Our scripture reading tonight
from Psalms 145, beginning at verse 13, we read these words,
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth
throughout all generations. This is our sovereign God who
rules over everything, who created all things. Thy kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout
all generations. The Lord upholdeth all that fall,
and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all
wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every
living thing. The Lord is righteous in all
His ways, and holy in all His works. The Lord is nigh unto
all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in
truth. There's a lot of people who say
they call upon the Lord, but have no idea of the Lord's Scriptures. To all that call upon Him in
truth, verse 19, He will fulfill the desires of them that fear
Him, He will also hear their cry. We will be looking at some
scripture in the book of Ezra. Ezra chapter 9. So if you'd like,
you can turn in your Bibles to Ezra chapter 9. And when we get
to that in the handout, you can read along through your Bible
if you'd like. Some folks would rather read through their own
Bible. They're more familiar with it. And I understand that.
Others struggle and want to turn quickly to the reading, so I
put it in the handout also. Now, we speak of a revival. We're
looking tonight at reviving grace. We've heard men and women speak
of a revival that may be going on. Seems like the gospel is
reaching out to more places here and there, and maybe there's
a revival, a movement, a movement of God's people returning unto
Him. Oh, how we pray for that in this country, don't we, that
God may move his people in this country to return unto him, those
who he has allowed through his gracious hand to wander away,
to try them and test them, not allow them to wander away into
damnation. But sometimes the Lord lets us
run, doesn't he? He let Jonah, he allowed Jonah
to run from him. You know, our God is sovereign.
He didn't have to allow Jonah to do anything. He could have
caused Jonah to do whatever he wanted Jonah to do. In a way,
in a sense, he did by allowing Jonah to run. He allowed Jonah
to go out on his own and run from God to teach you and I a
lesson. These are things that can happen to each and every
one of us. Our Lord, it's His right to try us, to test us. And He doesn't test us to find
out what we will do for Himself. He tests us to prove to us what
we need and where we are in this world, to prove to us our need
of Him in all that we have. So when we talk about a great
arrival as though a great number has turned away and need to be
turned back, that may be a truth. I'm in the handout now, first
paragraph. There may be a great number as
there was in the day of Jewish captivity in Babylon. I don't
know about that, but I do know about my own weaknesses. especially
the weakness of my faith. I mentioned a short time ago,
sometimes I wonder if I'm a Judas. As each of the apostles asked,
is it I, Lord, when the Lord told them of one whom would betray
him, over Matthew 26, 22, I wonder too. I wonder at times. I too
express weakness in my faith. Let me say one thing about that.
These are the things that magnifies that magnify our great hope. A hope that is not from within
ourselves, a hope that is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ
and his righteousness. And what a great hope that is.
It is a hope in what we hear from His Word. It is a hope in
He who is faithful to fulfill all that He has promised in His
Word. Listen to Romans 9, verse 15
through 16. For He said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth. but of God that showeth mercy."
Those things, those times when we get weak in our faith, when
we wonder, am I a Judas? Am I saved? And you know, I've
never heard any man, any man, even the most faithful man I
know, have admitted that there's times when their faith is weak.
Those times show us our need of strength. Those times in our
lives when we look and say, Lord, is it I? Because we know what
we're capable of inside without God's gracious hand in our life. Our hope is not a hope that depends
on our faith. This is the gospel, the good
news to a soul that is weak in every aspect of my being. Salvation
is of the Lord. the Lord alone, start to finish,
and everything in between. So in my weakness, my great Savior,
knowing the depth of my weakness, for He too was tempted as I,
yet without sin, He graciously brings revival, a renewing is
what that word means, a renewing of His relationship to my heart
through the preaching of His word. Listen to Psalms 85, two
through eight. We have it in the handout, page
two, top. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Thou
hast covered all their sin, not in part, but all. Selah. Thou hast taken away all thy
wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God, of our salvation,
and cause thine anger toward us to fade. 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? Show us thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and to
his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. Lord, wilt
thou not revive us again? I may be alone in this, but I
need reviving grace over and over again and again. Listen
to the words of Romans 5, 1 through 6. Therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grave wherein
we stand. and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. What a great hope we have in
the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience, oh, there's that
word, hope. Oh, the wonderful word of hope.
