WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.100 We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church. 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:11.599 This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, redistribution, or any other 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:15.300 use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church. 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:22.640 Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org. 00:00:28.900 --> 00:00:29.780 Good morning. 00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:31.899 My name is August Fern. 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:40.159 Today on Cal Sunday, I'll share that I am a proud Cal grad in engineering, class of a while 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:40.439 back. 00:00:40.980 --> 00:00:45.980 And please forgive my hoarse voice, but I spent yesterday afternoon at Memorial Stadium cheering 00:00:45.980 --> 00:00:47.000 on the Cal Bears. 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:52.760 So today's scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 26, verses 12 through 18, as printed 00:00:52.760 --> 00:00:53.439 in the liturgy. 00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:55.900 Please join me. 00:00:55.899 --> 00:01:01.920 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold because the 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:02.879 Lord blessed him. 00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:08.180 The man became rich and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. 00:01:08.180 --> 00:01:13.540 He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. 00:01:14.240 --> 00:01:19.840 So all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:22.380 Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth. 00:01:22.379 --> 00:01:26.439 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, move away from us. 00:01:26.539 --> 00:01:28.379 You have become too powerful for us. 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:33.859 So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the valley of Gerar, where he settled. 00:01:34.819 --> 00:01:39.419 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the 00:01:39.419 --> 00:01:41.620 Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. 00:01:41.620 --> 00:01:45.180 And he gave them the same names his father had given them. 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:51.500 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. 00:01:52.439 --> 00:01:58.320 So the word for us today is that we must dig down to the living water of God the Father 00:01:58.320 --> 00:02:00.060 and his son Jesus. 00:02:01.260 --> 00:02:09.800 This text encourages us to dig down to the living water of God the Father and his son Jesus. 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:14.380 And I want to talk about digging down to the living water because Isaac is in trouble. 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:17.200 He's in a difficult situation. 00:02:17.200 --> 00:02:21.500 If you go back and read in verse 1, there's a drought that's come to the promised land. 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:23.460 And as a result of that drought, there's a famine. 00:02:24.320 --> 00:02:31.100 And yet despite that famine, the Lord has blessed his people with a hundredfold crop, a hundredfold 00:02:31.100 --> 00:02:31.740 harvest. 00:02:32.480 --> 00:02:37.580 And because of that, they become the object of envy among the Philistines who've begun to 00:02:37.580 --> 00:02:43.000 stop up their water supply and forced the people of God to move. 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:47.700 And so Isaac takes his family, takes his wife and his kids, his servants, his animals, his 00:02:47.700 --> 00:02:52.740 possessions, this large group of people, and they go in search of water. 00:02:53.860 --> 00:02:57.560 Now, some of us took a pilgrimage to Israel in 2019. 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:03.699 And we experienced personally that this land of promise is exceedingly hot. 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:07.840 And there are vast tracts of barrenness. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:10.140 And you can get quite thirsty. 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:15.939 And if you don't have access to water, you're not going to survive for very long. 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:24.379 And so Isaac is in this urgent, desperate situation where he needs water, which is absolutely 00:03:24.379 --> 00:03:26.060 essential for life. 00:03:26.060 --> 00:03:31.360 He's seeking something that's fundamental, something that's non-negotiable, without which 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:33.500 life cannot be maintained. 