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Amen. I love when we sing songs that
ask rhetorical questions that we all obviously know the answer
to. Who is like the Lord our God?
No one. Aren't you thankful for that
this morning? And we serve the one true and
living God. I wish there were some people
here this morning who love to praise Him for that.
I said, aren't you thankful for that this morning?
If you have your Bibles, if you would turn to the 119th Psalm
this morning as we continue walking verse by verse, section
by section through this wonderful chapter in Scripture.
Many of you may not realize this, but we have been looking
at the 119th Psalm in each of the eight verse sections.
We have been going through this since early April and here we
are on the 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter
Hresh. We find that they're in verse
153. We'll be looking this morning
from 153 all the way to 160 in our eight verse section.
The psalmist here this morning is going to use a term that will
be quite familiar to all of you who have been here throughout
this study. He's going to use a term that we
have seen multiple times in the 119th Psalm and and in this
particular section, he's going to repeat it three times so that
we will understand that this is a major theme of the verses that
fall under the heading of Resh. The NIV translates this
statement like this preserve my life.
I told you it would be a familiar statement.
Those of you who have been listening and learning through
the 119th, you know this, that he has often said this.
Preserve my life. The ESV, if you're reading from
that, says this give me life. The King James Version says this
quicken me. And that's a word that we, we
don't really use a lot in our time, but it means to restore me
or resuscitate me or to bring me back to life, to quicken me.
The new American Standard and the LSV, which is the legacy
standard, they translate this revive me.
And I think that the NASV and the LSV get it right.
They hit the nail on the head when we go back to the Hebrew
and we really see what is the psalmist asking for here today.
He is asking that the Lord would revive him, that he would bring
revival upon his life. We know as we have walked
through life with him and our study living life in the light
of God's Word and as He's taught us how to do this, we have seen
that He's had many obstacles, many UPS, many downs, many
trials, many victories, many setbacks, many persecutions,
many. Suffering.
And he comes to this point when he cries out to the Lord, revive
me Now, if you've walked with Christ any amount of time, you
know this. There are times in our walk with
Christ where we all need revival.
In fact, truth be told, there are some of us who are here
today who are in need of a revival.
You are in need of God's strength and power to quicken
you where you are in your spiritual walk.
There's no shame in admitting that.
There's no shame in saying, well, from time to time, I need
revival. He knows this, and he's not
pushing you away just because you simply need a revival.
In fact, he longs to give you the revival that you need.
But I don't want anyone to be confused.
Today, because the term. Revival can be so confusing in
the American mind and in the American church because we have
often used this term for a week long meeting that we do twice a
year and nothing really ever happens or our emphasis is just
for that corporate happening, that something would happen
corporately that our church would go through if you would in
quotations revival. But I want us to see today that
corporate revival is never going to happen unless there is first
individual revival. And psalmist is not even going
to approach God corporately. He's not praying on behalf of
Israel here. He's praying on behalf of
himself. He is saying that I need a
personal revival in my life. And again, that term to the
American can be confusing because I don't think we really
understand what revival really is.
But I, I hope that when we leave today, we can't can no longer
say that because we're confused about revival and some of us
even almost afraid of revival because of such movements that
call themselves revival. In fact, in in our time we have
seen many of those. In 1994 we see what was known as
the Toronto Blessing that broke out in an airport vineyard
church there in Toronto. This so-called revival was known
for bizarre and physical manifestations like animal
noises and uncontrollable laughter, uncontrollable crying
and never led to anything other than emotions and.
Chaos and in fact, anyone who is truly a theologian would quickly
see the things that were going on there and they could quickly
give just criticism to the fact that.
What they were doing was not based on the Bible.
There was no theological doctrinal grounding for anything
that took place there. Though those who were defenders
of this claimed revival said it was refreshing, most of the
critics agree that it was chaotic and God doesn't work in
the realm of chaos or confusion. In fact, he's a God of order.
In fact, that's why we were commanded in the church that
things be done decently and in order.
And it is the Scriptures that tell us exactly what decently
and in order looks like. And when we stray away from
that, when we violate the Scriptures, we find ourselves
very quickly in the midst of chaos and emotional frenzy.
Which brings us to the next known revival in our day, which
was the 1995 Brownsville revival there in Pensacola, FL.
Many of you are familiar with that.
It was a movement of intense emotional experiences.
Though there was a call for repentance, there was no
evidence of any lasting repentance that took place.
It was just simply repentance in order to be a part of the
emotional frenzy. Some may have praised its
impact, but critics can quickly point out the fact that that
this whole movement was relying on feelings and unverified
miracles. I just want to help you.
Jesus himself said a wicked and perverse generation seeks after
signs, miracles and wonders. And so we have to be very
careful when we call something a revival simply because it's
based on some type of emotional, frenzier, unverified, tangible
miracles. Because when Jesus did miracles,
they were all verified. They were all tangible and they
were all for a greater purpose, to draw attention to the Savior,
not to the emotional act and emotional trend that was going
on in that day. And then we have in more recent
times, the Lakeland Revival. Brought about under the
so-called leadership of a man named Todd Bentley.
