What Does It Mean to be Righteous Before God? | Matthew 25:46

[00:00:00] Real Truth Daily. This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman.

[00:00:07] Hi, everybody. What does it mean to be righteous before God? Right now, my wife and I are down here in Arizona, and you've heard of that passage,

[00:00:14] He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be sent to Arizona in July.

[00:00:22] No, just kidding. Just kidding. Okay. So, how are we right before God?

[00:00:27] What makes us righteous before God? It's a good question, isn't it?

[00:00:32] I want you to go ahead and listen to this passage found in the book of Matthew, chapter 25, verse 46.

[00:00:37] Now, this is talking about Judgment Day and Jesus separating the sheep from the goats,

[00:00:42] the goats on the left hand, the sheep on the right hand, namely meaning unbelievers and believers.

[00:00:48] And this is what it says after he separates them. This is what it says.

[00:00:52] And these will go away into eternal punishment. Those who are goats, those who are not believers.

[00:00:57] But the righteous into eternal life. He's talking about us. He's talking about believers.

[00:01:04] So, I've got a question. What makes us righteous before God?

[00:01:08] It's not our actions, our thoughts, our words because they are contaminated by sin.

[00:01:13] Even though we have good intentions of doing the right thing, thinking the right thing, saying the right thing,

[00:01:17] we many times fall short of the standard of God's word because of our sin.

[00:01:22] So, what makes us, puts us in a right relationship with God? How are we righteous before God?

[00:01:29] Here's how. Don't miss it. We've appropriated by faith the merits of Jesus Christ.

[00:01:36] Jesus Christ came to this world and he lived the life we cannot live. You've heard me say that many times.

[00:01:42] He lived the life that we can't live. He kept the commandments that we have broken and he did that for us.

[00:01:48] Then he was a holy, perfect sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, shedding his blood in payment for our sin.

[00:01:54] And then his death-defying work through his resurrection defeated death.

[00:01:59] And now, through faith in what Christ has done, our sins are forgiven. Listen to this.

[00:02:04] And we're robed in the righteousness, purity, and holiness of Christ.

[00:02:10] We've received that by faith. And so, God doesn't see our sin.

[00:02:15] He sees the Savior. He doesn't see our wrongs. He sees the holiness of Christ.

[00:02:20] He doesn't see our transgressions. He sees the perfection and purity and righteousness of Christ,

[00:02:26] which we have through faith in Christ.

[00:02:28] I love that hymn, Jesus Thy Blood and Righteousness. It goes like this.

[00:02:32] Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness. Thy beauty are my glorious dress.

[00:02:36] Mids flaming worlds, and these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head.

[00:02:40] That's talking about the final day. Bold shall I stand on that great day.

[00:02:44] Sins atoned, no debt to pay. This then shall be my only plea.

[00:02:48] Christ Jesus lived and died for me.

[00:02:51] You appear before God right now.

[00:02:55] Pure, holy, spotless, sinless.

[00:02:58] And you might be saying, well, wait a minute. That's not how I am.

[00:03:02] That's not what I think. That's not what I do. That's not what I say.

[00:03:06] But that's all been taken care of through the finished work of Christ.

[00:03:11] Because Christ did what he did. God will do what he does.

[00:03:26] So when Christ comes back, and the Father is standing before him,

[00:03:32] we're not going to hear questions like this.

[00:03:34] On July 13th, 1986, you did, why did you do that?

[00:03:39] Or we're not going to hear anything like this.

[00:03:41] Why did you think that? Or how could have you have said that?

[00:03:45] We're not going to hear any questions like that.

[00:03:47] And you're probably thinking, well, Pastor Dave, a few DTs ago,

[00:03:50] you talked about us giving an account of our stewardship.

[00:03:57] Well, that's right. We will give an account for our stewardship.

[00:04:00] God's given us gifts, and we should use them.

[00:04:03] And if we don't use them, we have some explaining to do on Judgment Day.

[00:04:08] But you see, us being good stewards or bad stewards of the gifts that God has given us

[00:04:12] does not put us right with God, right?

[00:04:15] What puts us right with God is faith in Jesus.

[00:04:18] What puts us right with God is faith in Jesus.

[00:04:22] So here's the thing. No questions will be asked about our life, you know, about our sin,

[00:04:29] because our sin was taken care of at Calvary.

[00:04:32] Let me say that again.

[00:04:33] Our sin was paid for through what Jesus did for us through his life, death and resurrection.

[00:04:41] Now, here's the thing.

[00:04:42] We have a lot to worry about, it seems, on planet Earth right now.

[00:04:46] I mean, we have Hurricane Aline, which we dealt with just a couple, three weeks ago.

[00:04:49] You know, we have the election coming up and so many people are concerned about that.

[00:04:54] We have rising inflation.

[00:04:56] There's rising crime in our cities.

[00:04:59] You know, things seem to be more chaotic.

[00:05:01] More and more people are falling away from the faith and on and on and on.

[00:05:04] You could be overwhelmed and consumed with worry.

[00:05:07] But here's one thing you don't need to worry about.

[00:05:11] You don't need to worry about your salvation.

[00:05:14] You don't need to worry about where you're going to go when you die.

[00:05:16] You don't need to worry about how you're going to stand before God on Judgment Day.

[00:05:21] You're in a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

[00:05:26] So do you know what I say to you today?

[00:05:28] Just bask in that, rejoice in that, reflect upon that, thank God for that,

[00:05:34] proclaim that to other people because it's awesome to know that you're a child of God.

[00:05:39] You know, I think of that song, who the sun sets free, oh, is free indeed.

[00:05:43] I'm a child of God.

[00:05:45] Yes, I am.

[00:05:45] That's who we are.

[00:05:47] And that's why we rejoice.

[00:05:49] And that's why we celebrate.

[00:05:52] And finally, forgive me for that silly joke about Arizona.

[00:05:59] Maybe I'll edit it out.

[00:06:01] Maybe I won't.

[00:06:02] All right.

[00:06:02] Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:06:06] And that is today's Daily Truth.

[00:06:09] Thank you for tuning in to Daily Truths with Dave Ullman.

[00:06:12] Pastor Dave Ullman is the pastor of Mount Hope Church in Boulder, Colorado.

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