You have your Bibles this morning, let's go back then to the book of Habakkuk. We are wending our way through the book and now we're in chapter three, the last chapter of Habakkuk. And it's a wonderful challenge to all of us. It's a very helpful reminder to all of us of what is actually happening in this dark world and how we ought to respond in these dark and very troubling days. Notice with me, if you will, As Habakkuk here understands from Habakkuk 2 and verse 20 that the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him. The right response is found in Habakkuk chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet upon Shugianoth. Oh Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid. Oh Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make known in wrath, remember mercy. Shall we pause together to pray? Lord, I praise you and thank you that you are the God who makes all things new. I praise you for the reminder this morning that we are to cry out for revival, to say with the psalmist, revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee, Lord. We understand from the word of God that it's a continual cycle of renewal and revival and restoration by the grace of God because our sins have separated between us and our God. And so, Lord, I ask once again this morning for your people that we would truly see the need to take hold of God, to embrace Christ, embrace the Messiah who extends such mercy toward us, and that, Lord, that you would genuinely revive us again. These are dark and troubling days. There are people around us, even this morning in this county, who are on the very edge of eternity with drug overdoses, on the edge of eternity because of the consequences of wickedness. So Lord, I ask today that you would revive us, that judgment would begin at the house of God, that you would lead us to genuine repentance, that you would help every one of us to know that repentance will bring the times of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord. Lord, we need your presence today. We need your refreshing face the presence of our God. We need revival here in our church. We need revival here in this city. We need revival in this state and in our country. Lord, there is no hope except for you. Today, Lord, by admitting these things and understanding that our nation is under the wrath of God, I pray that you would stir in every one of us a desire for genuine revival, restoration, renewal from the God who makes all things new. And Father, I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. You have a most remarkable story and a vision in Ezekiel chapter 37, verses one through 15. It's frequently called the vision of the valley of the dry bones. And as the Lord places Ezekiel in that valley of the vision of the dry bones, he asked Ezekiel this question, son of man, can these bones live? And Ezekiel gave what I think is the only right response, oh Lord, thou knowest. Lord, you alone know how in the world these dry bones could ever live. I would point out to you that that theme of resurrection or revival or of restoration is very common in the Word of God. I think you find it throughout the scriptures. You find it, for instance, in the very passage that is open before us. And we understand that all of these things are a picture of the glorious resurrection of our Messiah, who conquered death by His amazing restoration, His resurrection, His renewal. that actually changes everything. There's a sense in which, and we'll see this next Sunday as we come back to Habakkuk chapter 3, there's a sense in which the Lord bringing the people out of Egypt Bringing them into the promised land is yet another renewal, a resurrection, a restoration. How could Israel get free of Egypt in their own power? And of course the answer is they could not under their own power. But God sent his messenger and God sent his plagues and the end result was he freed his people. He caused Pharaoh to let his people go. And in entering into the promised land, in even the crossing of the Jordan, it was all about the coming of the Christ. Leaving Egypt, that exodus from Egypt was really about embracing the Messiah, embracing Christ. The crossing of the Jordan was about the coming of Jesus. And the promised land was really all about the promised Lord. And you ask the question, how can these things be? How is this even possible? And throughout the scriptures, the answer is, it is only by the power of God. As we have frequently expressed it to ourselves, life's most wonderful conclusion is, Jesus is the only hope. That's life's most wonderful conclusion. Now in the passage that's open before us today, we see once again this restoration. We see how in Revelation chapter 21 and verse 5 it tells us, Revelation 21 5, our God makes all things new. That's about the new heaven and the new earth. But the fact is, he's been doing that all along the way. Are there times when you are concerned about our own congregation? I am. Are there times when I'm concerned about me and my spiritual life? I most certainly am. Well, what's the answer when you feel that way? What's the answer when you feel that you have grown tired in the wickedness of this world and that your love has waxed cold because iniquity abounds? What's the answer? The answer is right here in Habakkuk 3, verses 1 and 2. It's this prayer of revival that Habakkuk is expressing. Now, I would like for you to call to remembrance this morning that this wonderful book is really a series of prayers and responses. It is a series of protest against the Lord, prayerful protest, yes, prayerful protest by Habakkuk basically saying, Lord, How long are you going to put up with this? And Lord, why do you put me in this situation where I have to behold this violence and this wickedness and this depravity? And you can see those questions expressed at the very beginning of the book. This book is a series of these