Habakkuk chapter 1, verse 1. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear? Even cry out unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save. Why dost thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore, the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth, for the wicked doth compass about the righteous. Therefore, wrong judgment proceedeth. There's a change of speaker here. God speaks, starting in verse five. Behold ye among the heathen in regard, and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe though it be told you. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. jump ahead, if you would, to verse 12 of chapter 1. And we have the prophet again speaking, "'Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment. O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Wherefore, lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he. Jump ahead again, if you would, to chapter two and verse one. I, and this is the prophet again speaking, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Let's look to the Lord in a word of prayer at this time. Father, I confess my dependence upon You in this hour. Help us to see the truth contained in this book. How often do we see suffering? Do we see evil? and we wonder, what are you doing? We begin to doubt your providence. We begin to doubt your goodness. These questions, Father, that arise from the context of our suffering, from the context of our being oppressed, these questions, Father, they are questions that have been around for some time and help us to see the truth within the pages of your Word. We ask your grace to see above all your sufficiency, the glory and grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We ask the Spirit's help in this hour. because we know that we cannot receive anything unless it be given to us from you. And so we wait expectantly, humbly. May you give to us your word for us at this time, and may we glorify you as we believe and respond to your truth in faith. We pray this in the name of our Savior, Jesus. Amen. We have a tendency, and I've mentioned this in other contexts before, but we have a tendency to think of our age as the most wicked age that has ever been. We look around us and we see the decadence, we see the sin, and we think, things are now worse than they have ever been. And I will not debate with you that things are bad in our age. But if I were given my choice to live in our age or to live in the time in which Habakkuk gave his oracle, I would choose our age every time. What is happening at this time in Habakkuk's life? Well, you might know something of the history of God's people, the nation of Israel. You might know that after Solomon, the nation divided into two nations. There was a rift. The nation of Israel, the northern kingdom, was called Israel. The southern kingdom was called Judah. As time goes on, Israel and Judah are both marked by incredibly wicked, horrible periods in their life. Of the two of these nations, Israel, the northern kingdom, is more wicked, and it will fall, by God's judgment, to the hand of the Assyrians. But Judah, was no holy nation itself. And God would bring his judgment upon Judah as well. As we look at the immediate history of Habakkuk, Josiah was a godly king, in spite of the fact that he was the son of the most wicked king that Judah had ever known. Josiah's father, Manasseh, has the dubious distinction of being the most wicked king of Judah. So wicked, in fact, that he actually ditched serving and worshiping Jehovah for the worship of Molech and Baal. And we know that he caused at least two of his sons to be offered as human sacrifices to these false deities. Toward the end of Manasseh's life, God graciously granted him repentance and he came, I believe, to a true faith in the living God. His son Josiah would come to the throne, and Josiah would live and reign in a godly manner, but partway through Josiah's reign, the Word of God would be found. which is kind of amazing to me, and I won't dwell upon that, but it's one thing to lose our car keys, which I do, or our wallet, but it's quite another thing to lose the Word of God, and that's the condition that God's people were in during the reign of Josiah. God's Word is found, and there is a great revival that comes during the reign of Josiah, but it seems that that revival is very short-lived, Josiah will die. When Josiah dies, actually in battle, when Josiah dies, the people of Judah actually select Jehoahaz rather than Josiah's oldest son, whose name was Eliakim. The Bible doesn't tell us exactly why they did that. but it may very well be that they saw something sinister in Jehoiakim, or sorry, Eliakim, who would be later called Jehoiakim, and that's why they placed him on the throne. They placed his brother on the throne instead of Eliakim. While the king of Egypt would come, Pharaoh would come, he would actually carry off Jehoahaz, And he would place Eliakim on the throne. When he placed Eliakim on the throne, he actually renamed him, which was an act of his sovereignty, saying, I have placed you on the throne, I own you, here's your new name. And Judah, though proud and wanting to think of itself as free, would actually be something of a vassal paying tribute to Egypt. What kind of a guy was Jehoiakim? Well, it's very likely that these people had seen something sinister in the life of Jehoiakim, and that's why they didn't choose him as king. When Jehoiakim came to the throne, the scripture tells us that he shed innocent blood. 