Sermon for Lord's Day November 5, 2023 Revival and the Sovereignty of God

Let's go to the Lord in prayer before we go any further today God our

Heavenly Fathers we come before your throne

Lord as we read about in the psalm and our response of reading as we sang about in the songs

Lord we recognize that God you are holy holy holy

God you and you alone deserve our glory honor and praise

God you have done and shown us great and many good and wonderful things you have shown your love unto us by sending your son to die on the cross for our sins

God sending your Holy Spirit to abide and to dwell within us to assure us to give us confidence to give us peace that we are the children of God God you have justified us you have adopted us yes you are sanctifying us

God and for that we give you praise honor and glory Lord today as we enter our time together in the preaching and teaching of your word

God I pray that you would prepare our hearts God mind as well as the congregations

God I pray that you would help us to take the things that we have studied this week to speak forth the truth of your word in a way that is number one

God pleasing and acceptable in your sight and number two in a way and in a manner that your people might be edified that your people might be encouraged that your people

God today might be strengthened in their faith in you and that God we would all be able to go away from this place our prayer is this to say it has been good to be in your house show us

Christ please Lord in the text of scriptures save the lost encourage the

Saint as always please God please give me clarity in my mind and liberty with my mouth as we proclaim the word of the

Living God to this congregation today and God I give you praise I give you honor

I give you glory for all things in Jesus name we pray a man stand with us if you would as you're standing turn with us to Ezra chapter 1 we're going to be reading verse number five in your hearing this morning verse number 5

Ezra chapter 1 verse 5 these are the words of the

Living God then rose up the heads of the father's houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the

Levites everyone whose spirit God had stirred up to go to rebuild the house of the

Lord that is in Jerusalem thus far as the reading of God's Word this morning you may be seated it seems a little awkward at times to read one verse of scripture but to know that we are going to be looking at many passages many verses of scripture nonetheless it still seems a bit awkward

I want to mention this as a as a word of encouragement that I am thankful today for this congregation this congregation is made up of same individuals who are real people who experience real hurt who experience real pain who go through real sorrow who have real trials who have real tribulations real people who really from time to time get disheartened and get down in the dumps but I thank

God beyond that that we as a congregation serve the true and the

Living God who is able to give comfort who is able to give strength who is able to give peace who is able to bring revival to the

Saints of the Living God and I'm thankful for that as we have been focusing on the last few weeks and as we continue to move through this summary of Ezra by the way it's not going to be a verse -by -verse exposition all the way through Ezra this this foundation that we're going through Ezra is to kind of establish our bearings to get our footing so as we examine the sermons of Haggai and Zechariah that we understand what's going on in these sermons but this past week

Josh posted something on Facebook and it says this I want to read this sometimes the kindness of God's providence is only visible in hindsight you know it's only visible in hindsight years or decades after what was initially a huge disappointment his loving kindness does indeed endure forever this was obviously a man who had been given some great thought to some things to which

I responded keep that in mind for Sunday sermon that's a word of encouragement to which

Greg Madison responded do you mean we are to keep in mind that this Sunday sermon may be a huge disappointment but we'll look back on it and realize that it was a huge blessing so that was not my intention although it may be a reality there are certainly many better preachers than I and no doubt

I preach disappointing sermons but today we want you to be encouraged encouraged by the

Word of God encouraged in not only hindsight what we see and recognize is

God's providence but understand and trust that today that you are in the hand of your

Heavenly Father who loves you and who cares for you and who keeps you and who guides you and in the future our future is in his hands there is no better place than we could be than in the hands of the

Almighty God that made the heavens and the earth today in your notes if you would like to put this header on your notes revival and its source revival and its source and in parentheses we're going to be really looking and examining a little bit about the doctrine of the perseverance of the

Saints the perseverance of the Saints revival in short is what produces personally the perseverance of the

Saints of God or the preservation of the Saints of God we are kept by the

Spirit's power we are fed by the Word of God we are renewed in our inner man day after day by the goodness of God the

Holy Spirit so by way of summary as we make our way into verse 5 let's just be reminded when we talk about God's sovereignty as we consider

God's providence I want to read to you a quote from Derek Thomas now you may hear me say in referring to him you may hear me calling him

