right. It's usually the vibe of it. Well, one of my good friends, he got me a copy of Goody Two Shoes that was published in 1888.

[00:00:35] So this is actually printed here on Linnean. That was soon to gather. And goody two shoes where that phrase comes from. It was one of the most popular children's books of the 18th century. It was actually originally published in 1765 in London, England. And it tells us the story of Marjorie Meanwell. That was this girl's name. OK. And you can see where this is going a little bit, just by Marjorie's name, MEANWELL, that this is one of those moral tales. OK, kind of like Cinderella where, you know, virtue is eventually going to win in the end, except we've dropped the fairy tale part of it. And this is a moral tale, like if you do what is good, your life is gonna work out. That was the point of goody two shoes. And she got that nickname because Marjorie, when she was a poor orphan and she started out with only one shoe. And then some day a guy gave her two shoes and she ran around to everybody in town saying to shoes, man, two shoes. And so she got the name Goody Two Shoes. And she grew up in this town. And she became a teacher to the children and she became a defender of the poor. And she was a friend to everyone who was in distress. And eventually, because she worked so hard and was kind to so many people, this were this wealthy, widowed man. He fell in love with goody two shoes and she gets married. And it's this great story of how the whole town, they all loved her and the book ends her life was a great blessing. And her death, the greatest calamity that ever took place in the neighborhood where she lived. And she was known as Goody Two Shoes.

[00:02:23] That's the story.

[00:02:25] Like, here's this good person that we all know. And when she died, what a great calamity it was because it's sad to see a good person like that not go. What we're here to say this morning is that the great calamity of goody two shoes is that goody two shoes didn't go to heaven.

[00:02:42] That's what we're here to say, like if you're a good person by the world standards, if you're a good person in this life, that does not get you in to heaven. That's what we're here to say this morning. And we need to talk about that, because this story of goody two shoes, whether you've read the Linen 1888 version or not, you've heard the same story because we're talking about it all the time these days. It seems to me like the idea that good people go to heaven is everywhere in our culture right now. And I understand it to some degree, I really do, because I think of myself as a good person. Are you one of us, too? Are you one of the good people or do you walk around everyday thinking of yourself as one of the bad guys? Right. Some people seem to have clarity in their life that they are not living the way that they should be. But a lot of us would consider ourselves one of the good guys. We would consider ourselves on the right side. And the reason we think that we're a good person, if you really spend some time thinking about this and I've had so many people tell me that they're good people over the years that I have spent some time thinking about this, the reason you think you're a good person is because you're not as bad as you could be. Is basically what you mean by that. I could be a lot worse and kind of if we were going to get kind of proud and arrogant and we were gonna say what we really think.

[00:04:04] Well, I could be like one of those people that's kind of where we go with this.

[00:04:08] See, what we're doing around here is we're doing this comparative sense of righteousness where I'm ready to say that I'm a good person because I compare myself to that person that I see maybe on the channel of an evening news or the mug shot that I see in the newspaper or somebody that I know that just always is saying mean things and always using inappropriate phrases. And I know I'm better than that person, therefore, because I'm better than bad. I must be good.

[00:04:37] That's how we think of it.

[00:04:39] And that even comes from goody two shoes, goody two shoes. What she was most famous for, perhaps we got a picture of it here from the book is that she overheard a plot of robbers like the real bad guys, you know, the criminals, the evil people. She overheard them that they were going to rob Squire Truman. And she went and she told Squired Truman, she warned him she tattled. That's where the phrase really comes from there. And they caught the robbers, the bad guys. And it even goes over so far as to say they were all shipped off to Australia.

[00:05:14] Like that's where we sent the bad people back in today. And one of them got his act together, or maybe two of them, but one of them, he was still a bad guy and he's burning in hell right now. That's basically what it says in a kid's book, Goody Two Shoes Guy, because the idea is what good he was good. And these guys were bad. And that's how I get a sense that I'm good is when I compare myself to the crazy people that are out there doing crazy stuff and we talk about it at the WaterCooler or we mention it to our spouse and we kind of roll our eyes like people.

[00:05:44] Right. We end up feeling pretty good about ourselves. The problem is we're not comparing ourselves to the right person. We're comparing ourselves to other people when what the Bible says we should do is you and I should compare ourselves to who? Who should we compare ourselves?

[00:05:59] Well, to God. To Jesus Christ.

[00:06:02] Go to Romans Chapter three and let's start seeing what we can do here this morning to straighten out this thinking about what it means to be good.

[00:06:11] So everybody grab a Bible and turn with me to Romans Chapter three, because this passage makes it very clear what our goodness measures up to compared to God's. All right. I feel pretty good when I look at my fellow Americans these days, and maybe you do, too. But how do you feel when you're going to stand before God in his presence on a day of judgment, on a day of reckoning, on a day of accountability?

