Let's take our Bibles and go to the book of Habakkuk. We'll take the next 20 minutes to find this book. So I'll be back with you at 640. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. No, I made sure that I put my bookmark there. It's not every day that we're going through that book. This is on page 955 in a Schofield reference Bible. I decided to do this series as I would a chapel lecture in the college. So I want to read to you some notes. I would encourage you if you have a place to take notes to do so. The back of our bulletins have a note section for you. You can also type these out. And if you say, Pastor, I'd like to get a copy of these, just so you know, most of my sermons have notes. And if you want a copy of that, we'll make it available to you. That's something we've talked about doing online, but we haven't done that yet, but I can always send you a PDF copy of these notes here. But it's important to understand the setting and the audience of this book. There's a lot going on in this book, and I think it's important for us to understand who's being addressed, what time that Israel is facing these discussions, and see how relevant it is today. There's a lot of people in our camp, and what I mean by our camp, people who believe the gospel, they're serving the Lord, that cannot help but see all the wickedness that's going on in the world. And a lot of people are kind of looking at the wickedness and they're saying, does God even care? Is he even involved? How can all these things be happening and God's not doing anything about it? That's a valid question, okay? And I wanna say some things as we go through this study. Habakkuk is a prophet. He's put in this role by God and he is not doubting God, but his faith is perplexed. He's looking around him, he's seeing all these things, and he's going, what's going on? I don't understand. It's kind of the same story that we see of the man who says to Jesus, I believe, help me in my unbelief. That has been kind of dramatized and taken out of context many times, but it is a part of the Christian life. Sometimes we don't understand what God is doing. I'll give you an example of this in my own personal studies. A couple of weeks ago we were in 1 Samuel. You remember we were talking about King Saul. And we talked about how King Saul hastily sacrificed the sacrifices that he was not supposed to do. And Samuel, who was in the role of prophet, looked at Saul and said, the everlasting nature of your kingdom has now been removed. He was still the king, but God was not going to use him to bring about the Messiah. Fast forward to now, there's some instruction in 1 Samuel chapter 15, specifically in verse 3, where God says without any doubt, without any issue with translation, He says very clearly, Saul, I want you to exterminate this group of people. Leave nothing alive. In our culture today, that is called a genocide. And that is hard when we read that. I've had probably seven people email me about that question and it's very easy for us to now put God in the position of he's on trial and we're the judge in some weird twisted way. We seem to think that's okay. And I've wrestled with those things and I've come to rest on it by including this. He's God and I'm not. I am going to trust the things that are said in the Bible about God's character, that there is no evil in Him. If you reference in 1 John 1, let's actually look at that briefly for a moment here because I think it's important. When John is writing to the church, and if you remember, when John was writing this letter, there was a division that was happening in the church. There were people who were saying the same things, going to the same meetings, but they didn't believe the same way. And that's why John says in 1 John 2, they went out from us, but they were not of us. They were rejecting Jesus as the Messiah. They just believed some weird thing, like he was a man who ascended to godhood. This is classic cult behavior about Christ. And there were some who were saying, yeah, he was endowed with the Holy Spirit, but that was the Christ Spirit. And when he went to the cross, the Christ Spirit left him and he died on the cross as a man. that takes away all power from the cross. But I want you to see in 1 John 1 in verse 5, John makes this statement, this then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. This takes away the duality argument. It's a very popular argument where people say, well, if God is the ruler and creator of all, then he has to have an equal representation of evil for all his equal representation of good. That's how we would understand it. That doesn't make it right. There's a bunch of things that we don't understand about how God operates, how He has things come to pass. And that's one of the things that Habakkuk is going to learn. He's going to observe the wickedness in his own nation, God's going to tell him something that is going to blow his mind, and then he's going to now challenge God to answer the response that he just gave to Habakkuk. All of it is based off of, I don't understand. Some people, when the Bible was being canonized, you can go back to Habakkuk now, when the Bible was being canonized and they were deciding what was going to go in and what was not going to go in, people had a problem with this book because there were some commentators that thought that Habakkuk was a false prophet because he questioned God. It is not a bad thing to ask God questions. It is a bad thing