Why Would God Have Mercy on Us — Ralph Sexton Sr.

I want to thank you for praying. We've had phone calls out of state. People have already heard about what God was doing here in your community. And someone said, well, how do you explain what God's doing in Caldwell County?

Unity as the Condition for Revival

And I said, there's one word that would summarize it for me, and that would be the word unity. God will do this anywhere in America. If God's people will get together. If we'll get out of our isms and schisms and get our eyes back on Jesus, He'll do it anywhere in the country.

The enemy's not some church across town. The enemy's not some brother or sister across the aisle in the church. The enemy's the devil. And we've sort of forgotten who the enemy was. Have you ever noticed how the devil's crowd works together?

You never have a bootlegger calling in and saying, I want to report that crack house on the corner. They don't do that. They're on the same page. And God gets to moving, and we want to choose up sides and kill each other.

I'm not talking about other churches. I'm talking about in your own church. You know, we need to pay attention to the fact that God blesses unity. And if you read Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost was not fully come until they were in one mind and one accord.

And when that happened, then God moved in and shipped in His divine holy presence and changed the world from that day to this day with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I want to thank you for praying this weekend.

Churches praying, pastors praying, a lot of encouraging phone calls, and we thank you so much for that. The burden that the Lord's laid upon my heart tonight is not complicated at all. It's very, very simple.

But I want to share it with you from the Scriptures. I'm going to read in three passages of Scripture and ask you to join with me in reading those Scriptures. And then I'll share with you what the Lord laid upon my heart a little earlier this morning, about 3 o 'clock.

Here's something important for us together. Shall we pray? Then I'll read Romans 9 for us. Heavenly Father, sweet, sweet Holy Spirit, lover of loss and friend of safety, we are so unworthy of your divine and holy presence.

But we are so tender to thank you that you would even look our way, let alone bring us together with such numbers, with such a sweet spirit of unity and working and praying together. And, Lord, I really believe that the reason is that you want to see a harvest of souls before the trumpet sounds.

God, you want to see the church cleaned up and ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. And, God, we cannot do any of those things on our own. We've got to have you. And what is overwhelming to us is that you do not ever have to bless us again.

You don't have to ever save another one again. You don't have to bring another prodigal home again. You don't ever have to give grace again. You don't ever have to show mercy again. But you have done that repeatedly time and time again.

And we are so thankful. We love you tonight, Jesus. We love you, sweet Holy Spirit. We worship you, O holy God, for loving us. May we be sensitive to you tonight. And we'll carefully bow down and give you praise and glory and honor for everything that's been said and done.

And all God's people said, Romans 9, verse number 15. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, if it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

Why God Shows Mercy to the Unworthy

I don't know if you've thought about this or not, but why did God show mercy on you today? Why did God spare your life today? Why did you wake up today? Why are you still breathing? Why are you experiencing the compassion and mercy of God?

Why did God put it in your heart? Now listen to me. Here's where I'm headed. Why did God put it in your heart that you even had a desire to go to church? Why was your desire not to stay home? Why did God even put that little hunger and thirst for righteousness on your lips?

Are you something special in the plan and purpose of God? Out of all of the millions of Americans tonight, why is God stirring the water in Caldwell County, North Carolina? Why has the Shekinah glory pulled the cherubims together?

That we can dwell in the covet of his wings. Can I feel the rustling of the wind? Who is this great God that would look on us lowly men and women? Why would he love our teenagers? That they could see old time religion one more time.

Why would God breathe on this community so our singles could see? That it's just not grandmother's God and granddaddy's God. But it's a living God. For this day and for the future. I don't understand.

Why? With so complete and mercy. And why he would save me when so many have been passed by. I don't know why so many reject him when he said whosoever will may come. I don't understand when Jesus said that he would come and give his life for lost men.

That people will mock him and laugh at him and walk right by grace and mercy. And yet in this community where men and women have rejected just like every other community. That God all of a sudden for no unexplainable reason decided you know what I think I'll do?

I think I'll just breathe on them one more time. I think I'll just breathe on them one more time. And I'll let their children know that God's real. And I'll let their teenagers see the power of the demonstration.

I don't know why but I'm so grateful. 2 Chronicles 7 14 the word of God reads that it is possible. We don't understand why but it is possible. He said that there's a simple formula that attracts his attention and love.

Humility, Prayer, and Healing the Land

2 Chronicles 7 14 if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves. And pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then will I hear from heaven. Then will I forgive their sins.

And then will I heal their land. My nation needs healing. When we can have a website in America that advertises that you can come and blaspheme the Holy Ghost. And they invite young adults and teenagers to blaspheme God.

