The Wonder of Habakkuk 2:5 Why Faithlessness Leads To Fear Then Paranoia Mass Murder Even Genoside

This is the Truth Network. Bible Wonders of Habakkuk. Once again, I have to tell you that my mind is completely blown by what God has taught me here this morning on the fifth verse of the second chapter of Habakkuk. Like, what an amazing book and what a thing that God has, you know, it's interesting that my word of the year was to be gathered in great faith. And oh, my goodness, when it says righteous will live by faith. I had no concept as I studied this particular verse, what this has to do with faith. But oh, my goodness, it is so connected to the previous verse.

It's unbelievable. And I hope you'll see that with me. It is definitely my prayer because, wow, when you see it, you're like, oh, my goodness, it explains so much. And actually, it's so helpful to our everyday lives. So I will read this in the King James Version, which, believe me, is very confusing and confusing, actually, in most translations.

But hopefully, we can dig into it and find some reason. So here it is. And hey, it has to do with God expressing himself and he's an express and unbelievable thing about faith right here. And so he says, Oh, my gosh, I'm sure it doesn't take but a second to see that we're talking about Adolf Hitler, we're talking about Stalin, we're talking about Pol Pot, and a lot of other people, probably Nebuchadnezzar is the one they're certainly describing here. And it's interesting to me that both Matthew, Henry and Rashi both go to the king and Daniel, is it Belshazzar, however it's said, that ended up getting drunk and getting Daniel and many, many Teko Parsons, that story. It's interesting to me that both Rashi and Matthew Henry go there with this particular verse because it was wine that got to him and he was betrayed.

Went on the journey through the Song of Solomon, which I'm hoping many of you did with us. Many times he refers to wine in that book. And he also talks to dove eyes, which are also a variation of the word wine. And dove eyes are these eyes that have great faith. Well, here where it says wine is essentially a deceiver. It's treacherous.

It's not what you think it is. And it's fascinating that when you think about that as connected to your faith, and that's the very thing that I really think God is trying to express something about faith to us because he's still teaching us that the righteous will live by faith. And remember the verse starts with also. So you remember he talked about the puffed up man, and then he said the righteous will live by faith. And then he comes back with this verse to explain what happens when you lose faith, when you lose all faith as a matter of fact. And it begins by this idea of wine is imitation faith, right? Because when you drink, you think you have faith, but you don't.

It's treacherous. It is deceiving you into thinking something. It's a false faith.

It's essentially what it is. And due to that false faith, right? We now see that this poor man or this poor nation of this poor people in general, all of us is a result of what happens here as as this lack of faith explodes. It says that he becomes a proud man. Well, that word man there would be better translated warrior. And the word proud would probably be better translated. Thinks he's God.

Okay. This is a warrior who thinks he's God. I mean, and he is drunk on wine. And the wine that, you know, you can't help but know that blood and wine are usually connected in the Bible. And it's certainly that this man is blood thirsty.

And so why is he blood thirsty? And it's so beautiful what it shows us in this idea of the next three words that really is confusing. It says neither keepeth he at home. Okay.

Now that's true. Translated is restless in certain translations. That translated is not taking care of what's his.

It's a lot of things that it's translated as, but it's so helpful. I don't know how I'd ever understand this verse and nor get all the full meaning of it if I didn't read Hebrew. But that word there that is transcribed that he doesn't keep at home. It is a nun. That is the idea of faith. Something in faith in God essentially is what it is, but that the idea of faith right here is being expressed and this is how it's being expressed because this is the hey verse is that it's a nun and then above, which means that here's a nun that's connected to heaven being expressed. Well, what it says is this man does not have that quality. Not at all. He has no.

It's disgraceful. He doesn't have in faith in anybody. And as a matter of fact, what happens is you, when you lose faith, you become so fearful, you become paranoid, right? And if you think about what happened to poor Cain, right, as he murdered and became blood, you know, you become bloodthirsty because what happens is you think everybody's out to get you. So that the problem is you got to destroy everybody. And obviously this was a problem with Hitler and Stalin and all these people that they begin to think they're God as they become more.

And more bloodthirsty. And at the heart of that is the fact that they have no faith, not only no faith in God, but no faith in any human being. And you've met people like that, that, that, that are disgraceful.

And that's the best way I know to put that. And I was thinking about it, that you can tell when somebody has faith in you in their eyes because you might remember that grace is first appears in the Bible with no, it's actually Noah spelled backwards. And it says that Noah found grace in God's eyes. Well, you can see it in their eyes that these people have no faith in anybody and that's disgraceful behavior. But the cool thing about this is it's showing us here's the worst thing that can happen.

It is the worst thing that can happen. We saw it in Hitler. We saw, we saw it in so many different ways, but it is also an amazing thing that can happen because Jesus was full of this stuff. He was full of grace.

He was full. And that's the reason he's willing to die for us. So when we have grace and begin to treat everybody like they're our favorite, then all my goodness, are we getting a chance to express the letter?

None. Right. The idea of the hay is that we are going to express our faith, express our faith, not only in God, but God in other people because God is in every single person.

Of course, they may need to be born again. I get that. But nonetheless, he's in there like prego spaghetti sauce. And I love, I mean, this is one of those verses that you can't help, but just love and hate because death is obviously a result of somebody who becomes so paranoid that everybody has to go because they're all out to get him and all the world is about him because he thinks he's God. But the great news is the complete opposite. That can be true. You live by faith, right? You know what it's like to walk with somebody that has faith in you? You know how wonderful it is when somebody, especially a person of great esteem or position, has great faith in you?

I mean, it gives you this feeling. Well, let me just tell you that God, Jesus, he is full of grace. And so as he's given us this favor, can we also have faith in other people?

Because that is the idea is to become immuno. Become faithful because God is in there. He just is. And so as you think about how does this actually work out in your life, right? And who can you think of that whenever you see them, they're always faithful of so many people. And I'm just going to say once again that Pastor Quartz is one of the people that was in my life when I first came to Winston Salem. He would know your name. He would know your wife's name and your kids' names. And you could look in his eyes and see that you were his favorite.

I mean, when he talked to you, it was just clearly you were his favorite. He would call you. Here's a pastor of a church of over 5000. It wasn't unusual for Pastor Quartz to call me on the phone. Like I wouldn't be shocked.

And he would say, Robbie, would you give your testimony tonight or whatever? And I was barely a Christian. I was an absolute nobody.

But here he was. And I was his favorite. And it was clear, but it wasn't just me that was his favorite.

It was everybody that was his favorite. I want to be that guy. I want to be that guy that other people say, oh, I was Robbie's favorite.

I just want to be that guy. Because that is exactly what it means to be full of grace and to have what this poor Nebuchadnezzar slash Stalin hit the torture, the restlessness. It makes you a madman. It makes you paranoid.

When you have no faith in anybody, you become paranoid. It's a beautiful understanding of how you can live and have life to the full is to have faith in God and faith in other people. This is amazing.

I know I'm going on and on, but I'm just blown away by it. And I'm so grateful that you're on this trip with me. So, hey, as you're having faith today, why not have faith in that other person that may want to enjoy this podcast? And they come on your heart, share it with them so that we can share this light of God, the true wine, right? The wine that they can drink that would be the covenant, the cup of the new covenant in his blood that can help them to have this great faith that they too can be gathered in. Oh, wow. Let's all join in. Thanks for listening.