I appreciate Brother Don Curran doing those book
reviews.
I've always looked up to him in a
lot more ways than one.
I appreciate and love him and pray for
him and his ministry.
For years he's just traveled far and widely
preaching the gospel with the Canadian Revival Fellowship.
I still hadn't figured that out, a Georgia
guy with the Canadian Revival Fellowship.
But that's all right.
I would like to invite you to turn
to Psalm 102.
As you turn there, you know, God tells
us to remember his works.
And right now is the 150th anniversary of
the third great awakening in America.
It started in September 1857.
So we're heading into the anniversary of it.
And it was at its full blown beginnings
by November there in New York City.
And so that's what I want to speak
to you today on when heaven touched earth,
America and the third great awakening.
And I've chosen as a text because I
believe it's fitting Psalm 102.
We're going to read verses 12 through 17.
But thou, Lord, shalt endure forever.
And thy remembrance unto all generations, thou shalt
arise and have mercy upon Zion for the
time to favor her.
Yes, the set time has come for thy
servants take pleasure in her stones and favor
the dust thereof.
So the heathen shall fear the name of
the Lord.
And all the kings of the earth, thy
glory, when the Lord shall build up Zion,
he shall appear in his glory.
He will regard the prayer of the destitute
and not despise their prayer.
That verse 17 is one of the most
precious promises about answered prayer, because it's not
the great, the educated, the wise, the deep,
the successful, the greatly gifted, the smart, the
rich, the handsome, the beautiful.
But it's the destitute that God says he
will regard their prayer and not despise it.
And what an encouragement to remember that the
Bible also says that.
Any Christian.
God delights in the prayers of the righteous.
What a thing to think about.
I want you to note particularly verse 13,
where David speaks of set times.
He says the set time has come to
favor her.
That is Zion.
That is the people of God, the church
of Jesus Christ.
Yes, the appointed time has come.
There are times in redemptive history where God
says, in effect, I'm going to do a
new work, an accelerated work.
I'm going to supercharge my kingdom.
I'm going to quicken and enliven and enlarge
and mobilize and accelerate my kingdom.
I'm going to save multitudes in a moment
and nations in a day.
This is what I'm purposing to do now,
not by ordinary times and ordinary means, but
by an extraordinary increased visitation of my power
on earth.
I'll make heaven touch earth once again, and
I'm purposing to do it all over again.
And I'll do this by stirring up my
people to pray and enable them to lay
hold on me so that they might participate
with me and that I might get glory
all over again by sending a season of
refreshing from my presence, by reviving my work
in the midst of the years.
And instead of sending wrath, I'll send mercy,
mercy drops, not only mercy drops, but showers
of blessing.
That's what God purposes to do in these
set times.
So as Matthew Henry said, when God purposes
to do a new work of grace, he
sets his people to pray.
He stirs them up to pray.
He quickens their hearts to call upon his
name.
He gives a prayer burden.
He gives desires.
He enlarges their hearts to seek after him.
He stirs them to pray in fresh ways,
in new ways.
Well, one of those divine moments, one of
those set times of the almighty was 150
years ago on 19th century American soil in
the third great awakening.
Now, before we begin to talk about it,
I just, there were two truths on my
heart about awakenings and revivals that I think
are so important to have etched in our
minds.
The whole idea of revivals and awakenings especially
includes two major truths.
Truth number one, in an awakening, the influence
and the coming of the Holy Spirit is
in a much greater measure and power during
times of revival than in normal times.
Now, he's always working.
He's always building his church.
Every believer and every true church of Jesus
Christ is always being sanctified and led and
helped and kept by the Holy Spirit of
God.
He's always working.
But there are times when God chooses to
greatly increase the working of the Holy Spirit
in great measures with fresh power.
It becomes an extraordinary time, not an ordinary
time, a much larger increase of God's grace
and power, a much larger giving of the
Holy Spirit.
When his presence comes more, when his power,
remember that scripture in the Gospels, even about
the Lord Jesus where it says, and the
power of the Lord was present to heal.
Duncan Campbell in the Hebrides revival in 1949
through 1952, 1953, he made the statement in
trying to describe what God did in that
visitation by saying something to the effect that
even the town and the atmosphere was saturated
with the presence of God.
So that's the first truth.
An increase of the presence and power of
the Holy Spirit is what characterizes revival.
That's what causes revival.
Secondly, second truth, the Holy Spirit is primarily
concerned in every genuine revival about one thing
primarily.
And some of us might say the glory
of God.
Well, that's a given.
But as far as among the hearts of
people, his primary concern, the primary work in
an awakening is one thing, sound conversions.
This past year, I heard about the latest
wave, and I don't know if it came
out of Canada or Florida or where, but
it's the drooling revival.
And one prophet got the word that based
on the scripture that says, unless we become
as little children that we won't inherit the
kingdom of God.
And what do little children do but drool?
