It is very rare for me, maybe
never, when I finish preaching a message to have any sense of
satisfaction with what I've said. And never do I get a text fully
expounded. But sometimes I think to myself,
I'd like to go back and start all over with that. But let's
go back tonight to Habakkuk chapter 2. verses 1, 2, 3, and 4. There's
so much in this brief, instructive portion of scripture that I just
simply didn't have time to give to you a few weeks ago, and I've
come back to it in the last week, studying and seeking God's message
for you. I believe I have something for
you tonight. like us, God's servant Habakkuk,
was called of God to serve him in his generation, to serve his
generation and to serve God in his generation. He was called
of God to labor for the good of God's people in a dark, troublesome
day and to do so for the glory of God. That's true of you. me. I hope you understand this. We who are gods are God's servants. We are to be his witnesses. No, we are his witnesses. Hold your hands here in the back
at two and turn back to the prophecy of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah 43. We often look upon missionaries as being
unique people, and they are in many ways. Thank God for our
faithful missionary brethren, their families. But you who are
gods are missionaries, his witnesses. The word witness is really the
word from which we get our word martyr. God's people are men
and women who laid down their lives for the cause of the Redeemer. We lose our lives for Christ's
sake and the Gospels. That's what it is to be his disciples,
to be his followers. Here in Isaiah 43 verse 10, the
Lord God says, ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant
whom I have chosen. You are my witnesses and my servant. so that we individually are his
witnesses, and collectively his witnesses, his servant, whom
I have chosen, that ye should know and believe me, and understand
that I am he. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and
beside me there is no Savior. I have declared and have saved
And I have showed when there was no strange God among you,
therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord. Our Lord Jesus
takes up the same statement and says essentially the same thing
over in Luke 24, Luke chapter 24. You remember he has opened
the understanding of his disciples to the scriptures. Here in Luke
24, the very last chapter of Luke's gospel and verse 46, the
Lord Jesus said unto them, thus it is written and thus it behooved
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name. That is that we should
proclaim to men everywhere among all nations. that he has turned
his people to himself, and put away their sins by the sacrifice
of himself, preached in his name among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these
things, you, you who have seen and experienced and known the
saving grace of God in Christ. You are witnesses of these things. You are eyewitnesses of his majesty,
eyewitnesses of his glory, eyewitnesses of his person and work. Habakkuk
was one of those later prophets sent of God to warn his ancient
people Israel of coming judgment. Before the Lord and made it out
the terrible last measure of chastisement, he sent Habakkuk
to tell the children of Israel what he was about to do. The
Lord sent Habakkuk to give them this word that the Chaldeans,
a barbarous, cruel, bloodthirsty, wicked, idolatrous people, were
going to be sent of God to turn Jerusalem upside down. to destroy
the temple, to carry the people of Israel into captivity. And
he has this heavy, heavy burden on his heart. His soul seemed
to be crushed with the care of it. He saw the nation crushed
beneath the wicked oppressors. And he realized that these people
whom God would use to chasten them are a people even more wicked
than the people who would be chastened. Wicked as Israel was,
these were bloodthirsty, barbaric, idolatrous people. And Habakkuk
uses that as an argument with God to plead his case that God
would preserve his people, that he would keep alive his people
even in the midst of his judgment. And then the Lord gave Habakkuk
this vision and Habakkuk went to his watchtower. Like David
before him, he was perplexed. like you and I often are, puzzled,
in distress because of the things he saw happening around him.
Now let's look at chapter two. The title of my message tonight
is Watching to See. With heavy heart, Habakkuk says,
I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will
watch to see what he will say unto me. I'm not just going to
watch, I'm going to stand here and watch to see what the Lord
God will say to me and what I shall answer when I am reproved. Now
that's the one phrase in this chapter that I've had difficulty
trying to grasp what exactly is Habakkuk talking about. What
I shall answer when I'm reproved. Was he talking about God reproving
him and him having to answer that? Not at all. That's nowhere
to be found in the context. But Habakkuk, as God's prophet,
would go out and declare the word that we have given us here
in these three chapters. And as he declared the word,
he would be mocked, ridiculed, rebuked, and reproved, as were
all the prophets of his day and all God's messengers in our day.
