SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_01: So we are back in Habakkuk again, and the reason God gave us this book for us to study right now is because it's a pilgrimage.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pilgrimage book, just three chapters, really short.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pilgrimage to higher ground.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pilgrimage from loneliness and frustration and depression to worship and praise and exaltation.
SPEAKER_01: And we've been through the worst part, chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: And then last week there was a there was a change, there was a shift, both practically, experientially, in Habakkuk's life, but also theologically.
SPEAKER_01: He made this shift.
SPEAKER_01: He took a stand.
SPEAKER_01: And even though he didn't understand what God was up to with Judah, or what God was up to with the Babylonians that were coming, and they're gonna sack Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna destroy Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the book of Daniel will come later, because Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, those for they were all taken.
SPEAKER_01: These noble young men from noble backgrounds were taken to Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we have the book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: This is the same time period as Jeremiah, and Jeremiah is struggling.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, look at chapter 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about this last week.
SPEAKER_01: There's this shift in the heart of Habakkuk after his dialogue with God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, remember?
SPEAKER_01: The high place, and watch to see what you will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected.
SPEAKER_01: So there's two things that are happening here is that Habakkuk doesn't understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't understand the evil that God seems to not be judging or doing anything about.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't understand how a good God, a kind God, a loving God could allow such an evil empire as Babylon to come and destroy the holy city.
SPEAKER_01: He's baffled by that.
SPEAKER_01: But he he finally just goes to probably a high tower.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I talked about this last week.
SPEAKER_01: He probably went to a real high tower.
SPEAKER_01: He looked out, he said, I'm gonna watch for God to show up.
SPEAKER_01: And church, that's what we have to do a lot of times in our life.
SPEAKER_01: We have to pull away, get quiet, get away from the noise, all the fears, all the talking heads, and say, God, speak to me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna watch and I'm gonna wait until I hear from you.
SPEAKER_01: I believe you have a message for me.
SPEAKER_01: You hear that?
SPEAKER_01: You see what he's saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna listen.
SPEAKER_01: He's expecting God to speak.
SPEAKER_01: Do you expect God to speak?
SPEAKER_01: Or is it just a quiet time?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm gonna have a quiet time.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, having a quiet time is better than not having one.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm saying it's more than just a quiet time, it's a watching time.
SPEAKER_01: It's a waiting on God time.
SPEAKER_01: The same word for waiting on God is the same word for weaving something.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_01: The same word for waiting on God is the same word for weaving a rope.
SPEAKER_01: And so God's weaving his will into you when you wait on him.
SPEAKER_01: And it takes some waiting, right?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it takes some waiting.
SPEAKER_01: And Habakkuk is ready.
SPEAKER_01: And now we come to one of the great chapters of the Bible, Habakkuk II.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the great chapters of the Bible because in this pilgrimage, God's giving a prophetic vision.
SPEAKER_01: Write that down.
SPEAKER_01: God's giving a prophetic vision of a coming kingdom that's gonna crush all evil.
SPEAKER_01: There's a coming kingdom, church, that's gonna crush all evil and crown Jesus Lord all over the globe.
SPEAKER_01: There is a coming kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna bypass Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna bypass before that Persia.
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna bypass these evil, authoritarian, totalitarian governments.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be dealt with.
SPEAKER_01: But he's also bringing his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just judgment, it's mercy and judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Mercy triumphs over judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And this kingdom is coming, and this is what God has to say to the prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.
SPEAKER_01: For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, it will not lie, though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
SPEAKER_01: God is saying to Habakkuk, there is a sovereign work of your Father in heaven that's going to take over this globe, and I want you to write it down.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to post it wherever you need to post it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm coming.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever you're in that place where it just feels so lonely and so frustrating, you need to say, He's coming.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming, and he comes in triumph, in mercy over judgment.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, look at all the evil.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing ever seems to happen to those people, they always get away with it.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, God does not turn a blind eye to any evil.
SPEAKER_01: The man is coming.
SPEAKER_01: I think Johnny Cash had a song like that.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the revolution.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the revolution of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's found in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest, I would argue, the greatest verse in the entire Old and New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: It sums up everything.
