SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: We took our children to the circus on Friday.
SPEAKER_00: And that was about a two and a half hour event total, something like that.
SPEAKER_00: About 15 minutes in, one of the kids yelled in my ear, is it over yet?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not over yet.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we are able to look at situations like that or road trips as adults, and we are able to see the end.
SPEAKER_00: We are able to understand that there is a road that needs to be traveled to get from where we are to where we need to be.
SPEAKER_00: The younger we are, the more we may struggle with that.
SPEAKER_00: Either with seeing the end or with the process of getting to the end.
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that when it comes to difficulties and uncertainties and pains and agonies and sorrows of life, we all become like little children, even when we're old.
SPEAKER_00: We face difficulties in life.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, we begin to be the three-year-old or the five-year-old or the eight-year-old who says to our Father in heaven, Is it done yet?
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're beginning a five-week study in the Old Testament book of Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_00: And today I would like to lead into the coming weeks with a broad overview of this short book that grounds us in a critical truth that runs through the prophet's account.
SPEAKER_00: And this crucial truth is vital to every Christian's spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: We must have our Father's viewpoint.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk only has three chapters.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not that often that we get to read a whole book of the Bible together, so I'm going to take the opportunity when I get it.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll do that in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: However, we need some background to understand this prophet well.
SPEAKER_00: The first element that we have to attend to is the style of the book.
SPEAKER_00: Depending on what version you're reading or what copy of the Bible you're looking at, it may be clearer or less clear.
SPEAKER_00: This book is a prophetic dialogue.
SPEAKER_00: It's a story of a prophet having a conversation with God.
SPEAKER_00: It's recorded that Habakkuk asked God questions.
SPEAKER_00: God responded.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk didn't understand the response or didn't like the response, so he responded back to God.
SPEAKER_00: God spoke one last time, and then the dialogue is done, and it concludes with a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We might even say that this conversation is a heated conversation between a struggling prophet struggling to comprehend his world in light of God's revelation.
SPEAKER_00: So it's essential then to pay attention to who is speaking and what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: I will try to help you with that as we go along.
SPEAKER_00: The second background element is the history that goes into this.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that history is complicated for some of us, and some find it really boring.
SPEAKER_00: I'll pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Someday it'll get better.
SPEAKER_00: But God's revelation is given within time and space.
SPEAKER_00: So understanding Habakkuk's statements and his conclusions and his revelation from God will be very difficult to process if we don't grasp some of that historical setting of Habakkuk's time and even some of the geography of that time.
SPEAKER_00: And that geography ties into politics in the book of Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_00: That's the third background element that we need to be aware of is the geopolitical setting.
SPEAKER_00: Geo is short for geography and political.
SPEAKER_00: You know, geopolitical is then a word that describes the political situations within a geographic area, and this geographic area is Palestine in the greater Middle East.
SPEAKER_00: God's revelation to this prophet was the equivalent of turning on the news channel and getting instantaneous divine truth about Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
SPEAKER_00: Well, not quite.
SPEAKER_00: Except God's news for Habakkuk was much worse than our geopolitical situation between the United States of America and Canada and Mexico.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Habakkuk received news from God about the Chaldeans.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we might call the ethnic term for the people group that we know as Babylonians.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk received news from God about the Babylonians that stunned him.
SPEAKER_00: It hit him like a head-on collision, shaking the very foundations of his understanding of life and of God.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't fathom how God could use a nation like the Babylonians to address the sin problem among the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: And this geopolitical news was more than just news, it was divine intervention that left a prophet dumbfounded.
SPEAKER_00: What could it possibly mean?
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk was one of the few remaining prophets in a tiny country of Jews called Judah.
SPEAKER_00: They survived in a small territory, probably less than 40 miles in diameter.
SPEAKER_00: Their siblings to the north, the ten tribes that were called by the name Israel, after they were split into two countries, those ten tribes were defeated and deported by the evil Assyrians.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the most dreaded war machine in ancient history.
SPEAKER_00: Only divine intervention saved the small group of people left in Judah.
