This prophecy of Habakkuk near the end of the Old Testament, the fifth book from the back of the Old Testament is amazingly relevant to our day. And that's one of the reasons that I think the Lord led me to want to preach from it. because the struggles of Habakkuk are very close to what it is like to be a Bible-believing Christian in our day. Habakkuk lived in a time, the late 6th century BC, and as he dealt with the reality of what God was doing in his life in his world, it drove him to the Lord. It drove him to the Lord in a way that was transformative. And we have in his example, really a model of how we should approach the tragedies of life, the complexities of life, the reality of judgment, if we are caught up in it. Because that's what Habakkuk was caught up in. He was caught up in the judgment of God. The judgment of God was falling upon the people of God in Judah. He's made aware of that. And then he has to deal with that reality. This awesome weight of this tragic reality that's about to become unleashed in his life. And we see in his response, the path that we ought to follow as we deal with the various tragedies of life. Things come suddenly in our lives. Accidents, diagnoses, breakup of relationships, social, difficulties, national tragedies, all kinds of things can come at us. And how do we respond? And Habakkuk is a model of that. In fact, the title of the message today, we're in Habakkuk 2, but what we're doing, well, the title of the message is preparing to ride out the storm, preparing to ride out the storm. And what I wanna do today, As we move into the second chapter, which I think is the pivotal chapter in the book, and I hope to show you that today and in subsequent weeks, how the author even structures his letter to make this clear. The structure of Habakkuk is made in such a way, there's a chiastic structure, or chiastic if you prefer. And that is, a chiasm is A, B, C, D, C, B, A. So that the first and last elements match, the second and next to last elements match, and so on. And I think we have a very clear chiastic structure in this book that puts the focus... What a chiasm does, when you have an A-B-C-B-A... Here you have A-B-C-D-C-B-A, but for my sake I'm trying to shorten it so I can explain it more quickly. A-B-C-B-A... It focuses your attention on the middle of the chiasm. This is why God does that. The structure, when an author does that, you see it a lot in poetry, in the Psalms. When that happens, it's to force your attention to the center of the chiasm. And we've noted already that Habakkuk is uniquely poetic among the prophets. that he actually writes in his prophecy and he sets it to music. There's musical notation in his prophecy, unique among all of the prophets. So he's already poetic in his focus. And we've noted how unique his approach is, that rather than the normal prophetic role of speaking for God to the people, that's the normal prophetic role, the prophet receives the word of God, that is, God's analysis or concerns about the people, and the prophet delivers the word from God to the people. Here, the prophet is, in a sense, reversing that. He's speaking for the people to God. So you have these unique elements going on. And I think you really will see, as we work through it, this chiasm, which then puts chapter 2 at the center. Chapter 2, 2 to 20, is the center of the chiasm. And it makes the fundamental verse, or the most important verse in the book, is Habakkuk 2, 4, which we'll read in a moment. The just shall live by faith. That is the key concept in the book. And that is essentially the message of how we are to weather the storms of life. The just, the righteous shall live by faith. and Habakkuk models this for us. And so what I wanna do though today, rather than work verse by verse through chapter two, which we will do, Lord willing, I wanna look at the big structure of the book and the big message of the book and show you how this emphasizes chapter two. And I want us to look at, sometimes we can lose the forest. I mean, we can lose the forest for the trees, right? You get so into the trees, you forget where you are. And so we're gonna go back and step and look at the forest again. The title of the message is preparing to ride out the storm because that's essentially the driving message of the whole book. There's a storm coming, prepare to ride it out. And so I'm gonna read verses, chapter two, verses one to four. And then after we pray, we'll dig into the text, the larger text of Habakkuk. Habakkuk 2, 1, I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart, and I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me, and how I may reply when I am approved. Then the Lord answered me and said, Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time. It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it. For it will certainly come, it will not delay. But as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith. Let's pray together. Our Father, we worship and honor you because you are Lord over all creation. You have made all things out of nothing. You have made each one of us in our mother's womb. You created us for your glory. And we come, as we confessed earlier in the service, acknowledging that we are sinners, that we fall so far short of the glory of God. And that we come needing grace every moment. We need you to speak to us today from your word. We ask that your spirit would work as we consider this prophecy. That you would open the eyes of our hearts to see what You want us to see, to be changed by what we see, and produce more and deeper faith in us. For those that have not yet believed savingly, may You save them today. For those of us who have, may You deepen our trust in our glorious Savior. We pray this in His name, amen. So preparing to ride out the storm, a relevant message in so many ways. And I think it, as I said, Habakkuk