Isaiah 44 3 - The Promise of Revival

Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning needy. We pray that our hearts would not be vaunted in pride, but poor in spirit, for we shall inherit the kingdom and the earth. But there's one blessing that we seek above the earth, the fullness thereof, and it's you, the joy of the Lord, vibrant within our hearts. And so this morning, Father, I ask, as one hungry for you, would you feed me? And I believe I can speak for my brothers and sisters, Father, would you come and feed us the bread of life? We want to eat of Him, drink of Him, be so satisfied in Him that we're more like Him as a result. We know you're here, and we've experienced your presence. We've sensed something special this morning. But Lord, we need a quickening power, the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon me and these who now hear. We pray for the dynamic of God to be at work, that you will not leave us as we came, that the work of glorification, transformation, conforming will be happening even now, Father. We acknowledge that we are in your presence. We acknowledge that you have made this ground sacred by your Spirit. The Lord, we would pray that the oil of heaven would fall upon us. The oil could not touch the flesh, and it'd be poured upon the head and flow down the beard of Aaron to his garments, but not on the flesh. You will not anoint and unction that which is corrupt. And so, Lord, I pray that you will look upon me with favor and grace through Jesus Christ who merited it all. And in His name I pray, amen. The text I pray the Lord be pleased to speak to us from is from Isaiah chapter 44 and verse 3, Isaiah chapter 44 and verse 3. I want to speak this morning on the theme, the promise of revival, the promise of revival. Isaiah chapter 44 verse 3, for I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring. We often say one to another that we need revival, but I'm not for sure that we really want revival. Now, how can I say that and believe that to be true? Namely because there is not a great manifestation of a hunger for God that is prerequisite to a move of God. There's no craving for it that results in actively seeking for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and therefore, my beloved friends, we prove our desperate need for revival. Charles Spurgeon, pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England said in a sermon January the 11th, 1874, these words, please listen. In the Christian church at this moment, there's a very general desire for a revival of religion. You may go where you may among Christian people and you will find that they are mourning over the present state of things and saying the one to the other, when will the greater blessing come? How can we obtain it? When shall we make some impression on the masses of the ungodly? When shall our houses of prayer be filled with attentive hearers? When will the Lord's kingdom come and His right arm be made bare in the eyes of all the people? And then he said these words, I am delighted to hear the inquiry. My soul magnifies the Lord as I discern tokens, tokens of growing anxiety about the cause and kingdom of Jesus and the perishing sons of men. This, he said, is an omen of better times. As soon as Zion prevailed, she brought forth her children. Searchings of heart, anguish, groanings which cannot be uttered, and abounding intercession are all the heralds of blessing. Well, what Spurgeon is saying is not hard to understand, that when a people of God get so hungry, when they become so weary with their own lack of the glory of God in their own hearts, that that is the marvelous token, sign, indication that God is at work and that He's about to pour out a blessing that they cannot contain. That my beloved is what I'm saying I don't see among us yet, not yet. We are yet to be afflicted. We are yet to mourn and weep over our lackadaisical devotion. We have yet to turn our laughter into mourning and our joy into heaviness. We are apt to be proud and not humble before the Lord that we might receive His blessing. We here today, we may need revival, but I'm not for sure we want it. And I know those words sting. At least let me put it this way, we don't want it to the degree that our need demands. Oh yes, I hear on Wednesday nights in our prayer meetings, occasionally a prayer request for an outpouring of the Spirit, the revival of our hearts. And there is some desire. But dear friends, we should be hungering for something that is only heaven sent. It cannot be manufactured by even preachers or men of God. It's heaven born. We should be thirsting for a deeper, deeper work of the Spirit of God. And we should be craving for a wider influence of this church's ministry and its borders. We need to covet a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but we don't, at least not yet. Perhaps some are satisfied with the status quo and they would remind us that contentment is a sign of great godliness. Yes, you're right, it is, but not in the spiritual realm. No, not in spiritual matters. No, the Bible says, blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. There is no contentment when it comes to God and His manifested presence. Those who are experiencing the manifested blessings and presence of God want it all the more. They can't seem to get enough of it. The work of God in your soul does not curb the appetite, it stirs it up all the more. And so I want to ask you all this morning, how's your appetite? Are you hungry for a fresh work of God in your soul? Are you craving it? Is there this desire that you cannot move past? These who are experiencing it are always pushing forward for greater blessing, the work of God. Do you yearn to grow in faith so