Come back to Habakkuk. I titled this message, Trust
Him, Just Trust Him. There'll be a lot of things,
maybe not a lot of things, there'll be things that we go through
in this life that we will not be able to comprehend or understand
what's going on. We'll see this here in a minute
with Habakkuk. And what he finds out through
this whole thing here towards the end of this chapter is this.
Just trust me. Just trust me. Habakkuk was a
prophet. He was God's man. He was God's
spokesman at that time. We don't know a lot about Habakkuk. There's not much. there other
than just that he was a prophet of God. Other than that, we really
don't know anything else about him. But we do know this. He
was God's man. He was God's prophet. And he
was a man of faith. He believed God. This man believed
God. In fact, the scripture over here
in chapter 2 In verse 4, Behold, his soul
which is lifted up in him is not upright in him, but the just
shall live by his faith. That's quoted three times in
the New Testament, so we know that this man's of God. He's
real, and he's a man of faith. Paul quoted him in Romans chapter
1, quoted him again in Galatians 3, and then over in Hebrews chapter
10. That verse is quoted, the just shall live by faith. And
he was a man of prayer. As you will see over in chapter
3, he was a man of prayer. He called upon the Lord. And
he was a man of perseverance. And we will see in chapter 3,
there in the latter part of that chapter, he speaks of the fig
tree not blossoming, neither shall the fruit be in the vines,
the labor of the olive. All that's going to fail, but
he says, yet I rejoice in the Lord. It'll all fail, but I'll
rejoice in the Lord." So he's a man of perseverance. He's God's
man. He's God's man. Now he asked God, Habakkuk, he
asked the Lord, how long shall I cry and you will not hear me? A lot of injustice was going
on at this time, as I just read to you. The leaders of Judah,
are oppressing the poor and are getting away with it. Not really. Does anyone ever really get away
with anything? Our court systems may miss them,
but God never misses. A man may get away with something
here, but he'll never get away with it in God's court. Never. The righteous, those who believe,
those who are yours, they are oppressing them and they're getting
away with it. Justice is being perverted on
every hand. It's being perverted. He could
have written this in our day. And he cannot understand, Habakkuk
cannot understand why God is allowing this to go on. Why are you allowing these leaders
to oppress the righteous and the poor. Why are you allowing
this? All I see is spoiling and violence before me everywhere
I turn, everywhere I look. It's just a perversion of justice. Why will you not stop them? This
is a back-and-out praying and asking God this. Why will you
not put a stop to this perversion of justice? And then God reveals
to Habakkuk in verses 5-11 that He is going to put a stop to
this, that He's going to deal with this. God will deal with
every situation in His time. He will deal with it. We can
be sure of that. God will deal with it. And He
tells Habakkuk, you see, now Habakkuk is complaining about
the leaders of Judah doing this perversion of justice to the
people. And now God reveals to him that He is going to do something
about it, that He is raising up a people that's going to come
and correct Israel. He's going to bring this people,
this wicked people, they're called wicked, these Chaldeans, and
He's going to chase them, and He's going to chase Israel, and
He's going to correct this problem. All belong to God. See, this
gives a backer a problem. We'll see this in a minute. But
this gives him another problem of God using the Chaldeans to
correct Israel, to change them. But we have to know this and
realize this, that all belong to God. All serve His purpose. Are not all things His? All things
are His. All people are His. And God uses
the men of this world sometimes to chasten His people. And if
He wills to do that, that's okay, isn't it? It's His. If He uses
whatever method He chooses to use, that's alright. He's our
Father. The rod's in His hand. And He'll
do as He will. They don't know God. They do not know God at all. They do not know who God is.
They do not believe in the Lord. They do not even realize that
God is going to use them to chase His people, to come in and correct
Israel. God is the one. These are the
cathedrals. Nebuchadnezzar is the king. That's
the one God put out the pasture. Remember he walked out there
and he said, look what my hand has done. Look what I have done.
