It's Time! — Ronald Glass

The Word of God as the Foundation of Revival

This morning I want to draw your attention to one brief passage from the great 119th Psalm. Psalm 119. And Today my thoughts are going to be focused on verses 123 through 128 beginning in the hundred and twenty-third verse of Psalm 119.

My eyes fail with longing for your salvation and For your righteous word. Deal with your servant according to your loving kindness and teach me your statutes. I Am your servant? Give me understanding that I may know your testimonies for it is time for the Lord to act.

But they have broken your law. Therefore, I love your commandments above gold. Yes above fine gold. Therefore I esteem right all your precepts concerning everything I hate every false way. We American evangelicals may not be at the point of desperation.

Yet. But we may be soon sooner than we might expect. The economic political cultural and especially the spiritual climate of our nation is collapsing. The enemies of our ways of life are no longer chipping away at our freedom.

They are taking a sledgehammer to it. It's unprecedented. So when we come to the point of desperation, what are we going to do? Panic. Resist. Fight back. Give up in fear. Run away and hide. Politics won't change things.

God himself is the one who can bring about a Systemic transformation of our world our nation and most importantly of the believing Church. So the appropriate action for the church at the present time is To plead to God for a thoroughgoing Nationwide revival.

But Evangelical Christianity today is largely soundly asleep. We're complacent in our worldliness. We do not have a concern for the holiness of God and we need awakening. And that's why we are speaking in these days on the great subject of biblical revival.

What is revival? Last week. I gave you a definition from the Welsh preacher Jeffrey Thomas. He said it this way revival is the arraigning of the heavens. It is the divine Intervention in the affairs of men.

It is God making bear his arm and working for his people sovereignly and omnipotently. Another writer has put it this way. It is an abnormal method God uses to bring his subnormal children into a normal Christian walk.

It is the Holy Spirit breathing new life into his church and That's what we are exploring from the pages of Scripture in this series. I am so burdened about this because of the fact that so few evangelical Christians today Understand what revival is.

They don't know about it. They've never heard about it. And that's what I am trying to do both from Scripture in history to alert you to the dynamics of biblical revival. I Today something from dr. Samuel prime writing in 1858 about the revival that began the previous year in New York City.

We talked about that earlier in our series. Dr. Prime writes about the world the environment in America in 1857. Here's what he said as a nation. We were becoming rapidly demoralized by our worldliness our ambition our vanity and our vices.

The true the great end for which we believe this nation was raised up was being lost sight of the very Foundations were moving. We needed this great awakening to bring us to our senses to rouse up the national conscience to arrest the national decay and Bring us back to a high tone of moral health.

Nothing, but the influence of a deep and all-pervading earnest piety. That means godliness can save this from the fate of all past republics. The tide of corruption must be rolled backward. This was felt Everywhere felt now.

He could have been writing that in 2009 but he was writing it in 1858 then as now. The need was for revival. Most Christians don't have any idea of what revival is and how it comes and how its fruits are preserved.

And that's why today I Want to look at this it further by coming to the 119th Psalm. Which was probably written by David in the latter years of his reign. In this great discourse a poetic masterpiece on the subject of the Word of God.

We discover that the foundation of revival is in fact nothing less than God's Word. And this is what should be the urgent burden of our lives today. We need to stand where David stood in these verses that I have read you see real revival is centered on scripture God's inspired inerrant and authoritative revelation in human language.

True revival never violates the truth of God's Word. Never and that's one of the reasons or one of the criteria it is really the only criteria by which we can judge. That which claims to be a revival or that which claims to be the awakening power of God or that which claims to be? the work of the Holy Spirit.

We subject it to the standard of God's Word. The Bible is always at the center of genuine revival. And we're going to see that today from our text in three ways. So I want you to look with me and listen carefully as we focus on this particular Subject related to revival and that is what role does the Bible play in the revival of God's people.

A Desperate Longing for God's Word

And here it is first of all revival means a desperate longing for God's Word. We see that in verses 123 to 125. Let me put it to you this way. Number one the zeal for revival. Some people would rather use the word passion today all right use that word then the passion or the zeal for revival is born in our frustration of spiritual desire.