And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Does that
not give you a wonderful hope? The Apostle Paul puts it this
way in 1 Timothy 1, verses 12 through 16, And I thank Christ
Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and
a persecutor and an injurist. But I obtained mercy because
I did it ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all expectation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
chief, albeit for this cause I obtain mercy that in me, first
Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering. Aren't you
thankful the Lord's longsuffering with us? That's what reviving
is. That's being longsuffering for
each and every one of us. Oh, how the Lord is long-suffering
to me. He is long-suffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." Page 3. Now consider
with me, if you would, a time recorded in the Old Testament
Book of Ezra. The Lord hath expressly commanded
in Deuteronomy 7, verses 1 through 4, that there should be no intermarriages
between Israel and the nations around no doubt with an eye to
Christ, God's people were a nation of priests, a holy seed, a peculiar
people, a royal priesthood. Therefore, this mingling between
Israel and the heathen people surrounding them was a direct
rebellion to God's divine law. And yet, the people of God do
as they tend to do when the Lord pulls back his hand of grace
and tests his chosen people to prove them. They falter. Have
you ever faltered? I don't know about everybody
online, but everybody here in the room spoke up at once and
said, yep. Are you any different than Jonah or Lot or David or
Peter or any of the names we are given of God's saints and
scripture. Oh, how thankful I am that our
Lord spares not the weaknesses of His people. I can relate to
the people of God. I'm in good company. Sinners
saved by grace. The prophet Ezra had been given
by God through Cyrus king of Persia permission to return to
Jerusalem. and to begin rebuilding the temple.
And we pick up the story in Ezra 9 verse 1, Now when these things
were done, the princes came to me, came to Ezra, saying, The
people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated
themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to
their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the
Egyptians, and the Amorites. They had allowed their children
to marry the children of these heathen lands, and in doing so,
the heathen doctrines, the heathen idol worship was brought in and
mixed in with the worship of God's people. Verse two, and
for they have taken of their daughters for themselves and
for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves
with the people of those lands. Yea, the hand of the princes
and the rulers hath been chief in this trespasses. Not only
had the people been doing it, but those that were leading them,
the so-called religious leaders of the church of the people of
Israel. This is what it is to mingle the things of this world
into our worship. Oh, how we need to be careful
of this. We had a man, some of you remember
not too long ago, a retired minister from Citrus Heights who showed
up here, and he wanted to teach eschatology, end times. And he
wanted to teach me so I could teach you. And I told him over
lunch one day, I said, no, we're not going to do that here. We
preach Christ and Him crucified. You know, it just blesses me.
It just blesses me every time I ask Mike Lesher to pray. He just first thing pops out
of his mouth. Thank you Lord for somebody who preaches Christ. That's all we're going to do
here. That's all we're going to do here tonight. We're going
to talk about the Lord Jesus and how he revives his people.
That's what that's what mingling the things of the world in our
worship is what I just read there a moment ago in verse two. People
call me up, they send me messages all the time, we can help you
grow your church if you just follow these things like play
loud music and have bands and maybe some smoke going across
the stage like some churches I've seen. Our worship must be,
let me say this again, our worship must be Christ and Him crucified
alone. In Ezra 9, verse 3, we read,
and when I heard this things, right, Ezra, he says, I rent
my garment and my mantle and plucked off the hair off my head
and off my beard, and I sat down astonied. 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 astonied until the evening sacrifice paid for.
Verse 5, and at the evening sacrifice, I arose up from my heaviness,
and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees."
Notice what Ezra has done here. The first thing he's done is
abased himself. He's taken ashes and poured them
over his head. He's taken his clothes off. He's
bowed himself to where he should be before the almighty, thrice-holy
God. He bowed himself, as you and
I do, as Moses did on the mount. He bows himself to the will of
God. And then he prayed, and he spread
out my hands unto the Lord my God. What a friend. I like this
song. What a friend we have in Jesus.
All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything
to him in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Are we weak
and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior,
still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Brother Kevin spoke a bit about
this in last Wednesday night's service. Even in our failings
and our offerings up of prayers, our great Savior intercedes on
our behalf. Kevin was preaching from the
17th chapter of John, where our Lord's prayer is expressed greatly
for his people in how he keeps them and sends them into the
world. He prays that the Father would not take them from this
world, but to keep them from the evil in it. The Apostle Paul,
I think of the Apostle Paul in beseeching the Lord to relieve
him with his thorn. Yet the Lord gave him not what
you may have thought the answer to be. My grace is sufficient
was the answer. That was the answer he got. What
was it that Paul needed? He needed God's grace, and he
got it. Let's read on, shall we? Ezra
9, verse 6, and said, Oh my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift
up my face. Is that not the way we approach
our Lord? Lord, we're so unworthy. We're
like the man over there in the corner of the temple, over on
the side wall of the temple, who can't even lift his head
up, pounding our chest, praising unto the Lord, Lord, have mercy
upon me. In 1 John 1, verse 9, I read
these words, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, I spoke about this last
Sunday also, but folks, I'm not talking about you coming to me
and confessing your sins to me. There are some religion, there's
a religion out there that believes that you can do that. I don't.
