The Just Shall Live by Faith

Bible Passage: Habakkuk 2:4–20

Introduction

Kids, you are dismissed to junior church at this time

So, you give a new elder who also happens to be a nerdy engineer, 8 months before preaching for the first time, and preaching from a fascinating minor prophet nonetheless…well folks…we just might be here till Christmas morning!

Kidding, of course.

Have you ever been on a backpacking trip, working hard climbing up the mountain amid the trees and the brush, sweating and straining under the load of your pack, wondering if the grade will ever ease up, anticipating the rest that will come when you reach your terminus for the day and can sit down and take your boots off?

Many years ago, I visited Yosemite Valley and hiked the Upper Yosemite Falls trail, which is a grueling out and back trail that starts in the valley, and in just a couple miles takes you straight up ~3,500 feet in elevation. It’s a HARD hike. But at the end, the trail abruptly levels off and spits you out at the top of a rock face, adjacent to the river that then falls over a half-mile straight down, and the entire Yosemite Valley is in glorious view. It’s breath-taking, literally and figuratively.

In a way, we are arriving at a piece of Scripture that brings us to this type of glorious view of the Gospel. Amid Habakkuk’s deep, heartfelt struggle with the corruption that is around him and vexation of how God’s purposes are being worked out amidst it, the LORD gives Habakkuk a staggering answer. He shows Habakkuk what He will do to the unrighteous, and defines how He will save His sheep: The Just Shall Live by His Faith.

I am very excited and very thankful to our Lord for bringing this particular passage to bear on our souls this morning.

In my preparation over the last couple months, I have found this book to be absolutely fascinating, and I praise God that we have the opportunity to open it up together. This text lays bare the very character of God, the pureness of who He is, what He values, and how He relates to us.

We will be studying Habakkuk 2:4-20 today, so please go ahead and turn to it in your Bibles.

If you don’t have a Bible with you this morning, please pick up the blue Bible in the pew rack in front of you, and you’ll find today’s passage on page 785.

**open your Bible, Yogi

Also, if you do not have a copy of God’s Word in your home, PLEASE TAKE the pew bible with you today. The very Word of your Creator is the best and most important material gift you could receive, so Merry Christmas from LBC!

I know Pastor Jason covered up through verse 3 in chapter 2 last week, but I’m going to go ahead and re-read it for us this morning. I will be reading the entire chapter. If you’re able, please stand with me as I read the text…

1 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. 2 And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. 3  For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. 4  “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. 5  “Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.” 6 Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—for how long?—and loads himself with pledges!” 7  Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. 8  Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. 9  “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm! 10  You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. 11  For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond. 12  “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! 13  Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? 14  For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 15  “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! 16  You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! 17  The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. 18  “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! 19  Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. 20  But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

To those who have ears to hear, let him hear. This is the Word of the Lord. You may be seated.

Please pray with me.

PRAYER

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” “Not my will, but your will, be done.” Amen.

The title of my message is…the same as the title for the series: “The Just Shall Live By Faith”. And while we’ll get to this marquee topic, if you are looking at the sermon notes in the bulletin, we’re going to first examine the “taunt song” that Yahweh proclaims over what is to come to the “haughty”, the ruthless captors of the Jews. So, without further ado, let’s dive in.

The “haughty”. Who are they, how do they ACT, and how do they THINK?

<<Read the title>> In the previous two sermons, we’ve already discussed some of these answers. We saw in chapter 1 verse 6…

Habakkuk 1:6 ESV

For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.

The people group in question are the Chaldeans, the “Neo-Babylonians”. The ruthless, proud people that God would use as an instrument of judgement and correction over His covenant people, the Israelites.

They were a bitter people, mighty in their military prowess, who moved swiftly to conquer and plunder and extort.

v5 of chapter 2 tells us that, they indulge themselves…

Habakkuk 2:5 ESV

“Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.”

