Faith and Famine

Tonight I would like to ask you to open up your Bibles to the book of Habakkuk, which is sort of a deep cut here in the Old Testament.

So, if you flip over past Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel you get into the minor prophets and Habakkuk is nestled between Zephaniah and they hung if that helps at all working to be looking at Habakkuk chapter 2 were to be looking at verses two through four, then chapter 3 verses 17 through 19. So here the word of the Lord and the Lord answered me write the vision make it plain on tablet, so he may run who reads for. Still, the vision awaits its appointed time it hastens to the end, it will not lie if it seems slow, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not delay. Behold his soul is puffed up. It is not a bright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith continuing in chapter 3 verse 17 though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit. Be on the vines.

The produce of the all of sale and the fields yield no food flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord is my strength.

He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Let's pray Lord I thank you this evening for the privilege of sharing God's word with this congregation.

Pray that you would bless what I say to be only your truth that anything that I say but is not in keeping with what you have revealed would be forgotten. Pray that your word would go forth in power that it would change us who hear it read it and that we would grant us understanding or spirit that's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We pray on. Well, I'm glad to be here with y'all. Glad to be sharing the word with you again this evening like say thank you to Doug and Eugene and the elders for continuing to put up with me even when I neglected to send you my sermon title and text for several days after you ask for it. Doug, sorry about that, but this passage that we have. Tonight is really it's very quickly become one of my favorite now I will admit this is one that you know you just gonna read in a yearly Bible plan and you just go through it. You don't really think about it, but when you really dig into this text will find something amazing here. Certainly, the apostle Paul thought so you'll see that this whole book is a tremendous statement about faith, about how faith works and how it gives us hope and I think one of the reasons why we don't really read a lot of minor prophets is that the you know you don't really know how to start. It's hard to have a context for the short little books at the end of the Old Testament, you kind of distracted scrap skews me stretch your brain a little bit was one of my professors RTS is so fond of saying the most difficult passages often reap the greatest rewards. Let's dig into this tonight and see the beauty that God has for us in the prophecy of this man. Habakkuk I got three points for us this evening. The first is the historical setting. When I say historical setting. Don't let your eyes glaze over. This is going to be a lot of facts, dates, things of that nature, but it's really important for understanding what's going on in this passage, Habakkuk, was in the line of the prophets with the Old Testament ministers of God's word and they received direct revelation from the Lord and told it to other people.

These prophets arose fulfilling the role of a prosecutor in a court of law. Those bringing the law of God against God's people who had violated God's covenant was made with Israel began back in the days of Adam continued through Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David and these later generations were neglecting all of the responsibilities of the law, and as such, God sent prophets, people like Habakkuk people like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, to bring the word of God to bear on this people these prophets were established at a particular moment in Israel's history and this was during the divided kingdom.

So if you don't remember that after Solomon died, his son took over his son, Rehoboam, Rehoboam was a horrible taskmaster against the people of God and so 10 of the northern tribes of Israel split off and made a nation called Israel. The two southern tribes stayed in the South and made the nation of Judah. Now both are still in covenant relationship with God.

Just because Jerusalem is in the South does not mean that God is stopped dealing with the people of Israel but the northern kingdom between the two of them was notoriously idolatrous. They spurned God's messengers and ignored his prophets the southern kingdom fared a little bit better, but their sporadic obedience to God's word really only put off his judgment and did not keep it from coming saves the purpose of this little history lesson that we had to set up our text so you know what on earth. Habakkuk is talking about Habakkuk begins his ministry about 300 years after the kingdom split so that north-south divide happened about 300 years ago but is very important in the context of his missed ministry. First and foremost, the biggest thing is that it this point in history, Israel is gone, they have been rebellious. They have hated God's word. They have killed God's prophets and in the year 722 BC they were obliterated by the kingdom of Assyria.

