Expository
Quotations
Revival is that sometimes strange, ofttimes surprising, but at all times sovereign
act of God among the people of God.
Revival may issue in evangelism. But evangelism is not revival. Evangelism
is going out to reach the lost, those "born dead in trespasses and sin" (Ephesians
1:2), and helping them enter the newness of life everlasting. Revival
is something God does on behalf of His people as He restores them, re-animates
them and releases them into the fullness of a fresh, new outpouring of His Spirit.
From "The Importance of Having
the Right Family Name"
Revival, Evangelism
****
"If my people who are called,"
that is, "accosted by my name."
In scripture the names of God always speak about the person of God. They tells
us something about who He is, and what He does, that is to say, what He is capable
of, and desirous of, doing for us.
In our text God explains: My name
reveals my uniqueness. My name
reveals my glory. My name reveals
my honor. My name reveals my
authority. My name reveals my
character. Therefore, My name
becomes the basis of your expectations of what I am prepared to be and do for
you! I took you whom I found huddled together like sheep without a shepherd,
and I accosted you. I called you forth to be my flock. To be my special possession.
"My people" to whom I am prepared
to reveal myself, through "my name."
Wow!
From "The Importance of Having
the Right Family Name"
God, Name
****
In Jeremiah 33:14-16 we read, "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when
I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth
for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those
days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the
name by which it will be called: Jehovah Tsidkenu, 'the Lord our righteousness.'"
And what did Jehovah Tsidkenu - - the Lord our righteousness - - promise? Hundreds
of years before the birth of Jesus, and again at the time of the birth of Jesus,
Jehovah Tsidkenu, "the Lord our righteousness," promised a branch of David's
line would burst forth. Jesus was that branch and later, when He began His public
ministry, the Lord Jesus said, 'Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after
righteousness for they shall
be filled.'"
Maybe you thought that meant you had to start struggling and straining to be
righteous on your own. No. Remember, Jesus is your provider. Jesus is your protector.
And Jesus is your righteousness! Paul reaffirms that in Romans 3:22 when he
writes, "The righteousness of God (has been made available) through faith in
Jesus Christ for all who believe."
My friend, you have no greater need than the need for righteousness, which means
the state of being right. Right with God so you are at peace with Him. Right
with yourself so the internal warfare ceases. Right with your brothers and sisters
so there is no strife within the Body. You as an individual, and we as a corporate
entity, have no greater need than the need for righteousness. To be right with
God. To be right with our self. To be right with one another. Because only when
we get right, does God have leverage with which to bring righteousness to the
world and to a nation.
When you realize Jesus is Jehovah Tsidkenu, your righteousness, then you have
the secret of victory. You not only believe
in Jesus, your provider, you
belong to
Jesus, your defender. As a result, you begin to behave
like Jesus, your righteousness,
who lives within you and longs to express His righteousness through you.
From "The Importance of Having
the Right Family Name"
Righteousness
****
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen said "There is only one thing in the world worse than
sin and that's denying we are sinners." He went on to say, "There has never
been so much sin in the world as there is today, and there has never been so
little consciousness of sin as there is today."
Why? Because of pride. It is our pride that causes us to look down on people
so we are incapable of looking up to God. And it's only as we look up to God
that we are able to see what true righteousness is, what true holiness is, what
true character is, and thus comprehend what we are meant to be.
From "The Most Surprising
Success Formula Ever Devised"
Sin, Sinners, Pride, Holiness
****
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Steven Olford preach. I had
heard of him and knew of his influential ministry in New York City. What a thrill
to sit at the feet of a truly great preacher and hear him, in that piercing,
compelling tenor voice of his, speak of this text as "one of the most solemnizing
and sanctifying statements in all of scripture."
I shall never forget the impact his words had on me when how he said, "Think
of it. The omnipotent God. The omniscient God. The omnipresent God. The Lord
God Almighty, stands to oppose the proud. To oppose any man, any woman, any
family, any church, any nation which will not humble themselves under His mighty
hand."
