The Pilgrims, Nominal Christianity & The Great Awakening

Moore's Corner Church

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So this will be lesson number 11, part 2 from Reformation to Revival.

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We did section number 1, the English Puritans. So this will be section number 2,

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Puritanism and America. Now what do you know about the Puritans?

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How much do you know about the Puritans? They were the pilgrims.

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They were kind of fussy. They were, I forget what the word is, but they did not believe in letting themselves have any kind of real pleasure.

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Yeah, I think one thing people know about them is they outlawed Christmas.

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So they banned the celebration of Christmas because, yeah, people were, you might say having too much fun, but they said people were, you know, living in excess and indulging themselves too much in worldly pleasures during Christmas.

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So that's kind of the one thing a lot of people know about the Puritans. So it says here in my book,

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I don't think this is in yours, but I'll just read it, the pilgrims were a group of separatist

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Puritans who left England due to what? Religious persecution, right, during the reign of James I.

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After spending a short time in Amsterdam, they embarked for North America on the

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Mayflower, landing at Plymouth in 1620. Thousands of Puritans crossed the

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Atlantic to North America in the 1620s and 1630s.

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So is that something that you knew, that the pilgrims and the

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Puritans, I mean this is the same group? Yeah, and they left England because the

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Church of England was, yeah, they were persecuting them. So it's the big church persecuting maybe the small church or the majority persecuting the minority, which was the case in the

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Protestant Reformation, with the Catholic Church persecuting the Protestants. And then once the

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Anglicans had power, I mean they were very similar to the

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Catholics and they persecuted the Puritans, so on and on it went. But they also, the

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Puritans, when they went over to Amsterdam, the reason they left wasn't because of religious persecution, they left because it was too worldly.

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Yeah, okay. It says here, after Charles I came to the throne, many more

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Puritans left England, convinced that the persecution in their homeland would only grow worse.

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The Great Migration of the 1630s saw some 20 ,000 settlers, mostly

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Puritans, immigrate to New England. Now why didn't they just conform?

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There's always a way to avoid persecution, right? So if the Church of England is persecuting the

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Puritans, how could the Puritans have avoided that persecution? Compromise.

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Yeah, compromise and give in and recognize the king as the head of the church.

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What about that? Is that worth compromising on? I mean that's only a little thing, right? I mean we, the

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Bible says and we say Jesus is the head of the church and the

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Church of England said the king is the head of, that's no big deal, we can just compromise on that, right?

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Can we? Yeah, I mean the very name Puritan, I mean you want to purify the church from stuff like that and a lot of other things.

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And that was really their issue, is that the Church of England was still way too much like the

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Roman Church. Okay, so it says in the Plymouth Colony, it was established in 1620, in the

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Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628. In 1636,

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Harvard University was founded and I think we've talked about this. Harvard and many other of the top schools in the country were founded as seminaries or Christian schools.

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Around that time, Roger Williams left Massachusetts Bay to establish

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Rhode Island and the first Baptist Church in America. So that was 1638, the first Baptist.

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So what were the Puritans? So if the Puritans are not Baptists, what are they? Mainly Congregationalists.

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Around that time, Roger Williams left Massachusetts, okay? The initial wave of Puritans in New England was very devout, but subsequent generations lacked the conviction of their predecessors.

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Over time, a growing sense of spiritual indifference set in. By the time of Jonathan Edwards in 1703 to 1758, that's when he lived, the churches of New England were largely populated by nominal

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Christians. Okay, I was in Northampton the other day and I was just driving through the center.

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I'm pretty sure it's that church in the center where the four -way intersection is, that that was the church that Jonathan Edwards preached in.

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And it's so hard to imagine that Northampton, I mean, at one time was, you know, well, it would have been considered like maybe not officially a

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Christian town, but a town certainly filled with Christians. But, of course, what are we reading here?

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That Jonathan Edwards, even in his day, according to him, the church was still populated by, what, nominal

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Christians. So even back then, what that means is that the church was filled with people who said they're

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Christians, but Jonathan Edwards really didn't believe that they were Christians. And this is another story most people know, that Jonathan Edwards got ran out of Northampton.

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He got ran out of his church because he refused to serve communion to members of his congregation because it was just kind of known around town the stuff they were engaged in during the week.

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And he, yeah, you can't take communion while you're living like that.