much so that you don't run from the trial but you enter into its flame, knowing that the genuineness of your faith is tested by fire? Or do you try to avoid the trial and run from it altogether? Do you hunger for more of His beauty to see, realizing that there's nothing that you prize more than to get a glimpse of how majestic, how glorious, how amazingly winsome and beautiful God is in Christ Jesus, that you would sit at His feet and wait and wait in longing anticipation until He comes and visits with you? Is there a real longing for an increase of souls to be saved? These are hard questions, and I don't mean for you to dodge them this morning. They are diagnostic on purpose. I speak them. I ask you not that you give an answer to me. You owe me no answer. You owe yourself the answer. God already knows, so He doesn't need it. You and I are the ones that need to take the proper diagnose. Am I serious when I say, oh God, cultivate a hunger in me for you? Or has it become a standardized prayer that you in routineness pray? As I preach in many different places, many times someone will come to me and ask me to pray for an unsaved child or spouse or parent, and I'm always glad to do so. Then they might ask me, what can I say or do that will help my loved one to see the truth? And after I have inquired to discern, are they even sharing, have they shared the gospel with them? And once convinced that they have, I normally say, try to encourage them in this way. It seems that it makes more sense to talk to the one who can turn that person's heart than to the person who cannot turn their own heart. Now, I don't mean we don't share the gospel with loved ones or friends, no, not at all. But we spend more time talking to the very God who can convert their soul than to they who have no power to do so. And so I ask you another question. When was the last time you watered the gospel seed that you planted in your child's heart with tears of prevailing intercession? Tell me, when was the last time? And if it's been a while, then we need revival. Is there a present anxiousness for spiritual advancement? Could you pray as Spurgeon? And here's what he prayed in that very sermon I quoted from. Would God that the dues of heaven would fall in sevenfold abundance upon us and our fellow Christians and the past be put to the blush by the future. I like that. May the past be put to the blush by the future. You know, young people, have you ever noticed what happens when old people get together and start talking? What do they talk about? Invariably always it comes down to the good old days. They talk about the good old days and you would listen to them speak and you'd think, my goodness, it sounds like heaven came down to earth. But I'm not asking you about what you remember. I'm asking about today and tomorrow. Is there an intense desire that the future give days of glory and outshine past glories? Are there any sparks that can be fanned into a flame within your own heart that you might burn more for God? If not, then you are not as spiritually well as you think. You desperately need revival more than you know. Again, searching may be troubling to you, but I'm not here to condemn anyone. And to those who are of a very active conscience, overactive, I want to encourage you this is not about what you can feel or some experience. This is about walking by faith, regardless of the emotional abilities that you might have. I know some of you are low capacity in feeling. You just don't, you're not wired to feel much and I would not want you to be overcome and discouraged by this message. But I certainly believe no matter how low your capacity to feel, you can always feel more. You can always experience more and deeper into Christ we all can go. And what a promise we have today. I'm full of great hope by the promise of this text because the promise is the promise of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. For I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. That's God's promise to you and to this church. The promise is God's and the promise I am thankful to report has been fulfilled. This promise has been fulfilled. The Holy Spirit has been given to the entirety of the church and the dispensation in which he exists. God has come in the third person of the blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and he indwells all of his people. Why? Why is the promise ours? Because the promise has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As he suffered on Calvary's cross, the white fierce hot wrath of God his soul felt. He stood in our place as our substitute and he bore the punishment of our sins and thereby merited for us in his resurrection the right and the privilege to pour out upon all who would follow him in faith the blessed Spirit of God. When he ascended to the right hand of God, he interceded on all of our behalf and the Spirit of God came and it came in power. He came in power. That small fledgling church of 120 were in that upper room. And the Bible says the Spirit came in the form of cloven tongues of fire and the rushing power of God was felt as a wind through the room and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. He has come. He's already here. However, a word of caution is necessary. Because you've received the person of the Holy Spirit does not mean you cannot increasingly experience more of his influence and power. The fact you already have the Spirit guarantees you can have more of his gracious impact. Praise God. Remember what Paul the Apostle calls the giving of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 1 and verse 14. The down payment. He's just been given to you as a down payment. There's more of him yet to experience in this age. In the age to come, oh yes, you may still ask for gracious outpourings of the Holy Spirit. Let me ask you a very sensible question. How could you, a finite being with a tiny little capacity to experience God, think you could experience all there is of this infinite deity? It's laughable, isn't it? No, there's more of him. More of his glory to see. More of his love to fill these small hearts of ours. Yes, please ask. Please seek. Remember the words of Jesus, Luke chapter 11, verse 13. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Now, there may be a theologian among us or two who would say, wait a minute, that instruction of Jesus to pray for the Holy Spirit is prophetic, predictive of the day of Pentecost. And now that the Spirit of God has come, we are no longer bid by the scriptures to pray for the Holy Spirit's outpouring or coming or infillings. We have received him and that prayer has already been fulfilled. Well, my dear friend, have you never read what those two apostles, Peter and John, who were both in the upper room on the day of Pentecost filled with the Holy Spirit? Have you never read their prayer in Acts chapter 4, verse 29 and following? Let me set the stage for that text. It goes back to the third chapter. Peter and John are on the way to the temple to pray. They walk through the gate called Beautiful, and there is a man laying, 40 years since his birth, begging, and he looks to Peter and John and asks for help. Peter looks at him and says, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And the Bible says that immediately the man walked, leaped, and praised God. Reminds me of another story that happened 1,200 years later. The Roman Catholic theologian, Thomas Aquinas, I'm not used to quoting Roman Catholics, just if you're concerned, but this is one good time. I think it will merit it. He walked in on Pope Innocent II and found the pope bent over a table counting a lot of silver and gold coins. The pope acknowledged Aquinas and said, see, Thomas, the church no longer can say silver and gold have I none. And Aquinas replied and said, and neither can she say in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And as a result of that miracle, hundreds, if not thousands, gathered around Peter and John. And being the good evangelists they were, they took opportunity to preach and they preached. And Luke gives us the indication that there was a large number of people that were converted as a result of the sermon that day. And of course, the Sanhedrin wasn't as evangelistically minded as Peter and John and didn't really like it at all. And they arrested them and brought them before them and bid them, commanded them to never preach in the name of Jesus again. Do you know what Peter and John did after they left the Sanhedrin? Well, you have it right there in your Bibles. They got together with a bunch of other Christians and they had a prayer meeting. And this is their prayer. Listen. Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Now, who were these two men, Peter and John, and who were these others? No doubt probably others that had been with them on the day of Pentecost in that upper room when the Holy Spirit first descended. Do not tell me I can't ask for more blessings from heaven above. Don't tell me I cannot receive fresh in fillings of the Holy Spirit since the day of my conversion. Brother, I do and I desperately need him even now. I need the Spirit of God and I look at this promise this morning in Isaiah 44, 3, and I look at the very one who makes the promise and I find he's the same one who guarantees the fulfillment of the promise. The one who promises guarantees the promise to be fulfilled. I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy offspring. God ensures what he promises. We on the other hand, we can't guarantee one of our promises but God. God who there is no variableness, no shadow of turning, immutable, the same yesterday, today, and forever, and this promise is for us. This promise is for us. Now, again, the objection might come to me and say, wait a minute. This is a promise given to a specific people in a specific time of history. Therefore, you cannot apply it to us today. You are violating an important law of biblical interpretation. I agree. It is very important that when we look at such passages that we see them within their historical context. We recognize who is speaking and to whom the message comes. We are to be careful about how we apply these kinds of texts. My dear friend, I want to encourage you this morning. All you have to do is turn your Bible from Isaiah over into the New Testament. Within the pages of the New Testament are similar promises. For you see, listen carefully, when a promise given to a specific people for a specific time in history is repeated in other places of the sacred text, the Bible, to a wider audience and to others in a way of general application, then you can take that specific promise for a specific group at a specific time and you can apply it to you. Listen to what Jesus said. I've already recited it once. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. But what about what Jesus said in John 7? On that last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers, rivers plural of living water. It sounds very similar to Isaiah 44, 3 to me. The very book ends in the 22nd chapter of Revelation with an invitation. Listen to it. And the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him who hears say, come. And let him who thirst, come. Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely. Now, today, are you thirsty? Today, there is a fountain whose streams come from the very throne of God, and it's in plenty of supply. There's enough for all of us, and then some. That's the invitation. Oh, my friend, Isaiah 44, verse 3 is for me, it's for you, if we will only believe it. I will pour water on him who is thirsty. That's the question. Are you thirsty? And I will pour floods on him on the dry ground. The promise is absolutely needed, is it not? Here again, we need searching honesty, and courage to face the answers. Without the power of the Spirit of God, my friends, we are helpless. We're sails without wind, engines without fuel, coals without fire. What hope is it that we gather in a beautiful room for an hour and a half to two hours? People are doing this all over the world. Gatherings are still taking place. It's not the simple fact that we're simply here that makes the difference. It is the Spirit, the presence of one God Almighty being here that changes this dynamic, that turns us from a crowd into a congregation, that turns us from an assembly into the very throne room of heaven, God's presence. Do you not realize that I, this week, preparing, was constantly bombarded with the idea that I will not be able to do one thing for you, on top of what happened the last time I preached. How can you top that? And I knew this could be very anticlimactic, unless God comes. Would you not pray right now? Come Holy Spirit, blessed Lord, come in thy will. Do what you want with me, because that's what turns these services into life. Without God's life and activity, friends, we are dead. Don't ever forget what Jesus said in the letter to the Sardis church. I know your works, you have a name that you are alive, but you're dead. They thought they were alive. They thought they were alive. You should not take this lightly. I often say to good churches, and this is a good church, be careful. Don't get too complacent in your theological knowledge. Don't become proud because you've got elders that love you and shepherds you as God shepherds them. Don't become conceited in the spirit of unity that we experience. No. Remember, without God, none of this happens. You know, you can be in an intensive care unit, but compare yourself to a corpse in the morgue, you look pretty good. It's all relative, isn't it? The question is, what can we do without the power of God? And all we can do is sow to corruption and reap to corruption. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to descend upon us afresh and anew. Listen to me, please. Our tired apologetics is not getting it done. Clever answers, even logically, sound biblical answers is not enough to move the human heart. No, sir. There's only one apologetic that changes and transforms the lost soul, and it is God. He and his people, God in power manifested through them. That's the apologetic we need. That's the apologetic this early church had. They were very unlearned and ignorant according to the educated and degreed, but they had been with Jesus, and not only had they been with Jesus, but those dear poor people couldn't see that Jesus was with them at that very moment. He was with them in power. He was with them in that glory, and oh, how we need that today. But listen, listen. God fulfills his promises, and he does so abundantly. Look at the text again. Floods upon the dry ground. Do you see that? Floods. Not a shower, not a flood, not mercy drops, floods. I'm thankful for mercy drops. Don't misunderstand me, but that's not what the promise says. The promise says that God answers abundantly. I will pour floods on the dry ground. He doesn't do things halfway. Yes, he is a God that does things in the beginning small, but when God's in it, they don't stay small. Now, I want you to look at the results of this promise this morning fulfilled. What are the results of this promise being fulfilled? Number one, refreshment by the presence of God, a refreshment by the very manifested presence of God. When your soul is dry, when your spirit is dull, you need refreshment. You need a fresh drink. You need the showers of God to come. And in the very sermon that we alluded to in Acts chapter 3 that Peter preached after healing the lame man, this is what he said. He gave us a principle, not just for the lost, but also for the saved. In Acts 3, 19, repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. There it is. Here's your prayer time alone with God becomes stale and routine, nothing happening, no communion. Well, dear friend, you need refreshment. And refreshment always comes when God's people deal with their sins. The greatest commandment is to do what? Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. And when we disobey that commandment, we have violated the greatest of all commandments. Therefore we should take it seriously. Refreshment. That is what I am absolutely persuaded after years of study of the scriptures, years of study of church history and revivals and moves of God, that they always are a result of God's people getting right and humble before Him, acknowledging their need for God. Not the sinner's need, but their own need. Because the great, most amazing truth about this church, this assembly, is not who's here, nor the leaders who lead us. The most amazing thing about this assembly is its head, Jesus Christ. And when Jesus Christ is manifesting His life through the individual members of the body, the body's alive. It's alive. And it's operating not in the power of wisdom or experience alone, but in the power and demonstration of the Spirit of the living God, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and He that's joined to the Lord is one spirit. He owns what we then do. When we are condescending and humble in ourselves in obedience to the head, that's what refreshment looks like. That's what revival looks like among God's people. That's normal Christianity. And when God's