protests, and it's as if when you get to Habakkuk chapter three, that Habakkuk three is like the rod and staff of the great shepherd who is guiding you and me about what to think in all of these situations. In every one of the historical stories that we find in scripture about resurrection, restoration, and renewal to bring those to practically apply right here, right now, in this hour, in these few minutes, so that you and I would profit from the Word of God. We would know how to use the Word of God. You see, for instance, about Habakkuk, back in chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, that he is protesting, Lord, you are not answering my prayers about the great wickedness that's here in Judean society. And the Lord responded, well, in fact, I am. And he gave Habakkuk the prophecy of the devastating invasion of the cruel Chaldeans that would come. That's in chapter 1, verses 5 through 11. And immediately Habakkuk says, Whoa, Lord, I wanted you to deal with the wickedness in our society, but Lord, not that way. Surely, Lord, you are the Holy One. You are the Eternal One. Surely, you wouldn't use those cruel and wicked Chaldeans to judge us, to devastate our society. And that's really Habakkuk's prayer in chapter 1, verse 12 through 2, 1. And then as we studied and as our brother alluded to a few moments ago in Habakkuk chapter 2, the Lord's response is, wait for it. Wait for it. He says, wait for it for the just shall live by his faith. And then he goes on in Habakkuk chapter two to pronounce these five very terrible woes that you find there. It's interesting in the midst of all this furor, all this trouble and trembling that is going on all around, that Habakkuk is not taught to think in terms of they and those people. No, the Lord really brings him to the place where he says Habakkuk, The just shall live by His. Note how the singular aspect there applies. The just shall live by His faith. And what that causes every one of us to do is recognize our individual accountability before the Lord. In the words of Ezekiel chapter 18 that we learned there in verse 4, the Lord says, all souls are mine as the soul of the father. So also is the soul of the son and the soul that sins. It shall die. He shall die. He is separated from God by his sin. And so what it does for every one of us is it brings it right down to the level of individual accountability. and the protest that you and I might be tempted to make, the reverential protest. After all, Habakkuk is expressing this in prayer. He's not complaining to others about the Lord. He's expressing it to the Lord in prayer. It all comes to a halt in Habakkuk chapter two and down in verse 20 when Habakkuk understood the Lord is in his holy temple. He is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. That is, the protests are ended. That is the end of the protest. And the Lord is showing this to Habakkuk. Well, how should you respond then when that happens? When you know the Lord is in control, we can worship Him. There are times when I don't understand Him. I don't understand how He could do some of the things that He is doing. But nevertheless, I submit to the fact that the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth silence their protest before Him, what then would be the right next response? The very first words of Habakkuk chapter 3 and verse 1, a prayer. This is the humble prayer that comes out of this vision of the Lord and really what you find here in Habakkuk chapter 3 is a submissive prayer. We might call it a submissive supplication. It's a petition that he places before the Lord. Now, before, they were all protest. Lord, what are you doing? But this time, no. No, this time there is a recognition that is settling in here that we really need to describe. A recognition that Habakkuk had come to about what was getting ready to happen next in his society. And so you see here this prayer of Habakkuk. You see the prayer of Habakkuk upon Shigianoth. We don't know exactly what Shigianoth means. I looked through every commentary I could find and they all could only offer guesses. It's used in another place in scripture. It's used in Psalm chapter 7 and verse 1. And as nearly as the scholars can tell, It's a literary term. It was somehow used as a Hebrew literary device, but again, it's only used twice in the scriptures. But we do know what the name Habakkuk means. Habakkuk means one who embraces, and that's a really helpful reminder for us today. When all protests have been silenced by the Lord who is in His holy temple, when all the earth keeps silence before Him, the question would be, would your heart and my heart fret against the Lord? Or would we, like Habakkuk, embrace Him? Would we take hold of God? Would we cleave to the Lord? And that really is the pattern that's laid out before us. Even in our Christianity we understand, and especially I should say in our Christianity, we understand that it's about embracing the finished work of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament shows us how we ought to do this in troubling times, and so this leads us to something. Habakkuk came to a realization, and he made a prayerful admission. Here's what it was. He knew that the wrath of God was falling upon his once great nation. I ask you this morning, have you settled it in your soul that God's wrath is falling upon this once great nation? Have you settled that in your soul? Have you agreed with God that that is in fact true? You and I, I think, could agree without any argument that the United States of America is among the most God-blessed civilizations in the whole history of the world, and perhaps the most blessed by God. And yet what's happening? Dear friends, our country has turned its back on God. Do we really believe that God will have poured out His blessings in this way and that He will not bring judgment upon our nation? In fact, any simple reading