Take your copy of God's Word and turn with me to the book of Habakkuk. As I mentioned this morning in the Sunday school hour, we had a lot of things to possibly cover today, and I did not know how much of it we would actually get covered I chose three sections of text that we were going to look at, one from the Book of Acts, one again from the Book of Romans, and a couple of chapters from the Book of Isaiah once again. And we did that last week. We looked at a chapter in the Book of Acts, a chapter in Romans. I think we were in Acts 13 and Romans chapter 11, and back in Isaiah 65 and 66, and today, The outline in your bulletin looks much the same, though we were going to be in Acts 15, in Romans 9, and Isaiah 42 through Isaiah 54. So, I realized that was too adventurous. But once I chose those texts, I then decided I was going to introduce those texts by looking at something else in the Bible, and that was a whole book. And then I soon realized, thank you Mary Jane, I soon realized that yes, this is quite laughable. We're never going to do all of that. So all we're doing today, disregard what's in your bulletin, all we're doing today is the introduction. That in your bulletin is just kind of blank. It says opening remarks. So the opening remarks, Lord willing, will end up being the sermon. And that is going to take us to the book of Habakkuk. I'm hoping that today will lay a little groundwork for us, and we will look at these other chapters, probably over three successive Sundays, one in Acts 15, one in Romans 9, and then back in Isaiah 42 through 54, kind of getting us ready to come back again to Isaiah 65 to 66. And if you think that's confusing, try to be inside my head and make sense of it all. We are coming to the end of our study of the book of Isaiah. But there are several things that we need to do by way of preparation to help us, I think, be ready for these chapters. And I want to take us to the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk is a prophet probably from the period of the later 6th century. So that gets him somewhere in the 500s. He is a prophet either right near the coming of Babylon the first time or near the coming of Babylon the last time. Babylon made three different assaults on the southern kingdom of Judah before they finally fell to Nebuchadnezzar. And Habakkuk seems to be a prophet within that context, within the idea of the judgment of God coming upon Judah by Babylon as a nation. This puts him a little later than the prophet Isaiah, but probably a little before the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesies about 100, 150 years before the fall of Jerusalem. Jeremiah prophesies right at the fall of Jerusalem. And Habakkuk seems to be wedged somewhere in between those two men. But the air of prophetic expectation, one of judgment, and also of mercy, is very much a part of Habakkuk's message as well. What I'd like us to do as we begin is simply read through the Prophet Habakkuk. It's rather short. It's three chapters, and I think it's fairly easy to follow. At the close of that, I want to pray, and I'm going to pray in particular a prayer from John Calvin's commentary on the book of Habakkuk. I think it's helpful to kind of set us up for some things we want to say today. So if you would, follow along with me in your copy of God's Word, beginning in Habakkuk chapter one, verse one. The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. How long, O 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 and contention arises. Therefore, the law is ignored and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous. Therefore, justice comes out perverted. Look among the nations. Observe. Be astonished, wonder, because I am doing something 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, their justice and authority originate with themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards and keener than wolves. In the evening, their horsemen come galloping. Their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour. All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand. They mock at kings, and rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress and heap up rubble to capture it. Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on, but they will be held guilty. They whose strength is their God. Are you not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge. And you, O Rock, have established them to correct. Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and you cannot look on wickedness with favor. Why do you look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they? Why have you made men like the fish of the sea, like creeping things without a ruler over them? The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, drag them away with their net, and gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore, they rejoice and are glad. Therefore, they offer a sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net, because through these things their catch is large and their food is plentiful. Will they therefore empty their net? and continually slay nations without sparing. 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 reproved. 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. Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith. Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man so that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol. He is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all nations and collects to himself all peoples. Will not all of these take up a taunt song against him, even mockery? and insinuations against him we say woe to him who increases what is not his for how long and makes himself rich with loans will not your creditors rise up suddenly and those who collect from you will awaken indeed you will become plunder for them because you have looted many nations all the remainder of the peoples will loot you because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town, and all its inhabitants. Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to put his nest on high, to be delivered from the hand of calamity. You have devised a shameful thing for your house by cutting off many peoples. So you are sinning against yourself. Surely the stone will cry out from the wall and the rafter will answer it from the framework. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence. Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts that people's toil for fire and nations grow weary for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness. You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness The cup of the Lord's right hand will come around to you and utter disgrace will come upon your glory for the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you and the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town, and all its inhabitants. What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols. Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, awake, to a mute stone, arise! And that is your teacher. Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it. But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, according to the Shigenoth. 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. God comes from teman. and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covers the heavens and the earth is full of His praise. His radiance is like the sunlight. He has rays flashing from His hand, and there is the hiding of His power. Before Him goes pestilence, and plague comes after Him. He stood and surveyed the earth. He looked and startled the nations. Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered, The ancient hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Kashan under distress, and the tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling. Did the Lord rage against the rivers? Or was your anger against the rivers? Or was your wrath against the sea, that you rode on your horses, on your chariots of salvation? Your bow was made bare, your rods of chastisement were sworn. You cleaved the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and quaked. The downpour of waters swept by. The deep uttered forth its voice. It lifted high its hands. Sun and moon stood in their places. They went away at the light of your arrows, at the radiance of your gleaming spear. In indignation, you marched through the earth. In anger, you trampled the nations. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You struck the head of the house of the evil to lay him open from thigh to neck. You pierced with his own spears the head of his throngs. They stormed in to scatter us. Their exultation was like those who devour the oppressed in secret. You trampled on the sea with your horses on the surge of many waters. I heard, and my inward parts trembled. At the sound, my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble, because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise. who will invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flocks 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 Heinz feet and makes me walk on my high places. For the choir director on my stringed instruments. I don't know if you've ever read the book of Habakkuk, but it's overwhelming. Imagine being Habakkuk and hearing from God what he is about to do. I'd like to walk through the book again with some type of structural comment so we can kind of make sense of where we're moving in the book. And then I'd like to come and kind of camp for a few moments at the end of the book at Habakkuk's response. The context of the book of Habakkuk I briefly made known to you a few moments ago when When we talked about Habakkuk being somewhat wedged between Isaiah and Jeremiah, he's closer to the destruction of Judah than Isaiah was. So the day is coming, but he's not as close as Jeremiah. It's still not happening yet. He's still waiting, patiently waiting for what he knows will occur. Habakkuk has a very high view, we might say, of the word of God. Habakkuk believes that what God has said he will do, he will, in fact, do. Habakkuk knows that these are not idle threats from God. When your father gets home and you see the kid's eyes roll, she'll forget by the time dad gets home. Or you hear the mom get after her kids. When we get home, she'll forget when we get home. And we all know as parents, we do forget when we get home. Habakkuk has a higher view of the word of God than our children probably have of ours, and that we would have of ours. Habakkuk knows that what God has said, he will do. He will, as Jeremiah says, he will watch over his word to perform it. He will bring all things he has promised, both in wrath and in mercy, to pass. The book opens with Habakkuk somewhat confused. Habakkuk sees in chapter one and verses one to four wickedness that seems to be prevailing in the land. The wicked surround the righteous and justice comes out perverted in verse four. He looks around Judah and he wonders, will God just let the wickedness of his people continue? I mean, I've heard Isaiah. Isaiah said it's going to come about that God is going to bring judgment. I've heard other prophets say that God is going to bring about judgment. Moses himself said, God will bring about judgment and the land itself will spew you out, but we're still here. Habakkuk, as a godly man, as a holy man of God, as one who loves God, as one of his saints of old, is broken over the apparent lack of God's