Habakkuk

Father, we thank you that you are the Holy God and we thank you for the power of your word. And there is nobody else who can make the kings of this world bow down. And there is nobody else who can rescue us from our failing. No other god who invites us to call him father. You are an awesome god.

You are splendid and you are holy. And we thank you that it is this word that we turn to now. And we pray father that you would help every 1 of us by your spirit to listen attentively to you as you speak to us through your words. We will all have sins in our lives and, incorrect ways of thinking and feeling and idols that we are looking to you above and ahead of you and we pray that you would firstly expose those then help us to repent of them and to turn to you the only holy god for the blessing and joy of knowing you. And lord, we just pray for each 1 of us.

Speak lord, you know each 1 of us. You know what we need. You know we need you. And so speak to us. We pray.

Speak through our brother Morris. Thank you for bringing him to us. Bless him. Help him lord. Give us all ears to hear in Jesus' name.

Oh, man. Oh, man. Well, we're going to, read Habercook chapter 1 versus 1 to 11, and, You can turn to that yourself so you can follow along on the screen. And then Morris will come and preach these words to us. The prophecy that Habock, the prophet received How long lord must I call for help, but you do not listen or cry out to you.

Violence, but you do not save. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Distruction and violence are before me? There is strife and conflict abounds.

Therefore, the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails the wicked hem in the righteous so that justice is perverted. Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings, not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people.

They are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk, their cavalry, gallops, headlong, their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping to devour. They all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.

They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities by building earthen ramps. They capture them. Then they sweep past like the wind and go on, guilty people whose own strength is their god. This is the word of god to us this morning and may the lord give us all is to hear it now as Morris comes to preach.

So, if you came to hear Pete or Tom, I'm very sorry that you're now disappointed, nonetheless, they are coming back in September. Right? Okay. So just to let you know, some coping measure, measures going on. Some are seeing this as a residency.

There's a shelf life to it. Yes, the end of August is coming. So if that helps you, then join in. Some have are going on holiday for the very first time in their life. This month, and so, well, that's another way.

And they're even digging up a road. And as I believe in the providence or sovereignty of god, then it down, even god's trying to help you with the pavement and the road. There you go. Enough of that nonsense. No slides.

That's my fault. You can all boo at me, I suppose. I'm not 1 of these guys into technology really very much though I preach from Mckindle. But, nonetheless, so sorry about that. If you're into slides, then that helps you.

Hopefully, you can listen a little bit and I'm I'll try to keep it as clear as I can. We saw last week because we started in chapter 2 as you do. And, we saw that Habacook is a man of faith. He is a righteous man like Abraham his predecessor. And in that sense, havocup was a man who was learning to live by faith.

And these 3 chapters evidence of him learning to live by faith just as we have to. If we are also justified people through the lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. We have been credited with god's rightness to cover our complete wrongness. Our wrongness is trusting in ourselves and not trusting in god. And so the lord Jesus Christ by his perfect obedient life, lived out our right life before god on your behalf and my behalf.

And in his death, the lord Jesus took all our wrong of self trust and was punished for it. And now we stand if you like on the podium of god's, gold medal of perfect rightness, not because we are brilliant, because we are not, but because Jesus is brilliant. And therefore, this morning, if we're in Christ, as justified people, not only are we, not guilty forever, That's good news, isn't it? Not guilty forever. But more than that, this is important.

We are perfectly loved by god, and god sees us as if we've always loved him perfectly, Always obeyed him perfectly and always brought honor and glory to him perfectly. How good is that? It's good. And that's always true of us. If we are in the lord Jesus and we're justified people.

Well, that's where we've got to. Now come with me to, have I got chapter 1 and we'll get into the text and see where that takes us. We get no information at all about Habacook. There's no introduction only that he was a prophet, and a prophet came with god's word to the people of god. That's all we know about him.

And that this letter, not it's not a letter. It's a prophecy that he gave and put into the public domain for the people of god, not just in his day, but for us in our day. So there's no interesting stories to grab our attention or to help us to relax. So sorry about that, but that's the way he goes. Immediately, we're faced with a real man of faith in real pay.

He's in deep anguish. Now, you might ask, well, was Have a cook a fun guy? You know, would you invite him to 1 of your socials? Well, I'm sure he was a fun guy. I'm sure he had some really joyful, happy moments in his life.

