You have your Bible like for you to open it to habakkuk chapter 1
habakkuk chapter 1. You may think what is habakkuk?
It sounds like a loogie or the noise you make right before you
spit. It's it's it's true.
It does habakkuk is found in the Minor Prophets which is toward
the end of your Old Testament. It's after noon a home and
before Zephaniah. Again may be equally unhelpful,
I don't know, but I'm feeling a bit of extra energy today this
First time to preach in three weeks.
So you guys are really in for it today.
I apologize, but I'm happy to be here.
It's good to see you guys. I greatly miss being with you
last week. James, thank you once again for
stepping in and unfortunate circumstance.
And for preaching the word brother, it means a lot.
It's good to see you guys here today.
I hope your families are well habakkuk chapter one.
So there's a few things too. To talk about with the back,
I'll give you a little bit now and then I'll Prairie and I'll
give you a little bit more, but habakkuk is a an unusual
prophetic book. As we know, prophetic books,
usually prophetic books are written to the people of God to
tell something that God has spoken to them.
Now back is, is similar. God does tell habakkuk to write
down these oracle's write down, what you've seen, what you've
heard, but in habakkuk, we never see the people direct address
directly. Polly instead, it's a
conversation between habakkuk and God.
And what habakkuk is doing, is he's questioning God, he's
questioning specifically, God's action or maybe even more
specifically the inaction of God, where, where are you?
God? And so, the outline of a bacchic
is really simple to follow. It's only three chapters.
It's broken into three sections. If you have a study Bible or
something, it probably lays those out for you.
Are you they almost follow the chapter headings perfectly but
not quite what? We see in habakkuk are two
complaints and the prayer. The first complaint, there's two
complaints from habakkuk, there's two answers from God and
then there's a prayer and in the end and so habakkuk, first
complaint is what we'll be looking at today where habakkuk
is essentially asking God where are you In the middle of all of
this. And then God responds with a
response that I don't think, oh, back.
It was ready for. And so habakkuk, complains
again, why are you doing this or how could you do this?
Why would you do this and God responds again and then
habakkuk, praise to God. The book of habakkuk teaches us
that the righteous live by faith or specifically what God says,
is that the righteous shall live by his faith?
It's a verse that the Apostle Paul uses three different times
in the New Testament, all in different letters to different
groups of people, and all reinforcing and different idea
about what the faith of the righteous is the first time.
Paul uses it as in Romans 1:17, or the first time we see it in
our new testament is in Romans 1:17 where Paul is talking,
specifically about justification that the righteous come alive.
By faith, the renewed by faith. The gospel specifically is the
power of Salvation to all who believe and so the righteous
live by faith. The second thing we second time,
we see it is in Galatians chapter 3, if you know anything
about the book of Galatians, the Galatians were guilty of running
back on their faith in Christ and turning back to Works.
They're turning to Works to sanctify.
Works to have faith. Then they're putting faith in
their own work so I should say. And so, in Galatians 3:11, Paul
uses this phrase, the righteous live by faith by letting them
know that the righteous are Sanctified by faith.
So you have justification, which is the beginning of Faith, you
have sanctification, which is the process of Faith.
Thought from your first breath, as a new Christian to your final
breath. And then in Hebrews 10, verse 38
phrases used again. I know I said that all these are
used by Paul so that's putting my cards on the table as to.
I think the writer of Hebrews is most people don't I mean we
don't know who the writer of Hebrews is but that's that's a
pretty widely held belief. Anyway there, he's talking
specifically about your glorification, the righteous
live by faith. And again he's encouraging the
Hebrews not to turn to works, but the Hold On by faith to
Christ until the very end. You will receive your due
reward. So it's talking about your
glorification. So what we see about this phrase
that the righteous shall live by his faith, is that the Christian
Life is a life of Faith. Amen, it's a life of Faith.
It's a life born of Faith. It's a life that's lived by
faith and it's a life that's consummated in faith.
It breathes his last breath in faith.
It goes to, its grave knowing that the grave has no, hold on
him. Amen.
And so from beginning to end the Christian Life is a life of
Faith received as a gift of God's grace.
But what do you do when your faith is rocked?
What do you do when your faith is in shambles or when your
faith is weak? Specifically, what do you do
when your faith is is rocked by world affairs?
What do you do when evil goes unpunished?
What do you do when good receives persecution and evil
receives reward? What do you do when it looks as
though the battle is being lost? What do you do when you're
pleading to God for mercy? And he appears silence Jasper,
Just prayed for the end of abortion.