Verse 123 David says my eyes fail with longing for your salvation and for your righteous word. There is a tone of disappointment here. David Apparently has been looking for the awakening power of God for a long time and it hasn't come.

Reminds me of the great preacher in England of the past generation David Martin Lloyd-Jones he was a man who was possessed with a desire for the awakening of the church there in England and around the world.

And he said at the end of his long life that the greatest disappointment of his life was that God had not sent the revival. For which he had prayed. This the verse you can almost see David shipwrecked on an island out in the middle of the ocean.

Somewhere and David has been looking every day every night. Constantly going to the highest point of the little island and looking out across the horizon looking at the at the sea all around for a desperate glimpse of a ship on that horizon.

Somebody to come and help him and rescue him, but that help has not come. I want you to notice that there is a definite relationship here between the disappointment of desperate longing for deliverance and the absence of biblical teaching.

The last part of the verse says for your righteous word my My eyes are failing. I'm just I I'm I'm failing. I am Disappointed in the fact that salvation deliverance has not come. My hungering my desire is for deliverance for salvation and for your righteous word.

David is saying here I'm starving to be fed. From God's Word when you come back earlier in this long poem to the 25th verse David said there my soul cleaves to the dust. Now instead of the Shipwrecked man on an island here you can see a man lost in the middle of a blazing hot desert.

And he's thirsty my soul cleaves to the dust. Revive me. Bring new life to me according to your word. The zeal for revival has always begun in the hearts of some individual or some small group of people who are Frustrated with spiritual desire they are disappointed.

They have prayed God Send your spirit as they said in the Welsh revival bend us bend us break us as We sometimes sing let your glory fall. We are thirsty Lord. And day after day nothing happens. Nothing happens.

Nothing happens. Lord my eyes fail with longing for your salvation. How many people today? How many of you have come here? How many of you could say honestly and mean it? I have come to church today because I'm starving to be fed God's Word.

Not many Christians would say that today a zeal for revival is born in our frustration of spiritual desire. Secondly the zeal for revival is nurtured through our instruction in biblical truth notice verse 124 deal with your servant according to your loving-kindness and teach me your statutes.

David asks for the Lord to deal with him according to his now here. We have that biblical term and I've often spoken of this word loving-kindness. This is a word in the Hebrew text, which means covenant loyalty.

Faithfulness to his promises. Where are the promises of God in the Word of God? So what David is praying here is for God to go back to the promises that he had made the covenant. Promises the promises attached to the relationship that he had established with Israel.

Where do we see that earlier in our study? We pointed back to Deuteronomy chapters 28 through 30 there God's established the covenant with Israel. He said there If you obey me and you do the things that I tell you if you follow the words of this law My word which I have given you then I will bless you and if you disobey Then I will punish you and history had proven that God meant exactly what he said.

So when David pleads with God to deal with him according to his loving-kindness He's asking him to deal with him according to the promises that he had made in his word. That's why the verse we looked at previously 2nd Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14 is a promise of revival.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their sinful their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and I will Forgive their sins and I will heal their land.

You see what God is saying is if you go back at to the promises I made and you obey me. Then I will respond with blessing and with healing. So revival is grounded in God's promises and his Promises are contained in his word if you go towards further towards the end of this great psalm.

Look at verse 149 hear my voice According to your loving-kindness. According to your covenant promises. And then David prays Revive me O Lord according to your ordinances. You see that revival always happens according to God's Word.

Always now I want to examine this for a few moments from a historical viewpoint. First of all God's Word was at the center of Israel's revivals. Listen. God's Word was to be at the very center of the life of the nation.

When God gave instructions in the law Deuteronomy chapter 17 he gave instructions with regard to the behavior of the king. They didn't even have a king yet. It would have been it would be hundreds of years before Israel would have a king but listen to this.

Now it shall come about when he the king verse 18 Deuteronomy 17 18 now. It shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom. He shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical Priests it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life.