SPEAKER_00: And in the decades before Habakkuk wrote, God strengthened the Chaldeans from around Babylon in modern Iraq.
SPEAKER_00: They became strong enough to ultimately defeat the Assyrians.
SPEAKER_00: So you have the Assyrians in the north, you have Judah in the south, you have Egypt underneath them in the south, and then all of a sudden you have to the east these Babylonian peoples cropping up.
SPEAKER_00: The Babylonians defeated the Assyrians in the north, and then they took on the Egyptians just outside of Judean territory.
SPEAKER_00: Depending on who you talk to, who you read, some would say that the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians, and some say they fought to a stalemate until Nebuchadnezzar had to go home because his father was dying.
SPEAKER_00: Either way, the Egyptians lessened in their strength.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can understand how that picture of placing a country like the United States in between Canada and Mexico, except this country in the middle that we're talking about with Habakkuk is very, very small.
SPEAKER_00: And they're sandwiched in between two mighty powers.
SPEAKER_00: Egypt has dominated the southern region for some time.
SPEAKER_00: You've kept them at bay as a country with some hush money here and there.
SPEAKER_00: The Babylonians have conquered the Assyrians, your greatest fear, which means that the new kids on the block are now your new greatest fear.
SPEAKER_00: You could ask the Egyptians for some assistance by selling yourself into submission to them in exchange for their protection, but the Egyptians were not really that strong against the Babylonians, less than 50 miles from your own border.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the best image for us would be like thinking of Greater Grand Forks and just the counties surrounding Grand Forks as being an independent country.
SPEAKER_00: Our own independent country, smack dabbing between Greater North Dakota and Greater Minnesota.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, Minnesota and North Dakota are at war with one another and we are caught in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than turning in repentance to God for his aid, we then further entrench ourselves in our idolatry and our pagan actions, and we wonder why God doesn't intervene.
SPEAKER_00: We hear from God that one of those dreaded nations has been hand-picked by God, has been developed by God and strengthened as God's means of dealing with our sin.
SPEAKER_00: The people who are more evil and more sinful than us are being developed to come and judge us for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And there is no escape, we are caught in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you feel the pressure of having no escape from your life situation.
SPEAKER_00: If you know that feeling, either by experience or by memory, you may be able to sense Habakkuk's spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But it was it was much worse for Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_00: He seemed to be the only Judean who really cared.
SPEAKER_00: He was surrounded by sinfulness and unfaithfulness to God.
SPEAKER_00: And now Judah's dreaded enemies are coming because God was sending them.
SPEAKER_00: Now we can read Habakkuk with a little more insight.
SPEAKER_00: Take up your Bible with me.
SPEAKER_00: This is the oracle or the burden.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that has to be lifted up because it's heavy.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk the prophet saw.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Yahweh, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?
SPEAKER_00: Or cry to you, violence, and you will not save.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you make me see iniquity?
SPEAKER_00: And why do you idly look at wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Destruction and violence are before me, strife and contention arise.
SPEAKER_00: So the law, the Torah, is paralyzed.
SPEAKER_00: Justice never goes forth.
SPEAKER_00: The wicked surround the righteous, and justice goes forth perverted.
SPEAKER_00: Do you sense Habakkuk's angst there?
SPEAKER_00: Now most of your Bibles will begin verse 5 with quotation marks because God now begins to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk, look among the nations and see.
SPEAKER_00: Wonder and be astounded.
SPEAKER_00: For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: They are dreaded and fearsome.
SPEAKER_00: Their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Their horses are swifter than leopards.
SPEAKER_00: Their horses are more fierce than the evening wolves.
SPEAKER_00: Their horsemen press proudly on, their horsemen come from afar, they fly like an eagle swift to devour, and they all come for violence.
SPEAKER_00: All of their faces forward, they gather captives like the sand.
SPEAKER_00: They scoff at kings.
SPEAKER_00: They laugh at rulers.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they laugh at every fortress.
SPEAKER_00: For they just pile up the earth like a like a ramp to go over the wall and they take it.
SPEAKER_00: Then they sweep by like the wind and they go on, guilty men whose might is their own God.
