Let's bow our heads in prayer together.
Our gracious God and Father, we thank you for bringing us to this place and time.
And we bless you that we have before us the living and enduring Word of God.
And now we come to you and pray that you will do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves.
Lord, open your Word to our hearts and open our hearts to your Word.
Give to each one of us the grace of understanding and the greater grace of obedience.
And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, as you will have gathered from the little opportunity I had with your pastor earlier,
we're going to be looking at the clean pages in this first service this morning.
So if you'd like to get a head start on some people and go back to those clean pages,
the minor prophets, just before the New Testament begins.
And we're going to be looking at, well, if I were to ask you,
which do you think is the greatest verse in the entire Bible,
I wonder how many of you would turn to the minor prophets.
Now, to say which is the greatest verse in the Bible is actually an illegitimate question,
but I think you know the kind of reasons it's asked.
Which do you think would be the greatest verse in the entire Bible?
How many would go to one of the minor prophets?
But I believe there's a case to be made out that it is there.
And it's in what in England we call the prophet Habakkuk.
And I understand that in America you call it Habakkuk,
but I will take no lessons in the English language from a country that parks its cars on the driveway
and drives them on the parkway.
So, but I will try to concede to my country cousins,
and it may be a mixture between the two, but at least you know exactly.
It's the one that begins with H, and then A, and then B.
And so if we get there, we'll have done well.
I don't want to give you the history lesson here for the sake of time,
but I will keep a very close eye on the time that's been allocated,
and I think we'll be absolutely fine.
Habakkuk wrote to the nation of Judah about 600 B.C.
You'll remember the Exodus and the journey to the Promised Land,
the ructions in the nation split into the ten northern tribes which became Israel,
the two southern tribes became Judah, and so on.
Well, some of the minor prophets ministered to the northern tribes before their exile,
some to the southern tribe before their exile,
and some to the southern tribe when they were,
and they were the only ones who were repatriated to their home country.
Well, Habakkuk prophesied to Judah when it was a terrible tailspin,
so much so that God raised up four prophets to warn it of the coming catastrophe.
That is to say of invasion and deportation.
Jeremiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk.
And of the four, our friend Habakkuk is the mystery man.
We know nothing about him, about his tribe, his home, his family, his occupation, or his background.
But if we have problems with him because we are told very little about him,
they are nothing, now hear me carefully,
they are nothing compared to the problems that he had with God.
The prophet had problems with God.
Look at the beginning of the book.
The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received,
How long, O Lord, must I call for help?
And you do not listen.
Or cry out to you, violence, but you do not save.
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me.
There is strife and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed.
Justice never prevails.
Wicked him in the righteous.
Justice is perverted.
You could get that on CNN tomorrow.
Who says the Bible is out of date?
These words could be written over tomorrow's headlines.
But this was the prophet's problems.
See, he and others were praying that God would do something about this situation.
And his whole concern was, why don't you listen?
And the particular word listen there simply means, well, why don't you listen and do something?
Habakkuk may, I hope, have doubted that God actually heard what they were praying.
When are you going to deliver our nation from this dreadful state?
Their problem was that God didn't seem to be answering in a way that led to any answer being given.
So all of this mess was going on in Judah at the time.
But that was not Habakkuk's problem.
The heart of man is so corrupt that while the excesses of sin should always, of course, sadden us, they should never surprise us.
And this was Habakkuk's first problem.
The country was an immoral and spiritual mess.
If we have a true grasp of the depravity of the human heart, that should never shock us.
We are hearing things.
I take what would be called, I think, a quality newspaper, a broadsheet in England.
There are now things appearing in full color on the front page of a quality broadsheet
that would never have been found in three lines on page 27 of that paper 50 years ago.
And it's the sheer excesses of violence, of immorality, of skullduggery in high places, corruption in the corridors of power.
It's the sheer volume of it that is so distressing in these days.
But, to repeat, if we knew of the depravity of the human heart, that would not shock us.
Habakkuk's problem was not man's actions.
It was God's inaction.
God was apparently not doing anything in answer to the fervent prayers of the prophet,
and we must imagine a godly remnant with him.
