I think I've done it right.
Am I right in supposing there are some
here this afternoon who were not here this
morning?
Would you indicate that?
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
Now, I had a reason for asking that.
I thought it was so.
But I want to take just a very
small amount of time to say to those
who've come in for the afternoon session but
weren't here this morning what it's in my
heart to accomplish during this daytime session.
The conviction that I have is that there
are far too few people who care anything
about revival, which is most amazing to me,
because, as I said last evening, a revival
is a time when heaven draws closer to
earth than at any other time in human
history.
And I really have great difficulty understanding any
believer who does not long for the end
or who does not long for that which
comes closest to heaven, namely revival.
But even knowing how disturbing it is that
many do not long for revival, and knowing
how unwise it is not to long for
it, I'm nonetheless aware that even some who
attend meetings like this have only sporadic interest
in revival.
Now, for many years I have led a
prayer meeting for revival.
I don't know exactly how long, but approaching
25 years.
Now, it's a men's prayer meeting, and it's
an early morning meeting, 6 a.m. If
all the men who came to the prayer
meeting at one time retained the burden and
kept coming, the place where we meet would
not be anywhere near, but in truth, it's
larger than we need.
Because there doesn't seem to be adequate staying
power.
People get stirred up, and they say, Now
I see the urgency of revival, I'm going
to pray for it until God sends me.
But they grow tired, or they get occupied
with something else, and their interest strays, and
they abandon their prayer for revival.
That hurts me, it greatly distresses my heart,
and I wonder if they ever really understood
what we are praying for.
Because if they understood, I say to myself,
how could they abandon it?
How could they cease to long for it?
So my intent today has been to try,
I trust through the word of truth and
the blessing of the Holy Spirit, to increase
your...
So this morning I took the time to
demonstrate in a very brief fashion that the
major issue of revival, which is always beyond
the presence of God, our response in repentance,
has to be thought of in terms of
dead works, and in terms of departures from
truth, or the promotion of error.
I want to speak more of the last
of those three, but then using the book
of Hebrews as an illustration, I speak in
terms of what the general flow is, the
wonderful doctrine which is their
life of self, the
religious life of Judaism, and embrace the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And for them to have left Judaism, which
as I said this morning was only a
shadow or a type of the real that
was to come, to have left that for
Christ, and then to leave Christ and go
back to Judaism, was the same as to
leave everything for Christ.
And again emphasizing that the nature of revival
is that it's the nearness of God, heaven
coming, as I've said, close.
To abandon prayer for revival is similar to
the problem detailed in Hebrews.
It's to be content with the less when
the greater is before us as a possibility.
And then following that presentation, I began using
a series of words which have been utilized
throughout history to describe revival.
And the purpose in all of it was
to quicken your heart, and to deepen your
longing so that by the grace of God
you might reach a position at least similar
to my own.
I know that individual Christians can say, but
I don't want to, for I long for
the nearness of God.
And I long for it not alone for
myself, for nothing
could bring God greater glory than to have
all the inhabitants of the earth bow before
the Lord Jesus Christ and acknowledge that he
is Lord.
To the glory of God.
I don't need to tell you, do I,
that at the present time we are seeing
very few genuine conversions.
Now granted in some of the major, or
the statistics prove that of those that make
decisions in these somewhere between 92, in
other words, taking again the book of Hebrews,
they violate all that Hebrews stand for.
They are led to believe that their decision
for Christ saved them.
But that's a lie.
Christ saves.
Not our decisions.
And there is no one whom Christ is
saving who abandons Christ.
And anyone who makes a good beginning, but
there is no, is not saved.
Now I'm going to come more to that,
because I know it's a ticklish area.
Someone sort of was asking, we've
got plenty of that.
What we need is agreement on the great
truth.
But let me take just a little while
longer this afternoon.
Now here is another term that I was,
a dear man, he
gave as the final message of his life,
a message entitled, Revival is like, the
man who wrote for him and whose final
sermon bore that title, was Dr. J.
Edwin Orr, a sweet and a godly man.
But yet, Revival is like judgment day.
Now when I speak to you about revival
is full, but when I say to you
revival is like judgment day.
Now that stirs a bit in all
of us, no matter how hidden sins
that are suddenly brought into the light.
I well remember as a child, and I
sat by a window.
Now my mother is still alive at 99.
And by God's grace doing well.
But my mother was an absolute, I'm not
sure there ever was another mother in the
world who was more serious.
I mean she pursued dirt and, but on
the day the rays of sunshine came, and
to my horror, I saw the filth in
the air.
It disturbed me greatly, I thought to myself,
not in my mother, where could, but
it was only later in life when I
realized there was no dirt introduced that day.
But what was already there, it was simply
that the way the, now the
nature of a revival is that it, turns
the light, you
have the experience, you know what I'm speaking
of, when you think your confession is, for
years personally, I have preached against pride, used
many passages of scripture to describe pride as
the great sin, the unforgivable sin.
