The sermon by Jason Dohm explores the book of Habakkuk, focusing on the prophet's burden as a message from God and his duty to deliver it. Habakkuk questions God's silence amidst rampant unrighteousness and receives an answer that God will use the Chaldeans as an instrument of judgment. Despite the Chaldeans' pride and ruthlessness, God assures Habakkuk that they will not prevail indefinitely. Habakkuk is portrayed as a watchman, anticipating God's response, which emphasizes the importance of watching and praying. God instructs Habakkuk to write the vision plainly for future generations, highlighting that divine promises will be fulfilled at their appointed time. The sermon examines the contrast between the proud and the just, emphasizing that justifying faith sustains believers through trials. The five woe oracles in Habakkuk 2 detail God's impending judgment on various forms of sin, reinforcing the idea that what is done will be reciprocated. The sermon concludes with applications urging prayerful anticipation and recognition of God's work, alongside the assurance of enduring faith that justifies and sustains.

Last week we began our study of the book of Habakkuk with all of Habakkuk chapter 1. Habakkuk calls it a burden of the Lord given to him. It's a burden in two senses. One, when God speaks from heaven and reveals to mankind, it's as weighty as it gets. In that sense, it carries the weight of truth delivered from heaven.

Secondly, when God raises up a prophet and puts words in his heart, in his soul, in his mouth, he is duty-bound. It is a weight on him until He discharges his duty to speak those words. So Habakkuk was given this burden, these weighty words from heaven that he's duty-bound to give to the people of God who are in rebellion. He begins by asking God two questions. How long and why?

How long is there going to be silence from heaven given all the unrighteousness that he sees around him? And why is God making him be an eyewitness to all this violence and plundering and strife and contention for the law of God to be brought in contempt when He knows that God can do something about these things. Why is He waiting? God responds to him. God responds that He is raising up the Chaldeans or the Babylonians.

We can use those synonymously. And God proceeds to prescribe how ruthless and prideful the Chaldeans are and will be. And the chapter ends with Habakkuk articulating how puzzled he is by this. Even though he knows that the Judeans aren't righteous, he knows that they're more righteous than the Babylonians. And he marvels that God's plan is to raise up a less righteous people in order to bring judgment upon the more righteous Judeans.

So that's where we left off. Let's ask the Lord to help us. Our God, I thank you for this book. It is good that you are righteous. None of us want to live in a world where the God of it is indifferent to unrighteousness.

But it's great that you are so much more than righteous, that you are also a God of mercy who doesn't treat us as our sins deserve, and that you are mindful of us even with all of our slowness to understand, with all of our sins and remaining corruptions that You have determined the love of people and see them through to heaven. Thank you for this. Teach us today from your word we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, well I'd like to hopefully you have your fingers still in Habakkuk chapter 2.

I'd like to begin by rereading verses 1 through 3 and then developing that. Habakkuk chapter 2, verses 1-3. Habakkuk says this, I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected." Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry." In these verses, Habakkuk gets the response he was watching for.

If you're filling in blanks on the handout, taking notes that way, watching fills in the blank. Habakkuk gets the response he was watching for, if you're filling in blanks on the handout, taking notes that way, watching fills in the blank. Habakkuk gets the response he was watching for. In verse 1, Habakkuk describes himself as a watchman on duty. He's looking out for an expected arrival.

In chapter 1, God has been kind enough to respond to him, and so he's actively anticipating that God will respond to him again. The exhortation for believers to watch and pray is actually a New Testament theme. Jesus says it to Peter in Gethsemane, Peter watch and pray. Jesus uses it in a parable in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus uses it in an end time exhortation.

Believers are to watch and pray. Paul uses it with the Ephesians in Ephesians 6, 18. Watch and pray. Peter uses it in an exhortation to believers in 1 Peter 4, verse 7. Watch and pray.

The point being that we are to pray, we are to call out to God, but we are to also anticipate God entering into that. We are to pray with anticipation. This is exactly what Habakkuk is doing. He is praying in anticipation of hearing from God. He's like the watchman on the rampart looking out for the messenger to bring the message, a response from God.

