Romans 1:17-20 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. [18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; [19] Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed [it] unto them. [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…

The “JUST” or “RIGHTEOUS” Shall
Live By Faith In God

Word Study: The Bible says “The JUST shall live by faith”. The word translated “JUST” is the Greek dikaios (pro. dik’-ah-yos) which means “those who are RIGHTEOUS, JUSTIFIED or in a RIGHT STATE WITH GOD, the HOLY or BLAMELESS”. This statement is used frequently in the Bible – and NOT just in the New Testament. In the Book of Habakkuk God told the Prophet:

Habakkuk 1:6-7 (ESV) … 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. 7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

Why? Because Israel had departed from following God. Habakkuk wrote:

Habakkuk 1:12 (ESV) … We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

God used the proud, the arrogant Chaldeans (aka Babylonians) to punish Israel for moving from faith. God told Habakkuk:

Habakkuk 2:4 (ESV) … Behold, his soul {the Chaldean soul, the godless ones} is puffed up {proud, believing only in themselves}; it is not UPRIGHT {Hebrew yāšar, pro. yaw-shar’} within him, BUT the RIGHTEOUS {Hebrew ṣadîq, the JUST, the LAWFUL, those RIGHT with God} shall live by his faith.

The righteous live by their faith IN GOD, in the GOD of the Bible. God can use the lost to temper the righteous, to teach us to rely on Him. The mark of the believer is that we KEEP OUR FAITH IN THE LORD.

This passage is from the Old Testament – that’s where it originated, “The JUST shall live by FAITH”. The Apostle uses this same phrase repeatedly throughout the New Testament:

Galatians 3:11 (ESV) Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

It is not keeping the Law of God that saves us, but FAITH in the GOODNESS of God in Christ. We believe that God is good. We believe that God is ALWAYS right. We follow the Law – the Commandments He has given us – not to BE saved, but BECAUSE we are saved. Belief follows with obedience. We are told in:

John 3:36 (ESV) Whoever BELIEVES {Greek pisteuō} in the Son has eternal life; whoever DOES NOT OBEY {Greek apeitheō} the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

If you BELIEVE, you OBEY. You BELIEVE to be saved. You believe that God is Who He says He is. You believe God is right, regardless as to what is popular or politically correct. There are passages in the Old Testament that people – usually so called Nominal Christians – find disturbing, and try to explain away. In 1 Samuel 15:3 God tells Saul:

“go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”

That is a difficult passage that many have tried to explain away. I have heard “theologians” suggest that there are actually two Gods in the Bible – the mean Old Testament God, and the meek and mild New Testament God called Jesus.

Is There A “God Of The New Testament” And Another “God Of The Old Testament”? Absolutely not!

People are appalled by the God Who “struck down the FIRSTBORN in every Egyptian household” (Psalm 135:8; 136:10), the tenth plague He brought on Egypt to force Pharaoh to release Israel. How dare God “take the little ones of Babylon, and dash them against the rocks” (Psalm 137:9)? Didn’t Jesus love the little children, and say “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14)? Did God send Jonah to Nineveh to preach so that 120,000 children might be saved (Jonah 4:11)? How dare God order the deaths of women and children! Has He lost His mind? God cannot be pro-life if He does this!

Beloved, if you are saved you know why such passages are in the Bible. “The Just shall live by faith”. We trust God. We believe God. God doesn’t owe us an explanation – we OWE HIM. If God declared it, if God ordered it, then God knows best. God always knows best!

God has the right to do what He will with His creation. It is His. He says, “All souls are MINE … and the soul that sinneth, IT SHALL DIE” (Ezekiel 18:4). It is God Who made all things. God has the right to do what He will with His creation.

But people want to be God.
The created want to be the CREATOR.
The job is not available – EVER!

God Himself Has Clearly Shown Us The He Is God
(And We Are Not)

Romans 1:18-19 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

People ask “Why has God allowed this? If God is there, why doesn’t He fix things?” Well, God is there, and God is doing what God is supposed to do. When God created humanity, God created us to do specific things. God said:

Genesis 1:26 (NKJV) … Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion …

God made humanity “in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”. As God is a Compound Unity, Man and Woman in marriage are a Compound Unity. God created Adam and Eve to “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion” (Genesis 1:28). When God created us, He gave humanity a specific job. We were to reproduce, and we were to dominate the planet and all that is in it as stewards of God. We are told:

Romans 1:19 …that which may be known of God
is manifest in them

Word Study: God has not left Himself a “secret”, but has left very clear evidence that He is. He has “MANIFEST” (Greek phaneros, pro. Fan-er-os’) or “made Himself apparent or easily recognized”. God has not hidden Himself from us, nor is He hard to discover. We just don’t want to discover Him. If there is no God, then WE can be GODS. So we ignore God and His clear evidences.

God reveals Himself IN US in our CONSCIENCE: God has given each and every one of us a conscience. Yes, there are some people who are psychopaths, who have a distorted conscience because of their sin nature. There are the twisted ones like Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, H.H. Holmes, Ted Bundy who do horrid things. But even these people hide what they do because they know it’s evil. We all have consciences. In our conscience, we know that certain things are right and wrong. From civilization to civilization murder, theft, rape are wrong. Only the most depraved of people will justify cannibalization, the eating of human flesh. God gave Israel the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, but every society that is stable recognizes the Commandments. The Apostle tells us that:

Romans 2:14-15 (ESV) … when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness …

The Jews knew that murder was wrong because God’s Law forbade it. But the Gentiles – the non-Jews – know that murder is wrong because God wrote it in our hearts. We know what is right and wrong. It’s in our conscience. God manifests Himself through our conscience.

