In 1966, this lady called Elizabeth Elliot wrote a book called No Graven Image.
And Elizabeth Elliot herself was a missionary to tribesmen in South American Amazon Forest.
Her husband had been killed a few years before by the very people that they were trying to reach.
Anyway, she then writes this novel, and it's about a young lady that is a missionary to tribesmen in the Amazon.
And so it's quite autobiographical.
And in this book, there's this missionary called Margaret.
And her job is she does Bible translation for tribes that have no language.
And so she first goes and learns the language, documents it.
They have no written language.
She documents it and then translates the Bible into their language so that they can have the gospel.
And she's working with this tribe in the Ecuadorian mountains.
And key to her translation is a man called Pedro.
He's the only man in the world, as far as she knows, who speaks both the language of this tribe as well as Spanish.
And so he's the connection between her and this tribe that she's trying to reach with the gospel.
Anyway, one morning, she's been working for years with Pedro.
And she's almost at the place where she can document the language, write it down, and then start her translation work.
And so one morning, she's on her way to work, and she's praying this heartfelt prayer.
God, thank you so much for the privilege of being able to do what I do.
Thank you that you've called me to translate the Bible and to help this tribe to know the gospel.
Thank you for Pedro and just for all your blessings in my life.
And she's going to work, and she gets to Pedro's house.
And as she gets there, they say, oh, Pedro's sick.
He's got a cut in his leg, and it's infected.
And she says, no problem.
I'm a trained nurse.
And so she goes to her bag, and she gets some penicillin.
And she gives him an injection to deal with the infection.
And says, you'll be right as rain after a few days.
And after a few minutes, Pedro starts to convulse and shake, and he experiences anaphylaxis.
His throat swells, and he has an allergic reaction to the penicillin.
And he starts to die right there in front of her.
And as he's dying in front of her, Margaret, this lady, cries out,
Lord, you answered my prayers.
You gave me Pedro.
God, he's the only one.
Remember that.
He is the only one.
And Pedro dies in front of her.
And as he dies, all of her life's work, the last five, ten years,
everything she's given her life to is wiped away in an instant,
and it completely vanishes.
And towards the end of the book, she stands at Pedro's grave, and she says this.
She says, and God, what of him?
He allowed Pedro to die, or perhaps he caused me to kill him.
Does he now, I ask there at the graveside, does he expect me to worship him?
If you have ever, like Elizabeth Elliot, asked the question, God, how on earth could you let something like this happen?
God, where are you?
God, don't you care anymore?
You're not alone.
Chances are you're not the only one in this room that's asked that question.
And this morning, we look at a passage of Scripture.
We're going to start this three-week series in this book called Habakkuk, or Habakkuk.
And one of the biblical authors, Habakkuk, is this prophet.
And he, too, wrestled with this question.
God, how can you let this happen?
God, where are you?
Why have you abandoned me?
Now, in the Old Testament, the prophet was meant to be God's ambassador.
He speaks for God, on behalf of God, to God's people.
But Habakkuk is one of the unusual prophets, because nowhere in his entire book does he speak to God's people.
The entire book of Habakkuk is not about him speaking for God to God's people.
It's about him wrestling with God around this question.
Now, I want you to know that we actually planned this preaching series three months ago.
And yet, what's interesting is the entire book of Habakkuk revolves around political tension and uncertainty.
And about how Habakkuk is wrestling with this question, how another nation, which is far more strong and more powerful than him,
that he considers to be unjust, and he considers to have no regard for the law of the land,
is about to invade his nation and take over.
And so he's wrestling with this question, saying, God, where are you in the midst of it?
Now, I'm not making a political statement at all,
but it's no coincidence that in the week that we as a city have wrestled with this exact question,
Habakkuk two and a half thousand years ago wrestles with the same question.
And I think God has divinely coincident brought these things together.
Now, in our section that we're going to look at today, there are four parts to this passage.
