♪ And from the hills a thousand
hills ♪ ♪ Here now we pledge before His name ♪ ♪ Praise to
our God and Lord ♪ ♪ With every breath of our own ♪ ♪ The Lord is come ♪ ♪ We are the
choirs in heav'nly song ♪ ♪ The Lord is born, we adore him ♪
♪ In Bethlehem, Bethlehem ♪ ♪ In Bethlehem, we all adore him now
♪ These old writers, the reason
their hymns were so good was because they were so scriptural,
so God-honoring and so scriptural. That verse 5, when it speaks
of the north wind and the south wind blowing in the garden, does
that sound familiar to any of you? All right, let's go over to Habakkuk,
the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk chapter 3. Let's read the first two verses. Habakkuk 3. I still have trouble finding it. Habakkuk
3, verses 1 and 2. A prayer of Habakkuk, a prophet,
called shigyonot. That's a big, difficult word,
but it is some to a song that was very familiar
to those people, much like we see titles of songs in our in-book
that suggest a certain tune. If you look in our in-book, you'll
see it has a name or a title. It was a very common tune that
they sung various songs to. That's what this is. It was sung
at them as prayer. Verse 2, O Lord, I have heard
thy speech and was afraid. O Lord, revive thy work in the
midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make
none. In wrath, remember mercy. There's very little known about
the prophet Habakkuk. No one is really sure where he
came from. or at what time he lived. Kind of a mysterious man, and
that's fitting. Like John, the prophet John,
a bachelor who was a boy, crying and weeping. But he's quoted
at least four times in the New Testament. That famous verse,
chapter 2, verse 4, the just shall live by his hand. That's
quoted three other times in the New Testament. Habakkuk preached
and prophesied around, we think, 600 B.C. This was a time when
Israel was in captivity in Babylon. It's necessary that I tell this
history. Israel was in Babylon because of their wicked idolatry. Because of their sin, they had
been taken captive. The Lord turned them over to
their enemy. They were God's people, but they
got caught up in the idolatrous sin of the world, and God turned
them over to Babylon. And so they were in captivity.
These were the people of God, and now they're in captivity,
and they're living in a heathen society. And Habakkuk is greatly burdened
for his people, himself, he said. He was a contemporary, we think,
of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, as you know, was in
captivity. So Habakkuk was greatly burdened
for his people who were in captivity, who had fallen so greatly, and
himself. And this is his prayer to Jehovah. And one line of which is going
to be our study. Just one line. Just verse two. And this is my prayer for us
and our children here in modern Babylon. That's where we live. And, you know, most people, our
children, don't know it, but they are in captivity in this
land. They don't know it. All right, he says in verse 2,
O Lord, O Lord, remember the name Lord Jehovah. Remember, He revealed Himself
to His people on that mountain, to Moses, as the Lord Jehovah. That is God our Savior. He said,
I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God of history. Covenant God. Eternal promise-keeping
God. Promise-keeper. I couldn't help
but think about that. But we rejoice in our great promise-keeper. The Lord, Jehovah. Our Lord,
the Eternal One. The Lord Jesus Christ, O Lord,
that's who we pray to, isn't it? O Lord, our God. I have heard thy speech, he said.
I have heard thy speech. The word speech, if you have
a marginal reference, means report or hearing. What is this report? Let all God's people hear. I've
heard it. Have you heard it? I've heard thy speech. Most people,
our Lord said this so many times, have ears to hear, but hear not. Have ears to hear, but hear not. Paul warned that in the last
day, many would turn their ears from the truth unto faith. Isaiah said in Isaiah 53, who
hath believed our report? Who doesn't believe it, as if
it was so hard to find somebody to do it? To whom is the arm of the Lord
made bare or revealed? Who hath believed it? Can you
say, bless the Lord, O my soul, I have. I heard the report. What is the report? Look at verse
13. Habakkuk gives a prophecy of
the coming Christ. Thou wentest forth for the salvation
of thy people. This is the report. This is the
record. This is the word of God to His people. The salvation
of thine anointing. Be wounded the head of the wicked
one. It's a prophecy of Christ who's coming. I've heard the
report. By His grace, He's given me ears
to hear it. And better yet, I believe the
report. Who hath believed our report? Go over to Isaiah 40.
