Isaiah No.11 Revive us Lord!

There is described for us in lovely, though, yes, perhaps a little old-fashioned language, what the Church really ought to be. The Bride of Christ. Shrine of Christ's beauty set apart and rare.

What do you think of the Church? I read an article in the Times, was left almost as ignorant as I was when I started it yesterday, in the supplement, as to the nature of the Church. The writer was complaining about the Church of England, and he was complaining that these days they've lost the idea of being the established Church. I mean, it's grossly improper that anyone shouldn't be able to come to the vicar and demand the baptism of their kid, even though they never attend church themselves.

And what does it really matter if a couple come to the vicar and ask to be married, that they have not frequented that church in donkey's years? There's a sort of general, religious, anonymous faith in the country for which the Church of England stands. And now would you believe it? Thirty percent of the vicars are reacting against that presumption on the part of the parishioners. And the writer of the Times thought that this was dreadful.

And there were several other dreadful things that he thought. Now I could have suggested one or two dreadful things to him, but I thought the ones that he was tracking down were fairly inconsequential and actually biblical in as much as if you're offering the ministrations of the Church, it must be on the basis of a commitment to Jesus Christ. So the writer's own view of the Church will be completely different, the writer of that article, to the one that I will be promoting from the Word of God this morning.

Ask the average person in Montego Street, what do you think of the Church? Well, maybe a group of elderly people studying for their finals. Maybe some dog-collared man. Maybe some nun in her regalia.

But all these things are so contrary to what the Bible teaches about the Church. The Church ideally is the unstoppable people of God in the world today. The Church is the greatest wonder in the created universe.

Did you know that? How far short we fall today of what the Church really is. Yonggi Cho in Korea, this man with a huge congregation. On one occasion, his church is opposite the Korean equivalent of Parliament, like, say, Westminster Abbey is to the Houses of Parliament.

The Prime Minister of Korea called him, and his secretary said, I'm sorry, Dr. Cho is not available. And the inquiry was, why? And the response was, he is having a day of prayer, and he is not available to anyone. Can you imagine Prime Minister Major getting on the phone to any of the clergy in the United Kingdom, and getting a similar sort of reaction? Where is the difference? Well, you see, in Korea, there is a recognition of the Church and its force in a fashion that you don't get here in the United Kingdom.

Here in Korea, I suggest to you, is a more biblical definition of what the Church is. It is an honored company of people whose sole objective is to worship and to bring honor and glory to the great God and Father of our Lord Jesus. Now, here in Isaiah in chapter 64, you get the heart cry of a man who sees what the Church should be.

And then, by contrast, he sees what the Church is. And there is a groan within his spirit. You see, when you go to the Old Testament, you find the Church there.

It's that called out people of God, the descendants of Abraham, who are ordained by God to make an imprint upon society, to be so utterly unusual. A holy nation, a royal priesthood. A praise to the glory of God in the ancient world.

And when Isaiah sees the Church, he moans. You hear it in the first word of that first verse. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down.

You see, what the prophet here is asking for is revival. He is wanting to know the restoration of the people of God to the position that they ought to be at. What is revival? Well, I'll give you one or two definitions.

Revival is a bringing or a coming back into vogue. Revival is a reawakening of religious fervor. Revival is a return to consciousness.

Revival involves the commitment of people who really mean business to bring about what was, so that now again it is. There was an international rugby match yesterday. One dear man in Wales was desperate to go.

He didn't have enough money. According to a different article in the Times, he went to the extent of removing the slates from off his roof. And then he sold the slates so that he might purchase his ticket when he got to London.

Well, I don't know what he'll do if it rains. I'm not suggesting that his activity is in any way commendable, but it does emphasize this, that as far as he was concerned, the most important thing was to see this international match. Now I'm saying that the prophet Isaiah has as the focal point of his attention the restoration of the people of God to the position that they should be at.

And my question is this. Do you share that same pang, that same burden, that same desire? You see, Isaiah has got a difficulty. Look, will you, at the previous chapter, the 18th verse.

