Open your Bibles to Habakkuk 3, verses 3-7, which will be our text this evening as Mr. Will Wood comes and leads us in the reading and preaching of God's Word. Our sermon text is Habakkuk 3, verses 3-7. I'm going to read a little bit more than that. I'll begin reading in verse 1, but before that, I'm going to read a couple of verses from Deuteronomy 33. Deuteronomy 33 is Moses' final blessing. He's on his deathbed and he's giving a blessing to Israel, and this blessing forms some of the background for Habakkuk 3. So I'll read a few verses here, and then we'll begin in chapter 3, verse 1. I hear now the holy, inspired, and inerrant word of your God. The Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us. He shone forth from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones with flaming fire at his right hand. Yes, he loves his people. All his holy ones are in his hand. So they will follow in your steps, receiving direction from you. Now in Habakkuk chapter 3, a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet according to the Shig Yonath. O Lord, I have heard the report of you and your works, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it. In the midst of years, make it known in wrath, remember mercy. God will come from Tamon. and the Holy One will come from Mount Paran. His splendor will cover the heavens, the earth will be full of His praise. His brightness is like the light. Rays flash forth from His hands, yet there His power is veiled. Before him will go a pestilence, a plague will follow at his heels. He stands and measures the earth. He looks and shakes the nations. Then the eternal mountains will be scattered. The everlasting hills sink low, but his were the everlasting ways. And I see the tents of Cushon and affliction and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble." As far as the reading of our Lord's holy word, you may be seated. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask his blessing on it. Lord, we thank you for your word in the prophet Habakkuk this evening. And so we pray as we come before it, that you would give us hearts to hear your word, that we would be conformed more to the image of your son, Jesus Christ, made like him in every aspect of our lives. And we pray this in his name. Amen. As we come to everyone's favorite Christmas passage this evening in Habakkuk 3, I think it's helpful to remember the time in which Habakkuk prophesies. Habakkuk prophesies in a time of intense turmoil in the life of the people of God. He prophesies in a time when sin and wickedness is coming up amidst the people of the Lord. And it's in this context that he had just received in the previous two chapters the Lord's proclamation of a terrible judgment against Judah. The Lord had declared that the Babylonians are going to rise up in judgment against the people of the land. You see, Habakkuk is surrounded by sin. But it's not just that sin is around him that's bothering him. Habakkuk experiences this sin in a very profound way. You see, Habakkuk personally experiences the violence of sin in his life. If you go back and read the book of Habakkuk this week, which you should, it's only three chapters long, I think you can handle it. The first couple of verses go through a series that is like this. The prophet cries out to the Lord, and he says, destruction and violence are before me. He pleads to the Lord. I cry for help, but you do not hear. I cry violence. Will you not save? Do you hear it? These things aren't things simply around him. He's not in some protective bubble where no sin comes up against him. These things are done against. He is experiencing the sin and wickedness of the people of Judah. These are something that are profoundly against him. This is true for us as well, isn't it? Isn't it the case as we look around us and we see sin and violence, as we long to see righteousness but see iniquity, isn't it something that promotes turmoil in your soul? Isn't it something that bothers you? When you love the law of the Lord, but all too often what you witness is something that twists that law. As Habakkuk says in 1.4, it bothers us. It's something that we see in our lives that is truly against the Christian. In a certain way, it is truly anti-Christ. You see, as we witness wickedness and violence, these things are not neutral to us. But in a very real way, as we suffer in this life, as we experience sin and wickedness and violence against us, we experience the reproach of Christ, like the author of Hebrews speaks of in chapter 11, verse 26. But it's more than that for us, isn't it? We don't just experience this when someone directly sins against us. We don't just experience this when we look outside and see the terrible things that happen in this world. We also experience it when we just realize the results of sin after the fall. Reminded of this in our prayer requests this evening. Two of them focus on the death of a loved one. Death is a result of the fall and of sin. It is a suffering that we experience in this life when we lose a father or a grandparent or a sibling. It is a suffering that we experience here that we know something is wrong and it breaks our heart. It breaks our hearts because we lose a loved one and it breaks our hearts because we know that this is not what the Lord had in mind in Genesis chapter one. It is something not good rather than something that is good. As we look around us, as we see so many things that can cause us heartache, as we witness so many sins that can even spark anger in our souls, what hope do we have? What hope do we have when we cry out to the Lord, save us? I cry out to the Lord, help, and you do not hear. I implore you to have this hope. that as you are experiencing suffering in this life, have the hope that