The Just Shall Live by Faith

Thank you, Mr. Hemsley. Good afternoon, President Sabbath, to everyone who is here. Joy and I, it's our pleasure for us to be here with you today. Actually, we have been here before, but it's been a long time ago. I'd say a long time ago, more than a decade ago. But we have been up here before, and certainly enjoy being up here with you today.

Brethren, the Bible contains some surprising and sometimes even startling passages. Some passages. For instance, it talks about people who had a conversation with God. Now, we can say that, and we can read about it, and a lot of us are familiar with this, but think about this. A conversation with God.

Here we are the servant, and here's God, not only the master, but our maker and our creator. And there are those in the Bible. There are several that are mentioned that have had a conversation with God. Well, you might say, well, I had a conversation with God today. I prayed before coming. And I hope that you did pray before you came. I hope you pray several times a day.

And yes, that is a conversation with God. However, what I'm talking about when I say a conversation, I'm talking about a dialogue. A two-way, you know, give and take, where there's a, you speak and there is an audible response. A conversation with God.

Now, I will say it today, if any of you hear, you know, hears God's voice and has a conversation in the way that I'm saying, as I mentioned, there are recorded conversations in the Bible. But today, if you should happen to have a conversation with God, be sure and let Mr. McCready know.

There might be more to it than meets the eye.

In addition to having conversations, there are those in the Bible that actually negotiated with God, as hard to believe as that seems. You know, when we read about it and take it for granted. But yes, it's an event that actually happened. Abraham not only talked with God, but he negotiated with God. Others, such as Moses, also negotiated with God over the children of Israel.

And for those that are maybe not familiar with the passage of Abraham, I'm not going to turn there, but it's found in Genesis, the 18th chapter. And here God, the one who became Jesus Christ. And two angels came, and they visited, and they had a meal with Abraham. And then God says to the angels, he said, you know, should I hide from him, from Abraham, that which I'm going to do? And he's about to send the angels to Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy the cities of the plain.

And so he does tell Abraham what he's going to do, and Abraham starts thinking, well, you know, that's where Lot lives. That's where his family is. I'd hate to see them destroyed. And so he says to God, you know, what would you destroy those cities if there were 50 righteous people there? And God says, no, okay. You know, I'll spare the cities if there are 50 righteous people there. And I don't know the thoughts of Abraham's mind, but he starts thinking again, and he says, well, you know, what if there's not a people? What about 40? And God says, okay, if there's 40 people, I'll spare the cities. And he continues to negotiate. He goes down to 30. He goes, excuse me, 50, 45, 40, and then 30, 20, and he gets all the way down to 10. And God says, if there's 10 righteous people there, I will spare the city. And at that point, the conversation's over, so Abraham is through negotiating at that particular time. But it's interesting to think about, you know, a human being negotiating with the God of the Old Testament. I've also mentioned that Moses also negotiated with God over the children of Israel. God was going to destroy them and start again, but he didn't. I do want to note in talking about Abraham and then also about Moses, that in the negotiations, neither of them made any promises to God. They didn't make a vow saying, you know, if you will spare them, you know, I will do this for you. That wasn't in this equation. There was no vow. There was no promise. It was strictly a negotiation. Well, brethren, today we're going to take a look at another individual who had a conversation with God. As I mentioned, there are several that are mentioned in the Old Testament. You might think there's few. It depends how you count either several or few. But they are mentioned, and this person spoke to God directly, and he received a reply. This particular person I'm going to talk about did not negotiate with God, but he did have some questions. He had some what are called hard questions. He wanted some answers. So he asked God these questions in very boldly, very forthright, and he received answers from God. The person I'm talking about is the prophet Habakkuk. He had some questions. The prophet Habakkuk had a message for people in his time, and he also has a message for people in our time. He spoke again to the people then, and he speaks to us through the writings of his book. I'm going to break this message down into two parts. One, just going through the book of Habakkuk. We won't go through all of it, although I will cover a lot of the book. And then also, we're going to take a look at some lessons we can learn from Habakkuk. Some lessons we can learn from the book of Habakkuk. I've titled this message for those who like titles, Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith. I'm going to start off with an overview of the book. As far as the prophet's name, and quite often when there's a prophet mentioned in the Bible, his name is given, and there is meaning in the name. And that may or may not be true with Habakkuk. Scholars are very interesting, and there's a lot of debate of what his name might mean. Some scholars, such as Aaron Reimers, believe that Habakkuk's name means to embrace or to wrestle. And indeed, as I've mentioned, Habakkuk is wrestling with some difficult issues. He has some questions, and he has some tough questions.