of Romans chapter one would tell you it's already begun. You can see it for yourself if you read Romans chapter one, you can see exactly what is happening in our society because Romans 1, 28 through 32, when we will not acknowledge God, when we will not praise him for his blessings, when in the words of Romans two, the goodness of God has not led us to repentance, we have actually treasured up wrath against ourselves as a nation. You say, Pastor, I mean, do you really think it's true? Do you really think that's what's happening? All right, let me just show you how you would know this this morning. I want you to think about the society in which you live and ask this question. What would it look like if God's judgment were to fall upon a nation? And you have the answer in Romans chapter one. all manner of unrighteousness. Now, when you take your newspaper, do you believe that your newspaper is full of all manner of unrighteousness? Yes or no? Yes. It says in Romans 1, all manner of unrighteousness evil, and covetousness, and malice, full of envy, and murder, and strife, and deceit, and maliciousness. They are gossips, and slanderers, and haters of God, and insolent, and haughty, and boastful, and inventors of evil, and disobedient to parents, and foolish, and faithful, and heartless, and ruthless. I hope in the right sense that something in your heart says, oh my God, this is us. This is who we are. This is exactly what's happening in our nation. And the great need of the hour is what we find here in Habakkuk chapter three. I want you to think carefully about what you're seeing here and how important it is. It may be this morning you would say, well, I'm really not all that uncomfortable right now. Your sermon makes me uncomfortable. Did you see the paper? I mean, did you see that 3,050 people from Ohio died of overdoses in 2015? And have you seen the news that down in Cincinnati, 80 people died of overdoses in the last two days of heroin? And our own county is becoming infamous for its heroin use. And as I've prayed for our congregation, I've wondered how long before this invades our own congregation, folks. There is a great need for revival. And what the Lord is showing us in this passage, he shows us how all these things can come to be. Perhaps you would say this morning, you're scaring me. My counsel would be Psalm 56 verse three, where the psalmist said, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. There it is. That fear has to be replaced with faith. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And so you have to see there is a path, there is a right way. It is laid out for us in the scripture. When you see what's happening in our nation right now, you see the trembling, you see the difficulties, you see the shakeup, looks like a worldwide shakeup. Look down at Habakkuk chapter three and notice the words there that you find. Habakkuk chapter three in verse six. He stood and measured the earth. He beheld and drove asunder or caused to tremble the nations. And the everlasting mountains were scattered and the perpetual hills did bow. His ways are everlasting. If you ask the question today, who or what is behind the shake up in our nation right now? Who or what is behind the shake up that's going on worldwide right now? The answer is right here in the scriptures. The answer is it is the Lord God. And we don't understand all of how this is working out, but here's what we do know. We do know it's ultimately about the second coming of Jesus Christ. And we do know in the here and now that all things are working together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. And the good in Romans 8, 29 is that we would be conformed to the image of his son. And so if the shaking right now, the shaking in the financial markets, sometimes the shaking of the earth itself, as we saw in Italy in this last week, the shaking that is occurring in the geopolitical, in the government situations. Remember, it's all ultimately about being a Habakkuk in the sense of one who truly embraces God and embraces him by faith. Turn over with me, if you would, to Malachi, just for a moment. Last Wednesday evening, here in the auditorium, we began a brief series on the book of Malachi. And as you turn, I would ask you this question. We're planning to study this next Wednesday evening. Have you ever heard that little song? ♪ Count your blessings, name them one by one ♪ ♪ Count your blessings, see what God has done ♪ Here's the astounding thing. The astounding thing, if you would look in Malachi chapter two and verse two, you find these words. If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will, does your Bible say count your blessings? No, your Bible says, I will curse your blessings. I will curse your blessings, yea, I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart. Friends, think about what this is saying here. Why would God say, curse your blessings, name them one by one? Curse your blessings, see what God, wait. Can that be in the Bible? Why would God do such a thing? He would do such a thing because we have substituted His blessings for Him. We've made an idol out of the blessings of God. Perhaps our incomes have become our idols. Perhaps we have become a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer. And the Lord's response to that is to bring cursing upon our blessings. Think about how greatly this nation has been blessed. How do you escape from this? It's right here in this verse. He says, it's because you do not listen to the Lord, nor do you, once you have listened to it, do you lay it to heart, neither do you give glory to his name. Remember friends, the Bible is not just for denouncing sin, it's also for delivering us from sin. And so if you and I would truly lay it to heart in the words of Malachi 2 and Ecclesiastes 7, if we would truly lay it to heart, if we would listen to the Lord and lay it to heart and