Tonight I want to speak as a backdrop
to what Bill McLeod will be saying.
I want to speak on the subject, how
does revival relate to normal Christianity?
How does revival relate to normal Christianity?
We have a little trouble putting these two
together, and I'm going to use some scripture,
I'm going to use some quotes from what
other men have said about revival that we
can put in perspective and then to see
that which God did in Bill McLeod's heart
and in the life of his church and
in whatever God would lead him to share
in picking up some of the thoughts that
we would present to you tonight.
So let's just ask God that this will
be a night as a real beginning for
these days.
God will focus our attention on what revival
is all about and how important it is,
how serious it is, and that will not
be a sidelight in our life.
You and I sit in this meeting tonight
and know there are two basic major problems
in the average evangelical church.
If you don't have it in your evangelical
church, thank the Lord, but we don't have
to drive very far from yours to find
another one down the road that has it.
There are these problems, two basic major serious
problems.
One problem is simply this, the problem of
the unconverted Christians in our churches.
And all the people said, ah, you don't
know what I'm saying now.
The unconverted Christians in our churches.
That's like a paradox of a statement.
Preacher friend of mine, whose wife now I
say widow lives here in this Jackson area.
When Ralph and I started the ministry, we
started preaching with this dear brother.
And just in this past year, he went
to be with the Lord and we were
just made aware of it recently.
And his widow lives here in the Jackson
area and we trust we'll get to see
her.
But this dear friend of ours, quite an
interesting man, and he was so used of
God to impress us as young preachers.
One time he said, I've just come back
from preaching a sermon, said, what did you
preach?
He said, I preached on the subject, the
unconverted Christians in the church.
I thought to myself, what a title.
And then he started to explain and simply
means this.
Dr. A.
W.
Tozer of the Christian Missionary Alliance organization said
that he believes that no more than 20
% of the people in the constituency of
the Christian Missionary Alliance worldwide, or let's say
North America, know what it is to be
true Christian.
No more than 20%.
When you say that's something for a man
as a prophet speaking for his denomination.
Well, R.
G.
Lee of the big Southern Baptist denomination went
on to say he did not believe more
than 10% of the people of that
constituency knew what it was to be true
Christian.
What a statement.
And yet, if you'd go to the average
person in the average evangelical church said, are
you a Christian?
He turned up and say, what do you
think?
I mean, even the average evangelical church tonight
has the desperate problem of the so-called
unconverted Christian, so-called Christian in the church.
Jesus said it so clearly when he said,
many are going to come to me in
that day and they're going to say, Lord,
Lord, have we not cast out devils in
my name and in thy name done many
wonderful works.
And then will I profess unto them, depart
from me, ye cursed into everlasting flames.
I never knew you.
Now, it's an interesting thing.
Jesus is going to talk like that to
religious people who are going to be working
in his name.
The thing that's interesting to me is when
Jesus said, broad is the way that leads
to destruction.
Many go in there at, but narrow is
the way that leads to life and few
there be which find it.
You know, somehow we think that there are
many are going to find the way of
life.
He says, few are going to find it.
He said, many are going to say, Lord,
Lord, we got our many and few mixed
up.
And I say it's tragic when we have
people in our churches who think they have
faith in God and in that day are
going to find out they're not saved.
When God was working the Saskatoon revival with
Bill McLeod and Walter Bolt and the other
brethren there, in seven or eight weeks of
those meetings, I think we only preached three
sermons to the unsaved.
Three sermons to let's say the unconverted as
we know them.
And yet I don't know the figures, but
if memory serves me, there was somewhere near
five hundred people that were converted to Jesus
Christ in a crusade that had only two
or three gospel sermons in seven weeks.
You say it doesn't happen that way, but
I tell you men and women, there must
have been a lot of unconverted Christians in
the churches that God showed them what true
Christianity was and brought them to true conversion.
The average evangelical church is plagued with the
problem of those.
Wear the name, but not the nature.
Make public profession of Christ in the Christian
life.
Baptize like others.
Support with whatever and whenever they please.
Attend some services, ignore others as the notion
takes them.
Act out of enthusiasm, but no conviction.
No compassionate grip on Christ at all in
their life.
The word sacrifice, inconvenience, these are repulsive in
their mind.
Contribution of time, effort, money is seldom that
which involves sacrifice.
The church, the Bible, worship has very little
compulsion over their life.
The devil is so very willing to let
them profess Christianity as long as they don't
possess it, as long as they don't practice
it.
This is a tragedy in many evangelical churches.
What's the problem?
They have faith.
If you ask them, do you believe?
They say yes.
We talk about faith.
The Bible says the devil believes, he also
trembles.
Do you believe in God?
You do well.
The devil doesn't, he trembles.
