In this sermon, the preacher addresses the current state of society, highlighting the rise of sexual immorality and violence. He also discusses the perversion of justice, where the guilty often go free while the innocent suffer. The preacher emphasizes the importance of faith as the antithesis of pride and the key to righteous living. He shares a story of a judge who perverts justice by dismissing a young boy's case despite stealing a car, simply because the owner left the keys in the car. The preacher concludes by mentioning the prophet Habakkuk, who lived in a time when people despised and mocked the messengers of God, leading to God's wrath.

Good to see you back again. It's a wonderful blessing for me to be here. It's an honor for me to be here amongst you people. I don't take this responsibility lightly. And I'm so grateful for those who have told me how much they've been praying that God would bless this conference and also including my ministry in that conference that God would do a new thing. I believe that this afternoon in a new and living way, God wants us to meet with him. That we may know what it is to truly understand the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. I remember when Dr. Edwin Orr used to have a annual conference on the history of revival in Oxford University that I was invited to go and do the early morning Bible readings on several occasions. And the historians and the scholars from around the world would come and they would deliver their papers. And the idea was of course that the fame of revival spreads the flame of revival. And when you hear of what God does in mighty power in different parts, whether it's on the contemporary level or whether it's on an historic level, it quickens our hearts to seek him in a new and living way for a real moving of his spirit in genuine revival. Well, this German professor was there. And I was sitting next to Edwin in the congregation. He was going into Calvinism and the sovereignty of God in revival and the sovereignty of God amongst the nations. And Edwin just wrote out a little poem, a little piece of poetry, actually a hymn. And he handed it to me. It was, I need no other argument. I have no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. And the professor continued his rhetoric, but we just rejoiced that we didn't need the arguments. We were just rejoicing in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a phrase, we did refer to a phrase called unfeigned love. And there is another phrase that's called unfeigned faith. And we find it in 1 Timothy chapter one, verse five. Now the end of the commandment is love. Out of a pure, pure heart and out of a good conscience and out of faith unfeigned. It's easy for us to substitute make-believe for faith. Positive thinking for trust in God. And so often our conscience becomes defiled and we are never released to truly believe God to do what we cannot do if we have a defiled conscience. And that's why of course it's so important that we should confess our sins. Not in order to maintain our salvation, but in order to keep our conscience clean because it's only out of a pure conscience that we have unfeigned faith. When I'm guilty before God and I haven't dealt with the lie I've told or the hypocrisy and the pretense I've given and I come to God in prayer and I haven't named it before God and asked him to cleanse my conscience and come afresh to the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for a new cleansing, then my faith is quenched. And it's several times that Paul uses this phrase in Timothy, in verse 19 he says holding faith and a good conscience. In chapter two in verse nine he says holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience. When I was first converted it was difficult for me to get up in the morning to have a quiet time, to have a time with God, but I knew it was essential. I bought myself a little alarm clock, you wound it up, it was just a little brass looking alarm clock and it was set an hour before I would normally get up so that I could get up and meet with God and have time with the Lord on my knees with my Bible open. Didn't have an evangelical church in town, we didn't have any pastor we could go to, but it was a joy every morning to be able to say the prayer which I'd been told to pray, open thou mine eyes Lord that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. And I used to write down just simply before I went to business, I used to write down what God had said to me. And I have in my file somewhere those records to this day and I'm absolutely staggered what God could do with somebody who didn't know the difference between Genesis and John. As I would read the Bible and expect to hear from God and expect him to speak to me through his word. But the sad thing was that my alarm clock rang one day and I just pushed it down, I needed a little bit more sleep. And I found that when I ignored the alarm clock, it no longer disturbed my rest. There came a time when it was just as useless to have an alarm clock as it was to have one. And that's the way it is with a conscience. The conscience is God's window that lets the law of God penetrate to the innermost being of our heart. And some of us have so got a conscience that has not been cleansed by the blood of Christ, we're still carrying a load of guilt, a load of failure, a load of sin, that when the law of God and the word of God seeks to come through the window of conscience and to begin to disturb us and begin to penetrate to the real need and to point the purpose of what it is to fellowship with God. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ didn't die to forgive me my sin in order that my sins may be forgiven. That's not why he died. The Lord Jesus Christ died to forgive me my sin that I may walk in fellowship with him. That's the purpose. You got on a plane to come to the conference, you didn't get on a plane to get on a plane. That wasn't the reason you got on a plane. You got on a plane in order that you may come here and find fellowship and encouragement amongst believers. And so it is the Lord Jesus Christ came to forgive me my sin that I may walk day by day in living fellowship with him. And that's why it's so important we should keep our conscience clean, confessing our sin transparently in the presence of a holy God that our faith may be built up. A little boy not too long ago was asked what he was taught in Sunday school last Sunday. And he said, well, I was taught about Noah's Ark. And then what were you taught the Sunday before? Well, I was taught about Joseph. Well, have you been taught about Jesus? Oh no, he said that comes at the end of the book. And you know, so often we think that we don't find Jesus in the Old Testament. Actually, the whole purpose of our studying the Bible is not to get to know the Bible. If you're here thinking that I'll get to know a little bit more about the Bible, then I think you're going to go away disappointed. You may get a little outline, you may get a thought to preach on, you may get encouragement and a new aspect about Bible truth. But you see, people don't go to Bible college to get to know the Bible. They get to know the God of the Bible. And when we get to know the God of the Bible, we find that in every facet of that which we study, we're introduced to our sovereign living Lord Jesus Christ. And if that's our purpose of gathering here today, he says, draw nigh unto me and I will draw nigh unto you. And so we're telling the Lord Jesus right now, we're drawing nigh unto him. Even though we're going to the Old Testament, we're going to see something of his purpose, his plan, his power, and his encouragement and his challenge as we begin to move to a living faith of dynamic expectancy that we will see what God can do and not what we can do. I remember Ian Thomas years and years ago telling of a missionary in Ethiopia who was so depressed, he was going to go home. He said, it's a total failure. And he went to a conference and he found the secret that we were sharing this morning, that it's not what we do for God that counts, it's what he does through us that counts. And he made himself available in a new and living way to the indwelling life of Jesus, that out from him the life giving power of the Holy Spirit may flow. And he went back in his depressed state and he thought, now what do I do? And hearts had been hardened and people had been unresponsive and he'd made no progress. But when he saw for me to live is Christ, to live in me. Do you know the very next day they came knocking on the door, a man. And he said, I wonder if you can tell me how to get right with God. And there was a continual stream of blessing that flowed because it was no longer the missionary serving God, it was the missionary available to God for him to do his own work. Didn't intend to say this, but I'm thinking of another missionary report in a missionary conference. I was in Christian Missionary Alliance Conference and this missionary came from Alaska. And she said, you know, I went to the outback of Alaska where nobody had really been. And she said, I knocked on the door of this little hut. And she said, an old lady of 100 years of age, she came to the door. And the missionary said, I've come to tell you about the living God, the true and living God who made the mountains. And the old lady said, I knew one day somebody would come and tell me about the living God. I've always wanted to know about him. And she led her to Christ. And the missionary went back the next day and knocked on the door. There was no response. The lady had gone to heaven, available to God, walking in his path, being brought to people who want to know the true and the living God. Now Habakkuk was living in a pretty rough day. He was living in a day in which we're told at the end of Chronicles that people had despised the messengers of God. In verse 16 of the last chapter of 2 Chronicles, they mocked the messengers of God and they despised his words and they misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord rose against the people till there was no more remedy. Probably one of the most pathetic utterances in the whole of the Old Testament. Till there was no more remedy. I don't listen to the funny men on television. Don't have a television at the moment. But I do catch from time to time in the car the way that people are ridiculing the gospel of Christ. I don't know who it was as I was flicking buttons in the car had somebody say, well, of course, they're talking about Jesus and the second coming and the tribulation and the rapture and everybody roared with laughter. And I want to tell you that you're living in an atmosphere in which they're mocking the messengers of God. They're despising the words of God. And I believe we're coming to a state in America and in England where God will be saying till there was no more remedy. God has another way of dealing with men and women when they refuse to hear the word of the living God. He has a way of reducing them to size. And so it was in Habakkuk's day. And so we read that Habakkuk had a little progress in the three chapters that are known as the book of Habakkuk the prophecy of Habakkuk. In Habakkuk chapter one, he was sighing before God. He said, oh Lord, how long shall I cry unto thee and thou will not hear. Even cry unto thee of violence and I will not save. For there are those that rise up strife and contention and the law is slacked and judgment never goes forth. He was looking out on the scene and he had a great sigh, a great burden. The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did say. I wonder whether I'm talking to somebody here this afternoon and you're a realist. You're not a pessimist, but you're a realist. And you're saying as far as your work is concerned, as far as the nation of America is concerned, as far as the future elections are concerned, he said, oh Lord, how long shall we cry unto thee? And the more we cry, the worse things seem to get. There is a rise of sexual immorality. There is a rise of violence in the city. There is a law situation in the country where judgment doth never go forth. If you're a guilt-less person and get tangled in the courts, it's easy to be declared guilty. Justice is perverted in the land in which we live for judgment doth never go forth. You see, dialectic materialism talks in terms of judgment being a matter of expediency. The humanistic situation in which we live has inverted judgment so that the righteous are the ones who suffer and the unrighteous