Would you consider yourself to be a good person? More importantly, what does God think of you?

I’ve got an odd question for you. Would you consider yourself to be a tall person? Well, that depends, doesn’t it? If you’re standing next to a two year old child, you might say, oh I am extremely tall. But if you happen to be standing next to Shaquille O’neal, not so tall anymore, are you? Well, friends. There’s another question like that one, but it deals with morality. Would you consider yourself to be a good person? Now, that one stings a little more than you consider yourself to be a tall person? But it is a relevant question and maybe you’ve heard it somewhere on the planet, but maybe in a new Zealand accent, would you consider yourself to be a good person? We have that man who has asked that question trillions of times here along with another man who’s asked it maybe a few times less but many times as well. Mr a comfort Mr Marks pants were here on way. The Master, Would you consider that you didn’t expect that right? Tall person? I heard little giggles going on over there. But the analogy work. Yeah. So Ray, uh that question has become familiar to more people uh and this time in history then, maybe a few decades ago because of our television program, our Youtube channel and people all around the world. Now asking that question. But there was a time when you began asking it. So I want you to give us some history. Where did it come from? I stole it from, Jesus, I can’t take credit. Mark 10 verse 17. The rich young ruler came running to jesus and said, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life. And then jesus is something very strange. He reproved the man’s understanding of the word good, he said, Why do you call me good? There’s none good but God. And it’s because humanity has a skewed understanding of what good is proverbs. 20 verse six is most, every man will proclaim proclaim his own goodness. You know, as human beings, we’re very predictable. Every one of us. You know, we we we we act the same way we act the same morally and we act the same. If we’re put in a room and subject to some sort of torture like sleep deprivation, loud music, bright lights. For days we’d end up in a fetal position in the corner because that gives us a sense of security. Exactly the same applies morally were very predictable. If we’re asked if we’re good people, almost everyone will say, I’m a good person because we make the mistake of measuring ourselves by man standard rather than God’s paul. Said to the jews, he said, they go about to establish their own righteousness, being ignorant of the righteousness, which is of God. And the other predictable things is that we when we are confronted with our sins or our wrongdoing, we tend to trivialize it and say, well, just white lies and small sins. And then we justify ourselves. We’re in a corner. That’s human nature. The predictability of it. And the way to handle it is to do exactly what jesus did. He said, you know the commandments and he gave five of the 10 commandments. And if you look closely there’s another one snuck in there, that’s not a commandment, remember what it is. Uh night too late, defraud not, Oh yes. And that means to take money through theft. And it would seem this guy’s sin was theft. He was a rich man. He has said defraud honor and he went, he went away sorrowful for his rich and and and I believe that guy loved his money more than he loved God. Well obviously he did. And the point I’m trying to make here is the first born has to die, pharaoh’s firstborn had to die for him to do what God said to do. And every one of us has to have the firstborn die. Well, love something more than we love God, that man loved his money, which he got by fraud. Some people love fornication. Other people love money. Other people love um pornography, but that’s what has to die before we come to christ through biblical repentance and the way to do it through those commandments. They bring the knowledge of sin put us in a corner. So we’ve got no excuse. We can’t justify ourselves. Yeah. You know, Mark, when, when that question is asked, I’ve noticed and maybe you could speak to that, that people don’t get offended, They almost are excited to proclaim their own goodness when you say that. Yeah, I I would say so. You know, and it also becomes that common denominator that we all have in common because we all think that we are pretty good because we compare ourselves to each other, right? And they don’t see a comment. And it definitely paves the it’s kind of like john the baptist, he paves the way for something greater. So the gospel is on its way. We need to get there through the law. And the first question that we ask is, would you consider yourself to be a good person? It’s just so much easier. Now you can go a long way, whatever your method is. But it might take you another 2030 minutes. It’s like a doctor who says to a patient, do you think you’re healthy? And the doctor can see is not He’s got all the symptoms of a terminal sickness, but he thinks he’s healthy. So what’s he going to do? He’s going to give those symptoms lay them out. So the person has got a standard of health. The judgment. Right, Well, friends, I know some of you are just itching to know. Well, what exactly is this good person test that you guys are talking about? Well hell, no. Now meet mr. Nice guy. You think you’re nice. This guy is really nice. Well, I try to do what’s right? He’s