Good morning. If you would turn in your Bibles with me to Habakkuk chapter 3. Let me open with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I just ask Your blessing upon this time as we open Your Word now. I pray, Lord, that through the agency of Your Holy Spirit, and Lord, through the instrumentation of a weak messenger, that You would take Your Word and affect our hearts, Lord, and direct our thoughts upward. I pray, Lord, that the end result would be that Your name would be glorified, that the lips of your people would pour forth praise, and that Christ, Lord, through whom you have brought about our salvation, that His name would be lifted up. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. So in the song that we sometimes sing, Come Thou Fount, written by Robert Robinson, I believe in 1758 was when that was written. The first verse sings about the streams of God's mercy, and it ends with eyes that are fixed upon the mount of God's unchanging love. And then verse two begins this way. Here I raise my Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. So what? on earth is an Ebenezer? Have you ever asked yourself that question, those of you that have sang this song? I have vague recollections of a particular small group when we were singing, or had sang this song, and the leader pointed this verse out and asked us if anyone knew what an Ebenezer was, of which we had just sang about. And this was before the days of internet, and Google search. And so we were kind of, as I recall the situation, all left kind of shrugging our shoulders and saying, I have no idea. Let's figure that out before we gather again next time and see if we can figure out what an Ebenezer is. If we're going to sing about it, we ought to know. Oftentimes Ebenezer, the only thing that comes to mind is perhaps Ebenezer Scrooge. And the reality is he was probably named after the word Ebenezer here as it's found in scripture. But the word Ebenezer actually literally means stone of help. Stone of help. And it comes from 1 Samuel chapter 7. where we have Samuel raising up a stone as a monument and calling it an Ebenezer to remember the great deliverance that God provided for the Israelites that day. when he came before God with his petition and God answered his prayer and they were able to rout the Philistines because God brought down thunder in such a way that it confused the enemy and gave them then the advantage, throwing the Philistines into panic. So it was a stone that marked God's rock solidness to remind the people that this was the God to whom they belonged. And I feel like in many ways, the Psalm of Habakkuk 3 is in effect an Ebenezer. It's a tribute to God, the God who delivers his people. So I want to begin here this morning as we actually are closing the book of Habakkuk, and it's been somewhat broken up here as we've walked through this, to sort of bring into mind the former chapters so we can sort of enter into the context here in which we find ourselves. As you recall, the global theme of Habakkuk is the just shall live by faith. And in chapter one, we had this theme, prevailing evil is both grievous and perplexing in God's ways beyond searching out. As we walk through chapter one, it begins with Habakkuk coming before God with this initial grievance saying, look, there's all of this sin among your people. Your law is not kept. Why do you remain silent? Why do you allow this to continue, all of this injustice? And then God brings a shocking response. He says, I know. And I'm raising up the Chaldeans who are going to come, and they are going to bring about my judgment upon the people, and it's going to be terrible. And then we see Habakkuk's response to this, this sort of compounded grievance, saying, but God, they're more evil than we are. How can this be? And the principles that we sort of gather from that first chapter is the fact that sin and evil are indeed grievous, and God is not indifferent to sin, and that God is sovereign over evil for His own purpose. And then we enter into chapter two, and I said the chapter two, the theme there, or summary is this, that God is just and will certainly bring woeful judgment upon all evil, Yet in Christ, he will preserve those who cling to him by faith. And in that passage, it begins with Habakkuk standing, waiting, watching for God's response. And God then comes and he provides this assurance of divine justice, that God will in fact judge all evil. And it's in this context that he says, but the just shall live by faith. And then he brings about the woe of divine justice, all of these woes for the Chaldeans through whom he is bringing the judgment on the Israelites and those living in Judah. And it's a terrible, terrible woe. The judgment that God will bring against them will be great. And then we sort of concluded that message thinking about the end of divine justice, the short end. The fact that in time, God was gonna raise up the Persians to come and basically bring back upon the head of the Chaldeans the very same thing. That God was going to judge the Chaldeans. He was going to bring about a judgment upon their evil. But then we also see the long end. which is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. And that was the fact that those who are in Christ, those who cling to him by faith will be preserved from the judgments of God, just as Noah and his family were preserved in the ark when God brought judgment waters upon this earth and destroyed it. So now we enter into chapter three as a summary of this book. And the theme here. And we could probably come up with a number of themes. This was what came to my mind, a way to sort of represent in a snapshot, this third chapter is this, praise be to the God who comes to deliver his people. Praise be to the God who comes to deliver his people. So this morning, as we walk through the passage, and I'll just, rather than read it all at once here, we're just gonna