Genuine Marks Of Revival Preaching Institute

Well, hello friends. We are in the fourth in a series of five messages on the subject of revival, particularly the man revival for our international preaching institutes. And we're going to study today what a spurious revival compared to a genuine revival looks like.

It's critically important to study historical revivals so as to have discernment in recognizing a real move of grace when it comes, as opposed to a move of Satan as he does appear as an angel of light. Many are deceived by false spirits. About seven years ago, I was visiting a big church that ran 3,000 on Sunday, and the female worship leader kept waving her arm over her head while she excitedly exclaimed, the spirit is here, the spirit is here.

And the 3,000 people in the sanctuary swayed their hips to the music with their arms raised over their heads with smiles on their faces as she repeated, the spirit is here. You can feel it. And she was right.

You could feel it. It was even going to give you the warm fuzzies if you let it. But it was a false spirit, a lying spirit that was manipulating that crowd.

Listen, friends, if you can't discern the true from the false, then you will be deceived as well and call something a revival, a movement, when it's nothing like a genuine revival at all. The title of our message today for our preaching institute is The Marks of Genuine Revival. The mightily used evangelist Sam Jones said, the need of revival is a proof that we are not right.

It is an abnormal state of things to need revival. And that's what makes revivals necessary. Well, we are in a sad shape today, friends, and we desperately are in need of revival.

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 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.

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, let me ask you, friends, are we living in dark times? Do we need revival? Of course we do. And what concerns me most is we're about to lose a generation of individuals who've actually seen genuine revivals.

They spent their lives studying revival, experienced revival. Now they're aged men. They're closer to heaven than they are to earth.

I'm thinking three men in particular, each in their 90s, and they cannot be replaced when they're gone. Their combined knowledge of revival is unmatched in this generation. I'm speaking of Ted Randall, Richard Owen Roberts, and Ian Murray, who are all the same age right now.

These men have dedicated their lives to the serious study of revival. They've prayed for it, preached for it, each written many books wisely on the subject. And my fear is we'll end up with a generation of believers who really don't know what genuine revival really is or what it entails.

So it's critically important that we study history, friends, to find out how God has moved in former times so we won't just see some religious excitement somewhere and call it a revival just because of some prolonged meetings. Listen, friends, few pastors today know what it's like to experience the power of God in a meeting. Somehow we've convinced ourselves we can get the job done quicker and better 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 in expanding our campus with brick and mortar rather than the spiritual growth of its 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.

I'm afraid the church in many places, particularly in America in the West, is under the remedial judgment of God and the withdrawn presence of God among us. We may have crowds, but where is the shekinah? And now that AI technology is taking over everything in and out of the church, there's going to be little room for the spirit of God to work. So I fear we'll end up with a younger generation of Christians who define revival quite differently from true historical revival.

It's critically important, friends, to distinguish between the true and the spurious, for Satan always has his counterfeit works to deceive the masses. The title of this message today, friends, is Marks of Genuine Revival. And there are several marks to a true, genuine revival of religion and a sovereign work of God in revival.

And I've listed these for us today. The first mark, and I'll touch on these briefly and then expand on each head. Number one, the first mark of a genuine revival is a felt conscience awareness of the awful solemnity of a holy God in his manifest presence.

Number two, the second mark of a genuine revival is a consciousness of one's sinfulness and 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 a genuine revival is an activated 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 a genuine revival is a heightened spiritual vitality in prayer and joyful, energized worship from glad hearts.

The fifth mark of a genuine revival is, friends, a people gripped with eternity, a people gripped with the last judgment, where there is a renewed heart burden for the souls of men in evangelistic enterprise. Well, let's talk about the first mark of a general revival, and that's the felt conscience awareness of the awful solemnity of a holy God in his manifest presence. We have examples in history, if we will only study them to learn from them.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, at Charlotte Baptist Chapel in the 1920s, under the pastorate of Joseph Kemp, revival suddenly broke out in the middle of the service, and he writes in his diary, quite suddenly, upon one and 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 to be made for items that were stolen or returned to the rightful owners. This was one of the hallmarks of the Canadian revival in Saskatoon 1970 to 1971 under the ministry of the Satara twins, Lou and Ralph Satara, where a large amount of restitution was made so much that one of the local merchants took an ad out in the local paper stating they could not accept any more stolen goods at this time for they had run out of room to store them. If you have a revival, friends, without repentance, then it's questionable.

A true revival isn't a move of laughter where you're rolling in the aisles in hysterical laughter or roaring in the line. Would you laugh in the face of a king? A lot of what we call revival is just worked up emotionalism or even spiritism. It's like the Baptist deacon praying after a series of full evangelistic meetings.

He's praying, oh Lord, we had us a time at church this week. It's been nothing like it. You should have been here, Lord.

But in times of revival, friends, there is a sense of God's presence. There is a sense of one's sinfulness, and there is a sense of a need for repentance. This is clearly seen from George Whitefield's journal of his preaching in New York in 1740 at the height of what was known as 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. Well, 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 caught me to the heart. So we see, friends, even little children are affected with a sense of sin in 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 grace among the Indians whom he was preaching to, wrote in his journal, in the morning, felt exceedingly dead to the world and all its enjoyments. Well, friends, my homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen Alford would say, God can only bless us with the anointing of His Spirit. Those who pursue a life of holiness and intense revival, it's like heaven on earth, and personal holiness is a top priority.

The fourth mark of a genuine revival is this, a heightened spiritual vitality in prayer and joyful energized worship from glad hearts. In 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 to God for what He had done.

Miners would swing their lunch buckets as they walked the streets on their way to the mines at 6 a.m., singing hymns at the top of the voices so loudly no one could sleep past six o'clock in the village in Rhondda Valley in Wales. We had 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 lamps, cries a young miner, and in a second scores of lamps flicker in the air, and another song of thanks sets the mine ringing. I love that, friends. A revival brings joyful, joyful worship to God.

It brings a breath of New Testament atmosphere into the church, which we desperately need right now, friends. The fifth mark of a genuine revival is this, a people gripped with eternity and the last judgment, where there is a renewed heart burden for soul winning, a renewed burden for the souls of men in evangelistic enterprise, in outreach, in evangelism that spreads like a prairie fire. John Wesley cried, 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. Well, during the second great awakening in America was sparked the great missionary movement that gripped the hearts of young people, the young adult converts who gave their lives sacrificially on foreign fields, on foreign mission fields, spreading the gospel to distant lands. When I was doing my research at Hortford Seminary on Asahel Nettleton, down in the basement is a wall of fame, of plaques with the names of young missionaries who died on the foreign field.

Most of the martyrs were in their 20s. One died in India, another in New Guinea, one died in Tahiti or the Hawaiian islands. They lined up like dominoes to bring the gospel to the unsaved.

Many losing loved ones, children, spouses to reach the lost and losing even their own lives. Though these young people gave their lives willingly to missionary enterprise to reach the end of the earth with the gospel of Christ. So these five march friends should be present in some degree or capacity before you can denominate something a genuine revival.

Well I hope this little study has been of some help to you friends. I urge you to do all you can and I encourage you to study, take the time 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 in revival and in spiritual awakening.

And I will end this message friends with a call, a call to revival, a call to God to send us some men of revival for our days. Send us great king, some men like these, 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, worshipped 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.