We'll turn in our Bibles and read together from Galatians chapter 6. And then Habakkuk chapter 2. Let's stand together to hear the Word. Galatians 6. That him who is taught the Word share in all good things with him who teaches. 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. But he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And now from Habakkuk chapter 2, we want to begin reading actually in verse 4. 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. 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. 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 up with many pledges, will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will not they 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 sea and all who dwell in it. 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. Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity. Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people's labor to feed the fire and the nations weary themselves in vain? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. 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 in the plunder of beasts which made them afraid because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city and of all who dwell in it. But 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 it to make mute idols. Woe to him who says to wood, Awake! a 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 but all the earth keeps silence before him Lord again tonight we ask of you that we would dwell in your house all the days of our life to gaze upon your beauty. Lord, we know that we don't see that beauty in this life with our physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith. That we are to grab hold of your Word and believe what you teach us and lift our eyes to you, the teacher of glory and praise your holy name. Lord, we ask for that spiritual vision again tonight, that you would teach us your way and lead us in a smooth place, even as we wait on you. For this, we ask as sinners in Jesus name, amen. So we turn to the prophet Habakkuk again as we continue to study another one of the Old Testament prophets who have pertinent, relevant messages for our present day. In the last year, we have looked at a number of them. If you haven't been here, we are getting to the end of another one of these short books, or maybe to the middle at this point, or close to the middle, looking at the bulk of the majority of Habakkuk chapter 2, really verses 4 to the end of the chapter. But before we look there, I want to have in your mind another passage of the Bible, passage of Scripture, Psalm 73. Psalm 73. And I want you to think for a moment just of the quick reminder of the outline of Psalm 73. The problem of Asaph in Psalm 73, the thing that he was wrestling with was a very big question. Why is it that in this world, he suffers to follow Christ, while people who live an openly wicked and rebellious life against God seem to get a free pass, more than a free pass, the good life. How can this be? Does this make any sense at all? That if I'm going to follow the Lord who made the heavens and the earth, why does it appear that I get the short end of the stick? And how is it that evil and wicked people can scoff and speak wickedly, oppress, be proud, set their mouth against God in the heavens, and even say this to God, How does he know anyways what I'm doing? Why does it matter? Behold, these are the ungodly who are always at ease, the psalmist says, they increase in riches. Second Peter, the apostle deals with the same crowd. Scoffers will come in the last days who say, where's the promise of his coming? I mean, is Jesus really coming? He hasn't come. I haven't seen him 2,000 years. And the way I've been living seems to be working out for me. Look in the world and you see this. See it when the church is persecuted. Pastor in China thrown into prison, disappears into the system, maybe never comes out again. Well, how can that be? Where's the reward for following Jesus? Got an abortion clinic here in Greenville, in our fair city, in our fair state, called the buckle of the Bible belt, where babies are killed. Nothing appears to happen. Let's get a little more close to home. Maybe there's someone here tonight who's figured out that by repeating the same sin again and again, in secret, thought they figured out. Maybe this is the way you've been thinking. Because nothing bad happened yet. Do it again. God is not doing anything. I did it once, I was worried about it, I did it again, nothing happened, I did it again, nothing happened. Seems to be a very comfortable thing to do. Where is God? Well, there's a hinge in Psalm 73, and it's this, when I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me, until I went to the sanctuary of God And then I understood their end, the destiny of the wicked. Now, this is interesting. A lot of people think that public worship is a place where you just come to feel better about life. But in Psalm 73, Salma said that when I went to the sanctuary of God, when I went to church, when I went to worship, what was impressed on my consciousness is that there is a holy God who will judge wicked people and that no one is going to get away with anything. I saw in crystal clear, as it were, 4K high-definition clarity. That there's a destiny for everybody. An undeniable destiny. To put it in the words of another psalm, not ASAP this time, Psalm 1, that the Lord loves the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly will perish. So that tonight is our plain topic. the end of the wicked. What you're going to learn in the sanctuary of God tonight is the judgments of God against sin, which are inevitably coming. You're