The Difference Between a Good Man and a Godly Man
March 2, 2026
Matthew chapter 16, if you would please. Matthew chapter 16 in God’s Word. Since I mentioned this morning, I did come up with the title: The difference between a good man and a godly man. The difference between a good man and a godly man in Matthew chapter 16.
I like good people, but there is a difference: godly people. God calls us to be godly, and that is what we ought to be striving for. I, for sure, am not always there, but I like to be. But the difference between a good man and a godly man. We are going to start at verse 21, Matthew 16.
In verse 21, please stand as we read God’s Word together, Matthew 16 and verse 21 of God’s Word tonight. Verse 21. Here we go. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.
Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, “Be it far from thee, Lord! This shall not be unto thee.” But He turned and said unto Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” Wow. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Then said Jesus unto His disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
I have no doubt Peter was a good man. I mean, he was one of the apostles. Of course, he was not Judas. He was a good apostle. He was one of those at one point. He said, “Hey, Jesus, we have forsaken all and followed you.” He is a good man, no doubt about it. In fact, here in this situation, he was concerned about Jesus. He did not want Jesus to have to go and suffer and bleed and die. He is a good man, concerned about Jesus. He, in fact, he calls him in the passage we just read there, verse 22, he calls him Lord.
He was the one just a couple of verses earlier when Jesus said, “Yeah, everybody is saying all this about me, that I am John the Baptist and Elijah, but whom do you say that I am?” And Peter hit it out of the park. And Peter said, “Hey, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said, “Hey, flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, but My Father, which is in heaven.” I mean, he is a good man.
But is it not amazing, this good man was used by the devil? Wow. By the way, is it not amazing how quickly we can fall, is it not? I mean, we are godly one minute; about two minutes later, we are just good, but not godly. Such is the case with Peter here.
Now, what is the difference? What makes him godly, if you will, or just a good man, if you will? That is verse 23: “But he turned and said unto Peter, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan.’” I was not calling Peter, “You are Satan.” He is saying Satan is using you. By the way, Satan loves to use Christians.
We will talk about that more in just a minute here. “For thou art an offense unto me.” Offense—you are putting a stumbling block to me. You are causing me, you are trying to get me to trip up, if you will. That is offense. It causes you to stop, you stumble, you fall. He said, “Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest…” Here it is, “…for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”
So when I am not a godly man, I am a good man, just a good person, but I am not a godly person. I am savoring the things that be of man and not the things of God. And that is very easy to do because we live in this world. We have to pay bills. We have to pay our taxes. Who wants the IRS after you, you know? I mean, you just live, and we brush shoulders with mankind. And if we are not careful, we will be more in tune with man than we are with God.
We can grow more of an appetite for the things of man than an appetite for the things of the Lord. And we savor—we do not savor the things that be of God; we savor the things that be of man. Now, the things that be of man are temporal.
Now, the cross, I am not trying to make light of the cross, but the cross was temporal, or temporary. He was going to go and suffer for a couple of days and bleed and die on that cross. Three days later, He is going to rise again. That is temporal, if you will, but the end result is eternal salvation. And Peter said, “No, I do not want you to go through that.” But the things that be of man, those are temporal things. And Jesus said, “No, no, I am savoring more of the things that be of My Father, the eternal.” I am willing to go through the temporal suffering and pain to get the eternal.
You see, good men are willing to sacrifice the eternal on the altar of the temporal, but godly men are willing to sacrifice the temporal on the altar of the eternal. By the way, this down here, this place down here, this is just the getting ready place, my dad used to call it. Just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity.
Good men want the crown without the cross. They want the victory without the sacrifice. They want the product without living by faith. But godly men are willing to endure the cross just to be with Jesus. There is a difference in a good man and a godly man.
He said, “Hey, Peter, thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those of being men.” And that can manifest itself in so many different ways in our life. It is when we, myself included, are walking in step with a status quo Christianity instead of walking in the Spirit. There is a difference.
It sometimes can manifest itself when we are focused on being the model Christian man instead of being a good husband to our wives. It can manifest itself when we are focused on being the model Christian lady instead of being a good wife to our husband. Well, hopefully not to me. Amen. You know, my husband just sounded weird saying that.
It can manifest itself when we are having our devotions to say, “Hey, I have my devotions, and I am doing all this,” instead of truly seeking to walk with the Lord. It can manifest itself in our finances. Instead of chasing the Lord—that is where we ought to be chasing the Lord—we are chasing the dollar. Instead of tithing by faith, we are tithing out of abundance. I am saying there is a difference when we are—we do not savor the things that be of God; we are just savoring the things that be of man.
