Good morning. It's such a delight
to be here this morning and to enjoy a few days of fellowship
with your pastor and his wife. He is my closest pastor friend
and we've had a good time. He's let me drive that white
Ford truck. That's a concession. That's a
real concession. Would you turn with me this morning
in your Bibles to the book of Habakkuk? Habakkuk, I'd like
to spend a few minutes this morning on the subject of the long suffering
of the Lord, mean salvation. Habakkuk, small book couched in the minor prophets,
minor only due to their size, but all of them are full and
running over of the grace of God, of the message of Christ,
and that's what sends us to these books. Now, the book of Habakkuk
is as much New Covenant blessings and theology as any of the New
Testament. We find in chapter 1 and verse
5 a verse that's quoted In the book of Acts chapter 13, when
Paul is there preaching and a bunch of Gentiles say, would you bring
us that same message? And in Acts 13, 48, it says,
they that were ordained to eternal life believed. And it was the
Gentiles that are mentioned in this verse of scripture. And
it was a result of that, that you and I have the gospel today.
In Habakkuk 1, verse 5, it says, Behold ye among the heathen,
and regard and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your
days which ye will not believe, though it be told you. And that
verse is mentioned over in the book of Acts, chapter 13. Also
in this book, in chapter 2, in verse 4, we have one of those
cornerstone verses that help us with the entire Bible. When
we read in the Old Testament about all the sacrifices and
things that went with it, we find that Habakkuk was used to
sum up how God saves his people and how God's people have always
walked Even though they had those various ordinances in the Old
Testament, God's people, His elect people, never trusted those
things for their redemption and never trusted those things to
walk by. They were guides like we have
or pictures like we have when we take the communion service
or we observe a baptismal service. We don't trust in those things.
They are symbols, they are pictures that we say, as Jesus did, this
is the blood of the New Covenant. This is a picture of it. My blood
is the blood of the New Covenant. And this is a picture of the
broken body of Christ, the broken bread. But they're only pictures,
and God's people throughout all generations have always said
that about the Lord Jesus Christ in those ordinances. Abel believed
God. He offered a more excellent sacrifice. He's simply telling us that we
need a substitute. I need a substitute. I can't
do it myself. Well, Habakkuk chapter two and
verse four brings this out and it's quoted three times in the
New Testament. Therefore, excuse me, Habakkuk
chapter two and verse four Behold, his soul which is lifted up is
not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith. Romans,
Galatians, and Hebrews quote this passage of scripture from
the book of Habakkuk. And in chapter 2, verse 18, we
read these words. What profiteth the graven image
that the maker thereof hath graven it, the molten image and a teacher
of lies that the maker of his works trusted therein to make
dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the
wood, awake, and to the dumb stone, arise, and it shall teach. Behold, it is laid over with
gold and silver, and there's no breath at all in the midst
of it. But notice verse 20, but the
Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before
him." What's that saying? Don't lie about God. Don't create lies about God. Don't tell things about God he
doesn't do and tell people about the God that does the things
he said he will do. And then lastly, in just a review
of the book of Habakkuk, this passage of scripture found in
Habakkuk chapter 3, the last few verses of the book of Habakkuk
chapter 3, beginning with verse 17, we have some of the greatest
comforting words. You ever been in trouble? Heartbroken? Things going awry? Doesn't look
good? And most of the time we think
about that physically, but this body is not going to cease from
wearing out, but spiritually. And yet Habakkuk shares this
from a spiritual standpoint. Don't just look at this from
a physical standpoint. He's probably in good health,
but he says this, although the fig tree shall not blossom, Habakkuk
3, verse 17, although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither
shall fruit be in the vines. And the labor of the olive shall
fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut
off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls.
There's, look at that. That's serious. We've got some
serious problems here. Now it's just not physical. It
just doesn't mean that we didn't have enough to eat this morning.