It's a prayer that Louis likely all give a hearty.
Amen. To But if we are to look
honestly at the war on abortion, we would say we're losing.
And so our cry is for Mercy or cry, is for Justice For The
Unborn. but even in looking at that, we might think God, where
are you? This is what habakkuk is facing.
He's facing very much similar questions to what we face today.
And so this is a great book and it's a great book because it
teaches us as Christians how to respond.
It's much like the Book of Job and many other stories in
Scripture. Habakkuk teaches us that the
righteous live by faith. And today, what I want us to see
is that the faithful turn to God and their distress, the faithful
turn to God and their distress. Let me pray for us.
Heavenly Father. We thank you that you are with
us today. We thank you Lord that your word
is good and right and true. And father, we ask that you be
near to us today as we open up your word.
And as we read, we ask Lord that you would help us to know your
presence. God, we can look into our own
world and have many many questions that go.
That go unanswered. We can wonder God, where are
you? We can feel alone.
We can feel as though we've been forsaken.
And not just us as Christians here and America but all over
the globe. as we look at the persecution of our brothers and
sisters, Across the world. God, would you help us to be
faithful? Would you help us to live by
faith? Would you use this book
habakkuk? Did you use your word?
To help us to live father truly live strengthen our faith.
Bolstered Lord, help us to learn how to live in Babylon.
As men and women of God as boys and girls who are seeking your
face. In Christ's name.
I pray this prayer. Amen.
As many of your Bible, studies point out.
There's various things about the background of habakkuk that are
really important for us to understand as we understand, why
is habakkuk lobbying. These complaint grenades at God,
why is he doing this? And so a couple of the things
that you want to know is how bacchic is likely a contemporary
of the prophets, Zephaniah and Jeremiah, he lived in 7th
Century BC, the only hint that we have.
That date is the prediction of the Babylonian Invasion or the
invasion of the Chaldeans, as you see in Chapter 1 Verse 6,
which will read here in a moment, but it's really unclear
to us how far into the future. That would be the book.
Just doesn't give us a lot by way of dating ability.
The Babylonians do not appear yet in this to be an imminent
threats when habakkuk was riding.
But it seems as though he could see the writing on the wall.
It seems as though he had a maybe even had a vision.
I don't know from the Lord about what was coming.
He seems very aware of the potential threats.
And so habakkuk timeframe for riding is probably not as most
Scholars point out. Probably not later than the end
of Josiah's. Ranking Josiah's ring, which was
in 642 609 BC. Long time ago.
Before Josiah was raining. As king Judah had radically
turned away from God. Under the leadership of the
extremely Wicked Kings Manasseh and Amon that the nation was
right, for punishments, Judah was supposed to be the nation of
God's people. But the people had become
morally and spiritually corrupt, they were worshiping by Al on
the high places, they were brutally.
Murdering is a better word than sacrifice of brutally murdering
their children as a sacrifice to Molech.
They were allowing the temple to fall into ruin and many other
such calamities. The place was not happy.
It was not full of joy. Jude experience.
The significance, though. Short-lived time of Revival.
If you will during Josiah's rain when we're He restored, the all
here, instituted, the Feast of the Passover, he reminded them
of the word of God and tried to abide by it.
Tried to get the nation to abide by its Remember, The God Who had
delivered them so many times before. but the nation return
quickly to its evil ways following his death It was a
politically turbulent time as well.
There's much going on outside of Judah, not only within Judah,
but outside of Judah, Assyria had ruled Judah with a heavy
hand for well over 100 years inflicted punishments.
On them. But Assyria was beginning to
weaken. And soon Babylon would be the
world power. A backache probably lived to see
the following events. The destruction of Nineveh by
Babylon and 612 the Battle of haran and 609 in which King
Josiah died, as he tried to hinder the Egyptians from
reaching the battle. He probably saw the final defeat
of this, the Assyrians at the Battle of Kharkov, mesh and 605
and he possibly saw the Fulfillment of his own prophecy,
which is the Babylonian invasion of Judah in 605 and 597 and in
586 BC. Habakkuk.
It's seen a lot spiritually. Spiritual corruptness, it's in
political upheaval. A backache lived during a time
of great turmoil. And it, especially that turmoil,
especially resulted in the persecution of God's people.
Now, as I'm reading that, as I was studying this and one of the
reasons I want to present this book to you, I hope it's obvious
now that there's bears and this is something we want to be we
want to be careful of but this Bears many resemblances to our
own day and time. Not only in what we're seeing in
America but just world-wide right now.
