In this sermon, the preacher discusses the state of America and the sins that have plagued the nation. He emphasizes the belief that anyone can come to God without a mediator or appropriate sacrifice, which he believes is the root of all troubles. The preacher mentions various societal issues such as violent crime, divorce, abortion, child abuse, and pornography, and expresses the need for a solution. He concludes by stating that America needs a spiritual awakening, as a change in administrations or leadership alone will not be enough to turn the nation around.

Someone whose children are in the New York public school system where the children are constantly indoctrinated with homosexual values and sexual immorality said these words, if this is not the bottom, then how deep does this pit go? How deep does this pit go? I don't need to tell you today that America is inundated with violent crime, divorce, abortion, child abuse, pornography, and a host of other ills. And we live at a time when it seems as if everything that we do is resistant to government cures, someone has said. There seems to be no way that we can stop what is going on. We think of crime, we think of violence in our schools, we think of the headlines that are heard and seen around the world. And the question of the church today is, what now shall we do? I don't have to try to convince you that our need is absolutely great, perhaps greater than at any other time in American history. And many of us feel as if we are on a boat with some people who say that they have the freedom to drill holes in one side of the boat, because after all, that's their freedom. And we say, but if you drill a hole on that side of the boat and the boat begins to sink, we are included in that boat. But they insist that they will drill holes in it because that's their constitutional right. The question is, what do we do? I want you to know today that my burden is very simply put, namely, that I believe that if there is any good news in America, it will never come from Washington. It will always come from the people of God who know the gospel of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, I'd like to say that America is far too gone to think that all that we need is a change of administrations in Washington. All that we need is a distinctively Christian president and a distinctively Christian Congress, and somehow we can turn this ship around. No, this ship has fallen too far. It's taken on too much water to expect that to happen. So many of us believe that the only way in which America can really be turned around ultimately is if God were to graciously send us a spiritual awakening. What I'd like to do in the time still allotted me is to give you a brief survey of America's three great awakenings, and then to share some personal convictions as to what a revival looks like and the possibility of there being a fourth revival in America. So I want you to hang on. I want you to fasten your seat belts because I will be talking quite quickly, though I hope very clearly, and in this way we'll be able to cover a lot of territory. The first great awakening in America, I put the dates 1740 to 43. 1740 to 43. You know that the convictions of one generation are not necessarily accepted by the next. The Puritans came to America, and one writer said that they shook the dust of Babylon from their feet, and so they did. But their children and grandchildren weren't necessarily buying what the parents were selling, so there was apathy in the church. In 1679, there was a reforming synod that was called to deal with such things as spiritual pride, neglect of church, backbiting, division, worldliness, lack of concern, drunkenness, and unbelief. And it was out of that meeting that some seeds were sown that eventually resulted in what we call today the first great awakening. There are three names that you should associate with the great awakenings in America, three, I should say, with the first great awakening, and that is Solomon Stoddard. He was a pastor in Northampton, Massachusetts, and he discovered that God graciously gave him what he called five harvests. These were five times when the Holy Spirit of God moved in an unusual way in his congregation, and many were converted. And he taught his congregation to believe in harvests, that there were special seasons at which God worked in mighty power. His grandson came to help him, and his grandson is more famous than his grandfather, and that is Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards is the second name you should associate with the great awakening. And Edwards came, and within two years, his grandfather died, so he had the responsibility of preaching in the church. You know, of course, that he preached that sermon for which he is famous, namely, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And he preached that sermon not so much to try to convince people to believe in Christ through fear, but rather through rational means and the power of the Spirit to persuade them that they are absolutely foolish not to flee to Christ for refuge. In the year 1734, the Holy Spirit worked mightily. A prostitute was converted, and then after that, others were converted, 300 in all, and Edwards wrote a book entitled A Faithful Narrative of a Surprising Work of God. And that book became effective in stimulating faith in people for revival, and it spawned other awakenings around the country. Now, of course, the great second person, third, I should say, whom you have to remember when it comes to America's great awakening, first great awakening, is Whitefield. Whitefield was born in a tavern in England. At the age of two, his father died. As a teenager, he began to seek God, and he attended Oxford and joined the Holy Club, and that's where he met the Wesleys. And you remember later