I want you, if you will, to find,
if it's not too difficult for you, the
book of Habakkuk.
Now that's not so easy.
As a matter of fact, I'm not at
my best in finding my way around the
mind of prophets, but they're very important, and
the book of Habakkuk, well, I can only
assist you by saying it's the fifth book
from the end of the New Testament backwards.
Go back five books, and there is Habakkuk.
On the other hand, do not be ashamed
to consult the index.
That's what it's for.
Of course, today we have overcome this difficulty,
especially in the Anglican Church.
Apparently the Anglican Church are credited with not
knowing their Bibles too well, because even in
the most evangelical church, they're told the page
number of the scripture in the pews in
the Bible.
Well, we never used to have that.
You just had to find your way, and
you didn't want to betray your ignorance to
your next door neighbour who used to look
at the index very surreptitiously.
But now, from the front, we're told what
the page is.
Well, we've all got different Bibles, and they
all aren't the pages.
But I must say, I have a little
chuckle every time we're told the page number
of the passage.
But I do have my difficulties, right up
to this present hour.
You see, I never went to Sunday school,
and I was never taught the order of
the books of the Bible.
And any Sunday school teachers, whatever you do,
teach the children the order of the Bible.
If you've got some little rhyme you can
teach them, because it's going to be a
blessing to them.
I'd still have to keep on turning till
I come to the Minor Prophets.
And you know, you would be embarrassed if
when you got to heaven, the one, the
first you met was Habakkuk.
And he said, how do you like my
book?
And you might have to confess you hadn't
read it.
Well, you're going to have one text of
his book before you today, and it's going
to come pretty often in our Bible readings.
Habakkuk, chapter three, verse three.
Here beginneth the lesson, and it's one text.
That's our reading for this morning.
It's not the whole of verse two, just
a portion of it.
O Lord, revive thy work in the midst
of the years.
In the midst of the years, make it
known, in wrath remember mercy.
Now that is one of the great revival
texts of the Bible, and it's rather interesting.
There is more teaching about revival among the
people of God in the Old Testament than
there is in the New.
Because Israel of old, their earthly people, are
a picture to us of his spiritual people
today.
And God's dealings with his earthly people, their
declensions, their revivals that had to take place
in their midst, are a picture of God's
work among his spiritual people today.
And here then, is one of the great
revival texts in the Bible.
Revive thy work, O Lord, in the midst
of the years.
In the midst of the years, make it
known, in wrath remember mercy.
And this is going to be the anchor
text of our Bible readings this morning.
Now we're not told anything really about Habakkuk,
his lineage, but, referring to the few books
of reference I've brought with me, he apparently
is assumed to be one of the several
prophets whom God raised up in the southern
kingdom of Judah.
He was a contemporary of Jeremiah, which means
he lived in those last sad days in
which Judah was a kingdom, when her enemies,
the Assyrians, were invading her.
And it would seem that Habakkuk was living
there amongst them on the very eve of
that terrible thing that happened, their deportation as
a nation to Babylon.
The last days of Judah.
The book, famous book, The Last Days of
Pompeii.
I've been studying lately the last days of
Jerusalem, when that which the prophets had prophesied
came to pass.
God only prophesied that judgment.
In order that it might not come to
pass, that was his motive, and always is,
in the solemn judgment passages of the prophets.
It may be, God said to Jeremiah, they
will heed this word, and repent of their
sin, and now forgive their sin, and I
will not do, that's what I intended to
do.
But alas, we all know they never did
repent.
And the solemn judgment of complete, or virtual
complete, deportation to Babylon took place.
And Habakkuk was living, and the time when
he saw his nation disintegrating, facing certain defeat
and yet persisting in his old way, and
as he saw the work of God falling
down around him, he prayed this prayer, Revive,
O Lord, thy work in the midst of
the years, in the midst of the years,
make it known in all, and we're in
the middle of it, Lord.
Remember mercy.
My goodness, we're going to see that's one
of the greatest, deepest prayers a man can
ever pray.
This is the prayer for revival that I
don't think God can resist.
And it's very seldom prayed.
We can pray for revival.
