May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
epistle of Paul to the Romans, the first chapter, and we'll
read verse 17. The first chapter in the epistle
of Paul to the Romans, and reading verse 17. For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. Just before we start, for the
benefit of you young people, this chapter that we've read,
the first chapter in Romans, is a very important chapter and
it gives us some very specific guidance on a number of things. And one of the things is that
people will say, well, those who are born into countries where
there is no gospel, how are they going to know that there is a
God? And it's a good question, it
needs an answer. Well, we can find out that in this chapter
and the verse 20, we read, for the invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made. even the eternal power of God,
of Godhead, so that they are without excuse. We have the creation
all around us to demonstrate that there is a creator and therefore
people can see that and are without excuse to think that there is
no God. And then further on in this chapter,
again, We live in a very sad age when homosexuals and lesbians
are accepted as quite acceptable and quite normal. Well, you young
people should be aware the word of God speaks very much against
that situation. And therefore, again in this
chapter, just reading on a bit further, he said, professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools. and changed the glory
of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore
God also gave them up to uncleanness, to the lust of their own hearts,
to dishonour their own bodies between themselves, who changed
the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the Creator
more than the Creator creature, more than the Creator, who is
blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave
them up unto vile affections. For even the women did change
the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise
men, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned
in their lust one toward another, men with men, working that which
is unseemly, and receiving in themselves the recompense of
their error, which was meat. Well, there we are. This is a
little couple of illustrations for you. If you have difficulty
and other people ask you questions, you'll know where to go to. The
first chapter in the epistle of Paul to the Romans. Now then,
this verse, which we read together this evening, the 17th verse,
is really linked to the previous verse. And these two verses,
16 and 17, really stand out in this chapter. Before that, Paul
has been addressing the Romans and giving them a general overview
of the situation which he does develop as he goes through this
wonderful epistle to the Romans. But these two verses, 16 and
17, follow that which is verse 15, where the
Apostle says, so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the
gospel to you that are Rome also. And then he says, for I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. And then the 17th verse, which
we read, for therein referring to the previous verse, is the
righteousness of God, revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. And so we're thankful
that we have such words as this to direct us to the great truths
of the everlasting gospel, and to know that the apostle tells
us so clearly that he is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. And he gives the reason for that,
he says, for it is the power of God unto salvation. And then he qualifies it by saying
to everyone that believeth. This is really addressed to believers
who have been blessed with this wonderful knowledge of salvation
and may we desire to follow this same pattern and not be ashamed. And he says then to the Jew first
and also to the Greek and we know the glorious gospel of course
was at first declared to the Jews and the Jews first and of
course they rejected it largely. and also to the Jews, and also
to the Greeks, and of course we know that many of the Greeks
also rejected the word of God. Well, it'll be a blessing for
us today if we are, first of all, amongst those who are categorized
as believers. You know, that's perhaps the
most important thing that we should consider as to whether
we are a believer. And what that means is this,
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as that one who has and
does take away all our sins, that one who died upon the cross
at Calvary to atone for our sins. And if we are amongst those who
truly believe, these great truths, one thing is very certain, and
that is this, the Holy Spirit will have shown us and convinced
us of our sinful heart, of our sinful nature, and we won't be
able to think, well, I'm not a very bad person, and really
I don't do, I haven't done very many wrong things. If we address
men generally and ask them if they're a sinner, They'll say,
well, I perhaps haven't done everything right, and there might
have been one or two things in my lives. But they won't really
admit and confess that they are a really bad sinner as described
to us in the word of God. Because it's not just the things
that we do, it's also things that we say, and it's also things
that we think. And when the spirit of God, and
it is the spirit of God, works in our hearts, we will realise
that we are far from perfect. In actual fact, we are very imperfect. In actual fact, we are great
sinners. And how are we to be saved? And when the Spirit of God also
sets before us that there is an eternity, people don't like
to think about eternity today. They like to shrug it off. It's
just something which is, well, just a figment of imagination,
just a fairy tale. But very clearly, the Word of
God describes to us that there is an eternity. And there is
also an eternity for those who are saved and for those who are
lost. For those who are saved, it is to go and to be with Jesus
in heaven. And for those who are lost, to
go and be with the devil in hell. So there's the two extremes,
and they are extreme. Now, if you and I are a true
believer, we will have been very concerned as to where we shall
spend eternity. And to come to a right understanding
of where we shall spend that, if it is to be found in heaven,
will be to know that the Holy Spirit of God has opened our
eyes and opened our understanding. It's so important that we have
this evidence within ourselves. It's not something which is just
a theory. And as we read together in this
verse, how it's done is by the power of God. The power of God. We read in the New Testament
many wonderful miracles, don't we? People healed. People given
their sight, given their hearing. And all these things are very
wonderful. And what did it need? It needed
the power of God. And my friends, it's no different
that you and I today need the power of God to enable us to
believe. And you may ask, well, why do
we need the power of God? It's very simple. By nature, we are dead in trespasses
and in sins. The Word of God tells us that.
