Reviving the People of God

Can you hear me okay? Okay. All right. Most important thing of all. Okay, as we gather to worship
our God today, my prayerful plea is for all to hear what the word
of the Lord has to say to us about the reviving of the people
of God. Let’s pray. O Father, our pure, merciful,
just, righteous, and all-holy God, we pray that we will hear
and apply the words presented to your people from your word.
I also ask that your word would be truly heard by those who are
not yet of your people. Revive our hearts. Show us through
the filling of your Holy Spirit what it means to be revived,
focused on the expansion of your kingdom while being transformed
into the likeness of Christ. I pray that you can use my words
to reach the minds, the hearts, and the wills of those listening.
Amen. Our text for today is Isaiah
57, 15. So if you wanna turn to there, we’ll read that here
momentarily. Isaiah 57, 15. For this is what
the high and exalted one, who lives forever, whose name is
Holy, says, I dwell in a high and holy place, and also with
the contrite and lowly of spirit, in order to revive the spirit
of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. A year
or so ago, God laid it on my heart to do a series of sermons
that would speak to us about the love that our God has for
us and what he has called us to do and how we are to do it.
These other sermons, they’re on Sermon Audio, are part of
a series that sought to impart the vital understanding that
we are to fulfill in our calling. These sermons included the topics,
the Great Commission, which was entitled Go Forth, covered prayer,
entitled Why Pray, learning about God, entitled The Holiness of
God and Knowing God, and then seeing ourselves for who we truly
are, entitled The Sinfulness of Sin. These were the precursors
to this sermon on reviving the people of God. God willing, I
will deliver the final sermon in this series on Sunday, July
21st, and it’s entitled Abiding in Christ by the Holy Spirit.
This sermon today will address the definition of reviving and
revival, give a short history of both, look at the characteristics
and the means of preparing for being revived. Reviving is key
for each and every believer that sits at the heart of the process
of sanctification or becoming more like Christ of each and
every believer. All believers need reviving of
some kind throughout their lives. We can see that the church has
needed much reviving to her first love throughout history. First,
I want to make clear that God has given all we need to be personally,
constantly revived. We simply do not use the gifts
we have been given Though the modern church tells us to pursue
emotive or emotional experience with little mental effort, the
Bible does not say this. We are commanded to pursue God,
to know him and obey him. We have become lazy, comfortable,
and dull, and we’re not trained or disciplined by the word of
our God. We are living as if in a coma. There is nothing new
under the sun. The problems today are not new.
Certainly, there is a difference in degree, especially with technology.
Man is still sinful, self-absorbed, and narcissistic, as he always
has been. He is comfortable, living in plenty, and is fully
diverted and entertained. I would argue that few know what
it means to be a truly disciplined disciple that strives to follow
Christ. So what is revival? To begin with, let’s keep in
mind that there are two aspects to revival that we’re speaking
to. There’s the personal and the corporate. The personal speaks
to the individual, while the corporate simply means in and
beyond the church. We must be clear that personal
reviving comes before the corporate, not the other way around. This
is a crucial distinction that we’ll review in a bit. We should
always be pursuing to be revived personally as part of our sanctification. There have been two principal
definitions through history for the meaning of revival. From
the early church in the 1800s, revival meant the condescension
of God through his Holy Spirit based on his sovereign action.