Anybody, you haven't got to be spiritual to
pray for revival, depends what your conception of
revival is, but it needs something special, you
need to be a broken, convicted man to
say, in wrath, remember mercy.
As I say, this is going to be
our anchor text, and I'm happy to note
and referring as I have this morning to
the Revised Standard Version and the New International
Version.
By the way, I'd never a day but
refer to those other versions, just to see
if they've got any light to throw upon
the Authorised Version.
That's my way, but you have another way,
and I don't despise them, but I like
to sort of put any new light I
have on the familiar Authorised Version.
But there isn't much variation here, but there
is some.
And as this is going to be our
anchor text, I want us all to really
know it.
And so I want you, if you will,
to repeat it aloud after me.
I'll say the phrase and I want you
to say it, and then so on, just
that you will really get the beautiful cadence
of the Old Version.
O Lord, revive thy work in the midst
of the years.
O Lord, revive thy work in the midst
of the years.
In the midst of the years, make it
known.
In wrath, remember mercy.
Now we're going to stay with this text,
quite literally, right the way through.
And we're going to look at its constituent
phrases, and we're going to go through the
Bible this way and that way, to see
what those phrases really mean as interpreted by
so many other scriptures.
This morning we're going to look at that
first phrase, revive thy work, O Lord, in
the midst of the years.
We're going to think of this great subject
of revival.
Tomorrow we shall move on to that deep,
deep prayer in wrath, remember mercy, and we
will spend a whole morning on a very
tender, delicate subject, the anger of the Lord,
as it applies not to the world at
large only, but to the people of God.
I'm amazed how much there is in our
Bibles about this great, great important theme, the
anger of the Lord.
And yes, we read in the Old Testament
about God's anger with the rebellious nations of
the world, but more particularly there are special
occasions with the anger of the Lord, with
kin against Israel, his own people redeemed from
Egypt, but it's a tender word as we
shall see.
It's a domestic word, and maybe you haven't
used that phrase to describe some of your
experiences of that, what it really is, but
it's always the anger of one who loves
and who intends great restorations and great goodbyes.
And then, we shall then move on to
that with which it's contrasted, which utterly excels
and exceeds the anger of the Lord, the
mercy of the Lord, in wrath, remember mercy.
And then I want us to think what
it means for a man really to pray
that prayer, it's about the most humbling prayer
you could pray, in wrath, remember mercy.
And then we shall look at some of
the men who humbled themselves to pray that
prayer, and of the great results that were
brought to them by the mercy of God,
how he did indeed for them revive his
work.
And so this morning, oh no, before I
come to that, I want to mention there's
a very similar verse elsewhere to this one.
Keeping your finger in Habakkuk 3, turn to
Psalm 85 verse 6, Psalm 85 verse 6,
85 verse 5, wilt
thou be angry with us forever?
Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all
generations?
Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy
people may rejoice in thee?
The same juxtaposition of the anger of the
Lord with revival, as you find in Habakkuk.
To get the real meaning, I would take
the liberty of adding one little word to
that.
Let me read it this way.
Wilt thou be angry with us forever?
Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all
generations?
Wilt thou not rather revive us again, that
thy people may rejoice in thee?
Which do you think, which do you think
he'd rather do?
You know, of course, he would much rather
revive his people again, that they may rejoice
in him, than persist in necessary disciplines and
humblings and convictions in his anger.
I think it's a beautiful verse.
Wilt thou not rather?
Of course he would, if he'd only let
it.
Why must you persist?
The whole head is smitten, says Isaiah, from
toe of the foot to the feet.
There's no wound, soundness in it, but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores.
Why will you go on rebelling more and
more?
And they could well say, oh Lord, you're
going to be angry with us, it's always
going to be like this.
Wouldn't you rather?
Yes, I would.
A hundred times rather revive my dear people
again, that they may rejoice in me.
So that's just an interesting parallel verse to
the one we're looking at in Habakkuk.
And so we do turn to Habakkuk, we
turn to this first phrase, oh Lord, revive
thy work in the midst of the years,
in the midst of the years, make it
known.
And the first thing I want to say
about revival is something that's already been mentioned,
certainly previous weeks, and I think yesterday.