relates uniquely to where we are in our culture. When you think about the fact that in American culture, we're seeing such a dramatic movement from God in the culture. you know, a jettisoning of just basic human understanding of life, an assault on the family, all around us, darkness crowding in, more and more of a climate anti-God, anti-Christian that we see. And so we see the storm clouds rising. We sense that it's coming. So how can we prepare to ride it out? And then even just in a natural, the natural reality of the hurricanes we've seen, thinking about two massive hurricanes in a row, Helene and Milton, just last month, to see what damage happens when storms of that magnitude come into population centers, what happens? What tremendous damage can be produced? Imagine if you are now knowing that you have a hurricane coming, and it's hard to believe that in the past you had to worry about that when you're on the coast. Helene obviously made it amazingly destructive to people in the mountains. But for our sake of our illustration, you're on the coast and you have a hurricane coming. And what do you normally do? Well, you board up your buildings, you board up your windows, your doors, trying to protect them from being blown off their hinges, glass being shattered. And so it minimizes the damage that'll happen to your structure, your house. If you are living, there are people that live in high rises that maybe they're gonna be able to weather the storm. But I heard of some friends who, when one of the hurricanes last year was coming through, they had to move all their cars in this high rise off of the lower level up to the second and third parking level. So they had to double park and triple park because you couldn't leave your car on the bottom level because they were expecting storm surge. And it was wise they did that. The building stood and their cars were safe. So you do things like that. You board up, you prepare, and normally what do you do? You evacuate. But what if evacuation is not an option for you? What does it mean to hunker down and prepare for the onslaught of an unknown storm? You never know what it's going to be like, exactly where it's going to come, exactly how much wind is going to come, exactly how much storm surge is going to come, how much rainfall. And there's a sense in which Habakkuk is receiving a message like that. It's like God is telling him a hurricane is coming And you must prepare. You can't evacuate. You must prepare for the storm to ride it out. Habakkuk didn't know in the very beginning of the book that the storm was coming. He comes with a complaint to the Lord, but quickly he finds out that a storm is coming. And then, what happens is, we see this amazing transformation in the heart of the prophet that happens from the very beginning of the book to the end. And it is striking. What happens to this man. And it can be a great encouragement to us. That our God is a God who prepares us for the storm. He not only announces it and tells you to make preparations. He himself prepares you for it. If you seek him and trust him. And so preparing for the storm, that is the title of the message. And we have five points this morning. And again, we're looking at the larger picture of Habakkuk. And as we do it, I think you'll see the structural things I was talking about earlier, even the chiasm. And the first point this morning is the necessity of preparation. The necessity of preparation. Habakkuk finds out, I mean, he goes to the Lord in verse two with a prayer. And one of the things you wanna see as you read through the book to get the most out of it, and I would encourage you to read it a number of times on your own and just thinking through each week, pray over it, pray the Lord will continue opening it to me as I'm studying and to us as we meet together on Sundays. But as you look at it, try to make, be always mindful of who's speaking. And so, Habakkuk speaks, the Lord speaks, Habakkuk speaks, the Lord speaks, Habakkuk speaks, the Lord reveals Himself, Habakkuk speaks. There's basically seven different times somebody's speaking. Four times Habakkuk, three times the Lord. The third speaking isn't so... isn't audibly, it's the theophany that happens in chapter three. So you want to watch that. It's a dialogue that's happening. It's a wonderful dialogue, this beautiful letter that God has given us in the canon of scripture. Where Habakkuk comes pouring out his heart to God and God reveals himself to Habakkuk. Habakkuk continues to pour out himself to God. The Lord continues to reveal in a deeper way himself and his purposes. And what happens is Habakkuk is changed in the process. Habakkuk is prepared for the storm. He's able to truly spiritually hunker down and be ready to stand. against hurricane force winds and storm surge. Supernaturally. So, the necessity of preparation. He's really told in verses 12 to 17 of chapter 1 that the storm is coming. He talked to the Lord in verses 2 and 4, 2 to 4 of chapter 1. We said basically, listen Lord, There's all kinds of wickedness around me among the people of God. He's talking about in Judah, in Jerusalem, and you're not doing anything about it. And I'm very upset and concerned. Why are you allowing me to see violence and you're not doing anything about it? And so the Lord says, hey, I got good news. I'm doing something about it. And when he announces it, actually verses five to 11, or when he sees the storm is coming, I'm sorry, not 12 to 17. 