Dear Christian friends:

I'm sure that you agree with me that we must be good or righteous if we intend to live with God in heaven. You know that a bad or sinful person cannot live with God.

But people have various ideas about goodness and righteousness. How good must we be? Can we be part good and part bad? Some people think they are good enough to be God's friend, but they deceive themselves. They are not good enough.

In our text Jesus tells us how good we must be if we expect to be God's friend.

I. What kind of goodness is it?

A. Must be better than the Scribes and Pharisees Jesus says (Read verse 20) They had false goodness, appeared good, but were not really good, hypocrites. Their heart and spirit were still bad. Another time Jesus said of the Jews, "These people come near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." Another time Jesus said, "Not everyone that says to me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My father which is in heaven"

The Scribes thought if they did not kill someone they were good enough to be God's friend. But Jesus tells them that if they are angry against their brother without good reason they sin. The Bible says, "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer" They that could pray to God while hating a brother. But the Bible says, "If we love God we will love our brother, too."

So Jesus says here, "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. (Matthew 5:23-24 read and explain)

So, Jesus here shows that man's goodness is very false. He is a deceiver and a hypocrite. We are all like that by nature, as we are born of our natural parents.

We must see the falseness of our own righteousness, give-it-up, and trust in God to give us His righteousness. Jesus said, "You must be born again of water and the Spirit."

True righteousness is a gift of God. Jesus won that for us by His perfect life and by His holy death on the cross. In the Epistle lesson for today, Romans 6:3-11 The Holy Spirit gives us a new heart and new spirit, so we can begin to really love God and our brother. We no more deceive one another. When we do wrong we confess to God and to one another and as God forgives us in Jesus, so we show mercy and forgive one another.

St. Paul explained it very clearly and beautifully, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live and the life which I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in Me.

Paul was a friend of God and when he died he went to heaven. You will be a friend of god, too, if you believe in Jesus like Paul and let Him live in your heart. "God walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon" -James Irwin, Astronaut of the Apollo 15 Mission

Amen.