To many of you, Brother Goetsch is not a stranger. I asked him how many times he'd been at Burge Terrace and he wasn't sure the exact amount, but he said at least through four pastors. I told him there's only been five in the history of the church. So he's been here many, many times. And I know if you've heard him before, you've greatly appreciated his ministry. He's been in the ministry for about 36 years. For almost the last 15, he's been the executive vice president at West Coast Baptist College in Lancaster, California, which is a ministry of Lancaster Baptist Church. where Dr. Paul Chappell is the pastor. Many, many things I appreciate about Brother Goetsch. He's just a humble servant of God, but he's a great preacher. You won't get fluff with Brother Goetsch this week. It is the meat of the Word of God. You'll hear him incorporate the memorization of Scripture much in his preaching, which I believe adds a great deal of power to that We have prayed much for these meetings, and we're anticipating God doing a great work in these days. And let's continue to pray much, even as these services progress today. Brother Getsch, you come and preach. Take your Bible this morning, turn to 2 Chronicles, chapter number 7, if you will. 2 Chronicles, chapter number 7. What a joy and delight it is to be here this morning. I thank the Lord for what we've already experienced and heard through the messages of music and songs that we've sung, and I thank God for it. 2 Chronicles 7, verse number 14. The Bible says here in 2 Chronicles 7, 14, If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. The first word in this verse is a powerful and divinely placed grammatical supposition. The word if, a powerful and divinely placed grammatical supposition. It expresses a condition, a hypothesis. For instance, if it rains today, the ground will be wet. If I drive my car to Cleveland, then I will need some fuel to return. I ask Jesus Christ to be my Savior, then my sins will be forgiven and I will go to heaven when I die. Today we seem to focus on all the reasons why we can't have revival. We speak of revival as iffy, rather than if. We speak of this iffy that is questionable rather than if that is conditional. We say, well, I just don't know if God would really save me. We say, well, I just don't know if I can really live for Jesus Christ. We say, I just don't know if we can really see revival instead of If I trust Christ as Savior, then I will be saved. If I am faithful to God's Word in obedience, then I will have the blessing of God. If I meet these conditions, then I will have personal revival. I wonder, are we willing this morning to turn from our human skepticism and trust and believe scripture's grammatical supposition. There are three important implications in this first word, if, in 2 Chronicles 7.14. First, this is not a question of a possibility. I think today in the 21st century, because we have never experienced revival, on a national scale, we have stopped expecting revival on a national scale. It's been many, many decades since revival has swept across this country. And because of that fact, you and I have never lived in a time period when there has been national revival or a national awakening taking place. As a result, we have stopped expecting such an event to occur. But this is not a question of a possibility, first of all, because of the author of revival. My friends, revival doesn't come because we schedule some services. Revival doesn't come because we engage an evangelist to come and preach some sermons. Revival is not going to come just because we show up in church a few nights this week. The author of revival is God Himself. Will thou not revive us again? that Thy people may rejoice in Thee. O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years. Sow to Yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up Your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon You. It is time, Lord, for Thee to work. You know, I've been holding revival meetings now nearly 37 years, and I've seen what man can do. And it's not much. It is time, Lord, for Thee to work. The author of revival is God. God brought revival in Josiah's day. For 31 years the nation lived in a spirit of revival in 2 Chronicles 34. God brought revival in Elijah's day. In the midst of Baal worship, God came down in a tremendous way and proved Himself to be God to where the people said, the Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. God brought revival in Daniel's day under the reign of one of the most wicked kings that ever sat on a throne, Nebuchadnezzar. God brought revival to Nineveh, the entire city, a great and wicked city, turned to God under one sermon. And that God has not changed. That God of those Old Testament revivals is still the God in heaven today. He has not changed. I am the Lord. I change not. Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same. shall have no end. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Revival is not a question of a possibility because of the author of revival, but also because of the advent of revival. We often refer to this time that we live in as the church age, or the age of grace that we sang about this morning. In Acts chapter 1, we find 120 believers gathered together for fasting and prayer. For ten days, they waited on the power of the Holy Spirit as the Lord had commanded them to do. They prayed for God to manifest Himself in an amazing fashion. And when the day of Pentecost was come, they were all gathered together in that one place, and the Spirit of God fell. Now this was not a time when it was ripe for revival. The conditions of Acts chapter 1, Acts chapter 2 did not indicate to anybody there that this was a time when God could possibly do something great. In fact, as Peter gets up to preach on the day of Pentecost, he turns to that crowd that's gathered and he said, have taken and with wicked hands have crucified and slain the Son of God." Peter is preaching to the very crowd of people who a