My text tonight begins the burden
which Habakkuk, the prophet, did see. The burden. The burden. The Old Testament prophets often
spoke of that which they had received from God to give to
his people as the burden of the word of the Lord. Let me see
if I can convey something of the meaning of that word, burden,
to you. Brother E.W. Johnson, who's now
with the Lord, pastored for many, many years, time left Arkansas,
went to visit one of his men on his deathbed, an old man.
Brother Johnson had pastored him for many years, and he asked
him before he left, He said, is everything well with your
soul? And this is what the old man
said. If you've told me the truth, it is. If you've told me the truth,
it is. You see, the word of God, delivered
in the power of God's spirit, to the hearts of his people is
the message of God that is a savor of life unto life, and a savor
of death unto death. And I'm fully aware that some
of you actually do hear what your pastor says, and I must
before God speak God's word to you every time I speak. Not just the written letter of
the word. Anybody with half good sense
can do that. Not just give you the facts and
figures and history and doctrine. Anybody can do that. But as Brother
Scott Richardson put it, preaching is somehow getting a message
from God's heart to my heart to your heart. That's the burden
of preaching the gospel. And I pray God will give me that
power that he alone can give to preach the message I believe
he's given me for this hour for you. Habakkuk chapter 1. Who's in control of this world? Is anyone really in control? Does it make any sense to talk
to anybody about a wise, loving, almighty God who governs all
the affairs of men when we see calamities, crime, heartbreaking
pain, suffering, conflict, war, sickness. We see around us a
world full of AIDS, orphans, crippled children, starving nations. How can you talk about an all-loving
God who is almighty and expect anybody to believe it? How can you expect anyone to
believe that there is actually a God in heaven whose character
is good, and he rules this world in the light of everything we
see going on around us. I just read the other day, and
you know about how often I mention these things. In 1973, the Supreme
Court of the United States ripped up the Constitution of this nation
and declared under a pretentious lawsuit to begin with, it was
just a hoax, declared that it was the right of a woman to murder
her unborn baby. Since then, there have been nearly
50 million babies aborted in this country. And you tell me God rules? And
you expect me to believe that God absolutely governs the universe
and that God is good? How can we have faith? How can
we believe God as he's revealed in this book in the midst of
such darkness, tragedy, and devastation? I just wrote a hymn. It'll be
in the bulletin Sunday. The king of kings who reigns
above, the self-existent God is love. His essence, attributes,
and name, boundless, unchanging love proclaim. The love of God
our tongues employ, here sinners find unending joy, while through
the Savior's blood we prove the sacred truth that God is love. But is that song something you
can sing with confidence and honesty when everything around
us seems to contradict every word of the hymn? It'd be easy
to multiply illustrations of evil, talk to you about child
abuse and hunger, starvation, on radio and television in our
public schools, from kindergarten through the universities of the
highest level. Blasphemy abounds everywhere.
God is mocked, and we pay people to teach our children to mock
him. How can we live in such dark, dark times? How can we
believe in justice when there appears to be none? Where is God? How often do you ask, God, where
are you? Job did. David did. And if we expressed honestly
what we feel, we often would. God, where are you? Why won't you make yourself known?
Why do you not make known your mighty arm in our day? Don't
you care? Is God just overwhelmed with
evil? Not hardly. This is what he declares,
and he teaches us this everywhere. I form the light and create darkness. You say, well, what does that
mean? Whatever the light is, I don't care how you put the
word, God said, I form it. Whatever the darkness is, I don't
care what meaning you give to the word, God says, I create
it. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace, whatever peace
there is, anywhere. In your heart, in your soul,
in your family, in the world, in society, any peace there is. It only exists because God makes
peace. We are such brute, wild beasts
since the fall of our father Adam. We would every one murder
the other if God just left us alone by nature. So I said, I
make peace. I make peace. If two human beings
get along, period. God did that. God did that. In
any way, I make peace. And God says, I create evil. Whatever it is. However you understand
that. God says, I form the light. and create darkness. I make peace
and create evil. I, Jehovah, do all these things. The title of my message tonight
is Light for Times of Great Darkness. Let's read our text together.