Firstly, Habakkuk complains to God.
Where are you, God?
God then responds.
Habakkuk then complains again, and God responds a second time.
And so it's quite technical, and there's a lot of Hebrew poetry.
And so you're going to need your Bible in front of you or the bulletin in front of you.
We're going to look at a lot of Scripture.
I'm going to ask you to really follow the flow of the argument as we go.
So you're going to need your Bible in front of you.
And so let's dive into the first section, which is Habakkuk's first complaint.
And it starts off in verse 2 of chapter 1.
He cries out.
He is unhappy with what's happening in the nation of Israel.
And he says,
Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear me?
I'll cry out to you violence, and you will not save.
So Habakkuk is an unhappy man.
And he's unhappy because the nation of Israel, which is his nation, things are not going well there.
There's violence.
There's animosity.
There is division.
There is lawlessness and hopelessness.
And so look what he says in verse 3.
He says,
Destruction and violence are before me.
Strife and contention arise.
Everywhere I look, I see violence.
I see injustice.
I see divisions in families.
I see divisions in churches.
I see divisions in society.
Everybody is looking out for themselves.
Nobody cares about anybody else.
Peace and hope and rest are a distant memory, he says.
And he says,
Your law, in other words, your word, your scripture, is paralyzed.
Where once upon a time, your word was sharp.
It would cut to the heart.
It was penetrating.
People would listen to your word and be arrested.
Now, he says, your word is disregarded.
It's like somebody's thrown it in the corner and it's gathering dust.
Your law, O God, is paralyzed.
And he says in verse 4,
The wicked surround the righteous.
In other words, those that are wanting to do the right thing are now in the minority.
Because the majority of people have no regard for God, disregard his word.
They're in the majority and they are threatening those that want to honor you.
They are surrounded the righteous.
And it seems like Habakkuk has been praying this for a long time.
And so now he's beginning to wonder.
He says,
How long shall I keep on crying out to you, God, and you do nothing?
How long shall my prayers, O God, fall on deaf ears?
It's like he's saying,
God, are you not able to answer prayer anymore?
Is prayer just ineffective?
Or maybe, he thinks,
Maybe the problem is not that God is not able to answer prayer.
Maybe the problem is not that God doesn't hear our prayers.
He hears it, but God is incapable of answering it.
His hands are tied.
And so look at what he says.
He says,
Why do you idly look at wrong and do nothing about it?
Have you too, God, been left paralyzed?
Well, God responds to Habakkuk's complaint.
And look at how God responds in verse 5.
He answers him and he says,
No, Habakkuk, your prayers have not fallen on deaf ears.
And no, I'm not incapable of doing something about it.
Look at verse 6.
He says,
Now that sounds pretty good.
Habakkuk, funny you ask.
I am not deaf to your prayers.
I am actually doing something about it.
And God says,
I'm doing something in your day.
In other words,
it's not like Habakkuk prayed to God and aroused God from his sleep.
But God now is woken from his slumber and he's kind of scratching his eyes and saying,
Okay, let me get to it.
Okay.
He says,
No, in your day,
while you are praying and crying out to me,
Look, be astounded.
I'm doing something.
Look at what I'm doing amongst the nations.
Finally, Habakkuk thinks we're getting somewhere.
God seems to be paying attention.
Except,
look at the work that God says he's doing.
Friends,
if you and I prayed for God to do something,
heal your mother or your father,
lead your brother to Christ,
restore some justice in the city,
and we pray and God says,
Look, I'm doing something in your day.
I'm doing something so amazing that if I told you about it,
you wouldn't even believe me.
I'd be pretty pleased, right?
But look at what God says here.
Except in Habakkuk's case,
the astounding thing that God is about to do is not good news,
it's bad news.
When God says,
I'm about to do something so astounding,
you won't believe me if I told you,
it's not because it's awesome,
as Tobin would say.
It's because it's awful.
