Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Do All Good People Go to Heaven? | Questions You're Asking | Romans 3.23

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're answering questions that you're asking. A lot of these are coming from our Facebook page. So if you follow 10-minute Bible Talks on Facebook, you can ask questions that you want us to answer or vote on questions that other people are asking. Before we start today, I want to invite you to a couple online classes that Patrick, and I are going to be teaching this fall. If you sign up, you can join us live for the class,

Starting point is 00:00:40 and everyone who signs up will receive a recording of the class afterwards. Let me tell you the two classes that we're offering. The first one is, who would Jesus vote for? Over three weeks, we're going to answer some of the hot political questions and reflect on what faithfulness to Jesus looks like in such politically polarized times. And then the second class is a women's Bible study called Skilled at Life. It's a four-week journey through Proverbs. We're going to look at issues like friendship, finances, communication, parenting. The second class is a women's Bible study class called Skilled at Life.

Starting point is 00:01:17 It's a four-week journey through Proverbs in which we look at topics like communication, friendship, finances, and parenting. I hope you'll sign up for one or both. Our hope is that they would help you follow Jesus this fall. Today's question is pretty straightforward. Do all good people go to heaven? You ever notice that when someone kind of famous dies, everyone assumes they were at a better place. They now are with God. They now are happy. Why? Why are they so confident? Well, partly they go on to explain all the good things that this person has done with their life. There's a tendency to minimize their sinfulness,

Starting point is 00:02:01 their brokenness, all the flaws that they had in their life. And of course, that's probably appropriate. A person's death is probably not the time to recount all of their failures in life. But what I want us to think about for just a moment is why are they so sure that this person is now in heaven? And I think what we find is that they are confident that that person is in heaven because that person did good things. And of course, it doesn't take a famous person to die for you to hear this kind of logic and this kind of thinking. Even someone that we are close to or cared much about, when they die, there is a tendency to minimize sin and to remember all the good things that they did. fair enough, but then to make the step that because they were good, they will be in heaven. They will be accepted by God.

Starting point is 00:03:03 Now, you usually don't find it stated as explicitly as it was one time by Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett, you know, is a very wealthy person, very smart person. He's called the Oracle of Omaha because he has kind of a profit when it comes to business and investments, just a smart dude. He is making contributions of about $1.5 billion a year to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He made the announcement in front of the New York Public Library that he was going to give away his wealth instead of hoarding it and passing it on to his family members. So they are working, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with Buffett and others,

Starting point is 00:03:49 are working to cure some of the world's worst diseases to improve education in the United States and around the world. They're using their money, their wealth for really good things. But back to this big announcement at the New York Public Library when Buffett was committing large parts of his wealth to these good causes. He said this. He said, I'm not an enthusiast for dynastic wealth, particularly when the alternative is six business. billion people having much poorer hands in life than we have. There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way. Now, I don't want to minimize the good that has come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Warren Buffett's contribution to that. I think it's remarkable and

Starting point is 00:04:38 worth celebrating. But what I'm interested in is that Warren Buffett said that this being a good person, being generous, doing the right thing, is a great way to get to heaven. Is that what the Bible teaches? Do all good people go to heaven? Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is, yes, all good people go to heaven. The bad news is there are no good people. The Bible says in Romans 3 that no one is righteous, not even one,

Starting point is 00:05:12 that all of us have sinned, all of us have rebelled against. against God. All of us have gone our own way. All of us have strayed off the path that God has for us. And of course, we know that because our own conscience convicts us of it. Even if a person doesn't believe in the biblical God, even if they don't believe in all the things that God calls us to do in life, every single person knows guilt, because not only have they broken God's law, but they have broken their own laws. And so they know the sting of a guilty conscience. But somehow we convince ourself that God doesn't care about that. Somehow we convince ourselves that even in light of our own guilty conscience, even in light of the ways that we know that we have broken our laws and God's laws, that we are

Starting point is 00:06:12 still good people. But what if it's not just how we send, but it's who we've sinned against. Imagine a kid in class who punches a classmate in the nose. The teacher says, okay, you are going to go to the principal's office to get detention. But then on the way to the principal's office, the student punches the teacher in the nose. Well, now the student is going to be expelled. Imagine that at one point in life, he punches a police officer in the nose. Well, now he's going to go to jail. Imagine that he is standing outside the White House waiting for the president to leave.

