Well, good morning and welcome and Merry Christmas. And please open your Bibles to the book of Habakkuk, chapter two. Habakkuk is one of the books, little book toward the end of your Old Testament. It goes Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk. If you get Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, you've gone too far. And if you're using one of the Bibles that we provide for you, find Ephekic 2 on page 934 of those Bibles. So, Bibles under the chair, page 934, if you're using one of those. Today's message is about the end of the world. In Christian theology, we call this eschatology. But a number of you know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that word, but not everyone. So we're going to have a little vocabulary session right here at the front end of the message. So I'm going to count to three, and I would like everybody to say the word eschatology on three. Okay? One, two, three. Great, good start here. We've got a few. Eschatology is a noun, okay? Simply, it is just the study of last things. You can tell by the last four letters, that suffix, L-O-G-Y, that it is a field of study. So just like... Biology is the study of bio or living things. Eschatology is the study of last things or the study of the eschaton. Okay, I want everybody to say eschaton on three. One, two, three. Thank you. Eschaton is also a noun, and it is the events that comprise the last things. The eschaton includes events like the return of Christ, the rapture, the marriage supper of the Lamb, the resurrection of the just and unjust, and the judgment of the living and the dead. One more word that we need to cover because I'm gonna say it a lot today, okay? And it's similar, but it's eschatological. So I'm gonna say one more time, one, two, three. This one is an adjective, so it describes words that are nouns. So when you put this adjective, eschatological, in front of a noun, it means that the noun is related to judgment or death or the end of the world or the destiny of human souls. So I might say that Christians look forward to their eschatological hope. Or we might say that the return of Christ is an eschatological promise, or that unbelievers should dread their eschatological judgment. And I'm always grateful for the opportunity to preach and teach on passages that have an emphasis on eschatology. However, this passage may not be eschatological in the way that you think of that doctrine. You see, eschatology is not merely a study of the book of Revelation or the apocalypse. You have to understand that any time we are talking about our final hope as Christians, or heaven, or hell, or death, or judgment. We are talking broadly about eschatology. And today's passage is Habakkuk 2, and you're going to see, as I read this passage soon, you're going to see many judgments being pronounced upon God's enemies. And the implication of these judgments for God's people is that even though they themselves were currently going through a trial, a famine of sorts, They need to patiently wait for God to execute perfect justice through His righteous judgment. Last time when we were in Habakkuk, we learned that our faith needs to be an invasive faith. When the Babylonians were invading, God said, the righteous shall live by faith. So invasive faith in the way that I am using that word, invasive faith is your faith persisting even when things aren't going well. It is your faith continuing to be manifested whether you currently appreciate the circumstances in your life or not. Your faith must invade your trials. That was last time, but this time we're going to look at the importance not of having faith that invades, but of having faith that waits. When God has made promises, whether those are promises of blessing for his people or promises of judgment upon his enemies, our faith must be the type of faith that can wait for God's timing. So I will read for you Habakkuk 2, verses 6 through 20. And the contents of this passage are colorful and perhaps shocking. This is a taunt song in which the prophet celebrates the future eschatological demise of Judah's enemies, the Babylonians. I know that sounds a little bit weird to us. We'll talk about that. But the prophet is really expressing hope that although Babylon is wreaking havoc on Judah today, another day is coming. A day when God will pay Babylon back for everything that they are doing to Judah. Judah needs to have faith that waits for God's righteous judgment, just as we today must have faith that waits for God's eschatological promises. Let's read our passage, Habakkuk 2, starting in verse 6. Will not all of these take up a taunt song against him, even mockery and insinuations against him, and say, Woe to him who increases what is not his, for how long, and makes himself rich with loans? Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, and those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them. Because you have looted many nations, all the remainder of the peoples will loot you, because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town, and all its inhabitants. Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to put his nest on high, to be delivered from the hand of calamity. You have devised a shameful thing for your house by cutting off many peoples. So you are sinning against yourself. Surely the stone will cry out from the wall and the rafter will answer it from the framework. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a house, a town with violence. Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts that people's toil for fire and nations grow weary for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness. You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you and utter disgrace will come upon your glory. for the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them, because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants. What prophet is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols. Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, awake, to a mute stone, arise, and that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it. But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. I think we can all agree, no matter what other words you may use to describe this passage, that these are strong and weighty words from our God through the prophet. Does it ever feel wrong to you, Christian, that part of your eschatological hope is the judgment of others and the righteous fury of God upon the wicked? Is it hard for you to rejoice? Excuse me. I'm not crying, not yet. I just have something stuck in my throat. I think we can all relate to it being difficult. to read about the judgment of God upon evildoers. And I think one of the reasons that it's hard is because we all know and love some people who are currently on the wrong side of this equation. And I do think it's okay to read about God's plan for evil and emotionally struggle as a Christian because you have loved ones that in their current state would be judged by God. It's okay to struggle with that. Paul himself in Romans nine, he, uh, he says he has unceasing anguish and sorrow for his kinsmen who are unbelievers. One word of encouragement related to this, just remember that no matter what things look like today, no matter what spiritual state your friends and family are currently in, God may yet choose to save them. Don't be discouraged and don't grieve what isn't yet apparent. Keep praying, keep sharing the truth with them. It's understandable and okay to struggle as a Christian with the doctrine of God's righteous judgment. But I'll also say that what's not okay is to pretend that judgment isn't part of God's story and God's plan. And there is a brand of Christianity, alive and well in this world today, that is openly repulsed by the idea of judgment. They may even say things like, I could never worship a God who... That's a dangerous statement. I could never worship a God who judges a city commanding Israel to destroy every man, woman, child, and animal in the city. They might say, I could never worship a God who created people knowing that they would end up spending eternity in hell. You know, I think we have a problem here because the God of the Bible has done those things. We have to ask ourselves questions like this. Am I going to reform my idea of who God must be on the basis of my opinions and my modern sensibilities and my emotions when I'm just a fallen creature? Or am I going to seek to reform my emotions on the basis of who God has declared Himself to be? Which one of these things is off? To be a Bible-believing Christian is to willfully ascribe total sovereignty and power and goodness to someone who is wholly outside of myself and wholly outside of creation. So I'll say again today, something that I've said many times and I'll continue to say, if we read the Bible and we find something that we don't like, we did not discover a problem with God. We've revealed a problem in ourselves. If you don't approve of what God has done, someone needs to change, but it's not God. Do we really want to set ourselves up as God's judge? I trust the answer is no. Therefore, we believe and speak whatever God's word says. And if I could insert one thing about my understanding of our current cultural moment. So this is front-loading application. This is not just my musings, but how are we going to apply what we will hear today. I think that young and old Christians alike but especially younger Christians, and perhaps even more especially young Christian men, I think many are tired of Christianity that softens things that God has said in order to win the approval of unbelievers. That's a negative way to say it. Here's a positive way. I think that many Christians, young and old, but especially young and especially young men, are currently longing for churches and institutions to stand firmly and boldly for the truth. And I understand that whenever there's a call for renewal and the people calling the loudest are the young men, there should be some danger signs, danger lights going off in our head. We would all do well to remember the verse, the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. That's true. I don't think we need more red-faced shouting or social media influencers to stoke division between young and old in our church. That's not what I'm saying. But we do need to realize and take advantage of the fact that in this moment, there are a lot of people, a lot of young people, hungry for stability. They've been told for years that there's no such thing as truth. And it goes against their very design, their very created longings. They're hungry for something to build their life on. They're hungry for the rock. The King, Jesus Christ, and my desire is for our church to be a place where young, ambitious Christians, along with their flaws, along with their tenacity, are welcome to worship, to serve, to grow, to disciple, and to be discipled. These young people are going to affect change in the world one way or another. I want that change to be something that Jesus would approve of. But these people are hungry for a full-orbed Christianity that touches every part of life and for leaders who don't shy away from difficult parts of the Bible, which I think includes our passage today. So if you're allergic to talking about God's judgment, then you will have a reaction to today's passage. But remember, church, we don't owe anyone an apology for God's decisions. The unbelievers are the ones who need to apologize, and by that I mean to seek forgiveness from the God that they have offended and receive a full pardon in Jesus Christ. and in his finished work. So with that said, let's walk through these five woes in Habakkuk chapter two. Hopefully you notice the word woe as we read the passage together. A woe is simply a pronouncement of judgment and these five woes make up the taunt song that is being delivered against Babylon as a response to the prophecy in the previous chapter that Babylon is about to come and destroy Judah. But Babylon will be held accountable as foreshadowed by the following five woes. The first woe is against the extortioner. Look in the middle of verse six. Woe to him who increases what is not his for how long and makes himself rich with loans. Now, on the surface, that doesn't look like a violent conquest passage necessarily, does it? It's actually an illustration that