He cried out to God in chapter 1 and God responded. He cries out again to God at the end of chapter 1 and now He's waiting like a watchman, expecting God to enter into the things that He's praying about. Look again at the end of verse 1. And what I will answer when I am corrected. So he's like a watchman, he's waiting for God to answer him, and then he says, and watch to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected, Habakkuk actually anticipates being set straight." He's articulated in chapter 1 that he hears what God is saying, that He's going to raise up a less righteous people to judge the Judeans, but that doesn't match up with what He knows about a God who can't even look on unrighteousness.

And so He questions God about that, and now He's expecting God to come and to set him straight. He's expecting that God will come and teach him. He's not thinking right about something, and he doesn't attribute the problem to God and what he's like. He attributes the problem to himself and his lack of understanding. He's expecting to learn from God.

The Hebrew word here, translated corrected, is literally rebuked or corrected or reproved. He's expecting to God to show up to rebuke his wrong understanding to correct it, to reprove him, and to teach Him. Isaiah 55 says that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts as the heavens are above the earth. Think about the chasm that exists between the heavens and the earth and how much distance there is. God through Isaiah says, your thoughts and my thoughts have such a chasm between them.

Your ways and my ways have such a great distance between them. I need to pull you up to my thoughts and my ways. Habakkuk is expecting that. He's like a watchman waiting to be, waiting for truth to come to help him to understand the things that he doesn't understand. In verses 2 and 3, the Lord arrives.

The Lord does answer. The watchman gets his messenger and his message. God commands Habakkuk to write the vision and to write it with a plainness which could be read by someone on the move, and a permanency which could be understood by future generations. So understand what's being said here. Write it with a plainness and distinctness so that someone on the move can read it, and write it on tablets.

Write it with a permanency so that future generations will have access to what I'm saying will happen here. Why is that necessary? Well, verse 3, 4, Because the vision is for an appointed time. It tells of a future time appointed by God, a time distant enough that a fixed permanent record is needed. That's what God is calling for here.

He's calling for a fixed permanent record that generations to come can refer back to to see what God has promised to do. It is the fulfillment is out in the future so that it might start to seem like it's never going to be fulfilled. Peter gives us the perfect explanation for the second half of verse 3. Look again at the second half of verse 3. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry." What in the world does that mean?

Though it tarries, it won't tarry. Huh? Okay, so Peter, I think, helps us with this. Listen to 1 Peter 3 verses 8 and 9. 1 Peter 3, 8 and 9, where Peter is addressing people who said yeah They said Jesus is coming back and spent all this time.

He hasn't come back yet. He's never coming back Here's Peter response to Peter's response to that. First Peter 3, 8 and 9, But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." God makes certain promises that are out in time. The timing is only known to Him.

So He's not slack in keeping His promise, but it seems to some as time continues to pass and continues to pass and continues to pass, it seems to some like He's slack in keeping His promise. But God says, I'm not slack, I have my own wise reasons and so often they're redemptive reasons. He's patient with a redemptive purpose and He's not delaying the fulfilling of His promise but He has a wise reason for the time between when he made the promise and when he fulfills it. But all of God's promises are unbreakably sure. That's what Peter is saying in 2 Peter 3 and that's what Habakkuk, That's what God is saying to Habakkuk here.

All of my promises are unbreakably sure. Don't be bothered by the passage of time. It's okay if time passes. It won't come one second late. I've appointed a time and it'll be on time.

I haven't told you the timing, but it will be on time. I have appointed a time. My promise will keep its appointment. All my promises are unbreakably sure. Our text in Habakkuk 2 says, it will surely come.

And all God's people should say, Amen to that. When God says, I made a promise, it will surely come, our hearts should rise up to say, Yes, if I have to wait a week, a month, a year, a decade, a lifetime, you will keep your promise, you are God. In point of fact, it would be something like 70 to 100 years until the destruction of the Chaldeans would be fulfilled. You better write it on the tablet. You better have a fixed permanent record because we can look back now, this promise has been fulfilled and we know how long it took to be fulfilled.

It took something like 70 to 100 years. You need that on a tablet. To verses 4 and 5. Back at chapter 2, verses 4 and 5. God says, Behold the proud!

His soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, and he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell and he is like death and cannot be satisfied. He gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples." In these two verses we have the proud and the just. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, taking notes that way, proud and just fill in the two blanks.

The proud contrasted with the just. This whole chapter is a response to the last verse in chapter 1. So look at the last verse in chapter 1. This is what Habakkuk says to God, God shall the Chaldeans therefore empty their net and continue to slay nations without pity. They just bring in the net of nations.

They take captives like sand, as was said earlier in the chapter, and they just empty it out and they cast the net again. And they empty it out and they cast the net again, and they empty it out and they cast the net again unendingly? Is this what's going to happen? Chapter 2 answers that question. What God is speaking is an answer to this question.

And the answer is a resounding No, they're not going to do that forever. So while the Chaldeans isn't explicitly said in chapter 2, and while there are certainly proud people in Judah, and the things said of the proud can be very, very general and can include even those among the people of God. This is setting the stage for the rest of chapter 2, which is a condemnation of the Chaldeans. The title of the sermon is judgment on the instrument of judgment. In chapter 1, God says, I'm raising up the Chaldeans to be an instrument of judgment in my hand, but I'm going to judge them in due time.

That's what chapter 2 is about. If you look at how the Chaldeans are described by God in chapter 1, it's clear they're a proud people. They scoff at kings and princes are scorned by them. They attribute their power to their false gods. They are the proud people in view here.

God tells Habakkuk to behold the proud. Habakkuk, Look at the proud. Habakkuk, think about the proud. Habakkuk, consider the proud. What about the proud?

The soul of the proud person is not a bright. Does that mean that Christians aren't prideful? I wish that's what it meant. That's not what it means, unfortunately not. But it does mean That if a defining trait is pride, then you have an enslaving trait that will not permit you to extend justifying faith towards God.

Let me say that again. It doesn't mean that a Christian can't be proud. We'll struggle with pride until our dying breath. So don't take this as comfort that you're not going to struggle with pride until your dying breath. That would be a false hope.

But it does mean that if a defining trait in a person's life is pride then that person has an enslaving trait that will not permit him or her to extend justifying faith. There's a self-reliance, a self-sufficiency there that will keep them from grasping Christ in a saving way. This is not the primary point or even the primary application of this passage. But let me take this opportunity to say that this modern gospel which allows you to keep your self-sufficiency And to continue to think well of yourself is not a saving gospel. This modern gospel that doesn't part you from self-reliance and doesn't part you from thinking well of yourself will not save you.

It's a false gospel. Self-sufficiency, self-reliance, thinking well of yourself simply equals pride, and it will keep you from clinging to Christ in a saving way. One of the most helpful verses to me is Isaiah 64 verse 6. We are all like an unclean thing, and all of our righteousness is like filthy rags. So you can get the average guy on the street to happily concede that no one's perfect.

And I'm not perfect. Okay, But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches the things that you're proud of are like filthy rags to God. Your best things are tainted by sin and unacceptable to Him so that you have nothing to offer. Jonathan Edwards said, the only thing that we contribute to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary.

That's true. That's the gospel pill. If you can't swallow that pill, you cannot be saved. The proud is not, his soul is not upright in him. It cannot be.

He trusts in self. He hopes in self. He relies on self. He thinks well of self and it keeps him from trusting in God who would save him. And now the contrast is made, but behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith." Let me start here.

In Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, the just are the justified, period. Amen. So You look from the start of the Bible to the very end of the Bible, you find one song that it's singing, the just, are the justified, are the declared righteous, are the made righteous. Period, amen. Turn to Genesis 15.

So in two weeks, James will take you to the New Testament, to the New Testament writers who quote Habakkuk 2 verse 4, the just shall live by faith. And so James will be back here in two weeks. I'm going, I'm assigned the Old Testament. James will take the new in two weeks. I'm going to Genesis 15, Abraham and God.

By the way, the New Testament writers loved Genesis 15, too. They're always quoting Genesis 15, so I'm really sort of cheating. I can pluck out an Old Testament text and then the New Testament writers and then James won't be able to say anything. Won't be able to say I'm stealing his thunder. Genesis 15 verses 1 through 6.

