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Video:
From the video:
We need Revival, we need an awakening but we cannot simply expect the Holy Spirit to come down and clean up the mess we've made. We have clear direction from the word of God the work He has done through Christ, how He expects us to live, how he expects us to order His church and it does little good to cry out for extra Biblical manifestations when Biblical principle is violated all around us. I want you to know this: there is little need for the devil and evil men to oppose a man praying for revival unless he is also laboring for reformation.
We have been given Truth and we cannot do what is right in our own eyes and simply expect Him to come down and bless our labors. As we see in the Old Testament Moses was given very very detailed explanation how to build the Temple. Now, was that given for Moses sake or for the church's sake? I think that what is being given here is that God is specific in His will and that we are not to presume we can take the smallest detail and ignore it.
Now, I know that I am a frail man and I know that I am buffeted by many weaknesses. But I have an indictment and I can't call it my indictment because who am I to indict anyone and I dare not call it God's indictment because who am I presume upon His Name. But I will say this: as I look around at the church and compare her to scripture I see that there are certain things that must change. I am not Martin Luther and this is not 95 declarations nailed to Wittenberg's door. But this is a burden on my heart and I must share it. I must share it.
Now let me say this: what I'm going to say will anger some of you, but let me warn you. It may be true that you will be able to accuse me of arrogance, it may be true that you do not like my delivery. I have many times been arrogant and many times delivered truth in a wrong way but don't allow that to be an excuse for you the question is; what I'm saying, is it true? Whether it's delivered through a faulty messenger or no.
Others of you will be rejoicing in what you hear and you'll want to say Amen! And maybe pump your arms, but don't do that because all of us bear a measure of guilt. And if you have attained to some spiritual state then I would say what my brother has said: " what do you have that you have not received and if you have received it why do you boast?" Would it not be better to worship God in humility?
If your a younger minister, I do not want you to get caught up in these truths and take them back and storm your church without love. I would make one suggestion; see to it that your knees are bleeding before you begin any sort of reformation. And if you are an older minister serving the Lord for many many years, I beg you not to be arrogant. An old foolish king can learn from the weakest of his servants. And also I beg you this: have the courage to change everything even if it is the last day of your life at least you can go into glory knowing that you attempted a reformation that was Biblical.
And I say this as a warning to the older men, now listen to me carefully, I know the admonition in 1 Timothy 5 of the way I am to address you so I address you this way, but there is a great awakening going on in this country and not only in this country but in Europe where I have, I have been and in South America in places I see young men going back to the rock from where we were cut. They are reading Spurgeon and Whitfield, they are still listening to Ravenhill and Martin Loyd-Jones and Tozer and Wesley and it's a great incredible movement. Just because popular media and Christianity today hasn't discovered whats going on I want you to know that I would never have dreamed 15 years ago that I would see the awakening I'm seeing. Not through my ministry but as I go to different places and see what God is doing without any of our ministries.
Whether it's Holland 1,000 young men declaring things have to change, crying out all night for the power of God and the Truth of Scripture or South America recognising that they have been so influenced by psychology and all sorts of superficial techniques coming from America with regard to evangelism and now weeping and broken are going back and Evangelizing their churches, or the inner city of the United States where I have sat up at times til 2 and 3 in the morning discussing theology with young African-Americans in the hood whom God is going to raise up to do more preaching than anyone will ever be able to imagine on this day. There is an awakening. Now I'm going to say this with tenderness most men over 40 don't even have a clue about it. Many of the young people who are turning back to the old men and the old ways and the truths that have brought awakening time and time again in this world.
Most of these young men are quite young and they go to their pastors and they go to their leaders and they say "look at this what we've discovered, look what happened in Wales, look what happened in Africa. Look at this and look at this teaching it's absolutely amazing" and most of them will either turn it away or say "it's nothing any different than I've been preaching for 25 years" when in fact it is completely different from what they've been preaching in 25 years. And so we need to be very very careful to understand that God is doing work and He who began a good work will finish it.
