Revival - Part 2 — L.E. Maxwell

The Need for Revival Among the Saints

I feel that, in view of the tremendous Bible teaching that God's giving us through these men, that what we need to consider is just something in this Christian workers' hour. The great, pressing, awful, sore need is the spirit of revival among the saints.

And that's the thing we need to encourage, that the truth may be set on fire. We have enough truth to sink the Navy, but we need that truth set alive. We need to become alive ourselves to the truth. And as those different revivalists are saying, and the Prince George representatives, see how God has dawned on them.

The awareness of God until all shame disappears, and fearfulness and timidity and bashfulness and all that kind of thing has just disappeared in the face of the august majesty of the presence of the living Savior.

Now, that's what we're in need of. I'm going to read again Joel 2, 12 -17. Joel 2, 12 -17. How many were not here yesterday? Uh-huh. Well, that shows that about half of our audience, maybe, wasn't here.

2 -12 -17. 2 -12. Now, Joel, therefore also now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. And lend your heart, and not your garments.

It's easy to put on the show of penitence outwardly, isn't it? You and I can put the quiver in our voices. Almost sounds spiritual. Lend your heart, not your garments. Don't be just gadflies and garment admirers, putting on sackcloth and ashes outwardly.

Lend your heart, not your garments. Turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him?

15. Blow the trumpet in Zion. This is our jubilee year. May God proclaim liberty to the captives this year. Liberty to the captives and the return of every man to his inheritance. That's the two chief marks of the year of jubilee.

The emancipation of all the captives, setting free of all the captives, and every man returning to his original inheritance. What a social system they had, if it had only been observed. It settled a lot of these problems.

Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Now notice, gather the children and those that suck the breath. Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.

Everything is to give way amongst all classes and culture. The whole thing is to give way to the one thing seeking first, the kingdom of God. Let the priest, the minister of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them.

Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Now that's exactly what's going on today. And the Church, in the established sense of the term, is reproached. Where is their God? They've had 2 ,000 years to prove that Christianity should heal the ills of the world, and what has it done?

Down with your Christianity. We're sick of it. Away with it. Kill it. It's the curse of the world. And, you see, real Christianity is classified right along with all the formalism and the deadness of the Greek Church and the Roman Church and all those where deadness and formality have been the curse of the people and the priests have ridden all over the people and taken, in Russia, often a priest would come to a farmer and take the only cow that he had that was a means of support for the family and take it for the Church.

But you don't wonder that Communism took over from the like of that. But today, Christianity as a whole, even the spiritual line of Christianity, the little flock to whom the Lord said, Fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

The formality there may be, but the kingdom is for the little flock. But in the meantime, the little flock is being cursed and crucified along with all the formal and the false. And we're caught in it.

Like it or not, we're caught in it. And we're going to get cursed and killed off with it. All right. Just as well. Your sword, my neck. That's the way to answer it. That's the way the two get together.

You understand? That's the way we're to meet it. Now, the word revival. I was saying to somebody last night, you've heard it maybe before, but oh, God, give people a revival chance to be saved. There are just thousands and thousands, I dare say even millions of people who are not going to be converted unless God gives the Church a revival because it's only through a revival chance that they'll ever get saved.

When God comes in and the heathen cease to say where is their God, the heathen begin to say, the Lord has done great things for those people wherever they're glad. And they begin to inquire the way to Zion themselves.

A revival chance to be saved. You ever think of it? Maybe some of you were converted in a revival. If it hadn't been for a revival spirit that struck your church or community, you wouldn't be saved today.

But you take just the ordinary routine, go to church, go to church, go to church, Sunday by Sunday. How many people are getting convicted and converted in the neighborhood? See? No, and they're not turning aside to see this great sight because there's no sight there to see.

We need God on the scene in revival power. And you know the meaning of revival. I don't need to go into that. Let me quote you what Charles Inwood once said. When God is going to do something wonderful, he begins with a difficulty.

When he's going to do something very wonderful, he begins with an impossibility. All right. That ought to be encouraging to you because you're an impossible case and he'd begin with you. He begins with impossibility.

All right. Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. I'm going to give you, once again, because so many of you are not here, what Joseph Kemp once said about revival. Revival, strictly speaking, means the reanimating of that which is already living but in a state of decline.

Right? It has to do principally with the church as a whole and Christians as individuals. Evangelism, in our usage of the word as well as in its derivative sense, refers primarily to the proclamation of the gospel to the unsaved.

