Holy Spirit #29: The Spirit of Revival — Alan Cairns

Isaiah 32 and Micah 2: The Spirit Poured Out

We invite you to listen now to a broadcast of a message preached during the regular Lord's Day services at Faith Free Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina. Today's message is being preached by the minister of the church, Dr. Alan Cairns.

Our Bible reading is very brief this morning. I want to basically to read two texts of Scripture. The book of Isaiah chapter 32, we'll read verses 13 to 15. And then the prophecy of Micah in chapter 2 and verse 7.

Isaiah chapter 32, reading the three verses 13 to 15. And then Micah chapter 2 and verse 7. We start in Isaiah 32. Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars. Yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city.

Because the palaces shall be forsaken. The multitude of the city shall be left. The forts and towers shall be for dens forever. A joy of wild asses, a pasture of flux. Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high.

And the wilderness be a fruitful field. And the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then Micah 2 and verse 7. O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straightened? Are these his doings?

Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? We have it on divine authority that there will be times of refreshing and times of regression in the work of God. The Apostle Paul admonished Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 and 2 that he would be instant or urgent in season and out of season.

We could put that very colloquially. In good times and in bad or hard times. Now this is a perplexity for us. Given the truth of the fact that the gospel is the power of God. Given the truth of the fact that the Spirit of God is promised to the Church of God.

How come that the Church of God so often does not enjoy the fullness of the blessing and the fullness of the power and the mighty outpourings of the Spirit of God that so effectively quell the onrush of the devil and establish truth in the land?

Again the question arises, if it be that the Church hits a period of declension, how can she get back into blessing? These questions raise for us the issue, the vital issue of revival. We have read two texts of scripture this morning, each of which has much to say on the subject of revival.

And each of which treats the subject of revival in close connection with the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. And so as we continue in our studies in the person and work of the Holy Spirit, I want us today to fasten our attention on these verses of scripture and to think upon the spirit of revival.

Declension Is Not the Spirit's Failure

Now I want to be as simple and clear as I can possibly be. There are four very clean observations that we can make from the texts of scripture before us. First and foremost, seasons of declension in the Church of God are never because of any failure on the part of the Spirit of God.

Micah 2 and verse 7 is a scathing indictment of God's professing people. O thou that art named, the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord straightened? Are these His doings? This strong denunciation should be noted.

It is very, very like the words of the risen Christ to the church in Sardis, where He said, Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Here He comes to these people and He says, Thou that art named, the house of Jacob.

What a prestigious name. What a tremendous profession is in that name. Here is a people standing forth in the world as God's chosen people, God's redeemed people, God's covenant people, God's specially blessed people.

They are named with the name of the house of Jacob. And yet, though they have that name, they are far from enjoying the privileges that are in the name. Far from enjoying all the fullness that God promised, say in Deuteronomy chapter 8 and in Deuteronomy chapter 11, for the house of Jacob as they moved into the promised land.

These people were languishing and there was a time of national, spiritual backsliding and declension. And as they looked at the awful state of their land, they would have blamed their God. They would have led the onus for the situation on the lack of movement by the Spirit of God.

There were other occasions when the house of Israel did the same thing, in other words. At one time, and Ezekiel takes them up on this, at one time they lamented, our fathers sinned and we are bearing the consequences.

Or to use the language of Scripture, our fathers ate sour grapes and their children's teeth are set on edge. In other words, they were blaming God for what He was doing in their generation. They were saying things are not good today because of the lack of activity and powerful moving on the part of the Spirit of God.

They obviously were saying these are the Lord's doings. Obviously that was their complaint. Now, we may also be guilty of the very same sin. In fact, I find that it is a very common sin. We may be guilty of this sin by lamenting the awful spiritual condition that we find prevailing around us today without a bitter confession of our own responsibility for it.

On every hand there are people who are lamenting the fewness of conversions, real conversions that we find today. The shallowness of the work that appears to be going on in most churches. So many people are lamenting the wicked state of the world and the wicked state of the nation.

