Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn. And before we jump into the content for today's episode, I want to make an exciting announcement. This podcast is now offered in the usual format through Apple and Spotify and normal podcast platforms, but also in a brand new video format. And so if you're watching this on YouTube or our soon-to-be-released Spotify video format, then welcome to the video podcast version. Welcome to our brand new for the gospel studio for this particular show. And I hope that our content continues to bless you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for sharing the resources and for your prayers. Everything that you're doing to support us putting out free resources is allowing all of this to expand. And so a huge thank you and praise and glory to God. If you're listening to this through audio format, hey, it's just business as usual for you. And I hope the content continues to bless you. But if you end up wanting to share this or check it out on Instagram or on our YouTube channel, go to our For the Gospel YouTube channel and just click subscribe and you'll get all the content there as well. Now, this is episode two of the revival series. And so I want to jump right in. Last time we answered the question, what is revival? And I used Martin Lloyd Jones' description of revival to help answer the question, what is revival? And now in this episode, I want to answer the question, what are the marks of true revival? I want to take a look at a couple of key moments in history, starting with the Great Awakening. In the 1700s, in American history, there began a revival that we now know as the Great Awakening. This revival spread through America, and its peak was around the 1740s. Most church historians agree on that. And some church historians see the revival carrying into the 1760s. There were two major figures, although many faithful pastors were a part of the Great Awakening, but George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards stand out as some incredibly faithful and very useful vessels in which God worked through during the Great Awakening. In the Great Awakening, sinners were confronted in their sin, hell was presented as real. And there were unrepentant sinners coming to faith because they were being told that hell is real, heaven is real, the gospel is the only message that saves, and it's by grace through faith. And so there were people getting a very clear gospel call. During the Great Awakening, the idea that all people are born in sin and that there's no one good, but rather only a good God. And sinners must come to that good God in humble repentance. All of that was made clear. Personal relationship with God was also emphasized. The idea was to confess your sin, turn to Christ, and receive the forgiveness of your sins. In the Great Awakening, you had this explosive revival. And by the time this era was winding down, you would be hard-pressed to find a church in America who had not been touched by the revival. There were lives changed, there was purity and holiness emphasized, the gospel was preached, doctrine was prioritized, prayer became a deep labor, and there was a desperate need in people as preachers humbled themselves before a holy God and preached his message, and then people as well humbled themselves before a holy God and received God's message. Evangelism exploded and people were being saved. The Great Awakening really was a tidal wave that swept over America. The Spirit of God gave energy and endurance to the preachers of this era, including George Whitfield. This is one of my favorite stories in church history about preachers and their labor. George Whitfield traveled throughout the colonies some 5,000 miles and preaches hundreds of sermons during the Great Awakening. And his life was described by Martin Lloyd Jones as one of most amazing piety. And so think about that for just a moment. You have George Whitfield being used mightily in the middle of the Great Awakening. And what is said about him is that he had great piety. That means that he was a holy and pure vessel used by a holy God. Now, in his entire ministry spanning 34 years, Whitfield preached some 18,000 sermons. And in America, it's estimated that 80% of the colonists heard him preach. And just to be clear, he wasn't a local. George Whitfield made seven trips to America. This is an Englishman. This is a man who was not just sitting around in America, really conveniently just preaching. In total, he spent about three years of his life on ships to preach the gospel. In his book, The Evangelistic Zeal of George Whitfield, Dr. Steve Lawson quotes Whitfield as saying, The whole world is now my parish. Wheresoever the master calls me, I'm ready to go and preach the everlasting gospel. He was used mightily by God, and his sole focus was the unwavering, unadulterated preaching of the gospel. Now, reaching back 200 years before the Great Awakening was what R. C. Sproul called the Greatest Awakening, as Luther and Knox and Zwingli and a host of other reformers beat back what they called, not so affectionately, the whore of Babylon, referring to the Roman Catholic Church. They viewed the Roman Catholic Church and their corrupt false doctrines and practices as the greatest enemy of the gospel, and this did not come easy. It came, obviously, for Martin Luther with opposition and rejection, many of them standing against the Roman Catholic Church that they were a part of or once a part of. And would one ask Luther if he called it a revival, or if he strategized for a revival, or if he ever bragged about a revival or formalized a revival, he would have said, You're crazy. He would have mocked you. None of them said, Hey, we're gonna start a revival. Hey, we're gonna sustain a revival. Hey, we're gonna plan a revival. Hey, we