Faith in the Coming God
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· 7 viewsSecond coming of Christ
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
This morning we are continuing our study from the book of Habakkuk, if you have your bibles turn with me to Habakkuk 3.
God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed at his heels.
He stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
the everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.
I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
Was your anger against the rivers,
or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode on your horses,
on your chariot of salvation?
You stripped the sheath from your bow,
calling for many arrows. Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
The mountains saw you and writhed;
the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice;
it lifted its hands on high.
The sun and moon stood still in their place
at the light of your arrows as they sped,
at the flash of your glittering spear.
You marched through the earth in fury;
you threshed the nations in anger.
You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah
Last week, Pastor Jiwon gave us a powerful message on our need for revival in the church and I hope that we can all agree that this is something that is needed in our time. This is something worth praying for and worth seeking together because we can’t go back to just doing church the way we used. The world has changed, we have changed, and it’s very clear that we are in a different season in the life of the church. More than ever, we need the power and the presence of God to be active in our lives so that we can be God’s bold witnesses in a world that is increasingly hostile towards Christianity. This is the heart of Habakkuk’s prayer, “Lord, we have heard of your fame, we’ve heard of your work in human history, we have heard the stories of your power in the Scriptures, now make these things known in our day.
I’m sure that some of us have casually thought to ourselves, if God did some of the things in the Bible right now, well then I would have greater faith, then I would truly believe. But it doesn’t work that way because it is those who first have faith that are then able to discern the work of God and give him the glory that He deserves. Think about the story of Moses and Pharoah, God gave sign after sign to warn Pharoah that He was in the midst of Egypt but he dismissed all of them because his heart was hardened, there was no faith. In the same way, those who have no faith now will be unable to accept the things of God and they will dismiss everything as chance, coincidence, and circumstance. This is why the apostle Paul tells us that as Christians, we walk by faith and not by sight.
When Habakkuk prayed that God would revive His work in our time, he understood what he was praying for and the prophet’s heart was filled with fear because he understood what he was asking for. The verses that we read today, although they are written in the past tense represent Habakkuk’s understanding of what it will look like when God’s manifest presence comes down to earth especially when He comes down to a world that has turned away from Him, where there is no understanding of good and evil, and where even the faith of His own people has become corrupted. From Habakkuk’s understanding of God’s work in history, these verses describe the dramatic breaking in of God into human reality.
God comes from specific places and times
God comes as light
God comes in his judgement
God comes for the salvation of His people
The remarkable truth of verse 3 is that God came from a known location here on earth. He came from Teman, from Mt. Paran. God doesn’t work from a distance, he doesn’t call a Zoom meeting from heaven to check in on how things are going in our world. This infinite, eternal God comes from specific locations and places. Moses remembers fondly, the place where God came to deliver the people of Israel.
He said,
“The Lord came from Sinai
and dawned from Seir upon us;
he shone forth from Mount Paran;
he came from the ten thousands of holy ones,
with flaming fire at his right hand.
I’m sure that these were the words that Habakkuk was recounting when He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write his book and this is a reminder that God is not far from us, He is not off in some distant reality, He is here on this earth. And the history of revival has shown us that is exactly the case. The Great Awakening, began in small town called Northhampton in New England. The Pentecostal Revival that has spread throughout the world began in small corner of Los Angeles called Azusa. The dramatic spread of Christianity in Korean began in the city of Pyongyang which is now the capital of North Korea. All revivals begin in a place with those who believe in faith that the God who has promised to come is close at hand and will not delay any longer.
Hebrews 10:37 (ESV)
For, “Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
I pray that our church would be filled with people that have this level of faith, free of the skepticism of this world, the faith to see that Lord is coming, and that all the events of this world point to that fact. One of the gaping holes in American Christianity over the past 20-30 years is that we don’t teach this nor do we believe these things and without knowing it we have cut ourselves off from roots of historic/orthodox Christianity. As one commentator writes:
Through all the ages only the coming of the Lord himself can provide genuine hope for his people.
During these past two years, have you cried out for the coming of the Lord. Have you earnestly desired in your heart, “Come Lord Jesus Come!” In the darkest moments, is this the one truth that gives you hope, “My God is sure to come!” And the amazing thing is, if you have eyes to see the signs of his coming are all around.
We are told that God comes as the Holy One and that his splendor is like the light. One of the things that light does is that it exposes the darkness. When the holiness of God comes near to us, it begins to expose our sin, even those we think have been hidden away in secret.