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And that didn't go over too well. Larry, you had a hand up? Well, yeah, I was gonna say that, well, didn't he get run out of town, but you touched on that.

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And I thought maybe we might get to that a little later on, too. Right, well, actually, yeah. So a lot of nominal

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Christians in the church at this time. And, of course, that's always been the case, right?

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Isn't this always the way it is? Even back in Jesus's day, you had people at the temple and the synagogues.

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Everyone said they believed in the Lord, but not everybody believed in the Lord. That's always been the way, the wheat and the tares.

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Some periods are worse than others. It says in both England and New England there was a great need for revival.

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Such paved the way for ministries and impact for the ministries and impact of men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield.

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Okay, so it lists a passage here, Judges chapter 2. Let's turn there.

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Just as far as the Puritans go, I was thinking of 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, where Paul says to the church members, come out from among them and be separate, says the

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Lord. So the doctrine of separation. When you see worldliness, ungodliness,

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Christians are supposed to separate from that. And that's what they were doing in the Church of England. They wanted to separate from that.

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And Edwards wanted some separation in his church. But you know, you're going to have a fight on your hand when you do that kind of a thing, when you confront problems head on.

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So Judges chapter 2, 6 through 15, this is the question.

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In Judges 2, 6 through 15, the author describes what happened to Israel when later generations did not follow the

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Lord like their forefathers had done. As noted above, or as noted above, subsequent generations of American Puritans lacked the fervent love for the

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Lord that had characterized their ancestors. What factors do you think contribute to that kind of apathy?

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So let's just read this passage in Judges. Judges 2, starting in verse 6, 6 through 15, says, and when

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Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land.

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So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived

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Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord which he had done for Israel. Now Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the

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Lord, died when he was 110 years old, and they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres in the mountains of Ephraim on the north side of Mount Gaash.

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And when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the

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Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the

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Lord and served the Baals, and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them.

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And they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the

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Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel.

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So he delivered them into the hands of the plunderers who despoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

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Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the

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Lord had sworn to them, and they were greatly distressed. Okay, so after reading that, after hearing about what's happening with the

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Puritans and Edwards, what factors do you think contribute to that kind of apathy?

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Compromise. Okay, you want to elaborate? Turning away from God to serve other gods, which even though they had seen, some of those elders had seen what

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God had done previously to get out of Egypt, and how he provided for them, they still turned away.

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Yeah, one generation believes they have strong convictions. The next generation, you know, those convictions, it's assumed that they're going to have the same convictions, feel the same way, but it's usually not quite as much.

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And then the next generation after that, I forget there's a there's a progression.

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Stacey, you had? That's the point I was going to make, as the generations went on, the fervor for the

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Lord and keeping to what they knew, right, failed to pass down to the following generations, right, or they just failed to teach to the extent.

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Yeah, and of course with judges, the generation that really loved God often was that generation that saw the

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Lord's hand of deliverance. So they saw it, but then their children just grew up and everything's great, and when everything's going well, become complacent and all the rest.

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Larry? I can see the effects of my sin on my own family and how the effects of my sin led some of my children astray and still are.

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Yeah, yeah. How should that affect the way we think about the next generation in the church?

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All right, so we talked about what can lead to that apathy. How should that affect the way we think about the next generation?

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Well, I mean, you want to prevent that, if at all possible. So if you could come up with the formula to do that,

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I mean, everyone would be interested in what that is. But, you know, it's something we just have to be aware of, that that's typically how it goes.

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Not always, certainly, and that's not always the case in every family. If the parents love

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God, the children don't. But sometimes that's the way it is.

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How does that statement go? Doctrine determines practice? Yes. What you believe determines how you live, and so that can affect your house, our family here, and so by straying away from doctrine, you're also leading others away.

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Okay, any other thoughts before we move on? Linda? Yeah, everything rises or falls on leadership, as they say, and yeah, if the leadership, yeah, when things are good, the complacency can affect people all the way up and down the ladder.

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So once the leaders start going wobbly, we're in big trouble. Okay, this is section 3, the evangelical revival in England.

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So not New England, but it says, due to spiritual decline in both England and the

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American colonies, the stage was set for an evangelical revival in England and a great awakening in America.

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I don't know, I just think of this, if back, what is this, the 1700s we're talking, 1600s we're talking about?

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I mean, if they looked at the culture then and thought, oh man, these people are, you know, in spiritual decline,

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I wonder what they would say about things right now. I think,

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I think they might say, like, we're living in a modern -day Sodom and Gomorrah. I mean, I think that's probably right.