need a different, we need a venue, or we're gonna sell tickets to a revival. What started as mere faithful protest against the false teacher of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope, turned into a reformation that changed church history. And when asked about it years later, Luther simply said the word did it all. It was the printing press and people passing around the truth that caused it to spread like wildfire. Of course, God behind all of that, working providentially through those means. The word of God was going forth. The power of the Spirit was filling men with courage and a willingness to die for their faith, and they didn't care as long as they were standing for the truth and on God's side. I believe it was Adrian Rogers, and some have attributed this quote to Richard Baxter. It gets thrown around a lot. Here it is. The problem with preachers today is no one wants to kill them anymore. It's a humbling reminder that a preacher is a man of controversy in some ways, not because he's looking for it, but because just preaching the truth will invite opposition and invite turbulence and opponents. Well, such a statement could not be made in the time of the Reformation because there was no problem with preachers who didn't have people coming at them to kill them. They were men under attack, they were mart, and they were tearing down demonic strongholds with truth. There was an explosion of truth and of sound doctrine, and justification by faith was spreading like wildfire throughout really the world eventually. And finally, reaching back to the birth of the church from the Great Awakening to the Reformation to the Book of Acts, we see that the Spirit of God works in very clear ways. Is it mysterious how the Spirit of God works at times? Sure. Can you predict him? No. Jesus made that clear. But when he works, and when he does remarkable things throughout history, there's no denying that it's him. There also are some very clear marks, and I want to lay those out shortly. And before I do, let's think about the book of Acts for a moment. In Acts chapter 2, on the heels of the Spirit of God descending at Pentecost in a unique way to birth the church for the first time, you have Acts 237, in which the very normal pattern of preaching comes out. Peter calls for repentance. He places the gospel and Christ crucified in front of his hearers. The Spirit of God convicts their hearts according to his sovereign will. And then Luke records in Acts 2.37. Now when they had heard this, they were pierced to the heart. They said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? Peter said to them, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Verse 41 goes on to describe the scene in the aftermath, and gospel preaching produced genuine revival. Biblically speaking, what do we see? Well, 3,000 souls are added that day. And Peter tells them to be baptized, those men that he stood there and said, Repent all of you. And then after that, they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and prayer. In the early church, explosive conversion happened when the gospel was preached and lives were changed. In the middle chapters of Acts, we see Paul's ministry spanned three missionary journeys, and converts from Judaism and Gentiles and alike are a part of these churches that are being birthed in Ephesus and Colossae and Thessalonica and beyond. And it's all hinged on one thing: the proclamation of the full gospel. So, with these examples in mind, I want to provide you with the marks of true revival, starting with number one, the preaching of repentance, forgiveness, and faith in Jesus Christ. The preaching of repentance and then forgiveness, that's of sin, and then faith in Jesus Christ. This is what must be preached. In true revival, it is not just, oh, God loves you, God loves you. But it's the double-edged sword of you are a great sinner. Jesus is a greater savior. And that pierces the heart and the soul. It is the bad news and the good news. Not just, hey, God loves you, wants to save you, you need Jesus, you can go to heaven. But you are a sinner. You are utterly depraved. You're dead in sin. Do you know why your life is bankrupt? Do you know why you keep hitting dead ends? Do you know why your self-love and all of your self-pleasures and your self-satisfaction aren't satisfying you? Because only Christ can satisfy. That's what must be preached in true revival. Many will lean heavily on God's love, others will only speak of hell. And you've got kind of the two extremes of the God loves you type of so-called revival. We're just preaching love, man. We're just preaching love. And then you've got the other, you know, fire and brimstone, turner burn. And to be honest, it's not a bad approach to say, turn from your sin. Hell is real. We should preach more of that. There is also the good news, but God, rich in mercy, revival born of the Spirit of God is going to preach the whole counsel of God. It's going to preach the gospel. It's good news, it's bad news. As Peter did in Acts 2, the crucified Savior must be put before sinners. The sinful rebellion of wicked men must be put before their eyes. And then, with a weight upon their shoulders that's too much to bear, you preach the grace of God through Christ, which removes the burden weighing down the guilty sinner. A true revival never affirms, downplays, or ignores sin or the sinner. The Spirit of God is not a people pleaser, he is a soul saver, and therefore sin must be repented of, Christ must be believed, and then salvation pours out on hungry hearts. So don't forget that in true revival, repentance, forgiveness of sin, and faith in Jesus Christ must be preached. Number two, the fear of the Lord will fill everyone. In true revival, the fear of the Lord fills everyone. Bloody Mary was her nickname. But