My text for tonight is Psalm
79, but I want us to notice in Psalm 85, once again, let's read
these verses. Lord, thou hast been favorable
unto thy land. Thou hast brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin.
Thou hast taken away all thy wrath, and thou hast turned thyself
from the fierceness of thine anger." Now, it's almost like
somebody different begins to speak in verse 4. Turn us, O
God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Will thou be angry with us forever? Will 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 unto us thy salvation." It's almost like two different
people are speaking, isn't it? The first, he talks about all
that the Lord has done, and then he speaks in misery. Misery. I turn back to Psalm 79. I'd like to read the first four verses
and try to picture in your mind what the Psalm is to say. Oh, God. The heathen. or come into thine inheritance. Thy holy temple have they defiled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. Jerusalem had been ransacked,
and the temple ransacked. The dead bodies of thy servants
Had they been given meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the
flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth? They weren't
even buried. They had birds eating their flesh
and dogs eating them. Their blood had they shed like
water ran about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.
We are become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn. and a derision, a laughing stock
to them that are around about us. Now, I've entitled this message,
Our Need for Revival. Our Need for Revival. We need to be revived, don't
we? Continually. And if we feel like
we don't need it, we need it all the more. I've had Psalm
79 on my mind for several weeks now, and you look at the language
of those four verses, they were in trouble. They were in deep
trouble. And if you have a, I don't know
if it's just a Cambridge Bible, but you know, The summaries of
what said at the top of the pages in your Bible. Look what it says
in over Psalm 79. It talks about the desolation
of Jerusalem. And the miseries of the church. The desolations of Jerusalem
are described here and the miseries. Of the church. Now I am thankful Very thankful for what the Lord
is doing in our midst. I wouldn't dare not acknowledge
his grace toward us and in other places. I believe his blessings
on us, don't you? I know it is. And I'm thankful
for that. And I don't want to fail to acknowledge
that with gratefulness. I'm grateful for what he's doing
here, for what he's doing in other churches. But, I've got
to say but, but do these days line up with what seemed to be
going on in the New Testament? You read the book of Acts. I
think of what they said when Paul went into Thessalonica,
and they said, these that have turned the world upside down. or come hither also." I don't
much think anybody would be saying that of us, do you? Peter preached on the day of
Pentecost, and 3,000 people were brought to a knowledge of Christ
in that one sermon. And a few days later, he preached
another message and another 5,000. were brought to a saving knowledge
of Christ. Through two sermons, 8,000 people
were brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, it was said of Paul the Apostle, wherever he went, there
would either be a riot or a revival. And that's so. It doesn't appear that way in
our day, does it? To simply say God is not moving
like that in our day is correct. But why? Why? Now, I rejoice that God is sovereign. I rejoice that he is the first
cause of all things. I rejoice that he's got an elect
people that he chose before time began, and every one of them
will most certainly be saved. Yea, they already are saved in
the mind and purpose of God. I rejoice in the absolute sovereignty
of God. And I also believe that we should
be asking him, begging him, to send a revival in our midst. Where we pray, revive us again,
O Lord, that thy people may rejoice in thee. If a sermon was preached in our
day, where 3,000 people were brought to a saving knowledge
of Christ, we'd deal with suspicion, wouldn't we? What do you reckon
they were doing? Another reason why I believe
we need revival so desperately in our day is that there is so
little persecution going on. The New Testament indication
of God's blessing is persecution, isn't it? He says, Woe unto you when men
speak well of you, but leap for joy, blessed are you when men
speak evil of you falsely for my name's sake. Blessed are they
that are persecuted for righteousness' sake. That's not talking about
means good work. That's talking about people who
preach the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed are
they who are persecuted for righteousness sake. We just don't see much
persecution going on. I don't. I don't. We could say, well, this generation
is so tolerant, and that's the buzzword of our day. Tolerance.
