Well, for the last few weeks,
I've been trying to bring one message a week from each of what
are called the minor prophets, beginning with Hosea. And we
come this week to Habakkuk, the prophet Habakkuk. And we're looking
at these because in them, as in all the word of God, is the
message of God's salvation. Salvation, particularly, is a
word I want to consider this morning. You know, it's used,
as in the article in the bulletin that I've written, you'll see
there, the word is used in religious circles very glibly, very lightly. I wonder how many people who
use the word really have any feeling of the true import of
that word. I use as an example what we call
in this country Boxing Day, 2004, 26th of December, the day after
Christmas Day. there were hundreds of thousands
of people around the rim of the Indian Ocean, that vast ocean. And they awoke to another day,
but hundreds of thousands of them, I forget what the death
toll was, but it was colossal, it was certainly in the hundreds
of thousands. Hundreds of thousands of them didn't see the end of
what started just like today, here. It started like this and
by the end of it, hundreds of thousands had been swept from
this life into eternity. They were swept away by a tsunami,
a great ocean wave. There was an earthquake underneath
the floor of the Indian Ocean, and it caused a huge great wave
to ripple out and crash into all the Indonesian islands and
all around there, around parts of Sri Lanka and all around the
Indian Ocean. There was huge damage and huge
loss of life. It came without warning. They
were ill-prepared for it in their poor dwellings down on the coastal
plains. They were swept into eternity.
Do you know, in the same way, every day, billions of people
on this earth live, not under the threat of divine judgment,
but under the promise of divine judgment. For God has said that
a day of judgment is coming. We read it in 2 Peter chapter
3, the day of judgment. There is a day of judgment coming
when God will judge all people according to his righteous law,
according to his holy being, and the sin of the people in
contrast to that, in rebellion against him, in plain disobedience
to his word and his requirements, the one who ought to be obeyed
because he is the judge who has created and yet we all stand
condemned for as Paul says, all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God. All have sinned, even the best
of us. The best one recorded in scripture
was Job, who there was none like him. Even God said to Satan,
there's none like him in the world. Look at him, look how
righteous he is. And yet when Job saw what he
was like before a holy God, His verdict upon himself was not
pride in what a good man he'd been. Oh, don't we see that sentiment
all around us today? In everything you read, people
bragging and boasting on what good people they are, and what
good things they've done. No, Job did not brag on that. Job repented in sackcloth and
ashes and dust, and he said, I abhor myself. I despise myself,
for I have seen the Lord, and having seen the Lord, I see something
of what I am truly like. We're justly condemned by the
righteous character of God. And daily, every day now, not
just in a big event like the tsunami in the Indian Ocean,
thousands pass from this life. Every day, they do. You know,
that was one of the great deceptions of the so-called pandemic, was
to tell us how tragic it was that one life was lost. Sorry,
thousands die every single day. Every normal single day, thousands
pass from this life, because it is appointed to man to die
once, and then the judgment. But more than that, more than
that, a day of judgment is promised, not just as daily thousands passing
into eternity, but a day of judgment is promised. In Acts chapter
17, there Paul tells the Athenians in verse 30, the times of this
ignorance, ignorance of God, ignorance of who he is, the times
of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent. Why? Because he hath appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained. Who do you think that man is
whom he has ordained? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
himself, God himself, the judge. He did not come to judge the
world the first time round, but He did come to save, and then
He will come to judge. Whereof He has given assurance
unto all men, in that He raised Him from the dead. That's why
we know Christ is raised from the dead. We know that that day
is coming, that day of judgment is coming. In Romans chapter
2 and verse 5, as Paul is talking about the state of mankind. He says, after the hardness and
impenitent heart, you've got an impenitent, you're not sorry
for your sin, you treasure up for yourself wrath, you're storing
up wrath, a debt that must be paid against the day of wrath,
the day of judgment, and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God. God will render will pay back to every man according to
his deeds. He will give according to what
his law requires. In 2 Corinthians 5 and verse
10, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 10, we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things
done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it
be good or bad. We'll be judged. We'll be judged. In Revelation chapter 20, this
is underlined so graphically. In Revelation 20 and verse 11,
John sees right at the end, before he sees the New Jerusalem, the
final judgment, he sees a great white throne. And him that sat
on it, who is God. from whose face the earth and
the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And
the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the
book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books according to their works, in proportion
to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it. And death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man,
according to their works. And death and hell, those that
death and hell had held captive, those that death and hell had
given up, were cast into the lake of fire. And this is the
second death. Be in no doubt, the word of God
is clear. A day of judgment is coming.
