Habakkuk chapter one. Now I realized
when I was studying this, that it was at the very end of the
message that I was going to tell you the title. And so I decided
to go ahead and just tell you the title right out of the gate.
That way, um, I can kind of build off of that, but the title is,
we shall not die. This is what Habakkuk says in
this chapter. We're going to read it in just
a second. It says, we shall not die. I. initially had titled
it, um, worshiping their nets, because that's what the men do
here. Um, as we're going to see the men worship, they would do
something with their own hands and then they would literally
worship what they did with their own hands. And in this case,
they were, he uses the type of fishing with nets and he says,
you're burning incense to the nets and the nets ain't, they're
not going to do you any good. We'll see that in a minute, but. Habakkuk
opens with similar to the other smaller profits that we saw and
they're not smaller in message. Their message was clear and it's
a gospel message. It's a message of destruction,
but yet the Lord's going to have his remnant and the Lord's going
to redeem his people. And that's the good news of every
single one of these that we've solved thus far. So the message
is not diminished by the size of the book. We had one that
just had one chapter, remember? And it, the Lord had three messages
prepared for us in there that he gave to me to deliver to you.
And that's, it's glorious. All of it's glorious because
it's about our Savior. It starts out as we just read
about it being a burden. Now, the burden to the preacher
is to tell the truth. And it's the same burden that
you have in hearing, in hearing and receiving. I can't preach
it and you can't receive it unless the Lord does the work and therefore
he gets all the glory. We see that, don't we? We know
that that's true. If I come here thinking that I can hear on my
own, I can't, I just can't. I have to have his spirit to
cause me to preach. And when I'm sitting there listening,
how good it was I was able to sit and listen for the last few
services, sit with my wife again. And two things make me want to
preach, hearing bad preaching, That's false gospel or hearing
good preaching. And we heard good preaching that
was glorifying to the Lord that encouraged me. And I know it
encouraged you as well. So this message comes to Habakkuk
and Habakkuk cries out unto the Lord, hearing the message of
the Lord. And he says, how long shall I cry? Habakkuk's minting. This cry is literally lamenting
over sin. Just as we see Jeremiah was considered
the weeping prophet, he was lamenting. But it's not just his own sin.
He was lamenting over the sin of the people. He saw that their
iniquity, their transgression, their unwillingness to hear what
God had to say, that's the reason he was lamenting is because judgment
had come. Judgment had come upon them.
Now, we as well, we typically will not lament over the sin
of our nation or the sin of our country. We'll get angry about
it, won't we? That's usually the expression
that I know I feel when I see the things around me. I become
frustrated. I don't feel sad, and that doesn't make me cry
out to the Lord. But when I read this, the Lord
convicted me of that. We shouldn't be crying out. Lord,
have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy. We know the
Lord is going to have mercy upon his people, but the scripture tells
us to pray for those who are in the office above us. We're
commanded to do so. Pray that the Lord would not
allow them to lean this way or that way, but the Lord would
keep them and cause them to make the decisions. Our moral decline
doesn't happen as quickly. It's going to happen. Evil men
and seducers will wax worse and worse, but that doesn't relieve
us of the responsibility of praying. Praying for each other, praying
for If you don't have anybody else to pray for, pray for me.
But also, we need to pray for those who are in office above
us as well. Now, we're usually not convicted because of the
sin that we see around us as a nation. That's what this book
is about, is the children of Israel being a people and they're
being a nation where judgment came. And they didn't repent
of what was going on around them. But we really... only repent
when we see our own sin, don't we? That's when we cry out. That's
when we lament. And it's because repentance has
to be given of the Lord. Crying out for mercy has to be
given of Him. The Lord must reveal this, and
He does to each and every one of His people. He gives repentance. He reveals it in mercy. It is
mercy that we see our sin. Everybody can't see their sin.
