Address—H. Short
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We sing that our little gym.
And it's #203.
Oh, Jesus 2030 Jesus, Lamb of God.
To us to save from loss.
It's taste the bitter cup of death upon the cross. Verse 3.
Thou wilt our souls sustain our guide and strength will be until when, Glory Lord, above thy face we see #203.
I breathe.
Our Savior.
Shall.
Never hear the modern law.
I don't believe anything about.
Until.
Ignore ignore.
Every grace.
I would like to open first to a verse or two in the book of Acts.
Chapter 20 The first one.
I have on my heart to talk to us is those.
A few Saints of God that God in his grades has.
Seem fair to gather through the precious name of the Lord Jesus, and I would like for each one of us to be exercised in our soul as to our responsibility and that we have having been brought into that favorite place. You know, most of the believers in the world not only are not gathered to the Lord's name, they wouldn't know what you were talking about.
If you talk to them about it in.
It's a It's a good deposit, and God has brought us into and we want to keep.
And that's what's on my heart, to stir up our hearts, to value what the Lord in His grace has brought us into that we not lose it, brethren, because of carelessness in our ways. And so in Acts Chapter 20, I want to just we know the story. How tall had called the elders of Ephesus out to him and had spoken to them and told them.
That they should see his face no more. And he had said that he was going to be going to Jerusalem and that it says in verse 23.
And well, verse 22, he says to those elders, Acts chapter 20, verse 22. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me. They're saved.
That the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
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Then he tells them that they should see his face no more and then down in verse 36.
And when he had and thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all, and they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him.
Sorrowing most of all, for the words which he state that they should see his face no more, and they accompanied him unto the ship. In the verse that I want to call our attention to is verse one of chapter 21.
And it came to pass that after we were gotten from them.
That expression now, what is the setting of this year is that these elders had come out to fall.
At his at his desire. And he had told them that what lay ahead of him was in the Old Testament language. We would say captivity, Paul was going to go into prison, and that they would not be able to see this space no more.
Now the effect of that message, and we don't get it in our translation so much, but it says in verse one of chapter 21 it came to pass. After that we were gotten from them.
There is a note in the new translation that lets us know that that could almost be translated in this way after we had torn ourselves away.
So what I want to point out is this, that when the elders knew that Paul was going to be taken from them, it stirred up their affections for him in such a way that they went and they grabbed hold of him and he had to actually tear himself away from their embrace.
Then in chapter 21 a similar thing takes place as he travels on verse four. And finding disciples, we carried their seven days who said to Paul through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And when he had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way, and they all brought us on our way. Now notice this with wives and children.
Till we were out of the city, and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed. And when we had taken our leaves, one of another, that expression taken our leave, could be translated when we had embraced.
One another when we have embraced one another again, when Paul delivers the message and they prophesied that he shouldn't go to Jerusalem because they're going to lose Paul, he's going to go into captivity.
It worked a work in their heart that when they heard and feared that they were going to lose Paul, they embraced him. They claimed to him.
They did not want to let him go and read him. What's on my heart is to issue us alone.
We are greatly in danger of losing what God has graciously given us.
We're greatly endangered of not valuing what I could refer to as Paul and letting it slip.
Paul could write to Timothy and say keep through the Holy Ghost that your deposit which has been given unto thee and the assembly at Philadelphia, was to hold fast less than others. Hate thy crown, we rather we know it or not.
Have been brought into a tremendously favored place before our God.
Unknown, virtually unknown to all of the Church of God. They wouldn't know what we were talking about, or what I'm talking about this afternoon. But the Lord has gathered your need to His precious name, and if we do not cleave in our hearts, if we do not embrace Paul is going to go into captivity. We're going to lose this favorite portion in what is on my heart, is to turn back.
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With this thought in mind.
Taking our leave, which could be translated, having embraced. Embraced is the word that is on my heart, that you and I might embrace the truth of God that has been committed to us. And I want to go back now to the little brook of Habakkuk in the Old Testament and the reason I want to go back there.
Is that is what his name means Habakkuk means?
Embrace to embrace and it's Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Abaca and Zephaniah. But the little book of Habakkuk Lord has open this little book to my soul and a major in the last few days.