God says to Habakkuk,
things are about to get worse before they get better.
Look at what he says.
Look amongst the nations,
see, wonder, and be astounded.
I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe,
even if I told you.
Behold, I'm raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation.
Now, the Chaldeans were part of the Babylonians,
and the Chaldeans were actually a province
at the south of Babylon,
and they were the most military,
ruthless of all the provinces.
And so what happened was,
the Chaldeans had got this fire in their belly,
and they had revitalized the Babylonian army.
And the Babylonians are now on the rise.
They are militarily and politically on the rise.
They are about to,
after this,
smash the world's superpower,
the Assyrian army.
After that,
they're going to smash the Egyptian army.
And then after that,
they're going to make their way through Israel
and wipe out Israel
and overtake Israel.
And so what happens is,
God is saying to Habakkuk
that he, God,
is busy raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
as his instrument
to punish the nation of Israel
for their rampant idolatry
and their injustice
and their wickedness.
God is going to give Israel
into the hands of the Chaldeans,
the Babylonians,
and the Babylonians
will be God's instrument
to deal with the wickedness in Israel.
And so look at what he says.
Behold, I'm raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
They are dreaded and fearsome.
Their justice and their dignity
go forth from themselves.
In other words,
they are a law unto themselves.
They are a respecter of no law
or moral code.
Verse eight,
their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves.
Their horsemen come from afar,
they fly in like an eagle,
swift to devour.
And the imagery here is of a leopard
that is waiting to pounce on its prey
and devour it.
Or like that comes like a lightning,
like an eagle that flies in.
And before you even know what's happening,
it's sunk its teeth into you
and your life is etching away.
That's what he says these Babylonians are like.
Verse nine,
they come for violence.
They gather captives like sand in their hands.
And notice their arrogance
and their self-confidence.
He says,
Now,
if the book of Habakkuk starts off with a complaint
because Habakkuk looks around him
and things aren't going well
and he's got this burden on his heart.
God,
where are you in the midst of this?
Habakkuk's burden is about to get a whole lot heavier
because God says to him,
My answer to the injustice in Israel
is even more injustice.
My answer to the wickedness in Israel
is even more wickedness.
And Habakkuk is thinking,
What on earth is going on?
And this is confusing, right?
And part of what's confusing
is that what is about to happen in Israel
is not just a fact of history.
It's the hand of God that is causing it.
Look at what God says.
He says,
Look,
See,
One didn't be astounded.
I am doing a work in your days.
I,
God,
am raising up the Chaldeans.
Now,
we need to be clear here.
God is not saying that
He is causing the Chaldeans
to be wicked
and ruthless.
It's not like God took this peaceful,
gentle,
selfless,
other-seeking people
and put in them
this wicked spirit,
cause them to be evil
and then unleash them on Israel.
God is taking a nation
that is already wicked
and God dishonoring
and ruthless.
And He says,
You will be my instruments
in my hand
to deal with the wickedness
of my people.
God is going to give Israel
into their hands.
Now,
this raises all sorts of questions
and problems.
What are we meant to make of this?
What are we meant to make of God's assertion
that He,
the sovereign God,
is going to use the wickedness
of one people
to deal with the wickedness
of another?
How is this justice?
Well,
part of the book of Habakkuk
is that it doesn't give us
any superficial answers.
It doesn't give us
any simplistic answers.
And when we get to the end
of the book of Habakkuk,
Habakkuk is not going to tell us
how it all resolves nicely
and just ties up at the end
with a neat bow on top.
Like a Christmas present.
But what Habakkuk
is going to teach us
is how to live
in the midst
of the challenges of life
and still know
how to trust God.
So I want us to think
about this idea
of God's sovereignty
for a bit.
Scripture affirms
that though God
sometimes seems
absent from human affairs,
God rules over everything,
everywhere.
And this is challenging
not only because
we seldom see
God's hand involved.