[00:06:38] When we meet God and we see him and all of his glorious splendor and what they're saying about God in heaven, when we get a glimpse into heaven in Isaiah six or Revelation Chapter four, it says that there's these winged creatures and they have six wings. And with two they fly. And with four wings, they cover their face and they cover their feet because they're looking at God and they're crying out day and night, over and over. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Israel.

[00:07:07] And the whole earth is full of his glory. That's the kind of thing they're shouting in heaven. They're obsessed. They're focused on the holiness of God. Let's compare ourselves to that. It says here in Romans, Chapter three, as it is written, this is Romans three, verse 10. And what it's gonna give us here is a compilation of greatest hits from the Old Testament. Here's some lines assembled from all different psalms. Isaiah. Fifty nines in here. This is all quoted from the Old Testament. None is righteous.

[00:07:39] No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does.

[00:07:52] Good. Not even one.

[00:07:56] Their throat is in open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of ASP's snakes is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood in. Their paths are ruin and misery and the way of peace.

[00:08:14] They have not known. There is no fear of God.

[00:08:19] Before their eyes, I have the audacity to say as a human being that my goodness could compare to the goodness of God.

[00:08:27] Instead, I don't fear him. And so it says in conclusion, verse 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God for by works of the law. No human being will be justified in his side, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

[00:08:57] The whole world is going to be held accountable to God, every single being that God has created in his image. That's every single one of us. We will stand before God on some future day of reckoning. And it says that at that moment when we stand before God, our mouths will be stopped.

[00:09:16] It says silenced. We will be shut up in the presence of God. That's what it's saying. No one is going to defend themself on that day.

[00:09:26] Well, the reason I was that way, if you just knew my family well, if you just saw my circumstances. Well, if you just understood who I really was, you would know that I was pretty good, actually. God, no. God is the one who does understand who you really are.

[00:09:41] And there will be nothing to say to defend yourself.

[00:09:44] There will be no arguments with God about the punishment or the forgiveness that you deserve on the day of judgment. It says that our mouths will be stopped because, ah, goodness does not compare to his later on in the chapter. It summarizes it like this. Hopefully you're familiar with this famous verse. Romans three twenty three for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

[00:10:09] Every single one of us.

[00:10:11] So let's just say right now you've got Goodey if you've got the hand out there. Anybody taking notes here this morning, you've got g o o d y there on the side. Goodey Well, let's just start out with good people. Don't go to heaven. That's what we're here to say this morning. We're here to correct the thinking that has gone wrong. Good people don't go to heaven partially because according to Romans Chapter three, there's no such thing as a good person. So I understand it's going to be impossible for us to remove the phrase good person out of our vocabulary today because we use it in a comparative sense here in this world that we're good compared to what we could be. We're good compared to other people. I understand that. But when we come here into God's presence, what every single person needs to understand is that I am not good compared to God.

[00:11:06] I'm really not.

[00:11:09] Well, we need to understand about God is that in his presence? He will not allow sin. God cannot compromise who he is. That's what makes him God. OK, so let's just make sure we all understand that holy means to be set apart. Holy means that you are, but that you are one of a kind. And what is God set apart from? What makes him distinct from every one of us. He is set apart from sin.

[00:11:38] And so the idea that a person who's more good than bad, who's mostly good, who's done a lot of good. The idea that that person could go into the presence of God is a wrong way to think about it because there is no sin in the presence of God.

[00:11:55] You have to be 100 percent good. We call that righteousness in the Bible. You have to be righteous. You have to have a perfect record to get into God's presence. And this is very important because every single one of us, if you live long enough, there is a one 100 percent chance you are going to die. My friends. Every single one of us are headed towards death unless Jesus comes back to get us. It's going to happen to us just like it happened to all the people before us. We are headed towards the end of this life. One hundred percent of living people die. But here's a stat I read in a poll that only 54 percent of Americans have really thought about death.

[00:12:44] So, like half of our nation is totally unprepared for something that is going to happen to one hundred percent of us.

[00:12:53] I mean, really, it's kind of sad when you see where the priorities of America are, because when you ask people if they're preparing to buy a house. A lot of people can have long conversations about it if you ask people if they're preparing to put their kids through college. A lot of people have very detailed plans of how much money they're trying to save up in these accounts and and their kids going to, of course, get a scholarship because look at how good their kid is. And they got all this plan for their kid.

[00:13:19] I mean, do you realize that more people in America think about what they're going to do after they retire than what they're going to do after they die? And they have like a plan or sitting down with them to help them plan for those 10, 20, 30 years, however it at long it is where they don't have to keep working and yet they're going to keep living and they spend their whole life living for a time. That's just a brief blip on the radar of eternity, because then when you die, it goes forever after that.