And so people gather together and they begin
to wait on the Holy Spirit and suddenly
they know he's moving because people begin to
drool.
Well, let me be on purpose, politically incorrect
about this stuff.
The barking like dogs, the howling like wolves,
the crowing like roosters, the cackling like chickens
and the falling backward where you think you've
got the spirit is not the Holy Spirit's
work in revival.
Now they've got a spirit all right, but
it's not the Holy Spirit.
I want you to look at a verse
in Zechariah chapter 10.
I'm sorry, 12 verse 10.
If you don't have a Bible, just listen
close.
But Zechariah 12 verse 10, it's the next
to last book in the Old Testament.
Go to Malachi and go back a page.
Zechariah 12 verse 10.
Look at what God says will be the
effect of the outpouring, the sending of the
Holy Spirit.
And I will pour upon the house of
David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the
spirit of grace and of supplication, as brother
Bill McLeod said last night, that can be
translated the spirit of grace to supplicate.
And they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced.
This is the effect when the spirit is
poured out.
This is what results.
This is what happens.
They shall look upon me whom they have
pierced.
So it's not the seeking of manifestations of
some gift or experiences.
It's Christ centered.
They shall look upon me whom they pierced
and they shall laugh a lot, right?
Well, the living Bible might say that, but
my Bible doesn't.
And I'm not trying to be funny.
They shall mourn for him as one who
mourns for his only son and shall be
in bitterness for him.
What happened on the day of Pentecost?
The Bible says when Peter preached a simple
gospel sermon that they were pricked in their
heart, they were stabbed in their consciences and
they cried out.
The primary work of God, the Holy Spirit,
when he is poured out is conversion.
It is times where God moves mightily and
profound conviction of sin and profound repentance occurs.
Suddenly, those people in Jerusalem that morning at
Pentecost, they woke up that morning, they didn't
have a clue what was fixing to happen.
And in a few hours, they were deeply
broken under conviction of sin.
The Spirit, in times of revival, produces saving
faith in Jesus Christ among thousands of people
simultaneously.
Pentecost was the conversion of 3,000 persons
through one sermon.
In times of spiritual declension, there are 3
,000 sermons and maybe one conversion.
In times of awakening, there can be one
sermon and 3,000 conversions.
Turning men from their idols to serve the
living God, turning men from Satan to the
Savior, translating them from the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of God's beloved Son, that
seasons of refreshing might come from the presence
of the Lord.
Sound conversion is the mark of the Holy
Spirit.
Proverbs says, turn you at my reproof, behold,
I'll pour out my Spirit upon you.
So this is central in understanding.
And in the 1858 prayer revival, this is
what happened.
This is the third great awakening in American
history.
And it's been regarded by many historians as
the greatest work of grace that the world
has ever seen since the day of the
apostles.
And yet, it may be the least known
major awakening of all.
Because, maybe for two reasons.
First of all, no major account of that
awakening was even written until well into the
20th century.
Oh, there was a book we have on
the book table, The Power of Prayer, about
this awakening in New York.
But it was written one year after the
awakening in 1859.
So a definitive record couldn't be written yet.
It was only until the 20th century that
two main works were written on it.
J.
Edwin Orr's book, The Event of the Century
and Roy Fish, When Heaven Touched Earth.
So that may be why it's lesser known.
Secondly, the awakening was not dominated or brought
by any outstanding preacher, or revivalist, or theologian,
or man.
As Orr said, the movement sprang from the
labor of no great man or preacher.
Yet, it became the most thorough and extensive
and wholesome awakening ever known in the history
of the Christian church.
And I believe that's true.
Much bigger than the first Great Awakening.
Much bigger and more extensive than the second
Great Awakening.
It was a sovereign movement of prayer that
resulted in an outpouring of the Holy Spirit
that was unparalleled in all of U.S.
history.
For the most part, it was unexpected and
sudden.
Now, before the 1850s, there were several major
periods of widespread awakening.
The first Great Awakening, the years would be
about 1727 to 1770.
George Whitfield died in 1770.
And all through there, Whitfield preached for 34
years.
And he saw awakening almost his whole ministry.
Dying in 1770.
Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, Howell Harris, Daniel Rowlands.
And you should read their lives.
You should read the writings related to them
because they represent the first Great Awakening.
The second Great Awakening came 30, 35 years
later, 1792 to about 1843.
And there had been powerful revivals only a
few years prior to the 1850s in New
York City.
Under the ministries of such men as J
.W. Alexander and a man named Asahel Nettleton.
20 to 40 years earlier, before 1858, J
.W. Alexander, he was the son of Archibald
Alexander, who was the primary theologian in America
at the time in Virginia.
And he was the founding professor of Princeton
College.
And Alexander had seen mighty revivals.
And his son, J.W. Alexander, had grown
into and had lived among the fruit of
great revivals.
