Why O God Habakkuk - 1 Vs 12 - 2 Vs 4

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Dear Lord, thank you for this day that you've given us, thank you for allowing us to be here to congregate and worship your name,

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Lord. As we head into worship and sermon, Lord, prepare our hearts so that it's focused on you so that we can better understand your character and live that out in our lives as well.

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In your name we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Just a couple verses in Psalm 133, it says,

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Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, for praise from the upright is beautiful. For the word of the

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Lord is right, and for his work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice.

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The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. And verse 8 is, Let all the earth fear the

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Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. And as believers, as we stand before a holy

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God, we can't help but be in awe of how majestic he is. Because if we have a small view of God, it's not good.

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And it's not honoring of him. But we have to have a high view of our Lord. So let's stand together. We're going to sing,

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I Stand in Awe. I guess

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I'd like to say that if you haven't given your life to Jesus Christ, haven't confessed your sins and accepted him as Lord and Savior, that maybe this song can be your song today.

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So dwell upon this, pray upon this song, and let's sing this together.

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He is Lord. Scripture reading this morning is from the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 32 through 39.

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Hebrews 10, 32 through 39. But call to remembrance the former days in which after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst ye were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.

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For ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.

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Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.

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For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise.

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For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

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But we are not of them who draw back under perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

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May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word. And may we praise and give thanks to the

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Lord today, not just today but every day. He's worthy of our praise and gratitude, is he not?

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We're going to stand together again as we sing our next song, The Lord, My Rock, and My Salvation.

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Most of you know this song, but again it's a really beautiful picture of our Lord and what he endured and how he redeems us as he rose from the grave.

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Minor Prophets section, unfortunately I didn't learn the song that Victor sang, but my first five books, it's near the end of the

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Old Testament, after the five major prophets, there are twelve minor prophets,

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I think it is the eighth one. So flip through, but not too quickly because these minor prophets are called minor prophets because the length is short, not because of their importance, they're extremely important.

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So, the book of Habakkuk, chapter one, verse twelve, so near the end of the

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Old Testament. Are you not from everlasting,

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O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die? O Lord, you have appointed them for judgment.

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O Rock, you have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wickedness.

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Why do you look on those who deal treacherously and hold your tongue with the wicked devourers?

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A person more righteous than he? Why do you make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them?

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They take up all of them with a hook, they catch them in their net, they gather them in their dragnet, therefore they rejoice and are glad, therefore they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their dragnet.

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Because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful, shall they therefore empty their net and continue to slay nations without pity?

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I will stand by watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what he will say to me and what

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I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said, write a vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it.

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For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie.

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Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

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Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.

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This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are grateful to be going over Habakkuk during this time.

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Thank you that you are God and that you are sovereign. Your answer is always right and you do all things justly.

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And Father, help us to submit to you when things don't feel right.

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Help us to surrender to you when things seem wrong, knowing that you are still in charge and you have all of it under control and your redemptive plan will not be foiled, in Jesus' name.

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Last week, Habakkuk's complaint was that God isn't doing anything amidst so much wickedness in Judah.

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After hearing God's response, Habakkuk's new complaint is that God is doing the wrong thing.

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Last week, violence and plundering, murder all around and God is seemingly silent.

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God's answer was, you just watch, I've been preparing an answer through the Chaldeans and knowing how brutal the

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Chaldeans are going to be, Habakkuk's complaint is, you can't be using them.

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The key to understanding Habakkuk's prayer is the word reprove or correct, which bookends his prayer.

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While Babylon is set apart to correct Judah, the prophet himself submits to God for correction for not quite understanding his infinite wisdom.

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Habakkuk has two main problems with God's act of raising up the

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Chaldeans. First, the Chaldeans are more sinful than Judah.

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How could God use a more sinful people against his own people? This would be,

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I think I used this illustration before, as if the United States had lost the

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Cold War, right? Back then the United States was even more Christian, right?

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It was founded on a Christian principle. If you read the

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Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, they acknowledge God, while communist

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China, just like any communist country, is godless. They are atheistic, or Soviet Russia rather.

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So if Soviet Russia had beaten the U .S., it would have been a similar response.

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How could God do that? How could God use a more wicked, godless nation to punish a nation that was founded on Christian biblical principles?

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The second problem is that the Chaldeans, according to my

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Old Testament professor, were a military juggernaut. Unstoppable.

