Psalms No.9 Ready for Revival

Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord.

Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore, from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same. The Lord's name is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations and His glory above the heavens.

Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth? He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people. He maketh a barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.

I'm not trying to emulate my dear brother George Verver in mentioning a book to you at the beginning of my address this morning, but I do so because I shall be referring to it on a couple of occasions and I've been very blessed through scanning through it once again during these last few days. I refer to the biography of Duncan Campbell by a brother called Andrew Woolsey. Duncan Campbell was much used of God in our own generation in Scotland and particularly in the islands of the north of Scotland and this book is well worth reading if you want to hear of the acts of the Apostles in 20th century fashion and I believe that we have it on our bookstore and certainly it can be ordered or if you ask me and you smile very sweetly I'll let you borrow my copy.

Now I want to read a verse of scripture to you from Psalm 110 and then we'll meditate upon it together. Psalm 110 and the third verse. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. If you read your weekly bulletin you will have already seen that I want by the help of God's Spirit to address you this morning on ready for revival. Now I don't know whether the title had a question mark at the end but it should have had because I want to be very pertinent and very personal in the things to which I draw your attention.

Are you ready for revival? What's your attitude to revival? What's your understanding of it? After all and we praise God for the fact we have within our hymn books a section that's given up to the work of God through the power of His Spirit in revival and I suppose it's the section that we sing from more than any other with the possible exception being the worship section of our hymn book every Sunday morning and Sunday evening. But it's easy to sing these hymns it's easy to say oh breath of God come come sweep upon us come sweep through us. It's easy to sing as we did in the in the last hymn of the Holy Ghost asking him to pour himself out and to manifest himself amongst his people without really understanding the implications of what we're saying and this is one of the reasons why I always suggest it's necessary for a Christian to read up the history of revivals.

God forbid not in an academic fashion but for us to have some understanding as to how God has poured out his spirit in days gone by in this country and elsewhere. So I draw your attention again to what shall be my title for the address this morning ready for revival question mark are you ready for revival and the subject suggests itself to me from the first part of my verse thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Now before we look into that phrase into that sentence let me make one or two observations.

The first being this that the verse itself towards the end is rather hard to understand. In fact if you check one or two translations you'll see different renderings but that has no need to delay us in our exposition this morning because the first sentence is very easy to grasp at least the gist of it. Here is an appeal to the people of God and they are suggested as being in a state of readiness that they're prepared.

Prepared for what? Well prepared to be used by God in a remarkable display of his power. Their will is in alignment with the will of the Lord and they are willing people. But to what extent can we take a verse like that and apply it to ourselves without in any way doing an injustice to the context.

Well I say that we can do this quite well without making any reservations any qualifications at all. Why? Well you see the whole of this psalm is what theologians would describe as a messianic psalm. That means to say that it anticipates the birth of the Lord Jesus.

If your knowledge of the New Testament is good you'll recall that our Savior on one occasion quotes from the first verse of this psalm. He is establishing before the Pharisees and the Sadducees his greater authority over that than that of King David. The whole psalm predicts the coming of the Lord Jesus.

Now why is it important for us to bear this in mind? Well simply because in the third verse when you read of the people of God the reference there is to those people who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. What's being spotlighted? Well nothing else than the Church of Jesus Christ.

Now are you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ? Well you say I believe that Jesus is my Savior. All right that fits you into my verse. That justifies our study.

We're not engaged in some speculative meditation on an Old Testament passage of Scripture that has nothing to do with us at all. Here is a verse from the Old Testament that fits your circumstances that fits mine. It involves you.

It involves me. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Ready for revival? Are you ready for revival? What's your attitude to it? What's your understanding of this verse? Well these are the questions that we have to consider somewhat briefly together.

Let me suggest that my text can be opened out along three ways and they are these. The text defines a category. Thy people defines a category.

Then it predicts a disposition. Shall be willing. Shall be willing.

And then it specifies a time in the day of thy power. Well those headings are very simple and I've purposely selected easy ones to memorize so that you'll be able to go away and reflect upon them. First of all I argue this that my text defines a category.

Thy people. Who are these people? Well I've given you the answer already but let's just spell it out in a little more detail. You know the Bible only really recognizes two categories of people.

Not black and white. Not clever and uneducated. Not rich and poor.

Rather believers and unbelievers. Saved and unsaved. Those who are destined for eternity with Jesus and those who are destined for an eternity without him.

In a word those who have accepted Christ and those who have rejected Christ. Now what people refer to here? Well obviously those in the former categories. Thy people.

