Vance Avner once remarked, Everyone seems to be
holding revivals.
It's about time someone let loose of one.
But the mightily used evangelist, Sam Jones said,
The need of revival is a proof that
we are not right.
It's an abnormal state of things that makes
revivals necessary.
And we are in sad shape today, friends.
If you only look around us, we'll see
we're desperately in need of revival today.
In Isaiah 64, 1, God's Word declares, Oh,
that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou
wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow
down, that the mountains might flow down at
thy presence.
This speaks of the dreadful presence of God,
the awful presence of God that's seen in
revival.
I know it's easy to get discouraged if
we've been praying for revival for a long
time and are yet to see God send
us one.
But we must remember the wise words of
Jonathan Edwards, who wrote, We see that God
is faithful and never will forget the promises
that he has made to his church and
that he will not suffer the smoking flax
to be quenched even when the floods seem
to be overwhelming it, but will revive the
flame again, even in the darkest times.
Well, I appreciate those observations of Jonathan Edwards
because we sure are in some darkest times
today.
And when one studies the history of the
church, it's usually against a backdrop of darkness
where God comes down in revival.
In England, in the times of Wesleyan Whitfield,
one sees such a dark background of sin
and debauchery in society.
For in London at the time, every sixth
house was a gin shop, prostitution was rampant,
and public drunkenness was so common that even
members of parliament showed up for work dead
drunk.
And against this dark velvet background emerges these
two brilliant diamonds, these two brilliant evangelists, and
revival commences and God comes down and society
is preserved while other countries, like France, are
in chaos and tumbling down.
But although we today live in dark days,
what concerns me most is that we're about
to lose a generation of individuals who actually
know what real revival is.
They spent their lives studying revival and experiencing
revival, and now they are aged.
They're closer to heaven than they are to
earth.
I'm thinking the three men in particular.
Each one is 94 years old.
They can't be replaced when they're gone, and
their combined knowledge of revival is unmatched in
this generation.
I'm speaking of Ted Randall, Richard Owen Roberts,
and Ian Murray.
These men have dedicated their lives to the
serious study of revival.
They've prayed for it, preached for it, written
wisely on it, and my fear is we'll
end up with a rising generation of believers
who really don't know what genuine revival really
is or what it entails.
We'll see some religious excitement on a campus,
and we'll call that revival, even though it's
missing the marks of genuine revival.
Few pastors today know what it's like to
experience the power of God in a meeting.
Somehow, we've convinced ourselves that we can get
the job done quicker with money and manpower,
but in former times, the church operated by
prayer and holy ghost power.
But we are more obsessed with church growth
today and expanding our campus rather than the
spiritual growth of the members.
Samuel Chadwick said it best when he commented,
When a church is run on the same
lines as a circus, there may be crowds,
but there is no Shekinah.
And I'm afraid, friends, the church in America
today is under the remedial judgment of the
withdrawn presence of God.
We have grieved the Holy Spirit away.
We may have crowds, but there is no
Shekinah.
And now that AI technology is taking over
everything inside and outside of the church, there'll
be little room for the Holy Spirit of
God to work.
So I fear we'll end up with a
younger generation of Christians who define revival quite
differently than what history does.
So it's critically important, friends, to be able
to distinguish between the true and the spurious
in revival.
For Satan always has his counterfeit works to
deceive the masses.
He appears as an angel of light.
Some years ago, I was in a megachurch
where the female worship leader was saying, the
Spirit is here.
The Spirit is here.
Put your hands up.
You can feel the Spirit is here.
And she was right.
You could sure feel it.
And it even gave you the warm fuzzies.
But it was a lying spirit, a false
spirit.
If you can't recognize the real from the
false, then you will be deceived as well.
I've studied historical revival for four decades.
I've written many books on the subject of
revival.
And my Ph.D. dissertation was on the
revival of religion in England under Wesleyan Whitfield.
