AI-assisted analysis for orientation; read the source transcript or listen to the sermon to evaluate the interpretation.
The sermon presents revival as a sovereign work of God that renews the church and results in the salvation of sinners, unity among believers, holiness, and public vindication of the gospel. Genuine revival is not emotional excitement alone but combines spiritual warmth with truth, understanding, and free-grace doctrine. Believers are urged to turn from apathy and sin, recover fellowship with Christ, and pray rather than merely make resolutions. The church’s true prosperity depends on God’s shining presence, not numerical growth, wealth, reputation, or polished religious formality.
Theological center: God alone grants spiritual revival and salvation, and His gracious presence causes the church to flourish for His glory.
Applications: Pray for church revival · Turn again to God · Turn resolutions into prayer · Forsake wicked ways
Primary texts: Psalm 80:19
“Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” Psalm 80:19 THIS seems to be the only prayer the psalmist puts up in this psalm, as being of itself sufficient for the removal of all the ills over which he mourned. Though he sighs over the strife of neighbors and the ridicule of foes, and lamenting the ill condition of the goodly vine, though he deplores its broken hedges, and complains of the wild beasts that waste and devour it, yet he does not petition the Most High against these evils in detail, but gathering up all his wishes into this one prayer, he reiterates it o’er and o’er— “Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” The reason is obvious. He had traced all the calamities to one source, “O Lord God, how long wilt thou be angry—?” And now he seeks refreshing from one fountain. Let Thy face no longer frown, but let it beam upon us with a smile and all shall then be well. This is a select lesson for the church of Christ. “In your troubles, trials and adversities, seek first, chiefly, and above everything else, to have a revival of religion in your own breast, the presence of God in your own heart, having that, you have scarcely anything beside to pray for, whatever else may befall you shall work for your good, and all that seems to impede your course, shall really prove to be a prosperous gale, to waft you to your desired haven, only, take care that you seek of God, that you yourselves are turned again unto Him, and that He would give you the light of His countenance, so shall you be saved.” This morning’s sermon, then, will be especially addressed to my own church, on the absolute necessity of true religion in our midst, and of revival from all apathy and indifference. We may ask of God multitudes of other things, but amongst them all, let this be our chief prayer, “Lord, revive us; Lord, revive us!” We have uttered it in song, let me stir up your pure minds, by way of remembrance, to utter it in your secret prayers, and make it the daily aspiration of your souls. I feel, beloved, that notwithstanding all opposition, God will help us to be “more than conquerors, through him that loved us,” if we are true to ourselves, and true to Him. But though all things should go smoothly, and the sun should always shine upon our heads, we should have no prosperity if our own godliness failed, if we only maintained the form of religion, instead of having the very power of the Holy Spirit manifested in our midst. I shall endeavor to urge upon you this morning, first of all, the bene…