1997-17

SERMON NOTES

TITLE: REVIVAL - THE SPIRIT MUST DO THE WORK

TEXT: Topical sermon - no specific text taken.

INTRODUCTION: We are going to have a series of meetings in a few weeks, which I trust will truly be a revival in the best sense of the word. There is much to do to prepare for this time, yet it is entirely possible to spend much time and effort, and not be at all prepared.

Now just yesterday, I spend several hours preparing advertising for the upcoming meetings. I designed and printed posters to be put in businesses, mailed, and handed out. Yet it is possible to become too dependent on human means. Perhaps we don't have to spend the amount of money and effort that we do to assure that people know what is going on, and will possibly be interested enough to come and attend our gospel activities. In our media-soaked society, we seem to find it necessary to do like the world and advertise. Now while none of these things are wrong in themselves, nor necessarily sinful, they are surely a symptom of something amiss in our churches. There is not enough revival fire in our midst. The Holy Spirit is not drawing the crowds.

How does it work when the Holy Spirit is mightily at work. Consider this from the past.

It was 1740. Nathan Cole was unsaved, though interested in religion; a farmer living 12 miles from Middletown, Connecticut. He heard that George Whitefield was going to preach in the area, and did not want to miss the opportunity of hearing him. The story continues like this: "Shortly before nine in the morning, October 23, 1740, Nathan was working in his fields when a horseman galloped by, calling out that 'Mr. Whitefield is going to preach at Middletown.' Cole dropped his tool, ran home to tell his wife to get ready, then 'ran to my pasture for my horse with all my might, fearing I would be too late.'" (Note, the only advertising was the single sentence of a speeding horseman.)

He put his wife on the horse with him and went as fast as the horse could go. Whenever it labored too hard he jumped off, put his wife in the saddle, and told her not to stop or slack for him while he ran beside her. He would run until too out of breath, then ride again. They rode as if 'fleeing for our lives, all the while fearing we should be too late to hear the sermon.' (Note, no famous musicians, no special youth activities, no miracles of healing, no exciting prophecies. Only the anointing of God on the message.)

The fields were deserted; every man and woman must be gone to Middletown. When the Coles reached the high ground overlooking the road running from Hartford to Stepney it looked like it was covered with a fog. At first Cole thought it was morning mist drifting from the broad Connecticut River, but as they neared, they heard a rumble like thunder and found the cloud was made of dust made by horses coming down the road.

He slipped his horse into a vacant place and when Mrs. Cole looked at the dust-coated riders, whose hats and clothes were all of a color with their horses, she cried, "Law, our clothes will all be spoiled; see how they look!" On they road, not speaking a word for 3 miles, but "everyone pressing forward in great haste" until they cantered into Middletown and Cole saw the space in front of the old meeting-house on the edge of town jammed. They were in time; the ministers, in black, were moving across to the hastily erected scaffold platform where Whitefield would preach. As Cole dismounted and shook off the dust, he "looked towards the river and saw the ferry boats running swift backward and forward bringing over loads of people, and the oars rowed nimble and quick. Everything, men, horses and boats seemed to be struggling for life. The land and banks over the river looked black with people and horses."

"Whitefield came forward on the platform. 'He looks almost angelical,' thought Cole: 'a young, slim, slender youth before some thousands of people with a bold, undaunted countenance.' And my hearing how god was with him everywhere as he came along, it solemnized my mind and put me into a trembling fear before he began to preach, for he looked as if he was clothed with authority from the Great God' . . . 'and my hearing him preach gave me a heart wound and by God's blessing my old foundation was broken up and I saw my righteousness would not save me."

Cole, though he had previously believed he could be saved by his own good works, was so penetrated by the divine arrows that an intense conviction of sin came on him, and lasted 2 years, after which he was born again.

Now today, we are lucky to get people to respond to a high-pressure, on the spot invitation. But the Word, inspired and anointed by the Holy Spirit, burns deep.