A day of wrath is coming. The God who created you, none
less than Him, the God who created you, who is not an irrelevance
sitting on the sideline of events of history. He is the one who
upholds all things by the word of His power. He is strictly
serious about this. Please don't think God used to
be serious about judgment, but now he's gone soft in the head
and he lets us all off. That's not what his word says.
He's the God who does not change, never changes. The God who created
you is strictly serious about judgment. Has he warned you?
Have you heard his warning? All of you, have you heard his
warning? Do you believe him, that what
his word says is the truth? or are you like the scoffers
of whom Peter wrote in 2 Peter chapter 3? We read it earlier,
they say, those scoffers in 2 Peter chapter 3, scoffers walking after
their own lusts, they say, well when's he going to come again?
Oh come on, ever since olden days they've been saying this
and he hasn't come and it carries on exactly the same as it always
was. but they're willingly ignorant
of what God has demonstrated in the past. You know, in the
days of Noah, in the run-up to the flood, Noah preached righteousness. For 120 years, he preached whilst
the ark was being built, and they laughed and scoffed him. They called him a lunatic. They
poured scorn on him. And then the day came when God
took Noah and his family, seven other souls, along with all the
animals to preserve, in which was the breath of life, into
the ark, and it says, and God shut them in. He shut the door.
And then the rains came. Then the floods of the great
deep were opened. and this world was flooded and
everything in which was the breath of life apart from those in the
ark of God were swept away in judgment. He says they forget,
Peter says, they forget today that that did happen and that
same day of judgment is coming but not with water but with fire
at the end of things. The heavens and the earth which
are now they were judged by water but The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, He has promised a day of judgment, and that He's
given opportunity for all men to come to repentance. He's long-suffering
so that every one of His elect will come in to His kingdom.
That's why He waits, that's why He delays, that there is still
more to be called out of this world, out of their darkness
into His marvelous light. But be in no doubt, the day of
the Lord will come as a thief in the night, You know, the thief
doesn't announce he's coming if he wants to be successful.
The day of the Lord will come. When do you think the Son of
Man will come? Do you think he will come today? No, Jesus said,
the Son of Man cometh when ye think not. When you think not,
when people generally don't think so, when they think things carry
on as they always have done, that's when they think. They
just think it just isn't going to happen. Scripture is full
of these divine warnings about judgment to come, and we all
stand in peril under the promise of that judgment. But Scripture
is also full of a message of salvation. Every one of these
minor prophets, it's doom and gloom and judgment on sin, but
there is always a message of hope and of salvation from just
condemnation. And that message is repeated
here today in the prophet Habakkuk. Peter read to us the first chapter
and the first four verses of chapter two. What we're talking
about is the empires of this world. The empires of Satan,
but those empires in the hands of God. This is my first point.
And you might have heard it before, but it needs underlining. Your
view of the world that we live in today, and the way things
are unfolding, is greatly affected by the understanding God gives
you of how history unfolds. You know, history doesn't just
happen. Revelation chapter 5, on the
hand of him who sat on the throne was a seven-sealed scroll. That is all the purposes of God.
It's the plan of God for this creation to cause His kingdom
to be triumphant in grace and mercy. And yet there's only one
that can unloose the seals of that scroll, and that's Christ
in the office of a lamb, a lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. Nevertheless, the empires are all the unfolding
of the purpose of God in history. They're all the unfolding of
God's permissive will in the fall. God never caused the fall,
but in permissive will he allowed Satan to deceive the woman, and
thereby Adam was not deceived. He knew what he was doing, and
he fell into sin and handed the kingdom that God had given to
him, the kingdom of this creation, over to Satan. And the empires
of Old Testament history and today's worldly kingdoms, they
are all Satan's attempts to recover from his mortal wound that he
was given at Babel. I mentioned just before Noah's
Ark, and I mentioned that God judged the world, and there were
only eight souls that were saved, and they came out of the ark,
and had sin gone? No, the flood did not get rid
of sin, because they were still sinners. That seed of sin was
still there in them, and sin compounded, and very shortly
after Noah came along Nimrod, that rebellious panther, as Genesis
11 calls him. And the peoples of the world
were all united. And they were united in opposition
to the truth of God. They were united in seeking to
establish a worldwide utopia where everybody lived together
in peace and harmony, but without any reference whatsoever to the
justice and righteousness of God. And God confounded them. They were building a tower, whatever
that literally meant, up to heaven, so that they could attain to
heaven without the righteousness of God. And God came and confounded
them. In Revelation 13, you see it. Let me show you that. Revelation
chapter 13, there's a beast, verse 2. a beast out of the sea,
seven heads and ten horns. And the beast was like a leopard,
his feet were as the feet of a bear. This is verse 2. mouth
as a mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him power and his
seat and great authority. The devil gave him that. What
was this beast? It's the kingdoms of the world.