I believe the Prophet Habakkuk does here. You see, as he's working through this prayer in this time of suffering in his life, he has one simple but profound hope. And that hope is that God is coming. God is coming. So if you read through Habakkuk chapter 3, that is the key theme. That is the key aspect of this prophet's hope. And really, I think it could be summarized, and it's no real stretch to say, that the core of what Habakkuk is meditating on here is one simple line from our Lord Jesus' prayer. Thy kingdom come. Habakkuk is hoping and longing for the coming of the Lord. That is your hope for today as well. God is coming. So we're going to see in these verses, we're going to see that both God has come. And as surely as he has come, he will come again to grant you all his promises and his eternal kingdom. That the Lord will come, the Lord will come in his magnificent glory. And as he does, he will judge all of his enemies. but he will grant you an eternal, unshakable kingdom." I'm going to see this in four parts this evening. First, we'll see it in the coming Lord in verse 3, the coming glory in verse 4, the coming plague in verse 5, and then the trembling of the earth and the nations in verses 6 and 7. Now, if you were in an adult Sunday school last week, we went over up to verse 3, which is why we're picking up here, And when we were looking at verse 3, we focused on where the Lord comes from. Notice from where verse 3, the Lord comes from a place called Paran, and he comes from a place called Taman. Taman is located in the land of Edom, and is everywhere in scripture a place of divine judgment. Now I know everyone knows where Mount Paran is. We read about it in Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse 2. Remember? Mount Peron is seen in Deuteronomy 33, verse 2, in parallel with Mount Sinai. Mount Peron was the place in Deuteronomy 33, 3, where the Lord says he came in love for his people, that all his holy ones are in his hands. You see, by introducing this passage this way, Habakkuk is saying that the Lord comes in two very coordinate ways. In judgment, like against Edom, and in salvation for his people. See, Habakkuk is reflecting on the wonderful truth that as the Lord comes, he comes and secures his people in his own hands and pours out his covenant love upon them. But there's another important feature that I think we should highlight in these verses. And I think we can highlight it by answering this question. Where does Habakkuk gain his perspective of the coming of the Lord. Yes, this is revelation of the Lord. And yes, he's received revelation of the Lord all along. But when he begins to describe the future coming of the Lord, he does it in terms of how the Lord has already come for his people in the past. So you probably noticed as I was reading through Habakkuk 3 that some of the tenses of the verbs is a little different. If you have the ESV, all of these verbs are in the past tense. However, in the Hebrew that's not so. It's not exactly clear. They could be either past tense or more probably their future tense. Now the ESV chose to translate these in the past tense because of what Habakkuk is reflecting on. He's reflecting on the exodus of the Lord or that when the Lord brings his people out of the land of Egypt in the exodus. But as he does so, we'll see he does it in an amazing way. The exodus forms a paradigm for Habakkuk of how he's looking toward the future. And what was the exodus in the Old Testament? The exodus was the great event of salvation for the people of God. It was, wasn't it? We read about it all over the Old Testament, but it was more. It was also the great event of judgment against the Lord's enemies. How did the Exodus begin? It began with judgment against the land of Egypt. How did the Exodus end? It ended with judgment against the inhabitants of the land, especially in the book of Joshua. Even in the Exodus, those two aspects of the Lord's coming are highlighted. He comes in judgment against Egypt. And that judgment gives way to salvation for the people of God. You see, by reflecting on the Exodus, Habakkuk is reassured that the wicked will not prevail. That as the Lord has repeated over and over again, even in chapter 2 of Habakkuk, the wicked will be destroyed. There's a little more comfort in these verses than that. It's just not that the wicked will be destroyed. See, the issue for Habakkuk is not merely that there is wickedness, but that it's something done against him. His suffering as a righteous man of God And as such, he is looking for a day when the righteous people of God will be vindicated before all man. The psalmist in Psalm 135 reflecting on the exodus as well quotes Deuteronomy 32 and says, the Lord will vindicate his people. Yes, he will have compassion on his servants. Think of the comfort this should give you. See, in this life, it so often looks like the righteous are crushed by the wicked. Looks that way, doesn't it? That's what it looks like for Habakkuk as he's looking down the corridors of history and sees this nation Babylon coming up to conquer the nation of Judah. That's what it looks like for us when we see companies swindling the poor so that they can get richer. It's what you experience when someone slanders your name to make yourself look better. These things happen all around us. And it's also what it looked like when your Savior came into this world, wasn't it? Was he not surrounded by wicked men when Herod came into Bethlehem and killed all of those children? Was he not surrounded by wicked men as he was before the court of Pilate as he was going to the cross? Was he not before wicked men jeering against him as he hung up there Bearing the curse for your sins, crying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? With