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All right, good evening everyone. Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church. You can grab your hymnals and open up to Psalm 147. Psalm 147 is Shelter in the Time of Storm. Psalm 146, on the first. Does the Lord of all men give me high? My shelter in the time of storm. Set your blood and earth in me tight. My shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land. A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land. A shelter in the time of storm. The shade by the deepness by night. A shelter in the time of storm. No fears of warm, no foes of fright. A shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land. A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land. A shelter in the time of storm. The raging storms may round us deep. A shelter in the time of storm. We'll never leave our safe retreat. A shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land. A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land. A shelter in the time of storm. On the last floor of divine. No refuge here. A shelter in the time of storm. Be thou our helper ever near. A shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land. A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land. A shelter in the time of storm. Eventually, we're going to sing in front of the corridor. You open us up and we're going to pray. Well, God, we thank you for another opportunity to be in the house this evening. We ask that you would bless us with your presence. We ask, Lord, that we will learn from your word this day. May all be done to the glory of your name. Bless those that are yet on their way as well. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, let's turn to our next song. Song number 60. Song number 60. Face to face. Again, it will be face to face with the Lord. Song number 60. On the first. Face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face what will it be. When with rapture I behold Him. Jesus Christ who died for me. Face to face I shall behold Him. Far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory. I shall see Him by and by. Only faintly now I see Him. When the dark impaled His dream. But a blessed day is coming. When His glory shall be seen. Face to face I shall behold Him. Far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory. I shall see Him by and by. One rejoicing in His presence. Face to face I shall behold Him. Far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory. I shall see Him by and by. Face to face I shall see Him by and by. Face to face in all His glory. I shall see Him by and by. Face to face a blissful moment. Face to face to see and know. Face to face with my Redeemer. Jesus Christ who loves me so. Face to face I shall behold Him. Far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory. I shall see Him by and by. Amen, all right, welcome to Strong World Baptist Church this evening. At this time we're going to go through our announcements. So if you don't have a bulletin in your hand, just slip your hand up real high and one of our ushers will deliver one to you. And if you open up to the first page you'll see the service times listed there. It's always Sunday morning at 1030. Sunday evening again at 5 p.m. Wednesday night at 7 of course is our Bible study. We did Galatians 6 last week. I didn't update it for this week's bulletin. I was on the road when I had to get these bulletins done. So I did not catch that. But we are starting a brand new book of the Bible tonight. We're starting a book of Habakkuk. So next three weeks. Try to get here for the next two weeks. And you could be here for the whole book of Habakkuk. And then we'll move on to another book after that. We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvation and baptisms. Looks like we had a lot of salvations last week. Praise the Lord for that. Let's go ahead and count up the salvations for this week. If you went soul winning this week, yes sir. Two on Monday? Excellent. And then two? One each? Amen. Anyone else that I missed? Yes sir. One yesterday? Excellent. Anyone else? Alright, very good. I can only assume that the extra salvations are a result of the challenge. So hopefully you are participating with that. And keep up the good work. As I say, I've done a lot of gas station soul winning because that's all I've been able to do for the past couple of days. So if I'm short with you today, it's just because I literally have a lot of things I still have to get done. I'm going to have to bolt out of here right after church because I literally just came into town and showed up here. I need to still get home and unpack and everything else. Well Leslie is coming home tomorrow night so we appreciate your prayers for us and all of that. So we are ready to get back to our regular busy life here. Continuing on, we've got the offering total received through the month of June down there at the bottom of the page. Prayer requests. I see that there are a couple of updates. So thankfully Carlos Martinez is doing well enough to be removed from our list. So we're happy to hear about that. And Mrs. Masler, your sister is improved and doing pretty good now. I'm happy to hear that too. Obviously I assume she still has a wound. I still need to heal but that's a slow process. But no sign of infection. Good. Very good. All right. Does anyone else have any updates for people who are on the list? All right. Please remember to take these home with you. Take a picture with your phone. And remember to be praying for people who are on a list there and people in need of our prayers. On the next page, June challenge is to attempt to give the gospel to at least one person every single day of the month. And as I've said in the past, you know, even if you have missed a day here or there, just try. It's a challenge. Challenge yourself. Don't just throw up your hands and give up and just be like, well, who cares now because I missed it. Just push yourself to do more. Have that at the forefront of your mind. Be thinking about trying to complete it even if you've already missed. Just stay with the spirit of the challenge. You can see the results. We always have like the most salvation's in the month of June because of this challenge, because people are forced themselves to go out and do more than you normally would. So it's it's it's a good challenge. And like I said, even if you don't get the kernel prize, that's not what it's all about. Believe me, for this competition, especially the rewards that we give for completing this are going to pale in comparison to the eternal rewards for leading someone to Christ. So I really hope that the Lord's not going like, well, you got your reward. That would make me want to like miss the challenge by one day. But anyway, stay with the spirit of that. I still owe you for the May challenge. I will get those as soon as I can. Things are just really, really crazy for me right now. Hang in there. I'll get you your prizes that I owe. Our six year anniversary is coming up this weekend. Right. All right. This weekend. So, yeah, I got to remember to pick up the bounce house on Friday for the water slides. And it could be great to be a lot of fun. We have some burgers and dogs and food and refreshments and all kinds of fun stuff on Sunday in between the church services. So I encourage you, especially if you normally go soloing on Sunday and you want to just hang out all day and celebrate to join up in one of the other times that people are