As an exercise to my heart, if I could write over this little book, this is what I would write over it.
The Lord has taken the closet door, Habakkuk's closet door.
Off and let us look inside of this man of God who lived in the days just before Judah was going to be carried away into captivity into ******* like Paul was going to be taken into *******. Judah was carried off by the Talcaldians into captivity.
And this is the exercise of a man of God who lived in those days a remarkable thing about this man.
We don't actually read that he prophesied anything to the people, though. We're told by God, and the Spirit of God tells us what he was to write for the sake of the people. But actually what we see here is God, as it were, opening the closet door of Habakkuk and saying to us this afternoon, I want you to look at this man of God and see the exercises and the values that he had in a day.
When things were being brought to a close in Israel's dispute, when Judah was just about to be taken away into Babylon and the doors closed in Israel.
These are the exercises of the man of God, and rather than by the grace of God, we should cover this man's exercises. And it opens with the burden which Habakkuk the prophet, did see if we're going to take an interest in the testimony of the Lord gathered to the Lord's precious name.
In a serious interest in IT, our lives are going to be full of learnings.
Why? Is it because this favored place, there's no joy in it? No, it's because of our condition in this favorite place. We're so indifferent to the Lord that one who goes to God about the Lord sings, gathered to his precious name is going to have a life of one burden after another. And so it opens in this way, the burden which the back of the prophet did see.
Oh Lord, he said.
I'm going to say too, I haven't noticed that through the Psalms when the Lord is crafted side of prophetically, many, many times you read of him suffering in silence, even an expression like this. I withheld my voice even from good. That is, he had good words to say when he was here on earth, but because of the condition of the people of God that he found himself in the midst of.
He had to withhold even from for good. He hasn't remained in silence. And now Habakkuk looks at the children of God, and he prays to the Lord. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry? And will thou not hear even cry out unto thee?
Of the violence and thou wilt not save. Why dost thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold? He labored under this burden. Wherever he looked around amongst the people of God, he saw disorder and confusion and departure from God. Everything was out of order. And he said, Why have you shown me that anyone who has the desire to go on with the Lord is going to be sensitive to the true condition?
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Of God's people. You know, we have a misconcept of the Lord Jesus. When he was a man here on earth, he was so sensitive to the condition of God's people, he knew. He knew that when one didn't give him water to wash his feet, nobody else may have noticed it.
He noticed it.
He was that kind of a sensitive man, and he knew when one poor soul has been over as the effects of sin have ravaged her life and just touched his garment. He was so sympathetic. He knew of her condition. He knew it. Others went that sensitive and sold them. This dear man of God, he sees all of this condition of God's people spoiling and violence are before me.
And inverse the end of verse 3 and there.
Are that raise up strife and contention as they sound familiar does this are part of what we've come to know in the gathering Strife and Contention?
Why would anyone want to cast in their lot where there was strife and contention? Why wouldn't you? I remember a brother telling me once, just before he left the Lord's table. I just want to rest.
I guess I'm tired of the conflict.
And we're all tired of the conflict. Why do you cast in your lot with the people that's marked by strife and convention? It's because the Lord is there. If the Lord that's there, and that's what's going to keep our souls. We're not going to keep one another. Our souls are going to cleave to the Lord Jesus in spite of who he has there. And you're going to have to go on with me and I'll go on with you.
But we're going to have to do so clearly to the Lord. And so Habakkuk is praying, though he isn't talking to anyone but his Lord about the condition of God's people.
Verse four. Therefore the law is slack, for it could be translated and is translated in the new translation. The law is powerless. What does that mean? It means the Lord's people were in such a state of soul, the word of God had no effect in their life. And so if Habakkuk administered the word of God to their soul, he didn't see a response to it.
The law was powerless. There was no order. There was no government for him.
Word of God, it was not regarded. It had no authority over their lives, does it? Over your life and my life?
And does the Word of God have authority in our lives?
Well then, he says.
Therefore, wrong judgment proceeded.
Now that is prayer.
Now God answers his prayer.
