We live, we have the privilege
of living and what has been and I think
is, is yet anyway, the greatest nation
that's ever existed on the earth. God has blessed this nation. I'm not just talking about material
things. I'm not just talking about freedoms.
God has blessed this nation as no nation under the sun has ever
been blessed. He's given us greater light than
any nation, greater light than any nation. He's given more faithful
gospel preaching in this nation than to any nation in history. He has used this nation, his
church in this nation, to send the gospel literally all over
the world. Missionaries and missionary dollars
have gone from faithful men. I'm not talking about all the
nonsense in religion. I'm not talking about the papist
and the free willers. I'm talking about faithful people. from this
nation more than any nation in the world. And here we are in
darkness that's indescribable. In chaos and upheaval that seems
unending. Injustice and oppression Perversion of law, perversion
of what's right seems to be the rule of the day. So I was talking
just this morning, Jim and Susan were at the house for a little
bit this morning and, you know, most of you can remember that
you didn't worry about your children if they were gone all day. Man,
when I was a boy, Of course, that was a little different.
They wanted me gone all the time, but, you know, you walk across
town, stay gone all day long, nobody concerned about anything,
nobody, nobody. Today, you can't even close your
front door behind your children. Does God not care? Doesn't God care? how often we think in those terms. Doesn't God care what's going
on? Doesn't God care about the moral
decadence, the political decadence, the spiritual decadence of this
society and this day? Doesn't God care? about the things
that confuse and trouble us and break our hearts, about our concerns
for the generation to follow us. We see the religious world
around us, hordes of religious infidels flourishing on every
side. And we, what do we have here,
30, 35 people here tonight? Doesn't God care? Doesn't God
care? We go through difficulties. Faithful man, hardworking man,
loses his job. A fellow beside him cusses and
blasphemes God with every breath, gets promoted. Doesn't God care? Faithful man and his wife stand
by their hospital bed of their only child. paralyzed for the
rest of his life, and the drunk who ran over him walks away with
no difficulties. Doesn't God care? You sit by
and watch the one dearest to you suffer horribly, and your
heart aches for the one suffering, not just for the fact that you're
about to lose them, but for the one suffering. Doesn't God care? When I read the first chapter
of Habakkuk's prophecy, I can almost hear God's prophet crying
from the depth of his soul, God, don't you care? Now that's my
subject tonight. Doesn't God care? When you struggle
with the sin that vexes you around you
and more with the sin that vexes you within you. Doesn't God care? He could remedy all of this like
that. He could. I often write to friends,
or speak to them if I can, who are going through difficulty,
fellow believers, and I will say to them, if I could, I'd
take this from you just like that. But our Heavenly Father,
who is infinitely wiser than I am and loves you infinitely
more than I can imagine loving you, has sent this for wise and
good reasons to you and to me. He could remove it, but he chooses
not to for now. And it's not because he doesn't
care. It's because he does. It's because he does. Larry Chris,
whenever you lay down and your heart's aching for whatever the
reason, don't ever, every time you think, God, don't you care,
remember, this is because he does care. This is because he does care. Can't help but to use the analogy
of father raising a child. I often inflicted pain on my
daughter when she was growing up, deliberate pain. When I bent her across my knee,
she knew she was going to hurt. And when I told her it was coming,
she knew it was coming. I don't understand this generation
of dads who tell children to do something twice. I don't understand
it. There's not any excuse for it. No excuse whatever except
you don't care. That's all. You just don't care.
If you cared, you'd make a mind. You'd make a mind. Because I
cared for the child, I insisted that she obey. I insisted on
it. And the pain was caused not because
I didn't care, but because I do. And the pain God sends, the difficulty
God sends, the trial God sends to his children, No matter what
the trial, no matter what the source, it's not because he doesn't
care, but because he does. All right, let's read our text
together. Back in chapter one, we'll begin at verse 12. Art thou not from everlasting,
O Lord my God, O Jehovah my Elohim? Mine Holy One, we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them.
He's talking now about these Babylonians, these Chaldeans.
Thou hast ordained them for judgment. And O mighty God, thou hast established
them for correction. Thou art of purer eyes than to
behold evil. and can't not look on iniquity. Wherefore? Wherefore? Now Lord,
this is what I know about you. You're a pure eyes and to behold
evil. You cannot look on iniquity.
