Living by Faith in the Presence of the Curse (Galatians 3:10-12)

[Music] like sermons from Galatians 3:10 through 12 but we'll be doing the application from Habakkuk however you're supposed to pronounce that but what I like about it is is a very interesting prophet in the Bible unique in a lot of ways and what's unique about Habakkuk it's he's not prophesying to us it's a record of Habakkuk talking to God and he asking very difficult questions that a lot of people asked including us and that God gives the answer to have a cook and then there's poetry about the issues that you find within the book which includes the wrath of God why is there so much evil in the world what are we to do in light of that fact what about the promises of God what would be a godly response for us if we find ourselves living in a society where the leadership is wicked so there's plenty of pertinent material and ultimately the real answer is justification by face us well we'll be starting Galatians 3:10 through 12 let me read the text and I'm going to read that from the Holman Christian standard Bible today for all verse 10 says for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse because it is written everyone who does not continue doing everything written in the book of the law is cursed now it is clear that note no one is justified before God by the law he has the righteous will live by faith that's a citation of Habakkuk but the law is not based on faith instead now another quotation of the Old Testament the one who does these things will live by them let's pray and ask God for wisdom this is a really important topic and I hope that we can grasp it well Heavenly Father thank you for your word and we confess at the front end of this that though the topic is difficult the word is true and give us tender hearts that are willing to yield before your authoritative and powerful word and believe what you've said I mean we have faith and may we trust and we may we go to your word for our answers and not to the wisdom of man and Heavenly Father if there are any here who do not know you may today be the day of salvation in Jesus name Amen let's go to the first part of Galatians 3 verse 10 okay for as many as are of the works of the law are under occurs now what Paul is talking about here our law works there's no definite article but certainly here focus on the law itself a law of Moses but in both Galatians and Romans Paul often uses the idea of law in the without the definite article so that any of us whether we were ever considered Jewish or whatever would realize that whatever kind of law works we decide we want to trust in they won't work either okay and if the people that were under the Old Covenant would be cursed if they relied on law works and particularly true now that the new covenants come there's no exception given here notice it says as many as are of the works of the law so in this section Paul is using logic now let me mention that a little bit here many people would think that logic is some sort of a specialized thing that only supplies to certain people and I've debated a fellow who believes that and I've done some research and actually wrote a book on the topic there are those who think logic was Aristotelian and that somehow the Jews were subject to Aristotelian logic so the idea is you can read the New Testament if forget about all this Aristotelian logic all Aristotle did was categorized the basic ways that things relate to one another that we'll be able to identify as human beings created in the image of God keep this straight human beings are not unreasoning animals or beasts in 2nd Timothy 2 it says that the false teachers are like unreasoning beasts well beasts and birds and squirrels and anything you can think live by instinct nobody gives a squirrel a book about how to get into your bird feeder ok they get it I don't care they'll beat you every time you trying to keep him out of your bird feeder we even went to buy cheaper foods at least I got wet one time we tried this we tried that that's just what they do ok human beings are created in the image of God and you can see that we have to use logic however you want to characterize it because before the fall God told Adam and Eve that they shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and already there's reason there the squirrel just goes from tree to tree the human being has to listen to God say ok logic chi and knowledge of good and evil not tree analogy good evil all of these you can eat this one you can well that's just basic rudimentary little set logic and so because Aristotle categorizes then that that to some people like the emergent so we don't have to do that if you don't use logic you can't live food non-food poison non poison ok so what Paul is doing is using logic and his logic is this the scripture says as many are of the works of law or under a curse and then he'll go to a passage this is you have to do everything so if you fail the law point you're lost all have failed all have sinned so all are lost unless they find a remedy from God so if you're going to go back to the law like the peered Peter might in his hypocrisy that Paul is still dealing with yet go for the Galatians you'll put yourself under a curse it'll happen every time this is just simple logic Abraham was blessed by faith as we saw in the context it says in Galatians three nine so then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer the just shall live by faith is where we're going with this so the universality of the curse is affirmed here in Galatians the first three chapters are first two-and-a-half chapters of Romans go into this in great detail and that's something that you should know as a Christian so the contrast is blessed by faith or cursed by works would you rather be blessed or cursed you know there's more