Episode Transcript
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If you'd remain standing for the reading
of God's word this evening from the Prophet
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Habacock, Habacock Chapter One. I'll
begin in verse one, but will mostly
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focus on versus five and following Barbacca
chapter one, beginning in verse one.
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Listen, for this is the word
of the Lord, the Oracle that Habacock,
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the prophet, saw. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for
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help and you will not hear?
Or cry to you violence and you will
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not save? Why do you make
me see iniquity and why do you idly
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look at wrong? Destruction and violence
are before me, strife and contention arise,
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so the law is paralyzed and justice
never goes forth, for the wicked
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surround the righteous. So justice goes
forth perverted. Look among the nations and
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see, wonder and be astounded,
for I am doing a work in your
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days that you would not believe if
told. For behold, I am raising
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up the Chaldeans, that bitter and
hasty nation who march through the breadth of
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the earth to seize dwellings not their
own. They are dreaded and fearsome.
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Their justice and dignity go out from
themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards,
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more fierce than the evening wolves.
Their horsemen press proudly on. Their
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horsemen come from afar. They fly
like an eagle, swift to devour.
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They all come for violence. All
their faces forward, they gather captives like
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sand. At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh. They laugh
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at every fortress, for they pile
up earth and take it. Then they
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sweep by like the wind and go
on guilty men whose own might is their
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God. As far the reading of
God's Word May he blessed it to us.
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Please be seated. It's really pretty
easy to ignore television commercials most of
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the time, as long as you're
not paying too much attention. They quickly
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just become background noise. But the
ones that always seem to catch my attention
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are the ones that seem to be
explaining some new kind of medication. Have
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you ever noticed these? They all
look exactly the same. They must use
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the same footage of smiling people riding
bikes are flying kites, and they only
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really last about ten seconds. They
only have about ten seconds to explain to
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you what their product is and what
it's used for, because the rest of
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the commercial is used to list the
multitude and multitude of side effects. Most
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of the commercials dedicated to tell in
you all the terrible things that might happen
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to you if you use this product. My side effects may include dry mouth,
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headaches, blurred vision, involuntary twitching, vomiting, persistent nausea, seizures,
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slurred speech, Comas and death,
to the point where you're left thinking,
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how is this a cure? How
is this helping? The solution oftentimes
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sounds worse than the problem. The
cure sounds worse than the disease, and
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I can't help but be reminded of
those commercials when I read God's response here
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to Habakic and to habacas complaint.
HABACIC cries out to the Lord, complaining
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about the State of Israel. He
complains about Judah. He begins by saying
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that things are not the way they're
supposed to be and that God seems to
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be silent. Habakas complain throughout the
first four verses of this chapter, is
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that the world is upside down because
the law is ineffective. The world is
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upside down because justice is is bent. I mean the righteous are punished,
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sin is rewarded and the prophet longs
to see justice go for to see an
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answer to the wickedness that surrounds the
righteous. But he's not just making a
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request, he's not just bringing a
petition to the Lord. No, here
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he's making a complaint against God.
That is how he says. How long
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shall I cry and you do not
answer? Or why do you make me
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see iniquity? Why do you idly
look at wrong? And he's making a
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very pointed complaint. It's not a
generalized kind of complaint, like why,
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Oh why, does this always happened
to me? No, his his complaints
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are pointed. Oh Lord, you
will not hear, you will not say.
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Why do you make me see iniquity? Why do you make me look
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at why do you look idly at
wrong? You can almost see him pointing
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the finger at God. And his
State is made all the more desperate because
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of how God has acted on behalf
of his people in the past. I
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mean the Bible gives us a pattern
of God hearing and seeing the miserable state
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of his people and so he acts
to save I mean back when God's people
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were enslaved in Egypt, were told
that during those days of the king,
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the King of Egypt died and the
people of Israel grown because of their slavery
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and cried out for help. Their
cry for rescue from slavery came up to
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God and God heard their groaning and
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with
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Isaac and with Jacob. God saw
the people of Israel and God knew.
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But now Habakkuk is accusing God of
failing to hear, failing to see,
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failing to save. He's longing for
God to respond, he's longing for God
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to act against the injustices because he's
longing for justice. But does he really
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know what he's asking for? Because
here God does respond, however, he
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responds with an unbelievable account, for
God's solution sounds worse than the problem.
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God's cure sounds worse than the disease. Notice here, in verse five,
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he doesn't even preface his response with
a greeting. The text doesn't even give
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a pause to indicate the change in
the speaker. A Bacca, just concluded
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his prayer saying justice goes forth perverted
or bent, and the very next word
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is God saying look, in fact, in his one verse, Verse Five,
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God Commands The prophet to do for
things. He says look, he
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says see, he says wonder,
he says be astounded. He's received these
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complaints. And yet notice how God
is not defensive. Our Lord doesn't show
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up to give an account of his
actions. He doesn't give his reasonings for
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this or for that problem in the
Prophet's life. Mean, though he's just
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been the recipient of these complaints,
he's not now on the defense, because
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God is not actually on trial.
