All of you are aware, I trust, that
the scriptures are rich in teaching on the
subject of revival.
In one of my earlier writings, a little
pamphlet called the Solemn Assembly, which has been
perhaps more widely circulated than most of the
things I've written, most of what I've written.
Even if 10,000 copies are distributed, we
almost feel as if a miracle has occurred.
Whereas some piece of absolute religious rubbish will
sell 5 million copies.
But you kind of have to adjust to
that.
These are the days in which we live.
But in that Solemn Assembly pamphlet, as it
first appeared, I gave a list of 12
of the revivals that appear in the Old
Testament.
You know, it's really lovely and refreshing for
me from time to time to review these
incredible seasons of visitation.
I was thinking earlier this morning about that
visit at the time of the golden calf
and that grievous wickedness on the part of
error.
And yet God chose them to visit Moses
and the people.
One might focus upon that lovely passage in
1 Samuel, and particularly chapter 7, where the
Lord chose another one of these incredibly beautiful
seasons of visitation.
Or I was thinking this afternoon of that
passage in 2 Samuel 6, where David, in
all of his energy and enthusiasm and determination
to bring the ark of the Lord back
to its rightful place, sinned wickedly in asking
the Philistines how to conduct the work of
the Lord instead of consulting the divine revelation.
And how God had to strike that young
boy dead who accompanied the ark and reached
out to steady it when indeed it hit
the rough places in the road.
But David came to repentance, to the realization
that indeed he was the guilty party, that
it was his good fortune because of the
providence of God that he was spared and
the young fellow brought down.
And so he called together the priest and
the elders and said, we didn't do it
right, and now we must do it right.
And God came in a wondrous visit.
And oh, what a season of blessing it
was for them.
I often preach upon that gracious revival recorded
in 1 Chronicles 14 to 16.
Under Asa and his miserable ending.
Or the revival under Jehoshaphat.
The revival under Jehoiada.
The revival under Hezekiah.
The revival under Josiah.
The revival under Ezra.
The revival under Zerubbabel.
The revival under Nehemiah.
The revival under...
Oh, what a host of blessed passages that
bring this subject of God's divine visitations to
the fore.
But let me take now the last portion
of my time.
And I'm not really paying any close attention
to it.
And if you are, that's well and good.
But I want to speak about seven things
that are bound to be affected when God
visits.
The horn of salvation.
The sunrise from on high.
Will surely touch these seven areas.
Which desperately need touching right now in our
lives and in our society.
The first thing I would mention is in
every divine visit, there is a refocusing that
instantly occurs.
Things are out of focus.
Not only in the church at large, but
in the lives even of some here.
We get confused as to what are the
real issues.
I often address audiences on learning to distinguish
between what is merely a fruit and what
is at its very root.
And often we get all riled up and
we fuss mightily over a matter that is
incidental.
And we have failed to lay hold of
the root of the issue.
But when the sunrise from on high brings
the light of truth to bear, upon our
situation, things come into focus.
Years ago I thought I ought to write
a book on evangelical Phariseeism.
And I made some good beginnings, but then
came to realize I wasn't ready for it
and laid it aside.
But periodically the issue of the Pharisees comes
to my mind and heart.
I'm thinking of them right now.
They had everything out of focus.
They concerned themselves with the material.
They concerned themselves with personalities.
They concerned themselves with inconsequential issues.
They seemed to find it impossible to focus
on the things that God himself focused upon.
The church is pouring countless hours of energy
and multiplied billions of dollars into things that
simply don't matter.
And oh, for a visit from on high
where everything comes into focus.
And all of us ought even now to
ask with integrity of our own hearts, am
I in focus?
Are the things that are upon God's heart
on my heart?
Are the messages that I deliver the very
word of God?
Am I speaking from His heart through my
heart to your heart?
Or am I just simply reviewing matters of
interest that might possibly have some significance?
In a series of meetings in upper New
York State with the Adirondack Association of Southern
Baptists last fall, I felt very clearly to
give a series on the man of God,
the man of God's own choosing.