00:03:33.620 --> 00:03:38.680 And what I've come to see is that this is the position of the church in the third millennium, 00:03:38.979 --> 00:03:46.159 that we are in a spiritual drought, and that we have this urgent need for life. 00:03:47.300 --> 00:03:52.840 Jesus talked to us last week from the Gospel of Mark about the need, our need, for the presence 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:59.840 and power of the Holy Spirit to come to us through prayer to bring vitality and to bring strength 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.879 into every activity of the life of his church. 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:08.340 Now, hear these words of Jesus from John, the Gospel of John chapter 4. 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:08.680 He says, 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:22.420 Jesus goes on in John chapter 7. 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:24.960 He stood up and he cried out before the crowds. 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:25.319 He said, 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:41.339 Christchurch, the question for us is, are we thirsty? 00:04:42.620 --> 00:04:44.920 Are we thirsty for God? 00:04:45.579 --> 00:04:49.519 Are we thirsty for that water without which we are dead? 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:57.759 Do we have a burning desire to drink from this spring of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit? 00:04:59.259 --> 00:05:05.979 Well, what does Isaac do when he's confronted with his need for water, with the thirst of his people? 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:10.419 He knows that if he can't find water soon, all of them are going to perish. 00:05:10.620 --> 00:05:12.719 Life itself is going to come to an end. 00:05:12.779 --> 00:05:15.519 And so he makes three crucial decisions. 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:18.859 Notice, first of all, what he does not do. 00:05:18.860 --> 00:05:27.840 He does not go in search of a place with great views, a place with great comfort, a place with great entertainment. 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:33.160 This is an urgent situation and he does not rely on himself. 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:34.560 He doesn't rely on other people. 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:35.800 He doesn't say, oh, we need water. 00:05:35.900 --> 00:05:38.080 So he just starts randomly digging down in the dirt. 00:05:39.180 --> 00:05:44.000 He doesn't call in the experts and say, come find us a new supply of water. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:49.600 Rather, he says, no, the situation is so dire, we don't have time for any of that. 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:51.779 We can't rely on ourselves. 00:05:52.220 --> 00:05:53.300 That's decision number one. 00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:58.300 Decision number two is Isaac remembers the covenant of God. 00:05:59.399 --> 00:06:06.879 He says, you know, if we don't have water and have it quickly, then all of my people are going to perish and I'm going to die right along with them. 00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:12.920 And boom, he has this memory of God's covenant promises to Abraham. 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:16.639 And he says, you know, my father lived here. 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:28.039 And God blessed him to find water wherever he went and enabled him to dig wells and get down to this abundant supply of water. 00:06:28.939 --> 00:06:37.860 And if our covenant God provided for us then and there and gave us wells and gave us water, then surely he'll do it again. 00:06:38.579 --> 00:06:44.079 He'll do it again if only we'll come back to the places where he's ordained to give us life. 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:49.740 So he says to his people, come on, let's go to that place of guaranteed supply. 00:06:49.859 --> 00:06:54.719 Let's go find that vital source that will enable us to live. 00:06:55.620 --> 00:07:00.719 And we read in verse 18, Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:04.379 which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. 00:07:05.219 --> 00:07:08.819 And he gave them the same names that his father had given them. 00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:12.240 He says, let's not dig our own wells. 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:14.579 Let's drink the water that Abraham drank. 