This revival too, claimed many miracles, angelic encounters.
It claimed all sorts of crazy practices, in fact, aggressive
practices where people would kick people, kick people, and
the demons work to come out and the spirit was to come in.
I want to just make it clear to everyone here, if revival breaks
out this morning and you kick me, I'm going to file assault
charges on you. If you kick anyone else, the
same charges will also be filed on you.
Nowhere in scripture do we see anything that gives us a reason
to kick others. That the demons may leave in the
Spirit may come in. We saw ridiculous things like
this in the Lakeland Revival and as we know Bentley was later
discredited due to his life and the movement was an over and
squashed and it too had no verifiable evidence of anything
and no lasting fruit, no lasting repentance.
It was simply that, just a flash in the pan movement.
So I've told you these things to make it very clear that this is
not what I'm talking about today.
This is not what the psalmist is going to teach us about.
He's not teaching you about the old Baptist fall revival summer
revivals where we meet together and and we we get some good food
before it happens. And then some people come to
know Christ, though that's always great that people come to
know Christ. We're not talking about that
desire to just have a corporate revival for the sake of having a
corporate revival. We're not talking about an
emotional stirring. What in fact we are talking
about, what the psalmist is going to talk about, is true
biblical revival, to which we are much confused about because
many Christians are enamoured by corporate revival, right?
As soon as a group of college students on a campus start
singing songs around the fire, we want to label that a revival
very quickly. But generally, in the end, it is
just an emotional service that started up in people's feelings,
and as soon as their feelings had faded, it faded as well.
What the psalmist was talking about today is true revival, and
true revival is going to bring lasting results.
So as we look at Psalm 119 in the 153rd verse, let us begin
this journey on answering these questions.
What is biblical revival? What does biblical revival
consist of? I guess what does biblical
revival look like? 153 says this.
It says look upon my suffering and deliver me, for I have not
forgotten your law. Defend my cause and redeem me.
Preserve my life. That's the one that the NASB
says Revive me according to Your promise.
That's the first sighting of that in this section.
Next he says salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not
seek out your decrees. Your compassion is great, O
Lord, it preserve my life. There it is again.
Revive me according to your laws.
Many are the foes who persecute me, but I have not turned from
your statutes. I look on the faithless with
loathing, for they do not obey your word.
See how I love your precepts? And he says again, Preserve my
life, revive me. O Lord, according to your love,
all your words are true, all your righteous laws are eternal.
Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your
word. Holy Spirit, we ask as we look
at Your Word and as we listen to Your Word today, that truth
would be revealed to the depths of our hearts.
Lord, that if we need. Revival today individually, God,
I pray that your word would teach us exactly how to procure
that revival, that we would be careful to give you all the
thanks and all the glory for it in Christ.
God, I pray for the soul who's here today, who is spiritually
dead, needing revival in the form of salvation.
Lord, we pray that by Your Spirit today and Your quickening
power as the Word of God is preached, that you would birth
new life into them and they would turn from their sin and
turn to Christ as Lord and Savior, trusting in Him and Him
alone to free them from the wrath and the judgement of God
that is to come upon the wicked. That they would walk out this
morning forgiven, clean, holding on to the promise of eternal
life that You've made to all who believe and trust in you and
God, we will be careful to give you all of the praise and all of
the credit and all of the glory for what you're going to do as
your word is proclaimed this morning.
We pray all these things in Christ's name, Amen.
So as we open the Word of God and as the psalmist begins to
teach us about true biblical revival, let's learn some things
about this. First, I want you to see this
that biblical revival will be built on God's promises.
It will be built on God's promises, not on human emotion,
not on human manipulation. It will be built simply on the
promises of God. He says in 153, if you look back
there with me, look upon my suffering and deliver me, for I
have not forgotten your law. He says I am in a bad place, I
need deliverance, I am suffering and I'm holding on to your law.
I haven't forgotten your law. I have not forgotten your
promises. We see the Psalmist here
beginning this section calling on God in prayer.
I want you to recognize that. I want you to see his
desperation. He he doesn't call a friend, he
doesn't call a shrink, he doesn't call a pastor.
He specifically calls on God in prayer.
I can tell you this, if you want to experience revival in your
life today, you're in that dry desert and you need to drink
from the well. Call on the one who is in
control of the well. Call to Him.
The psalmist here desperately crying out to his mediator and
his advocate is, is that not what the scriptures say that the
Lord Jesus Christ is for us? Hebrews Chapter 9 verse 15 says
that the Lord is our mediator. He is our go between.
In fact, there is one mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus, and He's calling out depending upon his mediator,
seeing him also as his advocate as first John chapter 2, verse 3
teaches us that the Lord is our advocate who speaks in our
defense. The psalmist here saying, look
upon my suffering and deliver me, knowing that that the only
one that he could cry out to and receive this kind of revival
that he's asking for is God himself He's dependent upon.
God for his deliverance. Oh, Please note, he's not trying
to deliver himself. He's not trying to get all his
eggs in the right basket. He's not trying to, as we hear
all the time, get his life straight.
