Giving Thanks in Dark Days | Part 1

We'll be right back. Today, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, we have much to be grateful for. Now, some of us have walked through some dark days this year alone. If you're listening today with a heavy heart, I want to tell you, you are not alone. God has not forgotten you. We feel today's program will show you exactly that. The Book of Habakkuk might be a little different than the book of Habakkuk.

We know exactly that. The Book of Habakkuk might be the most pertinent scripture in our day and age. In three short chapters, Habakkuk shows us how to give thanks in dark days. If you have your Bible, turn to the Book of Habakkuk now, as Adrian Rogers shares three things to remember about faith as these days grow gloriously dim. Would you find the Book of Habakkuk?

It's on page 1372 in my Bible, but that may not help you. But find the Book of Habakkuk in the second chapter. In just a moment, we're going to look at the fourth verse in the second chapter of the Book of Habakkuk.

Well, let me tell you that the Book of Habakkuk is one of the most pertinent books in the Bible for these desperate days in which we live. The theme of our message today is giving thanks, but giving thanks in dark days. Now, it's easy to praise the Lord when everything is going well. When the sun is shining and we're happy and our health is good and we're prosperous and our family is around us, then we can say, thank you, Lord, you've been so good.

But the Bible says we're to be giving thanks always for all things, and sometimes that is difficult. And especially in dark days. And dark days are all around us, and I don't want to discourage you, but it may get darker. We know this, the Bible says, in the last days, perilous times will come. And that word, perilous, is only used twice in the Bible. It was one time used about those demoniacs who came to Jesus out of the tombs, and they were called exceeding fierce.

And that's the same word that is translated perilous. Well, Habakkuk was a prophet, and his days were like our days. They were dark days. He looked around and he saw crime and violence and hatred and debauchery. And he began to ask God to do something about it.

And it seemed as though the heavens were brass. And he would cry to God, and God wouldn't hear. Where is God? Is God too weak to do anything about it?

Or does God simply not care? Like so many of us today, we've been praying, and it seems like things are getting worse rather than getting better. And very frankly, this is causing some people to stumble. You know, it's not primarily the problem of science that's causing people to stumble. Not how the world began, but the problem of history, how the world is ending.

That's what's causing so many people to stumble. I was in Israel, and I talked with the curator of one of the largest museums there. As a matter of fact, he was my guide, a very intelligent, brilliant man. I asked him, do you believe in God? He said, no, I don't believe in God. I said, why don't you believe in God? He said, because of the Holocaust.

He said, it's impossible for me to believe in a God that will allow that to happen. It's the problem of history that is causing so many to stumble and say, where is God? Now, that's what Habakkuk was facing in his day, and very frankly, it's what we are going to be facing in our day.

So I want you to learn how to give thanks, to give thanks in dark days. There are three propositions that come out of this book of Habakkuk, and I'm going to build those three propositions around the three chapters. Three chapters in this book. Chapter 1 deals with what I would call a perplexing problem.

He looked around, and he saw things that perplexed him. Chapter 2 deals with a proper perspective. He finally began to see the situation from God's point of view. And chapter 3 deals with a profound praise. Here he begins just to praise God, not in the absence of problems, but in the very midst of these problems, because peace is peace that passes understanding. Peace is not the subtraction of problems from life.

It is the addition of power to meet those problems. So let's look in the book of Habakkuk, and admittedly, we're just going to touch the high points, but look in chapter 1, for example. Just begin now in chapter 1, or let me just say, even before we get there, go to chapter 2 and verse 4 and look at that. Habakkuk is talking about these people who are wicked, and it says, Behold, his soul, which is lifted up, is not upright in him. If you see somebody who's up very high and is leaning, you know he's about to fall. His soul is lifted up, but he's like a man walking a girder on a skyscraper that's being built, and he's beginning to lean.

You know he's about to fall. That's the way he's describing the wicked. But he says in this verse also, but the just, the just shall live by his faith.

