Take our Bibles, we're going to go to the book of Habakkuk. We're going to continue this series. And it's been a while. We had a question and answer, we had a service cancellation, and then we had a missionary presentation. So it's been about a month since we picked up this series. So we do need to review. kind of bring ourselves back up to speed because there's a lot that was covered in that first discussion that I think is very relevant to what we're studying right now. Habakkuk is an interesting book because it deals with the prophet basically asking God about the supposed contradictions that he sees. And that's very unique because most prophets are the mouthpiece of God. Bo, if you don't mind, could you close that door there? The glare's coming off nice and good. I can't even see most of your faces right now. There we go. Very good. Thank you, I appreciate that. But a lot of what we were studying in that first week was Habakkuk is asking, he's saying, why basically are the wicked prospering? Why is Israel in the condition that it's in and you're still going to use Israel? And the Chaldeans are rising and they're described as a storm that is eating up from the east. And the prophet is saying, how can you, God, be holy, righteous, and good, and yet allow this evil to continue? It's a good question, but it's not really for Habakkuk to know. We have to realize that the way that God works is in a way that most of the times we don't understand. You say, well, wouldn't that mean that he's the author of confusion? Wouldn't that mean that we can't know and understand God in a full capacity? No, that's not what it means at all. God is dealing from a position that you and I have no idea what to experience. That is from a sinless, totally righteous position. If we were all to have to make a decision today, if we had enough time to make that decision, our personal bias would be involved in our decision making. Maybe if there was an element of revenge or trying to get what we want, those things may happen. These are things that we cover when we have our board meetings. We want to make sure that the decisions we make for the church are not from a position of personal gain, not from a position of trying to get back at somebody or something. We want to do as the Word of God directs us to do. And the way that God deals with things is perfect. There is nothing that God has done which could be critiqued. We studied this, not from this angle, but this morning we looked at this. How does the thing formed say to the maker, why have you made me in this way? It's not for us to question God, it is for us to trust him. And that's a big boy experience. That is something that a lot of people never really get to lay their hands on. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 tells us to trust the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths. A lot of people look at that and they say it, right? We can repeat it. We can go, yeah, sounds good. But then when the going gets tough, we automatically take things into our hands. Or when it seems like the cards are stacked against us, I don't like that terminology because it leans into the occult. But when we think that we're just getting a bad hand in life, we'll look to God and say, why have you done this? Why have you allowed this to happen? And the situation that Habakkuk is going through here is he's looking at a nation, the Chaldeans, that are that they look like the nation that might be blessed because of their power. And he's looking at Israel, who he knows has the blessing, but they're kind of rotting from within. And he's asking God these questions. And I think it's worth going through a little bit here in chapter one. So let's do that by the way of review. We're not gonna spend all night here in Habakkuk one. We're gonna try and get to Habakkuk chapter two. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. This is Habakkuk one in verse one. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear. Even cry out unto thee of violence." By the way, as a way of reminder, every time the word violence is used in the book of Habakkuk, the direct Hebrew word there is hamas, which is pretty interesting. That's relevant to what's happening today. If you think what's going on over there is a mere political definition, a difference of opinion, you are mistaken. there is 100% intent behind most of what's going on in the terror in the Middle East to take out Israel. It's been that way for many, many years. But I thought that was interesting when I did this word study, that there's actually a terrorist group out there that threatens to destroy Israel. When you see from the river to the sea, that is not an agreement statement, that is a genocidal statement. They want Israel to be removed and they will do that in the way we translate that Hebrew word, Hamas, by violence. And if you look at what happened on October 7th, I think you would be able to safely conclude that that was violent. I don't even know if that's a proper word. There should be a harder word for it. 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, and this is the prophet's conclusion. He looks at everything and he makes this conclusion. This is an important key to highlight. Therefore, the law is slacked and judgment doth never go forth. So Habakkuk is actually in the position now where he is questioning God's intent. Now I don't believe he's questioning from a position of, I don't believe that you're good, but he's looking at the circumstances and he's saying, I can't believe that this is happening. This is beyond what I would understand to be correct. go into verse 5. God's going to tell them something here that we hear quite a bit, especially in our Christian lives. And what God is saying to the prophet here, and ultimately to Israel, is what I'm going to do, you wouldn't believe it if I told you I was going to do it. It wouldn't make sense to you. