So we turn at this time to the
book of Habakkuk.
Very little is known concerning the personal background
of Habakkuk.
Very little, nothing is known.
We don't know really anything about his background.
There are indications from the book itself that
he was of a priestly family, perhaps one
of the priests in Israel.
He addresses the last chapter, which is a
psalm, that it might be, he addresses it
to the chief singer on my stringed instrument.
And that was usually the place of the
priest who were, many of them just for
the, God had called him for the purpose
of providing music in the temple.
And so Habakkuk could have been just one
of the temple priests.
The time of his prophecy is not declared
as so often at the beginning of a
prophecy, the prophet will declare who prophesied during
the reigns of Josiah and Jehoiakim and so
forth.
He doesn't tell us the time of his
prophecy.
But again, from the prophecy itself, from the
book itself, we realize that there is a
great spiritual declension and the impending invasion of
Babylon.
Many put the prophecy during the reign of
Josiah.
However, during the reign of Josiah, there was
more or less a spiritual revival in Judah.
After the evil, wicked reign of Manasseh, Josiah
came along and instituted many spiritual reforms.
The discovery again of the law of God,
the instituting again of the Passover festivals, and
there was a great spiritual revival under Josiah.
In chapter one, Habakkuk is complaining against the
tremendous spiritual declension.
And thus, probably towards the end of the
reign of Josiah, and then of course, the
reign of Jehoiachin and Jehoiakim.
And it is in the final period of
the national deterioration prior to falling to Babylon.
And of course, Habakkuk is prophesying of Babylon's
coming invasion and being used as a rod
of God to punish God's people.
So, he begins the burden which Habakkuk, the
prophet, did see.
And it begins with a cry unto the
Lord.
Now, Habakkuk had a very beautiful and close
relationship with God.
The word Habakkuk means embracer.
And Habakkuk embraced the Lord and was embraced
by the Lord.
And so, he begins with a prayer unto
the Lord.
O Lord, how long shall I cry and
you will not hear?
Even cry out unto you of the violence
and you do not save.
Why do you show me iniquity and cause
me to behold these grievances?
For spoiling and violence are before me.
And there are those that raise up strife
and contention.
Therefore, the law is slacked and judgment never
goes forth.
For the wicked encompass the righteous.
Therefore, wrong judgment proceeds.
So, the complaint against God because of the
deteriorating conditions of the country, the land.
And it seems as though the stem of
evil or the tide of evil is not
being stemmed by God.
Lord, how long will I cry to you
of these things that are taking place?
And you don't answer, you don't hear, you
don't respond.
God, there's such a horrible deterioration in the
land.
There is such moral corruption.
There's such an overwhelming tide of evil.
And the whole nation is just going down
so rapidly.
And God, you don't seem to be doing
anything about it.
We pray, we cry unto you, but it
seems like evil is prevailing.
And that the evil persons are prevailing.
And as the result, righteous judgment no longer
proceeds.
The effect of the moral declension of the
nation is reflected in the judicial system.
So that the law is slacked and judgment
does not go forth.
Boy, I think of things that are going
on in our own area here.
I am deeply concerned for the judicial system.
Last year, this young man, Ray Hinckley, attempted
to assassinate the president.
And we're all aware of the incidents that
took place on that fateful day.
A couple of weeks later, in Italy, a
young man attempted to assassinate the Pope.
Now, he has already had his day in
court and was tried and is now serving
his sentence.
And Hinckley hasn't even come up for trial
yet.
Now, there's something wrong with the judicial system
that is so cumbersome.
That here he is not even yet up
for trial.
And over in Italy, those who kidnapped Dozier
just recently are already in court being tried.
I was reading where this big drug bust
in Newport Beach recently, where a million dollars
worth of cocaine was recovered from a house
up in Spyglass Hill.
Though they found, you know, the cocaine there
and everything else, they did not have a
proper reason to search them.
And therefore, they've been dismissed and are now
scot-free out, you know, buying more drugs
and back into their train.
Something's wrong with the judicial system.
That releases known criminals who have even confessed
their crimes.
But just because of a failure to inform
them of their rights before their confession, they're
allowed to go free.
Or because they were accomplices together in the
murder and though they admitted both of them
to being involved, each one said the other
one did it.
And because they can't testify against each other
in such a case, they let them both
go free.
Such was the case of the two young
men who murdered my friend Ray Boatwright.
And there's something wrong.
The law is slacked.
Judgment does not go forth.
And that is a mark of a declining
moral state, a weakness of a nation.
When a body gets so sick that it
can no longer purge itself of its poisons,
that body will soon die.
And when we've become so weak in our
judicial system, that we cannot purge our society
of the poisons within the society, you can
be sure that that society hasn't long to
live.
The wicked compass about the righteous.
It would seem that the humanistic liberal concepts
are being embraced by the majority of the
people.
That those who would dare to stand up
for morality and righteousness and pure living are
considered as archaic, Victorian, and all of the
other names that they call us.
And so the prophet Habakkuk sees all these
things.
He cries out unto the Lord, but it
seems like God isn't doing anything about it.
It seems like things are just getting worse.
There's no change.
It seems like the nation is just sliding
down more rapidly all the time.
