Our text for this morning is
a statement found in Habakkuk 2 and verse 4, and it is repeated three times
more in the New Testament. It is this simple phrase, the
just, shall live by faith." And here it reads, the just shall
live by his faith. Now, if you'll go to Romans chapter
1, and mark Habakkuk if you like. I don't know that we'll need
to come back, but I want to speak to you based on that statement
in Habakkuk. But if you'll turn to Romans,
the first chapter, Our reading now will actually come from the
book of Romans, and it is in this chapter in Romans that one
of the three occurrences of this phrase in the New Testament is
found in this chapter. Alright, let's begin at the beginning
of the chapter itself. Now before reading, let us pray. Lord, we thank you this day that you have allowed, enabled,
and caused us to be present in this place. But Lord, if any lasting, eternal
good is to come from our being here, you yourself must bestow
it. You yourself must give it. Whatever you demand of us, You
must in grace and mercy give us or we shall never have it. And we come this morning to this
blessed phrase of immense importance found four times in our Bibles. It is as though you would underline
these words for us. We pray that you would open our
minds and our hearts to receive your holy word, the truth of
your grace, the gospel of your Son, the only Savior for sinners,
the Lord Jesus. Lord, without your presence and
without your work, we can accomplish nothing at
all. Help us, we beg. Help this poor preacher speak the truth concerning the
God of the Bible, the God of grace, the God of glory, the
God of mercy. We beg in Christ's name. Amen. Romans chapter 1 and verse 1,
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle separated
unto the gospel of God, which he had promised before by his
prophets in the Holy Scriptures. concerning His Son Jesus Christ
our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh. Our Lord's human nature came
to Him through David. Then we read in verse 4, and
declared to be the Son of God. As the Son of David, the Lord
Jesus is the Son of Man. He has a human body. But in verse 4, when it comes
to His Godhood, He is said to be declared to be the Son of
God with power. David cannot make Christ God,
nor can we make Him God. If He is God, He's always been
God and will always be God. He can't ever be anything else
but God. Thank God he is also the God-man,
declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit
of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. The resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ proves his deity, by whom we have received
grace, and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name, among whom are you also the called," Paul now
referring to the Roman believers, among whom are you also the called
of Jesus Christ. Are we the called of Christ?
Has he savingly called us? To all that be in Rome, Beloved
of God, called saints, grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through
Jesus Christ for you all. that your faith is spoken of
throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I
serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing
I make mention of you always in my prayers." Making request
If by any means, now at length, I might have a prosperous journey
by the will of God to come unto you, for I long to see you that
I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end that you may
be established, that is, that I may be comforted together with
you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I would not
have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to
come unto you, but was let hitherto, was hindered up until now, that
I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other
Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks
and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise, so
as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that
are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes. to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek. For therein, in the gospel of
Christ, therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith." Do you
remember that phrase? We had it in Habakkuk 2.4 and
now in Romans 1.17. And if you won't mind, I'd like
to just change one word in that statement so that you understand
something that modern day religious people have no understanding
of virtually. The just shall live by Christ. Christ is the author of our faith
and the finisher, as well as the object, the sole object. Verse 18, now this takes a decided
turn beginning at verse 18, even more so at 19. For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness,
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. And we could put a personal pronoun
in these verses and read the same thing about ourselves. Verse
20, For the invisible things of him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are
without excuse, because that when they knew God, When we knew
God, we glorified Him not as God. Neither were thankful, but
became vain in our imaginations, and our foolish heart was darkened. Professing ourselves to be wise,
we became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God
into an image made like unto corruptible man and to birds
and four-footed beasts and creeping things. We'll worship anything except
the God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ. wherein, this goes downhill fast,
wherein God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust
of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves,
who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave
them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change
the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise
also the men, having 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 that
recompense of their error which was meet or fit. This statement has to do with
what is commonly called homosexuality. I hate it, I despise it, and
I hope you do too. But I want you to understand
But not believing and not trusting Christ is a crime of infinitely
greater importance than homosexuality. Religious men and women who claim
to know Christ and He's not the Christ of the Bible are going
to find at Judgment Day that they have missed Him altogether.
And according to Matthew chapter 11 and the words of our Savior,
it will be far worse on Capernaum who had heard Christ preach more
than any other place during his public life and ministry of three
and a half years. It would be worse for them than
it will be for Sodom and Gomorrah. And he goes on to say, had the
words preached in Capernaum been preached in Sodom and Gomorrah,
they would have remained until this day. In judgment, there are degrees
of punishment. In heaven, there are no degrees. All believers are even and on a par with each
other. And one of us ain't going to
be trying to wear five crowns while somebody else has none.
