I please God to bless us together
this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the prophecy
of Habakkuk, the third chapter, and we'll read verse two. The
prophecy of Habakkuk, chapter three, and reading verse two. Oh 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
known in wrath, remember mercy. It would appear that Habakkuk
lived just before and during the captivity of Israel when
they were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar taken down to Babylon and Jerusalem
was besieged and broken down so it was a pretty serious time
that Habakkuk lived and he was instructed by the Holy Spirit
to write his little prophecy and it's not an easy prophecy
but nonetheless there is a lot of truth in it and this chapter
3 tells us it's a prayer and it's a prayer of Habakkuk after
the Lord has spoken in the previous chapter because the previous
chapter opens by these words, I will stand upon my watch and
set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say
unto me. He wanted to know what the Lord
would say unto him and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And
the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it
plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. So in this
chapter, the Lord gives the instructions to Habakkuk and Habakkuk then
prays to God. Oh Lord, I heard thy speech and
was afraid. Now we may be surprised at that,
but we may recognize the truth of it, because if God has spoken
to us, and if God has spoken to us and spoken to us about
our sins, we may be afraid. You may say, what are we afraid
of? We may be afraid of waking up,
perhaps, in hell. We may be afraid to think of
what will happen to us. And we are afraid. I believe
this is the testimony of many who are faced with the reality
of being before a holy God, the judge of the whole earth, the
one who is high and lifted up, as Isaiah saw. How little acknowledgement
there is today of the greatness of God. And it would be a wonderful
blessing if all of us are moved by the Holy Spirit to recognize
the holiness of God and the greatness of God. And he's not someone
just to play around with. He's not someone to trifle with. He's not someone to just bring
down to our level. He is the great God who holds
our very breath in his hand and can take our life from us in
a moment. And perhaps we're surprised he
hasn't done so. We look back in our lives perhaps
and realise some of the sins which we've committed, some of
the bad places we may have been in, and to recognise the goodness
and mercy of God, that he hasn't dealt with us as our sins deserved. But nonetheless, here we have
Habakkuk in his prayer telling us, O Lord, I have heard thy
speech and was afraid. Now it's a good thing to be able
to come to our God and to pray to our God and to speak to our
God and tell our God just how we feel and just how we recognize
to be condemned before this great and holy God because the Spirit
of God does condemn us. We do stand guilty before God. You know, if you and I have never
been condemned and never stood guilty before God, we will not
appreciate a savior. We will not realize the blessing
of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ will not
mean anything to us in reality. He may be a name. He is a name.
What a blessing when the Holy Spirit works in our heart and
directs us to realize this great and holy God before whom we stand
every moment of our life. You see, you and I cannot escape
from the eye of God. And more than that, the eye of
God looks right into our heart, right into our minds. You and
I cannot think anything that God does not see and know about. And that may make us afraid. As we think of many wrong things
we've thought about, perhaps many wrong things we thought
about when we sat in chapel, maybe even tonight, but maybe
in our lives. We've sat and we've thought about
wrong and evil things and I think that Almighty God, he knows all
about it, everything. Now bless God if we come under
the influence of the Blessed Spirit of God so that we can
understand what Habakkuk said when he said, I've heard thy
speech. He's read the Word of God. He
wouldn't have had, of course, all the Old Testament. He would
have had the law. He would have had the books of
Moses. And he probably had the work of David the Psalmist. But
he wouldn't have all the minor prophets. But nevertheless, the
Lord spoke to him, spoke to him as this second chapter, and also
no doubt through scripture. And the effect was that he was
afraid. So I wonder tonight, if I asked
you to put your hand up if you've been afraid, I wonder how many
of you would be able to do that. or whether your religion has
been so superficial that you've never actually stood before a
holy God. You've never been afraid. Would
it be a blessing if you know what it is to be under the influence
of the Holy Spirit of God to make us afraid? And that's what
Habakkuk tells us here. He's heard the Lord speaking
and he was afraid. Now then, he didn't leave it
there. What a blessing it is in our
lives when we're not left, but the Lord deals with us in love
to our soul. That's an amazing consideration,
isn't it? To think that the almighty God,