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:19.280 Let's go back to the wells of God's covenant to these places. 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:23.199 He provided for our father and for our mother. 00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:29.660 And church, what I'm realizing is that we too need to go back to the past. 00:07:30.620 --> 00:07:35.060 We need to go look in the places in history, the history of our scriptures, 00:07:35.060 --> 00:07:40.300 the history of the church where God's people were full of life and full of vigor, 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:45.019 where we see the church is full of the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:07:46.120 --> 00:07:51.639 And we need to say, where are these wells of living water that God has given to quench our thirst? 00:07:51.639 --> 00:07:57.419 We are in such need of life and power. 00:07:58.360 --> 00:08:04.860 And we need to remember that every instance of revival is really a return to a well, 00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:09.199 a return to a series of wells that have been discovered before. 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:16.259 If we want that life, if we want that power, if we want that water without which we cannot exist, 00:08:17.259 --> 00:08:23.779 God has, in fact, revealed that there's a water supply available to us if only we would go. 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:27.740 And this is where Isaac makes his third crucial decision. 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:29.740 He says, let's not rely on ourselves. 00:08:29.740 --> 00:08:32.680 Let's remember God's covenant. 00:08:33.740 --> 00:08:39.320 And then he says, let's deal with all the junk that's clogging up the wells. 00:08:40.340 --> 00:08:44.240 You see, there's a problem when he arrives with his thirsty people. 00:08:44.840 --> 00:08:47.419 He found that the Philistines had stopped up the wells. 00:08:48.659 --> 00:08:52.940 He went back to those old wells and the water was still there deep down, 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:54.080 but they could not see it. 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:55.899 The water wasn't available to them. 00:08:55.899 --> 00:09:00.959 There it is, down in the depths, this life-giving supply of water, 00:09:01.139 --> 00:09:06.199 and yet here we are, this thirsty people in desperate need, and we can't get to it. 00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:09.279 What has gone wrong? 00:09:10.620 --> 00:09:12.319 Why can we not drink the water? 00:09:13.199 --> 00:09:16.779 Why can't we put our buckets down and draw it up? 00:09:16.899 --> 00:09:18.799 Why can't we get a hold of it? 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:22.639 And the answer is because the Philistines had stopped up the wells. 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:29.080 They filled it up with earth so that although the water's there, it's not available to drink. 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:36.740 And it says in verse 18 that Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, 00:09:36.899 --> 00:09:41.819 which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham had died. 00:09:43.139 --> 00:09:46.419 You see, just as Isaac had to deal with the work of the Philistines, 00:09:46.419 --> 00:09:54.199 so the church today needs to deal with the work of those who've stopped up our wells of living water with dirt and with rocks. 00:09:55.240 --> 00:10:00.620 Every time the church has found herself in a position of lifelessness, 00:10:01.539 --> 00:10:07.819 where it feels like her life is ebbing away and lacking in spiritual vitality and power, 00:10:07.820 --> 00:10:14.500 it's because of this cluttering up of our wells of vital, essential truth. 00:10:17.300 --> 00:10:22.840 Somebody, some group has blocked up and choked up our drinking supply 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:28.280 by putting things between the people of God and the truth of God. 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:34.839 And they've thrown in all kinds of material that lies between the people in our desperate need 00:10:34.839 --> 00:10:39.519 and that supply of water that's just there waiting for us down at the bottom. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:47.779 And emulating this example of Isaac, we need to return to the wells of our fathers and mothers in the faith 00:10:47.779 --> 00:10:50.639 who had the living water of the Holy Spirit, 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:55.360 and we need to clear out the dirt and the rocks of the Philistines 00:10:55.360 --> 00:11:02.639 so that we can drink once again this ancient supply of the water of God, 00:11:03.259 --> 00:11:07.000 the power and life of the Holy Spirit. 