If you turn with me tonight to the prophecy of Habakkuk. But I'm experiencing one of those much feared occasions in the life of a preacher. And if you don't know what all those occasions are, there are many, but one of them is when you know that you're going to laugh in the pulpit and you got to get it out. When Dane kind of made that remark with regard to the song Redeeming Love, I had a flood of memory come. You know, you hear at times the history of particular hymns, and sometimes they're very moving. They come from, often from tragedy, different things. But there's a little history to that one. The first piece of the history was an 11th grade poetry project at Reynolds High School here in Winston-Salem. Interesting relationship with my 11th grade English teacher. That's its own side story. I went back to visit after my seminary days and she couldn't remember my name but she remembered a term paper that I wrote. I guess memory's what it is. But there's a history to that hymn that Mack penned, because Mack is a few years my senior, and in my high school days, he had been really used to the Lord at a particular juncture in my life, for sure. And he said he needed to come visit us for a weekend. Great, well and good. On a Sunday morning, I'm very calmly taking my shower, And a bucket of cold water suddenly joined me in the shower. Mac was a little bit of a prankster. And when I got recuperated from all that, we were ready to go to church, he said, well, I'll get you back before the service is over. And I remember thinking, wait a minute, you poured the cold water on me and you're getting me back. But he And the youth pastor and his wife sang this song. And he had actually come that weekend to, I guess, get permission to use that. Because if you saw in the notes there, it was part of the Wilds material and was going to go in one of their books. So I had to give my permission as a wise 17-year-old to whatever. But that's not one of those hymn histories that you just think of the story and you're very moved. I just remember a bucket of cold water. But anyway, so I've gotten that out, and my laugh will be sustained or subdued now, I suppose. But turn with me, if you would, to the prophecy of Habakkuk. I want to come, as we progress through the Minor Prophets, to this prophet, Habakkuk. Well, as we'll see, Lord willing, in a moment, I think in many ways is among the most fitting as far as his circumstances and the message of his book to our own circumstances among all of the minor prophets. I want to read from each of the chapters, four portions of the book, but reading from the very opening of chapter 1. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. O Lord, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear? even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save. Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth. The wicked doth compass about the righteous, therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. Now skipping down to verse 12. Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment, and O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Now over to chapter 2, verse 1. I will stand upon My watch, and set Me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto Me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered Me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that He may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. And now over to chapter 3 and verse 1. A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet upon Shigionoth. O Lord, I have heard Thy speech and was afraid. O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make known. In wrath, remember mercy. God came from Timon and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Now skipping down to verse 17. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hind's feet. He will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments." Amen. I trust the Lord will again bless the public reading. of His inspired Word. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together. Lord, tonight we come, we read portions of the struggles, and yet the faithfulness of this prophet. And we ask that You might, from his experience, from Your Word that has recorded it, minister to our needs and help us. So grant us, Lord, that grace we ask tonight in Jesus' worthy name. Amen. I was tempted this evening to do what I did for our ministers 30 years ago now, I believe. One of the first times as a young minister, I was called upon to preach at a minister's week of prayer. And I wanted to preach from the prophecy of Habakkuk, A couple of the men stand up and each of them read one chapter and I read the third so that we'd have the whole of the prophecy read in our hearing. I've become recently convinced of not only the command, but the importance and the value of the public reading of Scripture. I didn't think we would take the time to read the whole prophet tonight, but as I said, I'm tempted. But I wanted to read this scattering of text through the book