And they are lamenting the powerlessness of the Church of Christ and the preaching of the Gospel to do anything about it. But with all those lamentations, there is usually very little confession of sin and very little brokenness and shedding of tears before the throne of God.

The question of the text stands, is the Spirit of the Lord stricken? Are these His doings? In other words, the answer to the situation lies a lot closer home. We, sad to say, have an awful lot of the sardist sickness in our day.

The name to live but dead. How many are called Presbyterians, and they luxuriate in that name. It has a great history. But they have none of the life of the man who were willing to burn to death for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

They have none of the fire that set the world ablaze with the power of evangelism. There are others, and they love the name Baptist. But where are the Spurgeons? Where are the Bunyons? Where are the Keechers?

Where are the great Baptists who knew what it was to trap the land, preaching Christ and winning souls, going through with God in prayer? We have a name that we live. We take such pride in names. Worst of all, we can say that we have the name of Jesus Christ.

We walk in a world of sin, and we dare to be known by the name of the Son of God. And yet there is little likeness to Christ, little love for Christ, little of the mighty enjoyment of Christ, little being taken up with the Lord.

A name to live, and all the time we are dead. You think of the prayerlessness that afflicts the church of Christ today? And let this question burn into our hearts. Is this the Lord's doing? The carelessness about the souls of men.

The carelessness even about the souls of your own offspring. The carelessness about the whole condition of this nation today that prevails among God's people. You think of the worldliness that has infested the church of Jesus Christ.

You think of the materialism that has blighted and blasted the people of God. And then ask the question, The church of Jesus Christ may not under any conditions be led at the door of the blessed Spirit of God.

Rather, the blame lies upon a carnally minded people called by the name of the Lord. Without a heart to go along with their calling. The prophet Isaiah, chapter 59, verses 1 and 2, sums it all up. He says, The Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot see.

His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities are separated between you and your God. Your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear you. That's the real trouble. The Lord can send revival despite all the coldness and deadness of His professing people.

Isaiah 32: Revival Requires the Spirit's Outpouring

By grace and our going on. In Isaiah 32, of declension in the church. In the 32nd chapter of Isaiah, of the blight that lay upon the land. You know, when you look at this spiritually, you think you could be describing America today.

You could be describing Great Britain. Or any of the ones upon the land. There are now coming up thorns and briars. Those are always the mark of the curse of sin. We read that upon all the houses of joy.

And in the joyous city, these thorns and briars are coming up. Now you think of that. You think of churches across England. And just like many of these in New England as well. So, the Atlantic obviously hasn't made any difference to it.

But you think of houses that once were filled with weeping souls seeking Christ. Where once hundreds and thousands gathered under the preaching of the Word of God. And today they are either boarded up or they are sold off as warehouses.

Or for some other carnal means. What's the reason the thorns and the briars are coming up in what were the houses of joy in the joyous cities? The palaces are forsaken. The multitude of the city left.

The forts and towers are dens forever. The defenses are gone. The wild animals, as it were, are free to roam. And the reason they will do this until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high. Isaiah 32 and 15 is a text of Scripture that should be emphasized in every Christian's Bible.

It should be much of his heart as he gets before God in prayer. It should be a verse that is never far from your mind as you are pleading with God. This situation will persist. Until when? Until we get a bigger congregation.

No, sir. Until we become a richer congregation. Until we can afford to flood the country with radio and television programs about the gospel. No, sir. All those things may indeed be useful to God. But this awful situation will persist until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high.

Once the Holy Ghost is poured forth, thank God the dirt is dispelled. There is no substitute for an outpouring of God the Holy Spirit. I was reading C. H. Spurgeon's comments on this subject. They said this.

I thought it was a very insightful statement from a man who had preached his way through a great revival period. And indeed, whose entire ministry, you would say, was lived in the fire of revival. I suppose there was never a week in Spurgeon's ministry unless it would have been a couple of weeks after the great fire in his first service in Surrey Gardens.

