Revival Pt 4

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Tuesday, August the twentieth, twenty twenty four. It is currently ten forty am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well, before we know it, summer twenty twenty four will be a thing of the past. We will have lived through another summer. It will be over. We will be moving on into September, then October, and then yeah, we'll be in a sense we're we're on the we're on the downside of the year. I mean, before we know I mean we're kind of on the We've we've kind of started the year. We've climbed, we've climbed, we've reached the top, and now we're going where. It's just it's a it's a wild ride to the end of twenty twenty four. It's hard to believe. And well over the summer, there's been a lot of like series and things that we have started. If you really think about this entire year of twenty twenty four, we were going to really be more electionary based in twenty twenty four, and we kind of got way sidetracked and that kind of fell apart. We didn't really I didn't really stick with that. I was having fun with it, and then we just other things kind of just kind of moved it out of the way, right, We kind of just

1:33 we kind of got sidetracked from that. We've been working on Eschatology. I think we've done pretty good with that. We still need to finish that series. Then we were going to do some work and proverbs, and then everything really got derailed and everything kind of took a turn when we spent a good portion of the summer of twenty twenty four and saw eighty three. I think that was really the biggest thing that we have done this year, is the three study. I think. I mean, I believe it was significant. I believe it was important. I had a lot to do with hermeneutics. I had a lot to do with how pastors take passages of scripture and do crazy things with it. I think that was I think that was an interesting state. But we kind of finished that up. I think we finished it up. I don't feel I'm not completely happy with the way we finished it, but I think we did okay, And there's been a lot of little other things that we have worked on right here or there. And one of the things that we started I don't even remember when the first message was was I took the sort of the Lord newspaper. Remember how I loved the sort of the Lord newspaper. And remember the June seventh, twenty twenty four issue of the Sort of the Lord. The June seventh, twenty twenty four issue, there was an article entitled the Holy Spirit and Revival, The Holy Spirit and Revival, and I was like, you know what, we're going to work through this article and we're just going to use it.

3:00 Was the article really as an opportunity to talk a lot about revival and I could offer my own perspective, my own understanding of it, and really challenge the way a lot of churches and pastors and ministries speak about revival because sometimes I know this is going to be a shock to you. I get extremely frustrated with how revival is spoken of. I get really frustrated with people's theology on revival because I believe it's broken, and I believe it's confused. I believe it's missed understood. I get really bothered by it. So we have spent a number of hours now looking at this article on revival and discussing the subject, well as with many of the other things.

3:45 We haven't finished it, we haven't brought it to a conclusion. So we're going to at least take another step to trying to bring this to some type of conclusion. We also have the Ephesians four series that we're working on. Remember the Ephesians four thing is really I mean, that's taken a life of its own. It's really I mean, we still have so much to do on that. And of course I think really what's dominated twenty twenty four has been the Sermon's two point zero app sermon Challenge. It really has dominated the year. So it's been a crazy year and isn't hard to believe now that we're kind of looking back at twenty twenty four, like we're so close to the end now now we're looking back, Hey, here's all the things that we've done in twenty twenty four.

4:30 It really is hard to believe. It's been a crazy, crazy, crazy year. I told everyone it was going to be a crazy year. I don't know if I yeah, I don't know if I could have foreseen. I know I didn't foresee everything that was coming down the line, but here we are. And so what we need to do today is we need to at least get one step closer to finishing up this discussion on Revival. Then we need to finish our discussion on Ephesians chapter four. Maybe we'll do another sermon review in that series. We need to do some more work on the sermon's two point oh app sermon challenge. We've now started, if you haven't been paying attention, our study and all of the their furs in the Book of Romans. So we've we've got We've got off to a decent start on that looking at the four Greek words. I think it was okay, wasn't perfect, wasn't great, But we did that. So now we can start on Sunday looking at the their force.

5:26 On Sunday, we'll also try to start getting closer to finishing our series on Eschatology. And so once I'm trying to wrap everything, well, we got a new series on the there four, but I'm going to try to finish up all of these others. I've got an idea that i want to do. I'm hesitant to commit to it, but we will see. Uh so we have a lot going on, a lot going on, and uh, well, yeah, I don't know. So some may say, well, what's what's twenty twenty five, Well, we are a long ways from there. I don't know. I don't know what twenty twenty five looks like to be hones honest, I didn't know if the podcast would even survive twenty twenty four, so I don't know if it'll even be present in twenty twenty five.