Alexander and Nettleton had experienced wonderful outpourings of
the Holy Spirit under their preaching.
In several places, Alexander, for instance, writing to
a friend in 1837 about God's work in
New Jersey, said this.
Brother, in New Brunswick, the old town is
now shaken by a Great Awakening.
And at Princeton, Alexander said soon after that,
the entire college is now aroused.
From 100 to 200 students are now attending
the college prayer meeting.
And some of the worst young men on
campus seem now to truly be converted.
Now, previously, a Baptist author, and you know,
you have to watch them because they're prone
to evangelical exaggeration, as they say.
Described an outpouring of the Spirit in Hartford,
Connecticut, wrote this description.
The Lord seems to have stepped out of
the unusual paths to affect this work more
immediately in the display of His power and
the outpouring of the Spirit, probably to show
that the work is His and His only.
Now, by 1856, one year prior to the
prayer revival, Alexander had seen real stirrings of
God in his own church in New York
City.
He had taught at Princeton.
He had gone to New York City to
pastor, and later he would go back to
Princeton.
But here he is toward the end of
his life, and he had seen stirrings.
In the spring of 1856, he invited, after
one service one evening, those willing to be
guided about seeking salvation to come to his
home.
And more than 40 people followed him to
his house.
God was stirring the waters and blowing on
the embers.
And then as the nation came into the
mid-1850s, several revivals began to happen, even
before 57 and 58.
There were two especially powerful outpourings of the
Spirit in Pennsylvania and then South Carolina.
In fact, in Buford, South Carolina, there was
a major remarkable local revival.
Now, I don't know how big Buford was
at the time, but my guess is it
couldn't have been a thousand people.
I don't know for sure.
But in a matter of 14 weeks, 428
people professed sound conversion and were baptized in
a 14-week period in the context of
a genuine moving of the Holy Spirit.
And the whole county was in the grip
of God's presence.
Then soon after that, a significant movement of
God in Canada, in Hamilton, Ontario.
And that was a small beginning of larger
things to come soon.
But the largest stirrings of the Third Great
Awakening really began in New York City.
The year was 1857.
It's the fall of the season.
And how did it start?
A small, very small, simple prayer meeting.
That was started in September at the North
Reform Dutch Church on Fulton Street.
And let me tell you where this is.
The church building isn't there anymore, but it's
right down near Ground Zero.
In fact, if this church building had been
there on 9-11, it would have been
hit by debris.
That's the location that the North Reform Dutch
Church was on Fulton Street.
And in June of that year, a city
missionary named Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier had left his
business to begin to do mission work in
the city.
For nine years prior, he had been a
member of J.W. Alexander's Church.
But by 1857, he had joined the Fulton
Street Church officially to become a local city
missionary.
After he went there, two months later, a
financial panic of 1857 began in New York
City.
An insurance company in Ohio had lost five
million dollars and 55 banks in New York
City held a major part in that company.
Suddenly, it set off a huge financial chain
reaction that affected first New York City and
all the East Coast.
And so one 19th century historian says this.
Suddenly, thousands who had been trusting in uncertain
riches were suddenly ruined, lost their jobs or
businesses, and tens of thousands of people were
unemployed.
Men were filled with distress.
People were homeless, without food, and their hearts
were failing them for fear.
And suddenly, in the context of God fixing
to shake the city and the nation unbeknown
to them, thousands of Americans were seeing the
vanity and uncertainty of this world.
And they began to feel their need for
something more certain and more enduring.
Well, Jeremiah Lamphere saw this.
He walked the streets.
And one day, he saw in some men
on the streets anxiety and stress.
And the thought came to him.
You know, wouldn't a period of prayer at
noon be something that could provide a blessing
to people?
So he decided, don't ever imagine that the
least little real step of obedience by you
is unimportant.
Jeremiah Lamphere made some notice to announce a
noon prayer meeting.
He said, I'll do it.
He made some notices, which would be on
the third floor of the church.
The first meeting was on September 23rd, and
he showed up at noon to pray.
And guess who was there?
Him.
He's the only one that showed up.
Guess what he did?
He started praying.
But at about 1230, he heard some steps
coming up the stairs.
One and two and three and four.
And finally, five men from four different denominations,
strangers to him, joined him.
Six men were praying that first day.
And that six-man prayer meeting became, it
was the beginning of what would be the
most significant movement of prayer since the day
of Pentecost.
Now, perhaps the 1904-05 welts revival could
be compared.
But at the second meeting, 20 men were
present.
And within three weeks, a hundred men were
coming regularly at least.
A number of which they thought appeared to
be unconverted at first.
By mid-October, when the New York banks
all ceased, they all closed, they ceased payment
of any kind, the Fulton Street prayer meeting
was into its fourth week and hundreds were
coming.
Lanphier records this in his diary.
I called on a number today to invite
them to the noon prayer meeting.
A large number present.
We had a precious time.
It was the very gate of heaven.