history also knows her as Mary, Queen of Scots. She was a wicked ruler. She would have loved to have John Knox burnt at the stake during the Reformation, and yet in the midst of such a powerful move of God, even the ruthless Bloy said this. I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe. See, Mary knew what power was. She knew what was propelling the Reformation. She knew it could not be stopped, and so it is with revival. The fear of the Lord fills people, nations, and rulers, even the wicked ones, must say, This is a move of God. I fear that God they're worshiping. And specifically on the aspect of fearing the Lord and true revival. It begins with people in the center of the revival. Why? Well, because there is a people in the center of revival who become aware of their sin. They become aware of a holy God. They're struck with the reality of heaven and of hell. They understand suddenly, though perhaps having heard it before, that the justice of God and his wrath has come upon and will come upon the sons of disobedience, as Ephesians 5.6 says. This fills everyone with a healthy fear of the Lord. But in another sense, an awe of God. People in a revival aren't inclined to, you know, pull out their cell phone and film it for Instagram. They're sensitive to the move of the spirit in their midst. There's no aspect of, well, I want to show off and man, I've really got to just capture this moment and post it for people and say something quasi-spiritual in my caption. They're lost in wonder, love, and praise. They're self-reflective regarding who they are and who God is. When you are experiencing and you're in the middle of true and genuine revival, the awe of God and the fear of God is so prevalent you can't think of anything else. That's what we see throughout history. Number three, in true and genuine revival, conversion explodes. Why? Because the gospel is preached. And because the fear of the Lord fills hearts and people are converted. There's no room for darkness, only light. The sinner's totally transformed. The one living a habitual lifestyle of sin is set free. The tolerance for sin and deception and embracing the world and self-love are vaporized by the power of God. Nothing in this world survives when revival comes for real. People agonize over their sin. They rejoice in grace. They fall on their faces and surrender, and their hearts want to live for Christ. Families are changed, marriages are changed, and generations are changed. Number four, the church will fill to overflowing in true times of revival. What happens when the gospel is preached and the Spirit of God pours out on a generation? Three thousand souls are added in a day. Reformation alters history. Great awakenings sweep over countries. And what's at the center of all this? The local church. It's not a conference, though conferences can be helpful. It's not a brand, though ministries may have a name. It's not a nonprofit, though where revival happens may be in the center of a ministry. It's not a seminary, a university, or a crusade that is revival. It's an explosive move of God in hearts that fills the church, the local church, the body of Christ, to overflowing. And you've got to think of this in two ways. Little C and Big C, they typically call it. Little C Church, just by way of illustration, is your local church. It's the local body that you belong to, that you love, and the Lord will work there, and that's what He's primarily building. And then you have to think of the Big C, which is the overall global body of Christ. The Lord sees us all as one. He doesn't see, you know, this Baptist church and that Baptist church and this Lutheran church and that non-denominational church and that Bible church and see us all in silos. He sees his body as one. We're not a compartmentalized body. And yet there are these local assemblies. That's what I mean by little C and Big C. You have to think of this in these ways. The big C body of Christ, you're a part of all of it. Christians right now in Zambia, in America, in South America, in Australia, all over the world, in Africa, China, everywhere. We're all part of one body. Though we worship in smaller, localized assemblies. If these things that I've just described are not in the center of revival, that is an event. That is a sometimes a rebellion in a sense. Like the people that say, Well, I'm just over church. I'm just going to kind of do my own thing in the backyard. Or you have a lot of young people. This is very popular in today's world. You have a lot of young people that say, Well, we're just, we're just over kind of, and they'll use big terms, you know, institutionalized church. We're over our parents' church. We're going to do our own church and kind of just meet in a field or meet in a backyard. And so you have like this little backyard church explosion, and now hundreds of kids are hanging out. They've got an unqualified leader who's not even a pastor. And look, if you want to do Bible studies like that, great. You want to worship Jesus? Awesome. I'm not against that. I love that. I did college young adults and student ministry for years and saw many authentic and organic works begin through Bible studies and things that happen as young people get together and just want to worship Jesus. Love it, and I would affirm it. The problem is when it gets formalized and then we start saying, well, this is this and this is that, and there's nothing else attached to it. There's no body of Christ attachment. There's no qualified elders, there's no qualified leaders. It's this detached thing, and they reject any type of authority or formal structure of ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church, which we see in scripture. This is not revival. This would be more of a hype thing or a hangout thing, or even just a bunch