5 to 11, the Lord's response tells him, look among the nations, observe, be astonished, wonder, verse 5, because I am working a work in your days. He says, I'm doing something New American Standard, but it's really, I'm working a work in your days. You would not believe if you were told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people, who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs. They are dreaded and feared. The Chaldeans are coming and they're going to wreck Jerusalem and Judah. That's what I am doing. That is the work that Yahweh is working in Habakkuk's day. It's about to happen. He said, I got good news. I'm gonna deal with the sins of the people. But when Habakkuk hears this, he now knows the storm is coming and judgment is coming from God. And that's the storm of judgment is coming and he's got to prepare for it. And that's what the rest of the book is then the unfolding of that preparation. So that's the necessity of preparation. First point. Number two, the transformative reality of preparation. The reality of the preparation is transformative. You see Habakkuk transformed from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. And I want to show you, this is where I'm going to start unpacking the chiasm. Okay? So 1, 2 to 4 is the first time Habakkuk speaks. And the book ends with Habakkuk speaking 3, 16, 19. So I know this is kind of tough. If you don't want to worry about the numbers, just listen to the concepts. Some of you guys are more like to, you'll benefit from the numbers more than others. But anyway, it begins and it ends with Habakkuk speaking. And when you compare the difference to what he says at the beginning to what he says at the end. In chapter one, verses two and four, what we could say is this is his His, basically, expression of his confusion and disbelief. He can't believe the Lord is letting what happened, what's happening around him, happen. I mean, how long, oh Lord, will I call for help and you will not hear? I cry out to you violence, yet you do not save. Why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me. Strife exists, contention arises. The law is ignored, justice is never upheld, for the wicked surround the righteous, therefore justice comes out perverted. You see that? This is a complaint. It's a confused complaint. I don't know, I don't understand what I'm seeing. I can't believe what I'm seeing, and I'm telling you, Lord, you need to do something. It's confusion, and it's a mixture of disbelief. You know, I can't believe you're doing, you're allowing this. Now contrast that to chapter 3. Look now, the end of the book, and look at 3.16-19. And what you have here, instead of a confused complaint, is you have assured confidence. Assured confidence. 3.16.19. These are some of the most beautiful words in all of Scripture, when we get to verse 17 to 19. But He says at first, He said, I heard, verse 16, I heard and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered. He's just seeing God's glory revealed in the previous verses. I heard and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered, decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble. He is overcome with awe and reverence, but look what he says after this. This is what's so important. In my place I tremble, because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us. I must wait for that. I'm trembling as I wait for that. But look at what he says next. Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olives should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exalt in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds feet, and makes me walk on my high places. One of those beautiful expressions of trust in all of scripture. Habakkuk has moved from a confused complainer to someone who is absolutely assured of God's goodness and trustworthiness. This has happened in the pages of this book. And he now is prepared for the storm. I love that image, the word picture there in verse 19. He has made my feet like Heinz' feet and makes me walk on my high places. The idea is the feet of a deer or a goat, a mountain goat. I mean, you watch, have you ever seen those videos where mountain goats are like running from snow leopards or whatever? I always, me and my son like to watch those things. My wife comes in and complains when we're seeing an animal get eaten, you know? And I always, I have to be honest, I pull for the animal to get away 95% of the time. But you see a mountain goat, it's amazing what they can do to escape. Now snow leopards are impressive, but the mountain goats can go places nobody else can. They're on crags of rock, they're making progress up. Their feet are so sure and sound that they can do something no other animals can do. He's saying, God is going to make me like that. The storm waters may rise, I may have to run up the mountainsides, but God's gonna make my feet secure. I know He has me in His hand. And I will be as secure as the goat climbing up on the high peaks of the mountains. So the transformation that happens, you see that from the beginning to the end. I can't understand why you're doing what you do. Lord, I'm having trouble even believing that you are sovereign and reigning. And now he understands after all of this, no, I know not only are you sovereign and reigning, you're bringing this to happen. When the storm comes, you are the one doing it. And you will keep your people in the midst of it. Just like that Psalm we read earlier. Psalm two, you know, the nations are raging. They're in an uproar. What a picture of modern life also. And what's the heart cry of the wicked? Let us tear their fetters apart. They don't want to do anything that God wants them to do. They hate us. They call it hate speech because we just speak the truth that God has made man, male and female. He's the one who designed it. It's not up to us. Gender is not an assigned thing in a sense of it's just your doctor assigned it. No, it is created. You are created that way. God has done it. And so, but saying that is hate speech because it's a reminder that God is determining everything. And the unbeliever resists the reign and rule of God. We all were like that. There but for the grace of God would we be even now. So we see that opposition to