My question today is, “What is the hope of revival?” In all honesty the answer is, it’s a mystery. It’s a mystery in the biblical sense of that word. I believe the hope of revival is in the mystery that has now been made known verses 26-27, “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. . . of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ”The hope of revival is the hope of glory. The hope of revival is Christ living anew in you. The hope of revival is you living like God intended for you to live. The hope of revival is you living the life of Christ. The hope of revival is the mystery of Christ living His life through you. The hope of revival is you living above sin. The hope of revival is you living free from the power of the world, the flesh and the devil. The hope of revival is Christ “life-ing out” His life in your daily existence.
This is the gospel for the Christian. What I’m sharing with you today, I would consider the most important body of truth I could ever share with you! This is the kind of stuff that you should be sitting on the edge of your seat, like the 4th quarter of a ball game and the last few seconds on the clock with a chance to win. You’ve got a chance to win the game of life. Revival gives you that hope. You can live above sin. You can win over Satan. You will see as I share with you “The Hope of Revival.”
If you want to win you can. If you want revival you can have it. Why live a defeated, down trodden, disillusioned, depressed, destructive, demeaning life? I’ll tell you why - most Christians are trying to do their best with God’s help. The only problem is, God never intended we try to live the Christian life. And certainly not try with His help. He doesn’t need our help. He intended Christ it live the Christian life through us. The biblical method is for us to trust in Christ to do it all through us. The one hope of revival is “Christ in you, the hope of glory! Christ is always the missing ingredient when we face the need of revival. It’s simply a matter of understanding how to cooperate with Him so He can freely work through us. The Hope of Revival rests on choosing between:
I. Two Roads, Not Three
There are only 2 ways a Christian can operate or function – the Bible calls it walking: you can walk “in the Spirit,” or you can walk “after the flesh.” Unfortunately, some of us have assumed that there are 3 ways to live and we’ve defined our alternatives something like this:
•“in the Spirit” meant teaching Sunday School and helping little ladies cross street
•“after the flesh” meant lusting after the opposite sex or after various other worldly attractions
•“My way” is our idea of a third option. This involves my work-a-day world. My eating, sleeping, playing with the kids, watching ball games, etc. – all of which we consider neither sinful nor spiritual. The problem is, the Bible says nothing about a 3rd way. It speaks only of 2 ways.
Now the Bible’s definitions of our alternatives are quite different from ours.
•”in the Spirit” means trusting in the “Spirit of Christ,” the Holy Spirit to express His obedient, agape life through us.
• “after the flesh” means trusting in our own strength, talent, skills, resources, patterns for living, street smarts and whatever else we can come up with to carry us through the day. Philippians 3:3-9 describes Paul’s flesh patterns.
You see, Satan, the deceiver, wants Christians to live lives which bring dishonor to the reputation of Jesus Christ. God’s plan for us, on the other hand, is that our lives bring honor to Christ. The Christian who allows Christ to live through him is going to bring honor to Him. The one who trusts in his own flesh is not going to experience victory over the world, the flesh, the devil and will dishonor Christ. The responsibility for making moment-by-moment choices between the two alternatives rests squarely on the shoulders of each believer. And that 3rd way, “my way,” is no different than the 2nd; it’s the way of the flesh too, in that, it’s not a faith walk. To make matters worse, sometimes even when we think we’re walking in the Spirit, we’re actually walking after the flesh. And this is true simply because our so-called spiritual lives are really being lived in our own strength, on flesh-power. The Hope of Revival is dependent upon our realizing:
II. Sin is More Than Behavior
So why did Jesus come into you and me instead of alongside, under, behind, or before us? The answer is so important! Jesus is the only one who has ever lived the victorious Christian life. He came into you and into me in order to express His life of victory over sin through us. Now, in order to walk in the Spirit, Scripture instructs us about those things which seek to block us from our goal in Romans 6:13, “Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (NASB).
