I'll have you open your Bibles this morning to the book of Habakkuk, returning to chapter 1. I'll have you make a few changes on your outline. The text today, we will read all of verses 1 through 12, but we will deal with the text only verses 1 through 4 today. Throughout seminary, sermons were always a piece of scripture at a time. And I've chosen to work through the book of Habakkuk, and I'm learning as I go that when you start a new book, you don't get quite as much time to make all the points you'd like to make. So I'm going to make the first point on your outline today, and we'll pick up the second two points next time. So we'll be considering today verses 1 through 4, submitting by faith to God's promise. And another thing I'd have you change is, this is a series, and I've given it a name, Faith in the Crucible of the World, but there's a comma that needs to be in there, because my faith is certainly not in the world. I am called to have faith in the crucible of the world. So a comma after faith will help you to not be misled as we consider our text. In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, people responded in a variety of ways. For some, what began as a numbing horror has become a vigorous patriotism. Some grow ever more fearful before a faceless enemy that appears to be on our own soil. Others have grown indifferent. What will be, will be. But in general, as a nation, we see ourselves besieged, threatened with an unknown and potentially horrible fate. We call upon God to bless America. But it's becoming increasingly unclear what God, we as a nation, are calling upon. And we don't seem to consider on what basis we might call. We find ourselves in a time of national testing. We find ourselves in what I would call a crucible. Now, children, you probably don't know what a crucible is. It's a bowl. And if you've been in high school, you've maybe used a bowl like this in your laboratory when you put your Bunsen burner under it and you turn up the heat. Then you throw some things in and you watch them melt and separate. For a crucible is a place where intense forces are brought together to either purify or to melt certain objects in those high temperatures. And it's a fitting picture for a time or a place or a situation in which powerful forces come to bear on us. We sense such a crucible today. We can feel the heat and the pressure of it. And we wonder, how did we come to be here? And at the same time, many here today in this place, among the people of God, you yourselves feel yourself to be in your own personal crucible. A crucible in which aging, broken relationships, death, depression, disability, disease, financial distress, loneliness, you supply what it is. These things come to bear with a horrible intensity. And you wonder, how did I come to be here? But such wonderings as these betray a certain spiritual blindness. A certain hardness. We are quick to feel the crucible in our own flesh. And we are quick to sense in our cultural flesh as a nation a crucible. But apart from the Holy Spirit, we are blind. And we are unable in the church of Christ to sense that we, as his bride, are in this crucible. We are dull to see that the church is continually assailed both by internal corruption and by external opposition. And I was just made mindful this morning after the first service that the news this morning reported of a church in Islamabad that was invaded by extremists and 16 people were shot down worshiping the Lord this morning. Such wanderings also betray a certain misunderstanding about the crucible. We think it's just a temporary and abnormal situation that pops up from time to time in our lives that are relatively plentiful and easy. When the truth of the matter is is that we have always been in this crucible. The crucible of the world. It began with the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in paradise. And it will remain until the consummation of all things in the Lord Jesus Christ. This crucible is the place, it is the time, and it is the situation in which God destroys the wicked and refines the righteous in Christ as he applies the redemption accomplished once for all by Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Within this crucible of the world, each and every particular place, time, and situation in which we find ourselves is used of God for his purposes in our lives. So whether it be our national crisis, which is ever before us, or our personal crisis, which weighs us down, and by God's grace we sense the church's crisis, God can use these to open our eyes to the reality in which we do live. A reality which daily is we are distracted to have our minds off of. And we are awakened to the reality in which we will continue to live until a sovereign act of God takes us out of here. So then the question arises, since we're stuck here, and this is the nature of where we are, how are we to live in it? God has not left us to ourselves to answer this question. He's revealed not only Himself in His Word, He's revealed all that we need to know for faith and for life. And so it's to His Word that we must turn, but where? We can turn anywhere in His Word and be fed and be instructed for how we're to live here. But I was drawn to the book of Habakkuk because there we can find not only some understanding, some instruction, we can also find some solace and encouragement as we endure in the heat and the pressure of the crucible. In this book, the Lord declared that the righteous will live by faith. And as we consider this book, we will consider what it means to live by faith in the crucible of the world. As we look at the book of Habakkuk, a short book, three chapters, it records a unique dialogue between Habakkuk and the Lord in which Habakkuk raises two questions or two complaints to which the Lord answers and to those answers Habakkuk responds. The questions raised by Habakkuk are often understood to present a crisis of faith for this prophet as he sought to reconcile what he knew and believed about God with what he saw in the world around him. You see, he too lived in a time of great crisis, a national crisis. The southern