So you're put in pretty good company, aren't
you?
So there's something between having a mental ascent
and true belief.
You remember that nobleman who had a son
that needed to be healed?
And it says in John 4, 47, when
he heard that Jesus was come.
Now here's a man who believed that Jesus
could do something for his son because he
had faith in the reputation of Christ.
He had heard that Jesus could perform these
miracles, and so he had faith in the
reputation of Jesus.
But then, secondly, it says he rushed to
Jesus, and when he saw the works of
Jesus, when he asked Jesus, he said, Lord,
come and heal my son.
When he saw the works of Jesus, it
says in John 4, 50, and the man
believed the word of Jesus, for Jesus did
works, and then Jesus said, go your way,
your son will be whole.
And this man believed in the word of
Jesus.
Thank the Lord for a twin brother.
And he believed in the words of Jesus.
And how many people, if you said you
believe in Jesus, they believe yes, in what?
They've heard about him and they believe in
his reputation.
They have faith in Christ through his reputation.
They believe in him because they've even heard
his words.
They've heard it in the word of God.
They've heard it preached.
And they say, I choose to believe those
words, the words of Jesus.
But, oh, you go a little further.
When he went back home and he found
his son was well, it says in John
4, 53, and himself believed in his whole
house.
That's a different thing.
First, he believed because he heard of the
works.
Secondly, he believed because he heard the very
words of Jesus.
But thirdly, it says he himself believed in
Jesus and his whole house.
That's the picture of a commitment of himself
to Christ.
And I would challenge you men and women
that we have people who think they are
true Christian and they believe in the, they
have a faith based on the reputation of
Jesus, a faith based on the, on the
words of Jesus.
But, oh, it needs to be a faith
based on a revelation, a revelation of Jesus
to their life.
Therefore, they're going to be in that group
where he's going to say, depart from me,
I never knew you.
Now, that's in John chapter 4, but turn
with me to John chapter 5.
No sooner get that kind of a story
finished where we see the real picture of
faith.
And then look at what Jesus says to
some very religious people in John chapter 5,
verse 37.
And the Father himself which hath sent me,
said Jesus, he's talking to the Pharisees, these
great religious men, these men who were so
-called, if I can put in 20th century
language, Christian.
Jesus said to them, and the Father himself
which hath sent me hath borne witness of
me.
Ye have neither heard his voice.
You read the Bible, you study the Bible,
but you haven't heard his voice at any
time, nor seen his shape.
You don't really know him.
And ye have not his word abiding in
you.
You have it in the head, but not
in you.
For whom he hath sent, him ye believe
not.
You believe the words perhaps, you study the
theology, but you don't really know him.
Now look at verse 39.
Search the Scriptures.
And the real meaning of that word there
is ye search the Scriptures.
It's not primarily command, search the Scriptures, but
he says you're busy searching the Scriptures.
That's a way of life with you, Pharisees.
For in them ye think ye have eternal
life.
You think because you know the Scriptures, you
have eternal life.
Because there they which testify of me.
And just because you study about me, you
think you have eternal life.
Look at verse 40.
And ye will not come to me that
ye might have life.
I receive not honor from men, but I
know you will not do that you have
not the love of God in you.
What a picture of those who have heads
so full, but hearts so empty.
And I just give it as Jesus speaks
to those who had truly all of that.
This is one of the tragedies of the
average evangelical church.
And pastors are pulling out their hair, if
I can say it that way.
And churches are saying, what can we do
to somehow bring these paths, a mental ascent
of theology into a real hard commitment relationship
to Christ?
And I would challenge every listener in this
meeting tonight, do the words of the Apostle
Paul, examine yourselves to see whether you be
in the faith, lest you also be a
reprobate.
Make sure it's real.
And not in the category of only 10
% are true Christians, so many professing, but
only that few true, or 20% so
many professing, but that few true.
That's the first big tragedy.
And we could spend much time on that.
I want to move to the second big
basic tragedy in the average evangelical church today.
And it's simply this.
The converted Christian in the church, who is
not moving into the real essence of true
Christianity.
The converted Christian in the church, who is
not moving into the true, real essence of
Christianity.
But he's living in defeat in the three
basic areas that comprise true Christianity.
He's living in total defeat in the true
essence of Christianity.
He's been converted.
He knows what it's all about.
But as he sits in the church, he's
living in defeat in the three basic areas
that comprise the essence of Christianity.
What are these three areas?
Could I name them as such?
Fellowship, secondly, holiness, thirdly, challenge.
Three simple words.
Fellowship, holiness, and challenge.
These words comprise the basic essence of Christianity.
You know, that's interesting to me that these
three words make the difference between Christianity being
a religion or not a religion.
It's interesting to me that these three words
separate Christianity from the religions of the world.