the eyes of faith, resting on the promises of God and his word, we know that the day of vindication will come. That's how Christ, even hanging on the cross, can endure what for the joy set before him. Because Christ knew that in his resurrection he would be vindicated by the Spirit, as Paul says in 1 Timothy. And so now the promise to those united to Christ by faith is that they will also be vindicated on the day of God's return. See, that's what Habakkuk is looking forward to. He's not looking forward to merely a day when the Lord will judge his enemies, although that will come. He's looking toward the day when he will have compassion on his people. He's looking toward the day where the people of God will be vindicated in their resurrection bodies. He's looking beyond his current context to the day where the Lord will say to his church, well done, my good and faithful servants. And he's looking toward that day, not so much because of how much he receives, but because of whom he receives. See, if we're thinking about the Christmas season and we're thinking about this text, I think there's a hymn that sums it up very well. It starts like this. Come, O come, Emmanuel. He is looking toward the coming of the Lord. And the coming of the Lord, he comes in a particular way in the second half of verse three. He comes and his splendor will cover the heavens, the earth will be full of his praise. See the comprehensive scope. of this coming. It encompasses heaven and earth. All things that have been created will be brought before the throne of God on that day. The coming of the Lord will not be isolated to Egypt or Canaan as in the Exodus. It will be comprehensive in its scope. See, that day is the day that our Lord speaks about in Matthew chapter 24, that His coming will be as lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. A shining light that covers all the heavens and the earth. But how does it result? What's the result of this coming? It's worship. Right? The very last line of this verse the earth will be full of his praise. If you're reading Habakkuk chapter 2 the final woe oracle against the life of the prideful there is that they worship idols rather rather than the Lord himself. And so now it's appropriate as he begins to focus on the Lord and his coming that what is put forward is pure worship. As the Lord comes and as he renders his glory across all creation, a day of unhindered worship ensues. Habakkuk is looking to a day where the saints will sing a new song of praise and worship to the Lord. He's looking toward the day where all the people of the Lord will sing, as we will sing here in just a little while, O for a thousand tongues to sing our great Redeemer's praise. A day where the brokenhearted will rejoice in the Lord as that hymn goes on in verse 5. See the Lord is coming in his splendor and as he comes in his splendor the people of God burst forth in worship. And it is this realization of the Lord coming forth in splendor that actually causes Habakkuk to pause for a little bit in verse 4 and consider more about the glory of the Lord. See, he continues in verse 4, speaking of this splendor and this coming of the Lord, he says, Still, Habakkuk is drawing from the Exodus. It was on Mount Sinai that the Lord was seen to shine in his magnificent splendor. Still, he's drawing from Deuteronomy 33. Verse two, how did the Lord come from Mount Paran? He shone from Mount Paran. See, the very passage that describes the Lord's coming and love for his people describes him coming in his glory as light. A number of other passages do this in the Bible, like Exodus chapter 19. As the Lord descends on Mount Sinai to give the Ten Commandments to the people of God, how is Sinai described? The top of the mountain is covered with a cloud full of lightning flashes and bright light. Well, Revelation chapter 1, Christ's own faces seem to shine like the sun shining in full strength. The coming of the glory of the Lord is like the sun, S-U-N, bursting forth onto the earth in the sun of God. Even Revelation chapter 20 verse 5 describes a new creation this way, where night will be no more. Why? For the Lord God will be their light. Habakkuk is looking to the day when the Lord comes and reveals his might and his glory before all man. Like, that's what the phrase, rays flash forth from his hands, really means. See, the Hebrew here is actually that horns come from his hands. It's a little weird. We don't really think about horns coming from hands in our modern day, but horns in the ancient world were used to describe pictures of strength and of might. Think of, like, a goat or a ram, and their strength is in their horns as they go and battle against another. As the Lord comes in his glorious light, he also comes in his magnificent might, you could say. Also think of passages like Exodus 34. Exodus 34 is when Moses descends from Mount Sinai and his face is said to what? Shine with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. But you know his face is actually described in verse 29 as having horns coming out from it. And so his face had to be veiled. And I think perhaps most important of all, the Lord is also described this way in 2 Samuel chapter 22 verse 3. It's one of the great hymns of David where David is rescued from all of his enemies and he's praising the Lord and he says, the Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God in whom I take refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation. Remember the context of Habakkuk. He's surrounded by wickedness. He's surrounded by enemies and violence much like David was. But now he prays for the coming of the glory of the Lord. He's longing for the horn of his salvation. He's longing for a day where the Lord will come and will save