We are in the book of Habakkuk,
Habakkuk chapter three. I told some of you this morning
already, go to Matthew and turn back 12 pages and you'll find
it. It's one of the minor prophets, three chapters, but the gospel
is predominant in Habakkuk chapter three, in chapter two and in
chapter one. I'm so thankful that the Lord
has chosen to allow us to see his face in every book that we've
been through thus far. I was talking to Bobby and I
believe we only have four books of the Old Testament remaining
and we're out of the Old Testament. So the Lord's been merciful to
let us see his face. I pray he'll do that right now
as well. Habakkuk chapter three. Habakkuk saw judgment. He saw the Lord's judgment. He's
had the vision of the Lord's judgment, the Lord's wrath. And
he cries out in chapter one. He asked the Lord a question.
And he says, how long shall I cry and thou will not hear? Now we've
heard the first hour and I would just reiterate for a brief moment
that the Lord answers in his time. All time is God's time
created for God's glory. Every second that ticks is the
second that the Lord purposed for it to be there. What a glorious
thought to think about the Lord creating time. Have we ever entered
into that? He created time. It didn't exist. God made it. Why? So that he could redeem
a people. he could save people, his people,
from their sin. So all time is the Lord's and
he's going to answer in his time. Well, chapter two starts out
by saying, Habakkuk says, I'm going to sit, I'm going to watch,
and I'm going to listen, and I'm going to prepare for the
reproof of the Lord. That word reproof means correction,
rebuke, and chastisement. I found that interesting that
he's literally saying, I'm going to ask this question to the Lord.
And now I'm going to sit down and shut my mouth and I'm going
to wait because he's going to rebuke me. I know I'm wrong.
I know I'm thinking wrong and this and that. So I know it's
coming. So I'm going to, what did the Lord tell Job? He said,
gird up thy loins as a man does, Job. Where were you when I laid
the foundations of the world? Job was complaining, wasn't he?
And he shut up after that. He said, I'm going to put my
hands over my mouth and I'm not going to talk anymore. I'm vile. Behold, I'm
vile. Habakkuk knew whatever the Lord's
answer was going to be, was going to be for chastisement. And that's
not what we may think it is. I looked up chastisement and
it's not beating your children with a rod. It's, it's correction
and it's, uh, it's teaching, teaching and, uh, being taught
of the Lord is what the Lord does to his people by his spirit.
And so we need that chastisement. We need that correction. Sometimes
we need to be rebuked, don't we? And how does the Lord do
all of those things? Preaching of his gospel. That's how he
does it. Habakkuk desired the truth of the Lord. And you and
I both know sometimes the truth hurts. The truth hurts when we
hear it. The truth will strip us of any,
well, that's just what I just said. Job thought he had it figured
out and had to put his hands over his mouth when he heard
the truth. That's what it does is it shuts us up, doesn't it? That's
what the truth does. We don't have any reply against
it. We're made to know it and we're made to rejoice in the
truth. It definitely does hurt this old flesh though. The flesh
hates the truth. I'm thankful the Lord said, ye
shall. His people, ye shall hear the truth. You will know the
truth and the truth shall make you free. So God answers Habakkuk in the
only way that he answers anyone and it's in truth. God only speaks
when we shut up. Did you know that? God only speaks
when we shut up. It's impossible to learn something
when you're speaking. It's just a fact. You have to
be quiet. And did you know, we don't have
the ability to shut up, but God shuts us up. And he shuts us
up physically causing our mouth to close, thinking that we had
a righteousness, but he also shuts us up to the Lord Jesus
Christ as all, doesn't he? The Lord shuts up his people
both ways. We have no more confession other than Christ is all. Christ
is all. And the Lord always strips his
people of their righteousness. He shows us that wrath is deserved. That's what he revealed to Habakkuk.
Here's the wrath and you deserve it. And Habakkuk says something
unto the Lord in this prayer or this song that he writes in
chapter three that we're going to look at this morning. And
he says, Lord in wrath, remember mercy. In wrath, remember mercy. And that's what I've titled the
message. Whenever he showed Habakkuk that he deserved wrath, it caused
fear for Habakkuk, causing him to be afraid. Well, what did
God speak? What did he reveal? He gave repentance, didn't he?