Habakkuk chapter 1, verse 1. The burden which Habakkuk the
prophet did see, O Lord, How long shall I cry, and thou wilt
not hear? Even cry out unto thee of violence,
and thou wilt not save. Why dost thou show me iniquity,
and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are
before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law was slacked.
and judgment doth never go forth. For the wicked doth compass about
the righteous, therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. Behold ye
among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously, for I
will work a work in your days, which ye shall not, ye will not
believe, though it be told you. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans,
that bitter, hasty nation which shall march through the breadth
of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity
shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter
than leopards and are more fierce than the evening wolves, and
their horsemen shall spread themselves And their horsemen shall come
from far. They shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence. Their faces shall sup up as the
east wind. They shall gather the captivity
as the sand. And they shall scoff at the kings. And the princes shall be a scorn
to them. They shall deride every stronghold. for they shall heap dust and
take it. Then shall his mind change, and
he shall pass over and offend, imputing this power to his God. These heathen who come to take
you captive will succeed. They will destroy this land,
and they will destroy this nation. And they will do it because I
have so decreed it. And when they have finished,
they will continue in their evil and they will impute this power,
their power to succeed in triumphing over Israel and taking Judah
into captivity to a dead stop they call God. And so I have
ordered it. Habakkuk in many ways lived in
a day very much like our own. He and his people, his physical
nation, the nation of Israel, his church, that is the nation
of Israel, the land of Judah and Jerusalem, faced political,
moral, and spiritual darkness such as could not be described
in any way as to justly describe it, just as we do. The Lord God
revealed to his prophet that they were going to face even
greater trouble. He said, you haven't seen anything
yet. When I send the Chaldeans upon
you, their horses will be swifter than leopards. They'll fly like
eagles. They'll be mightier than the
wildest of beasts. He's speaking allegorically to
make Habakkuk understand and make the people to whom this
word is given understand that these men come with might that
only God can give them to destroy the people who are called by
God's own name, to destroy this nation, take them into captivity.
He lived in a world that seemed to be out of control, a world
where there seemed to be no justice. Like us, Habakkuk had to struggle
with the apparent inconsistency between what he knew the character
of God to be, both as it is revealed in the Word of God and as he
knew his God to be. He knew God to be good and gracious,
merciful and kind, just, yes, severe, yes, but good and gracious. He understood that. But everything
around him, reveals and appears to reveal nothing but evil and
reveals nothing except that which appeared contrary to the idea
that somehow God might have something to do with the rule of this world. But Habakkuk rejoices in the
Lord his God. He concludes this small prophecy
with one of the greatest statements of faith found anywhere in the
Bible. Now everything in this Prophecy
is relevant. It's not just relevant to us.
When you read these words of this prophecy, understand, Joe
Blakely, this is God's word to you right now. This is God's word to me right
now. Oh, but Brother Don, this was
written 600 years before Christ came. It was written to me. It
was written for me. There is profit to be gained
by understanding the history and the background of these various
historic Old Testament books and the prophecies given, but
it is a terrible, terrible mistake. It is wrong to suggest at any
time that the word written was written just for people in a
day gone by or a day yet to come. This word is God's word to you
and me today. Habakkuk was contemporary of
Jeremiah. He lived and prophesied during
the time of this tremendous upheaval that took place in Judah and
in Israel. Assyria, the major world power,
had been destroyed. Now, they had already, Assyrians
had taken the northern kingdom of Israel, but they'd been destroyed.
That was about a hundred years earlier. And now the Babylonians,
the Chaldeans, were raising fierceness in all the known world. Everybody
was terrified by them. The Egyptians were rising to
world prominence again. These heathen, godless, reprobate
nations, heathen, godless, reprobate nations, they always were, they
are now, and they always shall be. They are the sons of Ishmael,
ordained of God as instruments of judgment by which he will
perform judgment and whom he will ultimately judge. They had
risen to power again and the southern kingdom of Judah was
filled with corruption and idolatry. Turn back to Jeremiah chapter
five. Listen to how Jeremiah described
this just a few years earlier. He uses the bleakest of terms
to describe the nation. Jeremiah 5 verse 26. For among
my people I found wicked men. They lie await as he that setteth
snares. They set a trap. Sound like anybody
you know? They set a trap. They're waiting
to catch somebody in some evil. Catch somebody in some way to
injure them. To catch men. As a cage is full
of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they
are become great and waxen rich. What? They attain greatness and got
rich by deceit? Why, who could imagine such a
thing? Where on earth could you ever
get an idea like that? Turn your television on. They're
wax and fat. They shine, yea, they overpass
the deeds of the wicked. These pretended good men, they
overpass the deeds of the wicked. They judge not the cause, the
cause of the fatherless. They just use them, yet they
prosper. And the right of the needy, they
judge they not. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord, shall not my
soul be offended on such a nation as this? Jeremiah declared the
guilt of this people, and he declared that God would judge
them for their wickedness. It was shortly after Jeremiah
wrote these words that a man was in the temple of God. There
was a young king by the name of Josiah, a young boy. Sometimes God saves young people. Not often. I'm very, very hesitant
to baptize young people and children. I'm very hesitant to do that.