going to be reminded in plain terms, to use language of another Psalm yet, Psalm 11, that the Lord sits on His throne in heaven. He looks down. from the children of men, that he sees, his eyes behold, his eyelids test the sons of men, the Lord test the righteous, but the wicked, the one who loves violence, his soul hates. But he's watching you, he's watching me, that there's nothing in your life that's hidden from God. Let's see how this topic is revealed in the text in Habakkuk 2. If you haven't been with us at Prophet and in his times, it's Habakkuk, the main character, 1 and verse 1, and then he's mentioned again in 3 and verse 1. It's times of the 7th century. The world power is shifting from Assyria to Babylon. And at the same time, back at home, Habakkuk is having a tough go in Israel. Things are not well. Spiritual condition of Israel is And he's been wrestling with God in prayer chapter 2 chapter 1 and verses 2 through 4 Why do you show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble for plundering and violence or before me strive? Contention the law is powerless justice never goes forth the wicked surround the righteous perverse judgment proceeds He's describing the spiritual bankruptcy of a people that were supposed to be a believing people and he's asking God God Don't you see what's happening? Same thing at Psalm 73 Aren't you gonna do something? Why aren't you doing anything? When, if you're going to do something, are you going to do something? How are you going to do it? Lord, where is your justice? Where's your holiness? The law is powerless. Your law that you thundered from Sinai is having no effect. Remember God's answer. I am going to do something. The Chaldeans are coming, and they're going to come like a grotesque horde to destroy discipline and lay waste to my country and my people." We know that Habakkuk wrestled with that answer. What kind of answer is it? Second prayer that he has in this text is, what kind of answer is this that the answer to wickedness is that I'm more wicked people, more evil people, are going to judge the evil people. I mean, the Chaldeans, are they not worse than the Israelites? I mean, I know we have problems in Israel, but how can it be that these Gentiles and then he goes on to pray, you are purer eyes than to behold evil. You can't look on wickedness. Why then would you look on those who dwell, feel treacherously and hold your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he? In other words, his perplexity with the justice of God just went up with the answer that God's going to do something. It didn't go down. And then he waits. Chapter 2 and verse 1, I will stand my watch, I will set myself on the rampart and I will see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I'm corrected. The rest of chapter 2 is the answer of God to the deepening perplexity of the prophet concerning the questions of God's justice and his judgments. And now we've looked at this and we're gonna do a little bit of review of the answer. We've looked at verses 2 through 4 and really The just shall live by faith. The answer that God gives to the believer, the call of the gospel that God sends out to His covenant people through the prophet is, in the midst of this storm, trust my promises for forgiveness and salvation. Put your trust in me. Now, the vision came, verse two, as a vision to be written down. That's why we have it. The vision was sure. At the end, it will speak. It will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it. It will surely come. It will not tarry. God says, what I say, I will say. The just shall live by faith. We looked at that in verse four. And now we're gonna focus on the fourth part of this answer, as it were. Write it down. What I have spoken will come to pass. The just shall live by faith. And now comes the answer, the final part of the answer to how can it be that God would use a more wicked nation to judge a wicked nation? And God's answer is going to be Habakkuk. I miss nothing. And I will judge them too. I haven't missed the proud or the wicked. You notice the topic is the proud and the wicked. Verse 4, Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, and that's really the heading. We have the comment that's really an aside, but the just shall live by his faith. The heading in verse 4, the proud, is the topic of verse 4 to the end of the chapter. Again, we can be tempted to think that God misses things. I mentioned a few earlier. Persecutors. Murderers. or our own personal life, we can be tempted to think that God is not watching when we're doing evil things. None of this is true. As a matter of fact, God says to the prophet, behold the proud. And what he's saying is this, keep an eye on them. Watch, look. You're worried about my justice? Keep track of this. Behold the proud and here the proud is the popped up the one living in a state of pride in arrogance. He's presumptuous God doesn't miss anything. He knows verse 4 that his soul is upright within him is not upright within him rather He knows that he's rotten to the core. He's like a tree It has no center and no strength anymore And that means you can also see inside the real you Who you are tonight? What you've been doing. He's inside. His soul is not upright in Him. And the proud here in verse 4 is placed in direct contrast with the just who live by faith. Two categories of people in the Scriptures and only two. There's those who believe the gospel and those who are rebels against God. They're proud and they will not bow the knee. And we're talking here about the proud. The proud are described in verse 5 in more detail generally. Some characteristics. And this is part of Habakkuk. You