are the ones who get away. Remember being in the prairies reading the newspaper about this little boy who was in court, I think he was 12, 13, 14 years of age. He'd stolen a car, he'd driven it 150 miles and he got caught and he was brought before the courts. And the judge turned round to the owner of the car and said, why did you leave the keys in the car? He said, don't you know it's against the law to leave the keys in the car? He said, I want to fine this man $100 for leaving the keys in the car. And young boy, I understand the temptation was too great. Your case is dismissed. Can you imagine it? How justice is perverted and how so often those who are guilty go free and those who are not guilty suffer. Maybe you felt it in your sphere of influence, in your missionary case you wonder why it is that somehow or another you're always at the bottom of the pile and you've got a great sigh, a great problem, a great burden before God. Well God says, I really, I'm going to find another remedy. They wouldn't really listen to the voice of the prophets and they mock the messengers of God. So I'm going to cause the Chaldeans to march through the length and the breadth of the land and possess dwelling places that are not theirs. In other words, God says, I'm going to use a godless force to chastise a nation that is more godly than they are. But you see, that's because God is God, he can do that. Let me ask you, what could have been more godless, more heinous, more satanic than a mad cry whipped up to frenzy as they looked at the blessed Lord of glory? The spotless Lamb of God. And they cried out, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. It was man's rebellion at its height. But has it ever occurred to you that if they hadn't cried out, crucify him, crucify him, the precious blood of Jesus would never have flowed from his veins? You and I would be here without any hope of redemption. Because God looks at the wrath of man and he even confounds the wrath of man to work out an eternal purpose of salvation. So it's a wonderful thing for us to realize that God's purposes, though sometimes of difficult nature, are always for a redemptive end of softening hearts and bringing people to the Savior. I don't know what it's going to take if the Lord Jesus doesn't come quickly. I don't know what it's going to take to bring America and the politicians and the education lists and the psychologists and the legal authorities and the courts throughout the land. I don't know what it's going to take to bring us back to a sense of right and wrong and God-fearing. But I don't believe it's going to be through an easy road that the problems will be solved. I was in Holland, preaching in Holland. It was a difficult time. There were all the denominations in the meetings. Had the strict Calvinists there? They were very critical. Had the rabid Pentecostalists there? They were very critical. Had the Dutch Reformed people there? They didn't like what was happening. It didn't seem as though whether I stood to the left, I could please people. If I stood to the right, I could please people. If I went back, I could please people. There was something wrong all the time. And yet God was breaking through and people were being blessed. And a Dutchman came to me and he offered a word of comfort. He said, you know, in Holland, we've developed roses that have no thorns. And then he looked at me wryly and he said, but I want to tell you that the roses that have no thorns have no fragrance. You think you've got thorns? They are designed and purposed of God to be a blessing that the fragrance of the love of Jesus may flow from your life with unfeigned love and released because of unfeigned faith. You put three carriages on a train. You call the engine fact. That's the one that drives the locomotive. You call the next one faith. That links to the fact and follows the fact. And following up behind at the end, there is another carriage and it's called feeling. You put feeling in front and you don't get very far. You put the fact of Christ's finished work in front. You put the fact that God is on the throne working his purposes out as year succeeds each year and just one piece of the jigsaw puzzle that he's putting into place and that mystical mosaic, that divine pattern of beauty is gradually being brought into place so that before long out of every tribe and kindred and nation and tongue, voices will be ascending around the throne of the lamb, singing worthy is the lamb that was slain to redeem us to God through his blood. Out of every tribe and kindred and nation and tongue. And they're represented here today. And I tell you, I am so humbled. I am so afraid that what I say may not fulfill the full purpose of God for your life that I ask for your prayers as we go through to these closing moments of my privileged ministry to you. Let your faith depend on the fact and not on the feeling. Let your purpose depend upon the fact that the Lord Jesus says, as the father hath sent me, so send I you. As he renounced the right of independent action and became dependent upon his father in heaven, so he says to you this afternoon, you renounce the right of independent action. You let me become Lord of your life. So Habakkuk says after he'd sighed in chapter one and probably his sigh got a little bit heavier as the answer was given. I find that in chapter two, he was silent. He says, I'm not gonna work this thing out theologically. It doesn't make sense to me theologically. I can't understand how a holy God can use an unholy people to accomplish a holy end. He says it's totally irrational. So he says there's only one thing I can do. In chapter two and verse one, I will stand upon my watchtower and will wait to see what God shall say to me. And notice the next bit. And what I shall answer when I am reproved. Now that's the part of ministry we don't want. We don't want the ministry that somehow or another begins to reprove us. We want the God of love. Of course we want the God of love. But do you remember that before ever John talked about the God of love in his epistle, he said God is light. And that means he is a God who is so light that we're drawn to the light of his holy presence. And somehow or another we're revealed for what we are in the presence