logical fallacies that false teachers use I wish I had more time but when we do radio by the way somebody asked me to clarify this when I talk about radio that doesn't mean we actually buy time at a radio station you can go down a dial find it it's on the website mp3s that can be downloaded podcast all that CIC ministry org and what Eric and I do is we take the Galatians and stuff that would be too much for a sermon we get into it and really get into and bring it out and talk about it and banter back and forth about it and so on and so that's where you find that there's a article called blessed by faith cursed by works Galatians 3:10 b-before it is written cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law to perform them so Paul is using basic logic that is ours as being created in the image of God all the way back into Genisys human inability is an inescapable implication of Paul's logic and Paul was not a disciple of Aristotle and just don't let anybody confuse you about that it's just human it's human created in the image of God how is it that everyone is cursed well if they could abide by everything if some person besides Jesus Christ came on the face of the earth never sin didn't have the imputed sin of Adam and was able to do all these things then this would be false and Paul would be in the air and so our inability which is explicated in Romans chapter one two and three and here in Galatians three and so forth should show us our need for a savior it should drive us to the cross it should drive us to our knees it should cause us to cry out to God it should cause us to be like the repentant sinner saying God be propitious to me and the other guy says I'm not like that sinner well who's justified the one who cries all for God to save him from God's wrath or the one who says I'm glad I'm not like him and so this is very important now even in the midst of the session on the blessing in the curse which is founded in Deuteronomy 27 28 and so uh excuse me Deuteronomy 30 verse 6 pointed to the need for a circumcised heart but it says there moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all of your heart with all of your soul so that you may live how are we going to love God is the way he needs and deserves to be loved how are we going to perfectly obey God how are we going to be right before God God is going to do an inward work through grace through the gospel to circumcise the heart Peter and Barnabas did not want to have any kind of fellow table fellowship with the Gentiles who were uncircumcised that was the issue that started this writing of Paul here and the fact is it's our heart that has the problem it's our prideful heart this is I don't need God I don't need to be forgiven I don't need to blood atonement I can do it on my own yeah it's something that's alive from Satan Satan said in the garden you should be like God it's not going to happen unless we join Satan in his rebellion Galatians 3:11 a here I'm using a new American Standard notice the conclusion of Paul's logic now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident pretty cool word there evident clear he assumes they had basic logic how you how you define categories and compare them to one another and so forth it's obvious to anybody created in God's image it's obvious there's no scripture the God cannot lie God said this we cannot be justified he's going to show some more Scripture now there's other ways to try to escape this I've noticed in the last 3040 years where I've engaged it a lot of debates both formal and informal and public and over the mail and phone and later on when emails invented then you could really debate now they got blogs you can really debate I don't go there because I don't trust me publishing anything that somebody didn't edit okay always felt that way but you can go there and have at it but the point is this there's there's this desire to escape from logic Francis a Schaeffer called it escaped from reason why why would people want to escape from being created in the image of God using logic rather than being a stinkin beast why do they want to escape because it's the only way to escape from what God said God applies his word to us and it's binding and if we say I can't understand I can't understand and we're not as that must be Aristotle I I doesn't apply to me well then you then you don't can escape from God and what he said escape from the absolutes escape from the gospel but you can't escape from reality because God created the world out of nothing and the the judgment of God and the mercy of God and the forgiveness of God these things are true you don't escape in a debate with someone who has chewed logic he's the King James word from Joel but it's kind of a cool word eschewed means you know push it away I said every person whether you believe in logic or not or categories or not when they exit they go through the door and this guy said well yeah but radio waves go through the wall okay so do you want to dial into your station or not okay if you want to listen to 98.5 you don't care where the wave came through the door that doesn't apply it's it just changed switch the category and confuse everybody okay so I'm still telling you it applies to radio waves you got a dial in the one you want to listen to and 98.5 or whatever that station might be in some other 101 or whatever they're different and you won't get one because the because of the law of contradiction non-contradiction now this also applies to individuals in the latest attack from theologians as well this is only about group it's not about a person's a lot of group and the group is sort of this Jewish group that applies here and it really doesn't apply to who is in or out of the group this is more foolishness who's going to stand before God on the day of judgment me or some amorphous group