The ones who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. The ones who recognize that they are gods. Thy people.

Indeed that very adjective thy indicates the idea of possession. They belong. Who do they belong to? Who do you belong to? You belong to Jesus Christ do you not? This is what the Savior sets down so beautifully in his sermon when he leads off with the remark that he is the good shepherd.

And he tells us that as a shepherd obviously he has a flock. And he speaks of his flock in terms of being his own. I am the shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine.

The 27th verse of John 10. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. The people who are to be ready for revival are those who have accepted Christ.

And having accepted the Lord Jesus Christ they become his people. Therefore the psalmist speaking of God speaking of the Savior says thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And it's beautiful to reflect.

It's stimulating to reflect upon the fact that we do belong to Jesus Christ. How do we belong to him? Well he owns us. Now that's the language of commerce but I don't apologize for using it because the the New Testament gives me warrant so to do.

Remember when Paul takes his leave of the Ephesian elders. It's the last time on this earth that he's going to see them. And there's a very emotional scene on the seashore of the Mediterranean.

And Paul just before he says goodbye he reminds the Ephesian elders that they are to pastor the Christians at Ephesus carefully and prayerfully. Why Paul? Why are we to be so concerned? Well says the Apostle and you read his very words in the in the Acts. The Lord Jesus Christ has died for the church.

He has purchased it with his own blood. Again a commercial verb. He's purchased it with his own blood.

Those Ephesian Christians they belong to Jesus. They are Christ acceptors. They're in the first category of the several categories that I gave you a few moments ago.

Now that doesn't apply only to the Ephesians. It does not apply to the faithful remnant of God's people in the in the Old Testament dispensation. It applies to you and to me.

You remember when Jesus expresses that great high priestly prayer which is recorded in the latter chapters of John's Gospel. He prays for those that the Father has given him. In other words the disciples.

And then he prays for all those who the Father will still give to him. He said thine they were and thou gavest them me. Now in that prayer I'm included and you're included.

What is Jesus doing? He's staking his claim to you and to me. He's saying they belong to me. These people who thou has given me the disciples and those whom thou will give me they are mine.

Now it's people like this which therefore includes you and me who are referred to in my verse. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Ever come across that expression earmarked? You know something perhaps that you want in a shop and maybe you go to the to the assistant and you ask them to save this particular thing for you.

You're not going to pay at the moment but maybe in a week or two's time you're coming back for it or maybe they're putting it aside for for Christmas. And therefore it's earmarked for you. I'm not too sure of the origin of that expression.

I wonder whether it goes back to the to the days of slavery when when the slave might have his ear pierced. Well in this sense we are earmarked for Jesus Christ. We're set apart for him.

Why am I laboring this point? Well again to emphasize the fact that when I suggest we are to be ready for revival this obviously I have from my text the warrant of the the Bible so to do. Because my text says thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. It defines a category.

Who are these people? They are the people of the Lord Jesus Christ and we are to be willing because we are earmarked for Jesus. We are to be ready to be involved in a revival movement. But that was the first category.

That was this first division rather that I suggested from my text. Let's move on and and think through the second. Not only does my text define a category it predicts a disposition.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Now I think that word willing is a very interesting one and the best way to illustrate it is by employing the imagery of the clay on the wheel of the potter. What is willing clay? Well it's clay that's moist.

To use the technical word it's it's malleable. It responds to the touch of the of the fingers of the of the potter as it's spinning round on his wheel. Now this is what Jesus is saying should characterize his people.

This is what the psalmist is predicting rather of the people of Jesus. They are to be malleable. They are to be willing.

They should respond to a touch from his deft and skillful fingers. In the Old Testament there is reference made on several occasions to people who are willing to serve God. In the book of Exodus and chapter 35 and verse 5 there you read of those who gave willingly to the cause of God.

In 1 Chronicles 28 in verse 9 you read of Solomon and the commission that he received from David and from God to build the temple and we're told that Solomon had a willing mind to respond to what he had heard to be the dictate of God. In Judges chapter 5 and verses 2 and 9 you read the the song of Deborah and she glories in the fact that the Israelite people at least on this occasion had been willing to perform God's dictate to enact what he required. Now my text here says that people who are to be involved in revival God's own people must be willing.

They must be malleable. In a word they must be ready to make adjustments in their own lives. There are areas I think in which perhaps all of us need to make some adjustments if we are to be used in a remarkable way by the Lord.