people are refreshed by the presence of God, then new life occurs. Converts are always the result. The need of the lost is great today. I ask you, I'm thankful for the foes who were baptized a couple of weeks ago, aren't you? I'm very thankful to God. What answers to prayer. That should encourage us to pray all the more. But friends, what's nine? What's nine compared to others in this very body, still yet lost? Why is it that our children can hear the gospels they heard explained to them this morning and leave unconvicted, unmoved, still settled in their sinful nature? Doesn't that bother you? It ought to bother you. It ought to move us to get on our faces before God and say, Lord, you promised, you promised that you would pour out your spirit on my seed, my children. Why are you not doing it? But when you and I, mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, husband and wife, when we get full of God, people notice that is again the apologetic I'm pressing you on. That you would be full, walking in the spirit in a continual basis. That people notice that this is unusual. This is not mere hysteria. This is not some psychological psychosis that they've been hypnotized by. No, there's something of another world about this person. I don't understand you. What motivates, what empowers you? When was the last time you were asked that? When we become revived and refreshed in the presence of the Lord, new converts are always the result. Friends, I want to ask you a question. What if in the next six months, 100 people are converted as a result of the ministry of this church? Next six months, 100 people. What do you think that would mean for us? Why? We would be jubilant, celebratory, excited, and rightfully so. That'd be awesome. We would say revival has broke out, but stop, don't get too excited yet. What is 100 souls compared to the almost 7 million that live in this metroplex? Our task is large. And you and I are God's representatives, his body on this earth. And we cannot do this in the arm of the flesh. Sharing your testimony, sharing the gospel, please don't stop. But would you pray that when you share your testimony, when you share the gospel, that you will do so in the power of the Holy Spirit, that you would share it with a lost soul as much as you expect the preacher to stand here under the power of the Holy Spirit. You wouldn't want to come and listen to a sermon that was not touched by heaven, would you? I've preached many of them. I know what they're like. They're not fun to preach, and they're certainly not fun to listen to. You expect the man that stands behind this sacred desk to have been with God, to come out of the closet of prayer with something of the aroma of God on you. Why do you think you can go to the center without the same power? Can't be done, cannot be done. How do I receive this promise? First, acknowledge your thirst and dryness this morning. Acknowledge it. Notice what the text says. Pour water on him that is thirsty. Floods upon dry ground. Are you thirsty? Then you're a candidate for this promise. Are you dry? You're the target of this promise. You see, Jesus didn't heal the healthy, but the sick He didn't come to lift up and help the righteous but the unrighteous. Don't be like Laodicea who said that they were rich and had become wealthy and needed nothing. No, no. The rebuke of our Lord was that you do not know that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. No, confess before the Lord. Perhaps you would say this morning, surely there's no one here whose heart's more dry than mine. Then dear friend, rejoice. The promise is for you. You cannot argue this out and say, well, I'm too dry for God to visit. I'm too spiritually low right now. God can't visit me. No, the promise is for such. You are the perfect candidate. Your heart may feel like a barren wilderness cracked and opened up for lack of moisture. So be it. There's a place or reservoir for the water of God to come and fill you. Confess it. Acknowledge it today. The drier the better, because God said He would give floods upon the dry ground. Confess it. Acknowledge it today. Don't run from it. And then secondly, ask for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Ask. We have the promise, for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. Floods upon the dry ground. I will pour out my Spirit upon thy seed. Blessing upon thine offspring. Listen, prayer is the receiving of the promise. That's what Jesus said. He said it this way. Ask, and ye shall receive. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. What he's telling you is that prayer is the means by which you receive what God has. But not just rote prayers. Not prayers that were prayed from the mind and not the heart. But no, prayers that believe. So number three, believe it. Believe this promise. Now it seems to me we make two mistakes concerning faith in God. One mistake is that some of us in this room are waiting for God to give us some mystical impression. Some feeling that will guarantee that we'll get what we ask for. No, my dear friends, that's not the way God's faith works. Instead, you ought to be like a child. With childlike believing. Trusting that it's been said by your father, therefore it must be so. You don't need a new word from heaven. This word is not a fresh new word. It's a reminder of a word already spoken by God. We don't need no new impressions or feelings or tingly experiences. You've got a promise. Believe it. Tell God He has said it. And it must be so. The second mistake I think we often make concerning faith is we confuse knowing something to be true with faith. In other words, if I believe something to be true, that's what faith is. No, it's not. Faith certainly knows