Now open your Bibles with me
to the book of Habakkuk chapter 1. Habakkuk chapter 1. I'm going to begin in verse 12
of this chapter. And the title of the message
this evening is taken from chapter 2 and verse 4, where Habakkuk
writes, the just shall live by his faith. The title of the message
is the justified. That's who the just are, the
justified. Brother Aaron read in that Psalm,
in Psalm 143, where it says that no man living shall be justified
in the sight of God. And yet here in chapter 2 and
verse 4, he identifies that there are a people who are justified.
Now how do we understand that from Scripture? Well, I'm going
to show you how tonight. But the justified, it says, shall
live by his faith. The justified shall live by his
faith. Habakkuk, the prophet Habakkuk,
was a man with a lot of questions and a lot of complaints. And
in that sense, he is not unlike the rest of us. He's human. He was a believing man. He was
a sinner saved by the grace of God. He is one who looked forward
by faith to the promise of a Redeemer, a Savior, who would come and
put away his sins and and bring forth righteousness by the mercy
and grace of God. And yet he could not, like many,
like all of us, I started saying many of us, but like all of us,
he could not understand the wisdom and the glory of God's workings
in providence, everyday life. Why does God let certain things
happen? Why does he not do certain things
the way we see them? And so he was a man of great
questions. He started out in his book here
complaining about the sin and depravity and idolatry and unbelief
of his own nation, Judah. You know the nation Judah, that
segment of Israel, the chosen people. That's where the Jews
got their name from, Judah. He was one of the sons of Jacob,
of Israel. He was the one whom Israel blessed. Jacob blessed on his deathbed
by saying in Genesis chapter 49 that the scepter, the rule,
the royal rule of righteousness would not depart from Judah until
Shiloh come. That's a prophecy of Christ.
And that scepter means that line of the kings would come through
that tribe. And we know that that speaks
of Christ, too, because He was born of that tribe through Mary. He wasn't born of man. He's the
seed of woman, but even His mother, Mary, in whose womb He was conceived
by the Holy Spirit, was from that tribe of Judah. And so He
is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. But Habakkuk complained
about the sins and the depravity and idolatry and unbelief of
Judah. These are God's chosen people.
And he basically asked this question, Lord, why are you allowing this
to go on? Why don't you put a stop to it? And then God answers him
in a section of chapter one. He says, I'm going to put a stop
to it. I'm going to deal with it. I'm going to come in judgment,
and here's how I'm going to do it. I'm raising up a nation right
now that I'm going to use as an instrument of judgment against
the sin of my own people. Well, what nation was he going
to use? He was going to use the Babylons. The Babylonians. And the Babylonians, which was
such a wicked, idolatrous, God-hating nation. And Habakkuk was just,
he was just dumbfounded. And he's asking now, he says,
well, how in the world can you use that nation, that wicked
nation, who themselves deserve condemnation, destruction and
wrath, how can you use them And God answers him there. But now
Habakkuk had these questions. And God shows him that God's
going to do things in his way according to his wisdom. And
he even tells him, he says, now Babylon's going to be judged
too. They're not going to get away with their sin. God's going
to deal with sin. He must punish sin. If you don't
believe that, then look at the cross. That's the supreme dealing
with sin, judgment of God for his people in their salvation
and our salvation dealing with our sins. But God's gonna judge
Babylon too. But Habakkuk just couldn't understand
the wisdom of God in that. But he also was a man of faith.
And faith is the gift of God. It's not of works. It's not of
man. It's not of our will and our decision. It's a gift from
God. So we know he was a man that was blessed of God. And
so when God tells Habakkuk that he's going to use the Babylonians
to judge his people, that raises another question in Habakkuk's
mind. Well, well, does that mean, does that mean that there's no
hope for any of us? Is God going to destroy us all?
