Part I

The identification of Christ with men was as complete in extent as it was real in nature. The first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews sets forth seven proofs of Divine Sonship, and the second chapter enumerates the following seven points of His identification with man: He descended to man’s level, took man’s nature, endured man’s temptation, died in man’s place, conquered the devil, man’s foe, achieved man’s victory, and secured man’s salvation. — Samuel Chadwick.

The devil is too wise, too large in mental grasp, too lordly in ambition, to confine his aims to the individual. He seeks to direct the policy and sway the scepter of nations. In his largest freedom, and in his delirium of passion and success, ‘he goes out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth.’ He is an adept in deception, an expert in all guileful arts. An archangel in execution, he often succeeds in seducing the nations most loyal to Christ, leading them into plans and principles which pervert and render baneful all Christly principles. The Church itself, the bride of Christ, when seduced from her purity, degenerates into a worldly ecelesiasticism.

The ‘gates of hell shall not prevail’ against the Church. This promise of our Lord stands against every Satanic device and assault: But this immutable word as to the glorious outcome does not protect the Church from the devil’s stratagems which may, and often do, pervert the aims of the Church and postpone the day of its final triumph.

The devil is a hydra-headed monster, but he is hydra-headed in plans and wisdom as well as in monstrosities. His master and supreme effort is to get control of the Church, not to destroy its organization, but to abate and pervert its Divine ends. This he does in the most insidious way, seemingly innocent, no startling change, nothing to shock nor to alarm. Sometimes the revolutionizing and destructive change is introduced under the disguise of a greater zeal for Christ’s glory. Introduced by some one high in church honour, often it occurs that the advocate of these measures is totally ignorant of the fact that the tendency is subversive.

One of the schemes of Satan to debase and pervert is to establish a wrong estimate of church strength. If he can raise false measurements of church power; if he can press the material to the front; if he can tabulate these forces so as to make them imposing and aggregating in commands, influence, and demand, he has secured his end.

In the Mosaic economy, the subversion of the ends of the Church and the substitution of material forces was guarded against. Their kings were warned against the accumulation, parade, and reliance on material forces.

It was in the violation of this law that David sinned when he yielded to the temptation of Satan to number the people.

It was to this end some suggest that the devil contended with Michael, the archangel, about the body (or system) of Moses, referred to in Peter and Jude and narrated by Zechariah, third chapter. At which time there was given that redoubtable, rallying text which asserts the eternal separation of spiritual forces from and their antagonism to the material. ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.’

To this, the third temptation of our Lord was directed. In measure, such temptation by which the devil tried Jesus was intended to subvert the ends of His kingdom by substituting material elements of strength for the spiritual.

This is one of the devil’s most insidious and successful methods to deceive, divert and deprave. He marshals and parades the most engaging material results, lauds the power of civilizing forces and makes its glories and power pass in review till church leaders are dazzled, and ensnared, and the Church becomes thoroughly worldly while boasting of her spirituality. No deceiver is so artful in the diabolical trade of deception as Satan. As an angel of light he leads a soul to death. To mistake the elements of church strength, is to mistake the character of the Church, and also to change its character all its efforts and aims. The strength of the Church lies in its piety. All else is incidental, and is not of the strength of things. But in worldly, popular language of this day, a church is called strong when its membership is large, when it has social position, financial resources; when ability, learning, and eloquence fill the pulpit, and when the pews are filled by fashion, intelligence, money and influence. An estimate of this kind is worldly to the fullest extent.

The church that thus defines its strength is on the highway to apostasy. The strength of the Church does not consist of any or all of these things. The faith, holiness and zeal of the Church are the elements of its power. Church strength does not consist in its numbers and its money, but in the holiness of its members. Church strength is not found in these worldly attachments or endowments, but in the endowment of the Holy Ghost on its members. No more fatal or deadly symptom can be seen in a church than this transference of its strength from spiritual to material forces, from the Holy Ghost to the world. The power of God in the Church is the measure of its strength and is the estimate which God puts on it, and not the estimate the world puts on it. Here is the measure of its ability to meet the ends of its being.