Derek Brooks as I study time and time again throughout this week I kept even in my mind and when

I would mouth words calling him Derek Brooks Derek Brooks is a lot was a linebacker for the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers okay Derek Thomas is a living preacher today preaches with Ligonier ministry so but nonetheless

Derek Thomas said this he said every event of every circumstance is the outcome of the sovereign over ruling of God that includes the actions of an otherwise godless king of a tyrannical empire so we're talking about Cyrus remember in the last weeks we we considered

Cyrus how God brought Cyrus to where he was gave Cyrus all that he had caused

Cyrus incited or stirred up Cyrus roused him to sin

God's people back to Jerusalem now from the point of view of the exiles

Derek Thomas said this it was reassuring that God had not forgotten them nor were they beyond his reach what a blessing it is to know that even in the darkest of places the

Lord can overrule politicians and leaders to turn events around to favor the

Church of Jesus Christ God had a plan and not even Cyrus could impede

God's plan in fact Cyrus was a part of it so with Thomas having said that I would add this let's consider this that long before the children of Israel were given over to Babylonian captivity there were wicked rulers there were wicked rulers in and out of Jerusalem both in and out of Jerusalem as I stated the

Lord was not wringing his hands have any of you ever been worried and wring your hands or you this is not

I guess twiddling your thumbs is this right tapping your fingers whatever there's a lot of anthropomorphisms for shows shows and signs of anxiety and worry but God was not anxious

God has never been anxious or worried as though he does not understand or know the outcome of all things he was not thinking to himself in light of Ezra's situation here in the context of Ezra's book he was not thinking to himself oh me

I need to get a people to establish a governmental system so that I can finally be in control that was not anywhere near the mind of God he has never been out of control

God has never been out of control and he has never nor will he ever relinquish his sovereign authority over creation and what we see in the course of human history is this and the last part of Thomas's statement was this what we see in the course of human history is this that the initiative of men and the sovereignty of God are concurrent or confluent now those are two big words concurrent simply means this that there are two things happening simultaneously at the same time what is going on simultaneously at the same time is the initiative of men and the sovereign will of God now where the really difficult and hard thinking comes into play is trying to get our minds around this idea of the confluence of events of the merging together of these events the merging together of how man wants to make a plan but how

God directs man's steps how the sovereign will of God is working here in the context of our passage concurrently side -by -side and confluently by merging the events of history now this can be a volatile thing volatile it means dangerous now

I'm not a chemist nor the son of a chemist I know the saying is not a prophet or the son of a prophet but I'm saying

I'm not a chemist or the son of a chemist my father -in -law I'm the son -in -law of a man who knows chemistry

Kenny your other elder knows chemistry and some of you likely may be aware of what goes on in chemistry chemistry can be a dangerous thing if you mix the wrong chemicals together you might endure light pain or you may endure severe pain there may be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth or if you do it right there may be joy in whatever is produced and enjoy but nonetheless when we consider the confluence of the sovereignty of God and the initiative of man this is very volatile man it will never be able to figure this working out and truly it is to us still a great mystery but to try to bring it down to our level think about this think about the blending of atoms so how many of you have ever heard of h2o water hey he's on it he's not a chemist but he saved in a holiday and Express right so h2o 200 and two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom make h2o atoms cannot be seen right but what if just one molecule of oxygen was added to h2o it becomes h202 h202 is hydrogen peroxide do you drink hydrogen peroxide for refreshment no hydrogen peroxide will kill you right but h2o refreshes you can't we explain how can we explain this we can't necessarily but just for the example understand just how delicate the merging and the working together of all things for God by God according to his will is thank

God that he does not need us nor ask us for our help we might say what would one more

Adam do how bad could it be right so we see this so we see the merging the confluence of man's will and God's will and those things working together

God's will accomplishing all things so chapter 3 of the London Baptist confession of faith paragraph 1 concerning God's decree this is helpful to us from all

God decreed everything that occurs without reference to anything outside of himself how did he do this he did this by perfectly wise and the

Holy Council of his own will freely and unchangeably yet God did this in such a way that he is neither the author of sin nor has fellowship with any in their sin in this decree