He here shows his problem. For a little while your people possessed your holy place. In other words, for a little while your people were behaving as they ought to behave.

Your people were in the promised land. Your people had built the temple. Your people were worshipping you.

But now Isaiah projects a day distant, for he's here a visionary. He doesn't experience this. He sees it historically coming to pass.

The removal of the people of God from Palestine. The displacement to Babylon. He sees this shadow of what they ought to be.

And he says, Lord, this is what we once were. That you would rend the heavens and come down. What was the problem? Why was the church in the Old Testament time as she was? Why is the church today as she is, at least in the Western world? Look at the 11th verse, or rather the 10th verse of this previous chapter, the 63rd.

Your people, they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So the Lord turned and, as it were, became their enemy. Why was the church dysfunctioning? Why was the church malfunctioning? And the answer is, because she grieved Almighty God.

Why is the church in the 20th century in the West? Why is she as you find her today? And the answer is, they have departed. The people of God departed from the standards of God. And as a result, grieving his Spirit.

And because the Spirit is grieved, the church is no longer unstoppable. Because the Spirit is grieved, the church becomes, as she is, an anemic entity. A shadow of what she ought to be.

So why should you and I be concerned about revival? Why should we be singing, Restore, O Lord, the honor of your name? The answer is given by Skevington Wood. Revival is a sad necessity. It is our only hope.

Revival is our only hope. Oh, that you would render heavens and come down. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, The church would have been dead and finished centuries ago.

And many times over, had it not been for revivals. The recovery of the church will come by the outpouring of the Spirit of God. It's not a gathering together of ecclesiastics to determine who should not be ordained.

You could ordain every member of the mother's union and you'd still not get revival. Revival comes as the inrush of God's Spirit into a body which otherwise fast deteriorates into a corpse. When I was in Wales about 15 years ago, I went to see a man who was then 90 years of age.

So presumably he's now with the Lord. I was told to go and see this man because he'd lived through the days of the Welsh revival. And I spent an afternoon with him.

And with his Welsh accent, he described the affairs in the chapel as they used to be. And what happened in Wales. And he said to me in his Welsh intonation, Did you know a man called R.B. Jones? And I said no.

He says to answer your question, Get R.B. Jones on the rent heaven. And listen to what he has to say as he described the power of the revival. And what happened as the chapels were filled and the pubs were emptied and the police were on short time because criminality was at an all time low.

We need to come before God and to ask him to rend the heavens and come down. This is what Isaiah, you see, previously, earlier on in this prophecy had been arguing for. I mean, on one occasion, there was the problem of the Assyrians, remember, coming around Jerusalem.

And in the 40th chapter or thereabouts of the prophecy, Isaiah is saying, Oh Lord, will you come down? Will you repulse our political enemy? Now he's asking that God will come down and deal with the people. Because of the poor state of spirituality amongst those Jewish exiles. You see, when God comes down, what happens is this, the presence of God is felt.

That's what we mean by the word theophany. You know the word theology, the word of God, that's what that term indicates. But the word theophany, well, it goes beyond that.

It's the idea of God coming down amongst his people. And quite frankly, the only thing that will cause the church to be unstoppable, hear me right, is not theology. It is theology plus theophany.

You can have all your doctrines right. You can understand the teachings of John Calvin. You can read the Bible through and through, year by year.

And unless there is a manifest presence of God, then the church is but a shadow of what she should be. A theological academy which placed against giant Goliath of today cannot fell the enemy. I say revival is our only hope.

And what's more, I argue from these verses, revival affects a great change. The fire setting twigs ablaze, causing water to boil. Here is the prophet and he is suggesting that God should come down in order to do what? Well, halfway through verse two, to make your name known to your enemies.

There is a great need for us to beseech the living God, to manifest his power, to manifest the authority of his name in these days. Revive thy work, O Lord, thy mighty arm make bare. Speak with a voice that wakes the dead and make thy people hear.

If we can define revival, it is a period of unusual blessing and activity in the life of the Christian church. Primarily, of course, by definition. A revival is something which happens first in the church and amongst Christian people.

