Grace and peace to you all. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas commemorating the incarnation of Jesus, and have a happy new year as well. But for our purposes right now, please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Habakkuk. The book of Habakkuk will be in chapter three, and we'll be looking at verses 16 to 19. And the title of my sermon this morning is Faith Through Suffering. Faith Through Suffering. And once you find your places in our passage this morning, please stand with me for the public reading of scripture out of reverence for the Word of God. Back at chapter 3, verses 6 and 19, faith through suffering. I think still some pages turning. I think we're good. All right, let's begin. This is what the word of God says to you this morning, church, starting here in Habakkuk 3, verse 16. The prophet writes, I hear and my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me. Yet, I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food. The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places. This is the word of God, church. Let's go before him in prayer. Lord, we thank you for this grace to gather in your name, to sing songs of praises to you, to hear the announcements of how we can continue loving and stirring one another to love and good works here in this church. I pray for all those, Lord, who are still dealing with sicknesses, Lord, during this winter season, just to be with them, Lord. I pray that they're joining us in spirit online and that, Lord, you just recover them soon, Lord, to be here presently, Lord, amidst, in the presence of your people. But for us who are here, Lord, presently, and again, those online, Lord, I just pray just be with every single Christian here, my brothers and sisters in Christ, Lord, that this will be your word going to your people, that it will nourish them, Lord, wherever they are currently at in their walk before you, no matter how difficult life may be, or if they're experiencing good times right now, I just pray that they will all hear your word and through it all, Lord, we'll help them to live a life of faith, of faithfulness before your sight, King Jesus, all for the sake of your name. For anyone here, Lord, who doesn't know you, Lord, we pray. We're just thankful that they're here, but we pray, Lord, for their salvation, their greatest need. is to be saved, they must be born again, they must repent and believe in you by faith alone. Because if not, judgment is coming, Lord, and I do not want that for my neighbor. And so, Lord, I just pray that as your gospel is preached and your Messiah is exalted, Jesus, that, Lord, they are pricked in their conscience and come to a saving faith in you so that they may experience this joy that Habakkuk talks about, that they may experience the joy that we all have as Christians so that, Lord, they are truly able to live as they were always created to live, Lord, as true humans, Lord, who follow in your likeness, King Jesus, the head of the new humanity. And so, Lord, we thank you for this time. I pray that this will just be your word going to your people and that this will continue to build up your church here at Sovereign Way, that we may continue making disciples in our community all to the end of the earth until you return, King Jesus, soon to make all things new. But until then, be with us right now as we Just lift up all these things, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Be seated, loved ones. One of the most common human reactions to suffering is actually captured in Psalm chapter six, verse three. Consider what King David writes here. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, O Lord, how long? In other words, how long must God permit evil in the world? And if you live long enough, you will experience suffering. It's just a harsh reality of living in a broken world with lost people, even in this congregation. I know many of you, brothers and sisters, have suffered greatly in life, especially this past year. Some of you have lost loved ones. Some of you are currently battling with health issues. Many of you are struggling to survive in our state's inflated economy. All of us struggle with sin, often feeling more defeated rather than a victor. Through it all, I know that feeling of powerlessness amidst evil. And yet, there is one thing you're always in control of. You are in control of how you respond to such suffering because it will either make you bitter or it will make you better in the end. And so for this morning, the prophet of Batkirk, he is about to be struck with reality that's gonna turn his world upside down. He is about to suffer perhaps like none of us have never experienced before. Yet, it's after he argues with God that his perspective on the whole situation is gonna change. And I pray the same will happen to you today regarding your perspective of suffering. Because to rightly respond to suffering for the better, many of you have to change your perspective on suffering, either because you've honestly never really thought it out that much before, or you have been influenced by bad explanations from well-meaning Christians, or from insufficient religions, or secular philosophies. I can assure you this morning that the most comforting answer you will find on this topic is in the Bible. It is in God's word. And fortunately, in our passage this morning, Habakkuk's response to suffering is perhaps one of the most powerful responses to it in the Bible. Therefore, here's the main point of Habakkuk's response, which is also the main point of my sermon this morning. Suffering must not break your allegiance with God. That's the main point. Suffering must not break your allegiance with God. Now by me saying that, I know that statement cuts against the common sense of living in a broken world. Why, John? Why shouldn't I have the choice to break my allegiance with God amidst suffering, especially when it gets really bad? Well, Habakkuk's gonna give us three reasons this morning. The first reason is the reality about suffering, as you will see in verse 16, the reality. The second reason is the result of suffering, as you will see in verse 17, the result. And the final reason is the response to suffering, as you will see in verses 18 to 19, the response. However, in order for you to really feel the weight of Habakkuk's response, to really feel the power that's behind his confession here, you need to understand something of how does he actually reach this conclusion. So what I need to do is briefly summarize the book of Habakkuk for you guys. And the book of Habakkuk is basically about a prophet with a problem. The problem the prophet Habakkuk has is so burdensome that he talks with God about it. This book then captures that conversation during the final days of the kingdom of Judah. Starting in chapter one, Habakkuk begins asking a question. God, why