[0:00] Well, if you have a Bible, perhaps you'd turn with me now to the Old Testament and to the book of Habakkuk.! If you don't have a Bible, there's some at the sides and some at the back and some at the front.
[0:11] So don't be shy. Do go and find yourself one so that you can follow. And we're reading in the little prophet Habakkuk. Just a short book comes just before Zephaniah, after Nahum.
[0:24] It's in the little section that we call the minor prophets. That's not in any way to diminish Habakkuk or his colleagues. It's just a way of saying that they're short in their books in comparison to great big ones like Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Isaiah and so on.
[0:40] But Phil Copeland has been preaching to us from Habakkuk these last couple of Sunday evenings. And we're there again this evening reading together in chapter 3.
[0:50] Chapter 3 of Habakkuk down to verse 15. A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet according to Shigianoth.
[1:05] O Lord, I have heard the report of you and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it. In the midst of the years, make it known.
[1:18] In wrath, remember mercy. God came from Timon and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise.
[1:32] Selah. His brightness was like the light. Rays flashed from his hand. And there he veiled his power. Before him went pestilence and plague followed at his heels.
[1:47] He stood and measured the earth. He looked and shook the nations. Then the eternal mountains were scattered.
[1:58] The everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
[2:12] Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers or your indignation against the sea? When you rode on your horses on your chariot of salvation, you stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows.
[2:29] You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed. The raging water swept on. The deep gave forth its voice.
[2:40] It lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped at the flash of your lightning-glittering spear.
[2:53] You marched through the earth in fury. You threshed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed.
[3:07] You crushed the heads of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. You pierced with his own arrows the heads of the warriors who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
[3:26] You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. Amen.
[3:37] Amen. And may God bless to us his word. Well, good evening.
[3:48] Please do have your Bibles open to Habakkuk chapter 3. That would be really helpful. Songs can be really powerful, can't they?
[4:08] We can see that from the history books of the world. Think of the songs sung in World War II that inspired the hearts of the nation to persevere, fight on and envision a day of future victory.
[4:23] Or as we looked at last Sunday, as I mentioned, think of the songs that are sung at, say, a rugby match or a football match, the chants that the fans start to sing. It can really boost up their team to perform at a higher level.
[4:36] And it can also put off their opponents as well. I think it's a fair assessment as well to say that the vast majority of people will actually start to believe what they sing to varying degrees.
[4:51] Think of the modern pop culture and the way that the values and the worldviews expressed in song will often have a massive impact on the young hearts that sing along to them.
[5:02] And the church is no exception to this sort of thing. Most of us, I think if we're honest, most of us take much of our doctrine from what we sing.
[5:14] From what we sing. And that's why it's so important that we don't sing drivel, isn't it? In fact, if you look back through the history of the church, you will see many instances where false teaching and even heresy has spread like gangrene amongst God's people because the people who were pushing the heresy wrote really good hymns and really good songs.
[5:37] We have to be very careful about what we sing because songs are powerful. And the songs of the Bible are no exception. God has given us His songs in the Bible so that when we hear them and read them and think about them, meditate on them, pray over them, it will not just grip our minds, but our emotions and our affections as well.
[5:59] Every part of us will be touched by His Word. And there's so many examples we could turn to, but the most obvious one, think of the Psalms, God's songbook for Israel. So many give us theology in the raw and the raw emotion that touches our hearts and our affections.
[6:18] So think of Deuteronomy 32 where Moses was looking to instruct Israel and all the future generations that came after. And what does he do? He gives them a song encapsulating his message to get to hear, to grip their hearts.
[6:35] I could go on and on and on, but why do I tell you all that? I tell you all that because Habakkuk 3 is a song. Habakkuk 3 is a song. And the prophet is singing a prayer to the Lord.
[6:45] And you'll have noticed that this song is also for the whole people of God to sing in their corporate worship. That's clear from the little musical directions that you may have been tempted to skip over.
[6:58] But just look at verse 1, for example. It says, According to Shigionoth. According to Shigionoth. That was a musical term. A similar phrase is used at the beginning of Psalm 7.
[7:10] We don't know precisely what it means. Some people think it could have been the name of an instrument. Others suggest it was the name of a specific tune. We don't know. But just look on at the end to verse 19, the very end of the passage, which we will look at next week.
[7:26] Verse 19, We find more musical direction to the choir master with stringed instruments. And there's also those three breaks in the song marked out by the word Sela.