And so he is disraught.
He says, Lord, please, I just assume you're
not show me anything else.
And I've really gotten to that place almost
myself.
Someone came up this morning and said they
now have X-rated radio.
In several of the major cities of the
United States, some radio stations have gone to
what they call X-rated programming in which
they use all kinds of filthy language and
get into all kinds of filthy type of
diatribe and stories and everything else.
And it says that they are such a
tremendous success and have such a large listening
audience among the young people that it's about
the greatest success story that's come in radio
for a long time.
X-rated radio.
I said, oh, Lord, please don't let me
know anything else.
I can't take it.
Lord, this whole corrupt system seems to be
getting worse all the time and you're not
doing anything about it.
Lord, I cried unto you.
He said, how long shall I cry?
And you don't seem to hear me.
And so the Lord responded to Habakkuk, verse
five.
And he said, behold ye among the heathen
in regard and wonder marvelously.
For I will work a work in your
days, which you will not believe, though it
be told you.
Now the prophet was saying, God, please don't
show me anything else, because the whole thing
is deteriorating so rapidly.
And you're doing nothing about it.
And God, in essence, responded, I am doing
something.
I am working.
I'm doing a work in your day.
And if it were told to you, you
wouldn't believe it.
The prophet more or less said, try me.
And so the Lord went on.
And he said, 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.
Their horses are swifter than leopards and more
fierce than the evening wolves.
And their horsemen shall spread themselves.
And their horsemen shall come from far.
And they shall fly as the eagle that
hasteth to eat.
They shall come all for 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.
And they shall deride every stronghold, for they
shall heap dust and take it.
Then shall his mind change.
And he shall pass over and offend, imputing
this his power unto his God.
So the Lord said, I am working.
And what I am doing is I'm gathering
together the Babylonian nation, the Chaldeans.
And they are going to come with their
swift army.
And they are going to move through the
breadth of this land and conquer it and
destroy the houses of these people.
And so he predicts the impending invasion and
victory of Babylon over Judah.
But then he says, when they have conquered,
then they are going to make a mistake.
And they are going to attribute the fact
that they've been able to conquer Judah to
their God being superior to the God of
Israel.
Now, when God revealed his plan to Habakkuk
to use the evil nation of Babylon as
an instrument to bring defeat to God's people
to destroy their land, it was true, Habakkuk
couldn't believe it.
As God said, I am working, but if
it were told to you, you wouldn't believe
it.
And Habakkuk answers God.
And in his answer to God, he again
expresses his not understanding the ways of God.
He said, are you not from everlasting?
Have you not always existed?
Oh Lord, my God, my Holy One, we
shall not die.
Oh Lord, thou hast, that is as a
nation, you know, surely we will not die.
Oh Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment.
And almighty God, thou hast established them for
correction.
But Lord, you are of purer eyes than
to behold evil.
And you cannot look on iniquity.
Very interesting verses.
God is of purer eyes than to behold
evil.
That is to behold it in the sense
of approval.
You cannot look upon iniquity with approval.
We are coming this week, of course, to
the remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
As this Sunday throughout Christendom, they were celebrating
Palm Sunday, the triumphant entry of Jesus into
Jerusalem.
Fulfillment of the promise of God through Daniel
and through Zachariah of the coming of the
Messiah.
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, Zachariah declared.
But he is lowly, sitting on a colt.
Full of an ass.
But even as Daniel said, when the Messiah
comes, he'll be cut off.
And so this is the week right after
his triumphant entry.
And is being rejected officially by the religious
leaders and their conspiracy to put him to
death.
We will be remembering again the death of
Jesus Christ.
And in remembering the death of Jesus Christ,
we remember the agony in the Garden of
Eden.
As he prayed three times to the Father
concerning the cup that he was to drink.
Sweating, as it were, great drops of blood
falling to the ground.
As he agonized before the Father concerning the
cross.
Father, if it is possible, let this cup
pass from me.
Nevertheless, if it cannot pass from me, except
I drink it, thy will be done.
And as we remember the prayer of Christ.
And as we look at the cross.
And we hear the cry from the cross,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?
Then we understand the prayer of the Lord
in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Isaiah, in prophesying concerning the death of Jesus
Christ, said he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him.
And by his stripes you are healed.
For all we like sheep have gone astray.
We turned every one of us to our
own ways.
But the Lord hath laid on him the
iniquities of us all.
When Jesus was there on the cross, suffering
in your place, taking the judgment that was
due you for your sins.
As the iniquities of the world were laid
upon him, the history of man, all of
the evil, vile acts committed by man in
his history were at that point placed upon
Jesus Christ.
As Habakkuk said, thou canst not look upon
iniquity.
And in his bearing of your iniquities, he
became separated from the Father.
And thus the cry, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?
But we realize that God in his plan
to show you how much he loved you,
forsook his Son when he took your iniquities
in order that he would not have to
forsake you eternally.
Oh, the mysteries and the depths of God's
love that were revealed there on Calvary as
Jesus bore your sin and my sin.
And as he suffered in our place and
took our judgment, we feel like taking
the shoes off of our feet whenever we
talk about the things of the cross because
truly we are standing there on holy ground
as we consider God's great love for fallen
man, for you, for me.
