Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Have you noticed all the chatter about a potential move of God that is taking place throughout our nation? Bible sales are suddenly spiking. Mass baptisms are occurring on college campuses. Hollywood producers have even begun to signal that their writers should include narratives that assume a biblical framework. What on earth is happening? Our congregation in particular since COVID has seen record attendance, record giving and record baptism, especially in the last few months.
[00:00:29] This certainly could be the first fruits of a great move of God that is about to take place. Or it could be slick marketing. In times like these, we need to be more vigilant than ever to not believe every spirit, but rather test the spirits to see whether they be of God.
[00:00:53] Why? Well, we don't know that a great revival is going to happen before the Lord returns. But we do know that many false prophets have gone out into the world and that will only get worse. Nevertheless, the signs are encouraging that a fresh move of the Holy Spirit may be happening. It's happened before. In the 1730s, rumblings of revival were happening throughout the American colonies, especially in the northeast. Led by men like Jonathan Edwards grandfather Solomon Stoddard. Those rumblings became full blown movements with the arrival of evangelist George Whitefield and John Wesley. Whitefield preached in the southern port cities like Savannah and worked his way up the east coast. Wesley even established a congregation in St. Simon's Georgia, about 50 airline miles from our campus of FB first of Whitefield. It was said that he preached to at least. He preached at least 18,000 times to an estimated 10 million people. And keep in mind that was in the horse and buggy days. New England itself only had a population of around a quarter of a million people simultaneously. Edwards had a passionate yet deeply academic style of preaching and he was seeing similar effects in Northampton, Massachusetts. His sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God became one of the most significant pieces of literature in American history. It shaped culture as we know it. The fires of revival that followed Whitefield combined with those happening from the church led by Jonathan Edwards to produce the most profound and lasting gospel movement to occur in all of history, at least in the United States.
[00:02:40] Now, anytime God does a great work, Satan seeks to counterfeit it. He seeks to confuse it and derail it. You can imagine that the media coverage for whatever it was in that day got on board this movement and they began to report on it. Rumors began to spread. And keep in mind, this was in a time when news traveled very slowly and it became necessary for people like Edwards to help Christ's followers understand exactly what a Legitimate work of God looks like versus a counterfeit. And that is not to say that some of the competing movements were at all satanic. Sometimes it was just simply an over exuberant work of the flesh emotionalism. Nonetheless, clarity was needed. He produced a book called the Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God. And in the book he mentioned both negative and positive evidences of revival.
[00:03:42] For the negative works. That's not to say that these were evidences that it was not a work of God, but rather these do not necessarily verify that something is actually a work of the Spirit. He listed several. The first was bodily effects wrought by the Spirit of God upon those under the influence, including the presence of tears, convulsions, jerking and laughter. This is the charismatic slain in the spirit type of thing. That sort of thing actually happened under Jonathan Edwards preaching. It was said at times that there were so many bodies on the floor that it was like the people carpeted the floor. They would fall down in convulsions and fear with great emotional evidences and outbursts. But Edwards says that is not necessarily a mark, that it is a work of God. It could be. I mean, when the human body encounters the divine person, it's not unlikely that there will be at least emotions. And it could be profound emotions, but it also could be something different entirely. So he put that in the negative category that this is not a dead giveaway that God's in the room.
[00:05:01] Another evidence, negative evidence, was the presence of much noise about the Christian faith. In other words, this is strong media coverage. It's highly unlikely that the media reports on anything happening in Christianity that's positive. So when it happens, that's new for us. But Edwards says that's not necessarily a dead giveaway that God's at work. Remember, it's the newspaper's job to sell newspapers. It's the TV show's job to get viewers to sell ads. And so they're going to cover what people are talking about. Another negative evidence was the stirring up of imaginations and emotions.
[00:05:46] Emotions are a good thing. They're a gift from God. But a person's emotions being stirred are not necessarily evidence that God is at work.
[00:05:56] Another negative evidence was arguments proved often from example rather than from the careful reasoning during a strong visitation of the Spirit of God. In other words, they would draw conclusions based upon external subjective evidences rather than reasoning through the text of Scripture.
[00:06:22] Another was rash and unconventional conduct.
[00:06:26] There are times even in scripture when God shows up and things happen that are really out of the ordinary. But the fact that they're out of the ordinary doesn't prove that God's at work. The day of Pentecost, for example, people were presuming that the church was drunk. And Peter had to argue that they're still early in the day. They're not drinking wine, they're not drunk. It was a move of the Spirit. But at the same time, just because a group of people are acting very odd, that's not an evidence. If that were in evidence, there would be a lot of churches that act odd, that we could say God's all over those churches. But that is not an evidence that God is at work irrefutably.
[00:07:10] Another negative evidence, new converts puffed up and exhibiting an overconfidence with their boldness.