him from violence just as he was crying out in chapter 1 verse 2. See, the prophet is longing for the day when the Lord will come in his bright glory. The day when he will come in his strength. He is longing for the day of salvation. He is longing for the Lord will hear and save him from all of his violent foes. And yet, even as the prophet speaks of this Lord's bright luminous glory, even as he ponders the strength of the horn of his salvation, you see how this verse ends. There he veiled his power. So even pondering one of the greatest Psalms of salvation, remembering the greatest expression of the Lord's theophonic presence on Mount Sinai, Habakkuk reveals that those things were just the tip of the iceberg in terms of God's glory. Think back to Exodus 34. The whole progression of that narrative highlights this. Moses wants to see the face of the Lord. The Lord says, no, he's only allowed to see the back tip of the Lord's robe. What happens then? His face shines so bright that when he descends from the mountain, the people can't even look on it. And so he has to put a veil over his face. A reflection of the back train of the Lord's glory was too much for the people of Israel to handle. And yet, there, he veiled his power. What a great God we have. What a wondrous God he is and how wonderful is it, what good news is it that in Christ this God is for you. Is that not good news? That this great glorious God of heaven is for his people, that he is the horn of our salvation. All of our enemies in this world are as nothing compared to the might of the God of our salvation. Fear not. Fear not, brothers and sisters. He who is for you is greater than those who are in the world. And fear not, even in the moments of your suffering. I think it's important to point out that throughout the entire book of Habakkuk, there is no hint that he ever gets out of his situation. It ends with him praising the Lord, but remaining in suffering. The promise of the Lord is that he is coming, but yet the prophet does not yet experience the reality of those promises. And in this context, I fear that it is so easy for us to get caught up with the things in the world that we forget to look to the promises of God. We get so caught up in the context of our suffering that we forget that our Lord is coming. We forget that he is coming in love for his people and we forget that he is going to come and deal with all our enemies on his final day. See the day of our salvation is the day of their condemnation but it's the same day of the Lord coming in glory. Part of his coming and glory is that he will come in judgment against his enemies. It's important that we note that God is glorified in his judgment against sin. And that's what Habakkuk continues to ponder in verse five. See as he thinks about this glorious presence of the Lord coming he continues in verse five to say, before him goes a plague and even a burning plague follows forth from his feet. As I mentioned earlier, this is a reference to the Exodus. How did the Exodus begin? It begins with the plagues of God being poured out against the people of Egypt. You know what the Lord says about his great work of salvation in Exodus chapter 7 verse 4? He begins by saying this, Judgment unto salvation. was the pattern of the Exodus. The great acts of judgment were a means of salvation for the people of God. See, indeed, the coming of these plagues of the Lord are his pouring out of the covenant curses among those who stand against him. It's exactly how the Lord describes the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28, where it says the Lord will make a pestilence, a plague, stick to you until it has consumed you. This is the curse of the Lord for those who stand against him. It's the curse that was poured out against the nation of Egypt. It's a curse that will soon be poured out against the nation of Judah when Babylon comes in his day. But ultimately, it's a curse that will be poured out on all those who stand against the Lord of glory. Notice also how these plagues are applied. They come from the Lord's feet. See that and how this verse progresses? Literally the phrase reads, a burning fire goes forth from his feet. The image of this coming covenant curse of a plague is that the Lord stomps on his enemies with burning fire. He is coming like when a hammer strikes the anvil and sends forth its sparks throughout the forge. He is coming with this burning plague coming forth from his heels. We read about that this morning didn't we? Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, how the seed of the woman will come and crush the head of the serpent with his heel. It's the promise of the gospel. That's what he's reflecting on here. In fact, in just a few verses, Habakkuk says, you, that is the Lord, went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed ones. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Habakkuk is reflecting. on the promise of the Lord that the anointed one will come and crush the head of the house of the wicked." Is that not how Christ came for us? Is that not how Christ came for us as he was born in a manger, born in a state of humiliation, and comes to crush Satan with his blazing heel? But he did it by being surrounded by wickedness. He did it not in his first coming by striking the serpent directly, but by striking his head by himself being struck. He came by having the final judgment curse of God poured out on his own head for you. What's the pattern? Judgment to salvation. He bore the judgment of God that he might pour out his salvific blessings on his people. And just as the death of the firstborn was the final plague of the exodus, so the only begotten Son of God bore the plague of wrath for his people as he died upon the cross. It's