Judah is on trial, and so our
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Lord immediately redirects the Prophet's attention.
I mean how Bakak has just complained with
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all these problems in Judah. Why
do you look? Make me see iniquity?
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And God says look, look among
the nations, see and wonder and
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be astounded. And as if with
a thunder clap, the prophets complaints are
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ended, as God redirects the Prophet's
focus. I mean, the Lord has
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not been death, he has not
been blind, he has been at work,
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he has been completing a work that
is so amazing, that is so
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astounding, you would not believe it
even if you were told. He tells
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Abacak as he's telling him. For
behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
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he says, that bitter and hasty
nation who marched through the breadth of
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the earth to seize dwellings not their
own. We know these Chaldeans as Babylonians,
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and so the Lord is raising up
the Babylonians. The Lord is raising
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up a nation that is bitter,
that is hasty, a nation that is
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ferocious, terrifying, brutal and merciless. And as he describes the devastations of
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the Babylonians, you can hear their
power. He says in Verse Eight.
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Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves. Their
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horsemen, pressed proudly on their horsemen, come from afar. They fly like
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an eagle, swift to devour.
These Babylonian soldiers are not even compared to
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people, but to the fiercest of
wild animals, stalking and hunting their prey,
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like an evening wolf ready for the
kill, chasing after, hunting down,
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devouring, like leopards or like eagles, they all come for violence,
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all their faces forward. They gather
captives like sand at kings. They scoff
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at rulers, they laugh. They
laugh at every fortress, for they pile
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up earth and take it. They
are ruthless right. They are powerful,
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ready to take what they will.
As easy as one gathers handfuls of sand,
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they are gathering captives, both great
and small. The most powerful nations
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in the lands bend and break at
their wills. I mean fortresses are designed
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to keep the inhabitants safe and to
keep evildoers at bay, and yet they're
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easily invaded and overthrown. Rather than
even having to siege these palaces, surrounding
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them and forcing starvation upon the inhabitants, the Babylonians don't even have to wait,
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we're told. They've got the numbers
to simply pile up dirt ramps and
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March right in. They are skilled
in warfare. And what's more devastating than
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their speed, or their power or
their resources is their morality. First seven
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says they are dreaded and fearsome.
Their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
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So why are they so fearsome?
Their very sense of justice, their
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notions of right and wrong, arise
not from God but from themselves. They
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are their own judges and juries,
and so that, by their notions of
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justice, they think what they're doing
is okay, they think it is right.
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They don't hide their deeds in the
darkness of night. They don't look
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behind them to see who might be
watching US carry out these acts. Verse
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Nine says they come for violence,
all their faces forward. There's no sideways
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glances, there's no hesitations. They're
not wondering. Do you think this is
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okay? Do you think anybody will
see us? They are coming for war
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and they will not be reasoned with, they will not relent. They sweep
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by like the wind and go on. Guilty men whose own might is their
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God. So their final authority on
what is right, on what is wrong,
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on what is just and unjust,
is their own strength. They listen
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to and obey their might as one
obeys a god, for they are governed
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not by reason, not by law. Instead, they are governed simply by
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their own strength. Might makes right, and far more devastating than their skill
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in battle is their unrestrained appetite for
violence. So how then, how is
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this an answer to Habakkuk's prayer?
How is this a solution to the problems
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facing Judah? It actually does sound
incomprehensible. It sounds unbelievable. Imagine taking
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your car to a mechanic due to
a host of problems, only to be
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told we fixed it right, the
steering no longer squeaks, you don't need
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a new transmission. Great, where
is it we threw in the bottom of
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the ocean? How is this fixing
the problem? It isn't. This just
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making everything worse. How is this
an answer to Habacock's prayer? I mean,
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how is the answer to injustice more
injustice? How is the answer to
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Habaccuck's complaint of violence, more violence? God is perfect, his justice is
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perfect and pure. And so Habacock
will ask why, why would our pure
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God possibly dirty his hands with such
a wicked instrument like these Babylonians? And
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yet, from our passage, God
is demonstrating a few things. First of
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all, see that this is an
answer to Habacock's prayer. This may not
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be the answer that he was looking
for, it may not be an answer
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that makes sense to the Prophet,
but despite his complaints, God actually is
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not idle. God does not sleep, he is always seeing, he is
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always hearing, and God agrees.
Judah is wallowing in violence, Judah is
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lacking injustice. And so, secondly, we see that justice will come,
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even though it appears as though the
wicked are prospering, it is a temporary
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prospering, even though it feels like
their violence never ends. God will bring
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an end to the UNRIGHTEOUS, as
Paul tells us and reminds us in Romans
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chapter two, verse three. Do
you suppose, O man, that you,
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who judge those who practice such things
and yet do them yourselves, that
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you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume, on the
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riches of his kindness and kindness and
forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's
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kindness is meant to lead you to
repentance, but because of your hard and
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impenitent heart, you are storing up
wrath for yourself on the day of Wrath,
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when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. Peter says that the Lord is
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not slow, rather he is patient, and so here in Abacock were remind
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that that God does hear, he
does answer the prayers of his people,
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and we reminded that prayers for justice
will be answered by our perfect judge,
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and were called to see here the
God's ways are higher than our ways,
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as the Prophet Isaiah Records in his
fifty fifth chapter, where God says.