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:12.559 We've got to dig down to the living water. 00:11:13.220 --> 00:11:17.759 And we've got to dig down to the living water of God the Father. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:25.779 It's a necessary preliminary step in revival to deal with the work of the Philistines, 00:11:25.879 --> 00:11:30.240 to just clear out from the church whatever's been stopping it up, right? 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:35.480 To dig down and to rediscover these glorious and central truths, 00:11:36.340 --> 00:11:40.519 these doctrines, these fundamental articles of our faith 00:11:40.519 --> 00:11:45.860 that consistently show up in pretty much every revival that you can read about in history. 00:11:45.860 --> 00:11:51.700 And one of those we see is that the church in revival has dug down to the truth 00:11:51.700 --> 00:11:55.779 in this living water of what sort of being God is. 00:11:56.600 --> 00:12:00.759 And she's discovered there the truth that God is a sovereign God. 00:12:01.659 --> 00:12:07.500 And God is a transcendent and a living God who acts and who intervenes 00:12:07.500 --> 00:12:13.000 and who comes and erupts into and interferes in the life of His church 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:15.720 and the individuals in His church. 00:12:16.840 --> 00:12:18.539 You see, we will not seek God. 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:20.299 We will not pray to God. 00:12:20.379 --> 00:12:25.779 We will not ask God to revive us unless we believe that this is the sort of God He is 00:12:25.779 --> 00:12:28.700 and this is the kind of things that He does. 00:12:30.279 --> 00:12:34.860 And one of the ideas that has crept into the church of late 00:12:34.860 --> 00:12:39.139 is this idea called moralistic therapeutic deism. 00:12:39.139 --> 00:12:40.879 Anyone heard of this? 00:12:40.980 --> 00:12:42.819 Moralistic therapeutic deism. 00:12:42.939 --> 00:12:44.179 M-T-D, right? 00:12:44.659 --> 00:12:48.779 And deism is this idea that God exists but He's not particularly involved. 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:51.299 He's remote and He's distant. 00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:55.960 And what's interesting is that before the great awakening of the 18th century 00:12:55.960 --> 00:13:01.659 that we associate with people like George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley, 00:13:01.659 --> 00:13:06.120 the church of that age had also fallen into deism, 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:13.419 this false image of God who's merely a creator that kind of got everything going 00:13:13.419 --> 00:13:17.179 but He's not actively involved in our lives. 00:13:17.259 --> 00:13:19.719 He's not actively involved in the church. 00:13:20.860 --> 00:13:27.259 At that time and in our time, God has been remade into this distant and uncaring being 00:13:27.259 --> 00:13:31.519 for whom we have no expectation that He will break through, 00:13:31.659 --> 00:13:35.759 that He will act in response to our prayer because we banished Him, right? 00:13:35.819 --> 00:13:38.120 We banished Him out into His own eternity. 00:13:39.819 --> 00:13:47.039 The church so easily falls into this error as well as its opposite error of pantheism 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:49.000 that says, well, God is in everything. 00:13:49.159 --> 00:13:49.779 God is in you. 00:13:49.899 --> 00:13:50.460 God is in me. 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:51.179 God is in this. 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:51.860 God is in that. 00:13:51.860 --> 00:13:55.379 And so we never really expect God to act from the outside. 00:13:55.379 --> 00:14:00.860 We never call upon Him and say, God, come down and reveal your mighty hand 00:14:00.860 --> 00:14:03.120 and your outstretched arm. 00:14:04.120 --> 00:14:07.519 But in times of revival, people come in and they say, no, 00:14:07.980 --> 00:14:14.019 we've got to recover this truth, this living water that God is a transcendent God above us. 00:14:14.820 --> 00:14:16.700 He's sovereign and He's supreme. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:18.980 He's great and He's glorious. 00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:23.279 But He's also an imminent God who's close to us, 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:27.360 who's near to us, who's right there full of mercy for us. 00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:33.720 If we just call out His name, He is so ready to revive us. 00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:38.379 In fact, He's more ready to revive the church than the church is to be revived. 