going out soloing during the week. Obviously, we have some we only have a few that are listed that are scheduled on the bulletin. But there's plenty of people who go out soloing during the week that are not on an official scheduled times. So if you want to go out, just just, you know, get a hold of the people at Stone Mountain Group has got a great, great thing going on there. It's a big group of people. So I encourage you to join up with them if you can. We'll still send you out on Sunday. I'm not canceling soul winning. Just historically, it's a day that a lot of people choose to hang out and and, you know, have participate in the festivities here. So but but I will not just cancel the soul winning. I will send out everyone who's willing to go. You want to go out soloing on Sunday. We still have a time for you. All right. Greenville Church plant details are all listed there. I believe everything is correct on that. Pastor Anderson is going to be preaching for us on the fifth soloing marathon on the sixth. And then, of course, our grand opening service, this first Sunday service is going to be on the seventh. And if you would, please, if you need a hotel, let me know. I need to know how many people are like if it's your whole family or if it's just you or whatever. I know how many are in each family. So if it's just you and your family, just say, hey, Pastor, me and my family are going. That's fine. You have to tell me the actual number. I know all the families here and how many people are in each family. But if it's going to be different than that, just please specify, OK, I'm going to have, you know, two adults or whatever, because I'm going to try to give you enough beds and things like that if you need a hotel to stay. And then, of course, let me know if it's just for Friday night, just for Saturday night, Friday and Saturday night and things like that. So and let me know ASAP, because I'm going to try to get on that this this week to get those reserved. I have a bunch of emails already. If I haven't responded to you, it's because I haven't responded to anybody yet, because I haven't responded to any emails since I've been gone. So it doesn't mean I didn't receive your email. It just means that I haven't responded because I've been too busy to even practically check my email. So. I will get back to you with reservations, confirmations once I do the booking. So if you've emailed me and if you haven't, just please let me know as soon as you can there. Bible memory passage. We're almost done here with Hebrews Chapter 11, verses 21 through 40. And if you're working on this, I will also give a review week. So I'm going to change this from a 10 week thing to an 11 week thing. I'll give you a chance to review the verses before the deadline. So we'll give you one extra week to get this accomplished if you've been working on this. So you got a little bit of breathing room to finish these last 20 verses in Hebrews 11. Birthdays and anniversaries are listed there. I don't even know what's today's date, the 19th. I see nothing in the bulletin. Did I miss anyone for the month of June? By chance, any birthdays, anniversaries? All right. And I think that is it for the announcement. So with that, I will turn the service back over to Brother Peter, who will lead us in our next song. Church, if you can open up your hymnals, the song number 42. My latest song is sinking fast. Song number 42 on the verse. My latest song is sinking fast. My race is nearly won. My strongest trials now are past. My triumph is begun. Oh, come, angel band, come and the realms we stand. Oh, bear me away on your snowy ways to my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy ways to my eternal home. I know I'm near the holy race of friends and kindred dear. For I am a joyous face, the crossing must be near. Oh, come, angel band, come and the realms we stand. Oh, bear me away on your snowy ways to my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy ways to my eternal home. I've almost reached my heavenly home, my spirit loudly sings. Die, holy ones, behold they come, I hear the noise of wings. Oh, come, angel band, come and the realms we stand. Oh, bear me away on your snowy ways to my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy ways to my eternal home. On the last, oh, bear my lonely heart to it. Oh, let it die for me. With blood now fancies from all sin, it gives me victory. Oh, come, angel band, come and the realms we stand. Oh, bear me away on your snowy ways to my eternal home. Oh, bear me away on your snowy ways to my eternal home. Amen, church. Great seeing you this evening. This time I'd like to ask the ushers if they can please set up for our Wednesday keeping off. Church, we often play spring pass around if you can open up your Bibles to the book of the backing, chapter one. It's a backing, chapter one. As we do customary here at Strong Old Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter. That's for the dead. If you can please do that for us. Amen. Amen. Come from far, they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence. Their faces shall suck 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. They shall deride every stronghold, for they shall eat dust and take it. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over and defend, imputing this his power unto his God. Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my holy one? We shall not die, O Lord. Thou hast ordained them for judgment, and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Wherefore lookest thou upon them that yield treasurously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he, and makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them. They tuck up all of them with the angle to catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag. Therefore, they rejoice in their glass. Therefore, they sacrifice under their net, and burn incense under their drag, because by them their portion is fat, and their meat is lengthiest. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations? Let us pray. Dear Lord, thank you for your work. I pray that you'd help us to learn and to listen. I pray that you'd do the past and the present, and help them to heal their spirit, and help them to preach boldly. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, starting a brand new book of the Bible here, the book of Habakkuk. It's only three chapters, so it won't take us very long to get through this book. It's the next three weeks. But before I even get into the verse by verse, I just want to point out something that might be helpful as we're reading through this just to understand. There's a lot of back and forth in this book between Habakkuk and God. So it's similar to like Song of Solomon. There's some back and forth of different people speaking. And especially when you start reading this first chapter here, there's a break after verse four where then the Lord starts responding to what Habakkuk is saying in verse number five. And just to be clear, and I'll cover this again soon, but what we see is this back and forth between Habakkuk and God. And Habakkuk is saying things that they're not completely false, but they're not like wholly true. Like his understanding of the truth of God and who he is and stuff isn't quite there, but that's why he's going to God and talking to them. He's not wicked like Job's friends, but when you read the book of Job, a lot of Job's friends, they're misapplying the Bible. They're misapplying scripture. They're thinking