attention to deal with the wickedness in the land. He says, how long, oh Lord, will I call for help? And you won't hear. I cry out, violence. Don't you see? Don't you see what's going on down here in the world? In particular, don't you see what's going on amongst your people, your covenant people, your people who pledge themselves to keep your law? They haven't kept your law. Strife exists, contention arises, destruction and violence are before me. Why do you make me see iniquity, cause me to look at wickedness and you don't seem to see? And you hear Habakkuk's frustration with the fact that God apparently isn't taking notice and certainly isn't doing anything about it if he does notice what's going on. In verses 5 through 11, God responds to Habakkuk. Not that God is obligated to respond to Habakkuk, but God does respond to him. God peels back the heavens, as it were, and speaks to Habakkuk and speaks to us and reminds us what exactly is going on. Look among the nations, he says, in verse 5 and observe. Be astonished and wonder. I am doing something in your days that you wouldn't believe even if you were told. But I'm going to tell you anyway what I'm going to do. I am about to send the Chaldeans, a fierce and impestuous people who march throughout the earth, seize dwelling places which are not there, the Chaldeans, or as you might better know them, the Babylonians. The Babylonians had a reputation for being a wicked and evil people. They were, in many ways, in the experience of Habakkuk, the epitome, the chief example of unrighteousness. If Judah was bad, the Babylonians were worse. Well, Habakkuk has another quandary. Habakkuk doesn't understand. First, I thought you weren't noticing. Now I realize you're noticing, so I have another complaint. So Habakkuk complains again, verses 12 through 17. Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge, and you, O Rock, have established them to correct. But I don't get it. I don't get it. Your eyes are too pure to approve evil. You can't look at wickedness with favor. Why do you look with favor on those who deal treacherously? In other words, this is one of those, you've got to be kidding moments. He's like, really? Now I know that you're noticing and now you're going to do something about it, but you're going to use the Babylonians. They should have been destroyed a long time ago. They're a horribly wicked people. It's almost as if Habakkuk is saying, it'd be better for you to come down yourself and render like an unmediated kind of a judgment, rather than using this wicked nation of the Babylonians. I mean, the Babylonians, look, they're like people that just go fishing for the nations. All men are like fish, and they stick in their hook. You ever been fishing with a hook? I don't think you can really do that legally, but, you know, you've got to use, well, you have to use like a rod. But these guys took a stabbing hook and just reached in and pulled it out. I'm not a fisherman. Maybe you can do that, but it doesn't sound very fair to the poor little fish. But they stick the hook in the ground, in the water, and they rip it up, and they grab the fish. That's how Habakkuk sees the Babylonians. In fact, the illustration isn't really far off the mark from literalism, because when the Babylonians actually did come to cart off the people of Judah to Babylon, they would connect them sometimes, not just with chains and things, but with hooks through their flesh, pulling them along. Therefore, he says, they offer a sacrifice to their net, and they burn incense to their fishing net. What's he saying? He's saying they worship their power. And these are people that have abandoned the creator-creature distinction. They are worshiping and serving the creature. They're worshiping and serving themselves. Will they empty their net? and just keep slaying more nations and more nations without sparing. Well, that's the end of his second complaint. And in between the second complaint and the next response of God, Habakkuk has a moment of wisdom, we might say. And he says in chapter 2, in verse 1, I'm gonna wait. I'll just be quiet. That's usually a good thing. And I'm just gonna wait. I will stand, chapter 2 verse 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 listen and how I may reply when I am what? Reproved. Because he knows he's probably what? He's probably wrong. You ever have those moments with the Lord, and you're in prayer, and you're complaining, and you're whining, and you know in the back of your mind, I know I'm wrong, and I'll be confessing this in just a little while, but I have a few more things to get off my chest first. And here's Habakkuk, and he is just letting his complaint fly. But finally he's like, okay, I'm just gonna wait, and I'm gonna watch. I will assume a posture, of looking to see what God will do. I believe God. I believe God's word is true. I believe God will do what he say. He has indeed noticed Judah. He has seen our sin. He does indeed know that Babylon is wicked and evil. I just want to see what God will do. Will God let the sin of his people go unpunished? That's kind of the first question. Will God let the sin of Babylon go unpunished? That may be like a second question, and the answer is no to both. He won't let his people's sin go unpunished, and he won't let Babylon's sin go unpunished. In fact, he's going to punish both He's going to punish the first, his people, through Babylon, and then he is going to bring an unfolding series of woes upon Babylon itself. And as God declares this to him in chapter two, Habakkuk, I want you to remember where Habakkuk is. He's just watching. He's just listening. He's just waiting to see what God will do. So chapter two, verse two, This is God's answer. It goes