We've had a break from Acts chapter
13, and I'd like you to turn in your Bibles there because
I'd like us to do something which we've done on our journey through
Acts. Since we began is that when we've
come to an Old Testament passage in Acts, we've gone to that Old
Testament passage and looked at it. The Old Testament passage
that's before us. in Acts chapter 13 verse 41 is
the passage from Habakkuk, and we'll be looking at that later
on, but I thought it would be good for us to set the context
by reminding ourselves yet again of this great sermon. that Paul preached this sermon,
which is typical of gospel sermons, which is all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. It relates the history of God, but the history of God
is a history of a sovereign God who rules over all things, a
sovereign God who rules for the glory of his people and for his
son's glory. And in everywhere in the Old
Testament, we read of the word of God and God acting. We need
to be reminded that this is the Lord Jesus Christ. who sovereignly
rules and sovereignly acts and sovereignly raises up nation
and puts nations down. But he speaks in Acts 13.26 He speaks of this saviour which
he had mentioned in 1323. And as I've said earlier, the
Jews in that synagogue would have been nodding in agreement
as they heard of God choosing them, choosing them as a special
people. They heard of God choosing Abraham.
They heard of God raising up this nation from one man from
one man's one son, from that one man's one son, another one
son, and from that son, twelve sons, and from that nation, this
great nation, Israel, all of which, all of which was designed
by God to typify the redemption that's in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that his people he guards jealously, his people he rules over this
world for their preservation and for his glory. But he says
to these people in Acts 13, 26, he says, Men and brethren, children
of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you that feareth
God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that
dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him
not, nor yet the voices of the prophet, which are read every
Sabbath day, have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though
they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate
that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all
that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and
laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead.
And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
And we declare unto you glad tidings. how that the promise
which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto
us, their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again. As it is also written in the
second psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that raised
him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption,
he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of
David. Wherefore, he saith in another
psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption.
For David, after he had served his own generation by the will
of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw
corruption. But he whom God raised again
saw no corruption. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins, and by him..." This is a wonderful
declaration. This is a wonderful gospel declaration,
brothers and sisters. "...and by him all that believed."
Any that are going to believe are going to believe by him.
all that believe are justified, not will be justified by their
activities, but are justified by God. To be justified by God
is to be declared by God to have no sin. a just God and a Saviour. All of the sins of all of God's
elect children, those loved from eternity, those joined to the
Lord Jesus Christ in eternity, all of the sins of all of those
people were put on the Lord Jesus Christ and He earned them as
His own. To be justified is to be without
sin in God's sight. It's to be without sin in the
very courts of holiness of God. Who shall lay any charge to those
who are God's chosen? It's God that justifies. You're
not justified by your works. In fact, believing, believing
these things comes by Him. It's the grace gift of God to
cause people to believe. They're justified from all things
from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. This is
the great point, isn't it, the great point of the Gospel. The
great point, the great central hub of the Gospel wheel is justification
by faith. Justification purely on the basis
of the works of the Lord Jesus Christ and not on the basis of
any of your works whatsoever. It is the point that separates
all of God's people from the religious people of this world,
and it doesn't matter what denomination they are or what name they call
themselves, what ism they belong to, all of Adam's children believe
that somehow their salvation has something to do with their
will, their worth, and their works. And God says that you're
justified from all things which you could not be justified by
the law of Moses. There is no justification in
obedience to the law of Moses. There's no justification in any
of your works whatsoever. Your works don't aid God in saving
you and your works don't hinder God from saving you. Salvation
is of grace and salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ and
in Him completely. And the response that Paul had
from these people in the synagogue that day, these Jews, is the
response that the religious world gives to the simple declaration
that salvation is entirely of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
can't help but think And that's why we look at Habakkuk a little
while ago. It says at the beginning of this
message that Paul was invited into the synagogue and he said,
if you have a word of comfort, a word of exhortation for us,
and that after they had read the law and the prophets, I can't
help but wonder, and I don't like speculating from here, but
I can't help but wonder that one of the laws and one of the
prophets that was read that day was the prophecy of Habakkuk.