kingdom of Judah felt the crucible. They were caught in the crossfire between the powers of Assyria and Egypt. And there were rumors of this people called Babylon in the east. But the people in the promised land also felt the crucible. For within their own land they were being oppressed by wicked leaders from their own people. In this crucible of history, both nationally and personally, Habakkuk is said to have been unsure of his faith. And he needed to move from fear to faith in the course of his ministry. But I would say to you that this conclusion reveals our own spiritual blindness being put back upon the prophet Habakkuk. Our preoccupation with our inner experiences, it translated to that of the prophet. For he was a man among men, that is true. But to conclude this is to ignore his special office, his special function as a prophet of the covenant God of Israel. As we shall see as we work through Habakkuk, we should rather understand Habakkuk as a man of reverential, awe-filled fear, a man of faith from first to last, a man who submitted by faith to the Lord, who waited by faith on the Lord, who lived by faith before the Lord, and who prayed by faith to the Lord. and who rejoiced by faith in the Lord. As we consider Habakkuk, the word he brings, and his life before the Lord, we will find God's will for his people as we live by faith in the crucible of the world. So we begin our study today with Habakkuk's first complaint, or his plea, raised in verses 2 to 4, his answer, the Lord's answer in verses 5 to 11, And then finally, the prophet's response in verse 12. In this dialogue, we will see the first aspect of how Habakkuk lived and how we are to live in the crucible of the world. And that is by submitting, by faith, to God's promise, to God's plan, and to God's person. Now again, we're going to work only today with God's promise. So don't panic when I get to the end of the first point and you think we have much time left. We will finish with the first point. Habakkuk did not share the spiritual blindness of his world. And I should read the text. Before we consider these verses, let's read the entirety of the first dialogue. Hear the Word of God, verses 1 through 12, chapter 1, Habakkuk. The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received. Habakkuk speaking to the Lord. How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but 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 and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous so that justice is perverted. And now the Lord's answer through Habakkuk to the people. Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I'm raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places, not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people. They are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. 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. They deride kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities. They build earthen ramps and capture them. Then they sweep past like the wind and go on. Guilty men whose own strength is their God. Habakkuk's response. 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. Here ends the reading of God's Word. Again, Habakkuk did not share the spiritual blindness of the world. He did not share the spiritual blindness of the southern kingdom of Judah in his day. As a prophet, as it says in verse 1, The prophet, he had been commissioned to serve as a spokesman for the Most High God. He was privy to the secret counsels of God. He saw things as they really were. And he was faithful to his office and his commission. Now we know of the prophets of Israel, their commission was twofold. They were heralds. They brought the word of the Lord. And the first aspect of their herald of their message was that judgment was coming. That God had a problem or a lawsuit against his covenant people. And when they brought this kind of message of the lawsuit, of God's judgment on his people, it came in two stages. In the first stage, he would continually warn and appeal to them about the pending judgment to come, bringing the complaints of God against the people, calling on them for repentance and faith so as to avert the wrath of God. But if the people remained unrepentant, then he would enter stage two of the lawsuit. And here he would announce the judgment of God that would not be averted, from which there would be no escape. So on one hand, he's a prophet of judgment. On the other hand, he's a prophet of grace. he announces the promise of a full salvation to all who would repent and believe and trust in the Lord for their salvation. That would be the remnant, as you hear of it in Scripture, the true people of God. It's as the prophet Joel declared in chapter 232, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there will be deliverance. as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls. See, Habakkuk's plea here in verses 2 through 5 was that of a prophet and was in keeping with the covenant sanctions, the covenant consequences announced by Moses the prophet on the plains of Moab to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 28. That is where, after announcing the terms of the covenant, the stipulations, what was to be done, the consequences were listed. And Moses declared, if you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. However, if you do not obey the Lord your God And do not follow carefully all his commands and decrees I give you today. All these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And in the end, they will certainly destroy you. Those are the terms of the covenant which authorized the prophet to come. But more specifically, Habakkuk's plea was in keeping with a specific judgment of God announced during the days of King Josiah. Children, you remember the story of King Josiah. He was named king as a boy of eight in a time when wickedness filled the land. But he trusted in the Lord and he commissioned a restoration of the temple. And in the process of restoring the temple, they found the book of the law. They found the book of the covenant. And it was taken to the king and it was read