Hope in the Woes - Habakkuk 2 Vs 5 -20

Welcome to Faith Bible Church.

Glad to see you all here this morning. I'm just gonna go through a few announcements. Our next Bible study will be this

Wednesday, February 5th at 530 p .m. and our missionaries of the month are

Jack and Bev McMahon. They serve in New Zealand with BMW so just pray for them.

We just pray that their ministry is fruitful and and that people would be saved as a result of it.

So we'll just start with some prayer and we'll get into worship. Dear Lord, thank you for today.

Thank you for bringing us all here this morning, Lord. We just pray, Lord, that we can enjoy each other's company today,

Lord, and fellowship and we pray that we can just be ready for you today,

Lord, as we worship you through song and through the word, Lord, that it would be something that would penetrate our hearts,

Lord, so that we could continue to minister to those out in the world, Lord. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name, amen.

We talked about last week being in standing in awe of God and our first song is

The Lord is in His Holy Temple and it would be overwhelming.

If God were to appear right now, I think we'd just we'd be awestruck, we'd be overwhelmed with his beauty and how spectacular and how awesome he is and this song really kind of helps focus our hearts as we worship corporately together to think about the holiness of God that he separated, that he set apart.

He is pure and righteous and all the beauty that is in him and so think about that as you sing this song,

The Lord is in His Holy Temple. Let's stand together. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,

Hebrews 9 .22. This morning is from Isaiah.

If you turn your Bibles open to Isaiah chapter 46,

Isaiah 46. We're gonna read verses 5 through 11.

Verse 5, To whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we should be alike?

They lavish gold out of the bag and waste silver on the scales. They hire a goldsmith and he makes it a god.

They prostrate themselves. Yes, they worship. They bear it on the shoulder.

They carry it and set it in its place and it stands. From its place it shall not move.

Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

Remember this and show yourselves men. Recall to mind. Oh, you transgressors, remember the former things of old.

For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure calling a bird of prey from the east.

The man who executes my counsel from a far country. Indeed, I have spoken it and I will also bring it to pass.

I have purposed it. I will also do it. May God bless the reading of his word.

Let us open to Habakkuk 2 verses 5 through 20. Habakkuk 2 verses 5 through 20.

Habakkuk is in the last part of the Old Testament after the law, after the historical books, after the major prophets and I believe it's the eighth one in the minor prophets.

So it might be even faster if you find Matthew and go backwards. So Habakkuk chapter 2 verse indeed because he transgresses by wine he is a proud man and he does not stay at home because he enlarges his desire as hell and he is like death and cannot be satisfied.

He gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples. Will not all these take up a proverb against him and a taunting riddle against him and say woe to him who increases what is not his.

How long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges. Will not your creditors rise up suddenly?

Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. Because you have plundered many nations all the remnant of the people shall plunder you.

Because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city and all who dwell in it. Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house that he may set his nest on high that he may be delivered from their power of disaster.

You give shameful counsel to your house cutting off many peoples and sin against your soul for the stone will cry out from the wall and the beam from the timbers will answer it.

Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed who establishes a city by iniquity. Behold it is not of the

Lord of hosts that the people's labor to feed the fire and the nations weary themselves in vain.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor pressing him to your bottle even to make him drunk that you may look on his nakedness.

You are filled with shame instead of glory you also drink and be exposed as uncircumcised.

The cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned against you and utter shame with will be on your glory.

For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you and the plunder of beasts will make which made them afraid because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city and of all who dwell in it.

What profit is the image that its maker should carve it the mold image a teacher of lies that the maker of its mold should trust in it to make mute idols.

Woe to him who say to wood awake to silence don't arise it shall teach.

Behold it is overlaid with gold and silver yet in it there is no breath at all but the

Lord is in his holy temple let all the earth keep silence before him.

This is the word of the Lord let us pray. Father we're grateful that the judgment day is coming and you will make all things right and because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross for us that we are rescued from the judgment day that is coming not because of our righteousness but because of his righteousness that is put on us.

Help us to trust him knowing that he took all of our sin faced the punishment we deserved and he rose from the dead.

Help us to know that he is the reason why we are saved from the judgment that's coming in his name we pray.

This section of Habakkuk is the taunt song.

This taunt song is the explanation of God's answer to Habakkuk from chapter 2 verse 4 the famous one behold the proud his soul is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith.