And Paul quotes this, Habakkuk. He says, Beware, therefore, lest
that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye
despises and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. It's an appalling judgment of
God upon people, isn't it? A work done, a work declared,
a work seen in their days and seen in our days, and then a
declaration from God that you'll see it, you'll have it proclaimed
to you, and you won't believe it. May the Lord save us, save
us from that judgment. Don't allow us to be despisers. What were they despising? What
could they, as we looked at that message, what could they be despising
him for? The only thing, the only thing
that they despised him for was that he declared that justification. Standing before God is purely
a work of God alone. It's purely a work by a sovereign
God. It's purely a work of sovereign
grace. And it's a work that God does,
and it's a work that no man can stop in any way at all. It's the glory of the gospel.
The very thing that the broken-hearted sinners, made sinners by the
Lord, rejoice in most is salvation by grace. The very thing that
the religious people can't stand is salvation by grace. And yet
Habakkuk says, the just shall live by his faith. The just shall live by his faith. May the Lord preserve us from
being despisers. May the Lord cause us to be wise. May the Lord work in our hearts
that we might believe. I love that verse in that hymn
that we just sang. It says, bid the guilty hymn embrace. Habakkuk's name means to embrace
or to cling. To embrace or to cling. I thought I might read some of
this remarkable prophecy. And as we do remember Remembrance
Day, So many of the words of Habakkuk might have well been
the words of those people that went through what are to us unimaginable
horrors of that great war over a hundred years ago. Habakkuk
was a prophet in the days of Jeremiah. in those days when
the promise of God from the prophet Jeremiah was that God was going
to raise up a nation and he was going to destroy Jerusalem and
Jeremiah's message was a simple one. Believe God. and go to the Babylonians, where
God has promised to be a little sanctuary for His people, and
you will be saved. You stay in Jerusalem and you
cling to your wisdom and your works, and you cling to those
false teachers in Jerusalem who are calling out, peace, peace,
to you all the time, and you will perish. you will perish
in your unbelief, you will perish in your works. It's a picture,
no doubt, that caused Habakkuk to be burdened. It was a burden
that fell upon Jerusalem Several times, it's no doubt, as the
Bucket penned these words, he may never have known that this
was a word written, written for us in these days, when Jerusalem
seemed surrounded by its enemies. Written for Paul as he preached
in Antioch, where there he was, preaching the Gospel and surrounded
by people who were at enmity to the Gospel. In the midst of
all this, Habakkuk is burdened. He's burdened, in verse 1, he's
burdened by what he saw. He says, and this is a prayer
that I'm sure in so many ways was echoed in those trenches
and those horrible scenes from that First World War, the burden
which Habakkuk, the prophet, did see, O Lord, how long shall
I cry? And thou wilt not hear, even
cry unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save. Why dost
thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are
before me, and there are that rise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked. And judgment doth never go forth,
for the wicked doth compass about the righteous, therefore wrong
judgment proceedeth. And then this verse back at 1.5
which is quoted. in Acts 13. Behold ye among the
heathen, look and see ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder
marvelously. For I will work a work in your
days, which you will not believe, though it be told you. For lo,
I raise up the Chaldeans, I raise up the Babylonians. The Babylonians
were a tool in the hand of a sovereign God. That bitter and hasty nation
which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess
the dwelling places that are not theirs, They are terrible
and dreadful, their judgment and their dignity shall proceed
of themselves. Their horses also are swifter
than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves,
and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen
shall come from afar, and they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth
to eat. They shall come all for violence,
their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather
the captivity as the sand. They shall come, all for violence. Their faces shall chop up the
east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as a sand. They
shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn
unto them. They shall deride every stronghold,
for they shall heap dust and take it. Then shall his mind
change, and he shall pass over and offend, imputing this his
power unto his God. This is what Habakkuk saw, and
this is what burdened him. And then he looked up to the
hills. He says, "'Art thou not from
everlasting?' And I love the words of the clinger. Listen
to the personal pronouns of this man who clings, who embraces
God. "'Art thou not from everlasting,
O Lord my God?' O Lord, my God, mine Holy One, we shall not die. We shall not die. O Lord, thou
hast ordained them for judgment. O mighty God, thou hast established
them for correction. Verse 13, Thou art of purer eyes
than to behold evil. Thou canst not look on iniquity.
