Revival

Prophecy of Habakkuk, prophecy of Habakkuk. I'm going to read two prayers from the Old Testament. This is the first one, and I'm just reading a small part of it.

Habakkuk chapter three and verse one, a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet upon Shigi Yanath. Oh, Lord, I have heard thy speech and I was afraid. Or perhaps to read it more correctly, I have heard of thy power or thy workings.

And I was shaken. Oh, Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make no one in wrath.

Remember mercy. The book of Ezra, please. Chapter nine.

The ninth chapter of the book of Ezra. I'm breaking in. Please look with me at verse four of Ezra, chapter nine, then.

We're assembled onto me, everyone that trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the transgression of those that had been carried away. And I sat astounded until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice, I arose up from my heaviness and having read my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands onto the Lord, my God.

And I said, oh, my God, I am ashamed and blushed to lift up my face to thee, my God. For our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespasses growing up onto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers, have we been in great trespass until this day? And for our iniquities, have we, our kings, our priests been delivered into the hands of the kings of the land, to the sword, to captivity and to a spoil and to confusion of face as it is this day.

And now for a little space, grace has been showed from the Lord, our God, to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a nail in his holy place that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were born men. Yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy onto us in the sight of the kings of Persia.

And notice what follows in these next statements to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God and to repair the ruins thereof, the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. And now, oh, God, what shall we say after this? My little subject this morning is a subject that has been much on my heart. I would like to speak to you about revival.

The New Testament word is renewal. Well, tragically, both those words, revival and renewal, have suffered badly at the hands of people, but they are biblical words. My subtitle for my little message this morning is the true character of remnant testimony.

You see, if we were to fully examine the period of time at which we have briefly looked in these Old Testament passages, we would probably have to read a major part of seven books. The book of Daniel, for instance, especially chapter nine and the book of Ezra and Nehemiah and Haggai and the book of Zechariah and the book of Malachi. So we are not going to do that, but just let me say, especially to those who are perhaps not quite so aware of this history this morning, let me say that God's testimony through the ages, from the days of Seth until the days when the remnant are recovered in the Great Tribulation, God's testimony has always been of a remnant character.

That means that it has been small. That means that it has been encompassed with weakness and with failure. But God has maintained testimony to the name of his son, and he is still doing it.

And we thank God. Now, there is a problem. That's a great problem.

You remember the words of the risen Christ to Sardis? He said, be watchful and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die. Now, we need to get very close heed to those words in our day. That is the constant trend, that which God gives to us to maintain for him.

The trend is always weakening because of human failure. The trend is always toward decline and decay and death. Well, then, how has God ever maintained testimony to this late date in the dispensation? Because there are times of recovery, because there are times of revival, and God has always maintained his testimony by that way, of visiting his people with fresh power, with a fresh evidence of his presence, and restoring truth in the hearts of his people, and recovering strength for some small remnant that seeks to maintain testimony to his name.

There have been times of revival. Not all those revivals have been of the same character. There has been considerable variation in times of revival.

If you think of what is usually called church history, then you'll think of the great recovery of gospel truth in the Reformation. And you will think, if you're an assembly believer, you will think of the great recovery of gathering truth in the early days of the last century. And then, if you have a history that goes back in assemblies, you will think of the great revival of 1859.

Two weeks ago, I was in the small town in Northern Ireland in the village of Kells where five women prayed and where God in mighty power visited his people. My grandfather was saved in Kells in the year 1859. He was 22 years of age when God saved him, but he was one of many, many thousands.

And that mighty revival of 1859 spread from Ireland to Scotland, to England, to South Africa, to Australia, to Canada, to the USA, and it was a mighty movement of God. Can we hope to see such a thing again? Now, I didn't ask that question just off the top of my head. Many times, dear Christians say, can we hope to have a time of blessing and revival again among us? We feel our deadness.

We feel our coldness and a very in a special way, we feel our barrenness. Can we expect a visitation from God? Well, let me look at that question, if I can, just for a few moments. This is the same God.

He is immutable in his character, unchangeable in his power. There's no lack of power with God. It is the same Holy Spirit who is still in the world.

And that mighty work of God of past days was a mighty work of the Holy Spirit of God. And the word of God is the same. And the preached word of God can be clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is much weakness and much failure among us. Let me tell you some of the characteristics of visitations from God in the past, it might help us. This man that we read from in the book of Habakkuk was praying that God would give a reviving in the midst of the years.

What he is actually saying is conditions have continued in this dead, cold condition for so long. Years have passed. Why can there be a visitation? Can there be a time of reviving in the midst of these unchanging years? God heard the prayer of Habakkuk.