He's running to God in desperation.
And I would to God that we as Christians would understand that
because it's not being preached in the churches.
Desperately running to God, knowing that He hears us, and He
hears us based on his promises to hear us.
Here he is dependent upon God for deliverance, knowing full
well. What the word of God says Second
Samuel chapter 22 verse two. He said the Lord is my rock, my
fortress, and my deliverer. The psalmist trusting in that
that the Lord is his deliverer, the Lord is his.
Folk fortress. He can count on the Lord in any
and every situation. Psalm 3/8, it says from the Lord
comes deliverance. From the Lord comes deliverance.
Oh, it's not just a coincidence that he begins this section
crying out desperately to the Lord in prayer.
He knows that the only hope for revival for him is to cry out to
God in desperation. But let me make this clear to
all of you, because often times what we try to do when we need
revival, we try to fake it as if we don't.
And we put on those pharisaical masks as if everything is OK and
as if everything is all together.
Did you know that's that's what hypocrite means, a wearer of
masks. And we become a hypocrite
instead of running to God in desperation and calling on him
and saying, God, I need revival. And we play it all.
We ignore. It as if it's going to go away
when we know good and well it's not going to go away.
The psalmist here not falling into that trap, but calling on
God in prayer desperately. Why?
Because he knows true revivals built on God's promises.
He's going to the promise maker and the promise keeper.
He's saying, Lord, I need revival and I know that the only
way that I can have revival is because you have made me
promises in your word. He's calling on God in prayer
and he's confident in God's word.
Look at 154. Defend my cause and redeem me,
preserve my life, Revive me according to your promise.
He's going back to the Scriptures and he's saying I'm
holding on to the fact that God has promised to deliver and to
revive those who trust in him. He's simply trusting in God as
his helper, as his Savior, as his defender.
Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14 it says.
Therefore, since we have have a great high priest who has gone
through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly
to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one
who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was
without. Sin watch what He says in 16.
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence.
Does not crawl in a corner and hide from God.
He knows right where you are. And he has sympathy on you and
compassion for you. He says, let us approach the
throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and
find grace to help us in our time of need.
The psalmist simply trusting in God as his helper, his Savior,
and his defender, knowing that he can confidently approach his
throne in his time of need. Christian, let me tell you this,
if you need revival, Jesus Christ, our Mediator, our
Advocate, and our friend has made a way for us to approach
God's throne of grace. And He has enough grace for us,
and anything that we need, He will provide that grace.
If it is the need for revival, cry out to him today.
For that revival, be dependent upon God and His Word,
confident. And that which he has promised,
clinging to things as the psalmist did in Psalm 46, verse
one, where he says God is our refuge and strength, an ever
present help in trouble. Well, far too often, friends, we
forget that, don't we? That he's an ever present help
in trouble, you say? Well, Kirk, you don't
understand. I got myself into this.
Yes, you did. And He will get you out of it.
He is our Deliverer, even from the troubles that we bring upon
ourselves. What a kind and gracious and
merciful Savior He. Is the Psalm is here reminding
us to trust him a refuge in our strength or ever present help in
trouble. In verse 2 of that same 46
Psalm, he says therefore we will not fear though the earth give
way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its
waters roar and foam in the mountains quake with their
surging. He says there's nothing for us
to be afraid of because we are confident in God and we are
confident in his word and the promises that he has made to us.
The Psalm is here, trusting that, trusting it, turning to
the Scriptures for hope. Not only for help, but for hope.
Oh, wouldn't it be nice in this hopeless society and hopeless
world that we live in, to find hope?
You can find hope in the Word of God, the Psalmist teaching us
that very clearly. That his hope comes from God's
word. He says preserve my life
according to your promise. He just say preserve your life
according to what I deserve. Revive me if you think I'm
worthy of it. Now see, he says, revive me
according to your word. He's turning to scriptures for
hope. In 119 Psalm, when we were at
verse 114, you learned this when He said that you are my refuge
and my shield. I have put my hope in your word.
Why was God his refuge and his shield?
Because he had put hope in His word.
And when we put hope in God's Word, he serves and acts as our
refuge and our shield. How about this in the New
Testament, Paul in Romans chapter 15, he says this for
everything that was written in the past, verse 4 of Romans 15.
It was written to teach us so that through endurance and the
encouragement. Of the Scriptures, we might have
what hope here the psalmist is, and he's in a desperate
situation. He's calling on God, and now
he's finding hope. Where's he finding hope?
He's finding hope because of his confidence in God's word.
Isn't it interesting? When you meet people who are
confident in God's Word, you meet people who walk around with
hope all the time. Isn't that what we should be
doing? Are you here this week after
week after week at the end of our service?
That we should go out and be light in darkness, and that when
people inquire of what the hope that we have.
Because when we're walking in truth to the word of God, when
we were walking and living life and light of the scriptures,
guess what's going to happen? We're going to walk in hope and
the lost world whose hopeless is going to look at us and they're
going to say. What is different about you?