Whenever we see ourself as the sinner, then looking upon God,
the Father, looking upon his holiness in our mind, it's terrifying,
isn't it? It's fearful. I need a substitute. I can't
stand before your presence. I can't come unto you and worship
you as you demand me to. I can't. It's impossible. I'm
dead. That's what Habakkuk saw. Habakkuk was afraid, fearful.
Lord, give him repentance. He says, Lord, revive thy work. Our only hope It's his salvation,
no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. If
there's one thing from self that we are looking to for our salvation,
we're lost. I mean, one thing, if there is one little tiny thing
that we are looking to for our salvation in ourself, we're lost. We're lost. That's why David
prayed, created me a clean heart, oh Lord, renewing me a right
spirit. Solomon echoed this by saying, for the Lord giveth wisdom.
Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He's the one
that gives the new heart. He's the one that's going to have
to do it. The Lord gives understanding. The Lord gives righteousness.
The Lord gives judgment. The Lord gives equity. It all
comes from him. We can't earn it. We can't get
to it. We can't understand it. He gives
it to his people. You must do it, Lord. I thought
I was just blind and lame and deaf. I found out I was completely
dead. In religion, men will say, yeah. I was blind, I was lame,
I was deaf, they'll agree with you, but no, we were dead in
trespasses and in sin, weren't we? And you hath he quickened,
the scripture says, you, his people hath he quickened, made
alive. We're no longer dead. We have a heartbeat now. It's
the heartbeat of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that glorious?
He gives us his heart and faith that looks into him. Well, this is what Habakkuk is
writing about in chapter three, and I want to read chapter three,
verses one through seven, a prayer. of Habakkuk, the prophet, upon
Shigenoth. Now, there's controversy on what
Shigenoth means, but everyone that I was going to, to try to
understand what the word means is, this is a song, and it was
probably the name of the instrument he was playing. On the very last
verse, in verse 19, the last word says to the chief singer,
on my stringed instrument. And that word is Neganoth, so
we know that it was something to do with that. So why did I
say all that? Because sometimes words in the scripture are hidden. I don't know what it means exactly,
but I understand that this is a prayer that's being composed
into a song. And this is what he says, Oh
Lord, I have heard thy speech and I was afraid. I was afraid. Oh Lord, revive thy work in the
midst of the years, in the midst of the years, make known in wrath,
remember. mercy. God came from Teman and
the Holy One from Mount Paran. Now that word Selah, this is
the only other book that has that in it other than First Kings,
but it was a city in First Kings. The other book that we find this
word in, Selah, is Psalm. David wrote that many times because
Psalm, that's what they were, that's what they are, is hymns.
And so this is a pause. And most of the time, whenever
we see that, we don't read that word. We just see it and we know
that we're supposed to pause there. Think about that. That's
what he's saying. Think about what he just said.
Take the time to notice what he just said. In wrath, remember
mercy. God came from Timan and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
Then he says, his glory covered the heavens, and the earth was
full of his praise. And his brightness was as the
light, and he had horns coming out of his hand, and there was
the hiding. There was the hiding of his power. Before him went the pestilence,
and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood and measured
the earth, and beheld and drove asunder the nations, and the
everlasting mountains were scattered. The perpetual hills did bow.
His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Cushan in
affliction, and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. I've already told you the title,
but I want to tell it to you again, In Wrath Remember Mercy. Habakkuk hearing of the wrath
of the Lord, his eyes were turned to one thing needful, mercy. Whenever we see ourself, not
just as a sinner, not just as having committed trespass, not
as seeing that we have committed iniquity, but when we see ourself
as the chief sinner, the chief of all sinner, the worst of the
worst of the worst, we will cry out for mercy. And that was Habakkuk's
need. In wrath, remember mercy. Make
it known unto me that in wrath, you're going to remember mercy.
This is what his prayer is. This is what his His song unto
the Lord is. In verse two, it says, I have
heard thy speech and was afraid. Now, every time that a man or
woman sees God and God only reveals himself to his people, God does
not give a false revelation. It is either that we see ourself
as the center and we see him as the savior that successfully
redeemed, or we don't see him at all. That's how it is. Either
we're lost and we can't see him, or we've been born again by his
purpose, by his repentance and faith. And we look to Christ
as all in salvation. But in seeing him, we have the
same reaction, the same response, the same understanding. We're
afraid. We become fearful. In the book
of Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah previously had been murmuring.