It's much more serious than that. Oh, the spiritual problem that's
laid upon us. Problems of life. problems of
spirit, problems in our family, problems all over. It just doesn't
look good and yet, verse 18, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and
he will make my feet like hinds feet or deer feet. He will make
me to walk upon my high places. to the chief singer on my stringed
instruments. So I'll rejoice in the God of
my salvation. Now, turn with me back to Habakkuk
chapter one, and I'd like to look at verse two for a few minutes
as we look here at the long suffering of the Lord. Habakkuk brings
up a point that so often I have made myself. Not bragging about
it, but I've heard other people say it too. When we get to visiting,
we look around us and see what's going on in our world, and we
just say, how in the world could God let things like this happen? You ever said that? Oh, it's
serious. Look at the world aflame. Every
place. And then we look at our own country
and those that have been elected as our leaders down in Salem
where we are and here and where's your capital, Raleigh? Down in
Raleigh and then there in Washington and our city councils. We got
a city council that's buying property with our water and sewer
money. I can't believe it. They're paying
hundreds of thousands of dollars for places that won't sell on
the regular market. And we just stand there scratching
our head and saying, why? Well, Habakkuk has the same thing
here in chapter 1 verse 2. Oh, Lord, how long shall I cry? And thou will not hear, even
cry unto thee of violence and thou will not save. Now put that
into the vernacular today. Why doesn't God do something
about violence and injustice? Habakkuk can't understand why
God allows Judah to sin so flagrantly and for so long. And that's a
question sometimes we ask ourselves. In fact, we find in the New Testament
that there were the apostles that had the same issue. You
remember when the Lord Jesus intended to go through some places
and he said, go make ready and they didn't receive him? And
the disciples said, do you want us to call down fire from heaven
and consume these Nimrods? And the Lord says, you don't
know what you're asking. Another time, Peter, when they
came to arrest the Lord Jesus, Peter pulled out his sword And
I don't believe he was aiming for that guy's ear. I think he
was looking for a neck. And Peter cut his ear off. Lord
put it back. He said, put your sword up. Now
we wonder sometimes as those things, if boy, I just have to
be careful sometimes that I don't say, I wish I could call down
fire from heaven because this would straighten this mess out.
Why don't those things happen? Now, the children of Israel spent
400 years in slavery in Egypt, and I've yet to find out what
they did wrong that caused them to be put into that slavery.
And then I ran onto a verse of scripture. the reason that they
were put into slavery down in Egypt. God spoke the message
to Abraham years and years before most of those children were even
born. And they went down there because there was no food where
they were. And they went down there to enjoy
the food and the blessings that Egypt had. And the Pharaoh gave
them a piece of property called Goshen. And we know all about
that. Boy, when there was darkness
in Egypt, there was light and Goshen, all these things. But
what was it? Would you turn with me to the
Genesis chapter 15 for just a moment? I ran into this verse, and here
we have the reason that God put the children of Israel into servitude
in Egypt. And we say, why? And then we
have to answer because God is absolute sovereign. And He will
do as He sees fit, even though we look at it and say, what is
going on? What is going on in this world
is absolutely because God is sovereign. What's going on in
our life is absolutely because God is sovereign. And what was
going on in Habakkuk's life is because God was absolutely sovereign. He was working all things according
to His eternal purpose and He's the one that knows the end from
the beginning. He knows how things are going to turn out and what
He must do in order for you and I to be in the right place to
hear the gospel. He's going to move it just right.
Now he moved a man to Oregon, didn't move him, he took him
there by airplane so I could hear the gospel, but I know of
other people that had to move someplace so they could hear
the gospel. Now God is doing that all the
time everywhere in this world so that every one of his lost
sheep will hear the gospel and he can save them and will save
them. All right, Genesis chapter 15,
verse 13, the scriptures share this. And he said of Abram, know
of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that
is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them
400 years. God's people are going to be in bondage 400 years making
brick for Pharaoh to build his monuments. It's not a cushy job. They're slaves in Egypt. They're God's people,
slaves in Egypt. They're Israel, slaves in Egypt.
They're the 12 tribes of Israel, slaves in Egypt for 400 years.
Now, our country isn't 400 years old. Can you just, well, we have
to go back to about 1660 to get 400 years, 1616 to get 400 years? That's before the. Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. 400 years of these generations
making bread for Egypt. God said this to Abraham before
it ever happened. And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge and afterward Excuse me, shall they
come out with great substance and thou shall go to thy fathers
in peace and thou shall be buried in a good old age. But in the
fourth generation, they shall come hither again. Now notice
the last phrase of that verse of scripture. There's a reason
that they're gonna be there 400 years. God purposed it, but he
makes this statement to Abraham. for the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full. Now, I don't know all that means,
but I know God said their iniquity is not yet full and my people
will spend 400 years in slavery in Egypt and then come out with
great substance. God's long suffering. we find
in the scriptures means salvation. In the book of 1 Peter, we read
about the flood. God looked down and we read in
the scriptures, the book of Genesis, that he didn't see anybody that
was doing anything right. That their iniquity was so terrible
that he made a covenant with himself, I'm going to destroy
this people, the whole world. When he told in the book of Genesis,
he shares with us that I'll not always strive with men. Now,
my mother said, God, if he works on you long enough and you don't
respond, he'll quit. I'm thankful that's not what
that means. He just said, there's 120 years left and I'm going
to destroy this place. And people take that, scholars
take that as that's when God spoke to Noah about the building
of the ark. There's no place in the scripture that shares
exactly how long that ark was in the building, but there was
120 years there. And it tells us that Noah was
500 years old when he got in the ark. Now, if God had destroyed
the earth before that, Noah would not have had children because
he was not at 500, he had children. 600 he went into the ark, excuse
me, 600 he went in the ark, 500 he's having children. 120 years,
20 years before he had children, God spared this earth for 120
years so that Noah would have children to take in the ark and
you and I could be here. The long suffering of the Lord
means salvation. Adam was told immediately, the
day you eat, you shall surely die. And he died instantaneously.