This is the long explanation to Habakkuk's dilemma.

How could the Holy God use such a wicked nation to judge a less evil nation

Judah and how could such a despicable and destructive people ever be stopped?

If these types of brutal violent people can go against Judah and just conquer them and all the other nations who can ever stop these people?

That's the little dilemma here. God you can't be doing this and this section unpacks what will happen to the proud which

God announced in chapter 4. Behold the proud his soul is not upright in him.

This is the section the taunt song the mocking song that is devoted to the proud.

What will the wicked ultimately face? If you have been counting as I've read there are five woes.

Woes are condemnations against the proud Babylon. Four of them are woes for the violence done to other nations and creatures which tells us a lot about God's authority.

He is watching and not only that he has the authority to righteously judge for the sins committed against even the nations that don't worship him, right?

Only Judah knew about the Lord but God is punishing or will punish

Babylon for all the evil that Babylon will do against the other nations.

God is not God of just the Jews but of all the nations. That is important.

The last woe is for the rebellion against the true God and as you can see each woe intensifies in crime.

The first four woes is composed of three sections. The pronouncement of their sin, the future judgment coming and the reason for the judgment.

The final woe also has these three parts but in a different order. The reason for judgment comes first, the pronouncement of their sin and then the future judgment.

Dr. Patterson of Liberty University, that's the commentary

I've been using, actually uses a helpful alliteration to remember all five of the woes.

The five of the woes are the first ones against the plunderers, the second ones against the plotters, the third ones against the pillagers, the fourth ones against the perverters, the fifth one finally against God is against the polytheists, those who worship many gods, those who worship false gods.

And I thought that was very helpful. Plunders, plotters, pillagers, perverters, polytheists, five

Ps all corresponding to each of the five woes.

This is important for us this morning because we live in a culture in which judgment is a hate word.

The worst thing you can be possibly called in this city is judgmental.

And I'm not saying let's all go out there with the picket sign saying you're all going to hell.

That's that's not what I'm saying at all, right? It's just this idea that we are so self -absorbed and self -focused that anyone who's telling you to do something that is not in line with your will, we are personally offended by that.

And thus, we have created a self -righteous narcissistic culture.

You can't tell me what to do. And that applies to anyone and everyone.

Now parents can't tell the kids what to do, teachers can't tell the kids what to do, there can't be any discipline for wrong actions and wrong behavior, wrong ideas, right?

Because we have thrown out any notion of judgment. And this becomes extremely problematic when we apply this notion to the ultimate judge,

God. You might have heard, I can't believe in a judgmental

God. The irony of this statement, of course, is that we are placing

God under judgment for who he is. We have elevated ourselves above God to tell

God what he can or cannot do. Yet God's redemptive answer to the prophet's dilemma is, in fact, his holy judgment.

That is how the righteous will live by faith. That's the answer.

That is God's response to the wicked nation that seemed like unstoppable.

Or my OT professor would say, a military juggernaut. God's judgment is, in fact, part of the answer to the salvation of the righteous.

In order for the salvation of the righteous to occur, God's judgment must occur.

God's response to evil and wickedness is judgment because that is his nature and character, his holy.

He cannot stand evil. And in order for God to deliver his people from sin and evil, judgment is necessary.

And this morning, even for the church, we must eagerly wait for his judgment and salvation.

Judgment is coming against the wicked. And that's the hope we have.

The hope is that people of God who have suffered at the hands of the oppressors and the wicked, tyrants, have not suffered pointlessly.

But they will, in fact, be delivered and God's purity and righteousness will be reflected in all of his glory.

That's the importance of his judgment. Without the idea of a judgmental God, there is no hope of the eschatological restoration.

The evil has to be dealt with in order to save the righteous.

The main point of today's text is that God's people can eagerly hope for the future salvation because God will judge every sin against others and even against himself.

God's people can eagerly hope for their future salvation because God will judge every sin against others and against himself.

It is odd to say that we're eagerly hoping for the judgment day, but if you want the full restoration of this world, if you want the helpless cries of the victims to stop, the judgment is the answer.

First, God will judge the wicked for every injustice against others. God will judge the wicked for every injustice against others.

Before the woes, God, in fact, characterizes the proud in verse 5. Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, he's a proud man and he does not stay at home.

This verse needs to be unpacked here because there are various translations. Some translations have something like wine is a traitor, wine is all of a sudden personified.