And God put that old man out the pasture. All the successes that they were
having, they were destroying one nation after another. They
became a mighty, a mighty nation. They had no idea that God Almighty
was raising them up, making them successful, so that He'd bring
them against His people in His time and correct this problem.
All things are in God. Oh, if we could just see the
providence of God, it would give us much comfort, wouldn't it?
If we could just realize it, we could see it. It happens every
day in front of our face. If we could just realize it.
If we could just realize it. Like Pharaoh. God raised him
up to demonstrate His power in him. Did not God say that? Did He not say, I raised you
up to demonstrate My power in you? Do you think He knew that?
Do you think He didn't get up to go to the throne or take the
throne and think, boy, I'm somebody. I've got some real ingenuity
here. I was able to rise to power here and He's just proud. Eric,
God put him on the throne. And then God dethroned him. Don't
you know he wished he was Pharaoh now? God put him on the throne. And
that's why he's saying this to Habakkuk. I'm raising up a people
to take care of this problem, Habakkuk. Habakkuk said, why
are you allowing this to go on? And he said, I'm raising the
people up here. I'm raising them up. And the king of the Chaldeans,
they are going to attribute this power And this victory over Israel
to their God. He said, they're going to attribute
it to their God. Well, that's okay. Let them attribute it to
whoever they want. God's concerned with His children.
God's going to correct His children. You know, I raised two sons. My responsibility was taking
care of those two sons. I didn't correct anybody else's
children. Although all belong to God, but I'll tell you this,
they can give the credit to whoever they want to. God's concerned
with who you're going to give the credit to. His children,
who you're going to glorify. Give unto Him the glory that's
due unto His name. But he's saying here, they're
going to, he's so obnoxious, that gene is just going to give
the glory to their God, that's just going to strengthen him
and his God. Well, that's his delusion. That's his delusion. Now Habakkuk, after receiving
this revelation of God's judgment on Israel, he speaks and complains. Now he's going to speak and complain
of God's way of dealing with His people through these Chaldeans. They're in verses 12-13. You
know, we must be careful not to question why God does what
He does, or uses whom He uses, or why He allows what He allows.
We have to be careful of that. It's one thing to ask a question. You and I are allowed to ask
God a question. Jokes and all that I could come
into His presence and I would fill my mouth with arguments.
Why this is happening? What's going on? It's one thing
to ask a question, to ask God a question. It's another thing,
it's a complete other matter to bring God into question. Two
different situations there. But here Habakkuk finds some
comfort, though he does not understand the Lord's way. He says, "...Art
thou not from everlasting?" Their God is no God at all. He doesn't
even exist. But our God is from everlasting.
No matter how bad things may look, our God is God. Our God is God. He is the everlasting
God. He is the covenant God. He is
the God of all grace. He is the God of all power. He
is the God of all wisdom. That is our God. He is the everlasting
God. And He says, and thou art My
God. He calls Him, O Lord, My God. You're My God. I give all the glory that is
to be had unto You. All glory belongs to You. Recognize that. I am what I am,
I have what I have, and I know what I know by the grace of God. Is that not so? Do we not have what we have,
know the gospel, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace
of God? That's so. And Habakkuk says,
we shall not die. Now he's not talking about physical
death here because we will die. He's talking about spiritual
death. Those who are in Christ, those
who believe on Christ, who are in Christ, will not die. We will lay this body, this body
of flesh in the ground, but we will not die. That's what he
says here. We will not die. We may suffer, but we will not
die eternally. We will not do that. And he calls
God, My Holy One. Our God is holy, and He'll do
right. Trust Him. He'll do right. He's holy. He can do no wrong,
though I don't understand. I don't understand His ways,
not humanly speaking. He reveals to us, and we know
something of it in part, but it's a way over our head, isn't
it? We're swimming in deep water here. Swimming in deep, deep
water. And he says here, Thou art a
pure eye that to behold evil, that is to be inactive, not do
anything about it. God's going to punish sin in
His time. He's going to do it when it best
serves His glory and our good. That's what He's going to deal
with, whatever the problem, whatever. But here's what he's saying. Here's what the prophet is doing.