of an holy God. Eternal light, eternal light. How pure the soul must be. That shrinks not, but with calm delight can live and look on thee. Oh, how can I, whose mind is dim before the ineffable appear and on my naked spirit bear the uncreated beam. There is a way for man to rise to that sublime abode, an offering and a sacrifice. A holy spirit's energies and advocate with God. These, these prepare me for the sight of holiness above. The sons of ignorance and night may dwell in the eternal light through the eternal love. Lord, I've got a problem. I don't understand the perplexity and the confusion of what you're doing today to work out a holy objective of letting me stand before you. I will go to my watchtower and I will wait to hear what God shall say. When you come with your Bible open in the morning, you're alone now on the mission compound. You don't have the counselor to go to. That's good, because it's going to drive you to the wonderful counselor, the Lord Jesus. And when you come to God, you come to God in the place of retreat and you say, Lord, I want to hear what you're saying in this matter. I'm not writing back to find out what other people are saying. I'm not waiting for counsel. I'm waiting to hear what you say. But you notice in Ezekiel 33 that when we read about a watchman, first of all, we read he was a man of their coasts. In other words, he had to withdraw from the crowd. Why did he withdraw from the crowd? In order that he could see the danger signals. It was in the place of withdrawal that he saw the first approach of the impending army or the first smoke of the fire that could envelop the city. And there in the place of loneliness, he would see and then in the watchtower, God said, hear what I shall say unto you. And there's no point in you ever telling what God is saying to another person until first of all, he said it to you. It's no use handing on pre-digested material on a golden platter and saying this is a message from God unless you've been on the knees and you've got the message from God and it's burned into your own heart and life. And you're not going to find this by going to a book or going to one of Pastor Chuck's outlines. You're going to find this on your knees as the spirit of God in the place of withdrawal speaks to you and speaks to me. There's a hymn that I often quote, Lord, speak to me that I may speak in living echoes of thy tone. Oh, teach me, Lord, that I may teach thine erring children lost and low. Oh, fill me with thy fullness, Lord, until my very heart o'erflow by loving thought and glowing word, thy love to tell, thy praise to show. Do you come to the watchtower in the place of withdrawal? You say, is that necessary? Well, Habakkuk had to go to the watchtower to hear what God would say in a time of perplexity. But you remember the Apostle Paul, he went to his own place of withdrawal. For two years after he'd found the living Lord on the road to Damascus, he went to his own private theological college. It was in the back desert of Arabia. And there he said, that which I learned, I learned of no man. The Spirit of God taught it to me. In Galatians, he said, when I came back, I checked it up with Peter, and I found it was totally and theologically correct. But he said, this is no message that I'm manufacturing. This is a message that's come straight from the heart of the eternal God, about the Lord Jesus. If I were to ask you, what's the greatest sermon that's ever been preached, you'd probably say the Sermon on the Mount. Of course. It was from the lips of the master teacher of all time, the Lord Jesus. He spoke of a happy life. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. He spoke of a heavenly life. He said, and I believe we need to say it in the church today, narrow is the way, and few there be that find it. We've tried to broaden it to welcome everybody. We've tried to baptize into the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life in order that we may welcome them all. He says it's a heavenly life, and it's a narrow way, and it's the way of the cross. But he said, it's a holy life. Be ye holy, even as your father in heaven is holy. He said, that's my purpose for you. One day that you will be so holy, you will be like Jesus in the presence of God forever and ever. I want to tell you, I'll be much nicer to know in heaven than I am down here. You think you don't like me here, I want to tell you, I don't like me more than you don't like me. When I look at myself, I get so depressed. When I look at Jesus, I get so optimistic. For every one look at yourself, take 10 looks at Jesus, and keep your eye on, turn your eye upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face. The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. I know J. Toynbee, that great philosopher of history. He says, there have been the rise and fall of some 19 or 21 civilizations. He said, what makes a civilization great is the creative minority. He said, the creative minority become creative because they've learned the secret of withdrawal and return. They've withdrawn from the masses and they've become creative in their thinking in the place of withdrawal. And in the place of withdrawal, they've broke through the cake of custom and established a vortex. And they've come back with their fresh thoughts and they've lifted a whole civilization because of the creative minority. You and I have to learn the secret of withdrawal and return. You and I have to learn the secret of getting alone with God and saying, Lord, speak to me, open mine eyes, Lord, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Lord, speak to me, not for something to think about, promises to claim, something to act upon, because this is not God's textbook to be analyzed and synthesized, but it's God's word to be listened to and responded to. He says, I'll go to my watchtower. So is there any wonder that 600 years before time, God penetrated through and gave a message that took three books in the New Testament to expound? God says, I want to tell you, his soul, which is lifted up in him, is not upright. Look at the people who are lifting themselves up in the political realm. Look at the people who are lifting themselves up in the church. Look at the people who are manipulating this