Romans chapter 1, we'll be looking at
verse 16 and 17, and my text will be found at the very end
of these two verses. Paul said, for I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. Why, Paul? For it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek, for therein, in the gospel of Christ, is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written the just shall live by faith." I've entitled this message
tonight, Living by Faith upon Christ. Living by Faith upon
Christ. And the Apostle Paul, as we've
seen before here in this text, is desirous with all his soul
to do one thing. preach the gospel. He says in
verse 15, so as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the
gospel. Paul, with all his heart, desired
and was willing to preach the gospel, though he had suffered. Though he had suffered many things,
though he had been afflicted, though he had been tormented,
though the scars were fresh on his back, Though the insults and though
the chains and afflictions and bondage obeyed Him wherever He went,
yet He took courage. He displays courage. He says,
I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. He said, I'm not ashamed to believe
it. I'm not ashamed to proclaim it. I'm not ashamed to profess
it. I am not ashamed to preach it.
I would even die for it. How this heart should be in every
one of us. Every one of us who are believers
in Christ, this same heart should be in every one of us. We may not be called to preach,
but we know this, we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. We're not ashamed of Christ.
This gospel of Christ, what is it? What is the gospel of Christ? Well, you know this, that the
gospel of Christ is that God the Father That's where the gospel
begins, doesn't it? Begins with God. God the Father
in boundless love, infinite eternal love, powerful love, chose a
people for himself in love for this people. He decreed with
an eternal decree that all of these people should be holy and
blameless sons of God." What a gospel. What a gospel. That God determined that there
should be holy sons of God. And in sovereign act of divine
grace and free love, not based on anything in the elect, He gave them to the care of his son. He put them in union
with his Son, Jesus Christ. And so in a divine covenant of
grace between the Father and the Son, the Father having chosen
and loved a people, the Son agreed to be surety, to be a high priest,
to be a mediator for that people. And that he should be a sacrifice
for their sins And you know why this is? Because
his elect people were not born righteous. His elect people were
not born holy. They must be made holy. They
were born sinners. The Word of God declares of us,
the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. Therefore the Son of
God of necessity was made flesh." This is our gospel, that God
the Son took upon himself our nature, came into this world
as a man, so as to be a representative of all his elect people and save
them. Was this not the proclamation
of the angel as he came into the world? Thou shalt call his
name Jesus for he shall save, who? His people. You see, God in covenant grace
gave him a people and Christ came to save them and this same
Jesus came to fulfill the law of God, both in obedience and
in an offering for sin. So as he lived the perfect obedience
to the law of God, he obtained for his elect people a righteousness
of God. And when he was crucified, when
he was crucified, He bore their sins in His own body on the tree. And there, in the agony and blood,
Jesus suffered the just for the unjust to redeem us for this
one purpose, that He might bring us to God. Look at 2 Corinthians. This is
a good synopsis of the gospel, right
here. 2nd Corinthians 5, look at verse 18. This is what Christ
came to do. This is what God sent Him to
do. Verse 18, and all things are
of God. Oh, would we learn that? All
things are of God. What about this? Hey, all things
are of God. Well, I don't see how you can
say that. Look, all things are of God. And look what God done
with all things, who hath reconciled us to himself, how? By Jesus Christ. Reconciled. Notice that word,
hath reconciled us. He hath reconciled us to God. And we are ambassadors. He has
given us the ministry of this reconciliation to which God was,
in Christ, doing what? Reconciling the world to Himself,
not imputing their trespasses to them. Oh, that's good. God was not willing to impute
our trespasses to us. He hath committed the word of
reconciliation to us. Now, Then we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's name. Be you reconciled to God. Well,
how could we be reconciled? For God hath made Christ to be
sin for us. This is how this reconciliation,
there was no other way of reconciliation. I'm telling you, religion is
going about trying to find another way to be reconciled to God. And God says, look, there is
only one way to be reconciled. One way. That my son should be
made sin for you, who knew no sin. that we might be made the
righteousness of god so when he was made sin for us you know
what happened that scripture was fulfilled awake also word
and smite the shepherd the man that is my fellow that's what
god did on that day in calvary calvary street he'll his son
he suffered The full wrath of God. And when wrath could demand
no more, when justice was completely satisfied, Jesus said this, it
is finished. It is done. Reconciliation accomplished. Redemption accomplished. Sanctification
accomplished. Righteousness fulfilled. Everything
was done. And you know God testified of
that truth, didn't he? Three days later, God testified
that what Christ said was true. He raised him from the dead because
there was no more sin left to punish. There was no more sin
left in him, and God raised him from the dead and sat him on
the throne of heaven. And so now the surety, the high
priest, the representative of all the elect, is ruling in heaven
over all things in time and providence for one purpose. What is he ruling
for? What is he waiting for? Why has
he not brought the consummation of the church together? Because
not all the church is yet brought in. He is calling His people. He is saving His people. He said He's going to give eternal
life. To who? As many as the Father
gave Him. Now listen, that's the gospel.