And I take exception when a man puts
Christianity in the category of one of the
other religions of the world.
No, when Jesus Christ came on the scene
of fallen bankrupt humanity, there were already four
basic religions on the world.
And that man was adhering to.
Jesus Christ didn't come to start religion number
five.
He said, I am come to do something
and bring something to you that religion has
not been able to do.
I am come that you might have life
and have it abundantly.
Religion couldn't do it.
So why dare we categorize Christianity with one
of the religions of the world?
And these three words separate Christianity from religion.
One, fellowship.
Two, holiness.
Three, challenge.
Some interesting observations about these three words, and
that's this.
These are the three areas that are breaking
the hearts of the average evangelical pastor.
The heart of the average evangelical pastor in
relation to how little of this going on
in the church.
What do I say?
Christians not enjoying fellowship with God.
Christians but not enjoying fellowship with God.
How many have I heard say, if there
isn't more to Christianity than what I am
experiencing, I am about to give up.
And our pastors know that our churches have
many people in that category, and the only
reason why they don't give up on Christianity
is because it's the religion they've chosen, and
it's respectable to identify with the church.
But I tell you, in the days of
revival and honesty, people start to address themselves
to the fact of whether or not they're
that desperate that they've got to have something
more.
Thank God for that honesty.
Andrew Murray said, the first and chief need
of a Christian life is fellowship with God.
Now, few of us have it.
Adam and Eve were made for fellowship with
God.
The sun, the moon, the stars, the trees,
the planets were not, but Adam and Eve
were made for fellowship with God.
So if Christianity is back to God, it
is how is your fellowship with God?
Secondly, Christians don't crave holiness before their Lord.
The average evangelical pastor doesn't know what to
do with the worldliness that's crept in the
church.
Samuel Chadwick, a man of old, said, worldliness
is the blight that has cursed the church
of our day and every generation.
Neither the individual heart nor the church is
big enough to accommodate Christ and the world.
Worldliness is coming into the home today, chilling
and paralyzing our souls until our minds are
given to things of the world instead of
God.
We're being withered by lust.
Duncan Campbell, that man of the great Hebrides
revival, said a baptism of holiness and a
demonstration of Godly living is the crying need
of our day.
And all God's people said, and yet the
average evangelical church and evangelical pastor doesn't know
how to grab the handle to this problem
of the worldliness and the lack of crave
and desire amongst God's people for true Bible
holiness.
The essence of Christianity, I said to you,
is first of all fellowship and second, holiness.
And thirdly, I said challenge.
What do I mean by this?
Christians don't want to get in action for
God.
They don't want to get excited for God.
They want to get on fire for God.
We like more of the idea of retire
and Ralph says, flat tire, a lot less
than Goodyear tire.
Don't want the challenge of Christ.
The average evangelical church is filled with willing
workers, 100% willing workers, 20% willing
to work and 80% willing to let
them work.
Nobody wants the challenge of Christ anymore.
Oh, thank God for that 20%.
Somebody called him that faithful few in every
church and every climb.
When there's some work to do, it's very
likely it will be done by just the
faithful few.
While many folks will help to sing and
some of them will talk when it comes
down to doing things, a lot of them
will walk.
We can't do this.
We can't do that.
Excuse us, please.
This time we'd be so glad to help
you out, but it's not in our line.
So when the leader cast about to find
someone who will do, although he's done it
off before he asks the faithful few, of
course, they're very busy too and always hard
at work, but well, he knows they'll not
refuse nor any duty.
Shirk.
They never stopped to make excuse, but promptly
do try to do the very, very best
they can to smooth away for you.
God bless.
I pray the faithful few and may their
tribe increase.
They must be very precious to the blessed
Prince of Peace.
The average evangelical pastor in this meeting tonight,
thanks God for that faithful through a few.
But the tragedy of it is the very
essence of Christianity spells the word challenge.
But in the average evangelical church, we don't
know what to do to get God's people
moving.
That's before World War Two.
An American pastor was visiting Poland.
They heard a statement by a newly converted
Polish army officer.
This American pastor heard this communist officer who
was converted to Christ.
He said the communists are trying to take
Poland and the Christians are trying to take
Poland.
Whichever side, he said, will make his message
a flame of fire will take Poland.
I want you to answer which side won.
Dr. Bob Cook said in January of 1971
in the Moody Founders Week in Chicago, he
said, now I'll tell you something.
I'll give America three years.
Now this is 1971.
He said, I'll give America three years.
And if we don't have a genuine awakening
among God's people so that this kind of
miracle, what kind of miracle, Dr. Cook, this
kind of holy excitement becomes the norm amongst
God's people becomes normal in the church.