Now, we've all heard growing up in our particular ecclesiastical circles,
the phrase prayer changes things.
And you may have that in your home somewhere, on a plaque or a wall or worked out in wood or in some other fashion.
Prayer changes things.
Do you know you won't find those words in the Bible?
That's not a text from Scripture.
Prayer changes things is not actually taken verbatim from the Bible.
Now, we don't have time to develop what we mean when we say that prayer changes things.
Habakkuk's problem, however, was it seemed to change nothing.
And these verses we've read so far are some of the most honest in the whole of the Bible.
But notice carefully, and it seems to me importantly, at the beginning of verse 2,
how long.
That seems to me to be a clue that the prophet wasn't giving up.
He did not say, I'm going to give up praying.
Nothing is happening.
That's the end of that.
It's, but Lord, we will carry on praying.
I think this is the unwritten text.
We're going to carry on praying.
But Lord, please tell us, how long before you answer?
The issue, it seems, was not whether God would answer, but when.
Well, in verses 5 through 11, God answers Habakkuk.
And he begins like this, I am going to do something.
What music that must have been to the ears of the prophet.
I am going to do something.
If you've been praying for something for a long time, a physical situation, something within
your family, a situation outside of your family that you're desperately concerned about, a
nagging, a chronic problem within the church or whatever, and you in some way receive what
seems to you to be a clear word from God, I am going to do something.
Wouldn't that make your heart rate increase just a little bit?
God is going to do something.
But look, it gets better.
I am going to do something in your days.
Well, that's even more exciting.
I mean, to take this church family, for example, and I have no knowledge whatever of where the
church stands in all sorts of areas at the moment.
I know that it stands firmly theologically because I read and heard about your pastor and
I rejoice in the ministry that God has given him here.
But there are issues within the church and you say, you know, for a long time we've wanted
to make a move forward in that area.
And if God were to say these things to you in order, firstly, I have heard your prayers
and I'm going to do something.
Well, that would please you, although please seems a very weak word to use.
If he were then to say, and it's going to happen in your days, in other words, well, it's
going to happen, but you'll be dead and buried long before that.
It's going to happen in your day.
Just imagine your pulse racing a little bit more.
And God goes on.
I'm going to do something you would not believe even if you were told.
In other words, he is saying to the prophet, it is going to be something so stupendous that
unless I, God, had told it to you, if somebody else had said to you, this is going to happen
and God is going to do it, you'd say, we have a phrase in England, tell it to the Marines,
which simply means nobody's going to believe you.
Nobody's going to believe you.
But I can just imagine the prophet now hyperventilating.
God says, I'm going to do something massive in your day.
You will see it.
And you can just imagine the prophet saying, what on earth is this going to be?
And God tells him, I'm raising up the Babylonians.
Now, that, if you're not familiar with the picture here, you may say, well, he's raising
up the Babylonians.
What does that mean?
Well, the Babylonians were the most violent, cruel, oppressive pagan people you could imagine.
And God was saying, I'm going to answer your prayer and you're going to be invaded by this
pagan nation with whom I have no covenant at all and they're going to sweep in and destroy
the land.
If Habakkuk could play tennis and his name was John McEnroe, he'd have said, you can't
be serious.
So God's answer to the first problem raised was an even bigger one.
And the reason was because of who these Babylonians were.
Look at verse 8.
Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong.
Their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like a vulture, swooping to devour.
They all come bent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.
That doesn't sound much like a positive answer to prayer.
But the real reason why it was such a problem to Habakkuk was of what he knew about God.
Look at verse 12.
This is Habakkuk's statement of faith.
I like a confessional church.
A church that has a confession, a statement of faith.
I think of the great Westminster Confession in England and the 1689 Baptist Confession of
Faith and so forth.
These are great formulations brought together by godly men and securely based on Scripture.
And so this is Habakkuk's statement of faith.
O Lord, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, we will not die.
O Lord, you have appointed them to execute judgment.
O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil.
You cannot tolerate wrong.
Now can you see why it was such a problem to Habakkuk?
If he didn't really know very much about God, God's characteristics, God's attributes,
the things that govern everything, that self-govern everything that God did,
he would say, well, if that's the way God does things, that's the way God does things.