2 Kings 24 and verse four. He is the king that was so arrogant that when the word of God was brought to him, he actually took out a pen knife, cut it up, and tossed it in the fire piece by piece, just thumbing his nose at the God of heaven. This was also the king, the only king that we are specifically told had a prophet of Jehovah killed. There was a prophet, Uriah in his time, that was prophesying, saying the word of God. Jehoiakim got mad. Uriah heard about it, fled to Egypt. Jehoiakim sent people to get him and basically killed him. He ordered a hit on the prophet of God. He's the only king in Judah's history to have that distinction. He was an incredibly wicked man. And this is the context out of which Habakkuk cries out to God. And that's what he's crying out to God about in the first four verses. He looks around him at the nation of Judah and he says, God, your people are hurting here. Do you not see the violence? Do you not see the oppression, God? Do you not see what's happening here? Do you not see that justice is just completely thrown out the window under the regency of this man who would go so far as to burn up your word and kill your prophet? God, don't you see? Don't you care? And God answers his prophet. And the answer that he gives to his prophet is not the answer that Habakkuk is expecting, not at all. Habakkuk is saying, God, we are suffering here, we are facing evil and injustice here, and God says, I know, and I'm going to judge it. And this is how I'm going to judge it. I'm going to bring in the Babylonians to judge my people. Now this was incredibly shocking to Habakkuk. In Habakkuk's mind, Judah was bad, but compared to Babylon, these people were people that were so arrogant, they thought of themselves as a law unto themselves. Their whole concept of what constituted right and wrong was whatever they decided. They worshiped their own strength. They worshiped their own power. They were incredibly violent, incredibly wicked. And so Habakkuk then brings his second question, which we read in verse 12. And his first question was, God, don't you see what's happening? God, when are you going to judge this? God says, I'm not indifferent. I will judge. I'm going to use Babylon. And Habakkuk, after he reels his jaw in off the ground, asks God, God, we deserve judgment, but Babylon? How is it that You can use Babylon to judge us?" And then having asked this question, God, what does this do to Your holiness? What does this do to Your justice? If you're going to use a more wicked nation to judge us, how can I understand your holiness and your justice in light of this? In chapter 2 begins, Habakkuk says, okay, I'll stand here. I'll stand upon my watch as a prophet in Judah. He was something of a watchman in a spiritual sense. He says, I'll stand here. And I'll wait until I hear God's answer. I will see what He says to me. And we don't know how long Habakkuk waits, but the answer comes. And God's answer is this. Before I start to answer you, write this down so plainly that a person that is running can read this. Make this clear. Get this, is what he's saying. Get this, get it down, and get it down right. Understand this clearly. I know Babylon is evil, and I will judge them too. that judgment is coming. He says, for example, the vision is yet for an appointed time, verse 3 of chapter 2, but at the end it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry, though it seems like this is not going to happen, it seems that way, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. From a human standpoint, it would seem like this was never gonna come, like it was tarrying. From God's standpoint, this was going to happen at exactly the right time. I will judge Babylon, too. But God doesn't tell Habakkuk when. God doesn't tell him This is how, in your mind, you can resolve the tension between my judging this nation, Judah, which is wicked, by a nation, Babylon, which is more wicked. He doesn't give him any of that. He pronounces woe upon the unrighteous. Specifically in mind, the unrighteous that he's pronouncing a woe upon are those of Babylon. But he doesn't resolve that tension in Habakkuk's mind. And at the end of it, chapter two, he says, the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. God is still on his throne, he's still holy, he's still in his temple, that is where he is. You may not have all the answers about how he can still be holy, you may not understand how it is that he can still be sovereign and good and be doing this, but it doesn't mean it's not true. And then we come to chapter 3. In chapter 3, Habakkuk responds to what God has said. Habakkuk prays. His prayer begins in verse 2, "'O Lord, I have heard Thy speech and was afraid. Oh Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make known. In wrath, remember mercy. And then in very poetic terms, he goes on to describe God in his awesome power. The Babylonian nation was powerful, and