the truth and accepts that it's true. But then it does one other thing. It acts on it because faith considers the truth real. Real. Not just a fact. Someone gave you a check this morning, but you did not take it to the bank. You have no right to complain that the check is bad. God has given us a check this morning. I will pour water on him that is thirsty. I will pour floods on the dry ground. There is your check. And by faith can you cash the check of heaven. And only by faith. Believe it. Believe it. I want to do something now to encourage your faith. It's not something that I instinctively like doing. But I believe it will be beneficial. I want to go back in church history and tell you of one of the greatest revivals, outpourings of the Holy Spirit that any church has ever experienced. On par with the book of Acts. But before I do, I would like those of you that would be willing to admit it. How many of you would raise your hand and say, I was born before 1949 or during the years 1949 to 1952? Would you raise your hand please? I was born prior to, keep them up, keep them up. I was born before 1949 or during the years 1949 through 1952. Four or five people, thank you. Put your hand down. Now I did that not to embarrass them. But to show you younger ones. That within recent modern times, one of the most significant moves of God occurred. You don't have to go back to the 18th century and to the Whitefields and to the Wetsleys. You don't even have to go back to the 19th century and the Spurgeons or the great Irish revival or the prayer revival of America. You don't have to go back to the Puritans of the 17th century or the reformers of the 16th. No, within these people's lifetime, God did what he promised. He gave water to the thirsty. Floods upon the dry ground. It is the great Hebrides revival of 1949 to 1952. It took place in a village, started in the village of Barvis on the largest island of the Hebrides, the island of Lewis. The Hebrides islands are some coastal islands just off the northwest coast of Scotland. It all began with two elderly women, Peggy and Christine Smith. They were 84 and 82. Peggy was blind. Christine was so riddled with arthritis that she was immobilized. They were not able to attend their church. So instead, they turned their little cottage home into a sanctuary with God. And they prayed and they prayed. And then one day while in prayer, this very text came to them, Isaiah 44, verse 3. And they began to plead with God day and night in prayer that God would do as he promised. And one particular evening, Peggy had illumination, revelation, and impression. I don't care what you call it. But Peggy knew that she knew revival was coming. God had heard. And that one day, soon the church of her father would be filled with young people again. Because that was the problem that had caused the burden in the first place. The church had no young people. They all grew up and left the church. And so she sent for her minister, the Reverend James Murray McKay, and told him what God had shown the two sisters, asking him to call his elders and deacons together for special times of waiting upon God in prayer. Amazingly and thankfully, he believed those two sisters. And he did that very thing. He called his fellow elders and deacons. And every Friday night in a barn. Don't ask me why a barn. But in a barn, they began to meet and pray week after week. And after a few weeks of prayer, one night suddenly they experienced a foretaste of the coming blessing. As they waited upon God, a young deacon stood up and he read part of the 24th Psalm. Who shall ascend to the heel of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Who has not lifted up his soul into vanity nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord. And turning to the others, this is what he said. Listen carefully. Brethren, it seems to me so much humbug. That means nonsense. It seems to me so much nonsense to be waiting and praying as we are, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God. Then lifting his hands towards heaven, he cried, Oh God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure? And he got no further and he fell prostrate on the floor. And at that moment an awareness filled the barn. A stream of supernatural power was what let loose into their lives. They had moved into a new realm of God realization. And that's all revival really is. A new realm of realizing the presence of Jesus Christ. Isn't that what we want? To be moved into a new realm, a new deeper experience, a higher height of God's love for you. I'd like to tell the rest of the story, but not in my own words, but I'd like to quote the evangelist that was called Duncan Campbell. Now these are Presbyterians, by the way. Scottish Presbyterians. Duncan Campbell said that the revival had already broken out by the time he'd gotten their hand. He was right. He already had. We just shared it with you. But I want you to hear as he testifies what happened when he arrived. He said, I shall never forget the night that I arrived at the piers in this mail steamer. A mail steamer was a little ship that shuttled between the islands delivering the mail. I was standing in the presence of the minister whom I had never seen and two of his elders that I never knew. The minister turned to me and said, I know, Mr. Campbell, that you're very tired and you've been traveling all day by train to begin with and then by steamer, and I'm sure that you're ready for your supper and your bed. But I wonder if you would be prepared to address a meeting at the parish church tonight at 9 o'clock. There will be those there gathered, and it's on the way. It'll be a short meeting, and then we'll make for the manse, that is, the pastor's home, and