SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, choir, for that lead-in to the Old Testament prophet of Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you too to Dan Blaufus, who had a significant role to play in preparing that piece of music.
SPEAKER_01: Dan plays a significant role behind the scenes of many of our things, so appreciate all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Please take your Bible with me.
SPEAKER_01: Open it to the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_01: If you are visiting with us, don't be ashamed to use the table of contents to find Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes only a couple of pages in some Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: We're making our way through this short book.
SPEAKER_01: And if you haven't caught the first two sermons leading up to this morning, this might feel a little out of place.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't catch the next two, it also might feel a little out of place.
SPEAKER_01: All of these flow together.
SPEAKER_01: It is one compact single unit, the book of Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_01: And so too the messages that we glean from them, they all flow from one to another.
SPEAKER_01: William Cooper sometimes wondered if God answered prayer.
SPEAKER_01: The popular answer to the question, does God answer prayer, is that he says yes, no, or wait.
SPEAKER_01: There are a few variations to that, but they generally all have the same meaning.
SPEAKER_01: But if I may be so bold this morning, that kind of answer is far too simplistic.
SPEAKER_01: For example, in Habakkuk chapter one, the prophet asked about God's inaction or his perceived inaction towards injustice, violence, and the lack of help that Habakkuk needed.
SPEAKER_01: He was crying out to God for him to do something, and God did nothing.
SPEAKER_01: He asked God for answers.
SPEAKER_01: He wondered why God allowed himself to appear weak, impotent, and uncaring.
SPEAKER_01: But God didn't answer Habakkuk with a yes or a no, or even really with a wait.
SPEAKER_01: God's answer to Habakkuk's prayer in Habakkuk chapter one was more like, well, Habakkuk, I'm working on a much larger scale and time frame than your finite mind can grasp.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing something that you can't even begin to imagine.
SPEAKER_01: And so you must learn to trust that I hear you, that I know what's happening, and that I'm bringing all things to their intended conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: That's a hard pill to swallow sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: It's not exactly the kind of answer to prayer that we often hear about.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes simplistic answers to complex questions are more problematic than we realize because they limit the horizon of our thinking and even more the horizon of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk processed information from his senses, from what he could see, from what he could hear, from what he could feel, and he tried to connect that sensory processing with his faith.
SPEAKER_01: Much like William Cooper.
SPEAKER_01: God's answer to the prophet's prayer stretched Habakkuk's faith and, along with his faith, all of his life horizons.
SPEAKER_01: He stretched the prophet's perspective to the long term, to the sovereign, eternal plan of God that did not reveal much at all about answers to Habakkuk's specific prayer.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, what God said in reply to Habakkuk's prayer was not at all satisfying to the prophet.
SPEAKER_01: So we learned then in the first part of chapter one, a vital element of the book of Habakkuk that reminds us that we must always seek God's perspective and trust, work to trust, that he is bringing all things to his determined end at the right time.
SPEAKER_01: He will make good use, righteous use, full use of our pain, of our sorrow, and of our uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: But that requires believing that God works in mysterious ways.
SPEAKER_01: See, uncertainty, not knowing God's mysterious ways, is difficult for us to live with, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: That uncertainty became a significant issue for the prophet Habakkuk, and he couldn't remain quiet.
SPEAKER_01: He got stirred up.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know if, beginning in chapter 1, verse 12, if his reply to God was immediate or if there was a span of time that took place in between the first prayer and the second prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know that.
SPEAKER_01: But he couldn't keep everything contained.
SPEAKER_01: He struggled to connect his theology, what he believed about God, with what God was telling him.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first section of our text for this morning.
SPEAKER_01: It's a section that's grounded in the fundamental human question: Am I going to trust myself or trust God?
SPEAKER_01: The second section is God's reply to that.
SPEAKER_01: These two sections teach us three principles for living a life of faith.
SPEAKER_01: But let's take them one at a time.
SPEAKER_01: First, if you have your Bible open, let's look at Habakkuk chapter 1, beginning in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: I'll read that all the way through chapter 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: This is Habakkuk speaking.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Are you not from everlasting?