they would, within a few years, defeat the Assyrians. They were the big superpower on the rise. They were incredibly powerful. They were like fishermen just dropping their net into a crowded stream. There was nothing the fish could do to escape. When that net came in, they were caught. That was the end. But as powerful as they were, Habakkuk describes a God that is incredibly more powerful than they. He describes God as having brightness as the light. He describes God with power. He describes God as being the one who controlled pestilence. He describes God as having burning coals that are at his feet. He describes God as the one who can drive the nations wherever he wants to. He describes God as the one who can move the mountains. He describes God as the one who knows the entire measurement of the earth and has control over every inch of it. And it is, in many ways, a terrifying picture of God. A God that is not some sort of senile figure in the heavens that awakens once in a while and asks, what's going on? But a God who is in complete control and a God that has complete power over every inch of the world, over every inhabitant of that world. And in light of this renewed revelation of who God is, in light of this clearer picture of who God is, this is Habakkuk's response, chapter 3, verses 17 to 19. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, no food. The flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls. So he looks forward and he anticipates a time of incredible suffering that is likely to come. A time in which there's no crops, there's no herd, all All source of livelihood is gone. And out of that projected context, out of what he sees is coming, this is his response. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. When all the military strength is gone, when my economic ability is wiped out, when I have absolutely nothing, what will my response be? He says, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Because when my strength is gone, He is my strength. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like hinds or deer's feet. He will make me to walk upon mine high places. And that's how the book ends. to honest questions to God about evil and suffering, answers that come that really don't completely address that, but a faith and a focus that arises from that vision of God that will sustain him in the worst of affliction. So, what does this book have to do with us today? We don't live in a time, thankfully, where our King, our Prime Minister, is chasing down God's prophets and murdering them, and we can be grateful for that. As far as I know, we don't live in a time where We face the very certain possibility of some world superpower coming in and destroying our nation. What does this passage have to say to us? Much. Much. I've titled this message, The Just Shall Live by Faith, Perspectives on God, Evil, and Suffering from Habakkuk. What does this book teach us today? Well, I think the first thing that arises to us from this book is this, obedience and service to God are not insurance policies against suffering. Please get this. Obedience and service to God are not insurance policies against suffering. Note that it is Habakkuk, God's prophet, the faithful in the land that's crying out to God, God, do you see us down here? Do you see what we are enduring? It's the faithful one. It is a serious mistake to believe that following God is going to keep us from all suffering. It's a serious mistake to think, I follow God, I'm not gonna be touched by evil and suffering, because that's not true. I remember reading one book on prayer, and the author in that book gave the example, told the story of, a nurse had actually told him this, this nurse, worked in critical care wing of the hospital, and there was a Christian family, a family that professed faith in Christ, and they had an aging relative that was there in the hospital. And finding out that this nurse was a Christian, they would often have times of prayer there at the bedside of this woman. And one day, She died. This family had been praying all along, God, spare her life. God, spare her life. God, raise her up from this sickbed. God, do this. And the nurse was there shortly after this woman had passed away, and the nurse asked this family if they would like to pray together one more time. And this woman's son looked at her in anger and said, we've already tried that and it didn't work. Sometimes that view works itself into our mindset. I remember when I was at Northland, we had, a couple named Scott and Janet Willis come and give us their testimony in chapel. Scott and Janet Willis' story, testimony, was that they were driving down the highway in their van with their many children, driving down the highway in Milwaukee one day, and up ahead of them, something fell off of a transport truck into their path. They struck that object, and their van immediately burst into flames. And that day, on that highway, eight of their children died. Eight. And I remember that story just impressed itself so deeply upon my mind. seeing the pain on their face, to see, as they told this story, that in one event, in one day, eight children perish. They later found out that this man that was