Habakkuk chapter 1, we're going to consider from verse 5 to verse 11. This is the answer that the Lord gave to the cry of the prophet. We considered that last time. Verses 1 to 4. In our broken world, there are many who complain about the state of society. They complain about the corruption, they complain about the the wickedness, the complaint, the consequences of sin. But there are few who are like Habakkuk. His name means to embrace. And we see here how he takes hold of God and he pleads with the Lord for His mercy and for His grace. And we considered before how the challenge is that we are to be like Habakkuk. We are to be a Habakkuk. One who embraces God. For the Christian has access into the throne room to come and to plead for God's good and gracious covenant purpose. And though our prayer may be imperfect, and if you pray, you will have a consciousness that your prayer is imperfect. Though it may be imperfect, it is the earnest cry of the awakened heart, isn't it? And as you pray, you come as one who is leaning upon the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, you come with your burden and yet with a degree of boldness, not presumption, not arrogance, but a boldness as you call upon the Lord, as you seek for his mercy, for Jesus' sake. Maybe you have experienced what the prophet experienced. Burdened and bold, but bewildered. Rather than the Lord turn back the advance of wickedness, what he finds is that wickedness increases. It's not rebuked, it's not restrained. Isn't that what we see in our own day? That the church continues to decline. There are those who withdraw with a cold formal siege mentality which tends to legalism. There are those who neglect Christian distinctiveness and blend with culture. But the consequence of both is the church declines and wickedness abounds. It's not what the Lord himself had warned. Matthew 24. that because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And even those who were once zealous seem so cold and careless, and few come out to worship God. And it's as though the Lord did not hear. And so the prophet cries out in verse two, how long shall I cry, O Lord? He's really saying, How long shall I cry? How long can I cry? Until it's too late and it's gone. Well in verse five, we have the answer of God. And in looking at this section five to 11, I want us first of all to simply note this. The Lord will answer. We don't know how long Habakkuk prayed for, but we know he felt the length of it because he was brought to complain and say to the Lord, how long shall I cry and you will not hear? He prayed and he prayed and he prayed and he prayed. And there was a loneliness as he prayed because there wasn't many voices joining together. But rather, there was an increasing loneliness as those who seemed to be faithful declined and fell away. But what we see here is the simple reality that the Lord will answer prayer. And I say that because you need to remind yourself, you need to be reminded of this. Because the temptation is to conclude that prayer will not be answered. The temptation is to conclude that it's too late. But friends, we must pray, and we must pray expectantly. Remember the words of the Apostle 2 Peter, he said in chapter 3, Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. That one day is with the Lord is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. It says the Lord is not slack concerning His promise. You see, every passing moment for us is a lost opportunity. And as the moments pass, we're conscious that we have less time, and there's an increasing desperation. as time runs out. But what Peter's saying there is this, that the Lord is not in time. He's not constrained by time. Time does not wear upon him. And so, even with the passing of time, we are to wait expectantly knowing that the Lord will answer prayer. But that's hard. That's hard to maintain that sense of expectation when there is somewhere within us an enduring element of unbelief. That's the truth, isn't it? As the believers, horrific secret, that even in the heart of faith there is somewhere there an element of unbelief and there is this fear. but the Lord will not hear. It's exacerbated by the working of conscience because you're haunted by the reality that you're not as you ought to be. And you can think of all these reasons why the Lord would be just not to hear you. There's even a suspicion that God's grace is not all of grace because our own hearts are small and hard. And our grace is not all of grace. And that's why we must remember this simple reality that the Lord will answer. That his grace is grace. And that he is faithful to himself. Regardless of how you see it, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is ear heavy that it cannot hear, but rather he is able and he will answer prayer. The apostle exhorts the Hebrews, you have need of patience. That after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. Press on, he says. Wait for it. Remember. Don't live according to your feelings. Don't allow yourself to be overwhelmed by these circumstances that come back to the reality of God. The Lord will answer prayer. You're tempted to give up in prayer, to cut back in prayer. You need to remember tonight that the Lord will answer prayer. I need to make a few comments on that. There are some caveats, of course, because we're told in Psalm 66 that if we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us. When I say that the Lord will answer prayer, I'm speaking about the prayer of faith which is made in Jesus' name for the advance of His kingdom. That's what I mean. That's what the Bible emphasizes. The godless man shall not have his heart's desire. Those who set their hearts upon iniquity shall not receive every request. It's not a guarantee either. that you will have your preferred outcome in every circumstance, but rather that the Lord will answer prayer and he will give what is good. The prayer of faith made in Jesus name for the advance of his kingdom. Perhaps tonight you need to enlarge your prayers. Not to give up on prayer, but to enlarge your prayer and to include an element in which you ask that the Lord would sustain you in prayer. That you would have grace to endure. Think of the words of Psalm 25. Let me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed but transgress without cause. Show me thy ways, O Lord. Teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth and teach me. Lord, sustain me in a way by revealing yourself. Don't give up because the Lord will answer prayer. That's the first lesson that we see in this passage. But the second lesson is this. that the Lord is active. The prophet is crying out and saying, Lord, how long? How long, O Lord? And as the Lord speaks, this is what he says in verse five. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe, though it be told you. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, I raise up the... The Lord is active. He's raising up the Chaldeans. The Lord is at work. Before the answer comes forth, the Lord is at work. From the very beginning, the Lord is at work. Before you ask, the Lord is at work. You need to remember the reality of providence. It's one great harmonious movement, all leading forward to this ultimate point. Your ability to see it, your ability to imagine it is not what is most relevant, but that the Lord is doing it. Friends, today, the Lord is active. The answer hasn't come to fruition. You haven't seen it develop through providence, but the Lord is active, even from the very beginning, working together all things for good. Sometimes the reality is that we read too much of the news and too little of the scriptures. But it is also the case that as you read the news, you should read it with scriptural eyes. Understanding that what these realities which are reported are aspects of providence which is orchestrated by the Lord himself. That the Lord is raising up, working out. That doesn't make your prayer redundant. That doesn't mean that prayer is unnecessary. Rather, in the mystery of providence, your prayer is essential. Because the Lord will answer and will work in response to prayer. And so he requires that prayer is made. It's not that prayer moves God. but rather prayer moves us in that it aligns us with God as it brings us to him. And it brings us in the right relation to him as it brings us on our knees in his presence, seeking his grace, extolling his majesty, confessing our sin. So we discover who he is. Friends, the Lord is active. Whatever burdens you tonight, whatever it is that you cry out to the Lord in relation to, He is active. He answers prayer and He is active. But maybe you've not been actively looking, actively expecting, maybe not even actively asking. But also I want us to notice tonight, not only that the Lord will answer, not only that the Lord is active, but the Lord will also amaze. Behold ye among the heathen and regard and wonder marvelously. Be amazed, for I work a work in your days which you will not believe though it be told you. She said, Lord's answer is beyond your wildest imagination. It's more than you can conceive of. You see, one of the great problems is we are bound by our own expectation. And we do not consider the wisdom of God, the sophistication of God. There's a complexity, there's an intricacy to providence. Our thoughts are too small or too narrow. And so unwittingly we limit and strip God of his sovereignty and of his power. The Lord will amaze. Verse six, for lo, I raise up the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans, we know them more often by the name the Babylonians. The Lord tells Habakkuk that he has answered that prayer, that he is active in the answer. And that the answer to Habakkuk's cry about the iniquity of the covenant people is that the Lord is raising up this vicious heathen nation. It seems that when Habakkuk spoke that the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, were not then a great national power. The Assyrians were the dominant power. There was the Egyptians who were another massive power. The Chaldeans, the Babylonians, they were a small part of the Assyrian Empire. But what happened in the fullness of time was that they rebelled and they quickly overwhelmed the Assyrian Empire so that we then read about Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. They appeared out of nowhere. And suddenly they were there. And the Lord will amaze because he will raise up from this unexpected place, this unexpected people who are described here with an overwhelming, aggressive power of arrogance and of lawlessness. And he speaks about their infantry marching, he speaks about their cavalry advancing. And though they will be ultimately overruled, their presence will be utterly devastating. For they will come with malice and pride, pursuing their own agenda. The unwitting servants of the Lord, but vicious, godless men. What we're told here is that the Lord, in his answer to prayer, will amaze, for the Lord's answer is not what is expected. Habakkuk is crying out because he is burdened by the sin of the Lord's own people. And the Lord says to Habakkuk, I know, I will answer, I will bring judgment from afar, and this vicious people will come and will trample upon them. What the Lord is saying is this, rebellion is not a little thing. And that he is able to chasten through exposure to greater evil. Having lived as the godless, the people of God will be given over to the godless. Habakkuk ought not to have been amazed. Why should he not have been amazed? Well, he shouldn't have been amazed because this is what God had promised before, even back in Deuteronomy. As Moses gave instruction to the nation concerning how the nation would be in Deuteronomy chapter eight, he warns that the Lord will bring a nation against thee from afar, from the ends of the earth. As swift as eagle flyeth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young, and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy land. Why did Moses warn about that? He was mourning of the consequences of sin. He was saying that if you are not faithful to the Lord, the Lord will show his faithfulness by bringing chastisement upon you. The Lord will not leave you in your sin. He will not allow you to prosper in your sin. Generations before the days of Isaiah the prophet, Isaiah spoke to King Hezekiah and said even more specifically, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days will come that all that is in thine house and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. It ought not to have amazed Habakkuk, but it did amaze him, as it amazed all who heard. And it amazes us as we consider it today. that the Lord will bring solemn judgment against his own covenant people because of their unfaithfulness. Habakkuk cries