Wherefore lookest Thou upon them that deal treacherously, and
holdest Thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more
righteous than he. and make us men as fishers of
the sea and as the creeping things that have no ruler over them.
They take up all of them with the angle and they catch them
in their net and they gather them in their drag, therefore
they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice under
their net and burn incense under their drag, because by them their
portion is fat. and their meat plenteous. Shall
they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to
slay the nations? This is Habakkuk's Burden, isn't
it? And I love how in the scriptures,
the prophets of God had this personal, intimate relationship
with God, that they could ask Him questions. How long? How long, O God? They could ask
Him questions. They'd look around us, and they
look around themselves, and they see all this spoiling and violence. They look around and see these
nations, these evil nations. They see these wicked people,
even the wicked religious people in Israel. They see them rising
up and seeming to prosper. It's a cry that the psalmist,
in honesty, cry to God. You read Psalm 73. And David
cries similar cries. Many of the prophets cry similar
cries. But the embracer, Habakkuk, the
embracer, the one clinging to God, having seen all that and
having raised those concerns and complaints, as it were, before
God, He does several things, doesn't he? He acknowledges the
absolute sovereignty of God. And then he says in verse 1 of
chapter 2, what a great way for the child of God in the midst
of desperate circumstances to posture themselves. I will stand
upon my watch. I will set me upon the tower,
and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I
shall answer when I am reproved." When I am corrected and chastised
to question God and His goodness and His sovereignty and His grace
and His mercy, to question God is to be one who must expect
to be reproved, to be corrected. And the Lord answered me and
said, write the vision and make it plain on tables that he may
run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an
appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it. because it will surely come. It will not tarry, it will not
be delayed. The vision that Habakkuk saw,
Isaiah's prophecy, Isaiah's gospel is declared a vision. The prophets
of God received these words from God and they were visions, but
the vision is yet for an appointed time. At the end it will speak. Such is the vision that the Gospel
brings, doesn't it? It will not tarry, it's set,
it shall speak, and it will not lie. The Word of God will not
lie. Though it tarry, wait for it. Wait for it, because it will
surely come. And then this verse, which is
quoted three times in the New Testament, Behold, verse 4 of
chapter 2 of Habakkuk, Behold, his soul which is lifted up is
not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. There's the great division in
humanity, isn't it? There are just two groups of
people in this world, there are two races of people in this world,
all the children of Adam. All the children of Adam have
their souls lifted up and it's not upright in him. And all the
children of Christ, all of those who are justified freely by his
grace, they live by his faith. The just shall live by his faith. The just shall live by the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the just shall live by the
faith that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to his people. It's the
gift of God. It's the grace gift of God to
believe in him. Paul may well have had this passage
from Habakkuk in mind as he began this ministry into this world
in which the Galatian churches were founded, and those churches
in Revelation are in this same region, a bit further west in
Turkey. But the scriptures declare in
Romans 15, 4, for whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning, Habakkuk was written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures
might have hope. These things were written for
us, weren't they? These things happened. These
things happened according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 and
11. These things happened to Habakkuk and they happened to
him. To them, for examples, and they are written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come. Habakkuk wrote a long
time ago in a time when Jerusalem was about to be put to siege
and the great curses of Deuteronomy 28 and 29 were to fall upon that
nation and to fall upon them by the justice of God because
they refused, they refused to heed the warnings of scriptures. they refused to heed. And Paul, as he spoke to that
congregation, that synagogue, probably was aware, given the
history that he had and given the history of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he was going to go proclaiming this gospel and
to be hunted like a wild thing in many ways for the rest of
his life. And it's very hard to read 2 Timothy chapter 4 at
the very end of these days and not to read it with tears in
your eyes as Paul, that faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ,
having suffered all of those things through all of his life,
is left, as it were, almost abandoned in his last moments. It was a tough, tough journey. It was the journey that the Lord
Jesus Christ pictured in his own life and death and resurrection,
and he went to that cross alone. working out the salvation of
his people alone. And there is in large measure
the reality that God's people will go through the trials that
Habakkuk and Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ went through in
this world. But I love what Paul says, he
has a great but in 2 Timothy chapter 4, he says, they all
abandoned me, but the Lord stood by my side. It's the great barter
scripture. He came preaching that gospel
and he saw in those people who were offended at the gospel of
free and sovereign grace. Those people who were offended
are the same people who are offended today and they despise, they
despise the work of God. They despise the gospel of free
and sovereign grace. But he says to the despisers,
wonder, I'll work a work in your day that you will know in no
wise No wise believe, though a man declare it to you." The
work in that day was that glorious work. What a work in that day!
