I've entitled this message, A
Prayer for Reviving. A Prayer for Reviving. This is a scriptural concept. It's something I know something
about. Lord, revive me. Lord, quicken
me. Lord, restore me. Lord, recover
me. Lord, repair me. All those words are used by that
one Hebrew word in the translation in Scripture. In the 119th Psalm,
16 times. Now that's a lot in one psalm.
I know it's the longest psalm in the Bible, but still, talking
about repetitive. Sixteen times the psalmist says,
quicken me. Give me life. Don't you already
have it? Give me life. Quicken me. Raise me from the
dead. Habakkuk said, O Lord, revive
thy work in the midst of years. The psalmist said in Psalm 81,
quicken us, and we'll call on thy name. Now, hear what he's
saying. I can't even call on your name
unless you quicken me, unless you give me life. Quicken us,
and we'll call on thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of
hosts, cause thy face to shine. I want to see his face shine
toward me, the face of his favor. Now actually, this is the daily
experience of the believer. The cry for life. Now Isaiah is the writer and
his name means Jehovah saves. And in this passage of scripture,
while the word revive or quickened is not used, it's a very poignant
and passionate plea for reviving. That's what he's asking the Lord
to do for him. Now, I was reading some commentaries
on this passage of scripture and I thought it was interesting
that one of the commentators said, well this is, this whole
passage of scripture is the unbeliever under conviction of sin. And
I thought, no it's not, it's Isaiah under the conviction of
sin. It's what Isaiah the prophet
had to say regarding this thing of, I need life. I need you to do something for
me. I don't want you to refrain yourself from me. I don't want
to be left to myself. Now let's begin in verse 15 of
chapter 63. This is where he begins this
plea for life. Look down from heaven. and behold from the habitation
of thy holiness and of thy glory. Look down. Now every believer has a high
and exalted view of God. Look down from the habitation
of thy holiness and of thy glory. Those are words that it's hard
to define. Hard to define. But they're used
with regard to the God of glory. Look down on me. I can't get
to you. Look down on me. Where is thy zeal and thy strength? The sounding of thy bows and
of thy mercies toward me? Are they restrained? I used to
feel them. I used to be aware of them, and
I don't anymore. Are they restrained? Are you restraining your grace
for me, your favor for me? Now that is how Isaiah felt. But look what he says next. He
says, Doubtless thou art our father. Though Abraham be ignorant
of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, no one else may know
it. Thou, O Lord, art our Father,
our Redeemer. Thy name is from everlasting. Now, Isaiah believed that because
he believed the gospel. When darkness veils his lovely
face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale my anchor holds within the veil because my anchor is Christ
Jesus. And he could say even when he
felt like the Lord was restraining himself from speaking to him
and he felt all alone because of redemption. because of the
everlasting name. Now, my marginal reading says,
with regard to verse 16, thy name is from everlasting. My
marginal reading says, our Redeemer from everlasting is thy name.
I like that. Our Redeemer from everlasting
is thy name. You see, he's the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, and this is why I can believe
him to be my father, because My acceptance has always been
in Christ. It's never been any other way,
even in eternity past. His hope of God being his father
was because of redemption, his eternal redemption. Verse 17,
and this is unusual language. Oh Lord, why hast thou made us
to err from thy ways and hardened our heart from thy fear. Return for thy servant's sake,
for Christ's sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. O Lord,
why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? Now, is Isaiah
blaming God for him going astray? Because that's what it means
to err from your ways. He's saying, Lord, why have you
made us to err from your ways. How could you let us go astray? You know, it almost sounds like
he's blaming God, doesn't it? If you read the language on the
very surface, but you know he's not doing that. Here's where
Isaiah is coming from. He knew the only way that he
wouldn't go astray and the only way he wouldn't be hardened is
if God prevented it from happening. Now he knew that and that's why
he's using this language. I know that I will go astray
if you don't prevent it. And my heart will be hardened.
And you know all the Lord's got to do to harden my heart is nothing. Nothing else needs to be done.
Just leave me alone. And that's how Isaiah felt at
this time. He said, why have you made us to go astray? erred from your ways. Why have
you hardened our hearts? You see, he wasn't blaming God
for any of this. He wasn't saying it's God's fault
this took place. But he always recognized and
we always recognize the absolute sovereignty of God, don't we?