so nice that if good people get to heaven, he’ll be the first in line. Ah shucks. So mr, Nice guy. Have you kept the 10 commandments? Pretty much? Mm hmm. Do you mind if we take a look at them and maybe see how nice you really are? Uh OK, great. Here’s one. You shall not lie. Mr. Nice guy. Have you ever told a lie? Well, yeah, who hasn’t? What do you call? Somebody who tells lies? A liar? Alright, how about another commandment? You shall not steal. Have you ever stolen anything even once, nope? But you just told me you’re a liar? Well, I I did steal some candy once when I was a kid. And what do you call someone who steals a thief? Alright, let’s try another one. You shall not commit adultery. Oh, that’s easy. I’d never cheat on my wife. Hi, handsome! Oh, baby, jesus! Said if you even look at a woman with lust, you’ve already committed adultery with her in your heart. Oh, right, one more. You shall not take the name of the Lord, Your God in vain. Have you ever used God’s name to curse? Oh my! That mr Nice guy is called blasphemy. God gave you life and breath and everything you have and you’ve dragged his name through the dirt. So by your own admission, you’re a liar. A thief. A blasphemer and an adulterer at heart and that’s just for the 10 commandments. Okay, okay, so I’m not perfect. Well actually it’s worse than that. I suppose we could put a chip in your brain that would record all your private thoughts for an entire week and then play those thoughts on a giant movie screen for all your friends and family to see. That would be embarrassing. Yeah, I know. The bible says God knows everything. Even the secret thoughts of your heart. Well, compared to some people, I’m a saint. Yeah, that’s true. But the standard is God’s law. Not other people. Mm hmm. Besides, even if you sin just five times a day in one year, that’s 1,825 sins. And if you live to be 70 years old, you’ll have broken God’s law over 127,000 times. You’ll have to answer for every sin on judgment day when the bible says, each of us will give an account of himself to God, but God will forgive me. Right? Well let’s try that in court. Hey, look, I know I keep breaking the law, but hey, catch up. Well you know, just let it slide. Only a corrupt judge would buy that a good judge would say justice demands that you pay for your crimes. God’s not a corrupt judge. He’s a holy righteous judge. He hates sin, jesus warned that on judgment day, everyone who had sinned against God would justly end up in a terrible place called hell and there will be no escape for all eternity. Well then how can anybody get to heaven? There’s only one way God loved the world so much that he sent his son, Jesus to live a perfect life. He never sinned, not even once. Then Jesus offered to take the punishment for guilty sinners. He was whipped and beaten and nailed to a cross and died so that justice would be served and sinners could go free. Then jesus rose from the grave and defeated death. You can’t earn eternal life. It’s God’s gift to everyone who will humble themselves and come to jesus. He’ll forgive you, wash you clean and give you a new heart with new desires. The bible says if anyone is in christ, he is a new creation. So stop living for yourself. Turn from your sins and come to jesus, then read your bible and obey it. Find a good church to help you grow and then go out and tell other people the good news. How do I feel like I want to ask, what must I do to be safe. It’s crazy. I mean we produce that, how many times we’ve seen it, but we’re sitting here and we’re reacting to it over a million million views. Yeah, I forgot how well done it. It just just thinking some people maybe send themselves, it’s pretty complicated to witness to grandma or my cousin like that. We’ll just grab the youtube and give it to them to shelter them on your phone or show them on your ipad. Just say watch this and let me know what you think. I would say listen to this will do you good. So let me know what you think. It’s not interesting friends. If you just go to Youtube and then put in living waters and the search, go to our channel and then just look up the good person test that will come up and then you could just with the click of a button, ray, we talked about that all the time. You know, everything we do as a ministry is for the purpose of getting the gospel and then equipping God’s people to be able to do it and you don’t have to sit down and and write a script or try to figure out what you’re gonna say. I mean, you can just hit a button, send it to tons of people at one time. You know the work’s been done. Yeah. And my, I absolutely loved that. Criminal and judge. Those were those voices. Voices were amazing. I feel weird. Weird. They were phenomenal. Alright, let’s see the other one was Kirk. Yeah. Look, I know I’ve broken the law, but well, you know, can’t you just well, you know, let it slide. I think we have to get it, get it out of there. Just, I don’t know how I did that, but no, but that was fine. We had Kirk doing the good guy. We had uh we had Rachel Proctor, she did, she did one Eddie. Yeah, we had all kinds of stuff. So it’s very hard to tastefully do the last one. But I think that managed to do it worked out. So guys, let’s, I mean let’s speak to that a little bit. Um Mark, how important is it to start with the law before you hit people with the gospel? Well, you know, john piper said you know the difference between Uncle Sam and jesus christ is that