God's Activity in Revival — E.A. Johnston

Before we begin, let me ask you a question, friends. Do you believe the times we are living in are dark times, where Satan is raging and making inroads into society? Do you believe that the people of God are truly living lives where they are on fire for God?

The Need for Revival and Spiritual Awakening

Or do you believe the church needs revival, and that the land needs a vast spiritual awakening. My message this evening is on the topic of revival, the need for revival, the blessings of revival, and the God of revival.

David's Repentance in Psalm 51

I want us to look particularly at God's activity in revival, and that's the title of my message this evening, friends, God's Activity in Revival. And my text can be found in the book of Psalms. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in Psalm 51. Psalm 51 is a revival psalm because in it, David describes his great need of personal revival as he recognizes his departure from God in sin. He confesses his sins and returns to his God, and that is the very thing the church in our day needs, friends.

We need to recognize our departure from God. We need to confess our sins, and we need to return to our God in a vital love relationship with Him. But the trouble is, we don't want to admit our guilt. We want others to think we are fine.

We're afraid to be transparent enough before man so we can be honest enough before our God. Allow me to explain what I mean. Years ago, well, let me think, I guess it had to be about 12 years ago, a pastor called me up and introduced himself by saying he just read one of my books on revival and he wanted to buy me lunch if I would agree to meet with him and talk to him about revival.

Well, I'm always up for a free lunch, so I met with this man. He turned out to be an older pastor. As a matter of fact, he told me when I met him that he'd been a pastor for nearly 50 years. Well, during our mealtime together, he informed me of his great desire to see revival come to his church.

I looked him in the eye, and this is what I told him. I said, Brother Pastor, if you're really serious, if you really want revival to come to your church, then you must be willing to repent of your sins and to seek your God.

Then this man looked at me very strangely, and the lunch was over. I thought I'd never hear from him again. I thought I probably offended him. But the following week, I received another lunch invitation from this man, and he said he wanted to meet again and bring two of his pastor buddies with him to lunch to discuss the topic of revival.

I agreed and met with these three men, and during that lunch, these three pastors asked me if I'd be willing to meet with them on a monthly basis and pray for revival to come to their churches. I told them I'd rather meet on a weekly basis and pray for revival, for if they were truly serious and sincere in their desire to see revival come to their churches, then they needed to demonstrate a deeper commitment to prayer than just once a month.

So we began to meet on a weekly basis. I would get at the church early and arrange the chairs in a circle and lead a devotion before we prayed for revival, and we did this for several months. And I'll never forget it, friends.

One day, while I was praying with these pastors, this older man, the pastor who initially invited me to lunch, who I said must repent of his sins if he wanted to get serious with God, during our prayer time, he stood up and groaned and threw himself onto the floor and began to writhe and wiggle, and he cried out to God, and this is what the dear old boy said.

He said, Great God, please forgive me for my dirty, rotten sins. I want to see revival come to my church, and I want it to start with me. That old boy was serious about going deeper with God, and he was willing to get serious with God.

That older pastor was willing to count the cost, no matter what the cost would be, to see God visit his church with revival. And that, my friends, is where the seeds of revival begin. Now I want to take the time to read a Psalm 51, which speaks of David's brokenness before God over his sins, and I want to divide the Psalm in half and place it into two parts, two divisions.

We'll divide it between verses 1 through 9 and verses 10 through 13. But let me first read us these striking passages at this time. I want us to look at these divisions and study them. Great God, let your Holy Spirit attend the reading of your holy word and bring conviction of sin to us today.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy love and kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin, did my mother conceive me?

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Well I will stop there. Now I want us to look at the division of this psalm, friends, from verses 1 to verse 8.

God's Cleansing Through Repentance

David is asking God to do four things for him, because he realizes his great need of these four activities of God in his life, and they center in four words. And these four words, these four requests are wash, cleanse, purge, make.

David has come to the place of repentance and admitted his guilt of sin, and by doing so he also realizes his great need for cleansing and forgiveness of sin. He desires a fresh start with God, to make a new start.

He admits he messed up and fell into a stink hole of sin, a bog, a mire, a filthy way, for he has become stained. He needs washing, cleansing, purging, and he wants to make a new start with God. So let us focus on these words, and let us ask the Holy Spirit to shine His holy spotlight into our own lives right now, friends, and see if we too need to admit our guilt of sin, to admit our great departure from our God, admit our backslidden state away from Him.

Perhaps there is someone here within the sound of my voice who too needs the Holy Spirit to activate these four things, wash, cleanse, purge, make. Maybe you, friend, want to make a new start with God.

You have a desire to go deeper with Him. Oh, dear friends, this is the very beginning of revival. You can't go further with God and bypass these steps. Now I want to look at the other half of this psalm, the other division from verses 10 through 13, and let us see the four activities of God and restore and fellowship back to Him.

Restoration, First Love, and Fellowship with God

Listen to these four words that David seeks for, create, renew, restore, uphold. Create in me a what? A clean heart, renew what? A right spirit within me, hinting that he wasn't right with God before this turning back to God, restore what?

What the joy of thy salvation. Let me ask you, friend, has the joy gone out of your walk with God? Be honest, do you still love Him like you did when He first saved you, or are you like the Christians in the church in Ephesus that the risen Lord charged them with leaving their first love?

I like the story about Mordecai Ham and Billy Graham. Billy Graham got saved under the preaching ministry of the evangelist Mordecai Ham, and soon they became friends. One day the boyish Billy Graham approached the older, seasoned evangelist with this question about ministry.

What, he said, Mordecai, what should be my biggest concern as an evangelist? And Mordecai Ham looked him in the eye and replied, Billy, don't ever lose your sweetheart love for Jesus. Let me ask you, friend, have you lost your sweetheart love for Jesus?

Is He sweeter to you now? Is He dearer to you now? Is He nearer to you now than ever before, or has the gold dimmed somewhat in your walk with Him? When David asks God to restore the joy back to him, he's in essence saying, he just wants God, just give me Jesus, that's all I want, and he wants God to uphold him by His Spirit.

Personal Revival and Evangelistic Mission

But look at the aftereffect of personal revival, friends. Look at what God plans to do through the new, sharper, threshing instrument which is now back on fire for Him. Look at verse 13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

That's what revival is all about, friends, a revelation of God to sinful man, whereby man is awakened to his lost condition. He sees the danger of his perilous position on the wrong side of God and outside of Christ, the only remedy for sin.

A revived church becomes an evangelizing church whose primary focus is to live, to live to bring in the lost. And I believe, friends, that the sad spiritual declension of our tragic hour in our nation's history can be traced to the doorsteps of the church, where the church has become an island unto herself, existing for her own profit and pleasure, while the world around them perishes into a burning hell.

As I'm speaking, there is a soul who has died and is dropping into hell right now. They die every minute and are cast into those regions of the devil's hell, where all hope is gone forever, and all they have is torment and misery.

Corporate Brokenness and Prayer for Revival

Oh, friends, when will the church in this land realize the desperate hour in which we live and fall to her knees in brokenness and contriteness like David did in the psalm and admit her guilt to sin, of bringing the world into the sanctuary, of setting up other gods like money and manpower to get the job done, when in the past the church operated only by prayer and holy ghost power?

Oh, how I long to see the power of God in meetings once again. How desperately we need revival. Let us go now to God for a time of prayer and ask Him for a personal revival in our own hearts.