He's had a rough 10 years or so. He's had lymphoma on two different occasions, which means he was undergoing a lot of radiation treatments, and that's affected his heart, affected his lungs. Physically, it's rough for him, but he's doing a great job. let him lead the ministry there. He said he hadn't found any replacements and nobody wants to come up there. So he says, it must be this where God wants me to be. And he said, I'll stay here. And he didn't use the words die in a pulpit because Brother Tim mentioned something about that, about not dying in a pulpit. But anyway, pray for Ed Hart. And there's several churches in Vermont that don't have pastors as well, independent Baptist churches. So Vermont really needs a tremendous amount of prayer. We don't need less pastors, we need more pastors. And we need more fundamental Bible-believing churches, not less, amen, along the way there. Well, listen, we're in Ezekiel chapter 37. What a wonderful chapter, isn't it? An amazing chapter. I think sometimes preachers can relate to Ezekiel being called to preach to a valley of dry bones. He'll catch up with you eventually. Sometimes it seems like we're preaching to dead congregations along the way there. They kind of sit there and they look at you, and you don't know if they've got those paste-on open eyes or they're asleep. You don't know what to do. But nonetheless, praise God. We're glad you folks are here. It's good to see Gail. Logan was here just a minute ago, and so good to see her here. So if you see someone that you don't know, you make sure you shake them up by shaking their hands. Tell him you're glad to see him, amen? Amen. Anyway, I titled the message Cut Off. It sounds like a weird one, title, let alone the whole message in here. If you understand the relevancy of it, then it makes perfect sense to you, if you will. And there was a spiritual song, it's called Dry Bones or something like that, Dry Bones, whatever it was, and I can't remember along the way there, but it was taken out of the book of Ezekiel. And it's about revival, is what it really is. It's all about revival there. But I got the title of the message from actually verse 11 in chapter 37, verse 11, where it says, Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost. We are cut off for our parts. Now, if you're cut off, or you seem like you feel you're cut off from the Lord, It's time to stop. Take an inventory. And that really is what we've been doing here in our alphabetical portion of our successful Christian life. And we've reached the letter R, which is for revival. And so, if you look at my way of introduction, that we often have a difficult time when we come to passages of scripture like the one that we have before us. We look at it and we don't know, well, forgetting myself, we don't always know if such passages are literal or rhetorical, spiritual or allegorical. But we know that God has a very serious reason for including them in the Bible. If they weren't important, they wouldn't be there. So we have to sometimes spend a little more time. I'm not sure what this is all about, this Valley of Dry Bones. Well, then you do some research. and God will give you some answers along the way. So from them we are to study them in their context of events and time, even in the present or the prophetically or even both, because they do have oftentimes present meanings, prophetic, or it may apply to us in the present time as well as the future when, in this case here, when God will restore Israel. They'll undergo a revival when Israel comes to a saving faith in the person of Jesus Christ, which is going to be tribulational and it will make a difference in the millennium when they go in. So rest assured that God has a message, more often than not, multiple message or movements in such passages as we have before us today. Not to let this be discouraging when it comes to reading or studying our Bible, should we be a young believer or neophyte to the faith, but as we grow in grace through biblical study, we will find there are passages, so don't get too upset, but there are passages that we cannot always understand and cannot always appreciate, but there are others that we can understand and we can appreciate. So as you read through the first time, you glean what you can. And then you go through it a second time and you glean what you can. We're coming up on giving out our, I think the maximum is the 17th year awards for reading through your Bible every year from cover to cover. And Steve, correct me about the names, but you know, I said, yeah, you can do what Brother Jim used to do and go over and pretend you mentioned it or something. You can actually learn what those names are if you'll just take a few minutes and kind of sound them out. And hey, listen, you know what? When you're young and people don't know who you are, you get called a lot of things. And it's not always the right name either when it comes down to it. So I don't think it will matter so much if you don't get it perfectly right. But you can actually buy King James Version Bibles that actually break down those Oh, I'm trying to think what the biggest name in the Bible is. Not Methuselah, it's... Anyway, whatever it is, it'll break it down so that you can actually break it down in parts so you can actually pronounce it. Or, you can get, like I have, I have a Bible online, and if you don't, you can click on that name, click on it, it'll give you the Hebrew or the Greek, and then it will sound it out phonetically for you, so you can say it that way too, so. Don't use