the Lord growing in Psalm 2. That's what they're saying. But the Lord scoffs and laughs. He's going to have his way. He's going to install his king on Mount Zion. Christ will reign. His word will be honored. And the only choice, the only wise choice is to submit to the king. Habakkuk comes to understand something of that as he walks through this circumstance. Yeah, things are gonna go from bad to worse. He's going to see, when he thinks about what he's gonna see, his inward parts tremble, his lip quivers, decay enters his bones. Think about what he's describing. In my place, I tremble and yet I am confident in the Lord. He's strong in God. So that transformative preparation, the reality of his preparation, the necessity was number one, the reality of a transformative preparation, we see that, and that's the beginning of that chiasm, A and A, one, two, and four, three, 16 and 19. Then we're talking about the process, number three, the process of preparation. How did he prepare? And there's a sense in which on the human side, we are to do what Habakkuk did and we must trust what, it's a two-sided thing. Habakkuk tries to prepare himself and God prepares Habakkuk. There's a human part and a divine part. But even by God's grace, we're able to do the human part. But the process of preparation is in a word, prayer. What he does is he prays and there are four different times that he prays. 1, 2 to 4 is his first prayer. That's his complaint. Confused complaint. God answers and says, look, I'm doing something. I'm bringing the Chaldeans and they're going to deal with everything. They're going to sweep through and bring judgment upon Judah. And then 1, 12 to 17 is his second prayer. And Habakkuk in the second prayer, which we looked at last Sunday, His perplexity grows, but there's a seed of faith there. There was a seed of faith even in the first thing. By going to God in the first place with your complaint, there is faith there. Do you see that? He believed in the Lord enough to go to the Lord with his problem. And to keep going to the Lord with his problem, because he said, how long, oh Lord? He's been praying and praying and praying. The seed of the faith has grown a little bit in this second prayer. Because look how he begins, are you not from everlasting? Oh Lord, my God, my holy one, we will not die. He's reminding himself now of all that God has done in the past, God's promises. And he understands you, oh Lord, have appointed them to judge and you, oh rock, have established them to correct. There's faith. It's kind of gone from a seed to being a little bit of a, maybe it's a sapling. Still vulnerable. Because from there on, he starts complaining again. And he's like, why are you letting these Chaldeans who are so wicked, why are you letting them do this? Why have you allowed your people all over mankind to be ruled over like this? So it's still confused, but there's some faith element there in that second prayer. And then he says in chapter two, verse one, and here again, part of that faith, I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart and I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me and how I may reply when I'm reproved. So there's movement from first prayer to second prayer. And now look at the movement from second prayer to the third prayer, chapter three, verses one and two. I mentioned the turning point is chapter 2 and what you have is the Lord speaking from chapter 2 verse 2 to chapter 2 verse 20. 19 verses God is speaking to Habakkuk and he ends with in verse 20, but the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. It's kind of reminding Habakkuk. I'm God and you are not. and the whole world needs to be silent before me, including you. Though the Lord has been so gracious to speak to him, he's reminding him, he alone is God, we need to see ourselves rightly related to him. We're humble, we should humble ourselves before him. But look what Habakkuk does, chapter three, verses one and two. A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, and it's a two verse prayer. According to Shignioth, Shignioth, that's again a musical notation we think. Lord, I have heard the report about you and I fear, oh Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known, in wrath remember mercy. You see how his tone has changed dramatically now. He's not saying, Lord, why are you doing this with the Chaldeans? Why are you allowing this to happen? He now says, oh Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years. Oh Lord, he's saying, do your work. You see that? There's an element of surrender here. And faith involves surrender. You know what God has said and you surrender to it. You trust him and you surrender yourself to him. Habakkuk is doing that. And so we're seeing that his prayers are, this is changing him. Isn't it funny too, Habakkuk when he starts praying in chapter one, verse two, what's he doing? He wants things to change from his prayers. And prayer does change things. God has purposed to use our prayers. If you have not, Because you ask not. Prayer makes a difference. But we want, just like Habakkuk, we want our prayers to change God and to change our circumstances. And sometimes our circumstances will change, but very often they will not. The ultimate purpose of prayer is not to change circumstances, it's to change the one who is praying. Prayer doesn't change God as much as it changes us. And this is what you see happen with Habakkuk. He goes to the Lord wanting to change things. Lord, you've got to do something. I don't want to see what I'm seeing around me. Chapter one, verses two to four. And then God tells him, I'm about to do something with the Chaldeans. It's going to blow your mind. And he says, Hey, I don't, I'm not so crazy about that either. I want you to, to think about changing that though. I understand who you are. I want you to change