out for deliverance. He cries out that wickedness may be restrained. And the Lord will bring greater wickedness upon them. This is hard to hear, this is hard to consider, isn't it? Of course, the raising up of the Chaldeans, the advance of the Babylonian Empire, the ultimate exile of the children of Israel to Babylon, that is specific to history. The Chaldeans, the Babylonians, are now the dry dust of the desert. That empire is no more and their greatness is long gone. But the principle endures. So that Paul, in Acts 13, as he preached to the Jews in Antioch, he warned them as they heard the gospel, not to neglect the gospel. He said, lest that come upon you, And then he quotes from Habakkuk and says, Behold, ye despisers of wonder and perish, for I will work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. What is Paul saying? He's saying it is not safe to rebel against God. It is not safe to neglect the gospel because God is faithful. and he will bring judgment. Friends, the Lord judges nations in time. Individuals are judged in eternity as we stand before the Lord on that final day. But nations and peoples, the church is judged in time. And if we will rebel against the Lord, the Lord will chastise. The Lord will not be mocked. It is not safe to rebel against him. If you will rebel against the Lord, you may be given to experience a foretaste of the horrors of hell in this life. That's what's described, isn't it, in the advance of the Chaldean army, eating up all that lies before them, destroying, plundering, consuming. The Lord is speaking of a judgment that is to come. And the Lord will bring this judgment upon his people for this purpose. that they might be delivered from ultimate just judgment. It's a warning that Paul brings to the Jews in Antioch. Don't despise the gospel, lest you find that you're consumed and eaten up. Be warned of judgment to come. Don't mock God's grace. 2 Samuel chapter 22, which is repeated as Psalm 18. With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the froward thou wilt show thyself unsavory or froward. The Lord will deal with us justly. The pure shall be dealt with with purity. The arrogant, proud, the froward, shall be dealt with according to what they deserve. This is a solemn prophecy. This is a hard revelation. And what is his application for us today? Well, surely it is this. that we must learn to bow before the Lord and seek his grace. This isn't a commentary on the different nations that exist today, but it certainly does show us this, that our own nation, with its sense of entitlement, has no entitlement to good things. So often in our thinking of world affairs, we see ourselves as the good guys. And we think of all the other nations as being wicked, with the potential to trouble and to take from us what we have. This speaks about God's dealing with his own people. Not so much with us as a nation, but with us as a church. And if the church will neglect his grace, his grace will be withheld, as it were, for a time. That trouble will come. And as you look around and as you think of the experience of the church today, maybe we could say that this is what is happening. And why is it happening? It's happening because we have neglected His grace. We have not striven after the things of God. There's been compromise, there's been coldness, there's been a carelessness. And the Lord in His covenant faithfulness will not permit that to continue. But rather the Lord will bring His people to tremble and to remember and to repent and to turn from their sin and will awaken a sense and hunger and desire after God himself. You see, the Lord's love is a strong love. It's not superficial. It's a strong love that is uncompromising, that he will do what is for our good and what is for his glory. And the best illustration of that is the way that parents may raise a child, because the indulgent parent who seems to be loving is not loving. Because the indulgent parent who seems to be loving but doesn't discipline and nurture the child properly, but simply allows the child to go their own way, will ultimately spoil the child. Whereas the loving father and the loving mother will faithfully discipline, chastise, instruct, nurture, to encourage the child to grow and to develop. and the loving, faithful parent will show their disapproval, and will risk the disapproval of the child, and doesn't pander to their every desire, but rather gives them what is good, regardless of how the child sees it, knowing that one day, with hindsight, the child will look back and will appreciate that loving discipline, and the structure, and the restraint, that was placed upon them. Isn't that your own experience, that you look back now and you're thankful for the chastisement of your fathers? Not perfect, but well-meant by and large, maybe. The Lord's love is a strong love, not superficial. not indulging, not compromising, but rather he will work that which is good. It is not safe to rebel against God. Rather, I must bow and seek repentance. Sin will be judged. Yet the wonder of the gospel is this. While sin will be judged, there is a substitute who will stand, and judgment falls upon him. Justicement may follow in his life, but judgment falls upon him, so that ultimately we are not consumed. Habakkuk has many questions that arise from what the Lord reveals here. He wonders how it can be that a holy God can raise up such an unholy army to work his purposes. And the Lord will answer him. As we study through this book, we will see something of that. But what we learn tonight is that God will answer prayer. That God is active in answering prayer. and that God will amaze. For he will work according to his wisdom and not according to our expectation. And his answer often is solemn, for it is uncompromising. But we must remember that God is good. As a perfect father, with a perfect love, he works what is good. and therefore we can commit ourselves into his care. And though we can't understand it all, we can't put it all together, we can trust in him. And that's where we must leave it, with our need to trust in God. Is his hand raised against us? Is this the chastisement of God? Is this judgment visited upon us? Not with a foreign army perhaps, but by those wicked raised up in our own nation to rule over us, and their wicked ways, and their indulging of sin. The godless abound, but God's grace does much more abound. Amen.