Realities of Revival — E.A. Johnston

The Alarm to Awaken the Sleeping Church

In the book of Joel, in chapter 2 and verse 1, we read, Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.

This passage speaks of a call to awake. When the soldiers in the camp sleep, the enemy storms in and overtakes them. The soldiers may sleep for several reasons. They may be overconfident because of their size and stature.

They may be drunk with the cloudiness of debauchery. They may be tired from too much activity. They may be tired from too little activity, regardless of the reason. If the camp is not guarded with watchmen, the enemy will come in with a flood of destruction.

The Church's Spiritual Slumber and Superficial Activity

Today, in America and England, two nations once known for upholding the banner of Christ, the church sleeps. It is a deep slumber, much akin to a stupor. The cries of the world are drowned out by the snoring church.

It has put itself to sleep with much activity, activity done in the name of Christ, but without the spirit of Christ. As the church sleeps upon soft cushions, enwrapped with silk sheets in uninterrupted slumber, it is dead to the world in its lazy dreams of work accomplished and tasks completed, budgets met and goals achieved, horizons broadened, planning committees planning, new members joining, money counted, new buildings built, and testimonies of success.

But with all of this activity, never before has there been more cause for alarm than now. The title of my message today, friends, is Realities of Revival. In the book of Joel, in chapter 2 and verse 17, we read, Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord.

Revival Begins With Prayer, Repentance, and Reverence

Where, O where, are the churches gathering each night in solemn assemblies in this country with broken-hearted people crying out to God for the sins of the land? All we're doing is entertaining ourselves.

We just keep entertaining ourselves and entertaining ourselves while the world perishes. But the realities of revival are undeniable. Prayer is the first and foremost thing. People begin to confess their personal sins.

A new reverence for God takes place in a dramatic fashion. A sense of the Holy Spirit pervades the atmosphere. There is a brokenness among the people of God and much weeping and repentance. Christians return to their first love of Christ.

The lost are swept in like an ocean wave. True converts are numerous. But most of all, with the realities of revival comes the reality of God because there is an undescribable presence of God felt by all.

Desperation for Revival and a Burden for the Lost

To see revival, the people of God must become desperate for revival. There must be a burden for the lost and a hunger for God. There has to be a dramatic change in our preaching where we go from preaching for acceptance of ourselves to preaching Christ and Him crucified with no thought toward the opinion of man.

Charles Finney's Call to Preach for Repentance

This attitude is demonstrated by Charles Finney who in 1824 was laboring in Evan Mills in New York when he wrote, that I had come there to secure the salvation of their souls that my preaching, I knew, was highly complimented by them but that after all I did not come there to please them but to bring them to repentance that it mattered not to me how well they were pleased with my preaching if after all they rejected my master.

And that's where we need to be today, friends. The realities of revival boil down to this. When revival comes we will sense an awful solemnity of Almighty God who is a dread sovereign who has rights and claims and all followers of His.

Praying for Revival Before National Ruin

Let us get a burden to see revival in our day. Let us go to our faces to pray for revival in our day. Our nations stand at the very brink of ruin and destruction. Let us call out to God and ask Him to send showers of His blessings upon us once again.

Let us pray for revival in our day.