Which it is, how can God forgive the
proud?
The proud won't bow before God, they won't
break, therefore they can't be forgiven.
And I had personally not only preached against
pride, but saw with great care to be
sure that pride was eliminated from my life.
Then one day in the normal course of
affairs I, and there was a rather large
packet, and I looked at the return address,
and it was from, and I thought well
now I wonder what they would be sending
me, it was obviously personal, and so I
wondered about it for a moment, and I,
and when I pulled the contents out of
the, oh
I said I'm grateful to see that this
phenomenon, so I
began to leaf through the material.
And suddenly as if the Lord struck me
in the head with a club, I realized
what I was really doing.
I was looking through the material to see
if they acknowledged that what they knew about
the solemnist, now it's a fact, that what
they knew they learned from me, that's a
fact.
Because the leaders of this particular denomination were
in a meeting where I laid out biblically.
So there was nothing wrong in the fact
part of it, that they had learned it
from me, but that was not important.
You see what I was doing was searching
to see if they gave recognition, and immediately
I was overwhelmed with sorrow in the realization
that the pride I thought was anything but.
And I stuffed the material back in the
envelope, and I got down on my face
before God, and I said I'm sorry, I'm
grief, that pride is very much alive, and
I repent of it.
Well I mentioned this morning that in the
course of God's events we sold our house
last week, had to move.
But in preparations for the move I was
sorting material in my office, and I pulled
out this large, and I thought oh no,
not this.
I'm not even going to be tempted to
look inside this.
I still, revival
is like judgment day.
Because the light of God's truth shines upon
us that are grievously wrong, and
the nature of revival is brought.
Now many of you know the statement out
of scripture, judgment must begin at the house
of God.
And can we not say concerning our own
lives, surely judgment must begin.
Now it is a fearful thing to be
judged by God.
It is a very, very disturbing thing to
reach that point where as far as,
so although we fear the judgment of God,
we long for it.
Is there anyone here who would care to
say, I, oh no, is not part of
the Christian, I
love that song that the old gypsy evangelist
made popular, let the beauty of Jesus be
seen in me.
All his wonderful passion, oh thou spirit divine,
till the beauty of Jesus be seen in
me.
The longing of the Christian heart for holiness.
And how can one fail to long for
revival, and it will move us to, and
I know I spent a brief period of
my life as a pastor, I know how
I long not only for holiness in my
own life, you share that with me brother,
but deep longing for the truth.
Will you quickly send me, speedily
move forward, but then there are other terms,
as I said in
Joel chapter 2, verse spirit,
on all mankind, and your sons and your
daughters, will prophesy, your old men will dream
dreams, your young men will see visions, even
on the male servants, will I pour out
my spirit in those days.
And then there's a perfectly wonderful passage, right
now when we look heavenward, do you not
sense that it's as if, heavy layers of
black clouds cover the earth.
But in Isaiah 64, the prayer is raised,
rend the heavens, and come down.
And can't you in your imagination, reaching
down and rending the heavens, his
spirit.
Oh how we need, and outpouring of the
spirit.
Oh it's not that we're not grateful, for
many of us in our ministry, have known
days of great rejoicing, days of plentiful.
But no matter what's happened in the past,
we don't live there.
We live in the here and the now.
And as thankful as we are, for every
outpouring, we desperately need an outpouring today.
I don't know of any denomination, I don't
know of any local church, where the need
of revival is not very varied.
We sometimes even use the term Pentecost, to
describe revival.
And appropriately so.
But one of my favorite terms, in connection
with revival, is the term power.
Who in their right mind would say, that
why every thoughtful observer, must know that indeed
today, God has held his power in check.
He is reserving his great power.
No matter what good things, may be happening
in your congregation, you most certainly must be
wise.
Now I have seen some very touching, circumstances
and reasons.
I've been in some meetings, where very precious
results.
I won't bore you with the details, of
these sweet experiences of grace.
But I will tell you, that the finest
thing that I have seen, is nothing in
comparison with.
God's reserves of power are at.
And so when I think of revival, I
use these words, as I've been saying to
you, merely to seek to stir up.
But here's a term you may not have
thought of.
For many years, in the American church, revival
was described.
Isn't that unusual?
The progress or the success, of the gospel.
Just think about that expression.
The progress of the gospel.
Well now, I've just alluded to this, but
let me be more specific.
While we are seeing some wonderful things, from
place to place, not all the blessings that
I see, are as nothing, in comparison with
the blessings.
I am a Congregationalist.
I mentioned that not to promote.
Much of my early ministry, was in churches
that you would call liberal.
Churches that had never had the gospel preached.
Congregational churches.
And I would go as a stranger into
a church, and I would begin to preach
the gospel.
Now I could go to those same kinds
of churches, and they would look at me
and wonder, where did this ridiculous oddity, what
kind of a throwback is this?
This is ridiculous, that anybody who has any
education, could believe in such old fashion.
Nobody could describe what is happening.