But just look again at verses 12 and 13.
He speaks of God's eternality.
You are from everlasting.
Of God's holiness, we won't be wiped out.
Of his faithfulness, we will not die.
Of his sovereignty, you have appointed them to execute.
Of his justice, to execute justice.
O Rock, he speaks of his stability.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil.
He speaks of God's purity.
Well, that's great stuff.
But it's not the end of the problem.
Biblical doctrine is not like a jigsaw.
You get this bit of doctrine and put it in place,
and another bit over here, and another bit here, and another bit here.
And as you come here Sunday by Sunday and sit under Brother Stone's ministry,
you get to the point where you say,
my doctrine is now in place.
Now I can fold my arms and breeze through the rest of my Christian life.
There are few things more important than having a good, basic theological structure.
Not just a collection of nice texts floating around in your mind.
I would urge you to become systematic theologians.
That sounds pretty daunting.
What I mean is, begin to get an overall grasp, and a clear grasp,
and an ordered grasp of what the Bible is saying.
I heard of a man who once said he had no problems believing what the Bible said in general,
until he read a book claiming to solve them all.
And the Bible doesn't do that.
The fact is that only believers have Habakkuk's kind of problem.
So look at verse 13 again.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil.
You cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
That's what made the problem so great for Habakkuk.
He knew that God was a holy God, a pure God, a righteous God,
a God who could do no wrong.
And this righteous, pure, holy, do-no-wrong God was saying,
I'm answering your prayer for my people by sending in a nation with whom I don't even have a covenant,
a nation of pagan people, and they're going to wipe the country out.
And you see why he had a problem.
I mean, he really did.
Well, God's response comes, is developed at the beginning of chapter 2,
and the key phrase here is in verse 3.
It will come at the appointed time.
God is never in a hurry, never caught on the hop,
never up against a tight schedule.
Whenever God does something, it's never a moment too soon or a moment too late.
And this is the message to Habakkuk, of course.
In verse 8, I'm doing a work in your days.
God is never sitting on his hands.
And so, look at verse 4 in particular.
See, he, that is the Babylonian, he is puffed up.
His desires are not upright.
But, now in that one verse, and I know it may not come across instantly in reading it,
now God is speaking, not about the Babylonians,
but about his righteous people in Judah.
But, the righteous will live by his faith.
In other words, we are called to trust God even when we cannot trace him.
And I put it to you, and this is a purely personal thought,
that this has a claim to be the greatest verse in the whole Bible.
It is so important.
I mean, this phrase, the just shall live by faith.
So important that it's mentioned three times in the New Testament.
Once in Romans, once in Galatians, and once in Hebrews.
Now, the Galatians context and feeling is the same as the Romans one.
So, we'll miss that out.
So, we're going to turn first to the one in Romans.
So, this is where we go from now to the end of the service.
We'll look first at the reference in Romans,
then at the one in Hebrews,
and then we'll come back to the one in Habakkuk.
So, now you know exactly where we are.
So, turn with me, please, to Romans chapter 1 and verse 17.
And this is the verse that God used
to trigger off the great 16th century Reformation,
Protestant Reformation, first of all, in Germany.
And here we have it in Romans 1 and verse 17.
At the end of the verse,
the righteous will live by faith.
Do you see it there in your Bibles?
Well, he's quoting Habakkuk.
In Germany,
in the 16th century,
a young man had been wrestling for years
with the problem of how to get right with God.
He was so earnest about it,
he joined a group called the Hermits of St. Augustine,
the most strict,
or one of the strictest orders
in the Roman Catholic Church.
He poured himself into study
and prayer and meditation and rituals.
He said, and I quote,
I was a good monk
and I kept the rule of my order so strictly
that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery,
it was I.
Unquote.
He fasted for days on end,
he slept without any blankets,
even in the dead of winter,
and nearly froze to death.
He was overwhelmed by a sense of two things,
God's holiness and his own sin.
And this is how it worked out in his mind.
If he was ever going to be forgiven,
if he was ever going to be made right with God,
he would need to have his sins forgiven,
wiped out.
If he was going to have his sins forgiven,
he would need to confess them.
And if he was to confess them,
he would need to remember them.