00:14:40.439 --> 00:14:47.720 And the church in revival has dug down to the living water of this truth about who God really is. 00:14:47.720 --> 00:14:55.460 But also the church in revival has dug down to the truth of God's special revelation. 00:14:56.940 --> 00:15:01.480 Revival has only ever come to the church when she has rediscovered that the Bible 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:07.980 is the unique authoritative self-expression and self-revelation of God. 00:15:07.980 --> 00:15:15.740 And we could say that the state of the church in our society today is due almost entirely 00:15:15.740 --> 00:15:22.980 to the voluntary departure from belief in the Bible as the fully inspired Word of God. 00:15:24.340 --> 00:15:28.720 One Old Testament scholar, he goes through the various revivals. 00:15:28.860 --> 00:15:32.700 There's about ten revivals that are recounted for us in the Old Testament. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:36.560 And he notices all the marks and the characteristics of those revivals. 00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:40.899 And he says, number one, they always follow a time of great spiritual decline. 00:15:42.359 --> 00:15:48.859 And number two, they always happen when God gets a hold of one person or a few people among His leaders 00:15:48.859 --> 00:15:51.299 and then revival comes to the rest of the church. 00:15:51.419 --> 00:15:59.899 And number three, he says those revivals always, always involve a restoration of holy Scripture among God's people. 00:16:01.079 --> 00:16:03.299 I think immediately of King Josiah. 00:16:03.299 --> 00:16:10.139 Somehow, the book of Deuteronomy, the capstone of the Torah, had become lost. 00:16:11.179 --> 00:16:15.179 And he, as a result, had never heard this Word of God. 00:16:15.379 --> 00:16:19.719 And under his reign, they rediscovered this book of the Bible. 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:28.440 And when he heard it red for the first time, he heard this Word of God about the love that God has for His people 00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:33.320 and about the great love that we are to have for Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:33.920 You know what he did? 00:16:34.340 --> 00:16:35.759 He tore his robe. 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:38.720 And he wept bitter tears. 00:16:38.800 --> 00:16:41.700 And he got off his throne and threw himself down on the ground. 00:16:41.700 --> 00:16:47.000 And he said, oh, oh, we have not been obeying these words. 00:16:48.100 --> 00:16:49.540 And so what did he do next? 00:16:49.700 --> 00:16:57.540 He created an opportunity for the reading of God's Word to be reconstituted among the people of God. 00:16:57.620 --> 00:17:03.340 And when they heard God's Word, a great revival broke out in Israel. 00:17:03.340 --> 00:17:17.240 And so the question for us is, how can we be revived if the Word of God breathed out by the Spirit of God is being ignored by us? 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:28.700 You know, why would we hope that God would fill us with the Spirit with which He inspired His very Scriptures? 00:17:28.860 --> 00:17:32.480 Why would He want to fill us with that Spirit if we say of those Scriptures, no thanks? 00:17:33.339 --> 00:17:38.319 Or, yes, I'll take this part that I like and that agrees with me and my philosophy, 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:40.939 and I'll just kind of let that other stuff go. 00:17:41.159 --> 00:17:47.619 Why would He fill us with His Spirit if that's our attitude toward His Spirit-inspired Word? 00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:52.039 And if that's you, I want to encourage you, do something different. 00:17:53.419 --> 00:17:56.039 You know, get home today and open the New Testament. 00:17:56.359 --> 00:18:01.039 Open the letter of the Ephesians, of the Philippians, and read God's Word. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:04.519 And make it a practice in your daily life. 00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:13.339 Church and revival has dug down to the living water of who God is and what He said about Himself 00:18:13.339 --> 00:18:15.599 and His special revelation in His Scriptures. 00:18:15.779 --> 00:18:19.579 But they've also dug down to this truth, this living water, 00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:24.240 that humanity is in sin and under the wrath of God. 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:30.579 Almost every revival, they've gotten down to this truth. 