On the contrary, show us a church, poor, illiterate, obscure and unknown, but composed of praying people. They may be men of neither power nor wealth nor influence. They may be families that do not know one week where they are to get their bread for the next. But with them is ‘the hiding of God’s power,’ and their influence will be felt for eternity, and their light shines, and they are watched, and wherever they go, there is a fountain of light, and Christ in them is glorified and His kingdom advanced. They are His chosen vessels of salvation and His luminaries to reflect His light

There are signs everywhere unmistakable and of dire import that Protestantism has been blinded and caught by Satan’s dazzling glare.

We are being seriously affected by the material progress of the age. We have heard so much of it, and gazed on it so long, that spiritual estimates are tame to us. Spiritual views have no form nor comeliness to us. Everything must take on the rich colourings, luxuriant growth and magnificent appearance of the material, or else it is beggarly. This is the most perilous condition the Church has to meet, when the meek and lowly fruits of piety are to be discounted by the showy and worldly graces with which material success crowds the Church. We must not yield to the flood. We must not for a moment, not the hundredth part of an inch, give place to the world. Piety must be stressed in every way and at every point. The Church must be made to see and feel this delusion and snare, this transference of her strength from God to the world, this rejection of the Holy Ghost by the endowment of ‘might and power,’ and this yielding to Satan. The Church more and more is inclined not only to disregard, but to despise, the elements of spiritual strength and set them aside, for the more impressive worldly ones.

We have been and are schooling ourselves into regarding as elements of church prosperity only those items which make showings in a statistical column, and which impress an age given up to the materialization of secular facts and figures; and as the most vital spiritual conditions and gains cannot be reduced to figures, they are left out of the column and its aggregates, and after a while they will neither be noted nor estimated. If we do not call a halt and change our methods, the whole estimate of the strength of a church will be supremely worldly. However imposing our material results may be, however magnificent and prosperous the secular arm of the Church appears, we must go deeper than these for its strength. We must proclaim it, and iterate and reiterate it with increased emphasis, that the strength of the Church does not lie in these things.

These may be but the gilded delusions which we mistake for the true riches, and while we are vainly saying, ‘We are rich and increased in goods,’ God has written of us that we are ‘wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.’ They will be, if we are not sleeplessly vigilant, but the costly spices and splendid decoration which embalm and entomb our spirituality. True strength lies in the vital godliness of the people. The aggregate of the personal holiness of the members of each church is the only true measure of strength. Any other test offends God, dishonours Christ, grieves the Holy Spirit, and degrades religion.

A church can often make the fairest and best showing of material strength when death in its deadliest form is feeding on its vitals. There can scarcely be a more damaging delusion than to judge of the conditions of the Church by its material exhibits or churchly activity. Spiritual barrenness and rottenness in the Church are generally hidden by a fair exterior and an obtrusive parade of leaves and an exotic growth. A spiritual church converts souls from sin soundly, clearly and fully, and puts them on the stretch for perfect holiness, and those who are straining to get it, to keep it, and to add to it.

This spirituality is not a by-play, not to be kept in a corner of the Church, not its dress for holiday or parade days, but it is its chief and only business. If God’s Church is not doing this work of converting sinners to holiness and perfecting saints in holiness, wherever and whenever this work is not blazing and conspicuous, wherever and whenever this work becomes secondary, or other interests are held to be its equivalent, then the Church has become worldly. Wherever and whenever the material interests are emphasized till they come into prominence, then the world comes to the throne and sways the scepter of Satan. There is no readier and surer way to make the Church worldly than to put its material prosperity to the front, and no surer, readier way to put Satan in charge. It is an easy matter for the assessments to become of first moment by emphasizing them till a sentiment is created that these are paramount. When collecting money, building churches, and statistical columns are to stand as evidences of real church prosperity, then the world has a strong lodgment, and Satan has gained his end.