God determines if, when, for how long and what the impact
will be of this condescension of the spirit. These seasons
of awakening could last days, weeks or even years. And they
mostly originated with individuals within the church. In the 1800s,
we begin to see the change in this definition of biblically
defined revival to revivalism. Revivalism was revival based
on the methods, events, and the schedules of men. Man determined
when the revival was supposed to occur. This is the principal
definition as understood by the church today. Revivalism could
include tent meetings, miracles, healing, speaking in tongues,
et cetera. Whatever the manifestation, the focus is on the methods,
organization, and the efforts of man. Joel Beeke, he provided
three helpful views of revival for me. The revival I have labeled
renewal. Renewal doesn’t see any special
visitation by the Holy Spirit beyond our individual personal
reviving. Reviving is not viewed as a special
season under this type. It is the way the church and
believers are always to behave. This was a view of the Dutch
Reformed. The second type of revival I have labeled emotive. This type believes that man is
the Holy Spirit. The occurrence of this type of
revival is conditionally based on the obedience of man. So the
obedience of man is the determining factor. There are a variety of
views, but they are very man-centric in the application of methods
and the tools of man. This essentially puts this Holy
Spirit on demand at the direction of man. A big proponent of this
approach was Charles Finney. This type’s moved beyond the
clear teaching of Scripture on many doctrinal points. You often
find fake apostleship, female pastors and leaders, and other
social aspects embedded and present in these movements. This is not
to say that there are not many sincere people or believers within
these different types, but they are misled and not accountable
to the Word of God as a premier authority, despite what they
might profess. The third type of revival I have labeled as
sovereign. This approach follows the biblical example from the
first century through today. The work of the Holy Spirit,
when it descends, is determined by God alone. The Holy Spirit
is in full control, not man. And there is also often a winnowing
process of individuals after these seasons of reviving to
weed out false professions and unbiblical manifestation. This
again is a matter of degree, not in kind, from what is experienced
by true Christians in their lives each and every day. This approach
was followed by John Owens, Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Davies, Martin
Lloyd-Jones, J.I. Packer, and Ian Murray. The biblically
orthodox approach is the third one that stresses the sovereignty
of God and the Holy Spirit. The emotive type puts man on
point while claiming the Holy Spirit is supporting actively.
This variation is most notably manifested in emotion versus
dependence and submission on God’s word. The renewal type
can be stifling, it can be cold and even dead. It can very much
be the work of the Holy Spirit with suspicion. Because of the
focus of man, these two approaches can fairly be viewed as being
based on pride versus the humble, submissive aspect of the sovereign
type, which is totally dependent on God’s sovereign action with
his Holy Spirit. Let’s look at a short historical
review of revivals in America. There have been many in the life
of our nation, though they have become very rare and isolated
since the middle 1800s. The Great Awakening lasted for a few years
in the early 1700s and encompassed a smaller group of people within
New England at the time. The Second Great Awakening lasted
for a few decades and was spread over a much larger area in the
very late 1790s into the early 1800s. These awakenings were
of the sovereign type. These were truly reviving and
transformational for God’s people, as well as for the unconverted.
These were led by the Holy Spirit as the wind blew, directed by
God. These revivals were validated
by the Church, as well as society as a whole. Many were awakened
by the Holy Spirit, and people were impacted personally. There
was opposition, principally by the Church. And those following
the renewal type to the reviving from day one, especially with
the Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening impacted a much
larger number of people, spread across most denominations in
existence at the time. Out of the Second Great Awakening
came many of our missionary organizations that we have today, and other
differing denominations that sprung up in the early to middle
1800s. This is not to say that the awakening
caused it, but the sensitive environment to religion seems
to have allowed Satan to rapidly drive divisions through many
false teachings at the time. Mormonism, Pentecostal Wesleyanism,
or Christian perfection, Pentecostalism under Finney, Millerites, which
were Seventh-day Adventists, among others, all sprang out
of this revival period. The point is that out of the
Second Awakening there was a change in the understanding of the sovereign
revival type to revivalism as found in the emotive type. We
can see this clearly today. We also see that many are terrified
of the word revival because they assume what is meant is this
man-centric emotive type that has little or no support biblically
and is highly suspect in its credibility. Tragically, the
end result is suspicion of the Holy Spirit and His work. My
prayer is that we will understand what true revival is and that
we will zealously pursue that. So now let’s take a look at Isaiah
57, 15. And I will start by reading there
again. For this is what the High and
Exalted One, who lives forever, whose name is Holy, says, I dwell
in a high and holy place, and also with a contrite and lowly
of spirit, in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to
revive the heart of the contrite.” In this first part of this passage,
we see the eternality and the holiness of God is stated clearly. We can see that this is for his
glory, as well as to reassure us and strengthen our faith.
