All right, let's go back to Ezra
chapter 9. Ezra 9, I have, sometimes we're allowed to enter into this pulpit
feeling like we have a message. And I believe I have a message.
I believe I have a message. There is something that I have
been encouraged about. I have had a very encouraging
week. We're going to use two verses
in Ezra 9 as a platform. We're not going to look at this
verse by verse. We're going to use this as a
kind of a springboard for this message tonight. We just read
just a minute ago that the children of Israel had sinned against
God. And we all enter into that, don't
we? We see that and we just enter into that. Greatly sinned against
God. And the realization of it, we
saw what happened to Ezra and those people, the realization
of it just stabbed them in their hearts. They saw they were nothing but
sin before God Almighty. Look at verse 3. Ezra said, When
I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle and plucked
off the hair of my head and of my beard, and I sat down astonished. Then were assembled unto me every
one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because
of the transgression of those that had been carried away. And
I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening
sacrifice I rose up from my heaviness, and having rent my garment and
my mantle, I fell upon my knees, spread out my hands unto the
Lord my God, and said, O my God, I am ashamed and blushed to lift
up my face to thee. For our iniquities are increased
over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass
unto this day, and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests
been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to
the sword, to captivity, to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as
it is this day. But then, verse 8, It's all bad,
it's all the truth. They're saying before God Almighty,
we see the condition we're in. We see that the works of our
hands have done nothing but cause us to sin against you. We see
that. But, verse 8, he says, now for a little space, grace
hath been showed from the Lord our God. Tonight, we have a prayer. We're going to pray something
to the Lord our God. And what he's saying right here
is, in the middle of all this, for a little space, grace hath
been showed from the Lord our God to leave a remnant to escape
and to give us a nail in His holy place that our God may lighten
our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage. Wouldn't
that be nice? A little reviving in our bondage.
If he would lighten our eyes, give us a nail in his holy place. Verse 9, he said, For we were
bondmen, yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but
hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia,
to give us a reviving. to set up the house of our God
and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall
in Judah and in Jerusalem. For a little space, grace hath
been showed from the Lord our God. He's given us a nail in
His holy place. Thank God for that. A nail in
His holy place. He has lightened our eyes and
He's given us a little reviving in our bondage. That is my prayer
for God's people, spiritual Israel, in the year 2015 and the next
few years to follow. That is the prayer that I would
like to pray and I know that you would too. Our prayer that
he would give us a little reviving. A little reviving. To say that
we need a reviving, a re-quickening, what that means is we're dead
and we know we are, right? We need a rekindling of life,
don't we? That means we lost it. A reviving. We had it. We lost it. You remember what it was like
to hear the gospel for the very first time? You remember that? Wouldn't you like to have that
again? Wouldn't you like to have a reviving? Reviving means to
recover. to repair, to restore. If something needs to be recovered,
it means it was lost. If something needs to be repaired,
it means it was broken. If something needs to be restored,
that means it fell. That means it was cast down. Lord, send us a reviving. Send us a reviving. That's what I want. I want a
reviving. What is this reviving that we desire? What is this reviving that we're
praying for? Go with me over to Romans 14. Romans 14 and look at verse 9. For to this end Christ both died
and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead
and living. He died. He arose. and he recovered life. He revived. He did it. Alright, now turn
over to John 11. John chapter 11 and look at verse 23. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother
shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection. I am the rising again. I am the
rising again. I am the recovery of life. Christ is the reviving. He is the reviving. Lord, send
us Christ. We're not asking for an event.
I don't just want an event. I really want something. I truly
want something. I have been begging the Lord.
There is something that I desire. If He is willing, there's something
I desire. And it's not just an event. It's
not just an event. Lord, we're asking for you. If
you come to us, we will have a reviving. If the Lord would
come to us, we'll have a reviving. Our prayer for revival. That's
what I titled this. Our prayer for revival. I sincerely pray to our Lord
tonight that if he would be willing, he would send a revival. He's
done it before. He has done this before. He's
able to do it again. I mean a true revival. After
our Lord finished writing the Old Testament, He wrote through
all the prophets and David and Solomon. After He finished writing
the Old Testament, there was no word from heaven for 400 years. Now He did not leave Himself
without a witness. There was a man preaching the
truth. But there was no word from heaven for 400 years. And
then he sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord,
didn't he? And reviving came. Life himself, Christ came down. Reviving came. And when the Lord
came, dead men started living. And blind men started seeing. And deaf people started hearing,
and lame people started walking. A revival came. Life came. A true revival. And then when
our Lord died on that cross, He lived 33 and a half years,
healing the sick, raising the dead. And then He died on that
cross, and it seemed that all hope was lost. The disciples,
they wanted to go back to fishing. They thought it was over. They
thought he would be the one that would save Israel from their
sins. And when he arose from that grave,
something happened. This has always been one of my
most favorite things. Let me show it to you over in
Matthew 27. Turn over to Matthew 27. Matthew 27 verse 50 says, Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil
of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and
the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, And the graves were
opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and
came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into
the holy city, and appeared unto many." Is that not amazing? Is that not amazing? When he
arose from the grave, now he died. He died. He died. And when life came back to Him,
when God's Holy Spirit with all His quickening power, when life
came back to Him, it spread throughout the ground. It resonated throughout
the ground. And as life passed through the
graves of the saints that were buried near Him, they all got
up. They all walked out of their
graves and they went into town and started talking to people. You see that?