[00:13:54] That's where we're at in America.

[00:13:57] She were worried about our financial future in this life when we should be worried about our eternal future in the next life. Who gets into heaven? Is it a real place? And who is allowed to go there? This should be the thing that everybody's thinking about. Go to Revelation, Chapter 21. Turn to the end of the book. And it tells us what heaven is going to be like. Maybe you've heard the idea. I can only imagine what heaven's gonna be like. Well, there's some truth to that. We can't see it. We imagine it. But I like to see. Or you could just read the Book of Revelation and you could find out what heaven's gonna be like.

[00:14:33] And it'll tell you some very important details that could change your entire life and years. One detail that I think is very important. This is Revelation Chapter 21. Start with me here in verse 22. And this is what it says. And I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord, God, the Almighty and the land. This is a temple in the city that we're going to. There's no temple in this city. This is the new Jerusalem where we're going to live. This is the idea of heaven. Really, it's more specific. It's a city called the New Jerusalem and the city has no need. Verse twenty three. The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is so bright, so majestic that it gives its light to this whole city. And its lamp is the lamb. That's Jesus Christ. And by its light, while the nations walk and the kings of the Earth will bring their glory into it and its gates, the gates of heaven will never be shut by day. And there's gonna be no night. The gates of heaven are always open. Praise the Lord, and they will bring into it the glory and honor of the nation's plots. Oh man. If everybody could just get pay attention to this verse twenty seven.

[00:15:43] But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

[00:16:00] No one who is unclean, which by God's standard, we all are. We've all done something false before God. We've all done something detestable in the holy presence of God. None of those people will ever enter into heaven.

[00:16:17] Only perfection gets into heaven. So here's a verse I'd love for you to write down. This is a verse you could share with other people. Hebrews Chapter nine, verse twenty seven makes it very clear that it is appointed for man to die once. And after that comes judgment. And at this judgment, your soul will be either sent to what we call heaven or a place we refer to as hell. And the places are both described in some detail here in Revelation. And so some people, they have this idea that good people are going to go to heaven. Well, that's now what is true. Only perfection gets in. That's our first oh, here in Goodey, only perfection. You have to be 100 percent perfect. Nothing unclean, nothing detestable. Nothing false.

[00:17:04] Goes into heaven, into the holy presence of God. Nothing like that.

[00:17:09] So we're finding out the common ideas that people are walking down the street of Huntington Beach in Westminster and Garden Grove and Cypress and Long Beach and Los Alamitos. Every day they're going into restaurants and they're going into stores and they're filling up their car with gas and they're walking around thinking that as long as I'm a pretty good person, I'm going to go to heaven. And that's not true. Or some people are thinking, well, I don't need to worry about death because once you die, it's over. Nothing happens after that. That's not true.

[00:17:37] These are lies that lead people to hell. And we've got to correct these lies. When you die, your body is done. I would agree with that. There's a sense of truth to that, that your body is. Your body is done, but your soul is going somewhere, man. Your soul lives forever. It lives in an eternal way. And it either enjoys the glorious presence of God or it goes apart from God. And what it's saying in Revelation, if we will pay attention here this morning, is you have to be perfect to get into this place. Nothing unclean, is there?

[00:18:16] That's pretty big problem for people like me and you. Because if there's one thing we can get a group of people in America to agree on is that we're not perfect. Can I get a man from out of town?

[00:18:29] Like, the most offensive thing I could ever say here this morning, which I'm not saying, is I'm a perfect person.

[00:18:35] That would rattle some cages.

[00:18:37] Nobody's perfect. And we all know that nobody else is perfect cause we're not perfect. And for sure, our president isn't perfect and our boss isn't perfect. And basically, anybody who's telling us not to do what we want to do is definitely not perfect.

[00:18:51] That's how we think.

[00:18:53] What I mean, if there's one thing that we can all agree on, it's that people aren't perfect. It's just harder for us to admit that about ourselves, isn't it?

[00:19:02] Say you don't belong in heaven. I don't belong in heaven. We don't deserve to go there. These are the facts. Now you say, well, what will perfection?

[00:19:13] How do I how do I? I can never be perfect. Nobody's perfect. That's the point I'm trying to make. Go to Exodus Chapter 20 with me. And let's just look at the most basic standard list of commands that God started out with, the first revelation that God gave to man. The Ten Commandments on the two stap tablets of stone that God gave to Moses to give to his people Israel. And these are very familiar commands that maybe even people on the street might know.