In the Psalm that Jesus was actually quoting
when he cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?
Psalm 22, it goes on to say, why
art thou so far from the cry of
my roaring?
I cry in the day season and thou
hearest not, and in the night and thou
art silent.
But, and in verse three, he gives the
reason for being forsaken.
But thou art holy, O thou who inhabits
the praises of thy people Israel.
Here the prophet speaks of the holiness of
God.
Your eyes are so pure that you cannot
behold evil.
You cannot look upon iniquity.
O thou art holy, thou that inhabits the
praises of Israel.
And so the penalty and the result of
sin, separation from God was experienced by the
Son who knew no sin, but God made
him to be sin for us in order
that we might be made the righteousness of
God through him.
Oh, I'll tell you, how can a person
reject such a fabulous offer that God gives
unto man?
He takes our sin and gives us his
righteousness.
Oh, what a glorious thing to realize.
He became what we are that we might
become what he is.
And so the declaration of the prophet concerning
God, the purity of God, the holiness of
God.
Now, this brings up an interesting point, you
see.
Because so many times we find ourselves in
that position of asking God to condone our
iniquity or our sin.
Paul said, don't you realize your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost?
Which is in you?
You are not your own.
You've been bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body and your
spirit, which are his.
Don't you realize that if you are using
your body for immoral purposes and your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, you're
actually asking God to condone or to go
along and to partake in your iniquity.
And yet God is of pure eyes and
he can behold evil.
He cannot look upon iniquity.
And if God forsook his only begotten son,
when the iniquities of the world were laid
upon him, it is sheer folly if you
think that you can embrace God while doing
evil.
If a man says he is in the
light and walks in darkness, he lies and
does not the truth.
Be not deceived.
Many people are deceived into thinking that they
can embrace God and embrace evil and iniquity
at the same time.
Not so.
Coming apart from them, saith the Lord, touch
not the unclean thing and I will be
a father unto you and ye shall be
my sons and daughters.
But God said, Be ye holy for I
am holy.
Now the prophet has a problem.
Lord, you are of pure eyes to behold
evil.
You cannot look upon iniquity.
How come, Lord?
You're looking on those who deal treacherously, that
is the Babylonians.
And you hold your tongue when the wicked
devours the man that is more righteous than
he.
What the prophet is basically saying is, Hey,
God, we are bad.
I recognize that.
But they're worse than we are.
Now, I don't understand, Lord, why you would
use a nation that is even more corrupt
than we are to judge us or to
bring judgment on us.
I don't understand this.
Speaking of the Babylonians, he said, They make
men as the fish of the sea, as
creeping things that have no ruler over them.
They take up all of them with their
hooks, and they catch them in their nets,
and they gather them with their drags, and
therefore they rejoice and are glad.
And then they sacrifice unto their nets and
burn incense to their drags, because by them
their portion is fat and their meat plenteous.
Shall they therefore empty their net and not
spare continually to slay the nations?
God, I don't understand.
Why you would use the Babylonians?
They're pagans.
They are idolaters.
They are like fishermen, who after they have
taken a great multitude of fish, they then
offer sacrifices to their nets, burn incense to
them and all.
And they're worshipping the wrong gods.
They're not worshipping you.
Why would you prosper them?
Why would you allow them to have victory?
Why would you allow them to have such
great spoil?
In other words, why would you bless the
ungodly and prosper the ungodly?
And so the prophet declares, I will stand
upon my watch and set me upon the
tower.
I will watch to see what he will
say unto me and what I shall answer
when I am reproved.
He knew that he had, you know, said
too much.
And yet sometimes, you know, we don't understand
God.
And sometimes we say things in our emotional
fervor where we're sort of challenging God.
And then all of a sudden, oh, I've
gone too far.
Well, I just go up in the tower
and sit and wait and see what God
has to say to me in reproving me
for the things that I've said.
Go up in the tower and wait.
God, I cried unto you, told you I
didn't understand why you weren't working.
You said you're working, but I wouldn't understand
it.
And God, I sure don't understand it.
Why would you use the Babylonians?
They're more evil than we are.
I'm just going to go up and sit
in the tower and I'm going to wait
and see what you have to say.
And so the Lord answered him, verse two.
And he said, write the vision and make
it plain upon tables that he may run
that readeth it.
Now, notice he may run that readeth it,
not that he that readeth it may run.
But he may run that readeth it.
That is, write the vision, make it plain
so that when people read it, they will
run to share it with others.
For the vision is yet for an appointed
time, but at the end it shall speak
and not lie.
Now, it's going to happen.
It's going to happen in its appointed time.
And though it tarry, wait for it, because
it will surely come.
It will not tarry.
Now, the vision for the appointed time is
really looking down to the time of the
coming of the Messiah.
And though it tarry, he said, wait for
it, because he will surely come and not
tarry.
The church has been waiting for Jesus to
come for almost 2,000 years of man's
time.
But we have learned from Einstein that time
is relative and that
the faster you go, the more time slows
down.
Until as you approach the speed of light,
time almost stops.
So that if some of you could be
appointed as astronauts to travel in interstellar space,
and let us say that we were able
to develop spaceships that could operate on the
magnetic forces of the universe, and they could
approach the speed of light and could travel,
say, at 185,900 miles per second.