go through it and work our way verse by verse through this passage. We'll begin, though, with just a preface to the psalm, which we find in verse 1, and then a plea for God's deliverance, a theophany of God's deliverance, and a response to God's deliverance. So, to begin with here, a preface to the psalm. It begins this way, a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, according to Shigianoth. I'm not sure I'm saying that right. We see here in this opening, and as we consider the psalm as a whole, sort of a preface here, that it's a psalm of devotional composition. It's a psalm of devotional composition. It's laid out as a prayer. It's something that's used to call upon God and to exalt God, to bring Him glory. It's also a psalm of poetical composition. Now, When you're trying to read through a passage like this and it's been translated from Hebrew into English, it's very difficult sometimes to appreciate the extent and sort of the form of the composition that exists there because of obvious challenges in translation. One commentator said this, it is impossible to give the English reader an idea of the rhythmical structure of this beautiful composition. We will only observe that it is independent of the arrangement in verses and that the poem, except for verses seven and eight and verse 13, consists of lines each containing exactly three words. So we can't get that from just reading what we have in our translation, the form of prose here that's found in this poetical expression of Habakkuk chapter three. but it's also a psalm of musical composition. It's not merely poetry, but it's actually musical poetry, a psalm. Verses three, nine, and 13 each end with this term, selah, which we often see in the psalms. Now there's differing opinions as to the precise meaning of that term, but many Bible scholars believe it's a term that's used for a musical interlude and perhaps with the added intent of giving a pause to consider what has been said and to give praise to God. Furthermore, the chapter closes with a footnote here. If you look to the end, it says, for the choir director on my stringed instruments. So again, we see that this was designed not merely as poetry, but something that is to be, was intended to be sung. Furthermore, we see this phrase here at the very beginning, the prayer of Habakkuk according to Shigianoth. So what is a Shigianoth? and there are actually mixed opinions about this. Some say it's derived from a word that means ignorance. And so that's used to introduce this as a confessional prayer of ignorance. That's the opinion of some. Others believe it's a type of instrument that is to be used for the expression of this psalm. And still others believe that it's a type of musical composition, a type of musical composition. And based on the explanations of the various opinions, this is what I favor. It's actually, this term is also found in Psalm 7, at the beginning of Psalm 7, and the word itself signifies wanderings. And so it probably describes the style of music that's used here as an impassioned or triumphal strain with rapid change of emotion, or a rather tumultuous type of musical composition. So here's a question then. Why would Habakkuk compose this prayer as a song? Well, in the immediate sense, it's because it's in preparation for the exile. Habakkuk understands that things are about to go south. the path ahead that God was taking them on was going to be a very difficult path. And songs have a way of taking truths and bringing those truths deep into our hearts, words that can minister to us in difficult times. And through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for the need of God's people, this psalm was given to encourage and to sustain the people of God in worship through a very difficult time, which was ahead of them, that their hope would rest in Him. Again, He's raising an Ebenezer. But these words are also designed as well for the people of God through the ages. There's a very real sense. in which the church is the people of God dispersed throughout this world, living in exile from the land of promise, strangers, pilgrims, whose true citizenship is in heaven, people who need this sort of Ebenezer in their lives. So let's go ahead and move then to verse two, and we see this plea for God's deliverance. Verse two, 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. So Habakkuk offers up this plea before God, first according to the fear of God. He's struck by the wrath of God and what he has revealed to him. both in regards to the judgment of Judah and the judgment of the Chaldeans. It's filled him with this certain sense of dread and awe. And it's from this vantage point that he looks heavenward and he pleads with God that he would not abandon his people, but that God would remember his mercy. He makes this plea according to the work of God. He says, revive your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make it known. So what's the work of God that he's referring to here? I think Calvin is right when he says that the work of God is his people. the people that He has chosen, the people with whom He has established His covenant, to whom He gave His promises. And this work entails then deliverance from all enemies and the triumph of His kingdom for the display of His power and His wisdom and His glory. That's the work with which Habakkuk is referring to here. In fact, often when we read the Psalms, we will see the psalmist referring to the works of God. And it's not uncommon for them to make reference to God's deliverance, particularly from their bondage in Egypt under the rule of Pharaoh, and acts of wonder that God performed in the process of that redemption. For instance, Psalm 44, verses one through three. Oh God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us the work that you did in their days, in the days of old. You with your own hand drove out the nations, then you planted them. You