Waiting and Living by Faith

We're going to read today from the book of Habakkuk chapter two. I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint. The Lord answered me, write the vision. Make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time.

It hastens to the end. It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come. It will not delay.

Behold, his soul is puffed up, but is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Moreover, wine is a traitor and an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol. Like death, he is never satisfied. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.

Shall not all these take up their taunt against him with scoffing and riddles for him and say, woe to him who heaps up what is not his own. For how long? And loads himself with pledges. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you. For the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities, and to all who dwell in them.

Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, who sets his nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm. You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples. You have forfeited your life. For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork will respond. Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity.

Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labour merely for fire and nations weary themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Woe to him who makes his neighbours drink. You pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order to gaze at their nakedness. You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.

Drink yourself and show your uncircumcision. The cup of the Lord's right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory. The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them. For the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities, and to all who dwell in them. What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies?

For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols. Woe to him, he says to a wooden thing, awake, and to a silent stone, arise. Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath in it at all. But the Lord is in his holy temple.

Let all the earth keep silent before him. It's been some time ago since I last preached or had the opportunity to minister from the pulpit here. When I did, we began looking at this little book of Habakkuk tucked away right at the end of the Old Testament. If you can remember back to January of last year, you'll recognise that we used that particular book to help us understand how we should handle evil times, bad times. When a society has a long run of many years, decades even, of good times, of things getting better and better, people begin to think, well, that's just normal.

That's what we expect in life. That is how life is supposed to be. Basically, we're all half glass full people, aren't we? We all agree, don't we, that things should be getting better and better, that we should be better off over time. In fact, last time we went so far as to say that our children should have it better than we did, that their standard of living will be better than our standard.

Maybe they will be richer. Maybe they'll have nicer houses. Maybe they'll be a lot happier than the previous generation. We can so easily adopt the view of the world that suggests peace and prosperity are what we're entitled to. That is the rule in the world today, the right of all decent men and women, peace and prosperity.

But the Bible and the book of Habakkuk, let's say the book of Job, some of the Psalms, and in quite a few other places, says that that is just not true. And, of course, history itself shows it is not true. Most of us will remember the GFC, the global financial crisis. 2007 and 2008 were dark years for many who had substantial funds invested in the stock market. It's considered by many economists to have been the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Even today, people that I speak to have not yet really recovered from their losses. And what about the news even coming out last Sunday with the destruction of oil fields and refineries in Iran? Many are predicting an increase in petroleum prices and products. America, essentially, is reshaping how the world does business today, and nobody quite knows whether we will be any better off. Who is prepared to say what's going to happen on Tuesday?

Tuesday, July 1, the beginning of a new financial year. How will things pan out for us over the next twelve months? Who knows? It would be presumptuous to say evil times are sure to affect us, but it would also be presumptuous to say that evil times will not affect us, that they're gone forever, that we can let the good times roll. But here I am to say, and declare from the pulpit no less, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't really matter whether we have good times or bad times. Because if you come to grips with parts of the Bible like Habakkuk, you will always be prepared. Because here and in other places, the Bible says the message is, don't expect, don't count on good times. It's not really the norm. Even in evil times, God is working.

God is always with us. Enjoy the good times, but don't expect that they will be there always. God has a way of helping us to deal with the good times and the bad times so that we may maintain some semblance of worship and adoration of Him, acknowledging Him as our great Father in heaven. So that's what we're looking at this morning by going to the book of Habakkuk. It's certainly that's what Habakkuk is facing.

Last time, as I mentioned, we started in chapter one, and chapter one has this great complaint from Habakkuk directed to God. He's complaining and saying to God, why am I looking at all this evil and suffering, something that You are allowing to happen to my society, my own country? And God's first response is this, verses five and six. Habakkuk, you just don't understand. You won't understand.

You haven't seen anything yet because things are going to get worse. I'm going to send in the Babylonians. They are a bloodthirsty and ruthless people, and they're going to invade your country and take you and your countrymen out. You'll be humiliated, persecuted, taken to captivity, deported from your homeland, from the land that I promised to you and your fathers before you. Habakkuk reaches out to God, and God does something amazing.

Last time, we referred to Habakkuk engaging with God this way, through unconditional faithful wrestling. Unconditional faithful wrestling. Hear him when he says, and I'm paraphrasing now, God, I'm even more upset. I'm even more confused. Life with You, God, is tough.

But without You, it's impossible. Therefore, I will say, You are my God, my holy One. And then he waits. Habakkuk waits. He keeps waiting to hear God's second answer to his complaint.

He reaches out, and God gives him a second answer. But before we do that, before we go to what that answer was, we should consider this interlude, this period of time in Habakkuk's life where he was called to wait and to keep on waiting. And only after he waits, God answers Habakkuk's prayer. So there are two parts to this chapter. The first part is about waiting on the Lord, verses one through to four.