We are spiritually dead. Now, I'm sure you all realise,
all young people know that if you look at a dead body, I don't
know how many of you have seen a dead body, but if you have
seen a dead body, you will know that there is absolutely no life
at all. You can shout, you can yell,
no response, absolutely dead. And that's just the same as we
are in our natural state. We do not hear the truth of God's
word. Preachers can preach, can read
the Bible, but we remain dead until a great and glorious day,
it might be so in all of our lives, when the Holy Spirit of
God brings life into our soul, so that we are no longer dead. And that life is brought about
by the power of God. Naturally, it needs power to
raise someone from the dead, doesn't it? You don't need to
be very clever to understand that. You and I can't raise anybody
from the dead. Only God can, and of course there
will be that wonderful resurrection day when everybody will be raised
from the dead. But we're thankful to know that today the Holy Spirit
of God does raise people spiritually from the dead into life. And if that is so, then the Spirit
of God directs us to our need because of our state before our
Holy God. And that state is that we are
a sinner. And as we grow on in our spiritual
life, we're not left in a position where we just think we're just
a little sinner. The Spirit of God will reveal
to us more and more of the evil that is in our heart. So perhaps
at one time we didn't think we were too bad. The Spirit of God
will direct us to see more and more so we'll understand what
the Apostle Paul said when he confessed he was the chief of
sinners. That means he wasn't a little
sinner, he was a great sinner, he was the greatest sinner. And
when the Spirit of God works in our hearts, perhaps we would
argue with Paul that he was wrong because we're the greatest sinners.
Well what a blessing then, if the Spirit of God has quickened
us, made us spiritually alive in the things of God, so we understand
it is the power of God which has come upon us. And if that
is so, we should be so, so very thankful. Perhaps we should be
really quite amazed that God should have taken notice of us.
Someone who doesn't deserve any notice, doesn't deserve God to
look upon them. How wonderful then if God has
looked upon us. and has come and has called us
by his power and brought us into spiritual life. And so the apostle
directs us to this situation when he comes and speaks now
and says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And if the spirit of God has
worked in our hearts, I believe we will desire never to be ashamed
of the Gospel of Christ. We may perhaps sometimes, sadly,
find we're no better than the Apostle Peter, when clearly he
was ashamed on that time when the Lord was in that judgment
hall, because he denied Jesus, his Lord and Master, those three
times. But he didn't just He didn't
just carry on, because what happened? The Spirit of God, the Lord looked
at him, and he went out, and he wept bitterly. He was really
sorry for denying the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you and I are
blessed with the grace of God in our hearts, and that we realize
it's been the power of God, if we are left to deny the Lord,
it may not be in physical words as such, it may be in our attitude,
or pretending we didn't hear, or pretending we weren't listening,
or pretending there was something else more important. God looks
at our heart and God deals with our heart. What a mercy it is
then to know that the power of God is that which does convert
does make alive, and we should be so thankful for it. Now when
the Apostle Paul, he wrote to Timothy, Timothy was a believer,
he was a young convert, and he was called to go and to preach
the gospel, and Paul wrote two letters to him. And in the second
letter where he tells Timothy these words, he says, for God
has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love
and of a sound mind. And then he says, be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner,
but Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. And then he goes on in the same
chapter and in the twelfth verse he says, For the witch cause
I also suffer these things. Nevertheless I am not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Now we might think perhaps, well
Paul those were pretty bold words. Well let me just say this, if
the Spirit of God has come into our hearts with power and it's
produced that spiritual life which we could not produce ourselves,
and we know it was by the Spirit of God, then may we not come
and be able to agree with what the Apostle says when he said,
for I know whom I have believed. Because we know it wasn't our
work, it was the Spirit's work. I know whom I live and I'm persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day. and then also we read in the
16th verse, the Lord have given mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus
for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain. So there we have a situation
where someone else who wasn't ashamed of being aligned to the
Apostle Paul, a servant of the true living God. So when we read
such words as this, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
what a blessing for us today, if we also are not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. And don't go on and think, well,
I don't think I ever will be. because we need strength and
power from God to enable us to not be ashamed of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I believe it's a great blessing
if the Spirit of God gives us a little understanding of why
we should not be ashamed. because the Lord Jesus Christ
was not ashamed to die upon that cross at Calvary in order to
save our souls. And if we think what the Lord
Jesus Christ then actually physically endured and also spiritually
endured, it was a real agony for the Lord Jesus Christ being
very God in human form, it was a wonderful privilege, a wonderful
favour that he was so willing to come into this sinful world,
to suffer and to bleed and to die, that you and I might be
granted the glorious gift of salvation. If there was no suffering
saviour, there would be no salvation. There would be no hope for us.
