Excel Still More

God the Righteous Creator, preached at KBCF Lighthouse Church on July 10, 2011. Text is from Habakkuk 1:1-11.

There’s this man who was kind of down in the dumps. He had been fired from his job, couldn’t find another one in his field; His savings were dwindling, and pretty soon, he was gonna get evicted from his place.

One day, though, he was looking through the news paper finds a job listing for the Zoo. Didn’t say what it was, just that it required no experience, it paid pretty well, but they really needed someone right away. So he gets up, gets all dressed up ready for an interview and heads on down.

At the zoo, he meets with one of the managers, but then gets some bad news… the manager says that what it is, is, they’ve run out of monkeys, but it was going to be a really busy day and so they needed someone to work as a monkey.

“Sir, I’m not a monkey” the guy says.

But the manager says to him, “Don’t worry, it’s not hard. We’ll give you the outfit, we’ll dress you up properly and everything, and all you have to do is swing around a little bit, eat some bananas and some peanuts, make some monkey noise, and no one will ever find out.”

The guy didn’t want to so it, but the money was good and he really needed it he agrees. So they take him to the back and dress him up, and pretty soon the zoo was open.

He gets into character, starts swinging from branch to branch as the kids and their parents start coming by. He does his show for them, eats the bananas and peanuts that they give him, but within a few hours, after a few hundred peanuts and a few dozen bananas, his stomach wasn’t feeling very good. He’s still swinging from branch to branch, but he gets really dizzy, and all of a sudden, he looses his balance and he falls into the exhibit beside him, which unfortunately was the lion’s den.

He of course starts freaking out and starts to scream, he says “help! help!” and so the lion turns to him and says, “listen buddy, if you don’t shut up we’ll both loose our jobs.”

–

I got that from Ravi Zacharias, a really prolific Christian apologist. And, even though I don’t really like jokes in sermons, I liked the point he was making when he told it, and that was to show the idiocy that is, how many people today think man came in to being… I am talking of course about “Evolution by Natural Selection”. Which is the theory that complex organisms evolved from simpler organisms.

This group of people, who unfortunately make up some of the world’s most qualified and educated scientists, namely biologists, basically think that human beings are no more than complex and advanced forms of monkeys because there’s there’s just a point-something percent difference in the DNA of humans and chimpanzees. We evolved from apes.

The greater implication of their beliefs, though is that God didn’t create humans like the Bible says he does, nor does he create the earth and everything in it… In fact it’s just the other way around… there is no God, and humans created Him to serve some sociological purposes from the past, that today in our modern world is no longer necessary, meaning, this delusion of God and of religion isn’t needed anymore as well.

I’m sure this is nothing new to us… Maybe some of you have even had that experience of someone, after learning that you believe in God, incredulously responds “Really? You believe that fairytale?” I certainly have. But as much as I’d like to spend the next half hour debunking “Evolution by Natural Selection”, the fact that our God is the Creator, is just one part of what we are going to talk about today. Actually, it’s the smaller part of what we’re going to talk about today, because I’m pretty confident that everyone here doesn’t have much of a problem with Genesis 1:1 where it says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

If you do have a problem with it, come see me after the service, and we’ll talk.

Anyway, before we turn to the main part of what we’re going to tall about today though, really quick, in addition to Genesis 1:1, I want to give you, just one non-biblical response to “Evolution by Natural Selection”.

It’s an observation made by Dr. Vikram Singh, who is a professor of applied mathematics at Cardiff University in England. He says this…

“If you look at the composition of the human enzyme, which is the building block of the gene, which is the building block of the cell… The possibility of the human enzyme developing randomly is 1 in 10 to the power of 40 thousand”.

Did you catch that? 1 in 10 to the power of 40 thousand… I can’t even make sense of that number in my mind. Apparently, it’s more than the number of atoms in the whole universe! What this means for us is this: If you look at just this tiny fraction of what makes up up a human being, what you see is something so complex that it is practically impossible for it to have come into existence in the way “Evolution by Natural Selection” says it did. A far, far, more likely explanation for the enzyme, and by extension, the gene, and the cell, and… us, human beings, is that there was a Creator.. an intelligent designer behind it.

So we have a Creator God… That fact, on many levels is really quite easy for us to grasp and believe. What is more difficult to understand though is the nature and character of this Creator God. And this is that part that I want to spend most of our time on today.