God's wisdom is displayed in directing all things and his power and faithfulness are demonstrated in accomplishing his decree so without violating the way things happen the meaningfulness of cause or effect or the freely given agency of individuals what

God does is this that God ensures that his will his sovereign decree occurs again

I won't say anything else on that but this it is a great mystery but it is the consistent teaching of scripture so we should cling to the scripture we should trust in the sovereignty of almighty

God that being said now let's look at this fifth verse and again reading it then rose up the heads of the fathers houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the

Levites and everyone whose spirit God had stirred up to go rebuild the house of the

Lord that is in Jerusalem what do we see here what do we see here we see here the

Lord stirred up just as he stirred up Cyrus the Lord stirred up the heads of the houses and everyone who would go up to Jerusalem this means the people also this one verse is very very important because in it we see the doctrine of the preservation or the perseverance of the

Saints however you want to state that doctrine we see this doctrine of the preservation of the

Saints to define this doctrine of the preservation of the perseverance of the Saints chapter 17 of our confession states this those

God has accepted in the beloved effectually called and sanctified by his spirit and given the precious faith of his elect can neither totally nor finally fall from a state of grace ain't that good news they will certainly persevere in grace to the end and will be eternally saved because the gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable therefore he still brings about and nourishes them in the faith us in the faith he still brings about repentance love joy hope and all the graces of the spirit that lead to immortality for even though and the confession is so personable here even though many storms and floods arise and beat against the people of God yet these things will never be able to move the elect from the foundation and the rock to which they are anchored by faith the felt side of the lot and the love of God may be clouded and obscured from them for a time through their unbelief and through temptations of Satan yet God is still the same they will certainly be kept by the power of God for salvation where they will enjoy their purchased possession for they are engraved on the palms of his hands and their names have been written in the book of life from all of eternity so when we talk about this doctrine of perseverance of the

Saints when we look at this text what we see is revival what we see is revival in the souls and in the minds of God's people it is the reviving by God of his

Saints throughout history that demonstrates the truthfulness of the doctrine of the perseverance of the

Saints now it is also necessary for us to be reminded that perseverance doesn't come from an inner moxie nor does it come by self -will no matter how hard you squint your eyes and grit your teeth you cannot produce what

God all alone produces in the heart of the believer it does not come by self -will rather the perseverance of the

Saints is the work of the Holy Spirit who causes us both to will to want and to do his good pleasure

Philippians 1 6 is the reference there so this word stirred up that's used in verse 5 he stirred up this to spirit of God whose spirit

God had stirred up this is the same word the same Hebrew word that was used in verse 1 when

God when the word says that God stirred the spirit of Cyrus so now this word stir it has negative connotations and it has positive connotations there are understandably some negative connotations or some what may be frightening effects of something being stirred like in the

New Testament when we read when the disciples got out on the boat and the sea became boisterous it was stirred up right that might be a negative stirring another aspect of negative stirring might be when we hear someone stirring up trouble stirring up trouble is not a positive thing but I am so thankful for the words of Charles Spurgeon he said there are such things as good stirs stirs for the better stirs which help us to remove the evil consequence of stagnation does everybody know what stagnation is have you ever tried to drink stagnant water don't it's a bad idea stagnation becoming so still that there's no motion and everything just seems to be dead but what

God does what the Holy Spirit of God does what he did then through the preaching of the word what he does now by the preaching of his word is that he stirs up the saints of God he stirs us he rouses us he incites us to worship him in all that we do and in all that we say

Spurgeon went on to say this there are at certain times and certain seasons blessed blowings of the sacred wind from heaven through the garden of mankind and whereas he said that I want to I want to incorporate this these blessed blowings of the sacred wind are what we might know and recognize as revival that when

God the Holy Spirit stirs and he moves in our hearts and he moves in our minds now we must recognize a couple of things when we consider this term or this word revival revival is a real thing we read it throughout the scriptures we've seen it throughout history revival is a real thing and yes revival is necessary for all of us time to time

I would say this that many of the younger generation whether they're saved or lost maybe have not ever experienced or known what the old people call

Holy Ghost revival and it is something I pray that all of the children here get to see to know to experience as they grow as they mature as they come to faith that they understand and they know that God is real he is not an idol that we worship he is he is not something that we concocted in our mind he is the creator of the heavens and the earth he is the redeemer of mankind he is