So will you answer me this? Wherefore lookest thou upon them
that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth
the man that is more righteous than he. I acknowledge that your
people, Judah, and your servant, this prophet, we are a people
vile, sinful, corrupt, but our behavior doesn't compare with
these Babylonians. How is it that you can hold your
tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that's more righteous
than he? And makest thou, or makest men,
as the fishes of the sea? as the creeping things that have
no ruler over them. You make us like worthless fish,
like creeping things on the earth with no king, no prince over
us. They take up all them with the angle, with the hook. They catch them in their net
and gather them in their drag. Therefore, they, these heathen,
These Chaldeans, these abominable, blasphemous Babylonians you send
among us, they who take your people like fish in a net, like
fish caught on a hook, who drag them in their drags, they rejoice
and are glad. Therefore, they sacrifice unto
their net. and burn incense under their
drag, because by them, by their net and drag, their portion is
fat and their meat plenteous. Shall they therefore empty their
net and not spare continually to slay the nations? And the
first thing that strikes me in this passage is the fact that
we had before us the picture of a confused believer, a confused
prophet, a man who worshipped God, a man who genuinely from
his heart worshipped God, but is confused by the things he
sees and feels and experiences. As I read this opening chapter
of this portion of God's Word, I can almost hear Habakkuk crying
out in his heart from his soul from a broken heart, doesn't
God care? He's asking, how can a holy God
use unholy, wicked, idolatrous men like the Babylonians to chastise
and correct his people? How can God in his holiness use
such things as this? How often we think like the infidels
around us. If God is holy, how can this
be? If God is good, how can this
be? If God's in charge, how can this
be? Habakkuk says, Lord, I know you're
holy. How can you use these Babylonians
and tell me that you use these Babylonians to bring judgment
upon your people Israel and to correct your people Judah? The
prophet cries out, doesn't God care? Does he really know what
he's doing? This man Habakkuk, you see, was
a man who, he had experienced things that you and I can only
read about and think about. Habakkuk lived during the days
of one of Israel's best kings, a young man named Josiah, who
destroyed the images of the false gods, overturned their altars,
and reestablish the worship of God in the house of God. Habakkuk
experienced a time when the church of God knew God's presence and
power in tremendous sweeping revival over his people. A revival
that had ramifications in the nation around him. Habakkuk saw
the house of God more empty than this one. He saw the temple of
God more empty than this building here. He saw it in ruins. And then Habakkuk saw the house
of God crowded with people seeking God, seeking to hear from God,
seeking to worship God, seeking to know God. And then he lived
to see Josiah succeeded by Jehoiakim, who brought Israel into a time
of moral and social and civil and spiritual degradation like
he never imagined before. He cries out to God about the
horrible, deplorable conditions of Judah. And for a while, he
found God silent. He said, won't you hear? Won't
you say? Look at verse two. Oh Lord, how
long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear? Even cry out unto thee
of violence of the violence I see all around me and thou wilt not
save. But then the Lord God answered
his servant. But it didn't give him the answer
Habakkuk wanted or expected. He said, oh yes, I hear. And
I see. And I'm sending the Babylonians
as agents of judgment, agents by which I will chastise and
correct my people for their sins. He was determined to establish
this wicked, idolatrous, immoral, ungodly nation Babylon. as the
rod of correction he would use in his hand on the backs of his
chosen people for the sake of preserving his name, his honor,
and his worship in this earth. When Habakkuk heard the Lord
God declare that he was going to use the Babylonians to correct
Israel, he was even more confused. Lord, I can understand if you
raise up a Josiah to correct us. I can understand if you send
a David to correct us, but the Babylonians, these heathen who
have a God for the sun and a God for the rain and a God for the
crops and a God that looks over the other gods and a God for
judgment. These heathen, you're raising,
you've established these heathen to correct Israel. Habakkuk knowing
the character of God wouldn't know how this can be. Look at
verse 13. Thou art of pure eyes, and to behold evil. And canst
not look on iniquity? Wherefore lookest thou upon them?
Why do you look on them as to use them? Them that deal treacherously. What a word to describe a nation.