And the second part, God answers Habakkuk, and He pronounces five woes or five judgements upon the Babylonians in the remaining verses. Let's have a look at what waiting on the Lord was all about. It's not just a theme here in these verses in Habakkuk, but you'll find it's a major theme throughout the Bible. My guess is that this is not the first time many of you have heard that phrase, wait on the Lord. In this context, it's Habakkuk's way of handling evil times.

Some regard that line, waiting on the Lord, as a bit of a throwaway line, you know, a cliche, really. People are struggling, people are doing it tough, and the kind of advice they might get from other Christians is simply this, go home, pray about it, and wait on the Lord. As if all we need to do was just wait. But nobody actually knows what they're doing. Nobody's sure what it means, but it sounds so lovely, so spiritual.

But I want you to know that there is a meaning to it, and it has a rich meaning. And in many places in the Bible, it tells us exactly what it does mean, but no place is perhaps better than here in Habakkuk chapter two. We're supposed to wait on God as an act of faith. Notice how in verse three, God says, for the revelation awaits an appointed time. Though it linger, wait for it.

Now, remember, Habakkuk's confused, he's upset, he's looking for answers, he wants real answers to his life situation. And God says, well, I am going to give you answers. I'm going to send you revelation, but wait. Wait for it. And if it lingers, and it will linger, God says, wait. Now, this word for wait is the basic Hebrew word for patience.

We all know what impatience is, don't we? Impatience is the opposite. It's the feeling we get when we're irritated, annoyed, when we have to wait. We can easily get frustrated when things don't go quick enough. You know, if you're waiting for a bus, and it doesn't come, though it linger, you wait for it.

But there comes a point where you appreciate it's just not going to work. I'm out of here. You're not waiting anymore. That's impatient. Or, for all that I know, you may have been checking your watch since I started preaching this sermon, and you're saying it's taking way too long.

A sign of impatience. Wait for it. To wait means to be patient, means you don't give up, you don't despair, you don't chafe at the bit, you're not agitated, but you're patient. And instead of giving up and blowing up, you're patient. You're waiting.

You're waiting on the Lord. Now a lot of people say, oh, I wish I could do that. I wish I had patience. As if patience was like a cold that you can catch or you don't catch. Actually, the Bible says patience is a fruit of the Spirit.

It's part and parcel of how we grow as Christians. There's no doubt the Spirit of God can and does want us to grow in patience. And especially when we're confused, when we don't know what's going on in our life, when the evil times are real, impatience can so easily take over. But if we're waiting, waiting on the Lord, waiting in faith, patience comes as a deliberate act of humility. We have to be humble for patience to happen.

The two are linked. They don't happen without each other. Though it linger, wait for it. It will come. So, for example, in the New Testament, in the letter of James chapter four, we read this.

Now listen, you who say, today or tomorrow, we'll go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on a business, and make money. Why? You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.

So it's fair to say we all have our plans. We all think we know what we ought to be doing and how things should happen, but none of us really knows for sure. We don't know. Instead, we ought to say if it is the Lord's will. And what does that mean?

Well, when we think things go wrong, we think anger, we think despair, we think of worry and fear. We tend to think of them as feelings that we just can't help. But what this is really saying is that those feelings come from an assumption about your own omniscience. That's a big word, and I don't like to use big words in sermons. How are you getting on with your ability to know all things?

That's assumed omniscience, assumed knowledge that clearly only belongs to God, our sovereign, omniscient God. We think we know what needs to happen in our life so that our life has meaning, purpose, significance. But how do we know that we know? How can we say that we are confident that we know what is best? The point is, we just don't know.

We just don't know. We have to stop trying to be our own god. And when we do, it's such a relief. We're not expected to have omniscience. Not even the wisest people can see everything that God sees.

So while you're freaking out about why this has got to happen or that's got to happen, that means you think you know. Don't go there. None of us are omniscient. Only God is. I think of Job. Maybe the key verse in the book of Job is his secret to his patience. But He, that is God, knows the way that I take, which is another way of saying that I am patient.

When He has tested me, I will come forth as gold. See, says Job, it's because I'm going to meet this event, this adversity in my life with patience. And through it, God is going to grow me, something that could never have been otherwise. And that, quite frankly, will be gold. Waiting on the Lord means not giving up, not chafing at the bit, not freaking out, but being patient under circumstances even though we're confused.

We're determined to remain humble, and we're going to vote for our own spiritual growth first of all. Number two, we're going to see here God does answer Habakkuk's prayer. And God tells Habakkuk what He will do. Last time, we looked at the principle that God brings justice out of injustice, righteousness out of wickedness and evil. In the context, out of the evil being unleashed upon Israel, God will bring justice to the proud Babylonians.