that. And then chapter three, one to two, he's turned the corner. And now he says, Lord, do your work. Do your will. Hallowed be your name. Your will be done. That's the beauty of the heart of faith. You do as you will. You know, we should pray fervently for all kinds of things. We pray fervently for healing of cancer. We should pray fervently for salvation of lost people. We should pray fervently for just the provision of our daily needs. We should pray fervently for the wellbeing of our nation. We should pray fervently for the election. We should pray fervently for all of these things. Yes, we should. And we should not be complacent. Our belief in the sovereignty of God should not make us complacent. But what we're seeing is that it's essential that we pray fervently and yet there's an element at the end of our prayer just like Jesus. Remember how he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane? He prayed fervently. The text tells us he prayed three times, three separate times. He said, Father, if there's any way, let this cup pass from me. Luke tells us in his account that Jesus' sweat drops of blood as he prayed, that his sweat his sweat pores were oozing blood. It's a very rare condition that doctors have documented that when someone is under incredible stress, the capillaries near the skin begin to burst and blood can come out in the sweat pores. Only the most extreme anxiety produces that kind of reaction. Jesus is under that kind of anxiety and he's genuinely praying, Father, is there any other way that we can accomplish the salvation of sinners? Please, Lord, if there's any way, he prays three times, how does he end each prayer? If there be any way, let this cut pass for me, yet not my will, but your will be done. That's the heart of faith. But you're still supposed to pray. You're not supposed to do one or the other. It's not so we walk around saying, the Lord's will be done, and we don't pray. The Lord's will be done, and we don't evangelize. The Lord's will be done, and we don't vote. The Lord's will be done, and we don't do what we can do. No, we're to do all that we can do, and we're to pray as if it depends on us, because Scripture tells us to pray like that. And even as you pray, depending on the Lord, Lord, help me to pray. I don't want to pray like I need to. Are you like me? So often you find yourself when you're really trying to labor in prayer that your mind goes so many different directions. Suddenly you're thinking about a grocery list or you're thinking about what I've got to do tonight. You're like, where did I get there? You know, I heard someone say this. I read it in a book actually. I think it was Jerry Bridges, I believe is the one who said this. Whenever you find yourself, realizing that you've been, you've just wandered off in your prayer life for who knows how long, right? You were praying through a list and suddenly you've been thinking about their last three or four minutes about the news or about whatever. When the thought comes back to you, what am I doing? I was praying. What'll happen is Satan wants to come at that moment and condemn you. He wants to say, look at you, you don't even have any business praying. And in some sense, he's always got a good point. Yeah, who are we? Just like we confess. Look at how sinful we are, but that's not what God wants you to do. And this is what Bridges said. He said, whenever you think that, hey, how did I just get distracted for this last two minutes? And now I can't believe I've been, how long have I been not thinking about the Lord? Realize that how did you even think about the fact that you need to be praying? It's the Holy Spirit drawing you back. And just thank God for his grace in Christ. Thank you, Lord, that you, Lord Jesus, you never lost focus like this. Give me your focus and just get back to praying. Don't let it stop you. Be grateful that we have a God of grace who even then is willing to lead us back. He knows our frame. He's mindful that we're dust. You see that in Habakkuk. He has surrendered. He's saying, Lord, you do your work. You've made it clear that this is your work. I've prayed, in a sense, what I wanted. Now I know that you're going to do this. Because he's made it clear in chapter two, as we read through chapter two, we'll see. It's clear. God's going to bring the Chaldeans, and he's going to judge the Chaldeans, and it's all going to happen in his plan. And Habakkuk says, okay, Even as I tremble, I want to ask you to revive your work in the midst of the years and make it known, make your glory known. But then I love this, in wrath, remember mercy. As you pour out your wrath, remember your love and kindness, your character, your mercy. Don't forget your mercy, Lord. That's the kind of prayer we should pray. And God loves to hear that kind of prayer. He is a God, even what you heard earlier, that Psalm, Psalm 2, remember? The nation's rage, the peoples are in uproar. The Lord scoffs at them. He laughs. He says, I've installed my king upon Mount Zion. And he says, listen, you need to do homage to the sun lest you perish in your way. He will become quickly angry. And I love this, it ends with, for his rage, his anger can, I can't remember exactly how it's flare up, but how blessed are all, this is the last words of that Psalm. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. You see him coming in wrath, what do you do? Don't run away from him, run to him. Take refuge in him. He loves to receive sinners to himself at all times. You come trusting in Christ to the Lord, He always receives you. And He will equip you and enable you to go through whatever you're gonna go through. Keep running to the Lord. That's what we see in His third prayer, His third expression of prayer in 3, 1 to 2. And then of course, verses 16 to 19, we've already looked at, where He now has triumphant faith. I mean, His faith is faith that scales the mountainside. So He's moved from from complaining, confusion, disbelief, to triumphant faith, and he did it through prayer, the Lord speaking to him, prayer, the Lord speaking to him, prayer, the Lord revealing himself to him, and prayer. That's the process. We pray and we keep seeking the Lord. So we've seen the necessity of preparation, the transformative reality of preparation, the process of preparation, and now the power for preparation. Fourthly, the power for preparation. And we see this now in looking at the three times God speaks to Habakkuk. Three times God makes himself known to Habakkuk with clarity. And this is where the power for change comes from. It's what the Lord shows him. Now, I mentioned to you the first couple of weeks, and I wanna remind you of this, that there's real emphasis in the book on what you see. You see it in chapter one, verse three. Well, first of all, in the first verse of chapter one, the oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. It's not what he heard, most prophets, it's what they heard. No, it's what Habakkuk saw. And then, what does he say to the Lord in his first prayer? Why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? Chapter 1, verse 3. And then, what's the Lord's reply to him? Chapter 1, verse 5. When God begins to speak, the first word out of God's mouth is, Look among the nations, observe. It's look, look carefully. And then you have that continued emphasis In chapter two, when Habakkuk says, I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me. Not to hear what he will speak to me, but to see what he will speak to me. See that? Chapter two, verse one. And then chapter two, verse two, the Lord says, record the, what? The vision and inscribe it on tablets. The one who reads it may run for the vision. Chapter two, verse three, is yet for the appointed time. It's all about what Habakkuk sees. The power for preparation is what Habakkuk sees as God reveals himself to him. And this is really, let me just mention this one key principle. And that is what? What is really the essential heart of faith? Read earlier from the end of chapter 11 of Hebrews. It's the hall, the great hall of fame of faith. What you see is faith. Faith believes in what it doesn't see with its natural eyes. Faith believes in what it sees with its spiritual eyes. You know, it says there in Hebrews 11 that they were looking for a better country. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were able to not receive Canaan. They were told Canaan's your land. Abraham was, but he never owned it. Isaac was told the same thing, but he never owned it. Jacob was told the same thing, this is your land, but he never owned it. And the author of Hebrews makes the point that though they had not received the promises, they understood, they were looking, their eyes were on the city whose builder and maker is God. They were looking for a heavenly city. You see their eyes, their eyes were the eyes of faith. Faith is not focused on what you see before you, but it's focused on the spiritual reality that God's word and promise points to. And so faith is seeing the unseen. And so Habakkuk is basically growing in faith. He is seeing with more clarity the unseen as he moves throughout this process. As he prays, God opens his eyes to see a little more of the unseen. In fact, let me just show you this. Hold your place in the back. You can turn to 2 Corinthians 4. Verse 16 is really helpful. I mean, verse 18, 16 to 18 are really helpful, verse 18 especially. 2 Corinthians 4, 16. This is after Paul has talked about that we have treasure in earthen vessels. The treasure is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. We have come to know the Lord. We've come to see Christ. We see the treasure that He is and the gospel reality, the transformation that's happened in our lives is like a treasure inside an earthen vessel. That is a clay pot. You put this priceless treasure in the most surprising place. That is, in that day, you would never put gold and silver, diamonds, precious stones inside of a clay pot. A clay pot is a pot you're using for maybe you move food around in, or you take garbage in the clay pot. You don't put treasure in it. But he says, the mystery is we have this treasure in clay pots. That is our earthly bodies. God's spiritual reality, transformative reality, has happened to us. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. And he talks about we're hard-pressed, but we're not overcome. We're afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not despairing. Persecuted, but not forsaken. And what's happening is the clay pots are being broken up and the light of the treasure is shining out. And he explains it in verses 16 to 18. Therefore, he says, in verse 16, therefore we do not lose heart, But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. And here's the key verse. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Faith is looking at the things which are not seen, which are every bit as real as what we see. And in some sense, even more so because the things we see with our eyes naturally are temporal. The things which are unseen are eternal. Colossians chapter one says that Jesus created all things visible and invisible. There's an invisible world. There's an invisible reality. And those are the things that are eternal. And so if we're going to persevere in times of storm, if we're gonna be able to prepare and endure the storms of life, we need to learn to see the things which are unseen. And that happens as we hear from God. Because faith, faith to see the things which are unseen, how does faith happen? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10, 17. The word begets faith. The promise begets faith. That's what Abraham, he had the promise of God and he believed the promise of God. And there he was, he was able to see that which is unseen. And that's what Habakkuk is doing. And what God does, back in, let's go back to Habakkuk now. The three times the Lord speaks to him, let's analyze these. The power for preparation. Where's the power come? Habakkuk, he has to do his part of the process, which is pray, and pray, and pray, and listen to God. and that prayer and listening go hand in hand, and not listening to some inner voice, but now on this side of the completion of the canon, God speaks to us, the Holy Spirit speaks to us, but He speaks to us through and alongside His Word. You go to His Word to hear from God. but we're to pray and we're to listen. So we pray and we're listening to scripture. We're thinking about it. We're meditating on it. Lord, show me what I need to know. And we're praying. That's the process of preparation that we talked about. Now the power, what's gonna happen is when God speaks to us through his word. And Habakkuk in that time, he got God to speak directly to him because the canon wasn't finished and he was gonna be part of the canon of scripture. And the Lord, first of all, tells him, look among the nations and observe. Remember, it's what you see. Look among the nations and observe the work that I am working. And he says the most surprising thing. Look at those wicked Chaldeans and their oppression and their evil, lustful hearts and how wicked they are. I'm doing that. I'm raising them up. Now, we know other Scripture makes it clear God is not the author of sin or the author of evil. James chapter 1. It's unthinkable that God entices anyone to evil. His sovereignty reigns over all. And what's happening, what He's saying is He's pulling back His hand of restraint. This is how the Lord allows evil people to do what they want. He restrains evil. And sometimes He then lets them go. And He's saying, I'm letting them go. And in doing so, it's not a passive thing. I am actively accomplishing my will. The wonder of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Amazing. But he says essentially in verses five to 11, look at the work that I am doing. And so Habakkuk is hit with a reality. Look at the pages of history. Look at the reality of history unfolding around you and know this for certain, the Lord has done it and it is marvelous in our eyes. What God does is marvelous in our eyes. Now, let me go back to this just for a second. I mentioned earlier, we're not to be complacent. We're to be actively involved. And so like, even with what's gonna happen with the election, what's gonna happen in the aftermath? There's lots of things that could happen. What are we to do? I think as Christians, we're to vote. We're to vote for righteousness. We're to think about candidates and evaluate. And in some sense, when you vote, you're always choosing the lesser of two evils. Is that not true in every election of human men? It's the lesser of two evils. And so you look, I mean, personalities are important, but more than important than the personalities in a democracy is policy. You look at the policy advocations that people are making, are they promoting righteousness? Are they promoting a godly thinking? I mean, they may not be actively doing it, but are they attacking it rather? Things like transgenderism and homosexuality. the evil of abortion. These things make it clear what is the greater of two evils. And we're to vote and make a difference, whatever we can. But now that said, the Lord is gonna do it. You do your part, and then you behold what God does, and you worship the Lord. And that's the beauty of it. No matter what Satan wants to have happen, it can only happen if God wills it. Now we need to make sure more than voting, 10 to one, 100 to one, we are praying. And we're not trusting in the outcome of the election. Because no matter which candidate wins, that's not our hope. I mean, we think it's important. We're not foolish, but we're not also foolish to think that it's gonna solve everything. The only thing that will solve everything is the gospel of Jesus Christ being made known to more and more people and more and more people coming to saving faith. And so we must be people who pray and evangelize. That's gotta be our passion. But that said, we then trust that whatever happens, God is doing it. And there's a sense in which even when that which happens is not what we want to have happen, our heart needs to say, the Lord has done it. And it is marvelous in our eyes. Lord, you are fulfilling your purpose and your plan and we will worship you. That's what we're called to do. We're created to worship God. That's always our calling. We worship you, Lord. We praise you and we trust you. You'll be with us. You'll help us. Show us what it is to be faithful and to shine brightly no matter what comes our way. Whatever storm it is, you are on the throne. Habakkuk sees that, first of all, in verses 12 to 17. In chapter 2, verses 20, which will impact more, Lord willing, next time, he sees that the Lord tells him, listen, you need to be a person of faith. That is, you trust me, you surrender to me, you believe in me and my promises, and then You will live. No matter what happens, you will be living. The idea is the righteous, those who belong to the Lord, by faith, live in the midst of death encroaching. We live. And then chapter 3, verses 3 to 15 is the third time God reveals himself. And here he doesn't speak to him. Habakkuk sees the Lord. This is what's called a theophany. God comes from Timon and the Holy One from Mount Peron. Chapter 3, verse 3. Selah. His splendor covers the heavens. The earth is full of his praise. I'm not going to have time to read it. Let me just say this. What he's basically saying in chapter 3. When God told him what he's gonna do in chapter one, verses 12 to 17, the Chaldeans, I'm raising them up and they're gonna come and they're gonna wreak havoc. And in chapter