Faith's Answer

We have been studying what the Bible says about faith this summer.

And today we continue in the book of Habakkuk, a little book in the Old Testament.

He tells us, basically, the book is given to us to tell us how to live by faith in dark, terrible times, evil times.

If you'd like a sermon outline, our users have them right now, just raise your hand, they'll give you one.

And again, a reminder to our children who are taking notes during this time that see me after the service and we will take care of you.

So you know, someone recently asked me what the letters F A Q stand for.

You know, I'm frequently asked that question, but I have no idea what it means.

You could say that Habakkuk chapter one is an F-A-T-Q portion.

It's filled with frequently asked theological questions, like, why doesn't God answer my prayers?

Why does God allow good people to suffer?

How can a holy God use evil people to discipline good people?

And why is God silent when his people are hurt by evil?

These questions are relevant to this day.

And at the dark times in our life, we're going to have questions too.

So far in Habakkuk study, we've learned four things we must do if we're going to walk by faith in terrible times.

First, we must not abandon God when we don't understand what he's doing or why he's allowing what he is allowing us to suffer.

Second, we must draw closer to God instead by praying our heart out to him, asking him bold questions, and lamenting even for what we're facing.

Third, Habakkuk teaches us that we must realize, we must know this deep in our heart, that God is sovereign, holy, and trust him for the long view.

And fourth, we must wait with patient endurance for God's plan to ultimately be revealed.

Today we're going to continue in Habakkuk chapter 2, where Habakkuk's wait is over.

Habakkuk 2 · chapter mention

And God begins to answer him.

And the rest of chapter 2, which I won't cover today, we'll cover sometime in August, after things settle down.

We're just going to begin the first part today, Habakkuk chapter 2, if you want to follow along in your Bible.

Habakkuk 2 · chapter mention

Habakkuk chapter 2, beginning in verse 1.

Habakkuk 2 · chapter mention

Habakkuk says, he's waited, he just asked God a question, and he said, I'm going to stand on my guard post, station myself on the rampart, and I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me, what God will speak to him, and how I may reply when I am reproved.

Well, then the Lord answered me and said, Record the vision, inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run.

For the vision is yet for the appointed time.

It hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail.

Though it tarries, wait for it, for it will certainly come, it will not delay.

I have two main points for the message today.

Waiting for answers, and second, God's God's three concerns.

First, waiting for answers.

Habakkuk chapter one ends with Habakkuk's last question to God.

How can you, a holy God, judge a corrupt people like us with people who are more evil than us?

And chapter two begins, you don't see this in the English translation, but the chapter two is designed.

Um it begins with Habakkuk waiting, verse one.

He's waiting.

Um he's waiting for God to answer him.

We don't know how long he waited, but we find him waiting, as we looked at last time, in the city's watchtower.

Um, the rampart.

Habakkuk 2-1.

I'll stand in my guardpost, station myself on the rampart, I'll keep watch to see what he will speak to me, how I may reply when I am reproved.

It's very likely that the watchtower he mentions here wasn't just a metaphor for how we should wait on the Lord, although it is that.

Uh in the city's watchtower.

If that's the case, then Habakkuk was serving in Israel's uh military, which is probably the case.

The irony is Habakkuk isn't watching for an invading army, he's waiting for the Lord to answer him.

On the one hand, Habakkuk is sent into the watchtower by his superiors to watch and warn them if the Babylonians come.

On the other hand, the real reason Habakkuk is there, he's waiting for God's explanation about how he's able to justify sending the evil Babylonian nation against them.

And as I said, now God, as we continue in verse two, God answers Habakkuk one last time.

And it's the rest of chapter two.

And he begins by saying to Habakkuk, write this down.

What's interesting is that God really never answers Habakkuk's pointed questions with the answers he's waiting to hear.

Just like Job, listen, God in the scripture, God never feels the need to justify his actions with anybody.

His nature is holy.

By definition, God cannot do evil.

Whatever he does is good, right, and just.

While God doesn't justify his actions in his response to Habakkuk, he does give us what we need to know to trust his judgment and persevere in a world where evil exists and we're surrounded by it.

Living by faith in evil times, the point today is we need to hear and hold on to the truths we find in God's word.

This is what he's trying to tell Habakkuk.

If you don't catch anything else today, that's the next thing we do if we're going to walk by faith in evil times.

Hear, hold on to what God says in his holy word.

Specifically, we need to hold on to the truths of scripture that reveal, where God has revealed to us things about himself.

So we don't end up doubting and wondering and questioning God in these times.

He wants us to know that he's good.

The scriptures proclaim him as just and holy and loving, and he will always do what is right.

