← ArchiveHabakkukSunday, August 26, 2018DateAugust 26, 2018Speaker—TextHabakkuk 2Passages in this sermonHabakkuk 22:57Exodus 339:26Numbers 239:312 Peter 316:54Ephesians 219:39TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Music playing. Okay, anyone ever have to go to the hospital?0:30Ever? Yeah, some of you. For me, sometimes worse than the procedure is having to wait. And so we have a lot of medical professionals in the room. Let me say thank you before I say what I'm about to say, right? So thank you for what you do, keeping us healthy, keeping men who don't want to listen to your instructions healthy, if we're honest.1:00But I'm thankful for our pediatrician. So when we go to our pediatrician now, they have in the waiting room a well section and a sick section. And don't you know, I'm the dad. When kids come in, I look them over. You know you're not well. You go that side, right? Some of you are like me. We don't do that at church, thankfully. But waiting can be the most difficult part.1:29And even worse than the waiting room itself is when they give you that beautiful little gown and they put you in the other room where you get to wait in the little gown. Even more. If we're honest, most of us don't like that. We do not like to wait. And for some of you today, that's where you are in life. Spiritually, you are at the point where God has been faithful to you, but you're in a dry place and you're waiting. And you are in that waiting room and you're saying, Lord, you told me that this is going to happen.1:57You told me that you're going to take care of me. But right now, it's cold and I don't like waiting. You're not alone. Today, we're going to see in the prophet Habakkuk. Yes, Habakkuk. That he's asking the same questions. God, where are you when you say that you will be with us? So join me in Habakkuk. It is towards the end of the Old Testament. This is actually our third week in Habakkuk as a church with a sermon series entitled Finding Faith in Difficult Times and Trying Times.2:25Today's message is very simple. It's faith in the waiting room. Faith in the waiting room. So if you're there today and you say, well, I'm waiting, Pastor. I don't like waiting. I'm in a spiritual place where God has asked me to wait. There's hope. God is faithful and we're going to see that today.2:54Habakkuk chapter 2. If you have to use your table of contents, that's fine. And you mic your Bibles will be there next week. Habakkuk 2 verse 1. Let's read together. Habakkuk says this from the CSB version. I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the lookout tower. I will watch to see what he, that's the Lord, will say to me. And what should I reply about my complaint?3:24Now let's pause there. Who's speaking? Habakkuk. And Habakkuk is a prophet of who? The one true God. This prophet of the one true God is saying, Lord, I'm going to stay here until you answer my complaint. So if that's you today and you feel guilty for being in that place, just know you're not alone. Scripture records a man in a similar place. And we saw two weeks ago that asking questions of faith and accusing are two separate instances.3:52Habakkuk's not seeking justification. He's asking, Lord, answer. I desire you. Verse 2. The Lord answered me. Write down this vision. Now let's pause again. For those of you who have been with us the last three weeks, do not anticipate a happy message that's about to be delivered.4:15This is God's answer. Clearly inscribe it, the vision, on tablets, so one may easily read it. For the vision is yet for the appointed time. It testifies about the end and it will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it. Since it will clearly come and not be late.4:43Look, his ego, that is the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, is inflated. He is without integrity, but the righteous one will live by his faith. Father, we confess to you right now that we are people who do not like to wait. And we know because of the broken lives that we live because of sin that we are called to wait.5:08So, Lord, as we wait, help us trust you more. Help us wait with eyes of faith, not a heart of justification. Lord, as we hear your word, may we not be hearers only, but help us be doers of your divine will. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Let me just say this.5:38Let me back up towards our baptisms real quick. If you don't know who was baptized, you might not have caught what was going on. But we had a pastor baptizing a friend. That was me. I'm the pastor. We had a dad baptizing a daughter. We had a brother baptizing a brother who turned around and baptized his son. Man. Glory to God. The power of Jesus Christ. And let us invite you by their testimonies.6:10If you do not have peace with God right now, the same salvation that is offered to them is offered to you through Jesus. By faith, if you believe, it's by his grace you are saved. That is the invitation. That today you can leave here forgiven and fully righteous and at peace with God if you believe. So with that, let's look back at Habakkuk. How can we wait by faith? How can we wait by faith?6:38If we're honest, waiting is a spiritual discipline we have to learn. And often we have to learn the hard way because we are impatient. We live in a culture where our natural response to wait right here is, why? None of us like to wait. I mean, we have new fast food restaurants that because you and I don't like to wait in a single file line in the drive-thru, now I have two lines at the drive-thru.7:05What does that say about our culture? We are impatient by nature. By culture. And so spiritually that seeps over into our spiritual life. Now, you know, some of you are thinking, well, I'm not impatient. Okay. I'm talking to you right now. I've seen you drive in Birmingham traffic. You're not fooling us and you're not fooling the Lord. And you say, well, I love Birmingham traffic.7:34They're about to close I-20 and 59 periodically and so we'll see who's patient then. It's going to look magnificent when they're finished a long, long time from now. But we're impatient. And we need to own that because only the Lord can fix that in our lives. So if we are destined to wait, how can we say today, God, if you have called me to wait right now on you, I will wait by faith.7:56Not from the flesh, not from impatience, but I will wait by faith. And so this is what we see in Habakkuk. I think he gives us four spiritual principles. First, he says in verse one, I will stand my, at the guard post and station myself on the lookout tower. I will watch to see, Lord, what you will say and what I should reply about my complaints.8:23When you wait, watch for the Lord. When you wait, watch for the Lord. Look what Habakkuk says. Lord, I am going to stand guard. I'm going to position myself on the lookout tower. What do lookouts do? They look out. Some of you have been to Jerusalem with me, hopefully in 2020 we're going back, you're thinking about the wall around the old city where you could see Habakkuk climbing up and looking out and saying, God, if you've called me to wait, I'm going to watch for you.8:48God, give me a different perspective than everyone else has. Lord, let me look for the only one who offers us hope while we have to wait. When you wait, watch for the Lord. Men throughout history have called, been called to wait.9:16You think about Moses, when he is hid in the cleft of the rock. He's waiting on the glory of the Lord to pass by in Exodus 33. Balaam was told to go outside into a barren hill in Numbers 23 and wait on the Lord. Elijah, who went to the mountain, was called to wait on the Lord. What does this tell us about God's people?9:45God is searching for faithful watchmen. God is searching for faithful watchmen. If it's happened to Moses and Balaam and Elijah and now Habakkuk, why do we think that God was not going to call us to wait? Be faithful and watch for the Lord when you are waiting. I think of it this way. Turn your weight into a watch. Turn our weight into a watch.10:14This word lookout where Habakkuk says, I will stand my guard. It's a declaration of confidence. But the word means a rampart. So a rampart would be, so in the ancient world, the way they would fight, not by missiles from battleships, but they would build ramps. Dirt, earthen ramps, because they would have to siege, besiege cities that were built up. So in the ancient world, the highest spot usually wins.10:40It's like the ancient game of King of the Hill, right? As you play that as a child, you wanted to be on top of the hill. Why? Because you could push your friends down the hill. And so in the ancient world, if you built your city upon a hill, it gave you position of strength. And what would happen? They would build ramps, earthen ramps, that way they could siege, besiege these cities. And so we don't know if Habakkuk is standing upon a tower looking out, or he is saying, God, I'm going to stand upon the place where judgment will come.11:10But either way, I'm going to trust you. God, either way, if I'm called to wait, I will watch for you and you alone. What a power in that. It's as if Habakkuk is saying, Lord, if I'm called to wait, I'm going to turn my eyes upon Jesus. I'm going to turn my eyes upon you.11:38Some of you need to hear that today. You're called to wait, and you're like me, and you're impatient. Spiritually, you're impatient. And you're sitting here with your hands folded thinking, God, I don't like to wait. I get it. But what if the Lord says, Josh, I don't care what you want. I've called you to wait so that you will trust me more. We should say, Lord, I'll turn my eyes upon you. If I am called to wait, I will trust you. The danger in waiting for us is that then we are prone to impatience and then prone to imagination.12:08Some of you, when we wait, we want to do on our own. This is what John Calvin says about this text. Listen to these words of wisdom. He says, we, therefore, we follow our inclination. Various temptations immediately