So Habakkuk is a prophet in the southern kingdom of Judah. He's ministering God's word during the reign of the King called Josias Tsai was a very righteous king. He loved God's law and he was instituting a huge religious reform, but unfortunately, the reform did not seem to last beyond just the throne. The people were reforming, but it seemed only be skin deep. Habakkuk knows what is happened Israel. Habakkuk knows that when you neglect God's word. Bad things happen and he knows that the people of Judah are not actually turning in their hearts to God. So this is kind of swirling around in his head, and the destruction of Israel is kind of in the back of his mind he could forget it. If he try and while he's thinking through those things. Another world powers starting to rise kingdom of Babylon. Babylon was becoming more powerful and Judah. Though sort of outwardly faithful was committing great evil against the Lord by being hypocrites. All of this was present in Habakkuk's mind as he wrote this prophecy, and interestingly he opens his book with a complaint against God. He asks God how can you allow wickedness to continue the question sound a little familiar to you.

It certainly does to me think this is something we still struggle with how can God allow evil to persist, what we hear, hear horrible stories of bad things happening in our own land or of perversity being celebrated is good or the dissolution of the family. Other such terrible things in and how can we understand those things and think God is also just. How can he allow wrong to continue and or people getting away with it is tempting to ask God where are you where are you in our country and our nation among our people. But what strikes me about Habakkuk is that he does not take that route.

He does not ask God where are you.

He says God what you gonna do about it.

Already have. Habakkuk has a greater faith than I do.

So many times when things get tough just to wrestle with that question is truly an amazing statement in and of itself. Our troubles have us wondering if God is even there, but Habakkuk's troubles have him wondering what God's plan is no Habakkuk is very relatable to me.

God assures Habakkuk in these verses that we read this this evening, but the wicked are not going to get away with what they do, but he wonders something further, he says, okay, God, I know that you're not going to allow wickedness to continue. But how can you use Babylon. Babylon is the height of evil in the ancient world of Habakkuk sees this Babylonian army growing in strength. He knows that his countrymen are continuing in sin, even though outwardly directing better and he remembers what happened to the nation of Israel.

It doesn't exactly take a prophets insight to figure out what's coming up. Habakkuk knows how to put two and two together here therefore Habakkuk is in the midst of despair. He's scared for his people. He hates the wickedness that is going on in his land is terrified over what's about to happen. He's been assured that God is not going to be unjust is a little confused about God's methods. How can such a thing be done. God's way. Seems strange to our profit. He's in the midst of of doubt is wondering what the future is going to hold actually, he's a little scared. He knows what the future is going hold. He fears that pain and calamity are on their way. I don't know about you but I find that quite relatable to think that there's a guy in the Bible who struggles with not knowing what the future is going to be like or thinking he does know what the future is going to be like that it really scares him. How can we as Christians learn from that.

I mean we need more than just relatability. We need hope will look at what strengthens him. What gives Habakkuk hope that he expresses in chapter 3, here's our second point. Habakkuk gets his hope from God's speech now we can kind of compare God's speech with our speech to understand Habakkuk. We need to understand what the reformer Martin Luther knew as a school of nominalism and nominalism very briefly is the idea that words make sense of reality and in a sense, determine what reality is that when I say something to the effect of words constitute reality. I really hope that red flags fly out and you start to wonder where my go with that. There's plenty of prosperity preachers or postmodern streams of thought. But take this in terrible directions saying that if you declare wealth over your life.

It will be yours. So please understand I'm not talking about a blanket statement where all words constitute all reality, human beings are not in the business of speaking words over our lives and mystically creating a state of being. Rather, this is what I'm getting at God's voice counts to create reality.

I think about this. This is not just pulled from thin air by what act did God create the world by speaking. Let there be light and there was light know when a minister pronounces a man man and wife refuse me when he announces a couple man and wife is not merely recognizing that a marriage has taken place.

He is as a function of his office declaring the thing to be so.

Now how can that be. Only when the minister declares what God has given him to declare the minister must first be a servant serving the Lord serving his congregation. So why does this matter was this have to do with our sermon.