They are drunks, both with alcohol, and within the spirit of their minds…always thirsty for more and more and more, sweeping through nations and gathering up people to be used and cast aside like dirty rags. Treating human beings as a resource to be exploited.

That’s how they act, but how do they think? In ch1, God gives a fundamental explanation, as well as a proclamation of what is to come for them.

Habakkuk 1:7–11 (ESV)

They are dreaded and fearsome;

their justice and dignity go forth from themselves…

guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

I think the LSB, an updated NASB95, gives an even more helpful rendering, particularly in v11…

Habakkuk 1:11 LSB

“Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose power is their god.”

Jason explained this concept thoroughly, so I won’t belabor it, but the big idea that pertains to today’s passage is that these haughty people were an authority unto themselves. “They did what they wanted to do”. Remember Jason explaining that to us? They did not submit to any higher authority outside of themselves. They laughed at and mocked all other human authority, conquered and took whatever and whomever they wanted.

God describes this idea to Habakkuk by saying their justice, what they deem is “right”, comes from themselves. And, therefore, their <air-quote> “power” is their god (little “g”).

And what is to happen to these haughty people?? Look at verse 11. “They WILL be held guilty.” And this is the subject matter for the bulk of Chapter 2: the instruments of judgement WILL BE judged.

Yahweh’s TAUNT Song: Five “Woes”

What comes to us in verses 6 through 20 is called a “taunt song”, which is a form of poetic or musical expression used to mock or challenge enemies. Last week in the end of ch1 we saw Habakkuk deeply concerned and not understanding how God could endure the usage of these terrible, haughty people. We’re going to see in this “taunt song” that God is, so to speak, laying down the gauntlet before the Chaldeans.

When Goliath of the Philistines stood proud before the Israelites on the battlefield and openly mocked the covenant people of God, it was the young shepherd boy, David, who came forth and powerfully replied, by the name of Yahweh, that he would defeat Goliath. And with a single swing of his sling, David decimated the military might of Israel’s opponents.

What follows in our text today is a parallel: God is saying, “Habakkuk. Sit down. Again <smile>. And listen to what I’m going to do to this evil. I will turn their very sins back upon themselves. Listen, and trust me.”

What we’re about to read, the “woe’s” that God foretells against the haughty, are 5 “Divine Mic-Drops”! In fact, the word “woe” can be literally translated “HA!” “HA! Chaldeans! Your pride will be your fall!” Let’s take a look.

1. The haughty will be TAKEN as spoil [v6-8]

The first of the 5 woes comes to us in v6-8. The haughty will be TAKEN as spoil.

One of the characteristics of the Chaldean conquests is that they would ruthlessly plunder whomever they overran. Taking anything they wanted from them, enriching themselves.

God turns this sin back on them. Look at v7 and v8.

Habakkuk 2:7–8 ESV

Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

The downfall of the Chaldeans will begin with their possessions, their resources, their ill-gotten spoils.

To Habakkuk’s question in 1:13, He says (and I’m paraphrasing) “God, how can you look on this unrighteousness and not do something about it??” God says here, “HA! Because of their violence, because of their plunder, THEY WILL BE taken as spoil themselves.”

2. They will be DISPLACED [v9-11]

The second woe is in v9 through 11. They will be DISPLACED.

Look at v 10-11

Habakkuk 2:10–11 ESV

You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.

They have cut off peoples from their homes, taken them, exploited them. They’ve built their opulent houses on high from their stolen spoils, thinking they will be safe from evil. But, no! What they’ve actually done is put their devious acts of injustice on display on the mountaintops! And Yahweh tells us shame will come upon their house. In fact, God says they’ve surrendered their security, their very lives, by how they built their homes.

And even the walls themselves, inanimate objects, will testify to this iniquity!

3. Their VIOLENT advancements will be for naught [v12-14]

The third woe God casts upon the haughty comes to us in verses 12 through 14. Their VIOLENT advancements will be for naught.

