Psalm 44

Introduction to Psalm 44: The Voice of the Past to the Present

0:05 Will you follow with me as I read the entire 44th psalm tonight, Psalm 44.

0:23 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, What work thou didst in their days, in the times of old, How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantest them, How thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out, or better translated, spread them abroad. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, Neither did their own arms save them, But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, Because thou hast a favor unto them. Thou art my King, O God, Command deliverance, For Jacob, Through thee will we push down our enemies, Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us, For I will not trust in my bull, Neither shall my sword save me, But thou hast saved us from our enemies, And hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, And praise thy name forever,

1:42 But thou hast saved us from our enemies, For thou hast cast off, and put us to shame, And goest not forth with our armies. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy, And they which hate us spoil for themselves. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat, And hast scattered us among the heathen. Thou sellest thy people for naught, And dost not increase thy wealth by their price.

2:14 Thou makest us, Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, A scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, A shaking of the head among the people. My confusion is continually before me, And the shame of my face hath covered me. For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth By reason of the enemy and avenger, All this is come upon us, Yet have we not forgotten thee, Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.

2:53 Our heart is not turned back, Neither have our steps declined from thy way. Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, And covered us with the shadow of death, If we have forgotten the name of our God, Or stretched out our hands to a strange God, Shall not God search this out? For he is the God of the world. For he is the God of the world.

3:17 For he is the God of the world. For he is the God of the world. For he is the God of the world. For he is the God of the world.

3:17 For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Yea, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

3:28 Awake! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise! Cast us not off for ever.

3:37 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, And forgettest our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our belly, Our belly cleaveth unto the earth. Arise for our help, And redeem us for thy mercy's sake.

3:59 Amen.

4:04 This 44th psalm is one of those psalms concerning which neither the author nor the precise historical setting can be determined with any finality or accuracy.

4:20 But this need not hurt us in seeking to grasp the message of the psalm, for though we cannot state with precision the exact historical setting or the author, the climate of this psalm is very easily felt through just one reading. It's one of those psalms like the 80th and the 85th and the 60th psalm, where the psalmist takes a look backward at the history of the people of God, at former mercies, and then he takes a look outward, outward into his own situation and faces it with reality and with spiritual honesty. And then he records the result of this backward and outward look in terms of certain judgments that were formed in his mind and in certain reactions that were framed in his heart. As he looks backward and then outward, something happens both in his judgment and in his affections, something transpires in his mind and in his heart. And as we seek to lay hold of what happened to him, I want us to do so under the title of The Voice of the Past to the Present. And that title is not original with me.

5:46 That title was assigned to me. In terms of a request that I deal with this psalm, and I am more than glad to do so. Some of you were at Largs a year and a half ago, when I spent two nights dealing with the psalm, and I trust it will not be tedious for you. I hope the Lord has given some fresh light, and if he's pleased to bring it to our hearts with freshness, it'll live to us all over again.

To Whom the Voice of the Past Comes: A Healthy State of Grace

6:13 The Voice of the Past to the Present. It's obvious that the focus of attention with reference to the past in the mind of the psalmist was those glorious periods in the history of Israel. Now, in the interest of brevity and accuracy, I want to call those periods, periods of revival. Now, by the use of that term, I mean, and this is not the only meaning, but so that there's accuracy of communication, I want to define what I mean in using the term revival.

6:48 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 with his truth and with his presence. I am speaking and thinking of those periods which always have at least this two-fold result in terms of the structure of their effect. Those glorious periods which I am calling revival always do two things. First of all, they check the declines, and apathy which has settled into the church and threatens it with extinction. And the second thing those periods do is they create spiritual momentum which not only enables the church to gain back ground that was lost, but to gain new ground that had never been gained before. And if I were using the blackboard, which I shan't do, I would draw a roller coaster type line, but there wouldn't be a common base. It would go like this.

8:05 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 when it looks like all hope is gone, God puts forth His arm. He checks that decline. But He does more than that. He takes the train and He pushes it up over the hill, and it gathers momentum and is once again able to carry with it those carloads, those carloads of blessing which God has treasured up in His dear and only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus. Jonathan Edwards said of this very principle, and I quote, God hath had it much upon His heart from all eternity to magnify His dear and only begotten Son.