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For Habakkuk, it does not make sense to him, how could God use the

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Chaldeans against Judah because there won't be any Judah left after the

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Chaldeans are done. The illustration that Habakkuk uses is fishermen.

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They're so good at fishing, there won't be any fish left in the ocean, God, when they're done.

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What are we going to do? Those are the two problems that Habakkuk raises up.

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And for some of you, you might have struggled with something like this. The struggle is not that God has an answer, it's that God has answered.

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He did intervene, and it's not what you expected, and it is worse than you thought.

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You may be asking God, how could you do this?

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How did you allow this? And if that is you right now,

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Habakkuk has an answer. Because he, too, also, after hearing

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God's answer, was shocked. You begged

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God to answer, and he did, yet the answer leaves in your mind, how can

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God do that? And if you've had that moment of, why did you do that,

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God? You're on the same boat as Habakkuk.

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Habakkuk is a great book that the modern readers need to read when they are navigating in the seas of chaos and confusion.

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What do we do when God does answer, and it does not fit our agenda?

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What do we do when God does answer, and it seems like it's the wrong answer?

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The main point of today's text is, although God's plan may not fit our mindset, we trust in the

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Lord who will save the faithful. Although God's plan may not fit our mindset, or our plan, we trust in the

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Lord who will save the faithful. First, when

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God's plan does not quite fit our plans, the proper response is to humbly submit to his plan.

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When God's plan does not quite fit our plans, the proper response is to humbly submit to his plan.

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The prophet Habakkuk starts his second complaint focusing on God's attributes.

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And if you've been coming to the Sunday school, 930 Sunday school, going through the

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Psalms, and we just finished 118, so you know we've been there for years, many of the

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Psalms, whether lament or praise, or a plea for salvation, many of the

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Psalms start with praising and celebrating God's attributes. And Habakkuk is a professional prayer warrior, and that's how he starts.

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In a way, this Psalm, this prayer rather, reads like a lament Psalm. This is not a joyful celebration, how it starts.

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But verse 12 calls out to God with these attributes. Are you not from everlasting,

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O Lord my God, my Holy One? There are two divine attributes here,

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God's eternality and his holiness. God's eternality means the fact that God is uncreated, he is from everlasting, he doesn't have a beginning, which also means he doesn't have an end.

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He is not a figment of our imagination nor a craftsmanship of the idol makers.

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He is not like the idols who have a beginning date and an expiration date. God is from everlasting.

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What that also means is because he is a real God who is not created by man, he is a

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God of history. He has delivered in the past, he has acted in the past on behalf of his people.

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His deliverance has historical backing, and Habakkuk as a prophet is all too familiar with God's history.

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The God who has saved in the past is the God from everlasting. And this attribute reminds not only the prophet but God how he has been so covenantally faithful to his people in the past.

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Will you be covenantally faithful to your people in the present? My Holy One is not only covenantal but also deeply personal.

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Consider God's holiness. It's a significant divine attribute. It is the only attribute in which it's repeated three times when the seraphim gather around God to praise him.

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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. That's how holy he is.

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Every repetition is an exclamation mark. My Old Testament professor described it concisely.

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God is utterly other. There is no one like him.

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There's no one like him in purity. You think your life is pure? It's not like God's life.

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There is no one like him in justice. You think your record's clean?

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Well, it doesn't compare to God's justice. His standard of justice is above and beyond what humans can imagine.

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And there is no one like him in his goodness. His holiness encompasses and separates him from all things that are not

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God. That makes him God. And this title will continue in Habakkuk's complaint very soon.

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Yet lest his holiness distance you from his loving presence, Habakkuk understands that the

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Lord is also personal. Holiness does distance the holy one from the unholy people, yet he is my holy one.

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There's a personal relationship there. There's a tension here. How can the holy

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God have a personal relationship with sinners? Of course, that's not quite smoothed out until Jesus Christ, who deals with sin personally.

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And Habakkuk confidently cries out to God, we shall not die. Oh Lord, you have appointed them for judgment.

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Oh rock, you have marked them for correction. We shall not die. It's the confidence cry of the prophet in God's faithfulness.

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I know you, I know you keep promises. We shall not die. You have a plan for your people.

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You have a plan of redemption for your people. We shall not die. And this is because Habakkuk is all too familiar with Israel's demise, the northern kingdom in 722

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BC. When the ten tribes were deported from the promised land because of their sin by the

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Assyrian Empire, another brutal northern empire. We shall not die is from Habakkuk's awareness of God's unchanging promise to his people.