6:07 We have a lot to look at. There's a lot going on, So we'll talk about that and moving forward. But let's let's get back to the subject of revival, all right now. The Sort of Lord Newspaper, June seventh, twenty twenty four, the article the Holy Spirit and Revival by doctor Lee Roberson. Now, this article we've walked through, and I'm going to pick right back up in the middle. I'm not going to review everything, but I am going to review this that immediately, we knew this article was problematic from a hermeneutical standpoint because the key verse the text for this printed sermon on revival was Ephesians Are Ephesians Acts, Chapter four, Verse thirty one ax Sheper four verse thirty one Octs. Chapter four, verse thirty one, where we read these words, and when he had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Now that's the text for this sermon, this printed sermon on revival, where well, immediately I know there's a problem, right, And I know, and I first I know there's a problem because the

7:37 text is only verse thirty one. They leave out verse thirty two. But any decent Bible student, well, immediately go, wait a minute, wait a minute, you're gonna use acts four thirty one to talk about revival for us today in twenty twenty four or whatever year this sermon was preached, because immediately we know there's a problem, right, So let me look at four thirty one again. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. Now do we believe that was a literal shaking of the physical place, the physical building. Well, so are you saying that that this is somehow giving us an idea of what revival should be today? Hey, you know you have revival when your physical building actually begins to shake.

8:25 Is that what we should look for? Already? Immediately I'm like, wait a minute, I think this may be just describing a historical situation. This is not prescribing anything. This is just describing what happened. It's not telling us what to look for or anything about revival for us. So first, the place is shaken, and we could argue exactly what that means. Okay, And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness. Now look look at verse thirty two. Though, Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. Now, wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute. If we're going to say this is revival and we're going to apply this to twenty twenty four, then not only should the physical building shake, If that's what that term means. There, we could spend a little time working on it, but everyone will just say, hey, I don't own anything, and we'll have everything in common.

9:23 We're going to give up all of our possessions and we're going to since give the money, give the possessions to the church, and then the church will distribute to those who as they have need. If you're going to see this as revival, then you don't just grab part of it. You grab everything that happened and say this is what revival looks like. Nobody wants to give up all of their possessions. Nobody wants to sell all that they have and give the money to the church. Nobody's going to do that. If you were to suggest suggest that, everyone would think you are absolutely out of your mind. Can you believe? I mean what, well not, can you believe? What would you do? I mean you would not be able to believe it. But what would you do if I turn on this microphone and say we need to pray for revival, we need to seek revival, and if revival happens in your life, you're going to give up your possessions. You're going to sell all that you have, and you're going to send it to this broadcast and then I will distribute as there is need. You would not be able to believe it. You would be like, that's insane, that's crazy. Well, everybody loves to run to the Book of Acts and grab certain verses and say this.

10:34 We need to get back to the church of the Book of Acts. We need to get back to that church. We need to get Do you really want to get so sell everything? Oh you don't want that part, isn't it funny? Oh? Wait? They met every single day? Do you want to have church every single Oh you don't want to have church. So you only want part of the Book of Acts, you don't want all of it. Can we stop with the nonsense that we want an Act revival in twenty twenty four because you only want part of it. You don't want all of it. You know that, and I know that, all right, So we already knew that the article was a problem, all right, But we went ahead. We went through the introduction and then remember it told us to turn to page sixteen, page sixteen, and then they gave some things. They connected revival to the Holy Spirit. They said things like, first, first, know about him. Jesus gave the promise of the Holy Spirit, he said, and they quote John fourteen. They quote John fourteen sixteen and John fourteen twenty six. Secondly, be conscious of him. We talked about grieving the Holy Spirit in Ephesians four we talked about Ephesians five eighteen. Then we looked at this section and this sermon on the Holy Spirit and Christian Living. We looked at all of that, and then that brings us to part in this printed sermon on Revival, and it is entitled the Holy Spirit

12:06 and Prayer. The Holy Spirit and Prayer. This is on page seventeen of this printed sermon and the June seventh, twenty twenty four edition of the Sword of the Lord. And this is all we're going to look at today. All right. Now, I could really try to just drive through this and say the goal here is just to finish this so we can be done and we can then finish the Ephesians thing and then we can move on to something new. But you know that's not fair to the subject. So we're just gonna spend time on this one section, all right, Are you ready? They quote this section begins this is called the Holy Spirit and Prayer, The Holy Spirit and Prayer, and they quote Acts two forty two. They quote Acts two forty two. Now I'm taking my actual Bible and not reading the quote from the paper, because I'm gonna look at all the things around it. All right, So here we go, So let's start in verse forty, right. They just quote verse forty two again. A lot of times when people do sermons on revival and the early the Act's Church, I think they're very selective in the verses they use. So we're gonna go back to Acts two forty and with many other words. He testified and exhorted them, saying be saved from this perverse generation. Those who gladly received his word were baptized that day, and there were about three thousand souls were added to them. I look at verse forty two,

13:38 and they continued steadfastly in the apostles, doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now please note once again if you're going they're gonna connect this to revival in twenty twenty four, and he's going to focus on the word. They continued steadfasting the apostles, doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and in prayers. But wait, wait, let's continue reading. Fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Do you believe those wonders and signs are for today? Do you believe the apostolic signs and wonders are for today? I think you're out of your mind if you believe that. And charismatics who believe that, Look how many times they have to make fake claims and make fraudulent claims, and over and over and over it's demonstrated that what they're claiming does not happen is not true there and they are proven to be frauds.