9:22 To this end, He has ordained such times when He comes forth in unusual might and power to deal with saint sinner, such a time is a day of his power. That's what I mean by using the term revival. And as we come to this passage, the 44th Psalm, we want to listen to the voice of the past to the present with reference to this great issue that should be much upon all of our hearts. In thinking our way through the psalm, we shall first of all consider briefly to whom the voice of the past comes. Then secondly, we shall consider the nature of the voice of the past. In what form does it come? And then thirdly, the lessons learned from the voice of the past. And then fourthly, the personal effects produced by the voice of the past. First of all, then, to whom does the voice of the past

10:28 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 seen the horrible sight of thousands of his own countrymen led off to be slaughtered like some beast that weren't worthy to cumber the ground. Think of a loyal Londoner who night after night, in the early 20th century, was sent to the army and was is known what it is to go down into the tubes and into the places of shelter. To all three in one

11:42 day comes this historical fact. Hitler has died. Same fact of history, but three entirely different reactions to that fact. And the reaction conditioned by the state of the person to whom it comes.

12:03 And I don't need to work out the differences in those reactions. I'm sure they're very obvious. So likewise, when the past speaks to the professing people of God, and when we take the backward look that the psalmist takes, and when we listen to what our fathers tell us of the work that God performed in their days, our reaction to that voice of the past will be conditioned by the state of our own minds and hearts in the present. And the reason this psalm was written is because it was written in the present. And the reason this psalm was written is because it was written in the present. And the reason this psalm was written is because it was written in the present. And the reason this psalm was written is because from the human standpoint there was a particular condition of mind and heart resident of the psalmist that when he heard that report, he reacted in this particular way. 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. How do we know he was in a state of grace? Well, very briefly,

13:09 he confesses in verse 4 that God was his king. Thou art my king, O God. He had known that deep and powerful operation of the Holy Spirit, subduing his rebel carnal mind and bringing him to embrace from the heart the government of God. No man can call Jesus Lord. No man can call Jehovah his king but by the Holy Ghost. God is the God of God. God is the God of God. God is the God of God.

13:39 The source of his confidence, verse 6, I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. He had that aspect of true religion mentioned in Philippians 3, the true circumcision are they who put no confidence in the flesh. He had learned the truth of Jeremiah 17, 5, that God's curse is upon the man who makes flesh his arm and whose heart departs from Jehovah. God is his Quran.

14:09 God is his Quran. God is his Quran. God is his Quran. is king. God is his confidence. God is the object of his praise. Verse 8, in God we boast all the day long and praise thy name forever. Boasting in God in the day when it doesn't seem like God's doing anything is risky business. A man doesn't do that out of expediency. He does that out of principle. Here's a situation in which to be identified with the people of God is to be identified with that which is the song of drunkards, the occasion of blasphemy and reproach. And yet he says in the midst of this, I boast in my God. A man is boasting then out of principle, not out of expediency. He's obviously a man in whose heart are the highways of Zion.

14:58 God has wrought a work of grace. Another thing we discover about this man is that God's name is a source of tender concern to him. He says in verses 15 and 16, my confusion is continually before me. The shame of my face hath covered me. For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth. You see, he's not complaining that his name has been derided. But the thing that pains him is that the name of his God is being blasphemed. And when the pinch is on a person, and there is, as he says later, this situation of intense persecution, we're like sheep. Appointed for slaughter. What a great trial it is as to whether or not a man is particularly

15:45 concerned with sparing his own hide, or deeply involved with the honor of the name of his God. And this man passed the test. There is this tender concern for the name of God. He's a man who seeks to walk in the ways of God with sincerity. Verses 17 and 18. All this has come upon us.

16:07 Our religious experience has not brought us to the place of God. Our religious experience has not brought us, as the first spiritual law says, a wonderful life. It's brought all this upon us.

16:19 Yet have we not forgotten thee. Neither have we falsely dealt in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back. Neither have our steps declined from thy ways. Here's a man who makes tender conscience of walking in the ways of God, when it looks as though God is not concerned to honor those who honor him. that's a man who's a subject of God the object of God's special distinguishing grace and then we notice concerning this man that he has willingly borne hardship and reproach for the sake of his God verse 22 for thy sake we are killed all the day long and put all of these things together the confession that God is his king his confidence the object of his praise his name the source of tender concern

17:15 he seeks to walk in his ways with tender conscience he willingly bears hardship and reproach for the sake of his God and you ask how does a man get that way there's only one answer the grace of God and how does a man stay that way in the midst of a situation that is not at all conducive to spiritual life he's maintained a healthy state of soul in the midst of a hostile environment and this tells me something brethren that no matter how decadent the situation in our day no matter how much decline no matter how fast the main engine and all of its cars seems to be moving in this direction there is grace stored up in our Lord Jesus Christ that you and I may be individually in a healthy state of grace no matter how much declension is on every side and if this report is to do for us in our judgment and in our affections what it did for him then by God's grace let's take the shortest route to getting into a healthy state of grace if we're not there that path spoken of in James humble ourselves before our great God let our laughter be turned to mourning and our joy to heaviness