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, Do not be afraid Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. By the way, this is where we'll end next week, Habakkuk. Habakkuk, I'm your shield, your exceedingly great reward. Actually, Habakkuk will be saying that. God, you're my reward.

If everything else is stripped away from me, you're my reward. God said that that could be true to Abraham in Genesis 15. Verse 2, But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Then Abram said, Look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." Then he brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And Abram believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. So we have a very Habakkuk-like situation. You have a man who has an understanding.

I'm 99, my body's as good as dad. I'm not of the age to be fathering children now. If I haven't before now, I won't now." God says, nope, this servant in your house is not going to be your heir. You are going to father children. And Abram humbles himself under the mighty hand of God that God might exalt him in due time.

He bows before God's understanding of the situation and he sidelines his own understanding knowing that God's thoughts are higher than His thoughts, as high as the heavens are above the earth, and His ways are higher than Abram's ways. So He submits Himself. Verse 6 says, and he believed in the Lord. Did he believe the Lord? Yes.

Is that what the text says? No. He believed in the Lord. His confidence isn't in the message, it's in the messenger. God said it and so it was as good as done to a 99 year old man, yes I will father children.

And God counted it to him for righteousness. Abraham is the just. Why? Because we know of the perfections of Abraham from Scripture? No!

That's not what we know about Abraham or Abraham from Scripture. But what we do know is he believed in God. When God said things that were contrary to his own understanding, He submitted all that and said, God, you're right and my thoughts are wrong. And he trusted in God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Abram was just because he was to justify.

Now listen to this, a proud, autonomous, self-sufficient, Moral life is not being just according to the Bible. You must believe that. The Bible doesn't make sense if you don't believe that. I'll say it again, a proud, autonomous, self-sufficient, moral life is not being just according to the Bible. So believers grow in acting justly.

They must, they should, they do grow in acting justly. But unbelievers are never just according to the Bible. Unbelievers are never just according to the scriptures. What unbelievers see as their good works, their justice, Scripture calls dead works to be repented of, multiple times in the book of Hebrews. Do you understand that?

Unbelievers say, I'm just, I'm moral. And they hold that in their self-righteousness, in their autonomy, in their self-sufficiency, and God says that's not just at all. Those are dead works to be repented of if you would have life. That's why O. Palmer Robertson, he writes the the New International Commentary, That's one of the things that I'm reading.

And I'm finding, oh, Palmer Robertson, who I wasn't familiar with at all, but I'm finding him to be just really sound and very helpful as I read his commentary. He translates this verse, But the justified by His steadfast trust He shall live. I think that's a good translation as I look at the Hebrew words. It's not inconsistent with the Hebrew words. But the justified, The just are the justified in Scripture.

But the justified, by his steadfast trust, he shall live. He trusts and he keeps on trusting the promise maker that he'll be the promise keeper. The same commentator also says this, grammatically this phrase, the phrase by faith, grammatically this phrase more naturally connects with the statement he shall live. Instead of stating explicitly that the justified by faith shall live, the phrase asserts that the justified shall live by faith. Okay, let me say that again.

That's a lot of words. If I haven't lost you, you're doing really well. I think I lost me, and I've read it, and I typed it in. Instead of stating explicitly that the justified by faith shall live, Martin Luther preaching, the justified by faith shall live, this commentator is saying that's not what's being explicitly said. The phrase asserts that the justified shall live by faith.

There is definitely a connection and relationship there, but there are different things. I don't make that point to say that this verse isn't teaching justification by faith alone. The New Testament writers would contradict me if I tried to say that. But to say that this verse teaches that justifying faith continues and sustains the believer through anything and everything. That's what this verse teaches.

Justifying faith continues and sustains the believer through anything and everything. It's good news, it's really good news that you can be justified by faith. Because it means you can be justified. There's no other way to be justified once you've sinned one time. So that's good news.

You can be justified by faith. It's better news that that justifying faith continues and will see you through anything in life because he who begins a good work in you brings it to completions, Philippians 2 verse 6. So Don't be sad that it's not explicitly saying that faith will justify you. Be glad that it doesn't exclude that. It goes beyond that to say that this justifying faith perseveres, it keeps going, it keeps going, it keeps going because God has undertaken to see it through, to see you through.