But we're not introduced to any of those here. We're introduced to his anguish. Lovely, sunny, morning in Kingston, and I'm gonna talk about anguish. Well, there's an important point in all of that as we will see. So Habegut has an important fourth right conversation with god in the first 2 chapters of the prophecy, and Habokuk will make 2 very strong points to god and they are very strong.

In fact, in the first point, I won't do it, but he is shouting at god. He is so moved about what he's saying. But at the same time, and this is also important, He stays in the room with humble listening. There are some people who would like to make very loud points, but they don't wanna hear the the they don't wanna hear the answer. They leave the room.

They stomp off. I might have done that myself in the past. Not a not a good idea. Well, Habagogue does make strong points. As a real man of faith towards god, but there is a humble listening in this man.

So if we're going to do that, in other words, make our strong points to God because we don't always understand what God is doing and why he's doing what he's doing. You need 2 truths. Truth number 1, you need to understand if you're staying in the room with god, the strangeness of his ways with evil. You need to understand that. God has some very strange ways.

In what he does with evil and how he uses it. That's 1 truth you're going to have to need. The second truth is this that, the smallness of our minds, can I put it this way? We are not cleverer than god. We are not cleverer than god.

So in Romans chapter 11, at the end of that of that of that chapter, the apostle Paul goes into worship Let me read what he says. Oh, the depth and the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of god how unsearchable his judgments, his past beyond tracing out who has known the mind of the lord or who has been his counselor, who has ever given to god that God shall repay them, for for from him and through him and for him are all things to him be the glory forever and ever amen. So if you're in the pay of god, and he's he's paying you to advise him, then let's all leave the room. You see, my friends, we have got finite minds. And we are up against the infinite mind.

And really our whole attitude should be 1 of worship and praise, and bowing in submission towards this god. So if you wanna stay in the room and make strong points to god, 1, strangeness of his ways with evil. Number 2, understand the smallness of our minds. You will need humility not arrogance and so will I. So, therefore, 2 points this morning point number 1, main point, I mean, the anguish cry of faith, verses 2 to 4.

Let me read these verses that are fresh to you. They're quite they're quite strong, aren't they? They could have been written this week. How long lord must I call for help, but you do not listen or cry out violence but you do not save. Why do you make me look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Disruption and violence are before me. There is strife and conflict abounds. Therefore, the law is paralyzed. And justice never prevails.

The wicked hemming the righteous so that justice is perverted. So here is the man of face, and he has got real pain in his heart about the social sin and this is important among god's people. As Habakook looked at the streets of Jerusalem, and the surrounding area, all he sees is unrighteous living of an extremely violent nature. Do you see the words? Violence is used twice, destruction, wrongdoing, strife, conflict, injustice, And here's his anguish.

All of this social evil as it rains in the streets of Jerusalem and around the country. God is doing nothing about. And therefore, despite all habakilks, righteous, anguished prey. Nothing's happening. Now we must hold him out as a good example, mustn't we?

He's not full of apathy or indifference. There's no compromise. There are no excuses, and there is no hatred. And the same must be true of us. You say, well, my prayer life isn't that strong, and I struggle enough as it is.

And now you're talking to me about anguished praying. What does how can I get to that? Well, you just have to look at your TV screen and see what goes on in our nation and the nations around us and the violence that we see and the injustice that is happening. And we don't have to go to a room for 3 weeks and lie on the floor and pray in anguish. But we can pray as we see the news and have anguish in our hearts because this is not right before god.

We want to enjoy our lives. We want to experience the good gifts of god. And all of that, and there's there's something right about that, but we must not be indifferent about evil. And it's there. It's stalking the streets.

But the worst aspect of this anguish is that habakkuk is is not praying over Babylon. The evil Babylon that's going to come He's praying over the people of god. Judah was god's people, and supposed to be on his mission. The nations around Judah were supposed to see how righteous and holy and loving and wise, god was. And he was displaying that through his people.

But that's not what was happening. The beautiful, holy, moral authority of god, the law, have been set aside. And now they were just living like the nations around them as lawless as them. And so when the church hear it, please, when the church departs from the word of god and ends up living like the culture, then that is not good news for the culture. They need to hear it.

