Bible Study August 9, 2012

Hey Gang,


We continue this week in our study of Apologetics with our second series of lessons entitled The Case for Jesus. Last week we looked to Genesis, the beginning, as to why sin is such a big deal. I'm still not sure whether we really grasped the significance of our sin and what it really means. This week we consider a question that ponders Christians still today - Do good people go to heaven? 

Tribute to Joe Paterno

Click Here to Watch 

The first paragraph of Joe Paterno’s obituary tells the story.

Joe Paterno, who won more games than any other major-college football coach, and who became the face of Pennsylvania State University and a symbol of integrity in collegiate athletics only to be fired during the 2011 season amid a child sexual abuse scandal that reverberated throughout the nation, died Sunday in State College, Pa.


If former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno had died the evening of October 22 after defeating the Northwestern Wildcats, he would have been celebrated as a national hero. One week later he coached his final game, a home victory against Illinois, giving him a record 409 wins for his distinguished career. A few short days later, the long-tenured and widely revered coach lost his job in perhaps the worst scandal in the history of college athletics.


In the case of Paterno, it turns out good isn't good enough in the court of public opinion.

Do we remember a lifetime of good works or one horrible mistake?

  

 

Paterno's most famous words might have been, "I wish I had done more."

• Following the 85-year-old Paterno's death due to lung cancer, fans have struggled to make sense of his mixed legacy. Paterno did a lot of good in his long, illustrious life, probably a lot more good than you and I can boast. He coached players and molded generations of young boys of 18 into model men. Paterno has been lionized for coaching winning teams that also succeeded in the classroom. Sure, he may have covered for some players who deviated from this culture, but his example contrasted with so many other coaches and schools who willingly sacrificed integrity for victory. Not content merely to win football games, Paterno also contributed to Penn State's improving academic reputation. The library bears his name, due to a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign he and his wife spearheaded. They also contributed at least $1 million to build an interfaith student center. And yet, we're still debating whether this man should be remembered as a hero or villain.
• "I made a lot of mistakes in my life," Paterno told Sports Illustrated in his final days. "But I thought people could see that I tried my best to do the right things. I tried to do the right thing with Sandusky too."

Consider this...

 
A grandmother of 90 years of good living, standing by her dying husband till the end, serving her community, loving her grandchildren, paying her taxes, driving the speed limit is asked by her granddaughter, “Grandma, we’ve never talked about heaven before. Are you sure that when you die you will go to heaven?” The grandmother got big tears in her eyes and responded the way the average good person responds to this question. She said, “I hope so, honey.”

  

Why is it, that really good people at best can only – “hope so” when it comes to knowing whether or not they will go to heaven?

• Your hope is on an unachievable effort to be good enough.
• Her sin is no different than ours, for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It's important for us to understand that our efforts to improve ourselves in order to be good enough for God is not what it's all about. You will never earn God's acceptance! Goodness is replaced with forgiveness and righteousness.
• When you talk to unbelievers about the gospel of Jesus Christ, you often hear them say that they will stand before God on Judgment Day and tell him they tried to live a good life. "Sure, I've made mistakes," they say. "But who hasn't? I've tried to do the right thing. I've been good to my friends and family." You point them to passages such as Romans 3:10, which says, "None is righteous, no, not one." But everyone knows someone who is less righteous. "At least I didn't kill anyone." "I only stole something that one time as a stupid teenager." "I might have driven drunk a few times, but who hasn't?" Compared to a Jeffrey Dahmer, we're all saints.

This lesson speaks to three basic issues with why good is never going to be good enough and the age old question of whether good people go to heaven.




Last week we talked about Sin being a Big Deal and for many it’s not, either because of their casual acceptance or simply the way they see right and wrong. You see, there are a lot of people today and throughout history that have found ways to “call evil good, and good evil.”



They call it moral relativism:

• What is right or wrong is determined by where you are, who you’re with, and what you want to do. If it feels good, it’s all right. Eve yielded to this rational.
• People today have learned to rationalize their evil.

This is Judah’s problem in our lesson this morning – moral relativism.

I. EVIL RATIONALIZED – ISAIAH 5:20-23

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. 22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.  

How do we rationalize evil today? How do people reverse good for evil?

