So far we have seen that revival consists in four things, and today we will add the fifth. Whenever and wherever there is true revival, it always involves Gods people who are called by His name, humbling themselves, praying, seeking His face and - turning from their wicked ways. Now this last aspect is of such a critical nature that there can be no true revival apart from it. Yet all around us, that which is commonly heralded as revival most often lacks this crucial feature. There is no substitute for this. There is no getting around it. Revival springs up among a people who are deadly serious about throwing off sin. The ache, the cry, the very beat of their hearts revolves around an exquisite sense of their own sin, and the estrangement from God it has brought. This phrase before us, turn from their wicked ways is a powerful one. For the word used for wickedness is one that at its root implies anything that is wrong in regard to Gods original and ongoing intention. It is the word used to describe the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden. What made that fruit corrupting and deadly was not its physical nature, but that partaking of it violated Gods intent or will. We are so quick to excuse our sin, especially that which bears no overt or external harm against another. Its not hurting anyone is our justification. Adam would have been hard pressed to argue against Gods sentence by declaring - well, its not like I burned down the other trees, theyre still intact. I didnt root out the remainder of the plants. I didnt neglect their care or cultivation; I simply ate some of THIS fruit. Yet this is how we think to justify our own sin. Ive not neglected your Word, or worship or the Lords table. Im not out killing or raping or robbing. I give my tithes, visit the sick, sing in the choir and sit on the Board - so whats the harm if I want a little of this over here? These are blasphemous deceptions of our fallen hearts! The word carries with it yet some other connotations. It implies the rejection of God in regard to individual acts that grow into habits, and grip at last as compulsions. There is an insidious, progressive nature to sin. We think we can keep it on one level, but like yeast in dough it ultimately infects every part. It begins in speech, moves on to practice and ultimately results in offering complete passion and sacrifice. Thus it mushrooms into full blown idolatry, though weve never vacated the pew or forsaken the House of God. It is the Christian, the Church accommodating any compromise whatsoever. What do we let in under the umbrellas of entertainment, art, literature or sophistication? Friend, dont you recognize it in your own life? This is why we need revival. We are bound and fettered by our own consent; yielding up to those things we know full well are not compatible with our consecration to a holy God. How then are the scales taken from our eyes? How do we begin to feel the need for revival again? How do we shake off the dullness and the fog to yearn and cry after God in such a way once more? This beloved, this is what we must be about. First is to begin to cry after God to open our eyes, make us fully aware of our state, and place and insatiable hunger for Him within us. This is why prayer and revival are inseparable. If our sin is not overt and evident, yet we know Him only at a distance - if our hearts dont burn within us to know Him more, if our worship and religious duty has become matter of fact or optional - we are far gone into captivity already and need His reviving touch! Search me O God is the cry. You try me, You examine me, You test me - and if there be ANY wicked way in me, O God declare it that it might be purged! The need for revival comes from our getting His assessment of things, not ours. Second is to avail ourselves of what is termed the means of grace. One cannot truly and intensely study the Word of God without it turning the searchlight of holiness upon the soul. If when looking into this divine mirror, you see no blemishes, you are lying to yourself. For the image within it is that of the perfect and righteous holy One of God. Will you be so bold and impudent as to think yourself as having already attained perfection? Will you keep your heart from being broken over the sin that so mars that blessed image within you? How hard and callous we are! Preaching too is a means of grace. Or do you seek a minister and a ministry that cares more that you feel good, than that you obtain Heaven, and grow in holiness now? Are you seeking out a doctor who can diagnose with accuracy, or one who will pat you on the head and tell you everythings OK, while you faint fast in the grips of a deadly disease? And the Lords table, this too is a mighty means of grace. Can you come to it dispassionately? Does not the broken body and the spilled blood break your heart too? If not - why not? Is it just a custom? Just a ritual? Beautiful yes, but effective no? O God forbid we ever approach that holy sacrament with apathetic and cold hearts. This is His blood, spilled for MY sin. This is His body, beaten, wracked and broken for MY iniquities. And can I come then with little more than cheap sentimentality? We need revival! Prayer Heavenly Father, we are like Samson, gifted and mighty in you, but unaware that the Spirit of God has left us because we will not forsake our sin. We are happier with the remembrances of your smile, than with the thought of seeking it yet again. We are cold and indifferent. We excuse all manner of sin in case we are discomforted in any way. We regard the most sacred and holy of things as our just due. We have altogether left off hearts that burn with a passion to seek out and please our God. We have begun to imagine that you exist for our pleasure, rather than we for yours. We are black and sin-stained. We are weak and undone. We have worshipped at the idol of self, and sacrificed our lame and blemished goats to you. O God forgive us! Mighty living God forgive us! Blessed Loving Lord, forgive us - and send us a reviving. O how we need your revival!
Posted on: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 05:00:01 +0000
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