all the way to the end of chapter two, verse 20. All right. Now you've already read it, but let me just highlight a few things. Right away in chapter two and verse two, he tells Habakkuk, get a pen. All right. Get a pen, get a pad of paper. It's probably more like, you know, um, rock and chisel or something, he is to inscribe a vision that God is going to give him on some type of a tablet. He says, record the vision and inscribe it on tablets. I haven't given the vision yet. He's just telling him what to do. For the vision is yet for the appointed time. It hastens toward the goal. It will not fail, though it tarries. Wait for it, for it will certainly come. It will not delay. In other words, stay where you are. Keep waiting, keep watching, keep looking. It's a sure vision. Now again, remember Habakkuk is a man who has a high view of the word of God. He has a high view of scripture. He believes that what God has proclaimed is going to come to pass. He believes that the law that God gave to Moses was to be obeyed. And when it was transgressed, it would be judged. And now he's being told it will come to judgment. The vision is not for now. The vision is for later. Behold, verse 4, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith. Now just to pause here and think about this text, this text is used at numerous points in the New Testament citing the kind of posture that one needs to have before God in order to be approved of him. The whole text in verse 4 kind of highlights two types of people. One that is proud, and what does James and what does Peter say about the one that is proud? Opposed to the proud, but gives grace to what? Gives grace to the humble. The humble here is a man of faith. And much like James and much like Peter, here we have a proud one. His soul is not right within him, but we have a man of faith and this man is considered before God to be righteous. Paul makes much use of this particular text. Now I want you to keep this text in mind because this is what God is telling Habakkuk. And there's a sense in which this is an exhortation for Habakkuk. I want you to wait in faith, trusting me to bring about my intended end. I have a purpose. I have a plan. It will come about. Your role, if you will, Habakkuk, your role is to believe. Your role is to trust. Your role is to wait. Do you see there in verse 3? Though it tarries, wait for it. What did Isaiah himself say back in Isaiah chapter 64? No one has heard of a God like you who works on behalf of the one who waits for him. This is God's call indeed in every age. He calls upon men to wait on him, to put their trust in him, to rely on his word. Now, we don't want to go into detail of these particular woes, but I want you to notice them. You can underline them or circle them or whatever you can do there. In verse 6, there is the first woe. Verse 9, verse 12, verse 15, and verse 19. There are five specific woes that are spoken here by God that are basically the sum and substance of the vision, right? Woe to him, in verse 6, who increases what is not his for how long and makes himself rich with loans. In other words, what's he saying to Babylon here? Babylon is a nation that kind of enriches itself and feeds itself by taking what does not belong to them. They're like that band of raiders. They just come into the area and they conquer a people and they take land, they take possessions. Woe to him, verse nine, to him who gets evil gain for his house and puts his nest on high to be delivered from the hand of calamity. You have devised a shameful thing for your house by cutting off many peoples, so you are sinning against yourself. Surely the stone will cry out from the wall and the rafter will answer it from the framework. They get gain, but it's evil gain. Woe to you in verse 12, you who build a city with bloodshed. You don't just build your own city. You're not really, you know, adventurous and industrious like that. You just go into another village and you kill everybody there and you take it for yourself and you declare, look what I've built for myself. Notice in verse 15, Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look at their nakedness. They're disgraceful people. They're a filthy people. Notice again in verse 19, woe to him who says to a piece of wood, they're idolatrous people. These are just pure pagans, full of violence, full of immorality, full of theft. You can see even here as God lists one sin after another, it just seems as if he's calling to account, calling them to account for what they know to be wrong. What does Paul say? The Gentiles who have not the written law, they're a law to themselves, their conscience bearing witness, accusing and excusing them. Because the law is what? The contents of the law is written on the heart. We speak of it as the law of nature that is written on the heart of man, that is commensurate with the law of the Ten Commandments, that is written on tablets of stone for the Jews. The basic sum and substance of the Ten Commandments is written into the moral fabric of every man created in the image of God. And here, they have stolen thou shalt not what steel they have been wicked in sexuality, thou shalt not commit adultery. They build cities with bloodshed, thou shalt not murder. Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, they are idolaters. They have failed to maintain the distinction between the creator and the creature, and they have worshipped and served created things, rather than him who is blessed forever, as Paul would say. Right in the middle of these woes, after 1 and 2 and 3 and before 4 and 5, God reminds them God reminds them that all of their wickedness and all their immorality and all their bloodshed and all their thievery will one day come to nothing. Why? Because in verse 14 he says, and remember this is the vision, this is the vision that Habakkuk is to record, this is the vision that Habakkuk is to listen to and wait for, he says in Habakkuk 2 14, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. There is coming a day, Habakkuk is reminded here, as he would have understood being one of God's prophets, the understanding that there is coming a latter day of glory for the people of God that will span all the nations of the world, and that's just part and parcel of the prophetic message. Read through the minor prophets, read through the major prophets, the idea of a future day of restoration of God's people that will encompass more than just Israel, that will actually encompass all the nations of the world. It's just right front and center in the message of all the prophets. But also the message of all the prophets is filled with the means by which that deliverance, that future glory will come, and generally it comes by way of judgment. There is salvation by judgment. He brings salvation for his people by bringing judgment to the wicked. So the vision concludes at the end of chapter 2 and verse 20. with a statement about the Lord. Now, it's put here as a conclusion to the last woe, which is about idolatry. But it's also the conclusion to the whole of the vision. But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. So that's the vision. That's what Habakkuk stands and waits to see. At first, he hears it, and he records it. We have it written here for us. It's been preserved. But it says here that the vision is yet for the appointed time, back in 2-3. It hastens toward the goal. It will not fail, though it tarries. Wait for it, for it will certainly come. It will not delay. Now, we know when God says something's going to be soon, and God says it will not delay, we might be wise to remember that our timetable is not God's timetable, right? So Habakkuk, by the time we get to chapter 3, he is, I think, the word undone would probably be fitting. I think of Isaiah. When Isaiah sees the glory of God in the temple, sees God high and lifted up, And he sees the seraphim, and they're flying, and they're serving, and they're covering their eyes, and they're covering their feet, and they're flying and serving God. And they say, holy, holy, holy. What does Isaiah say? I'm what? I'm ruined. I'm undone. Well, here's Habakkuk, and he is somewhat undone. And he offers in this final chapter a prayer Now, we've read it during the service. I read it at the beginning of the sermon. We won't read it again. But notice how it breaks up. Verses 1 to 4. Verses 1 to 4 is a prayer by Habakkuk pleading with God for one central thought. In wrath, remember mercy. He sees these woes coming. He knows Babylon will not be spared, but he also knows that before Babylon is judged by God, Babylon itself will be used to judge Judah. He knows it's coming. So he pleads with God that in the midst of days, in the midst of carrying out your judgments, God, against us, remember mercy. He knows that God is a God of justice. He knows that God is a God of wrath. But he also knows that God is a God of kindness and prays that he might, in the midst of beholding God's severity, also behold God's kindness. God comes with such great and overwhelming power that is hiding in his hand, it says in verse four, that he unfurls his pestilence and his plague and his lightning and his power against the nations. Notice in the midst of chapter three, the 13th verse, It seems almost odd. You went forth... Again, what is God's going forth? In the context here, God's going forth is a going forth in judgment against the nations of the world. Now, a footnote here. When we say the nations of the world, we're speaking specifically of Babylon. But Babylon becomes, in the breadth of the Bible, Babylon becomes a term that is used for all the wicked nations of the world. We see this in the book of Isaiah. We see it at the end of the book of Revelation, in Revelation chapter 18, when Babylon the great is destroyed and all the enemies of God are brought to nothing. Babylon becomes kind of this paradigm of wickedness of of those things that stand against God and against his people in verse 13 He says you went forth. Why you went forth here in judgment? for the salvation of your people for the salvation of your anointed Now in the context, what is God going to do to Judah? He is going to bring Babylon against Judah to bring punishment of them and discipline and chastisement, but he is not going to bring them, remember, he is not bringing them to a complete what? A complete end. Think back on Isaiah chapter 6. What happens at the end of Isaiah 6? Turn over there with me if you would. Isaiah chapter 6, verse 10. I'm sorry, verse 13. God is bringing judgment on the people. He is cutting them down and it says in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 13, yet there will be a tenth portion in it and it will again be subject to burning like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump. I got to stretch back a few years in our study of Isaiah chapter six, but basically here, there is the promise that though God is coming to Judah with judgment and he's going to cut them down to leave them like a stump of a tree. What do you know about your, your, your trees and your yard, or maybe a plant in your yard, you cut it down and you go back out in a few days. And what do you see a little bit of growth, right? There's some life somehow in the stump. There is a seed, it points to this seed, that is going to produce life in the days to come. And here God goes forth in judgment, yes, on Judah, yes, on Babylon, yes, on the nations, but he goes forth for the salvation of his people. So what is Habakkuk's response when he hears of all this that God is going to do? Notice verse 16. He says, I heard and my inward parts trembled. I mean, this has affected him to the core of who he is. He has no doubt that God indeed will do all that he has said. Decay enters his bone. In my place I tremble. I must wait quietly. That idea of waiting keeps coming up. He says he's going to wait. God calls upon him to wait. The righteous man is going to live by faith. Here Habakkuk, though in different words, declares the essence of Habakkuk 2.4. The righteous will live by faith. What does that look like? What does it look like to live by faith and be declared righteous before God? Notice verses 17 through 19. 