That's more of a wooden translation and I do like it that way because it shows the descriptive nature, rather deceptive nature of the proud and the prophet illustrates that by comparing it to the deceptive nature of drinking, right, drinking wine.

For drunkards, so anyone who obsessively and over drink, it always starts with the seemingly harmless one glass of wine, right.

It is always just that one glass of wine. It will make you feel good.

It will help you relax. Then before you know it, that drunkard is consumed by the wine and it's no longer just a glass, it's, we're counting by bottles.

And by the time we get to that point, he is, he's not the one consuming wine, he is consumed by wine.

And at this point, he is wasted and, and what Habakkuk is illustrating here is, here for the proud, their unending, unstoppable appetite betrays them.

It is their own appetite that guarantees their fall, just like wine is a betrayer to the drunkard.

The initial harmless promise of rest is no longer there for the drunkard.

That's the point that God is making here. God is showing that Babylon, that unstoppable force that keeps on consuming and conquering all the nations, their end will come and it is due to their unquenchable appetite for more and more and more.

A proud man here suggests that he is self -absorbed and self -indulging. His appetite is unstoppable and he doesn't want just some, a proud man wants it all.

A proud man doesn't want a specific amount, he's got to have it all. This is the description of Babylon.

He does not stay home means there is no security. He's always moving about, he is unsettled.

And this is the natural result of a proud man, a self -deified man, self -absorbed man, a narcissist.

If he himself views himself as God, then life is always unsettling because there is nothing else to lean on or trust.

And if you know of very prideful people, they're never staying at one job, they're never staying at one location, they're constantly unsettled, they're constantly moving around.

They don't have a set even familial relationships. There's always battle going on with one family or another.

That is the characteristic of a proud man and such was the case for Babylon.

The latter half of the verse unpacks the Chaldean's appetite because he enlarges his desire as hell or Sheol and he is like death and cannot be satisfied.

He gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples. Hell is the underworld, it's

Sheol. In the Old Testament, we don't have the rich understanding of afterlife because Jesus is the one who actually speaks of hell more than anybody else in the whole

Bible because he's the creator. Now for the Old Testament folks, they still believe there's some sort of afterlife.

Here the appetite of hell or Sheol is the fact that really no one can escape the underworld.

After you enter that, you just can't escape it. In the Old Testament, resurrection wasn't too common.

Only a couple of times, but even those they died. So that's the appetite of hell, that's the appetite of Sheol.

You just can't escape the underworld's grasp when it has you.

Its appetite is gluttonous. And in the similar sense, so is Babylon's appetite.

It will insatiably conquer everything in its sight. It is never satisfied.

And with this introduction, God's taunt song against the Chaldeans begins.

While the Habakkuk is trembling in fear for what the Chaldeans will do to the righteous,

God has no problem mocking them. God is not threatened by the

Chaldeans one bit. He shares what will happen to them in a mockery song, mocking song.

First, verses six to eight share the first woe. All the nations that suffered under Babylon will in fact rise up to mock them instead.

The riddle, the taunt song, or the proverb, all three words are basically saying the same thing in verse six.

All point to the mockery that Babylon will face in the future.

They might be mocked when Babylon judges these nations, including

Judah, but that one day it will, it will happen in which that position will be reversed.

The nations that remain will come back to mock Babylon. The first woe is, of course, against Chaldeans' greedy plundering.

Woe to him who increases what is not his. How long, right? How long is a parenthetical comment.

How long is this going to happen? And to him who loads himself with many pledges.

Pledges here would be sort of a greedy interest, right?

In Judah, that would be unheard of. You don't put interest on your own brother, but the

Babylonians, they're driven by greed, and they will gain other people's wealth by plundering through unfair, unjust interests.

The Babylonian Empire, we have to remember, was expansive. It was huge, and expensive, too.

It covered all of Asia Minor, that's modern -day Turkey, and Arabia, think Saudi Arabia, and that surrounding region, and the southern portion of the

Assyrian Empire, and all of Syro -Palestine. So you can see, it was a huge empire, and you can imagine the treasures they took from all these nations.

In fact, when you read Daniel, they have the temple treasures, too, where the

Emperor is drinking his wine from. Their wealth was unjustly gained, and the question is, what's going to happen to them?

God says there will be a reversal. Verse 7 tells us that the peoples they plundered will rise up to plunder them instead.