I don't see anywhere in Scripture where it talks about confessing
your sins to a man. Confess your sins to God, and
it's not just the detail of your sins. He knows all the details,
but confess what we are. That's what Ezra was doing there.
He was on his knees, praying out, spreading out with his hands
unto the Lord, saying, Oh my God, I am ashamed. Did you catch
that? I know who I am. I'm a sinner.
Exactly right. I am ashamed. And blushed to
lift up my face to Thee. For our iniquities, the iniquities
of your people, my iniquities are increased over our head.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That's what it says in 1 John 1 verse 9. Continuing on in Ezra
chapter 9 verse 7, Since the days of our father's right, says
Ezra, have we been in a great trespass unto this day. And of
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,
and to spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. I
can't help but think about the very country we live in, folks.
Now, I'm not trying to say we were ever walking straight with
the Lord at any time. I mean, I believe we were based
on Christian fundamentals. I believe that there was a time
when there may have been more in this country who knew the
Lord than there are today. We're definitely outnumbered.
Definitely outnumbered. There's nothing more than a remnant
in today's world. But how many of God's people
are out there still wandering around We don't know. It could be a great revival yet,
couldn't it? It could be a great revival yet. And now in verse
8 it writes at the bottom of page 4, For a little space, grace
hath been shewed from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant
to escape, phase five, 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. What a prayer. What a prayer
we have, we're at the top of page five. What a prayer to have
for each and every one of us as priests, as kings. That's
what we are. We're priests and kings, every
one of us. A little reviving may the Lord give us in our bondage. Verse 9, For we are 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. So what is this reviving, this
reviving that he's talking about? What is our wall? It's Jesus
Christ. It's Christ Jesus, the Son of
the Living God. He's our mediator, our Lord,
our substitute, God in the flesh, our priest, our king, our all
in all. When we spend time in His Word,
looking for Him in the Word. I love the books of Don Fortner. Even the ones before he started
using them. Seeking Christ in all the Scriptures. Seeking Christ in the book of
Solomon. Seeking Christ in Revelation,
the book of Revelation. Seeking Christ in John. It's
always seeking Christ. When we are seeking Christ in
His Word, We find in His Word, He has provided all that He requires
of us. Everything that God requires
of you and I, He has provided in our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Every time I lose sight of that,
every time I think I can do this or I can do that, the Lord revives
my soul with His Word. That's where we find revival,
in His Word. Revival in Him, reviving our
souls when we're feeling weak. Listen, I put several verses
in here where it says, I the Lord, as you can see it's highlighted
in your handout. I the Lord do keep it, it says.
I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep
it night and day." Isn't that wonderful? This is our reviving. This is what revives us when
we're weak in the flesh and in the mind. This is what we, we
can take this before our Lord when a sin, when a besetting
sin is egging on us, egging on our mind to think these thoughts,
or to do these things, or to be angry, or to, or for whatever
the sin might be. We can take these thoughts, these
words, and say, I the Lord do keep it. God will keep me. I will water it every moment. He waters us with His Word. Lest
any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. Look at the next one
here, Isaiah 41.4. Who hath wrought and done it,
calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the
first and with the last, I am He. In 41.13 we read, For I the
Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear
not, I will help thee. Not only Do these words give
revival to God's people? Not only do these words revive
our own hearts when we're weak, but imagine what you might say
to somebody who came to you and said, I just don't know anymore. I don't feel the Lord is close
to me. I feel like the Lord is further from me now than I've
ever felt in my whole life. What would you say to them? How
about these words here in 4117? When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
our Lord says, I, the Lord, will hear them. God says He will hear
you when you're thirsty for the truth. He says He will hear you
when you're hungry for the food, the bread of life. I will hear
them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. In Isaiah 42, 6, how about sharing
this with somebody who might come to us when they're struggling
with a besetting sin or something. Our Lord says, I, the Lord, have
called thee in righteousness. Now wait a minute, how can I
sit here and continue to think about that sin when you're telling
me the Lord just, you just told me the Lord has called me in
righteousness. And we'll hold thine hand and we'll keep thee. And give thee for a covenant
of the people for the light of the Gentiles, page six. In Isaiah
45, seven, we read these words, the Lord says, I form the light. and create darkness. A lot of people want to stop
and say that's just talking about the sun and when the sun goes
down the darkness. Folks, this is talking about
what's in our hearts. This is talking about the light
of God, His Son, His Holy Son being shined in the hearts of
His people. I make peace, the Lord says,
and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. This is the sovereignty of God.