God and he alone is God so we pray that the young people will experience this in their lives but know this

I want to be careful too when I say this revival revival is not just a resurgence of biblical knowledge we have experienced over the years 10 20 30 years in America a resurgence of let's call it the doctrines of grace there's been a resurgence of this knowledge many have latched on to this these these doctrines of grace but just the knowledge alone as was mentioned in Sunday school knowledge alone does not make for a move of the

Spirit of God the Spirit of God comes when God the person of the Holy Spirit comes and he does a work in our hearts and he doesn't work in our minds biblical revival biblical revival is an increase in biblical knowledge of knowledge of truth of the scriptures however it is not that alone it is also a resurgence of holy living amongst

God's people because orthodoxy right things truth from God's Word sanctifies us what do we learn in Sunday school sanctification right that is the work of God the free by the free grace of God God works and moves so in his people that he makes us into his image and after his likeness knowledge of the truth of God is inseparably connected to holy living so there are many instances many instances of revival that have marked history itself some are little known in the church church history so on and so forth others are more well known but just to name a couple some biblical examples of revival in the

Old Testament you might read about Josiah's reforms this was when Josiah set forth the law of God to the people the people clung to the law of God for a period of time another example of biblical revival might be

Nineveh when Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah which might have been one of the shortest sermons ever and yet people repented in the

New Testament we have the book of Acts after biblical history we read of revivals taking place before the

Dark Ages after the Dark Ages we have the Reformation itself some of you may have heard of the

Reformation being around here regularly right we have the Reformation itself then there were the

Great Awakenings then we have there was there was a revival on the

Isle of Lewis in Wales which was a made more kind of a popular revival that took place and we have many geographically specific revivals that nobody but the people in those areas know about even to this day but my friend

God moves God works God changes God revives his people it is by the grace and the mercy of God that we are here today and no

Sarah I will not be preaching for two hours as I jokingly told you but what is revival again in biblical context what we're looking at we see the

Lord stirred up the spirit of people to go from Babylon back to Jerusalem so in biblical context we we should understand the term revival to be a move of the

Spirit of God in which God the Holy Spirit renews and energizes his people to do his work and as such we should always seek to have a biblical understanding of revival

RC Sproul said this our Lord will use any means necessary to provoke his people to repentance and to keep them in the faith there's no getting out of the faith thanks be unto

God that he keeps us we must be stirred of course to life unto salvation and what follows is the resulting momentum of pressing forward in the faith this is the perseverance of the

Saints the Apostle Paul put it this way he said this I don't count myself to have apprehended even though I've done all these things but I forget those things which are behind and I press forward toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God which is in Christ Jesus my

Lord and I might be found in him not having my own righteousness and so that I might know the resurrection from the dead as he was raised from the dead so concerning the text here concerning the place of these people folks may be made capable to do the work that God sets before them there may be ability galore for God certainly provides means to accomplish his ends but until the

Lord stirs the people until God moves the people to do a thing all is in vain the

Lord moved Cyrus the Lord moved the heads of the houses of Israel and the

Lord stirred up the people to do a great work this great work was in reality far more than just building another temple this temple pointed to the greater temple that's

Jesus it pointed to the greater sacrifice that's Jesus it pointed to the greater promise that's

Jesus that is the person in the work of Jesus Christ Jesus said in the

New Testament as we had finished going through Luke you you should likely recognize this accounting here

Jesus told them in the New Testament as he they stared and gazed upon the temple

Herod's remodeled temple Jesus said you tear down this temple and in three days

I will build it again now we know he wasn't talking about that temple he wasn't talking about the brick and the mortar he wasn't talking about the jewels he wasn't talking about the inlaid gold he wasn't talking about the tapestry he was talking about his own body and so as Jesus was talking about himself know this that he did just what he said he would do they destroyed his temple but in three days he rose again from the dead so this task that was set before the children of Israel was no small task to raise up the temple from the foundation upward was in fact a phenomenally large task the foundation stones themselves were quite large the foundation stones themselves were likely up to 40 feet long and likely weighed up to 500 tons just the foundation stones themselves the manpower necessary to accomplish this feat was staggering in the remodel of this temple that was done in Herod's time as I mentioned it took around a hundred priests and 100 ,000 laborers just for the remodel so we can imagine the amount of work that it took to raise it from the ground the work would not only require a great deal of physical activity and strength but even more importantly it would require a large amount of spiritual fortitude it would require a large amount of spiritual strength and again this spiritual strength this spiritual fortitude is the driving force behind the rebuilding of the temple it was not done by the power of the flesh it was done by the