SPEAKER_01: O Yahweh, my God, my holy one?
SPEAKER_01: We shall not die.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Yahweh, you have ordained them, the Babylonians, as a judgment, and you, O rock, have established them for reproof.
SPEAKER_01: You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors?
SPEAKER_01: Why do you remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
SPEAKER_01: You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.
SPEAKER_01: He that is the king of Babylon brings all of them up with a hook.
SPEAKER_01: He drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his dragnet, so he rejoices and is glad.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, he he worships his net, he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet.
SPEAKER_01: For by them he lives in luxury and his food is rich.
SPEAKER_01: Is he then?
SPEAKER_01: God, do you really mean to tell me that he is to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?
SPEAKER_01: I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what God will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
SPEAKER_01: This first section here teaches us that God's ways are not our ways.
SPEAKER_01: God's ways are not our ways.
SPEAKER_01: You may be familiar with that verse that Webb spoke of earlier from Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk surely knew that statement because the prophet Isaiah recorded it approximately a hundred years before Habakkuk lived.
SPEAKER_01: Surely this prophet knew the writings of the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: But that statement would have been difficult for Habakkuk because Isaiah wrote it in the context of hope.
SPEAKER_01: In the context of the hope of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: God's people needed rescue, and he was the one to rescue them.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink of the living waters.
SPEAKER_01: God was the one to rescue them.
SPEAKER_01: Any other so-called God would let them rot.
SPEAKER_01: But anyone thirsty for the living God can come to him.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because his ways are not our ways.
SPEAKER_01: He works in ways that are not human, that are not prone to our typical ways of giving back what's been given to us.
SPEAKER_01: No, God is gracious to forgive those who come to him.
SPEAKER_01: But God's ways of being different were not hopeful for this prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Because God had revealed his ways of working in the world to Habakkuk, and it was disturbing and confusing to him.
SPEAKER_01: It was confusing because Habakkuk knew God's character.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verses 12 and 13 again.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk knew that God is everlasting, that he is eternal.
SPEAKER_01: He has no beginning and he has no end.
SPEAKER_01: He simply is.
SPEAKER_01: He's echoing Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy 33, verse 27, the eternal God is your dwelling place.
SPEAKER_01: We can go on to other passages like Psalm 90, verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, before Genesis 1.1, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk knows his theology.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk knows his God.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that a couple of chapters later in Psalm 93, the psalmist said, Your throne is established from of old.
SPEAKER_01: How old?
SPEAKER_01: Everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that his God is eternal.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk knows this.
SPEAKER_01: He believes it.
SPEAKER_01: He trusts in it.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at the second part of verse 12, he knows that God is the righteous judge.
SPEAKER_01: Like Abraham of old in Genesis 18, 25, when God said he was going to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham knew, hey, my nephew and his family are down there.
SPEAKER_01: God, you're going to take care of them, right?
SPEAKER_01: Abraham said, Will not the judge of all the earth do what is right?
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk believes that.
SPEAKER_01: He knows Psalm 7, verse 11, that says, God is a righteous judge who feels indignation every day.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 18, verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: Who is God but Yahweh?
SPEAKER_01: And who is a rock except our God?
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk knows his Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And not only does he know his Bible, he knows what his Bible says, and he knows how that Bible applies to his life.
SPEAKER_01: He understands Psalm 78, verse 35, that Israel remembered that God was their rock and the Most High God was their redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: He knows this, he understands it, and we see him processing through what he believes to be true about his God.
SPEAKER_01: But Habakkuk sounds more and more like the psalmist in Psalm 42 that says, I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me?
SPEAKER_01: Ouch.
SPEAKER_01: So do you see how Habakkuk is looking at his world and his circumstances?
SPEAKER_01: He's taking in information from his senses and he's trying to line it up with what he knows to be true.
SPEAKER_01: And he's struggling to line it up.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're eternal.
SPEAKER_01: I know you judge sin.
SPEAKER_01: And I know that you are our rock and our redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: I know these things, but God, that doesn't completely help because it feels like you've forgotten me.
