======================================================================== COLIN PECKHAM 01 by Colin Peckham ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of prayer as the foundation for revival, highlighting the need for clean hands and a pure heart to enter God's presence. It recounts powerful stories of prayer leading to revival in history and in places like Korea, stressing the necessity of fervent, exclusive, and effective prayer for spiritual awakening. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of prayer as the foundation for revival, highlighting the need for clean hands and a pure heart to enter God's presence. It recounts powerful stories of prayer leading to revival in history and in places like Korea, stressing the necessity of fervent, exclusive, and effective prayer for spiritual awakening. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let's listen to that word of prayer. Oh Father, thank you. Spirit of God, we thank you for how you've been ministering to us on our spiritual fold. We just want to stop and pray to you and ask that you'd use our dear brother to speak to our hearts in this hour and hour. Anoint us, Christ, in Jesus' name. Amen. Praise the Lord. I was speaking about that book this afternoon, and this is it, Psalms from Heaven. Someone approached me a moment ago and said he'd been told by these people to get a hold of that book and translate it into Romanian. So that's very interesting, yes. But this has been reprinted, it's out of print. The publishers will probably give it in some of the bookshops. But it's out of print and will be put up for the fifth time. It will be printed for the fifth time in January. So, may God use it. Psalms from Heaven. We read this evening from 2 Chronicles 7. You want that chapter? 2 Chronicles 7. Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from Heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the devil, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. And all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, and they bowed themselves in their places to the ground, upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good, for He is mercy endureth forever. Let's all pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for the time we've had this afternoon, discussing various aspects of the work of God, and in particular connected to the Father. And we pray that Thou wouldst continue to cause us never to rest until we see the hand of God in operation, in mighty power in this place. We need Thee. We need the Holy Ghost. We need the Holy Ghost. Oh, Father, we need the Holy Ghost today across this land. Think of the danger this land is in when false religions are so determined to rule and to oust Christianity. And we pray that by Thy Holy Ghost, Thou wouldst come and stay in their power, and drive them back, and cause the hand of God to be seen once again in mighty power in us. Lord, we realize that Scotland has had so many wonderful opportunities, so many wonderful revelations and manifestations. Right back there where George Whitfield was at Cambuslang, and where the movements of the Spirit were there in Skyham, and in other places, Lewis, Lord, all over the country where God worked in Aberdeen in 1859. So, Lord, we need Thee again to come sweeping through every corner of this country. Come to us. And all those countries which are represented here, Lord, we all need Thee. In the power of God, put rest upon us. Now we put ourselves into Thy hands. For Jesus' sake, help us with prayer. Amen. I want to speak to you this afternoon on the subject of the moment of revival. And this comes from this passage when Solomon had made an end of praying, of fire being done from heaven. In the 16th century, we had the great European Reformation. In the 17th century, where there were movements all along, you had Stuart Townshend who came to us, Stuart, in 1625, and then in the Great Shots Movement, part of the Emirate of Nebraska. That was in 1630, 21st of January of June, 1630. Then in the 17th century, in the 18th century, we had the enormous spiritual upheaval with the Westleys and George Whitfield. And God changed the face of the English-speaking nation. And all the nations which sprang from here, and gave a platform, a standard, and values, right throughout the world of English-speaking people from the 18th century. The great 18th century. And God gave the might of the English. Hundreds of thousands of people came to Christ. In the 19th century, we had the great American 58 Revival, the 59 Revival here. And then it spread all over the world. And we thank God for the influence of that. And the 20th century has been very dry as regards national revival in the West. It has been very uninteresting in revival terms. And so we stand here, acknowledging our desperate need of a move of the Spirit of God. My dear friends, if God doesn't come to meet us, I don't know what's going to happen to this country. Stephen Green of Christian Voice, the organization which assesses things that happen in the country all the time, he said the other day when he was asked about Britain, what's going to happen in the future, he said, well, there'll be a war, I suppose, in 30 or 40 years. Now whether Stephen Green is right or not, when Britain says, look, so far, no further, and there'll be a war, whether that's going to be so or not, I don't know. But it looks pretty grim when things are happening as we know they are happening in this country with the strange religious aggression that we find today. But God is not dead. You know, in Korea, in the last 20 years, 9 million have been added to the church. And in China, this is the biggest revival that has ever taken place in the history of the world. When the communists began, there were 800,000 Christians in China, and today there are 100 million. That is just a fantastic thing that's happened. And God has worked in China and Korea and parts of Africa and South America and places, strange places like Fiji and other places like that, where God suddenly comes. The moment of revival has come. Centuries of waiting have given way to an explosion of