I hope each of you, hope all
of us can say, oh what a Savior is mine. Thank you. Let's go to Revelation 11 this
morning, the book of Revelation chapter 11. Let me say a few words to those
of you who love and believe this gospel of God's grace, the gospel
of our Lord Jesus, of His successful death, His wonderful resurrection,
His ascension back to heaven, His position at the right hand
of God, where He reigns over all things, to you who believe
Him, who rest in this wonderful Redeemer, I say to you, I hope
that you are much encouraged as you consider the fact that
God's eternal purpose is always at work. Aren't you thankful
that the world and all that is going on throughout the world
and all that's going on in your life. Aren't you thankful it's
all according to the purpose of God Himself? I know His purpose is always
at work. You see, at no time, Never, never has the Lord relinquished
the reign of this world to Satan or to rebels or wickedness or
anything else, any other power. I realize Satan is the prince
of the power of the air. I realize he's the governor of
darkness. But He doesn't have absolute
authority. Our God does. And even Satan,
with all of his cruelty and with all of his demonic forces, even
all of those are under the authority of our God and they're fulfilling
His eternal purpose. Satan is ruled over by the Lord,
even as our Lord rules over everything. And in your individual circumstances, our God is ruling over everything
there as well. And I hope that you're encouraged You know, even among the people
of God, sometimes we can become distressed and kind of low in
spirits, dejected. Things appear around you to be
bleak. Lots of opposition to the gospel. Lots of false voices out there
preaching error. And if we're not very careful,
we'll sort of slip into a dismal funk. But let's be encouraged. Everything
is working together according to the purpose of God. You know,
in John chapter 5, our Lord Jesus said, My Father worketh hitherto,
and I work. What is the Father doing? What
is the Son of God doing? I know the Son of God has finished
the work of redemption. I know He's finished the work
of reconciliation. I know He has finished the work
of removing all the sins of all of His people. They'll never
be remembered against us. He separated our sins from us
as far as the East is from the West, and that marvelous work
of bringing in righteousness for us, that's a finished work.
We know that. Our Lord Jesus said, it is finished. That's one of the seven sayings
of our Lord on the cross. It is finished. What's finished?
Well, all the Old Testament pictures and prophecies concerning Messiah
and the work that He would do, that's finished. All of the offerings
of the Old Testament, all of those animal sacrifices, they're
finished. All of the Sabbath days, they're
finished. All of the sins that cried out
to God for vengeance against us, they're finished. Because by our Savior's death,
His foot to death, all of our sins. Isn't that wonderful? He
has finished that work. And I know He's finished that
work because God raised Him from the dead. And He has been exalted
and He's seated at the right hand of the Father. But there is another work that
He is still doing. And that is, He is governing
all things by the word of His power. There's nothing that exists,
nothing that ever happens, not to you, not to me, not to our
families, not in this nation, not in this world. There's nothing
that ever happens. that is outside God's eternal
purpose. And we would do well to remember
that. To remember that. All things
are working together for the good of God's people. And all
things are working together according to God's eternal counsel and
purpose. Here in Revelation chapter 8,
we find the Lord's people, the redeemed of the Lord, the church
of Christ Jesus. And Revelation 8 is likened unto
two witnesses. These two witnesses go out preaching
the gospel and have marvelous authority. The Lord says, if anybody hurts
them, It won't be good for that person who hurts them. The Lord says they are His olive
trees. His people are filled with His
grace and with His Spirit. Because the Lord Jesus Himself
is full of grace and truth. And He has given us grace. In
fact, do you know when grace was given to us? I know when
grace was revealed to us. That was in our salvation experience,
but actually grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before
God made the world. And this grace keeps us, and
this grace teaches us. This grace leads us. And His people, Redeemed ones, we're given authority
and power in this world to preach the gospel. That's our mandate. That's what we're to do. We have
a divine commission, just as surely as our Lord gave a commission
to his twelve apostles. He said, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel. That's our commission. Preach
of His grace and preach of His mercy and preach of His bloody
sacrifice. We're His witnesses. We're olive
trees. We're full of the oil of the
Spirit. We're full of grace. So we're
likened to two olive trees and we're likened to two candlesticks. The Lord has given us the light
of the Gospel. We're not in the dark anymore.