because of that that you who are united to Christ by faith now have no fear of judgment. Because the covenant curse of God, the curse of a burning plague coming from the heel of God, was born by your Savior. And so when he comes again, he will come not in anger against you, but in love for you. Yet he will come, and he will yet judge those who stand against the people of God. Revelation chapter 1 verse 15, Christ is described as one who has feet of brazed bronze, like burning bronze, who comes to crush the wicked. And as he comes, as this mighty glorious presence of the Lord comes against his enemies, what can they do but fear? What can sinful man do before the presence of Almighty God but tremble in their boots? That's what we see in our final two verses this evening. That as the Lord comes and is might against his enemies, all the earth and every nation trembles before his majesty. All creation and every nation tremble before Almighty God. See, if in verses three to five we kind of see the Lord on a march, we see him coming with Those burning feet bringing the plague of the covenant curse of God. In verse 6, there's a stark shift. Did you notice it? He's not on the march anymore. Now he comes to a halt. Up to verse 5, Habakkuk is caught up with the coming of the Lord. Now, in verse 6, the Lord has come. What does he do? He drops his measuring rod over the face of the earth. for the Lord to come and measure as an idiom of judgments, of how the Lord comes and weighs in the judgments of the nations. Do you notice what they do in the face of the judgments of God? The nations cush and millions shake, but even the mountains shake and seek. See, that the nations tremble before the Lord sounds natural to us, right? Nations of sinners like Cush and Midian. In fact, Cush is explicitly seen to descend from the line of Ham, a son of Canaan in the book of Genesis. It's natural for us to see that, to see the sinners trembling before Almighty God. But why the mountains? Why do the everlasting hills sink low before the coming of the Lord? You see, when the Lord comes, he will come to bring about a new creation. The old must pass away, the new must come. In fact, we see the first foretaste of this when Jesus was hanging on the cross. As Jesus hung on the cross, you remember the series of events that happened there? The sun was darkened to like night and the earth shook. Exactly how Christ talked about his second coming in Matthew 24, isn't it? How there will be wars and rumors of wars, the sun and moon will be darkened, the earth will be full of famines and earthquakes. You see, Christ's death on the cross is the beginning, the first instance of this new creation that Habakkuk is longing for. But the promise, the promise is that he will come again. And as he comes again, it will not be a minor tremor. It will be the full earthquake of all of creation. See, as the Lord comes, he will shake the very foundations of this earth. As he comes, that quake will strike fear into the nations of wicked men. But he comes to lay the foundations of a permanent, eternal city for his bride, his church. See, he shakes the foundations of this earth that he might found a better one for you. That is what is promised you in Christ. You are promised a heavenly inheritance. You are promised a heavenly kingdom where the foundations will never be shaken again. Exactly what the author of Hebrews talks about in Hebrews chapter 12. He's speaking of how the Lord will come once more, and he will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. And therefore, he says, we should give thanks." See the difference? The nations, the wicked, mourn in the coming of the Lord, like the men in Revelation chapter 6, who call the mountains to fall upon them. But according to the author of Hebrews, he says, we give thanks. And we give thanks for in the power of Christ, in the founder and perfecter of our salvation, he says, we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Brothers and sisters, you have come to a heavenly inheritance. You are members of a heavenly kingdom that cannot be shaken. You have been bought by the blood and saved by the power of Christ, have been brought not into an earthly tents like Cush and Midian, but into the heavenly tents of God, not made by human hands. You have been bought by his blood and secured in his hand. Because of this, you have a hope in Christ that cannot be shaken. You have a hope even now in an age of suffering and heartache. And so let us hope without wavering because he who promised us is faithful. He will come. He will shake the foundations of the earth. He will judge his enemies and he will bring you into his eternal unshakable kingdom forevermore. Brothers and sisters, the day is drawing near. and as it draws near, let our prayer be, come, O come, Emmanuel. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. O Lord, our God, you are the Holy One. Your glory is brighter than a thousand suns, and we know that in your word you have promised us that you are coming. And in this context of your promises, we pray your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Oh Lord, we long for this day. And as we long for this day, we pray even now as we are in the midst of suffering and of hardship, that you cause our hearts to be caught up with the day of glory. That you cause us to rest in your promises. That you cause us to know that we are citizens not of this earth, but of the one to come. that even as you will come in judgment on your enemies, your Son bore the judgment due to us. Cause us to have faith in Him, to rest in the God of our salvation. For you, O Lord, are our refuge and our strength, the horn of our salvation, our refuge in time of trouble. And it's to you, our Lord Jesus, that we pray. Amen.