Might God Yet Grant Revival?

Q: What does the Bible say about revival?

The Bible teaches that revival is a manifestation of God's power and grace to His people, restoring them from bondage and sin. Revival, as mentioned in scripture, is God's sovereign act to awaken His people, manifesting His presence and glory among them. In Psalm 85, the psalmist earnestly prays for revival, acknowledging God's past mercies and beseeching Him to restore joy to His people. Revival is not merely an emotional response or a scheduled event; it is a genuine work of God showing His power to transform lives. In the context of judgment, revival is crucial as it brings about the restoration of a right relationship with God and strengthens the faith of believers in dark days.

Q: How do we know revival is necessary?

Revival is necessary because it addresses the spiritual deadness and corruption that arises when God's people stray from Him. The need for revival stems from the inherent spiritual decay and apathy that can invade the hearts of believers. As seen throughout scripture, such as in Isaiah 63 and 64, the prophets acknowledge the desolation brought about by sin and the longing for God's intervention. When God’s people become complacent or turn to idolatry and wickedness, a desperate need arises for revival. It is a divine call for restoration back to a vibrant faith characterized by worship and obedience, emphasizing the necessity of acknowledging our sin and returning to God for mercy.

Q: Why is understanding God's sovereignty important in revival?

Understanding God's sovereignty is crucial because it assures us that revival is His work, dependent entirely on His will and grace. God's sovereignty assures us that He is in control over all events, including the timing and nature of revival. This understanding cultivates a heart of humility among believers, recognizing that revival cannot be manufactured or forced; it is solely the work of the Holy Spirit. As Isaiah demonstrates in his prayers, acknowledging God's sovereign purpose helps believers submit to His plan, trusting that, in His timing, He will act to revive His people. This reliance on God’s sovereign grace fosters genuine worship and the hope that in darkness, God will remember mercy.

Q: What role does prayer play in revival?

Prayer plays a critical role in revival, as it is the means by which believers seek God's face and ask for His mercy. Scripture shows that prayer is foundational to any movement of revival. It is through earnest prayer that we align our hearts with God's purposes and seek His intervention in our circumstances. In the example of the psalmist and other biblical figures, prayer is characterized by humility, recognition of sin, and a longing for God's presence. Ultimately, prayer is the act of God's people coming together with a unified voice, pleading for a genuine return to Him, trusting that He hears and responds to their cries for help. It is both a response to God's command to seek Him and a posture of dependence that anticipates His work of revival.

