Okay, so again, that's Habakkuk chapter 2. So please turn your Bibles there to Habakkuk chapter 2. We will be reading all 20 verses and then we will go to the Lord in prayer once again. Habakkuk chapter 2. Hear now the word of the Lord. I will stand on my guard. I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart, and I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me, and how I may reply when I am reproved. Then the Lord answered me and said, Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time. It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it, for it will certainly come, it will not delay. Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by faith, by his faith. Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, so that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to Himself all nations and collects to Himself all peoples. Will not all these take up a taunt song against Him, even mockery and insinuations against Him, and say, Woe to him who increases what is not his, for how long, and makes himself rich with loans? Will not your creditors rise up suddenly and those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them. because you have looted many nations. All the remainder of the peoples will loot you because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants. Woe to him who gets evil for gain for his house, to put his nest on high, to be delivered from the hand of calamity. You have devised a shameful thing for your house by cutting off many peoples. So you are sinning against yourself. Surely the stone will cry out from the wall and the rafter will answer it from the framework. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence. Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts the people's toil for fire and nations grow weary for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Woe to him who make Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk, so as to look on their nakedness. You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will come upon your glory. For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them, because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town, and all its inhabitants. What prophet is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols. Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, awake, to a mute stone arise, and that is your teacher. Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it, but the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for your word. Thank you for this Lord's Day. Thank you for the nourishment that you have provided us thus far with the morning service, with the sermon that was preached. Lord, we pray that you would continue to be with us by your Holy Spirit, that you would teach us and instruct us, Lord God, that we would receive your word by faith. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So, one of the things that most of us, if not all of us, don't like to do is to wait. And, you know, we can think of things, you know, mundane things that we do daily when we go to a restaurant, when we order something from, let's say, Amazon, and we have to wait, you know, we have to wait 30, 40 minutes to be seated, or we have to wait some time to get our package that we ordered. Whatever the case may be, we're having to wait for things. And so we don't like to do that. We expect things to be done quickly. And partly it's because we do have certain other restaurants and other services that have kind of trained us to get things quickly. There's fast food restaurants. When you're looking for something online, you have a question, you're inquiring about something, you can just do a quick Google search and boom, you have an answer there. We don't like to wait. even do deep studies. We just want to know the answer. And that characterizes all of us, the world in general. And so we don't like to wait. We want things done quickly. We want to know things quickly as well. In my case recently, with my condition, with my eyes, we had a surgery done about three weeks ago. We had to wait for the biopsy that was supposed to be available within a few days, and it's been now three weeks, and we finally, on Friday, got the news, and we praise the Lord for that. But again, we're always having to wait, and sometimes the Lord is trying our patience, especially for us as believers, He's trying our patience, He's growing our patience, and He's teaching us in those times when we wait. So again, as believers, we're not exempt from this. In fact, as believers, God will test us in this. He will purposely put us in situations He will send to us certain trials where we're going to have to wait for an answer. We're going to have to wait for an explanation of what's going on. And then even the resolution for that, we're going to have to wait often. In some cases, it may be weeks, months, but in others, it may be years before we get an answer or before we get some kind of resolution. And so this theme of waiting then is what I want to focus on in the second chapter of Habakkuk. As we saw two weeks ago when we went through chapter one, we saw that Habakkuk began a conversation with or dialogue with the Lord. And so chapter two is a continuation of that dialogue. And so as we see here, as this dialogue continues, the Lord is going to answer him again. And he's going to give him more details about his purposes, what he had revealed to him in his first answer. But here we're going to see these details and these purposes which go far beyond Habakkuk's own