that as an excuse not to read your Bible. who do not read Chronicles chapter 16 and so on, where they've just got the entire genealogy along the line there. But anyway, those names are in there for a reason. God has preserved them, and there's something that we can learn from these individuals and their names, for sure. But anyway, as we grow in grace through biblical study, we will find that there are those kind of passages that stump us and others that are really understandable, or as one of my college professors used to say, when you come to something, you don't understand it, put it on a meat hook, keep on reading, and eventually you'll be able to take it down off and be able to put it in its right place and understand it, so it'll come, so don't be discouraged. Well, while this passage in Ezekiel is a message from God via the prophet Ezekiel to the nation of Israel, we can find rich applications for revival in any age of any of God's people. Ezekiel is a prophet to the captivity of Judah. He was a prophet before they were finally carried off by Nebuchadnezzar down into Babylon. He was also the primary prophet to the nation of Israel while they were in captivity as well. God used him greatly to rebuke and to exhort and to encourage the people in their captivity. Ezekiel is that kind of prophet to captivity and the last two tribes have forced God to have to deal with them because of their egregious idolatry. God hates idolatry. Now, idolatry doesn't necessarily have to be a marble or a wooden or a silver or gold image. Idolatry can be anything that you and I put in front of God. or between God and me, or you and God. That becomes an idol to you. And so we have to be very careful to make sure that we don't put anything, whether it's sports, or whether it's jobs, or whether it's fame, or whether it's fortune, or whatever it might be that we want to spend our life and dedicate towards it, and kind of put God on the back burner or throw God under the bus somehow along the way. So this prophetic record that we have in Ezekiel concerning the Valley of Dry Bones is a prophetic picture and in some ways a promise that Israel is going to come alive towards God by a saving faith in the Messiah of whom they have rejected and continue to do so. So as a redeem to the Lord we should be able to recognize America. is every bit in the same dire spiritual straits as Israel was when God gave his prophecy to Ezekiel. America is becoming a nation of dry bones. Death all about. Now, when you look and you would say, well, a valley of dry bones, you know that they're absolutely lifeless. There's no life whatsoever. And God is going to, at one point, bring them back to life. And he uses this illustration here through Ezekiel. So, if any believer is paying attention, it would appear that America's days are numbered. America at large has been mocking God. mocking his righteousness, mocking everyone who may not outright hate the aforementioned things. So they hate Bible principles. They hate Christians who stand by Bible principles. Now, you know, God's people don't have to be obnoxious. We can be affirmative, we can be strong, and still be compassionate at the same time. Knowing that we understand things because we have, when we came to a saving faith in Christ, our spirit has been quickened to the things of God, theirs has not. They don't have the same kind of understanding that you have. They don't see the things that you're able to see. As a result, they're going to be resistant. Some of you were resistant before you came to a saving knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ. But somebody prayed, somebody shared, and they continued to do so. And finally that wall broke down and you came to a saving faith in the person of Jesus Christ. So the problem also lies at the feet of God's redeemed, who may not outright hate the aforementioned things. They simply ignore them and refuse to walk in them as a way of life. Because the Christian life is a life. Amen? Meaning that is who we are. It establishes the parameters on how we are to live our lives. And so we often hear about praying for revival. And it's a good thing to pray for revival. Except far too many believers have no real idea of what revival is all about. Their assumption is that all of a sudden all these unsaved people that come in mass are going to come to know Christ as their own personal Lord and Savior. That's not revival. So we will use our passage, this passage today, to lift out what it is, why we need revival, and how does revival come about. Father, we pray that you guide and direct us as we look to the message today, that, Father, you be honored, that you be glorified, and that, Lord, that we will get a firm grasp on what our part, what our responsibility is if America is going to get turned around. Lord, open our ears that we might hear, and our eyes we might see, and our heart that we might receive, the things that you have for us to encourage us and to strengthen us. Whether it's the salvation or the re-education, whether it's here in the sanctuary or those gathered at home, have your perfect will and way, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So the first question we look at is, well, what's revival? What is revival? Well, I really do believe that a lot of people don't really understand what revival is all about. I can tell you this, it is not jumping over pews and leaping up and down and spitting and slobbering and jibber jabbering, whatever it is. That's not revival. And again, I don't believe it is the unsaved