Well, we have been considering 2 Chronicles 7, 13 through 14, so who would like to quote these verses? When I shut up heaven and there is no rain or command the locusts to devour the land or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." Now these verses are directed at God's people, Israel. For the last 2,000 years, the Church has been God's primary work on earth, and I think we can rightly say that this passage is meant for Israel, but application may be made to us from them as well. Now the laws of bringing new life to believers apply today as they did during the time of the Old Testament. Verse 14 gives us the reason for verse 13. God's people have fallen into error. And when we refuse to hear God, when He warns, eventually He lets those things come upon us that we cannot handle. We have just witnessed a huge earthquake in Turkey. Oh, how helpless we stand by in such times. So it was for Israel when God shut off the rain, or when the grasshoppers covered the land, or when pestilence came. And sometimes we as believers may personally experience such a time. God shuts us up to faith. When we, those who name the name of Christ, slip off the path in some way, by the way, how subtly this can come. God may well let us go through things we are helpless to change until he gets our attention. When we are going astray in some area, if God is able to get our attention and we recognize something that needs to change, the first thing that has to happen is we must humble ourselves. It seems to me that in human terms, the greatest risk God ever took was to make mankind with a free will. But the only way God can get true glory is if man chooses him of his own free will. And when we err, we can only turn back to God by our own choice. I would say this, that God has made man with a drive for truth that is unrelenting. And when man truly becomes objective with truth, he will find God. On the other side is an unrelenting force that will do all it can to destroy that drive for truth. That is a force that is pulling out all the stops in our day, and we are in a most ferocious battle, and that battle is not with flesh and blood. It is with a fallen angel that knows no pity nor compassion. Someone has said that the greatest battles have not been fought with guns and knives, the greatest battles have been fought on the knees. The gravest threat the devil faces is the Christian that wears the whole armor of God and is always praying with all prayer. I think the gravest danger the devil faces is not the preacher. It is the simple Christian on his or her knees. Leonard Ravenhill says, no Christian is greater than his prayer life. Now just stop for a moment. Think about that. Is that true? No Christian is greater than his or her prayer life. I don't know who said this, but it goes like this. If you want to know how popular a church is, go to the Sunday morning service. If you want to know how popular the pastor is, go to the Sunday evening service. If you want to know how spiritual a church is, go to where? Prayer meeting, sure. I want you to listen to Mark 1.35. It says this about Jesus Christ. Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed. The Lord Jesus Christ. What a lesson that is for us. If he felt it necessary to go to his father early in the morning to a solitary place, how much more is that needful for us? Well, when we have erred in some way, God must get our attention if we are to survive, and he may have to do so through devastating means. And if he gets our attention, the very first thing we must do is humble ourselves. We have looked at that. We will never humble ourselves until we see ourselves in light of God himself. After we humble ourselves, we must then give ourselves to prayer. When we are in prayer, we must now seek his face. It's amazing what you can see in the face, isn't it? And in his face, he will give direction. Now, we can do all that. and it will avail nothing unless we come to the last thing, and that is to turn from the error or wicked ways. That is what our text says. Now I want to introduce us to a very important doctrine in the Bible. Our verse instructs those of us who have strayed from some truth to humble ourselves. That has brought me some very difficult days in my life. What that did is it revealed pride in my life. This is man's number one problem. Listen, it's your number one problem. Did you know that? It's mine. Then our passage instructs us to pray. This turns our attention to the only solution to pride, and that is a glimpse of God. Listen to Isaiah 6, 1-5. Just listen to it. Above it stood Seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, and the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. When we see him, we will see ourselves. Oh, how the church in general needs a fresh glimpse of our holy God. Holy, holy, holy. With God, nothing that even has an appearance to be evil is there. Nothing. That is our God. And what was this holy prophet's response to what he saw? He said, woe is me, for I am undone. Why? Because I am a man of unclean lips. When he got a glimpse of God, he got a glimpse of himself, and then he realized something else. The people among whom he dwelt were also a people with unclean lips. This realization only hit him when he saw the king, the Lord of Hosts. Oh, for a fresh glimpse of this holy God. The Apostle Peter saw this king when he caught some nets full of fish. You know, that's what catching fish can do when you see the Savior. And tell me, what did he say? When he recognized the Lord Jesus for himself, you know what he said? Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. He got to see himself. Now in our text, the Lord said, if my people humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, that can only happen after we see his face in some way. Nothing will drive us from sin or help us recognize sin like a fresh glimpse of God. Now note the word turn. This particular word occurs almost 1,000 times in the Old Testament. Let me give you the first time it occurs. In the Old Testament, it's Genesis 3, verse 19, which says, in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return. The word return, which is used twice, is our word. It means that when we die, we do a 180. 180. It means to turn around, to do an about-face. Man comes out of the ground and at death he does an about-face and he returns back to the ground. And this word is used in a spiritual sense in our text to turn from sin to God. And who can tell me the name of the doctrine that comes from this word to turn? What is the doctrine? Repentance, 50%. Do you know what it is? It's conversion. Conversion. In our passage, God is saying that if his people have fallen into sin, they need to be converted. They need to do an about face. That is what revival is all about. One does not clean up first and then get revival. No. Revival cleans us up. Let me just mention this about revival. You can have hyped up meetings, this has happened over and over again, so that people don't even believe in revival. Hyped up meetings and cause a lot of emotion and it may appear like revival, but that is not revival. When I speak of revival, I mean such an event as causes people to see their sin and it brings about repentance. And it brings Christian joy back into their lives. But first, before revival, listen, listen, before revival comes great pain. It cannot be otherwise. Now in the doctrine of conversion, there are two doctrines. The first one is repentance, that's the 50%. The other one is turning to God in faith. And that is, this is a spiritual 180. It doesn't matter how little or how big the sin. It needs a 180. Now you might say, well I thought conversion was like getting saved. Yes, it is. But saved people need to experience conversion whenever they have erred. Listen to what Jesus said to Peter long after Peter was saved. He said, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, King James Version says, when you are converted, strengthen your brethren. But he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. And then he said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny me three times that you know me. This happened just before Jesus was crucified. And the Lord said to Peter, when you have returned to me, The indication is that Peter is not spiritually with Jesus as he should have been at this point. Literally it says, when you convert to me. Peter was a believer, but he needed to be converted. That need in our church across the world today. Now let me point out something about Peter here. Peter did not know at this point that he was not on the right path. But Jesus did. It is even worse. At this point, Peter was a tool of Satan. Incredible, is it not? And Jesus knew he would need to be turned around. Well, shortly thereafter, Peter denied Jesus three times, and when the rooster crowed, he wept bitterly. He was broken, and it was in brokenness that he returned. This is the only way. He was converted. This is what must happen to all of us who are Christians when we have sinned. When we sin and repent and return, we are converted from some wrong way. When we sin and do not repent, we are on the path to destruction. Only conversion will put us back on track. Let each of us ask ourselves, are we dabbling in some sin? or maybe like Peter, we have inadvertently slipped off the path somewhere. Maybe we don't see it as sin, but it has pulled us off. Maybe it is anger. Maybe it is bitterness. Maybe it is resentment or anything else that is against God. Let us ask ourselves, what do we allow ourselves on the internet? If my phone or my computer could talk, what stories would it tell? What pictures do I allow myself to look at? How do I handle my finances? How am I on the job? What liberties do I take? Does the Lord send warnings every once in a while, and then it goes away? And I do it one more time. So Jesus said to Peter, when you are converted, strengthen my brethren. Do you know what he is saying? Peter, you are in no shape to strengthen your brethren. When you get in shape, now you can strengthen your brethren. Right now, you are a tool of the devil. When we allow ourselves things that are not kosher, we are in need of conversion. Conversion requires repentance and faith, and this is doing a 180 from sin. So I want us to look at some illustrations involved in