God's Principle of Reduction for Revival

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means that one is a learner, for that is what a disciple is, a learner. And as we follow Christ along the narrow way and serve him in our generation, friends, we must be teachable to what God is performing in our lives. There is a biblical principle which I'd like to draw out for us today in scripture, and this principle can be found, well, it's found throughout our entire Bible, and of which I speak is God's Principle of Reduction.

And that's the title of my message to you today, God's Principle of Reduction for Revival. My text can be found in Psalm 102. You can turn in your Bibles there now.

There are several aspects I'd like to draw out from our passage today as we look at this theme of God's Principle of Reduction for Revival. Oh, friends, how desperately we need a fresh move of God in our day. How this land needs a heaven-sent revival.

Oh, how the people of God need reviving. When revival comes, many backsliders are reclaimed, and many unconverted souls are gloriously saved for the glory of God. A fresh wind from heaven could alter the state of the church for good, change the course of the entire nation for better, and impact eternity forever.

Let us first go to God's Word in Psalm 102, and we will be in verses 1 through 16. Hear the Word of the Lord, and be transformed by its power. Let us prepare our hearts to receive the Word of God at this time.

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee. Hide not Thy face from me in the day when I'm in trouble. Incline Thine ear unto me in the day when I call.

Answer me speedily, for my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth. My heart is smitten and withered like grass so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin.

I'm like a pelican of the wilderness. I'm like an owl of the desert. I watch and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop.

My enemies reproach me all the day, and they that are mad against me are sworn against me, for I've eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping. Because of Thine indignation and Thy wrath, for Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down, my days are like a shadow that declineth, and I'm withered like grass. But Thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever in Thy remembrance unto all generations.

Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her. Yea, the set time has come for Thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth that glory.

When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. I will stop there. I want us to observe how God uses this principle of reduction in preparing a people for revival, whether it's a personal revival whereby life is set on fire for God once again, or whether it's a corporate revival whereby a church is reignited with holy passion for God once again, or whether it's a national revival whereby an entire country is turned back to God through repentance, humility, and prayer.

Listen, friends, the ultimate purpose of God in your life is to bring Him glory, and He accomplishes this in several ways. I want us to first realize this principle of reduction as seen in its purifying process. Look at verse 3 where the psalmist states his complaint to God in his great affliction.

For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth. A fire reduces things to ashes. A fire purges dross from a precious commodity like silver or gold.

When a silversmith places a silver into the white-hot flames, his great purpose is to reduce the silver to its purest form, to burn away all the dross, to remove from it all that is worthless. So when silver or gold emerges from the refiner's fire, it is reduced to its most intrinsic value. The object of the refiner's fire is to bring out pure gold.

And God will work in this capacity in the life of His children. He will often place us in trying circumstances, in a deep and prolonged trial, in a time of great grief and immense difficulty, to separate from us all that is worthless in our lives in regard to eternity. John the Baptist spoke of this when he said, I must decrease so He may increase.

I recall a story that my homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Offord, related to me one day. He said he was crossing the Atlantic on an ocean liner, and lo and behold, who should he run into out on deck but Martin Lloyd-Jones. After they exchanged hellos, Stephen Offord shared with Lloyd-Jones his great frustration of being a pastor in London, for he felt his preaching was diminishing the church rather than growing it.

The doctor grabbed Stephen Offord by the arm and said, My dear brother, one must first reduce a church before it can be grown. And this spoke of the principle of pruning, as seen in John chapter 15, whereby our Lord describes the activity of the vinedresser as he prunes away a branch for further fruitfulness. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Listen friends, God in his great mercy toward us will place us in difficult and trying circumstances for a great purpose to be accomplished in our lives. It is God, as the great husbandman who actively works in our lives, as he exercises great care over us in removing from us things which are hurtful to us, and which hinder our usefulness to him. One of God's great purposes for us, friends, is to make us useful to him for his great glory.

If you desire more usefulness, friend, then be willing to be reduced as God works in your life to bring forth pure gold and more fruit. And through the principle of reduction we experience great humility. We are humbled before our God.

Look at Gideon's army and how it was reduced by thousands to only a handful of men, and how it produced a humble attitude in General Gideon, how when the victory was won it was only God who could receive the glory. Man was humbled. God was elevated.

This is a great principle of revival, friends, of how the people of God must seek God on their faces with humble hearts. God declares in his word in 2 Chronicles to do this very thing. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Let me ask you a question, friend. Do your sins need to be forgiven? Does our land need healing? Then let us humble ourselves before our God. Now look at the second aspect of the reduction process which God performs in our lives and that is seen in verse 5 of Psalm 102.

