That's Your Answer?!!

Take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Habakkuk. Join me in prayers, would you please? Lord God of heaven and earth, we now come to you, our God who reveals himself to us in his word in history in nature we come to you now Lord asking you to speak to us through your word help us to treat this text as it should be which is the God breathed word of God breathed out by you to express your mind to us who live today help us Lord to walk away today having heard your word understanding you better help us Lord to see you in this text we'll thank you in Jesus name Amen you come home from school one day absolutely dejected and glum and your miserable state is evident to your mother as you walk into the house and she says what's wrong honey you look like you lost your best friend it's worse than that mom I heard some things about dad at school today some people are saying that dad is a liar and a cheat oh that yeah I've heard the same things and and and you're saying to yourself Is that all she can say?

I need to talk to dad. So you go to the garage and you walk in and there's your dad and he's working on the lawnmower. And he smiles and says to you, hey kiddo, what's happening? And you gulp and after a pause say, dad, I don't know how to say this, but I've heard some rumors at school today. There are people in our town who claim that you lie and cheat.

That you've ripped some people off. And they say, you can't be trusted. And he responds as calmly as can be. yeah yeah I've heard the same things too and he turns back to his lawnmower and just starts working and you find yourself almost shouting well don't you care does it matter to you that your name is being dragged through the mud doesn't your reputation mean anything to you dad what are you going to do about it and he just keeps working acting as if he hasn't heard a word and you say to yourself, what is his problem?

You say, doesn't he care about his name at all? That's where you find the prophet Habakkuk in our text today. God's people, as we saw last week in verses 1 through 4, God's people in the land of Judah have disregarded the covenant they have made with God. They're breaking it horribly. Habakkuk has witnessed violence and destruction and conflict. He has seen unrighteous men exalted and the righteous persecuted at their hands.

Justice is perverted, he says. But what is most galling to him, what bothers him the most, is the silence of heaven in all of this. in anguish he calls out to God how long oh Lord must I call for help but you do not listen or cry out to you violence but you do not save now Habakkuk as we saw last week is no skeptic he's no agnostic he is a man of faith and his question comes from that faith God you are holy and your righteousness demands justice, yet you allow injustice and corruption to go unchecked. Lord, you are merciful, compassionate, and loving, and yet those who are faithful to you suffer indignities and shameful treatment.

In essence, Habakkuk says to God, God, don't you care that your glory is being sullied by your inactivity? by the fact that you don't do anything. Your reputation is at stake. Your name will mean nothing if you don't do something about this. Your member is frustration. Now this is the oracle. This little book is an oracle of a prophet named Habakkuk that he delivered so many centuries ago.

And it's a little bit different from any other prophetic oracle. You know, typically a prophet says, I've received a message from God and here it is. But with Habakkuk, his oracle is a little bit different. What he records for us is a conversation between him and God. And last week we saw just exactly what I said. Lord, where are you?

I cry violence and you do nothing. Justice is perverted and your righteousness is quiet. You are silent. What's going on? He's frustrated. He's angry.

He doesn't know what to make of all this. God, don't you care about your name? And now in this part, in verses 5 through 11, our text for this morning, you hear God's answer. So the conversation begins with Habakkuk saying, where are you? Don't you care about your glory? And now you hear God answer him.

So in our text this morning, God answers Habakkuk's anguished cry. And he does care about his reputation. His glory and His name. He does care about justice, righteousness, holiness, compassion and mercy. His silence, which sometimes seems endless from our perspective, is only temporary. Listen to His response to us when we in faith bring those questions to God We start in verse 1 with Habakkuk and his plea and then God answer to him The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw O Lord how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?

Or cry to you violence, and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me strife and contention arise so the law is paralyzed and justice never goes forth for the wicked surround the righteous so justice goes forth perverted and then God answers look among the nations and see wonder and be astounded for I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told for behold I'm raising up the Chaldeans that bitter and hasty nation who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own they are dreaded and fearsome their justice and dignity go forth from themselves their horses are swifter than leopards more fierce than the evening wolves their horsemen press proudly on their horsemen come from afar they fly like an eagle swift to devour they all come for violence all their faces forward They gather captives like sand.

At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on. Guilty men, whose own might is their God. so there is God's answer listen to his response here here is his answer what does he want us to know first of all you must believe that God will act you must believe that God will act verse 5 look among the nations God says and see wonder and be astounded for I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.

God does not remain silent forever. It may appear from our anguished perspective that God ignores our pleas. We've all been there. Horrible things are happening. We say, God, don't you care? And it seems from our perspective that he's just silent, that he ignores our pleas.

Years have passed for Habakkuk and God has not answered. The torment continues. The persecution seems endless the injustice entrenched how long ago oh god will you ignore us forever how long must this go on but god will always answer it is not his nature to remain silent forever Habakkuk says why do you make me look at injustice and god replies to him stop looking at injustice and wrong and start looking up.