And through my studies of historical revivals, I've
identified certain marks of genuine revival.
And I want to list these marks of
revival today and talk about them, friends, because
we must pass on to a rising generation
what the earmarks of real revival are to
distinguish between the real and the false.
The title of my message today, friends, is
Five Marks of Genuine Revival.
There are five marks to a true move
of grace in a revival of religion and
a sovereign work of God.
You'll have all five of these characteristics.
I will first list them, then elaborate upon
each head.
The first mark of a genuine revival is
a felt and conscious awareness of the awful
solemnity of a holy God in His manifest
presence.
The second mark of genuine revival is a
consciousness of one's sinfulness in need of repentance,
reformation, and in some cases, restitution, combined with
a heightened awareness of the malignity of the
evil of sin.
The third mark of genuine revival is inactivated
desire for a pursuit for holiness and personal
consecration in a consistent walk with God under
the reign and rule of Christ's Lordship.
The fourth mark of genuine revival is a
heightened spiritual vitality in prayer and joyful, energized
worship from glad hearts.
The fifth mark of a genuine revival is
a people gripped with eternity in the last
judgment where there is a renewed heart burden
for the souls of man in evangelistic enterprise.
Well, let's talk about the first mark of
a genuine revival, a felt and conscious awareness
of the awful solemnity of a holy God
in His manifest presence.
During the Lewis revival of the Scottish Hebrides
of 1949 to 1952 under the ministry of
Duncan Campbell, this was said of the atmosphere
on the island.
The awful presence of God brought a wave
of conviction of sin that caused even mature
Christians to feel their sinfulness, bringing groans of
distress and prayers of repentance from the unconverted.
Strong men were bowed under the weight of
sin, and cries for mercy were mingled with
shouts of joy from others who had passed
into life.
And in Edinburgh, Scotland, at Charlotte Baptist Chapel
in the 1920s, under the pastorate of Joseph
Kemp, a revival suddenly broke out in the
middle of the service, and he wrote, Quite
suddenly, one upon another, came an overwhelming sense
of the reality and awfulness of His presence
and of eternal things.
So the first mark, friends, of a genuine
revival is the felt, manifest presence of God.
The second mark of revival is a consciousness
of one's sinfulness and need of repentance.
There is also reformation and at times restitution,
where items that are stolen are returned to
the rightful owners.
This was the case in the Canadian revival
in Saskatoon, 1970 to 1971, under the ministry
of Ralph and Lou Sutera, the Sutera twins.
There was a large amount of restitution made,
so much that one of the local merchants
took an ad out in the local paper
stating they could no longer accept any more
stolen goods at this time, for they had
run out of room to store them.
So if you have a revival without repentance,
then it's questionable.
True revival isn't a movement of laughter where
you're rolling in the aisles in hysterical laughter.
Would you laugh in the face of a
king?
A lot of what we call revival is
just worked up emotionalism.
It's like the Baptist deacon praying after a
series of vibrant evangelistic meetings.
Oh Lord, we've had us a time at
church this week.
There's been nothing like it.
You should have been here, Lord.
But in times of revival, there's a sense
of one's sinfulness in the need for repentance.
This is clearly seen from George Whitefield's journal
of his preaching in New York in 1740.
At the height of the Great Awakening, he
writes, I was dejected before the evening sermon,
and when I came into the pulpit, I
could have chosen to be silent rather than
speak.
After I had begun, however, the Spirit of
the Lord gave me freedom, and at length
came down like a mighty rushing wind and
carried all before it.
Immediately the whole congregation was alarmed.
Crying, weeping, and wailing were to be heard
in every corner, men's hearts failing them for
fear, and many were to be seen falling
into the arms of their friends.
My soul was carried out till I could
scarce speak anymore.
A sense of God's goodness overwhelmed me.
A little boy was much concerned on the
pulpit stairs.
One of my friends asked him why he
cried.
Who can help it, he said.