SPEAKER_01: Like many of us, Habakkuk the prophet knows his Bible and understands his theology.
SPEAKER_01: And in his mind, that should mean that he can comprehend God's ways.
SPEAKER_01: But God, in essence, says, not so fast, Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk knows God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that God is sovereign over sin and evil.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that God is sovereign over the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that God is sovereign over the created order in verses 14, 15, 16, even over the sin and abuse of God's created order.
SPEAKER_01: He says, listen, God, you've made mankind in comparison to you like the fish of the sea.
SPEAKER_01: And yet you have ordained this foreign ruler to come along like a fisherman who just throws out his net and drags us all in just to get rid of us, just to consume us and live off of us.
SPEAKER_01: And he gets fat and rich over us.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk knows that God is so great that humans are mere fish in the sea or even creepy crawlies on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: I use creepy crawlies on purpose because Proverbs says that even the locusts have a king.
SPEAKER_01: So it's something smaller and more simple than locusts.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk knows that God has ordained the Babylonians to be like the fishermen in the sea.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that God is sovereign over Babylon's worship of his fishing net.
SPEAKER_01: That's an image of his power, of his strength to overwhelm the nations.
SPEAKER_01: He knows and believes that God is the mighty creator, the righteous judge, the sovereign ruler of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: This is the prophet's theology.
SPEAKER_01: And it's grounded in Scripture and it's observed throughout Israel's history, and he cannot now grasp how God's character aligns with God's actions.
SPEAKER_01: They don't line up.
SPEAKER_01: And my friends, you know exactly what this is like.
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever questioned God about your life or your world.
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever asked God, where are you as a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: God, why are you not acting in my life?
SPEAKER_01: God, why are you?
SPEAKER_01: You might even feel guilty because you know your theology.
SPEAKER_01: You know your God.
SPEAKER_01: You know that scripture says this, but because God's ways are not your ways, you're left to wonder with some kind of uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: Now the complaint in Habakkuk 2, verse 1, and Habakkuk 1, verse 17, reveals that the prophet knows his theology.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes God's ways are so beyond ours that our limited understanding of an infinite God cannot satisfy our desire to make sense of life.
SPEAKER_01: And when you cannot make sense of life, but you know who your God is and what your God is like, that generally results in one of two things.
SPEAKER_01: Like William Cooper, you either try to escape it or you turn to God.
SPEAKER_01: God is so far beyond our comprehension, friends, that even a proper theology isn't enough.
SPEAKER_01: Even our prayers feel unanswered at times.
SPEAKER_01: That's the narrative behind the book of Job, right?
SPEAKER_01: Job believed in God and believed rightly.
SPEAKER_01: Job's theology was correct, but he desperately wanted an audience with his maker to understand why things were the way they were.
SPEAKER_01: On the other hand, Habakkuk already has an answer from God that doesn't answer his questions and concerns.
SPEAKER_01: He's gotten an answer to his prayer that is neither yes, no, or wait.
SPEAKER_01: It's entirely different.
SPEAKER_01: It's Habakkuk, my ways are not your ways.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk's understanding of God was spot on.
SPEAKER_01: He was knowledgeable and able to think about God in relation to his world.
SPEAKER_01: Our theology should be as robust as Habakkuk's.
SPEAKER_01: But having a robust theology and a complete understanding of Scripture and living in a finite fallen world does not mean that you will have all the answers.
SPEAKER_01: We must remember that God cannot be reduced to human terms or human understanding.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we need to let go of needing to make sense of circumstances and situations that don't make sense.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as with the first prayer in chapter 1, God was not obligated to respond to Habakkuk's second complaint.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk maybe even seems to indicate that a response may not come.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm going to stand on the watchtower and wait and see.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it'll come, maybe it won't come.
SPEAKER_01: What is my response going to be?
SPEAKER_01: He's sort of preparing himself for the worst.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, God gave me a response the first time.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand it.
SPEAKER_01: What am I going to get this time?
SPEAKER_01: But God's not obligated to respond to Habakkuk, is he?
SPEAKER_01: And God is not required to fill us in on the nuances of his purpose and plan for us.
