Title: Being Good Isn't Good Enough
Bible Book: Acts 10 : 1-43
Author: Franklin L. Kirksey
Subject: Cornelius; Spiritual Depravity; Man's Greatest Need; Salvation
Objective:
Introduction
Golfer Tiger Woods appeared to be a good man. He carefully guarded his reputation and suddenly the news media broke the story of his alleged gross indiscretions. Brit Hume, former leader of Fox News' political reporting and host of "Special Report" who now serves as an analyst for the network, recently stated [01/03/10], “Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person I think is a very open question, and it's a tragic situation for him. I think he's lost his family, it's not clear to me if he'll be able to have a relationship with his children, but the Tiger Woods that emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal -- the extent to which he can recover -- seems to me to depend on his faith. He's said to be a Buddhist; I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.'" 1
Ed Grube taught a music class at Greystone Christian School in Mobile, Alabama, founded by his father, Dr. Henry E. Grube (1909-1969). Mr. Grube shared the mnemonic “Every Good Boy Does Fine” representing the lines of the treble clef, namely, EGBDF. The words of this memory device “Every Good Boy Does Fine” is a proverbial expression. Therefore this sentence is true in a conditional sense. Certain things may militate against the outcome.
A Roman centurion, named Cornelius, is an example of “Why Good Men Are Not Saved”, according to Dr. J. Vernon McGee (1904-1988). Dr. McGee shares that the Book of Acts contains three ethnic conversions. From Scripture we understand there are three basic ethnic divisions of mankind. After the flood, Noah’s sons, named Ham, Shem and Japheth represent these ethnic groups. In Acts 8 we find the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch a descendant of Ham, in Acts 9 we discover the Saul’s conversion, who is a descendant of Shem and finally in Acts 10 we read about the conversion of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, a descendant of Japheth.2 Cornelius’ experience reveals a chain reaction that leads to saving reality.
I. His Spiritual Condition
Cornelius was a good man. We note his devotion (Acts 10:1-8) but also his depravity. Paul the apostle writes in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
Also in Galatians 3:22, “But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” Being good isn’t good enough.
Cornelius was religious but lost. We read in Luke 19:10, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” In Luke 15 Jesus tells about lost sheep, lost silver, and a lost son.
II. His Scriptural Confrontation
God sent Peter to Cornelius (Acts 10:17-32). Peter confronted Cornelius with the claims of Jesus Christ (Acts 10:34-43). God uses people to share the gospel (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). However our success does not depend upon us. According to John 16:8b-11, we read of the Holy Spirit, “He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” As conviction must come from the Holy Spirit conversion must come by the Holy Spirit as well.
Jesu explains to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, “You must be born again.” From the first eight verses of John chapter three, we read, “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’
Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’”
Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915) begins her hymn, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, / Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.”
III. His Substantial Consideration
Peter shared the plight of man and the power of God in his message to Cornelius. Needless to say Cornelius had a lot to think about. Cornelius faced the ultimate issue of what he will do with Jesus Christ. Jesus was not just a good man. Jesus was not a man who became God. He is God who became man. He is fully God and fully man. As we read in John 1:11-13, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” What will you do with Jesus? Will you receive Him or will you reject Him?
IV. His Signal Conclusion
Cornelius realized he was a guilty man. We read in Acts 10:44, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.” This was not some mysterious thing. The conviction of the Holy Spirit came upon them.
We read of some in Hebrews 4:2, “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” In 2 Corinthians 7:10 Paul writes, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
From Acts 17:30-31 we read the first universal commandment, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” In 1 John 3:23 we discover the second universal commandment, “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” Repentance and faith are the signal conclusion that instantly leads to a sensational conversion.
V. His Sensational Conversion
The word sensational means, “exceedingly or unexpectedly excellent or great.” In Hebrews 2:3a we read, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”
We read in Acts 10:45-48, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.
Then Peter answered, ‘Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.”
After reading conversion accounts of those down through the ages we are aware that each one is unique, but each one possesses a unity with every genuine conversion. Every conversion is sensational whether that of a child or an adult.