to demand that he respond to you in the way you think is right. That's where the problem comes in. And it's a fine line. Can we be honest tonight? That's a fine line. We can very easily look at circumstances and put God in the position of the one on trial, and we now sit on the throne and say, God, answer to me. I've told you before, there was a lady who attends our church. She'd been coming here for several years, I think 20-something years. And she had yet to put her faith in Christ, after all the time she's heard the gospel, she'd yet to put her faith in Christ because she had some questions in her mind about God's instruction and his judgment and his character that she thought were, I don't wanna say condemning, but she thought called him into question. And we sat in my office, this was probably two years ago now, we sat in my office and I said, you know, I get your perspective. But you have to ask yourself, is there anything in the scripture that gives you the position to judge God? And that resonated with her. There was a discussion in her mind. There was a situation in her mind where she thought, am I saying that God has done something incorrect? Because that would mean he's sinful. And if he's sinful, then Jesus is not sinless now. God has now sinned to be paid for. And that becomes a major problem. This is one of the things with reform doctrine nowadays, the sovereignty of God has been blown out to the extreme that now God is in control of every single action of man. That sounds good if you're only talking about the things that God is doing that are righteous. But I have on BibleLine, you can go watch a video where we have a Calvinist on record in a formal debate saying that God withholds a man from doing adultery and when He wills it, He can make a man do adultery if it's His will. And I commend that because that's the Calvinistic God that they portray. It's almost like, bingo, we got him. I remember, I'll send these videos to Trent so he can clip them and all of that. And when I sent him this one, I was like, this is the biggest fastball down the middle with the bases loaded and you're trying to walk it off. It's like, thank you. It's amazing to see how man can utterly fall upon himself when he tries to put himself in the position of God. This book here, there are some very hard things in chapter two that Habakkuk is going to realize, but he concludes in chapter three, I'm going to trust the Lord. My nation, Habakkuk sees on the future from the eyes of God, my nation is going to go into a wicked, horrible, bloody captivity, but I'm going to trust the Lord. So that's kind of the thrust of our study here over the next couple of weeks. I'm gonna read some things to you, just some tidbits. If you're ever in Bible trivia, you go, oh, I know the answer to that, that'd be good. Habakkuk is a prophet who lived during the pre-exilic time of Israel's history. His name means, it's contested, but it's either one of two things, to fold the hands or to embrace. I see where the word embrace comes into effect, especially because he seems to resist God in chapter 1, he then receives God's judgment in chapter 2, and then in chapter 3 he embraces it wholeheartedly. Habakkuk is very similar to the process of Job. Now, not saying that Habakkuk lost all that he had, but he saw he had a valid question, God answered it, and by the end of God's answer, Habakkuk said, I'm gonna trust the Lord. Job went through several different stories and accounts and pieces of advice, and then he questioned God, and God said, stand up like a man. Tell me how the earth is divided. Tell me how the creature of the deep operates. Where were you when I sewed everything together? I mean, it's beautiful language, but it's also, I would not want God to ask me to answer that question at all. But that was where Job was, that where he had found himself. But at the end of both of these accounts here, through the experiences, bad advice that Job received, and the perplexed faith of Habakkuk, the conclusion is the same. You're God, and I'm gonna trust you. And I think in our time, that's something that we can observe and apply to our lives. The past eight days have been crazy. Crazy, has it not? All of a sudden now, we're in one of the most important elections since 2016. We're now in a place where the Democrats do not have a candidate. I know they have endorsements, but we could be looking at an open convention in August. I mean, that's stuff that TV shows have tried to show us. And now here we are, this is reality. We have all sorts of tensions that are happening in the Middle East. Israel is responding to the violence that has been done to her. There are other things that are brooding. There's all the stuff that happened with the former president's assassination attempt. Now there's all this other videos coming out, conspiracy theories abound. And here we are just trying to get to VBS. I'm almost thinking like, what is going to happen tomorrow? It's insane. And yet wickedness still abounds in our country. We still see a justice system that is more favorable to bribery than it is to actual justice and the serving of that justice. We see what's going on in our schools. And I'm not speaking to you from a conservative perspective. This is all around. Without the ideology stuff that's going on, our kids are performing worse. since COVID. It's a known fact. There are some kids getting into 10th grade who do not have proficient reading skills. That should concern