So sometimes we look
at the affairs of life
and we think,
where is God involved in that?
His hand seems absent
and yet it is.
It's like a silent hand
that is guiding
and controlling things.
But also it's challenging
because it challenges
our self-importance,
our self-sovereignty.
And yet the scripture tells us
that whether we understand
it or not,
irrespective of how
we feel about it,
the God who made the world
and everything in it
absolutely rules
over all of it.
There is not a single
raindrop that falls,
not a single blade of grass
that spouts,
not a single law is passed
or cancer cell multiplies
without the sovereign God
knowing about it,
allowing it to happen
and sometimes even causing it
to happen in the first place.
So let me read
three scriptures to us
that affirm this.
Proverbs chapter 19 says,
many are the plans
in the mind of a man
or a woman,
but it's the purposes
of the Lord
that will stand.
Proverbs 16,
the dice is cast
into the lap.
So in the olden days
you wanted to make a decision,
you couldn't Google it,
you throw a dice
and whichever way
the dice lands
instructs you
which way to make a decision.
The dice is cast
into the lap,
but it's every decision
comes from the Lord.
Proverbs 21,
a king's heart
is a stream of water
in the hands of the Lord.
It is God
who is turning it
wherever he wills.
Now,
John Piper
summarizes God's teaching,
the Bible's teaching
God's sovereignty
like this.
Let me step aside
and you can read it
for us.
Sorry,
Melinda keep on
bashing this microphone.
Piper says this,
when the book of Ephesians
says that God works
all things
according to the counsel
of his will,
this all things
includes
the fall of sparrows
and animals,
the rolling of the dice,
the death of his people,
the decisions of kings,
the failing of sight,
the sickness of children,
the loss of money,
the suffering of God's saints,
the completion
of travel plans,
the persecution
of Christians,
the repentance
of souls,
the gift of faith.
In other words,
coming to faith in Christ
is a gift from God.
The pursuit
of holiness,
the growth
of believers,
the giving of life
and the taking in death,
and even
the crucifixion
of his son.
Now,
just by the way,
all the slides
are going to be on the app
this afternoon
so you can get
those scriptures there.
What do we make of this?
Now,
I wonder if you've ever
had an instance in life
when something happened
that seemed like a setback
and you thought,
that's not according
to my plans.
God,
why did you allow
this to happen?
Only for later on
to look back upon
that instance
and to realize
God's hand was guiding
each and every instance.
So,
for instance,
a trivial example,
maybe you are at university,
you fall sick,
and you have to miss
a whole semester
of university.
And you think,
that's going to be
bad news
because now
I'm going to graduate
six months after my class,
the job market
is going to be flooded
by all my classmates,
I'm going to be
behind the curve
and it's going to be
difficult for me
to find work.
Only for you to then
come across a professor
that you never would have had
if you had graduated earlier,
a professor who
shapes your thinking
and shapes your vocation
and changes the whole course
of your career.
Or maybe another instance,
maybe you lose your job
and you think,
this is disastrous.
I've got student debts
to pay off,
I've got student loans
to pay off,
some other debt.
How are things
going to work out?
Only to later on
find that actually
God was leading
and guiding you
because He opened
another door
or He taught you something
or you grew in a way
that you would never
have grown
if things had worked out
according to your plans.
And at the time
it seems like,
God,
where are you
in all of this?
How can you let it happen?
And yet God is guiding you
all along the way.
And so sometimes
our lives feel
like a tapestry,
right?
You know,
a tapestry,
a picture that a weaver
picks with,
makes,
creates with thread.
And sometimes God
grabs the black
piece of thread
and is sewing a tapestry
in our lives
and we think,
God,
why the black thread?
And you look at your friends
and God's picked
the red thread
or the golden thread
or some beautiful color
and your life
is just the black thread.
And you think,
where are you,
God?
Just by the way,
social media,
you only ever see
the red threads,
right?
