When I was preparing the message for this morning we were still waiting on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Now Joe Biden has been projected to become president-elect. President Trump continues to contest the election and it seems like we remain a deeply divided society with a great deal of suspicion and fear on all sides. And there is no doubt that whoever sits in the Oval Office will have an enormous impact on our lives and on our society for at least the next four years. But it is my duty as your pastor to remind you that our rest and our joy, our hope and our security, is not the consequence of our preferred candidate achieving 270 electoral votes. And let’s remember too that the advance or hindrance of the cause of the kingdom of Jesus Christ in this country does not rest in the hands of any politician, no matter what earthly power he may wield. The advance of the cause of Christ rests in the hands of the living God alone.
And so it seems to me that the call to seek the Lord for revival has never been more necessary or more urgent than it is right now, not because our prospects are any worse or any better based on what happens in the wake of this election, but because, frankly, many of us as Christians have perhaps been overly distracted and preoccupied by the election and have lost sight of the fact that salvation belongs to the Lord and not to men. As Psalm 118 verses 8 and 9 remind us, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” So our ongoing series considering the Biblical teaching on revival is, in my judgment, both important and timely.
Now you may recall that last time we, when we were not this last Sunday but the Sunday before, we were thinking about prayer and revival. And we’re going to continue that theme again today thinking more specifically about how we should pray for revival. And to help us answer that I want to direct your attention to Isaiah chapter 63 and to the prophet’s extraordinary prayer for revival that you will find there beginning in the fifteenth verse and running through the end of chapter 64. Isaiah 63 through 64, beginning in the fifteenth verse. It is printed in the bulletin if you don’t have you own Bible with you.
You will notice if you look at it that it divides into seven stanzas, each of them highlighting a distinct theme for our prayers. Let me simply list them here and then we’ll pray and read the passage. First of all in 63:15-16, Isaiah prays about God’s distance from us. God’s distance from us. Then 17 through 19, God’s discipline of us. His discipline of us. Then in 64:1-3, he prays for God’s descent to us. Then in 4 and 5, he strengthens and garrisons his faith as he prays by remembering God’s past dealings with us. Then in verses 6 and 7, he confesses. He begins to pray about the ways God has been dishonored through us. And then in verses 8 and 9, he expresses how deeply God Himself is desired by us. And finally in 10 through 12, he prays about God’s dwelling among us and asks for God to come and defend His own dwelling place in the midst of His people.
Okay, so God’s distance from us, His discipline of us, His descent to us, His dealings with us, He is dishonored through us, He is desired by us, and we long for His dwelling among us. Before we consider those themes, let’s pause and pray and then we’ll read the passage together. Let us pray.
O God, we need You. We need You. Zion, Jerusalem, Your Church, it’s walls are broken down and it’s gates burned by fire. Your people are weak and our witness often compromised. We’ve been distracted and worldliness has gripped our lives. We need You. You’ve disciplined us and we pray that You would look on us again in mercy and restore our fortunes like streams in the Negev. Hear our cries and come to us. Perhaps even wield this portion of Your Word in our hearts to that effect here this morning. For we ask it in the strong name of Jesus, amen.
Isaiah 63 at verse 15. This is the Word of Almighty God:
“Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me. For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. Your holy people held possession for a little while; our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary. We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, like those who are not called by your name.
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence – as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people. Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?”
Amen, and we praise God for His holy Word.
There was a great transatlantic revival in 1859. It began here in the United States and in Canada, spreading to Northern Ireland and Wales before penetrating Scotland where it continued on in waves of spiritual awakening in communities all over Scotland for the next 20 years. Let me just give you a little snapshot of what happened in one small town, a town called Ferryden, which is a small fishing community in the northeast of Scotland. The believers there had begun to pray for revival in the summer of 1859. Soon, spiritual concern in the community began to spread and hundreds flocked to hear the Gospel preached at nightly meetings and many were converted. But as is often the case when revival comes, word spreads quickly and many Christians from other places and not a few skeptics as well came to Ferryden to assess the revival for themselves. Among them were three young men. And this is what they said about their visit. “We came,” they said, “determined to ascertain for ourselves the reality and extent of the work there. We came across an old fisherman preparing his lines who was full of it. ‘See there!’ he said, pointing to his dwelling. ‘There is my house!’” Actually what he said was, “There’s my hoose!” but I’ve translated it for you! “There is my house. There has been hundreds of souls born again in it. They have come from far and near, lots of them scoffers, but they got inside and we prayed for them and God heard our prayers and they went away rejoicing.”
