Revive Us Again
Psalm 85:1-13
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Oct. 12, 2008
*Our revival with Greg Wilton starts next Sunday, and we are praying for true, spiritual revival. -- But what does that mean? In the Old Testament revival means “to have life, sustain life, live forever or to make alive.” The word picture is a person or military force completely surrounded by the enemy, with no way to escape. In the moment of greatest despair, God intervenes and rescues them completely.
*Revival today is first and foremost about Christians personally getting right with God. Phil Dyar asks Christians, “When do we need revival?”
*We need revival.
-When church dinners are better attended than prayer meetings.
-When we do not love Jesus as we once did.
-When we would rather watch TV than read the Bible and pray.
-When we have time for recreation and sports, but not for Bible study and prayer.
*We need revival.
-When we seldom think thoughts of eternity.
-When we make little effort to witness to the lost.
-When we are unmoved by the fact over 2 billion people in the world have never heard the name of Jesus.
*We need revival.
-When our Christianity is joyless and dry.
-When we are bored with worship.
-When believers can be at odds with each other and not feel compelled to pursue reconciliation.
*We need revival.
-When we know the truth in our heads that we are not practicing in our lives.
-When we would rather make money than give money.
-When people have to be entertained to be drawn to church.
-When the fire has gone out in our hearts, our marriages, and the church. (1)
*We need revival all of the time -- again and again and again! So we sing and we pray, “Revive us again, Lord!
1. Revive us, because we are inspired by your history.
*In vs. 1-3 the Psalm writer looked back to the great things our God has done. He looked back for strength, encouragement and inspiration. He looked back and began to praise God. “Lord, You have been favorable to Your land; You have brought back the captivity of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin. Selah You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger.”
*This man was looking back at the great things God had done for His people. David did the same thing when He was about to face the giant Goliath. In 1 Sam 17:32-37 David said to King Saul:
32. "Let no man’s heart fail because of (the giant); your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’’
33. And Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.’’
34. But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock,
35. I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it.
36. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.’’
37. Moreover David said, "The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’’
*Believers, all of us can look back at the great things God has done. We can look into His Word and see many examples of His great help. We can look back at the great things God has done in our own lives. We can feed on wonderful stories of God touching other lives, -- sending revival, deliverance and salvation.
2. Revive us Lord, because we are inspired by your history. And because we deserve Your hot anger.
*The Psalmist has looked back at God’s greatness. Now in vs. 4-7 he begins to look both around and within. He does not like what he sees, so he cries out to God:
4. Restore us (“Turn us” the KJV says.) Restore us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your anger toward us to cease.
5. Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?
6. Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?
7. Show us Your mercy, O Lord, And grant us Your salvation.
*This Psalmist is crying out to the Lord with a passionate, heartfelt prayer. He is crying out for God’s mercy, salvation and revival. He is crying out because he realizes that we have sinned and that we deserve the wrath of Almighty God.
*Are you aware of your sin? The Prophet Daniel is one of the great heroes of the Old Testament -- One of the very few men about whom God says nothing bad in His Word. Daniel was one of the best of the best, but when he prayed in Daniel 9, he was very aware of his sin. Here is just part of his prayer:
4. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,
5. we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.
6. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.
8. O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.
9. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.
19. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.’’
*Daniel was very aware of his sin. So was the Apostle Paul. In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul said, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”
*Daniel, Paul and all of the heroes of our faith were very aware of their sinfulness. -- Are you? We need passionate, heartfelt prayers of confession and repentance. -- Crying out for ourselves and others, that the Lord would turn our hearts to the things of God, that the Lord would turn our hearts to Him.
*Greg Buchner asks:
-Have you known the agony of not doing the right thing?
-Have you ever thought, “I ought to do this or that” only to forget all about it?
-Have you ever promised yourself that you’ll never say something or do something only to blurt it out or do it anyway?
-Have you ever thought “I can’t change – I’ll always act like this”?
-Have you fallen into the trap of comparing yourself to others?
-Have you ever thought, “At least I’m not like that guy down the street”?
-Have you consoled yourself about your failures and shortcomings by making a list of the obviously huge sins of others?
-In the middle of comparing yourself to others have you ever thrown your hands up in despair and said, “I really am no good”?
*What is our problem? Left to ourselves, we cannot make all the changes we need to make. On our own we cannot keep on doing all that we should do. Let’s face it. Our lives are beyond our control. Without help, we usually will fail to do the right thing. (2)
*Let’s cry out to the Lord for the help we need!
4. Turn us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your anger toward us to cease.
5. Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?
6. Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?
7. Show us Your mercy, O Lord, And grant us Your salvation.
3. Revive us again, because we deserve Your hot anger. And because we are open to hear from You.
*This Psalm writer was certainly open to hear what the Lord had to say. In vs. 8 he declared, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak, For He will speak peace To His people and to His saints; But let them not turn back to folly.”
*We must be open to hear what God wants to say to us. Seven times in the Book of Revelation, Jesus cried out, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Will God speak to you? Of course He will. God will surely speak to you through His Word. -- But do you really want to hear Him?
*Vsevolod Lytkin really wanted to hear from God. Today he a pastor in Siberia, but Vsevolod was raised in the home of atheists. His parents were Communist university professors. During his teen years, Vsevolod began to struggle with many spiritual questions. When the Communists told him there was no God, he began to doubt them. So he began to search for reading material where he might find the answers.
*The only books on religion at his local library were atheistic, but they often quoted verses from the Bible to mock or refute them. Vsevolod’s greatest discovery was a set of encyclopedias on atheism. It was filled with Bible verses, and he copied every one of them by hand. God spoke to Vsevolod through those verses, and before long he trusted in Jesus, and asked God to forgive his sins. (3)
*God surely spoke to Vsevolod, and He will surely speak to you. But are you willing to hear? We must be willing to hear what God has to say to us!