Now, that's not incidental. As a matter of fact, this one verse is quoted three times in the New Testament in the book of Romans and the book of Galatians and the book of Hebrews. It is such a key verse, the just shall live by his faith. Now, keep that in mind, because when these dark days come, and they're coming, you're going to need something to hold on to.

You're going to need something to live by. And it's faith. It's faith. Now, faith is not smoke and mirrors. Faith has spiritual steel and concrete in it.

And you need something rock solid. You don't need to be walking around on jello and eggshells. You don't need to be blown about by the storms of calamity and the winds of circumstances and the floods of distress.

You need a sure place to stand. You need something to live by. And I'm telling you, if there were ever a book for this day and this age, it is the book of Habakkuk that tells us that the just shall live by his faith. Here are three propositions that I have for you from the Word of God. Number one concerning faith, faith doesn't live by explanations, but by promises. Now, most of us want God to explain things to us, don't we? God, why did you let this happen?

Why do you do it this way? But faith does not live by explanations, but by promises. Now, let me show you the problem that Habakkuk had and why he wanted God to explain a few things to him.

He says in verses 1 and 2, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, the burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see, Why shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save. Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance?

For spoiling and violence are before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention. God, look at all of this. Just look, God. Look at the violence. Look at the spoiling. Look at the strife.

Look at the contention. God, I prayed, I prayed, I prayed, I prayed, I prayed, and you don't hear. How long, Lord, shall I cry unto you? By the way, he uses the word cry there twice in that one verse, verse 2. The first cry is like a cry for help. If you're sinking, you say, help me, save me. That's the first cry.

The second word cry is a shout, almost a scream. He's like saying, God, where are you? Have you ever shouted at God? I did one time. So perplexed.

Not out of irreverence, a lack of respect, no. But at a time of great anguish, I literally shouted, God, why? Where? That's where Habakkuk was. There was heaven's silence, and heaven's silence was compounded by earth's sin. Look in verses 3 and 4. Why dost thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance for spoiling and violence are before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention? Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth. Look at the word slacked.

Do you see it? Literally means paralyzed. We have more judges, more courts, more jails, more prisons than ever before, and yet there is no justice in the land, and Habakkuk's day was like our day. And by the way, Jeremiah was a contemporary of Habakkuk. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse 12, Were they ashamed when they had committed to our nation? Nay, they were not at all ashamed.

Neither could they blush. Sin today is absolutely arrogant as it stalks through the land. We have a generation of unblushables. It's incredible. Is it not incredible what people will get on television and say and do? Incredible.

Neither could they blush. The late, great Vance Haffner said the sin used to slink down back alleys, now struts down main streets. And Habakkuk says, God, where are you? By the way, this is the last stage of any civilization when that civilization begins to boast of its sin. Heaven's silence, earth's sin, and hell's success.

It just seemed like the devil was having a heyday, verses 5 and 6. God says to Habakkuk, Do you want to know something? Behold, ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously. For I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe even though it be told you. You want me to give you an answer? Son, if I were to give you an answer, you wouldn't believe it.

You couldn't understand it. I'm going to do something, for lo, I will raise up the Chaldeans. Now, the Chaldeans were the Babylonians, a cruel, fierce, ungodly pagan nation, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. You want me to tell you what's going to happen? Habakkuk is going to get worse.

It's going to get worse. He's looking for relief and release, and he sees heaven silence, earth sin, and hell success. Good night, Lord. What is happening? Where are you, God?

If you're not careful, you're going to feel the same way in these days. This book of Habakkuk is written for you. Now, folks, I'm telling you, we do not live by explanations. We want God to explain it to us.

Well, friend, if you and I had to have everything explained that we enjoy, we wouldn't do anything. I wouldn't have had milk on my cereal this morning. How can a brown cow eat green grass give white milk that churns yellow butter? I don't understand that. I mean, the simplest things you don't understand. I couldn't have flown on an airplane last week.

