with me turn with me in your
Bible to Habakkuk chapter 3 this I'm going to finish out this
book this last chapter concerning this great great subject the
God of my salvation and as I told you last time as we started this
in part 1 I took that title from verse 18 where Habakkuk says
yet I will rejoice in the Lord in Christ, and I will joy in
the God of my salvation. And in this psalm, and that's
what this is, I told you as our brother last Sunday evening read
this passage back in chapter 3 that you were probably feeling
like you were reading one of the psalms, and you were. It's
not recorded in that particular book of the Bible, but that's
exactly what it is. It's a psalm of worship and praise. But after God revealed to this
man, Habakkuk, the prophet to Jesus, after God revealed unto
him his mysterious ways and how that nothing God does in providence
will hinder his ultimate purpose to glorify himself in the salvation
of his people, his elect people, spiritual Israel, we'll say,
because they're identified as such, his church, his chosen,
by the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a psalm of grace, a psalm
of mercy, it's a psalm of Christ. For anyone who truly rejoices
in the Lord, as Paul wrote in the book of Philippians chapter
3 and verse 3, he said we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. But God revealed to Habakkuk
that no matter what he sees going on around him, no matter how
disturbed he gets, And really, you could say it this way, no
matter how happy he is or how comfortable he is at any given
time, no matter how perplexed he is or how persecuted, no matter
how prosperous he may be at any given time, it doesn't matter
what circumstance it is. God's in control. And he's working
all things as to the counsel of his own will. He's not stepped
off the throne. He's not let this world go on
its own. He's in control and everything
that happens is ultimately going to uphold and support the establishment
and fulfillment of his purpose to glorify himself in the salvation
of his people. Habakkuk, you can rest in the
Lord. We can too, even today. And Habakkuk was inspired by
the Holy Spirit to write this psalm of praise and worship Rejoicing
in the Lord the God of his salvation and this God of his salvation
is the same God Who saved sinners by his grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the God of my salvation
And if you're saved, he's the God of your salvation. There
is none Messiah. There's no other God Let's just
read through the first verses. I've already dealt with them
and we'll go through the whole psalm But he says a prayer and
that's how the song you know Many of the Psalms of David and
the other Psalms and in the book of Psalms are prayers And he
says a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, upon Sigiona. And as
I told you, that word Sigiona, we really don't know for certain
what it means. Some say it means a strange instrument,
because they equate it with the last word of this psalm, chapter
19. Others say it means ignorance.
I don't know. But I know that Habakkuk, as
he's writing this, I believe this is his attitude, that he's
saying, Lord, though I am ignorant of so many things, and we are,
I will bow to you, my God, the God of my salvation. I will worship
you and sing praises unto you upon my stringed instrument,
in song, in psalm. And so we're so ignorant of so
many things, but we know the God of our salvation because
we know Christ, the revealer of the God of our salvation.
That's what Matthew chapter 11 speaks of, when he says, No man
knoweth the Son but the Father, and no man knoweth the Father
but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal it. If you
want to know the God of salvation, you must come the only way of
salvation, and that's through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes unto the Father
but by him. There is none other name given
among men whereby we must be saved, the scripture says. And
that's Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness. There is no
other way of forgiveness of sins but by his blood. There is no
other way of justification before God and right standing before
God but his righteousness freely imputed and received by faith.
There is no other way of security that except in the churches the
Lord Jesus Christ and we know that because we know him and
so as we walk along in the dark in providence in this world and
don't know what tomorrow holds as the song says we know who
holds tomorrow back it goes on he says oh lord i have heard
thy speech the word of god the truth of god the utterances of
god and he said i was afraid i believe he's talking about
a godly fear there A godly spirit, even though we're ignorant of
so many things, we do have a saving knowledge of Christ and we respect
him and revere him. He says, O Lord, Jehovah, that's
what he's talking about, the God of the covenant. He says,
revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of
the years, make known. And then this great phrase that
I believe expresses so well the heart of the gospel. In wrath,
remember mercy. And I spent a lot of time on
that last time, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
exactly what happened on the cross of Calvary, when God put
away the sins of his people. When Christ went under the full
wrath of God, in wrath, in order that God might be just and justify
the ungodly, in order that God might be a merciful God and still
be glorified. You see, God, when he's merciful,
He cannot ignore or deny or pervert his justice. He must be righteous
in his dealings with all people. And we can readily understand
without any problem God punishing the wicked. But Scripture says
we're all wicked by now. That's what we are. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save what? Sinners. Sinners are people who
deserve the wrath of God. Sinners are people who have earned
the wrath of God, for the wages of sin is death. And therefore,
how can God have mercy upon me and still be just in doing so
and punishing my sins? There's not but one way. He must
be just. There's not but one way, and that's in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ, the mercy, the propitiation, the sin-offering. who went under the wrath of God
for his chief, his church, and satisfied law and justice in
our spirit." What a way to put it, in wrath remember mercy.