Verse 8 tells us the reason. They plundered these people first. What this tells us is

God has heard the cries of the victims, and he will reverse the course of the

Chaldean conquest. Of course, Chaldean is just the ethnic group for the

Babylonians. They're interchangeable. The second woe comes from verses 9 to 11.

Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of disaster.

Building upon the first woe, pun intended, the second woe declares the sin of plotting to find security other than in God.

They're finding security in themselves. Notice the building metaphors.

They envy more gain for their house. Imagine building a house, but it's got to be more.

You got to add more to that. They want more. They're not satisfied.

He hopes to set his nest on high is also figurative language. If you know oranthology or study of birds, a lot of the times birds like to actually make their nest on high.

And what's the reason for that? It's for security. You want the nest on high, so the predators like snakes and other giant mammals can't eat their eggs.

The security is based upon setting the nest on high. And in this case,

Babylon is plotting ways to find security from any current and future threats.

It's doing all it can. They're relying on their schemes and scams to save themselves from future disasters.

In fact, Babylon, I wish we had a photograph, but it was a gigantic city enclosed by two giant walls, not just one set of walls, two giant walls.

And the outer wall was surrounded by a moat. Moat means there was a body of water surrounding the whole city, too.

So, it was extra protected. They've engineered the city to be secure from all harms.

The problem, of course, is that they did it sinfully. They built up their security through wickedness and violence.

Verse 10 tells us, you give shameful counsel to your house, cutting off many peoples, and sin against your soul.

You've caused death in order to build yourself up. You've killed in order to be more secure.

What God says is, their buildings in the end will not bring honor, but shame. And that is an ironic plot twist, because Babylon was known for extremely intricate and powerful, fortified buildings.

In fact, their building project was so important, one of their kings had his own son be part of the building project.

Get it done, even if it means one of my princes is working, too. That's, that's how they took pride in their security.

Look at this city, and it won't ever be destroyed, right?

It's kind of like how people viewed the Titanic, the unsinkable. Babylon, unconquerable.

But God says, otherwise, what will happen to them? Their very buildings will accuse them, for the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the timber will answer it.

The very things they have built up to testify, the very things they have built up to be secure, will in fact be exposed and testify against them.

Not only that, the buildings which they have meticulously designed to build, to build to last, will in fact be destroyed.

If the stones are uncovered, that means something went wrong. If the beams are testifying, there's something off with the structure.

The stones and beams will expose, be exposed to testify against their wickedness.

Continuing with the building project, the third woe intensifies the judgment. Babylon has built its kingdom upon innocent blood.

Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity. Notice the work condition.

Behold, it is not of the Lord of hosts, that the people's labor to feed the fire, and nations weary themselves in vain.

What this shows is the workers for these building projects are barely getting by.

They're barely subsisting. They're barely surviving. And what the Lord makes clear is, that is not from me.

That's not my judgment. That's on them. They're being wicked.

They're going above and beyond what they're called to do here, in wickedness.

The work only, they're, these poor people are working only to keep the fire burning for their meal and heat.

It's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a pretty depressive state, where you have to work in order to just survive.

Most of us work to more than survive, but for these people under Babylon's tyranny, they're just barely getting by.

And you might have experienced something like that when PG &E raised up the price once more.

It seems like you're working just to pay the bills, to keep the house warm during the winter.

Now, what is God's view of all of, all these opulent buildings, beautiful buildings? And nations weary themselves in vain.

Vain means nothing. God views these building projects as nothing. All of this hard work for nothing.

God was not impressed one bit by their lavishing temples and palace. Rather, he saw the injustice and oppression that went into these projects, which were not meant to last.

These buildings were not meant to survive. Babylon hoped to leave a lasting legacy.

God will make sure that they'll end up as piles of rubbles. However, what will actually last?

God tells us what will happen instead. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the

Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Babylon has been investing in the wrong legacy plan here.

None of their wonders of the world will last, and they don't. We don't get to see the hanging gardens of Babylon.

In fact, their prowess lasted only about hundred years. That's not very long for an empire.

God declares only the knowledge of his glory will last. Only God's glory will expand beyond the reaches of any human empire, just like the sea covering the world.

