This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Habakkuk” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 12, 1995.

We are reading again this morning from Habakkuk chapter 3. We are at verse 8, reading to the conclusion of the chapter. This is Habakkuk 3, verse 8 and following give you attention to the reading of God’s holy word. Did the Lord rage against the rivers, or was thy anger against the rivers, or thy wrath against the sea? that thou didst ride on thy horses, on thy chariots of salvation.

Thy bow was made bare, the rods of chastisement were sworn. Thou didst plead the earth with rivers. The mountains saw thee and quaked, the downpour of water swept by. The deep uttered forth its voice, it lifted high its hands. Sun and moon stood in their places.

They went away at the light of thine arrows, at the radiance of thy gleaming spear. In indignation thou didst march through the earth, in anger thou didst trample the nations, thou didst go forth for the salvation of thy people, for the salvation of thine anointed, thou didst strike the head of the house of evil to lay him open from thigh to neck, thou didst pierce with his own spears the head of his thrones. They stormed in to scatter us. Their exultation was like those who devour the oppressed in secret.

Thou didst tread on the sea with thy horses. On the surge of many waters I heard, and my inward parts trembled At the sound my lips quivered, the decay entered my bones, and in my place I trembled, because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us.

Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olives should fail, and the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exalt in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he has made my feet like hind’s feet, and makes me walk on my high places, for the choir director on my stringed instrument.

I am determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Pray together. Set before us, O God, set before us well your person and work, and may our consideration be of you and of your Son. May we, Lord, rejoice in this one who has preeminence. May we know that he has come for us, that he has lived and ministered for us, that he has died upon the cross for us, and that he has been raised for us. And Lord, may it be also plain and clear to us that this which he has done for us includes us, that we might live in him. Bless us now, O God, as we give our attention to your word. And may we be profited for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

How do you know a good sermon when you hear one? How do you tell good preaching from not so good, or from that which is outright horrible? The criteria may not be what many think. For instance, good speaking ability, or the ability to put together a fine demonstration of public oratory, does not translate in itself into good preaching. Nor can we say that good preaching is essentially a matter of the communication of personality, or charm, or magnetism, or charisma, that seems to have the ability to attract a crowd, or to attract a following. Nor is good preaching essentially the knack of good storytelling, relating fine, prized, and true evangelical folklore. It is not the act for colorful illustration, much less is it the gift for motivation, that ability to motivate an audience to action, be it ethical or spiritual or even social.

For all these things, the Gentiles seek. And others, while maybe not being Gentiles themselves, don’t seem to know any better. Not that we wish to encourage men toward preaching who simply cannot face an audience, or men who seem to lack almost entirely all rhetorical skill, or men, say, with flat and dull minds who bring no appropriate use of the imagination to their task whatsoever.

But these aspects are more technical matters, more aesthetic matters. And while not unimportant, they do not touch the heart of good preaching. Good preaching has to do with higher things. Take Paul for an example. Here is a man who, by his own admission as well as by the opinions of others, lacked some of those public speaking attributes and skills. But this man did speak about good preaching.

He spoke to the heart of it when he said, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 23, that he preached Christ. A few verses further in that epistle, a text which we have just read, chapter 2 verse 2, Paul goes on, he says, I am determined to know nothing among you Corinthians except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And later in his Corinthian correspondence, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 5, he would say, we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. Good preaching is, first of all, an above-all-else preaching Christ.

It is just such preaching as this that stands, as it were, with Jacob at the Jabbok and wrestles with the word of the Lord as Jacob himself wrestled with the angel of the Lord, until the Scripture text itself offers up its blessing. Think about the Apostle Paul and the way in which he used Scripture. Think about his citation of Old Testament texts. It is enough to prove our point. We witness Paul, for example, bringing the widest range of Old Testament passages to do service to Christ and the Gospel. Colossians 1 verse 17, a text which we cited this morning in our call to worship. In that text, Paul preaches Christ on the background of Genesis 1-1, the very first text in Scripture. as he ascribes creation, nothing less than creation, to Christ and for Christ. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6, a context which we have already cited, sets before us Genesis 1 verse 3, that text which says that God commanded the light to come forth and shine in the darkness.

And what about Genesis 1 verse 26? and Genesis 2.24, the texts that speak about the creation of man and woman. Paul preaches Christ against the background of these texts when he describes for us the love which Christ has for his bride, the Church, in Ephesians 5.