SPEAKER_01: Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.
SPEAKER_01: The Jewish Talmud states, quote, Moses gave Israel six hundred and thirteen commandments.
SPEAKER_01: David reduced them to ten.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah to two, but Abakuch to one, the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: God is saying to Hakkuk, there is a coming work of the kingdom of God that's going to bring a revolution, and it will be based here that you walk and you live by faith, not by works, not by the law, but by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: For by grace, men and women, you've been saved through faith, not of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It is a gift of God, not as a result of works that no man should ever boast, or no church should ever boast, or so priests should ever boast, or some sacraments that we can boast about.
SPEAKER_01: The just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna go to the uttermost parts of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And whether I'm preaching the gospel in Papua New Guinea, Siberia, India, Europe, South America, this is the message of Jesus Christ to every people, the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've talked about Luther before, because he's such an instrumental part of what we believe today.
SPEAKER_01: But he was an Augustinian monk who, as he said of himself, if ever there was a monk in monkery that was the best monk, I was it.
SPEAKER_01: And he did everything that the Latin fathers and the Roman church told him to do.
SPEAKER_01: He crawled on his hands and knees.
SPEAKER_01: He confessed his sins for hours every day.
SPEAKER_01: At one point, his confessor said, Brother Martin, quit coming to me with these confessions unless you really do some good sin.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Brother Martin would come and say, I lusted after the potatoes of Brother John at lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Because you see, at that time in that system, it's called sacredotalism.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have time to go into that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go into that in a couple weeks on Reformation Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: But out of sacredalism, it was the idea that you were found righteous by doing the sacraments, the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church.
SPEAKER_01: You were found righteous by your confessions to a priest.
SPEAKER_01: And if you had any sins that you had not confessed, you could go to purgatory or hell.
SPEAKER_01: And Luther actually believed that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And he was doing the best that he could.
SPEAKER_01: And his confessor realizing this guy's going to lose his mind over sin.
SPEAKER_01: So he made him a professor of theology.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's studying Romans for the university in Wittenberg.
SPEAKER_01: And he comes to Romans 1.17.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 1.17.
SPEAKER_01: And he's reading what Augustine wrote in his commentary on Romans 1.17.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Romans 1.17 says.
SPEAKER_01: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
SPEAKER_01: As it is written, the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: The direct quote of Habakkuk 2.4.
SPEAKER_01: The three great doctrinal books of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews, quote Habakkuk 1.4, the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: As Luther would stop short, and he said, What does this mean?
SPEAKER_01: That there's this righteousness that is by faith, and from faith to faith?
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_01: That the righteous shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And then the lights came on in Luther, and he began to understand that what Paul was speaking of here was a righteousness that God in his grace was making available to those who would receive it passively, not those who would achieve it actively.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Luther began to understand that what Paul was saying is that there was a grace made available to those who receive it passively, not those who would achieve it actively.
SPEAKER_01: But that would be received by faith and by which a person would be reconciled to a holy and righteous God.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen to what I'm gonna say next.
SPEAKER_01: This is really important.
SPEAKER_01: Luther discovered the justitia alienum.
SPEAKER_01: The justitia alienum.
SPEAKER_01: That's Latin, for an alien righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: A righteousness of God freely given to us when we put our faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning that you will never have the righteousness you need to be saved, conjured up in your own spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You are, as Luther would later write, you have a bondage of the will.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never received Christ by faith, you'll never be good enough to get to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what sacraments that you give yourself to, how many times you go to a priest to confess your sins, you're still a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Well, this is an alien righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: This is a righteousness that if I put my faith, if I put my trust in Christ, God's righteousness is bestowed upon me, I receive it, and now I am made righteous?
SPEAKER_01: Even when I'm not very righteous, the answer is yes.
SPEAKER_01: And so Luther, looking now at the Greek word that was in the New Testament, the word dikios, decaios, decaiosune, which didn't mean to make righteous, but rather to regard as righteous, to count as righteous, to declare as righteous.
SPEAKER_01: And that was the awakening in Luther, and that was the spark that brought forth the Protestant Reformation that swept across Europe at that time.