Even to this day, the promise endures. If you want to invest in a lasting legacy, invest in the person of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2, 10 through 11, guarantees what will happen in the last days, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

That's pretty comprehensive in all level. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord. To the glory of God the Father, what will last is

God's glory in and through Jesus Christ. And just as Habakkuk was told that the knowledge of the

Lord will last and cover the world, so it will happen in the last days through Jesus Christ.

And notice we don't bow down to the name of Nebuchadnezzar. Most of the world cannot even say that name.

And what this shows us is anything that competes against God's glory will not only be torn down, but will not last.

Yet Jesus Christ will be globally worshipped for all eternity. The fourth woe is even more grotesque.

Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk, that you may look on his nakedness.

This imagery, right, figurative, shows that the Chaldeans seemingly generously give, you know, something to drink to the neighbor.

It seems like a very kind gesture, only to get them to be drunk and humiliate them in the end, right?

That's more than just plotting. It is an intentional, well -thought -out, planned -out abuse.

It's sheer manipulation. They do this to humiliate and shame them.

They're not even gaining any wealth from this. They're gaining just this sheer delight in conquering.

In response, God will shame them instead. You are filled with shame instead of glory.

You also drink and be exposed as uncircumcised. Exposed as uncircumcised has two ironic effects here.

First, Babylon, it will be Babylon's turn to be exposed as naked.

It will be Babylon that will be shamed, that will be humiliated, right?

That's the first effect. The second effect is when they are exposed as uncircumcised, it means that they're not even

God's covenantal people. Just because God used Babylon to punish

Judah doesn't make them part of the covenant community. This is important.

Babylon will not be redeemed, despite the fact that they've been used by God.

That's a double -whammy judgment. Now, just as Babylon gave the drink to its neighbor, the

Lord has prepared a drink for it. The cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned against you, and utter shame will be on your glory.

Again, the shame language. Shame is the opposite of glory. Glory is high and lifted up.

You're exalted. Shame is the opposite. You want to hide. You don't want to be exposed anymore because of the sheer humiliation.

The cup is often a metaphor that's used to describe

God's wrath, God's punishment. One of my favorite places to go to is

Psalm 75 8. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well -mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.

God's judgment, when it does come, all the wicked will have to have every last drop.

They won't miss a thing, and on that day all their glory will be turned into utter shame.

And verse 17 discloses Babylon's victim to attain glory. Lebanon, beasts, and man's blood.

It is unclear what specific event related to Lebanon that God is mentioning about, mainly because I'm sure

Babylon has done a lot of wicked things against Lebanon. We just don't have the record of it, other than the fact that Lebanon probably got conquered really horribly.

But it is not unimaginable to what kind of atrocity Babylon committed against Lebanon, and here even animals are included.

And that's because oppression and wars done by the wicked often affect the realm of nature too.

It is actually not surprising under wicked tyrannical regimes like communist

China, more animals die, right? The conservation effort doesn't really get much headline, right?

That's because wickedness, godlessness, leads to not really caring about God's world.

Even the animals suffer under wicked tyrants. Odd to say, but God's answer to God's people's salvation is dependent on the fulfillment of his own judgment.

At the core of judgment is God's righteousness.

For God to not judge a wicked tyrant is to discredit his righteousness.

It's to go against his nature and character. For God to stop judging means that God is the most hateful being in the whole world.

Imagine a judge who does not repay evil.

Imagine a judge who turns away from doing his job of executing justice.

That's wicked. And for God to judge is a good thing, and it's part of his salvation.

Can you imagine a world where the cries of the vulnerable will never be answered? Can you imagine a world where the prayers of the victims are ignored?

What can possibly give hope for those who are presently suffering at the hands of the oppressors?

In fact, I would not doubt in the nations that are being persecuted right now due to the in the nations that are persecuting

Christians right now, such as a lot of Muslim countries and a lot of African countries,

China. I'm sure these

Christians find a lot of comfort and peace and hope in the imprecatory

Psalms. Psalms that ask God to judge. The Psalms that urge

God to intervene so that their enemies may be repaid.

Even look at our culture. Every culture has this notion.

Even ours, even the pagan ones. Why do godless people of this country still hold to the notion of karma?

They will say it. Whether they are practicing Hindu, Hindi or not, they will say, that's just karma.

If something bad happens to whoever they believe was evil, they would say that's karma.

Because deep inside, they want it to be true that evil will one day pay.