I want to be careful that they're not being talked into a profession
of faith. But there was a young godly king
by the name of Josiah. He was eight years old. And he knew God. Knew God like
few of his fathers did. Like few of them did. I don't
believe God do things like that. Well, read 2 Kings 22 and 23,
find out. And while this young Josiah was
king in Israel, there was a man in the house
of God who was going about cleaning up the temple. It had been laid
empty for years. Nobody worshipped in there. They
worshipped on the hillside with this altar and that, wherever
they found a stump or a stone they could call God. Nobody bothered
to go down and worship in God's house. But there was a man named
Hilkiah, one of God's priests, cleaning out God's house, and
he came across something he hadn't seen in years. He came across the Word of God,
the book of God's law. And he busted off, he opened
it up, He called his buddy, Shaphan, the scribe. He said, Shaphan,
come here. Let me show you what I found. Shaphan said, oh, that's
God's word. Yokai said, take it to the king.
The king said, you go inquire of the Lord what all this means.
And they came back and gave him the word of God and its meaning. And that young king destroyed
the idols, and destroyed those who worshipped at the stumps
of idols, and destroyed the altars of the idols, and re-established
the worship of God in the house of God. Men came to God's altar,
worshipping in God's way. And there was a tremendous time
of reform throughout the land of Judah. A time of revival. Some real
revival, I'm sure. But much that was just outward. Because you see, men are easily
guided, governed, and restrained by strong men for good or for
evil. But as soon as Josiah was gone,
as soon as God took Josiah to glory, another king reigned in
his stead by the name of Jehoiakim. And this wicked king let loose
the reins again. And so deep, so deeply seated,
so natural is the horrible idolatry of humanity, of all human beings. So natural is the love of evil
in the heart of men, that though it was restrained and governed
during the days of Josiah under his strong hand and strong guidance,
under the days of Jehoiakim, all the corruption burst forth
as though it had never been stemmed at all under the reign of Josiah. Idolatry again prevails, and
all the wickedness that idolatry always spawns. and wickedness
and idolatry always go together. Find me false religion, be it
named by any name, wherever it is prominent, and I will show
you wickedness prevailing among families and among nations everywhere,
everywhere. And so the revival that took
place turns to nothing. that outward revival. The reform
that took place, that outward reform, turns to nothing. And
this is where Habakkuk is raised up by God. He's raised up by
God to carry God's message to his people. Habakkuk's prophecy,
however, is different from every other prophecy given in the Old
Testament. It's different from all the other
prophets because Habakkuk's prophecy is all together taken up with
a conversation between God's prophet and God. There's not
a word spoken in this book that was not either a word spoken
directly by Habakkuk to God or by God to Habakkuk. Can it be? that God has given
us this word to make us hear how we ought to speak to God
and hear how God will speak to us. Hear how our hearts ought
to cry out to God and hear how God answers his people when they
cry to him. All right, in verses one through
four, the prophecy opens with a cry of anguish. Habakkuk knew that God was determined
to punish the nation for its wickedness and idolatry. Yet the punishment and the hope
for cleansing that that revival and that punishment would bring,
the renewal and the revival that he hoped it would bring, had
not come. So Habakkuk cries out to God.
The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see, O Lord, How
long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? He didn't just go and
offer prayer to God and quit. He cried and cried and cried
brokenhearted before God. How long shall I cry, and thou
wilt not hear? Even cry out unto thee of violence,
and thou wilt not save. Why dost thou show me iniquity,
and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are
before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention.
Therefore the law is slacked. Judgment doth never go forth,
for the wicked doth compass about the righteous. Therefore wrong
judgment proceedeth. What we have before us here is
the prayer of a man who cries to God with importunity. And yet his importunate cries. Do you remember how our Lord
teaches us about the man who was heard not because he had
a friend, had a need, but for his importunity? for his importunity
because he just wouldn't let the fellow alone. He got up and
answered and gave him what he wanted. But here's a man crying
to God with importunity, pleading, God, I've got to have you. God, we desperately need you.