And I felt greatly interested and burdened about
the book of Malachi.
And spent a great many hours poring over
and praying over that book.
But I think the thing that laid hold
of me the greatest was the issue of
the burden of the Lord of which Malachi
speaks.
I'm asking you now, not only are things
in focus, but are you under the burden
of the Lord?
Or is the burden you spout about your
own burden?
It is certainly possible for any of us
or all of us to miss the burden
of the Lord.
And oh, how intense we must be in
our study of Scripture to draw near to
the heart of God so that indeed what
burdens Him is what burdens us and what
powerfully impacts the church focus.
That's the first issue.
The second issue that I would say that
is always incredibly affected by a divine visitation
is the issue of holiness.
I cannot understand how we have managed to
divorce holiness of life from imputed righteousness.
How does one have the righteousness of Christ
credited to their account and yet live without
any regard for holiness?
How can it be that nominalism is now
called Christianity and Christianity, which is holiness unto
the Lord, is regarded as fanaticism?
What a ridiculous age in which we live
and in which so many are participating.
Oh, for a divine visitation that brings the
issue of holiness into focus in our lives
so that indeed we truly believe, Be ye
holy as I am holy.
Holiness without which no man shall see the
Lord.
At the present time, on the Sundays when
Maggie and I are in our home in
Wheaton, Illinois, I'm preaching at the First Baptist
Church in St. Charles, Illinois.
I've been doing so sort of just as
a supply preacher since last August.
I had a wonderful time.
I recently finished what for me was an
absolutely marvelous series of 13 sermons on Romans
chapter 8.
Oh, what a delightful time I've had.
But I'm there filling in because the pastor
took a wrong turn and had to be
removed.
In one little association of churches numbering only
about 30 or 32 churches, five pastors have
gone down the tubes morally over the last
two years.
How can we divorce holiness of life from
imputed righteousness?
I plead with you, take seriously the issue
of holiness.
And I remind you again, when God comes
in one of these incredibly urgently needed and
marvelous visitations, holiness rises immediately to the fore.
Isn't it wonderful even to review those encounters
of men in scriptures with the Holy God
when they cry out, woe is me, I'm
undone.
I'm a man of unclean lips and an
impure heart.
Depart from me, I'm unworthy.
And oh, for another day when the horn
of salvation will root the love of sin
out of our hearts and the sunrise from
on high will so shine upon us that
every speck of dirt within us is brought
into the light and our repentance takes on
depths and urgency long needed and finally by
the grace of God accomplished.
So focus, number one.
Holiness, number two.
Tolerance for sin, obviously connected, but let me
treat it as a separate matter.
Tolerance for sin is affected when there is
truly a divine visitation.
And I speak of this in a particular
vein.
I mentioned to you a passage of which
you have considerable familiarity, Psalm 51.
That incredible confession and prayer of David, but
in particular the words of verse four.
Against thee, thee only have I sinned and
committed this great evil in thy sight.
I fear that we become tolerant of sin
because we fail to keep regularly in front
of us the remembrance of whom our sin
is against.
One might almost argue with David and say,
David, how could you say against God, God
only?
You had sinned when you sinned against Bathsheba,
when you sinned against your own family, when
you sinned against her husband by arranging his
murder, when you sinned against the nation over
whom God placed you in rule.
When, because your sin was sexual in its
nature, you sinned against your own body.
How can you say against thee, thee only
I have sinned and done this evil in
thy sight?
He said it because he understood something we
easily forget.
That the great evil of all sin consists
in the fact that it is against God.
When God seems far away, when it has
been a long time since he visited, we
can in our carelessness forget that all sin
is against him.
But when he visits, it becomes so clear
that the great evil of all of our
sin does truly consist in the fact that
it is against God.
May I ask if you ever sat down
with that statement and wrote out the ways
in which your sin is against God?
It would be a very profitable exercise for
you.
Let me just help with a starter point
or two.
All sin is against God's sovereignty.
He is the ruler, not you.
All the rights are his, not yours.