They may say that they're sinners, but when the Lord gives repentance
and we see our sin, oh, we repent, don't we? We repent. So what
else is the Lord revealing here? He's revealing the clear judgment
that has come to pass upon Israel. And he's telling us not only
why it's happening, but he's gonna tell you where it's happening
and who's gonna do it. And he tells us in verse six, look at
verse six with me. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans. that bitter and hasty nation,
which shall march through the breadth of the land and possess
the dwelling places that are not theirs. And look at the next
verse. They are terrible and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity
shall proceed of them. We know all about them, how ugly
they are, how terrible they are. And here they're gonna come into
our nation and they're gonna take this land for their own.
They're gonna possess it. That's what the Lord's, that's
the message of Habakkuk. I'm thankful it's not all the
message of Habakkuk, as we're gonna see. He didn't just give
judgment, but he also shows that there's mercy. And Sunday, if
the Lord be pleased, I'm gonna preach a message on, in wrath,
remember mercy. That's what Habakkuk cries out
unto the Lord in the next chapter. In wrath, remember mercy, Lord. I wanna elaborate on that right
now, but I'm so thankful for mercy. His mercy endureth forever. His truth is everlasting, the
scripture tells us. If it wasn't for that mercy,
we would be under the condemnation the same as the children of Israel
are. Habakkuk hears this from the
Lord that it's going to be the Chaldeans and the Lord, I find
it interesting how he's made his word with Habakkuk. He asked the Lord, why them?
Why them? We're more righteous than they
are, is what he actually tells the Lord. You're going to allow
them who are not as righteous as we are to come in and bring
your judgment upon us. And he wasn't asking this in
unbelief. He just didn't understand. The
whole book of Habakkuk, we see that his unwavering faithfulness
unto the Lord because the Lord had given him faith to see him.
He believes God. So it wasn't a matter of doubting
God or questioning or challenging. Do we not come to service to
hear about the thing we don't understand about how the Lord
put away the sin of his people? We don't understand how that
happened. We preach it. We declare it. I can't enter
into what happened in the darkness on the cross. And that's what
Habakkuk was asking, Lord, what are you saying? How is it going
to be them? How is good going to come of this? And he wanted
to know. He wanted an answer. Well, with man, it's not possible,
is it? That good comes of evil, but
with God, all things are possible. All things are possible. God's
ways are not humanly possible. Habakkuk was praying for understanding
because he saw that it was impossible. What the Lord was saying, it
was impossible, but he's made to realize with God, all things
are possible. Now let's read Habakkuk chapter
one. Look at verse 12 with me. Art thou not from everlasting,
O Lord my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them
for judgment, and almighty God, thou hast established them for
correction. Thou art of purer eyes than to
behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Wherefore lookest
thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the
wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? And
makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that
have no ruler over them. They take up all of them with
the angle, and that's a net, that's a fishing device. They
catch them in their net and gather them in their in their drag. Another definition of angle would
be a hook. A hook. He catched them in their
drag, therefore they rejoice and are glad. Verse 16, therefore
they sacrifice unto their net. They sacrifice unto their net
and burn incense unto their drag because by them their portion
is fat and their meat plenteous. Shall they therefore empty their
net and not spare continually to slay the nation? The first
thing he acknowledges here is that God is an everlasting God. Now when Habakkuk's asking a
question, that's a rhetorical question, art thou not an everlasting
God? That's a rhetorical question, is that he know that? We know
he knows that because the next thing he says is, we shall not die. Only because he's an everlasting
God. That's the confession that's being said here. We see that
God is, his confession is the same as our confession, God's
sovereignty. God is a sovereign God and he's a just and holy
God. The scripture tells us in Hebrews, he's without father,
without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days
nor end of life. He's the alpha. He's the omega,
He's the beginning, and He's the end. He's, what do they say,
call His name Jesus? He shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father, the Mighty
God. This is not just His name. These
are His attributes. This is His character. This is
His, the fullness of the Godhead bodily in Christ Jesus. This
is who He is. And when He says everlasting,
it tells us that all these attributes cannot change. They're the same
yesterday, today, and forever. They're not just titles. Men
use titles for God. I remember a song I heard one
time, our God is an awesome God, but yet they don't worship God
as if he's an awesome God. Actually they do because the
definition of word awesome is it has some, all in it. And technically,
the word that we should use describing the Lord is all full, which means
full of all. Our God is an all full God, but
awful is also defined as being something terrible and something
bad. Well, the Lord is terrifying.
