1. We are living in perilous times. Many marriages and families are falling apart. Children are confused and rebellious. Television and Hollywood are spewing out horrible filth, too vile for me to mention from the pulpit.
2. Despite the fact that God calls homosexuality an abomination, and despite the fact that this sin is responsible for the spread of the deadly AIDS virus, the so-called "gay movement" is getting stronger every day, with precious few leaders speaking out against it.
3. Abortion has been legal now for over a quarter of a century. Sick people are now making millions of dollars selling the body parts of these dead babies. Some of our leaders support "partial birth" abortion.
4. Adultery, fornication, divorce, prostitution, pornography, rape, incest – these sins are now so commonplace that nobody seems to care anymore.
5. Americans are spending trillions of dollars on cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs. Others are selling their souls to the devil through witchcraft, astrology, ouiji boards, tarot cards, and other occult activity. I saw a flyer few months back promoting a meeting at our local library featuring a psychic. Undoubtedly many children will be in attendance.
6. I said all that to say this: I believe with all my heart that unless God sends revival to America, it will soon be all over for our great nation.
7. Here in Psalm 85, the Psalmist asks, "Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" (85:6). I want to point out some important things here: First of all, we desperately need revival and only God can revive us. Man cannot revive himself. Man cannot work up a revival. Revival has to be prayed down; it cannot be worked up.
8. A lot of churches are trying to work up revival with emotionalism and worldly music, but God is not in it. A lady called me a while back and told me she escaped from a charismatic church. She said they jazzed up the music, and sang the same choruses over and over. This put the people into a hypnotic trance and before you know it they were throwing themselves on the ground and crawling around. The pastor was in the pulpit flapping his arms like a bird. She said it was like an insane asylum. Beloved, that is not genuine revival. That is nothing but confusion.
9. What we need is real revival – "Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" (85:6). Spurgeon said, "Revivals are frequently needed: ‘Wilt not thou revive us again’" And God sent several wonderful revivals to Spurgeon’s church in London. The members were revived and then they went out and brought in visitors.
10. Therefore, please note that revival must start with God’s people, not with the unsaved. "Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" Spurgeon was right: God’s people need revival. Once we get revived, the unsaved will start getting right with God.
11. My third heading today is this: when we get revived, we will rejoice in God (85:6b). A revived Christian is a joyful Christian. A revived Christian will praise God. You may have heard about the joyful Christian lady who was visiting a dead church. The preacher said something she liked and she said, "Amen!" An usher told her to stop it. Awhile later, she yelled out, "Praise the Lord!" and again she was told to hush up. Later on, she hollered, "Hallelujah!" The usher said, "Lady, we don’t do that around here. If you do that again, I’m going to have to ask you to leave." She said, "I can’t help it young man. I have salvation!" The usher replied, "I don’t know what you got, lady, but you didn’t get it around here."

I. GOD SENDS REVIVAL.

1. The Psalmist says, "LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob" (Ps.85:1). This psalm may have been written after the Jews returned from Babylon.
2. "LORD, thou hast been favourable" (85:1). In other words, "LORD, thou hast been gracious" (cf. 85:12,13). How do we know God is gracious?
3. He "hast forgiven the iniquity" of His people, and "hast covered all" our sin (85:2). There can never be revival until we get this sin problem settled. Have you been to the cross and had your sins forgiven? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
4. I said before that revival cannot come by emotionalism. It cannot come by fleshy gimmicks and worldly music. If you study history you will see that revival came through strong doctrinal preaching.
5. Great revivalists like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield preached the great doctrines of the Bible, such as the doctrine of the blood atonement and the doctrine of reconciliation. Having removed man’s sin, God’s anger is removed also. His hot wrath has been turned away (85:2-6). "Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him" (Ro.5:9).

II. REVIVAL STARTS WITH GOD’S PEOPLE.

1. The Psalmist says, "Turn us, O God" (85:4). I believe with all my heart if the people here today get right with God, we could see the whole NYC area stirred up. Some are probably thinking: "You’re dreaming, Preacher." Well then, please don’t wake me up.
2. The Psalmist prayed, "Wilt Thou not revive us again" (85:6).
3. R.A. Torrey was a great evangelist who worked closely with D.L. Moody. Torrey gave this simple prescription for revival:

"First, let a few Christians get thoroughly right with God themselves. This is the prime essential. If this is not done, the rest I am going to say will come to nothing.