Or the great cry of fire. For there was no fire in the Surrey Gardens Music Hall when he was just knocked out for a couple of weeks. People were not coming to Christ. That there wasn't a tremendous move of the Holy Ghost.

Here's a man who for hundreds... The church declined. Actual ways of reviving her is to preach much. I lament and have done so again and again through these studies. That since we started studying the person and work of the Holy Spirit, I have had more Christians come and say, I have been saying for years, some of them many years, It has never taken time to go into what the Bible teaches concerning the person and the work of the Holy Spirit.

If we are going to have revival, we must have an emphasis on the Holy Spirit. He is the... Seminars on methods. We have books on psychology. We have everything dreamed up in order to pump people... To pray God down in the person of the Holy Ghost.

Revival Centers on Christ and Produces Holiness

If you read the experience of eminent saints in revival. Though the revivals obviously took place at different times in history. And under different political and social circumstances. And though there were many points of divergence as to their conduct, etc.

Things in common. If you look at the men who were involved in revival. Always, without exception, their hearts were ravished. And they were overwhelmed. As Christ was made real and personal and sweet to their souls.

It wasn't just that they believed the doctrine of the deity of Christ. It wasn't merely that they believed in the blood atonement. It wasn't merely that they would say yes to... I say an experience of Christ.

Though I know they experienced the Holy Ghost. But any experience that pretends to be an experience of the Holy Ghost. That does not lead a man to Christ. Is not an experience of God's Spirit. But of another Spirit...

To Jesus. But along with that... As the Holy Spirit came upon them. A fire was kindled in their heart. A fire of holiness. ...attended and professed revival today. It doesn't take you to be a theologian to see your way through all the arguments.

I confess that if you were to sit down and listen to all the conflicting charismatic claims of the day. Your mind would soon be in a turmoil. There is a very simple way to find out whether a movement is a movement of the reviving power of the Spirit of God or not.

Revival's Marks: Holiness, Love, and Prayer

Revival always produces. There is a fire of God. And people in revival will have the burning, blazing purity of holiness stamped upon them. There is also a fire of love. In revival it is not hard to get people out to hear the Word of God.

In revival you will not get people moaning that the preacher preached too long. They moan that he didn't preach long enough. And I tell you, if I was the preacher, that would certainly strain credulity.

That is the way it is. In revival it is not hard to get them to the prayer meeting. In revival it is not hard to get them to pray in a prayer meeting. In revival the only difficulty is to stop the prayer meeting.

Oh, there is a fire of love. A love for the means of grace. A spiritual love. Well, people still have to eat. They still have to drink. They still have to clothe their family. They still have a job to do.

In the Isle of Lewis they said in their revival that they got more work done, but they got it done in a lot less time because the people were not given to materialism and then adding on the church and its services to that.

They were given to the Lord and they just did what they had to do to be good employers or good employees. The case may be. But then a love for the things of God. Then of course there is a love for souls.

There is a love for the perishing. There is a melting of the heart. You know, I feel and fear that if there is one thing missing among God's people today, it is a love for souls. We can watch as sinners go to hell.

It never touches our heart. Once the Holy Ghost comes, that changes. I tell you, it is because of a lack of the experience of the Holy Spirit filling our hearts that we can have such an attitude. And of course then there is a fire of boldness.

Spirit-Filled Boldness in Acts 4

With holiness and love there will come boldness. In Acts chapter 4, when the people of God were wanting the fullness of the Spirit, what did they pray for? They prayed for boldness. I am not talking about a brass neck.

There are some tactless people who imagine that their impolite attitude and tactics amount to boldness. All they amount to so often is foolhardiness. I am not talking either about the kind of notion that says to you, well, I have to witness to ten people this week, and therefore by hook or by crook I am going to do it.

And so, just to rid your conscience of guilt, you get through your little spiel. I am talking about a people who are so made like Christ in holiness, who are so made like Christ in love, whose hearts are so thrilled with what they have of Christ, and they are so stamped with what they see of eternity, that they have a boldness to speak for Him.

