From the Pulpit
Sparks from the Gospel Anvil Psalm 85: 1-13
In I Samuel chapter 4 the Philistines declared war on Israel and killed 4,000 of them. Israel was trying to understand what had happened, they believed that God would always wipe out their enemy, protect the High Priest, Eli and his two sons took the Ark of the Covenant to the battle.
Even though their efforts were sincere, they were sincerely wrong, the Philistines were stronger in battle and killed 30,000 foot soldiers of Israel, the Philistines also killed the High Priest two sons and stole the Ark of the Covenant, which was symbolic of the very Presence of God. In this taking place, one of the High Priest, daughter-in-law was pregnant and gave birth to a boy, in which she named him Ichabod, which means “The Glory has departed from Israel”. And this was true to a point. I believe this is what is taking place currently in the spirituality of America today. That God’s glory has departed. My question this morning is “Do we desire to have His glory return to our land”? That glory is a picture of revival, what a real revival looks like. It is not a show or some form of entertainment it is men laying hold on God and God laying hold on men. It is not something that is worked up, it is something that is prayed down. The British pastor, Charles Spurgeon declared that a revival begins by Christians getting right first and then spills over into the world. Charles Finney defined revival as “nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God”. J Edwin Orr, who has written so extensively on revival, states that the best definition of revival is the phrase, “times of refreshing… from the presence of the Lord”. We should then understand that revival is that strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people, RESTORING, REANIMATING, and RELEASING them into the fullness of His blessing. In the following passage that we read we see that the Psalmist forecasts the possibility of a coming great national revival. Revival restrains the Passion of God. It is clear from verses 4-6 that God must visit His righteous anger against an un-revived people. I believe this is speaking to what possibly took place in the past, that these people that are called by His Name, were living in an un-revived state, ruled by their old nature. David states that, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” (Psalm 66:18) Jeremiah shares with us that, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) & Solomon tells us to, “Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it proceeds the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) and the Lord Jesus Christ informs us that, “For from within, out of the HEART OF MEN, proceeds evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: ALL THESE things come from within and defile the man. ”(Mark 7:21-23)
One misconception people have about sin is that secret sin is not as harmful as open sin. Nothing could be further from the truth! All sin, public or private carries devastating consequences. Another misconception is that sin in the life of the believer is not as bad as sin in the life of the unbeliever! The people in the passage are God’s people, but such made no difference when it came to judging sin! God will judge sin in the lives of His own people as quick as in the lives of those who do not know Him! Perhaps more so! There is a principle in the Word of God that says, “Judgment must begin at the House of God” (I Peter 4:17)! God cannot condemn sin in the sinner and condone it in the saint, we tend to talk about the judgment of an evil world, but we forget that the risen Lord is Judge also of His own church. He is the Christ of the Candlesticks in the Book of Revelation and it states that His eyes burn as “a flame of fire” at the sight of iniquity, sin and folly (Revelation 1:1314). God has a high standard of Holiness for His Church and His people, and we must not forget it. It is one thing to be passively un-revived, but it is worse to be actively unrepentant. For too long Christians have thought of the message of repentance only in the terms of the unregenerate sinner, but we must remember that God calls His own people to repentance. If you have any doubts about this seriously read the Book of Revelation Chapters 2 and 3. Jesus says, “I will… remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (2:5) Repent then. If not I will come to you soon and war… with the sword of My mouth. (2:16) Remember… what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. (3:3) Be zealous and repent. (3:19) Yes, revival is needed to restrain the passion (righteous anger) of God.
Revival also restores the Perception of God. I had read in one place that somebody described revival as “a person or a community saturated with the presence of God”. And this is an accurate description; Revival is not some emotion or worked-up excitement; it is rather an invasion from heaven which brings to man the right perception, the conscious awareness of God. Acts 4:13, “When they (the Sanhedrin) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” DO PEOPLE KNOW THAT YOU HAVE BEEN WITH JESUS? James tells us, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. (James 4:7) Why? The Apostle Paul tells us “God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:27,28) This restoration of the perception of God is implied by the writer of this Psalm. He speaks of it as THE SMILING OF HIS FACE. Will You not revive us again, should literally read, Will You not return and revive us again, In Hebrew thinking, the “turning away of God’s face” was recognized as a metaphor for His displeasure. On the other hand, when God responded to a repentant and restored people the picture in their minds was that of a smiling deity. This is the significance of the 3-fold blessing pronounced by the priests upon the children of Israel, “The Lord bless thee and keep thee: The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26) & King David said, “Make Thy face… shine upon Thine servant.” (Psalm 31:16)
Oh! That God would show His face once again in the person of His beloved Son! THE SHOWING OF HIS GRACE. The restored perception of God in the believer’s life is the guarantee of the grace of victory, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace.”( Romans 6:14) Living in grace! That is the divine intention for each believing heart, but do we know this divine mercy and delivering grace day by day? THE SOUNDING OF HIS VOICE. Every true revival in history has been accompanied by a new recognition of the voice of God. The Bible lives and speaks to us today.
