Okay, please turn your Bibles to Habakkuk chapter 3. We will be finishing up Habakkuk. Habakkuk chapter 3. Okay, hear the word of the Lord. A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigyanoth. Lord, I have heard the report about you and I fear. O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. God comes from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran, Selah. His splendor covers the heavens and the earth is full of His praise. His radiance is like the sunlight. He has rays flashing from his hand and there is the hiding of his power. Before him goes pestilence and plague comes after him. He stood and surveyed the earth. He looked and startled the nations. Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered. The ancient hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Kushan under the distress. the tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling. Did the Lord rage against the rivers, or was your wrath against the sea, that you rode on your horses, on your chariots of salvation? Your bow was made bare, the rods of chastisement were sworn. Selah. You cleaved the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and quaked. The downpour of waters swept by the deep uttered forth its voice. It lifted high its hands. Sun and moon stood in their places. They went away at the light of your arrows, at the radiance of your gleaming spear. In indignation you marched through the earth. In anger, you trampled the nations. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You struck the head of the house of the evil to lay him open from thigh to neck. You pierced with his own spears the head of his throngs. They stormed in to scatter us. Their exaltation was like those who devour the oppressed in secret. You trampled on the sea with your horses, on the surge of many waters. I heard, and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble, because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He has made my feet like hind feet and makes me walk on my high places. For the choir director on my stringed instruments. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you once again, and Lord, we pray that you would continue to instruct us, to open our eyes, to give us understanding of your truths, and that through your word that you would teach us, instruct us, convict us, and encourage us, Lord God, that you would nourish our souls for our sanctification and for your glory, Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. When I was a little boy, I was about Timothy's age, I used to live in an apartment complex, it was right by a street, a lot of fast traffic, and I was riding my bike and I rode across the street, I didn't see, I didn't look, a car was coming down, he stopped, he honked really loud, and That didn't scare me too much. What did scare me was the sound of my father yelling my name out. Jaimeito! He hadn't seen it, but he heard the noise, he heard the honking of the car, and he assumed it was me, but just hearing that, that voice, it scared me. I knew that he was gonna punish me when I got home for being careless. So I stayed around outside for hours hoping that he would forget. And he did. When I finally walked in, I opened the door slowly and he was sitting on the couch watching TV and he just looked at me and he just said hi. And then at that moment I realized, okay, I'm not gonna get punished. So I was comforted by that. But the point there is, is that there was fear. There was genuine fear of my father's discipline, of his chastisement. And so in the past several months, as we've gone through Nahum, Zephaniah, and now Habakkuk, we have heard a lot about God's judgment. We have heard a lot about the day of judgment, of the day of God's wrath. And A lot of themes have overlapped, but yeah, one of the main themes that we have seen, that we have gone through is judgment. Is that God is going to come and he's going to vindicate his people. He's going to judge the wicked. There will be that great day of God's wrath and judgment. But what is the purpose of all of this? What is the reason? Why are there so many passages on God's judgment, on warnings, threatenings to even God's people? And we don't see this just in the Old Testament. We see it in the New Testament as well, in Hebrews and in other places. Why does God do this? Habakkuk sums it up in this chapter. There is one major theme. There are various themes, elements, but there's one major theme that we see here that Habakkuk himself expresses, and that is the theme of fear. He begins the chapter confessing his fear, and he ends it It's almost a nice bookend, although he does end on a good note, on a positive note. But he finishes with fear at the end, towards the end of the chapter. Again, he expresses his fear. And so, that is the main theme of this chapter. So here what we want to look at is we want to see how Habakkuk responds then to the revelation that has come before him. We want to see how he responds to this fear, how he lives out his faith and trust in this fear, the fear of the Lord. But before we get into the fear of the Lord, I want to mention something about the uniqueness about chapter 3. It's not like chapter 1 and 2 where, if you remember, we stated that Habakkuk is entering into a dialogue with God. He starts in chapter one by crying out to the Lord, expressing his anxiety. He's perplexed in his faith because he's cried out to the Lord for justice on those that are oppressed, the righteous, yet