[7:39] Verse 3, verse 9, verse 13. Again, we're not quite sure what these meant. They could have been there to mark out a change in tone or a shift up in tempo.
[7:51] But what's clear is this is a song for Habakkuk and for all of the righteous. That is all of God's people in every age, actually. The true people of God, the remnant of faith.
[8:03] It is a beautiful response of submission and trust to the report of the Lord that Habakkuk has just received. Please look at verse 1. He says, O Lord, I've heard a report of you and your work.
[8:18] O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it. That is, revive your work. What you've told me you're going to do, do it. In the midst of the years, make it known and in wrath, remember mercy.
[8:34] And what was the report of the Lord's work that Habakkuk has just heard? Well, let me quickly remind you. You remember, if you've been here for the past two Sundays, we've witnessed this intense dialogue between the Lord and His prophet.
[8:48] In chapter 1, Habakkuk brought his first perplexed concern to God, saying, O Lord, how long are you going to let the members of your Old Testament church, Judah, get away with the flagrant rebellion that they're committing against you.
[9:04] They're dragging your precious name through the mud. They've nullified your law by their behavior. And they're oppressing the righteous, that is, actual real believers within the church are being bullied and belittled.
[9:19] O Lord, won't you remember your covenant promises and deal with this? How long am I going to have to look at this, Lord? And the Lord responds with a shocking answer. The first bit of his work in chapter 1, verse 5.
[9:32] He says, Habakkuk, I'm not blind, I am not idle. I have seen it all. And I'm raising up the Babylonians to be my war machine, my chosen instrument for chastising my rebellious church.
[9:46] They will sweep across the world, taking nations, plundering peoples. no one will stand up to them, and they will worship themselves as they do that, and they are headed straight for Judah.
[10:02] And Habakkuk then responds with an even greater perplexed concern. He says, O Lord, I accept what you're going to do, I trust you, but I just don't get it. You are so holy, you can't even tolerate evil, so how then can you use such evil people?
[10:16] And you are just. So how can you use extremely wicked people, the Babylonians, to punish those who are less wicked? And in 1 verse 17, he asked the Lord, Will you let Babylon do this forever?
[10:30] Never holding them to account for their atrocious war crimes and holocausts. And it's not stated explicitly, but what's implied in that question is, what about the righteous?
[10:42] What about the people of faith in Judah who will be swept up by this Babylonian blasting? What's going to happen to us? Will you not vindicate us for clinging on to your promises?
[10:56] And in chapter 2, the Lord comes to his perplexed prophet and again gives him words of comfort. He says, A day is coming when I will fill the earth with the knowledge of my glory as the waters cover the sea.
[11:10] And on that day, I will publicly punish the proud. All those who've walked by self-righteous pride, that is all those who've walked by the same spirit and heart attitude as Babylon, they will get their comeuppance.
[11:26] I will dish out justice upon those who've opposed me and my people, says the Lord. Nothing evil will stand on that day. So friends, to put it bluntly, Habakkuk has heard that the Lord is going to judge everyone.
[11:43] Judgment will begin with a household of faith, to quote 1 Peter, and then the rest of the world will be judged, what we might call spiritual Babylon. And the only hope for any of us, friends, the only hope for you and for me even today, is found at the end of chapter 2, verse 4.
[12:02] It says there, the righteous shall live by faith. The righteous shall live by faith or shall live by his faithfulness. Doesn't matter how you translate it.
[12:13] In other words, he's saying, all those who humbly respond to the word of God by the obedience of faith, who look to the Lord alone for salvation and forgiveness and deliverance, all those who cling on to his promises, they will live through the judgment that's to come.
[12:33] And in our passage this evening, having listened to all of that, all of that report, the prophet is no longer perplexed, but he's full of assurance and praise. There is a hope burning in his heart, so much so that it bursts out into this beautiful prayer song to the Lord whom he fears.
[12:53] And so, friends, what Habakkuk has been held up here as is a model example for us to follow of true faith. The type of faith described in chapter 2, verse 4. This is what it sounds like in Habakkuk 3.
[13:07] Faith that will trust in the Lord even when the enemy is severely sifting the church. And each one of us here today is invited to, as it were, sing this prayer song with Habakkuk in our hearts to follow his example and to live out the same life of trust and contentment in God, even if the greatest of calamities should sweep over our lives.
[13:35] And over the next two Sundays, this Sunday and next Sunday, I would like to look at the prayer song under two instructive headings, two things that we are to do and remind ourselves in our hearts following Habakkuk's example.