But what if he couldn't remember them all?
And some were left unconfessed
and therefore unforgiven.
And the more he turned that around in his mind,
the more depressed he got.
He went constantly to confession,
sometimes up to six hours at a time.
He drove his confessor crazy,
who once told him,
go away and do something worth confessing.
He was in a torment of guilt and fear and despair.
I quote again,
I was more than once driven to the very abyss of despair,
so that I wished I had never been created.
Love God, I hated him.
And it was while he was in that mood
that the Roman Catholic Church appointed him to lecture in the Bible,
on which I make no further comment.
But that's when it happened.
And so he started going through Romans 1.
And eventually he came to verse 17.
17.
In the gospel,
a righteousness from God is revealed,
a righteousness that is by faith from first to last.
And he thought,
this is worse than I thought.
That crushed him even further.
You see, he read,
a righteousness from God means God's righteousness.
So in the gospel,
this was the bit that bothered him,
was this gospel thing.
In the gospel,
the righteousness from God is revealed.
In other words,
it's telling me my death sentence in capital letters.
Or as we say in modern,
in a larger font.
I know that I'm condemned because of my sin.
And what is this gospel?
Oh, it tells me about the holiness of God.
Well, I already know that.
That's half of my problem.
My other problem is my own horrible sin.
And then one day,
the truth of the verse
broke in on him.
And he saw this,
that the righteousness of God
was not a quality of God.
It was a gift from God
granted in the gospel of Jesus Christ
who had fulfilled the law in every part
by meeting every part of it in his daily life
and meeting its penalty in full in his death.
And now this is what he says.
When I saw the difference,
that the law is one thing
and the gospel is another,
I broke through.
I felt myself to have gone through open doors
into paradise.
And the monk's name
was Martin Luther.
And the rest,
as they say,
is history.
Now this is the key to salvation.
The righteous will live by faith.
Jesus has done something that we
have not done,
any of us.
He fulfilled the law of God
in every part.
I do always those things
that please the Father.
He was tempted in every way
just as we are,
but was without sin.
He is Jesus Christ,
the righteous.
So he has fulfilled
every demand of the law
in terms of his daily life.
And then,
having done that,
and having been without any
traction in him
for the penalty
for sin,
he then offered that life.
He gave himself up.
And on the cross,
he suffered
everything that the Bible means
by death
in his body
and spirit.
On our behalf,
Christ died,
the Bible says,
the righteous
in the place
of the unrighteous
to bring us
to God.
And the one
who trusts in him
is declared
right with God,
not on the basis
that he's been
graded on a curve
and he's done
fairly well.
He is declared
right with God
on this basis alone.
Jesus fulfilled
every demand
of the law
in his life
and paid every penalty
of the law
in his death.
So the person
who trusts,
but the person
who trusts in Christ
has this amazing
experience.
All of his sin
is debited to Christ
and all of Christ's
righteousness
is credited
to him.
So the Christian
now stands
in God's sight
as if he had
never sinned.
And as one of our
old hymn writers
put it,
my hope is built
on nothing less
than Jesus'
blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust
the sweetest frame
but wholly lean
on Jesus' name.
On Christ,
the solid rock
I stand,
all other ground
is sinking sand.
Let me ask you
this morning,
are you there?
Have you come
to that place?
Or are you still
just a Southern Baptist?
Well, there's nothing
wrong with being
a Southern Baptist.
Some of them
will be in heaven.
The pastor agrees,
well, he's just
nodded,
so that's,
you can take that
as good.
But here,
be careful,
there are many
who won't.
That's a heartbreak
to your pastor,
to me,
and to any
Baptist pastor
who's got a heart
for God at all.
There are many
whose Christianity
will be,
I'm a Southern Baptist.
Their Christianity
ought to be,
Christ died for me
and lives in me.
I live,
yet not I,
but Christ lives
in me.
So it's the key
to salvation.
Now turn with me
to Hebrews chapter 10
and verse 38.
We're doing well,
but only just.
We will need to hurry.
Hebrews 10
and verse 38.
This is written,
of course,
to Jews,
to Hebrews
who had been converted,
possibly living in Rome,
and they were caught
between a rock
and a hard place.
