HABAKKUK has been told by the Lord that he is to be given a revelation which he must write down. He has been told that its execution has an appointed time by God, and is not false. Habakkuk has been told to wait for it even though it may linger - that is take a long time in coming. God assures Habakkuk that he is working his purposes out, whatever the present seems to be saying.

In the rest of the chapter God gives Habakkuk a picture of what is going to happen. God describes the activity of Babylon, and assures Habakkuk that he is in control of all things, and though Babylon seems to be in control in an evil way, it will not be forever, and Babylon, like all evil powers, will be brought down by God.

The thing that is revealed here is that what God is saying to Habakkuk in his time has permenant applicatrion at any time in history. Evil powers will be raised up, but God is over all, and like Babylon evil powers will be brought down by God.

We can divide this chapter up into three sections. The first is the one we are considering in this sermon, which is verses 4 and 5. Then the next is from verse 6 to verse 14; and the last is form verse 15 to verse 20. Each section has a declaration which gives the believing Christian strength and the right way to face all the evil in the world. These declarations are in verses 4b; and verse 14; and in verse 20; and they address the revelation of wickedness in the world and how we can triumph in spite of them. Let us now look at this first section.

GOD'S PERFECT KNOWLEDGE.

In these two verses God describes the character of the Babylonian power being allowed by God to chastise Israel. It is a very searching description. What is important for us to notice is that, in using Babylon to punish Israel, God knew clearly what Babylon was like. Habakkuk stumbled in thought when God said he was going to raise up the Babylonians to punish Israel, but God knew clearly what the Babylonians were like. The truth is that the Babylonians acted in the way they did of their own free will and according to their wicked will. God did not force them against their will. The Babylonians had no conception that God was using them, and believed that their power was invincible. However, although the Babylonians acted according to their own evil will, God was in control and allowed them to act as they did for his own purposes, and then brought them down with judgement according to his sovereign will and purpose.

God did not make the Babylonians act as they did, and God was not responsible for the evil they perpetrated. However, God was in control, and brought into being his righteous will and purpose in his appointed time and way. This is the truth about the world in every age. Nations rise against nations. Nations act corruptly, and evil abounds. The Christian may feel that evil is winning the day, but it is not so. God is overall.

THE DESCRIPTION OF GODLESS ACTION.

In these two verses God gives to Habakkuk a description of the spirit and action of the Babylonians. What we need to realise is that this description fits godlessness whenever and wherever it is found, in the world, and at any time in history.

The first characteristic of godlessness is its pride. God tells Habakkuk to look at the Babylonians and see that they are puffed up with pride, and this makes them think that they can do anything, and that they are above rebuke. This is the truth about all godlessness in our time also, and has been proved true in past history, and will be proved true in the future. Look at Hitler, and Napoleon, and other big figures in history.

The next characteristic of godlessness is that it becomes overcome by excess. This is described with regard to over indulgence in alcohol; but this is not the only sort of excess which overcomes the godless. When we look at our troubled world today, we see excess everywhere. People get drunk with power, and perpetrate awful atrocities. Also they feel that they are above the law.

The next characteristic of godlessness is restlessness. They are arrogant and never at rest. This causes godless people to press forward with their purposes without regard for others, and pursue their ways regardless.

Then there is the characteristic of greediness. God speaks of Babylon being greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied. What an awful picture. Death and the grave is all consuming. It gobbels up everything in the end, and still is never satisfied. It is a vivid picture of godlessness. It is never satisfied and is greedy for more. Having got more, it hungers for more, and the more that is obtained there is no satisfaction, and more is hungered for.

As far as Babylon was concerned it sought to make all nations their own, and sought to take captive all nations. Godlessness seeks to dominate, and overcome, and will use any means available to achieve this end. So corruption and evil creeps into all departments of society.

Such description fitted Babylon, and fits in various degrees all godlessness wherever it may be found. The question is as to how we who believe in Jesus and seek after righteousness should face this truth about the world.

THE WAY OF FAITH.

What is the way to face the godlessness of the world. God tells Habakkuk what it is. The way "but the righteous will live by faith."

This has been proved to be the way throughout the history described in the Bible. What is faith? Faith is receiving the revealed word of God and living in obedience to it, whatever the cost.

So in the case of Abraham, who was accounted righteous in God's sight by faith, faith meant that when God spoke to him and told him to leave his country and travel to a country God promised him, he obeyed, and left behind all the world he knew, to be God's servant. Even when Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his son, in whom was to be realised all the promises of God, Abraham did not hesitate, but took his son and went to the place of sacrifice, built an altar, placed his son on it, and was about to kill him, when God stopped him and provided a substitute to take the place of his son.

Abraham was not moved by all the questions that arose in his mind which prompted him to disobey God, but in perfect obedience, believed God and did what God commanded, and in obedient faith found salvation.

This is where we are told in the New Testament that the Christian life always begins. Paul takes up this scripture here in Habakkuk and tells us that faith is what we must have and exercise if we would be righteous before God. Faith believes God that we have sinned and fallen short of his glory, and that the wages of sin is death. Faith believes God when it is told that there is a substitute who has been provided by God to take our place and suffer sin's penalty, and die the death we deserve, and that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Faith is the way of life. By faith we receive life. By faith we are justified in the sight of God, being accounted righteous in God's sight because faith has embraced Christ our Saviour who has won righteousness for us.

Faith brings us into life, because through Christ we have died to sin in Christ, and have been raised to new life in Christ. Being born again in this way we are a new creation, created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness.

Then being righteous through faith in Christ, we live the life of faith. We live believing the word of God, and living by it, and so our life is hidden with Christ in God, and so in all the godlessness around us, we live each day in the faith that God is ordering our life as our heavenly Father, and having begun a good work in us, he will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ. So come what may in the world, and in our own personal lives, we live by faith in the Son of God who has loved us and given his life for us.