God is silent. And when God finally does answer him, He does not answer him the way that Habakkuk was expecting. And that answer actually makes things worse for him. So he complains, he's having a hard time understanding how God or why God would do what he is planning on doing, which is raising up the Chaldeans or the Babylonians, a wicked, wicked nation to judge his people. But in chapter three, we see something different. So we're seeing a progression in Habakkuk. In chapter three, we see this, a second introduction, if you will. We see, he begins a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, according to Shegayanoth. So it's almost as if this chapter could stand alone. And it does, and historically it has, because historically this chapter has been used in the worship of God's people because this chapter is written in the form of a prayer but not just a prayer it is a psalm and in in this chapter we see as as we read through the chapter we see many uh evidences that this is a psalm uh just the the introduction of it he says it's a prayer but then also We see the words Shigayanoth and Selah, which are Shigayanoth actually only appears once more in the singular in one of the Psalms, but we see Selah appearing over and over in the Psalms. So this is a song. He concludes this chapter. He concludes his dialogue with God through prayer and a Psalm at that. So it's a psalmic prayer. and that he's concluding his dialogue with God. And so it's a very unique kind of way of finishing this. And so we want to look at this prayer and what is the significance of it. So again, as we consider it in its connection to the first two chapters and the dialogue that we have seen thus far, this becomes a climactic resolution for Habakkuk. Again, his faith was perplexed. And he cries out to the Lord for justice, but was met with silence. And then again, the Lord answers. He doesn't understand his reasoning for doing what he's doing. He wants the righteous king to come and execute justice. But instead, God sends the Chaldeans. And then in chapter two, we see that he must wait. He must wait for God to act. He must wait for God to do what he said he's going to do. But we're told, you know, that in the meantime, how are believers, how are they to wait for God to bring in this judgment, not just on them, but ultimately on the wicked nations? Because remember, the judgment on them was a a judgment that God was doing because they were his covenant people, but ultimately he had a purpose of restoring them as a people, restoring them back to the land. And so the judgment on the nations would be that moment where he would judge the nations and restore his people. So he must wait. But now in chapter 3, again, as we come to this climactic resolution, Habakkuk is now having not only to trust and to wait on the Lord by faith, but now he must walk in the fear of the Lord, knowing that this is to come. So he resigns his will, his understanding to his covenant God, and he simply worships him because this is what basically what this is. It's a psalm. He's worshiping God. He's just submitting to his will. And so let us look then at this prayer and let us see the change in Habakkuk and let us learn from him how to properly then respond to God even when he answers in hard ways, in ways that are hard to accept, or when his answer creates fear within our hearts. Let us learn how to walk in the fear of the Lord. And so the way I want to look at this chapter, there's three main elements here in walking in the fear of the Lord. The first one is pretty obvious. We're going to talk about, well, what does it mean by fear? There is fear, but not just fear, it's filial fear. And that's what I want to hopefully communicate, that it's filial fear of God. Secondly, there is hopeful trust in God. And then lastly, there is lasting joy in God as well. So let us look at the first point. Again, the main theme here is fear. So what is fear? He begins in verse 2 by saying, Lord, I have heard the report about you, and I fear. Now, this word is interesting in the Hebrew. If you look it up in the Hebrew lexicon, the word fear in Hebrew means fear. And the reason why I say that is because I hear all the time that, oh, fear just means reverence and awe. And it does. And I will talk about that. It most certainly does. But oftentimes we neglect what it really means. Fear means fear. And we see it throughout all of scripture. We see when God's holy presence comes to his saints, in the old and in the new, oftentimes they're struck with fear. Even when an angel of the Lord appears, the angel has to say, do not fear. When the Lord took Peter and John to the Mount of Transfiguration, when he transfigures in front of them, when they hear the voice of God, it says that they were terrified. So, I mean, just His presence, it's fearful. And so there is great fear, genuine fear in the fear of the Lord. And we see this perfectly illustrated here by Habakkuk. He says, again, Lord, I have heard the report of you and I fear. In verse 16, he says, I heard and my inward parts trembled. At the sound, my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble." Now, yes, there is poetic language here, but I have no doubt that there was this inner trembling when he hears the voice, the sound, when he contemplates on the report. So again, what I want to make clear is that this is filial fear. Just like I was afraid of my earthly father and his judgment, his chastisement as children of God, we should have