And they fear neither man, woman, nor devil in the cause of Jesus Christ. That is always the case when there is an experience of the fullness of the Holy Ghost. But sadly, we have too much of a religion of the head, of the mouth, and of the hand, and very little of the heart.

Its way through the deep conundrums of theological questions can profess great things. All the vocabulary, but none of the vitality. A religion of the hand that has the mechanical doing, but resides the heartbeat of a powerful manifestation of the Spirit of God.

Revival Is Never Beyond the Spirit's Power

Isaiah says, There can be no bettering of the situation spiritually until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high. Declension will dominate until we experience the outpouring of the Spirit. We can see declension that we find so often in the church of Jesus Christ.

But as I look at these texts, thank God there is hope. Because in Micah 2 and 7, I have to note that seasons of declension in the church are never beyond the power of the Spirit of God. The question, is the Spirit of the Lord straightened?

The answer, implied, is no. And then again, do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? The answer is yes. Now the Spirit of God is not straightened by impotence, straightened by the devices of the wicked world.

He is not straightened by the grip of the devil in the souls of men. He is not straightened because of our position in the program of prophecy. So many people want me to believe because of the lateness of the hour.

We cannot expect like we must be reading a different Bible. By the fury and the faithlessness today, can the operation of the blessed Spirit of God be said to be true? In Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 19, there is that outstanding.

"...and he muttered against him.". There is a very wicked generation in the world today. The grip of the devil in the souls of men is horrendous and horrific. The program of, on every hand, cursing the work of God.

The problem is enormous. It is very difficult to be optimistic about what you see going on in the world and in the church today. It is difficult to be optimistic. When you go back to Ezekiel 37, now I know this is a prophecy and it has yet a literal fulfillment, but I believe also it is an outstanding parable that has a continuing fulfillment.

Ezekiel 37: Revival in the Valley of Dry Bones

In Ezekiel 37, we read, "...the hand of the Lord was upon me and he carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord.". Note those words. Because it is only in the Spirit that you can see the rest of Ezekiel 37.

You look at this with the eyes of the flesh and you will come to a different conclusion. But when you are in the Spirit, you will see this,. "...and he set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and he caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there were very many in the open valley, and, lo, they were very dry.".

Here is the vision of the valley of dry bones scattered upon the face of the earth. "...and he said unto me...".

Here is the question, "...Son of man, these...".

Let's bring it into different language with the same meaning. "...can God send revival as will bring life to scattered dead dry bones?". Ezekiel was not making any strong responses of faith at this point.

"...he said, O Lord God, Thinost, Thinost. But the Lord said, Prophecy upon these bones, and said unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.". Now what could be more stupid than standing talking to an excavated graveyard with all these dry bones scattered over the place?

What could be more stupid in the mind of the flesh than to look at those bones and start preaching to them? That's not the way, you would say, to see anything much done. And I tell you this, my friend, these bones, God gets a man who starts doing what the world says is stupid and starts preaching to dead bones, telling them what to do.

The mighty power of God, they'll do it. The Spirit of God comes in, as He later does in verse 9, and breathes life into them. These slain shall live. So there's nothing that could be more discouraging than the situation that Ezekiel presents, but God could send revival.

Historical Revival and the Power of Prayer

When you think, very often we read history, you know, with rose-tinted spectacles, everything was great in the past and everything's gruesome today. Well, that's not quite true, because if you were living back in those days, they were saying the very same thing.

Well, if you read in the period of England, just before the Great Awakening, under Whitefield and Wesley and others of their movement, Delamore says in his Life of Whitefield that the life of England between 1730 and 1740 was foul with moral corruption and crippled by spiritual decay.

Well, you would think that he was writing of our day, wouldn't you? Foul with moral corruption and crippled with spiritual decay. If you study that period of English history, you'll find that there were various great marks of sin.

There was unfettered uncleanness. This went back to the restoration of Charles II to the throne of England, where he brought in with him a mighty reaction against Puritanism. And there was unfettered uncleanness running like a polluted stream from the court of the king right through the nation.