It’s vital that we understand this. Here we see who God truly
is, and then we see his loving condescension or support and
loving guidance for his people. In the second part of the passage,
I dwell in a high and holy place and also with the contrite and
lowly of spirit. It’s fascinating to me that this
is called out here, that he dwells in heaven, but also in another
place. We saw that in the temple, and in the New Covenant we see
that ceiling within each believer. And here we do see the New Covenant
foreshadowed. The ceiling of the Holy Spirit
in his people. The contrite and lowly-spirited, low-spirited
are his people. Contrite comes from the Hebrew
word dakah, one that is as true sorrow and pain over their sin.
They are truly repentant. And when I was reading through
on this, it became crystal clear. This is more than remorse. Repentance
is much more than just remorse. It’s that true sorrow and pain
over your sin and how it has offended our holy God. lowly
of spirit, from the Hebrew Shafal Ruach, is a low status person
in spirit, so very humble. What do his people understand
about him? To be his people is to know that
true sin, what it is, and are rightful standing before him.
His people are to be contrite and lowly of spirit. and the
third part of that passage, in order to revive the spirit of
the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. He dwells in
heaven and in his people. He tells us it is in order to
revive the spirit of the lowly and the heart of the contrite.
What does reviving mean? To revive is from the Hebrew
word. Let me get this off. Sorry, all you Hebrew scholars
out there. Ha-ya, ha-ya. To give a new life or energy,
to revive, recover, and return to life. It can even mean from
death to life. And I believe this speaks to
salvation, that initial reviving of the unbeliever unto salvation.
It affects us both physically and spiritually. This reviving
is to give us more than we currently have beyond our feeble spiritual
contentment of today. It’s to take you where you should
always be. Think of this reviving as sort
of a baseline, the line where we should be versus where we
are. Obviously, this is likely to be different for each person,
and varying degrees of reviving are needed through different
parts of our life, through different challenges, salvation, and tests. We need reviving due to various
issues and in varying levels for each of us because of sinning,
our indifference, our lack of prayer, our lack of engagement
in the Christian life and fellowship, works he has made for us or worship.
And for the unbeliever, they are literally revived through
regeneration. They are sealed by the Holy Spirit.
Their reviving is from death unto life. Except for the newly
converted regenerated believer, reviving can only occur for a
true believer. This true believer is one who
has been regenerated by God, repented of all sin, and is continuing
to do so, exercising faith in Christ given to us by God. We
have the Holy Spirit within us, sealed at regeneration and salvation. So the holy work is in us and
works through us for our sanctification, becoming more Christ-like throughout
our life. So why do we need to be revived
if the Spirit is within us? During the life in our flesh,
we are in a continuing state of needing to be revived due
to the new sin, to the cares of the world, complacency, and
indifference. Surely reviving is also needed due to a lack
of faith, prayer, and imbibing of His Word. Reviving of the
spirit can be a very contentious issue because there is much false
teaching out there that can affect both ends of the theological
spectrum. At one end, we might have the views and practices
that can quench the spirit by those who are so afraid of the
work of the spirit that they end up blocking it. At the other
end of the theological spectrum, it can also discourage, mislead,
and misrepresent the Holy Spirit and His work by proclaiming and
following non-biblical instruction. This can cause much division
and can even lead to the exasperation of the Holy Spirit as He works
in us and in the church. So God tells us He dwells within
us and desires to revive us, but we need to be sure of who
He truly is and who we truly are for that to work effectively. In reviewing Isaiah 57-15, we
now need to look at some supporting passage to add additional clarity.