the ruler of the universe, deals with us in love to our soul. He's looked upon us. He's seen
us ruined in the fall, the fall of Adam and Eve, and yet loved
us, notwithstanding all. We cannot say, well, it was because
I loved God. No, it's because God loved us. John tells us, not that we loved
God, but he loved us. Everything emanates from our
great God. How very humbling that must be
to think that the Majesty on High, that One who created all
things, has loved us from eternity past, before we were born. We were chosen in Christ. You and I need the evidence of
that in our souls. It's all right in theory. Theory
will never bring you and me to heaven. You and I need to know
the reality of it, that God has loved us. And if God shows to
you and me his love, which overcomes all our sin, no matter how bad
we are, you can read about That King Manasseh, it's very interesting. If you read of Manasseh in the
Kings, you'll conclude that he was a most evil and wicked man,
and there was absolutely no hope for him. If you read the account
in the Chronicles, you will find that he repented of all his sin,
and the Lord had mercy upon him. Perhaps that's true of us, if
we looked at ourselves and people looked at us, and knew us, they
think there's no hope for him or her. Perhaps they haven't
realised the blessing and the love of God which has come and
touched our hearts because the love of God does produce a change
within us. We recognise the Lord hasn't
dealt with us as our sins deserve. but he's dealt with us in love
to our souls. This is the wonderful, wonderful
blessing of the gospel. This is the wonderful truth of
the gospel. This is that which gives you
and me hope. We don't have to depend upon
our own works. What do we depend upon? I'll
tell you. We depend upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that was a perfect work.
And that was a pure work, and that was a righteous work, and
that was a work that was accepted by our Father in heaven on our
behalf, if we are those who have been loved with an everlasting
love. And so Habakkuk says, oh Lord,
what a blessing if you and I have come really like that, in true
prayer, not just mumbled it, It's because we believe it. Oh
Lord, he says, revive thy work in the midst of the years. A
revival in our souls. You know, if somebody becomes
unconscious, they need to be revived, don't they? And if they're
not revived, well they won't live. And it's a blessing when
the Lord comes and revives us from we might say an unconscious
state, we might say from a dead state. He brings life into our
hearts. Just thinking about this and
we might ponder a moment on that account that we read of in the
Bible of the Good Samaritan. You know, there was that man
that went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Well, Jericho wasn't
a good place. Jerusalem was, and he was going
the wrong way, and it's a downward road physically from Jerusalem
to Jericho. And there he was on that journey.
And what happened? Well, he fell among thieves and
they robbed him and took away his clothes and left him half
dead. He wasn't dead, but he was half
dead. He couldn't move. He wasn't well
enough to get up and carry on his journey. There he was. And perhaps you and I might have
been going the wrong way. We may have been going away from
the Church of God, away from the House of God, in an opposite
direction. We may have fallen among thieves.
We may have fallen amongst those who have robbed us and left us
with no hope. And there we are, hopeless, helpless. And you see, you might expect
religious people to help us. The priest, the Levite, they
went by and they didn't want to become involved. No, they
didn't want to be involved. It's a sad thing that is in the
Church of God when people don't want to become involved because
the person's too difficult and seems to be just too far off. You know, we are to recognize
that we are to do good unto all men. especially the household
of faith. And that means what it says,
good unto all men. So when you see a poor person
in the road and passing by, and perhaps he's begging, or perhaps
she's begging, and you just walk past fast, he might be a pseudo
beggar, but he might be a real beggar. And if you've got money
in your pocket, well, it's not wrong, is it, to give something.
No, it's good, you know, to be able to give something. It reminds
me of an account of a godly man who told me this little account. I know I've told you before but
not all of you have heard it. He was only a young boy and he
had a purse and he had his pocket money put in his purse every
week and he kept it there. And he was staying with, I think
it was an aunt, and he was staying with this lady. And there was
a knock at the door, and he heard her go to the door and open the
door. And she said, what do you want? And then the door was slammed
in her face. And the little boy said, who
was that? She said, oh, only a beggar. He wanted some money. And he said, I'll give him some
money. So he took his purse, and he
ran out the door and found a man. And the man said, what do you
want? And he said, do you want some money? He said, yes. He
said, hold your hand out. And the man held his hand out.