He says, look at the nations and watch. Turn away from Judah and look to the horizon. Look to the horizon because there you will see the storm of God's wrath gathering by which he will see that justice is done, by which he will answer your prayer. God says to him I'm going to do something in your days Habakkuk the answer is coming and it's coming soon you suffered over the degradation of my reputation but I will restore it and it will be soon now too often we're guilty of unbelief not believing that God's going to act have you ever prayed with the idea that God will not answer can God act?

Can he act on a national level? Can he see that justice is done in our country? Can he act on a personal level? Will he answer your prayer for your unsaved parent or the wayward son? Can God act on any level? Yeah, he can.

He can act on every level. but oftentimes our attitude has been one of God is powerful enough to do it but he probably won't do it Habakkuk is not that way he wants God to act sometimes though we act we believe well God can do anything he wants but he probably won't do it this time around but how will he do that how will he answer that prayer you must believe that God will act in amazing ways it's not that he's not going to act but we can't even we can't even figure out how he's going to act God says to Habakkuk what I will do is beyond description it is absolutely amazing you will be numb with astonishment you'll be dumbfounded by events that surpass all your previous expectations. I'm going to do something so incredible that even if a prophet announced it, you wouldn't believe it. Even if he described it in detail, even if I did it at another time at another place, no one is going to believe it.

It is so fantastic, so far beyond what you can imagine or expect. It's beyond belief. That's God's answer to him in verse 5. You wouldn't believe it if I told you what I'm going to do. You know, I'm old enough. Oh, man.

I've grown old in LaRue. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever had that thought? Becca has. So those of us who are as old as me and younger, I'm sorry, as old as me and older, remember those old days, the days in which we grew up, the days when the world was divided between the good guys and the bad guys, The good guys being the democracies of this world and the bad guys being the communists.

Communists had half of the world, we had the other half. And there was this intractable battle going on. And for years we in the West prayed for our brothers and sisters in communist countries who suffered for their faith I can remember the first time I went to Romania talking to the guys that were my age a little bit younger who lived under Romanian communists I can think of the brothers who told me about how they got special permission from the communist government to build a church building.

That was unheard of. And so they built this church building, and on the inaugural Sunday, when they were going to go to church, they showed up, and the government had been there the night before and plowed the whole thing under. Just bulldozed it, after they had spent all their resources on that. I remember Danny. Danny was in our first class. Danny told about being in seventh grade and his teacher calling him up to the front of the class and ridiculing him and humiliating him in front of the whole class because he was what they called a repenter, which is another word, the word they use for Christians. and she ridiculed him in front of the class and then hauled off and punched him right in the stomach right in front of the whole class there would be no consequences he's a repenter those are the sorts of things that happen and we used to pray for them i remember in my old office not my old old office the one used to be up here i remember i had on my door a poster that had all these men who were Russian pastors who were in prison under the Soviets.

Right? I remember those days. And so we prayed for those people. Do you remember how God answered our prayers for our brethren? Do you know how God answered those prayers? Here's how it happened for some of you who are way too young to know this.

Here's how God answered our prayers. First of all, a Polish cardinal was elected as pope. A Polish from a communist country was elected as pope. Took the name John Paul II. And he was instrumental in sowing seeds of discontent in the east. And then the Soviet Union got bogged down in a war in Afghanistan. while at the same time pouring tons of money into their strategic arms because our country was starting to spend money on missile defense.

And so they poured tons of money into their offense. And in that way, while a war was going on, they went bankrupt. And then at the same time, the leader of the Soviet Union said, we're going to have glasnost in our country, which means openness, in which he said there's going to be more free expression. We'll let people express themselves. He didn't know what he was doing.

And it just opened the floodgates, and there was tons of criticism and all kinds of things happening in the Soviet Union. And then, right about the same time, a single electrical worker, an electrical guy who worked in the shipyards of Gdansk, Poland. His name was Lech Wałęsa. Just some guy who started a strike in the shipyards. And for some reason that spread and it spread and it spread.

And the next thing you know, the Polish communist government collapsed. And then Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, all those countries fell like dominoes until the last one, East Germany. Some of you have never heard of East Germany. Communist country by the name of the Democratic Republic of Germany. It collapsed and one night, and on one night, the televisions were flashing with these pictures of people tearing down the ultimate, the ultimate symbol of communism, which was the Berlin Wall.

Being torn down brick by brick by people. And the whole eastern block collapsed. All those things came. now as a kid we were thinking we will never see in my lifetime we will never see the collapse of communism and here it happened we wouldn't have believed it if you would have said that was going to happen when i was 15 years old i would tell you you were crazy that's impossible that's how god oriented the freedom for our brothers and sisters in those eastern bloc countries it's amazing it's incredible.