He's brought us into the light of Christ Jesus. But, though there are seasons
in the history of the Lord's church, there are seasons when
the church seems to prosper and grow and have more power and
more authority, There are also seasons when it seems that the
Lord's people are almost non-existent in the world. There are times
when voices are heard throughout the world preaching the Lord
Jesus and Him crucified, preaching the sovereign God. Then there
are other times as you look through history, the history of the Christian
church, it almost seems as though every voice has been silenced.
That's what's being pictured here in verse number 8. It talks about the dead bodies
shall lie on the street of the great city. He's not talking
about the death of Christianity, but what he is speaking about
is that there are seasons in the history of the church when
it seems like Christianity has all but died out. And even today, we look about,
we listen to the voices that are speaking religious things. And does it not appear to you
that we're sort of in this time when Christianity is at a low
ebb? It's like there just aren't many
voices. There's just not many places
you can go where you can hear the pure gospel of grace. And that's what is being set
forth here. And the reason for this, according to the purpose
of God, is set forth in verse 7 when they finish their testimony.
You see, we always finish whatever God calls us to do. Our mission
will be fulfilled. Whatever ministry, whatever mission,
whatever purpose God has in you and me, this local assembly,
whatever purpose God has for us being here, which is to preach
the gospel, it will be fulfilled. That which He has ordained to
accomplish through us, through our united efforts to set forth
the gospel of His grace, whatever God has purposed to do, it will
be fulfilled. It will be finished. And He says when they finish
their testimony, because we have a testimony, we have a glorious
report, as I read in Isaiah 53 to begin with, Isaiah said, Lord,
who hath believed our report? Who hath believed our good news? Lord, who hath believed the record
that You have given us concerning Your Son? So when we finished
our testimony, the beast that ascended out of the bottomless
pit, he makes war against the church. Now listen, he's always
made war against the church. But there are seasons when it
would appear that he seems to be more successful. Not that he is succeeding in
his ultimate purpose. But according to God's determination,
there are times in history when the gospel thrives, and then
there are those times when the gospel voices seem to be almost
so dampened that the lights have gone out, it almost seems like. He makes war against them. And
He overcomes them. And their dead bodies, verse
8, shall lie on the street of the great city, and we said that
is Babylon, which is the city that stands for false religion,
which spiritually is called Sodom, that's immorality and perverseness,
and Egypt, which is the political powers of the world, where our
Lord was crucified. There are times when the church
of our Lord Jesus is indeed trodden underfoot by her enemies. So much so that all who do oppose
her rejoice. Look in verse number 10. And
they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them. They
rejoice when the gospel isn't going forth with great power
anymore. The voices that set forth Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, it's almost like they're silenced. And they make merry. They have
lots of gladness. They shall send gifts one to
another. Congratulations! This is a celebration. What is
this celebration all about? Because those who believe the
message of grace, they seem to be all but dead. They have almost
been silenced. And they rejoice because these
two prophets, the church, that tormented them, that dwelt
on the earth, it's reached a low ebb. And that's what happens from
time to time in the history of the Christian church. The Lord, oft times, He's pleased to have many
men preaching the gospel. Lots of people believing the
word of His truth. And then there are other times,
according to the purpose of God, it almost seems like nobody's
believing the truth. But a day is going to come. when
the arm of the Lord is going to be revealed. And many will
turn to the truth. Verse 11. And I think this is
what verse 11 is saying. After a specified period of time,
after three and a half days, the Spirit of life from God entered
into them and they stood up upon their feet. God's doing something. What is this? This is revival. That's what I think this is.
This is a revival of the truth. That's the title of the message.
A revival of the truth. That very truth of God. that had for so many years seemed
to be silenced. Though there are little pockets
of believers here and there who believe the truth, yet it almost
seems like nobody is believing the truth. Like Isaiah said,
Lord, who hath believed our report? Who's believing this gospel?
Where are those churches? Where are those voices? Oh, there's
maybe one over here and one over there, but not too many. And false religion rejoices.
But if I understand this correctly, the day is going to come before
the Lord Jesus comes back, when there is going to be another
great awakening. There is going to be a revival
of the very truth of the Gospel. And God will show the world that
this Gospel and His people, religious world thought was dead. They
thought to themselves, nobody believes that anymore. Have you
ever talked to anybody about what you believe about the Gospel?