SPEAKER_01: Luther said of that moment, quote, when I discovered that, I was born again of the Holy Spirit, and the door of paradise swung open, and I walked through it.
SPEAKER_01: It changed the world.
SPEAKER_01: That verse, this verse that we're studying right, changed the world, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: We are here today because of Abacuc 2.4, Romans 1.17, Galatians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace you've been saved through faith, not of yourself, not of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It is a gift of God.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're here this morning and you're trying to earn favor with God, you're trying to earn favor with the church, it'll never be good enough.
SPEAKER_01: You are bound to your sinful will.
SPEAKER_01: But if you'll open your arms to Christ and say, Jesus, I surrender all, I believe that you died on that cross, that rugged cross for all my sins.
SPEAKER_01: And I receive you.
SPEAKER_01: Come into my life, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I will live for you the rest of my days.
SPEAKER_01: That alien righteousness comes in, and you become righteous, and you're righteous, and you become a priest and a king of the Most High God.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk's discovering that.
SPEAKER_01: Habakkuk's hearing from God right now, and he says, Behold the proud, the soul that is not upright.
SPEAKER_01: God's not going to let Babylon get away with their stuff.
SPEAKER_01: God's not going to let these evil imposters get away with it.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to be judged because I'm coming.
SPEAKER_01: I'm coming.
SPEAKER_01: And when you're full of fear, fill of wonder, filled with concern about our country or about your life, maybe you need to post somewhere in your study or somewhere in your house.
SPEAKER_01: He's a coming.
SPEAKER_01: And on the one hand, judgment.
SPEAKER_01: On the other hand, mercy triumphs over judgment.
SPEAKER_01: He's a loving God and He judges sin.
SPEAKER_01: God is going to crush evil.
SPEAKER_01: So let's read.
SPEAKER_01: Starting at verse five, these woes.
SPEAKER_01: Five woes.
SPEAKER_01: God's not going to let the totalitarianism of Babylon win.
SPEAKER_01: They will be judged.
SPEAKER_01: And God will bring forth his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what his kingdom is like, you guys?
SPEAKER_01: His kingdom is like yeast.
SPEAKER_01: It's like that little bit of yeast.
SPEAKER_01: It's a mystery of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: It's a mystery of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And only you, only you who believe will understand this.
SPEAKER_01: But there's this mystery, and it's like yeast that you take a little tiny bit of yeast and you put it in the dough, and it just looks like a regular lump of dough, just like a lump of dough that has no yeast.
SPEAKER_01: But then the yeast starts to take over.
SPEAKER_01: Starts to take over.
SPEAKER_01: And slowly and surely that's what the kingdom is like.
SPEAKER_01: It's indescript.
SPEAKER_01: It's disguised.
SPEAKER_01: It's Jesus coming.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's why John the Baptist is so confused, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I thought that's not the Messiah I thought was gonna come.
SPEAKER_01: He was probably an Essene.
SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist was probably an Essene in the living in the caves around the Dead Sea.
SPEAKER_01: We learned about the Essenes through the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1948 and 49.
SPEAKER_01: These were a group of Jews who believed in this apocalyptic work that was gonna come through a Messiah that was gonna come in power, man.
SPEAKER_01: Power that was gonna take over the government and free them from Rome and take over the globe through political, military power.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus comes as a babe in an indescript town called Nazareth, living in Nazareth, born in Jerusalem and like a nobody, Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: And yet he came and he's doing his work.
SPEAKER_01: And so John is confused.
SPEAKER_01: He says, is this the Messiah who's going to come?
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Tell John what I'm up to.
SPEAKER_01: I heal the sick, I preach the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And everybody who wants to be saved gets saved.
SPEAKER_01: And so the kingdom comes sometimes in indescript ways that we don't completely understand.
SPEAKER_01: But here God is speaking to Abacuch.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, there's a judgment upon these nations.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to call it the five qualities: God's judgment on all evil powers.
SPEAKER_01: The first quality of satanic power, men and women, the first quality of satanic power is lust for power.
SPEAKER_01: Lust for power.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, he's a proud man.
SPEAKER_01: And he does not stay at home because he enlarges his desire as hell.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about Babylon here.