Habakkuk, they said, What are we going to do about this condition of things amongst the people of God? In the solemn answer comes, behold ye among the heathen, look around, look around amongst the nations.
What was he going to see?
In regards and wonder marvelously for I will work in work in your days.
Which you will not believe, though it be told you. For lo, I will raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation which shall March through the breath of the land, to possess the dwelling places.
That are not theirs.
Let us hold fast.
Less than others, peace, are calm. This is not the answer that Habakkuk wanted to hear. No one who is walking in any way with God wants to hear of the judgment of God's people, no matter what their condition may be.
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But the people of God had gone to a state described as without remedy.
And God, says Habathis, look at the nations.
There is a nation out there who is going to come in and take this people into captivity.
Do we think that dragon? Do we really think that we can go on in different lukewarm conditions, state of our souls, and not have a governmental act of God come in?
We can't divide with.
I would like to look at these Chaldeans now a little bit, not so much as a people, but.
As seeking to see principles that form this people and brethren. When we take up with false principles, those principles lead us into the governmental ways of God with us, and may find ourselves removed from the Lord's presence.
In God and his government and brother. When that happens, if I am removed from the Lord's presence, it's to go into confusion. Now that's what Babylon means. Chaldeans were the Babylonians, and Babel was confusing. And so we see here first of all, that they take that.
In that dwelling place that is not theirs.
That is that principle of taking things that did not belong to them. They are terrible in verse 7 and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. That is, they are going to do their own boasting. They are going to proclaim their own glory. They are going to set themselves forward. Are we the center of our lives?
Am I? I was thinking of it yesterday and we we would be taught.
From our our birth, if we have not been raised.
In Christian home.
I wouldn't know how many times I've heard it in my upbringing.
You don't take care of yourself, Henry. No one else is going through.
Am I number one in my life? Habakkuk was not number one in his life.
Number one in his life was the Saints of God. He had a deep concern. We're going to see his response to God's answer to his. If we could say it, it wasn't a complaint to God about the people of God, but it was an honest observation of their condition in the presence of God. And God had seen that condition and this was going to be his.
Discipline upon them.
And they were a people who took that which was not their own and who boasted of themselves.
Verse 8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far, and they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. Here is a demonstration of natural power and strength that cannot be resisted. And rather than when we get careless in our ways, get away from our soul, where do we look? We look around this perhaps to the camp, or to other Christians who who can demonstrate.
That they've got some power, they've got some strength come to meeting and there's nothing there for me, but over here there's everything.
That Chaldeans had everything. They had a very, very strong display of power and force and that which would attract the natural man. That's what will take us into captivity. We don't value the Lord Jesus in our midst, and we're on our way out. Good.
We get to looking at one another, you know?
Solomon's day. The Queen of Sheba could look at the servants of Solomon, and her heart was attracted to Solomon. But we do not in Solomon's day. We're in these days, and when we look at one another, we're certainly going to be discouraged. What is there going to be to attract the soul? What attracts the first man or the natural man?
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Ray of power is not among the goddesses.
But that will take us away. If that's what we value, it will take us away. Better creatures, more activity, stronger gospel outreaches. Here was a great, great display of great power.
And all inverse.
10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the Princess shall be a scorned unto them, and they shall derive every stronghold, for they shall heat dust and take it.
Here is another mark, a disrespect for the Princess.
How is it in our souls? Do we want, rule and order in our lives? Do we despise in the Assembly of God those whom God has said over us in the assembly? We despise them. The Chaldeans did. They didn't regard Princess, they didn't regard those who.
Should have been in a place of authority and have rule they've brought them to ashes.
All the living is a solemn thing for us, isn't it? To be in an assembly gathered to the Lord's name? Because Christ is there, and he can look right down in this heart of mine. And he knows what I think of the authority, and not only of the Lord in the midst, but the Lord has in his assembly. He has elders, He has those he accept.
As as it were, as Princess those who take the leave, do we despise them?
They meant nothing to them. They had a force. They could stand up against these, Princess. They could stand up against these kings and run right over them. And we can do that, and we can.
You may come and entreat me, and you may plead with my soul about something that's on your heart, and I can scoff at you, and I can walk right over here.