that somebody might be in or not in so they want to escape by pushing it off they forensic was forensic it's legal before God I said no one no single individual you me your friends your relatives any single person creating the image of God is justified before God okay so this is forensic God is the judge of the whole earth and there are many unrighteous judges and there always have been on the face of the earth but God is perfectly holy perfectly righteous and he's the judge of every individual this true soul weighed on Luther and it scared him see in our self-righteousness in our blindness with a grade god could never find anything wrong with me oh really how long do you think he'd have to look I know that I'm a sinner remember Mordecai and Haman Haman couldn't see there was anything wrong with him what would the King do you want to honor somebody in Haman and his Friday plied I should I need some honor so he comes up with the greatest idea in his mind you know the royal chariot the orell ring all of the treatment this is no turns out wasn't for him it was for his enemy don't imagine it doesn't apply it's clear it applies to each individual God is the judge and it's a legal justification can you imagine the joy that Luther had when searching for hope and finding none in the church because they had their indulgences and their penance in their system and he could find no hope for the forgiveness of sins and one day a flash of light filled the dungeon of his dreary mind and his hopeless heart and he saw in Romans 1:17 my just one shall live by faith and that justice is God's imputed righteousness and that if we believe God in the gospel we are declared righteous not because of what we done but we but what Christ did on our behalf Wow it was a lot he called it that a lightning bolt that filled the dungeon and the hopelessness scripture tells us that no one but Jesus can or will on their own fulfill the law perfectly because Jesus is fully God and fully man Galatians 3:11 be because the righteous will live by faith there it is cited three times in a New Testament here in Galatians 3:11 also in Romans 1:17 and all in a beautiful way in Hebrews 10:38 I wish I had the time to preach the Hebrews version of it but that'll have to wait for the radio well we'll get remind me area can we do this we're gonna get into this Hebrews because the context is really amazing there so some people to evade this claim that Paul is only talking about or Habakkuk so only talking about human faithfulness and therefore they evade substitutionary atonement forensic justification so on and so forth so much of contemporary theology is about evasion rather than declaration how can we evade what we're supposed to believe how can we evader God said how can we go on into the postmodern world where nobody can know anything and a is not non a in the same time in the same relationship is merely Aristotelian we found a better way there is no other way you have to use it to refute it so we have an antithetical parallelism which is parallelisms are very much how the Jews wrote their poetry their scripture their prose and everything so notice how I have the highlights here yeah there in red from this angle does it look like it behold as for the proud one who's the proud one me unregenerate okay that's how we think someone was so many story about witnessing very strongly to a person that they they want to help and the person says only on my terms will I come to God I heard a story about that and does it work that we're going to decide the terms by which we'll go to god I hope you realize that that's a fool's mission God is the judge of the whole you can't hide I can't hide that thought I've had in the last several years I've had times where I set for a long time thinking about the fact that God knows everything and scared me badly I was shaken to the point of despairing about assurance and what got me back on track in regard to assurance as a scripture the more you meditate about self the worst it gets I can't think of a more pathetic topic than self but the more I think about what God's done for me rather than what I think I might do for God the joy and hope returns the joy of salvation the excitement to share with others what we found in the gospel but the more we think about our own failures it drags us down it causes fear guilt and everything else and this is universally true so the proud one is the sinner his soul is not right within iam but they're righteous now there's your contrast the proud one is the antithesis of the righteous will live by his faith notice the proud one is in two can't get out of the curse but the righteous will live by faith this is cited from Habakkuk 2:4 now those are the alternative so what's the faith the opposite of it's the opposite of being under the curse because of failure that's the topic and we'll get brewing to go through a back up today just in bigger sections with some sample verses so he can't understand that book of the Bible you might want to start looking for it now I'll give you a little clue though it's right before Zephaniah so you should easily find it it's cited in Hebrews and so on so let's go on here because I want to have leave time for Habakkuk here's why this is Paul's logic again from Scripture law-keeping leads to being cursed here's what it says Galatians 3:12 but the law is not based on faith now if you think back to the last verse well then what is it based on pride the proud one is souls not right within him well I kept the law remember the rich young ruler they called her the lawyer well what does it read the law your lawyer what does it say to you and he gave off some of the commandments I've kept these for my youth he was proud and then the parable of the Good Samaritan made it clear that he really hadn't his heart wasn't right what always