circumstances. But again, we're gonna see that not only in the answer, but also in God's actions and what He's gonna do, we're gonna see that Habakkuk and all those that are God's people, His true people, His true children, are gonna have to wait. There's gonna be some waiting involved. And so with this in mind, this idea of waiting, we're gonna look at our text under these three headings. Number one, waiting on the Lord, for an answer, to answer, waiting on the Lord to act, and then lastly, waiting on the Lord by faith. So again, as I mentioned, what we see here in chapter 2 is a continuation of the dialogue that began in chapter 1. If you remember, if you recall, Habakkuk was perplexed because you have the wicked in his own country, his own countrymen that were wicked and were oppressing the righteous. He had cried out to the Lord and the impression that we got was that it was a continual crying to the Lord. And what was the response? There was none. God had not responded. He had not answered. Habakkuk, and here in chapter 1, we finally see that God answers him, but He doesn't answer him in the way that He expected. Basically, He told him, yes, I will answer you, I will do what you ask, but not in the way that you ask. So the manner in which Habakkuk had expected God to act is not what God told him. It's not what God was going to do. And so that left him even more perplexed. And so he ushered a, or he, he gave a complaint. He replied to God with a complaint about his answer. And so we were, we left off there. We left off with Habakkuk complaining against God and asking him in a sense to justify what he's, what he was going to do with the Chaldeans. Because if you recall, he was going to use this wicked nation to judge his people. And so in chapter two, then we get the second reply, the second answer by God to Habakkuk. And so as we consider this point, this heading, waiting on the Lord to answer, we see the character and the disposition of Habakkuk, and we see something different here. So let us read it one more time, verse one. Habakkuk says, I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart and I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me and how I may reply when I am reproved. So what we see here in this idea of waiting is expressed in the metaphor of the watchman. Now a watchman in the Old Testament was a guard and he was responsible for keeping watch over uh... the city a vineyard or a field of some kind uh... it was common in the ancient near east for thieves to enter into vineyards or other type of uh... agricultural fields and to steal if not thieves animals could come and destroy crops so cities would come under attack and it was common to construct watchtowers in vineyards or in the cities but near the gates uh... and post uh... men there watchmen guard, to watch for these coming, potential coming dangers. And so scripture, when it refers to watchmen, in most cases, it's referring to these watchmen that sat in these towers. They stood in these towers as guards, protecting the cities and fields. But the Bible also uses this metaphor or this idea of the watchman in a spiritual sense. We see it in Hosea 9.8 and we see it in Ezekiel 33.7 where there the Lord tells his prophet Ezekiel, Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel so that you will hear a message from my mouth and give them warning from me. So the watchman who sat on or who guarded the cities would sit and wait diligently watchfully for dangers, approaching dangers, and his responsibility was to warn. If he stepped aside, if he was negligent, it would not only affect him, but the entire city. So it was a very serious task to do. But the spiritual watchman also had a very serious, and we can even say a more serious task, because he had the responsibility of warning his people of spiritual dangers. God would communicate to this spiritual watchman, Ezekiel the prophet, or any prophet, he would communicate his message and they had the responsibility to warn his people. to warn the wicked, to warn them of their wicked ways, to warn them to repent. Otherwise, judgment would come. And so this is how Habakkuk saw himself. It was a very serious matter. And because of that, his waiting was earnest, was diligent. He wanted to hear from God to see what He would say. so that he could convey this information to the people. And so there are a few things that we can learn from this, that we can gather from this, from Habakkuk. First, it is that just like Habakkuk, most of the time we are going to have to wait. We're going to have to wait for God to provide answers. Habakkuk questioned God. He asked of Him. He petitioned Him. At first we see in chapter one that he waited for a long time. Now he's asked of the Lord again, and again, he's waiting. And so just like Habakkuk, when we go to God, oftentimes we're going to have to wait. And again, as I mentioned in my introduction, that we don't like to do that, but God is working something in us. He is working patience and other godly virtues in us as we come to him, seek him, but as he then you know, at times seems to be silent and doesn't respond right away. We are to wait diligently, we are to wait reverently for the Lord's answer. But also, what we also notice here is the difference between the waiting that we see here and in chapter one. Let me read verse 2 and verse 3 from chapter 1 so we can see this difference. So in chapter 1 verse 2 he says, So here we see a tone of despair and hopelessness. Though he does not doubt God, He does not charge him with