Another scheme of Satan is to eliminate from the Church all the lowly self-denying ordinances which are offensive to unsanctified tastes and un-regenerate hearts, and reduce the Church to a mere human institution, popular, natural, fleshly and pleasing.

Satan has no scheme more fearfully destructive and which can more thoroughly thwart God’s high and holy purposes, than to transform God’s Church and make it a human institution according to man’s views. God’s right arm is thereby paralyzed, the body of Christ has become the body of Satan, light turned into darkness and life into death.

Men who sit in apostolic seats often through a marvelous blindness, sometimes through a false attachment to what they deem truth, and for what they consider the honour of Christ, are found trying to eliminate from the system of Christ those painful, offensive, unpopular, and self-denying features to which it owes all its saving efficacy, and beauty and power, and which stamp it as divine.

We have a painful illustration most instructive and warning in Peter, recorded thus:

‘From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For tile Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.’

Here is a lesson most suggestive, a lesson for all times, a warning for each man, for all men, for church men, for saintly men and for apostolic men. An apostle has become the mouthpiece of Satan! Alarming, horrible, unnatural and revolting picture! An apostle, zealous for his Master’s glory, advocating with fire and force a scheme which would forever destroy that glory! An apostle, the apostle Peter, Satan’s vicegerent! The apostle who had but just made that inspired confession, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ which placed him in highest honour and commendation with Christ and the Church! Before the words of that divine and marvellous confession had died from his lips, this same apostle is the inflamed and self-willed advocate of views and plans which will render his confession a nullity, and raze the impregnable and eternal foundations of the Church.

Peter, a chief apostle, fathering and advocating schemes which would discrown Christ of His Messiahship, and bring heaven’s favourite plan to a most disastrous and shameful end! How came this? What baneful impulse impels Peter? Satan has entered him and for the time being, has mastered his purposes, and so Christ reproves Peter, but in the reproof strikes a crushing blow at Satan. ‘Get thee behind me, Satan,’ a reminder and duplicate of the wilderness temptation. ‘Thou art an offense (a stumbling block) to me.’ The devil’s trigger to catch Christ in the devil’s trap-‘Thou savourest not the things which be of God, but those that be of men.’ The devil is not in sight. Man appears and his views are pressed to the front. The things which men savour in church plan and church life are against God’s plan. The high and holy principles of self-denial, of unworldliness of life, and of self-surrender to Christ, are all against men’s view of religion, a losing thing with them. The devil does not seek to destroy the Church only indirectly. Men’s views would eliminate all these unpopular principles of the cross, self-denial, life surrender and world surrender. But when this is done, the devil runs the Church. Then it becomes popular, cheery, flesh-pleasing, modern and progressive. But it is the devil’s church, founded on principles pleasing in every way to flesh and blood. No Christ is in it, no crucifixion of self, no crucifixion of the world, no second coming of Christ, no eternal judgment, no everlasting hell, no eternal heaven. Nothing is in it that savours of God, hut all that savours of men. Man makes the devil’s church by turning Christ’s Church over to men leaders. The world is sought and gained in the devil’s church, but the man, the soul, heaven, are all lost, lost to all eternity.

The very heart of this disgraceful apostasy, this dethroning Christ and enthroning the devil, is to remove the Holy Spirit from His leadership in the Church and put in unspiritual men as leaders to plan for and direct the Church. The strong hands of men of great ability and men with the powers of leadership have often displaced God’s leadership. The ambition for leadership and the enthronement of man-leadership, is the doom and seal of apostasy. There is no leadership in God’s Church but the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The man who has the most of God’s Spirit is God’s chosen leader, ambitious and zealous for the Spirit’s sovereignty, ambitious to be the least, the slave of all.