Many people have the idea that they are going to pray in a revival and other people will say revival will come whether you pray or not, I'm not in either one of those camps but I know this: when I see men and women and young people all over the world praying for an awakening, to me that is the first fruits of revival and I can count on the fact that He who gave those first fruits will bring in the full harvest.
Now I want to look at 10 indictments if we have time. Things that I believe that we must change. First of all, the first indictment:
1.) A practical denial of the sufficiency of Scripture especially in my denomination. A practical denial of the sufficiency of Scripture.
2 Timothy 3:15 and on says "From childhood you have known the sacred writings that is able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."
Over the last several decades there has been a mighty battle with regard to the inspiration of Scripture. Now some of you have not been a part of this battle but many of us in more liberal denominations most certainly have. A battle, for the Bible!
But there's only one problem: when you come to believe as a people that the Bible is inspired you've only fought half the battle. Because the question is not merely is the Bible inspired, is it inerrant, the major question following that, that must be answered is, is the Bible sufficient. Or do we have to bring in every so-called social study in order to know how to run a church. That, is a major question.
Social sciences in my opinion have taken precedent over the Word of God in such a away that most of us can't even see it. It has so crept into our church, our evangelism and our Messiology that you can barely call what we are doing Christian anymore. Psychology, anthropology, sociology have become primary influences in the church.
Several years ago, many years ago when I was in seminary I remember a professor walked in and he started drawing footprints on the blackboard. As he marched them across the blackboard then he turned to all of us and said only this: "Aristotle is walking through the halls of this institution. Beware. For I hear his footsteps more clearly than those of the Apostle Paul and the team of inspired men who were with him, and even the Lord Jesus Christ himself."
We have come to believe that a man of God can deal in certain tiny areas in the life of the church but when it really gets tough we can go to the social experts. That's an absolute lie.
It says here in scripture that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. What does Jerusalem have to do with Rome? And what do we have to do with all these modern day social sciences that were actually created as a protest against the Word of God? And why is it, that evangelism and missions and so-called church growth is more shaped by the anthropologist, the sociologist and the Wall Street student who is up on every cultural trend?
Every activity in our church must be based upon the Word of God, every activity in missions must be based upon the Word of God. Our missionary activity, our church activity, everything we do ought to flow from the theologian and the exegete. The man who opens up his Bible and only had one question: what is Thy will O God.
We are not to send out questionnaires to carnal people to discover what kind of church they would attend. A church ought to be seeker friendly but the church ought to recognize there's only one seeker, His name is God and if you want to be friendly to someone, if you want to accommodate someone, accommodate Him and His Glory. Whether it is rejected by everyone else, we are not called to build empires we are not called to be accepted we are called to Glorify God. And if you want the church to be something other than a peculiar people then you want something that God does not want.
I want you to listen just for a moment to Isaiah chapter 8, listen to what he says: "When they say to you consult the mediums and the spiritist who whisper and mutter."
This is a perfect, a perfect definition or at least illustration of the social sciences and the church growth gurus and everything else because every 2 or 3 years all their major theories change. Not only on what is a man and how you fix him but what is a church and how you make it grow. Every 2 or 3 years there is another major fad coming down the line of what can make your church into something super in the eyes of the world.
Just recently one of the "greatest" or most well-known church growth experts said that he discovered that he was entirely wrong on all his theory but instead of turning them to Scripture on his knees, broken and weeping he goes out to find another theory.
"They give no clear word" it says here in Isaiah "should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?"
Should we, as churchmen, as preachers, as pastors, as Christians go out and consult the spiritually dead on behalf of those whom the Holy Spirit has made alive? Absolutely not!
Absolutely not.
The second indictment:
2.) An ignorance of God.
[Preaching continues... the above transcription from a small portion of this video is my introduction to its content. It is my own transcription so forgive me my errors within.]
This is a long teaching, longer than most, but well worth the time to listen to it in full, in my honest opinion, so I'm sharing here.
