I believe we need to see revival in
our day, friends, but I also believe before
the church can experience corporate revival, there must
be a hunger in the people of God
for personal revival.
It is this longing for personal revival that
can give us a fresh encounter with God.
And that's the title of my message today,
friends, longing for personal revival.
And my text can be found in the
book of Psalms.
You can turn in your Bibles there now,
friends.
We will be in Psalm 24, which I
believe speaks of personal revival.
God is sovereign when it comes to revival.
We cannot produce revival by ourselves, but I
believe we can prepare our hearts aright to
see revival on a personal basis.
In verses 1 and 2, we see the
sovereignty of God.
The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness
thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.
For he hath founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the floods.
The God of creation is also the God
of revival.
How bad do we want to have revival
in our lives?
Are we desperate enough to get a fresh
touch from Almighty God?
I believe God wants to bless us with
his presence, and I believe our passage of
day, friends, has the preliminary requirements to seeing
a personal revival in our lives.
Let's examine these one by one.
The psalmist asks a question, and then he
answers his own question.
In verse 3, he asks, Who shall ascend
into the hill of the Lord, or who
shall stand in his holy place?
First, let us examine how the habitation of
God is described here.
It is called a hill.
It is an elevated place that one must
climb to reach it.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the
Lord, the psalmist asks.
Next, he describes God's place as a holy
place.
Who shall stand in his holy place?
God is holy.
He is high and lifted up.
God is not man.
His ways are not our ways, neither his
thoughts are thoughts.
God is on the hill of heaven, which
is a holy place.
Well, how on earth can a sinner climb
up there?
First by the blood of his dear son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, through forgiveness of sins.
Then we see the psalmist answer this perplexing
question in verse 4, He that hath clean
hands and a pure heart.
Let me pause here, friends, to say this
speaks of two directionals in the life of
the believer.
We have two beams here, one horizontal and
one vertical.
Clean hands speaks of the horizontal beam, which
is our dealings with man.
Are our hands clean in this regard?
Have we dealt fairly and honestly with our
fellow man?
We must examine ourselves and be honest with
ourselves.
This is our daily interaction with others, our
family members, our friends, our neighbors, our work
associates, our patients, or our customers.
Have we dealt honestly in all categories here
in all regards?
Do we harbor an unforgiving heart towards others?
I'll never forget preaching in a church years
ago where God was pleased to send a
touch revival, but there was a main hindrance
existing in that church, which prevented God from
a deeper movement of his blessings.
The church was filled with bitterness and an
unforgiving heart toward one another.
The two pastors were fighting among themselves, and
instead of God visiting that church with a
deeper movement of his presence, rather God withdrew
himself, and that church was split right down
the middle.
Half the congregation left to go form a
new church with one pastor, and the other
half remained where they were.
To this day, I believe it was this
bitterness among the members that hindered a deeper
work of God.
I have studied historical revival for decades now,
and I have discovered that there is a
golden thread that weaves its way through revivals,
and if this purified thread is broken, it
has been a bar to revival throughout history.
To which I refer is the golden thread
of a forgiving heart toward others.
When one researches the history of revival, it
is plainly shown that many revivals began accompanied
by a sudden manifestation of God's presence when
Christians began to confess their sins of an
unforgiving heart to one another.
So clean hands here speaks of our relationship
with our fellow men.
This is the horizontal beam of Psalm 24.
Next we see the vertical beam, which is
our walk with God.
This is described as a pure heart, and
this speaks of single-mindedness toward God.
Is he first and foremost in our daily
living?
Does he have first place, first call, and
first priority?
Are we harboring any unconfessed sin in our
lives which would hinder our walk with God?
I believe Amos 3.3 says it all.
Can two walk together except they be agreed?
Are we in agreement with God in our
lives?
Are we obstructing him in any way?
Our text in Psalm 24 goes a little
deeper with more clarity with the words, Who
hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,
nor sworn deceitfully?
Are we worldly more than we are godly?
Have we told a lie to someone and
left that undone?
I remember when I was a Sunday school
teacher at a big Baptist church years ago,
and I played racquetball with one of the
members of my class.
And while we were playing racquetball one day,
we learned we went to the same college,
and he asked me when I graduated.
Well at the time I was a college
dropout, and I was embarrassed about it, so
I lied to him and gave him a
year of my graduation.
That night I tossed and turned on my
bed, realizing that as his Sunday school teacher,
I had lied to him.
What a horrible example I was as a
Christian.
As soon as I could, later that week
I cornered this man in a hallway at
church, and confessed to him how I lied
to him, and I asked him to forgive
me.
Well, he was hurt and shocked, but he
said he forgave me.
Our horizontal beam on the hill of Psalm
24 is critically important to our ascent up
that hill into God's holy place.
He will allow no liars up there.
He will allow no unconfessed sin to dwell
with him.
I'm reminded of the story told by Duncan
Campbell of the loose revival of the Scottish
Hebrides.
Some deacons met in a barn monthly to
pray for revival to come to the island.
Finally, in the midst of their prayer meeting,
a young deacon stood to his feet and
exclaimed, Brethren, all our time here in prayer
is getting no results and is nothing more
than humbug.
Let me ask us this question.
Are my hands clean?
Is my heart pure?
Suddenly, a wave of conviction went through the
barn among those men, and God's presence fell
among them in power.
We must ask ourselves the same question.
How badly do we want to have a
personal revival?
Those rare individuals who make this ascent according
to these requirements will receive something for their
efforts.
Verse 5 speaks of this.
He shall receive the blessing from the Lord
and his righteousness from the God of his
salvation.
This, friends, speaks of personal revival.
I believe the object of revival is seen
in verses 8-10.
Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty
in battle.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even
lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the
King of Glory shall come in.
Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord of hosts.
He is the King of Glory.
So to draw the net on our lesson
today, friends, we find that in Psalm 24
we have two beams, so to speak, a
horizontal and a vertical, and when they meet
in harmony, they form a cross.
That's the pathway up that hill to revival
with Christ Jesus.
Let us pray.