Abrams, justifying faith in Genesis 15-6, anticipates the gospel of faith according to Paul in both Romans 4 and Galatians 3. The story of Sarah and Hagar, something that seems to be so far removed as that. According to the Apostle Paul, in Galatians 4, prophesies the battle between those who are of the works of the law and those who are of the salvation by grace through faith. And what about the exodus from Egypt and God’s provision for the children of Israel in their wilderness wanderings?

These, too, are ultimately about Christ, so says Paul. He boldly states to us in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4, speaking about that rock from which the water came. The rock was Christ. And then, as if there’s no limit to the audaciousness of this apostle, in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 9, he sees the fulfillment and the application and implication of Deuteronomy 20, verse 9, that passage that has to do about not muzzling oxen when they’re treading out the grain, as specifically intended to speak about the financial support that those who preach the gospel are to receive for their service. This man sees Christ everywhere, and he is determined to proclaim Him in his ministry.

Need I go on to cite the seemingly innumerable passages from the Psalms, the wisdom literature, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the prophets themselves that further establish this point. Just one more illustration in order to cap the thing off. In one of the most astounding texts from my point of view, Romans 10, verse 18, where Paul quotes from Psalm 19, verse 4. We all know that psalm.

It speaks about how God’s glory reverberates throughout the whole created order. But Paul takes that verse from Psalm 19 and applies it to the message of the gospel that is going out to the whole earth. We think that that passage is about general or natural revelation. Paul says, no, it’s about redemption and special revelation. It is about the gospel.

If Paul’s letters and his communication in them are, in a genuine sense, then model for our preaching, if his wrestling with Old Testament texts is patterned for preachers today in their own struggles with the Holy Scriptures, then at the heart of good preaching is the proclamation of Christ, and the bringing of every preaching enterprise captive to the obedience of Christ.

Now this is not to say that every sermon will be perfectly obvious in this regard, nor that every sermon will be equally powerful with respect to it. But truly, it is to say the heart of every sermon must beat with the message about Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. It must be with that message about Him, His creational energy, His saving efficacy, and His vivifying immediacy to the benefit of all His Church throughout the ages, by virtue of His eternity with the Father and the Spirit, and by virtue of His vicarious sacrifice and His glorious resurrection. There should be no argument about this here, and truly there should be no argument about this in the Church of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Nor should any of you ever allow yourself to be deceived, regardless of the man’s personal magnetism. Good preaching preaches Christ. Now with this commitment, plainly in hand, we return to Habakkuk. And our question is, how is Christ preached from Habakkuk? How is Christ preached from Habakkuk? We might look first of all to the obvious. And we might judge that the obvious is discovered for us, presented to us, in that third chapter, the thirteenth verse.

Particularly the second line that speaks about the Lord’s anointing. You understand that behind that word, anointed, stands the Hebrew masyach, from which we get our word Messiah. And many have judged that this, then, is an explicit reference to the Messiah, to the coming Christ.

For instance, the translators of the King James Version, if you have a King James with you this morning and you have been reading along in it, you may have noted the way in which they approach this text. They translate the first two lines of verse 13 this way. Thou, being God, thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with, underscore that preposition there, with, Now, get the full force of that, what the translators of the King James are endeavoring to communicate.

Here, in this translation, the Anointed One stands with God, yet at the same time separated from the people who are mentioned in the first line of the verse. And the Anointed One, in the second line of that verse, is in fact then the agent of salvation. That is, the One by whom and through whom God saves His people, the One who accompanies God in His saving activities.

Now, we’re not going to argue with the theology. That’s great theology. And there is tremendous attractiveness to this position, for no other reason than it leads to a straight-up, easily grasped proclamation of Christ from the text. It is also a very powerful point for proclaiming Christ, especially in the context, because you’ll notice that the verse goes on to speak about the striking of the head of a house of evil.

We can see in that a reference to Satan, Ethan. But as well, this approach to the text has potential going for it in that it ties the entirety of the prophecy together in the person and work of Christ. trying to weave the thing together as a whole. Now, if we realize that the coming of God that is now being commented on in verse 13, thou didst go forth for the salvation of thy people, for the salvation with thine anointed, if we see that the coming of God there mentioned in verse 13 is bound to the coming of God announced at the beginning of the prophecy, then the message becomes this throughout Habakkuk’s prophecy. God’s approach in judgment upon Judah and the nations is to the end, that he might save his own people through his Anointed One, whom we know as Jesus Christ. But there is another translation of the 13th verse of chapter 3, in which the reference to the Messiah is not as obvious. Yet I venture to say this translation lends a more complete interest into the temperament of the prophet and the prophecy, and sets before us a fuller proclamation of the person and work of Christ.