18:40 prostrate ourselves before him repent and do the first thing we need to do that we might know a restoration of our first love otherwise the look back may fill the mind with some notions and it may even touch the affections with some temporary fleeting aspirations but that look back and that look out will not do for us what it did for him but if indeed we are in a healthy state of grace by the grace of God then we shall find the truth of Psalm 111 and verse 2 fulfilled in us the works of the Lord are great sought out of all that have pleasure in them and with great spiritual relish we'll look back in order that we might profit in the present so much then for the person to whom the voice came now consider briefly the nature of that voice from the past verse 1 Psalm 111 Psalm 111 Psalm 111 Psalm 111 Psalm 111 Psalm 111 Psalm 111 we have heard with our ears O God our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days in the times of old the nature of that voice was an unadorned accurate historical account of God's past dealings with his people

The Nature of the Voice of the Past: An Accurate Historical Account

20:08 in the periods of revival people who were there and who saw cared enough to matter to God to magnify God and to strengthen the faith of the coming generation to tell them what God had done now whether the psalmist was referring exclusively to the oral tradition or whether he is speaking poetically in terms of that which was read being a tale or being an account that is told it may be either or it may be both but in any case it was an accurate historical account of God's past dealings just as the psalmist had reason to be grateful that someone cared enough to take time to remember and to pass on the account so you and I should thank God again and again for that record left to us in scripture of those times when God has arrested the train and has pushed it up over the next hill and then tells us what happened as it gained momentum and God's name was glorified and the Lord Jesus was given a fuller measure of the travail of his soul we should be grateful to God for those men who in the midst of unusual blessing after the closing of the canon were not so irresponsible as to fail to record what God had done

21:38 and they've left the record for us perhaps the best way some of us could serve our own generation is to stop serving long enough to know what God has done in past generations for one of the great blights upon the church in America and here in the British Isles is the absence of historical perspective amongst the people of God and amongst Christ ministering servants oh yes I know I'm fully aware that there is the danger of an indifferent antiquarianism just withdrawing to know what God did and making that an excuse for involvement with present need I'm fully aware of that but there is on the other end of the spectrum an irresponsible contemporaneity so concerned about the now that we act as though God never said anything or did anything in the past and has no lessons to teach us for as the river of Christian grace and life and the church and its involvement with the world and its ministry as that river comes by our feet it didn't originate at our feet so we have to it originated up there in the mountains of the past and the streams that flowed into it and that river is rich with lessons for us as the people of God and so that report is here for us in scripture

Lessons Learned: The Nature of Revival

23:07 it's available to us in the books that we have at our disposal and we are something less than being responsible servants of Christ unless we expose our minds and hearts to that voice of the past now we come to the core and the heart of this psalm and what I trust will be the Lord's word to our hearts the lessons learned by this voice of the past this historical record comes to a man in a healthy state of grace it comes in the form of an accurate report of what God has done now what lessons did he learn well the lessons he learned were basically two he learned first of all some very elementary principles as to the nature of revival and then secondly he learned some things about the need for revival in his own day what did he learn about the nature of revival as the fathers told him of the mighty works that God had done in their day well he learned three things first of all he learned who the author was then he learned what the essence of revival was and then he learned what the cause was who was the author well in the first three verses

24:36 there are no fewer than eight pronouns referring to God it's almost as though he were redundant if he had passed this in to his grammar school teacher as some kind of an essay she would have scribbled in red pencil at the top redundant listen to the emphasis we have heard with our ears oh God our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days how thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand how thou didst afflict the people for they got not the land in possession by their own sword neither did their own arms save them but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance because thou hast a favor unto them the first lesson he learned as to the nature of revival was that it was a mighty work of the living God now I have no doubt but what the names of Moses Joshua Aaron David and others were involved in that report but he learned this lesson that what happened could not ultimately be explained in terms of David's military genius in terms of Joshua's military acumen it could not be explained any other way than this God had taken this God had taken the field and bared his arm human instruments yes but they were but

26:04 instruments clever battle plans yes the energy of soldiers yes David's sword dripping with blood yes Joshua's garments spattered with the blood of Canaanites yes but through all of this he learned this most fundamental lesson that those glorious periods in the history of the church have as their author the living God he has come and he has taken the field as one has said in commenting on this verse the warriors of Israel were not inactive but their valor was secondary to that mysterious divine working in which Jericho's walls fell down and the hearts of the heathen failed them for fear as you and I study the history of God's dealings and especially as our hearts are drawn to the instruments used we can so subtly begin to think that really God did what he did because of Whitefield's zeal and so we can't expect God to do that because there's no one with the zeal of the Whitefield on the scene oh God raise up the Whitefield we begin to think that way the answer is not in Whitefield's zeal it's not in Brainerd's tender compassion it's not in Wesley's indefatigable labors if I may mention him at this