From the video:
We need Revival, we need an awakening but we cannot simply expect the Holy Spirit to come down and clean up the mess we've made. We have clear direction from the word of God the work He has done through Christ, how He expects us to live, how he expects us to order His church and it does little good to cry out for extra Biblical manifestations when Biblical principle is violated all around us. I want you to know this: there is little need for the devil and evil men to oppose a man praying for revival unless he is also laboring for reformation.
We have been given Truth and we cannot do what is right in our own eyes and simply expect Him to come down and bless our labors. As we see in the Old Testament Moses was given very very detailed explanation how to build the Temple. Now, was that given for Moses sake or for the church's sake? I think that what is being given here is that God is specific in His will and that we are not to presume we can take the smallest detail and ignore it.
Now, I know that I am a frail man and I know that I am buffeted by many weaknesses. But I have an indictment and I can't call it my indictment because who am I to indict anyone and I dare not call it God's indictment because who am I presume upon His Name. But I will say this: as I look around at the church and compare her to scripture I see that there are certain things that must change. I am not Martin Luther and this is not 95 declarations nailed to Wittenberg's door. But this is a burden on my heart and I must share it. I must share it.
Now let me say this: what I'm going to say will anger some of you, but let me warn you. It may be true that you will be able to accuse me of arrogance, it may be true that you do not like my delivery. I have many times been arrogant and many times delivered truth in a wrong way but don't allow that to be an excuse for you the question is; what I'm saying, is it true? Whether it's delivered through a faulty messenger or no.
Others of you will be rejoicing in what you hear and you'll want to say Amen! And maybe pump your arms, but don't do that because all of us bear a measure of guilt. And if you have attained to some spiritual state then I would say what my brother has said: " what do you have that you have not received and if you have received it why do you boast?" Would it not be better to worship God in humility?
If your a younger minister, I do not want you to get caught up in these truths and take them back and storm your church without love. I would make one suggestion; see to it that your knees are bleeding before you begin any sort of reformation. And if you are an older minister serving the Lord for many many years, I beg you not to be arrogant. An old foolish king can learn from the weakest of his servants. And also I beg you this: have the courage to change everything even if it is the last day of your life at least you can go into glory knowing that you attempted a reformation that was Biblical.
And I say this as a warning to the older men, now listen to me carefully, I know the admonition in 1 Timothy 5 of the way I am to address you so I address you this way, but there is a great awakening going on in this country and not only in this country but in Europe where I have, I have been and in South America in places I see young men going back to the rock from where we were cut. They are reading Spurgeon and Whitfield, they are still listening to Ravenhill and Martin Loyd-Jones and Tozer and Wesley and it's a great incredible movement. Just because popular media and Christianity today hasn't discovered whats going on I want you to know that I would never have dreamed 15 years ago that I would see the awakening I'm seeing. Not through my ministry but as I go to different places and see what God is doing without any of our ministries.
Whether it's Holland 1,000 young men declaring things have to change, crying out all night for the power of God and the Truth of Scripture or South America recognising that they have been so influenced by psychology and all sorts of superficial techniques coming from America with regard to evangelism and now weeping and broken are going back and Evangelizing their churches, or the inner city of the United States where I have sat up at times til 2 and 3 in the morning discussing theology with young African-Americans in the hood whom God is going to raise up to do more preaching than anyone will ever be able to imagine on this day. There is an awakening. Now I'm going to say this with tenderness most men over 40 don't even have a clue about it. Many of the young people who are turning back to the old men and the old ways and the truths that have brought awakening time and time again in this world.
Most of these young men are quite young and they go to their pastors and they go to their leaders and they say "look at this what we've discovered, look what happened in Wales, look what happened in Africa. Look at this and look at this teaching it's absolutely amazing" and most of them will either turn it away or say "it's nothing any different than I've been preaching for 25 years" when in fact it is completely different from what they've been preaching in 25 years. And so we need to be very very careful to understand that God is doing work and He who began a good work will finish it.