And as a result, the church makes an impact upon society. Why does Isaiah want God to come down in his power with theophany as the prophets request? So that God will make his name known to his enemies. Are you concerned about the name of God? Are you jealous for the name of God? Does it hurt you when God is hurt? Then if so, you need to be praying this into actuality today.

There is an element of surprise involved in all this, is there not? Here is Isaiah, and he is looking back on past history as to what happened when God came down in great power in days gone by. Verse 3. When you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down and mountains trembled before you. He is backtracking to the 11th verse and the 12th verses of the previous chapter.

Now when God comes down in power, unexpected things happen. You think of the day of Pentecost, which by definition is the first outpouring of the Spirit and therefore gives you an insight into what the church is when she is revived. You see, the problem today is that the church lives less than at Pentecost level.

It settles for life. As though the period in the Acts of the Apostles is purely transitional. As though that is not a delineation, a definition of how the church should be.

But when you look at the church in the Acts of the Apostles, what do you discover? Oh, she is not perfect, but she is powerful. She is unstoppable. These are the men who turned the world upside down.

Who would have believed it? A handful of people, 120 in the upper room. The dynamic of the Spirit of God comes upon these people and they start to impact Jerusalem and Judea and Galilee and then throughout the whole of the world. Revival affecting a great change.

You did awesome things we did not expect. But you see, if you are excited at the prospect of revival, let me from this chapter also take up one or two of the principles and dangle them before you. Because the cost of revival has to be measured.

Revival demands our submission. Drop down to verse 4. No eye has seen any God beside you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

To wait before the Lord means to expect him to do something. Alec Matias says, Divine intervention corresponds to the sort of faith the unique God requires as the habitual attitude of his people. Do you ever wait before the Lord? You see, one of the surprising things about the history of revival is this.

It never starts within the institutional church. Never has. You read through the history of the Welsh revival.

The revival in Ireland. The great awakening in the United States. It never started with the institutional church.

Read of the revival in the isles of Orkney off the coast of Scotland. It's a group of women. They federated together.

They came together in prayer and they beseeched the Lord. And there along the whole of that complex of islands is zapped, so to speak, by the power of the Spirit. The revival in the United States in the 1850s came about as a group of men, businessmen, federated together to pray meaningfully for an hour a day in the city of New York.

And from that small beginning, the revival broke out. The submission you see is often found within just a group of people, a solitary, unknown company of folk, not necessarily the institutionalized church. And as a result, God comes down in great power and he blesses and he cleanses.

But here is another principle. Revival humbles the church. You see, before there can ever be a return to the acts of the apostles, the church has to realize the nature of the problem.

And here it's spelled out almost in unbelievable terms. It seems as though the prophet might well be exaggerating. In verses six to seven, I discover three comparatives, one consequence, and one what I have called counteraction.

Three comparisons. Look at those verses. He talks about a leper.

He talks about a lady. And he talks about a leaf. A leper? All of us have become like one who is unclean.

The very word that the lepers cried out to indicate their approach so that people would move away, lest the sickness that afflicted them happened to be contagious. A leper. Unclean.

A woman. Unacceptable. With the menstrual cloth indicating the nature of the uncleanliness.

And Isaiah is bold enough to take this intimate bit of illustration and use it to describe the uncleanliness of the church. Unacceptable before this God. Unclean.

Unacceptable. And what is more, unstable. Like a shriveled up leaf which, when the wind sweeps through, the end part of verse six, is blown away.

And as a result of these metaphors, these comparatives, one consequence is obvious. As far as the church in the Old Testament was concerned, no one calls on your name or strives to lay hold on you. Here is man removed from the sovereignty of God, laying hold on his name.

And the strength which comes from God, striving with the Lord for strength and an ability to withstand the attacks of the enemy. And the counteraction is this. God hides his face from us and makes us waste away because of our sins.

The Hebrew is more graphic. You have melted us in the hand of our iniquity. Now he's praying about the church.