And the golden threads.
You never see the black
and the gray
and the other threads.
But friends,
who knows
whether God right now
is leading
and shaping events
either in your life
or globally
that seem disastrous
and yet 20,
60,
or 100 years from now
we will look back upon
and things which seem
to us as if God
had completely abandoned us
were actually strategic moments
of his leading
and his guiding.
And so the wise man
and woman
looks at events
and says,
God,
where is your hand in this?
What are you doing?
How are you shaping events
for your glory
and our good?
And so that leads us
to Habakkuk's second complaint.
Now as we look at this,
I want to ask us a question.
If you're a Christian
this morning,
have you ever got
to the place
in your walk with God
where what you believed
about God
theologically
or intellectually
or from the scriptures
seems incompatible
with the reality
of life played out
before you?
So you see some instance
and you think,
that doesn't make sense.
That seems to contradict
your scriptures.
Has that ever happened to you?
Maybe for instance,
you read the Bible
and you see Jesus
just seems to heal people
everywhere he went.
Everyone he encountered,
he just heals them.
And then you are suffering
some disease
or you've got a child
that's sick
and they just don't seem
to get better.
Or maybe you read
in your Bible
how God has made you
a new person in Christ.
The old is gone
and you're a new creation.
And yet there's sin
in your life
that you just can't seem
to beat.
It seems to have paralyzed
you and you're enslaved
to it.
What do we do?
What do we do
when our view
of who God is
and how his world operates
seems incompatible
with the reality
of life on the ground?
Well, that's the dilemma
that Habakkuk is facing.
And so look at what he says
in verse 12.
He says,
he now quotes back to God
what he knows about God.
He says,
God,
are you not from everlasting?
Oh Lord my God,
my Holy One,
we shall not die.
So he's saying,
God,
you are the Lord,
you are the Holy One.
How is your holiness
compatible
with the injustice
and the violence
of the Babylonians
that you are going
to bring to Israel?
Those two things
don't compute.
They don't make sense.
You are holy.
They are as far
from holy as you can get
and yet you're saying
that you're going
to bring them
to Israel.
And he says,
God,
you are from everlasting.
We shall not die.
Surely not.
He's trying to convince
either himself or God
one way or the other.
He's reciting back to God
what he knows about him.
But still,
this doesn't sit well with him
because granted,
Israel was bad
but Babylon is even worse.
How is it possible
that God is going to use
unjust Babylon
to teach justice
to Israel?
So look at what he says
in verse 13.
He says,
God,
why do you idly
look at traitors?
Why do you remain silent
when the wicked man
swallows up someone else
more righteous
than himself?
And besides,
he says,
all that's going to happen
is that Babylon
is just going to
conquer people
and they're not going
to give you any credit.
He says,
God,
Israel are like fish
in the sea
that have lost their way.
And now,
the Babylonians
are like going to
get their net,
they're going to
capture the fish,
throw them on board
the ship,
chop them up
and destroy them.
How does that
teach your people
justice?
All he's going to do
is worship his own strength
and his military power.
And so Habakkuk
is confused
and so he ends
off his speech,
he comes to the end
himself,
he's nothing more to say
and so look at what he says
in chapter 2,
verse 1.
He says,
I will take my stand
at the watch post,
I will station myself
on the tower,
I will look out
and see what God
has to say to me.
Now in the Old Testament,
the role of a prophet
was a very important one
and it was often described
as like a watchman.
And so what happened
was the prophet
would hear from God
and then he would
station himself
at the city gates
or maybe on the city walls
and he would watch out
over God's people
and check that they were
doing what God
had told them to do.
And if they weren't
doing what God
had told them to,
they would call out
and say,
be careful,
I'm warning you,
things are not looking good.
And so they would stand
on the watchtower
calling out to God's people.
And Habakkuk says,
I will go to the watchtower
and I will take my stand.