Toleration for everything. Or we can look at the affluence
of this society we live in. You know, every one of us have
it much better than King Solomon had at his height. He didn't
have running water and bathrooms and air conditioning the way
you and I have. He didn't have any of that. He didn't have to
refrigerate. We have such affluence. Everybody's got everything they
need. I believe we need to. And I'm
saying this to myself, I'm saying this to all of us. Well, the
Lord's not moving in our day like he once did in the days
of the New Testament. Now, you know, that's so. And
it's our fault. It's our fault. The psalmist
acknowledged that the dreadful state of Jerusalem was their
fault. Look what he says in verse 5
of Psalm 79. How long, Lord, wilt thou be
angry forever? Shall thy jealousy burn like
fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen
that have not known thee, and have not called upon thy name.
He's blaming himself. How long, Lord, will you be angry
forever? He knew because of their sin
and their idolatry, he had withdrawn to a great measure his gracious
presence. It's our smallness of faith. It's our smallness of zeal. It's our smallness of passion.
It's our smallness, smallness of commitment. It's our smallness
of real love to sinners that restrains the Lord's blessing. I believe that we can confuse
God's sovereignty with fatalism. Every one of us are in danger
of that. Confusing God's sovereignty with fatalism. And that can be
so paralyzing. Look in Psalm 81 for a moment. Psalm 81, verse 10. I am the Lord thy God which brought
thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide, and I will
fill it." But my people would not hearken
to my voice, and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up
unto their own heart's lust, and they walked in their own
counsels. Oh, that my people had hearkened
unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways. I should have subdued
their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. The
haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him,
but their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them
also with the finest of wheat and with honey out of the rock
should I satisfy thee." Now, you see what he's saying there?
He's saying things that he would have done if we would have opened
our mouth. Why? Like he said, and filled it.
But his blessings were restrained Because of us. And you can see
that I know you can, I mean, look. You know, as we read Psalm
79. In this song. We can read it. As. The misery of the church
and the desire. For her Lord to do something
for, but you know, we can also read it this way. When I read
this 779 song, Oh God, the heathen are coming to thine inheritance,
thy holy temple that they defiled, and they laid Jerusalem on heaps.
I also look at that as my sin. My sin. Defiling. Now, I realize God's holiness
cannot be defiled. God's holiness, a new nature,
a holy nature cannot be defiled. But the psalmist is talking about
how he felt. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about
how he felt. And he felt as if sin defiled him and defiled God's
holy temple. Oh God, the heathen are coming
to thine inheritance, thy holy temple. Have they defiled? They
have laid Jerusalem on heaps, the dead bodies of thy servants.
Have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and
the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth? Their
blood, if they shed like water round about Jerusalem, there
was none to bury them. We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a scorn and a derision, a laughingstock to them that are round about
us. These are the people of God. Why? He says they're making fun
of us. Now, how long, Lord? Wilt thou
be angry forever? Shall thy jealousy burn like
fire? Now he says, pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have
not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called
upon thy name. Now, the way he felt, he felt like the wrath
was coming on him. He says, pour it out on those
folks who have no love for you. Who have not called upon your
name, who have not known you. You know what that tells me right
there, just from that passage of scripture? It's a sin to not
know the Lord. It's a sin. It's a sin to not love the Lord.
It's a sin to not call upon his name. But he said, pour out your
wrath on these people who have not known you and who have not
called upon your name. For they have devoured Jacob
and laid waste his dwelling place. Now, from such a state, the psalmist
asks for nine specific things in the rest of this psalm. You
see how low he felt about the state of Jerusalem. He says,
we're laid waste, we're utterly destroyed. He felt like he had
hit, as a matter of fact, he goes on to say, we're brought
very low, very low. And there are nine things that
he asked for in light of that. And I pray that this will be
our prayer and this will be the things that we'll ask for. And
look in verse eight, here's the first thing he asked for from
this low state. And I can enter into this so
much. Oh. Remember not against us. Former
inequities. If he remembers any iniquities
about us, how can we stand? If thou, O Lord, shouldst mark
iniquities, so after remember them, who would stand? Remember not against us former
iniquities. And some have said that that's
talking about remember not the sins of our fathers and make
us be held responsible for them. I don't think that's what he's
talking about. He's talking about all former and the sins of today.