That's good news. You know, it's the only time
I mentioned us in that whole thing is when I talked about sinners. It's all of God. This gospel
is all done of God. Paul earlier calls it in verse
1 of chapter 1, the gospel of God. It is the gospel of God. But how shall he then call his
people? How then is God going to call
His people? By this thing that Paul is not
ashamed to do. It is through the preaching of
the gospel God will call His elect. It is what the world despises. It is what the world hates. It
is what the natural man utterly is contempt. It's contemptible
to the natural man preaching the gospel. Yet, Paul said, I'm
not ashamed to do it. I'm not ashamed to do it because
it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. It is by our gospel that men
are saved. I'll tell you, that's a miracle.
It's an amazing thing that God would use such feeble creatures
to convey such a power. And yet God does. God has ordained
it. And as we preach this gospel,
what is revealed? How is it that men come to believe?
How is it that men are saved? Here it is, Paul says in verse
17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. When I preach
the gospel, you know what is revealed? God's righteousness. God's righteousness. That God
is righteous and demands you to be righteous. What else is
revealed? It's revealed this, that we have
no righteousness. We have none. We cannot ever
produce it. But it also is revealed that
Jesus Christ has obtained eternal righteousness and gives it to
those who believe. To those who trust in Him, He
gives this righteousness that He Himself has earned. And it's only by the power of
the Holy Spirit through the use of preaching the gospel that
he imputes and imparts this righteousness to us. So all of this is revealed
by the gospel of Christ that we preach. So Paul says it is
revealed. Now look how it's revealed. From
faith to faith. From faith to faith. What does
that mean? Now what this means is it's from
one degree to another. It means from one degree of faith
to another degree of faith. Now if we look at this from a
highest degree to the lowest, then we see that God had faith
in Christ. It was God who first trusted
in Christ by giving Him the elect. It was then Christ, by faith,
fulfilling the covenant of grace. Remember, the righteousness of
God comes how? By the faith of Jesus Christ. So you have from faith to Christ's
faith, and then that faith which the Holy Spirit comes and gives
to you. So this is how it's revealed.
That God, having faith in His Son, that Christ having faith
toward God, obtaining righteousness, and then the Holy Spirit giving
us faith to believe in Him. But this also has a different
meaning as well. It could mean this, that it is
from faith, meaning our faith, from one degree to the other.
When you believe in Christ, you are given a measure of faith,
aren't you? Is that faith mature? No, it's
very small, it's very immature faith. God gives us that faith,
but what happens as we read the Word, as we hear the Word, as
we study and pray, what does God do by the experiences, by
the providences of time? He causes this faith to go from
a lower degree to a higher degree. It becomes mature. This faith
grows. So as it is revealed from faith
to faith, it grows from faith to faith. The more we hear it,
the more we believe it, the more we trust it. I know this. I know whom I have
believed. But I sure don't know him like
I want to. I believe him. but i want to
believe him more and i'll tell you the more i
grow in faith i think i see less faith i see more of my need of faith i am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day, but
I surely long to know that I am in Him." Is this not the same with you?
Don't you find yourself more and more dependent on Him? As you grow in faith, from faith
to faith, we become more dependent on Christ, not less. Usually
that's the way when you grow up, you become less dependent.
My children are growing up, they're going to be less dependent, supposedly,
right? Sometime, maybe that's not true.
I didn't write that illustration, so maybe I should have thought
about that before I said it. But that's the way it normally
is. You grow up and you become less dependent. But I tell you,
the more I grow in faith, the more dependent. It's like a tree. As its roots begin to grow, it
grows further into the ground. It becomes more settled. It has
a bigger grip on the earth. So it is with Christ and faith.
