I want you to be very careful
this morning in the introduction of this message, lest you say
amen or that's true, because the assumption I'm going to make
is a lie. So, don't say amen at the wrong
place, because you'll only embarrass yourself. I hope you have your
Bible, because I'm going to use the Bible a lot this morning. And we'll talk about arguments
for good people. looking for a good man or a good
woman. Now, I can't tell you over 50
years how many times I've heard this argument made, mostly by
people who are spiritual or religious. I don't mean that in a good way.
I mean that they have some assumption that there is a God, and thus
there's also good people. So out of the billions of men
and women who are living and have lived, you just know there
has to be. And there still are some good
people on the face of this earth. I mean, doesn't that sound good,
right? Did somebody say amen? If you say amen in the wrong
place, I'm going to call you out, Dwayne. I know you know better. You and I know some people who
do a lot of good things. I do. You do, too, right? You know, some people that do
some good things. Or it seems to be good. Surely there are
good people among the human race. I ask you to consider all of
the people, the 30, 40,000 people that donate to Grace Centers
of Hope. Surely among one of them, there's a good person. Or let's shift gears a little
bit and approach it from this standpoint. Out of all the elect, out of
all those that God has born again, Out of all those God has chosen,
surely there is one good. In fact, the popular teaching
is, with regard to foreknowledge and predestination and God's
elective choice of individuals to salvation, is from Romans
8, the interpretation of those passages for whom He did for
love, he also did predestinate, is that God foresaw who was going
to be good. And on the basis of God foreseeing
that you were better than your sister, who was an outright heathen,
and would never love God, God chose you. That's the explanation
for the doctrine of election, that God found good people who
were going to believe. Think about all the people in
our cemeteries, all the little church cemeteries across the
country. In the South, every Baptist church
that I knew of had a cemetery where they buried their good
people. There are people who belong to that church. Think
about all the people that have died in wars or have been buried
at sea. Think about all the missionaries
that have been slaughtered on the mission field, giving their
life to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who have never
heard. Think about some of the apostles
that were hung upside down and crucified. And you're going to
tell me, and you're going to tell me, preacher, that there
are and never has been any good people. I really think when we
talk this way, we should go to Scripture. Always let the Scripture
settle things. And often people bring up in
this argument of there being good folks or a good person,
our first parents, Mother Eve and Father Adam. Well, let's
go to Genesis and we'll just talk about Father Adam and Mother
Eve for a few minutes and we'll see if we can find out how good
they are. Genesis 1.26. If you found it,
say, Amen. And God said, let us make man
in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over
all the fish of the air, and the fowl of the air, cattle over
all the earth, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth. And then verse 31 says, And God
saw everything that he made, and behold, it was very good. There it is. Very good. Well, you stop reading a little
too soon. Go to the third chapter now. Let's begin with verse 2. The
woman's talking to the devil, the serpent. Genesis 3, 2. And the woman said unto the serpent,
we made of the fruit of the trees of the garden. What she should
have said is, get the hell out of here. Is that plain enough? Is that
what she should have said? You don't talk to Satan like
he's your pal. Verse 3, But of the fruit of
the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said,
Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you
die. And the serpent said unto the woman, You won't surely die. For God doth know that in the
day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye
shall be as gods." Don't you want to be a god? Knowing good
and evil. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her,
and he did eat. He said, here big boy, eat this
apple or whatever it was. Kind of blinked her blue eyes.
And the eyes of them both were open and they knew that they
were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves
aprons. They knew something's wrong because
they died. They died a spiritual death. And the eyes of them both were
open. Verse 8, and they heard the voice of the Lord walking
in the garden in the cool of the day, and both of them ran to God and said,
we've sinned against you. Now, somebody wasn't reading
their Bible. Some of you don't have a Bible.
Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. Why are they hiding? Because they're not good. They're
not good. And the Lord called unto Adam
and said, what have you done? Literally, where art thou in
the king James? Now watch how good they are,
both of them. We were naked and hid ourselves
and we were afraid. And verse 11, who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, that
doggone woman. Now, that's a loving husband.
That's a good kind of guy. The man said, the woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did
eat. It's all her fault. And the Lord said unto the woman,
what is this that thou hast done? That doggone snake. Right? She blamed the servant. And on
and on it goes. What's the point, preacher? Our
first parents were not good. These two people had two kids. So we got another shot at it,
right? I mean, maybe we can start over and have a couple boys,
and they'll be perfect and love each other, right? So, Cain and
Abel are born. And God says, bring me an offering. And Abel was obviously chosen
by God. And that really irked Cain. Because
Abel brought a bloody gift. He killed a lamb. Remember? Any
of you following me here? He killed a lamb and he brought
God an offering of blood. But Cain... grew this great garden
and brought God some great tomatoes and fruit, which is a type of
His own works. And God rejected Cain's offering.