Read it again. Verse 51, Behold, the veil of the temple was rent
in twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake
and the rocks rent and the graves were opened and many bodies of
the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after
his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to
many. Is that not amazing? Revival came. He is revival. And when life came, revival came. I want to show you something
in 2 Kings 13. Go with me over to 2 Kings 13.
This is a picture of all of this. This is a glorious picture. I
love this. 2 Kings 13 verse 20. 2 Kings 13 verse 20. And Elisha died. He's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Elisha died and they buried him. And the bands of
the Moabites invaded the land at the coming end of the year.
This country, Moab, went to war against Israel, and they invaded
them at the coming end of the year. Verse 21, And it came to
pass, as they were burying a man, a different man. Elisha died,
and they buried him, and then another man died, And they were
going to dig a hole in the ground and bury him. And they look over
and here come all these Moabites invading the land, going to war
with them. And there's no time to dig the
hole. And they have to do something with his dead body. So they put
him in Elisha's tomb. They had to do something quickly.
Verse 21, And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that,
behold, they spied a band of men, And they cast the man into
the sepulcher of Elisha. And when the man was let down
and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his
feet. That's us and Christ. That's us and Christ. Through
His death, we live. In Him, He is our revival. He is our revival. We're not
talking about an event. We're talking about a person.
He is my revival. I want a revival. I really do. I want a revival. Life to this
dead sinner. That's what I want. I want a
revival to take place right in here. Right in here. Right out
there. I really do. Now after our Lord's
resurrection, he ascended back up to heaven. The disciples,
they were so sad. But our Lord sent his Holy Spirit
down here. And Pentecost took place. Right? He sent his Spirit and he gave
life. He opened up the eyes of thousands,
thousands. What a revival! Thousands of
people fell on their knees, crying, men and brethren, what shall
we do? Alright, then after all that,
about 60 more years, all the apostles were gone. And the Word
of God that the Lord used the apostles to write, the New Testament
and the Old Testament, it was changed. Wicked men got their hands on
it. And they started translating it all into Latin, and if they
didn't like this, they changed it. And then they hid the Word
of God from people. They locked it up. You were not
allowed to own a copy of it. Very dark ages. But God raised
up some men who became martyrs for translating this original
Word of God again, putting it back in people's hands. And through
that translation, a revival came. A revival came of God's word. God's word went forth again.
True revival. Throughout the ages, we have
seen God turn times of sorrow into times of revival. When it looks so bad, oh, they
killed the Lord. No revivals taking place. Life
is coming. Oh, the Lord left us. No revival
is taking place. We've seen God turn times of
sorrow into times of revival. This land is in a time of sorrow. The Word of God is so hard to
find. There is a famine of bread, isn't there? There is such a
famine of bread. Martin Luther thought he was
alone. He thought he was alone. I was thinking about we have
a few congregations. We have so many people here,
but it's just a few, isn't it? Martin Luther thought he was
alone. He thought he was the only believer. Elijah thought
the same thing. Was Elijah alone? He had 7,000
brothers and sisters right there with him. Martin Luther said,
here I stand, I can do no other. Was he alone? Nope. God sent
a revival. Sent a great revival. The Lord
allowed different times to be so precious. How precious was
the gospel in the days of Charles Spurgeon? How precious was that? The 1860s, 70s, 80s? And then the Lord did it again
in the 1950s in America. He sent a revival. That's what
he did. And the result of that was the
1970s and the 1980s. Those two decades were precious
decades for the gospel. I was alive, but I wish I could
have been around. I really do. Now we had the 90s, the 0s, and
here we are in the teens, 2015. And I had a dear man tell me
whenever I came to the ministry here, he said, you remember this,
God is not out of business. Because I said to him, I wish
I could have been around back in the, back around 1980. I wish I could have been a part
of that. I wish I could have seen everything
that was taking place and all this." And he said, God's not
out of business. I've been so encouraged to be
revived to the fact that God is not out of business. Not out of business. So here's
my prayer tonight. my prayer for us. I do believe
this is our prayer to the God of heaven and earth. Our God.
The one who can do anything. The one who controls everything.
Our prayer is that if He would be willing, He would one more
time send a revival. And I do mean a revival. One
more time. Lord, would you do it one more
time? I am praying for that. If it be His will, only if it's
His will, He can do it. If He is willing, He is able. Now, if it's not His will, we
don't want a revival, do we? If that's not His will. Lord,
we only want Thy will. But if you are willing, for the
sake of sinners, there's a lot of sinners out there. For mercy's sake. You know he's
a God of mercy. That's his glory. I'll show mercy. For mercy's sake. Lord, for Christ's
sake, send a revival. Send a revival. Send a rekindling. Now let me show you three things
that I truly do beg God that he would revive, if he's willing.
