Ron Dunn Podcast - A Faith for All Seasons - Part 2

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

We are looking for something to build a longing for certainty. Finding a faith that is certain needs to start with us facing up to things we don't understand about God.

I want you to open your Bibles tonight again to the Old Testament, to the book of Habakkah. And we're going to look at a few verses in the second chapter. Habaca, Chapter 2. He's in there right between Neum and Zef and I. Balloons scare me. I don't like balloons. Never have liked them, still don't like them. They make me a nervous wreck because I never know when they're going to burst.

A few weeks ago, actually a week or so ago, we were getting ready to have a birthday party in our house. My 19-year-old daughter was turning 20, last of the teenagers. And so we were going to have a party. My wife likes to decorate, even I guess when they get to be 40. We'll do the same thing. So the night before, we had these 78 balloons to blow up. And it's very hard for me to sit in the den and watch television with my feet propped up while she's doing all the work.

It's hard, but I'm up to it. But anyway, she let me know that she needed some help in blowing up those balloons. And I just scares me at that blow up a balloon because I know any minute things are going to burst. I don't trust them, and I can't blow them up. And so when I always leave the tail in, you know, when there's long ones, they don't. And sure enough, I thought, well, I'm going to get this one blown up and, boy, it popped. And I just nearly, and then I was in the kitchen right of the table, another balloon popped, and another one balloon popped.

And it just, I feel like an atom bomb is dropping all around. me, I'm just skittish. I'm spooky. That's just the way I am. I don't like balloons. Because if you keep on puffing and puffing and puffing them up, pretty soon they're going to explode. And that's exactly what God says about the unrighteous. In verse four, the Lord is really giving us a picture of the two kinds of life, the two ways of life, the two philosophies of life. He says, behold his soul, which is within him, the King James says, is lifted up. Well, that may be true. The reason it's lifted up is because it's full of hot air. The word literally is, his soul that is within him is swollen or puffed up. It's the idea of something inflating itself, puffing itself up, blowing itself up, swelling, swelling,

swelling, larger and larger and larger, bulging until it comes to the place where it self-destructs. What God is talking about primarily here, of course, are the Chaldeans, that God is going to use the Chaldeans, as we saw the other night. God is going to use the Chaldeans to punish. his people. But even though the people he is using to punish are more evil than the ones that are being punished, God's going to use them. But not to worry, he says to Habakkuk, not to worry, God's righteousness will prevail. In one of these days, the Chaldeans will themselves be destroyed. And all of this that they're doing, victory after victory, plunder after plunder, spoil after

spoil, they're swelling up within themselves. And the rest, really, of the, the second chapter entirely almost with exception of one-two verses is a description of the destruction of the Chaldeans. That's one philosophy of life. That's one way of life. That person who is self-centered, whose world exists only within himself, who has tunnel vision and can see nothing else but what interests him. He is self-centered, self-reliant, puffed up, swollen with pride and self-confidence.

What a picture of our world today. We keep puffing ourselves up and swelling with pride. And he says his soul is not upright in him. His soul is not straight, really, is the word. It's not straight. It's has some curves in it. It's trickery.

It's treacherous. This is a place where a person who is constantly living in self-dependence and self-centeredness. You can't trust him because he is tricky. He is treacherous.

His soul is not straight. It's crooked. But he says the other way of life, The other philosophy of life is this, but the just shall live by faith. So there are two ways of life presented to us here. There is that way of life which relies upon self, is self-centered, self-interested. It is built into an egocentric structure, and it leads ultimately self-destruction. There are within it the seeds of judgment.

judgment and just as surely as the seeds will flower, so surely this person will destroy himself. But there is the other way of life. That is the life that is God-centered, not self-centered. Relying upon God, that is the life of faith. Those who make the circumference and center of their life, God's will, God's power, God's promises. Now, this is a message that Habaca I dearly needed to see. If you weren't with us last time, or if you were and you've already forgotten, let me just remind you that what we're looking at during these sessions in Habakkuk, we are trying to find what has been called a longing for certainty.

There is a longing for human certainty. Is there any place in this world? Is there anything upon which I can build a foundation of certainty? Or is my life going to suddenly disintegrate before me like the Chaldeans? I don't know about anybody else, but sometimes I get very afraid of living. They used to talk about the fear of death, and it's still there, but I think what we're seeing in our day and time is more of a fear of living than a fear of death. Over 600 a day in our country commits suicide.