[00:19:42] Some of them they might not know some of the more confusing ones, the ones that feel antiquated, the ones that feel very old to us, the things about like idolatry and this thing, the Sabbath, these commands about worshiping God. So maybe people don't really know the first four commands. Well, let's not even look at those first four commands about our comparison to God that we've already talked about, where we measure up to God. Let's even just look at the commands that have to do with how we treat one another. And let's still think if we would call ourselves good people. Hey, let's start here with command number five. This is Exodus Chapter 20, verse twelve. Look at this with me. Exodus 20, verse twelve. Honor your father and mother that your days may be long and the land that the Lord, your God is giving you.

[00:20:28] You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

[00:20:41] You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors.

[00:20:51] You. Now, what we typically do is we kind of break these into really bad sins and little sins.

[00:20:58] Really bad sins would be things like murder. That one jumps off the page.

[00:21:03] Are you adultery, breaking the covenant of marriage that you made with one person to be true to them and cheating on them by having sexual relations with someone else like those would be really bad things. And I'm a good person because I haven't murdered anyone and I haven't committed adultery.

[00:21:22] That's how maybe people would evaluate themselves.

[00:21:25] Like I haven't done the big ones. It doesn't say don't do the big ones. Okay.

[00:21:31] We we don't even understand how the law works. The point of reading this is you're supposed to think to yourself, there's no way I'm ever going to do that in a million years, man.

[00:21:40] Not me. Not this guy. Honor, your father and mother already blew that one a long time ago. Anybody really want to suggest that they were nothing but obedient to their parents? Anybody really want to try to pull that off? Have you ever met a child in your life? Do you really want to try to pull that off? No.

[00:22:00] I mean, even to this day, people as adults often think disrespectful thoughts about their parents and show how little value they treat their parents with. Things like stealing, things like lying. Oh, it's just a little white lie. Who's it going to hurt? Well, it just kicked you out of heaven. So it's probably going to hurt you, my friend.

[00:22:21] It seems like maybe that's one person, right? You shall not covet. Do you realize how easy it is to covet? It's called billboards.

[00:22:28] It's called window shopping. I'm not really. We even pride ourselves on this. I'm not really spending any money on anything. I'm just window shopping. I'm just coveting things rich people buy. That's all I'm doing today. I'm just going to the mall and looking around and sinning, wanting stuff that I can't get right.

[00:22:47] But that's a little one.

[00:22:49] But see, Jesus, he breaks it down, too. No, the problem is not that you've done some sinful things. Now let's get even to the heart of it. Oh, you haven't murdered. But have you ever hated anyone? Have you ever said you fool in your heart to someone? Have you ever gone off on anyone because you were angry or just been bitter? You didn't even speak to them.

[00:23:05] But you were just bitter at them and your heart. Then Jesus says you're guilty of murder in the presence of God.

[00:23:11] That still disqualifies you from heaven right there. Oh, well, I've never committed adultery. Well, maybe that's because you're you're not even married, but maybe married people would say, well, I've never committed adultery. What have you looked at?

[00:23:20] A woman with lustful intent, Jesus says. That's the same thing.

[00:23:24] See, Jesus says the problem isn't that you've done evil things. The problem is that you are evil and because you are evil, you do evil things. And it only takes one evil thing to break the entire law.

[00:23:37] One evil thing. And you're out.

[00:23:41] I mean, look at this verse right here. It can't get any more clear than this. James to tends to be a great verse to jot down, to have ready to share with other people. Whoever keeps the whole law. Look at you, you good person, you goody two shoes. You're keeping the whole law. But you fail in one point. Just one of these little things fills in. One point has become accountable for all of it. You're guilty of it all. You have fallen short of God's standard.

[00:24:12] I mean, it might be helpful to make you appreciate the grace of God that has saved you. Or it might be helpful in defining who you really are to right out one day. What are sins that I have done that would kick me out of heaven? Because only one. There's one thing on that list, then you don't belong there. Let's get that down for our second. Oh, one sin. We'll keep you out. One sin. Whether you did it a long time ago, whether you did it this morning, it only takes one sin to keep you out of heaven.

[00:24:48] I know what some people are thinking, the goody two shoes, this sermon had so much potential. This doesn't feel like very good news at all. This is pretty intense.