Brother Greg Young preached from this. Isaiah 40. What is the report? What is God's
speech to human beings? Have they not heard it? Yeah,
they've all heard it, but not with the ear of faith. But you
have. Many of you have, bless the Lord. Isaiah 40. Here's the report. Verse 3, "...the voice of him
that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord."
That is, somebody's coming. Somebody's coming. Verses 5 and
6, "...the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. All flesh
shall see it together. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken
it, just as his feet." The voice said, cry. Here's the report.
What shall I cry? All flesh is grass. And all the
goodliness thereof is the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth." All of this is fading away. All is grass. That which
is seen is temporal, but that which is unseen is eternal. That's the report. This is all
fading away. And we're grass. But somebody's
coming. Somebody's coming. Verse 9, O
Zion, thou that bringest good tidings, get up into the high
mountains. O Jerusalem, that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold, your God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hands. He has. And His arms shall rule
for Him. He has. His reward is with Him. What is it? His righteousness,
His blood, His salvation, His work. Notice that. His work is before Him. So he did. He came. This is the
report. This is the thing. Have you heard?
God came to earth to save His people, to save His people from
their sins, to deliver His people from their captivity. This is
what Habakkuk was telling His people. We've got a good report,
though we're in this Babylonian captivity, and we're all pretty
miserable. Yet, here's the good news. The
Lord is coming to deliver us. That's the report. That's the
report. Behold, he cometh, the scripture
says, with clouds, with ten thousand times ten thousand of his hands.
Remember that? And we shall meet him in the
air. Look back at our text. Look back at 3. O Lord, I have
heard thy speech, I have heard your report, I have heard your
voice, he said, all his sheep would. And I was afraid See that? I was afraid when I
heard this report of what man is, what I am. When I heard this
report of who you are, God knew right. It made me fear. It made me afraid. And that's what the Word of the
Lord does. That's what the Word of the Lord is designed to do,
you know it? That's the first That's saving wisdom by fear
of the Lord. That's what the Word of the Lord,
the voice of the Lord does. Do you remember Psalm 11? What
is it, Psalm 11? I didn't write it down. The voice of the Lord breaketh
the cedars. The voice of the Lord causes
the hinds to calf. The voice of the Lord is a fearful
thing. And when the voice of the Lord,
God Almighty, speaks to one of His people, It causes fear, the
fear of the Lord. Blessed are they, the scripture
says, who tremble at His Word. Here, let me tell you what the
fear of the Lord is a little bit. First of all, when the person,
when someone hears the Word of God, what man is and who God
is and who Christ is, it creates a fear of the true and sovereign
Lord God of Scripture. Not like this sentimental, loving-only
God that's preached today, which causes no fear. But the true
and sovereign Lord, in whose hands our breath is in all our
ways, the God in whose hands our breath is in all our ways,
we have not glorified. We see the handwriting. This
is His handwriting. on the wall or the tables of
our heart. And it says, Tikel, tikel, mimi sabachanah. Thou wait in the balances of
thy wall. You see that, when God's word first comes to us,
when we hear his, I didn't speak in tongues just then, that was
the handwriting on the wall to that king. The fear of the true
and sovereign Lord God, and it gives us a fear of being lost. Anybody that's never been lost
has never been found. So that the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of this wisdom. The fear, and this always brings,
the fear of there's no hope. I'm not without hope. I'm a sinner
against God and now there's no hope for me. But for all who experience that
fear, and I'm not saying you have to go through a long period
of Well, but there is that fear when the Word of the Lord comes
to somebody. Fear of God, fear of being lost, fear of being
without Christ. And that fear, all who have that
fear, the command then comes. Fear not. Only to those who fear. Does the command come, fear not,
I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by name, thou
art mine. And so we never quit fearing,
really, if this quits fearing the Lord. We never quit fearing. We should fear, probably anyway. We should. It's a godly thing. And only those who quit fearing
have reason to fear. Those who fear losing their salvation
have nothing to fear. Did you hear that? The time to
worry is when we quit fearing that. And though we never quit fearing
the Lord, yet the gospel, this is why we keep coming to hear
the gospel. It allays our fear. It calms our fear. It tells us,
yes, you have no hope in yourself. You're still a sinner. You're
still a sinner, though you, all these years, you're still a sinner.