And you would get into one of these
spaceships and you would take off for Alpha
Centauri, the next closest star to our sun.
And traveling at this speed, this phenomenal speed,
in around five years, you would be approaching
the planetary system around Alpha Centauri.
And having entered into that planetary system and
flying by the various planets to determine the
possibilities that life forms might exist, you then
turn your rocket ship back towards the solar
system and the planet Earth.
And another five years or so, you would
be back on the Earth, landing somewhere upon
the Earth, Edwards Air Force Base.
Though you had only been gone on your
calendar in your spaceship, on your little digital
clocks and calendars in your spaceship, you'd only
been gone on your calendar for 10 years.
By the time you got back to the
Earth, because of the relativity of time, you
would be looking for familiar landmarks.
You'd be looking for Edwards Air Force Base,
but you probably would not find it, because
in the meantime, some three million years have
transpired upon the Earth.
So, you'd come back to an Earth that
is three million years older, where you yourself
would only be 10 years older.
And you'd find no trace of your wife,
your family, or anybody else that was familiar
to you.
Now, that's according to Einstein's theory of the
relativity of time.
Now, how fast Jesus left, I don't know.
How fast he traveled, he said, I'm coming
quickly.
Now, the Earth has transpired and gone through
some 2,000 revolutions around the sun since
Jesus left.
And though the Earth is 2,000 years
older, of course, it is even ridiculous to
speak of Jesus in the term of age,
because he is from everlasting to everlasting.
But in that time, a sense of relativity
and so forth, if he left at the
speed of light and returns at the speed
of light, and as the lightning shineth out
of the east to the west, so is
the coming of man.
So, he's coming like lightning.
And if he returns at the speed of
light, we say, Lord, what took you so
long?
He said, what do you mean?
He's only been gone 10 minutes.
Now, the prophet is encouraging us to the
faithfulness of God's Word and God's promise.
For the vision is yet for an appointed
time, but at the end it shall speak,
it will not lie, and though it tarry,
wait for it, because it will surely come
and will not tarry.
Throughout the New Testament, we are encouraged towards
patience as we wait for the coming again
of Jesus Christ.
Peter tells us that in the last days,
scoffers would come and they would say, where
is the promise of his coming?
You say, Jesus is coming again.
Ah, go on.
They've been saying that for years.
The early church looks for his coming, you
know.
Since our fathers have fallen asleep, all things
continued as they were from the beginning.
The uniformitarian theory.
Everything is going on in a uniform pattern.
Nothing has changed.
Since our fathers have fallen asleep, all things
are just going on as they were.
But Peter said, this they are willingly ignorant
of.
The flood that destroyed the people before, or
the people in the time of Noah.
The great error that is made by the
evolutionary theory in the ignoring of the flood
as a more plausible explanation of the geological
column.
But then Peter went on to say, relativity
of time, a day is as a thousand
years to the Lord and a thousand years
is as a day.
Time is relative.
We didn't need Einstein to tell us that.
The Lord told us that before Einstein ever
breathed his first breath.
But then Peter went on to say, but
God is not slack concerning his promises as
some men count slackness, but he's faithful to
us.
And then he tells you the reason why
he is tarried.
For God is not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Therefore realize that the delay of the Lord
is the salvation of the lost.
It's for those who have not yet received.
God is so patient.
James said, have patience, brethren to the coming
of the Lord.
Establish your souls for the husbandman is waiting
for the complete fruit of harvest.
So we are exhorted to wait, but always
being encouraged.
It's going to happen.
Surely it will come.
Behold, his soul, which is lifted up.
The Lord says is not upright in him.
Again, this thing of pride, any man whose
soul, and of course it was probably directed
at Nebuchadnezzar, who was the leader of Babylon
when they conquered over the land and fulfilled
this prophecy.
And then old Nebuchadnezzar lifted up with pride
and going around, parading around the city of
Babylon, that fabulous city in the one of
the seven wonders of the ancient world, enjoying
these hanging gardens and all.
And the watchers watching from heaven gave a
warning to him.
And he came to Daniel and said, I
had this weird dream and I want you
to tell me what it's all about.
I saw this tree grew up and it
was mighty and all the birds were lodging
in it.
And then someone came and cut the tree
down.
They said, I heard him say, cut it
down.
And the tree was cut to the ground.
But then new branches began to grow out
of the roots.
What does it mean, Daniel?
And he said, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, it's a bad
dream.
It's it's your enemies are going to rejoice
when they hear this, because you have become
great.
Your kingdom is great and covering the earth
and all of the people have found refuge
in your kingdom.
But pride has lifted up in your heart
and the watchers from heaven, when they have
seen that pride, they've ordered cut the tree
down.
And you're going to be cut down.
But yet you'll begin to grow again.
Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, hey, man, take it easy.
Walk softly before the Lord.
Walk carefully.
Don't let this pride take over.
And for about a year, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar walked
softly.
And as he was walking in that city
of Babylon, looking around, he says, is this
not the great Babylon that I have built?
And the watchers from heaven said, that's it.
Cut him down.
And he went insane.