That word, much thought about today, begins with
a little prefix, R-E, Latin, and it
means again.
And revival means God, in grace, doing something
again.
When things have gone wrong, when the tide
has gone out, when the horrid rocks appear
which were before hidden by the full tide,
when they become cold, and our circumstances all
messed up because of our folly, it's God
stooping to do something again.
And I think that little word again is
a wonderful word.
I try and spot it every time I
see it in my Bible and underline it.
It's the great word of grace.
He doesn't give up on us.
He doesn't say you've had it, we'll call
it a day.
But in infinite patience he goes to work
to do that thing which has been spoiled
again.
And if anything later happens, he'll do that
again.
This great word again.
There are all sorts of lovely agains.
In 1 Samuel 3.21, you needn't turn
to it if you don't want to, but
you're listening.
In any case, our versions aren't always the
same.
And there's a lovely again there, 1 Samuel
3.21, telling of how Samuel arose as
the new prophet, and the Lord appeared again
in Shiloh.
There'd be no voice from heaven in the
temple at Shiloh.
No word from God, no prophet had arisen.
But with the coming of Samuel, the Lord
appeared again in Shiloh.
Man, that could happen to your church.
The Lord appearing again in that church, in
that prayer meeting, in that parish.
There used to be great days, but they're
only a memory.
But God's the God of again, and revival
for you and your church would be simply
this.
The Lord appearing again in Shiloh.
And the word of the Lord coming again
from heaven.
And the prayer meeting, I don't know, everything's
sort of different.
The Lord's appeared again, that's revival.
And then of course there's a, well there's
all sorts of other ones.
I spotted one in Acts 15.16, which
is really a quotation from Amos.
After this, Acts 15.16, you must have
it, pop it down on the paper if
you want to.
We don't want to spend too much time
looking up every last verse because, well I've
looked them up, and I think I can
get them quick, but you might not be.
After this, this is a prophecy from Amos
being quoted.
I will return, says Jehovah, and build again
the tabernacle of David which has fallen down,
and I will build again the ruins thereof.
It seems as if this Jehovah, God of
grace, is at home in ruins.
He's at home in declension.
He knows what to do.
He's the God of the again.
Not only is he grace enough to do
it, but power enough to do it too.
Could that not be a wonderful description of
what could happen in your sphere?
God building again the tabernacle of David which
has fallen down.
I want to encourage your faith to expect
him to do it again.
He is in many places.
Why not with you?
And then thinking of things more personally, you've
got another great again in the parable of
the potter and the clay in Jeremiah 18.
So, he made it again, another vessel, as
seemed good to the potter to make it.
The clay had turned out wrong.
It was marred in the hand of the
potter.
He didn't give up on it.
He didn't take it off the wheel and
let it harden in its misshapen form, and
then in the next day smash it in
pieces.
No, he went to work again on that
misshapen piece of clay, and he made it
again.
And that applies to individual life, or a
particular situation that's gone wrong, or a relationship
that's gone wrong.
This is where he moves.
This is Jesus in his great work in
which he specialises, is making, as marred vessels,
again another vessel.
And then there's another one you wouldn't think
of, this one perhaps, it's in the last
chapter of John, after these things, chapter 21
-1, after these things, Jesus appeared again to
his disciples, wonderful text, after these things of
failure, disappointment, giving up their hopes, Jesus had
no need, and he appeared again.
And for you, after all you've been through,
I want to tell you, can you expect
him to appear again to you, that sad,
discouraged, defeated disciple?
Revival is God giving life again where that
life has ended, making again that warped vessel,
appearing again, inshallah, he's the God of the
again.
But finish it, revival always presupposes a declension,
and it does.
If he appears again, inshallah, it's only because
for years there had been no open vision.
The word of the Lord was rare in
those days, it presupposed.
They were just left with routine, religious chores,
a pure set of ceremonies, and it presupposes
that.
If he builds again the tabernacle of David,
it presupposes it's fallen down.
He's not doing what doesn't need to be
done.
