In this enlightening episode, we delve into the profound insights of the prophet Habakkuk, exploring the timeless message of faith as a guiding principle. With Dr. J. Vernon McGee, learn why God’s covenants with Israel serve as a cornerstone for understanding divine promises and the difference between living by faith and succumbing to human pride. This episode takes you on a journey through scripture to uncover the essence of the gospel–salvation through faith alone.
The firm of foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
SPEAKER 03 :
If you had to divide all of mankind into just two groups, what would they be? Man or woman? Rich or poor? Republican or Democrat? East or West? Well, it might surprise you to know that when God looks at us, He really does see only two groups. What are they? Well, that’s our topic for our study on Through the Bible, where we’ll find out what sets us apart from one another. We’re in the Old Testament book of Habakkuk with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. So as you hop aboard the Bible bus and turn to Habakkuk chapter 2, let’s continue with Dr. McGee’s special introduction on God’s covenants with Israel.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now God made four unconditional covenants with the nation Israel. And these covenants did not depend on Israel doing anything except believing God. That’s all they had to do is just accept him. And they acted on that belief of Coas. Now, covenants depend, therefore, on the integrity of God. Now, these covenants are marked out by God saying, I will do certain things. And there happens to be one conditional covenant, and that’s the Mosaic covenant. God says, if ye will do something, then I will do something. And they’re out of that land today because of that. Now, I want to begin with the first covenant that is of such great significance to us. And that’s the covenant God made with Abraham. And we find that in the 12th chapter of the book of Genesis. Now, the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, from thy kindred, from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation. I’ll bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I’ll bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. That’s a threefold covenant God made with Abraham. He promised him a land. He promised him that he would be the father of a great nation. And he enlarged that later to include other nations. And he says, I’ll make you a blessing to all the families of the earth. Now, may I say to you that two-thirds of that covenant has been fulfilled. God has made them a great nation, and he also has made him a blessing through Christ to the world. But he doesn’t have that land yet. And we’re going to see that next time.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ll hear more about God’s covenants with Israel next time. And by the way, did you catch what these covenants depended on? All that God asked Israel to do was believe in him. They just had to accept his promise as a gift. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Let’s commit this time to the Lord. Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace and your mercy that’s offered freely to us. All we have to do is receive it, Lord. So we look forward now to receiving your word. And then multiply faith in us as we listen and consider it in our lives. Bless your word as it’s heard throughout the world. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now here’s our study of Habakkuk 2 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now today we are back in the second chapter of Habakkuk and we put in it verse 4. And we made the statement last time that this is the most important verse in Scripture. Probably I should tone that down a little and say it’s one of the most important verses in Scripture. It’s the key to the little book of Habakkuk. And we also find that it is quoted in three of the great doctrinal epistles that we have in the New Testament and actually gives the key for those epistles. Therefore, I think that I should read verse 4 to you. Behold, his soul that is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Now, the thing that many have attempted to do is to try to say here in verse 4 that that the faithful, the faithful one, there’s been many ways of attempting to sidestep the tremendous impact of this verse here. And actually, as the New Scofield Bible puts it, this verse here gives the very central theme of the Bible. The very purpose of life and death is presented to us here. And the two ways that are open up to mankind are given to us here. And I have in my notes several things concerning this verse that we’d like to call attention to. He mentions the two groups of individuals that are in the world. Now, actually, mankind before God is divided into two groups, the lost and the saved. Those that have trusted God, that have believed God, and those that have not believed God are putting it in commonplace division. We say that the race is divided between the saints and the ain’ts. And that makes a pretty sharp division for them also. Now, notice what he says here, that you’re to go Habakkuk to your watchtower. And you are to wait there for the message. And this will be God’s great message to you. It will explain his dealings with individuals. It will explain his dealings with nations. This is a great principle he puts down. And it’s actually an axiom of the Bible. You know, when you study geometry… They put down certain axioms that you accept, and they don’t attempt to prove them. They just say, for instance, a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Now, that can be proved by a geometrical problem, but that is an axiom. They always would let me make that statement, and I didn’t have to prove it. I had to prove everything else, but not that one. And there are certain statements in Scripture that are great axioms. Now, here is one of them. And will you listen to it? Behold, his soul that is lifted up is not upright in him. That’s one group of people. That’s the proud. That is those that are working out their own salvation. Or they’re not working it out. They are just living for today. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die. And they feel like this life is all, and they have no purpose. They have no goal in life at all. And it is presented that way here. Behold his soul that’s lifted up. It’s not upright in him. He’s wrong. He’s on the wrong trail. He’s going down the wrong pathway. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And these two groups of humanity, one group here, it’s the lifted up soul or the puffed up soul. You meet folk like that. Many of them are in churches today. Puffed oats or puffed wheat or puffed something. They are like a balloon. They are full of hot air. They’re just blown up, lifted up with pride. And they are flowing down like a river, down to the sea of destruction. And they meander along in their way, picking daisies as they go. And they are taking it easy. That’s their expression. Take it easy. Don’t worry about anything. But as they move down this slow-moving meander river, They’re finally going to come to the sea of destruction. What about them? Well, that’s their end. The Scripture never enlarges upon the loss, if you’ve noted. The Lord Jesus, you remember, told about the rich man and the poor man, Lazarus, and both of them died. Now, the Lord followed them through. The rich man, he went to his place. Instead of Judas, he went to his place when he died. You can go through life just like that, and the end is destruction. The end is a lost eternity. You can take that. Now, the other group is saved by faith, and they are flowing down the river of life toward the city of God and full knowledge. For then shall we know, even as we are known. We don’t have all the answers right now, but we walk today by faith. Now, between the moment of salvation and the then… The one saved by faith will walk by faith. Then shall we know. But now we’ve been saved by faith. We’re going to walk by faith. He may not have the answer now, but we’re going to have the answer someday. And so we have here the puffed up soul must be judged for certain glaring sins that are going to be mentioned here actually. in five woes that are given to us here. We’re going to come to this parable of the prophet, now beginning here with verse 5. But now let’s stay with this other for just a few moments here. Because this verse, Habakkuk 2, 4, is quoted in the epistle to the Romans, in the epistle to the Galatians. and the epistle to the Hebrews, and it’s the key of all three of these epistles. Now, first of all, let’s look at Romans. In Romans, the first chapter, right at the very beginning, and I’ll read it, verse 16. Romans 1, 16 and 17, “…for I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, 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. Now, the emphasis in the epistle to the Romans is upon justification by faith. upon salvation. And you would read it like this, the just, the ones that have been justified by faith, they shall live by faith. That is the great message of the epistle to the Romans. Now, when you come over to the epistle to the Galatians, you find that this has been quoted in this epistle in chapter 3, verse 11. But that no man is justified by law in the sight of God, it’s evident, for the just shall live by faith. Now, again, Habakkuk is quoted. Now, the emphasis is a little different here, because you find, moving back into chapter 2, verse 20, this man Paul says here, “…I am crucified with Christ.” When was he crucified with Christ? When Christ died 1,900 years ago. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now, the emphasis in Romans was upon justification by faith, salvation by faith. Now, the emphasis in this epistle is on faith, and not only faith that saves, but a faith that you live by through this life. That is the emphasis there. Now, we go to the epistle to the Hebrews, and in Hebrews 10, 38 says, I read this, Now the just shall live by faith. Now here the writer to the Hebrews is quoting from this, and he says, The just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. And here the emphasis is upon live. Now take those tremendous words. The just shall live by faith. Now, Paul in Romans puts the emphasis upon the just, justification by faith for salvation. Paul in Galatians puts the emphasis upon the last word, the just shall live by faith. And the emphasis is upon faith. We don’t live by law. Paul says, we see you’re not justified by law. But we read the just shall live by faith. Now, when you come to Hebrews, you have the emphasis here put upon live. And after he quotes this verse in chapter 10, 38 here in Hebrews, he gives us the 11th chapter of Hebrews of man who live by faith and the emphasis is upon living. So that the three great emphases are given in the three great doctrinal epistles. Therefore, this man Habakkuk, when he comes here to this second chapter, he’s given this verse. And Habakkuk looked into the future. And his question is, why? Now, we look back on history, not to the future and prophecy, but we see the answer to Habakkuk. God sent his own people into captivity. He did that. It served a purpose, a greater purpose, and it enabled him to bring the Savior into the world in the fullness of time. Now, when Paul was in Antioch of Pisidia, He preached what I’ve always considered one of the greatest sermons that he ever preached. And in the 13th chapter of the book of Acts at verse 37, and let me begin reading there because this is very important. But he whom God raised again saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets, behold ye despises and wonder and perish for I work a work in your days a work which ye shall in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you and therefore Paul shuts them in to one way to God. That is by faith, he says. This is the only way. And the message is the message that Christ died for our sins. According to the scriptures, he was buried, he rose again the third day. Now, what do you do with it? You accept him as your Savior. You trust him and you walk by faith. And not by law. Oh, we’ve got so many today that are putting us back under not only the Ten Commandments, but they’re putting us back under a little legal system that they’ve worked out and their rules and regulations for the family and for the husband and for the wife and all that. My friend today, may I say to you, if you have been saved by faith in Jesus Christ, then you love him. And his question to you is, if you are his child, do you love me? Now, if you love him, That’s going to work out the problems. It’s going to enable you to