Well, Habakkuk knew better than that. Look at verse 12. This
is how he starts out this section. What he does here is he shows
that he believes in the God of the covenant, the God of promise,
the God of grace, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And
here's what he says. He says first, he says, "...Art
thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One?" Now that
term, the Holy One, It speaks not only of God in the holiness
of His nature, in essence, as God in the Godhead, as deity,
but it also speaks of His holiness and His redemptive purpose, the
Holy One. Christ Himself is called the
Holy One of Israel. That's the Messiah. So this is
covenant language now. This is messianic language. This
is speaking not just that God is sitting in His temple holy,
just being holy, but God's going to enact it. He's going to purpose
it. He's going to show it forth.
He's going to show forth His glory in a particular way. And
here's how He's going to do it. Look at the next line. We shall
not die. Now who's He talking about here?
He's talking about the people of the covenant. Well, is that
talking about the old covenant, the law of Moses, that nobody
in Judah is going to die? Oh, no. Because when the Babylonians
came through, as I told you, when they first began to conquer
Judah and Jerusalem, They came in three waves, and on the third
wave, on the third attack, that's when they leveled the city of
Jerusalem and leveled the temple of Solomon. And in all three
waves, there were many, many of the Israelites in Judah killed.
Many of them. So what's Habakkuk referring
to here? We shall not die. Well, he's talking about the
covenant of grace. He's talking about God's covenant
people. He says, we shall not die, O
Lord, for thou hast ordained them, that's the Babylonians,
for judgment. You're going to use them to judge
your people. And then he says, O mighty God.
Now you might have in your concordance the word rock there. O my rock. And that's a good translation
of that. This is God who is our rock. Now there again, he's showing
that God is the God of salvation. He's the God of promise. He's
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the covenant God, upon
whom we stand and in whom we hide. That's what God my rock
is. If God is my rock, I cannot die. That's what He's saying. If God
is my rock, I'm safe. Safe in the rock, you see. We hide in Him. Christ is our
rock. He's the rock of the church.
He told Peter and the disciples, he said, upon this rock I will
build my church and what? The gates of hell will not prevail
against it. So that rock is safety. That's
what he's talking about. We shall not die. And he says,
thou hast established them for correction. He's going to correct
his people. Now there is a physical application
to this promise to Judah, because even though God was going to
punish them and correct them and judge them through the Babylonians
by sending Judah into captivity for 70 years, that's how long
they went. You can read about that in the
books of Daniel and Ezekiel. That's that time period at the
end of Jeremiah and all this, the end of Habakkuk, actually.
and he sent them into captivity. But he did bring them out as
a nation and reestablish them in the land of Judah in Jerusalem
and they rebuilt the temple. But, but, understand verse 12
again. Now look at the first line again.
Art thou not from everlasting? This is eternal matters here.
Habakkuk is referring and relying upon the eternal promises of
God, not the temporal promises of an earthly land and an earthly
redemption and an earthly deliverance. That's temporary, because eventually
Judah, their whole life from then on was under foreign governments,
and eventually they were destroyed by the Roman Empire. Now some
people point to the fact they say, well, God's not through
with them yet. He has still some future things to deal with them.
He may have, but it's not as a nation under Jewish law. You
see, the church is made up of spiritual Israel, God's people
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, Jew and Gentile,
and here's the key, standing upon the rock Christ Jesus and
under the headship of Christ, the Redeemer of the church. And
so, no Jew or Gentile will be safe from the wrath of God No
Jew or Gentile in any generation, this generation of Habakkuk or
our generation today or future generations, no Jew or Gentile
will be safe from eternal death except they flee to Christ, the
rock of our salvation. Now when he talks about God being
from everlasting, he's showing that God made a covenant promise
in eternity. This didn't start at Sinai. The
God who's everlasting and eternal here, His covenant and His promise
and His oath are before the world began. The Scripture teaches
that, not just in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament also,
but I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 6. Look at this. Now, this is the foundation of
everything that Habakkuk says as he writes that line, the justified
shall live by his faith. And I want to show you that.