They were hated
by the Jews,
you'll find that
all over Acts,
and they were hated
by the Romans,
so they had a great
deal of suffering.
Look at verses
32,
3,
and 4.
Remember those
earlier days
after you'd received
the light,
when you'd stood
your ground
in a great contest
in the face of suffering.
Sometimes you were
publicly exposed
to insult and persecution,
and other times
you stood side by side
with those who were
so treated.
You sympathized
with those in prison
and joyfully accepted
the confiscation
of your property
because you knew
that you yourselves
had better
and lasting possessions.
So what were they
to do?
They were now
in this terrible mess.
The writer goes on,
So do not throw away
your confidence.
It will be richly rewarded.
You need to persevere
so that when you've done
the will of God,
you will receive
what he has promised.
For in just a very
little while,
he who is coming
will come
and will not delay.
So they were given
these two instructions,
these two encouragements.
they were to lay hold
upon the fact
that what he has promised,
what God had promised
to them,
would be given to them.
That is to say,
they would go to heaven
when they died.
And then in verse 37,
they are promised
the Lord's return.
In just a very little while,
he who is coming
will come
and will not delay.
So here they are
in a desperate position,
being persecuted,
having a hard time,
between a rock
and a hard place.
And the writer says,
look,
don't give up
because God is true
to his promises.
And when all of this
is over,
you will be in his
glorious presence forever
because you've trusted
in Christ.
And secondly,
the Lord has promised
to return
and he will return.
It may or may not be
during your lifetime,
but God is going
to return
and wrap this whole thing up
and bring in the glory
of the new heavens
and the new earth.
And you could just imagine
people reading this
for the first time
and saying,
well then,
what should we do
in the meantime?
And there it is,
a quotation from Habakkuk.
But in the meantime,
my righteous one
will live by faith.
There it is
in verse 38.
Now my friends,
you and I
in the 21st century,
we're in exactly
the same position.
It's tough
being a Christian
in today's world.
But we have
these two promises.
We have the promise
of a new heavens
and a new earth.
And God is going
to bring that about.
And you'll see
a lot of that
developed in ways
you perhaps
have not quite caught
before in the book
The Hitchhiker's Guide
to Heaven.
So there's going
to be the new heavens
and a new earth.
And the second is
Jesus will return.
Now you go on
some so-called
Christian television programs
on this side
of the Atlantic
and you would be
assured by the
practitioners there
pretty much that
they know exactly
when it's going to be.
And it's going to be
soon and it's going
to be any day now.
I am here to tell you
I haven't got a clue
when it's going to be.
And I don't know
when it's going to be.
And let me tell you
something else.
They don't either.
But they need to
raise money for
their television programs.
And of course
some of them
have been to Heaven
and been given
an inside track on it
and come back
as you know.
And if you believe that
I've got a second-hand car
I'd like to sell you
please see me afterwards.
But just here's
a fundamental principle
of the Christian faith.
We live by faith
not by sight.
We simply don't know
how these swirling
circumstances fit
into God's
eternal plan.
and we don't need
to know.
We don't need to know.
And the same is true
about our trials
and traumas.
The only answer
that makes natural sense
is to get rid of them
and to get rid of them
soon.
We want illness
to be cured,
our pains to disappear,
our financial problems
to be solved
and we want it
to happen immediately.
And these guys
on television
are banking on that.
But there's another option.
Faith has another option.
And let me quote
and I think it's
a brilliant statement
by Joni Erickson Tader
and I don't need
to explain who she is.
When we learn
to lean back
on sovereignty,
fixing and settling
our thoughts
on that unshakable,
unmovable reality,
we can experience
great inner peace.
Our troubles
may not change.
our pain
may not diminish.
Our loss
may not be restored.
Our problems
may not fade
with the new dawn.
But the power
of those things
to harm us
is broken
as we rest
in the fact
that God
is in control.
and that
is the just
living by faith.
We learn
to trust God
when we cannot
trace Him.
Well,
quickly back
as we close
to Habakkuk.
I hope you haven't
lost the place.
And we're in Habakkuk
chapter 2
and verse 4
and we see
that it's the key
to understanding history.