how, even though they were friends, they became, what shall we say, separated over some very important doctrines. But nonetheless, it is there that Whitefield began to preach, and at the age of 22, he was ordained. I hope that one of the things we do in heaven is watch videos because one of the videos I want to see is of Whitefield preaching. Whitefield came to America, and it is said by historians that it was Jonathan Edwards that lit the fuse, but Whitefield fanned it into a flame. He and Jonathan Edwards became fast friends. He also became friends with Benjamin Franklin, who, by the way, recognized that Whitefield prayed for his salvation, but before Franklin died, he said that the prayers of my friend Whitefield were not answered. In fact, some of the last things that Benjamin Franklin said on his deathbed was, why should I believe in Christ now? Soon I shall die, and then I shall know whether or not it is all true. But I want to read what Whitefield said about the Great Awakening. I should say what Benjamin Franklin said about the Great Awakening. Now, even though he was not a believer, notice what he had to say. This is now Benjamin Franklin. From being thoughtless and indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street. Whitefield preached with tears running down his face. He said that he would weep for those who would not weep for themselves. Coal miners would come to hear him preach, and it is said that their tears made clear white furrows down their cheeks, their smutty cheeks. Multitudes were converted. There was a great movement of the Holy Spirit of God. Now, of course, as a result of this, we see Great Awakenings can do mighty things in society. Because one historian said that it would have been possible to leave a bag of gold along the street in Northampton, and no one would steal it. If that is the measure of revival, I do have to confess it has not yet come to Chicago. Maybe it has come to your communities, but not Chicago. These great periods of awakening were preceded by prayer. Our concerts of prayer largely came from Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was absolutely convinced that the united prayers of God's people are more powerful than all the individual prayers. So he tried to help people to pray together that God indeed might bless. And God did bless, and it is estimated that perhaps 50,000 people came to saving faith in Christ. And even though that number does not seem to be large when you think of New England at the time, the Great Awakening, the first Great Awakening, had a marvelous and wonderful impact on society. Now, was it controversial? Yes. After it was over, you, of course, have controversy. Some people say that it was simply an emotional experience. And that's why Jonathan Edwards wrote the book Religious Affections. If you have read Religious Affections, and I need to tell you that I'm only now reading it. When I flew to California the other day, I read chapter one on the plane. I read chapter two yesterday. If I take enough trips, maybe in the next couple of months I'll finish the book. But here's a book that talks about the great work that God does in the hearts of the regenerate and how to distinguish it from simply the flesh or the devil. The Religious Affections. It is not easy to read, but it is a gold mine, a treasure of theological and spiritual wisdom. So there you have the first Great Awakening that God did here in America. By the way, if I could commend to you Ian Murray's book on Jonathan Edwards, it is absolutely necessary reading for every single pastor. Ian Murray's biography of Edwards, you know, Edwards was kicked out of his church. Actually, he was voted out. 230 voted him out and 25 were in favor of his staying, all because he disagreed with his grandfather and believed that all those who came to communion should be saved. And his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, had said that it's okay if they aren't because grace is communicated through the sacraments. And here's a man who is America's premier theologian, voted out of his church, and a biographer said of him that his happiness in God was beyond the reach of his enemies. May I commend to you the writings of Jonathan Edwards. That's America's first Great Awakening. Second Great Awakening, I've divided into two parts, and we are going to say that it spanned 90 years. Second Great Awakening, 1790 to 1860. You have to understand by the year 1800, about a million people had moved west to Kentucky and to Louisiana and to Tennessee. And along with that migration, there was a tremendous amount of crime. There was ruthlessness. There was alcoholism. There was no centrality of the church in those great migrations west. But a man by the name of James McCready had a camp meeting in Kentucky. And at this camp meeting, the Holy Spirit worked mightily. People were, some of them were crying out for forgiveness. You had some of the same things taking place as took place in the First Great Awakening. And then a larger camp meeting of Barton Stone at Cane Ridge. It is said between 10 and 15,000 covered wagons came to that camp meeting. And by the way, that is the beginning of American camping. That's where the whole idea started. And it was during that period of time that people got the jerks. Even the unconverted as they came in, suddenly they were twitching like this and they didn't seem to be able to help themselves. And there were some phenomena there that were certainly, what shall we say, controversial and spoken against. But nevertheless, through circuit riders, particularly those old Methodist circuit riders, it is said that almost every house in Kentucky was visited with the gospel. And one historian said that the revival confounded infidelity and brought untold numbers to the faith. That's in the West. Now let's talk