that godly fear of our father and his chastisement. So it's the fear of a child that a child would have of his father, not the fear of a criminal that a criminal would have of a judge. So then the next question we want to ask is then, okay, he's fearful, but why is he fearful? Why does he fear? What is it that's causing him this great fear? And the first thing I just want to mention is that it's, again, it's the fear-grouping acknowledgement and recognition of God's awesome power in judgment. His majesty and holiness, His complete otherness, separateness, especially from sin. He's pure. He's unapproachable light. All of this is fearful or causes fear to His creation. And especially when you add sin into the mix. As sinners, confronting a holy, holy, holy God, that would evoke fear, create fear in us. So He says, I have heard the report and I fear, And the ESV here, I'll have to give it to the ESV. They have a better translation. It says, Oh Lord, I have heard the report of you and your work. Lord do I fear so they shift the work up to the previous whereas the other ones have it revive your work he that work is actually part of the the previous phrase and so what work is he talking about so he's fearful because of your the work what work is that that he's talking about well if you remember in chapter 1 The Lord responds to Habakkuk and says, look among the nations, observe, be astonished, wonder, because I am doing something in your days that you would not believe if you were told. And so this is the work. When Paul quotes this, he says work. He uses the word work. So this is the work. The work is that God is going to enter into judgment against Judah. He's going to raise up the Chaldeans and he's going to judge them. we see this actually in verse sixteen he's clear about that he says uh... because he says that he trembles towards the end he says because i must wait quietly for the day of distress for the people to arise who will invade us okay so it's this revelation of these invaders that are coming to judge Judah, to judge Jerusalem, to judge the people of God. And this is what causes Habakkuk to fear. So again, it is his fear of God's power, of God's might. It is the fear of his judgment. And we see Him, we see God, His power described for us in verses three and four, when He says, He talks about God as the Holy One coming from Timon, from Mount Paran. His splendor covers the heavens and the earth is full of His praise. His radiance is like sunlight. He has rays flashing from His hand and there is the hiding of His power. So it's this great, awesome picture of God coming to judge, and a lot of this language is actually reminiscent of Mount Sinai, God's coming down, his theophany, his appearances, manifestations at Mount Sinai with God's people. Moses says this, it's in Deuteronomy. He says, or no, I'm sorry, I think it's, I didn't write the reference, but it's, he says this, the Lord came from Mount, from Sinai and dawned on them from Seir. So it's pretty much taking word for word from Moses. But again, it's drawing this picture of God coming in power and might. And so that is what Habakkuk here is describing. But then he further goes on in the next verses from verse 5 through 15, he's describing that now God coming to judge the nations. His judgment on the nations, we see the results of what is occurring. He shows the pestilence that results, the distress of the nations. So not only the nations, but the earth is being affected by God's coming, by his judgment. And so all of this together is what is causing Habakkuk to fear. Again, it is first and foremost, the judgment on his people, but then also with that, the judgment on the nations, because in that he sees God's mighty power. And so Habakkuk is not fearing here complete and utter destruction from the Lord. He does not fear total separation from God, but yet he does know that God's wrath and judgment will come upon his people because they have broken his covenant. After countless warnings and callings to repentance, Israel as a whole would not listen. They remained in their stubbornness. So God judged the northern kingdom and now he was going to judge the southern kingdom of Judah. So again, it's the fear of the Lord. Yes, it is reverence. It is being in awe of His glory and holiness, but it is fear. It's genuine fear. So now, as believers, are we then to go around, walk around in fear all the time? Well, no. Though we should fear God's judgments upon us, as believers we have also joy, which we will talk about later, but we should have this general fear where If we, you know, if we commit sin, if we are unrepentant of our sin, there should be a fear of God's judgment. Again, not an eternal judgment, but a temporal judgment, because we are, just like Israel, we're sinning against His commands. We're sinning against our covenant God. And though He is our Father, He has saved us so that we would become like in the image of Christ, so that we would be sanctified, so that we would be glorified. And so when we are stubbornly sinning, unrepentantly sinning, God will sanctify us one way or another. And often what He does is He brings these harsh judgments upon His people. And so we should have that fear. And then even as we contemplate the judgment coming upon the world, knowing that, yes, we have escaped that, but still, as we think about what is coming to the world outside the church, that one day all these people, the world as we know it, will be destroyed. They will be