Christ Church

That He Who Runs May Read (Habakkuk #1)

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Introduction

God governs the world with inscrutable and holy wisdom. We know that He is holy, but part of the reason why it is so inscrutable is because He uses so much unholiness to accomplish His holy ends. This was the central dilemma that Habakkuk faced. And the lesson he learns is that waiting for deliverance is one of God’s central instruments that He uses to prepare us for glory.

The Text

“The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.  O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you . . .” (Hab. 1:1-2:5).

Outline of the Book

The book of Habakkuk is structured in a seven-part chiasm. Although we won’t get to all of this today, you should have this map in your minds to keep you oriented. The text today will take us halfway through the book, and to the central hinge of the chiasm.

A Habakkuk’s first complaint has to do with how long he has to wait for the justice of God (1:2-4);
B When then have Jehovah’s first answer—He will bring in the great armies of Babylon to deal with the corruptions of Judah (1:5-11);
C Habakkuk says that this is even worse. The Babylonians are worse than Judah ever thought of being (1:12-17);
D Wait, God says. He will punish the wicked, and the just shall live by faith in the meantime (2:1-5);
C’ God answers the second complaint, and we read about the woes that befall the wicked (2:6-20);
B’ Jehovah’s army is the answer to the army of Babylon (3:1-15);
A’ Habakkuk finally resolves his dilemma, and determines to wait on the Lord regardless (3:16-19).

Summary of the Text

Prophecies are often called “burdens,” and this is certainly what Habakkuk had (v. 1). Why does God delay in hearing the prophet’s cry (v. 2)? Why does God show Habakkuk corruption if He is not going to do anything about it (v. 3)? Wrongdoers prevail (v. 4).

And so the answer comes. Jehovah will make a short and wondrous work of it (v. 5). He will raise up the Chaldeans, and they will sweep in as a judgment (v. 6). Their arrival will be dreadful (v. 7). Their armed might is terrible, and they bring in true fear (v. 8). They will come in violence and devour everything (v. 9). Kings and princes are nothing to them (v. 10). They attribute their prowess to their own false god (v. 11).

Habakkuk hates this. Is not God the God of true and holy judgment (v. 12)? God has holy hands, and so how can He pick up and use such a dirty stick as Babylon (v. 13)? The Babylonians just gather up men like fishermen with a dragnet (vv. 14-15). They worship their own prowess (v. 16), and are the very definition of fat and sassy. God, why do You let them get away with this (v. 17)?

We then come to the heart of the book, from which the apostle Paul takes the phrase the just shall live by faith as his thesis statement for the book of Romans. Habakkuk prepares him for the answer (2:1). The Lord says to him that he needs to make sure to get this down plainly (v. 2). Write it in big enough letters that someone just running by could still read it. Though the judgments of God tarry, wait for them because they will not tarry (v. 3). The haughty are bent, but the just shall live by faith (v. 4). The one under judgment, like Babylon, swells and is swollen (v. 5).

So Wait for It

The book begins with Habbakuk complaining about how long he must wait (1:1). But when God brings him to the point, He says to wait for it (2:3). The book ends with Habakkuk declaring that he will rejoice (as he waits) for God’s salvation (3:18). The book begins with the lament, how long must I wait for God’s salvation. The book ends with the resolve to wait for God’s salvation.

Both Sovereign and Holy

The delay that we chafe under is not because God is trying to gather up His resources. He doesn’t need time to get ready. He is sovereign. Neither is it because He is contemptuous of us—no, He is also holy.

God is always ready to deliver. We are not always ready to be delivered. The waiting is part of His preparation. It is something we need.

“And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever” (Exodus 14:13).

And so we see the great salvation of the Lord, the salvation that is the pinnacle of all His typical salvations (in the sense of typology). God loves to work using the same methods, over and over. God loves the cliffhanger. God loves to save His people at the very last moment. The nick of time is the place of His excellence. God is the one who developed “just in time” delivery.

“For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:27–28, ESV).

Christ, your Lord and your Savior, is never late.

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Artillery Sermon 2019

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Introduction

First a word on the curious title for the sermon. In the American colonial era, ministers used to preach sermons to prepare congregants for their civic duties at election time, and these sermons were called artillery sermons. The custom may have begun (back in England) with messages that were preached to artillery companies prior to their election of officers. But the term broadened, and here we are.

What I would like to do this morning is declare an authoritative word to you in the light of our current political season. Given the inflamed state of our postmodern politics, it might seem that we are always in a political season, and that is actually part of our dilemma.