There's no doubt about that, but he's not bad. But if we were
to use the term awful, he would be full of awe. We stand in awe
at his majesty, his deity, everything about him. It's full of awe,
isn't it? He's full of awe. And this is
what Habakkuk's saying, he's the everlasting God. Nothing
about us is everlasting, is it? I was thinking as I was studying,
that the scripture says heaven and earth shall pass away. There
is nothing on the earth that is eternal except the word of
God. That's it. Everything else is
going to burn up in a fervent heat. Everything else is going
to go back to dust from which it came. Everything, but not
the Lord. No one created him. He's everlasting. He never had a beginning. He
never had an end. Everything about God is certain.
whenever Habakkuk said, we shall not die. That's certain. If the
Lord's the one keeping us, that's certain. Nothing can change him
in any way. Nothing can thwart his purpose.
Nothing can dictate him. He's not threatened by anything.
He's God. And this is who Habakkuk is crying out to. Because of all of this because
of everything about him being certain, who he is, what he's
done, who this Him being Himself, the isness of Himself, because
of all this and what He has spoken, Habakkuk comes to this conclusion,
as you and I do through the eyes of faith, we shall not die. That's impossible. No, if the
Lord tasted death for us, it's not possible that we would die.
We can die. Not the second death. Yeah, the
flesh is going to die, but the second death has been put away
by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Habakkuk's confidence. Here he sees what's going to
happen with the Chaldeans coming in, and he describes their horses
are swifter than leopards and are more fierce than even wolves.
They're going to have no mercy upon Israel, and he has hope
in one thing. And this is the encouragement I would give to
us tonight is regardless of what's going on around us and what we're
seeing, we have hope. We shall not die. It's not possible
because we have an everlasting God who is still seated upon
his throne. It's full of wonder, the most
We use the word wonderful, that means it's full of wonder. That's
what that means. We use a lot of words in the
English language that mean things that have been also made to mean
something else because they've been misused so much. Somebody
says something wonderful, that means it's good or it's fantastic
or it's, no, it's full of wonder. Meaning we can't attain to it.
It's too high how the Lord can save a sinner. How the Lord saves
sinners by his grace. I believe it. I believe it. I
believe that whoever the Lord died for, there are new creatures
in Christ when He calls them. I believe that. I believe He
causes each of His people to be born again. I don't see it
in myself. This weekend, I've had the privilege
of seeing it in some of you, the heart that the Lord's given
you and the grace and the confession that we've had in fellowship
one with another. We see it in each other, but we can't see
it in ourself. Otherwise we would, that's Paul's, where's boasting
then? It's not by what you see, it's because of what he did.
That's the glorious news of the salvation of the Lord. Because of what he is. I love that. Not just because
of what he done, but because who he is, because of what he
is. The very essence of God, because
of everything about him, he is truth. You and I speak truth
when we speak of his gospel. He is truth. Now, we can't understand
that because we sung the song, we are false and full of sin,
but he's full of truth because he is truth. He's full of grace
because he is where grace comes from. He is the one that holds
grace and it's at his disposal. It's his choice. Because of this,
his people shall not die. You remember whenever Nathan
came to David, I think I've used this analogy recently, so it
should be fresh on our memory. I think I use the same analogies
over and over again. They're all glorious, but David
had sinned with Bathsheba and Nathan comes to him and gives
him an analogy of a ewe lamb being taken by a rich man rather
than one of his own. And he killed the ewe lamb, the
one that he said it was like a daughter to him. And he said,
what shall happen to the man, David? He said, the man will
die. The man surely shall be put to death. And we know the
reason that David felt that way. He was a shepherd. It was his
first job, no doubt, as a shepherd boy. He had to take the lamb
from the lion's mouth. He had to take the lamb from
the bear's mouth. It said that the sheep was taken from him.