It can be when we dress to impress others instead of trying to honor God with our dress. For a church, it can get us where we are focused on having a big church instead of a church that makes an internal impact and pleases the Lord. There is a difference.
I read an article recently. It was a good article. And this is what the title said: “When Two Halftimes Reveal a Nation’s Spiritual Crisis.” Super Bowl LX. Help me out. What is LX? I meant to look it up; I did not look it up. Is it 60? Is that right? Super Bowl 60, amen. I am not up on my Roman numerals. Not in the world, you know.
Super Bowl 60 gave America more than a football game. It gave us a mirror, and the reflection that reveals a profound spiritual crisis. The Super Bowl, of course, had Bad Bunny, and everybody knows Bad Bunny is truly a bad bunny. Very sinful, very wicked, very explicit things. It is a very sinful thing. It is in Spanish and whatnot. And then the alternative for faith, family, and freedom, Kid Rock, sang many songs that have horrible explicit words to it that has not been publicly addressed or repented of, that they sang songs with explicit contact. Yes, it was representative of the life before salvation, but it was still very inappropriate for families.
It goes on to say this, the article: “Let’s be clear, neither performance represents the holiness God calls His people to pursue.” It says the real crisis: a church that cannot discern—the church that cannot discern in our day and time. It says three major points the article did. We have confused culture power with spiritual authority. We think winning cultural wars proves God’s favor, when Scripture teaches His kingdom advances through sacrificial love and holy living.
Number two, and I am skipping much of the article, just reading some headlines: We have abandoned biblical discernment for tribal loyalty. Number three, it says, we have forgotten that the gospel transforms individuals, not entertainment. No altar calls sanctify a platform built on inconsistency. Jesus does not call us to choose between competing forms of worldliness.
Now, look, friend, here is the thing in our day and time. We have a Christianity that has become so popular in the United States that if we are not careful, we will be savoring the things that be of man but not of God. You see, it is a little bit of a different culture. The climate is growing good, but not necessarily godly. And we must grow in our discernment between the two, or else…
Jesus Himself said, “Hey, Peter, get behind me, Satan.” Pretty strong. God works through godly men, but Satan often works through Christians that are very in tune with the world, but not savoring the things of God.
Is it not interesting how Satan likes to work through Christians? Remember later on—later on Jesus said, hey, talking to Peter again, later on in the book of Luke—He says, “Hey, Satan desires to sift you as what? As wheat?” Well, wheat represents the Christians. Tares represent the world. Satan often loves to work through Christians. And if I am just good but not godly, you know, a church typically does not get torn apart by the world. It gets torn apart by good people but not godly people.
You check it out. Satan loves to work through good people, but not godly people. That is what was happening. Those close to Jesus, Peter himself. Is it not interesting? The Bible talks about over in Acts 17 about Paul, his missionary team, and it says those that have turned the world upside down. Remember that? Now, that was Paul and his missionary team, but look over, if you will, in 1 Corinthians chapter 4. And I want you to see what Paul—he gives a little testimony about himself and those that were part of his ministry. And I want you to see—now this is the ones that truly turned the world upside down. The Lord was working greatly through them. Were they those that savored the things of the world but not the things of God? Or were those that savored the things of God but not really of man?
Let us look and see what he says over here in 1 Corinthians 4. Look in verse 9, 1 Corinthians 4, verse 9. He says, “For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death, for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honorable; we are despised.” I was talking to this Corinthian church. He said, “You know, you look pretty good as far as in the world. You are up there a little bit, prestigious,” if you are despised. We are despised. But that is the crowd that turned the world upside down.
Keep reading. “Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. And labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day.” I write not these sayings to shame you, but as beloved sons I warn you.
My friend, I am just saying we are living in a culture where it is almost becoming the hip thing to be a good man and even a quote-unquote Christian man, but there is a difference between a good man and a godly man, and Satan loves to use good but not godly.
Here is an interesting thing. Notice what Jesus said. Back over here, Matthew 16. Notice what He said. Matthew 16. Look at verse 22. You will know it. You will know it. But let us just look at it. See it with our eyeballs here. Verse 22: “Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him.” That is amazing. Saying, “Be it far from thee, Lord! This shall not be unto thee.” But He turned and said unto Peter, “Get thee…” What are the next two words? “…behind me.” It is showing that Jesus is going forward.
In interesting verse 22, Peter rebuked Jesus. Kind of put it this way: Spiritual people will always be criticized by worldly people. That is just—just mark it down. That is just what happens. But Jesus said, “I am not going to let that stop me. I am going to keep going forward.”