The alternative translation is found in most modern versions, such as the New American Standard, the NIV, or the New English Bible. Take one of them, the New American Standard, which we have read from this morning, and here we find the words as we begin in that thirteenth verse, thou didst go forth for the salvation of thy people, for the salvation of thine anointed, rather than with the preposition of.

Here, the people and the Anointed stand not in opposition, but in apposition. That is, they are parallel to one another, referring to the same entity. The Anointed, then, in the second line of the thirteenth verse, becomes a collective noun, and most naturally refers to the people of God as a whole. But still, even given that, The use of the word anointed in this context is quite significant because this is the only place in the entirety of the Old Testament where that term is applied to the people of God.

That is a signal. We need to take note of that. So despite the collective reference then, are we dealing here with something much more than just an alternate way of speaking about the people of God? For instance, could it be that the Prophet is bringing God’s people and the Messiah together in the most intimate fashion, as if the people were themselves included in the Messiah. To speak of the one is to speak of the other.

Now, your first reaction to that proposition may well be negative, quite negative, because it sounds like Both the people and the anointed are in the same situation. Both are in need of an experience of salvation. Both need to be saved. If we see Christ in this passage and along these lines, we might be taken back by this thought. After all, we say, Christ didn’t have any sin. He wasn’t in need of salvation. Messiah doesn’t need to be saved himself. Don’t you see? That is precisely the point.

Habakkuk’s proclamation of Christ at this juncture is so thorough, so deep, so profound, that he sees the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, to be so absolutely identified with his people, that he takes to himself their condition in totality. And it will be by so giving himself over to this identification with them, out of his love and in it, becoming the object of salvation, that he will also become the agent of their salvation.

As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5.21, He who knew no sin became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And how thorough this identification of Christ with his people in the case of Habakkuk himself.

Think of the man and what we have discovered about him. Here is a man at the beginning of his prophecy infected with self-righteousness and self-pity. A man just as likely to hide behind the law as to live by it. Furthermore, here is a man who stands short of New Testament fullness and completion, which shall be found only in and through Christ.” Here is an arrogant, angry man, an incomplete man, yet it is to this man that God comes. It is this man that has made the prophet.

To this man, God comes to such an extent that he enters into this man, making this man’s arrogant and angry words his own. Consider how the process of inspiration at this point parallels the process of incarnation. God takes to himself the anger of the prophet. He takes to himself the arrogance of the prophet, the self-righteousness of the prophet, even as he causes this man to be the instrument of his message.

So great is God’s love. that he does this in the interests of his plan and purpose, and that this man, by such action from God, might be transformed, might be changed. Likewise, Christ enters the flesh of sinful humanity, and on the cross takes to himself our offenses, that he, with all his own in him, might undergo the salvation. that they are to experience. The Christ who needs no salvation undergoes salvation that those who need salvation might be saved. The one who needs no justification, needs no adoption, needs no sanctification, undergoes all of these things in order that those who do need these things might experience them in the full.

Seeing Christ, therefore, in the prophecy of Habakkuk is more than seeing him then in a single text, like Habakkuk 3.13. but seeing him in the totality of the prophecy and even in the prophet himself.

And I trust that you are seeing Christ this morning. Likewise, preaching Christ from Habakkuk, the mans that I preach in as bound out of his love to the Prophet, and to all of us who are like the Prophet, to the end that we in him might be brought from self-righteousness and arrogance and anger, from sin to sanctification, from death to God’s justification in life, from the old to the new, through Christ’s own condescension to know and experience these things, even to the extent of his vicarious death for us, and his glorious resurrection for us. I trust that I have preached Christ to you this morning.

Our Father, we realize that your church is desperately in need of good preaching. We ask, Lord, that our Savior would be front and center in the minds and consciousness of those who would proclaim your word, and that your people congregated would not then be dismissed without having been confronted with Christ from the text. And in our considerations, Lord, may we meditate upon the greatness of your love. So great your love that you take to yourself our infirmities, our doubts, our fears, even our unrighteousness, our sins. And you bear all of this that we might be spared. Father, there is no salvation like this salvation. And Father, we pray that we might then be wonderful stewards of the blessings you have given us. And in exercising our responsibility as stewards, may we do all that we can to ensure that our pulpit and other pulpits in your church throughout the world are determined to know nothing of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.