Have no authority the power to stop me from doing it, but if I do it, it's going to be to judge me.
We're going to see this rod or these principles that took the children of Israel into captivity.
Were punished by God through their ways.
Well, this refers to the first time the Babylon came against Israel.
And so in verse 11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over and offend.
Imputing this is power unto his God as they had come against Israel. And then I report they left his Judah, but they didn't stay away. Then they came back again and took you to totally into captivity. And we've just gone through and are still probably still going through.
A captivity.
A division where souls have been taken away into confusion. And there was that here, and they went away and left them. But the children of Judah were not exercised about it, and God had to bring them back a second time.
And finish that work that he did not want to do. But they would not repent of their condition, brethren, every one of us.
Have plenty to eat and everyone of us have plenty to hang.
Our heads and shame about in our own lives and our own lukewarmness, our own indifference to Christ. But they didn't use this opportunity.
Judah didn't.
Now record talking to God again when he learned of this governmental act of God upon His people.
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Do you see him now saying, oh, I'm glad, Lord, they deserve, they deserve this. That's not the heart of a man of God. He weeps the closet door back. Its closet door is removed. And we see this man's heart broken when he learns what God is going to do because of the condition of God's people. And he says to the Lord, art thou not from everlasting? Oh Lord, my God.
My holy one, we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment, and almighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
He doesn't want this to come on the Lord's people, we shall not die. Thou art of pure eyes than to be whole, evil, and can't not look on iniquity. Wherefore thou upon them that deal treacherously and hold us thy tongue, when the wicked devour is a man that is more righteous than he? What is he saying? He's saying, Lord, you're bringing against my people your people.
Someone who is more wicked than they are.
Someone who is worse than God's people were the Chaldeans. The Babylonians were no they were not better than the children of Judah. And it breaks Habakkuk's heart to see the children of Judah fall into the hands of those who had abused them so much.
Does it do that to our hearts? When we see someone going astray down a path that we know is going to lead to a governmental act of God in our life, do we step back and say they together?
I hope not, I hope we say to the Lord, Lord.
Don't let them die. Don't let them be consumed by this, these principles, these influences, these things that are really worse than thy people are.
Then he says.
And how he He tells about how the Chaldeans made men as fishes of the sea and creeping things that have no ruler over them. They take up all of them with the angle and catch them, these creeping things that have no ruler over them. Do you have a ruler over you in your life? I'm not just talking about the Lord.
Do we submit rule and authority in the assembly?
Or do we say my will is going to be done? I am said all to do my will. These will take you captive. These Talians took these kind of people captive in their Nets. And then it says in verse 15, they take up all them with the angle. They catch them in their net and gather them in their drag. Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
Submission to authority.
A submission to authority is something that the Lord is going to bring into the life of every believer gathered to the Lord's name, who is there to exercise his soul.
Some I believe are brought into the assembly who haven't any idea of what they're there for or why they're there for. But if you have an exercise as to why you're gathered to the Lords name, submission to authority is one of the things God is going to test you and me on. And if we have no ruler over us, like these creatures of the sea who had no ruler over them.
We're going to be taken into captivity by the principle of this Chaldean army. And so they gather these up who have no ruler, and it says they shall.
Converse.
16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their neck, and burn him sin unto their drag, because by him their portion is fast and their needs plenteous. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to spray the nation? That is, the Italians said it's by our strength. And they were their God.
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In Jehovah was not their God. They didn't attribute to God the giving up of His people. To them, they said we have done it and they worship their Nets, their clever ideas, rather than we can get that way too. We can be our God, we can make our own decisions, we can decide what we're going to do, but we're not going to laugh in a condition like that. We're going to submit to the Lord and His ways with us, or we're going to be carried away into captivity.
Well, he prayed this prayer to the Lord, and then verse one He said, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower, and will watch and see what he will say unto me. And what shall I answer when I am reproved?
He has delivered his heart and soul to God and he says now I'm going to wait for his answer When I am reproved, he's taking it personally. And he realizes this exercise of soul brought him into the presence of his God. And he says I'm just going to wait before the Lord Jesus.
