Open—Ron Klassen Jr.
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Perhaps we could look together at the Book of Habakkuk, chapter 3.
Habakkuk, chapter 3 and verse 16. And I just want to get a phrase from the middle of the verse, that I might rest in the day of trouble, and then on to the 17th verse. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall the fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat.
The flock shall be cut off from the fold.
And there shall be no herd in the stalls, 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 high places to the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
We enjoyed recently.
Going through the minor prophets.
And I wondered, why are they called the minor prophets? You know, in our conversation, we might say, oh, well, that's a minor detail. It's really insignificant.
And perhaps these prophets felt that at times they were prophesying during the time of maybe we've called the major prophets and much of what they said was not.
Entirely different from what those prophets said.
I just have, I like to hear the thoughts of others, but I just enjoyed that. Perhaps it's because in a large part the Lord was not only working through them as prophets, but He was working in them. And we've often heard, haven't we, that, that the work that the Lord has to do in us is far greater than the work he has to do through us.
And in saying that, I don't want to minimize because we've just heard a word to encourage our hearts to exercise our hearts is to our service and our work for the Lord. And actually, perhaps a good deal of the work that He does in US is when we're seeking to do that work for Him.
You know, you think of Jonah.
How the Lord in in Jonah's that little book he prepares, we've often been reminded for things.
He especially prepares them. Big things, a big fish, but also little things, a worm.
And so although with Jonah, he did have a particular message for Jonah and it was very effective, yet he was also working in Jonah, wasn't he? In a mighty way.
Pick a a being brought to the place where the Lord says, Jonah, are you doing well to be angry and chancellor the Lord? Yes, I do well to be angry even unto death.
We're surprised when we read that because.
It's Jonah probably wrote that who could have written it but him and you know, to be exposed there that.
The the satisfaction of being right was more important to him than if he would rather see 120,000 little children. You know, as we've seen them run around here, we just love them, we delight them. But he would have rather seen 120 of those go to their death and been right.
We can relate to that, can't we? And so the work that the Lord was doing in his prophet.
But to come to this little book of Habakkuk, you know, it is it's, it's just been an encouragement, particularly we've had reference to the year and a half that we've just gone through and how in many ways.
It's it's brought before us that what we say, what we profess to hold, and the Christianity that we profess is ours.
Has been tested.
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And it's made it somewhat vivid as to how little maybe we really do believe it.
And so to come to Hezekiah, or excuse me to Habakkuk, and see this phrase, that I might rest in the day of trouble.
You know, if the Lord leaves us here, I I think we have a sense that we haven't even started.
Feeling what it means to be in the day of trouble.
This book begins with Habakkuk.
Crying out to the Lord. And it's not particularly a burden that Habakkuk was given to go and give to Israel or give to one of the nations. This is a burden that Havoc had and he expresses it to the Lord.
And he says in in the first chapter, in the second verse, Oh Lord, how long shall I cry? And thou wilt not hear, even cry out to thee of violence, and I will not save. Why does thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance, for spoiling and violence are before me.
And there are that rise up strike, raise up, strife and contention.
We know something of that, don't we?
It even comes into the assembly. There are these matters that there's a feeling conviction very strong on both sides.
And we feel it.
Now why does the Lord allow it, and why doesn't he?
Come in and umm.
Help us with that. You know, a verse that's been.
Helped to me and I've seen lived out in this last year and a half is the one in Philippians where it's it's really instructed to an assembly and that is work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Say, well, we've been trying to, but they're just such divergent of thought.
We don't know how to work it out. Well, it goes on to say, for it's God that works in you, both the willing and the doing. And so you know, you have the shipwreck in Acts.
The end of that ship was because the four parts stuck fast, but the hinder part wasn't, and it was being beat by the wind and the waves and finally the ship disintegrated. And I think there's a practical lesson in that.
Each of us as an assembly needs to workout in the fear of the Lord, our own salvation. We can't say well, assembly, so and so is doing this, and all the brethren here are doing this, and we all need to act in unity. Yes, that's what should be our desire and our longing, what we work for. But that's not where we are. And so we need to work it out before the Lord individually as an assembly.
And remember that it's God that works in you. Allow that opportunity.
For God to work rather than to determine something that's going to be like this because it's often devastating in its results.
Verse four. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment does never go forth, for the wicked does compass about the righteous, therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
A while back.
In the highest court of this land.
A new judge was chosen.
And you know, with a sense that there is.
Fraud going on things that cannot be and crookedness even in the lower courts or whatever, but the relief that but that now even if a matter gets to the highest court there, you're going to have a righteous judgment made.
Enjoyed a verse at that time in Job Chapter 9.
I'm going to read it in the new translation.
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Job Chapter 9 and verse 24 it says.
The earth is given over into the hand of the wicked man. He, Mr. Darby, has a footnote. That's God. God covereth the faces of its judges. If not, who then is it?