SPEAKER_01: We will be helped if we understand that much about God is far beyond us, because God is infinitely beyond our understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's ways are not our ways, because they are beyond us, we must learn that living with human limitations requires faith in a trustworthy God whose character does not change.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk knew this is my God.
SPEAKER_01: His character does not change.
SPEAKER_01: So what do we do with that?
SPEAKER_01: We go on to the second portion of our text, beginning in verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: And Yahweh answered me.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the quotation marks.
SPEAKER_01: Here's God's answer.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk, write the vision.
SPEAKER_01: Make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.
SPEAKER_01: For still the vision awaits its appointed time.
SPEAKER_01: It hastens to the end, it will not lie.
SPEAKER_01: If it seems slow, wait for it.
SPEAKER_01: It will surely come, it will not delay.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, his soul, the Babylonians.
SPEAKER_01: His soul is puffed up.
SPEAKER_01: It is not upright within him.
SPEAKER_01: But the righteous shall live by his faith.
SPEAKER_01: Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest.
SPEAKER_01: His greed is as wide as Sheol, like death, he has never enough.
SPEAKER_01: He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.
SPEAKER_01: Shall not all these take up their taunt against him with scoffing and riddles for him and say, Woe to him who keeps up what is not his own.
SPEAKER_01: For how long?
SPEAKER_01: And he loads himself with pledges.
SPEAKER_01: Will not your debtors suddenly arise and those who awake who will make you tremble?
SPEAKER_01: Then you will be spoiled for them.
SPEAKER_01: Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities, and all who dwell in them.
SPEAKER_01: 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_01: You've devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples.
SPEAKER_01: You have forfeited your life, for the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork will respond.
SPEAKER_01: Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire and nations weary themselves for nothing?
SPEAKER_01: For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
SPEAKER_01: Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink.
SPEAKER_01: You pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order to gaze at their nakedness.
SPEAKER_01: You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
SPEAKER_01: Drink yourself and show your uncircumcision.
SPEAKER_01: The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory.
SPEAKER_01: The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them.
SPEAKER_01: For the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities, and all who dwell in them.
SPEAKER_01: What profit?
SPEAKER_01: What gain is an idol?
SPEAKER_01: When its maker has shaped it?
SPEAKER_01: A metal image, a teacher of lies.
SPEAKER_01: For its maker trusts his own creation when he makes speechless idols.
SPEAKER_01: Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, wake up! And to a silent stone, arise.
SPEAKER_01: Can this wooden or stone thing teach?
SPEAKER_01: Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver.
SPEAKER_01: There's no breath in it at all.
SPEAKER_01: But Yahweh is in his holy temple.
SPEAKER_01: Let all the earth keep silence before him.
SPEAKER_01: Here's our second principle from this struggle in the heart of the prophet.
SPEAKER_01: God's response to the prophet encourages us to guard our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's only one sovereign judge.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not me.
SPEAKER_01: Or you.
SPEAKER_01: But God will be as faithful to his word as God is as faithful to himself.
SPEAKER_01: God is everlasting, and in his everlastingness, he is always faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And if he is always faithful to himself, he will always be faithful to his word, no matter how long you must wait.
SPEAKER_01: God will be perfectly faithful to his word as he is perfectly faithful to his character.
SPEAKER_01: And if you struggle to see his faithfulness, be patient.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we must be careful to handle the word of God accurately.
SPEAKER_01: For example, Jeremiah's promise that God had a wonderful future in mind for his people was not written to modern graduates.
SPEAKER_01: That is, God does work out all things for good according to his purpose for those who are called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: But Jeremiah's promise of a wonderful future for his people was written to the Jewish exiles in Babylon, not to you and me.
SPEAKER_01: So God's word may be for specific times, such as when Babylon overtook Judah and the Persians, then later defeated the Babylonians.
SPEAKER_01: But no matter when it is directed to or to whom it is directed, God's word, God's promises, God's assertions will be proved genuine and will be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: But God's people may need to wait patiently to see them fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Patience is required for a life of faith, especially in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_01: So resist the urge to doubt God's timetable.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard.
