Evil Will Face Judgement in God’s Time; The Righteous Must Live by Faith
Notes
Transcript
No matter what God is in control.
Scene 2: You may not see it but God has a plan, he is Sovereign and He has a much bigger picture than we do. V 2-3
3 This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.
Here is the point.
God’s timing is not ours.
He will act.
It will not be in our time, but in his.
It may take days, weeks, months, years or even centuries.
But God has his timetable and it is the only one that counts.
So you may as well follow it.
Because you can’t impose your agenda on God.
And we could just stop there for the day.
For that is the point.
But seeing as this is a Baptist Church and a sermon of a reasonable length is sort of expected, we shall continue.
Scene 3: Evil will not last, it will be destroyed; even Babylon the great of Biblical times and the figurative Babylon of the end times will be destroyed. Habakkuk 2:3-5
We get all concerned that evil will triumph.
And for a time it will seem as if it has.
We look around us today and i know that many of us are very concerned at what the future holds.
We see western society crumbling around us.
Social norms and morals are torn down, labeled as archaic and evil.
That which is good is called evil and evil is celebrated.
Laws are passed at State and Federal level which undermine true freedom in the name of protecting the vulnerable and being just.
We see nations destroyed by greed and hate.
There is this ideological conviction that my way is right and all who oppose me must be silenced or destroyed.
A consistent theme is that great evil is very arrogant.
And we may feel that there is nothing we can do.
Babylon consumed all the nations around it.
Many others in ancient and modern times have done the same thing.
Conquest after conquest.
All with a sense of superiority, that causes people to fear that they will meet a horrible end.
Arrogance and great excess, whilst others go without, is a hall mark of despots the world over.
We saw it in ancient times; we see it still today in our times.
As verse 5 tells us the Babylonians were known for their drunken reverallry.
Daniel 5 tells us that Babylon was conquered while Belshazzar and his leaders were feasting at a riotous banquet.
They had called Daniel in to interprete the words that a mysterious hand had written on the wall.
Daniel told them that the Lord would bring about their death that very night.
They had boasted of their arrogance enough.
Their were drinking their wine from the golden cups taken from the temple in Jerusalem.
The rulers were so busy in their druken reverally that they didn’t notice that the Persian forces had diverted the Euphrates river into an old channel, suddenly lowering the height of the river flowing through the city so much that the Persian Army was able to go under the river gates and take the city with barely a fight.
Babylon fell in October 539 BC, because they did not honour the Lord, instead they worshipped the objects of their wealth.
Many fear a new Babylon, a world ruler more powerful and evil than ever before.
But that force to will fall.
What we need to remember is this.
Habakkuk 2:4 The Righteous Will Live by His Faith.
Habakkuk 2:4 (NIV84)
4 “See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous will live by his faith—
This phrase sparkles like a diamond in a pile of soot.
In the midst of God’s unrelenting condemnations of Babylon stands a bright revelation of God’s favor that is quoted three times in the New Testament (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38)
Few phrases of Scripture have had as far-reaching an impact as the Lord’s declaration to Habakkuk that “the just shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4).
If you are a Protestant today, this verse is an important part of your spiritual heritage:
Martin Luther adopted it as his watchword during the Protestant Reformation of the early 1500s.
It is the verse that set the church free from the shackles of corruption and empty religion.
We can live in fear of what is coming.
And it may well come.
Or we can live in freedom, with joy, knowing that through faith in Christ we have salvation.
A freedom that can never be taken away.
Though evil may rage all around, in Christ there is peace, joy, freedom and eternal salvation.
Scene 4: Be assured great judgement will be poured out on all types of evil.
Babylon faced judgement and the Babylon to come will also face judgement.
Listen to the beginning of verse 6
The day has come and will come again when all will taunt Babylon with ridicule and scorn.
Habakkuk lists five woes.
A woe is an oracle of judgment consisting of two parts: a declaration of the wrong and a notice of impending judgment.
The judgment usually applies the principle of the law of retaliation: a wrong would come back to haunt the wrongdoer
While the focus of the vision is on Babylon’s fall in 539 b.c.
It also applies to the fall of all human kingdoms.
Babylon the Great will fall, never to rise again as Rev 17:1—19:4 tells us.
The vision has five parts.
Each is introduced by, or contains within, the Hebrew word translated “woe.”
These are the five sections:
(1) The folly of extortion and plunder. (vv. 6–8);
Those who have got rich by plunder will be plundered themselves.
(2) The folly of exploitation and injustice. (vv. 9, 10);
Those who have built on the profits of crime will find their very houses giving evidence against them.
(3) The folly of murder. (vv. 11–14);
Nothing will last which is built by violence.
God will use it for matchwood — and put a sea of justice in its place.
(4) The folly of drunkenness and immorality. (vv. 15–17);
Those who have brought about the shame of others will find that it’s their own turn to be disgraced. And,
(5) The folly of idolatry. (Vv. 18–20).
Those who make idols are trusting in objects of wood and stone which are powerless to give teaching or guidance.
Scene 5: Evil will be judged, in all things God is the sovereign Lord over all,
He is in control.
We need not fear.
We need not strive to take matters into our own hands.
Verse 20 tells us in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties God calls us as he called Habakkuk to be silent in awe before him.
For Habakkuk, the message was clear.
Stop complaining!
Stop doubting!
God is not indifferent to sin.
He is not insensitive to suffering.
The Lord is neither inactive nor impervious.
He told Habakkuk.
And now he tells all of us.
He is in control.
In His perfect time Yahweh will accomplish His divine purpose.
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