sad the laws not be some faith instead now we have a citation of Leviticus 18 5 the one who does these things will live by them there it completes Paul's logic the Bible says you have to curse it as he who doesn't abide in all the things written in the law and here another passage from Leviticus 18 5 says the one who does these things will live in them and Paul Knowles you can't even Moses did because when he gave the original command they went to Mount Ebal Mount Gerizim and they read the law the blessings and the cursings and the priests were in the middle they said amen amen we're gonna do this we're going to be blessed and then there is the implication they really won't because they're going to fail and they'll be under the curse so this is presumed explicitly stated logically derived whatever you want to call it you can't escape it and you just think back try to think back you know the idea of the of the innocent pristine child I've been thinking you know I'm blessed and we're not blessed with too much of a memory I think I can I don't know why try why I can't find the car keys there's too much junk in my brain but I can remember back to three and four years old very easily and I remember when I was very young having a little a little brother and then another little brother I was mean I know Wayne my brother's some of you know is probably told you that I would just mean I was self-centered that was a bully because I was bigger that's wicked I don't remember being pristine can you remember being pristine and sinless think all the way back and if you think hard enough pretty soon here comes all the guilt it's like Luther the darkness the hopelessness the sin how could I have been so mean I could never make things up to everybody that I harmed only God can do that and in his way of forgiving us and helping us now given that fact why would we think we can just live by the law and never end up being cursed it's the most absurd idea that you can have but every world religion teaches works and the thing that trips up churches as we start believing in the goodness of man we start believing there's some good thing that if we just tell people the benefits of serving Christ they'll be happy to do so it doesn't work that way because we believe we can do it on our own so yeah I hope you could make these applications but I want to move on so he spend time in Habakkuk think about the the question the problem of evil the wickedness around us the fact that we're all under a curse we try to do law-keeping and even as Christians that can backfire on us because the Galatians three three that I already preached are you so foolish the beginning in a spear you're going to be perfected by the flesh so now I'm a Christian now I can do law-keeping know the problem be with Peter and Barnabas and Paul did came up in Galatians they were all Christians and they still had a problem to debate an issue are we going to be perfected by law keeping when we were redeemed by grace through faith answer is no here's the implications the applications when God has spoken in Scripture concerning our key questions we must listen and believe let me tell you a little frustration why I am preaching this this way from Habakkuk because published an article after a debate with Greg Boyd and all this stuff or but this was before the debate but it's seminary graduated 99 always a debate about the problem of evil the atheists always go to the problem of evil and so in my simplistic little mind I thought has God told us and anything about this you know this philosopher that philosopher we got the soul building defense which is really probably what I'm defending open theism freewill everybody's got their theory about why there's evil but did God ever say anything in Scripture and if he did why don't we talking about it and if we do why don't we believe what God said and that led me to write this article called the Hebrew lament and the problem of evil and this article was universally ignored okay it didn't even make anybody mad what's wrong with an article nobody's even mad they should least be mad but it deals with lament songs and lament literature lamentations little Jeremiah mainly Habakkuk Psalm 13 and so on I think the reason is ignored not in my article because I'm really nobody but is that the answer and I'm gonna give it to you before we even start with this the answer is that we need to believe the promises of God and trust him and wait I don't think people like the answer well I have ACOG didn't like it but he accepted it and who serve praising God I can't fix all these problems we must accept and believe God's answer to the problem of evil the world not run to philosophers and human wisdom you see what I mean now let's do a little survey of Habakkuk did you find it right there in front of Zephaniah I kept not fighting it so I finally memorized the page number and my Bible so I could find it quickly here's the problem it's very well expressed and if you can't relate to this right now in the world we're living in you well I suppose you don't have a TV a radio or a newspaper but let's read it Habakkuk 1 2 through 4 from the new American Standard how long by the way that's how almost all laments start because the Hebrews believed at some point God's gonna fix it so you start with how long okay how long O Lord will I call for help and you will not hear I crowd you violence you do not save why do you make me see iniquity and caused me to look on wickedness yes destruction and violence are before me strife exists and contention arises therefore the law is ignored justice is never a for the wicked surround the righteous and therefore justice comes out perverted can anybody say yeah okay we live in a wicked world unjust and sometimes it becomes so egregious that we see the existence of what Greg Boyd and his open