SPEAKER_01: I know.
SPEAKER_01: But look at what God says.
SPEAKER_01: If you trust my word, if it seems slow, wait for it.
SPEAKER_01: It will surely come.
SPEAKER_01: It will not delay.
SPEAKER_01: It may feel like a delay in your timetable, it is not in God's timetable.
SPEAKER_01: Trusting that God will keep his word in his time requires faith.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, we may struggle to see God's character on display in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: If you struggle to see God's character, what you know to be true about your God, if you struggle to see that on display in your life, wait patiently for him.
SPEAKER_01: You may struggle to see how your current circumstances and the situations in your life are being worked out for good.
SPEAKER_01: Be patient and wait on your Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now God begins to speak about ancient Babylon in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: That proud and powerful ancient people are then contrasted with those who live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And when they live by faith, they live out life faithfully.
SPEAKER_01: In that contrast, we find that God discerns the basis of our actions.
SPEAKER_01: And he understands are we doing those things by faith in him or by trust in ourselves?
SPEAKER_01: All throughout this section, we see all that's bad about Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: They're proud, they're arrogant, they're evil.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that they've gained, they've done by trusting in themselves, by trusting in their power, by trusting in their strength, in their armies, by trusting in their wealth, in their position.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk is this little tiny little prophet looking at that and saying, Yeah, God, but what about us?
SPEAKER_01: What about me?
SPEAKER_01: And in essence, God says, Habakkuk, you know this.
SPEAKER_01: The one who trusts me will live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: We find that God desires people to fear Him, to trust Him.
SPEAKER_01: Verses four and five involve wordplays describing how God sees people.
SPEAKER_01: Some live by faith in Him and so live out that faith by faithfully following and trusting Him.
SPEAKER_01: Others, though, pridefully trust in themselves and become puffed up, greedy, and overbearing.
SPEAKER_01: They refuse to acknowledge God and they worship whatever gives them their power.
SPEAKER_01: But underneath that, we begin to see that Habakkuk's theology was correct.
SPEAKER_01: Back in chapter one, Habakkuk was asking God, God, do you see?
SPEAKER_01: Do you really see what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: Do you really see my world?
SPEAKER_01: Do you really see my situation?
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Yes, Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_01: I see all the way to the heart.
SPEAKER_01: I see all the way to discern whether somebody is trusting in themselves or they're trusting in me.
SPEAKER_01: I see the difference between the righteous and the unrighteous.
SPEAKER_01: I know the heart of those who trust me and the heart of those who trust themselves.
SPEAKER_01: I can and do distinguish the difference.
SPEAKER_01: And there's an opportunity there for us.
SPEAKER_01: As God's people in the place of Habakkuk, let us be fearful of trusting ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Remember Peter walking on the sea?
SPEAKER_01: Moses deciding that the right thing was to hit the rock with his staff instead of speaking to the rock.
SPEAKER_01: Ananias and Sapphira, who thought that they could lie to God and get away with it.
SPEAKER_01: It's especially easy for our hearts to shift to sinful places when we question God's character because our perspective is centered on our world, on our circumstances, or on our senses.
SPEAKER_01: And Habakkuk's in that middle place, struggling with what he knows to be true, with what his senses are gathering in and trying to discern the right way to go.
SPEAKER_01: And God is telling him, Habakkuk, the right way to go is to trust me because my ways are not your ways.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, Habakkuk, I know your heart.
SPEAKER_01: I can tell if you're truly trusting me.
SPEAKER_01: Whereas Babylon is an example of all who have faith in themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 6, 7, and 8, they use others to build themselves up.
SPEAKER_01: God says, Habakkuk, you need to know that in the end, Babylon's going to have everything taken away from them.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 9, 10, and 11, they act sinfully against others for their own benefit.
SPEAKER_01: But Habakkuk, you need to understand that even the creation will serve as a witness against them and their sin.
SPEAKER_01: They don't do anything that isn't noticed.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 12, 13, 14.
SPEAKER_01: Babylon is an example of those who trust in themselves to fill up the earth with their glory, but the realization will someday come to them that God's plan is to fill the earth with his glory, not theirs.