And so here is sort of a little
warning.
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is
not upright in him.
Now, Nebuchadnezzar, after this experience of insanity and
living with the animals, until seven seasons were
passed over him, as again, his mental faculties
were restored to him.
He made a very interesting proclamation in which
he acknowledges much of what the Lord had
already said.
He declared in coming out of this mad
state.
And at the end of the days, that
is of my madness, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up
my eyes unto heaven and my understanding returned
to me.
I became sane again.
And I blessed the Most High.
And I praised and honored him that lives
forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion.
And his kingdom is from generation to generation.
And all of the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing.
And he does according to his will in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth.
And none can stay his hand or say
unto him, what are you doing?
And at the same time that my reason
returned unto me for the glory of my
kingdom, my honor and my brightness returned unto
me.
And my counselors and my Lord sought unto
me and I was established in my kingdom.
And excellent majesty was added to me.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, extol, and honor the
King of heaven, whose works are truth and
whose ways judgment.
And those, notice, that walk in pride, he
is able to obey.
Now, before this ever happened in Nebuchadnezzar, Habakkuk
had warned in the prophecy, behold, his soul,
which is lifted up is not upright in
him.
But then in contrast, the just shall live
by faith.
Herein is a glorious truth of God that
is proclaimed three times over in the New
Testament.
The just shall live by faith.
Justification through faith in Jesus Christ.
Justification through the principle of faith and not
of works.
We're into that whole scene on Thursday nights.
And so we're not going to, uh, get
into it tonight, but as we're dealing now
in Romans chapter three, Paul's great treatise on
justification through faith, as he will continue this
through chapter five.
Yea, also the prophet declares because he transgresses
by wine, he is a proud man.
Neither he keeps at home who enlarges his
desire as hell and is as death and
cannot be satisfied, but gathers unto him all
nations and heaps unto him all people.
Speaking how that the pride of man never
has a place of satisfaction.
There is no place for the man of
sin to rest.
One of the sad things about the world
in which we live with all of the
liberties that men have been granted today, no
doubt more than in any other period in
history, more opportunities to indulge your own lust
and desires.
But the remarkable thing about it with all
of the opportunities and license towards evil, there
is perhaps a greater unrest and dissatisfaction in
this age than any other age.
Why?
Because man given over to his unbridled lust
will never be able to fill the void
within his heart.
It's just a bottomless pit.
And the more you indulge your flesh, the
more your flesh demands.
And rather than satisfaction, you have just the
opposite.
You have a craven drive and desire and
lust that cannot be fulfilled, which only increases
day by day.
So not all of these take up a
parable against him and a taunting proverb against
him and say, woe to him that increase
it, that which is not his.
How long?
And to him that laden it himself with
thick clay.
So they not rise up suddenly that shall
bite thee and awake that shall vex thee
and thou shall be booties unto them.
You've conquered Babylon.
You've taken the land.
You've taken the prey.
You're never satisfied.
You're always wanting more.
You've got more than you could possibly spend,
but you're not satisfied.
One day you yourself will become a prey
because thou has spoiled many nations and all
the remnant of the people shall spoil thee
because of men's blood and for the violence
of the land of the city and of
all that dwell therein woe to him that
coveted with an evil covetousness to his house,
that he may set his nest on high,
that he may be delivered from the power
of evil.
Thou has consulted shame to thy house by
cutting off many people.
You have sinned against thy soul for the
stone shall cry out of the wall and
the beam out of the timber shall answer
it.
Woe to him that builds a town with
blood and establishes a city by iniquity.
Behold, it is not of the Lord of
hosts that the people shall labor in the
very fire and the people shall weary themselves
for the very vanity for the earth.
And of course, he speaks, this is all
directed to Babylon and to their conquering and
to subsequent nations that would seek to gain
by war and to conquer by war and
to subdue others and to use bloodshed and
iniquity to establish themselves.
But then verse 14 speaks of a glorious
day that is coming for the earth shall
be filled with the knowledge of the glory
of the Lord as waters cover the sea.
Oh, God knows how I long for that
day when the earth is filled.
You know, this could be a nice place
to live if it weren't for people, but
look how man has corrupted his environment.
Hey, I hate to tell you this, but
I go up to the conference center when
we're up there camping with you people, that
beautiful place up there in the mountains with
the beautiful ferns and trees and all.
And you know, I find you leaving your
pop cans around on the ground and you're
leaving your candy wrappers and all.
You just, I don't know, you pollute the
environment up there and you're good.
But I get so sick when I see
that people carelessly throw papers or candy wrappers
or gum wrappers on the grounds.
Because it's such a beautiful place and just
to carelessly, you know, leave your debris around.
It's just, it's sort of sad that it
seems to be just a part of man's
nature.
We look at the earth and we see
the corruption that man has brought.
Where can you escape it?
But one day the earth shall be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the
Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Everywhere you go, everyone you meet, just filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the
Lord.
The whole earth.
Oh God, hasten that day.
Now the Lord pronounces a woe unto those
that would give his neighbor a drink, giving
him a bottle to make him drunk so
that he can behold his nakedness.
Thou art filled with shame for glory.
Drink thou also that you might be uncovered.
