The words to which I should like
to call your attention this morning are to be found in the book of
Exodus, in chapter thirty-three, reading verses twelve to seventeen. Verses twelve to seventeen in
the thirty-third chapter of the book of Exodus. And Moses said
unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people. and thou hast not let me know
whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee
by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore,
I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now
thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy
sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he
said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein
shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in
thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest
with us? shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the
people that are upon the face of the earth.' And the Lord said
unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for
thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name." We
come here to what I have described as the second section of the
second stage. in this incident which is recorded
here in this thirty-third chapter of the book of Exodus. We are looking at it as it gives
us instruction and guidance with regard to the whole question
of revival. It is the picture of the Church
in a critical condition. And you remember that the Church
found herself in that condition because of her faithlessness,
because of her rebellion, because she had turned her back upon
God, had made herself a god, a golden calf, and had worshipped
him, and had then given themselves to sin. And God, you remember,
punished this people for doing that. But then Moses, their leader,
the servant of God, begins to intercede on their behalf, and
brings them to repentance. to an acknowledgement of their
sin. They give practical evidence of that, you remember, in stripping
themselves of all their ornaments. But then we saw last Sunday morning
that it wasn't left at that. Moses now felt the necessity
for prayer, for intercessory prayer. So he pitches this tabernacle,
this tent of meeting, outside the camp. And there he goes to
pray to God and other people feeling the burden would go out
and join him in this prayer to God that he would return and
have mercy upon them and be with them as he had been in times
past. You remember we considered all
that this need for some exceptional action, this kind of separation
and how Moses and various others did this. And we ended by showing
how God hearkened unto them, because the cloudy pillar, we
are told, returned unto the door of the tabernacle, thereby giving
clear indication that God had heard their prayer, that he was
back again in their midst. And the final point we made was,
you remember, that Moses went back to report to the people
of what had happened, how God had spoken to him, and God had
made it clear to him that he had indeed received him again,
he'd spoken to him face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.
Moses went back to report all that, but left Joshua, the young
man's assistant, in the tabernacle, waiting for more, for further
revelation. Well, now then, we resume at
that point. Here, I say, we come to what I would call the second
stage in this matter of preparation for revival, or for a visitation
of God's Spirit. And there is a sense in which
I think it can be said quite truly, that it is here, at this
point, that the prayer for revival as such rarely begins. All that has happened hitherto
is a prayer that God may return amongst them, that he may not
withhold his face altogether, as he had been doing as a part
of their punishment. But here We go beyond that point. Now this is the thing that I'm
so anxious to emphasize this morning. Moses obviously was
very grateful for all that had happened. The coming back of
the cloudy pillar was a remarkable thing. Even the people could
see that because we agreed that all the people saw the cloudy
pillar stand at the tabernacle door and all the people rose
up and worshipped every man in his tent door. Even they could
see that. Well, Moses could see it much
more. And of course he was grateful for this, profoundly grateful. God has returned, as it were,
and God is listening to him, and God is speaking to him. Now,
you would have thought that he might have stopped at that point.
You might have felt, well, surely there is nothing necessary beyond
that. And yet the whole purpose of
this section that we're looking at this morning is to show that
Moses was not satisfied. He desired more. So he goes back
again into the tabernacle and he continues in his praying. All that has been given, he says,
is not enough. He longs for more and he begins
pleading for more, for something extra. Now then, it is just there,
I say, that we have rarely come to the vital point in this whole
matter of revival. Revival is something extra. It is something additional. It
is something which is quite unusual. Now I'm emphasizing this because
it seems very clear to me that there are large numbers of good
Christian people today who have never grasped that point at all.
That revival, by definition, is something quite out of the
ordinary, special, unusual, exceptional. Now, revival, in other words,
is not the church being blessed by God and conscious of his presence
and enabled to do his work. Moses, in a sense, was already
conscious of all that. God had come back, God had promised
to bless. God had given him that personal
assurance, as it were, when he spoke to him face to face. Now
there, you see, Moses might have argued, well now then, we are
back to where we were. All is right again. God's presence
has come back to us and we can go forward. But Moses, I say,
is not satisfied. And revival is not the church
being blessed and being conscious of God's presence and being enabled
to do her work. Revival goes beyond all this,
and thus we can see it clearly in this particular case here.