Spirit and the power of Almighty God so revival revival is the work of God turn over to chapter 9 in Israel if you would chapter 9 and notice what

Ezra writes here in this ninth chapter beginning in verse we'll read verse 8 and 9 but now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the

Lord our God to leave us a remnant Troy read to us about that remnant referred to in Romans to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place that our

God may brighten our eyes and notice the words and give us a little reviving give us a little reviving in our slavery for we are slaves yet our

God has not forsaken us in our slavery but it has extended to us steadfast love before the kings of Persia and it's stated again to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our

God to repair its ruins and to give us protection in Judah and in Jerusalem so we can see in this text that the people needed the power of the

Spirit to enliven and to encourage them please never think that you are so far along in your spiritual walk that you no longer need the

Spirit of God never think that you are so spiritually mature that you can do it on your own because I'll guarantee you if you'll read from Genesis to the book of the

Revelation you will find that you are sorrowfully and miserably wrong that you are hopeless and helpless without the work of the

Spirit of God in your life so we see this so our day and our time is certainly no different just as they needed the

Spirit of God we need the Spirit of God and what we need to be able to is

God to do is God's people is to number one recognize the work of the Spirit we need to recognize the work of the

Spirit of God and secondly we must be willing to return thanks to him for his glorious working in his people my goodness gracious I encourage you not now because it'd be totally awkward but sit just sit in Sunday school stand outside after church look at people look at people people that you know some some of us haven't known each other too awful long so you don't have really a lot of past to go on but look at people you know and look at where they are in their walk with the

Lord and think that just say to yourself thanks be unto God thanks be unto

God for his work mighty working in his people when you get home look in the mirror and you won't know that you will you'll know this person better than you know anybody else look at that person and if you know you are growing in the faith give thanks to God for God is doing his sanctifying work by his

Holy Spirit in your life you are a reason to thank God in context let's move along here in context it's likely been as we remember our timeline as we set before you a few weeks ago likely 90 to 120 years is the timeline for the book of Ezra we see some time jumps as we move along we'll examine one of those here in just a minute as well but likely it's been 80 to 90 years that have passed since Israel returned to Jerusalem and began this rebuilding process where we to the point where here in chapter 9 we read the words of Ezra that God has given some reviving to them

Ezra didn't come till about 80 years after the first exodus or after the first exodus and the first exiles came to Jerusalem so he says this looking back on the mighty work of God the mighty work of God had been accomplished and undergirded how the scripture tells us by in chapter in chapter 6 the scripture tells us this in verse 14 and the elders of the

Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah the son of Edo so they prospered they were revived by the prophesying by the preaching by the proclamation of the

Word of God so Robert Fleming another of the old dead guys little less known but he said this one witness which holds forth the

Lord's extraordinary power in the reformation of the church from anti -christianism and he's speaking about the

Reformation he said this is that Lord is that large measure of the

Spirit which convincingly followed the gospel in ministry of the Word in these last times this is

God's own seal which is not put forth to a falsehood he bears witness to his work in the hearts of his people and by this also the

Lord attests the doctrine of the church and commission of his servants yes at some special see it seasons

Fleming said this as some special seasons when the truth has least encouragement from without when men will not receive its testimony then has this in a more full and large measure been discernible thus did the

Lord eminently confirm the Christian religion in the days of the Apostles and for some following ages by so great a downpouring of the

Spirit by such visible and extraordinary effects as then astonished the world and forced men to confess something above nature and we have also caused to say that the

Lord has borne a very solemn testimony to the work of the Reformation and to the doctrine of the

Reformed churches that being said to rule out the work of the

Holy Spirit for any church is a great sin for us not to magnify the mysterious operation of the