The sad truth is, for every convert we
make, of the usual sort, the church takes
two steps back.
For most of our converts are our converts.
Someone observed a drunken bum, stumbling down the
street.
And so this person then went and confronted
Moody.
I just saw one of your converts.
For many of our converts today, are no
different than before we met them.
Some while back, I was speaking at a
gathering, of Pentecostal pastors, in the state of
Arizona.
And one of them burst into tears, soon
after I started speaking.
And the longer I spoke, the more he
wept.
And as soon as I finished, he rushed
up to me.
He said, it was as if you had
a flaming torch, and you applied it to
my life.
And my entire life, went up in smoke.
I said, what are you talking about?
He said, about a year and a half,
to two years ago, I read a biography
of B.L. Moody.
And I read that Moody, had vowed to
win at least one person to Christ.
And I said to myself, well if Moody
could win one, I can.
So he said every day, for the last
year and a half, but while you were
speaking, and
it dawned on me, they were my converts.
I have pastors tell me, the
wonderful progress of the gospel?
No!
The tragic decline.
But I used the expression this morning, and
doesn't that quicken your heart to look, for
a precious season, of the wonderful.
And what would be the sense of being
quickened, to think in that direction, and pray
for nine months, and then abandon.
But let me suggest another term.
Very often in scripture, no, I'm going to
go back again, I've just glanced at my
notes, and in thinking of the prayer, and
the Lord, was adding to their number, day
by day.
But many of those who heard the message,
do you not see, said before, you
contrast that.
And as one brother said, as we were
on our way to lunch, the
spirit that ought to grip every Christian heart.
Do it again, Lord.
We're not satisfied with what's happening.
We want to see once more, the wonderful
progress.
In another word, similar to fullness, and similar
to out.
R-A-I-N.
Now I suppose here in Seattle, today, or
in the Seattle region, nobody's pleading, but although
you have plenty of moisture at the moment,
we don't have plenty in the church.
The church is dry.
And it's not been dry for mere seven
days.
Not even seven weeks, or seven months.
Not even seven years, would cover the period
of drought.
It's growing drier, and drier, everywhere.
You tell me one place, where the reign
of God, is plentiful, on the churches.
Oh, I know, we hear some boastful reports.
But don't investigate, because if you do, you'll
find out what's said isn't true.
Well, I know, something's happening in Pensacola, and
they've brought, was way down.
But that's not what the chief of police
said.
The chief of police has reported, that there
has been a national decline, in major crimes.
But that the decline, in major crimes, in
Pensacola, has been considerably less, than the national
decline.
I don't want a revival, that doesn't affect
the crime rate.
I don't stay any point in it.
Every true revival, that I know about, has
had an amazing impact, signifying
there was not one, to be tried.
Not one crime.
The policemen, in many parts of Wales, had
only one official duty.
That was to, care for the vast crowds
of people, that were trying to get into
the churches.
And to see that the churches didn't collapse,
by taking in thousands more, than they were
built to hold.
And because they had no duties, in terms
of, now
not everybody will shout, couldn't
be held.
There's one case of a huge football match,
ordinarily huge, where three players, and
then some of you heard the stories, they
seem almost unbelievable, but they are like gospel
truth.
The stories of what happened in the pits,
the mining pits.
Where as a result of the revival, the
ponies, and the mules, went on strike.
They quit working.
The direct result of the revival.
These mules and ponies, had been driven by
kicks, and curses.
And when the miner, descended into the pit,
and came up to his pony, and said,
Pony dear, you and I are here to
serve the Lord today.
Let's do our part,
to humankind.
That's the kind of revival, I, a plentiful
rain, from heaven, that takes this dry and
parched nation, and takes our withering, and dying
church, and causes them to blossom, like the
desert rose, that has been watered.
And if you think things are bad here
in America, and they surely are, you should
go with me, on one of my periodic
trips, to the Principality of Wales.
Let me tell you what it's like there.
There are seats in the churches, for every
inhabitant in the land.
And not so many years ago, every seat
was.
But now, if you go into a typical
village, we'll say, population 8,000, you'll find
15 church buildings, with seating capacity, for the
8,000, plus the farming region about.
And of the 15 churches, you'll discover, 11
of them, have the roofs caved in, the
windows broken, or they've been turned into bingo
halls, or automobile garages.
And of the 15 churches, four remain open.
One is the Anglican Church, the Church of
Wales.
There are five elderly women, past 80 years
of age, who attend service there once a
month.
One is the Presbyterian Church, that lost all
track of the gospel, 40 years ago.
One is the Evangelical Church, that two weeks
ago, had 28 members, the largest church.
But last week, a little band of mean
-spirited Pentecostals, split that church, and carried five
of the feeble members off.
And the last church is Baptist, and it's
controlled by the Masonic Law.
I'm giving you a realistic picture.
Dear friends, cannot your heart heal the burden
for the reign of God's Spirit upon the
Principality, even as you long for revival here?
