The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

[00:00:00] You will turn with me to the prophecies of Isaiah. [00:00:06] Prophecies of Isaiah, the last chapters, 62. The 62nd chapter of Isaiah. I should like this morning in a little time that we have just simply to point out to you what we were last saying on Thursday evening about the prophet Isaiah. [00:00:38] Remember, we've been talking about the prophet Joel and the dual nature of the, of the prophecies of Joel, that they have a fulfillment, a first fulfillment, and they have also a second fulfillment. It's quite clear from the way that they have been given to us and the way, in fact, that the New Testament uses them, shows us that the prophecy of Joel, particularly in chapter two from verse 28 to 32, has not been exhausted, but has been given to us to describe the age in which we now are all found. The age, if you like, of the Holy Spirit. [00:01:27] It is the very character of this age. The Holy Spirit is the very character of this age. He is the one who began it. He is the one who watches over its progress, and he is the one who is going to complete it. In a peculiar way, the Holy Spirit is bound up to this age, this new Testament age. And you will remember that it seems to us, if we take the prophecies of Joel, that in the days in which we lived, nothing less nor anything more than a counterpart to Pentecost could possibly, at the end of this age, finally realize God's original purpose and bring back the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:02:25] When you look at world conditions and you see the impossibility of everything, it is clearly evidenced already that the conditions and the energy which is opposed to us is far, far, far too great for all the ingenuity of christians combined. [00:02:54] In a sense, it is true that wherever there has been a need of a supernatural deliverance, there has been a supernatural provision. [00:03:09] When God had to deliver a people from Egypt, it was far too much for the combined ingenuity of his children. In Egypt, there could have had a thousand Moses, and you still couldn't have gotten them out of Egypt. You could have had all the thousands and thousands of God's people with one heart and with one soul and with one mind, really wanting the Lord and wanting his way. But still it needed a supernatural deliverance. The Passover was something supernatural, if you like. The exodus was a supernatural deliverance. It was the birth of the people of God as a nation, even. Of course, the jewish people still trace the inception of their nationality, their nationhood, back to the Passover. And the exodus. You see, it was a supernatural deliverance was needed. So supernatural provision was made. There was a pillar of cloud and fire which led them. The angel of the Lord went before them, and behind them there was the manna that was brought down from heaven, the water that was brought out of the rock. There was that which was obviously beyond man. [00:04:37] What was impossible by human standards was gloriously possible by the Holy Spirit. [00:04:47] Now it has been so that in church history, again and again we have had to face God's people, people, an overwhelming alliance of evil. [00:05:04] When you look back into church history, and there are few people who have studied church history, unfortunately. But when you look back into church history, you will discover again and again that every real move in this world, as far as even social revolution goes, can be traced back in so many instances to a primary moving and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This country, for instance, most of its social reform can be traced back almost directly to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in succession generations. You take just a few things, such as the child reform that was got through parliament some hundred years or more ago as a direct result of the second great evangelical awakening. You go back farther and you find prison reform was a direct result of the Quaker movement, and beyond that to many other things. Or we could go on and on about these things. That's not our point. [00:06:19] We are simply saying this, that whenever the church has been decadent and whenever it has been powerless, has been just a thing of derision and scorn in the eyes of the multitude. The only thing that has recovered the true nature of this church and enthroned the Lord Jesus again in a new way has been an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. [00:06:52] We are by nature so narrow, so prejudiced, so immovable, or on the other hand, so sentimental and so wishy washy that it needs the Holy Spirit in a new way to take hold of us and meet the situation. When you look at the prophet Joel, he seems to hold out for us a hope as he describes what it will be like toward the latter part of the New Testament age. As he describes something of the powers that will be against God's people. As he describes the absolute decadence of the church and the moral collapse of the nations, he sets forth one answer, that the Lord himself will pour out his spirit on all flesh, so that there shall be, if only in a remnant, an answer to the terrible situation and to the downward trend of the world. [00:08:07] Now, if you look at Isaiah, you will find he has exactly the same to say. He sees it from a slightly different point of view, but it is the same message that he has. If you look at Isaiah 62, you will find the great declaration of the Lord himself. If you look at chapter 61 and verse one, we read this, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Now, if you will look in the gospel, you will find the Lord Jesus quoted this as being fulfilled in himself, that the prophet Isaiah was speaking of the Lord Jesus, the one upon whom the spirit of the Lord God was, who'd been anointed to a great ministry and task which he accomplished. Therefore, when