The prophecy of Habakkuk begins with the prophet's personal struggle and questioning of God's silence in the face of violence and injustice in Judah. The sermon explains that Habakkuk's prophecy is unique because it's a dialogue with God, focusing on His governance of nations and solving the prophet's internal problem. The sermon details the historical context of Habakkuk's prophecy, placing it during the rise of Babylon, and outlines the book's structure: the prophet's burden, God's vision, and the prophet's prayer of praise. It emphasizes that despite the overwhelming sin and God's seeming inaction, God is sovereign and will ultimately intervene, a truth that leads Habakkuk from distress to triumphant faith.
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Well, we thank you for coming again. We're going to begin the study of the book of Habakkuk, a lovely little prophecy, so unique. We'll find it very different in type from the ones we have studied already, the book of Hosea and the book of Joel. But if you'll take your lesson sheet, the opening page number one, I'd like, before we even begin reading the scripture, to go over the introduction on page number one, which will give us some perspective of what is before us in the prophecy of Habakkuk. And in the introductory remarks, we have the statement, the Prophet Habakkuk is unlike other prophets, for he does not address his words to his own countrymen or to any other foreign nation, but his speech is unto God alone.
Very frankly, it's almost like a dialogue. He's talking to God, and God is talking to him, and there's a great deal of difference in this prophecy compared to the others. Also, he is not concerned so much with delivering a message, but with solving a problem which vexed his own sensitive soul regarding God, and that is God's government over the nations. Now let me pause for just a moment. I think there's a very proper application. One thing we are sure, a friend, a s- a a a believer friend in the old country of Wales by the name of Lacey, Harry Lacey, wrote a book during World War II, one of the most interesting and most enlightening in respect to God and the nation, and God's government over the nation.
It was the most enlightening book I've ever read relative to governments and their responsibility to God, so that we can even recognize today, even as you find, we find the prophet of Baka, he was disturbed as what was going on among the nations and God permitting it, and he wondered about it. I guess we do. And so we can recognize God is still behind the scenes, governing the nations. Now, when we go to the next paragraph, we find the problem that he faced. His problem and the focus of his prophecy is Babylon. That was one of the nations we shall see rising up to power in his day.
There were three outstanding enemies that afflicted God's covenant people. The Edomite, they- those were the descendants of Esau, the Assyrian, and the Chaldeans, who were the Babylonians. And there are three Hebrew prophets who pronounced the final doom of these three great powers. The prophecy of Nahum told the knell of Ass- Assyria. Now, other prophets prophesied Isaiah as well as Hosea, we noted, against Assyria. But the final prophecy of, of Assyria's doom came through the prophecy of Nahum. Now, let me give you the, the implication.
You may remember Jonah. He prophesied and went to Nineveh ultimately after he ran away a while, and God brought him back, and he prophesied in Nineveh. And when he gave the message, repent, in forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown. Nineveh repented to the disturbance of Jonah. He didn't like it. He wanted to see them destroyed because he knew they were Israel's enemies. But a hundred years after Jonah, Nahum prophesied the final doom, which would be Assyria. And then you have Obadiah. In his little prophecy, one little chapter, I believe, the fate of Edom is thus revealed.
And then we have in the prophecy of Habakkuk, we find him digging the final grave, for we find in the prophet, and may I point out this first, when we come to the study, Babylon is only just beginning to rise in power in Habakkuk's day, but God told Habakkuk what would be the destruction of Babylon hundreds of years later on. So these three prophets particularly pronounced the final doom of those three great enemies. Now the time of the prophecy of this book, it's very interesting, there's not much telling it, to tell about it, but the introduction of the book does not even fix a definite date, but the contents do not leave us without doubt of the approximate time that he prophesied.
We have in the sixth verse of chapter one, and we quoted here in the, in the article, Lo, I raise up 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. And from that verse alone, you can recognize it was only being done at the beginning. It will, they had not risen to power, and that we shall see as we go into the prophecy. But anyway, Habakkuk probably prophesied at one time, at the time when the Chaldeans or the Babylonians were coming to power and soon to be used against the house of Judah in the same manner the Assyrians were used in judgment upon the ten tribes of Israel.