Deep inside, they want it to be true that evil will no longer stay. And they hope that somehow their suffering was not just pointless, and at some point their suffering will be made right.

Whether they like the judgmental God or not, that's not the question. They do hope in the future retribution.

The Bible gives us the better answer. It gives us the correct answer. Judgment is not an impersonal force that repays evil.

Karma is an impersonal force. Judgment comes from a personal

God who conquers evil. His zeal for righteousness, in fact, led him to the cross to defeat sin and guilt once and for all.

Ultimately, Jesus died to restore the world in righteousness. The restoration of the world, the core of the gospel, is that God's righteousness may be fulfilled.

Because how else will God be able to forgive sinners without destroying every single one of them?

Because God's righteousness will be in question if God just passes over sin without paying for it himself.

At the core of the gospel, we have the righteousness of God that's fulfilled.

We have a holy God who can forgive. And for those who are in Christ, those who trust

Christ, their judgment is paid for.

Their judgment isn't just erased, it's paid for. And those who are not in Christ, those who don't trust in Christ, they will have to receive the judgment themselves.

They will pay for it themselves. And Habakkuk's hope of God's righteous judgment is the same hope we have this morning.

You may have suffered unjustly by evil men or women. I think one of the few, actually many, one of the many things seminary didn't teach me is how much people suffer.

How much people have suffered in the church. You might see them smiling, you might see them doing well on Sunday morning, and they're kind, they're generous, they're gentle.

They seem like they're blessed. And they are. But the amount of trauma and suffering they've gone through in their childhood and even they might be facing now is unspeakable.

And I know this, I think just by being around them, when we have them over, when we visit them, they tell us all sorts of things that they've faced.

And it's unimaginable that they were able to go through that. But you wouldn't know that just by looking at them on a

Sunday morning. There's a lot of pain. There's a lot of suffering. There's a lot of oppression people have gone through, no matter what the background is.

And you may think that those who have caused that, that much pain will get away with it.

After all, they may have gotten away with it all this time. You may have lost all hope of any form of resolution.

You may, you might have been betrayed by the human justice system. I don't know. That happens.

But if you trust in the same God that Habakkuk trusted, then the hope of the judgment applies to you.

God has not missed a single act of evil and he will righteously repay all in his own time.

The court date may not be coming up for a while, but the court date is scheduled on calendar.

However, however unlikely it seems, all will have to stand before the throne room of Christ one day.

And no amount of money and no amount of influence will help them escape the wrath of God that is coming.

The only escape route is in the trust of Jesus Christ. Nothing in their resume will impress

God to let them go free. None of their sweet lies will work this time.

After all, God saw through Babylon's, Babylon's schemes and plots.

The same God will do the same. Now what's the most serious woe?

Second, God will ultimately silence all those who worship mute idols. God will ultimately silence all those who worship mute idols.

The last woe is a judgment against Babylon and her gods. What profit is the image that its maker should carve it, the molded image, a teacher of lies, that the maker of its mold should trust in it to make mute idols?

The final reason for Chaldean's judgment is in fact idolatry. The point of this rhetorical question is to show how ridiculous false worship is.

After all, all these Babylonians emperors, they have credited their victory not to the

Lord God, but to Marduk, their gods, right? And even their gods will have a judgment day before God.

The irrational, the short answer of course is that there is no profit in making idols or worshipping idols.

The irrationality of idolatry is that the idol worshipper is the creator of his own gods, right?

The correct way is that God the creator creates the worshipper, but with idolatry, the worshipper creates the gods that they worship.

It's illogical, it's irrational, it makes no sense. In fact, I think I've mentioned this before,

I saw I saw a meme. A meme is an internet photo that has a message of a man running, and it's like flooded everywhere, right?

And he's running holding a statue of his God, and it says, when you worship a

God whom you have to save, right? Because normally the true

God is the one who saves you. That's the irrationality of idolatry.

Now, God calls it a teacher of lies, and this is because all forms of idolatry perpetuate lies.

After all, every idol originates from a lie that it is divine. The identity of the idol in itself is a lie.

If the foundation of its existence is a lie, what makes you think it can say other truthful things?

That's why all non -christian religions are based upon lies.

And I'm not saying they're always wrong in everything they say, right? Because after all, Muslims will agree that homosexuality is wrong, right?

And I'm not saying that's a lie. It's just that at the core of that religion, it's a lie, it's deceit.