The cup of the Lord's right hand shall
be turned unto thee and shameful spewing will
be your glory.
You vomit all over yourself and let that
be your glory.
For the violence of Lebanon, that is the
way they violently destroyed Lebanon, the violence that
you exercised against Lebanon.
Of course, Babylon, when they took the city
of Tyre there in Lebanon, just destroyed it
so utterly.
And the spoil of the beast which made
them afraid because of men's blood and for
the violence of the land, of the city
and of all that dwell therein, what profiteth
the graven image?
I remember the mistake of Babylon was going
to be they were going to attribute their
victory to their gods.
Though God was using them and allowed them
to be his instrument to bring judgment against
his people, they in turn were going to
mistake it as a victory of their gods
and going to worship their gods.
And you remember when Belshazzar was in the
feast with all of his princes and lords
and they were praising the various gods and
worshiping the various gods.
In his drunken state, and drunkenness will come
to you, in his drunken state, he called
to his servants to bring to him the
gold and the silver vessels that his grandfather
Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in
Jerusalem to bring them into this orgy in
order that they might drink wine out of
these vessels that had been sanctified for use
in the temple of God.
And as he was drinking the wine out
of these gold and silver vessels and praising
and worshiping the gods of gold and silver,
there came the form of a hand upon
the wall, writing those words, meaning, meaning, Tekeleufarsin,
your days are numbered and finished.
Your kingdom is to be divided between the
Medes and the Persians.
This night thy soul shall be required.
And so here the prophet speaks about the
graven images that they were worshiping in Babylon
and what profit of the graven image that
the maker thereof hath graven it.
The molten image and a teacher of lies
that the maker of his work trusted therein
to make dumb idols, that is, idols that
can't speak.
The carving out of an idol as an
object of worship has to be one of
the most stupid things that man has ever
done in his history.
Isaiah speaks of the utter stupidity of it.
It says a guy takes a piece of
wood and he starts to carve an idol
out of that piece of wood.
Now the chips that he carves off, he
throws into the fire and burns to keep
him warm.
Other parts of this piece of wood he
uses in his oven to bake his bread.
And the other part, he sets it on
a table and he bows down and prays
to it and worships it.
Same piece of wood, part of it was
used in the fireplace to keep him warm,
part in the oven to bake his bread,
and the other part of it is his
God that he worships and he gives homage
to.
How ridiculous.
David the psalmist speaks of, again, the folly
of idols.
He said, the work of the heathen is
vain, for they take a stick out of
the forest and they carve it and they
make an image likened to themselves.
And he says, but though they put eyes
on the little God, the eyes can't see.
Though they put ears on the little God,
the ears can't hear.
Though they put feet on it, they can't
walk.
Though he puts a mouth, it can't speak.
And then he makes a very interesting observation
and he said, they that have made them
have become likened to the gods that they
have made.
You see, the first observation is that men
have to have a God and many men
make their own gods.
But when a man makes a God, he
makes his God like himself.
The anthropomorphic concepts.
Because I have eyes, I put eyes on
my little God.
Because I have ears, I carve ears on
my little God.
Because I have a nose, I carve a
nose on my little God.
Because I have feet, I carve feet.
Because I don't have any hair, I leave
it bald.
But though I may take great care in
carving out the eyes on my little God,
those eyes never do see anything.
Though I carve a mouth on my little
God, the mouth can't speak.
Though I may carve feet on him, it
can't walk.
It's a dumb little idol.
But tragically, a man becomes like his God.
And if your God is a dumb, stupid
little idol, you are becoming like your God.
Insensate.
Where soon you no longer hear the voice
of God, you no longer see the glory
of God, you no longer feel the presence
of God.
You become like your God.
It's insensate to God.
A man becomes like his God.
That can be a glorious blessing or glorious,
I mean, a horrible curse.
It all depends on who your God is.
A man becomes like his God.
And we, with open face beholding the glory
of the Lord, are changed from glory to
glory, even into the same image by the
power of his Spirit within us.
Hey, I'm becoming like my God.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God.
It doesn't yet appear what we're going to
be, but we know when he appears, we're
going to be like him.
For we will see him as he is.
You see, you have two things.
You have one, a man making his God
less than himself and becoming like his God.
That's why idolatry is always a debasing, degrading
experience.
You're going down anytime you get involved in
idolatry.
It's a step down, because if an idol
is your God, you're becoming like your God,
but your God is actually less than you.
Because you have eyes and can see, you
have ears, can hear, you have a mouth
and you can talk.
So your God is less than you, but
you're becoming like your God.
So it is a degrading experience always, downward
experience to worship idols.
But to worship the true and the living
God, you see, God is making man now
back again into his image, into his likeness.
God is restoring that which was lost through
the fall.
Through the power of his Spirit within us,
he is bringing us back into the image
of God.
When God made man, he made him in
the image of God.
When man fell through sin, he came from
that image of God.
He went down.
Now God is remolding and reshaping you back
into the image of God, back into God's
first intent and purpose.
God's purposes are being restored in the lives
of his people.
But he speaks of the folly of these
who make these dumb little idols.
Woe unto him that says to the wood,
Awake!
Wake up, little dog!
Talk to me!