“We prayed for them and God heard our prayers and they went away rejoicing.” The heart of the Awakening was not some clever technique or some new method. It was prayer. W.B. Sprague in his excellent book still in print – Banner of Truth, I’d commend it to you – Lectures on Revivals of Religion, it says this about the place of prayer in revival. “Prayer as a means of grace or as a means of promoting revivals is distinguished in one respect from every other. All the other means are addressed immediately to men, this, directly to God, and all others are dependent in no small degree for their success on this. For ministers and Christians may labor, no matter who faithfully, and it will be to no purpose without a divine influence, and that influence is to be secured only by prayer. Prayer then, let it never be forgotten, secures the blessing on every other means which the Church employs.”
God’s Distance from Us
What’s my point? If revival is our most pressing need – I think it is – this is the place to start. This is the key. This is the vital beginning point. We must become people of prayer. Isaiah’s prayer for revival in the portion of the chapter that we read shows us the way. Would you look at it with me please? Isaiah 63, beginning first of all in verses 15 and 16. Notice how he starts the prayer. He confesses the awful sense that he has of God’s distance from His people. God’s distance from us. Do you see that in verses 15 and 16? “Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me. For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.” It’s as though God had totally withdrawn, had turned His face resolutely from His people. “Look down and see! Don’t overlook us in our need.”
The prophet surveys the condition of the people of God, the Church in his own day, and he anticipates judgments that he knows will shortly fall as the Babylonians invade Judah in the days after this. And he’s moved to ask God where has His love gone? “Where are Your zeal and your might? The stirring of Your inner parts and Your compassion are held back from us.” It’s not that God has stopped loving His people. It’s not that He has no compassion for them. But it is rather that they have no sense, no awareness at all, no experience of His love or His compassion anymore. They don’t feel it. They don’t feel it. Even though He remains their Father and their Redeemer still, they still feel like orphans, not sons and daughters of God.
And I dare say some of us know that feeling rather well. We’re in the dark. We can’t find God. We feel abandoned, desolate. “Does He even care?” That’s what Isaiah is asking. “Don’t You care? Where are You? Where is Your compassion? We need You. I need You!” And look, to be sure, there’s a mystery, isn’t there, in God’s ways, especially in His hard providences, that we cannot always resolve. But let’s also remember as we cry to God for His compassion for a return of an awareness of His love, that it’s not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. “Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” “The only fitness He requires is to feel your need of Him.” The truth is, it’s when we’re here in this deep, dark place crying to God to look down and to see and to restore to us some feeling of His compassion and His love, it’s then actually we’re stripped of all our self-confidence, our boasting, the reflex that prompts us to look to ourselves, to rely on ourselves for the remedy, is gone. And actually, as painful as that can be, that’s right where God wants us. It’s where He’s promised to meet us, in fact. Do not despair. When God’s people begin to pray Isaiah’s prayer, longing for God again, with new urgency, though we may remain for a while yet in the dark as it were, we can be confident that dawn is on its way. God’s distance from us.
God’s Discipline of Us
Then look down at verses 17 through 19. How come the people are in this place of spiritual dereliction like this? What has brought them here? Well, it’s because of God’s discipline of us. His distance is because of His discipline. Look down at verses 18 and 19 first of all. Even though it’s still some time in the future, Isaiah speaks here as if he were looking back upon the Babylonian exile. “Your holy people held possession,” meaning possession of the land, “for a little while; our adversaries trampled down Your sanctuary. We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, like those who are not called by your name.” The coming judgment is so certain, Isaiah knows, that he talks about it as though it had already occurred and he tells us what will happen. The temple will be destroyed and trampled upon. The nation of Judah will be reduced to what will seem to them like a footnote in history, no different from any other nation; just another defeated and conquered tribe, like any of those over whom God has not ever ruled as Lord.