And then when God showers his wrath down upon his enemies,
rest assured he will never forget his mercy upon his people, for
it is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed. shows us
that salvation is of the Lord by the work of Christ in his
obedience unto death, and it's not by works of righteousness
which we've done, else we wouldn't need mercy. The only ones who
need mercy, somebody said, well, you've got to meet conditions
in order for God to be gracious from you. Let me tell you something
now, that's two opposing views there. One cancels out the other. If you can meet conditions, you
don't need grace. See what I'm saying? Grace, by
nature, by definition, is unconditional. And what does it take for grace
to come about? Well, Romans 5.21 says grace
reigns through what? Righteousness, justice, law and
justice satisfied. How's that going to help me?
Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ,
our Lord. That's how. Somebody said, well,
you've got to meet certain conditions in order to obtain mercy. If
you could meet certain conditions, you wouldn't need mercy. You
just need to meet the conditions, and God will give you what he
owes you. You see, everything about God blessing a sinner in
Christ is unconditional towards the sinner. Unconditional election. Unconditional atonement. Unconditional
blessing. Unconditional mercy. Unconditional
grace. It's all unconditional. Towards
me and you, who are the recipients of it. But there are conditions.
Now, who met them? Christ met the conditions. All
of them. That's why the Bible says, He
of God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Everything that God requires
of me. Find four and completing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that's how he remembers wrath and mercy or him in wrath. He
remembers mercy Look at those three God came from Heman that
that goes back to Abraham That's what it's on it. You might have
in your concordance the South Well, it goes all the way back
to Abraham in order to cow bees in that area And what he's talking
about he's talking about the promise of God In other words,
God's made a promise. And we know that he's revealed
that promise to us through the preaching of the gospel. Now,
whatever happens on this earth in Providence, in our daily walk,
in our daily going about from here to there, as what we see
happens here and there in the news and all that, God has never
broken the promise. Understand it. There's not one
thing that we can see in this world happening That would that
should cause us to conclude that God's broken that promise Now
he made a promise to Abraham concerning nation or Israel here
And he said I'm going to give you that land and I'm going to
keep you there until a particular time And the Baptist knew that
the time wasn't up because Messiah had not yet come Well here he
says you're going to go in the captivity Judah Babylon's going
to take you into captivity. Well have God broken his promise?
Absolutely not God came from Teman and the Holy One from Mount
Paran. Now think about this. That's
what he's saying. Remember I looked back down at
chapter 2 and verse 20? That's what this sealaw means.
The Lord is in his holy temple. The temple of grace, the temple
of justice, the temple of mercy, the temple of his glory, the
temple of his chicana glory, the temple of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's where he is. He's not moved off of that now.
He's still saving his people from their sin. We might not
see a whole lot of results in our preaching and in our witnessing,
but he's still doing it now. And sometimes we may see more
than what we do at other times, but God is still in his holy
temple. He's still the savior of sinners. He's still the God
who justifies the ungodliness and let all the earth keep silence
for him. Don't try to figure these things
in providence out. As if that means something like,
well, God's going to break his promise. No, sir. He's just the
Holy One from Mount Paran. That's Christ. That's who he's
talking about. You see, God dealing with his
people in history and bringing them into the land of Canaan
was the product of that promise to Abraham. But it typifies and
pictures the far greater blessedness that is ours in Christ, as we
behold him who is the brightness of the Father's glory. His glory
covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
So the rest assured, it's all glorifying the God. Doesn't take
away from it. And verse 4, he says, his brightness
was as the light. He had horns coming out of his
hand. Those were beams of light, literally, what he's talking
about. some of the Shekinah glory of
God, and there was the hiding of his power. This has to be
real. The Shekinah glory of God must be revealed. Man doesn't
know it by nature. The Shekinah glory of God under
the old covenant was in the holy temple, the tabernacle, the temple,
the holy of holies, where the mercy seat was. All of that typifying
God's attributes every attribute of God revealed in the salvation
of sinners by Jesus Christ. The Shekinah glory of God for
us dwells in the person and finished work of Christ. Paul spoke of
