Unit 3 Video Transcript

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Video Transcript: Truth and Revival (Dr Feddes)

Hi, I'm David Feddes, and this talk is about truth and revival. Sometimes truth and revival are considered as opposites. People who are really interested in understanding and thinking deeply, and digging into the roots of biblical teaching are people who don't want to get overly emotional or don't talk very much about revival. And on the flip side, some people who are excited about revival and kind of excited about excitement, and eager for things to be happening and emotions to be stirred and lively transformed. Just don't have the patience to dig in with all that study and all that scholarship and, and what have you. Well, what I want to do today is to show that truth and revival belong together. And that truth without the mighty work of God's Holy Spirit is largely a waste of time and study. But on the other hand, to seek revival without an interest or a concern for truth is equally and maybe even more counterproductive, because the Holy Spirit, as Jesus called him is the spirit of truth. 

He blesses truth. And so what I want to do today is to show how spirit and truth, truth and revival belong together. As I talk about this, I'm going to be sharing a lot of my own thoughts as discovered in the scriptures and in reflection and on my reading, but I've also been helped in major ways by two favorite pastors at authors of mine, Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones, especially his book revival is contributed to this lecture as well as Dr. J. I. Packer. So let's begin by looking at some of the truths that God blesses when he brings revival. In fact, these truths are foundational for revival. Many things have been taught by the Christian church and, and are somewhat important, but others are absolutely central and foundational, and you really can't do without them. And you really can't expect God to do a whole lot without them either. I say that with all reverence for God. But again, He's the God of truth, the Spirit of Truth, and some things are so vital, that if you deny them, do not expect God to send revival. The first is simply this, God is the living God. And as the living God, he's real. And he reigns, and he gets involved in the affairs of the universe of the world and of life. If you are a deist, that is somebody who believes that God originally got the world going, and since then, has just left it on its own and doesn't get involved. You are not going to expect revival ever. 

Because God always stays far away from and uninvolved with the affairs of people and of his world. You must believe in a real living and personal God, or you can't expect to see revival sent by that God. A second, absolutely foundational truth for revival is that the Bible is God's authoritative message. If you are someone who takes the Bible lightly, if you are someone who believes that the Bible has a lots and lots of mistakes, errors and problems, but may have some good insights as well. You're not treating it as the living voice of the living God, and you are highly unlikely to see God bless what you're doing in your ministry, because you have chosen your own voice over the voice of God, where God has brought revival. It has come through the voice that sounds the voice of the Scriptures. Think of the great Protestant Reformation, a return to the Bible as the ultimate authority. Think of other great revivals, and these were people who stressed the Bible, and the great preachers were people who had great confidence in the Bible, even in recent decades with Dr. Billy Graham was at his peak preaching the truth of God and being used for the salvation of many. His most frequent phrase was simply this, the Bible says, The Bible says, The Bible says, and we must have a high, high view of the Scriptures, or we cannot expect the anointing of God to come on our preaching the Holy Spirit Himself inspired those scriptures. 

He is the one who illuminates those scriptures and he has not promised to give us truth that will contradict those scriptures, or that will come to those who have contempt for the scriptures. The scholars and pastors of today who do not hold the Bible in high regard are also people who are unlikely to see the mighty movement of God through their teaching and their ministry. Third, foundational truth for revival is the reality of sin. And the fact that human sin provokes God's wrath. Read about the revivals of the Scripture again and again and again. People are brokenhearted. They're saying woe is me, oh, God be merciful to me a sinner. They're weeping. They're saying what shall we do to be saved? Because they know their sin. And revival is unlikely to come where sin is never mentioned, where people never become conscious of their tremendous need for God. What do you need revival for you're already good enough the way you are. We need revival because of our natural human tendency to fall into sin and wickedness and laziness and coldness and deadness and unbelief. And where sin is clearly taught, whether it's Jonathan Edwards declaring sinners in the hands of an angry God, or other great pastors and preachers, Savonarola, others warning of God's wrath against sin, the biblical preachers, the historical preachers, they did not play fancy or avoid the fact that we need forgiveness and we need cleansing. 

You cannot have revival without exalting Jesus Christ. Jesus said, The Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you he will bring glory to me, by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. Jesus is glorified by the Spirit, and he is glorified as the eternal God become human. He is the one who embodies God's power. He is God's wisdom, he is God's truth. He is God's love. He is God's righteousness. And the whole business of the Holy Spirit in relation to the human race is to make Jesus known to us and to make Jesus glorious to us and precious to us as the one deserving of our adoration, the one who we long for the one who is also of course, our salvation. And that is another foundational truth, the blood, the blood of Jesus crucified, saves us from sin. It is pointing again and again to the cross, as the Apostle Paul said, I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, he wrote that Jesus blood received by faith is the way to be right with God. And all the great revival preachers, all those have been mightily used of God are people who weren't shy about proclaiming the cross about preaching the blood, about proclaiming the death of Christ as the way that we are made right with God, that the penalty for our sin is removed, that our long standing with God is taken away that were reconciled to God that were made right with God, he himself took our sins in his body on the tree, I don't need to tell you all the Bible passages about the cross they it's just bursting with them. And I can just add that throughout the preaching of the church, where people are saved, where the church is blessed where revival comes. 