circumstance and trying to get that person in order to build up their image and to move as the one who is the important person. The one that lifted himself up is not upright. Who is the upright one? The one who is broken down in the presence of God. The one who can say in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. But what's the antithesis of this pride? The antithesis of this pride is the just shall live by faith. Faith is the antithesis of pride. Until I can say I can't, I am unable to say to the Lord Jesus, you can. As long as I'm accepting the modern educational principles of self-confidence, self-image, self-pleasure, self-pity, as long as I somehow or another am living with self at the center of the circle, I can't really say, oh Lord, I can't. Because what I'm really saying is I'm trying to be what I can't be. I'm lifting myself up. God says it all begins when you're broken down. And the just shall live by faith. Here are three deadly partners. One is unbelief. And if you're a man of unbelief, you're a man of independence. Are you a man of independence? Nobody's gonna tell me what to do, not even God. I've got my own plans, I've got my own program, I've got my own agenda, I know how to raise my own money. And get to the mission field. And God says you can't hack it. You can't do it. The way it all begins is by being broken down. Because faith is a man of dependence. And a man of dependence is a man of humility. No wonder F.B. Meyer says speak of humility and it's gone. The moment we talk about being humble, we become proud of our humility. The only way to humble ourselves is in the words of the scripture, humble yourself in the presence or in the sight of God. Don't pray that God will give you humility. He says it's something you've got to do for yourself. He says I'm leaving it to you to humble yourself. And he's leaving it to me to humble myself. And the more I do so, the more I realize what pride, arrogance, self-serving, self-projecting image I convey all to my shame and all too often. And I want to say to you today and I want you to say it to God. Lord, I really do want to humble myself. Now we could go through the second chapter and we could read the different woes. All of them have to do with the pride of the human heart. Woe to him that buildeth a city with blood. Behold, it is only a fire. You see, it's possible for the flesh to do an awful lot. It's possible for the flesh to put a big black Bible under its arm and go to the mission field and say this is what they need and I'm here to give it them. And it's possible to go through all the laboring and see some limited success because the word of God is quick and powerful and any sharper than any two-edged sword. And because it's the word of God, it will accomplish a purpose. I remember a testimony when I was at Keswick Convention of this man who was a missionary and he told how he was converted. He said he was in a public house one night drinking beer. And he said a drunk in the public house began to sing the old rugged cross. And he said in that atmosphere of sin and debauchery as he began to sing the old rugged cross, the spirit of God gripped me. And he said I went out to the hedge on the other side of the road and I dropped on my knees and I came to the old rugged cross. What did God use to call Moses? An old bush, a thorn bush. And he put a fire in it. And out of the fiery thorn bush, he called God, he called Moses. And Moses says I'll take the shoes off my feet because I'm standing on holy ground. Most of us would get out our video and take a video of it and go back to the missionary committee and say look what I saw. I'm standing on holy ground. And I thank God that any old bush is good enough for him to put a fire in. And that's why I'm here today. Because I've asked that in this old bush he may put a fire and out of it he may cause us all to say I'm standing on holy ground. I'm in the presence of God. Well we must go on. Chapter one he was sighing before God. Chapter two he was silent before God. He expected God to rebuke him. We can never come to God without feeling a certain amount of conviction. You see we want Holy Spirit conversions without Holy Spirit conviction. We don't want people to get miserable. We want them to get happy. On the day of Pentecost they said whoa what shall we do to be saved? They were utterly desperate. They were convicted because they crucified the Lord of Glory. And then there was a thorough conversion. But it's also a matter of fact it's also polished today. Somehow or another we think we can slip into the kingdom on the basis of a message that's more full of humor than it is of truth. And we think that that's all that's needed to be successful in the ministry. So he was silent in chapter two. But I want you to notice he doesn't finish there. He's singing in chapter three. He moves from a sigh to a silence to a song. And he begins in chapter three in verse two. He says oh Lord I've heard thy speech and I was afraid. Lord when you spoke I became afraid. Later on and we'll see it in a minute he says rottenness entered into my bones and I trembled within myself. Have you ever trembled in the presence of God? Maybe you've never seen God high and lifted up upon a throne in all his holiness. Have you ever in your prayer life and I have only and so only too seldom felt that kneeling before him was not low enough you had to prostrate yourself out on his presence. You felt so low. You felt him to be so high. He said oh Lord I've heard thy speech. I was on my watchtower and you spoke to me and you didn't speak words that I'd hoped to hear to get me out of the difficulty. You showed me oh Lord that in the difficulty you're going to be adequate to meet every need of mine. And so he said oh Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years and in wrath remember mercy I pray. Now I'm speaking on faith, unfeigned faith. And I have to confess to you I know less of unfeigned faith than I do of God's unfailing mercy. But I'm so thankful that I can link myself today to the mercy of God. As an old bush with a fire in it out of which God can speak and communicate to every missionary about here and the flame can go forth to the uttermost parts of the earth because of what God did this afternoon in your