If you close with Christ, his death is your death.

His righteousness is your righteousness and the only verdict you will ever hear no matter

what you've ever done is justified life heaven.

What does it mean that the just shall live by faith?

John Piper turns to Habakic to unpack the heart of the gospel in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bevelin Baptist Church on October 31st, 1982.

Would you turn with me to the Prophet Habak in the Old Testament.

While you're looking for that, let me try to bring you into the situation

of Habakak so that when we focus on its content, you'll know a little bit of the background.

The situation is that the invasion of Judah, that is the

southern kingdom, is imminent from the Chaldeans, or another name for them, the Babylonians.

The invasion eventually happened at the end of the 6th century BC and Nebuchadnezzar with his forces sacked Jerusalem in about 586 BC.

Before that happened, the Lord revealed to Habakak that in fact it was going to happen, that Judah would be punished for

her sins by the invasion of the Chaldeans.

And unlike Joel and Zeffanaya and Amos, whom we have looked at before, nowhere in Habak

is there any mention of the possibility that judgment might be averted. Nowhere does he call for

national repentance. It's too late. It is coming. That's it. All we can do, therefore, according to Habakak, is prepare ourselves

as individuals to get ready for it. And the way he says that an individual can prepare to live in the judgment is by faith.

So destruction is decreed and the hope of individuals is faith that the nation

as a whole is going to be blasted. Now the full-blown doctrine of justification by faith, which we're going to aim at, is not

here yet in Habakk, but the seed is here. Now, what's the main point of this book?

We had time here to just let you tell me what you think the main point is.

...