Moses feels that the circumstances are such that something quite
out of the ordinary and special is desired, and so he proceeds
to pray for it. Now this, I repeat, is the crucial
point in the whole understanding of revival and of what it means.
There are many today, and there are less, there are many evangelical
people, it seems to me, who have completely failed to see this
point. They argue like this. Surely
there is nothing necessary except that we should be orthodox, that
God should bless us, that we should be aware of his presence
amongst us, and that we should carry on with our regular ministry
and that conversion should be taken place and that efforts
should be put forward. What do you require beyond that?
What do you require beyond the fact that men and women should
be converted and then should know the fullness of the Spirit?
Is there anything necessary beyond that? Isn't that the most desirable
thing? Isn't that the ideal state of
the Church? That men and women know whom
they have believed, are orthodox in their beliefs, and thus go
on being filled with the Spirit according to the exhortation
of the Apostle in Ephesians 5.18. Is there anything desirable beyond
that? No, then. To argue like that
is to display a complete ignorance as to what is meant by revival.
Revival is something beyond all that, something additional to
all that, something exceptional. something which is quite extraordinary,
something which is, in a sense, almost startling in its amazing
character. Now, it is obvious that if we
are not clear about this point, we shall not be concerned about
revival and we shall not pray for revival. And that has been
the attitude of the vast majority of people. They say things are
going well. Look at us, look at the societies,
look at the reports in the religious weeklies. Everything's going
well, marvellous. And so you see, they don't think
about revival, and they don't feel it's necessary, and they
don't pray for it. All we've got to do this is to
keep on as we are. God's blessing us, everything's
alright. And it is, I say, because they thus have this central failure
to understand the meaning of revival in its essence. that
they find themselves in that very position. So that we're
looking at what I would call the most crucial aspect of this
whole question of revival. Now then, here it is I say depicted
so plainly in this second section here of this chapter. Moses who's
had so much goes back because he wants more. And he begins
to plead for this more and for this extra. The first question
before us, therefore, is what does he pray for? What does he
feel is this additional need? Well, you will find that as we
look at the answers to that question, as they're indicated here, we
shall be looking at something that has characterized the prayers
of men and women who felt a burden for revival at all times and
in the history of every revival that the Church of God has ever
been privileged to know. There is a sameness about this
which is really almost incredible. But of course, the moment you
realize the principles governing these matters, you shouldn't
be surprised at it. Here are the things that the
intercessors who've done their work before the revival comes,
have always concentrated upon. Therefore, if we are concerned
about the situation today, here are the things about which we
should be concerned. What does he pray for? Well, first and
foremost, He prays for a sense of personal assurance. That's
the message of verse 13. Now therefore he says, I pray
thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, he knows that he has,
he's using it as an argument. You can read it like this if
you like. Because I have found grace in thy sight, show me now
thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy
sight, and consider that this nation is thy people." Now, this
almost sounds contradictory, doesn't it? He says, if I have
found grace in thy sight, do this in order that I may find
grace in thy sight. God has already told him that
he knows him, and speaks to him as a man does unto his friend,
and yet Moses' prayer is this, that I may know thee. Now then,
what does this mean? Well, here, I say, is one of
these differentiating points. Moses is not content with a mere
knowledge of the fact that he is accepted by God, and that
he is in God's favor. He knows that, but he's not content
with it. He wants more. That I may know thee, says Moses,
Oh, he knew about God. He'd had manifestations of God's
loving interest in him and God's kindness to him. He's not satisfied. He wants more. What does he want? He wants a personal knowledge
of God. He wants a direct knowledge of
God. He wants to know beyond a doubt
and a third adventure that God really loves him. Well, he knows
it, of course, but he wants a manifestation of it. He wants an absolute certainty
with respect to it. Now then, here is something I
say that you will find in the lives of all the great saints
of God in the church throughout the ages, and particularly in
men on whom God lays his hand in this matter of revival and
of intercession. The first thing that happens
to them is that they themselves feel this desire for a deeper
knowledge of God. Of course, they're good men,
they're orthodox men, they believe in God, they know they're saved,
they've got assurance of salvation. They may have had it for years,
but now they begin to feel a hunger and a thirst for something bigger
and something deeper. They read their Bibles, and they
feel that here there is some deeper and some fuller knowledge
of God, and God's love. And that is what they want. They
are no longer content with what I may call the ordinary condition
of the Church. They want something extraordinary,
something unusual. Let me put it to you in some
lines from a hymn which seem to me to put it very well indeed.