For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,
I think this is what we have been experiencing over the past year and a half, it isn’t the pandemic by itself that has brought out the secret sins of people and revealed all their hidden thought, I believe it is the God behind the pandemic, whose holy light has exposed the darkest recesses of the human heart. I know that this has happened to me and I’m pretty confident that it’s happened to you. And now that the light of God has drawn near to you, what will you do? What will be your response?
for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
The apostle is speaking about the unfathomable grace of God, when your sin is exposed, it has a chance to be turned into light. If it remains in darkness, it can never be turned to light.
God exposes the darkness of your life, not to condemn you but to make you holy, just as He is holy. But we have to awake from our sleep, rise up from the dead, and allow the light of Christ to shine on every area of our lives.
When Habakkuk is describing this light that has come, he is isn’t talking about the general glory of God that you might enjoy as you drive through Yosemite or see some majestic view, the prophet is talking about the manifest glory of God, the blinding glory that would destroy you if you saw it face to face. In verse 4, we read that God is holding the light of his glory in his hands.
His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
This imagery that we read in these verses teaches us two things.
1. God is preparing to use His glory for His purpose. Think about this, why do you put something in your hand, so you can use it.
2. God is using his glory in a controlled manner because anything that you place in your hand is under your control. But even this controlled amount of light that leaks out from God’s hands wreaks havoc on our planet. And that should leave us in utter awe and wonder at the nature of the power and glory that are hidden in God’s clenched fist.
Because even as God is limits the degree of light that comes out, we read that pestilence and plague follow at His heels, which leads us to our third point, God comes with his judgement.
Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed at his heels.
I dont’ want to constantly be the bearer of bad news but if you have read your Bible like the prophet Habakkuk, you have probably realized that plagues and pandemics are not new to our world and often times, they are the signs of God’s nearness to us. It’s no wonder that Habakkuk feared the work of God. Maybe we don’t want God to come too close! When I was a younger pastor and my heart was yearning for revival in our generation, an older pastor who had experienced a period of revival in his time told me, “Be careful what you pray for because God may answer you!” Periods of great pain, turbulence, sorrow, conflict, and unrest are often the events that precede times of true revival. The coming of the Lord is an awesome sight to behold but you begin to realize the closer He comes, the more fearful the consequence of His nearness. Unfortunately, sometimes in life we have to taste the bitterness of God’s judgement so that we can truly experience the sweetness of his mercy.
And it seems that Habakkuk is beginning to accept the rightness and the validity of what God is doing but he has one last question left for God, “Who or what is your anger directed at?” Is it against the rivers, the sea, the mountains? And perhaps it’s just a rhetorical question becasue the prophet provides his own answer:
You marched through the earth in fury;
you threshed the nations in anger.
Have you ever questioned God’s ability to make every tribe and tongue and nation bow their knee to the the coming Son? I beleive the events of the past year has made it very clear that just the glittering of God’s spear is able to bring every king and kingdom down to their knees. Not a single nation has been spared as God has swept over this earth, countries and continents have been paralzyed, whole economies have been utterly crippled, and even our best science has been unable to bring the nations to full recovery. God has left very little room for confusion or doubt, at any time when he wants to bring the nations to their knees, He is more than able. That’s is in accordance to the promise He gave to His Son.
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
We are not often used to thinking of Jesus as the ruler of the nations and coming as the Lion of Judah. We assume that when Jesus comes it will be with rainbows and flowers and the nations will gladly bow their knee to him. I don’t think that is the way it’s going to go down. Jesus means to come down to wage war against the nations and every historic cycle of events like the ones we’ve experienced brings us that much closer to His coming.
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
It’s awe inspiring to think of who Jesus is and how he will conquer the nations like a Lion devouring his prey. But the same God who is the Lion of Judah will come to us as the Lamb of God. Even as he wages war agains the nations, the real reason, the true purpose of his coming is for our salvation. Jesus comes to save because that is what his name literally means in the Hebrew. Jeshua means “God is Salvation!” As the people of God, we can take joy in the salvation of our God!
The coming of Christ is serious business but it’s something that should fill our hearts with great joy. Mira and I were reminded this week of just how funny he can be even in the midst of such trying times. We ordered Dunkin Doughnuts for our brother-in-law who is not a believer and we’ve been trying to share our faith because we love him and look who delivered the doughnuts for us.
Conclusion
Maybe this morning, you are wondering if Jesus came for you and you have doubts. You wouldn’t be the first. John the Baptist, Jesus’ first cousin wondered the same thing while waiting in prison for his own salvation.
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
With a definitive yes, Jesus tells John, I am the who was promised to come and He tells each of us today, I am the one who will come again!