Well, God speech creates reality look back. Chapter 2 verses three and four says for the vision awaits its appointed time it hastens to the end, it will not lie if it seems slow, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not delay the oldest soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith God has pronounced that justice will win the day. And God has the authority to create with his speech and that means that his purpose is surely going to come to pass because he said it he who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it.

What does that make any difference to Habakkuk well, first we need to recognize that the exercise of any good believer is to learn the speech of God over a given thing.

It is a rational to call something differently than God has called it because guess what his words are the ones that can create reality and for denying that reality, we are engaging in an act of absurdity.

So how does God comfort Habakkuk with his speech with what he says. Habakkuk seems to find this convincing and comforting. Now how can he do that is just a claim is a God just speaking words. Yes, he is speaking words, those same words that we just been a long time, saying that they could confirm reality or create reality. This is not just idle speech. This is God's life-giving speech. See Habakkuk is like one described in Hebrews 1139. He did not receive that which was promised, he was a man of great faith, but he didn't get it.

He died long before he saw long before Judah was restored long before the exiles return, but he trusted the promise because he knew the promise sir. He trusted the promise because God was the one promising this is no less than God's guarantee which is backed up by God's unchanging character in the business of our lives should be to conform to God's reality as he is called now as an aside, this is one of the reasons why it is so important for us to get into this book. This is how we learn what God is said this is why were doing our new small group is to learn God's speech we don't just read the Bible to gain information or learn fun facts about theology and history we read the Bible to know God himself to be confronted with him now, brothers and sisters. It is a scary thing to be confronted with God and his reality.

Every time that someone in the Bible is confronted with the presence of God. Do you know how they respond. You might expect them to go you be God, but no every single time they give a woe is me. They fall down as if they're dead to be a terrifying thing but it is scarier still to funnel about ignorance and darkness and to try to get along as best as we can. We need to know what God has said we need to know how is called thing look back down at verse four. The righteous shall live by his faith. What a statement to have faith is to grasp Christ is to trust the speech of God is to trust him when he says this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased having that faith grasping Christ is itself a gift of God to do that now. Let me give a simple application here.

If you've never felt like you can trust God. Try it. It's amazing how that very simple piece of advice seem so impossible. But God is spoken.

Trust what he says he is a trustworthy God. Learn his speech you'll find this Habakkuk did such trust is never misguided. Also, let's think about what this passage has to say about our justification where he said God has the prerogative to create it in his business to speak existence and the reality. So that means that when his speech in our speech are in conflict. His speech wins bottom line, no holds barred is not to truths here that sort of come together and make one.

There is one truth and it is the business of our lives to know that truth. So when God looks at us and declares us justified. This actually means something God has declared his people just through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ applied by the spirit that really speaks to our assurance, God looks at us and declares us just in Christ, he has the authority to do that to declare it and make it so so often in our Christian walk were tempted to think… Righteous what I've done, I'm done it again, I'd send a glide I've lusted I've hated stolen. I've rebelled against you over and over and over and over again is a real temptation to despair.

When we reflect on our own unrighteousness, but this is how we can have assurance when God looks at us and declares us clean.

He has actually done it. He accomplished this at the cross. So were tempted to say God I am not righteous, but he's declared righteous. You have faith in Christ, he is made it so by his authoritative declaration. He is enabled. This he is accomplished this by the shed blood of Christ.

The same Christ who confronts us in his word. I would challenge you to grasp them by faith again maybe for the first time.

Let's go back to our phrase.

The righteous shall live by faith, or is many of us know what the just shall live by faith, that sounds familiar, it should. And speaking of Martin Luther. This was the verse that really secured his understanding of justification by grace through faith comes from Romans 117 with the apostle Paul quotes in their Paul is making the point that the just the justified one if you will receive eternal living through faith in God and his promises, the gospel of God is the power of salvation for all people who believe the righteous live by faith.

A little later in the New Testament.

