Psalm 44

Driving home: I am thinking of those glorious periods in the history of the people of God, recorded both in scripture and in the history of the church, when God has come forth in mighty power to shake whole communities and nations wit…

Martin uses the analogy of a roller coaster to illustrate the cyclical nature of spiritual decline and revival in church history, where God pushes the 'train' of the church over humps, it gains momentum, then loses it, declines, and God intervenes again.

And God, as it were, pushes the train of the church and its influence over the hump and down the hill, and it gathers momentum, and it carries its carloads of blessing behind it, and it reaches the level part and begins to lose momentum. And then obstacles arise, and it starts up the hill, and it loses some of its inertia, and it is moving more slowly until it stops. And then there is the pull of all these evil forces that begin like gravity to pull it back down the hill until it gains such speed in its backward course that you think it's going to be dashed in pieces at the bottom, and then wh...

8:05 - 9:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And to summarize the condition of this man, we could say he was a man obviously in a state of grace, yea, in a healthy state of grace in the midst of decline on every hand.

Martin uses the example of a German general, a Jew in a prison camp, and a loyal Londoner reacting to the news of Hitler's death to show how one's state of mind and circumstances condition their reaction to historical facts.

come? And this is a very vital principle in approaching a psalm like this. For one's reaction to any historical report will be conditioned by the state of the mind and the circumstances of the person receiving that report. Picture with me a general who has shared in the fiendish dream of Hitler that dream of world conquest. He shared that vision from the rising of the third Reich on through its initial triumphs until his mind and spirit have become as it were intoxicated with this fiendish dream. There's our German general, one of Hitler's right-hand men. Think of a Jew in a prison camp who's ...

10:28 - 11:42 Read in full sermon

The point: We must allow the principle that revival is a sovereignly gracious work of God to burn its way into our hearts, rejecting philosophies that make revival dependent on human conditions.

Martin recounts a story of a friend who, upon hearing about a time of God's power, exclaimed, 'My, it must have been great to preach in days like that!' only to be corrected that people wanted to hide, illustrating the awe and fear associated with God's manifest presence in revival.

God scatters his enemies lays low the opposers of his people and magnifies and glorifies his own son if you and I really believe this then we shall not have longings for revival which are marked by mere sentimental romanticism wouldn't it be nice to have God visit us the scripture says by terrible things in righteousness thou wilt answer us speaking one time with someone who was in close fellowship with another individual who had been in the midst of one of these days of God's power perhaps not so extensive as the revivals we think have but nonetheless a time when God was putting forth his han...

32:01 - 33:30 Read in full sermon

The point: We must allow the principle that revival is a sovereignly gracious work of God to burn its way into our hearts, rejecting philosophies that make revival dependent on human conditions.

Martin quotes David Brainerd's experience of the Spirit's outpouring among the Indians: 'when I had least cause to expect it, God came,' emphasizing the sovereign nature of revival.

God was favorably disposed to rise up and to defend his own cause for the glory and honor of his own name I'm sure you see by way of application how necessary it is that this principle burn its way into our hearts there is current in our day still the curse of the philosophy of Charles Finney meet these conditions and push the button revival will come R.A. Torrey carried on that very philosophy and has become part of the warp and woof of much of evangelical thinking with the result that men's eyes are fixed on man men's hopes are pinned on man and if there is a little start all the glory goes ...

36:27 - 37:57 Read in full sermon

The point: We need to constantly 'get on the boat and go to lands where people are normal' (i.e., study church history) to see what the church is like when it's alive and awake, so our hearts burn within us to cry out, 'Oh God, do …

Martin uses the analogy of an isolated island where everyone is born with one eye and four fingers, accepting this as normalcy. When one travels and sees 'normal' people, they realize their own abnormality. This illustrates how a generation can accept spiritual declension as normalcy without historical perspective.

of the people who live on that island it's impossible I know from a genetic standpoint but I'm using it for the sake of illustration everyone born of the people in that island only

40:56 - 41:06 Read in full sermon