And it's a faith that will sustain you through. This is what Habakkuk needs to hear. This is the message to Habakkuk. Habakkuk, the Chaldeans are coming. It's going to be disaster for this people.

The faith that has been implanted in you will sustain you through it all. And Habakkuk, That's going to be the centerpiece of Habakkuk's confession of faith, which we've been reciting the last couple of weeks at the end of the next chapter. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7 says, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Here's the exhortation to Abakak here. Walk by faith.

Okay, I'm raising up the Chaldeans. It's going to be disastrous. Walk by faith, you'll be fine. Is it possible that he'll die at the hands of the Chaldeans? Is that the worst thing?

Don't fear the one who can kill the body. Fear the one who can kill the body and then cast your soul into hell or take you to heaven. Fear God. So does steadfast trust join us to the work of Jesus Christ and justify us? Yes, but it does more than that.

It carries you. It continues in you to sustain you and strengthen you even in the worst of life circumstances. All of the worst of the circumstances in your life will come to you right from the hand of God who gives faith to sustain you in it. And honestly, it doesn't matter at all what happens to you in this life from this standpoint. All of our trials aren't worthy to be compared with the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.

They're not even worthy to be compared. Whatever the worst set of circumstances that will be brought into the life of anyone who's listening to this sermon, whatever those circumstances are, the worst of the whole group, maybe we have 100 people, the worst of 100 lifetimes will not be worthy to be compared with the glory and the joy that God has prepared for every single one of us. This is glorious truth. Glorious truth is laid out here in the book of Habakkuk. Finally in verse 5, God returns to speaking about the proud.

Let me read it again, verse 5. Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, this is the proud, he is a proud man and he does not stay at home because he enlarges his desire as hell and he is like death and cannot be satisfied. He gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples." This speaks to the insatiable desire of the proud person. Their appetite is never satisfied. Enough is never enough for the proud person and this is expressed at a national level.

This will be true of the whole people together. They'll swallow up one nation, they won't be satisfied, they'll swallow up another nation, they won't be satisfied, they have an insatiable appetite for more. Now verses 6 through 20. These are what many of the commentators call five woe oracles. W-O-E.

Woe unto you. Five woe oracles. So here's the structure. We have five groupings of three verses. So three verses as a group followed by another three verses as a group and five successions of that, five groups of three verses each of them having a woe.

What is a woe oracle? Well, it has two components to it. The first component is an indictment against a form of rebellion, naming the sin. As a part of any woe oracle is a naming of the sin. It's like a legal indictment charging you.

Secondly is an urgent warning of impending judgment. Because of the sin that's named, God is bringing judgment down on your head. Those are the components of a woe oracle. So let's look at the first set of three, verses 6, 7, and 8. I'll read it and then comment on it.

And if you're watching your watch, you know I can't spend much time on any of the woe oracles. So verses 6, 7, and 8, follow along as I read. Will not all these take up a proverb against him and a taunting riddle against him and say, woe to him who increases what is not his, how long, and to him who loads himself with many pledges. Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you, and you will become their booty?

Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city and all who dwell in it." This is the woe against increasing what isn't yours. So it's a naming of the sin, increasing what isn't yours, plundering, and then it's a dramatic urgent warning, an impending judgment to come down on the head of people who sin in that way. The point is that peoples will take up a reproach against them saying of the Chaldeans what Habakkuk said of Judah, how long? Okay, so what's being said here is that as Habakkuk cried out for justice against the sin that he was witnessing in Judah, the nations that have been plundered by the Chaldeans will cry out to justice from heaven and say, How long, God, will you be silent forever? And the point is that they will be next in line for God's dealings with rebels.

They were used as an instrument to judge sinful Judah, and now others will be used as instruments to judge their sin. They're next in line for God's dealings. And in the end, what they did will be done to them. They plundered, they will be plundered. They shed blood to take what belonged to others, others will shed their blood to take what now belongs to them.

The woe against increasing what isn't yours. What you did will be done to you. You plunder, you will be plundered. You shed blood to get what wasn't yours, someone will shed your blood to take what belongs to you. The second woe oracle in verses 9-11, 9, 10, 11.

Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of disaster, you give shameful counsel to your house, cutting off many peoples and sin against your soul. For The stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the timbers will answer it. This is the woe against coveting ill-gotten gain. The woe against coveting ill-gotten gain. The idea is that they desired and then acquired ill-gotten gain.

They coveted it and then they took it. And their intent was to take that gain to set themselves above disaster. Look again at verse 9. Verse 9 really says it all. Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may build a nest for himself at the top of the highest tree, above the reach of any other predators, that he may be delivered from the power of disaster.

So the idea is heaping up ill-gotten gain to be able to use that gain to put yourself beyond the reach of disaster. Listen to Proverbs 18 verse 11. Proverbs 18 verse 11. The rich man's wealth is his strong city. It's like building a nest in the highest tree.

The rich man's wealth is his strong city. And like a high wall in his own esteem, my wealth will keep disaster back. It's not true. It's not true. God can bring disaster on rebels no matter where they build their nest.

They are never beyond His reach. They build a house with their ill-gotten gain to insulate themselves from trouble, but the stones and beams know what you did and they cry out against you. You build the house away from disaster, but the house that you built knows what you did to get the stones and the beams. And they cry out for justice. And God, sooner or later, will always deliver justice.

Now I want to give attention to a phrase in verse 10. You quote sin against your soul. We often think, and it's right to do this, to think about how sin impacts other people. It's always impacting other people. But Here, it's made clear that the person you hurt most, and you can hurt people in tremendous ways, but the person you hurt the most is you when you sin.

When you live in rebellion against God, no matter how many and how much you are hurting other people. You're sinning against your soul. You're destroying your soul. You can never destroy someone else's soul, but you're killing your own soul. Sin is soul destroying activity.

Sin is soul destroying activity. And you can hurt other people in hundreds of tremendously horrific ways. You can change and scar other people forever, but you can't destroy their soul. You're killing your soul with your sins. It Should just make us think of Christ how happy we should be that he stopped our soul destroying And he he paid the price for those sins so that our souls don't have to be destroyed The third group of three verses 12 through 14 12 through 14 follow along Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity.

Behold, it is not of the Lord of hosts that the people... Excuse me, verse 13. Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people's labor to feed the fire, and nations weary themselves in vain? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." This is the woe against building towns and cities with bloodshed and sin. The woe against building towns and cities with bloodshed and sin.

The idea is the establishing of a kingdom with violence and wrongdoing. It's the kingdom of man. And establishing it with violence, force, wrongdoing. This is the polar opposite of seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. That's what Jesus tells us to do in Matthew 6, verse 33.

Believers build His kingdom. They prioritize. They seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and then God gives them all that they need. He provides all that's needed. Unbelievers build their own kingdom and they just feed a fire in vain.

Have you ever fed a fire? The fire always wins. It doesn't matter how big the wood pile, The fire will consume it all and then be waiting for one more piece of wood than you have. It is a labor in vain to feed a fire. This is the point.

Listen. God has a kingdom that is going to prevail. You can build the kingdom of man, it's like feeding a fire. It'll always take one more than you have. No matter how much you have, it'll take one more and then one more and then one more and infinity.

But Christ's church stands on a rock and not even the gates of hell will prevail against her. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Brothers and sister, Turkey belongs to Jesus. It's 99.8% Islamic, but in Turkey, the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover them like the waters cover the sea, completely covering them. In the end, all the nations of the Lord will know, all the nations of Earth will know the glory of the Lord.

That verse deserves so much more. Let's keep moving. The fourth woe oracle is verses 15, 16, and 17. Follow along. 15, 16, and 17.

Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk, that you may look on his nakedness. You are filled with shame instead of glory. You also drink and be exposed as uncircumcised. The cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned against you, and utter shame will be on your glory. For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you, and the plunder of beasts which made them afraid because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city, and all who dwell in it." This is the woe against exploiting your neighbor with intoxicants.

The woe against exploiting your neighbor, taking advantage of your neighbor with intoxicants. Getting your neighbor drunk to take advantage of your neighbor. This is the exact opposite of loving your neighbor as yourself. This is serving your lust at the expense of your neighbor. And this is another circumstance where it is promised that what you did will be done to you in turn.