The salvation of someone who was a blasphemer, an injurious
man and an angry man, Paul. who did all that he could to
destroy the Church of God, and there now he is proclaiming that. That man who did all he could
in his earthly life to try and esteem the law of the Jews and
the traditions of the Jews, and he lived before those Jews as
a man who could declare himself blameless before the law of God. that man who was stripped of
all of his legal righteousness by meeting the Lord Jesus Christ
and put in the dust, the right and proper place for people to
be, put in the dust before the Lord Jesus Christ. And now these
Jews are even more enraged as the Gentiles are saved and the
gospel, the glorious gospel goes out as it was promised to all
those Gentile nations from Abraham's time on. Abraham was a Gentile. Abraham was a Gentile. The Jews
claim him as theirs, but we can claim him as ours as well, can't
we? And here, in this Gospel age,
the Gentiles are being saved, and multitudes of Gentiles are
saved, and the Jews are being rejected, the Gospel is being
taken away from the Jews, and the Jews ultimately will be left
in their religion, and the Jews ultimately will be gathered into
Jerusalem as the Jews, the unbelieving Jews, were in Habakkuk's day
and Jeremiah's day. The unbelieving Jews, a million
of them, gathered in Jerusalem, thinking that Jerusalem, thinking
that temple, thinking that earthly man-made works religion was a
place of safety, and God destroyed it. And he destroyed it in exactly
the same fashion as it was destroyed in the days of Jeremiah and Habakkuk. He destroyed it because of their
unbelief and he destroyed it because of their apostasy. And
nothing has changed, brothers and sisters. There are countless
multitudes clinging to false religion in this world, unheeding
the words of the Prophet, unheeding the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ promised
that that city, Jerusalem, was going to be destroyed and not
one stone would be left upon another. When Titus was finished
with it, it looked like a ploughed field. That's how effectively
he destroyed Jerusalem. But the great tragedy of it was
that a million people died in there in the most shockingly
depraved conditions that are imaginable to humanity. They
suffered the ultimate curse of God in their flesh here for disobeying
God and not heeding the warnings of scripture. And so it will
be, and so it is, for the countless multitudes that don't heed the
warnings in this day. It's a work. He says, I will
work a work in your days, in Acts 13.41. A work in those days,
a work that's done in the Lord Jesus Christ, a work that's done
by the resurrected and reigning Lord Jesus Christ as he sends
out his witnesses and they proclaim this simple gospel message of
Jesus Christ and Him crucified and salvation by grace and justification
by a work done outside of us entirely, that our salvation
rests entirely on a work of another and not on our own works. And
this sovereign God, this sovereign reigning, this crucified King
who now reigns, this humble, humble and humbled Lord, now
reigns as God's Lord and Christ. This despised and rejected Nazarene
is Christ the Lord. This gospel comes with power
from on high. The words of Habakkuk are quoted
three times in the New Testament. In Romans chapter 1, Paul declares
that he's not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of
God unto salvation. I'm not ashamed, Romans 1.16,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. He's not ashamed of the gospel.
We have the power of God in the preaching of the Gospel, of gathering
His people together, of causing these people who are enemies
and blasphemers to be worshippers of the true and living God. For
this Gospel, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. As it is written, and here he
quotes Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith. The righteous
live by faith. It's quoted again in Galatians
3.11. So the words of Habakkuk lay
heavy on Paul's heart and were etched deeply into him, isn't
it? He says in chapter 3 of Galatians,
verse 9, he says, so then they which be of faith are blessed
with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works
of the law, As many as can trace any origin of their faith or
their salvation to something that they do, their righteousness
to something that they do, they're the works of the law. How do
you measure good moral behavior in this world? Except by the
law of God. If you attribute anything, anything,
if you're standing before God, to any works of yours that you
deem to be righteous, They're the works of the law. For as
many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed it
is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. If you go to the law and
go to it for one point, you must go to it everywhere, and you
must obey it perfectly. and there is no salvation in
it, none whatsoever. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. Isn't that a remarkable
statement? That no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God. If people put that statement
at the beginning of the confessions of faith that have dominated
this Christian world for the last three or four hundred years,
they wouldn't write another word. Because their confessions of
faith say you go back to the law for your moral obedience.