00:18:31.299 --> 00:18:36.120 And we say, ouch, that's not something we like very much. 00:18:37.579 --> 00:18:42.059 It feels incompatible with the doctrine of a God as love. 00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:47.200 But no one has preached the love of God more than Jesus Christ. 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:51.500 And this is what Jesus taught us about the human condition. 00:18:51.620 --> 00:18:52.680 He says in Mark 7, 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:59.080 For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come. 00:18:59.259 --> 00:19:10.500 Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. 00:19:10.500 --> 00:19:15.900 All these evils come from inside and defile a person. 00:19:16.900 --> 00:19:22.500 Jesus would say, yes, you were originally good, but none of you are inherently good. 00:19:23.320 --> 00:19:24.400 Humanity is in sin. 00:19:24.620 --> 00:19:27.340 And Jesus also preached that we're under the wrath of God. 00:19:28.280 --> 00:19:32.240 This great preacher of the love of God, He says in Matthew 13, He says, 00:19:32.320 --> 00:19:37.440 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:46.539 The Son of Man will send His angels and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. 00:19:46.940 --> 00:19:50.640 And in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:55.460 The wrath of God is the fire of His love. 00:19:56.360 --> 00:20:04.840 It's the fire of His love that burns against the evil that's destroying and distorting His beloved creation. 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:12.640 And particularly the image of God that He set in human beings, God burns against anything that's destroying that. 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:21.259 You know, when we moved into this building in 2010, we had it painted. 00:20:21.660 --> 00:20:22.740 It needed a paint job. 00:20:23.560 --> 00:20:29.200 And unfortunately, the company that we hired, they just came in and painted it. 00:20:29.259 --> 00:20:31.600 And when they did that, they painted over the rot. 00:20:32.280 --> 00:20:32.500 Right? 00:20:32.540 --> 00:20:33.800 There was rot in the stucco. 00:20:33.900 --> 00:20:35.420 There was rot in the wood. 00:20:35.420 --> 00:20:39.580 And they just said, well, we're going to paint over that and sort of pretend it doesn't exist. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:40.160 And guess what? 00:20:40.220 --> 00:20:42.140 Twelve years later, it's gotten worse. 00:20:42.580 --> 00:20:48.500 And so now we're painting the church again and paying twice the amount of money because we ignored the rot that was there. 00:20:49.360 --> 00:20:52.980 And this is what happens in moralistic, therapeutic deism. 00:20:53.100 --> 00:20:54.820 This is how it works. 00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:59.420 We say, you know, I'm a good person who more or less lives up to my own ideals. 00:21:00.600 --> 00:21:01.980 I have occasional lapses. 00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:02.960 I have minor flaws. 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:04.759 I have slight character deficiencies. 00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:08.160 But I'm not that alarmed because I'm better than most people. 00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:08.860 I'm better than you. 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:16.180 And this God who's distant and this God who's indifferent, he really is there. 00:21:16.259 --> 00:21:23.860 He exists to reward me by accepting me and acknowledging my inherent goodness and making me happy forever. 00:21:23.859 --> 00:21:37.740 And the church, when the church is revived, it really moves so far away from that vision to a more serious and sober-minded view of the holiness of God and the justice of God. 00:21:37.859 --> 00:21:44.839 And there's so many examples of this from the great revival in Korea in 1907. 00:21:44.839 --> 00:21:49.839 But this is one that comes out of Glasgow, Scotland in 1742. 00:21:50.639 --> 00:21:54.139 One observer of that revival saw that he said, 00:21:54.140 --> 00:22:05.240 I found a good many persons under the deepest exercise of soul, crying out most bitterly of their lost and miserable state by reason of sin, 00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:12.840 of their unbelief in despising Christ and the offers of the gospel, of the hardness of their heart, 00:22:12.839 --> 00:22:17.419 and of their gross carelessness and indifference toward God. 00:22:17.939 --> 00:22:24.659 Not so much from fear of punishment as from a sense of the dishonor done to God. 00:22:26.740 --> 00:22:35.699 The church, when it's being revived, it learns how to dig down to this living water of truth about God the Father. 