haven't you done anything regarding all the evil in Judah? In other words, they're committing great acts of social injustice against their neighbor. They're living lawless lives as if God doesn't exist. If you were to ask this question today generally, it would go something like this, and perhaps you've heard it put this way before. God, why do you permit all the evil in the world? Is it because you're willing to stop it, but can't? That would mean you're not all powerful. Is it because you're able to stop it, but you're not willing? That would mean you're not good. I like how a high schooler here put it to me recently. Why is the world so savage? Why is the world so savage in light of all the pain and suffering and evil we have to experience? Such suffering then confronts us to ask such questions. So in response, God tells Habakkuk that he's raising up the Babylonian Empire to judge all the injustice in Judah. But this leads Habakkuk to raise another complaint before God. God, how can you use a more evil nation to judge the sins of your people? You feel the burden of Habakkuk here? The Babylonians don't fear you as God, Habakkuk would say. If there is any God they do worship, it's their own strength, it's themselves, it's their pride. God, you are holy. You are the standard of right and wrong. It just doesn't seem fair that you would allow such a thing to happen. So Habakkuk concludes to hear God's response in Habakkuk chapter two, verse one. He says, I will take my stand at the watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what God will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint. So how does God respond then? Well, God gives a vision in chapter two to Habakkuk to help him grapple with the ultimate solution. And the solution is famously recorded in what God tells Habakkuk in Habakkuk chapter two, verse four. This is what he says. He says, behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. In other words, the Babylonians, they're so puffed up with pride that they're not declared right before God. How could they? They don't live by faith in Him. In contrast, the righteous are to live by their faith, by their faithfulness in God. And it's this well-known passage that led Martin Luther to recover the gospel in Romans 1.17 during the time of the Reformation. And because of this, I'm gonna return to Habakkuk 2.4 later this morning. Not only is it the key theme in Habakkuk, but our passage this morning is Habakkuk's practical response to live by faith, to live by faithfulness through suffering. Furthermore, God says that he will also judge the Babylonians for their injustices once and for all. And so as in light of all this then, how does Habakkuk respond then? We know God's response. He's going to hold everyone accountable for what they do in this life. But what is Habakkuk's response to all this? Well, in chapter 3, he responds with a prayer about God's glorifying assurance. He makes a strong, a bold request before God in Habakkuk 3, 2. Look there where he says, O Lord, I have heard the report of you and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. Basically, Habakkuk begs God to show mercy to Judah. in light of the coming Babylonian invasion. And he then recounts about God's sovereign presence all throughout salvation history that he will ultimately preserve his people in the very end. And it's because of all this that Habakkuk is in many ways similar to the Book of Job, right? When you think about it, as the late American pastor Tim Keller comments at the end of Job, he says, and I quote, Regarding suffering, Job never saw why he suffered, but he saw God and that was enough, end quote. Likewise, for Habakkuk, he sees why he's about to suffer. Judah has broken God's covenant. They have rebelled against him to do whatever seems right in their own eyes. And since they won't repent, they won't turn from their allegiance to their idols back to the one true God, God is going to judge them by the Babylonian empire. And yet, as we see here at the end of Habakkuk, Habakkuk begins with a sob, and he ends with a song. Everything in Habakkuk is leading to our passage this morning. So in a sense, the book of Habakkuk is a personal journey of a human struggling with the problem of evil in this life. It begins with mystery, then it ends in certainty. It begins with questioning, and it leads to affirming. It begins with complaint, and it ends with confidence. Not only is this Habakkuk's conclusion to his problem, but it's perhaps the most noblest and highest expression of faith in all of scripture. God's answer was enough for Job. Soon you'll see it is enough for Habakkuk. And it's my prayer for you, loved ones, that it will be enough for you this morning. So with all that in mind then, Let's begin by looking at that first reason on why suffering then must not break your allegiance with God. And that first reason is the reality about suffering, the reality. So look in your Bibles at the first sentence of Habakkuk 3.16. The prophet begins to say, I hear and my body trembles, my lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones, my legs tremble beneath me. What we see here is that Habakkuk finally embraces the inevitable. Babylon is coming. They're coming to invade Judah. They're coming as God's sword of wrath to cut them down. They're coming to discipline God's people in judgment for their disobedience against him. And when we read this, Habakkuk is not being dramatic here. He's not being overly emotional here. His response is how any human being, how any of us, should react to the reality of God's judgment. Just consider how these four lines in verse 16 describe his response. First, Habakkuk's body is trembling after hearing God's indictment against Judah. Second, his lips quiver at the sound of this judgment. In other words, he's at a loss for words here. Where he begins to be quick to argue with God, questioning his justice, he's now silent before him concerning his coming justice. And this leads to the third description. His legs are trembling, right? And the other one is that he feels that his bones are acting as they are rotting away inside of him. What Habakkuk is describing here is that he's afraid. He is paralyzed with fear from head to toe. And although Habakkuk is a person who fears God, he believes in God, his response tells us something here. His response to God's judgment instructs us on how we should view the reality of suffering. And so because of that, look at what he says next then in Habakkuk 3.16. He continues, yet, in light of all this, yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. And that is so striking, because despite his fear, Habakkuk does what? He is quietly waiting for the Lord to destroy those who invade them, or Babylon. And that phrase, quietly wait, in Hebrew, it carries this idea of resting. Habakkuk, he can't undo Judah's