You look back to the law. It seems as if God could not
have made it more plain. Behold, I work, I work in your
days, says our God, in which you will know by as believe though
it be told you. It's been told, people. that
there is no justification in the law, there is no righteousness
in the law, there is no standing before God in the things of your
activity. And then he goes on to say, no
man is justified by the law and the sight of God, it is evident,
for, because, the just shall live by faith. And the law is
not of faith. The man that doeth them shall
live in them. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us. We read those words so
quickly. I was talking to Cole about the
agonies of the Lord Jesus Christ and what it was for him to take
that cup. We have no understanding. We
are treading waters that are way above our head. We have no
idea of the agonies of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no idea,
we have no idea of two fundamental things except by the grace of
God. We have no idea of the holiness
of God. We have no idea of the holiness
of God and we have no idea of the sinfulness of sin. And the
best we can come to have some understanding of it is to go
to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, to chart his life from
birth to the garden, to the cross, to the tomb. It's only by God opening our
eyes to glimpse something of what it was for him to have that
blood pour from his holy body as he was crushed under that
weight in Gethsemane's garden. It's only by glimpsing those
things do we have any notion of the holiness of God, the justice
of God, and the sinfulness of sin. Christ has redeemed us. He's brought us back to himself. He didn't try and redeem people.
He didn't try and redeem everyone. What does it say? He hath redeemed
us. They put that statement on the
top of confessions of faith that litter this world. They wouldn't
write another thing. He hath redeemed us. That's what God says. From the
curse of the Lord being made a curse for us. For it is written,
curse it is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The third time that
Paul mentions this, is in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 38. And again,
he has words that are echoes of the words in Habakkuk. He says, cast not
away, therefore, verse 35, your confidence, which has great recompense
of reward. For you have need of patience.
I don't know about you, but I do. You have need of patience. that
after you have done the will of God, that you might receive
the promise. For yet a little while, and he
shall come, he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, if
any man, that word draw back means to let the sails down.
so that there is no wind, as it were, no sail for the wind
of the spirit to draw them on. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not, we are not
of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the
saving of the soul. To believe is to believe unto
the saving of the soul. Let's turn in our Bibles to Habakkuk. And obviously in the little time
we have left, we can but touch on some of the themes of it.
But I trust the Lord might bless his word to our hearts. The wonderful thing about the
scriptures is that in the scriptures the veil is drawn back from the
things that we see with our eyes. And by the grace of God, we come
to see that God, in the midst of what seems like a desperate
and difficult and impossible situation, our God reigns and
our God rules. I love what Peter says in 2 Peter
2.9. He says, the Lord knoweth. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptations. The Lord knows how to deliver
His people out of the temptations, out of the trials of this life,
and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. God knows. He knows how to protect
his own, and he knows how to judge the world. I love how Habakkuk
begins with a prayer, begins with a prayer which is being
honest to God. Why are things like they are?