coming to a saving knowledge in Christ in mass, not initially. First and foremost, revival is about the revival of the spiritual death of those who have at one time in their life come to a saving faith in the person of Jesus Christ and have gotten backslidden. they've gotten away from God. When you get back, son, you're not a witness to God. You're not a good witness to God. You're not even a faithful witness to God when it comes to that. So the point is that for spiritual death to take place, one has to have been saved. That is, as we had dealt with a week or two before about being quickened. Quickened is about Realizing that we're sinners, that we need to be saved, that we're not going to heaven unless we do get saved, and therefore we accept, we come to a saving faith in a person, Jesus Christ, as Paul said in Romans chapter 10 and verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. John wrote in John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever, see the whosoever's are in there, would come to a saving faith in the person of Jesus Christ, that individual was saved. And so that means that prior to your salvation, you're a live body and soul, but you weren't alive spiritually. Your spirit was dead to the things of God. And then when you get saved, then all of a sudden your spirit is revived by the power of God. It's given life and now it is given life towards the things of God. You have a new desire for the things towards God. So those who are dead spiritually can't be revived when we're talking about an unsaved person because it requires a quickened spirit in order to be revived. What we've done is we've turned our backs on the Holy Spirit of God and we've silenced our spirit and we've given in to the dictates of our flesh. So this means there was a time when their dead spirit had been quickened or made alive by the power of God. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 5 says this, even when we were dead in sins had God quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. All of a sudden there's that moment, that split second in time, when our dead spirit is now quickened. But we have to realize that that doesn't mean that our spirit is always going to desire the things of God. We may allow the flesh to dictate. Well, I'm not going to go to church today because of this. Well, I'm not going to read my Bible today because of this. I'm not going to study. I'm not going to meditate. I'm not going to witness. And we, even though the Holy Spirit is trying to convict us that these are the things that we should do, we turn our backs and say, nah, I'm going to do my own thing over here. Well, that's the backstanding position of a Christian. They no longer allow their spirit to Fellowship with the Holy Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit of God to fellowship with their spirit any longer. They kind of shut them down. Now you haven't lost your salvation, but you've lost your fellowship. And I don't know about you as a married couple, the last thing you want to do is lose your fellowship with your spouse. Amen? You married them so you get a fellowship with them. And the last thing in the world you want to experience in this life is the loss of fellowship with Christ, or with the Holy Spirit, or with the Word of God. But he says, even when ye were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved. And the word dead in that verse is a metaphor for being destitute of life. We're talking about spiritual life, distributed spiritual life. You really don't have any desire to read the word of God. You really don't have any desire to pray. You don't really have any desire to go to church. You really don't have any desire for the things that God would have you to do because your flesh wants to do what it wants to do. And folks, that literally means now that your flesh is in control, not the spirit of God. And so it's destitute of a life that refuses to recognize the right of God to rule in our lives, and they continue to give themselves over to a life of trespasses and sins. As James said in his epistle, for him to know what to do good and do it that not, it is what? It's a sin. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 says, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Lord, of the Spirit, I should say, of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are what? Spiritually discerned. Listen, if you have chosen to elevate the desires of your flesh above the desires of your spirit to fellowship with the Spirit of God, then you have given yourselves over to trespasses and sins. You're not going to obey God. All this and more could be said but suffice it to say this morning that the unsaved are spiritually dead and revival has little to no bearing on them as what needs to happen to them first is salvation. So revival is about those who have been saved but have allowed their spirit to be submissive to the fleshly desires of the individual. Therefore, revival is something that only a backslidden Christian can experience and needs to experience in their individual lives. Now, I wasn't very far from where Clark lives. There was another church that was over there on, I think it was North Road over there, over by Arrowhead Lake. And I got talking with one of the parishioners from that church. We were over there for fellowship for one reason or another. And he got talking about how bad America was and that. And we're going back 34, well, about 40-some years ago. And I looked at him and I said, you know, the real problem lies at the feet of