Lord, Send a 'ReBible'

You see, there are people who will be in church today and churches all across our land. There are people even here, perhaps, who come regularly who will go to a Bible study and maybe attend a conference or two at some point, but nothing of their lives changes.

You see, there's a vast difference, my friends, between biblical input and biblical insight. A revival occurs in your life and mine when there is insight, when we hear what the Word says, and we understand what the Word means, and then we're willing to live it out in what happens when they understood a repentant awareness of sin. We all know about annual physical check-ups, but how often do we give ourselves a spiritual check-up? In the book of Nehemiah, the people of Jerusalem were adrift spiritually and desperately needed a check-up. In Nehemiah 8, they got what Stephen calls a revival. It wasn't just reading scripture, it was a revival, a remembering of who God is and how they should follow Him. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, you'll learn how they did it and what a spiritual revival could look like for you.

Here's Stephen Davey with a message that he's called, Lord, Send a Revival. An anonymous author penned these words. He wrote, the paradox of our time in history is that we spend more but have less. We buy more but enjoy it less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences but less time, more medicine but less well-being.

We read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. These are times of tall men and short character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, of fancier houses but broken homes. We have added years to life, not life to years. We have cleaned up the air but polluted the soul. We have learned how to make a living but not a life.

Another magazine article I read put it this way. There is much to celebrate in our day. We now have, as average Americans, doubled our incomes and went money buys. We own twice as many cars per person and eat out two and a half times as often as our parents did.

We have espresso, coffee, the World Wide Web, sport utility vehicles and caller ID. New drugs are shrinking our tumors and lengthening our lives. Yet at the same time, our divorce rate has doubled, teen suicide has tripled, violent crime has quadrupled. We have increased by six times the number of babies born out of wedlock and cohabiting couples not married have increased from 500,000 20 years ago to 4.2 million today. Our economic good time has become dwarfed by our moral recession. One civic leader correctly stated the problem a few months ago when he said, quote, the accumulation of material goods is at an all time high but so is the number of people who feel an emptiness in their lives. Polster George Gallup Jr. detected the same thing as he wrote, quote, one of the two dominant trends in society today is the search for spiritual moorings. Surveys have documented the movement of people who are searching for meaning in life with a new intensity.

Probably illustrated best by Chrissy Everett Lloyd and her husband John as they were being interviewed some time ago and she was very candid and open about their lives with the interviewer and she said, you know, John and I play a little tennis and we go to a movie and do a restaurant and I keep telling him, John, there has to be more to life than this. At the very time perhaps our generation is poised, asking spiritual questions about the meaning of life, at the very moment when the Church of Jesus Christ can step up to the microphone and announce that it has the answer in the person of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, it has instead lost its voice. One author compiled a list of clippings from pastors who are very popular whose churches are attended by thousands of people and one of the pastors commented and I think this is a characterization of our church at large today. He said there is no fire and brimstone here, no Bible thumping, just practical witty messages. Another said service at our church has an informal feeling. You won't hear people referred to as sinners.

The goal is to make them feel welcome. And another leader said our answer is God but we slip him in at the end and even then we don't get heavy. No ranting or raving, no fire, no brimstone.

We don't even use the H word. We call it around here the light gospel. It has the same salvation as the old time religion but with a third less guilt. Another said the sermons are relevant, upbeat and best of all short.

Don't amen there. You won't hear a lot of preaching about sin. Preaching here doesn't sound like preaching.

It is sophisticated urbane friendly talk. This is indeed a reflection and I believe it is of the church of our generation. The church of our generation is promising that the consumer will be satisfied rather than that God will be satisfied. If that is true then God is no longer our audience.

Our audience is God. And so for the sake of satisfying this God, this new God which is our audience, we as churches feverishly try to make people comfortable and satisfied and happy. I recently heard of one church that has as their motto the words, it's all about you. My friends, I hope at this church it is not all about you. It is not all about me. It is all about God.

Amen? Our mandate from God is not selfishness. It is servanthood. It is about selling ourselves to the mission of proclaiming and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is about becoming passionately committed to this gospel message that mankind is on its way to hell.

Mankind is lost and the church has the answer and the answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ's life and death and burial and resurrection. And our mission is to proclaim to our world this gospel as if we were throwing life preservers to drowning people. We do not warm the water to make them more comfortable. We do not give them lessons on how to float.

We don't give them witty how-tos to manage their water. We tell them they are going to drown unless they come to Jesus Christ as a Savior. The church has lost the moral courage to communicate that message.

