October 7, 2007pm    Blind Faith   Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

By Ronald E. George Jr.  at the Fayetteville Baptist Church

To Pay Like A Sinner

A minister was riding through a section of the state of South Carolina , where custom forbade innkeepers to take pay from the clergy who stayed with them. The minister in question took supper without prayer, and ate breakfast without prayer or grace, and was about to take his departure when the host presented his bill. “Ah, sir,” responded the landlord, “but you came here, smoked like a sinner, ate and drank like a sinner, and slept like a sinner, and now, sir, you shall pay like a sinner.”                                                           —Current Anecdotes^[1]

  Habakkuk 1     The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

^2 How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? ^3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. ^4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. ^[2]

Habakkuk calls for help and complains.

What is the Trouble with sin?  Why had the trouble come to the people of God?  He calls but he says that the Lord doesn’t listen. 

1. Sin is the absence of the presence of God.  Sin causes complaninig.  Without trouble then there wouldn’t b e any complaints.

2. The nature of the world is to live without God in sin.  This leads to the lives of many being devastated, therefore that leads to more complaints. 

3. Why doesn’t the Lord do what we want Him to do?  What we want Him to do doesn’t help us to come back to Him.  He will be what he will be.  He says, I am.  This we know that He is love.  He loves us and wants us to come to him. 

4. God grants free will to his children. He permits his people the right to choose what they will be, just as He chooses what He will be.   So when trouble comes then the prophet Habakkuk comes to God to see what He will say. 

5. God will judge sin and those who live in it. 

He says the Lord doesn’t save.  Habakkuk saw the Babylonians overtaking Judah .  This is the prophet’s complaint.  God didn’t come to the world to condemn the world but to save it.  He won’t save those who don’t want Him or believe in Him.  Our job is to convince the people that the Lord is real and He can save us.

6. Sin causes complaints.  We don’t get what we want.  Which is selfishness manifested in our lives.  We get God’s judgment when we go our own way.  So we further complain that God is not there and he has deserted us.   God has a way to get the attention of his children.

7. No One wants to admit it.  Everyone wants to blame somebody else. We have seen the enemy and they is us. Would we be willing to admit that we were wrong?

8. Sin is deceptive.  It would seem that sin is a good option to many.  They try it and they like it.  Nothing happens.  God doesn’t strike them down.  So, Habakkuk complains that the Lord tolerates wrong, destruction, and violence, strife and conflict.  He says that justice never prevails.  He says that the wicked are winning.  He says that justice is perverted.  Would you agree?  What would you complain about to the Lord?   But , remember although the wicked may seem to be winning now, the Lord is slow to wrath and patient with all of us.  God doesn’t settle all of his accounts at the end of the day.  There is coming a day. 

Habakkuk 2     I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

The Lord’s Answer

^2 Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. ^3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. ^4 “See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous will live by his faith— ^[3]

He stands to look for an answer.  God’s Answer:

1. Write it down and make it plain.  So the herald may run with it.

2. The righteous will live by faith.  Not sights, not sounds, and not feelings.  We complain but have we thought of the Lord’s view point.  God gave us gifts of free will, free choice, and free living.  How we use those gifts are up to you, but the consequences of your choices will be up to God.  The revelation awaits an appointed time.

3. It speaks of the end.  It will be fulfilled.

4. Are we speaking and living by faith?  Wait for it.  It will certainly come and will not delay.  Look Habakkuk is puffed up and his desires aren’t right. 

Doubt sees the obstacles.     Faith sees the way! Doubt sees the darkest night,   Faith sees the day! Doubt dreads to take a step. Faith soars on high!  Doubt questions, “Who believes?” Faith answers, “I!”   —Gospel Banner^[4]