He complains. He was complaining that God was
doing nothing about the injustice that was going on in Israel.
But now he's complaining that God is going to use a people
that's far worse than Israel to chase him there. Now he's
going to complain about the Chaldeans coming. That's what he's going
to do. He said, they are more wicked than the Jews who I'm
complaining about. He's confused, isn't he? What's going on? What's going
on? These people are merciless. They
are absolutely merciless. They're wicked. They're wicked
people. They catch men, he said, like
fish. They don't pay any attention
to rank or society or families. They just catch men like fish.
You ever see men fish? I've been in a boat with men
fishing. They're just laughing and talking and, oh, I got one.
Reel it in, throw it in the boat and throw it out there and get
out. And he said, that's the attitude of those Chaldeans. He said,
they just catch men like fish. That's what all it means to them.
No humanity to it. No, they're merciless. No mercy. And they give the glory to their
neck. They brag on their abilities.
They brag on their skills. They brag on their fishing pole.
Oh, what a fishing pole. Have you ever tried this lure?
Try this one, it'll catch them. He said, they give no glory to
God. No glory to God whatsoever. They sacrifice to their nets.
They give the glory to their God. Lord, why are you allowing
this to happen? Well, you know the scripture
says, he gives no account of any of his matters. That's all
right, isn't it? It is to his people. Now we come
to chapter 2. And here's Habakkuk's resolve.
Habakkuk says, I will stand upon my watch. He was called to be
a watchman. He was called to be a preacher.
He was called to be a prophet. And he was to speak what God
gave him. He was to write down what God
revealed to him. And here's what he's saying,
I don't understand this. In this first chapter, I don't
understand this. But I bow to it. I bow to it. I will bow to your
will and preach what you tell me, what you reveal to me, Lord. And I'll stand upon my watch.
I'm your servant. I'm your prophet. I'm your preacher.
Now, I don't understand what's going on here. But I'm going
to be faithful. Lord, you reveal to me the message
and I'll deliver it. I'll deliver it." And the Lord
answered me. He said, let me turn the page
here. And I want you to notice something
here though. He said, I'll stand upon my watch and set me upon
the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me,
what the Lord will speak unto me, what the message will be
that he'll give unto me, and what I shall answer when he reproves
me for what I've just said. He knew he was going to be reproved
of God for what he had just said there in the first chapter, or
called for complaining like that. He said, when you reproved me. Then we go to this chapter two.
And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision. Write
the vision. Don't change it. Don't put footnotes. I had a Bible one time that had
footnotes all the time. I don't need footnotes. I just
need His Word. You write the revelation, what I've just revealed
to you, you write it down. And you make it, now listen,
you make it plain. You make the gospel, you make
the gospel, listen to preachers, you make the gospel very plain
when you stand upon the wall, when you stand upon the tower,
when you stand upon your watch, you make it very plain. The revelation
that we have of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel is to be
made very plain. Here's how plain it's to be made.
Here's how plain it's to be made. Write the vision and make it
plain upon tables that he may run that reads it. In other words,
that even a man, you write it so plain in such big letters
that even a man that's in haste can read it. Even a man that's
just hurrying by can read it. If you ever drive down the interstate
and you're trying to read signs, especially if you're trying to
find your way somewhere, and they got sometimes there's a
little sign. It's like you've got to slow way down to read
it. You just blitz on by. You can't, what did it say? I
don't know. It was going too fast. I don't know how many times I've
done that. I said, what did it say? She goes, I don't know.
You're going too fast. Driving 75 miles an hour. But
then there are other signs that are big billboards. I mean you
could be driving 100 miles an hour and you would still see
it easy. That's why I say to the back, make it plain. Even
those who have just come in and in a hurry to go back, you make
it plain while they're here. Make it easy for them to understand.