Is that right? Okay, now you can say amen when
I'm right. When I'm wrong, don't say amen. And so, Cain and Abel
later on, you'll read the story in Genesis 4, that they're out
in the field having brotherly communion. And Cain comes up
with this idea, I'm going to take your head off. And he picks
up a rock and he kills Abel. Remember that story? So, it doesn't
look like you can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing.
That might give you some clue to why the Bible says Those babies
come out of the womb speaking liars. They're little liars as
soon as they're born. They're little rattlesnakes.
Because something happened. And bad can't produce good. Have you ever noticed how naturally
bad you are? I mean, when somebody says, this
is true, I'm bad. I'm really bad. You're right. You really are. You're naturally
bad. You have a bad nature. Now, I'll just tell you, you
know this up front. Now you can say amen to this. The Bible says
there's none good. No, not one. How come we can't
get that? Okay, so we're off to a bad start
here. Let's go to Genesis 6. Let's
see if progressively anything gets better. Genesis 6, verse
5, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. Wow, that's a mouthful. You ought
to highlight that passage of Scripture. The imagination. Not just the doings of man, but
his imagination is evil continually. That means there's not a day,
there's not a moment in his mind or life that there's not evil
doing and thinking. Now, let's go over just a little
further to Genesis 6. Okay, so God plans to destroy
the earth. And this one's always pulled
on me. Okay, you believe, Pastor, that
man is totally depraved. You believe that there is none
good, no, not one. What about this? When the world
was awful and God decided to destroy it, there was Noah. That's right. There was old Noah. And the Bible says, in Genesis
6, 8, but Noah – now watch this – but Noah – I love that word,
but, B-U-T – but Noah found grace. That's what we call unmerited
favor. It doesn't mean that Noah was
better than everybody else. When God was going to destroy
everybody else, He found this lovable little guy called Noah.
I think this guy could build an ark. I was beginning to think we were
not going to find a good person but Noah. And this is the explanation.
Noah was foreseen of God to be a good guy. And so, out of all
the people, God chose Noah. Now, I want you just to tell
you a little bit about Noah. Okay, Noah's saved. Noah found
grace. He got saved. Well, now he's
a good guy, right? I mean, you would think that
once you get saved, all your problems are over with depravity. Genesis chapter 9, let's just
talk about Noah a little bit here. Genesis chapter 9 and verse
20. And Noah began to be a husbandman
and planted a vineyard. Uh-oh. We might have a problem
here. Verse 21. And he drank of the
wine and was drunk. And he was uncovered within his
tent. I don't know what it is about
alcohol, but when you get drunk, you're going to take your clothes
off. There's just something about it that happens naturally. You
ought to always be suspect if somebody, girls, are trying to
get you drunk. And the people said, Nakedness and drunkenness go
together. Noah got drunk. Well, now, he
had some boys. He was naked in his tent. One
of his boys went in there. Verse 24 says, And Noah awoke
from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him. Now, I'm not going to go there.
Because you already know what that means. There are such good people. Christians
are good people. And Christians do great things. And Christians never sin. And
you know, if you were a Christian like me, you would never do that.
You haven't read your Bible. You know, this week I've thought
about this. I've thought about this all week. And I know some
of you are going to leave here probably a little bit confused. But I want you to think about
it this week, if you're a child of God. Because many times, the
little child of God perceives something that is not true. That
when you get saved, no more imagination, no more thoughts, maybe no more
getting drunk. Maybe you will, maybe you won't. See how quiet it is? Was Noah a Christian? He planted
his own vineyard and got drunk. Now, the only people this message
is really going to bother is you self-righteous Pharisees.
It's really going to bother you. The only people this is going
to bother are people who feel like they are truly better than
others, and especially if you're religious. Religious people are
the most hypocritical people in the world. Well, if you go
over to Genesis 11, we'll just keep going through the Bible
a little bit here, looking for a good person. In Genesis 11,
this is after the flood, everybody's speaking with the same language.
This is Genesis 11, 3 through 8. Everybody speaks the same
language, so everybody understands everybody. And somebody comes
up with this idea, hey, let's build a tower to heaven and pull
God off His throne. And everyone says, that's a great
idea. And there was such rebellion
against God that he had to go down there and confuse their
tongues. Less in their imagination as human beings, they become
very successful in building these towers. But their whole purpose
was to take God off the throne. That's your whole purpose. Without
Christ, this man will not rule over me. That's the whole purpose. Oh, no, we're not going to give
God all the glory. Oh, no. Me and God got a good thing going.