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. I want you to mark their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. This is a statement that the Chaldeans believe the power that they possess to wield this military might to be able to conquer nations. And just so you remember, The way that nations and cities were conquered in biblical times is not the way that we conquer nations today. It's a really interesting study. It's not a biblical study, but if you study just the use of how you overthrow a nation, now compared to back then it's a lot less in your face. Now you kind of invert doctrine and you indoctrinate and over the long haul you kind of play the long game until you get a generation that is pretty much blinded to the past and then you take over from there. But back then you would besiege the city. So the way you did that is you put up basically barriers around the city, and they're physical barriers, and it would not allow anything to come in or to go out. Now you say, what's the significance of that? We're not just talking about people. We're talking about water. That's the number one thing. If you can cut off the water supply, you can affect how the crops grow, when the crops die then the people will resort to either they will die, they will resort to cannibalism, or they will succumb and the siege comes up and now you have taken possession of that city. The Chaldeans were very similar. They were great at sieging a city. If you do a study on Masada, Mount Masada and all that happened there with the Jews. It's an excellent study. They were sieged by the Romans, I believe it was the Romans, and they had to come all the way up this mountain and the Jews that were there decided to take their lives before they would be taken prisoner by the Romans. That's actually somewhere you can go today and it's an excellent history study. but they were very good, the Chaldeans were very good at doing this. But that power that they had, they believed it was because they were somebody. And they had their gods, little g gods, demonic influences of no power and significance compared to the living, breathing God. You're going to see some things, not tonight, but next week, there's some comparisons that God makes when He talks about breath. and the difference between the creation of man and God Himself, and breath is at the center of it all. You go back and study the significance of God breathe, not just theonoustos, how we understand the scripture to come about, but the fact that Adam, in the way that he was built and designed, had no power until God gave him literally his breath, life. That's why every single, when you have a moment to just think about inhaling and exhaling, that is from God. If you take away that, you are nothing. We have nothing without that breath of God. And there's some interesting comparisons and contrasts that we'll see at the end of chapter two. But they look at themselves, the Chaldeans, and say, hey, we're somebody. Look at all the things that we're doing. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, they're pretty fast, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. You know what's wrong with an evening wolf? He's hungry, so he's gonna go out and seek to destroy so he can eat. Their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far, and they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. So many people I've seen try to shoehorn the United States into here just because it says eagle? Please don't fall for that kind of Bible study. That's called word association. It's not good. Just because there's a comparison there. What's the point of this passage? The Chaldeans are of such military might that when they come upon you, it is fast. You wouldn't expect a horse to fly, would you? And you say, wait, what about the horse fly? No, that's not what we're talking about. But horses, you can kind of hear him and see him coming. But an eagle, he could be, maybe you hear his cry, that's it. But he's there. And all of a sudden, now a problem. That's a comparison of their military might. They shall come all, verse 9, for violence, their faces shall sup up as the east wind. This idea of sup up, think about somebody lapping water quickly, and this is the idea of how destructive and sudden the Chaldeans are going to be. And what is God saying to Habakkuk here? This is how fast it's going to be over for Israel, and y'all are going to go into captivity. It's gonna hit you and you didn't even know what was coming. And remember, what's the pretense for everything that he's telling him here? Look back in verse five as a way of reminder. I will work a work in your days which you will not believe though it be told you. And ultimately, this situation that is being described is gonna be the Babylonian captivity, which is a very fierce and violent and miserable time of Israel's history. Destructive. You wanna talk about women and children being I won't say because we have children here tonight, but you understand what I mean by that. This is a very rough time. Jeremiah writes about this time and he weeps in Lamentations. You read about the severe destruction that God is saying right here, it's going to happen. And it's going to happen because you disobeyed, but I'm going to work a work through it. Look at what it says here in the last part of verse 9. And take it when you see that phrase heap dust and take it this is to say that they will level the cities of which they come into contact with and it will become rubble and If you just do an archaeological study that is exactly how Cities were built upon things were leveled flattened and then they built something else on top of it. That's why we have layers archaeological layers we can You can find out how old a piece of pottery is based on the pottery that was discovered before it. You go all the way down to find these things. And that's what they're going to do. Their destruction of Israel is going to be swift, it will be chaotic, and it will be certain. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over and offend. And here's something I want you to see that is a difference between, I'll say even I don't know how many would agree with this statement, but there's a difference here between disobedient Israel and the Chaldeans. Look, and I want you to see what this is. So I think if you were to do a study, and I don't know how deep this study would be, but if you look at Israel as a whole, their problem is obedience to capital G God. We would agree with that. I don't think there's a significant portion of Israel's history where they thought other gods had power until they were sacrificing to those gods. And this is where I think Solomon's mistake is so crucial. If you remember Solomon, I know we're talking a lot of different history here, but if you remember Solomon, what was his issue? He had a lot of women in his life. He had a lot of wives and concubines. He was well over a lot. And you say, what's a lot? More than one. And that's actually historic. If you look at the scripture, multiple wives is not a good thing. Now, women, hear me out. I'm not saying you're bad. I'm not saying that at all. But there's one man, one woman. God has set these things up to work a certain way. Let God be God and we'll do what he says. But the problem with Solomon and his relations with these women, God said, they will turn your heart. And that turning of your heart will result in you going after strange gods. What does it mean by strange? Like, oh, that's weird. No, that's a word for foreign. So what happened? What is described of Solomon? Those wives that he had, they were from foreign cultures, they influenced him, and he specifically took down the altars to the true and living God, And what did he do? Built altars unto Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Mildan I think, or Milcom is another one of them. And by the way, you do a search on all those, they all at the very center had temple prostitution specifically to produce child sacrifices. That's plain as day. And I see a strong connection between this nation's desire to protect the murder of children in the womb and those false gods. I see a direct connection there. I think it's pretty crazy when you have one party right now in our political system that is bent on protecting that right. And I am not fear mongering here this evening. You go look it up. It's a fundamental right according to the Democratic Party. That's an issue. More on that later. Well, probably not. But when you study what happened with Solomon, you see those women turned his allegiance to God. The Chaldeans are going to continue in their power, as you see in verse 11, and the power they're going to say it's contributed to our little g-god. Now look at verse 12. So Habakkuk hears this, right? What was his problem? Verse 4, the law is slacked, judgment never goes, the wicked compass about the righteous, wrong judgment has proceeded. He can't believe it. So Habakkuk says in verse 12, aren't thou not from everlasting? O Lord my God, mine Holy One. This is why I believe that Habakkuk still had a positive view of God. He gives him proper reverence and respect in his title. I think Habakkuk is in the position of, I can't believe what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing! Isn't this proof that judgment is not going forth? What's going on? Oh Lord, my God, my 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 pure eyes, and to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. You say, wow, he's kind of getting on the page here, hang on. Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he, and makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them. Now you're gonna see, we're gonna pause here for a second. You're gonna see the kind of length, this is very typical prophetic language. There's a lot of imagery. What imagery have we seen so far of the Chaldeans? We've seen comparisons to animals of war, the horses. We've seen comparisons to predators, evening wolves and eagles. Habakkuk is now going to describe the swift destruction of these Chaldeans, which is known about the land as a man who fishes. How easy is it for a man to fish? Well, that might be a trick question. I've never caught a fish, but no, I have actually. That's another story for another day. But if you have a big net, It's pretty easy to catch those fishes, and the fish wouldn't even know what's going on until they're in the net. That's the comparison that he makes here. And makest men, these Chaldeans, as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them, they take up all of them with their angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag net, therefore they rejoice and are glad. What's the problem with Habakkuk's view here? He sees what is happening in the Chaldeans capturing, he sees that as God directly blessing them. God is not directly blessing them. He's allowing them to prosper. Why? Because Israel has disobeyed. And this is a classic demonstration of how God disciplines Israel and how he will discipline the believer as well. If we're running through life thinking that because we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone, that we can pretty much live however we want and God's just gonna be that super cool dad who just never does, he never tells you what to do, he's just gonna let everything go, you have another thing coming. Here's the difference between our physical earthly fathers and our heavenly father. Our heavenly father disciplines out of holy, righteous, perfect love. All of you who had discipline from your dads, at some point your dad said, that's enough. I'm going to beat this kid. And then proceeded to do that out of whatever. Maybe he was trying to teach a lesson, but surely there has been discipline in your life that comes out of anger. God does not position himself in anger to discipline you. The wrath for your sin has been taken by Jesus Christ, amen? Sometimes we need to remember that. However, we are foolish. utterly foolish to think that God will not discipline us out of love. And that's how every father should discipline his children. I've read so many parenting books and so many opinions, but I don't have any other great model or comparison for how to discipline a child than what is in the scripture, out of love. If you find yourself in a position to discipline your kids out of anger, you need to stop. You need to stop, take a moment, because that's what leads to abuse. That's what leads to your way, you become the God in the family, and then what's gonna happen? As soon as your kid gets out of the God of the family, guess what? They're gone. They're gonna do what they want when they want. But God will discipline his children. And the discipline that God put on Israel is severe. And they did incur a lot of that discipline as a result of going after strange gods. Okay, look at this in a moment here, verse 16. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, burn incense unto their drag. Because of them their portion is fat and their meat plenteous. Shall they therefore empty their net and not spare continually to slay the nations? Everything from 14 to 17 is found in the last part of God's address. Look at it just as a reminder here. Look at the end of verse 11. Then shall his mind change, he shall pass over and offend, imputing this his power unto his God. In verse 16, where you see they sacrifice to the physical, note that please, the physical things they sacrifice to, the net that Habakkuk is using to describe their power, they're gonna sacrifice all their military might to their little g-gods, and all their little g-gods are idols. Do a study on the Philistines and the God that they worshipped. I think his name was Dagon or something like that. He's like half fish, half man, weird stuff, man. They fully believed it. They sacrificed children to that God. I think that is the definition of what Satan is trying to get people to do, attribute power to the things that are created. So that's what Habakkuk said in chapter one. He's basically saying, Number one, judgment has not gone forth. The law is slack, meaning it is slow. And are you going to look God, holy, righteous God? How can you behold this stuff and just let it go? Let's focus on chapter two. It's 634, we've got time. So let's focus on chapter two. And this is exactly what is repeated in our, or he's gonna repeat what was said in chapter one where he says, I'm gonna do something and you're not gonna believe it if I told you. Look at this in verse one. I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and I will answer when I am reproved. Again, this is the last part of Habakkuk's statement here, and I want you to, if you're connecting dots, and I hope you are, the statement in verse 12 and the statement in chapter two and verse one show to me the position of Habakkuk is, help me in my unbelief. Not what many people say, he did not believe that God was God, nor did he believe that God had the right to be God. I don't see that here. Why? Because he says, I'm gonna wait for you, Lord, to give an answer, and look at his humility. And what I shall answer when I am reproved, not if I am reproved. I think it's so funny when people say something like this. Sorry if I offended you. Well, did you offend somebody? Isn't it so easy to just have word play and all of a sudden we can kind of, sorry, not sorry. Well, are you really sorry then? If you don't think you offended somebody, then don't apologize. We're all people here. But isn't that the heartbeat of identity politics today? Words, word minds, just word traps, all this stuff. No, but Habakkuk says very clearly, when I am reproved, then I will give my answer. So he's expecting, he is believing that what God is gonna say will be sufficient because he believes capital G God is capital G God, amen? Now look at verse 2. We're going to spend a lot of time in these next three verses, and then next week we'll look at this scathing response about the Chaldeans. But what we're going to study now is called a near and far prophecy. There are things that are said in verse 2, 3, and 4. Some of it will be fulfilled in the near future to the writing of Habakkuk. Most of it will be fulfilled when the Lord comes back to rule and to reign. So from a prophetic timeline, where are we right now? In what era, so to speak, or I would call it a dispensation, what age dispensation do we find ourselves in right now, August 18th, 2024? I believe, scripturally, we are in the church age. I hesitate to call it the age of grace because that implies that grace was not available in other dispensations. Salvation has always been by faith alone. Believing in God's promise. What we're doing right now is a new thing. It's something that the prophets didn't see. They saw what you call the dual mountain peak prophecy. They saw the coming, they saw the cutting off, they saw the return of the Messiah. Between those two mountain peaks, this is just for illustration, is a valley, and we believe that valley is the church. Hold your spot here for just a second and go to Ephesians chapter three. Make sure you hold your spot in Habakkuk because that's not an easy book to find, you know? I was supposed to mark that before I came up here and I'm just glad the Lord helped me find it. Galatians and then Ephesians is right there. Look in Ephesians chapter 3 with me please. Page 1252. Verse one, for this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you, word, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when you read, you may understand. I think that's so important. The mystery of the church is no longer a secret. When anybody tries to sell you that, when they try to sell you there's some secret thing to God that you don't know, that they know, you need to just mark and avoid that. we are we're living in an age of plainness the gospel is simple and clear all can believe and understand or excuse me understand and then make the choice to believe when you read you may understand verse four my knowledge in the mystery of christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men