Title: Revival
Bible Book: Psalms 85 : 2
Author: W.A. Criswell
Subject: Revival; Renewal
Objective:
Introduction
We shall conclude our presentation of this story of revival with a word about revival today. In the eighty-fifth Psalm and the sixth verse: “Wilt Thou not revive us again that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?” Psalm 85 and verse 6, “Wilt Thou not revive us again that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?”
I. A Revival Can Save A Nation
A revival will save a nation. Manasseh was king of Israel, of Judah, for fifty-five years, and because of his unspeakable transgression God said, “I shall remove the nation out of My sight. The kingdom shall be sold into captivity.” Manasseh was followed by his son, Amon. And Amon was even more vile and wicked than his father, Manasseh. And he brought the nation down to unspeakable degradation, and degeneracy, and debauchery. And Amon was slain by his slaves in his own palace. He was followed by his son, Josiah, and the boy was but eight years of age. He ascended the throne of Judah in unspeakable iniquity, and tragedy, and sorrow, and in sin—when he was a boy, eight years of age. In the eighth year of his reign, when he was 15 years of age, Josiah was wonderfully and marvelously converted.
He sought the Lord and the Lord looked down from heaven and answered the searching prayers of young King Josiah. And searching through the temple, opening the doors for the first time in a generation, cleansing out all of the debris and the dust they found the Book of the Lord. And Josiah, having it read before him and the people, resolved under God to turn from their sins and to seek the face of the Lord. And there broke out a great revival in the days of the king Josiah, and in that revival Daniel was saved; Meshach was saved; Shadrach was saved; Abednego was saved, and the nation was saved from destruction.
Would God there had followed Josiah another like him! It would have preserved Israel unto the Day of the Lord, for revival will save a nation. In this recounting of the Great Awakening, Charles Wesley—John Wesley who preached and Charles Wesley who sang—brought England to a day of repentance and seeking the face of God that saved them from the bloody French Revolution. Had it not been for the revival of John Wesley, the same bloodbath that simply encrimsoned the whole French nation would have covered England itself in blood. But while the French were slaying each other—and the guillotine taking its toll by the thousands by the day—England was having a great revival under John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield.
A revival will save a nation. And the same chaos, and the same rioting, and the same blood that characterized France can also characterize the racial conflicts and the economic conflicts and problems that besiege America. America is not immune from all of the judgments of Almighty God that we find in history in other nations, but the great revival of John Wesley can also save America. Oh, that our eyes might see—in our day and in our time—a great turning to God! Revival can save a nation.
II. A Revival Can Save A City
And Jonah came into Nineveh, the capital of the ancient empire of Assyria and he said, “Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed!”
And when word came to the ears of the king, he took off his lordly garments and he sat in sackcloth. And all of his noble people and all of the people of the city took off their garments and sat in sackcloth and they repented of their sins. And God looked down from heaven and said, “Look! Look, look, the king is on his face, on his knees, praying in repentance.”
And even the donkeys and the beasts of burden were dressed in sackcloth and God said, “I will spare the city of Nineveh.”
[from Jonah 3:4-9]
III. A Revival Can Save A Family
For revival can save a city; and revival can save a family. In the city of Lystra there was — in Pisidian Antioch, in that part of the world up there in Central Asia Minor—there was a family. The grandmother was named Lois, and the mother was named Eunice, and the boy was named Timothy, and his father was an unnamed Greek. And when Paul the apostle came to preach the gospel in Lystra, that whole family turned to the Lord. And out of it came this young man, Timothy, who followed Paul in his great missionary journeys and became pastor of the church in Ephesus. A revival can save a family, it can cement it together. It can rear a boy in the love and nurture of Christ Jesus and it can send him out as a missionary and as a preacher of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ.
IV. Revival Can Save A Soul
And revival can save a soul. In the city of Samaria the Holy Spirit of God blessed the witness of the deacon and evangelist, Philip. And in the midst of the outpouring of the Spirit in Samaria, God said to him, “Down into down Gaza alone.” And obeying the voice of the Lord, Philip the deacon-evangelist was standing by the side of the road. Isn’t that a wonderful thing? In revival we become sensitive to the Word of God, and to the voice of the Lord, and to the direction of the Holy Spirit. And leaving the city of Samaria with its great outpouring, he was standing by the side of the highway, alone in a desert. And there came driving by the treasurer of Ethiopia under Candace the queen.
And the Spirit said to Philip, “Join thyself to this chariot.” And as he walked by the side of the chariot, he heard the man reading the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and he said, “Do you understand what you read, ‘The Lord hath laid on Him the sin of us all?’ Do you understand?” And the treasurer said, “How can I, except some man should guide me? Is the prophet speaking of himself or is he speaking of some other man?” And beginning at the same Scripture, he preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water.
And the eunuch said, “See here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?” And Philip answered and said, “Thou mayest if thou believest with all thine heart.” And he said, “Today in this minute, I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe He’s the Son of God.” And they went down both into the water, both Phillip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Phillip, the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing, “Glory to God, hallelujah! I’ve found the Lord!” [from Acts 8:29-39]
That is revival! That is revival; it will save our nation, it can save our city, it can save our homes and families, it can save our souls — the great awakening today, “O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years that thy people may rejoice in Thee.” [Psalm 85:6]
Conclusion
Listening on the radio on KRLD all over this great vast southwest, there are thousands and thousands of us who need God. We need to draw nigh to the Lord that He might draw nigh to us. We must confess our sins to Him and ask forgiveness. We must ask God through Christ’s Spirit to come into our hearts, to cleanse us, to make us whole, to save us and sanctify us, and some day to glorify.
Wherever you are, listening to this service tonight; this moment, would you bow your head before the great God of heaven and in Jesus’ name ask God to save you forever? And in the great throng of people here tonight, in the balcony round—and you, either coming down one of these stairways or walking down one of these aisles, “Pastor, tonight, I open my heart heavenward, and Christ-ward and God-ward, and I give my soul in faith and in trust to the Lord Jesus. I ask Him to forgive me my sins. I ask Him to write my name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. I ask Him to stand by me in the pilgrimage of this journey and in the hour of my death to receive my soul to Himself. And here I am pastor, and here I come. Tonight, I’m taking Jesus as my Savior.” Or, “Tonight I’m coming into the fellowship of the church.” Or, “Tonight I’m answering God’s call with my life. I feel I hear the wooing of the Spirit in my heart.”
Make the decision now and in a moment when we stand to sing, stand answering with your life. God bless you as you come; angels attend you in the way as you respond, make it now. Do it now. Come now, while we stand and while we sing.