Habakkuk 2:12–14 ESV

“Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

God expands and builds his taunt against the proud. He extends HIs condemnation to the VIOLENCE employed to conquer entire cities, their homes built with bloodshed.

Throughout history, men have built cities upon injustice and violence. Cain dedicated a city to the glory of his own son, Enoch. In Gen 10, we see Nimrod violently conquering and enslaving others. The violent obscenities in the valleys of Canaan brought God’s judgement of consuming fire upon Sodom.

God, here in this taunt, turns these evil ways back upon the proud: fire will come upon them. Their advancements, born out of human pride, will be for nothing.

In v14, he seals His condemnation with a beautiful interjection of theology. The whole entire earth WILL BE FILLED with the knowledge and glory of the Lord. This statement is an explanation of how the promise of 2:3 will be ultimately filled. Verse 3 shows us God’s will, His vision WILL COME TO PASS. And verse 14 tells us that ultimately, the glory of the LORD will COMPLETELY fill the entire EARTH. Which, on that glorious day, will be fully consummated in Christ’s second advent when all things are made new.

And in that last phrase, “as the waters cover the sea”, God brings Habakkuk’s mind back to who He is, the CREATOR. As God the Spirit hovered over the great waters of the deep, He too is ever-present in this time of distress that Habakkuk is living through, and dear Christian, He too is present here and now!

4. They will be DISGRACED [v15-17]

Which brings us to the 4th taunt, in verses 15 through 17. They will be DISGRACED.

The taunts build as the haughty man’s sin builds. We now see, how v5 explains “their appetite is enlarged like Sheol…never satisfied”: they progressed to corrupting those around themselves.

The’ve engorged themselves on violently acquired security in physical things, and have now moved on to personal relationships. They know not love, and result to seduction, forcing sinful drunkenness upon their captors, in order to see their nakedness.

Brothers and sisters, I’ve been moving quickly through these taunts, but must interject to say that this SAME EXACT PATTERN of sin is alive and well today, in a real, physical sense, in places around the world. Greed, to forced displacement, to various injustices, to forced seduction…It’s phenomenally sad. But let us look to v16 and 17 for encouragement.

Habakkuk 2:16–17 ESV

You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

God says “utter shame will come upon [them]”, utter disgrace, because of the violence and blood-letting that composed their self-proclaimed “glory”.

As the haughty force the cup of wine upon their captors for their own perverted purposes, the LORD WILL pour out His cup of righteous wrath upon all who have committed these trespasses to their fellow man. ALL the earth fill be filled with the glory of the LORD, and implicit in that promise is the utter wiping out of ALL iniquity.

5. They will be made SILENT. [v18-20]

To recap the coming gauntlet God is throwing down…we started with plunder, then displacement, then violence, public disgrace, and now we come to God’s 5th and final woe in His taunt song, in verses 18 through 20. Arguably, the most important one. With an almost chilling solemnity, God says they will be made SILENT before Him.

When He makes it to this concluding stanza, it’s almost as if God is at the end of his rope. He’s foretold clear and specific and just judgements coming to the Chaldeans, but now God gets at the true heart of their problem: their hearts are enslaved to idolatry.

In addition to worshipping themselves, as James Montgomery Boice puts it, the Babylonians’ entire religious system involved not merely bowing down to wooden or stone idols, but involved divination, sorcery, and demonism. Babylon was the center for such practices. In this taunt, and to put this bluntly, God clearly explains how stupid this is! Let’s look at the text…

Habakkuk 2:19 ESV

Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.

It should be SO OBVIOUS. A “wooden thing” or a “silent stone” is LIFELESS. There is nothing in it. As v18 puts it: the graven image profits NOTHING. It is a teacher of lies! It pretends to be of divine essence in the minds of the deceived, but is a lie! It is a physical representation of the maker placing his hope and trust in what he has made. And, in fact, there is one particular thing that’s not in it: BREATH. God calls upon the very characteristic of Himself that is like no other thing in all of Creation: His life-giving breath.

