Revival Conference 2007 - Part 3

But they could not claim those things now. They were in captivity in Babylon. And those things that Israel had experienced in abundance in the past, they were no longer experiencing them. They were in captivity in Babylon. They would become keenly aware of the laws. They would be saying, God's not doing for us what he did for our fathers so many years ago. But again, now, the second thing is they would be keenly aware of what had produced the laws. The fascinating thing to me about this particular prayer, this prayer in Isaiah 64, is that there is no mention here of the Babylonians. There's no mention here of the Babylonians. That is intriguing to me. Isaiah wrote this prayer for people who would be captive in Babylon. And we might expect to read in this prayer something about the Babylonians are to blame here. They're the ones who have brought this heartache, this misery, this woe upon us. But there aren't any Babylonians to be found in this prayer. The Babylonians, ladies and gentlemen, are not the ones to produce the loss that the captives would feel in Babylon. The Babylonians were simply instruments in God's hands. And as you look here at this prayer, you see that the captives would put their finger on the real reason that they were in captivity. It wasn't the Babylonians. The Babylonians were just a secondary cause. The real reason that they were in captivity is because of their own sins. Look down there at verse 5 of this 64th chapter. And there it is, in the middle of the verse. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned. This would be the prayer of these captives in Babylon. We have sinned. In these ways we continue, and we need to be saved. Verse 6, we are all like an unclean thing. Our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf. And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And down there at the end of verse 7, after he says, You have hidden your face from us. That would be the experience of the captives in Babylon. They would be keenly aware that they had lost the smiling face of God. And there in verse 7 he continues to say, And you have consumed us because of our iniquities. In other words, the captives would realize there in Babylon that they were there because of their sins. And that's the reason you do not have them blaming the Babylonians here. Now, may I say a word to you, brothers and sisters in Christ, from my heart. I want to say that much of our time today in our churches is spent blaming the Babylonians. And it's time that we stop blaming the Babylonians for the situation that we're in, and it's time that we took a good, long, hard look at our lives and our hearts. How much of our time in recent years has been spent blaming the Babylonians? You listen to evangelical Christians and you can easily get the impression that all of our troubles are due to Hollywood. That's blaming the Babylonians. All of our troubles are due to the Supreme Court. That's blaming the Babylonians. All of our troubles are due to Congress. That's blaming the Babylonians. And to listen to the evangelical community the last several years, you can easily get the impression that if we can just get the right people elected, if we can just get the right people appointed to the Supreme Court, if we can just sign enough petitions, if we can just bring enough political pressure to bear, then our situation will be dramatically improved. And I'm saying to you, my friends, the situation of the Church will not be dramatically improved until the Church learns to look at herself and see her sins and repent before a holy God. We have to look no farther than this very prophecy of Isaiah to see this point so powerfully illustrated. You remember the 6th chapter of Isaiah, don't you? Isaiah goes up to the temple in the year that King Uzziah died. And there he sees the Lord high and lifted up. His train fills the temple. And the seraphim are there. And they're crying, chanting, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And Isaiah takes it all in. And he cries out, Woe is me! For I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Ladies and gentlemen, revival waits for the woe from the people of God. We need not expect God to live mightily until we are willing to look long and hard at our own sins. It's right there in the verse that I referenced earlier, 2 Chronicles 7, 14. Listen to it again. If my people, not if Congress, not if Hollywood, not if the Supreme Court, if my people, who are called by my name, will not sign enough petitions, not bring political pressure to bear. No! If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. It's the same thing as what we found in Isaiah 6. God's people have to turn the spotlight on themselves. And they have to join Isaiah in saying, Woe is me! I am the one who is undone. And my friends, there are certainly a lot of woes for us to lament, aren't there? We're talking about what produced the loss for the captives in Babylon. It wasn't the Babylonians. It was the sins of the people of God that had placed them in Babylon. And there in Babylon those people became keenly conscious of their sins. And that always happens in true revival. Someone said that when revival takes place every sin is like a sharp stick in the eye. Can you imagine anything more painful? It almost makes you wince just to hear that description. A sharp stick in the eye. And sin becomes intolerable to God's people when God moves mightily among them in true revival. But sin is not intolerable to most of us, is it? We've settled down with sin. We are more inclined to cry woe about somebody else than we are to cry woe about ourselves. And yet God is pointing unrelentingly to our sins and saying, if my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Now what do we have to lament today? What do you have to lament? We could talk about sins of omission, failing to do those things that God has told us to do. We could talk about sins of commission, doing those things that God has told us not to do. There are all kinds of there's a lot of ground to cover here. We could talk about these filthy tongues of ours. You may be saying, well now wait just a minute, you're going too far. I don't engage in profanity. I don't blaspheme. I don't take the name of God in vain. And by the way, there is an epidemic of taking the name of God in vain today. And you and I should not be a part of it. But there are other ways in which we our tongues become filthy and defiled. We gossip. We criticize. We complain. The people of Israel were in Babylon primarily because of the sin of idolatry. That's the primary thing that put them in Babylon. Is that not right?