Cont.
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Grace and peace – TJ

“Contentment is possible only as we cultivate and maintain that attitude of accepting everything which enters our lives as coming from the Hand of Him who is too wise to err, and too loving to cause one of His children a needless tear.”
– A.W. Pink

Proverbs 22:16 says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” According to a 2008 study commissioned by the Bush Administration, parents are attempting to do just that. The article, entitled Children in Christian Families more Likely to Attend Church Services, reveals that more that 96% of Christian children attend church. At first glance, this is great news. But don’t celebrate too fast. In a 2009 article, entitled How many Youth are Leaving the Church, researchers astoundingly disclose that “as little as 4% [of the 96%] will remain Christian”. So what happened to the other ninety-two percent?

It’s no secret that more and more young adults, after being raised in church, are choosing to leave their faith for the world. They are sprinting to the very things that they were taught to avoid; excited to indulge in that which they know could eternally separate them from God. But, why?

The answer is simple. Our children are attending church, but the enmity of their hearts towards God and His laws have not been altered. Week after week, Sunday after Sunday, we create, for our children, an attractive experience in church. They participate – doing all the things that Christian youth do – but never have a true encounter with God.

The enemy is after our youth, and in a zealous effort to save them from the world, we have missed the essentials. We’ve become so caught up in the “how” to get them in, that we’ve lost focus of “why” we’re trying so hard to draw them in the first place. The desire of every parent for their child should be salvation – conversion of the heart, alteration of mindset, deliverance from sin, and not just participation in church.  If our children are to remain faithful into young adulthood, they must have a relationship with God which is not possible without, first, having an encounter with Him.

Nowhere in the Bible will you find someone who had an encounter with God, and was left unchanged.

Consider Paul. Born as Saul of Tarsus, Paul was a very religious man. Even before he became a follower of Christ, he was actively involved in his ministry. Having received the best possible training under Gamaliel, a great teacher of Jewish beliefs, Saul was a good Pharisee who knew the word and sincerely believed that his conduct and participation in certain activities was supported by God.  With much knowledge of God, Saul zealously headed to Damascus in hopes of capturing Christians for persecution. But it was on this trip, that Saul, now Paul, had an encounter with God and received salvation.

Who would’ve known that prior to this trip, Saul was not saved! After all, he knew the Bible and was zealous about the work of God even volunteering to participate in the activities.

It wasn’t until after his encounter on the Road to Damascus that Paul says his new life in Christ began (Acts 26:12-20). It was here that God took off the mask and revealed to Saul who he was and who he was to be (Paul) according to His will. Paul made the decision, after meeting God, to follow Him. This meant forsaking that which he was knew. How is it possible for Paul to, now believe the Gospel, but continue to persecute Christians – those who also believed the Gospel? Would it make sense for Paul to follow Christ, but continue to fellowship with those who persecute Him?

It is for this reason that people cannot be saved without being separated from the world. We are trying to save our youth, but at the same time tell them that it’s okay to still be a part of the culture from which God saved you. They have to choose – just as Paul did. But they can’t have both. There is no dual citizenship with God. Paul not only confessed with His mouth that His new life in Christ had begun, but also with his actions (which were now contradictory to his previous actions).  But walking away from that which he once knew was an automatic once he had a personal encounter with God.

So, now I ask you, “How can one live in Christ never having a face-to-face meeting with Him? Meeting God is essential to building a relationship with Him.

Do you think that maybe our children are leaving the church because we’re asking them to follow, and even more difficult, live for, someone they’ve never even met? Would you spend the rest of your life with someone you don’t know – only hear about?

So, now what?

For direction, let’s look to Peter and John’s example. Acts, chapter 3, tells the story of Peter and the Crippled Beggar.  The Bible tells us that there was a lame man who was carried to the temple gates everyday to beg. In the Jewish religion, it was considered honorable to give money to the poor.  So, people would, on their way into the temple courts, give him what he asked – money.  And at the end of the day, the lame man would leave, just to return the next day reliving the experience – still crippled and in a position to beg.

