Revival SBS 94 No.7 The Glory of God FULL

Do you know how many revivals there have been in the last few decades? I didn't say centuries, I said decades. One of the things that Brian Edwards does us a favor in, in writing the book that he so well researched, was listing the revival movements, not just down the centuries, but bringing us up to date. Did you know, for example, that in Lowest Off in 1921 there was a revival? Did you know that a revival hit Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh in 19... I haven't got the date there, I think it's 04, you'd have to check that one up.

Did you know that under the ministry of Martin Lloyd-Jones in Aberavon, in South Wales in 1931, there was such an outpouring of the spirit that Ian Murray, who's one of the most conservative, but godly, and scholastic men I know, assesses that in terms of revival. Between 34 and 39 in the Isle of Lewis, that's just off Scotland, there was a remarkable revival. Did you know that Madras was hit with revival 39 through to 50 as a result of a remarkable Indian, Bakhsh Singh? And then Lewis again was visited by the Lord, he seems to like the people who live in Lewis, in 1949 using the ministry of Duncan Campbell.

There was a remarkable outpouring of God's spirit in 53 in Borneo and also in Congo in 53, and also in Borneo again in 73. Sometimes God seems to influence in revival fashion the church in one country, sometimes he narrows it down, not just to one country, but a particular area in that country, sometimes it's just one church. But in most unusual ways, God can and does, thank his great name, revive his church.

What is revival? I think you could say that revival is seeing the glory of God pass by. That's why I'm taking you at least within the context to some degree of Exodus 33, because this is what Moses did, didn't he? He sees this astonishing thing, we'll come and deal with this a little bit more closely in a while. He sees something of the authority and the power and the grandeur of God.

And that's always the case with revival, you see the impact, the effect of God and his authority in a community. Of course you can't take it all in. I mean there is no one who can look on God and live.

That's what we're told very clearly in Exodus 33. And even when you move into the New Testament, the veil of humanity has been lifted from the person of our Lord Jesus. As I tried to preach, and I never did get round to my notes last Sunday morning, I'm sorry I got so enthused with a particular chapter, but I mean that incredible incident on the Mount of Transfiguration.

I mean what happened? The veil of our Lord's humanity is lifted and his radiance becomes so remarkable that the evangelist strains words and says that the fuller who whitens garments could not create something as incredible as this. And Peter, James and John, they're in a stupor, of course they are. Why? Because the glory, the innate glory that there is in Jesus Christ is now visible.

And no human eye can look upon that. And so God in his grace causes the drowsiness of sleep to fall upon his, the beloved disciples of our Savior. Here is Saul of Tarsus dashing towards Damascus, furious because, well, he wants to rid that Syrian capital of the scourge of the followers of Christ.

And suddenly he's on horse. And he sees something of the glory of the Lord Jesus. And as a result he's blinded.

You see, the Bible is consistent, Old Testament and New Testament. This is the inherent acknowledgement of its inspiration. The Old Testament says, well, you can't see God's glory and live.

Not in your human state. And in the New Testament, God in his grace veils the eyes of the disciples. And here with Moses, you see, Moses makes this request about seeing the glory of God.

And God says, all right, I'll do it. But you can't see it fully because of the dangers that it involves. So I'll chisel a little cleft out in the rock.

And when I pass by, you'll see my back parts. You remember the woman who touches the hem of the garment of Jesus? I think there is an acknowledgement of the same principle. That the glory and the power of God is so remarkable that it needs veiling in some measure from human sight, from human experience.

What is revival? Revival is God bending down. What is revival? It's God blowing on the dying embers of the church. Bringing it back to life in a country, in a locality, in one particular congregation.

What is revival? It's the inrush of divine life into a dying body that otherwise threatens to become a corpse. It's the flooding of divine power. And what we need to know more and more today is the expression from the hearts of people like you and me before God to revive his church in this country.

And the history of revival is such as we've taken some samples from it. In church history, that it encourages us to believe that our God is able to pour out his spirit. And some of you will say, well, you know, in one sense you annoy us, in one sense you frustrate us.

Because there is evidence of revival today in our land. Well, I'm not against saying that at present. I do believe that God has been with the church in some measure in this country.