He's talking about the people of God. He sees them as the leper and as the unclean lady and as the shriveled leaf. And as a result, he can do only one thing.

There is only one thing that you and I can do when faced with the faithlessness of the church. When we see within our own hearts an illustration of those things which displease God. When we see the reason why we have grieved the Holy Spirit.

But we long for God to come back in great power and glory. We long for him to reign the heavens and come down. I say there's only one course of action we can take.

And it's there in the eighth verse. We remind God of who he is and what he has done. We remind him of his paternal nature.

He is the Father. We remind him of his creative ability. He is the clay.

And despite our unfaithfulness, Lord, we are your children even though Abraham might blush to own us. Lord, you can recreate us as the potter can take that marred vessel and put it back on his wheel and do another job. Lord, we are all the work of your hands.

Do not reward us according to the way we have lived. Reward us according to your great faithfulness. You are our Father.

You are the Creator. Lord, for your honor, for your glory, for the sake of your name, revive the church. In other words, he's asking, look at verse 9. Let anger cease.

May sin be forgotten. May favor be returned. Do not be angry beyond measure.

Do not remember our sin forever. Look upon us, O Lord, we pray. The grace of revival is the recreation of the church.

You see, this is what's being asked for. The return of the church to what she used to be. This is why it's so necessary, not only for you to read the Acts of the Apostles, but for you to study the great outpourings of the Spirit of God.

You see, not many of you have been to Korea. Not many of you have seen the church where she's strong and powerful. And as a result, your understanding of the church is that anemic shadow as represented in the article in the Times magazine.

And it is so far removed from what the church ought to be. And so you read of God in revival, bringing forth his Wesley and his Whitefield and repulsing the sin that has enveloped this country. You hear of historians saying that the only reason that stopped a bloody revolution in England two centuries or so ago was the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit.

You see how in the history of the Welsh revival, we are told that Wales was saved from becoming communist as a result of the outpouring of the Spirit. Now when you see what God has done in history, when you see what the church really ought to be, then it causes you to come to this particular chapter and make these verses your own. Revival, I say in conclusion, restores the church to what she ought to be.

And here it's expressed negatively in the 10th verse. Your sacred cities have become a desert. Alright Lord, if you rend the heavens and come down, out of the desert can come back your sacred cities.

Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation, our holy and glorious temple where our fathers praised you has been burned with fire. All that we treasured lies in ruins. But Lord, you can return it to us.

And this is what happens at the time of revival. And so I ask you, as I apply now this word, do you have a theology of revival? Are you really praying for these things? Are you concerned to see the outpouring of God's Spirit? Now remember, revival is not a tidy thing. As has once been pointed out, resurrections make a mess of cemeteries.

And when you look in the Acts of the Apostles and those epistles that flow from that time, you don't find the church completely perfect. They have their squabbles, they have their difficulties. Paul has to write his letters.

But in one sense he writes his letters to control his children. He has the problem of life. And I would rather teach kids who are undisciplined in a school than try to teach in a morgue.

At least I have the possibility of disciplining the children. Revival, when she comes, she stirs the church out of her complacency, out of her liturgy, out of her tidiness. And sometimes there is fire that perhaps at the edges seems to be a little extreme.

Emotions get overplayed and things sometimes happen which perhaps are just to be dismissed as froth. But nonetheless, in the heart of the move of God's Spirit upon his church, there is that corrective procedure. And the church becomes powerful and militant and makes an impact.

So that at Jerusalem, we're told, they were frightened of the disciples and the assembled company of people. Do you know what revival is? Revival is a glimpse of the glory of God. Like when Moses was on the mountain, he was able to see the back of God.

Revival is touching the hem of the garment of the Lord Jesus. Revival is those seasons of refreshing. When the pastors and ministers do not need to whip the people verbally, to being in attendance at prayer meetings or around the Lord's table, there is such a desire, such a longing.

It's a question of when will the church open and must we close the service down now. You see how far we're removed from these concepts. Yet that was the church of the Acts of the Apostles.