And if he revives you, and if we
talk about revival, it means it presupposes there's
been a declension in our hearts, and only
those who are prepared to admit that fact
are going to be candidates for this grace
that makes everything again.
If he's going to make again that vessel,
it presupposes it's got marred, and you're no
candidate for those wonderful remaking hands of his,
unless you and I are prepared to confess
the vessel that he made of clay has
become marred, there was part of that clay
that was stubborn and wouldn't give in to
his fingers, and the whole thing's gone wrong,
at various levels.
And if he appears again to his disciples,
it implies he hadn't been appearing to them
lately.
They'd been left in their discouragement.
You know that text, after these things, Jesus
appeared again to his disciples, is one of
the favourite texts of my dear friend and
father in God, Dr. Joe Church.
I was brought to the Lord in the
camp, in the house party that he ran
before he ever went to East Africa, here
in Southwell.
He was with us last week, or was
it the week before, in his eighties and
getting a bit frail.
But this has been one of his great
texts.
You wouldn't have thought it was a great
text.
After these things, Jesus appeared again to his
disciples.
He told me on one occasion, he was
taking that much-loved text in Africa, and
as he preached by interpretation, his interpreter began
to weep.
He hadn't been seeing Jesus for so long,
he'd gotten away, and he saw there was
hope in him after these things, and they
were shameful things, no problem to Jesus.
Didn't put Jesus on, after these things, Jesus
appeared again, he did to that interpreter, and
apparently a lot of other people in that
great gathering.
Yes, it presupposes a detention, and the one
condition of Jesus reviving his work in your
heart and life is that you admit there
has been detention.
You have got cold, you have gotten away,
the word isn't living to you as it
once was, you've lost your desire to share
him with others, you've got immersed in other
things, all sorts of things, and you know
it is not with you as it once
was, and it's the man who's the most
ready to confess to detention who's going to
be the most ready candidate for that marvellous
grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds
our sin and our guilt.
Revival then is not a good Christian becoming
a better one, it's a Christian whose valley
has become a valley of dry bones.
We were thinking yesterday of Ezekiel 47, Ezekiel
37 is another passage full of meaning, it's
that vision that Ezekiel had when he was
taken up and put down by the Spirit
of God in the middle of a valley
that was full of dead bones.
There'd been a massacre, a whole army has
been slain and been left unburied and all
that was left were dead bones, and God
said to Ezekiel, can these bones live?
Teddo, had he the faith to expect it,
he said, Lord you know, that's a good
answer, he said, Ezekiel prophesied, preach to those
bones, and if he preaches, preach to bones,
some of our congregations, a little more sometimes,
than dead bones, but now I'm going to
preach the word of grace to them, and
nothing's going to reach it, not by a
censorious message, but a word of message of
hope and grace, and do you know as
he preached, a bone came to his bed,
and they were complete skeletons, but there was
no life of them, then the Lord said
prophesy to the winds, Ezekiel, and he did,
come from the four winds, O wind, and
breathe upon these slain, they're still dead, they
understand a bit, they've become a bit more
orthodox, but they're still dead, and the answer
came, the Holy Spirit came upon those still
dead corpses, and they stood up, a mighty
army, and God says, that's what I'm going
to do to Israel, and so I would
say revival isn't a green valley getting greener,
it's a valley full of dry bones, and
if your valley isn't full of dry bones,
I'm sorry, you're no candidate for revival, but
perhaps it is, or parts of it, there
never used to be, in one of the
letters to the churches in Revelation, the Lord
talks about how fast that thou hast, and
the things that are ready to die, and
things have been dying perhaps in your spiritual
life, prayer, the love of the word, your
witness, many things, one thing after another, and
the truth is, for some of us, our
valley is a valley full of dry bones,
our Christian life, oh what good hope, those
are the very sort of valleys that Jesus
likes to do this miracle in, and revival
is not a good Christian becoming a better
Christian, it's a Christian who knows things are
wrong, there are areas in which there are
dead bones, and being freely willing to admit
that fact to Jesus.
Sometimes, not often, people come to say Mr.