This this verse is quoted again in Hebrews 1038 the author of Hebrews slight sites in a slightly different way there.

This phrase is used to describe those who do not shrink back and are destroyed but by her skews me by leaving the faith, but persevere and preserve their souls by continuing to believe by continuing to walk with God. Therefore, Hebrews, bill labors this point that the promises of God will surely come true God spoken this promise to his people and therefore it is a guarantee that it will come to pass. It is as sure as the ground underneath our feet, because the same voice that spoke both of these things spoke the soil into existence. If you get nothing else out of the sermon.

Please hear this. Just as surely as God made the earth that you stand he will save sinners. His voice is not divided.

He's not going to go back to what he says he will surely do it is both the just one and the one who justifies us by Christ. Martin Luther really understood the certainty of God's words. Habakkuk had the same truth revealed to them. Centuries before. It is our turn today to do the same to grasp him by faith and to trust that he is forgiven our sins and will see us into eternity. Christians, we can take part in this God is assured us that the promise will come to pass.

Like Habakkuk, we gotta wait. Now we don't wait passively. We don't wait while acting in the meantime but we have to wait for God to act. We have to await the day that God will return that Jesus will return to his world. Now this is not intended to give us a sort of pie-in-the-sky mentality think were just gonna be ruptured out here, so it's no big deal. This is a very active and concrete element to it. This colors everything we do in our lives we pick something if you hate your job, you can go knowing that God is honored by your diligence in your hard work. You will receive your reward if you give of your time know that you will have time internal to worship God to give of your money or your resources know that God is not going to forget in the silver and the gold is his.

Anyway, this is not time or money or resources wasted and if you suffer for your faith. Remember God's promise he will do what is right. Verse three.

If it seems slow, wait for it will surely come will not delay if you've got unbelieving family members like I do really need to hold on to this. We can't know for sure if God is going to save the people who do not as of yet.

Call on him, but we can trust that whatever God has ordained his right we could continue to pray for the salvation of those we love.

In the eager expectation that God is going to fulfill justice. He is promised to set all things right in the end.

Maybe you're like me and it seems like you have unbelieving friends of friends who used to be in the light who drift further and further seemingly every day further from the things they used to know in the God that they professed to love. If that's you this evening.

Why don't you join with me and take comfort in God's guarantee let's live by our faith in God that the justice that he promised will come to pass. Augustine once wrote that faith is to believe what you do not yet see the reward for this faith is to see what you believe God's in control of all things. Otherwise, he couldn't claim to be able to fulfill this vision and this includes the things we don't like in history that includes the Babylonians for us and includes the things that seem pointless. The things we don't understand this brings us to .3 .3 is the way of the cross and Habakkuk's assurance the way of the cross of Habakkuk's assurance know often, appearances can be very misleading. Think back to Tolkien great author Tolkien great for sermon illustrations to. If you've ever read or watched his Lord of the rings. You know how the story opens well is a description of the race of the hobbits in his opening prologue Tolkien doesn't tell a story about swords, clanging and great battles, but of a small race of people living in cozy homes, their content to indulge in good food and drink another warfare and people they can defend themselves that they need to. But they prefer not to. These humble people are given more to smoking their pipes than involving themselves in politics. But if you've read the story you know that one of them is named Frodo Baggins Frodo Baggins is willing to give up his comfortable life to deal with the threat of the one ring when all the races of middle earth and all their grandeur gather to decide how to deal with the threats of evil facing their land. All of them fall silent except for the small insignificant hobbit Frodo who despite his appearance is brave and noble.

Tolkien writes in Frodo. No one answered the noon bell rang.

Still no one spoke. Frodo glanced at all the faces, but they were not turned to him all the Council sat with downcast eyes, as if deep in thought a great dread fell on him as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some doom that he had longed for seed vainly hoped might, after all, never be spoken and overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace by Bilbo's side and Rivendell filled all his heart and last, with an effort he spoke and wondered to hear his own words as if some other will was using his small voice. I will take the ring he said, though I do not know the way.

