Ron Dunn Podcast - A Faith For All Seasons Part 1

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

Ron Dunn begins a new sermon series "Believing Against The Grain"

I want you to open your Bibles this morning to the index. I'm serious. I want you to open your Bibles to the index. Every Bible ought to have in it an index. Yes, here's mine. It says the books of the Old Testament. And way over in the third column, you'll find a fellow by the name of Habakkuk. And then it gives you the page number that it's on. I thought that would save us time. It's very embarrassing

to sit in a congregation and when the preacher announces the text, you have to keep thumbing through the Bible and you don't want people to know that you don't know where it is. And so if you ever find Ezekiel, you'll just stay there and pretend it's Habakkuk. Habakkuk is a little book of three chapters. Not much is known of this prophet, but probably it is one of the richest little books in the Old Testament. I want to begin reading with verse 1, and we're going to read through verse 6. Now we'll be reading some other verses in the course of our study this morning, but for right now we'll begin with the first verse and read through verse 6. 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 show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and there are those that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and judgment never goes forth. For the wicked do compass about the righteous. Therefore, wrong judgment proceedeth. Now that is Habakkuk complaining to the Lord. Now the Lord answers him in these next two verses.

This is God speaking. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously. For I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe, though it be told you. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that fair and hasty nation which shall march to the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. I am sorry that Victor did not go ahead with his planned series on grace because I had worked my introduction to my message around his sermon on grace, which he did not preach, which leaves me without an opening.

So I'll just jump in. I'm assuming that in the course of Victor's message, he would have used the phrase, amazing grace. Yes, he would have. Amazing grace. We heard it last night. It is one of the songs that my wife has requested we sing at her funeral, if you happen to be there. And I guess if we were to ask what is the most favorite hymn among at least Baptists. I know we call it our national anthem. It would be Amazing Grace. I do not know of any other hymn that every time I hear it, no matter how many times I've heard it, it's still as though I'm hearing it for the first time.

It is Amazing Grace. And yet, I have an idea that for many of us grace is no longer amazing. As a matter of fact, I think that we have come to expect it and we've come to feel that it is something God owes us. And what amazes us is not grace. What amazes us is judgment and justice. I've had a great many people ask me, why is there evil in the world? I've never had anybody to ask me, why is there good in the world? I've had people say, why doesn't God save the heathen? But I've never heard anybody say, why did God save me? When Paul said that God said,

I have hated Esau and I have loved Jacob, and that gives us a problem. And people have said, how in the world could God hate Esau? But the real question is, how in the world could he love Jacob? I don't have any trouble in believing in hell. I have trouble believing in heaven. But you see, this is the problem. We have come to expect grace and mercy as though it is something

that God owes us. And then when the world starts acting like the world, and evil starts acting like evil, and darkness starts acting like darkness, we're surprised. That's why we so often say, why me, Lord? Why has this happened to me? Have you ever said that? Have you ever prayed that? Lord, why in the world? Why has this happened to me? Jory Graham, the columnist by cancer. And she wrote an article for the Chicago Tribune. And it was entitled, Why Me? And she gets very personal and very honest expressing her anger.

She says, Dear Lord, why me? And knocked that bum down the street. If you're out to get people, she said, why don't you get the really evil people in the world? Why me? The only reason we ever ask why me is because we feel that an injustice has been done to us. And so we have a problem. Habakkuk had a problem. And I think any time that a person is going to live by faith, he's always confronted with problems. If you were to blot out God, you would blot out all the problems. There really wouldn't be any problems, theologically speaking, if we were to blot out God. What gives us our problem is the fact that there is a God.

We do believe that He exists, and we do believe that He is a holy, a righteous, a fair, and a merciful, all-powerful God. And believing that, then when we see, on the other hand, all of the inequities and injustices of life, there's your problem. Either there is no God, or either there is a God and he's not powerful enough to stop it, or either God is powerful enough but he's not holy. Many of you read the book by the rabbi, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Now that always bothers me, but there's something else that bothers me just as much,

and it's when good things happen to bad people. And so you have a problem. And the problem is, how can I have faith? I mean, it's one thing to say, it's easy to say, I'm trusting God and I believe in God. I think there are times when it's easier to trust God than at other times. For instance, I think when Jairus came to Jesus and besought help from Him