Don't complicate it. Don't complicate it. Make it
plain. You write it up on tables. Make it last. Make it lasting.
Permanent. Write it up on tables. Write
it down and make it plain. Here's instructions, as I said,
for us who preach. Make it plain. Write the vision.
Tell the revelation. Don't hold back. Don't try to
soften it. Just preach it, as I revealed
it. Just preach it. Now, he says
here, the vision is for a set time. And this has really, this
really has a real reference to the Lord Jesus Christ and His
coming. That's what this has a lot of reference to. God's time. My time. Abacus, just settle down. Just settle down. The vision
is for a set time. And in God's time, it will be
accomplished. It will not deceive. It will not disappoint. Listen. Wait for it. Now listen, let
me read this to you. For the vision, in verse 3, For
the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall..."
Listen, but at the end, the word it, you can change that to he,
because he's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ here. But at
the end, Christ shall speak and not lie, though he tarry. Now,
though he tarry, that's for us. We just wait on the Lord. You
say, when's He going to come? Wait on the Lord. He's going
to come in God's time. It's not tarried on God's part.
We just see it as tarried. Tarried, though you wait for
it. Though you wait for it. Though you wait. Listen. He shall
tarry. Wait for Him. Because He will
surely come, and He will not tarry. That's speaking of Christ
there. But He's saying this. You won't be disappointed in
Him. This vision of the Messiah, this vision, the Chaldeans are
going to come, but there's going to be a Savior that's going to
save them from captivity out of Babylon. And He's going to
come. Now wait for Him. Wait for Him. And we know Cyrus came and delivered
them, which was a type of Christ. But wait for Him. And you'll
not be disappointed. Wait on the Lord. That's what
David said in the Psalms. God will fulfill every promise,
wait for it. It has its appointed time. Now God speaks, verse four. Behold,
his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him. That is those,
the Chaldeans, Nebuchadnezzar, his soul's not upright in him,
he's lifted up with pride. But this also has reference here. Their souls were not upright
in them. They were lifted up with pride
and arrogance. But the just, he said, the just shall live
by his faith. Those who believe God are just.
Those who are just believe God. They do. The just ones here are
those justified in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are justified in Him. Their hearts are made right with
God in Him. God has justified them through
His Son, through His life, through His death, through His blood,
through His righteousness, justified in Him. The just shall live by
faith. I want to give you a few things
here in closing. The just live by faith on the
being of God. Habakkuk said, Thou art the everlasting
God. Thou art the everlasting God.
Hebrews says, He that cometh to God must believe that He is.
And He's the only God that is. There's no other God beside me.
He said that over in Isaiah. He must believe that He is, and
that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Oh, He's a rewarder. You think,
if you diligently seek Him, you'll have mercy, forgiveness. Do you believe that? You do if you believe God. Habakkuk
calls Him the everlasting God. Our God is God. Everyone who
believes God, Lives, now, lives with the reality that he is. And they live with that all the
time. Not just Sunday. Not just tonight. When you go home tonight, you
live with the reality that God is. When you get up tomorrow
and you go to work, you live with the reality that God is. The just live with that. They
live with that reality. than to just live, they live
by faith on the wisdom of God. Over in Jude, I think I marked
that, I did. Let me read this to you. Now
unto Him, in Jude verse 24. Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling, and to present you and follow us before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise
God our Savior, the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and
majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. We live upon the wisdom of God.
I don't know, and then I have a bag of proofs in here. I don't
know what's going on. I don't understand why God is
allowing this injustice to go on. I don't understand why He's
going to use the Chaldeans to appear and chase Israel. I don't
understand that, but I do understand this. Our God is wise. It makes
no mistakes. And that's what I trust. I trust
Him who's wise. He does all things well. And
I know that all that He does, He does in infinite wisdom. And
we trust Him. We leave it there. And then the
just lives by his faith on the holiness of God. Habakkuk called Him, My Holy
One. God is holy. Intimately holy. And he'll do
right. Everything he does is right.