When he appeals to God's eternality, God is eternal. No beginning,
no end. He who we read in Revelation
1 this morning in our Sunday school. He which is, which was,
and which ever will be. That's God. He's the I am. He's
never an I was. or he's the eternal I Am. He's appealing also to God's
immutability, the fact that God doesn't change. You see, here's
the point. You look at Hebrews 6 here. If God were to cast off
or eternally put to death His covenant people, God would have
to change. Did you know that? Because, see,
the eternal God, who's from everlasting, He made an eternal, everlasting
promise. Now, we can't grasp that concept
in our little old minds. You know, infinity, eternity,
and immutability. Those are things that we can
just stand back in amazement and say, that's God. But if God
were to kill off His covenant people whom He chose from the
beginning in Christ, gave to Christ. Remember Christ said,
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And this is the will
of the Father which hath sent me, that he, that he all whom
the Father hath given me will come to me, I might raise them
up in the last day. Well, when did the Father give
them to him? He gave them to him in the eternal covenant of
grace. before the world began. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2nd
Timothy, in chapter 1, verses 9 through 10, he talked about
the salvation that God gave us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. So if God were to cast off His covenant people, then
He'd have to change. And He doesn't change. God doesn't
change. I can't explain that to you,
but I know it's so. He said in Malachi chapter 3
and verse 6, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore what? You sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Habakkuk says it this way, Art
thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? We shall
not die. Same thing Malachi said, just
in a different way and a different context. Look at Hebrews chapter
6 and look at verse 17. Here's the essence of what Habakkuk
is saying. Now God's going to punish his
people, but we won't die. His covenant people will not
die. They will die physically, but we won't die eternally. And
he says in verse 17 of Hebrews 6, wherein God, willing more
abundantly to show unto heirs a promise. That's who Habakkuk's
talking about. the immutability of his counsel,
the unchangeability of his eternal counsel, confirmed it by an oath. Now, when God confirms it by
an oath, what that means is that God engages himself. He puts himself behind it. His reputation, his honor, his
glory, his nature, his attributes are behind this counsel and this
promise. And counsel means that it's the
product of God's infinite, eternal wisdom and knowledge and love. And so God put himself behind
this. If God, listen, if this promise
were to ever fail in one instance in the salvation of his people
by his sovereign grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
reputation would be tarnished. God's honor would be diminished. And that will not happen. It will never happen. It cannot
happen. That's right. Somebody said,
I think we were talking about this the other day, how somebody
once said, well, God didn't have to send Christ here to die for
our sins. He could have just snapped his
finger and redeemed us. Oh, no. And I'll tell you why. Because God must be just when
he justifies. Now Habakkuk says, the justified
shall live by faith. That means God's justified somebody. And if He's justified somebody,
He's got to be just in doing so. He's got to be honored. And
that's what this means. That's His oath. And He says
in verse 18, now look here, Hebrews 6, He says that by two immutable
things. Well, what is that? That's God's
promise and God's oath. You can't change them. He says,
in which it was impossible for God to lie. God cannot lie. We
might have a strong consolation, just like Habakkuk. Living by
his faith, he says, we shall not die. That's a strong statement,
isn't it? You know, as the old cowboy said,
those damn strong words. They sure are. Strong comfort,
strong assurance. Now, who has this strong consolation? Look at it. Those who have fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Now, what
is the hope set before us? Which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, like the rock of our salvation, Both sure and
steadfast, you can't move this rock, this rock is Christ, and
which entereth into that within the veil," who did that? "...whether
the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus." Made an high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. This rock is Christ. Habakkuk,
even back then, he knew that his salvation was not wrapped
up in the Law of Moses in a human, earthly priesthood, but in one
who is the Holy One, the eternal, unchangeable One. You see, the
Old Covenant pictured and typified Christ, but that Old Covenant
priesthood was changeable. They changed all the time. Here
comes a high priest of the tribe of Levi, and he gets old and
he dies, and another one replaces him. It's changing, see, all
the time. But we have an anchor, we have
a rock, the Holy One of God, the Holy One of Israel, who never
changes. He's Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And that's what Habakkuk is focusing
on here now. And what he's saying now, go
back to Habakkuk 1, now listen to him, it's the same thing we
say. We can really identify with this prophet, folks, I'm telling
you. And here it is. It's almost like he's saying
this, God, I don't understand why you're doing this this way
in providence in life, why you're using this one and using that
one, but this one thing I know. You're eternal, unchangeable.