4. Revive us again Lord, because we are open to hear from You. And because no one can help us like You.
*In vs. 9&10 the Psalmist was looking to the Lord to find the help he desperately needed:
9. Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land.
10. Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
*That fear he talked about in vs. 9 is the right kind of fear, -- giving humble reverence to Almighty God. God’s salvation is near to anyone who will turn to Him in humble reverence. But only because in vs. 10, “Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
*“Mercy and truth have met together.” The certain truth is that we richly deserve the wrath of God. Where could this truth meet together with the mercy we desperately need from God? -- Only on the cross of Jesus Christ. “Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Where could God’s unreachable righteousness draw close enough to kiss everlasting peace? -- Only on the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died on the cross to take the punishment for all of our sins. Jesus died so that we could live forever by trusting in our Risen Savior.
*Anthony Fortosis described what our Lord has done:
-“Jesus is the King of kings, Lord of the infinite universe, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, unspeakably holy, dwelling in light, unapproachable, changeless.
-And yet He condescended to become enclosed in lowly human flesh, to be born a despised Jew in a filthy stable, without fanfare or pomp.
-The richest became the poorest that the poor might become rich.
-He starved for 40 days in the wilderness that we might feast on the impeccable Bread of Life.
-He emptied Himself that we might be filled.
-His heart was broken that He might bind up the broken-hearted.
-His body was crushed that we might be made whole.
-He was rejected that we might be accepted.
-He was condemned that we might be justified.
-He was judged that we would not be judged.
-He was deserted for a time by the Father that we might find access to the Father.
-He died as the innocent One that the guilty might be declared innocent. (4)
*Thank God that Jesus also rose from the dead, and now the Risen Lord will give us His abundant, eternal life! Surely we can trust Jesus to give us His salvation, and the revival we need.
*I was happy to meet Scott Howard’s dad, Ted, before the Legacy 5 concert last Saturday. I first heard of Mr. Howard when Bro. Alton Thompson told me how Ted got saved. Alton led Scott’s daddy to the Lord. It happened on a Tuesday night years ago, when Alton was a deacon over at Emmanuel Baptist Church.
*They used to go out visiting on Tuesday nights. And they always prayed before they left the church. But one Tuesday they forgot to pray. Alton said they went to 3 homes that night and at every one, they got the door slammed in their face. Alton told me, “I’ve never had the door slammed in my face before. But it was that night.”
*So they stopped the car in the middle of the road, and took the time to pray. When they finished, the other man asked Alton where they were going, and Alton said, “That house right there. I don’t know the lady’s name, but she was in church last Sunday morning. She sat on the back row with her little boy.” (That little boy was Scott Howard.)
*They knocked on the door and when she came to the door, she led them back into the den. Mr. Howard was back there with an open Bible on his lap, and tears running down his cheeks. He told them that he had been sitting there reading the Bible, and praying that God would send somebody to tell him how to be saved. That night He opened his heart to receive Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord.
*The other night Mr. Howard told me that he had been so low before he got saved that he was even thinking about suicide. But with a big smile on his face, he said that trusting Jesus was the best thing that ever happened to him.
*Many times he could have been killed in World War II. Wade told me Mr. Howard was awarded 3 Bronze Stars. Mr. Howard told me that he could hear the enemy bullets whizzing past his head. He never could figure out why they couldn’t hit him. -- But now he knows that the Lord was preserving his life so he could get saved.
*The same Lord wants to save you and give you the help you need. The same Lord wants to give you the revival you need, overflowing with the joy of the Lord.
5. Revive us again Lord, because no one can help us like You. And because You are our sure hope for the future.
*In vs. 11-13, the Psalm writer began to look forward to a most hopeful future:
11. Truth shall spring out of the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12. Yes, the Lord will give what is good; And our land will yield its increase.
13. Righteousness will go before Him, And shall make His footsteps our pathway.
*There is no real hope without Jesus Christ. But believers we can surely hope in God’s goodness and truth. We can hope that He will send revival to our souls, our families, and our nation.
*Real revival came to the Jersey Village Baptist Church in Houston on Sunday, February 26, 1995. The congregation began their evening service at 6:30 p.m. expecting a routine worship service. But during the invitation, a young girl walked the aisle, confessed her sin, sought the Lord’s forgiveness, and sought encouragement from the church. After her response to God, other members started coming forward and confessing their sins.
*Around 9 o’clock some members relieved a couple working in the nursery so they could be part of what God was doing. That couple went to the altar and asked for prayer for their son. He had run away four months before because he wanted the freedom to run wild.
*While the church was praying, that young man was at Mardi Gras in Galveston. But he got the feeling that God was telling him to go home. He made the 90-minute drive home, only to find a dark house. He wondered why his parents would still be at church, but he drove to the church anyway. A deacon recognized him at the door and pointed him to his parents, who were still kneeling at the altar. Their son tapped them on the shoulder. In a tearful embrace he told of his desire to come home and recommit his life to Christ. (5)
*Let’s ask God to do it again! -- Revive us again!
(1) Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “When Do We Need Revival?” by Phil Dyar - Psalm 85:6
(2) Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “The True Vine” by Greg Buchner - John 15:1-8 - Feb. 23, 2003
(3) SermonCentral illustration Contributed by: Clark Frailey
(4) Adapted from Dr. Anthony Fortosis, quoted in Prokope, November/December, 1992, Page 4 (Found in SermonCentral sermon “Jesus Is” by Mike Hays - Col 1:15)
(5) Leadership, Nov. 1995, p. 2 (Found in “Stories for Preachers and Teachers” by Raymond McHenry)