Heston, how can I be filled with the
Holy Spirit, there's a great blessing isn't there,
being filled with the Holy Spirit, yes, how
can I be filled, well I said what's
wrong, no nothing's wrong, everything's just fine, but
I want to be filled with the Spirit,
then I've got nothing for you.
God is not out to make a good
Christian a better Christian, he wants that Christian
to see the extent to which he's a
bag of bones, and there, into that situation,
grace comes, someone has said the Holy Spirit
is not the reward of your faithfulness, but
God's gift to your weakness and your failure,
and if you aren't weak, if you don't
know the experience that's in you, that's in
your flesh, well there's no good thing here,
no candidate.
I used to have an eye for neat
form, how to be filled with the Spirit,
1, 2, 3, 4, I don't, when a
man comes with a problem.
A man came to me a few years
ago in a Bible college, and confessed to
the sin of homosexuality, well, I helped, tried
to help him, Jesus.
And to the blood of sprinkling that speak
is better things than that of Abel.
He was washed and made clean, he knew
the utter forgiveness of God, and the cleansing
from even the shamest stain of it.
And I said, wait a minute, in Leviticus,
there's a bit of ritual for the cleansing
of the leper, and they put the blood
on his ear, the blood of a sacrificial
victim, his right thumb and his right toe,
and then they took the holy anointing oil,
and where they put the blood, they put
the oil.
First the blood, then the oil.
And then there was still something over, so
they clapped it on his head, as an
extra bonus anointing.
And you know, normally there are only three
people anointed, Christed, that's what it means.
Where were they?
Prophets?
They were anointed on the head.
Kings?
They were.
Priests?
And lepers.
And you can class yourself as one of
those.
And that dear man went away, not only
forgiven and cleansed, but rejoicing, daring to believe
the Spirit had come into his life, and
he was anointed with life and power from
on high.
What did he do with the Spirit?
What's wrong?
Nothing wrong, Sergeant.
Well, I mean to say, you haven't got
to rake up something, but you've got to
come with need of some sort.
This isn't a special luxury, to give you
a leg up, one above other people.
Not the reward of our faithfulness, but God's
sweet lovely gift to our weakness, and much
of it.
Then I want to go on to say,
I know this word revival is a confusing
word, because it is used by different people
with different connotations.
I know that.
And because so often, as we read the
books of God's great doings in former days,
we read the story of great movements of
the Spirit, quite ostensible.
When, well even in Rwanda, as you will
read in that book, what is it, the
quest for the highest, in the early days
of that revival, they didn't do very much,
they just gave us a little something of
a message, and the people broke down, they
trembled, they fell off their seats.
And some of them had to be revived,
they almost passed out under conviction of sin.
And we said, now that's revival.
And then this movement of the Spirit went
over the hills and the valleys.
And not only there, but this has happened
again and again in history.
And we long that it may happen again,
it's not wrong so to long for it.
But I don't think that is really revival
in its essence.
I think revival is something that must surely
happen among those who've got some life.
If there's no life, there's nothing to revive.
If those flowers have gone completely dead, they're
finished.
But if they've still got a bit of
life in, you can put them in a
vase and they'll revive.
What some people need is revival.
For others of us, we need revival.
And this isn't necessarily something that has got
to be spectacular.
When Dr. Church, in 1947, was coming back
to England in order to share with us
what he'd been learning and others of them
out there in revival, they had a session
with that old prophet of the revival, recently
gone to heaven, Simeone Sebambi.
He said, go to England, you need it.
They'd had a rough time.
They'd had some discouragement.
God will encourage you.
But Joe, he said, just look for one
man.
One man.
And if revival comes to one man, you
can say it's come to the country.
And so that early team, back in 47,
came with a vision, only one man.
They didn't have to have big meetings.
And they didn't have big meetings.
God gave them a number of one man.
One man.
And some of us who were helped and
touched by them, got together.
Peter Marrow invited us to his vicarage for
two days.
I didn't know the others who had been
helped and touched by this message of revival.
But we got to know one another.
That's where the team, if you can call
it such, began in 47.
And, well, I'd had some new experiences of
the Lord, and I was full up with
some all sorts of insights I wanted to
share and so on.
And the first words of Peter as our
host, we sat down with this.