He had to go pry it loose. And that's a picture of Christ
retrieving us from the law and Satan and the flesh and killing
the giant. He would have loved lambs, the
tenderness and the easiness of them. And whenever he found out
that that was a lamb that was taken and it wasn't his, he said,
he's got to die. And then Nathan told him, you're
the man, David. You are the man. You are the
man. And he begins to tell him that
the sword will never leave your house because of this and all
this judgment that has come upon him. But he didn't just stop
with the judgment. David was made to confess, I
have sinned against the Lord. And do you know what Nathan told
him? The Lord also hath put away thy sin. The Lord also, on top,
you heard me say the judgment. I've told you the judgment of
the Lord, what he had said, but the Lord also hath put away your
sin. You shall not die. The Lord's people are dependent
upon the Lord Jesus Christ work. for the only hope of our salvation.
How could David put his sin away? You know that he was down in
the temple offering sacrifice every day. He thought that the
Lord was pleased with these sacrifices he was making, but what, he didn't
have sweet communion with the Lord, did he? No, the Lord had
to reveal, had to give repentance unto David. And then when he
got repentance, he got faith to look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only one who put away the sin of his people, the only one
by which claim we have, we shall not die because of his work.
That's what, that's what this is a picture of. Is there anything
greater to hear than what we heard this weekend whenever Isaiah
43, he said, I have bought you. I have called you by that name. You're mine. You shall not die
because of what I've done. You are my purchased possession.
I own you. I love the thought of the Lord
owning us. I know he owns everything. There
can be no doubt about that. The ownership of he has with
his people were heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
So his purchase made us heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
He says, everything I have is yours. That's what we say to
our wives, isn't it? Everything that's mine is yours, but that
can't even compare because he owns everything. And yet he's
given it to his people. He's given it to his people.
And the best thing he's given us is eternal life. You shall
not die. Now we have a contrast here in
this chapter, not in this chapter, but we must contrast it to the
God that we hear preached. That's not the true God, the
everlasting God, the everlasting God and the God of man-made works
religion. Now the everlasting God means
everything that he done, he has done, everything that he's doing,
and everything that he's going to do is already finished. Everything
he's done, Everything he's doing, everything he's going to do is
already finished. That's the everlasting God. Whenever the
Lord came to the earth, he didn't try to keep the law. He didn't
try to not sin. He couldn't sin. He was God.
If God can sin, he's not immutable. But he couldn't sin. He didn't
try to make an offer of salvation to you and I, or offer his blood
in hopes that, no, it was finished before the foundation of the
world. He just went through the necessary transaction, if you
will, on the cross of Calvary for his people to live the perfect
life that we couldn't live. Everything, whether it was past,
present, and future, it's already finished. This is the everlasting
God. The God of this world, I just had mentioned, he says that Jesus
made an attempt. He made salvation possible. He
made salvation available. And you have to do your part.
No, no, this is the everlasting God. Let's perish the thought.
No, he successfully redeemed and he sat down. It's finished.
It's finished. That's our hope. It is not dependent
upon man for anything. God is not dependent upon man
for anything. Everything that the Lord requires. We heard this
weekend, the Lord had to provide and He did in the person of Christ.
And God only accepts that which He provides. Is that good news
to you that you don't have to provide anything? It's not one
thought that you have. It's not one word that you speak.
That's not what brought your salvation or my salvation. It's
not a prayer that I prayed or you prayed. No, it's his blood. When I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. Well, how do I apply the blood? David said, Lord,
you're gonna have to purge me with hyssop in order for me to
be clean. Wash me and I'll be made water and snow. I can't
apply the blood of Christ. The Lord did. The Lord did. And the veil in the temple was
written twain from top to bottom. We can now enter boldly to the
throne of grace, having obtained mercy and to find grace to help
in the time of need. I see everything about him is
everlasting. It's absolute. It's an everlasting salvation.
