Personal Revival

[0:00] Well, it's really a wonderful privilege to be here today. I met Brother Andrew more than! ten years ago over the internet. He's been faithfully preaching the word of God ever! since. It's such an encouragement to meet him. Finally, he came to one of our conferences, but to spend more time with him at this camp. Now, my name is Joseph Stephen, and we have a small ministry called Faithful Generations. We want to encourage and equip families, because if you have strong families, you have strong churches. We have a bookstore at the back of the hall. And I wanted to say that we sell everything at cost, price, or sometimes below.

[1:01] Our goal is not to make money. Our goal is to make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ who are fully equipped for the work of the ministry. And in a day when people are not fully equipped, we come into our marriages ill-equipped. We come into our churches ill-equipped. So, take advantage of the bookstore. You can also pre-order, if you're interested, this book, The Sufficiency of Scripture, The Key to Revival. Can you see that? I've got it up the right way. Very good.

[1:39] Good start. That book will be available later this year. It's not in print yet. It's being published at the moment. This book, which is in print, this is a poetry book. Morgan meets the eye. I'll be quoting a couple of poems from that Lord willing during these sessions.

[1:58] Gideon, would you please come and take these so that I don't have to make them fall on the floor? Thanks. So, our subject this afternoon is personal revival. And it's with great trepidation that I attempt to speak on such a topic of personal revival because I am so conscious of my own need in my own heart of personal revival. There is no formula for revival. Not personal, not family, and not church. But there are certainly some things which must happen in order for us to see revival take place. And in this session, I'd like to address the issue of personal revival or revival of the soul. And the seventh thing which really must take place before it can happen.

[2:52] Now, of course, when I speak of personal revival, I'm not speaking of salvation. I will not take, brother Morrison's thunder. I'm looking forward to your message, brother. But I am speaking of the already saved Christian who is really being called to a closer walk with the Lord Jesus.

[3:23] I speak of the heart of the heart of the Christian burning with zeal, adoration of God. A recognition and hatred of our own wretched sin. A desire for godliness. A desire to serve others. A desire to glorify God through good works. A desire to constantly learn how to better apply the scriptures. A desire to hide God's word in our hearts that we might not sin against him. That is the purpose of hiding God's word in our hearts.

[4:05] Psalm 119.11. And desire to see others saved and growing in their faith and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In short, a returning to our first love.

[4:17] Revelation 2.4. As I tell my children, it's not just knowing about God or his word, though that is foundational and necessary, but it is knowing God.

[4:28] It is knowing God as David knew God. Listen to the words of David. It's no wonder that God called him a man after his own heart. Now, David wasn't perfect, and I take courage from the scriptures that all the men of God used by God were imperfect clay vessels who were broken before him.

[4:53] Psalm 42.1-2 says, As the heart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.

[5:07] When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 63.1-8 says, O God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee.

[5:18] My soul thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

[5:29] Because thy lovingkindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in thy name.

[5:40] My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches.

[5:52] Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me.

[6:04] And Psalm 84.2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

[6:16] And Psalm 94.19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me, Thy comforts delight my soul. And Psalm 119.20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.

[6:34] Psalm 119.62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. You get the picture.

[6:47] Psalm 119.167 My soul hath kept thy precepts. Sorry, thy testimonies. And I love them exceedingly.

[7:00] Psalm 130.6 My soul waited for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than they that watch for the morning.

[7:13] Oh, that David's words were our daily bleep. What was the secret to David's hunger for the living God? Let's consider seven things which are necessary for personal revival.

[7:29] The first one, of course, is that we must examine ourselves to see if we'd be in the faith. Because all of the Christian activities that we go to will not save us.

[7:41] And again, I won't steal from Brother Forbes. But 2 Corinthians 13.5 says, Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves.

[7:54] Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you. Except ye be reprobate.

[8:06] I won't belabor that point. But we must examine ourselves. Because if we're not saved, all the attempts for revival will fail.