And God gives no answer. Repeated cries, repeated silence. The violence continued. There
was no intervention by God. There was no deliverance of his
people, no salvation. The heavens were brass and God
was silent. The prayer we just read is the
prayer of a man with pain in his heart, heaviness in his soul. Pain and heaviness not for himself,
but for the people for whom he labored. Pain and heaviness not
for himself, but pain and heaviness for the nation in which he was
born, a devoted man, a true citizen of the land. Habakkuk was in
sorrow. His heart was heavy. His soul
was pained by the evil, the violence, the idolatry around him. He must
have been like a lot, a lot down in Sodom. We're told he vexed
his righteous soul from day to day. That righteous man, that
man made righteous by Christ just as you and I are. That man
washed in the blood of Christ just like we are. That man justified
by God's grace just like we are. He vexed his soul every day with
the wicked deeds of the Sodomites. not just their homosexual perversity,
but their religious will worship that led to their perversity.
He vexed his soul. And so Habakkuk vexed his soul. In verse three, he asked the
Lord God, why do you show me iniquity? Why do I see this every
day? Every time I open the newspaper,
every time I turn on the radio, I just want to listen to the
weather and I've got to see the iniquity. Why do you make me
to behold grievance, shameless cruelty, oppression, abuse? Why do you cause me to see spoiling
and violence before me all the time? Strife and contention are
everywhere. Habakkuk was not a indifferent
bystander, he's involved with what's going on. He saw Judah
backslidden. The nation had turned from God. The elect people, these whom
God had brought out of Egypt, these to whom alone God had revealed
himself. These to whom alone God had sent
his prophets. These to whom alone God had made
his covenant. They'd forsaken God and they'd
turned to idols. And Habakkuk wants to know, God,
how can you tolerate this? How can you tolerate this? Why are things like this? Can God still live and things
be as they are now? This covenant keeping God whose
name is faithful and true. Is it possible that God has abdicated
his throne? Why do you make me look at all
this, all this destruction and violence? And then in verse four,
The prophet makes an acknowledgment. He says, therefore, the law is
slack. Ron, I'm certain. I'm just certain. Habakkuk has in mind the very
book of the law Hilkiah found and had read before Josiah. And
he says the law is slack. That word slack. Strong word. It means frozen. The law is frozen. It means paralyzed. Without influence. Here we've
got your word. We've got your word. Let's bring this down to where
the rubber meets the road, in this nation. In this nation alone. as in no nation under the sun.
You can go to state buildings and federal buildings throughout
the nation. You can go to hospitals and schools,
colleges and universities, secular and private, public and private,
throughout the nation. And you'll find this book posted
everywhere. Everywhere. Every time I go to
Central Baptist Hospital, I see scripture references everywhere.
On every floor as you get off the elevator, some comment. Some
comment taken from the book. Now for the most part, they're
doing some renovation over there now, but for the most part, letters
are missing and words are missing because nobody pays any attention
to it. But the references are there. I go over to the St. Joe Hospital, the Catholic Hospital,
you know what they've got? Same thing. Very same thing,
only they got little, you know, plus signs and Jesus on a stick,
that kind of nonsense. They got stuff over there. But
it's all the same stuff. All the same stuff. Take a dollar
bill out of your pocket. Take a penny out of your pocket.
The Word of God's everywhere. Everywhere, people sing it, they
quote it, they fight over it. I'm talking about take up arms
and fight over it. But if we're ready to get you,
we'll take the commandments off the wall of our courthouse. No
siree, we won't tolerate that. And Habakkuk says, God, your
word is paralyzed in our land. It's frozen. It's frozen. It has no influence. No influence,
not even among the people who carry it publicly under their
arms all the time. No influence. It makes no difference.
It makes no difference. Oh, what a word. Oh, my God. The gospel we believe and preach
is frozen. Goes begging for a hearing. And only you can give it power.
Only you can change that. Turn to the book of Daniel. Daniel
chapter 9. Verse 16, we'll pick up right
in the middle of this prayer and this confession. Daniel 9,
16, O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness I beseech Thee,
not mine, I don't have any. Let Thine anger and Thy fury
be turned away from Thy city, Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain,
because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers,
Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach, and all that
are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear
the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause
thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate. For the Lord's
sake, O my God, incline thine ear, and hear, open thine eyes,
and behold our desolations. and the city which is called
by thy name, for we do not present our supplications before thee
for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. Oh, Lord,
hear. Oh, Lord, forgive. Oh, Lord,
hearken and do. Defer not for thine own sake.