Now, what do they do with these idols? Not only do they make these idols, they trust in it.

The maker of its mold should trust in it to make mute idols? Idolatry flips the created order upside down.

Humans who were created to worship the true God worships that they themselves have created.

Not only are idols untrustworthy, but they're also mute. They cannot talk.

They don't have life. If they cannot talk, they can't do anything.

Compared to the true God who spoke from the beginning, idols are just sheer fraudulent.

And verse 18 introduces the woe, rather 19. Woe to him who says to wood, awake!

To silent stone, arise! It shall teach. Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet in it there is no breath at all.

Judgment is reserved for those who participate in idolatry. Note how God emphasizes their inability to speak yet again.

They're mute idols and the stones are silent. How can a stone that can't talk teach?

After all, they have no breath. It's not living. All idols are incapable of speaking or delivering.

All idols are full of empty promises. That's important.

In the end, all these idols will not save you, but will kill you. Now, how does the

Lord compare? But the Lord, but the Lord. When you see that but, that contrast, it is a 180 degree span.

But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him.

It's, it's actually very magnificent that Victor and Barb found that song. It's based upon Habakkuk 220.

But the Lord is in his temple, and let all the earth keep silence before him.

Unlike the idols, the Lord is living. He has his own house. He's in his temple.

He dwells in his holy temple. He's enthroned. He reigns. Not only that, everything is hushed before his presence.

This is the verse that vanishes Habakkuk's worry. The Lord God is not like the other gods.

Imagine what Habakkuk might have been thinking. God, your honor's at stake.

Marduk, their Babylonian God, will get all the glory for their victory. But we get a glimpse of what's going to happen in the future, in the very distant future.

Habakkuk sees that the righteous ones do not have to worry, because when they take a look at their

God dwelling in the holy temple, enthroned, all of the world will be hushed.

There's an ironic plot twist here. All these people who can't actually speak, they can't even make an idol that speaks.

Idols are pointless. They're vain. They're empty because they can't even say a thing. But when all the world is standing before God, the true

God, the Lord God, they will be hushed in reverence and fear.

His holy presence is what guarantees the prophet

Habakkuk to continue on, to have hope. Behind every godless culture are false gods.

There's no doubt. All wickedness stems from the breaking of the most important commandment of all.

You shall love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. When we replace

God with false gods, we become grotesque and violent like Babylon. If you were squirming by the woes that were read about what

Babylon has done, ultimately the source of it is because they worship the wrong gods.

In fact, there is a modern example that we can look at.

Consider World War II. Consider World War II. Compare how

America treated its prisoners of war and how Germany, Soviet Russia, and Japan treated their prisoners of war.

How come the last three nations were notoriously atrocious to the foreign soldiers compared to the

U .S.? In fact, the Germans did not want to surrender to the Soviets because they would rather surrender to the

U .S. because they would be better off. The Japanese, they've done extremely grotesque things that I can't really say it out loud.

They've done human experiments. And well, so did the Germans. What do all these countries have in common?

It comes down to godlessness. They don't worship the true God. When society leaves the true

God, it inevitably discards human dignity and worth. It can no longer treat those who are made in God's image as those who are made in God's image.

The Nazis actually dabbled with occultism. There's historical facts to that.

They practiced witchcraft. Soviet Russia, because they're communists, they're atheists.

Japan, they're not Christians either. They did nature worship, Shintoism, ancestral worship.

None of them were Christians. America, however, was founded on Christian ideals. And even in the 40s, they still had that.

And the question, of course, is why would a culture that rebels against God have any care for those who are made in his image?

If they don't care for God, they don't really care for God's image either. Ultimately, Babylon's primary sin was not greed.

Its primary sin was not violence against the vulnerable. The primary sin against, the primary sin of Babylon was ultimately against the true

God, the rejection of the true God. The increasingly disturbing first four woes stem from the fifth woe, their rebellion against God.

And this shows us a several, shows us several important lessons. First, every time we abuse and use other people, every time we sin against other people, the most offended party is not the victim but God.

You may verbally abuse your spouse, but the most offended party is not your spouse but God.

You may have lied to your parents, but the most offended party is not the parents but God.

All sins offend the Holy God the most. All sins offend the

Holy God first. And if you ever wonder how could a culture, how could the

U .S. turn this way, right? If you've lived long enough, the

U .S. has culturally changed a lot. The answer then of course is when did we reject

God as a culture? When did it become okay to blaspheme God in the open?