But I'm still your Savior. And always will be. And there's
a good hope through grace. Sure hope. Look with me at Psalm
106. Psalm 106. I love these psalms. Psalm 104, 105, 106. Very similar. Psalm 106. You know, when I was talking
about when the Word of the Lord comes to somebody and conflicts
them, and they're lost in who God is, and creates this fear, and then the
gospel comes. And it truly is a good news.
Truth is the best news they ever heard. And those first years,
it sets you free. The truth sets you free. You
hear the gospel, and it lightens your heart, and your steps, and
takes a burden like old Bunyan's children, removes that heavy
burden off your back. Where did he remove that? The
foot of the cross. That's where he got rid of that
heavy burden that he was carrying. That's the foot of the cross.
He didn't carry it anymore. He went on his pilgrimage. Well, those first years of that
liberty, that freedom that we had after we heard the gospel,
those first years were sweet. I thought of the Israelites.
Think with me. Just imagine this with me for
a minute. I mean, down in the mud pits and the slime pits. I mean, down in the muck and
the filth and the mire. For what? For nothing. Wasn't
that us? In the muck and the mire and
the slime of this world? Huh? That was literally. When God redeemed his people,
brought them out of that place, Nancy, everything, every day,
every step they took toward the promised land was glory. Everywhere
they went, I mean, they didn't catch any of it. Under the bondman
whip, cruel whip of the law, and every step they took was
just liberty. Everything they came across was
glorious. Every sunset, every sunrise,
every flower, every tree was all liberty. Everything that
God made and did for them for the first, I don't know how long,
but for a first while anyway, was the glorious liberty of the
sons of God. We're marching beside them. That's
what they thought. Liberty. Now they didn't have
much. Just what was on their backs,
and one parachute. But the man died of hepatitis.
We're out of them. We've been redeemed! Out of the
redeemed! I'm telling you! Can't you imagine
that that's the way it was? Sing it again! Art. What happened? Where is that blessingness, that
perspective? It isn't there. Look at Psalm 106 with me. Look
at verse 10 through 12. Psalm 106, 10 through 12. He saved them from the hand of
Him that made them, redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
Oh, they saw a glorious redemption. The waters covered their enemies.
There was not one of them left, and there's not one of our sins.
When we heard that all our sins were gone, Ooh, you name that,
there can't be any. Old Scott Richardson said, I
ain't never heard any bad news since I've heard good news. The
good news is there's a sin in the gospel. Not one of them is
left. And then they believe. Then they,
it says that they believe this word of the startling praises,
but they soon forget. Verse 13. They soon forgot
it. Why? Verse 14. And lest they
exceed in their will. What was it over? What did they
forget God over? What was it that made them quit
rejoicing? And the greatest thing, story
I ever heard. Let me tell you. Let me tell
you where it was, okay? You want to hear where it was? Leeks and onions. I'm serious. Leeks and honey. You know what I'm saying? That's
what they wanted to go back to eating for. Onions. If it weren't so tragic, it'd
be funny, wouldn't it? I forgot the moment. So he gave
them their request. They wanted meat, they wanted
this, they wanted that, but they just were tired of that bread,
that light bread from heaven. Now, this is This shows the utter stupidity
of man, and the ignorance of man, and the ingratitude of man,
and what man craves. They lusted exceedingly in the
will of God, and tempted God, that is what I'm thinking. And He gave them their flesh.
He gave them fullness, bread and meat to the fullness. No
one said it was going to run out or not. And look at this stuff, verse
15, sent leanness into their soul. They had all that they wanted,
but they had leanness of soul. Over in 1 Corinthians 10, you're
going to have to turn with me. 1 Corinthians 10, we've looked
at it before several times, which says the people sat down to eat
and drink and rose up to play. That's all they thought about.
That's all they thought about. They forget God, their Savior,
which has done great things in Egypt. What did they forget God
over? Leaves and onions. Verse 24, Yea, they despised
the pleasant land. That is, they weren't looking
forward to some other plant. Leaves and onions. They believed not His word. He
said, just a little while, you're going to be there. Oh, we don't
believe it. We're going back to you. Verse
25, they murmured in their tents. They sat in their tents and talked
to their wives, and the wives talked to their husbands. Murmur,
murmur, murmur. Man, we've got to back it up.
God, life's so bad. It's awful. Forgot where they came from.
