In the Spirit of Habakkuk

Hello again, everyone. Thank you very much, Laura. Very nice. Enjoyed that special music. Always good to have some encouraging special music. It's always good to be able to sing our own praises to God as well. When we have our own hymn sing, I was glad to hear that you do two in the middle. That was not unusual for me. In Indianapolis, all the years I was pastor there, we sang two songs in the middle. A member of the Lukeres came over one time when they were here. He was president. They came to visit. After the first song, Mrs. Luecker wanted to sit down. I just leaned over and said, We sang two here in Indianapolis in the middle. I've been a heretic for a long time.

Two songs. You've got this new pastor here. People leave us Bible studies with a broken arm and a black eye.

Next month in Cincinnati, we've got a new group of new people that we've hired as trainees. Some other men who've been recently made pastors are being brought in for a week and a half. We're calling it boot camp for training. You might want to send your pastor's name in as a suggestion.

How to physically care for your people. Maybe we could add a class, Mr. Myers. He could teach that class on how to physically care for your people.

But I'm glad to hear he keeps it all in the family.

Let me begin here with a story. There was once a man who had a child, and the child got sick. And he took that child and he held it up to God and pleaded for its life. Now, the child had not always been sick. It was born quite healthy and had a number of years of very good health.

And then he got sick one time, and the man took the child to medical health, doctors. The medication was prescribed. The cough, the rash, the problems, the pain went away.

But after a period of time, after the strength had been regained and his life went on, the sickness came again. This time, once again, specialists were consulted. Further diagnosis was made. But the child was very sick. And it was evident that unless something dramatic happened, the child would not get better. And it could die. So in this desperate moment, the father took the child in his arms, as only a father can do, and he slowly lifted it up to God in a moment of prayer, describing the condition, describing all the problems, and pleading with God, and asking why. What was wrong, and what could be done?

Now, this is an interesting story. It's not necessarily a true story, although children have been sick, and parents have been concerned and prayed for their child. But I tell it to you as a kind of a stylized, imaginative introduction to a topic here, to talk for a moment about something. Because this story is not so much about the sick child, or even God, but the point that I want to draw from this particular stylized story is the attitude of the father, the parent, who took the child in his arms and lifted it up toward God.

That's the point I want to focus on, and for us to think about for a moment. It is the attitude of a concerned parent who was sighing and crying for the condition of his child. And it's that attitude that I want us to focus on here for a few minutes this afternoon, because I think it is the attitude that we, as Christians, should have. As we look at our world today, as we look at our nation, the United States of America, and the conditions in which we see the world being driven, and particularly the conditions of the world that we are facing today as we see significant cultural, moral, political, and economic changes sweeping over our country, resulting in a country that we find, for many of us, very hard to recognize.

A few weeks ago, as we know, the United States Supreme Court made a decision regarding same-sex marriage that recognized it as legal constitutionally in all 50 states. Something even a few years ago, none of us would have ever dreamed could have gone that far. But it did. And it has shocked even those who are the worst naysayers. In my own opinion, I think that the United States Supreme Court crossed over its own boundaries of human law into the realm of the law of God. And I shudder to think what that consequence could and would be. And just now, and just a few days ago, a treaty and an agreement was reached with Iran, a nation whose avowed purpose is essentially death to America and death to Israel.

And again, an agreement touted as progress has been made that will totally upend that part of the world in time. The attitude of the father who took his sick child and raised it up to God, I think, is one that offers some instruction for us at this particular moment to think about. And I've been thinking about it a great deal for several reasons.

And I've been thinking about it in regard to a message of one of the prophets that we have in the Old Testament, one of the minor prophets, that is a unique message. And it's the prophet Habakkuk. I'd like for you to turn back to the book of Habakkuk, in that section of the Bible, and particularly the book of Habakkuk, which we may not always read that much. One of the minor prophets, and a very obscure minor prophet. When we read the minor prophets, we might read Malachi or know a little bit more about Amos or Hosea. Habakkuk, three short chapters. And other than the meaning of his name, we really don't know anything about the man.

His name means to embrace. To embrace. And I don't know if you could write a book on that name, but that's all we know. Amos was at least a sheep herder from Toccoa. Hosea married a woman who was a prostitute. We don't know anything about Habakkuk.

But we do know this. He loved his country, and he did something that was different from all the other prophets. When you read Amos, Hosea, when you read Isaiah, when you read Jeremiah. Jeremiah stood in the equivalent of the big cathedral door in Jerusalem, He went out from worship service and said, don't you dare trust in that church, or in the building, in that case, the temple.

