Preparing For Revival - NRHBC

Day Four: Sunday, April 26, 2015 “Revival” by Martyn Lloyd Jones Summary of Chapter 4 Chapter 4 – Doctrinal Impurity By: Gerald Daniel At the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th century “Deism” abounds with discussion of God, yet minimal discussion of Jesus Christ’s role in redemption of mankind or the Holy Spirit’s role of glorifying Jesus Christ. The work of the Holy Spirit is to point to and glorify Jesus Christ. The chapter deals with Doctrinal Impurities. The Bible makes it clear from beginning to end God can only be approached in certain ways and certain conditions. If we want the blessing and sealing of the Holy Spirit we must make sure that our position conforms to God’s truths. If we desire “Revival” the same is true. There are Biblical Doctrines that are absolutely essential to the Christian position. Transcendence and Sovereignty of God The authority of the Bible Doctrine of man in sin and under the Wrath of a righteous God Doctrine of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ Person of Jesus Christ: There is no admittance to the Father apart from our Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1, Jesus is eternal, our eternal High Priest, co-equal with God the Father, before all, creator of all, virgin born. In Christ shed blood, death on the Cross and resurrection from the dead rest the salvation of mankind. The Holy Spirit is witness to these things. The “Revival” we desire above all things, is glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ in the life of our Church. There is no value in so-called Christianity that does not exalt Jesus, and live to testify of him. Every historical “Revival” demonstrates an emphasis on the shed blood of Jesus. Hebrews 1:7, we enter the Holy place only by the blood Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:7, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. “Revival” means an out pouring of the Holy Spirit of God on his people. Ministry of the Holy Spirit: To glorify Jesus Christ Convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Teach and correct his people. Out pouring of the Holy Spirit brings revival to Churches because he glorifies not Himself but Jesus Christ

Clarity and purity of Doctrine brought to me by the Holy Spirit reveals the sense of spiritual peace only available to me through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is indeed worthy of our praise and honor.

Day Five: Monday, April 27, 2015 “Revival” by Martyn Lloyd Jones Summary of Chapter 5 Chapter 5 – Defective Orthodoxy By: Steve Henry ‘So Isaac left there, camped in the Valley of Gerar, and lived there. Isaac reopened the water wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them.’ (Gen. 36: 17-18) The main cause of the state of the Christian Church today and for the whole state of the world is the terrible apostasy (a willful falling away from, or rebellion against, Christian truth) that has increasingly characterized the Church for the past one hundred years. Therefore we must get rid of the rubbish in our lives as Isaac did the wells of Abraham. Lloyd-Jones previously dealt with several fundamental doctrines but there are two more: 1) the Doctrine of Justification by Faith and 2) the Doctrine of Regeneration. The Doctrine of Justification by Faith: Means an end of all thinking about ourselves and our goodness, and our good deeds, and our morality, and all our works. All our goodness is but of filthy rags. All our righteousness is of no value at all. We feel they can do nothing. We cry out to God for mercy and compassion. It is God’s act. We wait in utter helplessness before Him. We pay no attention and attach no significance to our past religiosity and our faithfulness in church attendance and many other things. God must justify the ungodly. When a church holds on too tightly to the doctrine of works it becomes as if we ourselves can make ourselves Christians; we lose the need of a personal, vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ. This was the great insight of Martin Luther that revolutionized his life and ushered in the Reformation. The Doctrine of Regeneration: It establishes the absolute necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit. It indicates the necessity of man being born again and he be given a new nature. No decision of man has any importance unless is derives from a transformative change in him caused by God Himself; and this a gift.

Even cults can make a man believe in something intellectually. That is why cults and false religions are thriving. To belong to them you do not need to belong to Christ. If a man decides to change his life and change his ways it does not make him a Christian. Everything about a revival is the work of God. He is intervening, He is working, and He is doing things. Man, the corporate church, nothing has value except God when we are in His presence. Defective Orthodoxy: The first and foremost trouble under this heading is to be concerned about the person of, rather than with himself. We place the doctrines themselves in place or ahead of the Person Himself; in this case our Heavenly Father, Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This is absolutely fatal. This is a very familiar state which traps orthodox and evangelical people. You can be orthodox or evangelical but dead. Because you are stopping at the doctrines, the definitions and failing to realize that he whole purpose of a doctrine is not to be an end in itself, but rather to a knowledge, understanding and a relationship with the person. It is a terrible thing to be so focused on our doctrines that we never develop a relationship with the person of Christ. There are churches today and denominations that are quite dead. It is because they remain only on the level with doctrine – this intellectual concern and this intellectual correctness. This applies also to preaching. There is a difference in preaching about doctrines and preaching doctrinally. The business about preaching is to preach about God our Father, about Jesus Christ and about the Holy Spirit and their work for us in our salvation. Paul deals with this same issue. People were fixated on what they were to eat and what they were not to eat. It is all they were talking about. Paul said that this was not the Kingdom of God. “The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:15) How much do you talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and how much about everything else of religion and church business? Another defective doctrine of the Church: There are public meetings and gatherings instead of a meeting of the saints; movements rather than the gathered saints in prayerful consideration of God’s word. The bigger the better we say; surely God is proud of us. But God wants us, not our busyness. We have names of churches that could represent anything, but will not be considered a house of prayer or a place where sinners can gather where God’s love for them is manifest. But then we say: yes but then the man on the street will not come in. Remember, if there was revival EVERYONE comes in. Why – because God is present in that place. It will be just like what happened on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and the people said: “what is this?” Look at what started the Revival of 1859. A small group of saints gathered for prayer. We just cannot see that a small group of like-minded saints has the Holy Spirit with them. Are they the powerful in the church? No, they are men and woman of prayer; men and women who see themselves as sinners and not as saints; men and women who are broken and humble before their God and cry out for repentance and forgiveness.