But bad as that coming judgment would be, back behind it we learn of something even more chilling. Look at verse 17. “O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.” Isn’t that alarming? Sometimes God hardens hearts and leaves us to the wickedness we have chosen. When Isaiah asks, “O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways,” he doesn’t mean that God has caused us or caused them to sin, but he’s saying the same thing really that Paul is saying in Romans chapter 1 verse 28. Isaiah’s facing the fact that “God has given them up to debased minds to do what ought not to be done.”
So look, here’s the point. The worst discipline God can inflict on us is not sickness, it’s not loss, it’s not financial ruin. It is saying to us, “So you’ve resolved to embrace this pattern of sin, have you, despite everything I’ve taught you, despite all the warnings that I’ve sent you? Very well then. You can have it.” And instead of hardship, things might even start to go well for us for a season. Life might begin to work out, everything you touch might even turn to gold; and all unnoticed our alcohol abuse slowly advances unchecked, the pronography addiction ensnares our hearts in its vice-grip, our anger escalates into fits of uncontrolled rage, lies become a way of life, the bitter poison of too long-cherished resentments sour our souls. Slowly but surely we’ve become dominated by secret sins that contradict our outward profession of faith in Jesus and we never saw it coming. We were oblivious. What has happened? Our hearts have been hardened. We’ve stopped fearing God so that willingly now we indulge our sin with hardly the slightest twinge of conscience.
I’ve told you before, I think, of the friend of mine in ministry who had a terrible moral failure. He had an affair and wrecked his ministry, not to mention his marriage and his life. And when I asked him what had happened, “How could you have fallen so far?” I will never forget his reply. He said very simply, “David, I stopped fearing God. I stopped fearing God.” Isn’t that a chilling prospect? “I slid without a second thought into habits of sin that have ruined me because I forgot the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom.” That’s what has happened to the people in Isaiah’s prayer. I wonder if it’s happened to you. Have you stopped fearing God?
Well Isaiah sees it and he pleads, doesn’t he, he pleads for God to revisit them in His great mercy. Return, for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.” What should you do, if under the discipline of God you find you wake up here among us this morning, you come to yourself like the prodigal in a far country, and you realize how hardened your heart has become? You must come home immediately and cry to God that He might have mercy upon you.
God’s Descent to Us
So first God’s distance, then His discipline. Thirdly, notice Isaiah begins to pray for God’s descent to them once more. He’s praying for revival. “Return for the sake of your servants.” Then that cry rises in its urgency and fervor. Look at the beginning of chapter 64. Verse 1 ought to be familiar to us. It is our theme verse for this year as we think about the theme of revival. I’ve quoted it at the end of every sermon thus far in this series. The prophet prays, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.” He knows there is only one remedy for their situation; there is only one answer for the Church under the discipline of God. There is only one hope of revival and renewal for First Presbyterian Church. Only one hope for your heart; only one. God must come down with mountain shaking power and to meet us in His grace. When He does, notice verse 2, it is like wildfire or like water set on a vigorous boil over an open flame. When God comes – here’s the point – when God comes, His presence leaves nothing unchanged. Brushwood burns, the water boils when the fire comes. The Church is transformed when God comes down; we are set ablaze. And the result in verse 2? It is “to make your name known to your adversaries that the nations might tremble at your presence.” God is exalted before the watching world when the Church is ignited afresh by His reviving presence and power.
Now let’s ask ourselves, “Do I pray like that? Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down and kindle a flame that would ignite the Church that the world might see Your glory?” Perhaps you feel that God is at a distance. You know, perhaps, that you are under the disciplinary rebuke of the Lord. There is no help, no hope except in the return of God in His power and mercy and grace. There’s no renewal, no growth for the kingdom, none, unless God comes in His reviving presence and power. We can’t manufacture it. He must do it. We are in His hands. And so we need to take up Isaiah’s cry for the dissent of God by His Spirit once again. “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.”