It makes people uncomfortable. I personally believe that my job description is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The church has also lost its moral conviction so that in our generation the materialism of the believer mirrors the materialism of the world. Self-centeredness of the believer mirrors the world. The promiscuity and unfaithfulness of the world is mirrored in the lives of the believer. The values and plans of the believer are the same as the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, at the moment, perhaps of our greatest opportunity in our generation to have and declare the answer. The church has forgotten the answer and it is not delivering it. The church is in need of revival. So were the people of Jerusalem. They'd finished the walls. They were secure behind their gates and their gatekeepers, but there was a spiritual void in Jerusalem.

They had everything but a right relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So I invite your attention to a revival meeting. It's found where we left off in Nehemiah chapter 8. As we study our way through this chapter, I want to provide you with at least six characteristics of true revival that emanate from this passage.

And by the way, I do want to say this. Revival has nothing to do with unbelievers. According to Ephesians chapter 2, unbelievers are dead spiritually and trespasses and sins. That is, their spirits have not been brought to life by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. They are spiritually dead. You do not revive a corpse.

You can't. You revive a living person who is unconscious, who has slipped into a coma, who's been under the water or perhaps has been without oxygen for too long. The possibility of resuscitation is there. They can be revived because they are not yet dead. But revival has nothing to do with winning the unbeliever. Revival, reviving has to do with warning the believer who has begun to live like an unbeliever.

That's revival. The heart for God has stopped beating, as it were. They have grown cold and their affections for God. They need resuscitating and reviving like David.

They need to cry out and say, oh God, revive me again. Well, there was a great revival in Nehemiah's day. It began with the first ingredient to any true revival, a revived appetite for the Scripture. Look at verse 1. And all the people gathered as one man at the square, which was in front of the Watergate. And they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. Did you notice here the reappearance of Ezra?

By now an old man. He had come earlier and he had led in the restoration of the temple. And he was working with a sanctuary, as it were, with all the seats empty. No one cared.

No one followed after God. But he was committed to his duty. And now God will begin to work. And he calls Ezra back, who will now stand with the King publicly, and will become basically the preacher, as we'll see in a moment. He will simply read and explain the text. Any preacher or Bible teacher does not originate or create the message. You simply communicate the message that has already been delivered.

In fact, I happen to occupy a position where it is a violation for me to come up with anything original. Bring us the book, was their unified cry. Whenever a person or a group of people or a church or a family demand the book, revival is close at hand. A native of India who was writing a friend telling them about a wonderful revival they were having, he wrote in English as he pronounced it in his native tongue, he wrote, We are having a great revival here.

But a perfect slip of the pen. A revival is indeed when people are rebibled. They hunger to hear and read and learn the word of God. Look at verse 2. Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it before the square which was in front of the Watergate from early morning until midday. In the presence of men and women, those who could understand, and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose, and beside him stood all these other priests whose names I could easily pronounce if we had time. For six hours they listened to Ezra read the first five books of the Old Testament, the law, the Torah. Verse five, Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up. That lets us know that he not only read it for six hours, they would explain it, but the people listened standing up.

By the way, this will continue every day for an entire week. Can you imagine that kind of hunger in the heart of a person that would cause them to stand for six hours and listen as the scriptures are read? The second ingredient of revival is not only a revived appetite for scripture, but a respectful attitude toward God. Verse six, then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God.

I love that phrase. You ought to underline the words the great God. That is, he praised God for who God was, the great and awesome sovereign God. My friends, there can be no revival in your life if you have a little God, a small God who can be coerced and bribed, a petty God who will fulfill all of your wishes, an understandable God who is not mysterious and transcendent, a weak God who can barely keep up with his creation.

If you want reviving, you need a great God. Listen as I read where Isaiah described his great God in one of the chapters in his prophecy. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket.

They are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. Behold, he lifts up islands like fine dust. To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare with him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold, and a silversmith fashions chains of silver. Do you not know?

Have you not heard? It is he who sits above the vault of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth meaningless. To whom then will you liken me that I should be his equal, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars. The one who leads forth their hosts by number. He calls them all by name because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power.

Not one of them is missing. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired and vigorous, young men stumble badly. Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. He's describing revival. They will run and not get tired.

They will walk and not become weary. Now wait a second. Most of us run to that verse that we know full well, the latter part of that chapter. Okay, Lord, I need a shot of strength from your divine potion.