There’s a lot of passage work here that we’ll walk through,
just so you know after the service there will be outlines in the
back so you don’t have to try and note through these as I know
some of you like to do. There’ll be an outline in the
back afterwards. Isaiah 66-2 is our next passage. For my hand made all these things. So all these things came into
being, declares the Lord. But I will look to this one,
at one who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at
my word. As we saw in Isaiah 57, 15, God
is here to revive the humble and contrite spirit. He also
tells us who he’s looking to help. That humble person, not
arrogant or prideful, meek or modest, lowly in spirit. That
contrite person who is truly sorrowful and repentant for sin.
And he trembles at God’s word. He’s fearful of God’s word. He
understands that God’s word is truly God’s word. If you do believe
that, then your approach to it, your obedience to it, and your
practice of it will be fundamentally different than the person who
doesn’t really believe that. God’s Word is essential because
it helps us to know, understand, obey, and then to rightly interpret
His Word and determine our doctrine. And doctrine is simply the ordered
precepts, processes, and teachings of God in His Word. It’s not
actually a four-letter word, but it’s not a four-letter word
otherwise either. Doctrine is essential for the people of God.
The next verse is in Psalm 51, Psalm 51, 10 through 13. Create in me a clean heart, God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away
from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain me with
a willing spirit. Then I will teach wrongdoers
your ways, and sinners will be converted to you. I love this
psalm because it is the prayerful, contrition of a believer praying
to God that he would be renewed and restored. In verse 10, we
see that the clean heart is needed, or we are cast away from his
presence. God is holy, and to renew is about making it new
or better. So definitely it’s in line with
reviving, but for more of the goal, to renew us, it would be
the goal of reviving. The steadfast spirit is trusting
and obeying God as he has commanded us. We need a steadfast spirit
to remain in his presence. We do not want to be sinning.
We want to be faithful. We get this help from the Holy
Spirit of God. In verse 11, we want to remember
the context of this psalm is indicated. It’s of a contrite
sinner who seeks pardon. In creating in me a clean art,
he will not cast me away from his presence. God is holy. This
clean heart, though not always perfect in the flesh, is sealed
by the Holy Spirit in regeneration and salvation and will ensure
that the Holy Spirit will never be removed from us. In verse
12, to restore us, to bring us back to that original position,
this definitely adds color and texture for reviving. Return,
when I was reading support on this and commentaries, it talked
about returning, being restored, being revived back to your first
love. And the joy of your salvation
in Christ. Sustain or provide me with the
necessities and support for me to stand. That’s what we’re looking
for here. Make me willing. Remove the disobedience from
me. In verse 13, once we’re revived, renewed, and restored as humble,
contrite, and doctrinally sound, I can properly teach wrongdoers
of His ways, enabling sinners to be converted by the Holy Spirit
unto salvation. Being revived allows us to fulfill
the commission. The next passage in Hosea 6,
Hosea 6, 1 through 3. Just want to hear the New Covenant
aspect in this passage. Come, let’s return to the Lord,
for He has torn us, but He will heal us. He has wounded us, but
He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days. He will raise us up on the third
day, that we may live before Him.
So let’s learn. Let’s press on to know the Lord.
His appearance is as sure as the dawn and he will become to
us like the rain as a spring rain waters the earth. Here in
verse one, we see how God disciplines those who turn from him for their
own good. In this we can see that suffering can be for our
benefit to help us to turn to the Lord. In verse two, we see
the reviving and then the raising up after the third day. Really
a New Covenant reference. He revives us so that we may
live before him. Not ourselves, but to live before
him. In verse three, press on to know the Lord, his teachings,
his precepts, his commands, his love, his holiness, his mercy,
and his doctrine by his word. To revive and abide, we must
know His Word. And He is faithful and will come
to us to revive and nourish us like the spring rains. Psalm
69, verse 32. 69, verse 32. The humble have seen it and are
glad. You who seek God, let your heart revive. If you seek God
and are humble and glad, let your heart revive. It will happen
because He is faithful. To revive is to be alive. To
be alive as God defines it is to live before Him. Psalm 71
20. You who have shown me many troubles
and distresses will revive me again and will bring me up again
from the depths of the earth. A man waiting on rescue is assured
God is faithful. Though we have seen much and
done much against him in sin and by testing and trials, he
will revive us again, even using these very troubles and distresses.