He said, I give you three years that
if it doesn't become the norm, he said,
a wave of old cultism will sweep across
from Europe and from the Orient and you
will see things that will break your heart.
We're up against it already in a mild
way.
He said in 1971, unless God's people, people
like you and me manifest by the thousands
and by the millions in our country, the
reality of God, we're in for some dreadful
days.
What do you think has happened since 1971?
WMBI said in 1977 on the radio, one
out of five Americans now believes in astrology.
1971, Bob Cook says, it's just a mild
thing.
1977, WMBI said one out of five Americans
now in astrology.
And you and I know what the Bible
says about that damn, damnable issue.
In the book Beyond Conformity on page 89
by Mavis, he said there's a very unique
relevance for the Christian church in Edward Gibbons'
oft-quoted words of the greedy philosophers in
a philosophical decadent age.
He said we in the church ought to
listen to those words.
Hear the words.
They held in their lifeless hands the riches
of their fathers without inheriting the spirit that
had created and improved that sacred patrimony.
They read, and we do.
They praised, and we do.
They compiled, and we do.
But their languid souls seemed alike incapable of
thought and action, even though they inherited all
of this from their fathers.
Dr. A.
W.
Tozer says the tragedy of the 20th century
evangelical church is we've exchanged a smug interpretation
of scripture for the heart theology of the
New Testament.
And you men and women sitting in this
meeting and pastors sitting in this meeting, if
you're not saying it out loud, you're saying
in your heart, amen, this is where we
are.
And I'm laying it out before you tonight,
men and women, to get to the issue
of how does revival relate to normal Christianity,
because God knows we've got to get back
to normal.
When Pastor in Ohio said to me just
two weeks ago, he said to me, I
give up.
He said I'm about to quit.
He said there is nothing happening in our
church.
There is nothing moving.
We are on dead center, and he emphasized
dead.
Time magazine wrote a report of the man
who quit the ministry.
Nineteen seventy said my departure from the Protestant
parish ministry made many wonder if I'd given
up on God.
Reverend W.
Smith and Time magazine.
My friends thought maybe I've given up on
God because I left the parish ministry.
He said quite the contrary.
Listen to this statement.
I simply wanted to go where the action
is and not remain where it used to
be.
And that's why I left the ministry.
I'm giving you the commentary of where we
find ourselves in the evangelical church.
There was a man in the Burlington revival
who had even a resentment against the Christians
of that church because he'd come in that
church week in and week out and because
he had seen action and activity and where
the action was in some other worldly movements,
he resented the Christians in the church because
there was no action and there was nothing
there that looked dynamic.
And when the revival came along, God caught
his attention and that man hardly missed a
meeting for four weeks and God turned him
upside down and inside out.
But it's the same spirit.
I was looking for the action and I
don't want to be where it was.
I want to be where it is.
God worked in Abbotsford, British Columbia eighteen months
before we came here to rise way back
in nineteen seventy, I believe.
And God worked out there.
I remember a young couple that God so
mightily touching the young young man said it
like this.
He said, I have been just sitting on
the fence.
Well, that was interesting.
We hear that people sitting on the fence,
but he went on to describe.
He said like this on the one side
of the fence, they're dead and already buried.
He was thinking of those in liberal theology.
He thought they were dead and already buried.
That's the way he described it.
But he said on the other side of
the fence, we're just dead, but just not
buried.
And here we are sitting on the fence
just about to go over on the other
side, even with our fundamental theology, men and
women, I'm talking to you about the three
areas that are breaking the hearts of pastors
because there's no movement and they don't know
what to do to get God's people moving
in fellowship with God in a life of
holiness before God and in commitment to the
cause of Jesus with a world crying for
help.
I've described you where the church is.
Have some very other wonderful, interesting observations about
these three words.
I observed that Jesus Christ himself prayed about
these three things for his church.
It was such a thing in the heart
of my Lord that he prayed about them
for us and about us in these three
years.
Turn to John 17 and look at the
prayer of Jesus in John 17.
Jesus prayed about these three things and thank
the Lord if he prayed about it, we
can believe that the prayers of our Savior
can be expected to be answered.
John 17, verse 13.
And now come I to thee and these
things I speak in the world that they,
my people, might have my joy fulfilled in
themselves.
What's that a picture of?
That's a picture of a fellowship, a joy,
a relationship with Jesus.
And Jesus said, I pray that my people
might have my joy, a relationship, a fellowship
fulfilled in themselves.
Now look in verse 15.
I pray not that thou should take them
out of the world, but that thou should
keep them from the evil.
What's that?
He's praying for the holiness of his people.
They are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
He's praying for our holiness.
Now verse 18.
As thou hast sent me into the world,
even so have I also sent them into
the world.
Now he's telling his father, I've commissioned them.
I've challenged them.