you come to chapter six to two, you find it is the Lord speaking. It is not Isaiah, the prophet, who is speaking. It's not the church who's speaking. It is the Lord himself who is speaking. And what is the burden of the Lord's heart? For if you read from Isaiah, chapter 40, forget the chapter divisions and the verse divisions, just read it right through. What will you come to see? Well, you find a tremendous setting forth in a logical sequence of the work of the Lord Jesus, beginning with John the Baptist, the Elijah, who went before him, saying, prepare ye. Prepare ye away for the Lord, then going right on to the Lord Jesus and his ministry and that tremendous chapter, Isaiah 53, his death, his crucifixion. And then immediately when you come to chapter 54, you're in a new atmosphere. For the first time, the person has given way to a family. [00:10:06] One has become a nation. Immediately it speaks of a family enlargement on every side. And then as you go through, you begin to read of the great battle that is going to be over this family. If the devil could not stop the Lord Jesus work, if he could not stop the testimony of the Lord Jesus personally, if he could not stop the work being finished on the cross, then the devil was going to combine all his forces to destroy this thing that we call the church. [00:10:43] If he can't destroy Jesus, destroy the church. [00:10:49] And church history is the very exemplification of that statement. [00:10:57] It is the long and bloody story of man's cruelty to christian people. [00:11:05] Everywhere, in every generation, in every century, christians have been hounded to their death. Old people, as I said the other day, they're like Nelson with their blind patches over their eye. They won't look at the thing. But this very hour, there are christians who are dying in this world. In the 20th century, with all its social advancement and education and so called culture, there are christians dying for nothing else than their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:11:40] And if anyone's disposed to argue with me? Come and I'll give you a list of people at least we know are in such places. [00:11:51] What is it? [00:11:54] It is the devil's hatred, what is called in scripture Zion. [00:12:06] The devil hates it. [00:12:09] Of course he hates Christ. [00:12:12] But if we look at our New Testament, we will discover that the church is none other than Christ. Corporate, that's all. That's why the devil hates the church. [00:12:21] The church are the very members of Christ. It is the body of Christ. [00:12:27] It is so united to Christ, so part of Christ, so essentially part of his very being, that the Bible reveals it to us as him. The church is him. [00:12:39] It is the fullness of him that filleth all in all. So the devil says, I cannot get to the head. He is in the glory. The head is at the right hand of God. I cannot touch him, I cannot destroy him, but I can destroy his members. I can get at the members, I can get at his body, and I can mutilate it and devour it and hound it and persecute it and break it if it is at all possible. [00:13:06] And so you will find through church history again and again these slow, insidious, subtle buildups of satanic alliance, and then a swooping on. [00:13:22] Oh, that tremendous, tremendous move of the Holy Spirit in Bohemia, when over two thirds of the bohemian people were converted within a few years to the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:13:37] Such a movement of the spirit has not been seen in Europe for many centuries. But in one night, 36,000 of those people were massacred. [00:13:50] 36,000 in one night. You think of that great move, which was a church move. All these. I'm talking about. I'm not just talking about religious movements. I'm talking about church moves in their beginnings, whatever they became later is another thing. At the beginning, you take that great move that we call the huguenot move. What a tremendous thing it was. But in one night, thousands upon thousands upon thousands were murdered. What is this wise man so naturally ignoble? What is it? I do not think it is man. It is behind man some vile satanic power that is out at all costs, by one means or another, destroy this thing that we call the church. [00:14:39] And so when you come here to the Lord Jesus, what is the burden of the Lord's heart? Why weed? Isaiah 62. For zions sake will I not hold my peace? And for jerusalems sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns to. [00:15:02] I remember once speaking with your brother Oliphant about this matter and I remember one little thing that he said to me, that he and he had studied church history. He said to me, you know, it seems to me that there has been a kind of system in church history whereby first you have an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, then a great move in the right direction, and then a terrible satanic blow whereby the whole thing's been crucified and then it just becomes a thing. [00:15:39] But in every generation you've got the same thing. [00:15:43] Well, of course, today we're living in it in China. And the last 30 years there's been a tremendous move that's covered the whole nation from end to end. And now the thing's crucified. [00:15:57] Crucified, obliterated. Thousands have given their lives for the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is this allowed? Because, you see, it's all going up. That's why God can dare to allow such things, because it is an eternal thing that he is building. So long as we're in the purpose of God down here, and so long as is possible, as much as we see we are moving in what we might be in what we could call a church move. The Holy Spirit, then let the devil destroy us. [00:16:33] What has been wrought down here goes up there. That's the point. What comes out down here is the material for the city. That's the point. The material for