And the boy emptied his purse into the man's hand. And very interestingly, the man
turned and said to him, God bless you, boy. And he told me God did bless
him. Remember the Lord loveth a cheerful
giver. Let's remember that and let's
not be miserly with our money. It's a good little example. So let us remember that and let's
go back then to the power of the Good Samaritan. The two people
who should have stopped didn't, they went by. But there came this stranger,
a Samaritan, whom we wouldn't have expected to stop. He stopped. He came where he was. That's a wonderful blessing,
you know, in a spiritual sense. If you and I perhaps feel to
be cast out and be trodden down, and somebody stops and asks us
about our spiritual life, asks us where we are and what do we
need, But it was obviously what that man needed. And the good
Samaritan, he poured in oil and wine to all his wounds. Well, you know, if you and I
are cast out and wounded, we need the oil and the wine of
the gospel. Because that will heal our wounds
which sin has made. The glorious gospel. And so that
Samaritan took him in hand and took him to an inn and paid the
bill and said, is there anything more owing when I come again,
let me know and I'll pay it. What a good example we have.
What a blessed example. May you and I be encouraged by
it to realise that in our lives we have to follow the example
of the Samaritan and also that we should come and encourage
those who may appear to be half dead, no life, apparently. Well, here these words were,
O Lord, revive thy work, the work of the Holy Spirit. And what a blessing it is when
you and I have a desire for that. The Lord will come and speak
to our souls. Perhaps we wandered off, wandered
away. Perhaps we've said in our hearts,
I won't have that man to rule over me. I'm not going to have
my life organised by the things of God. I'm going to please myself.
I'm going to do what I want to do. My friends, the blessing is there
is a God in heaven who perhaps comes to us and speaks to us
and revives. a work, perhaps. The Lord has
touched our hearts in years past, but now we've become cold and
we've become hard-hearted and we've become rebellious. Do you
know why? Because of the things of the world. They have a hardening effect.
They bring coldness into our lives. They produce rebellion
against God. The Word of God tells us very
clearly, we cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot serve two
masters. We may try to. We may try and
have a foot in the world and a foot in Christianity. It won't work. It won't work. The devil will tell you it will
work. He'll try and convince you. Yes, you can carry on. You
can enjoy the things of this world and also have a foot in
the things of God. Well, you can't. We cannot serve
God and mammon. It's a wonderful thing to have
the Holy Spirit convince us of such a truth as that. And so here is Habakkuk saying,
O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. Perhaps in
the midst of our spiritual life, and that may not be being in
operation for many years, maybe in a very short time, maybe in
a long time. But it's a good thing to realize
that we need reviving. It's a good thing that we need,
we know that we need the Spirit of God to come upon us and to
bless us. In the Song of Solomon, We are
a very wonderful book, as you know, as I preached on it very
recently. But in the Song of Solomon, and in the fourth chapter,
we read down towards the end, at the very end, the desire is,
Awake, O north wind, and come thou south, blow upon my garden,
that the spices thereof may flow out, Let my beloved come into
his garden and eat his pleasant fruits." Here we have the wonderful
testimony of the Bride of Christ, realising her condition, realising
that she needed revival, she needed the Lord to come. And
it's expressed in these terms, Awake, O North Wind, and come
thou south and blow upon my garden. Well we perhaps need the Spirit
of God to come and to blow into our hearts, to revive us, to
awaken us, to encourage us, to bring us back to our senses,
so there may be fruitfulness, because here we have this statement
that the spices thereof may flow out, we may be fruitless. There may be no evidence of the
life of God in our souls. And that's a very sad and solemn
situation. But what a blessing if you and
I are blessed with prayer, like Habakkuk, like the bride here,
that the Lord will come and bless our souls. The Lord will come
and revive us. The Lord will awake, O North
Wind, and come down south. You see, whatever it was, whether
it was a north wind or a south wind, a cold wind or a warm wind,
whatever it was that was necessary, she wanted it to come to bless
her soul. There was a real need. She wasn't left in that cold
and desperate condition. So today, may we have that concern
that we might truly pray to God we might indeed know revival
in our souls. You see we live in a sad day
really, we live in a day when the church of God is asleep,
the church of God is very carnal, the church of God is very earthly,
so many things crowd in, there's not much speaking about the things
of God, There's plenty of speaking about the things of the world.