And he's telling his father about the challenge
he's given to his church.
They're the three words, fellowship, holiness, and challenge.
I find an interesting subject in the fact
that Jesus Christ has three ministries to my
life as a believer.
What are they?
There are three things in the Bible that
the Bible says Jesus Christ is greater than.
Do you know that?
Three things that Christ is greater than.
One, greater than the prophet Jonah.
Two, greater than the temple.
Three, greater than King Solomon.
You find that in the word of God.
Those are interesting observations, aren't they?
Jesus is greater than the prophet Jonah, greater
than the temple, and greater than Solomon.
What is the significance?
Greater than the prophet means my Lord is,
first of all, prophet.
Greater than the temple, my Lord is priest.
Greater than Solomon, my Lord is king.
And we sing in the song, praise him,
praise him, prophet and priest and king.
Those are the three relationships that Jesus Christ,
those are the three activities that Christ has
performed on my behalf.
He is a prophet for me and he
is a priest on my behalf and king
for me.
Interesting, isn't it, when I tell you when
the word of God tells me that Jesus
is prophet, that lets me in on who
God is.
That gives me fellowship with God because a
prophet speaks to me the mind of God.
A prophet lets me share and have a
contact and a conversation with God.
A prophet tells me what God is thinking
and that gives me fellowship with God, Jesus
the prophet.
And then he's priest and oh how I
need it.
And that's for my holiness that I can
come, little children, says John, these things I
write unto you that ye sin not.
But if any man sin, he have an
advocate with the Father, even Christ.
And so as priest, he stands there to
make intercession on my behalf and my holiness
can be affected because of his priestly ministry.
And thirdly, as king, as king, and that
is the challenge where he's called me to
be his servant and to be his ambassador
and get involved in his cause and to
be in his army and he'd be the
captain of the army and I'd be one
of his servants and one of his soldiers.
Holiness and there the lordship and challenge for
my life and yours.
I find another interesting observation about these three
things.
These are the three areas for which Jesus
Christ specifically died on the cross for me,
for these three things.
It says in Titus 2, 14, who gave
himself for us.
Why did Jesus give himself for us?
Why?
One, to redeem me from my iniquity, two,
to purify unto himself a peculiar people, three,
zealous of good works, three ministries.
Jesus died on the cross to what?
Redeem me from my iniquities.
And that's what has to happen before I
can have fellowship with God.
It's sin that separates between me and God.
Your sins separate between.
And so he has to take my sins
away so I can have fellowship.
And there it is.
He died on the cross to purify unto
himself a peculiar people.
And there is my holiness, my sanctification to
purify me unto his very heart.
And then he died on the cross to
make me zealous unto good works.
And that's the challenge of the world to
get my life involved in his very cause
and be committed in his army and go
for his very cause.
And so I see in the very reason
why Jesus died, the essence of his death,
these great words, fellowship, holiness and challenge.
You know what I find?
These are the same three areas that make
up and comprise the essence of what is
the kingdom of God.
The apostle Paul says it like this.
He says, for the kingdom of God is
not meat and drink.
In Romans 14, 17, 18, the kingdom of
God is not meat and drink, but was
righteousness one.
But the kingdom of God is to peace.
Kingdom of God is three joy in the
Holy Ghost.
He that serves God in these things in
these was righteousness, peace and joy in the
Holy Ghost says he shall be accepted of
men, accepted of God, the father and approved
of men.
Men are going to like it and God's
going to accept it.
The kingdom of God, righteousness, peace and joy
in the Holy Ghost, righteousness, dealing with my
sins so I can have fellowship with God.
Peace.
The war is over.
I give myself totally to God that I'm
his and his alone.
And the war is over.
And that's the picture of holiness.
The word holiness gives you the picture and
sanctification of singleness of mind, of purity of
thought, pure gold in the context.
My life is singled out unto God and
the war is over.
It's not me and him.
It's him alone.
Peace.
The struggle is over.
I've turned over the rights of my life
to him.
And then the joy of the Holy Ghost.
And you don't think of anything else but
the ministry of God relates to the ministry
of the Holy Spirit.
The challenge of the cross has to be
done in the joy of the Holy Spirit.
And there we have the three words again,
fellowship, holiness and challenge.
Interesting thing to observe.
And when I study in the Bible, I
look for the word Christian.
Everybody calls himself a Christian.
I look for the word Christian.
I tell you, I find it in Bible
only three times, only three times in all
the Bible.
Yet everybody calls himself a Christian.
And you know that in these three times
that you find the word Christian, we find
the same essence of Christianity.
It's fellowship, holiness and challenge.
The first one.
What is it?
Oh, most not persuaded me to be a
Christian, said King Agrippa to Paul when he
pointed his finger in his face.