But it's miniscule, taken statistically. That is the presence of the church in our land over against the total population. I mean, I'm told that 10% or less than 10% of people, 9% of people attend church regularly.

I don't find 9 people that I know in every 100 attending church regularly. I wish I did. I reckon it's more like 4% or maybe 5%.

And whatever one may say of restoration movements and renewal movements and so on and so forth. And indeed the beginnings of something phenomenal at present. So new it's hard, as I say, to make any correct assessment.

We are far away from what God has done in history in terms of turning the tide. And bringing thousands and tens of thousands of people into the kingdom. And this we're looking forward to.

At least my eschatology, that is my belief in the return of Jesus is that prior to that return. There shall be the outpouring of God's spirit on flesh in a manner that is unprecedented. And thousands of people will be swept into the kingdom.

You may not follow that particular reasoning from scripture. But it's one that I'm convinced personally is the right way to anticipate the return of our Lord. So here is Moses and he's going to help us.

Because you see, if there was anything that was necessary in his day at this particular juncture. It is that God would revive the company of Israel. After all, they couldn't have got any lower.

In terms of going down the plug, they were ready to go. Every last dreg of the Hebrew country. And here is the Hebrew race.

And here is Moses and he stands before the Lord and he says. And the adrenaline must have been in his bloodstream. Lord, don't do that.

If you do that, if you blot them out of your book, then me too. I want to be annihilated. And the reason behind Moses' courageous intercession.

Is that he is concerned for the glory of God. And I want to lay it down as a principle brothers and sisters. That any concern for experience per se is wrong.

If beneath that concern there isn't an even deeper one. For the glory of God to be manifest in our world. Now how is God glorified? He is glorified when men and women in large numbers accept who he is.

And do what he wants to be done. And here is Moses with these ex-slaves coming out of Egypt. Moving towards the promised land.

Lord, you obliterate them. What are the Egyptians going to say? What are the tribes to the east going to say? And to the north going to say? Lord, for your namesake, preserve the church. And I use that word church in its technical fashion.

The called out company of God's people. Why do we want revival today? For the glory of God. We want you to cleanse your church.

We want you to empower your church. We want you to make your church such an unstoppable force that people will ask. Who is it that is behind this community? And ultimately acknowledge your lordship and your deity.

You see, behind the desire for revival is the even greater desire to bring honor and glory to the Lord. So I ask you fundamentally. Is that what you are after? Now here is Moses.

And he is not just on his own. That would be an exaggeration. There are a group of spiritual people alongside him.

But compared with the rest of the Hebrews who have dealt so fast and loose with the mercies and the compassions of God. Moses is in very much of a minority. And yet in the grace of God.

Moses is able to enter into such an experience of God. Marked by the descent of the cloud. Hovering over the tent where Moses has gone in for his intercessions.

That it is said of Moses. That he can commune with God as a man speaks with his friend. What we need to do brothers and sisters.

As we read the Old Testament and the New Testament. Is disengage ourselves from the notion that these men and women recorded in the pages of Holy Writ are exceptional. They are not.

Many of them are wonderful people. A.W. Tozer says somewhere that we need to be delivered from the sin of living in the 20th century. Wishing that we have been living at the time of the patriarchs or the prophets or the apostles.

Leonard Ravenhill says that God has no favorites but he has his intimates. And the reason why Moses can be used in such a remarkable fashion. Is because he maintains an intimacy with God.

Which gives him a power in prayer. And when Moses engages in prayer. He does so with the glory of God paramount.

And with the reputation of the church. A close second. Lord, verse 12 of chapter 33.

You've been giving me this responsibility to lead these people. But Lord I want to tell you something. Though you have revealed yourself to me in word.

And in past experience. That is not enough. You see Moses is laying down a fundamental principle.

Stay with me for a while and you'll crack what I'm trying to bring to your attention. It will become understandable. Moses is trying to tell you that in a revival movement theology is not enough.

I once risked being martyred in Belfast. First time I ever preached in Northern Ireland. And my opening sentence was.

I have come to tell you that the word of God itself is not sufficient. I thought I saw Ian Paisley materialize in front of me. I quickly went on to qualify what I meant.

And I still believe incidentally that opening proposition is accurate. Though I would have been wiser to have put it in a softer fashion. The word of God is a vehicle to lead you to the God of the word.