about the East. In the East, Timothy Dwight, who is now the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, becomes the president of Yale University, and he sees infidelity among the students. As a matter of fact, in those days, students who were Christians communicated with signals to remain politically correct because it was so unpopular to be a Christian that they actually had a little code among themselves so that their Christianity would be hidden. Timothy Dwight decided to confront the infidelity head on by giving a series of lectures on the topic, Is the Bible the Word of God? As a result, 75 of the 225 students were converted. And then a revival, and I guess that is what we could say, certainly broke out there at Yale University. And the students went home for spring break and everybody thought, well, that'll be the end of that. It was the best thing that ever happened because when they went home, they began to talk about what God did. And as a result of their reports, revivals also spread to other universities, such as Dartmouth and Princeton. And by the way, you historians, write down the year 1806 because, you see, as a result of this, that's the year of the great haystack prayer meeting. You remember Samuel Mills and some students running along and it is raining and they do not have time to go for shelter and so they hide in a haystack. And there in the haystack, they had a prayer meeting and dedicated themselves to world evangelism. And most missionary organizations would say that it is that haystack prayer meeting that was really the beginning of the worldwide missionary movement. Now, of course, the most famous evangelist of the second great awakening was none other than Charles Finney. Charles Finney was converted when he went into the forest. He said that waves of liquid love flowed through him. And later he became impatient with all those who did not have the same experience as he did. Now, it is said that Finney oozed charisma, that when he said the word hell, people actually smelled smoke. And Finney began to preach and large crowds came to him. And as a result, a revival came, particularly to New York State. And the highlight, I think, was in Albany when everything shut down. Actually, I think I have that incorrect. It was not Albany, but Rochester. It is there that shopkeepers shut everything down and people would go and they would pray and they would seek the Lord. Well, you know something about Finney's great legacy. I must say, however, that Finney's legacy in American history, in my opinion, is mixed. On the one hand, we're thankful for all those who came to saving faith in Christ as a result of his work. And we're grateful for what God did. But on the other hand, he also introduced some very subtle and sometimes not so subtle false doctrines and ended actually believing in perfectionism. He was so disillusioned at the number of people who came to Christ who then fell away that he ended up believing that unless one were perfect, one were not genuinely converted. Some of you may know that he began the school there at Oberlin. A number of years ago, I was at Oberlin and noticed and already knew in advance that the school is very, very liberal. It is embarrassed, embarrassed by the legacy of Finney. And I went over to Finney's chapel, which was closed, and I knelt before it and just prayed there on the street saying to myself, surely somebody somewhere should have enough respect for Finney to remember his legacy and the days when he preached the gospel in that chapel and when his heart was really for God and for revival. Well, there were other problems that Finney had, but I think his book Revivals on Religion, the Revivals on Religion, was a tremendous book in many ways. But I'd like to also commend to you the book by Ian Murray entitled Revival and Revivalism. That's an important book, and I noticed that it was written up. It was reviewed in the journal HeartCry. The reason that you should read that is because Finney is a transition leader, because the whole idea that revival is something that we have to wait upon God to bring and that it's really up to God and that all that we can do is to humbly beseech him. That was lost. And in Finney, he defined revival, you remember, as nothing but the right use of the right means. So what you now have is revivalism. Revivals can be scheduled and you can hold two weeks of revival and you can put up a sign that says revival every Friday night. We can have it whenever we want it. What Ian Murray shows is the effects of that change so that the coinage of the word revival, which at one time had such a rich meaning and such a rich history, has been diluted now to refer to almost anything that even we are able to produce if we have the right means at the right time. But nonetheless, the fact is that during what we call now the second great awakening, and I've given you the different phases of it, including the ministry of Finney, it is estimated that about one million people came to saving faith in Christ. It was a time of unusual work of the blessed Holy Spirit in the United States, and that is a the second great awakening. Well, let's talk about the third great awakening. Third great awakening. I'm simply going to give two years, really 1857 to 59, 1857 to 59. How did that begin? Well, there was a man walking the streets of New York City, praying for the men on Wall Street, and his name was Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier. Now, I think it's appropriate for me to stop right here and to ask you a question. Can you possibly go wrong with a name like that? Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier. He was wondering how he could minister to the people on Wall Street and the businessmen who had no concern for God. So what he decided to do is to hand out handbills and to put them in many businesses, as many as possible, and invite men to pray. What did the handbill say? It said, how often shall I pray as often as the language of prayers in my heart, as often as I see my need of help, as often as I feel the power of temptation, as often as I am made aware of any spiritual declension or feel the aggression of a worldly spirit. In prayer, we leave the business of time for that of eternity and fellowship with men for fellowship with God. At noon on September 23rd, 1857, the door was opened in the meeting hall, but nobody appeared. At 1230, a step was heard and then another and another in all six men gathered to pray. Week by week, the crowds grew. The very next month, October 1857, the stock market crashed and people felt a greater need to seek God. Now listen to this carefully. Within six months, a total of 10,000 men were gathering daily for prayer, many places throughout New York city. When the churches were packed, the prayer meetings were moved to theaters. Listen to the New York Herald of March 6th, 1858. It says, Satan is busy all the morning in wall street among the brokers and all the afternoon and evening. The churches are crowded with saints who gambled in the morning. The fact is that that revival began to spread and the press picked up reports of these huge prayer meetings taking place in New York and soon the revival began to spread to California, to San Jose, to Sacramento, and to other parts of the world because there is such a thing as people being stimulated to revival because they hear about a revival. Now, of course, I was very interested in what happened in Chicago. Now, if you've ever been to the Moody church, you know that directly across the street from the Moody church is the historical society. We have many visitors who come and then in the afternoon they go to the historical society and it is most assuredly worth your while to go there. You can see the very bed upon which Abraham Lincoln died. I mean, there are many, many interesting things both nationally and historically in the historical society. One day I went across the street and I asked if I could see the microfilms of the newspapers of 1857, 1858 so that I might be able to go through them and find out what the papers were saying about the great awakening, which is known as the businessman's awakening, the great revival of prayer that took place in the city of Chicago as a result, you see, of what happened in New York. All right, consider this. On March 25th, 1858, the Tribune reported, the noon prayer meeting at Metropolitan Hall yesterday was the largest and most interesting that has yet been held. The body of the house and the gallery were filled considerably before 12 o'clock and at the time for commencing the exercises, the platform, stairways, aisles, and entries were all occupied by persons standing up. During the whole hour, the stairs leading down to the streets were filled with persons arriving or retiring, unable to gain admittance. One day I said to an associate who knows a little bit about Chicago's history, I said, I want to go to that Metropolitan Hall. I want to stand where it happened. Well, you can't do that today because the Metropolitan Hall referred to here is no longer standing, but this is what happened. Now, John Wentworth, the mayor of Chicago at the time, stood near the rear of the hall and listened with great attention to all that was said. Later, he commented and said, the effects of the present religious movement are to be felt in every phase of society. Listen to the Chicago Journal of March 20th, 1858. It reported that the spread like fire in every direction. Such an outpouring of religion has not been seen before since the days of Edwards. Notice that the newspaper reporters in those days actually knew of Jonathan Edwards and they knew that there had been a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in that era. One of the reasons, you know, that I was interested in the question of the third great awakening is because of the impact on D.L. Moody. Now you think this through historically, okay? D.L. Moody comes to Chicago in 1856. He comes as a shoe salesman. He wants to earn a lot of money, and he was very good at it, and he was in the business of earning a lot of money. And two years later, 1858, that's when the revival really came to Chicago. D.L. Moody is present for the revival. And one of his biographers says that it was the third awakening that, quote, tossed Moody out of his complacency. D.L. Moody, you know, was very, very hard on the English language. It has said that he was able to pronounce Mesopotamia in one syllable. Well, he wrote a letter to his mother in which he says, there is a great revival of religion in this city. I go to meeting every night. Oh, how I enjoy it. It seems as if God were here himself. Oh, mother, pray for us. Pray that this will go on until every knee is bowed. So you see, D.L. Moody was affected by what is known as the third great awakening. He was there when it was happening in the city. You know, I was interested when I did this study to find out, well, why did it stop? It's interesting. I came across a little quote from the newspapers, which unfortunately I did not write down. But as I remember it, it was this. It says, the prayer meetings after May of 1858, the prayer meetings are disbanded because of the engagements of the clergy. And I looked at that and thought, well, I'd like to find out what in the world that really means. Was it because the pastors were too busy to pray? They simply said, oh, you know, we've had enough prayer. Why did it stop? I don't know, but that's what the newspaper said. Now, the best way to evaluate this revival of prayer, this businessmen's meeting, our revival, and the reason it's called that is because there was no national leader, no