Revival Lectures Two — E.A. Johnston

Rekindling First Love for Jesus

A young Billy Graham was saved under the ministry of Mordecai Ham, and soon after that the young evangelist visited the older Mordecai Ham to get his advice and ministry. He said, Dr. Ham, what advice can you give to a young preacher like me?

Ham thought about it and replied, Billy, don't ever lose your sweetheart love for Jesus. That's good advice, friends. When I first met my wife, I couldn't wait to spend time with her. Think of the first time you met your spouse and how that person suddenly became your number one priority.

You wanted to share your innermost thoughts and feelings with them. You wanted to spend time with them to learn more and more about them. Just being in their company was a delight. When we first come to Jesus, we know the heat and fervency of a love relationship to him.

While we can't wait to get in our Bibles and get on our knees and spend time enjoying his presence, the true Christian experience is a red hot, intimate love relationship with Jesus. But soon we see how difficult it is to maintain that love relationship.

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil

We have three militant enemies which continually come against us to rob us of our walk with God. These three opponents are the world, the flesh, and the devil. Two enemies without and one within. We read stories about Christians in the book of Revelation whose love for God grew cold through a divided heart.

First Jesus commends them, then he rebukes them. In Revelation chapter 2 and verses 3 -5 we read, And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works. Whatever the reason, friends, soon enough our love begins to wane for our master. It may be another, or another thing that captures our affections that gets in the way of our walk with Jesus.

Losing Affection for Christ Through Lesser Loves

I never forget the story I heard by Leonard Ravenhill. He said he had a close friend who just loved to talk about Jesus. Why, every time you were with this man, all he ever wanted to talk about was Jesus.

Do you know someone like that? Someone who makes you thirsty for Jesus? Well, this man was like that. And Ravenhill said that every time he was around this man, he'd be more thirsty for Jesus and the things of eternity.

And then one day, this friend began to collect stamps. Soon, all he ever wanted to talk about was just stamps. Whenever you saw him, he just went on and on about his stamp collection. One day, this man called Leonard Ravenhill up and said, come on over to my house, brother, and I'll show you a real treat.

I just bought a collection of British Colonials. I paid $50 ,000 for them. Can you imagine, friends, spending $50 ,000 on stamps? Well, this man did. Ravenhill said, eventually, this man quit talking about Jesus altogether because he had a new affection, his stamps.

A little insignificant thing like a stamp got between him and this man's affections for Christ. For me, it was the game of golf. At the time, I was discipling a group of men in my home each week. And God was moving among those men.

Why, it was incredible. We were going through Finney's Lectures on Revival, and I saw that group of men turned upside down for God. It was not uncommon for me to get a phone call in the middle of the night from a concerned wife who begged me and pleaded with me to come right over to their house because her husband was in the next room in distress.

And when I'd get there, I'd find a man crumpled on the floor by his easy chair, drenched in sweat, with his open Bible beside him, wrestling with God in prayer. Why, I was on fire for God at the time.

Guarding First Love Against Distraction

Then, strangely, I had the opportunity to join a prestigious golf club, and I started playing golf five days a week. All I wanted to do was to play golf. So I eventually shut down my discipleship group and took a summer break.

Well, that was a mistake. That group of men never got back together again. And all I did was just keep playing more and more golf as I fed my golf addiction. Finally, God spoke to my heart and showed me my error.

He spelled out what golf to me was from his perspective, G-O-L-F. Golden opportunities, lost forever. After that, I dropped out of the country club, quit the game of golf to work on my walk with God.

We have to be guarded, friends, so not to lose our first love for Jesus. He must have both first place and first priority in our life at all times. I wanna share a personal story with you, friends, that was very impactful to me, where God spoke to me regarding my daily devotional time.

The Prayer Closet and Daily Devotion

I've always maintained a daily devotional time of prayer and Bible study. I've found that my best times to be with the Lord are normally before daybreak, when all is quiet, normally between 4 .30 AM and 6 .30 AM.

Our walk with God is strengthened and developed in our prayer closet with God. With the men I've known who've had a close walk with God, had a vital prayer life. One particular morning stands out in my mind, not because of my nearness to God that day, but quite the opposite.

I was in a week-long conference for pastors and put it in 10 to 12 hours a day. And on that Friday, I rushed my quiet time with the Lord and made just a routine or ritual out of it, rather than meeting Him in a fresh way.

Well, to make a long story short, when I got to my office, I sinned as soon as I got there. I felt terrible all day. And on the drive home, I was praying and talking to the Lord. I said, Lord, how could I behave like that?

How could I sin so easily? After a week-long conference on preaching, and immediately a passage of scripture came to my mind from Exodus. It was chapter 16, where God sent the children of Israel, his manna from heaven, and where Moses instructs them not to hoard it up for the next day, because if it did, it would stink and have worms in it.

Living on Daily Grace Rather Than Yesterday's Experience

And that was the passage that came to my mind as I was driving down the road that day, asking God why I could sin so easily after being on a mountaintop with Him all week. And He answered me, and He spoke to my heart.

He said, you cannot live on yesterday's experience of me. You must come to me every day for a fresh experience of me. Often, when we backslide, it's because we've left our first love. A revival is needed.

We need a revival, a personal revival, when our first love has been left behind. We need to get back into that intimate love relationship with Jesus. And only a personal revival can do that, friends. As we get ready to study this series on these lectures for revival, let us make sure that we ourselves are once again in a red-hot love relationship with Jesus.

Prayer for Personal Revival and the Holy Spirit

Let me pray for us now. Heavenly King, how easy it is to lose our first love with Thee. Grant us the grace to keep the embers on the altar of our hearts aflame for You. Let us stay near Your cross so self can go the way of the cross.

And give us power from Your Holy Spirit to live the Christian life. Give us the grace to spend time sitting at Your feet so we may learn more of You. Grant us a fresh anointing of Thy spirit, I pray. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus, amen.