new life. Oh, that God would send that here as well and bring back the glory that was here in this land. When we behold the barrenness of our own present day, is there not a wrench to our hearts, a desperate cry, Lord, do it again, do it here? We need God in our meetings. We were in Japan a little while back, and I was giving the Bible readings at the Shioya Convention in Nikobe, and I spoke once, twice, three times, and suddenly, one morning, God came. In that vast hall, there were about 100 people seated right in the front here, seeking God. And the Japanese men prayed that they could send them back to their seats. And suddenly, there was a cry. Halfway down the hall, a young pastor uttered a great and bitter cry after God. There he sat. Another pastor ran to him and put his arm around him to try and comfort him. He would not be comforted. He was crying for God. And he cried again. It was a huge shout, huge, right there. And then the third time, and I'm telling you, then God worked on them in that hall, and they were seeking God everywhere, in the corners, in little groups, in the single, the whole congregation just began to seek God. I came down, and I stood here in the front, and I just surveyed this battlefield, and I looked across, and when I looked again, there were about 30 pastors around. It was a big convention. There were about 30 pastors all around me. And they began to pray. And they began to move. And they were all down on their knees. There was a one little senior pastor. He grabbed my wrist from here. His head was on my elbow here. And it was jerking up and down as he wept. The pastors wept. It broke us. And they poured on the pastor. Eventually, they were finished. They stood. We stood and gazed. And we looked at the carpet. And it's wonderful. We started again. And they were down on their knees again, seeking God with all our hearts. These men, these unemotional Japanese, God had come to the convention. God had broken into the convention. And my dear friends, we need not only good meetings where the people are seeking God, we need God to break through. I can think of meetings where people just said, have God. People just began to weep all over the meeting. Just sobbing their hearts out. It's because they're in the presence of God. That's breaking through God in a revival. We went across from one place to another. Missionary Hugh Brown was going to translate for me. We did have another convention from another place. And I made an appeal at the end of one meeting. And God was in the meeting. It was such a fantastic spirit. And I handed it over to the pastor. And he started and he began saying a few words. And then he said, he turned to Hugh, and he says, tell him to come back. I don't know what to do with this meeting. Amazed in the presence of God. Touched in the presence of God. Our hearts broke in the presence of God. That's what we need. Here, now, this afternoon. That's what we need in all our meetings. Sometimes we go to meetings, and we come back and Mary and I just look at each other and we go over everything. And we just want to cry. We've been to the church. And it's going through the motions. And that's all. And sometimes we go to prayer meetings. And there's such rest to pray. And you come back and you just want to weep and weep. Where is the true reality of God in the midst of his people? We need the Holy Ghost, my dear friends, in all our activities. We need the Holy Ghost in our thinking. We need the Holy Ghost in our planning. We need the Holy Ghost in our meetings. And we need the Holy Ghost in the gatherings and as we wait in his presence. You see what the psalmist said? Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. And he says again, It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. My word, look at every laws passed today that have made void the law of God. Oh, that thou wouldst rend their heads, that thou wouldst come down, that thou wouldst not throw down at thy presence. So here we have, in this passage, the moment when God came, when the fire fell. Notice the preparation for revival. It was prayer. When Solomon had made an end of praying, that's what we were talking about a little while ago, a while ago, wasn't it? I think a friend of ours has an interview with the Lord now. His name is Richard Cross, some of you may know him. He was a policeman, and he was Lord Brookborough's personal bodyguard. And he retired, and he was a man of God. And he established one hundred prayer meetings in Northern Ireland for revival. And when the great Bangor, Northern Ireland, missionary convention, worldwide missionary convention was held, they gave Richard ten minutes to report on his revival meetings, the revival of prayer meetings. Richard Cross sat in an outlay at Presbyterian Church, and went to the pulpit, and he stood. He was a man, a godly man, a man who would pray, but he had no tact whatsoever. He said, all of you who were praying for revival, stand up. Stand up. Perhaps you didn't hear me. I said, all those of you who were praying for revival, stand up. Just two sisters at the back. Sleep on it. Take your rest, and Richard Cross sat down. I mean, I would never have the courage to do a thing like that. But those people will never forget that moment. If you're not praying for revival, you're just playing. So, the beginnings of the Hebrides' revival, I suppose you've heard Duncan Campbell say there were two old ladies, do you remember that story? Two old ladies playing, praying in their little cottage. And there were six men praying in bars, not bars, thatched cottages. Anyway, he thought it was a go-home. So he said, he gave that as the beginnings of the revival, the two old ladies and the six men. And when we were writing that book, we investigated all sorts of things, and we said to some of the people, where did that primitive take place, where the man got up and read the speeches, and there were several of them who fainted. Where did that primitive? Nobody knew about that primitive. Nobody knew about that primitive. Why not? Because there were so many of that kind of primitives. The people of God were