Again I don't think that the nation of I want to make this
clear. The nation of America is not How
the nation of Judah. Right.
But what we see is the persecution of God's people
because evil is prevailing and what we see is God's people are
God's man God's Prophet coming to God saying where are you?
And I feel that deep in my soul. I do, I'm sure many of you do.
The people are worshipping false gods.
The people today worship, many false gods, Many of the people
who are worshiping the false gods in habakkuk.
Are people who once considered themselves, God's people, and
today many of the people who are worshiping false gods and our
time are those who once considered themselves, God's
people, the people are sacrificing children.
To Molech. This is not unlike the
modern-day Gina side. We soften by simply calling it a
boarding, a clump of cells. And so, somebody making tests
for what God, our babies being offered to.
Well, I would say it's the god of their own comfort and
entitlements, it's the god of their own belly.
Pun intended, right? They destroyed the temple.
The place that was initially meant for God's residents his
worship. We know that today on the
backside of the death and resurrection of Christ, the
sending of the holy spirit that we are the Temple of the Holy
Spirit, God resides in us not in buildings or tents to be moved
around but no less today. Are Christians and local
churches being destroyed by the wicked.
Amen. And so a backache looks at the
mounting and the further incoming destruction.
He sees what's going on. He says God, where are you?
Where are you? I want everybody to listen to me
for just a second because I think this is one of the most
important things we learn from habakkuk.
I think it's one of the things we have to remember, We have to
remember this. Believers, you are not promised.
You are not promised by God to be saved from Babylonian
captivity. You are not promised by God to
be saved from Babylonian persecution and Earthly rule.
You may experience it. in many ways, we are experiencing But
what you are? Chao.
Is that you have a refuge in God?
Always. And you are shown in this book.
How Christians are to live faithful to God when under
Babylonian rule in captivity? That's what the bakic teaches
us. And I think the challenge goes a
bit further than that parents. You have been given the
god-given rights to raise children, who will be arrows in
the hands of warrior Psalm says and 127.
To fight. Against the Babylonian rule.
Believers, you are lights in the world that is ruled by Darkness.
I was talking with a dear brother the other day and and
one of the things we were discussing is just how maybe sad
is a good word. it is that we live at a time right now where
Christians men, Old men men who in Titus 2 or supposed to be
leading the charge for young men, training, young men.
I hear old men lamenting Oh, I'm so glad I don't have to raise
four children in this world. And I think that I've reached
the moment where my response will change.
Used to it was just kind of a soft chuckle in like a, I
understand. But how?
How cowardice is that statement? As a belief as someone who
professes to Believe In The Sovereign Rule and authority of
God? And so my response, that least
the gut feeling I have the confidence, I have in Christ.
Is that not how terrible is it? But how fortunate in my eye?
To get to raise children in this world.
Praise God for the opportunity. Praise God for it.
You see, you don't choose. Babylonian rule.
It's not something you just wander into one day or wake up
one day saying man I would love to live under the rule of the
Babylonians. It's chosen for you by the
faithless naseeb generations that have gone before you.
And what you're responsible for, is your faithfulness in the
generation that you're currently dwelling in.
How will I change the future? So you don't do this just as
parents just one that's one application points.
You don't have to be a parent to raise arrows.
You raise Arrows by raising disciples, amen, disciples.
Don't have to be your children. If you're a parent those are
your first disciples. Absolutely.
If you're not a parent God hasn't solved for whatever
reason to make you a parent yet and maybe he never does then
he's given you an incredible opportunity to be a disciple
maker either way as a child of God.
And so you get to make disciples You to make disciples.
And so again, I think one of the main things about habakkuk is
that Babylonian rule happens. And you might look at Americans.
Oh man this is really tough. What we're going through blah
blah, blah of a change over the last 100 years. 50 years even 20
years. It's like nothing we've ever
seen sure, I don't disagree with you, but do you realize how
fortunate we've been to live in America?
There were brothers and sisters all over the world who have
never experienced the freedom we've experienced.
And yet in persecution, the church thrives the church grows.
In fact, persecution has a way of weeding outs, unbelievers,
separating the wheat, from, the chaff.
How do we know who's in, and who's out?
Let them endure persecution and we'll find out.
You'll know for sure then who's in and who's out?
So voting matters standing for the right things matters.
Absolutely. But what matters most is your
day-to-day to commitment to the Lord to serve him as his
disciple to grow in Christ likeness and to make other
disciples. That's what matters.