It's the empires of the world. It's the authorities of the world
who have no respect for the righteousness and truth of God. And I saw one
of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound
was healed. I believe that that wound unto
death was what God did at the Tower of Babel, when he confused
the languages of the world and established nation-states in
opposition to one another, so they couldn't form a godless
union of the peoples of the world. but it was healed. The wound
was healed. It was a wound as unto death,
but that wound was healed, and so it has gone on in the empires
of the world. They're Satan's attempts to recover
from his mortal wound at the Tower of Babel, a worldwide unity
of anti-God purpose and intention, a utopia without the righteousness
of God. How do we see it today? In the
day in which we live in 2022, it's manifested in this world
all around us, the idea of globalism. You'll see it all around. If
it's not used in that word, you will see it. In the United Nations,
in the World Health Organization, in the World Economic Forum,
in all of the things making such a fuss about climate change and
everything that we have to do to destroy our economies, so-called
to control climate change, digital control of peoples and where
we go and what we do and what we're allowed to do. All of that
is a manifestation of Satan's kingdoms of this world, trying
to exert control and produce a society which has no reference
to the justice and righteousness of God, but God's kingdom upholds
righteousness and peace. And how does it do it? How does
it do it? How does it alone do it? How
is it that God's kingdom triumphs? Through effectual redemption
by God in Christ. Effectual, it works. Redemption
that works, redemption paying the price, paying the price of
the sin debt that the justice of God might be upheld. God does
it. God's kingdom triumphs because
He produces that kingdom of righteousness and peace. He produces it on
the basis of strict divine justice, by the redemption that Christ
has accomplished. The empires of this world, and
all their modern manifestations, they all seek to sweep the church
into conformance. You carry on reading, well you
read in Revelation chapter 12, you'll see that Satan is furious,
and he spews out of his mouth a great flood against the woman
which is the church. The purpose being not to drown
her, but to sweep her into conformance with his world. And so we have
the empires of the ancient world, all of which sought to subsume
the true people of God, from whom the Messiah, the seed of
the woman, would come, who would redeem his people from the curse
of the law and truly establish righteousness and peace. The
empires are Egypt in the first place. You know, the children
of Israel were almost subsumed and persecuted in the kingdom
of Egypt until God sent Moses to bring them out. The kingdom,
the empire of Assyria, as we were looking last week, subsumed
the ten northern tribes of Israel, leaving only Judah and Benjamin
in the south. But then comes Babylonia, and
Babylonia takes Judah into captivity for 70 years. And then we have
the Persians, and then we have the Greeks, and in the days of
the Greeks, there was one utterly evil being called Antiochus Epiphanes,
who persecuted the people of God to the point that it was
nearly impossible for the Messiah to come from that people. But
of course, God triumphed. He didn't triumph. And then finally,
Rome, when the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. Not as a triumph
for Satan, as he thought, but as his ultimate destruction.
This was the bruising of his head, which was a fatal wound,
as God promised in Genesis. So all of that had happened,
Assyria had subsumed the ten northern tribes of Israel so
that they didn't know who they came from, because they were
all intermingled, they became mongrel nations with the Assyrians.