fate. It is set in stone. but he can choose to rest that the day of trouble will fall upon Babylon. He's at peace that God knows exactly what he's doing, not only in his judgment concerning Judah, but also in his judgment concerning Babylon. But if you're listening to me very closely, that begs the question, how can Habakkuk be afraid of God's coming judgment while at the same time resting it? It's so odd, it's a paradox. And to understand this, the answer lies, and what does he mean exactly, by this day of trouble? What is the day of trouble? Well, the Bible often refers to something else, and it's usually called the day of Yahweh, the day of the Lord. This is something that Pastor Josh has been hitting very strongly as he's been going through the book of Joel. To put it very briefly, the day of Yahweh is a day that God will bring about his plan of salvation and judgment. The day of Yahweh is a day when God brings about his perfect plan of salvation and judgment, and because of that, this is a big theme that builds all throughout the storyline of the Bible, starting from Genesis, going all the way to Revelation. And what I mean by that is that there are many lowercase, days of Yahweh. And what he does there is that he judges his enemies. This usually takes place in history. Habakkuk 3.16 gives us two examples. First, Habakkuk is afraid of God's coming judgment upon Judah, which takes place in 586 BC. That's a historical fact. This actually happened. Second, Habakkuk rests in God's coming judgment upon Babylon. And if you know your history, that ultimately takes place in 539 BC, when the Medo-Persians destroyed them in a single night. Yes, they did do that. However, all these days, all these days of judgment throughout history, throughout the Bible, all these days ultimately point to the day of Yahweh, with an uppercase, right? The day of Yahweh, And ultimately, as we see at the end of the biblical story, that is gonna be the day when our Lord, Jesus the Messiah, returns as a conquering king to crush his enemies, sin and death once and for all. Now, you need to please listen to me in what I'm about to tell you about this. The day of Yahweh is not a day any of us could take lightly. Habakkuk is not doing that here. The Babylonians took it lightly and what happened to them? They got destroyed. They no longer exist as a nation. However, the spirit of Babylon, the spirit of pride, it still reigns in the heart of all the nations in the world. If you don't believe in Christ as Lord, it still reigns in your heart. And so when Jesus does return, he is gonna return to judge all the nations. And although all these Hebrew prophets were talking about the day of Yahweh in light of the fall of Jerusalem, their language does illustrate something because it's ultimately pointing to what all this will be like at the return of Christ. And so let me just give a couple examples here of what this day is gonna be like at the very end. The prophet Amos says that it's gonna be as if a person is running away from a lion only to be confronted by a bear. That's a pile of tough luck, right? The prophet Obadiah, he says that it will be a day when God rewards the wage that all people are due, whether good or evil. One of the most famous passages describing this day is actually Habakkuk's contemporary. It's the prophet Zephaniah. Listen to what he says about this coming day of trouble in Zephaniah chapter one, verses 14 to 18. It's a long passage. but his description will catch your attention. Zephaniah writes, the great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast. The sound of the day of the Lord is bitter. The mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day. A day of distress and anguish. A day of ruin and devastation. A day of darkness and gloom. A day of clouds and thick darkness. A day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. I will bring distress on mankind so that they shall walk like the blind because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood shall be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth. You see why Habakkuk is afraid? Habakkuk is afraid because this judgment is coming for Judah, and it came to pass. This judgment is coming for Babylon, and it came to pass. This judgment is coming for the world one day, and it too shall pass. And I have to warn you, if there's anyone here, if there's any skeptic, if you haven't sworn your allegiance to Jesus by faith, this day is coming for you. You have rebelled against him. Your conscience and your heart of heart condemns you. The day of Yahweh, it will be a day of judgment for all those who have sinned against him. God, as the just judge of the universe, he is preparing a place so that on that day, you will be thrown into the eternal lakes of fire alongside Satan and his demons. You will pay the infinite debt. We owe God for robbing him of his glory and rebelling against him. You will pay with your own soul in the eternal flames that will keep you weeping and gnashing your teeth forever. This is your destiny if you keep choosing to follow your heart as our culture tells us all the time. Because to follow your heart does not lead to life. The Bible says it leads to death. This is the day of Yahweh. And so how can Habakkuk then rest in it? We can understand why he's afraid. We should be afraid of it as well. But how can Habakkuk rest in it? Well, throughout the scriptures, God makes a promise to those who do believe in him by faith, who live before him by faithfulness. God promises that he'll preserve a remnant for himself. The day of Yahweh is a day of judgment for his enemies, but it's also a day of salvation for his people. God will preserve a remnant in Judah, like Habakkuk, through all this suffering. And ultimately, God saves his people through his judgment, and you and I can know that for a fact, because this is what he ultimately accomplishes through his son in the gospel. Let me explain what I mean by that. Because on the eve of the crucifixion, do you remember what Jesus prayed in that garden? In the Garden of Gethsemane? He prayed for the cup of God's judgment to pass him. Why? Well, because again, Jesus, he was gonna die. He was gonna die on the cross, which was one of the most brutal ways to die in the ancient world, and yet that was not the only thing that was gonna happen on Golgotha that day. No, he was about to bear the infinite wrath of God, the wrath that sinners will pay in hell forever. Jesus, in a matter of six hours, he bore the full wrath of God to bear your penalty, loved ones, for all those who would believe in him. And Jesus knew that God was not gonna abandon him to death. Psalm 16, hundreds of years before the crucifixion, famously prophesied that Jesus would rise again from the dead three days later. And yet, we see here that Jesus still had this fear regarding God's judgment. Luke, the physician, says