Finney, no Edwards. It just took off and pastors led the prayer meetings this way. I should say that in those days, women wore big skirts. I'm not sure what they were called. I wasn't going to mention this until somebody gave me the proper name, but nobody's given me the proper name and now I'm mentioning it anyway. But one of the newspaper reports even said that if women wouldn't wear those huge skirts, more people could fit into the prayer hall. And the rules for the revival were very clear. A different pastor would lead. No one could speak more than two or three minutes. And after the noon hour, they disbanded because everybody had to go to work. But thousands of people were praying. I can only quote the words of J. Edwin Orr, who summarized the third great awakening this way. The influence of the awakening was felt everywhere in the nation. It first captured the great cities, but it also spread through every town and village and country and Hamlet. It swam schools and colleges. It affected all classes without respect to condition. There was no fanaticism. There was a remarkable unanimity of approval among religious and secular observers alike with scarcely a critical voice heard anywhere. It seemed to many that the fruits of Pentecost had been repeated. That is an all too brief summary of America's three great awakenings. The question is, might God do it again? First of all, of course, some of the characteristics of revival, which I think others will be speaking about, and I don't want to comment on too much, but I think that revival always brings an awareness of God's presence. I like the way the Puritans put it. They would say that there is the manifest presence of God. People knew that God is among you. On Sunday, I was preaching about this and I noticed that in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, one of the reasons that Paul says that there should be no tongue speaking without interpreters, et cetera, is he says that the unsaved are going to come in. And he says, if they hear prophecy, if they hear the preached word, the secrets of their hearts will be revealed and they will fall on their faces and say, surely God is among you. And we've never lived in a day and age, have we? At least we haven't, who are in this room when we so desperately needed such a sense of God's presence that the unsaved fall on their faces and say, surely God is among you. Is it not true that during the first great awakening, that sailors even coming from England sometimes repented on the boats before they docked because they knew that God was doing something great in New England, their manifest presence of God. One person said the grass beneath my feet and the rocks around me seem to cry, flee to Christ for refuge. We've lost that in America today, the manifest presence of God. Secondly, a revival always brings both unity and opposition. The true believers who have a heart for God will be unified unless of course it is the kind of revival that sometimes does divide. If there is some question about its authenticity, but, but usually a true revival unifies the believers, but also brings opposition from those who do not want to get that close to the heavenly side to dead churches who haven't done anything for years will rise in opposition to revival. If it comes, uh, people will speak against it. Uh, the, the secular risks will try to mock it and to tell people to fear it. You know, revival is not just always a pleasant experience. There's generosity, you know, they gave away their money. There's purity, Ananias and Sapphira. There was honesty because God was saying to the church, I want you to be a pure church. And there's moral purity in the book of Ephesians. It says they brought their occultic arts and so forth, and they burned them in the fire. There is, there is a turning away from sin when God moves mightily, because when God comes, he comes in holiness. He also comes in, in a spirit of forgiveness and also love. But, but suddenly people become aware of how far short they have fallen from God's standard as believers. And of course, also the unsaved. And then I have to say something that is very close to my heart. I believe that a revival in America would mean that we have to turn from political solutions to God, to turn from political solutions to God. What would a revival conference be? If everybody who stood up agreed with everybody else that stood up, let me stimulate your thinking. And I hope you agree with me because I say jokingly that in less than a hundred years, you'll know I was right. Folks, let me ask you a question. What is America's great need today? Is the issue really the imposition of gay rights? Is the issue really abortion? Is it really trash television and pornography? All of these are fruits of something much more important. Namely, we have left God. We have left his word. And do you know what the great sin in America is? The great sin in America is the belief that anyone can come to God without a mediator, without an appropriate sacrifice and without blood. You can come any way you want. And that, my dear friend, is the seat of all of our troubles. Remember the story of the keeper of the springs. There was a man up high on the mountain who would always clean the spring up there. And the townspeople said, why should we pay him? We never see him. And so they cut off his salary. And soon the water became filled with algae and all kinds of disease and people were dying. And then they were looking for remedies to try to clean the pool. And somebody said, you know what we should do? We should reinstate the keeper of the spring. You know, it's interesting for me to watch liberal denominations. Sometimes when they finally come to the point of ordaining homosexuals, people say, oh, I have to leave because now officially they are apostate. My dear