Sunday EVENING Sermon

"Don't Worry; It'll Get Worse"
[Habakkuk 1:1-11]
June 25, 2006 Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Tonight, we open the burden of the prophet, Habakkuk. We don't know much about Habakkuk, though it seems likely that he was writing during the sixth century B. C. -- around the same time that Jeremiah was writing. Habakkuk's name means "the embracer" or "the wrestler." And the prophecy that he delivered, the oracle that he spoke, was heavy upon him -- a burden. Habakkuk was a prophet who was burdened by what he saw and wrestled to understand God's Response to him.

Habakkuk began his burden saying, "O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, 'Violence!' And You will not save." The prophet had cried out to God, cried for help, and he had gotten no answer. He wanted to know where the Holy God that He preached had gone.

But Habakkuk knew He was there; God was just not answering. For God was the One who showed him iniquity and theft and violence and strife, and contention among all the people, and the prophet could do nothing to stop it. He preached to them. He called them to repentance. But before him, and before the Face of God, the people had neither respect, nor fear.

So Habakkuk cried out to God, "Do something! Defend Your Holy Name! Avenge Your Righteousness!" But God seemed to do nothing, so God's Law became powerless and justice never happened. If God never saw fit to enforce His Law, what good was it to have Law? Every righteous man was surrounded by wicked men, so justice was perverted, and the prophet cried and cried out to God, "How long?" He cried out like the slaughtered souls under the altar are crying out even now, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:10).

Habakkuk's ministry was almost the exact opposite of Jonah's: God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, but he fled, so God chased him down. And Jonah preached to Nineveh, and they repented of their sins. Habakkuk went straightway to the people and preached to them and called them to repentance, and they laughed and did whatever they wanted, and God seemingly did nothing about it.

This evening, let us understand that we are right to be upset by the sin in the world and in our churches and in ourselves. The Psalmist wrote, "I see the treacherous and am disgusted, because they do not keep Your word" (Psalm 119:158). Peter tells us that Lot, living among the wicked, "Tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds" (II Peter 2:8b).

So we, as Christians, ought to be upset. Yet we ought also be in prayer for those who sin around us. We ought to be earnestly praying for them -- praying with zeal for God's Glory. We ought to be praying for those who sin, not so they can one day become wonderful people like you and me, but because the Glory of God is covered over and kept from view by our sin. And it ought to be our greatest longing as Christians to see the Glory of God in all its fullness. So let us pray for them.

"But how can we pray for them when they joyfully, unrepentantly run after sin?"

Daniel prayed amidst the lions. Jonah made his sanctuary of prayer in the belly of the fish. And Jesus prayed in the Garden, even as the torches lit up the evening sky. If we are the people of God, we will pray until sin is vanquished from the earth, because God is worthy, and to glorify God and enjoy Him forever is our purpose.

And if we have already brought the Gospel to them, let us bring it again. If we still have breath, let us tell them again and again that there is salvation in Jesus Christ Alone. Let us call them to repentance, warning them of their treacherous state until they believe -- or the time is past. And if they be Christians, let us exercise discipline, and receive them back in love.

That can be a great burden, especially when God seems to be far away. When it seems as though God is not listening. And we hear no word from God. One of the messages of the wrestling of the prophet Habakkuk is that sometimes God waits. Sometimes God says, "Not yet." Sometimes God says nothing and expects us to wait for the potter to work the clay.

God does answer -- sooner or later -- in His time, as He is pleased, according to His Will. And we see in verse five that God does answer Habakkuk: "Look among the nations and watch -- be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you." God says, "I will avenge myself for these sins, and you won't believe how I am going to do it."

"For indeed, I am raising up the Chaldeans." It's as thought God said, "Don't worry; it'll get worse." "I'm raising up the Chaldeans -- the Babylonians -- the Iraqis -- one of the most evil nations on the earth, and I'm going to send them after you. These are a people greatly to be feared -- they conquer nations, steal land and possessions -- they are completely arrogant and selfish. Even their horses are evil: they're swifter than leopards, more fierce than hungry wolves. They will come quickly and they will defeat you in an overwhelming defeat, like a hungry eagle swooping down to eat. They are coming for the joy -- the fun -- of violence. They will gather innumerable captives to take back to Babylon. They will laugh at your kings, scorn your princes, blow through your strongholds. And they will sin and offend Me, by ascribing their power to their own god."

God was right -- it wasn't the answer the prophet expected. Never would he have guessed that God would solve the problem of one evil by allowing another, greater evil to conquer it. But He did. God said, "Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle" (II Kings 21:12b). And Jeremiah also prophesied, "And the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city, and take it and burn it with fire" (Jeremiah 37:8).

Here is a hard doctrine: God sometimes uses one nation to punish another. Not only that, but God sometimes uses evil to accomplish His Will and chastize the wicked. God sometimes uses heathens to punish the Church. God knows all about our sin -- He has known about all of the sins of everyone who will every be -- from before the creation of the world. Because God is sovereign over our sin, and our sin is part of God's Plan.

Now, let us not get confused: God does not sin. God is not the author of sin. God does not force anyone to sin. When the Scripture tells us that God raised up the Chaldeans to slaughter and enslave God's people, we understand that what God did was let the Chaldeans, who freely chose after the evil inclination of their evil hearts to slaughter and enslave, God let them do what they freely and responsibly chose to do and did not stop them. God did not give mercy to His people, but allowed them to suffer justice.

So what do we do, how do we prepare, since God is not obligated to show mercy? Let us pray. Let us repudiate evil -- let us hate it with as great a hatred as we have zeal for God's Glory. And let us recognize God's Sovereign Lordship. God does not promise us health and wealth and beachfront resorts. This is a world full of sin, corrupted by sin, a world that is waiting and groaning with us for the restoration that will occur when God’s Kingdom has fully come (Romans 8:21-22) . That is our hope; we wait and long for that glory to come.

So, perhaps it's not so astonishing that God would use an evil nation to punish a sinful nation. Perhaps it makes sense -- sad, heart-wrenching sense. To see God destroy the world in a flood; to rain down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, even to raise up the Chaldeans -- it makes sense.

What is surprising -- what is truly astonishing -- is that God decided not to wipe us all out. God decided not to throw us all into Hell. John is shocked with joy, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God!" (I John 1a). And Paul sang a hymn, "[Jesus], being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father" (Philippians 2:6-11).

What is astonishing is not that there is sin in the world and that sin has consequences. What's astonishing is the God would incarnate and the Father would plan for the Son to be crucified by evil men, and that the Father would reign down His Wrath for every one of the sins of everyone who would ever believe, on His Beloved, Innocent, Holy Son. What is astonishing is that, on the cross, Jesus, the Perfect God-Man, suffered eternal Hell, the full Wrath of God, for each one of us sinners that He chooses to save. It's not a plan that you or I would ever have come up with, yet it is our hope and our salvation.

Will we continue to be shocked and angered by the evil in the world? Yes, and we should be. So, let us be a people of prayer, a people ever-ready to speak the Gospel, a people who know and believe that our God is Sovereign over all things, including our sin. And let our hope be in the astonishing Work of the Incarnation, and may it all be to the glory of the Father.

Let us pray:
Almighty and Sovereign God, make us hate sin more each day, cause us to rise up in prayer, putting our hope and trust in You, and in the Astonishing Work that saves us. For it is in Jesus' Name we pray, Amen.