I have been praying for four
months that God would give me a proper attitude with regard
to our current political leaders. I ask you to pray that he will
do that for me and for you. There is no question, there is
no question that our nation along with all the nations of the earth,
our nation is a nation under the judgment of God. Now, that's
a big statement. That's a big statement. I don't
make it lightly. As far as I know, throughout
the world, in every nation on this earth that I'm aware of,
in every nation, the wicked rule. Wicked men rule everywhere. Wicked men. Not indifferent men,
wicked men. Wicked men. politicians in every
democratic society, let alone the others, of which I am aware,
openly promote homosexuality, asserting that any objection
to that deviant, ungodly behavior, and I said it deliberately with
emphasis because I want the world to hear what I said, they suggest
that any denouncing of that is bigotry. the politicians, the
leaders of the world, do everything possible to promote fornication,
to promote unwed women giving birth to children, even worse,
to promote murdering inconvenient children. I use the word deliberately,
murdering inconvenient children. Infanticide is a better word
than abortion. They use every means possible,
by law, by education, to eradicate the very mention or thought of
the Lord Jehovah, our God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, as
God the Lord. While at the same time, while
at the same, these are people who are supposed to be promoting
freedom, while at the same time, rushing to pass laws protecting
Islam, Hinduism, and atheism. Yes, the wicked rule everywhere. And when the wicked rule, the
people mourn. Turn to Proverbs 29. Let me show
you something. Proverbs 29, verse 2. When the righteous are in authority,
men like Josiah, David, Solomon, when the righteous are in authority,
the people rejoice. But when the wicked beareth rule,
the people mourn. The word is they moan and groan
and sigh, like the children of Israel under the oppressions
of Egypt. The people mourn. John Gill,
wrote this concerning that statement of Solomon. And he wrote this. This will not be in today's editorial
page, though it looks like it might have been. He wrote this
250 years ago. He said, the people mourn under
their tyranny and oppression because of the state of things.
The number of good men is lessened. Being cut off or obliged to flee,
wicked men and wickedness are encouraged and promoted. Heavy
taxes are laid upon them, and exorbitant demands made, and
cruelty, injustice, and arbitrary power exercised. And no man's
person or property is safe. There's no question. There's
no question. We are a generation under the
judgment of God. We are in dark, dark days, dark
days of well-deserved, well-earned divine judgment. I don't lay
the blame for that upon the self-serving politicians. Frankly, I'm 59
years old almost. I don't expect any better from
politicians. I don't lay the blame on the self-serving politicians. They're only the instruments. by which God executes judgment. They're only the instruments
by which God executes judgment. The blame must be laid elsewhere.
If you'll read the first chapter of Romans with any thought at
all, don't just read the words and get through it quickly, read
it with a little bit of thought and you'll discover that the
blame is to be laid at the doorstep of the religious world. The blame
is to be laid at the doorstep of men who suppress the knowledge
of God, suppress the natural knowledge God has stamped of
his own being on the conscience and mind of every human being. They hold it down. And rather
than worshiping the creator, they worship and serve the creature,
exalting man to the place of God. And the result is all the
evil I've just described. Homosexuality is not the cause
of idolatry. No. Idolatry is the cause of
homosexuality. Read this book. Everywhere you
find idolatry, you find it. Fornication, immorality, the
open promotion of adultery, the disregard for human life. Those
things don't cause idolatry. They are the result of idolatry.
And there is no worst form of idolatry in this world than will
worship. This is the mother of all perversity,
and it always brings divine judgment. If you can't see that, if you
can't see that we're in such a state as I've described, well,
frankly, you just can't see. You just can't see. I know that
what I've just said to this point is not popular and will not be
popularly received. And I'm not here to promote Democrats
or Republicans or independents or anything else of the kind.
I'm here to promote God, Christ Jesus the Lord, his kingdom and
his gospel. But these are the, whom we're
told in Revelation 11, 18, destroy the earth. They destroy the earth with their
religion and with their perversity. But I have a question. This is
my subject. It's worth writing down and it's
worth praying that the answer may be yes. Might God yet grant
revival? Might God yet grant revival? Turn to Psalm 85. Psalm 85. This is the question David asked
in his day. It is a question that faithful
men have always asked in the day in which they live. Faithful
men, as far as I can tell, reading both in the scriptures and in
history, have always been convinced that they're living at the end
of the days, convinced they're living at the end of the world,