That he may learn to fear the Lord his God by carefully Observing all the words of this law and these statutes that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen. That he may not turn aside from the commandment to the left or the Right so that he met he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

The king had an enormous responsibility. And it was first and foremost to make a copy of the law to read the cop to read that law Virtually every day of his life and to administer the affairs of the nation by that law.

Now when Moses passed off the scene in Joshua took over God very quickly said to Joshua Here's the secret for your success as the leader of my people. Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.

But you shall meditate on it day and night. So that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way Prosperous and then you will have success. This was just the problem in the book of Judges, which is one of the most The most heart-wrenching books in all of the Old Testament.

It is a book of constant apostasy. Israel sinning Israel sinning and so the sins just get worse and worse. When you come to the end of the book, it's so so foul. You don't even want to read it. But listen to what is said there more than once in those last chapters of Judges.

There was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes. Do you see why the problem was that there was no king? There was no king and there was no one who was reading the law of God every day and Administering the affairs of state by the principles of God's law.

So, of course the course of the nation was everybody does whatever they please. It is a total. The whole nation is living as a bunch of libertarians doing whatever they want to do no restraints. Now that was Israel's problem.

For years they had been deprived of God's Word. Now when you come let's for a moment. Go back to 2nd Chronicles to the 15th chapter. This is a passage. We looked at earlier in our study. This is Asa, but listen to this verse again.

This is 2nd Chronicles 15 3. This is the message of the Prophet Azariah to King Asa for many days Israel was without the true God and Without a teaching priest and without law. You see that without? The law of God without a teaching Priest.

I was referring to the days of the judges you read that you read the record in the days of judges. What were the priests doing? There's a very sad story toward the end of the book of Judges that gives us the answer to that the priests were unemployed.

And they were wandering around looking for a place to minister and one of them ended up Serving in the house of a man who had gotten idols. It's a sad story. But the point was the priests were unemployed.

What should they have been doing? Well, let's go back to the Do it a book of Deuteronomy again, and here was God's plan. Deuteronomy chapter 31 beginning in the ninth verse and it reads this way so Moses wrote this law and he gave it to the priests the sons of Levi who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to all the elders of Israel.

Then Moses commanded them saying at the end of every seven years at the time of the year of remission of debts at the feast Of booths when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place which he will choose.

You shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing Assemble the people the men and the women and the children and the alien who is in your town so that they may hear and Learn and fear the Lord your God and be careful to observe all the words of this law.

There are children who have not known will hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live on the land Which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess men women old young People children were all to hear the word of the Lord as it was taught every seven years by the Levites.

They were to read it and teach it thoroughly and then the parents were to go home and make sure that they taught it to their children. In fact, here's what it says when Moses blessed the tribes of Israel in Deuteronomy 33 verse 10 concerning Levi.

He says they shall teach your ordinances in Jacob and your law in Israel. That was the job of the priests a Job which they Spectacularly avoided throughout the history of the nation. What was Israel's solution?

When Jehoshaphat the king saw that the nation needed to be revived. What did he do? We read it earlier 2nd Chronicles chapter 17. Listen to it again Verse 7 in the third year of his reign. He said his officials now names have been hailed Obadiah Zechariah Nathanael Micaiah to teach in the cities of Judah.

He sent his own officials out to be teachers of the people along with them. He sent the Levites they're named in verse 8 and then at the end We're told Elisha ma and Jehoram the priests went with them.

In other words He reactivated the priests and the Levites to do what they should have been doing all along which was teaching the Word of God. Verse 9 they taught in Judah having the book of the law of the Lord with them and they went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught among all the people.

Let me give you another example of this from the history of Israel and that is the Very godly priest Ezra in Ezra chapter 7 verse 10. We find about Ezra personally. This is a great comment with regard to Ezra the man Ezra 710.

Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord. And to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. Here was a godly man. The first thing he did is he studied the law of God and Then he lived it and then he taught it to the nation of Israel.