Do you know, that in the history of
the world, there are America, and the
Principality of Wales, and both, both, are withering
and dying.
Oh, for the rain from heaven, how big
a part of your prayer life is the
pleading for rain.
How heavy upon your heart is belonging for
the showers of blessing and the plentiful reign
of God.
Another term that we referred to this morning,
but in a little different connection.
When we're talking about revival, we're talking about
reformation.
Now, I want you to understand, it's possible
to have reformation, and it's possible to have
revival, without which it is a revival.
I've been describing revival as God drawing near.
A reformation is a time when grievous error
is, I just said almost in passing this
morning, that we have erred terribly in terms
of the great doctrines of Scripture.
And I illustrated by speaking of the difference
between decisional regeneration.
We need a reformation.
How long did the Protestant Reformation of 1517?
Who's going to answer that question?
Dear friends, it's still burning bright.
It's still very much a part of our
lives.
We need a revival that doesn't burn itself
out in a few weeks, but a revival
that touches our children and our grandchildren and
our great, and our great, great grandchildren.
We need a revival, reformation that turns our
seeking.
I don't go to Chicago except when I
have to.
It is a dangerous place to go.
There are areas of Chicago that no one
in their right mind would.
And there are other vast areas where you
would be utterly foolish to go out after
dark.
In fact, in some of the hotels and
motels in the area, there are signs warning
people, don't go out.
We need reformation.
There are people that can't come.
Now, maybe all is innocent bliss here in
this area, but believe me, in large parts
of America, crime is frightening, and evil is
rampant.
And oh, how we need reformation.
Well, I'm nearly done.
I think I have one or two more
words I want to mention.
Let me just look at my reflection.
In Acts 3.19, repent therefore and return
that your sins may be wiped away in
order that time may come.
I feel like a tired old man.
I'm not going to quit.
By God's grace, as long as I have
an ounce of strength, my, my,
my, my, how excited I get just at
the...
Does that touch you?
Do you feel the need?
Have you been praying fervently?
Oh, God, send us a time of refreshing.
Another word that I love in connection with
revival is the word visitation.
A revival is a visitation.
Now, I know that we don't all understand
the light of these matters.
I know some of you aren't.
But the real purpose of the Bible is
to bring us into contact with God.
The Bible is like God's autobiography.
It is God's unfolding of his own heart.
And everyone who has used the Bible or
write has come to understand wherever sin prevails.
We need a visitation.
We need God to rend the heavens and
come.
Pastor, would you be angry if God visited
this place?
Wouldn't that be lovely?
And what are the visitations of God apt
to look like?
Well, we all believe, I hope, in the
God of infinite variety.
He can do anything He pleases.
But I want to tell you one of
the most delicious, one of the most lovely
visitations of God that I have ever experienced.
Have you ever been in a situation when
as the word of God was being preached,
a silence descended on the congregation?
Now, in normal settings like today, you're listening,
you're courteous to me, you're attentive to the
things of God, but you don't hesitate to
wiggle, to shift your position, to get comfortable.
Here's a sister that's just rolled her shoulders
a little.
I say that now in
a meeting with Sal, where it became so
perfectly silent that even a pin drop would
sound like thunder.
I've seen some occasions when after I finished
preaching and sat down, nobody moved.
Whoever was presiding didn't dare stand up and
close the meeting.
I was in a situation a while ago
where this holy silence, just overwhelmed.
It wasn't a large group, maybe 600 or
so.
Just a holy silence.
And after a period of time, during times
like this, you don't consult.
So when I estimate time, that's all I'm
doing.
After I sat down, there was not a
cough, not a perceptible sound of any kind.
Total, stunning silence.
And then someone apparently got antsy and thought
they could help the Holy Spirit out.
Someone seated somewhere in the audience.
And they stood up and started a praise
chorus.
And they got out maybe three measures, and
then it sounded as if God choked them.
And the silence was there again.
Many people said to me, afterward, and long
afterward, now I know what a visitation
from God is like.
For the words that were spoken were undisturbed.
And I sat there in the utter silence,
and the word that I heard entered my
heart and altered me.
Now you know what happens to us usually
before this amen is pronounced.
Some of us are visiting right in the
pew.
And what we're visiting about is not the
Lord or anything to do with the service.
But we're going to pick visitations
from where we sit in utter silence before
him.
I know that some of you are Pentecostals.
I was in a charismatic Lutheran church, and
one of these strange silences descended.
I don't know how long it lasted.
30 to 40 minutes when there wasn't a
sound.
And then some woman stood up, and she
used these formula words, and she proceeded with
what she thought was important.
And then the place broke into bedlam.
After maybe 10 minutes of this noise, the
Lutheran pastor, adorned in his turnaround collar, came
quietly down the side aisle of the church.
And he stood in front of the congregation.
And it took him a while, but they
realized, uh-oh, pastor, quiet.
So the place settled down.
And then he said to them, For the
first time in my life I have come
to understand the nature of a true visitation
from God.