theism calls gratuitous evil okay we can accept that there's evil but not this and he has a whole book that yeah that describes how bad something was and well this can't be so therefore God doesn't know what's going to happen and it kind of catches him by surprise like it does us and so we just got to accept that and then you have the warfare thing this is how philosophy enters the church trying to answer questions while ignoring God's answer is now I'm going to show you that it's not that God doesn't answer about Habakkuk complains that it seems like he doesn't have you ever felt like why is this so bad and why doesn't God answer my prayer I think every person of faith has gone through that it's universal experience this way there's so many lament songs why why do I have to watch this this is so bad this this isn't right this is so wicked it's so obvious what's wrong with it and nobody can see what's wrong with it and this is our lament as well as Habakkuk lament this is the world we live in this is the grief that we have we try to fix something and it falls down again and it's even worse when as people perpetrating the evil upon us and others that we know and it's very very difficult to understand now in his first question to God what Habakkuk was questioning was wicked leadership in Israel okay why are our Jewish leaders so wicked in Israel that's what he was talking about us what he was lamenting about the lament is certainly a Jewish contribution to world literature and it's still true today the lament because being caught between belief in God and how bad everything is there's it's hard to respond unless you know Messiah and those that don't know Messiah it's bad I won't give up my belief in God and so there's these other man-made things that we need to gospel the Jewish people need to gospel we all need the gospel so here Habakkuk the prophet of God has an authoritative answer right from God and we can believe it in ourselves and this happened in history God cannot lie so he says God says to him okay why are there so much evil in the Israel and our leadership here's the answer I'm raising up the Chaldeans that fierce and impetuous people who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs thought of summarizing you read more details in Habakkuk no problem I'm gonna send the Chaldeans and they'll wipe out Israel kill all your leaders oh I'm so glad there's an answer I've I've been waiting for that no this is going to lead to another question because it's good that's worse what that's not a very comforting answer God uses a wicked nation to judge Israel which happened beginning in the the timing of the writing of Habakkuk is probably between 609 and 608 BC so this happened in history and these wicked nations that would fight were were ruthless and they had no mercy whatsoever they'd pillage they destroy they believed in a scorched-earth version of this so that nobody'd want to go back to this desolate land that's happened to Israel how many times so the answer is the Babylonians are going to come and destroy Israel now I'm gonna skip forward obviously I can't go verse by verse through the entire thing in most of Habakkuk is poetry they describe the situation as he believed it is and will be based on what God said her based on what's already happened now Habakkuk 1 12 and 13 so then he goes back and laments again are you not from everlasting Oh Lord my God my Holy One we will not die you see right there he knows that he believes the promise he believes what God said and that they knew God said like to Abraham through the in Genesis 12:3 through thy seed all the nations will be blessed there's got to be a preserved seed so he says we will not dies believing something God said earlier that he would preserve Israel you O Lord have appointed them to just see how he's upset okay we got wicked leadership it can't be this way God's land is in the Chaldeans he said okay you appointed them he didn't go write a book on open theism you'll Lord appointed him to judge and you'll rock have established them to correct your eyes are too pure to approve evil so what's the backup saying God ordained that this would happen but he can't approve of the evil they're going to do that's their responsibility this should remind us of acts 2 22 and 23 and so forth the God appointed the fact that Messiah would be sinless raised from the dead rejected by the Jewish leadership crucified but at the hands of wicked men but it was God that did it so not that he approved of killing the innocent but that he had a greater good in mind which is the redemption of us lost persons through messianic salvation God always has a greater good in mind but it will apply to those who have faith if we reject everything God said it's not going to help so notice this here yeah they're there to correct your eyes are too pure to approve evil and you cannot look at wickedness with favor he knows those things to be true he still doesn't have this you can't totally figure it out but those things are all true right now look at what I have highlighted this is the lament why do you look with favor on those who deal treacherously why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they so look the second element is they're worse than we are there's got to be some answer where so word doesn't have to be the ones worse and we hate them we don't want them to come and defeat us the Chaldeans we're Babel or not that bad so let's go on here's God's definitive answer that by the way Habakkuk believes accepts and lives by and even writes poetry about is this amazing job said something and he believed what God said that's Paul's point do we believe what God said we're gonna have all kinds of theories and ideas like Hegelian synthesis everything's getting better and better that's I wrote about that by the way and I met