To see what you're going to answer me concerning these exercises of my heart, regarding thy dear beloved people whom I do not want to see go into captivity to such a cruel capture. And rather than we may think the Lord's table is a burden to us, we may think there's ******* here. We may think there's burden here, We may think there's all kinds of ill here. It doesn't compare.
To what the alternative?
For you will be.
If you go away from the Lord in the midst of his two or three, it is a tragic, tragic thing ahead of you. And so that burden tobacco can now the Lord comes in.
To comfort this dear servant of his and he says in 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 carry whether there are roads that lead to places if we take the road.
Isaiah, oftentimes if you take the road to Chicago, you're going to end up in Chicago.
And this road that Judah had taken was a road to captivity and the government of God, a God of government, taking them up in their ways. And it's going to come, the Lord says to Habakkuk.
And he says, wait for it, I will not. Cherry behold, his soul, which is lifted up, is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.
The Lord tells of accurate I know what you've told me about the Chaldeans dispute. I know they're worse than the children of Judah, and I'm going to judge them. But you're going to have to wait. And the job shall live by faith. Do we rather live by faith? Can we see the Lord in the midst of the two or three gathered to His name? It's the only thing.
That's going to sustain our souls as we grow weaker and weaker in our vault to be carried away. And so he has given this precious word that Josh shall live by faith, and they also because he transgressed us by wine. Now God is describing the Chaldeans, and that could be translated. The wine is treacherous. The wine is treacherous, the wine of the Talians.
Is treacherous.
What's that mean? It means brethren, why when you drink wine?
You lose your senses.
You lose your discernment and you're vulnerable and you're susceptible to being carried away. And don't be deceived. It speaks of joy. Don't be deceived by what you see around you. You meet believers every day.
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That are happy in the Lord and probably have more energy than all of us put together here in this room, but you have something they don't have.
You have the privilege of being gathered around the Lord Jesus that we had this very morning. Don't be deceived by things that look better on the other side. The wine can deceive us. And this company, these Chaldeans, they were victims of the wine that was treacherous.
And then it says, neither keepeth at home, who enlarges his desire as hell and as death, and cannot be satisfied.
Is that condition in her heart? Keep us not at home. We think of the scripture that the older women were to teach the younger women to be keepers at home and we say, Will that pertain to the women? No, it pertains to each of us. Do we keep at home? Do we? Are we concerned about our own homes? Are we addressing the conditions in our own homes? Caldians didn't. They were out.
As, as we sometimes say, the grass was greener on the other side. They always wanted to enlarge their borders and they did not keep at home. They did not take care of that country that God had placed it. And God it is, who divided the nations in relationship to Israel. And then the millennial ring which is referred to here, they're going to be sent back to their borders. They're not going to be this enlarging.
That babbling did. They're going to be sent back to their nation. But these didn't keep at home, they enlarged their desire, and they were never satisfied. And down in verse six shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, woe to him that increases that which is not his how long, And to him that Ladeth himself was thick clay.
I like to read this as it could be translated because it's a moral principle that's destroying the people of God, and we don't know it because of our desire to have more than what God has given us. We follow this pattern and it could be read this way. Woe to him that increases that which is not his. How long. And to him they laid himself with pledges for we would call loans.
Showing up shall they not rise up, and suddenly shall exact usury of them?
That is, the interest on these loans that they took out so they could get what God hadn't given them to them would become a tremendous burden on them.
Is a picture of the credit world that we've become so accustomed to living in. And because, and now I wanted to say plainly in the scriptures, there is plainly the teaching of need, borrowing. We may have needs in our lives that we can't meet, and we need to borrow to meet those needs. But this is want borrowing. This wants to be bigger than what God intended me to be.
I'm not going to buy it at home. I'm not going to take the portion from God that God has given me. I'm going to enlarge it, and I'll need to borrow it to do it. I'll need to borrow to do it. That's what the sons of the prophets did in the days of Elijah. They said this place is too straight where we dwell with thee. And so they went out and borrowed and acted, and it caused him great trouble.
Rather than the place where we dwell with the Lord is a small place, but let's not go outside of this place.