[00:24:58] See, this is tough for slackers like us. Is it okay if I just put us all in the slacker category? Let me tell you what I mean by that. We live in a world of participation trophies. You guys know what participation trophies are, right? Like, we don't care if you won or lost. We don't even care if you're good or bad. You just get a trophy for showing up that that's Orange County in a nutshell, is it not? Is it not? Of course, my kid deserves a trophy. Well, why were they the champion? Why did they score all the goals? Were they the MVP? No, because they're my kid and they're here. Right. Participation. I learned about this low standard that we have for ourselves. From my swim instructor. I don't know if anybody can remember when you had swimming lessons. Right. A bull. I had swimming lessons and there was this guy and he would teach me how to swim in my grandmother's pool. And I was terrible at learning how to swim. As was my brother Bill, who's now at this church. And I remember. And, you know, obviously, I didn't think I was terrible at the time. I thought I was, you know, moving along pretty good. At least I was better than my brother. Right. And I would watch Bill kind of attempt. And it looked like more, you know, more of a dog mode movement than a human movement at that point. And I and I would watch him attempt to swim. And the guy would just say, good, if that's what he said. Everything.

[00:26:21] I mean, you could be drowning, like coughing up water. And this guy was going to be like, good effort, bro. Yeah. And you could tell he went over my grandma, my aunt. Everybody liked this guy because basically you could do no wrong, you know. And I would watch my brother do something. And I'm like, that's not what he just said to do. And then I would look at this guy and he'd be like, Yo, brah. That's how you do it, right? Like, all of a sudden you just won an Olympic gold medal.

[00:26:51] We live in a culture where everybody gets snacks after the game. And we have this idea and it's in our pride and it's in our sinful nature. And it's just bound up in the heart of who we are. That it's not going to be that bad, because on the day I stand before God, he's going to know that I tried and he's just going to he's gonna feel me.

[00:27:10] And he's just going to let me because he's going to know that me and it was hard for me and I just gave it in effort, man. I tried harder. I went to do better and maybe I didn't get there. But God's just going to see my effort and he's going to just you don't grade on a curve. And because I tried harder than others. Because I did better than others. God's going to see that. And he's going to affirm that effort in me. And he's going to let me. And that's what people think.

[00:27:37] And they're going to hell because of.

[00:27:40] I mean, the Bible could not be more clear that trying harder and doing better does not work.

[00:27:49] It does not get you in.

[00:27:52] Here's maybe a famous patches of scripture, Ephesians two, eight, nine. And this is not your own doing. The only way to be saved is it is the gift of God. It is not a result of works. You cannot do it, is what it's saying. There's nothing you can do. Not only are you out of heaven because only perfection gets in and you're at least one sin has disqualified you. But now, if you were to acknowledge that you're not good enough to get into heaven, there isn't even anything good that you can do to somehow make up for it. To do penance, to work it off, to somehow make God feel happy with you again. Once you realize you're out, you're busted. Effort trying harder does not get you back in. The Bible says this over and over and over. You're not supposed to read the law and think, OK, well, let's just suck it up and go do that. You're supposed to read it and say, I can't do it. I mean, what you're supposed to say here is that doing good works doesn't work. Let's get that down for our D here in. Doing good works does not work, OK? So I don't know what impression other churches or other religions have given. The general consensus of religion in the world today is if you do some of these things that our church that our religion tells you to do, you will end up in heaven or paradise or whatever we're calling it. That's how the world works.

[00:29:22] It says good works. We'll get you there. OK. Not only is it trying to tell you you're a good person, but that somehow you can do something to control your eternal destiny.

[00:29:32] And let's just make it very clear. We don't believe that here at this church. We hate that. We are against legalism. The idea that someone could keep the law and get into heaven. We reject that completely. And we don't think that coming to this church gets anybody into heaven. Can I get a man from anybody on that? Let's make that very clear. I don't care how much you know about this book, knowing this book does not get you into heaven.

[00:29:56] There's nothing that you can do. How much money you give away to charity? How many times you do something kind for someone else? Kind of. Even the golden rule to treat others as you would want to be treated. Even living your life by the Golden Rule will not get you onto the golden streets of heaven.

[00:30:14] Guru Isaiah 64. I really think we all need to. We all need to see this passage here in Isaiah 64. We're moving around the Bible today. We're going after this idea that we're good, that we could earn our way into heaven by good works. We're trying to take this out of our minds once and for all and equip you to share this message with other people. And this is hard because because it's hard for us to figure out sometimes that we're trusting in our own goodness. But some of us are. I mean, isn't that kind of what we heard in the waters of baptism? I mean, all three of those ladies who got baptized today, they all grew up and they had a sense of what it meant to be good.

[00:30:55] And they had a people who brought them to church where there's there was this idea of here's a good way to live. And that was presented. And, you know, what's the testimony of all of them? That's not how they then lived. They couldn't live up to the standard of goodness that was presented to them and even being in that religious system, going along with going to church, growing up around other people maybe who really were Christians.

[00:31:22] It didn't get them to salvation. Look what Isaiah, 64, says. It says this and start with me in verse five, that God's looking for someone who works righteousness for someone who remembers you and your ways. But behold. Look at this. Behold. You were angry. And we sent in our sins.