[8:19] The second point is that we must study God's character, titles, and attributes. One of the greatest hindrances to our relationship with God is a lack of a deep understanding of who God is.

[8:40] An interesting question was asked of a seminary student recently. The question was, In all your studies, how much have you studied the character of God?

[8:53] And the student was shocked. Study the character of God? Oh, I've studied eschatology and theology and thisology. Character of God.

[9:05] Yet knowing who God is is so foundational to our relationship with Him just as knowing our spouse is foundational to a strong marriage.

[9:17] Both Job and Isaiah really only had true revival in their hearts when they properly understood their wretchedness before the Holy God.

[9:29] Job 42, 5 and 6 says, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.

[9:43] And Isaiah 6, 5 then said, I woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts.

[10:01] It's essential to revival that we have a right understanding of our own of who God is not just in terms of His holiness but also in terms of His character and attributes.

[10:14] I remember the prayer of an elderly gentleman one time it was quite an interesting experience he just prayed for several minutes reciting the glorious titles and attributes of God with deep affection.

[10:32] That was the extent of His prayer. Very worshipful. It's paramount that we know who God is because it is only when we have a firm grasp of who God is of His constant character that we will be able to comfort and be comforted during tribulation.

[10:53] Consider with me for a minute that your wife has just gone missing. What are the possibilities? Did she leave you? Or did someone capture her?

[11:04] What happened? Knowing her character at this point will be of great comfort to you. If you know that she loved you and had proven herself trustworthy for many years her leaving you would not even cross your mind instead you would be immediately seeking her captors.

[11:30] If however your relationship with her was shaky at best and you had doubts about her character you may well be filled with a heart wrenching possibility that she left you.

[11:46] It is in our trials that a good understanding of God's character will really be able to comfort us. Let us consider for a moment some of his glorious titles and attributes.

[11:59] The only true God Father of mercies Holy Father Wonderful Counselor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace Love the Good Shepherd the Chief Shepherd the only wise God the God of all truth the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort the God who provides the living bread the door the light of the world the true vine the great I am the Alpha and Omega the chief cornerstone righteous judge

[13:05] Father of lights the Amen we haven't time to study each of these few titles in great detail but summarizing just these few we can learn that the Almighty God is omnipotent omnipresent and omniscient there is no one his equal in all of the universe you know some Christians have this idea that God and Satan are equal opposites but they're not God is over all and Satan only has as much power as God allows him it's like the electron and the proton the size difference I don't know if you know science but one is so infinitesimally small compared to the other yet they're both in the atom God defines!

[14:05] Wisdom God defines wonderful God defines truth God defines love God is a father that is he protects and provides for our soul he is unchanging and therefore totally reliable and not subject to sudden changes in temperament or purpose as we are as the light of the world he shows us our true sinful nature as the vine he gives us our identity and declares our utter dependence on him what grows on a vine well a grape vine grapes do you have anything else on a grape vine leaves leaves but they are grape leaves right yep we abide in the vine he gives us our identity and declares our dependence on him as the door he provides the way of salvation as the bread he sustains us as the counsellor and god of all comfort he gives us understanding wisdom and comfort through whatever trial he deems good for our character development he is a man of his word so to speak that which he promises shall come to pass with utter certainty as the chief cornerstone he gives us a frame of reference and purpose as the father of lights he gives us every good and perfect gift and his will is that all things work together for the good of them that love him and who are called according to his purpose there is nothing that can separate us from the love of the

[16:01] Lord Jesus Christ as righteous judge every pronouncement of his mouth is totally right and just his title as amen speaks of his absolute and total trustworthiness in whatever trial we may face Jeremiah 9 23 and 24 one of my favorite verses I have many favorite verses but it says this thus saith the Lord let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this what is that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight saith the