Because you have to prepare people to live under Babylonian
rule. And, and weather.
Whether it comes or not faithfulness is the only way to
live in it. And so back is a book that's
about the Judgment of God. On God's people.
And how he uses. evil people to exercise, his judgement on
seemingly are people who think they are good, but that way,
Look at verse 11. The Oracle that habakkuk the
prophet saws, so in Chapter 2, he sold a write this down.
So that's his that's his introduction.
Here's the Oracle that I saw. Now here's his complaints in
verse 2, through 4 O Lord. How long shall I cry for help
and you will not hear or cry to you violence, and you will not
save. Why do you make me see iniquity?
And why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me strife and contention
arise. So the law is paralyzed and
Justice. Never goes forth for the wicked.
Surround the righteous so Justice Goes Forth, perverted
When you can hear in his voice right though.
The pain, the suffering, the doubt, the fear, the Calamity,
that's all around him, and God why?
Why are you silent? Where are you?
Before we get into God's reply, I want you to see at least three
things that that I think back it does that show us how the
faithful go to God in their distress.
Because you can go to God in your distress in a sinful way.
And you can go to God in your distress and a righteous way.
And I think a back it comes largely in a righteous way.
Here's a few things that I think helped us see that the first is
that habakkuk remembers his Covenant with God.
How do we know he remembers his Covenant with God?
He didn't name his Covenant. Did he?
He didn't say God, I'm one of your Covenant people.
I mean mentions the righteous so maybe that's a hint but the very
first hint we have is that he uses the Covenant name for God
lord. it says, oh Lord, this This is how the Covenant people
of God address God. And so the use of the name Lord
emphasizes his relationship with God.
And what we need to take from this is that the presence of
evil the presence of suffering or not negating.
His relationship with God. They're not taking it away these
tumultuous times that he's experiencing.
Don't make him run from God. They make him run to God, right?
Oh Lord! Where are you?
He's running to God. God's faithful people turn to
him during their distress. Well the first thing is we need
to see they remember their Covenant with him.
O Lord. Where Are You?
O Lord. You see, in using the Covenant
name of God. He's also recalling past works
of God. He knows that he can call on God
because he has the past works of God to point to and say, God
hears for you were faithful to deliver your people.
Where are you now? This is why remembering your
Covenant matters. Is why knowing your scriptures
matters? You were not alone when you
question where is God you stand in a line of great great
company. Many Believers across thousands
of years who are saying the very same thing.
Oh Lord where are you? It's like a thing.
I observed here about habakkuk dealing with the Lord.
And this way is that he deals honestly with God.
First thing is you remembers his Covenant but the second thing is
that he deals honestly with God, he doesn't sugarcoat his
complaints. What would it matter boys and
girls would it matter? If he had tried to hide his
thoughts from the Lord, or does the Lord know everything?
Any boy or girl want to take a shot at the young ones?
Yeah it's God know everything. Yeah he does.
All right, God knows all things. So we can't hide our thoughts
from him. Now, the boys and girls are
shrinking down there. She's like, please don't call
him me. So habakkuk comes honestly
before the Lord. He says, how long shall I cry to
you? In other words this has been
going on a while. This isn't his first prayer.
How long shall I continue to do this?
Lord. Where are you?
Why do you idly look at wrong? In other words, why do you
twiddle your thumbs? While wrong is being done to
your people. Habakkuk is observing the
spiritual Corruption of God's people.
He's observing the tumultuous political pressure going on all
around him in the world and the prophet begins to doubt, maybe.
Maybe doubts, beginning to creep in.
Maybe the mockers are getting to him, you know, the outside
voices. Who say, where is your god when
they look at evil, right? This is one of the great
atheistic questions of the day. If God is good, and if God
exists, why is there evil in the world?
I'm sure habakkuk was hearing similar.
Thoughts. The prophet begins to doubt
potentially whether there will be Justice against evil, whether
there will be Mercy shown to the faithful.
Where are you? God, how long shall I cry to
you? Are you going to show your
people? Mercy?
Have you, forsaken us? Where are you?
God, will you allow evil to go unpunished?
I'll back. It goes on to make some
accusations against God. He says the law is paralyzed And
he says, justice never goes forth.
These are heavy accusations against the Lord.
Well, the one thing, the prophet recognized for sure, is that the
Mosaic law had no perceivable effect on the people, it wasn't
changing the nation, the, the Mosaic law, The Ten
Commandments, right? And all the rest had no
perceivable effect on the world. People were still evil God's
people even were turning away from God and turning to idol
worship. What's commandment number one?