Don't remember them. The sins of five minutes ago,
don't remember them. The sins of ten years ago, don't
remember them. I'm asking the Lord to not remember
my sin. When the Lord revives you, this
is a great desire you have for Him to not remember your sin. Now, how in the world can my
sin not be remembered? God's got a great memory. He never
forgets anything, but yet He says regarding the sins of His
people, I will be merciful. or propitious to their unrighteousness
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." And the reason he can be forgetful
of my sins is because he said, I will be propitious. Hebrews
chapter 8, I will be merciful. The word is literally perpetuous.
I will be perpetuous. I will remove my reason for anger. My sin became Christ's sin. He was punished in my stead.
His righteousness becomes mine. There's nothing for him to remember.
I don't have any sin. Now, when you're desirous of
the Lord. The first thing you desire is
that your sins might not be remembered. You've got plenty of them and
you know it. And you ask that the Lord would not remember your
sins. And you can only understand that
in light of the gospel. Here is what I need, the non-remembrance
of all my sin. I acknowledge and confess the
reality of them and pray that they might not be remembered.
And the second thing he asks, he says, let thy tender mercies
speedily prevent us. And that word prevent us, precede
us, go before us, for we're brought very low. Now, what are his tender
mercies? That's just another word for
grace. David said, Have mercy upon me, O Lord, according to
Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender
mercies. Blot out my transgressions. His tender mercies are His grace. And I'm asking the Lord, let
Your tender mercies precede me. Let them go out in front of me.
So when You look at me, You look at me through grace. I don't
want You to look at me on my own. I want You to look at me
through grace. May Your gracious mercies precede me. I need electing
mercy to precede me. I need justified mercy to precede
me. I need Him to do these things for me before He looks at me.
I need redeeming mercy to precede me. I need regenerating mercy
to precede me. I need all of His grace, all
of His gifts. I need it all to come before me, because if it
comes after me, I'm in trouble. It's got to be out there in front.
I need His grace to precede me. Let your tender mercies, your
grace, and that's what made David. David was confessing his sin
in Psalm 51.1. He said, Oh, have mercy upon
me, O God, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. blot out
my transgression, not have mercy on me because I'm sorry or because
I asked for it or because I promise I'll never do that thing again,
but do it for your tender mercy sake. I need. Oh, right now, I need his mercy
to go before me. He says in verse nine. Help us. Here's the third thing he asked
for. Help us, oh God, of our salvation. Now, I need you to not remember my
sins. I need your grace to go before me at all times. And I
need your help. I need you to help me. I need
you to help me to believe. I need you to help me to repent. I need you to help me to love.
I need you to help me to obey. I need you to help me. I can't
do it unless you help me. You remember that sorrowful Eastern
woman? The Scripture says she came. You can read about this
in Matthew chapter 15. And she said, Lord, have mercy
on me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. And the Scripture says he answered
her not a word. He ignored her. And his disciples
said, send her away, she's crying after us. And he said, I'm not
sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now here
he says to this woman, in no uncertain terms, I didn't come
to save everybody. There isn't any other way to
take that. Here this woman who had mercy on me says, I didn't
come to save everybody. And you know what Scripture says
she did at that time? Then came she and worshipped him. saying, help me. It didn't run her off. She says,
if you don't help me, I won't be helped. I need your Lord. Help me. Help me. You know, the
Lord is merciful. And grace. Doesn't have anything
to do with the object. He gives grace because he's gracious. But you know, his merciful help
has something to do with the object. He's moved by the need
and the misery of the Lord. Help me. Not Lord. Everything's
OK. Lord, help me. I need his help at all times. For all things, I'm completely
dependent, I can't walk. I can't see, I can't hear, I
can't keep myself clean. I need his help. Lord, help me. Verse 9, Help us, O God of our
salvation. And look at this grand argument. His reason for asking this. Help
us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name. You see, if you help me, you'll
get all the glory. I'm nothing but an object of
mercy. In me being helped by you, everybody will see this
is your glory. It doesn't have anything to do
with me. It's what you did. Help me for the glory of your
name. That's why I say sinners, for
the glory of his name. And we use that argument with
him. If you help me, it would glorify your grace. I mean, you'd
be just if you'd let me go. But how would glorify your grace
if you'd help me? Help me for the glory of your
name. And then next, he says in verse
nine, and deliver us. That word means rescue us. Rescue. Have you ever been in
a situation where the only way you could be delivered is if
somebody came and rescued you? It's over for you unless somebody
came and did something for you. And that's what the psalmist
is saying. Lord, come and rescue me. Rescue me. I'm helpless. Rescue me. Like Peter, when he's
walking on the water and begins to sink, he says, Lord, save
me. Rescue me. Help me, Lord. Deliver me. Deliver me from all my fears.