His questions are, since God is good, why is there evil in the world? And since there is evil in the world, why does it prosper? Why does the evil go on and be successful? Why is life unfair? Where is justice? Why doesn't God do something? He feels very strongly about this, and he's bold and forthright. He's not arrogant, or he doesn't have a bad attitude. He's not disrespectful to God. But he is very forthright with God. He just plainly says what's on his mind. As far as Habakkuk is concerned, nothing is known about him outside of the book. Some speculate that he was a Levite. He calls himself a prophet. And obviously, the people of his time knew who he was. And it says he calls himself a prophet, but nothing is known of him outside of this book. As far as the data is concerned, timing is not exactly certain. According to the expositor's Bible commentary, it's thought to be from 626 to 590 BCE. And that's from eternal evidence of what is going on in Judah and what is going on in Babylon. So roughly a period of 36 years, somewhere in that period of time. Judah would have been at its heyday and would have been declining. Josiah was probably the king of Judah at that time, although it may have been his son, Jehoiakim. This was the last days, again, the prosperity for Judah. Habakkuk does have a contemporary, and that contemporary is Jeremiah. Although the two of them are not necessarily mentioned together. Israel had been taking captivity 100 years previously. And again, we read that and we think, well, 100 years, that's not so well. Think what was going on in this country 100 years ago, or what was going on in the world 100 years ago. From our way of reckoning, it is a long time. It appears that Habakkuk struggled with this issue for a long time. Again, perhaps 20 to 30 years, somewhere in that time frame. He struggled. He prayed. He prayed to God. And he had these questions. And then he got answers. And then also another fact about this book is this is different than the other books of prophecy. The other prophetic books, God gives a message to his prophet, and then the prophet gives the message to the people. This is not that way. This book is a recording of a conversation between the prophet and God.

And of course, there's lessons we learned from this. But it's not a message that God gave to Habakkuk to give to the people. It's a message between a conversation between Habakkuk and God.

And as I mentioned, Habakkuk feels very strongly about his position. He wanted answers, and God listened to him. God gave him the answers, and he didn't reproach him for asking. So with that, let's turn to the book of Habakkuk.

Many of you are probably already there, and we'll start reading in chapter 1 and in verse 1. It starts out where it says, The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. So again, he identifies himself as Habakkuk. He identifies himself as a prophet. And then in verse 2, he says, O Lord, how long? You know, how long? I've been praying a long time. I've been seeking answers a long time. How long shall I cry? And you will not hear. Even cry out to you, violence! And you will not say, Why do you show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble?

For plundering and violence are before me. There is strife and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, therefore first judgment proceeds. So this is Habakkuk's first question to God. And we can look at it that, you know, it's reading this first few verses. It's like reading a newspaper today of what's going on in our society. Where is the good news?

It's not there. It's the bad news. There is no justice. The laws perverse. The wicked outnumber the righteous. The wicked are the ones who are prospering in the righteous or not. It's a common question today of, you know, why do bad things happen to good people? It's a question we've heard over and over, but it continually does happen. He's saying it's not supposed to be this way. The good are supposed to prosper, and the bad are supposed to get punished and come to nothing.

But that's not what he sees, and certainly, you know, it's not what we see in our society today. He says conversely, you know, why do the wicked prosper in the righteous of problems? You know, we can look at the wicked, you know, anywhere you want to look in society, they're there. We could say in business, there are those that are the CEOs. You know, that's coming to the end of the year, as was mentioned in the sermonette.

They get bonuses at this time. Their company may be doing very badly. Stockholders may be losing money. People may be getting laid off, but they're getting bonuses. In government, it seems like there's a never-ending amount of scandals. And it makes no difference which party is in power.

There's one scandal after another. I'll even say, for those who are in school, I don't see a lot in school in this audience, but for those who are in school, why do those who cheat seem to get ahead? You know, they get the good grades. Why does that happen? And those who study may or may not get the good grades in all walks of life. The wicked seem to be getting away with it. They're prospering, and there is just no justice in the land.

No justice. On one side, the righteous are oppressed, and on the other, they're abused, and they're suffered. There was a scripture that I came across a long time ago, just reminiscing. Mr. Hemsley was saying that, you know, go back a few years. As many of us in this room go back a few years. Maybe not together, but we go back a few years.