What the Word of God sets forth? About God's free and sovereign
grace? About election unto salvation
and that successful redemption by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ? And that effectual grace of the
Spirit that draws sinners to the Savior, to the Son of God,
salvation by grace alone, through the Word of God alone that comes
to us through the preaching of the Gospel and received by faith
alone. Have you ever talked to somebody
and they'll say to you, I didn't know anybody believed that anymore. Years ago, I preached my grandfather
Ferguson's funeral. in Bassett, Virginia. First Baptist
of Bassett. First Baptist Church of Bassett,
Virginia. This is several years ago. This
is like in the late seventies. And there was an old fellow that
came up to me after the funeral message and he said, I have not
heard that message in years. He said, in fact, I didn't know
anybody still believed that. And I said, yeah, There are a
few of us. There are a few of us. He said,
there are very few of us still here, but there are some of us
that still believe it. But there are times when God
revives the Gospel. And I believe before Christ comes
back, because in verse number 12, the next verse, they heard
a great voice from heaven singing to them, What does the voice
say? Come up hither. It's the rapture
of the church. This is the Lord taking His people
out. We're caught up together to meet
the Lord in the air. But before that happens, there's
going to be a revival of the truth. And if I understand this
correctly, and I may be wrong. I've been wrong before. Not very
often. In fact, that time when I thought
I was wrong, I was wrong because I was really right. But if I'm
not mistaken, before our Lord Jesus comes back, just before
we hear the voice, come up hither, there's going to be a great awakening. There have been other great revivals
during the history of the church. Why not another? Why not another? But let me say this. Even if
this isn't a worldwide revival of the truth, there is, even
from time to time, a revival of the truth among individuals, among churches, among cities. Some of you were here many years
ago when I believe God brought revival to this city. And he
brought a fellow here, Brother Barnhart, to preach. And then he taught the gospel
in God's good providence to Henry Mahan. And you know what happened? A revival. A revival. And those of you who were here
up until that time, the truth was pretty much dead. Well, who's
preaching that? Even though the Gospel of God's
sovereign grace historically is the message of the Baptist
denomination. And I'm not going to defend the
Baptist denomination, and I'm not going to go back into church
history for you, but I will say this, the Southern Baptists,
Southern Baptist seminary, those old Baptist seminaries, this
is what they all used to believe. This is what we believe right
here. This is what we preach right here. In fact, some of
these old Southern Baptist churches, they don't have any idea about
this, but if they go back in the history of their local church
and go back to their constitution and some of the things that they
believe, they'll go back and find out in absolute shock and
amazement, my goodness, that's actually what our church used
to believe. But that was many years ago. But you see, God can
bring a revival to a city. To a city. And that's what he
does. That's what he does at his pleasure. And one thing about revival.
Now, we're familiar with the word revival. I grew up in a
Baptist church, but we were kind of arrogant. We said, we're not
Southern Baptists, we're fundamental independent Baptists. In fact,
I thought we ought to also put on our church sign, Fundamental
Independent Air Conditioning Baptist Church. Because we actually
got air conditioning in years ago, but we didn't know anything about
the gospel. We had religion. We had our board up. How many we had last year? How
many we had today? How much the offering was? Do you remember those days? All
that kind of stuff? We used to have all that kind
of stuff. But we didn't have the Gospel.
We didn't have the Gospel. But then God, in His mysterious
work, moves us around and He puts us in a position to where
revival comes to us individually. And the Lord does something for
us. And like those two dead witnesses, we were dead in trespasses and
sins. And yet what the Lord does for
us, He takes the Word of the Gospel and He quickens us and
we stand up! We're alive by His grace and
for His glory. Revival. A revival of the truth. That's what I think is being
set forth in verse number 11. And that's what we ask God for. Revival. What I was going to tell you
was years ago when I was in Bassett, Virginia, we used to have revival
meetings. All the time. Boy, we used to
have two-week revival meetings. Did y'all ever have those, two-week
revival meetings? Nowadays, people say, you're
going to have a Bible conference that's going to last Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday? Well, I got news for you. We
used to have them two weeks long. And we called them revivals.
We're going to have revival. We scheduled revival. Yeah, we
scheduled revival. What is a revival? It's a restoration. It's a bringing back. Now, we
would have our special meetings, but it really wasn't revival.