I shall have no other gods before me.
Commandment number two, don't worship.
Idols, don't make any thing in my image and worship it.
The people have disobeyed, the first two Commandments.
And he looks and he says, the law must be paralyzed.
It's not working. And so the prophet thinks that
God silence is causing Injustice to fester and to grow like a
wound. That's becoming infected.
It's getting worse and worse and it's affecting the whole body.
And he's not wrong. This festering, it is growing.
The wicked were surrounding the righteous.
He says And throughout the history of God's people from
Genesis to revelation. Into where we are today.
The children of God have often expressed these same complaints
job made the very same complaints to God.
Job even tries to justify himself in the process and which
he receives a hearty rebuke, From God.
And from a friend, there is a rights Israelites wondered where
God was during their Wilderness journey is God, even Among Us,
they said, so the the righteous bring their distress to the
Lord. That go to the Lord in their
distress but they do it by remembering his Covenant name,
remembering their Covenant with him.
And they do it by dealing honestly with God.
The third thing that I think of bacchic recognizes that I think
we must recognize and this is one of the things that keeps us
from being sinful and our approach is that habakkuk
understood the sovereignty of God in all this.
Again, I think this is one of the things that grounds us.
It's one of the things that helps us remain humble.
Before the Lord, how long will I cry to you for help?
And you will not hear or cry to you violence, and you will not
save. Why do you make me see iniquity?
And why do you look idly at wrong?
You see all the use the word you in there?
He's holding God responsible. But it but he's holding God
responsible because he knows that God is sovereign.
He knows that God that the sovereignty of God means is it
means that God is the supreme ruler of all things.
Not merely objects or persons but he is the ruler of every
events of History. Nothing happens apart from the
hand of God. And his Sovereign rule by
definition is not subject to anything or anyone outside of
himself. It is his own God works all
things together for the purpose of his own Glory.
And His glory will spread throughout the Earth that will
cover the earth. Isaiah says, as the waters,
Cover the Earth. Psalm 115 3.
The psalmist there says our God is in the heavens and he does
all that. He pleases she got is not
forwarded in his plans, not once not at all.
And so habakkuk, recognizing this truth, he goes to the
source He seeks answers for his complaints from the only one who
could give an answer. You see the presence of evil
gives the appearance of the absence of God, but it does not
prove the absence of God. All right.
Especially as evil grows, especially as it begins to kind
of overwhelm God's people. It can.
It can look, Like God is absent. But the righteous walk by faith,
they don't walk by sight. That's what First Corinthians
tells us or we may say as it said here that the righteous
live by faith And not by sight. Another words, the righteous man
or woman the righteous boy or girl does not.
Look at the events going on around him and decide whether or
not he or she is going to remain faithful to God.
The righteous person looks at the events going on around them
and says, no matter what I'm going to remain faithful to the
Lord. He is worthy of my faithfulness
because he is always faithful and steadfast and love.
Never relented. Habakkuk teaches us how we
properly bring our complaints to God.
It is true that the faithful turn to God in their distress
with the faithful do. So in faith, they don't do it as
unbelievers. Unbelievers mock, God,
unbelievers mock, his people unbelievers scoff, Someone uses
this illustration so perfectly. It talks about not sitting in
the presence of scoffers, not standing in the way of Sinners
not, not being like the mockers, But this is what unbelievers, do
they mock God and they mock his people.
They look weak. Look at them believing in their
fairy tale. God, who is non-existent?
He's clearly non-existent. Because evil is present if he
were really good. There would be no evil.
Right. And that's what they say, right?
Agreeing It's really just a straw man argument.
Believers on the other hand, They come to God in faith.
And so just to kind of reiterate what I've just told you
believers do that. They come to the Lord by and
Faith by remembering their Covenant with him.
If you missed that the first time around, that's step one.
Remember your Covenant with God, he is your Lord because he saved
you by his grace through faith. If you were in Christ, Jesus.
It's because of the work of God Almighty.
On your behalf, do not forget your salvation Just because the
world is burning around you. Believers deal.
Honestly with God. It's okay to question God.
What are you up to? What's going on?
It's normal to feel alone at times.
It's normal to wonder. It's normal to doubt your
finite. You're not infinite.
The Bible, clearly states, that his ways are higher than our
ways. His thoughts are greater than
our thoughts. How could you think on the same
level of God, you can't. So, what is your natural
response going to be? It's going to be times of doubt
and fear. Worry, anxiety.