The whole world seems to be freaking out and you're not
freaking out. We get to sing at the top of our
lungs in that moment. Don't mean my hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.
My hope is built on the promises of the word of God.
You want to see revival in your life.
You'll see revival only when it's built on the promises of
God. Thomas Watson, the Puritan, said
this. He said God's promises are dated
in heaven. They are as unchangeable as God
himself. So God has promised us hope and
his word, and that hope is not going to change.
When the psalmist says according to your promise, according to
your word, you know what he's saying.
Revive me, Lord, just like you said you would.
Revive me, Lord, just like the scriptures declare it you will.
Lord. I am trusting in your word.
I'm not trusting in what I see. I'm not trusting in what's going
on around me. I'm not trusting in Fox News.
I'm not trusting in politics. I'm not even trusting in my own
sin and my own weakness. I am trusting in You and.
Your word, there's where my confidence lies, and in that you
have hope. Doesn't hope always bring
revival? And so do you want biblical
revival in your life? Do you?
Well, it comes by trusting God's promises.
It comes by trusting his word to desperately cry out to him in
prayer, knowing that he will work according to the Scriptures
and having great confidence in that.
So we see that biblical revival will be built on God's promises
first. Secondly, we see this biblical
revival will be brought by God's mercy.
He says in 155 salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not
seek out your decrees. 156 says your compassion is great, or in
some of your translations it says great are your mercies.
Oh Lord, preserve my life again. Revive.
Me according to your laws. He keeps going back to God and
his Word, His statutes, His laws, His precepts, His
commands. And so the psalmist knows that
sinful man must depend upon God's endless mercies if he's
going to have a biblical revival take place in his life.
Let me just ask you this simple question.
How many of you are thankful that God had mercy on you at
salvation when you came to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
And that is a huge deal. But how many of you are also
grateful that God's mercies continue in your life over and
over and over and over again? I am thankful for that, and I'll
just be transparent. I'm thankful because most days I
blow it and I am in need of His mercies constantly.
And without His mercy, there would never be any revival in my
life. The psalmist understands this
and he turns to God and His compassion and His mercy,
refusing to take the path of wickedness.
Watch what he says in verse 155. He says salvation is far from
the wicked, for they not seek your decrees.
That's not just out of place. He didn't just throw that in
there. He's making a.
Comparison, he's saying there's a group of people who they don't
have your mercy and they don't rely on your mercy and they
don't trust in your mercy, but without your mercy I have
nothing to trust in. I have nothing to rely on.
And so the psalmist here is saying this.
He's saying that if I'm going to have revival, I know that
revival must come because of your mercy in my life.
That's why he says the wicked before from salvation.
And they don't seek out your decrees.
They don't. Seek your word so they know
nothing of your mercy, But on the other hand, I know much of
your mercy because you have saved me by your mercy, and you
continue to save me by your mercy.
And So what he's doing here, he's refusing to.
Take the path of wickedness, and one who's depending on God's
mercy to revive them will refuse to take the path of wickedness.
He's saying I don't want to be like them.
You know why He knows he doesn't want to be like them?
Because he once was like them. Isn't that true of all of us?
We've all taken the path of wickedness.
Salvation was far from. Us, we had not received the
mercy of God, but God then showered us with His mercy in
Christ. The psalmist refuses to take the
path of wickedness, Noticing the difference between light and
dark. You want to see revival in your
life? Learn the difference between
light and dark. I know it's hard in a culture we
call right wrong and wrong right, and everything is so hazy
and confusing. Can I speak boldly for a moment?
Light and dark cannot coexist. You can't be darkness some of
the time and claim to be light some of the time.
You were either in Christ or you are not in Christ.
You are either in the light or you are in the darkness.
There is no in between. The psalmist identifying that if
I'm going to have revival, revival is not going to come in
the darkness. Salvation is far from the
wicked. I need the Lord's mercy.
So I'm refusing the path of wickedness.
Now be it. He's saying that wicked men need
God's mercy. Yeah, we, apart from the mercy
of God are all wicked, aren't we?
There's none. Righteous.
No, not one. Romans 323.
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
So we see here that the psalmist has repented of that wickedness,
has distinguished himself from the darkness.
He's turning to God depending upon his compassion, His
compassion alone. The one who's depending on God's
mercy to revive them will refuse the path of wickedness.
You're not going to find revival there.
So if there's sin in your life today and you want to see
revival, turn from the wickedness of your sin and turn
to the mercy of God. And then we see this.
The psalmist is relying on God's mercy alone.
He's not saying Lord, I've done great things.
And so bring revival in my life. Lord, all my ducks are in a row.
So bring revival in life. You know how we know his ducks
aren't in a row? Ducks don't get in a row.
You look at your life. Just when you think you got all
your ducks in a row, what happens 1 jumps out of the line?
He's not claiming by his own works that he deserves revival.
I wish that we would get that church.
He is solely depending upon God's mercy alone, just as He
did at salvation. He is continuing to do this.
Are you listening to me, Church? Just as you had confidence and
relying on God's mercy alone to save you, continue to walk in
that. Continue to rely on His mercy
every single day of your life. Continue to go to His well of
compassion that He has for those of us who are wicked by nature.