That has always been the church in days of revival. You cannot get enough. This miner I was referring to, he said to me, the people were so full.

The hardest thing was to close the chapel door in the evening. They were queuing up outside, not just one chapel, not just two chapels, but throughout the whole of the valleys. Revival, stealing in, coming sometimes like a rushing wind into the church.

Do you know what revival does? Ah, it publicizes the gospel. I have got no problems with handing out tracts and large placards outside the church and newspaper adverts. But when revival comes, you don't need that.

Revival is the greatest advertising agent. People come to see what all the fuss is about. You see, here's Peter and James and there's a man and he's without any money and he says to these preachers, can you help me? And they said, no, we've got no silver and gold.

But what do we have? We give to you. Rise, get up and walk. And as a result, they came, they listened.

They didn't advertise their healing. None of this nonsense that we get sometimes creeping in from the States to the United Kingdom. The healings, they occurred in a spontaneous fashion.

And as a result, the people rushed to see what was happening. And they pleaded with Peter and they pleaded with the apostles to tell them, to give an explanation. This is why, you see, we need to have a theology of revival.

It is our only hope. There will be opposition to revival, yes. In Northern Ireland, the priests used to give holy water to stop the people from being affected by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Can you believe it? And sometimes the opposition comes from the so-called established Christian church itself. But whatever the risks may be, my friend, I tell you this. It is essential that you and I come to this great God.

As Isaiah, almost at the end of this prophecy, as he predicts the falling away of the Jews in exile. And he says, oh, that thou would render heaven and come down. He's done it before.

He can do it again. And I'm asking you, are you suing God for revival? Are you asking for the church to become a militant power to successfully enter into the areas of opposition and paganism? Releasing people from the bondage that binds them? Are you asking that the church may become as the bride of Christ, shrine of his beauty, set apart and rare? Well, despite the disturbances in this service, may God, as I've been preaching, may something of the burden of the prophet Isaiah have become your burden. And may you respond to the applications that I have inadequately been trying to make.

Father, we come to you in our closing moments of intercessory worship. And we ask, oh Lord, see our predicament. Maybe the picture does not apply all the way down the track in the United Kingdom, but it applies in so many areas.

So that there is no way that we can read Isaiah 64 and not be uncomfortable. Sometimes, Lord, we have presented to you not a bride fit for your son. But we have been like an unclean leper, an unacceptable person with bodily discharge.

We have been like a shriveled leaf, exposed to all the winds that blow against us with no ability to resist whatsoever. How far short that is, Lord, of what your word declares we can and should be. So we pray for a restoration.

Wind of the Spirit, blow upon this community. Should it be that some will find it hard, then nonetheless we ask of you to blow. Fire of God, descend upon this people.

Should it be that some of us find it hard to be ignited, then Lord, again we take the risk and ask nonetheless. Create the ignition, may it occur. O Lord, we pray, bring into this house those who need to be saved, and may our ministries be effective to reach them.

Or else, Lord, shut this church, shut this building. If we're not what you want us to be, if we're playing at church and not doing what you want us to do, then Lord, we are a disgrace and offense to you. So we come again and we ask you, Father, remember we are your children.

Potter, remember we are clay. Lord, discipline and correct your children. Potter, make the clay moist, malleable.

And with your deft and skillful fingers, get from us a vessel fit for the Master's use. O God, render heavens, and whatever the consequences, come down. And all the people of God thoughtfully said, Amen.

O God, render heavens, and whatever the consequences, come down. And all the people of God thoughtfully said, Amen. O God, render heavens, and whatever the consequences, come down.

And all the people of God thoughtfully said, Amen. O God, render heavens, and whatever the consequences, come down. And all the people of God thoughtfully said, Amen.

O God, render heavens, and whatever the consequences, come down. And all the people of God thoughtfully said, Amen. O God, render heavens, and whatever the consequences, come down.

And all the people of God thoughtfully said, Amen. O God, render heavens, and whatever the consequences, come down. And all the people of God thoughtfully said, Amen.