Now my sin is all my fault and I wouldn't dare blame it on God.
And I also know that God is in control of everything. And our prayer is returned for
Christ's sake And this is his prayer for the entire church,
the tribes of thine inheritance. Now, the one thought where he's
asking to return, why have you left us to ourselves? The one
thing that a believer cannot deal with is being left to themselves. That's the one thing that I cannot
deal with, the thought of the Lord removing his hand from me
and leaving me to myself. Now, Isaiah felt that way at
this time, and that's why he's saying, return. Return. I can't bear being left to myself. Return for thy servant's sake,
for Christ's sake. Verse 18, the people of thy holiness
have possessed it but a little while, our adversaries have trodden
down thy sanctuary. We are thine, thou never bearest
rule over them. They were not called by thy name.
Now I love this title of the people of God, the people of
thy holiness. What a name. Now if I'm a child
of God, I'm holy and I know whose holiness that is. his holiness,
the people of thy holiness. He has made into us wisdom and
righteousness and holiness. That's the word sanctification,
holiness and redemption. And what a name for the people
of God, the people of thy holiness. I know this, any holiness I have
is his. And I believe that from the depths
of my heart. That's how he entitled these
people. The people of thy holiness have
possessed it. He's speaking of ownership. But
a little while our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary,
thy holy place. Now who are our adversaries? I don't have to convince you.
It's not people. It really isn't. It's my sin,
my sins. Those are my adversaries. Now
he says, we are thine, thou never bearest rule over them. They
were not called by thy name. Oh, verse 1, chapter 64, this
is this desire for reviving. Oh, that thou wouldst reign the
heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might
flow down at thy presence. Now the greatest need of today,
the greatest need of yesterday, and the greatest need of tomorrow
is His presence. Oh, that you'd rend the heavens
and come down. Now when I think of His presence,
You know, in Psalm 42, 5, it says, Thy countenance, lift up
the light of thy countenance upon me. The marginal reading
says His presence, His face, His countenance, His presence
is salvation. And this desire for His presence,
I think of His presence, how I need His presence in every
aspect, in every depth, how I need His presence as my surety. How precious His presence is
when He stood as my surety before time began and took upon Himself
all the responsibility of my salvation. Oh, how I need His
presence. How I need His presence when
He became flesh, when He became a man and kept the law for me
and died for me and put away for my sins. I need His presence
on the cross. I need His presence right now
as my intercessor. How desperately I need Him to
represent me. There's no hope for me if I don't
have him as my intercessor. Wherefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. How I need his presence
on judgment day. Oh, I can't even express how
I need him to answer for me. and to represent me on judgment
day. Oh, that you'd rim the heavens,
that you'd come down, that's his presence, and here's what'll
happen when you come down, the mountains, the high places, they'll
flow down at thy presence. Oh, the mountains of opposition
and the mountains of pride, you come, they'll flow down at your
presence. You see, salvation is of the
Lord. As when the melting fire burneth,
the fire causes the waters to boil, to make thy name known
to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence.
Now, here's why we want him to come down. We want everybody
to know him. We want everybody to tremble at his presence. We
want everybody to be awestruck with his greatness. Only he can
do that. We can tell people about it.
It won't make any sense to them. It won't connect. But oh, if
he comes down. Men will tremble at His presence
and tremble at His name and that's what we desire. We love His great
name and we want that to take place. Don't you want to see
people awestruck at the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ? Where
they actually tremble at His presence, His greatness, His
glory. Verse 3, When thou didst terrible
things which we look not for, Thou camest down, the mountains
flowed down, thy presence now. He's talking about something
that took place in the past. You came down before, you don't change. Would you come down again? And
give us this surprising grace that we weren't even looking
for. We didn't even expect. We were amazed by it. It was
things we weren't even looking for. Would you do those things
for us again? Verse 4, for since the beginning
of the world, Men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither
hath I seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him
that waiteth for him." Now you know this is quoted by Paul in
1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9. As a matter of fact, turn
there. Hold your finger there. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Verse 9, but as it is written,
I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. Now, Isaiah said, them that wait
for him, and we'll get back to that in a minute, but here he
says, for them that love him. I want you to completely, for
just a moment, quit thinking about yourself in any way. Is
that possible? Probably not, but as close as
you can come to it. Quit thinking about yourself.