just like i was saying what is this mystery well all we know so far up to the middle of verse 5 in Ephesians 3 was other ages' dispensations didn't fully understand it. That's a part of God's plan. as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This is what I think is also taught in 1 Corinthians chapter two, the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Many of you might see some comparisons in your life that before you got saved, the Bible was difficult to understand, and after you got saved, the Bible made more sense. I believe that's the work of the Holy Spirit. He illuminates, that is to bring light into the darkness, okay? The Spirit is revealing these things, which is through the word, Theonoustos, God breathes. Here's the mystery that is now made known. It was unknown to believers in the past. It's known now that the Gentiles, what's a Gentile? You could call a Chaldean a Gentile. Anybody who is not an ethnic Jew is a Gentile. that the Gentiles should be, mark this please, fellow heirs. It's not heirs as in a different part, it's of the same inheritance. What is the inheritance? Being found in the seed, singular, which is who? That's Jesus Christ, which is the promise that was first made to Abram before he became Abraham, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise. This is very important. In Christ, this is also very important by the gospel. How are they partakers? They're placed in Christ. How does that placing occur? By the good news. What's the good news? The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's where we are right now. God is building this church made of Jews and Gentiles. There's coming a time where the last person will get saved. And then we'll kick off this seven year tribulation period. Seven years because the Messiah was cut off, but not for himself. That's Daniel chapter nine and verse 25. When we go through that seven year prophetic period, you and I, as a part of the church, whether we are faithful or unfaithful, we're gonna be with the Lord. I think two things will happen at that time. The judgment seat of Christ, where you will stand and give an account, not for your sin, That's so significant. You're not gonna stand before God and give an explanation for your sin. Do you wanna know why? Because of the nail marks in Jesus' hands. That's the explanation for our sin. It's been paid. I get moved when I think about that. I mean, that's significant. But our profitability will be tested. First Corinthians chapter 3 says we'll have our works put into two categories. Gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, and stubble. It's all tested by fire. The man who has something that endures that flame will be given a reward, and the one who has nothing shall suffer loss. Very clearly, you're going to lose out on what you could have had. That's why this life is so important and what their significance to leading people to Christ, to growing in Christ likeness, growing in the spirit. Then after that, I think we go into the marriage supper of the lamb where you get fitted for a nice robe. If you have a fear of horses, you won't anymore. Like me, I don't like horses. They're too big and strong and powerful, and I'm not. Have you ever seen a horse up close? Scary. Very scary. The last thing I'm thinking when I see a horse up close is, let me get on the back of that thing. Nah, we're good. But you'll be prepared. You'll have, as we see in Revelation chapter 19, there'll be a feast, a marriage supper of the lamb, and then the tribulation period will be over, and we'll come back and literally rule and reign with Christ. I think that ruling and reigning is based on how you served here. Where are we when we're looking at Habakkuk? Go back to Habakkuk. We're right before Israel goes into captivity. We're right, so they're in the land. They're doing the things that they're doing, but they're not obeying. They are doing all the sacrifices, but their heart is not right. They're trusting in other gods. They're trusting in other things. They're becoming greedy. They are abusing their power. The tribe of Levi, where the priests are, were doing things incorrectly. They were making merchandise out of the house of God, all these different things. And God said, it's coming. The discipline is coming. And so, from that point, you're gonna see Israel go into captivity, and then they'll be taken out, and there's a prophecy about rebuilding the temple, and that's what Daniel prophesied in Daniel chapter nine. Look in verse three. The Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." What does it mean, may run? This is a reference to a messenger. This is somebody who, when they receive something, they go and deliver it somewhere else. For the vision is set for an appointed time, and we're going to focus on that appointed time, both on the near aspect and the far aspect. of this prophecy. 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 you say, that's a contradiction. Though it tarry, but it will tarry. What it means by that is, from our standards, especially from Habakkuk, he died. before he's going to see the fulfillment of it. But it will not tarry eternally. God's not going to continually wait and wait and wait and wait and wait. He has a timeline. He knows what it is. The timeline is working. The call for you and me is to get on board with what God is doing. Amen? That's the response. You're either going to believe what God says or you're going to live long enough that you die in a state of unbelief and then you will believe. At that point you will know and it will be too late. But he says this here, behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. That is the first time that this is mentioned in the Old Testament, and it is of great significance in most of the New Testament. The contrast here is the soul which is lifted up is not upright in him. Who is that referring to according to the context? Is it referring to Israel or is it referring to