I pray that you would do this
even today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, take your Bibles
now and turn with me to Habakkuk. Habakkuk chapter 2. And I've
entitled this message, The Holy and the Merciful God. The Holy and the Merciful God. And I'm going to beg your indulgence,
I do have a introduction in this and it's I admit it's it's lengthy
but I think it's necessary I really do to introduce this text to
you look at Habakkuk chapter 2 in verse 18 we just read this
I read it again what profiteth the graven image that the maker
thereof graven it The molten image and the teacher of lies,
that the maker of his work trusteth therein to make dumb idols. Woe unto him that sayeth to the
wood, Awake, to the dumb stone, Arise, and it shall teach. Behold,
it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath
at all in the midst of it. But, you see he's putting a comparison
here. Now he's going to tell us about
the true God. He says, but the Lord is in his
holy temple. The Lord liveth, he's no graven
image. He liveth in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent
before Him. And then He prays, a prayer of
abacic upon the Shigenol, which is just an instrument. And He
says, O Lord, I have heard Thy speech and was afraid. O Lord,
I revive Thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of
the years make known, what? Here it is, in wrath have mercy. In these two verses, in verse
20, we have an attribute of God, holiness. He dwelleth in his
holy temple. His temple is holy because God
is what? Holy. And then he begs God for
another attribute. In your holy wrath, remember
what? Mercy. This reveals two attributes
of God, His holiness and His mercy. Now, the greatest concern
for the church is wrapped up in this vital question. Who is
God? That is the question of the church. That is our responsibility to
declare who God is. And what is He like? What does He require? If God
is holy, what does that mean? If God is merciful, how can He
be holy and merciful? This is the foundation of all
theology, both doctrinal and practical. If the church is off
on this point, who God is, then the church is off on every doctrine. If you miss this, if you don't
know who God is, what are we doing here? We're off on this foundation
of our religion and faith is nothing but idolatry. True religion
is knowing who God is. How can a man know God? How can
we know if we have a right knowledge of God or are we worshiping a
false God? The answer to this is this, no
man can know God unless He reveals Himself to you. This is the truth
concerning Scripture. You can learn, you can educate
yourself, you can memorize the Scriptures. I heard of a man
one time, he memorized the whole book. It's amazing, astounding
how he could just roll it out. Does he know God? Didn't sound
like it to me. Sounded like he memorized the
whole book for no reason at all. God has to reveal. Paul says
this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He said, I speak the wisdom
of God and the mystery, the hidden wisdom of God. That which God
ordained before the world began. And he says this, I know it because
the Holy Spirit hath revealed it to me. That's the only reason
I know it, Paul said. He said, the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. And he goes on to say, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they're
foolishness in him. I'm gonna preach to you about
God and to the natural man, these things are foolish. They're gibberish.
You don't even understand. Just kind of goes in one ear
and out the other. Doesn't understand. Listen, neither can he know them. Spiritually judged, he's condemned. This happened in Adam. When Adam
died spiritually, he lost all knowledge of who God is. Adam thought God was much like
himself, so much that he condemned God for the woman. He said, it's
the woman you gave me, your fault. So he lost all knowledge of who
God was. Became irreverent in the sight
of God. Wherefore, by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all
men. Now, spiritual death does not erase the knowledge that
there is a God. It just erased the knowledge
of who He is. Every man knows there is a God,
and anyone who says otherwise goes against his own conscience. He's the greatest fool that ever
lived. The creation of the world, Paul says, revealed these things
in Romans 1. He tells us, by the creation
we know God's power and authority. We know whoever made this is
in control of all things. It's just rational reasoning.
We understand that. But because man is depraved,
he worshiped God not as God, but as a creature. As a creature. He became vain in his imagination,
his foolish heart was darkened. He worshipped the creature rather
than the creator. And what is this called? This
is called idolatry. Exactly what is in our text.
