"God is appearing for brother Huntington's support. There is evidently a work of grace beginning among his people. His old praying women, who belonged to Whitefield's day, say that so good appearances have not been seen in Boston since 1771. But our church is still dead, and still looking to an arm of flesh. We have not got enough yet. We shall have to receive more scourging before we shall be fit for any work. Of all creatures, some of us seemed the most unlikely to be selected to make such a stand in Boston. Whether the selection was of God or man, time must determine. Pray for us...
"But the church, with a few exceptions, are still asleep...
"Our congregation, gathered from all parts, with habits formed until cold preaching, present a cold spectacle, much unlike the congregation of Newark. They must be melted down into one mass by an electric shock from heaven. God send the shock in his own time!"
~ Excerpts from Edward Dorr Griffin's letters of Sept., 14, 1811, April 22, 1812, and May 2, 1812.
As way of introduction to today's post...
Some of you may know that just over three years ago God laid on my heart a burden to pray for revival. (For more on that, please see the second portion of my post here re: prayer.) For a few years prior to that time, I had became aware there was something lacking in the Church, and along with many, many others, I reacted out of my flesh, and I began to step onto the missional/emergent bandwagon. But then in His grace, God snatched me off and brought me to my senses, so I might be able to make a Biblical response to the current condition of the Church –– which can only occur as we go back to seek the face of God Himself (after all we are His people, His flock, His Church!) through prayer in conjunction with His inspired, infallible Word. As I did so, I began to discover those things which we are so apt to miss – but which are wholly vital to the welfare of God's Church: prayer and the ministry of the Word (e.g. ~ Acts 6:2; Luke 24:49; Isaiah 62 & 64:1-8; Acts 1:8; Acts 2; Joel 2:28-32; II Tim. 3:16-4:5; Eph. 4:9-16). So much of the western church today continues to operate in vain as we walk according to the imagination of our own hearts and disregard Biblical doctrine and Church history. Just like Israel, we keep trying to invent new things, rather than going back to the old paths!
Jeremiah 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. (KJV)
Isaiah 30:15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling, 16 and you said,
“No! We will flee upon horses”;
therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal on a hill.
In other words, so long as we continue to rely on ourselves, so long as we look to the arm of flesh, rather than confess our insufficiency and admit our neediness and look up to Almighty God and importunately plead with Him to have mercy upon us for His name's sake, and to send to us the supplies He alone can provide through His Holy Spirit –– we will remain hard, dead, cold, and wholly ineffectual, and a reproach to His name.
Isaiah 8:19 And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. 21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. 22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
Zechariah 10:1 Ask rain from the LORD
in the season of the spring rain,
from the LORD who makes the storm clouds,
and he will give them showers of rain,
to everyone the vegetation in the field.
2 For the household gods utter nonsense,
and the diviners see lies;
they tell false dreams
and give empty consolation.
Therefore the people wander like sheep;
they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.
I realize the word "revival" is a loaded word, and I regret to say that there have been perpetuated some very sketchy and Biblically inaccurate and incorrect views of revival. Therefore, in order to give you more of an idea of what revival is and why I'm praying for revival, I present to you the following excerpt from Chapter 16 (What Happens in Revival) of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' book "Revival" (Wheaton: Crossway, 1987), 199-203, boldface mine. (The book was based on a series of sermons ML-J preached on revival in 1959, which was the 100th anniversary of the Welsh Revival.)
* * *
And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name (Exod. 33.17).
So far in this particular study we have considered what Moses prayed for, and why he prayed for it, and how he prayed for it. We come now to the point where God heard Moses, and gave him an answer, promising him that he would do the very thing for him and for the Children of Israel, which Moses had requested. So, our subject is, God having pity and mercy upon the Church, and sending his blessing. For, revival, after all, is nothing but God hearing the people and answering them by giving this manifestation of his glory, and his strength, and his power. And it is important, therefore, for us to understand, and to know something of what we should be anticipating and what we should be seeking in our prayers. And, of course, the way to discover that is to go back to the second chapter of Acts.
It is a truism to say that every revival of religion that the Church has ever known has been, in a sense, a kind of repetition of what happened on the day of Pentecost, that it has been a return to that origin, to that beginning, that it has been a reviving. Today there is a great deal of very loose and dangerous talk and writing about what happened on the day of Pentecost. People go accepting uncritically the explanation that what happened on the day of Pentecost was once and for all and never to be repeated.