the Chaldeans? I believe it's referring to the Chaldeans because they're the ones that Habakkuk is looking at and he's going, they're a horrible wicked nation. How are they being lifted up by you, God? God is not endorsing what they're doing, but he's allowing them to grow naturally so that they can be used by him to discipline Israel for their disobedience. But they are a picture of the flesh. They are a picture of the former. The just shall live by his faith, I believe, is a reference to the one who is justified is going to be justified, live eternally by faith in Christ alone. Now what's the near-far implication of this? I'll tell you right now. Take a look in Isaiah, hold your spot here in Habakkuk, and take a look in Isaiah chapter 11 in verse nine. Verses nine through 12. This is the far element. of this prophecy. And the far element of this prophecy is Jesus is going to come back physically. He will touch down on the earth physically. By the way, where will that touching down happen? On the Mount of Olives. He's going to split it. His feet will touch down. That's the difference between the rapture and the second coming. Some would say, well, wouldn't Jesus be arriving a third time? No, he descends with a shout. He calls the children out. He disciplines Israel and the world. And then he comes back and touches down physically. And the scripture draws a contrast between the first time that he came as a lowly lamb, and the second time that he comes as a roaring lion. And we kind of joke around, a roaring lion. I don't think we recognize the great power that Jesus is going to come back with. The fact that every eye on this planet will see him and know, We have not seen anything like that. But when he comes back, he's going to touch down on the Mount of Olives, and this is what is going to happen in that 1,000-year reign, which is not the next thing on the timeline. It's the second thing to happen after the tribulation period and the rapture, so the third thing. Look at verse nine. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And you think, waters cover the sea. That'll make no sense, but it is water in the sea. The illustration here is the sea is fully covered, the ground below it. and anything you see coming up out of it, that's something that it's not covered. You watch water rush into a place, it is destructive and it's quick. Some of you, I know some of you had some flooding that happened in your home recently. You could do all that you can to stop that, but that water's coming in. It's gonna seek its own level. The illustration here is that the knowledge of the Lord in the kingdom is gonna be like the water of the sea. It's gonna be total. This is also where I believe there's support that there won't be any unbelievers who walk into the kingdom. Now there will ultimately be unbelievers in the kingdom because there's going to be people who have flesh and blood bodies who are procreating, they'll have children, their children will have children. And we know, this is crazy, we know at the end in Revelation the devil's going to have one more opportunity to deceive the people and he will deceive the people. Can you imagine the heart of man so desperately wicked and set against anything of God that they will see Jesus and deny that He is the Son of God? That's crazy to me. But it actually makes sense, because that's how foolish and wicked we are. Our heart is described as wicked? No, no. Desperately wicked. We don't understand desperation. but our heart is desperately wicked. Look at verse 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. And then he goes on in verse 11, and it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people. So stop here for a second, and I want you to go to Romans chapter 11. I know we're bouncing around, but this is the kind of Bible study that I like. This is the kind of stuff that I like because we're going to see dots being connected. I mean, this is a book that we can understand. Romans chapter 11 talks about that remnant. We don't see the remnant formed yet because the church is being formed, but in the tribulation period that remnant will be formed. Romans chapter 11. in verse 26. Romans 11 26 page 1206. And so, all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they, who is the they here? This has to be referring to Israel corporately in that time and today, are enemies for your sakes. Now some would look at this as support for antisemitism. That's not what's being said here. They are enemies of the gospel, why? They reject Jesus. That's the reason why. But, from verse 26, there's coming a time when the Israel that remains will be the believing remnant. The believing remnant in what? That Jesus is the Messiah. That he is the Son of God. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes. What does that mean? That nation of Israel is chosen by God. And that's the work that he's doing. that these Jews, they're unbelievers now, but because of the witness of the 144,000, because of the gospel message going out, they will ultimately believe and there will be a physical believing remnant that goes into the kingdom. That is the majority of what is said in that prophecy that we read. For the time being, God already said in Habakkuk 1, the Chaldeans are coming and they're going to destroy and they're going to take you out. But I'm going to work a work. And you would say, if you're a Jew and you hear that, you'd say, we would be under captivity of the strongest nation of the world. How in the world are we going to get out of that? Crawl back into your memory, go back real far. Has God done something like this already? He did. When did he do it? when Israel was in Egypt. The strongest nation at that time. Strongest military might. What did God do? He not only brought them out, he brought them through walking on dry land through the Red Sea, and then the Red Sea collapsed on the strongest military army in the entire planet. God did it once. And if you notice, a lot of the writings in the Old