There was a scripture that I used to wonder about when I first came into church. I thought, well, this just doesn't make sense to me. And I'm not going to turn there. The scripture is Isaiah 5 and verse 20. I'll read it for you. It says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.

And I thought, how can that be? That doesn't make sense. And then continuing on, could darkness for light and light for darkness? Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter? I didn't understand that. And I'll say, quite frankly, today, I don't fully understand it. But it's all around. I mean, it's experience. It's life. There are those that call evil good, and likewise, they could call good evil. Life is just plain not fair. This is what Habakkuk is saying.

Those of us who are parents or grandparents, and we've heard this over and over. One child will say about another or to another or to the parent, it's just not fair. It's just not fair that so-and-so gets something, and I don't. So Habakkuk's question is, evil is prospering God, and why don't you do something? Why don't you do something? Verse 4 talks about laws being ignored. Verse 4, it says, Therefore the law is powerless, justice never goes forth.

Judah is sinning, and God is silent. The unrighteous seem to be getting away with it. Well, verses 5 to 11 is the answer to Habakkuk's first question. This is now God speaking, where he says, Look among the nations and watch. Be utterly astounded. For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you. For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breath of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs, that are terrible and dreadful.

Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards and more fierce than evening wolves. Their charges charge ahead, their calvary comes from afar. They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. And they all come for violence. Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. They scoff at kings and princes are scorned by them.

They divide every stronghold, for they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. Verse 11, Then his mind changes, and he transgresses. He commits offense, ascribing this power to his God. So this is Habakkuk—excuse me, this is God's answer to Habakkuk. And going back, we'll pick up some details about this. One, because God is silent—he was silent, say, verses 1-4— we may think that he's silent today, although I think all of us know that he is not silent today.

But because there is silence, it doesn't mean that God is not doing something. God says here, see, in verse 5, he says, I will work a work in your days. It wasn't visible to Habakkuk at that time. But God was working. He was doing something. So just because we don't get an immediate answer to our prayers doesn't mean that God is not heard, that he's not listening, and that he's not going to respond.

Again, we've heard this before. There are three answers to a prayer. One is yes, one is no. We might not like that answer, but that's an answer. And another is wait. And just because we don't see something happening does not mean that God is not doing something. The answer may not be quick, but the answer will come. Just think, at the time of the Exodus, the children of Israel were crying out to God for at least 80 years that we know about, and quite likely much longer than that.

And then in verse 6, it's rather interesting. It says he's going to raise up the Chaldeans. He's going to raise up this nation that apparently is on the rise of this time. Now, Dr. Ward points out that this word, Chaldeans, could be singular. In other words, it could be Chaldean. You might say, what is the significance of that? Well, it might refer to a power or a person as opposed to a nation.

Think of the Chaldeans, you think of a country. But now you think of Chaldeans, you think of, well, you know, the Babylonians. You think of a system. You think of a man. And in our day and age, we would think of a beast power.

Dr. Ward goes on to point out that the pronouns in the Masoretic Text are all in the singular. The beast is a person as well as a system. And here God is raising up a system or a person. But now Habakkuk has got another problem. He has asked God, verses 1-4, to fix a situation. There are problems, God. There is evil. There are those that are unrighteous. They seem to be prospering. And I want you to fix the situation.

So he's asking for a fine-tuning. After all, Judah is really a pretty good nation. They've just got some problems. So he's asking for a fine-tuning. And God says, well, I want to destroy the nation. That's what I want to do. It's like saying that you've got a house that needs a little bit of maintenance work, maybe some painting, maybe some remodeling. And God is saying, I'll fix it. I'm going to knock the whole house down. That wasn't what Habakkuk wanted.

He looked at his nation and he thought, well, you know, we're really a pretty good nation. A few problems, but we're really a pretty good nation. And not only is God going to destroy the nation, he's going to use to his way of thinking wild people, barbarians, Gentiles, heathen, in order to do it. So this shows that God is going to raise up Babylon, or the Chaldeans, and he's going to do it.

But now this is giving Habakkuk another problem. And this leads to his second question, which goes from verse 12 to chapter 2 and verse 1. So Habakkuk now, it appears at first that he's accepting the answer, that, you know, all right, I'll go along with this, but we'll see he's really not. Verse 12 it says, Are you not from everlasting? You're the great God, O Lord my God, my Holy One. We shall not die. We're the ones who are blessed. We're not supposed to die. O Lord, you have appointed them, the bad guys, for judgment.