Now let me pause, and I'm sure you get it fi- get it fixed in your mind. There was a distinctive difference in time between the ten tribes being swept away by the Assyrian invasion and ca- and taken into captivity, and later on, when Judah, the remaining tribes of Benjamin and Judah, were taken away in the Babylonian captivity. So let me read on. We have something to say about that. He prophesied during the reign of King Josiah of Judah, near the end of his reign, and Josiah was a good king. And this was a few years before the Assyrian capital of Nine- Nineveh was destroyed, and that was by Nebuchadnezzar, which then elevated the Babylonians to a place of prominence and power.
So if he did not prophesy in Josiah's time, he may have prophesied in Jehoiakim's reign, who was the son of Josiah, and that was when the Babylonians began their attacks on Judah, which eventually culminated in the seventy years of captivity in the empire of Babylon. Now, Jehoiachin, you that may have read the history of the Book of the Kings, he was the wicked king, one of the last kings of Judah, who burned Jeremiah's scroll. If you've read the prophecy of Jeremiah, Jeremiah wrote or dictated to his secretary, we would call Baruch.
He dictated what God commanded him to state regarding the coming doom of Judah. And when it was brought before the king, Jehoiakim, who was sitting before the fire i- in his winter house, he took the scroll after he heard it read by his scribes, and he tore it up and burned it in the fire. So bitter in his opposition against the divine revelation of coming judgment. Jeremiah wrote another one later on, and Jeremiah had to hide from King Jehoiachin. And in the days of Zedekiah, who succeeded Jehoiachin, the last king of Judah, the, the children of Judah were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, but he was the wicked king that destroyed and burned Jeremiah's scroll.
So the last two or three decades of Judah's history was the time when God, through Habakkuk, revealed how near the end was. Now, the contents of his prophecy, it's very interesting to see the outline of the prophecy in these three brief chapters, for the book expresses in words the struggle of faith at the beginning, and then the triumph of faith at the end, which took place in the soul of the prophet himself. Now, please, we're going to see it carefully and prayerfully.
The problem that Habakkuk faced was a personal one. It is also relative to the condition of his people in Judah, as well as the silence of God permitting things to go as they were. It was a personal struggle of faith. Now, I'm sure you and I have such occasions in our lives where there's a struggle. What's happening? Why is it happening? What is God going to do about it? And we have those problems, and they're inward problems, and Abaka's problem was an inward one. And may I suggest, it's a wonderful thing when any believer will be concerned inwardly about conditions, no matter what they may be outwardly, but to recognize, as you see the variety of conditions around and unable to be understand why, to realize you can come to God with the problem and get light and encouragement upon it.
Now, beloved, may I say frankly, and I'm sure you fully all will fully agree with it, how there can come problems facing our path and the struggle of faith. What is God going to do? And being able, as the prophet comes to the end of the prophecy, to leave it in his hands. But let me read on. We read the sentence, the second sentence in that last paragraph. The prophecy begins with a sob and with a deep sigh, but it ends with a triumphant song. In between, the process from one to the other is disclosed, giving the heart of its meaning, a profitable lesson for us to learn from it.
There can be no doubt of the Prophet's own arrangement when he wrote by divine inspiration. We have three parts to the prophecy corresponding to the three chapters in the book in our English translation. Now, part one, we shall see in chapter one, the burden which Habakkuk the Prophet did see. The second part, and these are the words how the chapters begin, the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it, for the vision is yet for an appointed time. The third chapter begins a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Sheeaneph in a triumphant strain.
Now the outline is very simple, as we have it mentioned at the close of the page. Chapter one, um we see the prophet's burden. Chapter two, the prophet's vision that God gave to him. And chapter three, the prophet's prayer of praise and triumph. Now, shall we turn our books to the prophecy and read the first four verses? And we'll begin on page two, uh our lesson study together. Let me begin reading in chapter one of the prophecy at verse one and read only through verse four. and you will note I would like to add it for my own encouragement in understanding the section of the scriptures as you see them revealed.
You note at the end of verse four and the beginning of verse five, there is a paragraph mark. Now you can accept those paragraph marks as being original in the dividing of the Hebrew scriptures. Now, many times the translators, and we shall find an evidence in our chapter before us, many times the translators have divided the chapters and the verses for our convenience of reading only, and sometimes correctly, sometimes not. Because when we come to the end of this chapter, we'll have to go to chapter two and verse one to see the completion of it.
But you have, but you have a distinct section when you see that paragraph mark, and you can realize it begins a new section of information. Let me read the first four verses. 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 say? Why dost thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and there are, there are those literally that raise up strife and contention.