[Like those who carried the man, we carry our children to church. They have an experience, some even get to show their talent, and they go home. Soon, returning just to relive the same experience all over again.]

On this particular day, Peter and John, were on their way to the temple to pray when they were asked by the beggar for money. Peter and John looked at the man. Then, Acts 3:4,5 reads, “And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, ‘Look at us.’ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.”

[Just as Peter instructed the lame man to look at them, we should be able to tell our youth to look at us. When they are struggling in their walk or just in need of assistance, what they need to see is the example of those who have gone before them – us. We must be a living epistle of the very words we teach them. Many times, it’s through our lives that God’s word (His power) is illuminated for them.]

Peter and John didn’t, however, give the man money. They were able to see that this man needed something different. Had they given him what he wanted, like all the others had, he would still need someone to carry him to that same spot the next day.

Peter told the man that he didn’t have what he wanted, but instead he could offer something he needed. What he was offering would be life altering. The lame man would undergo a radical change that would be the beginning of a new way of life for him. 

Acts Chapter 3 continues:

“…Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. ⁸ So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. ⁹ And all the people saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰ Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

So, what was it that Peter and John had to offer that all the others didn’t? We find out in Acts 3: 11-12.

“¹¹Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomons, greatly amazed. ¹²So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently as us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?

Peter goes on to tell the people that it was not by his own power that the lame man was made to walk. Rather, by the power of God through faith. God gave a man with a church experience (routine) a God encounter (inconceivable) in which no one else could take credit for. 

The humble lives of both Peter and John testified to the Power of God. God was able to use them because they did not desire to be recognized and lived lives that others could follow. If we want the young folk to change, we have to change. How can we lead the younger generation to a place we’ve never personally been?

Ask yourself, why do you come to church? Why do you drag your children to God’s house week after week? Are you looking for a temporary experience or do you desire a personal encounter with God?

If we want our children to be among the 4% that remains faithful, we must make changes in our own lives. We have to stop bringing people to church and start bringing them to God.  We must allow God to change us so that we’re in a position to share the power of God with our children when they’re in need.

We have missed the mark as a church! Let’s get back to God’s original purpose. Each individual starting with oneself. 

If we truly desire to see our children change by the power of God and become the individuals God is calling them to be, there are a few things we must put a stop to.

• Don’t give them what they want just to keep them. Church becomes entertainment and they attend for the wrong reasons.
• Don’t prophesy to a call just because there’s a talent. Pre-maturely prophesying to a child’s gift may cause them to place their talent above their obedience to Christ. 
• Don’t allow those that are struggling in their sin to exercise their talent in the church. It leads them to believe that God accepts their offering because of their ability to perform versus their life of sacrifice (holiness).
• Don’t focus on bringing your children to church, rather bringing them to God.  By doing so, you leave them open to seeking Him instead of all the other non-essentials that make up the church.  

It is important to remember that God will not only hold us accountable to train our children in the way they should go, but also for being an example after which they can follow, and a vessel upon whom they can draw power.

IT IS INTERESTING to notice the time when
this prayer was offered. It was a time of mercy. “Lord thou hast been
favorable unto thy land”. It was a time when God had led many to the
knowledge of Christ, and covered many sins. “thou hast forgiven the
iniquity of thy people.” It was now they began to feel their need of
another visit of mercy — “Wilt thou not revive us again?”

The Thing Prayer For

“Revive us again,” or literally, return and make us live anew. It is
the prayer of those who have received some life, but feel their need of more.
They had been made alive by the Holy Spirit. They felt the sweetness and
excellence of this new, hidden, divine life. They pant for more — “Wilt
thou not revive us again?”

The Argument Presented

“That thy people may rejoice in thee.” They plead with God to do this
for the sake of His people, that their joy may be full; and that it may be in
the Lord — in the Lord of their Righteousness — in the Lord their Strength.