Here is an end, you see, writing. Speak, I pray thee, gentle Jesus,
O how passing sweet thy word, Reading o'er my cobbled spirit
peace That never earth affords. And then he goes on to say, Tell
me thou art mine, O Saviour, Grant me an assurance clear. That's the thing. He knows that
the Saviour loves him. But do you see what he wants?
Tell me thou art mine, O Saviour. It's only the man who knows the
Saviour's love who asks him for that. Here is a man asking for
something special, something unusual, something additional.
I needn't belabor this point, surely. On the human level, we
all know something about this. It's a great thing to be told
that you're loved. You may know that you're loved,
but it isn't enough. You like to be told it. It's extra, it's
additional. There's nothing like it. Tell
me, tell me thou art mine, O Saviour. That's what Moses was praying
for. He wanted God to tell him. He says, I know, if I have found
grace in thy sight, I know I have, because I have, show me now thy
way that I may know thee. You see, he's not content with
the general, the average, the ordinary. No, no, he says, I'm
in such a position that I want something beyond that, something
additional, some special sealing of all this to my spirit and
to my heart. That's what he's crying out for. Now this, I say, is something
that happens in the experiences of individuals who begin to long
for this blessing of God which we call revival. It is, in other
words, a desire to have a very living and well consciousness
of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church. Oh, we know the
Holy Spirit is in the church. The Holy Spirit has been in the
Church since the day of Pentecost, yes, but what this man is asking
for and what men who plead for revival are always asking for
is this, not simply that we may know or be aware of the fact
that the Spirit is in the Church, but that this may be demonstrated
and manifested to us in such a way that every doubt or hesitation
is gone. It is for a clear manifestation.
an unusual manifestation, some access of love, some additional
manifestation of love. That's the thing that Moses was
praying for. That is the thing to pray for if we are concerned
about revival. Because with all our orthodoxy
and with all our consciousness of the fact that the Holy Spirit
is in the church and that God does bless us, Are we not aware
of the fact that there is much more that we know so little about? When we compare ourselves with
the people in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, that's
the thing. There is more that we haven't
touched. We know nothing about it. We
are like children peddling in the sea. There's that mighty
ocean and its depths. What do we know about that? Now
here is a cry from a man's heart for this additional something,
these depths. of the ocean of God's love, these
unusual manifestations, that I may know thee." And then of
course he says, show me now thy way. And here he's referring
to God's purposes and God's plans. He's now asking for this absolute
certainty that God is going to go with them as they march up
in the direction of Canaan and enter into the promised land.
God had told them that he wasn't going with them, you remember,
that he was going to send an angel. Now, says Moses, you must
come with us and I want to see your way. I want you to give
me some glimpse into your great plan and purpose. That's his
prayer. Not content, you see, with knowledge
by faith that God is going to bless and is going to honor.
Moses is here beginning to be daring. He says, I'd like to
have a glimpse into the plan. I'd like if you'd share the secret
with me. I'd like if you'd take me into your confidence. I'd
like if you'd give me now an absolute assurance, before we
go any further, that you really are going to come with us. Now,
you see, there is all the difference in the world between that and
assuming that God is going to be with us. We tend to do that,
don't we? We tend to assume it. How did
we come up to this service this morning? Did we offer any special
prayer that God might be with us and look upon us? Or did we
come assuming it? Isn't that the trouble with us,
that we assume the presence of God? There is a sense in which
that is perfectly right, and that we walk by faith and not
by sight. Yes, but here, you see, is the
cry for something more. Here is the church, as it were,
represented by Moses and the people, and they've got a great
task in front of them, many difficulties, great enemies. Now, says Moses,
can I venture, can I dare to come into your presence in the
light of what you've already said to me, and in the light
of what you've already done for me? Can I come in and ask, or
just tell us what you're going to do? Tell us about it. Give
us some certainty. Let us know that you're going
to be with us. That's the prayer for revival.
