Why Revival Tarries | SermonIndex

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mattandliz Apr 12, 2011

This generation has more resources of biblical teaching than ever before in church history, yet is seems to remain unmoved and stagnant. So many church goers seem to dispise hard teaching so that they can live comfortably in their church attendence.
Why does revival tarry? Becuase we havent become desperate to the point of repentance. Paul said in 2nd corinthians 5:11 "knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we presuade men..." Also in Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." And how will we search for God with a whole heart unless we are desperate enough? And how will we become desperate enough, unless we have a revelation of who God is and how far we have come from His standard?
Biblical cliches have become the standard of teaching and for the most part teaching is the only form of the gifts that are primarily being used today. While the gift of prophecy has been grosly misunderstood and misused.
May the Lord raise up a Jeremiah, or John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Lord's coming. May the message offend our religious hearts and especially us who are biblically educated and no longer revere the Word of God as sword that peirces through the intentions of the heart.
May we see our casual sin such as little lies, thievery and spiritual pride as grotesque a sin as pedaphelia.
May the Lord shine His light into the darkest areas of our hearts, revealing both our wretchedness and His willingness to forgive. We most stop using His name as something common, for His commandment is to not use His name in vain.
May the God of the universe bless our souls with His manifest prescense, until He has done such a work in our hearts that if we didnt praise Him even the rocks would cry out!
May the Lord wound, that He might make whole with His hands this generation.
God bless you all.
Matthew

sermonindex Apr 12, 2011

Good post. Thanks.

sermonindex Apr 12, 2011

Brother, I feel we've all but totally lost the holy reverence for His Word. That we've put the words of men, far higher than His.
Jesus 'is' The Word of GOD - if we neglect His Words, we've neglected Him and have put 'man's' words over and above Christ Himself. We have come to the point in this generation where we actually Worship men's words more than The Word of GOD.
The Spirit of Christ wrote those Words. The Three in ONE is The Author and we've neglected HIM by replacing HIS Words with other's.

GOD Bless you!!

sermonindex Apr 12, 2011

JiG, you are seeing something that is going to be horrible in it's full manifestation. The Great and Final Apostasy.

Malachi.3:13 YOUR WORDS HAVE BEEN STOUT AGAINST ME, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against Thee?

14 Ye have said, IT IS VAIN TO SERVE GOD: and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

15 And now, we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

2Tim.2:19 Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. (does anyone believe this anymore?)

YES! The Bible states that there is eternal security for those who have been converted: BUT! there isn't much security for those who presume they no longer have any iniquity to depart from.

He that saith, I know Him, and KEEPETH NOT HIS COMMANDMENTS, is a LIAR, and the truth is NOT in him (1 John 2:4).

Christendom today does not really believe in God's promises to protect or deliver. So, if "Christians" can't trust in the promises of God, then why would they believe that obedience to His commands would secure any fulfillment of His promises.

We don't really trust that God's promises will protect us so why would we put ourselves at risk by obeying His commands?

Put another way, we don't obey because we love our sin. We rationalize why we don't receive His promises but are unwilling to admit it is because we are rebellious yet we appear "so Christian" when we need to. We are BLIND and DECEIVED!

People believe that faith is really an opportunity to receive extra goodies from God. Therefore the failure to obey God becomes no greater sin than the failure to receive any of His promises. We have "dumbed down" both of them.

Jesus said, The scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35);

Yet, 21st century Christendom has broken God's commands into commands that can be ignored and promises that can either be ignored or demaned presumptuously. We put all of His commands on one page and His promises on another page and we make no association between either of them.

Their "grace doctrines" justify their failure to either obey His commands or receive His promises.

The rest of the Bible is only used for the composition of "deep" spiritual doctrines that really don't have any purpose except to divide themselves from other Christians.

Whenever you confront them and they wish to discredit or reject you they will bring up their "private interpretations" and "pet doctrines", one after the other until you finally disagree: as soon as you do, they have you "marked" as someone they can safely ignore.

That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought. (Isaiah 29:21).

If you can digest this, you will begin to understand why there will not be any GREAT REVIVAL. Only a Great and Terrible Falling Away which we are in the midst of. It continues day by day.