And he said, I'm going to watch to see what I shall say, what
I shall answer men when they reproved me for the message I
deliver by God Almighty. Read on. What I shall answer
when I'm reproved, verse 2. And the Lord answered me and
said, write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he
may run that readeth. For the vision is yet for an
appointed time. But at the end it shall speak
and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it,
because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Behold, his
soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just
shall live by his faith. In all times and circumstances,
it is our wisdom and strength to wait on God. As we serve him, let us serve
him always watching to see what he will say and what he will
do. Tonight, I want to show you five
things from this passage of Scripture. Number one, understand this. We who are gods are God's servants. our day We are God's servants
in our day read the 20th chapter of Matthew the opening 16 verses
the Lord gives a parable and It tells us that the kingdom
of heaven is like a man who hired servants in his household Men
to serve in his kingdom and it lets out his vineyard to men
to tend his vineyard to take care of it You and I are men
and women. The Lord God has called to serve
him in his vineyard. In the book of Exodus, the Lord
gave a law concerning the bond slave. Turn there, if you will.
Exodus chapter 21. I want you to see it. Exodus
21. Now, clearly, there is no one
who fulfills this law except Christ, our Redeemer. And yet
the law fulfilled by Christ gives us a picture of what it is to
be Jehovah's servant. Exodus 21. This law is really
a prophecy of our Savior, who alone is Jehovah's righteous
servant, who alone fulfilled all his master's will. Now, these
are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou
buy an Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve. And in the seventh,
he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he
shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife shall go out with him. If his master had given him wife
and she had born him sons or daughters, the wife and her children
shall be her masters and he shall go out by himself. And if the
servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children,
Will not go out free Then his master shall bring him unto the
judges He shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost
and his master shall bore his ear through With an all and he
shall serve him forever Bob the Lord Jesus volunteered to serve
God for you Because he loved his father. He loved his wife
and loved his children He came here in the fullness of time
to redeem us by the sacrifice of himself. He could at any time
have gone out free. It is necessary that he die.
It was he must. He must be lifted up. But he
said, I could pray my father and he would at this time send
a legion of angels to deliver me. He could have gone out free.
His service was altogether voluntary right up to the very end. And
when he had finished his work, He said, I brought in everlasting
righteousness. I'm going to the father. And
he said, when the spirit of truth has come, he'll convince you
of sin, of righteousness and judgment. Sin because you believe
not on me of righteousness because I go to my father He could not
go to the father except he fulfilled his own voluntary purpose as
Jehovah's righteous servant redeeming us and fulfilling everything
God required of us on our behalf by his obedience and his death
as our substitute and yet you who believe are also Jehovah's
servants. Gospel preachers, yes, called
of God to preach the gospel. God in every age has set aside
men for the work of the ministry to speak his word to his people. But don't ever imagine that gospel
preachers alone are God's servants. I was asked by Brother Gastan
to preach Saturday to those men on ministry. I tried to make
clear, I don't have a ministry. Don Fortner doesn't have a ministry. I hear preachers talk, my ministry,
my ministry. I don't have one. We have a ministry,
you and me, this congregation. Ours is the service, the ministry
of Jesus Christ, the service, the ministry of the gospel. I remind myself deliberately
all the time that without you, I couldn't possibly do the things
I do. God has put us together and given
us a ministry together. But our ministry is not just
what takes place and transpires right here three times a week.
All who follow Christ are his servants. Let us live as his
servants. Voluntarily giving ourselves
entirely to the Redeemer Voluntarily giving ourselves entirely to
the Redeemer turn to Romans chapter 12 Romans the 12th chapter The Lord God has trusted his
vineyard to you Trusted you take care of his
vineyard Take care of his people Take care of his honor in this
world Paul says in Romans 12 verse 1 I beseech you therefore
brethren by the mercies of God That you present your bodies
plural a living sacrifice singular Cody, I'm talking to you and
I'm talking to Lindsay and I'm talking to Claus. That takes
in all of us, young and old, men and women. I'm talking to
you. Present your bodies, plural,
a singular living sacrifice as one. A living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God. Present your bodies one sacrifice
in Jesus Christ the Lord. Present Christ and yourself with
Christ. How can you expect anybody to
do that? How can I expect Larry Brown and Shelby Fortner to devote
themselves entirely to Christ? Well, that's just not reasonable.
