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Last Sunday night we began looking at two of the key words of the Christian life.

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Those words are repentance and conversion.

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We normally think of them in relation to an unsaved person, but we have found in the Word

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of God that they equally apply to the Christian.

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Repentance is a change of mind.

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Conversion is a change of direction.

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Repentance means to have another mind about something.

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We see that illustrated for us in the parable of the prodigal son.

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His first mindset was to get away from his father and to have in his possession everything

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that belonged to him and to waste it then and having a lot of fun.

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But then it says after he had lost all of that, including his friends and his money,

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when he found himself at the bottom feeding pigs, which was a job no Jewish boy ever wanted,

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when he found himself in that position, it says he came to himself and he said, I'm

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going back to my father.

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What happened to him?

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He had a change of mind.

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And now instead of wanting to run from his father and go his own way, he wanted to give

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up his way and go back home to his father.

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That's repentance.

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It's a change of mind.

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And then it's also conversion is rather a change of direction.

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The word simply means to turn.

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We see it illustrated for us physically when the Lord Jesus Christ was in the crowd moving

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to heal the daughter of Jairus.

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And as he was pressing his way forward to get to that appointment, someone in the crowd

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touched the hem of his garment and it says he turned around and said, who touched me?

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You remember that.

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When it says he turned, it literally says he converted.

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It means to turn around, a change of direction.

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Repentance and conversion are companion truths, but the one precedes the other.

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Repentance precedes conversion.

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Before I turn around and go in the right direction, I have to realize I'm going in the wrong direction

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and change my mind about it.

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So repentance precedes conversion.

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Perhaps we can illustrate that by thinking of a driver who is going through a city trying

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to find his way to a particular destination.

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He's been there once before, perhaps.

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Something seems familiar to him.

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Most men in a situation like that say, well, if we just go a little further, I'm sure

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I'll recognize something.

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Right?

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And the wife says, let's pull over to the gas station and ask.

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No, if we just go a little further, I know I'll recognize something and we'll get there.

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And it's not long before the neck turns the head of the home and you pull into a gas station

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and you find out that you're going in the wrong direction.

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What do you do?

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Well, hopefully you repent and you convert.

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You change your mind about what's going on, what you're doing, and you turn around and

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go in the right direction.

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Well, that's an illustration of it.

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Personally, I believe that the greatest need in the twentieth century Western church among

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genuine believers is repentance and conversion.

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Not as a one-time act, but rather as a way of life.

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I believe that God wants us to continually have the attitude of repentance so that we

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are converted.

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That involves having a will that is broken.

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Indeed, a heart that is broken.

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So that I am constantly open to my Lord and I am willing to turn as soon as He shows me

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that my thinking is wrong.

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This was the need, wasn't it, in the church at Laodicea?

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Their attitude was, we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.

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Jesus wrote in that letter in Revelation chapter 3, you don't know that you are poor, you

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are miserable, you are blind, and you are naked.

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He says you're thinking wrong.

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And then dropped down a few lines there, and He says to them, be zealous therefore and

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repent.

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What was our Lord trying to get the church at Laodicea to do?

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To think right about itself and to turn around.

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I believe we need that as a church, folks.

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I'm burdened about it.

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Growing in numbers is not the same thing as a revival.

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There are some churches today that are growing but are not teaching the truth.

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The growing is not coming from the Spirit of God.

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I trust that is not true.

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Here, of course, I believe that God is blessing and we're seeing growth.

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But we must not equate necessarily numbers with genuine revival.

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I hunger in my heart to see that.

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I hunger for genuine revival.

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I believe that that is the only thing that is going to spare our nation from a catastrophic

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judgment of God.

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I am personally convinced of that.

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I am not a prophet in the foretelling sense, but I believe that if we see the year 2000

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as a free nation, it will be because between now and then we have seen something of revival

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in this country.

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If we do not, then I believe that not only our children but many of us sitting here tonight

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will see a change take place in this land, which we would dread.

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When we talk about revival, we can't talk about them out there.

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We must talk about ourselves.

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Because you see, unsaved people don't need revival.

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They need life.

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They need to be born again.

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But we who have been born of God may need revival.

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I can't speak for everybody here because maybe there are some here who do not need

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this, but I believe that there are many of us who tonight want to open our hearts for

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a fresh working of God's Spirit so that we might repent and convert.

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Why should we do that?

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What should motivate us to deep repentance and genuine conversion?

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I'm going to suggest just five or six reasons why I believe that this should be a concern

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for every Christian.

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These are not profound.

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I am simply stirring up your mind by way of remembrance regarding some important motives

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for repentance and conversion.