When is the Prayer needed:

In A Time of Backsliding

There are many times when, like Ephesus, many of God’s children lose their
first love. Iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold. Believers lose
their close and near communion with God. They go out of the holiest, and pray
at a distance with a curtain between. They lose their fervency, sweetness, and fullness
in secret prayer. They do not pour out their hearts to God.

They have lost their clear discovery of Christ. They see Him but dimly. They
have lost the sight of His beauty — the savor of His good ointment — the hold
of His garment. They seek him, but find Him not. They cannot stir up the heart
to lay hold on Christ.

The Spirit dwells scantily in their soul. The living water seems almost dried
up within them. The soul is dry and barren. Corruptions are strong: grace is
very weak.

Love to the brethren fades. United prayer is forsaken. The little assembly no
more appears beautiful. Compassion for the unconverted is low and cold. Sin is
unrebuked, though committed under their eye. Christ is not confessed before
men. Perhaps the soul falls into sin, and is afraid to return; it stays far off
from God, and lodges in the wilderness.

Ah! This is the case, I fear with many. It is a fearfully dangerous time.
Nothing but a visit of the Holy Spirit to your soul can persuade you to return.
It is not a time this prayer — “Wilt thou not revive us again?”

The soul of a believer needs grace every moment. “By the grace of God I am
what I am.” But there are times when he needs more grace that at other times.
Just as the body continually needs food; but there are times when it needs food
more than at others — times of great bodily exertion, when all powers are to
be put forth.

Sometimes the soul of a believer is exposed to hot persecution. Reproach breaks
the heart; or it beats like a scorching sun upon the head. “For my love
they are my adversaries.” Sometimes they are God’s children who reproach
us, and this is still harder to bear. The soul is ready to rest or sink under
it.

Sometimes it is flattery that tempts the soul. The world speaks well of us, and
we are tempted to pride and vanity. This is still worse to bear.

Sometimes Satan strives within us, by stirring up fearful corruptions, till
there is a tempest within. Oh, is there a tempted soul that reads these words?
Jesus prays for thee. You need more peace. Nothing but the oil of the Spirit
will feed the fire of grace when Satan is casting water on it. Send up this
cry, “Wilt thou not revive us again?”

In A Time Of Concern

“Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time if the latter rain.” When God
begins a time of concern in a place — when the dew is beginning to fall —
then is the time to pray, Lord, stay not thine hand — give us a full shower —
leave not one dry. “Wilt thou not revive us again?”

Who needs this revival?

Ministers Need It

Ministers are naturally hard-hearted and unbelieving as other men (Mark 6:14),
so that Christ has often to unbraid them. Their faith is all from above. They
must receive from God all that they give. In order to speak the truth with
power, they need a personal grasp of it. It is impossible to speak with power
from mere head knowledge, or even from past experience. If we would speak with
energy, it must be from present feeling of the truth as it is in Jesus. We cannot
speak of the hidden manna unless we have the taste of it on our mouth. We
cannot speak of the living water unless it be springing up within us. Like John
the Baptist, we must see Jesus coming, and say; “Behold the Lamb of
God.” We must speak with Christ in our eye, as Stephen did. “I see
Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” We must speak from a present
sense of pardon and access to God, or our words will be cold and lifeless. But
how can we do this if we are not quickened from above. Ministers are far more
exposed to be cast down than other men; they are standard bearers, and Satan
loves when a standard-bearer fainteth. Oh, what need of full supplies out of
Christ’s fullness! Pray, beloved, that it may be so. “Wilt thou not revive
us again?”