God’s Dealings with Us
The distance of God from us, the discipline of God of us, the descent of God to us, then look at verses 4 and 5. And the prophet reflects on God’s past dealings with us. He rehearses God’s ways. When He’s far away and you’re under His discipline and it’s urgent and you’re pleading for a reversal and for His return and for renewal – what sustains faith in the dark so that you can keep on praying, keep on seeking His face? What do you do in the dark? You remember past grace. Verse 4, “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts” – listen to this – “who acts for those who wait for him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways.” You see what he’s doing? He’s remembering how God is and has been with His people and then He puts it in the present tense – who acts still today as He always has acted “for those who wait for Him.” He garrisons his faith by remembering that “He is the same yesterday, today and forever.” “There is no shadow in Him due to change.” He is the immutable God whose promises, therefore, are sure every day. Look back and remember the past grace of God.
Supremely, we must look back to the cross and to the empty tomb and ask yourself as you think about Calvary, “Did Jesus die for you because of your loveliness, because of your worthiness? Was the tomb opened and did He rise in victory over the grave because you deserved it?” “No, while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” In our unworthiness, in our wickedness He showered mercy on us. He is still this God, today, and you may go to Him confident in His mercy, today, for He answers and acts for all those who wait for Him. And so Isaiah prays. We need to join him in this prayer, “You were angry. We sinned. In our sins we have been a long time.” You feel the burden of it in the prayer, don’t you? It’s been a long time. “Shall we be saved? Are You going to leave Your people in such a low condition? If You are the same God who showered mercy upon us in the past, will You not meet us now?” “He who did not spare His own Son but freely gave Him up for us all, how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things?” Remember God’s past dealings.
God is Dishonored through Us
His distance from us. His discipline of us. His descent to us. His dealings with us. Now, he confesses his sin in a more pointed manner. Do you see this? How we have dishonored Him; God dishonored through us – verses 6 and 7. This really is vital to revival – prayer. It’s hard but it is vital. Any doctor will tell you it’s not good enough merely to treat symptoms if you do not also address the disease, the underlying cause. God’s distance from us. His discipline of us. Our need for Him to descend to us once again. Those are really symptoms; they’re based on this one reality we have to face honestly about our own hearts and lives before revival and renewal can ever be a possibility. God has been dishonored; God has been dishonored. Verse 6, “We have become like one who is unclean.” That’s the cry the leper was to make to warn anyone. “Unclean! Unclean!” That’s who I am in my sin.
And Isaiah even changes the metaphor a little to show us just how perverse our sin is. You see, I think that only some of my life is stained by my sin. I mean I know better, but deep down I operate as though only really the bad stuff, that’s sin. But look at verse 6 again. “All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” The word for “polluted garment” refers to a flow of blood that rendered a person ritually unclean. Our righteous deeds, Isaiah is telling us, are marked with the bloody stain of our uncleanness. Isn’t that shocking? We sing praises when we serve others, when we pray, when we repent. At no point can we say, “This act, this right here, this moment, this one thing right here, this is holy. This is deserving. This compels the favor of God.” No, even our best righteousness is filthy rags.
And look how weak we are. Verse 2 again, “We all fade like a leaf and our iniquities like the wind take us away.” We’re watching the leaves change and fall to the ground before our eyes right now, aren’t we? But we think we are evergreen. “We will live forever. We’ve got this. We are strong. Whatever the problem is, we’ll take care of business.” That’s how we’ve been trained to operate. No, we are like last summer’s dried out old leaves still clinging to the birch trees in my backyard and all too often it’s just the slightest breeze of temptation; that’s all it takes to make us fall.