Quit thinking about whether or not you're saved. Quit thinking
about whether or not you're anything. Just try to quit thinking about
yourself. Do you love the God who is absolutely
sovereign? Do you love it that he's in control
of everything? Do you love the God who saves
by pure, free grace? Do you love the God who accepts
people for Christ's sake and who forgives people wholly for
Christ's sake and has no other reason? Do you love the God who
never changes? Do you love the God who is absolutely
just and will by no means clear the guilty? Do you love the God
who forgives sin? Do you love the God who knows
everything? Do you love the God who is all
powerful? That's loving God. Quit thinking
about yourself. You think about Him, you love
Him. Now, as soon as you start thinking about your love, you
start getting scared, wondering what's wrong with you. But when
you just think of Him, you love Him. Oh, the things that God
has prepared for them that love Him. Now, go back to our text. Isaiah 64, For since the beginning
of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither
hath I seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him
that waiteth for him. Now when Paul quotes it, he talks
about him who loves him, but here Isaiah speaks of those who
wait for him. Now what does it mean to wait
for him? You know, I tried to think of
how in the world can I explain that. And I really couldn't come
up with anything as to what it means to actually wait, but what
really came to me, what does it mean to not wait? Maybe that'll
answer what it means to wait, if you can see what it means
to not wait upon Him. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 13.
1 Samuel chapter 13. Verse 8. And he tarried, king Saul, seven
days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. Samuel
said, you wait here seven days and I'll be here. But Samuel
came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. And
Saul said, now remember Saul's not a priest. Saul's not a priest. Only Samuel could offer up this
offering. And Saul said, Bring hither a
burnt offering to me, and these offerings. And he offered the
burnt offering, and it came to pass that as soon as he'd made
an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came,
and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him. And
Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw
that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest
not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered
themselves together at Mikmash, therefore said I, The Philistines
will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication
of the Lord, I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt
offering. He failed to wait for Samuel. Now, here's what it is to wait
on the Lord. You won't dare come into God's
presence apart from the priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. You won't
offer up anything on your own. You wait for Him. That's what
Saul failed to do. He failed to wait for Samuel. Now, I've already alluded to
this. On Judgment Day, when my name
is called, I'm going to wait for Him to answer for me. Now that's what it is to wait
on the Lord. You wait for Him to answer. You know, I'm waiting for Him
to present my prayers to the Father. I'm waiting for Him to
present my faith to the Father. I'm waiting for Him to present
anything about me to the Father. I'm not coming on my own in any
way because I know I'd have to be rejected. I'm waiting on the
Lord Jesus Christ to do everything for me. That's what it is to
wait on Him. I'm waiting on the Lord to present
me to the Father. I'm waiting on Him to present His righteousness
as my righteousness before the Father. I'm waiting on Him. Now,
oh, the glorious thing that God hath prepared for them that wait
on him. Verse 5, Thou meetest him that rejoiceth. This is the man God meets with,
the man who rejoices, and worketh righteousness, and those that
remember thee in thy ways. Now these are the people you
meet. You meet with anybody who rejoices in Christ Jesus. You
meet with anybody, and I love the way this is put. It doesn't
say anyone who has the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. It's not a piece of paper that
gives me some kind of legal standing. I actually am the one who works
righteousness, if Jesus Christ's righteousness is mine. That's
how real justification is. This describes every believer.
Because of the righteousness of Christ, They are the ones
who worketh righteousness. What a description of a believer.
And what else do they do in verse 5? They remember thee in thy
ways. We remember Christ is the way,
the truth, and the life. Now this is the person you meet.
But now Isaiah goes back to speaking about himself. Behold thou art
wrath. Thou art displeased, for we have
sinned, and in those, and that's a reference to the sins, is continuance. Not many people will make a confession
like that. We've sinned. And in those sins
that we sinned, we have not stopped sinning. In those very sins is
continuance. And it's hard to talk about.
It's hard to talk about. But who in, gosh, I hate saying
it, but I know it's true. Who in here doesn't have secret
sins that nobody knows about but you? the Lord that you continued
him. Now Isaiah is being honest in
his confession. He says, you're displeased with
us, we've sinned and in those sins there is continuance, continuance. And look what he says next and
this is so amazing, and we shall be saved. You know what that
means? That means salvation really is
by grace, doesn't it? Salvation really is by grace. Salvation really is of the Lord.