The church you see is god's love gift to the world, to a world that, yes, hates him. And the nations must hear the good news of salvation and see the beauty of righteous, moral, loving authority of god. The whole issue of authorities in in the mix, isn't it? Mustn't have anybody tell us how to live outside of ourselves. Done is not a Christian perspective.

Done is not that's not the Bible Bible world view. God is the 1 who tells us how to live, why to live for his glory and his honor. And that is a beautiful thing. So you have a couple of things under this anguish praying. Notice prolonged praying to god.

How long Lord. You can hear the sigh. He's almost shouting at this point. How long lord? Habag is a man who has moved about the state of things.

As I say that he shouts at God. Now, not defending shouting in prayer. And if Habagut was on our prayer table, we might move. You know, we're leaving on his own. If he wants to do all that kind of stuff, But at least even if you pray quietly, that's fine.

You should be loud in your head and loud in your heart. How long lord? Particularly when we think that god is not listening, and god is not saving because there is no other way, my friends, whereby people can be changed in their lives and brought to living ways that god wants them to live in for their flourishing and for the flourishing of society and for the flourishing of the nation and for the flourishing of the nations. You've been going through the lord's prayer recently, haven't you? And that's been setting out the priorities that you need to have in terms of your praying.

You're given a little structure. Again, you don't have to have 9 hours of praying, but you've got a nice little structure, haven't you? That tells you what you should pray in the order that you should pray it. The priorities of god first. And our needs second.

Because this is the only way people change. So faith goes at god, if I may say it respectfully, because there is no other hope. Yes. We are to pray over our struggles and hurts. Yes.

We are to pray over our concerns of daily life, but we are to pray over the church so that we live out the moral beauty of god's authority so the culture sees how good god is and awakens to the reality of god. And when the church is held in suspicion as it is in these days, because maybe historical things that have gone on, things that are not part of the moral beauty of god's authority over us. Yes. We need to identify that those things are not right. They're not what we're talking about here.

But how is that suspicion taken down? Taken down as the church lives it out, prolonged praying to god. Secondly, prolonged crying at evil. We've already said something of that, so I won't say too much more. But Habock says, why do you make me look at injustice?

Why do you make me why do you tolerate wrongdoing? You see the You see the crying of evil that's going on in his heart. The implication is that god is tolerating evil. And he can't make any sense out of that as a faithful man. Yes.

The people still went to the temple sang the Psalms, prayed the prayers, heard the Torah, had their priests and sacrifices, and the king still reigned. But the reality was, that Jerusalem was Babylon. And that is bad news as I keep saying to you. So how important my friends if we are the people of god How important we are as the people of god and the earth. We have the gospel story.

We have the scriptures of salvation history. We sing songs of worship. We pray, we learn the catechism. What for? So that we may live out god centered lines.

All around us, my friends, there's traffic moving about, people moving about, but in our culture, it's a secular culture, and the biggest bubble in this world is a secular culture. It's just a bubble. It has some reality in it, of course. Because god is in all culture, but it is devoid of ultimate and eternal reality. And we are the people of god.

We're not to withdraw into a bubble, a bubble of sameness, but of gospel oneness, and we are the people with reality. The more we look at scripture, the more we hear scripture taught, the more we read it, the more we will understand the reality of this world. We are not the people to be pitied. Oh, you poor Christians. You know, you're living in the past.

Well, we are living in the past in 1 sense, connecting to the god who is ancient and eternal, I'm quite happy to go to the past there, but it keeps us living in the present in a way full of reality. So let us be those who help each other in holy well-being. In following the lord and living by faith and living in faithfulness. The anguished cry of real faith. Secondly, in point, the lord's clear answer versus 5 through to 11.

God in effect says in verses 5 to 11, I've got it in hand Habakuck. In fact, actually, I'm actually doing something. Habakuck is allowed to come into the control room, if you like, of god, and sit at the table as they make their decisions. And he discovers he's just way out of his depth. It aligns to us that we are not cleverer than god, and he is massively out of his debt.

Because what god is actually saying in these verses, profoundly disturbing a son, are is that I am sovereign. And I will do what I will do. Look at this fight. Look at the nations. Look at the international situation, Habacook, and watch for I am and be utterly amazed for I'm going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told.