He is the one who has laid down
the commandments.
He is the one who has stated what
is acceptable and unacceptable conduct.
When you sin, it's as if you shake
your fist in God's face and say, I
do as I please.
You are not the sovereign God as far
as I'm concerned.
And I'll only mention one more, though a
long series might be set in front of
you.
All sin is against God's creation.
In the recent series I mentioned, having finished
a short time ago, we were dealing one
week with that passage in Romans 8, where
Paul makes it crystal clear that the sin
of Adam affected the entire creation.
So that the whole of the creation is
groaning and travailing together in pain, awaiting the
redemption.
Worth a sobering thought to realize that sin,
on Adam's part, brought the whole of God's
creative purposes to a standstill.
And oh, to join with the trees and
the rocks and the rivers and the mountains
in a heart cry for a restoration of
righteousness.
So that creation is again on track, and
everything in all the universe is praising the
Lord instead of defiling Him.
All sin is against God.
Take that to heart.
Let it affect you.
I have simply stated that a visitation from
God always affects deeply our tolerance of sin.
Number four, a visitation is absolutely guaranteed to
affect our view of repentance.
I find it almost impossible to believe what
I see with my own eyes and hear
with my own ears.
I had accepted an engagement in the latter
part of last year in a distant city.
A church had contacted me and asked if
I would come for a Friday evening and
an all-day Saturday and then an all
-day Sunday meeting, and I agreed.
And then long after the original plans were
laid, they called and said some horrible mistake
has occurred, and we've scheduled somebody else to
speak on Sunday night.
As well as you, and we find we
can't get out of this other arrangement.
And would you mind if we arranged a
meeting in another church for Sunday night?
No, I said, I'd be delighted.
I don't want to travel home on Sunday
afternoon, make some arrangements.
So I went to this church that I
knew absolutely nothing about.
I was greeted with tremendous warmth and enthusiasm
by the pastor.
But when I announced my text, 2 Corinthians
7, verse 11, the seven marks of true
repentance that Paul lists, this man dropped his
head and turned beet red.
As the sermon progressed, he got redder and
redder.
I was fearful he might actually blow a
gasket.
And after the service, he totally disappeared.
There were a large number of visitors there.
He never greeted a one, he just disappeared.
But after a few moments standing there wondering,
a large, impressive-looking fellow stepped up to
me, introduced himself by name, and told me
he was a policeman in that city, which
made me wonder what might be coming.
But then he said to me, I'm attending
the local Bible college evenings.
And he said, in our Bible college, we're
being taught that repentance is only for covenant
Israel.
I never heard of such a thing.
I didn't think the fellow was lying.
But I wondered if he knew what he
was talking about.
And then it was revealed to me that
the pastor was on the faculty at this
Bible institute.
No wonder he got red.
But we live in a day that is
simply incredible.
The numbers of those who call themselves Christians,
who will not even use the word, repentance
is flabbergasting.
But when God draws near, now repentance becomes
a very urgent issue.
It isn't something that you make some silly
doctrinal excuse and push aside.
It's something that you know you're going to
have to do and do quickly, or you're
in eternal trouble.
And there is no escape.
Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, I have
preached hundreds of times upon repentance, indeed written
the only book in modern times on the
subject, without any visible impact.
But one day, the sunrise from on high
will visit us.
And then all the church of God will
hasten to repent.
And oh, that it might happen soon.
Number five.
These divine visitations have incredible impact on our
interest in, submission to, and delight under the
leadership of the Holy Spirit.
I get so tired of the arguments and
the quibbling about the boasting of those who
claim they're filled with the Holy Spirit and
can't even speak the truth in a straight
line.
But oh, for a day, when the words
of John the Baptist become true in our
lives as for me, I baptize in water
for the remission of sins.
But when he comes, he will baptize you
in the Holy Spirit and fire.
I listen to these mealy-mouthed preachers.
Some of them, you can scarce understand their
words.
You know, when you get old, there are
two things that are almost certain to happen
to you.
Your eyes dim and your ears grow dull.
