A Call To Revival
A Call To Revival
Isaiah 62: 6, 10: " Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people;
cast up, cast up the highway; and gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people."
We need a revival.
We need a revival in all of our churches.
Old patterns of life are destroyed a new ones are being formed when revival is experienced
by God's people.
New life springs out of the dead ashes of the world when revival is experienced.
Today, colleges and universities are crowded with those who follow intellectualism in an age
of unprecedented knowledge.
Scientific research and invention claim their converts to Humanism by the billions,
as man performs wonders and the promise of greater wonders tomorrow.
Ideologies which are in opposition to Christian beliefs are growing throughout the earth
with an evangelistic zeal like that of the Christians of the first century.
There is so much crime, immorality, heartache, misery, and hurting which puts to shame
the conditions which existed in far less enlightened and less privileged ages of the past.
We must call for revival that is unprecedented in human history.
We're not necessarily speaking about a"protracted meeting" kind of revival,
even though that kind of revival is still needed.
We must have such a sweeping, powerful revival that will reach into our churches, homes,
offices, factories, farms, schools, our governments and everywhere where people live and work.
It is vitally important that we hear His voice as He calls through Isaiah 62: 1-2, 10:
" For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,
until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof
as a lamp that burneth [or like a blazing torch].
And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory… go through the gates;
prepare ye the way of the people… cast up the highway; gather out the stones;
lift up a standard for the people."
This scripture cannot be ignored.
God is calling for a revival throughout the earth.
The terrible conditions of our world today and the problems with which we find ourselves
are emphasizing that call to revival.
A noted historian calls our generation a civilization in extremes.
We have reached the point whether it is revival or ruin.
It is either revival or oblivion.
I believe that if we ignore this call to revival that we may reach the point of no return.
It is for this reason that we must give heed to the message of Isaiah 62.
There are two thoughts that we need to see in this chapter.
One is God's purpose, and the other is God's challenge.
God's purpose is not to destroy, but to redeem.
His purpose is not only to redeem one nation but all nations.
It is for this purpose that God chose Israel as a priest-nation.
He did not choose her because He loved only her.
God loves every person on the face of this earth.
He chose one nation as the instrument of His redeeming will.
We learn from history that Israel rebelled against that relationship.
The northern kingdom of Israel had long since gone into oblivion.
Israel was now in the Babylonian captivity.
But God had determined that Israel would still be the instrument of His will.
This must have seemed strange indeed in that ancient day.
The nation was in bondage to a pagan power.
Her capital city lay in ruins.
Words describing her condition were " forsaken" and " desolate". (Isaiah 62: 4)
Yet, Jehovah God says that she shall be called go to sleep "Hephzibah"
or " My delight is in her."
A nation which had played the harlot with idols willed once more be called
" Beulah" or " married" to Jehovah. (Isaiah 62: 4"
Jehovah will not rest until a nation once despised will have a restored glory beyond that
of nations and kings who despise her.
And when they see what God has done for her, they also will be enlightened by her righteousness.
Her salvation will be as a blazing torch to those nations which stumble in the darkness of sin.
It is a far cry from that ancient day to ours.
But the conditions are much the same.
For the church, the chosen instrument of God's redeeming purpose, is despised by
so many in our world.
This may seem strange, but it is true.
We do have many numbers of Christians all over the world.
The question is how vital is the influence of the church today?
Do people really listen to the voice of the church?
Or do they merely pay it lip service, and then continue in their evil ways?
Let's make a list of the many forces which are more effective in shaping the life-patterns of our day.
Such a list would be government, news media, entertainment, sports, and many other pressure groups.
Where would you place the church as to its importance and influence in our world?
If we were honest, we would have to admit that the church would be far down on the list.
And yet, it is in the church that God's redemptive purpose is found.
It is the church that has the good news of the gospel.
It is the church that as the answer to life and death.
In Ephesians 3: 10-11 where Paul says that there " might be known by [through] the church
the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he proposed through
Christ Jesus our Lord."
But as it was with Judah, so it is with the church, if God's purpose of redemption is to be
realized in our generation, the church must respond to the call of God.
It is with this in mind that we must face God's challenge.
Listen to it as He speaks in Isaiah 62: 10: " Go through, go through the gates;
prepare ye the way of the people… cast up the highway; gather out the stones;
lift up a standard for the people."
