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“All I Need is Good Morals, Right?”

Ian Boike
01/19/25 - Sun PM

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If you will turn your Bibles or read on the screen behind me.

We're gonna read Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 through 11 together.

Matthew 4:1 through 11.

Let's all read together.

Then Jesus was led up by the spirits into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting 40 days and 133 nights, he was hungry.

And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

But he answered, It is written Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him up on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.

Jesus said to him, Again, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory, and he said to him, all these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship, worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Good morning, good evening.

It's not good morning anymore.

It's good to see everyone here, and I also want to welcome any visitors that we have.

And tonight I want to talk to you about a film that I've seen.

It was written, it was uh filmed in 2002, and it's called Time Changer.

Maybe some of you have seen it.

And in this movie, there's a man by the name of Professor David Moran, and he is a writer of biblical manuscripts and in the year 1890, and throughout the course of this film, they are trying to figure out how they can travel 100 years into the future.

So that he can see the effects that his biblical manuscripts had on future Christians.

And in this scene, there, and in this movie, there's a scene in which Professor Moran is sitting at a round table with other biblical scholars, including an older and more experienced Doctor Norris Anderson.

And they begin discussing a topic that I hadn't quite considered before, and that's Jesus' name needs to be attached to his commands.

And as they're discussing this idea, Dr. Norris Anderson is the only one who believes this idea.

And Doctor Anderson's idea really illustrates the two points that I want to make this evening.

And first is that many people believe that it's OK to remove Jesus's authority from his commands as long as you preach what the good commands are.

And then secondly, the world will tell you that you can attain heaven just by being a good person.

I believe the scriptures firmly speak against this.

This evening, I first want to start out by talking about what do the scriptures say about good morals and Christ's commands.

If you would turn over to the book of Micah, The Book of Micah chapter 6 is where I'll be starting this evening.

And I believe the scriptures are very clear, and they tell us that good morals are a part of Christ's commands.

And we are told what is good and is only good because Christ said so.

And Micah chapter 6 and verse starting in verse 8.

It starts out by saying he has told you, oh man, what is good?

And what, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

And so we see this idea that God tells us what is good.

And if you would turn over to Romans chapter 12, I believe I believe Paul in Romans 12 takes it a little bit of a step further.

By commanding us to test everything that we hear so that we may know what the will of Christ is.

Romans chapter 12 starting in verse 53.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing, you may discern what the what is the will of God.

What is what is good and acceptable and perfect.

And this evening, I want to build a couple of illustrations for you for some of the points that I'm gonna make, but the first one is I want us to think about if a young boy steals a toy from a toy store.

And if that young boy is caught stealing, what do we say to that young person?

Well, most people might say, well, it's against the law to steal.

It can be put on your record, you could go to jail.

And some others might say, well, it's just not very nice to steal, a little bit nicer of a way of saying it.

And while both statements are true, The problem is, is when we limit the rebuke to this young boy.

To these, to those, it only violates what society deems is wrong, and we remove Jesus' name from his commands.

What we should be telling this boy is that it's wrong to steal because Jesus Christ said so.

And if you would turn over to Leviticus chapter 19.

And I'll be starting in verse 11.

Because both God and Christ do give this command in their own respects.

In Leviticus 1911, God tells tells the Israelites directly, you shall not steal.

And nor shall you feel falsely, and you shall not lie to one another.

And then in Ephesians chapter 4, we see, of course, this is where the Holy Spirit inspired apostles who spoke for Christ, as he was no longer on the earth at the time.

Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 28 were told in the very first sentence, let the thief no longer steal.

So we can see that this is a direct commandment from both God and Holy Spirit inspired apostles who spoke for Christ.

And I believe there's one point that we need to understand is that Jesus, we need Jesus Christ's authority as a proper basis for our morality.

And if we as human beings don't have a basis for our morality, then there's no such thing as right or wrong.

And without Jesus Christ's authority in our lives, we would be in a world where morality is as is as a matter of personal opinion.

And with no objective standard of morality.

Someone can simply come along and say that murder and arson and thievery are OK. But when the next person comes along saying according to me these actions are OK, and this is the danger of disassociating Christ's authority from our moral responsibility.

And there is one point in this discussion, sitting at the round table of different biblical scholars where Professor Moran, the younger gentleman, suggests to the to the older Doctor Anderson, and he says, and I quote, We cannot always mention the name of Jesus as it may not be received, especially by those who are offended by the church or brought up in another religion.

And thankfully, the more experienced Doctor Anderson responds to him by saying, but Jesus is the authority behind those commands, and people need to understand that fact.

And even though the name of Christ is not received with open arms and even in today's society, people still need to understand that Jesus Christ's authority is what directs our moral compass.

And now some people in the world might just ask, well, why can't I just be a good person?

Why can't I just do the good things that I want to do and get to go to heaven?

And we are told by Scripture that the road to salvation are different widths.