of awesome young people loving Jesus and worshiping Christ and sharing the gospel. But if it doesn't turn into an explosion in the local church, if all of them or many of them or even the leaders would say, Well, I don't really belong to a church, I just belong to Christ, well, then you've got ecclesiology in the local church, which is the bride of Christ, very twisted. There's no orphan movement, there's no isolated cause, there's only the church as plan A. Even this ministry for the gospel only exists to use media to put out sound doctrine for everyday people. And if you would ever dare to call me your pastor, but you are not a member of our church, I'm not your pastor. I'm a friend, I'm a fellow believer, I'm a Christian teacher, and I bring the Bible into your life and you're using media, great, but I'm not your pastor. Your real pastor should be your pastor, and this should just encourage you and spur you on. And your pastor, as I am, is grateful for brothers who put out good content and spur people on all week long. Praise God for that. But in the end, all any other quote unquote ministry effort is an avenue in which to drive you to the Word of God and into the local church. And so if you hear anything in this, don't chase revival everywhere else. Don't chase movements, don't even chase conferences and crusades. If you're not a member of a local church and nobody knows you, meaning leaders don't love you and care for you and keep watch over your soul, you've missed it, friend. If you even are someone who gives money to this ministry and you consider me your pastor, you've missed it. You need to go and get yourself under a faithful church. Paul Washer, I love what he says. He says, Don't go to the church closest to your house, go to the church closest to the Bible. I've said that repeatedly, I'm gonna keep quoting it till I'm old or dead. It's a great reminder. If you got to drive an hour, do it. If you gotta drive two, do it. Make your Sunday about the Lord. So many people chase these things. And I was talking to a friend recently who came out of some of this chasing um picture I'm giving you here, and I don't want to get too nitpicky over and call you know they they were a mega church or this, because I'm not against big and there's you Know John MacArthur is a large church, and I'm not saying mega is bad or big churches are bad. There's many large faithful churches. So, but let's just say my friend was part of that engine of the seeker-driven mega church, and we're gonna build it bigger and do whatever we can and build this big thing. And they came and said to me at some point, the it became like a drug. It was like a rat race all week long, and then we'd go and get this hit of hype, and we would feel like wow, like this is it, and then it would all end, and we felt like we had this great experience, quote unquote, and then we'd go through the week and dry up, and then what? We need another hit. This is what so-called revivals, if they're not true revivals, crusades, uh, even conferences, events, or even that seeker-driven mega church, put on a show, get them all hyped, their endorphins are firing, and then send them out with really nothing but a shallow TED talk and some cool music that they saw or heard. And and then what? Well, it's like a drug, they need another hype hit. If revival is causing people to have to go somewhere, and it isn't resulting in the explosion of the local church, you gotta question it. And honestly, you're not missing anything. Jesus promised to build the church, believers. Where there are no qualified leaders, elders, actual overseers, you question it. Where there are not people experiencing lasting conversion, lasting change in the body of Christ, in a local assembly as part of the global body of Christ, you can't trust it. It's an orphan movement. And God does not do that. Everywhere in Scripture, where explosive things happened, people ended up a part of the local church. So you want to look for that. Number five, holiness will spread like wildfire. In true revival, holiness spreads like wildfire. What does Paul preach after the gospel saves people? Obedience to Christ. What does Peter tell believers to be? Holy as God is holy. So what should happen when genuine revival hits? Holiness comes out of true gospel preaching and true gospel conversion. This generation, then, in today's terms, will delete apps that lead to sexual sin. They'll break up with unbelieving girlfriends and boyfriends, they'll walk away from nightlife scenes that grieve the Holy Spirit, their language will change, their viewing will change, their music will change, their homes will change, their commitment to Christ and his bride will change because the gospel really changed them. Holiness is not behavior modification, it's heart transformation. So if you want to discern if something is true or false revival, there needs to be a massive wave of holiness. Jonathan Edwards, one of the great faithful preachers from the Great Awakening, said holiness appeared to me to be of a sweet, pleasant, charming, serene, calm nature, which brought an inexpressible purity, a brightness, a peacefulness, and ravishment to the soul. In other words, he said that it made the soul like a field or garden of God with all manner of pleasant flowers. Robert Marie McShane said this of himself: My people's greatest need is my personal holiness. You talk about faithful preachers in the center of great movements of God and remembered in history. What were they concerned with? Holiness. From pulpit to pew, from street corner to market city square, holiness will spread like wildfire when true revival has come. Number six, prayer is prioritized. The first thing I want to know if there's revival is where the prayer meeting is that started it or is sustaining it. Of George