Revival Lectures Four — E.A. Johnston

It was my great privilege to have Dr. Stephen Olford as my homiletical mentor, and we would often have long talks on the subject of revival. I remember him commenting on the preaching that followed Pentecost.

Revival Preaching Must Expose and Judge Sin

He said that that kind of preaching convicted men and women so that they had to cry out, Brethren, what shall we do? And then Dr. Olford said, Revival can never come without an exposure of and judgment on sin.

I believe that, folks. Years ago, I wrote a book on the doctrine of repentance entitled Return to Me, and on the cover is a picture of a lone sheep on a hillside. Jesus is the good shepherd, and his sheep know his voice, and they follow him.

Christ’s Sheep Must Follow the Shepherd

We read in John's Gospel in chapter 10,. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Believers are referred in the Bible as sheep.

Sheep need a shepherd to guide them, protect them, and care for them. A sheep is not only a defenseless animal, it is a dumb animal. And if one jumps into a ditch, two more will follow it. Where I have gotten out of fellowship with God in the years is when I've gotten off the main path that he was on, and I cut out my own path.

Whenever we try to lead and then ask God to follow and to bless that, it normally ends up in only frustration and failure. We cannot lead and ask God to follow us. He must lead, and we must follow. The key is seeking him, finding him, staying in a right relationship with him by obedience and faith.

Sin Is Going Our Own Way

We read in Isaiah 53 .6,. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And that's the best definition of sin I can find in my Bible, friends. Sin is going our way when we know it isn't God's way.

And we can backslide, fall out of fellowship with him. Amos 3 .3 asks a vital question. Can two walk together except they be agreed? The answer is no, they cannot. There are times when the church grows lethargic and is out of touch with God.

Revival Restores the Church to God

That's when revival is needed to realign the people of God back to God in a vital relationship with him. I've devoted my life to the study of revival, and I've noticed there are certain patterns to revival.

They're like a tide going in and out at sea. There are periods in the church where the church is operating more of its own schemes and methodologies, and we push God aside in a mad rush to grow our membership and expand our campus.

And there are other times when the church is half asleep and in need of awakening. In the book of Hosea, we see that the people of God are instructed to break up the fallow ground of their heart. In Hosea 10 .12, we read, Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and reign righteousness upon you.

Breaking Up Fallow Ground Through Repentance

These words contain vivid imagery, and unlike Charles Finney's observation upon them in regard to revival, Finney says, the Jews were a nation of farmers. Scripture, therefore, commonly draws illustrations from that line of work and from scenes farmers and shepherds would know well.

So when the prophet Hosea addresses Israel as a nation of backsliders, reproving their idolatry and threatening them with the judgments of God, he uses fallow ground as his illustration. Fallow ground is ground once farmed, but which now lies waste.

It must be broken up before it's ready to be planted. Well, I agree with Finney's comments there because they're so true. The church and times revival is a vital life force that draws the attention of the world, oftentimes in seasons of revival.

Revival’s Influence on Society

Secular commerce is set aside in a community. The people are occupied with only eternal things and God. Conversation and shops of commerce are full of religion and the things of God. But in times where the church is out of step with God in a sad spiritual declension, then the church will have no influence upon society.

Rather, the church will be the laughingstock of society. God, in His mercy, will send remedial judgments upon His people in an attempt to draw them back to Him. We see how God deals with His wayward people in the book of Amos in chapter 4.

God’s Remedial Judgments in Amos

Look at Amos 4 and verse 6, friends. And I also have given you a clean list of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord? Judgment number one was that God sent a famine in the land.

In His mercy, He sent them a famine with the express purpose of having the people turn back to Him. But how did they respond? Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord? We see judgment number two in verse 7.

The judgment is more severe. And also I have withholden the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city.

One peace was rained upon and the peace whereupon it rained not withered. Listen, friends. You can go a week without food, but man cannot live long without water. God sent a drought to His disobedient people.

Did they return to God? No. Yet have ye not returned unto me, God laments. So God brings an even more severe judgment their way. When God's judgments go unheeded, the increased judgments of God increase in their severity.

We see this very thing in Hosea verse 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased. The palmer worm devoured them.

Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. God sent a financial collapse. Our economy is growing worse and worse each day, and a global recession is on the horizon. But has our nation turned back to God?

No. Look at the next judgment and its increased severity. Judgment number four is more severe than all the preceding ones. God is trying to get their attention, but are they listening? Look at verse 10 of Amos chapter 4.

I have sent among you the pestilence after the manor of Egypt. Your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses. And I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils.

Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. He removed the young men of the city by death. Well, take young men out of a community, and that community has little hope for the future. God has been speaking to society through a series of remedial judgments which have gotten more severe and severe.

We've seen fire, floods, earthquakes, and even worse, a pestilence, where COVID -19, where over a million people have perished. But has society turned back to God? No. Our fear friends, an even worse calamity faces us.

Returning to God and Seeking Revival

When will the people of God turn back to the God of the Bible? In Malachi chapter 3, and in verse 7, God declares, Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. The withdrawn presence of God is a terrible judgment, friends, upon any people.

The church in America is experiencing the judgment of the withdrawn presence of God in our assemblies. When was the last time, friend, you felt the power of God in a meeting? It's been years. Oh, how we desperately need revival today.

Prayer for a Fresh Outpouring of the Spirit

Let me pray. Dear Father in heaven, I come unto you by the blood and in the name of thy dear son Jesus. Like Isaiah, give us a fresh glimpse of the holiness of God. Let us realize our spiritual bankruptcy without you.

Send us, great God, a great revival in the land, we pray. We can't produce revival on our own. Revival comes from you. But we can set ourselves to receive your revival wind when it blows. Oh, blow in the revival wind, great King.

Look down, come down. Send us revival, we pray. In the strong name of Jesus, amen.