There were about 10 of us, that's all.
He said, we've not come here to talk
about revival, but to be revived.
I had come to talk about revival.
But the moment we got on that, to
be revived, anew and afresh, I can't remember
what it was.
Immediately I knew there was something in my
heart that I had to take care of,
I had to bring to Jesus.
I thought I contributed with a new testimony
along that line.
And at bottom, it's this one man vision.
It can be many others, but one man.
I remember when later, I went to the
United States for the first time with my
first wife, Revel, and I went, what a
privilege, with William Lagenda and Joe Church.
Quite a team, four of us traveled around
for a number of weeks or a month
or so.
And again and again, Joe used to pray,
Lord, we've come to this huge land of
America.
Just look at the advertisements on the church
page in the Saturday papers.
It was stunning.
You've never met, seen anything more spectacular than
all the advertisements for all the things the
churches were doing in any big city.
He said, Lord, we don't know what's happening
here, but Lord, we ask, give us one
man.
We went to America for one man.
That was a vision that dear Sir Bambi
said to Joe.
It was so restful.
We were on the lookout for the one
man, where of course the minister, he was
a or it might not be, someone quite
unimportant.
God gave us quite a number, one, but
it doesn't stop at one man.
The life of the Lord Jesus, experienced in
fuller measure, is so infectious, that testimony touches
other spots in other people's lives.
There'll be others.
But at bottom, and this was a thing
that really no one could quite understand.
Joe used to say, if God will give
us one man who gets broken at the
cross, and sees the blood, and gets into
liberty, gets filled with the Spirit again, we
can go home and say, the Bible has
come to America.
There was the foothold.
There was the bridgehead.
Who knows?
Well, you understand that or agree with it,
that's what Joe said.
And I don't know, I find it so
restful.
When Pam and I go around, we're really
at bottom looking for one man.
I'm afraid we're not so much on our
toes, as perhaps Joe was, or William.
Nobody was quite safe, when William in his
artless way would get to know him.
There'd be a few questions, and he longed
to help that man into liberty.
As I say, it is a difficult word,
because of the other connotation.
Some people have used the other word renewal,
and one understands why, because you get away
from that picture of the big dramatic thing.
For myself, I prefer to use the word
revival, but always reminding myself what I really
mean.
And more than that, this one man, personal,
immediate experience of grace that's available to you
for all your needs, is linked to that
larger work of the Spirit, that some people
are praying so much for.
We all ought to be.
Why not?
God's able.
But maybe it's through the one man vision.
And I remember some years ago, William Lagenda
and I, just the two of us, went
to Indonesia.
There was a German missionary whom we'd had
touch with, and he asked us to go
to that Bible school in Batu, where later
that very, very spectacular revival began, but there
was no such time as it.
But we had a beautiful time on this
one and that one, finding the way to
the cross and into peace and liberty.
And we went and rejoined.
It was a year or two later that
that very unusual outpouring of the Spirit and
awakening took place.
You've always said it was a trace to
that other visit where they just saw Jesus,
where they confessed themselves balanced, full of dry
bones, where Jesus came in and they stood
up altogether new.
But that was a personal thing.
You wouldn't say the top blew off or
something like that, no.
But it led ultimately to something that was
indeed an awakening.
I think perhaps we ought to call that
other thing an awakening.
The Banner of Truth got a wonderful book
called The Great Awakening, telling the story of
George Whitfield's ministry in America.
That was an awakening.
No one could account for it.
Well, may God do it again.
But I am responsible for only one man's
revival ultimately, and that's my own.
And that's the best contribution I can make
to any wider work that God purposes and
wishes to do.
I've only been to East Africa twice and
then on little visits, preaching visits, but no
more so.
I can't claim to have been a missionary,
although Pam was up there for nine years.
And I remember once on one of those
visits I was at Joe Church's station, Gahini.
And can you believe it?
There was a station and there were 350
village churches linked with that one station.
Each one with a teacher whom they'd thank.
And that was true of all those stations.
I don't know if that is special, how
it compares with other places.
Well, I said, Joe, how in the world
do you take care of 350 churches from
this centre?
He said, I don't.