God, who’s very name Yahweh (v20) sounds like breathing and means “I AM WHO I AM”, He is the One who speaks life into existence out of His own eternal existence. The Breath of Life that is in Him is unique to Him; no other thing on the face of the earth or the heavens above has this capability. And these idols, whether they be physical wood figurines or cooked up constructs of the mind, they rob God’s rightful place in the minds of His creatures, His image bearers. And, in v20, we see what God thinks of this.

All. Will. Be. Silent. Before Him.

To paraphrase: Chaldeans, in Habakkuk’s time, any of the haughty of any age (including ours), you render audible worship to your speechless blocks of lifeless stone thinking they will act with life-giving power on your behalf. But in the end, you will bend the knee with your mouths utterly stopped before Me, Yahweh, the ONLY God, who creates with the breath of His mouth.

Transition

You see, dear beloved, there is no hope in human action for ultimate security. The Chaldeans of that day, and the proud and haughty of this day, as much as they pursue their own might and strength and worship of self or any other thing that isn’t the living God of the Bible, will all be for naught. None of it will produce permanent security, permanent success, permanent joy. The moment the proud man places his hope in himself, he seals his own doom to God’s judgement. His mouth will be stopped before His Creator.

The GospelGEMSTONE

Which brings us to our final, and arguably most important, verse of today’s message. A true “Diamond in the Rough”, a beacon of Light that cuts through darkness, the darkness of the world and a sinner’s heart. We’ve arrived at what I’m simply titling the “Gospel Gemstone” Habakkuk 2:4.

With the help of James Boice and a couple other church historians, I’m going to take us back a little over 500 years, to a small town in central Germany called Erfurt. This record of history I’m about to relay will show how vitally important this one, particular verse was then, and is today… not only to where we come from as Protestants, but more importantly, to the very heart of the Gospel itself.

So, to Erfurt, Germany we go, in the early 1500’s. It was in Erfurt’s Augustinian monastery that a young monk named Martin Luther began his training to become a priest in the Roman Catholic church.

Luther entered training struggling under the weight of the Law of God. He saw God’s perfect standard, and DEEPLY FELT his own failure to meet the standard. Luther was determined to seek his salvation, and began studying the Scriptures with intensity. It was there, in Erfurt, that he first came upon these simple words, “the righteous shall live by his faith”. While he certainly didn’t comprehensively understand all the implications of this verse, at least at face value Luther saw that the claim, “the righteous live by faith”, makes one to confront the usefulness of the massive amount of duties the Catholic Church imposes on its people in order that they might earn their seat in heaven. If righteousness comes by faith, as the text plainly states, then why am I told I need to do all this things to get to heaven??

A few years later in Martin Luther’s life, 1510, he was traveling on a pilgrimage to Rome via the Italian Alps, and fell deathly ill. While in Bologna, he was attended by monks there, and nearly died. Amid this severe sickness and so close to death, instead of assurance that he was going to be saved and in heaven, Luther was overcome with a sense of pervasive darkness, separation, despair. A terrible state to be in on one’s supposed death bed! Yet, at this precipice, looking over the cliff into the darkness of death, what words did the Spirit put in his mind?…”The righteous shall live by his faith” “The righteous shall live by his faith”…Luther would go on to survive the terrible sickness, and proceed on to Rome.

As a devout monk of the Augustinian order, he was GREATLY anticipating the experience of going to the physical epicenter of his faith, in proximity to the Pope, the burial sites of the faithful dead, the relics, etc. As a “good little monk”, I think it’s fair to say he viewed being in Rome as part of his dutiful, required tasks to accomplish in order to progress on his own personal path toward salvation.

In Rome, in St. John’s Lateran church, there is a “special” staircase there <air quotes on “staircase”, intentionally>, referred to as the “Scala Sancta”, or “Holy Stairs”.