have afflicted the peoples, then you spread them abroad. For by their own sword they did not possess the land, and their own arm did not save them, but your right hand and your arm and the light of your presence, for you favored them." We also see in this plea that it was according to the mercy of God. Habakkuk says, remember mercy. In other words, though God has just caused to be offended by their sin and to bring judgment upon their sin, yet that He would be merciful in the midst of that judgment. What a simple and earnest plea, appealing to God's mercy, which has been ever present with the people of God throughout the years. And in reality, this is a prayer which anticipates and begs for the Lord Jesus, because He is the consummation of this plea, the ultimate answer to the entire verse here, Through Him, God did revive His work, His people, the church. In fact, we read in Ephesians 2.10, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. And through Him, God demonstrated His mercy in the midst of His wrath. The cross was a display of His righteous and holy judgment for sin. and simultaneously His great love and His mercy. So we'll move now into verses three through 15, what I'm calling a theophany of God's deliverance. So another big word here that may be unfamiliar to you, theophany. That word means a manifestation of God in the Bible that is tangible to the human senses. And you'll understand that perhaps more as we walk through this, when we talk about God unsheathing his bow, for example. In particular, it describes God coming to destroy evil and to deliver his people. And the purpose of this theophany that we find here is to paint a picture that draws from the past to look to the future. Jehovah is the God who comes. And while there are mixed opinions about the precise details, the common understanding is that this picture he paints is drawn from the story of Exodus, when God delivered Israel from the Egyptians and brought them into the land of promise. And it is with such might and power that he shall come again to deliver his people. And while there would be a deliverance out of exile in Babylon in due time, that did happen, for us standing on this side of the cross, we can appreciate, again, that it's Jesus who is the ultimate fulfillment of this God who comes. So he begins here in verse three. God comes from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran, Selah. His splendor covers the heavens and the earth is full of his praise. So Teman is the country south of Judea near Edom and Paran is the desert region extending to the south side of Judah, south of Judah to Sinai. And many biblical scholars therefore find this an allusion to God's glorious manifestation to his people on the Mount of Sinai. And so with this in mind, there's this Selah, calling the people to consider the God of glory who revealed himself to their fathers in the Mount of Sinai, a rather fearful and awesome display of his holiness and his splendor. And then he continues in verse four, his radiance is like the sunlight. He has rays flashing from his hand and there's the hiding of his power. Before him goes pestilence and plague comes after him. Again, we see allusions to the deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh through the plagues and the pestilence that he used. Verse six, 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. God is the eternal one. And all of his creation answers to him alone. Even the mountains, we think of mountains as those things which represents things unmovable, things that have been in existence since long past. We think about their size and their splendor, yet even these mountains respond to God's command. Verse seven, I saw the tents of Cushon under distress. The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling. So there's a parallelism here. And most feel like it's references to the nations that bordered the Red Sea with imagery from the Exodus story. Those who trembled at the display of God's power in delivering the Israelites. Verse eight, 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? Now, we're gonna see a shift right here in this theophany where Habakkuk has been talking about God, saying things that were true of God, as one who testifies of God. And now in verse eight through the end, we're gonna see that focus shift to Habakkuk speaking directly to God or about God in the things that he's saying here. And he begins by asking a rhetorical question, again, with reference to the parting of the waters for the deliverance of the Israelites. Both, we can think of that in terms of crossing the Red Sea, and then later they would cross the Jordans, they passed into the land of Canaan, as God went before them, in both cases as a mighty warrior. And his purpose was not to rage against the waters, but rather to deliver his people to the land of promise. It says in verse nine, your bow was made bare. The rods of chastisement were sworn. Selah. Again, we get another selah here. God made his bow bare. In other words, he took his weapon, out of its sheath so everyone could see it. And he fitted his arrows to the string to aim them at his enemies, to take vengeance upon those according to what he himself has sworn to do." Habakkuk says, pause here and consider this dreadful truth. He continues, you cleave the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and quaked. The downpour of water 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. Again, creation obeys the voice of its maker. We see here a likely reference to the story of Joshua chapter 10, with Joshua pursuing the Amorites to avenge themselves, in which he prayed to God to bring this vengeance upon the enemies, and God answered his prayer, causing the sun and the moon to stand still for the course of a day. Joshua 4, 14 reads, there was no day like that before it or after it, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel. Continuing in verse 12. 