[17:03] Lord we can know God and those that glory let us glory in this that we understand and know the God who revealed himself to us the second point for personal third point sorry for personal revival is that we must understand our sinfulness and dependence upon God humbling ourselves and submitting to his lordship this is one that we always talk about but it's very hard to do in practice because in every denomination we have our biases we have our list of things that we can tick off that we're happy with that we can submit to but we don't do that thing over there because that's done by another denomination or they see things differently to us but the scriptures have to be our total guide to everything and we should be willing to submit to his lordship even as older Christians who are very set in our ways Psalm 100 verse 3 says know ye that the lord he is god it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves we are the sheep of his pasture 1 peter 5 6 humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of god that he may exalt you in due time james 4 10 humble yourselves in the sight excuse me of the lord and he shall lift you up psalm 34 18 the lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and save such as be of a contrite spirit and james 4 7 submit yourselves therefore to god resist the devil and he will flee from you draw near to god and he will draw near to you listen cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double minded who's he talking to he's talking to christians yes we're double minded yes we're sinners and yes we need to submit to the lordship of christ even as christians the third point we must constantly consider the works of god both in creation and history by the way where did

[19:28] I get the list of seven things from I studied David's life and I studied many of the other patriarchs life in the scriptures to see what gave them their closeness to god so that's where I got these seven things from so considering the works of god both in creation and history first of all you got to believe in creation and I'm so thankful that brother Andrew is a great creation science promoter because it's the foundation of the scriptures as we see tomorrow David had many hours to contemplate the glory of god in creation as he sat under many a starry night keeping his father's sheep today we are bombarded with so much information that we find little time to enjoy god in his creation and the humanists have rewritten history so badly that we do not even see god's hand in history we have a cd out the back table called the biblical pattern for the education and training of our children and i also deal with it in the book of the sufficiency of scripture how many of the greatest scientists who ever lived their whole heart and foundation were the scriptures that gave them the whole purpose for research but today you don't know that because the humanists have hijacked their education system consider the number of times david spoke of the works of god throughout the psalms and how he made it his mission to make them known to all just a few psalm 77 12 i will meditate also of all thy works and talk of thy doings psalm 143 verse 5 i remember the days of old history i meditate on all thy works i muse on the work of thy hands psalm 9 9 1 i will praise thee o lord with my whole heart i will show forth all thy marvelous works there's a really wonderful dvd called god of wonders if you can get hold of it it's the website is eternity eternity productions you can search for it anyway god of wonders i think it's eternity productions dot com a really great witnessing tool psalm 111 verse 2 the works of the lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein psalm 111 verse 4 he have made his wonderful works to be remembered the lord is gracious and full of compassion history when i was at school i found history really boring because i didn't know that it gave me the context in which to live you see if you know history you see yourself as part of the whole providence of god yes the canon of scripture is closed but you and i are part of the work of god and we fit into history right where god has placed us just as the words of esther for such a time as this so we need to know what god wants of us but in order to do that we need to know history and know how god has worked through man and women know how god has worked through creation psalm 46 8 come behold the works of the lord what desolations he hath made in the earth psalm

[23:31] 104 24 oh lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches so we're no accident we're no product of chance everything was made through wisdom and indeed the fool hath said in his heart there is no god we see the works of the lord in the depths we see the works of the lord in the heavens the heavens declare his glory whether in the earth whether in the depths whether in the oceans or the far reaches of the universe god has displayed his handiwork and we should both contemplate it and glorify him for it that will help us with personal revival when we look around and open our eyes and our ears and our taste buds and our noses and everything that we sense we recognize from god we should also diligently teach our children history as i have alluded to that is his story so they also set their hope in god as psalm 78 so clearly teaches the next point is that we must present our bodies as a living sacrifice romans 12 1 i beseech you i urge you i plead with you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that he present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto god which is your reasonable service 1 corinthians 6 19 20 what know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost which is in you which ye have of god and ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorify god in your body and in your spirit which are god's presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice means that we make ourselves and all that we have available to the service of the lord there is no there is nothing that we have that the lord didn't first give us it is even he that gives us the power to get wealth but not for our selfish gain this is for his own purpose not for the gratification of our own flesh we must renew our minds this is the next point we must renew our mind and learn to take every thought captive to the obedience of the lord jesus christ romans 12 2 and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god you don't want to know why many christians do not find the will of god for their life it's in this verse if you do not renew your mind you cannot find the perfect will of god it says so right here and our minds are riddled with vain philosophies humanism feminism socialism many many isms materialism i guess it's not greenism it's environmentalism