Let's see. Which is your reasonable service. That's just reasonable. The Son of God loved you and
gave himself for you. Now, what's unreasonable about
this? Present your bodies a living
sacrifice perpetually, wholly acceptable unto God by Jesus
Christ our Redeemer That's the only thing that makes any sense.
All right, back in chapter two. Here's the second thing. First,
we're God's servants. As the Lord's servants, we should
always be watchmen, watching for God's direction, watching
for God's will, watching for God's word, watching for God's
instruction. watching for God to work. I will
stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch
to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when
I am reproved. Before anyone can really do anything
in the service of Christ. Anything. He must be sent of God. He must be sent of God. We must receive our commission
directly from God. Brother Jessica Stan made a statement
Saturday talking to the men in the congregation there, particularly
addressing the young men. He said, find out what God has
called you to do and set out to do it. What wise counsel. Find out what
God would have you to do and set out to do it. not what you
would be pleased to do, not what you would choose to do, what
God Almighty would have you to do and set out to do it. I know
that in these days when men are expected to be anything but men,
you know, folks, men are expected maybe to grow up when they're
45 or 50 years old and decide what they're going to do. You
young men, Find out what God has you to do and do it. Just
do it. Come hell or high water, you
just do it. You just do it. That's called
manhood. But that's called following the
Redeemer. Following the Redeemer. Act like
men. Act like men and women who believe
God. Who are God's servants. Who are
here not to do our will, but to do God's will. We can't teach others unless
we're taught of God. No man can preach the gospel
unless it's sent of God. You can't be God's witness unless
God opens the door for you to be. And you can't do anything
in God's service except God direct your steps and you be led of
him to do so. Everything else is just beating
the air and making a show. Troubled in heart, Habakkuk resolved
to set himself to watch his God and to listen, to listen for
God's message to him. How do you know God's will? Honestly,
honestly, I don't usually have any trouble knowing God's will.
Do you? I don't usually have any difficulty.
My difficulty is obeying God's will. I don't have any difficulty
knowing what God would have me to do in any given situation.
My difficulty is being obedient to God's will. God speaks to
us plainly, makes himself known in providence by his word, by
his spirit, by judgments that come, by providences that befall,
and we ought to hear his word in all things. But in all these
things, the Lord God makes himself known to us by his spirit. And God speaks. And somehow the
man, the woman who's born of God, knows immediately. God spoken. God spoken. Speaking to Someone today, who
was talking to me today about this matter of faith. Somebody
asks, when do you stop having doubts? And when do you quit struggling
about faith? And when do you know that you
believe? When you quit asking the questions. When you hear God speak. When
you hear God speak. There are voices everywhere,
and God speaks to us by his spirit, always through his word, and
he causes his people to hear. As we watch to see what God will
speak, watch to see what God will do, let us do so with patience. Habakkuk said, I will stand upon
my watch. I'll take my place like a sentinel
to guard until his time of watching is over. I'll set myself on my
tower. He takes a position on the wall
of Zion, takes a position on the wall watching for God and
says, this is where you'll find me. While I wait to see God speak. To see God speak. Watch and see
what he will say. Watch and see what he will do.
What an example he gives for preachers. Would to God, the Lord will give
me grace to the day of my last breath to be found standing as
a watchman, faithful watchman upon the walls of Zion. Never
relinquishing anything. Never relinquishing anything. I have been advised by well-meaning
friends for a long time, for a long time. You need to quit
doing this, stop doing that, give up this, give up the other
thing. And sometimes, Joe, I'm tempted to. And then I hear God speak. Not until I quit breathing, God
helping me. Or until God stops me. Some years
ago, somebody sent me a series of messages that I don't even
know who it was preached them. Some fellow at one of these reform
conferences where they teach preachers how to do things professionally. And the subject addressed in
these three or four messages was burnout in the ministry. Just, oh, God, take a break.