The prophet here says, when you make a god of wood, what does
your worship profit that god of wood? How can your worship
do anything to that god? You claim to be serving him,
you claim to be, but all your service, what does that do for
him? It doesn't do anything, he's a piece of wood. But listen, in order to make
that piece of wood, you understand where it came from. It came from
his imagination. A man imagined a God and then
he did what? He carved it. And it wasn't enough that he
carved it, he put gold on it, he put silver, he made it valuable.
But it all came from his imagination. The mind of man, friend, is not
godless. It is a god factory. A natural man in his mind believes
that God is much like himself. God told him that. He said, Thou
thoughtest that I was altogether such in one as thyself. If you
look at the God of this religious age, he looks much like a man.
A fallen, helpless man. The God of this age is a God
not to be praised but pitied. He's a God that begs man to do
something for him that he is incapable or unwilling to do
himself. When the scripture tells us that
God made man in his own image, men take that and they say, well
see, we're gods. But to imagine that God and His
creatures are essentially alike robs God of His glory. It abases
God and makes Him like unto fallen man. Listen, there are not two sovereigns. There are not two sovereigns.
There are not two absolutely free beings in the universe.
That's what religion tells you. Well, God is sovereign up until
a point. And then man is sovereign in
some other thing. They're not two sovereigns. Either
man's will is free and he is sovereign and God is not. Or
God is sovereign and man has no such thing as a free will. But the truth is only God is
sovereign, only God is absolutely free. The scripture says our
God is in the heavens and done what? What does our God do? Whatsoever he hath pleased. Have
you done? Can you do that? Can you do whatsoever
you please? Well, you're not sovereign, are
you? How free is your will? Your will is bound by nature
and circumstance and providence. Your will is not free. It's bound. God is the only one who has free
will. Any God who is subject to man
is any God who is not in control of all things, all people, all
events in time and eternity is nothing but a little God. How then may man know who God,
how may man know God who is unknowable? Since God is nothing like man
can imagine, And to imagine God is to make him an idol and left
to ourselves, we would reduce God to a miserable human being
subject to us. You make an idol of wood, you
set him right there in that chair. He cannot move until you move
him. You made a God that you can manipulate. If you can manipulate your God,
your God is not God. God is not one to be manipulated.
Not the one to be bargained with. He is God. Does whatsoever He
pleases. Does whatsoever He pleases. Yet,
even in this, The Holy Spirit gives us His Word. And so if
you're to know God, you must know God based on what God says
about Himself. The only way we can know God
is by what God reveals to us in His Word. And even then, the
Holy Spirit must use dumbed-down language for us. How many times
did you read this? Things in heaven even, it says,
it's like unto. Why? Because that's not really
it. You go over to Ezekiel and he's trying to describe God's
providence, the wheel within the wheel, and many times he
says, this is like unto a color, or it's like unto this, and it's
like, because the spirit can only use that kind of language
for us to understand. It is in this way God uses his
word to reveal himself to man and it must be by the spirit
to make it effectual. It's not enough just to get it
in here. The spirit of God must take that
word that comes into our minds and make it effectual, make it
real to us. Without that, we'll never know
God. Therefore, to the question, what
is God like? We cannot answer but what God
has revealed about himself. Because God in great love condescends
by revelation to declare to men certain things about himself.
And what do we call these things that God declares about himself?
We call these things attributes. The attributes of God. When God
declares something about himself, it is an attribute. And there
are several attributes of God in Scripture. And all of them
are not. Considered as what God does,
but rather who God is, and when I say an attribute, what I'm
saying is it's not just what God does. Let me give you an
illustration. Love. God loves. For God so loved the
world, he tells him he loved. Now, for Jacob, have I loved? But Esau have I hated. But you
see, God is not loved because He loved. He loved because He
is love. That's who He is. It's not just
what He does. You and I do love, but we are
not in ourselves love. He is. Another attribute is God
does not change. Now why does God not change?