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It says, to that end, though, as far as this revival that was coming, to that end,

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God raised up key leaders, including Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, and George Whitfield.

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So these are sort of the the names that you would know if you've studied church history. So Jonathan Edwards lived from 1703 to 1758.

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I think he's considered maybe the greatest scholar America ever produced.

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I mean, that's the way he was regarded for, probably not anymore, but I seem to remember the

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Encyclopedia Britannica or something stating that Edwards was, like, the greatest

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American scholar, and that was written, I don't know. I'm sure if they revised that today, they wouldn't say that, but,

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I mean, he just had that type of impact and reputation. Also, John Wesley, who lived from 1703 to 1791.

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John Wesley started, or what, what denomination developed from the

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Wesleys? Methodist. Yeah, Methodism. Wesley was sort of the pastor, the theologian.

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Charles Wesley was the the hymn writer. Charles Wesley lived from 1707 to 1788, and then

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George Whitfield from 1714 to 1770. Marcus?

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Who wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God? Yeah, that famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an

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Angry God, was Jonathan Edwards. Yeah, and I'm not sure if that started, let's, let's keep reading.

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I mean, that was, that was part of the Great Awakening. When people hear about that, that's always included in the history, but it says,

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John and Charles Wesley were born into large families of 19 children.

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Wow, that's, that's a lot of kids. Yeah, their father was an

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Anglican minister. George Whitfield, by contrast, was only two years old when his father died, and Whitfield grew up in poverty, so they came from very different backgrounds.

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In 1729, Charles Wesley founded a group at Oxford University called the

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Holy Club. Both his brother John and his friend George Whitfield would eventually join this group.

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All three men would later admit they were not converted at this time. Okay, so this is, this is the nominal

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Christianity that we read about. So here they are, they're professing Christian, some of them even in ministry, they're part of the

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Holy Club, and they say we, you know, after they got saved, they looked back in this time and said, yeah, we, we weren't even truly converted, which is interesting.

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It says the members of the Holy Club focused on trying to be holy, at least on the outside.

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This just makes me think back to Martin Luther. When he first became a monk, was he a regenerate, born -again

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Christian? No, because his idea of the gospel is,

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I, I need to do good, I need to keep the commandments, I need to do, and it was really sort of a works, work system of righteousness.

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And in his efforts to earn salvation through external good works, I mean there it is,

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George Whitfield forced himself to endure severe discipline which damaged his health, yet nothing he did could regenerate his heart or secure his salvation.

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Other students at Oxford called the members of the Holy Club, what did they call them?

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Methodists, because of their methodical approach to self -discipline and spirituality.

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So Methodist churches, I mean that's how they got the name, they were so methodical back then. This nickname later came to define the movement these men would lead.

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Because Whitfield's family was very poor, when he enrolled at Pembroke College at Oxford, he paid his expenses by working as a servitor, an errand boy, basically serving other students.

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In 1733, Charles Wesley gave Whitfield a copy of a

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Puritan work called The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Squirgle.

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It showed Whitfield that unless he was born again, he would be condemned by God.

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The Lord used that book to draw Whitfield to saving faith. After being genuinely converted,

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Whitfield embarked on a ministry of evangelism and preaching. When it became difficult to find preaching opportunities in churches, what did he do?

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Yeah, hey, if no church will let me preach, I'll just go wherever people are and I'll preach outside,

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I'll preach on the street corner. How many of you have ever seen somebody just preaching in a random place?

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Around here? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, Cambridge. Yep. I remember

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I was in Washington DC and there was a guy at the Lincoln Memorial standing up on one of the pillars there and he was preaching.

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But it's not something you see very often. Yeah, that's what Ed Neiman, the speaker at the men's retreat this year and last year, does on occasion, open -air campaigns.

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Right. Preaches on the streets or parks or wherever there's a crowd. All right, so and it says this would become a hallmark of the

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Methodist movement. So just preaching outside, preaching wherever you could get a crowd. Larry.

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I had read in regards to John and Charles Wesley that,

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I can't remember which one it was, but they said if you have learned a hymn in any other way than what we have written, you need to unlearn it and don't sing it any other way.

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He actually had like ten different things in regards to church that, you know, and methods of how the church service should work.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're pretty methodical, yep. I can't help but think that the success of these revivals starts with a preacher.