[00:31:39] We have been a long time. And shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean. OK, so. Well, let's put that verse. Along with Revelation 21. Nothing unclean gets into heaven. And we've all become unclean.

[00:31:53] That's a big problem. So let's do some good works to get our way out of it. No. All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment, which is a really nice way to say it, like a dirty rag. We all fade like a leaf in our iniquities. Our sins like the wind takes us away. Now, I don't know if you ever have that rare moment where you actually think that you look good.

[00:32:18] Is anybody ever had a moment like the eyes? I. I do not have many of those moments in my life. But sometimes sometimes when I get that new shirt. Right. And it's got the certain plaid that I like. And it's pop and maybe. Right.

[00:32:31] Maybe this one that I'm wearing today. Right. And you get that new shirt. You know what I'm saying? And you walk in and you catch a glimpse of yourself somewhere and you're like, hey, that doesn't look as bad as it usually does. Could be worse than this. I feel like I'm looking good today. Inevitably, right.

[00:32:46] When you have something that you like, that you're wearing and then you go and you're just enjoying the moment, you're feeling positive, you know, and you can pick up that in and out burger and you bring it up here and you take that good bye, Miss Cheese. And there's sauce. And what happens?

[00:33:03] My friend, it gets on your favorite shirt, not on the shirt that you're just wearing because it's laundry. Has it come through? No, it's on the shirt that you really like. Can I anybody with me on this. Right. Oh, why this shirt? Lord, you know, here we are. And I got this stain now and you try to get it out real quick, but it ain't coming out. And so then you find yourself there above the washing machine and you got your stain stick and you're going to town on your favorite shirt and you're trying to scrub it out. Get that stain out of there. Scrub it some more. See, that's what people are doing with their lives. They are guilty. There is a stain on their soul. And if I can just do enough good works, they tell themselves I could scrub out that stain. I just try harder. They say this is going to be the year that I get it together, they say. And there's a stain on their soul. And they're rubbing it and they're scrubbing it and they're trying to get it out. But they got a dirty rag to begin with. And the dirty rag is just spreading that stain all over.

[00:34:15] That's what it says here.

[00:34:17] Oh, you're trying to do righteous deeds, trying to do good works to get into heaven. Well, here's the problem, your righteous deeds. It's like you're trying to clean yourself, your unclean and you're trying to clean yourself with a dirty rag.

[00:34:29] Never what you ever wash your own car. And you're trying to get it dry and you're trying to make it pop like those guys do at the car wash, but you don't want to spend money. And so you trying to make it pop and then you get those little water spots streaking down there and you can't have any water spots on here. And so you get your rag out and you start rubbing on your car. Anybody ever do that? And you cut start to get wax on, wax off and you're really getting into it. He put on the car wash song and you're going for it and you don't really notice what's going on. But you're like, there's no water spots on this car. And then you take a step back and there's no water spots. You've gotten every one of them. There's just little white pieces of fuzz from your rag all over your car. Now.

[00:35:09] That's what you're doing when you do good works. It's just like you're scrubbing and you're going for it. And as it really washed that stain away, as you still feel it there every day, some of us here this morning.

[00:35:22] But trying so hard.

[00:35:24] It's amazing to me how people will turn something like here in a sermon like this. And reading the Bible and talking to people and they'll turn it into good things that they do. And they're just scrubbing the whole time. There's only one who has a perfect record. There's only one who can wash your stain away. And he will wash it as white as snow.

[00:35:45] There's only one that can clean you up.

[00:35:47] If I could go back to Isaiah, Chapter one, we're in Chapter 64, look at Chapter one and look what God wants to do. He wants to reason with you. He wants to make a deal with you. He wants to say, hey, before that day of judgment, when people stand before me and they find out that they're not good and they're not going to get into heaven. Now, I want to make a deal with you right now. That's what God says.

[00:36:06] And Isaiah one, he says, come now. This is Isaiah one, verse 18. God says, come now. Let us reason together. Hey, let's talk about this. See, God doesn't want people to wait till the day of judgment to find out they were wrong about being good. No. God wants to talk to people right now. Hey, let's talk about this. Let's reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they are red, like crimson. I mean, look at the stain you got on yourself. Look at what you're sayin, how it's tainted you, how it's corrupted you. Look at how your unclean before me. God says, well, I want to wash those sins as white as snow and they shall become like wool.

[00:36:45] That's the offer that gods make.

[00:36:47] He's saying, hey, let me take that dirty rag of your own good works out of your hand and let's throw that away and let me come in and let me do a good work in your soul and all remove the stain and all remove it completely. And I'll put a new heart within you. I'll put my spirit within you. I will make you a new creation. That's what God wants to do for every single center. He wants to save them is what we call.