We have seen how Cole viewed that day. But how did the 25 year old Whitefield describe it in his journal? "Preached to about 4000 people at 11:00, and again, in the afternoon, at Wallingford, 14 miles from Middletown." That was it; nothing special or out of the ordinary, just another day of ministry. Preached in the morning and in the afternoon.

Today, we would be boasting about it for months to come. "Wow, what an awesome meeting!" The only thing that drew special attention that day in Whitefield's journal was this: He was impressed with the simplicity of his host and "the order wherewith his children conducted their family devotions."

Whitefield was a man who preached with a dramatic flair, but John Wesley also drew the crowds; he was not dramatic. One listener, after hearing him said, "But for an occasional lifting of his right hand, he might have been a speaking statue." In the natural he much preferred studying in a quiet room to preaching outdoors to multitudes, but he was compelled to reach out to the lost, who were not in the churches. Today, they are not in the churches either.

This is how Wesley operated.

On Friday, May 28, 1742, Wesley, along with a friend John Taylor arrived on the outskirts of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. Wesley was amazed at the sinfulness of the people, even down to the little children, and saw at once it was a ripe place for the gospel. The next morning, 7:00 am, Wesley went down to what he described as the "poorest and most contemptible part of the town." Standing at the end of the street, he and Taylor began to sing Psalm 100. 3 or 4 people stopped to see what was happening; soon there were 3-400 watching and listening with curiosity.

Then Wesley gave a message on Isaiah 53:5 and before he had finished the crowd had grown to almost 1500. The people still stood there after he had closed the service, gaping and staring in their astonishment at such an unusual sight. Wesley, in his matter-or-fact way, made the briefest of announcements. "If you desire to know who I am, my name is John Wesley. At five in the evening, with God's help, I design to preach here again." And with that he left them. That was his publicity! He came into town unadvertised, preached at 7:00 am, said he would be back at 5:00 pm. How incredibly simple. And remember his audience were people who before this had little or no interest in God.

In the evening the numbers swelled to incredible proportions. In Moorfields and on Kennington Commons where he had previously preached Wesley had faced congregations of up to 20,000, but this was more than he had ever seen. Afterwards, the poor people were ready to tread him underfoot "out of pure love and kindness." It was some time before he could get away.

A man, W. H. Fitchett wrote: for the gathering of these crowds Wesley employed none of the familiar modern devices. No advertisements, no local committees, no friendly newspapers, no attractions of great choirs. It is a puzzle still to know how the crowds were induced to assemble, for Wesley gives no hints of any organization employed (although he did organize societies for the discipling of the new converts.) His hearers seemed to wait for him, to spring up before him as if at the signal of some mysterious whisper coming out of space.

1. Then, no advertising -- now, plenty of it.

2. Then, no talented gospel singers announced in the papers and on TV -- now, talented (but perhaps not anointed) gospel singers, well advertised.

3. Then, no reliance on man to assemble the crowd -- now, nearly all the reliance is on man to attract one.

4. Then, the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit -- now, His relative absence must be made up for.

The truth is, because of the fact that the Spirit is not present (how can He be with our condition) we must do all these things or no one would know anything was going on; hardly anyone would show up.

The crowds are hardly knocking down our doors to receive the bread of life. Now in the natural, if there were starvation in this community, and we alone at Osage Gospel Lighthouse had food, we would not need to publicize it. Word would get out, like it or not, and our biggest job would be to try to keep the mobs away. If we had a pill that cured cancer, though it might cost $500 each, we would not have to hire an advertising agent. Our major problem would be to produce enough.

Why aren't the crowds knocking down our doors for the bread of life (which is happening in other parts of the world, but not in the USA)? Why aren't they covering us up with requests for the real medicine? The answer is simple: we don't have the goods. In addition, we have not convinced the world it is sin- sick, starving for the gospel, and on the verge of eternal death and damnation.

Remember that Christ said, "If I am lifted up, I will draw all men to me."