Whitfield, it was said the real secret to his public ministry was not found primarily in his vivid vocabulary, dramatic skills, or Oxford education. The true source of power in his preaching lay far deeper. It was discovered behind closed doors in time alone with God. He urged, be much in secret prayer, converse less with man and more with God. And Whitfield poured out his heart to God in prayer and then was effectively used before men. He was a man of prayer, and so where there is revival, there needs to be prayer. Humility will be evident in a man of prayer. Piety, holiness, will be evident in a man of prayer. Revival begins, is sustained with prayer. George Whitfield and many of the faithful preachers of old are an example to us in prayer. And so in a true revival, are are people gonna sing for hours? Maybe. I'll tell you what they're gonna do for extended hours in prayer. Many love to sing and go on and on and on because it's emotional. We love music. Many will listen to a little bit of a sermon as long as the man is eloquent or as long as they just are going to get more music. But the zeal and energy to pray will always accompany true revival. Show me a revival, I'll show you hours of prayer that led up to it, that happened during it, and that sustain it. Number seven, the word of God is centralized in true revival. John Napier lived around the time of the Reformation, and he ended up being a well-known mathematician in history, but he was a Calvinist and an ardent opponent to the Roman Catholic Church in those days as well. And it was he who said, genuine revival will always foster a high regard for Scripture. And how true are his words? True revival embraces scripture, submits to scripture, loves scripture, and will change course in light of scripture. So show me a revival and I'll show you a people who will stop sinning. They'll change their church methods, they'll change their preaching, change their staffing, change their friendships, they'll stop caring about being an influencer more than they care about being faithful to scripture. Show me a true revival and I'll show you a generation that unashamedly stands up with a Bible in hand and says, Thus saith the Lord. The genuine move of the Spirit always results in passion for and submission to the Word of God. And finally, number eight, the mark of true revival includes zeal and passion. Zeal and passion. Oh, yes, there will be emotions, there can be feelings, and there will be great zeal in times of revival, and that is right and good in God's sight. We don't need to swing the pendulum to either extreme. Like Paul, there was zeal in his persecution of the church. There was great zeal in his proclamation of Christ. Like Peter, who often touted a fleshly zeal, which eventually led to Christ saying things like, get behind me, Satan, to then his preaching fearlessly. Zeal and passion will fill those who are experiencing true revival. You will not have a lack of zeal and a lack of passion, though it of course must be remembered that all zeal and passion is to be undergirded by the truth. But don't tell me you're experiencing true revival unless your faith is being lived out daily and it invades every sphere of your life. See, a lot of people will get passionate in a moment. A lot of people will experience this zeal or passion because of a song, or even people in that Hillsong documentary that exposed a lot of the emotionalism of the modern so-called church today said, Oh, yeah, we can just play certain notes and we can get the human response to feel really emotional. And so, oh yeah, lots of people can be manipulated into zeal and passion. But hear me on this. It's not a conference, it's not an event. Even a church, you want to be careful. It's not a Sunday experience moment. Real revival, genuine revival results in zeal and passion all week long, Sunday to Sunday to Sunday to Sunday, week after week, moment after moment, this fearless, willing, eager, passionate joy to proclaim the gospel and to live for Jesus Christ in the midst of this dark world. When you are experiencing true revival, it is not like a drug in which you need another hit to feel the high. Friend, when it's true and genuine revival, the high is always there, if you will. And it's the kind of high that is filled with passion, zeal, and emotion for one thing. I want to preach Christ in Christ crucified. I want to love him. My affections burn for him, and I want others to come to saving faith. And so you boldly, courageously, and unashamedly preach repent of your sins, turn to Christ for salvation, and be saved. I hope that these eight marks of true revival give you plenty to think about. And I pray that when it comes to revival, we would pray for it. I hope you'll be one of those Christians who prays for such things to happen in your local church and beyond. How incredible in these days of darkness if the light of Christ would explode in our churches. Pray for revival. Trust God and be optimistic about the future. It's good and right and okay to long for it. And be faithful today. Revival begins with the Spirit of God moving as he wills. And many times so use the prayers of his people and the faithful proclamation of his word as the means to start that. So trust him. In the next episode, we'll look at the marks of false revival to finish out this three-week series. For free resources, go to forthegospel.org. If this audio podcast has been helpful to you, be sure to drop us a review on Apple. And if you're watching this on our YouTube channel in our brand new video podcast format, be sure to click subscribe and share this with someone who you believe it would edify and encourage. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your prayers. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. For now, keep on living for the gospel.