Alright, open your Bibles now
with me to the book of Habakkuk. A little book, one of what's
called minor prophets. The book of Habakkuk. I'll give
you time to find it. Habakkuk chapter 3. Habakkuk chapter 3. Let's read
two verses which will make up the text and the study. Habakkuk
3, you have it? Verses 1 and 2. A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet,
upon Shigonath. 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 known. In wrath, remember mercy." This
is a prayer of Habakkuk, a prayer for God's people, Israel. And this is a prayer, my prayer,
for us. Verse 1, it says it is a prayer
upon Shigionoth, which means a song, is basically what it
means. A song, a prayer in the form
of a song or vice versa. And so much scripture is full
of song. You know, many, if not the best,
singing and music is composed in times of great joy or sorrow,
and the psalms are just that. Psalms that we love so much are
songs or poetry put to music. Songs full of love, praise, sorrow,
and lamentation. This is a prayer. It's fitting. We used to call these Wednesday
night services prayer meetings. Do you remember that? It's what
we used to refer to Wednesday night as, prayer meeting. Habakkuk prays, verse 2, O Lord. There's not much known about
Habakkuk. We don't know where he came from,
who his parents are, or anything like that. That's not important.
But he is a God sent prophet. Verse 2, he says, O Lord, Jehovah,
that is, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God of Israel, the
living and true God. He says, O Lord, Jehovah, I have
heard thy speech or report, and I was afraid. I was afraid. You heard last
Wednesday night the report, I believe, didn't you? Isaiah started that
report out by saying, Who hath heard? Who hath believed our
report? Well, Habakkuk says, I heard
and I was afraid. Turn with me to Isaiah 66. Chapter
66, those who have truly heard God's Word, or speech, Habakkuk
calls it, by His grace, they believe, they are afraid, they
tremble. Habakkuk said, I have heard and
I am afraid. God's people tremble at the Word,
or ought to. Look at Isaiah 66, verses 1 and
2, Thus saith the Lord, Heaven is my throne. The earth is my
footstool. Where is the house?" And he is
speaking of his great glorious person. Where is the house that
you build unto me? Where is the place of my rest?
All those things hath mine hand made. All these things have been. Paul wrote in Romans 1, the heavens
declare his glory, the firmament showeth his handiwork. Well,
David wrote that. But Paul said, They declare his
eternal power and Godhead. Verse 2, But to this man will
I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite or humble spirit,
and trembleth at my word. Look at verse 5, "...hear the
word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word." Go back to Habakkuk. So Habakkuk said, Lord, I have
heard thy speech, thy word, the report, and I was afraid. I trembled. Down in verse 16,
he tells us why. He said in verse 16, I heard
my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness. entered into my bones, I trembled
in myself because of my sin. Tremble. You know, there's really
no real worship without this fear and trembling. There's really
not. We'll just mouth the words to
these psalms. We'll go through the motions. There's no joy or rejoicing. in the gospel without fear and
trembling. See, God's mercy is sovereign.
He has mercy on whom he will. He doesn't have to have mercy
upon us. And this mercy is only sweet to the guilty. The reason
the gospel at times is not sweet to us and does not really make
us rejoice is because we have forgotten what we were, what
we are. No fear and trembling. There
is no real prayer without this fear and trembling. Crying unto
God. Have you ever known what it is
to really cry unto God for forgiveness of sin? For mercy? And do you know something of
what it means to tremble when you hear God? Is there any part
of God's Word that you avoid reading? Because it makes you afraid. Anybody? Are there scriptures
that make it ought to? We haven't heard it, have we?
