You can study historical revivals and see very
plainly that when a man or a group
of men start preaching a doctrine of the
gospel that has become lost, then God will
attend that message, bless that preaching, and shake
things up like a mighty earthquake in revival
after revival.
Whitefield held up the lost doctrine of regeneration
and proclaimed, you must be born again, and
God shook two continents under his preaching.
Charles Finney and Sam Jones preached, unless you
repent, you shall surely perish, and they blazed
a path of revival throughout America in the
19th century.
When Charles Finney was in Antwerp, New York
in 1827, he preached, you must repent and
surrender to God with such power, people felt
like there was electricity in the atmosphere.
They fell off their chairs so fast.
He said it was as if he'd held
a broadsword in both hands.
He couldn't have cut them down as quick
to where they were lying in the aisle,
groaning and crying out to God for mercy.
In cities all across America, Sam Jones would
preach to 10,000 people night after night
for a month at a time with his
message of repentance.
And entire cities were completely transformed.
There's a city today in Alabama called Reform
Alabama, and it was named after an evangelist
had visited the city.
Well, Sam Jones was that evangelist who conducted
revival meetings there.
Sam Jones came into town and preached for
eight weeks.
And when he left town, there was nobody
in the jail.
The theaters had closed.
Nobody played cards and the liquor stores were
run out of business.
There wasn't anything questionable left.
And when men would curse in the streets,
they would lower their voices so nobody could
hear them.
When Sam Jones was preaching in Nashville in
1885, one of the biggest sinners in town
came to hear him to disrupt the meeting
and beat him up.
But instead, the man got saved, surrendered his
life to Christ.
His name was Captain Tom Ryman.
He owned a fleet of steamboats.
There were gambling vessels on the Carmelin River.
And after he got saved, he had his
men pour out all the booze into the
river.
And he turned those steamboats into floating gospel
preaching.
He built an auditorium in Nashville just for
Sam Jones to preach in.
Today, it's still there.
It's called the Ryman Auditorium.
Along came Mordecai Ham, a man so mightily
used to God.
And his number one message was the missing
doctrine of the Lordship of Christ.
Entire communities were transformed by God and the
gospel that Ham preached.
He'd set up a tent in the red
light district of a town and go to
preaching.
And soon, they'd have to shut down all
the brothels there because all the girls got
saved.
One time, a young Billy Graham came to
a Mordecai Ham message meeting.
And Billy Graham came to that meeting as
a clean 16-year-old church member.
And he got mad at the preacher for
pointing him out and calling him a sinner.
Later, Mordecai Ham would say, I never pointed
at him and called him a sinner.
But the Holy Spirit sure did.
All these men were mightily used of God
because they were holy men on fire for
God, preaching what others would not.
As they proclaimed these missing doctrines of the
gospel, revival would follow them wherever they went.
Let me tell you, friend, you go to
preaching on man's duty of repentance and this
necessity of regeneration.
And that men and women and boys and
girls must bow to the Lordship of Christ
in their daily living.
And you have a fight on your hands.
You have a fight from lost religious folks.
You start preaching that Jesus is Lord and
you cannot have him as Savior without him
being your Lord.
And why the good deacons will take off
their freshly shined shoes and throw them at
you.
All hell will begin to pop if you're
appointing guilty sinners to a bloodstained Christ who
has rights and claims on all followers of
his.
Jesus said, unless a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Jesus said, unless ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish.
And that means you, friend, even if you
are the chairman of the deacons.
Did these men like Wesley and Whitfield face
persecution for the message they preached?
You bet they did.
Charles Wesley recorded in his journal that today
my brother John was dragged through a town
by his hair by an angry mob.
And when Whitfield preached in the open air,
he was pelted with rotten eggs and pieces
of dead cats.
One time while he was preaching in Ireland,
an angry mob stoned him and he received
a gash on his head that almost killed
him.
Years later in Boston, he was introduced to
a minister from Ireland and Whitfield bowed and
removing his beaver cap, he pointed to a
large scar on his forehead with the remark,
this wound, sir, I received for preaching Christ
in your country.
Mordecai Ham was dragged from a meeting in
Texas by an angry mob who carried a
bucket of tar, a sack of feathers and
a rope to hang him.
He was saved only when the mayor called
in the Calvary troops to rescue him.
One time Mordecai Ham was leaving his hotel
to go preach at a meeting and a
man attacked him from behind and pistol whipped
him.
One time he was purposely run over by
a car while crossing the street that put
him in a coma in the hospital for
the next six weeks.
Sam Jones was waiting at a train station
when the mayor of the city approached him
and asked him if he was Sam Jones
and when Sam Jones replied, yes, the man
took his cane and violently began to beat
him across the face.
But Sam wrestled the cane away from the
man and gave him a licking with his
own cane until a newspaper reporter wrote that
the mayor's face ended up looking like a
pound of raw hamburger meat.
And every time, friends, the vital truths of
God are held up and proclaimed, it will
drive lost religious men wild and the rocks
will begin to fly.
I've stood face to face in sanctuaries with
angry deacons with fire in their eyes and
hatred in their hearts for me because I
said unless you repent you'll surely bust hell
wide open when you die.
I'm telling you, friend, revival hurts.
Vance Havener was preaching at a pastor's conference
in South Carolina when God moved in and
revival broke out to where pastors began to
come forward to the platform without an invitation
to kneel and weep and confess their sins.
One minister approached Vance Havener when it was
over and he said, brother Havener, your preaching
is just tearing me up.
To which Vance Havener replied, if it's having
that effect on you, what do you think
it's doing to me?
I'm telling you, friends, I've preached revival for
years and I've got my scars to prove
it, but revival hurts.
But when a God called preacher starts messing
with men's dirty pig pens and smashing their
idols, they will organize a mob to run
you clear out of town.
Mordecai Hamm was run out of town by
a mob in Texas one year and the
local police had to hold the rifles on
the mob while Hamm boarded the train.
A detective was assigned to travel with him
to the next town for the evangelist's safety.
Halfway there, the detective asked Hamm what he
could do to be saved because he said,
any man who can face danger like you
faced with that mob, with the calmness you
did, there must be some truth to the
gospel you preach and the Christ you hold
up.
And as I'm preaching to you now, friends,
in complete honesty, is I care about your
soul.
I don't care how long you've been a
member of a church unless Christ is your
Lord of your daily living.
You're dead in your sins and as blind
as a goose lost in a snowstorm.
God Almighty will never, ever run the white
flag of peace upon your soul while you
still point a shotgun at Him.
If Jesus, listen to me, if Jesus is
not your Lord, then you've never been saved.
A self must be dethroned and another enthroned
there.
The Lord Jesus Christ, a thrice holy God,
will not allow any rebels into His kingdom.
You must come to a bloodstained Christ as
a needy, guilty sinner and throw down and
stack arms and throw your shotgun of rebellion.
It is now pierced feast feet.
Salvation is absolute surrender to a living Lord.
I'm going to tell you something, friend.
You can put it down big, plain and
straight and I'll see you at the judgment
where Christ Himself will back up my words
to you now.
Listen to me.
There is therefore no way of salvation open
for men apart from unconditional surrender to Christ
as Lord.
He is Lord.
You better bow to Him now before He
makes you bow to Him when a sovereign
puts his foot on your neck.
When the Lord makes His enemies His footstool.
Oh great God in Heaven, send a revival
to this nation.
Send revival to your sleeping churches across this
land until men and women and boys and
girls are crying out in repentance.
What must I do to be saved?