Treacherously. Treacherously. We see it all
the time. Matter of fact, I don't know
of any nation that you can't say that about anymore. They're treacherously. And holdest thy tongue when the
wicked devoureth the man that's more righteous than he. Not only was God determined to
use these vile Babylonians to correct his people, He was determined
to make Israel like fish and creeping things. Like fish, creeping things on the earth.
Insignificant wildlife before the eyes of men, which if they're
destroyed, who cares? If they're taken, what difference
does it make? They're just fish. They're just
creeping things on the earth. And make us men as fishes of
the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them,
just scattered here and there. They take up all of them with
the angle. They catch them in their net
and gather them and they drag, and then they turn around and
worship their net and worship their drag. These are our gods. Historically, the Babylonians
actually did this. You think they're cruel today
as you see things going on in the Islamic world today. They
have a just claim to it historically. They would take captives and
hook them, hook them. tie them one to the other and
drag them with hooks in their jaws into captivity and have
no mercy, no sympathy. You drop dead, your jaw rips
out, that's all right. You're just worthless fish, worthless
beast in our eyes. And the Habakkuk says, God, these
are the men you're going to use to sup up your people like the
wind sups up the dirt, the dust, and the sand. Not only was the Lord God determined
to use these vile Babylonians, He was determined to make Israel
nothing before them and the objects of their great cruelty. Next,
as soon as Habakkuk learned what the Lord God was determined to
do. As soon as he discovered God's purpose to send the wicked,
barbarically cruel troops of Babylon to sup up Israel, this
faithful man did the only thing he knew to do. The only thing he knew to do.
The only thing he could do. He fell back on God. He just
falls back on God. Mother David just said to me
a minute ago, Don, how do people who don't know God deal with
these things? How many times do you think just
that? How does a man who doesn't know God deal with these things
that break your heart? How do they deal with them? How
do they handle them? I can't speak for those who don't know
God, but this I know. The Lord God will fix it. So
that before. We have complained too much. And before we have. Neglected
him too much. He will fix it so that we have
no choice but to do what we ought to do in the beginning. Just
fall back on God. Look at this. First, Habakkuk
speaks to God about God. He describes God to God. Now,
what reason there is for that? Why would you tell God who God
is? Why would you describe God to God? It's not for God's benefit. I come in here worshiping him.
It's not for his benefit. We ascribe praise to Him to remind
us who He is that we may, by His revelation of Himself, worship
Him and bow to Him. He says, Art thou not from everlasting? O Lord my God, mine Holy One. Again, I'm reminded of that command
of our God, put me in remembrance Let us plead together. Declare
thou that thou mayest be justified. Habakkuk says, Lord. Aren't you
from everlasting? Aren't you the everlasting God?
Though posed as a question, Habakkuk was stating a fact. He who is
God is the everlasting God. He who inhabits eternity. When
we speak of such things as this. God. everlasting, the eternal
God. We're talking about things that
are altogether impossible to explain. When we think of eternity,
we're totally out of our elements. When we think about God, the
eternal, he is without beginning, without succession, without variation,
without end. He's eternal. He's eternal. Well, I just can't get my mind
around that. I can't get my mind close to
that. God's eternal. Creatures of time can't imagine
eternal. God's eternal. Art thou not from
everlasting? This is our God, the everlasting,
eternal God is thy refuge. Underneath are the everlasting
arms. Hast thou not heard? Hast thou
not considered the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of
the earth? Fainteth not, neither is weary.