He promises as long as we are faithful in humility, contrition,
and tremble at his word, he will restore life in us again, from
the depths to the heights where we are to be, restored to him
in our first love. Psalm 80, 17 through 19. Psalm 80, 17 through 19. Let
your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son
of man whom you made strong for yourself. Then we will not turn
back from you. Revive us and we will call upon
your name. Lord, God of armies, restore
us. Make your face shine upon us
and we will be saved. Notice the reverence of Christ
here in verse 17. In verse 18, we look at revive
us so we are more faithful and that we will call upon God. Yes,
we are to do our part, our duty and obedience out of love, but
God revives. In verse 19, we see God says,
restore us to where we were in Christ. Your face upon us assures
us we will be saved. There can be no doubt about this
fact. Psalm 85, six. Psalm 85, six. Will you not revive us again
so that your people may rejoice in you? This strikes me as a
rhetorical question. We know the answer. Of course,
of course he will revive his people. Reviving us allows us
to rejoice in God. Can you see that reviving allows
us to really see God through obedience and mortifying of our
sin? Do not be satisfied with a false reviving. Do not pose. It must be from our knees in
total submission to our Father. There is no pride here in us.
Rejoice in God alone. Now Psalm 119, I’d like to take
a look at that. There are a number of verses
in Psalm 19. I love this psalm. It’s about the meditations and
prayers relating to the law of God. The first verse, in verse 25
in Psalm 119, my soul cleaves to the dust. Revive me according
to your word. Your word revives me from the
dust, death, the lowest of lows, and at basal level. In verse
37, turn away my eyes from looking at vanity and revive me in your
ways. Turn our eyes from looking at
worthless things and to the word of our God, reviving us to his
ways or his precepts or his personal rules of conduct. Verse 40, behold,
I long for your precepts. Revive me through your righteousness.
The right view in pursuit of those who want to know God is
to learn His law, His precepts, His instructions, His commandments,
procedures, not because of legalism as if it has something to do
with us being saved, or as if we can gain favor into salvation,
but solely out of love for ourselves and thankfulness for our salvation
and the fact that His law is good. Here we see we are revived
through His righteousness, the very imputed righteousness of
Christ. In the Old Testament, we would see that God’s righteousness
through His Word would revive us. In the New Testament, we
see we are revived unto eternal life through the righteousness
that covers us in the perfectly sinless life of Jesus Christ.
This covering for those who are regenerated is nothing of our
own, only that which God gives to His children. In verse 50,
this is my comfort in my affliction, that your word has revived me.
Our comfort when we are afflicted is that his word is there for
us to revive us. Whether you lose your job or
you have health issues or anything, God’s word given to us with the
aid and the comfort of the Holy Spirit revives us. In faith by
his word, we know that the living word in the Bible and the Logos
of Christ is what revives us. In verse 88, verse 88, it says,
revive me according to your loving kindness, so that I may keep
the testimony of your mouth. Because he is kind and loves
us, we know that he will revive us. We need to be revived so
that we may keep his testimony. That testimony of the commands
of the gospel, all that Christ has taught us. We need the reviving
by the Holy Spirit of the living God. In verse 93, again, I will
never forget your precepts, for by them you have revived me.
His precepts, those commands, laws, and instructions found
in his word will ensure that I will remain revived. In verse
107, I am exceedingly afflicted. Revive me, O Lord, according
to your word. So here again, it’s a humble
request for God to revive us as he tells us as a promise and
also through his living word. And in summary on Psalm 119,
God promises to revive us in his word. Why does he do so?