Oh, my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy
name." And while I was speaking, and praying and confessing my
sin, and the sin of my people Israel,
and presenting my supplications before the Lord my God for the
holy mountain of my God. Yea, while I was speaking in
prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision
in the beginning being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about
the time of the evening oblation, about the time of the evening
sacrifice. And he informed me and talked with me and said,
O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplication,
the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee, for thou
art greatly beloved, therefore understand the matter and consider
the vision. God will save his people. God
will stretch out his arm. God will perform this wondrous
thing. 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon the
holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end to sins and
to make reconciliation for the iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal up the vision in the prophecy and to
anoint the most holy. He said in 70 weeks. In 70 years,
70 weeks of years, the Lord God will send His Son and He will
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself and He'll fill up
every prophecy given in this Word. He'll fulfill it all. He'll
bring in everlasting righteousness and the salvation of my people.
Not this physical seed, but my people, the Israel of God, shall
be accomplished everywhere. Habakkuk knew were to take his
complaints and even his doubts. He didn't go to a counselor or
to another preacher or to some head shrink. He didn't even go
to a friend. He went to God. God give us grace
to do the same. All right, look at verse 5. Here God gives an answer to his
prophet. Behold, yea, among the heathen and regard and wonder
marvelously. For I will work a work in your
days which ye will not believe, though it be told you." Now I
remind you, as I mentioned to you a couple of weeks ago, the
only place in the scripture where this reference is given again
is in Acts chapter 13, verse 41. The Spirit of God makes us
thereby to understand clearly. that this is a prophecy of the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the accomplishment of redemption
by him. It's standing right here in the
middle of this word of judgment. And the key to understanding
what God says to Habakkuk is to understand that verse 5 is
talking about the sure declaration from God Himself that He will
save His people. And it's talking about the coming
of Christ, the incarnation of Christ, the accomplishment of
redemption by Christ, and you can read it for yourself in Paul's
sermon in Acts chapter 13. Turn back to Isaiah chapter 54. This is talking about the salvation
of God's elect. the true Israel of God scattered
through all the earth. I can't repeat it often enough
in this day when people foolishly imagine that somehow there's
something yet unfulfilled that God promised those Jews over
in Palestine. Read the book of Joshua chapter 23 where Joshua
says plainly that every word of promise God gave to Israel
he had fulfilled in his day, every word. That's exactly what
the book says. Well, but there are some promises
not fulfilled. Joshua said otherwise, writing
by divine inspiration. Israel as a nation and this whole
history of Israel only typified, they only pictured God's Israel,
God's church, God's holy nation scattered among the nations.
the salvation accomplished, that God would accomplish, prophesied
here in Habakkuk 1.5, is that which is the sure result of Christ's
substitutionary death as our substitute at Calvary. That's
described in Isaiah 52, verse 13, down through chapter 53 and
verse 12. Now let's pick up in Isaiah chapter
54. Isaiah 54. Sing, O barren, Thou that didst not bear. Break
forth into singing and cry aloud. Thou that didst not travail with
child. For more are the children of
the desolate than the children of the married wife. He's talking
about the salvation of God's elect among the nations. Saith
the Lord, enlarge the place of thy tent. Let them stretch forth
the curtains of thy inhabitation. Spare not, lengthen thy cords,
strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on
the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the
Gentiles and make desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for
thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded, for thou
shalt not be put to shame, for thou shalt forget the shame of
thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood
anymore, for thy maker is thy husband. and the Lord of hosts
is his name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God
of the whole earth, shall he be called. This is God's marvelous
work. This work that God is sure to
accomplish by the sacrifice of his son and by the sacrifice
of the nations. How is it going to be accomplished?
The Lord God says, I'm going to send the Chaldeans, that wicked
people, to destroy Judah and Jerusalem. And when they have
done that, they will turn and worship that stump they call
God. Look what my God's done for me.
While you know the Lord's with us, look what we've got. You know the Lord's with us?
Look what power we have. You know the Lord's with us?
Who's listening to you? Who's paying any attention to
you? God's got to be with us! And they'll bow down to their
stump. The Lord says in verse 6, I raise up the Chaldeans. The only reason they exist is
because I raised them up. The only reason they exist is
I raised them up to take Israel into captivity for 70 years. The only reason they exist. The only reason I raised them
up. The whole nation exists so I
could bring Israel into captivity. God told Habakkuk to look at
the nation surrounding Judah and be amazed, shocked, and shudder. This is the way of God. Let me show you three texts of
scripture. Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. Hold your hands there and then
turn to Isaiah 43. Why did God send blindness to
Israel? Why did He cast off that political
nation? Why are they so enwrapped in their religious traditions
to this day that they're just blind and can't see? Blind and
can't see. That's what it means to be blind,
you know, can't see. They're spiritually blind. God's put
a thick veil over their eyes and they can't see. Why? Romans
11, 25. I would not, brethren, that you
should be ignorant of this mystery. Lest ye should be wise in your
own conceits, that blindness in part has happened to Israel."