Others are committing it slowly by drugs and alcohol. We are on a giant hide-and-seek game. We're hiding from ourselves, trying to escape. Why? Because we keep seeing people. Louis Smeds talks about believing against the grain. I like that. It gets hard to believe sometimes.

It gets hard sometimes to keep on trusting and keep on believing when everything on the outside that you can see and feel and touch and taste and hear contradicts everything that God says in His Word. And so sometimes we find ourselves, believing against the grain. And I keep seeing great men and women that I have admired and almost idolized, suddenly seeing their lives disintegrate before them. And I say, well, Lord, is there not anything that's certain?

Is there not anything that's certain? How do I know? How do I know that one of these days my life is going to come unglued? How do I know that someday soon, maybe the nails will start coming loose, and I'll disintegrate, become fragmented. Is there any place we can find? Is there any way we can build a foundation upon which there can be a faith of certainty? That's what we're talking about.

And we said what we're doing is retracing Habakkuk steps. As I said, this book opens with complaint and it closes with rejoicing. Something must have happened in between the first and the last verse to change him from that misery to that joy. That's what I wanted to discover. So we are retracing Habakkuk steps. And we said the first step, I think, in finding a faith that is certain and that will sustain us,

is facing up to the problems we have with God. God does some things we don't understand. And sometimes it is not easy to trust in God, because God doesn't operate the way we think that he does. And so in the first chapter, there's been a dialogue between Habakkuk and God. First of all, Habakkuk speaks offering his complaint and asking his why. Then God answers his why, and that upsets Habakkuk more. And so he comes back with his complaint.

And suddenly, abruptly, he stops. And the second chapter opens with these words. I will stand upon my watch. I will 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 me and said, Write the vision and make it plain upon tables,

that he may run that reads it, 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 fail to show up. Behold his soul, which is swollen, puffed up within him, is not upright. But the just, the righteous man, shall live by his faith. What is the next step?

After Habakkah has voiced his complaints to God and God is answered and then he speaks back to God, what does he do then? In the first verse of the second chapter, the Hebrew text, it will allow for the interpretation of sort of a stuttering. There are indications in it that maybe Habakkah wasn't just calmly saying, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower. There is the indication that perhaps he is suddenly overwhelmed, by the realization that he's been talking to God like this.

Who is he to call God into account? Who is he to ask God to explain himself? Who is he to call God on the carpet and say, you'd better give a good reason for what you've done or we're through? It's almost as though suddenly he's who he is. And the idea is that suddenly Habakkuk says, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will see.

what he will say unto me. It's almost that suddenly he realizes that this is not the time for complaining that sometimes before God can speak, you've got to be quiet. I don't know that God ever shout. I think God may be speaking a lot of times we don't hear him because we can hear even

over the sound of our own voice. And so the first thing, the second thing, I think, in retracing the steps is that not only do we have to face up to the problems that we have with God, but we have to make a decision to put ourselves in a position where we can actually hear God.

I think all certain faith begins with a decision to shut up and let God speak. And it means putting yourself into a position. And there are three words that I want you to circle or underline in these first three verses. I think they sort of outline all of this. The first word is watch. I will stand upon my watch. The second word is in verse two. write the vision and make it plain.

And then in verse three, he says, wait for it because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Now, let me just hurriedly make some comments about this. The first thing Habakkuk does, and in a sense, the first thing you and I must do, he says, I will sit my, I will stand upon my watch, and I will sit me upon the tower.

Now, I don't think this is to be interpreted and construed to mean that Habaca actually climbed a tower. Isaiah uses the figure of being a watchman of the night and it was a common expression, but it's very doubtful that Habakkuk actually and is literally climbing up a tower

and becoming a watchman. But he's using that figure, and it indicates an inner attitude. It indicates an inner submissiveness. He says, I'm going to lift myself above all of these little petty questions that I have and petty arguments that I have and petty complaints that I have and I'm going to detach myself from my own fears and my own confusion

and frustration and I'm going to prepare my heart and still my heart and I'm going to really the second watch there is literally spy I'm going to vigorously vigilantly spy out so that I can see what the Lord will say to me and it's really, literally in me, what he will say in me. He's not saying that God is going to answer in some audible explosion. There have been times when I wish that God had. Do you feel that way? There are times when I am trying to discern what is the will of God. He'd make it so much easy if you just make a phone call to me. I have an unlisted number, but I'm certain he could get it. I wish I used to try to put out a fleece, but I never. I never. I never. I never, I wish I used to

try to put out a fleece, but I never could remember how it went, if it was supposed to be dry or wet. And I think the average Christian is afraid to trust his ability to hear God. To my mind, I believe that one of the greatest needs among Christians today is to trust to trust their God-given ability to hear God speak to them. That's why we're constantly going to others and asking them what we should do. I'm not saying that we ought not to seek counsel and wisdom. I'm not saying that at all.