And it's one of the fastest growing websites in America. Excuse me. We need God. There's no explanation. Show grace one more day. I don't understand. I don't know why he would give us another hour. We've told him we'd do better and we've done worse.

We've told him we'd pray more and we've prayed less. I don't understand. We said we'd be faithful. I don't understand his mercy. The Bible, when you read about it, comes suddenly. It's just God. And there he is.

And when it comes, it produces a sudden change of trends and culture. Society is shocked by the holiness of this God. They reject it. Wicked doctrine is burned out of the churches. Compromised moral standard of the land is revitalized.

Historical Revivals and the Power of Prayer

Revival begins around the word of God. And it begins in desperate, passionate prayer. The great revivals of New England under the ministry and leadership of Jonathan Edwards experienced, if my people, which are called by my name.

The great awakening saw God move in power and demonstration suddenly without human explanation. All of a sudden, three or four would gather in a town square and begin to sing hymns. Four and five would gather from this, then another one.

So there were two and three hundred singing. And the only choir director was the sweet Holy Spirit of God, leading hundreds to sing and lift their voices of praise into the midnight hour, calling upon God to have mercy upon their land.

Jonathan Edwards was one of these that God used in that time period, devoid of oratory and pulpit skills. He was no master of the vocabulary with his words or with his lungs. His voice was mild and his volume was weak, but his God was great and the convicting power was real.

And he would stand and hold a candle and read verbatim from handwritten manuscripts centered in the hands of an angry God. And there would be such a breadth and power of God's presence that men and women would hold on to the back of the pews, thinking that the flooring was giving away, and they were sinking into the bottomless abyss without hope and without any help.

Suddenly, they saw a holy God. Suddenly, they saw themselves helpless. And suddenly, they began to cry for this same God to show mercy and to show grace. Suddenly, God's mighty conviction gripped the church and later the city of Northampton.

In the early months of 1735, the Bible came alive and hundreds pressed daily into the church to pray and to seek the face of a holy God. Thousands were swept into the kingdom, and they said at night the streets were filled with people rejoicing, talking about the goodness of God and the sweet love that was found in that town.

In 1738, the revival under John Wesley began to shake America. George Whitefield got him caught up with those two boys, John and Charles Wesley, and they began to pray for God to set them on fire and to touch the land.

Whitefield had such a burden that his power increased in the pulpit because of the power of God that was breaking him down with deep, deep burden for lost people that people began to pray around Whitefield.

And the conviction of God was so real that while he preached, men and women began to call upon God and the organized religion of the day. The church accused him of driving people mad because the convicting power was so real.

February 1739, God suddenly shook America. February in the wintertime, 1739, 268 years ago tonight, it got out of the church and got in the community. And 68 years ago tonight, it got out of the church and got in the community.

The convicting power of God began to pierce the darkness. There was such a brokenness on the people. They began to weep and cry for their sons and their daughters, their moms and their dads, their best friends and their co-workers.

And all of a sudden, God began to shake the land. They went outside. Whitefield was preaching. And they said people were standing. They carried out all their chairs. They couldn't get the people inside.

And he began to cry because he was so broken that that many people wanted to hear the priest word of God. He went outside and started preaching the next morning, 200 chains. He was shocked that that many people would come outside.

And by the sun going down that same day, 268 years ago, 20 ,000 people were outside weeping and calling on God for revival in the land. All I can say is, do it again, Lord. Do it again. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves.

David Brainerd and Revival Through Sacrificial Prayer

Revival under David Brainerd, praying in the woods for God to send revival. Weeping for the lost Indian, the heathen that no one wanted to talk to or spend any time with. And he laid on his face and began to pray for God to send revival.

Edward wrote in his memoirs that Gethsemane had a failed reflection in the prayer life of David Brainerd. That he'd get on his hands and knees in the snow in that February winter and began to weep and beg God to send revival.

And his hands would freeze and his knees would freeze and crack open. And they said, you can see the droplets of blood out of the snow where he had wept and cried over lost men. And they said, suddenly God breathed on the land.

Suddenly God invaded that part of the world. And they said as he got on his horse to ride out, they started coming across the field and out of the woods and they grabbed the bridle of his horse and said, oh sir, can you tell us how to be saved?

We don't want to go to hell. And grabbing his stirrups and holding on to the side of his horse, men and women were convicted by the power of God. Not the power in the demonstration of a denomination. Not an easy believism.

Not religious entertainment. But it was the power of God that brought them over the land. Oh, what we need is fresh oil. What we need out of the pew of comfort and begin to say, oh God, if you'll just touch me one more time, I'll be willing to die in your service.