SPEAKER_00: End quote.
SPEAKER_00: Now Habakkuk speaks.
SPEAKER_00: Are you not from everlasting?
SPEAKER_00: Oh Yahweh, my God, my holy one?
SPEAKER_00: Wait, we shall not die?
SPEAKER_00: Oh Yahweh, you have ordained them as judgment, and you, O rock, have established them for reproof.
SPEAKER_00: You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
SPEAKER_00: You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.
SPEAKER_00: And so he, the Babylonian army, he brings all of them up with a hook.
SPEAKER_00: He drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his dragnet, and he rejoices and is glad.
SPEAKER_00: And so he thinks his fishing net that gathers in all the nations is a god, and he makes offerings to his dragnet.
SPEAKER_00: For by them, by gathering in these peoples and their wealth, he lives in luxury and his food is rich.
SPEAKER_00: Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?
SPEAKER_00: I will take my stand on my watchpost and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me, and I will answer concerning my own complaint.
SPEAKER_00: Can't you just imagine Habakkuk going out on the wall of Jerusalem, climbing up to the watchtower and sitting down to wait to see what God says?
SPEAKER_00: And then Yahweh answered me.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk, write down the vision.
SPEAKER_00: Make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.
SPEAKER_00: For still the vision awaits its appointed time.
SPEAKER_00: It hastens to the end, it will not lie.
SPEAKER_00: But if it seems slow, wait for it.
SPEAKER_00: It will surely come, it will not delay.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of the Babylonians, behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him.
SPEAKER_00: But the righteous shall live by his faith.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest.
SPEAKER_00: His greed is as wide as Sheol, like death, he never has enough.
SPEAKER_00: He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples?
SPEAKER_00: Shall not all these peoples take up their taunt against him, against Babylon, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own.
SPEAKER_00: For how long?
SPEAKER_00: And loads himself with pledges.
SPEAKER_00: Will not your debtors suddenly arise in those who awake, and those awake who will make you tremble?
SPEAKER_00: Then you will be spoil for them.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of people shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities, and all who dwell in them.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house to set his nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm.
SPEAKER_00: You've devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples.
SPEAKER_00: You have forfeited your life, for the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork will respond.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, it is it not from Yahweh of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire and nations weary themselves for nothing?
SPEAKER_00: For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink.
SPEAKER_00: You pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order to gaze at their nakedness.
SPEAKER_00: You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
SPEAKER_00: Drink yourself and show your uncircumcision.
SPEAKER_00: The cup in Yahweh's right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory.
SPEAKER_00: The violence that the Babylonians have done to Babylon 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.
SPEAKER_00: What prophet is an idol when its maker has shaped it?
SPEAKER_00: A metal image, a teacher of lies.
SPEAKER_00: For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake! And to a silent stone, arise.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver.
SPEAKER_00: There's no breath in it at all.
SPEAKER_00: But Yahweh is in his holy temple.
SPEAKER_00: Let all the earth keep silent before him.
SPEAKER_00: End quote.
SPEAKER_00: A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shugionoth.
SPEAKER_00: And you will see at the end of chapter three that this prayer was composed to be sung.
SPEAKER_00: O Yahweh, I have heard the report of you.
SPEAKER_00: And your work, O Yahweh, do I fear.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of the years, revive it.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of the years, make it known.
SPEAKER_00: In wrath, remember mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Now he goes back to talk about God's work in the Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: God came from Temon, from the Holy One, from Mount Peran.
SPEAKER_00: His splendor covered the heavens, the earth was full of his praise.
SPEAKER_00: His brightness was like the light, rays flashed from his hand.
SPEAKER_00: There he veiled his power.
SPEAKER_00: Before him went pestilence and plague followed at his heels.
SPEAKER_00: He stood and measured the earth.
SPEAKER_00: He looked and shook the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Then the eternal mountains were scattered.
SPEAKER_00: The everlasting hills sank low.
SPEAKER_00: His were the everlasting ways.
SPEAKER_00: I saw the tents of Kushan in affliction.