Because of his loving kindness. What revives us? His word, by
his righteousness, by the Holy Spirit. Revive us to what? So that we can testify what God
has proclaimed in proclaiming the gospel. How much time do
we spend in vain or worthless things as opposed to knowing
the ways, precepts, word, and righteousness of God by His Word?
So we see that God has ordained reviving. We see that God has
provided the tools for us to be revived. Prayer, the Word,
His Holy Spirit. We see that God has told us in
His Word how we are to be revived. Why does God do this? Why does
God revive or bring special seasons of revival? For the world to
know the mighty hand of God, to know the glory of God, vindication
of Himself, and so that we and others will honor Him. And so
that heathen scoffers may be silenced. He also brings it for
us to fear the Lord. Revival gives the church an unusual
consciousness of the presence of God. Church is God’s institution
where he dwells in each one of his people. Preaching, when done
properly, is in demonstration of this spirit and power. Reviving
is reliance on God alone. There can be no self-reliance.
That’s why we don’t look to organizations or plans or human methods to
do this. When God acts in revival, men
are humbled and they are abased. And thirdly, why did God do this?
Why does he do this? He promised to do so for the
humble and the contrite and those who knew and trembled at his
word. So what’s our proper motivation in reviving or in revival? It’s
for God’s glory. It’s for the honor of the church
and for concern of the lost. It’s not for our own selfish
emotional needs. What are we to be aware of in
true reviving or revival, both personally and corporately? For
the glory and holiness of God, deep and humbling sense of sin,
a clear view and love of God and Christ and the cross, personal
sin is exposed, and joy, thanksgiving, and praise. These are five things
that you will be aware of during a revival, focused on the right
things. What are the characteristics
of a true revival? It begins in the church, most
often with one or more praying. It affects all classes and races
of people. It comes and goes by God alone. And the results are abiding in
believers and affects the unconverted. There are different manifestations
during a revival, sometimes with behaviors. And make sure we understand
that during a revival you can have the wheats and the tares
existing together, and that’s why you can have unbiblical manifestations. We need to be cautious, but we
are not to quench the Spirit or to not allow the Spirit to
perform His work. The Holy Spirit controls it,
not man or his methods. So these are the characteristics
of a true revival, if one should occur. What are the typical elements
of a revival? Therefore, that it is like we’ve
said, it’s Holy Spirit driven, blows us by the wind by God’s
sovereign decision. There are true conversions, the
true gospel at the heart along with God’s glory. There is no
false doctrine. The Holy Spirit will not abide
error. And so we need to make sure we
understand that. And it’s certainly not because man schedules it
or tells the Spirit when to show. A false sense of piety, misusing
scripture that is focused on the experience of the people,
not on the glory of God or the gospel, is not acceptable. And
it usually begins, as we’ve said, by the fusion of prayer. We know
sin, we understand the holiness of God, we have a passion for
the lost, we understand true doctrine, and that should drive
us to our knees in understanding why we need revival. Matthew
Henry said, when God designs mercy, He stirs up prayer. If
you look at Pentecost, I think Kevin’s not here. I thought we
might get a little additional commentary from him on some of
these neat Jewish festivals and such. The day of Pentecost in
Acts 115, we see that God had the disciples and others praying
before Pentecost. for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
And I thought it was interesting in reading about this, that is
the word, the Greek word for the feast of harvest. This was
the first set of harvesting that they had. And I thought the harvesting
of the souls, the coming in, the thousands that came to Christ
at that time. That was a really fascinating
connection. It usually begins with the church through reawakening
or enlightening. As we’ve said, typically one
or a few become moved and focused on prayer, on their sin, the
lost, and God’s holiness. And then it can, if God so ordains,
can spread to the larger church and beyond as God wills it, and
if His people are faithful. Preaching is the Holy Spirit.