SHOW ME REVIVAL IN THIS SCRIPTURE!
Matt 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

SHOW ME REVIVAL IN THIS SCRIPTURE!!
Luke 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

I really do believe the Counter-Reformation aka Ecumenical Movement has really done a good job for Satan.

And the religious machine is well oiled today.

You are told that that church attendance won't save you, BUT YOU BETTER GO TO CHURCH, OR ELSE!"

"God wants your heart and not your money. and you can't buy your way into heaven, BUT YOU BETTER HAND OVER SOME OF THAT MONEY TO GOD, OR ELSE!"

No one believes anymore that there is anything to be gained by heroic efforts or costly sacrifices.

"Resisting temptation won't make you righteous, BUT YOU BETTER QUIT THOSE SINS, OR ELSE!"

There is such a veil of blindness today to God's Word and absolutely no heart for His Word. They don't want it. They want smooth words, nice words but not TRUE WORDS.

"We are waiting for the Spirit to inspire us", is their motto, before they do anything costly or risky.

The only problem is if it's not easy, it must not be inspired.

Jer 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

Yes, JiG, God's Words do not mean anything anymore. Only the Words of the "leaders, experts, scholars, degreed clergy and textual criticists", and anyone else that WATERS DOWN HIS WORD with their REASONING.

The slaughter has already started, but who will heed the warning? If they won't heed God's Words, they certainly won't heed yours or mine.

sermonindex Apr 12, 2011

Amen and Matthew expressed it well also.

I was reminded a little while after my post of when Jesus raised Lazarus - there was a 'council' called to session to discuss getting rid of Jesus. In other words, the leaders reaction was to 'hurry' to gather to discuss what to do with this trouble maker -

John 11:48 If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.

A.T. Robertson defines "place" as their position or job and that they put their position even above their concern of losing their nation.

How incredible. Jesus was The Word of GOD that they hated.

And their top man Caiaphas then prophesied, that Jesus should die - actually, be murdered by their decree.

The chief priests wanted to kill The Word of GOD - the very Word they were supposed to represent - rather than lose their position.

"Christ" is The WORD of GOD. The only innerant words on earth.

Jesus said, if they hated Him, that they'll hate us.
I pray we can accept that - for The Word of GOD. Amen!

sermonindex Apr 12, 2011

After I pulled the plug on the dial-up it hit me, that these leaders KNEW who He was.

When John questioned from prison, this was Jesus' answer to him -

Mat 11:4-6 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

They killed The Word of GOD so that they wouldn't lose their jobs.

Oh my GOD. When that hit me, that they KNEW, just as John would know by the words above, Who He was by the OT prophets - by The very same WORD of GOD that He was and yet they killed the Word of GOD to keep their place.

The Word of GOD "raises the dead" but their job was more important to them. That was what they feared.

I pray, Dear GOD, don't let us ever get in YOUR way, Dear Word of GOD in Heaven above.

When our time comes - let us not be fearful. Let us be brave enough to die for Your Word. You are The Word.

Help us to Love Your Word more than anything else on earth.

This is what the John understood as Jesus' answer -

Isa 35:3-6 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

This was enough for John. LORD GOD, make us as willing as John was. To decrease so that You Increase. To labor as John did. To die as he did, for all that You are LORD, to see You Glorified through all Eternity.

M

mguldner Apr 12, 2011

"They killed The Word of GOD so that they wouldn't lose their jobs."

Well the Pharisees trade essentially was their holiness, however when Christ came in glory and shined the Light of Love on their wicked frames cracks in their holiness were clear to everyone. In a sense the less holy they were the less money they made, its still true today with many of our bigger "preachers"

"Oh my GOD. When that hit me, that they KNEW, just as John would know by the words above, Who He was by the OT prophets - by The very same WORD of GOD that He was and yet they killed the Word of GOD to keep their place."

Not necessarily, if you remember their hearts were hard, their spiritual eyes were blind, and their spiritual ears were deaf to the things of the Spirit. This is why they must be born again. The Pharisees had worked up in their mind who they thought the Saviour was, a radical and powerful warrior King that would free them from the tyranny of the Roman power. When Christ came meek and humble and He began to speak against their tyranny against the people, they then began to plot to kill Christ though the Father had it planned in the first place. God used the wickedness of the Pharisees to fulfill His purpose.