lay hold of us. Nor can we even for a moment exercise hope in God. And many things are also suggested to us, which take away and deprive us from all confidence.12:36When Satan finds men wondering, right, wondering and not watching in their imaginations and blending many things together, he so entangles them that they cannot by any means come near to God. Calvin is saying, don't use your imagination. When God is calling you to wait, if that's you right now, watch for the Lord.13:02Trust him. Just because he asked you to wait does not mean that he is delayed, which we will see shortly. So first spiritual principle, when you wait, watch for the Lord. Secondly, we see this in the word of God. Look at verse 3. For the vision, now let's read this slowly. Because if you're reading with an open mind, you're going to say, huh? And I've translated this, it doesn't make any more sense in the Hebrew than the English, okay?13:28So verse 3. The vision is yet for the appointed time. It testifies about the end and it will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it. So the vision does what? Delays, but wait for it. Look at the second half of this verse. Since it will certainly come and not be late. So the vision is delayed, but it's not late.13:56Did anyone else besides me say, what in the world? Habakkuk is told the vision is delayed, but it's not late. And the flesh in us says, well, if it's delayed, it's obviously late, Lord. God has already asked us to watch for him, to turn your eyes upon Christ. So what is going on here? Habakkuk is worried about God's silence. Anyone else worried when you pray and you say, God, are you hearing me?14:27Anyone else? Does that bother anyone else? Anyone honest right this morning that we say, when we pray and say, Lord, I pray for this. I have earnest. I have confessed my sin. I have sought your face. And God, I don't see. The baptisms you witnessed this morning were not the product of a day's worth of prayer. That was years of faithful praying and waiting and saying, God, even when we don't see, even when in our minds it is delayed, we will watch for you.14:51The second principle, remember, if the answer is slow, God does not delay. God does not delay. You see, this is what the Lord says. The vision is yet for the appointed time about the ends, though it delays, it will not be late.15:17This is what Habakkuk is teaching us. And this is where we struggle as a church in general, right? God does not work. On your schedule. That's hard. Because we live in a programmatic world. Look, what I've learned as I pray through Habakkuk is, God is always on time, but I don't have the right to set God's alarm clock.15:43Right? That's hard. I learned this week that apparently several weeks ago, my kids snuck in and changed my wife's alarm. And they changed it to midnight. And so she woke up and my response was, I didn't hear it. And her response was to me, of course you didn't. We don't have the right to sneak around and try to set God's alarm clock.16:10But we try to do that. We grow impatient. Calvin says it this way again. He says, delay, mentioned first, is the reference to our haste. It is a common proverb, even quickness to delay is haste. Even quickness to delay is haste. And we say, God, we don't want to wait. And God's response is, the answer might be delayed, but the Lord is not slow.16:38We see in 2 Peter, this beautiful verse. And I think this should water our hearts as we are called to be people who wait. How do we make sense of spiritual delays in our life? Habakkuk, or 2 Peter 3. Dear friends, do not overlook this one fact. The Lord does not delay his promise. Sound familiar? This is coming from the New Testament, saying the Lord does not delay his promise.17:05Habakkuk 2, 3. But, as some understand it, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. What if God's answer is slow? God is not perturbed with you. He's patient. Often, God's answers in our life are slow for our benefit. God is saying, Josh, if I gave you what you want right now, it would not be good.17:33It's not for your health. It's for your harm. God is not perturbed with you in giving you silence. He's patient, wanting you to trust him more. First principle, when God calls you to wait, watch. Secondly, when he calls you to wait, know that even though the answer is delayed, the Lord is not slow. Third thing that we see in Habakkuk, look at verse 3 again, verse 2.17:58The Lord answered me in verse 2 and said, write down the vision. Clearly, clearly inscribe it on the tablets. Now, some of you who are Bible scholars are thinking, man, I've heard of tablets before. What other tablets do you know of? Famous tablets. The Ten Commandments. And if you know about those, who else would have known about those?18:27Habakkuk. Right? And this is what the Lord says. So that one may easily read it. What is the God teaching his people? Look, when you have to wait, remember the promises of the Lord. Because this is going back to the covenant. So anytime