You've made a promise to save sinners by Jesus Christ. He's our rock. He's my forgiveness. He's my sin-bearing sacrifice. I'm forgiven by His blood. I'm
justified before Thee in His righteousness, and we will not
die. Whatever happens, if God does
something that just flips my mind 30 ways from Sunday, I'm
still not gonna die, I have life in Christ. And so he says, go
back to verse 12, he says, now you've ordained the Babylonians
for judgment, that's so, you've told me that. God's revealed
that to Habakkuk. In your some way and in your
wisdom, you're gonna get glory and honor from that. And you've
established them for correction, but he says, look at verse 13
now. Now, this is good here. Now, He says, He says, Thou art
of pure eyes, then, to behold evil. God's holy. He's holy. Now, all this is speaking of
His purpose to send Christ into the world to save His people
from their sins. You know, how's He gonna do that?
He's of pure eyes, then, to behold evil and can't not look on iniquity. You can't look on iniquity. God's
holy. How can this be, you see? You
move in mysterious ways, and I can't figure them out. But
how can a holy God, who is of pure eyes than to behold evil
and canst not look upon iniquity, how can he use an evil nation
like Babylon to punish his people? But here's the greater question
out of all that. How can a holy God, who's of
pure eyes than to behold evil and canst not look upon iniquity,
how can he justify a sinner? now you want to talk about a
question of questions there's one that we don't have the answer
to except god reveals how can god who's a purist and to behold
evil and cannot look up on an equity how can he justify accept
receive bless and commune with me and you He goes on, and hold on to that
thought now, what he's saying there, this is why no one can
be saved and justified before God and go to heaven with sin
charged to him. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not a name. This is why we can't go to heaven
with sin in us. We must be glorified. We must
be changed. I was reading about a fellow
who was claiming that Christ had already come back and we're
already living in glorified bodies. Well, if that's the case, we
might as well just pack up and go home, hadn't we? If the body
I'm living in now is a glorified body, I mean, my soul, think
about it. It's amazing the stupidity of
men sometimes. And I don't say that arrogantly.
I know that. But this is the issue. We must
be justified and glorified in and by Christ. When God forgives
a sinner, it's because the penalty of our sins has been paid for
by His Son. And that's why the psalmist says
there, now, in Psalm 104, in the sight of God, no man living
shall be justified. What is he talking about? Is
he saying it's impossible for any of us to be justified? No,
what he's saying, and you read the whole Psalm again, he's simply
saying this, that from my viewpoint, And for my own puny ignorance
and lack of wisdom, I can't figure out how God can be just and justify.
I can't figure out how, but God has a way. God reveals that way. And God reveals this, that in
his sight no sinner can be justified without that sin issue being
taken care of. and being dealt with in a way
that honors God. You see, and this is another
thing Habakkuk is finding out in this prophecy. This is another
thing we need to learn every day. This whole thing is not
about us. And I think that's the main problem
with false religion today that comes in the name of Christianity.
They make salvation, they make worship all about man. and not about God. It's all about
me and all about you. It's all about the preacher,
all about this one, that one, and how much you're needed and
how much worth you are. No, no, no. It's about God. Salvation
is about God and His honor and His glory and His promise and
His oath wrapped up in the person and finished work of Christ.
and what god does on this small little speck of dust in the universe
in his providence is he's going to work it out i guarantee you
you don't have to worry about that he's going to work it out
and it's going to work to his glory and for the good of his
people but here's the issue that we have to understand when god
justifies a sinner it's because righteousness has been established
by his son He's enabled to be both a just God and a Savior.