us as Americans. And I don't think that's a political statement. I mean, you need to know how to read. When we saw this CrowdStrike thing that happened with the data system and stuff, we saw our entire world thrown into chaos over one piece of oversight. And you begin to wonder, where is God in all of this? And in 1 Peter chapter 3 the same thing is said about God, or 2 Peter chapter 3 the same thing is said about God. Where is He? You've been saying He's coming back, but God is patient, specifically patient that people would come to a changed mind which results in salvation. Now tell me that's a compassionate God. But it's easy for us as Christians to start fidgeting, to get nervous, to start looking and saying, how bad is it gonna get before he comes back? Take a look at church history and that's an example of how bad it got. One of the best studies you can do is Jesus' responses or Jesus' letters to the seven messengers in the seven churches. He had a discussion there and when he talked about, I'm pretty sure it's Smyrna, the description of them was you've been crushed like a flower that now has fragrance. The blood in the church of Smyrna ran. The believers were being killed. We're not in that time here in our country. Who's to say it's not gonna get to that point? And it's very easy for us to now take the route of, well, God, you've got an answer to me. You've got some explaining to do. No, no, he doesn't. We need to trust him. We've already been told, Jesus has told us, they persecuted me. they're gonna do the same to you. And it's true. Now, this is not for us to go looking for persecution. I think there's a lot of people in the world today who kind of are surprised when they get in people's faces and all of a sudden there's a violent response. It's like, oh, personal space. I'm teaching that with our daughter, you know? Personal space with her is like, Remy, Remy, hey. It's like, mm. Who am I kidding? I love it. But you know, there is that side of Christianity that wants to get confrontational with people and then they're surprised when they're met with violence. I don't think that's the kind of persecution we should go through. But if you're just living your life, living a life that is peaceable, trying to make peace with men as much as possible, as much as life within you, as Paul instructs Timothy, and all of a sudden the world comes against you, that shouldn't be a surprise. And I don't know how bad it's going to get until the Lord comes back. There's nothing in scripture that says something has to happen before the Lord comes back. So the churches that suffered and Jesus wrote to them, we can expect this. It should not surprise us if that has to be called of our generation too. Now, I think where we are right now is more of a technological deception. There will be the appearance of things that look real, but they're not. Some of the stuff that's going on, I don't know if you guys have noticed recently, but you're like logging into an account for the first time in forever, and the tests you have to pass are almost pretty complicated. Sometimes I look at it and I'm like, am I a human? It's asking me to verify if I'm a human. And I'm like, I don't even understand what you're trying to have me do. And then it, so we can get to the point where the things that we see and the things that we hear are not actually real. There was something going around earlier this year where there were some hackers that had hacked a Democrat voter calling list and deep faked the president's voice and made it seem like he was endorsing former President Trump. And people bought that. They thought it was real. and talked about it. And it wasn't until it had spread through several thousand people until it was like, we gotta get a hold of this. That's how quickly we can be deceived. It's hard to believe the things that you see. And some people would think, well, that's tinfoil conspiracy stuff. Well, it's also like true. There's a lot of things that are not the way that they appear. I don't think it should be our job to expose those things. We need to serve the Lord. We need to look to God. We do have work to do. The fields, Jesus says, the fields are white already to harvest. If you want to know what God's will is for your life, start getting out in your community and sharing the gospel. It'll be made known. I think about Brother Mike that's here tonight, working with his neighbors that speak a totally different language. He printed out some articles from BibleLine in their language. Somebody heard about that online and got him, loaned him a Portuguese Bible. I think that's good stuff. And that's not to put Mike on a pedestal, that's just to say, he's got work to do. We all have work like that. But there's, it's very easy to get distracted, and especially to start looking at God and throwing a fit like a kid. This isn't fair. You gotta explain to me. Well, does he? And in this book that we're gonna read, he does explain, and it's heavy. And the language is definite. It's not like maybe, we'll see, no. So the hands, folding of the hands means Habakkuk's name or to embrace. Israel at this time was under the reign of Jehoiakim and seeking help from the wrong places, namely striking alliances with Egypt and Assyria. Habakkuk's pleas echoed Jeremiah's concerns as well. You want to read a tough book, read Lamentations. We have a great verse in there about his faithfulness is new every morning, but you read the first couple chapters