Do we spend more time singing than we do in quiet prayer in our services? How has it come to that? Many people come to church or a certain service because of the singing? What of nutrition available through the prayerful consideration of the Word of God? This is no time for singing. This is a time for thinking and conviction. This is a time for preaching about God and his wrath upon evil and all our foolish unorthodoxy. The time for singing will come later. Let the great revival come. Let the windows of heaven be opened; let us see men and women by the thousands be brought into the kingdom of God, and then it will be time to sing. Let us beware of the subtle temptation to entertain the people, thinking that thereby we can attract them and save them, and make ourselves happy. Do you think that evangelism is now the main thing, or is it the life of the church? Revival always starts in a church. Why? It is because revival was needed in that church. Revival is needed in each of us. Our doctrines tell us otherwise; our services tell us otherwise. The churches are being fed externally and on the surface all the time, and not being deepened and not being made more spiritual. What are the manifestations of the wrong spirit? First and foremost it is pride, the pride of life. There is nothing more opposed to the spirit of the lowly spirit of the Jesus of Nazareth than that. God have mercy upon us. Pride of knowledge is equally as bad. I am the Christian who reads a lot; I am the man who knows the doctrine; I am the man who has read all the works of the Puritans. That other person over there, he knows nothing about it. Pride of knowledge. I am the great theologian; I am not like that Publican over there who does not have the brains nor the understanding to grasp these things as I can. Pride of knowledge. What an ugly thing this is. Knowledge puffs up. Of course it does. If this is our church we have no right to expect dealings with God. And pride of understanding. I have got it all. It is all plain to me; cut and dried. The other person knows nothing. Contention: If the spirit of strife is allowed in the church and revival comes, it will soon be quenched if people fall back on their idols of doctrine and try to impose those that are not essential to salvation or do anything else but seek the depth of their own depravity. We must not be more concerned about labels and structure as revival comes than the Lord Jesus Christ. I could add pettiness, quarrelling and self-importance. Then I could add triviality and busyness that detract from holiness. If there is to be revival we must see within ourselves a great seriousness. When the saintly Robert Murray McCheyne stepped into the pulpit in Scotland, before he would open his mouth, people would begin to weep and were broken down. Why? There was a soberness about the man. He had come from the presence of God. There was a radiance of God about him. There was a terrible seriousness. And lastly. We must be absolutely obedient to God’s laws. We must see the sin within us and stop and repent; allow Christ to change and transform us. If we put our own desires before Him, we have no right to revival. So, sin of any kind is a deterrent to revival.

Day Six: Tuesday, April 28, 2015 “Revival” by Martyn Lloyd Jones Summary of Chapter 6 Chapter 6 – Dead Orthodoxy By: Bill Hurlburt In this chapter, Lloyd-Jones highlights one specific hindrance to REVIVAL, that being the truth that for many individual evangelical Christians, evangelical Christian congregations and even entire evangelical denominations, our orthodoxy has become an end unto itself. In fact, we are more concerned with being right about a particular doctrine than really understanding and embracing the spiritual value of these doctrines. He wonders how we can be passionate about the Lord Jesus Christ if our greatest interest is in facts, and being right, rather than in Him. He says that we may be guilty of a “smug contentment” in our doctrines. His message shows that even “way back” in 1959, the phenomenon of “apologetics” as a primary focus was becoming a popular interest that can turn the saving act of Jesus Christ into something of secondary importance. This smugness can be seen in the lack of a passion for being challenged by the Holy Spirit. By this I mean that there is plenty of desire on our parts to hear general informational messages, but the idea of hearing a message that points out our sin is avoided at all costs. He wonders if we ever expect to actually meet God when we go into his house, or is the only thing we expect is to sing some songs, hear a great sermon and fellowship. He points out that often times, one indication of a dead orthodoxy is a lack of or disdain for Enthusiasm. He warns of the need to strike a balance. Scripture clearly teaches to do things in a decent orderly manner, but at the same time we must not “quench” the Spirit Sometimes we may be guilty of institutionally creating a false sense of joy. He warns against manufacturing excitement by “getting people into an excited state”. Finally, he speaks to Emotionalism. Not emotions, which are important and necessary, but Emotionalism, which may actually mask a dead orthodoxy. This is a state where emotions have taken control, where people can achieve a kind of ecstasy, which is not of the Holy Spirit. He stresses that scripture teaches that the emotions are to be subject to the mind. He strongly discourages any attempt to manufacture emotionalism through a program or service by any means. In summary, Lloyd-Jones’ main theme is that Revival can only come by the visitation of the spirit of God. That as his church, we should resist being smug in our self-sufficiency, that we should be as the New Testament church was by “quenching not the Spirit”, while at the same time “despising not Prophesying”, and always being ready to “prove all things” by relying on scripture to be our final judge.