Do those words reach out and grab your attention as they did mine? Listen to
them again. "Think of it. The omnipotent God. The omniscient God. The omnipresent
God. The Lord God Almighty, stands to oppose the proud. To oppose any man, any
woman, any family, any church, any nation which will not humble themselves under
His mighty hand." Does that statement cause you to examine your posture before
God?
From "The Most Surprising Success Formula Ever Devised"
God, Man, Grace, Judgement
****
What to I mean by that? Well, this not just a play on words to help you remember
the sermon. I'm getting at a profound truth, and here it is: God
does not ordain everything He allows, but if we let Him, God will use what He
allows to fulfill what He ordains.
God did not ordain the drought, pestilence and poverty described in 2 Chronicles
7:13, but He did ordain that
His people, Israel, would be continually purified. Israel was the womb out of
which the Messiah would one day be born! God was concerned about the health
and safety of that womb. So when, as a result of the their defiance and His
allowance of their defiance, (what theologians call God's permissive will) drought,
poverty and pestilence came upon His people, God was prepared to use those consequences
of their defiance creatively and redemptively if,
and that's a mighty big if, if
in their brokenness His people turned to Him in humility, confession and repentance.
As a result of their compliance they would experience revival.
How does this relate to where you are this week? Where is the "so what?" element
in this teaching? It's my conviction that the emptiness you may feel today is
God's way of preparing you for a revival. But before He can fill you with His
Holy Spirit, He must first allow you to be emptied of self. In order to enrich
you, He must first allow you to become poor in spirit. Before He can exalt you,
He must allow you to be humbled. So He allows those conditions to materialize
which help create an atmosphere in which your defiance of
Him and His will, is replaced by your reliance on
Him and His will.
From "The Most Surprising
Success Formula Ever Devised"
God's Will, Will of God, Freewill
****
In Jesus you are never expected to be righteous on your own. The righteousness
of God is imputed to you as
the nature of Jesus is put in you. The righteousness of God is imparted
to you as a free gift so you have what it takes to live like Jesus. The righteousness
of God is implanted in you so
this new life principle is so deeply and securely set in you, righteousness
- - the state of being right with God, yourself and those about you - - becomes
possible.
Righteousness becomes important
to you, not as an ego trip, not as a way of puffing yourself up with pride,
not as a little Jack Horner who says, "What a good boy am I." No! Righteousness
becomes important to you as a means of expressing genuine humility before God
and others, because of what God, through Jesus, is doing in you.
In that moment you are free. You are released forever from trying to live up
to your own opinions of yourself. "I have to" is replaced by "I want to." You
can relax and let Jesus, your righteousness, live His life through you.
From "The Most Surprising Success Formula Ever Devised"
Righteousness, Holiness
****
John Wesley said, "God will do nothing, but in answer to prayer."
S.D. Gordon said, "The greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is to
pray." Then he went on to say, "You can do more than pray after you have prayed,
but you cannot do more than pray until you've prayed." That explains the meaning
of the statement, "Prayer is striking the winning blow; service is gathering
up the results."
It explains why E.M. Bounds was able to say about prayer, "God spares the world
by prayer. The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will
be. The mightier the forces against evil. The prayers of God's saints are the
capital stock of Heaven by which God conditions the very life and prosperity
of His cause on earth through prayer."
If those statements are even close to true, and I believe they are, then obviously
prayer should be the main business of the church, because prayer is the single
most significant work you can do.
From "The Most Significant
Work You Can Do"
Prayer
****
Elton Trueblood has said, "It's conceivable that the day may come when there
will be enough bread to go around and we won't need to ask God for bread anymore,
but there will never be a day in which we will not need to ask God, and others,
for forgiveness. Nor will the day ever come when we do not need to extend forgiveness.