27:34 conference it is not in McShane's holy life and his beautiful simplicity and the answer is not even found in Jonathan Edwards God-centered theology the answer is God was pleased to bear his arm there may be a thousand diamonds bigger and more potentially beautiful than the hope diamond but they're known only to God and there may be men who were as astute in their theological understanding as a Jonathan Edwards as prayerful as a Brainerd as zealous as a Whitefield whom God has hidden tucked away in some little place and it never pleased him to give them the wide sphere of influence and I believe we're going to have many surprises in that day the answer is not Whitefield's zeal ultimately it was God laid hold of a man to make him that instrument we should emulate his zeal yes emulate Brainerd's compassion emulate McShane's holy life and beautiful simplicity but if in any way we begin to feel unless these things come we can't see the mighty day of God's power or we begin to feel if we in some measure attain to those graces God must use us we have forgotten this first lesson the cause of those

29:02 mighty periods was the breaking forth the author was God breaking forth in power as we believe that and as that principle permeates our spirits then our prayers will be weaned from all hope in man and if we begin to see someone appear on the horizon who seems to have unusual gifts and graces we're not going to begin to subtly pin our hopes there our expectations will be weaned from all secondary causes we won't feel well God just must visit us because look at all the Calvinist he's making and your confidence is in doctrine instead of the God who's reflected in that truth and then when God does come if we've really believed this and we've acted and prayed in the light of it then the reflex action of our hearts is unto him and to him alone be the glory the honor and the majesty forever and forever well there was a second lesson this man learned from the voice of the past not only did he learn that God was the author of revival but that as to its nature or its essence revival is a work of judgment and of mercy verse two how thou didst drive out the heathen

30:31 judgment plantest them mercy thou didst afflict the people that is the Gentiles and as I said better translated them thou didst spread abroad you see the contrast judgment and mercy driving out planting afflicting spreading abroad and this pattern is seen in Israel literally and geographically God literally drove out Canaanites planted Israelites in that piece of real estate over there in the Middle East but in every revival God has done this spiritually and vitally in the church you see it in the book of the Acts is he adding three thousand he's also slaying an Ananias and Sapphira is the Lord adding daily such as should be saved at the same time no man dares join himself to them and in every period when God has come forth in power revival is seen to be in its essence a work both of judgment and of mercy is God about to deliver his people from Egyptian bondage then death must come to the firstborn and to an entire army is God going to plant his people in Canaan then Canaanites are slain by the thousands and so this pattern follows

32:01 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 hand to check that decline and to create new momentum and as this individual was talking to my friend and sharing with him something of what God did in those days he was doing this you see giving a report of what God had done my friend who's quite outgoing and very expressive burst into this account and said my it must have been great to preach in days like that they turned to him and said my friend we didn't want to preach we wanted to hide we wanted to hide for it was the presence of God among us that God of whom

33:30 Paul speaks in Corinthians when he says if the unbeliever comes amongst you and God is present in your midst he falling down upon his face will cry out God is of a truth among you and the consciousness that all things are naked and opened before that eye and that sin stands under his judgment every revival has produced in some measure a preview of the day of judgment both to the saint and to the sinner no wonder sometimes people tremble physically and fell prostrate it will only be the supportive power of a resurrected body that will enable men to stand erect at the judgment bar when God gives them a little sight of it now it follows them up and so as we think of revival it's a work of judgment upon sin in the hearts of God's people judgment must begin at the house of God but blessed be God it is a work of mercy when God is pleased to visit his people who have entered that state of decline for their own carelessness and because of their own indifference and spiritual barrenness and they deserve nothing from God but for the natural processes to continue to work until the church is extinct but God in mercy true to his covenant promises breaks forth in power and he shows mercy to his people and mercy

34:58 to sinners but he learned a third thing as to the nature of revival not only was it a mighty work of God its author a work of judgment and mercy its essence but he learned something about its cause it was a sovereignly gracious work of God why did all this happen he tells us in the end of verse three because thou hast a favor unto them or as the revised version has it because thou was favorable to them as he listens to this report and he knows something of the history of God's people he draws this conclusion there's only one reason why God would have ever intervened and once again turned back the powers of darkness and the forces of evil only one reason why he would have driven out those Canaanites and planted his people in only one reason he knew enough of the history of Israel to know of their murmurings in the wilderness he knew enough of their unfaithfulness of their sin of their defection from God and he says there's only one reason God was favorable to them this was a sovereignly gracious disposition of God it was not because they were worthy because they had prayed long enough because they had quote paid the price or met the conditions no

36:27 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 to man or to method but this same kind of thinking can be seen in our circles I gave a little hint of it earlier well I've become a Calvinist now revival must come as though the fact that I have been brought to understand a little bit more of God's truth means that God is obligated to come and visit no if God visits his people in any age there is but one reason he is sovereignly disposed in grace to thus visit them for the honor of his own name David Brainerd said of that first outpouring of the spirit after three years of intense labor when the spirit of God came like a rushing wind upon