There was, starting in 1662, political persecution for Christians when, in the year of the Great Ejection, many, many of the greatest ministers England ever had were thrown out of their pulpits and forbidden to preach.

Since they couldn't preach, at least in the places that they once preached, they led them to great prayer. I thoroughly believe that the Great Awakening and following generations had largely its roots in the praying of persecuted saints.

You can't tell me that John Bunyan's twelve years in Bedford jail crying to God were years that God ignored. Prayers that God didn't answer, I couldn't believe that. Revival came as the result of prayer.

There was political persecution. There was a deadening deism across the land. The church was gripped with this form of rationalism. These were the people that believed that God had wound up the universe like a clockmaker winding up a great clock.

And then He just left it to tick its way through fate. But He was not involved. They didn't want a religion that touched the heart. They hated a religion that had what they called fanaticism. Now, I don't think that fanaticism is good in the church of Christ.

But if anybody were to cry, I love the Lord, there was what I would call a deficient defense of the gospel against deism. The church in England produced some of the greatest theological minds that it has ever known.

If you have heard of... I've had that book for years. I have read parts of it. And I want to tell you, there are many things that I would rather do than have to read the rest of it. I confess that I maybe should have read every page and every line.

But my, it's dry. It's as dry as dust. John Murray in Westminster used to say when they came to dry things, and people said, Professor, this is dry as dust. He would say, yes, but it's gold dust. Well, you couldn't say that about Buckler's analogy.

It's just plain, ordinary dust. That's the kind of defense. It was very learned. Very learned. It's my belief when the church of Jesus Christ sinks into this kind of logical apologetic that is not centered on the vitality of the risen Christ, that it's a sign of her death and decay.

And it never accomplishes anything. All we have for today, devoid of spiritual power. Do we not find it even in fundamentalist churches? Stand for what's right. Thank God. I do not for one moment undervalue the importance of that, Stan.

I tell you that for a man to stand up and say, I'm against Rome, I'm against the World Council of Churches, I'm against the Communists, I'm against this, I'm against the other thing, and there is no preaching of Christ forming power.

And to do that is to add to the problem, not to solve. In those days of carnal clergy, thank God the non-conformist churches weren't nearly so bad. In this regard, but carnal clergy, ministers who were so taken up with this world, do we not have those men today?

Do we not have this in the pulpit and in the pew? People who are more taken up with the business of this world than they are with the business of eternity. We had also the separatists, the non-conformists, the Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the Baptists.

They were all there in England in the 18th century. But they were stagnant separatists. Their preaching was cold. They were weak many times in theology. And those who weren't split up with needless divisions.

I don't need to draw the parallel with today. It's too plain for anybody to miss. And the result was a godless nation. Yes, my friend, that was England before the Great Awakening. God in His grace raised a small handful of men starting in the University of Oxford.

And in grace in other places, as in Wales, He was preparing other small handfuls of men. At the same time over in New England, He was dealing with other small numbers of men. And He was warming their hearts.

They were usually men of great intellect. Here in the United States, the leader of the revival was, at least in New England, Jonathan Edwards. Arguably the greatest philosophical and theological intellect this country has ever produced.

These were usually men of great intellect. It wasn't their intellect that brought revival. These were men whose hearts... ...found that however dark the day, it was not beyond the power of He. You could very easily get disappointed.

In our day, not beyond the power of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, the final thing I note is this. That in seasons of declension in the church, we should be much in prayer for revival from the Spirit of God.

Prayer for Revival and God's Covenant Faithfulness

There is a striking verse toward the end of the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 62, verses 6 and 7. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night. Ye that make mention of the Lord.

Marginal reading. Ye that are the Lord's remembrances. You who are God's reminders. Keep not silence, and give Him no rest to establish, until He make Jerusalem a praise in the air. What an injunction!

Watchmen. Who are the watchmen? They are the men who mount the tower of prayer. They are the men who are there to remind God of His covenant. God says to these prayer warriors, though He even seems to suffer long with them, He says, give your God establishes Jerusalem until He pours out His Spirit.