Because God is immutable. His attribute to he is. And so
the two attributes before us this morning are both holiness
and mercy. God is holy. God is holy. And secondly, the
prophet desires something else of God, not just his holiness,
but his mercy in holy wrath. Remember mercy So God is both
just holy and merciful now all other gods that are made of the
minds of men That's the first attribute the holiness of God
Now all of the gods made by men are only as holy and just as
the man that imagined them That right If I make up a God
and I say, my God is holy, and you say, well, what does that
mean? Well, I can only give you, I'm giving Him attributes, really
don't belong to Him, but I'm heaping on Him attributes as
I imagine them, as I can understand them. But God says of these gods, any
man that worshiped woe unto you. Woe unto you if you worship a
false God because the true God dwells in his holy temple. To be holy. You don't think of
the best man. This is not holiness. Some people
think of the best man and then they multiply that times infinity. That's not even close what holiness
is. To be holy is absolutely to be separate. to be separate. All God does
and is is holy, holy, so pure that God is light and in him
is no darkness at all. That is what it is to be holy.
God's holiness is said to be his chief attribute simply because
all of his other attributes are clothed in it. God is love. And because God is holy, His
love is holy. God is eternal, but God is eternally
what? Holy. His holiness covers all
of His other attributes. His power is His arm. One man
said this, God's power is His arm. His omniscience, His eye. His mercy, His bowels. Eternity,
His duration. But holiness is His beauty. Holiness
is His beauty. Behold, the only true and living
God is holy and perfect. And at the throne of God, you
know this, that the angels cried daily, holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, which was
and is and is to come, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, daily,
hourly, minute by minute they declare His holiness, His purity,
His singleness. And God swears by His own holiness
that His promises are Listen, if God was not holy, could we
trust his promises? But because God is holy, listen,
when God says something's not like you and me, he cannot lie. He is holy. So what God says
is always true. Therefore, you can always trust
God because he's holy. He's perfect. God is holy. And he by his very
nature then, therefore he by his very nature must punish sin. This is part of being holy. Holiness demands punishment of
the guilty. This is an attribute that men
don't like to talk about, God's holiness. You know why? Because we're sinners. They're
guilty and they don't like talk about it. I don't mind talking
about the love of God. Don't mind talking about the
mercy of God. And I will get to that. But first, you must
understand God's holiness in order to understand his mercy.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy and all his
works. All things were created of God
in holiness. Now, right when God made Satan,
what was he? When he made him, he was holy.
Without seeing Then sin entered into his heart. God made Adam
perfect and upright. Then sin entered into his heart.
God made everything holy. Adam was holy until he sinned
in the scriptures and says in death he fell. Yet God still had this part,
the law written on the hearts of man. He has revealed his holy
law and his commandments to men. And this is the sum of them.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your strength, with all your body, with all your
mind. And your neighbor as yourself. This law is written on the hearts
of man. And yet we have all broken this
law. This is not a light thing, friend,
to break the law of God. It's treason. It's rebellion. It's a crime. It's not a mistake. People refer
to sin as a mistake. It's not a mistake. It's a willful
act of treason. No matter what men think or believe,
God hates sin. Because he is holy. He is angry
with the wicked. When? When is he angry with the
wicked? Every day. Scripture reveals that. He's
angry with the wicked every day. Everything then is contrary to
the law God hates with an eternal perfect hatred. And so sin is
not then just actions. I want you to understand this,
when God looks upon the heart of man, a holy God looks upon
the heart of man. He does not see his actions,
but he sees his motives. In Genesis, what was the recorded
cause of God's justice upon the earth? The flood, the whole earth.
What was his cause? That the thought of the imagination,
you got that? The thought of the imagination
of the hearts of man was evil continually. So God looks upon
the heart and sin is not just in the action but in the motive. Therefore because God is holy,
listen, He must punish sin. I believe in Nehemiah 1 and verse
2, the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries. He reserveth
wrath for his enemies. Now, the natural man's view of
God is one-sided. Men believe God to be merciful
but not holy. Men foolishly and willfully close
their eyes and despise the holiness of God and dismiss it. Listen,
to do so is to worship a false God. To worship a God that is
not holy and just is to not worship God. Our God is in His holy temple. The unregenerate man in this
generation sees God much like an old weeping man. They see
him and he weeps because of sin. And because of his love, he will
set aside his justice and have mercy. That's what they want.