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, that the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls. 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 he makes me walk on high places. I see here Habakkuk as an example of a man of faith. Habakkuk demonstrates faith in the Word of God. In other words, Paul says in Corinthians that we walk by faith and not by sight. Everything around Habakkuk, sight-wise, would cause him not to exalt in God, to not to rejoice in the God of his salvation, because everything around him was pretty much devastation. There was devastation in Judah with a continuing sinfulness and wickedness. Righteousness was not being promoted. Justice was not being found. It's a sense in Isaiah's sight of wickedness, of this horrible nation coming to bring judgment to them. This doesn't seem like justice to him. But he's called to wait. He's called to trust. In looking at these last couple of verses, I would present Habakkuk, or see Habakkuk, as an example of faithfulness, as an example of hopefulness, as an example of love. Let me just comment on this just a bit, and we'll wrap up. How is Habakkuk, how does he serve as an example of faith? We saw this term at several points, that he is to wait. God calls upon him in chapter 2, that the vision be not for the appointed time, but it may tarry, but Habakkuk is to wait. He is to patiently wait. He is to believingly wait. And notice in verse 17, there's nothing around Habakkuk that encourages him to think that victory is actually coming. The fig tree doesn't blossom. There's no fruit on the vines. The yield of the olive fails. The fields produce no food. The flock is cut off. There's no cattle in the stalls. I mean, this is an agricultural country, isn't it? This is a country that's dependent upon the olive, it's dependent upon the fig, it's dependent upon the phlox, it's dependent upon their cattle. This is not late 19th century, early 20th century, post-industrial revolution kind of a period. No, this is a very agricultural environment. They're dependent upon all these things for their livelihood. Nothing around them seems right. The hymn writer says, though all around my heart gives way, he then is what? All my hope and stay. Everything is gone from a worldly, temporal perspective, from all estimation, what he has to really evaluate things. How am I doing here? Are we making it? Everything seems to be gone. But Habakkuk says, yet. There's a lot in that first word, yet. In spite of all this, even in light of all this, I will exalt in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Why? Because I believe God. We're going to come to some texts in Acts chapter 15 and Romans chapter 9 and even back in the book of Isaiah and Isaiah 65 and 66. We're much around by visible observation, the future promises that God has made to the church. Remember our text that we saw several weeks ago in Isaiah 62 and verse 7, that we should give God no rest until he makes Jerusalem the praise of all the earth. This is the goal. The end of all things is that God would make his people the praise, the joy of all the earth, that Zion would be raised up above all the mountains, that all would be drawn into her, that God's glory, as he says back in Habakkuk chapter 2 in verse 14, that the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. That's what that end goal is pointing them to. But Habakkuk doesn't see that. Isaiah doesn't see that. The apostles in Acts chapter 15, they don't see that. Paul in Romans chapter 7, he doesn't see that yet. The church today, you and I, we don't see that yet. We're praying, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, we don't what? We don't see it yet. This is true corporately. individually. It's true for the church as a whole that we are yet to see all the promises of God come to pass for the church. When he does indeed bring people from every tribe and tongue and language and nation, he does indeed make his church the praise of all the earth. He makes Zion that place that all are drawn to her. He displaces glory for all to see. We don't see it collectively. We don't see it individually. You don't see it in your life today. Who of us could say, I'm fully sanctified. I have achieved glorification. I'm rid of sin. I'm beyond all of that. None of us sees that. What is the call? What is the example of Habakkuk have to teach you and I individually and collectively as a whole? He calls us to faith. He calls us in spite. of what we see to believe in the God that we don't see. Faith calls us to trust a God that we cannot see, to trust in his promises that have not yet been brought to fruition. But we place all of our faith and our trust in him. Secondly, Habakkuk teaches us about hope. Hoping for what one sees, Paul says in the book of Romans, is not what? It's not hope. But God gives Habakkuk. God gives Isaiah. God gives his church. God gives them much to hope for. God gives you, indeed, much to hope for. You are not fully sanctified, but you are more