In what areas are we to be willing? Well let me suggest I must be willing in the area of my prejudices to let some of them go and only to retain those which really are biblically founded. Very often very easy to pick up a prejudice is it not? What is a prejudice? Well it's like the barnacle that attaches itself to a ship. It wasn't there on the maiden voyage.

The it was going across the oceans. The barnacles were not necessary. There were prejudices that the Christians had in the New Testament era.

You read of them in the Acts of the Apostles and they had to be lopped off from the boat. They weren't necessary. They were an encumbrance.

Look at Peter. He's so concerned that the gospel be preached to the Jew that he will argue with God over against him taking the gospel to Cornelius and his household. That was a prejudice you see and it was something that he'd been brought up with.

It was so much in the blood of Peter it was hard for him to think in any other fashion at all. The Jews alone were to have the gospel. He was not to have any association with the Gentiles and God had to deal with him.

If he hadn't dealt with him then Peter could not have been used in the vanguard of the revival movement. Now it's possible in a different setting in different circumstances for us to pick up prejudices. There is a difference you know my friend between a prejudice and a principle.

You'll die for your principles. You won't die for your prejudices. There's a difference between a conviction and an opinion.

You'll die for your convictions but you won't die for your opinions. And perhaps some of us have got barnacles that have attached to to our own view of how the Christian Church is to be governed, how evangelism is to be engaged in, how we are to worship. And yet those prejudices could well be barnacles.

We've picked them up along the way but they're not set down in Scripture at all and therefore we should cut them off. Here is an area where there must be a willingness to readjust the area of my prejudices. And what about the area of my personality? I made reference to this in my prayer.

Why am I always concerned to so often bring before the Lord publicly the fact that our personalities need to be dealt with? What do you see? We all have a tendency, I think you will agree to this at any rate, to see ourselves through rosy-coloured spectacles. It's not so easy to be honest and to really accept what we are and to appreciate as the Bible writer tells us that at best we're unprofitable servants. Oh yes we may sing about being a worm and no man but if someone came to us and said you're a worm we wouldn't feel very happy about such an observation would we? But there are things within our personalities which could well stop the flow of God's power through us.

The man who enters into the tabernacle of God must have clean hands and a pure heart. If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord cannot use me. One of the things that stands out paramountly from reading the biography of Duncan Campbell is the fact that the man was holy and God used him because of his holiness.

He even had a doctrine of holiness which some perhaps would not go along with, not all the way, but this man was concerned to be holy and he was concerned that the people who inhabited the isles of Scotland were a holy people and clothed in holiness with the spirit having dealt with certain aspects of his personality which need to be put right. He was endued to the power and was effective in the service of God. I say I must be willing to expose my whole nature to the Lord so he can show me those things which are wrong in my life.

I must be willing to allow myself to be molded by him and this must be done daily. You see the human heart is so deceitful that after attaining to a position of holiness and holding it perhaps for a few hours ere long we can trick ourselves into thinking that we've already arrived, that from that moment on we won't let the cause of Jesus Christ down anymore. The Apostle Paul recognized the treacherousness of that thinking and he sets down this fact and it's tremendous when you think that this is really a confession on his part.

He says I die daily. Every day I have to slay myself. Every day I have to crucify myself.

In the area of my personality I expose myself to the refining fires of the Holy Spirit every 24 hours. A painful business but necessary for those who are to be involved in a revival movement. I need to be willing in the area of my prejudices for them to be shifted if they're not based in New Testament teaching.

I need to be willing to allow God to mold and modify my personality. I need to be willing I argue further in the area of my devotions. Apparently in the Isle of Lewis when the spirit really fell in 1948 or 49 one of the ways a Christian would address his fellow if he happened to accost him during the weekday was by saying this, have you done business with God today? Have you done business with God today? In other words have you had your devotions? Have you engaged in a time of praise and of prayer? Have you sought the Lord in the morning or in the evening or at least sometime during the day? Now anyone who is to be willing in the day of God's power must be someone who is constantly in contact with the Lord.

It's part of our disposition you see. People who are going to be used by the Lord must have these times of intercessory prayer and praise with God. This is part of their part of their disposition.

I must be willing then to make time to spend with God in prayer and then once more I would argue I must be willing in the area of my communication. That means to say I must be willing to bring others face to face with the the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this book to which I've made reference on one or two occasions already there is an incident which shows how the people in Lewis were so concerned to reach others with the gospel and the biographer of Duncan Campbell speaks of people suddenly leaving off their secular activity because someone's name came to their mind and they knew that they weren't a Christian so they had to go and they had to tell them about the gospel of the Lord Jesus.