As it goes from faith to faith, we become more rooted and grounded
in Him. more needful of him, more dependent on his perfect
work. The more I see it, the more I
want it. The more I know it, the more I gotta have it. I long to know more of our salvation,
that He is all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my sanctification,
all my redemption. Believer in Christ, let us by
faith hold fast then to this eternal truth. Here's my text
now, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Those who
believe, Paul here is telling us who those who believe are. They are the just. You who have
believed on Lord Jesus Christ, you are justified. Justified by the obedience and
blood of Christ. Therefore, Paul says to us, we
are not ashamed of this gospel. to us who by the Holy Spirit
has been revealed the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus
Christ and given us faith that grows it is written the just
shall live by faith now this scripture is mentioned four times
in in Scripture in Holy Writ. It's mentioned in Habakkuk, it's
mentioned in Hebrews, it's mentioned in Galatians, and it's mentioned
here. Now, when God says something one time, it needs to be heeded.
But the Spirit of God intending this verse four times used. We should pay special attention
to this verse. And as I want you to see tonight,
I want us to look into this portion. The just, the justified, those
justified by the death and resurrection of Christ, having now received,
how shall they live? The scripture says the just shall
live by faith. Now to understand this, the key
to this scripture is this. That we do not live upon our
faith. That's not what it's saying.
The just do not live upon their faith. That's not what the text
says. It says by faith. But it's not upon our faith.
Our faith is no grounds or foundation upon which to rest your soul.
Is that not true? Have you found it to be a broken
reed every time you've leaned on your faith? Every time we've
leaned on our faith, it falls underneath us. Our faith is nothing
to live on. It's nothing to rest in. Faith
is never to be the object of faith. But true faith, true faith rests
upon one single object. Jesus. alone so when the just
shall live by faith he is saying this just shall live by faith
and that faith is upon Christ that faith is upon Jesus Christ
so many in religion today are resting their souls in their
faith how many times do you hear it well I have faith Well friends, that won't get
you anywhere if your faith is not on Jesus Christ alone. You can claim to have faith,
but that doesn't tell me anything. There's a lot of people who have
faith. Devils believe and tremble. They have faith. So believing in faith is nothing. They're so sure of heaven that
they've made some profession of faith, some act of religion,
something they're trusting in some act that they've performed. They say, well, I'm going to
heaven because I believe. But we who believe in Christ
do not hope in our faith. We hope in Christ alone. If I will ever see heaven's shores,
it will be totally because of Him. And I believe on Him. I believe on Him. Now, I've got
several things that I want you to see. Seven things. Seven things about how the just
are to live by faith. What does this mean, the just
shall live by faith? First of all, the just shall
live by faith upon the name of Jesus Christ. When I say the
just shall live by faith, we live upon the name of Jesus Christ. You that are believers, we live
upon the name of Christ For only through His name do we find forgiveness
of sins and salvation." What is His name? It is Immanuel,
isn't it? God with us. The just shall live
by faith, trusting in Immanuel. God manifests in the flesh. So as we live by faith, as we
walk by faith, we walk by faith looking to Him who is God, manifest
in the flesh. He who can touch God and man. We live upon His name. You know
that scripture, whosoever shall call upon, what? The name of
the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. We by nature have a name,
don't we? What is our name? Sinner? Jacob? Adam? That's our name. Our Father marred our inheritance. Our Father sinned against God
and we were born according to His representation. He represented
us. And when He died and fell into
sin, so did all of us. We fell into sin. We were born
into sin. What does this mean? This means
that I cannot come to God by my name. I cannot come to God by my name.
My name is marred. My name is full of sin and rebellion,
and if I were to come by my name, I should only receive hell. But behold the goodness of God
towards sinners, in that Jesus has made peace and settled the
debt of sin, and He gives to all who come to God a new name."
Isn't that what happened to Jacob? He got a new name, didn't He?
Israel. He went from trickster to prince. We get a new name. We come to
God by Christ. We come in His name and we get
a new name. What else is our name? Here it
is, Jehovah Tiskanu. That's His name, isn't it? Hereby
is the name where He shall be called, the Lord our righteousness.
And in the very preceding chapter, Jeremiah 33, 16, it says this
is by the name where she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. We're called by a new name, His
name. but the only way a sinner can
receive such benefits is to come by his name for there is none
other name given among men whereby we must be saved. This past weekend
we went to Danville and Tia graciously rented me a hotel room and I
went to the desk And she said, do you have a reservation? I
said, yes. She said, what is your name? I said, my name is
Fred Evans. And she looked on her computer,
and you know what she found? Nothing. I said, oh, it must be under
Tia Terkelson. And she looked up and she said,
yes, I've got a reservation by that name. Why? She bought it,
she paid for it, and as she clicked on that name, you know, there
came up another window, and guess what? My name was in there. What
a picture! When we come to God by Jesus
Christ, He bought salvation. He purchased salvation. And we
come by His name, and guess what? Our name is in Him. We come by His name. So this
is what it is to live by faith. It is to live upon His name.