Put that theologically or put it in the language of revival. Theology leads you into theophany. Theology means the word of God.

Theophany means an experience of God. Now in the right wing of evangelicalism you've got people who are very theologically geared. The left wing of evangelicalism you've got people who are very.

If I can coin this word I don't know if it exists but I'll use it because it's helpful at the moment. Theophanactically positioned. I mean if you've got theologically you should be able to do with an alley at the end of theophany shouldn't you? So work it through.

These are people who are experience orientated over against people who are word orientated. And it seems to me that there are not those tensions in the Old Testament and in the New Testament in terms of the men and the women that God has used. There is a fusion of the theology and the theophany.

The word of God leads you into an experience of the God of the word. So here's Moses and you know he's got all his graduation. I mean he was at the burning bush.

God gave him the revelation of the divine name and astonishingly so because up to that point God had not revealed himself like he revealed himself to Moses. I mean Charlie Spurgeon said I confer a doctor of divinity on degree as a result of Moses' education at the burning bush. What did he mean? Well he knew the character of God in some measure that no one else had ever known.

Yet here he is and he's given the task of leading this pretty awkward congregation all the way up to the promised land. And he says Lord I won't go unless you come with me. What is revival? It is an astonishing display of the glory and the presence of God.

And our concerns individually as well as corporately as the body of Christ is to experience God. Not just cerebrally in our brain but emotionally with our heart. But the two working in tandem.

Not one apart from or opposed to the other. Now you might feel that Moses really was overstepping his limit. Going beyond the mark.

I mean there is a degree of impudence here. My presence will go with you and I will give you rest. Alright says Moses but look I'm going to underline this verse 15.

If your presence does not go with us, if you do not keep your word then do not send me. You know this man does really mean business with God doesn't he? And the incredible thing is that Moses has read the heart of God. He's in tune with the heartbeat of God.

It's not so much impudence it's exploratory faith. A faith which God recognises. If I may use the colloquial expression it's music to his ears.

You see here is Moses' reasoning. If you don't go with me, Lord let me enlarge that verse 16. If you don't go with me and with your people, what else will distinguish us? You see what he is here saying is look if we are the church, if we are the called out community of people.

There is nothing that is going to be a line of demarcation between us and the heathen tribes. Unless your power and your glory accompanies us. And of course he's quite right.

Now take that from the Old Testament, develop it and bring it into the new. Because sometimes I think the Old Testament is the negative and the New Testament is the fully developed picture. So here is the church, Acts of the Apostles.

They didn't play around with church membership in those days did they? I mean it was too dangerous. I mean one funeral company in Jerusalem had already done good business by a couple of Christians who defaulted. Who hadn't lived at the line and the level that they were to live at.

And when that sort of thing happened in terms of the awesomeness of God, the demonstration of his power. Not only did it help to underline the body of Christ, the community of people's conviction that their God is not to be trifled with. It also made an impact upon the community in Jerusalem.

You read that scripture. You see the problem with the Acts of the Apostles is that sometimes you just sail along with your more Pentecostal style of verses. You know, the bless me verses.

But it wasn't always just a question of happy clappy bless me was it? Now don't misunderstand my use of that term. I'm not using it in a sense that's demeaning. There is a joy but there was also an awe in the Acts of the Apostles.

This is a book that makes you tremble. I mean these people in Jerusalem, the Christians, were so filled with the dynamic that others dare not join the church. It wasn't that they tripped into a sort of last night of the prom celebration.

There was something to be feared as well as something that attracted the unbeliever. What was it? Well you see, you're back with theophany. You can't get away from it.

What another philosopher might call a numinous experience. That means the sense of the uncanny, the sense of the unreal. Let's make this more spiritual language.

Yes, the sense of the spiritual. The sense of the divine. Now Moses is concerned about this.

If we are going to impact the world of our day, you have to come. Or else Lord, to use a language which will become popular centuries later, we will be clanging gongs, tinkling cymbals. We'll have mouths but we'll not speak with eloquence.

We'll have hands but we'll never fashion anything that will last in eternity. And you see, God is impressed by this sort of reasoning. I will do the very thing that you've asked because I'm pleased with you.

I know you by name. Alright, says Moses. And here he heightens his demands on God.