Not being content to go on from week to week and month to month
and year to year. Yes, enjoying God's blessings.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not despising the day of
small things. But what I am saying is this,
that we are in the day of small things, my friends. These are
the days of small things. There are big things. And I'm
talking about the longing for the bigger things. And what Moses
was praying for was this. He was asking God, will you just
tell me that you're going to do it. Now would you see, this
is This is the filial spirit. It's only a child who does a
thing like that. The child ventures to ask the
father things that the servant would never dream of asking. The father has given some indication
of something that's going to happen. The child is a little
bit impatient and he says, do tell me what you're going to
do. Let me have a peep into it, let me see. He can't wait, he's
so anxious. Is that wrong? Of course it isn't
wrong. That's the childlike, filial spirit. Vowing to the
Father and saying, Oh, just let me know. Let me know so that
I can enjoy peace, that I can be happy. And you see, that was
God's answer to him. He said unto him, I will go with
thee, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. I'll take your anxiety away from
you. I'll let you know what I'm going to do, so you need have
no concern and apprehension." God answered his prayer. But
now that was the petition. This personal assurance that
the church may know this love of God and may be let into the
secret of his plans and his purposes, his proposals and his ideas. My dear friends, have you felt
anything of this desire? Have you felt this longing to
be allowed into the secret? Wouldn't you like to know this
morning whether God is going to do something for us or not?
That's the prayer of Moses. Now then, there is the first
thing, but let me say a word about the second. It follows,
of course, of necessity. It's an accompaniment. It is
the prayer for power. God had said to Moses, My presence
shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And Moses said
unto God, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up
hence. Here's a tremendous thing again.
The prayer for power. This is absolutely invariable
in the history of the church. prior to revival. This is the
thing of which the intercessors always become most conscious. The need for power. Why? Well, here are the reasons. One,
of course, their awareness of the magnitude of the problem
confronting them. The strength of the enemy that
they were going to meet. The nations in the land of promise,
the powerful nations, the Amalekites and others, the tremendous task
of occupying a land. Here they were, just a kind of
nomadic people, traveling along like this, and they were going
to settle a land and conquer it and make their homes there.
And suddenly they become aware of the immensity of the problem. I have to emphasize this once
more, because to me there's nothing so tragic about the present position.
as the obvious failure of so many people to realize the magnitude
of the problem that confronts us. My dear friends, if you only
realized the magnitude of the problem, there'd be no need to
urge you to pray for revival. But our eyes seem to be shut.
Everything's going well, we say. Look at the reports. Marvelous.
Look at the activities. Isn't all well? Wait a minute. You've got to analyze figures
always. You've got to be aware, beware
that you're not carried away by certain enthusiasts without
going any further. But there are other figures,
my dear friends. Keep your eye on the papers.
The statistics of the various denominations are being published
now as they're going to have their May meetings. You look
at them. Look at the decline in membership.
membership of the church, attendance at Sunday schools, attendance
in church services. It's going down in all the denominations
and at an alarming rate. You'd think by looking at some
Christian newspapers that everybody has been converted in various
countries, but they haven't, you know. The statistics of the
churches prove that they haven't. The churches are going down steadily
year after year. And as to the increase in vice
and sin and godliness and profanity, can't we see it? Can't we see
it in this country? Can't we see it in all the countries? Can't we see this modern intellectualism
that won't even consider the gospel? Can't we see how men
in a state of prosperity are not concerned about their souls
and about God? This is happening not only in
this country, it's happening in every country. I was reading
only during this last week a statement made by Pastor Niemöller. He's
not an evangelical, I'm not quoting him because he's evangelical,
I'm quoting him because he happened to be stating facts. And he stated
that that is the position in Germany now. Immediately after
the war, from 1945 to 1947 and beginning of 1948, people were
crowding the churches. He says they're no longer doing
that. Since Germany's become a prosperous country again, She's
forgotten God and is turning her back upon Him. And that is
true of this country. How can we be at ease when only
some 10% of the people in this country claim to be religious
and only half those ever think of attending a place of worship?
Is that a position about which we can be complacent? Is everything
all right? The position, I say, is going
from bad to worse. It's becoming increasingly alarming. And I am here to assert that
all our efforts are not touching the main situation. That's not
to disparage individual conversions. Of course it's not. The whole
point I'm making is this. Moses and his people were already
in that position. They're pleading for the extra.
They're pleading for the unusual. They're pleading for the exceptional.