[13:48] Here's the first thing. Firstly, verses 1 to 15, remember the Lord of glory who came as the ultimate warrior. Remember the Lord of glory who came as the ultimate warrior.
[14:00] And secondly, in verses 16 to 19, rejoice in the Lord of grace who will sustain and save you. So God willing, we'll look at verses 16 to 19 next Sunday if I can still stand by then.
[14:17] I've been terribly unwell, you know. Agnes gets that joke. Here we go. But tonight, Habakkuk invites us to remember the Lord of glory who came as the ultimate warrior.
[14:27] Please look at verse 3. Habakkuk says, God came. And in this section of the prayer song, Habakkuk looks back in history at the ways in which the Lord God came to save His people in the past.
[14:43] And he does that in order to get a glimpse of the future. What's to come. You see, in order to get a glimpse of God's final judgment on history, Habakkuk looks back to the Lord's former judgments in history.
[15:01] Let me say that again. In order to get a glimpse of what's to come of the Lord's final judgment on history, Habakkuk looks back in time to the Lord's former judgments in history.
[15:13] history. And every believer today can do the same. Each time we open up our Bibles, each time we come to church and read or hear about the Lord coming to deliver His people and wipe out the enemy in the past, it's a little preview of what will happen in the last day.
[15:32] Let me just illustrate that for you with a bit of a silly story. When I was a boy, my mum would make some fantastic cakes. As you can tell, I'm no stranger to a cake or two.
[15:46] But whenever we had guests round for dinner, my mum would be busy earlier on in the day. In the morning, say 10 o'clock in the morning, she would be in the kitchen, she would be rattling about all sorts of stuff, making up the cake mix.
[15:59] And about 4 o'clock, she would have finally finished making the cake and I, being the little fat child that I was, would immediately want a piece of it I want it now. But there was a problem.
[16:11] The cake was hidden away until about 8 o'clock when it was ready for eating. So I had to wait for that final cake to be presented at the appointed time.
[16:23] But you know, out of kindness, and because my mum knew what I was like to keep me going and to keep me behaving until mealtime, my mum would let me lick the spoon that she used to stir up the cake mix, and as I did that, I got a foretaste of what was to come.
[16:41] The final cake would come in all its glory. Yes! Now the stuff on the spoon was not the final cake, yes, but it was made of the same stuff.
[16:53] That's the final cake. And I got a little taste of what was to come and it would help me wait and endure and behave myself. And that is how it is for the people of God. When we read the Lord's acts of salvation and judgment in the past, when the Lord showed up in all His glory and showed Himself to be the ultimate warrior of all, that's a foretaste of what's to come.
[17:16] That's what will happen on the last day because they're made of the same stuff. And this is why Habakkuk spends the majority of his prayer not talking about himself, not talking about what he promises to do for God, not talking about all the great things that he's going to do, but he spends his time remembering the Lord and what he has done for his people.
[17:39] Now can I just say, if you want to be a miserable Christian, because it is possible sadly to be a miserable Christian, then just do the opposite of Habakkuk. Think and pray a lot about yourself.
[17:53] Pray a lot about the things that you're going to do for God in the future, how much faith you're going to have. Focus on yourself. I think very little about the Lord and what he has done for his church.
[18:05] And if you do that, friends, I guarantee you that it won't be long before you're deflated and downcast. And I know that's true because I've done that. But of course, if we follow Habakkuk's example, if the Lord is our vision, the vision of the eyes of our hearts, things will be different.
[18:24] Not always, for there are many reasons why Christians feel downcast. but the Lord is our vision. If he is our vision, it will safeguard us from sinking into despair.
[18:36] Well, with all that in mind, let's briefly, we don't have time to look at every detail here. We could be here for weeks and weeks actually, drawing out every little phrase and thing, but let's look at three main details that Habakkuk chooses to remember about the Lord, our God, in his prayer song.
[18:52] And when we viewed these three things together, it should, friends, I pray, thrill our souls and send us out of this building with great rejoicing.
[19:03] Firstly, Habakkuk remembers then, the Lord is terrifyingly powerful. The Lord is terrifyingly powerful. This comes up through all of this song.
[19:14] Please look at verse 3. It says, God came from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran His splendor covered the heavens and the earth was full of His praise.
[19:27] His brightness was like the light. Rays flashed from His hand and there He veiled His power. Now friends, this is most probably referring back to the Lord's movements just after the Exodus.