Luke records how Peter defends God’s grace in Acts 11:1-18. Verse 18 reads, “When they heard these things they became silent and they glorified God, saying, ‘Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” Remember that for Peter to witness to a Gentile was no small thing, as we read in Acts 10:9-16, “The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’
But Peter said, ‘Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.’ And a voice spoke to him again the second time, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.” This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.” Remember God blessed Abram, later known as Abraham, to be a blessing to the world as we read in Genesis 12:1-3, “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, / From your family / And from your father’s house, / To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; / I will bless you / And make your name great; / And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, / And I will curse him who curses you; / And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
We get a glimpse of God’s intention for the world in the Book of Jonah. The people of Nineveh were pagans who repented at the brief God-given message of the prophet, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4b)
Conclusion
Sometimes people are like “Little Jack Horner [who] sat in the corner / Eating his Christmas pie, / He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum / And said "What a good boy am I!" The Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:18-23), felt he was good enough. Others like Tiger Woods have a reputation as a “good person” but they are lost. Dr. Adrian Rogers warns about some who “don't realize is that there is no one so bad that he cannot be saved and no one so good that he need not be saved. They fail to see that the worst form of badness is human goodness when human goodness becomes a substitute for the new birth."3
In 2008, Tiger Woods told Reuters about his religious practices. "I practice meditation," he said. "That is something that I do, that my mum taught me over the years. We also have a thing we do every year, where we go to temple together. In the Buddhist religion you have to work for it yourself, internally, in order to achieve anything in life and set up the next life. It is all about what you do and you get out of it what you put into it."4 Pray for Tiger Wood's salvation.
Dr. Douglas R. Groothuis, Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary, author of many books to include, Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism, shares the following in a letter to the editor in the Denver Post in response to a previous letter, “Your article indicates a sad trend in American religion: logical incoherence in service of self-styled spirituality.
Buddhism is a worldview that denies the existence of the substantial soul and the need for redemption by a personal God. It bases its spiritual practices and morality on these ideas. Christianity affirms that humans possess a substantial soul and that we cannot save ourselves. Rather, we must turn to God in Christ for redemption. Christianity bases its worship, prayer and actions on the very ideas that Buddhism rejects.
Therefore, any supposed synthesis of Buddhism and Christianity is unfaithful to both Christianity and Buddhism. When spirituality transcends logic, it trashes truth.”5
I remember hearing the Imperials sing, “Well, Old Buddha was a man and I’m sure that he meant well / But I pray for his disciples lest they wind up in hell.” In his book titled So What’s the Difference, Fritz Ridenour explores and explains the tenets of Buddhism.
A lot of people follow a religious philosophy that allows three diametrically opposed systems to think they will all get to heaven. Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6)
Mark Cahill, author of One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven and One Heartbeat Away, shares his witnessing encounter with golfing legend Tiger Woods on his website http://www.markcahill.org/news/1003news.html .
I remember hearing a Southern Gospel song with the following lyrics, “Good ole boys don’t go to heaven, good ole boys don’t wear a crown.” Rick Groover wrote a Gospel tract titled “Good Ole Boys Don’t Go To Heaven” using the Ten Commandments to show a man that he has broken God’s law and he is not a “Good Ole Boy” after all. It is available from http://www.celebratehim.org/pages.asp? pageid=67387 .
If you do not know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord you can pray a prayer like this:
Dear God, I know that I am a sinner, in thought, in word and in deed. I am a sinner by nature and a sinner by choice. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sin and that he rose from the grave on the third day. I ask Jesus to take over my life and to be my Savior, my Lord, and my King. Thank you for giving me the forgiveness of my sin and everlasting life. Amen.
Remember being good isn’t good enough.
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1 Available from: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/brit-hume-tiger-woods-must-become- christian Accessed: 01/05/10
2 J. Vernon McGee, Real Characters: How God uses unlikely people to accomplish great things (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), p. 227
3 Adrian P. Rogers, Unveiling the End Times in Our Time: The Triumph of the Lamb in Revelation (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2004), p. 233
4 Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/03/brit-hume-to-tiger-woods_n_409720.html Accessed: 01/06/10
5 Available from: http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2009/08/13/buddhism-christianity-work-at-cross-purposes/ Accessed: 01/09/10