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To begin, I'd like for us to turn to the book of James 5, verse 19.

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He concludes his little epistle by saying, My brethren, if any among you strays from

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the truth, and one turns him back or one converts him, let him know that he is not a man.

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Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error—and there's the same word, the

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straying, the wandering of his way—will save his soul, that is, the soul of the wanderer,

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from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

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I see a couple of motives there in those two verses for my concern as a believer about

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repentance and conversion.

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First of all, he is talking to Christians.

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One motive for maintaining a continual attitude of repentance and conversion is that it delivers

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me from the danger of discipline.

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That's what death here talks about.

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He's not talking about hell.

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He's not saying he'll save his soul from hell, but he's talking about death in terms

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of spiritual discipline from God.

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It can include physical death.

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That's what had happened to the Corinthians.

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The apostle writes, and he says, because some of you have so disgracefully observed the

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Lord's Supper, your agape feast, there are some of you who sleep, he says.

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He doesn't mean asleep in church.

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It's a metaphor for death.

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He is suggesting there—in fact, he is declaring there—that there were some of them who had

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died at the hand of God being disciplined because of their persistent sin, their unwillingness

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to repent and be converted about the way they observed the Lord's table.

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We had better never think lightly of God's discipline.

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Let us always realize that God disciplines us in love, never in hate, and never in anger

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at us.

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But God does discipline sometimes very firmly.

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Not all of God's discipline is because of sin.

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There is instructional chastisement.

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In other words, God is just teaching us, training us.

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But there is such a thing as discipline because of disobedience.

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And that's what James has in mind here.

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If I want to spare myself from that kind of chastisement, then I need to maintain an attitude

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of repentance and conversion in my life so that the minute I become aware that I have

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strayed, I have gone out of the path God wants me to be in, I change my mind and I turn around

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and go back.

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And I don't waste time doing it.

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It is a dangerous thing for any of us to play with deliberate, persistent sin.

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Dangerous.

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When he talks about death here, I am reminded of what John says.

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Verse 16, he says, If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he

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shall ask, and God will give him life to those who commit sin not leading to death.

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There is a sin leading to death.

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I do not say that he should make requests for this.

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These are strange words, aren't they?

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What does he mean?

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What is the sin unto death?

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Well, first let me say it is not the same thing as the unpardonable sin, as it is called.

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Technically speaking, the unpardonable sin was a sin that could be committed in the day

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of Christ.

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It was the sin of particularly those Pharisees who saw who he was but deliberately turned

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from that knowledge as the Spirit of God brought that truth home to them.

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And what Jesus was saying to them, there is no pardon for that kind of sin.

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To reject me leaves one without any alternative but damnation.

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And by way of application, of course, we could say the same thing today about anyone who

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turns from the Savior.

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There is no pardon outside of that.

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But what John is talking about here is not the same thing as the unpardonable sin.

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John is talking about the sin of a Christian, a brother.

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The sin unto death seems to be not one particular sin like murder or adultery or something like

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that, but it is rather a persistent, deliberate way of living.

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It is a course which a Christian determines he is going to walk in no matter what God

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thinks.

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And when a Christian deliberately, persistently continues in that way, that is the sin unto

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death.

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And at some point, the scripture would seem to indicate that person goes beyond the possibility

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of repentance and his discipline will be short in coming.

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That is why John says when you see a person who has done that, who has sinned unto death,

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do not pray for him because he has gone too far.

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He now will have to suffer the discipline of God.

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Coming back to James 5, we repeat this motive for maintaining an attitude of repentance

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and conversion.

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It delivers me from the danger of discipline, the hand of God.

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A second reason I see in verse 20 is that it removes the possibility of disgrace.

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He says, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his way will save his

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soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

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If the person is not converted, then the opposite is true.

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The multitude of sins will remain exposed for people to see.

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And that brings disgrace.

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Disgrace to the person, disgrace to his family, disgrace to his church, and disgrace to his

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Lord.

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If I want to remove the possibility of disgrace, I will maintain the attitude of repentance

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and conversion so that that multitude of sins that has accumulated in my time of disobedience

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can be completely concealed, and that's what the word means here.

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It means to be covered entirely so that nothing can be seen of it.

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And why would that be true?

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Because it would be placed under the blood of Christ.

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Dear friend, if tonight you are playing with sin and you are deliberately pushing ahead,

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you refuse to repent, that is, change your mind, you refuse to turn around and go the

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other direction, I must warn you of the possibility of God's discipline and the possibility of

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disgrace to your life.

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I'll guarantee you David wished that he could have turned around.