Something to to feel as you see things crumble and you feel the unrighteousness of things, but you say, well, that there's still something here that you can somewhat count on, that there's righteousness going to be carried out and to see it gets up to this court.
That's not what happens. You stand in a maze.
The faces of the judges were covered.
Well, who did it?
Here we regard a song and you know.
Habakkuk felt that let me, I'll read another verse in in Isaiah 59 because both of these scriptures came to me and it's it's a scripture we know very well, but it's nothing like certain set of circumstances to give us the word of God to stand out. And you say, Oh my, it's not theory anymore. There it is Isaiah 59.
In verse 14, and judgment is turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar off. For truth stumbleth in the street, and uprightness cannot enter, and truth fail.
And he that departed from evil maketh himself a prey, And the Lord saw it, and it was evil in his sight that there was.
No judgment.
You know, it can become a very disconcerting and distressing thing to our souls.
If you look for truth to be carried out, here it is. It's exposed, doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter. And then someone says, well, I can't go along with that. I've got to. And then they become a prey. There's a target on them there. You've got to go along with this. And you know, if our hopes are here, we can become very distressed and in anguish. But they don't have to be here and they shouldn't be here. And so.
Back to Havoc.
Verse five of chapter one, Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days which he will not believe, although it be told to you. That was Habakkuk's answer from the Lord. I'm working, I'm working, he says. Why don't you stop this?
Why do you allow this to go on?
Because I'm working a work, and a work so grand that you're not going to believe it.
Even if someone told it to you.
You know, he goes on. At one point he cries out and he says in verse 12, art thou not from everlasting? O Lord my God, my holy one, Doesn't that make you think of the verse in Second Timothy that says nevertheless?
In all the shaking and all this uncertainty and all this unrighteousness.
Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth that can't be shaken.
What a relief to our hearts, but I think that's what Havoc appealed to.
Lord, art thou not from everlasting? We shall not die.
O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment.
An almighty God, thou hast established them for correction. We shall not die.
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You know.
Each one of us perhaps can relate to the fear. I was thinking of three fears in particular. There's no doubt more, but maybe a reflection of my own soul. One of them is, and we know it's very real, the fear of our health.
And the fear of losing that can be so great that it can give us to pull in, to duck out.
A brother spoke of that one that was given that gift from the Lord, that # and he was to use it for the Lord.
And as he thought about things in his fear, he took it and he put it in a napkin and he quarantined it to keep it safe.
You know the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 12, he that loves his life is going to lose. He that hates his life in this world shall save it until life eternal.
We're afraid, and our brother also remarked on this. We're afraid of losing our freedoms.
You know you can live with. I like to affirm to myself, I can live as a poverty, poverty stricken, but I still would like to be free. I wouldn't like to have.
Where I lose my liberty?
Because of that, again, it's our tendency to pull in.
We don't want to lose what we've acquired.
All these threats of suddenly our money isn't going to be worth anything. You need to invest it. You need to secure it. You need to.
And so suddenly we become very occupied because where our treasure is, that's where our heart is.
And we find ourselves so affected by what's going on here because afraid of losing.
You know, I was thinking if if Paul, as he dwelt there with Priscilla and Aquila, if he got up in the morning and he started out in his service for the Lord and, and they said to him, Paul, stay safe.
You know, I can see him smiling and saying, you don't know that, he says in First Corinthians 15, why stand we in jeopardy every hour, every hour, the next verse he says, I die daily.
Stay safe.
That couldn't be a priority for Paul if he was going to fulfill what God had given him to do.
Well, you know, we've got to be prudent though.
Well, if you would have been standing there at Lystra, outside the city, where they had stoned him and drugged him out, left him there for dead. And you, you saw him begin to move, and then you saw him open his eyes.
And slowly get up.
And then start walking. Say, Paul, where are you going? I'm going back into the city.
We've got to be prudent.
What have you said to him, Paul?
You're putting people at risk.
You know those ones you take with you like Mark and Timothy.
Why? Because they're such a price on your head. You, you, you caused them to be at risk. Is that right for you to put others at risk?
I wonder if he would have said, You know when I said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
I wanted him to tell me.
And he gave me the peace that in pursuing what He wanted me to do, His divine will that I could leave the consequences with him.
And we can.
He said, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.
Against that day.
In verse 14 it says, and make us men as fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them. They take up all of them with the angle. They catch them in their net and gather them in their drag. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net and burn incense unto their drag, because.
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By them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.
Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?
You know, as we look on and we say, why is everyone swayed this way?
There's not a lot of reasoning to everyone, the whole world being swayed One Direction and then swayed the other direction.
You say somebody surely can break out of this. There's a net, there's a net. That's why they're all working in unison. They're being manipulated.
All remember, remember the Lord said, I work or I work.
And it's that.
You know, it says in Ecclesiastes.
That which God doeth his forever, nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken away from it.
And that's what he wants to call our souls, too. And if we realize that we look out on what is happening, what perhaps may happen, that's what's going to lift our souls.