the city doesn't just materialize out of heaven, it comes out of heaven. Thank God. It comes out of heaven. But the material came up from earth. Yes, the material, if you read, was in the garden of Eden, right down in the earth. It's got to be got out, it's got to be taken out, it's got to be worked upon, and then it's set up. And finally one day you'll see it coming. [00:17:09] But where is all this? Well, it's in Zion. [00:17:14] Zion is the thing the Lord's after. And on the one side, we must not be afraid of all the trouble and trial and problem and breakdown and failure down here that we're bound to get. So long as we're on what we call church ground, so long as we're on that ground upon which God can really build us together and get on with the job. Let us get on to it. Let's get on to it. Every time Satan has really attacked his people, it's been because it's been a church move, that's all. You look back through church history. If anyone is disposed to argue with me, look back into church history. Read. I'll give you two or three good books of all varying shades of opinion and thought. They're upstairs in the library. You can read any one of them. You'll come to the same conclusion. [00:18:03] Every single thing that we now know today as a denomination began as a church, moved, began as a move of the Holy Spirit in the right direction. And in its day and generation was the testimony. [00:18:16] In its day and generation began with a pouring out of the Holy Spirit, then slowly, insidiously, by frontal attack or from within. [00:18:29] Satan has gradually veered the thing off and got it out of the way as well. [00:18:35] We don't persecute people who don't count. [00:18:38] No need to do anything. We can let them preach, let them work, let them have their organization of activity, everything else, just carry on. Satan doesn't mind that much. If he can't stop people being saved, he's going to stop them being built up. That's the point. If he can't stop the Lord Jesus seeing the travail of his soul in people actually being saved, then the next thing he'll stop is the church. He'll stop those people being built together, see, down here. So in the end, becoming part of the city up there. And so when you read this, Isaiah 62, you'll find the burden of the heart, of the Lord's heart. It is for desire. He says, aye, he's not going to rest. He will have no peace. Why? Until, until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. Isn't that wonderful? You and I are so weak in prayer. Why don't we take the scripture and stand on it and ask the Lord to do something about it? The Lord has said himself, after the cross, after Pentecost. If you look through this wonderful prophecy of Isaiah, he says, now my continual intercession at the father's right hand is going to be about Zion. I'm not going to rest. I'm going to intercede day and night for Zion. And do you not think the Lord knows better than either condition of his church? If it's decadent, if it's collapsed, if it's powerless, if it's superficial? Doesn't the Lord know better than we? And is not the burden of his intercessory ministry for his Zion that something will happen to it? I think so. I think so. I believe so. And what is the burden of his prayer? He will not rest until her salvation goes forth as a lamp that Burneth. That's the testimony. That is the lampstand. He's not going to rest until it's back. Oh, dear. Brothers and sisters, we have seen in church history, in every generation a move of the Holy Spirit. Should we not pray that if we believe, I will not say that we're in the very end, but I will say we're approaching the end of the age. Should we not pray? Oh, Lord. Lord, make Zion as a lamp that gives Zion a salvation, that goes forth as a lamp that burneth. Should we not make this our prayer? Should not the Lord's own word be the basis of our prayer? Why is our prayer so weak? Because we have not got the basis for it. We are all. It's all conjecture, all speculation. Lord, could you bless so and so? Lord, bless something else over there. Lord, do something here. And then we wonder now, have I prayed according to the will of God? Is that in the spirit of God? Is that according to what he wants? [00:21:27] And here you and I have got the word of God upon which we can settle and we can say, Lord, this is your burden. Now then we are going to pray like this. We are going to pray. And that is exactly. If you read on in Isaiah 62, it is exactly what Isaiah says. The Lord says, now, Zion, I have set watchmen upon thy walls. [00:21:48] You must take no rest and you must give him no rest until he do it. [00:21:55] Oh, for an intercessory prayer ministry like that, do you honestly think that more activity, more organisation, more money, more manpower is going to counteract the situation in the church today or is going to counteract the world in general? Do you? I don't think so. It needs. It needs a pouring out of the Holy Spirit in a new way that will. That will be upon all christians, not just us, not those that we love to say, who have seen, but upon all that will just break open their eyes so that suddenly they. I see something I've never seen before. [00:22:39] Believe me, many of us are prejudiced enough here. [00:22:43] We need the Holy Spirit. We think we're unprejudiced, untraditional and everything else, but we've got the same old earthly mold which solely puts its clammy hands upon us. And before we know it, and whilst we're unconscious of it, we have become something. We think, we think along certain rigid and frigid lines. [00:23:06] We need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the most wonderful person of all because he's always doing things that turn us upside down. You see. You say, ah, now, now, the Holy Spirit can't do so, and immediately he does it, you see, and then you sit down, think, oh dear, oh dear, dear, dear. Then people have to say, well, it can't be