And that is my plea. That's not to criticize what's
happening, but it is to show that it's not enough. And the
tragedy is, as I see it, that men are saying, this is enough,
it's happening, it is not happening. The main position is worse than
ever. And that is where the cry and
the plea for power and for an unusual manifestation begins
to come in. They realize the nature of the
problem. But they not only realize the nature of the problem, they
realize their own weakness. He said unto him, if thy presence
go not with me, carry us not up hence. Moses, we are told,
was the meekest of men. He was, and that was his glory. He realized his weakness, his
own inability. I won't go another step, said
Moses to God, unless you promise to be with me. Who am I to meet
this situation? Even with the wisdom that thou
hast given me, it's not enough. I want this absolute certainty,
I want this strength, and I want this power. Moses, you see, was
afraid to go on without God. He wouldn't go on without this
absolute certainty of the presence and the power of God. Well, there
again is the thing that you will always find in the church before
a time of revival, and that is what makes me sometimes think
that we've got a long way to go. We are still so confident
in what we are doing. We are still so proud of it.
We are still so convinced that it's doing marvelous things.
We are not aware of our impotence, my friends. We are not aware
of our weakness and of our need of power. As long as we think we can organize
these matters, there's no hope for us. The beginning of revival is to
realize that without this manifestation of God's power we can do nothing,
we've got to get back to that position in which the Apostle
Paul so constantly found himself. I'm never tired of quoting it.
It's the text that needs to be held before the Church today
in every section, more than any other. 1 Corinthians 2, 3 to
6. And I, brethren, when I came
unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the gospel. He didn't go with enticing words
of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God. I think I've told you before,
I've quoted to you before, of certain cases of ministers used
of God in the past. wouldn't dare to go to preach
until they had an absolute assurance that the Holy Spirit was going
to accompany them and was going to empower them. That's what
Moses had come to. He realized the need of this
exceptional power, so he prays to God for it. Very well, let
me hurry to the next thing, the third thing which is this. He
prayed also for a special authentication of the church and her mission.
God's presence, his personal assurance, the power, yes, and
the special authentication of the church and her mission. That's
the message of verse 16. He listened to Moses arguing,
wherein he says, for wherein shall it be known here that I
and thy people have found grace in thy sight. Is it not in that
thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth. In other words, this is a prayer
that the church should be as she is meant to be. What is that? Well, it's this. The church is
meant to be separate. The church is meant to be unique. Now, said Moses to God, I'm asking
for this something extra because I'm concerned. Here are we, thy
people. How are all the other nations
to know that we really are your people? They're looking on at
us, they're laughing at us, they're mocking us, they're jeering at
us, they're ready to overwhelm us. Now I'm asking for something,
said Moses, that will make it absolutely clear that we are
not just one of the nations of the world, but that we are thy
people, that we are separate, unique, all together apart. Now
then the prayer for revival is the prayer that the church may
again become like that. And my argument is that nothing
but some unusual outpouring of the Spirit of God can do that. What is needed is something that
cannot be explained in human terms. What is needed is something that
is so striking and so signal that it will arrest the tension
of the whole world. That's revival. Revival always
does that. Now then, this is the point.
We can never do anything like that. We can do a great deal and we
should do so. We can preach the truth. We can defend it. We can
indulge in our apologetics. We can organize our campaigns.
We can try to present a great front to the world. But you know,
it doesn't impress the world. It leaves the world where it
was. I say the need is for something which will be so overwhelming,
so divine, so unusual, that it will arrest the attention of
the world and prove that we are indeed what we claim to be, the
unique and separate people of God. That is the essence of this
prayer in this third petition. And if I understand the times
in which we are living at all, this should be our most urgent
need today. What's the matter? Well, what
is gone, of course, is the uniqueness of the Church. The church seems to be so much
like other agencies and other bodies. The church is just like
another institution. How difficult it is to see any
difference between the world and some good societies and organizations
that belong to the world. Have a look at a church assembly,
I mean by that of any denomination that you like. And have a look then at a political
society or a cultural society. I wonder whether you could tell
any difference between them if you didn't notice the particular
dress that is affected by certain dignitaries and officials. If you just went in and they
all happened to dress like everybody else, I wonder whether you'd
realize that there was something unique about the Church of God,
because she's God's church and they're God's people. My dear
friends, we've lost our uniqueness. We are nice people, we are respectable
people, we are well-dressed people. Yes, we are religious people.
Oh, but there are many other agencies of which you can say
all that, and yet they're not Christian. Oh, but you say, we
can do big things, we can organize great campaigns, and we can get
many adherents to come to the church. Do you know that Buddhism
is doing exactly the same thing at the present time? There is
a great revival of Buddhism going on. There are thousands of people
turning to Buddhism in India and in other lands, even in this
land. The cults are thriving. They can do all this. They can
stage big efforts and they'll get large numbers of adherents.