Uncle Sam will only enlist those that are healthy and well, whereas jesus christ will only enlist those who are sick and you’ll never see yourself sick unless you go through the commandments. I mean it’s a great quote. We we must start with the law to bring the knowledge of sin. So the good person test is a tremendous a place to get started. We start with that good person and that good person asking that question, would you consider yourself to be a good person? Where do you go from there? Because they’re gonna either say yes or no? Either way you open up the law and you say, hey listen, would you consider yourself to be good in God’s eyes or do you think God would consider you to be a good person And then you start going through the commandments just like that cartoon. I’ve even found some people that say no, I’m not a good person, you still have to go through the law with them because they just start going through the law. They start justifying themselves showing they didn’t see sinners being exceedingly sinful. So it’s very important to apply to the conscience. And we see Paul doing this in Romans. Chapter two. You say you shall not steal, Do you steal? You say you shall not commit adultery, Do you commit adultery making it personal and applying it to the contest technology? You know, I was just on a plane flying back from speaking out of state and I was sharing the gospel with the lady next to me and I was just going through kind of my testimony and how I realized God’s standard and I was in trouble. And she just interrupted me. She said, what about your standard? And I thought this is really how the world functions. And of course as I started to take her through a series of questions about man’s standards, she started to backpedal because of course if it’s our standard, anything goes. And so I just love how again the law puts everyone on level ground, right? It doesn’t matter who you are, it’s not the promise of a good happy life because maybe someone feels they have that, it’s not about, you know, you being able to have your problems go away because some people like I don’t have any problems. It puts everyone on the same level, everyone’s lied. Everyone has, you know, used God’s name in vain. Everyone has lusted and so you can just take them through that and they recognize they’re in need of the universal. I have a question, How did you bring the subject up with this woman? She was older than you. You obviously wanted to honor her and respect her. So was it difficult for you to bring the subject up or did you just say look out the window when you’re gonna die? No. You know what I did with this with this lady in particular is I just started to I showed her a picture of my dad who’s 109 now and went from that talked about, you know how great it is that I have, I have him in my life and so forth. And then I got into how I’m so glad he’s still alive to have seen the change in my life because I put him through some grief. You know when when I was a lot younger she said really and got into my testimony from their shifted into the gospel. Yeah. I mean, you know, we do your testimony is a powerful tool. And if you figure out a way to segway it in naturally. Yeah. But Ray was one of my favorite illustrations you’ve used is the white sheep eating green grass that really turns the light on for people? Yeah. Well I just simply asked me to look, you know, if you see a white sheep eating green grass, wouldn’t you think that sheep looks pretty white with that green background behind it and go, oh yeah, yeah, put it in a barn, let it snow overnight, bring it out with that pure white snowy background and look at it now with that background. It doesn’t look so white anymore, does it? And I just love to see the smirk people get as the light bulb goes on. And I said, that’s what it’s like. You know, we compare ourselves to other people. You always find worse but against the backdrop of God’s holiness, which he will judge us by in his standard of morality, we’re in big trouble. So, alright, friends, well, you saw it as an animation now. We want you to see how the good person test works in real life. Check this out. I believe there’s an afterlife after you die. Where are you going? I’m not sure yet. I’m I’m a witch. So I believe in things such as the afterlife. But I don’t necessarily believe that I have to be religious to be a good person. You’re in a wheelchair. Yes. At the age of 21, I was shot in the chest domestic violence issue. And what’s involved with being a witch. It’s more spiritual work than it is. Um, anything else? It’s it’s more along the lines of practicing what you want to practice compared to living the norms of a religion. Do you think God exists? I very much believe God exists. I don’t believe in a God and I just believe in a higher power, Do you think this higher power that created all things is happy with you? Or angry at you? I guess Happy you’re a good person. Do you think God is happy with you or angry at you? Um I believe God is at ease at this point, you know, I try to do good and you know, follow the steps, the 10 commandments. You follow the 10 commandments. Which ones do you follow? Honor, your mother and father, you know, love thy neighbor? Anything else I should not kill? They’ll should not steal those types of things. Okay, I’m going to turn them back on you now. All right. How many lies do you think you’ve told in your life? Hundreds of thousands. There goes the ninth. So