And borrowed the principles that others Christians may work with and may get by with, but that are not of God. We can, if we do that, the results are going to bite us. And here they took these loans out, the interest ate them up, as we say, Because thou has spoiled many nations, And verse 8 remnant of thy people shall spoil thee, God is going to judge those that had carried or were going to carry his people.
Into captivity.
Now down in.
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The Lord says.
What profiteth?
You're saying what propheteth graven image. I'm going to hasten on now that the Maker's Earl hath graven it, and the molding image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trust that therein to make dumb idols. Woe unto him that saith to the wood awake to the dumb stone. Arise, it shall teach. Behold, it is laid over this gold and silver, and there's no breath at all in the midst of it. That is, brethren, when we get away from the Lord.
We make something in our life that we trust in instead of the Lord. These made idols in which I haven't made any idols. For I'm saying this if you're away from the Lord, and by that I mean you don't know what it means to trust the Lord for the circumstances of your life and for the sustenance of your life. You're going to be making something to secure yourself and make you feel comfortable in this world.
And the Lord is saying, it isn't going to do it. It isn't going to do it. This is Laodicea, Laodicea said, God said to them, thou art rich and increased with good. Thou sayest thou art rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. I said recently, that's what every one of us want to be able to say. That's our hearts exposed right to us.
Which of us wouldn't like to be able to say I am rich and I am increased with God of goods and I don't need anything? How many of us achieve when when we want something and we can't buy it, we don't have the means to take care of it? And why is the lottery? Why are they growing every day and foolish people pursuing them? They think this is going to meet their needs. They think if somebody gave them a million or 2 million or $3,000,000.
They're going to be OK the rest of their life, and some of us might labor to that end to secure ourselves, the Lord says. If not going toward Those are just idols covered with silver and gold, and they don't have any bricks. A wonderful thing to know, a living God. God is alive, and we may be dead in our soul, but God is alive and we can trust Him.
For everything in our lives we can.
Trust him. He's trustable. We can have our confidence. That is, do you not think he knows every need that you think you have? He does. And not only that, He knows every need that you do have. Because sometimes, better than we think, we have need of things that will destroy us if we get them. And so God says the Lord in verse 20 is whole in His holy temple.
That all the earth keeps before him the other morning when I was walking.
Thought of this principle, brother. His storms were raging in my Buddhism and he said the Lord Jesus, it's all calm up there, it's all calm up there.
The Lord is assuring of the Attic soul, who is in great distress and turmoil as to what's going to come upon God's beloved people. The Lord says I'm on the throne.
That all the earth keep silent before him rather than he can sit at his presence in silence. There's no storm where the Lord is, and there may be storms all around us, but we don't need to be upset and disturbed by the storms around us. The Lord is in His holy temple. Everything is under His control. We don't need to think something. This happened in our lives that the Lord has not allowed to happen.
I don't know what I would do.
I don't know what I would do if I had to say, Howard, that you could do something to me that the Lord didn't allow you to do.
I would just feel frustrated, disturbed, man. You know, everything in our lives comes into our lives by the end of an all eyes and all loving God. And so we can rest here nowadays, that little message that just shall live by faith in verse four. And the Lord is in His holy temple.
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Let all the earth keep silence before him.
Lack of praise and it says a prayer Habakkuk the Prophet upon.
My sigil.
That word I understand.
Its roots go back, and it means a mournful song. Did this make Habakkuk a happy man? No, but it did bring him into the presence of God. Your sorrow didn't leave, and our sorrow will never leave down here, brethren, as long as.
We're in this valley of tears and veiled tears. But now he prays this prayer.
And he says God, and he tells in verse 2O Lord, I have heard thy speech.
And I was afraid. Have we been resting to the Lord bread? And can you and I say to the Lord, Lord Jesus, I've heard thy speech.
And I was afraid, O Lord defies thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years they've gone in wrath. Remember mercy. He doesn't say Lord take away the wrath, but he just says remember mercy. And now he's come to rest in the Lord himself. And he says, remember mercy and revive the work. I like to think of what Paul told him of the rekindle.
Rekindle. And that's what we need, brethren. You need it, and I need it. We need our starter, our heart rekindled.