We would be eternally lost. And so this evening, do we truly
value that which Jesus has done? Do we have a right understanding
of it? Sometimes we can think, well
of course I know all about the life and the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, that may be so, but if
the Holy Spirit comes upon us and directs us to what the true
cost was and what the cause of that cost was. And do you know
what the cause of that cost was? It was your sin and my sin. Because those sins had to be
forgiven, had to be taken away. Because no unforgiven sinner
can enter into heaven. Heaven's a holy place. There's
no sin in heaven. And therefore we need every single
sin to be removed, every single sin. And the only one that could
take away our sin was the Lord Jesus Christ, and He could only
take it away by paying the price that was required for our sin. The price required. You think
of your sins, and you think of my sins, and how great they are. They don't get less, do they? We continue to sin very sadly,
and yet the Lord Jesus Christ, the great and glorious God, was
willing to die to take away our sins. You see, there was a price
to pay. It wasn't a monetary price. It
was far greater than that. The price the Lord Jesus had
to pay was to give his life, his life, to shed his precious
blood. The shedding of blood indicated
that life had been taken. And therefore we read those tremendous
words in the epistle to the Hebrews without shedding of blood. There
is no remission, there's no forgiveness. Lord Jesus Christ had to die
upon the cross at Calvary to atone for our sins, to take away
our sins. Well, it's a great blessing therefore
if the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to believe these great
and glorious truths and to appreciate in some perhaps small measure
the great cost of our salvation. So that we are able to come tonight
and say, for I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation. It's the power of God for me
tonight to think that this great and glorious Saviour so willingly
came into this world to deliver me from the wrath to come, that
which I deserved. We all deserve God's wrath. We all deserve to spend eternity
in hell. And again, it's the work of the
Holy Spirit to convince us that we do deserve to spend eternity
in hell. It's not a pleasant thought,
is it? It's not a pleasant consideration, but it is true. But how much
more glorious if the Holy Spirit gives us grace to see and to
understand the truth of the gospel and to rejoice in it, the wonderful
power that it is. When the apostle wrote to the
Corinthians again in the first chapter, of the Corinthians,
he was speaking on similar lines, and he spoke about the Lord Jesus
Christ, and he said these words in the 18th verse 4, the preaching
of the cross, that means the crucifixion of the Saviour, is
to them that perish foolishness. I think it's of no consequence,
it's irrelevant, but unto us, And may we all tonight be amongst
those, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Well, is the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ the power of God to us all tonight? And we must
be honest, mustn't we? You see, you don't have to answer
to me or to anybody else. You have to answer before God.
And if you have to honestly say that it is not the power of God
to you, that you don't see anything really precious in the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, then may you be able to pray earnestly
to the Lord that he will show you the need and the truth of
these great things so that you may come to realise the power
of God in your soul, that power of God which makes alive, that
power of God which produces that wonderful and glorious change. So then you have the evidence
that you are joined to the family of God, all those who by the
grace of God are believers, everyone that believeth. And so the apostle
then goes on to say, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by
faith. And the Apostle of course is
saying that as it is written and he's referring to the book
of Habakkuk. We sometimes think perhaps that
these small prophecies are not very important And yet there
are very important things contained in them. And in the little prophecy
of Hammacook in the second chapter and the fourth verse, we read
this. Behold, his soul which is lifted
up is not upright in him. That means somebody who is looking
to himself for righteousness, himself for justification. But then we read, but the just
shall live by his faith." And that's what the Apostle is referring
to here. The just shall live by faith.