Forgot where they were going, forgot that God just freely,
mercifully, graciously, lovingly, kindly, undeservingly poured
out blessings, delivered them from death that He brought upon
the Egyptians, which they were worthy of Himself, delivered
them, provided the sacrifice, provided the land, made Himself
known to them, led them all wherever they were going. I did all these
things for the great work of God, and they forgot. All right, go
back to Habakkuk. And these were the lean years,
leanness of soul, leanness of soul. And they ended up back in captivity,
didn't they? They ended up back in captivity. And you know, we're right in
the middle, as I said, we're right in the middle of this captivity. We are. There's a famine of bread,
the name must have talked about, not of physical bread, but of
the hearing of God's Word. We're right in the middle of
it. We're caught up by it. And oftentimes we look like and
appear just like them. Many times, we look like Lot,
David, and Sodom. We look like Jacob and Herod.
We look like David and Ziklag. All of God's people do, at some
point. Verse 2, And so David said, O
Lord, revive thy work in the midst
of the earth. Now more than ever, we need the
Lord. You know, it was around the turn
of the century, the millennium, that everybody was thinking about
the return of our Lord. We've been thinking about it
on the board then and since then, haven't we? My little prophecy, that's not
my own, it's just based on Scripture, that the Lord was definitely
not coming when men think. That's what the Lord said. Definitely
wasn't coming to watch it go. Definitely not. And I said, I
believe, and I'm sure now it's settled, that He's not going
to come for one year, two years, three years, that's what it is.
He's going to come when men have totally forgotten that. I mean, Huatuka is totally gone
and forgotten. There's no fear of God before
anybody's coming. And they say, like they said
in Pena, where is the promise of this coming? It's been four
years now. It's getting real close now. Real close. In the midst of these
years. In the midst of these years.
Well, now more than ever, we need the Lord to revive His work.
This is His work. This is, look at chapter 1, verse
5, here in Abacus. Chapter 1, verse 5. This is his
work. Behold ye among the heathen.
Behold ye, we're among the heathen, but we have beheld something
regarding one remarkable thing. I will work a work in your days
which ye will not believe, though it be told you. A work, a work. Peter quoted that at Pentecost. What's the work? Go over to Psalm
90 with me. Psalm 90. What is this work? Provide thy work, O God, O Lord. Psalm 90. Look at this. Oh, this
is good. Psalm 90. And this whole psalm, and Habakkuk,
and Psalm 85, and Psalm 90, and Habakkuk's prayer, it all sounds
similar. Did that, what David said in Psalm 85 sound similar? Will Thou not revive us again?
Again, that is. He revived us once, quickened
us once with the gospel, with the Word. Can we get like the
children of Israel? Forget His works and so forth.
Do we not need revival again? And again and again and again.
And David said over there in Psalm 85, I'll hear what the
Lord will speak. Well, Psalm 90, verse 14, here's
the word, O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice
and be glad all our days. You remember the proverb that
says, Remember now thy Creator, the days are thine. It's good
that a man beareth the yoke in his youth. As a young man, we've
got some young, I say young, twenty or thirty, that's young. Oh, bless God that you've given
your interest in the gospel. Satisfy us early with thy mercy,
because when the evil days, Ecclesiastes says, when the evil days come
nigh, the old days, when the mind starts to fade and all that,
and people have no thoughts of God whatsoever. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. We've got
some young people in here whom the Lord has revealed himself
to, and they need to shout to high heaven that God has revealed
himself to them early, and go through this life without going
down in the pit like some of us did up until our later years.
It satisfies early. Verse 15, Make
us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us.
Make us glad. You know, everything we go through
in this life is the Lord's doings. Call it afflictions, if you will,
but David said in Psalm 119, he says, Good thing I've been
afflicted, that I might learn my statutes. It's… that's only… the Word of
God is only really needed and a consolation and true to us
when it's proved by experience. Right? Like your dad can tell
you, son this, son that, daughter this, daughter that, your mother
can tell you this, so until you go through or do or until you
don't do what they told you not to do and suffer the consequences
of it, will you realize, only then will you realize he was
right. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants, and thy glory unto their children. Let the beauty of the Lord our
God be upon us. What a gospel message this is,
huh? The righteousness of Christ established
now the work of our name upon us, this work of the gospel.