the Lord. It can't be the Lord Jesus. He's done something that we've always said as well. But no, you see, the holy Spirit is sovereign. [00:23:36] You and I can't tell the Holy Spirit what to do. The Holy Spirit, when he comes in a new way, so opens us that we become bound to the Lord Jesus in a new way and are prepared to follow the lamb with us wherever he goeth. I'm afraid so often that we have such theological conceptions that if the lamb were to go that way, we couldn't go. [00:24:01] We would say, no, no, no, can't do it. [00:24:04] But you see, the way that the Lord has of doing something which we've seen is often altogether different to the way we think he'll do it. [00:24:14] What the Lord wants and sees as his objective and what you and I see as his objective may be absolutely one. We may all be seeing the same objective, but it's the way the Lord's going to get to his objective and the way you and I think the Lord's going to get to his objective, which is all the trouble. [00:24:34] And we need the Holy Spirit to break us wide open and make us a people who can just follow the lamb and say, well, Lord, we can't understand it. You've dealt by the cross without prejudice with so much else. We just got to follow you. But we don't understand it. But we're sure you're going this way. [00:24:56] Oh, for a ministry of prayer like that in the book of acts. Well, some of you may say, oh, he's got to be in the bonnet now about Pentecost and other things such as that. I don't think really he's reading into this. He's reading into Isaiah what really is not in Isaiah. But I would like to point you to this. In chapter 64, you read through chapter 63, and you will discover in chapter 63 that it's all about the collapse of God's people. They've become a reproach. They've become a despising. The nations are saying, oh, the church. Oh, how many times I've heard that in this town of which. And the young people, whenever you say the church, the church. [00:25:46] And they spit it out, the church. Term of derision. [00:25:53] Term of derision. And in Isaiah 63, you will find exactly what Isaiah describes. The church has become a derision, a reproach, a but for Jones, something with no authority and no, no real, inward, moral, spiritual power. [00:26:13] And then what is Isaiah's cry? I believe Isaiah understood. Oh, he says in chapter 64, o, that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence and so on. You see, he'd got it. This was the Holy Spirit that was needed to just cause the mountains in us and outside of us just to flow down. [00:26:39] If you read verse seven of chapter 64, you will find Isaiah's heartbreak is that there is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us. [00:26:53] Well, there you are, you see, you read right through to our chapter 65 and on and you will find that the end is a glorious end. The end is in fact what we sometimes call the millennium. It is the rule of the reign of Christ when the lion shall lie down with the lamb and the wolf and so on, all lie down together. [00:27:22] You see, Christ has come back. [00:27:25] The end of Isaiah's prophecy is the Lord come. Not only is the holy spirit given and Zion is put into her rightful place and the nations of the world come to Zion. But the Lord returns and his reigns of peace begins. [00:27:45] I'm not the least bit bothered if the Lord's return is still a thousand years old. [00:27:50] The point is this. We are living in conditions that are decadent, immoral and show on every sign collapse of personal integrity. [00:28:03] It is everywhere. [00:28:05] There are great moves on foot in the nations. This move concerning a common market is a tremendous move for this nation and may have tremendous repercussions and consequences that few of us realize now. And where are we as God's people? We are nowhere. Even if the Lord's return is a thousand years ahead, the most conservative estimate, I must say that we still need the Holy Spirit in our day and in our generation to do something that will make zions salvation. Go forth as a lamp that burns. [00:28:51] Well, forgive me for reinforcing what was said on Thursday once again, but I believe it's very important and it needs by the Holy Spirit to get into our hearts so that we have a basis for prayer. We have a basis for prayer. Prayer that's been answered in scripture has been based upon the revealed will of God. [00:29:15] And we have here within the very scriptures, not a little scriptural textbook, a collection of verses that you pick out to get a little comfort for now and again. [00:29:29] Maybe it's used in that way with blessing, but that's not the use of scriptures primarily. It is to give to to us God's whole scheme of things. What God is after what he's wanting to do and everything else. You'll find it all here. If we were more practical in our approach to the Bible, why everything would be revolutionized. And I believe we have here within the scriptures the revealed will of God. In any given situation, we have a situation. [00:29:58] We have a situation, an international situation, which needs the prayer, the intercessory, relentless prayer of God's people to do something in his zion. If God would do something in his Zion, he could do something in the nations. Every single one who wanted to come to the Lord could come to the Lord, if only we put first things first. I am not depreciating the work of missions and so much of missionary activity. Thank God for it all. But the whole point is what we need is a new move of the Holy Spirit that will bring, will cause the Lord to be expressed in his body in a new way worldwide. [00:30:45] The end of that may be a crucifixion for all who take part in it, but the material will be there and the material will go up. [00:30:59] That's the point. And it'll bring back the king. May the Lord Jesus Christ help us very greatly to see the significance and import of what we have said.