Now, it is important that we should examine that because, if that is really true, it is very wrong to pray for revival. But, of course, it is just not true. There is only one sense in which what happened on the day of Pentecost cannot be repeated and that is simply that it did happen to be the first of a series. And, of course, you cannot repeat the first. But the fact that you cannot repeat the first does not mean for a moment that what happened on the first occasion cannot happen again. And every revival of religion, I say, is really a repetition of what happened on the day of Pentecost. It is really almost incredible that people should go on saying that what happened at Pentecost was once and for all. Because if you go to Acts 11, and look there at Peter making his defence to the other Apostles for having baptised the Gentile Cornelius and his household, you will see that what he said was,
12 And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house: 13 And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; 14 Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. 15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. (Acts 11.12-15).
You notice what he says. He says that the Holy Ghost fell on Cornelius, and his household, 'as on us at the beginning'. He said, 'The same thing happened to them, as happened to us on the day of Pentecost.' In other words, the baptism of the Holy Ghost took place on the day of Pentecost, but it also took place later upon Cornelius, and his household. That is exactly Peter's argument: 'Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift' – the same gift, you see – 'as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?' And he repeats the same argument again in Acts 15.
So, then, I do trust we are clear about this, and see that we really must cease to say that what happened on the day of Pentecost happened once and for all. It did not, it was simply the first of a series. I am ready to admit that you cannot repeat 'the first'. But that is nothing; what matters is the thing that happened. And the thing that happened at Pentecost happened later in exactly the same way, while Peter was preaching to Cornelius and his household. The Holy Ghost fell upon them, as he had fallen upon these people in the upper room, there in Jerusalem. And, of course, that is exactly what happens in every revival.
There is indeed even further evidence which I can adduce for you. You will find in Acts 4 that the same thing happened even a few days after the day of Pentecost, to the apostles and to others. There, after they had been prohibited to preach any longer in the name of Jesus Christ, they went back to the gathered Christians and they all prayed together. Then we are told in verse 31, 'And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.' That is exactly the term used in the second chapter. The term baptism is not used in the second chapter, but it means the baptism. Our Lord had said, 'Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem' (Luke 24.49), and had commanded them that 'they should not depart form Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence' (Acts 1.4-5). So what happened on the day of Pentecost was the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It is described in Acts 4, they were filled again with the Holy Ghost. It was not anything that they did, it was that which happened to them. All they did was to pray, then God poured out his Spirit upon them again, and filled them until they were overflowing: 'They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness', (Acts 4.31).
Now, that is precisely what happens in revival. It is God pouring forth his Spirit, filling his people again. It is not that which is talked of in Ephesians 5.18, which is the command to us, 'Go on being filled with the Spirit.' That is something you and I do, but this is something that is done to us. It is the Spirit falling upon us, being poured out upon us. These are the terms: 'I will pour forth my Spirit.' God alone can do that. But it is you and I who are responsible for going on being filled with the Spirit. We must not grieve the Spirit, we must not quench the Spirit, we must give obedience to the Spirit. And as long as we do that, we shall go on being filled with the Spirit. But this is different, this is the Spirit being poured out upon us until we are filled to overflowing, the Spirit being shed forth – these things are the terms. But so much of the modern teaching never uses these scriptural terms at all. You never find them talking or writing about the Spirit being poured forth, or shed forth, these terms are never mentioned. No, and that is because of the theory, that what happened on the day of Pentecost happened once and for all. There is not a word in Scripture to say that. Indeed, as I have shown you, the Scripture shows quite clearly and explicitly the exact opposite: 'The Spirit fell on them even as on us at the beginning.' Let us be careful that we do not quench the Spirit in the interest of some theory or in a fear of certain freak religious bodies.
Having cleared that point, let us go on to consider what happens when this takes place. 'What is revival?' says somebody. 'Why are you concerned about this? Why do you go on urging us to pray for it?' The answer is this, above everything else, is what is needed today. When will the Christian Church come to realise that? The feast of Pentecost, our Whitsuntide, is in particular the festival of the Church. Oh, is there any tragedy comparable to the failure of the Church to realise that this is her need, and that this is her only hope? But the Church does not realise it. It is tragic to see different branches of the Church getting together in conferences and assemblies to investigate the situation and to discover the problem of the Church. They are investigating the situation, the problem confronting the church. 'Here are the facts,' they say, 'now then, what are we to do?'