Because as I suggested a moment ago, I think Habakkuk fits the situation in which we find ourselves, perhaps more so than any other of the minor prophets. Now Amos is one, we have commented on the same, and the situation there is really similar to Habakkuk, only Amos is ministering to the northern tribes of Israel before their captivity by the Assyrians. Habakkuk is now, more than a generation later, ministering to the southern tribe of Judah in the days before their Babylonian captivity. But Habakkuk has something in common with Jonah in that his prophecy is not so much a record of the sermon that he preached against Jerusalem or the sermons that Amos preached against Israel, He, like Jonah, is giving us a record of his own experience. Of his struggles during the time in which he was called to minister. Of God's ministry to him during those struggles. And I think then for that reason, there's food for our souls. Because if Habakkuk were just a long message, as there are many others among the prophets, against the sins, against the hypocrisy, against the false religion, against the mingling of the flesh and worship, well, we would be able to say our amends. But we might not wrestle through the problems that he was struggling with that we can struggle with as well. So I just want to survey the whole of the prophecy this evening. But again, looking at it from the perspective in which it is put before us, Habakkuk's own struggles. Martin Lloyd-Jones has a commentary which is just a series of messages on the book. It's been reprinted and the title has been changed, but the title that I have, which I think is an older version, is just entitled, From Fear to Faith. And that's an apt description of the progression that we see in the prophet's own heart. But I want just to work through the prophecy tonight from four perspectives, and they're really put before us in the four sections that we selected to read this evening. So if you go back to the first chapter in this opening prayer, listen again to how Habakkuk opens his book. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry and Thou wilt not hear? even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save." Can I suggest the first thing that we see in this little demonstration of Habakkuk's own struggles and his own heart? If we could say it this way, he has his orthopraxy challenged. Orthopraxy is not a word we use often. I haven't heard it much until more recent days. We talk about orthodoxy which has to do with our doctrine being correct. Orthopraxy is having to do with our lifestyle, our experience, our practical lives being correct. Well, I'm suggesting here Habakkuk has his orthopraxy challenged. Because if we look at what he's been busy doing, He's been doing the right thing for the circumstances He lived in. He's lived in circumstances of such apostasy, such sin among God's people in Jerusalem and Judah, that He's been moved to prayer. He has besieged heaven in Israel in His prayers for His people. Lord, how long shall I cry? cry out unto thee even of violence, and thou wilt not hear." God calls Habakkuk to experience a difficult trial. It's one thing for him to receive inspiration and preach the Word to his countrymen. It's another thing for him to have a heart so burdened to seek God to deal with the situation, to change the situation, that he comes to question, Lord, how long? Remember, as we've said in our studies of the Psalms, sometimes these hard questions, they're not wrong to ask. It's not sinful to admit to the Lord we don't understand. It's not sinful to admit to the Lord we don't understand what He's doing. It's not sinful for us even to admit, Lord, I don't understand it, but I would do it differently. The sin comes in when we misjudge God. When we take the extra step of saying, Lord, I don't understand. I also think you're wrong. Thankfully, Habakkuk doesn't take that step. But I say his orthopraxy is challenged. Lord, I've prayed and I've prayed again and I've prayed and prayed and prayed and you're not hearing it seems. And the temptation would be then to cease. Habakkuk's doing the right thing. He's seeking God about a generation that's in deep apostasy and deep sin and things need to change. But when God does answer finally, we must say Habakkuk's prayer, it isn't the answer that he expects. When Habakkuk closed and said, verse 4, therefore the law is slacked and judgment doth never go forth. The wicked doth compass about the righteous, therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. Well, that's almost like we were considering a year or so ago in that little series on truth. and truth's fallen in the streets. Lord, this is what's happening. So I say his orthopraxy is challenged. He's been doing the right thing in a wicked generation, and yet he's been pursuing it so long, he hasn't seen any apparent results that he's shaken. The Lord answers. Verse 5 which we didn't read. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days which you'll not believe, though it be told you. For I raise up the Chaldeans." When God answers Habakkuk's prayer, When Habakkuk is at the point where he's tempted to cease praying because he's prayed so long and God hasn't done anything, God tells him, He says, Habakkuk, you're praying. But here's what's going to happen. We don't know the content of Habakkuk's prayers, but we can make reasonably educated guesses that he was praying for the people to repent. He's praying they would heed his preaching and his contemporary Jeremiah's preaching. That they would hearken to what God was telling them to do. Instead, as God answers, He says, I'm sending the Babylonians. And we follow a description of how fiercely they will come in. What their invasion, what the beginning of Israel's 70 year captivity will be. and it nearly overwhelms him. His orthopraxy, I say, is challenged. You know, we can pray in our times for God to move, for revival to come, for the church to repent of its sin, for the church to be revived, and then others outside to be brought in and the tide to turn where it is in our times. We can think that through. It's a good prayer. It's a right prayer. But it might not be a prayer that God answers in the way and the time that we expect either. Our orthopraxy can be challenged. We can think God needs to do this or that. But if He doesn't, where does that leave us? The second thing that I would suggest to you in our survey of Habakkuk is his orthodoxy is strengthened. If you come to verse 12, we find a subsequent prayer of the prophet. Art thou not from everlasting? O Lord my God, mine Holy One, we shall not die. O Lord, Thou hast ordained them for judgment. Martin Lloyd-Jones, in the book I mentioned, his series on the book, has quite a profound section with regard to this part of the book. It's a very lofty outline. We could expect that from Lloyd-Jones. He had a towering intellect. He'd been a medical doctor, as you know, before he entered into the ministry. He applied all those brains to this section of the prophecy and came out with this outline. Stop to think. Go back to the basics. Apply the basics to the problem. That's profound. Habakkuk's orthodoxy is strengthened His mind is bouncing all around. What's going to happen? You see, one of the struggles in the prayer that we didn't read, Lord, what are You doing? People that are more wicked than Your people are going to come and wreak havoc here. What's going on? How can You allow this to be? But as He wrestles with those questions, I say His orthodoxy is strengthened. He stops to think. He goes back to the basics. And then he applies the basics to the problem. Art thou not from everlasting? He starts looking at the attributes of God. One of the early chapters of systematic theology. The eternity of the one true God. He sees that He is self-existent. He sees that He is holy. Mine Holy One. You see the holiness reflected in the phrase, Thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil. Verse 13, You canst not look upon iniquity. Whatever God does then, If He is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all His perfections, if He is holy, if He is all-powerful, notice, Almighty God. If God is all these things, and yet God is allowing this, God has decreed that this happen, then it can't be wrong. It can't have a bad result. And so I say His orthodoxy is strengthened. If God is doing this, if God is doing something different than I've expected or I've thought that He should do, the problem isn't with Him. The problem is with the smallness of my vision. The smallness of my expectations. The faults in that my chosen path would bring rather than His. And so, he goes back to Theology 101. And he works through the holiness of God. Well, how is it any different for us today? Is God wrong in allowing men in the pursuit of sin to reap the consequences of sin? Our decaying culture? And what other tangible things may decay sinful culture? Is God wrong for letting men reap what they've sown? Is He wrong in how He has decreed the outworking of His eternal purpose? No. What God does is never wrong. What God does is always right. And so Habakkuk, I say, moves to borrow Lord Jones again from fear to faith. He ascribes praise then to God for his attributes. He puts himself on trial as it were to rethink the situation. Lord, I see You've ordained them for correction. You're fulfilling Your Word through Moses to chasten this nation for its ungodliness. You've been long-suffering to this point. This could have come long before it has come. And He worships. I say His orthodoxy is strengthened. But then we come to the second chapter, verse 1. The third thought I'd suggest to you here is that we see his pursuit of perseverance, or I guess to phrase it as the others, his perseverance is pursued. I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what it will say unto me, what I shall answer when I'm reproved. The Lord answered me and said, write the vision, make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. He's put in the watchtower of prayer. He's