00:22:35.700 --> 00:22:43.440 But also, the church digs down to this living water, not just of God the Father, but of his son, Jesus. 00:22:44.740 --> 00:22:49.700 It says in verse 18 that Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:54.460 which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. 00:22:56.100 --> 00:23:01.580 And, you know, when we return to the wells that God has given to our fathers and mothers in the faith, 00:23:01.579 --> 00:23:07.199 and if we're finding any evidence in our lives of the work of the Philistines, 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:08.740 we need to clear it out. 00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:15.779 If we're going to drink of God's abundant supply of water and live and have life among ourselves. 00:23:16.919 --> 00:23:21.179 And just as this church in revival has always cleared out the dirt and the rocks, 00:23:21.779 --> 00:23:28.039 these erroneous and low beliefs about God and about his word and about his holiness and his justice, 00:23:28.039 --> 00:23:36.139 the church in revival has also dug out these sub-biblical beliefs about Jesus. 00:23:37.399 --> 00:23:41.559 Because the work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus. 00:23:42.099 --> 00:23:42.960 That's what Jesus said. 00:23:43.079 --> 00:23:45.039 The Holy Spirit will come and glorify me. 00:23:45.539 --> 00:23:51.859 And so anything that causes us to have a low view of Jesus is grieving the Holy Spirit. 00:23:52.619 --> 00:23:56.079 And it's quenching the Holy Spirit's work among us. 00:23:56.079 --> 00:24:03.019 And the church in revival has dug down to the truth and the living water about the person of Jesus. 00:24:04.299 --> 00:24:07.839 Some of us are here, we're exploring Christianity for the first time. 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:14.240 And it's an honor, it's a delight to be a part of that journey with you. 00:24:14.980 --> 00:24:17.079 But we'd be doing you a great disservice. 00:24:17.859 --> 00:24:22.720 We'd be failing you, really, if we told you that Jesus is just a social reformer. 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:25.600 He's just a political agitator. 00:24:25.700 --> 00:24:30.220 He's just an exemplar of ethical living and teaching. 00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:40.700 Now the church in revival confesses that Jesus is in fact the eternal word of God that made the world and who made you. 00:24:40.700 --> 00:24:47.180 And that Jesus is this exalted king who's ruling the world and who's ruling over you. 00:24:48.759 --> 00:24:55.299 You see, before revival came in 1859 to the Presbyterian Church of Northern Ireland, 00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:58.640 that church had gone astray like many churches do. 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:06.460 And it began to espouse this belief called Arianism that denied the eternity and the divinity of Jesus. 00:25:06.460 --> 00:25:15.220 And it wasn't until that church got rid of that error and saw the full truth of who Jesus actually is, 00:25:15.259 --> 00:25:21.059 that the mighty blessing of the Holy Spirit came down upon that church and changed not only the church, 00:25:21.120 --> 00:25:22.299 it changed the society. 00:25:24.140 --> 00:25:27.200 Because she began to say, you know what, it's from Jesus. 00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:31.400 And through Jesus and to Jesus are all things. 00:25:31.400 --> 00:25:37.080 And he's the God who was and who is and who is to come. 00:25:38.040 --> 00:25:43.160 The church in revival has dug down to that living water the truth about the person of Jesus, 00:25:43.320 --> 00:25:49.440 but also she's dug down to the truth and that living water about the work of Jesus. 00:25:50.700 --> 00:25:56.080 And the centerpiece of Jesus' work is his atoning death. 00:25:56.079 --> 00:26:04.399 And we really have no right to look for revival until we can say with the Apostle Paul that, 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:07.619 in 1 Corinthians 2, I resolve to know nothing. 00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:12.980 I resolve to know nothing except Christ and him crucified. 00:26:14.659 --> 00:26:23.439 Why does the church in revival so glory in the cross and rejoice and boast and sing songs about the blood of Jesus of all things? 00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:28.799 Well, the reason is, that's the heart of our gospel. 00:26:30.259 --> 00:26:33.500 Romans chapter 5, verses 8 and 9 says, 00:26:33.580 --> 00:26:40.019 For God demonstrated his own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:26:41.299 --> 00:26:44.059 Therefore, since we have been justified by his blood, 00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:51.460 how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? 