Do Good People Go to Heaven

Years ago, I was watching Billy Graham being interviewed on TV by Larry King. And Larry King asked Billy Graham the following question, Do good people go to heaven? And Billy Graham said, Yes, I believe good people go to heaven. That interview misled millions of viewers because Billy Graham said, Good people go to heaven.

But most people think that way. I believe if you stopped ten people on the street today and asked them if good people go to heaven, most of them would give you an affirmative response. Most folks think good people go to heaven and only bad people go to hell.

That if you were an honest, decent, hard-working person, that's all that matters in life, to get you into heaven. That's why every time a Hollywood celebrity dies, their colleagues will say something like this, He's up there in heaven entertaining God now. Or, She's up in heaven smiling down on us now.

Their reasoning is if you made people laugh or brought them some happiness into their life just by entertaining them, then that qualifies you for heaven. Some folks think God has a scale. And on that scale, He will weigh your good deeds against your bad deeds.

And if your good deeds outweigh the bad, then you can enter heaven. I remember years ago, a church friend of mine asked me if I'd go to the hospital to witness to his aunt who was dying. When I got to the hospital room, I asked her how her relationship with God was.

She informed me that for the last 20 years, she'd never missed a church service in her Methodist church. I refaced my question and asked her if she were to die, did she think she would go to heaven? And she answered yes, she would go there. I then asked her why she thought she'd go to heaven and she informed me that she was a good person because she never killed anybody or robbed a liquor store.

That's what the old gal said. In other words, she believed that because she wasn't bad enough to go to hell, that she would qualify for heaven. But people don't enter heaven based on their own merits, good or bad, because every person will be held up to the strictness of God's unbending law.

In Matthew 5.20, Jesus laid down the standard of getting into heaven. He said, For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. In other words, God's standard is that God requires perfection to get into His holy heaven, and no man is perfect.

But when they all stand against God's holy, strict, severe law, all will fail that test because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So do good people go to heaven? No, friends. Only forgiven people get to go there.

You must have a saving interest in Christ Jesus by having your sins washed in His blood. Salvation isn't found in a person's good works. You cannot stand in your own merits.

Your only hope is to stand in the merits of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. I know I'm not good enough for heaven, but I sure know I deserve hell. And my only hope is when Christ's life is laid down and applied to me.

Let us pray.