14:46 So immediately, I know, wait a minute, once again, this is being descriptive, it's not being prescriptive. But what yeh, I'll look again, what is connected to it? What is connected to it? All? Right? Now, all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. Now, this article has quoted two verses about revival and how we need revival, and both cases they quote a verse when the very next verse demonstrates that a part of this revival was everyone selling all of their possessions and basically giving it to the church. Now, if you're going to run to acts and say we need revival we need, well, then everyone's gonna sell all of their possessions. If people aren't willing to do that, then stop quoting the Book of Acts about some revival in twenty twenty four. It's mindless, it's foolish. It's not even being honest with the text. And you're just using the Book of Acts as a buffet where you get to pick what you want. It's a unique situation, it's a historical situation. There's signs and wonders happening. That was the Apostolic signs and wonders. The apostles are no longer with us. The Apostolic office was for a period of time.

16:17 It was there to help start the early Church. So they quote that. Then they state this, when we recognize the indwelling guest, meaning the Holy Spirit, we will desire to pray. So now this is going to turn into a discussion about prayer. And I think the argument is here is that revival, if we truly are being revived, then prayer is going to be a major part of that. I think that's the point they're trying to make here. But we'll start with this. If we will recognize the indwelling guests, we will desire to pray. So it seems that what they're arguing, if we recognize that we are in dwelt by the Holy Spirit, then we will desire to pray. Does does understanding that we are dwelt by the Holy Spirit? Does that increase prayer? That's an interesting claim.

17:23 They don't. They make no justif. They make no justification for the claim, They make no proof. They just go on and say this and Acts too. Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, and Acts four we read that when they prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now again they're going back to the Acts four passage. Again they leave out the fact they do mention the place was shaken. They don't know, They don't explain what is actually happening there. And once again they leave out that everyone sells basically all of their possessions. They they over and over, they they they purposely ignore those verses. When Saul of Tarsus was saved, the next thing we find about him is, behold he prayeth Acts nine to eleven and Acts ten.

18:12 Peter was on the housetop praying. When Peter was kept in prison, the saints of God met together in prayer for his release. It was at the place of prayer where Lydia was saved. It was also when Paul and Solas prayed that deliverance came to them. The gail was shaken and their bonds were loosed. Well, now they've got two cases where prayer happens and the place was shaken. So if we're having a good prayer meeting, the building will actually shake. See this is always the problem with just running into the Book of Acts. You're grabbing historical situations that I don't think our prescriptive or give us any idea of exactly what we should or shouldn't do. I think it simply is just telling us what happened.

18:57 Freand now now they only have one more paragraph in this section. They don't really do much. They don't explain any of this, they don't offer any explanation. But the next paragraph is what I'm going to utilize for that. This may be a short broadcast, but I'm gonna focus on this next paragraph and I'm going to allow it to take us maybe away from the discussion. Well maybe maybe I'm gonna make this more about revival than they're gonna make it about revival. I don't know. Let's see. Just listen to this next paragraph. You're ready, I want you to pay. You can forget everything else we've talked about. This is what I want you to focus on. Okay. I did want to point out again how the article is talking about revival and just very much be very very selective in what part versus they quote, and how they're skipping the next verse that in every case, well, wait a minute, everyone sells everything, nobody wants to discuss.

19:52 Is that the true sign of revival where everyone just gives up all of their possessions? All right, we could have that conversation. You think that they would be having that conversation since it's a sermon about revival and they're quoting verses that in every case is connected to that very phenomenon. But okay, here we go. Listen carefully, friend, you need to pray these two prayers unto God. If you have something to write with, I would challenge you to write these down. There are two prayers that we need to pray to God. Two prayers. Prayer Number one, Lord show me myself. Lord show me myself. Lord show me myself. That's number one and number two. Lord show me thyself. Lord show me myself, Lord show me thyself. Now.