driving the truck had obtained his license through bribery. He wasn't skilled enough to be operating that vehicle. He had not secured his load properly. Janet Willis said that before that accident, she kind of had this thought in her mind. Before the accident, she said, I want to stay close to God so nothing bad happens. This is a woman walking faithfully with God, following after Him. And this happened. Please understand that obedience to God, service to God are not insurance policies against suffering. That was the perspective of the psalmist in Psalm 73. When he looked at all the bad that was happening, he says, I cleansed my heart in vain, I washed my hands in innocency, for all the day long I have been plagued and chastened every morning." In other words, he said, why am I following God if I'm still facing chastening and plague? But our Savior told us this, these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have in the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." The Apostle Paul, Acts 14, we're told that after they'd gone Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and faced persecution in every single one of those cities, he goes back to those cities. They preached the gospel of that city. They taught many. They returned again to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, where they had suffered. The people had seen their suffering there in those cities. It says, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. So Habakkuk, by his example, unites with the testimony of Jesus and the testimony of Paul and the testimony of Peter, and we could go on and on in telling us serving God is not an insurance policy against suffering. The book of Habakkuk also teaches us that God is not indifferent to the problem of evil and suffering, but He will judge righteously. Each time that Habakkuk wonders, God, how can you do this? God says, I know what's going on. I'm going to judge the evil people. The irony of going to God and saying to God, God, don't you see what's happening, is amazing. I mean, this is the God who knows when a sparrow falls to the ground. This is a God who knows the very number of the hairs on our head. But we all have that tendency, right, to wonder, God, do you not see what's happening? And Habakkuk reminds us that God isn't indifferent and God isn't ignorant. He knows what's happening and he will judge righteously. God's response to Habakkuk's complaint about Judah is to assure Habakkuk, I will judge righteously. I'm gonna use Babylon. And when Habakkuk says, but God, Babylon deserves judgment too. God says, yes, I'm gonna judge them as well. God hasn't surrendered His holiness. God hasn't surrendered His justice. And by the way, when we cry out for justice in this world, we may be calling for judgment upon ourselves. It's very easy to lose perspective on right and wrong. evil and suffering. We have a tendency to question God only when evil and suffering touch us. But there is certainly more than enough evil and suffering in the world around us that hasn't touched us to make us wonder even before it hits us. We also have this nasty habit of measuring right and wrong, measuring evil and suffering against our own personal standard rather than God's. Eva Braun, you may know that name from history, mistress, mistress of Adolf Hitler, okay? So the woman I'm talking about now, she's not living in holy matrimony. She's living outside of the holy bonds of marriage. And the person that she's shacking up with isn't just anybody, it's Adolf Hitler himself. Eva Braun, when upon hearing about the bombing of Berlin, wrote to a friend from Adolf Hitler's bunker. She wrote a letter to a friend outside the bunker, and this is one of the things she said. It's enough to make one lose faith in God. Ava, haven't you already demonstrated that you never really had true faith in God already? I mean, here's a mistress to one of the most evil men that have ever lived, and she's wondering, is God right to bring justice and judgment upon Berlin? God sums up his woes upon Babylon. And as he summarizes and as he sums up everything, at the end of chapter two, he says, but the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. He's still there. He hasn't decided to hand over the reins to somebody else. He's still holy, he's still sovereign, he is still there. Third, Habakkuk teaches us not only that obedience and service to God are not insurance policies against suffering. Habakkuk teaches us that God is not indifferent to the problem of evil and suffering, but He will judge righteously, but Habakkuk also teaches us that God's timing and choice of means, so God's timing, when He does what He does, and His choice of means, how He does what He does, God's timing and choice of means may seem perplexing to us, but we must live by faith. And that really is the heart of this message, the heart of the message of this book. As God assures Habakkuk of his justice through Babylon and eventually against Babylon, he urges this. write the vision, make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it, for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. So God says, trust me, right? It may seem to you like this is never gonna happen, but it