God reveals Himself IN US in our CREATION:

Romans 1:20 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

There is evidence of God’s handiwork in us, and all about us. The human eye is a miracle that creation denying evolutionists cannot explain. Our fingerprints are distinct, I am told that no two are exactly alike. When you go outside you can see a design in the leaves of trees, the systems that keep this world alive. People betray their belief in God by their language. People often take God’s Name in vain in a variety of ways, and even text God’s name in vain (OMG). If there is no God Who created all things, then why don’t we curse Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny? The reality is, even the slowest among us can – if we stop and look – see evidence of God in us, and around us. King David wrote:

Psalm 8:3-9 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

David had no telescopes, no special equipment. He just opened his eyes and looked about him. People have no problem seeing the evidence of God. The reality is, God has manifested Himself very clearly – we just don’t want to acknowledge Him. When we acknowledge Him, then we have to DO something with Him. If He is God and we are not, this will change us. So we reject Him.

It is not that we don’t know there’s a God. We just
don’t want to deal with Him.

When Paul preached at Athens “in the midst of Areopagus” (Acts 17:22) he said:

Acts 17:24-28 (ESV) The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In Him we live and move and have our being’;

God is clearly represented in our Conscience and in Creation. He is not far from any of us. The reason that we do not see God is because, as Jesus said:

John 3:19-20 … light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

If there is a God, and He has clearly revealed Himself to us, then we have to do something about that. But if we ignore the clear evidences of God we are free to wallow in the darkness of being our own gods, our own creators.

Romans 1:20 … they are WITHOUT EXCUSE

People Prefer Idols – Man Made Gods –
To The Real God

Romans 1:21-23 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

They KNEW GOD. People know God. He has revealed Himself through Conscience, through Creation, and through Christ. People rejected the very clear evidence that God gave of Himself in our bodies, in our souls, and in our world and beyond. God raised up Israel, and gave her the Law. And yet people continued to reject God and turn instead to idols.

Rejecting the God Who clearly is in favor of a man-made idol is Divine Identity Theft. God could have destroyed us all when we robbed Him of His glory. But instead, the God Who is so good went beyond conscience and creation.

God sent His Son Jesus to show us God.

Jesus came into this world with a very clear message. Jesus “spoke the Words of God, and God gave His Spirit unto Jesus without measure” (John 3:34). Jesus came into a broken world to bring wholeness. He called on people to “REPENT” and to “believe on Me, Whom God has sent” (John 6:29). Jesus offered union with God to whoever would believe on Him. Jesus said:

John 17:3 (KJV) … this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

God sent His Son to save us from ourselves, from our sins. God loves us, and calls us to His side to love Him, to be filled with the love of God.

1 John 4:10 (KJV) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation {Greek hilasmos, satisfactory payment} for our sins.

Jesus was proved to be the Son of God by the miracles that He did while on this earth. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead. Jesus did that which no human can do. Jesus forgave sins. “Your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5-12)Jesus told the paralyzed man before healing him. “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more” (John 8:10-11) Jesus told the woman taken in adultery. Jesus stood before the tomb of Lazarus, and cried “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43-44)! With His word, the dead was raised back to life. When Jesus cast out demons, the demons cried out “You are the Son of God” (Luke 4:41). When Jesus commanded the storm “Peace, be still!” (Mark 4:39) and it stopped, those in the boat with Him said “Truly You are THE Son of God” (Matthew 14:33). Jesus told His disciples:

John 8:32 … You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world …

and prayed,

John 17:5 … Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

When Jesus was beaten and tormented, tortured and nailed to the Cross, dying for your sins and mine, He said “It is finished” and the veil of the Temple tore from top to bottom. Following that earthquake the Centurion who crucified Jesus and the men with Him said,

Matthew 27:54 … this Man TRULY WAS THE SON OF GOD

This Jesus rose from the dead, three days and three nights later, just as He said He would. Jesus proves there is a God, for He Himself is God. My commentary notes:

“John writes in his gospel: “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us” (John 1:18, NLT). Paul told the Colossians, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation” (Colossians 1:15, NLT). And Jesus said to Philip, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” (John 14:9, NLT).

The signs and wonders Jesus performed revealed the glory and power of God. The way He lived, the miracles He performed, and His teachings and parables all demonstrated how much the Father cares for us. The way to know the Father and have a relationship with Him is to know the Son, who is the fullness of God’s revelation of Himself (Galatians 4:4–5; Hebrews 1:1–2).”

Through Conscience, through Creation, through Christ we clearly see that there is a God Who loves us, and calls us to His side. But many instead of believing on God,

Romans 1:23 … changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

If You Give Up On God, Eventually
God Will Give Up On You

Romans 1:24-25 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Those who reject God “love darkness more than light” (John 3:19). It is not that God isn’t there or that God is hard to find. He isn’t. God is near to us all. “In Him we live and move and have our being”. You can no more ignore the reality of God than you can wade in the ocean and doubt its existence.

When people reject God and His advances over and over again, in time “God WILL give them up to uncleanness”. If you want the darkness, and repeated reject the light of Christ, God will let you have what you want. We are told that:

John 3:18 (ESV) He who believes in Him {in Jesus} is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Our text today should stand as a stark reminder to us all that we should RUN, not walk but RUN into the arms of Jesus. We should put our idols down and give our lives to Him, believing that Jesus has power to save us. Those who reject Christ “DISHONOR THEIR OWN BODIES between themselves”. They do things which are not only destructive to themselves, but that bring destruction on their friends and loved ones.

There is a God. He has proven Himself in creation, in your conscience, and in Jesus Christ. He calls you to Himself through Jesus. Repent! Turn from being your own God. Put all your idols down, and come to Jesus. Do so without delay. In Jesus’ name I beg you.

Amen and Amen.