God’s Children Need It

The divine life is all from above. They have no life till they come to Christ.
“Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have
no life in you.” Now this life is maintained by union to Christ, and by
getting fresh supplies every moment out of His fullness. “He that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in Him.” In some
believers this life is maintained by a constant inflowing of the Holy Spirit —
“I will water it ever moment” — like the constant supply which the
branch receives from the vine. These are the happiest and most even Christians.
Others have flood-tides of the Spirit carrying them higher and higher.
Sometimes they get more in a day than for months before. In the one of these,
grace is like a river; in the other, it is like a shower coming down in its
season. Still, in both there is need of revival. The natural heart is all prone
to wither. Like a garden in summer, it dries up unless watered. The soul grows
faint and weary in well-doing. Grace is not natural to the heart. The old heart
is always for drying and fading. So the child of God needs to be continually
looking out, like Elijah’s servant, for the little cloud over the sea. You need
to be constantly pressing near the Fountain of living waters; yea, lying down
at the well-head of salvation, and drinking the living water. “Wilt thou
not revive us again?”

Those Formerly Awakened Need It

A drop fell from heaven upon their hearts. They trembled, wept, prayed. But the
showers passed by, and the rocky heart ceased to tremble. The eye again closed
in slumber; the lips forgot to pray. Ah, how common and sad is this case! The
King of Zion lifted up His voice in this place and cried. Some that were in
their graves heard His voice, and began to live. But this passed by, and now
they sink back again into the grace of a dead soul. Ah! This is a fearful
state! To go back to death, to love death, and wrong your soul. What can save
such a one, but another call from Jesus? “Awake, thou that sleepest, and
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” For your sake most
of all I pray, “Wilt thou not revive us again?”

Barren Fig Trees Need It

Some of you have been planted in this vineyard. You have enjoyed sun and
shower. You have passed through all this time of awakening without being moved.
You are still dead, barren, unconverted, fruitless. Ah! There is for you no
hope but in this prayer. Ordinary times will not move you. Your heart is harder
than that of other men. What need have you to pray for a deep, pure, effectual
work of God, and that you may not be passed by. Many of you would stand the
shock much better now. Many of you have grown experienced in resisting God, and
quenching the Spirit. Oh, pray for a time that will remove mountains. None but
the Almighty Spirit can touch your hard heart. “Who art thou, O great
mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.” “Wilt thou
not revive us again?”

For whom revival comes:

It is God who must revive us again. It is not human work. It is all divine. If
you look to men to do it, you will only get that curse in Jeremiah 17.
“Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.”

The Lord has all the men in His hands. The Son of Man holds the seven stars in
His right hand. The stars are His ministers. He lifts them up, or lets them
down, at His sovereign will. He gives them all their light, or He takes it
away. He holds them up and lets them shine clearly, or He holds them in the
hollow of His hand, as it seemeth good in His sight. Sometimes He lets them
shine on one district of a country, sometimes another. They only shine to lead
to Him. The star that leads away from Him is a wandering star, and Christ will
cast it into the blackness for ever. We should pray to Christ to make His
ministers shine on us.

The Lord had the fullness of the Spirit to Him. The Father has entrusted the
whole work of redemption into the hands of Jesus, and so the spirit is given to
Him. “As the Father hath life in himself, and quickeneth whom he will, so
hath he given the son to have life in himself, and to quicken whom he
will.”

It is He who keeps all His own children alive from day to day. He is the
Fountain of living waters, and His children lie beside the still waters, and
drink every moment eternal life from Him.

It is He that pours down the Spirit in His sovereignty on those that never knew
Him. “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications.” Truly, the whole
work from the beginning to end is His.

Every means will be in vain until He pours the spirit down (Isaiah 32:15): Upon
the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers, “Until the spirit
be poured upon us from on high.” We may preach publicly, and from house to
house, we may teach the young, and warn the old, but all will be in vain; until
the spirit be poured upon us from on high, briers and thorns shall grow. Our
vineyard shall ne like the garden of the sluggard. We need that Christ should
awake; that He should make bare His arm as in the days of old; that He should
shed down the Spirit abundantly.

The children of God should plead with Him. Put your finger on the promise, and
plead, “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, I the Lord
will hear them” (Isaiah 41:7). Tell Him you are poor and needy. Spread out
your wants before Him. Take your emptiness to His Fullness. There is an
infinite supply with Him for everything you need, at the very moment you need
it.