Revised You know, they they use that word, revival. And that's what we need. We need our souls revived to value what the Lord has done for us. Not just what he's going to do for us, but what he has done for us. And then let's go down, he recalls to the Lord what he had done for his people before and how he had taken care of them before. And then let's go down and.
I must have spent time on it.
Let's go down to verse 17.
Now he's returning to his thoughts about the Lord's people.
And of all the fig tree, there is Israel, you know, when the Lord was here.
He saw that fig tree, and it didn't bear fruit, and the Lord cursed it, and it was withered and dried up. OK, although the fig tree shall not blossom.
Neither Shall fruit be in divine and delayed Doesn't sound like the assembly to heaven.
We we Let's put it this way. When we say the assembly is like a fig tree that's full of fruit and the vines are full and the labor of the olive is abundant, no, that wasn't the condition of God's people. The fig tree was not blossoming. It was not bearing fruit. There was no fruit on the vine. The labor of the olive shall fail and the field shall yield no meat.
The flock shall be cut off in the fold, and there shall be no.
Heard in the stalls. Would you like to be in in the land of Judah and those conditions?
It's like Hannah and taking Samuel at the Shiloh. Would you like to go on up there in those conditions that existed at Shiloh? Yeah, because that's where the Lord was. And I would rather be in this field. I would rather be under this fig tree. I would rather be in this vine with the Lord.
Than the most prosperous place on earth without the Lord. And so he describes this tragic condition of God's people.
Then he says in verse 18, Yes, I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
That's where we're going to have to come to him. We can joy in the God of our salvation. We always have the Lord.
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And brethren, let's not lose sight of the Lord. And then in verse 19, the Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like Hinds. Feet. Does that sound like bonding? You take behind. That's a deer. You you've seen them. That beautiful animal. You know what a a deer. I my my dog that I walk most every morning.
Watch him. He sleeps on the back porch, and at 6:00 he begins whining.
And when I come to the door, there he is looking at the door. What does he want? And I come off, put my washing shoes on and start dumping around, going from me to the door and pulling what he wants. He wants to be set loose. He wants to go and run. And when we go, he runs like behind he's fed free bread. And that's where we are in our soul. If we have the Lord's portion, if not ******* in the assembly, there's nothing to.
Depressing and us in our souls relationship with God we can be like Habakkuk. If we have the faith of this man of God and can trust and see him and take things from him and trust him that all is in his hand and joy in him and the God of our salvation, then we are brought into this liberty. That's the liberty that James speaks of.
The perfect law of liberty, that is, we have a divine nation that not only does the will of God, it delights to do the will of God. It isn't that I feel like I have to do this for the Lord if I get to do it for the Lord. This is what I want to do. That's the law of liberty. That's where Habakkuk was brought in his soul by this faith that had been given him by God.
To wait upon the Lord. And he says this Make our God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hindsight, and He will make me to walk upon high places. Are we going to be robbed of our spiritual portion? Not if we walk with our God. Israel may not have had the fruit on their fig trees to soften their barnyards. They may have been deprived of everything because of their disobedience.
But, brethren, we can walk as men and women of God and not suffer in our soul relationship with our Lord. Are we enjoying the Lord today? Are we content in our circumstances? Or do we think the only way that I can have happiness?
Is to change my circumstances of life. Listen, nothing had changed. God hadn't said. I'm not going to bring the Chaldeans.
He says, I'm going to bring you none of the circumstances that 'cause these burdens and have acted life were going to be taken away. But he believed the Lord and he came to rest his soul on what the Lord had said and trusted the God of his salvation. And then it says.
He will cause me to walk upon my high places rather than we can go as high as we want to go with the Lord. We can enter into the Ephesian truth or whatever. We can go as high as we want to go with the Lord. And then it says this to the chief singer on my string instrument. While the song was a mournful song, Brandon, it was a song according to the mind of God well.
May our hearts be exercised without our own individual faith of soul.
Because it is that alone. It is that alone that determines.
My joy in my Christian life, you can't take it from there and I can't take it from you. It's my own relationship with the Lord that determines the joy I have in him, said the Prince.