God’s Assurance In My Life - Habakkuk 3:16-19

 

God’s Assurance In My Life -  Habakkuk 3:16-19

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.  The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.

Introduction:

Bro. LeRoy had just been voted in as the new pastor of the largest church in town. The former pastor who was retiring met with him privately and presented him with three numbered envelopes, #1,#2, and #3.  "Open these if you run up against a problem you don't think you can solve."

Things went along pretty smoothly, but about a year later things took a downturn and Bro. LeRoy was catching a lot of heat. About at his wit's end, he remembered the envelopes.  He went to his drawer and took out the first envelope.  The message read, "Blame the former pastor."

Bro. LeRoy called a business meeting and tactfully laid the blame at the feet of the previous pastor.  Satisfied with his comments, the majority of the church responded positively.  Things began to pick up and the problem was soon behind him.

About a year later, the church was again experiencing a loss of momentum and membership,  having learned from his previous experience, Bro. LeRoy quickly opened the second envelope.  The message read, "Hold a big revival and then reorganize." This he did, and the church quickly rebounded.

After several consecutive productive years, the church once again fell on difficult times.  This time, by far, the most difficult of all, but Bro. LeRoy wasn't worried, he still had one envelope left. He went to his office, closed the door, reached inside his desk drawer got the envelope and with a confidant smile on his face he opened the third envelope.

The message simply said, "Prepare three envelopes."

In the real world hard times don’t come with three envelopes that tell you what to do. And I don’t have to tell you this world and our life is often hit by hard, difficult, how do I go on from here? Times. How do you make it through those tough times. How do answer the tough questions, like how do you reconcile a holy and loving God with the sin and wickedness of this world?

How can anyone believe, how can anyone claim to be a Christian when the world is filled with pain suffering and death and even those who are serving God are not safe? And yet that is exactly what we see, time and time again. People like the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk we will look at today, or David, Daniel, Isaiah or the apostles and millions, even billions that have believed and kept their faith under torture, heartbreak and catastrophe. They have taken the worst blows the world can beat them with and yet remained faithful, even growing stronger in their faith. Such is Habakkuk where our sermon is taken from today.

Background

The book of Habakkuk is a record of a running dialogue between the prophet Habakkuk and Jehovah God. It is a series of questions about evil in the world and the sin of God’s people. In the first two chapters, the prophet speaks with God about evil and its punishment. If you listen to Habakkuk, you’ll find that his times and his questions could be echoes of our own times and our own questions. Our nation is filled with sin, perversion, corruption, confusion, violence, wickedness and evil. Our politician, our leaders, church pastors are advocates of the worst sinful practices that are condemned by God’s word.

Habakkuk’s dialogue

1st question: Habakkuk 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!"

Answer: Habakkuk 1:6-7 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs. 7 They are terrible and dreadful:

2nd Question: Habakkuk then questions if the cure is not worse than the disease. Surely, he asks God, the Babylonians are worse in their sin than the children of Israel.  Habakkuk 1:13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil,
and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

God's Answer is Chapter 2,  The Four Woes Upon Israel’s Sin

Habakkuk 2:6 Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his!

Habakkuk 2:9 Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house,

Habakkuk 2:12 Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!

Habakkuk 2:15 Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken

Habakkuk’s name means “embrace” and if there was a prophet who could have used a hug, an embrace from God that would be Habakkuk. God tells Habakkuk, that once he has used the Chaldeans to sift his people, separating the faithful from the hypocrites, the true from the false he will then deal with the Babylonians as well.

One of the outcomes of the captivity and the return 70 years later was that those who loved idolatry would stay in place like Babylon and Assyria, while those who truly love the Lord, the Temple and Israel would not bother coming back, only the faithful would return.

The Separation: Living By Faith It is in chapter 2 that God gives to Hab the OT verse most quoted in the NT, chapter Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

This is theme of the book, "The just shall live by faith."

In the third and last chapter Habakkuk takes his eyes off himself, the sin of his people and the terror of the coming Babylonians and instead he sets his eyes upon the Lord.  It is then that he writes on the most sublime statements of faith, one of the most unconditional hymns of faith found in the Bible. That is where we will center ourselves today Habakkuk 3:16-19

Full Failure - Habakkuk 3:16-17

16  When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.

When God Says It’s Enough

Heeding the Warning – 3:16-19 is Habakkuk’s response to God’s prophecy of the utter destruction of Israel as a nation. He is responding by stating his faith. In that faith, he will find rest in the terrible day of God judgment.

Back in chapter 2 God said, Habakkuk 2:2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. God was giving a warning, to the faithful, to those who live by faith and know the word of God.

When Habakkuk sees the future of his nation, Israel, he is filled with a terror so great that it makes him physically and emotionally ill. Habakkuk 3:16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble

And Habakkuk was listening to God’s warning, He believed God’s warning and he was stating that he would turn to God and do what God said, v16 “that I might rest in the day of trouble.”