the people who believed it I don't know what theory of history in fact Hegel the German flash philosopher said that when Adam and Eve fell they fell up that began the progress and everything and if you hear the term progressive most of the time what it means is hey Galleon synthesis because everything inevitable Eve's making progress now the biblical worldview is everything's headed toward judgment the Satanic worldview as everything's headed toward paradise without God now I'm not saying there isn't anybody ever used the term progressive in some other way or never maybe never heard of Hegel but when I met the people who wrote the books and the people are on the cutting edge of this at this conference I went to they all believed some version of hegelian synthesis they believe things are getting better now look at what it says here for the vision what is the vision I'm gonna stop right there what is the vision the vision for Israel and for us and for believers is messianic salvation the vision of salvation through in a future time by one God would sin and raise up was given to Eve that's the seed of the woman will crush the Serpent's head it was given to Abraham my just shall abraham believed God excuse me abraham believed God and was accounting for righteousness through thy seed all the families earth will be blessed the vision is for messianic salvation God will bring his promises to pass but as for the appointed time that should tick off a lot of things in our mind if we know the Bible after the resurrection before the Ascension Jesus was asked by his disciples is it now that you restore the kingdom to Israel and what did Jesus answer this is not that's enough for now the appointed time is in the hands of the Father it's yet future so even after the resurrection there's more salvation coming yet future for the remnant there's an appointed time but we don't know what God does Habakkuk didn't know it it wasn't in his lifetime we know it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail let's start with the baseline the Bible says God cannot lie do you believe it amen if God lies and I don't know who to turn to but if God tells the truth and he has spoken once for all in his son he spoke through the father's in the prophets in many ways of many Portia's but in these last days Hebrews 1:1 and 2 he's spoken to us in his son God cannot lie that is the foundation of our understanding Scripture he uses knees he the holy spirit inspired prophets and apostles to speak for God and their what they wrote is according to a theory all intent so we need to take the context understand what God said he cannot lie we are human we're rational we we can use reason and we can go from what God said to the implications and applications that's prophesying and we can know that it's valid but if it's a uses faulty logic it's invalid so it will not feel so that's what we know God will save his own people and he will come again though it tarries wait for it we're good at that aren't we waiting not really for it certainly will come it will not delay well there's been a long delay has it there since to back up the first advent happened for it will certainly come will not delay behold as for the proud one we looked at this earlier in Galatians okay who's the proud one it isn't what any delay doesn't care what God said he doesn't believe the Bible he doesn't believe the prophets he thinks well that's ridiculous you just want a crutch religion religion is for weak minded people they can't make it on their own let's get to work and we'll create our own Kingdom we don't have to wait for God the old has the proud with his souls not right within him but the righteous one will live by his faith now this is faith in God not itself let's move on another example here this shows that the promise the vision the Messianic Salvation happens in stages we've already seen the first Advent Jesus Christ died for sins the just for the unjust in order to bring us to God that's already happened but in our day even having the truth of Messiah came and bodily is sent into heaven and since it's the right hand of God it ever lives to make intercession for us in order that you might save to the uttermost those who believe it's still true that justice comes perverted we've got wicked leaders in all realms of life and anywhere from a household to the upper echelon of any kind of leadership you can imagine as in Pakistan as it's been and so we don't have the knowledge of the Lord filling the entire earth how is that going to happen it happens at the second Advent not the first in the meantime how vaca continues to be a comfort to Christians throughout the ages that we can believe God and have been counted to us for righteousness and the just shall live by faith this is Ana's cat illogical promise God's plan of SNe salvation is fulfilled in stages you can read all about it but notice that even though God said what he did to Habakkuk he realized that the promises of God cannot fail do you believe that so we got to get it right if you can mess around with the promises of God and claim that God promised something he didn't promise you can really mess up people's lives I know we'll talk about this a little next week when I a little more about logic because next week the next two verses in Galatians what about blessing and cursing is really is topic and people will take promises not get them correct and make people think that if they're suffering you're obviously cursed or they don't have genuine faith and even give up on your salvation we can't let that happen we got to understand what's promised and how to take it this is also fun and Isaiah 11 8 through 10 I'll just read it the nursing child will play with by the hole of the Cobra by the way if they can run around they'll do that whether you want them to or not we don't