O Rock, you have marked them for correction. You are of pure eyes than to behold evil. In other words, we're your special people. We're the ones that are blessed. We're the good guys. You know, they're the bad guys. They're the ones that deserve the punishment. So you cannot behold evil and cannot look on wickedness. And then it says, Why do you look on those who deal treacherously and hold your tongue when the wicked devours?

In other words, this evil nation is coming. When they devour a person more righteous than he. Now this is rather interesting because it started out with a back hook in the first four verses that I read. His first question, he realized that Judah was not a righteous nation. They had problems. There was lots of unrighteousness. But now all of a sudden, compared to them, well, you know, we're a pretty good nation. I say, we're the good guys. They're the bad guys. But that's, again, not really true. God is not a respecter of persons. The wages of sin is death. Whoever sins, whether it's the good guys or the bad guys. And for that matter, Judah should have known better. They had God at one point in their history. The Babylonians, the Chaldeans never did. So Judah should have known better. And again, the wages of sin is death.

So continuing on, continue on in verse 14, it says, And then verse, excuse me, chapter 2, verse 1, he says, And again, this is not literally, this is, you know, he's just going to stand by and see what God's going to do and watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I'm corrected. Like you're saying, am I wrong in saying this? You know what? As I mentioned, he does not have a bad attitude. He's got a good attitude, but he does have some hard and perplexing questions. And I think we can all understand his questions. Again, Habakkuk doesn't like the answer that he got from God. And he said, well, you know, how can this be? You know, how can you use an evil nation to punish a just nation? Well, as I mentioned, the wages of sin is death, no matter who sins, no matter who does it, either the good guys or the bad guys. So here we have Habakkuk's second question, like, you know, you're not only going to destroy Judah, but you're going to destroy it with, to his way of thinking, an evil people, a people much inferior to themselves. Well, continuing on in chapter 2, in chapter 2, God answers his second question. He said, then the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain on tablets, for the vision is yet for an appointed time. But at the end it will speak and it will not lie, though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come and it will not tarry. Again, in chapter 1, God says he was doing a work. Even though Habakkuk did not see it, he was doing a work. He said it's going to happen at the appointed time. So God has a timetable, God has a schedule, and he is on time. And then interestingly enough, it says, at the end it will speak. At the end, God has made up his mind in advance when the time will be. So it's at the end. And I'll ask the question, the end of what? And I'm sure most of us are thinking, well, obviously, you know, this is the end time.

Well, there was a time of the end for Habakkuk, you know, a time when Judah's time was up. But also it's talking about at the time of the end. And specifically, this is referring to the end time. From the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran community believed that Habakkuk was an end-time book. According to Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, it says under the article, Dead Sea Scrolls, a commentary on the book of Habakkuk known as the Pesher on Habakkuk was written to demonstrate how the prophet Habakkuk, who lived in the sixth century B.C., was actually writing for the Battle of the Last Days, when the wicked would be defeated by the righteous. The author of the Pesher on Habakkuk made direct references from Habakkuk to his own day. One section has a following commentary. And God told Habakkuk to write down that which would happen to the final generation, but he'd not make known to him when that time would be. So this is a book for the time of the end. And I'll say this is for our time, the time that is ahead of us. How close ahead or how far? We don't know. But it's a book for our time, in addition to the time of Habakkuk.