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. God's anointed here. He talks about God's anointed. It may be a reference to Israel. There's a sense in which they are, as the chosen people of God, anointed. And it's written, it looks like, in parallel there to the former line. But it also could be a reference to those whom God anointed as Messiah types for the deliverance of Israel, people such as Moses, who led them out of Egypt, or Joshua, as he brought them into the land of promise and the conquest there of the land, or even David, who delivered the people from the enemies living in Canaan. So all of these, if we think about this, really point us forward to the antitype, which is Christ Jesus, the anointed one, the true anointed one, the Messiah of the Lord. And then he gives a description of God's enemy lying dead, even splayed open with his sword. And it's followed by another Selah, pause, and take in this picture of the enemy of God. laid open, laid bare with his sword, lying on the ground. And then he continues in verse 14, you pierced with his own spears the head of his thrones. So this is an interesting phrase and it evokes a variety of opinions among biblical scholars. It seems to carry the idea that he would use the weapons of the enemy against themselves. So in reference to past events, we can think of the story in Judges of the Midianites who end up destroying one another. They turn against each other and kill one another. But perhaps more notably, we can think of David when he slayed the giant and then took the giant's sword and with the giant's own sword, he chopped off his head. And so then we can consider the means of our own deliverance through Christ, through whom the wounds inflicted upon the cross as they put to death the Son of God, those were the very wounds which were used to defeat the greatest of our enemy. He goes on, they stormed in to scatter us. Their exaltation was like those who devour the oppressed in secret, you trampled on the sea with your horses on the surge of many waters. So Habakkuk closes out this theophany with what appears to be yet another reference to the Red Sea, an event in the history of Israel which is a great pinnacle, a pinnacle really in the whole of the Old Testament as a display of God's intervention to deliver His people from their enemies. And it's for this reason, then, that we see so many references of this great event scattered throughout the Psalms in giving and calling upon the people to remember what God has done and to give Him the praise for His acts of salvation. In fact, in the New Testament, Paul makes a connection to the story of Exodus to our own salvation. in Christ, just as the Israelites were baptized into Moses, so we are baptized into Christ. And through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Habakkuk provides this theophany, a picture of the God who comes to deliver his people from their enemies. And the picture that he paints is truly a picture of our own salvation in Christ, as God who came to conquer sin and death and hell, and the one who will come again for the ultimate consummation of these truths as we continue in the now and not yet. So then we come to verse 16 and through the end of the chapter here, Habakkuk is going to bring a close not only to this psalm, but also with a very sweet conclusion to the book in response to the God who comes to judge, and yet the God who comes to deliver His people, which is really a great summary, His response here, of what it means for the just to live by faith. Verse 16. I heard in my inward parts tremble 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." So, according to the revelation of God, Habakkuk knows that the Chaldeans are being sent to bring violent destruction upon Judah. and it's a dreadful thing. I think it's very difficult for us to try to put ourselves in His shoes, but we ought to try. So here are the people of God, and they've been told with no uncertain terms that there is a great judgment that is going to fall upon them, and it's coming soon, and it's gonna be horrible. Habakkuk knows this. God's judgments are a weighty matter. And Habakkuk's response is to say, I will wait quietly for the day of distress. So here's the first principle I want to draw out of this close here. Living by faith entails holy sobriety. Living by faith entails holy sobriety. Now this is true in regards to salvation. The judgment of God is a dreadful thing. And it seems to be a rather popular notion in our day to avoid discussion of God's judgment for sin, particularly as it relates to the reality of hell. But the truth of the matter is we can't appreciate salvation properly without a clear view of God's justice and His judgments, because we can't understand salvation rightly without a view of the cross. When Jesus bore the wrath of God in our stead, that should make us tremble. That should invoke a holy sobriety. But this is also true in regards to the Christian life. Some would like to live the Christian life with rose-colored glasses and deny the difficulties of our life here on this earth that God has called us to walk through. But to do so is not in accordance to true faith. It's really to deny what is true and live in a false reality. there will be days of distress, hardships, and trials. And Jesus was very clear, for example, when he told the disciples, remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Since the days of the apostles, God has led the church through many waves of persecution and trial of various sorts, sometimes more, sometimes less, depended when you lived and where you lived. According to his word, as I best understand it, that distress will continue in this world, even as a woman in labor, until Christ returns. Hearing the report of what took place even this morning at Lighthouse Baptist, we can also think about the fact that each of us faced death. Unless Christ returns, we're all going to pass through the waters of death ourselves, though not without hope. living by faith entails holy sobriety. And we move on to verse 17. Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vine, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exalt in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. So here's principle number two. Living by faith entails continuous rejoicing. Though Habakkuk sees the distress is coming, yet when he considers by faith the God who comes, the God who would deliver and save His people, He has reason to rejoice because He understands how the story will end. And this is why we must not get caught up in the things that are temporal as the basis of our joy, because such things come and they go. All temporal things are destined to perish. Rather, we must look beyond these things to things eternal according to the promises of God. So as a side note on that point, here's the proposition of the prosperity gospel. When you live by faith, you will find material blessings at every turn and freedom from every ailment. If you experience hardships or illness, then there must be something wrong with your faith. Certainly not a time for rejoicing, but for trying harder to have more faith. Now, among the problems with that erroneous viewpoint, that erroneous doctrine is this. First of all, it lends itself toward living for things earthly and temporal, to the neglect of things eternal and spiritual. Secondly, it can also cause one's faith to shift from God to one's faith in their own faith. And what a sad place for the one who is met with trial after trial and loss upon loss. And in case I miss something, every proponent of that position eventually dies. That's not the biblical view of what it means to have faith. Now we are told, we are invited to bring even our temporal troubles and our wants before God. That is true. But we stand assured of such promises from His Word that can sustain us even when we see failure and disappointment and tragedy. We read this in Romans 8, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. He continues in a few verses, who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Just as it is written, for your sake, we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's what it means to live by faith. to be able to rejoice in God no matter what. Drawing from the promises of God, the author of Hebrews instructs with these words, he said, make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you, so that we confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what will man do to me? The outcome of such faith is the ability to rejoice even in the midst of suffering and loss. Because when all is gone, God is not. Paul, in the midst of imprisonment, writes to the Philippians, And he encourages them multiple times in that epistle, both to follow his example and to rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. He writes to them this, but whatever things were gained to me, those things I've counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." For that reason, the Apostle Paul can rejoice at all times, and he tells us, you also ought to be rejoicing. when you live by faith. I like how Matthew Henry describes the one who lives with this kind of faith. He says, but those who, when full, enjoyed God in all, when emptied and poor, can enjoy all in God. They can sit down upon the heap of the ruins of their creature comforts, and even then praise the Lord. as the God of their salvation, the salvation of the soul, and rejoice in Him as such in their great distresses. And then this leads us into the final verse here. Verse 19, the Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds feet, and He makes me walk on my high places. So here's the third principle, living by faith entails resting confidence. Living by faith entails resting confidence. This is really the end of the matter for the just who live by faith. The Lord is my strength. And for this reason, I can rejoice. Our confidence is found in the salvation of God through His Son, Jesus Christ, in whom every promise is yes and amen. Therefore, our faith rests in Him alone. He is our portion. He is our strength. He is our salvation. He is our redemption. He is the one who gives us life eternal. He is the one who will bring us to the land of promise. It began with Him and it will end with Him. and the just shall live by faith. Let's close. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for your word here and for this response of Habakkuk that is recorded for us. Lord, I pray that you would make us people, a people that live by faith, people, Lord, whose greatest asset, whose greatest strength, whose only hope, Lord, is You. Lord, that with such faith that You might sustain us through all of the challenges of this life, Lord, we acknowledge this, Lord, in our own salvation. Father, that We deserve your judgment. And we received your judgment for sin, not us, but our Savior, who interposed on our behalf. Lord, therefore, through Him, we have, Lord, a pardon. Through Him, our sin has been atoned for. And Lord, we see this in life, that through Christ, we have a hope of the resurrection. that, Lord, though we shall pass through many trials and tribulations in this world, and even death itself, Lord, yet you are the God who comes to save. And therefore, our confidence and our hope rests upon you. Lord, we thank you for these truths. In Christ's name, amen. All right. Take a few moments then to open it up to any comments, thoughts, questions, corrections, additions. I like the way you got that answer, but in fact, I can say, especially right now, Justice and virtue. We struggle so much with crime together. Right. He does it so perfectly. Right. So a little different encouragement. I guess, just as you've been thinking through, and a fair amount of fearsome, I guess my encouragement would be All right, I'll turn it over to Matt.