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My thoughts are not your thoughts.
Neither are your ways my ways, declares
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the Lord. For as the heavens
are are higher than the earth, so
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are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. And
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so while we hear an unexpected and
an unbelievable answer to have ACCAs complaining prayer,
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we're also called to see that God's
ways are perfect. But we don't
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always get an explanation, though.
God doesn't give a defense for his actions.
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He will judge sin, even if
here it is through a bitter and
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hasty nation. Sin and wickedness will
be cursed, and even though we don't
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yet see why God would use the
Babylonians in the judgment of his people,
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at least we ought to notice that
there is justice being dispensed here. We
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are shown a brutal a, a
severe punishment on Judah for her sins,
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but it's a severe punishment that fits
a brutal and severe crime. We're shown
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that those in Judah who prey upon
the weak will be preyed upon themselves,
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that those in Judah who commit violence
will have violence come upon them, that
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those in Judah who shed blood will
have their blood shed. For do you
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see how God is using the very
weapons of the wicked against themselves? Those
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who deal in injustice will be treated
to the injustice of the Babylon Niance.
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And is that? There's certain a
certain kind of justice to that, a
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justness to that? God is balancing
the scales, he is making recompense,
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he is paying back the wicked for
their deeds. In this astonishing word,
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God is using Babylon to declare holy
war against Judah. For, don't you
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see, it's through violence that God
is cursing violence, through injustice God is
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cursing injustice. Even through death,
God is cursing death, and you may
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marvel, how could this be?
And yet in this act, I think
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we do see a glimpse of the
Gospel, that even here we get a
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picture of the cross. After all, speaking of injustices, is there a
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greater injustice then what Christ experienced before
pilot? There you have the sentencing of
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the only truly innocent man to have
ever lived, and there you have the
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death penalty being assigned to God in
the flesh. Is there a greater act
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of injustice than that? Is there
a greater act of violence then the killing
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of the pure and spotless land am
of God. Is there a greater display
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of human wickedness and lawlessness than the
crucifixion of Christ? And yet they're at
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the cross. Don't you see God
using the weapons of Satan Against Satan?
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Do you see God wielding the violence
of men's hearts, wielding the injustice and
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senselessness of men? Do you see
God killing death itself in the death of
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Christ? After all, Peter tells
us in acts chapter two, men of
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Israel hear these words. Jesus of
Nazareth, a man attested to you by
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God, with Mighty Works and wonders
and signs that God did through him in
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your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the
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definite plan and Foreknowledge of God,
you crucified and killed by the hands of
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lawless men. And yet, through
the hands of lawless men, God was
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at work, bringing judgment against the
very lawlessness that hung Christ on the Cross,
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bringing judgment upon sin, your sin
and mine, ultimately to curse death
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itself in the very death of Christ. And yet, is Peter Continues,
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God raised him up, looseing the
pangs of death, because it was not
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possible for him to be held by
it. It is because Christ is without
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sin that makes what he suffered so
unjust, so vile and so lawless.
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And yet it's also because Christ was
without sin that he suffered the curse,
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not for himself but for sinners.
And so do you see the lengths your
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Lord has gone to to cure the
disease, to truly remedies sin and death,
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to truly crush Satan and his schemes? It took the death and resurrection
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of the spotless son of God,
for God's justice is perfect. He will
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not tolerate sin forever. And will
you find yourself standing on your own facing
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the flood of God's swift and perfect
justice, or have your sins already been
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crucified, dead, buried with Christ, so that you will be raised in
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the righteous perfections of Christ himself?
Truly, Christ has undergone both the terrors
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of the nations and the Justice of
the Lord, and death could not hold
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him. Death had no claim on
him. So that if you trust in
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Christ, if he is your hope, death has no claim on you either,
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and he will raise you on the
last day. Truly, we have
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an astounding Lord who works salvation for
his people sometimes wielding unexpected in just things.
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And yet if God can use the
very injustice, the worst injustice,
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this world has ever seen, for
the greatest good the world has ever known,
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if he can use the crucifixion of
Christ to bring about the greatest blessing
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and end to curse and end to
death, then surely he can use the
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sufferings, he can use the evils
that we see around us for his glorious
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purposes. And we don't always see
the reasons why, we don't always know
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the wise, we do know him
and by knowing him more and seeing that
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his justice is perfect, we can
rest in his justice, because it's his
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justice that declares you forgiven. It's
his justice that declares you righteous and holy
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in Christ. And this is something
we would not believe even if we were
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told it takes a work of God
in our hearts, takes the gift of
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faith that we would respond in faith
and love and in hope for our Lord.
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Amen. Let's pray