that he was so extremely troubled that he began sweating, what? While he prayed. The blood, the agony, the intensity of what Jesus was feeling is inevitable, it's unbearable. And it wasn't until Christ paid every last of his people, every last sin of his people with his blood that he then entrusted his soul to God, it is finished. You see how our Lord handles God's judgment? He was afraid of it before he went to the cross, but he ultimately did it to fulfill the will of his Father, and at the end, through it all, He trusted in God to the point that he was able to complete what he came to do, to die for sinners like you and me. So as believers then, it is a frightful thing to consider the wrath of God. Habakkuk embraces that reality. Jesus, of course, understood that reality. Yet both rest upon God that he would preserve them through the judgment. Therefore, the reason why the reality of suffering helps you not break your allegiance with God is because suffering, sin, evil, death. it will not have the last word. Jesus has overcome this world so that loved ones, if you believe in him, you will live forever. So that when he returns to judge his enemies, that will be a day when your suffering ends. It will be a day where he wipes every tear of pain from your eyes because this world would have passed and the new will have come. This is the hope that you have as Christians. This is the hope that I'm offering to anyone here who has not repented of your sins by turning to Jesus by faith. And it's a hope that isn't wishful thinking. That's how our culture tends to think of hope. Oh, I hope this happens and it might not happen, right? No, in the Bible, when we talk about hope, it's a confident and joyful expectation that God is gonna do what he says he's gonna do. And so embracing this paradox then of suffering Fear and trust is crucial. It's so important. Especially when you start considering the results of suffering. Especially when suffering starts to appear in your life, if it hasn't already. Because until that day when Christ returns to make all things new, there's a question that many of us do ask from time to time. Why does God allow us to suffer right now? Why does he allow it? And this leads to the second reason why suffering must not break your allegiance with God. And that's the result of suffering. The result. The first reason is the reality about suffering. The second reason is the result of suffering. So look in your Bibles as Habakkuk keeps writing. In Habakkuk 3.17, he says, though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Like I said earlier, Habakkuk, he embraces the reality of God's coming judgment. And as a result, he can guess what the imminent fallout's gonna be. The Babylon invasion, it's gonna destroy everything he holds near and dear in life. This is what he's explaining in verse 17, and that's why I wanna ask you guys a question. When you read this verse, what do you think Habakkuk is actually describing here? He's describing the destruction of an agrarian society. What I mean by that is that when you think of Israel in Habakkuk's day, it's considered an agrarian society. What that means is that Israel depends upon crops and livestock. They depend upon crops like figs, grapes, and olives. They depend upon livestock like sheep, goats, and cattle, ultimately for its survival, right? It's kind of hard for us to understand because we're not really a society like that. But for them, their livelihood, their existence is based on these essentials of living off the land. And so when you consider in the ancient world, when a nation comes to invade another nation, or in this case, Babylon and Judah, they would typically destroy everything in that conquest. Not only by stealing the spoils of war for themselves, but they would also destroy all the leftovers so that their enemies won't reap anything. So when Babylon finally comes to Judah, everything is gonna be destroyed. This is Habakkuk's expectation. All the luxuries in life, like figs for cakes or grapes for wine, all that's gonna be destroyed in Habakkuk's day. All the necessities in life, for him, grain for bread, animals for milk and meat, all that's gonna be destroyed. If it may help illustrate this devastation. Just consider the value of allahs. Again, maybe some of you can live without allahs, right? But for ancient Israel, they depended upon allahs. What do I mean by that? Well, in ancient Israel, the cultivation of allahs was so essential for their livelihood. It was used for lighting their lamps in their houses and stuff like that. It was used for food, for cooking. It was used for medicine, for the religion, the worship of Yahweh in the temple. It was used for trading with other nations, even for ladies' cosmetics, right? It's on that of all this, that Allah's in a real sense are a symbol of God's favor in the Old Testament. So when Allah's are destroyed, as Habakkuk is describing here, it's illustrating the coming disaster that Habakkuk is about to experience. If I may put this in 21st century language, because again, like I can live without Allah's, I don't really drink wine, you know. Is this really as bad as Habakkuk says it's gonna be? Well, yes, because this is how, if a black people was speaking today, this is what he would say. Imagine if tomorrow the government shut down, for good, right? Didn't come back, it shut down. The stock market crashed. You lose all your savings in your retirement. You lose your job. You lose your house. You lose your car. You lose your church. The supermarkets are empty with food. The gas station is dried up with gas. You lose all your loved ones in life. You lose your health. Everything that you need in life, alongside all the luxuries we enjoy as Americans, gone. That is the type of devastation Habakkuk is describing here. Everything is going to be gone in this. and such a result leads to suffering. That is the suffering that Habakkuk is describing here, and if we're honest, maybe some of us have experienced that type of suffering. Maybe not all at once, right, but maybe one of those things. And that often leads us to ask a question. Why does God permit all this suffering to happen, not only in Habakkuk's day, but even in all our days, all throughout history? Even if it's to discipline his people, such as the nation of Judah, why does God permit evil to happen, especially when people who don't deserve it get caught up all in it? And it's because of that, this is really why you need to consider how the Bible addresses the problem of evil. Because modern Western culture, our culture assumes that the presence of evil and suffering automatically disproves the existence of an all good. an all-powerful God that is the God of the Bible. Because the logic goes like this. If God is all good, he would want to defeat evil. If God is all-powerful, he can defeat evil. Yet the existence of evil