Your life and my life and the circumstances around us bring
us to that point all the time. Where is God in all of this,
Habakkuk's saying? Why isn't he acting? Why is he
allowing the righteous to suffer as they do? Why is he allowing
wickedness to prevail as it were in this world? Why is he allowing
false religion to proliferate? Why is he allowing all of the
lack of justice, the lack of natural justice to go on? That's what he says, doesn't
he? He begins with a prayer, a prayer that's a burden, and
I love how he finishes. The bookends of Habakkuk are
beautiful. He goes, as it were, from burden to blessing, from
concern to contentment, from trouble to rest. He says at the end of the passage,
He says, I will rejoice, yet I will, 318, 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 Heinz' feet, and he will make
me to walk upon mine high places. Habakkuk begins with concern. and finishes his course in the
presence of God in this short letter by praising God. Not praising God for things that
he sees in himself, but praising God for his faithfulness to himself. It's a burden that he saw. The burdens that are the greatest
burdens to all of us, aren't they, are the burdens that we
see. When the Church is in decline,
the Church of God is seemingly under siege. When the judgment
of God seems to have fallen and is fallen in the streets, when
the things that God so openly declares that he despises have
become law in our land and accepted in our land, it's appalling to
think, isn't it, that we kill babies in this world. We kill
living babies. On one hand, we have a medical
profession that can save them in their 20th week and beyond. And we praise the miracle of
the advancement of human science and technology and the wonder
of the skill of these people. The wonder of the skill that
separated those joined twins in Melbourne the other day. What
amazing skill. What amazing technology that
we've accumulated. and in the same places, aborting
babies, defenseless babies. It will come, I really do believe
it will come in our day, that old and infirmed and bothersome
people at the other end of life will be encouraged to take a
little pill and stop being a pain in the neck to their children. When all of these things happen
and you see the trials, the people that we love go through. and it seems delayed. It's extraordinary
how in this world wicked and evil people seem to go on and
on. I often think of that little
man Mugabe in Rhodesia which became Zimbabwe. He took what
was one of the most productive agricultural parts of this world
a breadbasket for that nation where there are so many starving
people. In the space of all those years, you keep thinking he turned
it into a wasteland, an economic wasteland of impoverished people. Yet he survived and survived
and survived. You think of the evil people
that have survived and flourished and live into old age. No wonder,
no wonder the prophet felt burdened. That's the burden of what he
saw. But for the Lord's people there
is a greater burden, isn't it, than all of those things, and
that is the burden that the testimony of God seems to have fallen in
the street. that the witnesses, according
to those witnesses in Revelation, are put to death in the streets
and people are publicly exalting themselves and rejoicing and
sharing presents one with another because the witness of God is
gone. And now we have freedom. Now we have the freedom to live
as people want to live, unharassed, by the Word of God, by the testimony
of God, by the judgment of God, unharassed by the presence of
God, free to do what we want to do. The Lord's children, the
Lord's children are burdened by those things. Woe to us if
we think lightly of them. Woe to us If we don't have the
same response that the children of God have had throughout history
and throughout biblical history, they have grieved and lamented
over what they see going on around them. In Ezekiel chapter 9, God's judgment is about to fall
on Jerusalem. The avenging angels are there
waiting to destroy this city, and they destroy this city in
the pictures of Ezekiel. They destroy this city by taking
the coals from the fire, the altar underneath the chariot
of God, and they cast those coals. those coals from which Isaiah
had his lips cleansed because he lived amongst a people of
unclean lips, and he was one of them. The people of God in
the scriptures never put themselves above the sins of the nation
around them. But in Ezekiel chapter 9, as
Ezekiel is in vision, shown the judgment of God to fall upon
that nation, the judgment of God that Habakkuk talks about,
the judgment of God that is going to be wielded as if by an axe
or a sword in the hand of the Lord, and he raises up a Babylonian
superpower to bring judgment, his promised judgment upon his
people. And there was a man clothed with linen, verse 3 of Ezekiel
9, which had a rider's incorn by his side. And the Lord said
unto him, Go through the midst of the city, and through the
midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men
that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done
in the midst thereof. You set a mark upon my people. They grieve and lament as we
bring the Gospel to people. We long for people to come and
hear the Gospel. We long for people to sit at
the sound of the Gospel. We long for people to come and
be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they refuse. It is a burden. The children
of God are burdened in this world. They are As it says, why dost
thou, verse 3, why dost thou show me iniquity and cause me
to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are
before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention. The great strife and contention
in Habakkuk's day and the great strife and contention in Paul's
day and the great strife and contention in our day is the
strife and contention of those who stand opposed to the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace. They raised up. In verse 4 he
says, therefore the law is slacked and judgement doth never go forth. The law is slacked. The law languishes. The demands of God's law, the
demands of perfect obedience and perfect holiness, the demands
of the law are reduced down to things that men can do by their
own activities. that the law which was designed
to reveal sin to show man the depth of the distance between
him and his God in terms of holiness is now a bridge that you can
walk across by your own activities. and judgment does never go forth.