[27:32] is the latest one we need to test everything is it really from god you know it was a very very sad thing to see in our latest election a party calling themselves christians for voluntary euthanasia you cannot have both of those two words together christians are for life because god says life is precious whether you are in the womb whether you are elderly whether you are disabled whether you are healthy life is not for us to take 2 corinthians 10 5 casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ how many things isms are exalting themselves against the knowledge of god we've got to cast them down my friends we have to but we've got to know what they are first before we can cast them down so how do we renew our minds well as i said firstly we must realize the ungodly philosophies which have saturated our minds i just mentioned a few and unfortunately they've all come to us most of them through our education system they mar our thinking they prevent us from coming to the scriptures with a clean slate because we read the scriptures with a humanistic viewpoint as i said we cannot know the perfect will of god if we are not willing to renew our minds we must also recognize that god's ways are not our ways and some things that he asks us to do don't seem logical i'll talk about more of those things in family revival tomorrow when we look at the biblical pattern for the family and how it differs from the worldly pattern today isaiah 11 8 and 9 says for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts so it is a great effort for us to throw down the things that exalt themselves against god it's hard and it doesn't happen accidentally the next point for revival is that we must keep god in all our thoughts with a constant prayerful attitude we often are exhorted to have a quiet time when we first awake and while this is beneficial even more beneficial is a constant attitude of contemplation of god's word and a constant attitude of prayer in our hearts throughout the day regardless of what we're doing limiting our prayer life to a few minutes in the morning and a few seconds before meals just reinforces the practice of separation of secular and sacred there is no secular and sacred separation a

[31:03] Christian is a Christian full time or he's not a Christian at all we are God's children full time this psalm psalm 10 verse 4 I was away in Malaysia one time when we read it as a family and it's stuck in my mind ever since psalm 10 verse 4 says!

[31:19] the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts notice that the wicked do not have God in all his thoughts conversely the Christian should have God in all his thoughts Joshua 1 8 says this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate there in day and night that thou!

[31:48] mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success and that success will be God's success not the success of the world in Psalm 1 1 and 2 blessed is!

[32:20] Psalm 63 6 when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches and remember the other one waking up at midnight Colossians 3 16 says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and in spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord in summary there is no shortcuts to personal revival we may go home from this camp on a spiritual high but the mundane will soon set in and will bring us back down to earth the mountaintop thrills are good for us to help us cast vision for the future you know you climb up a mountain peak to see where you're going but then you have to come down and walk there we do come down and sometimes with a thud as we seek personal revival let us remember the seven necessary points let us examine ourselves to see if we be in the faith let us study

[33:42] God's character titles and attributes let us understand our sinfulness and dependence upon God with a constant humble attitude let us constantly consider the works of God both in creation and history let us present our body as a living sacrifice let us renew our minds and seek to take captive every thought to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ let us keep God in all our thoughts with a constant prayerful attitude may I finish with a poem from more than meets the eye it's called taste and see enjoy him with every sense worship him with reverence thank him for life's pleasures set your heart on heavenly treasures trust him to meet all your needs follow wherever he leads obey him implicitly wait for him patiently confess sin in humility overcome triumphantly praise him with psalms and hymns build carefully with precious gems serve him diligently love him unreservedly testify faithfully contend for the faith earnestly speak of his wondrous works be consumed with his awesome thoughts meditate on his written word taste and see that the

[35:25] Lord is good