So the movement of prayer just spontaneously began
to ignite.
There was nothing he did.
There was nothing that men did.
This was just a work of God.
It spontaneously grew.
It spread into other rooms of the church.
Soon hundreds and hundreds more began to come.
And no sooner would a new place for
people to pray be opened up than it
would fill up and they would have to
find other places to go.
All kinds of people, men came and then
ladies came and then young men and then
young ladies.
And it was later that children began to
have their own prayer meetings.
It was like Psalm 32, six was literally
fulfilled where David said, For this shall everyone
who's godly.
That is, everyone who's a believer.
Pray unto thee in a time when you
may be found.
God was saying, I'll be found right now.
Call upon me.
Call upon me and I'll answer you.
I want to be found right now.
Ask of me.
Seek me.
You won't seek me in vain.
Just pray and call and I'll answer.
That's what God seemed to be doing.
During this time, Alexander said this.
I perceive such a degree right now of
spiritual inquiry.
Now, we don't use such phrases today.
Hunger, thirst, desire.
As I've never seen before in all of
my ministry, personal study is impossible.
For I am sought out continually by persons,
many of whom I've never known, who are
in distress and in search of spiritual counsel.
Wouldn't you like to see that in your
town?
The prayer meetings, he said, are very sobering
and edifying.
The openness of thousands of people to sound
doctrine and reproof is undeniable.
He said, rest assured that a great awakening
is now among us with meetings of great
size as God has poured out a spirit
of grace and supplication.
By March of 1858, six months after Jeremiah
prayed the first morning, over 50,000 people
were attending noon prayer meetings across the city
of 700,000 in New York.
There was no hysteria, no uncontrolled emotions, but
simply a hunger in the hearts of thousands
upon thousands of people to pray.
It seemed like they were drawn to pray
by an unseen reality that couldn't be explained
and couldn't be controlled.
Minutes from the Boston North Church Association, 1858,
read this.
One of the most remarkable features of this
work of grace, which has prevailed in our
churches during this past year, is that it
began and has carried forward by no specially
planned methods, no special events, but by the
instruments designed to be abiding and within the
reach of all Christians.
Those being, of course, prayer and the scriptures,
prayer and the word of God.
Now, it's been wrongly reported that there was
no preaching in this revival.
Oh, there was.
There was preaching regularly, but preaching wasn't the
primary.
Like in the first great awakening with Edwards
and Whitfield and those men, preaching wasn't the
primary central means that God used.
It was prayer, prayer.
And it became a classic example of widespread,
sudden, sovereign revival in the land.
Ian Murray states regarding the 1858 awakening, all
the classic marks of a true spiritual awakening
were present.
Powerful and numerous conversions.
Hunger for the word of God and for
real prayer.
Spiritual appetite for serious Christian literature.
A sense of wonder and awe.
Remember, it says that in the book of
Acts, that men were in fear.
Great fear came upon them and multitudes were
added to the church.
A sense of wonder and awe.
Profound serious mindedness.
And the same power of the Spirit manifested
not just in one place, but widely simultaneously.
Joyful praise and readiness to witness.
And Murray says a change in the entire
moral climate of the community.
It reminds me what A.W. Tozer always
liked to say.
Revival changes the moral climate of the community,
or it's not revival.
Well, as the revival began to spread, a
spirit of prayer suddenly began to spread literally
like a forest fire, a prairie fire and
run through other states south into the west.
John Gerardo, the great southern preacher during that
time, said that during this period, genuine revivals
and outpourings were occurring over practically the entire
country.
It was true all the way to South
Texas and all the way to California.
I don't know what happened in the northwest,
but all over the east and southeast and
the south and the midwest and into South
Texas.
And as far as California, the Spirit of
God was mightily, mightily saving thousands of people
who had come to a prayer meeting.
Simply coming to a prayer meeting.
Boston, then a city of 175,000 began
to be powerfully affected and thousands came to
Christ.
Philadelphia, one of those original six men in
the first prayer meeting, went to Philadelphia to
lead the initial prayer meetings there.
And God worked powerfully all over the city.
And finally, after about six months, they weren't
sure if they were to continue those and
they were thinking about stopping them.
When in one of the meetings one night,
when children found out that the meetings might
not be going on again, suddenly into one
of the meetings, it said that 200 children
marched in together singing hymns.
And the adults and the leaders began to
cry.
And the meetings went on for another year
there.
In Newburyport, Massachusetts, the burial place of George
Whitfield, it had a population of 13,000.
It was reported that 600 conversions and additions
to the local churches in a few number
of months.
Many of them adults who had been professing
atheists and agnostics.
Whitfield's bones under the church at the time
might have been rattling if somebody had checked.
God was shaking Newburyport.
The last place Whitfield preached at midnight and
he died that night in his room and
he was buried there below the church.
Many other places in Massachusetts communities, testimonies, powerful
testimonies began to come forth that God was
truly moving in power.