You've almost persuaded me to be Christian.
What is the meaning?
Simply this.
Paul wasn't asking Agrippa for a mental center,
Christian theology.
You better believe the kind of Christianity Paul
talked about wasn't that he was asking Agrippa
to get on the side of Jesus.
He was asking King Agrippa to choose to
follow Jesus.
He was asking King Agrippa to get in
the company of Jesus.
He was asking King Agrippa the very challenge
of all the New Testament Christianity wrapped up
in those words.
Follow me, follow me, follow me.
That's the kind he was talking about.
So he was saying, Agrippa, I'm asking you,
will you choose to walk in fellowship with
this Christ?
The second word Christian.
They were called Christians first at Antioch.
That's the second word Christian.
Oh, that's Acts 11, 26.
They were called Christian first at Antioch.
Why?
Why were they called Christian?
They didn't give themselves the name.
They got the name from somebody else.
When were they called Christian?
And what was the reason?
Who called them?
The godless, wicked society gave them the name.
When were they called Christian?
After the witness was established in Antioch and
the church had been going for approximately 12
years, then they received the name Christian from
the wicked, godless, licentious city of Antioch.
Why would the wicked people call them Christian?
Why?
Because they were trying to give them a
name that identified them with what they look
like and how they acted.
And they said these people are looking and
acting something like someone we call Jesus Christ
or we heard about Jesus Christ.
And they look like they're the same ones.
They act the same way.
They talk the same way.
And they must be Christians.
What's the word?
They were living a life of holiness that
Jesus Christ was recognized in the life of
the believers.
That was early Christianity.
And that's the second word Christian in the
New Testament.
Then there's a third one, and that's in
1 Peter 4, 16.
If a man suffer as a Christian, let
him not be ashamed, but let him glorify
God on this behalf.
Suffer as a Christian.
What is it?
That's those who are willing to get into
the program of God.
Those who are willing to take the stand
and go outside the camp and bear Jesus'
reproach like he did.
Those that are willing to take the reproach
of Jesus, to stand up for Jesus, ye
soldiers of the cross, and suffer as a
Christian.
And there's the word challenge.
Do you know what's interesting, men and women?
You don't find the fourth word Christian in
your Bible.
That's all you find.
Isn't it interesting?
Three, and that's it.
I find another interesting observation in this truth,
and that is the very scripture that we
quote so much about the new birth.
Not John 3, but 2 Corinthians 5, 17.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature.
Old things are passed away, and all things
become new.
In that very scripture passage, we see the
essence of Christianity bears out fellowship, bears out
holiness, and bears out challenge.
What is it?
Back up two verses.
And that Jesus Christ died for all that
they which live.
There's fellowship.
I was dead, and I live.
And the essence of living is knowing God
and having fellowship with God, should not henceforth
live unto themselves.
There is the life of holiness, as it
were, living supremely for Jesus.
Live unto him who died for them and
rose again.
And then, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, a new
creature in Christ.
There is the sin problem.
Now I can have that fellowship with God.
And then immediately it says, now ye are
in Christ, and in Christ ye are in
God, and God has reconciled us to himself.
God has reconciled us.
That means fellowship has been restored to himself.
He wants us right near his very heart.
He's pulling us to his very heart, to
himself.
Not a casual word, a big word.
Reconciles us to himself.
And then he's given to us the ministry
of reconciliation.
That's the challenge.
You see it?
There's holiness.
Reconcile me to God.
There's fellowship.
And there's holiness to God's self, to his
very heart.
There is the challenge.
He's given me a ministry of reconciliation.
What a ministry to be ambassador for Jesus.
And that's all in 2 Corinthians 5, when
we use 2 Corinthians 5, 17, but the
chapter is so full.
Oh, on and on you could go.
It's interesting to me, and we're not going
to take the time to read, but you
do when you go home.
You read every one of Paul's basic prayers.
You read his first chapter to the Corinthians,
and you read that this is the kind
of thing he talks about in the essence
of Christianity.
You turn to Philippians.
You turn to Colossians.
You turn to Ephesians, and you pick up
Paul's prayers.
And you find in Thessalonians as well, 2
Thessalonians, you find in each one of these
leading parts of the book, you'll find prayers
that are based on his praying just like
Jesus has prayed.
Paul is praying that our fellowship with God
is real, and that our life is a
life of holiness, and that our life is
involved in the challenge of Jesus.
It's full in the Word.
What am I saying to you tonight, men
and women?
I'm simply telling you tonight that this is
normal Christianity.
And yet the average evangelical church is chafing
at the bits, saying, how can we get
some of this to come back to us?
Well, that gets us to the real issue.
How does revival relate to the essence of
what normal Christianity is all about?
Charles G.
Finney said revival should be the normal state
of the church.