and there's a reason for that. The Lord God would have us ever
standing on the tiptoe of faith, looking for Christ to come, living
not for this world, but for another. I don't mean that we should neglect
this world. I don't mean that we should live
irresponsibly in this world. But God would have us to live
in anticipation and in expectation for another world and not for
this. Psalm 85, here is a faithful
man praying, Lord, Thou has been favorable unto thy land. Thou has brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Lord, you've been favorable to
your chosen people. You've delivered us from our
bondage and captivity. Thou has forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou has covered all their sin. What a way to start a prayer.
Lord, you've done this for us. We've not forgotten what you've
done for us. We're not ignorant of what you've done for us. See
now, that is, you sit down there and roll that over in your heart
a while. Verse 3, thou hast taken away all thy wrath. Thank God it's so. He wore out
his wrath on his son. His wrath is completely exhausted. Completely exhausted. I can't
keep up with my wife, never could, but these days I especially can't.
Every now and then I'll say, I'd say, honey, my strength is
gone. I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted. I've got to quit. I can't go
on. But you know what? That's never
really the case. When I say that, I can still
get back there to the bed. I can still, I can still pick up the
covers. I've got a little strength left. When I tell you that God
exhausted his wrath on his son. He's poured out all his wrath. No more wrath in God for his
people. Read on. Thou has turned thyself
from the fierceness of thine anger. And look at verse four.
You can hardly imagine that the same man is making these statements,
but it's in the same song. It's in the same prayer. It's
in the same song. Turn us, O God, of our salvation
and cause thine anger toward us to cease. I thought he wore
out all his wrath. I thought his wrath was all gone.
He took away the fierceness of his anger. Oh, but so often he
appears to be angry, doesn't he? So often it appears that
he's angry with us because he will show his displeasure with
the evil we've done. Wilt thou be angry with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger
to all generations? Lord, are you going to stay mad?
the rest of my life and through the life of my children and my
children's children, will you stay angry forever? Will you
continue to show a frowning face? Wilt thou not revive us again
that thy people, Jacob, your land, thy people whose iniquities
you've forgiven, thy people for whom you've taken away all your
wrath, that thy people may rejoice in thee Show us thy mercy, O
Lord, and grant us thy salvation. Now, as you well know, I don't
talk much about revival. I don't talk much about it because
what most people talk about revival, just nonsense. Every year we
live, we don't just live in the Bible belt, we live in the buckle.
And around here every fall, you'll see church signs up, fall revival,
every spring, spring revival. They've almost quit calling it
that anymore because it's kind of worn out. Now they just get
together and have a big party. They may have a movie to try
to scare folks or a movie to entertain folks. They may have
a concert or an orchestra or some kind of a singing or something,
anything to get folks to come and get a crowd and get a little
money. So they don't use the word revival much. But what people
have called revival historically, that which they speak of as being
evidences of revival, In my opinion, if I understand this book correctly,
are rather evidences of legality and self-righteousness and works,
not evidences of revival. They talk about folks ripping
their shirts open and crying out to God and folks laying on
the floor and rolling around and crying. And they talk about
folks staying home from work and just reading the Bible and
start Sabbath-keeping and start dressing different and talking
different and all those things. I remember the first year I began
pastoring, 1970, in Wilmore, Kentucky. Some of you fellows
were around here. They had what they called a revival down there
at that Arminian Methodist Seminary. And made the newspapers all the
way back in North Carolina over to West Virginia. Made newspapers
in Time Magazine. Read about that revival. Now,
let me tell you something. If the Lexington Herald calls
it revival, it ain't. It just ain't. You can bake on
it. You can bake on it. Nope. Nope. Oh, but it was such
excitement. Movement went everywhere. Nothing
but froth and foam and fizzle. Nothing else. Just we'll worship. I want to talk to you about revival.
Wilt not thou revive us again? that thy people may rejoice in
thee. O Lord, I've heard thy speech and was afraid, the prophet
said. O Lord, I've heard your speech. I've heard your speech. I've
heard the speech of your providence and was afraid, afraid for your
cause, afraid for my family, afraid for our sons and daughters,
afraid for the generations ahead. I've heard your 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. Might God yet grant revival? When I use that word, I'm talking
about God manifesting himself to his church. I'm talking about
God showing his power. his greatness, his glory and
his grace in such a way that it can't be mistaken. I'm talking