Jeremiah 7, he says, don't trust in that, you're hypocrites. Isaiah went into the king's court and pointed a finger. So did Amos. He went into the king's court and condemned the people and condemned the leaders, as many of the prophets did. Habakkuk didn't do that.

He is the one prophet who, instead of going to the people pointing a finger, He took the time and a place for that, and we see plenty of that. Habakkuk took the condition of his people, Judah, and he took them to God. That's really what he did. You read three chapters in Habakkuk, he's not talking to a king, and he's not talking directly to a people.

Now, he mentions the sins of the people in the first four verses of Habakkuk 1, and they're pretty strong. But he's talking to God about the people in a prayer, in essence. He says, and it's called a burden, in the first verse of chapter 1, it's the burden of the prophet. He was weighed down with this. He was concerned. And he says in verse 2, O LORD, how long?

And so this is what he takes, and he lifts up the people to God. How long shall I cry? And you'll not hear.

Even cry out, VIOLENCE, and you'll not say. Have you seen any riots in American cities in recent months?

Why do you show me iniquity? Why do you cause me to see trouble, plundering, violence? They're before me. There's strife. There's contention. The law's powerless. Justice never goes forth. The wicked surround the righteous. Therefore, perverse judgment proceeds. Crooked judgments all the way up to a misreading of not just an American Constitution, but of the veritable laws of God. And declaring something moral right and of freedom.

Habakkuk's message resonates quite strongly with us today. But like that father that I was talking about, he takes and lifts it up to God. And he says to the people and to God, Help us. Heal us. What can be done? How long do we have to deal with this?

And then, at the end of verse 4, that's what he says. And his part concludes at that moment. Verse 5 of chapter 1 picks up with God's reply. You may probably have that right there in your scriptures. Here's what God says to him. And it's not what you might think. But look at it carefully. He says, Look among the nations and watch. I was talking to you all this morning about understanding world events. Discern the time. There's another way to put this. Look around at the other nations. And here's what God's saying to Habakkuk. Look around and watch. Understand. And I'm going to blow you away, Habakkuk. You're going to be utterly astounded. For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told to you. I'm going to do something that you won't even believe and you really won't even understand. And he goes on in the next few verses up through verse 11. And here's what he says.

You know that group called Babylon? A few miles to the east of you here in Jerusalem? I'm going to bring them in.

They're going to deal with your people, Judah. You wouldn't believe it. The others wouldn't believe it. And what was really happening in the world at that time of Habakkuk, the region of the Middle East in his day at that moment in the sixth century B.C. was in turmoil. Alliances were changing. Nations were rising and falling. Babylon had conquered Assyria, which had been the big kid on the block. Egypt was no longer a player on the scene in the politics of the world at that day. Babylon had come on strong. And under Nebuchadnezzar II, whom we were reading a little bit about this morning in the book of Daniel, Babylon was now the strongest nation and it was on a rampage.

Kind of like a group called Isis today.

You know, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, he goes on here, he says, I'm raising up the Chaldeans in verse 6, A bitter and a hasty nation, which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess places, they are terrible and dreadful. Have you been on YouTube? Have you seen the beheadings?

Dreadful and terrible. Now, I'm not equating Isis with the Babylonian Empire on that scale. Although, in a sense, their reach has gone even further. You know, we had four Marines killed in Chattanooga just a few days ago, and they're still, you know, what's the connection of this guy who did this? These random acts pop up on top of what's done, as Isis has marched through Iraq and Syria and other parts of the Middle East. Babylon was kind of the Isis of the day, in a sense, of striking fear into every group. And that's what happens at times in the world of empires and nations and war and politics. And he goes on to say, I'm going to bring them in, and I'm going to use them to chase in Judah. Your sick child, Habakkuk, I'm going to use them. And they are going to deal, they're going to be my instrument, my hand, to chase in your people.

And Habakkuk's reaction is, verse 12, What? Aren't you the everlasting, aren't you our God, our merciful God, our loving God, from everlasting, my holy one? We will die, O Lord! You've appointed them for judgment. They're the bad guys. You've marked them for correction. They need to be chastened. You're better than that. You're of purer eyes than to behold evil, verse 13. You can't look on wicked. They're horrible. They're not Christian.

We might say today, Habakkuk would have said, they're not your people. They're not your chosen people. We are. We're the children of Abraham. How can do this happen? But it was going on.

And he goes on to describe pretty bad people. Down in chapter 2, verse 1, the second retort of Habakkuk comes to a close, and he says, I'm going to stand my watch, and I'll set myself on the rampart, and I'll watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected. So he had to say back to God, and then he says, I'm going to sit on the wall and watch. And I'm going to listen to what God responds. Well, in verse 2 of chapter 2, God answered. And he said, Write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it. Make sure you understand this. And write it in your best cursive block letters. No message.