God's Word is full of warnings. Just as many warnings as there
are promises. Warnings lest we presume. David said, Keep me from presumptuous
sins. Presume upon his mercy. Well,
Habakkuk heard the speech In chapter 1, he speaks of seeing iniquity
all around him, the iniquity of the land. The land, the place where he
lived, Habakkuk, was just like Sodom. And so it is with us. And Habakkuk said, I was afraid. When I saw all of this, I'm afraid,
he said, I'm afraid for my people, I'm afraid for my family, I'm
afraid for myself. I live in Sodom and I'm just
afraid. I've heard what you've done to
Sodom and I hear what you're going to do to this place again
and I'm afraid. I'm afraid for my children. I'm
afraid for myself that I'll get caught up in it. Lord, I heard
and I'm afraid. You see what he's saying? He
talked about in verse 4, the Lord showed him how the law was
slack. Judgment doesn't go forth. Down
in the last part of verse 4, wrong judgment, that is, it's
twisted, twisted, perverted judgment. The law is slack. God's Word,
that is. God's Word, God's truth has been
so perverted, so wrested. Peter said this, they have wrested
the Scriptures to their own destruction. Habakkuk said, I hear what they've
done to Your Word, and it doesn't even resemble God's Word. The
false prophets and so on. He said, I'm afraid. I'm afraid. If there's no law,
if there's no justice, if there's no holy God on the throne, if
men and women don't believe in a holy God who will punish sin,
this place will be hell on earth. And it's almost there now. I'm
afraid. I'm afraid of who the Lord is
going to put in office this next... I'm afraid for my children. I'm
afraid for our country. Aren't you? I've heard the exact
same things. America is repeating the exact
same things as Israel of old. Claims to be a Christian nation.
So did the Jews. Claimed to be God's people. But
it's full of idolatry is what it is. Religion is just one big,
great big whore. And I'm afraid. And he said down
in verse 15 of chapter 1, he said they catch men in their
net. Everybody's caught up in this
big net. And I'm afraid, Habakkuk said. I'm afraid. Can one of
our children get caught up in this religious mess? Get caught
up in this world? Absolutely. And I'm afraid. Could one of
us? Oh Lord, I have heard thy speech
and I was afraid. If we're not afraid, if there's
not a certain amount of fear and trembling, we haven't heard
it. We haven't heard it. Look at chapter, well, I'll not
turn there, we don't have enough time. Listen to this, let me
read this to you from Hebrew. These are verses we've heard
all our lives. It says, With whom was the Lord grieved forty
years? Was it not them that sinned in
the wilderness, to whom he swore they would not enter into his
wrath? They couldn't enter in because of unbelief. Speaking to us now, let us therefore
fear lest the promise being left us of entering into that rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was
the gospel preached as well as unto them. So Habakkuk says, O Lord, I have
heard you speak. I'm afraid. Can the Lord disband this church?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, Lord, I've heard
thy speak, and I was afraid. And so he says, Oh, Lord, revive
thy work in the midst of the earth. Revive thy work in the midst
of the earth. Thy work. Salvation is of the
Lord. It's the Lord's work. It's God's
work. It's the work of the triune God. God the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. These three are one in this work
of salvation. God the Father in His marvelous
and amazing wisdom and purpose is the author of this amazing
covenant, eternal covenant of mercy and grace. Before the world
began, He elected a people, predestined a people, and gave them to His
eternal Son to come and say, then God the Son, came to this
earth, a Redeemer of his people, a sin-substitute, the righteousness
of those people, came to this earth to save those elect that
God had chosen, that God had given to him, whose names were
written on the palms of his hands. Look at verse 13. It says, Thou
wentest forth for the salvation of thy people. That is speaking
of Christ who came. This is God's work, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It's His work, the work
of regeneration. The Holy Spirit gives life, comes
with this precious seed, this precious life-giving seed, incorruptible
seed, and plants it in the heart of a dead sinner and gives life,
gives a new heart, a new spirit. Repentance gives faith, a new
creature created in Christ Jesus unto good work. Salvation is
God's glorious work from start to finish. He's an author and
he's a finisher of it. And it's usually quite obvious
when God does this work. When God does this work, it's
recorded throughout the scriptures in various miracles. We looked at one, the man at
the Pool of Bethesda. Remember, he was impotent. He was powerless. Well, when
God Almighty does this work in a human being, Scripture talks
about the deaf here, the voice of God. Deaf. Those who listen
to the Word of God over and over and over again, perhaps as young
people or even old, heard message after message after message in
God's good time, in this day of salvation, when God starts
to work, those ears are finally open. Finally. Blind have their
eyes open. Those who are blind to God, God
is clearly seen. The visible things of God are
clearly seen. His eternal power and Godhead
are the things that are made. The sun rises every morning to
show us that God is. We breathe just everything, bread,
water, everything tells us God is, but we are blind. We are
born blind, aren't we? We don't see it. But if God is
pleased to do this work, he opens his blind eyes. They see God. Tongues are loosened. Tongues
that never gave God a word of thanks, never mentioned his name
except to cuss with it. And when God does this work through
the preaching of the gospel, those tongues begin to give thanks
to whom it's with. Begin to cry out for mercy. That's
what God's work is. And this work of God, this generation
of new life is like a newborn baby. That's how the Scriptures
describe it, as newborn babes, babes in Christ. All things become
new in this new creation. All things become new and wondrous
and glorious. and exciting. We have these little
babies in our midst, and I'm so thankful. Babies literally
rejuvenate people, don't they? You begin to look at things through
the eyes of babes, small babes, especially when they start getting
a little older, they begin to see things for the first time. begin to be amazed by it, by
different things. Everything they come in contact
with, they're amazed by it. They begin to eat food that they've
never tasted before. What we take for granted, you
know, green beans. To a little babe that's never
tasted them, it's like, wow. They began to talk. Oh, it's
not very discernible, but they loved to do it. Jabbering away,
they began to reach for things, you know, and seek things, and
toddle around, you know. And they'd fall, but they'd get
right back up. They're walking, they're talking, they're laughing.
