THE QUESTION OF REVIVAL
PSALM 85:6
Introduction:
The most perplexing question that we face today in our convention, is why there is a serious decline in membership of our baptist churches?
Why is there no revival in our midst?
Why have we not seen baptisms in our churches?
Why is it that several churches in our convention can go through several years without seeing any conversions?
The convention is taking this issiue very seriously.
One of the statements in the Convention Review Committee Report is a committment to evangelism within our convention.
There is a conference on evangelism scheduled for fall 1999 with Lieth Anderson in St. Andrews.
Lieth is very gifted in the area of evangelism.
We have adopted the "Alpha" programme as the flagship programme for evangelism in our convention.
The elements seem to be in place for growth, yet there is none, Why?
The answer is both simple and complex.
Revival within the Atlantic Baptist Convention is not based on the restructuring of the convention.
Not will it be based on our programs of evangelism, good though they may be.
Revival will only occur in our Convention, in our Association, and in our church, when we dare to look within our lives, and confess to God those things which we find that are not pleasing to Him.
There has to be a constant realiziation that we were, are, and can be nothing without Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
There has to be a reawakening of our condition as sinners, and a heartfelt belief that greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world.
Authentic revival is like riding on a roller coaster.
You gradually hit the high points of the ride and then plunge down the other side uncontrollable.
You can’t control revival.
We can’t say that revival will begin at such and such a time and end two weeks later when the evangelist leaves.
The concept of "revival Meetings" is erroneous in this aspect.
It is just as impossible to plan for a revival as it is to catch the wind.
Charles Finney the great revivalist believed that God moved principally through revivals.
Almost all the religion in the world is produced by revivals. God has found it necessary to take advantage of the excitability there is in mankind, to produce powerful excitements among them, before He can lead them to obey. Men are so sluggish, there are so many things that lead their minds off from religion and to oppose the influence of the Gospel, that it is necessary to raise an excitement among them, till the tide rises so high as to sweep away the opposing obstacles.
He goes on to say:
There is so little principle in the Church, so little firmness and stability of purpose, that unless it is greatly excited, it will go back from the path of duty, and do nothing to promote the glory of God.
Now keep in mind that he is speaking some 100 years ago.
Our world has only changed in the types of problems that take people out of the church or keep them from going in the first place.
God is still working in the convention today.
The Atlantic Baptist is still recording baptisms in some of our churches.
But I think that we use cliche expressions to rationalize the absence of revival, because we do not want to deal with our own sinfullness.
Consider these statements:
1. Our church membership is down because we live in a post-Christian society.
My question is do we?
The church in third world countries is growing dramatically.
The church is not declining globally but regionally, specifically in North Amaerican churches.
I believe that North American churches, of which our convention is part, and we part of the convention use the term "Post-Christian" as a copout so that we can overlook our sinfullness.
2. God is sovereign and will act on His time.
This is true, but it doesn’t excuse us from being the agents of His working.
Sometimes we use the sovereignty of God as a copout for not acting.
We actually can’t answeur the question asked in Psalm 85:6 because we haven’t counted the cost of revival.
The fact of the matter is, we don’t know what revival is, or for that matter what it is not.
Today we are going to look at five points of revival that Finney dealt with:
Point One: What a revival is not
Point Two: What a Revival Is
Point Three: When A Revival Is Needed
Point Four: The importance of a Revival
Point Five: When can a revival be expected
Point One: What a revival is not
1. Contrary to easy belief, a revival is not a miracle.
It does not suspend the natural laws of nature.
not something above the powers of nature.
Now this does not mean that miracles can’t happen during a revival, it merely is saying that the revival in and of itself does not start as a miracle.
In the Bible, the Word of God is compared to grain, and preaching is compared to sowing the seed, and the results to be springing up and growth of the crop. A revival is as naturally a result of the appropriate means as a crop is of the use of its appropriate means.
What Finney is getting at is this.
We can’t just be sitting in cushioned pews Sunday after Sunday waiting for God to miraculously and instantaneously create a revival.
He uses the ordinary means that we have at our disposal.
The sad fact of the matter is that there is no revival because we are not at God’s disposal.
Church has become an optional thing that we go to when we don’t have anything that conflicts with it.