Mr. Whitefield's words cut me to the heart.
So we see even little children are affected
with a sense of sin and revival.
The third mark of a genuine revival is
an activated desire for a pursuit of holiness
and personal consecration in a consistent walk with
God under the reign and rule of Christ's
Lordship.
David Brainerd, during a move of God among
the Indians to whom he was preaching, wrote
in his journal, In the morning, felt exceedingly
dead to the world in all its enjoyments.
My homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen Oldford, would say,
God can only bless with the anointing of
His Spirit those who pursue a life of
holiness.
In times of revival, friends, it's like heaven
on earth, and personal holiness is a top
priority.
Well, the fourth mark of a genuine revival
is a heightened spiritual vitality in prayer and
joyful, energized worship from glad hearts.
During the Welsh revival of 1904, singing hymns
took on a new level in and out
of the churches.
It was like the New Testament church was
birthed once more with joyous singing and praises
of God for what He had done.
Miners would swing their lunch buckets as they
walked the streets on the way to the
mines at six o'clock in the morning,
singing hymns so loudly that no one could
sleep past six o'clock in the village
in Rhondda Valley in Wales.
We have the following report of the revival.
A scene which may be witnessed any morning
here at 5 a.m. Scores of miners
hold a service before going home from the
midnight shift.
The superintendent starts a hymn in the deep
and mighty ocean, and then the pit re
-echoes the song.
An old man whose gray head is tinged
with coal dust falls on his knees to
pray.
Others do the same.
The service attracts men from different workings, and
flickering lights are seen approaching the improvised temple.
Now boys, those of you who love Christ,
up with your lamp, cries a young miner.
In a second, scores of lights flicker in
the air, and another song of thanks sets
the mine ringing.
A revival brings a breath of New Testament
atmosphere into the church, friends.
Well, the fifth mark of a genuine revival
is this.
A people gripped with eternity in the last
judgment, where there is a renewed heart burden
for the souls of men in evangelistic enterprise.
Outreach and evangelism will spread like a prairie
fire in times of revival.
John Wesley said, give me 100 men who
fear nothing but God and hate nothing but
sin, and I will shake the gates of
hell.
And he did just that.
During the Second Great Awakening in America, it
was sparked, and it sparked the great missionary
movement that gripped the hearts of young adult
converts, young college graduates who gave their lives
sacrificially on foreign fields, spreading the gospel to
distant lands.
In the basement of Hartford Seminary, when I
was doing research there on Azahel Nettleton, there
is a wall of fame, of plaques with
the names of these young missionaries who died
on the foreign field.
Most of the martyrs were under the age
of 25.
One died in India.
Another in New Guinea.
One in Tahiti.
Another in the Hawaiian Islands.
They lined up like dominoes to bring the
gospel sacrificially to the unsaved.
Many losing loved ones, children, and spouses to
reach the lost.
So these five marks must be present in
some degree or capacity before you can denominate
it a genuine revival.
Well, I hope this little study, friends, has
been of some help to you.
I urge you and encourage you to do
all you can to read as many books
on revival as you can get your hands
on and to study historical revivals so you
will be able to recognize one should it
come.
It's important to be familiar with how God
has moved in former times during revival and
spiritual awakening.
And I'll close with this call to revival.
The Apostle Paul, Luther, Wesley, Whitfield, Knox, Edwards,
Finney, Spurgeon, Moody, each shared a common denominator,
a fire in their belly.
They each were so eaten up with the
gospel and thirsty for Christ and filled with
the Holy Ghost they could not stand idly
by while others perished.
They saw nothing but eternity, worshiped a holy
God, and served a risen Christ, living not
for earth nor its gains but living only
for heaven and its rewards.
When they preached, they linked the devil with
sin and the cross with salvation.
They preached hell and its fire and Christ
and Him crucified.
Not one of them feared king, queen, or
pope, and not one of them sought the
compliments of men.