God, there's not much left of the old tabernacle. But if you'll just take the few little old molecules and atoms of bread that are still breathing and if you'll empower it with the Holy Ghost for this day and for the power of God, you can have one's limbs.

That we would not live unto ourselves, but we would live unto Him. That we could truly declare that we are by God. Surrendered on the cross of self-sacrifice. That we can say, I do not belong to me. I belong to no man or to no woman, to no group or to no association.

But I'm in love with Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Revival. Agonizing before a holy God. Saying whatever it takes. My will to break. Lord, that's what I'm willing to do. If you follow this flow down through American history, you see that Charles Feeney began to get burdened and began to pray.

And his brokenness came as a pastor. And he said, I can't go back in the building without Him. I don't want to preach again without Him. I don't want to teach again without Him. And he began to go agonized in the prayer closet of his soul.

And he said, God, if you'll just give me fresh oil. Just one more time. To bring life to this dying generation. To bring light to this dark world. Oh God, if you'd just somehow take me and my meager ways and anoint them with your power and might.

God, you can have me. I belong to you. Revival began to break out all around. Feeney began to go with Nash and those other boys praying for him. And he'd go get in the woods and go hide out in some inn in the neighborhood.

Not come out until he knew it was time. There was so much God hanging around him, they said that sometimes he would go in to rent a factory. And there'd be hundreds of workers. And he would ask the owner if we could come back and rent this warehouse for services at night.

And he'd walk down through the factory to go to the owner's office. And said by the time they got to the office door to knock on the door, he said they'd hear weeping and crying behind them and they'd turn around.

And when they'd walk through the factory, they were falling down saying, Oh God, have mercy upon me, a sinner. Well, how could they do that? It wasn't them. It was the God they'd been with and the God that was with them.

It wasn't the power of their personalities. It was not the singers they brought with them. It wasn't the show and the dog pony that came to say we're going to entertain you. But they'd spent time in the Holy of Holies.

They'd been anointed with fresh oil. And when they walked into that building, they couldn't get off that much God and glory. And it began to saturate the loft around them about the presence of God. The revival of 1857 that changed America.

It's been nicknamed the Prayer Revival because it started with men and women praying. And the hallmarker of that revival was that prayer meetings broke out. One of the great ones was the Fulton Street Revival.

Men and women began to say, I'm going to pray. Businessmen began to gather on Fulton Street at lunchtime to pray. Before the thing was over, there was such a moving of God that people were getting converted on the street while those men prayed.

Trusting God With a New Outpouring of Mercy

The question that God has gotten into my heart last night and today is why would He bless us? Why would He have compassion on us? What have we done to deserve one more soul being saved, let alone a hundred that's been saved?

What do we deserve to have one more outpouring or blessing, let alone what we've already experienced? What have we done to deserve His love or attention? Why this town and not some other town? How can we explain the love of God and His compassion towards us?

The question then becomes, if there's no explanation, then it must be the fact that God knew He could trust someone to do business with Him. What if God has selected this part of North Carolina to be the last place on planet Earth where the power of God will be shown in demonstration before His daughter and son comes to take the bride home?

What if God's going to use you to encourage believers in China, in Denmark, in Sweden? God's going to use you to encourage believers in Australia? You say, I don't understand that. With today's internet?

Listen, we were in the service at Trinity yesterday, and we mentioned that Hearts With Hands was in Florida, had already had a truck down there, another one left Saturday night, and they hooked up to us live on the internet, and we're here in the service there at Lake City Church of God, where that church was blown away, and we're putting out supplies, and the phone rings in the church.

It's Tbilisi, the Republic of Georgia. The Republic of Georgia on the other side of Russia. And they said, we were watching the service, and our hearts had touched about what we've seen. We're going to be sending an offering to help the people of Florida.

On the other side of Russia? Huh? I'm telling you, the world's changed. If God would invade this community in a matter of hours, it'd burn around America, it'd invade every old cathedral, it'd jump into every dead pulpit, it would sear across the platform of places there's not been the breath of God, or the power of God in decades.

It'd give hope on the pew to a million women that have not had hope in many years. Can God do it again? Oh, yes, He can! He can! And He will! To explain this mercy and grace, you think with me for just a moment.

Creation, Eternity, and God's Purpose for Revival

Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. In the beginning, always like that. In the beginning. In the beginning. Now, you think about where we are tonight, what we've enjoyed for four weeks, God moving. Now, you think about this.