There's no searching of his understanding. God, you're eternal. You're eternal. Back to thinking
about God's character. His love for us is an everlasting
love. It has no beginning. It has no
succession. It has no variation. It has no
end. It's everlasting love. His covenant
is an everlasting covenant. His mercies are everlasting mercies. His goodness is everlasting goodness. The life he gives us is called
everlasting life. The redemption of our souls is
an everlasting redemption. Now, Don't imagine when you read
this prophet or another. Don't imagine that Habakkuk is
just thinking about or talking about things affecting him in
his day. These things, the Spirit of God
calls Habakkuk to write by divine inspiration. And these things,
the Spirit of God calls Habakkuk to write for our learning that
we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have
hope. That's what the book says, isn't
it? Romans 15 verse 4. Look at verse 12 again. Art thou
not from everlasting, O Lord my God? Habakkuk takes hold on
the triune God with the grip of faith, using this marvelous,
sweet, powerful, possessive pronoun, my. Art thou not from everlasting,
O Jehovah, the redeeming God of Israel, my Elohim, my worshipped
one? The word Elohim, the word translated
God here, is in the plural, always in the plural. It's not referring
to three gods, it's referring to the triune Jehovah, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Habakkuk says, you are Jehovah,
the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, my worshiped one. Thou art my God, my God, my God. Because you took me into union
with yourself in covenant mercy from everlasting. The triune
God is my God in everlasting covenant. A covenant he made
for me with himself from everlasting. Redemption. The redemption of
our souls is not a work of yesterday. Oh no, Christ was the lamb set
up from everlasting. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world and from everlasting. We've been accepted in the beloved. Read on. Mine holy one. Mine holy one. Dares a mere man
A man who has already acknowledged his confusion before God. A man
who acknowledges his sin before God. A man who acknowledges his
failure before God. There's a man, a mere sinful
man like you. Lay hold of God and call Him
my Holy One. My Holy One. How can you do that,
David Burrage? The Holy One tells you to. This is the name whereby He shall
be called. Anybody remember? The Lord, our
righteousness. The Lord God says, this is the
name I want you to call Him by. This is the name I want you to
call me by. This is the name by which you
honor me. Look yonder. Christ Jesus crucified. That's Jehovah Sedkinu, the Lord,
my righteousness. My Holy One. My Holy One. How is it that Christ is my Holy
One? He is my righteousness by which
I am justified. He is my holiness by which I
am sanctified. He is my holy one before God. He is my holy one in me. He is Jehovah, my righteousness
imputed to me. He is Jehovah, my righteousness
imparted to me. That makes him my righteousness. Read the book of the Psalms.
Read the book of Psalms and read the number of times David speaks
with confident faith, calling on God to intervene for him using
these words, for my righteousness sake, because of my righteousness. How dare you? Lord God, I come
to you in the name of Christ, your son. You just read this. You just now read it. If you
ask anything in my name, I'll do it. What's that talking about? In my name? Lord, I come to you,
trusting Christ. I have no right to speak to you,
but because of Christ. I dare not lift my eyes toward
heaven, but because of Christ. I dare not have hope before you,
but because of Christ. I come to you, Lord, and I ask
that you intervene. I ask that you do this for my
righteousness sake. For Christ is my righteousness. He is my atonement. He is my sanctification. He is my redemption. Not just
he performed it, not just he gives it to me. He is my righteousness,
my holy one. Now, what do you conclude from that?
I'll tell you what Habakkuk concluded there, what you just said. Blessed
assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. Read it. We shall not die. We shall not die. No matter what
these Chaldeans do. No matter how their horses fly
like the eagle faster than the leopard and suck up your people
like the dust of the earth is sucked up by the wind in a tornado. We shall not die. We shall not
die. No matter how men rage, no matter
how Satan rages against us, we shall not die. Oh, what a word. The enemies of God's church shall
all perish. God's church shall outlive all
her foes. We will trample the seed of the
serpent beneath our feet at last. We who are the objects of God's
love, mercy, and grace in Christ Jesus shall not die. You remember our Lord's words
to Martha? I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Never die. God's people don't
die. where we're getting ready to
go to the graveyard. That's all right. We're just burying a tent.
God's people don't die. Do you understand that? God's
people don't die. These bodies must be dissolved. But even this body that goes
to the earth shall be raised incorruptible in the last day.
God's people don't die. They don't die. We shall not
die spiritually. I give unto them eternal life.
And they shall never perish. And nobody can take that from
you, Bill Raleigh. If God's given it to you, you can't lose it.