When did it become okay to say Jesus is just one of many ways?

And when did it okay, when did it become okay to say that God can't judge, hell's not real?

Answer to that question will answer why this culture has gone so south.

Second, oftentimes when we sin, we place something or someone higher than God.

This is what we call idolatry. We're taking a non -divine thing that becomes the ultimate thing.

One pastor says, idolatry is taking a good thing and making it the ultimate thing because idols don't necessarily have to be just vile.

Sometimes they are. Statues are just vile to worship. But sometimes good things can become ultimate things.

Family can become an idol. Jobs can be an idol.

Money can be an idol. When we sin, we are actively rebelling against God of the universe.

And the desire to sin comes from the implicit idea that our way is better than God's way.

When we say we're not doing this to torture ourselves, ah yes, I want to sin because I want to feel really bad afterward.

No, no, no. We sin because it feels good when we sin. And when we choose to sin, right before that, there is that notion, maybe

God doesn't quite have it right that this is actually bad. Why not?

Can I, of course I can enjoy myself. Or negatively,

God does not have my best in mind. We question His faithfulness and goodness.

And the moment before we choose to sin, we have lowered God's status by a notch or two and we have replaced

Him with something else and oftentimes us. And we can justify any sin in mind.

It was not that bad. I had to do it. Third, every idol is shattered at the presence of the true

God. Consider what gives assurance to and of hope for the prophet.

These pagan Chaldeans will not succeed in taking over the world because their gods are fake.

They have no power behind them. The idolatrous Babylonians will be judged because the true

God actually is living and dwells in the temple. And this is the hope we have this morning.

You may be struggling with idolatrous relationship with substance. I refuse to call it addiction.

Addiction is a psychological term and they made it a disorder. When it's a disorder or disease, it is not a savior who rescues you.

It's a medical treatment. But idolatrous relationship with substance, relationship or whatever, relationship, things, is a sin issue.

It comes from the heart. It comes from replacing God with something else that promises in empty manners that it will provide.

The Bible tells us it's the sinful human condition. And the sinful human condition cannot be medically treated.

It has to be renewed by the death of an innocent being who dies in our place.

The core problem is not brain chemistry, but false worship. And the question is, what hope do we have?

Just like Habakkuk, we have to worship the true God. The only way in which these idols are shattered is not by taking a baseball bat down to the cellar, but rather approaching the

Holy God. The only thing that can defeat idols is not us, but God.

After all, the promise is that all will be hushed before the true God who dwells in the temple.

Every false God will meet its end before the Holy God. And how do we approach

Him? By faith in Jesus Christ. The only way to approach the true

God is to go to the God who approached you first.

Although divine Jesus became man to save others who are enslaved to really infect idols.

They're idol worshipers. He rescued sinners from idols by reconciling sinners to himself, the true

God. He took on our sin and died the death that we deserved so that we would belong to the true

God, so that we could always approach the true God. And this is why

Paul can command us to put to death what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, covetousness, which is idolatry,

Colossians 3 .5. For those who are bought by the blood of Christ, idols have no power over you.

That's not your identity. You don't have to submit to it.

You don't have to kneel to it. You have been bought out. You've been rescued.

These idols may have been captivating and have been powerful in your life in the past, yet those who are bought by Christ are freed from these things.

No false gods stand a chance against the one true God in Christ. No false gods can recapture you when you've been freed by Christ.

And this is important. This morning, if you are struggling with temptations of any form of idolatry, the correct answer is to go to Christ.

You don't have to rely on yourself. You must go to the cross in which all the record of your sin and guilt have been nailed and have perished.

And as a freed man and woman, you kneel to the one true

God and ask for His help. And you don't have to suffer through this alone.

Please come talk to me or others who can walk you through this.

I understand it's not a walk in the park, but it is not impossible because it is

God's power. It is the power of the Spirit that empowers you.

You don't have to lean on your own strength. Let us pray. Father, we do ask that your

Son would smash all the idols of our hearts and in our lives, that we would have the hope of knowing that this is not the status quo and this will not be the final story, but the fact that Jesus died on the cross so that we could be freed from our false worship, that we could worship the one true

God at any time, and His presence alone delivers us from all the false things.

Help us to trust in Him and help us to be freed. Help us to walk in forgiveness.