remember his question in verse 13, you got to keep this in mind. You are of pure eyes and behold evil. You cannot look on wickedness. Why do you look on those who deal treacherously? Hold your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than here. God's going to say to Habakkuk in this next section, what you need to understand is I miss nothing at all. Look at the description of the proud here. He transgresses by wine. He's a drunkard. Again, he's a proud man. He doesn't stay at home. He's a wanderer like Cain, going to and fro on the earth, looking for sin. Here, who is the he? It's either Babylon as a nation personified or the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar is being described here, that proud man and that proud kingdom. And we know that it had characteristics that are described here. Later on, after the fall of Nebuchadnezzar, we read in Daniel of the drunkenness of the lords and nobles and the leaders. We know from history of their wicked violence and pride. We know that they did not stay at home but sought to conquer nations. He enlarges His desire here as hell or Sheol. And the idea here is that His desire cannot be satiated or satisfied. He is like death, which cannot be satisfied. He gets no satisfaction. He's driven by powerful, sinful, internal desires. He's a hoarder. And a gathering heaps up for himself all nations. And here's the conquering of an empire that seeks to bring more and more under its sway until there's the idea of being the king of the world. He heaps up for himself all peoples. And what God is saying to Habakkuk, again, is the answer to the question, don't you see the wicked? God says, I don't know. Not only do I see the wicked, I know everything about him. I know he's a drunkard. I know he's proud. I know he's driven by the lust of the flesh. I know his desires for dominion and riches are insatiable, and he gets no satisfaction, and he just wants more, more, and more. God's saying to Habakkuk, I haven't missed a thing. I saw it all. Habakkuk, there's only two categories of people, the believing, the just, who live by faith, and everybody else, the proud, and the Lord says, I know the proud. And the topic here is Habakkuk. Watch what I will do with the proud. Behold the proud. It means look. Pay attention. See what happens. What will happen? Verses 6-19 is God's description of what will happen to the proud. What God is saying here is that it's all going to come tumbling down one day. Look at verse 6. The picture, the backdrop is the Chaldeans, the Babylonian kingdom, which seemed invincible, which was about to roll over the nations. God is foreseeing a future time when He, by the exercise of His divine justice in power, will bring that kingdom crumbling down. Will not all these take up a proverb against him? Again, the king personifies it, and the taunting riddle against him and say, woe to him who increases what is his, how long? And to him who loads himself up with many pledges. Verse six opens up with the peoples that the king has heaped up in verse five, one day turning against him with a proverb. That one day, The attempt to subjugate the peoples will fail, and that those who he has laid his heavy hand on are going to be those who taunt him as he falls. He's going to be unmasked. The real kingdom of Babylon, of Babel, will be shown for what it really is. and its emptiness will just come crashing down. This should remind us of what John sees in the book of Revelation. Really here, what Habakkuk is wrestling with is he sees God's hand of discipline on the people of God. God's disciplinary judgments often begin with the house of God. But now he's wrestling with the question, how will God deal with the world system against him? Babel. At Old City, it said, we will make a name for ourselves, and by our technological achievements, scientific prowess, advancements, self-aggrandizement, glory, we'll conquer the earth and rule the nations. It's Babylon, the great harlot, that's brought down by the ultimate judgments of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation. This is a theme that runs from the frustration judgment at the Tower of Babel all the way to the Scriptures, to the very end of all things. And here it's being manifested at this point in the prophecy that Habakkuk receives in a day and age where there's a literal Babylon and a literal Israel and literal invasions, which are realities as the believing people are disciplined by the unbelieving world. And God's saying, now watch, I haven't missed anything. I discipline my people, but I will also judge the world." Well, there are woes in here, and we have five woes that remind us of how these judgments happen. And what I want you to see from this section of the text as we go through these five woes here is that God sees everything. The first thing that God wants Habakkuk to know when he asks, are you missing something? God's answer is, I'm missing nothing. Now, we said that generally in the characteristics of the proud man. Now God will enumerate, describe the specific sins of Babylon that he knows. What are they? First of all, he sees every theft. Woe to him who increases what is not his how long, who loathes himself with many pledges. Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not waken who oppress you? Well, this is a description very simply of something that would happen. At the establishment of an empire, what happens? Armies roll out. They take a nation. Strip the riches out of that nation. Subjugate the people. Take the smartest and best and carry them back to Babylon, like Daniel and his three friends. My family has roots in the Netherlands in the Second World War. And when? Germany decided to flex its wings and flex its muscles and spread its wings and try to create an empire. That's what happened. Subjugate a nation. Take its riches. Carry back the brightest and smartest or laborers to be slaves. Subjugate any rebellious. God says, I see it. and woe to him, alas." This is the language of lament and judgment. God says, I don't miss a moment. What's going to happen is that these peoples, which are the king's virtual creditors, will one day awaken. They will rise up and tables will be turned and you will become their spoil. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you. God saying, Whoa, I see and I will act in history and your wickedness will be turned back on you in my holy judgments. There's a couple of things we're learning here right now, the first thing is that God knew, that God only didn't know, He was interested in. And here it's interesting that a lot of the nations that Babylon had subjugated were also wicked nations. The wicked fight amongst themselves. God even saw those sins. And every wrong, and every injustice, and every sin, how the king of Babylon treated every surrounding nation in his military campaigns God had interest in it. As a matter of fact, God has interest in everything that every person who has ever lived does. And He particularly has interest, as His law states, in not only your response to Him, but how you treat your neighbor. He's watching how you treat other people. Here it's in the language, actually, of spoil. The king rolled in, took everything valuable to himself. God says, I'm going to tear it out of your hands and give it back. There's a greed here, hoarding of things, money. Times when I've seen professing Christians become unrecognizable when they're arguing over $500. Just a lust to have, hoard, possess, at all costs increase, no mercy. God says, I see it all. The second thing that God sees is Nebuchadnezzar's self-promotion. Verse 9, "...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." Here the prophet exposes a second problem with this wicked empire. What is the use of all this money and all this gain and all this increase? Well, God sees a second thing that is evil in his sight, and it is that it is used for self-promotion and self-aggrandizement. He sees the king's self-promotion. Nebuchadnezzar himself wrote that one of the reasons he strengthened the walls of Babylon, made them thicker and higher, was because he thought that by that he could make, quote, an everlasting name for himself. He was, again, followed in the tradition of Babel. Let us make a name for ourselves. And he took the evil gain to build his house. This is the language of a dynasty. So that his name would be set down in history as exalted. And this evil gain is used for self-promotion. Verse 10, you've given shameful counsel to your house, cutting off many peoples. You've sinned against your own soul and your pride, the Lord says. And here's language that we also read again in the book of Revelation. For the stone will cry out from the wall and the beam from the timbers will answer. In other words, all creation bears witness to your proud self-promotion. that Nebuchadnezzar, you're in it for you. You know, our day's not any different. Our day probably has more tools for self-promotion from the smallest people. It used to be that you had to have a whole lot of money to communicate with a lot of people, to get your name on a tower give millions of dollars, have some endowed chair named after you at some big university. Not that it's wrong to give, but the motives for our giving, God knows them. And here he sees Nebuchadnezzar covets evil in order that he would, covets gain rather, in order that he would build his dynasty, make a name for himself. Our age is probably one of the most narcissistic, periods in history. Think of all the shows we have on TV, keeping up with the Kardashians. I hope nobody, none of you have actually watched an episode, but I haven't. I know enough to know that it's about, it's parading a certain kind of life and a certain kind of wealth. It's one thing to parade that it's another thing that you recognize. It's just an endless exercise in self aggrandizement. We see it in our politics, we see it in our celebrities. And too often, I think, and I'm worried that we see it in ourselves. Social media, I want to warn you against this. We never had a time where every person in the world can just say, look at me. Say, here's my life. Look at me. Parade myself, make a name for myself. Here's my ambitions. This is what I look like. This is what I've done. This is who I am. Watch me. Watch me make a name for myself. It's not that this is always wrong to use these tools, but there's a fine line in our age. We are pushing self. Instead of remembering that God gives, He resists the proud and He gives grace to the humble. Our ambition. What is it? What do you live for? What Habakkuk is learning from God in this answer is that God knows it and He sees it all. He sees the inmost heart of the proud. He sees His soul is not upright in Him. And He can distinguish humble, proud, humble, proud. Misses nothing. Third thing, he sees violence. Go to him who builds a town on bloodshed. Verse 12, who establishes a city by iniquity. Behold, this is not the Lord of hosts, of the Lord of hosts, but the people's labor to feed the fire. Nations weary themselves in vain. He sees how you carry yourself in regards to other people. Here, bloodshed was literal bloodshed. If you go back, You hear the description of the Chaldeans. They are terrible and dreadful. God Himself said, I'm raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation, which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. They scoff at kings. He transgresses, commits offense, worships idols, conquers the righteous, destroys the helpless. God sees it all again. He's saying, Habakkuk, here's my answer. I haven't missed anything. My eyes are purer than to look upon evil. But just because I haven't done anything doesn't mean I won't do anything. Woe to him. This gets back to what I talked about earlier. Every persecuted Christian who's ever been burned at the stake, thrown into jail. Every baby who's ever been aborted. Every reckless murder in the streets of Greenville or the streets of our nation. hateful word as our Savior said. God didn't miss anything, nothing, not one, nothing. Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity. Fourth woe, verse 15. Now this describes our day so remarkably 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." 2018, I think, just less than a year and a half ago, Bill Cosby was charged, called America's dad, charged with drugging women to molest them. It's really what we have described here. His drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, make him drunk that you may look on his nakedness. You are filled with shame instead of glory. You also drink, be exposed as uncircumcised." And here, God is saying to Habakkuk, I didn't miss anything at all. I didn't miss the drug-fueled pursuit of carnal pleasure. Matter of fact, what God's saying is He's saying, I see it all in Babylon, every bit of it. Again, you gotta get this language. The language is God's answer to Habakkuk when Habakkuk was concerned that God didn't really know who these people are. God's saying, I know who they are. Same thing that Paul said to the Galatians. Drunken revelries, this is a word in the Bible, orgies. God says, I see it every day. And woe to him who participates. Think of the sea of drunkenness on our college campuses right now, high schools. Nothing new under the sun. Drug-fueled pursuit of pleasure or drink-fueled pursuit of pleasure. The world of unrestrained lusts. There is nothing new under the sun. God forbid that any of you participate in these things because he sees it all every moment of it. Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk. Years ago, I was in New Orleans and had some friends that I was there for a conference and they didn't appreciate that I didn't want to go to Bourbon Street and visit certain unseemly establishments with them. First night, they went off on their own. Second night, we were at the Embassy Suites downtown. By the end of happy hour, which started at 5.30, it's not really that happy of an hour, but you know what I mean, they were drunk and they wanted me to be drunk. And they actually tried to physically drag me out of the hotel to get me to go where they wanted to go. Woe to him. He gives drink to his neighbor. And then finally, he sees idolatry. Verse 18 and 19, what profit is the image that its maker should carve at the molded image, a teacher of lies that its maker of its mold should trust in it to make mute idols. Woe to him who says to wood awake and to silent stone arise, it shall teach. Behold, it's overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all. There's nothing there. Woe to him. who instead of bowing to me, the Lord who made the heavens and the earth, who judges men and nations, takes a piece of wood and says, now teach me, speak to me, awake. God says, I see that humanity has lost their minds in sin. Habakkuk, I've seen it all. Some lessons that we learn about life under God in God's world. Again, a reminder, these words are the Lord's answer to Habakkuk, verse 2. Note that He notices, counts, catalogs, and records everything that happens in human history. Everything. We read about this in Ecclesiastes. I read from Psalm 11, that the Lord looks down from heaven, his eyes test the children of men. The end of the book of Ecclesiastes, fear God and keep his commandments for this is man's all, for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. That's what God's saying to Habakkuk. I'm not, I don't miss anything. I already know it all. You don't have to tell me. Some people are worried about surveillance state that we live in right now. If you have a Google phone, you're just giving up your privacy. I have one up here actually, but I try actually to not give up all my privacy. If you use social media, nowadays, it is very hard to maintain privacy. Google knows too much. Probably about some of you, Google knows things that you don't want anyone else to know. It's really not that important. God knows everything. He's always known. With Him, there's no privacy. There's no running. Jonah tried it. God hurled a storm. Turned him around. Psalm 139. He knows you're rising. There's a word on your... You're lying down. You're rising up. A word on your tongue before you speak. He knows everything about you. Everything. Matter of fact, verse 20, the Lord is in His holy temple. It's the same image as Psalm 11. And he says in the back, I'm counting, and I am intending to bring specific judgments against specific sins. I want you to learn the omniscience of God. He misses nothing. Children, I want you to listen. I say this to my children sometimes. I say this, you can fool me. You can fool me. I don't know everything you do. Can't. You can keep all kinds of things from me. Can't hide anything from God. Nothing. Not one moment. Not one sliver of your life. He knows it all. Secret things He knows. Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 14. Notice secondly that the refrain here is woe. Woe is an interjection. It's an intensifier. It's a lass here. It's the exclamation that precedes in this context judgment. It's connected to mourning lament more times than anything else in the Old Testament. It sets the tone for the section six pronouncements of impending doom for specific sins. It heads up judgment after judgment. And the woes pronounced here, they reveal the divine design and origin of all judgments and calamities in all human history. and that God is holy and he will judge the wicked. The Lord's answer to Habakkuk in a word is no one is ever going to get away with anything. It is the doctrine here of eternal condemnation. As a matter of fact, if we go back to the book of Revelation and the ultimate fall of Babylon, the great harlot and the world system and everything that exalts itself against the Lord, it ends with the great white throne judgment. where God divides humanity between the just who live by faith and the proud. Back to Psalm 73, where's the place you learn about this? It's uncomfortable, but it's in worship. Then I went to the sanctuary of God and there I learned their end. You learn about it in worship because this is where you learn that God is holy. This is a place to consider plain realities that a child could understand that there are no places to hide and that there are no sins worth holding on to. That there is a day coming, the day of the Lord, as Peter said long ago, where, as a thief in the night, the Lord will come, the heavens will pass away with a great noise, the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, since this judgment is coming, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Don't do any of the things associated with the terrifying judgments of God. Flee. Repent. This chapter is clear. There's nothing complicated about it. It's not comfortable. You hear this tonight and you're playing with any of these sins? Theft, covetousness, hatred, murder, drunkenness, sexual sin. Tonight the Word says there's one option with the future, repent. The other option is judgment. You run to Jesus tonight for forgiveness and mercy, and the good news of the gospel is that he gives it. When he calls you to run to him, he warns you of a future judgment, when he reveals his plan for history, he never does so without reminding you that the just shall live by faith, that there's a way through the storms of the judgments of God, and that's to place your trust in the Mediator Jesus, which is what we do as believers. If you've never done this, do it tonight. And one more thing from this passage. Why is God going to do all of this? Why? What is the reason that He is interested in destroying all sin and evil and finally and conclusively dealing with it? Why is He cataloging it? Why is He taking note of it? Why is He keeping track of it? Because He wants it all gone. Because He's going to purify this world and make it new. The world says that God wants to deal with these things this way because He wants you to hold you back from the life you want to live and all your fulfillments. The Word says that God has plans for something better. Peter again. What does he write? Nevertheless, we thinking about the judgments of God, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Look at verse 14 in the middle of this chapter. Here's God's determination for the earth, the heavens and the earth that belong to the Lord. The earth is the Lord, the fullness of in the fullness that are of the world and all they that dwell therein. For this earth, God's intention, will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Now, surely this refers first to this. God's gonna destroy Babylon and he's gonna lift up his name. But it also refers to the fact that he's going to send his son, Jesus Christ, and sin will be dealt with at the cross. And there'll be a resurrection, and there'll be ascension, and there'll be a second coming. And Babylon, the great heart of it, will be destroyed forever. in a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells and the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea will be fulfilled in all of its glory." Because God is, as Habakkuk said, of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look at wickedness. So He's going to clean this world up. When He judges, The judgments serve a higher purpose. He has in mind, through Jesus Christ, the restoration of paradise, a holy world, a holy humanity, a holy kingdom of beauty, peace, and glory. Remember what God says to the church. The just shall live. She'll live in that world, inherit those things by faith. Faith in Jesus Christ. Run to Him. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank You that we have so great a Savior. Here, learning of Your holiness, Your vision which sees everything, misses nothing. Lord, when we place our sinsick lives against the rule of Your Word tonight, we're undone like Isaiah was long ago. And we look up and see You and Your omnipotence and Your omniscience and Your infinite power and Your perfect knowledge of everything. And we cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And then we cry out, whoa, it's me. But I'm a man of unclean lips, dwell amongst the people of unclean lips. And then we remember Jesus, the righteous, who bore these judgments for us on the cross. And his intention to one day finally rid the world of all sin and rebellion, wipe all tears from our eyes, deliver us forever from all your judgments, and settle us in that new heavens and a new earth or the knowledge of your name will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. But help us to live for that end, with humility before your glory and holiness in your majesty. To always remember, you, Lord, now are in your holy temple. And when we hear of your judgments, we are to keep silent before you. We pray in Jesus' name.