Now I say that it is more difficult for us to grasp because you have to understand, that fri. What the Bible reveals to us, God has a very complex character. And that’s only what’s revealed to us, what we can comprehend. The thing is, our tendency when presented with these complexities about God is to oversimplify him… And guaranteed, the most common oversimplification of who God is, is this… “God is Love”.

And yes, of course that is absolutely and gloriously true, the Bible says it so in those exact words. It’s one of my favorite verses… 1st John 4:16, “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

But, there are difficulties that we have to know with even this simplest of all statements about who God is. The first one is this… I can say, “I love my mom and dad”, and it would be quite true… But then also, I could just as truly say that “I love double quarter pounders from McDonalds”. That’s right… it would not cause any confusion at all for a guy to say to his buddy, “I love my wife” and… “I love the Toronto Maple Leafs”. Or for a woman to say to her girlfriend, “I love my kids” and… “I love getting manicures”.

You see what’s wrong here? We have completely lost all concept of what this word, “Love”, really means. All we have is this ideal that “Love” is this wishy-washy emotion that we get when someone or something makes us feel good. Right? All you need to do is watch a romantic comedy and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

The problem is, wishy-washy emotions go away, and soon after we’ll have to find something or someone else to make us feel good again.

And that’s just the first difficulty with this statement, “God is Love”. The second is this. Way too often, just as easy as it is for a person to oversimplify God, that person can also build a whole theology about God based on that oversimplification. Whether they know it or not. Essentially people function – they their lives based on a simplified view of who God is.

Let me give you one example of this, there’s a theologian named Rob Bell who was one of the leading figures in what we call the “Emerging Church Movement”, which 5 to 10 years ago was the way some from the evangelical church responded to our post modern society. It’s not important what they believed exactly… Most of it were true and orthodox, but sometimes it did go a little bit too far. And Rob Bell was one of the reasons for that.

Over the years, despite being largely accepted by the evangelical church in general – even my church’s college and careers group used to watch some of his training videos called “NOOMA”, there has nonetheless always been questions and doubts about his orthodoxy. But then… a few months ago, it became crystal clear exactly how corrupt his theology had become… In March of this, Bell released a book called “Love Wins”, in which he essentially comes out as a Universalist.

You know the “Oprah Winfrey” explanation of what universalism is… Basically, God is at the top of a mountain and there are many paths leading to him.. And so, Christianity is just one of these paths, and it leads people to God just as well as, say, Mormonism or Hinduism does. All religions are equal. All religions are true. And all religions lead back to God.

I bring up Rob Bell and the idea of Christian Universalism because their main problem… What really leads them astray, is the way they elevate “God is love” over and above all other characteristics of God. Just the title of Bell’s book is indicative of that: “Love Wins”. They contend that God, being Love, cant possibly punish people. He can’t possible send people to hell. There must be a way for everyone to get to heaven. There must be a way for love to win.

How do we respond to this then? How do we make sense of “God is love” in light of God the Righteous Creator? That’s what I hope we can answer in our passage today.

–

The last time I preached, 2 weeks ago, we studied the story of King Josiah and the “Old Testament Revival” he initiated during his reign over Judah, the Southern Kingdom in 640 to 609 BC. By that time, the Northern Kingdom, Israel, had already been invaded by the Assyrians as God’s punishment for their apostasy. Basically, since the kingdom split after Solomon’s rule, some 250 years early, there had been a string of evil kings ruling over the North, and thus leading their people astray.

Judah, on the other hand, had ups and downs. They would suffer a couple of evil kings, followed by a couple of bad kings… and so, at the time of King Josiah, they were coming off the reign of 2 of the most evil kings Judah had ever had, Josiah’s own father and grandfather. King Amon, and King Menassah.

Josiah reigned over Judah for 31 years, and during his reign, things were pretty good in. He pretty much undid all the evil that his father and grandfather perpetuated, brought the people of Israel back from apostasy, found the books of the Law in the temple, and returned to worshipping Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Now unfortunately, despite all of the good things that Josiah did, he was certainly far from perfect. This, by the way, is an all too common theme found throughout the Old Testament, where great men of God, despite doing great things for God, inevitably fall in to sin in one way or another.

Just look back to King David, the man after God’s own heart. He not only committed adultery with Bathsheba, but then he also murdered her husband Uriah by having him killed in battle, after finding out that she was pregnant. Then there’s Moses, to whom God entrusted his law. Anyone remember, did he ever get to go into the promised land? Nope. He died on a mountain overlooking Jericho. His punishment for disobeying God’s instructions a few years earlier at Meribah, when he was supposed to speak to a rock, but instead struck it to make water flow out from it. If you’re interested in the story behind that, you can read it in Numbers 20.