SPEAKER_01: Are you going to put your trust in them or in me?
SPEAKER_01: Verses 15, 16, 17, another woe that comes to Habakkuk against Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: Those who revel in the shame of others will be shamed by God's judgment.
SPEAKER_01: God will not be mocked.
SPEAKER_01: Babylon reaped what she sowed, and so will all whose faith is not in Christ, but who trust themselves or something other than God.
SPEAKER_01: Because that kind of faith, God says, is idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: Those who trust in themselves are foolish idolaters.
SPEAKER_01: So, friends, be discerning.
SPEAKER_01: Guard your heart by seeking to understand in what or in whom am I trusting?
SPEAKER_01: We are easily self-deceived.
SPEAKER_01: We think we are so advanced in our modern age that we wouldn't think of bowing down and worshiping a little image, right?
SPEAKER_01: We're beyond that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we might believe that a piece of wood or a piece of precious metal is not worthy of our worship, but we must discern our own hearts and minds to see if we are deceiving ourselves by trusting in our riches, in our comfort, in our work ethic, in our family, or any other created thing, and so trampling down the glory of God, trampling it in the dust like Babylon did, and worshiping something else in its place.
SPEAKER_01: And if that is us, then we are putting ourselves in the shoes of Babylon, who will face all of the judgment that God brings.
SPEAKER_01: Or we trust in God alone.
SPEAKER_01: So God is contrasting here those who trust in Him and live by faith with those who trust themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Those who trust something other than God will face the just wrath of God against their idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk was concerned by God's response.
SPEAKER_01: He's struggling.
SPEAKER_01: Says, okay, God, I understand who you are.
SPEAKER_01: I understand that you're sovereign, you're omnipotent.
SPEAKER_01: You can even use evil people like Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: I get that.
SPEAKER_01: But God, how can you do that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we have sin, but we're not that sinful.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I understand you must judge all sin, but we're not as bad as the Babylonians.
SPEAKER_01: We don't do those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not that kind of a sinner, God.
SPEAKER_01: God is assuring the prophet here that all sin will be addressed.
SPEAKER_01: Trust him.
SPEAKER_01: His ways are not our ways.
SPEAKER_01: The penalty of sin will be dealt to all idolaters who refuse to trust in God genuinely.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk could trust in the justice of a holy God.
SPEAKER_01: See, God is reminding him of a character trait, a quality that he didn't mention, his justice.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about his eternality.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about his everlasting nature.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about his omniscience, knowing the righteous and the sinful, and God says, Yes, yes, Habakkuk, put all of that together and understand I am a just God.
SPEAKER_01: Babylon will not get away with their sin and rest in that, Christian, as your soul contends with the sin that appears to run rampant in your world.
SPEAKER_01: Trust that your just God knows and sees the pride, the arrogance, the idolatry, and the power of self flaunting itself before God.
SPEAKER_01: Be patient.
SPEAKER_01: If God's justice seems slow, wait for it.
SPEAKER_01: It will surely come.
SPEAKER_01: But guard your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Guard your heart lest you be led away from simple faith and daily trust in the sovereign judge.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah wrote, Isaiah wrote that Israel had forgotten the God of her salvation and had not remembered the rock of her refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Israel forgot that.
SPEAKER_01: And so if she forgot, there's a chance that we might fail to remember those warnings.
SPEAKER_01: You see, my friends, God is a jealous God.
SPEAKER_01: He will not have his people or his world ultimately consumed by idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: God will not have his people or his world ultimately consumed by the worship of something or someone other than himself.
SPEAKER_01: And anyone who trusts in something other than the one true God will pay the price at the right time.
SPEAKER_01: And so we come to verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh is in his holy temple.
SPEAKER_01: Let all the earth keep silent before him.
SPEAKER_01: Here's our last principle.
SPEAKER_01: Guard your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Because God is sovereignly present.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20 seems at first glance like an odd conclusion to God's response to Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of strange.
SPEAKER_01: The prophet argued that God's character didn't match his actions.