Bring those to the Lord Faithfully.
Third thing they do is they understand the sovereignty of
God. God is completely in control of
all things at all times. Nothing happens.
Apart from his hand. R.c., Sproul, the late Caster
r.c., Sproul. He had this wonderful quote, he
said if there's one Maverick molecule, if there's one
molecule that decides to do its own thing and all the universe,
then God is not sovereign. And if God is not sovereign, he
is not God. So faithful Christians, may not
understand why something happens, we make question it,
but you can trust that all things happen.
According to God's Sovereign Rule and so when a Christian
does, is it Christian learns to pray?
Then like this God help me. Help me see your glory.
During all of this helped me. See your Sovereign hand at work
and all of this helped me to overcome my fears and my
frustrations and my doubts. Help me God That's how you
Faithfully Pray when you're seeking answers.
Prayers like that over and over again though.
They may not receive the answer you're looking for.
But you may not have all the knowledge of God in a moment.
Prayers like that produce Joy. Prayers like that, produce
strength prayers, like that produce, comfort, and peace, and
faith during times of distress prayers, like that, helped you
and the Brotherhood of Christians keep marching
forward. You recognize and moments of
dependents that you are not alone.
God gives you all sorts of things that you cannot handle,
so that you will depend on him. If God only gave you things, you
could handle, you would be God, not him.
God doesn't want you to be God, he created you to worship and
glorify his name, not yours. Amen.
So you come under, Babylonian rule, you come under Babylonian
impact, you come under the impact of Sinners.
You come under persecution, you come under Strife, you come
under difficulty, so that you will learn to praise the name of
the Lord, most high above every other name.
It teaches you to be humble it, teaches you.
To not think by my strength, look how awesome I am. teaches
you to trust and The Only Name That's worthy of trust, the name
of Jesus Christ, Our Lord And that happens in those prayers,
whether it's about personal distress or Global distress.
Would you look at God's response?
I promise to be a bit shorter here.
Habakkuk 15 through 11. Look among the Nations and see
wonder and be astounded. God says, for I am doing a work
in your days that you would not believe if told for behold I'm
raising up the Chaldeans. That's the Babylonians that
bitter and Hasty Nation, who marched through the breadth of
the earth to seize dwellings that are not their own.
That means they're coming to take y'all stuff.
Right. It's like done every other
persons. They're coming for you.
They are dreaded and fearsome their Justice and their dignity
go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than
leopards more Fierce than the evening.
Wolves, their Horsemen press proudly on their Horsemen come
from afar. They Fly Like an Eagle Swift to
devour. They all come for violence, all
their faces, forward together, captives like sand.
You ever taken a handful of sand and just hold it.
And who knows? How many?
Potentially millions of grains of sand.
You're grabbing in one handful. All their faces are forward.
The captures likes, and at Kings, they scoff at rulers,
they laugh. They're not afraid of any ruler.
They laugh at every Fortress for they pile up Earth and take it.
This means that this is kind of a neat.
God is telling of a battle tactic that they had where they
would pile up the ground in front of fortresses, in order to
get over the Fortress and take the place, I mean, they're
moving dirt literally to get into your place and season and
you and your family. I think about the spiritual
significant that Suzy kind of survey the landscape.
The Babylonians are piling up ground all around us today.
And I don't mean necessarily in a physical sense, I mean more in
a spiritual sense. They're coming for Christianity.
They've already begun. You're raising children and a
time where? You might even but your children
will certainly see. Barring a great Revival, of
course. That that anything that
professes to be Christian is hate speech.
Condemnable likely. My Punishment of law.
This isn't fear-mongering I think you need to know how to
raise your children. How to raise disciples?
How to think about your own Christianity and just how
serious this is. In these days. men, it's time
for you to stop sitting on the sidelines, if you are I don't
know any other way to put it. We need you, women, we need you,
we need faithful men and women to run after the Lord, God above
all else. Harder Than You, Train Your
Body. Harder than you train for work.
Harder than you train anything else.
You need to train yourself for godliness because it matters
right now in your life more than it's ever mattered before.
Man, I love you. I really expected more.
I'm insane. Not for me but because you see
the desperation of this. But know that you don't beat the
air as a boxer, beats the air, you don't train for something
that you're not gifted to train for the.
Holy Spirit has filled you with life and godliness for this very
time. And as you turn from sin as you
turn from your own desires and you turn to the Lord, he fills
you up. With the fruit of the spirit.
And you get to go into battle with the Lord's army.