And it’s not just me or you; it’s a universal problem. Verse 7, “There is no one who calls upon Your name, who rouses himself to take hold of You, for You have hidden Your face from us and made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.” Here’s the message. I hope you can see it. Revival only ever takes root where repentance has first broken up the stony grounds of our hearts. So we need to come clean. We need to turn back, you and I. We need to stop trying to look good and start confessing that we are not good. As Joel 2:13 puts it, “We must rend our hearts and not our garments. Return to the Lord our God, for He is gracious and merciful.” Pride must die. Humble yourself before the Lord and confess. It’s time. “He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If today you are hoping to stand before God at the last and to point to your good behavior, you had better give it up as a fool’s errand right now. Don’t think you can go to Him today, much less on the last day, and say, “I gave it my best shot. That’s good enough, right?” No, all our righteousness, all of it, is like a polluted garment. We have to repent! We have to repent of our repenting. We need to weep over our crocodile tears. We need to give up every boast, every claim to any righteousness of our own. We need the righteousness of Christ. He’s our only refuge. His goodness, not ours; and there, we must rest.
God is to be Greatly Desired by Us
God’s distance from us. His discipline of us. His descent to us. His dealings with us. He’s been dishonored by us. Then in the sixth place, very quickly, God in His mercy is to be greatly desired by us. Look down at verses 8 and 9. “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.” Isaiah’s point is that we are God’s children and so his cries for forgiveness that God would turn away and relent in His anger and discipline over our sin, that’s not transactional. This is not a business arrangement. He’s not trying to get off the hook so he can feel better now at last and get back to life on his own terms. He wants God Himself. He knows, “We are made for You, bound to You. You are our Father. We are Your children. We depend on You. We can’t live without You. We could never be happy in the world while we rebel against You and You discipline us. Have mercy and come back to us.” His prayer throughout here is not just, he’s not trying to find a way to salve his conscience. He wants God Himself. He wants fellowship with God once more because he knows his sin’s like the cloud that obscured the sun from his eyes.
God’s Dwelling among Us
And then finally notice Isaiah’s prayer reminds God of His dwelling among us in verses 10 through 12. He talks about the holy cities, especially Zion where the temple was, where God dwelt in the midst of His people. Jerusalem, the city of God, has become ruins, he says. But look at how he prays. This I find instructive. “Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?” He’s making an argument, isn’t he. He’s pressing God to do what God has said He would do and to be who He has said He is. It’s a bold prayer. “How can You be God and leave Your people and Your name and Your dwelling place in such a low condition?” The Puritans, when asked, “How should we pray?” used to say, “You need to sue God for it.” That’s how to pray. Sue Him for it.
They’re saying press your case before His throne. Remind Him of His promises. He is obliged to be God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He is bound to His people forever in covenant love and He must always be the God who saves. The Lord Jesus Christ must always keep His promise. “Whoever comes to Me, I will never cast out.” So sue Him for it. That’s what Isaiah’s doing in this prayer, isn’t it? He’s pressing his claim. “Rend the heavens and come down! Show Your glory! Bear Your mighty right arm! Will You restrain Yourself, O Lord, while Zion, Your own dwelling place, Your Church, Your people, are broken down like this? Your Church for whom Your Son has died remains in ruins! Save, O Lord! Forgive, O Lord! Revive, O Lord, Your work in the midst of the years.” Do you pray like that? Sue Him for it.
God’s distance from us. His discipline of us. His descent to us. His past dealings with us in His grace. Dishonored by us, and so we need to confess, yet greatly desired by all His children. And He dwells in our midst. And here’s the great anchor of our hope and confidence then. Since He has pledged Himself to dwell in our midst by His Spirit through His Son, we may be confident that He will never desert His people finally in the end. And so as we go to Him, we should go with boldness, suing Him for it, that He may indeed yet still rend the heavens and come down.
Let’s pray together.
Our Father, how we need You. How we need the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. How we need You to rend the heavens and come down. Will You leave Your Church? Will You leave Zion, Your dwelling place, in ruins? Your own honor is at stake. The cause of King Jesus is at stake. So come, O God, and awaken us once more. Restore the backsliders. Convert the lost. Awaken the sleepy Christian. Bring us back to repentance and show us once more how You have loved us with an everlasting love. For we ask it all in Jesus’ name, amen.