you'll get your supper and your bed, and you can rest until tomorrow evening. Duncan Campbell said it this way, it might interest you to know he never got his supper that night. We got to the church about a quarter to nine to find 300 people gathered. And I gave an address, that means a sermon. Nothing really happened during the service. It was a good meeting and the sense of God, a consciousness of the Spirit moving, but nothing beyond that. Kind of like what we've experienced here this morning already. So I pronounced them in a diction, and we were leaving the church, I would say, about a quarter to 11, 1045 at night. Just as I'm walking down the aisle along with this young deacon who in the barn read from Psalm 24, he suddenly stood in the aisle and looking up to the heavens, he said, God, you can't fail us. God, you can't fail us. You promised to pour water on the thirsty and floods on the dry ground. God, you can't fail us. And soon he's on his knees in the aisle and he's still praying. And then he falls prostrate again, and just then the door opened. And now it's 11 o'clock. So this prayer lasted for about 15 minutes. The door of the church opens and the local blacksmith comes back into the church and he says, Mr. Campbell, something wonderful has happened. Oh, we were praying that God would pour water on the thirsty and floods on the dry ground. And listen, he's done it. He's done it. And when I went to the door of the church, I saw a congregation of approximately 600 people on the church grounds. 600 people. Where had they come from? What had happened? I believe that that very night God swept in power, the power of the Holy Ghost. And what happened in the early days of the apostles was happening now in the parish of Barthas. He goes on with the story. Over 100 young people were at the dance in the parish hall. And they weren't thinking of God or eternity. God was not in all of their thoughts. They were there to have a good night when suddenly, listen, the power of God fell upon that dance. The music ceased and in a matter of minutes the hall was empty. They fled from the hall as a man fleeing from a plague. And they made for the church. They're now standing outside. Oh, yes, they saw the lights in the church. It was the house of God. They were going to it and they went. Men and women who had gone to bed and fell asleep, rose, awakened, put on their clothes, made for the church. Nothing in the way of publicity. But God took the situation in hand and he became his own publicity agent, said Temple. A hunger and a thirst gripped these people. 600 of them are now at the church standing outside. And then the doors were open and the congregation flocked into the church. Now the church that could seat a little over 800 is completely packed. People are kneeling in the aisle. Some are actually on the platform on their face praying, crying out to God. It's going on towards midnight, says Campbell. I managed to make my way through the crowd along the aisle towards the pulpit where I found a young woman, a teacher in grammar school, lying prostrate on the floor of the pulpit praying, Oh God, is there mercy for me? Oh God, is there mercy for me? She was one of those at the dance, but now she's lying on the floor of the pulpit, crying to God for mercy. The meeting continued until four o'clock in the morning. Now, the records of the revival do not report how many people were converted that night. But the records do tell us that over the days, weeks, and months, almost all of the 600 that had come that night were converted. They were asked later, Why did you come? What made you come? And they all answered very similarly, I don't know. I don't know. But suddenly I became distressed, and I knew that the only place I could find relief was at the church house. And so we came. Can I tell you one more story? I know the hour is getting late. But the Bible exhorts us to tell the wonderful works of God. Shall we not listen to them? On another island, the island of Arnold, actually opposition arose against the revival by the ministers of the churches. Not an uncommon thing. They were fearful of fanaticism and these kinds of concerns. And so, Campbell and some of the leaders decided to have another prayer meeting. They assembled at a farmer's house at 10 o'clock. Now, I don't understand these people's schedules. Who wants to start praying at 10 o'clock at night? But they did. At 10 o'clock at night, they began to pray. And they prayed to 11, to 12. Somewhere between 12 and 1, Campbell just knew this was not going anywhere. They were not able to pray. You ever have those kinds of prayer meetings? Where words are like mud in your mouth. There's no utterance, no fluidity. It's just not coming. You're not able to pray through. Do you know what that is, by the way? That is spiritual opposition to your prayer. You're doing spiritual battle right now. Most of us just close our Bibles and get up off of our knees and quit. No, no. Pray through. Pray until you know you've touched heaven. Do not be overcome, but overcome. And so, they would not be overcome. Campbell said to the blacksmith that had opened the door back in the church in Barbas, he asked him to pray. And here's how he prayed. I quote it as Campbell recorded it. God, do you know that your honor is at stake? Do you know that your honor is at stake? You promised to pour water on the thirsty and floods on the dry ground. And God, you're not doing it. You ever pray like that? Here's a man that could pray like that. He went on. There are five ministers in this meeting, and I don't know where one of them stands in your presence, not even Mr. Campbell. But if I know anything at all about my own poor heart, I think I can say, I think that