I strain myself almost in a headache trying
to hear what these silly fellows say.
What's wrong with raising your voice?
What's wrong with passion?
What's wrong with fire?
What's wrong with enthusiasm?
When he comes, he will baptize you in
the Holy Spirit and fire.
I believe the baptism in the Holy Spirit
is truly a baptism of power.
And I believe the baptism in fire is
a baptism of purity and passion.
Someone mentioned in my presence earlier today that
remarkable man of God, Armand Deswine, that fellow
who was so mightily used of the Holy
Spirit in so many parts of the world.
What a delight that fellow was.
He was with us in our home in
Wheaton long ago and yet he was very
aged at the time and he and I
were walking downtown for some purpose and I
had to run to keep up with this
fellow.
I tell you that just before his death
he was meeting with his associates planning how
they were going to take the world for
Christ.
Having just completed a marvelous ministry tour in
one of the Scandinavian lands.
Passion.
Have you got it?
Oh, that the sunrise from on high might
visit us and that every last person here
might know power and purity and passion as
the Holy Spirit does his great work in
each of us.
I don't wonder the world looks with disgust
upon the church that cannot seem even to
arouse itself long enough to speak a word
in such a way that people can't help
but hear it.
Number six, these divine visitations always lead to
fresh love.
In ministering to one of our fairly large
parachurch organizations, a group of the young people
on staff gathered around me and one of
the girls, quite a timid girl, spoke up
and she said, Mr. Roberts, I want to
ask you a question.
Why is it when revival comes it seems
the only thing the church wants to do
is pray?
And without really thinking of the consequence of
my question I said to her, were you
ever in love?
I wasn't really probing, but that's the question
that came out.
She turned very red and embarrassed and then
after a bit she held up her finger
and showed me an engagement ring.
Then I said, you answered your own question.
You know what happens when you're in love?
You want to spend all the time you
possibly can with the one you love.
No sacrifice is too great.
When Maggie and I met, I was an
itinerant.
She was just finishing up her university degree.
I didn't think anything of driving 1,200
miles to spend two hours with her before
I rushed off to the next engagement.
When one of these precious visits from on
high occurs, there is love, a bathing in
love.
Love for God.
Love for one another.
Love for a lost world.
And finally, number seven.
When the sunrise from on high visits us,
there is a devotion to work.
Not the dead works that are so much
part and parcel of the life of the
church today, but that work which is truly
anointed by the Holy Spirit and mindfully used.
The first book I ever wrote, I included
a chapter on repentance from dead works.
And many have said to me, I never
even thought of the subject before.
But there's a profound passage in Hebrews 6
about repentance from dead works.
It's listed as a foundation doctrine.
Some silly people think maybe whoever wrote Hebrews
got mixed up and meant to say repentance
from sin, but ended up somehow with a
twist of his pen to speak of dead
works.
No, indeed.
My friends, he meant to speak of dead
works, and he did.
Oh, the church is laden down with dead
works.
But oh, for a visitation from on high
that gives life to all that we're doing.
And as reported in the session this morning,
you trace the history of these mighty visits
of God, and almost every important reformation and
change that has occurred in our society came
about as a result of a divine visitation.
Men and women come into focus with God.
They see that sin is against Him.
Their repentance takes on new meaning and significance.
They fall in love with holiness.
They devote their time, their energy, their awe.
And right now, we need a visit of
the horn of salvation and the sunrise from
on high.
We know we need it, but do we
know that we need it so badly that
nothing else really matters, that we lay aside
all the extraneous and the inconsequential?
Oh, that we might reach that point where
we cannot live without the immediate presence of
the horn of salvation and the sunrise from
on high.
We honestly believe, Father, that in addition to
our desperate need, in addition to our holy
longings, the greatest incentive that we could possibly
raise before you in request of a divine
invitation, a divine visitation, is the glory that
belongs to you and will be rendered when
you're in our midst.
Grant, O God, that we shall live to
see and to experience and to walk
in the midst of your presence in the
church.
To the glory of King Jesus.
Amen.