From "The Most Significant
Work You Can Do"
Forgiveness
****
Solomon's prayer in 2 Chronicle 6, and Jesus' prayer in Matthew 6, are made
of the same stuff. They have the same elements: honesty, humility, importunity,
ministry, and liberty. The words are different, but the substance is the same.
And since the Holy Spirit directed the writing of Scripture, we know we are
on to something and that these Sundays spent with the Holy Spirit in a school
of prayer, can be a glorious experience for us if we take it seriously.
From "The Most Significant
Work You Can Do"
Prayer
****
Let us pray. Let's agree with Wesley when he said, "After
we have prayed, there is much we should do, but until
we have prayed, there is nothing more important we can do."
From "The Most Significant
Work You Can Do"
Prayer
****
Last week we talked about doing the work of honesty
in prayer. We discovered that "to judge self continuously," which is the first
meaning of the word "pray," is not
God's call for you to engage in morbid, neurotic, self-examination. It is
an invitation for you to enter into the presence of the living God, by whose
name you are called, to get His
evaluation of you. Your strengths as well as your weaknesses. Where you are
growing in Christ, and where you still need to grow.
Let me add this thought to what I said last week: First
person power in prayer grows out of second person praying. That is to
say, when you kneel before the living God to whom you pray, and say, "Dear Heavenly
Father, you . . ." You
search me. You try me. You
keep me. You lead me. When you
employ "second-person praying," you begin to experience "first-person power."
You enter into the reality and joy of prayers which really get off the ground
because they move from concern about getting, to concern about growing.
James 5:16 says, "The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects."
That can only mean one thing: it is not only important that you pray the right
kind of prayers, but that you
become the right kind of person!
That's what doing the work of
honesty in prayer is all about.
It's about becoming the right kind of person. It's about facing up to the fact
that when judged in the light of the righteousness of God, the only worthy and
objective standard of measurement there is, you cannot pass the test of righteousness
unless you let Jesus
be your righteousness! Then, when you pray, it is with the power His
righteousness makes possible.
Which suggests this paraphrase of James 5:16, "The prayer of a man made righteous
by putting on the righteousness of Christ, has exactly the same impact Jesus
would have if He were praying
that prayer." Wow! Hear that again. "The
prayer of a man made righteous by putting on the righteousness of Christ, has
exactly the same impact as if Jesus himself were praying that prayer."
From "How to Pray Prayers
Which Seem Downright Risky"
Prayer, Honesty
****
The will of God is a mystery to many of us. We have it connected up with what
we are to do. But, while what
we are to do is an important
part of God's will, the will
of God is really concerned with what we are to be.
There are two verses in the New Testament in which you find the phrase: "This
is the will of God." Both of them are in 1 Thessalonians. Let's look at each
of them for a moment, and see what they have to say about the will of God as
we learn to do the work of humility
in prayer.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, "For this
is the will of God, your sanctification . . ." A moment ago I said honesty
in prayer moves you from getting to growing. Now I want you to see how humility
in prayer reveals the process
by which you grow. It's called sanctification
which is a ten dollar word meaning to become supple. Pliable. Malleable. On
the practical level it means to bend our will to the will of God.
From "How to Pray Prayers
Which Seem Downright Risky"
God's Will, Will of God
****
In a powerful article published in Eternity Magazine, Marjorie Summers asks
two cogent questions, "Does prayer place you in the driver's seat, or does prayer
link your heart with the One behind the wheel?" She goes on to point out that,
"Popular opinion suggests prayer is the nerve that moves the muscle in God's
mighty arm. It is jerking the sting, calling the shots or placing a dime in
the slot." But she adds quite accurately, "The Bible gives no support for this
crude notion.
"The believer is neither the source of his own prayer, nor the prime mover behind
God's consequent action. Both the Old Testament and New Testament indicate that
true prayer grows out of intimate fellowship with God. It springs out of a believer's
oneness with Him and His purposes for His people. As long as we think we are
free to originate our own requests," she says, "we will be anxious and uncertain
as to whether God will answer, and depressed and resentful when He does not
grant them. The only solution is to discover the all important relationship
between Him and us that leads to true prayer."