Oh, He's seeking God's compassion here for the Sinner,
knowing full well that's what he is, and were it not for God's
mercy, that's what He would always.
Be. But he's saying, Lord, revive
me, preserve my life in spite of me, according to your mercies,
according to your word. He's seeking compassion.
And if we're seeking compassion, where else can we go?
Psalm 111, verse 4 says this. He has caused his wonders to be
remembered. The Lord is gracious and
compassionate. I am thankful, and I know many
of you are as well, for the grace and the compassion of the
Lord that is continual in our lives.
You want revival, Depend upon that.
It's brought by God's mercy, His compassion, His grace.
It's brought no other way. In fact, in our Scripture
reading today, let me remind you of what it said in Joel chapter
2, verse 12. It said there in Joel even now.
Declares the Lord, Return to me with all your heart, with
fasting and weeping and mourning.
Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God, for He is what?
Gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love,
and He relents from sending calamity.
If you're in need of revival today, stop running from God.
See who He is biblically. He's a God of mercy.
He is a God of compassion. Run to him.
And I know what many of you will say.
You'll make excuses, but you don't know what I did yesterday.
Can I read for you again Lamentations chapter 3 verse 22?
It says it's because of the Lord's great love.
We are not consumed for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
Anyone here thankful that His compassions, His mercies for us
are daily renewed? Every morning that I wake up and
I see the sun come above the horizon, I say Thank you Lord,
because whether I realize it or not, whether I realize to the
depth that I need it or not, I am in need of His mercies every
single day. You know why many don't
experience revival in their lives?
I believe because they've forgotten how in need of God's
mercy they really are. Were it not for His mercy and
His love for the Sinner, Lamentation says, we would be
consumed. Oh, I've often wondered that.
Lord, why didn't you just kill me when I was wicked?
Why would you even still allow me to exist?
I know the American church doesn't think like this.
We think God owes us something because we're a bunch of
entitled full of brats. The only thing that God really
owed me was death and hell and I asked myself daily why did I not
get what I deserved? I'm a theologian.
I know the biblical answer to that.
I I can give you all the mysteries behind that in Christ,
but what it ultimately boils down to is this, because of the
Lord's great love for me, that's so hard for me to understand.
How could He ever love me? How could He give me such
compassion? How could He give me such mercy?
Continually. Well, it's enough to think about
that at salvation. He's continually giving me
mercy, just as a psalmist is seeing here, depending upon
that. Why?
Because biblical revival will be brought by God's mercy.
Oh, we leave God's mercy out of this equation.
You'll never see revival. So you know what that means.
We run to God and we plea with God.
God gives me mercy. God, I am in need of your
compassion. I am in need of your loving
kindness. Lord.
Thirdly, we see this. You've seen biblical revival
will be built on God's promises will be brought by God's mercy,
then I want you to pay attention to this.
It will be bent on obeying God. There will be lasting obedience.
This is the problem with many of the so-called corporate
revivals. There's no lasting obedience,
there's no life change. He says in 157.
Many are the foes who persecute me, but I have not turned from
your statute, so I'm still focused on your word. 158 He
says, I look on the faithless with loathing, for they do not
obey your word. The psalmist here teaching us
that true biblical revival will bring a new desire for obedience
to God's Word. There are many who claim to have
experienced revival, but there is no bend in their life toward
obeying God. Can I help you all out so that
you're not deceived? That's not revival.
That was a warm fuzzy. That was an emotional high.
That was the flash in the pan. That was not God bringing
lasting change. Because when God brings change,
you know what happens? It lasts.
You don't believe me? Ask Israel, who once was Jake
Jacob, who walked with a limp forever.
God changes us. He bends us and conforms us.
How is he bending us and conforming us if we're in
Christ, to the image of Christ? And so then we have to ask
ourselves as Christ obedient and every single command and every
single facet of the law, he was obedient in our stead.
That is the hope that we have. And our response ought to be out
of appreciation for what has been imputed to us in Christ.
We ought to then live a life of obedience unto God and for his
glory. So the psalmist reminding us the
importance of revival being marked with obedience.
In fact, Deuteronomy chapter 30, way back in the Old Testament,
we see this in verse 2. God's already told the
Israelites, you're going to, you're going to rebel against
me, you're going to need revival.
But here's what he says in verse 2.
And when you and your children return to the Lord your God and
obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, according to
everything I command you, then the Lord your God will restore
your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you
again from all the nations where he scattered you.
You think obedience isn't important in regard to revival?
In fact, all true revivals will be marked with God wrought
obedience and repentance. And in every situation we'll see
that everything that the psalmist talks about, there are
no accidents. He says many are the foes who
persecute me. But I've not turned from your
statutes. What is he saying there?
He's saying this, that I'm going to live a life bent on obedience
to God despite any persecution or opposition, even in the face
of my enemies. I'm going to continue to obey
God because that's what true revival will bring upon my life.
True and active obedience, even in the face of those who hate
me, even when it's unpopular to obey the word of God.