To realize that as difficult as it is God's working a work, he's fulfilling his divine purpose.
And Will, because he has a scene of glory and he's working all things to serve that end.
So in chapter two he says I will stand upon my watch, and will set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
You know, along with this confusion and so much happening, our lives turned somewhat upside down, others worse than ourselves.
There is a lot of noise to accompany that. You want to find out what's happening.
That also can be a great distraction. It will also direct our thoughts here. It will not keep our vision above. But Havoc realized that he needed to get at a tower where he was looking above what was happening, and also he needed to be able to hear what the Lord was saying to him.
Sometimes we can't in the den, but it's so important because.
Lord Jesus.
We've been reminded, surely his coming is near.
Isn't he putting on finishing touches well?
Often suffering involves that we don't do so well.
Dewey when everything is going fine, but when we're shaken from what we've been leaning on, when our roots are started to bring be pulled up and we realize the ground around us in the world around us is very uncertain.
All then he's able to work his divine working and his bride, each one of us. And again, it's so helpful to keep that in mind. You see something that could just distress you to no end or you lose something.
Remember.
God is working a work, A work so grand that we wouldn't believe if someone told it to us.
Well, so he comes to a place of prayer in chapter 3A, Prayer of Havoc the Prophet.
The Lord spoke to him and you know when you read Chapter 2 and it's very exercising, I'm not going to do it, but I believe the reason why he brought up in Chapter 2, he's speaking about the Chaldeans and how they have conducted themselves, we might say the world around us.
It's what's governed it covetousness, idolatry, violence, corruption.
But the sorrowful thing is, is that the people of God are sometimes hard to tell from the world in these pursuits.
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Well, he says now in response to what the Lord has made real to him, he's heard the Lord's voice, He's been able to be on the watchtower and look above the den and strife. And he says, verse 2O Lord, I've heard thy speech and was afraid, O Lord, now notice revive thy work in the midst of years.
Was he distressed at what was going on? Then? No, he wanted it to go on.
Isn't that a whole different perspective for you and I? The very thing that we were afraid of, the very thing that would cause this misery, the thing that made us depressed. Now we realize that that's what God is using in a wonderful way, His work. Yes, the enemy's working, but God is behind it.
And you know, I believe that as he prays here, it's really the spirit of intercession. And that becomes us.
More than ever.
We need to intercede.
For our families.
For assemblies.
And for the lost, as we've been reminded.
The time is short, and you know I've been encouraged by an intercessor of the Scripture, Abigail.
You see her, at the expense of her own life, fall down before a man that was intent on judgment. He had everything. She did it just in time, you might say. And her whole purpose of intercession was that she wanted him to have more when he came into his Kingdom. She's one that loved his appearing, and she didn't want any blood on him. And she wanted all those young men that would have been slaying that day to be saved and go into his Kingdom.
How wonderful if that's, and I believe that if we can get on the tower.
And we, we can look above and realize that God is working to be a communion in fellowship. With that we can pray intelligently and pray that he might have more. We might love his appearing.
Well.
What a wonderful thing to come to to what we read at the beginning. Rest and the day of trouble.
You know there are many souls that are troubled, even our fellow believers.
How good. And that ministry of reconciliation, I believe, very much a part of that.
I've enjoyed to see it in as Israel encompassed Jericho, they, they had the ark of God out front. So as, as those in Jericho looked out, they saw those that had been with Jesus. You might say they heard the trumpet noise that, that the ram's horn that was blown at the, the Jubilee. And so there was a joy connected with what they saw. There was an order in the light.
Marched in order.
There was a confidence, you might say, and I believe that whether our own brethren or whether the world in these days that stands out, that can be such a help. You know, the Lord said right, so that he that sees it will run. And there's a need for that in the ministry of reconciliation.
But this wonderful thing, you know, I being a farmer and coming from a place where.
Drought has.
That's what it's been there at home, and we're preparing in less than a month to seed, seed into powder, dry ground. This verse becomes very real. But those things that we fear again, it's so wonderful to think nothing changed in Habakkuk's life, just his perspective. He came to where of all those things failed. And brother, we don't know what's going to fail.
But of all those things failed.
Here was his study.
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy not just be preserved.
But I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength.
He'll make my feet like Hinds feet. Ah, that's the liberty. That's the liberty that can't be taken away from us. Whatever freedoms, rights or whatever that we have down here that can't bind our feet and give us to walk on high places.
Because, you know, we very little really walk up to our heavenly calling, but this is a recipe to do so, and the Lord wants us to do so.
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And may we fly in grace and strength to even be found.
As a singer in this state.
216.
Lord, we rejoice that thou art gone to sit upon thy Father's throne.
Lord, we rejoice.
And it hurts.
You.
About 217 as well.
What would he say?
You never know what you're saying at the metal.
Oh, I can hear you. We don't want to cry. At the end of the day, it's all.
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Oh.
Maharashtra.
I'm not.