Get your spell checker ready. Make sure you get this down right. Make it plain. For the vision is yet for an appointed time. It's going to happen.

I've marked it on the calendar.

But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie, though it tarries. Wait for it. Because it will surely come, I will not tarry. It's going to happen. Now, the next verse in verse 4 is an interesting verse. Behold the proud. His soul is not upright in him. Pride has no place at any time with anyone. We don't ever want to be lifted up in pride, thinking of ourselves as better than anyone else, superior, righteously. Pride has no place at all. God says a lot about a prideful look in many different places in the Scripture. Pride does not produce righteousness. But the end of verse 4 is a very interesting verse. That the just shall live by his faith. The just shall live by his faith. Now, that might sound familiar to you. It should. The Apostle Paul quotes this phrase twice in the New Testament, in Romans 1 and in Hebrews 12. He liked it when he was a Pharisee studying the Old Testament Scriptures. Saul the Pharisee loved Habakkuk so much that when he began to write the Bible as an apostle, he actually pulls it in twice into two of his letters. The just shall live by his faith. In other words, you go on Habakkuk, you do what you're supposed to do, you live your life, don't worry about the rest of your people what's going to happen, and what I might even do. Regardless of how much violence there is, regardless of how much immorality, how much unrighteousness in the streets, in the courts, in the chambers of the houses, of Congress or whatever it might be, you do what's right. You live righteously. That's the point.

And really, that's the point for us. No matter how bad things might seem to be, or actually be, and how much we might be totally surprised and just literally appalled, we know how we are to live. We are to live righteously.

We're to, as Mr. Myers was saying, we're to let the mind of the Master be the master of our mind, day in and day out, in our life.

We have to do that for as long as it takes and as long as it goes on.

And that's kind of the heart of the message here out of Habakkuk. Now, he goes on and there's a response back and forth. And finally, at the end of chapter 2, the prophet says, he's had a say, he's had this dialogue with God, and he says, the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. Kind of, it's almost a tone like Solomon said at the end of Ecclesiastes, and I hear the end of the matter, fear God and keep the commandments. After Solomon had said all that he did about the wicked and the righteous and injustice and the inequities, and at the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, it's the end of the matter. Fear God, keep His commandments. Habakkuk says, God's in His holy temple, let the earth keep silence before Him. And then it ends with a long prayer, and at the end of chapter 3, verse 19, again he says, the Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.

God is with us. God never leaves us. And we have that personal relationship with God, as Laura was singing in the special music today. Habakkuk is a very interesting piece of prophecy. I think it has some application. I've been doing a lot of thinking in and out through these verses for some time, and just looking at it and thinking about it. I spoke to you about some introductory thoughts about prophecy this morning in my two presentations to you. And I just leave you with these few thoughts out of Habakkuk. This is not an exhaustive presentation on Habakkuk today.

This is only a split sermon, as it is. Maybe it's just a split sermonette when it's all done. I don't know. I've got five minutes on that clock back there, so I'm going to go by my clock right here as I wrap this up. But let me ask you, with this thought in mind about Habakkuk, let me tell you something and ask your prayers. We are going to begin a series, God willing, of personal appearance campaigns in October, after the Feast of Tabernacles. Steve Myers, Gary Petty, and myself will be going to Texas with our crew. And we're going to put on a Beyond Today personal appearance campaign in Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. And we're going to call this, America the Time is Now. And we're going to, essentially, with an hour-hour and 15-minute presentation of all three of us on stage in each location, talk to our audience, our members, and good new subscribers and others who we hope and pray will come to hear a message that is talking about the time we live in, the time is now. Christ said to discern this time. We were reading this morning in the verses. We're going into Texas, folks. You know that's Tea Party country. That's Bible Belt. If they could, they'd all secede from the Union down there in Texas. You go to Texas, you better play, you know, you better have a fiddle in a bow, as the song goes. And we want to have a strong message, but one of hope. And I think, at least as I am approaching it, in a sense, kind of like Habakkuk. Strong, hopeful that people will recognize that these are serious times, as we all know that. We don't want to go in and try to scare the daylights out of them. I still contend people watch Fox News and they listen to Glenn Beck. They're already scared. I get scared when I watch Fox News. Sometimes I just turn Fox News off. We can relate to that, and we can tell them why, but we want to tell them more of a message of hope.

And why they are born, and who God is, and that God is a God of history, and He is marching through the nations. And as Habakkuk says in chapter 3, I don't want to have time to even go into that. Sometimes I think God's kind of marching through the world right now, and He's kind of paused and looking around. And God's timeframe is a whole different frame of time than ours.