He said, I could go round and see
if the churches were falling down and get
the poor teacher to do this and that
and get him rattled.
We've discovered if my brother, my colleague here
in the central station, you see a canuka,
he's recently gone to heaven now, are walking
with Jesus and were one with one another,
God will take care of the wider field.
And so I went off to some other
parts and that was a three weeks, four
weeks later I came back to Gahini.
I said, Joe, how's God taking care of
the wider field?
He said, it's wonderful.
Letting a new wind of the Spirit blowing
out there.
But in the centre everything was, because there
was a group going on in the grand
old way of the blood of Jesus Christ
and the grace of God and walking in
his light.
And there was the song of praise there.
And so I just want to make that
point.
I want to make that point away.
Revive thy work, O Lord, in the midst
of the earth.
Let's not think too much about that big
awakening.
Much of that's in the sovereignty of God.
It's happening here and there.
And I don't believe he's going to forget
Britain.
And I can pray toward that end that
the thing for which I'm responsible is to
get into the blessing of God.
To get my valley full of dry bones
revived by the grace of God.
Because the moment you confess it's dry, it's
only to find there's a beautiful provision of
grace.
It's been anticipated, every need, everything that's gone
wrong, by Jesus on the cross, before he
ever went wrong.
The provision's there.
The fountain's open.
So it doesn't take God by surprise.
And the Holy Spirit's there to fill what
he cleansed.
That's what we've got in mind.
Revive thy work.
Thy work in me.
Thy work in my ministry.
Thy work in our fellowship.
Thy work in my home.
Revive it, Lord, because frankly it's gone a
bit dead.
I've got a bit cold.
I've got struggling and striving and snatting.
Oh what a lovely thing it is.
Knowing he's the God of grace, you can
afford to let your hair down and admit.
Yes, in some areas there's been indeed declension.
But I see that that makes me all
the more the candidate for thy reviving grace,
Lord Jesus.
I'm asking you to say, to comment on
the phrase, in the midst of the years.
Revive thy work in the midst of the
years.
In the midst of the years, make it
known.
And maybe middle years, the dangerous years.
We have young people here, bless your heart.
You have your need.
Things can go dead in your heart, even
though you've only known the Lord a year
or two.
But the middle years, in the midst of
the years, where you've been a Christian for
some time, where you know your stuff, you
know your distancation.
Oh it's wonderful.
You know I'm amazed how quickly, as a
young Christian, I got my displacement straightened.
And I thought, well I mastered this old
book.
I knew when the Lord was going to
come.
I knew what was going to happen about
the tribulation and all those things.
My dear friends, that's chicken seeds.
But those middle years, when we think we
know it, this is the time, when you
can leave your first love.
Then perhaps you can get very busy, but
miss Jesus.
Revive thy work, O Lord, in the midst
of the years.
But I noticed that the NIV has a
little alteration.
Revive thy work in our time.
That's what we want.
In our time.
When Billy Graham first began his Hour of
Decision broadcast, he had Jerry Devon with him,
who was, well I forget what his particular
sphere was, except that he always had some
minutes on that program in which he reported
on how the crusades were going.
And he always contrived to end his report,
the last sentence always sort of slipped into
the phrase, revival in our time.
Revival in our time.
And that's what you ought to be out
for, in your life, in your circle, in
any wider circle, beginning with yourself, in our
time.
And it can be.
If revival is a stunning, unusual happening that
happened there, you put it almost beyond your
reach, but it has got to begin with
you.
And if all that is needed is an
honest confession of admission and coming to Jesus,
if it is indeed a work of grace,
then you don't have to wait.
It can be in our time, as far
as you and your circle is concerned.
Dr. Martin Lord Jones, beloved by so many
of us, has recently passed away.
And I don't want to say a thing
that would indicate that I don't appreciate him
and his ministry tremendously.
But years ago, I was asked if I
would meet with a group of, I don't
know what we would call ourselves, some were
ministers, some were not.
I was just a crab preacher and evangelist.
But there was various ministers.
John Stott was to have been there, but
he couldn't, but there were people of equal
prominence, and we gathered in his study.