that Job is wicked and stuff. And here we have something somewhat similar in the sense that Habakkuk is seeing things happen that just seem to be unjust, and he's seeing these events taking place, and he's just thinking like, well, God, where are you? Where's judgment? What's going on? Why are these things happening? But I want to point this out because as we get into this and he's asking these things, he's still really humble, and if we look at the first verse of chapter two, the Bible says, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved. Right? So he's already like expecting God to tell him where he's wrong. So he's bringing this up because he knows, right, we know that God is just. He's trusting in the Lord, but he's just looking at this stuff going like, it just seems like things, this is just not right. So he's bringing this to the Lord, but now just waiting to hear back and be like, okay, where am I wrong? God, like show me, point it out to me, and he's waiting to hear that response. And honestly, you know, we ought to have that heart and that attitude to be really humble, and when we see things that just don't seem right and I don't understand this, and just say, okay, well God, show me where I'm wrong. Okay, if it looks like you're failing at judgment, it looks like somehow your law is just failing to come to pass, then please show me where I'm in error because I know that that can't be true. Right, I know that that cannot be the way things are, so I just need to see why am I in error, what am I missing, what do I not understand, and show me the way. And this is exactly the heart that Habakkuk has, but he has no problem also just going to the Lord. Right, and we ought to as well, you know, don't feel like you can't ask God for things and ask God to help you out and kind of confront the Lord in a way of trying to understand this stuff, and we see this, because this is more of like a back and forth between Habakkuk and the Lord, and we just kind of get to see this in God's Word. That you can have that type of relationship with the Lord to ask Him the concerns of your heart, but then be humble enough to be able to receive an answer and be able to be shown your own errors. So with all of that being said, let's kind of dig in here. We're going to see his first thought here in verse number one, or in the first few verses here of chapter one. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. O Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear? Even cry out unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save. Now, this is coming off the tales of us studying through the book of Psalms, and this was also a similar theme that we saw in the book of Psalms. In the book of Psalms, we see looking to the Lord to be the deliverer and the protector and defender and just casting all your cures on the Lord. But we also had many Psalms where David just going, hey Lord, how long? How long are the enemies going to be getting to me and how long will it be before You protect me? And this is very similar to what Habakkuk is saying here. Look at verse number three. Why dost Thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and there are that raise up strife and contention. Look at verse four. This is his conclusion. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth. For the wicked doth compass about the righteous, therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. And this misunderstanding of how God works is found other places in Scripture as well. But let's keep your place here and turn if you would to Psalm 35, because there's a few things that I want to dig into here, but I wanted to read through just this first set, this first thought, complete thought from Habakkuk, and we're going to break it down now into a couple of different sections. So the first one is just how long. He's asking how long shall I cry and you're not going to hear? Like how long could this possibly go on? And of course the very first thing we need to remember is that God works in God's time, not in ours. Okay, so, you know, don't get discouraged if you feel like God isn't hearing you or God's not answering your prayers. We need to stay faithful and know that God will operate on his timeline. Look at verse number 11 of Psalm 35. The Bible reads, False witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother. But in mine adversity, they rejoiced and gathered themselves together. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me and I knew it not. They did tear me and ceased not. With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. So, here, now, we're looking at Psalm 35, but I also want to point out, there's some differences here in the context of Psalm 35 versus what we're reading about in Habakkuk. In Habakkuk, God's talking about, he's prophesying, you know, the Chaldeans, Babylon, coming and taking away the children of Israel, the children of Judah, captive. The Jews are going to be taken captive by the Babylonians and it's because of their own sin. It's because of their stiff neck and hard heart against the Lord and worshiping false gods and all the other things that they did wrong is why they're going to be judged. Right? Now, Habakkuk might not have been guilty of those things, but the people definitely were at that time. And what we're seeing here in Psalm 35, though, is one individual, one person, David saying, look, they're rewarding me evil for good. So, he's in a very righteous standpoint. He's coming at this from, like, I'm doing everything right. I'm loving my enemies. Hey, I was praying for them. I was there for them. But now, when I'm in trouble, they're mocking me. They're doing, you know, they're saying all these things behind my back. They're trying to make me stumble and fall and they're evil in treating me. And then verse 17 there says, Lord, how long wilt thou look on? Rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from lions. Like, God, how long is it gonna be? You're gonna let this happen. I haven't done anything wrong to them, yet they're doing evil to me. God, please save me. And the reason why I'm even bringing this up, even though the context is different, is because even for the righteous person, he's saying, how long? Right? Sometimes things can go longer than we really want them to and exceed our own expectations of when we think God's gonna step in and stop some things from happening or, you know, right some wrongs. But in what Habakkuk will see, and we'll see this as we go through the whole book, is his error, right? Like when he says, hey, show me my own error, God will point that out to him in the coming chapters. But let's keep reading here in Psalm 35 because there's still a little bit more I want to get to. Verse 18, I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause, for they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, aha, aha, I have seen it. This thou has seen, O Lord, keep not silence, O Lord, be not far from me. Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. Judge me, O Lord, my God, according to thy righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, ah, so would we have it. Let them not say, we have swallowed him up. Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. Let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Yea, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant, and my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. Now, here we have David in Psalm 35 saying, you know, I will praise you, but how long is it going to be, Lord? Please come and deliver me from this. He was righteous, he was doing everything right, but he was still waiting on the Lord, and he's saying, you know, don't give them the victory. Even let them think that they have the victory over me. Come and defend me. And what we have Habakkuk doing is something very similar, except it looks like he's applying it to God's people as a whole, like to the nation, to the children of Israel, which are God's people, but what he's not understanding is he's kind of thinking that God will come and defend his people all the time. Don't forget, during this time, just prior to the Babylonian invasion, there were false prophets all over the place saying, oh, no, God's with us, don't worry, nothing's going to happen, and just kind of pushing this thought of how great the children of Israel were and that God would never allow anything like that to happen. I mean, you pretty much only had a few voices of people saying anything to the contrary, Jeremiah being one of the most prominent, saying that, look, destruction's coming, right? It's coming, and you have all these false prophets saying opposite of you saying, nope, it's not true. They're liars, right? And what I would liken this to and what's happening here, because what Habakkuk is seeing, he's looking at the relative righteousness, right? So he's thinking that, like, well, we're a lot more righteous than this people who are coming in and attacking and, you know, all of this stuff that's happening, you know, we're more righteous than they are, but they're still super wicked, right? It's like if the United States of America, you could say, yeah, but this is still a Christian nation, there's still, you know, we're still the nation that would be looked to as sending out the missionaries and everything else, but look at how toxic and wicked our nation has become, but it would be as if, let's say some, I mean, I don't know, you pick the heathen nation that could come in, you know, if China were to come in and, you know, just a godless, overall a godless nation come in and just destroy us, you know, America would be like, no, not America, you know, like, we got God, we got guns, and no one's gonna take us down, right? This pride of like, you know, we've got the Lord, these commies aren't gonna come and do anything to us, or, you know, pick the nation, right? It could be a Muslim nation, it can be whatever, some other heathen that's not worshiping the Lord, and Christians today in America might just be like, well, no, that's never gonna happen. That could never happen. No, read Habakkuk, because Habakkuk thought that that could never happen. Habakkuk thought that there was this sense of injustice going on if these heathen were to come in and do all these terrible things to your people. Well, no, the problem is when people of God, you know, start worshiping false gods and turn their back on the Lord and start, you know, getting involved in all manner of wickedness, they're gonna be judged. And what happens is that God uses nations, oftentimes that are much worse and much more vile than the one he's judging to bring the judgment in. And that's just, you know, God operates that way, and he'll use those people, and it's not because God wants to exalt, you know, some wicked people, but he's using them as an arm of the Lord to go and bring forth his judgment. And then they're gonna be judged, too, and God, you know, this is also found in Habakkuk as well, that, you know, their day is gonna come, too. There is no miscarriage of justice at all with the Lord. Everybody's due will come in time. I want to turn, if you will, to 2 Peter 3. I'm gonna read for you from Revelation 6. Revelation 6 is when the seals are opened, right, in the book that was delivered to the Lamb. And Habakkuk has, as with, I would say, all prophecies regarding Babylon and Babylon's, you know, coming and impending doom from Babylon, there's always these foreshadows and hints of prophetic, you know, still prophetic events for us in the future, of the Babylon to come, right? Even though the primary context here is the immediate, you know, captivity and everything like that, there still is some more foreshadowing of the day of the Lord and the future Babylon and these events that are coming up still in the end times. And as I was preparing for this sermon, I was, you know, a few things caught my attention, and it's not by accident, so seeing how some of these verses tie together with other prophetic verses I thought was really interesting, and especially in regards to Babylon and things like that. So the cry of, How long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear? is also something very similar as in Revelation chapter 6 when the fifth seal is opened and then the martyrs for Christ show up in heaven. In Revelation 6, 9, and 10, the Bible says, And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? So it's a foreshadowing. We have Habakkuk saying, Hey, how long before, you know, these people are doing all these wicked things. How long before you're going to judge, Lord? And similarly, at the end of days, you know, the end times, when people are being, when Christians are being martyred, when believers are being martyred for the cause of Christ, it's going to be the same mindset of going, Well, wait, how long? You know, how long are you going to let your people be slaughtered, Lord? When are you going to step in? And this is consistent with what we see with how the Lord works. And, you know, it's important to even understand this when we see this brought up multiple times in the Bible of how long so that we can have the proper patience and not lose our faith and still maintain solid faith and trust even though things happen in a way that you don't quite expect and you think, God, okay, it's gone past the point. You should have shown up by now, right? And all of these people are thinking that. Habakkuk thinks that. Psalm 35, David was thinking that, right? He'd be like, Okay, I've gone too far. I've gotten to this point. John the Baptist even had his own doubts and was saying, you know, like, hey, are you he that should come or do we look for another? As he's in prison about to be beheaded, right? Like all of these things going, whoa, wait, something's not adding up. This doesn't look right. God, when are you going to step in? When are you going to right the wrongs? When are you going to do this? Even the souls that were martyred for Christ in heaven are going to the Lord going, God, when are you going to, you know, how long? How long is this going to keep going before you step in? So our sense of urgency and our sense of when things need to be dealt with will always come sooner than when God sees fit, okay? And it's not because the law is slack. Did I add you turn to 2 Peter chapter 3, right? Because that was the other thing he said in verse 4 of Habakkuk 1, Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth. Is that really true? No. Look at 2 Peter 3.7, again, prophetic, end times verses here. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is what the Lord is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. God's time, right? A thousand years of God is nothing. Obviously, for us, that is a tremendous amount of time. But for God, it's nothing. It's just the same as a day. And continuing on, it says in verse 9, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. So, yes, it could be thousands of years, but He's not slack. It's not like it's not going to happen. It's not like He's just, oh, when I get around to it. God has a plan and a purpose. God is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness. But look at this. But His longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So when things go longer and longer and longer, ultimately, we see that God wants, He just wants the most number of people to be able to get saved. He wants people to just, He's giving the opportunities, giving the space, because once He's done, once He's past that point, man, oh, forget about it. Watch out. Because that's when, especially in this context, the day the Lord comes, I mean, that is fierce indignation, wrath, fire, brimstone, everything coming down. But before He gets to that point, He's just going like, look, I'm trying to give as much space as possible for people to repent. But then it gets past that point and it's done. And similarly, God was giving space even back before, in Jeremiah's day, back when the children of Judah were about to be taken captive, there was given space to repent, and they were given warnings, and they were given messengers, and they were given all these people to preach the Word of God to them, and they still didn't do it. And then look at verse number 10 there, 2 Peter 3, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, and the works therein, shall be burned up. So that's just the reference there in the context of what that's talking about. Let's go back to Habakkuk chapter 1. So notice these similar words, similar messages, I guess you can say, asking how long, the law is slacked, judgment's not going forth, how that relates to what's still going to happen in the end times, and this is still things that we could look to Habakkuk and learn as well for ourselves, not just with what happened in the past, but how things will play out in the future, and it's all consistent because there's still the prophecy that we can apply this to as well. So what we're gonna see here, now after those first four verses, because he's thinking the judgment is wrong, Habakkuk is. Now he says this, that's why we started, I wanted to get to chapter 2 verse 1 tonight because he's saying these things, though, still knowing that he's wrong somewhere. But this is how he sees it, and that's why he's going to the Lord with it. But also, any time you're looking at the Bible, make sure you get the context, and you can't just turn to one verse, and this will come up a little bit later, to just run with the doctrine. Like, you know, Job's the best example of just finding something that one of Job's friends says and then just forming some doctrine off of that. It's like, well, hold on a second, because God said at the end that they were wrong and they're in error, and, you know, they're speaking words without wisdom. Like, don't start using that now as your, but it's in the Bible. Yeah, I know. Well, Satan said some things in the Bible, too. Like, we're not going to go and turn to that either as a source for truth, right? It's true that they said it. And similarly here, Habakkuk's saying these things, but does that really mean that, hey, wrong judgment proceeds? It's just wrong judgment. No. No. He's viewing it this way, he's seeing it, but he wants to understand why. Why has God not stepped in? Verse number five, now this is a response from the Lord. Behold, ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you. Now, keep your place here and turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 13, because this verse is quoted in the book of Acts. Now, in the context of Habakkuk 1, as I already said, he's mentioning here, look, God's going to work a work, he's telling Habakkuk, that you won't believe even though you're told. Like, it's just so unimaginable. This was the mindset of the children of Israel, of God's people, before the captivity. There's no way we could be taken captive, there's no way they could beat our defenses, there's no way, God's with us, who could be against us, there's no way anything bad could happen to us. And even though they're being told, they're still just not believing it. Just not believing it. And God's saying, like, look, behold ye among the heathen, regard, wonder marvelously, I'm going to work a work in your days which you won't believe, though it be told you. You're not going to believe it until it happens. And, you know, that also goes to show there's a lot of unbelievers at that time, too, that weren't believing what the Lord had to say. And even after they're shown, still didn't believe. Remember, even after the captivity and they're still going to Jer... Okay, whatever God says, we'll do, right? Remember, they go to Jeremiah? And then he goes and tells them what the Lord said and they're just like, you speak falsely. Like, God didn't say that, he really wants us to go to Egypt. It's like, no. They just have a heart to not believe and to not trust the Lord. But anyways, let's look at Acts chapter 13. And I bring that up because that is, that's what's happening, right? And during Jeremiah it says the same people, the same judgment, the same time, the same events, okay? Acts 13, look at verse number 38. This is the apostle Paul, just in this context. He's just preaching in a synagogue to, you know, Jews. But he was asking, they read, the church was like, okay, hey, we've heard you, and they're giving him the opportunity to speak. So he starts preaching about Jesus and we're not gonna read all of it in context, but you can read that later if you want. Verse 38 is where we're gonna pick up in the story. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. So he's kind of concluding here, saying, hey, Jesus Christ is offering forgiveness. You can't be forgiven through the law. You have to, you know, receive the Savior. So he's preaching the gospel to him. And then it gives him this warning in verse 40. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. So beware. Beware of what? Their unbelief. Beware of their not accepting the Savior. Beware of that, or else this is what's gonna happen which is spoken in the prophets. Look at verse 41. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish. For I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declared unto you. This is quoted from Habakkuk 1.5. Now that's the only verse it quotes, and then he just continues and says, and when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. But let's go back now with this in mind and seeing this being referred to. What is he warning them about? Well, he's warning them about the impending doom and destruction if they reject Christ and what's ultimately going to happen because it already happened to God's people in the past. When they rejected the Lord and went after idols and false gods, destruction came, right? So now he's presenting the Jews saying, hey, here's the truth, trust in the Lord, believe in God, or else, right? Take heed. And he throws this reference back to what happened back with the Babylonians coming in. And of course, there's still, he's applying this as still applicable, right? So it's not a 100% fulfillment of what, oh, well, that already happened in the past. Then why would he even be bringing it up now? Hey, take heed, right? These things are written for our admonition, right? We need to be looking at this and learning from this and not just to think that that's only going to ever happen one time. Because there's going to come a time when there's going to be a new Babylon that's a world leader. It's going to come and destroy and conquer