That's pure hogwash. That's all it is. It's trying
to pump religious people up who don't know God, so they'll work
harder and give more. Excuse me, I need to get back
to what I was doing. Verse 28, And even as they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over
to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.
being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity,
whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things. disobedient to parents, without
understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful, who in knowing the judgment of God that they which
commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same,
but they take pleasure in those that do them." And this is talking
about me, and it's talking about you, and every other member of
the human race. Now, let's just leave our Bibles
open because our text is right here in front of us. We'll just
make reference to the one in the Old Testament in order to
make this point. The statements four times over
in our Bibles, the just shall live by faith. This Old Testament
text, Habakkuk 2.4, shows us that in this statement, the just
shall live by faith, it is precisely the same as the New Testament,
which tells us this. There's a widespread false understanding
of how the people of God in the Old Testament were treated compared
to the New Testament and to our times as well. And it is simply
this. God saved people. The same way
he does now in the Old Testament. You know why? Because the just
shall live by faith. You understand what I'm saying? I understand that worship was
different. People brought literal sacrifices
to be offered to God. But that was simply a type and
a picture, a shadow of the coming Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, who
redeemed sinners on Calvary's tree, those who lived beforehand
and those who lived afterward. So there's no problem with this
statement, that just shall live by faith. The just of the Old
Testament lived by faith in a coming Redeemer. Moses wrote of me,
the Lord Jesus said, to the carping Pharisees. He said, had you believed
Moses, you would believe me. Oh, they claimed big time to
believe Moses, but they were only fooling themselves. and
perhaps primarily fooling others. Our Lord went on to say in John's
Gospel, which is where that other reference is as well, he said,
Abraham saw my day and rejoiced. And they had a fit. They said,
you're not even 50 years old and you've seen Abraham. Yes,
it was Christ that Abraham worshipped on Mount Moriah. Yep, it's called
Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide Himself
a sacrifice, and that sacrifice is in His Son. So from the blood
sacrifice of Abel to the last blood sacrifice before Christ
actually died on the tree, every drop of that sacrificial blood
pointed to Christ shedding His blood on the cross. And these
people, Those who understood and had, as we must have, a divine
revelation to our souls, they saw Christ in those sacrifices,
and believed, and were saved, and are in glory. The just shall live by faith. Well, let's look at this one
in Romans chapter 1 for just a moment. This tells us that faith in Christ is in the
face of and in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation. What more awful charges can be
read than are found in Romans chapter 1? And this is an indictment
upon the entire human race. And the only solution now, and
the only solution then, is Christ in him crucified. Paul says in verse 16, Romans
chapter 1, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. He said, it is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and
also to the Greek. Not ashamed, the gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. Look in verse 17, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to faith, therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to faith, as it is
written, the just, the righteous shall live by faith. Verse 18,
in this same gospel that reveals such wonderful things as we have
just read in verses 16 and 17, this same gospel also reveals
the wrath of God. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven, verse 18, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness." Unrighteousness. In Christ, and in Christ alone,
God justifies the sinner perfectly. altogether, completely. In Christ, God sanctifies the
sinner wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y, and completely. Thirdly, in Christ,
God glorifies the sinner eternally, forever and ever and ever and
ever. No end without beginning and without
end. All right, let's take our next text. Let me see if I can
remember. This is number 2, right? The
third one is Galatians, chapter 3, and verse 11. Galatians 3, verse 11. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, it's clear, it's
plain, It is not confusing, it's not what we want to hear, but
it's just what it is. The just shall live by faith. All of God's people live spiritually
in God's sight, by faith in God's Son. Let's think about that just
a minute. So what's the purpose of putting
this third statement where it is in Galatians chapter 3? The message and purpose of this
text in Galatians 3 is in the first phrase, no man
is justified by the law in the sight of God. You see it in that
very verse, verse 11, no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God. Now words, be honest with ourselves,
words could not be any plainer than this. There's nobody in
this room, I don't believe, let's see, some of us might be too
old for this one, but nobody otherwise in this room can say
that there's a word here they don't understand. I mean, as
far as the meaning of words go, no man is justified by the law
in the sight of God. None. None. So that leads me to want to put
before you four questions concerning the law. Now, in case you don't
know, and I doubt that you don't, most of you should, Religion
makes everything of the Ten Commandments. They urge people to perform those
acts, to follow those rules, and people actually think that
they have. You see signs in their front
yard with the Ten Commandments. Why would you put that unless
you are professing to keep those Ten Laws? You see them in religious
establishments, in churches, and all over the place. People
make all this kind of to-do, but nowhere do you see them actually
admitting that they cannot keep the law. So here are four quick
questions. You just mull them over. What
is the law? What is it? It is the summary and character
of the holiness of God. It is a list of the requirements
of God for all of His subjects. That's me and you and everybody
else. It's not simply that we can't
keep it. If we are to be accepted in God's
sight, It must be kept in our room place instead or we're not
going to see Him. This is important. These requirements
are for all of God's subjects. What is the law? It is God's
perfect standard of holiness. How far do we fall below that?