what do you call someone who tells lies a liar? So what are you a liar? So what are you a lying thief? Do you still think you’re a good person? Have you ever used God’s name in vain? Plenty of times. Would you use your mother’s name as a cuss word? I have. So, yes. So there goes the fifth on your father and mother. And the third, you should not take the name of the Lord your God in vain when you use God’s name in vain, you use it as a cuss word to express disgust. And the bible says his name is holy, and when you use blasphemy punishable by death. And the old testament’s that’s serious, jesus said, If you look with lust, you commit adultery in your heart. Have you ever looked with lust? Have you had sex before marriage? So I’m not judging you, but you’re not a good person, You’re like the rest of us. You’re just admitted you’re a lying, thieving, blasphemous, fornicating adulterer at heart. And you have to face God on Judgment Day. If he judges you by the 10 commandments, I’ve looked at four of them, you’re going to be innocent or guilty, guilty Heaven or hell, I guess, How have you ever hated somebody? Yes, the bible says he who hates his brother is a murderer. So let me give you a quick summation. You’re not a good person, you’re like the rest of us. You’ve just told me you’re a lying thieving, fornicating blasphemous adulterer and murderer at heart. So if God judges you by those 10 commandments that you were taking comfort in, would you be innocent or guilty? I’ll be guilty of heaven? Or hell? Hell. Now, does that concern you? Not necessarily because these are your beliefs are not mine. Well, just because we believe something, or don’t believe something doesn’t make it change. If I looked at the silence as I believe the sun is square, It’s made of ice and it comes out at night, it doesn’t change its reality, and the reality is we have a creator that made all things. We can see the genius of his handiwork and everything around us from puppies and kittens and flowers and birds and trees and seasons and fruits. All these things show us the genius of his handiwork and his kindness. Plus we have a conscience. The word conscience means with knowledge. So all of us have a knowledge of right and wrong. So when we lie or fornicator, blasphemer or lust, we’ll steal. We know in our heart we do wrong. So without excuse. So everything is against us. When it comes to reality, we know God exists, we know we’ve done wrong, and we know if God is good, there must be retribution, God is good. He can’t let rapists and murderers go free, but he’s so good, he’s gonna punish thieves and liars and blasphemers and fornicators and adulterers. And that leaves all of us in big trouble heading for hell. He says, tell me, what did God do for guilty sinners? So we wouldn’t have to end up in hell. He gives you the opportunity to change your life around and repent every day every night. No, that’s not it. What is it? Well, let me tell you why it’s not it. If you’re standing in front of a judge and you’ve committed very serious crimes like rape or you’ve robbed a bank and shot a Guard judges, you’re guilty anything to say. And you say yes, Judge from now on, I’m going to turn my life around and I’m really sorry I won’t do it again. Which is repentance. He’s going to say, you shouldn’t do it again, you should be sorry, you’re going to jail. So repentance. And turning your life around can’t help you in man’s court and it can’t help you in God’s court. You need something else. Do you know what it is? You need to be saved. So jesus died for our sins took our punishment so God could dismiss our case so we could walk out of his courtroom and then he rose from the dead and defeated your greatest enemy. Death itself. The bible says God commended his love toward us in that while we are still sinners christ died for us. I know you haven’t agreed with what I’m saying. I know there’s a spiritual battle going on for you as a person. Do you know who satan is? Do you know who he is called in the bible, a serpent? Well, he’s the god of this world and it says he blinds the minds of those that believe not. And so I’m trusting today that you’ll seek after God with all your heart and you’ll examine my motives because think of why I talked to you like this. I’m saying hard things. It’s only because I care about you and me. You spend eternity. I want to see you in heaven, not in hell does that make sense completely makes sense. So he says, so if you would have died a day and God gave you justice, you’d end up in hell. There are two things you must do to be saved. You must repent and trust Alone in jesus. When are you going to do that? Today is as possible a witch actually wearing a witch’s hat. I mean I was looking for a broom in the background there too. But it was just amazing Ray. And keeping with the point, we’ve been trying to make of how the law humbles. You could see in her demeanor that maybe she started off a little confident and sort of and you can just see her as you’re taking her through the law recognizing her guilt as a witch. She said, you know, you can practice whatever you want to practice. Well what can be included in that list, Right? I mean if you can practice whatever you want to practice and she’s staying true to what the satanic bible says right, if it feels good to you do it well, that does not work in a civilized society, let alone. But when you stand before God, you know the, the, the senate has confidence that