I don't understand what makes that work. Don't ask God to explain things to you. Don't ask God to cram his plan into your puny little mind because then God would be limited by your understanding. Jesus said in John 16, verse 12, I have many things to tell you, but you're not able to bear them. That is, you don't have the capacity to understand these things. Thomas Watson said, where reason cannot wade, faith must swim. Amen.

Must swim. They're the things we just don't understand. Don't get the idea because it doesn't make sense to you. It doesn't make sense. God said, Habakkuk, I'm going to show you a marvel and a wonder in verse 5, and you won't believe it if I tell you.

Why? Because my ways are above your ways. My thoughts are above your thoughts. The apostle Paul got into this, this thing of reason, and the apostle Paul finally had to write down. He just threw up his hands in Romans 11.

I can see him just writing. He just throws up his hands, and he says, know the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor? If God did explain it to you, you'd say, now, Lord, let me tell you a better way. Who's going to counsel God? Who's going to tell God what to do or how to do it?

No, here's Habakkuk. He has a problem. He has silence, earth sin, hell success, and he says, God, I just don't understand.

And then he's stunned when he does get the answer. God says, I'm going to raise up the Babylonians. They're going to march through the land. You think it's bad now, son?

It's going to get worse. Habakkuk says, now, wait a minute, Lord. Look in verse 12. Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine holy one? We shall not die.

You see how he's arguing with God? O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment. It's not us, God. It's the Babylonians and Almighty God and hast established them for correction.

They're the guys that need to get it in the neck. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and cast not look on iniquity. Wherefore, lookest thou on them, that is, the Babylonians, which deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked, now watch this, devoureth the man that is more righteous than he. How can you do this, God? Now, wait a minute, God. I want you to listen to me, God. Now, listen.

You want to see the Babylonians over here? Now, God, we may be bad, but we ain't like them. You see, he had the idea that God grades on the curve. I may be bad, but I'm not like my neighbor. We love to lie out in the gutter and stretch ourselves out alongside some hypocrite and measure ourselves by that hypocrite and say, well, we're a little longer than he is, so therefore we must be all right. And God, we're bad, but we're not as bad as they are.

Very frankly, that is the hope of America. It's a false hope, but we print on God, we trust in our money and have me first in our hearts, and we think that somehow God's just going to overlook our sin. Well, what you have to understand is this about faith, and, folks, it is so very, very important that we understand this, that faith doesn't live by explanations but by promises. God's not going to explain everything to you. If he did explain it to you, you couldn't understand it, and if you could understand it, you probably wouldn't agree with it. You better get some promises.

You better get some promises and get a bulldog grip on those promises. That's what chapter 1 is all about, that faith does not live by explanations but by promises. Now, here's the second thing I want you to see. Faith doesn't live by appearances but by providence. You see, you need to see the promises of God and look beyond explanations, and you need to see the providence of God and look beyond appearances, because if you put your eyes on things as they appear, you're going to get awfully confused. Go to chapter 2. This is chapter 2. Habakkuk says, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me. Now, boy, that's...

He's finally coming to some sense now. And what I shall answer when I am reproved. When people get on to me and say, Habakkuk, aren't you his prophet?

Why are these things happening? He said, I'll have an answer. And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it, for the vision is yet for an appointed time. Boy, I love that, an appointed time.

But at the end, it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come, it will not tarry. Now, Habakkuk says, Look, I've been shouting at God. I've been arguing with God.

I've been telling God how to do it. I'm going to shut up. I'm going to sit still. I'm going to listen.

Habakkuk had a prayer tower. He got up in his prayer tower, and he said, All right, I'm going to watch. I'm going to listen. I'm going to shut up, God, so you can speak. So many of us when we pray say, Listen, Lord, your servant speaks. Rather than saying, Speak, Lord, your servant listens. Do you have a place where you get along with God? Do you?