Utter silence.
Never, he said, in my life was there
such a profound awareness of the manifest presence
of God.
And then, to your shame, you behaved yourself
like people who didn't even know there was
a God.
He then proceeded to give them the most
profound and stirring rebuke.
And they felt the sting of his rebuke.
And again, that holy silence descended.
Now I preach from about 8 in the
morning until 10.
The first period of silence might have run
up to about 10.
His rebuke might have occurred about 20 minutes.
The second period of silence came about quarter
to 11.
I was scheduled to preach in another state
that afternoon and was picked up at 12
.30. And so I slipped out to go
to the next meeting.
But the entire congregation just sat there, silent.
A divine visitation when men and women conducted
their business with God at a level they
had never conducted it before.
Oh, I long for many such visitations as
this.
Do you?
Or would you prefer noise and excitement and
fanfare and confusion?
I'm wanting to say to you that it's
very difficult in our day to identify what
is of the flesh.
But I can tell you very plainly no
flesh can force a congregation of hundreds to
absolute silence.
If somebody said, Mr. Roberts, I'd like to
experience what you've just described, it
has nothing to do with me.
There's no way I could make it happen.
It's when God visits his people.
Well, I've said enough in that direction.
Let me lead us in prayer.
Lord, we haven't always thought alike.
We who gather here, we don't always appreciate
the same things.
But every Christian heart longs for you.
And we can courageously and harmoniously link our
hearts with one another and ask for a
revival that will be unmistakably your presence, your
power, your outpouring, your fire.
We are weary of what we do.
We are weary of strange fire and human
flesh.
And we long, we long for your presence,
your gracious visitation.
Will you stir this longing and deepen it
to the point where nothing can satisfy save
you, our God, and our Savior, our Lord
Jesus Christ?
So burden this body of believers that we
will never ever be content with anything less
than the best that you give to your
people.
We have learned by our experience that your
nearness is our greatest good.
And for it we plead in the holy,
precious name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Now I have ventured into some don't get
in a hurry, brother.
323, he's leaping up in ill
ease in you, to
focus on the theology of revival.
I've been really giving you this warning, and
now I speak of the theology of revival.
And please understand, despite my frail appearance, I'm
not erect of my senses.
I know the prevailing view about theology.
I mentioned already Master Theology, and
I conceded the truth of that.
And it's my conviction that we need the
division that theology brings.
We need the sheep to buy.
But no, I want you to understand that
there are, when we say theology, we're not
something man has concocted, the word of God.
There are certain truths that God has honored,
and those are the things I want to
draw to your attention.
And I want to take just a bare
few moments to review things historically.
In the early days of America, our forefathers
held to the theology of revival.
Those great doctrines of scripture which made it
possible frequent revivals.
And I hope all of you understand there
were tremendous revivals in the 1600s, in the
1700s.
Then the nation was put together, and the
constitutional document, and
some will be hurt, was Charles G.
Finney.
Now some see him as the patron saint
of revival, but I must tell you, he
pronounced the revival in America.
Every body, every group that has followed Finney's
theology has, for Finney's theology was unlike any
theology ever developed before.
Legitimate, but Finney's
systematic theology Now what I want to tell
you is that we have had a major
shift from a God to a man.
Finney is thought to be the greatest revivalist
in America.
But what most people have never taken the
time to understand, and in a place where
he made a very gross error, not
even knowing that he himself was converted in
a revival.
He then introduced this whole new system of
theology, and a very high percentage of the
church, and those of you who know and
love history, now that's a long time
for a nation that had revival with great
frequency.
Now I'm not here to belittle Finney, though
some of you would do well to rethink
your own slim understanding of this matter.
But I want to focus on the area
where the changes took place, which have led
to this terrible time in which when the
church has lost its ability to be solved,
and evil is triumphing so that those of
us with little children, or in my case,
grandchildren, I spoke of the grandchildren one
years of age, three years of age, five
years of age, whose precious souls I feel
heavy concern, and not only just because they're
my own, but I look around in the
services and I see the children and the
young people, and I say, oh God, we
must have revival for the sake of the
little ones.
Now dear friends, I'm going to give you
a list of things where we need to
change the focus.
And the first is God.
God!
We have come to a very degraded view
of God in our society and in our
churches.
This book Ruben showed you, Salvation in Full
Color.
Now this, as I mentioned to you, is
not important, and I'm not pushing it.
I kept saying to my wife, if what
these sermons represent is Christianity, what
is portrayed as Christianity in our day, there
is a world of difference between the content
of this volume and the average sermon today.
The contrast between the two is as great
as the difference between cheese or between chat
and wheat.
And the heart of the difference in the
sermons is the view of God that is
represented.
Now I want to urge all of you,
I made an allusion to this, but now
I want to be utterly specific.
This book is wrongly used when you are
searching for some word about you are not
the center of God.
You were not created to feel good about
yourself.