There's the order study it live it teach it. That was what Ezra did now the result of that we find in the next book and that is the book of Nehemiah Chapter 8 where we see a great awakening that took place at a place in Jerusalem called the water gate.

Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 3 Ezra the priest now brings the law the book of the law and The people come to listen. Verse 3 he read from it before the square which was in front of the water gate from early morning until midday in the presence of men and women.

Those who could understand all the people were attentive to the book of the law as were the scribes stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose and beside him stood and on these men are mentioned.

Verse 5. Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people and when he Opened it all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered amen amen while lifting up their hands.

Then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Verse 8 they read from the book from the law of God Translating it to give the sense so that they understood the reading. What was the impact verse 1 of chapter 9.

Now on the 24th day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with? Fasting in sackcloth and with dirt upon them the descendants of Israel Separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

While they stood in their place they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day and another fourth they confessed and Worshiped the Lord their God. Simply stated when the Word of God was read and taught and translated and understood by the people it Confronted them with their sins and when it confronted them with their sins it broke their hearts they confessed.

They repented of their sins and God breathed new life into his people Israel. Now this is just a couple of instances to show you that when God revives his people it is the Word of God. That is at the center of that.

The Reformation and the Recovery of Biblical Preaching

Now let me move forward to the history of the church the church's problem. Historically going back about 500 years was that medieval Rome? The Roman Church had taken the Bible away from the people of Europe for literally a millennium.

The Roman Church had denied the Bible to the common people. They did not have the Bible in their own language and Even if they did many of them couldn't have read it. They couldn't read. And most Grievously the priests of the Roman Church did not preach the word Martin Luther when he finally emerged as the great reformer his great battle cry of the Reformation was the priests do Not preach.

That was his great gripe. One of them with the Roman Church. What was the church's solution. Well, let me look for a moment with you at the greatest revival in church history. We call it the Reformation.

Let me Quote a few sentences from Martin Luther one of Martin Luther's biographers Roland Bainton. Here's what he says. The Reformation gave centrality to the sermon. You see before that the centerpiece was the mass.

Now the Reformation gave centrality to the sermon. The pulpit was higher than the altar for Luther held that salvation is through the word. And without the word the elements are devoid of sacramental quality.

But that the word is sterile unless it is spoken. He says the Reformation did exalt the sermon. The Reformers at Wittenberg undertook an extensive campaign of religious instruction through the sermon.

Listen. This is what happened at Wittenberg when Luther Be where Luther began the Reformation. There were three public services on Sunday from 5 to 6 in the morning. Do you hear that 5 to 6 in the morning on the Pauline epistles?

From 9 to 10 on the Gospels and in the afternoon a variable hour on a Continuation of the theme of the morning or on the Catechism. But the church was not locked during the week. But on Mondays and Tuesdays there were sermons on the Catechism.

Wednesdays on the Gospel of Matthew Thursdays and Fridays on the Apostolic Letters and Saturday evening on John's Gospel. And though there was a staff of clergy Luther took a lion's share of the preaching in all of this.

He often spoke four times on Sundays and quarterly undertook a two-week series four days a week on the Catechism. The sum of his extant sermons sermons that we have written for him from Luther 2300 the highest count for the year is for the year 1528 in which there are a hundred and ninety-five sermons distribute over 145 days.

His preeminence in the pulpit derives in part from the earnestness with which he regarded the preaching office. The task of the minister is to expound the word in which alone are to be found healing for life's hurts and balms for of eternal Blessedness, that's Martin Luther in Wittenberg.

Now besides Luther We have the great reformer John Calvin. In just a few weeks we are going to celebrate the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth. John Calvin who labored in the city of Geneva in Switzerland a slightly younger contemporary of Luther listen to him writing in his his classic Magisterial work the institutes of the Christian religion.

Here's what he says. Therefore Illumined by power we believe neither by our own nor by anyone else's judgment that scripture is from God. But above human judgment we affirm with utter certainty that it flowed To us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men Calvin was was convinced That the Word of God was in fact directly from God.