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That's why I went back to that. Sinners in the hand of an angry God, as Jonathan Edwards did. And I think now to a great comfort, or the way of the

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Master, where his method of evangelism is to point out people's sickness, illness, need for regeneration.

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And so he will, he just said, he will just say, have you ever told a lie? Have you ever stolen anything?

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Have you ever lusted after a woman? Have you ever used the Lord's name in vain? And people will always say, oh yeah, sure, sure, sure.

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He says, well then what are you? You're a lion, thieving, blasphemous? And you need to believe that first.

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And if you stood before a pure and holy and just God, would he find you guilty?

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And you have to, you have to start that way. People need to, need to know that they, they're in bad condition.

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Right. Yeah. And Ray Comfort, if you've never seen him, he goes out to the beach, you know, wherever people are hanging around or walking by on the street, and he'll pull people aside.

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And I'm sure he gets cursed out often, but you know, he's made a lot of people think.

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He says here in 1738, the Lord opened the eyes of both

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John and Charles Wesley on different occasions to the truth of the gospel. Their hearts were transformed.

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The dead moralism that had previously characterized them was replaced by the true life of regeneration.

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In the same year, Whitefield made his voyage to the American colonies. His first visit was to the colony of Georgia.

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A couple of years later, he would tour new England, preaching in major cities like New York and Boston.

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This preaching tour corresponds with a revival in America known as the great awakening.

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Who's heard of the great awakening? Yeah, there's the great awakening. There's like the first, the second.

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I think people talk about a third great awakening. And some even claim there was a fourth great awakening.

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And do you know when the fourth one supposedly some people argue and say this wasn't wasn't really a great awakening?

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You're talking about Asbury? No, no. But from 19, 1960s through the 1980s, a lot of people, the

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Jesus people movement and all of that. A lot of people will say that was a fourth great awakening.

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But then you have some other people who say, well, the first one was real. And the other three weren't. But, you know, you get people disagreeing on that kind of stuff.

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It says here after returning to England in the 1740s, Whitefield encountered resistance from John Wesley over the doctrine of God's sovereignty in salvation.

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This resulted in early Methodist or Methodism being split with Whitefield embracing the reform doctrine of election and Wesley advocating an

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Arminian view that emphasized human free will. During this time, both

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John Wesley and George Whitefield significantly influenced people throughout

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England, calling them to consider whether they had truly been born again. By being willing to preach outside, they were not constrained by the size of local churches or the approved the approval of clergy.

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OK, so you have this rift between the two. Now, if you look at the men, they both respected one another.

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They both said positive things about each other, but they did sharply disagree over this doctrine of Calvinism versus Arminianism.

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God's sovereignty versus free will. Larry? Every one of Charles Wesley's hymns, even though we sing many of them today still, has within it something about free will.

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Yeah, yeah. Every one. Yeah, there's another line, though.

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And can it be there's one line that sounds like Calvinistic, I remember. But, you know,

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I mean, you can you know how it is. People can kind of read into things what they want to what they want to see.

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But, you know, one thing I want to point out when we talk about these two issues that the two men, none of them view the other as lost.

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Or even though they disagreed on this teaching, they weren't pointing fingers.

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And, hey, John Wesley is a false teacher. Don't listen to him. More Whitfield believes in Calvinism.

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That's wrong. Don't listen to it. They didn't do that. They felt strongly about what they believe the

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Bible taught. But they had no question about one another salvation. And I think we need to have that same attitude.

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If there's other churches, other Christians that have a different view on this than us, you know, debate it.

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If you can be friendly. Great. But it's not something that you want to. Even though they did divide in their ministries and kind of had their own thing.

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You don't want to divide in the sense that you stop recognizing someone as a brother in Christ or over this.

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Any questions on that? Because sometimes when you're online, on YouTube, you get people that are just willing to throw people away over one disagreement and they're done.

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You want to avoid doing that if you can. Whitfield, it says, also had a major impact on the

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American colonies. During his life, he made 13 transatlantic voyages for a total of seven trips to America.

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On his seventh trip in 1770, he died after preaching in New Hampshire.

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Over his life, Whitfield preached some 1800 or 18 ,000 sermons.

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Sorry, he was one of the most well -known preachers in both England and New England in the 18th century.

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And one of the most recognizable figures of his day. In 1788,

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Charles Wesley died. He is most well known for composing more than 6 ,000 hymns.