[00:07:18] When the Spirit of God works, boldness typically follows. But when new people come to the faith in Christ, we used to call it in seminary, a cage stage theology, they learn something and they feel like it's a mandate from God that they tell everybody that they know. That's a good thing when it's the gospel. But it's not necessarily irrefutable evidence that God's at work. According to Edwards, another negative evidence would be the true work of God may be intermixed with errors in judgment and delusions of Satan. The enemy will counter attack the movement of God. So at times you're going to see God working and Satan will be drawn to that. He will get involved. He counterfeits that which is valuable. You counterfeit large bills, you don't counterfeit pennies.
[00:08:12] The errors or practices that attend a true revival, he writes, may be gross and scandalous, but such things may be expected in any time of reformation.
[00:08:26] When God's working, oftentimes he's adding his blessing to the preaching of the Gospel. He's adding his blessing to the exposition of God's word. He's not necessarily affirming and confirming everything that's happening in the preacher's life, but everything that's happening often will get media attention.
[00:08:52] So if a person is actually preaching the gospel, God blesses the preaching of the gospel. And the pastor has some things that are really off in his walk or his life or his theology, they will also get attention. It's just a warning sign that he puts as a negative evidence.
[00:09:12] Ministers, he says, may terrorize people by insisting on the reality of hell and their dreadful judgment of the holy law of God.
[00:09:23] In other words, if a minister that oftentimes can be very pragmatic, they want results.
[00:09:30] And so if they see certain Types of preaching getting results.
[00:09:36] Rather than expounding the full counsel of God's Word and the wholeness of the faith, the mind of Christ, they can tend to terrorize people to be unhelpful in preaching truth. Any truth carried to an extreme can be unbalanced at best, it can be heretical at worst. So that can happen in the midst of a move of God. Now he gives several positive marks. These taken as a whole, Edwards would say, would verify that something is actually a legitimate move of the Holy Spirit. The first he gives is an elevated level of people's esteem for Jesus.
[00:10:19] I would argue that it's the true Jesus. It's not a Jesus of our imagination, but it's the Jesus as he is presented in Scripture. When people look at the Word of God, they fall in love with Jesus Christ and they become Jesus people. That's something that the flesh doesn't work up on its own and that's something that the enemy certainly would not bring. So that's an evidence that the Holy Spirit has done his job. He's brought inspiration, he's brought understanding and he's caused us to see our Savior and to love him with all of our heart.
[00:10:59] Another positive evidence, the Holy Spirit operates against the interest of Satan's Kingdom. Revival helps to check and curb sin, though it cannot eliminate it.
[00:11:09] So you should see, while people did not become sinless, you should see people sin less.
[00:11:18] In Edwards time when the Great Awakening occurred, there were times where entire prisons were closed, there was nobody to put in prison. That's a good sign. If people are sinning less, that's a good sign that God's at work.
[00:11:34] At the same time, I've heard of some, some huge movements that people were flocking to from all over around the world. In the city where the so called revival was taking place, the hotels would report record sales of pornography. Those two things don't go hand in hand. So when God is actually working, we should see people not being sinless, but certainly sinning less.
[00:12:03] Another positive evidence was a greater regard for the Scriptures. When people fall in love with Christ, they also fall in love with the Word. He's the Word made flesh. He's the Logos. And so when we love Jesus, we love his Word. It proceeded from Him. It's the mind of Christ. It's the greatest genius that mankind has ever known. And so when there's a true work of the Holy Spirit, there will be a deeper love and passion for knowing and understanding God's Word.
[00:12:36] Oftentimes we will say, you know, When a sermon is preached, you hope that you can answer some questions and give some people understanding. But if they hear the sermon and they leave, they go home and they want to search the Scriptures and get in the word more, that's usually a good sign that God has been at work.
[00:12:58] Another positive evidence, the words used in addressing the opposite spirits. In other words, how people speak out against that which is contrary to God's word. There's a prophetic zeal when revival takes place that the things that are not of the Lord, that people are careful and quick to call them out and not just take anything that adds to the. To the. To the movement.
[00:13:29] Finally, a spirit of love to God and to man.
[00:13:34] When God fills your heart, the love of God fills your heart. And the ultimate work of the Holy Spirit as he brings us to Jesus Christ, is to cause us to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength. And then to love our neighbor as ourself.
[00:13:56] And if that's not happening, if whatever it is causes people to get less loving, less patient, less kind, then whatever it is, it's not a work of the spirit of God.
[00:14:10] So Bible sells are exciting. I'm thrilled they're happening. I'm thrilled people are reading anything, but they're reading scripture. That's a good thing. I'm excited to hear about the works that are taking place on college campuses, entire football teams being baptized as this is happening. Let's pray for those movements, let's pray for those leaders.
[00:14:35] Let's encourage them to be faithful to God's word, to preach the gospel accurately in a way that people can comprehend it, to lift up the person and the work of the true Jesus of Scripture, to call people to repentance and faith. And let's say Lord, as the ancients used to say the Puritans, let's draw a revival around ourselves and say, God, send a revival. And if you would be so pleased, let it begin in this circle. God bless you. This has been code red.