It's a very sad position that we find ourselves in. And yet,
you and I have to stand before this great God who has made us,
that great God who is gracious to us, or that you and I might
know what it is, to be blessed with this spiritual revival. You know, in the 90th Psalm,
which is often referred to as the psalm of Moses, written by
Moses, and in that psalm he says this, let thy work appear. The work of God in the soul. How important that is. Is that
your prayer and my prayer? That the work of God, his gracious,
glorious work may appear in our hearts, so it may affect our
lives, because it will do. Yes, let thy work appear. It's
a wonderful prayer, it's a wonderful blessing if you and I are found
truly concerned about it, and that we might therefore wait
and watch for that appearing. For the blessing of God, you
know, Job had a tough life, didn't he? I suppose none of us will come
down to a position as bad as Job had to endure and had to
suffer. He suffered very, very greatly. But he knew where he'd been.
He knew how God had been with him. And he wanted God to come
again. He wanted God to come and revive
him. The book of Job, you may know
that there were his three friends that addressed him, and also
Elihu. They all spoke to him and tried to put him right. But
it wasn't until God spoke to him, at the end of Job, that
he realized where he was and what he was. And it was then
he said, behold, I am vile. He came down to realize what
he was. But nonetheless, in an earlier chapter, in the 29th
chapter, Job said, oh, that I were as in months past. as in the
days when God preserved me, when his candle shined upon my head,
and when by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in
the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle. You see, he had a good testimony.
And we read in the Psalms, the secret of the Lord is with them
that fear God. My friends, it's a blessing if
you know the fear of the Lord, which reveals to us his secret,
that secret with reference to the health of our souls. Oh,
bless God for such a condition. So Job is able to testify of
what he was. Now, you and I may have become
into a lean place, a barren place, And perhaps the worst situation
is because we know we brought it on ourselves, because we listened
to the devil. And therefore instead of being
lively in the things of God, we're cold and unconcerned. But
Job knew what he'd been in, and he was able to tell us when the
Almighty was yet with me. Well, it's good to have a testimony,
to be able to say and recall what God has done when the Almighty
was with us. We don't want to go on through
life without no evidence of God's work in our hearts. We want to
be able to trace out the hand of God upon us. Yes, what a blessing
it was, and you know, Job is able to testify humbly, it wasn't
with pride, he says, when he delivered the poor that cried
and the fatherless and him that had none to help him, the blessing
of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the
widow's heart to sing for joy. Well it's a good thing isn't
it if you and I can have a testament like that before God and to be
found living our life as unto the Lord and not unto ourselves. Will not thou revive us again? And that was the condition of
Job and it's the same position really with the psalmist When
he wrote the 65th Psalm, he reminds us, Lord, thou hast been favourable
unto thy land. Thou hast brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sins.
What a mercy if you and I have a religion like that, that we
can testify of what God has done. But then he comes down and he
realizes his condition. He says, turn us, O God, of our
salvation and cause our anger toward us to cease. You see,
perhaps we've turned our back upon God. Only you know whether
you've turned your back upon God. Turn us, O God, of our salvation. and cause thine anger toward
us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us forever?
Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?' The psalmist
was concerned about it. He wasn't happy to be found in
a barren state and a far-offness from God. He wanted to know the
Lord was with him and therefore he comes and says, Wilt thou
not revive us again, that thy people may Rejoice in thee. Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and
grant us thy salvation. Oh, there was a living desire,
wasn't there, for health, spiritual health in his soul. How good
it is if you and I have that desire and concern today. And he comes and tells us, I
will hear what God the Lord will speak. You know, it's good if
you and I have a hearing ear. When John was on the Isle of
Patmos and the Lord spoke to him about those seven churches,
in each case it was said, let him that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. What a blessing that is for us.