As a Christian, it's a man or woman with Christ written across
your heart. It matters.
God in verse 11. He says then they sweep by like
the wind and go on another words.
I just It's like the destruction of a F5.
Tornado on a small town. There's just nothing left, the
suite by like the wind and they go on guilty men.
Here's where the righteous hangs.
His hat guilty men, whose own might is their God.
You should God and his response, he doesn't tell, he doesn't tell
habakkuk what he wants to hear. This is not what habakkuk came.
Looking for back at came looking for immediate relief.
Immediate Mercy, he doesn't get it.
What he says is, oh, it's about to get worse.
But what you can trust is that they are guilty men.
And there might is their own God.
God has judged them right even though he's letting them.
Act. He's using them as an act of
judgment against Judah. God is saying, I'm among you.
I'm with you. I'm here to help you.
I will bring them Justice. But I'm going to do it through
this violent and prideful Nation.
I'm going to use them, and that's why he says you would not
believe it. Even if told the prophet refused
to believe that a just, God would use the sinful Babylonians
to deal with his people. But again, God's sovereignty is
on display. He says, I am raising up the
Chaldeans. He doesn't say the child beans
are coming. He says, I am raising up the
Chaldeans for this purpose. This is The Sovereign Judgment
of God on his people. God controls everything.
He uses Nations even for his own purposes.
The god of habakkuk is the same God, we serve today.
He knows the Chaldeans are bitter and Hasty Nation.
He calls them that he says they're guilty yet.
He will use their character to punish Judah.
They've dominated the world. They're destroying lives through
murder, in captivity. Their own might, is their God,
according to the Lord. And it's in that that you see a
glimpse of their impending, judgments.
God's response doesn't silence habakkuk for long.
He will see next week, his second complaints there.
Habakkuk essentially says, how could you do this?
God, how could you use an evil and perverse people?
To exercise judgment. On your people.
Let me wrap this up for us. That this perplexing response
through this perplexing response.
God, challenges, not only habakkuk Faith, but ours as
well. That God can bring about good
from Evil. Is a theme that Echoes down
through the whole Bible. You see it?
One of the first times you see, it is.
Well let me see it everywhere. You see in Genesis 3, but
Genesis 50 is one of the times where it's so plain to us as
Joseph. There makes a statement to his
brothers after they sold him into captivity.
He lives in prison for a while. He becomes a dream, he's able to
interpret dreams for Pharaoh, he gains a lot of prominence of
gains, a lot of authority. And he's able to deliver God's
people. And this is what he says to his
brothers, as they realize what they've done the place they've
given him and now he's saved them and they're repenting of
it. He says, as for you, you meant
evil against me, but God meant it for good.
God used evil in my life for good. it takes a ton of faith
and yet a small minutiae Faith at the same time to be able to
say God used evil for my good. But that's what Joseph does.
The Apostle Paul reaffirms this, he expounds on it for the sake
of time, I can't read it all goodness sake of time while
Romans 8:28. And we know that for those who
love God, all things work together for good.
For those who are called according to his purpose.
That's that's the Apostle Paul essentially restating what
Joseph said in Genesis 50 but then in 29, through 38, sorry,
39. He He just expounds on it.
He goes so much further. Encourage you to read that if
you're struggling. The best thing though, about
God's have back response to habakkuk is that it also really
hang with me, just for a minute here, it also foreshadows the
ultimate good. It foreshadows when we look
forward to something, right? It tells us something that's
coming and this is what happens in this God saying.
I'm going to use something evil for your good.
God is foreshadowing. The ultimate moment of when evil
is used for good, and that's in Eternal salvation, Eternal
salvation. Your Eternal salvation was
accomplished through the ultimate Evil.
There is only one man who ever walked the face of the Earth.
who was punished, put to death, unrighteous Unjustly.
Everyone else whether in so you can make that set me right now.
There's probably evidence of somebody who was, you know,
received the death penalty who wasn't really guilty.
Well, maybe they weren't guilty of that crime, but they're
guilty before God. Right?
And so, this is why all men die. But not all men.
Stay dead. There is eternal salvation in
Christ, Jesus. And that comes through the
ultimate Evil. The execution of the sinless Son
of God upon a cross. I don't know if you recall, I
want to recall for you Acts chapter 2 verse 22, through 24
Peter is towards the end of his sermon on the day of Pentecost,
and he makes a seemingly wild statement about what's just
taking place to Jesus Christ, and this is what he says.