God's plan and God's purpose was in making
you, was not to give you a I
don't want to hurt you by referring to
denominational matters outside my family
soon after they were converted, that is my
parents took us as children to a Presbyterian
church.
And as a child I was drilled on
what is called the Westminster Standards.
The greatest doctrinal statement ever written.
And I remember as a young boy being
forced to memorize what is called and I
remember so well this particular question.
What is man's chief end?
And I remember every bit as well the
answer.
Man's chief end is to glorify God and
to enjoy him forever.
Now you were not put here to enjoy
God forever first and foremost, but to glorify
God.
That's the reason for our being.
This book is not about you.
You are very incidental to the theme of
this book.
This book is about God.
I have said to you that there is
a theology of revival.
And the first and the foremost theological issue
is God.
Most of us worship and serve a God
who is scarcely a half inch bigger.
And I want to say to you in
language I hope you can't miss that if
you will allow yourself to entertain a low
view of God, you are certain to entertain
a high view.
I spoke earlier of pride.
There is only one substantial way to deal
with pride, and that is to let God
occupy his rightful position.
When God becomes God in your life, there
is no room left for pride.
If you are proud in heart, you are
stupid, because stupidity and pride are wed.
They cannot be divorced.
It is absolutely asinine to be proud.
What have you got to be proud of?
Your beauty?
Well, there are many people more beautiful than
you.
Your strength?
Many stronger than you.
Your wisdom?
My word, come now.
How can you be less realistic?
What have we but nothing over which we
ought to exalt in pride?
But I repeat what I said.
If you maintain a low view of God,
you will have an inordinately high pride.
If you have a high view of yourself,
you're sure to have a grievously mistaken view
of sin.
And a grievously mistaken view of self and
sin inevitably leads to a wrong view of
salvation.
So we've got people today who think they're
saved.
They don't even know what they were saved
from.
Don't even know they needed salvation.
Don't even know who the Savior is.
Don't have any interest in the world and
the Savior.
They think only of themselves.
The most important thing that could happen in
any church is for the pastor I meet
people who say, I don't even like the
God of the Old Testament.
Oh, but I love Jesus.
There are certain fundamentals we have to face.
How many gods are there?
Two?
The God of the Old Testament?
Or is there one God who's changed?
In the Old Testament, he was mean and
harsh.
But he mellowed with age.
In the New Testament, no, of course not.
Our Bible, we
have got to come back to the God
of the Bible.
I would like to make a suggestion for
each of you personally.
You may not have the grace to follow
it.
This particular Bible that I've been reading from
is a New American standard.
It actually was just a very cheap, cloth
-covered Bible.
And my son, but no, that's neither
here nor there.
I love the King James.
That's my favorite.
But I reached the point in my life
where I said, I have got to give
due attention to the God of the Bible.
The King James is so familiar to me
that I'm apt to miss things.
I set it aside.
I got this cheap, cloth-covered Bible, and
I said to myself, now, for the rest
of my life, I'm going to focus on
the God.
So systematically, time after time, I've been going
through the Bible.
One of the brethren at lunch asked me
how I was pursuing.
I began in Genesis some weeks ago.
Time, God registers displeasure with His creation.
I've got a big file that I'm developing
of all the words that are utilized when
God and the
person I
ought to know everything about God.
But now, by God's grace, I'm determined.
So I'm going to make a specific suggestion.
Get yourself a brand-new Bible that has
no markings, no passages, that you're all set.
Say to yourself, I am not I'm not
going to seek one word of encouragement to
doing nothing but searching out the God of
the Bible.
Because I want a true view of God.
And one simple way to begin, you certainly
don't need to follow this, but a simple
way is to read through, and every time
you come to the word I, you discern
whether it's God speaking about himself, or someone
else speaking.
And if it's God speaking about himself, put
some and say, now that's the passage I
must meditate upon, because God is revealing something.
If I was in control of all the
creatures in the world, I would
be doing nothing but unfolding God.
And indeed, if I were a pastor myself,
I would preach on the God of the
Bible.
You know that one of the most tragic
things that can happen is when they lose
the fear of God.
And that's happened to us.
Not only in our society, but in the
Church.
And so I'm urging you to return to
such a use of the Bible that you
know what it means to fear the Lord.
I could not emphasize that strongly enough.
I might mention to you that if you
study the subject of the fear of God,
you will find not less than three tremendous.
The fear of God is the beginning of
wisdom.
We have millions in the Churches who are
unwise and cannot be made wise.
They could listen to ten thousand sermons.
Secondly, the Bible makes it crystal clear that
the only preservative against personal evil is the
fear of the Lord.
You can work day and night trying to
rid yourself of sin, but it's the fear
of God that brings deliverance.
And third, you will discover that the fear
of God is the only true source of
social justice.
I mentioned this morning how greatly we need
it for restoration of justice, a reformation even.
The fear of God is the source of
justice.
Now just take for a moment of consideration
our judicial system.
It stinks.
It's ridiculous.