have Cobras but they'll get in trouble there's a reason for moms and dads they keep the nursing child away from the whole of the Cobra or off of the dock or without a lifejacket and so on so human beings don't live by instinct he live by reason and logic and the weaned child put his hand on the Vipers den but of what this prophesied of is a time when that won't even be a danger Hebrews 11 9 they will not hurt or destroy and all of my holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea hiss of Habakkuk said then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse which is Messiah will stand who will stand as a signal for the peoples in his resting place will be glorious this is yet future not true now but as yet future and I believe that the promises like this are just as literal just as certain is the promise that Messiah would come and forgive our provide a way of forgiveness I have to be consistent in my hermeneutic and interpretation of the Bible God doesn't confuse us so we need to believe things as they're said here's another one Habakkuk 3:2 new American Standard Bible Lord I have heard the report about you and I fear o Lord revive your work in the midst of the years and in the midst of the years make it known in Wrath remember mercy isn't that a beautiful prayer reminds me of the prayer of Daniel the prayer of Nehemiah the and and so forth beautiful prayers and these prayers of prophets in the Old Testament and others in the new land the solves are role models for us they help us to know how to pray we know that God's wrath is coming but can't we pray with Habakkuk in thy wrath remember mercy god you're a merciful God Jonah knew that so I didn't want to go to Nineveh these Ninevites are wicked people and he wanted them to burn up and he ended up there because of the whale or whatever kind of fish that was and got saved in a vise and he said I knew this was going to happen why do you send me here I know you're a murder well God you only sent me here because they're gonna repent so we should have that we maybe don't allow the situation and this I'm preaching of myself more than anybody don't allow the situation to turn you a hard and bitter because really what's needed for all the wickedness is the wrath of God to be poured out and it will be but we should I should I don't even preach to you me Bob remember this our desire should be to preach the gospel so God shows mercy to people that we really don't like that doesn't mean we can't appeal or so on and try to you know be solved in light which we're supposed to but the prayer was to remember mercy so becomes the godly prayer accepts a situation now here's the one you mean always to sing a song there's somebody put music to this yeah this is after some more poetry Habakkuk accepts everything God said Habakkuk 3:17 and 18 for though the fig should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines though the yield of the olive should fail and feels produce no food though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls stop right there you live in an agricultural world with agricultural be agriculture being your lifeline this is bad you don't have anything might just as well starve that's evil that happens not is if we call it calamitous evil in theology but sometimes this sort of evil isn't inflicted upon people Stalin inflicted this situation on millions of so Stalin inflicted this sort of evil that's described here by Habakkuk on his own people during world war in before world war two and starved out millions of people by depriving them of what was the produce of the land that they'd been taking care of so that's gratuitous evil that's human afflicting other humans and a fierce heartless wicked and unimaginable way how could stalin be so wicked and evil to kill so many people more than even Hitler did that's how bad sin is that's how bad the Chaldeans were but soul he's living in a situation laughs phrase I have highlighted yet I will exalt in the Lord I will rejoice in the God of my salvation none of the evil wickedness in justed / injustice perverted justice gratuitous evil the worst kind of evil Changez God the just one shall live by faith and if we believe God and his promises and we're just and right before God and we have the faith of Abraham when we believe God and it's accounted to us legally as righteousness God doesn't change in our relationship to God and his promises cannot change because we have a triumphant God of all power who cannot lie that we can worship and rejoice in which we've done and we will do I want you to think about something the name of our Fellowship is not by accident we want to emphasize what God has done for us not what we're going to do in our own minds of thinking we're going to do some great thing we sing songs the remind us of what God has done for us but just living by faith is not the same is the just living by works and God changes those from the inside out you and I dear beloved brothers and sisters in Christ can rejoice the god of our salvation because of what he's done and because the basis of our standing is not in the hands of man but God has done it two more slides and I want to go to the second application point now that was a long application wasn't it but you should know more about the book of habakkuk you might be even embolden to read Zephaniah - are you there and gotta admit I haven't done that recently read the whole Bible a number of times 1 Corinthians 1:18 or 19 God uses means do not forget this if we forget this we're in bad shape if we forget that God uses means we'll just be fatalistic which people would say accuse us of being anyhow but we're not God uses means we have to be sent to preach the gospel no this is God's answer Habakkuk accepted and he praised God sort of dishonest but it says here for the