There's a verse of Scripture, I won't ask you to turn to it,
it's Habakkuk chapter 3 and verse 2, but it reads this way, you
might make a note of it. Oh Lord, I have heard thy speech
and was afraid. Oh Lord, revive thy work. Oh Lord, revive thy work in the
midst of the years. in the midst of the years make
known, in wrath remember mercy." Revival. If you start speaking to the
average religious person about revival, they say, oh yeah, we
have our fall revival meeting. We had a good revival. Had a
lot of people there. Revival. But you know what? When men talk about revival,
they typically talk about numbers, excitement, filled with the Holy Ghost, things
of that nature. But revival is when the Lord
brings us to see once again and truth as it is in Christ Jesus. And to see it among the Lord's
people, to see the truth and to warm up to the truth again. To love the truth again. Revival isn't something we can
work up. Several years ago, and this dear
man He's dead and gone. But he was from England. And I doubt if any of you knew
him, and I won't call his name. But he made stops in several
sovereign grace churches throughout the United States. And he came,
I first heard him in Mount Airy, North Carolina. And then I invited
him to come to Rocky Mount, Virginia, when I pastored there. He came
and preached and he preached, much to my dismay, he preached
on revival and the urgency of revival and he in himself tried
to stir up revival. You can't do it. You can't do
it. You see, this is what the prophet
Habakkuk said Oh Lord, I have heard Thy speech, I have heard
Your Word and was afraid. Oh Lord, revive Thy... The Lord has got to do it. And
let me tell you something, we will never have revival by preaching
on revival. That's where so many men miss
it. Did you get that? We will not
have revival by preaching on revival. Revival, if it ever
comes, is going to be through the proclamation of the Gospel. It's through the preaching of
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's the only message God has
ever promised to bless. It's the message that honors
God. It's the message that helps us. It feeds the sheep. It's the message that God uses
to draw the lost sheep into the fold of salvation. It's the gospel. I do believe there is going to
be a return, a revival of the truth before Christ comes, immediately
before He comes. But there have been seasons during
the history of the Lord's Church where He brings about revival
and He doesn't come then. He hasn't come yet. We look for
no signs. We're never told in the Scriptures
to look for signs of the coming of the Lord. And you've got to
remember that. People say, oh, I see what's
happening in the Middle East. I see what China's doing. Boy,
things are really getting ripe. I think the Lord's getting ready
to come back. Our Lord said, an evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after signs. Listen, everything that God has
purposed to do regarding our salvation through the substitutionary
atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ has already been fulfilled. Nothing
yet remains to be done except the gathering of His people into
the fold of salvation. And when that happens, that's
when the Lord's coming back. So don't look for signs. Don't
look for signs. Look for Him. Look for Him. We're not told to look for signs.
Stand, O redeemed people of God. Stand, as it were, upon the very
tiptoes of faith and look unto Him who is coming, who said,
Behold, I come quickly. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. That's what John said. We need a revival of the truth. And I don't know how, I don't know what God will do
in our time, in our generation. And I don't know what He's going
to do in the world. And I don't know what He's going
to do in our nation. And I don't know what he's going
to do in our city. And frankly, I don't know what he's going
to do in our church. But I sure do pray for revival. Here's what
I pray. And it's obvious to me my time
is about gone. I'm going to finish this tonight.
Because I'll tell you tonight some things that are always associated
with revival. But I'll just close the message
out by saying this. I want the Lord to revive me. I want Him to revive me. I want
Him to draw me closer unto Himself and give me a greater fervor
and desire for His glory. I'll tell you this about revival. If it ever comes, This is always
associated with it. We'll seek God's glory. We'll
stop focusing on man. Man won't be in the center anymore.
It will be Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what will happen. And that's the only message that
God's going to use in revival. I'm not going to preach on revival.
I'm going to preach Christ. Exalt Him. Lift Him up. And through
that preaching, I'll tell you what happens. God's name is magnified. Poor sinners, poor sinners, needy
sinners, and you who are needy for Christ Jesus this morning,
I bid you come to Him. He said, come unto Me all you
that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. For some
of you are burdened with sin. I'll tell you who the burden
bearer is and the burden taker away is. That's Christ Himself.
I bid you come to Him. And for the Lord's people, and
the Lord's people in this world, we're a tested and tried people, be much encouraged in Christ
Jesus. Children of God, we have nothing
to be discouraged about. Nothing at all. You know who
sets upon the throne? Our blessed Savior. That's who
rules this world. I was out. Nancy drug me to the
mall the other night. I heard in the background the
singing, joy to the world, the Lord is come. I came back, wrote
that song to that tin. But that song's a he rules the
world with truth and grace. Oh, I'm so glad he does. He rules
the world. That helps my poor heart. I hope
it helps you. He rules the world. Well, let's
sing