give glory to God, then perhaps this cursing would be turned away from our blessings. I think then that you see in this passage that Habakkuk is saying, Lord, I admit it. It's a prayerful admission. Lord, I recognize what you're getting ready to do and I trust you. Does he then become a fatalist? Does he say, okay, that's the end of the message. Whatever's going to happen, it's going to happen. And Lord, I mean, that's the way it is. No. He doesn't do that. He's like Moses in Exodus when the Lord says, let me alone and I will destroy this people and I will make of you a great nation. No, this isn't the heart of an intercessor to say, well, Let it ride, whatever's gonna happen. No, that's really what Habakkuk 3 verses one and two is really about. Three prayerful petitions. Notice the very first one there in Habakkuk chapter three. He says, oh Lord, I have heard thy speech. And I was afraid." And what is the prayerful petition? Oh, Lord, revive, Lord, make us alive. Lord, you said in Habakkuk chapter two and verse four, you said, the just shall live by his faith. Lord, cause us to live. Help us to see, open our eyes. Give us that quickening spirit of God that only you can give us. There, my friend, is the heart of a faithful intercessor, one who is really seeking to say, Lord, make us live. Lord, bring us forth alive. And so when you know the creeping spiritual darkness of this society, and you know that, as you see here in Habakkuk, that this creeping deadness will be followed by deadly violence. In fact, in the newspaper, you can see it's already begun. When you know that to be a reality, what should your prayer be? Lord, revive us. Lord, revive us, make us alive. Lord, only you can do this. but he is the great reviving God. He is the great God of the resurrection. He is the great God of the restoration. And of course, the most wonderful illustration of this is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our precious Christ came to this earth to live the righteous life that you and I should have lived. But you know what happened to him according to Mark chapter eight? The very best people in society put him to death for doing that. You say, well, I suppose that was the end of that. No, there was a resurrection. He rose up from the grave. It is the most powerful story of resurrection and restoration and renewal that you find anywhere in the scriptures. It is our precious Lord Jesus Christ. It is because of the Messiah that we have the mercy of revival. So dear friends, may I make the appeal that we would cry out for revival. How would you apply this today? You would apply it in terms of personal revival. Lord, I need revival. One of the most frustrating things this week was looking ahead and trying to pray earnestly about this message on revival and being tripped up by my own sins. How disgusting is that? Lord, I want revival, and yet my sins are separating between me and you. I want this vibrant fellowship. Lord, I want you to give me that renewal of heart and mind to pray. And yet finding that my heart was cold and distant from the Lord, even while I'm trying to prepare a message on revival. Isn't this where we all find ourselves? Isn't it true that we know, 1 John 2, we know that the scripture was written that we sin not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Run to your advocate. Embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to him, cry out to him. and begin to pray. One of my favorite prayer requests to pray is, Lord, I desperately need your grace. To go before the throne of grace, Hebrews chapter four, it asks for grace to help in time of need and to watch him do it over and over and over again. But just like we sang in a hymn this morning, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. As we were singing, I thought, Lord, that's my testimony. How is it that I could take the very blessings that God gives me and use them for my own purposes and use them for idols. What's the great need of the hour? It's to cry out for personal revival. And while you're praying, pray for revival of your family, your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, your brothers, your sisters, your mothers, your fathers. Cry out to the Lord for our leadership here at Calvary. Cry out to the Lord for revival among us and revival here in the city of Findlay and Hancock County and in our state. We're trying to gather these pastors together for a statewide prayer meeting. Dear friends, the great need of the hour is, it's revival. Could we cry out to the Lord together for revival? Habakkuk said, Lord, Revive your work. That's what we're really after. This is not some new, strange thing. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. This is a revival of the work that the Lord has been doing since the very beginning. It's a revival of understanding the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. And so when you see the way that he is picturing revival here, he is saying, this is what we ought to do. Our church is now eight decades, 80 years old. Here at his Christian school, I think it's 40 years old. When he says here, revive your work in the midst of the years, you get it? In other words, as the years go by, as the years go on, the great need is, that for dear saints of God such as yourself to say, Lord, there it is, we have to cry out for revival. In the city of Ulster in the 1920s, there was a wonderful moving of God, a wonderful revival. There were so many shipyard workers who brought back tools that they had stolen, that the companies had to build new sheds to house all the tools that came back. My friend, that's revival, when there's genuine repentance. Habakkuk chapter 3 reads like the New Testament equivalent of Revelation 2 and 3, the messages to the seven churches. And if you read those, you would see that throughout you find the word repent. that God's people need repentance, that the