From New Hampshire, the word came.
The occasion of the great prayer revival is
in almost every city and town and neighborhood
in our state.
Daily prayer meetings being held at noon in
all the cities and large places, not only
in church buildings, but in public halls, stores
and businesses.
The voice of heartfelt prayer is everywhere, is
everywhere.
Now, let me mention a neat story.
There was an incident in in New York
State where a true story was shared in
the Fulton Street prayer meeting as a testimony
somewhere in a rural area.
There was a group of about 20 families,
very rural, cut off, cut off from most
towns.
And this place was noted for its outward
wickedness and and profanity and violence.
In fact, it had been come to know
be known as Hell's Corner and civilized people
wouldn't go there.
Well, the residents of Hell's Corner had heard
about people getting religion, so they decided they
would hold a mock prayer meeting.
And there was one man there who had
once professed to be a true believer in
Jesus Christ, but he was obviously a notorious
backslider.
But they called on him to lead this
mock prayer meeting.
When he began before long, he broke down
and he couldn't continue.
And suddenly the mockery and the snickering was
gone, and a spirit of soberness just began
to grip those men.
And they sent someone to the nearest town
that they knew of, and they invited a
deacon from that town to come and lead
a meeting.
Well, he thought it was a trick to
hurt him.
He didn't want to go to Hell's Corner.
He thought they were trying to do something
to him, but he sought counsel and he
took others with him.
And so they went to Hell's Corner to
see the situation.
And his report was as follows.
I had been there only a few minutes
when I knew that the spirit of the
Lord was there powerfully.
Four or five hardened men had been struck
under conviction of sin, and a meeting was
held, and they and others were converted.
And it said these prayer meetings there continued.
Many of those persons have been converted and
have become praying men and women.
And the work has spread from Hell's Corner
with real power.
At the last meeting, they reported there were
more than a hundred present.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh
when men mock.
In Pennsylvania, a lumberjack in the mountains related
his conversion.
He said all through the Pennsylvania mountains, the
Lord has been pouring out his spirit.
And among these thoughtless, wicked men, as they
are around here, he has brought many to
repentance.
For 49 years, I lived the life of
an unrepentant sinner.
But now it has been over three months
that I've been a true Christian.
I had gone to a Methodist meeting and
it pleased the Lord to awaken me in
that meeting.
I knelt down to pray and the Lord
met me.
He led me to complete surrender and my
burden was gone.
And I knew my sins were forgiven.
A young actor in New York City gave
this testimony.
I trust that during this summer, I have
been brought to embrace Jesus Christ as he's
offered in the Gospel.
I had attended these prayer meetings nearly every
day for two months.
And God has made them the means of
my salvation.
My life and work has been sad and
wretched beyond all description.
Ten years ago, I was under conviction of
sin when preparing for college.
I then grieved away the Holy Spirit and
I began to drink what's nearly proved to
be my ruin.
During this time, I was an actor on
the stage with all its vices and allurements
dragging me down to ruin.
But God, who is rich in mercy, God's
grace has been mercifully shown to me in
bringing me a poor repenting sinner to the
Savior.
He surely saves to the uttermost all who
come to God by him.
This was the kind of testimony among hundreds
of thousands of people in the third great
awakening.
Missouri and Illinois were greatly affected by this
prayer revival.
In St. Louis, the power of prayer suddenly
began to spread supernaturally.
It was said by one, We do not
remember ever to have observed such a general
awakening of the people on the subject of
true religion.
And as is now clearly seen here, Methodist
preachers reported over 900 conversions in the Oskaloola
area of Missouri.
And powerful movements happened in St. Joseph, St.
Charles, and Troy areas.
The St. Louis News, a main paper of
the city, gave this report.
Now, folks, this is better than the Cardinals
winning the World Series right here.
There is scarcely, St. Louis News reported, there
is scarcely a single county in our local
states that has not shared in the blessing
from heaven.
Almost every country meeting house in Missouri and
Illinois has been or now is the scene
of earnest and zealous preaching resulting in genuine
revivals.
Prairie fires breaking out everywhere.
And men couldn't contain it or resist it
or control it when it happened.
Ohio reported 10,000 conversions over 200 different
towns.
With the testimony that, quote, God has come
down in mighty power and converted men by
the thousands, universalists, spiritualists, Jewish families, and the
most hardened and wicked men have been converted,
whom the churches here had almost ceased to
pray for.
Now, in April, the Christian Index in Missouri,
the Christian Index paper reported that they had
heard that the revival had spread powerfully into
Georgia and Alabama.
In Alabama, is that where we are?
Powerful movements and numerous conversions happened suddenly in
Mobile, Livingston, and Montgomery area.
The Alabama paper, the Southwest Baptist reported, the
most cheering reports continue to reach us from
almost every point of our state, of a
most gracious outpouring of the divine spirit.