To make evangelism a synonym of revivalism is untrue to the teaching of the New Testament. The church is responsible for evangelism and not for revival. I would modify that a little. There's a human condition and a human element in this where we are responsible.

But strictly speaking, revival, we are summoned to evangelism for revival. We are cast upon the sovereign grace of God. Now, there's a sovereign side, the sovereignty of God on one side. There are human conditions on the other.

Both coalesce in bringing revival. Spirit-inspired prayer indicates that heaven has something good in store for us. I know the thoughts I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an end and an expectation.

Spirit-Inspired Prayer and Dependence on God

Oh, God wants to do something, but He waits for the intercession of the saints. Spirit-inspired prayer is the way I like to put it. I have given up all hope of just putting a terrible burden and a weight and get you people to get on your knees and demand it of you.

Listen, the flesh profits nothing. And demanding in the energy of the flesh profits nothing. Your resolution in the flesh to pray more doesn't do anything. What we need is Spirit-indicted, Spirit-inspired.

We know not what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searches the heart knows what's the mind of the Spirit, for He, the Spirit in the saints, makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

We don't know what to ask for, but we, Lord, anything, but let us hear from Thee, by life or by death. Now, you can see very often when you have a spirit of revival and the awakening, then the saints begin to see, well, God's going to do that now.

If God comes the next time, He's bound to do it that way. He's bound to do it by no preaching at all. I told you about the whale's revival when I said to this man, it must have been easy to preach. Preach?

No, there wasn't any preaching. Maybe we wanted to hide in a hole. The presence of God was so tremendous. On the other hand, you may have a revival with plenty of preaching in it, and without some real preaching in it, very often you have no foundation.

For instance, over in Japan in the early days of this, since the war, people were praying for a revival. Oh, God, give us a great revival in Japan. You know, I believe the thing was out of order. Revival of what?

Buddhism or Hinduism or what? What do you mean, revival? No, just give us a spirit of revival. On the basis of what? Buddhism? A Buddhist shrine on every street corner? No. They didn't need revival. The Church needed consolidation, and then the Church revived.

Not a countrywide revival on the basis of nothing. Now, that would turn out to be an emotional fit, and wouldn't have any ground in it, and would wash away the next time a little persecution showed up.

So we need to pray that God will give us to know that the Holy Ghost alone knows, whether it's through preaching or confession or no preaching or no order or no Church service or no program. You don't know what.

But once we see it one way, it has to be that way, evermore world without end, amen. Then we get to imitating what the Holy Ghost did. No good. The Church is responsible for evangelism, but we are dependent upon God for revival, and we need to learn how to do that, depend upon Him.

The thing was done suddenly for it was of God in the days of Hezekiah, a strange moving of God. Now, the need for revival, as far as Christendom is concerned, we are in desperate need of revival. It's either revival, as somebody said, it's either revival in our hearts or revolution in our streets.

Revival or Revolution in the Nation

And I haven't gotten over yet what our brother said yesterday morning, that astounding, unbelievable calling off of all the classes in one of the leading universities of America in order to listen to the lawyers that defended the crooked seven in Chicago and the Black Panthers and all of them together, and they called off all the classes and said, we're going to have blood.

If it's blood in our country, let it be blood. And even to the forceful removal of the President of the United States by force and a ten-minute ovation for each one of those things, three thousand Princeton students going crazy.

And it was a standing ovation for each of those things. Blood flowed from one end of the country to the other. Ten-minute ovation. Remove the President by force. A ten-minute ovation again. What for?

They don't know. It's the madness of the devil, without a doubt. It hasn't got sense in it at all. Down with the establishment. And establish what? Don't have anything. It reminds me of that place that says where they cried out for two hours.

By the space of two hours they cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians! The same kind of madness. The same kind of madness without rhyme or reason. With what would you replace the establishment? They haven't got a thing to offer.

Shows how mad it all is. Well, I just say, we need revival in our hearts or revolution in our streets. And, beloved, if you take 3 ,000 out of 3 ,100, 3 ,000 students out of 3 ,100 attended that and gave a standing ovation of ten minutes to that kind of rubbish, where is the country going?

Because those 3 ,000 are typical of the leadership of the next generation. That's where they are. And just naturally speaking, apart from God's strange intervention, you can have just bloody revolution right on this continent within the next ten years just like that.

Next ten or twenty, anyway. Well, it's something to put us on our knees about. That's what it is. Oh, high heaven intervene! Never did, what Churchill said about Britain, never did so great a nation fall from such a height to such a depth in such a short time.