Many people have the idea that they are going to pray in a revival and other people will say revival will come whether you pray or not, I'm not in either one of those camps but I know this: when I see men and women and young people all over the world praying for an awakening, to me that is the first fruits of revival and I can count on the fact that He who gave those first fruits will bring in the full harvest.
Now I want to look at 10 indictments if we have time. Things that I believe that we must change. First of all, the first indictment:
1.) A practical denial of the sufficiency of Scripture especially in my denomination. A practical denial of the sufficiency of Scripture.
2 Timothy 3:15 and on says "From childhood you have known the sacred writings that is able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."
Over the last several decades there has been a mighty battle with regard to the inspiration of Scripture. Now some of you have not been a part of this battle but many of us in more liberal denominations most certainly have. A battle, for the Bible!
But there's only one problem: when you come to believe as a people that the Bible is inspired you've only fought half the battle. Because the question is not merely is the Bible inspired, is it inerrant, the major question following that, that must be answered is, is the Bible sufficient. Or do we have to bring in every so-called social study in order to know how to run a church. That, is a major question.
Social sciences in my opinion have taken precedent over the Word of God in such a away that most of us can't even see it. It has so crept into our church, our evangelism and our Messiology that you can barely call what we are doing Christian anymore. Psychology, anthropology, sociology have become primary influences in the church.
Several years ago, many years ago when I was in seminary I remember a professor walked in and he started drawing footprints on the blackboard. As he marched them across the blackboard then he turned to all of us and said only this: "Aristotle is walking through the halls of this institution. Beware. For I hear his footsteps more clearly than those of the Apostle Paul and the team of inspired men who were with him, and even the Lord Jesus Christ himself."
We have come to believe that a man of God can deal in certain tiny areas in the life of the church but when it really gets tough we can go to the social experts. That's an absolute lie.
It says here in scripture that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. What does Jerusalem have to do with Rome? And what do we have to do with all these modern day social sciences that were actually created as a protest against the Word of God? And why is it, that evangelism and missions and so-called church growth is more shaped by the anthropologist, the sociologist and the Wall Street student who is up on every cultural trend?
Every activity in our church must be based upon the Word of God, every activity in missions must be based upon the Word of God. Our missionary activity, our church activity, everything we do ought to flow from the theologian and the exegete. The man who opens up his Bible and only had one question: what is Thy will O God.
We are not to send out questionnaires to carnal people to discover what kind of church they would attend. A church ought to be seeker friendly but the church ought to recognize there's only one seeker, His name is God and if you want to be friendly to someone, if you want to accommodate someone, accommodate Him and His Glory. Whether it is rejected by everyone else, we are not called to build empires we are not called to be accepted we are called to Glorify God. And if you want the church to be something other than a peculiar people then you want something that God does not want.
I want you to listen just for a moment to Isaiah chapter 8, listen to what he says: "When they say to you consult the mediums and the spiritist who whisper and mutter."
This is a perfect, a perfect definition or at least illustration of the social sciences and the church growth gurus and everything else because every 2 or 3 years all their major theories change. Not only on what is a man and how you fix him but what is a church and how you make it grow. Every 2 or 3 years there is another major fad coming down the line of what can make your church into something super in the eyes of the world.
Just recently one of the "greatest" or most well-known church growth experts said that he discovered that he was entirely wrong on all his theory but instead of turning them to Scripture on his knees, broken and weeping he goes out to find another theory.
"They give no clear word" it says here in Isaiah "should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?"
Should we, as churchmen, as preachers, as pastors, as Christians go out and consult the spiritually dead on behalf of those whom the Holy Spirit has made alive? Absolutely not!
Absolutely not.
The second indictment:
2.) An ignorance of God.
[Preaching continues... the above transcription from a small portion of this video is my introduction to its content. It is my own transcription so forgive me my errors within.]
This is a long teaching, longer than most, but well worth the time to listen to it in full, in my honest opinion, so I'm sharing here.
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