But I know that many a time a person will come to me as they will to many, and they've got the problem and what they want is you just to tell them what they're supposed to do because they do not trust their own ability to know God's will. But I believe that God having given to us, His spirit speaks within our hearts and we need to understand that God can speak to me just as well as he can speak to anybody else. That's why it always bothers me when somebody comes up and says, listen, God told me that you're supposed to do so and so. Well, I always say, well, fine, I'm glad God told you and as soon as he tells me, well, I'll do it.

that spiritual intuition, we need to, what my wife calls spiritual hunches. I believe that once you and I assume the position of watching and sitting ourselves upon the tower, humbling ourselves, submitting ourselves, that proper attitude of speak Lord, thy servant, hearth, I believe then we have the right to assume that God is going to move into us, and we'll speak within us, and we'll prompt us, and will impress us. Watch. And then write, he said, in the second verse, and the Lord answered and said, Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Now, there is so much discussion about what this means and how this ought to be written

and how it ought to be translated that it's worrisome to try to figure it out. Some say that he's talking about tables or tablets. Others say it was sort of a billboard-like type that prophets, you know, hung their business card on, I guess, or sort of a billboard-like type. And another other say that it ought to be translated that so he that run may, in other words, so that when a person reads it, he may run. It's the idea of when I read this, then it motivates me and I move out and I start running. And then others say, no, it just means that it's to be so clearly stated, so legible,

that even if a person is running, he can watch it, he can read it. And I really don't know which one of those views is right. And usually when I don't know which one is right, I take them both and use them both. But I think whatever it means, whatever the little finer points of translation and interpretation, I think what God is saying is that when I speak to you and tell you what I'm going to tell you, it's going to be absolutely clear. And when you pass it on and you tell the people, you make certain you make it clear enough for them to understand it,

whether they're supposed to run after they see it or whether they're supposed to see it on the run. The idea is that it is to be clearly stated to Habakkuk, and Habakkuk is to clearly state it to the people. It is to be legible. Now, I believe this. I believe that when God says, speaks to our hearts. He speaks in certain terms. He does not stutter. He does not speak to us shrouded in clouds of mystery. What I mean by that is this, that as long I'm facing

some decision, I'm at a crossroads, and I've got to make a decision of which way I'm going. And I don't know. Sometimes I feel all to go this way, and sometimes I feel all to go this way, and I prayed about it, and I read the Bible, and I poked verses in my fingers, and I put out fleeces, and I don't know. Sometimes I think I'm supposed to do this. Sometimes I think I'm supposed to do this. What should I do? Nothing. What do you mean nothing? You don't do anything. Well, I've got to do something. I said, no, you know. what should I do don't do anything if God is ready to reveal his will to you you'll know what it is

as long as there is uncertainty and unrest and a lack of peace in your heart about that thing I think you ought to give it the benefit of the doubt young lady came to me

a few weeks ago on a meeting and it was about an affair of the heart and she thought she was in love with this boy. It said she was, and he was in love with her, but there was a difference in churches. She went to one church, and he went to another church, and there were differences were giving them quite a bit of trouble. And she said, do you think it'll matter?

I said, only if your religion matters to you. If you don't care what you are, if you don't care whether you're Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, whatever, and you take all of this lightly, then I doubt seriously, if that will ever be a conflict in your marriage. But I said, if you take it seriously, and if you do care what you believe and what your children are weird to believe,

then I tell you ahead of time it is going to be a problem and raise a conflict. She said, I know that, and she said, I've been praying, I've been praying, I've been praying, and I don't know what to do. He's asked me to marry him, and I don't know what to do. I'm so confused. I said, then, the only thing I know to tell you is no for now.