But it's being duplicated more so on this continent than it was in Britain. Well, oh, that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, let the mountains flow down at thy presence. Melting fire burns.

Thou didst terrible things which we looked not for. Thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. Beloved, I trust that the feeling that's getting abroad more and more among God's people will drive us to our knees and to God in intercession.

Intercession alone will do anything. And I think one of the biggest deceptions we're getting into is this. Well, but revival will answer the thing. God's on the throne and the Lord will answer and he will not suffer America to become outright red and communist because we are, listen, listen, listen, you poor, soft, conceited piece of humanity.

We're no better than the Chinese. And look what they went under. Look what they're under. We're no better than any of these other countries. We've turned down more light than they ever heard about. And if the light that is in us become darkness, how great is our darkness and how great is our judgment.

Oh, I haven't a bit of confidence in any sort of reasoning like that. I would rather us to think in terms of Habakkuk. Let's turn and read Habakkuk. Nehem, Habakkuk. Zephaniah, you'll find Habakkuk between the two.

All right, Habakkuk 3, 3 -2. This makes a message all its own, this book of Habakkuk 3 -2. O Lord, I have heard Thy speech, Thy report. Lord, I have heard Thy report and was afraid. O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years.

In the midst of the years, when it looks unpropitious, unlikely. But right down in the heart of our declension, in the midst of the years, make known, look, look, in Ra, remember mercy. Now, it doesn't say from Ra, deliver us.

Revival, Tribulation, and Remembering Mercy

We've had a teaching across the country, which I believe in a sense. I believe, but I wouldn't overpress it because equally consecrated men everywhere differ. But personally, I think pre-tribulation rapture is right.

But there are a lot of good post-tribulation men just as devoted. This is a mooted question. Don't get too conceited about it. You always want to say when it comes to prophecy, we know in part. Most fundamentalists know everything.

Ask them. They know, but I'd like to be like Uncle Josh. I'd like to know less truth than to know so many truths that ain't so. So just be careful about how much you know. But I tell you what has happened among pre-tribulation.

We have taught a great deal about, oh, God could not allow his dear bride to undergo any such thing as tribulation. What do you suppose those poor saints in Siberia think? What about those in the Middle Ages?

What about the thousands that the Catholic Church slew? Talk about tribulation. You know, there could not be greater tribulation than some of the saints have gone through and are going through. So be careful.

Your argument isn't worth a tuppence. It won't stand to test. It won't stand to investigation. From wrath deliver us. No, sir. In wrath, in wrath remember mercy. We may be in it. We may go through it.

We may get into trouble. We may get into trial. We may get into worse trouble and trial and tribulation than we've ever seen. But in wrath remember mercy. Not from wrath deliver us. Now, I believe that there's a sense in which pre-tribulation rapture, but I would never use that as an argument anymore since I've seen this.

That's no argument. It's no good. Because Habakkuk says, in wrath remember mercy. Not from wrath deliver thy people, but in the midst of your outpoured indignation against us as a backslidden people, in the midst of all that, Lord, have mercy upon us, even though you have to pour wrath upon us.

Amen. That's what we had yesterday, wasn't it? In affliction. And a valley of acorn for a door of hope. Put her in trouble. In trouble they'll seek thee. Uh-huh. That's it. That's what we need. Consider the days.

Consider the days of Wesley. Here's a phrase I quoted yesterday. Here's the condition in the days of John Wesley and George Whitefield when they came on the scene. God bless men. Listen. Death in the churches, rottenness in public morals, infidelity coming in like a flood.

That was the situation before the Wesley-Whitefield revival saved England from bankruptcy, redeemed England economically, saved England from the French Revolution. Marvelous putting in of salt that kept back the rottenness, stayed the corruption, and made Britain the greatest nation in the world in her days.

You can trace it right to the Wesleyan revival movement. I said to the CBC fellows the other day, they asked me, what about the social gospel? Oh, I said, I don't worry about that. Whenever God's people are right, when they're right with God, they'll take care of their neighbors.

You love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, you'll love your neighbor as yourself. I wouldn't worry about the social gospel. I said, here's an instance. Peter. Peter was going down the street, and they brought the sick, if perchance.

I gave them this the other day. I don't know whether it'll go on the air or not, but I gave it to them anyway. There's a TV program the CBC is putting on. They're going to put on a little of it. I don't know how much of it.