00:26:51.460 --> 00:26:59.700 Jesus is not merely a peacemaker who's crushed by a violent empire, though that is true. 00:27:00.640 --> 00:27:06.160 And Jesus is not merely an exemplar of sacrificial suffering love, though that also is true. 00:27:07.220 --> 00:27:17.840 But our gospel is that the cross is the point at which this holy and just God laid upon Jesus the iniquity of us all. 00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:27.699 That that is the place where he visited the judgment of our sins, of my sins, upon his eternal and beloved Son. 00:27:28.839 --> 00:27:38.559 And the church in revival has this profound experience that not only has this redemption happened objectively in Jesus, 00:27:38.699 --> 00:27:43.639 but it's happened subjectively in my life, in me, through the Holy Spirit. 00:27:43.640 --> 00:27:48.540 This is what happened to Martin Luther, right? 00:27:48.580 --> 00:27:53.460 When he suddenly saw the truth of justification by God's grace alone, 00:27:53.980 --> 00:27:59.600 and that all the goodness we bring to God, all the righteousness we bring to God is just filthy rags. 00:28:01.040 --> 00:28:04.780 It was when he came to see that truth, that revival came, 00:28:04.880 --> 00:28:11.140 that it prepared the way for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church in the 1500s. 00:28:11.140 --> 00:28:15.340 The same is true with this truth of regeneration, 00:28:15.620 --> 00:28:20.100 when the church has seen that, you know, no one can just decide to become a Christian. 00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:23.060 No one can just decide, oh, I want to know God. 00:28:23.900 --> 00:28:30.380 No, it's when the church realizes that unless the Holy Spirit of God comes down, 00:28:31.660 --> 00:28:34.920 unless he comes and he does this work deep down inside, 00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:39.259 to do what Jesus described as making us be born again from above, 00:28:39.840 --> 00:28:45.940 causing us to become new creatures with new power and a new outlook on life, 00:28:46.320 --> 00:28:48.759 there's no hope for anyone to be saved. 00:28:48.900 --> 00:28:52.800 That is the point at which the church begins to cry out, 00:28:54.039 --> 00:28:59.860 oh, Holy Spirit, come and do your work among us. 00:28:59.859 --> 00:29:12.459 Church, we've got to dig down to these living waters of God the Father and his Son, Jesus, 00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:18.879 because when these wells get choked up, it produces a severe spiritual drought, 00:29:19.079 --> 00:29:21.240 and that's really what we're living through. 00:29:21.319 --> 00:29:22.359 We've been living through it. 00:29:22.719 --> 00:29:23.839 It's going to keep going. 00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:29.639 Unless some of us say, gosh, you know, I'm really thirsty for God. 00:29:31.759 --> 00:29:38.459 Are you burning with a desire to know God, to experience God, 00:29:38.519 --> 00:29:41.399 to be touched by the power of God? 00:29:41.459 --> 00:29:43.079 If that's you, then I want to encourage you, 00:29:43.500 --> 00:29:47.459 seek out these living waters of revival. 00:29:48.779 --> 00:29:52.519 Dig down to those places we know God has ordained his blessing. 00:29:53.839 --> 00:29:57.699 Let us, like Isaac, open up the wells of truth, 00:29:58.500 --> 00:29:59.639 open up these doctrines, 00:29:59.759 --> 00:30:04.299 open up these fundamental articles of our faith that are essential for life. 00:30:05.919 --> 00:30:09.179 And let's remember Jesus who stood up and he cried out, 00:30:10.179 --> 00:30:14.980 if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 00:30:15.819 --> 00:30:18.240 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 00:30:18.240 --> 00:30:23.859 out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. 00:30:23.960 --> 00:30:27.559 Now, he said this about the Spirit of God. 00:30:29.700 --> 00:30:35.400 I'll close with this prayer that really launched the revival of 1904, 00:30:37.079 --> 00:30:38.539 that changed the 20th century. 00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:39.859 And this prayer is simply this, 00:30:40.059 --> 00:30:43.479 oh Lord, send the Holy Spirit now. 00:30:43.679 --> 00:30:45.740 For Jesus Christ's sake. 00:30:47.439 --> 00:30:51.299 Oh Lord, send the Holy Spirit now. 00:30:51.639 --> 00:30:53.839 For Jesus Christ's sake. 00:30:55.639 --> 00:30:59.859 Oh Lord, send the Holy Spirit now. 00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:02.419 For Jesus Christ's sake. 00:31:03.500 --> 00:31:03.879 Amen. 00:31:09.859 --> 00:31:22.039 κ 00:31:24.539 --> 00:31:24.859 啟