before that and there's blood in the streets of Israel. Women are being treated I mean it's horrible what Jeremiah was seeing and what he was writing about. And Habakkuk is now going to see why Jeremiah is going to write that way his contemporary. Habakkuk is unique in the fact that he dialogued with God about people and pleaded for divine justice. Normally what you see with these minor prophets is that they are going to proclaim the divine justice. A major prophet is like Isaiah, for example. Isaiah says very clearly, these things are going to come to pass. There are other minor prophets that say, Israel, watch out. These things are going to come to pass because of your actions. But Habakkuk is unique. He's actually pleading for God to do something and asking why it hasn't been done yet. There's a theme in this book. If you're taking notes, you might say, what is the theme of Habakkuk? It is faith. Specifically, and I'm gonna give you four areas where we can observe this. Specifically, faith that God will do a work according to his timing. All right, let's look here, okay? Chapter one and verse five. Behold ye among the heathen and regard and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe, though it be told you. More on that later. Now look in chapter two and verse three. This is still on that point about God will do a work according to his timing. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it. because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Now that, we're gonna get to that when we study that next week. Some people see that as a contradiction, but what he's saying here, though it tarry, is from our perspective. We wait, we wait, we wait, we kind of build this timeline that has no, there's no proof of it, we're just kind of expecting God to behave the way we would think is right. So it's as though it tarry, from our perspective, wait for it because it will surely come. It will not tarry, meaning what God has said will come to pass in His time will come to pass in His time. We need to just have faith that it'll come to pass. The second demonstration of the theme of this book is in verse 4 there of chapter 2. Faith that the just shall live, excuse me, shall eternally live by faith, Habakkuk 2.4. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. This is something that is used at least three times in the New Testament by the writer Paul. And you remember, Paul was studied in these writers. These writers were the scriptures back in Paul's time. Third thing, faith that God will recompense Israel's adversaries. Look at verse eight of chapter two. Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee because of men's blood and for violence of the land, of the city, and all that dwell therein. And the last one here is faith that God is the strength of those who believe. Look at chapter three of Habakkuk in verse 19. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like hinds feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. This is the illustration here, which by the way, just as a reminder, the Bible is a illustrative book. The illustration that Habakkuk is describing here is the mountain goat. Go look that up on Google later and you see how weird them feet be looking on a mountain goat. And you're like, I couldn't do that. Habakkuk is describing the ability for that goat to be able to stand in a rocky place, in an uneasy place. His feet are designed that way to do it. And he says, the Lord is my strength, I will make my feet like that goat, that even though it's uneasy times, he's on the solid rock. He's got everything that he needs, but his people will suffer. And as a result, he will suffer too. But in all that suffering, God is still righteous, amen? That's a hard thing to swallow. When you realize that this country, there's this idea in Christian nationalism that this country is kind of like the Israel of the Bible, there's no support for that, folks. There's no support for this country being here in the time of the tribulation period. That's kind of hard for Americans. We've been the world, we've been dominating in the superpower realm for a long time. We think, well, America's not the most important thing that is out there. God's people are in Israel. God's plan is through that nation. When Jesus comes back, he's gonna rule and reign from Jerusalem, not Washington, D.C. That's shocking to us. Well, Rome was a superpower, too, at some point, and they are no more. So if there is ever a time for this, we may have people in our country who study the Scripture and know, what's going on in this country? God is not slack. It might be tearing from our perspective, but this nation will be judged. You say, when, pastor? I don't know. That's why I'm gonna reach people with the time that we do have. All right, here's a quick outline of the book. You have the heading in chapter one and verse one. There's the first set of dialogue between Habakkuk and Yahweh. That's verses 2 through verse 20 in chapter 2. Habakkuk has a question about Judah, chapter 1, 2 through 4. God answers in verses 5 through 11. Habakkuk now questions the Chaldeans, which is the Babylonians, in verses 12 through 17. That's what we're going to cover tonight. And then we have Yahweh's answer. We have God's answer in all of chapter 2, and that's broken out in three sections. The introduction to the answer, verses 1-3 in chapter 2. The Lord's indictment of Babylon, verses 4-5. And then the Lord's sentence on Babylon, verses 6-20. That's where the language gets the most graphic. Where God is very plain about how He's going to take care of both of these sinful nations. Israel is one of them. You'll see that in a moment. And then of course you have Habakkuk's hymn, which is very beautiful. It's a song that he writes in chapter 3. The introduction to the hymn is in verse 1. He has a prayer for national revival. That should be the heart of all of us. That there would be some way that our nation would draw back to God. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's unlikely. But God can do it. He can do it. The vision of God is in chapter 3, verses 3 through 15. There's a description in verses 3 through 7 of God's awesome appearance. There's some really good language there about how God appears in description of nature. Then we see God's angry responses, His righteous anger, verses 8 through 15. You have Habakkuk's commitment of faith personally in verses 16 through 19. And then you have a concluding musical notation at the very last part of Habakkuk 3.19. So let's start by going through that first chapter. You say, goodness, it's already 6.36. Don't worry, it'll go quickly. So we're going to see in these first four verses here, we're going to see the charge. I call it a charge because it's the right word, but I don't want you to think it's almost like the state pressing charges against God. But this is the heart of Habakkuk. He's like, how are these things possible? Look what he says. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry? And thou wilt not hear. even cry out unto thee of violence. Quick study, the word in Hebrew for that English word violence is hamas. Did you know that? Did you know that? That's very interesting. It's used the most in this book. I'm not trying to weave a connection there, but don't you think it's interesting that that's the name of that group? That's how Judah is described here, as violence. violent, even cry out unto thee of violence. He's reporting of the violence in his land, and thou wilt not save. It's a heavy charge there. Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, I want you to pay attention to this verse four. In the first three verses, Habakkuk explains what he's seeing. He's petitioning to God, and from his perspective, God is not speaking. So he makes a conclusion here, and God answers his premise. What's the conclusion? The law is slacked, meaning God has preferential judgment. He set up his law here, but he doesn't do according to what his law says. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth. For the wicked doth compass about the righteous, therefore wrong judgment proceedeth." So he's looking at all this situation, he's calling out to God, he's not getting the response that he wants, he's seeing the nation fall apart into more wickedness, and he concludes, God's justice must be flawed, I'm not understanding this. God responds to him. He uses a phrase in verse five that he'll use again in verse four and that will later come up in the book of Acts as a description of God's work and that people, can I have your attention for a moment? People will hear it and not believe it. What a thought. I don't mean to be pessimistic there or to make light of something, but people can hear the truth and still choose to believe the lie. This has been going on, this book was written in BC 626. We are in 2024, and there is still a problem with us hearing and believing what God says. As a matter of fact, I think people can hear quite well, and it's the believing part that's hard. He makes the statement, behold ye among the heathen, and regard. and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe, though it be told to you." This is the comparison that Paul uses when he talks about Jews, guess what? The Gentiles are in. They heard it and they said, no, no. Shortly after that speech, that Paul gives, what happens? The council in Acts chapter 15. What was on the table at that first council of the church? Does the believer, excuse me, does the Gentile believer require circumcision? Require some basic things of the law to be saved? I will tell you a work and you'll hear it and you won't believe it. There were Jews who, they're either in the body of Christ or they were not yet believers, but they were saying, no, surely they have to have circumcision. Surely they have to keep the law. That's the whole theme of Galatians. Having been made perfect in the spirit, are you now completed through the flesh? Oh, great, you keep circumcision, that's good. He who keeps the law is cursed to keep it all. That's an interesting perspective. Why would that be the perspective? Because perfection is required. But that's why Habakkuk is quoted by Paul, because the church is going, no, the Gentile is the heathen. No, they're not a part of our thing. Well, God's making a new thing. Separate from Israel, it's something called, as it's revealed in Ephesians 3, I know we're getting a study right now, but in Ephesians 3, it's a new thing. Jew, Gentile, one body. Heirs according to the promise. That didn't sit well with people. And that's why Paul said in Galatians chapter one, I marvel that you are so soon removed from what I told you. And he goes on to explain all the things that were now being believed by the church. Now the theme here in this book is not anything that has to do with the church or anything like that. The theme here is God is going to tell Habakkuk something, and it's going to be his responsibility, Habakkuk, to tell the people, and they won't believe it. And they didn't. They didn't. And the captivity came, just like God said it would. Here's the thing that's going to be unbelievable, verse six. Remember in verse five he said, Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously. This is what he wants them to behold, to look and see. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans. Those are the Babylonians. I want you to observe something here about that statement. Habakkuk is gonna focus on these three words, I will raise, excuse me, I raise up. That's gonna be, when you see the, he's gonna question God again, but his problem is gonna be, you are looking favorably upon the Babylonians, that you're gonna raise them up? God will answer that, and we'll get to that next week. But here's what God says, this is what I'm gonna do. I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, excuse me, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. What does this mean? They're gonna come through the land that I promised to you. Why do you think that is? because of the very things that Habakkuk observed in the first four verses. I'm seeing violence, I'm seeing grievance, I'm seeing strife and contention. That's how Israel was behaving. And you know what Israel promised to do. Lord, when Joshua gave them the instruction, you're either going to serve Jehovah or you're going to serve the gods of your fathers in Egypt. Choose you this day. What did Israel say? We'll get back to you. That's not what they said. They said, we're gonna serve God. Then you get to the end of Judges. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. This should not have been a surprise, but it was a new way of God expressing his judgment, raising up, and this is a theme throughout all the Old Testament, raising up wicked nations as a chastening rod against Israel because of their disobedience. Now let me say something very clearly. That is a picture of God's sovereignty. He chooses to use what he chooses. None of that has to do with eternal life, uh... him choosing who's going to be saved and who's going to be lost none of that but if god chooses to use the wicked babylonians to correct the errors of his people let it be so let it be so but that's too hard for people to believe verse seven they are terrible and dreadful and they were Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. What does that mean? Their terribleness and wickedness and nastiness and bitterness is because they think they're somebody. They're the better nation. They have more advanced technology. They have more military strategy. They're smarter. They know how to siege cities, all of that. They're better, so they're going to consume everything in their path. Think of them as a description of locusts that swarm over crops. You can't stop them. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards. You ever seen a leopard run? You probably haven't, because if you did, Robert, I'm gonna turn off this mic here, and we'll just go to the pulpit. If you ever see a leopard run, it's not for long, because he comes at your throat, you know what I'm saying? And are more fierce than the evening wolves. You ever seen a wolf at night? Probably not, because you'd be dead. Their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far, and they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. This is all poetic language as a description of how fast it'll be over. It's not gonna be something where it's like, oh man, here they come, you know, day 30, they're still on their way. They're gonna come in and take and it'll be quick. By the way, this is a, For those of you that are students of God's Word, this is an example of imagery. God is using things that we understand to explain the nature of man or a specific aspect of his judgment. This does not mean that they literally own leopards and have horses that go a million miles an hour. People kind of look at the Bible that way. They're usually higher critics. They're not thinking that the Bible is inspired or has any profitability. They shall come all for, third time that this is used, violence. Their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand, and they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them. Meaning they'll look at other nations, and that's what they were doing. They were coming through other nations and conquering them. They look at all their powers, and to scorn is to go, This is nothing. This is a nothing burger. We can do this. They shall deride every stronghold because they're faster, they're more in number, for they shall heap dust and take it. Meaning they will result, the city, as a result of their captivity, will be turned to dust, they'll take it and move it off. And more commonly, a lot of archaeologists see the truth of this statement A lot of cities in this time would make the city that they conquered, not a lot of cities, a lot of nations when they conquered another nation would level the rubble and build on top of it. This is how you have archaeological layers. And we can see that in history. Now this is an interesting verse here in verse 11, and I don't have a great commentary for you here, but I have what I think makes sense. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over and offend, imputing his power unto his God. I think this is a comment for Habakkuk to pick up on. They are not trusting in me as I'm asking Israel to trust in me. They're trusting in their little Little dumb idol. And I don't mean dumb as in a silly thing. It doesn't speak. That's what they're trusting in. And we know that to be true. We know that to be true. So Habakkuk hears this and he goes, what do you think he says? I don't believe it. He questions God again. Look at verse 12. Art thou not from everlasting? Is he? Yes, he is. Oh Lord my God, mine holy one. By the way, I think it's a good thing to start thinking this way when you see the word holy. It means set apart. We've kind of mystified a lot of the names of God and it's become kind of emotional, but when you see holy one, this means that the God of Israel is not like those idols that don't do anything. He's not like Baal. who the prophets of Baal spent all night trying to get a response from their God, but when Elijah gave one instruction, not only was the water consumed of the fire, but the offering was also consumed. God is different. He's set apart. He has living breath. That's a beautiful description you're gonna see in chapter two, that God is described as breath. Can I tell you something? If Adam was constructed as God had constructed him in all of God's beauty and design, what made Adam a living thing was the breath of God. He breathed that breath into his nostrils. And I don't think it's a stretch to realize you and I are here today, we take breath that's given by God. And people use that same breath to deride the one who gave them life. People are gonna hear, and they're not gonna believe. God is going to be, he's the one that receives vengeance, and you'll see that in chapter two. But he says, mine holy one, we shall not die. Oh Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment, and oh mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. So here's his question, he says, all right, you are who you are, we know that, but you can't look upon evil. Why then are you going to raise up this nation of evildoers?" And Habakkuk is equating that raising up as God having favor or shifting from Israel as the chosen nation to another. He's wrong in that, and you'll see that in chapter 2. But that's how you can see that what God said is true. And in chapter 5, he says, I'm going to tell you a work and you're not going to believe it. We're running out of time, so quickly here. Thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he. What's the statement here? Saying you're using the Chaldeans and your own chosen people who are turning against you. You're not saying anything to them as they deride and cause strife and contention upon the ones in your own nation who are doing righteously. What's the deal? And then he gives some description here. and make us men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them. They take up all of them with the angle. They catch them in their net and gather them in their drag, their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. He's talking about the Chaldeans. He's like, this is how easy they're winning. It's like throwing a net over the boat and just them dumb fish get right in. They're just winning all the time. They take up all of them with the angle, sorry, verse 16, therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and that is very common, that men who are deceived by their own tools and prowess will worship the tools themselves. They sacrifice unto their net and burn incense unto their drag, because by them their portion is fat and their meat plenteous. They're looking, and this Habakkuk knows enough to be able to say these men are trusting in the things that they've built as how they are provided. You know, I remember when all this stuff was going on about the drag library time and all that, I remember some right-wing politician quoted this verse because it had the word drag in it. And I have to laugh. I'm like, dude, you ain't got no clue what this means. But that's Christian nationalism for you. Anyway. Shall they therefore empty their net and not spare continually to slay the nations? He says at some point they're not going to be satisfied with what they caught. Are they going to continue? And then God answers in chapter two, and we'll get to that later. I want to close, and later, by later I mean next Sunday night. I want to close with Ecclesiastes 8.11. Could you look for that? Go to that passage, please. This was a memory verse in summer camp years ago, page 701. Ecclesiastes, the author, is Kohaleth, which is really just Solomon. And he writes here this statement, Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and verse 11, page 701. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. That is not only the description of people in God's chosen nation of Israel, but it's also the description of the Chaldeans. Because judgment takes a long time, men continually do evil. You see that in our corporate systems today? People are getting away with as much as they can for as long as they can, and then what angers people is when these people get caught, nothing happens. I'm so glad that God's justice is not modeled like man's justice, amen? And I'm also glad that when God looks at me, his wrath is satisfied because the blood of Christ has been put to my account. Do you realize how blessed we are as children of God? That our sin is paid? Do you also realize how significant the cross was for Jesus? He bore all the wrath of God. It pleased God to bruise him. All of that wrath was poured out on him and Jesus took it. It's perplexing because we'll never understand the weight and agony of what Jesus went through on the cross. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We'll never understand that. So even in a study, in a three-chapter book like Habakkuk, we can still give thanks to God that that wrath for our sin has been satisfied, amen? All right, next week, we'll pick that back up. You can close your Bibles. If you're here today and you're not sure that you're going to heaven, I wanna make sure that you understand how you can have that assurance. This hand represents you and me. This block of sin represents sin. Sin means to miss the mark. To be a sinner is one who misses the mark. I put this on top of my hand because we're all people who have missed the mark. You say, well, you're gonna say I've missed something. What's the mark? You know, give me the basketball. I'll take a shot. It ain't like that. The mark that we miss is the perfect righteousness of God. We have to be sinless in order to get to heaven. The command is simple. You have to keep the law perfectly. You can't. We all fall short. That's why we're called sinners. God loves us very much, but he hates our sin because it separates us from him. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation forever from God in a literal fire-burning hell. Now God loves us very much. He's going to provide a way for this sin to be paid, but folks, the wages of sin is not good works. It's not religious deeds. It's not turning over a new leaf. It's not promising or doing the very best that we can. It's not a comparative system. Well, you did better than 90% so you're in. It doesn't work that way. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. So we're understanding two things. We are sinners and somebody has to die in our place because we can't die for our own sin. Earlier, I told you that God loves you very much. He does. This is how he's demonstrated that love. This hand represents Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Now, God, in his love for us, for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that's Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Salvation is this. God, loving the world, he sent Jesus to pay for our sin. When Jesus was on the cross, God was satisfied with the payment that he made. So many people, and I understand where this logic goes, they say, wait, if 1 John 2 says that not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world, then why does anybody go to hell if the wrath of God has been satisfied, the payment for sin has been made, then no one has any payment. Here's the problem. That sin debt remains on you, until you do what God says to do to have the righteousness of Jesus put to your account. What is the only thing that we must do? It's not a work. Romans 4, 5 says it's not a work. The only thing is that we believe on Jesus Christ. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That doesn't mean you'll never die physically. It means that you will not experience a spiritual separation from God, because now you're born again. You already, just as a reminder, if you're here tonight, you have been born one time. Have you been born again? That's a valid question. What is it to be born again? To put your trust in Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus. And if you're here tonight, you can experience salvation. And that you say, how? Change your mind from unbelief to believe in Jesus Christ. The moment that you put your trust in Him as the Son of God who shed His blood to pay for your sin, you are saved. And the Bible goes on further to say, you are eternally secured. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. That is why the word gospel means good news, and why we can really look at the gospel of Jesus Christ and say, amen, that's good news. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? heads are bowed, knives are closed. If you're here tonight and you say, pastor, that made sense to me, I've changed my mind. I came in thinking that I was good enough to get to heaven. Maybe you have trusted in your family's religion or thinking that you're just not as bad as other people. But pastor, I've changed my mind and I put my trust in Jesus Christ. I believe that what he did was for me. I'd like to pray for you. I'm gonna ask in a moment here that you raise your hand. Raising your hand doesn't save you. It just lets me know that you put your trust in Jesus today. Anyone before we close? For those that are here in the audience, I just want to encourage you. There were two people that trusted Christ this morning. It's a good day. Even if there's no one who trusts Christ and the gospel is given, that's a good thing. But would you pray for those who came to church today and trusted Christ? Would you pray that they would continue, learn how to walk in their new nature? That they would return back here to Calvary and we can continue to fellowship with them? And then I'd also want you to pray for our nation. We are on an interesting eight-day news cycle, but I don't think it's gonna end with the eighth day here. I pray that you'd be found faithful with the gospel message. Realize that now's the time to knock on that neighbor's door and say, hey, I just want to share with you some good news. Now's the time to start encouraging one another. The day of the Lord is approaching. Father, thank you for this study. I pray that it's been a blessing. Pray, Lord, for strength as we walk with you. In Jesus' name, I pray these things. Amen.