God isn’t watching, what he’s doing is like a criminal in the dark stealing. And suddenly the police arrived, the law arrives, put a spotlight on them and there’s 10 police sharpshooters with their pounding or his pounding heart and the sites only avenue is to raise their hands and say I surrender. So that’s the function of the law to put those 10 cannons on the face of the center and say the light of God’s law has exposed you. You’re undone. There’s no way of escape. The only avenue just lift your hands and say I surrender all to jesus. And that’s where the cross comes in. When the senate gives up, the cross comes in and ray, you got, you got to see that by contrast because when you finally got ahold of the use of the law, you suddenly saw the difference because for a long time you didn’t use it and suddenly you saw the contrast and that just put a fire in you. That’s never stopped. That’s why our ministry exists really. Yeah, absolutely. Um, it’s what’s the old saying? It’s like God took the feather duster out of my hands and replaced it with cannons. And so warfare becomes so much easier if I may say that when you stand behind the weapons that God has given us that are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Amen. Well, friends before we end the program and we’re close to finishing, you just got to see this one more video to see how the law can cause someone to recognize that morality isn’t just relative. Yeah, mm hmm. Where do I get my morals from? My mom and dad where everyone else is. So you’re going to define what good is, right? Just like everyone else. Okay, okay, great. So therefore I can come along and say I’m a good person. Also if my parents taught me that incest and rape is good and that’s what I was taught. Is that correct? Wait a minute. If it comes from my parents, which is what you just said. My morality, My goodness comes to my parents and that’s what they taught. Great. If my parents can’t establish what good and morality is, my parents taught me that rape, incest murder is OK? According to who says who, who gets to say that at some point having sex with the child was right on right On is pornography acceptable or unacceptable? His child pornography acceptable or unacceptable by some cultures. By you by me. No way We have to establish what are you talking about? Culture or society or you’re talking about your individual because if you’re gonna deal with culture and society and government, then Hitler was acceptable and what he did because he ruled society the government. So if you’re gonna say culture gets to determine it, then Hitler was okay, that’s your world view, not mine. Okay. Somebody who believes that it’s up to God. That’s right. Bottom line. God gets to define what it is up to the individual because if it is up to the individual to define what good is what that is, Then you can’t say to the child pornographer that child porn is wrong. Now. We compare ourselves amongst ourselves and say, hey I’m a pretty good person because we compare ourselves to each other. I go up to the guy smoking weed and I say hey dude, what are you doing? You shouldn’t be smoking weed and he says, hey I’m a pretty good person. At least I’m not slamming heroin like that guy. I agree that’s a good valid point. I go to the guy slamming heroin. I go, hey what are you doing? You shouldn’t be slamming heroin because yeah, you’re right, still a good person because I’m going to compare myself to the rapist. Here’s my point. If we compare ourselves to each other, we will always find somebody worse than ourselves. So therefore God sets up the standard of right and wrong and good and bad. That’s the 10 commandments. And so we look at the 10 commandments, we rise. We can’t make it to heaven because we’ve broken God’s small. That’s not the fact that God just doesn’t want everybody to heaven. It’s the fact that we can’t get to heaven when jesus christ died on the cross. He paid a price he didn’t owe because you and I own a price we couldn’t pay. I’m simply saying examine the evidence. Don’t accept what I’m saying by blind faith, read the bible, open it up and say God reveal yourself to me through your words. Ah I love it, mark. That was so good and friends. We hope that you realize just from that example again, what the law can do when you use that good person test and take people through the commandments and just show them that really their perspective doesn’t line up with reality or what’s even logical. And then you bring in the word to do that. Maybe today you’ve heard what we’ve shared and you thought, wow, am I even saved the bible says examine yourself to see if you’re in the faith, make your call an election shirt. So we hope you do that. And if you know the Lord, we hope that you follow the example that you’ve seen that you would go out as christ said and make disciples of all men and proclaim the gospel. There’s no greater thrill on earth than being used by God in that way. Thank you so much for joining us. We look forward to seeing you next time here on the way of The Master. We hope this episode of Wave the Master has inspired you to share the message of eternal life. You can watch our award winning movies such as the Atheist Delusion freely on our website where you’ll also find articles, videos, and audio messages, as well as books, dvds, gospel tracts and other resources to help you share your faith Biblically and effectively make sure to visit Living Waters dot com today