Lessons Learned: The Desperate Need for Revival in the Present

37:57 those fifty Indians when preaching through a half drunken interpreter when I had least cause to expect it God came I had least cause to expect it God came Pentecost is the specimen outpouring suddenly without announcement there came from heaven that's it suddenly from heaven a gracious and sovereign disposition of God well that's the first thing that he learned he learned those three great lessons about the nature of revival now the second thing he learned from this report was the desperate need for revival of in his own day one of the most effective ways of learning is to conduct a study in contrasts and this is what he does he hears the report coming to him but then he declares in verse nine but thou has cast off and put us to shame and go it's not forth with our armies oh God our fathers have told us when they went out you went with them it upholding thine arm empowering the light of thy countenance encouraging and strengthening but when we go out we're all alone you don't go forth with us because of it what happens

39:26 you make us to turn back from the enemy they that hate us spoil for themselves we're not only defeated we're then ransacked by our enemies he says you've treated us just like sheep that are no longer good for giving wool and we're all ready for the slaughter house you've scattered us among the heathen you've sold us for nothing you don't even increase the change in your pocket what a vivid picture picture God you sell us for nothing you're not even enriched by what happens thou makest us a byword all of these evidences of declension you see he looked back listened to the report then he looked out and there was this glaring contrast inability to conquer cast off by God a reproach among the nations a lack of cohesion and he concluded this is not par for the course he learned his own desperate need for revival in his own day because of that voice from the past this is why we need to listen to the voice of the past for it's calculated to convince us of our need for the Lord to put forth his arm in our own day try to picture with me an island isolated from the rest of humanity which for some freakish reason in the whole genetic structure

40:56 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

41:11 one eye just a cyclop right smack in the middle and so when a little baby is born he looks up into his one-eyed mama's face and she puts her arm around him with that right hand it's a four-fingered hand he accepts this as normalcy and he gets a little older and goes out to play with his playmates they all look at one another with their one eye and they pick up a ball and throw it if they're right-handed with their four fingers they're never concerned about it life goes on perfectly normal one eye four fingers then the day comes when someone on that isolated island gets in a boat and makes a trip and finds land and lo and behold he's shocked talk about culture shock for the first person to greet him is a freak has two

42:03 eyes five fingers on the head and he finally gets over the shock enough to disclose his concern and ask what's wrong with all the people in this place they aren't right there's something wrong with them and the man tries to explain to him no no this is the way all normal human no no it can't be it can't be all the people I've ever seen have one eye and this can't be normal see so he gets on a jet plane with him and he flies over to another country and he shows him the metropolis areas and the thousands and millions of people all of them that way takes him to another land until finally he's convinced they're not the freaks we are dear brethren it's perfectly possible for us in this generation when there perhaps have been some unusual days of God's power in little localized situations or in other places of the world but by and large our generation in the western world has been bypassed and we have been born spiritually and brought up spiritually in a climate of one-eyed four-fingered monsters do you follow me and we

43:33 can begin to accept as normalcy this humdrum round of three sermons a week and our prayer meetings and our perception and sensitivity of the purpose and plan of God and the deadness and coldness of our own hearts and our own assemblies and as long as the bills are paid and as long as we're getting enough increase in salary to keep up with the cost of living and as long as the deacons are functioning and the elders are doing a passable job then you know all the Lord expects is faithfulness and we hide behind that canopy in our indifference and I don't say this to be unkind but I say it as a plea you and I need constantly to get on the boat and go to lands where people are normal and if we can't possibly find such places in our day to go and see what the church is like when it's

44:40 and God's people are alive and awake and full of zeal and passion and holy fire then for all reasons let's go on back and take the boat back into history and let our fathers tell us what work was done in their days as we read of those days of the right hand of the most high when the spirit has been poured forth and when the hardest of hearts have been

45:10 the fire of God and when the church that has been moribund and half dead has suddenly come alive like the bones there in the valley of vision then we see what true normalcy is and our hearts begin to burn within us and we cry out oh God do it again and we need to do this constantly brethren I know we should not despise the day of small things but neither should we be content with the day of small things and this man found that by listening to the voice of the past he saw the desperate need for revival in his own day but now everything that happened here was primarily notional it was in the realm of the understanding and that's only right that's where God begins his work he addresses his truth to the mind and to the judgment

Personal Effects: Spontaneous Desire and Resolute Confidence

46:11 he comes with light and illumination to the mind but may I say God never intends that his work should stop there and it didn't stop with this man he got some fresh light in his judgment as he listened to that report he saw something he saw something about the nature of revival it was a sovereign work of God it was a work of judgment and mercy a work rooted in

