Chapter 3. And we wish to look at the Lord will enable us. Verses 17 to 19. Verses 17 to 19. labor of the older South Salish, and the future of you too. The folks shall be cut off from the fields and the forests, and there shall be no heir there to be born. And I will rejoice in the Lord, I will rejoice in the Lord my salvation. Lord God is my strength, he will make my feet like mine feet, he will make me to walk with my high feet, chapter 3 and from verse 17 to 19. Habakkuk chapter 3 from verse 17 to 19. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine. When I was asked to open the seminary, or at least do the sermon for the opening of the seminary, it was Habakkuk that I came to. I did, as it were, an overview of Habakkuk. Seeing his cry of pain, how in the time in which he lived, he cried out to the Lord, asking how long and wondering if the Lord was hearing and answering his prayer, the cry of faith. Then he comes in the second chapter to the life of faith. It is there that the apostle himself quotes when he says, the just shall live by faith. Here another question, of course, why it was that a great and mighty nation were going to come down upon Judah, who were actually, in many respects, worse than Judah themselves. But then you come to the last chapter, and this is the song of praise. song of praise. We say it's a song because you notice Sela mentioned on a number of occasions and it ends up to the chief singer on my stringed instrument. So it's a prayer and a song. And what a wonderful book this is because when it comes to thinking about Habakkuk, He is obviously one who expounds that we should have faith, we should have walked by faith, we should believe. And it's these three aspects that I spoke on, the cry of faith, the life of faith, and the song of faith. But in order for you to have faith, you must be assured of the one in whom you have your faith. It is all very well to have faith. I would suggest to you that the vast majority have faith in something. Every religion has a belief of some kind. Even atheism is no more than just a faith that people put their trust in. But it's not simply your faith. It is the fact that faith is resting upon one who is the Lord Jehovah. The Lord God is my strength. Jehovah Elohim, he says, is my strength. So we want to look this evening, not just at Habakkuk, the man of faith, but the one in whom he puts his faith, because that is what makes him so unique. That is what makes the Christian unique. It is not that they have faith. It is the one in whom they have their faith that makes the Christian religion completely unique. Now, there are three things we want to look at in the verses we have before us here. First of all, Habakkuk and the Lord's people have their faith in the unchanging God. The unchanging God. Secondly, they have their faith in the God of their salvation. the God of their salvation. And thirdly, they have their faith in the omnipotent God, the unchanging God, the God of their salvation, and the God who is almighty, the omnipotent God. And that's what makes Habakkuk's faith so unique and so wonderful. Let us then look and his faith in the unchanging God. We live in a changing world. And if anybody knew something about the changing world, it was Habakkuk himself. Habakkuk, as we will notice, is living about 600 years before the coming of Christ. And he knows what it is to have a world that's changing all around him. In 625, the Assyrians, their power is waning. There is a mighty force that's rising up in its place. And that is the Chaldeans or the Babylonian. The great Babylonian empire is now surfacing. And in 625 BC, the power of the Assyrians is beginning to wane until ultimately Nineveh is overthrown in 612. Nineveh is overthrown. Nineveh is overthrown. So you're seeing Egypt in the south. Egypt at the moment occupies Palestine and Judah. But in the North, there are the Babylonians, they're rising up. And they are going to supersede the great power of the Assyrians with the destruction and the overtaking of Nineveh, the capital in 612. In Judah itself, there are things not standing still. Things are changing all the time. Things are changing. Josiah dies in 609. That's a mighty change, because Josiah was a good king, a godly king. But how quickly things can change. Jehoiachin takes over from him, and that's a disaster. He takes over in 608, and in 605, the Egyptians are defeated at Carthage. And ultimately, the Babylonians now are coming down upon Israel. In 605, they have their first advance into Judah, or into Palestine and down into Judah. In 597, they have their second escapade down into Judah. And ultimately, in 586, Babylon comes down and destroys Jerusalem. Things have changed. Times of a great change. Things never stay the same. We live in such times ourselves today, times when things are so fluid. There is Russia, there is China, there is the Ukraine, there is what's going on in Palestine. There is moral confusion, political confusion. There's the right, there's the left. Things have changed so quickly even in the last 25 or 30 years. You could hardly understand nor believe the change that is going on. And so it is with Habakkuk. You see these things come in with the fall in Genesis. Everything was good in the Garden of Eden. There was no such change. Everything would have continued. But in the fall of Adam, you see immediately change that takes place. You see the curse of the ground, the curse of the ground. And in that you see even something of that in verse 17, although the fig tree shall not blossom, the fruit of the vine shall fail, the labors of the olive shall fail, there'll be no meat for the fields, the flock shall be cut off. All this is a consequence of the fall, the great change that