SPEAKER_00: The curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
SPEAKER_00: Was your wrath against the rivers, O Yahweh?
SPEAKER_00: Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation?
SPEAKER_00: You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows, you split the earth with rivers.
SPEAKER_00: The mountain saw you and writhed.
SPEAKER_00: The raging waters swept on, the deep gave forth its voice, it lifted its hands on high.
SPEAKER_00: The sun and the moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear.
SPEAKER_00: You marched through the earth in fury, you threshed the nations in anger, you went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed.
SPEAKER_00: You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.
SPEAKER_00: You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
SPEAKER_00: You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.
SPEAKER_00: I hear, and my body trembles.
SPEAKER_00: My lips quiver at the sound.
SPEAKER_00: Rottenness enters into my bones, my legs trem.
SPEAKER_00: Tremble beneath me, yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us.
SPEAKER_00: Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, though the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, though the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh, the Lord is my strength.
SPEAKER_00: He makes my feet like the deers.
SPEAKER_00: He makes me to tread on my high places.
SPEAKER_00: To the choir master with stringed instruments.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk is a version of Job without all of the personal suffering right in view.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk sees suffering and injustice all around him, and then he learns that God is sending war.
SPEAKER_00: Not just war, but defeat in war and subjugation and deportation as judgment for his people's sins.
SPEAKER_00: And so, like Job, Habakkuk wants some answers.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk can't make sense of his life, he can't make sense of his world, and he can't make sense of what God is about to do.
SPEAKER_00: But like many of the psalms that begin by questioning God, yet end with a statement of trust, Habakkuk ends by declaring faith and trust in God, no matter how bad things get.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pattern we should want to emulate.
SPEAKER_00: Whether we are older and wondering how we're going to survive on social security, or whether we're younger and wondering how we can endure taunting and bullying at school, or whether we're facing the loss of a close relationship, the death of a spouse, or any kind of trouble that comes our way.
SPEAKER_00: We should desire to so grow in grace that we can go to God open-handed with our questions, with our fears, with our lack of understanding, and come away from that conversation with a settled trust in God's character and power.
SPEAKER_00: But if you've ever tried to do that, learning how to do that is quite difficult.
SPEAKER_00: The path to doing that is found at the end of Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_00: Learning to navigate life's pains, life's sorrows, and puzzles is found in fully resting in the God of your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: It's that simple and that hard.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how we get to that place is yet another matter.
SPEAKER_00: It begins, of course, with believing in the Lord as your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He must be the Savior who has rescued you from your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You must trust in Him and Him alone to pay your sin debt and make you right with God forever.
SPEAKER_00: There is no hope without genuine faith.
SPEAKER_00: So first we have to belong to Christ as his redeemed people.
SPEAKER_00: Then we begin a long road of testing, of growing, and of pruning that produces obedience and faith until we arrive at a place of settled trust.
SPEAKER_00: And there is a key component to jump starting that process that we see in the middle of Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_00: It's found in chapter 2 and verse 14, where God says the earth will be filled, overflowing with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, even as the waters cover the sea.
SPEAKER_00: So notice there that the sea is not the water, the sea is the space.
SPEAKER_00: It's the land that gets covered by the water.
SPEAKER_00: And so you see nothing because the water covers it, and all you see is the water because it's filled up to overflowing.
SPEAKER_00: And this is God's voice.
SPEAKER_00: This is Yahweh speaking, Israel's covenant God speaking amid an uncomfortable portion of the prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: This part in chapter 2 is a series of watch outs, woe, woes.
SPEAKER_00: And each woe has a reason stated.
SPEAKER_00: God will judge those who are unfaithful to him, and there's a reason for that judgment.
SPEAKER_00: So in verse 8, it begins with for or because for the blood of man and violence to the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, 4.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, 4, verse 17, the second half of the verse, 4.
SPEAKER_00: God gives reasons.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm gonna judge.
SPEAKER_00: Watch out, woe to you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the reason why.
SPEAKER_00: Four times he does this.
SPEAKER_00: The first and last times are the same reasons.