and everything else. Look at verse number six. So now this is, of course, after verse five. He said, I'm going to work a work in your days, which you won't believe. They'll be told to you. Now he's telling them. Verse six. Let 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. So they're just going to come and conquer and take, right? They're just going to take the stuff. It's not theirs. They're going to come, and they're just going to have this conquest and build an empire, which is what they do, right? They go through and destroy and just take. They say like, nope, we're taking your land. We're taking everything. Verse seven. They are terrible and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards and are more fierce than the evening wolves, and their horsemen shall spread themselves and their horsemen shall come from far. They shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. Now this is very colorful, poetic language on describing just how their army is going to come in. Man, their horses are fast. They are just ready for war, and they're going to whoop you is essentially what he's saying. But also when you read this, and I didn't go back. I was going to do this, but I decided not to. There is also language in Revelation about the forces that will come around, prophetically speaking, like the same time of the armies that will come and how they can hit their mark and not miss and everything like that, just how strong the opponent will be, the foe will be of the people of God. So it lines up in many ways. I just didn't want to cover too much tonight because there's still a lot to go over. So he says there in verse number nine, they shall come all for violence. Their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. So let's talk about them going into captivity. He says they're just going to round you up. They're just thinking, like, who could possibly do that? No one's going to do that in the Babylonians. They're coming from afar. They're way far away. What are they going to do? They can't come here. No, they can, and they will, and they're going to come, and they're going to swoop in, and they're going to destroy you, and they're going to take you captive, and they're going to take your land, and you're going to be brought into their land. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them they shall deride every stronghold, for they shall heap dust and take it. All their defenses, all their strongholds, everything that's set up for their defense, it's going to be like nothing for them. They're just going to roll right through it. And that's what happens, and he's saying, you're not going to believe this, even though I'm telling you, because no one believed it at the time, and everyone was in denial in the nation until it actually happened. And would-to-God Christians can get the wisdom of not just being so proud and so relaxed and so at ease as to think that nothing bad can happen. Look at how blessed we are. Look at how great things are. Look at how, you know, no, get off your rear end. It's time to get up and go to work. It's time to fight. It's time to battle. There's a spiritual fight going on, and you need to be in it. And it's not a time to sit back, and it's not a time to take it easy. It's not a time to just think that, oh, our prosperity is just going to keep going on and on and on and on. No, there is an end point, and judgment will come. And you don't have time, and you can't just have the luxury of just sitting back and enjoying, you know, eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow you will die. You can't have that attitude. And it's a warning. You've got to take heed, because God can bring in anybody to bring judgment, anybody. And not that I think that, you know, the bombs or the planes or whatever was some cave-dwelling Afghans, but they could have been, because God could use anybody to bring down his nation, right? 9-11 was an inside job, but... But God can use anyone he wants to. It doesn't matter, you know, who it is. It could be people who are way backwards and don't have any technology. God could still use a group of people like that to come in and ultimately crush and cripple this country. If you think that our defenses are so great because we have this awesome CIA and TSA and everything, you are so deceived. It's all a facade. It's big smoke and mirrors. Your security and your safety in this country, because safety is of the Lord. At the end of the day, safety is of the Lord. Not to mention what they're doing literally is smoke and mirrors. It's not keeping anyone safe. They want to put you through all this stuff. You've got to take off your belt and take off your shoes and practically strip down to go through and get on an airplane. And then if you see the stuff that gets through all the time, all the time, it's like, oh, my wife had a knife in her purse or something, you know, it's just like all these things that unintentional, ammunition, whatever, you know, it's happening. I always hear people like, oh, yeah, oops. And it just gets through. All the time, it's just getting through. They want to make you think like, oh, don't you ever have anything like that. You'll get in so much trouble. You're just like, they're not finding that stuff. It's a big joke. Anyways, that's enough of that rant. I'm going to go back to Habakkuk here. Oh, turn if you would to, did I have you turn to Jeremiah 4 if I didn't turn to Jeremiah chapter 4? So this is the work that the Lord's going to work, that He's going to tell them they're still not going to believe. And we're going to see now what we've already up to this point seen relayed very similarly in Jeremiah chapter 4. Look at verse number 6 in Jeremiah chapter 4. The Bible reads, Set up the standard toward Zion, retire, stay not, for I will bring evil from the north and a great destruction. The lion has come up from his thicket and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way. He has gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate and thy city shall be laid waste without an inhabitant. So this is a prophecy from the Lord, right? This is what Jeremiah is saying. And did anyone take heed and listen? No. Habakkuk, it's the same thing. It's the same prophecy. It's exactly what's being told to Habakkuk. Hey, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to tell you this and no one's going to believe it. Verse 8, For this gird you with sackcloth, lament, and howl, for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us. And it shall come to pass that that day, saith the Lord, that the heart of the king shall perish and the heart of the princes and the priests shall be astonished and the prophets shall wonder. Whoa, what's going on? They're going to be astonished. They're going to be amazed. Like, what? What happened? Idiots. You've been told. You've been warned. Then said I, Ah, Lord God, surely thou hast greatly deceived this people in Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace, whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul. Wait, but did God say that? No, that's what the false prophet said. Verse 11, At that time shall it be said to this people unto Jerusalem, a dry wind of the high places in the wilderness, toward the daughter of my people, not to fan nor to cleanse, even a full wind from those places shall come unto me. Now also will I give sentence against them. It's judgment, right? He's pronouncing his sentence. Behold, he shall come up as clouds and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us, for we are spoiled. Remember, it's again another reference to how fast the horses are that are going to come in and destroy them. Oh, Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from Mount Ephraim. Make ye mention to the nations. Behold, publish against Jerusalem that watchers come from a far country and give out their voice against the cities of Judah. As keepers of a field, are they against her roundabout? Because she has been rebellious against me, saith the Lord. Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee. This is thy wickedness because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart. My bowels, my bowels, I am pained at my very heart. My heart maketh a noise in me. I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is spoiled. Suddenly are my tents spoiled and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet? Notice there, and I'm closing with that in Jeremiah 4, how long? Right? How long? We saw that in Jeremiah. The mention of the horses, the mention of the destructions, the not knowing why this is happening, except we see a lot more in detail in Jeremiah 4. I'm like, look, this is happening because of your wickedness. Because you turn to me. And we also see in Jeremiah 4, though, God's still giving them space to do what's right. God still wants, even though he's going to bring the captivity, he still continues to give them, okay, now look, after this happens, just you stay there, get rooted down. I'll rebuild you. I'll work with you. We'll get things right. You know, like he still is continually offering them all these opportunities to get right. And ultimately that's what he wants. And that's one of the reasons why it's taking a while because the Lord's not willing that any should perish. He wants them all to come to repentance. He wants to get through to them. But with some people, it's just never enough. They're just not going to believe it until it actually happens. And then even after it happens with many people, it's still not enough. Even after people saw Jesus performing miracles, that still wasn't enough. Even after the resurrection of Christ and they knew that it literally was a resurrection, it still wasn't enough for some people. They still want to cover it up. They still want to lie about it. It's crazy, right? Let's not have that insane mindset when it comes to our own sin, when it comes to our own problems, when it comes to our own hard heart or stiff neck with the Lord where we could just be humble and say, God, just correct me. God, show me where I'm wrong. Because I don't want to get on the bad side of things and not be able to receive instruction and correction and then have to deal with the fallout. Right? And also just not to be so ignorant to not realize when judgment's coming. I mean, they were, I don't know, it seems so similar to what we can see here in our country of kind of the mindset and the ignorance and the blindness of like nothing can happen, no bad can happen here. God bless America. Right? But hey, there are prophets out there preaching the truth. It's getting harder and harder to find. Let's go back to chapter one. I'm going to reread verse number 10 just to kind of pick us back up there. And they shall scoff at the kings and the princes shall be a scorn unto them. Right? Every stronghold for they shall heap dust and take it. Verse 11. Then shall his mind change and he shall pass over and offend imputing this, his power, unto his God. God, the Lord is the one that's bringing him in to bring judgment. But then what he's going to do is say, oh, it was this, my God, my false God or whatever. And he's going to attribute his success and his glory to his false God. It says, so that's how that's going to end. And remember, we're going to continue further into chapter two, into chapter three because there's more to follow. So I'll try to do a good recap next week. But here in verse number 12, we are picking back up with Habakkuk. So this was like, verse 11 is kind of where the Lord ends his first response and now we're switching speakers again. And if you have a Bible that shows you where the paragraphs were, then this also can help you a little bit, at least with this passage. When there's a new paragraph starting, this is consistent with the transition here. Verse number 12, Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, mine holy one? We shall not die. So even Habakkuk's still kind of not believing it, right? We shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment. Like, they're the wicked ones, God. They're the ones that are ordained for judgment, not us. And, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Like, where are your people? You need to judge them. Verse 13, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? Now, there's a few things I want to point out here. One is, and I've heard this said, I've heard this taught before, but remember, this is Habakkuk speaking, and he's not completely accurate in everything that he says and believes here. But I've heard people say, well, God can't look on sin. And this is where they get it from. But is that really true? That God can't look on sin? Of course God could look on sin. God sees everything. God knows everything, right? God can see sin. And in fact, you know, while yes, it's true that no human will be accepted into heaven as a sinner, 100% true, God is holy. Even God also runs his kingdom that way. That's why the Bible says that nothing that maketh a lie shall enter into the holy, the promise, the ultimate promised land, right? That is absolutely true. But what people have a tendency to do is run a little bit too far with this particular verse and kind of form more doctrine out of this than what's real and what's here. I mean, we know that even Satan presented himself among the sons of God and spake with the Lord. And if Satan's not a sinner, then who is, right? So just to be careful, because you could hear things, just like God can't look on sin, God can't look on sin, God can't look on sin. It's almost ironic because that's literally the mindset that Habakkuk has. Well, you just can't look on sin, Lord. So how can you possibly, because he's trying to understand how God is using this wicked people to do anything and like just not judge them right away and not just cast them down because they're wicked. Well, you can't even look on sin, God. Well, but Habakkuk is mistaken because God's using these people to bring judgment, even though they are more wicked than the people they're judging. But God doesn't work with these relatives, right? Because that's his other error. He's saying, well, you're holding your tongue when the wicked devour the man that is more righteous than he is. More righteous? Okay, well, is that really gonna work, though, with God? Well, I'm more righteous than he is and he's more righteous than, you know, like, yeah, but if the person who's living more righteously, so let me put it this way. You've got the Catholic that just totally living in the world, getting drunk, doing, you know, whatever, just doing everything and not caring at all because that's how the majority of Catholics are in America, at least, that just don't even treat their religion seriously at all, right? That's just a fact. I mean, that's just how it is in the United States of America. And then you have a Mormon, right? A Mormon, because the vast majority of Mormons, I would say, treat their religion very seriously. They don't drink caffeine. They won't even have