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Finally he did, but still today we read in God's Word about the disgrace that that sin

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with Bathsheba brought to his life.

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He bears that as a scar.

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You know the Lord can forgive us of our sins, but God doesn't remove the scars that may

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be left behind.

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I have a dear friend who fell into deep sin, and God brought a dear brother who loved him

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to help him.

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My friend repented and was converted.

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He went back home to his wife and he made things right with her, with his children,

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with the church that he pastored.

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Yet today, though the sins are forgiven, he bears the heartache of those few months of

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foolishness.

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All the disgrace that comes with sin and the possibility of it ruining our testimonies

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and our lives.

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If I would be delivered from that possibility, then I must repent and be converted.

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Let's turn back to David's experience for a moment as he records it for us in Psalm

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32 and see a third motive for maintaining an attitude of repentance and conversion.

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It spares the consequences of guilt when I quickly repent and am converted.

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David did not quickly repent.

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He tried to hide his sin, as all of us have done, some time or another.

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He begins Psalm 32 by saying, How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose

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sin is covered!

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How happy, how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and whose

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spirit there is no deceit.

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Oh, did David know about deceit?

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And then he recounts his experience with the guilt that he bore during those months when

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I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

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For day and night thy hand, that is God's conviction, was heavy upon me.

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My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.

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These are the consequences of sin.

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Some of you tonight know what I am talking about because you sit there.

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You are bearing a load of guilt because up to this point you have refused to acknowledge

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your sin before God and to turn from it.

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If you would be spared the consequences of guilt, that wasting away physically, that

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pressure in the heart, if you would have your vitality of life and your joy restored to

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you, there is only one way to do it, and that is to deal honestly with your sin by repenting

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and converting, turning around.

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I tell you that before God.

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That is a motive, isn't it?

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I think so.

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In Psalm 66 we have another motive for maintaining an attitude of repentance and conversion.

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In Psalm 66 verse 18 the psalmist says, If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord

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will not hear.

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That can be probably better said, if I had regarded wickedness in my heart, the Lord

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would not have heard, but certainly God has heard.

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In other words, he is saying I have not regarded iniquity in my heart.

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What is he saying here?

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He is saying if you and I cherish sin in our hearts, it shuts off our prayer lives.

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So if I want to reinstate the power of prayer in my life, I need to have the attitude of

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repentance and conversion.

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This word regard is an interesting word that is a Hebrew root word that means simply to

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see and it has all kinds of meanings to it.

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Over in Psalm 138 verse 6 it is a word that is used of God where it says, For though the

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Lord is exalted, yet he regards the lowly.

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In other words, it means God sees the humble and has mercy on them.

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And I believe that is the definition that we should bring back here to Psalm 66.

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What it is saying here is that I see iniquity in my heart and instead of dealing with it

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in judgment, I have mercy on it and I protect it.

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I do not repent of it.

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I do not turn around from it.

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And the consequence of that is that God does not hear me as I pray.

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If you would have your prayer life reinstated so that it is filled with meaning and power,

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then it may be that you need tonight to face up honestly to some sin in your life and repent

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and be converted.

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Then in Luke chapter 22 we come to a fifth one, a fifth motive for repentance and conversion.

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Here we come to that verse we looked at last week dealing with Peter.

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Verse 31, Jesus addresses him using his name Simon and he says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan

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has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith

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may not fail and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.

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The motive that I see here is that if I would have an effective ministry restored, then

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I must have an attitude of repentance and conversion.

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I guarantee you that Peter would never have preached a sermon on Pentecost if he had not

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repented and had been converted.

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When he stood beside the fire warming himself as our Lord was being judged, his mindset

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was, I don't know the man.

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And then when that rooster crowed, Jesus turned and looked at him and in that instant the

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conviction of God pierced his heart.

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Peter changed his mind about what he had been saying and the attitude that he had and he

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ran out and wept bitterly, not in remorse, that superficial emotional response like Judas

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had, but in deep repentance he changed his mind and was converted.

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And you recall last week that we mentioned that when Jesus had been raised from the dead,

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the angel said, now you go and tell his disciples, and whom?

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And Peter.

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A special word for Peter because he needed encouragement.

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Jesus wanted Peter to know that he had been received again, that what he had done was

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not being held against him.

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Why?

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Because he had repented and was converted.

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That gave him an effective ministry and he began to lead the band of disciples then.

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Have you found your ministry in your Sunday school class or in your Bible study?

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Have you found your witness at work or in your neighborhood dried up and fruitless?

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To restore an effective ministry, what you may need to do tonight is to repent and be

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converted.