about God showing himself to be God and showing himself distinctly
to be our God. I'm not talking about religion. No, I'm talking about God showing
himself distinctly to be our God in this day of darkness.
Such revival. sometimes comes to just one person. You remember when Paul was at
Corinth in Acts chapter 18, man, he was a whipped pup. He was
a whipped pup. I've been there many times. He
was ready to give up, ready to quit. What am I doing here? And the Lord came to him and
he spoke to him distinctly in such a way that Paul couldn't
mistake it. He said, Paul, you're mine and I'm yours. And I've got much people in this
city get to work. Sometimes such revival comes
to just a family. There was a man by the name of
Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 to whom God sent his prophet
and poured out his spirit. Sometimes it comes to just a
few churches in a given area as in Acts chapter 15. Occasionally, there have been
periods of time when God sent sweeping revival to his church
at once all over the world. The Protestant Reformation has
to be considered such a time. God showed himself against the
blasphemies of papacy and showed himself for those men who maintain
the truth of his sovereign free grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. You young people, I don't know
what to teach in schools anymore, but if they don't teach it in
your history books, go get your parents' history books. And it
can't be ignored. The great awakening has to be
such a time. Of course, in the midst of these
things, there are satanic delusions, but God sent his word powerfully. powerfully around the world,
through men like George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Asa Hell-Mettleton,
and right here in Central Kentucky. From, oh, the middle 1800s, or
1700s, I'm sorry, middle 1780s, up through about 1805, Right here in Lexington, the
Lord was pleased to have a tremendous stir, and there weren't but about
a half a dozen gospel preachers in the whole state, but a tremendous
movement of his spirit. I know this, God promises that
if his people worship him, he'll do this work. He promises it. If my people, which are called
by my name, he said, shall humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now, that
doesn't mean that my people will decide we're going to start praying
for revival. We'll pray it down. You can't
pray it down and you can't stir it up and you can't cause God
to do it. This is God's work. But God promises
Larry Brown, if we'll worship him, he'll revive us. If we'll
walk in his path, turn toward his holy temple, that is set
our eyes on Jesus Christ crucified, set our eyes upon Christ the
Redeemer, set our eyes on his glory. He will hear from heaven
and he will revive our land. That's his word. And I'm not
talking about this land called America. I'm talking about this
land called the church and kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Lord. I
don't talk much about revival because I know, contrary to that
which men teach, that which brings revival is not talking about
revival. That which brings revival is talking about Christ. And
we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I know something
else. We read it in Revelation chapter
11. God will in this day of the world's greatest darkness, simultaneously,
right at the same time. God will, in this day, perform
a great work of mercy, reviving his witnesses, reviving his church,
and causing his word to go forth in power. In this message, I
want us to go through Isaiah's prayer. If you will, turn to
Isaiah chapter 64. We'll begin in chapter 63. And in this great
instructive prayer, just hold your Bibles open at Isaiah 63.
We'll start at verse 15. Isaiah teaches us how we ought
to walk before God and worship God and how we ought to seek
the Lord our God. And as we do, God promises he
will revive his people. Oh, may God, the Holy Spirit,
speak by his word to your heart. Without question, we have before
us a prayer uttered by God's prophet on behalf of God's people
during a time of terrible judgment, a time of calamity. God sent
judgment upon the nations around them, but he sent judgment upon
the nations around them because he comes to correct his people. His purpose is not the benefit
of the nations, but the benefit of Israel. And the Lord God stirs
up his prophet to pray for Israel's deliverance from their great
enemies. They had been brought into such
straits because of their own sin. God had left them. Not really. Not really. He's
not going to leave you. But he's going to make you think
he's left you. He'll convince you he's left you. He sent them
into bondage. He sore afflicted them because
of their sin. And now the prophet pleads with
God. Remembering what God had done in the past. Remembering
how God had behaved toward his people in days gone by. Remembering
how merciful God had been. He takes that as an inspiration. He takes that, this is the thing
that stirs him up. He says, God, this is what you
did yesterday. I expect you to do this tomorrow.
If this is how you behave with your people of old, I expect
you to behave this way with your people in the days ahead. It
is as though the prophet were saying, where is the God that
brought us out of Egypt? Where is the Lord God who put
His Holy Spirit in us, who brought us into the land of Canaan, who