Habakkuk describes what he saw and understood in the next verse. Habakkuk 3:17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:

Because of God’s judgment upon Israel’s sin, everything the people of Israel count on to sustain themselves and survive, would be gone.

When the Babylonians arrive, like a plague of locusts, the invading armies take what they, and what they don’t want they destroy. The nation's wealth, their heritage in the Temple, the hope for prosperity in the future and their survival as a nation is at destroyed. How can any survive? How can the righteous survive?

Habakkuk says, It is by faith, hearing and heeding God’s warning and then living by faith to find hope and rest in the day of trouble.

When It’s As Bad As Bad Can Get

None of us are prophets, we can't see as Habakkuk did, the problems even the catastrophes that are coming our way.  I don’t have to be a prophet to know that this world is filled with sin and evil. We know what God does about sin and rebellion against Him as our Creator and God. Judgment is coming. We read of it in the book of Revelation, and that vision  should scare us as Habakkuk scared him. In fact, what John saw in his vision on Patmos is much worse than what any Old Testament prophet saw.

 Nor does God’s punishment of sin and sin’s consequences wait until the rapture and the opening of the 7 seals of the scroll of Revelation. Sin is all around us and so is the judgment of sin. And that also should make us tremble like Habakkuk.

I could fill the rest of our time and every sermon from now until the end of the year with examples of sin and its consequences, rebellion and its punishment by God.

One of the worst thing about sin is that its consequences don’t always stop with just the person sinning. Alcoholic fathers destroy their families. Sexual sins like adultery, pornography, homosexuality and transsexuality devastate lives, the future and result in broken families and even destroyed nations.

Sin by its very nature is against God’s creation and so it tries to destroy what God has made.

James 1:16-18 Do not err, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

What James says in the positive is true in the negative, “Every evil and imperfect gift cometh from the Father of lies, in who there is no stability neither hope of light. Of his will he destroys us with the words of deceit that we should be the corruption of God’s creation.

What is our recourse in the day of trouble?

What was Habakkuk’s? You heed the warnings in His word and you “walk by faith” as God told Habakkuk. That faith, real faith, working, walking and willing faith is the only thing that will make the difference when the day of trouble comes.

The Psalmist said it this way in Psalms 46:1-5  God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.

Illustration: For up there.

A preacher from years ago used to tell this story, when asked the question we are asking this morning. He said, "I have a friend who during the depression lost a job, a fortune, a wife, and a home, but tenaciously held to his faith, the only thing he had left.

   One day he stopped to watch some men building a stone church. One of them was chiseling a triangular piece of rock. 'What are you going to do with that?' asked my friend. The workman said, 'Do you see that little opening way up there near the spire? Well, I'm shaping this down here so that it will fit up there.'

Tears filled the eyes of the heart-broken man as he walked away. God had spoken to him through the workman to give him hope and strength in the ordeal he was passing through. Put your real faith to work and even when the heavy blows of this world’s chisels and hammers fall, our faith in God will make us fit for His design and plan.

That brings us to this next verse. Habakkuk saw the trouble, it set him back, it hurt him, it affected him mentally, spiritual and even physically, but it did not defeat him. Look at vs. 18 and see what that terrible truth did for Habakkuk, It made him fearless.

Fear Forsaken - Habakkuk 3:18

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Joy In The Lord

Habakkuk, despite all that was happening and all that was going to happen says,  “Yet, I will rejoice. I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

Now this is not foolhardiness, nor is it a joy based upon wishfulness or some kind of a foolish denial of the harsh reality of life. Habakkuk’s statement, "I will rejoice in the LORD (Jehovah) I will joy in God” shows why this was a true as the harshness and pain he saw coming. It was real, it was true because his joy was based on something more lasting than the oldest fruit orchard in Israel, more protected than any cattle in the stall.  His joy was based upon God who never fails and who never quits. His foundation for rejoicing is on the everlasting, loving and faithful God of Israel and in Him there was a joy deeper than the depths of life’s sin and its sorrows.

Where Is Our Joy?

What is my joy built upon? What do I rejoice in? Is it the circumstances of life?  Is it the absence of difficulties, sorrows or trials?  Is it the lack of trouble?  Is it the amount of money I have in the bank, my job, or my good health?  Are these the things that my joy is built upon? For many of us that is our hope, that is the sum total of my joy, that life will just be okay and I can kind of coast through it with no real difficulties. Yet we all know that is not life, that is not reality. Troubles always come, health fails, money can’t buy real happiness it often result in just the opposite. That is the truth and we must find a way of dealing with that reality.