walk in the Spirit. If you walk in the Spirit, you’ll be filled with the Spirit. You’ll have joy in your heart. It’ll make you a better husband, make you a better wife, make you a better child, make you a better workman where you work, make you a better man wherever you are or whoever you are. You walk by faith, and one of these days we’ll walk right into His presence. and will be in his presence forevermore. May I say to you, the important thing then will be love, you see, because faith will now have eventuated into actually sight, and we see him. How wonderful this is here. And the important thing that this man, you see, had to say is, I’ve gone to my watchtower. And I’m going to wait. I’m trusting the one who does have the answer. You see, without faith, it’s impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is. He’s a rewarder of them that seek him. And will you notice, the just shall live by faith. My friend, today God is asking you to come to him. And the only way you can come to him is to come by faith. Now, what about the other crowd? Well, he says here his soul’s not upright in him. He’s wrong. Now he’s going to spell out in five woes here. And the first woe we have at verse 5, and it is drunkenness. And this is the way God’s going to judge Babylon. And we’re going to see that next time. I’ll go into detail in that one. And then in verse 9, we see the second woe. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness. Covetousness was the great sin of Babylon as well as drunkenness. And then verse 12. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity. May I say to you how horrible they treated the people that they took into captivity. That was the thing they were noted for, their brutality. And read the 137th Psalm. And you’ll see how they had treated the children of Israel. And then we come to the fifth one. It’s down in verse 19. Woe to him that saith to the wood awake, to the dumb stone arise. And idolatry was the great sin of Babylon also. They had five great sins. You see, pride causes man to go off in these directions. It leads him to drink. leads him to be covetous. He wants more. It leads him to be cruel and brutal actually in his dealings. And it also makes him an idolater. Now, somebody’s going to say, but there’s nobody worshiping idols today in our country. My friend, there are a great many folk that are worshiping idols today in this country. I was in Dallas, Texas, and I noticed it’s there the same as it is here. On the freeway early of a morning, it was bumper to bumper. Where are the people going? Why, they were going into the temple of trade, the march of trade to the marketplace. And they were going there to give themselves for what? They were worshiping the almighty dollar. How many men and women today are worshiping sex? How many today are worshiping pleasure? How many today are worshiping? Well, right now, everybody seems to be trying to become an actor or an actress of some sort or another. Believe me, they sure worship here in Hollywood. They worship this sort of thing. And many a woman gives her body. Many a man gives his life and his honor. May I say to you, my friend, what happens? Well, a soul that’s lifted up. filled with pride, puffed up. This is the direction you’re going. This will be your outcome. This will be your end, a lost eternity. The just shall live by faith. And we can afford to wait today. Let’s just stay in our watchtower. God’s got the answer. I look about me today at a world that I actually think it’s gone crazy. And people say, my, well, what’s the outcome? I don’t know what the outcome is. I think a revolution is ahead. I believe that terrible days are ahead. I don’t mean to be a gloomcaster, but what other conclusion can you come to as you look around you today? And you say, well, you must be a pessimist. I’m not, friend. I’m an optimist. Glorious day is coming. Why we walk by faith today. We’re not walking by sight. I look around me at these things. They’re going to change some of these days. We’ve got one that’s going to be the changer. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming to the earth to establish his kingdom. And believe me, he’s going to change things. But before he comes, he’s going to take his church out of the world. When? I don’t know. I’m just here in the watchtower looking out, walking by faith. Are you walking by faith today, friends? Makes all the difference in the world. It’ll not only change your life, it’ll change your home, change your entire outlook. This is a great verse we’ve looked at today. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
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I’ll see you next time. I think you’ll be especially appreciative of the booklet, The Faith Equation. Faith plus nothing equals salvation. In it, Dr. McGee shares the amazing love that God has for you and then proves that there’s nothing you have to do to earn his love or salvation except believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. For those already enjoying a relationship with the Lord, if you’d like to know more about how to walk by faith, download Dr. McGee’s booklet, Living the Christian Life God’s Way, based on Romans 8. another great chapter in God’s Word. You can download either of these booklets and more over at ttb.org. If we can help you find what you’re looking for, just call 1-800-65-BIBLE. That’s 1-800-652-4253. Now, if this ministry has helped you walk with God, would you drop us an email or a letter and tell us all about it? You know we’d love to hear your story. We might even share it with everyone. So send us a note from our app or write to us at Box 7100. Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. If you prefer email, biblebus at ttb.org is the address. Or leave us a message anytime at 1-800-65-BIBLE. And when you’re in touch, please mention the call letters of your radio station if you listen that way. Or if you listen by app, online, or by any other method, tell us that too. This little bit of information really helps us be good stewards of your financial support. Our adventure on the Bible bus continues through the whole Word of God. I’m Steve Schwartz, and as always, I’ll save a seat just for you. Our journey on the Bible bus today is supported by the prayers and gifts of fellow passengers as we travel through the Bible.