SPEAKER_00: God will judge because of the killing of people and the violence done on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: But the middle two are different.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 11, stones and wooden beams used to build houses from ill-gotten gain will cry out to God because of injustice and evil done.
SPEAKER_00: You remember when Jesus was riding down the Mount of Olives on the triumphal entry day?
SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees came along and said, Hey, hey, Jesus, you need to quiet the people because we don't want to give the impression that there's an insurrection.
SPEAKER_00: What did Jesus say?
SPEAKER_00: If these are quiet, even the rocks will cry out.
SPEAKER_00: See, the inanimate, the unliving creation stands as a witness.
SPEAKER_00: They will cry out to God here for the evil done, and God will respond.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk thought that he was the only one observing sin and injustice and unfaithfulness in his world.
SPEAKER_00: But no, God heard the same cries from the rocks and the wood.
SPEAKER_00: Just as the land, the ground, cried out when Cain killed his brother, so too the ground will cry out because of unfaithfulness and injustice in God's world.
SPEAKER_00: That's a helpful reminder, friends, that we are never alone in our perceptions.
SPEAKER_00: The creation itself bears witness to the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But our interest is in the third reason, which is a little different.
SPEAKER_00: The basis for the judgment is the same, beginning in verse 12 and then 13 and 14.
SPEAKER_00: God will judge those treating people with evil and injustice.
SPEAKER_00: People and nations exist and go about whatever life God assigns to them because he is sovereign, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, this is a perspective correction.
SPEAKER_00: It's a statement that challenges Habakkuk and us to change the way we look at things.
SPEAKER_00: You see, like Habakkuk, we can get so bent out of shape by all kinds of things in life.
SPEAKER_00: We get bent out of shape when our thoughts start to take control of us, when our feelings are insurmountable and we can't control them.
SPEAKER_00: And so everything about us begins to be informed by what we take in from our sight, from our hearing, from our feelings.
SPEAKER_00: All of our senses then say, This is what's really happening to you.
SPEAKER_00: And God steps in and says, Hey, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: All you're doing is looking at life through your viewpoint.
SPEAKER_00: Stop a moment and look at life through my viewpoint.
SPEAKER_00: You see, these sensory elements will drive us mad.
SPEAKER_00: They will motivate us, drive us into a deep depression.
SPEAKER_00: They will weary us with sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: They will steal our motivation and joy in life if we don't interrupt that sensory overload with God's truth.
SPEAKER_00: And the only truth that will interrupt and disrupt our pain, our sorrow, and our suffering is that this world is about God and his glory, not about us.
SPEAKER_00: God's goal for his creation is not that it will be overwhelmed because of how great you are.
SPEAKER_00: God's goal for his creation is that it would be overwhelmed with the knowledge of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God is working toward.
SPEAKER_00: This is the end goal.
SPEAKER_00: This is the end of the road trip, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he will bring about.
SPEAKER_00: All of human history is speeding ahead to when the universe will overflow with the knowledge of God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: That's nothing new.
SPEAKER_00: This exact claim, almost word for word, was made in numbers and then repeated in Psalms and then picked up by Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you need to know, my friends, if you love prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you need to know if you are in pain.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you need to know if you love your Savior.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you need to know if you are suffering.
SPEAKER_00: You need to know this if you believe in God's sovereignty, and you need to trust in this if you are full of sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's goal: that the whole earth would overflow with the awareness and the knowledge of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: But it's only helpful knowing this, believing this, having this perspective of God's overall goal.
SPEAKER_00: That's only helpful if God is truly the most glorious and gracious being.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take you on a little theology side trip here.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to stick with me.
SPEAKER_00: This is only helpful to us.
SPEAKER_00: This perspective is only helpful to us if God is the most gracious and glorious being.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: I wish we had time to really delve into this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna give you a survey.
SPEAKER_00: Only a gracious being could use injustice and suffering and pain and evil for his good and righteous purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Only a good being could send pain and sorrow and uncertainty and grief to bring about a glorious transformation, not only in his world, but in his people.
SPEAKER_00: And only the most glorious and sinless being could do that by making it all about him and his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if if God, God is neither gracious nor good, God is neither gracious nor good if he is merely a powerful bully who enjoys making people suffer.