heart and in mine. Oh Lord revive thy work. You see there are two sources of activity. The apostle Paul said to the church at Corinth where unto I also labour. I'm not talking about inactivity. Every sinew of his body was tensed. Every muscle was strained. Every day he sweated in labour, labours long. But he said the difference is that it's not the source of the soul that makes me labour. I am labouring according to his power that worketh in me mightily. This is not me doing it for him. This is him in his mercy doing it through me. This is what revival is all about. It's meeting with God so that nothing can be explained except that God is here and God is speaking and God is doing his own work in his own way and is meeting our hungry hearts. Some of us sighing, some of us silent. But now at this point in the conference beginning to sing revive thy work oh Lord thy mighty arm make bare. Speak with the voice that wakes the dead and make thy people hear. It was in Saskatoon 1971 that in a little Baptist church the congregation had begun to grow so much that they could no longer contain it and people were coming from all the other churches in Saskatoon. And the pastor of the Christian Missionary Alliance church the largest church in Saskatoon said you can come to my church and have your meetings there. And the pastor of the church sat on the back row of the balcony and he watched God at work and he said I discovered that which I least of all expected that I always thought God needed to speak to the congregation but God needed to speak to me. He said I'd been building an empire and I had to go down to the front with the others and weep before God. The meetings went on for seven weeks the unfortunate thing was that in the middle of that seven weeks the missionary conference had been planned and all the missionaries were coming in like they are here now. And it was going to be a big mission week and at the end of it they were going to take a big offering. They'd always taken a big offering. It was one of the largest Christian Missionary Alliance giving churches in Canada. And they said God's at work we'll cancel the missionary conference. I tell you where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. And you don't have to be tied to a program when God's at work. The end of the seven weeks without any hullabaloo they took a missionary offering. Without any missionary hullabaloo it was twice the size of what it had ever been. Because people had met with God. That's what we need. Revive thy work. People were going and taking stolen goods back to the department stores. Husbands were confessing to the wives that they'd never been the leaders of the church of this home. There was a sense of God moving amongst his people. That's what I long for. I've got a little booklet I want every one of you to have free of charge. It's in the bookstores there. It's called Revival Now. Take it, pray for it, pray over it. See God's progress of revival and what it's all about. May God use it as you take it with you with my love, with my prayers. It's only a little booklet but it traces where revival begins and how it concludes. And I pray it will be a blessing to you. Revive thy work in the midst of the years in wrath, remember mercy. And then it's interesting you remember I said that the flame of revival spreads the flame of revival. And that can be historically you can study revivals of the past and you can be quickened in your soul and say, oh Lord, do it again. Do it in my time, do it in my life. Well, that's what exactly happened in the next verses here in Habakkuk. Because Habakkuk looks back upon three phenomena in Israel's history. The first phenomena is he looked at a mountain in verse three. He remembered a mountain where God had done a singular work. In verse eight, he looked at a river and a sea. And he remembered in history what God had done as he'd released his mighty power in a river and a sea. In verse 11, he looked at a sun and a moon. And after each of these reflections there is the word Selah. Just think about this. Stop, think about it. Don't just read it, think about it. So what do we think about when we read about Peran? Well, it's interesting. In Deuteronomy 33, the Lord came down from Sinai, verse two, and up from Mount Seir unto them and shined forth from Mount Peran. Where was Peran? It was in the range of the Sinai mountains. What do we remember about the Sinai mountains? We remember that there God thundered from heaven as the law-giving God. God is a God of law. But the wonderful thing is the law-giver at Sinai became the law-keeper at Bethlehem. And he who gave the law kept the law. Every jot and every tittle. And he who kept the law says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. Let the law-keeper come in. Remember the story of this watchmaker who had to blow the buzzer at the end of the day to let the workman off from the factory. So on the way to work, he looked in the watchmaker's window and he set his watch by the clock in the window. He really didn't want to defraud the management and he didn't want to defraud the people. He wanted to be quite accurate on the time he blew the buzzer and the men went home. One day the watchmaker saw him looking in the window and said, what are you doing? He said, every day I set my watch by your clock. He said, and then I know that I'm letting the men go home at the right time. The watchmaker said, that's funny. He said, every night when you blow your buzzer, I set my clock by your buzzer. And that's how most of us are living our Christian life. We're all setting our immoral clocks by everybody else's immoral buzzer. No wonder we've drifted so far from the character and the holiness and the truth of God. Look to the mountain, he's the law-giving God. Verse eight, look to the rivers and the sea. What are we talking about? Well, we're talking about the sea when Jordan, when the Red Sea opened up. Probably the greatest demonstration of the power of God in the Old Testament was when the Red Sea opened up and Israel went through and Egypt was submerged beneath the waves. And what did God say about that? He said, I carried them on an eagle's wings and I brought them unto myself. The eagle, the powerful majestic bird that flutters through the heavens and catches every draft and every wind and uses it to propel his passage to his desired destination. Telescopic eyes, powerful wings, but the wings aren't the power behind the eagle's flight. There's the Alula feather, a little tiny feather, a strong muscle. And it's the strong muscle that tilts the wing in the right angle to catch the breeze, to carry the bird through the heavens, the majestic bird of creation. You and I are Alula wings. The mighty movements are taking place in the world. But here God is putting a little Alula wing, there a little Alula wing, there a little Alula wing. And in the providence of God, as he is able with his power to do the impossible, to open the Red Sea. But you see, there are many of us who preach a gospel of power and we do it in such a powerless way that we're an affront to the very gospel we proclaim. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. The little Alula wing, guiding and controlling the eagle as it soars through the heavens. Because it's got the power of God, that's what we need. That's what comes after brokenness. God is looking for you to speak with the authority of anointed humility. That's the authority that really counts. Not the brazen braggart who shouts the truth and says, well I gave them the truth. Now it's up to them. But the one whose heart is broken, William Booth, when there's a conference going on and he couldn't get to it. He sent a telegram with just two words. He said, try tears. Would that be a good message for you and me in this conference? Try tears. Lord, we've been so devoid of the power of God in certain aspects of our life. So self-centered, so self-serving. But oh Lord, we're candidates for your power this afternoon. We really are. Pour out your spirit amongst us, Lord. Then there's the sun and the moon. What about the sun and the moon? Well, do you remember? We read it in Joshua. Then spoke Joshua to the Lord. Then spoke Joshua to the Lord. Did you get that? Then spoke Joshua to the Lord. In the day when the Lord delivered the Amorites before the children of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou moon in the valley of Aijin. And the sun stood still. And the moon stayed. And the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is it not written in the book of Agesa? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hastened not to go down for a whole day. And there was no day like it before or after. Listen to this. The Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man. And the Lord fought for Israel. He's the law-giving God. He's the life-giving God. He's the listening God. I wonder whether God wants to quicken your prayer life. He does want to quicken mine. The sun and the moon stood still because a man prayed. Is that the kind of God that you've got? You see, when I pray, I do not overcome the reluctance of God to bless me. He longs to bless me. He longs to do more than ever I could hope or think. He is the God of the exceeding abundant. But what I do when I pray is condition my heart that I may be able to receive the blessing that he longs to pour out. It's not me bending God's will to mine. It's me bending my will to God's. That's where prayer begins. And the sun and the moon stand still. So there's a plea for revival. There's a pause for reflection. And he thinks about what God has done in the past in order to quicken his faith that it may not be a faith that's vain. A faith that's rooted in fact that our God reigneth. He starts off by saying the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. Have you ever been in a meeting where you don't speak? I have. Where God is so present, so awesomely present. When his glory is so hovering over the congregation that you feel if you said a word it would mess the whole thing up. There are two types of silence of course when everybody's so barren that nobody's got anything to say. But there's another type of silence where God is so real that nobody dares say anything. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Jordan was enfolded in the Red Sea. And the Red Sea was unfolded in Jordan. And the eagle's wings took with the power of God the children of Israel into the promised land. And Habakkuk remembered that he was worshipping a God of power and a God of authority and a God who sat upon the throne and he said let everybody keep silent before me. So how does it finish? A plea for revival, pause for reflection. God's done it, he can do it again. It finishes with a psalm of rejoicing. I don't have to worry anymore. God's in control he says. Although the fig tree not shall not blossom there shall be no fruit in the vine and the herd shall yield no fruit. Though the stock exchange cumbles and my support team goes on vacation. Though everything around me collapses Lord. I want to tell you I may not be paid to work and to preach but I'll never be out of work. Till my dying day I will say with the Apostle Paul woe is me if I preach not the gospel. This is not an option, this is an obligation. This is necessity that's laid upon me by the power of the Spirit of God. Go out with that conviction. You go out knowing that you're being moved by God. And you say oh Lord the circumstances around my life that have been such a big concern now I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Now I'm beginning to praise the Lord not because we always do it for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes before we hear the message but because my heart is full of praise. I will rejoice in the Lord. Favour the old Christian father he said the secret of victorious Christian life is one, joy. Two, joy. Three, joy. And when you know God on the throne and when you know what it is to be bound before him and you say not I but Christ liveth in me all you can say is whatever happens, it's joy. Thank you Lord for your purposes in this circumstance. There have been many things in my life that I would never have chosen. I would have avoid them like the plague if I could but I want to tell you having gone through them I would never have missed them. Because in those times I learned more of the grace and the glory and the presence of God than I could have ever known if things had been plain sailing. And so he concludes I will rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation and I want to read to you the amplified for the last verse of Habakkuk. This is what it says. I will, it's amplified, it's not exaggerated. It's amplified. I will rejoice in the Lord. I will exult in the victories in the victorious God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and personal, can't read my own writing, and an invincible army. He will make my foes my feet like hinds feet and will make me to walk not to stand in terror but to walk and make spiritual progress upon mine high places of trouble, suffering or responsibility. I wish I could have said it more. I'm going to have eye surgery in week two. And you can't be optimistic with misty optics but I was doing my best and I'm just a hillbilly preacher and you'll just have to put up with me. But the point is that what I'm trying to say is the Lord God is my strength and I will rejoice in the days of difficulty because the Lord is on the throne. Now in a moment or two I've not been preaching to the mind. I've been preaching to the will. That's where all real preaching has to finish up. It's not educating people that's going to hack it. It's bringing them into line with the truth of God. The apostle Paul said in Romans 6 you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. So what about the form of doctrine? What's it for? To think about? No. That you may obey, that's the will. From the heart, that's the emotion. The form of doctrine, that's the mind. And there is a direct relationship between the form of doctrine that you preach and the convert that will be produced. You preach a shallow doctrine. You give a commentary that's humor with bible thrown in and humor thrown in. You become popular and all you'll get is a laughing church. You preach to doctrine and you preach to the will and you come to the place where you say you have to make a decision. Is it you or is it Christ? Is the Lord in his holy temple? Are you going to keep silence before him? Are you going to bow in his presence? Are you going to say Lord anoint me with power today. Send me out a different person that I came in. Lord move by your power and glorify yourself that it may not be faith that is make belief. It's unfeigned faith as I stand upon the facts of the word of God. In a moment or two there's going to be an opportunity for those who want to just to come and to kneel and pray before we go into the next session. You tell God what's on your heart. You tell God how you're responding to him. But as you kneel and as you pray and as you ask God to send a revival through the Calvary Chapel movement so that the latter glory may be greater than the former not unmindful for all he's done in the past but longing that God may do a new thing as now he finds a multiplicity of people broken before God carrying the flame of the gospel into unreaped regions of the world that Jesus and Jesus alone may be glorified and soon his body will be complete and the head and the body will all be together forever and forever. First of all prayer then you come forward kneel and pray at the front give him your own response. If God has spoken you know what he said you want to put it right you want to move out differently from how you came in you want revival in your mission outpost in your own home in your own life you want love to flow and face to glow in this climactic hour and God's here waiting to meet you waiting to do in you and through you and for you what you can never do for yourself as we just commit ourselves to the hymn and to the word of his grace. Let us pray together Lord you know the precious precious lives the people that are bowed in your presence you know Lord the deep response and the desire that's caused them to forsake home and loved ones security by the world standard to go out to places where people are sometimes unresponsive you know the secrets of their hearts you know the thoughts of their minds but Lord we have been together and like Habakkuk of old is when I heard I trembled within myself and rottenness entered into my bones that I may have rest in the day of trouble and it's rather like the judgment seat coming ahead of time where all the wood and the hay and the stubble is burned up in the presence of God the fire of his presence comes to consume to nullify and then to replace it that we may have peace and rest in the day of trouble because we dealt with it now we dealt with it here we dealt with it at the cross we were there when they crucified you Lord Jesus we thank you that you embraced us to that cross and all that happened before that moment now is nullified our hereditary our genes our temperament Lord we thank you that it now can be replaced not totally taken but replaced by the fullness of everything that you are have thine own way Lord have thine own way as we're in prayer and quiet before God I wish I could sing and strike it up but somebody strike it up have thine own way Lord as people come and just give a response to God and kneel in the presence of God in this wonderful moment when God is here Lord have thine own way Thou art the potter I am the clay Mold me and make me After thy will While I am waiting Yielded and still Have thine own way Lord Have thine own way Hold all my being Absolute sway Fill with thy spirit Till all shall see Christ only always Living in me Father we thank you we thank you for that verse for I have been crucified with Christ when we say that we really are saying my ability is total inability to live the Christian life I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live my body is still alive I'm still walking around on planet earth but now it's no longer I that lives but it's Christ who lives in me and whereas my ability is total inability I thank you Lord your ability is total dependability and Lord by faith now not with feigned faith but with unfeigned faith we thank you Lord that you can do what we could never do in us and through us but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God who gave himself for me and Lord just as my ability is total inability and your ability is total dependability so my responsibility is total availability to your ability you are Lord you are God you're everything that I'm not let all the earth keep silence before you in Jesus precious name