God is my co-pilot. Let me tell you, if you're flying
your plane, you better switch pilots. Let's go over to Genesis
18. What about Lot? You know, Lot
was a good guy. He had an uncle called Abram
that was the father of the faithful. So, but Lot and his herdman and
Abraham and his herdman, they were rich, both Abraham and Lot,
but they had a falling out. The herdman had a falling out.
And Lot suggested to his uncle, you know, let's divide up. You
go this way and I'll go this way. And it just so happened
that Lot chose the best way to go, where the fields were ripe
with grass and there was a lot of water. And he threw his old
uncle under the bus. Now, that isn't right for a nephew
to do that. And anyway, Lot found himself
down in Sodom and Gomorrah. And I believe that Lot was a
Christian. Because what was going on there
vexed his righteous soul. You can't be vexed by sin unless
You know the Lord. That's my argument. Some people
are going to hear this on radio and write me, I know, that Lot
couldn't have been saved living in Sodom and Gomorrah. Where
are you living? Lot was such a great guy. So,
anyway, the two angels come in and they're going to take Lot
and his family out, right? This is a good story. They're
going to take them out. This is Genesis 19. And so, living
down in Sodom, The guys see these nice-looking angels come into
town. And so, at night, they're banging
on last door. Bring these two guys out that
we may know them. You know what that means. When
Adam knew his wife and she conceived, bring these two guys out that
we may know them. And the righteous man that Lot
was defended the angels and said, I have two daughters here. Now, isn't that a good father?
Now, I know you want to sleep with these two angels, you guys,
but I have two girls here. You just take them and do. Aren't people good? I mean, there's
got to be somebody good, right? Lots of Christians. Look at some
of you looking at me. This is going to stir things
up. I know it is. I can see it in your face. You
can read that for yourself. It's Genesis 19, 4 through 8.
Well, pastor, since you brought Abraham, what about Abraham?
He's the father of the faithful. He's the friend of God. God talked
with Abraham. I'll give you just a couple of
examples. This is Genesis 20. I looked
at Abraham a little bit here. You may see yourself here. In
Genesis 20, chapter 20, verse 1, And Abraham journeyed from
Thence toward the south country, and dwelt in Kadesh, and Shurah,
and sojourned in Gerah. Now look at verse 2. And Abraham said of Sarah his
wife, She's my sister. Now, why would he say that? Because
Sarah was one hot chick. And Abraham knew that the men
were going to desire her and kill him. So, he says, she's
my sister. I love this story. Watch this. Abimelech, the king, came and
took Sarah. Nice guy. Now watch this. Verse 3, But
God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold,
thou art but a dead man. And the Bible says Abimelech
didn't touch him. You're a dead man. Abraham lied. Child of God ever lie? I mean,
this is just called getting real, church. If we don't get real...
Listen, if we don't get real, You can't sing without Him. You
can't sing it and mean it. If you don't give regal, you
can't sing without Him. I would be drifting like a ship
without a sail. Depravity. You must, we must
see our lostness if we're ever going to see the greatness of
God's grace and mercy to us in Christ Jesus. We must see our
wretchedness and our depravity in order to know how bad we needed
a Savior. You know, Abraham had a son,
and over Genesis 26, one of his boys was named Isaac. And if
you read your Bible, you know the story about Isaac and Ishmael,
right? God said to Sarah and Abraham, you're going to have
a child. She was 90, and Abraham was, what, 120 or something?
And Sarah laughed in the tent, you know, and God saw her laugh.
But anyway, Isaac and Sarah said to Abraham, and Abraham went
along with it. I mean, it was tough on old Abraham,
but he went along with it. Sarah said, you know, you need
to take my handmaid, Hagar, and lay with her. Well, I just know
Abraham said, no, I don't want to do that. Anyway, Abraham went in to Hagar
and lay with her, and she had a child named Ishmael. You know
why we're having trouble in the Middle East? Because the little
Isaacs and the Ishmaelites hate each other. Isaacs are the Jews. Ishmael are the Arab people who
hate Israel. Anyway, that wasn't in my notes,
but that's the story that was true. Sin got that whole thing
started. Abraham, stay out of Hagar's
tent. God will keep His promise. And
Isaac was born, and he was a promised child and a miracle child. And
all of us are little Isaacs, the Scripture says. We're promised
kids. We're promised kids. Our birth
is a miracle. Do you know, Christian, your
birth is a miracle? You were past having life, the
Scripture says. But anyway, Isaac, the promised
child, he married Rebekah. And guess what? She was good-looking
too. These Old Testament guys married some good-looking ladies.