Who would have believed it? Who would have believed it? Well, that's what God is saying to Habakkuk. Here's the amazing part of the answer. It will be the Chaldeans. It will be the Babylonians whom God will raise up in answer to Habakkuk.

This is not what he's expecting. The Babylonians, what, just 10 years ago, they were nothing. They weren't anybody. But suddenly they're leading the attack on the Persian Empire. And they wipe out the Persian Empire. Within a couple of years, they defeat the Egyptians.

And suddenly these nobodies rule Babylonia, Persia, Syria, Egypt, and soon Judah. The Babylonians? Who's going to believe that? These fierce warlike people who inflict their cruel designs with great vehemence and speed there's the answer to your prayer Habakkuk they sweep across the nations like an irresistible force no one can stop them and Judah will be just one of the nations that they seize and hold as their own oh yeah Habakkuk it'll be amazing you're not going to believe it you're not going to believe what's coming down the pike so you must believe that God will act you have to believe that God will act in amazing ways and you must believe that God will act in amazing ways that are consistent with sin the nature of sin and his character that's what he's trying to tell Habakkuk the answer to your prayer the amazing thing I going to do is consistent with the nature of sin and is consistent with my character Now hearing that God will answer in amazing ways quite possibly gave birth to hope in Habakkuk heart Look what happens.

For behold, he says that I'm going to tell you these amazing things are going to happen. Wait a minute. What are you going to do? Yes, Lord, you can do amazing things like bring the whirlwind of revival sweeping across our country. Is that what you're going to do? No.

That hope was quickly dashed as he says, I'm going to use the Babylonians. What? The Babylonians? Yeah, Lord, that's amazing. But why them? Why would God use the Babylonians?

Because their amazing and destructive work are consistent with what the nature of sin is, and it's consistent with God's character. That's why he's going to use the Babylonians. Habakkuk cried out to God because his people neither feared God nor obeyed his commandments. The law is paralyzed and justice never prevails. Thus God's going to answer that prayer with a people who by their cruelty and violence will cause great dread and fear among the people.

They don't fear God, but what are they going to do? Verse 7, they are dreaded and fearsome. their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. You know what? You didn't dread and fear me, so now you will dread and fear the Babylonians, and they are a law to themselves. He says, their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. They respect neither human nor divine law.

There are self-sufficient and self-determining people who show contempt for God and his law. Through war and violence, they now advance their own honor. The people of Judah have refused to respect the Lord and obey his commands, so now, he says, you will respect and you will fear the Babylonians. They are bent on violence. Verse 8, their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves.

Their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an evil, swift to devour. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They're bent on violence like merciless cunning in an agile leopard. They leap on their unsuspecting prey with tremendous speed and power, causing the terrifying and violent death.

Like ravenous wolves, he says. They're like wolves. They're eager and cruel. and they take savage delight in annihilating their foes. Their cavalry may come from a long distance away, but distance does not deter them. It doesn't slow them down. It provides no security for their victims.

They're like eagles. They're swift in their approach and devastating in their attack. They are bent on violence. Habakkuk had cried out because the power because the powerful violently oppressed the people of his country well then what? violence is the judgment that they will reap violence as God will be met with violence verses 9 and 10 the last part of verse 9 they gather captives like sand At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh.

They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men whose own might is their God. You know what they're going to do? They're going to encircle the unrighteous. They're going to encircle the unrighteous. The capture of cities is their goal.

They're on the march, and they're like a desert wind that sweeps over the land, scorching and burning. And swallowing up everything as they pass by. They gather prisoners. Here's the picture he's drawing. They gather prisoners so quickly and so many. It's like you scooping up sand in your hand.

That's how incredibly efficient they are at what they do. They're going to scoop up captives like sand in your hand. They laugh at kings and rulers who prove powerless before them. They think fortresses are a joke. They have siege machines. I take them with nothing, with very little effort.

Habakkuk had complained that the wicked, hem in the righteous, the wicked encircle the righteous. Will they themselves then, will be encircled by the Babylonians as they sweep through and encircle their cities. Yet, as powerful as they seem, they're still guilty. They're God's instrument of judgment, but they're still guilty. He calls them guilty men, whose own might is their God.

They sweep on, besieging, conquering, destroying, but what is worse, they believe that their strength is entirely their doing. They have no concept that their strength comes from someone else. By the way, who does their strength come from? It comes from God Himself. He is the one that has, in His providence, given them such strength. And because of that, and that strength is their God, they worship their strength. and because of that they're guilty before God here's just a tiny tiny glimmer of hope just like with his own people God will bring the guilty to justice now be careful of the lessons you take from this some might say here's the lesson to learn be careful what you pray for ever heard someone say that be careful what you pray for God might do it alright I mean I had that can I be honest with you no Pastor Tim lie to us I'll be honest I was praying the other day, and this is the human mind at work.