God's people. What do you mean lies at the feet of God's people? Oh, you got to show, do, do, do. No, I said, God's people are not living for God. If you don't live for God, then guess what? It leaves a vacuum. And when there's a vacuum, there's something that's going to rush in. And you can be sure of one thing, Satan's going to take advantage of it. Why do we have same-sex marriages? Because the largest part of America decided that they don't care what God has to say. Amen? Why do we have individuals living together without being married? Because they chose to ignore God's Word. Why do we have abortion? because man doesn't care what God has to say about life. And so we can look at all down the road and see where man continually turns his back against God. And unfortunately there are believers who stand the same ground. And that boggles my mind. Other than the fact they obviously can't be in the Bible. And they can't obviously have a strong fellowship with God if they're buying into this stuff of the world. Listen, we know how it's all going to end because God tells us how it's going to end. Amen? So you can take Al Gore and all those other ones and chuck them in a trash can somewhere because they're clueless. God's on the throne. God's in control. He flooded the world once. He can do it again if he wants to. Amen. So I'm not worried about it. My future is in the hands of God. My tomorrow, my next minute is in the hands of God. And I'm going to do what God wants me to do now and not worry about what's going to happen tomorrow. Sufficient is the day unto itself. Let tomorrow take care of itself. And it will. God is already there taking care of tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. Amen? He's there. And so we don't panic over those things. But when you have a Christian who doesn't know the Word of God, then they panic. They really begin to panic and get upset. What are you talking about? You don't believe this? You don't believe that? I had someone tell me, he says, what do you think about global warming? And I said, I think most of my people like it when it's warm. Especially here in Vermont, they complain about the snow, they complain about the cold. God created the heavens and the earth, and there's nothing that puny man can do to destroy what God's created. God, when he created the heavens and the earth, Not only created it back then, he was already in the future, so he knows. There's nothing happening about us today that God didn't already know about, that God doesn't already have plans for, God hasn't already taken care of. We need to be good stewards, amen? We need to be good stewards. I'm not saying we don't need to be good stewards. We can't be careless. But that means that we need to be good swords of everything. And so revival is something that only a backslidden Christian can experience. In other words, they're in the valley of dry bones. And God's going to priest those dead bones, so to speak, those lifeless, the spiritually lifeless Christian. and to bring revival. That brings us to point number two. Why is revival necessary? When a believer becomes prideful and chooses to live his or her life independent of God, chooses to ignore the leadership and counsel of the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God, they are moving back towards a worldly lifestyle from which they were saved. Ephesians chapter 4, we can turn there very quickly, Ephesians chapter 4. In Ephesians chapter four, begin looking at verse six through 11. And Ephesians chapter four says, there is one body and one spirit even as ye are, yep, and there is one body and one spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Lord and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. For unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? That he that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things, and he tells he gave to us those things that are necessary for you and I to stay the course. He has given to us his infallibly preserved word. He has given to us the infallibly eternal, omnipresent, omniscient Holy Spirit of God. He has given us salvation in the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. Then he gives to us teachers and preachers and evangelists. He gives them to us for that particular purpose. So when our Christianity becomes a burden, when living a life for Christ is less desirable than living for the world, when our life in Christ is less important than what the world has to offer, then folks, we've lost our way. We didn't lose our salvation. We've lost our way. We've lost our fellowship. And what is happening here is that we're turning back to the beggarly things of the world. And Satan is leading the way. Folks, when that happens, revival is necessary. Individual revival. Somehow we want someone else to get revived and us get caught up in it. God works on the individual. First and foremost, He works on the individual. But He can also work on multiple individuals at the same time. But we want to bring in some evangelists. We want to bring in some very exciting evangelists and have them preach the Word of God. And all of a sudden, instantaneously, our lives are going to be changed. Lord, have we prayed, revive my soul today. Or maybe at the end of the day, say, Lord, this was one exhausting day. I know some of you teachers have some pretty exhausting days, amen? Some of you moms who are stay-at-home moms and you work around the house all day, at the end of the day, you just kind of collapse. Ah, this is a rough day. You need some kind of