This is where the world says, whoa, stop. Uh-uh. God rules over everything. That's
absolutely right. But I'm my own person. But I. People start saying, but I. You
walk away from them. Let them go. Folks, there's only
one who can declare, I, and that's the great I am, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Continuing in the top of page
6, right underneath Isaiah 45, 7, coming to the Lord's table
of remembrance. Does that not bring a revival
to our hearts? Does it not to you? Folks, our
peace can only be in one source, and that's Christ. Being blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
as we read in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, we see in His Word,
we are in Him from before the world was. That's what we read
in Ephesians 1 verse 4. According as He hath chosen us,
in Him, what that means is that God has chosen us, you and I,
His chosen people, in His Son, in Him, before the foundation
of the world. So we see in His Word that He's
loved us with an everlasting love, with an eternal love. He's loved us before everything.
Because before the world was, we were in Him. We see in his
word in the next paragraph that we should be holy and without
blame before him. Again, that's in Ephesians chapter
1 verse 4. See the revival the Lord gives
us? We should be holy and without
blame before him. That doesn't give us a legal
right to go out and sin any way we want to. No, that gives us
the desire to turn away from that sin that besets us. I remember
a day when I would give in to those sins. Oh, it didn't bother
me. I wasn't hurting anybody else. I was shaking my fist at
my God. I was hurting myself. I want
to be holy. Our Lord, speaking through the
prophet, said, be ye holy, for our God is holy. I want to be
holy. I want to walk in holiness. But I know that this flesh is
weak, and I've proved over and over and over again and again
how weak it can be. So I'm thankful that my holiness
is in my Savior, the Lord Jesus. Being in Him, He is my righteousness. We see in His Word that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. We also see in His Word,
back in our handout again, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. in the Lord Jesus is all the
power of all three, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. We see all three in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in our
next words it says, and ye are complete in Him. Well, if we're
incomplete in Him, what more is there for us to do? Sit down
and rest. Stop trying to work for our salvation,
our salvation is complete in Him. Which is the head of all
principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with
the circumcision made without hand, and putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. buried
with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from
the dead. And you, being dead in your sins
and uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened, made alive,
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Is that not reviving a sinful
soul right there? The sinful flesh, the sins of
our flesh, does that not give us revival, knowing that all
that we have done has been laid upon our Lord? Forgiveness of
all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of the ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He took it
out of the way. How? nailing it to His cross. Colossians 2, 9-14. That is grace
that revives this poor soul when my sins have rose up against
me. When my enemy rails on my soul. Listen to Psalms 138, 7-8. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, Thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of mine enemy, and thy right hand shall
save me." Who's sitting at the right hand of God right now?
What does Scripture say? The Lord Jesus is sitting at
the right hand, the hand of power. Thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Page 7. Lord, wilt thou give
us a little reviving this day? If so, it will be by the preaching
of his word. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. Everybody wants to teach and
preach about how they should be walking before God. God's
ministers preach Christ and him crucified. To the world, that's
just foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign, and the Greek seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1. 18
through 25, it will be by His grace, giving us an understanding
of His grace, for by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2, grace, grace, God's
grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Reviving grace, something this
poor sinner needs over and over and again and again. The Lord
of all that is has made a promise and will not change. In Malachi
3, verses 6 and 7, we read these words. Our Lord says, for I am
the Lord. I change not. Folks, I'll tell
you, that just blesses this poor heart so much. Our Lord says,
I do not change. We live in a world where love
can change at the drop of a hat. You know, folks, I'm not saying
this in any bragging way. I'm going to be honest with you
right here. The only thing that's kept Kathy and I together for
46 years is God Almighty. But that is such a rarity, to
be married for 46 years. And I know quite a few in our
realm, folks that we know in other churches, who've been married
long periods of time, but out in the world where we work, there's
people who've been divorced five or six times. I've got a guy
I went to high school with, he's been married five times. I don't
know if he's gonna last the next one, or the one that he's with
now. People change at the drop of
a hat. Our God does not. His love for
us is everlasting. It can never change. He says,
I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. I'm a son of Jacob. I pray I am a son of Jacob. I don't get consumed for what
I deserve. Even from the days of your father's
year, gone away from mine ordinances. Remember what we read just a
moment ago back in Ezra? What did Ezra say? He says...
I'm going to go back and read that again, just to make sure
I say it right. Let's go back to that again.
What did he say? And he said, Oh my God, I am ashamed and blushed
to lift up my face to Thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased
over our head. Our trespasses have grown up
in the heavens. In verse 7, Since the days of our fathers Have
we been in great trespass this day? That's the exact same words
we see here in Malachi 3, 6-7. The Lord says, Even from the
days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and
have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return
unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. And I'm going to leave you with
this question at the end of page 7. Does that not revive your
soul? Sure did mine.