I love this one. Preaching is key in a revival
and in reviving. It’s the Holy Spirit joining
itself, joining himself with the Word. After the Spirit came
down and gave the amazing sign of the tongues that looked like
fire, enabling each one of the disciples to speak in known languages,
this sign of the Holy Spirit bewildered the devout Jews from
every nation under heaven and set the moment for Peter to give
the first sermon. Peter’s sermon started with the
Word and ended with the Word. Everything he said was biblical.
And a couple of other quotes from Joel Beakey. In true preaching,
the law and the gospel are the substance. The word of God, the
instrument. The spirit of God, the power.
The salvation of God, the result. And the glory of God, the end.
Revival preaching is Christ-centric. And Martin Lloyd-Jones telling
us, let us remember that there is a difference between preaching
about doctrines and preaching doctrinally. By that I mean you
can preach doctrines in a purely intellectual and mechanical manner.
The business of preaching is to preach doctrinally about God,
about the Lord Jesus Christ, about the Holy Spirit, and their
work for us in salvation. Be honest with people. Give them
the full counsel. Revival preaching will be accompanied by the divine
gift of repentance and is a lifelong commitment. Effective preaching
requires that the preacher be filled with the spirit, preaching
the truth with confidence, authority, and sympathy. Is this not how
we are to preach each and every time during the times of refreshing
and every Lord’s Day? Thank goodness we have that in
this church. Hindrances to revival. What are some of the hindrances?
We’re satisfied with our tradition. We’re content with a Christianity
that punches the ticket, but nothing more. We lack the desire
to intercede for the eternal well-being of others. Unbelief. Belief, but no application. Fear
of the Holy Spirit. Division around doctrine. Not
focusing on the essentials and showing grace in the non-essentials.
We don’t tremble at his word. We’re proud, unrepentant, and
humble. Arrogant, not lowly in spirit
or contrite. And I must say, I’ve been guilty
of many of these things in the past, and exactly the reason
why I need to be revived. We must understand that reviving
will create new division. If you look through history with
revival, new division is created when you have revival. Some of
it justified, some of it not. Just understand there will be
division as a result of this, as there will be persecution.
So in application, let’s talk about, we know we all need to
be revived to some extent. We know that in this life, it
is very difficult to be in a revived state 24-7. The cares of the
world have a strong tendency to break our joy, our peace,
our trust, and our work towards in Christ likeness. What have
we learned about being revived? That God has promised it, God
has provided it, and we must be faithful and obedient to benefit.
So we’ve looked at those first two. I would like to expand on
the third to understand what we need to do to be prepared
for reviving. How are we to prepare for reviving
and revival? We need to have a deep and abiding
prayer life. It includes fasting and meditation.
Prayer will wrap around all of these other elements we will
talk about. It is absolutely essential, and it cannot be faked
or posed. The Holy Spirit will honor your
prayer by helping to align and confirm each of the areas we
talk about here. We need to mortify our sin. We
must expose it all and kill it all, especially our secret sin.
The Holy Spirit cannot revive among a sinning soul. True Christians
are sealed with the Spirit, but reviving by the Spirit requires
that we purge all sin and continue to do so to abide in Christ by
the Holy Spirit. To not do so makes a mockery
of the sacrifice of Christ. We must know, accept, and apply
the truth of who God is according to His Word. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
again, the basis of everything is the sovereign, transcendent,
living God, who in His eternal, glorious freedom, acts, intervenes,
and interferes with the life of the whole church and of individuals.
We need to know and understand who God is before any hope of
reviving. Know, number four, know and accept
the authority and apply the authority of God’s Word. We must believe
in the inspiration of God’s Word and be subject and obedient to
it. The Holy Spirit testifies in the spirit of the regenerated
that this is true. We see this in 2 Timothy 3, 16
and 17. All scripture is inspired by
God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for
training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be fully
capable, equipped for every good work. Man must not sit in judgment
of the Word. The Word is above man. The Holy
Spirit, again, will not abide reviving an error. The fifth
point, we must accept the essential doctrines of the Christian faith.