reviving, don't you? And it's that way spiritually if you work out in the world. You hear the Lord's name used in vain. You hear godless conversations, godless ideologies are being proffered out there. And you come home at nighttime, you say, man, it is so good to be in the sanctuary of this place where God is honored, where God dwells. And you say, Lord, revive me. I want to be able to enjoy this home. I want to be able to enjoy my safe spouse, my safe children. Lord, I just want to be able to enjoy you, where you're honored and where you're glorified and not being put down or scoffed at or mocked at. Amen. where you find encouragement from a saved spouse or encouragement from saved children or from saved parents. What a blessing that is. So when we are consistently and increasingly becoming insensitive to how our walk with Christ is affecting our spiritual priorities, then revival is necessary. When we, I should say, when we joy in the world, rather than in Christ. When our place of prayer is empty or hollow, when lost souls no longer matter, when our heart towards God is getting cold, we need revival. We need revival. We are the only ones that God can revive. We are America's only hope. God's people getting seriously about the things of God. I'm not assuming that so-and-so doesn't want to hear, so-and-so doesn't want to be bothered. We are truly the only ones that God can revive. I believe that the body of Christ in America needs revival. It really does. We need Jesus to accomplish that for which we have been saved. John 15, Gospel of John chapter 15. Look in there in verse 1, verse 5 verses if you would. I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Now a husband takes care of the vines, doesn't he? Cuts off the dead. After the harvest season's over, they prune them back. They wash the leaves to make sure there's no blights. They make sure that the ground is well taken care of. They keep an eye on that. And if there's something bad, they cut it out. They deal with it. And so Jesus said, I am the vine. And the vine brings life to the branches. And the branch is life to the fruit. He says in verse two, every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. So that's a backslidden Christian. One who is saved but doing nothing. Really isn't accomplishing much of anything. So every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth what? More fruit, more fruit. And he says in verse three, now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me." When that vine stops bringing nourishment to the branches, and the branches to the fruit, the fruit will wither. And the Holy Spirit of God brings that nourishment to our bodies, to our mind, to our heart, and to our souls. He says in verse 5, I am the vine, ye are the branches, He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Then he says, for without me ye cannot do nothing. Oh yeah, you can sin, you can get angry, you can get mad, you can go to work, you can live your life independent of God. But if you want to do anything as a child of God that matters, eternally speaking, without Christ you can't do it. Or I can talk to others, you can't do it in power. When you share the gospel, don't you want it to have weight and speak to the heart and speak to the soul? And yet if we're going to be carnal, we don't have that. Yet we may take the opportunity because we feel obligated rather than actually excited that God has opened the door, now I can share the gospel. I get so excited you kind of stumble all over yourself. We are the only ones God can revive, and we are America's only hope. We need Jesus to accomplish that for which we have been saved, about accomplishing in us, so that he can use us to reach the world around us. We're losing battles that we should be winning, folks. Don't you think about that? If we believe that God is all-powerful, if we believe that he is omnipotent, that means he can be omnipotent in our lives. Oh, wait a minute, I don't want to be that way. In the other Christian's life, I'd like him to be, because if he's all powerful in my life, that means I gotta do some things I may not be comfortable with. So, we're losing battles that we should be winning, personal spiritual battles, and the battle for the soul of this nation. Because the vast majority of believers have become so enmeshed with the world that we have little to no spiritual power to affect moral changes in an ever-darkening world. Now, look around you, see some of you folks are pretty young. Some of us are a little bit older. And we knew of a day back when morality was important, that having a moral society was vital to the health of any nation. We've come to that particular point now, and who cares? Our home should be the beacon on the block. Our lives should be the beacon at work, wherever it is that we go. It ought to be obvious to somebody that we are so uniquely different that we've got something that they need and they want it besides our wallet. And so Christians in America are willing to becoming a valley of dry bones. Thirdly, as we close, how does revival come about? Well, we have seen what revival is and why it is necessary if we want to see God honoring lives, God honoring marriages, and God honoring families, and God honoring churches. That we've got to be willing to step up to the plate and pay a price. And that's the problem. We're not willing to pay the price. But I'm not talking about a price in a negative sense. That we're not willing to tell the flesh, no! And say yes to our spirit. We're not willing to say no to the flesh. And