has taken place in man and in his life. The biggest change, of course, and the biggest things that change in this life is that those who we once knew, we know them no more. The place that they once occupied is now empty. That is a consequence of the fall. Change has come upon mankind, and mankind has fallen into an estate of sin and of misery. It all stems from the fall. And from that, you see how things can vary from one moment to another. You can go to Joseph and Joseph will foretell seven years of plenty. Again, there are seven years of nothing. Seven years when the crops fail. seven years of plenty and seven years that are leaving. Things change. And so because of the fall, we even come to our own country and we see something of God's judgment on our own country. You could go to any of the rivers on the West Coast of Scotland and salmon were teeming in these rivers just about 30, 40 years ago. Where are they today? They're not there. You can go and fish and you'll fish them for days and you'll get nothing. And rivers that used to be teeming with salmon. Seas that used to be filled with herring. Fishing boats going out and hauling in and trawling for fish in abundance. And places where there used to be fishing boats, there are no more. The tide, even when you go up the West Coast, We're in all the fishing boats. You think the likes of this will only happen in the Old Testament. You only think that these things, temporal curse upon the ground, will only happen to Israel and in Palestine, my friend, it happens even in this country. God's judgment is against us. And it says that even the sea, even the rivers will be barren because of it. And that's what is being described here. That's what's being described here. And what you can see, not only in temporal in the Old Testament, what you see typified in the fig tree shall not blossom, and all these other things that you see that the fig tree, for example, the fig tree was, was one that was, the fig was taken for food. It hardly blossomed at all, it burst forth into fruit. But here it's not even blossoming at all. So the fig tree shall not blossom, neither the fruit be in the vine. The vine, the grapes that was used for the wine that rejoiced the heart of man, that even God himself, it was used at the sacrifices before God. Even the vine will not even now produce its fruit. The labor of the olive shall fail. The olive and producing the olive was a very high labor intensive fruit to bring forth. The olive, it was used for butter. The way people use butter today, it was used for other things. High intensive and all that labor goes into it and it shall fail. And the fields shall yield no meat. Whether they have grass for the livestock or whether it's grain for man, there's none there. And the flock shall be cut off from the fold. The sheep, for whatever reason, they will be cut off. There is no one to gather them. There is no flock in the fold. And even the hair, that's the oxen in the stalls. There'll be none there. What a dire situation is being described here. It's a time that will come on Israel. It's a time that would come on Israel. It would be a time when even when Christ came, This is the way it was. Not just temporally, but spiritually. It's showing forth the spiritual barrenness that there can be. That there can be no fruit, there can be no figs, there can be no olive, there can be no meat, there can be no flocks, there's no lambs, there's no sheep, there's no oxen. Spiritually, that's the way it can go. My friend, is that not the way it is in our own land? Is that not the way it is in our own day? We are in a spiritual desert, a spiritually barren land. Habakkuk was in such a time. But he says, yet in spite of all that, I will rejoice in the Lord. He's maybe not going to rejoice in what he's seeing. but he will rejoice in the Lord, because while the things around him are changing, he puts his faith in the unchanging God. He puts his faith in the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Look at what you find in the book of Malachi. When you come to Malachi in chapter three, you find that there are times there that the Lord is speaking to his people at the end. And he says, I will come near to you in judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the false swearers, against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, the fatherless. They might be saying, where is God? God's not going to do anything. But he says, in due time, I will bring judgment. Why? For I am the Lord, he says in verse six, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. He is the covenant keeping God. They would not be consumed at this point in time, but the day was coming. And for the sake of his people, he would He would hold back because he is the one who is the unchanging God. The God, even though things around change, yet his purposes never change. His knowledge never changes. His end never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's why the Messiah would come. That's why Jacob would not be consumed. Because he was waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was awaiting the coming of the Christ. If it wasn't for the covenant, Jacob would have been consumed a long time ago. But Jacob was retained. And that wasn't meaning that God did not know and that God was not aware of what was going on. He knew exactly what was going on. but yet for the sake of God's people, they would not be consumed because the day was coming when him who is the judge of all the earth would come, even the Messiah. And my friend, God is the same God today. When we live in a day when things are changing, God is still God. He is still the unchanging God. He is still the one that looks to the covenant that he has made with