Colleges were shaken in this awakening in a
powerful way.
In the 1850s, there were approximately 200 colleges
of various church denominations in the nation from
New England to California, though they were predominantly
Presbyterian.
They did include schools among Baptists and Methodists
and other several other groups.
And from the beginning of the awakening, colleges
were profoundly affected.
Harvard, for instance, it had already by 1858
become Unitarian, but it saw a sovereign movement
of God sweep through the campus, resulting in
numerous conversions.
Brown University in Rhode Island, Dartmouth College, both
saw powerful visitations, numerous conversions, especially the wickedest
students.
Yale University in Connecticut saw the most powerful
movement of grace since 1821.
200 students publicly professed Jesus Christ and they
were turning to him.
Princeton saw the power of God come down
on campus.
And when the smoke had cleared, there were
102 professed conversions among the 272 students on
campus.
Now, of course, we know such statistics don't
tell us the full accurate story.
So we must keep that in mind.
And what was probably a typical scene on
those campuses in that day was described by
one who experienced it firsthand.
He said this, a young man, shall I
ever forget that memorable morning in the old
classics room in that year of 1858 among
my senior class of 20 members, most of
whom were already true Christians.
When such a divine presence overshadowed us, that
we were constrained to stop class and spend
the better part of the hour in prayer
for the unsaved members of our class and
school.
Now, those of you in college, that doesn't
mean Monday or Tuesday in class, you ought
to tell the professor, hey, can we pray
instead of study?
But God had moved into that campus and
those campuses, and he was moving powerfully.
The Civil War was affected by this awakening.
We we need to remember that this greatest
awakening America ever saw was three years prior
to the beginning of the worst war America
ever was involved in.
There's no question, though, that the 1858 prayer
revival was still affecting churches widely, even while
their young men left for the battlefield.
In the fall of 1861, for instance, there
was a powerful movement among the soldiers near
Richmond.
Numerous soldiers began confessing their sin and embrace
the gospel message.
The Confederate Lieutenant Thomas Stonewall Jackson wrote of
another movement of God writing on December 12th,
1862.
Jackson said this, while we were near Winchester,
it pleased our heavenly father to visit my
troops with a rich outpouring of the Holy
Spirit.
There were probably more than 150 men in
my brigade inquiring concerning the way of salvation.
It appears to me that we may now
look for many conversions in the army.
Now, I, being from the South, I didn't
get to research the statistics on the conversions
in the Union Army, but there were many.
And I'm sure there were as many elect
of God on both sides.
They say, J.
Edwin Orr says, that there were at least
150,000 soldiers that professed faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, reported this to their chaplains,
and later were baptized after the war.
Hymns, songs, and spiritual songs were a great
effect of this movement.
Quite a number of gospel hymns were written
during this Great Awakening or came into prominence
during this revival.
Fanny Crosby, you ever heard of her?
She wrote a few, didn't she?
Up to that time of 1858, she had
mainly written poetry.
She began to write hymns after this, and
God got a hold of her life fully.
Daniel Webster, who served as a prisoner of
war during the war, wrote the revival hymn,
There Shall Be Showers of Blessing, Precious Reviving
Again.
And it was in the context of the
1858 revival that a simple children's hymn was
written by a lady named Anna Warner with
the desire to see children come to the
Savior.
She wrote these words, Jesus loves me, this
I know, for the Bible tells me so.
William Featherstone, at the age of 16, wrote
the hymn during those days of revival, My
Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art
mine.
For Thee all the follies of sin I
resign.
A strong, militant hymn came into prominence during
the revivals, Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
ye soldiers of the cross.
Lift high its royal banner, it must not
suffer loss.
And Joseph Scriven, a teacher in Canada, wrote
a hymn that powerfully influenced many during the
awakening, What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear.
Now, the conservative estimates about the prayer revival
of 1858 are that between three and five
million professions of faith and salvation came to
American churches.
And remember, those were days where you didn't
become a member of church by walking the
aisle, signing a card, and you're voted on
right then.
They still counseled and dialogued and examined to
see some credible evidence of regeneration and conversion.
There was a little examination that went on.
Then it was still harder to become a
member of the Church of Jesus Christ than
to become a member of the Lions Club,
unlike today.
But three to five million professions of faith
and additions to the churches, when the population
in America was 30 million.
And the staggering after effects of the revival
can't even be estimated.
The largest revival America ever saw, and perhaps
comparable to the 1904 revival in Wales, the
biggest in all of history.
So what's the main explanation of this movement
of God?
The promise of prayer.
Prayer.
The sovereignty of the Holy Spirit working through
prayer.
Not prayers of great men and leaders.
Prayers of men and women and boys and
girls.
Of young men like Lanphier, who was prompted
by the Holy Spirit to begin a prayer
meeting.
Prayer without question was the outstanding means and
characteristic of the revival of 1850.