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We won't be completely destroyed or your plan of redemption will continue.

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We won't be eliminated. And Habakkuk totally understands this is not

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God having some violent moment, but this is for correction. He's correcting his people.

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He acknowledges that this judgment is quite necessary after all the Chaldeans are appointed for Judah's judgment.

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The hope is that maybe God would lessen the sentencing. Could you could you make it lighter?

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Verse 13 introduces the theological dilemma that Habakkuk has in mind.

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You are of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wickedness.

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Why do you look on those who deal treacherously and hold your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?

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His complaint is based upon his knowledge of God's characteristic and attributes.

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How can this holy God, whose eyes are so pure that he he how can he bear to look at this evil, not only bear to look at evil, but use such cruel and wicked people to judge a less wicked people?

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The theme of seeing plays out here again. Habakkuk is beautifully written, right?

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In verse three of chapter one last week, Habakkuk's complaint was, God, are you seeing the evil that's happening in Judah?

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There's violence, there's plundering, there's the law when it doesn't go forth, but when it does go forth, it's perverted.

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And then God answers, you look and raise up the

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Chaldeans. Every time there's a prayer and answer prayer and answer, there's the theme of are you seeing this

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God? And ironically, Habakkuk now cannot see how

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God could be seeing all this play out. A wicked nation swallowing up a less wicked nation, right?

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If you're parents of multiple kids, it's like a kid who just called the other kid name and your other kid just punched his face.

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But then the guy who called the kid name is getting in trouble, right?

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Is that fair to you, God? How could you do that? You're not like this.

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Consider this, let's say, hypothetically, there's a church, there's a single church in a small town.

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They're theologically weak, but you know, they still worship the triune

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God of scripture. They still worship Jesus. Yeah, their worship services are based upon performance and feelings, right?

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The songs are about me, me, me. And yeah, they started using lights and they started saying hip words.

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And their pastor, yeah, he opens scripture here and there, but yeah, he goes off tangent and who knows where he's going.

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Now some faithful believers, a few of them, they gather, they start praying to God to intervene.

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After all, the only person who can change the culture of the church is God himself.

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And it is through the transformation of the hearts, that's it. So they start praying,

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God, can you intervene? We need you to step in for the sake of your people, for the holiness of God.

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May your name be praised appropriately, properly. And what does

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God do? The church goes bankrupt and they have to sell the building and it's sold to the

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Muslims. And this, this is this, I think this would be the modern example.

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And of course, a less intense illustration because people are not going to be killed like the

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Chaldeans when they come in. It's just, just when, when the godly, they, they, they bring the prayer requests to God and God does answer, but their answer doesn't, the answer doesn't quite fit what they had in mind.

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And this is what I think Habakkuk is complaining about. He first complained that God's not doing anything, but now he knows what

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God is about to do. He believes God is doing the wrong thing. Not like this,

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God. What about the righteous ones who actually genuinely worship you? That's who

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Habakkuk has in mind. After all, Judah wasn't all completely degenerate.

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After all, there's Habakkuk. Where will they go?

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What's going to happen to them when the Chaldeans come in? And Habakkuk illustrates this in verses 14 through 17, the dire predicament of God's planned judgment.

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Verse 14 sets the background how humankind is so fragile and vulnerable.

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They're basically like fish and bottomless crawlers, right?

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They have no leaders. They have no guidance, right? They're fish and the crawling things with no kings.

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That's what it means. God, they don't know what they're doing. You know, like do krill have leaders, right?

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Do crabs have leaders? No, right? Starfish don't have leaders. They're unaware what danger is coming to them.

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They're unaware of the Chaldeans who are coming to them. In verse 15, they take up all of them with a hook.

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That's the fishing metaphor here. They catch them in their net and they gather them in their drag net.

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I guess the difference between net and the drag net is it covers, it encompasses all depth of the level of the sea, right?

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The net might be the middle part of the sea, but then the drag net, they can drag it.

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So it's not like the fishermen are sustainably catching fish, right?

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But rather they're taking everything in it, anything that they can get. They are, they're, they're the gluttonous fishermen who will indiscriminately capture everything in sight.

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The Chaldeans military prowess will leave no one secure. No one will be safe after them.