wrongdoing. He is nevertheless perplexed and discouraged because God does not answer. He is focused on his troubles. He is focused on those things that are bringing trouble and turmoil to his soul. But now look at the disposition in our text in verse 1. He says, I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart and I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me and how I may reply when I am reproved. We see a difference. There is now a sense of hope. Though he is still waiting, he has confidence in God. He is not focused and distressed because of the troubles of the wicked, though still a bit confused, but his focus now is on God. He's waiting diligently, patiently, reverently, Habakkuk's concern now is the Lord's answer. He has made his complaint, and now he simply waits for the response. Though he may still be perplexed by not being able to understand God's work, he is not concerning himself with that, but upon God's reply, and he says how he will respond. He's contemplating how he's going to respond, how he's going to respond to God's answer. And brethren, one thing that, again, that we can learn from this is that oftentimes when we come to prayer, when we come to God in prayer, we do it the right way. We come in faith, we lay our burdens, we cast our anxieties before Him, we cry out to the Lord, believing that He will hear, believing that He will answer in His timing, that He's powerful, He's sovereign, He can do all things. But when we're done praying, oftentimes we get up and we continue to worry about the thing that we just prayed for. It's like we put the burdens, we put our cares on the floor there before the Lord, and then we're done, we say thank you in Jesus' name, and then we get those burdens and put them right back on. And that is not how we are to come to prayer. That is not how we are to, when we come to God, that is not how we are to pray to Him. I know it's not that easy, but what God does tell us is we gotta leave our cares with the Lord. Our Lord says in Matthew chapter five that, can we add a day by worrying? There's nothing that we can do to our situation by worrying, by carrying our burdens. We must take them and then leave them before the Lord, leave them at His feet, trusting that He's sovereign, that He can bring resolution, He can bring relief if He so wills. But let Him do His part. Our part is simply to cast our cares before Him and then leave them at His feet. So again, yes, we're going to be tempted. We're going to be filled with burdens and anxieties. But again, we need to leave these to God and then just wait upon the Lord. Wait for Him to give us more information, more knowledge, to give us an answer to our situation. Because it is through these times, it is through these times of waiting that God instructs us to. that God teaches us, that God strengthens us, He strengthens our faith, He increases our trust in Him, and it helps us to prepare for future trials. I've gone through trials in my own life when I've had to wait a long time, when I was in great despair and in trials. And so looking back, as I see similar trials coming my way, I can look back at God's faithfulness and how He answered. It wasn't in the way that I wanted to, but I'm seeing the way He's dealing with me. You know, and it's like, you know, children with their parents, they know their character, they know how they react, they know how they treat them. And so as we experience these trials, we get a sense of how God treats us, how He handles us, how He handles the situations in our life. And so He's teaching us during these times. And so all we have to do then is just wait and just give it to the Lord and wait upon Him to give us an answer. But another thing that we can learn from this is by considering Habakkuk, or in considering Habakkuk as a spiritual watchman, is that God still speaks to us through spiritual watchmen. Though there are no prophets nowadays, there's no more prophets, but look at what Hebrews 13, seven tells us. It says, obey your leaders and submit to them. for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account." So the Lord has raised up men to take His Word and to communicate that, to preach that, to encourage, to strengthen, and even, yes, to warn. We see many warnings in Scriptures about sin. And so these men are here to warn, to encourage, to teach, to instruct, and this is how God speaks to His people today. There's no more prophets, there's no more visions. We have His Word, and we have faithful men who study the Word and then proclaim God's message to His people. It is through these ministers of the Word whom God has raised up, whom Christ calls as his ambassadors, who speak on his behalf, that God speaks to us now. And so as watchman, as a watchman, standing guard, Habakkuk is waiting for the Lord to answer. And rather than getting a rebuke, which is what he expected, the Lord gives Habakkuk a vision of what he is going to do. But even then, this action, this action of God, this work of God that he's about to do, will not take place immediately. Habakkuk must now wait on God to act. And so this brings us to our second point, waiting on the Lord to act. In verse 2, the Lord answers Habakkuk again by way of a vision, and He tells him to inscribe this, or to record this vision. He is going to judge the wicked, but the vision gives us more information than Habakkuk expected. Habakkuk is going to see that this goes way beyond his current situation. The nature of this prophecy is basically salvation through judgment. that in God's