But at any rate, Peter was going down the street, and they brought forth the sick. If perchance the shadow of Peter falling on them, some of them might get well. Such was the great confidence they had in the apostolic authority and power and healing and deliverance through the preaching of the gospel that Peter preached.

But Peter did not go down the street, gentlemen, to make shadows. That's your social gospel. Let the shadows fall where they will, but you don't go down the street to make shadows. Peter went down the street preaching Christ, proclaiming the Savior, repent, and let the shadows fall where they will.

Let the byproducts of the gospel come as a result of your doing first, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. So I said, I'm not concerned about the social gospel. I'm going to preach Christ.

The results will take care of themselves, the social gospel. But when men turn to make social gospel their gospel, it's because they've lost the gospel, and they don't know what it is to preach Christ, just Christ, anymore.

The Spiritual Condition of Churches and Missionaries

Now, here's what a missionary from India said. Stephen Offord quotes this. I am very often in a spirit of mourning over the state of American churches. This man had been a missionary in India, and he had a church in Ohio at this time.

I am very often in a spirit of mourning over the state of American churches. America has a leading part in the Christian world and sends out many missionaries, but they can never rise above the spiritual level of their home church.

We and other lands are going to be hit hard if you keep sending out missionaries to us. Your shallowness will reflect on us. And so remember that the missionary world abroad is getting the output from our churches and schools here at home.

And the missionary societies, missionary leaders will tell you, we are sorry, but the tone and the atmosphere, the stamina, the character of a lot of our missionaries is declining, declining, declining.

Well, of course it is. It's reflected. It's the reflection of the declined state of the Church and the schools here in this country. That's the reason I'm so glad God seems to be touching us with a little bit of revival to reestablish the old line and the old standards in order that we may have an output that will not disappoint the missionary leaders abroad.

Amen? Oh, it's important. What shall we say about a growing number of Bible schools on our continent where they've stepped up, stepped up, the intellectual, the academic, it's going higher and higher and higher and higher and higher and higher?

The missionary output is lower, lower, lower, lower, lower, lower, lower. Less missionary personnel forthcoming with the academic increase. Now, that is a sad state of affairs. You'd think there'd be a greater output, wouldn't you?

The Sovereignty of God and the Need for Personal Readiness

Now, a number of years ago, now here's where we got to yesterday. A number of years ago we had with us Reverend Duncan Campbell of the Hebrides Revival movement off the shores of Scotland. He tells us how the elders of a certain church prayed, recognizing the sovereignty of God in revival, but knowing at the same time that they had to do something about it as well.

Their prayer is something like this, Lord, you must do it, for we cannot, but we want to tell you now that we are here before you as empty vessels for you to fill. Such was their confidence and conviction as they lingered in the presence of God month after month, three nights in a week, meeting together in a barn at 10 p .m. and remaining there before God until 4 to 6 o 'clock in the morning.

They waited. Months passed. Nothing happened until one morning about 2 o 'clock. Then a young man arose from his knees with his Bible closed before him and he cried, Brethren, it is so much humbug to be waiting night after night if we ourselves are not right with God.

I must ask myself, is my heart pure? Are my hands clean? Then God came in and something happened. God swept into the meeting and seven men were now lying prostrate before God. Do not come to me at the end of this meeting, says Duncan Campbell, and ask me to explain the physical manifestation of this, because I cannot explain, but these men moved at that moment from the sphere of the natural, found themselves lifted to the realms of the supernatural.

These men knew that revival had come. Sounds like the going in the mulberry trees, doesn't it? Somebody has said like this, if the Holy Ghost were taken out of the world, church work would go on as usual for quite a long time and they would never miss it.

Is that so? Much of it? Very much of it would go on and nobody would ever miss the Holy Ghost. In other words, we're on the plane of the natural, in the energy of the natural, in the spirit of the natural, explaining to natural men the Gospel.

And the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. But if we take the Holy Ghost out of the world and go right on, the old system would roll on, roll on, keep up the good appearances, keep up the good work, take the collection, meet the budget, pay the preacher, and then get together at the close of the meeting and say, my, didn't we have a good meeting?

You never saw a failure, you never heard of a failure in your life in a place like that. It's always positive, always good, nothing to be improved upon. My, oh God, get us convicted! Convicted! Get us convicted!

Now I'm lukewarm. I'll spew it out of my mouth. I would, you were cold. Then I could get at you. I would, you were cold. God said that to me once, and I'll tell you, it was an awfully startling thing.