And so He pronounces five woes on them and then gives hope for Israel. These verses five through to twenty are a description of who the Babylonians are and what they're capable of. It's what they're known for. The emerging superpower of the day. And they rely on military might, on money, and strength.

And it's easy for us to look at them and say, how awful. They're burning cities to the ground, killing and raping. Look at verse five, the source of evil at the beginning of the passage. He, that is the Babylonian people, is arrogant and never at rest because he is as greedy as the grave. Like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples. This verse actually goes further, doesn't it? It not only describes what they're doing, but it also talks about their motivation. Babylonians are described as arrogant and never at rest, greedy, never satisfied. Essentially, they are empty people, hollow people.

They continually need to clothe themselves in their own glory. They have a ferocious appetite for their own glory, which is why they're never at rest. They're a proud and arrogant people. Verse four, see he's puffed up. His desires are not upright.

But the rest of the verse, what does it say? But the righteous will live by faith. That brings us into the picture in a way that you might not possibly have imagined before. We have a connection with this verse, one that you may not have thought about previously. And there's no mistaking why Habakkuk has these two thoughts linked in the same verse.

On the one hand, he's contrasting the way of the wicked with the way of the righteous. What we have here is a clear choice for any one of us. You and I have to have faith in something. You're either going to have faith in your own abilities or in the righteousness as God gives it. Excuse me.

What's it going to be? What will be the driving force in your life? You know what's popular in culture, don't you? In celebrity culture, whether on the sports field or on the stage or in movies, we hail people who are very much performance based, and the glory is what you get when you achieve success.

You hear the applause. You see the crowd. They're chanting your name, and you're feeding your ego your own glory. And that's where your faith is taking you, and it's eventually where your complete trust will go. It's what drives you, keeps you motivated, keeps you ever hungry for more.

Watch out. You'll be as hungry as the grave, and death is never satisfied. Look where this leads. It leads to idolatry, verse eighteen. A life apart from God is going to be filled with the gods of this age, and anything that's performance based and raised to an ultimate godlike status in your life and in mine can be referred to as an idol.

An idol that Habakkuk says will lead to destruction. No matter what it is, ultimately, it won't fulfil. It will never satisfy. God says it'll cause your heart to hunger for more, to cry out for more glory, for more attention. But if you want the truth, if you want to live by faith, you'll have the righteousness that comes from God.

And if God is absolute in your life, then you will truly know who satisfies. The only glory we need is the glory from God that we can reflect back to God and belongs to God and comes from God. There's a famous author and well-known Christian preacher, Max Lucado. He said, and I quote, what every human being is looking for is this, the applause of heaven itself. The applause of heaven itself.

In fact, he wrote a book called The Applause of Heaven. That's what will fulfil our need for glory, for hope, our righteousness, the applause of heaven. And here it is in the text. Look. In the middle of darkness, in the middle of bloodshed and violence, this glory of God shines through.

Notice how suddenly it appears. The background is so dark. There's talk of death and destruction. There are these five woes, these five judgements that are sure to come. Look at verse sixteen.

You, that is Babylon, will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now who's he talking to? God's talking to the Babylonians. Why? Because all their lives, these proud people have been using and abusing people instead of serving them and loving them.

To some extent, we all use other people to feel good about ourselves, to bolster our self-esteem. We use people to get glory. And there's no doubt that social media these days has given people extraordinary opportunities to get glory. Over and over, the messages are the same. People want to feel good about themselves and their selfies, and they're looking for likes, for affirmation.

We'll do the same to creation, even rip off creation to feel good about ourselves. There are environmental sins that Babylonians are guilty of that are being spoken of in our passage, long before eco science and climate became a buzzword in our society. Verse seventeen, the violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you. Using and abusing the environment.

You have to wonder to what scale or to what degree the famous cedars of Lebanon were pillaged and destroyed. Plants and animals, similarly, left to ruin and neglect. And instead of being good stewards of the environment, they acted like environmental vandals. But now, says the Lord, whatever you did to other people and whatever you did to My creation, these things will be turned against you. Instead of you shaming them, you will be the ones who will be shamed.

In verse sixteen, now it's your turn. Drink and be exposed. The cup from the Lord's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover you. The violence you've done to Lebanon will overwhelm you. Your destruction of animals will terrify you.

Now it's your turn, says the Lord. It can be like that for us, you know, when all you've lived for, when all you've hoped for becomes your modern twentieth-century idol. But no matter how hard you try, it will never fill your heart. Therefore, what you deserve is shame, violence, and destruction, the very opposite of the things that we're trying to achieve. What we deserve is no different than what the Babylonians deserved.