it in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 6 when he talks about
the God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now what's he
talking about? He's talking about the beauty
of God's nature and attributes that all work consistently together
in the salvation of a sinner through the Lord Jesus Christ,
through his blood and righteousness alone. Now that's got to be revealed. A man by nature is not going
to see that. And that's what he means that there was the hiding
of his power. It's not the hiding of it because
it's not preached, it is preached. But men, by nature, won't see
it. That's the natural man. He will
not receive the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he
know them. He loves darkness and hates the light. This is
the light he hates. And the reason man, by nature,
hates this light is because it exposes me for what I am. You
know, by nature, I always think I'm something. I really think
I can work my way into God's favor. But when this light is
turned on through the preaching of Christ and the glory of Christ,
it shows me that I'm nothing. He must increase, I must decrease. But by nature, based upon my
best efforts, what do I deserve? I deserve the wrath of God. Lord,
if thou shouldst mark iniquities, who among us would stand? When
Isaiah saw, we sing in him, holy, holy, holy. And he was based
upon Isaiah 6. Isaiah went into the temple and
he said, I had that vision of going into the temple. And he
saw the Lord high and lifted up. And his praise, his glory
filled the temple. And he cried, and the cherubim
cried, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Now when Isaiah
saw that light of the glory of God, the Shekinah glory that
must be revealed, what did he say about himself? You remember
what Isaiah said? He said, woe is me! For I am what? Undone. That literally
means cut off. In other words, here, I've been
thinking all the time, being religious, and going to church,
and getting baptized, and doing this, and trying to be good,
and going on a missionary trip, and all of that, and visiting
the Holy Land, and all that. I've been thinking I've been
getting closer to God. But when I see the shatana glory
of God, and the salvation of a sinner, by grace, based upon
one thing, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
His blood alone, His righteousness alone, What do I see about myself? I'm cut off, I really, I'm alienated
from God. And my best works even alienate
me more, Colossians chapter 1 says. Alienated in our minds, enemies
of God, my wicked works. Man's best efforts to make himself
right and acceptable with God, they don't get him any closer
to God. They put him farther away from God. And that's what
that light exposes about me, and that's what man by nature
hopes until God reveals it and shows him Christ. That's the thing. Look at verse
5. It says, "...before him went the pestilence, and burning coals
went forth at his feet." I believe he's referring to God's judgments
against Israel in their history. Remember at Sinai. For example,
when Moses came down out of the mount, and he saw their idolatry,
and you know what that is, you know, that, you know, you know,
somebody, I heard a fellow say this one time, he said, well,
if I'd have been there, I wouldn't have been there. Now listen to
me, if left to ourselves, that's exactly what we did. See, that's
the thing. Well, Moses came down and he
saw that idolatry, what happened? Well, God brought judgment down. But God separated the people.
Moses said, who's on the Lord's side? And those who were on the
Lord's side, they were separated. Now if God left them all to themselves,
what would have happened? They'd all perish. But God has
a people. And so what he's saying here, even in light of God's
judgment against his own people, which is about to happen now
here, because Babylon was going to be conquered by Judah, I mean,
Judah was going to be conquered by Babylon and go into captivity
for 70 years. But even in the judgments that
God poured down upon his own people, salvation is always part
of God's plan, but not by the law. It's always by the promise
of a Savior, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, even back
then. Because everything in that old covenant was meant as a schoolmaster,
a tutor to lead them unto Christ. Galatians chapter 3. Look at
verse 6. He stood and measured the earth.
He beheld and drove asunder the nations. And the everlasting
mountains were scattered. The perpetual hills did bow.
His ways are everlasting. God brought him into the land
of Canaan. And let me tell you something now. Go back and read
it. God brought them into the land
of Canaan in spite of themselves. Is that right? Remember, the
first generation didn't even go in. They wandered in the wilderness
for 40 years because of their unbelief. Read Hebrews chapter
3. The next generation was led in by Joshua, who's the type
of Christ leading his people into salvation, into the promised
land. So God brought him into the land
of Canaan. He gave him that land. He established the ark, the ark
of the covenant that they made according to the instructions.