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We have how many Wesley hymns in our book? There's a few, at least. Though he traveled to, let's see, including well -known songs like Ann Kennedy and O for a

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Thousand Tongues to Sing. I know we have those two because we sang them recently.

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John Wesley died in 1791 after giving shape to the Methodist movement.

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Though he traveled to America only one time, the Methodist movement would become the largest

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Protestant denomination in America in the 19th century. Okay, it says here, this is the discussion question.

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The preachers of the evangelical revival noted that moral behavior and good works cannot save sinners.

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Rather, people must be regenerated, or quote -unquote born again, meaning that their hearts must be changed.

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Read John 3, 1 through 3. Let's get some volunteers to look these up.

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John 3, 1 through 3. Okay, Mark. 2 Corinthians 5, 17.

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Lance. And then Titus 3, 1 through 7. Someone, okay,

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Jen. So we're going to read these passages, and it says, what do these passages teach about the relationship between regeneration and salvation?

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Yes. 16 Charles Wesley hymns in our book. Okay, 16.

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And he wrote how many? 6 ,000. That's a lot of hymns.

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At least twice that. Really, really. Okay, so, you know, these men dealt with the same thing that Martin Luther dealt with.

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Started out being taught salvation by faith plus works, thinking that, hey, if I'm going to go to heaven, my salvation depends on me and what

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I do, and they needed to realize the true gospel, which is purely by grace, believing that.

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And then once they did, their hearts were actually changed to where they wanted to do the right thing.

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So let's read these passages. John 3, 1 through 3. Mark. There was a man of the

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Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him,

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Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

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Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

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Okay, so you must be born again. And then Jesus goes on to talk about the spirit is like the wind.

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You know, he he comes and goes where he where he will. So it's not about human effort.

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It's about the regenerating work of God, the Holy Spirit. Okay, the next verse,

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Lance. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become. Okay, so you have to be born again.

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You have to be a new creation. So something within the person has to change.

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Something has to the dead spirit that you were born has to come alive.

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And that's not something a human being can do. That has to be the work of God.

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Jen Titus 3, 1 through 7. With that in mind, to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to do no wrong, to be meekness unto all men.

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For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

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But after that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the

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Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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Okay. And Titus 3, verse 5, in particular, stands out.

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Not by works, right? Not by works of righteousness, which we have done or that Martin Luther did or John Wesley did or whoever, but according to God's mercy, he saved us.

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How? Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

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So, again, it's a work of God. So what do these passages teach about the relationship between regeneration and salvation?

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What's the relationship? Well, yeah, I mean, they're linked. One cannot exist without the other.

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Anyone who is saved has been regenerated. If you've been regenerated, you're saved.

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Okay. Any questions on that? All right.

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Well, next, Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening. Let's see. It says,

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A, Edwards' early life. Edwards was born. So now we're kind of going back to look at Edwards a little more closely.

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Edwards was born in New England on October 5th, 1703. He was the fifth of 11 children, the only boy.

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His father, Timothy Edwards, was a minister, and his maternal grandfather was who? Solomon Stoddard.

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Solomon Stoddard. Okay. So it says that during his time at Yale, at age 16, he became very ill, and he thought he was going to die.

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This resulted in a period of sober reflection, during which he considered the condition of his soul.

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Have any of you ever thought you were going to die, and that made you reevaluate?

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I mean, that'll do it, right? Because people just live. They live, and they think,

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I've got years. I have decades. I have all this time. And then when they realize maybe

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I don't, it forces them to think about. And that's how Luther was.

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Well, he wasn't converted at that moment, but you remember Luther joined the monastery when he thought he was about to die.

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So God uses all sorts of different things. In 1721,

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Edwards embraced the Lord Jesus in saving faith. As the result of his conversion, he came to love the doctrine of God's sovereignty, a doctrine he had struggled to embrace earlier.

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Okay. Over the next few years, Edwards penned what? A set of how many?

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Seventy. Seventy resolutions in which he articulated his desire to glorify

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God. And basically, this is saying Edwards was with Whitefield on God's sovereignty.

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And then on the other side was the Wesleys. Edwards, just some quotes.

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He said, being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help,

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I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions so as far as are agreed to his will for Christ's sake.

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Okay. So he said a lot of other things. We don't need to read every quote. Let's just skip ahead for the sake of time.