God, take a break. If God's pleased to give a man
the honor he's given this man, to preach the gospel of his grace,
let us be relentless in the pursuit of this work. Relentless in the
pursuit of this work. Ever more giving ourselves to
it. Brother Don, but you're not talking
to preachers. No, I'm talking to you. God give you grace to be relentless
in the pursuit of Jesus Christ, his will, his glory, the saving
of his people, the increase of his kingdom, and the furtherance
of his gospel. That's what we're here for. Watchmen,
watching with patience as we labor for his glory to see what
the Lord will do. Listening for God to speak, watching
for God to work. Now look at verse two. Here's
the third thing. It's our business as God's servants
in this generation to make his word known to all men. And the Lord answered me and
said, write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he
may run that readeth. Write the vision. Write it out
plainly. Plainly. Not using cunning words
of craftiness, but plainly. Deliberately speaking with utter
simplicity, plainly, so that no man can mistake what's being
said. So that no man can look at it
and say, well, maybe he meant left and meant to say right.
Maybe he meant to say right and said left. No man's ambiguous
in understanding because you're not ambiguous in speaking. Speak
the word plainly. Certainly his prophets, his servants
must do so. And you who believe Must give
yourselves relentlessly to the furtherance of this thing the
gospel of God's grace Plainly revealed in this book making
all men to see what God has spoken Speaking clearly concerning the
gospel of God's grace. I'm talking about God's sovereignty.
I God's free electing favor. Christ effectual blood atonement.
I'm talking about the power of God's spirit giving life and
salvation to whom he will. I'm talking about God preserving
his own unto everlasting glory. Make it plain. Make it plain.
And the prophets was given this word from God. He said, write
it on tables. Etch it in stone. Write this thing not on wax tablets,
but on stone tablets. What's he talking about? How
does that apply to you and me? Are we to take God's word and
scratch it out on stone? No. No. But we are to do this
thing as permanently as possible. so that we give ourselves in
this generation to make known the gospel of God's grace using
every means at our disposal at our disposal to make this message
stand permanently as it goes forth from this place so that
men hear the word for generations to come. Oh. Find ways to embed this in stone. Mr. Spurgeon, I have 63 volumes
of sermons back there. 63 volumes of sermons that were
preached in the 1800s. I think Spurgeon died in 1892.
I'm not positive. 1892 or 96, somewhere in there.
Those sermons preached in the 1800s. And we got 63 volumes of them back
there. Do you know what the man had
to do, what that congregation had to do for those things to
be here now? Somebody in the congregation
took down the sermons as he preached them. We got recording machines
now, so you don't have to do this. They took them down as
he preached them in shorthand. And then they would go home and
write out the sermons, because Spurgeon couldn't read shorthand.
And they'd give him the sermons on Monday morning. And he would
correct them and get them to the publishers on Wednesday.
And on Thursday, the publishers would get them back to him, and
he would give a final correction. And they were published one a
week, every week, as long as they preached in that church. One a week, every week, for as
long as they preached, in a penny pulpit. You could buy one for
a penny. Now, I don't know what a penny was in those days, but
you could buy one for a penny and shipped them all over the
world. That's what I'm talking about. Make this as permanent
as possible. We keep putting the word out,
and I want to make it so that nobody can forget the message
that's been preached in this place. In this day, tomorrow,
or in years to come, or in generations to come, make it in stone. Turn over 1 Timothy chapter 3.
1 Timothy chapter 3. It's the business of God's church
my business and yours To make known the Word of God in our
day. Look at verse 14 first Timothy 3 These things write I unto thee
hoping to come unto thee shortly But if I tarry long that thou
mayest know How thou oughtest to behave thyself? in the house
of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth. God's church, this congregation,
the pillar and the ground of the truth. Our business is to
hold forth the truth of the gospel. Nothing else. Nothing else. Well, but Brother Don, don't
you think we ought to send some medical missionaries down to
Africa? No. Lots of doctors will do that.
But don't you think we ought to have some education missionaries
and send them down to the Congo? No. Lots of educators will do
that. But don't you think we ought
to involve ourselves in getting the right political party in?
No. Lots of other folks will do that.
Lots of other folks will do that. But what do you think we ought
to do? Preach the gospel. That's all. That's all. And that's
all we're going to do. That's all we're going to do.
