Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn. On today's episode, I want to begin a three-week series on revival. It's a topic and a word that is circulating widely because of the events at Aspury. And I think the best way to equip you is to answer three questions. First, what is revival? We'll do that in this episode. Two, what are the marks of true revival? Let's dig into what the Great Awakening looked like and what the Reformation looked like. So we'll do that in the second episode. And then in the final episode, I want to answer the question: what are the marks of false revival? If we answer these questions, we're going to be equipped now and in the future to rightly discern the truth and walk with great joy in the midst of God moving powerfully, and also take great care when there are things that require discernment happening around us. Firstly, I want to provide you with a description of revival from the Welshman who wielded logic on fire in his day, Martin Lloyd Jones, one of the faithful preachers in church history. He's got some great resources available through Banner of Truth. Lloyd Jones was and still is today a faithful preacher in our minds, though he's gone on into glory. His life was marked by transformation as the gospel saved him, and he became obsessed with preaching the Bible faithfully and obsessed with bringing to the forefront of people's minds the problem of man and our sin and the solution of the gospel. And the Lord moved powerfully through Lloyd Jones and his ministry. He is no stranger to the mighty move of God through gospel preaching. And Lloyd Jones says, We can define revival as a period of unusual blessing and activity in the life of the Christian church. Revival means awakening, stimulating the life, and bringing it to the surface again. It happens primarily in the Church of God. So he believed and viewed revival through spiritual terms, of course, and amongst believing people. And it is only secondly something that affects those that are outside also. Now, this is an important point because his definition helps us differentiate once and for all between a revival and an evangelistic campaign. Lloyd Jones says an evangelistic campaign is the church deciding to do something with respect to those who are outside of it. A revival is not the church deciding to do something and do it, it is something that is done to the church. He goes on to say, these are the general characteristics which you will find in every revival that you can never read about in church history. The immediate effect is that the people present begin to have an awareness of spiritual things like they've never had before. They have heard all these things before, they have heard them a thousand times, but what they testify now is this. You know, the whole thing suddenly became clear to me. I was suddenly illuminated. Things that I was so familiar with, they suddenly stood out in letters of gold, as it were. I understood. I saw it all in a way I never had before in my whole life, he says, of these people that would describe what has happened to them in the midst of revival. He writes that the Holy Spirit enlightens the mind and the understanding. People begin not only to see these things clearly, but they feel the power of these truths. What are these things of which they become so aware? Well, first and foremost, the glory and the holiness of God. Have you ever noticed as you read your Bibles the effect on these people in the Bible when they suddenly realize the power and the presence of God? He says, like Job, they put their hands on their mouths, or like Isaiah, they say, Woe is unto me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips. They have just had a realization of the holiness and of the majesty and the glory of God. That always happens in a revival. There can be a lot of laughing or lightness and obvious organization in evangelistic campaigns, but not so in a revival, but rather awe and reverence, holy fear, the consciousness of God and his majesty, his glory, his holiness, and his utter purity. And that, as we have seen, leads inevitably to a deep and terrible sense of sin and an awful feeling of guilt. It leads men and women to feel that they are vile and unclean and utterly unworthy, and above all, it leads them to realize their utter helplessness to face a holy God. Or, like the publican depicted by our Lord in the parable, they are so conscious of all of this that they cannot show their faces. They are far back near the door somewhere, beating their breasts and saying, God have mercy on me, a sinner. The holiness of God, their utter sinfulness and wretchedness, their own unworthiness, they realize that they have never done anything good at all. Before they thought they had done a great deal, now they see it as nothing. It's useless. Like Paul, they begin to talk about it as dung and filthy rags. In their utter helplessness and hopelessness, they prostrate themselves and cast themselves upon the love and mercy and compassion of God. This is the convicting work of the Spirit who takes charge of the situation. People may be held in that state for some time, not only for hours, but sometimes for days and weeks and months, they may become almost desperate. Then they are given a clear view of the love of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and especially of his death upon the cross. At last they see it. Oh that they had always believed it theoretically, but it had never truly become real for them. They had honestly believed it, yes, but they had never felt its power. They had never known what it is to be melted by it, to be broken by it. They had never known what it was to weep with a sense of unworthiness, and then of love and joy as they realized that God so loved the world and that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Suddenly it all becomes real to them, and they are given to know that the Son of God has loved them and has given himself for them. It becomes an individual and a personal matter. He died for me, even my sins are forgiven, and peace comes into their hearts, and joy enters them, and they are lost in love and a sense of praise of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This now becomes the one thing that absorbs them. If they meet anyone, they talk about it at once. Everybody's talking about it. It's the main topic of conversation. It is the thing that absorbs all their interest. And what he means by that, of course, is gospel transformation. They desire to be together now and to talk about these things, and so they get together and they hold meetings. They meet every night to talk about these things, to praise God and to sing hymns to his glory. Then they begin to pray. And there they are, hour after hour, night after night, longing to finish work so that they might get together with other people who have experienced