The Text

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

Summary of the Text

What we have in this text is a very succinct definition of what have come to be known as sins of omission. A sin of commission is committed when someone does the evil thing. He does it, and he is the sinner. A sin of omission is when an evil is about to happen, and someone who has the means to prevent it does not prevent it. He doesn’t do anything, and hence he is the sinner.

The context of this verse in James has to do with entrepreneurs who boast in their conceit about their ability to go here and there, do this and do that, and make a pile of money. But, James responds, your life is a little wisp of fog rising off an obscure creek. For such a one to boast is evil. But James hastens to add that it is not enough to avoid the evil—one must also do the good that is before you.

Immediate Application

This coming Tuesday, our city is holding elections for city council. There are three open seats, and there are six candidates running. Each registered voter gets to cast up to three votes in this election. The election is a city-wide horse race, meaning that the top three vote-getters will take office and, if you follow me closely, the other three will not. If you are interested in narrowing your options down, three of the candidates used what can only be called “a drag show fail” to drum up support. They apparently did not know what would appeal to you.

So the immediate point of application is this—followed by a brief explanation, and followed a bit later with some general observations. Here is the charge: anyone who lives here in Moscow, and who is qualified to vote in this election, must vote in this election. It would be a sin not to. Sitting this one out is not an option. This is an election that will have significant repercussions for a number of individuals in our community, and for a number of institutions. This includes entities like Logos, NSA, Christ Church, and so on, not to mention numerous individuals. And so this means that if you do not vote, and a year from now we find ourselves getting hassled by a city council that is now hostile to us (surprise!), and your lack of participation in the election was the reason for it, then you will have a great deal of trouble praying with us for a successful outcome of the upcoming hearing which will determine whether NSA students have to park their cars on top of the other students’ cars. To save room.

Yeah, But What About . . .?

Perhaps some of you have been in conversations with co-workers or neighbors about your involvement with “that church.” And so is this an instance of us “flexing?” Is this an instance of us finally “making our move?” I want to provide you with a few things that you can say in such conversations, and say with confidence. You can say these things with confidence because they are true.

Political, Not Partisan

We believe, and have taught for years, that the Christian church is inherently political. At the same time, we have diligently avoided partisan politics, and will continue to do so. Here is the difference. Politics is not our savior, but politics will most certainly be saved. We therefore avoid every form of “vote for Murphy” partisanship. Christ Church never wants to fit in with the old jibe about the Episcopalians, which was that they were the Republican Party at prayer. That was a century ago, as they are now the Democratic Party at a séance. At the same time, we recognize that the resurrection of Jesus most certainly has an agenda for our earthly political system.

Repenting of Cynicism

Any thoughtful person who watches our clown-car-parade of a culture, a pandemonium that is punctuated at regular intervals by elections, is going to be tempted to become cynical. He will tell his wife that if God had wanted us to vote He would have given us candidates. He will tell his children that they shouldn’t vote because “it only encourages them.” He might be prevailed upon to vote in a hot presidential election, but for the most part he is lethargic. But, as we can tell from the huge turnout in presidential elections, compared to the small turnout for local elections, people really have their priorities upside down. Local is important, and cynicism cannot wave that reality away.

A Decisive Point

Our local progressives have made a great deal out of the fact that we want to “take Moscow” for Christ. And this is quite true, we do. But we want this in the sense intended by the Lord Jesus in His Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), and in the sense that is desired by every evangelical Christian church. The means we intend to use to accomplish this will be Word and water, bread and wine. We intend to labor quietly with our hands and minds. We are resolved to show hospitality. We intend to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, providing them with a thoroughgoing Christian education. Sounds pretty scary, doesn’t it?

In my father’s application of the principles of war to evangelism, he has taught for years that a decisive point is one that is simultaneously strategic and feasible. If we took New York City for Jesus that would certainly be strategic, but how feasible is it? If we took Bovill, Idaho for Jesus, we could do that in three weeks, but how strategic would it be? Small towns with major universities (like Moscow and Pullman, eight miles apart) are decisive points. But all of this is to be accomplished without any coercion, through the power of love, good works, true community, good work, and persuasion.

An Agenda?

So our agenda for Moscow is to be the right kind of left alone. Our interest in this particular city council election is entirely defensive.

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1–4).

We are not interested in meddling with the affairs of others. We are not going to make the Moscow Food Coop sell Doritos.

Conclusion

One of the big reasons why Calvin was enabled to become the influential force that he became throughout Reformation Europe was because of the city council elections in Geneva in 1555. You may never have heard of those elections, but you also might be living here in Moscow because of them. Never underrate the power of Christ in your immediate surroundings.