SPEAKER_01: What Habakkuk believed didn't match what he could see.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't disbelieving.
SPEAKER_01: He was trying to make it all make sense.
SPEAKER_01: And so God showed Habakkuk that his character would care for the righteous and the evil in the right way at the right time.
SPEAKER_01: It may not be in Habakkuk's way, it may not even be in Habakkuk's lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: It may not be in your way or in your lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: But he will be faithful to himself.
SPEAKER_01: He will be faithful to his word, so you can trust him and walk by faith.
SPEAKER_01: If we go back to the beginning of Habakkuk, we see, we see that Habakkuk's uncertainty and his confusion began when he looked at his life through his own eyes rather than through God's perspective.
SPEAKER_01: The last sentence then of chapter 2 comes full circle with the reality that we are tempted to forget that God is present when we only see our circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: If all you thought about, if what was consuming in your life is the immediate difficulty you are facing today, you would eventually begin to doubt whether or not God was there.
SPEAKER_01: If you're struggling to figure out how does this match up with who God is, with what God says, you will eventually get to the place where you wonder, where is God?
SPEAKER_01: We are tempted to forget that God remains worthy of our trust when all we can see is our present situation.
SPEAKER_01: We are tempted then into idolatry when we trust our senses more than we trust our God.
SPEAKER_01: And God reminds us that He is God.
SPEAKER_01: We are not.
SPEAKER_01: So when we wonder where God is, if God is present, if He is here, if we ask, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: our answer must be, He is present.
SPEAKER_01: He is present.
SPEAKER_01: He is never absent.
SPEAKER_01: God is never absent.
SPEAKER_01: He is never on vacation.
SPEAKER_01: He's never taking a weekend at the lake.
SPEAKER_01: He's never in the bathroom.
SPEAKER_01: He's never napping.
SPEAKER_01: He cannot be caught unaware.
SPEAKER_01: He's always in his holy temple.
SPEAKER_01: I think this is probably a manner of speaking about God's presence in his glory on his heavenly throne.
SPEAKER_01: In heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He's always there, he's always watching, he's always knowing, he's always working, he's always unchanging, he's always faithful, he's always trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't chastise the prophet for his questions.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't say Habakkuk was wrong to be confused and desperately seeking clarity.
SPEAKER_01: But God did lead the prophet to the place of trusting that God's ways are not always our ways.
SPEAKER_01: And when God's ways are different than ours, we need to watch our hearts, watch our mouths, and trust that God is doing what is right.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, if our theology is accurate and we understand God correctly, yet we still have that daily moment-to-moment struggle to make sense of life and our world and our circumstances, then our best action is to trust God, to trust his word, and to keep silent before him as we watch and wait for him to accomplish his word.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when we can't make sense of life, the best response is to remind ourselves of who God is and zip it.
SPEAKER_01: Let all the earth keep silent before him.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the balance.
SPEAKER_01: God says, Habakkuk, I hear your questions.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk, I hear your challenges.
SPEAKER_01: I trust that I see it.
SPEAKER_01: I trust that I know it.
SPEAKER_01: Trust me more than you trust your own perception.
SPEAKER_01: I am much greater than you can ever imagine.
SPEAKER_01: I am working in ways that you will never understand.
SPEAKER_01: Would you silently trust me?
SPEAKER_01: Living with human limitations requires discernment, friends.
SPEAKER_01: To know when to trust God and be silent, knowing He's here.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, may we be humbled.
SPEAKER_01: Humbled with awe of your greatness, of your majesty, of your dominion, of how magnificent you are.
SPEAKER_01: May we be humbled by the realization that we are but dust.
SPEAKER_01: We get so caught up in ourselves that we think that we're the best thing ever.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, forgive us.
SPEAKER_01: Draw us closer to your heart and to your mind and make us more into the image of the Lord Jesus every day.
SPEAKER_01: Who didn't think that holding on for dear life to the glories of heaven was the right thing, but instead humbled himself by becoming obedient even to the point of a shameful death.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, draw us to trust you, to know that you are always working even when we can't see your hand.
SPEAKER_01: And even when needed, to trust you in the quiet.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.