You see, I'm going to be saved because of His name, for His
name's sake. Secondly, we live by faith upon
His blood. Remember that high priest of
old? That high priest of old would slay the animal for the
atonement sacrifice, and he was to go into the presence of God. What would happen if he did not
have blood? God would have killed him. Without
blood, you cannot come before God without a sacrifice, an acceptable
sacrifice. But what offering and what sacrifice
could we give? God says this, it is not possible
that by the blood of goats and bulls should take away sin. Wherefore when he cometh into
the world he saith this, sacrifice and offering, listen, thou wouldest
not. He had no pleasure in the sacrifices
of men. Why? The plowing of the wicked
is sin. You remember that those who were
offering in the holy place, those were doing the work of God, that
they had to have a sacrifice for themselves. They had to sacrifice
for themselves because their sacrifice, their work was never
enough. Oh, but here's the good news.
He said, Lo, I come. Here comes Christ in the volume,
the book, it is written of me to do thy will. Oh my God, by
the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Christ once for all. You see, we come by blood. We
come by His blood, by His offering. The just shall live by faith
in what? The blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ. Let the foolish and lost religionists
offer bread and wine and call it a sacrifice. That's no sacrifice. Let religious men boast saying
this, I thank God that I'm not a sinner like other men. They say I'm fast twice in the
week, I give tithes of all that I possess. I'm a member in good
standing of the church. I've been baptized, I've done
good work, I feed the hungry, I clothe the naked, I house the
homeless. Listen, that is no sacrifice
acceptable to God. No, we who believe on Christ,
we that just shall live by faith upon the blood of Christ. My
only hope of being cleansed of sin is the blood. The precious blood of the Lamb. Precious. Valuable. Remember
what happened when Christ died? What happened to that veil in
the temple? I read this this week. I heard
it this weekend and re-read it again. Do you realize that veil,
some people say, was sixty foot tall? And four inches thick. And God tore it from the top.
to the bottom. Just to let you know, this was
not done by some earthly means, you know, when things get worn
at the bottom they kind of tear, you know. No, no. It tore from
the top where there was no wear. And God tore it. Why? So that
now we may be accepted. God says, come on in. Why? I
already got blood. You don't need to bring any.
I got it. I got it. And He brings us into Himself.
So that we, the just, shall live by faith in His blood. Thirdly,
the just shall live by faith in eating the flesh and drinking
the blood of Christ. You remember when Jesus, in John
chapter 6, He said this, I am the true bread which came down
from heaven. That manna in the wilderness
was only a picture of Me. a picture of who I am and he
said this whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath
eternal life Now those carnal Jews, they didn't
understand. They said, how can this man give
us his flesh and his blood? What is he talking about? They
were thinking carnally. This is a very spiritual matter.
This has nothing to do with any carnal ordinances. This is talking
about a spiritual act of eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
This is faith in his flesh, faith in his blood. And how often do
we eat this flesh and drink this blood? We do it daily by faith. Today, right now, we are eating
His flesh. And what is this doing? When
you eat something, what does it do for you? It gives you strength.
Without eating and without drinking, you can have no life. And so
it is with the believer. We must eat this. We must drink
this so that we might be strengthened and encouraged in this life.
You know, when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness,
What could the desert provide for them? Nothing. It was misery. Death was all around them. There
was nothing that could be grown there. There was no life there.
It was a barren desert. Where did they receive all of
their nourishment? God rained manna from heaven. God opened the rock and water
gushed out who is the rock in who is the man it's christ so
how the just let how you going to live in this life i'm going
to live continually eating his flesh and drinking his blood
by faith so i may be strengthened in the times of trouble and in
discouragement times it of uh... grief and sorrow he is flesh
daily now fourthly we see this we live by faith upon his righteousness I know this, that in Adam we
fail, and our fall was complete, absolute. When he died, we died. When he sinned, we sinned. Why?
He was a representative man. Listen to the good news, even
so. People, automatically the flesh
say, well that's not fair. That's what men say. They say,
well I don't like that. I don't like having a representative.
You know I do. I love having a representative.