Let me read that to us again. By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. Here is a picture of a man at the end of himself.

Here is the picture of a man who is pressed above measure, and it is this aspect of pressing which I will address at this time. When a press is used on a commodity like a grape or an olive, it is to smash it. In fact, the item must be smashed.

I remember Alan Redpath making a comment once whereby he said, before God can use a man, he must first smash him. This is the picture which I wish to draw out before us now. Think of an olive press and how the olive is squeezed down to nothing for the precious oil to emerge.

This very idea, friends, is seen in the Gospels. In Matthew's Gospel we read, Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto his disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. We see our precious Savior enter into his agony as he pours out his soul, so to speak, to the Father, crying out to him, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

And he drinks that cup loaded with our sins as he shed his precious blood for sin on that bloody cross. Jesus is pressed like an olive in that garden whose very name, Gethsemane, signifies an olive mill, a press for olives. I like what Matthew Henry says about Christ in Gethsemane, whereby he states, It was there that it pleased the Lord to bruise him and crush him that fresh oil might flow to all believers from him.

And in Hebrews chapter 5, we see this aspect, friends, of the pressing of Christ in Gethsemane, as seen in verses 7 through 9, which declare, Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him, that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared, though he were a son. Yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. And here, friends, is the great purpose of God in reducing and pressing us down, smashing us, so to speak, to bring out a sweet fragrance of oil to him, from our usefulness to him, as we are made obedient through the things which we suffer.

Think about that, dear friend, how we pull back from the operations of the divine pruning knife in our life, how we turn from the pain of suffering and cry out to God to end it. But as often during these times of affliction in our lives, where God often does his greatest work in us, like Alan Redbath said, before God can use a man, he must first smash him. Why is God a cruel taskmaster, who enjoys to inflict pain and anguish on us? No, he's a loving Father, who is separating from us the sinful things which are harmful to us.

He is purging us of impurities which stain us. He's reducing and pressing us down to the purest intrinsic value of pure gold. There we are in his nail-pierced hands as he presses us down and squeezes out all that is unnecessary to him and harmful to us.

And I believe, friends, right now, God is already doing this very thing in the life of his church. He is purging it of impurities. He is reclaiming backsliders right now and purifying them of their rotten sins and washing them by his blood and cleansing them with his word and by his spirit, preparing them for his return.

A holy bridegroom must have a spotless bride. The church must be ready to receive him. Is this not what the apostle John is saying in his first epistle? And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

If you know he is righteous, you know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. Listen, friends, this whole principle of reduction and pressing is seen vividly in Christ on the cross at Calvary, who, while he hung there in the scandal of that cross and while he hung there in the great pain of that cross, was willing to be reduced to nothing in the eyes of men so he could be everything to them that believe on him. When Jesus suffered on Calvary, he endured the pain as he saw Pentecost soon bursting forth in a glorious revival for God's glory.

The psalmist declares in verse 15 and 16, So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. Oh, friends, does this not speak of a glorious revival among God's people when he appears in his manifest presence and showers his church with effusions of divine grace to purify them, to revive them, to ignite them, to empower them, to bring him glory? And before I close this message, I want to bring before us two passages of scripture which highlight our theme of God's principle of reduction.

Write these down in the margins of your Bible now, friends. The first is Psalm 24 and verses 3 through 5. Let me read that to us now. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Is that not a picture of revival, friends? A pure heart speaks of our vertical walk with God, where we walk in holiness before the Lord. A clean hand speaks of our horizontal walk with our fellow man, where we enjoy harmony with one another. No bitterness toward others, no unforgiving hearts.

Differences must be put aside as we seek the Lord on that holy hill. Now jot down this verse from Isaiah in chapter 57 and verse 15. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

This, friends, leads us back to our very theme of God's principle of reduction through the reducing process and the pressing process to both purify us and humble us before him. In both these striking passages from Psalm 24 and Isaiah 57 speak of revival, the process, the preparation involved through re-entering a right relationship with God and humbling ourselves as we seek his face to heal our land. Let me ask you a question.

Does our land need healing? Let me ask you another question. Is there sin in your life where you need cleansing from it and a forsaking of it? Let me ask you this. Is there pride in your life where you need to be humble yourself before your God in contriteness so you will experience more of him in a personal revival? Let us take this time now, friends, to go to God in prayer with this promise from him as seen in Malachi, return to me and I will return to you.

Let us go now to him in prayer.