And he established it in a place called Gilgal for 14 years. And
from there, the land of Canaan was subdued and conquered by
Joshua and his army. And we know, of course, that
was the power of God. It wasn't the power of man, wasn't
it? I mean, you know that Joshua, you know, they say Joshua fought
the battle of Jericho, but Joshua is not the one who conquered
Jericho, God. That's the way it is with our salvation. We're
not the one who conquers sin and Satan and death. Christ did. Our Joshua. Our Sabbath. Christ our Sabbath. Our Lord. We're not the one who works out
righteousness. Christ did by his obedience unto
death. We can't justify ourselves. We
can't remove sin and we can't produce righteousness. Who did
it? Christ did. So that's the picture. But after
Joshua, after the land was subdued in some measure, the land was
measured out by Joshua. It was divided by a lot as an
inheritance to the children of Israel according to the direction
and the appointment of the Lord. And what we have there in that
verse 6 is a type of the blessings of God's grace that are measured
out to his people in Christ. And you know what? Now listen
to me. It's an equal measure to every child of God. with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places. And it's measured to
the people of God. This is a picture also. We read
this in Revelation chapter 11. We won't go back there tonight.
But how, when John was given a measuring rod to measure the
temple, and to measure the temple, and he said, leave the Gentiles
out. That's a reference to the temple in the Lord's day where
he had the court of the Gentiles. They were outside. They weren't
full-fledged members of the company there, the family. And that Gentile
there in Revelation 11 is not just, it's not literally Gentile. It's what it is. It's the symbolic
way of referring to the heathen, unbelievers. And that's what
it is. And what he's saying is the measuring
rod there is the gospel. It's the preaching of the gospel.
And what happens is God measures out his people through the preaching
of the gospel. When he says that, look at 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. Let me show you another passage there. Here's how he does it. In the power of the Holy Spirit,
the preaching of the gospel. This is why some believe and
some believe not. Some are affected by it, moved
by it, and some are not. Bottom line. And it's not the
power of the priesthood, I mean, he may be able to hold somebody's
attention, you know, with his stories or emotionalism or whatever,
but that's not salvation. Look here in 2 Thessalonians
2, 13. He says, But we're bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. That's the election. Through
sanctification of the Spirit, being set apart by the Holy Spirit
and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you You could just
as well say he measured you by our gospel. To the attaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you know. That's how you know the elect
of God, right there. It's through the preaching of
the gospel. And everyone, everyone who doesn't believe it is left
out. By their own choice, by their own will. That's right,
because that's what man by nature wants. Now go back to Habakkuk,
chapter 3. And then in the end of verse
60 said his ways are everlasting what what he's saying there This
is the way it's always been the way it always will be God's never
changed He saved sinners by grace in the Old Testament. He saved
sinners by grace in the New Testament That's the way he saved sinners
today through the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 7 He said,
I saw the tents of Chisholm, that's probably Ethiopia, in
affliction, and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Midian, remember Moses' wife
was a Midianite. What's he talking about? He's
saying the surrounding nations trembled when they saw or heard
of the Hebrew children. Now you think about that. God
guiding those Hebrew children to the promised land. God defeated
Many army members, I think the Ammonites were the first one
that came against them. Remember, that's the time when
they had to hold Moses' arms up. The workings of God. You see, the news began to spread,
and these surrounding nations, they were afraid, and then later
on, they conquered. You know, it was the Midianites
that God conquered through Gideon, the 300 soldiers. Remember, I
think Gideon had, what, 3,000, and God whittled them down to
300 to show it's his power. That's going to defeat the enemy.
And what he's saying here in verse 7 is that no nation, no
enemy can stop or hinder the purpose of the works of God and
the ways of God and the purpose of God. Babylon cannot do it.
Satan, religious men, ungodly government could not stop the
Lord Jesus Christ from accomplishing what the Father sent him to do.
And that's why he went to the cross. They thought he was defeated,
but that was his victory. The shedding of his blood. Putting
away sin. Finishing the transgression.
Bringing in everlasting righteousness. That's what he did on that cross.
And they couldn't stop. And my friend, in the preaching
of the gospel, nothing's going to hinder or stop God getting
the truth to his people. It's going to happen. Now, from
verses 8 to 15, listen to what he says here. Let's read it.
He says in verse 8, Was the Lord displeased against the river?
Was thine anger against the rivers? Was thy wrath against the sea,
that thou didst ride upon thine horses, and thy chariots of salvation? What's he talking about here?
Well, you know, some say this is a direct reference to the
children of Israel crossing the Red Sea, how God divided the
Red Sea. Well, when God did that, was
he angry at the sea? Was he upset with the natural
earth? No. No. Why did he do it? He said
it. He says that you did ride upon
your horses and your chariots of salvation. Now the children
of Israel didn't ride upon chariots and horses across the Red Sea,
did they? In fact, they walked across on dry land. There was no remnant of the water,
because that water was divided by the power of God, the blast
of God's breath, they say. Whatever. But it was divided.
