Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. How do we respond to the wickedness and the brokenness of this life under the sun? Fear and anger are natural emotions in the face of evil or destruction.
What do we do with those emotions? In this message, Pastor Rich answers these questions from Habakkuk 3, where we find a highly emotional plea for justice, a cry for help in the face of evil. Let's listen to this message titled, Faith, Seeing God's Work.
So now you have your copy of the scriptures open to Habakkuk chapter 3 for exposition of the Word of God this morning. We are continuing in the series, Living by Faith. What does it mean to live by faith?
It's something we talk about a lot, but it's important for us to know what we mean by that, what that looks like, practically speaking. What do you do as you are living by faith? And the title for today's message is, Faith is Seeing God Work, Seeing God Work. Last time it was Faith, Doing Life God's Way.
The first Sunday we considered this. We were asking the question, why is faith sometimes hard? Faith is sometimes hard because our faith is mixed. We are trusting other things besides God.
And when we do that, it makes faith hard. Faith is trusting God. Faith has an object. Faith is not wishful thinking. It's not just being positive. Faith is not credulity.
It's not believing in something even though there's no evidence. God has made himself known and he has worked throughout history. He has proved himself beyond question that he is a worthy object of our trust, our full complete confidence in him. And so as we live by faith, what that looks like is that we are seeing God work. And this is what Habakkuk is going to be praying for in Habakkuk chapter 3. As we began this book, Habakkuk's prayer, his plea was that God seemed indifferent and idle in view of the wickedness of his people. And Habakkuk was asking, why are you just standing by?
How can you just let this happen? And then when God answered him and said, I'm bringing down the bringing down the Chaldeans and I'm going to exact justice on the wicked. Habakkuk had another question saying, I don't understand.
That's not the way I would do it. And so we find now Habakkuk overwhelmed by the wicked brokenness of life under the sun. Sometimes you and I have been there, haven't we? There have been times in our lives when we have been overwhelmed by the brokenness either in our lives or the lives of those around us or a combination of both. Because it always is that, isn't it?
It's a combination of both. And sometimes we are on the blunt end of the wickedness in somebody else's heart and mind, in their actions and their behavior. And as Habakkuk observes this, he's overwhelmed by it. And so what we have now in chapter 3, it says beginning there, a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, according to Shigianov. Now that is probably a musical term, but he begins here with a petition. He begins with a petition. Chapter 3 is a highly emotional poetic form of writing.
One expositor called it a vehement or vehement, potato, potato, but didn't know where you're from, right? vehement, cry for justice. God, do something, because it's beyond my control. And so what he recalls then, O Lord, verse 2, I have heard the report of you and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
So the reports of God's past deliverances and judgments leave the prophet in awe. He says, I'm in awe of this. And then here is his request. You ready for this? Parents love this because their kids do this.
You know, I love I love when kids are little and you can throw them around, throw them up in the air, you know, and when you're done, what do they say? Do it again. Do it again.
This is what the prophet is saying. Do it again, God. Show your justice. Show that you care. Show that you are, in fact, involved in our daily lives. You've prayed that, haven't you? God, I want to know that you are involved in my day to day life. You're not just this thing I do on Sunday mornings. So Habakkuk is asking God, do it again.
Revive it. Show yourself. I want to see God work. And it's the same cry that's in your heart and mind. We want to see God work because we say that he is our object of trust. But if we've gone long enough without recognizing the work of God, then we're going to start to wane in actually trusting him. And we might start asking questions like, does he care?
Does he even know what's going on? I want to see God work. And yet, as the prophet recognizes the absolute power of God in his infinitude and his omnipotence, he knows that God, as the creator, can do this and just wipe everybody right off the scene. He knows God can do that. And that's why he says, in wrath, do what? Remember mercy. God, I know you can pour out your wrath because you are a just God and a just God will oppose that which is evil. But God, in your wrath, remember us. Remember mercy. Remember those of us who know you. Remember those of us who desire you instead of everyone being utterly wiped out in the flood of God's justice. As it comes out, the prophet says, in wrath, remember mercy. So that is his petition. God, do it again.
I want to see you work. And then right after that petition now, the prophet goes into meditation. Verses 3 through 15. What is meditation? It is going over and over and over again something in your mind. It is being choosy about what occupies your mind. Now, if we're not choosy about what occupies our mind, then something likely, something destructive or unhealthy is going to be occupying it. Because our default direction of what occupies our mind is not positive.
The default direction is negative. Particularly if there is emotion involved. The things that you remember more than any other are the things where emotions, your emotions are tugged.
Whether it's the emotion of joy or the emotion of anger or rage or fear. Those are the things that you remember the most. And so, what the prophet is going to do is he is going to look back at the reports of God's justice and God's deliverance and God's holiness. And he is going to go over this.
He is going to go over this in his mind. He is recounting everything that God has done because God is like what God has done. And so, what we need to do is we need to remember what God has done.
Listen to this. You want to know the value of the Old Testament in your New Testament life? The value of the Old Testament is to read it and to see the awesome works of God in his holiness and his justice. Because God is like what God has done. God hasn't changed and the same God who did all of that in the Old Testament and the New Testament, but the same God who did all of that is the very same God we worship here this morning.
Nothing's changed about him. We have, but God has not. So, we need to remember if we are to live by faith and God is the object of my trust, he is the same God that is described and revealed in all of the Old Testament. And as we come up to the New Testament as well. So, what is he recounting?
Let's go through this rather rapidly here. Verses 3 and 4. God came from Teman, the Holy One, from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light. His gaze flashed from his hand and there he veiled his power. He's appealing to God's creative power, his power in creation, but also his power in the covenant with his people, where it was first given at Mount Sinai, where the awesomeness of his power was so overwhelming that people couldn't come near. And it's the same power that he used to create the universe, that God.
He is the object of our trust. And so, the prophet here is using conventional images of a fearsome manifestation of the awesomeness and the power of God. If we were to continue verses 5 and 6, Before him went pestilence and plague, followed at his feet.
He stood and measured the earth. He looked and shook the nations and then the eternal mountains were scattered. The everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. Two historic events of deliverance, the Exodus and the flood of Noah. Justice on the earth, justice on the self-sufficient, justice on the self-preeminent, grace on the humble, and justice on the proud.
The Exodus and the power of the Noahic flood, the judgment of a just and holy God upon the wickedness of the earth. And what makes clear here is that this God is not someone you want to mess with. Now that doesn't mean that he can get out of control in his wrath and just zap you if he feels like it, if you hurt his feelings. You see, when we think of God that way, that means we've made him in our image. But what we must understand is that God is an absolutely holy God and his is the standard. And if we think we can mess with God, if we think we know better, and say, forget you, it makes as much sense as you going up to a Sherman tank and kicking the tank and think you're hurting the tank. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Delight in Grace's mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10 a.m.