We want the kingdom to come now. We want it to happen in our lifetime. But God doesn't go on our timetable. The day and the hour we read this morning, only He knows, you know? And as I said, we've been at this for quite a long time, and it's easy to think, oh, that's the same message. In fact, one of our staff came into me the other day and sat down because another staff member had gone back into the archives.

On the Internet of the Church of God, had gone back 45 years and pulled out, from 1970, letters, old good news, Tomorrow's World, remember that magazine? Articles written by Mr. Armstrong and Ted Armstrong. Because in 1970, there was a series of personal appearance campaigns called America Listen.

Any of you ever go to...there was one in Cincinnati. Did any of you go to...Kenny, you did? You guys did, of course. I went to one in...there was one in Nashville that summer. I went to the one in Nashville. I was 19 years old. This summer I went off to Ambassador College. And it was...they were three-night campaigns, and they were quite successful. Fruit was born from them. And I was reading through all of that, and one of the staff came in and said, Okay, 45 years later, you're doing this again.

Why? And I knew when we chose this name America, the time is now. There would be a connection to America Listen, a 45 year...you know, I've been around. I know all this. But I don't care. Because I think that there's a message to give. I said, Yeah, you sit down, I'll talk to you. Let me explain to you. I was there in 1970. I'm here in 2015. And, you know, basically the point was, the world was...you thought the world was bad then, but then Reagan came along. Morning in America, again.

You know, we kicked Hussein out of Kuwait. All these things. Desert storm, desert...all of this. And America is still very powerful. And I said, Oh, yeah, it is. That's true. Still the most powerful country in the world. But let me tell you about the world of 1970 as opposed to the world of 2015. And I don't have time to go into my explanation. But it is a far more dangerous world in 2015 than it was in 1970. Far more. For many valid reasons, which I go through with the class in World News and Prophecy. The Gospel is the same. The message to repent and to change is still the same.

The social, moral, economic, political problems of America are even worse. And we are still striding the world as the strongest, most powerful nation at this moment in time. I also recognize that that could change. I feel in my own mind that God has kept us going these years. And while it might seem like 45 long years for me and for some of you, it's not even a millisecond, a micro-millisecond in God's way of thinking and looking at it.

And that's where we should understand and realize that. And is it too late for America? I don't think it's too late for any individual. I don't know exactly where God looks at the country in itself. I do know that for the Supreme Court to have done what it did, that was a big step. But I think that we still have a work to do. And as we are given the means to do so, we can reach people with a message of understanding, to help them understand why their world is the way it is today.

And to help them have hope. Hope. By coming to understand that there is a God who is in charge of history, there is a God who is guiding it all to His ends and purpose. And you can know that God, I can know that God, we can live by our faith, and we can become sons of God, we can know why we were born. And live accordingly by our faith. And we should, and as God gives us the ability to teach that to any and all who will hear us, we must do that.

Which is what preaching the Gospel and preparing of people is all about. So I lay that out to you, just here as I conclude my part with you on this weekend, and ask you to be praying about that. We're working every day to begin to shape these public appearances. We've got a meeting on Monday with the presenters, the three of us that really begin to shape our presentation for those nights. And if we don't look at these to be just one-off in Texas, we hope and we plan to go to other places and just keep doing it.

We're not looking at numbers. If we get 10 new people to show up, great. If we get 100, it's even greater. It's the message that's important. It is the opportunity God gives us that's important. It's bigger than us and it's bigger than numbers. We get the message right, God will take care of the rest. On behalf of Mr. Myers and Mr. Petty and all of our staff, I'll just conclude my part with you today and ask you to be praying about that.

God's blessing would be upon it that we could be able to craft and shape an effective message of understanding and hope. In the spirit of Habakkuk, not judging and condemning and pointing the finger necessarily, while there's plenty of that to do and there's a time and a place to do it, if we just preach the truth, that can be convicting enough and God's spirit can do the rest and pray that we will be able to get that done.

I know your prayers will mean a lot. I know that many of you have been faithful to God, to His way of life, to His church, to each other for many, many years here. Many of you, what you represent. You represent 45 and more years of experience, many of you, in this way of life. Please keep this project in your prayers, as well as all the efforts that we are doing on a daily basis to share the truths of God with people as we preach the Gospel.

It's been great to be with you here for a short time here today in Portsmouth. For those of you that were looking for something from Paul in the Roman world, Mr. Myers is going to give that to you this afternoon. He can tell you a little bit about some of those things from our trip a few weeks ago and bring that into his topic. But it's been our pleasure, Debbie and I, to be with you here for our portion and enjoy the remainder of the weekend, and certainly the Sabbath.