They want God to set aside his justice and show mercy. If God were to do that, he's
not holy. God will not have mercy at the
expense of his justice. Just can't happen. It won't happen. This is not God. God is holy
and just. God is. Now listen, God's not
upset he has to punish sin. You understand that? God's not
a conflict with himself. You see, His holiness and justice
aren't at odds with each other. God is not conflicted within
His heart. There is no contradiction of God's holiness and mercy. Sin cannot and will not be pardoned
unjustly. That's why we have this scripture. Listen, without the shedding
of blood is what? No remission. You see, justice
has to be satisfied. Blood has to be spilled. Death
has to be measured out. In order for God to show mercy,
there must be first payment or sin. Why? God is holy. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. Have you sinned? Have you sinned against God,
who must take vengeance against sin? Have you heard His voice speak
to your soul? Look at Habakkuk, when he heard
this, when he heard that God was in his holy temple, listen
what he said. He said, Lord, I've heard Thy
speech, and was what? Afraid. If you've never been afraid,
you've never heard God. I tell you, before there's mercy,
you will be afraid. You will fear and reverence Him. You will know your sin and His
holy justice. You must. If you haven't heard,
if you've never been afraid, it's because you're dead. Because
you're blind, you're ignorant, you've not heard His voice, you've
not fell in reverence. Those who despise the things
of God, who mock His gospel, you who will not forsake your
own views and thoughts of God, you will be destroyed. The wicked may prosper for a
season, and they do. You can read this, I got a Job
21, 7 through verse 20. The wicked prosper for a season.
They seem to be joyful in their lust, they seem to be, they stand
proud in defiance of God. That won't last long. God will soon cut them down. May God open the eyes of the
blind and give life to the dead to see God's holy justice requires
payment for sin. May God reveal to you His holiness
and by doing so, when God reveals His holiness, what does He expose
about us? It exposes our sin. It exposes
who we are. And why would God do that? I'll
tell you, if God ever exposes you, it's an act of mercy. Men run from this. They despise
to see who they are. They want to run and hide like
Adam. He ran and he hid. They want to hide in religion.
Religion is confusing. They like confusion. So they
can be right and be wrong at the same time. They like it. They can have two contradictory
views of God and both of them be right. They like confusion. They run
from God. But the best thing to do is not run from God, but
to be exposed. Look what Habakkuk says when
he heard God's voice. Now he expounds on it in verse
16. Look at this. He heard his voice and was afraid,
and he begs for mercy. But look what God does in verse
16. He says, When I heard, my belly
trembled, my lips quivered at the voice. And listen what was
found. Rottenness entered into my bones
and I trembled in myself. Now, why was this given to him? That. Look at that. Here's the
cause. Here's the result of God's holiness
being exposing our sin. This is the result. Now, he feels
it. He knows it. That in himself
is rotten to the bone. And he says, that I might rest
in the day of trouble. That word rest, you know what
that word's translated in other places? That I might find mercy. If you've never felt the rottenness
of your own sin, you've never sought the mercy of God. To understand God's holiness
drives us to seek God's mercy. And in mercy, there's rest. There's
rest. Is there any hope for sinners,
for such a holy God? He says this in that latter part.