It was so in the Old Testament times, and it is so in the New
Testament times. You and I are to live by our
faith, because we need that faith to believe the great and glorious
truths of the Gospel. and it's faith which God gives. It is a wonderful gift to receive
faith from God. What a favour if we are amongst
those who do benefit from this important The Apostle, again,
when he wrote to the Ephesians, the well-known verses, I hope
they're well-known, in the 8th verse, in the 2nd chapter, we
read, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. And the Apostle goes on
to tell us the reason for that. And it's good that we have a
right understanding why that is. And he says, not of works,
lest any man should boast. We will not be able to boast
about our righteousness, but we will be able to boast about
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it is His
righteousness that we depend upon for our salvation. And therefore the Apostle directs
us to this great truth when he says, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. And we can take that,
perhaps, that faith to faith from the Old Testament faith,
the New Testament faith. It was all necessary faith. It
was all faith given by the Holy Spirit of God. And so, for therein
is the righteousness of faith revealed from faith to faith.
And this righteousness, therefore, is revealed to us as we view
what the Lord Jesus Christ did, in living that perfect life,
he was the only righteous man that has ever lived. And we are
unrighteous. And therefore, how are we to
be made righteous? Because if we are unrighteous,
we shall never enter into heaven. So how are we to be made righteous? what it is only as the Lord Jesus
Christ, through his death, he took away the curse, the curse
of sin. He kept the law of God, kept
the law of God perfectly, not like we do, we fail in our keeping
the law of God, but the Lord Jesus Christ, he kept it faithfully
and Clearly and a hundred percent correctly and therefore he was
righteousness So what do we need to be made righteous? We need
his righteousness to be given unto us now I can't go through
it tonight, but you know you might like to go home do young
people and read the first few chapters in this epistle to the
Romans if you read the first Seven chapters you'll see there
how clearly the Apostle speaks about this righteousness. He
speaks about how Abraham was blessed to receive this righteousness
because God gave him faith to believe those things which appear
to be impossible. And it's the same for us today. See, God gives us faith to believe
the things which might appear to be impossible. And you see,
it was accounted to him for righteousness. And what was he dependent upon?
Not his righteousness, he was dependent upon the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So how are we to receive this
righteousness? Well, God gives us his righteousness. It's an amazing thought, you
think, sinners, black sinners, filthy sinners, evil sinners,
How are we to be cleansed? The Lord Jesus Christ, through
his death, takes away our sin and he gives us his righteousness. So we are made then just. We're justified, not because
of what we've done, but because of what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done. So what a wonderful theme it
is to possess the righteousness of Christ. What does He do? He
takes our sins. It means that our sins are imputed,
placed on Him. And in exchange, He gives us,
He imputes to us, His righteousness. It's a wonderful exchange, isn't
it? Do we not have a wonderful Saviour? Do we not have a most glorious
God? who does such great things and
gives us such wonderful blessings. And these are things which are
bestowed upon all the Church of God. They're not just kept
for just a few special people. Every child of God has been blessed
with life in their souls possess this righteousness of Christ
and are delivered from their sins through the death of the
Saviour, through his shed blood. And so here we have then this
statement, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. Surely we must appreciate then
the great need there is for all of us to be blessed with faith
to believe the truth of God. Now, the devil is very active. He doesn't want you and me to
believe. And he will produce all manner
of arguments to turn us away from believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ, We're told about the heart, how
bad it is, and we're told of this, an evil heart of unbelief. And the devil, don't forget,
he has always been a deceiver. From the time when he deceived
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he's always been a deceiver. And what does he do? He casts
doubt upon the Word of God. And he'll cast doubt upon your
testimony. He'll cast doubt upon your experience. He'll cast doubt upon that which
God has done for your souls. And you will need much grace
to resist the devil. Resist the devil. And I've told
you before, but I'll tell you again. Remember that occasion
in the life of John Warburton. when he was blessed and so blessed
that he went into a field and he danced in the field rejoicing
what God had done for him. And then up sighed the devil
and he said to John Woolverton, well I did that. So John Woolverton's
response was, well devil, if you did that, do it again. And
of course the devil couldn't do it. There was a clear evidence
of the work of God, the work of the Holy Spirit in John Warburton's
life. And my friends, it's no different
for us today. If perhaps the devil comes and