Well, but that's passé. People won't come listen to a
fellow preach, stand up and talk to them for 30, 45 minutes or
an hour, preaching to them like they used to. People got better
things to do. They're more intelligent now. Well, that's debatable. But it ain't going to change
anything here. Not in God's church. The business of the church is
the preaching of the gospel. That means, James, that everything
God puts in our hands, every means, every opportunity, every
strength, every talent we have, we use to broadcast the word. Just broadcast the word. And
then what do you do? Then what do you do? Look at
the next thing. Back in chapter 2. For the vision is yet for an
appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry,
wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. God's promise to his servants
is for an appointed time. And at the appointed time, God
will fulfill his promise. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. It shall accomplish that which
I please and it shall prosper in the thing where to I sent
it. What do you do? We preach the
word. and we wait on God. We preach the word and we wait
on God. I hope that I'm not misunderstood
by this. I want you to know, every one
of you, I'm at your disposal. You can call me for anything,
anytime, day or night. I'm at your disposal, but I'm
not an ambulance chaser. I'm not in the business of trying
to get folks to make a profession of faith and striking while the
iron's hot, conning folks into a religious exercise in futility. We preach the word and wait for
God to make it effectual to whom he will. But if you had a properly corrugated,
program and you preach and bring your message to its climax just
at the right time and you give the invitation at just the right
time. It'll get folks excited. They'll start coming in church.
I know. I know. I'm not interested. I'm not interested. Brother Don, this'll work. I'm
not interested in what works. I'm not interested in what works
in the religious world. I'm not interested. Not interested. If that's what you want, go somewhere
else. It's not going to happen here. What are you interested
in? I'm interested in your soul. Lindsey Campbell, I want you
and your children and your grandchildren, as they hear the word, to know
God. That's all. For God's glory. I'm interested
in gathering God's elect under the banner of the cross. That's
all. That's all. And at God's appointed time,
each chosen sinner shall be called by his grace. Looks like the
Lord's not doing anything. Just because it looks that way
to you doesn't mean God's not doing anything. Just because
you don't see him move doesn't mean he's not moving. Oh, no.
God's word always accomplishes God's will at all times in God's
creation. At the appointed time, every
chosen sinner shall be saved. At the appointed time, Christ
shall come in his glory. At the appointed time, you will
stand before God in judgment. Let men walk as they will. Did
you hear me? Though it appears to tarry, God's
promise is sure. all his promises. The servant
of God is still a prophet. He's still a prophet. Let me
make some prophecies. I'm going to make some prophecies. And you can judge whether or
not I'm true by what I tell you. I'll make some prophecies. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's a sure prophecy. Cast
your burden on the Lord and He will sustain thee. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion which cannot be removed but abideth forever. Here's another prophecy. The
hour is coming and now is when all that are in the graves shall
hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall
live. I grant you, God's promises sometimes
appear to tarry, and you wonder if God will fulfill his word. He will. He hides his face, but
he says he won't do so forever. He sends trouble, but he promises
with the trouble to give deliverance, and at the appointed time, he
will deliver. He brings weakness, but he promises with the weakness
to give strength. The Lord Jesus promises that
he will not leave you comfortless, but he will come to you, and
he will at the appointed time. Israel was in Egypt for 400 years because God appointed them 400
years in Egypt. And at the appointed time, the
scripture says, in the self-same day, in the self-same day. Oh, can you imagine how they
must have murmured, how they must have griped over and over
and over again. Even after Moses said, God sent
me to deliver you, they're still griping. Right up to the time
God took them out. And at the appointed time, God
brought them out of Egypt. So it is with all his promises. So here's the last thing. We
should serve our God with the joyful anticipation and expectation
of faith. Behold, his soul, which is lifted
up, is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith. We should live constantly on
the tiptoe of faith, anticipating God to perform his work, anticipating
God to do what he said he'd do, anticipating God to save his
people, anticipating God to minister to your soul's need, anticipating
the coming of our Redeemer. Peter speaks of those men in
the last days who scoff and mock and say, where's the promise
of his coming? As it was in the days of Noah, it is now. It's
been this way since the beginning of the earth. Nothing's changed.
You can't believe anything about that. And Peter said, God's word is sure. And seeing
these things, the heavens and the earth must be dissolved.
Understanding that God is going to create a new heavens and a
new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness and nothing but righteousness.
What manner of persons we ought to be in all holy conversation
and godliness. In all devotion to our Redeemer. You see this? You see this? Look around you. You see it? Everything men set their hearts
on in this world. Everything. It's going to burn. Soon, set
your heart on something better. Something lasting. Something
eternal. His name is Christ, the Lord. He's in heaven. Set your affection
on Him. Amen.