[19:41] Remember when He led His people from Mount Sinai to Teman, which is a region associated with Edom, through the wilderness, onto the promised land.
[19:53] And you remember if you know your Bibles what happened when the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai in that nightmarish manifestation of His glory and power in Exodus 19.
[20:04] There was smoke, fire, thunder, and lightning, trumpets blast that grew louder and louder and louder. And all those who witnessed it trembled in fear.
[20:16] In fact, I'm pretty sure the text says that a lot of them thought they were going to perish when faced with the Lord's power and glory, which as verse 4 tells us was actually just a veiled power and veiled glory.
[20:29] Goodness knows what would have happened to them if it weren't veiled. Friends, I think there is a danger today that those of us who love our movies, love our TV shows, we may become desensitized to how mind-blowing these images are because we're so used to watching TV shows and movies with all of their special effects.
[20:50] But just think about how terrifying it would have been to have been there and seen all this with your eyes. And think about how terrifying it would have been for a citizen living in Judah on Habakkuk's day to hear that report of the Lord from the Exodus.
[21:05] The one so powerful that when he appears, his splendor engulfs the sky. And blazing rays of pure light fire out from the palms of his hands.
[21:17] Terrifying. Verse 6, When the Lord comes near to measure the earth, that is, when he draws near to execute judgment, the very core of the earth was shaken.
[21:30] Not even the eternal mountains are safe. And the eternal mountains that are mentioned there, it's a figurative way of talking about the foundations of the earth. that stood firm since creation, the foundations that the Lord himself laid in place.
[21:45] The Lord is so powerful that when he walks past these ancient mountains of stability and strength, they quake. In fact, the Lord is so powerful that he could scatter them easily with his hand as though they were nothing but sandcastles on a beach.
[22:03] The image is basically saying no power can stand in the way of the Lord's power when he comes to reveal his glory. And when the nations witnessed the Lord's power in the past, they were terrified.
[22:16] Verse 7 says this, I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. And most commentators agree that Habakkuk refers to these two nations where actually, there's a good case for seeing them as actually being one people group.
[22:34] But anyway, they're mentioned here as two nations. And they're mentioned because they were the first two pagan nations that the Lord raised up in the book of Judges to punish and discipline his rebellious people after they'd entered into the promised land.
[22:51] In other words, the Lord raised up Cushan and Midian for the same reason that he was about to raise up Babylon to be his instrument of discipline on his people.
[23:01] And what happened to Cushan and Midian once the Lord had finished using them? Answer, they experienced the Lord's terrifying power through his appointed judge.
[23:14] Habakkuk remembers that's what the Lord did to Cushan and Midian because that is a little preview of what will happen to Babylon. He will call them to account for the evil that they are responsible for.
[23:30] He is so powerful. That's the first thing we remember. Here's the second thing. Habakkuk remembers the Lord has a ferocious arsenal.
[23:41] The Lord has a ferocious arsenal. The Lord has a lot of weaponry at his disposal and it comes from the created order. In verse 5, Habakkuk says that when the Lord walked in judgment in the past, he sent, what did he send?
[23:58] Pestilence in front of him to prepare for his arrival. And after the Lord had been himself, as if that wasn't bad enough, what followed the Lord behind him? His backup, as it were, not that the Lord needs a backup, but who's coming behind him?
[24:11] Plague. Plague followed behind him to spread over any enemy as he leaves. And the Lord brought those very things upon Pharaoh in the land of Egypt.
[24:21] Again, we can look back to the Exodus. And they were just two of the Lord's ferocious weapons that wreaked havoc upon those who had oppressed his people and their false gods.
[24:34] And of course, the waters, the sea, the earth, the deep, the lightning, all are described here as things which tremble at the Lord's appearing. And of course, all of them are at the Lord's disposal.
[24:49] That's what it means when it talks about the chariots of the Lord and the sea, his bow, his arrows, his lightning. The Lord has a terrifying arsenal. Now, verse 8 seems to be an allusion to the Red Sea which the Lord sovereignly used to sweep away the enemy and wipe them out.
[25:09] And then please look at verse 11. Habakkuk says, the sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear.
[25:20] Now, this is a direct reference to Joshua 10. Do you remember when five kings of the Amorites all gathered their forces to fight against Israel?
[25:31] And Israel seemed hopeless and helpless. And what happened? Well, Joshua prayed to the Lord and the Lord said, I have given them into your hand. And the Lord caused the enemy to turn on each other and threw down large hailstones from heaven is what the text says, upon the foes and they fled.