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And the question is, God, are you going to enforce the fishing regulations? God, is there going to be a stop button or is this the end?

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And Habakkuk reminds God in verse 16 that in fact, they're pagans. Therefore, they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag net because by them, their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful.

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God, they don't even worship you. Yes, you might have empowered them.

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You might have raised them up for this purpose, but they're not giving the credit to whom credit is due.

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They will pat themselves on their backs. They won't praise you. In fact, the luxury of Babylon is ridiculous.

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Babylon might have been one of the wealthiest empires in human history.

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By the time of Nebuchadnezzar, he, he just plated what used to be plated with silver, such as gates and temple with gold.

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Their luxury was so unspeakable that we believe

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Nebuchadnezzar built the hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders, right?

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We, I think it's foolish to think that the ancient people had low technology.

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I think they had greater than what we can imagine. The fact that they could build something like that back then is spectacular.

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And did they credit God, the Lord for that? Not at all. It was their own strength.

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That's, that's what it means to worship their dragnet and burn incense to it. They are crediting themselves.

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It's kind of what, what Nebuchadnezzar would say in Daniel, ah, look at this palace.

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Look at this kingdom that I have built. Ironically, after God has given the vision that your kingdom is not going to last.

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And verse 17 brings up the second problem. Shall they therefore empty their net and continue to slay nations without pity?

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Who will actually survive after this God? God, you're not like this. You're sending a bulldozer to break down a blanket fort.

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God, this is an overkill. You're sending a dynamite to get rid of an anthill.

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Notice this is not how Habakkuk ends his prayer. Many may end their prayer like this after an unsatisfactory answer, and maybe not talk to God for a while.

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Not this prophet. Turn to chapter two, verse one. I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart.

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As a prophet, his job is to watch for God's next move. Kind of like the watchman waiting for what's coming ahead.

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He is actively waiting for God's next response. And notice he is not bitter. He's not angry at God.

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He has just surrendered his two problems with God raising the Chaldeans.

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Now the prophet will trust God that he will answer. There are two common responses to unsatisfactory answers to prayer that Christians often fall into.

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One is, I'm going to cover it up. I'm going to minimize it.

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You know, I don't like the answer, but I'm going to still smile and say, well, praise

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God. But deep inside, I'm going to hold that bitterness. And deep inside, I'm going to know that it's

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God's fault. But I'm not going to say that on Sunday morning. I'm going to still say, yes,

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God did take that away from me. But, you know, praise God. Praise God. Right?

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That's one. The second one is this. You do an emotional vomit on God's lap, and then it's all his fault.

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And then you leave the church, right? I don't want anything to do with the church.

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I don't want anything to do with God who answers that way. That's not the prophet

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Habakkuk. He honestly brings the problems that he has with God's answer.

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But with no sentiment of bitterness nor anger, he submits it to God.

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After all, take a look at this and watch to see what he will say to me and what

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I will answer when I am corrected. He knows

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God will answer his prayer because he has done so. But not only that, when he answers,

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God will reproof. God will correct. God will discipline my wrong thinking.

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He humbly submits to God's reproof. He understands that when he has a problem with God's answer, it is not

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God who is wrong, but he is the one who needs to learn. When he disagrees with God, he knows he needs to change, not

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God. When's the last time we prayed like that?

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Sometimes, when God answers our prayers, we're actually dissatisfied with his answers because his answers did not fit our answer choice.

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You know, God, I gave you A, B, C, D, but you have thrown me an elephant. And sometimes, when

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God does answer our prayers, we're dissatisfied with his answer because his answer does not fit our ethics, our moral standard.

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And this is the danger of placing God in a box. We draw boundaries around God, right? Draw a box around God.

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God, you may not cross these lines because if you do, then that's wrong, right?

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God can answer this way, but don't cross this line, God. Or the modern man's favorite argument against God, I cannot believe in God who judges.

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I cannot believe in a God who sends anyone to hell. You might have seen this, ironically, by saying that you're judging the judge yourself.

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To this, I paraphrase my favorite Old Testament professor, we cannot safeguard

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God's morality with our standard. We cannot safeguard God's morality with our standard because that presupposes our standard is higher than his.

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And my New Testament professor would say, that de -God's God and your deifying self.

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You're putting yourself above God's throne. It is just not our job to tell

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God what he is able or not able to do. God is not a puppy to be locked up in a crate.