Revival also reveals the Power of God. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden there has never been a moment in time when God has not been active. Jesus indicated this when He said, “My Father is working still, and I work.”( John 5:17). He is active all over the world at this very hour. The Power of God in the world today is two-fold, First there is: SALVATION- “Surely His Salvation is near those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land.” In the Psalmist day it was that God’s worship may be restored, the temple rebuilt, and the Divine symbol of the presence of God, resume its place. In the days of my grandparents and parents it was setting up a tent or building a tabernacle for revivals & hearing the evangelists preach from the platform or pulpit and seeing individuals walk down the “sawdust trail” Today it is that Men, Women, Boys and Girls come into a personal and practical relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ whether through preaching the gospel or just witnessing to them.
ALL OF US HAVE THE CAPACITY TO HAVE FAITH. We use faith in business, in school, in our social life, in our domestic life, & so God is using a channel that is common to all of us. That is why the Word of God says, “For by grace, are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8,9)The pure and undefiled spirituality of God preached, professed, and experienced in a nation, is the glory of that land. And there is SANCTIFICATION “Love & faithfulness meet together; righteousness & peace kiss each other.” (verse 10) The 9th Doctrine of The Salvation Army states, “We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is found in I Thessalonians 5:23, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” But what does this mean for us today? It means that God wants to sanctify us through and through. Not to give us a license to sin when we feel like it, but to rips the roots of sin right out of ourselves. Christ didn’t die for us to continue in sin, but He commands us to “go and sin no more”.
Lt. Charles Smith is commanding officer of the Salvation Army of El Dorado.
Ancient Words Miracles of Faith:
The Heavenly Realms
The letter or book of Ephesians could easily be described as a writing about the 4th dimension. The term “heavenly realms” is used 5 times by Paul and is in fact unique among all Bible books in sharing this expression. Epouranios, in the Greek, means the heavenly place or realm where God dwells, heaven, the heavenly temple, the abode of God, the spiritual realm. It is used twenty times throughout the New Testament but Paul, in Ephesians, uses it in a particular fashion, adding emphasis and meaning to the word by actually describing the “heavenly realms” here on earth. Simply, the emphasis of epouranios is not on a location “out there somewhere” but rather the existence pressing in upon us. In one aspect, the heavenly place (the abode of God) is now living within us by his Spirit, but in the spiritual realm sense: it is all around us, yet – beyond our ability, strength, resource, talent, and intellect in our 3 dimensional reality. Further, epouranios will not take place sometime in the future, it is taking place right now. All that is going on in the heavenly realm is a reality at this very moment. The kingdom of God is near, at hand, the kingdom of God is within you are expressions Jesus used many times. The 4th dimension integrates (by faith) with the 3rd dimension thru the miracle of the heavenly realm.
Eph_1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Eph_1:20 he (God) exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
Eph_2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
Eph_3:10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,
Eph_6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
The heavenly realms exist for you! When you serve, when you sacrifice, when you sow the seed, the heavenly realm is within you. When you pray, when you worship, when you commune, the heavenly realm is within you. The heavenly realms exist for the church. When a church distributes, when a church teaches, when a church missions, the heavenly realm is within that church. The church is to make known to our government, to education, to rulers and authorities, the wisdom of God. God has given the church this responsibility. The heavenly realms exists for “them”—the enemy of God. Spiritual forces of evil exist in the heavenly realms and the fight remains for you and me and the church to fight within the heavenly realms. Our armor is supplied by the ever faithful and victorious One: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, boots with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Holy Spirit. Prayer, in the Spirit and thru the Spirit, on all occasions and with all kinds of prayers, binds the armor together to create weapons that have divine power to demolish strongholds of evil. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10.4-5).
Living and working within heavenly realms should be an exciting, joyful and fearless experience according to Paul. These positive phrases throughout this letter confirm our special relationship with God: God chose us, God predestined us as sons, God redeemed us, God marked us with his seal—the Holy Spirit—and this deposit guarantees our inheritance, God has made us alive in Christ, by the grace of God we have been saved, we are fellow citizens of God’s church, Christ Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith and just as Christ has apportioned, Christ Jesus has given gifts of grace to us, with this grace we live as children of light in the heavenly realms, the mystery of Christ and the church is exemplified by the marriage of a man and a woman, we fight and win in God’s army against evil forces in the heavenly realms. The Ancient Words to Ephesus explain the miracle of God’s heavenly realms and encourage us to anticipate our heavenly home.
Scott Johnson is pastor at East Faulkner Church of Christ and author of the BRG Bible. Bible questions can be sent to brgbible@gmail.com.