He had been complaining about the children of Israel. He said,
Lord, they're doing this. Lord, they're doing that. Lord,
they're not listening. Lord, they're not taking worship
seriously. They're not this, they're not that. And he was
complaining, complaining to the Lord. How often do we complain
about our circumstances or about things that are going on around
us? I'm guilty of that myself. Guilty of thinking too highly
of myself. And all of us are. All of us are by nature. Our
flesh loves ourself. We're a number one. I've given
the example of the temperature before. Nobody's worried about
whether the person way back behind them is warm or cold. They're
worried about their self. That's how we are by nature. And Isaiah
was worried and upset about himself. He's worried and upset about
himself. And what does the Lord tell us
happened? Isaiah said, well, in the year
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated and I saw him high and
lifted up and his train filled the temple. And the scripture
tells us that he said, woe is me, not woe is them anymore. That's what he was saying before.
But when he saw God, he said, woe is me. I am a man of unclean
lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, but I am the
man of unclean lips. Whenever Nathan came to David,
we heard Wednesday, he said, David, you're the man. David
said, I have sinned against the Lord. He saw God. And in seeing
the Lord, that's called repentance. In seeing the Lord, he gives
faith immediately. And we see Christ as well as
the substitute. Angel of the Lord had to take
a coal from off the altar, didn't he? And put it upon his lips.
He had to cleanse. That represents the fiery wrath
of God that was poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ for his
people. That represents the cleansing, the atonement that took place.
Now what do we say? Now we speak plainly, don't we?
We don't have that gibberish talk anymore of self-righteousness
or pity on ourself. Now we say Christ is all. That's
plain speaking, isn't it? That's plain speaking, as he
says here in Habakkuk chapter two. Habakkuk, seeing God, seeing
the Lord, and it always causes the same thing, a confession
of what we are and who God is. an acknowledgement of our sin,
an acknowledgement of needing mercy. Lord, if I'm going to
be saved, it's going to have to be by grace and mercy alone,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, the scripture
tells us, but according to what? His mercy, according to his mercy. This is what Habakkuk's crying
out for, his mercy. It's only by mercy that the Lord
reveals this to begin with, to see God is salvation, to see
the Lord Jesus Christ is salvation. He causes us to acknowledge that
we are the, we are the, what was me? Well, I'm undone. I'm
the guilty one. You remember the and the Pharisee,
the Pharisee was in the temple and he was praying unto the Lord
and he said, Lord, I thank Thee that I'm not like this so-and-so
person or this and that person. I tithe, I fast weekly, I pray
often, I'm the man, I do everything just right. I mean, he was really
bragging on himself, wasn't he? But what about the other man
in the back? The one that said, have mercy on me, the sinner. Not a sinner, the sinner. Lord, I am the sinner. What was he doing when he said
that? He was beating upon his chest, wasn't he? What part of
his chest do you think he was beating upon? It was the heart,
wasn't it? Lord, I have a heart problem. Have mercy upon me.
I need a new heart. This one's broken. It's dead. It's not honoring to you. It's
wicked and deceitful of all things. I need a new heart. The Lord
said, which one of these men do you think went home justified?
It was the sinner, wasn't it? See, the Lord came to save sinners.
That's the good news of the gospel. The Lord came to save sinners.
Paul said, of whom I am chief. And this is what he does in revealing
himself as he calls us to see we are the sinner and we need
the Savior, the Savior. Now I want us to notice in verse
two Habakkuk says, the Lord answered me and said, write the vision.