Ungodly men, you are saying, there is no promise to us. But there is, if you
will receive it. Psalms 68:28; “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led
captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious
also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.” Are you a rebel? Go and
tell Him so. Oh, if you are willing to be justified by Him, and get your rebel
heart changed, go and ask Him, and He will give you living water. Proverbs
1:23; “Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you,
I will make known my words unto you.” Go and tell Him you are a
“Simple one, a scorner”. Ask Him to do what He has promised in
Ezekiel 34:26; “And I will make them and the places round about my hill a
blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall
be showers of blessing.” Now you cannot say you belong to Zion’s hill, but
you can say you are in the places around this hill. Oh, cry, “Wilt thou
not revive us again?”

The Effects of A Revival

The Lord’s children rejoice in Him. They rejoice in Jesus Christ. The purest
joy in the world is joy in Christ Jesus. When the Spirit is poured down, His
people get very near and clear views of the Lord Jesus. They eat His flesh and
drink His blood. They come to a personal cleaving to the Lord. They taste that
the Lord is gracious. His blood and righteousness appear infinitely perfect,
full, and free to their souls. They sit under His shadow with great delight.
They rest in the cleft of the rock. Their defense is the munitions of rocks.
They lean on the Beloved. They find infinite strength in Him for the use of
their soul — grace for grace — all they can need in any hour of trial and
suffering to the very end.

Then go by Him to the Father. “We joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” We find a portion there — a shield, and exceeding great reward.
This gives joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Now, God loves to see His children happy in Himself. He loves to see all our
springs in Him. Take and plead that. Oh, you would pray after a different manner
if God were to pour water on the thirsty. You would tell Him all, open to Him
all sorrows, joys, cares, comforts. All would be told to Him.

Many flock to Christ. “Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves
to their windows?” “To him shall the gathering of the people
be.” Just as all the creatures came into the ark, so poor sinners run in
such a time. Laying aside their garments (Mark 10:50), their jealousies, they
flee together into the ark Jesus. Oh, there is not a lovelier sight in all this
world.

Souls are saved. “Is this not a brand plucked out of the fire?” There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. They are
passed from death unto life.”

It is glorifying to God. “He that receives Christ, sets to his seal that
God is true.” He confesses the holiness of God, His love and grace. His
mouth is filled with praise. “Bless the Lord, O my soul!” He begins to
long for the image of God, to confess Him before men, to walk in His ways. It
gives joy in heaven, and joy in earth. Oh, pray for such a time.

There is an awakening again of those who have gone back. IF we have not a time
of the outpouring of the Spirit, many who once sought Christ, but have gone
back, will perish in a dreadful manner; for they generally turn worse than
before. Sometimes they scoff and make a jest of it all. Satan is all the worse,
that he once was an angel. So they become all the more wicked who have gone
back. They generally go deeper into the mire of sin. But if God graciously
pours down His Spirit, the hardened heart will melt. Pray for this.

There is an awakening of fresh sinners. It is a sad state of things when
sinners are bold in sin, when multitudes can openly break the Sabbath, and
openly frequent the tavern. It is an awful sin when sinners can live in sin,
and yet sit unmoved under the preaching of the Word, cast off fear, and
restrain prayer before God. But if the Lord were pleased to revive us again,
this state of things would change.

I am sure it would be a lovelier sight to see you going in company to the house
of prayer, than thronging to the tavern, or the haunts of sin and shame, that
will bring down eternal ruin on your poor soul. It would be sweeter to hear the
cry of prayer in your closets, than to hear the sounds of oaths and profane
jesting, and your hard speeches and reproaches of God’s children. Sweeter far
to see your hearts panting after Christ, His pardon, His holiness, His glory,
than to see them turning after the world and its vain idols.

Oh, lift up your hearts to the Lord for such a time. Plead earnestly the
promise, “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.” Then this
wilderness will become a fruitful field, and its name be, Jehovah-Shammah —
the Lord is there.