Our Lord said you can make your petitions known, didn't he? He said, you ask any good thing
in my name, I'll do it. For Christ's sake, for sinners'
sake, for mercy's sake, Lord, send a revival. Three things
that I truly beg God He would revive, if it be His will, only
if it's His will. The first one is in Habakkuk
chapter 3. If your Bible's like mine, it's
on page 1163. Habakkuk chapter 3. It's after Amos and Micah. It's before
Zephaniah, Zechariah. Habakkuk chapter 3. This is a
prayer of Habakkuk and this is my prayer and I know it's our
prayer. Habakkuk 3 verse 2 says, 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. Lord, revive thy work. I pray for that. Lord, revive
the gospel. Revive the gospel. Revive the
making known. Revive mercy. Lord, raise up
ministries. Raise up ministry. Well, he doesn't
really do that much anymore. But he raised up Kingsport, didn't
he? Kingsport wasn't a thing not
too long ago. All the other churches have been
around a while. Madisonville's been around a while. Thank God. Now there's Kingsport. Lord,
raise up ministries. Call out sheep. Establish churches. Turn them
into real churches. Bring members. Send forth laborers. Lord, revive Thy work. Revive Thy work. Lord, if it
be Thy will, establish Sarasota. That's my prayer. If it be thy
will, establish Sarasota. They started meeting. There's
a group who has a heart to hear about Christ. If it be thy will,
send them a pastor. If it be thy will, a God-called
pastor. Let the gospel ring out in that
city. Let it ring out. Let sinners
in Sarasota hear the gospel. Let it go out over the radio.
Let it go out over the internet. and revive thy work. I pray for
that in a real way. Lord, if it be thy will, let
us hear of other groups. Let other groups pop up that
want to hear the truth about Christ. Let us hear about many
groups, Lord. Many. Revive thy work. Send your men out two by two. I would love to see that. I would
love to see that. Well, we have another need. We're
going to have to start sending men. Can you cover it? Yeah, it'll be tough, but we
can do it. Send your men out two by two.
Send them with God's message. Send two men out with God's message. And then Lord bless your word. Revive thy work. I would love to see that. Wouldn't
you love to see that? He's able. He is so able. He's able to do above anything
we could imagine or ask for. So we're praying for it. If He's
willing, that's our prayer, alright? Revive thy work. Here's the second
thing. We pray God would revive. Turn with me to Psalm 85. Psalm 85 verse 6 says, Will thou
not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Revive thy work. Save the lost,
Lord. Save the lost. Send out the gospel. Seek and save. And Lord, those
of us who do believe, those of us who do bow, we do right now. Bow to your holy name and believe
on you. Revive us. Rekindle our love for Christ. I want to love Christ more than
I do. I want to love Him more. Rekindle
our love for Christ and our love for each other. Rekindle our
unity. And I don't just mean inside
Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church. I mean, let's talk about the
churches in America. And let's leave America and talk about
churches everywhere else. Rekindle our unity. rekindle our respect for each
other, especially among the pastors. I really have a deep desire for
that. I've been thinking about my brethren
who've been called to this position. This is a difficult position.
And we need each other. And they need some encouragement.
And I want to reach out to them. I want a kindling to take place
between us in love and unity and respect. Lord, don't let
us nitpick each other on stuff that doesn't matter. Don't let
us tear each other down for pride's sake. I think I'm a better preacher
than he is. Give us a love and a respect
for each other for the gospel's sake. Lord, for the good of the
work, For the revival of the work calls us to come together
as one in one for the good of the work. Revive us. Revive thy
work. Revive us. Revive us. All right, here's the third thing.
Go with me to Psalm 138. Psalm 138 verse 7 says, Though
I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thy
hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. I would love to see a revival
of God's work. I would love to see God save
a thousand sinners. a thousand sinners. That's impossible. No, it's not. Not if he's willing. I would love to see a revival
of God's work. I would love to see a revival
of God's people, a rekindling of God's people, but I don't
want to be left out of it. He can revive his work and he
can revive his people and not revive me. Don't leave me out
of it, Lord, please. Revive me. Come to me. This is my prayer, Lord. Come
to my heart. Bring your spirit to my heart. Bring it back to me. Touch me. Remind me of what you've done
for me. Lord, show me your hands. Come
to me and show me those nail prints in your hands. Show me
your side. Tell me, say to my heart here,
reach your hand in right there. That was for you. Revive thy work, revive us, and
revive me. We didn't sing the song on purpose,
but here's the last verse of the song. Revive us again. Fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with
fire from above. Hallelujah, that means praise
the Lord, thine the glory. If it happens, Lord, give you
all the glory. Hallelujah, amen. That's our
prayer, isn't it? Lord, revive us. Revive thy work,
revive us, revive me. All right, let's stand together.