so, back in our text in Ezekiel, chapter 37, revival begins with the word of God. And I believe there's another real problem why we don't have revival in America is because a lot of Christians aren't using the right version. Others are using versions that have changed the Word of God, have admitted things from the Word of God. They're using the wrong text. They're using the wrong codexes, if you will. They're still using all that garbage that came up out of Alexandria and made its way up into Italy and the Roman Catholic Church. And then began to make its way back to the East. You know what brought the biggest revival to America in the 1700s? The King James Bible. That brought the biggest revival to what was then the United States of America. It's full of errors. It's got problems. Yeah, it does. You're the problem, not the Bible. We have to be honest about it. So, he says there, and he says it right there, he said, the hand of the Lord was upon me. See, that means that God was guiding, and God was directing, and Ezekiel was going to be submissive. Even though what God was about to ask him to do. Even like what Jeremiah was asked to do. God said, I'm going to call you to preach to the nation of Israel. I'm going to call you to warn the nation of Israel, Judah and Benjamin. Listen, Nebuchadnezzar is going to come up. He's going to take you off into captivity there. And he said, but nobody's going to listen. Wow! No one's going to listen. And God was right. Grace, you listened. Some did, not all. Now he's got Ezekiel. They've been carried off into captivity. And Ezekiel, he says, I'm going to call you to preach to a valley of dry bones. And he says, so the hint of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley, which was full of dry bones. He sat him down and said, Ezekiel, I want you to take all this in. Down in that valley, you know, there is absolutely nothing down there but lifeless, dead, dried up, bleached bones. Nothing down there. No life whatsoever. And then in verse two he says, and he caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were what? Very, very dry. It means they'd been there for a long time. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Wish we could come to that place where we realize that God knows everything. Amen. That God is so much smarter than we'll ever be. But he says in verse three, and he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones rise? In verse four, I mean, again he said unto me, prophesy, I know this, preach upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. You can't have a spiritual revival without the Word of God. It won't happen. And because so many churches have stopped preaching the Word of God and are now preaching sermonettes for Christianettes who want to live in sin with no regrets, no revival's gonna happen. In verse five, thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live. And God's gonna bring these dry bones to life. He says in verse seven, he says again, he says, so I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise. Ooh, I hear rattling down there. A little shaking going on down in there, ooh. And he said, as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, and bone to his bone. When God revives a believer, he's gonna head to toe, inside out, he's gonna bring revival. And there's gonna be a shaking. There's going to be a repentance of great sorrow, if you will. And he says, and behold, a shaking of the bones came together, bone to his bone. And again, in verse 10, he says there, and so I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Now, he's talking about the revival of the nation of Israel. But folks, listen, if your spirit is dead by your choices, then you're like those dry bones. And it's going to take the Word of God to bring you back to that place where God wants you to be. So we can't be saved without hearing the Word of God. Romans chapter 10, verse 13. So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by what? The Word of God. You know, God even gives us the faith to be saved. It's not your faith. God gives you faith. For by grace you're saved through faith. God gives us the faith to accept what the Bible says, and we come to a saving knowledge in Christ. We can't be sanctified without the Word of God. John chapter 17, verse 17, you can look at verse 19 as well, but he said that Jesus, in his prayer, John chapter 17 is the Lord's prayer because he's praying for you and I, and in verse 17 he said, the Father sanctified them through thy word. Thy word is truth. So you can't even, progressive sanctification can't take place unless you're in the Word of God. The preaching, excuse me, the preaching of the gospel brings the message of salvation and it is able to bring revival even as it did in Nineveh. The preaching of the word. Secondly, it involves the humbling of our hearts. Let's turn over to 2 Chronicles chapter 7. You knew we'd have to get there sooner or later. 