Backsliding, carnality, barrenness, and sinfulness are abnormal.
I get the words.
He's already used normal.
He's used abnormal.
He said revival is not a two-week
campaign.
It should be the daily life of the
church.
Anything less is subnormal, so he's used normal
and abnormal and subnormal about revival.
W.B. Reilly said it remains true that
the revival state is the only state for
the church.
Dr. Reilly, one of the great pulpiteers of
America in Minneapolis for years, Christians ought to
so live that a revival will be coming
down from heaven like snow and rains through
the entire season.
How does revival relate to normal Christianity?
Bill Leiner said God means for us to
live revived.
Revival should be our normal experience.
Our concept of revival may be the cause
for our not living in revival.
T.S. Rendell said revival is not a
luxury.
It is a lifeline.
That sounds like a necessity, not just a
necessary evil.
Oh, we have our revival next week.
Well, we had ours last week.
We're glad it's passed.
He said it's a lifeline, not a luxury.
Well, simply saying this, our deduction is this.
Normal Christianity relates to my fellowship with God.
It relates to my holiness before God.
It relates to my accepting the challenge of
God in this world.
And if revival then relates to normal Christianity,
revival has to relate to those three areas.
Does it?
And if it does, we've come for the
right purpose tonight.
Our fellowship with God, how does revival relate
to it?
Simple as this.
God in revival is bringing us to a
place of honesty about our sin.
God is getting us to name sin, sin
and not call it a mistake.
And when you do that, God is ready
to minister to you.
And then the line can be opened between
you and God and fellowship can be restored.
God is bringing us to Psalm 129, 139,
23, 24.
God's people are praying, search me, oh God,
and know me and try me and see
if there'd be any wicked way in me.
Lead me in the path everlasting.
Know my heart and my mind.
Try me.
That's the essence.
To bring us back into fellowship with God,
it's got to be that kind of praying.
Nothing else will do.
We'll go on as we've been going on
in church after church, spinning wheels with one
program after another and not seemingly taxing down
the runway and never taking off unless we'll
come to the issue of Psalm 139 and
we come down to this kind of honesty
and then the fellowship between us and God
will be restored.
Painful, isn't it?
Yes, but what a blessed experience when that
fellowship is restored.
You were made for fellowship.
What a blessed experience when it's restored.
Two years ago, right here in this conference,
some of you folks don't see and hear
all the side stories, but there was a
dear pastor brother who for 20 years had
held a bitterness, a Baptist pastor who'd come
in from out of the Lyng area in
Michigan and he'd come into the conference and
he sat here on a Sunday morning and
Brother Sipley preached on depression, its cause and
cure, and he sat in the meeting and
God showed him the sin of his heart.
For 20 years, he'd been holding a bitterness
against the church where he went and took
that church and there were two factions that
had split and there were two little groups.
He went into town and because of his
good graces and his ability and his personality
and so forth, he was able to get
these two split factions, brought them together, put
them under the same roof and they just
sort of swept everything under the rug and
organizationally they came together, but organically they never
did.
You know the difference?
They swept it under the rug.
They swept it under the rug, but they
didn't settle the bitterness.
And I tell you what happened.
This dear brother felt good.
He brought these two parties together and then
bring them together.
They then turned around and took out their
bitterness on him.
They didn't get rid of it.
They got together with people but took out
their bitterness on him.
And the man who led the fight against
that pastor to kick him out was a
retired missionary and this pastor felt that he
should have known better, if anybody should have
known, this man should have known better.
And for 20 years, that dear brother, when
he came to this conference two years ago,
he sat in the meeting for 20 years.
He carried that bitterness.
Imagine him preaching and preaching and preaching for
20 years and having these years of sin
and that bitterness, that weight on him.
But thank God for the honesty that got
a hold of his heart and he broke
before God and that man got up in
front of the men's meeting here and shared
with the men and he was just as
free as a bird.
I would have loved to have been in
his church that next day when he was
going to preach in that Baptist church in
Michigan.
20 years, the weight, but now the fellowship
between him and God was restored.
And the last, he came back on Monday
after preaching on Sunday and he emptied his
pockets into the offering baskets.
He saw Bob's meetings and he said, the
last penny I have, every dollar I have,
he gave it all.
And Bob said, aren't you staying for the
last meeting?
He said, I can't, I'm so full.
I'm right up there.
I can't take another bit.
I think I'll burst.
He said, I can't take another meeting.
I'll burst.
And he went home.
But he emptied every penny he had.
He said, I wish, I feel like going
down to the bank and taking a loan
and put so much more into this.
But God's done to him.
Oh, that's just one.
These two brothers that have been fighting for
all of those years in the book, Claims
of Freedom.
Now they're free.
They're free.