returning. Let me give an example from the Book of Judges. This book gives seven cycles God's people went through. What a blessing it was to enter the land after 40 years. But it did not take long, and they began to backslide. So here is how the cycle goes. It begins with blessing. And after some time, this may give way to backsliding, which then leads into bondage. Which, when it gets bad enough, can bring about brokenness, and then once more, blessing comes. And one would think mankind would learn after one cycle. Would you not? How about two? Or three? Uh-uh. Not enough. Revived people tend to go through the same cycle. There are not many people who maintain a revived life. Our town experienced a revival years before we moved here. By the time we arrived, there weren't that many big signs left that it had been here. When we do not maintain our spiritual life, listen, when we do not maintain, maintain our spiritual life, we may go through the same cycle, that is, if we turn from error. Usually after some time, spiritual fervor begins to ebb. You've all watched this, right? You've seen plenty. And that will likely begin with such small steps that we do not notice. From the time we begin to backslide until we are in full-blown bondage to something may take some time, but here is the most concerning thing. We usually don't recognize our departure from God. Listen, you and I might be there right now. So when we begin to backslide, eventually we come into bondage to something, to something. The problem is that generally, if not always, we fail to see our need. When Israel prospered, they left God, but they insisted all was well. Well, you can read the prophets, they were prospering, it was wonderful. And the prophets said, stop! Then God sent prophets, and they warned the people, and the people began to despise the prophets. What happened? They ended up killing the very voice that was meant for their good. And like Israel, when we as Christians enter some bondage, God must allow affliction to increase until we are broken and we cry out to God. Consider King David. He fell into deep sin. And he did not realize what was happening to him until Nathan the prophet came and pointed his finger and said, you are the man. But when David heard God's voice say, turn, what did David do? He turned. He turned. He was converted and it came with great pain. Pain is what all revival brings. The word to us this morning is this, the most devastating thing that begins to happen when we begin to backslide is blindness. Blindness to our own problem. It may then happen that we despise the very thing that God is trying to get our attention with. Is that not amazing? We begin to despise that very thing. That's why the prophets lost their lives. Listen carefully. You cannot clean up your life first and then be revived. It just doesn't work like that. Once we are cleaned up, we do not need revival. When we say we need revival, we are confessing that somewhere we have gone off the path. It is this that makes revival necessary. We all face the dangers of falling into some failure. Now tell me, am I right? Yes, I'm right. The pilgrim's journey is filled with dangerous places. Read Pilgrim's Progress. Here's the process. We are living in blessing, then backsliding begins, which, if not dealt with, leads to bondage. God will then allow some affliction until we are broken and we cry out to God. Here we must humble ourselves and pray and seek God's face, and then turn from whatever we fell into that caused us to backslide, and this is brokenness. And when we turn, when we are converted, that is we repent and put our trust in God, then once more blessing comes. If we turn, blessing will come. Now we have asked, what is involved in returning to God? Let's look at some modern examples of men who failed because of how difficult returning is. Listen, returning is extremely difficult. For some, almost impossible. Almost impossible. What happens when we come to a place where we should turn and we refuse to turn? Because we have a free will, we can refuse. I searched for preachers or teachers who fell and refused to return. One site listed a number of such people. Ted Haggard was born in 1956, a little younger than I am. He was called a powerhouse preacher, and then he fell into sin. He had a mega church. One article said this, evangelical pastor Ted Haggard ranted against evils. I think it's an unbeliever that's writing this, so they put it this way. Ranted against the evils of fornication, adultery, and gay marriage. That is until he was caught in a gay scandal in 2006. Now let me ask you. From when he started his ministry and he became a powerhouse preacher until he fell into sin, what happened? What happened? He spoke out against the evil surrounding us, which any good preacher should do. I ask you, what happened? If he was truly a believer, and I have no doubt to think he wasn't, somewhere he began to backslide. From the time backsliding began until he was in full-blown bondage, what happened? No doubt, God spoke to him numerous times, but he hardened his heart. How many of you remember Jim Baker? A couple older people here. Oh, the sad story. He went