There are those 2 ways again - I either present myself to God or to something called sin. Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapters 5-8 contains the word “sin” 41 times and 40 times sin is a noun. It’s a verb (the act of sinning) only once. In the verse above it’s a noun - person place or thing. W.E. Vine, in his classic “Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words,” states that in eleven instances after the cross, sin is a “governing power or principle” which “is personified.” The word sin is a power which is represented as a person. I’m not certain what this word sin is in the Bible, but it seems to me that it must be Satan’s counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. It’s a power which has the ability to wage war against our mind as Romans 7:21-23 indicates. You see, sin has to fight this battle with thoughts or words or images. To clarify the Hope of Revival can be seen in:
III. The Illustration of Sergeant Sin
Let’s imagine that sin is personified as a sergeant and you’re a private under his authority. Now, when a sergeant says “frog,” a private jumps. He has no choice because a private is under the authority of a sergeant. The only thing that could break Sgt. Sin’s hold on you would be either the termination of his authority, or the termination of your obligation to his authority. How could that happen? Through death! If Sgt. Sin should die, you would be free from his authority. If you died, you would certainly be out from under his dictatorial ways. Either way, one of you would have to die in order for you to be set free. With that in mind, consider what Romans 6:6-7 has to say,” . . .knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him . . .” he who has died is freed from sin – Sgt. Sin! Your spiritual death (in Christ) freed you from sin’s ability to make you obey. And now you have in a sense, been reborn as a civilian, free from the sergeant’s authority. So, “. . . consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to Christ Jesus.”
Another way of putting it is – your life was “Reopened Under New Management.” The reality is and you must come to see this as spiritual reality – you died in Christ when He was crucified (Romans 6.6). Then you were reborn as a new person in Christ at His resurrection (2 Corinthians 5.17). Now, the Greek verbs describing this process are all past tense. It’s a done deal! So, as a new spirit-being, you are no longer under the authority of Sgt. Sin. You have a new Master, Jesus! Your death effected a permanent liberation from sin’s tyrannical authority over you. You don’t have to pay attention to him now. You’re under a new system, therefore you must act dead to sin and alive to your new Leader, Christ (Romans 6.13).
Now picture the Sarge screaming in your ear, demanding that you hit the deck and pick up cigarette butts with your teeth while doing 50 push-ups. Envision the new you, born anew (not the same old private, but a new one raised from the dead) grinning and saying, “Rain on your parade, Sarge. You have no more authority over me!” Dear people, if you know Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord, this is precisely your new relationship to this power the Bible calls “sin” (Romans 6.7). Finally, the Hope of Revival is in seeing:
IV. Satan’s Secret Strategy
But let me warn you – Satan has a Secret Strategy. He doesn’t give up easily. He knows your brain was programmed from the years spent under his authority and although you’re a new civilian, you’ll probably still react in your old military way. The Bible calls these ways the “flesh.” If Sarge could somehow infiltrate your brain and impersonate the old private, “you,” who used to submit so readily to his authority, then he could constantly talk to the “new you” as though you were still under his control. He’d take advantage of your old military conditioning, use 1st singular pronouns Ii, me, my) and speak to you with your own accent. You’d be deceived into thinking you were reasoning things out in your own mind. In every situation that you’d encounter, Sgt. Sin would speak to you, masquerading as the old private (old man, old nature), intimidating, tempting, accusing, badgering, deceiving you into behaving as if you were still in the service. He’d finally confuse you so much that you’d be convinced you have 2 personalities, a civilian one (good) and a military one (evil). In fact, that’s a common error taught by many well-meaning teachers. If Sgt. Sin were skilled enough, he might even be able to convince you that you’d never become a civilian at all. But fortunately, by God’s grace, this inner battle has already been won – not by us, but by Christ.
Participating in His victory is simply a matter of believing that the indwelling Christ longs to replicate that same victorious life through you. You will “Life Out” whatever you believe about yourself. A Christian will consistently live up to or down to the level they believe about themselves. So for every verse in the New Testament which speaks of Christ indwelling the believer, there are 10 verses which state that the believer is in Christ. This is because of your death and rebirth in Him. God changed your spiritual identity from unrighteous to righteous, you’re alright with God.
Your essence is spirit. You are a spiritual creature in an earthsuit, not a physical creature with a spirit, as Bill Gillham calls it. God changed your spirit identity by crucifying the old spirit-man/woman and starting all over again, not physically, but spiritually. You are literally a new spirit-being! God provided even more than forgiveness for our sins; He changed your spirit identity from sinner-man/woman to saint-man/woman. These are God’s ways of describing you in His Word. And these descriptions supersede any of the world’s personality inventories, the opinions of others, even your own opinion of yourself. Your new birth in Christ gave you a new identity – your true identity now and throughout all eternity. Embracing this reality is essential to your victory over sin and the Hope of Revival!
As you by the grace of God, discover and appropriate by faith, the “mystery . . . which is Christ in you” you will have hope for Revival, hope for victory over sin and hope for Christ living His life through you.
(This message was inspired through the study of Chapter One in the book “He Said, She Said” by Bill and Annabel Gillham.)