praying. And was it just the two old ladies who asked? Oh, no, no, no, said Margaret. There were one of Winston's wives there, and she was there in the beginning of the revival and before it and after it. I said, was it just the two old ladies and the six men? Oh, no, no, no, no, she said. They were all praying. Many old men were praying. Many young men were praying. Many young old women were praying. Many young old young women were praying. It was a community of prayer. I said, what? Say that again? I've never heard such words in my life. A community of prayer? What does that mean? She said when they would visit one another, they would chat away and talk and have their tea, and then they would get down to pray. And they just prayed in the night. Lord, we know what you want. We don't want any frozen bubble. We want God to come down. We've had it before in the 1939 revival. We know it before in the various revivals that have taken place in the US. Now, Lord, we know what we want. And we're crying for Thee to pour out Thy Spirit upon us once again. Prayer is absolutely essential. When Solomon had made an end of prayer, William Burns said, Prayer unceasing and earnest is that wherein the great strength of a revival of religion lieth. And John Wesley said, God does nothing but by prayer and everything with it. And D.L. Murray said, Every movement of the Spirit can be traced to a bent figure. And Matthew Henry said, it was quoted by our friend there this afternoon, When God intends great mercy for His people, He first sets them a-praying. So it's prayer that is necessary. Prayer is essential. And then prayer is exclusive. Not just who it was we're praying. It was Solomon we're praying. And Solomon had a very wonderful relationship with God. His God, we read in chapter 1, verse 1 of 2 Corinthians, 2 Chronicles, that the Lord his God was with him. And God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And he said in verse 10, Give me wisdom and knowledge. And so Solomon was on speaking terms with God. And he was speaking to Him and adoring Him and worshipping Him. Great is our God above all gods. Chapter 2, verse 5. And right through all these chapters, before chapter 7, we find the relationship of Solomon and God. Oh God, he said in chapter 6, verse 14. Oh Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven or on earth, wherewith keepest covenant, and showest mercy unto thy servants, and walk before thee with all their hearts. So here, he says, Oh now therefore rise, O Lord God, from the impoverished in place. Thou on the ark of thy spake, let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation. Thy saints rejoice in goodness. So here Solomon, in communion with God, that's the man who prayed when the fire fell. It's not sufficient just to dash into the presence of God from all your worldly pursuits and all the other activities and just say, Lord, I know that I should be praying for revival. So Lord, please send revival. Without the burden. This man had a burden. This man was committing the whole nation to the wrong. This man was committing the temple to the wrong. And he was crying for the nation as well. So here, he was in contact with God, and in communion with God, and he was able to pray that prayer. Lord, I'm giving this place to you. You come and dwell here. So here, it's exclusive. It's a person. It's a person who's walking with God who's able to have that relationship and be able to pray effectively. It's exclusive. He held God in. Don't you remember that the Westerners to confession said God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, goodness, and justice, and truth. And here, that's the God. Solomon saw him as the great God. We can be very pally-pally with God. And that doesn't bring us any rowdy parts. When we see God as God, high, lifted up, far above all, he and we are of the earth. Then we've got the right relationship. Lord, we can't do anything. Satan is far too powerful for us. He's bringing in these false religions. He's bringing in all kinds of difficulties. Sin abounds on every hand. It's multiplying on every hand. Lord God, we're too weak to do anything. We need the mighty power of the almighty God to come to us. It's the right relationship. So, it's the power of God. And we can't get into the presence of God unless we are in a right relationship with God. You see, that prayer meeting that Duncan Campbell spoke about with John Smith and Kenneth MacDonald and those great group of men who prayed with him. One night, Kenneth MacDonald opened the book of the Bible to Psalm 24, and he said, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? He read. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in His holy presence? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, and hath not lifted up his soul into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing of the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. And he said, We've got to have clean hands and a pure heart if we're going to enter into the presence of God. Who shall ascend? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. The presence of my hands, truly, is my heart pure? Said the deacon. And he looked at the others. He said, Brethren, are your hands clean? Are your hearts pure? It's so much humbler praying like this unless our hands are clean and our hearts are pure. And I asked the same question of you this afternoon. Are your hands clean? Are your hearts pure? Because to stand in the presence of a holy God costs everything. The blood to be applied to my soul even now. Are my hands clean? Prayer is exclusive. That's the kind of person who can enter into the presence of God. The person who has clean hands and a pure heart. That's the kind of prayer that comes from that person. And that prayer is effective and essential. So prayer is essential. Prayer is exclusive. Prayer is effective. In 1859, Charles Lanthier, you know the story, I suppose, there in New York, was approached to open up Middle Hall. And he said, well, I'll do it. He had little cards printed. He gave it away. Gave it away in various churches. We're going to have a midweek, middle