He says, men of Israel. Hear these words, Jesus of
Nazareth, a man attested to you, by God, with Mighty works, and
wonders, and signs. That God.
Did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. this
Jesus, Peter says, And he's standing before a crowd of
people who are just there listening intently at what in
the world is just happened to the disciples as they begin
speaking in tongues and their proclaiming, the excellencies of
God and languages, they didn't previously know.
And so he has a captive audience especially of men of Israel.
Who just days earlier, put to Death Christ Jesus.
And this is what he says, this Jesus.
Delivered up according to the definite plan and for knowledge
of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of Lawless men.
Wow. You see what?
Peter is saying, he's saying that the hands of Lawless men
put to death, the only person who ever fulfilled the law, who
only who they only person ever kept it perfectly the only
sinless person to live And that they did that, according to the
definite plan and foreknowledge of God, it was not a part from
the hand of God. The decree of God.
God worked evil. The greatest evil for your
greatest. Good.
That you might be saved from your sins by belief in him.
Amen. Peter goes on God raised him up.
Loosing the Pains of death because it was not it was not
possible for him to be held by it.
Praise God. And so what we see is that in
the unfathomable wisdom of God, on that cross, Justice and mercy
met Justice and mercy met Jesus receives the penalty.
That the justice of God requires for sin, which is death.
According to Romans 6:23 for the wages of sin is death.
Jesus received the penalty and the justice of God for sin.
And we receive through faith, God's mercy, and forgiveness of
sin and the promise of eternal life.
Amen. Justice and mercy meet.
Paul in Romans chapter 3 says, but now the righteousness of God
has been manifested apart from the law of the law and the
prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no
distinction, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
All are justified by his grace as a gift through the
Redemption. That are in that is in Christ.
Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation.
That is a payment a substitute by his blood to be received by
faith. If you were going to be saved
from your sins today, it will not be through your works.
It will not be through your evil.
It will not be through. Fleeting your own case.
It will be by humbling yourself before the Lord and placing your
faith in Jesus Christ for the Forgiveness of your sins.
Repent, repent. Repent of your sins, turn to
Christ and live eternally with Jesus.
Pleaded of you. And then help us make disciples.
Help us spread the light of the Gospel into all the Earth.
It says that this was to show God's righteousness, he can't be
accused of being unrighteous because he's righteous because
in his Divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he
might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in
Jesus. You see, if God Justified people
apart from the sacrifice of Christ, that would not be just
That would be unjust to overlook sin.
Instead he condemns Jesus to death so that he can righteously
justify us by faith in Christ Jesus.
Praise God. And this is why we can continue
to have faith amid frustration. God's providential use of people
and events is both purposeful and personal.
It's meant for your good. It's meant for the good of his
people. The righteous will never be.
Forsaken ever. Believers in here today, live by
faith. In Jesus Christ.
Walk by faith in Christ. Not by the side of your
circumstances. Go to God and your distress.
Whether that distress is personal or Global trustee.
Unbelievers. All have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God and are justified by his grace.
As a gift through the Redemption that is in Christ.
Jesus, God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be
received by faith receive Jesus Christ today by faith in him.
Amen, me pray for you. Heavenly Father, we love you.
We thank you, Lord, for your kindness and your goodness
toward us. And ask Lord that you would help
us too. Turn to you in order to stress
to honor you as only, you can be honored.
Help us to live lives. That glorify your name, Above
All Else, Above All Else. Father, forgive us of our sins.
Forgive us Lord of perpetuating the sins of our forefathers.
Forgive us. Lord for being unaware, even Of
sin. That's inherited.
Warrant Lord, would you help us to see our sin and to repent of
that? We might be faithful men and
women that we might be faithful boys and girls of Jesus Christ.
God, we don't know what's in store for the world at all.
We don't know what's in store for our day.
We don't know what's in store for our lifetime.
But we know that we have the honor.
We have the opportunity to live for you.
Above all else, to serve your name and all that.
We do to glorify you in this earth help us to do that.
Personally. but you first, in all things to trust you Above
All Else, And God help us Make Disciples of all nations of all
people, whether they live down the street from us or the live
across the globe. Bless our efforts, Lord help us
to serve you. We thank you Lord for the
opportunity of granted to us. Lord, we ask that you would save
Sinners by your grace to do it through your word.
You do it through your calling, what they would hear your call
and could not run from it any longer.
May we see hearts change right here in Magnolia Columbia
County. Lord, may you grow your church?
Grow your people in this place? That we might glorify your name.
We love you submit ourselves to you, amen?