answers what is the coming conquest of Babylon like? To what could it be compared? Verse 6 compares Babylon and its conquest of Judah to extortion using this example, an example that we might call in our day a payday lender. The Babylonian conquest is like people who deliberately target the poor, the uneducated, the people who are down on their luck, and they try to profit off of them. That's evil. The Israelite community to whom this was written had laws against this, and it would have been broadly conceived of as evil in that culture. It's evil to engage in business dealings that deliberately and systematically take advantage of a person's ignorance or poverty or life situation. Now, if you're hearing this and you're a careful thinker, you might want to precisely define the word extortion. I'll just say that that's not really what this passage is meant to do. This passage doesn't tell us where the line is between different things that we may call extortion. like selling water bottles for $7 at a football game. Some of us might jokingly refer to that as extortion, and you can have your own opinions about the actual ethics of that. But then there are things on the other end of the spectrum, like insurance companies creating confusing products to take advantage of the elderly. That's a thing that happens too, and we're probably much more ready to, all of us, call that extortion. And it's obviously more serious, but the passage I'm saying isn't trying to do that. It's not trying to draw lines for us. It's using extortion as an illustration to show us what is this conquest like. It's like someone who, verse 6, makes himself rich with loans. That's the sin illustrated and described. What judgment is pronounced for this sin? Well, we see that in verses seven and eight. Will not your creditors rise up suddenly and those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them because you have looted many nations. All the remainder of the peoples will loot you because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town, and all its inhabitants. So this little three-verse section is self-contained woe against Babylon for their extortion of vulnerable Judah. Woe to Babylon for taking advantage of God's people. That's the message. And these future consequences of Babylon's actions described in verses seven and eight, they're not merely describing God's retaliation in this particular historical setting. All of the woes reveal God's character. God cares about extortion. He cares about the poor and vulnerable. God has a heart for those who are hurting. And those who abuse the vulnerable don't go unseen by God's eyes. And furthermore, these woes foreshadow the eschatological consequences. for all who partake in such wickedness. So they stand as a warning even today, though the immediate context is days gone by. God's character doesn't change. And we will see a pattern like this in all five of the sections that we look at briefly today. There will be a particular sin described, a future judgment pronounced. Usually there's an element of irony, like what they are doing will be turned around on them somehow. And you'll see this pattern emerge as we keep going. So let's look at the second one. The second woe is against the greedy. Verses nine through 11. Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to put his nest on high, to be delivered from the hand of calamity. You have devised a shameful thing for your house by cutting off many peoples. So you are sinning against yourself. Surely the stone will cry out from the wall and the rafter will answer it from the framework. " So in this section, greed is described as evil gain. Let's look quickly at this New Testament key passage on greed. You're familiar with it probably. 1 Timothy 6.10 says, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs." So when we talk about greed, we're talking about the love of money, which is a root sin. Money is a shape-shifting idol because money or wealth represents the ability to purchase any idol that you want. That's what I mean when I call it a shape shifter. It's not money that you want. You want to use money. to do something bad that your heart wants. If you're given to lust, money gives you the ability to rent a prostitute. If you're given to drunkenness, money gives you the ability to buy liquor. If you're given to sloth, money gives you the ability to avoid working. If you're given to sinful fear and anxiety, money might represent an attempt to not need to trust and rely on God every day. And that seems like what's going on in our passage when you look at verse nine. Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house. Why? To put his nest on high, to be delivered from the hand of calamity. The greedy person described in that verse wants money for the purpose of being protected from calamity. Is that going to work in the long run? Will our God show partiality to the wealthy on Judgment Day? That's not how it works. Verse 10 calls this evil gain a shameful thing. Maybe you've witnessed a rich man who thinks he is indestructible and untouchable because of his wealth. The passage says, he is not. Verse 11 says that the stone will cry out from the wall and the rafters will answer it from the framework. What does that mean? Remember, there's an element of irony in most of these judgments. The prophet uses a lot of irony. You have to picture in these lines of text that the greedy rich man is building a tower of protection, a nest on high, it says, so that he can be safe from all people. He's building a kingdom of isolation where he can't be touched or harmed by anyone. And he completes the building project, sits down in the fortress, and then the rocks of the wall and the beams of the rafter start to attack him. His wealth is no fortress from the Almighty. Kingdoms built without God, without Jesus Christ as the cornerstone, are just houses of cards. No one can hide rich or poor from the judgment of God. Woe to the greedy. That's number two. The third woe. The third woe is against the violent. Verses 12 through 14. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence. Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts that people's toil for fire and nations grow weary for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Most of us don't have a stomach for violence, so this sin might not be as relatable as some of the other sections, but the Babylonian army was indeed a bloodthirsty and violent group of people. They had very little regard for human life, for image bearers. What they were more concerned with was building their empire, and they were very successful when their actions are measured against that goal. We need to make sure that we notice verse 13, where it says, is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts that people toil for fire? Two things to see in that verse. Number one, the events described are in some sense of the word from God. That's pretty clear. We'd already read in chapter one, verse six, that God is the one raising up the Chaldeans to accomplish the judgment of Judah. Here we see that again, but we see more. What specifically is from the Lord of hosts? Well, number two, the second thing to notice in that phrase is toiling for fire. And what does that mean? It means essentially they're working for nothing. They're working for something that won't last. There's a very similar Hebrew phrase used in Jeremiah 51, And even the context of Jeremiah 51 is similar. It is the Babylonian destruction of Judah. Here's the verse on the screen. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The people's labor for nothing and the nations weary themselves only for fire. The efforts of the violent are futile and vain in God's eyes. It is like building a house, again, different illustration but same idea. It's like building a house and taking great care as you build it, make sure everything is precise and square. designing it carefully, putting in carpet and curtains and decorations, furnishing the house, filling the cupboards with the best pots and pans, even filling the pantry with the best snacks only to have a giant bonfire where the house, along with all the effort put into it, is reduced to ash. That's what it means to toil and labor for fire. Psalm 127 says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Those who build a life without God are toiling for fire. Furthermore, fire is a consistent symbol and description of God's judgment. Dave Dietz read from 2 Peter 3, Verse 10 of that passage said, the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Imagine the horror. The horror of spending your life in pursuit of prosperity or prestige or pleasure or any other idol you can think of. Imagine the horror of all those worldly efforts being reduced to ash when our Lord returns. Even as unbelievers, the New Testament says our good works will go through the tests of fire. What is going to come out of that furnace on the other end when our works are tested? Are we greedy and violent? Are we building a fortress that will one day attack us? Are we laboring merely for fire? God forbid that to be the case. Thank you. It's my prayer that none who know the Lord will waste any more of the time that God has stewarded to us. Don't labor for fire. Don't waste your life. Help build a sturdy foundation for the eternal kingdom. Don't stack wood for the eschatological bonfire. While the violent are seeking to build a name and legacy for themselves, our God is doing something too. Look at verse 14. What is God doing while the violent are building their empire? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. No matter how the nations rage, this is what the eschaton holds. God's glory will be proclaimed and known throughout the entire globe, and we have the privilege as a church to be witnesses of that coming glory. That means we also have the responsibility to be faithful proclaimers of that coming kingdom until he returns. Therefore, woe to the violent who build a kingdom for themselves. That's number three. Now for number four, the fourth woe is against what I'm calling the disgraceful. Verses 15 through 17. Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness. You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will come upon your glory, for the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town, and all its inhabitants. I hope that you're starting to see the pattern here in these little three-verse sections. Basically, the Babylonians are engaged in some sin or some vice, and they think of that vice as a type of savior. But in reality, the sin will be turned around upon them as a judgment. They trust in extortion as an opportunity to get wealthy, turns around on them. They trust in greed as an opportunity for protection and security. And God has the fortress that they're building attack them. They trust in violence as an opportunity to take over the world. But this world will be judged by fire and reduced to ash, so God turns that around on them too. In this section, the Babylonians are likened to Disgraceful men who take advantage of others sexually. They make them drink to look on their nakedness. The Prophet says they're doing the same thing to themselves. Right now, they're drunk with power. But the disgraceful acts that they are engaged in will come back to devour them. They will look back with regret and be overwhelmed with the devastation that they sought to impose on others. Moving along, because I trust we're seeing the pattern and understanding what the prophet is doing, the fifth and final woe is against the idol makers. Verses 18 through 20. What prophet is the idol when its maker has carved it, or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols. Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, awake, to a mute stone, arise, and that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it, but the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. Needless to say, the Babylonians don't worship the true and living God. They worship literal wooden and metal idols that don't have any breath. They are silent. Contrast in your mind a human idol-maker with the way God created man in Genesis. God took dirt, formed it into a man, and breathed into him the breath of life. The idol-makers take wood, form it into a god, but have no power to give it breath, so their idols remain lifeless and silent. The reversal in this passage, in verse 20, is that all the earth will one day stand silent before God, before his righteous judgment. Habakkuk received this message from God and it concluded with, let all the earth be silent before him. And as we read that, it's kind of hard to not think of the book of Job. Job, like Habakkuk, brought questions to God, Job wonders, why God, would you allow everything I have, even my children, to be destroyed? Those are Job's questions. Habakkuk wonders, why God, would you allow the evil Babylonians to be your instrument of judgment against your chosen people? But both of them are asking questions, and then toward the end of the book of Job, when God has put on display his work and his character as an answer to Job's questions, Job says this, Behold, I am of small account, what shall I answer you? He says, I lay my hand on my mouth. Pretty similar to verse 20, not in the text but in the idea. Verse 20 of our passage, let all the earth be silent before him. So when Job or Habakkuk or we ourselves have a question for God that amounts to something like, why do terrible things happen if you are in control and if you love us, God? God answers that in two big ways. Probably more, but at least two. One, he answers it by saying, I'm God and you're not. Creatures don't stand in judgment over the creator. But there's another answer, and it's implicit in each of these five woes. He also says, perfect justice will one day be executed. I know what I'm doing, wait, be patient. And that's what this sermon is meant to be mainly about, waiting. Hopefully the descriptions of various sins are helpful for evaluating your own life in light of God's judgment on a nation that hated him. But I mainly want the takeaway this morning to be this big idea. To survive the famine, you must have faith that waits. The goal of this entire series in Habakkuk is to exhort you to embrace faith in the famine. And there are three attributes that your faith must have in order to survive. We learned last time that your faith must invade every part of your life, the good parts and the seemingly bad parts. This time we are focusing on faith that waits for God to fulfill His promises, including His righteous judgment and vengeance. We live in a fallen world full of suffering and misery, desire. What do we cling to as our hope? What is our blessed eschatological hope? Habakkuk tells us, And I point you to these verses in every sermon because the answer never changes. The end of the book of Habakkuk, though the fig tree should not blossom, 317, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will rejoice in the God of my salvation." No matter how things look, we rejoice in God. We choose to walk by faith and not by sight. We trust that God knows what he is doing. Habakkuk had promises from God, and one of the reasons that He had such difficulty at the beginning of Habakkuk, understanding how could God be using the Babylonians. That was so hard for him because he knew the promises. He knew what God had said to Adam, to Abraham, to Moses, and to David. He had a shadowy glimpse of eschatological hope promised to the people of God, and he was able, by God's grace, to cling to and embrace that hope. He had faith in the famine. If it was true for Habakkuk, who just had a shadowy glimpse through the prophets How much more true is it for us on this side of the cross? How much more should we, who know that Jesus, the descendant of David, is the heir of these promises, we who know that Christ fulfilled the law given to Moses, We who know that Christ, when he was asked by the Pharisees if he, being so young, had seen Abraham, Jesus answered, before Abraham was, I am. We who know that Christ stands in our place before God, just as Adam once did, so that just as sin entered the world through one man, Adam, So also can forgiveness for sin be given through the second Adam, through Christ, for all who trust in him. If Habakkuk could embrace faith in the famine because of promises made to Adam and Abraham and Moses and David, how much more Should we who have received the gospel of Jesus Christ and seen him fulfill so many of these promises in his cross work and resurrection, how much more should we be able to look at the famines in our own lives as light momentary affliction when compared with the eternal weight of glory that these very famines are preparing us for? How much more opportunity do we have because of the gospel grace that we have been shown? How much more opportunity do we have to declare our loyalty over and over to God? To declare our willingness to wait if that's what he has for us? No matter what famine we face in this life. Perfect justice will be executed on God's enemies. And guess what? We were His enemies until Christ took our punishment. Because of His substitutionary sacrifice and our faith union with Him, we now share as heirs with Christ, the inheritance of nations. which we will receive at the proper time when he gives justice to those who remain his enemies. And I would simply encourage you to meditate on these truths in the midst of your famines. Beg for the ability to believe, to have faith in the famine, and allow gratitude for all that we have been given to fuel your labors and your obedience as a Christian in the meantime. May God's people pursue and obtain the kind of faith that waits for God's perfect justice. Let's pray together. Father, a great need exists for faith in the area of eschatology. Not in the sense of timing various events, but in the sense of believing that you will do what you have said you will do. Help us to not merely assent to your promises, but to live as if you will be faithful. We won't be disappointed if our hope is in you. Give your people supernatural confidence and comfort and peace in the midst of the famines that you carefully entrust us with. May our trials and difficulties increase our dependence upon you and may we look forward to the day when we can be as grateful for everything as we should be. When we see your son as he is and become like him. Increase our faith and enlarge our hearts. Give us a love for all people. Help our faith to wait. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.