She said, why? I said, dear lady, it will be a lot easier later on to say yes than it will to say no after you've already gotten married. You can always say yes. You cannot always say no. I think that when God wants to make his will known to us, he does it in such a way that you could read it if you're running, it is legible, it is clear. God speaks within us. Then the last word, and actually this is the message that I, oh, that was just a runway to get me off the ground. The last word

is wait. This verse is quoted by the writer of Hebrews chapter 10. There it is connected with patience. Wait. Patience. The justice. shall live by faith. What God is saying to Habaca is Habaca, I know right now everything looks dismal, and I know right now you can't make rhyme and the rhythm out of anything that's happening, but just wait, just wait, give me a chance to do my work, it'll all come clear to you, and then he gives him this message. It's in verse four that we read a moment ago, behold, his soul is lifted up, is not an upright in him. But this is the part that we want to zero in.

This is the verse that ignited Martin Luther when Paul quoted in Romans and Galatians. But the just shall live by faith. The just shall live by his faith. That's the answer. It's interesting that God really didn't answer any of a backer. Habakkukes questions, he just said, the just shall live by faith. Habakkukes said, how long, Lord, is this going to go on? The just shall live by faith.

Lord, why do you make me to look upon sin? The just shall live by faith. Lord, why do you use people who are meaner than we are to punish us? The just shall live by faith. It's mighty hard to get an explanation out of the Lord sometimes. What he says to us is this, the just shall live by faith. Now, I want to say two things about that, and we'll put it together, hopefully. First of all, I believe what God is saying to us is this,

that the man who lives by faith is just. That's the first thing I want to say. The man who lives by faith is just. The man who lives by faith is righteous. Now, I know that here in Habaca, Habaca is not enunciating the doctrine justification by faith. That's not what he's talking about. But I think that we have the right to say that since Paul quoted this, verse in Romans 117, when he talked about our being righteous before God, that the just shall live by

faith, and he quoted it again in Galatians chapter 3 when he was talking about the fact that were not justified by the works of the law, but by faith. And so even though Habakkuk, when he originally wrote these words, I'm sure did not have in mind the doctrine of justification by faith, yet he said more than he realized he was saying. He wrote more than he knew he was saying. And when the New Testament writers came along, they interpreted that and applied that in the light of grace. And so what we're saying is this, that a man is not made righteous, a man is not made just by anything he does. He is justified by faith. He is justified by faith.

Salvation from start to finish is a by grace through faith operation. Everything we get from God is by grace through faith. God's grace makes it available, our faith receives it. Now, the interesting thing, though, is when you explain God's side and man's side of salvation, we say, well, God's side is grace, and man's side is faith and repentance. That's the human response. The divine initiative is grace. The human response is repentance and faith, and yet even the faith that the man has is given to him of God.

It's one of those things that I have never fully been able to understand that if a man is not saved, it's his own fault. But if he is, it's God's fault. Have you ever noticed that? Anytime we talk about our salvation, all the glory, all the credit goes to him. But when we talk about a man's condemnation, his lostness, it's his own fault. just like grace, just like faith. God expects us to have faith.

Without faith, it is impossible pleasing. But yet we know that if we have faith, we didn't work it up ourselves. It did not originate within ourselves. It came as a gift from God. He imparted that faith to us. And so if we have it, all the credit goes to him. But if we don't have it, it's our own fault. Because there is a sense in which the grace of God appears to all men

and the capacity for faith, even though marred by the fall, has been given to all men, we will never be able to absolutely level off this idea of what God does and what is our responsibility. I just know that they're both there. I know that it's all of God, but yet I know I have a responsibility. But the man who lives by faith, that's the righteous man. That's the only man who's righteous. Now, I'm going to leave that because I think most of us know it and believe that. What I want to say now is that not only is the man who lives by faith righteous,

but the righteous man lives by his faith. The righteous man lives by his faith. This is the message that God gave to Habakkuk. A stopgap measure, perhaps, just until Habakkuk could actually see things happening. But God considered that all Habakkuk needed. to settle his heart was just this word, the just shall live by faith. I want you to know, first of all, says the just shall live. Oh, that's good news.

I think that must have been mighty good news to Habakkuk because there was violence and murder and crime within his own city, and then the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty enemy, were about to sweep in, and he didn't know if he was going to survive or not. And the first part of the message is, Habakkuk got good news for you. you will live. You will survive. I'm certainly glad God said that because, frankly, there have been times I wondered if I would survive. We sang or played Amazing Grace a while ago, and I talked about it the other day. Amazing Grace is our favorite hymn, and it is. I always, it used to a long time

ago, my favorite verse was the last verse that says, when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun. That's not my favorite verse anymore. Because, I'm not, I'm a very first. I'm Honestly, I've never worried about going to heaven. I have since today I became a Christian. I knew I was going to heaven. Never worried about that. My favorite verse is the one that says through many dangerous, toils, and snares I have already come. There have been times when I wondered if I was going to make it through the toils and snares.