drove out our enemies before us? Where is God who caused us
to dwell in safety? to make himself a great and a
glorious name. This prayer, we look at it here
line by line, it reminds me of Calper's old hymn. Where is the
blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the
soul-refreshing view of Jesus in his word? Return, oh, holy
dove, return, sweet messenger of rest. I hate the sins that
made thee born and drove thee from my breast." All right, let
me show you seven things. Verse 15, Isaiah 63. In these
dark days, children of God lay hold of and claim God's covenant,
as Isaiah does here by faith. Look down from heaven and behold
from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory, where is thy
zeal? Lord, where is the zeal that
you've shown for your people? Where is thy strength? Where
is the sounding of thy bowels, the stirring of your inmost being
and of thy mercies toward me? Are they restrained? Are you holding back your strength,
your favor, your mercies? Are you holding back the zeal
that calls you to act as you've acted in the past? Now, watch
this. Doubtless, doubtless, regardless
of circumstances, no matter what I read in the
paper this morning, And no matter what I read tomorrow, no matter
how bad the news seems to be, doubtless, thou art our Father. Abraham didn't know us and Israel
didn't acknowledge us. Though Abraham be ignorant of
us and Israel acknowledge us not. Thou, O Lord, art our Father,
our Redeemer. Lord God, you're distinctly ours. Because you redeemed us. You
distinctly, our Redeemer, you purchased us. Thy name is from
everlasting. And as His name, the Lord, Jehovah,
our Redeemer, is from everlasting, our name is from everlasting,
for our name was written on His heart and in His hands from everlasting. You've been our Redeemer since
everlasting. Now be sure, to take notice that
throughout this prayer, Isaiah carefully, carefully speaking
for God's people. He constantly, carefully acknowledges
God's sovereignty and their guilt, God's gracious redemption and
their helplessness. He teaches us to acknowledge
that judgment as surely as grace is God's work. Did he not say,
I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil?
Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Verse 17. Why has thou made us to err from
thy ways and hardened our heart from thy fear? Did God do that? If it's done, Frank Riley, Frank
Riley, Frank Hall, God did it. God did it. But he's talking
about Our ways. I'm talking about our sin. Our
hardness. Our corruption. Displaying two
things. God's purpose is being accomplished. God is performing his will. And
we're responsible for our own sin. Return for thy servant's
sake. Plural. Lord, I'm speaking now
not just for me. I'm speaking for your people
here in the church. Speaking for your holy nation.
I'm speaking for Zion your servants return for thy servants sake
the tribes Look at this of thine inheritance. The Lord chose Jacob
for his inheritance, didn't it? Well, you chose us to be your
special inheritance return for the sake of your inheritance
this prayer for God's gracious intervention Isaiah saying Lord
God build up your kingdom and Save your people, gather your
outcasts, gather your elect, reveal again your mighty arm. Make yourself known as our God. Verses 18 and 19, it says, take
pity on us. We're your people. Notice how
it describes us hard-hearted, callous, cold, sinful, corrupt
people. The people of thy holiness. the people of thy holiness. You
chose us. You redeemed us. You called us. We're yours distinctly,
peculiarly your people. And yet we're in utter desolation.
Our enemies and yours trample under their feet your sanctuary,
your worship, your altar, your sacrifice, your son, and your
people. Second, in chapter 64, Isaiah
teaches us by example to pour out our hearts to God in earnest
prayer, constantly seeking His manifest presence, constantly
seeking the revelation of His power, of His goodness, and of
His grace. Oh, that thou wouldst rend the
heavens, that thou wouldst come down. In chapter 63, he said, Lord,
look down. Now he says, Lord, Since you've
looked, come. Come down. Bend the heavens and
come down. That the mountains, mountains that are foreboding,
fearsome, high, heavy, hard obstacles before us might flow down at
thy presence. Lord, take this mountain and
cast it into the sea. Cause it to melt like water before
you. As when the melting fire burneth,
the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known
to thine adversaries. We know your name, now make it
known to those folks who oppose us, that the nations may tremble
at thy presence. When thou didst terrible things
which we look not for, thou camest down. He came down at Sinai,
and the mountains flowed down at thy presence. Let God arise. Let God arise and his enemies
be scattered. Isaiah pleads what God has formerly
done as an indication that God will yet do the same. Oh, what
I thought. What I thought. Here's the third
thing, verses four and five. Let us stand in awe and bow to
God's gracious, wise purpose. If he turns and manifest himself
in great power, if he turns to revive his work, we will stand
in awe, bowing before his august, holy sovereignty. And we will
adore his purpose. And if he refuses. If he leaves things as they are
and they continue to get worse, if he continues to hide his face