It took 120 years from the time God spoke and Noah was acquainted
with the fact that he's going to build an ark 120 years or
close to it before he destroyed this earth. We find that he's
often doing this very same thing. The Tower of Babel. He comes
down and breaks up a religious party. They're building a tower,
and it says in the scriptures, and I've had people tell me in
my studies, it was going to go clear up to heaven. They were
going up into the heavens to look at the astrological signs
of the stars. That's what they were doing.
And God came down and confused their tongues, and that's how
we ended up with English, and Spanish, and Ukrainian, and Russian,
and all the other languages that we have. And that's one reason
they separated out to their various places, and we, most of us, got
to Europe. God's purpose of grace broke
up a party, a religious party at the Tower of Babel so that
our forebears could get where they needed to be so they could
hear the gospel and God would save a people for his glory.
We find in Sodom and Gomorrah, it's amazing. God took longer
with Sodom and Gomorrah than he did in making the whole universe. He took longer in dealing with
Sodom and Gomorrah and their problem than he took for creating
the heavens and the earth. And we find that he could not
destroy that city even though it was the vile, vile place on
this earth. And I'm sure there are a whole
lot of people saying, why doesn't God just wipe that off the face
of the earth? You know why? There was a man
in there. His name, the Bible, New Testament
calls him Just Lot. Now it doesn't mean there was
just one man taken out, it means he was justified. Just Lot was
taken out of Sodom and Gomorrah with his two daughters. Now his
wife left with him and she turned back and it really is a sign
to us about those who pretend to know And they just have never
left Sodom yet. They've never left the old world
yet. They just can't leave the world. She left for a while. I mean,
got away, out a ways, but she, her heart was there, her mind
was there, and she turned around and turned to a pillar of salt.
But Lot and his two daughters escaped, and they were placed
out of Sodom and Gomorrah before God rained down brimstone and
fire on that place. And I am convinced that there
were people that were saying, why doesn't God take care of
that mess? There was someone in there that must be taken out. Now I'm sure in my generation,
or the generation before me, there were people saying, why
doesn't God just wipe that whole group off the face of the earth?
Just like Habakkuk was saying, is why in the world don't you
do something about this mess that we're in? And yet we find
that the reason that God does not do that, God said, the long
suffering of the Lord means salvation to my elect. He is waiting till
the last one is brought in, and then this will be wrapped up.
Why in the world do we have so many immigrants coming to the
United States? I don't understand all I know
about it, but I know this, there's very few places that have anything
to say about the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ except a few lighthouses here in the United States in
our world. And here we have people, I'm
praying, Maybe God would save one of those guys. In the judges, seven different times, the children
of Israel went off into nonsense that we witness every day. Seven
different times, the whole book of Judges. It tells us in the
last part of the book of Joshua that all the days of the life
of Joshua and all the days of the elders that knew Joshua,
Israel walked in his ways. And we get to the book of Judges,
it says, every man did that what was right in his own eyes. Judges,
they'd get into a pit and cry out and God would send a deliverer,
a picture of Christ. Deliver, to deliver those people
and they'd have, they'd serve 18 years, they'd serve 22 years,
they'd serve 25 years, these other pagan leaders and God would
come and deliver them from those groups, from those people and
then they'd go off again and here would come the hordes from
the north or the south or the east or the west, seven different
cycles in the judges as God spoke to them in various ways, just
like Habakkuk. Why in the world is this continuing
on as it is and what's the answer about it? And we find out in
scripture, it's the long suffering of the Lord means salvation. What would have happened if the
Lord had to wrap this up in 1900, in 1940, in 1950? in 1960, 1970, said, I've had
enough. Well, there's a faithfulness
about God that he will not leave any of those he chose in Christ
before the foundation of the world. He will lose none of them. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of 2 Peter, 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. Beginning with verse 3. 2 Peter
3. Beginning with verse 3. Knowing
this. Knowing this first. that there
shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts
and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of creation. For this they willingly are ignorant.
They're willingly ignorant of that by the word of God, the
heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the waters and
in the waters, whereby the world that then was being overflowed
with water perished. But the heavens and the earth,
which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. That one day
is with the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years is
one day. And the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. As some men count slackness,
but is long suffering to us word, not willing. that any of the
usward should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
Many, many years ago at Mount Sinai, Moses went up on the mountain
and he's gone for some time. In fact, it says he's gone so
long that the people of Israel say, we don't know where he is,
Aaron, what do we do? Aaron told his brother Moses
later, he said, we just got a bunch of gold together and threw it
in fire and out come this golden calf. And they are prancing around
that golden calf. I read something the other day
and I wish I could remember what it was. I don't know if you ever
have that problem or not. I should write it on my hand
so I keep it. But it said it took God only one day to deliver
Israel from Egypt on that last Passover
day, took one day to get them out and 40 years to get Egypt
out of Israel before they entered into the promised land. They're
dancing around that golden calf. And you know what they said?