If we hear the word of God and it sinks into our heart, We do
truly hear it. And so here the psalmist says,
I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak
peace unto his people and to his saints, but let them not
turn again to folly. Let them not turn away again
to the poor old things of time. It's a wonderful warning, isn't
it? Aren't we blessed to have the
Bible to instruct us like this? The Lord knows what we are like
and therefore we have these very gracious warnings to us to not
turn again to folly. The Lord does look upon us, he
does revive us, but we're not to go backwards into those old
paths again where we found hardness and barrenness. And he says,
surely his mercy is nigh them that fear him. that glory may
dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the
Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall yield
her increase." Well, my friends, may we be blessed with this wonderful
blessing that we receive from our God. those things which are
good, and those things which will be a blessing to us, and
that we understand what Habakkuk prayed, O Lord, revive thy work
in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make
known. He did want to observe the word
and the work of God in his soul. He did want to know it. It wasn't
just something which he mumbled and something which he spoke
because it was a phrase that he was familiar with. It was
the true concern of his very soul. And what a blessing for
us today if we seek the Lord earnestly, with our whole heart,
not half-heartedly. We live in a day of half-heartedness. We live in a day when there is
much lukewarmness, much carnality, much worldliness. What a blessing
though if we have a concern like this. The Lord would revive His
work. Only His work will do. Your work
and my work won't do. Revive His work. And what is
His work? His work is the finished work. of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
you and I might be attracted to that finished work. And that
means you and I might be attracted to what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done, what he has fulfilled for his people. It's amazing to think that the
great God of heaven was so wonderfully kind and so wonderfully gracious
and so gloriously merciful that he left his throne in glory to
come down in this sinful world to redeem his people from their
sins. Now, my friends, may the Lord
revive us to this position where we long for the Saviour to come
and touch our hearts, to move our spirits, to bless us with
a tender conscience, to bless us with the evidence of His love
in our hearts, of His grace and mercy. That'll be revival. That'll be blessing. You see,
that will make an amazing change. We'll be a different person.
We're going and we're rejoicing in true humbleness to think the
Lord has remembered us, remembered me. Remember me with the favour
that beareth unto thy people. O visit me with thy salvation. Real religion is very personal.
You think of that thief on the cross, just a few moments or
hours before he was to pass out of time into eternity. What did he do? Well, first of
all, he confessed that he was receiving the due reward for
his sins. And he spoke about the Saviour.
This man hath done nothing amiss. You know, that was the revelation
of the Holy Spirit to his soul. And then he cried to the Lord
and said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And that isn't an isolated prayer,
because the Church of God also pray, Lord, remember me. We don't
want to be forgotten. The Lord said, of course, to
that thief, this day, thou shalt be with me in paradise. What an amazing blessing. Well,
we know that was very amazing and very remarkable. But you
know, you and I also need And Lord to revive us with that true
and living desire that we might be remembered of our God and
not pass by and not live our life with emptiness in our soul
but live our life hungry and thirsty for the things of God. Often we're hungry and thirsty
for the poor things of time which perish with the using. But bless
God if you and I have received from the good spirit of God a
hunger and thirst after the things of God. So we come down to this
really, the line of the hymn, give me Christ or else I die. That's the centre of religion. That's what really proves whether
we are in the faith or not. It's whether we have right views
of Christ. It's whether Christ is precious
to us. Whether Christ is a living reality to us. It's where the
Christ is needful to us, not something which is irrelevant.