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That's a motive for doing it.

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And then one final one that I want to look at is in 2 Corinthians 5.

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The apostle says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one

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may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good

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or bad.

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What is he talking about here?

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Well first of all let's make it clear that the judgment seat of Christ is a judgment

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where only Christians will be.

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Those who are outside of Christ will be judged later in a separate judgment.

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This judgment is only for Christians.

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It is not a judgment to determine if the Christian is going to get to heaven or not, of course,

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because that's already settled.

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But it is a judgment of the works of the Christian to determine his reward.

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This judgment seat is like that judgment seat where the judge of a contest back in the Olympics

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would sit and the ones who would win the race would come forward and bun their brow, would

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be placed that wreath made out of olive branches.

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That's the picture here.

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And the apostle is saying that we have a judgment seat to come before and our Lord is going

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to stand there and he says we must all appear.

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That word means we must all appear as we really are.

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Not as we would like to be.

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Not as others think we are.

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But we must all appear as we truly are before the judgment seat of Christ that we may be

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recompensed for the deeds done in the body according to what he has done, whether it

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be good or bad.

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This does not mean that our sins are going to be dragged before the judgment seat of

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Christ.

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That's not what he has in mind here.

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But do you realize that if we waste our lives by disobedience, by bad deeds as it were,

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when we come to the judgment seat of Christ and our lives are examined, that there will

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be great gaps in our lives when we have lived in sin and we've wasted our opportunities

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and we have no reward for that?

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Some people say that perhaps God is going to show us at that time what we might have

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been able to accomplish had we been walking faithfully with him.

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And in that sense we shall suffer loss.

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I'm not sure all that's involved here, but I do know this.

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It is a very serious thing to consider.

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And if I would be rescued from the possibility of loss and shame at the judgment seat of

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Christ, then I had better maintain in this world right now an attitude of repentance

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and conversion so that I don't get away from my Lord.

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You know folks, if we will see this developed in our lives, we're going to have continuous

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revival in our church.

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I am not concerned about the numbers.

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I am concerned about the spiritual heartbeat of our church.

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Will God take care of how broad the ministry gets?

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We just want it to be deep and real.

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There were some of us who gathered for prayer last Wednesday night here in our prayer meeting

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at seven o'clock and I was so glad.

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And we began to pray through some of the strongholds that we believe Satan may have in some lives

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in our church right now.

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Oh, how deceitful sin is and how easily we excuse it in ourselves.

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We overlook it as being some little white lie or something that's not so serious when

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in fact it is robbing us of joy and spiritual fruit.

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It is sapping our spiritual vitality and it's affecting the ministry of our church.

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It is so important that each of us examine his own life before God and have the attitude

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of repentance and conversion.

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Having said that, let me come back to where I began with this matter of revival.

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I want to close tonight just by reading to you one statement from a book that I found

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in my library I thought somebody had stolen.

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I finally found where I put it.

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It's entitled When the Fire Fell.

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I wish it were still in print, printed almost 40 years ago.

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But what it does is record some of the great revivals of the last 200 years and what happened.

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It talks about David Brainerd.

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It talks about Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards.

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And here in the early part of the book it mentions the revival that took place in the

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United States about 120 years ago, probably the last great awakening this country has

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had between the years 1857 and 1859.

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And perhaps the leading personality during that time was a man by the name of Charles

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Finney.

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Some of you have heard of him.

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Charles Finney was a lawyer in the state of New York.

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It is said that there were many people who prayed for Finney's conversion.

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And he was converted in a most powerful, dramatic way.

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At the same time of his conversion, he experienced a remarkable infilling of God's Spirit.

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In his own words, he talks about what he sensed as though it were liquid waves of love that

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just seemed to sweep over his soul.

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And he says finally he had to pray and say, Lord, I can't take any more.

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Stop it.

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Most immediately God began to use the life of Finney in a remarkable fashion.

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Many of us have heard of Utica, New York, because of the riot that took place there

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a few years ago.

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Do you remember that?

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The prison?

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Here's the record of what is said about some of Finney's ministry.

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Sometimes the Spirit of God seemed to hover in a very remarkable manner over the community

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where many souls were being convicted and saved.

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In speaking of his revival meetings at Utica, New York, Mr. Finney says, our meetings were

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crowded every night and the work went on powerfully.

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The place became filled with the manifest influence of the Holy Spirit.

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A sheriff was converted who boarded at the largest hotel in the place.

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Mr. Finney said, that hotel became a center of spiritual influence and many were converted

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there.

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The stages as they passed through stopped at the hotel.