During the Welsh revival in 1905, this was an eyewitness of a meeting in Liverpool: the crowds were pressing against the chapel doors, trying to push their way in, and elderly ladies were climbing over the railings to get to the door, and falling on the others, and were being throne inside by the police like sacks of flour."

In 1912, the Life of Faith periodical gave an account of one of the mighty healing ministry services of Stephen Jeffreys: "Although day after day it has poured in torrents, people have walked miles over the hills to hear the preaching and all over Wales congregations are praying that the revival will spread. . . . I sat last night in his packed iron church and saw folk, their faces lit with ecstasy, swaying with emotion, 'The Spirit has come!' shouted one woman, sinking on her knees and bursting into prayer, and fervent ejaculations of contrition and devotion came from all around us as preaching in Welsh, Mr. Jeffreys exhorted his hearers to repent (this was no 'ear-tickling' message!). For hours it went on and so it will go day after day and night after night. Remarkable cases of healing are reported."

In the days of Stephen and George Jeffreys, men would walk down the streets at the close of the service, carrying chairs on their backs. They would put the chairs around the meeting hall and sleep there all night! Their wives, coming and relieving them in the morning so they could go to work, would sit in the chairs until 3 P.M. when the afternoon meeting began. They did all this just to be sure of getting a seat! The miracles and the messages did their own promoting, and everyone came crowding in.

Until the recent revival in Brownsville, how long has it been since we saw lines forming hours before a service just to get a seat? God is again on the move there. But how about here?

1. We have depended on our own skills to being the people to the services.

2. We have done something even worse; we have depended on our own skills to change the lives of the people.

3. We have been trained how to do it; look into the camera, use the right high-powered business techniques; wear the right clothes.

4. We do not exalt the Lord through sloppiness, carelessness, or disorganization, but He can work in simplicity and through our weakness.

We don't need the glamour and the sparkle; we need the glory of God and the Spirit of God. It has been said that if you are a good salesman then you'll make a good soul winner. Perhaps, but converting a sinner is not like closing a sale. It takes the work of the Spirit of God.

D. Martyn Lloyd Jones tells of the ministry of Robert Murray McCheyne in Dundee, Scotland in the 1830-1840's. It is told that he simply had to enter the pulpit, and before he opened his mouth to speak people would begin to weep and were convicted of sin, without a single word. Why? Because he had come from the presence of God and the Spirit poured forth.

Today, despite all our efforts, and all our preparation, people are hardly affected. Where is the presence of God?

Way back in the Old Testament, when leading the children of Israel, Moses told God that unless God would go with the people, they would not move. He asked, in Exodus 33:16, ". . . What else will distinguish me and Your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" The presence of God makes the difference. When He is really present, the Spirit convicts, and people fall down crying, "God is really among you." (1 Cor. 14:24-25).

Paul, that great speaker for God, did not depend on "eloquence or superior wisdom," but rather on a "demonstration of the Spirit's power." He wanted the basis for the faith of the people to be in God's power in demonstration, rather than in a demonstration of how able Paul was. Christ taught with authority. Now, with the power of the Spirit, we should be able to preach, teach, and live with authority.

This is our problem today. We are not much difference that all other religions and cults, who must rely on their own efforts to gain new believers to their faith. They must be able to convince, persuade and win people by entirely human means.

But we should, we must, be different. We must depend on the ministry of the Holy Spirit to do the work. He is the one who convicts. We cannot save a soul though our own efforts without His work. While we must witness, we must evangelize, we must reach out and actively share the Good News, it is only the Holy Spirit who can save, regenerate and transform. He alone can make a child of hell into a child of heaven; only He can change sinners into saints. We must stop trying to enlist people into our cause, but rather to introduce them into the kingdom of the power of God by the living Word.