He sends revival. Why and how can you do that? The answer, verse 8, The Lord hath sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength, and He goes on to give the promise. We have a God of covenant faithfulness.

We have a God who has given His promise, and therefore we ought to pray, and that without ceasing giving Him no rest, until He send us revival. You listen to His promise. Isaiah 41 and 17 When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst.

I've often pointed out in reading that verse in prayer meetings, that these are not just people who are finding it hard to pray. These are people who are so weak that they can hardly utter a word in prayer.

Their tongue fails for spiritual thirst. Their tongue, as it were, has swollen in their mouth, and they are incapable of great wordiness in prayer, but with a broken heart. They are before God, and it says, I, the Lord, will hear them.

I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I'll open up the rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I'll make the wilderness a pool of water. A beautiful promise in the 44th chapter of Isaiah.

How often we need to plead it. I will pour water on him that is thirsty. Floods upon the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed. Here's a promise for every Christian parent to be pleading. Here's a promise for every father and every mother worried about their children growing up in this sinful and adulterous generation, in this day when the devil is using every art and every device to damn their souls.

Lord, give me water. Give me the floods in this dry ground and pour out Your Spirit. Those of you who have heard the tape of the Isle of Lewis revival will remember that in one part of the island, as they were praying and the revival had not broken there, one old elder of the church got up in the middle of the night in an all-night prayer meeting and lifted his heart to God with these words, Lord, thou hast said I will pour water on him that is thirsty.

Lord, as best I know my heart. God, yea, challenged God. Isaiah 64 and verse 1, O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down that the mountains might flow down at thy presence. When I come to church, when I come to the meetings, that is very, very frequently my prayer.

Thou wouldst rend the heavens today. God, take us out of the ordinary. We were singing from the 85th psalm, the prayer of the psalmist for revival. And what did he cry? Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee?

Habakkuk 3, verse 2, I will revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make known, remember mercy. These are the prayers we ought to be praying. And praying them will entail having the Lord be with us.

Revival Begins With Repentance in God's House

As we come to the close of this meeting this morning, if you are a Christian, I want you to realize when you pray God send revival, you are praying that God will start dealing with your sin, and start dealing with your carnality, and start dealing with everything in your life that is grieving to God.

In the 80th psalm, I commend it much to your very careful perusal. Pray through it. In the 80th psalm, the psalmist is looking back on what the Lord did. He is the Shepherd of Israel. He sits between the cherubim.

He led Joseph like a flock. And yet here they were in an awful situation. And what is he praying? He is praying, Lord, stir yourself up. Stir up your strength before your people. Ah, but as soon as he starts to pray for revival, what happens?

God starts to convict him of sin. And he prays, Turn us, O God. Cause thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved. Three times in that psalm, he prays, Turn us, O God. Then, O Lord God of hosts, the three great descriptions of our God.

He is the God of heaven. He is the God of hosts. He is the God of the covenant. And here we are praying, Lord, turn us to Yourself. You know, you can pay all the lip service you will to revival. But while you are a carnal man, you are just a liar before God.

I know that is a strong thing to say to a Christian. Or one who names the name of Christ. My friend, if you pay lip service before God and the things of God, and you have a heart yet uncircumcised, you have a heart that is still set on the world, and you are more interested in jobs and money and houses and lands and pleasures and pastimes than you are in your God, then you may have a name that you live.

You have got to wonder, are you not yet dead? If you are going to pray for revival, you are praying that God will deal with your sin and the thing that grieves His Holy Spirit. Judgment must begin at the house of God.

The temple has to be purified. It must be then dedicated to the Lord. What a beautiful picture it is. When Solomon dedicated the temple, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.

This church and every other church that is true to Christ is a living temple of the living Christ. When the temple is cleansed and dedicated to Christ, then the Spirit of the Lord will fill the house of the Lord.

And we will then again prove the Holy Spirit to be the Spirit. May God make that our real experience. His name be saved.

We invite you to listen each week at this same time for a message from Faith Free Presbyterian Church.