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And so powerful was the impression in the community that I heard of several cases of

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persons that just stopped for a meal or to spend the night being powerfully convicted

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and converted before they left town.

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Indeed, both in this place and in Rome, New York, it was a common remark that nobody could

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be in the town or pass through it without being aware of the presence of God.

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That a divine influence seemed to pervade the place and the whole atmosphere to be instinct

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with the divine life.

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It was during the revival at Utica, New York that the Spirit of God fell upon the workers

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of a large factory in a very extraordinary manner.

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And I'll close with just this illustration.

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Mr. Finney had conducted a meeting at the schoolhouse near the factory.

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A number of the employees that attended the meeting were deeply impressed.

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The next morning, Mr. Finney went to visit the factory where his brother-in-law was the

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superintendent.

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In his autobiography, he tells of the remarkable scene that followed.

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Here's a quote from Finney himself.

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The next morning after breakfast, I went into the factory to look around it.

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As I went through, I observed there was a good deal of agitation among those who were

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busy at their looms and their mules and other implements of work.

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On passing through one of the apartments where a great number of young women were attending

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to their weaving, I observed a couple of them eyeing me and speaking very earnestly to each

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other.

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And I could see that they were a good deal agitated, although they both laughed.

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I went slowly toward them.

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They saw me coming and were evidently much excited.

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One of them was trying to mend a broken thread and I observed that her hands trembled so

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that she could not mend it.

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I approached slowly, looking on each side of the machinery as I passed, but observed

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that this girl grew more and more agitated and could not proceed with her work.

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When I came within eight or ten feet of her, I looked solemnly at her.

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She observed it and was quite overcome and sunk down and burst into tears.

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The impression caught almost like powder, and in a few moments nearly all the room,

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all in the room, were in tears.

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The feeling spread throughout the factory.

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Mr. W., the owner of the establishment, was present and seeing the state of things, he

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said to the superintendent, Stop the mill and let the people attend to religion, for

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it is more important that our souls should be saved than that this factory run.

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The gate immediately shut down, the factory stopped, and where should we assemble?

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The superintendent suggested a large room and we could assemble there.

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We did so.

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At a more powerful meeting I scarcely ever attended.

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It went on with great power.

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The building was large and had many people in it, from the garret to the cellar.

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The revival went through the mill with astonishing power, and in the course of a few days nearly

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all in the mill were hopefully converted.

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He goes on to tell about other experiences.

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When was the last time you heard about somebody stopping in a motel in Roosevelt, Minnesota,

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and being overwhelmed by the presence of God and convicted of sin and saved?

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When was the last time you heard about a factory shutting down so that the Spirit of God could

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work?

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I want to tell you that's what Detroit needs.

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That's what the factories here need.

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That's what corporation offices need.

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It is the mighty moving of God's Spirit.

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We can look out there and say it needs to be out there, but dear people, if it's going

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to be out there, it begins right here with you and me.

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It begins with our honestly seeing ourselves and maybe the petty excuses and the poor reasons

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that we give for our failures and our disobedience.

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It begins with repentance about that and conversion.

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I recognize that tonight I'm talking to the heart of our church, perhaps the people

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who are walking closest with God, but may I say to you that it begins with us.

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If we are ever going to see anything approaching what happened 120 years ago, again in this

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land, and I repeat if we don't, I believe judgment is certain.

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If we are ever going to see anything that approaches this again, it begins with you

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and me getting right with God, stopping the masquerade, ceasing the charades, and being

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honest with God and transparent with one another.

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May the Spirit of God do that work in our lives.

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Let's bow our heads together.

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O Lord God, as we read about what you have done in the past, as we see through the eye

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of the historian the mighty sweeping of your Spirit, in days that were known for wickedness

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like our own, in days in which true religion was little lived, in those days you did a

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mighty work.

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O Lord, we need that work again today, in our country, in our city, in our church.

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I pray, my God, that you will raise up another Charles Finney for this generation.

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I pray that you would raise up another Jonathan Edwards, another Charles Wesley, another Moody,

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another Wilbur Chapman.

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Lord God, unless you raise up from amongst us men and women who mean business for you,

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surely our nation is headed for judgment and we are headed for shame.

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I pray that even here in this auditorium tonight you will kindle a deep desire in many hearts

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for a fresh moving of your Spirit.

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I pray that it would sweep through our church like fire through gunpowder.

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May it create an explosion of godly living, of deep caring and love for each other.

465
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:43,920
May it result in the salvation of many, but God, begin the work in us, in me.

466
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:45,960
I pray this in Jesus' name.

467
00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:52,960
Amen.