From "How to Pray Prayers
Which Have Unction"
Prayer, Obedience, Intimacy, Relationships
****
Many, if not most of us, miss out on God's best because we are afraid of the
blank check of complete surrender. The reason, according to Catherine Marshall,
is that deeply engraved in our mind is the mistaken idea God wants to take away
our fun. It's at this point
that many people refuse to believe or trust the love of God for themselves.
"My own observation," she says, "would prove that what God really wants for
each of us is joy, health, productivity in our job, wonderful friends, and fulfilled
integrated personalities." To that I say a hearty "amen!"
From "How to Pray Prayers
Which are Pure Joy"
Prayer, God's Will, Will of God, Joy
****
In an article from Eternity Magazine, Bill Krutz, a layman who conducts weekend
conferences on prayer, writes, "Sometimes people pray in general terms because
they really haven't decided whether they want God to interfere with their way
of living. But when one gets to the level of praying where he's prepared to
let God interfere, he learns
that God is genuinely concerned about him. He learns God loves someone who doesn't
avoid the hard details of life, especially his own sin."
Bill Krutz continues, "If you want to maintain a puny relationship with God,
that's your privilege, but if you hunger after knowing Him in especially personal
ways, the way we mean when we refer to Christ as our personal Savior and Lord,
then you'll be on the lookout to find those practical ideas that will rescue
prayer from the theological realm and the rather dusty atmosphere of formal
worship situations."
From "How to Pray Prayers
Which are Pure Joy"
Prayer, Surrender
****
I was deeply moved by a little tract entitled, Others
May, You Cannot. Let me read it to you.
"If God has called you to be like Jesus, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion
and humility, and put on you such demands of obedience that He will not allow
you to follow other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other people
do things He will not let you do.
"Other Christians who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull
wires and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot. If you attempt
it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you
sorely penitent.
"The Lord will let others be honored, and put forward, and keep you hid away
in obscurity because He wants to produce some fragrant fruit for His coming
glory which can only be produced in the shade.
"God will let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work
for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you toil on without knowing
how much you are doing. And then, to make your work still more precious, He
will let others get the credit for the work you do.
"Settle it forever! You are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and He is
to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing
your eyes in ways others are not dealt with.
But, when you are possessed with the living God in such a way that in your secret
heart you are pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous
guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have
found the vestibule of Heaven."
From "How to Pray Prayers
Which are Pure Joy"
Commitment, Obedience, Lord
****
Someone said, "Repentance is a tear in the eye of faith." That's a lovely phrase,
but it is theologically incorrect. Repentance is not a tear in the eye of the
faith, that's remorse. True
repentance is an ache in the heart of people which causes them to take God's
side against their sin. Repentance is knowing you have something to do, and
then doing it.
From "Repentance Made Easy"
Repentance
****
True repentance is preceded and supported by what Thomas Chambers described
in his famous sermon, The Explulsive
Power of a New Affection. "The best way to cast out an impure affection,"
he said, "is to admit a pure one, and by the love of God expel the love of evil.
The best way to keep the love of sin out of your heart is to keep the love of
God in your heart." That's why, as I said last week, before God calls upon sinners
to "turn from their wicked ways," He invites them to "seek my face."
From "Repentance Made Easy"
Repentance, Lord
****
Thomas Chambers whom I quoted earlier in this message said, "Knowledge of God
is a practical thing. It goes straight to the heart, touches it, penetrates
and kindles it with a love of all virtues. He who really knows God cannot fail
to possess lively faith, firm hope, filial fear, thorough trust and entire submission.
He finds no difficulty in doing God's will, avoiding evil and doing good. He
complains of no rigors in God's demands. His body is on earth, but his soul
is by thought and desire in Heaven already."
From "Repentance Made Easy"
Knowledge, God
****