Therefore, because of this, the law, it is slack, and judgment of justice never, doth never go forth. For the wicked doth compass about the righteous, therefore wrong judgment proceeded. Now, if you please note your outline, and I'm sure you will find as we look at the chapter and have read it already, he sighs in an agony, he cries unto the Lord. For what he saw, and please may I say, what he saw took him into the presence of God. The conditions that prevailed in Judah took him into the presence of God.
Likewise today, conditions that surround us, conditions that make our hearts grieve. The best thing that we can do is to take the feelings of the heart, the burden of the soul into the presence of God. And you note the words in verse two, he said, O Lord, how long shall I cry? Thou wilt not hear. I don't know whether you've ever noticed it, but I have very much of late, in late months. The repetitious expression by many of God's servants, both in the Old and in the New Testament, especially in the Old, and especially in the book of the Psalms.
Oh Lord, how long? How long? How long? How long? How long is it gonna go on? And beloved, you and I often feel that way, even with our own problems. But as, as, as Habakkuk was facing what he knew to be the problems of his own people and the people of God whom he represented, Lord, how long am I gonna cry to you? You don't even listen to me. And if, if I may say, as you look at your paragraph, his deep problem was the silence of God, the inactivity and the seeming, though it wasn't true, but the seeming unconcern of God toward the existing conditions in Ju- in Judah.
What was existing? Violence was abounding, lawlessness was everywhere. God seemed to be doing nothing about it. Thus the spirit of God stirs up the heart of the prophet on account of the moral situation in Judah. Beloved, please may I state this? None of us, neither did Habakkuk know until God revealed it to him in the prophecy, what his purposes were and what would ultimately be the end. For we shall find, when we come to chapter two, God shows him what the end is going to be. But Habakkuk was worried about the present, and God seemingly unconcerned, and not doing anything regarding the, the pervading conditions amongst his own earthly people, and his silence troubled the prophet.
He was grappling in his heart over the seeming absence of God's intervention. Well, you can look at the world problems today and get the same exercise of heart, if you will. But you could be sure of this. God will ultimately intervene. And the prophet, and this is what we shall find even when we come into chapter two— he learns the lesson first, waiting on God about it, and waiting for God to give him the answer. But in the meantime, before God speaks to him regarding his problem, he pauses out, out his heart to God, how long, O Lord?
And he tells very definitely, all I see in verse, you look at verse three of your, of your chapter, all I see is iniquity. All I see is grievance. All I see is spoiling and violence before me, strife and contention. Beloved, one can recognize that amongst God's earthly people of of Judah and Benjamin, the remaining two tribes, the heart of the prophet was greatly grieved over such conditions, and he also knew the result, for verse two four tells the result. Therefore, obedience to the law, slack.
Beloved, can I stop for just a moment and reflect with you? Do we not face similar principles in the country today? The enforcing of the law is slack. How we see that constantly increasing. And as the result, justice never goes forth. And also, the wicked compass. There's more wicked surrounding the righteous, and therefore wrong judgment proceeded. Now, let me please state, I don't want to leave any of us to be pessimistic as believers in the Lord.
But if I read my New Testament correctly, I read from the lips of the writings of Paul, from the writings of Peter, from the writings of John, from the writings of Jude, these apostles who lived until the end of the first century of Christianity thereabout. I read that they revealed to us before they left the scene that conditions of the end time of the Christian age would become worse and worse. And I think we might as well face the fact. God shows it, God reveals it, God states it.
Let me just quote one scripture alone, second Timothy chapter three, When Paul writes, as you go down the chapter in verses twelve, eleven and twelve and so on, he speaks of certain men coming in as false teachers, but he also declares in verse thirteen, evil men shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. You can expect it. The Word of God teaches it. May I also not only take with you of the writings of the apostles, but if you study the seven letters of the seven churches of Asia in Revelation chapter two and three, you'll find similarly, and let me point out, may I point it out?
Now, this is something we really, we don't burden our hearts over as we should. When you read those two chapters, you've got the history of seven churches, literally, historically shown as the Lord Jesus penned them to those seven churches from Ephesus all the way down to Laodicea. But beyond that literal history of those seven churches of Asia at that time, we have a prophetic spiritual history of the church. And as you read those seven letters, you find constantly, from Ephesus on to Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and ultimately Laodicea, you find a constant declension of spiritual condition, going down.