salvation, there is always an element of judgment. And we've spoken about this before when we went through biblical theology and in other places, in Ephesians, that, for example, take the Exodus, there God delivered his people. There was a great salvation, but there was also a great judgment as he judged Egypt, he judged Pharaoh. And so this is the hope that we see here in Habakkuk, that yes, God is going to use the Chaldeans, He's going to use the Babylonians, this wicked nation, to judge them, to judge His people, but God has a plan and He will, in the end, He will destroy and judge the Chaldeans. But not just the Chaldeans, as we will see, but He will judge them. So in their deliverance, He will judge them. Because if you remember also, even when we went through Nahum and we went through Zephaniah, there we also got hints that God had a purpose in not just judging the people for their sins, but judging them as He delivered His people and for the restoration of His people. So in all of this, in this judgment that comes upon the Chaldeans, this idea of the restoration of His people is there in the background. So God is going to restore and bless His people, but first, again, He will take them through this trial with the Chaldeans, but in the end, He will judge them and deliver His people. And so the way that this prophecy is given is that it contrasts uh... two ways of life one by the wicked and the other by the righteous and by righteous uh... again we can look at it in in in two cents here we think about the old testament there's those that that on that obey God's law externally. But as we see it, as the New Testament then sees righteousness, we see it as those that have trusted and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this righteousness is not a righteousness that is their own. It is one that comes from outside of them. It is an alien righteousness, one that comes from Christ. And so there's a contrast here between the wicked and the righteous. So let us look at the life of the wicked and see what elements we see here as God is pronouncing this judgment on the wicked. And one thing that I want us to observe is how God's silence, how God's silence has an effect, two different effects on these two different people. We saw something similar last week. But for example, let us turn to Psalm 10, because that gives us a little bit more insight. I mentioned this Psalm last week as well, or not last week, two weeks ago in chapter one. Here we see the psalmist in Psalm 10 crying out to the Lord, Why? Because the wicked are basically doing the same thing that they're doing here in the day of Habakkuk. And we see here that God remains silent. He says, the psalmist says, why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide your face in times of trouble? So again, it's a similar cry to Habakkuk in chapter one. God is silent. The wicked are are oppressing, they're killing, they're just running amok, and yet God remains silent. And so we are given here an insight into the mentality of the wicked and what their reasoning is for what they do. We see this in verse 11, for example. It says, this is the wicked saying this, God has forgotten. He has hidden his face. He will never see it. So they mistake God's silence, the fact that he is not immediately bringing judgment as They interpret that as license to sin. They interpret that as God being indifferent to what they do. That God does not care. And so they say, there is no God. Now, I've mentioned this before, that phrase, there is no God, should be, I think, better translated as, God is of no consequence. Because these people were Israelites. Of course they believed that there was a God. It's just that God's not doing anything. He's of no consequences. We can do whatever we want. He's not gonna call us to account. He won't judge us. He doesn't see what we do. And so then we also see that what leads them to this behavior, aside from their erroneous view of God, is that it is their pride. We see this in verse two. In pride, the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted. Verse 4, the wicked in the haughtiness of his countenance does not seek God. Verse 6, he says to himself, I will not be moved throughout all generations. I will not be an adversary. So this is adversity. This is their pride speaking here. Because of their pride, because they've exalted themselves, they're doing all these things, they're oppressing, they're afflicting the righteous. Now going back to Habakkuk, this is the same thing here. We see this in verse 4. Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him. And here, the proud one, though it's singular here, it's referring to the Chaldeans. It's a personification of what they are. They're this proud nation, this haughty nation. And so here, Habakkuk, in his prophecy, the Chaldeans are referred to as the proud one. This is what characterizes them. Now we can, I'm sure there's many sins for which they were guilty of, but again, the scriptures are focusing this as what characterized these people, the proud ones, or their pride. It's been said, and I've mentioned this before as well, that many consider pride as the mother of all sins. And whether this is true or not, it certainly is a contender for that title. It was the sin of pride that was the cause of Satan's fall. We see a picture of this in the prophecies of judgment against the king of Babylon and Tyre by the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. Though the prophecies are about these kings, they are at the same time describing