Holy Spirit in both the work of salvation and sanctification is unimaginable may we ever and may we always say with the words of the song we sung last week praise the

Father praise the Son praise the Spirit three in one one in power one in grace that name above all other names may we ever praise the triune

God now are we supposed to think here in this text or as we read the book of Ezra are we supposed to think that this work was accomplished by the power of the flesh how else would this be explainable that in the first phase of the return 50 ,000 and this is an approximation and I'm going on the count given to us in the

Ezra text here that 50 ,000 people came to the broke -down city of Jerusalem and for approximately 20 to 25 years they've been working on the temple they've been working on the temple not in good conditions they've been working on the temple being trapped being under trial being under tribulation being under persecution constantly having their lives threatened their lives and their livelihoods also being at stake but what did the

Lord do the Lord helped them and the Lord encouraged them through the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah if you turn to chapter 5 here in Ezra Ezra chapter 5 verse 1 and verse 2 notice what the

Word of God says now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah the son of Edo prophesied to the

Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them then

Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Yeshua the son of Josedek arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem and the prophets of God were with them supporting them undergirding them holding them up so consider this consider that many of these returning exiles 50 ,000 approximate number many of these 50 ,000 returning exiles had not seen the former temple and many had only heard the accounts of what temple worship was like because there were two generations they were in Babylon 70 years two generations children had been born children had been raised grandchildren had been had great -grandchildren had been had and many of these people had never known what it was to see the temple in its glory but now by the sovereign hand and the work of Almighty God they were going to experience for themselves worship worship that was not pagan worship that was not idolatrous they were going to see the top and they were going to see the shadow of the sacrifice that would be set forth in the person of Jesus Christ some 500 years down the road past them they were going to see this

Matthew Poole states this these whose spirit God had raised to go up to whom

God had given this pious disposition and that fortitude that God had given them fortitude and God had given them resolution which it required to break through their difficulties which

Matthew Poole said were many and which were great now an example of these discouragements that they that they encountered if you flip back backwards one chapter to verse 4 or chapter 4

I'm sorry chapter 4 and let's look at verse 4 and 5 for just a moment as again as our as our text sets it before us the biblical text tells us some of the challenges and the discouragements that they faced the text says this in Ezra 4 verse 4 then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and they bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia even until the reign of Darius king of Persia we have specific details given to us now here's here's the beauty the beautiful part in this text these this timeline that is given us through Cyrus's reign so we know the year 538 is when the

Exiles came to Jerusalem they were sent out of Babylon to Jerusalem in 538

Cyrus's reign ended in 530 so for eight years the entirety of Cyrus's reign that they were there there was a period of time of a king who's not mentioned

I can't remember his name right now starts with a G for another eight years before Darius came to be ruler and reigned as king in Persia that gives us about 16 years where the scripture tells us that they were made afraid to build that they were lied on that bribes were given to impede and to stop the work of God but what do we know the work went on not only did the work go on but the work succeeded it prospered through the head and under and by the preaching the proclamation the prophesying of Zechariah and Haggai so we see that this is yet another reason 16 years you think man we have a rough month and we're ready to give up man

I'm through with God God ain't doing nothing for me any about what he can do for you look to look to what he has already done the amazing part of grace is that not that God loved anybody but that he loves you that he loves me that he cared so much that he sent his son to die for my sin thanks be unto

God for this so these people for 16 years at this point at this point in Israel needed to be revived and they needed to be revived regularly in here as well it would be good for us to make a point that in your time through the week

I encourage you if you haven't already been reading through Ezra to continue to read through Ezra because it is it can be challenging it can be tough particularly from verse 6 through the end of this chapter because we have the introduction of a

Hasura and our desert cease which is almost like a time jump has happened nevertheless nevertheless

I want you to know this the point being is this that the tribulation and the peril did not come to an end after the work was finished even after the temple was complete the tribulation didn't in the persecution didn't stop it continued and it continues even till this day that we live in the church's work of gospel proclamation hasn't ended and it won't end until that day when

Christ comes to make all things new we praise thee

O God for the son of our love for Jesus who died and is now gone above we praise thee

O God for thy spirit of life who has shown us our Savior and who has scattered our night we praise thee