There's never been a time where the Lord didn't see his people
in Christ Jesus. And there'll never be a time
where he will not see us in Christ Jesus. It's an everlasting justification. We've always been justified in
his sight. We've never sinned one time in
his sight. It wasn't a time where he saw
us out of Christ and then, no, he's always saw us in Christ.
And it's an everlasting glorification. We're already glorified in his
sight. And the way God sees it, that's how it is. That's how
it is. I was reminded while I was studying
about the statement, people say, well, there's nothing in this
world certain except death and taxes. You ever heard that before? There is death coming. That is for certain. God's purpose
is certain. God's purpose is certain because
it's based upon him making a promise. He purposed when he entered into
the covenant of grace that he would redeem the people. He purposed
it. And Christ promised to redeem them. How is God not going to
redeem those whom he died for if he promised? That's calling
God a liar, isn't it? If he tried and he offered his
blood to save some and yet they go to hell and he promised to
redeem them, He's a liar then, isn't he? He didn't do it. You
ever thought of it that way? No, he's not a liar. He's the
truth. He's the truth. And he's the only way to the
father. He said, no man come to the father, but by me. Thanks be to God. He said, I
am the Lord. I change not. Therefore you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Therefore we shall not die. We shall not die. Now look in the third thing we
see here in verse 12. We shall not die right before
he says that he says mine. Let's just read the verse. Oh,
thou art thou not from everlasting, O Lord, mine God, mine holy one.
We shall not die, O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment
and O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. That word
mighty God is translated the rock, the rock. See, he's sure he's when he says
mighty, that's not that he has, uh, some power. He has all power. His might is
not like men's might, where you have a man that's stronger than
another man. I remember watching the, uh, strongman competition
and somebody could lift 400 pounds. Another guy can lift five and
they spend their whole life trying to get stronger and stronger
being the mightiest man. They have a title. the strongest
man in the world. No, Christ has all power, doesn't
he? He has all strength. He has all
might. He wouldn't even have to lift
the rock. He'd just speak the word. He just thinks that it'll happen.
He's God. He's God. Because of who he is, nothing
can change his purpose. Because of what he's done, none
can stay his hand. We're saying to him, what doest
thou? Because of what he's accomplished
in his sight, his bride is already glorified. She's perfectly, you're
perfectly righteous right now. If I'm his, I'm perfectly righteous
right now. And in his eyes, it's never not
right now. Right now, right now. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. The way he sees it is that we're
glorified. Who's gonna change his mind?
Who's gonna change his mind? Nobody can change his mind. The
way he sees it, that's how it really is, isn't it? His people
are glorified. Every second that passes by,
we are one tick closer. We are one tick closer to his
glory being revealed in us. Every second, we're one tick
closer. It's already there, we can't
see it. But every second that passes by, We're one tick closer
to seeing the glory that he's put in us that will be revealed
in us one day. Isn't that what he said? Christ
in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you right now. He's
in you right now. If you're his, he's in you right
now. These things are too wonderful for me. They're too high. I can't
attain to them. How do I enter into that thought? Christ is
in me. That's what he said. truth Lord
I believe it I don't understand Lord you're gonna have to you're
gonna have to teach me thy ways Lord you're gonna have to make
me love your precepts give me understanding and I shall understand
there's I can't understand this Lord didn't ask us to understand
he said believe believe not not believe in doctrine not believe
in what we do believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved His salvation was all by His
choosing, all by His saving, all by His redeeming, all by
His justifying. It's all by his sovereign choice,
isn't it? All by his sovereignty. Did you know his sovereignty
is one of the most offensive things to our flesh that he is,
is his sovereignty? Because it literally makes him
God and us man. Our flesh hates that. Our flesh
wants to be God. Our flesh wants to do something.