for the healing of his daughter, I think it was much more easier for him to believe at that moment than it was later when he found out his daughter was dead. I think there are times when it is far more difficult to trust God than at other times. And so what I've been living with Habakkuk for some time now, and I don't know of a more relevant Old Testament book than this because it's almost I could almost preach what I'm going to preach out of a newspaper because we live in uncertain times

and those things that can be shaken are being shaken and we're seeing the institutions and the mountains that we've always thought were ageless and indestructible we're seeing them disappear before our eyes and what I'm what I'm looking for this morning is how what where can I find a foundation upon which I can build a certain faith because all of us long for certainty we we need a sense of certainty. There has to be something stable in an unstable world. Surely, in the midst of all this uncertainty, there has to be something that is certain. How can I build a foundation?

Where can I build it? I think one of the most significant things about this little book of Habakkuk is it opens with complaining. But if you read the last verse, the last two verses of Habakkuk, verses 18 and 19 of the third chapter, this is how it closes. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon mine hinds. You see, this is a book that opens with complaint and closes with rejoicing. When we first meet the prophet, he is wallowing in the mire of despair and self-pity. He's in the valley of uncertainty and doubt. But when we leave him.

He has somehow climbed out of the valley. And is sitting atop the mountain of praise and rejoicing. Something has happened in between the first verse and the last verse. And whatever has happened there. I would like to know. I would like to know I would like to know so that my complaining can be turned into rejoicing and so what I propose to do in these times that I have with you this week is to simply retrace the steps of Habakkuk and see how he got out of where he was to where he ended up, which I assume is what we all want.

So we'll retrace those steps, and I think we can make the same journey that he made. And as the proverb says, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and so this morning we're going to take the first step. The first step, it seems to me, in building a faith or laying a foundation or discovering a foundation upon which we can build a life of certainty,

of faith that is certain, we have to start, I think, where Habakkuk started. The first thing I think we have to do is to face up to our problem with God. We're going to have to reckon and deal with the problem we have with God. Habakkuk has a problem with God. That's what is confusing him. He opens up and he says, O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear, even cry unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save.

Habakkuk just can't understand. God, I have been crying, I have been screaming, and you haven't done anything. And then after a while, God does answer. And you know, the funny thing here is poor old Habakkuk, he'd been better off if he hadn't got the answer. Here he is crying out for an answer, but when he got it, he was worse off. Sometimes I think we ought to be grateful for unanswered prayer. We don't want to understand everything. And we think, well, if I can just

understand everything, well, then there'll be peace in my heart. But that's not necessarily the case. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Sometimes understanding only makes the situation worse. Since I started traveling ministry a number of years ago, we decided to be better if my wife were to handle all the finances because I'm on the road so much, and she's a tremendous administrator. So to make sure the bills were paid on time, well, she does all that.

And occasionally when I come in, she'll say, do you want to know how much our bills were this month? I say, no, I don't want to know. And she'll say, do you want to know how much we have in the bank? No, I don't want to know. And she'll go ahead do you want to know how much we have in the bank? No, I don't want to know. And she'll go ahead and tell me anyway. And that is one of those occasions where understanding does not bring peace. And this is a case when Habakkuk was saying, Lord, what's going on?

Why are you acting like this? And when God told him, it just made it worse. For he said, behold, ye in verse, among the heathen in regard, and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe. He said, Habakkuk, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do, but you won't believe it. Not only that, but you won't like it. He says, I'm raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation. That's what I'm doing. Habakkuk had a problem with God. And I think the first thing we have to do is to deal with, reckon with, face up

to our problem with God. It seems to me that Habakkuk here, as we do, has a threefold problem with God. First of all, we have a problem of his unexplained indifference. The seeming unconcern that God has, he seems to be blind to the evil that's in the world and deaf to the cries for help because he does nothing. You go back to that first verse when the words open with this, the burden. And of course, that word gives you sort of a, it's a road sign telling you what we're about to hear is going to be something that is dismal and foreboding. He says, the burden, the heavy load which Habakkuk the prophet did see. O Lord, how long shall I cry and thou will not hear, even cry out unto thee of violence.

Now, those are two different words. The first one is just cry, but the second one, when he says cry out, it would be better perhaps translated, I scream or I shriek out. It is a desperate cry born out of desperation. And he says, I scream unto thee violence. It would be like if suddenly we started running out into the street and shouting murder, murder, murder. We're wanting somebody to come and help. Or we shout fire, fire.

