When God Judges Sin

This sermon was delivered on Sunday, April 29, 2018, as a continuation of a series on the book of Habakkuk. The pastor reviews the historical background of the prophet Habakkuk, who lived during the final period of Judah before Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC. Habakkuk's two main questions were: why does God remain silent in the face of rampant wickedness in society, and why would a righteous and holy God use a nation more wicked than Judah to punish His own people.

The heart of the sermon focuses on the five sins God charges against Babylon in Habakkuk 2:4-20: pride and self-exaltation, plundering others' wealth for personal gain, greed and injustice, using violence and forced labor to build cities, coercing and enticing others to satisfy fleshly desires, and finally worshiping idols made by human hands. The pastor especially emphasizes pride as the root of all sin, drawing from Isaiah 14:12-15 on Satan's fall through five declarations of 'I will' in his attempt to make himself equal to the Most High.

The sermon recounts the final night of the Babylonian empire in Daniel 5, when King Belshazzar held a great feast, used the gold and silver vessels from the Jerusalem temple to drink wine, and praised idols. That very night, a hand wrote on the wall the words 'Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin,' and Daniel interpreted them as God's judgment: the king's days were numbered and finished, he had been weighed and found wanting, and his kingdom would be divided and given to the Medes and Persians. That night the king was killed and the Babylonian empire fell, fulfilling exactly what God had spoken to Habakkuk.

A key argument of the sermon is a warning against the human habit of comparing one's own sins with others' sins as a form of self-justification. The pastor points out that whether comparing the sins of Judah with Babylon, or Vietnam with America, or one person with another, God does not judge sin by such comparisons. He judges sin according to His absolute standard of holiness, and before that standard no one is acquitted, for 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23).

The sermon closes with a practical call to action: instead of comparing our sins with others', each person must compare their sins against God's absolute standard of holiness to recognize the necessity of salvation in Jesus Christ. The sermon also reminds listeners to wait patiently in faith, for God is not slow concerning His promise but is patient, not wanting anyone to perish but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).