Let us be established in it. Go back to the text. I was going
to turn to several psalms where it says, thy work, thy work,
thy work. It's woman, not plural, woman,
work, thy work. Oh, Lord, revive thy work. Revive it in my heart. Revive
it in my mind. Make it fresh and new to me.
Thy work, the greatest work, thee work, this great, so great
salvation. Revive it in my heart. Provide
thy work, read on, in the midst of the years, in the midst of
the years, in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years. Now, in the midst of the years, make
known. See if this doesn't touch a nerve or touch something in
you. In the midst of the years, make
known. The middle years. either in actual age, middle
age. And I don't know. You know, men
are living longer now, 80 years old, many times, so at least
in the 40s and 50s. The middle years, middle age,
that's what we call it, are dangerous years. Middle age and actual
age. and middle-aged in spiritual
age, but dangerous years, because we tend to get sloppy, we tend to get lazy,
we tend to get indifferent. You know, you've heard it called
a middle-age crisis. You've heard that term. And it's
real. It really is. And what it is,
the Scripture says, Paul told young Timothy, complete youthful
lusts. Now this might not mean anything
to somebody in their twenties or thirties. It won't. But forties
or fifties or sixties or seventies, those who've been through it,
know what I'm talking about. Scripture says, please bless. And then when you start getting
older, your mind begins to, well, how
can I say it? Your mind begins to wonder, I'm getting older. I'm getting
older. I'm actually getting older. I wonder, if just one more time,
I can refer it back to my youth. So some others, some of them. It happens. Doesn't it? It sure
does. I wonder, am I getting old? Do I look old? Do I act old?
Do I? It's a dangerous time. It's a
dangerous time. In the midst of the years, But
this is speaking mostly, now that's actually a dangerous time,
physically speaking. But this is speaking of the middle
years and spiritual years. Those first years, like I talked
about the children of Israel going out of Egypt. I know at
least for the first year anyway, they travel for 40 years. 40
years. That's about the span of a lifetime
that a man, after the Lord reveals himself, walks through this earth.
That was on purpose, wasn't it? They went through 40 years. First
two years, three years, maybe five years. They were on cloud
nine. Then it got cloud eight. And on down until they were even
sitting in their tents. Middle years. Middle years. Let me just read
to you what John Hill said. I couldn't improve upon it. His
language is a little bit hard to understand, but it's good. It's good. In the midst of the
years, this is speaking of when God This is speaking to true believers
in Christ. This is the Lord's work. He's
the author and finisher of it. And this work of the Lord in
the middle years sometimes seems to be dead, when the graces of
the Holy Spirit are not in exercise, when the saints are dead and
lifeless, when they're backward to spiritual and religious exercises. When these old fellows talk about
religious exercises, what they mean is worship, prayer, reading,
fellowship. These things, the means of grace
that God has used, given us to help us on this walk, strengthen
us. He says, they've backwarded the spiritual religious
exercise when the world and the things of it have gotten the
power over them. And they're unconcerned for the things of
Christ, the honor of his name, the good of their own soul, when
they're under the power of some particular sin, are carried captive
by it, as was the case of David, Peter, and all others. Now, this
work is revived when those races, when the Holy Spirit begins to
call them back again into lively exercise, prayer, scripture reading,
fellowship, saying, worship, and on and on. And when the affections,
the heart, begins to go out strongly again after divine things, after
the things of God, when the thoughts of the mind and the meditation
of the heart are on spiritual things, not on elites and underlings.
My quote, my view. When the talk and the conversation
turn on cheaply on religious and heavenly natures, when there's
a desire after spiritual things, a stirring up of them in themselves,
a continuous ending, There's a visible further growth in grace
and the fruitfulness thereof. These things that are prayed
for are from the Lord. It's His hand. And the Lord,
again, as at first, arises like the Son of Righteousness with
healing in His wing, and the Spirit blows upon the garden,
and the spices flow out. It's so desirable, so necessary
in the midst. before those evil days come and
you have no more pleasure. Revive thy work in the midst
of the year, in the middle year. Look at this. He says in our
text, in the midst of the year, make known. That is, take me
back to the first time you made known to me the gospel. Let me hear the gospel as it
is the first time. Would you? Let me hear the sound
of mercy as if I've never heard it before. Simple things, the knowledge
that first thrills your soul. In wrath, look at this, I like
this. In wrath, remember mercy. In wrath, remember mercy. We've
been studying the plagues of Egypt now. In Sunday morning
Bible study, we've been studying the plagues of Egypt. And they're
clearly seen by the Israelites, clearly seen. How could they
have forgotten what the Lord brought them, the Jews? How could
they have forgotten that? The hand of the Lord was so clearly
seen, His eternal power and Godhead, so that they were without excuse.