I'm ready. No. Those who wait for the kind of Lord that Isaiah just described, those who have a perspective of his sovereignty like Isaiah, the believer who has given strength is the believer who has Isaiah's God. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And notice, and all the people answered, amen, amen, or so be it.

It's another way of saying, we're with you, Ezra. Be it unto us as you have said, amen, amen. Evidently, there were Baptists in the Book of Nehemiah. The verse goes on to say, while lifting up their hands. Oh, well, I guess they were Baptist costals here. Then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. I don't think any denomination does that. See, the issue wasn't how they revealed their respect for God.

That'll vary from culture to culture and from generation to generation. The point is the same for the people in France or Romania or Hungary or Africa as it was in Nehemiah's day. They showed respect to God, which ultimately for them, like so many people who throughout the Old Testament and New Testament have an encounter with God, they ended up flat on their faces on the ground. If you want to say amen and raise your hands, go ahead.

But are you willing as well to lie flat on your face in the dirt so moved out of deep respect for your sovereign God that you dare not even whisper or look upward? Revival comes from a revived appetite for the Scripture and a deep reverential approach toward God. The third ingredient of revival is a radical application of biblical truth. Verse 8, and they read from the book from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading. You ought to underline the word understood. It appeared in verse 2.

It appears in verse 3 and here, and it will show up again in verse 12. They understood. I remember preaching in Kagoshima, Japan, and after the sermon that Bill Petit and the missionary and I had worked hard on to get the right phrases, a woman came up to me after the service and she and her customary politeness bowed and then she said to me, I understood, and left.

Bill told me that would be the highest compliment he could ever receive in that culture. They simply say, not I was entertained or that was interesting and no, that was good, but I understood. Consider the fact that the time between Moses and the reading here of the law was 1,000 years. Consider also the fact that the people here no longer spoke or understood Hebrew.

They had Hebrew hearts and Hebrew blood, but they had Babylonian ears. So the words would have been a jumble to them. They needed to know what the words meant, but that wasn't all. Look at verse 13. Then on the second day, the heads of father's households of all the people, the priests and Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight.

It's a good word into the words of the law. The word insight here is translated from a Hebrew verb that means to be wise, to be prudent. In other words, they wanted to understand the word so that they could live wisely, so they could understand and apply the word to their lives. In Mark's Gospel, one commentator illustrated a passage there with this text in mind that I thought was absolutely wonderful. The Lord had broken the bread and the fish, and you remember how he fed 5,000 plus people. Just a few hours later, the disciples are in a boat. They're going across the lake, and Jesus isn't with them, but a storm arises, and the men are terrified. And then they see Jesus walking toward them, and they're terrified at this man who can walk on water.

And eventually he climbs into the boat, and as he climbs into the boat, the wind ceases. And chapter 6 verse 51 says it all, and they were greatly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves. They had seen Jesus Christ's power demonstrated over nature.

He literally created bread and fish. But somehow that had not made a difference to them when they were in the storm of their life. They had seen his power demonstrated, but they hadn't connected the dots. You see, there are people who will be in church today and churches all across our land. There are people even here, perhaps, who come regularly, who will go to a Bible study and maybe attend a conference or two at some point during the year, but nothing of their lives changes.

You see, there's a vast difference, my friends, between biblical input and biblical insight. A revival occurs in your life and mine when there is insight, when we hear what the Word says and we understand what the Word means, and then we're willing to live it out. And what happens when they understood what the Word said?

The fourth ingredient of revival took place, a repentant awareness of sin. Verse 9, the Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra, the priest and scribe and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep for the people, for all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the Lord.

Can you imagine that? They heard it and they understood it and they compared it to the standard of their own lives and they all began to cry. Maybe that's why we avoid the Word. Maybe that's why we set it aside and we don't go to it as we ought to because we know it will convict us to the very core of our being. The Word of God is alive.

It's a living document. It is powerful. It is sharper than any two-edged sword and it has the ability to divide asunder, join in marrow of thoughts and intentions of the heart are laid bare before it, Hebrews 4-12. The Bible is a penetrating sword and Nehemiah eventually had to stand up and tell the people, stop mourning now and begin rejoicing.

Why? It was the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, a time of celebrating. Look at verse 10. Then he said to them, go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet and send portions to him who has nothing prepared for this day is holy to your Lord.

Do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites calmed all the people saying, be still for the day is holy. Do not be grieved and all the people went away to eat and drink and to send portions and to celebrate a great festival because they understood the words which had been made known to them.