And I said, well, look, can I bring
a friend, Bishop Lawrence Barton?
Yes, go on, bring him here for me.
And our subject was to think about revival.
It was a unique meeting, yes, about seven
of us, these men.
I wish we'd had a tape recorder.
Actually, Dr. Martin did most of the speaking,
but he was always worth listening to.
We didn't find any nuances, but it was
certainly extraordinarily interesting.
We each make some sort of contribution.
He said, I know there's different conceptions of
what revival is in this room alone, how
much more so in a wider circle.
But he said one thing that I shall
not forget.
I knew that he'd been in process of
giving a series of Sunday mornings on revival.
And I'd heard some of them.
I'd been there.
I heard his great message on, oh, that
thou would bend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might flow down at thy
presence.
He was a Welshman, and a Welsh Christian
never forgets the Welsh revival.
That's the norm for him when God visited
his native land back in 1904 and 5.
And then he said this.
He said, I don't know, I've been preaching
this series on revival.
And in our church prayer meeting, no one
ever prayed for it to happen here.
Until about the seventh sermon, someone did give
something of a prayer.
And then the discussion went on.
And I thought about that.
And I remember what I'd heard.
Revival for him was so terrific, I hadn't
got the faith to pray for him.
And apparently nobody else had.
It was something big, a power-off.
I'm not saying God hasn't got all sorts
of wonderful things in store.
But if it's for me.
If a valley full of dry bones can
be made to live again by the grace
of God and by the power of the
blood of Jesus, then that's in Egypt.
And whatever revival's going, it can begin in
me.
And if it begins in me, it needs
end in me.
And that's important.
And I want to say that this revival
can, is linked, as I've already said, with
the larger awakenings when God wills it.
And by the way, may I suggest, say
one word before I'm closing.
I believe we've got to see that link.
We here in this conference, I would say
I very much include myself in this.
We've made a big emphasis on the need
of fellowship.
And there's all too little fellowship of an
open sort, where people are frank and open
and can really praise the Lord for what
he's doing in their lives.
And are really through with the sense of
shame that they can share.
Perhaps we've made too much of that.
And we haven't seen the lost.
Jesus blessed you only through you to reach
the others.
And I include myself in this.
And it could be that this new experience
of grace that you've been coming into hasn't
yet, I think I'll include myself in this,
eventuated in a greater vision for the lost
around me.
I'm not on my toes as I was.
I don't think I've seen so many people
converted as I once did.
There is a link between this personal being
revived and God moving us out and perhaps
doing a wider work among those that are
lost.
By the way, I use the word lost
and not unconverted.
I was astonished in the southern states.
They don't talk about the unconverted.
They only talk about the lost.
And many say, oh I've got some lost
deacons in Manchester.
So many of my members are still lost.
That's it, they're lost.
But if they're lost, there's someone looking for
them.
I want to do it through us.
Let's seek to have a renewed vision of
the lost.
Not doomed, sort of as if, it isn't
ultimate yet.
That won't happen until there's a final rejection
at the end.
Right now, the lost are being looked for.
And he wants you in on this lovely
act along with himself.
And so we praise the Lord.
This is a possibility of Revive, O Lord,
thy work in the midst of the earth,
in our time.
And begin it, Lord, with me, I know.
I am something of a valley full of
dry bones.
I'll be honest with you, Lord.
All right, you're a candidate.
What's wrong with that?
And he's not going to turn away your
candidature.
Let us pray.
And Lord, we want to thank thee.
You find no problem in beating our knee.
You're not shocked at the sight of valleys
full of dry bones.
You can make them green valleys.
You can breathe life into us afresh.
And O Lord, we ask that that shall
happen.
Come from the four windows, O, and breathe
upon these things.
On us, Lord.
Show us wherein we've declined.
Show us what's caused it.
And may we come into that experience of
freshness with thee.
May we welcome you perhaps, Buddha.
And Lord, we do confess we've been a
little more intent on having fellowship at a
deep level with others.
That's a wonderful thing, Lord.
But forgive us where we've lost our vision,
thy vision for the lost.
We ask it in thy dear name.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and
the love of God.
Amen.