Always.

And that's what we're going to look at next, God's three concerns.

And they all reflect God's concern for his people.

The first concern God has is that people hear his word.

Habakkuk 2.2, the Lord answered me and said, Record the vision, inscribe it on tablets, write it down.

Why?

So the one who's reading it may run.

If God were just concerned about punishing and disciplining his people, why does he go to the trouble of repeatedly warning them through his prophets?

After the Babylonian did invade, the Babylonians did invade after that invasion, uh, a book was written after that.

When they came back to the land 70 years later, we call him the chronicler, first and second chronicles.

The chronicler explains why God brought judgment by the Babylonians.

It was because the people at the time despised God's word.

Repeatedly, they weren't listening.

2 Chronicles 36, 15 to 17, as the Chronicler looks back, this is his comment.

The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place, but they mocked the messengers of God, despised his word, scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword and the house and the sanctuary, had no compassion on the young man or virgin or old man or infirm.

He gave them all into his hand.

God warned the people repeatedly through the prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk.

See, God wants his people to know what he's doing, who he is, why he's doing it, and what they need to do.

That's one reason God gave us his word.

Right before the Babylonian invasion, uh God sent the prophet Jeremiah as one of the prophets to warn them.

He wanted the people to hear his word.

In Jeremiah 36, verses 1 to 3, it says, In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Write this down.

Jeremiah 36:1–3

Take a scroll, write on it all the words which I've spoken to you.

Concerning Israel, concerning Judah, concerning the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day.

Perhaps, maybe, just maybe, the house of Judah will hear the calamity which I plan to bring them, in order that every man may turn from his evil boy, then I'll forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Maybe, just maybe, if they hear it, if they really hear it and respond.

And God wanted his people at that time, Jeremiah's message, to hear the message of salvation accurately, because what was going on at the time, I don't have time to go into all of it, but there were other prophets at the time in Judah.

Jeremiah was one voice saying, This is the word of the Lord.

Unless you repent, turn from your evil, uh, God's gonna bring the Babylonians to judge us.

Well, other prophets were saying, Jeremiah doesn't know what he's talking about.

Uh we're not gonna die.

The Lord won't let the Babylonians come in here.

Jeremiah 27, 12 to 15.

So Jeremiah spoke words like all these to Zedekiah, king of the king of Judah, saying, Bring your necks under the king of Babylon and serve him and his people and live.

Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, famine, pestilence?

As the Lord has spoken to that nation which will not serve the king of Babylon?

So do not listen to the words the prophets who speak to you, saying, You will not serve the king of Babylon.

They prophesy a lie to you.

For I have not sent them, declares the Lord, but they prophesy falsely in my name, in order that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you.

Now the sad part is like Jeremiah's day, today we, you and I, are bombarded by all kinds of voices telling us the way life is.

Um bombarded, especially social media.

Um can't compete.

The voices telling us what we should believe, what we should do, that are exactly the opposite of what God has said in his word.

The voices.

Which one are you listening to?

It's the same God who spoke through Jeremiah and the prophets to Israel.

God's word, he's confirmed it by signs and wonders for millennia through the prophets, preserved it for our sake.

His word is true and faithful and given to us so that we might know what to do, to live by faith in any time, but especially in evil times.

When you're in the midst of troubling times, this is the message today.

Hear God's message, his word.

Immerse yourself in the word of God.

I say to everyone who's going through a troubling time, immerse yourself in the word of God.

I mean, consume it.

That's what God's going to use to help you trust him and walk by faith.

So the first concern God has is that his people hear his word.

The second concern is that his people respond to the message and be saved from his wrath.

Habakkuk 2.2.

Lord answered me, record the vision, scribe it on tablets, so that the one who reads it may run, respond.

It's true.

This is what you need to do.

He instructs Habakkuk to write this message down and get it out there.

Just like we have been told, get the gospel out there.

People are perishing.

God means what he says.

Those who believe the word, the message, will run, will respond.

As a result, they'll be saved, just like God warned the people of Nineveh through the prophet Jonah.

God wants us to heed his word and apply it for our own benefit, not discard it and ignore it to our own detriment.

Unfortunately, back in Jeremiah's day, King Zedekiah was, he flagrantly discarded God's word being sent to him.

The message of salvation.

He just discarded it.

Listen, Jeremiah 36, verse 4, and then 20 to 24.

Jeremiah 36:4

Then Jeremiah called Baruch, the son of Nariah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which he had spoken to him.

Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took him out of the chamber.

Elishama the scribe, and Jehudi read it to the king, as well as all the officials who stood beside the king.

Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month with the fire burning in the brazure before him.

And when Jehudi read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe's knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

Yet the king and all her his servants who heard these words were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments.

If you want to know the end of that story, read the last chapters of Jeremiah and see what happens to Zedekiah.

Jeremiah's message was written on papyrus, which was flammable.

Habakkuk's message was written on stone tablets.

This ain't going anywhere.

So God's first concern, hear his word.

Second concern, respond with a good heart.

Third concern God has for his people is that they have hope, hope in his word.

Don't judge your future by what's happening in the present.

Give me time.

You don't see it yet.

Habakkuk 2.3, for the vision is yet for the appointed time.

It hastens toward the goals.

It will not fail.

Though it tarries, wait for it.

It will certainly come.

It will not delay.

This statement is a message that God is giving his people to give them hope.

And in that hope, to wait with patience on him.

But God's promise here to Habakkuk involves more than his immediate time frame.

You see, it may feel like us that God is not dealing with evil, he's not responding to our cries.

But verse 3 encourages us not just to wait, but to wait with hope.

As I said before, God always takes the long view.

Now I want to show you something in verse 3 that's not easily picked up in the English translations.

In verse 3, here in verse 3, the Hebrew subject is ambiguous, making it harder to translate.

So it reads: most translations have it hastens toward the goal, it will not fail, though it tarries, wait for it, for it will certainly come, it will not delay.

What does the it refer to?

It's ambiguous.

In Hebrew, the third person subject has the same form as he, she, or it.

The subject could just as easily be translated as he.

So listen.

Wait.

He hastens toward the goal, he will not fail, though he tarries, wait for him.

He will certainly come, he will not delay.

Could the he, God is saying, be the Messiah?

Could he be referring to the coming of Jesus?

That's what you're waiting for.

This will explain everything.

Here's the best part.

The ambiguity in Hebrew.

Um to remove that ambiguity in Hebrew, it's best to look at how the Holy Spirit translates it into Greek in the New Testament.

And we find that in the book of Hebrews, where the author is writing, actually, interesting, ironically, he's writing about how to endure evil times by faith in the book of Hebrews.

And listen to Hebrews chapter 10, verses 35 to 38, where he's quoting Habakkuk 2, verse 3.

Hebrews 10:35–38 Habakkuk 2:3

Therefore, don't throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance.

Same thing Habakkuk is saying to the his to the people of Judah.

Right if he was speaking to us.

You have need of endurance, so that when you've done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.

For here's the quote Yet a little while, the coming one will come and not delay.

But my righteous one shall live by faith.

If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

He's quoting Habakkuk.

Habakkuk 2 verses 3 and 4.

Habakkuk 2:3

The right of Hebrews is saying that the it in Hebrew in Habakkuk 2, 3 actually is he actually referring to Jesus, the coming one.

And so God's message to Habakkuk is relevant to us today.

We are called upon to wait on him, Jesus, to come again.

Just like they were waiting for him to come the first time and make things right.

And so God's message is relevant to us today.

He's going to come a second time, just as he promised, hear it, respond, and have hope.

This is our hope.

So today's lesson shows us we need two more things to walk by faith in evil times.

The truth of God's word, immersing ourselves in it.

We learn about God's character, his promises.

And that brings us to the second thing: the hope from God and His coming Messiah.

You know, truth and hope is what he's giving Habakkuk today, and that's exactly what the gospel message gives us.

Here's the truth.

God will judge sin.

He's holy.

No excuses.

According to Scripture, that judgment is death, eternal death without a Savior.

Here's the comfort and hope.

God loves us and concerned about us, and he, because of that, sent his sinless son, Jesus, to take his judgment for our God's judgment for our sin.

The coming one.

That's why the gospel is good news.

As Romans 6 23 says, Paul says, the wages of sin is death.

Listen carefully, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Many people today think that salvation is about making myself worthy to receive eternal life, to receive heaven.

No, Jesus is all the worthy you need.

And it's free just for the believing in him as your Messiah, as your Savior.

God's promise to Habakkuk was fulfilled in Jesus.

The Longview, see, He came just as He promised.

And guess what?

He promised to come again.

Same God, same Savior.

And we wait.

But today I invite you, if you never have, to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, receive the gift of eternal life.

What an amazing God we serve.

Take hope in Him.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your mercy toward us in Jesus.

Thank you that you're the one who knows the end from the beginning, and that our future in Jesus is secure and good, better than we could ever imagine.

Help us, Lord, to heed your word when our life takes a hard turn, to immerse ourselves in it and in your promise.

Help us to hope in the promise of Jesus' coming.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.