If you get some convictions and some standards, you know, worldly people are going to criticize you. It is just part of it. But Jesus is making a statement: “Get thee behind me,” saying, “I am going to continue forward. Do not get caught up on that. Do not get caught up in the wrong fight.” Interesting, “I have fought a good fight,” Paul said. He said, “I did not get caught up in the wrong fights. I got caught up in the fight for the Lord Jesus Christ and reaching and helping people.”
Be careful. Do not get caught up to you. If you are a spiritual person, you are going to be criticized by worldly people. It is just part of it. Worldly lost, world of the world, and worldly Christians. We are going to talk on Saturdays about this thing of the greatest hindrances to souls. And I think probably the greatest hindrances are other Christians that criticize how you win souls. Well, that hurts so much. And it bears truth that Satan uses good people but not godly people.
And so, look, if you are spiritual, you are going to be criticized by worldly people. Do not get caught up in that. You are saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Jesus said, “I am going to continue forward.” It is just part of it.
I thought about that, the hardest days of starting our church in some ways. And I kind of forgot the whole—you know, life’s remember stuff, don’t they? I see a couple of smiles and things there. Yeah, they do. I remember the details, you know, and I had forgotten some of the details, but there was one day that we were going to start the church, and I talked to a local preacher, a known preacher, and he said, “No, no, do not start that church,” and da-da-da, “you need to go come here and we will start it out of here and all the stuff.” And then the same day another preacher, pastor, both of them good men. The other one really known for starting churches. I think he is a good man, but I do think at that point he was not a godly man. But he said, “No, you do not have enough finance. You need to stop everything. You need to go raise more support. You have got to have this much support and all that.” And that was one of the hardest days.
And it did not come necessarily from the world. It came from good people, but not godly people. Peter was an apostle of Jesus Christ, part of the inner three, or the inner crowd—the three inner crowd there: Peter, James, and John. And yet Jesus said, “Hey, get thee behind me, Satan.”
Now maybe—we are going to be done here. Man, we are preaching short today. What about that? Some of you said amen for that right there. Come on now. You know, look back over chapter 16. Look—look back over a couple of verses before we read. Look in verse 17. Verse 17, we referenced this, but we did not read it.
Verse 17: “And Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.’” He had just said, “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.” “I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock”—the rock that Jesus saves, He is the Christ, the Son of the living God—“I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee, Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Here is what I am getting at: Peter was just greatly used by God. Man, he had just hit it out of the park. God had blessed him. God said, “Hey, Peter, I am going to use you greatly. You are going to unlock the door for the gospel to be presented to the Gentiles.” And he did. We have studied that on Wednesday nights. Man, he was the one that unlocked that door and the gospel—whatever there are Cornelius and all—to the Gentiles. It was already there somewhat, but the focus turns, and boy, the church age opens up, and millions are saved, and God used Peter greatly. It was just a moment where God just used—He was—He was flying high. But there is a danger there.
Boy, after an afternoon time, if you will, there is a great, great danger so often that little monster gets in there called pride. And you know what the Bible says? Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. I am a little bit better, you are critical, you know, and all that stuff. Haughty spirit before a fall. And it is amazing: when I get prideful, I open myself up to Satan because that is the sin of Satan. “I will, I will, I will”—five times pride. And I get in line with the devil. And the devil loves to use good people, but not godly people.
So here is the fault, here is the truth, how it applies to your life. Am I—let us go back. Let us go back and look at it one more time here. Let us go back to verse 23. “But he turned and said unto Peter, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan,’ for thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” So where am I in that? Am I savoring the things that be of God? Is that really my appetite? Is that the thing I desire? Is that the thing I am after? Do I savor the things that be of God, or just the things that be of man?
Would you bow your heads, close your eyes, just ask the Lord just to speak to your heart how that applies to your life, what that means to you, where you are at in that? Let us just draw nigh unto Him for a few minutes. Let us ask Him to speak to our hearts. Ask Him to reveal to us where we are at in that. Would you do that? Let us stand, if you would, please. We will have a word of prayer. Let us just spend some time: Lord, where am I at in that right there? Father, thank you for Your Word. Lord, it is a really amazing story about Peter. Lord, help us to learn from it. Lord, at our day and time, our culture, our society, give us wisdom and discernment about ourselves to determine if I am savoring the things of man, but not the things of God. Keep our appetite right for You. Help us to seek You first. We will thank You, Lord, for what You do. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Would you spend some time seeking the Lord? Where am I at in that, Lord? Where am I? Do I savor the things that be of God, or just the things that be of man? Amen. Set your affections on things above, and looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of the faith. And let us keep our savoring the things that be of God. Let that be our heart.
Original File: 2026-03-02 - Pastor Paul Chisgar - ＂The Difference Between a Good Man and a Godly Man＂ Sunday PM 3⧸1⧸2026