sanctified than you were. Look back on your life. not just a day. Look back in years. People often get discouraged. Maybe you get discouraged because you think, you know, I'm, I'm just not making progress. I'm just not growing. All right. And this is often because I find with Christian people is they measure their sanctification in days. You blow it one day. Oh, I did so much better last week. I was so much happier coming to church last week. I had so much less to confess. I mean, I was doing really good last week, and today on the way to church, we got in a fight. I'm falling to pieces. So, don't measure your sanctification in days. Measure your sanctification in years. Look back five. Some of you can't look back five years, perhaps. Well, look back as far as you can. Look back on what you were before you came to Christ. Look back five years, look 10, look 20, look 30, look 40. Some of you can look more than that and see what God has done with you. And this will indeed strengthen hope for the future of what God has promised he will indeed perform, he will bring to pass. There will come a day when you and I will stand before the throne of God blameless, Jude says, and with great joy. There will be a day when the whole of the church stands around the throne of God dressed in the white robes, which is the righteous deeds of the saints. And yes, in Christ, you will be there. Habakkuk gives us a picture of what it's like to have hope in the midst of a day when things are not what they ought to be. Yet, I will exalt in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength. He has made my feet like hinds feet. He makes me walk in my high places. He will indeed produce everything he has promised to reduce. Hope is this idea of trusting in the promises of God, even though the promises of God have yet to be fulfilled. And this is the kind of hope that we can take from Habakkuk. Habakkuk has stationed himself there in chapter 2. He's standing on his guard post. He's stationing himself at the rampart. I'm going to keep watch and see what God will say. And what God says to Habakkuk is there is coming a day when the glory of God will fill the earth like the water covers the sea. The knowledge of God will fill the earth like the water covers the sea. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. And you, Habakkuk, you're called to trust me. You're called to wait. You're called to have faith. You're called to have hope in my promise. But there's something else I think we see here in Habakkuk. When he says, I will exalt in the Lord, what is he doing there? What is he doing when he says, I will exalt in the Lord? He is taking an active, very personal, responsible approach to God in worship. When he says, I will exalt in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation, he's making a decisive, intentional choice to rejoice in God. What was the hymn we sung just a little while ago? Think of the line. Here it is. Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings. I don't want to sing. You ever get like that? I don't want to sing. I want to be grumpy today. I'm going to be depressed today. I'm going to be discouraged today. And then your spouse comes in and has something smart to say, something spiritual. I go, honey, just trust Jesus. Let's pray. I don't want to pray. Y'all never have these kinds of moments. I'm sure you're further along the line than Janice and I are. I'm sure you are. No, look, we all have this, but I want you to notice what Habakkuk is doing here. He is a man of faith. He is a man who believes in the God who has made promises to him. He is a man of hope because he's trusting in the things that God has said he will do, even though they're not here yet. And he is a man full of love for God and love for his fellow people. The sin of his fellow people grieves him. He doesn't just want to see them destroyed. He wants to see them disciplined and chastised that they might be holy. But first and foremost, Habakkuk loves God. And love is a very responsive thing. It's not just, you know, I feel good about this with Jesus. That's not what love is, all right? Love here is expressed. What did Jesus say? The greatest commandment is what? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, all right? Love is what? Jesus says, if you love me, you'll what? You'll obey my commands. The command here is to worship. The command is to wait. And what does Habakkuk do? He worships while he waits. Remember that song several years ago? Some of you remember that? I'm gonna worship while I'm waiting. It was a great song. We're an encouragement. Waiting on God is not passivity. Waiting on God is trust. It is faith. Waiting on God is hope. Waiting on God is love. It's obedience to his commands. Everything around you may not be what it's supposed to be. You live in a fallen world. Everything is not as it should be. Everything around the church is not as it will be. We all live together in a fallen world. But you are called, and Habakkuk is a wonderful example of this, you are called to faith and to hope and to love. You are called to believe in the God of the Word of God. You are called to believe every day in this God. You need to sharpen your thinking about who this God is. You need to get to know this God by getting to know His Word. You need to read the letter that He wrote to you. It is His Word, inscripturated, preserved for every generation, and you need to what? You need to read it. And you need to meditate on it. And you ought to hide it in your heart that you might not sin against Him. You need to believe this God and in this God. And you can only do that by getting to know this God, and you get to know him. Yes, he has made himself known in creation, but he