put in the position of faithfully representing the word that God gives him. Commentators suggest here that we read that he may run that readeth it. It's the one that's running will be able to read it. Write it so boldly. Write it on a billboard so big people going by at 80 miles an hour can still read and get the sign. So Habakkuk is called upon to persevere. Not to despair. Not to continue, as it were, complaining, Lord, I've been praying and nothing that I'm praying about is happening. To say, no, Lord, You're doing something else. So I can then still faithfully proclaim Your Word. I can join in with Jeremiah, my contemporary. I can preach the truth to this needy people and trust You with what happens and how You will deal with them. And he uses some of the imagery that we take up in our descriptions of prayer. I'll stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower, a watch to see what it will say. He really is put back to his previous orthopraxy, but with a different attitude. A different understanding. More of a trusting. than a perplexity. Then we come to probably the most famous section of his book, the third chapter. And you'll notice this chapter really is much like a poem. Well, I've begun to mention it. I'll go ahead. There's some discussion in a portion of the Psalter. You see the headings to some of the Psalms, a description. It's been suggested that some of the headings of the Psalms are actually the conclusions to the previous Psalms. And I won't get into some of the debate surrounding those things. They're part of the text. But in part of that discussion, reference is made to Habakkuk's third chapter, because we have here to the chief singer on my stringed instruments as a conclusion to the psalm that he has written in this form of a prayer in chapter three. But here is his prayer. that's now not prayed in perplexity, but prayed in faith. And yet it is given to us honestly. If we come to the second verse and see his prayer again, Lord, I have heard Thy speech and was afraid. He doesn't complain now as he was wrestling with that complaint in chapter 1. He just confesses where he was. He was perplexed, but he'd let that perplexity of not understanding God's bigger purpose almost get to him. He confesses it here and says, Lord, it's because I was afraid. I heard your speech. You revealed to me what you were going to do. And it frightened me. made my ears tingle," as it's phrased elsewhere. Can I suggest as we look at this third chapter that Habakkuk's moved to a place where he has his assurance enjoyed. As he comes and confesses his fear, he then follows and says, Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. It is seemingly evident that what Habakkuk is praying about here is for God to preserve the work in the midst of the years of captivity. He says, Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make known. God's going to be faithful. Not faithful in the sense of sending the kind of revival that Habakkuk had doubtlessly prayed for, but a revival that would be demanded of God's own faithfulness. Many suggest here the revival that he's praying for has the idea of preserving that remnant of his people alive. That in this chastening of the nation, in this purging of the visible church, if you will, that the invisible church will be preserved. that the faithful among the people will not perish, that the faithful will be helped through the trial. And he uses some phrases here that, well, you probably hear referenced in our prayer meetings rather frequently. Revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known. In wrath, remember mercy. Lord, You have shown, You have revealed that it is at this point in time Your purpose to work and move and rise. You're sending the Chaldeans. It doesn't make the Chaldeans Your people. It doesn't make the Chaldeans somehow right any more than the Assyrians a generation before. But God overruling the evil design of the Chaldeans to bring about His own purpose. Well, I think these are worthy prayers for us. Lord, preserve Your work alive. If You won't send a sweeping revival that changes the conditions of our nations and of the world, if You are moving in wrath, then in wrath remember mercy. That's a worthy prayer because it's built upon the attributes of God. How can the God of mercy be anything other than merciful, even in a season in which His wrath is outpoured?" And so Habakkuk prays, honestly confessing where he had been. Honestly confessing that it caused him to struggle. I mean, you're in a city that's been besieged before, but now the siege is going to end and the Babylonians are coming in. They're going to wreak havoc. Blood will flow. Lord, I've been afraid. But you've helped me to understand what you're doing. Revive your work. Preserve it alive. In this wrath, remember mercy. And where does that bring this prophet? It brings him to the point as we come to the closing verses of his prophecy to give us some of the most comforting words in all of Scripture. If you haven't committed them to memory, I would highly suggest that you do so. You've heard me quote Dr. Barrett many times in this pulpit. I remember a class with him in Minor Prophets a lot of years ago now. But it was from this section that I first heard him, I believe at least, use the phrase I heard him frequently since use, that faith is the link between our theology and our experience. And also to use the phrase, joy is to be independent of circumstances. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail. The fields shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls." In his culture, that's pretty much as bad as it gets. This is famine, this is depravity, or being deprived of everything because of depravity. And yet, he says, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. I'll plug that into our context. We see apostasy. We see the results of it. I was talking in the Sunday School Hour about the 20th century Modernism. Unbelief. Taking over the mainline churches. There's so many tangents that follow on there. When you have a culture then that's permeated by people that deny absolute truth, who suppress the truth of God, they pursue their sins, God gives them over to a reprobate mind, and all of this chaos and violence follows. It's a judgment. If we see this surrounding us, we pray about it. We ask God to change it. We keep praying. It doesn't change. It starts to get worse. We don't have inspiration, direct revelation from the Lord as Habakkuk did. But yet, as we pour through His Word, we can see that it's not always His purpose to send revival when we ask for it. You know, it's not an on-demand commodity. Sometimes preachers mistakenly say that we can't work it up, but we can pray it down. We really can't even pray it down. Habakkuk tried, and God didn't send it. That's what troubled him. Lord, what are you doing? I don't know that we've come to the point we could honestly say as Habakkuk did, how long should I cry out to you, cry out unto you even of violence, earnestly overflowing in a passionate appeal for you to change things? And he doesn't. I'm not changing him that way Habakkuk, I'm changing him this way. And yet as Habakkuk works through that, He goes back to his basic understanding of who God is. He engages in gospel thinking. I mean, gospel thinking. From Genesis 3 on, we all deserve hell. Every other part of history is a mercy by comparison. Even in a season of chastening and judgment like this, God is working it for good to save the remnant of His heritage. Ultimately, through an outpouring of wrath in the final day to make Himself known in the glorious appearance of Jesus Christ. So this God can be trusted even when we are a little perplexed about what's going on. And if we then engage in such gospel thinking, if we have assurance then enjoyed as Habakkuk did, here's a text, here's the wonderful poetic conclusion to a prayer that is a psalm that says, I'm going to rejoice no matter all these other things. My joy is going to be independent of my circumstances because my joy isn't rooted in those circumstances. My joy is rooted in my God and His faithfulness to that covenant of grace that He's made with me. Can we be a joyful people in such times as ours if God allows them even to get worse? and we begin to reap a harvest of chastening. We can pray in wrath, remember mercy, and believe that He will do so. We can admit it's hard. We've struggled with fear. But Lord, You're on the throne. And You've made me Your own. And I rejoice. Because all this bad stuff that's coming is going to work out to your glory. To the ultimate reviving of your people. And it's going to be to the blessing of my own soul. So here's a prophet that was given a tough place in life, if you will. to live through a very dark chapter of Israel's history, to be a faithful witness in the middle of that chapter, and to honestly record for us it was a struggle, but God's grace is sufficient. His strength is made perfect in weakness. He can preserve and bless His people in the midst of days like these. So I trust the Lord will encourage us again in a prophet, a brother of bygone days that's, well, to this point certainly seen a lot worse than we have. So may God bless His Word to us. Let's bow our heads together. O Lord, tonight, help us to have the echo of these prayers of Habakkuk. This honest portrayal of the struggles of his heart to be of help to us. And let us even heed the advice of Lord Jones a half century ago, and really just an unfolding what you put before us in this book. Let us stop and really think. Let us go back to the basics. Let us engage in gospel thinking. And then let us apply these basics to the problem. And have our hearts be encouraged. Have assurance instead of fear. Have joy that's independent of what's going on around us. Lord, this is unusual. It's contrary to expectation. and yet it can belong to us as your people by faith. Let us then move from fear to faith as did Habakkuk by the grace of Habakkuk's God and our God. We pray it in Jesus' precious name. Amen.