tempts us to doubt the work of God, don't forget that's what
he does. That's his principal objective,
to make us disbelieve the work of God. and how tragic it is
when we submit ourselves to listen to what the devil says, when
we have clear evidences of the work of God in our hearts, when
our ears have been opened, we've heard God's word, we've heard
his calling, our eyes have been given sight so we see the truth
of the word of God. And now you see the devil comes
alongside and said, well, of course, that's all false. Don't
believe that. Well, my friends, let us be given
that grace to resist the devil, that he may flee from us. Let
us honor our God in his great and wonderful work and wonderful
favor that he's granted unto us. Remember this word then,
the just, and if we are, amongst those who are believers and have
been blessed with this righteousness, and the Word of God describes
it as a robe, the robe of Christ's righteousness. It's put over
us, all around us, and it's pure, and there's no sin. And if that
has been indeed done, then you see we are amongst those who
are just, not because what we have done. Far from it. but what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And what a wonderful favour then
for us tonight to have a conscious realisation that the Lord has
given us this living faith to believe the Word of God, the
truth of God, and to rest in the promises of God. It's good
to rest in the things that God has done. If God has given you
and me a promise, you know, Be sure it'll be tried, be sure
it'll be tested. That's not a bad thing because
you'll see all we'll lose in the fire of testing is rubbish. But that which is from God remains.
And the prophet Isaiah gives us some encouragement to not
be ashamed. He speaks about Israel in the
45th chapter and the 17th verse he says, but Israel, that means
the church of God, shall be saved, how? In the Lord, blessed be
God. What with? An everlasting salvation. The devil cannot take away the
salvation that God has given. He will try, he will try, he
will not succeed. Because if we're saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation, The prophet goes on to say, ye
shall not be ashamed, nor confounded, world without end. And the reason? Because our faith
is based upon what Christ has done. It's not based upon what
we have done. It's based upon what Christ has
done. We may be able to echo those
words of David when he penned the 40th Psalm, explaining his
spiritual situation that he'd walked through. And he told us,
I waited patiently for the Lord. Well, did the Lord turn away
from him? The Lord is faithful. And he
inclined unto me. came where he was and heard my
cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock. And of course that rock was Christ. That's a good foundation and
the devil won't be able to shake you off that rock. He'll do all
he can by the storms of life Endeavouring to shake you off,
but you'll be able to say on Christ the solid rock I stand
all on the ground is sinking sand and Set my feet upon a rock
and established my goings. He was established in the things
of God What a blessing for you and me today If we are established
in the things of God, our souls are blessed, we grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And it's important just to realise
what David went on to say. What a change. There he was perhaps
in darkness and misery, in a horrible pit, and this is the change.
And he hath put a new song in my mouth. And that song even
prays unto our God. Well, what a blessing if you
and I have got something to praise God for. I hope we have. Many
shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. You see, one
another's testimony is encouraging to others and to enable them
to come and to trust in the Lord. So the just shall live by faith."
And it's a continual living by faith. The Lord gives faith,
as you can read so very easily in the 11th of Hebrews. There
the Lord blessed so many and the evidence of it in their lives.
And of course it's a gives a very nice definition in the first
verse. For now faith is the substance
of things hoped for. This is a good hope, it's not
a false hope. It's a good hope. Now faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. And so God tells us we walk by
faith and not by sight. Sometimes we want, don't we,
to perhaps have visual things to see, visions. We're not promised
it. We are told to walk by faith,
not by sight. We just walk that way. And so
may we tonight be encouraged by these words that the Apostle
wrote to the Romans. Remember it's Just reading, it's
worth reading on a few more chapters. They're not particularly easy
to read. You'll need to read them carefully. You may need
to read them a few times. But you will find they're very
beneficial because they will give you a clearer understanding
of this wonderful gift of righteousness and how it is given to us, imputed
to us, so that we can rejoice indeed in the great and wonderful
plan of salvation, which it is. You know the plan is complete,
it's fast at both ends, there's nothing which can take it away,
and as the Spirit of God reveals these things to us, how encouraging
they are to realise that here we have a sure foundation, a
foundation that will never be moved, and a foundation which
will stand forever. and to realise that our hope
therefore is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And so, for I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just shall live. by faith. Amen.