Jesus taught us to pray: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt 6:10) If we are sincerely praying that prayer, we will pray for revival.
For, as Jonathan Edwards observed: “From the fall of man, to our day, the work of redemption in its effect has mainly been carried on by remarkable communications of the Spirit of God.”[i] i.e. through revivals.
We will therefore “continue earnestly in prayer” for God’s kingdom to come mightily on earth, “being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.” (Col 4:2)
But, as Martyn Lloyd-Jones noted back in 1959, a change occurred in people’s thinking some 100 years before that, i.e. around 1860: “Before that we find that people thought in terms of revival, and we hear of frequent revivals in the history of the church; but after that revivals become rather exceptional phenomena.”
Speaking on the centenary of the widespread 1859 revivals, Lloyd-Jones lamented: “By now, I believe, we have reached an age in which the vast majority of church members have almost ceased to think in terms of revival at all.”[ii]
Interestingly, in the decade or so following that address there was a renewed interest in revival, not least in part through the influence of Lloyd-Jones himself, as well as through the publications from the newly formed Banner of Truth and others.
This also influenced the churches of which I was a part at the time, which entered into a covenant to pray for revival, similar to that entered into in the days of Jonathan Edwards.
But over time, when there was no widespread awakening, many felt it a waste of time and lost interest in such prayer.
“Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?” (Isa 59:3)
Indeed, “Why?”
“Up until 1860 it was the instinctive thing to think in terms of revival. If there had been a period of spiritual drought, if things were not going well in the church, the first thing they thought of was this – ‘Should we not have a time of confession and humiliation and prayer to God to visit us again?’ They did it almost instinctively.
“But we do not do that. Why not? What is the explanation of this change that seems to have come into the thinking of the church?”[iii]
Let me suggest to you the reason for this change in thinking.
And then I want to note the effects this change of thinking has had on the church.
Recently I have been reading through Isaiah again, and have been struck by how applicable his words are to our day and age. In particular I’ll focus on chapters 55 to 59.
Know God as He is; have confidence in the means He ordains
I believe a major factor in the change of thinking that has occurred has been a change in the way we see God.
Over and again Isaiah reminds us: “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.” (46:9, cf 40:18, 44:8,14,18, 45:5)
Instead we think of God as much like ourselves, only bigger: “You thought that I was altogether like you.” (Psalm 50:21)
“Your God is Too Small”, as J.B.Phillips wrote 70 years ago.
When we know God as God – this God as He is – we are humbled, brought low in repentance, to worship Him.
“Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (55:6-7)
True worship of God is only possible as we return to Him through Jesus Christ in humble, penitent faith.
The wonder of our God is that He – the One who is like no other – dwells with those, and only with those, who humble themselves: “Thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.’” (57:15)
When we know God – this God – like this we have confidence in the means by which God would have His kingdom grow, especially the Word and prayer.
We believe in God’s Word as effective as the great means of evangelism.
And also the great means of revival: “As the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (55:10-11)
We believe that God has ordained prayer as the great means of evangelism.
And also as the great means of revival. “I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” (62:6-7)
In fact, the great goal of evangelism, and the effect of revival, is to bring in many to God’s “house of prayer”:
“The sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants… even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer… For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (56:6-7)
When we lose confidence in God and the means He ordains
1. Humbling ourselves through repentance fades
“Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?” (Isa 59:3)
Lloyd-Jones observed earlier that when “things were not going well in the church, the first thing they thought of was this – ‘Should we not have a time of confession and humiliation and prayer to God to visit us again?’”
Confession and humiliation! Our first thought should be to come before the Lord in confession and humiliation.
But such was not the case here.
God’s answer, through His prophet, is that their “fasting” and “affliction” have been for outward show only; there was no heartfelt repentance in their religion. (59:3-7, cf 55:6-7)
Hosea explicitly exhorts God’s people to seek the Lord with heartfelt repentance: “Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.” (Hos 10:12)
And James, in answering his hearers as to why their prayers go unanswered, likewise tells God’s people: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (Jas 4:8-10)
Today, the need for genuine, heartfelt repentance is seldom preached. Instead, a gospel of easy-believeism without repentance takes over.
When those in that first great New testament revival cried out, “What shall we do?” they wre told: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 2:37-38)
But today, the purveyors of a new hyper-grace teaching avoid the doctrine of repentance; they claim that to call the unconverted to repent is to teach a works-based religion.
In Scripture, the call to “repent” everywhere accompanies the call to “believe”: Jesus taught this (Mark 1:14-15), Peter taught it (above), Paul taught it (Acts 20:18-20), John taught it (1 John 3:5-6).
2. Confidence in man-made “revival” flourishes
Oddly enough, the same hyper-grace teaching that would decry the preaching of repentance as “works-based” teaching, often goes hand in hand with an increasing use of man made gimmicks to bring others “in”.
This is not new. One reason for the radical change in thinking about revival from the mid 19th C. was a result of the methods introduced by Charles G. Finney, whose volume of lectures, Revival of Religion, “soon became very popular and almost a best seller”, and greatly influenced the churches from then on.
His approach encouraged the church to think in terms of organising and orchestrating “revival” by following certain procedures that would bring about the desired results.
“People now, instead of thinking instinctively about turning to God and praying for revival when they see the church languishing, decide rather to call a committee to organize an evangelistic campaign, and work out and plan an advertising program to ‘launch’ it, as they say.” [iv]
In more recent times the “Church Growth” movement of the 60s and 70s placed their confidence in a business model that tackled evangelism using statistical analyses, producing charts and targeting a homogeneous demographic.
Though that movement gradually died out, it continues to get recycled in new forms.