proves that God is either good but cannot defeat evil, or he is all-powerful but does not want to defeat evil. Perhaps it's both. Regardless, the problem of evil is a philosophical conundrum for some, For many people, it's an intensely personal issue. For others, either way, bottom line, even if the God of the Bible exists, our culture would assume, he cannot be trusted for permitting evil and suffering in the world. Maybe there's some of you who think that way today. Maybe at times you have thought that way, and the Lord has brought you through it, or you're still in the midst of that valley, and I pray that what the Lord has to tell you this morning will help you get you through it. Because in response, What does the Bible say about the problem of evil, which is perhaps one of the greatest objections to Christianity historically? It's a big topic. It's something really hard to wrap our minds around. And the quick answer is the Bible doesn't give us a straight answer. It's not very clear. But what I can say is that it presents a logical and emotionally satisfying response. Let me start with the first one. Apart from the God of the Bible, no one has a moral foundation to object about this problem of evil, to suffering in general. Let's consider the fact that before the famous British writer C.S. Lewis converted to Christianity, he was an atheist. And I love C.S. Lewis because he's not just a very smart fellow who just understands a lot of things. Because of his experiences, because of his relationship with Jesus, he understands the human condition very well. Since a young age, he deconstructed his Christian faith as a child when his mom died. He became a hardened veteran when he saw the horrors in the trenches of World War I. And so it seemed that in light of his personal experiences, that Lewis himself would be the most reluctant convert. Yet, by God's grace, that's exactly what happened to Lewis. Although his biggest reason against Christianity was the problem of evil, he eventually came to a shocking conclusion about his atheism. This is what he writes about it, and I quote him. He says, my argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust, or as a high schooler said, so savage. But how did I get this idea of just and unjust? Of course, I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapses too. For the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust. Not simply that it didn't happen to please my fancies. Consequently, atheism turned out to be too simple." End quote. In other words, if you're going to say that God doesn't exist because of the existence of suffering, you have to ask yourself, what is your standard of morality that you can objectively know what is right and wrong, what is good and evil? To say so is an act of faith. Although you can say that God cannot exist because of suffering, you can't deduce that he cannot have a justifiable reason why it does exist. You can't know if you're the standard of your own morality. So logically then, the problem of evil, it's not a problem for skeptics. If it's a problem for anyone. It's a problem for you, for us, for Christians. Now, that's not to say that we as Christians understand why God permits suffering in the world. I know that's the case for me, I don't know. As God once challenged Job about this topic in Job 48, he says, Job, would you really challenge my justice? Would you declare me guilty to justify yourself? And this leads me to answer that second question that many people have, that emotional problem to suffering. when you experience suffering in the trenches of life. If the problem of evil is just simply a Christian problem, is all of our pain and suffering senseless? And what I can tell you is that there is one reason, and this is the reason that we sung about this morning. There is one reason you can know that all your pain and suffering isn't senseless. And it's because of this. God as a man suffered on the cross. to defeat sin and death once and for all. Jesus, the God-man, he takes humanity's suffering seriously. So seriously that he bears the suffering of those who trust in him by faith for their sins on the cross. The cross of Christ is the solution to help us understand this problem of suffering. I always appreciated this guy's observation because he's not a Christian. The French philosopher Albert Camus once admitted about the cross of Christ, Christ the God-man suffers too, with patience. Evil and death can no longer be entirely imputed to him since he suffers and dies. The night on Golgotha is so important in the history of man only because in its shadows the divinity ostensibly, humbly abandoned its traditional privilege and lived through the end. Despair included the agony of death. Thus is explained what Jesus says, my God, my God, why you forsaken me in the frightful doubt that Christ did die in agony, end quote. In other words, Jesus is Emmanuel, loved ones. Jesus is God with us. He shares in your sufferings. You may never fully understand why you go through suffering in life. We know that's the case for Job, yet like Job, like Habakkuk, you could rest assured that your suffering will never be in vain, because Jesus identifies with you in his suffering on the cross for your sins. Since he died on the cross, was buried, and rose again from the grave, according to the scriptures, he provides peace. He gives you the consolation for the life you can never live in this world, a life without suffering. It's Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection that restores the life you always wanted, a life without suffering. all the evil and suffering you encounter, it will one day be undone, loved ones, because at that day will be the day when Jesus will not only return to make all things new, but because all that work began the moment he overcame it all on the cross. And so then, it's in light of the reality and result of suffering that we can look to the cross of Christ and find consolation for your souls. But even in light of that, though, it does beg the question, how should you respond to suffering in your life? If the cross of Christ is that one thing that helps us not just cope with it, but have a satisfying response to work through it, how can we respond practically to the suffering in your life? How does Habakkuk respond to suffering? This then leads to the third and final reason why suffering must never break your allegiance with God. So we talked briefly about the reality of suffering, the result, Now, we're gonna talk about the response to suffering. That's Habakkuk's third reason, his response. So look at what he says in Habakkuk 3.18. He says, in light of all this, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. What an amazing response. To some, you'd be like, Habakkuk, has he lost his mind, right? And as I said earlier this morning, this is perhaps one of the most noblest and highest expressions of faith in the Bible. Because again, just remember what Habakkuk is about to experience in light of this confession. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor the fruit be in the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yeah, what does Habakkuk say in light of all that? I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. In other words, though I should lose my job in life, though I have no money in my bank account, my health utterly fails and I have nothing for a future, for a retirement. Everything I love be cut off and I lose everything in this life. Yet I will trust in the Lord. That is Habakkuk's response to the reality of suffering, the result of suffering in life. But why is it that Habakkuk can have this joy? Because suffering is painful, it's hard. How can he take joy in the God of his salvation? The question for you guys, how can you have the same joy? How can you praise God in light of all this, who is the God of your salvation? Especially those painful moments of suffering in life. Well, you have to understand that Habakkuk isn't placing his trust in all the physical things in this life. And we need to heed this very closely, because although we will say that we will never do that, yet as 21st century Americans, we become so blinded by comfort and placing our trust in materialism. This is all of us, this is me, right? It's just one of those sins that is just so embedded in our culture that we have to constantly examine our hearts to repent and turn away from. Because Habakkuk is not placing his trust in anything in this world. Habakkuk is placing his trust in the one in whom every good and perfect gift in this world comes from, the creator God of the Bible. So to understand the power of Habakkuk's contentment in God, you have to understand it's all grounded in his faith in God. And that's why I said earlier as well that his response here is basically the response that God tells him of how he should respond. How does God tell him how he should respond earlier? What's that famous theme verse again? Habakkuk 2.4, right? There God famously says that the righteous shall live by his faith. But what does it mean to live by faith? I think all of us could give an explanation, but what does it really mean to live by faith? Well, in the Hebrew, the sentence translates like this, literally. Those who are justified, those who are declared right before God, the justified by their steadfast trust, they shall live. Did you catch that? This idea of trust, it's not connected to their justification here, although it's related and it's very important, Habakkuk is connecting it to how he should live, to how we should live. And that leads me to define what faith is really here in the Bible. Because the Hebrew word behind this word for faith is the Hebrew word emunah. And I can tell you, It doesn't just only mean faith, like believe in a set of propositional facts, it also has another meaning at the same time. It also carries the idea of faithfulness. Faith and faithfulness is being captured in this Hebrew word amunah. Let me give an example to kind of understand this dynamic here. Consider you have a husband who says he loves and adores his wife, but then cheats behind her back with another woman all the time. Simple question for you, Is his love for his wife real? Of course not, right? That guy's fake. He doesn't love his wife. Just because he makes a confession that he loves his wife, his actions actually condemn him that his love isn't real. Now you think about that when it comes to the topic of faith. Why would this be any different to what marriage ultimately points to? To God's relationship with you as his people through Jesus. Just because you believe the facts of the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection in the Bible, if you just have that alone, that doesn't mean you truly have faith in God. And if you think I'm a heretic, go read the letter of James. The apostle James says that kind of faith, that you just believe in facts about the gospel, about the Bible, about God, that faith is dead. It's actually the faith of demons, because the demons have that faith. They know God exists. Satan has better theology than us. He went to the greatest seminary in the universe, the very presence of God. But do you think they live for God? Of course not. Of course not. This is why true faith, true saving faith is authenticated by the good works you do in this life. The works of love that you have for both God and neighbor. That's why it's so important to really understand what like a passage like Genesis 15, six gets at. What does it say there? Well, famously it says, and Abraham believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. What God is getting at there is that Abraham is declared right before God the moment he first believed in his promises. He is still saved by faith alone, but of course the faith that saves is never alone because the end goal of Abraham's faith is not authenticated until he gives up his only son Isaac by faith. The moment you read that, the moment you see that, it's like Abraham does truly believe in God. He does believe in him by faith alone because he was willing to live by faithfulness according to God's command. What I'm getting at, loved ones, is that emunah is both faith and faithfulness. They're two sides of the same coin. This is why some scholars today, and Jews for the past couple thousand years, always prefer the word allegiance to capture this ancient Jewish conception of faith. That's what Paul means when he uses this verse. He's talking about allegiance, our allegiance with God. And this is so important for us to really understand this facet to true saving faith. Because too many American Christians explain faith as merely confessing Jesus as Savior. But they never take the time to really explain what does it mean to live by such faith before Jesus as our Lord. Because if you do confess to be a Christian, but your life indicates that your allegiance is more to this world, I'm sorry to tell you, you're not living by a Muna. You're not righteous before God. Instead of anything, no matter if it's outwardly apparent to people or if it's hidden with self-pity, you're more likely puffed up with pride, like the Babylonians. And if you don't turn from this world in repentance and swear your allegiance with Christ by faith alone, as I said earlier, We're gonna go to hell, forever. Habakkuk, in light of all of this, he lives by faith and faithfulness. Not only because he believes in God's word in this verse, but he actually puts this verse into practice. He believes God by faith and he trusts in him with faithfulness. This is his response here. It's a response of faith, that God knows what he's doing. And so in a sense then, Habakkuk is our example as a man of faith. He can rejoice and wait upon God to save