this movement of the Spirit of God. And that, of course, in turn leads them then to have great concern about others who are outside and who do not know these things. Lloyd Jones says, I'm giving you a synopsis of what you read in the books. They begin to get a concern for the members of their own family: husband, wife, father, mother, children, brother, sister, who do not know that they are outside, meaning outside the faith. They tell them about it. They feel they must. There is a constraint that's driving them. They talk about it to people, to friends, to everybody, and they begin to pray for them. And prayer then is always a great feature of every revival, great prayer meetings, intercession hour after hour. They pray for these people by name and they plead, and they will not let go, as it were. They are intent on this with a strange urgency. And then after a while, hearing of all this and seeing the change in those whom they have known for so long, these others who are outside begin to join the meetings and say, What is this? So they come and they go through the same experience. And so it happens, and thousands upon thousands are converted. Indeed, the whole neighborhood seems to be full of the Holy Spirit. He seems to be everywhere. I want to stop there for just a moment and highlight that particular truth, conversion. When we think about revival, when we hear about revival, when we look at the revivals throughout history, and in the next episode, when we talk about the marks of true revival, friend, do not get far from gospel conversion. This is what revival is, when the Spirit of God moves powerfully and uncontrollably, meaning you and I can't control it, nobody can manipulate it and manufacture it. The Spirit of God simply falls upon hearts and they are saved. The awareness of sin, the holiness of God, the awe of God and fear of the Lord overtakes people and entire communities. Lloyd Jones continues, that is what happens in revival, and thus you get this curious, strange mixture mixture, as it were, of great conviction of sin and great joy, a great sense of the terror of the Lord, and great thanksgiving and praise. Always in a revival there is what somebody once called a divine disorder. Some are groaning and agonizing under conviction. Others are praising God for great salvation. And all this leads to crowded and prolonged meetings. Time seems to be forgotten. People seem to have entered into eternity, as it were. A meeting may start at 6 30 in the evening and it may not end until daybreak the next morning, with nobody aware of the passing hours. Friend, don't listen, don't miss this, don't miss this. They did not have to provide coffee, Lloyd Jones says, once or twice halfway through. When the Holy Ghost organizes things, time, the body, and the needs of the flesh are all forgotten. Can I just read that again to you so you can let that sink in? A meeting may start at six thirty in the evening and it may not end until daybreak the next morning, with nobody aware of the passing of the hours. They did not have to provide coffee once or twice halfway through. When the Holy Ghost organizes things, time, the body, and the needs of the flesh are all forgotten. It seems if you take Lloyd Jones's experience and expertise, if you will, and description of revival, there's no need to supercharge people and get everyone pumped up, and even to keep them going. The Spirit of God is the author, the driver, and the dictator of revival. He goes on to say revival then means days of heaven upon earth. Let me give you one of the greatest descriptions ever written of what is true of a town when there is such a revival or a visitation of the Spirit of God. It was written by the great and saintly Jonathan Edwards about the little town of Northampton in Massachusetts in 1735. This work soon made a glorious alteration on the town, so that in the spring and summer following, the town seemed to be full of the presence of God. It was never so full of love and so full of joy, and yet so full of distress as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought to them, parents rejoicing over their children as newborn husbands over their wives and wives over their husbands. The doings of God were then seen in his sanctuary. God's day was a delight, and the congregation was alive in God's service, everyone earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth. The assembly in general were from time to time in tears while the word was preached, some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors. This is God visiting his people, days of heaven on earth, the presidency of the Holy Spirit in the church, life abundant given to God's people without measure. He says a revival is a miracle. It is the hand of the Lord, and it is mighty. It can only be explained as the direct action and intervention of God. Men can produce evangelistic campaigns, but they cannot and never have produced a revival. A revival, by definition, is the mighty act of God, and it is a sovereign act of God. It is as independent as that. Man can do nothing. God and God alone does it. Friend, I believe this excerpt from Lloyd Jones is a great starting point when we are looking to define and understand revival. It is something that I'm certain you pray for, I pray for, we all would long for, and still when you listen to the saints of old, one must understand that revival cannot be manufactured. And what we can be sure of is that certain things mark true revival. That will be our focus in the next episode, which is titled The Marks of True Revival. I want to look deeper at the Great Awakening in that episode, and then also at the Protestant Reformation, along with some explosive moments in Scripture where revival is unfolding. The episode after that will be the marks of false revival as we come to discern the dark side of so-called revival. And I want to help you with some biblical principles so that we could steer clear of deception, error, or man-made hype and walk in the truth. There is nothing that the Christian should pray for more than revival because revival comes with conversion. And I'm sure that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, that there's nothing you long to see more than people converted. Salvation is central when we're talking about revival, which means the true and full gospel will be preached in the center of any revival. For free resources or to partner with for the gospel as a one-time or monthly donor to support the production of these free teaching resources or to meet our team and get to know more about the ministry that we offer here, go to www.forthegospel.org. If you're not already, be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel where we have a ton of free resources and teaching series there. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. For now, keep on living for the gospel.