And at the end, remember the words of the Lord Jesus when he spoke to Laodicea? He was outside of Laodicea. He was unwanted. Behold, I'm standing at the door and knocking. And there was no entrance. But he challenges, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and sup with him and he with me. And he challenges the individual heart to give him a place at the end of the history of the church. And my beloved, may I say lovingly? May I say it lovingly? It's so difficult to find a corporate testimony that is a one heart completely in every believer consisting of that testimony.
Let me make an application. The city of Charlotte. Can you and I say all the Christians are together? Wish we were. Should be a different kind of a city, I know that. But we're not. Confess that. And may I add, don't be surprised if there's confusion when there's not the united testimony with one heart, one mind, relative to the church and our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the head of that church.
Beloved Lord, the safest place for you and for me individually is to spiritually, before God, acknowledge it. We failed. We failed. One thing God will always do, he'll assist you when you know where the failure is and acknowledge. That's what Habakkuk was doing. He was telling God how my people have failed. Look at the conditions. All I can see provokes my heart and my soul as I look at the violence and the strife.
And may I say lovingly, and I say it with my heart feeling, the divisions amongst God's people, we all should feel ashamed of. Not only certain ones, all of us. All of us. Remember the old hymn, The Hungry Christian Soldier? And in one of the verses it speaks about, we are not divided all one body, we. I'm telling you. Wish that were true. Beloved Lord. Let us be like a backer. In principle, the days are no different, and we're at the end, and we see these things bringing to pass what the prophecies of the New Testament have foretold near the coming of the...
Now let me give you one quotation from the Lord Jesus. When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find, and let me literally quote it from the Greek text, shall he find the faith upon the earth. And so may I be with you encouraged to realize. Let my faith wrestle with the problem and get God's answer. For my own comfort, my own encouragement, my own stand in these evil days. How precious to realize. But let me ask, how many of us grapple with that problem?
How many of us feel it? That's the problem. And realize God is silent, and God is silent until his purpose has come to an end, when he will divinely intervene, we know. But oh, how blessed to realize, look, the problem of faith, and may I say frankly, the path, the individual path of a believer today gets more narrow if you and I are going to be faithful to him. Now, let me put it in this perspective. I don't know, it doesn't reveal to us in this book or any other prophecy, how many or how few of others may have felt the burden.
God must have had some. He always had a remnant who felt the condition in their soul before God and deplored the state of things. But may God help you and me to realize, look, frankly, please, you and I are members of the body of Christ. Forget now, please let me say, forget your local association or whatever church it might be, an assembly of believers. Look, you and I are part of the whole body. Members of his body, the church which is his body, of his flesh and of his bones. And may I say this? Now look, don't be narrow-minded to think only of the believers with whom you may meet.
Everybody is born again is a member of the body of Christ in the family of God, and my heart and your heart should be like the prophet going out about all of them in their condition. And may God help us not to be narrow-minded, but as broad-minded as the scriptures. In embrace, do you remember Paul said, pray for who? All saints. And we need All Saints Day every day, don't we? Not just once a year in the ecclesiastical calendar. Praying, burden for the people of God.
God help us to be as the prophet. All right. Now we find the prophet gets an answer from God. The answer comes in verse five through eleven. Let me read the ver- chapter, the portion through. There's not much to comment about it, for we shall see what God now tells the prophet, what he's going to do. Let me read the paragraph to you, please, on that letter A. The Lord calls upon his servant and people that they should see what he was going to do. They should look around among the heathen, the nations, and the storm of judgment about to break over the house of Judah, it would be beyond believing. Now note the words he begins in verse five. Behold! And may I point out, this is an emphatic word.
Behold! You find the word behold very frequently in the scriptures. Let me quote John twenty nine. And let me just to point out the emphasis of the word behold. John the Baptist gave the testimony of the Lord Jesus. Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Look at him. He calls attention to the person of Christ as the Lamb of God. You get in Revelation one seven where you have the coming again of the Lord Jesus in that book of the Revelation revealed. Behold, he cometh. And what it is, it's a stern call to look and to take in what I'm going to do.
Just not merely look that way and take your eyes off immediately. No, concentrate. Behold, look among the nations and regard in wonder. Marvelously, I'm going to do a work, a work in your day. You will not believe, though it be told you. And what God is telling the prophet, what I'm going to do, you'd hardly believe it's going to be true. Who raised up the Chaldeans? God says, I did. I'm going to do it. You can look around at the nations today.