46:41 but he also and this brings us to our fourth point tonight he also experienced some personal effects something happened in the realm of his affections in the realm of his will in the realm of his action may I briefly and I can only be suggested in going through and I can't expand these as I would like to but I trust that going through all of them will give us a framework

47:13 instrumental in our own lives in provoking us to pray for the visitation of God in mercy what were the personal effects produced by this report he learned some lessons he experienced some effects first of all we find the first effect in verse four what I'm calling spontaneous ejaculations of desire he's going along telling about this report you drove out the heathen with your hand they got not the land in possession by their own sword neither do their own arms save them thy right hand thine arm and before he knows it he suddenly finds his heart spontaneously almost by reflex action turning away from history and saying thou art my king oh God command deliverances for Jacob do something now you see he wasn't the insensitive antiquarian off there studying his historical tomes no no no no here was a man in a healthy state of grace and as he hears what God did suddenly finds himself looking up oh God do it again do it again let me ask you can you pick up the life of Whitfield and just read that as history and not find after a few pages you've got to close it and get on your knees and say oh God to see but one hour of that can

48:44 we love to pride ourselves that we're well read so that when the name of a book comes up we can say very humbly of course oh yes yes I've read that yes we've read it but has it done for us what the report did for this man do we find ourselves pausing in the midst of pages with these spontaneous ejaculations of desire oh God do it again you're the same if you choose to exercise your sovereign power if you'll be disposed to us in grace and in mercy once more you can shake the nations and make your church to be bright as the sun fair as the moon terrible as an army with banners if the life of God is within us we can no more hear that voice of the past dispassionately than a true patriot can stand in the midst of his nation in a time of declension and bondage and have someone tell him about the days of his nation's conquest his patriotic heart burns and he cries out let it be done again second effect it had upon him it brought a resolute affirmation of his confidence in God verses five and six a resolute affirmation of his confidence in God verse five a general affirmation through thee will we push down our enemies he's talking about the people of God in general through thy name will we tread them under that rise up

50:14 against us but then he makes it personal for I will not trust in my bow neither shall my sword save me here's a man who looking back seeing what God has done seeing his mighty power and operation in dealing with formidable enemies having looked out and seen his own enemies and acknowledged his great need he resolutely affirms his confidence in this same God through thee we will yet push down our enemies and he hadn't seen one of them fall but he says they're going to fall he hadn't tread down under foot one of them he says we will yet do it we will yet do it the cause of God the glory of his name the honor of his own covenant promises all bound up in this we will yet tread down our enemies God

51:14 and arrest the decline give new momentum and enable us to trample under foot the very enemies that in this moment are spoiling our goods New Testament tells us this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith and if our confidence in God is genuine it will lead us to do the very thing that this man did he says God I'm so confident that this is your work and I am resolutely affirming my confidence in that that I'm consciously repudiating any other thing I will not trust in my bow neither shall my sword save me and brethren if we have been brought to that place we will consciously repudiate the arm of flesh in principle and in practice this idea well it's alright be a Calvinist on your knees and in your study but if you're going to get things done you got to be an Arminian on your feet no no if I am a true biblical Calvinist upon my knees I say God only thou can do what must be done and then when I get up on my feet I say God because only you can do it and you know how best to do your work I will labor only with those means that you have ordained and I

52:44 will refuse to play games with thee and ask thy blessing upon means that are dishonoring to you I won't tamper with the message to make it palatable to men I won't invent methods that are contrary to the precepts and principles and precedence of the word of God know that confidence that suffuses through the spirit of a man in the presence of God through thee we will

53:14 he doesn't go out trying to make and forge clever little swords and some kind of new bow to slay the enemy he recognizes that the weapons of his warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and so I believe we're warranted to say by way of application that all professed longing for revival that is not coupled with a clear repudiation in the present

53:45 methods all that longing is sheer mockery sheer mockery in the midst of declension he says I'm boasting in God and people would say where is your God you say well we don't see his workings yet but we will well what are you going to do in the meantime what have you got to show and he was willing to say nothing but the hour is coming when we will tread down our adversaries and brethren I know the pressures on us there's that fellow down the street with all his clever slick methods of corralling people into decisions and all his three ring circus to keep people in church and to build up big Sunday night congregations and he hears there's something actually alive down the street called a Calvinist he thought they died out with the goonie bird he just doesn't believe they still exist and the time comes when you meet each other and you begin to talk about your theology and about your concern for God's glory and sooner or later he says and my brother how many conversions have you seen this past year you hang your head you say we haven't seen any well we've taken in 45 members you see the pragmatic argument and the pressures then on you see what are you going to do you going to go back to your closet and say God we shall yet push down our adversaries but I will not trust in my bow I will not trust in my sword I repudiate all methods and means that are dishonoring to you God I'll stick with