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If we don't like God's action in history, it is not God who has to change, it is our posture that needs to change.

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It is our hearts that need to change. And that sentiment is often so missing, and not only in the world, of course, but in the church.

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And that leads to a lot of disappointed and even depressed Christians because their expectation of what

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God is and what God is supposed to do are unmet.

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Now, how can Habakkuk surrender to God's plan, even though he has problems with it? He doesn't hide the problems.

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He tells us plain and simple. The prophet is fully aware of God's character and nature.

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That's it. The answer to his ability, Habakkuk's ability to submit humbly to God's future plan, despite not knowing where it's all going, is because of how he started his prayer.

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The Lord, you're God of everlasting. Your resume is thicker than mine.

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You've lived longer than me. You've done better things. You've delivered more than me.

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How can a mere mortal prove him wrong?

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And he is my holy God. How can a sinful man correct his ways? He is our rock.

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How can we just distrust his protection and security, which he has provided for his people for centuries?

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God is faithful to his people until the end because he never goes back on his promises.

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And knowing all of that, Habakkuk surrenders the future to God.

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Not because God made it clear, well, after the Babylonians do this, I'm actually gonna send them back 70 years later.

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And then they're going to build a temple, a new temple. But that temple, that's not going to be a lasting temple because I'm going to send the

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Messiah. And he's the one who's going to say, destroy this temple. And no, Habakkuk doesn't find out all of that.

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That's not what gives him peace. That's not what gives him security at night to sleep, despite knowing what

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God is about to do. Destroy Judah. What gives

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Habakkuk peace at night? What allows Habakkuk to sleep at night is not knowing and having control over the future history, which is only hidden and only known to God.

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But rather than knowledge of the great

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God and Redeemer, and his full trust, and his character and nature,

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I can surrender to God, even though the immediate future seems bleak and dark, knowing that the one who has it in his hand is pure and light.

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His intentions are better than mine. And for Christians, we actually have a greater advantage, a better reason to trust this

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God. Because this God, my holy

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God, came extremely close. He became man.

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And this God dwelt among us. People actually got to experience his compassion and faithfulness in person.

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And not only that, although innocent, because of extremely evil people with a lot of power, he was crucified.

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He was humiliated, bearing all of our sin, facing the judgment that he didn't deserve, but we did.

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He could have been the one easily crying out, Injustice, God. Jesus Christ could have said, could have said,

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This is unjust. You're not like this, God, an innocent man on the cross.

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But what does Christ cry out instead? We've heard it a couple of months ago, maybe a couple of weeks.

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Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. That is his last cry. Not injustice, not unfairness, but father, into thy hands

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I commit my spirit. More than anyone else,

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Jesus, the son of God, knew the heart of his father the best. And he understood

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God's will is greater than what the world could see and what he is experiencing at that moment on the cross.

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He understood that God can sovereignly work his redemptive plan through such torturous suffering at the hands of extremely wicked man.

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Habakkuk never had to bear the Chaldean rampage. He probably died before seeing that.

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Christ, however, suffered the full wrath of God for our sake, yet he commits his spirit to his father, even until the last moment.

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And so on the third day, the father fully vindicates the son by raising him from the dead.

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Christians, Christ is the reason why we can surrender to God's plan, even if it does not make sense to us in the moment.

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Christians, Christ is the reason why we can surrender to God's plan, despite this injustice that we see.

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Because we know his sovereignly in control over what he is about to do to unfold his redemptive plan.

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Now, how does God respond to Habakkuk's prayer? We must urgently proclaim

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God's redemptive plan that gives life to the righteous by faith, yet will judge the proud.

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We must urgently proclaim God's redemptive plan that gives life to the righteous by faith, yet will judge the proud.

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After Habakkuk submits to God, the Lord answers. Then the

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Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.

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God's answer is so sure and so secure that he commands it to be written.

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There are speculations to what this vision that he has to write. I think it's verse four.

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I think the content of the vision is verse four, because that is what needs to be going around the faithful ones of Judeans who will listen to give them hope.

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The fact that God's answer must be written on tablets tells us of a couple of important factors of God's word, about God's word.

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First, God's answer is unchangeable. It is literally set in stone in this book, right?

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In this case, he has to write it on the stone tablets. You cannot erase what is engraved on stone tablets.

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God will not err. God's answer will not change. God's promises cannot be altered.