friend, they were apostate when they left the word of God, when they stopped preaching the gospel. That's the point at which they became apostate. Everything else is simply the fruit of leaving that behind. So what we need to do is to simply say this. Of course, we should be involved politically, individually. We have that opportunity. But let's not think that the answer is simply a political answer. The answer is not a moral answer. The answer is a spiritual answer. That's the great battle of the world. It's walking through the temple area in Jerusalem about a year and a half ago. And here's this argument going on in German, of all things, as to whether or not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Jews and the God of the Christians and the God of the Muslims is the same God or whether they're different gods. How I wish I knew German better, because that's the kind of discussion I'd have liked to get in on. That's the real issue. Now we're talking about important things. And they were shouting at each other there. And that was a good thing to shout about if you're on the wrong right side of that debate. Let me ask this question. And I think I was cheated at the beginning, just a few minutes. So I'll try to just take a couple of extra seconds there. Is revival yet possible? Is it possible? Well, we say, of course, it's possible as long as God is God. We understand that. But my dear friend today, I want you to notice that we live in a different America than the America of the three great awakenings. Culturally, we have changed. Culturally, we have changed. In those days, the Bible was at least respected, even if it wasn't believed. Today, of course, the Bible is trashed either directly or indirectly. Today, we live in a therapeutic culture where where everybody thinks that he has his own answer to the human soul and does not need the new birth, does not need God. The whole idea of our society is that you have within yourself the resources to heal yourself. All that you have to do is to go on television and spill it all of your shameful things. And somehow you're going to be better afterwards. You know, we condemn people like that, and that's fine. But do we cry for them? Have you ever thought of the emptiness of trying to wash your dirty heart with water that has come from your dirty heart? And today we have a culture that has tried to substitute for the gospel all kinds of remedies, all kinds of remedies to heal the sin sick soul. We find that the church has changed. The church has changed. You know, there are many people who have Jonathan Edwards were to preach his sermon, sinners in the hands of an angry God. They would be embarrassed to have that happen at church. They'd be embarrassed. My dear friend, this is why some of us think that it might not be possible to have spiritual recovery without doctrinal recovery. Because, you see, if we do, if we have a revival without doctrinal recovery, what we're going to find is that within our souls, the revival is soon going to dissipate because as we begin to just simply look within and see what's going on and and and think of it in terms of human experience, all that is fine unless there are those huge objective truths, the great foundation stones upon which our faith is built. Unless we tell people what to do when the revival wears off. We're going to find that we're spinning our wheels and the whole business of of doctrinal recovery, in my opinion, is very important. So the church has changed. There are churches today who will not preach even on heaven and hell because they say that the average unsafe person is isn't interested in that. All that he cares about is me. So we have to follow everything through for what Jesus will do for you now. And so there's a concession to modernity here. Our concept of revival has changed. You know, we talk glibly about the fact that we want a revival and those words come so easily from our mouths and not a one of us would be here unless we wanted a revival. But my dear friend, revival may be America's only answer, but it is never an easy answer. Have you ever thought of how the church itself might be severely disciplined by God if a revival were to come? Have you ever thought of what changes would take place in our lives? You know, that revival that took place in Canada in the early 70s, where we discovered that some people who prayed that revival would come rejected it when it came because they thought that it was for other people and they didn't realize that it was for them. I mean, revival is a difficult, it's always bittersweet. But you see, there are people today who want revival because they think, wouldn't it be nice to somehow restore some greatness in America? Wouldn't it be nice, you know, if we could pray again in schools? Wouldn't it be nice if we could do this? And somehow we could take care of all of our problems if only we had a revival. No, my dear friend, God may sharply discipline us if we have a revival. Well, I do need to conclude and I would like to make some concluding observations and thoughts. Will America have a fourth revival? Will America be given another chance? I don't know how to answer that specifically because I don't think that there's anything in the Bible that says that there's going to be a worldwide revival. I find that there are some people who think that there is, and there are some people who say God has showed me that there is, but I'm saying, show me the text, show me the text. Furthermore, I believe very strongly that God does not owe us a revival. You know what God really owes us is judgment because there is no nation that has had as much light as we with all of our Bibles and our television programs and our radio programs and our books. I mean, when you go to some of the countries of the world like Belarus, where my wife and I