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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.
Habakkuk - An Expositional Study Part 6
Series Expositional Study of Habakkuk
Preparing to Ride Out the Storm
| Sermon ID | 1110246483872 |
| Duration | 1:03:14 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Habakkuk 2 |
| Language | English |
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