SEE PIC on slide

Catholic tradition says the inner part of these stairs, the steps themselves, were miraculously transported from Jerusalem, directly from the Pontius Pilate’s judgement hall. And were therefore the same stones that Jesus walked up on his day of judgement before Pilate. Several Popes over the centuries have issued indulgences to faithful saints who climb these stairs. As an example, Pope Pius VII in the early 19th century issued 9 years of indulgence for every step climbed.

What’s an indulgence you may ask?? Very briefly, in two or three sentences, it’s a remission, or release, from the punishment of sin. The Catholic Church then, and still to this day, teaches that the forgiveness of sin happens, by the priest, in the Confessional booth. However, punishment for forgiven sin still has to be paid by the believer. The payment can happen in this life, through acts of charity, pilgrimage, prayer, etc.; or, it will happen in the fires of purgatory, a place between the here and the hereafter, where you go after death to suffer this sin punishment. Additionally, indulgences may be earned for deceased loved ones by surviving family members, as a means to shorten their suffering in purgatory. And this is exactly what the Pope directed regarding the steps: if you climb them, you will reduce the duration of a loved one’s punishment in purgatory.

You are not allowed to walk up the center portion of this staircase on your feet, but must climb on your knees. According to the Pope, in order to earn the indulgence and earn God’s favor, one must painfully ascend these steps, knee-cap by knee-cap, praying “Our Father’s” and “Hail Mary’s” all the way up, kissing the steps along the way.

So, Martin Luther makes it to these steps, and begins ascending them, saying the prayers over and over again. Luther, racked with a heavily burdened conscience over his sin problem, is just trying as hard as he could to “do what he was supposed to do”. He climbs these stairs, gets to the top, and in exasperation declares, “Who knows whether this is true?” Dr. Paul Luther, Martin’s son, said that Martin in this moment was overcome with personal horror and shame, totally adrift in doubt over the “works” imposed upon him by the Church, but welling up in his spirit were the words “The Just shall live by faith….” and as the records attest, Luther proclaimed these very words to all around him at the top of his lungs: “The just shall live by FAITH!”

Luther himself later wrote these words about this experience…

“Although I was a holy and irreproachable monk, my conscience was full of trouble and anguish. I could not bear the words, ‘Justice of God.’ I loved not the just and holy God who punishes sinners. I was filled with secret rage against him, and hated him. . . . But when, by the Spirit of God, I comprehended these words; when I learned how the sinner’s justification proceeds from the pure mercy of the Lord by means of faith, then I felt myself revived like a new man, and entered at open doors into the very paradise of God.”

After Luther’s experience in Rome in 1510, he would go back to Germany, and the Lord would begin a work in him that resulted, 7 short years later, in Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenburg, codifying the many identified areas of faith and practice that the church needed to fix. And, as they say, the rest is history.

It is not an overstatement to say that this verse, Habakkuk 2:4, is one of the most influential reasons we are all gathered here today, in Leonardtown Baptist Church, in 2024, worshipping the one, true, living God, in spirit and in truth, holding fast to the reformer’s battle cry: SOLA SCRIPTURA - that the Bible, alone, is our highest authority and sole source of infallible, inerrant truth.

So now, brothers and sisters, we’ve arrived at the heart of this message, the spark that ignited the Reformation, and the very heart of the gospel itself. I’d like to begin our exposition of this verse with a quote from Walter J. Chantry, a faithful pastor from Pennsylvania who ministered in the mid-20th century. In the introduction to his book on Habakkuk, he says this:

“The Lord used the book of Habakkuk as the strongbox into which he placed one of the most precious gems of all time. It is a sentence which summarizes the gospel.”

Amid this world, crippled in darkness, and at times seemingly out for the count, God has provided this bright, multi-faceted gemstone, with the power to defeat all darkness.

Let’s take a look at the text:

Habakkuk 2:4 ESV

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

There are only two types of people who have ever walked this earth: Men of pride (puffed up souls), and men of faith. To put it another way: those who worship themselves, and those who worship God Almighty.