from being a very popular TV preacher to doing almost five years in prison. Can you imagine the humiliation? Tell me, how does that happen? Listen, somewhere he let one thing go, somewhere. What we have before us are two men who should be a great warning to any professing believer. Let each one of us ask ourselves this question, what do I think is my spiritual strong point? What do you think is your spiritual strong point? Right there you must be on guard. Right there. If we fall, it will very possibly come right from there. Many years ago, I heard a Bible teacher say that most biblical men that fell, fell on their strong point. With a heart like mankind has, any of us could become bitter or become an atheist or a host of other things in not too long a time. Do you think it's possible for you? Do you think? We know it is, don't we? And if that should happen, between the time of God's blessing until bondage, many things will happen. I have mentioned Bill Gothard to you in other messages. Oh, what a sad story. If you had seen him do his seminars all over the world, if you had seen his strong teaching on subjects like divorce and family life, you might have said, what a godly man. Well, he probably was. He stressed submission for women and modest clothing. And in 2014, one article said he was accused of molesting more than 30 women. Physical harassment, inappropriate touching, and even rape. How many times do you think he said, I'm not gonna do it again? How many times do you think? Tony Alamo, who claimed the Lord called him to preach, I'm not even sure if this guy was a believer, preach the Second Coming, was sentenced in the 1970s to 175 years in prison. This happened in 2009. They're sentencing Bob Coy of Florida, with a megachurch of more than 25,000 members, has an ongoing case from 2014. The article listed Fred Phelps, Doug Phillips, how many familiar with the name? Doug Phillips, recent. Jimmy Swigert, how many familiar? And others. The Encyclopedia Britannica says, Swigert publicly accused fellow televangelist Jim Baker, we talked about before, of immoral behavior. This denunciation, which some saw as a move by Swigert to take over Baker's empire, precipitated a closer look at Swigert's own life, leading to the revelation, and I won't tell you the rest. And his own denomination put him out. And he wouldn't quit preaching. More recently, we have Mark Driscoll, how many know the name? Joshua Duggar, how many know the name? And others. You may be familiar with Joshua Harris, who wrote the book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye. He later kissed his wife goodbye and then kissed God goodbye. Many of these men stood for things we would wholeheartedly agree with. We might say, well, they probably weren't believers to begin with. Here's what happened, at least to some of them, as I see it. Because of their strength, they entered Satan's most wanted list. And he brought them down. Satan may well see our strong points as a place to get us. It is not our strong points that cause him to tremble, it's when we are on our knees and we have strong points. And I'm asking you, is it possible for me or you to enter that list of fallen Christians? No doubt we would say it could happen to us. If that is true, what that means is we must forever be on our toes here. If our lives are a threat to the devil at all, he will be out to get us. If we are effective in any way in God's work, he is out to get us. It is most probable that for every person of prominence who fell, many of lesser prominence fell as well. And they fell for various kinds of reasons. Maybe it was business, or finances, or divorce, or envy, or anger, or hate. Oh, what a powerful thing hate is! These and many more can be the starting point that lead us to a fall. When true revival comes, it delivers all those who are revived from this possible doom, at least for a time. We have stressed in these days Psalm 139, 23 through 24. Anybody know where it says? Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my anxieties, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. I've listened to the preaching of one of the men we listed here before. I have been familiar with Bill Gothard, though not personally, from when I was a young Christian. For those men we have listed, if they truly walked with God, and no doubt a number of them did, beyond all doubt, somewhere they let one thing go. At the beginning, their departure was probably not visible, nor did it seem like they were straying. And no doubt, somewhere after they began to leave the true path, God spoke to them. They may even have come to where they humbled themselves. They may even have prayed, and maybe even sought God's face. And if it was not there, then at some place, they came to these words, turn, turn. And there they stood. But they were in bondage, and they thought, after some time, just this one more time. Think for a moment of Ravi Zacharias. How many are familiar with the name? Sure. Even that little guy knows him. What a brain. What a voice for God. But I do not think intellect causes the devil to tremble. If such a man were a man of prayer now, it might. I do not know how