We have the greatest message to present to the world, and yet we remain silent, waiting for God to act miraculously.
Whatever happened to the liberation from Egypt. miracles Jesus performed
miracles the disciples performed
miracles that we have been allowed to be involved in
Revival is not merely a miraculous act of God, because we have always been in the presence of miracles, but have not seen revival.
It has to be more than that to begin, but miracles can be an outcome.
Just such results would follow on the Church being persuaded that promoting religion is somehow so mysteriously a subject of Divine Sovereignty, that there is no natural connection between the means and the end. In fact, what are the results? Generation after generation has gone to hell, while the Church has been dreaming and waiting for God to save them without the use of the means. It has been the Devil’s most successful means of destroying souls!
We have to remember that the necessities of life are gained by the simplest of means.
We don’t need to raise a person from the dead, to say that God loves them.
Let’s face it, if we are sitting back waiting for God to act in a miraculous way for revival, then what does the non-believer have to look forward to.
Point Two: What a Revival Is
Well then, what exactly is a revival.
Gerald Myers our speaker at association this year, presented two great messages concerning revival.
It’s disappointing that so few people heard the messages.
He suggested that there are two types of revival:
1. There is a revival based on experience: This is a revival that is based primarily on emotions.
They are not based on a biblical foundation, but more in response to a charismatic preacher, or set of circumstances.
Because there is no foundation in Scripture, there is no maturing.
Many converts in this type of revival will fall away, and the revival will not last long.
2. There is a Bible-based revival.
This is a revival that is based on Scripture.
Converts are pointed to Christ, and not the speaker.
It is solid and builds mature converts for Christ.
A biblically based revival will affect not only the church but the community around it, and society in general.
Revival is the reawakening of God’s love in the heart of the Believer.
It involves coming to God in brokenness as a person and as a Church and to voluntarily allow God to mould us into the people he wants us to be.
It is us allowing as Paul did God to increase and Doug to decrease.
Brokeness is not a one time thing, but a constant process of matruing by going through the refiners furnace.
True revival is the awakening in our lives of God’s love to such a degree that our hearts burst with His love and we have to share it.
Think about something you love deeply.
Don’t you get excited just thinking about it.
If we were to sit down and talk about your first love your whole countenance would change.
Our conversation would be on a deeper level.
Even minor details would become important.
You would be more animated as we talk.
You will get more excited if I get excited as well.
When we finish, you will be more in love, and physically exhausted.
That is the essence of revival.
An awakening of such a deep love that we cannot help but burst with that love, and infect those around us with it.
The great revivals mentioned in the Bible all are examples of this.
When the churches are thus awakened and reformed, the reformation and salvation of sinners will follow. Their hearts will be broken down and changed. Very often the most abandoned profligates are among the subjects. Harlots, and drunkards and infidels, and all sorts of abandoned characters, are awakened and converted. The worst of human beings are softened and reclaimed, and made to appear as lovely specimens of the beauty of holiness.
The essential characteristics of revival though we will get into on another Sunday.
Point Three: The Agencies Involved:
There are two basic agencies involved in revival.
1. The providence of God
2. The conviction of the Holy Spirit
God is sovereign in all things.
Therefore He controls the elements that can bring a person to Christ.
There ae many things to be controled: the weather
physical condition
mental state
Family state
state of society
We can all relate to the fact that God will bring out a particular truth at a particular time through particular circumstances by particular people.
2. The Holy Spirit:
We are not naturally inclined to hear the Word of God, or to react to the Gospel naturally.
We are the captives of Satan, our eyes are veiled, our ears are stopped to the truth of salvation.
Finney says about the effect of the Holy Spirit:
He (the Holy Spirit) gives it such vividness, strength, and power that the sinner quails, and throws down his weapons of rebellion, and turns to the Lord. Under His influence the truth burns its way like fire. He makes the truth stand out in such aspects that it crushes the proudest man down before the weight of a mountain. If men were disposed to obey God, the truth is given with sufficient clearness in the Bible, and from preaching they could learn all that is necessary for them to know. But because they are wholly disinclined to obey it, God makes it clear before their minds, and pours in upon their souls a blaze of convincing light which they cannot withstand; and they yield to it, obey God, and are saved.