him from suffering because his joy in life, his happiness is not contingent upon his condition in life. His joy is contingent upon the living hope he has in God. And what's interesting, the names in the Bible reveal a lot to us about the message of a book. And when you do a word study in the name Habakkuk, It stems from the Hebrew word habak, which means to embrace. So basically what Habakkuk's name means is the one who embraces or clings. And what a wonderful appropriate name that is for Habakkuk clinging to God, embracing God by faith here in his response. And that's the response that we should have towards God as well ourselves, this faith and faithfulness that we cling to God, we embrace God for who he is as our Lord, as our savior. And just to kind of illustrate really the power behind all this, consider the final illustration then of how Habakkuk says this in the next verse. This is our last verse that we'll be looking at this morning. So look at Habakkuk 3.19 of how he illustrates this faith that we should all adopt today as a proper response to suffering. He says, God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places. And so God is giving strength to a back hook like a deer treading on high places, high, steep mountains. And this is actually an echo to what King David writes in Psalm 1833, after God gives him rest from all his enemies. Again, King David says, God made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. If you ever had the blessed privilege to go to southern Israel, I know some people have here, there is a place in the southern part of Israel, in the land of Judah, called En Gedi. The picture on my title slide is actually a picture of that location. It's kind of blurry, but just to kind of give you a picture. And in En Gedi, it's a wildlife preserve, but you can do some amazing hikes there and stuff like that. There's a type of animal there. It's a type of deer, and it's called an ibex. And now the Ibex, it's such a fascinating creature, such a beautiful creature that God has created. When you look at the cliffs of Vengeti, you can't really see in the picture, but the cliffs there, they're insanely steep. If you wanna ascend those cliffs, there's trails up there, but if you wanna ascend like the face of the cliff, you're gonna have to like get some rock climbing equipment and hopefully climb up not falling and die, right? That's how steep these things are. And yet, the feet of the Ibex are designed in such a way that they're able to tread these steep cliffs with great ease. Sometimes you see them walking, running across these very steep cliffs. It's really incredible. I bring that up because that's the type of strength Habakkuk describes God is gonna give him. amidst his suffering. It's like he is running on the edge, the very precipice of suffering. God is going to give him the strength to endure it all. And that's the strength God will give you loved ones amidst all your suffering in life through Jesus. And again, this isn't wishful thinking. It's all grounded upon what God has ultimately done to reserve, to reverse suffering in the world. If I may quote earlier from Habakkuk chapter three, look at verse 13 based on what God is gonna do. This is what Habakkuk says God ultimately does about the suffering in the world. He says, God, you went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. How does God achieve salvation for Habakkuk, for you? through his anointed one, the Messiah. And it's this Messiah that he is gonna crush the head of the house of the wicked from thigh to neck. And if you dig deep into that language from thigh to neck, it's actually the description of a serpent. In other words, God through the Messiah brings salvation to his people by fulfilling that ancient promise of long ago, that a Messiah would come from the seed of the woman to crush the head of Satan, to crush the head of sin and death and evil once and for all. This is the salvation Habakkuk is talking about. This is the salvation that brings him joy. This is the salvation that gives him strength, because this salvation is ultimately fulfilled through the gospel of Jesus the Messiah. And what is that gospel? Well, for you loved ones, it's gonna be a reminder, but for those who have never heard the gospel, here's a brief story of the message of this good news. Because at the beginning of everything, the world wasn't a place full of evil and suffering. At the beginning, God made everything, and he made everything good. And even the pinnacle of his creation, humanity, you and I, we were made good. And because of that, we were made to worship God, to enjoy God, to enjoy all these good gifts in this world as an expression of worship back to him. That is how God originally made everything in this universe. And yet, our experience tells us that is not how the world functions today. Because we live in a world full of great brokenness, great suffering. What happened? Well, the biblical story tells us that the first humans, our ancestors, Adam and Eve, they rebelled against God. Instead of trusting God as the standard of right and wrong, they defined right and wrong in their own eyes. They wanted to be like God, they rebelled against him, and ever since, humanity has been on this trajectory of self-destruction. Sin and death, this curse, has made our lives so miserable, because at the end of the day, we're the problem. We are sinners in our heart of hearts, and whether you are an atheist, or a Buddhist, or a Christian, or a Catholic, we all know this is real because we all try to alleviate that brokenness that we experience all the days of our life. Maybe trying to blind it out with drugs, and alcohol, and sex, or pornography. Trying to find maybe the best job, or the best school, or that perfect relationship. Maybe this will give me happiness. Maybe this will take away all my shame, all my guilt. Maybe this will be enough to give me the joy that I long for in this life. And yet that will not be enough because when you sin against God, you are eternally guilty before God. We have all fallen short of God's glory. That's why the Bible says the wages of our sin against God is eternal death in hell. Our conscious condemn us of this reality. And that is the bad news in light of our trajectory as human beings. And yet, there's good news in light of all that. Because 2,000 years ago, God had a plan. From the very beginning, God made a promise that he was gonna send a Messiah to destroy sin and death once and for all, to crush the head of Satan, and to redeem a people back to himself if they would believe in him. And that promise, as it's mentioned in Genesis, it's alluded to here in a back hug, it's ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. 