word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing perishing why word of the Cross is shorthand for everything that attends Jesus Christ's work of Messianic salvation is shorthand it's the whole thing it's what happened that God sent the vision that Habakkuk was waiting for that he would tarry but actually came soon and from God's perspective foolishness to those who are perishing why well its mock continually the some of the people we've debated in the last 10 years market you your God can't think of anything better than killing his own son says some emergence he's gonna he's gonna torture kill his son as cosmic child abuse they say so his foolishness what does that tell me about that theologian he's perishing if you're not perishing you're not gonna mock what God said and what God did you'll you'll accept it like Habakkuk did there's no this is just all we can do but to those who are being saved it goes on to say is the power of God is it not doesn't it empower us it does in ways that you really wouldn't expect because I frankly I feel powerless most of the time in a physical sort of way but as soon as we start talking about the gospel whether they're on the phone doing a radio broadcast coming to church and Sunday whoa Wow everything's not so bad after all I don't know why that is but I sort of think I think because when you're thinking about the gospel and your mind gets the furthest from self that it ever gets because our mind starts not drifting but heading toward what God did and what God can ally and the promises of God what self gets in there this is so bad how we're gonna fix this and so on for it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside let me give you advice I'm sure they're not listening but those that I've debated about that formally and informally isn't it better just accept what God said and even if there's aspects of it that are hard to understand it's better to accept it didn't come up with a human philosophy who is Jesus Christ here that we're preaching what where is the power of God for us I want to tell you that the bad news is obvious I've already explained we're cursed by sin the world around us is wicked they just things just get worse yeah I believe in progressing progressing toward judgment but if we're going to progress toward Christ we need to have faith and realize that we're wicked we're as bad as any of the people we love about so that's the bad news sin and judgment in hell the good news is Jesus Christ and his promises of salvation Jesus Christ who existed as God with God came into our world died lived a sinless life made many promises and predictions was raised from the dead and bodily sent it into heaven what does he expect from us that we would report and believe the gospel mark 1 14 and 15 what does it mean to repent well it's all right here it's all in Galatians it's in a vaca we can be part of the problem by just being angry and bitter and coming up with human philosophies or we can believe God and it come to him by faith of just shall live by faith believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved trust him and him alone be like Habakkuk our last slide for since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe God uses means even though I accept what God told Joel what he told David what he told Jeremiah what he told have a cook and it means believing and trusting and praising and praying it still means we live in a wicked world I was gonna probably see it that way until rathas comes but we have to trust that and he uses me and so what we have to do besides these things to put ourselves under a means of grace pray preach the gospel and so on is to go out and reach the loss of the gospel and we need to get the gospel right and there is so even there we have problems all come to Jesus and have your best life now well I think we can take a poll on that but how many of you have you don't have to raise your hand but just think about how many of you for how many of you did all your earthly problems go away as soon as you trusted Jesus your kids quit being whatever running to the cobra hole or whatever as I said in Scripture you're your boss is nice to you and you got enough money and you always pay your bills you never get sick your husband understands all of your thoughts and needs i don't let's just keep that out of the equation here it's just flat-out not the way it is and this is not true and you can't lie to people and call it gospel preaching we've got to tell them the truth that they're lost and headed for hell the way the faith is the only way of salvation today as we have the Lord's Supper we'll be thinking about what God did for us I want you to keep that in mind that is that's essential if it goes away our church should be seriously compromised what God did for us remember the Lord's death till he comes why because that's what God did for us today if you don't know Jesus turned to him and in faith let's ask God to bless and then Eric will come with the words of institution Heavenly Father we thank you for raising up godly examples like Habakkuk so we would know how to respond when evil surrounds us we'll pray will rejoice and we'll wait to see how you answer and how it works out but either way we'll rejoice we thank you Lord for dying for our sins and providing the blood atonement for us and we pray as we receive one another in fellowship in under the Lord's Supper that we would be grateful people who care for one another and reach out to one another and take care of one another because sometimes the problems become overwhelming and fill our hearts with compassion we pray in Jesus name Amen [Music]

Channel: Critical Issues Commentary

Views: 142

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Id: gFV_-UsHKM4

Length: 62min 37sec (3757 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 24 2020