Day Seven: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 “Revival” by Martyn Lloyd Jones Summary of Chapter 7 Chapter 7 – Spiritual Inertia By: Gerald Daniel Remaining with the account of Isaac and the water wells closed by the Philistines, we find in this old story a very true picture of the search for the Living Water of Revival. Lloyd-Jones continues with a discussion of Dead Orthodoxy and for this chapter, Spiritual Inertia, leading toward the death of true revival. Some manifestations of this condition A failure to apply the truth. Truth is abundant in the Bible, Gods Holy Word. We can acknowledge the truth but it is another matter to apply the truth. Applying the truth to ourselves will lead to a deeper and more Spiritual Christian life. The art of Meditation has almost disappeared. Our excuse is that we are too busy. Failing to meditate on God’s Word points us to Dead Orthodoxy and Spiritual Inertia. Our Christian Spiritual life is or will be very shallow, without meditation on his Word. Our lives may be very busy, yet Spiritually shallow. Meditation always leads to true self-examination. Some will say “look to God” and that is true yet scriptures exhort us to examine and test ourselves. This exam often drives us to God and prayer. Self-examination in the light of the scriptures will lead you to the Lord Jesus Christ and his cleansing blood. Dead Orthodoxy and Spiritual Inertia often fails to realize the glorious possibilities of the Christian Life. Paul expresses it in Phil 3: 9-10. “and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that come from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith .” Lloyd-Jones points out in many ways we are like the Church at Laodicea. Because we say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. Christ says to us, you are poor, naked, wretched, miserable, blind, and do not know it. If we don’t know it, we are indeed in a state of Spiritual Inertia. The test of a Christian is not his busyness, or activity. It is his knowledge of God. We must pray for Spiritual Revival in our individual lives. Lloyd-Jones-ones says we are resting on our oars, and we are satisfied. We are so unlike the Apostle Paul. Phil 3: 13-14 “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ. We must pray for and expect revival in ourselves and our Church. We should seek, with God’s help, to deal with Dead Orthodoxy and Spiritual Inertia.

Day Eight: Thursday, April 30, 2015 “Revival” by Martyn Lloyd Jones Summary of Chapter 8 Chapter 8 – Expecting Revival By: Nolan Phillips Lloyd-Jones recalls the events in Joshua 4 where Israel entered the Promised Land by crossing the Jordan on dry land. God told the Israelites to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests stood holding the ark. They erected them as a monument on the west side of the Jordan as a reminder of what God had done both here and at the Red Sea. When their children asked, “What do these stones mean?”, it provided an opportunity to discuss the facts of God’s intervention in history. This is much like what Jesus instituted in the upper room that night of his betrayal. The Lord’s Supper became an opportunity to remember and instruct. We frequently forget what God has done in our past and, therefore, don’t expect him to act in our future. Why do we need to be reminded of these crucial movements of God? We become overly absorbed in our generation and particularly in ourselves. We bring this subjectivism to out Bible reading and we miss the panorama of all that God has done. We must remember that acts of God in previous awakenings are historical facts. These awakenings (revivals) are a part of a series that can be traced all the way back to Pentecost. The essence of a revival is that the Holy Spirit comes down upon a number of people together, upon a church or number of churches, upon a city, a district or a whole country. This unusual blessing is revival. What are the characteristics of these movements of the Spirit of God? Believers, members of the Christian church, suddenly become conscious of God’s presence and power, and the first effect is that spiritual things become realities. They become aware of the glory and the holiness of God. This inevitably leads to a deep and terrible sense of sin, and an awful feeling of guilt. This burden is relieved by a clear view of the love of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ and especially his death upon the cross. Salvation becomes real to them, joy enters into them and they are lost in love and in a sense of praise of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This activity of God in their lives now becomes the one thing that absorbs them – they want to talk of nothing else. They now have a great concern for those who are on the outside of this joy and who do not know these things. They become deeply committed to earnest prayer. The news of these things and the life changes that are occurring in the people cause others to ask “What is this?” or effectively “What do these stones mean?” So in revival you get a curious, st

In 1959, he preached a series of sermons on Revival and Awakening on 100 th anniversary of the Welsh Revival. His sermons were later transcribed and produced into a book. Our deacon body read through these sermons in preparation for a time of prayer earlier this year. You may purchase a copy of Lloyd-Jones'Revival in our church office for 15.