Oh, I'm in the wrong. So chapter three, verse two,
Oh Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid. Oh Lord, revive
thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years,
make known in wrath, remember mercy. He says, Lord, you're
going to have to revive your work. I can't revive it. I can't
make you do anything. I can't do anything for myself
and I certainly can't make God do anything. That's what Habakkuk
is saying. Revive thy work. You're going to have to revive
it. You're gonna have to give me a new heart. You're gonna
have to make me alive. That's what the word revive means, is to bring to
life. And then he says something I found interesting. He says,
in the midst of thy years. In the midst of years. Do you
know what that translates also? The inward parts. That's literally
the translation of it. The inward parts. What is he
saying? Lord, I have heard thy speech
and was afraid. Oh Lord, revive thy work in the inward parts. In the midst of the inward parts,
make known that in wrath, You're going to remember mercy. You're
going to have to make it known to me deep down. I don't need
just a head knowledge. I don't need to come to an understanding.
I need Christ. I need Christ. I am the sinner
that I hope Christ came to save. That's what Habakkuk's crying
out for. That's what the Lord's people
cry out for. Lord, you're going to have to do all the saving.
Lord, you're going to have to show that you remember mercy. by the covenant of grace that
you successfully fulfilled on the cross of Calvary, that you
have mercy for me. Show me that your mercies are
everlasting. I don't see anything in me. That's good. You're going
to have to do all the saving. You're going to have to do it
all. And he did. We cry out, do not pass me by.
We, we sung, uh, there's a song I meant to sing it this morning,
but it literally says while on others, thou art calling, do
not pass me by. That's the prayer. Every time we come to service,
every time we're. I mean, every day, Lord, if you pass me by,
I can't get to you. Reminded of blind Bartimaeus,
he knew Christ was passing by. He was told Christ is passing
by. They said, here comes Jesus of
Nazareth. Well, he didn't know which direction
to go. He just knew how to cry out. And that is so us, isn't
it? We don't know how to get to God.
We don't know how to, we couldn't give him our heart if we, if
we, Even if we wanted to, how are you going to give God your
heart? It doesn't make sense, does it? What do we do? We cry
out, Lord, have mercy. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy upon me. I'm blind. I can't get to you.
You're going to have to come to me. Don't pass me by. Lord,
if you pass me by, I have no hope. You have to come to where
I'm at. Lord, come right to where I'm
at. I'm dead. I can't move. And I need I need to be revived. My inward parts needs to be Revived,
have mercy on me, the sinner. Do the work in the inward parts
as only you can. In wrath, remember mercy. Turn with me to Lamentations
chapter three. It's right after the book of Jeremiah. This is
Jeremiah praying, lamenting, grieving after he had saw the
people, the absence of the Lord, how the judgment had come. We
went over this before, weeks before, but just as a reminder. Look in verse 21 of chapter three. This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. It is the Lord's mercy. It is
of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. There's reason
to hope, isn't it? We're not consumed for one reason,
the Lord's mercy. Because his compassions fail
not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness, not
my faithfulness, thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. All our hope All our hope in
these verses is the Lord's mercies, the Lord's mercies that are renewed
every morning. His compassions fell not. You
ever thought of the precious thought of the Lord having compassion?
You've seen him have compassion upon the multitude. They were
physically hungry. And he took the five loaves and two fishes
and he broke them and all of them got to eat. And that's a
picture of the Lord has to do all the work if we're going to
be fed. He really has compassion upon his people. He knows what
needs you have. He knows what, what desires you
have. And the Lord has compassion upon
his people. And he gives us the greatest
gift, the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness. I love that. He says, great is thy faithfulness.
Didn't say greatest faithfulness. Didn't say great is my faithfulness.
We know that's not true. Don't we? We know that it's not
my faithfulness. We know that's the truth, isn't
it? Great is thy faithfulness. There's my hope. Not that I'm
faithful to him, but he's faithful in redeeming. He was faithful
in redeeming his people and honoring his father. He is faithful and
our only hope. I go back to Habakkuk chapter
three. Notice verse two again. Oh Lord, I have heard thy speech
and was afraid. Oh Lord, revive thy work in the
midst of the years. In the midst of years, make known
in wrath, remember mercy. In the inward parts, make known
that in wrath, you remember mercy. In the inward parts, make known
that you delight in showing mercy. I've got to know it. I've got
to know that this mercy is for me. I've got to know that in
all this wrath that's going to come, you're going to remember
mercy. Not because of what I have done,
not because of what I'm doing, not because of what I'm going
to do, but because of what Christ did. That's what we must know,
isn't it? I must know that this mercy is
for me. I must know that he's going to remember when the day
comes of wrath upon this world, he's going to remember the covenant
of grace that was in, that was accomplished by the Lord Jesus
Christ and not leave me utterly, utterly to myself. I must have
this mercy. I must have this mercy. Now, verse three tells us God
came from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Now, Teman
is in the south, the land of Esau, not the Jew, not the people
of promise, not the people of the covenant. It was Jacob's
brother. Jacob, have I loved Esau, have
I hated? He came from the land of Esau, is what he's saying,
up from the south. And then he says, from Paran, which is the
place of the caverns. It's the wilderness. It's literally
all the stops that the children of Israel took, they made when
they left Egypt, during the time they were in the wilderness,
during their exodus. That's what the book of Exodus is all, it
means exit. When they exited Egypt, this is where they would
pitch their tents. This is where they would camp. This is where
they would stop. is in Paran. What is the Lord telling us here?