55:15 your weapons until you're pleased to make them the instrument of victory and I believe we're at a point now in the history of God's dealings in our own generation where it's this very issue to use the colloquial expression that's separating the men from the boys if you've latched onto Calvinistic thoughts simply because you thought well Arminianism hasn't worked maybe this will work you'll get rid of it before long if you've come to that view of God and his truth called Calvinism because God the Holy Spirit has illuminated your mind to see that this is indeed the truth of scripture then you say if I must die in the midst of the rubble of a decadent church I'll die boasting in my God all the day long that's what this man says in God we boast what are you got to boast about you're running before your enemies they're spoiling you you're being sold like sheep all the day long you're sleeping what are you boasting about I'm boasting about my great God my fathers have told me what he did and I'm confident he's not through and we will yet push down our adversaries oh may God bring us to that place of resolute affirmation of our confidence in God then that report not only produced these spontaneous cries to the Lord this

Personal Effects: Genuine Contrition and Adherence to Duty

56:44 resolute affirmation of faith but notice in the third place it produced in his heart genuine contrition over the present state verses 15 and 16 having described beginning with verse 9 to 14 the terrible state of his own day he says my confusion is continually before me and the shame of my face hath covered me for the voice of him that reproacheth in the and blasphemeth by reason of the enemy and the avenger here is a man experiencing genuine contrition over the present state of the people of God he could not compare the past with the present and see the need in his own hour without a baptism of holy sorrow brethren I'm convicted when I can say so glibly isn't the church in bad shape if we can say that without a sob in the heart God have mercy on us the church is the apple of his eye it's to be the reflector of his glory when it isn't reflecting his glory as it ought how it must grieve his heart and it ought to grieve ours and when you read those great revival prayers Ezra nine Nehemiah nine Daniel nine the mark of every one of those prayers is this genuine contrition that so grips them that the three holiest men in each of those situations as far as we know the men who least

58:14 needed to be broken we find them praying not they Lord have done this and they have done that but they cry out confusion it covered my face we have sinned we have departed we have declined they identify themselves in that circumstance in true contrition I know only God can break our hearts but I know God also says rend your heart and not your garment and the principle is no different there than when we tell dead sinners you must repent yet we know they won't unless God moves them so what do we do stop telling them they must sit back and do nothing no we seek to pry them with every legitimate scriptural motive as we heard in the earlier

59:05 sermon there'll be no movement toward him so it is with us yes God works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure but that follows hard on the heels of the command to work out so how can we break our own hearts we can't and God says you must so we say Lord I must but I can't that means I'm going to get down on my knees and I'm going to call out to you to do what I know must be done but I can't do God give me a baptism of genuine contrition and true godly sorrow there's an irresponsible giddiness in the church and the church was never happy fight into this state of revival as we look from these low boggy lands of decadence to those plateaus of spiritual blessing it's only one way from

59:59 contrition and humiliation James says that your laughter returned to mourning your joy to weeping humble yourselves in the sight of God and he will lift you up may the Lord be pleased to bring us to that state even in these days not of an affected pharisaical beard growing kind of humility no no the Lord says they have their reward but the kind of thing that will tip the scales brethren that when we get in one another's rooms or out in the hallways and the conversation you know can slip from the edifying into the critical and into the foolish that there will be enough sensitivity for someone to say brethren can't we take a few minutes and go pray what would happen if here and there little groups drifting off to cry to God I tell you the thought of this as I've anticipated this conference has both frightened me and thrilled me if God would bring us to that state we must take the lead if our people won't weep over their decadence we must weep for them if they will not experience godly sorrow we must for them but then there was a fourth thing that happened by way of a practical effect notice it in verses 17 to 19 it's what I'm calling he committed himself to a careful adherence to the path of present duty notice all

61:29 this has come upon us all the decadence all the evidences of God's frown yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy ways though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons

61:51 he's saying in the midst of all this decadence we have sought to walk in careful adherence to the path of present duty if God is God and we're his children he is to be obeyed by the gracious soul regardless of the state of the church we're bound to our prophet priest and king even though no blessing comes that we can discern he's worthy of obedience and blessing if it comes God says comes path of obedience to present duty John 14 21 he that hath my commandments and keep it them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him that is in the path of obedience Acts 5 32 we are witnesses and so also is the holy ghost whom God has given to them that obey him and again this is an issue that separates the men from the boys in this area in the area of evangelism we say yes we have a responsibility to take the gospel to every creature but only the Lord would send revival and God's people are all so alive that the message just spills out in the meantime when we read about the apostle making conscience of going house to house