3. Results become king
Inevitably a business model becomes focused only on results: If it works it is good, if it doesn’t it is bad.
But as the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7)
Andy Robinson addressed this problem well in a recent post.
He confessed: “I want to lead a church with a reputation for being lively and successful.” But then he read again Rev chs 2-3.
He noted that “the churches in Sardis and Laodecia would presumably have large budgets, extensive ministries and plenty of young people They would be the sort of church that people had heard about – and they loved living off their reputation. And yet in Jesus’ eyes they simply earn a whole load of unappealing adjectives.”
On the other hand, the two churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia “would have minimal budgets and programmes because they are simply seeking to survive persecution. They probably wouldn’t have much of a reputation in contemporary terms and yet they are the only two churches in this section that don’t earn any form of rebuke from the Lord.”
He is not suggesting that big is always bad or that small is always good. Just to heed the warning that: “Our instinct is probably to assume that size of budget and liveliness of congregation is a guarantee of some kind of spiritual health whereas Revelation warns us that this isn’t necessarily so.”
4. Worship loses its focus
When Israel complained, “Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You taken no notice?” (Isa 58:3) it was because they had a problem with genuine repentance.
This resulted in their defective worship. They couldn’t understand since it seemed, to all intents and purposes (as God says): “They seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways… They take delight in approaching God.” (v 2)
But in fact their “delight” was not in God at all, but in finding pleasure for themselves (v 3b).
I fear that much of the “pleasure” many find in worship today is self-focused, rather than God-focused. It is easy to confuse the two: when the church is being so influenced by a prevailing culture that embraces “feelings” as the new “truth”.
Are we truly “glorifying God and enjoying Him”; or are we just enjoying how we feel?
If you have a moment (4 minutes actually) Alistair Begg is worth listening to here:
I don’t say these things lightly.
But, please consider:
– in worship: Are you simply revelling in the feel-good music? Or are you enjoying God?
– in the preaching: Are you looking for a feel-good message apart from the Word of God? Or, are you really enjoying the Word of God?
– in joining with others: Are you enjoying how you feel because others admire you? Or, are you enjoying their fellowship because these are God’s children?
Sinclair Ferguson surveys much of worship today and laments “the songs we have sung (frequently contemporary, non-Trinitarian, rarely expressing lament, often oriented toward the self ), and the worship in which we have engaged (often pleasure-seeking rather than God-centered, graded occasionally by organizations expert in the field rather than by God and His Word).”[v]
Hear then the Word of the Lord:
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honourable, and shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words…
“Then:
“… you shall delight yourself in the Lord.
“And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth.” (Isa 58:13:14)
5. Zeal for everyday evangelism and revival loses
One reason worship is dumbed down today, and gimmicks like jumping castles are used to attract a crowd, and preaching becomes polluted with an overuse of gratuitous funny stories, is because this is seen to be the only opportunity for the church to evangelise.
And, “if we don’t reach them here, we won’t reach them at all; we’ve got to get them in.”
Unfortunately this only reinforces the message to members (if there even are members in this age where we avoid commitment – another problem) that this is what evangelism is all about.
As a result, living as we do in the midst of an increasingly hostile culture, those who attend increasingly ignore the opportunities to witness that present themselves in their daily interactions with others.
The gospel is to be the focus of our preaching, calling “everyone who thirsts, to come to the waters; and those who have no money, to come, buy and eat without money and without price” (Isa 55:1) – though every message doesn’t have to be overtly evangelistic.
Nor should the message normally be aimed only at unbelievers since worship is, first and foremost, an offering up to God by His people.
Worship and preaching don’t have to be dumbed down.
But worse is the effect this has on believers who should be being encouraged to be continually looking for opportunities to share the gospel with outsiders, day by day, outside of worship.
“Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” (Col 4:5:6)
6. Prayer for revival ceases
“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.” (Isa 59:1)
Yet:
“We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You.” (Isa 64:6-7)
I imagine it takes a lot for the Lord to be “amazed”.
Yet we read (Isa 59:16): “The Lord saw that there was no man—He was amazed that there was no one interceding.”
Again, the Lord looks and “wonders”: “I looked, but there was no one to help, and I wondered that there was no one to uphold.” (Isa 63:5)
In 1959, as well as the address referred to at the beginning, Lloyd-Jones also preached a series of six sermons from Gen 26:17-18 how Isaac, facing the urgent need for water, dug again the wells of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up.
“Face to face with this urgent need, what does he do? Well, you notice that he does not send for the prospectors, he does not send for the water diviners, or for men who are experts in seeking and discovering fresh supplies of water. No, the whole message is that ‘Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham, his father’… Isaac realised that his situation was such that it was no time for experimentation. The position was so urgent that if they did not have water and that very quickly, they would all perish…”
Lloyd-Jones then referred to the many mighty periods of revival in history, and concluded:
“Nothing, surely, is more important for us at this present time than to read the history of the past and to discover its message… Any reading of Church history, even that which is cursory and superficial, will, I think, bring out this principle abundantly clearly – that every time you get one of these great, and glorious, and mighty periods, you will find that in every instance it seems to be a returning to something that had obtained before.”[vi]
“You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” (Isa 62:6-7; see also here)
Let us pray for revival!
[i] Jonathan Edwards A History of the Work of Redemption Period I, Part I, § 5
[ii] Martyn Lloyd-Jones Revival: An Historical and Theological Survey An address delivered at the Puritan Conference 1959
[iii] ibid
[iv] ibid
[v] Sinclair Ferguson In the Year of Our Lord
[vi] Martyn Lloyd-Jones Revival. Can we make it happen Ch 2