Now show me your glory. And God agrees. I will establish in your mind once and forever, Moses, what you already know I will underfirm.

That there is no God like me. There is no one who has power like I have power. There is no one who has mercy like I have mercy.

There is no one who has compassion like I have compassion. And there is no one who judges and is as holy as I am. But Moses, what you're asking of me, if I give it you in the full-blooded nature of your request, then you yourself will not be able to contain the sight.

So what happens? Well, you get one of the greatest pre-Pentecostal experiences depicted here in the Old Testament. God places Moses in the cleft of a rock, which inspires one of our later hymn writers to pen that wonderful verse, Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Now I am arguing that the Pentecostal chapter of Acts 2 has a sort of anticipation in Genesis 33.

And there's phenomena. There's awe. There is cause and consequence.

Moses sees something of the glory of God. I mean, it beggars description, so you will only have a hint as to what it might be like as God passes by. Now let's jump from Exodus 33 and go, at least in your mind, to John 1. We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

To whom is John referring? He's referring to the beloved Christ. He is saying that the glory of God that is seen in some fashion by Moses is seen more collectively by a greater number of people in the days when our Lord Jesus comes on earth. Because our Lord has within him the possession of full divinity.

Not so? We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Says Peter writing his second epistle, speaking of the Mount of Transfiguration and that extraordinary theophany. We saw the glory of God on the Holy Mount.

But where does God reveal his glory in the most naked fashion? Well, let me take you down to Southampton in terms of getting someone who can help you. But you turn the clock back a hundred years or so. Here is Isaac Watts and he starts to write a hymn.

When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. The glory of God is visible at the cross of our Lord. The glory of God is visible the third day when the tomb, not rifled, emptied by the dynamic of the Holy Spirit, shows that the Lord Jesus has been raised in the power of an endless life.

The glory of God is revealed as this resurrected Christ is then exalted beyond all exaltation and returns to the right hand of the Majesty on high. And there is a sense in which you and I as Christians enter into a deeper and more profound experience of the glory of God than ever Moses did, because Moses did not physically live to see the day of Christ and we have lived in its aftermath. And you cannot behold the glory of our Lord Jesus on the cross and as a result of the resurrection and at the right hand of the Father and know something of the efflators of the Holy Spirit being poured down upon you without finding yourself in some measure like Moses.

Now Moses' experience, psychologically it was profound. There must have been a mixture of awe, a deepening of spirituality within his character. There was certainly a physical change.

The change is seen in terms of his face being illuminated to the extent that when he comes down the mountain people recognize that he's been with God and a veil has to be put across his face for a while. And the Apostle Paul plunders this illustration in the Old Testament as he writes to the Corinthians and he says of the Lord Jesus Christ and he speaks of himself and the Corinthians in terms of mirrors and says we reflect his glory. And John Wesley or Charles Wesley latches onto the metaphor and says but I'm not too sure Wesley would have allowed the word metaphor.

We're changed from glory into glory. Metaphor means that there's no real literal entering into what is being described. But the Wesley brothers, they knew, they were different.

Aldous Gates Street, it made such a difference in their lives as they listened to someone read and preach from the epistle of Paul to the Romans. There was a strange warming feeling within our hearts as John Wesley as we responded to the infilling of the Holy Spirit. And the phenomena that attests a man in the cleft of the rock can have many permutations.

Sometimes there may be a trembling. Sometimes there may be a sense of awe. Often times as a result of those pre-experiences or those first experiences there will come into a person's mind, into his emotions, a sense of great relief which the apostle Peter describes in terms of joy, unspeakable and full of glory.

But it's not giggling. It's not the third rate music hall banter. It is a profoundly solemn, if one can have such a thing as a solemn joy, it is profoundly sacred.

You cannot take these things and devalue them. You cannot do what some people alas have done in terms of putting up something that is purely psychological or pure mimicry and confusing that with the outpouring and the consequences of the outpouring of God's Spirit and being held in the cleft of the rock. I was at a meeting yesterday which I went to with great sympathy along with 400 or 500 people.

And the first half of the meeting I found so helpful and so wonderful. The songs and the way that the people, basically young people, were singing was with enthusiasm and sincerity I joined in. It was a healing process.