will. It may seem to you like I don't know what's going on and don't know how to fix it. Trust me, he says. Though it tarry, wait for it because it will surely come. It will not tarry. What I'm telling you is not a lie, he says to Habakkuk. Believe it. That use of Babylon would have been incredibly perplexing to Habakkuk. I mean, they seem to be so much worse than Judah. In God's plan, it seems like He's using a nation that is unrestrainedly violent to judge the violence of Judah. He is judging, or He is using a nation that has a law unto itself to judge the lawlessness of Judah. But in that, God urges His people to trust Him. He says in verse 4, behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, so the soul of the proud person, that soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. This faith that's spoken of here in verse 4 is really what distinguishes a believer from an unbeliever. The just shall live by faith. This text quoted in the New Testament was the text that arrested the attention of Martin Luther and led to his conversion and God's great work through that strange and flawed but very bold servant of his. And from the totality of Scripture, as we read the Scripture, we see that we are justified by faith, that we are counted righteous in God's sight, not because we've worked up enough righteousness of our own, but because we have trusted in Christ, His righteousness is placed on our account. We are justified by faith. But justifying faith is a living and enduring faith. It's not simply we cling to Christ for as much time as it takes us to spit out the sinner's prayer and then we kind of go our own way. Justifying faith is a faith that continues, it's a faith that lives, it's a faith that breathes, it's a faith that endures. And this stands in direct opposition to the perspective of the world, a world that does not trust Christ, a world that does not cling to God in faith. The world would prefer to choose its own deity, the world would prefer to do its own thing. The world is not clinging by faith to the true and living God. They have not come to faith in Jesus Christ. Some of you might know the name Bart Ehrman. Bart Ehrman is a best-selling author. One of his books is God's Problem, How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question, Why We Suffer. Bart Ehrman was once a professing Christian. He was once an evangelical theologian and academic. And over time, in his mind, he felt that he could not trust the Bible. And at the heart of the issue to him was this matter of suffering. One reviewer of his book, I think demonstrated something of this lack of faith in the true and living God. And you can actually read this review. It's on Amazon even now. Part of his review says this. This person is not just reviewing the book, but I think he's just giving his personal testimony, which is what a lot of people do in these book reviews on Amazon, but this is what he says. I much prefer the beneficent gods of my ancestors, who don't cause suffering, who don't pluck people out of existence according to some mysterious plan. who don't send natural disasters to plague us, a world where cause and effect hold sway, where rivers rise because of natural causes, where twisters are the result of meteorological conditions, not because God ordains them. Now, this is, in logical terms, a fallacy of the false dilemma. The idea that it has to be one or the other. The Christian perspective has always been clouds arise and tempests blow by order of his throne. That God is in charge of all things and yet God uses the means of the natural events. of our time to accomplish His purpose. But all that aside, I find it interesting the way that this person looks at the question of God. I prefer this kind of a God as opposed to the kind of God we find in Scripture, as though God is some sort of a contestant on American Idol. We don't have the smorgasbord option for God. We don't have the option of just, oh, well, I like this God and I don't like that God, and this one seems to have some pretty good features. There's only one true and living God, and by God's grace we come to that recognition by faith, and we cling to that God. But we must hurry on. Habakkuk also teaches us this, and this is not my words, these are the words of Randy Alcorn. He says this, the faith that can't be shaken is a faith that has been shaken. The faith that can't be shaken is a faith that has been shaken. Habakkuk emerges from this period of deep questions. with his faith not only intact, but stronger than it was before. The third chapter records his worshipful response as he reflects upon his vision of God and the God of that vision, that God is in his holy temple. God is still holy, he's still just, he's still sovereign. The driving wind of affliction stirred the flame of his faith and served not to extinguish it, but to intensify it." Scott Willis, I mentioned that accident earlier, Scott Willis would say, after the accident, after the depression, after the thoughts of suicide, after it happened, after the days of not wanting to go on, wanting to die, he says today, today I have a far greater understanding of the goodness of God than I did before the accident. That kind of faith. is