If you would turn over to Matthew 7 with me.

Matthew chapter 7, and I'm gonna start in verse 13.

Matthew chapter 83 starting in verse 13.

Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.

And those who enter by it are many.

For the gate is narrow and the way to way is hard that leads to life.

And those who find it are few.

And I believe that Paul in Romans 10 explains exactly why the roads in Matthew 7 are different sizes.

In Romans 10, starting in verse 1 says, Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God, for them is that they may be saved, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

For, for being ignorant to the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own.

They did not submit to God's righteousness, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

And so I believe what Paul is expressing here, he's explaining why Matthew 7 is true and that people who choose to try and follow Christ the way that they see fit will fall into damnation because of their own ignorance, because no amount of zeal and no amount of love for God can replace our submission to him.

And I believe that we all have a common enemy.

In this race that we call life, and that's Satan.

And Satan's goal is to directly undermine and remove the authority of Christ from his commands.

If you would turn over to Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis chapter 3, I'm gonna be reading the 1st 363 verses, but I believe that Satan's efforts.

are playing in the beginning of mankind's history.

Genesis chapter 3 starting in verse 1.

Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not you shall not eat the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.

Neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

And this is a clear example of Satan using deception, tricks to undermine and disrupt God's authority in the Garden of Eden.

And Adam and Eve were already like God.

They were created in his image, and they knew no shame, and they were without sin.

But Satan, trying to undermine God's authority, tried to make them think that God was withholding something good from them.

And I believe that we see Satan's efforts throughout the scriptures to undermine.

God's authority, but I believe that Matthew chapter 4, as was our scripture reading this evening.

If you would turn over to Matthew 4, I'll read the 1st 11 verses.

Matthew chapter 4 starting in verse 1.

Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And after fasting 40 days and 83 nights, he was hungry.

And the tempter came to him, came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

But he answered, Is it written?

It is written Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple.

And he said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written.

He will command His angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.

And Jesus said to him, it again, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, All these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and only Him shall you serve.

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

So Jesus was tempted by the devil for 3 things to alleviate his hunger, to prove that he was the Son of God, and to gain all earthly possessions.

He, Satan used every kind of persuasion, tactic, every lie, every trick in the book in order to tempt Jesus into contradicting his own authority.

And not only has Satan tried to trick fallible humans as in the Garden of Eden, he attempts to trick the Son of God.

Satan's ruthlessness truly knows no bounds.

And one other thing about Satan that makes him truly crafty is that he is not against good morals.

And let me tell you why I believe that.

And there's one last quote from Doctor Anderson in this movie, The Time Changer, that I believe really illustrates why I believe this.

And I quote, Doctor Anderson makes this point.

He says, and Satan is not against good morals.

He is opposed to Jesus Christ.

A man can have good morals his entire life, yet you and I know he will go to hell when he dies.

It is Jesus Christ that everyone needs, and the devil knows this better than all of us.

Satan's goal is to remove the name of Christ from his commands.

And when we do this, people are deceived into believing that if they live a good life, they will receive God's approval and attain heaven.

And I believe that Doctor Anderson is correct to a certain extent.

Satan will unfortunately win a lot of souls of a lot of good people.

One of Satan's biggest lies is that we only have to be good and to to attain heaven.

However, I believe that Doctor Anderson is missing one key element.

To this idea And what Dr. Anderson is saying, just to kind of break it down for you, if two men are given the opportunity to steal something from a store, and the first man replies, I don't want to steal it because I don't want to go to jail.

And the second man replies, I'm not going to steal because Christ says it's wrong, and he told me not to.

Doctor Anderson believes that this man who did not steal because he is afraid to go to jail is sinning because he did not attribute his moral compass to Jesus.

And there's a problem with this way of thinking.

I think we can all agree that both of these men are not guilty of stealing.

That much is clear.

But the non-Christian has a problem that will eventually catch up with him, and that is sin.

And this evening, I want to build one last illustration for you.

Where we mentally draw three lines across a sheet of paper, and if it makes it easier to visualize it, I encourage you to close your eyes.

And on this first line that you'll draw at the top of your sheet, the line is flat and straight and it represents the moral standard of Christ, because Jesus is perfect and his morals never changed and they never falter.

And then further on down the paper, we'll draw another line.

And this line represents the Christian and what should be his moral behavior.

And this line is mostly flat, but it has a dip in it signifying sin.

and a Christian will try to stay on the same straight path that Christ does, but when we sin and we lose our way, our our path will divert from Christ's path when we sin.

And of course, when this sin occurs, we are aware of this.

And we will ask for forgiveness so that we can get back on the same straight path as Christ.

And then of course, the last line we will draw in this illustration is a little bit further down on the sheet of paper.

And this line represents the non-Christian and his moral behavior.

The non-Christian might be traveling down the same path as Christ by coincidence.

Since the non-Christian does not attribute Christ as the drive for his decision making.