21:11 I may be utterly frustrated with this entire article and revival. I may be completely bothered by how they're very much cherry picking certain verses and ignoring the follow up verses. They're ignoring the phenomenon of every when selling everything, and how that may be connected to revival. I'm very frustrated by the entire way. But this right here, this right here, is worth the entire subscription costs to the sort of the Lord newspaper. This right here is utterly profound. This is powerful, and I think this may be really the really essence of revival. We are experiencing revival, and I think the key to revival is when us as Christians revival.

21:54 And remember we talked about this in the last episode. Revival is about Christians. Revival is not about the non Christian. Revival is not about people getting saved. It's about Christians getting right. It's not about Christians. It's not about non Christians getting saved. It's about Christians getting right and entering into a passionate desire for God, but revival. The key to revival, the essence of revival, is when you and I, as Christians, we are broken and we cry out to God, Lord, show me myself. Don't show me other people, don't show me the world show me me. Let me see me as I truly am. Let me see how depraved I am.

22:40 Let me see how fraudulent I am. Let me see how much of a hypocrite I am. Let me see how self righteous I am, how prideful I am, how arrogant I am. Lord, Let me see all that I am and its truest color, no filter. Let me see myself as I really am. If all Christians were lying on would, in a sense drop to their face and say, Lord, show me me, we would get up broken, humbled, embarrassed, humiliated, filled with shame, and we would know our only hope is not in what we do, not what we should do can do. Our hope is not in trying to do better. Our hope is not stopping starting reforming ourselves.

23:27 Our only hope is the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. You will face, you will experience revival, and your church will experience revival. When everyone in the church is saying, Lord, show me my self. I don't care what other people are doing. I don't care to blame other people, accuse other people, condemn other people. I'm not here to point fingers other than I'm going to point the finger at me because Lord, I want you to show me me. And in the second as Lord show me thyself, Lord show me you. Now, I believe personally from a philological perspective, these prayers should be reversed. We should first say, Lord show me you, show me thyself, let me see you, because you know what I'm getting ready to say, it's only when we see God as he truly is that we can see ourselves as we truly are. But I think so they have two prayers, Lord show me myself and show me thyself. I think the prayer should be Lord, show me thyself. We need to be consumed with seeing God as he is. Not the God we want, not the God we create, not the graven image of God that we form, not the plato form of God that we manipulate, and that God agrees with us here and

24:57 agrees with us. No, we want to see God as He truly is. Whether we guess what We may not like it, we may be bothered by it. It may convict us, It may make us angry, it may make us mad, it may make us sad. But we want to be confronted with the reality of God. Lord show me thyself, and I think it's only then, Lord show me thyself, and then we then should pray. And Lord show me myself, and show me myself in light of yourself. I cannot see myself until I see myself in the light of who God truly is. When I see myself in the light of who God is, then I see myself as I truly am. If I see myself in the light of anything else, if I see myself in the light of other people, I think I'm pretty good.

25:46 If I see myself in the light of what I used to be compared to what I am today, I may think I'm doing pretty good. It's when I see myself in the light of God then I realize what I really am. We need to be people of prayer. Lord show me thyself so that I may see myself. We need to be a people absolutely obsessed, absolutely possessed with a passionate pursuit of seeing God as he is. So that we may see ourselves as we are. And if we spend all of our time pursuing and desiring to see God as he is, we would become more and more broken, and we would be a humble church.

26:32 We would be a church full of grace, a church full of mercy, because whenever we talk about other people's sin, we would know, yeah, but I'm a greater sinner. Instead of spending sermons going them, they them the world, the liberals them that we would be like us, us us us. Now again, the article says two prayers. Lord show me my sol Lord show me thyself Again. I'm going to reverse that. Lord show me thyself, Lord show me myself. Christians, we need it, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal our needs and impress upon us the worthwhileness of simple trust in Him and complete dedication of all of all to His will. Now, that's all they say in this section.

27:21 The section, really they don't offer any explanation. It's really a weird section that don't really even explain why they say these are the two prayers we need. But ladies and gentlemen, this is the essence of revival revivals. When at church wakes up one day and they're like, Lord, all we care to see is God. We want to see God as he truly is, whether we like it or not. And as the more we seek to see God, the more we see ourselves. So many times people want to study God so that we can point our fingers at everyone else. Come, well, look at them and look at them. They're wrong, and they're wrong, and they're wrong, and they're wrong, and they're wrong and they're When you're doing that, you're not truly seeing God, because if you truly saw God, your reaction would be like, oh Lord, well again, you know, you know the passage I'm going to read right, Isaiah six. In the year that King Yuziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple above it, above it stood a seraphim.