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That's important. You having a rough week, you having an especially sinful week, cannot change the promise of God that he promised in Jesus Christ.

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That is reassuring. Second, God's answer must be proclaimed.

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This is not a private vision for Habakkuk, just so that the prophet can, you know, feel secure.

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After all, God loves the prophet Habakkuk. He does answer. No, it must be proclaimed.

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It must be carried around and distributed. Notice the urgency in which God's message must be proclaimed, that he may run who reads it.

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The reader of the vision must run. You better get out there to spread the news, spread the message.

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Third, God's answer is clearly understandable. In the age of post -modernism or post -post -modernism, wherever we are, whatever they're going to call us, right?

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Where, oh, it's whatever you think. It's whatever you mean, what it means to you.

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And then in a, in a, you know, a Bible study of 10 people, you get 10 different answers for one verse.

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And then we throw out the notion that, wait, what about what God meant? Well, here it tells us.

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What God meant has to be clearly understandable. And it will be.

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The message that God is sending out is not some cryptic, new agey,

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Eastern mysticism, or Gnostic, cultic, only reserved for a few elite people in the group.

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Rather, it is proclaimed clearly, understandably, to anyone who is willing to listen.

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God's word is not about a secret knowledge for the few, but a perspicuous proclamation for all.

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It is clear as crystal. Anyone who gets in the way of that must be promptly removed.

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Now, verse three commands God's people to wait patiently before the vision unfolds.

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For the vision is yet for an appointed time. But at the end, it will speak and it will not lie.

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Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry.

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When it says, though it tarries, I like certain translations that rather says, though it seems late.

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Then it makes sense, right? Because it says, though it tarries, wait for it. But at the end, it says it will not tarry.

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Well, what it means is, if God's vision seems like it's not unfolding right now, it seems slow, well, it's not.

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You got to wait for it because it doesn't tarry. When Jesus hasn't come back and he doesn't come back in our generation, he's not late.

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He's appointed time is perfect. God's timing is never a second late.

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In the end, God has the prerogative to choose when his redemption and judgment occur. And God will not be pressured.

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He will do his own thing in his own time. And as God's people, the proper response is wait faithfully.

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Despite the way God guarantees that his vision will unfold, it does not lie.

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That's important. God does not lie. God cannot err. And in our foolishness, people say, doesn't that make

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God, you know, not perfect? No, actually the fact that he can't lie makes him even more perfect than us.

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Our ability and our fallacy, our fallibility, the fact that we have to lie sometimes,

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I mean, not have to, we just end up lying because we're sinful, that's actually not good.

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That's not a character trait you want on your resume. The fact that God is incapable of doing that makes him

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God and divine. And this is where we get scriptural inerrancy and infallibility.

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Many foolish modern scholars have attacked scriptural inerrancy. The fact that scripture has error, infallibility.

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The scripture has no potential to err, right? It's not just, it has, it doesn't have error.

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It has, it can't err. They have said it's the doctrine of a

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Western mindset. Oh, you Western hubris, right? How dare you put that in scripture?

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Actually, it's not true. Scriptural inerrancy is a biblical mindset. It comes from scripture.

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It comes from the character of God that he can't lie. If God has given us scripture and it comes from God because it's

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God -breathed, then it can't have a lie in it. It's totally dependent on God's character and nature of honesty and faithfulness and immutability.

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He doesn't go back on his words. When God promises something, he is powerful, faithful, and wise to fulfill it to its intended end, to the dot.

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When God speaks and is written down, it cannot be wrong. That's scriptural inerrancy.

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You can't find error in its original writing. Now, what is the content of the tablets?

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Verse four is the vision. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.

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Verse four is divided into two parts concerning two different groups of people. The first deals with the proud.

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Look at the arrogant. His being is crooked from within. And this part of the verse will be unpacked next week, immediately following this section, verses five through 20.

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That song, that section that follows will be a mockery song.

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Look how it turned out for you, O Chaldeans. What's ironic is

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God has a judgment song ready even for the Chaldeans who are gonna be used for judgment because they have foolishly and arrogantly judged

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Judah. There's judgment coming for the judgment. The last part of the verse addresses the righteous.

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But the just shall live by his faith. And this is the answer to Habakkuk's second question.

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How can anyone survive after the Chaldean rampage? That was the question in verse 17.

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They're gonna be overfished. Who's gonna be left, O God? But the just shall live by his faith.