Now you know
the background,
you know the story
and haven't forgotten it.
The Babylonians
are going to come.
God is going
to execute judgment
on a nation
that's dishonored
His covenant
by means of a nation
with which He'd never
established one.
What should believers
do in the meantime?
And the message
from God is
live by faith.
Now we live
in the in-between time
between the second
coming of Christ
and the
between the first
coming of Christ
and the second coming.
The in-between time
is tough.
And we see it
globally
in World War II
the Cold War
the constant conflict
in the Middle East
endless sufferings
in Africa
the crushing
of human rights
in China
persecution
of the Christian church
in many ways
and places
almost everywhere
moral standards
seem to be
in free fall
and then there are
all the heartaches
and disappointments
and difficulties
we experience
at a personal level.
And it is natural
for us to ask
what's going on?
And the answer
is this
God is working
out his
eternal
unchangeable
and perfect
purposes
for the glory
of his name
and the eternal
good of his people.
Now most of you
will be familiar
with that great
statement
in Romans 8
but we know
that in all things
God works
for the good
that is the eternal
good
of those who love him
those who are called
according to
his purpose.
My dad
who was
a laborer
had a hobby
of repairing
watches
and you know
they were
real watches
before the Japanese
were invented
and you open them
at the back
and there were
wheels and cogs
and sprockets
and levers
going this way
and that
and it seemed
to be totally
confusing.
There'd be a big
wheel turning
this way
and three little
wheels going
the other way
and it just
looked totally
confusing.
It just didn't
make any sense
but watch carefully.
When you turned
the watch over
and looked
on the other
side
you could see
that all of
those conflicting
things
apparently
were all
working to
the common
good
to keeping
the perfect
time in the
watch.
And my friends
and of course
in a brief visit
like this
but I hope
many of you
might want to
stay to the
second service
and hear
a sermon
on the five
most amazing
words
in scripture
and you'll
find it
easier
to find
the text
because we're
going to be
in the
New Testament.
Some of you
may be going
through
real hardship
difficulty
trauma
bereavement
heartache
pain
sorrow
these are
just
the common
things
in our
lives
and you say
but it's
also confusing
this is
happening
but that's
happening
that contradicts
this
watch me
carefully
when you
get to
the other
side
when we
get to
the other
side
we will
see
that even
the worst
things in
this life
are contributing
to the best
things
in the life
to come
and God
calls us
to have
that
attitude
I close
with this
illustration
of William
Cooper
William Cooper
was a great
friend of
John Newton
wrote a
number of
hymns
that we
know
quite
well
but he
had
periods
of
depression
and that
may help
some
people
as a
godly
man
and greatly
used
man
there were
times
when
he was
dipping
and on
one occasion
he came
to the
point
where he
thought
well
I really
want to
end
it
all
and so
he got
hold of
his
horseman
and
said
I want
to go
for a
drive
pitch black
middle of
the night
and the
horseman
said
well
where do
you want
to go
oh
don't
know
just
anywhere
somewhere
down
near the
river
the river
ooze
and so
they took
off
and it
was
pitch
black
and after
a while
the horse
the horseman
said
sir
I'm
lost
I don't
know
where
we are
and
Cooper
said
well
find a
light
somewhere
and
if we
see a
light
shining
make
for
that
and
then
we
can
orient
ourselves
and see
quite
where we
are
and so
the
horseman
eventually
saw a
light
made
for it
and
found
that
they
were
back
home
and
Cooper
wrote
God
moves
in a
mysterious
way
his
wonders
to
perform
he
plants
his
footsteps
in
the
sea
and
rides
upon
the
storm
ye
fearful
saints
fresh
courage
take
the
clouds
ye
so
much
dread
are
big
with
mercy
and
will
break
with
blessings
on
your
head
his
purposes
will
ripen
fast
unfolding
every
hour
the
bud
may
have
a
better
taste
but
sweet
will
be
the
flower
the
just
shall
live
by
faith
let's
pray
gracious
father we
thank you for
your word
for quietening
our hearts
speak to us
I pray
draw from
our hearts
the response
of repentance
and faith
and love
that you
deserve
and that we
long for
in Jesus name
amen
thank you