Our flesh desires that. It's contrary to rest in Christ's
finished work. To the flesh, the flesh wants
something to do, but to the Lord's people, we cannot not believe. We cannot not believe. Our new
man looks to Christ in all things, always, all the time, and always
will, and always will, because it's his faith that keeps us. I'm thankful it's nothing that
we can do, nothing that we can do. That's That's the offense
that we heard about, and I didn't talk to the preachers that stood
here this weekend, but I read Galatians 5, and I believe it
was Greg that went to Galatians 5, and I thought, well, the Lord
did that. I didn't do that. That was wonderful. What Paul
was saying was, is if I preach circumcision, I'm not going to
offend anybody. All you have to do is be circumcised,
and everybody's saved at that point. He says, but that takes
the offense of the gospel out. The gospel says there's nothing
for you to do, look to Christ. And looking to Christ is not
something that we do on our own. It's a gift, isn't it? By faith
alone, by his grace alone. And so if we're looking, it's
because we've been made to look. Well, that's the offense of the
gospel. Not to the Lord's people anymore, is it? That's the only
hope I got. That's the only hope I got. That
it's all by grace, all by his grace, all by his choice, that
there's nothing that we can do. This is given by repentance and
faith. We've heard that a lot. Repentance and faith is necessary.
It is necessary. It's the calling of the Lord.
It shows us what we are and it shows us who he is. At the same
time, it's necessary for us to see the salvation that he has
wrought. Without repentance and faith,
there is no salvation. Christ Jesus redeemed a people
and we would not see that he is sovereign unless he calls
us to repent. We wouldn't believe on his finished
work unless he makes us do so. And he does it by giving us repentance
and faith. And when we see Christ, that
is salvation. Seeing Christ is salvation. There's
nothing else to be done. When he says, look, look to Christ
and live. When he says, come unto me, it's
all the same thing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If we're
looking to him, that is salvation. It is. And both repentance and
faith are bestowed. That means it's not merited by
us. Can't be found. Can't be discovered. Can't be earned. No, it's a gift. And it's free to us. It's free
to us. You can't work for something
that's free. Now, it costs something. It costs the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, but to you and I, it's free. Don't get
past that word free because if we do anything, it's no longer
free. If we do anything in and of ourself,
it's no longer free and therefore it voids it being by grace alone. Aren't you glad it's free? Aren't
you glad it's free? This faith is what it takes to
please God. Scripture tells us clearly that
it's not our faith. It came from Him and therefore
He's pleased with it and pleased by it. Without it, there's just
death. It takes the faith of Christ. It's the same for God's
repentance. It takes Him to give it as well.
Habakkuk has this. We know that he has this because
of what verse 13 tells us. Thou art of pure eyes than to behold
evil and canst not look on iniquity. If a man says that, he's confessing
what he is. It's not that Habakkuk was saying,
you see their wickedness, you see their iniquity. No, it's
what Isaiah said, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips and
I dwell among a people of unclean lips. Lord, you can't look upon
the iniquity that's right here. No, you're going to have to put
away my sin. You, your eyes are too pure to behold the evil that
I am. You can't look upon my iniquity.
I'll surely die. That's what, this is what Habakkuk
is saying. That's repentance. That's repentance. That's what the Lord gave him. It's not that we do iniquity.
It's not that we do evil or that we do sin. We do. But we are
desperately evil, aren't we? We're desperately wicked. We're
born, we're shapen in iniquity. We're born in sin, David said.
So it's, Lord, you can't look upon me in any way. If you do,
I will surely die. I will surely die because I see
you high and lifted up. I see you seated and holy, the
everlasting God. Lord, you're going to have to
do something or I will perish and I will die. Aren't you glad
he did do something? Everything, everything necessary,
everything he did. Now in this chapter, it shows us
that it is hidden. His gospel is hidden. If our
gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost. That's
what Paul said, wasn't it? He tells us, In hiding it, in showing
us that it is a hidden gospel, it doesn't give us the right
to brag. It shows us that it's all by
grace. Where's boasting then? But also in hiding it, it makes
us acknowledge that it's all His choosing. It's all His doing. It's His gospel. It's not mine
until He gives it to me. I didn't write it. I didn't do
anything for it. It's His gospel. It's His salvation. We see that he tells us, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Now look with me in verse
five. Behold ye among the heathen and regard and wonder marvelously. Now this is something to wonder
marvelously at. That's what he just told us.