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Well, let's read this one part because it talks about his ministry in Northampton. Again, in 1727,

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Edwards was ordained in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he would assist his grandfather,

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Solomon Stoddard, in pastoral ministry. A couple years later, when Stoddard died, Edwards became the pastor of the church.

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And, of course, I guess it doesn't mention, Larry, that he got ran out or does it? I guess not.

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Skipping ahead to B, the Great Awakening. So the Great Awakening, this is the mid to late 1730s.

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Edwards Church became a starting point for a what? Revival. Revival that spread through the surrounding areas.

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Marcus mentioned a little while ago Asbury. Remember the Asbury Revival?

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Is that a year ago? Not quite. I think it was last February, I think, right?

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Who remembers that being talked about in the news, the Asbury Revival? One of the big questions at the time is, is this a real revival?

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And it depends how you define that. But to me, and I think this book, this is what they're saying, a true revival is going to have widespread impact, not just on one school or one town.

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It's going to branch out and it's going to go on for a while, affect a lot of people, and there's going to be some long -lasting results.

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I don't know if that happened at Asbury or with Asbury. It doesn't really matter. But the first Great Awakening did really have an impact on the

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United States or at least the colonies back then. In 1740,

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George Whitefield came to Northampton to preach as part of his preaching tour through New England.

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The Lord used Whitefield's evangelistic preaching to convict the hearts of many who had grown up in the church but who had never truly been converted to Christ.

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Many throughout New England were awakened to the deadness of their hypocritical religion and came to saving faith.

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This movement is known as the Great Awakening. All right. So this is the first Great Awakening.

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See, Edward's later life talks about a few other things.

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And just, again, for the sake of time, we'll just sort of skip ahead. It says, even though he was only 54 years old when he died, he remains one of America's most influential theologians.

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Okay. So for discussion, the Great Awakening was a revival among the churches of New England.

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People who had grown up in church but had never embraced Christ in saving faith were suddenly confronted with the reality of their spiritual condition.

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What would you say to someone who claims to be a Christian simply because they attend church and try to be a good person?

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What would you say? That is not what the Bible clearly teaches.

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And I would use Titus 3 -5, that it's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.

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Yeah, I mean, remember when they asked Paul, what must I do to be saved?

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Well, go to church and be a good person. That's what he said, right? That's not what Paul said. What did he say?

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Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

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Well, see, that doesn't mean that you don't have to go to church and be a good person if you just believe in Jesus, right?

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No. No. Because even the demons believe and tremble. It has to do with your definition or what does it mean to believe in someone.

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It's that you're putting your complete faith and trust in them and what they did.

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So you put all your faith in Christ, you love Christ, and then going to church and doing good, it should come naturally because you have a new nature.

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You want to do those things. See, this is the thing about going to church or doing good works.

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It's not something you should have to try to twist somebody's arm and, oh, come on, you really should be. No, they want to be there.

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We don't come because we have to, right? I come because I need to.

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Okay, well, we need to. I agree with that. Well, I mean,

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I enjoy it too. We should want to. Of course, we live in a day and age where people don't even do that much.

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They don't even go to church. Well, I can be a Christian at home on my couch or something.

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I mean, at least back then, the nominal believers were attending church.

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But it says, what passages of Scripture would you use to explain what it truly means to follow

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Christ? The verse I would go to, Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments.

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John 14, 21. I mean, you do these things because you want to. It's a privilege.

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To serve the Lord is a great privilege. To be able to come together and worship and take communion.

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I mean, it really is a privilege. That's what I would say. Any of you want to comment on anything that's been said in the last two minutes?

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Some people call this room a sanctuary. Yeah. Some call it an auditorium, but I like sanctuary better.

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Yep. I like sanctuary. Yes. Okay. Well, I guess we're not going to have time for number five, but maybe we'll pick up there next week or just move on.

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But yeah, just end on that point. I mean, people that you know, we probably all know somebody that they profess to be a believer, but they're not interested in the things of God.

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Maybe pray and maybe God will give you an opportunity to share with them.

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Not to judge them or say, you know, I don't think you really love God. That's not what we're looking to do.

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But pray that God would give you an opportunity to graciously bring something up that was stated this morning.

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That if they're not really, if they're nominal, that they would make that decision to truly trust

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Christ and experience the second birth with gentleness and reverence.

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Amen. Mark, one last comment. Amen. All right.