You know why? Because just as I had a representative in which
I fell, I have a representative also by which I am made righteous. Now what did I do to deserve
what Adam got? I didn't do anything. I was in
him. God put me in him. What do I
do to deserve the righteousness which is of Christ? Nothing. It is all of grace, and so by
faith we live. Now listen, you ain't going to
see this. You ain't going to look in the mirror one day and
see, oh, the righteousness of God. You're not going to see
it. Why? Because this old flesh is still
here. Therefore, we must live by faith, looking to His righteousness
alone. And so when the flesh is about
your neck as a rotting corpse, remember, there is therefore
now No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And in just a minute, when you
forget that, you can say it again. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. And when tomorrow, when you forget
that, you can say it again. There is therefore now no condemnation. You see how the just are going
to live by faith? We live by faith in the righteousness of
Christ that He merited for us on our behalf. All right, fifth,
the just shall live by faith on the Word of God. How do we
know all of this? How are you going to understand all of this?
if we put this book in a corner and shut it up you're never going
to know any of it and others sometimes when i got so tired
i kinda wish i could put the the book right here it just all
absorbed in it don't work that way does No, you've got to open
it. You've got to read it. This is
the grounds of all of our faith and practice. The Word of God. It is by the Word that the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith to faith. It is through the Gospel.
This is why we attend faithfully the worship of God. We attend
to worship because we need this Word. We need to hear it again,
again, and again, and again, and again. Why? I am founded
on this Word. And you know what this Word,
it cannot lie. It cannot lie because it is the
Word of God. And God says, I'm putting everything
on this Word. I'm exalting My Word above My
name. And so that if My Word doesn't
come true, My name is tainted. And we know this, that it cannot
be. What does the scripture say that the promises of God in Christ
are what? Yes. Am I righteous? Yes. Am I justified? Yes. Am I sanctified? Yes. Do I have eternal life? Yes. It's yes, isn't it? And what? Amen. No one can take
it away. No one can take it away. Not
even you. Isn't that something? Sixthly, the just shall live
by faith upon the intercession of Jesus Christ. Oh, thank God
for this. Because God has made us righteous,
He's made you holy, He did nothing for the old man. He conquered
him. He put him down. Yes. He put
down His rule, but yet He is still there. He is still just
as vile as He was before. John said this, if we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves. No believer said that ever. We confess our sins. And what? He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. John said this, little children,
I write these things unto you, that what? You sin not. You sin
not. Don't do it. Don't sin. But listen, when you do. It's
not if. That word is better translated
when. But when you do. Here's your hope. Here's how
you can be confident you'll be forgiven. We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. You have an advocate. When is Christ interceding for
you? Better yet, when is He not interceding
for you? Have you felt like He doesn't
intercede for you? I know you do. Often you feel
that way. You feel like you don't deserve
it, and you don't. But it's not a matter of what
you deserve, it's a matter of what He deserves. He intercedes. This is what the just is going
to live by. We're going to live by His intercession. We're going
to live by faith in His interceding work for us. And lastly, the
just shall live by faith upon the offices of Christ. He is my prophet. What is a prophet but a mouthpiece
for God? He speaks the Word of God. He
said, I came not to speak my own words, but the words of him
that sent me. I came to speak the Word of God.
Moses told us that he was coming and he said this, God will raise
up a prophet like unto me. Him shall you hear. We who live
by faith hear him, obey him as our prophet. He's our priest.
That blood is forever, perpetual sacrifice. that constantly cleanses
us from all our sins. He is our King. Oh, don't let
this one go. To those of us who live by faith,
we believe and trust Him as our King. So His words are no longer
suggestions, are they? They're commands. And not commands
of grief, but commands of joy. He is our Shepherd. And as our
shepherd, what do we lack? Nothing. Nothing. We walk by
faith. He is leading us and safely guarding
us. Therefore, all who are justified
by faith, our faith is upon what? Who is our faith on? It's on
Christ. It's on Christ. we walk by faith
argument to you real quickly again those who are justified
live by faith upon christ's name we live by faith upon christ
blood we live by faith upon his righteousness we live by faith
eating and drinking his body is body in his blood we live
by faith in his holy word We live by faith in his intercessory
work and by his offices. The just shall live by faith.
And you know, faith is a one-time operation, isn't it? The just
shall continually live by faith. Perpetually live by faith until
one day faith is no longer necessary. I tell you, when I think about
it, it's just a joy. Living by faith is not easy,
it's tough, isn't it? It's heart-wrenching because
of our weakness. But then, face-to-face, until
then, live by faith, resting on Him, not your faith. Don't rest on Him. Pray God will
help us. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.