63:15 marketplace and we get disturbed about this whole matter of carrying out our evangelistic task even though there is no general outpouring how easy it is to just shift it off and make our longing for revival an excuse for present scriptural evangelistic outreach how easy it is in the area of discipline is there anybody here that delights in discipline when you see that that member has been absent for three or four weeks do you like to go to them and find out what's wrong and admonish them and if they show no repentance then in a couple of months to place them under some form of discipline do you like that anybody here that likes that awful sticky work of discipline no none of us does and how easy it is to say well I know that I ought to go after

64:15 revival a substitute for present obedience in the midst of present light and grace how many parents do this with the matter of the training and discipline of their children with the catechizing and instruction of their children you can work out the other areas he said in the midst of all this declension if God is God and I claim to be his servant I will stick to the path of duty even though it looks as though God is frowning then the next thing it led to honest searching of heart verses 20 and 21 if we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange God shall not God search this out for he knoweth the secrets of the heart here's a man who looks up and says God as far as I know there's no

Personal Effects: Honest Heart-Searching and Earnest Pleading

65:19 heart who can know his faults after he's made diligent search he says God my spiritual eyesight is poor but yours is perfect you know the secrets of the heart now Lord you take up where I've left off I've looked and I don't see the area of conscious disobedience but Lord I can only see on the surface you know the secrets search out search out and when you and I begin to honestly cry to God for a visitation of mercy and try to stick with it longer than the enthusiasm that comes in a conference like this you know invariably what happens we begin to ask ourselves is the cause of declension in me and when anyone begins to persevere in prayer it isn't long before he experiences the deepest searching of heart known to the child of God you cannot persevere in prayer

66:21 honest searching of heart may God grant that our listening to the voice of the past will bring us to that honest searching of heart and then the last thing it did in this we close tonight it brought him to a place of earnest pleading with God for the visitations of judgment and mercy which they needed notice his prayer awake why sleepest thou O Lord verse 23 arise cast us not then he reasons with God wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgetest our affliction and our oppression for our soul is bowed down to the dust and our belly cleaveth unto the earth arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy sake notice the nature of that pleading it was bold pleading doesn't this almost sound impudent a creature telling God to rise up saying God it's as though you're asleep we'd think someone brash if we heard them pray that way wouldn't we arise why sleepest thou oh God very similar to the prayer of Psalm 74 11 where the psalmist prays God pluck thy hand out of thy bosom it's as though God looks at the field of the situation and all he needs to do is bear his arm but he's hiding his arm and

67:53 down bold praying but remember it came from a heart that was pleading to be searched that was adhering to the path of present duty that was boldly confessing its confidence in God you see it's not any old heart in any old state that can pray this way this prayer comes at the end and it flows out of a heart that has been brought into that state it's bold pleading it's importunate pleading here's repetition but not the vain repetition of the heathen who think that by multiplying words they somehow construct a battering ram that breaks down reluctance in the heart of God but this is the pleading of intense desire awake why sleep as thou arise arise for our help importunate prayer the kind of prayer our Lord encourages in Luke 11 in the parable of the friend whose friend came to him at midnight and he had nothing to set before him the parable of the unjust judge and then last of all it was prayer that was rooted in the character of God notice he closes his prayer with this and redeem us for thy mercies you've revealed yourself as a God of mercy and I find in that disposition of mercy a handle which my faith can take hold of you see when a man's pleading for blessing in a state of decadence he doesn't take comfort from the holiness of

69:22 God if he thinks upon God's holiness that'll make him despair if God is so holy and I am so sinful what hope is there that he'll bless me but the attribute of God that is the attribute which becomes the handle of faith in a state of declension in sin is his mercy his loving kindness that's the attribute David took hold of in the 51st psalm have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness O how it should fill us at least with some measure of faith and expectation to realize that God's mercy has not been exhausted by all the sin and failure in our own lives and in the church in this present

70:09 God funneled to us through the purchased blessings of Jesus Christ and showered down upon us by the mighty operations of the Holy Spirit may God bring us to a place of earnest pleading for these visitations of judgment and mercy pleading that is bold importunate rooted in the revealed character of God the voice of the past to the present may God help us to hear that voice that we with the psalmist will learn more clearly the nature of revival will feel more deeply our need of revival and then be moved to spontaneous cries of desire this resolute affirmation of faith be brought to a state of contrition careful adherence to his ways openness to be searched pleading with him and who knows as Joel says whether the Lord will repent and leave a blessing behind can anyone produce any promise in the word of God or any statement that says God's mercy has been exhausted that he designs no more days of his power who knoweth and it's been repeated to the point where perhaps it's almost trite but it's true when the old man was asked how bright were the

71:39 prospects for a day of mercy he said as bright as the promises of God may God help us to lay hold of those promises let us pray