And of course, that's a picture of the blood of Christ, the Red
Sea of Redemption that divided all that would oppose us and
kill us and drown us. Drowning in a sea of sin, where
sin abounded. Grace did much more than that.
And we walk across on dry land. So what he's saying here is that's
like riding on horses and chariots of salvation. That's the power
of God's salvation. So when God did that, and you
can think about it in terms of this, when there are natural
disasters, floods, we've had a lot of floods lately, haven't
we? Tornadoes. Is God showing his
anger at the world? No. No, not at all. He's accomplishing
something. He's bringing this thing to its
close. That's what he's doing. God's
bringing this world to its close. And he's coming again to save
his people. Look at verse 9. He said, Thy
bow was made quite naked according to the oath of the tribe, even
thy word. And there's that word Selah again.
The oath, the bow there means the bow and arrow, the arrow's
unsheathed and the bow was ready to shoot. And he says, according
to the oath of the tribe. Now, what are the oaths of the
tribe? Well, that refers back to his promise to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. Who are the tribes? That's the
twelve tribes of Israel. And he made a promise to the
fathers. He's pouring out. He engaged
himself. And you see what he's saying
here is we're justified by faith. We walk by faith. We'll be delivered
by faith. God is working out His eternal
purpose of grace for the salvation of people, of his people. In
wrath, he's remembering mercy. He's making himself known. He's
preserving his church and his kingdom, even when he draws back
the bow and brings judgment. He's saving his people. Don't
get despaired here. Don't get despaired. Look at
verse 10. And just think about that. The
Lord's in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence.
He says, Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. The earth
is divided with water. Verse 10. The mountains saw thee,
and they trembled. The overflowing of the water
passed by. The deep uttered his voice and lifted up his hands
on high. Again, maybe a reference to Egypt and their deliverance
from Egypt and their establishment at Mount Sinai when the mountains
trembled, when the earth trembled. Verse 11, he says, the sun and
moon stood still in their habitation. Now, what do you think about
when you read that? Think about Joshua, don't you? And the battle
of Jericho. And he says, at the light of
thine arrows they went at the shining of thy glittering spear.
It was the power and the glory of God that brought the walls
of Jericho down. Verse 12, thou didst march through
the land in indignation, righteous indignation. That's God. God
did stress the heathen in anger. It was justice. It was not just
God. When you read indignation, there's
not just God throwing a temper tantrum. It's not God getting
all emotional. It's God's justice coming through. And his justice, even though
it will consume, the wrath of God will consume those who are
not in Christ, those who are not washed in his blood and clothed
in his righteousness, it'll be the salvation of his people.
all who are in Christ look at verse 13 here's one you ought
to underscore he says thou winnest for us for the salvation of thy
people now listen listen to this now he says thou winnest for
us to do what what to do whatever it doesn't matter God went forth
what he's saying Doesn't matter what he was doing when he went
forth. It may be to destroy the heathens. It may be to gather
his people. It may be to build a tabernacle. It may be to establish a church.
It may be to conquer a country. It may be to bring a tornado
or a hurricane through. It may be to make the crops grow
like they've never grown before. But he went forth, but ultimately
it's all for this, the salvation of thy people, even for salvation
with thy anointed the Lord Jesus Christ there it is so whatever
God does in this world that we can't figure out ultimately it's
going to be for his glory and the salvation of his people through
Jesus Christ his anointed one ultimately we don't have to be
afraid we don't have to scurry around like ants And look what
he says here, thou woundest the head out of the house of the
wicked. The house of the wicked there, I believe, is an identification
of the seed of Satan. And you remember back in Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 15, what he said the seed of woman would
do? He would wound the head of the serpent. He would deal the
death throes. How? By his death on the cross. And he wound the head out of
the house of the wicked. They're not going to, you don't
have to worry about them. They're not going to destroy
us. And how's he going to do it? By discovering the foundation
unto the next. In other words, this is going
to be such a death blow that there'll be no resurrection here. And he said, see, God's in his
holy temple. He's right there. Let all the
earth keep silent before him. Trust in the Lord and lean not
to your own understanding. Christ is coming. That's what
he's telling Habakkuk. And all that's going to go about
in history and providence here, it's going to ultimately work
toward the salvation of his people. Look at verse 14. He says, Thou
didst strike through with his sword the head of his villages,
They came out as a whirlwind that scattered me. Their rejoicing
was as to devour the poor secretly. In other words, and this probably
refers to Pharaoh's pursuit of Israel and his own destruction
in the Red Sea. Look at verse 15. Thou didst
walk through the sea with thine horses through the heap of great
waters. Children of Israel went through.