To reject, compromise on, or ignore any of these key doctrines
is to call your very faith into question. Some of these key doctrines
indicated here, the doctrine of the scriptures that we just
talked about, the person, work, and deity of God the Father,
of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of original sin
and the sinfulness of man. The doctrine of the justification
by faith alone. Nothing is by us. The doctrine
of regeneration. Only true Christians have been
regenerated by God. You can see from these doctrines,
it’s essential. How does revival proceed in a
situation where someone doesn’t respect the Word, doesn’t believe
that God is the Father, that the Holy Spirit is capable of
doing this, that there is no original sin? So why do we need
to be revived? Why do we need to be saved? That
we’re justified by faith alone, by God alone, and that we’re
then to be regenerated. These five points must be zealously
pursued in tandem to prepare for reviving. As you do them,
you will be revived personally, and by God’s grace, perhaps He
will grant our passionate desire to revive our entire church and
beyond. Once we correct and recognize these things, correct them and
implement them in our lives, we will see ourselves truly in
relation to God. We will understand our sin and
God’s holiness. Second, we will understand the
true need of the church and unbelievers. We need to passionately pursue
to revive other believers and unbelievers. We’ll pursue the
mortification of all sins and repent. And again, as we said,
it’s more than remorse. It’s a new consecration. Pray in the Spirit at all times.
Lean entirely on the Holy Spirit, eliminating this last point of
self-sufficiency. Practice praise, fasting and
meditation, memorization, and intercession. Prayer is to be
the first in all things, not the last thing or the forgotten
thing. This should be our normal Christian life. Remember that
reviving is a matter of degree, not of kind. There’s nothing
unique here in reviving. It’s what we should be doing
as Christians as part of the process of sanctification. Remember
that reviving shows us days of heaven on earth. I loved this
quote when I read this. I think it was from Ian Murray. We need
to remember that. Revival shows us, gives us just
a small glimpse of what our days in heaven will be, what they
will be like for us. Remember that reviving is available
to us now. As individual Christians, we
have been given the tools and capability to obey and grow in
Christ’s likeness by the Holy Spirit. And remember that God
is sovereign. It is His choice to come down
and revive the church by special visitation. However, again, our
Christian life should include all these elements discussed
previously, regardless of a special visitation. So in conclusion,
we looked at Isaiah 57, 15. We know that our God dwells in
heaven and in his children. He does so for our benefit. The
spirit of the living God is imprinted or branded on us. We have been
sealed with the spirit. We are his. As our perfect loving
father, he is for us. He cares for us, he loves us,
and he wants us to come ever closer to him. This is what reviving
does. We only have to exercise the
means by which he is provided to us through the Holy Spirit
in order to be revived. This begins with true communing
prayer that is clear on how perfectly holy he is and how sinful we
are in relation to him. Martin Lloyd-Jones, one more
time, the eternal, everlasting God has become our Father, and
the moment we realize that, it transforms everything. And Charles
Spurgeon, but how can we get revival? We shall have it, brethren,
when we commune with Christ. When the saints habitually sit
at Christ’s feet, they will be revived. And of necessity, the
revival will spread from them, and the hearts of sinners will
be touched. So brothers and sisters, I’m speaking to you. Are you
working against God and reviving even passively? Are you content
in this world? Do you love this world? Do you
really believe God can do this? Do you understand that it starts
with you? Do you pray earnestly, zealously
for this reviving, for God to send his spirit down to us? Do
you really care about reviving of yourself, of others, and for
those lost, and for God’s glory? We become so hardened in this
day with our endless material, technical, and even evil spiritual
diversions. We forget the majesty and mercy
of our gracious and loving God. He condescended and provided
the reconciliation for us to become His children despite our
sinfulness through the sacrifice and redemption offered in His
Son, Jesus Christ. He desires and even commands
us to be revived that we might abide in Him. Let’s pray.