Who says to the dumb stone, Arise!
Teach me!
Behold, it is laid over with gold and
silver, but there's no breath at all.
It can't breathe, but the Lord is in
his holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before him.
Contrasted with the gods of stone, overlaid with
gold or wood, overlaid with silver or gold.
They can't speak, they can't breathe, but the
living God is in his holy temple.
Now in chapter three, it is a psalm.
It is a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet,
upon Shuganon.
Now about the seventh psalm or so, I
think it is, was upon the Shuganon, which
is the same thing, and it is with
loud crying.
So this is to be read with loud
crying.
I'm not going to try it, but this
is the prayer of Habakkuk, no doubt, prayed
with loud crying, a lamentation, sort of like
Jeremiah.
He said, O Lord, I have heard thy
speech and was afraid.
Lord, I've heard what you told me you're
going to do, and it's frightened me.
You've told me you're going to use the
Babylonians as your whip, as your instrument to
threat your people, but God, that frightens me.
But O Lord, revive thy work.
The word revive literally means keep alive thy
work in the midst of the years.
And in the midst of the years, make
known, and in wrath, remember mercy.
Basically the God, I cried into you and
told you my complaint that you weren't doing
anything, and you told me you were doing
something, and I don't understand what you're doing,
but Lord, just keep doing it.
I'm fearful for what I heard, but Lord,
keep doing it.
Keep working.
Lord, keep alive thy work, but don't forget
to be merciful.
In the midst of the years and in
your wrath, remember mercy.
And now he describes how that God came
from Teman, that is from the area of
the Edomites, the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens.
Now he's going into a glorious prophetic description
of the coming again of Jesus Christ.
And as he comes, he'll be coming from
the area of south and east from Jerusalem
to the Mount of Olives as lightning shineth
out of the east and to the west,
so shall the coming of the Son of
Man be.
Isaiah said, who is this who comes with
his robes dyed red and from Bozrah with
the robes that are, you know, dipped in
blood and so forth.
And so coming, the brightness was as the
light his glory, first of all, covered the
heavens and the earth was full of his
praise.
Oh, I can hardly wait.
His brightness was as the light and he
had horns, of course, coming out of his
hands or radiations coming out of his hands.
Have you ever seen on a sunrise beyond
the clouds where the sun radiates on up
above?
And this is the same idea in the
Hebrew, the radiations coming forth, the brightness of
the light and out of his hands, these
radiations.
And there was the hiding of his power.
Before him went the pestilence.
That is the great tribulation that will precede
his coming.
And the burning coals went forth at his
feet.
He stood and measured the earth.
He beheld and drove asunder the nations and
the everlasting mountains were scattered than the perpetual
hills did bow.
His ways are everlasting.
Read in the book of Revelation of the
great cataclysmic judgment and the changes that are
coming upon the earth during the great tribulation
period prior to the return of Jesus Christ.
Where every mountain and every island will flee.
The ocean beds will be changed.
Tremendous cataclysmic changes are going to take place
upon the surface of the earth prior to
the return of the Lord in the great
judgment of God.
I saw the tents of cushion that would
be Ethiopia in affliction and the curtains of
the land of Midian that would be Saudi
Arabia did tremble.
Was the Lord displeased against the rivers?
Was thine anger against the rivers?
Was thy wrath against the sea that thou
didst ride upon thy horses and thy chariots
of salvation?
Thy bow was made quite naked according to
the oaths of the tribes.
Even thy word now did cleave the earth
with rivers.
The mountains saw thee and they trembled.
The overflowing of the water passed by the
deep uttered his voice and lifted up his
hands on high.
The sun and the moon stood still in
their habitation and at the light of thine
arrows they went and at the shining of
thy glittering spear.
Thou didst march through the land in indignation.
Indignation is a word in the Old Testament
that is commonly used for the period of
the great tribulation of the New Testament.
Thou didst march through the land in indignation.
Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.
Who did he thresh?
The church?
His children?
His people?
No, that's inconsistent with God.
Great judgment is directed against the heathen, not
against God's people.
Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy
people, even for salvation with thine anointed.
You see, indignation and his wrath upon the
heathen, but for his people salvation, that is
deliverance.
Thou woundest the head out of the house
of the wicked by discovering the foundation under
the neck.
Thou didst strike through with his staves the
head of his villages.
They came out as the whirlwind to scatter
me.
Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor
secretly.
Thou didst walk through the sea with thine
horses and through the heap of great waters.
When I heard my belly trembled, my lips
quivered at the voice.
Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled
in myself that I might rest in the
day of trouble.
When he cometh up unto the people, he
will invade them with his truths.
The great day of the wrath of the
almighty God, as he with indignation smites the
heathen, and is described here by Habakkuk.
But then in the midst of all of
this, the great desolation that will take place
as the result of God's judgment coming upon
the earth, the prophet declares, because he is
a man of faith.
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither
shall fruit be in the vines.
The labor of the olive shall fail, and
the fields shall yield no meal.
The flock shall be cut off from the
fold, and there be no herd in the
stalls.
We are told that during the period of
the great tribulation, that there is going to
be a severe famine throughout the earth.
You talk about inflation.
A measure of wheat, about a quart of
wheat, will be sold for a day's wages.