Deliver me from all my sins. Deliver me. Rescue me. Come down,
bend down, and help me. Look what he says next. And purge away our sins for thy
name's sake. And that word purge is the word
for atone. Cover our sins. Cancel our sins. Disannul our sins. It's the same
word for atonement. That's what the Lord was doing
on the cross. He was making an atonement for
sin. The sins of God's elect became His. He became guilty
of them, and He bore God's wrath for them and put them away. And that's how I can be holy
before God. That's how I can be without spot
before God, because my sins were atoned for, purged away. Hebrews 1, 3 says, He by Himself,
with no help from us, purged us of our sins. Aren't you thankful
for the purging of the Lord Jesus Christ? You know, I can't talk
about the purging of sins without talking about the fact that his
atonement was effectual for the elect. It was not a general trying
to make salvation possible. He put away the sins of everybody
he died for. And we still cry, Lord, purge
me of my sins. Purge me. You know, when you
cry out, purge from your sins, it's because they make you feel
dirty. They make you feel unclean. You're asking that you might
be washed and cleansed and purged. Let your blood be an atonement
for me. Purge me of my sins. For thy name's sake. I love thee. He doesn't say purge me of my
sins because I'm sorry. He doesn't say purge me of my
sins because I'm going to start giving more. I'm going to start
witnessing more. I'm going to start reading the
Bible more. I'm going to start straightening up and flying right
and doing better. No, he says do it for thy name's sake. That
gives him a reason to do it. You see, if you gave any other
reason than that, he wouldn't do it because you wouldn't do
it. Not really. But he does do these things for
his name's sake, for Christ's sake. Purge away my sins for
thy name's sake. Now look what he says in verse
10. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is their God? You all talk about Jehovah? Look
at the missionary. You talk about him being your
God? I don't see where he's doing anything for you. You seem so
weak, and hey, I mean, look at their dead bodies, the fowls
of the air, eating the flesh. So these are the people of God?
He says, Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is there God?
Let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging
of the blood of the servants of thy servants which he shed.
Now, here's what this is saying. He's saying, Don't give the heathen,
don't let him say where is their God, make him say there is their
God by what they see. Do something for us. Don't let
him say this is about his glory. Don't let the heathen say where
is their God. Lord, do something for us so the heathen are forced
to say there is their God. There he is. I mean, unmistakably,
his great works of grace enable Cause that to happen, to where
the heathens say, there is their God. Oh, ask the Lord to do this. Ask the Lord, make it to where
they say. An unbeliever says, there's their
God. There's their God. Quite different from our God.
And they see him clearly. Let him be known among the heathen
in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants,
which is said, now look what he says in verse 11. I love this. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee. Prisoner. If you can walk out of the cell,
you're not a prisoner. If you can't get out, You're a prisoner. You can't get out. You can't pull yourself up by
the bootstraps. You are a prisoner. The door's
locked and you can't get out and you can't get the door opened.
You're a prisoner. And you sit there. An unexpressed desire. that the Lord hears. This sighing of the prisoner
is an unexpressed declaration of your state as a prisoner. Here I am, and I can't get out. But not only is this sigh an
unexpressed declaration of your state, this sigh is also an unexpressed
desire for liberty, for freedom, for deliverance. Let the sighing
of the prisoner... I know exactly what he's saying.
I do. I'm not saying... How do you
explain PSY? It goes beyond human language,
doesn't it? It's an unexpressed feeling in
prison. And you're confessing your state.