were last year, and you see all of the blessings, you feel embarrassed because we have all this and yet we are turning against it. So we can't come to God and say, God, you owe us this because look at what we've done or because even we have sought you. It is all by God's sovereign grace and mercy. And therefore we come humbly, we throw ourselves in the face of Christ and say, give us what we do not deserve, grant us yet mercy. And perhaps he will, perhaps he will, but we can't demand it because God is God. I last fall taught preaching at Trinity International University. And one day I asked all the students to pick up their books and I told them we were going to go to a cemetery. And I told them where the cemetery was. They all got in cars. They had no idea what this guy was up to. When we got there, I gave them an exposition of Hebrews, excuse me, Ephesians chapter two, that we are dead in trespasses and sins. And then Ezekiel 37, where he was asked to prophesy to dry bones. And I said to one of the students, his name was Tom. I said, Tom, go preach to this gravestone. Here lies Jonathan and Molly died in 1912. Preach them and tell them that the day of resurrection has come. And he wouldn't. So I had to go over and do it. I shouted and I, I said, Molly and Jonathan, the day of resurrection has come stand up. And then I waited. Fortunately, there was no resurrection. I did that twice. And I said to the students, how do you think I felt? Pretty stupid. And that's how stupid we are. Every time we preach the gospel, except for one fact, God in his infinite grace might choose to cause a resurrection. And that's the way I look at revival. We come in and we say, God, we have nothing. We bring nothing to the table except our great need, except our great need. And if in your grace, you were to bless us with a revival, that would be wonderful. If the revival doesn't come by your grace, we're going to be faithful anyway, but God be merciful to us because we are so needy and so undeserving. God willing, two weeks from today, my wife and I will be flying to Berlin. It's been my privilege to lead tours to the sites of the reformation in Europe. And I will be there, but we're going a couple of days ahead of the tour group. And the reason is we're going to rent a car and drive to Herenhut, which in translated is God's acre. You know that it said Herenhut where the Moravians were and the Moravians. And I notice it's still on the map. I don't know what to expect, whether there's any buildings left or whatever, but God willing, we'll be driving out there. The Moravians began a 100 year prayer meeting. They signed up to pray. The Holy spirit came upon them during communion one time and they resolved their differences. You remember Ludwig Count von Zinzendorf? You know, you folks from Pennsylvania will know, and you visitors will find out there's a place here in Pennsylvania called Bethlehem. And the reason it's Bethlehem is because Ludwig Count von Zinzendorf spent 18 months here and one Christmas Eve evening in keeping with the festivities, they said, let's name this place Bethlehem. Ludwig Count von Zinzendorf, you know, was converted. And at the age of eight, he wrote notes to Jesus and threw them out the window hoping that Jesus would read them. Well, I think he did. One other thing. And I know folks, but listen, have mercy. I began late. You know what the Moravians used to do when they sent a missionary, they would sometimes sing an entire afternoon or evening. And then when you died, they buried you in the cemetery in accordance with what were you saying in the choir, all the altos over here, all the bases over here and all that. And I want to go to that cemetery because John Wesley was at that cemetery. He was visiting one day and he came to the cemetery because a funeral was going on and all that. And by God's grace, I want to stand there and I want to say, this is the cemetery where it all happened. And this is the Moravians. But did you know that 63 years before William Carey, those Moravians, bless them, had sent missionaries around the world. They sent missionaries around the world. And I think it's because they sought God, however inadequate at points their theology might be. They sought God. And in grace, he blessed them against insurmountable odds. One year, 25 of their missionaries died. They called it the great dying. But those Moravians are a witness to us today that even though we may be small in number, if we seek him and seek him and give him no rest, as it says in the Old Testament, give me no rest, God says in grace, he might yet bless us and grant this nation what it so desperately, desperately needs. So in the midst of the speaking of this week and the learning and the reading, let us not forget to seek almighty God in hopelessness, lest he come and bless us. Hopefully he will. Would you join me as we pray? Father, we read in your word, if you should mark iniquity, who would stand? We do not come to you because we live in America, thinking therefore you owe us something because we're in the great United States or the country of Canada. We thank father of believers who sought you with all of their hearts in China and the Soviet Union and all that they got was terror and death. We deserve no better. But we ask in the name of Jesus that you will help us to humble ourselves, to come helplessly and to simply say, father, grant us that which is pleasing in your sight. If yet per chance, you might send us the mercy and the movement of the spirit that we so desperately desire. Oh, grant that father. We come confessing our inadequacy, seeking only your will and praying that you shall do in us what you desire. It's not the question of whether America is given another chance. The fact is we are. Help us to respond. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.