judged. And that should bring fear as well. Again, not that we will partake in it, but just in seeing his awesome, great power in his judgment. And so as we think about this, this is something that I think a lot of people have lost when we think about the fear of the Lord. But it was something that a lot of people in the past would actually contemplate on. The Puritans would actually, in Thomas Watson's book on meditation, one of the things that he encourages believers to meditate on is on sin, and on hell, on judgment. When we contemplate sin, or when we contemplate on this, it helps us. So he says this, he says, meditation on this curse, talking about the curse of God, would make us afraid of retaining sin. When Micah had stolen his mother's money and heard her curse, I'm sorry, and heard her curse him, he dared not keep it any longer, but restored it. He was afraid of his mother's curse. What then is God's curse?" So, he was afraid, he had done something wrong, he heard his mother's curse, and he was afraid. Watson is saying, how much more is the curse of God? How much more should we be afraid of that? Regarding the Day of Judgment and the horrors of hell, Watson says this, "...meditation on the Day of Judgment would make us to evaluate our actions. Christ will come with his fan and his sieve. Will this action of mine bide the test of the great day?" And says Watson, "...meditate much on hell. Let us go to hell by contemplation so that we may not go into hell by condemnation." The serious meditation on hell would make us fear in as much as hell. Sin is hell's fuel. Sin, like Samson's foxes, carries devouring fire in its tail. Meditation on hell would cause rejoicing in a child of God. The saint's fear of hell is like the two Mary's fear in Matthew 28. They departed from the sepulcher with fear and great joy. A believer may fear to think of the place of torment, but rejoice to think he shall never come into that place." So again, it's contemplating what will happen to so many Though we can have confidence if we believe in Christ that it won't happen to us, but it still has this sanctifying effect on us in knowing that this is coming and will help us in our Christian walk. So fear then is our friend. Even just fear, fear keeps us from doing oftentimes foolish things. I've seen Some people don't have that fear. I've seen photos of people taking selfies or photos in just the most dangerous places. And you're like, man, yeah. But for most people, fear will keep us from doing foolish things like that that can cause injury to ourselves or to others. But how much more than the fear of eschatological judgment, not just temporal judgment. And so he's not saying that we should doubt our salvation, but just to contemplate these things, to really get those things, that these are realities that people will experience. And by the grace of God, we have escaped them, but nonetheless, contemplate on them so that you can have that proper perspective and not play around with the sin that will lead so many to hell. Now, sometimes certain believers may carelessly flirt with sin, play with sin, unrepentantly. And in that case, sometimes God in his judgment does remove a level of assurance, maybe a great majority of their assurance. And in those times, believers may live for a while in fear of hell. not knowing whether they are true believers or not, until God deals with them, then He will bring them out of that. And we see that in our confession as well, that this is part of God's dealings with His people, when they unrepentantly live in sin. And so this is why then Habakkuk is fearful, because of the power of God and His judgment, on his people, the temporal judgment, but also on the judgment that is to come on the wicked. And so there, again, there is filial fear, but there's a second element that we see here in what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord, and that is trust. And this brings us to our second point. There is a hopeful trust in walking in the fear of the Lord. Again, though he fears there is hope, there is hope in Habakkuk. He's trusting in the promises of God. And we see this in verse two, where he says, Oh Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years. So as I said, the word work actually belongs to the previous phrase, but nevertheless, it is a work, because what is Habakkuk there talking about? In the Hebrew, it's actually, there's a first person personal pronoun, so it's revive him, revive him, Who is him that Habakkuk is asking God, petitioning God to to revive, it is, I believe, Israel as a whole, the righteous, the remnant of Israel that he is saying, revive, because if you think about it, what is going on here, God is gonna, so you have Israel divided into the two kingdoms, he already judged the northern kingdom of Israel, now he's gonna judge the southern kingdom of Israel, and for a time, there's gonna be no Israel, they're gonna be in exile. The city, the temple, it'll all be destroyed. And so they're gonna be in exile. And so he's pleading with God, he's pleading upon the promises of God that he would send a king, he's pleading his promises and he's saying, Lord, revive it. Though this is gonna come, revive your people. And so in this petition, we see hope, we see trust in his promises. It's sort of like Abraham's faith when he was asked to sacrifice his son. God had promised Abraham that through his seed, he would be a blessing to the nations, that his son would be heir of his. So, many years