I visited my granddaughter today, and she was just cackling, playing
with her on the floor. She was just cackling, belly
laughter. And I was rejoicing. Well, this is the same with a
babe in Christ, you know? A babe in Christ. When God does
this work in a human being that was dead before, God does this
wondrous work. You can see it. I don't pay too
much attention to what people say, but I watch their countenances
when the gospel is being preached. I look for the light to come
on in their faces. I look for their eyes to grow
bigger. I look for their ears. I look
for them to do this, to sit on the edge of their seats. I look
for laughter, joy, and so forth. And babe, in Christ, every sermon
they hear is the very best. Every sermon. Every song they
sing is a blessing. Every word they take it to heart.
A babe in Christ, when they hear the word, they say, that's for
me and that's for me only. They hunger. They taste this
word. They thirst. They laugh. They weep. They dance. They mourn. But then after a while, Something happens. Amidst of the years. I guess you could maybe call
it the teen years of believer. Adolescence. That baby gets older. New things have become old. Precious things have become quite
common. Simple things, glorious things,
no longer amaze us. Let's say it. Begin to take things
that ought to have us falling on our faces, crying out, the
great thing, like mercy. It's of the Lord's mercies. We're just as sinful as the day
the Lord found us. And it's of the Lord's sovereign,
undeserved mercy that he doesn't consume us. Can we hear it? Love. God's free, undeserved,
sovereign love that he sets upon unlovely. gomers. Everybody in here is
a gomer. Still, everybody in here is a
prodigal son. Still, we are and we shall be. We don't know how bad we will
fall, but we will. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, like that father waiting to be gracious,
and ran and fell on the neck of that worthless, worthless
son. Love. We hear it. Take it for granted. Grace. Every
gift. Every need provided. Everything
we need. Everything we are. Everything
we have. Everything we know. Everything
we can do. Our health, our provisions, our
minds is from above, given us freely by his grace. Prayer becomes
a task. Giving thanks to that God for
the breath we breathe becomes a chore. Isn't that sad? Great is thy faithfulness. Oh, it's of the Lord's mercies
we're not concerned. Great is this gospel. This gospel
that very few people in this community hear. This gospel. This glorious gospel that the
vast majority of the world does not hear. We hear it Sunday after
Wednesday. and take it for granted. The
revelation of Christ to the churches are filled with letters to the
churches. We went through all of them one
time, many years ago. Do you remember what all he said
in rebuke to those people? What he wrote to those churches
is to Central, Baptist, Grace, whatever you call it. He told
the church at Ephesus, I have something against you. You've left your first love.
That sweetheart love, that's what Barnard talked about. That
sweetheart love. You know that dating love? That
baby love? He said you left your first love. The church at Sardis, he said
you have a name, but you live. He said you're dead. Stop in a minute. You know, he
wrote that letter to the angel at the church. That's the pastor. So it begins right here. You
have a name that you live, but most of the time, you're just
dead. He said, strengthen the things that remain. Not much
left. Look at this crowd. Nineteen years. This gospel has
been going longer than that. Thirty-some years. Why isn't
this place full? It's the people not here that
were here for years. They're gone. Who's next? He said to the church at Laodicea,
turn with me to Deuteronomy 5. Uncomfortable? That's precisely
our problem. You know it? That is precisely
the problem. We're too comfortable. Deuteronomy 5, he said to the
church at Laodicea, he said, You are rich and increased with
goods, and have need of nothing, and
therefore lukewarm. That's the problem. Deuteronomy
5, look at verse 29. The Lord said, Oh, that they
were such a heart in them that they would fear me, keep all
my commandments always, that it might be well with them and
with their children forever. Do you remember that message?