SPEAKER_01: Probably talking about Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_01: He's like death and cannot be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: He gathers to himself all nations.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the one world government always wants.
SPEAKER_01: They always want all the nations, man.
SPEAKER_01: They want it all.
SPEAKER_01: And he heaps up for himself all peoples.
SPEAKER_01: Despotic, satanic, totalitarian regimes, want everybody.
SPEAKER_01: They want the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: Will not all these take up a proverb against him?
SPEAKER_01: And this is interesting.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: Will not all these, meaning those peoples that are under the slavery of this person, this government, probably Nebuchadnezzar Babylon, will they not take up a proverb against Nebuchadnezzar?
SPEAKER_01: And a taunting riddle against him and say, woe to him who increases what is not his?
SPEAKER_01: How long?
SPEAKER_01: And to him who loads himself with many pledges, will not your creditors rise up suddenly?
SPEAKER_01: Will they not awaken who oppress you and you will become their booty?
SPEAKER_01: Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you.
SPEAKER_01: Because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city and all who dwell in it, there's a day coming when you who plunder others, those you plunder, are gonna plunder you.
SPEAKER_01: It's in Revelation when it speaks of the martyrs.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, the martyrs cry out for justice.
SPEAKER_01: They're crying out for justice right now.
SPEAKER_01: Right now, the martyrs in heaven, I believe, are crying out for justice.
SPEAKER_01: They've been martyrs for generations.
SPEAKER_01: God, in his timing, what does he say here?
SPEAKER_01: Back at verse 3, he says the vision is yet for an appointed time.
SPEAKER_01: There's an appointed time.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be on the wrong side of that road.
SPEAKER_01: Second quality.
SPEAKER_01: Second quality of satanic power is lust for gain.
SPEAKER_01: Lust for gain.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: You give shameful counsel to your house, cutting off many peoples and sin against your soul.
SPEAKER_01: For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the timbers, they will answer it.
SPEAKER_01: Holy smokes, you hear what he's saying?
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, look, in your evil, you've got your mansions, and you're up on a hill, and you're pretty sure that nobody can touch you, and actually the stones and the timber that you built your house on, they cry out against you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna get you.
SPEAKER_01: Third quality lust for violence.
SPEAKER_01: Lust for violence.
SPEAKER_01: Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the peoples labor to feed the fire and nations weary themselves in vain?
SPEAKER_01: He's going to judge those who come with a lust for violence.
SPEAKER_01: And then right there, it's like the craziest thing, you guys, here in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Right in the middle of all these woes, he says this.
SPEAKER_01: For the earth will be filled, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
SPEAKER_01: Violent people will be judged, lustful people will be judged, and guess what?
SPEAKER_01: The knowledge of the glory.
SPEAKER_01: Say that with me.
SPEAKER_01: The knowledge of the glory is gonna cover the globe.
SPEAKER_01: As the waters cover the sea.
SPEAKER_01: Have you been to the sea lately?
SPEAKER_01: The waters really cover the sea.
SPEAKER_01: Why would he use that as his illustration if it's not to make a point hyperbole that I'm covering it all?
SPEAKER_01: Even the evil powers.
SPEAKER_01: Judgment is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth quality, lust for deception.
SPEAKER_01: Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him by to your bottle, even to make him drink, that you may look on his nakedness, you're filled with shame instead of glory.
SPEAKER_01: You also drink and be exposed as uncircumcised.
SPEAKER_01: The cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned against you.
SPEAKER_01: And utter shame will be on your glory, for the violence done to Lebanon will cover you.
SPEAKER_01: And the plunder of beast which made them afraid because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city and all who dwell in it.
SPEAKER_01: This violence, and I I I love animals.
SPEAKER_01: Animals are really cool.
SPEAKER_01: Because animals are honest.
SPEAKER_01: When they're afraid, they run away.
SPEAKER_01: When they're angry, they fight.
SPEAKER_01: And I went, bad dog.
SPEAKER_01: No, bad dog.
SPEAKER_01: And then I looked closer, and there was a salamander down there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I haven't seen, I don't know if I've ever seen a salamander in Black Forest.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a salamander there.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's because we put in sprinklers.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's more moist.