Now we come to verse 4, which is a very powerful verse. It says, Behold the proud, his soul is upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. And as I mentioned a title of my message, Habakkuk, The Just Shall Live By Faith, this one scripture has been called the specific purpose statement of the book of Habakkuk. Those of us who have been in Spokesman's Club know exactly what that is. Most of the ladies, I imagine, would have come to ladies' nights. I would imagine in the leadership club that's taking place, that's being conducted here in Dayton, you also know what a specific purpose statement is. It's the main idea in one sentence about what a message is for, what it contains. This has been called the specific purpose statement of the book. It's quoted three times in the New Testament by the Apostle Paul. And obviously Paul got this quote from this book. It is faith that helps us take us through the many trials of life. According to some different translations, this word is translated as faithfulness. Maybe some of you have that in the Bible that's on your lap. Maybe not. But it is faith that's put into action. It's faith and works, as the Apostle James would say. Faith is trusting God and then acting accordingly, whether we see something as taking place or not, whether God is working behind the scenes. The Tanakh, which is the Jewish Bible, the Jewish Old Testament, translates this verse this way. It says, And then there's a marginal note next to the Scripture, and it says, the translation or the meaning is uncertain. And they have an alternate translation where it says, implying more than just a physical life, a life forever. And the companion Bible picks up on this idea, where they talk about this verse referring to living forever in a resurrection, the just shall live by faith. Living in a resurrection. The companion Bible says, Hebrew accents the emphasis... Hebrew accents place the first... I'll try this one more time. Hebrew accents place the emphasis on shall live. A contrast of perishing forever or living forever. So justice will be served. This is the answer to Habakkuk's question. You know, how come the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper? God says, don't worry about it. Righteousness, justice, will be served. The wicked will be punished, and the just shall live. And they're going to live forever. Continuing on in verse 5. It says, Indeed, because he transgresses by wine... This is again talking about the Chaldeans. He is a proud man. He does not stay at home, because he enlarges his desire as hell. And he is like death and cannot be satisfied. He gathers to himself all nations and heaps for himself all peoples. And then there's a series of woes that are mentioned to Babylon. It starts out, verse 6, it says, Will not all these take up a proverb against him? All these being those who are conquered by Babylon. Those who are subjugated. Those who are afflicted by them. Will they not take up a proverb against him? And I'm not going to read all this section, but in verse 6-8, there's a series of woes to the end of the chapter. In verses 6-8, it says, Woe to the plunderer. And essentially, the plunderer is going to be plundered.

Verses 9-11. Woe to one who covets. Selfishness is going to lead to no gain. Verses 12-14. Woe to the violent. Because the oppressors are going to be destroyed. And then interestingly enough, I will read verse 14. Because among these woes, and there are more woes to come, and these woes are for Babylon.

And then we have verse 14, just kind of sit in the middle of these woes, where it says, For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

This is a scripture that we often read during the Feast of Tabernacles, and indeed it does apply to the world tomorrow. Again, projecting the book forward as an end-time book. And then verses 15-17, it goes back to the woes. It says, woe to the sensual. Their problems will mean it back to them. Verses 18-20, woe to thy idolater, who foolishly worship dumb idols. And then I'm going to read verse 20.

Verse 20, this is at the conclusion of the series of woes. It says, But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth rejoice and keep silence before him. God is in control. God is sovereign. God is supreme. He is in his temple. And he has all under control. At this point, Habakkuk's questions are answered. And he knows they're answered. First off, he talks about the problems in Judah, and that Judah is going to be destroyed.

So he says, what about Babylon? Basically, what he's saying, the answer from God is, Babylon is also going to be destroyed. They're going to receive their due. So Judah was punished by God. Babylon is also going to be punished by God. God brings everyone into account. All will face a judgment. Then in verse 20, again, God is sovereign. God is in control. Continuing on into chapter 3, which I'll read a few verses here, Habakkuk gets it. He understands now, and he sees, quote-unquote, the glory, the majesty of God's answer. Interestingly enough, back to chapter 1, verse 1, it said, the burden, or the message with the prophet, which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

So how much of this was actually a vision, and how much of it was a dialogue? We don't exactly know. But he sees. Certainly, he sees with his mind's eye. He understands what God is doing. And now, chapter 3 is basically a psalm praising God. It starts out with a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, on Shigonoth. O Lord, I have heard your speech, and I was afraid.

O Lord, revive your work in the midst of years, and the midst of years make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. So here again, Habakkuk is praising God, but he knows there's bad times ahead. He doesn't know how many of these bad times that he's going to personally see or live through, but he asks for mercy. Likewise with us. We know there are bad times ahead of us.

We don't know how much we're going to see or experience. But we can say it with a backhook in wrath, remember mercy. And then basically, verses 3 to 16 are praising God, recalling God's acts, and bringing Israel out of the land of Egypt, of other interventions that God provided for Israel, of God providing for his people. It's put in a poetic form. It's nice to read through that. I'm not going to take the time to read through that now.

But I am going to drop down to verse 16. Actually, verse 17. This is a conclusion of the book of Habakkuk, and say he sees it, and he understands what God is now doing. And he says, Again, God is a God for us in good times. He's a God for us in bad times as well.