He says, I have not turned from your statutes.
He desires obeying the Lord over the respect of wicked men,
faithfully obeying God in the face of of any obstacle, any
obstruction, any persecution, any enemy that may come his way.
He says, God, I have not turned from your statutes.
I am still obeying you despite all of the things that he has to
face, refusing to fear men, but instead fearing God would that
there would be a revival of that in Christ's church in America.
How about you where men and women fear God and not man.
When we get back to that biblically and what that looks
like, Psalm 118, the psalmist declares in verse 6, the Lord is
with me, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Psalmist declaring there and I'm going to obey God and I'm going
to be on the side of God and everybody else who opposes me.
I'm going to give no thought to them because they can't do
anything to me anyway. Not that will affect eternity.
And so we see that biblical revival will be bent on obeying
God's Word despite persecution or opposition, but also
despising disobedience and sin. Watch the psalmist here doing
what we're afraid to do. In our time, he says.
I look on the faithless with loathing, he said.
I am loathing the wickedness of the faithless.
I'm loathing the example that they're giving.
I'm loathing the indoctrination that they're pouring into my
children in my home. I don't approve of such things
because they are not of God, because he's bent on obeying.
God. Why?
Because true revival is happening in his life.
He's holding on to God's Word and he's despising that which is
evil and he's clinging to that which is good.
Is that not what Scripture tells us to do?
Living a pure and obedient life in the midst of darkness and
chaos and confusion and doing all of this due to the fact that
we have a genuine love for Christ?
When is it not true what Jesus Himself said, that if you love
me, you will obey my commands? We in the American Church almost
act as if that is optional. You can love me and it's somehow
later you decide to obey me. So be it.
No true life in Christ, true revival in Christ will be marked
by obedience. John 14, verse 21.
Here's what the Lord has to say about it.
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, He is the one who
loves me. Let me give you a good
hermeneutical practice. You can use this.
Reverse what you just read. He who doesn't obey me does not
love me out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
He who loves me will be loved by my Father and I too will love
him and show myself to him. He's saying those who are the
real dude who really love me and they don't just talk about it,
they'll actually obey me. There's been something that's
going on in their life. There's been a change.
First John, the 5th chapter of John's first epistle, he says
this in verse three. He said this is love for God.
You know what love for God looks like to go to church, fill out a
membership card, be a part of a small group?
Nope. This is love for God, to obey
His commands, and His commands are not burdensome.
What do you think that John would throw that in there?
His commands are not burdensome because you know what the world
wants you to think. The world wants you to think
that it is a heavy load to try to carry obedience to God.
Did you know this is not a heavy load to carry obedience to God
at all? God does the work in and through
you. Jesus said come on to me, all
you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is
what? Light.
But you know what? The world has tricked you into
thinking that it's hard and it's difficult to be obedient to what
God has commanded us to do. Not in Christ Jesus is it.
It isn't. You have been indwelt with the
Holy Spirit who lives in you as your guide and your counselor
and your comforter. You have been given the Word of
God as instruction. You simply surrender yourself,
and in surrendering yourself, God does a work of obedience in
you, through you. So many times the world doesn't
really have any interest in being obedient to God.
Their question is simply this, how much wrong can I still do
and be called a Christian? That ought not to be our heart.
Our heart Heart ought to be the heart of what the New Testament
teaches. To abstain from even the
appearance of evil. To desire holiness.
To desire purity. If you have seen real revival in
your life, you will desire holiness.
You will desire purity. You will not accept anything
less. This is what the psalmist is
teaching here, prioritizing righteousness.
Oh, could the church. Hear message after message about
that. When are we going to prioritize
righteousness? What is righteousness?
Right living. And who decides what is right?
God. And He has revealed it in His
Word. And when is it going to become
important to us? Oh, if you experience true
revival, let me just make you this guarantee.
It will become important to you because immediately you will
right wrongs. You will.
Is that not what happened to our friend Zacchaeus?
When the Lord changed him and revived him, what happened?
I've got to right my wrongs. Why?
Because righteous living became a priority.
Obedience. Don't dare say that you've
experienced any kind of revival with righteous living is not a
priority in your life. You're not hating sinful
practices. Yours first, desiring to please
God with every fiber of your being.
You have no inward desire for that.
Don't dare lie to yourself or anyone else and tell them that
you've experienced some kind of revival.
Revival will be bent on obeying God and obeying His Word and
hating sin, loathing the practice of wickedness, walking,
and righteousness and purity. Psalm 16 says, For the Lord
watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the
wicked will perish. Oh, don't think that you can
hold on to your wickedness and live.
The way of the wickedness will perish, and it is the way of the
righteous that the Lord watches over.
So we see. Thirdly, the biblical revival
will be bent on obeying God. Fourthly and finally, biblical
revival will be based on God's faithfulness.
Oh, I'm so thankful that biblical revival is not based on
Kirk's faithfulness. Anyone here thankful that one,
we're faithless. He's still faithful in every
single situation. God is faithful.
And I'm thankful that the psalmist is going to teach us
that true revival, real biblical revival, is going to be based on
God's faithfulness, not on ours. I would never see revival.