Oh, my friends, it's very, very important, very, very wonderful
to be blessed with a favour and presence of Christ. As you know,
I sometimes refer to the desire of the Apostle Paul, and it's
a wonderful example and a wonderful testimony for us as he wrote
to the Philippians and instructed them and told them in the third
chapter of the Philippians, he says, what things were gained
to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, there
was no doubt about it in his life. And I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but done, that I may win Christ and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Lord, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. We see, don't we, there in the
Apostle's testimony, telling us on the one side, there were
the things of time, and on the other side, the things of glory. And he tells us the things of
time, in his eyes, had no real value. On the other hand, the
things of Christ were so valuable, and so he He prays then, he desires
this desire. And what a good thing it would
be for us today if we can come and say, yes, by the grace of
God, and it's only by the grace of God, I desire such things. And if you can't say that, pray
that you might be able to say it. And this is what he says,
that I might know him. Now, the Apostle Paul did know
the Lord Jesus Christ, but he wanted to know more of him. And
if you and I know something of Christ, we would desire to know
more of him. We would desire that revival
in our hearts, if we have become cold, that we might be like the
Apostle, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. It's the resurrection power in
our souls, which is so needful. It's when the light of the glorious
Gospel of Jesus Christ shines into our heart, it is with resurrection
power that lifts us up. And the fellowship of his sufferings. You might think, well, I don't
want to pass that way. Well, let's just pause a moment. See, fellowship with his sufferings
may not always be what you and I Imagine it is. We think of
the Saviour of course suffering upon the cross at Calvary. But
let us not forget the Saviour suffered all his life on this
earth. And he suffered when all those
people spoke against him, and against what he did, and against
what he said. So if in our lives we find sometimes
people speak against us, Criticise us for our belief in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Criticise us because we believe
in creation. Criticise us because we believe
the Word of God. And you might think, well, this
is a hard life. People keep on criticising me. Just remember, fellowship with
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was criticised. He was spoken
against. And therefore if that occurs
in our lives, remember this, as the Apostle said, fellowship
with his sufferings. I'll tell you this, it'll put
everything right. And you will be willing to be
criticised because you recognise you are aligned with your great
and glorious Saviour. who has given his life, that
you might have life. So says the Apostle, and the
fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. Ah, the Apostle was looking forward.
What a good thing it is for you and me, if we are looking forward
beyond our life on this earth. to our eternal life. We want
to be looking forward. We don't want to be looking around
us and to be trying to benefit in every way we can in the things
of this world. These things perish. These things
vanish away. And the Apostle goes on to say,
and I'll just read it down, it's worth it. He says, if by any
means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not
as though I have already attained, either were already perfect,
but I follow after, if that I may apprehend, that means he might
understand that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I press toward the mark. for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus. A very clear position is there
is a pressing forward. And if the Lord comes and hears
our prayers, so that he does revive us, we should be very,
very thankful for it, that we're not left to ourselves indeed,
and not found like the church of Sardis, that we read of in
the book of the Revelation chapter 3 and verse 1 and this is what
the Spirit said about the church inside, it's a very solemn statement.
These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and
the seven stars I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou
livest and art dead. Tragic isn't it? My friends you
and I don't want to have a name People say, oh, he's a nice person.
That's a good person. My friends, we want to have the
evidence of the work of God in our souls so that we are alive,
spiritually alive, and we're not dead. That's the name that
thou livest and art dead. Oh, let us be delivered from
that condition and let us be blessed with the Holy Spirit's
work in our hearts. And so he says, O Lord, revive
thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years,
make known. May the work of the Holy Spirit
be known in all of our lives, so that we have the evidence
that we are born again in the Spirit of God, and we're not
left dead in our sins, but we have received that gracious gift
of eternal life. And he goes on to say in Roth,
Remember mercy we may stand guilty before God Realizing that we
deserve his wrath upon us Because of our lives because of our actions
because of our words because of our thoughts And yet we can
come and say in wrath Remember mercy. Oh friends. We have a
merciful God We have a God who does not deal with us as our
sins deserve. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it
tremendous to think that we have such a God, a holy, heart-searching
God, who doesn't deal with us as our sins deserve? But if we
are amongst those who is His love and everlasting love, He
will draw us to Himself, draw us to those bands of love, as
cords of man all bless God for the work of the Spirit. And may
we go on our way tonight praising God, for his mercy, for his grace,
for his love to such unworthy sinners. Amen.