They can do it all. False religions can do it. And
the world in general is not influenced nor affected. It's not even impressed. There's nothing unique about
all that. What is needed? I'll tell you what is needed.
What is needed is some supernatural manifestation, which will make it perfectly
plain and clear that it's not of men, but that it is of God.
The demonstration of the Spirit and of power, says the Apostle
Paul. Do you know what's needed? I'll tell you. What is needed
is what happened on the day of Pentecost. Read Acts 2. That's
what's needed. Are you asking, says someone,
for a sound of a mighty rushing wind? No, I'm not of necessity
asking for that. Neither am I asking of necessity
for speaking with tongues. But I am asking for such a descent
of the Spirit that everybody will know that something's happened.
That's what I'm asking for. I'm asking for something like
that which happened in that incident which I read to you at the beginning
out of Acts 4. There was that little church,
you see, faced with a difficulty, the ban on the preaching, the
threat of imprisonment and death, and what did they do? They went
back and they prayed, they asked God to have mercy, they said,
do something special, enable us to preach with power and send
signs following, and the building shook. That's what they were
asking for, and God gave it to them. And with great power they
gave witness to the resurrection. Yes, it was another outpouring
of the Spirit of God. It was a repetition of Pentecost.
It was another baptism. Again he poured the Spirit upon
them. And they were filled once more,
the men who had already been filled on the day of Pentecost.
What I am asking for is what happened, do you remember, in
Acts 10, when Peter was there preaching to Cornelius and his
household. And as he was preaching, the Holy Ghost fell upon them.
and even convinced a narrow-minded Jew like Peter that these Gentiles
rarely were converted. You remember how he says, who
was I that I could refuse to baptize them, that I could refuse
them water, when I saw that God had done to them what he did
to us at the beginning? That's what I'm asking for. Some
manifestation of the power of God that will make it plain and
clear that this isn't men acting, but it is God acting. That is
the thing, and let me give you some other illustrations before
I close. Do you notice what we are told in Hebrews in the second
chapter and in the fourth verse? It's a striking illustration
of this very thing. How shall we escape, says this
man, if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him,
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and
with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to
His own will. God bearing them witness. God
confirming it. That's the thing that established
the early church. God giving this unusual, exceptional attestation
and confirmation of the fact that these men were his and that
they were preaching his gospel. And the apostle Peter says exactly
the same thing. You'll find it in his first epistle,
in the first chapter, in verses 11 and 12. Searching what or
what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, when it signified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and
the glory that should follow, unto whom it was revealed that
not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things
which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the
gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
That is the thing, this unusual statistician. This indication
by God that the church is His, that it is His power that is
within her, that she is unique, that this isn't men. Men can
preach, alas, how well I know it. I can preach without the
Holy Spirit. With intelligence I can expound
this word, but that's not enough. We need the demonstration of
the Spirit and of power. Men can conduct services, men
can get converts, men can get additions to the church. What
a man can never do is this, the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,
the descent of power, the attestation, this uniqueness, this special
manifestation of the presence and of the power of God. That is what Moses prayed for,
and that is always the third and in many senses the most urgent
petition in the mouths and on the lips of those who see the
position as it is, and who see the need of revival. Authenticate thy word. Lord God,
let it be known, let it be known beyond a doubt and a poor adventure,
that we are thy people. I don't ask him to shake the
building, but I ask him to shake us. I ask him to do something
that is so amazing, so astounding, so divine, that the whole world
shall be compelled to look on and say, what is this? As they
said on the day of Pentecost, as they said at the Protestant
Reformation, as they said two hundred years ago when the Spirit
was poured upon Whitefield and the Wesleys and As they said
a hundred years ago in the revival in America, Northern Ireland,
Wales, and Scotland, and in other places. What's this? What is
it? And it's clear that it's nothing
that men can produce or organize. It is plain that it is an act
of God. God authenticating His people,
their work, and their message. and saying, yes, these are my
people, and I'm doing something in their midst that I've never
done among you, and that I never will do among any but my own
people. Is it clear, my friends? The
prayer for revival is the prayer not for the regular blessing
on the work—we must always go on doing that—it is the prayer
for the unusual on top of it, in addition to it, something
special, something that authenticates God and His work amongst His
people. Amen. We do hope that you've been helped
by the preaching of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. The MLJ Trust
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