Joy In Jesus - Jesus talked about this in the book of John chapters 14 -16. As the Lord was preparing his disciples for the most difficult times they would ever endure he uses the word joy 7 times. Isn’t that incredible? They were going to see their teacher and friend arrested, mocked, beaten and crucified and Jesus warns them of this but he tells them about joy.

John 15:11  These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

John 16:20  Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

And not only did he speak of joy for his disciples but also for us today. Look at …

John 17:13  And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they (that’s you and I) might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Their joy and if I am willing, my joy is a gift given to us both from the Lord.  That joy was not dependent on anything in this world but upon the eternal and unfailing God of eternity.

Illustration: When Jesus had calmed the storm he then asks the disciples, "Where was your faith?"

He did not ask them why didn’t they have faith, he asks them where their faith was. Where could their faith be found? You know what their answer should have been? “Lord, our faith is in You.”

In the midst our depressions, our quitting, our cynicism,  our fear and disappointments I think the Lord is asking us, “Where is your faith? Where is your joy? It not in things out there in things or possessions, they will fail. But your joy should be right here in me.”

Let’s look at Habakkuk’s final statement, the ending to his hymn of faith.

Faith Fortified - Habakkuk 3:19 

The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.

Running Stronger, Swifter, Higher

Habakkuk after looking at the coming desolation of Israel, the war, the ruin, the loss then looks to his God, he looks to Jehovah and declares that in God he will find greater strength. Not only strength but he also says.  He will make my feet like hinds feet.

Hinds are a type of gazelle and it is an animal that when it runs from a predator will often leap high into the air.

He also says of God He will make me to walk upon my high places. He may have to go through the dark valley but in his God, he would run up a mountain to the high and bright places only God could lead him to.

Habakkuk didn't deny the troubles around him, but he would not let the troubles deny the joy of knowing his God. He sees that God will use the trial to make him stronger, swifter and higher.

Remember how Isais said it,  Isaiah 40:30-31  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Running Away or Running Through?

How will you deal with the pain, sorrow and difficulties of life, that we all will face? How will you handle the consequences of sin all around us? Will the negative things of this world beat us down or by God’s joy, lift us up? Will they make us run away or will we like Habakkuk not running from the problems but instead run straight through them?

Can we understand that the troubles you may be going through are going to be used by God to make you stronger, swifter and higher with Him? Can you see that if you will sing Habakkuk’s hymn of faith, the sorrows of this world can only bring you closer to your Lord?

The way you deal with trouble is also a measurement of your relationship and knowledge of God.  If the difficulties rob me of my joy and bring me to bitterness and emptiness it means that I really don't know God as well as I should and need to.

Let me give you the testimonies of a some other followers of God.

Oswald Chambers was a missionary and a chaplain during WWI. He died in Egypt caring for the British troops. Oswald Chambers, "The Christian is hilarious when crushed by difficulties for he knows the situation is ludicrously impossible except to God."

Quote from Nehemiah, the man who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem by telling the people to hold a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. After they had finished and withstood the opposition, the people were told, "The Joy of the Lord is my Strength." 

Brother Lawrence was a poor man who became a soldier to be able to eat, He was wounded and then entered a priory in France to work as a cook and later as a the man who repair the other monks sandals. He said this, “I know not how God will dispose of me.  I am always happy.  All the world suffers; and I, who deserve the severest discipline, feel joys so continual and so great that I can scarce contain them.”

These knew God and in the knowledge of God they found joy and strength and through Him and escape from the pain and suffering of this world. He gave them the ability to leap for joy in the midst of sorrow and to know the peace of walking the high places even in the midst of turmoil.

Coach was Wrong, God Is always right

Back in High School when I tried to play football, at practice when I had the ball (not often) and I turned upfield and saw a big old defensive tackle getting ready to hit me so hard I wouldn’t know my name, which did happen actually. My instinct was to dodge, to throw a fake and not get hit. But that was not what the coach would yell, “Quit trying to be Gail Sayers, put down your head and run through that guy.”

Let me tell you, “Run though your troubles” is good advice if it’s Lord speaking from the Bible, but not so good when you only weigh 130 pounds and go up against a 240 pound tackle. My coach, bless his heart, was wrong and I woke up in the hospital, but God is never wrong and one day when we wake up in heaven, we’ll know it fully and joyfully.

Conclusion:

Are you singing your own hymn of faith this morning? If you could see all the hard times that were coming down the days and years ahead of you, could you still rejoice? Would those harsh, hard realities make you stronger in your faith, swifter in your service and drive you higher in your relationship with Jesus or would they destroy you?

The difference will be in knowing and trusting God. Hard times, difficulties even catastrophes are coming but God is already there for us and will always be here with us. Put your faith in Him and His joy will be your strength and this world’s sin and sorrow will only make you stronger and bring you closer to your Lord and Savior.