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A Sermon for Americans

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Benediction

Blessed are those who are called by the name of the Lord, for they shall be feared.
Blessed are those who listen, for they shall be chased down by blessing.
Blessed are those who observe and do, for they shall be set on high.
Blessed are those who have the word in their mouth and heart, for the new commandment is theirs.
Blessed are those who are truly fruitful in their basket and store, for they will hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Blessed are those who serve God in joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things, for they shall be free of covetousness.
Blessed are those who have not looked on the form or shape of any graven image, for they shall see God.
Blessed are those whose foot does not slide, for they shall walk in the truth.

Present Testimony

Obedience can only be offered in the present, and disobedience—that unclean sacrifice—can only be offered on that same altar. Whatever it is must be offered in the present. Were you faithful once? Were you a faithful nation then? To offer up faithfulness then as though it were as good as obedience now, to rest on your laurels, is the same thing as offering up disobedience now. Offer what God asks of you. Offer your heart, promptly and sincerely, and do it now.

Real Authority

Do not think that these are words of revolution, designed to overthrow your laws and customs. Rather you have already been diligent in overthrowing your own laws and customs, while pretending you have not done so, such that if anybody comes to you and urges a return to the old paths, you think of him as the radical. If someone were to come to you and urge three senators from every state, you would hail him as an innovative progressive, and the Constitution as a living document that allows for such progress. If someone were to resist the novelty, you sneer at him as an extremist.

The Heart of Obedience

You have heard it said that it was the intention of the Founders to keep and maintain a strict separation between church and state. You have even heard it said that there was to be a wall of separation between the two. But I am telling you there is a difference between separating two forms of government found under the sun, ecclesiastical government and civil government, which is a most biblical thing to do, and separating God and state, or morality and state, or righteousness and state. You would separate morality and state . . . isn’t there enough of that already?

Divorce and Remarriage

A nation cannot be as faithless as you have been to your God without that faithlessness also being manifested in your marriages. You treat the dissolution of marriage as a personal convenience, whatever you feel like. You ought rather to consider divorce as something more akin to having a leg amputated.

Oath Keeping

You assume to yourself the right to prioritize all your promises. Promises that are about defending the Constitution are the really important ones, but promises to remain faithful to your wife are only “about sex.” But a man who will betray his wife, or a woman who will betray her husband, is already treacherous in principle. Treachery grows, just as cancer does, and oath breaking is a gangrenous business. This is the long way around, but it is to say that a nation filled with liars, thieves and adulterers is going to be well-represented in their state and national capitals.

Good for Evil

You judge yourselves by your intentions and motives, and you judge others by their actions toward you. You do not take their intentions (or professed intentions) into account. In your evaluation of all your interactions with others, you weigh and measure with meticulous care, always taking proper care to leave your thumb on the scale. Because you evaluate motives in such a crooked way, it is not surprising that your retaliations toward others are so often unjust.

Showboating

And beware of all the humility snares. You are a casual people, and you take pride in not being stuffy. But if previous generations were proud of their top hats and tails, and you are proud of your sweat pants, what is the real distinction between you and those others—apart from the fact that they had more of a plausible excuse for their pride?

Your worship services resemble classroom lectures, or assemblies, and sometimes they even look like pep rallies. And yet you are proud? No creature should be proud of anything at all, but to be proud of doing something poorly is a remarkable feat.

Pray Like This

When you reflect on your own character, on your failures and successes, this is how you should do it. Pray to God in this way, and not in a way that will seal your blindness to your true condition.

Father God, Father in heaven, You are holiness itself, and may that holiness come down and take root in me. May I measure my life by a heavenly cord, and cease my attempts to measure heaven with an earthly one. As you grant me my daily bread, keep me from using it to subsidize any continuing folly. Help me to see that forgiveness that does not go out is a forgiveness that never came in. Keep me from becoming ensnared by all the shiny objects around me, and let me actually see your kingdom, which is the true shining. Amen, and amen.

Pray this way, and don’t let anyone know that you do. Pray this way, and let God be in charge of who might find out about it.

Don’t Be Greedy

Greed will out. There is no way for you to set your heart on things below, like a hog rooting for acorns, and not have what you are becoming being revealed to all. Stand upright, and look at the stars. Look up to the heavens. Where is your heart? Is your heart there, in the heavenly places, or is it here below, down among the acorns?

Why are you so beset by false urgencies? Why do you set apart important tasks for the sake of trivial but urgent tasks?