He heard the prayer of Daniel in Daniel chapter nine. He heard the prayer of Ezra as he bowed on his face before God, bowing to his knees on the ground. And confessing his sin and the sin of God's people.

And God did visit and God did give a time of reviving. Now, there are those characteristics of every visitation from God. Brethren, let me tell you why I'm speaking from these passages today, if you will.

You see, Zerubbabel, in captivity, had his heart stirred and God turned his thoughts to the place where God had placed his name in Jerusalem. God stirred the heart of King Cyrus, a Persian pagan monarch. And God stirred the hearts of the priests and the hearts of the people of God there in captivity.

God moved upon their hearts. There was a mighty work of the Holy Spirit of God and God recovered them. And God turned their thoughts toward the land, the place of the name, to the house of God, which was at Jerusalem.

What characterized that great movement of the Holy Spirit has characterized every movement of the Holy Spirit through the centuries. Here are the ingredients, if you will, of such a time. First of all, there is humble confession of sin and failure.

And, you know, revival in my soul will be a prerequisite to a time of refreshing among God's people. And unless that is something that is personal to me and to you, I do not think we have any prospect of seeing a movement of God among us again. Unless there is personal exercise and personal confession on our knees before God.

That's what we need. That's the first ingredient. Dear men who prayed, dear men who bowed their hearts and bowed their knees and cried to God as they confessed their sin.

The second ingredient was a great priority given to the Holy Scriptures. Not turning to human devices and human means for recovery, to methods that men would invent, but to turn to the Word of God. And thirdly, there was a childlike faith in God's almighty power.

And fourthly, there were faithful men raised up for the conditions, for the circumstances, for the time, for the particular need. God raised up those men. I'm going to come back to that in a moment.

But, in every case of such a movement of God, there was a concentrated attack by Satan. The onslaught of the devil with all his forces to destroy anything in which God might have pleasure. And finally, sad to say, there was decline.

There was departure again. And because of failure and internal weakness. That has been the history of every mighty moving of God among His people.

But here's why I am very exercised to use this as a lesson, an object lesson to us today. It was 536 B.C. that God stirred the heart of Zerubbabel and the heart of King Cyrus to bring back the remnant from Babylon to the place where God had placed His name. Do you know, it was 130 years later, in the land, that Malachi wrote, I have loved you, saith the Lord, and those remnant people were so far from God that they said, wherein hast thou loved us? 130 years.

And the people whose hearts God had stirred, and that remnant that had come back to the land, to nothing that was attractive. Circumstances were all against them. They had foes within and enemies without.

But in their weakness they clung to the word of God. They came to the altar of the Lord God of Israel. And even though there was much failure and delay, they finally built the house of the Lord 15 years after they had laid the foundation.

And I'm going to tell you how that came about just in a moment. But in spite of all that great recovery, decline set in. Departure set in.

They wanted to be again like the nations around them. They lost their separate character. They mingled themselves with the people of the land.

And that is the story of times of revival. What about us? What about assemblies? Some of us here are third generation assembly families. There may even be some who are fourth generation.

That's about as long as it takes for a terrible departure. This is a call to you from God's word. Not from the speaker, but from the word of God.

Oh, that we might bow on our knees before God and cry to God for a time of refreshing. A time of reviving. That God would give us a little reviving in the midst of the years.

Isn't it amazing with human failure how God has maintained testimony? You see, even in those days of Malachi, with such departure, that they were bringing to God the sick and the lame to offer as sacrifices to the Lord. Even in that day, there was a little remnant who feared the Lord. And that thought upon his name.

And they shall be mine, saith the Lord. In that day when I make up my peculiar treasure. When I think of how that little remnant that was there in the land were so weak and so failing.

Isn't it amazing that they were the instrument through which God would bring into this world the Redeemer? You see, that's why they had to be a separate people. That's why Nehemiah rent his garments when he found that they had married the people of the land and had children by them. Their separation was an absolute necessity.

Dear Christians, our separation is no less a necessity. We are getting to be decent worldlings. And living for time and material things and material gain.

Prospering in the world. We've lost our spiritual exercise. And I am not fond of speaking like that because I need this more perhaps than any of you.

So I am speaking to my own heart as well. Oh that God may give us a little reviving. When the Lord Jesus came, this little remnant in the land that we have read about from the book of Habakkuk.

Because Habakkuk prayed in the closing days of Josiah's reign. And he didn't even know the future likely but he prayed for such a day as finally came under Zerubbabel, under Ezra, under Nehemiah. He prayed for that.