A man can be seen committing a crime
by twelve and thirteen.
Another man is charged with a crime.
There is not one eye witness, and he's
rushed off to jail.
There is no justice because there is no
justice.
It's impossible.
Well, I don't need to labor the point.
Would you place at the forefront of your
thinking the realization that we need to return
to the right thinking about the God of
the Bible.
If I were a pastor, I would preach
for weeks and months on the attributes of
God.
And when I had done everything there was
to do on that subject, I would take
up the anthropomorphisms.
Some of us don't even know what it
is.
But you know that God is a spirit,
and they that worship him face his discretion.
No, they are not meant to make us
think that God has.
There's something very powerful in calling a over
against having God's face turned away.
Our people don't have any sense of what
it means to be confronted with an whose
hand is at work against them.
But now, I must move from that because
there are several things I want to quickly
call to your attention.
Not only must there be a restoration of
the view of God, but the whole issue
of holiness needs to be restored.
I don't know if perhaps it was two
or three years ago, I was one of
the ministers of the Church of the Nazareth,
and it was a two or three day
conference, but in the midst of that I
had dinner with the president of the denomination
of the church, whatever.
And I said to him, Sir, what percentage
of the pastors of the Church of the
Nazarene are holy?
Now, if any of you know anything about
the Church of the Nazarene, you know that
it was established in order to restore holiness
to the church.
So, pastor or leader, I say, what percentage
of them are emphasizing holiness?
He said, I don't think we have a
holy man among us.
We certainly don't place any focus on holiness.
That's one of the holiness denominations.
No emphasis on holiness.
We've got to come back to the realization
that our God is holy and hates sin.
We have people in our churches who love
sin and can tell you the day and
the hour they accepted Christ and are sure
they're going to heaven.
They've never known a moment of holiness, not
even a longing for holiness.
They don't even know without holiness, no man
shall see the Lord.
Have you contemplated those words recently?
Very significant words, it appears to me.
Holiness without which no man shall see the
Lord.
Then another doctrine that must be restored is
the doctrine of total holiness.
You see, the gospel is being presented today
to people as the biblical
teaching and the standard of the church, and
total, and depraved by sin.
And yet that was a standard doctrine of
the church for centuries.
Maybe some of you don't know that you
are totally corrupt.
You have no ability in and of yourself
whatsoever to please God.
To talk about revival that doesn't include a
rest of what
good is a revival that is still wide
of the mark, still missing the purpose of
God, still straying from the truth.
I said this morning, and it bears repeating
this afternoon, when we talk about repentance, we're
talking about repentance from sin theology.
It may be some of you need to
repent because your view of God is wrong.
Because your view of holiness is wrong.
Because your view of depravity is wrong.
In the book of Jeremiah, it speaks about
the grievous error of having healed the wound
of the daughter of my people superficially.
Let me give you a little illustration.
Suppose that while we're together, at least some
of us this week in various places, you're
walking along with me and we come to
a place where the walk is lined with
thorn rose bushes with thorns.
And suddenly you see me stagger and I
fall into the thorn bush of roses.
And I'm punctured in several places, bleeding.
And so you're greatly agitated and roused.
We've got to care for this dear brother.
And so you rush me to a clinic
and I'm taken right in and the doctor
says, I can tell by the complexion that
you're dying of cancer.
So he busies himself with a treatment program
of cancer.
And you just took me there because I'm
punctured.
But let's reverse that.
Suppose that it isn't me but your dear
mother.
And you know that she's dying of cancer.
And so you arrange an appointment at the
doctor's office and you have to help her
along the walk.
And suddenly she's the one that topples over
into the rose bushes and is punctured by
thorns.
You get her into the doctor's office and
the doctor says, oh, these terrible wounds.
And he begins to treat her for the
punctures.
And you keep trying to say, doctor, oh,
he says, we've got everything under control.
And he cleans up.
It's possible to wrong.
And I believe there are many in the
church who are dying for mere punctures.
Let me repeat the words from Jeremiah.
You have healed the wounds of the daughter
of my people superficially.
I say to you, there are multiplied millions
in the churches who have never been healed
of the depravity of sin.
They have been treated for superficial wounds.
It may well be that some of you
are guilty of administering superficial treatment.
And again I say, repentance is needed.
It is absurd to apply the balm of
Gilead to someone who doesn't know they're sick.
They that are whole do not need a
physician, said our Lord.
But those who are sick, we have millions
in our churches who do not know that
they are shot through with the cancer of
sin.
And we put a little band-aid on
their elbow where there's a scratch.
And they have never known the healing of
the great physician in the soul.
There are other doctrines.
I alluded this morning to the doctrine of
regeneration.
I distinct and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
A few weeks ago I had an experience.
It was the result of something lovely that
had happened a year or two before.
I had been teaching a course and one
of the men who was in this course,
and he was obviously affected.
He said repeatedly, I never heard things like
this before.
I never knew that those matters were in
the Bible.