But anyway, back to Josiah… in the year 609 BC, Judah was caught in the middle of a war between Assyria, which is THE world power of the day, and it’s ally, Egypt, against Babylon, which is an emerging superpower that had ambitions for an empire of their own.

Now when I say Judah was caught in the middle, i mean that literally. I know its hard to imagine, but the geography of the Ancient Near East goes something like this…

And so, Neco, who was the Pharaoh of Egypt at the time, was trying to bring his army up to up to where the war was. And in order to do that, he had to go through Israel… Cause it was either that or go through the Arabian desert. And Josiah, possibly in order to gain the favor of the king of Babylon, tried to stop Neco, against God’s command, and in the process, he was shot with an arrow during the battle, and he died.

His son Jehoahaz is made king… He was one of the bad ones, “doing evil in the eyes of the Lord”, and so begins, after 31 years of faithfulness to Yahweh, another cycle of apostasy for Judah.

It is during this time, that most Biblical scholars believe that Habakkuk began prophesying to Judah.

Habakkuk, at only 3 chapters, is pretty short, and it is structured based on 2 complaints that Habakkuk makes before God, God’s responses to those complaints, and then a final prayer that Habakkuk offers up to God. What we have in our scripture for today is Habakkuk’s first complaint in verses 2 to 4 and God’s answer in verses 5 to 11.

Let’s read.

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In verse 1, Habakkuk is simply introducing himself. “The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.”

And wasting no time, he get’s straight into his complain.

“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.”

Let me just stop there for a moment and comment on what we just read. What really strikes me about it is how boldly Habakkuk makes his complaint. He is basically asking God, “Why are you just sitting there letting this go on? Why aren’t you doing anything?”

“Why do you idly look at wrong?” is his exact words… And then he uses some pretty strong words to describe what has gone wrong… “the law is paralyzed” and, “justice goes forth perverted”.

Reading this, you really get a feel for the frustration and despair that Habakkuk is feeling about what was going on in Judah. I mean, just imagine his situation… Seeing 31 years of revival falling apart within years of Josiah’s death. It was as if it never happened at all. This was his dreams being broken right before his eyes.

And anyway, why shouldn’t Habakkuk be concerned about this? He knows God to a Just God, a God of Peace and a God who reveals himself through the law. So really, when you think about it, what Habakkuk is most upset about is that God seems to be denying himself, denying his very character, in overlooking the evil being done in Judah.

Little does Habakkuk know God had already started answering his complaint. Let’s read on…

–

“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” … Let me stop here for a second, because this by the way is a commonly misquoted verse. Because usually it’s quoted positively about the great things God will be doing, with little regard for the actual context of the verse… Cause here’s the next part…

“For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans (another name for the Babylonians), that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.

They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.

They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

–

Ok, so, the short form of God’s response is this: God says to Habakkuk, “Actually I already have a plan in motion, I’m doing something incredible… I’m raising up the Babylonians and they’re the ones who are going to punish Judah… For me.”

Can you imagine what Habakkuk must have been thinking at this point? He makes this complaint to God… god why aren’t you doing anything about this? god replies, actually, yah I’m doing something, I’m raising up the Babylonians to do our you…

Next week, we’ll look at Habakkuk’s second complaint, which stems directly from this, God’s response to Habakkuk’s first complaint… But for now, it’s sufficient to say that God’s response is probably the last thing that Habakkuk was expecting to hear.

I mean, I don’t know what Habakkuk was expecting God to do about his complaint. Maybe he thought God would raise up another good king like Josiah to bring revival to the people. I don’t think he was expecting God to punish Judah by having her invaded, and certainly not by those evil Babylonians.

But again, we’ll cover that next week.

Right now, I want to get back to our topic, God the Righteous Creator, and see how this passage informs our understanding.

Earlier I said that the most common oversimplification of God is the statement “God is love”. Unfortunately, the word “Love”, in our society has really lost all meaning, essentially turning into a wish-washy emotion that can change based on how we feel. And then that is especially problematic for the statement “God is love” because what that means then is essentially, God has lost all meaning too. All he is here for is to make us feel good.

I like how Greg Gilbert puts it in a little satirical portrait of what people think of God in “What is the Gospel?”

At the beginning of Chapter 2, he writes this: “You know the best thing about God? He doesn’t judge me. Ever, for anything. Oh sure, I know that deep down he wishes I’d be better – more loving, less selfish, and all that – but he’s realistic. He knows I’m human and nobody’s perfect. And I’m totally sure he’s fine with that. Besides, forgiving people is his job. It’s what he does. After all, he’s love, right?”