of the day prayer. Who on earth would come to a prayer meeting in the middle of the day in busy New York? And they waited. And they waited. And about halfway through that time, a few people came. But they had such a busy time, that they said, we'll come again next week. And next week they went more. And the next week they went more. And soon that place was filled. And then the prayer meetings began to spread all over New York. And then from New York everywhere across the country. So that this was a mighty prayer revival. And so a man coming from the West Coast, right across from Boston on the East Coast, said, I have been in a prayer meeting 2,000 miles long. And at the height of that mighty movement, 50,000 people were coming to Christ every week. Prayer was at the height of it. My dear friends, I was in Korea. In fact, I was here at the Faith Mission Bible College. And a man came to visit us from Korea. A pastor. And so I showed him around. I was very appreciative of what we had. And he said, when you come to Seoul, you just, if you ever get there, you phone him. He had his phone number. When I got there, I phoned him. He said, yes, I'll take you to our church. He was one of the several pastors of the church. There it stood, a massive building. And we went up to the third floor. And there was a seating for 3,000 people. Below that, there were seating for 1,500 and walls of different sized walls. And below that, there were different sized walls again. And below that, there were five levels of car parking. And then he said, as we stood outside, you see that block, five stories, about 100 yards or more? He said, that is the Sunday school block. And he said, you see that block there, about the same size? He said, that's the accommodation block. I said, accommodation? Yes, he said, well, we have conferences in there so that people come and they stay here. He said, just come. Let's ask our friend. So we walked in. And there were doors close to one another all the way down, all the way down, the wall on both sides. I said, what is this? He said, these are prayer rooms. I said, the whole floor? Yes, the whole floor. You can go in individually, or you can take two or three people, and you can pray. He said, these are prayer rooms. And then we went to European style beds, accommodation, and then Korean style, they sit you on the floor, and then the European style and the Korean style, and then again the top. The whole floor was a prayer room. I said, two floors in the accommodation block, given over to prayer rooms? Yes, he said. I said, well, if I said that to them in the West, if I said that we should do a building accommodation block and spend two floors on prayer rooms, they'd look at me as if I'd gone wild, wasting money like that. But they know where the prayer, where the secret of the church is, in prayer. They made a provision for it, so that people can pray. I went up to a prayer mountain. There is a whole huge convention center up there in the hills where the church goes to pray and to praise the Lord. Went to one of the seminaries there, and interviewed the president of the seminary, and he said, we've just accepted 800 for the next year. He said, there are 2,000 people here studying the Bible. 2,000 people studying the Bible. We've just accepted 800. We've turned away 629 because we haven't got a space for them. And he only said to us, oh Lord, he said there's another two students and three students. We're really in a day of small things. My God. And then I went to the Methodist church, the biggest Methodist church in the world. It holds 7,000. It has 70,000 members scattered across Seoul, which is a city of 13 million. And then I went to the Presbyterian church. Also holds 7,000. Also has 70,000 members. Then we went to Yonge Church. It's just close to each other. We went to Yonge Church. And there were 15,000. And there are, wait for it, 700,000 members in that church. Scattered across the city with 700 pastors and many lay workers. But that's the Methodist church. And those churches, those three churches, they open at 7 o'clock. They have their services on Sundays, 7 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 5 o'clock, 7 o'clock. Seven services. And I stood and watched as 15,000 people came out of the church and 15,000 people went into the church. And we say, oh praise the Lord, we've got a few more people. One or two more. Oh, that's great. Did you see that new family coming? We're living in a day of small things. How did it happen? Friends, Seoul has traffic jams at 5 o'clock every day, in the morning. Why? Because the people are going to the prayers. That's why Korea opens six churches every day. We were driving along, I see the big church on the hill. I said, my word, that's a big church. No, no, no, no, not big church. I said, that is a big church. No, no, no, not big church. Only big church after 10,000 members. We're satisfied with very little, my friends. May God come to us and do something for us, and bring us into a place where we realize that the prayer is the answer. Moses, you remember, said, oh, these people have sinned a great sin. Yet now, if they will forgive their sins, and if not, brought me, brought me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast drawn. Lord, I'm prepared to be cast aside if only these people can be saved. How can you consider it such passion? And Paul said the same, didn't he? For I would wish myself were accursed from Christ to my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Oh, my. Prayer is the preparation for revival. Prayer is that which causes revival to expand and to continue. We speak every now and again at a convention down in Northern Ireland, in this country called Kilkis. It's just ended now. It's another convention in this place at which we met this last summer. And we went there, and they pray in the morning, and they pray in the afternoon. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/fx9jTPOZeWU.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/colin-peckham/colin-peckham-01/ ========================================================================