long he was off the path, but like Bill Gothard, I suspect it was for years. Years. I have good reason to believe that. What I do know is that somewhere he let something in he should not have. And from his story, I would say God was extremely patient with him. But despite that, he got into bondage, and he refused to break with it. I can hardly see otherwise than that he came to some points where God said, Ravi, Ravi, turn, turn. And then after some time, the sin he had allowed himself into so many times took over again, and he said to himself, just one more time. And then cancer paid him a visit. Would you not think this affliction would cause him to repent? Would you? Would you? Oh, the deceitfulness of sin. Well, he died of cancer and never confessed. And after his death, his story came out. How can a Christian do that to his family? Some of them in ministry with him. That is about the worst thing a man can do to his family. If, after living in sin, if even on his deathbed he had confessed, he would have done the greatest thing for his family he could have. Now I think his wife is not even sure he's actually fell into those sins. I ask us, who of us thinks we are beyond that? Right now, like Peter, we may already be on the path without realizing it. You see, when we come to the place in our text where it says turn, we have come to the last place. We do not have to turn. We have had abundant evidence of that in these we looked at, but oh, the disastrous consequences. Let me add one point here. In the last weeks, I have listened to great men of God on prayer. One said this, the disciples never asked Jesus to teach them to preach. He asked them to teach them to pray. I'm not familiar with a whole lot of men of prayer, both in the past or in the present, but I know a number. I have not yet heard of a man of prayer being taken down by the devil. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I've never heard of it. Prayer is the one thing that causes Satan to tremble, and it is the one thing he will keep us from doing if he can, and try me and see if I'm not right. But there's a better story. There are many that truly turn. We could start with King David. Oh, how he fell. But when God said turn, he did. Let me begin with a story from the Old Testament. There was a very wicked king in Judah. We had a reading about him before. His name was, what was the name? King Manasseh. Let me introduce him from 1 Chronicles 32, 1 through 3. I'll just read it for you. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. But he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. For he built the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had broken down. He raised up altars for the Baals, made wooden images, and he worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them." What a wicked king. But that was not all. He later caused some of his baby sons to be offered as sacrifices to the false gods in the Valley of Hinnom. They died screaming as the fire consumed their little bodies. He reigned for 55 years and made no change until he was old. And I ask you, can you imagine the list of sins in the book in heaven under Manasseh? Now listen to verses 11 through 13. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon. You see, God has not given up. He has sent him affliction. Verse 12. Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to him. Now listen to this, listen. He received his entreaty. How many people has he wronged? He received his entreaty and his supplication and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. He was a man that God took to the school of affliction. Imagine that great regal king who was brought to Babylon with hooks. That is humiliation to the extreme. He is fettered and taken where he did not want to go. And in his affliction, he humbled himself and prayed and sought God's face. And there he learned to know the Lord God of Israel. And when he repented, he was restored to Jerusalem and to his kingship. Oh, the great mercy of God when we turn. But when we come to the place where God tells us to turn and we do not heed his voice, there comes a time when there is no more hope for mercy. God turns his face against us. When I did the wine and the Bible messages in Mexico, a man came to hear the messages and he came all the way from Ontario. He had been an alcoholic, had gotten saved, and dropped his alcohol. Then he was with some Christian friends, and they laughed, and they said, oh, listen, one drink is not going to hurt you, and he became an alcoholic again. And the pastor encouraged him, pastor from Mexico, to listen to the message from our church on alcohol. Those were the English messages. And once more, he turned. And when he heard I was giving these messages in German, he came all the way to Mexico to hear them in German. He had turned from his wicked ways twice on the same matter. Someday, we will have eternity to listen to millions upon millions of stories of those who turned. We have listened recently to Lou Sutera and Pastor Bill McLeod, and heard story after story of people who turned. We heard of marriages that were about to break up, and then they were restored