[00:37:14] And here's how he has done it in his infinite wisdom, in his master plan. He has given us one who is perfect. There is only one goody two shoes who has ever lived on this planet, and that is that God sent his one and only son go to Romans Chapter three. It didn't just leave us off with the bad news. No, now is the time where we get to the good news. We call it the gospel of Jesus.

[00:37:44] And it's only when we really understand the bad news of our sin that we can't earn our way into heaven by our good works because we're not a good person to even begin with, that our sin has already disqualified us from entering those open gates into heaven. Well, then it gets to this in Romans chapter three, verse twenty one. And it says it like this The righteousness of God. That's what God is looking for, his righteousness. But nobody gets it by the law. The largest shows us our sin. It shows us we fall short of the righteousness of God has now been manifested. It's been revealed. It's been shown to us apart from the law. Like now, we can be righteous without keeping the law. This is good news. Even though the law, the first five books of the Bible and the prophets arrest the Old Testament, they bear witness to it. Even though the Old Testament, it was to say in this, the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ. It's for everyone who believes you get the righteousness of God. There is no distinction because we've all sinned.

[00:38:44] We've all fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This is to show us God's righteousness, and it goes on from there. Well, what good news this is that you can be justified. You know what it means to be justified, declared righteous. But even though you're not good. And even though you can't do good when you stand before God on that day of accountability, you will be declared righteous. Well, how do I get that? How do I get a perfect record? I can't go to traffic school and get that get that thing off my record. No, I can't do good work. So how do I get my imperfect record exchanged for a perfect record by faith in Jesus Christ?

[00:39:41] That's how you do it.

[00:39:42] You believe that there's one thing that washes away the stain that is on your soul and that is the blood of Jesus Christ and you trust in it.

[00:39:52] So here's what we're saying is that Jesus is the ultimate goody two shoes, that he came down from heaven where he was God Jesus his God and he came down from heaven and he was born and he lived for 33 years. Why did he do that? Why did he dwell among us for 33 years? If he wanted to, why didn't he just come down, die for our sin and then rise again? Why didn't he just get straight to it? Why this? Thirty three years of being a human.

[00:40:21] You know what he's amassing that entire time. Perfect righteousness. Every single sin that you have done, every single temptation that still haunts you to this very day, Jesus Christ has experienced all of those temptations. And he said no to every single one of them.

[00:40:41] Never once. Not even once did Jesus break one of God's commands. Not one time.

[00:40:48] And then not only did he not do the things that God said we're not supposed to do. Jesus perfectly fulfilling the law of God. He also did perfectly all the things that God commands us to do. And he didn't just kind of do them in and just kind of mumble his way through them. Like when Mary was saying, Jesus, let's take out the trash.

[00:41:07] He's not just going to take out the trash or she's not going to stop annoying me. No, he did it with a happy heart. He did it with full obedience. He did it because he honored his mother.

[00:41:20] He did obedience as it was meant to be done. In fact, one day he went to John the Baptist and he said, John, you're not going to understand this because I don't have sinned. And this isn't the typical baptism of repentance like you usually do. But I'm doing a different kind of baptism, a baptism to fulfill all righteousness. That's what Jesus did.

[00:41:38] He had to establish the perfect record, your perfect record. That's what he was doing for 33 years. He was living the life that you should have lived, that I should have lived.

[00:41:49] And he's establishing now a record of righteousness that is now offered to all people in. What you do is when you believe in Jesus, when you trust in Jesus Christ, you get declared righteous in the holy presence of God.

[00:42:07] It is an amazing offer that is being presented to everyone here this morning. It is an amazing offer that we have to give to everyone. We know that Jesus wants to make a trade with everybody here. He wants your Sain for his righteousness. That's the deal that he's willing to make.

[00:42:25] You've got the imperfect record. Yeah, he knows about it. He's ready to give you his perfect record. This is the best deal that has ever been talked about. That's why we call it the good news. That's why we say we should go and declare this to the entire world.

[00:42:41] Everyone needs to know that there is a way to get into a perfect place where you don't belong. And it's the good news of Jesus. This is a verse that everybody should have at the ready Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse 21.

[00:42:55] And it's a beautiful promise that for our sake, for sinners like us.

[00:43:00] God made him to be sin. He treated Jesus on the cross like Jesus had done our sin. Even though Jesus knew no sin, he treated Jesus. He punished Christ on the cross for your imperfect record, even though Jesus was bringing a perfect record into the cross.

[00:43:19] So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. It's a it's a theologians, they call it an alien righteousness.

[00:43:28] They call it a A for in righteousness. See, it's not a self righteousness that you bring to this deal. It's the righteousness of Christ that you receive by faith.