two, what he says is, I'm gonna deal with the Chaldeans. It's gonna take, there's gonna be some time, division, wait for it. It's gonna be 70 years actually, that you're gonna have to wait. He didn't tell him that 70 years. He says, it's gonna come. It's appointed time's gonna come. Jeremiah tells him it's 70 years. It's gonna come, wait for it. And so he then talks about how he's going to bring woe upon the Chaldeans. He's going to judge them. And in chapter three what's happening is none of this has happened yet. It's all been promised. Chapter three is essentially the unveiling. It's like chapter three is him getting the visible behind-the-scenes look at what chapters 1, 12 to 17 and chapters 2, 2 to 20 were talking about. Chapter three When God comes riding on His chariot, He's saying, when the Chaldeans come in like a flood and they burn Jerusalem, you know who's doing it? The Lord is riding on His chariot and His horses. He is doing it. Pestilence comes before him and so this see that that's the spiritual reality and when the Chaldeans are judged Guess who's doing it. You're seeing it in chapter 3. It's the Lord who's doing it He is writing and in all of this even in chapter 1 12 to 17 When the Chaldeans are coming, you know what God is doing? He is saving his people. Salvation occurs twice in that chapter three, verses three to 15. We'll see this, we get to unpack it, but I want you to see the big picture. So even as we look at what's happening with physical eyes, we see the horror of it, whether it's national stuff or it's personal tragedy. There's a sense in which we need to step back from it and understand the Lord truly is at work in everything that happens. And he has a good purpose for his name and glory and for his people. And we need to submit to him and worship him. And that's the fourth point, the power preparation. And finally, the fifth point, we said the necessity of preparation, number one, the transformative, transformative, Reality of preparation, number two. Number three, the process of preparation. Number four, the power for preparation. Number five, the essential ingredient in preparation. And that's chapter two, verse four, it's faith. It's faith. That's the whole letter is pointing to this. We'll look at this more carefully next time, but look at the contrast in verse four. Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith. As for the proud one, it's an interesting word in the Hebrew. It reads like proud is an adjective. Proud one's an adjective with a noun there, right? Proud one. But in the Hebrew, it's actually a verb. And it really says, as for the one who swells up, that's literally what it says. As for the one who swells up, his soul is not right within him. The idea is that the opposite of faith is the swelling up, the taking in a sense of puffing of ourselves up, thinking highly of ourselves. You see, lifting ourselves up is the opposite of faith. Faith is humbling ourselves, lowering ourselves. Faith is not asserting our will. It is submitting to God's will. It's a key part of faith. And so that's the essential ingredient of this kind of preparation. What we said earlier, like Jesus, not my will, but thy will be done. Pray fervently for what you think ought to be God's will, best you can see it. Pray hard, pray continually, but always with a sense, yet nevertheless, not my will, but your will. We should pray that way when we pray in prayer meeting for people that have, you know, diseases, we should pray fervently for their healing. And yet always there should be an element in which, but our heart is saying, but Lord, your will be done. And when we're the person with the need, how much more that should be our heart. Lord, whatever brings the most honor and glory to Christ, your will be done. So we see the big picture of Habakkuk. When we understand this, when we understand that no matter what comes, if we seek the Lord in this way, we will be prepared. We'll be able to ride out the storm. We'll be able to batten down the hatches, hunker down, and endure. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. Independence upon God. and allowing Him to work in us. It is amazing how the Lord uses things like this to transform us. He knows our frame. He knows the only way that He can change us is to give us this. In fact, I often think this when I'm thinking about circumstances in my life that I don't like. It's easy to think about that, isn't it? Circumstances we don't like. And then when the Lord helps you see, wait a minute, This is to change me. I've often said to the Lord, wow, it took this much to accomplish what you're trying to do in my life. Wow. My sin is so great that you had to line up this and this and this and this, and you feel like this and this and this and this. Wow. But Lord, I'm so glad that you did, that you love me enough to do that. He is good and He can be trusted. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we praise and honor You. All Your ways are right. Your deeds are just. You are the Holy One of Israel. You never make a mistake. You never do something and regret the degree or the manner in which you did it. There is no collateral damage to any of your decrees. Every act accomplishes everything precisely that you want it to accomplish in every way. And we stand in all of you. Lord, forgive our unbelief. Forgive our doubting hearts. Forgive even our swelling up of anger against you. We find it easy to think that we know better than you and how appalling and ridiculous that is, even to say it and hear it come out of my mouth. And yet, Lord, it's true. Help us. Have mercy on us. Do what you need to do in our lives. Bring what you need to bring. to glorify and honor your son, to bring more and more people in submission to him. Do as you see fit. But Lord, in wrath, remember mercy. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.