28:29 Each one had six wings, With two he covered his face, two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door was shaken. Oh, there's the shaking part that we've talked about in acts right, and the door was shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said, woe is me, for I am undone, because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips. From my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Host. When we see God, we finally see ourselves. If we see God, and all it turns into is like a philological project, so that we then can say we have the right doctrine, and then we become arrogant. We condemn everyone else, and we correct everyone else, and we tell everyone else they're wrong.

29:28 We've not truly seen God. God. That's only seeing God as an academic subject that you have mastered, so that now you can brag to everyone else how stupid they are and how smart we are. But if we truly see God as he is, the natural reaction should be I see myself as I truly am. All philological education, this is where seminaries fail. This is where Bible collegists fell, and this is where churches fell. If we are truly studying God, we're truly seeking to know God. The end result is everyone in the church should be like I see myself as I am. Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips, unclean hands. I'm a man of unclean thoughts, unclean desires, unclean actions. I am a sinner and thought word. Indeed, we would be broken and humbled.

30:23 Sometimes it's the churches that have the best theology. They pursue scripture, they desire scripture, they study, they exegete the scriptures, they go verse by verse, they have systematic theology. Sometimes the churches that have all the right theology, all the right preaching, all the right everything are the churches filled with people who are arrogant, who are condemning, who are self serving jerks. Something is wrong there. That's because we've turned God into an academic project to master so that we're smarter than everyone else. But God is not an academic project to be mastered. We are come to God so that we can see him. Lord, show me thyself, And when I see God, then I should see myself.

31:17 That's the essence of revival. Revival is where we as Christians seek God to see God as he is, and as the result, we see ourselves as we are, and then we are broken. We are broken, humbled, and then we flee to Christ and his imputed righteousness. Revival is not oh, now I'm going to be better at this, I'm going to We think revival is always like now we're going to be better, We're not going to do this, We're not going to do this, and we just turn it into basically a moral moral ref We see revival as a moral Revival is not a moral reformation. Revival is a philological revelation where we see God accurately, and then we see ourselves accurately, and then we are broken, not so that we'll have moral reformation, but that we will flee to Christ and his imputed righteousness and cling to it and trust it and love it and be appreciative of it. That's revival. Revival is not moral reformation.

32:42 Revival is philological revelation where I see God and then I am forced to see me and light of God, and that breaks me, that humbles me, that humiliates me, that embarrasses me, It leaves me broken and hopeless, and I know then I have to run to Christ because Christ is my righteousness, He is my holiness, He is my sanctification, and I trust in his imputed righteousness, and I find peace, I find gratitude, and I find a deeper love for what He has done for me, which all of that in is revival. Two prayers. Lord show me thyself, so that Lord I may see myself. Lord show me thyself, And Lord show me myself. Now the article flipped it around, show me myself and show me thyself.

33:56 I think it has I don't think that works. Now you could, are you? Lord, show me myself so that I will see. Then then show me thyself so I can find peace grace. I think. I guess you could flip it around, But I don't think you'll ever see yourself correctly until you see God correctly. I think that the key to perceiving self is to perceive God. If you truly want to know yourself, if you truly want to see yourself, if you truly want to understand yourself, you have to start with God. See to seek understanding of you, like to almost from a psychological standpoint, to understand you, to understand everything about you. You can't pursue the study of man or the study of self unless you first pursue the study of God. That's why theology is the is the king of subjects. It's it's the most important subject. Everything flows from a correct understanding of God.

34:54 You can't understand anything else correctly until you understand God correctly. So Lord show me thyself, and then Lord show me myself. Now to me, that paragraph really has nothing to do with this article, but that paragraph may be the most profound, not even the paragraph. Just friend, you need to pray these two prayers again. I'm going to reverse the order. Lord show me thyself. Lord show me myself. I want you to write that down today somewhere. Lord show me thyself. Lord show me myself. I want you to ponder that.

35:36 I want you to cling to that. I want you to meditate on that, because that's the essence of revival. If people you know talk about revival almost as a sense of evangelism or moral reformation, please correct them. Revival is a thiological revelation where we see God, we see self, and we run to God before his imputed righteousness. I'll stop there. Thanks for listening. We'll try to finish this series at some point. But again, sometimes it's better to just handle a little part than to just rush right past it, because that is so profound and so worth the entire subscription of this paper. All right, okay, I don't know if you could hear that in the background, that's my iPad. A certain female voice starts with an S.

36:52 I can't say her name, started trying to I don't know, answer my question. Why she was trying to answer my question? Okay, yeah, that voice recognition software where they will, you know, answer things for you, is great, but I hate what it turns on in the middle of preaching. But okay, all right, m that's such good stuff. All right, hopefully you find it as beneficial as I do. Thanks for listening everyone, have a great day. God bless