You ought to. Will you just be quiet? Be still and know that I'm God. And when Habakkuk got quiet, he began to see the providence of God, not things as they appear.

Things are not as they appear to be. He saw God working providentially in the following ways. Number one, the reliability of Scripture.

Write it down, the reliability of Scripture. Look, if you will, in verse 2, And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. When he said, Write the vision, he's saying, Write the book of Habakkuk. This is where he got his commission to write the book of Habakkuk. He said, All right, now Habakkuk, write the vision. I'm going to give you a vision. Write it down so he may run that reads it.

What does he mean? We're in a race. You need to get your instructions and so you can run. The problem with many preachers is that they run before they read. And many Bible students, so-called Bible students. We're talking about things we don't understand because we have not gotten the vision that has been written upon tables, tablets, that is, the recording instruments so that we can read it. And notice what he says about the reliability of this Scripture in verse 3. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry.

Wait for it. Now, what he's saying is this. I'm going to give you something, Habakkuk, that people in later years can use.

I'm going to give you something that those people in Memphis, Tennessee, need. So write it, make it clear for these people that they can trust the Word of God. Now, in these shaky days in which we live, listen to your pastor. You better get a grip on the Word of God.

You better get a grip on the Word of God. What has happened today is we have gone off into subjectivism and emotional feelings and ecstasies and thoughts and philosophies rather than standing on the Word of God. There used to be a time when preachers would say, the Bible says. Then they start saying, the church says, and now they just scratch their head and say, well, it seems to me.

No. Get the reliability of the Scripture. God in his providence has given us a word.

We don't have to stumble like a ship at sea without a mast or rudder on a dark and stormy night and no compass when the skies can't be seen. We have a sure word, a word from God. But not only did he give him the reliability of the Scriptures, but he gave him what I'm going to call the resource of the saint, which is faith.

Look in verse 4, the last part of that verse. The just shall live by his faith. Now, in these dark days, when you have faith, you look beyond the physical to the spiritual. You look beyond the present to the future. You look beyond the temporary to the eternal.

Don't judge things by appearance. Live by faith. Faith is really the only resource that we're going to have in these days, and it is so important that you live by faith. The most powerful force on earth is faith. That's the reason when the apostle Paul quoted this verse.

You know how he quoted it? Romans chapter 1, he says, So as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, as it is written, as Habakkuk said, The just shall live by faith. That's the verse that convicted Martin Luther and caused the Protestant Reformation. Faith in dark times and the dark ages. Martin Luther read this scripture. The just shall live by faith. And in these days and these end times, you need to live by faith.

It will transform. And coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important lesson, but as we conclude today, maybe you have questions about who Jesus is or what he means to you, how to begin a relationship with God through Christ. Go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio, and you'll find resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about your faith.

Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and click Discover Jesus. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, you can call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD. Mention the title Giving Thanks in Dark Days or order online at lwf.org slash radio, or you can write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. From all of us at Love Worth Finding, Happy Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for you and so glad you joined us for a study in God's word today. Join us tomorrow for the powerful conclusion of giving thanks in dark days, right here on Love Worth Finding. Now, we treasure the testimonies and notes of encouragement we received from listeners like you and like this mother who wrote and said, my daddy was saved listening to Love Worth Finding. My daughter was saved listening to Love Worth Finding.

Jesus saves. We've all been blessed by brother Adrian Rogers' sermons, You Are All Loved, Keep On Keeping On. Isn't that a beautiful message? Thank you for sharing how these lessons have blessed your family. Now, when you donate to the ministry this month, we wanna say thank you with a hardcover copy of a new book, 25 Days of Anticipation. This new devotional will help you see the birth of the Savior in a new and beautiful way. Enter the Christmas season equipped with this study that is sure to draw you closer to Immanuel, God with us. Request the book, 25 Days of Anticipation when you call with a gift, 1-877-LOVEGOD.