Starting point is 00:06:56 And as the president leaves, he reaches out to strike the president. He reaches out to punch the president in the nose. Well, the Secret Service would probably shoot that person dead. Now, notice that this individual did the same thing to each person. He punched someone in the nose. but that the punishment was different, not because of what was done, but because of who it was done against. If you punch a fellow classmate in the nose versus a teacher versus a principal, versus the president of the United States, the punishment is going to be different. The act was

Starting point is 00:07:35 the same, but who the act was against carries a different punishment. So now we have punched God in the nose. It's not just that we have sinned, but that we have sinned against God, and therefore the punishment of that sin is serious. It keeps us from having a relationship with God, and it keeps us from spending eternity with God. It turns out that not seeing our sinfulness is one of the biggest obstacles to us being forgiven for our sinfulness. Jesus said, come to call the righteous but sinners. I have not come to call those who are healthy, but those who are sick. Now, does Jesus mean that some are righteous and some are sinners and only the sinners need them? That some are healthy and some are sick and only the sick need him? No, of course not.

Starting point is 00:08:32 Everyone is a sinner. Everyone is sick, but only some sense their sickness. Only some feel and comprehend and grasp their sinfulness. And because they don't get that they are sinners, they don't feel the need for a Savior. One of the biggest things that keeps people away from the gospel, that keeps people from having a relationship with Jesus, isn't their badness. It's their goodness. It's their goodness. It's all the ways that they think of themselves as good. And their for they don't need a savior. If I tell you that I have fantastic news that I have in my possession a pill that will cure cancer, that is only great news for you if you know that you have cancer. But if you don't have cancer, while you might be happy that such a pill exists, you're not going to

Starting point is 00:09:32 take it. Well, Jesus says he has come to save sinners. That's fantastic news if you're a sinner, but if you think you're a good person who doesn't need a savior, then it's really probably something that you're not interested in. You won't be interested in Jesus. Blaise Pascal, the 17th century mathematician, scientist, Christian. He said there are only two kinds of men, the righteous who believe themselves sinners, and the rest sinners who believe themselves righteous. There are only two kinds of men, Pascal says. Those who are truly accepted by God because they know they are sinners and they put their hope in Jesus as their Savior. And everyone else who really are sinners, but who don't see that, they think they are good and therefore they don't need Jesus.

Starting point is 00:10:30 So do all good people go to heaven? Well, no, there are no good people. So do all good people go to heaven? Well, there are no good people, not according to the Bible, not according to Jesus. The people that go to heaven are the people who see their sin. The people who are accepted by God, have a relationship with God, or forgiven and spend eternity with God are those who know their sinfulness and who take that to Jesus and ask him to be their Savior, to put their faith and allegiance in King Jesus who died and rose again

Starting point is 00:11:07 to pay for sin. Okay, let's consider one more question. What's the difference between a Christian and the Pharisees, those who Jesus had some of his harshest words for in the Gospels? You might be tempted to say that a Christian repents or confesses their sin and a Pharisee doesn't. But that would be wrong. When a Pharisee saw sin in their life, they for sure confess that sin, repented of that sin, or least wanted to. What's the difference between a Christian and a Pharisee? It might surprise you. I think it's their goodness. I think that a Christian repents of all of the ways that they try to make themselves good and acceptable to God, all the self-salvation strategies. And a Pharisee doesn't. A Pharisee puts their hope in their goodness, puts their hope in their self-salvation strategies. In fact, their

Starting point is 00:12:08 goodness has become their primary self-salvation strategy. So are good people accepted by God? Are they forgiven of their sin? Will they spend eternity with God? Well, there aren't any good people. And seeing ourselves accurately, knowing our own sin, feeling the weight of that sin, knowing the guilt that comes from our sin and taking all of that to Jesus. It's in King Jesus, in His saving death and resurrection that we are forgiven. It's our wrong perception that we are good people that keeps us from King Jesus. It's that we don't realize that we have cancer that keeps us from the cancer pill and that we don't realize we don't feel the burden of all of our sin.

Starting point is 00:13:01 we don't see how serious that sin is that keeps us from our Savior. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Do All Good People Go to Heaven? | Questions You're Asking | Romans 3.23

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