REVIVAL! BEFORE THE OUTREACH IS THE IN-REACH..AND SIN'S REMOVAL OF THE BREACH OF FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD! - PART 1
"Revival" according to Charles Finney, "is no more a miracle than a crop of wheat. Revival comes from heaven when heroic souls enter the conflict determined to win or die..or if need be, win and die!"
Revival IS possible, IF a price is willing to be paid! And although revival may come collectively to all, it must begin individually in YOU! Everything in life has a cost! "But Pastor! Salvation is free!" Free to the receiver of Jesus Christ, but Jesus paid a price for your life and liberty, with his death and shed blood! Some generalities you can relate to. All people would like to get well when they're ill, but sometimes surgery is necessary to remove a spreading disease of a body part that keeps you from functioning. Surgery can be painful yet it sometimes must be done! The prevention of flu or other illnesses, entails a jab-Ouch, of a shot! The fixing of your car entails a bill for repair. You pay the price for all to run well! The slimming of your body entails exercise and cutting back on eating! The delivering of a baby..joy; but your 9 months of uncomfortableness and labor pains are the cost to be paid. Anything of value demands a price to be paid!
And revival will entail, demand the cost, even difficulty of removing sin that your old nature doesn't want to admit or get rid of! Sin spreads like a disease and if not treated with confession gets worse to the affecting of the whole body of Christ the Church! Jeremiah in his call to Israel for repentance provides applications for us today! Jere. 4:1, "If thou wilt return O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove." "IF you're going to return to me Israel, you'll have to REMOVE SIN from yourself" 4:3, "For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, BREAK UP YOUR FALLOW GROUND, and sow not among thorns" The farmer cannot plant seed and get root, IN hard ground! Hard ground must be cultivated, broken up, for seed to be planted and germinated! Same thought, you do NOT "sow seed among thorns" You sow seed in good ground! And folks, revival MUST have believers' hearts that are broken over hardness of sin, dug up with the spade of Holy Spirit conviction, then seed planted in hearts that are receptive to revival teaching!
Consider this also believer! You can sow a lot of good, well-intended seeds of Christian activity, but if they are sown amongst the thorns of hearts needing "weeded", or sown on ground that needs "plowed up", NO FRUIT will be borne! Jere. 4:4, "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire , and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings"
Folks, the Jew knew all about the circumcision of the flesh, yet had need of the cutting away of sin from the heart! We MUST deal with first things first in revival and SIN MUST BE DEALT WITH by the Christian! More to come on dealing with the inward BEFORE trying to please God with the outward!