that it might be well with us and our children. Down in chapter
6, verse 1, these are the commandments, statutes, judgments, which the
Lord your God commanded to teach you. Not advice, but commandment. That you might do them in the
land whither you go, that thou mightest fear the Lord, to keep
all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and
thy son, thy son and thy son, all the days of thy life, that
thy days may be prolonged. And when your houses are full
of all good things, which thou feelest not, you didn't have
anything to do with the house you live in. He gave it to you. Whales, you're drinking from
whales which you didn't dig. Oh yeah, we hired somebody to
dig it, but where did the water come from,
Stephen? You dug a couple of dry whales,
didn't you, buddy? which you dig not, vineyards and olive
trees, which thou plantest not, when thou shalt have eaten, and
be full." Beware that you don't forget the Lord which brought
you out of Egypt, out of the world. Go back to our text. And so it happened to Israel.
This is what happened to Israel, and it happens to us, doesn't
it? Yes, it does. It happens to us. We come into
this world with nothing. It's certain that we can't carry
it. It won't take anything out. But we come into this world with
nothing. We begin to gradually accumulate stuff. And that's
all it is. Until we become rich and increased
with goods. And our hearts, our worries,
our fears, our cares, our concerns, our time, our energy, our effort
are spent in taking care of stuff. And human nature is such that
we become entangled, enamored with leeks and onions. That's all it is. Leeks and onions. And if God does not have mercy
on us, every one of us, much better men than I, than me, have
fallen. If God does not have mercy upon
us, we will, like Esau, sell our souls for a mess of potty. Yeah, we will. And so Habakkuk
cries. This is a prayer, and I just
imagine he's not saying it in a mundane, but he's crying. Lord, I'm afraid.
I'm afraid. I heard, saw what happened. I'm afraid for our people, for
myself. Oh, Lord, he says, revive thy
work. This is your work. Thou who hast
begun a work in us, Lord, revive us in the midst of the year. Amen. Revive thy work. Revival means to keep alive. Revival means to enliven, to
quicken. David said this over and over
and over and over. David said this in the Psalms.
Psalm 119, quicken me, quicken me, quicken me. You've read this
version. It means to invigorate, it means
to rejuvenate. Revival, like salvation, is of
the Lord. You know that? Revival, like
salvation, is of the Lord. Look at verse 2 again. He says,
Oh God, Jehovah, revive thy work in the midst of the years. In
the midst of the years, make known. Here it is. Lord, we act like we've never
heard a thing. Would you let us hear it as if
for the first time? Lord, we act like we haven't
learned a thing. Nineteen years, thirty-some years,
we act like we haven't learned a thing. Lord, would you make
it known to us. Lord, would you make known to
us, to me, all over again, make known to me who I am, just what
I am. Lord, this is a tough thing to
pray, but whatever it takes, make me know myself. That way, mercy, this gospel
sure means something. Illustrate. Simon. Simon Peter,
he walked with the Lord three years, three short years. And in that short amount of time,
he became lifted up with pride. He became self-righteous. He began to think he was something
when he was nothing. Didn't he? All of them did. But
Simon, I'm picking on him, the Lord did. And he became sleepy. The Lord chose Peter, James,
and John to go up to see his glory. All of the disciples were
in the garden with him as he began to pray John 17. And they
all fell asleep. Not when I was preaching it,
when Irene, Jesus Christ was preaching it. They fell asleep. Awful. And so the Lord said,
Simon, Simon, Simon, Satan desires to sift you like wheat. Simon, you're going to fall. It's going to be the worst time of your
life. You're going to wonder if you are a saved man at all. You're going to wonder if there's
any mercy at all left for you. Simon, Simon, Simon, Simon. But it's going to be good for
him. What a terrible fall he had to
take. And the Lord made known to Simon, you're not Peter. like you think you are. I rock
your Simon. Lord, in the midst of years,
make known. Make me know myself. Don't let
me forget it. Tough lesson. Lord, in the midst
of years, make known. In wrath, look at this, verse
2, in wrath remember mercy. Make known your mercy. As we
quoted Jeremiah, it's of the Lord's mercies we're not consumed.