He's saying, my mercy, by my mercy, I passed by Esau. I passed by Esau. By my mercy
and grace, I came to Jacob. I came to Israel. I led them
out of bondage through the wilderness by my hand. And they camped where
I permitted them to, where I purposed them to camp. I provided everything
they needed. Their shoes never wore out. I
fed them manna from heaven every day. I gave them quail because
they complained. I gave them water out of a rock.
How are you going to get water out of a rock? God did. God did
it. Everything needed, I provided
for them, for my people. I passed by Esau and I came to
Jacob, not because of Jacob, but for my glory, for my honor. This is what he's telling us
here. This is what this is a picture of. I led them all the way to
the promised land. Oh, what mercy there is in God
not passing by Jacob. By all accounts, he should have,
as far as you and I are concerned. I mean, there's nothing in Jacob
that was merited in salvation or the promise of the coming
Savior. There was nothing in Jacob. And
that's the point. It's all by mercy and it's all
by grace. And that's what gives us hope. I'm not hopeful that
he passed by Esau. My fear is that he passed by
Esau and he'd pass by me. My hope is that he loved Jacob. came right to where Jacob was,
never left Israel once. Everything they needed to successfully
bring them to the promised land. Look at it throughout all the
Old Testament. God did it. God did it. He was the doer of
it. They didn't know which way to
go at night time, so he gave them a pillar of fire to follow. And in the
daytime, it was a cloud. The Lord said, you're gonna go
this way. And he led them, didn't he? He led them all the way to
the promised land. He gave them all the grace and
all the mercy that they needed to get them there. Did you know
he does the same thing for his people now? Yes, our shoes may
wear out, but when it comes to spiritual things, it never grows
old, does it? It's renewed every morning. This
mercy of the Lord, this good news is new, made fresh every
morning. It's everlasting. God chose to love, Jacob. I chose to love Jacob. That's
amazing to me. He did it by his grace for his
own glory. Lord, please, I chose to love me. Lord, he asked Peter,
Peter, do you love me? He said, Peter said, my love
doesn't have anything to do with it. I mean, that was basically
the end confession that he was grieved. He was made to realize,
I don't think that it matters whether I love you or I don't.
I think it matters whether you love me. I know it does. Or do
you know I love you? Why do you keep asking? I don't
trust in my love. We don't trust in our love for
him, do we? We trust in his love for us. Why? It's an everlasting
love. It can't be thwarted. It can't
be threatened. It can't be challenged. It can't be changed. His love's
perfect. His love's pure. His love's forever
and ever. His love's now and his love's
now and his love is always. He loved Jacob and he loves his
people. He loves people. What does his love do? It saved
his people. Because of Christ's love, we
read in the men's study this morning, the love that he had
for his father, he redeemed his people. He redeemed his people. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners. He condescended and became a
man in love, in love to his father, for his people, his glory. overshadows us just
as it did the children of Israel throughout the wilderness. They
saw, can you imagine waking up every day and seeing manna that
fell from heaven and still not believe God? Well, think about
what all he's done for you and I. We have the full volume of
the book knowing that it is finished and yet we still waver and wonder. We're just like the children
of Israel. We can't say that we're any better than they are.
We're not. We're just like them. We grow complacent and frustrated.