When it comes to who a human worships, it isn’t like soccer where even a successful match can end in a tie. When it comes to worship, there are no ties: there’s only room for one at the top of the podium. Either the human takes path A and worships, submits to, and follows his Creator first, OR, the human takes path B, supplanting God for something else, of FAR LESS WORTH. We just studied this concept in the 5th taunt about idolatry. Here in verse 4, God describes the Path B situation with a handful of simple words: their soul is not upright within [them].

And conversely, on Path A, God couldn’t have been more clear: the path to life it is the path of faith.

Let’s take a closer look at this phrase: “but the righteous shall live by his faith”

***flip to Romans 3, Yogi

“The righteous (man)”

The righteous…who are righteous? In and of themselves, NO one is righteous!

The apostle Paul, referencing Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, says in Romans 3

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

This is the exact problem that Luther wrestled over. It’s easy to read verse 4 and say “OK, I got it, all I need to do to live is be righteous!” But, we’ve got a major problem: ALL have fallen short of the glory of God and have sinned. You and I know this to be true, for even faithful saints fight the ever-present battle with sin, day in and day out. So, if none of us can get into the “righteous” category, how can we get to the “shall live” category??

Like Martin Luther, maybe you have wrestled with this same exact conundrum before in your lives, or are perhaps wrestling with it even now. Let’s turn to Scripture, our highest authority, to help us understand what to do with this problem.

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Look closely. In v17, Paul is not talking about the human’s righteousness. No, he’s talking about GOD’s righteousness! And he even provides the mode of transmission of this righteousness, and it’s ultimate purpose: from faith, and for faith.

Those two words, “from” and “for” are of utmost importance. The word “from” comes from the Greek ek, and it literally means “out of”. The word “for” is the Greek word eis, which literally means “to” or “in to”.

The Gospel, which is the very power of God, is also the righteousness of God. Which He takes from Himself, from His OWN PERFECT FAITHFULNESS, and implants into the believer, and thereby establishing faith in the believer.

And did you catch it in v17? Paul gives us his “source text” for the point he’s trying to make: Habakkuk 2:4. This is Divine apostolic exegeses of the Old Testament. Brothers and sisters, whenever an apostle preaches, we ought to pay close attention. What Paul, writing under the divine superintendence of the Holy Spirit, is doing, is establishing that the most fundamental, and causal action leading to LIFE is God taking His own righteousness and implanting it into the believer through faith. Absolutely magnificent!

Back to Romans 3, Paul adds a little more meat to these bones:

Romans 3:21–22 (ESV)

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

We’ve established that God is moving something out of Himself and into the believer. And that “something” is faith. Then next logical question is “faith in what?”

I don’t know about y’all, but there are certain times along my pilgrim’s path that certain turns of phrase or explanations given by specific pastors or teachers REALLY stick with me. Some of you may be familiar with RC Sproul and his various teaching ministries. I’ll always remember his gravely voice, say… “Faith in what? Faith in hamburgers!? Faith in Budda!? I mean, we have this idea in our culture where people say, ‘It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.’ Oh, does that mean I can put my trust in Satan and be saved, or that the Old Testament people could trust in Baal and they could be saved? No, no, no!”

The content of faith MATTERS. Only faith in God and His incarnate TRUTH is what imparts righteousness, leading to life.

For Habakkuk, and for God’s covenant people in the Old Testament, faith in GOD, trust in GOD, belief and hope placed upon HIS PROMISES to them, worked out in their obedience to HIM…that’s the faith God is talking about in Hab 2:4.

And for the New Testament believer, on this side of Christ’s first advent, we have the glorious privilege of being able to see the true, ultimate, and consummated content of faith: <v22> faith in Jesus the Christ, the Savior!