[25:54] And the Lord, remember, held the sun and the moon and the sky until His people had meted out His righteous vengeance. That is what Habakkuk is remembering here.
[26:05] The Lord has a ferocious and unrivaled arsenal of weapons at His disposal. And again, if you were to think back in chapter 1, remember, Habakkuk gives, sorry, the Lord gives a description in verse 5 to 11 of Babylon and it's terrifying.
[26:23] He describes them as being like the ultimate predator, fiercer than a pack of wolves, faster than a herd of horses. It's terrifying. But actually, friends, when you compare that to chapter 3, Babylon is nothing compared to the ultimate warrior you find in chapter 3.
[26:42] Babylon is nothing compared to the Lord and his power and his arsenal. Again, Habakkuk 1 at the end, Habakkuk himself describes Babylon as being an ultimate fisherman.
[26:54] Well, the ultimate fisherman is nothing compared to the ultimate warrior of chapter 3. And friends, this is our God. Don't forget that. This is our God. He has a ferocious arsenal at His disposal.
[27:10] The third thing that Habakkuk chooses to remember about the Lord in His prayer song is how the Lord crushed the head of the enemy. Verse 13 of chapter 3.
[27:22] Habakkuk says, You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.
[27:35] My friends, here's a verse that all of us should be crying out at the top of our lungs. Maybe do this in private or don't do this out in the street. But anyway, this is something that should really grip our hearts.
[27:50] The Lord, time and time again, has humiliated His enemy by crushing the head of their king. That's what it's saying there. The laying bare from thigh to neck is really hard to translate, but it seems to have been a humiliating act that one victorious king would carry out on a king whom he has defeated.
[28:10] And Habakkuk is longing for the day when the Lord will do this again to the king of Babylon for what he has done. But you cannot miss, friends, when you read that, the clear allusion to Genesis 3, where the Lord promised in the garden that he would one day see to it that a descendant of Eve, of the woman, would crush the head of the enemy, capital E.
[28:36] Every time we look back and remember the Lord crushing the head of a Pharaoh, or the Lord crushing the head of a Goliath, it is an assurance that one day the one who was behind Pharaoh and Goliath, Satan himself will meet the same humiliating end from the Lord.
[28:58] And by the way, don't miss what this teaches us about the true nature of salvation. It is possible to have a kind of fuzzy feel-good feeling about salvation without realizing that salvation always goes hand in hand with God's judgment.
[29:11] You cannot have salvation without God meeting out judgment at the same time. Salvation for God's people always means deliverance from God's enemies, and that always means destruction of God's enemies at the same time.
[29:26] This is always what the Bible means by salvation. It's a time where God's wrath and His mercy meet. And He shows that wrath by destroying His enemy.
[29:39] As He does that, in the same action, He is showing mercy to His people, liberating them from the enemy to live under His rule and protection and His blessing.
[29:52] And just notice the end of verse 13. He says this, Habakkuk says, In the past, Lord, you pierced with His own arrows the heads of His warriors.
[30:03] That is, you used the arrows of the enemy and turned them back upon themselves. If I was listening to O. Palmer Robertson, he's a Bible commentator, I want to read this to you.
[30:15] It's a longish quote, not too long, but it is a beautiful quote. Let me read this to you. He says this, In His distinctive way of working, the Lord sees to it that the enemies of His people suffer from the severest of humiliations.
[30:31] They destroy themselves with their own weapons. Often God's people find themselves severely disturbed because they see no visible power as strong as their enemies.
[30:45] But Habakkuk encourages us, the faithful, to assume a strange perspective. We must look at the strength of our enemy as the very source source of our own protection.
[30:58] The stronger the enemy, the more sure of his own self-destruction. For as God sovereignly raises up powers and brings them down again, He turns the strength of the enemy against Himself.
[31:15] And Palmer Robertson goes on to give many illustrations of this from the Scriptures. Haman, in the book of Esther, where did he end up? He was hanging dead on his own gallows.
[31:27] Daniel's adversaries, where did they perish? Answer, in the very den of lions that they had wished for him to be cast into. Psalm 7 says, He who digs a pit to entrap the righteous, the people of faith, they fall into the same pit that they have made.
[31:46] So rather than being terrified at the strength of any enemy of God's people, we today ought to rest confidently in the assurance that the strength of our enemy's power is actually a display of their capacity to destroy themselves.
[32:04] Isn't that marvelous? We should not be intimidated by anyone who stands against the gospel today, but we should pity them.