SPEAKER_01: There's a salamander.
SPEAKER_01: I went, if I was a dog, if I was a black lab hunting dog, I'd go after a salamander.
SPEAKER_01: And I went, it's okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: And that tail that was underneath is just wagging.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't even remember.
SPEAKER_01: I just reprimanded it.
SPEAKER_01: And I just think it's cool that God would say something about animals here.
SPEAKER_01: He cares about them, man.
SPEAKER_01: He loves them.
SPEAKER_01: And people say, are there gonna be animals in heaven?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I know there's gonna be a white horse or two.
SPEAKER_01: So if they got horses, they probably got dogs and cats.
SPEAKER_01: Man, cats are cool.
SPEAKER_01: When we before we got our cat, we had so many mice running around.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, it's like overnight they were gone.
SPEAKER_01: A cat.
SPEAKER_01: Bad cat.
SPEAKER_01: Fifth quality, satanic power, lust for idols, lust for idols.
SPEAKER_01: What prophet is the image?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: That it makes, that it makes the maker should carve it, and the molten image, a teacher of lies, that the maker of its mold should trust in it to make mute idols.
SPEAKER_01: Woe to him who says to wood, awake, wake up, to silent stone, arise.
SPEAKER_01: You shall teach me something.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet in it there is no breath at all.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_01: That shows the deception, satanic deception, that we would make something and then we worship what we make as if it's got life to it.
SPEAKER_01: And for some of you in this room, you have idols.
SPEAKER_01: It's your car, it's your house, it's your spouse, it's your kids.
SPEAKER_01: Be careful with that.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus says you shall love the Lord your God and serve him only.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: That's the greatest commandment.
SPEAKER_01: He's judging Babylon, he judges us because of what he's gonna say next.
SPEAKER_01: Look what he says in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, God's not in heaven, wringing his hands, walking back and forth in the throne room.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I can't believe what these people are doing.
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe what Nebuchadnezzar's up to.
SPEAKER_01: Wow, I'm shocked.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he says, I'm I've got silence in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you join me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm carrying out my plan, man.
SPEAKER_01: I'm coming.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a coming.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry.
SPEAKER_01: Wait.
SPEAKER_01: It may seem to tarry, but I'm a coming.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna judge those guys in righteousness because I love righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: And the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're one of these guys that does stuff like I do, if you saw my teaching Bible, you say, What a mess.
SPEAKER_01: Because I drew a line from verse 4 to verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: I drew a line from verse 4 to verse 14, and from verse 14 to verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: That's the message, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kingdom revolution.
SPEAKER_01: That the knowledge of the glory of the Lord is going to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
SPEAKER_01: And he will judge unrighteousness and he will bless righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: But the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: So Abakuch II is God's triumph over evil powers.
SPEAKER_01: Same time period, maybe a few years later.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know exactly, but I think it was a few years later, we come to a guy that we've been studying named Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_01: And he has a vision.
SPEAKER_01: And he's pretty Nebuchadnezzar's, he's a bad dude, man.
SPEAKER_01: That's who he just read about.
SPEAKER_01: That's the judgment that's coming to Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_01: So somewhere between that and this, there's a vision that he gets from God.
SPEAKER_01: And it's just tell you how hard this guy is, he says to all of his astrologers and all of his prophets, look, I'm not gonna tell you even what the vision is.
SPEAKER_01: You tell me what it means.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's not really fair.
SPEAKER_01: So if someone comes to you and says, Well, here's my dream, well, come up with something.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're trying to save your neck, maybe come up with something that's really far in the future.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what it means.
SPEAKER_01: Well, lop his head off.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, Okay, you guys, I'm not even gonna tell you the vision, you tell me what it means.
SPEAKER_01: This is in Daniel chapter 2, and then listen to what Daniel says, a Hebrew child, a young man.
SPEAKER_01: He says to the greatest leader in the world at that time, evil Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This you, O king, were watching, and behold, you saw a great image.
SPEAKER_01: This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you and its form was awesome.
SPEAKER_01: You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them to pieces.