God poured out a spirit of grace and
supplication.
True, earnest prayer.
Burdened, consistent prayer.
Sincere prayer.
Humble prayer.
People didn't care what others thought about their
praying.
Now, you know what?
Let me tell you something.
In some of you, in your church prayer
meetings, when the leaders or the elders call
a prayer meeting, you won't ever pray.
Because you're too prideful or scared about what
people are going to think about your praying.
Here's a big theological word of counsel for
that.
Get over it.
Put your pride to death.
You're praying to God, not men.
It doesn't matter who's listening.
God hears the cry of the heart.
That's what He hears.
He hears the prayer of the destitute.
And they gather, they begin to pray.
Strangers praying.
It's rightly said that prayer was not only
central to the awakening, but it was the
means that God had ordained to bring this
revival about.
Now, regarding prayer and God's purposes, and prayer
being a means of God working, Ian Murray
says this.
It's a little bit of a long quote,
but it's worth it.
Listen to what he says.
As a means God uses, something more needs
to be said about prayer.
As with the preaching of truth, prayer itself
has no inherent power within itself.
Right?
You understand what he's saying?
Just prayer or preaching by itself doesn't accomplish
anything unless God chooses to bless it and
work through it.
Prayer, strictly as a human activity, can guarantee
no certain results.
But prayer throws believers into heartfelt need upon
God with true concern for the salvation of
sinners.
And such prayer will not go unanswered.
Prayer of that kind precedes divine blessing.
Not because of any necessary cause and effect.
You know, that's what Charles Finney really taught.
Among other things, it was wrongly.
And it's taught today.
Cause and effect.
If you do this, you'll get this result.
If you pray this way, you'll get this
result.
If you pray enough, you become desperate enough,
serious enough, you surrender enough.
And by the way, how do you surrender
enough?
There's nobody surrendered enough.
There's nobody except the man Christ Jesus that
has ever trod this earth that was fully
surrendered to God.
So how do you surrender enough?
But the theology of cause and effect, if
we do it enough and do it rightly,
do it sincerely enough, we can make God
respond.
No, that's not true.
Prayer of that kind, true heartfelt prayer, precedes
divine blessing, not because of any necessary cause
and effect, but because such prayer secures an
acknowledgement of the true author of divine blessing.
And where such a spirit of prayer exists,
it is a sign that God is already
intervening to advance His cause.
Does God always hear and answer true prayer?
Francis Asbury, in the second Great Awakening, said
this.
Prayer, if it's the Spirit's groaning, if it's
pure in motive, if it's for God's glory,
if it's in true faith, without doubt, He
does hear and answer.
Now, the mysterious effects of the Holy Spirit
in a time of true revival can never
be explained or foreseen or planned or programmed
or brought about by man, but they can
be recognized and embraced when they occur.
This certainly occurred in 1858 when powerful prayer
resulted in hundreds of thousands of conversions to
Christ.
Entire cities were gripped and transformed.
And fervent praise ascended to God from the
19th century troubled American soil.
What lessons do we learn from the third
Great Awakening?
Let me just give you a few, mention
a few that apply to us.
Number one, the 1858 prayer revival teaches us
that the absolute importance of personal obedience to
God, the absolute importance of personal obedience to
God, land fear on a normal day, in
his normal routine, walking down the street, had
the thought come to him as he saw
these faces.
You know, a prayer meeting at noon might
be a blessing to some men.
I think I'll do it.
That was a tiny seed.
God at work.
One man, God at work, a tiny seed.
Solomon said, the thoughts of the righteous are
right.
He had a thought and a desire and
his feet joined his heart and he initiated
a prayer meeting and he was the only
one there at first.
The absolute importance of personal obedience, the smallest,
the smallest point of obedience with the blessing
of the Almighty can bless nations.
Five loaves and two fish feed thousands.
Secondly, second lesson, it is normal, ordinary Christians
and not great spiritual heroes who are used
of God in prayer for his purposes.
Ladies, it could be your praying and your
intercession that brings the fifth great awakening or
the sixth one.
It can be your prayers, young men, that
ignite an outpouring of the spirit in your
school or among your peers.
Normal, ordinary Christians, the Jeremiah land fears, the
praying men of Barbus, Bill McLeod mentioned last
night.
I remember in two dear churches in Missouri
that that I've been privileged to love and
be close to for twenty five years.
I remember the report came that some teenagers,
I think it was mainly girls, were served
up to pray for their unconverted cousins and
friends.
They covenanted to pray together, just these teenagers.
They've covenanted to pray.
They made a list of their lost cousins
and relatives.
They begin to pray for them regularly.
And one by one by one by one,
those on that list began to be saved
by the grace of God.
Bill McLeod's brother, Keith McLeod, came there preaching.
And some of those young men were gripped
by the power of God.
And they were soundly converted.
And it wasn't because of Keith McLeod.
It's because teenagers were praying with a heartfelt
burden for their friends.