Won't things done our way? What does the Lord do? He reveals
himself again, doesn't he? Time and time again, in mercy,
he reveals his face and we cry out, Lord, have mercy on me,
the sinner. I was wrong again. I was wrong. Actually, that's
our, we should just wake up every morning. Lord, I'm, I'm wrong.
I don't know what I'm going to do all day, but I know it's wrong.
And your truth, your truth, Lord, you're right. I'm wrong. Whatever
it is, whatever it is. Reminded, I mentioned Uzziah
a little bit earlier. When King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord
high and lifted up. He said his train filled the
temple. And that's the glory of the Lord is the train. You
have a couple of different examples I can give you would be, think
about a bride that's entering into the room to be wed. Think
about the train that she has, how big it is. It draws attention
to her. It's part of her glory, right?
Well, back in Bible times when a king would conquer another
king, he would add another, whatever that man's train was, he would
add it to his. And so whenever the king would enter, he said,
I'll rise and everybody would rise up. The king walks in, his
train would be however long, however many men he'd conquered.
Well, the Lord's train filled the entire temple. There's no
other room for any more glory, but his glory. And the most beautiful
picture in that glory is that that's our hiding place. It's
right underneath his glory. It's right underneath the shadow
of his wing where his train feels everything. That's the only place
we can be in the temple. That's the only place we can
be in the presence of God is under the shadow of his wing,
under his glory, under that train. This is what Habakkuk is recognizing. This is what he's confessing.
Lord, if you don't remember mercy and wrath, I'm doomed. I'm doomed. But in wrath, make it known in
the inward parts. In wrath, remember mercy. Habakkuk describes the brightness
of the Lord. And I'm reminded that the Lord
is the bright and the morning star. That's His, there's nothing
to be compared to His glory, glory that's in that temple.
Christ said, then spake Jesus again unto them saying, I am
the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life. Christ Jesus worked
all things pleasing to the Father as the light that shine forth
into your and I's heart, and what does that light reveal?
It's twofold, isn't it? Word of God is twofold. Reveals
sin and reveals the Savior. That's what the light does. The
light shows us we are sin, but it shows us Christ is the Redeemer,
Christ is the Savior. That's what we are made to need,
is Him. He worked all things pleasing
to His Father. And Habakkuk tells us a little
bit of how he did that in verse four. His brightness was as the light. He had horns coming out of his
hand. There was the hiding of his power. There was the hiding of his power.
This hiding of his power literally means the concealment, the covering,
or the hiding place. Just as I'd mentioned, the train
covering us in the temple, that's where we hide, or the shadow
of his wing. his hand by his power hath brought." I was wondering
at first why the Lord said he had horns coming out of his hand.
And then I remembered Abraham. And Abraham went up to Mount
Moriah with Isaac. He was going to offer up Isaac
unto the Lord. And upon the moment where Abraham is about to strike
Isaac, the angel of the Lord stops him and says, sees his faith and says that,
now I know that thou believest the Lord. And then what happened?
Well, they looked up and there was a ram caught in a thicket,
caught in thorns. By what part of his body? The
horns. What is that a picture of? The
Lord Jesus Christ being our Lamb, slain before the foundation of
the world, the Lamb of God was caught by his thorns on the cross
of Calvary. But it wasn't his thorns, it
was our thorns. That thorn represents, in Genesis
chapter three, that represents the sin. That represents the
curse of man. He said, thorns and thistles,
it's gonna yield unto you, Adam. You're gonna have to work by
the sweat of your face now. Thorns and thistles, it's gonna yield.
And what did they plate upon his head on the cross of Calvary?
The Lord Jesus Christ. He not bear thorns upon his head?
This is what the glory is that he's speaking of right here.
The horns that's coming out represents his strength, his power, his
work alone. That's what he's saying here.
No beauty in him. No, there is no beauty in him
to the man, to men and women that he should be desired yet
to the Lord's people. That finished work is the most
beautiful thing we've ever seen or ever heard of. Christ Jesus
has made the most beautiful to the Lord's people, the most beautiful
hope. Why? Because it's the only thing
that guarantees that in wrath, God will remember mercy for his
people. It's because Christ satisfied
the Father's justice. The Lord promises that in wrath,
I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to forsake you.