has made himself known savingly through his word, Jesus Christ, and he tells us about Christ in here. You need to believe God and in God. And you need to hope, and what he has told you will indeed come to pass. Your father has good things for you. But you don't understand, God has brought horrible things into my life. God brings many difficult things into the lives of his children for his glory and for their good. And you will need to live a lot longer before you look back on your life to realize what he's done with your life. You need perspective and perspective doesn't happen when you're close up. Perspective happens when you get far away. And if you doubt that and wonder about that, find a person who's old. and have been with Jesus for a long time. And hope. And you need to love. Love God, love one another. And that's what Habakkuk is doing here. He's exalting in God. He's rejoicing in God. He's making a conscious, purposeful choice for joy. And that's hard. Sometimes that just seems almost impossible. But it begins where? It begins with faith. hope, and then love. These three abide. The greatest is love because love is the one that lasts. One day faith will give its way to sight and hope we won't need it. Why? Because we'll have it, but we'll always need what? We'll always need love. We need it now and we'll need it forever. Since I forgot Calvin's prayer earlier, we'll pray now. Pray with me. Grant, almighty God, that as thou hast deigned to make thyself known to us by thy word, and as thou elevatest us to thyself in a way suitable to the ignorance of our minds, O grant that we may not continue fixed in our stupidity, but that we may put off all superstitions, and also renounce all the thoughts of our flesh, and seek thee in the right way. And may we suffer ourselves to be so ruled by thy word, that we may purely and from the heart call upon thee, and so rely on thine infinite power, that we may not fear to despise the whole world and every adversity on the earth until having finished our warfare we shall at length be gathered into that blessed rest which thine only begotten son has procured for us by his blood. Amen and amen. We have a wonderful opportunity each and every Lord's Day to come and to remember our Savior at His table. And as we come, we make a purposed effort to once again confess our faith together. If you are here with us today, a member of another church, we are again so thankful that you are here. If you are a member in good standing in that church, A member of a church of like faith and order, a baptized believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we would welcome you as your conscience would allow to participate in the Lord's table with us today. And we invite you also to make confession with us in our triune God. Would you join me, brothers and sisters, as we confess our faith together? It is printed for us here on page six and seven of the bulletin, if that is helpful. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit, Virgin Mary, and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the scriptures, and he ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, Lord and giver of life, who proceeded from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who is spake by the prophets. And I believe in one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead in the light of the world to come. Amen. Let's pray together. We come this day before you, our great triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to partake of this meal, instituted by Christ, to be observed in His churches unto the end of the world. And taking this bread and this cup, we remember Him. We show to all the world the sacrifice of His death. We as believers have our faith confirmed, are spiritually nourished, seek to grow hereby, by grace, further engage in all the duties which we owe unto him alone as our Savior and our head. May you make this meal both a bond and pledge of our communion with Christ and with one another this day. Amen. The Lord Jesus on the night that he was betrayed, the Apostle Paul tells us in the book of First Corinthians, he took bread And when he had given thanks, he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread, and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. If the deacons would come and distribute the elements to the church. Thank you so much. ♪ Oh, come all ye faithful ♪ Tom, would you pray for the bread today? Father, we ask you to bless this bread. Help us keep in our minds, Father, what it represents. This very ancient ritual that goes back not only to the night before Jesus went to the cross, but the deliverance of the Jews from the Egyptians, their flight from Egypt, Father, also helps us to look ahead to the meal that we will share in heaven with our Savior. So may we remember where he suffered and died for us, the remission of our sins that He won for us. And may we proclaim His death until He returns. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. The body of Christ is given for you. Thanks be to God. You. John, what's your proof of the cup today? Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this ordinance that we might come in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he made on the cross for the shedding of his blood. For the forgiveness of our sins, I ask that you now bless this cup in his holy name. Amen. Amen. A couple of new covenant? Thanks be to God. to join me in reciting the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Would you stand with me as we sing the doxology and receive the Lord's benediction as we go? Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures, here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you as you go. Amen. you