the fall and judgment of Satan. And we see that it was his pride that in his pride his heart was lifted up. He exalted himself and desired to be as God. Think of the first temptation. Satan tempts Eve, and what does he say? On the day that you eat of this fruit, you will be as God, knowing good and evil. And so it is pride that births all sorts of sins, covetousness, Selfishness, arrogance, sexual immorality, oppression, idolatry, and many others. Why? Because in our pride, we think we are our own gods. We are in control. We think we deserve what we desire. And how dare anybody say no or withhold us from what we want? Again, we think we're in control of our lives. We think that our lives are our own. We can do whatever we want with them. Is it not this selfishness and this arrogance that we see in today's biggest cultural issues? Abortion, for example. It is my body, my choice, my selfish life, my selfish desires, my goals, all these things, my, my, my, they're focused on themselves. My selfish goals, all this trumps the life of this baby. They are the ones that decide whether this baby is an actual baby or not. And they are the ones that then give worth to this life. But it's all because of pride. They reject God and therefore this is how they are. They think they have the right to kill. And this is what characterized the Chaldeans as well. They believed they had this right to plunder and to kill and to destroy because of their pride. And so how tragic and sad then for this, even in our day. And let's not forget, since we're talking about pride, during this month our country celebrates, sadly, what the world calls Pride Month. A month dedicated to the pride of sexual perversions. Not too long ago, there was a recognition that these things were shameful. Yes, there has been throughout history people that flaunted this, who were not ashamed of it. But in general, societies throughout history have shamed this, or have shunned this. It was viewed as shameful, and rightly so. But today, society celebrates this. In their pride, they have exalted their perverted sexual desires And not only do they want the right to do this, but they want everybody else to celebrate with them. Again, this is very sad and tragic. And so again, in their pride, the Chaldeans pillaged, used evil gain to secure themselves, trusting in their strength. They were people of bloodshed, founding their towns with violence. They trusted in their own strength for security, causing others to partake in their own debauchery. And they were idolaters. And so because of this, we see five woes that are pronounced here in chapter two. And we're not going to go through all of them. We don't have the time. The first woe is a woe we find in verse six through eight. In their pride, they plundered. And in God's judgment, they then will be plundered. So what they did will then be done to them. That is the first woe. Second woe, they wanted security, safety from calamity and vulnerability. And the proud man, or the Chaldeans, sought this by evil gain, taking for themselves what was not rightfully theirs, and by cutting off many peoples. And what they get in the end is shame for their household. The end result of the proud one's greed turns out to be the opposite of what he sought. The third woe, the proud build cities and towns with bloodshed and violence. They oppress others and subject them to forced labor. Yet all this will prove futile when the Lord destroys it all by fire. The fourth woe, again, in their pride they saw others to partake in their own debauchery. The proud is never satisfied with enjoying his sinful desires on his own. He wants others to partake of his own wickedness. And again, as I mentioned, we see this in our modern day movement of the LGBTQ. They don't want us to simply let them live their life, which is what they originally wanted. Now they want you to affirm and to celebrate their perversion. Lastly, the last woe, they're being judged for their pride, the rebelliousness that they worship other gods rather than the one true God. But in all of this is where we see the hope of this message. The essence, again, of this message is the essence and nature of salvation itself. And that is, as I mentioned earlier, that it's salvation deliverance in the midst of judgment. One group is being saved from another, and thus the other group is being judged. So yes, Habakkuk says the Lord, I will use these wicked Chaldeans for my good and holy purposes, but I will judge them. They will be destroyed. But as in the first point, as Habakkuk waited for the answer, now that the answer is given to him, we see that Habakkuk must wait for God to fulfill his purpose. He must wait for God to act. But the poetic style of this description of the Chaldeans, by making them personified in this figure of the proud one, is done in such a way that this characteristic, this description, is applicable to other nations besides the Chaldeans. So even though contextually this is a judgment on the Chaldeans or the Babylonians, it is also a picture and a judgment on the nations, on the wicked nations. It's a judgment coming upon all the wicked of the earth. So similar to Nahum and Zephaniah, this is referring to the last day, the day of judgment. Thus, the deliverance is looking beyond this local deliverance in the Middle East. It's looking beyond Judah and Israel. This deliverance is worldwide as well. It's a deliverance of all of God's people, both Jew and Gentile. And so what are some signs or clues that this text or that these woes, this