[32:17] So Habakkuk remembers that the Lord is the Lord who has come in the past, He's terrifyingly powerful, He has a ferocious arsenal, and He's crushed the head of the enemy, even using the enemy's own weapons against Himself.
[32:32] And Habakkuk sings these truths with joy, and gladness, so that they will grip His mind and His emotions, and so that He will have a glimpse of what's to come in the future.
[32:45] And it will help Him to carry on living for the glory of God whilst He is under the oppression of Babylon. And friends, we must do the same. In order for us to be assured of the Lord's coming, we too must look back and see our mighty Savior in action.
[33:04] But friends, when we look back from our place today in salvation history, we have it even better than Habakkuk, don't we? For when we look back, we don't just see the majestic deliverances of the Old Testament.
[33:16] We do see them, and they are majestic, and we should praise the Lord for them. But no, we can look back and see the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension of Christ the King.
[33:28] and we look back to the time when all was accomplished in God's salvation plan. We remember the cross where God took the ultimate attack of the enemy and fired it back upon Him.
[33:43] I used to think that Satan in some way had some sort of knowledge of the future. Actually, I don't think that's true at all. What happened at the cross? The cross was the Lord taking the attack of the enemy.
[33:57] You will find no greater evil than the crucifixion of the Son of God. And yet, what did God use that for? The destruction of the enemy. Where the Son of God was pierced for our sin.
[34:13] And so at the same time, as the Apostle Paul says, He disarmed and triumphed over the demonic rulers and authorities and put them to open shame. Friends, we can look back on that and see the moment when Satan was struck the crushing death blow that guarantees his ultimate end will come soon.
[34:34] Now, a few years ago now, I remember sitting in a church building down in London and I was listening to a great Bible teacher, David Jackman, and he was addressing all of us in the room. And there were many people from many different ages and stages.
[34:47] But he said something along the lines of this. He says, if you're a Christian who is full of despair and panic because of the state of the world around you, and just ask yourself, how many minutes of your day do you spend reading the news, watching the news, especially if you are retired?
[35:07] Could it be, could it be that you are downcast with despair in your Christian life because you spend more time listening to the voice of the world with all of its spin and all of its dishonesty and deception as opposed to listening to the voice of the Lord and reminding yourself of what He has done for you by His grace and so giving yourself a glimpse of what He will do?
[35:36] Friends, as Christians today, we are exiles on earth for we are away from our true home. What's our true home? It's the bodily presence of the Lord Jesus and His glory.
[35:48] That is our true home. And as we live this current life of exile, we will always be surrounded by those who live by the spirit of Babylon. Babylon is not far off.
[36:01] It's what you and I drink in and breathe in every day. And that means, friends, we will hear all sorts of voices from spiritual Babylon speaking things that could rock us and tempt us to turn away from living by faith in the Lord and His promises.
[36:19] Making us think, for example, that the Lord isn't the ultimate warrior, Savior. Making us think that He's not powerful and that the things that we see, the hostile things against Christ, well, they are the things to be feared.
[36:33] Making us think that the Lord will never deliver on what He has promised to us. Not just voices from the news media. It could also be voices from the unbelieving people around us in our everyday situations.
[36:47] Just think of this. It could be voices we hear in our staff rooms. Voices we hear in our classroom, lecture hall, halls of residence. Voices we hear in our RE classes at school or whatever class at school for that matter.
[37:00] Voices we hear in the books that we read, the TED talks that we watch, the movies, the TV shows we watch, or the songs that we listen to. It could even be the voices we hear in our homes from loved ones and family members who are strangers and aliens to Jesus.
[37:19] These voices could bring to us Babylonian propaganda against the Lord, our God. So, friend, in order to counter the voices of Babylon that we hear day in and day out, we need to regularly do this.
[37:36] Remember the Lord who has come as the ultimate warrior so that even if the worst of calamities should sweep over our lives, we will persevere by faith, rejoicing and trusting in Him to the very end.
[37:56] Let's be quiet for a moment. Let's respond to God's Word in our own hearts and then I'll pray for us. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.
[38:17] Gracious Heavenly Father, help us to follow the model example of Your servant Habakkuk, to look back in Your Word and so get glimpses of the glory that is to come when Your Son will come in power and in His majesty to deliver us and deal with our enemies and His enemies once and for all.
[38:43] Help us to do this so often so that we will stand firm and not be shaken in these last days. And we pray all this in Jesus' name and for His sake.
[38:57] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.