You would never see revival, he says in 159.
See how I love your precepts, preserve my life.
Revive me, O Lord, according to your love.
Some of your Bibles say according to your loving
kindness. The older I get and the more
that I grow in Christ, I am that much more thankful for the
loving kindness of our Lord, because it is His.
Kindness. It leads us to repentance.
Perhaps you're here today and you're here today because God
wants to bring revival in your life.
He wants you to see His kindness, to bring you to this
point where you can hear what is true.
Biblical revival so that he can shower you with loving kindness,
he says in 160. All your words are true.
All your righteous laws are eternal.
Psalmist, you're reminding us that God will bring revival to
his people when they look to Him and when they trust in His
faithfulness and stop trusting in theirs, right?
You can't approach revival as if it's something that you deserve,
something that you have merited on your own or could ever merit
on your own. And we approach true revival
like the psalmist here, dependent upon God's
faithfulness, His faithfulness to love His people.
Again, I ask myself over and over and over again, why would
God ever love me? The only answer that I can come
up with is because He chose to. And He doesn't answer to me.
And I'm so overwhelmed that He would ever choose to.
True revival will be based on His faithfulness, His
faithfulness to love his people. Isaiah 54 verse 10 speaks of
this, says though the mountains be shaken and the hills be
removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor
my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has
compassion on you, but we can take his faithfulness to the
bank. We can know that that's
something that we can depend upon.
Psalm 136, one it says, give thanks to the Lord for He is
good, His love endures forever, His love and His compassion and
His faithfulness to show love and compassion to His people.
We can simply count on that with the utmost confidence that we
can count on anything. God's faithfulness to love this
people, showing US time and time and time again is undeserved,
and His enduring, loving kindness to us.
I could spend the rest of the afternoon, but I know it's
Sunday and you have to beat the Methodist to the chicken place.
I could spend the rest of the afternoon speaking on how God
has shown me undeserved love and enduring loving kindness over
and over and over and over in my life.
Jeremiah verse 3 of the 31st chapter says this.
The Lord appeared to us in the past saying, I have loved you
with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with loving
kindness. Oh, if you want to see revival
in your life this morning, let that revival be based on the
faithfulness of God to show His loving kindness to continually
draw you unto Himself over and over and over and over again.
Many of us can testify to this and we know that we're saved
because when we have tried to rebel against God, He is always
in his faithfulness unto his promises drawn us back through
his loving kindness, letting us know that Kirk, you can do a
million knuckleheaded things, but God is not going to stop
loving you. He's not going to stop being
kind to you in Christ Jesus. He is already preordained this
since before the foundations of the earth.
What a marvelous place to be be able to trust in God's
faithfulness to love his people. Or you want to see revival?
Stop thinking that you deserve it.
And just know this, you don't. It's just like salvation.
You don't deserve salvation. He gives it because of his
loving kindness. And cry out to him, as the
psalmist is doing here. Revive me according to your love
and kindness. You know what?
I could bring nothing else to that statement.
I can't say, Lord. Revive me because Kirk's good
enough. Revive me because Kirk's smart
enough. You've listened to me speak.
You know that's not the case. Revive me because I'm worthy.
Oh, the psalmist says. Revive me according to your love
and kindness, because you're faithful to love the unlovable
and to love us with an enduring love to love his people, showing
his undeserved, enduring, loving kindness along with his
unmerited favor upon our lives. Oh, Paul speaks of that, doesn't
he? In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4.
But because of his great love for us, God, not you, not
anything you could do, But because of his great love for
us, God, who is rich in mercy. Made us alive with Christ even
when we were dead in transgression.
He is the God of revival and he is faithful to revive you.
He says it is by grace you have been saved.
How does he do this? Grace is grace offered to you
unmerited favor in the form of His loving kindness.
You're going to see revival in your life.
No Trust in God's faithfulness to love His people.
And secondly, God's faithfulness to fulfill His proclamations.
And when I say to fulfill His proclamations, I mean this.
Every single word He has spoken. It is true, we can count on it.
Numbers 23 reminds us of how much we can count on God's
proclamations. In verse 19, it says God is not
man that He should lie, nor Son of man, that He should change
his mind. Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill? Again, speaking in rhetorical
questions, we know the answer. No, God doesn't lie.
In fact, Paul tells Titus he cannot lie.
He doesn't lie to us and he fulfills every single promise
that he has ever made. Everything that He has
proclaimed He will fulfill, stemming from eternity past when
He made promises unto Himself in the wise counsel of the Triune
Godhead, all the way to eternity future where we're in His
presence, living and walking face to face.
Everything that He has promised, He is faithful to fulfill.
You want to see revival in your life?
Trust in God's faithless to fulfill everything that He has
proclaimed all the way from eternity past into eternity
future places we know nothing about.
God has always been faithful, and He will always be faithful
to do that which He has proclaimed.
Everything that is spoken will come to pass exactly as He has
said. Hebrews, chapter 10.
It's why the author of Hebrews instructs the church to do this.