God is ready to lead Judah back to her native land from which she is to fulfill her spiritual destiny.
So, His call is to go through the gates of Babylon to begin her journey.
This call is probably to her leaders, the priests, who are to prepare the way over which the people are to go.
They are to cast up a highway, remove the stones, and lift up a banner which the people are to follow.
Now let us compare this to God's challenge to His people today.
If revival is to come in the world, it must begin within the church.
And it must be led by those placed in positions of leadership.
" Like priest, like people" may be used in a good as well as in a bad sense.
But we must remember that the New Testament makes no distinction between the
" clergy" and the " laity."
God does call many to special places of service, but all Christians went everywhere
preaching the gospel.
The world will never be challenged by a message that is proclaimed and practiced
only by those who stand in the pulpit.
It must be declared by both precept and example by every Christian and wherever he goes.
By our examples, we shall prepare the way over which others are to follow.
But the world will not listen to our call until we have traveled this way ourselves.
From a small beginning in less than three centuries, the early Christians rocked
the pagan Roman empire toward Christ.
The gospel they presented met the needs of people, and they confronted the issues of their day,
and paid with their lives for daring to do so.
You cannot read the book of Acts without realizing that those early Christians were fighting for something.
And they had the respect from those who oppose them.
They had one loyalty, and that was to Christ.
They had one fear, and that fear was that they might fail Him.
Roy L Smith one said: " Those first-century Christians never seemed to worry about
whether or not they were making a good impression on the newspapers, the Chamber of Commerce,
… the correct philosophy departments at the universities, or the secret service
of the Roman government."
One of evangelist said: " They often seemed to be out of step with their times,
but that was because they were listening to the drum beats of another drummer."
We must lead a lost world to the throne of God's grace.
We must seek to remove the stones of evil over which men stumble.
We must have compassion for sinful people, but we must never be indifferent to their sins.
Jesus never was, and neither can we be.
We must love the sinner, but we must challenge the sin which is destroying him.
We must speak to the vital issues of our day.
Amos spoke to his generation when he cried out,
" Let justice flow down like a mighty stream."
He was speaking to Amaziah, the high priest of the Bethel shrine, and to the reigning king on the throne.
He was preaching to a land-grabbing, liquor-drinking, labor-oppressing, woman-despoiling,
peasant-robbing, secular generation which believed it could bribe God to forgive its horrible sins
and paganism by piling the altars high with lambs, sheep, goats, and oxen to be burned by the holy fires.
It was the generation in which he lived that was the target of Amos' indictment.
Roy L. Smith also said: " He neither raked over the cold ashes of a burned out fire
nor muddled through green wood that would not burn until next winter.
He was called to preach to his own generation, and he condemned the sins that came
under his own eyes."
We must do the same in our generation.
The sins of Amos' day are the sins of ours, only today in a more complex form.
But we must condemn them if we're going to lead the world to a revival.
I read where a young man from India remarked about our American churches,
" I was greatly impressed by the fact that the pews were all cushioned.
There seemed even to be cushions in the sermons."
Sad to say, this is all too true.
Such preaching must be to bring conviction and repentance to a generation which is steeped in sin.
But our message must not be one of condemnation alone.
We must " lift up a standard for the people."
And that standard is Jesus Christ.
The heart of the Christian message is that God in Christ has made revival possible.
Many are dead and trespasses and sins, but they can be made alive again through faith in Him.
This is revival.
Apart from Him, there can be no revival -- only reformation.
And reformation only changes the outward appearance.
It doesn't change the heart.
To all who are leaders in God's work we must lead the way to revival.
In the name of our God, and without counting the cost, we must battle the citadels of sin
in our society and in the hearts of men and women and boys and girls.
We must declare that Jesus Christ is God's only remedy for sin.
In the name of Christ we must march forward as a mighty army bearing the banner
of our Saviour and press for the allegiance of those for whom He died.
Every one without Christ must search their hearts, and turn from their sins,
and call upon Jesus who is the only One who can forgive sin and give eternal life.
And all of us, as Christians, must draw a circle about our own life and pray:
" Lord send a revival, and let it begin in me."
Until it begins in you and me, how can we pray that it will begin anywhere else?