And that PSY says, I desire deliverance. I desire you to come and open
these prison cells. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee. According to the greatness of
thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die." Now,
the next thing he asked for is to be preserved. To be preserved. I am scared to death of what
I can do. I really am. It frightens me. I think of what I could do tonight,
right now, if the Lord doesn't preserve me. And it takes the
mighty power of God to preserve me. The only way I can be preserved
is by that same power that raised Christ from the dead. That's
the only way I can be preserved. And I'm asking him, Lord, preserve
me, because I know if you don't preserve me, I'm going to, oh,
I don't even want to. It scares me to death to think
of what I will do without question if you don't preserve me. So,
Lord, I'm asking you to preserve me. Keep me. were kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. Lord, preserve me. And then look what he says in
verse 12. And render unto our neighbors
sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have
reproached Oh Lord, now that almost seems vindictive, doesn't
it? He's talking about his neighbors. He says, give them sevenfold
reproach. I mean, give it to them all the way because of the
reproach wherewith they have reproached thee. Now we'll look
at that and in a way we'll think, well, that's vindictive. I mean,
that doesn't seem very loving. I mean, it seems like you'd be wishing
for their salvation. And I understand that kind of thinking, but the
point is, is when the Lord revises, when the Lord's hand is on us,
we're on the Lord's side. We're on the Lord's side. And
what those people are guilty of are cursing His name and reproaching
Him. And when the Lord revives us
and quickens us, we're on the Lord's side. We're not on man's
side. We're on the Lord's side. I think of what Moses said. He said, every man who's on the
Lord's side, strike every man to the sword. I want to be on
the Lord's side. Whatever side that is, I want to be on the
Lord's side. I'm not on man's side. I'm on the Lord's side.
And that's what the psalmist is saying. He says, render to
our neighbors the reproach wherewith they've reproached thee. We're
on the Lord's side. Now, I'm asking for the salvation
of people, but I understand what he's saying. When someone denies
the gospel, I want the Lord to shut their mouth. I want him
to put him... Paul said, if we are an angel
from heaven preaching any other gospel to you than that which
we preach to you, let him be accursed. Let him be cursed. We're on the Lord's side, aren't
we? When the Lord revises, there's a sensitivity to that. And then
he says in verse 13, so we, thy people, the same ones who are
described in these four verses that have become a reproach,
a scorn and a derision. The same ones who have been defiled
by the heathen coming into their temple. The same ones who having
their flesh picked off by birds. So we, thy people, you do these
things for us. You do these things for us. You
don't remember our sins. You let your tender mercies precede
us, go out in front of us so they're always before us. If
you help us, If you deliver us and rescue us, if you purge away
our sins for your namesake, if you keep the heathen from saying,
where is their God, and saying, there is their God, by the things
you do. Oh, if the sighing of the prisoner
comes before you, if you preserve those that are appointed to die,
if you render unto our neighbors sevenfold unto their bosom their
reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, so we thy people. and the sheep of thy pasture
will give thee thanks forever. And we will show forth thy praise
to all generations." And that's the response to grace. We give
thanks and we show forth His praise. Writer of this psalm, I don't
know who wrote it. I don't know if it was Asaph.
I don't know if it was David. It's not real clear. But whatever,
Jerusalem was a mess when he wrote this psalm, wasn't it?
I mean, the way he spoke of it. And what made me, when I saw
that thing all over my Bible, the desolations of Jerusalem
and the miseries of the church, like I said, I wouldn't dare
discount the Lord's grace among us right here. The Lord is here,
and I'm thankful for that, and I wouldn't dare discount it.
But may we be asking the Lord to do these things for us, and
to do a mighty work of grace in our midst. Well, the Lord
doesn't work that way anymore. Why would we say that? Why would
we say that? Now, he may not. He may not. But it's not going
to be because we're not asking him to and pleading with him
for Christ's sake, for the glory of his name. May the Lord truly
grant us revival. Revive us again. Fill each heart
with thy praise. Let each soul be rekindled with
fire from above. Let's pray.