Martyn Lloyd Jones tells of the Scottish minister John Livingstone. He was known as a solid preacher, but nothing remarkable happened in his ministry till he preached a special Monday service, June 21, 1630. Now Satan had tried to discourage him all that day, telling him he could not speak, but he overcame the attack, and preached from Ezekiel 36:25-26, on the work of the Holy Spirit.

After about 1 1/2 hours, he came to the application section which he planned to make brief. He had spent the first time outlining the doctrine. Suddenly, something happened to him, and the brief application went on for another hour, and then astounding things started happening. People were falling to the ground; others were weeping. The end of the story is that an estimated 500 people were saved as a result of that sermon. I do not mean they came forward, for they did not do it that way in those days. They did not sign forms. Rather, they were converted in the sense that their whole lives changed, and they joined the church with no pressure brought on them. Nothing like that at all. Our modern ways of giving altar calls only began in the middle of the last century. What happened was the power of the Spirit moved in conviction.

Just think,

1. No fleshly directed altar calls.

2. No high pressure appeals.

3. No invitations "with every head bowed and every eye closed" (as if giving your life to Jesus was a shameful thing that needed to be done in secret.

4. No mechanical reciting of "sinner's prayers."

Just a long-lasting, heart-changing, captive-freeing experience with the power of the Gospel under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

CONCLUSION: Today, because our preaching lacks the punch it had then, because it has not opened the eyes of the sinner to his lost condition, because we no longer confront sinners with the reality of a living God who hates sin while loving the sinner, we have had to lean on human techniques to supplement our watered-down messages. So today it goes like this.

"You don't have to do anything." "Simply pray this little prayer, and whether you feel any witness in your heart of not, whether your life changes or not, whether you ever repent of your sin or not, it is done. Isn't that easy?"

Yes, that is easy; it is too easy. It is human effort, and sometimes little of that. We have taken the work of the Holy Spirit out. Now it used to be different. When John Wesley preached at night, he would press home his appeal, and urge the sinners to repent and believe. They he would leave. If they showed up again at the 5:00 AM meeting, then he felt they might, in fact, be serious. If they followed through, and joined one of his Methodist societies, giving clear evidence of a changed life, he knew they were saved. Though he firmly believed in instantaneous salvation, it was very rare that he would allow people to give immediate testimony of their salvation. He wanted to test it out.

Now today, we say, "There were 250 confessions of faith last night. Let's pray that they will prove sincere." It is quite different from being able to say, "What a meeting! 250 people were saved last night." You may ask, "Saved according to who?"

After Peter's first Spirit-baptized sermon, it says that those who accepted his message were baptized, and there were 3000 added to their number that day. They were saved; they stayed; they were serious. For Acts 2:42 says "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."

Statistics tell us today that 80% of those professing salvation backslide. The plain truth is that we must change our modern-day version of the gospel for the real Biblical brand. We must begin to fast and pray earnestly that the Spirit would do His work. That cannot be improved on.

We must see the Spirit work. Last night and this morning, I read the sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards. He is anything but an excitable Charismatic, yet he said these words, "we have reason from Scripture prophecy to suppose, that at the commencement of that last great outpouring of the Spirit of God, that is to be in the latter ages of the world, the manner of the work will be extraordinary and such as has never yet been seen . . . It may be reasonably expected that the extraordinary manner of the work then will bear some proportion to the very extraordinary events, and that glorious change in the state of the world, which God will bring to pass by it."

This man, who preached this sermon which began the Great Awakening in which a large percentage of the population of the United States was saved, preached it after spending the day and night before in prayer and fasting. He was so weak he could hardly stand; his eyesight was so poor that he had to hold a manuscript of his sermon in front of his eyes; he read in a voice hardly able to be heard, but before he had more than started, people were weeping in fear and repentance. Why? Because of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through you. We must allow Him to do His work in this church, but the effect will not be what it should be unless you personally yield to the moving and work of the Holy Spirit. Let's begin this morning.

OSAGE GOSPEL LIGHTHOUSE, Linn, MO 4-11-97 pm