Faith in Hard Times

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 96:7-13
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Westminster Shorter Catechism, Questions 70–72 (Seventh Commandment)
• Scripture Reading — 2 Samuel 1:17-27
• Prayer of Confession
• Pastoral Prayer
• Hymn — Sometimes a Light Surprises
• Sermon
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

---

Sermon Title: Faith in Hard Times

Scripture: Habakkuk 3:16-19

I. A Faith That Stings — Habakkuk 3:16

A. Habakkuk trembles at the report of God's coming judgment — on Israel through Babylon, and on Babylon itself

1. His whole body, from lips to legs, is shaken — body and soul quiver at God's awesome majesty in judgment
2. This is the response of a man of faith, not of complaint

B. The turning point of Habakkuk is Habakkuk 2:4: the righteous shall live by faith

1. Habakkuk began with two complaints in Habakkuk 1:2-3 and Habakkuk 1:13
2. Faith transforms complaint into trembling reverence before God's judgment

C. The faith that believes in God's stinging judgment on sin is the same faith that rests in His saving mercy

1. At the end of verse 16, Habakkuk says yet I will quietly wait — he waits for God's salvation even as God judges their enemies
2. Habakkuk 3:2: In wrath remember mercy — the same faith that knows God's just wrath also knows His abounding grace

D. The proper order: fear of God's judgment leads to comfort in His mercy

1. Matthew 5:4: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted — mourning over sin precedes comfort in the gospel
2. Illustration: the child who mourns genuine sorrow over disobedience draws the parent to comfort; the child who merely complains about punishment does not
3. The prodigal son must feel the misery of sin before he can be embraced and fed by his father
4. Saving faith is not triumphalism; it is often seen in believing the misery that sin brings — and only then are we ready for the comforts Christ affords

II. A Faith That Suffers — Habakkuk 3:17-18

A. Habakkuk envisions wholesale devastation: fig tree, vines, olives, fields, flocks, and herds all gone

1. Israel was an agrarian economy — this pictures total destitution, starvation, and economic ruin
2. This is the destruction Babylon will bring upon Judah

B. Yet in the midst of this, Habakkuk declares: I will rejoice in the Lord, I will take joy in the God of my salvation

1. This joy flows from Habakkuk's vision of God's majesty throughout Habakkuk 3:3-6 — creation itself bows before God
2. Mountains, seas, hills, and heavens pale before the Lord — what are herds and fig trees compared to possessing this God?

C. The language I will take joy is one of determination, not passive waiting

1. Habakkuk sets his heart toward joy and grasps it with both hands
2. Philippians 4:4: Rejoice — again I say, rejoice — joy is a command, not merely a feeling

D. William Cowper (18th-century poet and hymn writer, author of There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood) spent most of his life in severe depression

1. In 1773 he was admitted to an asylum; he continued to struggle with doubt and assurance
2. In 1779 he wrote Sometimes a Light Surprises, based on Habakkuk 3, expressing joy in God even when fig tree and vine fail
3. Yet God the same abideth — His praise shall tune my voice; while in Him confiding, I cannot but rejoice

III. A Faith That Strengthens — Habakkuk 3:19

A. God the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer's; He makes me tread on my high places

1. The once weak and confounded Habakkuk is now strong and confident
2. The transition from weakness to strength comes because God is not silent — He answers prayer

B. God's answer to Habakkuk is Habakkuk 2:4: the righteous shall live by faith

1. Paul quotes this in Romans 1:16-17: the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, from faith for faith
2. God's answer to Habakkuk's cry for justice and righteousness is ultimately Jesus Christ — the righteousness of God given to all who are united to Him by faith
3. 2 Corinthians 5:21: He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God

C. Habakkuk saw Christ from afar, through types and shadows

1. Matthew 13:16-17: many prophets longed to see what the disciples saw
2. John 8:56: Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day and was glad; Habakkuk likewise sees Christ from afar and rejoices
3. Genesis 15:6: Abraham was accounted righteous by faith

D. New covenant believers have far greater grounds for strength than Habakkuk

1. We do not come to Mount Sinai but to Mount Zion
2. We do not grasp Christ through opaque old covenant forms but receive Him in His substance — Christ for us and Christ in us
3. Romans 8:10: If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness
4. In all hard circumstances, if Christ and His righteousness are yours by faith, you have God's smiling face upon you — take joy in the Lord