In verse 19, he says, So that's a quick overview of the book of Habakkuk. I've talked about some things we can learn from this book already. I'm going to talk about some more specific items. I'm going to talk about four things that we can learn from the book of Habakkuk. First, it starts out in chapter 1, verse 1, where he says, How long?

How long do I have to pray and cry out? Well, that reminds me of a parable of Jesus Christ, and it's found in Luke 18. Luke 18 will start reading in verse 1. Luke 18 and verse 1, it says, How long reminds of a parable? And this is the parable of the persistent widow. I think most of us are familiar with it. But we'll see what else we can maybe learn from this parable. It says, So I want to stop right here and then just ask the question, What is the purpose of the parable?

That men always ought to pray and not lose heart. It's plainly stated right here by Jesus Christ. Saying, Verse 6, Here what the unjust judge said, So I mentioned that how long reminds me of this parable, and I'm labeling this first point or calling this first point or lesson from a back hook, God wants us to persevere in prayer. And you might say, Well, you came all the way up here to tell us that? No.

And yes, I did come up here to tell you that. Now you think about that. Let's say that we kneel down to pray. And when we get up, there's our answer. Bang! It's right there. Well, obviously, you're not going to lose heart. No, that's pretty encouraging. It's pretty nice. In fact, it's really nice. But what if we kneel down to pray? We get up, nothing happens. Seemingly, nothing happens. What about a week later, we're still praying? What about a month later, we're still praying? Might we lose heart? What about a year later?

Christ gave this parable that we would not lose heart. Obviously, if we're getting answers, we're not going to lose heart. As I said, that's really encouraging. That's really nice. But if the answers seem to not be coming, if they're delayed, we might be tempted to lose heart. You know, is God really there? You know, is He listening? Does He care about me? Of course, the answer is, yes, God is there. He is listening, and He does care about us.

Even though we might not necessarily see what we want, you know, have our requests granted. Turn back to Genesis the 24th chapter. There's a couple interesting examples back here that illustrate this point. God has dealt with people at various ways, you know, throughout time. This is the way He was dealing with some people back then. Genesis the 24th chapter, just breaking into the context.

This is where Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac. And he tells the servant, you know, take goods, you know, go back to my homeland, find a wife for Isaac, bring her back again. And so just breaking into the context in Genesis 24, I'm going to start reading in verse 42. This is the servant, you know, what his thoughts were. He took camels, he took riches, and he went.

And it says in verse 42, it says, In this day I came to the well and said, O Lord God of my master Abraham. So now he's still looking for a wife for Isaac. And he's praying, which is a good thing to do, obviously. And he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, If you will now prosper the way in which I go, behold, I stand by the well of water, and it shall come to pass, that when the virgin comes out to draw water, I say to her, Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink.

And she says to me, Drink, and I will draw for your camels also. Let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son. So there's a very specific prayer. And then notice in verse 45, Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebecca. He didn't have to wait at all. While he was still speaking, there's the answer. Here she is. And continuing on, there was Rebecca coming out with her pitcher on her shoulder, and she went down to the well and drew water. And I said to her, Please let me drink.

And she made haste, and let her pitcher down from her shoulder, and said, Drink, and I will give your camels a drink also. So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink also. Again, immediate. This is even more than immediate. While he was still finishing his prayer, there was Rebecca.

There's the other side of the story, too. Let's turn a page to chapter 25. Chapter 25, and I'll start reading in verse 19. This is Isaac. This is one of the fathers. This is a great man, one of the heroes of the Old Testament.

Chapter 25, verse 19, says, This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebecca to wife. So he was forty years old when he got married. Dropping down to verse 21. It says, Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. I'll continue reading. He says, Plead it with his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his plea, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived.

Well, we read that, and we think, well, this is just like the servant. Isaac prayed, Rebecca got pregnant. This is great. Well, there's more to the story than that. Notice it says, Isaac pleaded. Do we ever plead? If you get your answer after one prayer, is that pleading? No. That's asking. You ask and you receive. But actually, there's a time elapsed that is in this verse. He prayed. And it was after twenty years before Rebecca got pregnant.

Twenty years. Now, was he really praying twenty years? Probably the first two years, maybe not. Not realizing she was barren. But, you know, for maybe five to twenty years, you know, fifteen years, praying, pleading with God for a baby. He did not lose heart or faint. He kept on. He continued to pray. So God deals with different people differently, you know, again, at different times, not to overuse the word different.