• We reject the teachings of scripture on certain subjects because it’s too unpopular, politically incorrect, or we simply don’t want to change our own behavior to match that command.
• Cheating on taxes keeps more money in my account so it must be good.
• Cheating on our spouse is only temporary and we can’t help how we feel.
• Promoting a gay lifestyle is politically correct.

This whole idea of being good: What makes people consider they are good or bad? What might be a more reliable measure?

• What we are talking about here is moral confusion.
• Without a framework or standard we personally dictate what is right and wrong.
• We then decide our own moral relativism – what we think given the situation and circumstance.
• Evil Rationalized - Isaiah 5:20-23 "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil..." This is where we all are and we all fall short of God's standard in different areas of our lives. Paul says to us in Romans 3:12 "there is none who does good, no, not one..." We talked about how our society has fallen into "Moral Confusion" about what's really right and wrong, many times under the false idea of Tolerance.

What we need today and whenever we reject God’s standard and are left with our own is recognition of the holiness of God.

II. HOLINESS RECOGNIZED – ISAIAH 6:1-5

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." 

King Uzziah reigned for about 52 years over Judah. His reign was a period of great expansion and prosperity for Judah. Judah through her prosperity had rejected God’s ways and began determining their own – moral relativism. Moral confusion prevailed. Judah was rebellious, evil, proud, brash, thankless, unappreciative, wise in their own eyes, morally indiscriminate, a corrupt influence, and purposeless in their excessive religiosity. There was no moral anchor.



Isaiah, like Moses, became unglued in God's presence. Many say God is holy but don’t live in fear/respect of Him. Why?

• Holiness Recognized - Isaiah 6:1-5. Isaiah is called up into the very presence of God and is overwhelmed by God's sovereignty. It makes him feel dirty beyond anything but simple expression, helplessly weak and feeling that he is doomed. He says, "Woe to me! I cried. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Wow...this is how we get to a realized righteousness through the recognition of God's holiness.

What does it take for you to experience the right mix of fear and devotion to God?

• Being face-to-face in the presence of God should not be something we feel the need to experience. What we have of the revelation of God is sufficient to produce the right mix of fear and devotion—if it is given half a chance.
• Isaiah is overwhelmed by God's sovereignty. It makes him feel dirty beyond anything but simple expression, helplessly weak and feeling that he is doomed. Like Job, he is thoroughly humbled.

III. RIGHTEOUSNESS REALIZED – ROMANS 3:21-26


21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. 

Paul spent the early chapters of Romans writing a detailed study of human sin. The words “But now” in verse 21 are his transition from a discussion of human sin to God’s solution. We receive righteousness through Jesus Christ. The idea that God’s righteousness can be credited to us “through faith in Jesus” is the gospel in a nutshell.

Ephesians 5:9

for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth

So why is “good” not good enough? Do good people go to heaven?

• Only when righteousness is realized.
• Righteousness has nothing to do with who we are, but everything to do with who God is.
• Forgiven people go to heaven. Forgiveness made possible by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
• Righteousness Realized - Romans 3:21-26 "...This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." This is where we all want to be..."justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." But something has to happen many times for us to realize true righteousness.

One of the most powerful evidences (apologetics) that God is real is the way He changes human beings.

• Don’t settle for your unreliable standards. Apply God’s standard of holiness to your life.

In a nutshell:

1. Many Christians underestimate the seriousness of sin and overestimate their own goodness. The reason, I believe, is that we take too lightly the glory, righteousness and holiness of God.



2. We quote Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned,” but do we really grasp the fullness of what it means to have “fallen short of the glory of God”?



3. Isaiah 6 is a powerful text for many reasons, not the least of which is how clearly it validates Paul’s point in Romans 3. As this prophet is confronted with a vision of God in all His glory, Isaiah cries out, “Woe is me.” Isaiah knows that without immediate divine intervention, he will die - his goodness even that of a prophet was not enough.



The slightest sin is nothing less than cosmic treason when we realize against whom we have sinned.”

Why is “Good” not Good Enough?

Apart from the gospel of grace, there is no hope. You will find no redemption in the false tolerance of an unforgiving society. Yet if Jesus can forgive the very men like Paul who cheered his crucifixion, then He can forgive you, too, no matter what lurks in your past. Your good is not good enough. But His is.





The gospel is this: “We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope." – Tim Keller

Be in prayer this week as we come face to face through Isaiah with the holiness of God. What would that mean to you?

See you on Thursday!

In His Love,

David