We have broken all ten. All of them. Now, if you're upset with that
statement, you just take it up with God. It's not me that said
it, it's Him. Second question. What does the
law of God require? What's the least requirement? It's real simple. To love God
with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor
as much as we love ourselves. And we don't do it. We cannot
do it. But you make real certain you
understand this. Christ kept it for us. He honored it perfectly and completely. He rendered to it every satisfaction
that God demanded down to his own life in our place, in our
room, in our stead. Third question. Can any human
being of any generation, ours or some other, can any human
being meet these ten requirements? The answer is no, no, and no. Nobody. Not a one of us. Yet God can be satisfied with
no less. He cannot receive less than Himself. We must, in order to be accepted
of Him, we must be made perfect in Christ. The fourth question about the
law. Has any human ever met these requirements? And we say, hallelujah,
yes, there is one. It is the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He did so as our representative,
so that whatever He did, we did in Him. Now, you've got to get
a hold of that or you don't understand how we can take part in something
that we didn't do. This is who Christ is. He's our
substitute. He's our Savior. He's our federal
head. He's our representative. Now,
you know what representation is all about. People in Raleigh
and people in Washington and people in Lennington, for that
matter, can vote to do this, that, or the other, and they're
representing you, and you voted whether you think you did or
not. Well, I'm telling you it's wonderful
when Christ is my representative. Come to the fourth one. This
time we're in Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. We're actually
going to deal with verses 38 and 39, but verse 38 is the main
verse. Hebrews 10, 38. Now the just shall live by faith. Well, what's it doing in Hebrews?
We understood why it's in Galatians 3 and why it's in Romans 1 and
why it's in the book of Habakkuk. Well, why is it a third time
in the New Testament, all of which come from the pen of the
Apostle Paul? Why the third occasion? This
text, Hebrews 10, 38, shows faith to be The very life of perseverance. Now, you've got to read the whole
chapter, chapter 10, to really sense this as you come to the
end of this chapter. We're told in the book of Hebrews,
if the sacrifice of Christ ain't enough for me, there ain't no
other. There's no more. Four times in Hebrews 10, the
expression, no more, is repeated. And one of those times, no more
sacrifice for sins. No more. It's either done or
it ain't ever going to be done. Paul is speaking concerning perseverance. Let me read you verse 38 and
39 together. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man
draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." Oh, look at this. It's amazing how understanding and generous Paul
could be on occasion. And here's one of them. the Hebrews and himself, we are
not of them who draw back unto perdition or damnation, but of them that believe to the
saving of the soul. He's talking about continuing
in faith. Like I say, you've got to read
the chapter pretty much to catch how important that ending is,
and how wonderful these words in verse 38 and 39 are. Here's something I found recently
in regard to Hebrews 10, and the just shall live by faith.
By faith, we begin salvation. Hey, I've been real light on
you this morning. How about John chapter 3? The
last verse, I think, in the chapter. John 3, 36. Salvation is begun. How? Here it is. He that believes
on the Son has everlasting life, and he that believes not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Here's the second one, 1 Peter
chapter 1 and verse 5. Now, y'all had me at a real disadvantage
this morning. I've only done this once before
that I know of, and I'm using a new Bible. I mean, it's just
like my other one, but it's tough. I don't know. 1 Peter 1.5. Well, I've got the book of James
just as certain as anything. I told you, my other one, I can
just, you know, just make it do about anything, but not this
one. Goodness me, that's embarrassing. Yeah, there's where it was supposed
to be. I knew it was on the wrong spot on the page. Verse 5, 1
Peter 1, who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation. Now don't miss this part, ready
to be revealed in the last time. It's going to last all through
time. Now you and I probably won't make it all the way through
time, but I mean, somebody will. What a glorious statement indeed.
We are kept in salvation. The third one is that verse in
Hebrews 10.39. We complete the journey. How? By faith in Christ. It's Christ
to start with. It's Christ in the middle. It's
Christ in the end. It's Christ forever. Well, how come people ain't preaching
Christ? You can't preach what you don't know. I stole these words from Brother
Henry Mahan. The soul is the life of the body. Faith is the life of the soul. Christ is the life of faith. Now do you see the connection? I'll read that to you again.
The soul is the life of the body, faith is the life of the soul,
and Christ is the life of faith. Oh, what a statement. What a
statement indeed. Well, I've said all I want to say and
I'm not going to keep you any longer just because it's not
12 o'clock.