You can think of the problem with Libya that has just come up in the past day or so, but I want to tell you, God raised it up. Look at the whole thing. South America, the Middle East, wherever you look, I raised it up. God's power is behind it all. And even in the, even in the prophecy we have here. God, God said, I raised it up. I raised it up. I raised it up. Well, we're going to see as we go down the chapter what God did to raise this powerful empire, the Babylonian, up to be a scourge against his people.
Let's read on. For lo, I raised up the Chaldean, that bitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. 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. Their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far. They shall fly as the eagle in swiftness that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence. Their faces shall sup up as the east wind.
They shall gather the captivity as the sand. 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. And then, that powerful person and country will change his mind. He shall pass over and offend, offend God, imputing that his power came from his own God. Now look at your paragraph, please. We'd like to read the explanation we have very quickly. First in le- under letter B, the instrument of chastening is announced and described.
A new power would arise, the Chaldeans. Let me please state again, this is the rising up, the beginning of of the empire of Babylon rising up in power. The Assyrians had been defeated by the Babylonians, the capital of Nineveh had been destroyed, and now the Chaldeans are risen up. They would make an invasion and in a widespread conquest possess the land and take away the dwelling places of Judah. That literally we well know as we read the end of the Book of the Kings, the prophecy of Daniel, and other prophecies of the Old Testament.
And then follows the description of their terrible power in verses seven to ten. The swiftness of their te- of their conquest will be as swift as the leopard. Their fierceness like wolves. Their horsemen dash with eagle's flight to devour. And in violence they come and know not defeat. Their faces are always forward. None can check their advance. Kings and princes they ridicule, and they capture every stronghold. Let's go to Jeremiah's prophecy, where we have a reference. For Jeremiah also, in fact, Jeremiah lived in the days when this was actually fulfilled, and lived to see the Babylonian captivity commence.
And did not Jeremiah prophesy that the Babylonian captivity would be for the space of seventy years? But let me read in chapter five of Jeremiah, verses beginning at verse fifteen and right through verse eighteen. We might say in verse, read verse fourteen. Well, let me go to verse thirteen. For as, as the prophet by the spirit condemns the people of Judah, in verse thirteen, the prophet shall become wind. That was the false prophet. The word is not in them. Thus shall it be done unto them. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts, because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. Their quiver is an as an open sepulcher. They are all mighty men. They shall eat up thine harvest, thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat. They shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds. They shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees. They shall impoverish thy fenced cities wherein thou trustest with the sword.
Let me pause for a moment. Keep your place there. Go back to the prophecy of Habakkuk. Please let me read at the last chapter in Abaka. May I read verse seventeen only, where at the end of the prophecy, the prophet Abaka realizes the words of Jeremiah would be literally fulfilled. Now know what he says, and here you can see the triumph of his faith. He knew what was going to happen to his people, yet he adds, although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, the field shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, there shall be no herd in the stalls.
He recognized the words of Jeremiah would come become, would come true. He himself realizes the devastation that the enemy would bring upon the land. And yet, what joy to hear him say, I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Please let me see, go back to the prophecy of Jeremiah. One can recognize these prophets didn't, they never contradicted each other. Quite often their prophecies confirmed one another, what they had said. And here we have the prophecy of Jeremiah relative to the coming judgment of Babylon. And we have him saying, let me read that verse seventeen again.
They shall eat up thine harvest, thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat. They shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds. They shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees, and they shall impoverish thy fenced cities wherein thou trustest with the sword. But here's the word of comfort. Nevertheless, in those days, saith the Lord, I will not make a full end of you. And one can recognize the comfort of the prophecy that God would not make a total end of his earthly people. But go back, if I may, to the lesson sheet and continue our reading in that paragraph, the last section of it.
But may I first of all read in Habakkuk, verse eleven. I want you to get the distinction between the preceding verses from verse seven through ten and now verse eleven. Then shall his mind, and the word his is in italics, we know, but the mind of the, of the oppressor will change, and though he shall pass over and offend, yet he will impute his power onto his God. Please look, if you will, please, at your lesson sheet on the paragraph C. And this is so true. The proud Chaldean attributes his power to his own God, forgetting he is but the instrument in the hand of God to deal with those who have done evil.
