“When Revival Comes…” – FBC Morning Light (8/21/2024)

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:16

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. We are in the middle of the week, and I hope your week is going well.

00:22

And we're continuing to read in the book of Ezekiel, and today, chapters 11 to 13. And chapter 11, a few verses in that chapter, remind me of one of the great needs of our day, and that is the need of a revival, true, genuine revival, revival and an awakening.

00:42

And I may not be particularly accurate in this assessment, but here's the way

00:50

I differentiate between those two things, just as a by -the -way. I think of an awakening as what occurs when there is a widespread conversion experience of numbers of people being converted.

01:10

They come to faith in Christ. They were blind, but now they see.

01:15

They were dead, but now they are alive. There is an awakening to life, kind of like what we're going to see later in the book of Ezekiel, and that vision of the dry bones, where these bones are scattered all over.

01:30

And in Ezekiel's vision, he sees the bones come together, and then he speaks to the bones, and he says to them, live, you know, the sinews come upon them, and then there's these dead bodies, and then he speaks the word of life, and they come alive.

01:49

They are awakened. I think of that as an awakening. A revival, I differentiate in this way.

01:56

I think a revival is the experience of God's people, those who are already converted, they are followers of Jesus, but they have backslidden, and they're worldly, they've lost their love for Christ, that first love, and they need to be revived.

02:16

They need to come alive again, if you will. So I think both are desperately needed in our day, in our country, that is, in the

02:28

United States. There is obviously a national need for people to be genuinely converted on a wide scale, and I think one of the great needs of our day is for the

02:49

Church, the true Church, to be revived. And how then will we know if revival comes?

03:00

What will it look like? Well, that's what I want to look at in chapter 11 in Ezekiel, in verses 18 to 20, and here the

03:08

Lord says, when he's going to restore Israel, he says in verse 17,

03:14

I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you've been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel, okay?

03:20

And then there's going to be, there will be revival, new life, if you will. Here's what it's going to look like.

03:26

He says they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there.

03:34

You remember yesterday, that vision that Ezekiel had of all of the abominable things, the idols, and so forth, the detestable things that were in the temple.

03:47

Because the people had turned away from the Lord. Well, in revival, all those things are taken away.

03:55

They are kicked out. And I've seen some interesting expressions of this kind of revival lately.

04:03

In fact, recently I was sitting at a restaurant with my wife, and sitting nearby, there was an older couple and a younger woman.

04:12

The younger woman was probably, I guess, early to mid -twenties, and it was clear that they were

04:20

Christians, and they were talking about church and so forth, and this must have been her parents, and the parents were asking her about her church where she's attending.

04:31

And the way she described it was, it's, and I would not have expected, excuse me,

04:37

I would not have expected this. But the way she described it was, the preaching is excellent, and she said,

04:44

I like the music because there's this good blend of new hymns and traditional conservative hymns.

04:54

But she said this, all of it is done in a very, very conservative manner.

05:01

There's not all the loud, blasting music and performers up on the stage, so you're just kind of like a spectator.

05:10

And the music is done in a way that we can participate, and so on and so forth. Well, what she's expressing is a trend away from, in some places, a trend away from this performance -oriented, entertainment -based worship style.

05:30

This is the kind of revival that is needed in worship. So there's this getting away from the detestable things and the abominable things, putting those things away.

05:43

And then in verse 19, the Lord says, I will give them one heart and will put a new spirit within them.

05:51

So one of the marks of revival in a church is unity in that church, one heart, a new spirit within them, and a spirit that is sensitive and tender to the

06:05

Word. Because he goes on to say, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.

06:11

And it will all be marked by a desire for, a passion for, obedient walking in the

06:18

Word. He says that they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them, and a healthy, vibrant relationship with God.

06:27

These are the marks of revival. He says, they shall be my people, I will be their

06:33

God. Do you think we need revival today? What do you think? I do,

06:40

I do. Sometimes I know I need it in my own heart, and I pray for it. I pray for it in our church,

06:47

I pray for it in our community, I pray for an awakening in our community. I pray for both.

06:52

May God give it to us. So our Father and our God, we thank you that you are the

06:58

God who graciously and sovereignly brings both awakening and revival. And I would pray today, revive your church,

07:06

O Lord, we ask in Jesus' name, and for his sake, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your

07:12

Wednesday. May the Lord bless you in it, and may he truly send revival.