Is it your turn? Is it my turn? Verse sixteen, which asks the question, now it's your turn. That verse cannot be read by Christians without thinking of somebody else who took the turn for us, the consequences of our idol worship, the violence and destruction we deserve. You see, there has been a moment in history when it was Jesus' turn.

And about Jesus Christ, Paul says, He made Himself nothing, that is to say, gave up all His glory, that righteous glory that He had in heaven with the Father. He took on the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness, and He humbled Himself and became obedient to death. That was His shame. Even death on a cross, which was absolute violence and destruction. About Him, Jesus, it can be said, now it's Your turn.

The cup from the Lord's right hand is coming around to You, and disgrace will cover Your glory. Ah, but you say to me, no, no, no. You got this wrong. This is about the Babylonians. We know what these evil people were up to, and but think about it in today's terms where we're at.

As far as it applies to us, this is talking about Jesus. Jesus Christ stood in our place. Literally, He took your turn and my turn. He emptied Himself of His glory, lived a life serving others, not using others. At the end of His life, He took the cup of God's wrath, the cup we deserved, and He drank from it.

And when He died, He was forsaken by God alone, left for dead for the sins of all humanity. Now when you believe that, when you embrace that truth, your life takes on a different perspective. What becomes your glory? What becomes your hope? It's a Sunday school question, and the answer is Jesus.

If you haven't already noticed, He's the one who's being sung about this morning in the songs that Ben chose. He's the one we've been reading about in the confession, in the Bible reading. He's the one that's being worshipped and adored. In fact, Jesus is the centre of everything that we think, feel, or do, and especially in worship, because of His glory, the only glory that can really satisfy your heart. He is beautiful.

He's honourable. Hear the applause of God Himself because of what He has accomplished in His Son. He loves His Son and all those who will follow Him. This is the glory of God, the splendour, the wonder of knowing Him. Habakkuk goes on to tell us that someday, we'll literally be bathing in it.

Verse fourteen, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Now that is glory, absolute glory. Glory we only see in part, in small measure today, in a diminished way, in a veiled way. But what we see of God's glory in part today should give us hope, hope enough to trust that the day will come when we will literally be bathing in it. I want you to know this morning the reason why we are so inclined not to wait, why we're so inclined to be impatient and not to be humble.

The reason is because we are empty inside, because we're so busy pursuing the idols of this world, performance-based idols. Idols based on your health, on your money, on your excellence at work or at school. And it happens because we're hungry for glory. And how sad it would be if we left this place this morning not knowing where to go to get the glory that truly satisfies, that feeds the human heart and soul, even as waters cover the sea to the point where we're swimming in it. He'll give it to us. He'll give us that glory in greater and more fuller measure than any one of us even dares to imagine.

And you say, how? How in the world can that happen to me when my life is so consumed by the things around me? Another reading from Philippians. God has exalted Him, Jesus, who took our turn, to the highest place and gave Him the name that's above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now how does that help us?

Of what practical use is that? Well, when adversity comes, when evil times come, and they do come, and we're inclined to be impatient, cynical, or even angry, we quickly lose hope, and our idols start to tumble. Our world seems to shut down. The idols are just not cutting it anymore. They're not performing.

We're not hearing the applause. But Christians are the opposite. When evil time comes, they'll wait. They'll wait. They'll keep waiting because they have hope, hope in this glory of God, this absolute splendour of God.

For sure, our waiting will not be perfect, but, ultimately, we know that our waiting will be rewarded. We do not wait without hope. We have the hope of the glory of God in the gospel, and we live for that. What's more, we know that Jesus who ascended will come and descend and be with us for ever and ever. He's coming back.

That hope can lead to inexpressible joy, joy that we might find hard to express in evil times. So in the meantime, there are times for silence when we just don't know what to say. There are times for reverence, for awe before God who reigns over all things, who alone is our Father in heaven, the maker of heaven and earth. He alone is omniscient, supreme. In the words of Habakkuk, the Lord is in His holy temple.

Let all the earth be silent before Him. Let's pray. Lord God, give us times of silence, we pray, when we'll stop the chatter in our head and the turmoil in our heart and simply remember Jesus who took our turn on the cross of Calvary. During times of waiting, Lord, we pray that You will increase our patience, our humility in You. Help us to remember that Jesus Himself took away our shame so we could have the glory that He has, so that we could be free and not a victim of evil.

Help us to live by faith, not by sight. And when we do struggle with evil and evil times, we pray You'll fill our hearts with wonder, awe, and gratitude and the joy as we think of Jesus. Help us to understand what You're saying to us in these wonderful passages of this part of Your word. Help us to apply them to our lives by Your Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name. And we say together, amen.