We want somebody to help. Habakkuk says that's what I'm doing. How long do I cry out to thee? Even to the point that I run out into the streets as it you don't seem to care you seem to be totally unmoved and then in verse 3 he says why dost thou show me iniquity it's as though God is taking Habakkuk's face and rubbing it into the iniquity he said the burden which the prophet Habakkuk did see, not feel or hear about or know about, but he saw.

And all the way through this little prophecy there is the emphasis upon the fact he is having to see this. It's like he's being made to watch something that is disgusting to him. The other night we were watching this documentary on television, Second Chance, it talks about all the organ transplants. And I faint at the sight of sweat, much less blood.

And I just can't. I had a problem when I first became a pastor because hospitals made me dizzy. And I would go visit members in the hospital and I'd pass out while I was praying for them. And I just am squeamish. And we were watching that the other night and all of a sudden they showed this heart. I mean, right there, showed this heart being taken out. I just had to get up. I didn't want to see it.

Covered my eyes. That's what Habakkuk is saying. Habakkuk is saying, I am so repulsed by iniquity, by grievance, by robbery, by the injustice, and I want to shut my eyes. I want it to disappear. But you're forcing me to see it. I just don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand.

I think we have a problem with God concerning His unexplained silences and seeming unconcerned and indifference. It reminds me of that time when Jesus and His disciples got into the boat to go to the other side, and you remember the Lord went to sleep. And a great storm arose. And it must have been a terrifying one because most of these disciples were seasoned sailors. And it had to be quite a storm to terrify them. But they were terrified. And there was Jesus sound asleep.

And they went to him and they began to shake him. And they said, Master, carest thou not that we perish? I felt like saying that to God on one or two occasions, haven't you? Lord, don't you care that we perish? Sometimes it seems as though God doesn't care. Sometimes it seems as though he is blind to all the evil that's in the world and deaf to our cries. And that's a problem that Habakkuk had. And it's a problem we have to face up to. These unexplained, Jason L. Baxter talks about the disturbing delays of the Lord. But there's a second problem I think we have to deal with and arrive where we want to arrive.

And it's this. We have to deal with this problem of God's unexpected methods. The unexpected ways in which he works. I think one of our biggest problems is this, that we have looked in a mirror and seen our reflection and have said, that's God. We, in a sense, we have created God in our own image, and we superimpose our sense of rightness and fairness upon God, and we think that whatever we would do, this is what God would do. However we would respond, this is how God would respond. But that's not the case at all. And one of our problems is God's unexpected ways of doing things. Now here is Habakkuk saying, Lord, we've got a problem.

And the problem is internal and external. First of all, it's internal because we've got all of these people that are crooked and they're robbing and stealing and the law is paralyzed and even when there is a judgment put out, it's in favor of the wicked. And then, Lord, we've got an external problem. The Chaldeans, the Chaldeans are approaching, they're laying siege to the city. Lord, you've got to do something. If you don't intervene, if you don't do something,

the Chaldeans are going to run us over and we're going to kill ourselves because of our internal sin. God, you must do something. And so God says, all right, I'm going to tell you what I'm doing. Behold, what a marvelous thing, a wondrous thing. I'll tell you what I'm doing, but you will not believe it. He said, I'm raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation. You see, what I think we need to understand is the very thing that God was doing was the very thing that made Habakkuk think God wasn't doing anything. You see, because there was violence in the land and because the Chaldeans were approaching, Habakkuk simply assumed God wasn't working.

He wasn't working. He wasn't doing anything. But the very thing God was doing was the very thing that made Habakkuk think he wasn't doing anything. I'm wondering how many times you and I look at certain episodes in our lives, certain events in our life, and we come to the conclusion God isn't working. And yet if we knew the truth, it's that very thing that God is working at. Sometimes the very things that make us disbelieve are the very things that will make us believe. And we have to wrestle with these

unexpected instruments that God uses. I don't know what Habakkuk expected, but he certainly didn't expect the Chaldeans. And then you notice he says something else. He goes on, and in verse 12, Habakkuk is just appalled at this he says uh are thou not from everlasting oh lord my god mine holy one we shall not die oh lord thou hast ordained them for judgment in other words Habakkuk saying hey wait just a minute lord uh you can't do this because they're the ones that are ordained for judgment not not us. We're the good guys. We got the white hats. God is on our side. Thou hast ordained them for judgment. We will not die. Lord, your character and your covenant makes this impossible. You are holy.