They do not give God the glory. His own might is his God. But the day of judgment comes on them later, as we well know in Daniel chapter five, during the reign of Belshazzar. Just a little reflection before going further, relative to the destruction of Babylon in the book of Daniel, may I point out, first of all, to see how the Babylonian Empire, and particularly Nebuchadnezzar, exalted himself. Remember in chapter three of the book of Daniel, he built an image of gold, commanded all men to worship that image.
And let me just point out in passing, one of the greatest means that any despot, any power will seek to subjugate and bring all the people under it to be in submission to their rule. They will not only do it politically and militarily, but they will seek to do it religiously. And you remember that Nebuchadnezzar sought to unify the whole empire, one religion. All the nations must come and worship the image of gold that he set up on the plain of Dura. Now, what was he doing?
He sure forgot what Daniel told him in chapter two when he had the dream regarding the other image of the Gentile powers and the, and the history of them. Daniel told him, Nebuchadnezzar, you're the head of gold there, and it's the God of heaven who gave you your kingdom. Daniel pulled no punches when he told Nebuchadnezzar, you owe your kingdom. The God of heaven has given it to you. Daniel was a spiritual man that recognized God's hand of judgment and of chastening was upon his earthly people, rightly so because of their sins and iniquities.
But he also recognized Nebuchadnezzar was the servant of God being used to bring it to pass. And then when God gave him the world empire, Daniel said, the God of heaven gave it to you. Chapter three? Oh no, it's mine. We know how God intervened in the wonderful, miraculous deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But in chapter four, remember in chapter four when Nebuchadnezzar recites his conversion to God? And remember before it ha- all the that event happened, that he was banished for seven years to eat grass like an ox in the open field.
He was boasting, is not this Babylon which I have built? Giving honor to himself and his gods. And God says, I'll deal with that. I'll deal with that, and God does. You know, let me just say this. You can put your mind and fix your eye on any personal personality of power that God permits to rise up, and you can depend that someday God will deal with that person, no matter who he is. Let me transfer the application.
When we come to the end of the age, and when we see the beast, the false prophet, the world pro- and may I suggest, may I suggest, just as in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, who sought to unify the empire, not only politically, economically, and so on, and militarily under his authority, but even religiously. That's just what's going to happen at the end of the age. Please may I say, to not only a world government, there's going to be one worldwide religion before the end comes. One worldwide religion. And the whole world will be commanded to worship the image of the beast at the cost of death and the penalty of persecution.
Then other plea, let me say. I don't know what you think about. You know, there's a great movement amongst many Christian companies, ecumenically. Beloved, let me please state this. Ecumenically, the church was one in the early days. They were of one heart, they were of one mind, according to Acts chapter four. But since the apostles have passed from the scene, the end of the first century of Christianity, the church has not been an ecumenical body in its literal fulfillment. But let me tell you what God's gonna do. He's got his own ecumenical movement, and I love to think of what's gonna take place when he does it.
It's from First Thessalonians chapter four, verse fifteen through seventeen. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together. And you know, when we go up together, we're not going up as Baptists or Presbyterians or, or, or Methodists, name whatever you will. No! We're growing up for what we really are now in Christ. Believers. Together! Get that word together. The connotation is deeper than just being physically together.
And we're going to be one together. And please note, caught up together in the clouds to meet who? The Lord. And won't that be the greatest church gathering that ever has taken place? And thank God it's coming. It's coming. And so when you and I realize the conditions we face prevailing around us, God's got his ecumenical move. Please let me state this lovingly. Any ecumenical endeavor to get all of God's people, professing people together, is only going to bring them under the Antichrist, ultimately. Ultimately. And just as Nebuchadnezzar sought to unify his empire, so will the beast and the false prophet.
Religiously. You know there's one thing, man is a religious being, and if he doesn't worship God, he make his own God. And so far we know that in a father's idolatry and the, and the nations in their existence, how much they prove their idolatrous practices. But you know, at the end, he's gonna be his own God. He's gonna be his own God. Go to Second Thessalonians, please, will you? Before closing, please let me read a little section. Second Thessalonians chapter two, how the Spirit of God reveals regarding the end.
Oh, let me read it. In verse two, Paul writing by the Spirit, asking the believers of Thessalonica not to be soon shaken in their mind or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as though it were from us, that the day of the Lord, which we had in our study of Joel, the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means. That day shall not come except there come. And may I read it as it properly should be translated, not a falling away, the falling away. It means apostasy, but it emphatically in the Greek, it's the apostasy, the final apostasy of the world from God.