I was praying the other day, Lord, please, I want to be a humble man. And I thought, uh-oh, maybe God's going to humiliate me in front of everybody so that I'll be humble. Why did I pray that? What a stupid thing to say. If God's going to humble me, He's going to humble me. It's not like you have some power over God by your prayer.

And if you don't pray it, well, then God won't do it. so don't take that lesson away from this be careful what you pray for you don't control god by certain prayers that you pray if you don't pray it god won't do it sometimes if you don't pray god won't do it he wants you to pray for things but don't get into the things that says oh if i pray that i don't want to pray that god will humble me because maybe he'll humiliate me right oh if i hadn't said that don't get that that's not the lesson here's a lesson you can walk away with God answers prayers in amazing ways that are consistent with sin such violence and fear is what suited these people who were covenant breakers this is what they needed to have their sin of violence and injustice was to be answered with violence. In order to learn the evils of violence, destruction, strife, and injustice, God thought it necessary to visit the same things on these covenant breakers. Here's another lesson.

Such an answer is consistent with the character of God. it's consistent with the character of God he will see that justice is done because he is a righteous God he visits Judah with destruction because he says and he sees that violence must be punished and justice must prevail another lesson you reap what you sow You reap what you sow. They were sowing violence. They were going to reap violence.

They were sowing injustice. They were going to feel the injustice of a conquering nation. Does that mean then that we are all doomed to judgment That what we have sown we will surely reap Look at your life right now Look at the scope of your entire life. What do you think you should reap? What do you think you should reap? Don't hide behind I'm not such a bad person.

You're worse than you think you are. Right? We're always heroes in our own videos. But in God's, you're not the hero. What are we to do with that? Some of the things you've said and you've done, are you going to reap the consequences of that?

Does it mean we're all doomed? Especially if we know that God is just and he'll visit destruction on all who refuse obedience to him. well let's look at what God says turn over with for just a moment to second Thessalonians chapter 1 second Thessalonians chapter 1 I'm going to start reading in verse 5 this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God well that's what we're talking about here isn't it this is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.

Wow. You see what He says there? He will visit incredible judgment on those who do not trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He will do it. And by the way, when you always read the Old Testament, it's always pointing forward. And the destruction and the horrors that you see that will be visited on the kingdom of Judah is nothing compared to the horrors that will be visited upon those who continually reject Jesus It doesn't even compare what's coming.

So are we all doomed then? Are we all doomed? How can God be just and still? how can God be just and not punish us why how can that be well if you look in the previous epistle of 1st Thessalonians it says this in chapter 5 verse 9 for God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ God can remain just he can remain just Why?

Because He's taken everything that you've done, if you trust in Jesus, and He's punished it in His Son. He remains righteous and just because your sins do not go unpunished. They're punished in another. And thus God can smile on you and love you because He hasn't overlooked any of your sins. He's not like a grandpa who lets you get away with everything.

He's not that way. He remains this implacable, righteous judge, and yet, you don't suffer because His justice is served in Jesus taking your place. Never forget that, Christian. Never forget that. And you've never believed in Jesus. You are headed down the path to utter destruction and judgment.

Unless, why? Because God is righteous judge. he cannot overlook any sin unless you believe in Jesus he won't overlook your sin he'll say your sin is punished my righteousness and justice have been served in the death of my son trust in him and so as we look at Habakkuk we need to remember this we pray don't we our father in heaven hallowed be your name is God going to answer that prayer we pray that it doesn't look like. And we say, God, let your name be held in high regard everywhere around us.

That's what we're praying. Is God going to answer that prayer? Absolutely. Absolutely, he will. He may do it in your life as you live for him He will most certainly do it universally when Jesus returns God will answer that prayer by the way in an amazing way we can even imagine what it going to be like when Jesus appears we all have our imagination of what's going on what's going to happen but it does not compare I think we will all be utterly absolutely dumbfounded when Jesus appears at the end of time we should have hope we should have hope because of God's justice we should look for God to do amazing things in his justice we don't know how he's going to bring about his justice he's going to bring about justice before he returns in many ways we don't know what that's going to look like and it may like for Habakkuk seem terribly uncomfortable but God will remain true to his character that doesn't answer all our questions in fact Habakkuk is going to have a mighty question in regards to what God just told him and we'll see that next week but at least walk away with it this week God will do God will answer our prayer in amazing ways that are consistent with sin and with his character Father thank you for your word that sweeps up all of our human experience and puts it into the puts it up against the backdrop of a great God who is just and holy who is also compassionate and merciful.

Father, as we look at this oracle, we pray that you would help us to see how you do these things. How you will answer our prayer in amazing ways that are consistent with the nature of sin and the nature of your character. Help us never to lose hope. you will see justice done justice will win righteousness will be exalted help us never to forget that help us to look to you and we'll thank you in Jesus name Amen