few days earlier had said, away with him, away with him, crucify him. The very people that sat in that crowd were people who had called for the execution of the Son of God. It was not a ripe condition for revival. And yet 3,000 were saved, baptized, and added to the church. And as Peter is preaching that message that day in verse number 16, as he preaches he says, this is that. Now think about that phrase. This, what's happening right now, is referring to something that was prophesied. This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. He goes back to the Old Testament Scriptures. It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. As those people were experiencing the power of God on the day of Pentecost, the cloven tongues of fire, the rushing of the mighty wind, the hearing of God's word in various languages. They saw the power of God on the day of Pentecost and Peter said, this is that. What you are seeing, what you are experiencing today on this day is what Joel said was going to happen in the last days. Now, I have a question for us. When did the last days end? Peter said, this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel that in the last days, he's referring to the last dispensation, the church age, the age of grace, the last days. My friend, we're still in it. We're still in those days. In fact, Peter, later on in the same message in verse 39 of 2, he says, this promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Those many that are far off, that's us. Peter said, this promise is to us, but it's to our children that are coming after us, and it's to all that are far off, those that are going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ from this day on. Pentecost, my friend, was not a one-time event. It was a specimen day. It was an example day. And Jesus intended for that kind of thing to be taking place throughout the last days, until He comes again. So this is not a question of a possibility. Notice, secondly, this is not a quest for the pragmatic. If you've been saved a while, you have begun to understand that God is a whole lot more interested on the inside than He is the outside. Now, God is interested in the outside. We're to abstain from all appearance of evil. In verse Samuel 16, God reminds us that man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart, but nevertheless man does look on the outward appearance, and so God has certainly standards and things that we should live by so that our light can shine to those that don't know Christ. He's interested in the outside, but we find in the Word of God that God is intently interested in what's going on in the inside. He's interested in our heart. I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. And so if God is interested on the inside, then motive in what we do becomes very important. Not just the action, not just the activity is important to God, but the motive of why we're doing those things. As Brother Gleiser pointed out a moment ago, the Apostle Paul, why did he live as he did? Why did he go day and night warning people with tears? Why did this man spend his life as he did? Well, he was constrained. There was a motivation within. And so to God that motivation becomes very important. And I want you to see this morning that revival is not for carnal gain. Why do we want revival? I talked to the pastor the other day on the phone, and we just talked a little bit about the schedule this week and about revival, and he said we've been praying for revival. We've had some good prayer meetings, and our folks are anticipating the meetings, and I believe we're getting ready in a way for God to do something. But let me ask you something. Why do we want revival? Why over these past several weeks have we prayed? Why would we bring an evangelist? Why would we designate some knights on our schedule to come and hear preaching? Why do we want revival? Do we want revival so God will bless me? Do we want revival so that we'll be happy? Do we want revival so that it will be easier to serve the Lord? Do we want God to revive our nation so that we will have more freedoms to preach the gospel? It will be easier to get the gospel out? Why do we want revival? In Acts chapter 8, there was a man named Simon. The Bible says when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered the money. saying, give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. This man Simon, maybe we'd say he was a little bit of an entrepreneur, he saw the apostles, they were doing these great miracles, they were laying their hands on people, and suddenly the power of God was upon these people, and Simon thought, boy, you know, that's pretty attractive. That's something I'd like to have. And so Simon offers the apostle some money to receive this power, obviously for the wrong reason. His motive is pretty clearly incorrect. And Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness. Thou shalt neither part nor lot in this matter, for thine heart is not right in the sight of God. You see, God is interested in our motive, and revival is not for personal gain. It is not for our carnal advantage. I would remind us this morning that all of the apostles saw revival. They saw God move in an amazing way in the first century. Every apostle that was designated in Scripture, every one of them saw a great revival. But they were all martyred but one. And they attempted to take his life, and he should have died by all reasonable accounts, boiled in hot oil, but miraculously escaped, and God sent him to the Isle of Paphos where he wrote the book of Revelation, and many believe that John lived into his 90s at Ephesus. The apostles saw revival, but they're all killed because of it. Revival is not for carnal gain. Revival is not about church growth. Now think about something. In the book of Acts, chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, it says 3,000 people were saved, baptized, added to the church. That's a pretty good day. 120 people, all of a sudden 3,000. Wow. That's amazing. That's almost unbelievable. I mean, if you just think about the practicality of that. Imagine 3,000 people getting saved in one day in your church. 