God does things differently. One other thing which I read over, I should have had you hold your finger in Luke 18. But if you want to turn back to Luke 18, there's a couple more points that I do want to go through in that passage. Luke 18, starting in verse 7, it says, It says, He obviously was a long time with Isaac, listening to him. It says, Well, wait a minute. What does that mean?

He's bearing long and avenging speedily. Speedily and bearing long don't seem to go together. What the meaning of this is, is that he is bearing long with his people. But when he decides to answer, the answer is going to come. And it's going to come speedily. It's not going to be delayed. The answer, until he determines to send the answer, may be a while. But once he determines the answer, it's going to come. And then one other thing, continuing on, it says, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. This is in verse 8. It says, This gives the time setting of this parable. This applies to all Christians or all people of God at all times.

But specifically, he was talking about people at the time of the end. He said, when Christ comes, is he going to find faith? This may be saying, I don't want to put words into God's mouth, but it may be saying that he's not going to be answering prayers as quickly as maybe he did in the past.

It might be a little bit slower. He doesn't say he's not going to answer, because he said he will avenge them speedily. But it might be that it's going to take more time. I will say, and I'm not going to go farther on this path, those have been in the church many, many years, longer than even Mr.

Hemsley. Longer than me, longer than I'll say most in the room. Maybe not the gentleman at the back table there. There was a time back in the 1950s, I understand, where people prayed and they got answers quickly. There were prayer requests that were sent out. I don't know about yours, but my prayer notes, prayer log is increasing. They're adding more names to the list. They're not coming off. Back at that time, the list was shrinking. It was not growing. A name would come on and a name would go off.

I don't know if anyone in this room remembers that time or not. I heard about this from an older timer than myself. God was very responsive. God prayed. He's still responsive now. He still answers speedily, but there may be a delay. When Christ comes, this might be an indication that God wants us to persevere, to work harder in order to receive the answers that we look to God for. The first point was God wants us to persevere in prayer.

The second point, and I've kind of alluded to this already from the book of Habakkuk, sometimes you get an answer that we're not expecting, or maybe an answer that we don't even like. We don't want this answer. Look at the example, and I'm not going to turn there, but there's a story of Mary and Martha when Lazarus died. He came up to Christ and said, Oh, if he'd only been here, he wouldn't have died.

He'd still be alive. They thought it was all over. They didn't realize what God was doing. They wanted Christ to come. He didn't. But they got a different answer. Lazarus was resurrected. There's also the example of the Apostle Paul, and I'm not going to turn there, but it's found in 2 Corinthians 12, where he had an affliction.

We think maybe it was a physical problem, something that he needed healing for, and it doesn't really say. But he had this affliction, and he prayed, and he prayed three times. God would grant him relief, that God would heal him. God says, No. God says, I'm not going to heal you. But what he did do, he gave Paul the strength to endure, to carry on through this situation, to struggle and to grow and overcome.

Whatever answer God does give us, whether we like it or whether we don't like it, God always does what is best for us, just as a parent does what's best for their children. God does what's best for his children. Third point. God has a plan and a timetable. Habakkuk, I'll say, complained. Maybe that's not the best word. Habakkuk went to God and said, Why aren't you doing something? He said, I am doing something. I'm doing a work. God is working. He's working behind the scenes, mostly now.

We get a glimpse every now and then of a feeling in the near future we're going to have more than glimpses. But in any case, God is working. He's involved. He's working behind the scenes, whether we realize it or whether we don't realize it. God is working. God is sovereign. God is in control. He has a plan and he has a timetable. This is, as he told Habakkuk, at the appointed time it's going to happen.

And he also says, at the end time it's going to happen. The fourth point is, the righteous shall live by faith. Let's turn to Revelation 17. Revelation 17. We'll pick up a scripture there. Revelation 17. I'll just break into the context.

I'll start reading in verse 12, where it talks about, The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet. But they have received authority for one hour as kings with the beast. They are of one mind and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the lamb and the lamb will overcome them. For he is Lord of lords and King of kings. And then that just gets to the context and it says, And those who are with him, who are they?

They are called, they are chosen, and they are faithful. They had faith and they had works. They endured. They had a relationship with God. They were called, chosen, and faithful. Turn back to Hebrews, the tenth chapter. Hebrews the tenth chapter. We'll see a little bit more about these people. Hebrews the tenth chapter. I'll start reading in verse 36. And this is one of the places where the Apostle Paul quotes from the book of Habakkuk.