Painfully, yes.
Revival is the moment the blood of Christ
cleanses your heart with the Holy Spirit entering,
making the presence and person of the Lord
Jesus real to you.
That's fellowship.
Thus, revival is realizing the power of the
blood of Jesus in my daily life, knowing
the necessity of repenting and letting the Holy
Spirit minister to my heart, revealing my sin.
So I am a repenting and praising child
of God.
Doesn't sound like it's bad.
You end up praising, repenting and praising because
you're set free.
Edmund said, Revival always includes that conviction of
sin on the part of Christians, along with
deep searching of heart.
The fountain of tears and penitence is broken
up.
It's unspeakable searching, melting of God's Holy Spirit
among his people.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is personal
and immediate goes to the individual.
He's at the same time convicting of sin
and comforting the penitent who bows.
He's convicting and breaking, but then he comforts
that one.
That heart can praise God all over again.
Dear Brother Owen Lutzer wrote, and he said,
The painful experience of acknowledging pride and hypocrisy
or making restitution for the past offenses cannot
compare with the joy and freedom that comes
to those who are filled with the Holy
Spirit.
And that's what happens.
Then the inner life is dealt with.
The area of holiness before God, all the
inner life can be dealt with.
My self-life, that which is the base
of my problem.
I identify with crucifixion.
I identify with Christ on his cross by
faith.
I identify that I am there on that
cross with him.
And this old self has no room to
live and no room to exist.
It identifies with the cross.
And it's not just do better next time
and do better next time.
But it's by faith.
You live the life of a dead man
by identifying with crucifixion.
I am crucified with Christ.
So there the inner man, the inner life
and the self is identified with crucifixion.
Dr. Havner put it so beautifully, said one
of our problems in the average evangelical church
is that all over this country, we've just
about rededicated ourselves to death, rededicate.
We're running down.
We're running an old Adam Improvement Society in
entirely too many churches.
He said the unsanctified flesh that has never
died to sin and risen to walk in
the newness of life of Jesus is running
down church aisle after church aisle to rededicate.
And God wouldn't use it if it were
rededicated 1000 times.
It's not rededication, it's death.
Self wants to be crowned and God wants
it crucified.
And there's what the message of revival is
doing, giving us not only the fact that
we can be freed from the sin when
we said, Lord, forgive me for the sin,
but all that we can be set free
from the shackles of the self life.
It's not that the self is dead, but
I can be free from the shackles of
that self life.
I can be released to serve God in
liberty and in truth.
Every my life then given over to God,
when a young man is converted, he then
should be asked now, will you dare to
pray, Lord Jesus, what are your plans for
my life?
Oh, I'm planning to be a school teacher.
I'm planning to be a lawyer.
Does he go right on and continue to
be a lawyer or school teacher because that's
what he planned before you say, oh, no,
he brings his future to God.
He says death.
He puts the cross over every single area
of his life.
And he says, I want to identify every
area of my life with crucifixion, that it's
no more I, but Christ.
And from the moment I become a Christian,
I could say my will, not my will,
but thine be done is the prayer.
And then I say, I delight, oh God,
to do thy will.
As Christ said, have you ever realized that
great prayer of the Lord's prayer when he
said, when you say thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven, that
single Lord, will you do in my life
your will and work your will out through
me on earth just like you're doing it
up in heaven.
That's true into God.
That's crucifixion of self and say no more
I, but Christ.
Thank the Lord.
From there, the ministry of the Holy Spirit's
possible.
And that's the point when the fruit is
real fruit.
Paul says fruitful unto every good work, get
it?
Fruitful unto every good work.
We have a lot of people with a
lot of good works and working and working
and working in the average evangelical church, but
for it to be fruitful unto every good
work.
Andrew Murray said about that, he said this,
it is only when our good works come
through the indwelling Holy Spirit, that they will
be acceptable to God under the compulsion of
law and conscience or the influence or inclination
of zeal from men.
We may be diligent in good works and
we may find that there is very little
spiritual result that will last.
We'll get a lot of works and see
results, but very little last.
Their works are men's efforts instead of being
the fruit of the spirit, the restful, natural
outcome of the spirit's operation within us and
through us and out of us to a
world that needs to be touched by almighty
God.
This is what revival is all about, that
I shall have fellowship with God, that I
shall know what it is to be freed
from that self that wants to be Lord
and Master, and I shall live a life
of holiness.
And that's a picture of separated unto the
very heart of Jesus.
And I shall not live by the dictates
of this self-life that wants to dictate
and call the shots.
And then I shall see the spontaneity of
the life of God flowing through me because
the Holy Spirit now is free to operate
and minister through me.
And the works that I do become fruitful
unto good works because they're the works of
God himself through the Holy Spirit.