Make known mercy. What is mercy? Who is mercy? Christ is the mercy of God. Make
known, Lord, to me the Lord Jesus Christ all over again. Let me
hear the gospel of God's sovereign mercy in Christ as if it were
the first time. In wrath, he said. That's why
we read Psalm 90. Did you read that with me? In
Psalm 90 it said, ìWeíre consumed by thy anger and by thy wrath,
or we trouble.î God is the father of his people. And I incurred
the wrath of my father when I was a boy. Did you? Now understand
this. There is no eternal wrath for
Godís people. There is no eternal judgment
or punishment for Godís people. There is therefore now, even,
no condemnation to them that are in Christ. But we feel his
indignation. We feel his wrath when we sin
against him. And we will, to a degree, pay
for these things. And he says, our days are passed
away in wrath. He said, Lord, teach us. Teach us. Satisfy us with your
mercy. But nothing else satisfies. In
wrath, we feel God's departure when the Lord removes himself. We feel it. Painful. His anger
and his wrath. What's the answer to this revival?
Well, right there he said, make known in the midst of the year,
make known. But you know, the answer to this
is found in the reason we need it. prayer of a backer. The Lord said of Saul of Tarsus,
this is how you know he's alive under God. Behold, he prayeth. And this is how you know somebody's
dead. Behold, they're not praying. And I pray him. Simon, the Lord
said, watch unto prayer. Spirit is willing, yes, but the
flesh is weak. Watch. Simon, watch unto prayer. Without me, he said, you can
do nothing but sin. Without me, you can do nothing
but fall into every pit. You have not, he said, because. Yes, no. Ask, he said, you'll receive.
Seek, you'll find. Knock. Ever wanted in a house? Ever locked out? If you want
in bad enough, you keep knocking until it's open. That's what
he means by that. Pray, in other words, without
ceasing. Prayer. And I'm out of time. I was going to deal with this,
but in the Scripture, you know, the Lord, Habakkuk prayed, and
he said, Lord, I heard your Word. So prayer and the Word. Here's the two keys to this revival,
both personal and collective as a church. And what I would
like to do, if two or three people would let me know their desire
to do it, I'd like to spend the next two Wednesday nights dealing
with those two subjects. Next Wednesday, prayer. And Wednesday
after that, reading God's Word. These are the two keys. In fact,
this was a prayer. Lord, revive thy word. I've heard
your word, and it made me afraid. It's a good way to be. Fear the
Lord. The Lord takes pleasure in them
that fear Him. And those that hope in His mercy.
How weak are we? We're too weak to even fear. So, Lord, He says, I've heard
your word, and I was afraid. And I'm afraid. I'm afraid. And, O Lord, I've heard I was
afraid. And, O Lord, revive Thy work.
Revive Thy work. This is Your work. I believe
it is. In the midst of the years, we're
in the doldrums as well. In the midst of the year, in
the midst of prosperity, in the midst of the middle year, middle
age, in the midst of the years, make known. In wrath, the wrath of God, Romans 1 says,
is clearly seen from heaven. Clearly seen. We see wrath, don't
we? In wrath, remember to me, make known to me that it is of
the Lord's mercy that I am not concerned. So, Lord, revive this
work. So, as I said, if we just have
a Just two or three people long for it. We'll do it. Let me know.
Okay, stand with me. Our God, we are so weak, so helpless,
so frail, so sinful. Lord, forgive us for Christ's
sake. Have mercy upon us for Christ's sake. Lord, Habakkuk's
prayer is our own. I hope, I pray that we have indeed
heard the Word. It's so needful. We hear Your
words of blessed promise that comfort us so often. Oh, how
we need to be awakened as we sleep the sleep of death. We
need to watch unto prayer. Let us not sleep as do others.
When the Bridegroom comes, oil in our lamps, we'll be ready.
Oh, Lord, help us. Revive us. Revive us. Revive
Thy work. people of thy pasture, thine
elect, thy work." It's your work, Lord. Revive it in the midst
of the year. In the midst of the year, make
known. In wrath, remember mercy. It
is our prayer. In Christ's name, amen. Thank you.