Does God Make Ungodly People Righteous?

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for joining us on the program again today. We are delighted to have your company and we have a wonderful topic to share with you. But just as we start, we're just going to invite God to bless our study and our time together today. Gracious Father in Heaven, it is such a privilege to have access to Your Word, to learn more about Jesus and to learn more about the Gospel, the Gospel being the good news of salvation. And Father, as we unpack this again today, we just pray for Your blessing on those listening and Father, also on Braedan and myself, may you speak through us and may you give us all a fresh measure, a fresh anointing of Your Holy Spirit is our prayer in Jesus name, amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C So to kick off our program today, we want to go to Romans, chapter four and read a very interesting verse there where it talks about who God actually makes holy or declares holy. It uses the word justify, and we'll have to unpack just what that word means a little bit. But it says now in verse five of Romans, chapter four, but to him who does not work, in other words, he who does not try and earn his salvation by working and trying to keep the law, but believes on him that is, on God who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Now, it's interesting that it says that believes on him who does what justifies the ungodly. Now, that seems to be almost a contradiction. How can you take something unholy and then make it holy? Shouldn't there be some sort of process, some sort of period of metamorphosis or something? Like a butterfly doesn't come overnight. It's got to come out of that little cocoon, isn't there? How is it possible that God can actually make something that's ungodly? Godly? SPEAKER D I think we can very easily overlook the difficulty of the plan of salvation for God. We think, oh, just save everyone. It's very easy. Yes, but this is the challenge. God's taking ungodly, unrighteous people and is wanting to call them righteous and make them righteous. And if we look at the history of humanity, we just see over and over again that this is a very hard thing for God to do. But this verse says that God can and will justify the ungodly. SPEAKER C That is incredible. And the way he does it is by faith, because it says that he who believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for. Righteousness. Now, righteousness means right doing, and none of us have done right. Have. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? And Romans 323 is very clear on that. If we want to know what ungodliness is, it is the opposite of Godliness. So anybody that ever will accept the fact that at some stage they've done something wrong. Maybe they've told us a lie. Maybe they've been angry with someone. Maybe they have hurt someone. Maybe they've stolen or whatever the case may be. Anybody that's fallen short of the righteousness we see manifested in God's word and in Jesus in particular, that is an ungodly person. SPEAKER D I've actually got a list here from Scripture in Galatians chapter five, which actually outlines what ungodliness is, practically. SPEAKER C Okay, great. SPEAKER D It says now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish, ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. SPEAKER C That's a comprehensive list. And there's some terrible things about even simple things just like heresies, which just means believing a lie in regards to. SPEAKER D The Gospel selfish ambition. Yeah, it's interesting. SPEAKER C Now, we're in Romans chapter four. So looking at that text about God justifying the ungodly, this is building on of what Paul already said in Romans chapter three, where he already has charged both Jew and Gentiles so that's believers and non believers, early Old Testament right, believers, Jews and Greeks, or Jews and Gentiles, that they were all under sin. I just want to read from verse nine. He asked the question, what then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jew and Greek that they are all under sin. So all of us are under sin. And then he says, as it is written so he's now quoting from the Psalms, there is none righteous. No, not one. So a person that's not righteous, an unrighteous person is the same as a person that is ungodly, an ungodly person. Then it says, there is none who understands. So in regards to spiritual matters, there's no one who understands. SPEAKER D Naturally, no one gets it. SPEAKER C No one gets it. That's right. Yeah. And then the other one, there is none who seeks after God. Now, Jesus unpacks this thought in John, chapter six, verse 44. He says that unless the Father who sent me draws a person, none will be able to come to me. So it's actually the drawing power of God that we recognize in our mind as I've responded to Jesus, but we're saying, okay, I've come seeking after the Lord. The reason why you're seeking is because God is drawing you. SPEAKER D It's interesting, right? It says, there's no one who's seeking after God. The real story is that God is seeking after us. SPEAKER C That is so know, when Adam and Eve sinned, they went hiding. God went in search of them. It wasn't them in search of God said, Lord, I've got a problem, you've got to help me with it. No, they went and hid themselves and were fearful. SPEAKER D There's such an interesting thing here. The verses keep going on and quoting from the Old Testament, all these verses that basically say humanity is depraved and is desperately wicked. This is what these verses conclude, which does really challenge us. We ask, well, I want to be someone better. I want to be righteous. I want to be like God. Now, the question comes how? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D Now, over in chapter four, where we began our study today, in verse five, it says, but to Him who does not work but believes or trusts on Him who justifies the ungodly, his trust or his faith is accounted for righteousness. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D So you've got contrasted people who depend and trust in themselves to try to reach a better standard. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And then you've got those who put their trust and faith in God to do that. SPEAKER C And they believe his promise. They believe his word. SPEAKER D That's correct. SPEAKER C Now, it could be possible that some people can say, look, this is hard to believe that God really does God justify the ungodly. So what is the qualification to be justified here? Those who believe, those who believe. That's right. But those who believe, who are ungodly because a Godly person doesn't need to be justified. Now, what do we mean by the word justified? To stand before God as if you've never sinned, to be vindicated from the condemnation of the law. So it says there the only criteria for you to be justified is to acknowledge the fact that you are ungodly. And that is God who justifies the ungodly in Jesus Christ. That is the criteria. For example, if anybody's ever migrated, if you're listening out there and you've migrated to Australia, there's certain criteria hurdles that you have had to meet to get in here. If it was like under a skilled work visa of sorts, then you would have had to have certain qualifications, certain amount of experience, and even your age could count for or against you and so forth. And then also, of course, if you get points for all of these things, and then if you had someone that actually could sponsor you and you have a job set up, especially if there's a shortage in that particular skill, they also add so many points. So then you qualify and then you can enter the country. And it's the same even if you go and apply for any job anywhere. They'll say these are the criteria anybody with these criteria can apply. So this is the education we need. This is the amount of experience we need. And also we need to be available within four weeks to start a job. For example, our only qualification according to this verse, to be justified. In other words, to be cleared righteous by God is to be ungodly. SPEAKER D Isn't that such a weird thing for us to get our brains around? SPEAKER C Everybody qualifies. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C All of humanity becomes guilty before God. Now we read in verse 19 of Romans, chapter three. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. So Paul has already identified the fact that the whole world is ungodly. And now he says here that we believe in him who justifies the ungodly and his faith is accounted for righteousness. We've previously dealt with Abraham who believed God, and to him it was accounted for righteousness. Here people who believe that God justifies the ungodly, their faith are accounted to them for righteousness in the same way. It is a mind blower, but it is such a beautiful truth that we don't have to try and make ourselves good to be qualified to be made righteous. We've got to accept the fact that we are not good, that we are ungodly, and then God can work with that. But I'm wondering if there's any stories within the scripture Braedan that we can unpack that sort of explains that mindset, because some people think maybe in their mind I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy, therefore the Lord cannot deal with me. So therefore I need to do something to make myself better, and then God can then do something with me. From there, it's kind of like trying. SPEAKER D To earn the favor of God. SPEAKER C That's right. But there are sometimes there's a mindset that we identify in the Scriptures that some people actually think that they attain to that ability to make themselves righteous, that they're better than other people. SPEAKER D There's a perfect story, and it's found in Luke chapter 18. SPEAKER C Okay? SPEAKER D And I don't think we can get a clearer, clearer story in the Bible. It's perfectly directed to answer this question. So Luke chapter 18 and verse nine. And this is Jesus speaking. He's speaking a parable. And it begins like this, verse nine. Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. SPEAKER C Wow. Okay. Well, Jesus would be addressing this issue because that issue generally exists. There'll be some people there who trusted in themselves in regards to righteousness. SPEAKER D It's interesting in the looking at the Greek for the particular word where it says they trusted in themselves that they were righteous, it's basically like they had convinced themselves, they'd persuaded their own minds that they were righteous, kind of just convinced themselves about that. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER D And they despised the people who didn't fit into that category. SPEAKER C Okay. So they saw themselves as in a different league to anybody else. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C So whenever there's this us and them mentality, it's not really something that we particularly see in the Bible regarding humanity. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and all need redemption through Christ, through a redeemer, a power outside of ourselves because we cannot do that for ourselves. SPEAKER D That's exactly right. So if we just summarize, jesus is speaking to a group of people who are confident that in themselves they are righteous. They've got life together. SPEAKER C Right. SPEAKER D And he's addressing them like we sometimes think, oh, what a great bunch of people. But Jesus sees a problem and he's addressing this problem with this parable. He goes on to say, two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D So you just picture it. You've got these two men making their way via different routes to get to this very special place. It was the center of the Jewish nation. It was the Holy Temple of God. It's a place where prayers and offerings were brought, sacrifices were made and worship took place. They're making their way to spend time with God, as it were. One of them is a Pharisee. The Pharisees were basically religious leaders of the day, influential people who were very strict when it comes to scripture. They'd memorize lots of the scriptures. On the other hand, you've got another gentleman who's heading there who's not classed as a gentleman. He's classed as a bit of a villain because he's a tax collector. And they had a huge stigma surrounding them because they would often extort lots of money and lots of fraud and stuff like that. SPEAKER C That's right, yes. SPEAKER D And so for these guys that are listening, they're like, oh, rotten tax collector. Why is he going to the temple? He should stay away because he's a tax collector. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D Pharisee, you're doing well, you're heading to the temple. And this is where the story flips around. Would you like to continue reading? There in verse eleven? SPEAKER C Verse eleven, and it says, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortionous, unjust, adulterous, or even as this tax collector. Because when I thought when he mentioned the word extortionous there, I thought definitely be pointing at the tax collector. But now he gets very specific. He's saying, this guy, he is bad. I'm glad I'm not like him. And then we read verse twelve. I fast twice a week. So now he is accounting his good works before God. It's almost saying, Lord, trust me, I'm a good person. SPEAKER D You trust me on this one. SPEAKER C Trust me on this one. Yeah. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. So this is his view of himself, but it also contrasts his view of other people. There's not a compassion for the sinner. There is a self righteous element that actually separates himself from that person and really doesn't want anything to do with that person. SPEAKER D And it's so interesting, he says, I'm so grateful that I'm not like other men. Now that mindset how easily that can creep into our Christian experience. Yes, God, I'm so grateful that I'm not like that person. That the mindset. I am not like other men. SPEAKER C I'm different. SPEAKER D I'm something better. I'm something more special. I'm something better. And he says other men extortioners unjust, so basically saying I'm so glad. And the word there is basically meaning unrighteous, not holy. He says, I'm so glad I'm not unjust or unholy. I'm so glad I'm holy and just and righteous. He was convinced that he had it all together and he just reminded God about all the good things that he'd done and thought that he'd solved the case. He's presented his case to God. He's in right standing with God and that other dude needs to get his life together. SPEAKER C Wow. And to put this in contrast, we are talking jesus is particularly speaking this parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and they despised others. So this is the example here that he trusts in his own righteousness, he's trusted in himself. And now he's giving a big list to actually he sees enough evidence to actually believe the lie. He fasts twice a week, he gives tithe and he's not like that tax collector. SPEAKER D That's so interesting, isn't it? SPEAKER C It is. SPEAKER D The story goes on and this is where all of the jaws would have hit the floor. Yes, everyone's mouths would have fallen open. Verse 13. And the tax collector, standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, god, be merciful to me, a sinner. So when we contrast these two men, the pharisee boldly and confidently walks into the temple precinct. Yes, he comes in there with his and he stands up. He doesn't bow down. He stands up and he starts thanking God that he's special and something better than everyone else. And he recites all the good things that he's done. He's confident that he is righteous in the eyes of God. On the flip side, you've got the tax collector who's standing way off in the distance. He doesn't even feel worthy to come into God's presence. And here we find something very special. Both of these men actually have something in common, right? They're actually both ungodly. As the Bible has made it very clear already, there's no one who is righteous. No, not one. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D So these two men, ungodly men, have walked into the temple precinct. One's come boldly marching in there and basically saying, god, look, I'm amazing. I'm not like that person I'm not. SPEAKER C Like that person stood proudly as a representative of God, so to speak. SPEAKER D He's so proud. And then the other one, he's just standing at a distance and he can't even lift his eyes to heaven. He's so discouraged. And he says, god, can you please be merciful to me? I'm a sinner. SPEAKER C Yeah. He recognizes the fact that he doesn't represent God because he's so ungodly. SPEAKER D That's right. And this is where that we find a real twist. Would you like to read verse 14? SPEAKER C Yeah. Now, Jesus says, I tell you, this man, this man being the tax collector, the one that was targeted by the Pharisee, that he said, I'm glad I'm not like this tax collector. This is what Jesus says. Now, if I wanted a testimony from anybody, it wouldn't be from another man. I would love to hear from Jesus what he thinks and what he says. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C He says, I tell you, this man went down to his house. So this is subsequent to that conversation with God. That prayer went to the house justified rather than the other. Now the other is that Pharisee. So Jesus is saying the Pharisee didn't go to his house justified, but the tax collector went justified. And then Jesus says these words for everyone who exalts Himself will be humbled, and he who humbles Himself will be exalted. Wow, that's incredible. So the qualification here to be justified is to acknowledge yourself as a sinner. Be merciful to me, a sinner. And also that humility. He can't even raise his eyes to heaven because he feels so unworthy. Now, this is an absolute mind blower to me. So the qualification for justification is to recognize our ungodliness. Our unrighteousness. SPEAKER D That's so fascinating, because at the beginning of this parable, it says it talks about those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. That's the word dickios. I'm butchering the pronunciation of the Greek word there. But that's the same root word that's spoken of later when it says he went down to his house justified or righteous, declared righteous in the eyes of God. So you've got this flip side. We've got these people who are confident that they are righteous. SPEAKER C And that's a self declaration, obviously. SPEAKER D Self declaration. Yes, I am righteous. And then at the end of the day, there's only one person, only one person who has Jesus say, you are righteous. You are declared righteous. And that is this man who comes in. He's so real and honest about his ungodliness and how much he's failed. He just acknowledges and he's so humble. And he walks back home asking for mercy. He asked God for mercy. And Jesus says he went home justified. He went home declared righteous. In my eyes, he is. SPEAKER C Wow. You know, the world seems to appreciate people who are, you know, and they can promote that atmosphere when they walk into a place, all of a sudden, people's eyes are caught by their persona. And we go, wow, this man here, the one that went home justified, would have been the one that was so humble. And you were looked at him and they go, oh, you're a tax collector. People would have frowned upon him. And I guess from a human perspective, looking at the Pharisee, you perhaps would have even entered into considering that maybe, perhaps apart from his arrogance, that he actually really was a good man. He did a lot of good things where the other man just didn't think anything he did was good. He just said, Lord, please be merciful on me. So he recognized his sin and he recognized that with God there is mercy. Now I want to touch on something else as well. What disqualifies someone from being justified? SPEAKER D Did you say disqualifies? SPEAKER C Disqualifies. Disqualifies? Because the qualification is very clear. You got to recognize you're ungodly Godly. But to be disqualified is to go down the same path that the Pharisee went down, which is self righteousness. SPEAKER D It says for everyone, everyone. It says, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So the way down is up and the way up is down. But those people who try to climb in their own estimation, to try to convince God that they are something in pride and arrogance, that's the quick way down. But to be qualified to be justified is simply to embrace your wretchedness and your brokenness. And now it's very interesting when that man, that tax collector, when he just started just probably sobbing and didn't even want to look up to the sky, he was so discouraged at himself, and he said, God, I'm a wretched sinner, but you are kind and merciful. Can you show me mercy? In that particular place where he is no longer trying to convince everyone that he's something that is not? Where he's no longer trying to convince himself that he's something that is not? And he's just being raw and honest and real about what is actually real? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D He says, I'm a sinner and I need your mercy. In that particular moment of surrender, basically, he's plugged back in there's a proper relationship between heaven and earth. The other guy's living in denial. SPEAKER C That's right. He's covering sin, basically. He's covering not acknowledging his sin. SPEAKER D He's not acknowledging it. He's just deceiving himself. He's convinced himself, persuaded himself that he's righteous. The other guy just simply embraces things as they really are. And when he was real about who he was and about who God was, real things started to happen and he started on a journey. He was justified, declared righteous. He had a right relationship with God. And from that very day, a special work of transformation would have continued in his heart, where God enables him to become the person that he wants to be. Yes, but it starts with surrender. It starts with acknowledging