The Law and the Prophets (like Habakkuk!), have born witness to this amazing, powerful good news: the very righteousness of God, transmitted by faith in God the Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, for all those who believe and then submit to Him as Redeemer and LORD, THAT is what leads to eternal life. Praise be to God!

At this point, the keen student will notice that there is ZERO reference to ANY-THING else leading to eternal life. There is no exhortation for the human to DO anything else to earn the merit unto salvation. No command to give a certain amount of money, or to pray a certain number or type of prayers. And in the context of Roman Catholicism and what Luther was struggling with: no requirement to make a pilgrimage to Rome and pay homage to the Pope or climb any stairs. No, NOTHING ELSE is there, but faith…faith in Jesus as God and Savior.

You see dear friends, the full and final consummation of what faith is, what the gospel is, what salvation is…it is not the human’s active obedience to a set of rules, or the depth of your sincerity to try to “be a good person”. The Israelites failed at that, over and over again, and so do we. No. Faith, the gospel, salvation…IS Jesus Christ, it IS God HIMSELF. It IS Jesus’s perfect active obedience to the Father’s will.

John 12:27–28 ESV

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

Jesus, on the eve of His crucifixion, actively obeyed the will of God, that He would suffer the just punishment due to “all who believe” as Paul explains in Romans 3, so that God’s good and perfect will would be accomplished and that His HOLY NAME would be glorified. God the Son, Jesus, actively demonstrated perfect Faith, perfect Trust, and perfect LOVE. THAT is what God implants into the believer, fusing together Christ in them and they in Christ, sealed for eternity by the Holy Spirit, who is with the believer now and forevermore.

When God tells Habakkuk “the righteous shall live by his faith”, this simple, pure phrase…He installed the most precious gem in existence into this dark, sin-corrupted world. The precious Gospel Gemstone: that HE HIMSELF would ensure the eternal security of those who would believe in Him and place their trust in Him.

Closing

***Flip to Ephesians, Yogi

As I close, I’d like to turn our attention to one final passage of Scripture. And it’s Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, ch 2, v4 through 9.

Ephesians 2:4–9 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

For the believer within sight and sound of my voice: I pray you would have a renewed sense of deep gratitude of the eternal work that GOD has done for you, and you would approach the throne of grace with thanksgiving and praise!

For those who don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus, the Son of God: I pray that you would see this morning that there’s nothing you can do to earn eternal security, but that GOD ABUNDANTLY LOVES His creation so much that even in its corruption, its deadness in trespasses, HE CAN MAKE YOU ALIVE! God can replace your heart of stone, replace it with a heart of flesh, and can secure your eternity forever with HIM! And this is a FREE GIFT. It is by God’s Grace that anyone is saved.

Therefore, beloved of God, repent and believe on the name of Jesus Christ. For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead: You. Will. Be. Saved. Today is the day of salvation. Trust in God, for HE. WILL. DO. IT. His WORD never fails. As He says in Hab 2:3 - “for it (His Word) will SURELY come.”

Prayer

LET US PRAY. Father, my prayer is simple. May your name be hallowed, may your name be glorified. May your kingdom come, may your holy and perfect will be done.

May we, like your beloved Son, confess that you are God, that you, in your first advent, condescended to become like man, so that you, Jesus, could live a human life wholly in obedience to you, the Father, perfectly fulfilling your holy and Good Law, because we could not. And then for those who confess Jesus as Lord, you simultaneously paid the death penalty we deserve and imputed to us Jesus’s perfect righteousness, so that on our judgement day, it will be Christ’s righteousness that you see.

As we celebrate Jesus’s first coming this week, may we be mindful of the mission Jesus was on. To save sinners. Father, I pray you would continue your holy work among this church and save lost souls. And God, may your people live lives honorable in your sight, as we eagerly await Jesus’s second advent, when you will come back to make ALL. Things. New.

We pray these things in Jesus’s holy name. Amen.

Outro/Invitation

At this time I’d like to invite the worship team to come up.

In a moment, we are about to sing Living Hope…