And what do they suggest? Has there been a great call to prayer and fasting and humiliation? A crying out to God to have mercy, and to baptize us afresh with the Holy Ghost? Is that what is done? No, I think what you will find is that they will appoint special commissions. One group has appointed eight special commissions to enquire into the situation: if it were not so tragic it would indeed be almost laughable. Of course, that is what the politicians do, and that is what a businessman does, and in those realms it is absolutely right. it is the obvious commonsense thing to do. But in the name of God, I ask, is it not tragic that the Christian Church should be doing that? With the world as it is today – commissions to investigate, commissions of enquiry! And, indeed, in one case there is a commission even to report on what the Christian faith is, and how it is to be expressed. With the world on fire, with hell let loose, the Christian Church is trying to discover what her message is. She is seeking for some way of meeting the situation.
It is true of all sections of the Christian Church. They are all in exactly the same condition. Not a word about the need for the power. Not a call to prayer and humiliation and to agony in the presence of God. The Church does everything except that which the Lord himself commanded the early Church to do. 'Ah,' but the Church says, 'you know, the conditions are different now. This is the twentieth century.' I would insult you by giving you an answer to that. The twentieth century has nothing to do with the situation at all. Man in sin does not change. But, my friends, we are talking about the power of God. And when we are talking about the power of God, to talk about superficial changes in men is not only an irrelevance, it is non-sensical. The world, I say, has always been the same. Look at the position in the book of Acts. Can you imagine any more hopeless position than that? There we find just a handful of people, and they are very ordinary men. They are described later as illiterate and ignorant men. The Lord of glory goes back to heaven, and he leaves his cause and his interest in the hands of these man. The Jews are all against them, as they had been against him. The Gentiles are all pagans. That is the position. A handful of people in an entirely hostile and gainsaying world. Nothing could have been worse than that. Nothing could have been more difficult. But you remember what happened when the Holy Ghost came down upon them. They were like lions, mighty in power, and within three centuries, this little sect became the official religion of the great Roman Empire. How did it happen? Did they hold commissions of enquiry and investigation? Nonsense. They just went on praying, waiting for the promise, the gift of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
And so it has been through the ages. Again I could take you over the history. Was it not like that at the Protestant Reformation? What hope had that one man Martin Luther, just an unknown monk? Who was he to stand up against all the Church, and fifteen centuries almost, or at least a good twelve to thirteen centuries of tradition in the opposite direction? It seems a sheer impertinence for this one man to get up and say, "I alone am right, and you are all wrong.' That is what would be said about him today. And yet, you see, he was a man with whom the Spirit of God had been dealing. And though he was only one man, he stood, and stood alone, and the Holy Ghost honored him. The Protestant Reformation came in, and has continued, and it has always been the same.
* * *
Holy Spirit, melt us down into one mass by an electric shock from heaven.
God send the shock in Your own time!
Please note (Updated 2/12/2013): Thanks to the MLJ Trust (
http://www.mljtrust.org/), you can find and listen to the entire sermon from which this book excerpt was taken, along with 1600 sermons by the late Dr. Martyn-Lloyd Jones by clicking here:
http://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/. The sermon I cited here is titled "The Power of Pentecost," which is 16th sermon in the series of sermons on revival ML-J preached in 1959 and can be found here:
http://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/the-power-of-pentecost/. You can access the rest of ML-J's sermons on revival here:
http://www.mljtrust.org/collections/revival/.
You can also access a weekly podcast of one of ML-J's sermons at http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/living-grace/listen/. They're currently broadcasting ML-J's sermons on the book of Ephesians.
If the Lord has given you a burden to pray for reformation and revival in the Church, I invite you to visit tent of meeting, my blog devoted to prayer for revival.
Related posts:
Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations included in the excerpt from ML-J and others marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:El_Greco_006.jpg / CC BY-SA 3.0
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vesimyllyn_vett%C3%A4.jpg / CC BY-SA 3.0 / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}
This day ever memorable to my soul for the commencement of these memoirs, has been set apart as a day of secret prayer and fasting. It has pleased God, I hope, to return to me after a painful absence of several months, and after I had almost despaired of so great a blessing. May I be humbly thankful all my days that the Lord, as I hope, has come to look up and bring home his long lost wandering sheep. May the pains of absence teach me to wander no more. Alas, how have new relations, and the new cares of a family state, drawn my mind away from God. There are more dangers in every pleasing earthly scene than the inexperienced are aware of. Adversity, I find, is a much safer state than prosperity. May adversities uninterrupted be my lot, if a humble dependance on God and sweet communion with him can be enjoyed on no easier terms. Sure I am that the possession of the whole world for the same space of time could not produce so much happiness, as the absence of God for fourteen months past has produced misery. The conclusion is, that all the world cannot countervail the loss of God. (12)
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