I I am raising up the Babylonians that ruthless and impetuous people who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own. It isn't that god said, oh, there's the Babylonians coming forward. I think I could use them. It's I am raising the Babylonians. God is sovereign.

Would you believe about providence? There's a heavy heavy thought for a Sunday molly? Okay. I'm gonna answer it. By using the Heidelberg catechism.

What do you understand by the providence of god? Here's the answer. Providence is the almighty ever present power of god by which god upholds as with his hand heaven and earth and all creatures and sooo rules them, including you and me, that every leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean ears food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity, and poverty, all things in fact come to us, not by chance, but by his fatherly hand. I may not like some of the stuff on that list, but if I know it's coming from his fatherly hand, I can be assured. Take god away from the picture.

What have you got left? Something very different. Haven't you? Over the question 28 from the Heidelberg Catechism, How does the knowledge of god's creation and providence help us? Answer, we can be patient and a in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and for the future, we can have good confidence in our faithful god and father that no create creature, war violence empire will separate us from his love.

For all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will, they can neither move or be moved. So in other words, if we want to know about the strangeness of god's way with evil and the smallness of our minds in relation to god, We need to also be sure, have a assurance of the character of god. You need to study the character of god. 1 of the first Christian books I ever read was j I packers knowing god. Still there still in print, I think.

It changed my whole understanding of of of god and and and and what that means for my practical Christian living And so as you pour yourself into the Bible, and read it, and read it, and continue to hear it taught, and go and hear about Romans Aeton, and get that unpacked. And Well, as you pour yourself into the word of god, that will enable you to live by faith and live in faithfulness even if the context is difficult and demanding. Have you got this asked to go and look at the international seen, isn't he in verse 6? I'm raising the Babylonians. And there, he would see the eternal saving hands of god.

The eternal saving hand of god. God was coming in the Babylonians here, it my friends. God was coming in the Babylonians to save Judah from Vercy. Now I I'm told that travel broadens the mind and the outlook on life, and many of you have traveled in all kinds of ways. You get to see the history of another nation, its culture, its landmarks, its scenery, its food, its drink, celebrate diversity, which is in their measure right, And so there is a much international awareness, isn't there, among us this morning?

But you need the Bible and an understanding of who god is and how god works and doesn't work, in order to make sense of some of that. We can't be infallible about it because god is mysterious in some of the things he does. So we can't be absolutely. Well, this is what god is doing, and I'm absolutely certain he's doing. But as we read scripture, and we understand who god is, We get some discernment, discernment for what's going on around us.

Which brings you back to the point that it's the church that has reality. Not the secular culture. I might learn from it, but I'm not expecting to build my life on cultural understanding. And now they should do. So has Habitakote looked at the international seen.

He now has this this call to humble listening. You get it? Humble listening. I'm raising up the Babylonians, says god, this ruthless impetuous people who will sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people.

They are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. That is what happened. The Babylonians were raised around about 6 12 BC, and they marched west and then they marched south. They were in kind of southern Iraq, and they conquered nation after nation. And including Judah by 5 86 when Judah was swept away into into Babylon.

And Daniel and his friends are an example of all of that, and there was a 70 year reign for this this empire ending in with the medes and the Persians coming. You get that in Daniel chapter 5. The strangeness of god's sovereign ways. They are both certain and they are mysterious. God raising this incredible military machine of pagan worship opposed to him.

And you read verses 8 to 11. Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk, dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping to devour. They all come intent on violence.

Their hordes advance like a desert wind. And gather wind, prisoners like a sh son. They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all the 4 divided cities. By building earth and ramps, they capture them.

They sweep past like a wind and go on, guilty people, guilty people. Whose own strength is their god. In the UK, we have been invaded. We have been invaded if I may say so by a force that has been 300 years in the making since the enlightenment. Secular thought has conquered our land and almost every area of it.

Did god not see that coming? It's not easy to live in a secular culture, is it? And many of you know that in your work context. In your study context and in various other aspects of life that come sharply to you. How do you stand as a as a child of god in your life situations.

There are big challenges on that and I understand that. But did god not see it coming? So what do we do? Do we compromise? Do we withdraw into a holy huddle?

And pretend it's not happening? No. We go back to scripture. We ask big questions and study scripture for god's answers to how to live in the knowledge that he is the god in control, and he has got it all sorted, and he's now working out how he's going to use it all, for the sake of the church, for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the son. Because that's what Habacook is telling us.