Maxwell, I would that thou were cold. What? No, Lord! I'll tell you, I started right back on that one. You don't want me cold, do you? I would, you were cold. I would, you were cold! What? Then I began to hear something.

If you don't intend to be red hot, I will see that you're cold, and if you get cold, you'll get, I'll be able to get at you and convict you. But as long as you continue lukewarm, you're ungettable. You kid yourself and others.

Now, he didn't just tell me all that, but that's the thing that came as a vision to me. I would, you were cold. Did God ever tell you that he wishes you were cold? If you don't intend to be really red hot, if you don't intend to get out of that lukewarm condition, God says, I would, you were cold, because if you get cold, you'll get conviction, and you'll repent and come back to your first love for Christ and then be red hot for him.

Amen? Now, that's Scripture, brother. I know it's hard medicine. Now, here's a few suggestions that Tozer made, Dr. A .W. Tozer, things conducive to revival. I think I'll just give you a few of them. He said, first, get thoroughly dissatisfied with yourself.

Self-Examination and the First Steps Toward Revival

Self-complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress. Self-complacency. The falsely contented soul, a false contentment with yourself is stagnation. It's a dead sea experience, below level, way down, scum on you.

You know, it's one thing to be God, godliness with contentment is great gain. That's true contentment. That's the reason I emphasize false contentment. Paul says, I press toward the mark for the prize.

Number two, set your face like a flint toward a sweeping transformation of your life. How about it? Are you quite contented to let the status quo remain? In other words, I'm not as good as my neighbors.

The neighbors in the pew are not much ahead of me. And my reputation spiritually isn't too bad. And the preacher doesn't think there's anything wrong with me. And if he doesn't, nobody else should. I tell you, there's a lot of just that kind of false contentment.

You know, most of us have decided. Now, beloved, I say this, I say it as a rebuke to myself as well, but the most of us have pretty well decided just about how far we're going on with God. I mean, in the secret of our souls, we've just about decided about how far we intend to go on with God and not beyond that.

Lord, don't get meddling. Don't meddle with me beyond that. Almost, we've almost come to something like that. Now, you don't say it. Oh, my, you've come to the perming. Oh, Lord, take us on with thyself.

And you kid yourself to death. It's hard to be honest. It's hard to be downright sincere, isn't it? It truly is. Set your face like a flint for transformation of life. And if you're a shrinking, timid Christian who would not mind experimenting a bit on the border of revival, then you are tagged for failure before you start.

So I'll read that one again. If you are a shrinking, timid Christian who would not mind experimenting a bit on the borderline of revival, wouldn't it be nice? Yeah, we had a little over the weekend. We had a kind of a little touch, and it was interesting to hear those people confess.

Why, that's good. I'm glad for the fringe benefit. The periphery of revival, I don't mind skirting and scouting around there. My, the atmosphere is good. Let's get a little more of it. Not bad, not bad, but deliver me from getting sucked into it right in the heart.

I don't know what kind of an exposure might come out. That is secretly where many of us are. Throw your whole soul into desire for God's best. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

Are you out for a forceful taking of the kingdom? Amen. Number three, put yourself in the path of blessing. Put yourself in the path of blessing. Don't expect help to come as a kind of a spiritual windfall.

Wouldn't we like to have a kind of a spiritual windfall, and I'd come in under the branches of blessing? Wouldn't that be nice? Under the branches of blessing, I would come in. Why, aren't we having wonderful, fine fellowship?

No personal, real repentance and downright need. I think I'll give you something. I'm just going to intersperse this. Turn to Revelation 3, will you please? Revelation 3. Revelation chapter 3. Begin verse 18.

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire. Amen. Get really fired up. That thou mayest be rich. And white raiment that thou mayest be clothed. And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.

And anointing eyes with high salve that thou mayest see. As many as I love, that's the emphasis, as many as I love, not the way you love, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and what?

Repent. Now this is this lukewarm church. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. I think I'll give you the experience of Oscar Lowry.

Oscar Lowry had, and my friend, my friend met Oscar Lowry after Lowry had been a teacher of evangelism at Moody Institute for many a day, many months. In fact, for some years. That's where he wrote the book, Scripture Memorizing for First World Soldiers.

He was a teacher of evangelism at Moody Bible Institute. After that, he went down into Oklahoma and got interested in oil shares and stocks. And he helped to build a great big pile of brick and stone known as the Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, I believe it was.

One of those cities there. And this friend of mine was being shown around. Lowry was showing him all around this great church. What a wonderful church they'd just built. And Lowry was an elder in the church.