In the beginning, I've got to think back past my little life. I've got to think back past me being born. I've got to go back before Ralph Sexton Sr. was born. I've got to go past him. I've got to go past Charlie Sexton, my grandfather.

I've got to go back a little further than my great-grandfather. I've got to go back past Lincoln, go past Franklin, and go past George Washington. Just going back a little farther. I need to go back before there was an America.

I need to go back before the conversion of the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul. I need to go back before Bethlehem was invaded by the soldier of the universe that invaded a virgin's womb and sent out Satan, death, hell, and sin out of a fleshly body.

I need to go back past Bethlehem, even before some prophet sent by with a little old quill pen and a candlelight before he wrote one word about a Messiah to come. I need to go back past that prophecy.

I need to go back before the reign of Solomon and past the reign of King David. Before Joshua and before Moses. Back before Adam and Eve walked in the Garden of Bliss. Back before there was an angel or before there was an archangel.

Back before there was a sun or a moon or a star. I need to look back in the beginning before there was 6 ,000 years or 7 ,000 years or 6 million years or 7 million years. I need to look way on back there, back into eternity past when there was only one God sitting on that throne with his only begotten Son and the sweet Holy Ghost and he was happy within his own self when there was just God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and he was filling up the arena of the universe and way on night he saw you and he saw me and he saw the opportunity for revival in this day and this generation.

And with a love and a mercy I cannot explain. He said I will show mercy. The thunder clouds of judgment are gathering on the horizon. God's cup of wrath is filled beginning to slosh over the brim getting ready to be poured out on men that mock God.

A Nation’s Rebellion and the Need for Grace

Make fun of God. We've got a nation so wicked that we now entertain ourselves by saying how much we can blaspheme God and mock God and make fun of God. Fox News aired a story Saturday. You won't believe this, Greg.

The latest fad across the country is pole dancing for little teenage girls. And the reporter said, Sir, I've got two teenage girls. I can't imagine why in God's name you'd want to teach little girls to be strippers.

And they said, Well, we just don't use that term. We're trying to teach them it's called a course in attraction. A course in attraction. When you tell God to take a hike out of your school, you tell God to go away out of your community, you tear down your ten commandments and you take God out of the very life of your land and you say we don't even want a cross on a hilltop.

That makes us mad. If we have to even see the cross and we begin to get rid of the ten commandments and you can't pray in school, you can't have a Bible in school. We don't want them to talk about God that the same school will practice witchcraft and tell everything about the devil.

Then what you get is then you begin to blaspheme the same God and you begin to worship the devil and you clear off the altar of pleasure and you lay your own babies and your own sons and daughters there and say, devil, just take my babies but let me have fun.

How in God's name, how in God's name can we explain with all that wickedness and ungodliness why he didn't even show mercy one more time. Our grace. How many preachers are here tonight? Would you stand up?

All of God's men. You're not ashamed that God called you. Just stand up. All over this building. You tell me why he'd mess with us. I know me. If old Ralph got what he deserved, I'd already be in the devil's head.

Why would God save us and then ask us to pick up His precious Word that we're not even worthy to carry let alone say, why would God call you to preach and give you a burden for a lost and a dying world?

How do we explain grace and mercy? How do we explain that? How do you explain the forces of hell that have come against your church and your family and your friends? What are we going to do, man? I can't fix one marriage at my church.

I don't know about you. I can't fix them. I can't go get one prodigal son. I can't get one little girl out of a crack house. I can't get a daddy off a liquor bottle. I can't pull a granddaddy out of a porn site.

I can't change them. But we do know the one who can. If we're willing to pay the price to be not us, but God through us. It's not my brother or my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

Thank you, gentlemen. The question I have for us is why now? Why is God stirring? Why here? Why you? This is the day. Acts 2 says this is that that the prophet Joel spoke of. He said right before Jesus comes back, not the apostate church.

They're not going to have revival. But the bride of Christ will have revival. God's not going to send me out choking in smoke. Son, I'm going to be right in the middle of God moving. I've been washed in the blood.

My name's written in the last book of life. And Jesus is coming back and He can come at any moment. And I'm not going out choking on smoke. Hey, I'm not going to go home reading about what He used to do.

I believe God can do it this day, and this hour, and this generation. The problem's not with God. The problem's with my evil, wicked heart of unbelief that I wouldn't believe and agree with God Himself and agree with His own Spirit.

And I would cry out to God, Oh God, I agree with You and Your Spirit that God, You can do it for this day and for this hour. Suddenly, every one of those revivals I read to you about and you talk about and you read about them, you'll find there was a day or time when there was somebody wrote down the Word.