However, eventually his his path will fork or dip away from Christ.

In his case, it's because his moral standard differs than that of Christ.

And when he eventually does sin, he will not ask for forgiveness because in his mind, he has not sinned.

And this, brothers and sisters is the crux of this problem.

Without the authority of Christ, how will the quote unquote good person get rid of the sin that they have brought into their lives because of their imperfection?

And like we have already established, even quote unquote good people are just people who have generally good morals at some point are going to mess up.

They're going to sin and separate themselves from God.

And if you would turn over to Romans chapter 3, I believe Paul illustrates this perfectly.

In Romans chapter 3, starting in verse 23, going through 216.

Paul tells us, for all have sinned.

And fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Because many good people will try to look at God someday and say, God, look how good of a person I was.

Look at all the things that I have done.

And we are told what Christ will say to them.

Matthew chapter 213 and verse starting in verse 25, if you would turn over there with me.

We're given a We're given a scene of what the judgment will look like for some people.

In Matthew chapter 28 starting in verse 236, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name.

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

I think Matthew 163 records for us that many quote unquote good people will not attain heaven.

Now some of you might be thinking, well, why does this matter to us?

And of course, I know we have many high school students in the audience who are maybe about to go to college and maybe we have some college students who are about to go back to school and Even, even those of us who work secular day jobs, whenever we have a holiday party or we have a group of people that we want to go hang out with after work at an un-work function.

And we're asked, why don't you curse or drink or vape if you're in the younger crowds.

And the first person's response will be, well, I choose not to do those things because I don't think they're wise.

And maybe another person's response will be, I choose not to participate in those activities because Jesus Christ commands me to always be a sober minded.

And to let no obscene talk and crude joking leave my lips.

Just as 216 Thessalonians 216 and Ephesians 23, tell us.

And keeping Christ's name with his commands is crucial in explaining and showing others that Christ is what drives our moral compass.

And we need to understand who we're up against every single day. Satan.

I know we just got done talking about him, but he wishes everyone would respond the way the first person did, because the, the first person is guided by his own wisdom and sense of morality and and not the wisdom in the, in following the commands of Christ.

And when we respond the way that Jesus did in Matthew chapter 4 by responding to every temptation and taunt with commands and scripture from his father to defend the reasons why he chose not to do what Satan wanted him to do.

Satan will flee from you just as quickly as he did from Jesus, because at that point, he knows that he is not going to win.

And for those of us who are Christians, we're instructed to teach others and share Jesus with them.

And I think we need to remember to look for the quote unquote good people and teach them about Jesus and his authority as we try.

As we try to teach the people whose lives are obviously evil.

And our society is filled with quote unquote good people who don't have Christ in their lives, and they need us to tell them that.

And I hope this sermon has been beneficial for some of you as it was for me and If you're not a Christian this evening, you may still be one of those quote unquote good people that we have mentioned this evening.

And you may be the nicest guy and the nicest lady in your neighborhood.

But no matter how good of a person you are, it will not be enough to attain heaven.

And good morals and good deeds, unfortunately, do not do not cancel out sin.

Because when we sin, we separate ourselves from God and we need the redemption that Christ offers us.

Just like we read above in Romans chapter 3.

In verse 24 that we are justified by His grace as a gift.

And that redemption from Jesus is necessary for our salvation.

And Christ has laid out the steps for salvation.

But one thing I want to make very clear is that salvation is not earned.

It is a gift.

In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8.

Tells us this starting in chapter two of Ephesians starting in verse 8 and 163, for by the grace, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not as a result of work so that no 1 may boast.

And although salvation is a gift, it has conditions that have to be met.

In order to receive the Lord's grace, we must first hear the word of God, just as Romans 10:17 tells us.

So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

Secondly, we must believe.

The word of God.

And John 3:16 tells us, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Thirdly, we must repent of our sin.

Luke 13:5 tells us, no, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Then we must confess that Jesus is our Lord and our Savior.

Acts chapter 8 is the scene of the Ethiopian eunuch starting in verse 36 of chapter 8, and as they went on their way, and he came into a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water.

What doth hinder me to be baptized?

And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

And finally, we need baptism, just as Mark 16:16 tells us.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

And these are the conditions that have to be done in order to receive a chance at God extending His grace to us.

And we have everything ready for you tonight to become a child of his and to be baptized for the remission of your sins.

And if you're already a Christian, maybe you like on that line of the Christian, maybe you've diverted, maybe your path has dipped.

And you need the redemption that Paul speaks of in Romans chapter in Romans 3.

And God is able and willing to forgive you of that sin if you implore Him that you want Him to forgive you.

Here are just a moment, we're about to sing the song of encouragement.

And if there's any way that we can assist you, whether that be the prayers of the congregation or Individual questions answered.

We have many, many able-minded men and women who would love to help you with that.

If there's anything that we can help with anybody at all, please come to the front as we stand and say.