church needs to repent, that we have lost our first love. The great need of the hour is repentance. It's all part of revival. He not only prays, first of all, that the Lord would revive and make us alive, but secondly, that he would reveal. Now think about what he's saying here. He says, O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of years. Here's the second prayerful petition. in the midst of the years, make known. You ever heard somebody say, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. The word yada is Hebrew for to know. It's like saying, I know, I know, I know, yada, yada, yada. That's what it means. Well, here, the idea is that Lord, you would make it known that it's you who is at work. Psalm 23, he restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for what? For his namesake. You see, it's about him. It's not about me. It's not just about me coming forth alive It's not merely about me having life and having life more abundantly. No, it's ultimately about Him. And this is why in Habakkuk 2.14 when he talks about the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. There's the great hope. It's the revival of truly knowing Him. Not merely knowing about God, but really knowing God. So secondly, the second prayer request is, Lord, reveal, make us realize this. I would remind you that the Apostle Paul, in his prayer in Ephesians chapter one, actually dedicated or initiated his prayer on this very point. that we would really realize the knowledge of the Lord, that we would truly come to understand and to grasp Him and truly know His ways. It was a wonderful prayer meeting that took place with John Wesley. I believe Charles Wesley was there as well, and George Whitfield, some friends. They had an all night prayer meeting on the evening of December 31, 1739. And Wesley later wrote about that prayer meeting. He said, the power of God came mightily upon us and we cried for exceeding joy. There it is. It's that knowledge of the glory of the Lord. That's what we're really after. Lord, it's about you. Lord, would you cause us to know you and to see you once again? There's the great need of the hour, and that, my friends, is genuine revival. There's a third prayerful petition here. Notice, if you will, in verse two, when he says, Lord, in wrath, remember mercy. In wrath, remember mercy. Do you see why we would say that Habakkuk has recognized it? This is gonna happen. God's wrath is going to fall upon a once great nation. And so he says, Lord, in wrath, remember mercy. The word that's translated wrath here comes from a Greek word, a Hebrew word, that is actually twice more in this same chapter. And every time it's translated tremble, trembled twice, I think it is down in verse 16. The idea is this, that the wrath of God, when poured out upon a nation, causes a shake up, causes people to tremble under that wrath. And so when Habakkuk is looking at it, he's saying, Lord, in the shake up, in the trembling, in all that's going to happen as a result of your wrath, being poured out upon a once great nation, Lord, in wrath, remember mercy. Friends, how is it that we have any right whatsoever to cry out to the Lord for his mercy? And the answer is, it's only because of the Messiah. It's only because of Jesus Christ. It's only because the Son of God came to this earth and died for our sins and glory to God, rose again in the resurrection, the restoration, the renewal. It's only because of that that we can cry out for his mercy. And so I would like to ask you today, if you would join here with Habakkuk in asking the Lord for his mercy, Romans 15 verses 7 through 13 is a wonderful description of how the root of Jesse, another name for the Lord Jesus Christ, how the root of Jesse is the hope of the Gentiles, who hope in his mercy, and it's only because of him that we have hope in Gentile cities such as Rome was and such as we are largely. But we have to approach this the right way. First of all, with the prayerful admission that God's wrath is indeed already falling upon us, on the nation around us. We're saved, praise the Lord. Those of us who know the Lord, we know we're going to heaven, but the fact is our loved ones, our neighbors, the wrath of God is falling. What should we do? These three prayerful petitions are, Lord, revive, make us alive, cause us, Lord, to realize, to understand the greatness of who you are, and to remember, Lord, would you remember, would you give us mercy in your eyes? Oh, Lord, I heard your word, and Lord, I am afraid Revive. Revive your work anew. Revive, as you have said. Revive your work, your own. Revive and make it known. In wrath, remember mercy, Lord. Messiah's work is done. Revive and raise us then, as your Son rose again. We wait for Him. His royal reign transformed the hearts of men. Dear friends, could we cry out to the Lord for revival? May we bow our heads together. Dear friend, with every head bowed, every eye closed, I ask you this question. Would you be among those who would pray for revival? An old country preacher once said, you can't be revived until you've been vived in the first place. Have you ever been born again? Have you ever really come to know the wonderful resurrection, restoration and renewal that our wonderful Redeemer can give you and how He can change you. If not, why not today? Why not this very moment? Why not embrace Him by faith as the only Redeemer, your only Lord? Why not in this moment come to understand what this message was all about for the very first time, that the Lord will indeed revive you and resurrect you. And today, primarily as I'm speaking to so many saints of God here, friends, if it's not us, then who is it that's going to cry out for revival? Would you say today, by the grace of God, I'm gonna enter the ranks of the intercessors would make the prayerful petition to ask the Lord for genuine revival. Can we rise to our feet, please? Let's all