Call to Revival — E.A. Johnston

Nehemiah’s Report of Jerusalem’s Ruined Walls

I want us to turn to the book of Nehemiah this morning. We're going to be in Nehemiah chapter 1 and in verses 3 and 4. Here now is the Word of God and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word.

And they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

Let me pause here, friends. Not only is it broken down and in need of repair, the people of God are in reproach by the enemies of God, for they have come in added insult to injury, burning the very gates of the city.

The Church’s Spiritual Ruin and Need for Revival

Is this not an accurate description of the church in our day? There she barely stands, a broken down institution, impotent, lacking authority, and with little influence. She is in need of help, in need of repair spiritually, in great need of revival.

Nehemiah’s Mourning, Fasting, and Prayer

And the news of this terrible state and dreadful condition of the people of God unnerves this man Nehemiah. It breaks the very heart of this man of God. And we read in verse 4,. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down, and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.

The news is too terrible, too horrible for him to keep standing. He must sit down. When we receive tragic news, often our knees give way and we must sink into a chair. This is the case here. Nehemiah hears this horrid news of the church of God and his legs go to jelly, his eyes become fountains of water, he's no longer interested in food.

This terrible state of the church is now the most pressing thing. The people of God are being trampled upon and abused. They are in great affliction and reproach. The holy city is exposed and lies in ruins with chored walls and gates that have been burned with fire from the enemies of God.

This awful news is too much for this man. This man of God, Nehemiah, he realizes that something must be done. Something must be done about it immediately. Someone must take charge and be proactive here and go to God in prayer for his great help and favor to assist the cause of rebuilding.

So this man, Nehemiah, humbles himself before God by a time of fasting and mourning and humiliation, and he does this for several days as he prepares his heart to seek the Almighty in prayer. This calls to mind, friends, the wonderful description of the modern church by the late Dr. Colin Peckham of Edinburgh, Scotland, who wrote the following words in a foreword to my book called A Revival.

The Western Church’s Spiritual Decline

Listen to what Dr. Peckham wrote. The famous World Missionary Convention held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1910 came to the conclusion that the state of the church was such as to prove itself utterly unfit for the work God put before it.

Andrew Murray then wrote a book called The State of the Church, in which he took these assessments and further analyzed the church as being self-centered, with little consecration, vision, spiritual dynamic, or prayer.

It's a vivid and scathing assessment today. The Western church is in a crisis, with half-hearted congregations sound asleep, the standards fall, there is a lack of fervent burdened praying, the witness is feeble, the worship is often shallow and anthropocentric, meaning the focus is centered on me, holiness is on the back burner and is an embarrassing subject, preaching is often mechanical and professional, the poorly attended prayer meeting consists so often of merely listing our needs before God, conversions are infrequent for sinners, are only sought half-heartedly, the church is cold and is in a state of spiritual declension,.

Christian people today are often more materialistic and self-sufficient, even those who are seeking God are in danger of being numbed by the passivity of the prevailing Christian attitudes, there is little burdened preaching, Christianity has become cerebral, the Bible may be taught, but the heart is not touched, the psalmist said horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law, but there is not much horror today, we are conditioned to the godlessness around us and have ceased to feel the horror, burdened, broken, bold praying is the nerve center of revival, there is a price to be paid, a price of curbed freedom, of resolute concentration, of agonizing supplication, intercession costs, there is a burden, a passion, an agony, and yes, glory, the breaking through of God in a meeting, the evidence of his felt presence is everything, and to get that costs everything, true intercession is sacrifice, because of the high demands of taking up this burden many cannot pay the price and consequently do not gain the rewards and benefits of brokenness and soul travail in God's presence, the ministry becomes ordinary, good and biblical, but ordinary, the price is too high, yet God says I the Lord build the ruined places and plant that which was desolate, when last did we pray with broken hearts, when last did we feel that pain-filled fellowship of the pierced hand, oh how we need the refreshing breath of the spirit where glowing coals are fanned into a white hot flame, revival is a many splendorous thing, but at its heart is the revelation of the holy presence of God, it is the localized presence of deity, the consciousness of the eternal, where God takes the field and stands in the midst as the mighty conqueror, and where the glory of the Lord returns to the church, well I will stop there friends, I can't speak on the subject revival any better than Dr. Peckham can and how he so eloquently just did, we see in our text today a man, Nehemiah, who sees the sad condition of the people of God, waning, wasted and in want, the spirit, the sight, why the very sight of their rune drives him to his knees,.

Nehemiah’s Prayer as a Pattern for Revival

I would suggest friends that each one of us take the time to read the rest of Nehemiah chapter 1 very carefully today and to ponder the contents of that prayer and stand amazed at that wonderful prayer of Nehemiah to his God, oh look how he beseeches the almighty, how he prays about the great need and the sins of the people, why it's a very pattern for prayer today, a pattern for revival for the church today, perhaps if we follow that pattern ourselves and prepare our hearts like Nehemiah did, we too can see God move and send us the help, deliverance and need through a mighty shaken revival and the manifest presence of God that can shake this country from coast to coast.