For the wicked, verse four, the wicked doth compass about the
righteous, therefore wrong judgment proceeds. Wrong judgment proceeds. Jeremiah, at this same time,
cried out, oh, that I was in the wilderness and a lodging
place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go
from them, for they are all adulterers. as an assembly of treacherous
men. The wicked doth compass about
the righteous, wrong judgment proceeds. The prophet sees and
he brings this before the Lord." And the Lord's answer is remarkable,
isn't it? He says, Behold ye among the
heathen. This little nation Israel was
set there in the midst of these heathen nations. All the nations
gathered about it. Europe on one side, Asia on one
side, Africa down below. It was set in the midst of the
nations. and regard and wonder marvellously. For I will work
a walk in your days, which you will not believe, though it be
told you." And then he says what he's going to do to this nation
and what the purpose of these Chaldeans is. I raise up the
Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation which shall march through
the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that
are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful,
their judgment and their dignity proceed of themselves. They are,
these Chaldeans, a picture of man's religion. They came bearing
their gods. They're a picture also of the
Jews' religion, isn't it? Their judgment, and their dignity
shall proceed of themselves." What a description of man. What
a description of religious man. Their dignity, their dignity
and their judgement. They'll stand in judgement of
God. They will have a dignity that
proceeds of themselves." Then he goes on to speak of their
activities, their horses and other things. And then in verse
11, he imputes this, his power, unto his God. Satan said to us in the garden,
didn't he? He said, you shall be as gods. You will stand in judgment of
God. knowing good and evil. It goes down in verse 18, we
see of the next chapter it says, the maker of his work trusts
us therein. The maker of his work trusts
us therein. But Habakkuk, as we saw earlier,
is turned by the grace of God to speak highly of God. It's
one of the great lessons that I learned from Song of Solomon,
that in the midst of trials, in the midst of troubles, in
the midst of darkness, in the midst of the burden at Habakkuk,
and all of God's children have suffered in this world, that
Shulamite, whenever she's asked, about her husband. She speaks
the most beautiful things. She can't find him. She can't
hold him. He has withdrawn himself, as
it were, from her. And she goes looking for him
in the city and she can't find him. And then she's asked, what
is he? What is your beloved? What's
he like? What is he to you? And then she
gives the most beautiful description. It's a great lesson that I have
learned in the midst of the trials. Speak well of God. Say sweet
things of truth about Him. I love how Habakkuk says it,
doesn't he? Thou art, art thou not from everlasting,
O Lord my God? Mine Holy One, we shall not die,
O Lord. All of this that's coming upon
this nation Israel, all of this which is coming upon this religious
nation, this religious nation of works righteousness, you have
ordained them for judgment and a mighty God. You have established
them for correction. You've established them to correct
your people. The Chaldeans, the Babylonians,
were going to be the place as the Egyptians were, where God
would be a little sanctuary to his people, and that nation that
was destroyed was going to flourish for a while in Babylon. In that
time of captivity, they were going to be there, and the Lord
was going to be with them, and they were going to come back,
and they were going to come back to possess this land, and they were
going to come back a chastened people. He says in verse 13,
Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look
on iniquity. No wonder the Lord Jesus Christ
cried on Calvary's tree, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? The Son hid his face, as it were,
to show that the Father hid his face from his Son. And Habakkuk, knowing these things
of God, continues to say, Wherefore thou lookest upon them that deal
treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth
the man that is more righteous than he? Why do you wait? Why is this? That's Habakkuk's burden, isn't
it? Paul went with that gospel to the Gentile lands, and the
first time he comes to one of those churches in Galatia, he
finds that there are men who are despisers. And these words
of Habakkuk would have been so poignant to him, and the Holy
Spirit brought them to his attention. These men, these Chaldeans, this
religious world, they take up They take up all of them with
the angle and they catch them in their net and they gather
them in their drag, therefore they rejoice and are glad. When
they gather men to their religion and their people, they rejoice
and are glad. And they sacrifice unto their
net. They sacrifice unto things that
they do. They find their sacrifice in
the things that they do to cause people to come into their net.