See, the final ingredient of revival in the believer's life is they will have an attitude of joy. Would you notice how the people of Jerusalem obeyed in joy? Verse 14, they found written in the law how the Lord commanded Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the Feast of the seventh month, that his little shanties are leaned to out of sticks. So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem saying, go out to the hills and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees to make booths as it is written. So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves each on his roof or in their courts or in the course of the house of God or in the square of the water gate or in the square of the gate of Ephraim, in other words, outside in the elements.

The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. Now notice this, the sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. A thousand years had gone by before they had obeyed this particular law of God. No wonder and there was great rejoicing. It doesn't make any sense though.

Think about it. They just finished their walls. It's time to build their homes. We're supposed to stop our building of our homes and go out and make little lean-to's and live in them. It was to remember their wandering in the wilderness.

It doesn't make sense. But God said, build a booth. And so we will build a booth. And guess what? There was great rejoicing. Insight leads to obedience which leads to joy. When re-bibling occurs, at least four things happen.

Let me give them to you quickly. Number one, excuses are replaced with confession. 1992, the Texas Educational Bureaucracy reviewed and approved a new set of textbooks for the public school system. A group of parents concerned about the information their children were coming home with conducted a review themselves. They found 231 errors. The textbooks reported that Napoleon actually won the Battle of Waterloo. President Truman dropped the atom bomb on Korea.

And General Douglas MacArthur led the anti-communist campaign in the 50s instead of Joe McCarthy. When called to account for these errors, the Texas officials studied the texts again and found more than the 231 errors the parents first found. Then the parents found more until the tally stood at 5,200 mistakes.

The publisher's spokesman argued that, quote, except for the errors, these were the finest textbooks they had ever seen. That is our nature. We go to God not to expose our hearts but to hide them like our children do with us.

Oh, God, if it weren't for those things over there, I'd be right on with you. I'm sure you don't mind. Hide my reasons. When revival comes, we are broken over our sin. We apply the standard of Holy Scripture to our lives and the Spirit illumines our hearts with its truth. And we set our excuses aside and it is replaced with confession. Number two, selfishness is replaced with servanthood. We don't have time but they went out and they helped those who didn't have anything. Third, compromise is replaced with commitment.

Say, well, I've confessed and tried and failed and confessed and tried and failed. Revival doesn't last. Somebody asked Evangelist Billy Sunday who used to preach mass rallies in the early 1900s if revivals lasted. He replied, no, but neither does a bath, but it's good to have one occasionally.

If you want friends, you ought to bathe regularly. If you want fellowship, you need revival. You need reviving regularly. Fourth, complacency is replaced with devotion. You say, oh, but my love for God comes and goes.

My affections for him do grow cold. And I sound like the Apostle Paul, don't you? The things that I want to do, I don't do. And the things that I don't want to do, I do. Oh, wretched man that I am.

I like the way someone put it. The only way to keep a broken pot filled with water is to keep the faucet on. We are broken people and we bring our brokenness under the faucet of God's word and we keep it on and under the faucet of God's Spirit and we keep it on and under the faucet of God's wisdom and we repent and we repent and we repent even more. And we ask, oh, God, as David asked, revive me again. When that happens, revival does come. Are you hungry for God's word? Do you approach him with the respect he deserves?

Do you quickly repent of sin or get comfortable with it? These are the heart questions raised in our study of Nehemiah today. Revival isn't about external events. It's about internal transformation. So remember, joy follows obedience, not the other way around. May God give you a heart that's ever receptive to his word so that you can walk in the freedom and joy of true revival. For more resources to help you on this journey, visit wisdomonline.org.

Your Bible teacher, Stephen Davey, has based his entire ministry on the premise that God's word is true and that it speaks with authority and that you are to obey what it says. As Stephen takes you to the word each day to bring to life the truth that's found there, it's our hope and prayer that God encourages you and challenges you through the teaching. We also want to enable you to spend time personally in God's word.

We have a resource designed to help you do just that. It's a monthly devotional guide that we call Heart to Heart. Each month features several articles from Stephen to help you explore practical issues that face Christians in their everyday lives. But there's also a devotional guide to keep you rooted in God's word each day. There's a devotional for each weekday and one for the weekend. If you've never seen it, we'd like to send you the next three issues. Call 866-48-BIBLE for information. Please do that today, then join us next time on Wisdom for the Heart. You