And then that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Now note, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, all that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Please let me say, please, can I visualize it with you? When he puts himself up in that image in the temple at Jerusalem, he's deifying himself. I am God. And unfortunately, many of the world are going to believe him and worship him. And apart from those of that day who will be the remnant who will stand true at such a cost?
The world at large would have the deification of man. I'm God. I'm God. He does miracles. Well, you can read out in the chapter, please. Go down the chapter in verse nine. Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved, and so on. And please let me emphasize, just as Nebuchadnezzar, never realizing God said even prophetically before his power became worldwide.
When he gets his conquest, he's going to assert it was all through his own gods and his own might. I tell you one thing, Nebuchadnezzar had some deep lessons to learn, and he did learn some of them. And when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fiery furnace, he had to acknowledge there's no god like the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. His gods couldn't do that. And thank God for the grace, the mercy. Please let me put it in this perspective. The first worldwide dic- worldwide dictator, Nebuchadnezzar, was converted. The last one, never.
He goes to the lake of fire alive, together with his com- with his, with his compatriot, the beast and the false prophet be assigned alive without any judgment to that eternal abode. Oh, what terrible conditions we can recognize will be at the end. Beloved, please let me say faithfully, we're facing greater dangers than what the children of Israel and Judah faced here at the end. But that end will come, and that end will certainly bring God's judgment upon him. Now, as you go to the end of the chapter, which we'll leave till next week, but you'll find when the prophet heard this, what God was going to do with his people, he couldn't stand it.
Oh! He pleads with God again. He pleads with God, are you going to let the nations destroy my people like that and not intervene? How can you look upon people doing what? Please let me say, as you notice in verse thirteen, let me just note that. Thou art a purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity? Now, let me just raise the question. Here's the prophet's problem, faith's problem. Why is God so silent? You and I can ask the same thing.
We look at the conditions today. What? Does God have to look at all these things? He's the purer eyes to behold iniquity and evil. Yes, he looks upon it. And will he be silent? Bless your soul, he won't. Ultimately, his hand of judgment will fall. One thing we fail to realize, this whole world today is closer to judgment than in all, all of its history since the days of Noah. And God, of purer eyes, to behold iniquity, looks down from heaven.
He sees it. And when the prophet goes on in this section, we'll see how he raises the question, are you going to do something about it? And when we can, then he, he calls on God again in the next chapter, we'll see. God tells him what he's going to do. He tells him what he's going to do with that nation that oppresses all earthly people. And today, oh, you and I can realize how near we are to divine intervention for the affairs of the world. But cheer up, ye saints of God. There's nothing to worry about. Nothing to make you afraid. Nothing to make you doubt.
Our God will never fail. So why not trust him and shout? For you'll be sorry you doubted tomorrow morning. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. And you and I have what? A blessed hope. He's going to take us out. And what a joy it will be to be taken out of this present evil world and meet him in the air when he comes for his own. Thank God for such a promise. And one thing I'm really anxious to get into that house above, my father's house of many mansions of which Jesus spoke.
But, oh beloved, please let's see that our God, we wrestle with these problems. Why is God so long in intervening? He'll be on time. A dear brother, many years ago, as I met him in his business, went home on the train to his home out of Chicago, and I could see he was dejected. He said, John, when is the Lord coming? I could see he was heavy-hearted. I said, Bill, cheer up. He'll be on time, and he will. Shall we pray? Oh, blessed Father, we thank thee for thy word. The entrance of thy word giveth light.
It giveth understanding for the s- to the simple. And blessed Lord, we think of thine own words when upon the earth, when thou wast rejected by the many, when the leaders of the nation plotted thy death, and but a few were faithful to thee. Thou didst lift thine heart and say to the Father, even so, Father, thou hast not revealed these things unto the wise and prudent and unto babes. Even so, Father, that so it seem good in thy sight. We think of ourselves gathered here together, just a company, a little company of believers.
Lord, if the whole city of Charlotte could look, look in upon us, how many of them would wonder what we see in gathering in such a way? But Lord, we're thy babes, and you're revealing things to us that you're hiding from the wise of this world. We're honored, Lord, and we thank thee for one another. Thank thee for the dear ones that are willing to come and share thy precious word, the only source of comfort, blessing, and guidance. And we thank thee for each other. God grant that more of thy dear children will come and gather around thy word wherever they are.
We ask it, giving thanks in our Savior's precious and worthy name. Amen. Well, thank you for coming. I don't know. Look.