1 of the 2 lessons and then I'm done. Real faith knows real anguish over evil, but we can't carry all of it, can we? Can we? No. We can't.

So real faith gathers around prayer tables. I know that's what you do. But not just prayer tables and goes to god who is sovereign and alone can save from evil. Because my friends, when you face that kind of stuff, whether it's on the TV or it's on your streets or It's somewhere maybe even in your personal life with god is god, and we are not. And so there will be times when we are out of our death.

And therefore, what is the answer, but to go deep into the love of god in his sovereign care over our lives? Deep into the love of god. That's number 2. God's word creates emotional trembling in us as it did with habakkuk. Fear and faith go together.

You don't have fear, and then you move into faith, and there is no fear. I think fear and faith go together as we will see in the book. The word, my friends, creates an insecurity about ourselves. Some of us know this. Some of us have known this deeply in our lives.

The word creates an insecurity about ourselves in order to bring us to a security in god. So what's happening with Abigail? We'll see it by the end of chapter 3. If we approach the Bible, driven by emotion. Most are important.

Don't mishear me. But if we approach the Bible with an emotional agenda, and we read scripture through the emotions. We will come to wrong conclusions about what the Bible is saying to us. And we live in a culture that is saturated by subjective feelings. Whatever your feelings say, they are right.

Now what scripture says. And so We have to learn a emotional maturity means being secure in the truth and who god is. In the screw take letters by c s Lewis, I read I'm not I do read c s lewis, but not just c s lewis, and just in case you're wondering. But in the screw take letters, it is a guy who is being subjected to the schemes of of of Satan. It's it's obviously part of c s Lewis's imagination.

But it's very interesting indeed and has packed full of wisdom, I think. And so a senior devil is in is writing letters to a Junior devil, he would email him today. So let me see. So he So he knows what to do with this guy. The guy at the start of the book is not a Christian, but the the sad thing is he becomes a follower of Jesus.

And what happens when you become you're a younger Christian, in the early years of your Christianity you rely massively on your emotions. And and so, quoting page 8, often there is an an initial dry period for young Christians. And this is what screw tape says they become much less dependent on emotions if they come through this period, and they are here we go. Much harder to tempt. They are much harder to tempt.

Lesson number 3, we're nearly finished. We do have our doubts and our despairs. Many other questions that we have about god and how he works or does not work. If god was the project manager, we wouldn't sign up for the project, would we when you read Habitakuk chapters 1 and 2. We're not signing up for the project.

Well, you don't want the guy is doing, but this is this is not working. So we have our doubts and we have our despairs, but trust the project. Trust the god who is both creator and sovereign and redeemer. So our finite minds rest in the infinite mind of god and his loving heart. And the final lesson, and I'm going to land it here See the perfect man of faith.

I loved singing, that hymn it is finished. Did you not brought me home. The perfect man of faith went to the cross. Look, what god did among the nations. But what god did internationally.

He sent and gave the righteous 1. And he has raised this 1 on the basis of the most perfect, holy obedient life and death. The 1 that sinful humanity, including you and me, siding with evil destroyed with violent intent The beautiful life sent to save us. We murdered. God used that evil.

To defeat evil to save us. The strangeness of god's work of mercy, the just shall live by faith, and not arrogant self trust. The smallness of our minds, we would never have come up with the cross, would we? We can't outthink god and yet the sureness of god to perform his plan because of his holy loving character. And the justified shall live by faith and live faithfully today and for the rest of our days.

Let us pray. Take a moment, please. As I must. Too easy just to move, isn't it? Maybe there was too much stuff for you today.

That's okay. Take something. Soft-in-law, you of God, and we are not. We thank you for your word, your word of truth to our lives. So that we can live in faith trusting you even when we don't understand you.

And we can live faithfully serving you in this world, a world that desperately needs you. And our culture, it's not true of all cultures, but our culture. Is so heavily secular. You're not allowed, apparently, to have any voice and the righteous are hemmed in and justice is perverted. What we end today, I'm giving you for the righteous 1 that you sent whom we murdered in violent intent.

And you used evil that you hated to defeat evil and bring us out. We worship you together. Lord, god almighty. Holy holy, holy, holy. In Jesus' name.