from you and if he leaves you with hardness you can't escape
in captivity as his prisoner, we will still bow before his
throne and adore his purpose. It's good and it's right. Look
at verse four. Since the beginning, for that
is, we ask these things and we plead as we do for since the
beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by ear. Neither have I seen, O God, beside
thee. Now, I really just noticed those
two words this morning. I started looking over my notes
early this morning, but oh about one o'clock I was looking over
these notes again. Beside thee. Beside thee. Nobody else has
seen. Nobody else has got a clue, but
you do. You do. Nobody's seen beside thee what
he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Who's he talking
about? Thou meetest him that rejoiceth
and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy ways. Well, let's see if I qualify.
Lord, you promise here that these good things you prepared and
laid up in heaven for your people are things that you will give
to those that wait for you. And here they are, you meet those
that rejoice, and work righteousness and remember you in your ways. Well, I don't spend a lot of
time rejoicing. My rejoicing is not perfect.
And I dead sure don't work righteousness. And I don't much remember God
in his ways. If I did, I wouldn't be in such
a state. Well, maybe I do. We are the circumcision. We are
the true people of God. who rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh, the people who believe on the
Son of God. We're His people. We're at the
true circumcision. Do I rejoice? Oh, yes. I boast in Him. I rejoice in Him. I trust in
Him. Do I perform righteousness? Do
I work righteousness? By faith, we establish the law. Do I remember him? Yes. Faith is nothing less than the
remembrance of him. Now, look at this again. Like
the psalm we read in Psalm 85, Isaiah here doesn't even break
the sentence. And it looks like the two phrases
can't possibly be spoken by the same man at the same time. Behold,
thou art wroth, for we have sinned, and those is continuance. Lord,
we believe you. We trust you. We know that you've
prepared great things for us. And you meet us, and you hold
us. But you're angry because we've
sinned, and we sin constantly. And look at the next slide. But. Anybody here got a translation
of scripture that reads but? That's the word I would expect,
Oscar. But. That's not what it says. It says
and. And. And we shall be saved. Hear me, children of God. We're
going to get through this all right. Hear me, sons of God,
whatever it is you now must experience, you're going to get through this
all right. Whatever is that heavy load, God in his providence,
wisdom and goodness has laid on you. You will get through
this all right. And you'll come out the other
side just fine. I often think about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
cast into the burning fire furnace. And when they were cast into
that furnace, what a horrible, horrible, horrible heat. What a horrible, horrible, horrible
apprehension they must have had as they're about to be cast in
that furnace, bound hand and foot. And as horrible as the
fire was, by which many others were destroyed, those three men,
the only thing that they found as a result of the fire was their
cords were burned up. That's the only thing. That's
the only thing. Will you hear me? When God sits as the refiner
and puts you in the furnace, you lose nothing but dross and
nothing but cords. We shall be saved. Isaiah acknowledges
we have no claim, and let us acknowledge we have no claim
on God because of any goodness of our own, for we've sinned. But that doesn't diminish our
confident faith in him. Number four. How should we worship
God in this day? Let's talk less. God, teach me
this. Let's think less about the evil
around us and more about the evil within us. Less about the evil in the White
House and in the Senate and in the Congress and more about the
evil in our hearts. Less about the corruptions of
society and more about the corruptions of our souls. Less about the
wickedness of others and more about our own. And I'll tell
you what that'll do. It won't get it all, but that'll
take a good bit of starch out of you. That'll make you think
different. Take your place in the dust before
Him. Watch this, verse six. But we
are all as an unclean thing. That which is unclean is unfit
to worship God. And that's where we are by nature.
I caught my son-in-law looking at me. That's where you are.
You're unfit to worship God. Me too. The unclean were shut
out. They couldn't go to the temple.
The unclean couldn't go to the tabernacle. The unclean couldn't
bring a sacrifice. The unclean couldn't come worship
God. They had to be shut out in an unclean place until they
were made clean. All our righteousnesses. Not the righteousnesses of that
fellow that we're worshiping after. Not the righteousness
of that fellow who's offering his son or his daughter as a
sacrifice to God. No, no. All our righteousnesses,
Lindsay. yours and mine. All our prayers,
all our worship, all our giving, all our church attendance, all
our Bible reading, all our deeds of righteousness are as filthy
rags. For you who have sensitive ears,
stick your fingers in your ears. Our righteousnesses are like