later, as the Lord fulfills his promise in giving him Isaac, What happens? The Lord asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. And so here we see these kind of these two, what's the word I'm looking for? Mutually exclusive propositions. He's gonna be your heir and through whom you will be father of many nations and a blessing to the nations, but I want you to sacrifice your son. How does that work? Though we don't see it in the text in Genesis, the author of Hebrew tells us that Abraham did it because he believed that God would raise him from the dead. That's the only answer. There was a third proposition there. God's power. His power to raise. So he believed his promises and so in a sense Habakkuk is doing something similar. The people of God are going to for a time in a sense be dead. They're going to be out of the land. And so he's praying, but Lord, there's a promise yet to be fulfilled. Your righteous King, the son of David, the true King is to come. How is he going to come if your people are gone forever? So he's trusting in, Lord, please revive your people, revive them, bring them back. And so there is trust, there is hope. He is trusting in his promises, in God's promises. And that is what's helping him to deal with his fear. And so in the midst of the years, He says, make it known that your people would know your faithfulness during those years of exile, during those years of judgment. And during that time, remember to be merciful. So He's trusting in His mercy, He's trusting in His promises. And this is what, again, what we see, how we see Habakkuk dealing with this situation, with this fear, and with what is to come, with the situation that is about to come to the people of God. He is fearing, but he is trusting in God's promises. He says in verse 16, I must wait quietly for the day of distress. Previously, what did we see? He was perplexed, he was complaining, he was challenging God's work. How could you do this? Now, there's no arguing. He's quiet. He's accepted it, and he's trusting in the Lord. He's resting in his promises. And beloved, as new covenant believers, we also can have this trust in God. Because yes, Habakkuk, by the blessings of the covenant of grace, yes, he was saved, he experienced salvation as well, but he was still in that old covenant. He was still going to experience the curses of the old covenant. We stand in the new covenant. We're in a covenant that's enacted on better promises. Habakkuk looked forward to has already come, and we have benefited from that. And so that we can trust in God, we can trust in His promises, that what He has said, no matter the persecution or the trials, the fears, the tremblings, whatever, we can trust that God will keep His promises to His people. We have seen Him keep His promises, we have seen Him be faithful, and He will continue to do so with His people. We see this actually in verse 13, there where we read God's promise of salvation in reference to the anointed. So in verse 13, he says, you went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. Now, historically, who is Habakkuk referring to? It's Cyrus. Because if you remember, so the people will be sent into exile to Babylon. But then this Babylon will only last for a while until Persia comes in and overthrows that kingdom. And through Cyrus, and in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the people will start going back. And we will see a partial fulfillment of God's promises. Now that's not the full, the complete fulfillment. But there will be a restoration. The people of God will start going back. But we don't see the fullness of that promise completed there. Ultimately, the true restoration, the true reviving of the righteous ones would come much later. Because God's true anointed would come some 600 years later. The consummation of God's judgment and the deliverance of his people was much farther away. In Matthew 24, Luke 21, Revelation, all of these, we read of the distress and turmoil that the nations will be in, in that great day of distress. And the theophany language found in verses three to four in Habakkuk are ultimately pointing to Christ. He is the Holy One who comes from Timan and Mount Paran, whose splendor covers the heavens, whose radiance is like the sunlight, who has rays flashing from His hand, who comes in great power. Listen to what Luke tells us in Luke 21, There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, and perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and expectation of the things which are coming upon the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud of power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." So we see here then the consummation of that, the judgment on the nations, and the restoration and the ultimate salvation of God's people. So our hope again is built on these wonderful promises that Christ as our head, our mediator, our Savior, our King will come for us. He will come and deliver us. He will bring justice and peace. He will establish His righteous kingdom. And as we wait patiently for that day, which Habakkuk says, he says, the anointed one will strike the head of the evil, which we can say the evil one, to lay him open from thigh to neck. And who is this? It is the seed of the woman, the seed of the woman who will one day crush the head of the serpent. He will do away with all sin and unrighteousness. He will establish his righteous kingdom of which we are heirs. So this is our hope. This is