He says, When he cometh unto the people, he will invade them
with his troop. He will invade man in justice
and vengeance. How then may the guilty rotten
soul find mercy? Is there mercy? Yes! I'm so glad
he didn't end in verse 20 of the last text and just leave
it. Because there wouldn't be any hope if God was only holy. But He's not only holy, He is
merciful. Merciful. God is holy and merciful. Go to Exodus 34. Now God is going
to reveal himself to Moses. In Exodus chapter 34, look at
verse 5. Now Moses had begged to see the
face of God. He said, I want to see your face. And he said,
you can't see my face and live. You remember he put him in that
cleft of the rock. Remember he said there's a rock over here,
a foundation upon which you can stand. And a cleft so that I
might cover thee. And he says he passes by and
this is him doing it. In verse 5 he said the Lord descended
in a cloud and stood with him and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed. This is the name of the Lord.
This is God's person. Here it is. The Lord, the Lord
God, singular and plural. Right there the Holy Trinity
is being announced. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, all three of them, transgression and sin. And here's the second
attribute, that will by no means clear the guilty. What two attributes
are being described by God? Mercy and holiness. God is merciful and holy. Here in the name of God, we see
both of these. How then may we seek God's mercy? How did Moses view the mercy
of God? Only in the cleft of the rock. This is a picture of Jesus Christ. The only way you can reconcile
God's holiness and God's mercy is only in the substitute, the
mediator, Jesus Christ. That's the only place you're
ever going to find those two attributes. That's the only way
you're ever going to reconcile those two attributes. How can
God be holy and merciful if you are really guilty? Eric, are
you really guilty? Now, how can God be merciful
to that and still remain just? The only answer is Christ. This
is the beauty of Christ. This is the glory of Christ. in him both are reconciled and
at peace. Righteousness and peace have met together and kissed
each other in Christ. Only by faith in Christ Christ
said, no man knoweth the Father except the Son, and to whomsoever
the Son will reveal. And you want to know God? Isn't
this the question I asked at the beginning? How can we know
God? Only by Jesus Christ. He is the key to understanding
God and God's holiness, God and God's mercy. God's mercy and justice find
full satisfaction only in Him. The holiness of God demands perfect,
sinless, absolute obedience in all things written in the law
of God. Of things which we have done, we've done none of them
perfect. We are all guilty. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, being one with the Father, was made flesh for
this purpose, that He should perform righteousness in our stead. Most people don't
like the fact that Adam represented them. They say, that's not fair. You want to represent yourself?
How well do you do? No. I like this representative
thing. Don't you? Because in Adam, I
died. Even so, Paul says in Romans
chapter 5, by the disobedience of one, many were made unrighteous. So by the obedience of one, many
are made righteous. That's what I like. I need someone
to provide righteousness for me. That's what Christ did. He obeyed the law perfectly and
obtained the righteousness of God. Paul said in Romans 3, even
the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. God looked at his righteousness
and holiness of God says, I'm satisfied with that. My son,
I'm so happy. My holiness is so happy with
your righteousness. is perfect. The holy justice of God was satisfied
with His righteousness. But not only this, what of justice
demands of death? Justice demanded death. Well,
Christ provided this too. Christ provided. Jesus not only
satisfied the law of God in righteous obedience, but He satisfied the
justice of God in His death. Death of Christ, I determined
not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because that's the only
place God's satisfied. If God's going to be satisfied
with you, you have to be in Him. You have to be in union with
Him. Death was a sentence of sin and
blood must be shed. Our blood could do nothing. Why
do you think hell's eternal? Because your blood does nothing
to satisfy the justice of God. But Christ came in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. You see, my sin did not escape
the holy justice of God. My sin was actually punished. My Savior made sin for me that
I might be made the righteousness of God in Him. If you see the cross, you know
what you if you want to know how much God hates sin, you look
at what he did to his son. Who did no see it. So holy is God, when sin was
found in his son, he poured out the full measure. You realize
that Satan will never suffer as much as Christ did. Satan's just getting what he
deserves. Christ deserved none of it and
bore it anyway. How beautiful is the death of
Christ. How glorious. Because it wasn't
a defeat, it was a victory. He cried with a loud voice. It is finished. Salvation secured. Salvation finished. And the holy
God says, I am satisfied. He will have mercy. It's all about mercy, isn't it?