Why? Because Christ took the wrath of God from the Lord's
people. He bore their sin upon Calvary's cross, putting away
their sin by his own blood, redeeming them back to the Father. And
now, Now there is therefore no condemnation. There is no more
wrath. How can he remember mercy and wrath? Because there is no
wrath to the believer. There is no wrath to the elect
of God. It's gone. It's gone. The Lord put it away
by his own death. Satisfied the wrath. Satisfied
justice. Put away the sin. Cast it as
far as the east is from the west. Cast it into the depths of the
sea, the scripture says, never to be remembered again. Notice the end of verse four,
there was the hiding of his power. Now having knowledge of this
truth, having knowledge of this truth, a man can understand,
a man can understand five points
of Calvinism and still go to hell. A man can believe the five
points of Calvinism and still go to hell. This chauvinism is
not salvation. The five points are not salvation.
Salvation is a man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Seeing him is salvation. It's hidden. He's hidden. It's
not by our choosing. It's not by our learning. It's
not by our doing. It's not what we know. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. Salvation is the work of the
Lord by him alone. We can't alter it. We can't change
it. We can't add to or take away
from it. God settled it. God settled it. I was thinking
of the Lord taking our debt unto himself, being our sin, and I'm
sure most of us probably have been in debt at one time, or
maybe still are, and how nice it would be if somebody says,
I'm going to take that debt off of you and make it mine. I'm
going to pay it in full. A bank money, you have to make
the payments on that. Now, we're in so much debt that
we can't make a single payment on it because we're dead, and
so our debt had to be transferred to someone else. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is that one that took the debt of his people.
But he didn't just take the debt of his people. He bought the
bank. He owns the bank now. He owns everything, the world
and the fullness thereof. He purchased it by his own blood. He left no evidence that we were
ever in debt. Left no evidence. There's not
a slip. There's not a receipt. There's not a document that says
that we were in debt at one time. He took it all away. took it
all away, put it away by his own blood. That's what's made
it sure and steadfast as he's the one that's did it. We can
rest knowing because of his work, that in wrath he will remember
mercy for his people. It's done according to the good
pleasure of his will. Don't you love that the Lord has not hidden
these things from his people? We don't have to wonder whether
the work's finished. We believe the work's finished.
Why? Because he said it is finished. We don't have to wonder whether
he became sin or not. It says he who knew no sin became
sin. We know that he became sin. And
what did that mean? That means God poured out his
wrath upon his son justly. And he satisfied the demands
of God in doing so. And justice was satisfied. We don't have to wonder that.
We don't have to wonder if he has sufficient supply of mercy
and grace for his people. He said he does. It's everlasting.
Everlasting love for his people. We don't have to wonder that.
Now he's written us a love letter, if you will, telling us all that
he has done for us. And he seals it by saying, it
is finished. There's nothing for you to do.
There's nothing for you to do. Now look at verse five with me.
Yea also, well, I went to the wrong book again. I'm sorry.
Verse chapter three, verse five there in my Bible, they're right
side by side. So I keep. Before him went the
pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet, and stood
and measured the earth, and beheld and drove asunder the nations.
And the everlasting mountains were scattered. The perpetual
hills did bow. His ways are everlasting. I saw
the tents of Cushan in affliction, and the curtains of the land
of Midian did tremble. Now this is the wrath of the
Lord. This is what he's seeing. He's
seeing the desolation that's taken place in the wrath of God.
judgment, the Lord stood and the Lord measured. That word
measured means to judge. The Lord is judging these individuals. But there's also a picture here
as the Lord is the judge, jury, and executioner of the Lord on
his behalf. Christ has all the power given
to him both in heaven and to earth, but he delights in showing
mercy to his people. Even though we see the wrath
of God being poured out here, we see that there is no wrath
left for the Lord's people because he endured, he absorbed every
bit of this fire. As he's talking about the hot
coals, he absorbed it. Now, when he says everlasting
mountains, I'm reminded that in the time
of judgment, that men will run to the mountains and they will
try to make the mountains their refuge to hide from the Lord.
They say he'll cry out into the mountains, fall upon us, cover
us from the wrath that is to come. But there's no hope in
the mountains. It's a picture of man's religion, his works,
him offering himself unto the Lord, something that's strong.