Second, let them bind themselves together in prayer groups to pray for revival until God opens the heavens and comes down.

Third, let them put themselves at the disposal of God, for Him to use them as He sees fit in the winning of others to Christ.

That is all. This is sure to bring revival to any church or any community. I have given this prescription around the world. It has been taken by many churches and many communities, and in no instance has it ever failed, and it cannot fail."

4. Beloved, if we do things God’s way, He will open the windows of heaven and pour out His blessing (cf. 85:11). But we must do things God’s way.
5. "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (cf. II Chron.7:14).
6. If God has given you some measure of light – and I believe He has or you would not be here today – then do not turn back. The Psalmist wrote: "but let them not turn again to folly" (85:8).
7. The Psalmist prayed, "Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease" (85:4). And, "Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him" (85:9). Revival will never come without the fear of God (cf. Ps.36:1; Rom.3:18; Hab.3:2).
8. There is no fear of God today (Habakkuk 3:2).
9. Back in 1949, Duncan Campbell went to the Isle of Lewis, off the coast of Scotland, to preach a two-week meeting. God sent revival and he wound up staying three years. When he first arrived on the Isle of Lewis, he was met by some of the men from the church. They asked him if he was right with God. Duncan Campbell replied, "I fear God." God used him and revival broke out. Revival will not come when there is no fear of God.
10. Duncan Campbell said, "In revival the fear of God lays hold upon the community, moving men and women, who until then had no concern for spiritual things, to seek after God."

III. WHEN REVIVAL COMES, WE WILL REJOICE IN GOD (85:6).

1. One hundred years ago, a mighty revival broke out in Wales and there was great rejoicing in God. Many of the miners got saved and stopped drinking. And they stopped their cursing. Their vocabulary changed so dramatically that their mules could not understand them.
2. The people in Wales were rejoicing in God (85:6). The churches were packed and the jails and courthouses were empty. The pubs closed down. The police had nothing to do. But it did not last long. And today Wales is in bad shape. Today the churches are empty and the pubs are full. We have seen the same decline here in our country. Brooklyn used to be known for all of its churches.
3. We need revival in America, here in Brooklyn, here in this church, and in my church, and in every church represented here today. (85:9).
4. Here’s how it is possible: "Mercy and truth are met together…" (85:10ff). Mercy and truth met at Calvary. It was there at the cross that "righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (85:10b).
5. There is much unrighteousness in this world. And there is very little peace. The answer to the sin problem is found at the cross where the Lord Jesus Christ died as our Substitute (85:10).
6. "Truth shall spring out of the earth" (85:11). Spurgeon said, "Promises which lie unfulfilled, like buried seeds, shall spring up and yield harvests of joy."
7. "And righteousness shall look down from heaven" (85:11b). When God looks down in grace, His people look up with praise and adoration.

CONCLUSION:

1. Billy Sunday used to tell of a man that was a notorious atheist. One night the old church building caught on fire and people watched in amazement as the atheist ran to the fire with a big bucket of water. He then ran back and filled his bucket again, and again, etc.
2. As he was running by, one of his neighbors stopped to ask him why, he, an atheist, was so suddenly concerned about the church.
3. He replied, "Because I’ve never seen a church on fire before!"
4. I wonder how many hardened sinners will take notice if we get on fire for the Lord.
5. If you are not reading your Bible every day, YOU NEED REVIVAL (85:6).
6. If you are not praying regularly, YOU NEED REVIVAL.
7. If you are not in church every time the doors are open, YOU NEED REVIVAL.
8. If you have not led someone to Christ in a long time (or maybe you never have), YOU NEED REVIVAL.
9. If you are not passing out Gospel tracts and witnessing to your co-workers and friends, YOU NEED REVIVAL.
10. If you are not tithing, YOU NEED REVIVAL.
11. If you are not burdened for your community, YOU NEED REVIVAL.
12. Why don’t you kneel down and pray if you need revival.