And you can't destroy itself. Not God gave it. Not God did
it. No, sir. Can't be done. How come? Because
it's the purchase of Christ. It's the work of God. It's the
seal of God's spirit to you and in you. No, no. God's work can't
be frustrated. We shall not die. the second
death. Blessed and holy are they that
have part in the first resurrection. What's that talking about? What's
talking about the new birth? That's what happened to you when
God saved you. He raised you from the dead. Blessed and holy
are they that have part in the first resurrection. On such the
second death hath no We shall not die. We shall not
die, not spiritually, not eternally. We shall not die because we're
gods. All right. Then in the light
of God's character, with the assurance of God's salvation
for him and all the chosen church of God, God's prophet gently
and meekly bows to God's purpose and providence. O Lord, thou
hast ordained them, so I'll bow. Thou hast ordained them for judgment,
and O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Habakkuk acknowledges that Babylon
had been ordained as the executioner of God's judgment in his day,
just as it is in our day. Babylon, you see, represents
all evil in the world, political evil, civil evil, moral evil,
and particularly and distinctly spiritual evil, religious evil. God has established them. for
our correction. Establish them to keep us walking
in his way. To keep us from going astray. To keep us in the straight, narrow
way following Christ and worshiping him. The Lord God sovereignly
used Egypt to preserve Israel for 400 years. And then he brought
Israel out and destroyed Egypt. During the days of the judges,
the Lord took the Moabites and the Midianites and the Philistines,
nation after nation, and used them to correct his people. And when they were corrected,
they called on the Lord, and he raised up judges to deliver
them. over and over and over again. Even now, God uses Babylon,
the political, civil, moral, religious evil of our day to
correct his church, not to correct religion, not to correct all
religious people, but to correct his church, his true church,
those who are born of his spirits. He uses them to separate the
tares from the wheat. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
11. Let me show you. 1 Corinthians chapter 11,
verse 19. There must also be heresies among
you. God could stop that. He could take everybody who does
this stuff, worships a crucifix. He could stop it like that. He
could take everybody who worships his will. He could stop it like
that. He could stop it just like that.
That would be no problem to God. He can overturn the altars of
Baal. That's not a problem to God. There must be heresies among
you for this purpose, that they which are, not they who shall
be, they which are approved, approved of God in His Son from
eternity, approved of God in His Son now. approved of God
tomorrow that they may be made manifest among you. How on earth
does God make manifest that you're his? His sheep hear his voice,
and a stranger they won't follow. They won't do it. They won't
do it. Our God will see to it that the earth opens up to help
the woman. Read the 12th chapter of Revelation.
Satan, the dragon, breathes out fire against the woman, God's
church. And when Satan, the dragon, breathes
out fire against the woman, fire within and fire without, the
earth opens up to help her. That's what God does in his providence
every day. Every day he causes the earth
to open up to help his own, to preserve his own. Let me show
you one more thing and I'll quit. Back here in verse 12 again. Habakkuk calls upon the Lord
Jehovah, crying, O mighty God. Do you have a marginal reference
in your Bible? Look what it says, O mighty rock. Oh, mighty rock. This one who is God from everlasting,
my holy one, Jehovah, my worshiped one, he is the mighty rock on
whom I'm builted, the mighty rock in whom we hide. The name of the Lord is a high
tower. The righteous runneth unto it. and is safe. The Lord God is our rock and
our refuge. Let us then hide in him. Back at praise, ask God, why
won't you hear? Why won't you save? And before
God tells him how he's going to send Babylonians to bring
judgment upon his people, to chastise and correct his people,
that he might preserve his people in the earth. He says, I not
only will hear, I not only will save, I'll do such a wondrous
work that though it's performed, no man will believe it when he
hears about it. except I myself give him faith. And that work he has performed. He sent redemption into the earth.
Redemption is accomplished. Salvation is finished. Now Christ
Jesus has returned to glory and his care is unceasing and infinite
beyond imagination. Let us never again imagine that
God doesn't care. I looked up a hymn today. I hadn't
heard it in a long, long time. Does Jesus care when my heart
is pained too deeply for mirth or song? As the burdens press
and cares distress and the way grows weary and long. Oh, yes,
he cares. I know he cares. His heart is
touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the
long nights dreary, I know my savior cares. Does Jesus care
when my way is dark with nameless dread and fear? As the daylight
fades in the deep night shades, does he care enough to be near? Does Jesus care when I've sinned
and failed by Satan's temptation strong, when for my deep grief
there's no relief, though my tears flow all the night long?
Does Jesus care when I've said goodbye to the dearest on earth
to me, and my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks? Is it
ought to him? Does he see? Oh yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is touched with my
grief. When the days are weary, the
long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. Cast all your care on him, for
he careth for you. There's another song I hadn't
heard in a long time. Used to be one of our favorites when
Shelby and I were dating shortly after we were married. And I
asked Brother David if he'd come sing it for us.