SPEAKER_00: If God just sits back and loves to see you agonize, then he's neither good nor gracious.
SPEAKER_00: He's just a bully.
SPEAKER_00: If God is sinfully self-centered, then any use of sin and evil in this world is only motivated by evil pride, not by righteousness and holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the only way that Habakkuk 2.14 can be true and can be a righteous end goal for all of history and be good for Habakkuk and be good for you and me and be a sustaining hope for us is if God is pure, God is sinless, and God is the most beautiful and glorious being without compare.
SPEAKER_00: It is only true if God's glory is worth it all.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want an earth full of the glory of an evil being.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want an earth full of the glory, overwhelming with the glory of a powerful, evil, prideful being.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want an earth overflowing with Satan's glory.
SPEAKER_00: No one in their right mind would look forward to that.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a motivator to endure suffering, uncertainty, pain, and grief.
SPEAKER_00: But if your God is truly holy, if he is truly sinless, if he is fully righteous and incomprehensibly good, then as the psalmist says, you can lift your head and you can see where your help comes from.
SPEAKER_00: You can lift your head and your eyes and your heart to see that he is working all things together so that the whole earth will overflow with his glory and goodness at the right time.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can see and trust God's viewpoint with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind, then you can begin to put one foot in front of the other and learn to trust and endure through the most uncertain and challenging times.
SPEAKER_00: And if you walk in that way through the roller coaster of life, you will get to the point where you will say, The Lord is my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I can trust him no matter how bad things get.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's be clear.
SPEAKER_00: You are too weak.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, that's a hard thing to admit, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just let me tell you, admit it right now.
SPEAKER_00: You are too weak.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: But you can endure because the character of your God motivates him to strengthen you and to carry you to that end by the power of his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And one day you will see the whole earth filled with his glory of your good and your righteous king, and on that day you will not regret facing the unknown with full trust in your God.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this what the New Testament teaches us in Hebrews chapter 11 and chapter 12?
SPEAKER_00: It goes through this hall of fame of saints saying several times, hey, they never received what God promised.
SPEAKER_00: They trusted in God's promise and they died.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but wait, that's not the end of the story, is it?
SPEAKER_00: It says they hoped in God's promises because they trusted that God would bring the end to fruition.
SPEAKER_00: In the moment they felt like, is it done yet?
SPEAKER_00: Is it here yet?
SPEAKER_00: And God said, No, I'm I'm waiting.
SPEAKER_00: At just the right time, I'm going to fill the whole earth with my glory and I'm going to perfect all of my people all together at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: So wait and trust me.
SPEAKER_00: And in Hebrews chapter 11, as you go into Hebrews chapter 12, that collection of saints now becomes this great cloud of witnesses that gives us strength and encouragement and hope.
SPEAKER_00: By remembering the struggles of those faithful believers from days gone by who themselves looked not at this world but hoped in God's promises, we too can endure as they did.
SPEAKER_00: And what's more, we can lay aside the weight of sin that so easily entangles us as we look to Jesus, who the text says endured from sinners such great hostility.
SPEAKER_00: We can strengthen our weak knees and we can lift up our eyes and we can see that the Lord is our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And that one day the whole earth will be filled with his glory.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, living with God's perspective doesn't make life a bed of roses.
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe it does if it still has thorns.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't take away life's difficulties and the things that come in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_00: But God's perspective helps because it changes your focus from the present to the end.
SPEAKER_00: It redirects your thoughts and your feelings from your present circumstances to a glorious God who works all things for good to those who are called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: So as we begin to walk through the book of Habakkuk, the question before us is will we trust him even when we don't understand?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Behalf of all gathered here together with us, I entrust ourselves to you, saying that we want to trust you.
SPEAKER_00: Some might need to cry out, Lord, help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: So strengthen those who are weak, Lord, encourage us, humble those who are proud, cause us to be able to have our sight redirected to see you as our great and awesome helper.
SPEAKER_00: The one who sustains us from beginning to end, who carries us until that time when all the earth will know that you are God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.