They think that is everlasting, but it's not everlasting. It's
not everlasting. And that's why the everlasting
here actually has two different definitions. This first everlasting
is that it continues, that it has a continuing future. By definition,
the first time he mentions everlasting here, the everlasting mountains
at the end of verse six, everlasting mountains, it is that they believe
it has a continuing future, but it doesn't. The Lord said, no,
I'm going to disannoy your covenant. I'm going to disannoy your covenant.
These are literally two different words. The word everlasting here
and then the next word everlasting. Now the second everlasting means
it never had a beginning and it never had an end. So they're
talking about men that are saying that their mountains are everlasting,
that they're going to, because we know they're going to carry
us through in the future. No, they're not. No, the Lord's
going to come and he's going to squash them. He's going to
disannul them. He's going to abase those mountains. No flesh is going to glory in
his presence. Why? Because his ways are everlasting,
never had a beginning and it never had an end. That's the
picture here. That is the picture. Everything crumbles at his rebuke.
Even the heels bow to him. I'm reminded that Greg said on
Sunday, the word bow and the word bow is spelled exactly the
same. And that's what men will do. And they hear this, they'll
either bow or they'll bow up. And it's by his grace alone that
we bow, isn't it? It's by his grace he causes us
to bow. And that's what the heels do here. perpetual heals, these
continual heals, they bow. Even the wind ceases to exist
at His rebuke. It stops. It stops. He's God. He's God. All things are made to confess
He is Lord in His presence. The gospel shows us, the gospel
shows us that this God in wrath, He's going to remember mercy
for His people. Mercy will not come to His people.
Now I want us to notice last thing in verse seven. I saw the tents of Cushan in
affliction, and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
Cushan means blackness, blackness or wickedness, and Midian means
strife. The Lord is showing us that the
wickedness of everyone outside of Christ is judged. Unless he
took our wickedness unto himself, there will be a God therewith
we have to do, we must do business with, we must stand before and
be judged. If the Lord Jesus Christ did
not stand in our stead, we will not have anyone or any hope of
being cleansed from our wickedness. It takes the Lord's blood to
do that. Our hope is that whenever he died upon the cross of Calvary,
this wickedness that he's talking about, the strife, the enmity
that we are against God, he took unto himself and he owned it
as his own, endearing the father's wrath so that now when wrath
comes on that day, he'll remember mercy. That's our hope. Understand something God judged
his son exactly the same way. He's going to judge everyone
else without mercy, without mercy. If there is one sin upon us,
when we stand before him, he is not a respecter of person.
And that sin must be punished. It must be paid for. Thanks be
to God. The Lord Jesus Christ took every
single one of every single sin for his people into himself.
Christ endured the wrath in the darkness and he ended the strife
for his people. The Lord Jesus Christ endured
the Kushan and he, in this darkness, he ended the strife, the strife
of Midian. There's no more strife. There's
no more condemnation. He has reconciled us completely
back to God by his own blood, by his own word. Now God remembers
mercy. God delights in mercy by what
Christ accomplish. Well, what did he accomplish?
Salvation, redemption, sanctification, justification, glorification. I love those words. It's everything
we could not do or we could not obtain. He hath done it and he
hath obtained it. Thanks be to God, he hath bestowed
it upon his people. By his blood, he makes known
unto us that in his wrath, He remembers mercy. He can't forget.
It's not a remember as in he's forgotten and he needs to remember.
No, we fear. We fear sometimes. And Habakkuk
was afraid and he cries out in this fear. I was afraid. Lord,
remember mercy. Lord never forgot. Lord never
forgot mercy. Why? Because it was so well purchased
by his own son's blood. His own son's blood. It was so
well purchased. And when he sees the blood, when
he sees the blood in wrath, he remembers mercy. When he sees
the blood, he says, I'll pass by you. I no longer look at wrath
towards my people, but he says, I know my thoughts of you. I
know my thought, my good thoughts of you in grace and in mercy
and in peace and in love, kindly affectionate unto us. He said,
I won't forget. I'll show you mercy on the day
of judgment because of Christ. Because of what Christ has done
in wrath, I will remember mercy. Is that your hope? It's my hope.