But when finally the Lord Jesus came, the remnant were so small that an old lady in Jerusalem, a dear saint. I think she was 84 years old. Some of my brethren's mathematics is a little different than mine.

I think she was 84, that dear Anna. And she knew every faithful one in Israel. They were so few.

She knew every one of them. You see there's an awful danger here. We might say, well we are the people and we are the testimony and we are the remnant.

Could I say that if we fail God will carry on His testimony? If we fail God will maintain testimony to His Son. The Lord Jesus said, well I am with you all the way even on to the end of the age. We may not be part of that faithful number at the end.

God grant we will be. May it humble us before God. You see these days of Ezra and Nehemiah were so like our days.

Because they were just ordinary people. That's so interesting, you know, they never had a miracle. They didn't have actually any events to show them an immediate evidence of God's presence and power.

What did they have? They have the word of God. You know they didn't use the sight of their eyes. Because when they came back to Jerusalem they came back to a blackened ruin.

Burned with fire. And there was nothing there to attract naturally. They didn't use circumstances because they were so weak and undefended.

And the enemies around them were so strong. And if they had used circumstances they would have said surely we'll fail. But wait a minute now, just a moment dear young Christian.

Would you take this as a little word from God? They did not use new methods. You see, they said that they would set up the altar as it is written. In the law of Moses, the man of God.

And when they came to that blackened ruin in Jerusalem they said they had come to the house of God which was at Jerusalem. And the spirit of God says that all Israel settled in their towns and they were just a little remnant. But in God's reckoning they were all the testimony there was.

God's testimony there in that land. Just before I went to Ireland I picked up a paper. Could I tell you what is wrong with this kind of thing very briefly now? In this paper it was suggested that we are not having much success in our evangelical efforts.

And this man said the reason that camp work for children has been so successful in seeing so many saved is because of the methods that are used there. I didn't know there was any great success in camp work. I've been preaching for 50 years and most that I've seen were false professors.

So I don't know about that. But then this man went on to say that what we need to use is drama, illusions, games, videos, clowns, puppet shows and all kinds of music both traditional and contemporary. I wonder if he had gone to Ezra and said, Ezra what do you think of these things? He would have fallen on his knees again I assure you and cried mightily to God.

Oh brethren and sisters it isn't some new kind of method we need. It's not a human device we need. We need God.

And we need to bow our knees and confess our deadness and coldness and departure, our failure, our weakness, our barrenness. Let us be honest before God. The very first requirement is an honest heart.

Let us acknowledge our failure and our sin because this God is the same God. He raised up in that day two men. I believe that God does raise up men for a crisis, for a time of need.

There may even be a young man in this company today who will be a mighty instrument in the hand of God to be used by God for great blessing. If you haven't seen the little book A Man Called Oliver I hope you'll get it. It tells how God can pick up a simple humble instrument and use a man mightily for his glory.

God raised up two men. They were very unlike these two men. They weren't of the same character at all.

This man Haggai, he was the kind of man that doesn't make a very popular preacher. He aimed at people's consciences. His great message was consider your ways.

He showed them that they were living for time and for sense and for possessions and the house of God lay in ruins. But oh he reached the consciences of God's people and we need men like Haggai today to reach our consciences. The other man was a perfect balance.

You know I believe there maybe was a time in our own history when we thought a man who was like Zechariah was really not true to God. Oh please, Zechariah ministered Christ. Haggai reached the conscience, Zechariah reached the heart.

And his great message was consider him. We need both. We need both kinds of men.

And God is able to raise up men like that. Maybe God will raise up some young man here like Ezra. Let me tell you four things about him and then I'll sit down because I've just been up here 30 or 29 minutes.

Haggai first of all had a birthright. And he appreciated it. He was a priest unto the Lord.

Hope you appreciate your birthright. Hope you appreciate your priesthood. I hope you function in your priesthood in worship and intercession.

He appreciated his birthright. In his past he had a birthright. In his hand he had a book.

And he had given himself to that book. As a scribe, as a ready scribe in the law of God. To read in the word of God distinctly and get the sense of the reading.

And be able to teach the people the meaning of what was written. Oh for a man like that with a book in his hand and the book in his heart. Ezra had a burden in his heart as well.

He saw the tremendous need around him. No wonder he had blessing in his wake. A man that God used mightily.

May God reach us by the means he has chosen. And stir our hearts. Even at this conference.

There could be a beginning. We could have a great time of refreshing. From the presence of the Lord.