How then can He look upon them that deal treacherously? Now,
this is what Habakkuk is saying. Look back at verse 13. He says, Thou art of pure eyes
than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity. Wherefore
lookest Thou upon them that deal treacherously? Like the Babylonians.
Now, I know you're the Holy One. I know you're the Redeemer. I
know all of this. But how can you deal with those
people that way? because you're a pure eyes than
to behold evil, and hold your tongue, holdest thy tongue when
the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he."
Now Habakkuk said the wrong thing there. Just to be frank with
you. He's wrestling in his own mind
on these things. And he's expressing a common
problem that we all have. And we would say it's something
like this in our day. we'd say something like, now
this is in our human thinking, I'm talking about even believers
now, the way we think, all right? Because we still have these struggles
with the flesh and with self-righteousness and with sin within, don't we?
And it's almost like he's saying this, he said, God, I know I'm
not perfect, but I'm not as bad as those Babylonians. And I know
Judah here, I know they're sinful, but they're not as sinful as
as those people. That's a common issue with man. Speaking from man's point of
view. He's not speaking from God's point of view because in
God's point of view, in God's sight, there's none righteous,
no not one. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. In God's sight, man by nature,
all deserve condemnation and have earned death. In God's sight,
there are no degrees of righteousness. You're either righteous or you're
not. There are no degrees of perfection with God. What's one
degree less than perfect? Imperfect. Sin. That's what that
is. In God's sight, to offend in
one point is to be guilty of how many? All. Am I right? How many sins did
Adam commit when he brought the whole human race into ruination? One. He dishonored God. He didn't believe God. When the
Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, how does He do it? In John 16
and verses 8 and 9, He convinces us of sin because we believe
not on Christ. Without Christ, everything we
are and do is sin. That's what He says. You remember
Isaiah, about a hundred years before Habakkuk, when he dealt
with that subject, as he was inspired by the Spirit of God,
he was speaking from God's point of view. And you know what he
said? He compared Judah to Sodom and Gomorrah. He didn't say,
Judah's more righteous than Sodom and Gomorrah. He said, no, except
the Lord had left us a small remnant of grace, we'd be just
like Sodom and Gomorrah. We'd all perish and deservedly
so. Christ dealt with this human point of view that Habakkuk expresses
here when he spoke the parable of the publican and the Pharisees.
It says in Luke 18 and verse 9 that he spoke this parable
to those who judged themselves as righteous and despised others,
looked down on others. But here, what's wrong with Habakkuk? The same thing's wrong with me.
Same thing's wrong with you. We know the God of promise, we
who believe now. We who are believers, this is
who I'm talking about. We know, we know the gospel,
we know God's promise, we know we shall not die. But when we
deal with these things of everyday life, we just can't figure them
all out. And we grope in the dark until God lets us in on
a little bit. Let's read on, look here in verse
14. Now he goes on, he describes
He describes the Babylonians and their evil. He says, they
make men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that
have no ruler over them. In other words, they just look
at men as fish to be taken. They're ours for the taking.
That's how they... They don't love their fellow
man. They don't have any concern for others. He says in verse
15, they take up all them with an angle, like an angler, like
a fisherman with an angler. They catch them in their net,
and gather them in their drag, their drag net, bring them in
against their will, and therefore they rejoice and are glad, therefore
they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag,
because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous."
They praise the instruments, the tools. That's man by nature
there. Man praises and worships second
causes. The first cause of all things
is God. You can read about that in Romans
chapter 1 verses 18 and on. How man worships the creature
and the creation rather than the creator. He says in verse
17, shall they therefore empty their net and not spare continually
to slay the nations? In other words, they're insatiable.