300. Imagine baptizing 3,000 people in one day. It's an amazing thing. And then we get to chapter 4, verse 32, and it says 5,000 men were saved and added to the church. 5,000 men. We would assume there were probably some women and children as well, but maybe it was a men's meeting. I don't know. But 5,000 men are added. Later in chapter 4, we read that a multitude of believers were added. In Acts chapter 5, the believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. I mean, this thing was mushrooming amazingly. In fact, many Bible scholars believe that the early church in the book of Acts grew to a membership of over 100,000 people. Amazing church growth. But in Acts chapter 8 and verse 1, at that time there was a great persecution against the church that was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Revival came. Amazing results. Most of which we, if something like that, even a fraction of something like that happened today, we would be talking about the great revival at Birch Terrace. But then suddenly in the midst of that, in chapter 8, the multitudes are scattered because of the persecution. And by the way, that was all part of God's plan. Because back in chapter 1, as they prayed, they prayed under the instruction of the Lord. He said, Tear ye here in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. In Acts 1.8, for ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And in those first few chapters of Acts, their witness in Jerusalem was unbelievable. And multitudes were saved. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people saved and added that church. But God said, I want you to be witnesses in Judea and Samaria. So now we're going to scatter you. We're going to bring some persecution. We're going to scatter you so that my promise can be fulfilled. Folks, revival is not about church growth. Would we want revival if the church attendance dropped? Would we want revival if suddenly half of our congregation was scattered through persecution to other places? Would we be praying for revival today if the offerings were to drop? Revival is not about carnal gain. It's not about church growth. It is for Christ's glory. We are here this morning, ladies and gentlemen, for one purpose. In Revelation 4 and verse 11, thou art worthy to receive glory and power and honor and blessing, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. You and I are here for one reason, and that's to be to the praise of His glory. And whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God. In Romans 15 and verse 6, that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. We're bought with a price. Therefore we're to glorify God with our body and our spirit which are God's. Revival. is not a question of a possibility. It is not a quest for the pragmatic. But this promise in 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14 is a qualification for the promise. If then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. We want the then. And I think most of us are aware that we need the then. We need revival. We need it in our lives. We need it in our families. We need it in our church. We need it in our community. We need it in our nation. We need it in the world. We need revival. We are aware of the then, but we come back to the grammatically placed supposition, if. It's an omitted condition. I have not met anybody in my years of preaching that wanted to go to hell. Now, I know some people talk about hell and having a party in hell and so on, but when you get down to brass tacks with them and you begin to show them the Scriptures about heaven and hell, nobody wants to go to hell. Everybody wants to go to heaven. Every person wants the then, but not everybody wants the if. See, everybody wants to go to heaven, but not everybody is willing to do what God says you have to do to go to heaven. Jesus said in John 3 verse 19, this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. And he that doeth evil will not come to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. See, a lot of people want to go to heaven, but they don't want to repent of their sins. They just want to add Jesus to what they have. They want to get some solution for eternity, but they don't want their life to be changed by the power of God. So they want the then, but they don't want the if. And I think most of us in this room this morning, we want revival. But I wonder if we'll even come to the services this week to find out what the conditions are. I wonder if we will even take the basic steps for revival to take place. We want the end. We know that we desperately need revival. But we come back to an omitted condition, the if. It is also an opposed condition. Satan doesn't want you to be saved if you're not saved. Satan doesn't want Christians to live in revival. Satan doesn't want anything to happen in this country for God. Paul said, I fear lest by any means has the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. I find it interesting that Paul said Satan will use any means he can. to keep you from getting saved. He'll use any means he can to keep us from revival. He doesn't want these things to take place. That's why Peter said, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil is a roar in line, walk without seeking, whom he may devour. The word devour means disappear. The devil would be perfectly happy if Christians just disappeared from this earth. By the way, one day that pearl will be answered. But the truth is, the devil does not want anything to happen. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It's an opposed condition, but it is an obtainable condition. My friend, God never makes the if impossible. When God puts down a supposition, when God says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. See, God never puts down an if without the then being possible. If God says if, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. That's exactly what He means. We may think it's impossible to experience revival. We may think we're too far gone to be saved. We may think that God is distant and unobtainable today, but with men it may be impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible. If thou canst believe, all things are possible to them that believe. I got a phone call a few days ago from a lady that I did not recognize her name when she gave it. She said, Brother Gess, you may not remember me, but a few weeks ago, actually it was a couple of months before I preached at her church. She said, I don't know if you remember, but I came up and talked to you after the service one night. You had mentioned in your message some things about atheism. Atheism is the fastest growing religion in America today. And I had made some comments about that. She said, you might recall I came up and talked to you after the service about that. And I did recall. And she... And her husband that night told me about their son, who was 14 years old, and an atheist. And I talked to the boy. He came to every service. Ironically, his name was Christian, but he was an atheist. I mean, not just something that he decided to adopt as his title. He thoroughly and totally believed there was no God. And this lady that night had told me that they had gotten saved after their son was born and really didn't know a lot about raising children and so on for the Lord. But after they got saved, they began to try to minister to their children. But this particular boy just totally rejected God. She told how they would speak of God in their home and they would have family prayer together. But the boy just remained unconvinced that there was a God. They would take walks each night with him and discuss God and discuss the Bible. And he very intellectually would discuss it, but did not believe that there was a God. Like I said, I talked to him. And she said, you listened that night for about 15 minutes as I expressed my frustration about our son being an atheist. And when I finished, you said, never give up. Don't ever give up. And she said, you walked away from me. And she said, I was highly offended. She said, I went out to the car and I thought, is that all you had to say? Here I am, frustrated with my son, who's an atheist. We've tried everything we know to do. And all you had to say was, don't ever give up. She said, I got to the car and I didn't express that frustration because Christian was in the back seat. When I got home, I said to my husband, I can't believe it. All he had to say was, don't ever give up. She said, Bill Getsch, my husband that night reminded me of our salvation. She said, when my husband and I got saved, we were living a very wicked lifestyle up in the state of Washington. We were basically alcoholics. We were constantly on drugs every day of our life, taking drugs. Our marriage was totally gone. We were ready to split up. And one day as we were arguing and fighting and fussing, we said, maybe we should try religion. And they got out the phone book, looked at the yellow pages, and the first church they spotted was an independent Baptist church. So they decided to call the church, make an appointment with the pastor, which he gladly made. They came to the appointment and sat down in his office and they sat there for about 30 minutes and explained to the pastor their lifestyle and how messed up they were. And he listened without saying a word. She said, after about 30 minutes, my husband reminded me that he looked at us and he said, here's what I want you to do. I want you to start coming to church Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. And she said he got up from his chair and walked out of the office. She said we were highly offended. We thought, is that all he's got to say? We are drunks. We are addicted to dope. Our marriage is on the rocks. And all he's got to say is come to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. So we thought, all right, we'll prove him wrong. She said, next Sunday we showed up for church. And we came Sunday night. And we came Wednesday night. The only reason we came was to prove that this wasn't going to work. She said, after nine services, three weeks, we got saved. And she said, my husband reminded me of that. That your reaction was very similar to his. And she said, Brother Goetsch, I decided not to give up. And I had to call you because last night our son got saved. You know, it's not a question of a possibility. It is not a quest for the pragmatic. It is a condition of the promise. If, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. a powerful and grammatically placed supposition by a God Almighty who wants us today to meet the condition and He will take care of the revival. May we bow for prayer. Our Father, I pray today that we will truly want and seek revival. And Lord, where we have lost our hope or lost the faith to believe that great things can take place today, may You arrest our spirit. May You cause us to believe Your Word. And I pray if there's someone here today that has never been saved, and perhaps they think, well, I don't know that I could live the Christian life, or I'm too great a sinner, Everybody thinks I'm saved. What would people think if I admitted I wasn't? Lord, help us to put aside all the doubt and all the skepticism, all the fear, and come back to your simple promise that if we repent and we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. And so, Lord, work in our hearts today. Arouse our spiritual appetite for revival. And may we be willing this week to meet these conditions. And may you once again pour out revival in these last days. Our Father, You know these hearts. You know mine. And I pray, Lord, that You'll help us. to do what you'd want us to do at the beginning of this revival meeting. May truly we experience revival because we're willing to meet the condition. Work in our hearts, I pray, in Jesus' name.