Ordinary Christians used of God in prayer.
Two sisters in the Hebrides prayed for that
revival that came in 1949.
Two sisters.
What were their names, Don?
Peggy and I couldn't hear you, but I
agree.
I want to say Peggy and Sue, but
that's Johnny Cash.
So that isn't right.
84 years old and 82 years old.
Shut-ins.
I think one was blind.
One was kind of crippled.
They were intercessors.
They had a burden for the island and
for the young people.
They prayed every day.
And long story short, they had a burden
for Duncan Campbell to come.
They sent word to their minister and he
felt like they were in touch with God.
Campbell was invited.
He sent word.
I can't.
I'm booked for two years.
I can't come.
The minister came back to the sisters and
said, Duncan Campbell can't come.
And he left.
And one of the sisters said to the
other one, that's what Duncan Campbell said.
But God says he's coming.
And he did.
And God broke out all over those islands.
Two sisters.
It also teaches us a third lesson.
The power of united agreement in prayer.
Now, I won't labor that, but there's something
about saints agreeing together, praying together.
Brothers, the blessedness of unity of heart in
prayer.
And Psalm 133 says there the Lord commands
a blessing.
United agreement in prayer moves heaven.
Fourth lesson.
When God gives a spirit of true prayer,
he is especially purposing to answer prayer.
Martin Lloyd Jones said this, he says, I
believe this is a law.
Write it down and follow it when a
believer feels stirred and prompted to pray.
Always obey it.
You ever feel that sometimes you may feel
dry one morning and suddenly during the day,
your heart is quickened.
You have desire to pray.
Do it.
Don't quench it.
Don't resist it.
Always obey by the promptings of the spirit
when you feel the desire to pray, because
that is God at work in you, both
the will and the do of his good
pleasure in stirring you to pray.
Fifth lesson.
Praying for more of the Holy Spirit is
a biblical command.
Cry for the spirit.
J.W. Alexander wrote a marvelous piece.
You should read it entitled Pray for the
Spirit, where he talks about that the saints
ought to be ever crying out for more
measures, more givings, more outpourings, more spiritual thunderstorms
to break with clouds over their head, more
givings and more outpourings and more visitations of
the Holy Spirit.
We ought to ever be crying out for.
Praying for the spirit is a biblical command.
Sixth and final lesson.
It's kind of a long one, but listen
to it through prayer.
God can pour out the Holy Spirit anywhere,
anytime, regardless of the state of the situation,
regardless of the state of the people, regardless
of the state of the professing church or
circumstances that exist.
Things don't have to be perfect or reformed
or right or have all your ducks in
a row or whatever you want to go.
It doesn't have to be perfect for God
to move.
He can move.
He's not hindered.
He can work, the Bible says, and who
can resist his will?
All power belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ,
that high priest who's enthroned above, and he
can dispense grace and power anytime he wants
to.
And he wants all of you to be
asking him to do it.
With him, the Bible says, is the residue
of the Spirit.
With him is the promise of the Father
to pour out his presence mightily.
He can rend the heavens and come down
regardless of what America does or Islam does
or wicked rulers does.
It doesn't matter.
God says, I will be inquired of the
house of Israel for this calling to me
and I'll answer thee.
So what must we do?
We must look back and see a mighty
example in American history where things were dark
and people were just like us when God
stepped down from heaven and touched our nation.
We must look back and then we must
look up.
The same God that moved in is our
God.
The same Spirit poured out is among us
and he can quicken.
He can work.
He can move.
Let us in our hearts ever more and
more ask God for grace to enable us
privately, quietly, loudly, however he enables us, cry
mightily to him to stir us to ever
be praying.
Oh, Lord, revive thy work in the midst
of the years and in wrath.
Remember mercy.
If this doesn't happen in our nation.
She is gone.
Now we have to be have more concern
for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ
than American patriotism.
But God does revive his work and America's
here.
Not for freedom.
Freedom has become a big idol.
America still exists for the glory and honor
and praise of Jesus Christ in the advancement
of his kingdom.
And to the degree that will happen, we
need to pray mightily, Lord, revive your work
in our land and in wrath.
Remember mercy.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven right now, the only thing
that's on my heart.
Is to ask you to start among
all of us a new drawing and calling
about prayer that you do a new work,
Lord, that you'd be pleased to stir us
to pray and that Lord, that ripple effects.
That go forth from this conference would be
that new reality and prayer, new power with
God and prayer, new prayer meetings would spring
up, that our own lives and families and
churches would be given.
The spirit of grace and supplication.
Lord, it's not a work we can work
of.
It's grace you can give us and yet
you commend us pray without ceasing, be devoted
to prayer.
So, Lord, we're looking to you and we're
asking in our hearts for a work of
grace in this area.
That would be real and lasting and life
changing.
So bless what you've said to our hearts
in Jesus name.
Amen.