judgment has future elements, that it's not just of the Chaldeans, that it's not just referring to Judah, but that it's referring to the entire world and all of God's people throughout the world. We see this in in several clues. We get several clues here in chapter 2. First is that the Lord tells Habakkuk to write the vision on tablets. Now a little kind of side information is that these tablets are significant because they point back to Moses. The wording here is record the vision and inscribe it on the tablets. We don't have the definite article here but it's in the Hebrew on the tablets. Referring again back to Moses to the tablets But again, what this does is it gives us a covenantal significance, and it heightens too the significance of this message, that God is doing this as a covenant God. He's not just the judge of the world, but He's a covenant God. He's defending His people by judging these nations. And so, we also see here then that the goal He says in verse 3, for the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail, though it tarries, wait for it. And we see this idea of appointed time as a reference to the Day of Judgment. We see this in Daniel. In Daniel, I think it's chapter 12, I didn't write it down, where the Lord tells Daniel, Behold, I am going to let you know what will occur at the final period of the indignation for it pertains to the appointed time of the end. So this expression of the appointed time is looking forward to and it's pointing to this end time, this time when God will judge finally all the wicked of the world. but then at the same time bring deliverance upon his people. And so again, this vision is yet for the appointed time. It's not now Habakkuk, I will bring resolution, I will bring deliverance, but it's not now. It's yet future, it's for the appointed time. And so again, the prophet must wait. He must wait patiently. And so what can we learn from this then? As we consider our first point that we have to wait for God to answer, again, once he answers, Oftentimes, we have to wait for God then to fulfill His promises, to fulfill His purposes. And this is not new to the believer. This is not new to Scripture. We see this throughout the entire history of God's people from the very beginning. We can think of Abraham, for example, and the promises that God made to Abraham. Not only of Christ, which came many, many years later, but even just the formation of His people. Many people have had to wait. Again, Abraham was promised a son, an heir, and he had to wait for the fulfillment of that. When we think of, for example, Joseph, being faithful to God in all that he did, he was unjustly imprisoned. And I'm sure many nights Joseph cried out to God, maybe even asking why. But before God exalted him to the position that we see him later in Genesis as the Pharaoh's right-hand man, he had to wait. He had to wait a long time. He had to wait to see, why did this happen to me? Why was he even sold to the Egyptians in the first place? Why did his brothers do what they did to him? And then why is he in prison? And then he finally, when the famine comes and he sees his brothers, he realizes this is why God did it. So he got an answer for what had happened, but it came many years later. He had to wait. David too was promised to be king. He was anointed as king. But it took him many years before he actually ascended to the throne. He had to wait. And even during that time, he didn't just wait peacefully. He was persecuted. Saul wanted to kill him. So too in our waiting as believers, we're going to have to wait, and many times, we're going to have to wait during times of trial, during times of persecution, before we see, before we have an answer, or even before we have any kind of deliverance or resolution. And many times that deliverance will not come in our lifetime. We'll have to wait until our Lord returns. For many, We struggle with many things, infirmities of the body and then infirmities of the soul. We struggle with sickness and pain that our bodies long to be rid of. We struggle with sin. But we must not grow weary. The Bible tells us that we must be patient. that we must wait, that God has a purpose to accomplish. And that purpose that might not be fulfilled in our time, but we must wait. And what we are told is that that purpose, His purposes will come. For it will come, He says, though it tarries, wait for it, for it will certainly come. It will not delay. So that this time will come. Now, we've seen then that Habakkuk waits for God to answer. He waits for God to act. But now, quickly, in our last point, how are we to wait? In what manner are we to wait for God? Should we just wait, just idly doing nothing? No. We come to our third point. as believers, we are to wait on the Lord by faith. And that is what we see here in verse 4. Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith. So as believers, we are to wait on the Lord by faith. Now there's a little textual textual variants here so the English says the righteous will live by his faith but the word that is used there is actually faithfulness the righteous will live by his faithfulness. And so that brings up the question, is the Lord here saying that we are to live by works? Is salvation or justification by faith alone, is that being called into question? Well, I don't think so. And as we think about this, we think about the relationship between faith and works. that those who believe are those that evidence that faith by faithfulness, by works. And so when Paul picks this up, because Paul quotes this in Romans 1 17, in Galatians 3 11. And if you're one of those that believe that he's the author of Hebrews, it's he also quoted in Hebrews, but no, the author, I don't, I don't, I don't, I lean towards not but that he's not the author, but um, but it's quoted three times in scripture. And Basically, the idea then is that it is by faith, again, this is Paul's argument in Romans and Galatians, that there's really in essence two ways of life and we kind of see that here. It's either by works or by faith. Now, theoretically speaking, yes, if a person could live perfectly and obey God's commands perfectly, yes, that person would be justified, would be saved, would go to heaven, would inherit the eternal kingdom. But given the fact that we are fallen, given the fact of sin, none of us can do that. None of us can do that. So the only option available is the righteousness that comes through faith, the righteousness that is of Christ. And this is what Paul picks up from this. The Septuagint actually also translate this verse as, the just shall live by faith. And I think this is partly where Paul gets this from. But at the same time, just the revelation that he has that salvation, justification is by faith alone, not by works. And so again, here, what is the Lord telling us? That while His purposes are still yet future, we are to wait. And while we wait, the proud, the wicked will still be doing their wickedness. They will still be oppressing the righteous. persecuting the righteous, but in the meantime, we are to wait by faith, trusting in the Lord, trusting in His promises, and then being faithful, and this is where the faithfulness comes in, then being faithful to walk according to the calling that we've been called with, walking according to His Word. not being idle, not being found slothful, or neglecting our duties as believers. We are to be faithful in all that God has called us to. Again, not trusting in those works, but trusting in Christ, trusting in His promises. In 1 Peter, it was mentioned this morning, but in 1 Peter, we see then the ultimate purpose that God has, to which everything is moving towards. It's actually 2nd Peter. And he says, let me see, beginning in verse 3. So 2nd Peter 3, 3. Know this, first of all, in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by his word, the present heavens and the earth are being reserved for fire. kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. And then in verse 10 he talks about the coming of the Lord that will come like a thief where the heavens will pass away and roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. So again he's This is what Habakkuk was revealed, maybe not with so much detail, but all of this is moving towards that end where the entire world, all the wicked will be judged. Christ will come. He will destroy them, but He will give relief. He will give comfort to His people. Those that have been persecuted, those that longed and loved His appearing, He will give them peace. He will give them relief and comfort. when he comes in that day. And so all of this then is looking towards that. The wicked mock and they say, hey, the Lord's tearing, the Lord, where is the fulfillment of his promise? But we must wait patiently because of that day it will come and it will come like a thief. And if you have not trusted in the Lord, then that day will come upon you as a day of judgment, as a day of wrath, where you will be destroyed. But if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, that day will be a glorious day, the day that we all long for, when no more sin, no more struggle, no more persecution, no more trials, all of that will be done away with. It will be a day of relief, a day of comfort, a day of joy and gladness for those that have trusted in Him, that have obeyed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So with that, let us close. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. Thank You so much for Your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You, Lord God, that You have decreed all things, that this purpose is not something that some second plan, some plan that you kind of just came up with, Lord God. This has been decreed from the beginning. You have purposed this from the very beginning of time and even in eternity in your eternal decrees, you have purposed this. And Lord God, we know that whatever you have purposed will come to pass. It's certain. And Lord, I pray that as we encounter trials, as we struggle with sin, with the world, with the devil, as we struggle with all these things and are tempted to be discouraged, are tempted to then ask, Lord, why? Why have you not answered? Why have you not done anything? Help us, Lord God, to not think that way, to remember your promises, to remember that you have fixed a day where you will judge the wicked, where you will bring relief to your people, where all things will be set right, where the kingdom of God will extend to all the ends of the earth and righteousness will dwell. Lord, help us, Lord God, to look forward to that day as we go through these trials, as we go through the persecutions and the struggles that we encounter in this life. Help us to keep that in mind, that we may not lose heart, that we may not grow weary in doing good, but that we would keep trusting in you and growing in grace, in our sanctification, and in our likeness to Christ. So please help us, Lord God, and we thank you again for your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray all these things in His name. Amen.