Suddenly, people got interested. Suddenly, people started coming to church. Suddenly, there was a brokenness. Suddenly, the preachers began to pray. Suddenly, the men of God led the way. Suddenly, the young people began to weep and cry.

Suddenly. Oh yeah, there was something else too. When the church had revival, the afterglow was the harvest of souls. Most of the time, if we don't have revival, we're just going to bring lost people into our orthodoxy.

No tears, no brokenness. Just another form of religious entertainment. We need God to send revival. That's the only way they can get the power to be changed. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I wondered tonight, in this great auditorium, I wondered tonight, if there's one man or one woman anywhere in this building who would say, Brother Ralph, if I died right now, or if Jesus were to come, I don't know where I'd spend each heart of these.

The Invitation to Salvation and Renewal

Pray for me. Would you slip that hand up for prayer anywhere in the building? Thank you, young lady. Thank you, sir. Is there another one? Anywhere in the building. I preached primarily to the church tonight, and I did that on purpose, because that's where my burden was.

But I wouldn't want to miss someone in the overflow downstairs of the building next door. God spoke to you. You're not saved. You're not sure you're saved. Is there one more? Thank you, sir. Thank you, ma 'am.

God bless you. Is there another one? Anywhere in the auditorium. God bless you, young lady. Thank you for being tenderhearted. Please say, Brother Ralph, I believe every day of my life I've saved, but I'm a backslider.

I'm out of fellowship. Pray for me. Would you just lift that hand up for prayer? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. God bless you, ma 'am. Thank you. Thank you. You can put your hands down. God bless you.

Thank you. Thank you. How many more? How many Christians that say, Brother Ralph, I'm going through a hard place, and it's hard for me to pray about revival when I feel like I've been beat up by the devil?

I need a fresh oil. I need fresh anointing. As a Christian, I need revival. Would you just lift that hand up for prayer? My, I'm up to the hands. All right, here's what we're going to do. There's a lot of preachers already on the altar.

These men of God started praying, some of them before I even got through preaching. But here's what we're going to do. We're going to ask God to touch your heart and life. We're going to ask you to stand quietly and reverently all over the building.

Brother Burns is going to sing a song, whatever God played on his heart. And I want you to mind God. Anywhere in this building. If you feel like mom and dad, you need to come, preacher, Sunday school teacher, deacon.

If not now, when? If not here, where? If not you, then who? Will you mind God? If God's laid a burden on your heart now for someone that's unseen, a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a mom, or a dad.

Maybe God's burdened you for your church or your Sunday school class. I want you to join these that are already praying. Let's just come and pray. Revival comes around the Word and around desperate, passionate prayer.

Do we really want revival? Over 70 preachers in this building tonight already calling on God to send revival. Let's keep calling on Him tonight. You just keep calling. Keep praying while God's moving.

Let's not miss heaven tonight. While God's moving. Mom and dad, you burdened over your kids, you come. Grandmother, no one will love them like you do. Won't you come and tell Jesus? One more verse with mind God.

Touch us again. With our heads bowed and eyes closed, there's been several preachers in this hall that are praying for God to give them fresh oil and fresh anointing. If you love your preacher tonight, you pray for him.

Right now, you just, where you're standing, you say, God, don't you put a hedge around the man that goes to the pulpit and fights hell for me and my family. God will give him liberty. God will turn him loose with fresh oil on his soul that he can fight the demons and devils of this day to declare the inerrant, infallible, holy, inspired Word of God to this God-denying generation.

That there be life in your church, life in your home, life in your soul through the power of God's Word. In Jesus' name, we agree. We agree with you, God, your sweet Holy Spirit. Brother Burns, give us a key and let's sing there is a fountain filled with blood a cappella together.

Praying for Fresh Oil and a Fresh Move of God

Let's lift our voices together. Heavenly Father, we dedicate this night to your glory and honor. God, I pray you will create some hungry people out of this tonight. Give us a little glimpse of what could happen if we get in one place at one time in one accord.

I beg you, Father, to burden somebody to pray tonight. Burn the midnight oil. God, somebody to pray early in the morning when they get up. Somebody to pray at lunch break tomorrow. Pray on the drive home after school and work.

So God, when we get on this ground tomorrow night, all we'll just do is just watch you work. Just watch you work. May we get out of the way. May we get out of the way that people can see you. We love you, Jesus.

We love you, Jesus. Thank you for compassion. Thank you for grace. Thank you for looking our way. All God's people said, thank you for being so attentive and kind tonight. You can be seated for just a moment.

We've got a couple of very special announcements we need to make. How many of you, if God lets you live, will be praying between...