How could they have forgotten? The scripture said in Romans
1, 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness. Clearly seen. The last verse
of Romans 1 says that those that do these things, but the judgment
of God is clear, but they still have faith. And we're not without sin. We're
guilty like the Israelites of mingling. What happened? The
Israelites, as they began to mingle with the Moabites, the
Amorites, the Hittites, the Hippites, the Philistines, and all that,
and they liked what they had, and forgot where they were going,
and forgot what they came from, and wallowed right back down
in that stuff, and got amongst their idolatry. Well, these are
nice people. They have gods. They're sincere. And it turned their hearts. That's
exactly what happened. Can it happen to anybody? It's
a solid one. Solid. Evil communications corrupt
the man. That's what happened. That's
what happened. And then, but, if we're in the
Lord's own, He won't leave us. He won't leave us, then we'll
feel the rod. We'll smirk under the rock. We'll turn and smirk
under the rock. That is, we'll feel the... What
is the rock that we feel? Right here. What I just said
to us, based on this Word, we felt this smirk under the rock. But we reap what we sow. The
children of Israel reaped what they sowed. But they cried out. He says, in wrath, here's a prayer. And we're guilty of all these
things. Everybody in here, beginning with me. You leave it back to
me. We're guilty of everything that
anybody in the scriptures has done, at least in thought. And this, in fact, should be
our prayer. In the midst of the years, in wrath, we see God's wrath
coming. We see it everywhere. Like the
plagues, we sin. It's clear. In the midst of wrath, in the
midst of the year, in wrath remember mercy. This is still our prayer. This was our prayer when we began.
Lord have mercy on me, the sinner. Lord be merciful to me, the sinner.
In the middle years, what's it going to be? Lord be merciful
to me, the sinner. In our latter years, what's it
going to be? When we get ready to pass from this world, what's
our prayer going to be? I told you that most of, Ed,
you know this, that many of the martyrs, going to their grave,
would quote Psalm 51 with me. That was a favorite psalm. You mean those people giving
their bodies to be burned? We're still asking. Have mercy
on me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness, according to
the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash
me thoroughly from my iniquity. Restore me. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Have mercy. In wrath, remember mercy. In closing, turn
with me to Psalm 33. This is it. Thank you. And some
of you, that touched a nerve with you. I saw it in your face. Psalm 33. If that convicted you,
if that was your heart's cry, this will comfort you. You're
going to go out of here with a spray of mischief. In wrath, remember mercy. I wouldn't
dare leave you there. I wouldn't dare leave you there
in guilt and shame and just crying out for mercy. There's an answer. Psalm 33. Look at verse 18. Behold,
the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that
hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, to keep
them alive in famine. Our soul waited for the Lord.
He is our help, our shield. Our hearts shall rejoice in Him,
because we've trusted in His holy name." What's His name? Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon
us according as we hope in thee. Revive thy work in the midst
of the years. In the midst of the years, may
it come. In wrath, remember us. I've been reading the book, just,
well, just started reading the book. It's been a blessing to
me. Convicting, yet comforting. all
about the decline of the sun. And maybe in the near future
we'll go through a study like that that causes and a cure for
the decline of the sun in Africa. Would you be interested in a
study like that? What causes us to decline in
spirituality? And what is the cure? The cure
is health. Meaning, revival. God has given us precious health,
precious promises. Revival is not to be partakers
of the divine nature. How do you escape the lust of
the flesh? Would you be interested in a
study like that? Okay. Stand with me. Our Lord, thank you for your
Word. And this is our prayer with the
back of all your people, your spiritual Israel, who feels this
such captivity, this sin, Satan himself, and this world. We're in it, though not of it,
yet we sometimes are taken with it. Lord, deliver us from this
present evil world. Save us from this untoward generation
by Your grace, by Your mercy, by Your Word, by Your gospel.
Lord, revive us, we pray, in the midst of these fears. And it's in Christ's name we
pray. Master, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.