And finally, he said, as they walked out to the front of the church, out to the door, there was this lovely frontispiece. Lowry said, my friend, what are you doing in this pile of brick and stone? There's where God is out there in the valley with all those oilers, those little shacks.

There's where God's interested, right out there. And what are you doing in this pile of brick and stone? How was that for a rebuke? And my friend was a younger man. And then they turned around and looked at the frontispiece on the front of the church.

And he says, yes, sir, sure enough. And you put the right verse up there in marble, in stone. Chisel out. You put the right verse there. You said it yourself. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. God isn't in the place.

You've got him outside and you said so. And Lowry got out for God and had his greatest revival right here on the prairies, followed by radio after that. Hallelujah. Now, what do I mean? Listen. What is the context of this?

Personal Revival Through Repentance

He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. He's crowded out. True enough. But listen. He'll give a private revival to any man that hears his voice. You don't, oh, but I'd like to have a revival in our church.

There'd be a windfall right under the branches and the blessing would drip all over me and I'd get caught up with all the rest of the folks. My! Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a revival like that where it'd cost me nothing and everybody'd get blessed and I'd get blessed with them.

Nobody'd lose face, name, or reputation, and God would forget all our sins. And, oh, wonderful, wonderful. That's the kind of revival you and I'd like to have. We wouldn't mind it at all if we could have a revival here that'd just sweep everybody in and omit my personal transgressions and omit my having to admit the Savior in a new sense.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man, individually, privately, in that dead, lukewarm church, if he can hear my voice, he and I'll have a private revival. Amen. He and I will have a private, personal revival.

I will sup with him and he with me. So I've given up all hope of getting, climbing on the bandwagon of a revival as the way to be revived. The way to be revived is to listen to the voice of the Savior knocking, knocking.

Yes, Lord, I will admit thee in thy power and sovereignty, and we'll share a fellowship together in revival. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Lord, I rebuke, I chasten. I listen. What is it? Revival.

Personal. Personal. Private. Whether your church is lukewarm, cold, or dead, or anything else, you can have a personal, private revival when you want it. Amen? Huh? No amens on that? Say, put yourself in the place of blessing.

Amen. And listen to the voice that's knocking at the door. Do a thorough job. Do a thorough job of repenting. A thorough job of repenting. Be zealous, therefore, in what? Repent. Do a thorough job of repenting.

Do not hurry up. Do not hurry up to get over with it. Wouldn't you like to ever find yourself about to get convicted, then you come out with a little too-before confession of some kind? You know, folks, I haven't been all I ought to be.

I hope you'll all forgive me. What have you done, brother? Why don't you name it? Well, you know, I've been a bit negligent. Come on. Come on. Come on out with it. What is it? Well, hurry it up. Hurry it up.

Hurry it over. Slur it over. Evade. Avoid. Sidestep. Hush, hush. Don't go too far. And don't expose me like that. The Lord says, Judge not, and you shouldn't judge me. Uh-huh. Why, you hide behind that Matthew 7 one, don't you?

Huh? Judge not. Judge not is the greatest hideout for saints you ever saw. It is its chief hideout. Do a thorough job of repenting. Don't hurry up. Drill deep. Drill deep if you expect a real filling.

Did you ever notice the dentist? If he's going to give you a real filling, he'll drill you clear down to China. Wouldn't he? Huh? And you think he's going to come out your jaw. What's he trying to do?

He's trying to get you ready for a real filling. Amen? It may be painful, but nevertheless, he's going to drill deep to give you a real filling. Listen, let me give you this verse in the songbook that we use here.

Here's a verse that's omitted, but I like it. Have I long in sin been sleeping? Long been slighting, grieving thee? Has the world my heart been keeping? Oh, forgive and rescue me. Even me, even me. Oh, forgive and rescue me.

Isn't that a good verse? I'd expected some songwriter would omit a verse like that. He'd like to sing, but he wouldn't know this kind of repentance. Have I long in sin been sleeping? Long been slighting, grieving thee?

Has the world my heart been keeping? Oh, forgive and rescue me. Hasty, hasty repentance means shallow experience and a lack of assurance and certainty in the whole life. Hasty, slurred over, evaded, shallow repentance.

Be zealous and repent. Go at it. Hammer and tongs. Go clear to the bottom. Let godly sorrow do her healing work. Let the consciousness of sin wound us deeply. Beloved, we're not going to have much of a sense of revival, either before or after, unless we come to a new consciousness and a new sensitivity to sin.