John Piper pastor in Minnesota has written a Little booklet on Calvin just commemorate this year. I want to share with you some of what he says about Calvin. Calvin had seen the majesty of God in the scriptures.

This persuaded him that the scriptures were the very Word of God he said quote we owe to the scripture the same reverence which we owe to God because it has Proceeded from him alone and has nothing of man mixed in it.

His own experience had taught him that the highest proof of scripture derives for in general from the fact that God in person speaks in it. Now these truths led to an inevitable conclusion for Calvin since the scriptures are the very voice of God and since they are therefore Self-authenticating in revealing the majesty of God and since the majesty and glory of God are the reason for all existence.

It follows that Calvin's life would be marked by What he calls invincible constancy in the exposition of scripture. Now about Calvin he wrote tracts. He wrote the great institutes. He wrote commentaries on all the New Testament books except Revelation plus the Old Testament books of the Pentateuch Joshua Psalms Isaiah and Jeremiah.

He gave biblical lectures many of which were published as essentially commentaries. He preached ten sermons every two weeks, but all of it was exposition of scripture. John Dillenberger says Calvin assumed that his whole theological labor was the exposition of scripture.

In his last will and testament Calvin said quote. I have endeavored both in my sermons and also in my writings and commentaries to preach the word purely and chastely and faithfully to interpret his sacred scriptures.

Piper goes on to say everything was exposition of scripture. This was the ministry unleashing unleashed by seeing the majesty of God in scripture. Scriptures were absolutely central because they were absolutely the Word of God and had as their Self-authenticating theme the majesty and glory of God, but all these labors of exposition of them all preaching was supreme.

Emil du mergue the foremost biographer of Calvin in his six volume life of Calvin said that as he stood in the pulpit of John Calvin on the 400th anniversary of Calvin's birth quote. That is the Calvin who seems to me to be the real and authentic Calvin the preacher of Geneva.

Molding by his words the spirit of the reformed of the 16th century. Calvin's preaching was of one kind from beginning to end he preached steadily through book after book of the Bible. That was unusual by the way.

He never wavered from this approach to preaching for almost 25 years of ministry in st Peter's Church of Geneva with the exception of a few high festivals of special occasions. On Sundays, he always took the New Testament except for a few psalms on Sunday afternoons during the week.

It was always the Old Testament the records show fewer than half a dozen exceptions. The scope of Calvin's preaching. To give you some idea of the scope of Calvin's pulpit. He began his series on the book of Acts on August 25th 1549.

He ended it in March of 1554. After acts he went on to the epistles of Thessalonians 46 sermons Corinthians 186 sermons the pastoral epistles 86 sermons Galatians 43 sermons Ephesians 48 sermons until May of 1558 then there's a gap when he was ill in the spring of 1559 he began the harmony of the Gospels preaching through all of the Gospels.

He was not finished when he died in May of 1564 on the weekdays during that seasons. He preached a hundred fifty nine sermons on Job 200 on Deuteronomy 353 on Isaiah 123 on Genesis and so on. One of the clearest illustrations of this was a self-conscious choice on Calvin's part was the fact that on Easter Day at 1538.

After preaching he left the pulpit of st. Peter's banished by the City Council. He returned in September of 1541 over three years later, and he picked up the exposition in the next verse. I read you all of that because I want you to see the degree to which the preaching of the Word of God brought about the awakening that we call the Reformation in Fact to come a few years later to the great teacher and preacher of the colonial America Jonathan Edwards.

Revival came and Jonathan Edwards wrote about revival. One of his biographers puts it this way a genuine revival of religion. He regarded as being caused not by appeals to the feelings or the passions but by the truth of God brought home to the mind in a subordinate sense by the Preaching of the gospel but in a far higher sense by the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit.

He considered such an event so far as man is concerned as the simple effect of a practical attention to truth on The conscience and the heart he felt it to be his great and in a sense his only duty therefore to urge Divine truth on the feelings and consciences of his hearers with all possible solemnity and power.

How he in fact urged it his published sermons will show in fact Jonathan Edwards had to write a book a little man a little treatise to defend the revival in Cologne in Northampton and Here's what he said in a little work called the distinguishing marks of the Spirit of God.