Now you that are putting your money in
gold and silver, the Bible warns you against
that.
So if you bought in gold at $8
.50, and you're weeping and howling, just
know that James said, Go to now ye
rich, weep and howl for the miseries that
have come upon you.
For you have laid up your treasures for
the last days, but your gold and silver
is cankered, you know, you can't eat it.
Hey, put, you know, if you want to
invest and be the richest man in the
tribulation, put your money in wheat, futures in
wheat.
You can be the richest man in the
tribulation, if riches are your desire.
Better to just put your trust in Jesus
and lay up for yourself treasures in heaven,
escape the great tribulation.
But there will be a time of tremendous
famine that is coming upon the earth.
Can you imagine what will be done to
the agriculture of the earth, if we say
have a major nuclear war between the United
States and Russia?
With all of the strontium-90 fallout, it
would so poison all of the crops, all
of the food as to make them inedible.
Even the milk, because the cows eating the
grass and the grains and so forth would
be getting the strontium-90.
And those that were dissolved in the heat
of the epicenter would be much better off
than those who survived the initial blast, only
to starve to death later or to be
killed as someone is trying to take away
the food that they've stored 50 feet underground
to keep it from being radiated.
I'll tell you the scenario of the aftermath
of an atomic war would be so horrible.
I pray that God will have mercy upon
me and let one of those bombs go
off directly overhead, if there is to be
such a conflagration by and among men.
I don't understand the mentality that is trying
to survive an atomic holocaust.
I have no desire to, if man gets
that far, I have no desire to survive
it.
I'm too old.
Now, the Prophet has been talking about this
great day of God's indignation, judgment.
And although the fig tree shall not blossom,
no fruit in the vines, no olives on
the olive trees, no grain fields, no flocks,
no herds, yet, in spite of all of
this, I will rejoice in the Lord.
The word rejoice in the Hebrew is literally
leap for joy, as North Carolina did the
other night after winning the NCAA championships.
Did you see those guys?
Man, what leaping for joy, what spinning around.
I will joy in the God of my
salvation.
And that word joy is a Hebrew word
gil, which is to spin around under the
influence of a great emotion such as joy.
I'll jump for joy in the Lord.
I'll spin around in the God of my
salvation, not jump for joy because of the
famine, because of the desolation.
There is, again, something wrong with the teaching
that you're supposed to thank God for everything.
You can thank God in everything, but you
can't thank him for everything.
And there's a vast difference.
I many times weep over this situation, though
I still joy in the Lord.
It's only as I keep the right perspective
and keep my eyes upon the Lord and
realize his eternal plan and program that I
can rejoice.
As I look around at the world, I
weep.
But when I look at God's eternal plan
and realize it's not going to be long,
I rejoice.
I jump for joy.
I spin around when I think of the
Lord coming again and the glory of the
Lord, the knowledge of the glory of the
Lord covering the earth as the waters cover
the earth.
Oh, I can spin around and rejoice in
that.
Though I have a very difficult time dealing
with the current social issues of our day
with any kind of joy or gladness or
happiness.
The Lord God is my strength.
Oh, what a glorious declaration to be able
to make.
God is my strength.
I feel sorry for those people who are
trusting in their own strength, in their own
abilities, because always, always your strength is limited
and has its point of limitation.
Where you've expended your strength to its fullest
extent, then what?
But when the Lord is my strength, there's
no end.
How glorious.
The Lord God is my strength and he
will make my feet like Heinz feet, like
the deer's feet, like the goats and make
me to walk upon mine high places.
And then he addresses this psalm to the
chief singer on my stringed instruments.
And so it was set out in Hebrew
poem form and was to be sung with
a cry using the stringed instruments as a
background.
But yet one of the most glorious declarations
of the coming again of the Lord that
we find in the Old Testament.
Of course, in the New Testament unfolded even
in a greater measure, but from the Old
Testament, one of the most beautiful passages speaking
of the glorious coming of God in power
to rule the earth.
So we pray.
Father, again, we thank you for your purposes
and your plans and that your thoughts towards
us are good and not evil.
Thoughts of peace that you will bring us
to your expected end.
Lord, help us as we wait for thee.
And as we tarry, God, we look at
the world and we realize the pollution, the
unrighteousness that seems to prevail, even the conditions
as described by Habakkuk.
And as the other prophet who cried, Lord,
the righteous man ceaseth in the land.
And it would seem that the forces and
the tide of evil is so strong, so
powerful, so overwhelming, there is no stopping, not
even a slowing down.
Oh, Lord Jesus, how we long for thy
kingdom to come and thy will to be
done in this earth, even as it is
in heaven.
How we long, Lord, to see righteousness cover
the earth and the knowledge of the glory
of the Lord to cover the earth.
Haste the day, Father.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus, is our prayer tonight.
Amen.
May the Lord be with you and may
the Lord give you a wonderful week.
May his hand just rest upon your life
in a very special way.
And may your faith in God be increased.
May the Lord help you, as with those
men of faith, to endure because you can
see actually what others cannot see, that eternal
plan and purpose of God.
And may God bring you into harmony with
his purposes for your life as you walk
with him this week.
In Jesus name.