Now, this doesn't make sin okay in any way. It's simply an honest
confession, but it doesn't make sin okay. Isaiah, somebody says,
well, can a believer continue in sin? Do you? You don't choose it. Please hear
this very carefully. The gospel gives no excuse for
sin. And I cannot look at a passage
of scripture like this and take comfort in my sin. Well, Isaiah
did it. I can be that way too. I can't say, well, the Lord hadn't
enabled me to stop this sin, therefore I can't worry about
it. I mean, I can't do it unless he enables me, so I'll go on in
it. No, no. That's antinomianism. That's a, that's, no, you don't
excuse your sin. You, but you understand the reality. of what Isaiah is saying. Now
the gospel gives us no excuse for sin, but thank God the gospel
is a sinner's religion, isn't it? I love that. The gospel is
a sinner's religion. People talk about, I've said
this before, people talk about good Christians. No such thing
as a good Christian. If you're a Christian by your
own experience, that means you're so evil you can only be saved
by Christ. That's what you say, a good Christian. By that they mean, well, they're
really good people. They don't do this and they do that. That's
foolishness, isn't it? No, the gospel is a sinner's
religion, and that's what he says. Thou art wrath, we sin,
in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. But, verse
six, now this is Isaiah's confession of his own condition, but we
are all, he's speaking as a representative of every believer, we are all
as an unclean thing. Now, in the Old Testament, if
you were pronounced unclean, anything you touched was unclean.
Anyone who touched you became unclean. If you sat on something,
it was unclean. Now what this is a reference
to is a sinful nature. Unclean. Particularly the leper. Unclean. Unclean. We are all
as an unclean thing. What that means is, is everything
we do is unclean. Everything. And look what he
says next. But we are all as an unclean
thing, and all, there's that word all again, all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. And the translators, I've said
this before, the Bible's not family friendly. It makes no
attempt at anything like that. What the word actually is is
minstrelss rags. And if God the Holy Spirit used
that word, I'll use it too. That's what our righteousnesses
are before God, minstrelss rags. Now, if that's our righteousnesses,
what about the bad stuff we do? I mean, it's just, that shows
that everything we do is sin. Even our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags before God. Now this is talking about somebody
who's sinful. This is Isaiah's, we are all,
every one of us. If you don't say amen out loud,
you better be saying it in your heart. We are all as an unclean
thing and our righteousnesses or as filthy rags, and it gets
worse. And we do all fade as a leaf.
What happens when a leaf is severed from a tree? It fades, it dries
up, it gets, well, it just ends up disintegrating, doesn't it?
We all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away. How does a dried up shriveled
up leaves stand before a mighty wind. That's how powerful we
are before temptation, powerless before temptation apart from
your grace. That's what he's saying. It gets worse. We're all zungling things. We
all do fate as a leaf. Our righteousness are as filthy
rags. We're like a dried-up leaf before the wind, and it even
gets worse. Look what he says in verse 7. And there is none that calleth
upon thy name, that stoweth himself to take hold of thee. For thou
hast hid thy face from us, and has consumed us because of our
iniquities. Now here he goes. There's none that even calls
on your name. Romans chapter 3, verses 10 through
12. Four nuns. Four nuns. I'm going to preach
on that one of these days, four nones. There's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understandeth. They're all gone out of the way.
They're together becoming unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. There's none that even stirs
himself up to call on thy name. to lay hold upon thee. And notice
Isaiah blames himself. Thou hast hid thy face from us
and consumed us because of our iniquities. Isaiah takes full
responsibility for his sin. He doesn't say like Adam, the
woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I didn't eat. Nothing
like that. He says this state I'm in, this horrible state of
not even stirring myself up to call upon my name. Romans 10,
13, thank God for that verse. It says, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Thank God for that. But the Lord also said, no man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him.
Those are both together, and Isaiah knew this about himself.
This is his confession about himself. Like I said, I was amazed. Somebody said, this is a sinner
under the conviction of sin. No, it's Isaiah. under the conviction
of sin. And this is what he speaks of.