But now, in the prophet Habakkuk, he speaks of Babylon subsuming
Judah, and Judah is the one from whom the Messiah must come. Time? It's about, give or take, I'm
not very precise with my historical dates. You should ask my history
teacher from about 55, 60 years ago, he will tell you. I was
very poor at remembering dates. But it's about 600 years before
Christ came. And Nebuchadnezzar, the emperor
of Chaldea, the Babylonian Empire, was soon to take Judah into 70
years of captivity for their idolatry. Habakkuk, in the reading
that Peter read to us earlier, sees Judah's wickedness and the
lack of punishment. And Habakkuk cries out, why are
you not punishing these evil people that I'm trying to give
a message of God to? And the answer came back from
God, oh, they are going to be punished. I am raising up a nation,
the Chaldeans. He even mentions them by name.
He says, verse 6 of chapter 1, 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. Terrible
judgment is coming on Judah for its idolatry, for its wickedness. Habakkuk sees Judah's wickedness
and the lack of punishment But God tells him, I'm going to punish
them. But what he does is he raises
up the Chaldeans to do it. And Habakkuk asks, how can a
holy God, who's supposed to be fair, punish sinful Judah with
a much more evil people? The Babylonians, OK, Judah deserves
punishment, but hold on a minute. Babylon, they're wicked. They're
terrible. They're far worse. And you're
using them to punish people that are more righteous than they,
no, maybe less sinful, but nevertheless, still sinful. He says it seems
unjust, and he waits for an answer from God. I'll wait, I'll shut
my mouth and wait. the Chaldeans, says God, are
his instrument for the punishment of idolatry, but that in no way
justifies their sin. And here is a very important
lesson to understand, that religion has never understood, and maybe
your religion today doesn't understand. Salvation from just condemnation
is not in accordance with the relative good or evil of the
world's peoples. It is not that the North American
people have been more righteous than others, therefore they've
been singly blessed with the gospel, any more than it's the
Islamic darkness that means that they're not. No, it doesn't work
like that. That's not how it is in the purposes
of God. It is the salvation that God
Himself accomplishes for the people of His choice by the redemption
that is accomplished by Christ, who He calls His servant. Christ
is God. He is very God, he is equal with
God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he,
Christ the Son, the second person of the glorious Trinity, made
himself of no reputation. In chapter 2 and verse 4, We
see there a little quotation, a little half of a verse. You
see, he talks about what's going to happen and that the soul of
the Chaldeans is lifted up and is not right within him, but
the just shall live by his faith. Those who are justified by the
salvation that God has accomplished in Christ, their lives shall
be lived by their faith. That's how it is, they shall
be lived by their faith. That little phrase, the just
shall live by his faith, is quoted three times in the New Testament.
In Romans 1, 17, he says, the gospel, I'm not ashamed of it,
it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. The
just shall live by his faith. It's seeing justification in
Christ, because Paul's going to go on to explain in Romans,
the idea of justification from the curse of the law, from sin,
justification to be right with God. Romans 1.17, we live by
faith by seeing that justification. We see, as did all the saints
of God right down from the beginning, like Abel, in his lamb that he
brought to God. What did he see by faith? The
just shall see by his sight of the soul, by the things that
he sees. Abel saw in what his little lamb
pictured that he killed before God, the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, the seed of the woman, God himself
coming to redeem his people from the curse of the law. And seeing
that, and trusting in its saving effect for me. Abel saw it, trusted
in its saving effect for him. Abraham saw it, and God accounted
it to him for righteousness. What? Not Abraham's believing,
but what Abraham believed in. Galatians 3.11 is the next one. the just shall live by his faith
you know we should continue those who try to live by the law they
must continue in it forever without any success for this that you
know it says cursed is everyone who does not continue in all
things written in the book of the law to do them you must continue
with him but in Galatians 3 verse 11 he says but the just shall
live by their faith They see things and they live in the light. Their walk, their daily walk
is in the light of that knowledge, that sight of Christ's redemption
from the law's curse. In Hebrews 10.38 it's quoted
again. Persevering to the end by soul
sight of Christ ever before our mind's eye. Outside of that sight
of Christ and its application to me, All are justly condemned. All are in danger of that day
of judgment. But in that faith, in seeing
those things, in seeing myself with Christ, there is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, because
we are saved from it. Salvation has come. God's justice
will be satisfied. All sin debt will be paid in
full. But the people of God, the people
of His own sovereign choice, have had their debt paid to the
full by their substitute. So God's law and justice pronounces
them justified. Justified. By grace they see
it, and they live in the light of it, and persevere into glory
beholding it. The just shall live by his faith. As Galatians 2.20 says, I am
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. That's it. The just shall live
by his faith. And so therefore, we're saved
from condemnation. There is salvation. In chapter
2 of Habakkuk, verses 5 to 19, we won't, for the sake of time,
read it because it's full of details of the judgment that
is pronounced on Chaldea. Babylonians for their sin, for
their violence on this world, on the empires around us today,
for its injustice, for its pride, for its lies, for its idolatry.