You can't satisfy them. They get a full net, they empty
it, and they go after more. More, more, more. That's man,
isn't it? More, more, more. That's why we have to rent out
storage centers. Because we got more than we can
keep at home. I shouldn't have said that. Somebody
might own a storage center here. My brother works at one. But
you know, really, I mean, it is a good description of man,
isn't it? We've got to have more, more than what we had. And we
think about that in our children. We've got to make sure our children
have more than we had. So, those folks that have storage centers
are going to be rich, huh? But look at chapter 2. He goes
on. Now here's what, now listen to
what Habakkuk's doing now. Now what he's doing here in chapter
2, he's doing what the psalmist said when he couldn't figure
out why the heathen prosper. And he basically says, well,
you remember the psalmist, he said, until I went into the sanctuary
of the Lord. Until I sought it out from God.
Now let me tell you something now. On these areas about providence
and why God does it this way and not that way, he may let
us in on it, he may not. We may know some things after
the fact, we may not. But we know it's all in his hands.
And in Christ we shall not die. Now that's what it means to say
the justified shall live by his faith. Look at it, he says, I
will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower. and we'll
watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer
when I am reproved." I'm going to stand up here and wait for
God's answer. He says, and the Lord answered
me, verse 2, and here's what he said, write the vision, write
this word, that's what that means, write the prophecy, the word
that I'm going to give you, make it plain upon tables, that's
like carving in stone, and that he may run that reader. that
he can take this and run with it. You know, a lot of things
you hear, you can't take them and run with because you make
yourself a fool. But you can take this and run with it because
this is from God. And he says in verse four, or
three, for the vision is yet for an appointed time. You know
what he's saying there? He's saying, Habakkuk, don't
worry about it. Everything is right on schedule. Isn't that amazing? Everything's
right on schedule. It's for an appointed time. God's
running things right on His schedule. Not my schedule, His schedule.
And He says, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. When
it's all over now, there's going to be a message here of truth,
not a lie. And He says, though it tarry,
though it may seem far off, wait for it, wait upon the Lord. because
it will surely come it will not tear the message is going to
be there and he says behold his soul which is lifted up is not
upright in him understand that the soul that's lifted up no
matter what lifts it up in pride and self-righteousness the soul
whether it be in power whether it be in materialism or whether
it be in religion the soul that's lifted up The sinner who comes
before God seeking salvation, seeking forgiveness, seeking
righteousness by his works, he says, it is not upright. That's
not uprightness. That's not according to God's
standard of righteousness. But the justified shall live
by his faith. Those who are justified. What
is it to be justified? It is to be not guilty before
God. Sin brings guilt. Because the
law condemns it. So how can I, who am a sinner,
say I'm not guilty? Not but one way. And that is
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the blood of his cross,
through the righteousness that God has imputed, charged to me. That's the only way. No other
way. The sins that I commit, even
as a justified sinner, would condemn me and cause me guilt,
except that Christ is continually my righteousness, my forgiveness. Paul quoted this verse three
times in the New Testament. The first one is in Romans chapter
1, when he's talking about the gospel. I preached on this a
little bit when I preached on that subject, what is your faith?
And he said in Romans 1.16 and verse 17, listen, Romans 1.16
and 17, he says, chapter 1, verse 16 and 17, he said, For I am
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of
God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. Now you see, this is not just
to any one nation, this is to anybody who wants it. And the
problem is man by nature doesn't want it, isn't that it? And he
says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Now he's of
pure eyes then to behold evil, but in this good news. You see,
I heard a man preach on this one time and he said the righteousness
of God there was God's attribute of righteousness. Now let me
tell you something. Here's something I do know. That
we being sinners, If the gospel only revealed God's attribute
of righteousness, that would not be good news to us. Because by God's attribute of
righteousness, that shows us that sin must be dealt with justly
and righteously. He says, therein is the righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel, in the good news. Good news to
who? To sinners! It's good news to
sinners, those who know their sin. And he said it's revealed
from faith. The from faith there, I believe,
is the body of truth, the gospel itself, the preaching of the
truth of Christ and Him crucified and risen again. Two-faith. Two-faith there is the gift of
faith that the Holy Spirit gives us in the new birth. We hear
that message with a hearing ear. God's given us ears to hear,
eyes to see, hearts and minds to understand. He's given us
spiritual life, and we believe it. As it is written, the just
shall live by faith. Well, what is the righteousness
of God there? Well, Paul defines it in Romans chapter 3. It's
the work of Christ and His obedience unto death for His people. He
defined it again in Romans chapter 10 in verse 4. He said, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Paul
quoted again in Galatians chapter 3. This quote from Habakkuk in Galatians
chapter 3. Now what was going on in Galatians?