This be the gods that got us out of Egypt. And God on the
mount says, they're having trouble down there. Moses, you go back
down there. In fact, nope, nope. I'm just going to wipe them off
the face of the earth. And I am going to make you my
nation. Now, what a golden opportunity
for Moses. Whoa. Wow, that's really good. I think I'd make a real good
nation for God. I'd keep his promise. You know
what Moses did? Now, God did this on purpose. He does this to us too, Lord. Moses said, God, don't forget
your covenant. Now, God knew what, God prompted
Moses to say this. This is what God does for his
people. Moses didn't come up with this
on his own. Moses didn't have this in the
back of his mind. The Holy Spirit prompted him
to say this to God, because God said, I'm going to make a nation
out of you. And you know what Moses said? Moses said, God,
don't forget your promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't forget your covenant mercies. You know what? That's exactly
what God wants his people to say to God. Don't forget your
covenant mercies. Every time we get the idea that
we should call down fire from heaven, God shared with Moses,
and Moses shared to God, don't forget your covenant mercies.
Don't forget your covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't
forget your elective grace. Don't forget your redemptive
grace. Don't forget all that you have.
Oh, it doesn't make any sense to me, but you You know what
this means. The long suffering of the Lord
means salvation. You know what stands behind this
whole rumble that's going on. You know what was going behind
the American Revolution, the revolution in Russia, the revolution
in the Czech Republic. You know what's all behind that.
Will God create a war, start a war to save his people? Brother
Mahan emphatically says, yes, he will do that. He will start
a war to save his people. He's done it in the past. He
will do it again. Now, God eventually was going
to put Judah into captivity, but he protected Judah in such
a way that in the right time, in the fullness of time, the
Messiah was born of a virgin. In the fullness of time, God
brought forth his son. He protected that family so carefully
that in the fullness of time, the Savior would come. And we
have the results of that here in 1 Peter, that it is the long
suffering of the Lord to usward, to God's people. It means salvation. It means even though God said
to Moses, I'm gonna make you my nation, I should make you
my nation, Abraham says, just remember what you promised. Now,
God didn't need to be reminded. He doesn't need to be reminded,
but he sure loves us to say it. He loves us to give Him praise.
He doesn't need us to give Him praise. He has all honor and
praise altogether. But He loves us to honor Him
and praise Him. He loves us to extol Him. It's
a reflection of the heart that God has given to us. He said,
you shall be my people and I'll be your God and you shall love
me. And we love Him by responding that way. Moses demonstrated
his great love for God in saying, oh, don't forget your covenant
mercies. That's the only reason I'm here,
Lord, and that's the only reason you're here, Lord, is that God's
covenant mercies that He made in the eternal covenant before
the world began, that God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit in covenant mercy, in covenant love, chose a people
in Christ Jesus out of all the flock of people, knowing full
well left to themselves, they would not turn one finger to
serving the true and the living God on their own. We need him. We don't deserve him, but we
need him. We can't love him without him
first loving us and we cannot serve him without him first serving
us and will not follow him unless he first followed the covenant
of grace. He came to do his father's will. And so, as Peter summed
it up, the long suffering of the Lord means salvation. And
that's exactly what Habakkuk is going to learn. We read the
last three verses of that book. Boy, things are going bad. And
he uses a picture, a metaphorical picture. Boy, there's no blossoms
in the fig tree and there's no calves being born and there's
no lambs being born and things are really looking bad. But I
will glory in the God of my salvation. I'll glory in the God of my salvation. I'll be reminded daily. Oh Lord,
don't forget your covenant mercies. Because without that, we'd not
be where we are. We'd not be a people without
His covenant mercies. So all these things that God
shared with us throughout the Old Testament, pictures and types
and shadows of the Lord Jesus, even though there was a prophet
that wanted to be like some disciples, let me just call fire down from
heaven. God shares with us, I have a people. And when it's time,
I'll wrap this up. When it's time, when I have saved
the last one, I'll wrap this up. There won't be any more time
after that. But until that time, I've got
a friend, you have a friend, down in New Guinea. And he's
talked to me about some of the people God saved down there,
what kind of lives they live. You know what? They may have
done a little bit of different on the outside than we would
do, but they've done nothing different on the inside. Sinners
by nature, in heart, practice. God's saving a people down there.
God's saving his people wherever they are until the final one. And the whole flock is finished. Then he'll say, Wrap it up. Brother Rupert.