No Double Standard

Everyone is the protagonist of their own story. Everyone is in the middle of writing a novel in the first person, writing it in their own head, and as it turns out, everyone is their own hero. Some will say that the word hero is ill-chosen—do not some people have very negative views of themselves? But even though it is a negative view, who is still the protagonist? All the other characters are judged by a different standard, which is how double standards arise. We judge others by their actions, and we evaluate ourselves by our motives—which, as the first person narrator, we can easily see.

Don’t Waste Your Breath

How many hours have you spent trying to correct people who did not want your correction? And you had no real obligation to correct them in the first place?

Reciprocity

Do not measure the warmth of God’s heart by the coldness of your own. Because we are the merciless ones, we project that hard attitude into the heavens, and assume that God will deal with us as we deal with one another. If we continue insisting upon this that may eventually be arranged—where the measure we use will be measured back to us—but our starting point is entirely wrong. God is filled and overflowing with tender mercy.

The Contrary Way

The world does not follow the broad way to destruction out of statistical necessity, but rather as a function of contagion. Finding the narrow way is not like winning the lottery, as someone had to mathematically, but is rather a matter of learning how to refuse the madness of crowds.

Liars and Their Fruit

Beware of those theologians who separate doctrine from life, especially if their schematic diagram of the relationship of doctrine to life appears to be accurate and edifying. The truer a confession is, the worse it is when it is not lived out. The worst is when the confession that is not lived out is the confession that all truths must be lived out.

Application Foundational

If you know what to do then every witness in heaven and on earth calls upon you to actually do it. We are after the lost art of Christian character, and are mighty tired of the showy performances of Christian personality.

Character withstands the storm, like an oak tree rooted, and personality blows off across the way like a withered oak leaf, no longer attached to the tree.

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1 John: Love

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Introduction

Everyone agrees that love is a good thing, and nobody is against it really. The problems arise when we try to define what we mean by it. For our purposes here, love is what Christ reveals His Father to be like (John 14:9), as that love is mediated to us by the Holy Spirit, shed abroad in our hearts, as He ministers the Word to us. “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5). But even this must be teased out further.

The Text

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:7–12).

Summary of the Text

As believers, we summoned (as in, required) to love one another. The reason for this is that love is of God (v. 7). If someone loves, this shows that he is born of God, and that he knows God (v. 7). A person who does not love does not know God (v. 8). It is that simple because God is love (v. 8). This love of God was manifested toward us when God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him (v. 9). Love is defined, not by our love for Him, but rather by His love for us—as marked and measured by propitiation (v. 10). And if God loved us like that, how much more should we love one another like that (v. 11). No one has ever seen God except as God dwells in those who love each other, and are seeing His love grow to perfection in us (v. 12).

God is Love

We have already seen that God islight (1 John 1:5). We see in two places in 1 John that God islove (1 John 4:8,16). We see it most clearly with love, but we must understand that God is not separable from His attributes. All that is in God is God. It is not as though a certain percentage of the divine nature is love, another percentage is just, another percentage All that is in God is God, and that is in God is holy, holy, holy. We speak of different attributes of God, and look them up under different headings in our Bible dictionaries because of the nature of our little finite minds. But keep in mind that God is a personal Lover, a personal Beloved, and personal Love, all three, and this triune God is the one eternal God.

As Finite Creatures Imitate It

Our love for God is exclusionary because no one can serve two masters. We have already considered what love for the world is, but we must also note what it drives out. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

And if we see, really see, what the Father has done for us, in calling us His sons, we will come to understand why the world is so bewildered by us.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (1 John 3:1).

Love is Obedience

When God loved the world, He did something (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9). So also, when we love we must act. Love is not mere sentiment.

“For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:11).

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:2–3).

Faith in Christ leads inexorably to action. Love your brothers and sisters as though you were not concerned at all about being accused of being in a cult.

“And this is his commandment, That we should believeon the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment” (1 John 3:23).

True Assurance

Obeying an impersonal list of rules is not the way to assurance, but is rather the way to a screaming lack of assurance. Works righteousness and legalism breeds either pride or despair. But the obedience of love is a different thing altogether—it leads straight to assurance.

“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death” (1 John 3:14).

In short, we know because we love.

“But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him” (1 John 2:5).

In short, if we keep His word about love, His love is perfected in us, and this also leads to assurance.

So Love Is More Than Big Talk

“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:16–18).

Bring It Back Around

The apostle John tells us an enormous amount about the love of the Father in this very short letter. Remember, the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and the pride of life remove you from the love of the Father. This lands you in the midst of a tangled cluster of lies. But God brings us to life in His Son through the gospel, and His life is not dark but rather light. Put it all together, and you discover that God has ushered you into His everlasting love.

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:16–21).

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