SPEAKER_01: And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: The God of heaven will set up a kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_01: He wanted him to know, Nebuchadnezzar, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, it shall break in pieces and consume all the other kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Micah chapter 4, Micah chapter 4, all the world will flow to this mountain that Daniel's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow to it, many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his path.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah, the Christmassy verse.
SPEAKER_01: The little Christmassy verse that we all say at Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: Let's listen to the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: For unto us the child is born, unto us the son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, of the increase of his government and peace.
SPEAKER_01: There will be no end.
SPEAKER_01: Yeast, yeast in the dough, taking it over.
SPEAKER_01: Mustard seed.
SPEAKER_01: Mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: But it grows and it becomes this massive tree that the birds make a nest in.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, of time, if I only had time.
SPEAKER_01: The Messiah King of Psalm 2.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, I don't have time.
SPEAKER_01: Run out of time.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 72, the universal triumph of God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm gonna go a little long.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go give me, give me three minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: So turn to Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, if I could just, I need to memorize Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 72 gets me up in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: And when it's one of those crummy days and it seems like everything's going to hell in a handbasket, read Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_01: Give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness to the King's Son.
SPEAKER_01: He will judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice.
SPEAKER_01: The mountains will bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: He will bring justice to the poor of the people.
SPEAKER_01: He will save the children of the needy and will break in pieces the oppressor.
SPEAKER_01: They shall fear you as long as the sun and moon endure.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout all generations, he shall come down like rain upon the grass before the mowing, like showers that water the earth.
SPEAKER_01: In his days the righteous shall flourish an abundance of peace until the moon is no more.
SPEAKER_01: He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Those who dwell in the wilderness will bow before him, and his enemies will lick the dust.
SPEAKER_01: The kings of Tarshish of the Isles will bring presents.
SPEAKER_01: The kings of Sheba and Saba will offer their gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, all kings, not some kings, all kings shall fall down before him.
SPEAKER_01: All nations shall serve him, for he will deliver the needy when he cries.
SPEAKER_01: The poor also and him who has no helper.
SPEAKER_01: He will spare the poor and needy, and he will save the souls of the needy.
SPEAKER_01: He will redeem their life from oppression and violence, and precious shall be their blood in his sight, and he shall live.
SPEAKER_01: And the gold of Sheba will be given to him.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer also will be made for him continually and daily.
SPEAKER_01: He shall be praised.
SPEAKER_01: There will be an abundance of grain on the earth, on the top of the mountains.
SPEAKER_01: Its fruit shall weave like Lebanon, and those of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: His name shall endure forever.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to where he's going now.
SPEAKER_01: His name shall continue as long as the sun and the men shall be blessed in him.
SPEAKER_01: All nations shall call, all nations, all nations shall call him blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only does wonderful things, and blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth, let the whole earth be filled with his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Amen and amen and amen.
SPEAKER_01: So today I was getting ready to leave.
SPEAKER_01: I had time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Um I remembered my favorite hymn back when I was a new believer, and when I was a missionary.
SPEAKER_01: It's called Jesus Shall Reign to the tune of Duke Street.
SPEAKER_01: And in 1981, a fellow missionary gave me this little hymnal.
SPEAKER_01: This is an old hymnal.
SPEAKER_01: This is older than a lot of you in this room.
SPEAKER_01: And I had marked Jesus Shall Reign on page 246.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not going to sing it because that would be a bad ending to my sermon.
SPEAKER_01: But let me read you the first two stanzas.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I believe.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus shall reign wherever the sun does its successive journeys run.
SPEAKER_01: His kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moons shall wax and wane no more.
SPEAKER_01: To him shall endless prayer be made, and praises throng to crown his head.
SPEAKER_01: Church.
SPEAKER_01: Still believe that.
SPEAKER_01: Believe that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what's gonna happen in this election.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what's gonna happen about this or that amendment.
SPEAKER_01: We'll do our part.
SPEAKER_01: And you do need to do your part.
SPEAKER_01: But whatever happens, it's just a small part of an endless yeast that's taking over the globe.
SPEAKER_01: And we're a part of that great revolution.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ever doubt it.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steveholtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.