O God for the joy thou hast given to the saints in communion these four tastes of heaven revive us again fill each heart with our love make each soul be rekindled with fire from above and the refrain of that song says hallelujah the glory hallelujah

I'm in hallelujah by the glory revive us again we still need revival

Christian you need revival you need revival in your heart you need revival in your soul

I can't give that to you sir can't get that to you Kenny can't get that to you the deacons can't get that to you you can't get that necessarily one to another but my friend

God the Holy Spirit will revive the meek and the lowly heart where he said

I am near unto those who are meek and lowly to the broken into the contract of heart so I want to remind you church reminds you to church reminds you of this that individual members of this body of Christ need to be stirred up and you need to be revived and you need to know this yesterday is gone nothing can be done about that but what we have is today today is upon us and what we do with today is of the utmost importance tomorrow is not here yet so we need not fret about what tomorrow holds for today we have all that is necessary in the

Word of God to encourage and to equip us for all that lays ahead of us it was the preaching and the teaching of the prophets

Hagin and Zechariah that caused the people to prosper then and it is still today the faithful preaching and teaching of sound doctrine that will undergird and cause

God's church to press on to persevere in the faith we hear that word doctrine doctrine by definition is specific teaching let's not generalize the term doctrine is specific teaching it is specific teaching about absolute truth

Webster's Dictionary the 1828 versions that define doctrine like this doctrine is that which is laid down as true by an instructor or a master scripture is the sole source of sound doctrine when the

Bible speaks of sound doctrine it speaks of absolute truth as laid down by God in Christ is the head of the church and sound doctrine is the backbone of the church thanks be unto

God John Gary another of the lesser -known Puritan said this the Puritan esteemed the reading of the

Word of God an ordinance both in private and in public but they did not account reading to be the preaching how true this statement is listen the word read he esteemed of more authority but the word preached of more efficacy he counted preaching as necessary now as in the primitive the old church

God's pleasure being still that by the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe he esteemed that preaching best was most of God least of man when vain flourishes of wit and words were declined and the demonstration of God's spirit and power were studied by the preacher there's a place for the reading of the

Word of God this is why we take time to read the Word of God and there is a place for the preaching of the

Word of God because there is an importance of the preaching of the Word of God so as we see here as we move to close as we see here in Israel we have seen throughout the years of church history that there is nothing greater than the move of God's spirit through the preaching of his word to bring about both revival and repentance the church the church does not need reckless revolutionaries what the church needs is men who are studied in the

Bible men who have been born again men who know this power of the

Spirit both personally and experientially who can teach and who can preach the

Bible to other men women boys and girls so that this process becomes the repeated pattern for the remainder of the church's days in this world whether they be many or whether they be few this ought to be the pattern of the church

I love the words of Steve Lawson another of the living preachers that are good he said this give us the men who know the truth men who will declare the truth who will stand with Athanasius and Polycarp who will stand with Calvin and Luther who will stand with Whitefield and Edwards and who will declare from the housetops that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation unto the

Jew first and also to the Greek and unto all who shall call on the name of the

Lord in closing let's read Ezra 6 14 and 15 Ezra 6 14 and 15 again we read this earlier but I want to read it in closing just to sum everything up and the elders of the

Jews the elders of the Jews built and prospered they built and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the

Prophet and Zechariah the son of Edo they finished their building by decree of the

God of Israel and by the decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king they needed reviving they needed regular reviving and that reviving came through the preaching of the word remember earlier our time frame was 16 years 16 years plus 8 is around 24 years so 24 years constant plagues of trouble and trial and tribulation and peril and threats and lies all this went on but for 24 years they labored and the house of the

Lord was finished but the work was not done because the physical house represented the spiritual house the physical house pointed to Jesus Christ Jesus Christ came

Jesus Christ live a sinless life the thought that we are unable to live

Jesus Christ died the death that we could not die for us on our behalf his elect people he was put in the grave buried for three days and on the third day he arose victorious over death and over the grave he ascended to the throne of God where he ever lives to make intercession for his people this very day may we lean upon God may we trust the work of the

Holy Spirit in our lives and may we cast our cares on him ever and always stand with us if you