I felt very depressed. And God in his grace met with me and I just enjoyed worshipping with these people. And then I listened to a man preach and after he'd finished preaching he ministered the Spirit.

Now, I've got no basic problems with people praying for one another. It seems to me that there's evidence of this in the New Testament, in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. He who ministers the Spirit upon you.

But some of the things that then began to happen, and I come with no bias at all. If anything, my theology is charismatic. I do not apologize for that.

But when I hear somebody say of someone jumping up and down that this is God's pogo stick. When I hear somebody say with a microphone in his hand semi-manipulating a congregation we've heard bars like sheep baying. We've heard roars like lions roaring.

Now we're hearing the cattle of the turkeys as they strut. Then I think it is time to say, no. This comes too close to insulting the Holy Spirit.

You cannot get this sort of banal banter from the Old Testament or from the New Testament. You cannot do it. Don't misunderstand me.

I have pleaded for you to appreciate in these last three addresses particularly that when God comes upon a person he can remarkably cause that person to realize his power and his authority. There can be convulsions. There can sometimes be a trembling.

There can sometimes be a holy joy. But it is not contrived. It does not require music to engender the atmosphere or a microphone to play upon the susceptibilities of a young congregation.

When God moved in great power in the Wesleyan revival as far as I can read it up from the present going back to the past. When he blessed Edwards, when he blessed Whitefield, he did so in an incredible fashion. And the phenomena that sometimes resulted by and large was the genuine response to people feeling in the presence of God unholy and impure and wanting to know how to get rid of their sinfulness.

It was a response to the naked powerful presentation of the cross of Christ, the reality of hell, and the damning concept of dying and not being prepared to go into an eternity of bliss in the company of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when that message is preached today in power and in authority, when preeminence is given to the preaching of the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, then the church will continue to make or pick up more credibility as it penetrates the heathenism and the unbelief of the 20th century. That is not to say that at the time of the outpourings of God's Spirit locally, in countries as a whole, and across particular generations, there has never been the psychological, the spurious, or even occasionally the demonic.

Yes, of course, there has been, and there is bound to be with any move of God's Spirit today, but it is essential for leaders who know the word of God, and know these things that I bring to your attention, to test what happens within the compass of what is recorded in this holy book, or at least to ensure that what happens is within the ethos of what this book predicts. And the greatest test, it seems to me, of any genuine outpouring of the Spirit, of being placed in the cleft of the rock as the glory of God goes by, is that as a result, a man comes down Sinai, and he is different. And they know he is different.

And the difference that he has enables him, and collectively, when many people are baptized in the Spirit, enables them to make a mark of differentiation between their community and the rest of a godless society. And not just a mark of differentiation, it gives them the ability to go as the army of God, into the ranks of unbelievers, into the territory of the kingdom of darkness, and there to win souls for Jesus Christ. A group of people, hidden in the cleft of the rock, having seen the glory of God, when they come down the mountain and move into the world where there are evil and unbelieving forces, they become unstoppable.

That, brothers and sisters, was the church of the Acts of the Apostles. That, brothers and sisters, is the norm to which God would move us back. May he do it here, for his honour and glory.

Let us pray. Lord, we come to you. To whom else can we turn? We long for the day of great things, having lived so long in the day of small things.

We long for the genuine, and will not settle for the spurious. We long, O Lord, for you to come upon us and to do with us whatever you wish to do. If through conviction, power, Lord, people writhe on these floors, then to you be honour and glory.

If in conviction, Lord, as a result of sins being exposed, men and women know what it is to tremble and to shake, then we take this from you, great God, and rejoice in the fact that you are moving amongst us. If men and women, elated by your Spirit, know what it is to enter into joy unspeakable and full of glory, and give physical expression to that, then to you, O Lord, be honour. Blessed Christ, we offer you your Church.

Blessed Holy Spirit, we ask you to have your sovereign control amongst us. Great God, in these days, when something is afoot and we're trying to work out just how to evaluate things without being spectators, for we want to be participants in anything that you're doing, we put ourselves back as clay into the hands of the potter. Fashion us, sovereign Lord.

Do with us here what you want to do. Bless your Church. Safeguard your Church.

Use your Church. Empower your Church. God of Sinai, hide us in the cleft of the rock.

Let your glory pass, and may the effects of that be seen in the way that we live. Amen.