God would make a covenant with his people, he would tell them to inscribe on tablets the oaths, the blessings, and the cursings.18:51And so what are the Ten Commandments? Some of us think, well, they're just rules. They're much more than rules. Where are the Ten Commandments kept? In the first museum, which is the Ark of the Covenant. Along with the manna, to remind you of God's provision. Along with the staff of Aaron that had budded, to remind you that God is our priest. And these commandments were a constant reminder to the people of God that God had covenanted with them.19:21When you wait, remember the promises of God. And so you say, I know, you're thinking, well, what are the promises of God? That's an excellent question. Mark in your Bibles, Ephesians chapter 2. I'm going to summarize this chapter and these promises of the Lord in our lives. This is what Ephesians 2 says about the people of God.19:48Who are the people of God? Those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, who lived a sinless life, who died on the cross for sinners, so that those who believe would not only have forgiveness of sins, but have righteousness and be grafted and adopted into a new family. So if you are a Christ follower, you are a covenant child of the King. Anyone awake? Right? This is God's promise to you through His Holy Word.20:18When you wait, remember some of the promises of God. Ephesians 2, 13. I'm going to summarize. You were far away, but you've been brought near. He is your peace. You have access to the Father. You are no longer a stranger, but a fellow citizen with the saints.20:46You are built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. And you are built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit. And Ephesians goes on to unleash some of the promises of God for His people. Look, remember the promises of God when you wait.21:13That's why the Jewish tradition even says this about this tablet in chapter 2 of Habakkuk. That all 613 laws of the Pentateuch were summarized in this one verse. What were they saying? That the reminder of the covenant is in this. Remember the promises of God. There will be times in your life where all you have are the promises of God.21:41And that's all we need. Because that, what God promises, will not be undone. If God promises something, He's not an Indian giver. Whatever God promises will come to fruition. So when God says, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, guess what? Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. When God says that He is rich in mercy and He made those who are dead in their sins alive in Christ.22:10Guess what? He has made those dead in their sins alive in Jesus Christ. When you wait, remember the promises of God. Do not let your imagination run wild. Remember and put confidence in Jesus Christ. Fourth, when you wait, watch your God. When you wait, remember that God is not delayed.22:39He is patient. Remember the promises of God. And fourthly, we see this in verse four. Look, His, Babylon, the Chaldeans, His ego is inflated. He is without integrity. The righteous one will live by His faith. Not only is there a long legacy of people who are called to stand upon the promises of God in Scripture.23:06There's a long legacy of people who are impatient. Who are impatient. Who decided not to live by faith in the moment, but to live by their strength. And you might recognize some of these men. The first is Moses. Remember what Moses did? He was frustrated with God's chosen people. They're stubborn. And they're grumbling again.23:34And God says, look, this is how you produce water. Speak to the rock. Now, this is the second time that a rock is going to pour forth water for God's thirsty people. The first time in the book of Exodus, Moses strikes the rock and it produces water. And you say, well, I don't believe that. You can't hit a rock and water comes out. That's why it's a miracle. I believe it happened because God said it happens. So the second time, Moses is irritated.24:03Because people are crazy. And God's people are spiritually impatient and crazy. And so he's frustrated and they're grumbling and he goes and he hits the rock. And guess what? God is faithful in spite of Moses' impatient and water comes forth. But because of Moses' disobedience, he is not allowed to go into the promised land. One of the greatest leaders that the people of God have ever known was not allowed to enter the promised land because he was impatient.24:31He decided not to live by faith in that moment and to live in his strength. Not only is Moses that way, but we have a man named Saul. Saul was what? He was the first king of God's people. And he's going into battle and the prophet says, wait right there. Wait seven days. I'm going to come and I'm going to sacrifice to God.25:00And I will tell you if this battle is the Lord's will. We're nearing the end of the seventh day and the king looks around and there's no prophets. So the king says, hey, I'm going to do something. I'm