I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though
it be told you. I will work a work. in your days,
which you will not believe, though it be told you." He's saying,
even if I tell you, you won't believe it. Did they not look
on the Lord Jesus Christ eyeball to eyeball, man to man, and could
not see that it was him? It was God. Couldn't see it.
He even told them, I am Christ. He told them I'm the son of man.
They couldn't believe it, could they? That's what he's saying
here. This is what, this, I understand that it's prophetic. That's what's
going to happen to the nation Israel. This is prophetic to
what happened in the future because Paul says the same thing to Israelites
over in Acts chapter 13, he's preaching
at Antioch to the men and he tells them, he literally quotes
this verbatim. He says, I'm going to do a work
in your days, which you don't believe. You can't believe it.
You can't believe it. Some of the men there, I was
going to have his turn there, but we're about out of time. Some of the men there,
they said, this is the best thing we've ever heard. This gospel
that you just preached, the best thing. It was on the Sabbath
and Paul's preaching in Antioch, and they loved it. They rejoiced. They believed. He said, can you
come back next Sunday and preach this same thing to us? And he
said, yes. And he came back the next Sunday,
but here was the problem. The Jews became envious of the
following of Paul and Barnabas. They became envious. They lost
their power. They lost their popularity. They
could not rejoice in this gospel. And it was right in front of
them. It was hidden. It was hidden to them. Why? Why were they filled with
envy? It took away their righteousness.
Took away their righteousness, it left them naked. This gospel
does that. This gospel does that. And man
by nature will not come to Christ. Man will not have this man to
reign over them. But to you and I, when the Lord
gives faith and repentance, this is the greatest thing we've ever
heard. The greatest thing that we've ever heard. It says, if we had read this,
I would have known to say this already, but it tells us over
in Acts chapter 13, that these men, rather than hearing what
Paul and Barnabas would say, they begin contradicting and
blaspheming what Paul and Barnabas said. That's the only natural
response to the gospel. If you don't believe it, you're
going to get angry at it. Men get angry at it, don't they?
And they're going to contradict it with words, and they're going
to blaspheme at the same time in doing so. And that's what
these men did. They contradicted and they blasphemed. And Paul
makes this statement. Paul makes this statement. Seeing,
seeing you put the word of God from you, you have judged yourself
unworthy of everlasting life. You've put the word of God from
you and you've judged yourself. You've judged yourself unworthy
of everlasting life. What is he saying? No man come
to the father, but by Christ. No man's going to hear this word.
No man's going to heed, but it's by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it's not, I need to give my heart to Jesus because that's the only
way I can get to God. No, it's Jesus Christ is going
to have to do every bit of it, isn't he? No man can, no, we're
dead in trespasses and in sin. No man can come to the father,
but by Christ. Now we're looking still in Habakkuk,
look in verse 14. I'll be brief as I can. Verse 14, all that the Lord does
here, cause his eyes are pure and he can't look at evil this
is what he does he makes men as the fishes of the sea as the
creeping things that have no ruler over them they take up
all of them with the angle they catch them in their net and gather
them in their drag therefore they rejoice and are glad Do we see the contrast here of
what I just told us about an axe and what Habakkuk says in
verse 5? He says, I'm going to do a work
and you can't see it. Well, when they found out what Paul and
Barnabas was doing, that took away their nets. They no longer
could worship their net. They had nothing to offer. They stripped them naked. They
hated it. That's what these men are doing here is going about
with nets, trying to catch whoever will bite and entrap them. Were
we not, some of us, entrapped in false religion before we heard
the gospel? Now there's several that's irreligious
that hears the gospel, but most, the majority of believers that
I've heard come out of false religion, come out of false religion.