You know, it's wonderful how plain the Scripture is about
that, but if you look in Genesis 26, verses 6 and 7, 26, and Isaac
dwelt in Greer, and the men of the place asked him of his wife,
and he said, she's my sister. Now, where did he get that? He
got it from his father Abraham, who said the same lie. So, it
doesn't seem like folks are getting better. Okay, okay. David. Oh, the great man of God, David. The friend of God. All of you
know where I'm going. Oh, David. David. David's name
is mentioned over 500 times in the Bible. David, the blessed
psalmist. Yeah, this ship's going down,
though. Let's go over to 2 Samuel real
quick. I've got about six minutes here
to find a good man. 2 Samuel, chapter 11, verse 1,
"...and it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the
time when kings go forth to battle, David..." He didn't go. He sent Joab. So while the rest
of the kings are out there leading the charge for their army, David's
at home. Verse 2, And it came to pass
an evening tide, but David arose off his bed. I'm sure it was
by accident. I'm sure he had no previous thought.
And walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof
He saw a woman washing herself, and hid his face and ran back
to his living room. And the woman was very beautiful
to look upon, and he kept looking. That's not in your Bible. And
David sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, is not
this Bathsheba, the daughter of El? The wife of Uriah? I mean, he had previous warning.
This is a married woman. And David sent messengers and
took her anyway. And she came in unto him, and
he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness,
and she returned unto her house. So he slept with her and sent
her back home. And the woman conceived and told David and
said, I'm a child. And David sent to Joab saying,
send me Uriah. I've got to fix this thing. And
Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto
him, David demanded of him how Joab did. That was all a bunch
of baloney. And how the people did and how
the war prospered. He didn't tell him, hey, I've
been sleeping with your wife. David, the good man of God, sanctified,
holy. And David said to Uriah, go down
to thy house and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the
king's house and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. Go home and do what you do when
you get home. And by the way, here's a romantic
meal. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house, and
all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house.
And when they had told David, saying, Uriah did not go down
to his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy
journey? Why then didst thou not go down
unto thy house? You see, the clock is ticking,
and the baby is growing. The proof is in the pudding.
And Uriah said unto David, And Israel and Judah abide in tents. I'm not going to go down and
sleep in luxury. And David said to Uriah, Terry here today also,
and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem
that day and tomorrow. And when David had called him,
he did eat and drank before him, and he made him drunk. It never
gets better. What an evil web we weave when
we try to deceive, right? But that's not the worst of it.
None of this worked with Uriah. And so David sends word to Joab,
I'm sending him back, and put him out in front, in the hottest
of the battle, and then you withdraw everybody else. And he had him
murdered. Every child of God. Don't think
you're not capable. Don't get on your high horse,
because without Him, your ship's going to sink. My greatest fear
is me. Say, well, Moses, the good man,
what a story that was. And what a miraculous life thing
happened to Moses. He was found in the bulrushes,
remember. by Pharaoh's daughter. When Pharaoh
was killing all the boys, he had the midwife who was Pharaoh's
hired folk, would go to a woman who was pregnant and having a
child. If that child came out a male, it was immediately murdered
by Pharaoh. But Moses' life was spared because
his mother made a little basket kind of thing and a little ark
for him and put him in the river and Pharaoh's daughter found
him. And then Pharaoh's daughter went to the Hebrew girls and
chose the very mother of Moses to come and nurture him and nurse
him. Isn't that something? Oh God,
they're a good God. And you can see how good God
has been to you too if you look. How you are an absolute miracle.
We are. And then Moses grew up and got
to killing Egyptians. and burying them and hiding it.
Moses wasn't such a good guy either. He got the Ten Commandments,
but he didn't keep them. And what about Simon Peter? Oh,
the founder of the Catholic Church. Upon this rock I'll build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And how everybody loved Simon Peter, that loud mouth no good
for nothing. He denied the Lord three times.
Blankety-blank-blank, I don't know the man." Oh, surely not
Simon. I mean, we could go on and on
through Scripture. What about the Apostle Paul in
Romans 7? Oh, wretched man that I am. He
said, well, Pastor, you know, I'm getting a little tired of
this. What's the point? We're all in here feeling black
and ugly. You should until you look away
from yourself. The Bible says we were all dead
in sins and trespasses. Walked down the pathway of sins
and trespasses. We were like everybody else.