Coke. You know, like, they have all these rules in place. We could say, well, they're more righteous than them. Yeah, but they're both going to hell. They've both rejected the Lord. And this is what people need to understand. Like, look, the Jews are God's people, but they rejected the Lord. They've built up their own idols, and they're worshiping other gods. They're like, they're not any better than the Chaldeans are. You're looking at them, okay, yeah, on this, well, they're more righteous, so what? So what? So what if the Mormon's living more clean than some other unbeliever? Does it really matter? No. No, it doesn't. And just because this was a people who you set apart and were called by your name, well, you know what? They're not producing the fruits thereof. Then they're not really his people anyways. Then the judgment needs to happen. They're going to be chastised. The chastening is coming. So when you think about that, especially when you have phrases, like God can't look on evil, where does that actually come from? Just ask yourself that and try to support. I even did a little bit of a search to just try to be like, is this anywhere else in Scripture? It's not. This is literally the verse it comes from, and I tried to search for anything, and the only other scripture that came to my mind was in Revelation 21 or 22, or whosoever maketh a lie. Yeah, okay, in the new heaven and new earth, that is going to be the case. But that still doesn't mean that God can't look on sin. And that's not even what Habakkuk didn't mean that he just can't look on it. He's using expressive language to just be like, hey, don't give these people any regard because they're just really wicked and full of iniquity, right? And saying, well, Lord, you're so holy and righteous and set apart, you can't tolerate this, is what he's expressing here. And any doctrine that would teach otherwise of like, well, God can't look on sin, okay, that's just not true, right? God is holy and God chooses how much he's gonna tolerate, but consider the source and consider the context and everything like that when you're forming your doctrines and what you believe about God especially. Let's keep reading here in Habakkuk 1, verse number 14. And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them, they take up all of them with the angle. They catch them in their net and gather them in their drag. Therefore, they rejoice and are glad. So he's referring to how these people, the Chaldeans, he's likening them to being fishers that are catching all these fish with their hook and with their nets and their drag, right, and how they're able to just do all of this and makest men as the fishes of the sea. So they're just coming in just like a fisherman would go and drop his nets and just pull up all these fish and they drop their hooks and they're catching all this stuff and having good success. That's what the Chaldeans are doing as they're just romping the nations that they're coming across and just overcoming them and destroying them, right? So, but then he brings this up in verse 16. Therefore, they sacrifice unto their net and burn incense unto their drag 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? So he's bringing up the fact that they have these false gods. It's just like the fisherman that's gonna worship the rod or the hook or the net, right, because thinking like, oh, well, I'm catching all these fish with my net, so I'm just gonna worship this net as god because it's doing good to me, right? So I'm gonna worship, and that's the stupidity of idolatry and false gods and so many false gods throughout history. People just, they worship the sun because the sun gives me light and the sun, you know, it's like, it's a foolish way of thinking and making idols and making stones and carving out wood and plating it with gold and worshiping all that stuff, it's nonsense. But he's bringing up the fact that these people are no different, they're coming in and they're worshiping these false gods because they're having this great success, but they're attributing everything to their false god. And God already said the same thing that they're doing it, so God's not ignorant of that either, but Habakkuk's bringing that up that they're doing this as a valid reason for them to be judged as well, and they're going to be judged for that reason, but not before they carry out the sentence that God has upon his people, right? So again, God's timing, God's will being done, God's judgment being poured out upon a people that didn't even realize how wicked they were and how far they had strayed from the Lord, and especially with all the false prophets and false teachers and false visions and everyone telling them that they're right in their culture and not doing, not looking to the word and going, we're way off base here, right? So let's not fall into the same pattern of self-deception and the blindness of pride and the thinking we're so great, right, especially as a people collectively and as a country, and, you know, let's not sit back and complain and go, oh, God, you're letting all these wicked people, you know, like, look, just get to work. Do what's right. And at the end of the day, though, trust in the Lord so that when things seem to be going on longer and you feel like God isn't stepping in when he ought to, just remember that that's, you know, it could go even farther, but it doesn't mean that God's not hearing you. There are just, there's other things going on that you're not aware of and that there's nothing too hard and nothing that you can't be put through because God won't allow for you to deal with anything that you can't handle because God is just at the end of the day. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we love you. Thank you so much for this book of the Bible. I pray that you please help us to have a good understanding and get some good doctrine out of your word. I pray that you would please just guide us and be with us, dear Lord. Help us to do what's right. Help us to reach this world. Help us to stir up believers and to get them motivated to get into the spiritual fight and to win souls and to really try to just promote biblical thinking and bring back the morality of the Bible back into this country and do everything we can to combat all the evil and wickedness that's out there. Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Peter, would you please lead us? All right, church, if you can't open up your hymnals to song number 74. Song number 74, Christ the Father. Song number 74 on the verse. It made me at war When the day is awaking When sunlight through darkness and shadow Is breaking That Jesus will come In the fullness of glory To see where the world is on Oh, Lord Jesus, how long How long Hail, we shout the glad song Christ returneth Hallelujah Hallelujah Amen Hallelujah Amen It made me at wind It made me at twilight It made me purchase To the clock this song midnight We'll burst into light In the blaze of His glory When Jesus receives His own Oh, Lord Jesus, how long How long Hail, we shout the glad song Christ returneth Hallelujah Hallelujah Amen Hallelujah Amen On the last Oh, joy, oh, delight Shall we go without dying No sin is no sadness No dreading No crying God up through the clouds With our glory to glory When Jesus receives His own Oh, Lord Jesus, how long How long Hail, we shout the glad song Christ returneth Hallelujah Hallelujah Amen Hallelujah Amen You made sure it was great singing. Thank you so much for coming, you guys. Thank you.