Let us hold unswervingly verse 23 to the hope we profess.
For He who promised is faithful. True revival does not trust in
the faithfulness of the one who's receiving revival.
True revival trust in the faithfulness of the only one who
can bring the dead to life. That is Christ, what he has
proclaimed in his word. He's eternal and he's true.
Therefore what he speaks is eternally true.
And he doesn't change Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today
and. Forever, Malachi tells us, tells
us this about our God, Malachi 3/6 He says, I, the Lord your
God, do not change. Some of us act as if God somehow
has changed his mind about what he said.
He has promised each and every one of you believers in this
room today that if you will come to Him broken and contrite in
heart, He will hear your cries and He will restore you.
He has promised you that in some way, shape, or form through the
entirety of Scripture, that promise is still good for each
of you today. He has promised to the
unbeliever who is dead in sin and in transgression.
He has promised to quicken you to new life today as you call on
Him and as you repent of your sin and you trust in Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior. He is the only one who can make
the dead alive. Bring true revival.
And so if he brings revival to you today, it's not because of
you, it's because he's faithful and all true revivals based on
his faithfulness. So we wrap it up Biblical.
Revival. Who wants it?
Oh, why would you settle for some emotional chaotic event?
When you can actually experience true biblical revival.
Now let me just help you. Today, some of you are going to
experience true biblical revival.
There will be no flashy lights. There will be no hoopla.
There will be no show. I'm not going to slap you in the
forehead or kick you. You're simply going to heed the
words of Scripture that we've seen today.
And you're going to take God at His Word, and He's going to show
you just how faithful He is. And you're going to walk out of
here. Whether you realize it today or
whether you realize it down the road, you're going to walk out
of your trusting in God. And you may not see the evidence
of this immediately, but you're going to notice your life is
going to change. He's going to conform you into
the image of Christ. And in doing that, you will see
true and real revival in your life, biblical revival.
It will be built on God's promises, brought by God's
mercy, bent on obeying God based on God's faithfulness.
So, believer, those of you who profess Christ, are you in need
of revival? God has come to you today in His
Word and He's letting you know if you're in need of revival,
here is the answer. Here's what you need to know.
Do you need the Lord to revive you and to restore you
spiritually? Listen, we've all been there.
You say, well, pastor, you've been there.
Yes, more than likely I will be there again.
And I'm thankful for the word of God that I can go back to and
say, OK, how do I experience revival again?
I go to the 119th Psalm and I go, I start at verse 153 and I
read all the way to 160 and I find this.
Here's how true, real biblical revival happen.
So call on the Lord desperately, just as the psalmist did.
Confess your struggle. Maybe your struggle is
opposition. Maybe your struggle is a trial.
Maybe your struggle is an enemy, a family member, or you're at
odds with one another. Maybe your enemy is sin, the
fact that you're still prone to it.
There's abiding sin in your life.
Confess all of those things to the Lord.
Confess them, admitting that you need His help for deliverance.
Is He? Is He your deliverer?
The Scriptures say over and over that He is.
Let Him deliver you. Trust Him to do that.
Confess your sin first. John 19 says if we confess our
sin, He's what faithful and justice forgive us our sin that
cleanses from all unrighteousness, and then
conform in obedience to His Word.
Just as the psalmist was saying there Lord, I'm not straight
from Your Word. I want to conform to obedience
in Your Word and then count on His faithfulness to revive You.
It's that simple. Walk out of here knowing this,
that if you trusted God, He's going to bring revival in your
life. You might not.
Bark like a dog, laugh uncontrollably, cry
uncontrollably, but you will be changed because God is faithful
to fulfill all that He has proclaimed to the unbeliever.
I make you aware of this, not to be mean or aggressive to to you
or toward you. You were dead in your sins and
your transgressions just like I was before.
God breathes new life into me and the only hope you have of
coming out of your spiritual death is for God to work a work
in you today through the power of the Holy Spirit as the Word
of God has gone out. My prayer for you is that the
Spirit would quicken you to come to new life, just as the word of
Jesus Christ quicken Lazarus to physical life there in John
Chapter 11 made today, the word of Christ quicken you.
To spiritual life so that you can see the wickedness of your
sin, your need for repentance, and you can see that the only
hope that you have in this life and the life to come of
forgiveness and eternal life is through.
Christ and Christ alone, may you today, by that power, the power
of God, surrender your life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,
trusting in Helm and Him alone to save you, to take that which
is spiritually dead and make it alive.
He is able. Trust in him today.
Cry out to him, call on his name, for whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Let's pray together, Father, in the name of Jesus.
We come to you now, thanking you so much for your word, thanking
You that you have not left us in the dark.
Thanking You that we don't have to have catchy stories or cool
illustrations, fancy backdrops. Lord, all we need is your Word.
And as we've seen today, Your word will bring revival to your
people. Your word will birth faith and
those who you desire to save. What we ask that that happened
in our midst today, we we know it's only because of your grace
and Your mercy that it would happen.
We trust in you. May your will be done.
May our lives never be the same. We pray and we ask these things
in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.
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