Who needs mercy but the guilty? Only the guilty need mercy. Therefore sinners come to God
and come to Him by Christ. Come trembling in the rottenness
of your own bones, and plead for mercy. Plead for mercy. And all who do, come away seeking. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb, redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever
I am. redeemed. And the last thing I want you
to see is this, the rest of everyone who believes. Look at verse 17. Go back to your text in Habakkuk. He's praying for mercy. He finds
himself in the rotten of his own bones, but then he's going
to give us a glimpse of providence. The providence of every believer
is described in these next verses. Every one of you who believe.
Look, he says, although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither
shall the fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive tree shall
fail and the fields shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut
off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet. When everything else fails. I will rejoice in the Lord, I
will joy in the God of my salvation. The prophet was here expecting
great troubles to come. Israel had sinned and they had
God's going to send them into captivity. But God was doing
this, but the prophet resolved that even when this time of trouble
would come. When there should be no outward
sign of God's love or prosperity, no sign of his rest. And yet
he says this, I will rest in the salvation of God, though
I don't see it. Though I don't feel it's experience.
Even so it is we who have come to God for mercy. We do not look
for things of this world to comfort our souls, nor do we rest our
hearts with the things of this world. Although the fig tree
shall not blossom, and there's not going to be fruit in the
vines, and our labor of the olive tree is going to fail, and all
these calamities are going to happen, yet I will rejoice in
the God of my salvation. Although the believers are cut
down in troubles, and they abound, although the church doesn't blossom, Look at the church. Has it blossomed as it has in
the past? No, it seems slim. The fruit of the gospel seems
to be very few. Although many believers may be
cut off by death, there seems to be none left in the earth.
Do we not like Elijah to say, you know, O Father, I'm the only
one left. Yet even when these things come,
let us say with the prophet, I shall rejoice and joy in my
God. Why? Look at verse 19. He's my strength. He's my strength. Are you going
to continue in faith? You that know the holiness of
God, you that have seen the wroughtness of your sin and found mercy in
God in Christ, Will you continue? Jesus asked his disciples, will
you go away also? Lord, to whom shall we go? That's
my answer today. I don't have any other answer.
Lord, where am I going to go? You have the words of eternal
life. Will I always say that? I will. How can I be sure? The Lord is my strength. My faith comes from him. You
know why I have faith today? He gave it to me. You know why
I'll have faith tomorrow? He'll give it to me. He's my
strength. He will make my feet like Heinz
feet, like a deer. You ever seen a deer? Swift. When troubles come, where do
you swiftly go? You flee to Him, don't you? You flee to Him. and he will make me walk upon
the high places. He gives beauty for ashes, the
oil of joy for mourning, a garment of praise for the spirit
of heaviness. We are as the trees of the Lord
planted of God, and all this is for one thing. that God be
glorified. Not unto us. In this our religion, not unto
us. Not unto us. But unto thy name be glory forever. Who is God? He is holy. He will by no means clear the
guilty. Who is God? He is merciful. To those who are guilty, come
to Him through Christ and you will find what? Mercy. Rest. Come unto me, all you that
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you mercy. May there never be a time I come
to God without seeking mercy. May there never be a time I seek
mercy anywhere apart from Jesus Christ. In Him is mercy. Why? Holiness is satisfied in Christ. Satisfied. I pray God will bless
this to you. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Gracious and holy Father, thank
you for your holiness. Thank you for your your perfections. I pray, Father, that you would
even now, if there be any sinner unexposed, that you would expose
them, make them to feel the rottenness of their own nature so that they
might sue for mercy. And I know, I know you're merciful,
gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in redemption. Please,
Lord, give grace this day. And Father, though the circumstances
of our life be full of disappointments, though our dreams be dashed to
the rocks, let us rejoice in our God, the God of salvation,
I pray. Forgive us our sins and dismiss
us with your blessing. Keep these words in our hearts
and minds as we go through the week. I pray in Jesus' name.