And he says in verse 16, this is Habakkuk's resolve right here.
When I heard, my belly trembled. My belly did flip-flop. You ever
had butterflies in your stomach? My lip quivered at thy voice,
at the voice. Rottenness entered into my bones.
It made me inwardly sick. And I trembled in myself. No
hope in myself. And look at this, underscore
this, that I might rest in the day of trouble. I thought about
Daniel, one of his dreams and visions that the Lord gave him.
Quoted in Daniel chapter 10 in verse 8. Let me just read it
to you. He said, I was left alone. This is the way Habakkuk is here.
He's got all alone. And he said, I saw this great
vision, Daniel said, and there remained no strength in me. That's
what Habakkuk is saying. There's no strength in me. Not
even to figure this thing out, let alone to be an influence
upon it or change it. And Daniel said this, he said,
for my comeliness turned in me into corruption. My beauty and
my power turned into me into corruption. And I retained no
strength. Now that's what Habakkuk is expressing. I retained no strength. Why?
What's the purpose of all that? So that God can leave us in despair?
As old John Bunyan said, the flu of the sponge, so that we
can go around crying all the time and afraid all the time
and know that I might rest, he said, in the day of trouble. Paul put it this way, he said,
when I'm weak, I'm what? I'm strong. You know why, what
does he mean by that? He said, if you could put it
this way, when I'm not depending upon me, when I'm weak, I'm depending
upon Christ, I'm strong. Christ is my strength. Our sufficiency
is of God. It says, when he cometh up unto
the people, he will invade them with his truth. I trembled in
myself, yet I will rest in the day of trouble. When God's wrath
comes through, God's going to judge men for sin now. When he
comes up unto the people, he'll invade them with his truth. But
I have hope in Christ. David said, blessed is the man
to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose heart
is no God. What was he doing? David knew
he himself was a sinner. David knew he himself couldn't
save himself, couldn't justify himself, couldn't make himself
righteous. What was he doing? He's saying
blessed is he to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without
works. I have cried. He's my strength. He's my righteousness.
And then look at these last verses. Look at verse 17. Listen to this.
He says, although the fig tree shall not blossom. Now you might
plant a fig tree and you might not get any blossoms on it. Neither
shall fruit be in the vine. You may plant vineyards and have
no grapes. The labor of the olive shall
fail and the field shall yield no meat or no food. No meat,
meal. The front shall be cut off from
the fold. Your sheep herd may be cut off. And there shall be
no herd in the stall. You don't have any cattle. You
know what he's talking about there? He's talking about all
human possessions and human hope. That's what it's all about. Everything
that men enjoy, everything that men possess, everything that
men gaze blessedness by. Oh, I have many cattle, many
sheep, many vines, many grapes, many olives. The Lord's really
blessing me. Huh? Although you don't have
any of that, he says, verse 18, yet I will rejoice in the Lord
and I will joy in the God of my salvation. Job said it this
way. He said, though he slay me, I'll trust him. Right? You know what that is? That's
God-given faith. Knowing this, the troubled, heavy-hearted
prophet here, Habakkuk, closes his song and his prophecies with
a declaration of God-given faith, bowing to the wisdom, goodness,
and grace of God's providence, even when it appears impossible,
even when it appears dark and difficult. He says in verse 19,
the Lord God is my strength. You know how much land I have,
or how many vineyards I have, or how much, the Lord God is
my, that's the God of salvation, that's the God of grace, that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he will make my feet like
hind feet, that's a deer's feet, that's like a mountain goat on
a mountainside. I was watching a program one
time, they showed a mountain goat running across a mountain
on these craggly rocks, I don't know how in the world that thing
kept from getting bent, but it was sure-footed. And that's what
Habakkuk is saying here. He'll make my feet like pine
feet. He'll give me a sure footing
on which to walk. It's not a tightrope of legalism. It's not a razor's edge that
I've got to balance out between Christ's righteousness and my
righteousness. No sir, it's the rock Christ
Jesus. It's the rock of ages. I stand
on the rock and I'm sure-footed because God has made me that
way and he will make me to walk upon mine high places, even those
dangerous places. that sometimes he puts me in
and then he says to the chief singer on my string instrument
you know what he's saying there he's saying let's sing this song
and so let's sing rock of ages that's all that's our hymn our
closing hymn hymn number 126 rock of ages