They had to speak to them of the Christ who had died to save them. Concerned in the area of communication. Now all of us to some extent are gregarious people that means we're sociable people at least I hope we are.

You wouldn't be here this morning I reckon if you weren't. If you wanted to be a hermit then you wouldn't come along to the tabernacle. We like to talk to other people but how often is our conversation seasoned with the things of the gospel? I'm not saying that every time you meet someone you must immediately turn the conversation to the Lord Jesus but be honest how many times have you had conversation with a close friend? Months perhaps years you've known them and never once have you communicated the gospel.

See this is an area where we need to be willing to find that opportunity to speak of the Lord Jesus and of his salvation. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. I say my text defines a category and it predicts a disposition but let me conclude by arguing this.

It also specifies a time. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. What on earth does that expression mean in the day of thy power? Well I suppose you could say that when our Lord Jesus was on earth that this was the day of the demonstration of God's power.

In Luke's gospel in chapter 9 you read of the reaction of people to the miracles that our Savior performed and they said look that the power of God it's it's being displayed and surely the ministry of our Lord Jesus was an eloquent illustration of what is meant by the day of of God's power. But you know we're not only to think of the day of God's power in terms of the ministry of our Savior because the ministry of the Savior was continued by the Church of Jesus Christ and the power that the Lord Jesus had and exercised on earth was surely delegated to his church. This is Paul's argument in Ephesians chapter 1. Remember how he speaks of Jesus having ascended up on high and having had all power and all spiritual privileges given to him by the Father.

What did Jesus then do? Well he delegates that power to his church. This is why we could say that the Acts of the Apostles is a continuation of the work of Jesus Christ. The same power that was exhibited that was demonstrated in the ministry of the Lord Jesus is to be displayed by his church.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. So having said that I can make this observation that there are two ways in which you could approach this expression in the day of thy power. Two ways in which you could understand it and I would describe them in terms of the particular and the general.

Now what do I mean by the particular? Well there are definite periods in history in church history when God pours out his spirit in a remarkable fashion. The period of the Acts of the Apostles was one of them. One can jump the centuries and come to the revival that broke out under the ministry in this country of George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley.

A revival which also had repercussions in the in the United States of America in the early days of its history. Now these were unprecedented days. God in a remarkable fashion was demonstrating his power through the church.

It was one of these great days, one of these tremendous occasions of real outpouring when folks in their thousands flocked into the church of Jesus Christ when they were saved through the ministry of these God-empowered men. And again in the ministry of this man Duncan Campbell there was a remarkable manifestation of the power of God. Things that happened on the Isle of Lewis which the majority of us here, if not all of us here, have never experienced.

Listen to this. There's a description of what follows a meeting at which Mr. Campbell had been preaching. The congregation had been dismissed, the benediction had been said, but nobody moved.

And this is what the biographer has to record. Suddenly a cry pierced the silence. A young man who had remained in the church burdened to the point of agony for his fellow men was pouring out his desire in prayer.

He was so overcome that he fell into a trance and as he lay prostrate on the floor the congregation swept back into the church. The awful presence of God brought a wave of conviction of sin that caused even mature Christians to feel their sinfulness, bringing groans of distress and prayers of repentance from the unconverted. Strong men were bowed under the weight of sin and cries for mercy were mingled with shouts of joy for others who had passed into life.

A mother was standing with her arms around her son, tears of joy streaming down her face, thanking God for his salvation. Oh praise the Lord you've come at last. Prayers of years were answered.

And the whole atmosphere is described in terms of a consciousness of God that was granted to the people on the Isle of Louis. Now you see why earlier on I had to say that if this text is applying to ourselves we must be careful about our prejudices. I made that point because if this sort of thing happened in churches in the United Kingdom today there are some of us without barnacles who would come along and say now that is not seemly.

We're not to have this in our church. After all don't you know that the hymn prayer hymn sandwich is something that we've always had in this church for years gone by. It's the way that we worship God here.

Now that's a barnacle because there's no New Testament authority for that at all. God in his great grace can bypass our usual means of worship. He the Spirit never allows a straitjacket to occur.

But you see and this is why I make this point and I make it with passion and with sincerity. Whenever there's a revival movement there's always an opposition party. This happened on the Isle of Louis.

Again read I'm sure you'll be flocking to buy this book later on. I must take some shares out in the company. Read what the biographer had to say of Duncan Campbell the first time that he went to the Isle of Louis.

25 years before the revival broke out there was there was a resistance to his ministry and when revival came there was a resistance. These were dark Calvinists and George Verver was talking to us about the Calvinistic cop-out the other weekend remember. These were men who were concerned as to the sovereignty of God.