Everything. He said, Thou art of pure eyes,
and to behold iniquity with indifference. Thou art holy. The judge of the
earth will do right because he's holy. He'll do right. Didn't
that give Abraham confidence when he was thinking a lot down
there inside him? And those angels were going to
go down and destroy it. He knew the judge of the earth
would do right. He knew God would do right. He
knew that. He knew that if there was one
righteous man down there, God would not destroy that man. Because
he's holy. He's pure and he's holy. Then
the just live by his faith on the providence of God. Things are not just. Never, never do things just happen. Everything, I mean, it would
really amaze us if we were able to get a hold how that every
minute thing is predestinated in our lives. How every minute
thing is providential. I don't care what it is. You
know, it doesn't matter. It's providential, everything
is. Not long ago, I sat down on a chair at the house and got
a, sat down on a wasper. I'm telling you, it's providential.
I don't know what all, do I know the reason for that? You say,
am I straighter than that? I'm telling you, everything,
there's a reason for it. There's a reason for it. The just live by his faith on
the providence of God. There is a time and a purpose
for every event under heaven, and God is working all things
together for our good. All things. All is all inclusive,
isn't it? All things. Whatever it is. Then the just shall live by his
faith, by his God-given faith, on the power of God. God has the power to make all
things work together for our good, doesn't He? Does He not have the power to
take every event, every what we would call tragedy, and make
it work for our good and His glory? Does He not have the power
to do that? He sure does. He has the power
to make wars cease to the ends of the earth. He has the power
to quiet my inward fears. He has the power. No battle, no battle is fought longer than
God's purpose. I don't care if it's just a personal
battle or if it's a national battle. No battle is fought longer
than God Almighty's purpose. Isn't that comforting? The just
know that. And by faith they believe that
and walk just like they believe it. They walk as they believe
it. The just live by his faith on
the promises of God. Has God said and shall he not
do it? You know, a lot of times we read the promises of God And
you know, they really don't have much effect on us. But then we'll
go through a trial. Something comes along. And all
of a sudden, that promise comes to life. You know, you read promises,
you may read a promise a thousand times. And it may be another
twenty, thirty years down the road, and that promise really
means something. And by faith, by faith. God enables you to lay hold of
that promise. When you can't lay hold of anything
else, you can lay hold of that promise, whatever it is, whichever
promise it is that He helps you with the trial. Faith lays hold on these promises
and rests. And rests. that I count as dear is, call
upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and
thou shalt glorify me. That's a precious promise. It's
precious. When I was a young man, I didn't
use it much. As I grow older, I find myself using it more and
more. God is faithful. He'll fulfill
His promise, His word to His people. He'll do it. He'll deliver.
Then they'll just live by His faith. Now, here's the pinnacle
of it. They'll just live by His faith
on Jesus Christ alone. On the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He lives by His faith. on Christ
alone. When all else is gone and all
other strength is gone, he lives by his faith on him. I visited
Dolores in the hospital. Me and Vicki did yesterday. Just
me and Vicki were in there, Danny hadn't made it back yet. And
she was laying there and she said, Lord, keep me. Please keep
me. She's just laying there, just like we weren't in the room.
And she was saying that, and I thought, there it is. that promises, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. We live to just live by
his faith on Jesus Christ alone. He's the object of our faith.