Except this time,
he's not talking
to God's people,
he's turned his back
towards God's people
and he's facing God
and he says,
God,
what are you going to say?
I'm all ears.
What do you have to say
to my complaints?
Now friends,
this begs a very important question.
How do you respond
when you've been brought
to the end of yourself
and you don't know
where to turn?
When God's not answering
your prayers,
when God's ways
don't make sense,
when your very idea
of who God is
and how he's meant
to act in the world
is lying like tatters
on the floor,
how do you respond?
Where do you turn
when you've come
to the end of yourself?
Because,
let me think about
how to say this.
In other words,
let me ask you this.
Friends,
have you,
like Habakkuk
and countless others,
been brought
to the end of yourself?
Because if you haven't,
it may just be
that the God
that you think
you're serving
and the God
that you think
you're worshipping
is actually
a made up God
of your imagination
and not the real God
who is Lord of all.
Because throughout Scripture,
again and again and again,
anyone who comes
to know God deeply
is first confronted
by the awesome reality
that God doesn't fit
neatly into our
constructed paradigms
of who he is
and how he ought
to behave.
Remember Elizabeth
Elliott's book?
The book is called
No Graven Image
and the idea is this.
When you've got
an image of who God is
and how he's meant
to act in the world,
God is going to
shatter that image.
And so at the end
of the book,
this missionary
is standing by the grave
side and remember
what she says?
She says,
and God,
he had allowed
Pedro to die
or perhaps
he had caused me
to kill him.
And does this God
now expect me
to worship him?
On the very final page
of the book,
she says the most
profound thing.
She says,
God,
if he was merely
my accomplice,
if God was merely
my helper
to help make my life
comfortable and convenient,
if God was merely
there to somebody
to help me get on
in life,
God had betrayed me
because he had
stuffed it all up.
If God is merely
my helper,
my accomplice
to make my life
comfortable and convenient,
he had betrayed me.
He was a pathetic
accomplice.
But if on the other hand,
he was God,
if on the other hand,
he was the sovereign
God of all,
he had freed me.
Why?
Because he had freed me
from the image
I had in my head
of who God
was meant to be
and how he's meant
to behave
and how he's meant
to act.
And we see how God
in his kindness
brings Habakkuk
to one of the most
frightening places
he's ever been.
And yet it is
a precious place
because God shows him
that he's not
the picture book version
of God
that Habakkuk
has in his mind.
God says,
I'm not the God
of your imagination.
I'm fearsome,
I am awesome,
I am sovereign
and my ways
are higher
than your ways.
And friends,
it is a precious
place to be.
It is a frightening
place to be.
But it's a holy ground
because in that place
you discover things
about God
and you discover
things about yourself
that you'll never
discover as you're
sailing on still
and quiet waters.
When life is just
rosy and everything
is going the way
that you wish it to,
you'll never discover
things about God
or yourself
like you will
on the storms
of life.
And so the question
is this,
when God in his kindness
brings us to that place,
when God in his kindness
shatters the picture
perfect image
we have on him
in our minds
by not allowing
things to go
the way that we
hope to,
how do we respond?
How do we respond?
Now some of us
will respond
like victims.
We think it's not fair.
I don't deserve it.
After all I've done
for you God,
after the way I've behaved
and treated
and my morality,
I don't deserve
this God.
It's not fair
that I'm like this.
Some of us,
when tragedy comes our way,
we'll feel sorry
for ourselves.
Some of us maybe
will be more pragmatic.
We will think,
I've got to fix it.
We will call a meeting,
get a committee together,
organize a protest,
organize some petition.
We will double down
and work twice as hard
to make sure
that we put things
right again.
Let's see if there's
another way.
Look at how God responds.
This brings us
to the fourth
and the final section,
God's second response
to Habakkuk.
What God does next
is he comes to Habakkuk
in that place
and he says,
with all that's going on,
with all the turmoil
and the confusion,
I know things might not
make sense to you
right now.