absolute nonsense before so much of the world. So much of the world would say, like Job's wife, curse God and die. I mean, get it over with. This kind of God isn't worth serving. Why don't you just curse Him and die? But true and living faith is a faith that's shaken and cannot be truly shaken. It emerges stronger than it was before the trial. It doesn't ditch God when the tough times come. It clings to Him more strongly, more tightly. And then finally, What we know to be true of God is enough to sustain us through what we do not know. What we know to be true of God is enough to sustain us through what we do not know. God doesn't give Habakkuk all the answers. He doesn't say, well Habakkuk, you have to understand in my plan and purpose, these are the five steps that I have in place. This is why I'm going to bring the judgment when I'm going to bring it. And by the way, this is the date I'm going to bring it. And as you look forward, this is the way I'm going to prepare the world for the coming of Messiah. This is the way I'm going to prepare the world for the coming of Christ. This is how I'm going to use this event to the furtherance of my global purpose. He doesn't do that. But the apex of the book expresses the rock-hard conviction of Habakkuk. It's a conviction that doesn't minimize the existence of evil and suffering. This is not Pollyanna Christianity. It looks evil and suffering in the face. and says, what I know about God is enough to carry me through the worst that these things have to offer. And that's why at the end of the book, as he looks forward to having everything taken away, he says, though the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail. Fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Because the Lord God is my strength. I know God. I may not know all of the things that He is doing. I may not understand why He's doing what He's doing now. I may not understand. Why God has chosen to grace me and afflict me with Judson's autism. But I know God. I may not understand, Hannah, what God is doing with Sarah, right? But I know God is good. I pray that by God's grace, there's a day coming. And those little feet of Hannah's will skip and play with Jesus in glory. And those little lips of Judson that cannot speak will sing to the praise of Jesus. I don't know God's plans. I don't know what God has, how He's doing all of these things, what He's doing, but I know that He is good. I know He's still in control. He's still sovereign. Do we doubt God's goodness? How can we doubt God's goodness when we look at the cross? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? We can't doubt God's love when we look at the cross. We know who God is. And we don't have to know every step of His plan. We don't have to have all of the answers to trust Him. Parents, you know that, right? You don't have to explain all of the physiology of why it's wrong for your young child to touch the hot burner. You understand that on this level. Can't we trust God? I remember hearing, and I hope it's not apocryphal, because some of these stories come and go, but I remember hearing, actually on the radio, about an accident here on the 401, in which a young girl was trapped and entangled in her seatbelt. And in order to extricate that young girl, a man actually had to break her arm to free her. I don't think that experiencing that broken arm was something that was just enjoyable and lovely. But that man had a purpose in doing it. God was doing something through that man for that girl that was bigger than she could have understood, right? Let's trust God. The suffering breaks upon us and it takes the breath right out of us and we're crushed beneath its load. Let's trust God. We know Him. We have seen and experienced His grace. We look to the cross. and whatever our feelings may be telling us at the moment, we look to the cross and we see he didn't spare his own son. He is working all things for my good. I may not understand it, but it doesn't change the fact of who he is and what he has promised that he will do. So Habakkuk comes to us. And it confronts us. It confronts us with evil and suffering. Habakkuk doesn't shy away from it. It doesn't just whitewash evil and suffering. It doesn't sweep them under the rug and pretend they're not there. It shows us that they're very real, and they impact our lives very profoundly. But it shows us that above all of that, over all of that, beyond all of that, through all of that, is a God who is our strength, a God in whom we can rejoice when everything seems to be taken away. He stays the same. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. He is with us. Bless His name. Well, for sake of time, let us turn to hymn number 243. For sake of time, we will sing only the third verse. Let's stand together and sing this third verse of this hymn. Come thou fount of every blessing. Let's stand together. And would you stay standing with me for a word of benediction. May God give you the grace this week to say with Habakkuk, Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength, and he will make my feet like hind's feet. He will make me to walk upon mine high places. May God's blessing rest upon you this week. You are dismissed.