Testament are pointing the Jews back to that time. I'm the one that delivered you. You didn't fight. There's no sword. I thought it was so comical. The most recent iteration of the movies out of Hollywood had Moses, I think it was Christian Bale, and the dude's like jacked, and he's like an expert swordsman. I'm not saying Moses couldn't be jacked. The Bible says he's a pretty strong dude, but he's not a weapons expert. Because specifically, God is showing, I'm gonna do this outside of what man thinks is traditional strength. I'm gonna do this because I can bring these things to pass. Israel didn't fight tooth and nail to be brought out of Egypt. God delivered them. Why did they wander in the desert? They said things like, I'd rather go back. to Egypt, then do what God wants us to do. So you know what? He turned them around. They started heading back. And then he turned them back. And then he turned them another way. And they did that for 40-something years. Husbands, if you need to stop and ask for directions, you should probably do it. You know what I'm saying? Unless you want to wander for 40 years. Look what this says at the beginning of verse 29. This is a significant part of the rejection of Jesus Christ. The unbelief of Israel resulted in him being put to the cross. Now, God knew that was going to happen. That wasn't a surprise. But through their rejection of the Messiah, you and I, we're here. You realize that? We get to believe. We get a chance to believe the good news of the death, birth, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Notice now, our responsibility is not to blind their eyes. Look at what it says at the end of verse 30. Verse 31, even so have these also now not believed the Jews that through your what? Mercy. We are not against the Jewish person. Not at all. We're supposed to demonstrate to them mercy. And how do you do that? You give them the truth. And even if it leads to your persecution, well then so be it. Jesus said, they persecuted me, They will persecute you. We should be, and this is hard to think of, we should be honored when we suffer earthly loss, position, and status for the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said that's what he desired. He described that, I believe, in Philippians chapter 3, to be partakers with his sufferings. Look at what it says here at verse 32. And Paul concludes with this, and we'll conclude here as well. Amen. You and I can't sit down in the throne room of God and look at this map that he has drawn and understand it in any way. But God be praised that he knows what's going on. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor? Meaning, who did God go to for counsel? Nobody. Or who hath first given to him that it shall be recompensed unto him again? Whose power did God loan with the intent of repaying them? for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Let's end in Habakkuk very quickly just for repetition. Verse 3 of Habakkuk chapter 2, page 956. 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 not tarry. Behold, his soul is lifted up, is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith." The only way the just live is by faith in the seed, which is in Jesus Christ. Right here, in Habakkuk 2.4, you have another reminder that God is going to bring a Redeemer, and that Redeemer will be sufficient for all mankind. Habakkuk did not see that Redeemer come on the scene. But you see in the end of Habakkuk, in chapter 3, he gives the glory to God and says, this is a hard thing, but I will trust you. and he prays for strength. Write these down. These are some references I didn't get to. Hebrews chapter 10 in verse 37, in verse 38, Romans 117, Galatians 3, 11-14, that's the one I really wanted to get to. I went to the Romans 11 one instead, but Galatians 3, 11-14 is another significant statement where that phrase, Habakkuk 2.4, is quoted. We are going to live eternally because we've placed our faith in Jesus Christ, and as a result of that, the payment for our sin has been put to our account. I hope you're excited about that. I hope that you see the plan of God is so much better than anything we could come up with. I don't know how many of you have gone through situations where you have to make a lot of analysis and difficult calls. I've gone through that before, and there is no better decision to make in those times than to just fully trust the Lord. We can plan, we can make all these thoughts and delineations and all that, but at the end of the day, it's a good thing to just ask God, Lord, what is your will? Make it plain to me. And I can tell you from my experience, every time I've prayed that prayer and I've meant it, meaning there wasn't a part of me that was like, I already know what I'm gonna do, this is just a formality. Whenever I pray that prayer earnestly, without any unbelief, the Lord has answered my prayer. It takes time. But God answered that prayer. And I believe that's a part of what he's asking Habakkuk to do. Trust me, it's gonna get rough, but I'm gonna make it right. And the just are gonna live by his faith, amen? If you're here tonight and you say, Pastor, I don't know where I'm going when I die, I'd like to know. I wanna share with you the most important news in all the world. This hand represents you, me, and everybody on planet Earth. This block of sin represents sin. I put this on top of my hand because the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That doesn't exclude me. It's everybody. We've all sinned. God loves us, but he hates our sin because our sin separates us from him. In order to get to heaven, to be in a position of righteousness with God, we have to be completely sinless, without any sin. A lot of people think it's sufficient to make a one-time commitment and then live the rest of their lives honoring that commitment to be sinless, but we all fall short. So many people want to talk about the sins of commission, the things that we do, lying, stealing, cheating, adultery, all that kind of stuff. But no one wants to talk about the sin of omission. When you don't do the things you ought to do, if you know you're supposed to do them, that's a sin. Well, who's perfect? You're seeing the problem. For all have sinned. God loves us, as I said, but this sin has to have a payment. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God, and a literal fire burning hell. Without the shedding of blood, Hebrews chapter nine tells us, there is no forgiveness. So what that means is, there is nothing that we could do in the form of good works to pay for this sin. Because it's not death and it's not the shedding of blood. If you want to have your sin paid, somebody's got to die and they have to be without any sin. None of us. The whole reason why death exists is because of sin. But there is a plan. There is a vision. There is a plan that God is going to raise up a deliverer, and he already has. The name of that deliverer is Jesus Christ. This hand represents, for the sake of this illustration, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, fully God and fully man. And what Jesus did is what you and I could never do. He was sinless. He wasn't some man that was super, super good and got it right. He's God in the flesh. He had no ability to sin. He was tempted, the Bible says, in every way, like we are, yet was without sin. And then he went to the cross, and for all that time that he was on the cross, he took our sins, the whole sins of the whole world, the Bible describes, and paid for it. For God so loved the world, which means for God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever, so many people want to stick on whosoever, it means anybody, whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That salvation, Jesus died on the cross, paid for sins, was buried and rose again three days later. And 1 John 2 too that he says he paid for the sins of the whole world. So you might be thinking if Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world and God has accepted that, then why would people go to hell? The problem is you need that payment that Christ made put to your account. A loose illustration would be like a credit card payment. You have a balance of $100, you need a payment for $100. If you load the payment, And you've got it in there, you've got it in the account, everything's good. It will not be put to your account until you click send. You can have all the money in the world, but if you don't actually put it to the credit card debt, it's not gonna pay it. We have a full payment for sin waiting. And the way that the Bible uses the word imputed or put to you is by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And here's all the good news. As soon as you believe, maybe you just believed right now, you got a bunch of things that happen to you. You're born again, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit, you have a home in heaven, you are given spiritual gifts and the Lord is expecting you to use those, you're baptized by the Holy Spirit, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit, you're adopted into the family of God, but I think the greatest thing above all that is that one day, regardless of how faithful you are, you will see the Lord Jesus Christ. You will be in heaven. There is no threat of hell, because Jesus said in John 5, 24, if you believe, you're passed from death unto life, and you'll never be brought into condemnation again. That means God won't go, you know what? That's the last time you've done that. I'm putting that sin back on your account. He can't do it. Your sin is described in the Psalms as removed as far as the east is from the west. Isn't that beautiful? You can't find a beginning of the east and the end of the west. your sin is completely paid. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? Heads bowed, knees are closed, you say, if you're here tonight and you say, pastor, that makes a lot of sense. I walked in here today thinking that I wasn't that bad, trusting in my religious efforts, or maybe my family's religion, thinking that I could be good enough to get to heaven, that God would show mercy on me because I tried. But what you've just said here makes a lot of sense. I'm not perfect. I never can be perfect. I need a Savior. And I'm asking, if you're here today and that makes sense to you, would you just simply put your trust in Jesus Christ? It's the same understanding as the word believe. That what Jesus did as the Son of God, shedding His blood, dying on the cross and rising again to pay for your sins, was indeed for your sin. The moment that you believe, on the Lord Jesus Christ. You're justified in the eyes of God, and that's a permanent thing. And if you're here today and you say, Pastor, I did that today. I know I'm going to heaven. I would like to pray for you. Would you just slip your hand up and let me know? Raising your hand doesn't save you. If you trusted Christ this evening and you never tell me, that doesn't mean you're not saved. It just means you haven't told me, and that's fine. But I would like to pray for you if you have trusted in Christ tonight. Anyone before we close. Heads are bowed and eyes are still closed. The Bible is a wonderfully accurate and prophetic book. I encourage you to do studies like what we did tonight. I know we go every which way, we're in Isaiah, we're in Romans, we're in Habakkuk, but folks, you can understand these things. And I pray that it's been a blessing to you. The most important thing we can do with our lives is be soul winners, reaching people with the good news of Jesus Christ. I pray that you do that, get some tracks, Memorize Bible verses that help people come to the understanding of what is offered in Christ. We don't know how much time we have left, but we've got today, so let's use it wisely. Heavenly Father, thank you for our study tonight. We ask, Lord, for your soon return. I ask for the protection and strength of all those here. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.