2 Chronicles chapter 7. And I know, I see it on Facebook and I hear people quote it and let's pray for revival and, well you know what, I think it's good that we do pray for revival. I think we ought to pray for revival. But when your purview is that we're talking about an unsaved world, first of all they've got to get saved, we said earlier, they've got to get saved. But before they're going to get saved, God's people are going to have to get excited, ignited. Amen? not full of lethargy and indifference and apathy. And so, it involves, humbling of our hearts, 2 Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14, the very first part said, if my people, he didn't say if the world, he said if my people, which are called by my name, are you a Christian this morning? Have you come to a saving faith in the person of Jesus Christ, then you are a Christian. And you became a Christian because they said they were... I was in Antioch when they were first called Christians and it was a slur. Meaning that these people had been seen with Christ. And so we're going to call them Christians. And it wasn't meant to be nice. But we wear it as a badge of honor. Well then we got to live like a Christian. If my people who are called by my name, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves. You know what that means? I decrease, he increases. My desires decrease, his increases. My passions decrease, his increase along the way. So As John the Baptist stated in John chapter 3, I believe it is, he said, I must decrease, and he, meaning Christ, must increase. And the only way we are going to become more Christ-like is when we are less of ourselves and there's more of Christ living in us. God's desires become my desires. His passions become my passions. Jesus becomes my life. Everything else I do is secondary to Jesus being in my life. Even the job that you hold is secondary to the fact that Jesus Christ is to be your life. So that if your job asks you to do something that you know that Christ will not be pleased with you, I'm sorry, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to dishonor my Lord. And so His ways become my ways and his thoughts become my thoughts. And then thirdly, revival comes through prayer. Comes through prayer. Not that Glenn or Lenny May or Pat or my wife or Clark or Jack might get revival. Me. Me. I pray that I would be revived. And then as others see a change in me, they will desire change, and then they'll begin to pray. And another begins to pray, and another, and another, and another, and another of the children of God begin to pray, and revival begins to break out. And so, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face. Without faith, we can't please God. You can't please God without faith. How perpetual, I just put some money in the offering plate. That's wonderful. But if you did it without faith, you didn't please God. It was just an act. So, diligently, in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6, without faith it is impossible to please God. And it uses the word diligently in there, in seeking God, meaning not haphazardly, seeking the face of God, the top priority in our lives. He does not hide from us. He wants us to know him. And the Apostle Paul stated it this way in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10, that I may know him. He said, I'm dedicating my life so that I can know him. And the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable under his death. Few Christians are willing to take the same position that the Apostle Paul did. That I may know him. I said, I want to do the things in my life. You know what, that doesn't mean that we get to sit in a nice comfy chair in a nice warm church and read our Bibles and hear preaching. Sometimes it means we have to go through some hardships, because those are the times we learn more about God than we learn about anything else. Amen? Those are the times when God becomes precious. Those are the times when God manifests Himself. He manifests His presence. He wants to be there to strengthen us and to encourage us, not to just immediately take all those things away, but to show Himself strong, to manifest His love, to manifest His strength, so that as we continue on that way, it's just like kind of Moses going through the Red Sea. Now, he didn't say, God, I want a paved highway. Lord, could you kind of put a tram down here so we could kind of ride through here really nice and easily? No, he had to walk through that Red Sea with waters on both sides. And they might have been some angry waters. Angry in that they wanted to, hey, I want to do my natural flow here and you're hindering me here. But there they were. And several million Jews walked through. Well, the Egyptians thought they could do it. They got about halfway through and went... Because God's people were on the other side, safe and sound. See, God wants to take us through these things so we can learn something about God. You don't think that didn't have an impact? Because as you read on later on, especially into Joshua and places like that, Rahab even mentioned it in, trying to think what it is here in Joshua, and she said, we heard about how God dried up the Red Sea. And we heard about how God had done. See, when people live for God and trust God and go through these things here, people see God at work in a way they can't see it any other way. And so, seek his face. And fourthly, as we close, it comes from forsaking known sin. 2 Chronicles chapter 17. The last part of that verse, reading the whole thing, he said, My people, would you call upon my name? She'll humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn, turn from their wicked way. I don't do anything, wicked preacher. Listen, I don't shoot birds out of the sky and I don't kick dogs. I don't push old ladies out of the way. I don't cheat on my income taxes. I'm not a wicked person, preacher. Look it up in the Bible. Wicked simply means you're not obeying God. It's that simple. When you're out of obedience to God, See, we have to see it not from our perspective, from God's perspective. And this is God looking from His perspective. God, help me to see