Men who were so concerned as to God's sovereignty that they felt that God could not in an emotional fashion use his people and and break out in power amongst them. But all this had to be corrected and by and large the majority of people came to an understanding that this was a dynamic dramatic work of God in the day of his power. Thank God the islanders of the north coast of Scotland they were they were ready.

But I say that this is a this is a peculiar outpouring and may God in his grace pour out his spirit upon this country in such a fashion. There are some of us who believe and I'm one of them that before the advent of our Lord comes we shall see a remarkable revival. I pray God that this shall happen that it will happen in my own lifetime that we in the church may be caught up in it.

But this I say is is a particular way in which we are to interpret our text. The people shall be willing in the day of thy power. It specifies a time a particular time but in one sense I've not done justice to the text if I leave it there because there's a general application of the day of the power of the Lord.

Let me give you an alternate paraphrase from the translation of the Hebrew on this particular phrase. The people shall be willing in the day when thou dost muster thy forces and set them in battle array willing in the day when thou dost muster thy forces and set them in battle array. Why am I concerned to bring that translation to bring that paraphrase to your attention? Well simply for this reason you may say I've been talking only about particular circumstances and we're not in a particular circumstance we're not in a period of intense revival unfortunately in this church at the moment.

Therefore all this business about my prejudices and and those areas where I've got to attend to my spiritual walk before the Lord they can be left for a while. I can be spiritually indolent not a bit of it. Why? Well you see there is a general application which I my text makes to Christian people throughout all ages whatever spiritual atmosphere they may be living in.

Has not Jesus Christ set his forces in battle array throughout the whole of the church era? Does not the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Spirit so often refer to the to the Christian in terms of a soldier? Are we not warned against the fact that we are fighting principalities and powers? There's a whole army of evil that's ranged against the Church of Jesus. Now the battle does not just ensue from from every 10 years or every 20 years it's a perpetual thing. The Church of Jesus Christ is always fighting these these wiles of the devil and this is why the Apostle when he writes on the on the Christian soldier in Ephesians 6 concludes with that mighty exhortation be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

We always need a supply of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. Yes in some circumstances God will in an unprecedented fashion pour out his spirit in revival like the ones I have made reference to thus far but in a very general way we must take this text and apply it to our own hearts and say yes Lord I'm willing right now in the day of thy power in this general day when you're calling into your kingdom those who must be saved in this day when when we're not seeing as much as what we would like to see I'm still ready and I still want to be willing and oh God could you move us from the general to the particular from the ordinary to the extraordinary before that remarkable day of the Lord Jesus when he shall return may we be used in a revival movement. I put it to you again are you ready for revival? Have you got the right attitude? Have you made a distinction between your prejudices and your principles? Because my friend that is terribly important that we so do that we don't get confused between our convictions and our opinions the opinions perhaps we have some right to hold but we certainly need to distinguish between the conviction and the opinion there can be modification on opinions there can never be modification on convictions at all I put it to you once more are you ready ready to be used in a revival movement you say you're too old my dear friend you know and this is my last plug of this book this morning I assure you do you know the two ladies who were most used in revival or to bring about the revival under God were both gone 80 one was 82 and the other was I think 84 Peggy and Christine Smith one was blind and the other was crippled with arthritis and they prayed that God would send a man to them who would be used by the Lord in a movement through throughout that island and when Duncan rejected the invitation they continued to pray and they told their own minister but Duncan Campbell had got it all wrong God had revealed to them that he was to come there and he was to preach the gospel two ladies who continued to pray and when they were asked by the biographer why they continued to pray when Campbell had rejected their invitation when it seemed as though no response was being made to their intercessions they said we had such a consciousness of God that that fed our faith and we laid hold of God until the day of his power dawned in the islands off the north coast of Scotland well this includes us all young and old rich and poor educated and uneducated in a revival movement God can employ each person are you ready for revival for my text says thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power amen our Father and our God we are grateful for the reminder from your word that indeed we are thy people chosen in Christ loved by Jesus and purchased by him we recognize our need to be willing so help us not to resist the power of your spirit upon our lives and make us more like unto the Savior and in the day of thy power here in the general sense and by your grace in the particular sense may we be used to achieve God's purposes through his church before the day when our Savior shall return and now Lord we ask for your blessing to rest upon those who must go at this juncture and those of us who remain behind to remember the death of our Savior again we likewise solicit your blessing the blessing of the triune God Father Son and Holy Spirit now and always amen