But all the time, look at verse 20 of chapter 2, the Lord is
in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence
before him. You nations of the earth, you
globalist organizations of today thinking that you can organize
things without God, you bear this in mind. The Lord is in
his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence
before him. In Ecclesiastes, chapter 5, we
are given some good advice. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God.
You keep quiet. You'd be wise and you'd just
shut your mouth and listen. Let every mouth be stopped. Read
that article by Henry May in the bulletin, Romans 3, 19 and
20. Let every mouth be stopped when
you hear what the law truly says. Don't go making any claim against
God, for God is in his heaven, and thou, you're just upon the
earth. Therefore, let your words be few, if you would be wise.
Now in chapter 3 of Habakkuk, Habakkuk reverently prays, it's
a prayer, we know that, verse one, a prayer of Habakkuk, a
prayer, a psalm, it's got the words selah in it three times,
the only place outside of the psalms where these words appear,
three times here, selah, think, stop, pause, be reverent, reverent
fear before the holy presence of God. However it seems at face
value, However evil it seems, and unstoppable it seems, and
what the organisations of this world will do, as the empires
did before them, God is serenely ruling over all. He uses the
empires of this world to fulfil His righteous purposes. And in
the end, look at verse 17 of chapter 3. Although the fig tree
shall not blossom, neither fruit be in the vines. The labour of
the olive shall fail, and the fields yield no meat. The flock
shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in
the stalls." Though this world stops operating, you know, there's
no grain coming out of Ukraine, there's no gas flowing out of
Russia. Though all of these things stop, look what it says, The
people of God will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God
of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength,
and he will make my feet like hinds feet. They're the feet
of the young deer bouncing over the rocks. And he will make me
to walk upon mine high places to the chief singer on my stringed
instruments. You see, it's a message of tremendous
hope in God, in God's kingdom, irrespective of what happens
in this world. God will receive the praise of his redeemed ones.
And as Jonah proclaimed in the whale's belly, Jonah proclaimed
this. In Jonah chapter two, verse nine,
I think it was, wasn't it? Yes. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. But
look, the phrase I want to come to, or the verse I want to come
to, and I've only got 10 minutes left, is verse 13 of chapter
three, where we read this. This is what God gave to Habakkuk
in his reverent standing before him. Thou wentest forth. The
prophet is praying to God, he's addressing God. You, Lord, went
forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with
thine anointed. Thou woundest the head out of
the house of the wicked by discovering the foundation unto the neck.
He went forth for them. How did God recover His people
from the clutches of Satan's worldly empire? He went forth
for them. He went forth for the salvation
of His people. God went forth for salvation.
Salvation from just condemnation. Imagine that flood, that tsunami. You need salvation. You're fleeing
from it. Your family's been swept away.
Here it comes. It's going to sweep you away
and there's no way you can survive it. You will be drowned. You
need salvation. That flood of judgment from God
is coming. There is salvation from that
judgment. There is salvation from just
condemnation coming upon this world of unbelief and rebellion
against God. He who is spirit could not redeem
his people from sin's curse whilst he stayed in heaven. I'm not
being the slightest bit irreverent in saying that, limiting God
as to what He can do. God who is Spirit, because He
tells us in His Word, God who is Spirit could not redeem His
people from sin's curse while He stayed in heaven. The law,
His justice, His righteousness demanded the death of all sinners,
but God cannot die in their place. but then none but the infinite
God could redeem, could pay the price for a multitude of sinners.
So somehow we have a dilemma. How is God who is infinite and
alone able to save his people by his sheer vastness able to
overcome that which he inherently can't do as a spirit who cannot,
cannot die for his people? Answer, in the person of his
son. In the person of his son, God
became man. This is it. You know, we always
try to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't want to preach
without lifting him up. This is it. How did God save
his people from the curse of the law? He went forth from heaven. He came into this world. He became
what he wasn't before, which was a man. Because why? A man
can die in the place of a man. A man can shed blood, for life
is in the blood, and he can shed the blood. So God became man,
who could die as a substitute, who could satisfy his own justice
on behalf of that multitude of sinners. What are they called?