And specifically where he quotes, The just shall live by faith. Hebrews 10, and I'll start reading in verse 36. It says, For you have need of endurance. I've called it perseverance a while ago. Endurance. We need to keep going forward. We need to keep looking to God. So that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he is coming, who will come and will not tarry. And it says, Now the just shall live by faith. In the scripture that we read in the book of Habakkuk.

The emphasis is on living. Living by faith and doing. It says, But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. The emphasis here is on living. Having a full assurance. Having faith in God. Having faithfulness in God. Going forward. Having a relationship, as I mentioned, with God. Living, working, serving with him. And that leads us up to chapter 11.

What we call the faith chapter in the Bible. Where it talks about the heroes of faith from the Old Testament. Here we see that this is not only faith, but there is action that goes with it. There is faith and works. The two do go together. As James talks about living faith. Having faith and works. I'm going to go rather rapidly through here, if you'd like.

And another time you can fill in the details. But dropping down to verse 4. When we emphasize the works. There are many verbs that are listed in this chapter. Like in chapter 4 it says, Abel offered. Abel had faith and he did something. He offered. Verse 5 it says, Enoch pleased God. Verse 7, Noah moved with godly fear. Verses 8-10, Abraham obeyed. Abraham went out. He dwelt and he waited. Sarah bore a child. She judged God faithful. Then I'm going to start reading in verse 13.

It says, These all died in faith. They did things and they died. Not having received the promises. So again, they endured for a long time. They looked to God for a long time. Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. And were assured of them. And they erased them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had the opportunity to return. Just like any of us. We have the opportunity to return, to walk away any time we want. And of course, I hope that time never comes for anybody. But we have that opportunity. They had that opportunity. But now they desire a better that is a heavenly country.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Then it continues on with more people who did things. Faith and works. In verse 17 it says, Abraham offered. And of course we know he's talking about Isaac. It says, verse 20, Isaac blessed. Verse 21, Jacob blessed and worshiped. Verse 22, Joseph gave instructions. Verse 23, Moses was hidden by his parents. They were not afraid.

Verse 24, Moses refused. Moses chose. Moses forsook Egypt. All these people did something. They had faith and they had works. And then starting to read again in verse 32. It says, And what more shall I say? The time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah. Also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again. So here, people were getting the answers to their prayers.

This is what they wanted. I want to emphasize, and I'll mention this again, things didn't always work out the way they liked. You know, we talked about those who quenched fire. You know, you have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fiery furnace. They were delivered. But obviously, you know, if you'd asked them ahead of time, I don't think that was their choice. They didn't want to go in there. There were other trials, other deliverances that God provided for His people. But it wasn't necessarily easy. Then it goes on to say, others were tortured. In other words, there are those who were not delivered, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Still others had a trial of mockings and squergings, and yes, of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goldskins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in the deserts and in the mountains, in the dens and the caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, through faith, the just shall live by faith, did not receive the promise. God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

So as I mentioned, there are those who were delivered. Sometimes there were answers to their prayers, and it worked out exactly the way they wanted it to. And there were those who were not delivered. Those who died, those who were martyrs, those who gave up their life. But either way, whichever group you were in, it was all right, because you were with God, and God was with you, or God was with them, they were with God.

They looked to God, and they knew He was sovereign. They knew He was in control. They had faith, and they lived by faith, and again, they will live by faith. Let's turn back to Habakkuk's third chapter. Habakkuk, the third chapter, we read the last four verses again. They're very interesting. Habakkuk began with a question. He ends with an affirmation.

Actually, he began with a question, had a second question, and then he began with an affirmation of certainty and trust. Conditions may be bad. They may be intolerable. We may have been praying for a long time for our deliverance. God hears, and when God is ready, He obviously will act. Habakkuk 3, starting in verse 17, it says, Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food, Though the flock may be cut off from the field, Again, it's not a happy time, not a pleasant time at all, And there will be no hurt in the stalls, Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

God is sovereign and in control. Verse 19, The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like deer's feet. He will make me walk on the high hills. So I want to encourage all of us to remember the advice from Habakkuk. Whatever condition that we are in, the just shall live by faith. And turning that around, by faith, the just shall live.

The just shall live by faith.