And they burn incense into their drag because by them their portion
is fat. and their meat plentieth. And
Habakkuk asks the question again. All of this is successful. Shall
they therefore empty their net? Shall they have the reward of
all their activities and not spare continually to slay the
nations? Habakkuk saw. He saw what false
man-made religion does, how it gathers people and takes them
captive. And will it continue forever?
He says, I will stand upon my watch. Having asked these questions
of God, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower
and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what answer
What shall I answer when I am reproved? What a blessing it
is for God to reprove us. What a blessing it is to be under
the hand of God in chastisement. When we see things and seem as
if we are questioning God and His righteousness and His judgment
and His sovereignty, no wonder David said, thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me. The rod of God is a comfort to
the children of God. The staff of God is equally a
comfort to the children of God, to be reproved. Habakkuk is told
to write the vision, make it plain on tables. Write it out. Make it so that people can see
and read and hear. The Word of God has gone out.
There are so many of these Bibles published that if you stack them
all on top of each other they go to the moon and back now,
I believe. There are so many Bibles. This Word has gone out
plainly. This Word is only made plain
to God's children. that he may run that readeth
it. Those who are given eyes to see,
given hearts to believe, may run when they read it. They may
flee from the wrath to come. They may flee into the arms of
the Lord Jesus Christ. They may find their all in Him. The words of God are the words
of a sovereign God. If you, like Habakkuk, are burdened,
if you, like Habakkuk, cry, if you, like Habakkuk, have said
to God, wilt thou not hear? Will you cry out? Are you one
who cries out to him for the wickedness that's in this land?
The word of God It says, to wait, to wait. You see in verse three,
and we'll close here, it says, for the vision is yet for an
appointed time. The vision that comes that's
made plain, the vision that causes the child of God to run to the
Lord Jesus, that strong tower, to run and to hide in him, is
yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak. The
vision of God shall speak, speak to the hearts of his people and
not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it,
because it will surely come, and it will not tarry. I'd just like
to finish by looking at the Declaration of the Salvation of God, the
Habakkuk. You might recall in verse 12
he says, of mine Holy One we shall not die. He calls on God
in verse 2 of chapter 3, he says, to revive thy work in the midst
of the years. In the midst of the years make
known in wrath, remember mercy. He says in verse 6, at the end
of verse 6, His ways are everlasting. He appoints things and they must
come to pass. And then in verse 12 He says,
Thou didst march through the land in indignation. Thou didst thresh the heathen
in anger. Thou wentest forth for the salvation
of thy people. Our God has gone forth. as a
mighty conqueror for the salvation of his people, even for the salvation
of thine anointed, or possibly thine anointed ones. Thou woundest
the head out of the house of the wicked by discovering the
foundation unto the neck. Our God, marches. Our God marched in the days of
Habakkuk. Our God marched in the days of
Paul and sent his witnesses out. Our God marches now. He goes
forth. He goes forth for the salvation
of his people, for the salvation of thine anointed. All those
All those who live by faith are just, just before God. Salvation is to be declared by
God in His holiness, in His justice, to be perfectly fit before Him. Habakkuk, I trust you might go
and read it when you finish. Habakkuk declares that in his
flesh there is nothing. The fig tree doesn't blossom.
There's no fruit in the vines. The labour of the olive fails.
There's nothing in my flesh. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you that in the midst of the trials and in the midst
of the burdens of this world, you are a God who cannot lie. You have redeemed your people.
You have saved your people in eternity. Your people have been
put in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we praise you,
Heavenly Father, that he marches through this land for the salvation
of all of his anointed ones. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
for his work on Calvary's tree. We praise you that we are brought
again to a place of remembrance of who he is in his absolute
sovereignty and rule over all things, as who he is in taking
the burdens of his people upon himself, the burdens of their
sin and the burdens of their faithfulness. and he bore them
in his own body on Calvary's tree, and he shed his precious
life's blood for all of those people. We praise you, Heavenly
Father, that his victory is successful, that our God reigns. Oh, Father, grant us the grace
of hearing your words and simply believing for the salvation of
our eternal souls and for the glory of your dear and precious
son, in whose name we pray. Amen.