I would suspect some of them would acknowledge Christ as a prophet or teacher but for them it was blaspheme to call yourself a Child of God and Christ walked around and proclaimed Himself the Son of God. The hearts of the religious leaders was wrapped and warped with Disbelief and pride and this made them unteachable and blind to the truth of Christ Jesus.

John the Baptist was humble and meek and was capable of accepting the Testimony of Christ because He didn't have a misguided understanding of the Messiah BUT in full faith believe Christ Jesus was the Messiah based of the works of Christ as mentioned. The Pharisees sold their souls to the world (please note not all of them) for temporary gain, reaping eternal damnation. When Christ clearly and opening proved he was the Messiah they would explain away through the scriptures what they just heard.

This is the significance of Those who have ears let him hear. Some translate this as those with Spiritually listening ears let him listen. The Pharisee had a carnal mindset and so had carnal ears uncapable of not only truly listening but also understanding the words they did hear which would have brought them Life.

This is what is said in Isaiah 6:10

10 “ Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed.”

sermonindex Apr 12, 2011

After I pulled the plug on the dial-up it hit me, that these leaders KNEW who He was.

Yes, and I've heard it explained once that THIS was truly the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was talking about. Not all who have a revelation of (not relationship with) Christ are converted unfortunately. Some fight it with all their strength. I see it all the time.

We think that sounds so strange, yet even we as Christians many times are directed by the Spirit, yet out of fear of whatever earthly things or people, don't act upon such directions.

P

PaulFaculin Apr 12, 2011

Amen Brother Matthew! It Kind a horrified me how it is that so many preachers are preaching death nowawdays. And that these 'biblical cliches' had become a standard for Christian living for so many believers. Even here in the Philipines it just breaks my heart to see that so many Christian circles have almost worship the god of money through their teachings and examples.

Lord, Have mercy!

sermonindex Apr 12, 2011

After this thread I couldn't sleep for some time. What had come to my remembrance of the reactions of the chief priests to Jesus raising Lazarus and their words just kept me shook inside. And how we follow men over and above the amount of time we put into the Study and devouring of His WORD and the near 'worship' of these others that we follow - EVEN WHEN THEY'RE WRONG. We over-look when they claim to stand in the "seat of Moses" per say and yet can preach or teach error or even have sin in their lives. Our undying allegience to them is anti-Sciptural - anti-Word of GOD and that is bordering on anti-christ. I grieved and grieved over how men "add to" HIS WORDs with every sentence or take away from the fact that Only His Word is "Living".... so why so many human words and not more of quoting HIS WORDs?
Adding and taking away from The Word of Life.
Who can lead men astray? Not Christ Jesus, The WORD of GOD -- Never!
With Passover coming I'm reminded of how GOD said, "eat the Whole lamb" and then how Jesus said, "eat My flesh" and we know He called both Himself and His Word "The Bread of Life", so to me, He's saying "Take in the Whole of Who He Is - the Whole of The WORD of GOD" ... then we won't be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, nor hold up a human being beyond the scrutiny of HIS Word and will know what is the perfect will of GOD so that we're not deceived by anyone's words and He Will direct our paths and to True righteousness and sound doctrine - Straight from the Source. We need to seek Him for more and more of His Spirit of Truth - GOD have mercy on us if we don't in these days.
In Spirit and In Truth will fully direct our paths and not the worship of men.
The very best sermons I've ever heard were 90% Scripture and just a very few words between each to emphasize. One such sermon that a young preacher preached in that fashion just about took the house down one lovely Sunday morning. I'd never seen anyone do that before and sat back Awed and taking notes on every verse he used. Flabergasted. All the emphasis was on The WORD of GOD only and not on that young man at all. Glory to GOD! I pray we see that more and more. Less and less of man's words and more and more of just HIS. ALLELUIA - I just Know that He will be Glorified in that type preaching - where the man decreases to Increase HIM - the Bread of LIFE to the people. That's where His Power is. The Spirit will only give witness to Him, The Truth and His Spirit is poured out by honoring HIS WORDs behind the pulpit. In these days of the famine of His Word - as Matthew began his first line in the OP - we need to pray for these type teachers/preachers - that have such a Godly fear of adding to or taking away from The Only Words of The Infinitely Innerant LORD GOD Almighty - The LORD of hosts.
I pray this way. To His Glory men. Amen!