You'll have your turn of being duped and exploited. And when you're the one whose inhibitions are gone through being made drunk, your neighbor will see that you're uncircumcised. That's what it says in the text. See your uncircumcision. A circumcision is just a sign that you're in covenant with God.

In other words, you'll be exposed as godless. You who exploit your neighbor, you'll be exposed as godless. Finally, the final and fifth, woe oracle verses 18, 19, and 20. What profit is the image that its maker should carve it? The molded image, a teacher of lies, that the Maker of its mold should trust in it to make mute idols.

Woe to him who says to wood, Awake to silent stone, Arise it shall teach. Behold it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet in it there is no breath at all. But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him." This is the woe against making and worshipping idols. The woe against making and trusting in idols.

Here we're given a stark contrast in verses 18 and 19. You have lifeless idols and the fools who make them and Trust in them in verse 12 verse 20 We have the one true God who rules from heaven who must be who must receive complete and utter revelant complete and utter reverence Listen don't speak in the presence of this God who rules from heaven. Listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 3 verses 19 and 20, I think it throws light on this, Romans 3 verses 19 and 20. Paul says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight For by the law is the knowledge of sin." Paul's laboring to put to death the thought of righteousness by law keeping.

He says by the deeds of the law no one will be justified. Not one person will be justified by law keeping. He says that those who are under the law will be condemned by the law that every mouth may be stopped. There is a God in heaven who is utterly holy and every mouth will be stopped. All will be silent before him.

But the just shall live by faith. Children, every other hope is a false hope. The world is full of things being offered as things that are trustworthy, that can be trusted in, can be hoped in. They're all false in an ultimate sense. Only Jesus Christ is worthy of your trust.

Every other hope will fail you. Trust in the one true hope, Jesus. Every mouth will be stopped. Everyone who nurtured a sense of self-righteousness, self-reliance, thought well of themselves, will not even melt a defense when they sense how utterly holy God is when they stand before Him. Every mouth will be stopped.

Every other false hope will be swept away. Applications, I'll give you three. Applications, I'll give you three. Application number one is a question. Are you praying?

We should pray. And then watching while you're waiting. This is Sebekah. He pours out his heart to God and then he describes himself as like a watchman on the rampart waiting for the messenger to come with the message. Are you praying and then watching while you're waiting?

When Janet and I were first married there was a study called Experiencing God that was all the rage. I haven't seen it in forever. But the, I don't love everything about that study, but the strength of that study, the strength of that study was to get you to recognize that God was at work all around you and to look for it and to join him in it. Where you see God at work, join him because he's at work in this world. He's at work in our lives.

So learn to recognize it Like watch and wait. Yes, pray, but pray with an anticipation that God is hearing these prayers and that He is not dispassionate and uninvolved. He is passionate and involved. Habakkuk teaches us to pray and then to watch and wait, knowing that God enters into these things that we're praying about. Look for it.

Learn to recognize it. Number two, Galatians chapter six verses seven and eight. Galatians chapter six verses seven and eight. Paul writes, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked.

For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption and he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." This is a summary of the five woe oracles. God is never mocked. You can't sow thorns and reap figs. What you sow to the flesh, you reap corruption.

This is what's being said in five different ways in the progression as we work through the five woe oracles. What you do will be done to you. Don't think you can mock God. So thorns reap figs. That's not how this universe is wired.

Number three. Think of the magnificent gift of justifying and sustaining faith. It's really not two things, it's one thing. Justifying faith continues because God undertakes to sustain it and for it to sustain you in anything and everything that God will bring into your life. Think of the magnificent gift of justifying and sustaining faith.

This is right where we'll pick up next week with a tremendous declaration of faith from Habakkuk. Declaration of Faith from Habakkuk. God, thank you for truth from Scripture written so plainly and permanently that the one who runs can read it. Person on the move can grasp it and understand it. Thank you for a permanent record of revelation from heaven that we enjoy even today, thousands of years later.

Thousands of years later. God, I pray that You would use our contemplation of this truth to trust steadfastly in you. That we might walk by faith, not by sight, and find ourselves sustained through anything and everything that you bring into our lives. So thank you for your great and precious promises and how unbreakably sure they are. In Jesus name, amen.