in revival. If we should listen to J. Edwin Orr, Watchman Nee, the Suteras, Bill McLeod, Charles Finney, and many other revivalists, we would hear story after story of Christians who turned at the voice of God. Oh, thank God for so many who came to this word turn, and they turned, and they were spared the heartache of those we saw earlier. Can you imagine somebody like Ravi Zacharias' family working with him in the ministry and hearing news like this after death? Today, the door stands wide open. So let me conclude like this. We only need revival when we have fallen somewhere. If we are not sliding back somewhere, we personally do not need revival, although I know this about those who may not need revival. They greatly rejoice when they see it happening. Few, if any, see their need This is so crucial. Few, if any, see their need from the time they begin to backslide until they are in deep bondage. I doubt very many ever see their departure nor recognize the danger they are in until God sends affliction. and it has to become unbearable. The most devastating thing of all is this. Chances are very small that in that time from where backsliding begins until I am in deep bondage, like Peter, I have no idea I'm off the path. When it becomes obvious to others, I can no longer see it myself. And like the failures we looked at, if I do see or I am warned, I may still find some way of justifying myself. Listen to this. We are incredibly good at justifying ourselves. I have a medical condition called hypertension. That is when your blood pressure gets too high. It has been called the silent killer because it is so hard to detect. That is what backsliding is from the time it begins until God gets one's attention. It is spiritual hypertension. Can that happen to even, say, a godly man? Can that happen to a godly man? Well, all you have to do is study Job, one of the most godly of men. And if God gets one's attention, the very first thing that must happen is one must humble oneself. It is I that am the problem. Then one must turn one's attention to God in prayer. There is no other way. And when one begins to pray, there one must seek God's face for direction. And when God gives direction, it is this. Turn, turn. Repent. He will call for conversion. It will be to do a 180 on some or several particular matters. And there one will stand with a big decision in one's hand. Will I turn or will I justify myself one more time? Will I turn? Will I break up the fallow ground? Or will I harden my heart? If I don't turn, I harden my heart. When I look at Ravi Zacharias or Joshua Harris or a number of others, it seems to me beyond doubt they hardened their hearts on more than one occasion. And if I see it right, God was patient with them for a long time. And then there came a day when God turned his face against them. In verse 14, God said, if they turned, then he would hear from heaven. Think of that wicked King Manasseh, who had heard the screams of his babies as the fire consumed their little bodies. But later, when God got a hold of him in his affliction, he turned, and God Almighty forgave him. Can you think of that? This long list of sins forgiven. God promised that if they turned, he would forgive them. He would hear from heaven, and then he would heal their land, and God took Manasseh back to Jerusalem, and he was king again. Just how incredible is that? The very same thing holds true for us. We can dig in our heels and be very adamant that we are right, only to be hardened a little more. We might humble ourselves, but that is not the end. We might even pray, but that is not the end. Beyond that, we might seek God's face, but even that is not the end. When God finally reveals in His face what He wants of us, then we must turn. In the lives of all such men, as we have been reminded of, there was one thing they all had in common. Just like an alcoholic starts with one drink, so they all started with one sin they didn't deal with. And then it led to another, and another, and finally, these men abandoned God. But there's a brighter picture. How many have been caught in something? I remember hearing stories in Bible school. Young people came to Bible school, and in Bible school, the Lord began to convict them, and they had stolen a car, or whatever the thing was, and they had to go back and clean up the stolen car. I worked with a man. He was my boss for a good number of years. He was a very ungodly man, and he was going bankrupt, and one day he, they were going to, I think they were going to take his loader or something, and he buried the loader in gravel. It was gone somehow, somebody stole it, and so on. And just think, what has to happen to a man like this if he's going to become converted? This returning can happen individual at a time. It happens to a greater number of people when true revival comes. It is amazing to me what God will reveal when others are revived. It is so amazing. You can pray for revival. God would send our community, our country. I have never read of a revival that came without prayer. And such prayer must be serious, agonizing prayer. May such a moment come to our church, to our town, and to our country.