The spirit that operates in such a manner as to cause men a greater regard to the holy Scriptures and establishes them more in their truth and divinity is certainly the Spirit of God. In other words You want to know what the Spirit of God is really at work or whether this is a work of the devil?

It just looks like the work of the Spirit of God. He says if it causes people to take the scriptures seriously and the hunger for them and to be grounded in the truth. That is the work of God. So a zeal for revival is nurtured through our instruction in biblical truth.

Understanding Scripture Through the Holy Spirit

Let me come to the third one and that is that a zeal for revival is fulfilled in our possession of Biblical understanding. Verse 125 David says I am your servant give me understanding that I may know your testimonies.

I Think this is how the church ought to be praying today you and I ought to be praying. This is how I want to pray and I have prayed Lord. I am your servant. Give me Understanding that I may know your testimonies.

We must understand. We must devour this book. We must read it and study it, but we need to understand it Lord we can't do this on our own. You have to be the one to give us this understanding. Now my friends just listening to one sermon in each week isn't going to suffice any longer.

We are determined to hear God's Word to understand God's Word to obey God's Word. Why. Because the truth of God as Paul points out in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verses 12 to 14 is not Humanly understood it is spiritually revealed to us.

That's why there is such an urgent need for the revival of systematic Biblical exposition in our churches the preaching and the teaching of the Bible in its context with accuracy and with precision. I Dear friends.

I don't do what I do in this pulpit just because. It's a good idea because somebody told me I ought to do it. I Stand here week after week expounding the scriptures because of this very truth that it is only in the preaching and the teaching in a Systematic way in a detailed way with the scripture interpreted with accuracy and precision and clarity.

That is the only way you will Fully understand the Word of God and that's what David's praying for here. Give me understanding. And that's what I pray the Lord give me understanding because when I stand before you and I see your faces coming back at me.

That's what you're saying. You're saying pastor. Give us understanding. That has to be a thirst. For knowing the mind of God and how do we know the mind of God? We know it in this book. Tragically today we are witnessing the death of expository preaching.

We've talked about this some of us informally years ago. Some met some of the leading preachers in America got a burden for this and they started an organization called Kobe Co be the Congress on biblical exposition.

I went to the first meeting out in, California. That organization very quickly died for lack of interest. Today the seeker sensitive mentality is people on the outside don't want to be fed expository sermons.

Tell them how they can have a happy life. Tell them how they can Handle the problems in their marriage or the problems on their job or the problems in rearing their children or whatever. It may be Give us something practical.

Oh Don't do exposition. Which by the way exposition is the most practical thing in the world when it comes to understanding God's truth. Revival means a desperate longing for God's Word. Well now I must hasten on to the second principle I'm going to give you and that is that revival means a decisive looking for God's work notice verse 126 and here's the heart of this passage.

A Decisive Looking for God's Work

It is time for the Lord to act. But they have broken your law. This is the point to which me must come Lord. Give us understanding. Oh Lord. It's time. It's time. When our patience has been exhausted we look for the Lord to work.

It is time for you Lord to act. When the world is deteriorating at an alarming rate God's Word is ignored. God's mercy is withheld. God's people seem to be utterly oblivious to it all. To whom can we turn?

We are literally at the Lord's mercy. Without his intervention. There is no hope at such a time. To put it in the words of one writer. It is either rapture ruin or Revival. No other choice. Rapture ruin or revival.

Yes, it's time. And because God's Word has been devalued We look for the Lord to work. Look at that last phrase in verse 126 where they have broken Your law, why is David so passionate that it's time for God to go to work.

The answer is they've broken your law. My friends we've lost our reverence for scripture today. Let me give you three ways in which that happens first of all the church disregards biblical inspiration and inerrancy.

Why do we not revere the scriptures as we used to because by and large today people are disavowing a commitment to the inerrancy and the Inspiration of scripture now, we're not afraid to say. Oh, yeah, there are mistakes in the Bible.