Not all of them. Not all of them. I just visited
with some friends in New Jersey last week. God saved them years
ago. I was listening to messages on
the radio. Brother Jerry Salzberg, a Jewish
fellow, a believer. I have no fear. Not all of them
are blinded. God's called some of them. But
blindness in part, for the greater part, happened to Israel. Until,
until what? The fullness of the Gentiles
become in. That is, until God saved all
of his elect, scattered among all the nations of the earth.
And so, and so, when this is done, When all the fullness of
the Gentiles, when all God's elect out of all the nations
of the earth, every sinner chosen of God, redeemed by God, called
by God has been brought out. Then all Israel shall be saved. All Israel, not just the ones
who were born of Abraham's physical seed, but all Israel, those who
were born from Ishmael too. All Israel, those who came out
of Esau too, all Israel, those who were born of the Amorites
and the Hittites, all Israel shall be saved. And God hinted
at this throughout the Old Testament. You remember Ruth the Moabitess?
You remember Solomon's, I mean Lot's, I'll get his name right
in a minute. Yeah, Lot's daughters. Remember
Lot's daughters? Amorite, Hittite, through whom
God preserved a people chosen to himself among a heathen people
who were a cursed race. And so all Israel shall be saved. For it is written, it is written,
there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer and shall turn
away ungodliness from Jacob. The Lord Jesus comes out of Zion,
this physical seed, and turned away ungodliness from the sons
of Jacob. Hold your hands here and turn
back to Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not,
for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
and thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou
shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. Now watch this. I gave Egypt
for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Cebu for thee. Since thou wast
precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved
thee. Therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy
life. Fear not! For I am with thee,
and I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from
the west, and will say to the north, give up, and to the south,
keep not that. Bring my sons from far, and my
daughters from the ends of the earth. Here is light for dark,
dark days. The Lord God Almighty is saying
to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west,
bring my sons and daughters to me. And all creation is ordered
of God to fetch God's mithibosheths to himself. Learn this, children
of God. The Lord God often answers prayer
in the way that we least suspect, and often in a way we wish he
wouldn't at the time. Habakkuk's praying and crying
to God, and God answers him not. John Newton was once going through
a time of great spiritual declension in his soul, and he begged God
Help him. He began to even question whether
he knew God at all or not. This man who wrote Amazing Grace,
how sweet the sound to say to wretch like me. He nearly lost
his mind with fear. And when it was over and God
spoke to him again, Newton wrote this great hymn. I asked the
Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace. Might
more of his salvation know and seek more earnestly his face.
It was he who taught me thus to pray and he I trust has answered
prayer but it has been in such a way as almost drove me to despair. I hoped that in some favored
hour at once He had answered my request and by his love's
constraining power subdued my sins and give me rest. Instead
of this, he made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and
let the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Yea, more with his own hand,
he seemed, intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all the fair
designs I schemed, blasted my gourds and laid me low. Lord,
why is this? I trembled, trembling cried. Will thou pursue thy worm to
death? Tis in this way, the Lord replied.
I answer prayer for grace and faith. these inward trials I
employ, from self and pride to set thee free and break thy schemes
of earthly joy, that thou may seek thine all in me." When God brings you into darkness,
Let me give you four acres that I hope will help to steady your
boat in the midst of the storm. Understand this, whatever it is, I'm here by God's appointment. This is what my Heavenly Father
has appointed for me. Number two, I'm here in God's
keeping. I'm in His grip, in the grip
of His mercy, love, and grace. Nothing can harm me. Number three, I'm here in God's training to be taught of
God. He brought this to pass to teach
me something. Lord, open my heart and open my eyes and open my
ears and teach me. Number four, I'm here for God's
time. Soon, He'll bring me out. He who created the darkness will
again create light. He who made the evil will again
make peace. He who brought me down will soon
lift me up. He who brought the pain will
soon bring the balm. He who hurt will heal. He who imprisoned will set me
free. He who abased will lift me up. This God we will worship, for
of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be
glory forever. Amen.