2,000 years ago. He was born through the Virgin Mary in that city of Bethlehem. God as a man, Son of God, assumed a human nature in Jesus so that he would live a perfect life, die on the cross in the hands of the Jewish and Roman authorities of the day, so that if you repent and believe in Jesus by faith alone, you will be saved. And it's because all your wicked deeds that you've ever done in life are placed into Christ's account. Christ bears your full full depth on the cross, since he's fully God, he was able to bear that full depth in a matter of six hours. Since he was fully man, he perfectly represents you. He came to redeem the image that was broken in you. What other man could do that but the one who was made in the image of God? And that's Jesus. And in exchange, if you repent and believe in him by faith, He gives you his perfect righteousness. He shows you favor, not because of what you have done, but because of what Christ has done so that you would be saved, and not only that, but have everlasting life. Not because of what Christ has done on the cross, because three days later, he overcame sin and death. This is our foundation as Christians of the hope that we have in Christ. This is our bread and butter of our faith. This is what allows us to love supernaturally our neighbor, because God has first loved us. And so if there's anyone here who has not repented of their sins and placed their faith in Christ alone, I exhort you, my friend, you must be born again. You can do that right now when we pray. Not right now, but in a little bit, because I still need to give the conclusion, all right? Repent of your sins. God, I'm sorry for sinning against you. Place your faith in God, and don't stop there after you do. Live faithfully before him. Keep coming back to this church. Talk to the pastors. Talk to any Christians that you know. Read this Bible so that you know how you ought to live before God. That is saving faith, and I can tell you, if you have that faith, you will have this joy. You will have this contentment that Habakkuk has, because you realize at that moment, you're not You're not condemned to suffering forever in hell. Christ bore that on your sake on the cross so that now you have salvation, everlasting life. This is how Habakkuk could respond to God by faith amidst such suffering. This is how we can do the same as well, brothers and sisters. And so where can we start then to do just that today? If the unbeliever needs to repent and believe in the gospel in the first place, how do we respond to all this who are believers? Well, for anyone here who is suffering right now, whatever that may look like, particularly in your life, you have to learn to wrestle with God about your suffering like a bat cook. You can't just ignore it, nor internalize it. No, the Bible does teach you how to really wrestle with suffering in life. And when you think about a bat cook, he doesn't begin with faith. He wrestles with God about it. He asks some very tough questions. And it's a process of really working it out with God. And I want to help you do that just with four quick, easy steps. If you have any other questions about this, you can talk to me after service. But again, here's four steps to help you really wrestle through that suffering right now. First, turn to God in prayer. Habakkuk does this. Habakkuk actually does all these four things that he does in his book. First, turn to God in prayer. Next, bring your complaint to him. And when you bring your complaint to God about your suffering, be blunt in your language. Of course, don't sin, right, in your language, but be blunt. Be real with him on why are you specifically experiencing that pain, that suffering. Habakkuk does, and that leads to the third step. Ask God to act in a manner that's consistent with his holy character to resolve your complaint. Ask him to do that. Habakkuk does that. Habakkuk asks God, God, I know you're gonna destroy Judah, but please show us mercy. Please save us. And he ultimately does, after the judgment, right? And this leads to that final step then. For you to not only affirm God's worthiness to be trusted, but actually do so by faith. with this idea of faithfulness, of praising God through that suffering. These are four steps of how you can process, of how you can actually lament through your suffering. Habakkuk does that. The psalmists do that. And although this won't take away your suffering, it won't even make the pain any easier to bear. Yet, your perspective will change, like Habakkuk, because it leads you to rest patiently in him for salvation, ultimately through Jesus. So loved ones, if you are experiencing that right now, try that. Lament, and I assure you, you will find God's peace through Jesus at the end. Now for anyone here who is not currently going through suffering or hasn't really experienced suffering in life, I just hope that everything that I have mentioned today functions as what the Canadian theologian D.A. Carson once called preventative medicine. I hope everything I've said is preventative medicine for you. Because you'll suffer if you live long enough. And so I don't want your faith to be surprised by that grief. Now you know the reality and result of suffering. Now you know how to respond to it by faith. So loved ones, take the time to really internalize all these things you've heard today by faith. A good thing to do is really go and read Habakkuk for yourself. It's only three chapters. You can read it in five minutes. That way, like Habakkuk, you may live faithfully before God when he permits you to suffer through that. So in conclusion, as we close, suffering must not break your allegiance with God, loved ones. And so I just offer you this one final call to action to everyone here, to everyone. and it's based on what the prophet Hosea says at the end of his book. He says in Hosea chapter 14, verse nine, whoever is wise, let him understand these things. Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. So, I offer you two paths this morning, loved ones. Life and death. If you live by faithfulness in God amidst suffering, At the end, you will flourish in life because of the cross of Christ. If you live by faithlessness in God amid suffering, you will be cursed in life because Christ hasn't borne the curse of your sins in the cross yet. So I exhort all of you today, and a lot of everything that you have heard, my friends, choose this day life. If you haven't sworn allegiance to God by faith, turn away from this world by turning to Jesus. If you have sworn allegiance to God by faith, keep turning away from this world by turning to Jesus. Because only those who live by faith, who live by faithfulness, will have salvation. You will have joy. You will have pleasure that the suffering in this world can never break. Jesus has crushed sin and death on your behalf in love so that you may be victorious in him forever. That's God's word to you this morning. Let's go before our Lord then in prayer. Lord, we thank you for this day that you've given us.