You're of pure eyes, he says, than to look upon iniquity. How can you do this? And Lord, it's the Chaldeans that need punishing, not us. You see, sometimes the things that God actually brings about, not only are they sometimes inconsistent with what we think is his character, but sometimes God just seems really inconsiderate of our righteousness. He goes on to say in that 13th verse,

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, now this is saying, and it's true. Lord, how can you use somebody that is in worse shape than I am to judge me. You're allowing a person to devour us who is more wicked than we are. That doesn't make sense, God. That does not make sense. That does not make sense for God to judge His holy people and use somebody that's worse off than they are to judge them. That just doesn't make sense. It's inconsistent with everything we know about God. But I asked my wife last night

after we went back into the room and I was reading over this again. I said, you know, I wonder how old Habakkuk was when he said this. I tried to find some indication, but as I said, very little is known of the person Habakkuk, really, and I don't have any idea how old he was. But I really need to know just how old the prophet was when he said this. I want to know, was he a rookie in the prophet business?

I mean, was this his first time out? Did he still have all the illusions that youth can have? Had they not been shattered yet? Or I wonder if he was an older man now. I get the feeling that what we have here is Habakkuk discovering for the first time the color gray. Discovering for the first time that everything's not black and white, cut and dried. That not everything has a simple pat answer to it. And I said, you know, I said to my wife,

it's rather unsettling to reach the stage in my life and my ministry and realize that I'm still fighting the same battles I fought 30 years ago. It's rather discouraging at times. I can remember as a teenager trying to preach and starting out and fighting so many problems and all of this, and I would look at older people in the church. By older, I mean 30, 35. They're adults. And I used to console myself with the idea, well, when I reach their age, when I get that old, I'll have all these worked out. Man, I envy them.

Man, I envy them. I can't wait to get to be their age because then I'll have all these problems settled. And the fact of the matter is, I'm not any farther along now than I was 30 years ago. I know more about God, and that's what makes it so bad. 30 years ago, I had a standard that I could almost reach. And the more I learned about him,

I realized how unreachable, unattainable that standard is. And Habakkuk, Habakkuk may be discovering for the first time, what we all discover eventually, must discover, that there is not a neat little answer for every circumstance. There are no quick-fix solutions. Christianity is not a stop-and-go food market.

It's not a quick fast food deal where you just find out the answers like that to everything. It's not always cut and dried. Not always black and white. Sometimes it's terribly gray. And so Habakkuk says, I don't understand, Lord, how you're working.

Back in Christmas, five days after Christmas, somebody introduced me to terror, to fear. We were visiting my wife's mother in Little Rock, and because she already had about six houseguests, we were staying in a motel nearby. It was my wife, my daughter, my son, and his wife. And so on the last night of our visit, about 1230, we went back to the motel. It was my wife, my daughter, my son, and his wife. And so on the last night of our visit, about 1230, we went back to the motel.

And we had left our key in the room, so I dropped all my family off at the front of the motel. They were going to the desk, get a key, and meet me at the room. I drove around to the back to the parking lot and parked the car. Well, I got out of the car, raised the trunk, and took out a couple of little grips to take into the room. And when I turned around, a car with two men pulled up right in front of me.

And the man on the passenger side got out and he said, could you tell me where 13th Street is? Well, I know enough to know that if you're looking for local directions you don't ask someone staying in a motel they're from out of town and so i had an idea uh this was not what it appeared to be so i ignored the man and headed on towards the back door. And then he grabbed my arm and said, give me that bag. And I just instinctively jerked away and said, no, and kept walking towards the door.

And he grabbed me and turned me around again. This time he had a gun in his hand. He said, give me the bag well uh i just instinctively without thinking backed off from me and said no and he grabbed me again and i fell down and all this time his partner in the car was yelling something that i couldn't make out and then suddenly i did make it out he was yelling kill him kill him, kill him. Now, I'm editing this for a Christian audience, you understand. And so about that time I fell down flat on my back. The fellow standing over me shot at me.