in his presence. And when it was read before him, he repented in tears, in ashes. He rent his clothing. And not only did he repent, but he brought the people of God to repentance. And he restored in Judah a covenant-keeping people. A time of great blessing that followed upon the heels of great wickedness. And once this had been done, the prophetess Huldah promised judgment on Judah and on Jerusalem to King Josiah because of the wickedness that had come before. And this is what she said. This is what the Lord says. I am going to bring disaster on this place and on its people. All the curses written in the book that have been read in the presence of the king of Judah because they have forsaken me. My anger will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched. Tell the king, Josiah, Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people. And because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord. Now I will gather you to your fathers and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here. Habakkuk lived in this time. Habakkuk knew this prophecy. He had grown up knowing the covenant-keeping side of Judah under King Josiah. He had grown up in a time of great blessing. But he had also known and seen the sudden decay upon the death of the king. The land was thrust into wickedness and evil, turmoil, abuse of power, corruption in the temple. It was a mockery of God, and it greatly offended him. We have no record in the book of Habakkuk of the first phase of him coming to the people with God's lawsuit, in which he would have warned of impending judgment, in which he would have sought their repentance and faith. But we do have his summation of the charge that the Lord would bring in verses 3 and 4. In these two verses we find summarized what you will find if you read in your Bibles this afternoon, 2 Chronicles, chapters 33 to 36. 2 Chronicles, chapter 33 to 36. You'll see the decline that Habakkuk had experienced in the land. But this is the sum of the charge. Destruction and violence are before me. There is strife and conflict abounds. Therefore, the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous so that justice is perverted. Not only do we have the charge, we also have a record of his plea to God that this situation in which he found himself in motivated. Verses 2 and 3. Again, given the setting where he's standing, he cries out to God, How long, O Lord, must I call for help? but you do not listen. I cry out to you, violence, but you do not save. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? In other words, how long are you going to ignore my plea? Why do you make me have to continue looking on this injustice? Why do you continue to tolerate this wrong? How long until you fulfill your promise to save? To save, he says. I craft you, but you do not save. With all I've told you this far, that's a surprising word. And I think it's here that we get tripped up. You might be thinking, Pastor Donovan, it says right here that Habakkuk was calling on the Lord to save. How can it be that you say that he was calling for God to bring judgment on his people? I say that because the Lord's salvation always includes judgment. There's always a separation, a division between those who are declared righteous and those who are left in their wickedness. There is always judgment in salvation. And this is so because the Lord is both just and merciful. As he revealed himself to Moses as the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious Lord, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. You see, judgment on the serpent, on Eve and on Adam included the promise of salvation through the seed of the woman, the promise of the Messiah. The judgment on the world by the flood included the salvation of Noah and his family, a picture of the coming Messiah. Judgment symbolized by circumcision included the promise of salvation to all nations to be accomplished by the coming Messiah. The judgment typified in bloody sacrifices offered in the temple every day included the promise of the remission of sins, pointing to the bloody sacrifice which the Messiah would give for his people. The judgment which Habakkuk calls for is no different. The judgment he called down on Judah and her subsequent exile included the promise to gather a purified remnant and included the promise to come, the Messiah. Habakkuk's contemporary, one of several, was Jeremiah. And as you consider Jeremiah, we see much more of the pleaful part of the lawsuit, pleading for people to repent. And Jeremiah spoke the word of the Lord against the same leaders that were oppressing their people when he said in chapter 23 of Jeremiah, Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture. Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done. I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture where they will be fruitful and increase in number. I will place shepherds over them who will tend them. And they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing. The days are coming when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called, the Lord, our righteousness. and judgment was visited upon Him, upon the righteous branch, upon Jesus Christ the Lord, the promised Messiah. He was visited judgment. And this judgment came at just the right time within this crucible of history. As Paul says in Romans 5, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. And the judgment visited upon Jesus Christ fully and finally satisfies the Lord's justice and His mercy. As Paul wrote in Romans 3, God did this to demonstrate His justice. Because in His forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time. so as to be just and the one who justifies in his mercy are those who have faith in Jesus. The judgment visited upon the righteous branch Jesus Christ fully and finally satisfies for the sins of his people. As Hebrew 9 tells us, But now he has appeared, once for all at the end of the ages, to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. And He will appear a second time. Not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him. And even then, on that final day, when the Lord of glory comes, salvation will include judgment. As Jesus said in Matthew 25, when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with him. He will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates his goat, sheep from the goat. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Or as he tells in another parable, he will harvest the wheat and burn the tares. Judgment. Salvation has always included judgment. And even now, as we today wait for the final day, we are much like Habakkuk who looked for the final day of Judah. And it's true for us as it was for him, as the Apostle Peter wrote, that judgment begins with the family of God. So as I said, Habakkuk was not spiritually blind. By God's commission, he knew the secret counsels of the Lord. He knew what was in store, and he knew that salvation required God's judgment. And that's why in his prayer to the Lord in chapter 3, verse 2, which we'll get to sometime later, he can call to mind the saving deeds of the Lord on behalf of his people. Chapter 3, verse 2. Lord, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day. In our time, make them known. In wrath, remember mercy. Because Habakkuk knew that salvation required judgment. That's why he could confess in the face of judgment, in chapter 1, verse 12, My God, my Holy One, we will not die. We will not die speaking for the true people of God, the remnant, who would be saved through the judgment. So as we consider Habakkuk, even as he felt the pressure of the crucible of the world, both in his own person, having to see all the wickedness around him, And also as part of the nation of Judah, which was feeling the pressures of the nations about them. He was more concerned for the honor of God. And he looked for the great salvation that he had promised. He submitted by faith to the promise of salvation through judgment. And by faith he pled for it from the Lord God of Israel. John Calvin, in commenting on these verses, has us consider ourselves in light of what we see in Habakkuk. And he says, The prophet was not here impelled by a carnal passion, a fleshly desire, as often happens in us. When we defend ourselves from wrongs done to us, for when anyone of us is injured, we immediately become incensed, while at the same time we suffer God's law to be a sport, his whole truth to be despised, and everything that is just to be violated. We are only tender on what concerns us individually, and in the meantime we easily forgive when God is wronged and his truth despised. The prophet was not that way. He felt the crucible of the nations pressing it on Judah. He felt the crucible of his own injustice in his own land. And yet he was more concerned for the name of the Lord and for his honor and his glory. That his law would not be trampled upon. That he would not be despised. So as we consider this text this morning, people of God, the lesson here is not to dare to be a Habakkuk and overcome your fear and learn to live by faith. Although we may have fear, we may have fear as we continue in this crucible. There are fearful moments. And although our faith may need to be exercised, that's not the lesson here. And the lesson is not to teach us patience or perseverance or even passion when God is long in answering our prayers. Although these can be learned, that's not the lesson of Habakkuk. The lesson here is that as the prophets that we are in Jesus Christ our Lord, we too would look to his word, to his secret counsels revealed to us. And that by his counsel, we would have our eyes opened to the reality of the spiritual forces arrayed against Christ and his church in this crucible in the world. Forces from without, to be sure, but just as importantly, forces from within. And as we consider his word and our eyes are open to the true nature of things, to the real course of human history, to the ultimate plans of our Lord, that we would proclaim in every word and deed to this world that is at enmity with God, the coming judgment that awaits the wicked and the great salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ and that we would be zealous for the honor and glory of the Lord our God, anxious to see Him return in the clouds of glory, bringing in the fullness of His promised salvation. And as we continue on in the crucible of this world, that we too would cry out, How long? How long until you gather all your people to yourself? How long until you purify and mature your church? How long until you end this present evil age? How long until you bring in the fullness of your salvation? Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we consider your word this day, as we consider the faithfulness of your prophet Habakkuk who knew your counsels and who saw things as they really are and how he was burned in his passion for your name, for your holiness, your righteousness, your law, your justice and your mercy. in the face of great national trial and great personal oppression, Lord. Our hard hearts are opened and exposed. We see that we are more concerned for our own flesh and perhaps even more concerned for our nation. And yet all the while, Lord, we turn blind eyes to the struggle with which the church is faced as it continues on in the crucible of the world. Lord, we pray that you would drive us by your Spirit to consider your counsel, to consider your word, and to appraise the world around us and our lives in and of themselves against and through that word. that our eyes would be open to the ultimate judgment yet to come and the souls all around us, Lord, that stand under your judgment. Lord, that we would proclaim as prophets in the Lord Jesus Christ the judgment to come and the salvation, the only salvation available in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And, Lord, as we continue on, as long as you allow us to be and remain in this world, subject, Lord, to the pressures therein, that we, by faith, would submit to your promises and call upon you in the name of your promises, and that we would be anxious to have them all fulfilled in the fullness of your salvation to come. In the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.