But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins and trespasses. You didn't come to God. He came
to you. You didn't find God. He found
you. You weren't seeking God, you
were hiding in the bushes. You were needing a clothing of
righteousness, that only God could provide the righteousness
of His own Son. God loved you before the foundation
of the world. And the psalmist David said,
God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if
there were any that doeth good. He took out his big telescope. He saw your mommy and your daddy.
He saw your brothers and your sisters. He saw you. And it was
all a mess. The apostles said, there's none
good. And what about you? How is it that your righteous
soul is vexed by sin? Why are you vexed? Why does sin
trouble you? Let me tell you, you're going
straight to hell if sin doesn't bother you. You're not a child
of God. I'm talking about your sin, not
somebody else's. I'm talking about your adultery.
I'm talking about your murderous spirit. It's not my brother or
my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.
And when you began to see this, I was gomer. I was gomer. Thank God I have a heavenly Hosea. Gomer down on prostitute row. Gomer selling herself. And Hosea
came and bought her. She's old and wrinkly and dirty
and filthy and scummy. And nobody wants to lay with
her. She can't even be bought except the heavenly Hosea. And
he came walking one day and found you. in your own vomit. You and me in our own putrid
state. No wonder Newton wrote, amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once
was lost, lost, lost, lost. But now I'm found. I was blind,
but now I see. I'm going to ride this all the
way to the grave, because I know it's true. And when I get to
heaven, Jesus Christ is not going to hear the last of it. Because
when I get there, I'm going to bow at His feet. Oh, I have a
debt to pay. A debt of praise, of honor. There is none good. You say,
well, Pastor, what's our hope? Here it is. Here it is. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Your church will not take you
to heaven. This is Grace Gospel Fellowship. Everybody just look
at everybody else. Look around. Look at everybody. What a mess! Just look at your
preacher. What a mess! If he said nobody's
good, that means him too. He can wear his collar backwards,
but that doesn't mean anything because there's none good. So,
we can't trust one another to save us, right? All of us together,
we're all here together, but all of us together as an ecclesia,
an assembly, a church. The word church is, it means
assembly. All of us together aren't worth
shooting. All of us together, we don't have enough holiness
to want a shotgun. That's true. So what's our hope? My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust my own. That's
my hope. In Christ alone, I take my stand. And without Him. I want to urge
you. I want to encourage you. Say,
Pastor, you've made such a big thing of sin. and nobody being
good. It can't just be that simple.
Well, I don't know really how simple it is. I know this is
the truth. Believe on Christ and thou shalt
be saved. Trust Christ alone and thou shalt
be saved. But when I say that, I mean trust
and believe that God sent His only Son into the world. that
His only Son lived and walked the Judean acres without sin.
And He was perfectly righteous. He knew no sin. He had no sin. He did no sin that He might impute
to you a perfection, a perfect righteousness. And then He went
to the cross and paid your debt. He paid your debt. I have no
debt, as wretched as I am. And by the way, I'm still charging. Still charging. I have sinned. I will sin today. And He keeps
paying. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. Isn't that right? I know whatever
I do tomorrow, thank God it's paid. It doesn't make me want
to do more sin. It makes me hate what I did.
So when you talk about simple, yes, it's believe on Christ,
but what's behind that? God Almighty invading history. God coming to earth. God dying
in your room, stead and place. And I promise you this, right
where you are, you may not have understood a lot of what I said
because you've never read the Bible. You don't know those stories. You didn't bring a Bible with
you today. But something inside of you said, I am a sinner. And I need someone. And what that preacher just said,
I know it's true. And I'm going to trust the Jesus
that he preached today. I'm going to trust Him. I double-dog
dare you to just trust Jesus Christ. To venture on Jesus Christ. And I promise you, He'll not
let you down. Free invitation. Here's what
He said. He said, Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast
out. You know what? I just say this
to Him. Well, I'm coming. You keep your
promise. I'm coming. I'm frightened. I'm fearful. I don't know all
about this. But I know I'm empty. I know
I'm a mess. I know I've wandered. But I'm
coming. I guarantee He won't turn thumbs
down on you. He'll receive you. He'll welcome
you. In fact, while you're coming,
He'll do like the prodigal son's father. He'll run out to meet
you and fall on you and kiss you and kiss you and kiss you
and welcome you. All of heaven is looking over
the banisters now, watching for you to come. Come just as you
are without one plea, but that Christ's blood was shed for thee.
O Lamb of God, I come. I don't mean coming up front
will save you, but if you trust Christ, I'd sure like to hear
about it and give you the opportunity to come today and confess Christ
publicly. I today have believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.