And the bullet went off to the right. And suddenly, you know, since he put it that way, I let him have the bags. I didn't know that meant that much to him. But he grabbed the bags, ran back to the car. And when he got back to the car, I was just getting to my feet. And his partner says, Go back and kill him. And so I looked at the door, and I knew I didn't have a chance of reaching the door. And so I just jumped behind the car and tried to shrink, not knowing what to do. But he came about halfway, and then he turned and left. What had

happened, somebody on the second floor had heard the shot, and they'd come to the window and were watching, and I suppose he didn't want to witness. Well, anyway, I don't think I'd ever been as terrified in my life as I was at that time. Somebody said, did you have any great thoughts? I said, no, no, I missed my big chance, you know, to have some, you know, my life didn't flash before me. I didn't say, dear Lord, I'm trusting you. I didn't say, Jesus, into thy hands commit I my spirit.

I didn't have, all that went through my mind was this guy's going to shoot me. I'm going to die in a Holiday Inn parking lot. Later, I told a friend about it and he said, oh, he said, that fellow was, I made a comment about, I'm glad he was a lousy shot. He said, oh, he wasn't a lousy shot. He said, nobody could miss that close. He said, your guardian angel was sitting on your shoulder and deflected the bullet. That sounded all right to me. But I keep remembering a dear friend of mine and his wife who were shot to death in their home a few years ago. And there is a very discordant question that elbows its way into my mind,

disturbing my peace and scattering all my little self-satisfying explanations, and it's this, where was their guardian angel that night? Was I spared because I was holier than they? I know that's not true. They were kept captive for hours before they were murdered, so I know they had a lot of time to pray. I didn't have any time to pray. You have to wrestle with the unexpected actions of God. One last thing, and we are going to put this all together. We have to face up and reckon with our problem of his unhurried purpose.

The fact that God seems to wait so long. The fact that God cannot be rushed. The fact that God cannot be hurried along. Now, I want you to go down to chapter 2, and we'll just read the first three verses, and I'll make a few comments, and then that'll be all because the time is up. He says, I will stand upon my watch. This is Habakkuk now speaking. Suddenly he remembers who he's talking to and he's been a little bit disrespectful perhaps.

And he says, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered and said to me, Write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that reads it. Now look at verse 3. For the vision is yet for an appointed time.

But at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Now a couple of things. God says to Habakkuk, deliverance, the solution to all of this is going to come. It's certain, but it's not immediate. It is for an appointed time. There is a predetermined time, God says, when I'm going to make all this come out even. Right now, there's no possible way. You see, a man of faith cannot live his life in one day. Where we get into trouble is we try to take one day out of our life and look at that isolated from everything else and try to explain everything that happened into that one day.

But you don't live life in one day. You have to see life in its context of all eternity, or it will never make sense. And so he says, it is for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, and that's a very picturesque Hebrew word. It has the idea of panting, of hungering after something, of rushing to something. In other words, I believe that God, in a sense, God is anxious to bring deliverance. I believe that God is anxious to

bring vindication. I believe that God is anxious to put down evil. I believe that God is anxious to redeem His people finally once and for all. And it's like a horse that has to be held back because He's wanting to run when you just want to walk. And that's the way we are most of the time. We're wanting God to run when He is walking. And we have to realize that God's delay is not God's denial. And we have to make peace with His unhurried purpose. But there is one thing. He says, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. And then he contradicts himself.

He says, it will not tarry. He says, though it tarry, wait for it. And then he says, it will not tarry. Some of the other translations make a distinction. They're two different words. He says, it will tarry. In other words, there will be a waiting time. But in the end, it will come.

It will not not arrive is the best way to say it. Though it tarry, don't let that deceive you into thinking that deliverance will not come. Even though today you and I may not be able to make any sense and maybe we can't find the central thread in the fabric of our circumstances you can rest assured of one thing that it will come.

It will come. God's purpose may be delayed but it is absolutely certain. In Tolstoy's War and Peace, he describes one night before they had a great battle with the French. And in that scene, Prince André is going over their battle strategy

the night before. And the Tsar is there, folding and unfolding maps. And the young prince says to the czar is there folding and unfolding maps and the young prince says to the czar will we win the battle tomorrow? and the czar says I think not and the young man becomes all upset

and he said not, not win the battle what will happen to us if we don't win the battle and the czar said we do not count battles there is only one battle that counts and that's the last battle. It is the last battle and the last battle only that matters. And you and I will lose a few battles along the way, but I have confidence that we will win the last battle

and that's the one that counts. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, one that counts. and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.