going to take this into my own hands. I'm going to sacrifice to the Lord. Now we think and say, and we think about that and we pause and say, well, obviously that's a good thing. Doesn't God want his people to worship him? Doesn't God want his people to sacrifice? Doesn't God want his people to draw near? Listen, you and I cannot come to God on our terms.25:28We come to God on his terms. And so Saul takes matters into his impatient hands. He sacrifices to the Lord. And as soon as he finishes the sacrifice, what does he see? The prophet. And the prophet says, what have you done? And it was in that moment that the favor and the spirit of the Lord left Saul. Why? Because he was impatient and he did not wait on the Lord.25:57Now for, for Westerners, we look at that and say, so Moses, instead of speaking to the rock, he hit the rock, but water came forth and, and Saul, he wanted to sacrifice. And he, he was 30 minutes early to church and, and God, you took the kingship from him. We need to remember that God is holy and he is set apart and God does not work by our timeframe.26:23We are called to be children of God because we surrender to him. And we are called to be people who live by faith and faith alone. This scares me to death as someone who grew up in the church and as someone who pastors a church. Because we look at this and we say, those are small sins.26:52These mean Moses had more faith than I do, Lord. Saul had more faith than we do. And Lord, if they don't have enough faith, who are we? This is what, this is what Hebrews says. It takes up the same verse in Habakkuk is used by Hebrews. And it says this, for yet in a very little while, the coming one, Jesus, will not delay.27:22Have you heard that before? It will not delay. But my righteous will live by faith. Habakkuk 2, 4. If he draws back, I have no pleasure in him. But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are being saved. One day, according to Hebrews, the Holy One will come back.27:46Jesus Christ. And he's not coming back as a meek and mild Savior that we might not recognize. He's coming back in the clouds on a horse that everyone will say, wow, that is Jesus. And on the day that everyone in here, one day, the day that you see Jesus Christ face-to-face,28:14there's two options. We will either draw back because we have put in our strength and in our flesh, our hope. Or we will, with confidence, take a step forward and we will say this. My answer to God on that day would be this. God, you know that I am a sinner.28:42And Lord, you know that while I was in my sin, you sent your son to die for me. Not when I was a pastor. Not when I was a church boy. But when I was in rebellion, you sent your son to die for me. But Lord, you say that it is by faith alone in Christ alone that we are saved. So God, I took your promises as you have given them to me.29:12And Lord, you say that if I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that you've raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So the day that I see Jesus face-to-face, whether that is today, tomorrow, or years to come, I will take a step forward because I believe that Jesus is everything that I need. That is confidence.29:42The righteous will live by faith. So I stand before you, a man, not to say, look at my righteousness, but to say, look at the one who makes us righteous. His name is Jesus Christ. And he is not delayed. He is not slow. He is patient. And I have to believe that right now, some of you are terrified of that day because you're the one that's going to take a step back.30:12And let me just say this from our, from our church and this pastor's heart, this church will not save you. If you have put your hope in Bethel Baptist church on that day, you're going to cower because we have no strength here. If you have put your hope in a pastor or in a baptism or in a catechism or in a ritual, there is no hope in our good deeds because our deeds are as filthy rags.30:36And so today we, we ask you this, would you put your faith in Jesus Christ? Would you put your faith by prayer, by his grace and say, Lord, you know, I'm a sinner. And today I'm standing on the promise that if I put my trust in your son, that I will be made whole, that I will have peace, that I who am a alien will be a citizen of the kingdom.31:02If that's you, Anna, Dutton, Michael and Owen say, do not wait. Our God is a patient God. And today he is calling you to trust him right where you sit to believe. What are you waiting for?31:31Maybe you're here and you say, well, I'm tired of waiting. I know that I, my confidence is in Jesus Christ and I am tired of waiting. I want to encourage you and say, watch for the Lord. Remember his promises towards you. He does not delay as you think he delays. And remember this church, the righteous will live by faith, by faith. And if your trust is in Christ and him alone, he has forgiven you of your sins and given and made you perfectly holy, righteous.32:00Let's pray.More sermons on Habakkuk →