No one expected this small and unassuming hobbit to do such a thing in a similar way, we don't often expect God to work through the things that he shows us.

I mean, if Christ is King and we are his servants where the flowing robes. Where's the fanfare was the blessing where's the cushy palace in the life of ease.

What is suffering in Christianity seem to go hand-in-hand. Look for servants of our God. We need to stop and consider what happened to our God, the cross is a paradigm for the Christian life the way of the cross is the only way to make sense of the Christian life. There is a distinct contrast between outer weakness and inner strength. This is the theology all throughout the Corinthian.

We are inwardly blessed when we are outwardly suffering salvation is intimately linked to our God hanging on a cross.

And of course rising again on the third day, Carl Truman wrote that the cross looks like evil but is good.

This is what he referred to as an epistemological axiom which is just a way of saying this makes sense out of knowing anything.

This is profoundly counterintuitive.

Luther said that Christians should not be theologians of glory by that he meant that those constantly searching for honor, but they felt like they deserved, but Christians must be theologians of the cross.

Those well acquainted with grief and sorrow, knowing that these powerful tools to bring us to God himself. After all God's justice looks like a profound injustice doesn't.

To the untrained eye.

All you see is an innocent man dying on the cross, the only man who ever did everything right, dying like a criminal and embarrassing torturous way notices have to do with Habakkuk look back at the second half of our passage chapter 317 through 19. He writes though the fig tree shall not blossom, nor fruit. Be on the vines. The purpose of the olive fail in the fields yield no food. The flock be cut off from the from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord is my strength.

He makes my feet like the dears he makes me tread on my high places. This is astounding when you start to think about the cross. All the outward elements are against good for Habakkuk, no fig, snow fruit, no oil, no food, no phlox, no herds.

This is a man who has nothing in his countrymen have nothing. There is no outward success is suggesting God's blessing him yet.

This prophet still wrote verse 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the dears he makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk knew something that I are too often forget God can work in spite of outward appearances, but perhaps there's something even deeper at play there something that really shakes us up. It is through this very process through the pain that we so often despise.

God often works sometimes we think pain is a sign that God doesn't love us anymore. We must've done something wrong. Who sin this man or his parents that you should be born blind, but we often forget that pain can be the very sign that God is working in our lives is not the proud who inherit the earth is not the rich in spirit, were given the kingdom of God room or the historical situation here. He's not seeing the devastation of his nation. Yet he sure does see it coming there about to be flattened by Babylon evil nation. The devastation is gonna be unlike anything that God's people have ever known. And it's gonna be at a time when they have been running far away from yet Habakkuk has hope that God is going to preserve them to the end. How can he do that makes no sense. And he we like him see the celebration of immorality in our culture, we see the decline of society and we shudder. How can we have hope will, in short, because God says we can God speech, the speech that brought light into existence told us that we can take heart, because it's not based on us for what we've done, but on Christ in his finished work. Think about it, God himself died on the cross for us. God himself died on the cross for us. That is shocking. I say that and it strikes us now, here's where it flips in light of that, how could we ever doubt Habakkuk rejoices in God this passage in chapter 3. As I mentioned as quickly become one of my favorites and I'd like to close by reminding you of the words of Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams Revolutionary war hero. She wrote in these words after the battle of Bunker Hill. She borrowed from the book of Ecclesiastes. This is what she wrote because I think she understood the way of the cross.

She wrote the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. But the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people trust in him at all times.

You people pour out your hearts before him, God is a refuge for us. God is a refuge for us, remember that Christian we will have our hope realized yet on spray Lord, we thank you for these words from Habakkuk. We thank you that you are a God who is not left us in arson. We thank you for the Holy Spirit was poured God's love into our hearts, we ask that you would make that reality more true to us this week that we would be those who learn what you have had to say.

Overall thing's in the name of Christ. We pray on