I'm not worried about making it to heaven. I know I'm going to make it to heaven. It's these dangerous toils and snares that I find along the way that I'm worried about. And it's good news to hear God say that I live. I'll survive. I want to say this to you. The righteous, the just will survive. You will make it.

You will. Not long ago, I was preaching, and when I finished, I was standing at the front and talking to some people. And a couple came up to me that I had never seen, and they introduced themselves and said, you know, you pleasantries. And then this woman took my hand and shook it, and she said, it was so good to see you smile. I said, well, thank you very much. Nice to know that somebody thinks I've got a good smile.

She said, no, I really meant it. It was so good to see you smile. I said, well, thank you very much. She said, I mean it. I'm sure you do. She said, you don't know what I'm talking about. talking about, do you? I said, no, I don't. She said six months ago our daughter was killed in an automobile wreck. And she said, I have thought that I would never smile again. And she said,

I came tonight to hear you because I knew that you had suffered a similar loss some years ago. and she said as I sat there tonight, it was so good to see you smile. And I knew then that one day I also would smile again. I think this is what the psalmist means in the 42nd Psalm when he says, I will yet praise him. I can't praise him right now, just to be honest. But I will praise him one of these days. Right now, I'm too choked up right now, I'm too confused right now,

I'm too shattered, right now I'm too angry, right now I'm too hurt. I can't praise him, but I know this. I will praise him again. I will yet praise the Lord. A preacher friend of mine some years ago had a 17-year-old daughter that was suddenly taken ill and died in just a matter of days. A few days after that, he was in his study, and one of the men of the church came in to talk with him, and he was down quite a bit.

And this man said, but, Pastor, don't you still believe in Romans 828? All things will work together for good. He said, oh, yes, oh, yes, I believe it. Just don't ask me to preach on it yet. I think a man may be excused from preaching on that for a little bit. He believes it. God says, Habakkuk the just will live. You will live.

I will yet praise the Lord. Right now I don't see that I can ever praise him again. And when I try to praise him, it's just hypocrisy and the words choke in my throat. But I will praise him again. First thing is the just shall live. And secondly, they shall live by faith. They shall live by faith. Now, what in the world is faith?

I want to just make two little simple statements about it. And I think can sum up what faith is. First of all, I think faith is essentially letting go. Faith is essentially letting go. Letting go of what? Letting go of your plans, letting go of your aspirations, letting go of your fears, letting go of your complaints,

letting go of all those things you're holding onto. It's like Abraham when he cried before God, oh, God may Ishma live before thee. No, no, no. As long as you hold on to Ishmael, Isaac cannot come. unless you let go of Ishmael, I cannot let you have Isaac. I think many a time in our struggles with God and struggles with life, we're saying, oh, God, that Ishma may live before then.

God saying, no, Ishma must go before Isaac can come. It's letting go. Letting go of our pride. Letting go of our right to get even. Letting go of our, and I use that right in quotes, I'm not sure we have the right. Letting go of our right to retaliate. Letting go of our right to defend ourselves when nothing is involved but personal rather than principle or truth.

Letting go. I think the other side of faith is hanging on. The word faith, both in Old Testament and New Testament, with it the idea of reliance, firmness. Actually, two ideas are in the words. One, it's the idea of trustfulness, and that's the frame of mind that can trust. And then it has in it also trustworthiness, and that's the quality of character upon whom you can trust. And I think for the man of faith, a woman of faith, they trust in God, and God, because God is trustworthy, and in trusting in

Him, they become like the God in whom they trust, and so they in turn become trustworthy. Character is built, and so we learn to hang on. As Lewis says, that faith is the art of hanging on to those things our reason once believed in spite of changing moods. I've called it my book Hanging On for Dear Life Faith. I think there is a kind of faith where we come to Jesus initially and it's easy. But then there is that struggle of faith when in spite of every storm, in spite of every difficulty, in spite of every, every circumstance, we hang on for dear life.

And as it was said, you never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light. And so you hang on. the just shall live by faith. If you are just justified by faith, you will survive. You will survive. And you'll do it because you are firmly attached to the God who is absolutely trustworthy.