his son. This earth is not consumed, why? Because God has entered into covenant with his son. The people of our nation are not consumed. The visible church is not consumed, why? Because the Lord changes no one. Even his people change, even we change. But God doesn't change. He is still a father to the fatherless. He is still the widowed slave. He is still the one who keeps his people. And because he does not change, so it is that in order to save his people, he needs one who would fulfill all that God has given him. And therefore, yet I, he says Habakkuk, I will rejoice. Yes, he's not rejoicing in what he sees, but in the midst of it, he has that which enables him to rejoice. Even in the midst of the most trying situation, the prophet is able to say, I will rejoice. Though the fig trees shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be on the vine. The labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold. There shall be no herd in the stall. Things are dire, but I will rejoice. I will rejoice in Jehovah. I will rejoice in the Lord. I will rejoice. So that's the first reason that the prophet is able to have his faith. That's why he says, that's why there was the cry of faith. He's crying to the unchanging God. That is why he has the life of faith, because he knows in the midst of life that it's the unchanging God in whom he can trust. And now he has a song of faith. that no matter what situation comes, I, he says, can rejoice in the Lord. So that brings us to the second point, and we are told it here. I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Put confidence. the prophet has in the midst of all his trials. He has no confidence in himself. Left to himself, providence would have overcome him. Providence would overcome God's people if it wasn't for the fact that he is the God of my salvation. He is the one that will save Jacob. He is the one that will save Habakkuk. He is the one that will save his people in the midst of all the difficulties that confront him. He is the one that is able to overcome. You can see that even with Peter. We often go back to Peter. Peter assumed that when he went towards Calvary, that things were so dark that salvation would go. He thought he could tell Jesus, in fact, what it was that he should and should not do. But he soon realized that it is the Lord Jesus who is the God of his salvation. It is God Jehovah who is the God of his salvation. So that when Peter meets the Lord Jesus on the seashore, The final thing that Peter is, and the only thing that Peter is able to say to Jesus is, thou knowest that I love thee because thou knowest all things. Thou art the one who is the God of my salvation. His joy is in God. God is in the midst of all his difficulties. Habakkuk has come to see that God is his salvation. It was true with Jacob, wasn't it? When the children of Israel, when his brethren, Joseph's brethren, made their way back down to the house of Jacob, Simeon had been tapped. The money was in the sack. They had been accused of being spies. They come back down with their sacks and there is the money in the sack. And Jacob said, Joseph, I have lost Joseph. You have lost Joseph. I have lost Simeon. You've lost Simeon. And now you're going to take Benjamin. All these things, he says, are against me. it may have seemed as though it was all against Jacob. But we soon learn that these things weren't against Jacob, they were for Jacob. Everything that God was doing in the day of Habakkuk, it was for Habakkuk and for God's people. Even Babylon coming down would be used as a rod against God's people to chastise God's people, but he would save the remnant out of Judah. He would always save his people. All these things are working together for the good of them that love the Lord, who are the called. according to his electing power. And it tells you here, doesn't it? When he says here, I will joy in the God of my salvation, when it comes to Habakkuk, what order of importance is he placing things when he speaks here? He is saying there will be no food, there will be no figs, there will be no grapes and the vine, there will be no olives, there'll be no cattle in the field, there'll be no oxen in the stall, there'll be no sheep in the place, but God is my salvation. I will rejoice, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk is obviously, placing salvation are above the mere things of this world. It's as though he's saying these things are as nothing. These are the things that would sadden the world. These are the things that people today sadly would take their own lives for because of all these different things in the world. But Habakkuk says, it's as though he says, I don't care about these things. There may be no food on the table. There may be no vine, there may be no olive, but I will joy in the God of my salvation. I will joy in the God of my salvation. You see, it is that in the midst of these trials and in the midst of the difficulties, The prophet is able to have an inner power, an inner strength that is given to him that the world doesn't have. Jesus says, I have meat that you know nothing of. The believer has an inner power that faith gives him, that he is able to feed off the Lord Jesus Christ in the most difficult and trying situation. It is the secret of the hidden life in Christ that makes the believer rejoice, even in the most difficult and trying situation. Remember how Job put it, neither have I gone back from the commandment of his words. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary faith. Think of how Job was in the difficult situation he was. I have esteemed thy words. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessity. He had lost everything, yet in the very midst of his difficulties, he was able to have an inner strength because he trusted in the Lord. And Habakkuk is the same thing. Do all these things in verse 17 come upon us? Though there be the most dire situation in the land, that I have an inner strength because I joy in the God of my salvation. I may lose all these other things, but I cannot lose my salvation because he is the God of my salvation. The world can take everything away, they can't take that away. So his confidence, his salvation and the inner strength that he has. But then thirdly and finally, he has faith in the omnipotent God. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon my high places. Omnipotent strength, which he is able to draw personally upon. The Lord God is my strength. Left to himself, he has no strength. But God's strength is made perfect in his weakness. He draws on the grace that is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is, first of all, the unchanging God. His law doesn't change. If he was left to himself, Habakkuk would be lost. But God is the God of his salvation. He has provided that salvation for him. And now he is able to say, the omnipotent God is my strength. He is able to draw from the grace that is to be found in God. To be found in God. What power there is to be found in the Almighty. Let me just give you two examples. The first is the least example, that of Hezekiah. Hezekiah is at the point of death. He is being told he is going to die when Isaiah is stopped from going away from him. And the Lord tells Isaiah, go back in and tell Hezekiah that his prayers have been heard. and he will have 15 more years. And Isaiah comes in and says to Hezekiah, the Lord has heard your prayers, you will live. Hezekiah says, how do I know? Come back to this, the great miracles that there are in the Old Testament and in the New were signs that were given to the prophets and the apostles to testify to the truth that they gave. And Isaiah said, well, you can have one of two things. Either the shadow will go back 10 degrees, or it will go forward 10 degrees. Well, if it goes forward 10 degrees, i.e. if it goes down, that's the way it's going. But it really will be a miracle if it goes back 10 degrees. And that's exactly what happened. What power there was to take the very earth itself and its relationship to the sun in a way that would be brought back 10 degrees. But God did that for his people, for his Zion. What power. And you think to yourself, well, that's wonderful power, my friend. That's nothing in comparison to the power that we see in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, who was raised triumphant over death in the grave, what power, never to go back there again. The power of the cross unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, also to the gay. It's the power of the cross, the power of salvation. What power there is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, our God. We are enabled to draw from him, his person, divine power to enable us and strengthen us for the most difficult times. His grace has made perfect our weakness. So that it makes our, so that as he says here, to make my feet like pine seed, as quick and as sharp and as swift as you would want it to be. Running through the difficult terrain, the difficult mountain, the difficult hills, the difficult mountains. Here it is, darting through the hills and the mountains, the most difficult terrain that you will come across, until it reaches up to the peak. There it stands and surveys what's down below. Reach the peak. And it says, he will make my feet as hind's feet. In other words, he will direct my feet. How easy it would be if you were as swift as the hind, that your leg would go down and you would break your leg. Going at that speed, you would never be able to do what the hind does, because you would go down into a hole, your leg would be broken. But he directs us like the hind's feet. Swift. and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. My friend, this is looking forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is looking forward to the gospel days when he will make the gospel go forth out into all the mountains of this world. It will go forth through the ministry of the world. It will travel to the ends of the earth. It will be as the, pictures of the gospel, going forward. This path to that path, the gospel will go forward and nothing will stop it going forward. And he will make me to walk upon mine high places. Abbot Hook is speaking not only on behalf of himself, Julie, he's speaking on behalf of the church. that the church will go out and conquer the high places of this world. Habakkuk is seeing Babylon come down. It sees the Chaldeans, it sees the Assyrians being overcome in 605, 612. It sees Egypt being overcome in 605. It sees Jerusalem itself succumbing in 586, a mighty force. You would think there would be nothing in comparison to that. The church going forward, swifter, faster, directed by a greater master. And it says, and he will make me to walk upon nine high places. the church even this evening, going forth, conquering, bringing sinners into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what will continue to happen until the day comes when Christ returns and every eye shall see him, every tongue shall confess, there the Lord's people will ever be with the Lord. What a wonderful encouragement we have in someone like Habakkuk. Even in his own day and in his own trying situation, he'd be so encouraged by the Lord that he has faith in the unchanging God, faith in the God of his salvation, faith in the omnipotent God. My friend, that's the same God. who has proven himself to be such a God to his people, he is the one in whom we surely put our faith. Let's see, Ivor.