Well, the issue in Galatians was how does God justify a sinner? Paul had preached the gospel.
that God justifies the ungodly by His grace through and by the
Lord Jesus Christ based on His blood and righteousness alone.
That's the only reason that we can stand with Habakkuk in faith
and say we will not die. Because God chose us, God sent
His Son to die for us, and God's given us life by His grace. But false preachers had crept
into these churches challenging that message. They say, well,
we're saved by grace, but we're kept by works, or we're made
holy, or perfect, or pure, or more saved by our works. And
Paul said, that's a lie, that's heresy, that's a false gospel.
And so he says in verse 10 of Galatians 3, look at it, for
as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
If you're trying to be saved, justified, made righteous, forgiven
by your works, you're under a curse. For it's written, cursed is everyone
that continues not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the justified
shall live by faith. Well, how are we going to be
justified? What does that mean to the just live by faith? Well,
he says, well, the law is not a faith. It's not looking to
the law. Living by faith is not looking to the law, because the
law is not a faith. What he means by that is this.
The law doesn't require you to believe. The law provides you
no way of justification. The law provides you no way of
forgiveness. The law just simply says do,
do, do and live. and do perfectly. So he says,
the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall
live in them. Well, how are we going to be justified? How are
we going to live by faith? Look into Christ. Verse 13, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. Just like he was made sin, he
was made a curse. Sins were imputed, charged to
him. He bore our sins, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
And then lastly, Hebrews chapter 10. This is quoted again. Look
at Hebrews chapter 10. Now here, the subject is perseverance,
continuance. It's almost like somebody might
say, well, okay, we're justified. by Christ and when we look to
Him. But now, how do we continue this
journey? How do we stay on the journey? Well, the same way. Look at Hebrews 10. Look at verse
38. Well, look at verse 36. He says,
for you have need of patience. That's endurance. That's perseverance.
that after you've done the will of God you might receive the
promise that's glory talking about final glory for yet a little
while and he that shall come will and will not tarry Christ
is coming he's going to glorify us now what do we do leading
up to that time time of our death at the time of the second the
just shall live by faith what is that looking to Christ but
if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him
now if you if you forsake Christ then there's no pleasure. But
he says in verse 39, but we're not of them who draw back unto
perdition. You can't lose salvation. We're
not of them who draw back unto condemnation, but of them that
believe to the saving of the soul. Look over at Hebrews 12. This is a pretty good summation
of that passage in Habakkuk. Verse one. He says, wherefore
seeing we also are compass surrounded about with so great a cloud of
witnesses. Now he's talking about the believers
that he had listed in Hebrews 11. Let us lay aside every weight
in the sin which so easily beset us. I believe that's talking
about unbelief, doubt. Like Habakkuk's going through
when he's looking at providence. And let us run with patience
the endurance, the race that is set before us. How are we
going to run that race? Well, he just said the justified
shall live by his faith. What is his faith? Look at verse
2. Looking unto Jesus, God our Savior, that same God who is
from everlasting, the Holy One of Israel, the rock of our salvation,
who started it, who keeps it, and who'll complete it, the author
and the finisher, the completer of our faith. We don't even have
faith in our faith. You see what he's saying? We
have faith in Christ. He's the object of our faith.
Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.
There's his finished work. It's not just Christ absolutely
considered, it's Christ and him crucified. Who endured the cross. Who put away my sins. Who worked
out a righteousness that enables God to justify this old sinner.
despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of god he finished the work he completed the work he
did all that's necessary and required for the justified to
be justified and to live by his faith