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God answers. When the judgment against the wicked occurs, the righteous will not just barely survive.

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When God's promised judgment comes, the righteous will not somehow hang in there. Rather, God promises that his righteous ones will live.

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And in the Old Testament, to live is more than just barely getting by.

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Living is thriving in the Old Testament, right?

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In the book of Ezekiel, when God passes by as Israel is wallowing in its blood and it's helpless, it's vulnerable, it's dying.

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What's God's command? Live. And it does live. It prospers.

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It becomes the envy of all the nations. And of course, they fall into idolatry.

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But the point is, when God promises life, it's not just barely hanging there on the lifeline, right?

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The righteous will live by faith. The just will live by his commitment and trust in the

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Lord. Even though the Chaldeans will destroy Judah, the righteous will be safe by faith in their

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God. Charles Feinberg, a great academic mind of the last century, calls this verse the watchword for Christianity.

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It's the key to the whole book of Habakkuk and is the central theme of all the scriptures.

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The righteous will survive the onslaught of judgment coming against them, not because they're stronger, not because they're smarter, not because they are better, but because they trust in the one who saves.

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That is the watchword of Christianity. By faith, God tells the prophet the good news.

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This is indeed the good news. The wicked will meet their end. Habakkuk, the wicked that you were worried about in your first prayer, they are going to be judged.

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But the righteous will not be judged along with them because they will live.

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They will live by faith. And although Habakkuk 2 .4's immediate context is for the

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Judeans who lived 600 years before Christ, this verse applies to all the future believers who eagerly wait upon God's promised redemption.

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No wonder the New Testament quotes Habakkuk 2 .4 in three different occasions. Romans 1 .17,

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Galatians 3 .11, and Hebrews 10 .37 -38. The last part was read this morning.

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I don't have time to go through all three, but I'll go over the

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Hebrews one. Habakkuk 2 .4 is the centerpiece of Christian soteriology and eschatology.

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Soteriology is anything to do with salvation, and eschatology is concerning the last things.

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Eschaton, right? The last thing. First, believers are not saved by good works, but by trusting in Christ alone.

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They will live by faith. They live by their faith in Christ's atoning death and resurrection alone.

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Just as the righteous Judeans 600 years before Christ did not rescue themselves.

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Notice God doesn't say, now you gotta move to this city. You gotta ask

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Egypt for help. That's not what God says. We do not and cannot rescue ourselves, but wholly trust in Christ's accomplished work on the cross.

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The righteous will live by faith means it's totally, our lives depend totally upon what

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God does, not what the righteous ones do. That requires faith, and faith and works cannot go together for that reason.

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And that's how we live despite the trials, what trials may come, what temptations may come.

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The righteous in Christ live by faith. Eschatologically, Habakkuk 2 .4

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encourages us to persevere until the end, because Jesus is coming back.

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God's promise, just as God's promise of redemption to the righteous ones in Judah was set in stone, in that case, literally, so is the redemption of God's people in Christ.

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The gospel must be clearly proclaimed for that reason. The gospel must be tightly trusted.

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The good news is that the king has conquered sin and death, and he is returning for his own.

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He's returning for his own, so that the righteous may live by faith while the wicked and the proud are perishing.

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That is the promise. And to us, verse three applies, if it seems

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Christ is delayed, wait for it because he will come. He'll surely come. Christ's return will occur in God's appointed time, and he will not tarry.

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And those who faithfully trust in Christ will live despite the judgment upon the wicked.

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And that is what the author of Hebrews is thinking of. Persevere, oh first century

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Jewish Christians. Persevere because you know God is coming back and his word is so sure and his future secure for all who trust in him.

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And this morning, if your trust is not in Christ, there's urgency there because God, Jesus comes back in his appointed time, and that time is set in stone.

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And when he comes back, those who do not trust in him will be judged along with the wicked.

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But those who trust in him, the outcome is secure.

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The righteous will live. Let us pray.

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Father, we are grateful that it is not up to us to save ourselves and that it is set in stone that you will do away with every evil.

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Every suffering that we endure has an expiration date.

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Every suffering that we endure has a purpose.

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We may not know it. We may never know it. But help us to surrender to the one who does.

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Help us to surrender to the one who cares more about our lives than we do.

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Help us to surrender to Christ this morning. Help us to learn. Help us to be corrected.