Some of them are raised in the good news of the gospel and the
Lord calls them, but quite a few are in false religion, entangled
in the nets. And the foolish preaching that's
going on today, and I mean foolish in God's eyes, not man's eyes,
the foolish preaching that's going on today says, you need
to take the first step and break free of the net. You need to
swim out of the net that you're entangled in. But that's silly
because we're dead in the net. That's the problem. I can't swim.
We're dead in the net. Lord, you're gonna have to call
me out of this net. You're gonna have to give me
life. You're gonna have to break the net. You're gonna have to
bring me out of the net because I will go to hell believing the lie.
I will just contradict your word. I'll just blaspheme your name
all the way to the pit of hell if you don't do something. You're
going to have to do it all. And you know what the Lord says?
You shall not die. I've put away your sin. I've
put away your sin. We shall not die because of that
one reason alone. That's it. There's no conjunctures to that. No if,
if, ors, and, or buts. It's Christ alone. His work alone. He put away the sin of his people. Notice what they did in verse
16. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net. Does that sound...
Silly to you. It's going on at every Baptist
church right now, probably. Hope they meet on Wednesday nights.
That's what they're doing. They're sacrificing to their work, to their self. They're believing that they're
good enough, but there's none good, no, not one. No, if we
want to have hope and eternal life, we've got to have Christ. We've got to have Christ. He's
got to be our only confession. He's got to be our only hope.
And he alone is going to have to make himself that for us. I heard a man say recently that
they were in a really good service. And I said, well, what was good
about it? And he said, oh, the spirit was there and moving.
And there was several people testifying at the same time.
And what he was describing to me, I won't bore you with details,
he was describing a loud and boisterous experience. It was an emotional
stirring is what it was. And he said several people got
saved. We should never use that kind of language. Did you know
that? If you don't, then we know now. We don't get to go around
saying, I got saved. No, the Lord saved us in eternity
past and he calls us in time. That's what we say, right? We
don't say got saved. The only thing we ever got, we
got trapped in a net. We got dead and trespassed and
that's what we got. We got all the negatives. We didn't
get, We got polluted in our own blood, didn't we? That's what
we got. All we could do is produce sin. That's what we got. We can't
get saved. No, the Lord has to save us.
And then he calls us by his grace. I don't need a chance to swim
out of the net. No, Lord, I need to hear that
you bought me by your own blood, that you purchased me, that you
finished the work, that you broke the nets of sin and the law,
and that you saved me by your grace alone. And now you've called
me. That's what I need to hear. I
don't need to hear that I have a chance. Jesus is passing by and you have
a chance to do something. No, I'm dead and I'm trapped
in a net. I'm a dead fish. I stink. Fish stink that are
dead, don't they? They stink. Lord, you're going
to have to make me smell good. Make me smell like Christ. I stink. I'm
dead. You're going to have to do it all. And you know what
the covenant of grace says? He says, I will. And then he
did, and it is finished. That's the good news of the gospel
isn't it? You shall not die. We shall not die because of his
finished work from everlasting. I'm not from everlasting. Oh
Lord, my God, my Holy one. He acknowledged him. He acknowledges
the Lord as he is. Do you love that? You're my God. You're my Lord. You're my everlasting
father. You're my prince of peace. And
he says, because of this, we shall not die. And the only reason
is, is because Christ offered himself unto the father in our
sin and put away our sin by his own blood. His blood is what
redeemed. His death demands our forgiveness. By his blood and his death, it
demanded our forgiveness. Our blood can't demand anything,
can it? Abel's blood demanded vengeance. Christ's blood demands
forgiveness, for justification, for righteousness for the Lord's
people. His resurrection ensures our
justification before God. That's what he said. He was raised,
raised for our justification. We rest in him saying, my God,
my holy one, because in Song of Solomon, The Shulamite prophetically
said, I am my beloved's and he is mine. If he's mine and I'm
his, what shall separate us from his love? You think we're going
to die? No. No, why? Because he died in our
stead. Because of that, we shall not,
we cannot, we cannot die. Justice has been satisfied.