you know that I'm thirsty. I'm thirsty to see the devil defeated in this parish. I'm thirsty to see this community gripped as you gripped Barbas and longing for revival. And God, you are not doing it. I'm thirsty, and you promised to pour water on me. Then he paused, and this is what he cried. God, I now take it upon myself to challenge you to fulfill your covenant engagement. Campbell records it was now about 2 o'clock, and suddenly the place where they were praying was shaken, literally. The place shook just as it did in Acts chapter 4. When the prayer meeting was concluded, they walked out, and as on the night in Barbas, the pathways, byways, the roads were covered with people who were on their face, in the grass, in the bushes, crying out for mercy. Revival came to Arnall. Now, beloved, as I conclude, please listen carefully. These are very important words. I did not tell you these stories so that you would now start seeking the extraordinary and unusual. That's not the purpose of the story. The phenomenon, the unusual things that took place, that's not the purpose of the story. And if we as a church began to seek and covet those things, we would miss God, terribly miss God. I've told you these stories not because we want to seek an imitation of what happened at Hebrides. I can almost guarantee you it will not happen like it did at Hebrides here. I am hopeful that God wants to move in our midst. I'm more than hopeful. I'm sure of it. God wants to work here in ways that we dream about but are almost too afraid to ask. He wants to do that. But it won't be like the Hebrides revival. It will be what God wants us to have. But the point of the stories is not to get you to start coveting the paranormal, the phenomenal, the extraordinary, the miraculous. No, the purpose of the story is to encourage your faith that you serve the same God and the same promise of God is yours. If you will only believe. This is God's word to us. Are you thirsty today? Let's not deal with the masses and those outside of the church. Let's deal with you right now. Are you thirsty? Then acknowledge your thirst before God and by faith take Him to the bank and cash His promise through faith today. Don't leave here until you have done what some people scoff at today. The words, do business with God. It's time we started doing business with God and quit playing the Christian life. Quit living out of the routine. No sir, God and His ways are never routine. He will make sure your life will never be routine. Why? He wants you to walk not by sight but by faith. You'll constantly be mixing it up. So I've told you this today simply because we do not serve a God that's changed. Too many of us in our adherence to the sovereignty of God have left these things to God and His wisdom and we will not pray. Friends, shame on us. God in His sovereignty has chosen to work through His people when they believe Him in prayer. That is His primary method of working in the earth today. You have not because you ask not. And when you ask, you don't ask in faith. Be encouraged. God has made you a promise. I'll pour water on him who's thirsty and floods on the dry ground. And God will turn your mourning into laughter. When you humble yourself, He will exalt you in due time. And the seasons of refreshing that will come to us will translate into the manifestation of God in His glory in this city and in this area. We will not be able to contain it nor would we want to. I have shared this today with you because of one reason, one reason only. Jealous that Jesus is not being glorified in this church the way we want Him to be glorified. The glory of God is at stake. And it won't be good, fine Bible teaching or preaching that makes the difference. It will be the manifestation of Christ Himself. His glory being revealed in and through the body of believers, the church. We're living in an age when people out there are saying, look at those Christians. Look at those people. Look at that big church out there in California that's ignoring and revolting against the governor's edict. What do those people think they are? And they look at us and they hear us and they're unaffected. Do you know why they're unaffected? Because all they see us doing is what we do by the power of the flesh. But when the glory of God comes, when God is manifested in what we do, we don't stop doing those things. We just do them in the power of the Spirit and not in the flesh anymore. Then they will not be able to say, where is their God? Their lips will be silenced as far as that argument. They will not be able to say that anymore. Is there a God in the church of Jesus Christ? Yes, sir, there is. And He's in you. Let Him work. Take Him for His promise. And let Him pour out on you thirsty, dry soul, fresh water from above. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, my God, I'm thirsty. I'm not satisfied. I really am not. But the question for me, Lord, am I so dissatisfied that I will seek You more than I have in the past? That's the wrestling of my soul this morning. Lord, You know it. I could not hide it from You. Lord, am I desperate that I would absolutely depend upon You and be content with what You do as long as Your glory is manifested? Lord, take the heavenly battling ram and knock down the walls we have built between You and us. Tear them down. We'll help You. But, Lord, our hands are weak. Please, we're exhausted by building the walls. They've worn us out. Now, Lord, come. Help us tear them down. And visit us. Visit us, God. Please, Lord, do whatever You want to do. We're not asking for any particular thing except just You. The conscious awareness, that new realization of God brought back to us. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.