[00:43:39] If you come and you think you bring your own goodness or your own righteousness to it, that's actually the thing that keeps you from salvation.

[00:43:47] Do you see why it's so important that we make it 100 percent clear to everybody here that you're not goody two shoes?

[00:43:54] It's so important. The only way to be saved by the goodness of Jesus, the only way to get Jesus is righteousness, is you have to come to him and you have to admit you have no righteousness of your own.

[00:44:07] Then you're ready to make the trade.

[00:44:10] It's only when you have come to the end of your own goodness that you will see the goodness of Jesus for what it really is, a perfect record imputed on to you, given to you 100 percent by grace, even though you lived a life of sin against God, when he meets you, he will declare you righteous as if you had lived the life of his son, Jesus Christ. You see why we need to be sharing this with every single man, woman and child.

[00:44:39] What an amazing deal.

[00:44:42] What we got is declare to people. This is the part that they don't like. But if they're going to get into this deal that is presented to us that we received by faith to trust in the righteousness that God gives us through Christ, then we have to admit is I'm not good.

[00:44:56] That's what we have to admit. I don't bring any of my own righteousness to it. In fact, we have to go so far as to say that the main thing, the main thing keeping people from putting their faith in Jesus is a belief in their own goodness. In fact, what we have to get so far to say is good is the enemy of God. Let's get that down for the last one there.

[00:45:18] Let's get down down for the why your good thinking that you have some sense of goodness in and of yourself or that you can do something good to please God. That is the enemy of God. That is the thing that may be more than any other thing, is keeping people away from the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Is there still thinking at the end of the day that I'm good?

[00:45:43] On some level they're deceiving themselves. And so isn't it so ironic, my friends, that the only way to enjoy the good news is to admit that there is no good within you?

[00:45:56] And then that will be good news for a sinner like you. So what we did, based on the classic children's tale of Goody Two Shoes in 1888 and how it swept across the land and has been reprinted so many times, and there was a whole generation of people that grew up about goody two shoes. We have written our own tale of Goody Two Shoes and we have written our first evangelistic track here at Compass Bible Church. And everybody, if you want one, you can get a copy on your way out. And you've already heard the sermon. So it's not necessarily for you. But this is a book that you could give to the good person in your life that will hopefully once and for all convince them they are not a good person. That's what the point of this book is, OK? It's just a subtle hint to give to your loved one, to help them stop trusting in their own goodness and to help them to see that there is an amazing thing that even though you disqualified yourself and even though you could never earn yourself back in. No, someone in that perfect place came out of there and came down and lived among us.

[00:47:03] And he lived the perfect life in our place. And all we have to do is by faith, we don't do anything. We trust in what Jesus has already done.

[00:47:14] And God declares us at that moment justified.

[00:47:18] He declares us righteous with a righteousness that we could have never gotten in and of ourselves the righteousness of Christ. He could do that for you if he hasn't already. You don't know what I'm talking about, this perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ given to you. You could receive it here this morning by putting your faith in Jesus Christ and they will welcome you in like you belong there into that wonderful place, heaven. And you will worship a holy God. And no one in heaven will be looking at each other saying, didn't we do a good job to get here? You're not going to be happy. Given a high five to your friend in heaven saying, attaboy, man, here's your trophy. Good effort. Nobody's gonna be saying that. You know what we're gonna be saying?

[00:47:59] Look at him. Look at his righteousness. Worthy is the lamb who was slain because his blood was the scrub so hard is what we're gonna say in heaven. I scrub so hard and for so long I tried to be the good person I could not be. And you know what? His blood washed it all away. It washed the stain of my sin. I hope that's true for you. I hope you can celebrate The Amazing Grace. And if it stopped being amazing, if the good news ever becomes old news, maybe it's because you don't understand the bad news of who you really are. And I hope today has reminded you of that. You'll love Jesus even more. Let me pray. God, we thank you so much.

[00:48:41] We could just take a survey of your word to answer the question once and for all. Two good people go to heaven and God. We're thankful that you give us clarity. We're thankful that you teach us according to your word. And we're thankful most of all that there is perfect righteousness in Jesus Christ offered to all of us here today. And that's why we come to this church. That's why we read the Bible. That's why we sing songs. Whatever good we do, it's not to try to earn any favor with you, God. It's a response to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which we received by faith. We believe that Jesus lived the perfect life. We believe he died for us. That he shed his blood for us. And he rose again. So now we can receive is righteousness. God, I just pray for maybe somebody here this morning who's never gone so far as to declare themself spiritually bankrupt, someone who's never gone so far as to admit that they're not good and they can't even do good. And they would put their trust in the goodness of Jesus alone, God, that you would draw sinners to yourself. Even today, we pray this in Jesus name a man.