our brokenness. And in that place, god's able to do something. SPEAKER C And this is the great thing. I mean, the comforter Jesus promised the world, which is the Holy Spirit, one of the first things it does is to convict the world of sin. It was obvious in this man's heart that the Holy Spirit was working because he was convicted of his sin. And what was the purpose of that conviction? For him to acknowledge it so that God could justify him or make him righteous. Because the second conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit after sin is that of righteousness. And Jesus says to convict the world of righteousness because I go to my Father because the standard of righteousness, understanding of what it is, when you looked at Jesus, you could see it, but it's now been taken away. So now the Holy Spirit now impresses our hearts and our minds what true righteousness is. So this man went home justified. Now, there are some people sometimes that feel so bad that they can't believe that they are good enough that God could do something like that for them. Now, the sole reason why they can't believe that God justifies them is that they are so ungodly. And that's actually ungodly act unbelief is an ungodly act as well. It's almost like a paradox, isn't it? SPEAKER D Isn't that interesting? We've looked at acknowledging that you are ungodly is the criteria for being justified. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And yet in our minds we think, I'm too ungodly. It's almost like I'm too qualified to be justified. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D Forgetting that the more ungodly you realize you are, the more qualified you are to be justified. SPEAKER C That's right. There's no halfway ground there. Now, some people may think if only they could find some good in themselves, or if only they could straighten themselves out or do a little bit better, then they might find some courage of hope that God could actually do something with them. But this text is very clear that that is actually self deception. If you think that way, they would like to justify themselves perhaps by their own works, maybe do some good acts, some carnacs, maybe volunteer and do some stuff, then once they feel a little bit better about themselves, maybe then they might believe that God can justify them and their faith might grasp hold of that. SPEAKER D The problem we have here is we feel that God's favor is something that we don't have intrinsically and by nature. SPEAKER C Has to be earned. SPEAKER D It has to be earned. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D The Bible makes it clear that God's grace, his kindness and his favor is shown toward us because God actually cares for us, not because of what we've done to earn it. And so if we realize that, that he actually cares about the wretched sinner in the gutter who doesn't have hope for the future and is just a train wreck of a life, when we realize that God loves that person and accepts that person and embraces that person. And all they need to do is just go, god, I need your help, and embrace that it's on the way up for them. But when we believe that God's favor comes and goes, when we come and go, yes. When we've got that mindset, we will put all emphasis on what we need to do to be able to impress God. God, remember, I fast twice a week. I do all these different things. Remember, I'm righteous. Trust me, Lord, trust me on this one. God, trust me. But we need to just fall humbly and stand at a distance and recognize that we are very different to God. But God wants to make us just like Him. SPEAKER C Amen. And look. And God's word is true. I mean, faith is dependence upon the Word of God. Only the Word of God here says that God justifies the ungodly. We need to accept that by faith. Now, there might be some people who feel themselves so ungodly that they find that it's almost impossible to have any grounds for any hope to be justified or declared righteous by God. But this is exactly where faith is to come in, because we are not justified by our works, because by the works of the law is the knowledge of sin. That's what the Bible says. But if it wasn't by faith, then it has to be by works. And the Bible is very clear, it can't be by works. So God takes us just where we are. That is the qualification required. And I just want to add a text to that because Romans chapter four, and I'm going to read it again and I'm going to add a text to it. Romans chapter four, verse five says, but now to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness just in the same way that Abraham believed and his faith was accounted for righteousness. Then we are told in verse 25 of Romans, chapter four, that Jesus was delivered because of our offenses. Now, the word offenses there means because of our transgressions and our sins. Let me put it another way. Jesus was delivered because of our ungodliness, and then it says that he was raised because of our justification. So, dear listener, Jesus Christ has paid the price for our sins when he died. But when he was raised, it demonstrated that he actually took ungodly people and that he had made them righteous or declared them justified. We pray that God will give you the courage and the faith to accept His Word at face value and to believe the Word so that you also like Abraham, by believing, will be declared righteous. May God bless you. Until we meet again next time. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected] You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you.