a rotting minstrel's cloth. That's the word. Thank God for another righteousness. Thank God for the righteousness
that's ours in Christ. We do all fade as a leaf. The
pinnacle out here in front holds on to its leaves longer than
any other tree in the field. When the leaves start to bud
out this spring, that pinnacle will still have some of its leaves
hanging on it. That'll be stripped bare. But
the ones hanging on the tree are just as ugly as ones laying
on the ground. They're withered and dried. That's how we are. We're as withered, dried leaves
hanging on a tree in the dead of winter. Our iniquities, like
the wind, have taken us away. The wind comes and blows away
the leaf. It blows it away. We're quickly
blown away. from our God and his worship
and his throne, his praise, his adoration by our iniquities. Not things that yonder, but what's in here quickly taken
from him. There is none that calleth upon
thy name. The word is worship him. that
stirreth up himself to take hold of thee." I keep trying, but
I can't stir myself up to take hold of him. But every now and
then, Phil, he stirs me up to take hold of him. Oh, God, will
you come and stir up my soul to take hold of you? Thou hast
hid thy face from us and has consumed us because of our iniquities. Now look at verse 8. that which
follows is genuine humility. But now, O Lord, thou art our
father, we are the clay, and thou our potter. We are all the
work of thy hand. God's sovereign, and we're nothing. He's the potter with the clay
in his hands. He can do whatever he wants to
with us, with you and yours, with me and mine, and he's answerable
to none. Whatever he does is right. It's right because he does it.
Number six, let us recognize what we need is unfailing forgiveness. Revival, whether it be the revival
of my soul for this day, no, that's too much to expect. the
revival of my soul for this brief hour, or for a few hours, or
for today, or whether it's the revival of the whole Church of
God at once. Revival is the sweet experience of forgiveness. Verse 9, Be not wroth, very sore,
O Lord, Neither remember iniquity forever. Behold, see we beseech
thee. We're all thy people. Thy holy
cities are wilderness. Zion is a wilderness. Jerusalem's
a desolation. God, we're empty. Oh, we're so
empty. But we're yours. We're yours. Now, watch this plea. A plea
God can't resist. That's a pretty good statement,
isn't it? A plea God can't resist. If I were going to court for
something, I would sure like to find a plea. Before ever the
jury was seated, I'd like to find a plea that would so effectually
reach that judge's mind that he couldn't resist it. Here's
a plea God can't resist. Oh, blessed God our Savior. We've
got to have you. We've got to have you. Our plight
is desperate. We can do nothing about it. We
can't help it. We can't change it. We've got
to have you. Verse 11. Our holy and beautiful
house. You can just picture Isaiah. according to the temple laying
over there where it used to be. Our holy and beautiful house,
your house, where our fathers praised thee, where men used
to worship you, is burned up with fire, and all our pleasant
things are laid waste. Lord, that brazen altar of sacrifice,
that brass laver of cleansing, that table of showbread, that
candlestick, Christ, our sacrifice, your sweet cleansing grace, Christ,
the bread of life, Christ, the light of the world, our mercy
seat, the revelation of your glory, our pleasant things are
laid waste. They've been melted down and
used by the heathen. Wilt thou refrain thyself for
these things? Lord, will you hold yourself
back? When I tell you these things,
oh Lord, wilt thou hold thy peace and afflict us very sore? When
our beautiful house, our beautiful house, our worship of God, our
beautiful house where our fathers worshipped you, our pleasant
things, all those things that give us joy, Lord, will you still
not hear our prayer? Will you refrain yourself? No, never, never, never. I'll come back to the subject
another day, Lord willing. The fact is, if you read the
11th chapter of Revelation again, you'll discover that right smack
dab in the middle of this horrible apostasy, God raises up his two
witnesses, raises up the witness of his church. and causes his
people to revive as only he can. And we are living smack dab in
the midst of both. Smack dab in the midst of both. There's never been a better day.
There's never been a better day in which to live and worship
and serve our God than this day. Brother Don, do you really believe
that? With all my heart. I'm excited to see what God is
pleased to do before I wake up tomorrow morning. Because right
here in the midst of the years, the Lord God in wrath yet remembers
mercy. And he is reviving his people,
his gospel, and his kingdom to the glory of his name. Amen.

Might God Yet Grant Revival?

What does the Bible say about revival?

How do we know revival is necessary?

Why is understanding God's sovereignty important in revival?

What role does prayer play in revival?

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Might God Yet Grant Revival?

What does the Bible say about revival?

How do we know revival is necessary?

Why is understanding God's sovereignty important in revival?

What role does prayer play in revival?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

Comments

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