I know that things
are not how you think
that they ought to be.
In all your anger
and your disappointment
and your confusion,
Habakkuk,
will you trust me?
Will you trust me?
And so look what he says
in chapter 2,
verse 4.
He says,
Behold,
his soul is puffed up.
It is not right within him.
And he's talking about
the Babylonians.
He's talking about
those that don't know God.
He says,
they are puffed up.
In other words,
they look menacing,
they look fierce,
they look violent,
they're projecting an image,
but there's no substance
behind it.
It's just hot air.
It's just a balloon.
And one pinprick
is going to bring
that entire image
to its knees.
Behold,
it is puffed up.
It is not right within him.
But the righteous
will live by faith.
And friends,
that is probably
the most succinct summary
of the Christian life
in all the Bible.
That the righteous
will live by faith.
And so friends,
in the challenges
and the turmoils of life,
the righteous
will live by faith.
And when your employer
is treating you badly
or your colleagues
are letting you down
or you get fired
unjustly from your work,
how do you respond?
The righteous
will live by faith.
And friends,
when you're persecuted
for your faith
or one day
you're put in prison
or you're separated
from your children
or you lose your job
because of your faith,
the righteous
will live by faith.
And friends,
as you grapple
with same-sex attraction
and the world
is telling you,
be who you want to be.
Act how you want to act.
Your version of truth
is your own truth.
Do what you want.
Be who you want.
How do you respond?
The righteous
will live by faith.
And friends,
when you get
a massive bonus
or you get paid
some insane amount
of money
and your financial security
is sorted
for the rest of your life
and you never need
to work another day
and all your fears
are laid aside
because you've got
all the money
that you could ever want
to do anything with,
the righteous
will live by faith.
And friends,
when you and your spouse
are trying to fall pregnant
and have a kid
and you've prayed for hours
and you've cried
a river of tears
and nothing is happening,
the righteous
will live by faith.
And when your kids
make choices
that seem
to contradict
everything you would
want them to do
and when your kids
week after week
seem to make choices
that choose death,
not life,
that choose destruction,
not joy,
and you have no
other way to turn,
the righteous
will live by faith.
And friends,
when you're diagnosed
with a rare terminal disease
and the doctors
have no more solution
and your life
has suddenly been given
an expiry date
far sooner than you expected,
the righteous
will live by faith.
Now friends,
what does that actually mean?
What does it look like?
It means when we're confronted
with the brokenness
of this world,
when our city
is in uproar,
when there's division
at home
and there's office politics
and families are divided,
for the person
who's trying
to follow Christ,
our hope
and our peace
are not found
in any particular solution,
they are discovered
in the midst
of difficulty
by a deep,
heartfelt trust
in the goodness
and the grace
and the sovereignty
of God.
It means, friends,
when we are confronted
by wickedness
and violence
in the world
and we see injustice
and we think,
God, this is insane,
where are you?
How is it possible
that this can even
be allowed to happen?
We know
in those instances
that hope
and peace
are not found
in escaping
to utopia
and finding
some other place,
but they're found
by knowing
that the one
who holds true peace
will one day
put the world
right again.
And the peace
that he offers
eternally
and in this lifetime
can never be taken
from you
by no government law,
by no protesters
on the street,
by no family
shouting at you,
by no loss
of job,
by no financial reward,
nothing in the entire world
can take it
away from you.
Friends,
it means when we're
confronted by the
brokenness of our own lives
and the sin
of our own hearts.
And friends,
that's the hardest
thing to be confronted by,
the rubbish
in our own lives.
To live by faith
means that trusting
that Christ has dealt
with it
and that he loves us
and he accepts us
despite all of it.
As we come to close,
in the book of Galatians,
the apostle Paul writes this.
He says,
I've been crucified
with Christ
and the life I now live
is not about
what I want to do
or don't want to do.