our inheritance. And because of this, we can trust in God. But more than this, we can have fear, we can trust, but we can also rejoice in God. And this brings us to our third and final point. There is lasting joy in walking in the fear of the Lord. This point is brief but very important. In the midst of fear, we can also have joy. As I referenced this verse from Thomas Manton, on the third day after Christ was crucified, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, which is the mother of James and Joseph, went to the grave. And there they had an encounter with an angel of the Lord, which caused the guards to fear and became like dead men. Both the Marys also feared, but we are told that after leaving, After learning that Christ had risen from the dead, they left to tell the disciples. But Matthew tells us that they left quickly with fear and joy. So the two are not mutually exclusive. We can have fear, but we can also have joy. We can live in joy. In the midst of Habakkuk's fear, even if there was scarcity of produce in the land, as we see in verse 17, he says in verses 18 and 19, he closes out the chapter, his prayer, he closes up by saying this, yet I will exult in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and he has made my feet like hinds feet and makes me walk on high places. So in the midst of this fear, in the midst of what is to come, in the midst of trials, we can have lasting joy because it is joy that is not from us. It's joy that comes from the Lord. And God is our strength. Our Lord comforted His disciples regarding His going away by telling them that now they had grief, but that they would have joy because they would see Him again. And that joy, he says, no one would be able to take it away from them. And this is the joy that we have. Our joy does not depend on any earthly things, but on God, on our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we will see one day. And this was the foundation of the hope and joy of Peter's audience in 1 Peter. It was a salvation that they presently had, that was ready to be revealed in the last day, that is, it would come in its full consummation at Christ's return. It is in this that they greatly rejoiced. And He says that though they had not seen Him, they loved Him. Though they did not see Him now, He says, you believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. As those who have feared and trusted in the Lord, as those of us who have feared and trusted in the Lord, we can have this joy. And it is a lasting one, one that cannot be taken away because again, it is grounded in Christ's work on our behalf. And we have that certainty, that assurance that God will be faithful to His promises. He will come for us, He will vindicate us, and He will judge the wicked. And how do we express this joy? One way is how Habakkuk does it here. Remember, this is a prayer, but not just a prayer, it's a psalm. He sang praises to the Lord. In the book of Acts, before the Philippian jailer is saved, Paul and Silas are imprisoned for preaching the gospel. And Luke tells us that about midnight, Paul and Silas were in prison and they were sad and complaining to God about their situation. No, that's not what they were doing. It says that in the midst of their persecution while in prison, they were praying and singing hymns of praise to God and the other prisoners were listening to them. So in their trials, they were singing and praising. And for anybody who's been in deep, deep trials, no other songs will do. When you sing rich, theologically grounded hymns, psalms in those deep times of trial and fear, this is encouraging. So we fear, we trust, and we rejoice. Now, in conclusion, we can respond in one of two ways to the fear of God and of His judgments. One is it can drive us away from Him, as Adam did when he sinned, or it can drive us to Him, as many of the saints in Scripture and throughout history. So I pray that for all of us who have believed, it is the latter, that the fear of his fatherly chastisement would have a sanctifying effect in our lives, that the fear of sin and the discipline of it would draw us closer to God. But if you are the former, stop running away from God. A believer will not be able to run away. It will only make the chastisement worse. And for those who have not trusted in Christ, responding by running away, ignoring the warnings and the fear that comes from God's judgment will only make it worse as well. You will not be able to avoid the coming judgment. So cast yourself upon the throne of grace through the cross of Jesus Christ, because He has opened the way to receive mercy and grace. Trust in Him, repenting in your sins. Only then will you have a right fear of the Lord and hopeful trust and a lasting joy. So with that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we have heard your word this morning and this afternoon. We pray that you would continue to work in us mightily, Lord God. That you would work in us true, godly fear of you. That there would be genuine fear of sinning and displeasing you. And Lord, that this fear would cause a sanctifying effect on us, Lord God. not only would we fear, but that we would trust in your promises and that we would rejoice in your mercy and grace that you have shown us, all of us here who believe. So please continue to work that in us, Lord God, sanctifying us all for our good and ultimately for your glory, Lord God. Thank you so much and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.