He said, I can't even call on your name. I can't even stir
myself up. This is how bad I need revived. This is how bad I need
quickened. This is how bad I need for you
to do that for me which I cannot do for myself. I've heard people talk about
things like this. They say, well, if you're dead
in sins, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't recover
yourself unless God enables you. That's true, but I'm gonna cry,
Lord, quicken me, Lord, save me from, Lord, do something for
me. I can't do anything unless you
enable me to do it. But, verse eight, but. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, The
definition of grace is found in the word but. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the spirit of the air, the spirit that now
works in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation
in the times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh or the mind. And we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others." What's next? But God. Not that you turn things around.
not but you called on his name not but you anything but God who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace
you are saved But now, O Lord, thou art our Father. Now, you know how you can tell
whether you're one of these people who can say, now, Lord, thou
art our Father? You know how you can tell whether
that is meaningful when you say that and whether it's real? if
you can say the next line. We are the clay, and thou our potter, and we are
all the work of thine hand. Now here's how I can tell if
God is my father. I'm nothing but clay. and he's
the potter and my salvation is completely 100% the work of his
hand. Now can you say that? I'm nothing
but clay, you're the potter. Hath not the potter power over
the clay? To make of the same lump one
unto honor and one unto dishonor. You believe that? You're clay
in the potter's hand, and you know that your salvation is the
work of his hand. I love what David said in Psalm
138, verse 8. He says with such confidence,
he said, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Well,
how do you know, David? Because thy mercy endureth forever. And then he said, forsake not
the work of thine own hand. I know this. I know this. I'm the work of
His hand. It doesn't have anything to do
with my works. I'm the work of His hand. He says in verse 9, Be not wroth, very sore, O Lord,
neither remember iniquity forever. Behold, see, we beseech thee,
we are all thy people. Now, here's my desire. And this
is the desire of Isaiah, and this is the desire of every believer.
To the Lord, don't even remember my sin. Don't remember it. Look at me as one who has never
sinned. Don't remember any of my sin.
You know, I am amazed. I've been reading about, it's
for Romans 14 when we're gonna be preaching there, or looking
at that next Sunday night. And people keep bringing up the
beam of judgment. The Beeman Judgment. And they say there's
the Great White Throne Judgment, where unbelievers will be judged,
and then there's the Beeman Judgment. And that's where believers will
be judged and they'll be rewarded according to their works, or
they're going to lose stuff because of the bad things they do. And
I thought, where in the... Why would anybody want to believe
anything like that? Where your sins and your shortcomings
are going to be brought up at some kind of judgment day? Where's
the gospel there? I want the Lord to not remember
anything. Their sins and their iniquities, I will remember no
more. And the only reason that He can
remember them no more is because there's nothing there to remember.
That's what the Lord Jesus Christ did for His people. He blotted
out my sin. It's gone. God doesn't remember. Now that's the desire of it.
Don't you want the Lord to look at you like that? Not as remembering
your sin. Remembering what you are. Oh
no, I don't want any, I don't want to have anything to do with
that. I want him to not remember iniquities. We're all thy people. Now look
at this description he gives of himself. Verse 10, thy holy
cities are a wilderness Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a
desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house
where our fathers praised thee is burned up with fire." Something
that's burned up. I picked up some burned up logs
today that had been burned in the fire in the backyard and
I was getting rid of them and I thought, how useless something
like this is. You can't do anything with it.
You can't burn it anymore. You can't use it to build anything.
It's utterly useless. And that was Isaiah's view of
himself, burned up with fire. And all our pleasant things are
laid waste. And then he asked this question. Wilt thou refrain thyself for
these things, O Lord? Wilt thou hold thy peace, and
not speak to us, and afflict us very sore? Well, here's the answer to that. I'm sought of them that ask not
after me. I'm found of them That sought
me not. Now, just the very fact that
Isaiah is asking for these things, Lord's already found it. He put
these things in his heart. Now this, as I said, is a prayer
for reviving. May the Lord put this prayer
in our hearts. And I don't want to leave you
without this. It's real simple. You know how
you'll be revived? By looking away from yourself
and trusting Christ alone. You trust Christ alone? You've been revived. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word. It's such a mirror that shows us what we are. Lord, deliver us from being forgetful
hearers. and going away and forgetting
what manner of men we were, but cause us to continue looking
in Thy Word and seeing Your glorious Gospel, seeing ourselves for
what we really are. And Lord, cause that sight to
cause us to look only to Thy Son. In His blessed name we pray. Amen.