what you see and to understand it from the position that you want me to understand it. And He says, turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Folks, there are no shortcuts. You can't skip step A to go to B or D or C. You gotta go A, B, C, D, all through that verse. You gotta go through each step. Folks, America is in serious trouble. And the reason America is in serious trouble is because we've allowed the godless to reign. Again, Proverbs says that when the wicked are in authority, the people what? When the righteous are in authority, what? They rejoice. America is not a very happy camper. Inflation, recession, You've got people making all kinds of decisions, all kinds of choices out there, and they don't care how it impacts you or not. They've got their bankroll somewhere. They're good to go. And they'll take more of yours so they can enhance their bankroll, so to speak. I'm not pitting the poor against the rich or the rich against the poor. But I am saying that things would be different because choices and decisions, outlooks would be totally different if we had men, godly men and godly women, in positions of authority. And that includes in our pulpits, men and women who are preaching the Word of God without compromise, who are not afraid to preach the Word of God as it is and to challenge and to chase it. That's my job, is to rebuke, to exhort, and to challenge. Even as God would do that to me, if I don't do what God wants me to do. And yes, it's overtime. I saw my wife. Listen, God's people are the only hope America has. We are the only hope. I know that we say, well, Jesus is the hope. But listen, how does he work? He works through us. And he wants to be able to use us. And we're not very usable. I thank God for those who are. But that's not the majority. The majority is not usable to God. There needs to be a revival. Pray for revival personally. and then pray for revival beyond ourselves. Father, we thank you for this time that we can be together. Lord, how precious is your word. And Lord, sometimes it's tough. Lord, sometimes it's right in our faces, because that's what we need. Challenges to bring about changes that please you. Lord, we want preachers to change their messages. We want churches to change their positions so that we can be comfortable. And yet we never seem to be comfortable. We never get to that particular place where weak anemic messages, or weak anemic positions, or weak anemic standards rule the day. And it's always that we have to have something else, and something more, and something this, and something that. Lord, help us to realize that the real contentment, the real joy, comes from the level of our relationship with you, our fellowship. And that, Lord, you want that for everyone. And so Lord, challenge us, speak to us. And Lord, whether it begins with one or two here at Calvary, and spreads over to everybody else, and spreads over to maybe another community church, and Lord, you guide, you direct. We know what you want. Lord, you know what we need. Make us to understand both. Heads are bowed, and eyes are closed. And you say, preacher, pray for me in closing. I do understand the necessity of personal revival in my life. You know, you can't revive your marriage until those involved in the marriage are themselves individually revived. You can't revive the dynamics of the home unless the individuals in the home undergo revival. The church can't undergo revival if the people don't, and the country can't undergo revival unless God's people do. It's a major domino effect. You have to make a decision. Do I want to be a part of it? Preacher, if God will use me, I want him to use me. Preacher, pray for me today. Yes, I want God to use me. I want God to speak to me personally. Preacher, pray for me today. Young people, you've got some decisions to make because I'll be honest, I don't have that much longer to live. At my age, I may have five days, five weeks. I may have five seconds. I may have, who knows? Well, I can tell you this. I doubt that I'll ever make it to be 100. So if God tarries in sending his son, this is your world that you're going to have to live in. And if you're not going to step up to the plate and make a difference, then you live with the world you create. I'm saddened that we have to put you in a world that we have created, and it's not good. We've let it down. That's on us. But young people, you can make a difference. You can help to turn this thing around, but you're going to have to be willing to do so. You're going to have to give your will to the Lord. Do you know for sure if you get home in heaven today, whether you're here or at home? I would encourage you to see me after the sermon as a preacher. I don't know where I'm going to spend eternity. I'd like you to share with me from scripture how I can know exactly. I can walk out of here today and be positive that if I were to breathe my last breath, I would wake up in heaven. Well, Father, we thank you for this time that we can be together. We pray that you guide and direct in the fellowship that follows downstairs. Lord, we pray that you continue to work in Brother Steve's heart as he continues to allow the Holy Spirit to guide him to the afternoon message. But Father, bless the fellowship and bless the food. Bless the spirits of food, which we have looked at today. And Father, dismiss us now, we pray, with thy blessings in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and all God's people said. Amen. Amen. We got some missionary letters we'll be reading this afternoon, too.