He's the author and finisher of our faith. He's the pinnacle
of it. You take Christ out of it, we
have no hope. There's no promise. All the promises
of God are yea and amen where? In Him. In Him. We receive Christ by faith to
be the Son of God. He's real to us. I started this
out with by faith we live upon the existence of God, that God
is. We believe that God is. We live with that reality every
day. We live with that same reality that Jesus Christ is. Seated
at God's right hand. And we receive Him as such. We
receive Him as our Prophet, our Priest, and our King. We have all we need in Him. We receive Him as our Sacrifice,
our Sin Offering, His blood is the atonement for our sins, and
we look to no other and hope in no other. Christ and Christ
alone is our hope. He's our hope. We receive him
as God manifested in the flesh, not just another man, but as God incarnate. That's who Jesus Christ is. Let
people think we're fools. Time will prove our wisdom. Wisdom
is justified by our children. He's God in the flesh. If he's
not, there's not a God. Then we receive Him by faith
as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
That's the only thing that will keep you trying to work your
way into heaven. It's when you bow to Him as your all in all
and receive Him as such. In Him we are complete. And because
of this God-given faith that the just live by, we rejoice
in the Lord over in chapter 3. And I'll wind this down. I think
I said it once before tonight. Sometimes I say it too early. We rejoice in the Lord. Faith
enables you to rejoice in the Lord even when you sit in darkness
and have no light. Look over in verse 16. When I
heard my belly tremble, my lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness
entered into my bone. I trembled in myself. that I
might rest in the day of trouble, when he cometh up unto the people,
he will invade them with his troops." He said, this makes
me afraid. This judgment that's coming on
Israel as a whole, to straighten this situation out, he says,
this troubles me. This troubles me. It makes me
afraid. But then look, after he says
this, Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit
be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the
field shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the
fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, and that's the
way it's going to be when the Chaldeans come. They're going
to take it all." He said, they're going to take it all. Now listen. Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. They can't take Him. You can
take all I have, but you cannot take Christ. He may allow you
to take all I have, but you can't take Him. Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will joy in the God of my salvation. Although those Chaldeans are
going to come and destroy our substance, destroy everything,
Yet we have something to rejoice about. We have someone to rejoice
in, the Lord. The Lord. It'd be alright, it'd
probably do us well to lose most of this stuff. For once we'd say, Lord give
us our daily bread. For once we'd have to say that
and actually, and really know what it means. I know we mean
it when we say it, but to really know it. To really know. It's like depravity. That's not
a doctrine I want you to believe or me to believe. That's an experience
I want us to know. Totally depraved. Just knowing
the doctrine wouldn't save you, but knowing the experience of
it. God make me to know how wretched
I am. Now that's different. That's
different. We know, listen, we know this
is how we can rejoice in the Lord. We know that our end is
good. Though getting there may be hard.
Getting there may be hard. With much tribulation shall ye
enter the kingdom of God. We rejoice because the Lord is
our Lord. See, their God is no God at all.
Our God is God. We have something to rejoice
in. We have a living God. We have a real one. The only
one that is. And He controls. He controls
all things. He even controls the chastening
rod. They'll not chasten us more than He says. He will allow thy
rod and thy staff, they comfort me. We know that He loves us
because He chastens us. If the Lord didn't love us, He'd
let us go. You go right on with the world,
you prosper. He's not going to leave His children
alone. He loves them. He's going to chasten every son
whom He receives. And we find joy in the God of our salvation. Listen. We have salvation freely
given, freely provided in our Lord Jesus Christ. We have something
to rejoice in. We shall not be ashamed when
it's over. We'll be. We won't be disappointed. You
won't be disappointed. Wait for it. You'll not be disappointed. We shall not die. We shall live.
And while we pass through this life, we will find God to be
our strength. You see here in verse 19, the
Lord God is my strength. Not my bank account. Not my job. Not my physical abilities. The
Lord. And you notice here, L-O-R-D
is all capital. That's Jehovah. That's Savior. That's Jesus Christ. He's speaking
to us. And He will make my feet like hind's feet. When this is
over, I'll be like a young hind, just bouncing across the mountain.
And he will make me to walk upon my high places though I'm about
to go into captivity. And all looks bad. I'm going
to come out of this whole thing victorious. He will make me to walk upon
my high places. Now, put that to music. To the
chief singer of my stringed instruments. Now you put that to music. Sing
about it. Sing his praises. Because he
said, we're going to go through this, but we're coming out of
this. We're coming out of this. The Lord is coming. The Messiah
is coming. He's going to save us from this. And we're not going
to be disappointed. Just trust him. Just trust him. Okay, Mike.