I also really like how his summary of the situation a little later on in the chapter… He says…

“A common view of God is that he’s much like an unscrupulous janitor. Instead of really dealing with the world’s dirt – its sin, evil, and wickedness – he simply sweeps it under the rug, ignores it, and hopes no one will notice. In fact, many people cannot conceive of a God who would do anything else. ‘God judge sin?’ they say. ‘Punish me for wickedness? Of course he wouldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be loving’.”

Are we getting the picture yet of what’s going on? The reason, usually, of oversimplifying God’s character to just “God is love” is to minimize his other character attributes, namely his Righteousness, and by extension.. His wrath.

And so that’s why I wanted to cover Habakkuk 1 with you today, simply because what we have here is, God standing up for his righteousness by doing what? By unleashing his wrath on Judah. He’s going doing something so great that you wouldn’t believe it if you were told… He’s going to punish Judah in an incredibly violent way… And that really comes out in how God describes the Babylonians doesn’t it?

(Verses 6 and 7) They are a “bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.”

The wrath and punishment of God is a terrible and horrific thing. And in light of it, you can almost sympathize with people who want to minimize it or completely ignore it in favor of his more pleasant attribute, his love.

Except for this: You need to first understand the wrath of God in order to gain a full appreciation for, and understand the love of God. you have to k ow what the wrath of God is like, to know what the love of God is like.

This that comes out in two ways.

The first is this: One of the ways we know that God loves us is through his wrath.. Through his discipline. It’s just part of our relationship with him. If he is our father and we are his children, then we are disciplined when we do something wrong. Right?

I love this story that my friend Jason, would tell about a small dinner party he and his wife went to. During dinner, the daughter of the couple they were with.. She was about 5 years old, started acting out and kicking the table that they were eating on. And so of course, the mom at first gently tells her to stop. So she stops for a little while but soon enough, she starts kicking the table again, so the mom gets a little more stern and again tells her to stop.

So she stops again for a little while, but then before you know it she’s kicking the table once more, and so this is when the dad comes in. He tells her, “Your mom told you to stop twice already, and you have obey her. Stop kicking the table now or I’m going to have to spank you”, and literally, just as those last words were coming out of her dad’s mouth the little girl swings her leg and smack, hits the table even harder than she had already done before. And so of course, the dad picks her up. Gives her bottom one firm spank, and puts her back down, crying.

They let her cry for a little while but then pretty soon, the dad picks her up, and gives her a kiss on the cheek. And he asks her, “You know why daddy had to spank you right?” she answers, “Yes, its because daddy loves me”.

And this really astonished my friend jay, and he looks over he looks over to his wife, Simone. But she was actually crying too. She was really touched by the moment… Through her tears, she says “That’s exactly how God disciplines us, too”.

Deuteronomy 8:5 says this “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.”

Then there’s Proverbs 3:12, “for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”

So yes, in God’s wrath… In his punishment, we see God’s love. It is the love of a father for his children….

Hebrews 12 goes even further than that. First in verse 7 echoes deuteronomy and proverbs when it says “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”

But then here’s the kicker, verse 8: “If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”

God disciplines those he loves, his legitimate children. And so, it should actually be much scarier if he doesn’t discipline you. It’s what you might call the “passive wrath of God”, and the apostle Paul talks about it in chapter 1 of Romans…

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

Here it is…
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

God gave them up. Much worse than the active wrath of God.. God’s reproof, his punishment which shows what you are doing wrong, is the “passive wrath of God”, God finally saying “Ok fine, you want to be bad? Go on, be bad, I won’t stop you.” There is no hope in that.

So the first thing is God’s punishment is an indication of his love… Then there’s the second thing thing we need to grasp. Understanding God’s wrath helps us understand just how much God loves us. You have to get to know and horror of his wrath in order to get know the majesty of his love.

Christian Universalists really are the most clueless. You know, at least when Oprah talks about her paths to God, it usually has to do with you know, staying positive, and living well, and meditating, or some other ambiguous nonsense. But Christian Universalists continue to believe in the cross of Jesus Christ, while trying to negate or explain away the wrath of God, completely ignoring the fact that God poured out his wrath on that cross..

And so, that violence that God was speaking about in Habakkuk… the wrath that he was about to pour out on Judah, that’s also an image for us of the violence of the cross, a way for us to understand the gravity of the punishment that we escaped from. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

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