It's not about
what I do
or don't do.
The life I live
in the flesh,
I now live by faith
in the Son of God
who gave himself up
for me
and loved me.
600 years
after Habakkuk
cries out to God,
there were a bunch
of men and women
that were faced
with an equally
unjust situation.
The night before,
they've had a meal
with Jesus
and during the night,
Jesus goes to pray
to his father
and he's arrested.
Throughout the night,
he's beaten,
he's flogged,
he's mocked,
he's kicked,
he's spat on
and then he's put
through an unjust trial
and during his trial,
false witnesses
are brought in,
they lie,
they tell all sorts
of false stories
to falsely implicate him
and the governor
knows that Jesus
is innocent
and yet,
in order to advance
his own political career,
he signs off
his death certificate,
his death warrant
and he signs off
his crucifixion
and the disciples
are thinking,
this is insane.
Jesus is the only
innocent man
in the whole world.
He's the only one
that's never done
anything wrong.
He's the one
who loved the poor
and healed the sick
and taught righteousness
and justice.
He's the one
Israel's been waiting for.
How on earth
can God allow this
to happen?
And yet,
a few hours later,
there is Jesus,
bloody and beaten,
carrying his cross
up Mount Calvary
where he's going
to be crucified.
And the soldiers
lay him down
on the cross
and they nail his hands
on the cross,
they hoist the cross up
and there on the cross,
Jesus cries out
and he says,
Father,
why have you forsaken me?
But he knows the answer.
The father's turned
his back on Jesus
because it was
a decision
that Jesus
and the father
came to together
before the world
was made.
That Jesus
would take the sins
of those that trust
on him,
trust in him
on his shoulders
so that we
wouldn't need to.
And there on the cross,
the soldiers
are mocking him
and they're saying,
you said you came
to save others,
why don't you
save yourself?
But Jesus
hasn't come
to save himself
and so he dies.
And the disciples
are watching this
and it's the most
unjust thing
in the whole world.
It's the most
nonsensical thing
at all.
God,
where are you?
God,
how can you
allow this to happen?
God,
why haven't you
heard our cries
they ask themselves?
Where are you God
and why are you
silent in all of this?
It doesn't make sense.
And yet,
it was the will
of the Lord
to crush him.
It was the sovereign
will of the sovereign God
that Jesus would lay down
his life
and be nailed
to the cross
because in that moment,
Jesus was smashing
the final nail
into the coffin
of Satan,
sin,
sickness,
and death.
In that moment,
Jesus was making
an end to all
the tragedy
in the world
and while our world
still deals with it,
we're on the final
death throes of sin
kicking about its legs
as it comes to an end
and there is coming
in a day
where none of that
will ever exist
anymore.
Jesus dying
on the cross.
It was the most
unjust,
outrageous thing
and yet it was God
doing it,
carrying his story
along all along.
Tim Keller says this,
if you go into
the furnace of life
without the gospel,
without knowing
that Jesus loves you
and gave himself
up for you,
it will not be
possible to find
God in that place.
You'll go through
the furnace of life,
you'll come out
the other side
and you'll be angry.
You'll be sure
that either God
has done something
wrong to you
or you've done
something wrong
and you'll feel
alone and isolated.
Going into the fire
without the gospel
is the most dangerous
thing you can do.
You'll be mad at God,
mad at yourself,
or mad at both.
Friends,
Paul writes this,
I've been crucified
with Christ
and the life I live
is not about what
I want to do
or don't want to do.
The life I now live
in the flesh,
I live by faith
in the Son of God
who loved me
and gave himself
for me
on the cross.
Friends,
there is another way.
When the heat
of the furnace
gets turned up,
when life doesn't
make sense to you,
when God himself
doesn't even make sense
to you,
cast yourself
on the gospel truth
that the Son of God
loves you
and he gave himself
for you.
Live on that truth,
bank your life
for the righteous
will live
by faith.