Anyway, to shorten the story, he called some
time after our experience in class to speak
to my denomination.
Well, I said, if we can agree on
dates, yes.
And we were able to.
So a few weeks ago I was privileged
to speak three times.
But they had a lot of other speakers
from among themselves.
I was the only white man.
And one night a very eloquent black man
said he was going to speak on a
nick-at-night experience.
I thought, a nick-at-night experience?
What's he talking about?
Well, apparently he had stayed home one evening
to gratify his daughter who wanted to spend
for kids at Nickelodeon or something.
I don't know what it was.
But he got this notion of Nick.
And he was thinking about nicodemus, and he
said, I'm going to It
was perfectly absurd.
It was ridiculous.
It was shameful.
Because he kept saying, every one of you
needs a nick-at-night experience.
And over and over.
And he was eloquent and powerful in the
flesh.
But it was anything but true.
And I thought, well, thank God I have
the privilege of speaking three times, but isn't
it all Well, I don't know.
One always leaves But now I mention that
to say, there is scarcely any part of
the Bible more misused than John chapter 3.
How many of you have used the story
of Nicodemus to illustrate a conversion, to talk
about conversion?
Well, I hope you wouldn't dare to raise
your hand.
Because I'm going to shame you if you
do.
You know the story of Nicodemus.
You know that he came and you know
that Christ said to him, nobody can even
see the kingdom of God if he's not
born again.
Surely no one can enter the kingdom of
God if he's not born again.
It is not the story of
we, every one of us, without any exception,
was born dead.
Now, some of you have been unwise enough
to suppose that if a person will repent
and believe, they will be born again.
But you don't see the absurdity of what
you think and say.
How can a person who is dead repent?
How can a person who is dead believe?
It's impossible.
How can a person suffer some total depravity
do anything pleasing to God?
The biblical doctrine of regeneration is that work
of the Holy Spirit upon a person before
they repent and believe, making it possible for
them to repent and believe.
Our Lord used various means of expressing this
great truth.
He says you have eyes to see, and
you cannot see.
You have ears to hear, and you cannot
hear.
You have hearts with which to understand, but
you cannot in
response to Nicodemus' statements.
Nicodemus says, is it possible?
Now what sense does it make to speak
of the physical birth and to somehow parallel
that with the spiritual birth, when in the
case of the physical birth, the subject of
Are you following me?
When you were born, what did you do?
Did you conceive yourself in your mother's womb?
Did you tell her what color hair you
wanted, what color shoes
the head that God gave you?
What I'm saying to you is that in
the Church today, people are that if they
will repent and believe, referring to an instantaneous
moment of experience.
And it's not true.
The new birth is accomplished by the Holy
Spirit.
He quickens the dead.
And then that person who has been quickened,
hears the gospel.
And now their ears are attuned to spiritual
truth.
And their eyes are open, and their hearts
are tender.
And they say, oh wow, that's for me.
That's what I need.
That's what I've been craving.
That's the answer.
And they cast themselves upon Christ.
Now, I must close because our time is
up.
But do you get the sense of what
I'm saying?
I began this morning by declaring to you
it is not enough to talk of sin.
And even when we introduce the doctrine of
repentance from we, God.
Now, suppose you come to understand regeneration and
inadequately describe it.
What does that leave you to do?
Well, there's one course open to those of
us who are burdened, and that's prayer.
I don't know how many come to your
prayer meeting here, or your prayer meeting, brother,
but I dare to say the number is
far fewer than makes sense.
In both cases.
I'd be astonished if it were otherwise.
And I would suppose that the level of
the prayer is remarkably poor in comparison with
the extent of the need.
But you understand when we see that our
family, our sons, are totally incapable of doing
anything that pleases God, dead indeed in trespass.
But as long as we take the initiative
and put ourselves, well,
I wish there was another hour because there
are a number of things that seems to
me would be appropriate to add to what
I said.
But still it seems to me that what
are you going to do about it?
Do you see this issue of revival?
Absolutely.
How can we go on without it?
Is it any wonder that Moses said to
God, if you don't go with us we're
not going anywhere.
Wouldn't it be wise if in our church
in each instance we came to the decision
Lord, we've played church well.
Now we've got to have it.
And we're not going to march on with
all our plans and programs.
We're going to wait for your spirit to
come in mighty power.
Oh God, help us.
We need thee.
We have limped so long that we now
perceive of limping as if we were walking
well.
We have made substitutes for the absence of
your spirit with such frequency that we no
longer are burdened as we want to be.
Oh by your grace and mercy will you
overwhelm each of us without with a gigantic
unceasing longing for your nearness in the church.
For the remarkable work of the gospel.
For the gracious outpouring and fullness.
Help us to deal with the issues of
repentance as men and women of God ought.
And for everyone in a position of responsibility
who has taught falsely or foolishly.
Oh may repentance come swiftly.
And may the day come ere long when
the churches of this region are filled with
the glory of God.
To the praise of Jesus Christ forever.
Amen.