His people. Look, look, Look, when we want
the doctrine of Scripture regarding salvation, here it is, right? Get hold of this. God went forth
for the salvation, what? Did he go forth to make it possible
for everybody to be saved? It doesn't say that, does it?
He went forth for the salvation of thy people. You shall call
his name Jesus. Why? For He shall not make it
possible. He shall save His people from
their sins. This is Jehovah Jesus who went
forth. This is God's elect servant.
Isaiah 42 verse 1, God's elect servant. Behold my servant who
I uphold. He left the glory of heaven.
Look, I know we look at it so many times, but it needs to be
looked at again. Second, sorry, Philippians chapter
2. Philippians chapter 2 and verse
5. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. Who? Christ Jesus. Being in the
form of God. He was God. thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. He took nothing away from God
by being equal with God. He was equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross." What did our text say? God went
forth for the salvation of his people. God went forth. How did
he go? Even for salvation with thine
anointed. It's his anointed one, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who went forth for the salvation of his people,
to rescue Matthew 28 verse 10, Jesus said, the risen Lord Jesus
Christ said, go to my brethren and tell them to go to Galilee,
I'll see them there. Go to my brethren. Jesus calls us his
brethren. He says, I call you no longer
servants, but I call you my friends. He came to rescue his brethren
from the thrall, from the captivity of Satan's kingdom of lies. He wounded his head. He wounded
the head of Satan. Look, it says there, He'll wound
us the head out of the house of the wicked. That's what Genesis
3.15 promised. He wounded the head out of the
house of the wicked. He bound the strongman of the
house, as Matthew 12.29 says. How shall you not spoil, take
hold of, the strongman's goods unless you come and bind the
strongman? Christ came and bound the strongman. How did he bind
him? When Satan thought he'd put him to death at the cross,
Satan was bound. Because in that moment, all of
Satan, the accuser of the brethren, all of his ability to accuse
the people of God of being unfit for heaven was taken away. For
who shall bring any charge against God's elect? For it is Christ
that has died. He led captivity captive. He
bound Satan. He led him in shame. He defeated
him. He came and took spoil of his
goods to rescue his captive brethren, as did Abraham. We've got very
few minutes left, but I just want to show you this and just
remind you this. This is how consistent from cover to cover
is the book of God. In Genesis 14 and verse 12, In the days of Abraham and Lot,
enemies came and took Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah and took
his goods and departed, took him captive. And there came one
that had escaped and told Abram, the Hebrew, for he dwelt in the
plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, the brother of Ena.
And these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that
his brother was taken captive, hear that? When Abram heard that
his brother Lot, I know he was his nephew, but nevertheless,
he was his brother's son. As far as he was concerned, he
was his brother. He armed his trained servants, born in his
own house, 318, and pursued them. He went forth for the salvation
of his brother. He went forth for the salvation
of his brother. He divided himself against them,
smoked them, and brought them all back, Lot, his goods, and
the women also. Is that not a lovely picture
of what happened and what Habakkuk tells us? Thou went'st forth
for the salvation of thy people, even for the salvation of thine
anointed. Thou wound'st the head out of
the house of the wicked by discovering the foundation unto the next.
Stop and think about it. Selah. Stop and think about it,
for it's glorious. Do you see something of your
sin before a holy God? Do you sense His justice in condemning
you to hell? Do you see His mercy and grace
in devising effectual redemption, redemption that works from sin's
curse? Do you see God coming forth for
his people's salvation as their substitute? God in Christ, Jehovah
Jesus, coming forth for his people's salvation. Do you live in the
light and good of faith? The just shall live by faith
to see and trust that you are safe. Where? In the ark. In Noah's ark, effectively, for
it was a picture of Christ. The just shall live by his faith.
So that that storm of just judgment that is undoubtedly coming, like
that tsunami came on those people 18 years ago, that it will not
touch you because you are in Him. It will not touch you It
will not come near you, for Christ has redeemed us from the curse
of the law. Do you confidently look for his
return to take you to your eternal inheritance in glory? Whatever
happens in this fallen world, whatever happens, yet, verse
18, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Amen.