These are people who delight in proclaiming and lifting up the cross and making known the blood of Jesus Christ, that precious blood. Another truth, the Holy Spirit Himself. We need to recognize that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity along with God the Father, and God the Son, and that this Holy Spirit brings life he's the one who brought life to the original creation. He's also the one who brings life into dead souls and he's the one who enlivens, who embraces us in God's love, who enables us by God's power and by God's gifting and where the reality of the Holy Spirit is largely ignored, where his power and his life and his gifts are considered unnecessary or where he is grieved. What hope is there a revival. And so this is another of the vital absolutely foundational truths that must always be taught that the Spirit is real. He enlivens, embraces and enables. A seventh truth, that's absolutely vital is that grace is what justifies us by faith and not by works. We live by the grace of God alone.

It was when Jonathan Edwards was preaching a series on justification by faith, and how we're right with God by faith alone, that the Lord sent tremendous revival in the first great awakening on Northampton, Massachusetts. It was in discovering for himself that it was not his works, but the work of God that Charles Finney was launched and filled with a love of God for him, but he realized that it was not his works, but what Jesus Christ had fully and completely done for him. It was Martin Luther said, Oh, I realize that God just defies me through faith by His grace and not by my own efforts. It was like going through open gates into paradise. The list of names could go on and on and the mighty people of God, who understood grace, and how can you have revival without grace that knows that were justified by faith, not by works. After all, when you're a person speaking to a crowd of people who are sinners, what hope is there for them, if it's dependent on their own works, their works have been bad. If it depends on their ability to correct themselves, they can't. 

But if Grace is the message, well, then the grace of God can fall from above. The Spirit can fall upon people, even as the God's grace in Christ is proclaimed. And people can be saved on the spot, they can be revived on the spot, tremendous things can happen in short order, as people pass from death to life as the old is taken away, and they're instantly made right with God, by faith. And just the final one I want to mention is the doctrine of course of rebirth, of regeneration of being born again. God gives us eternal life, in eternity in the future and heaven, but he implants his own life in us right now. And again, this is foundational wherever revival comes, the Holy Spirit is going to be implanting his life in people and he's going to be doing that through those who proclaim the possibility and the reality of new life. Jesus told Nicodemus, an important religious leader, that you cannot see the kingdom of God, unless you are born again, you can't enter the kingdom of God unless you're born again. And this is what must be proclaimed. It is this rebirth, this new life. And then, of course, the fruits of that new life in us the life of obedience that comes from having God's life in us, that really revives the dead and then causes their lives to bear good fruit. 

Now, there are many, many other teachings in the Bible, and many of them very important. But I think it's important for us to identify what truths have been most foundational, what are vital and essential for the Christian faith. Of course, the apostles creed and some excellent summaries will present this kind of a list almost in, in other words, but Dr. Martin Lai John says there are doctrines and then there are doctrines there are many doctrines that we want to study maybe doctrines about exactly what the times are going to be like, or exactly what is the meaning of the millennium? Or precisely, how are the roles of men and women in the church different than many other things that deserve careful study. But some things are more central. And these absolutely central things have been proclaimed in every age by those whom the spirit has anointed and used in a mighty way. And if you're a person who longs for revival, don't think there are shortcuts that can just neglect the great truths of the faith. The Spirit of Truth, will use truth, he will empower truth, he will bring revival through truth. And so truth is non negotiable. We must hold fast to the truth, we must proclaim the truth as we seek revival. But, there may be some who are listening to this and saying, yes, yes, yes, yes, preach it brother. Truth is so important that truth is everything.

Well, not quite. There are those who, in a sense hold to the correct words, and the correct ideas and the correct doctrines. And yet they hold the truth in a manner that can discourage if not prevent revival. And so holding to the truth is absolutely necessary and vital and essential. But the manner in which we handled truth, and the manner in which God handles us, is very important. So I want to talk about some of the dangers also of being someone who is indeed very dedicated to truth and the pursuit of truth and sound, well defined clear doctrine, and yet missing out on the reality of God's life and revival. Before I do that, let me just say that as we consider the truths, there may be some that receive a bit more emphasis than others, depending on the need of the hour and the spokesman, whom God has ordained. Think of John the baptist, for instance, the one who came just before Jesus to prepare the way for him, John came living a very strict lifestyle out in the desert, minimal rough clothing, eating off the land, and issuing very stern warnings and urging people to repent. After John came Jesus, with joy and celebration and displays of healing and love, and he just seemed so different. 

From his cousin, John the baptist, and yet both were sent from God and Jesus Himself. Was and is God? Now, let's notice something John was different from Jesus and yet both were rejected by God's enemies. When John spoke his stern message calling for repentance and warning of God's judgment. God's enemies didn't weep. When Jesus came celebrating and many centers were partying with him, and enjoying the gladness of being with Jesus, those who rejected Jesus, they weren't going to rejoice. You see what was going on. They just didn't know Gods and nearness in the first place. Whether God came near, with sternness and strictness. They didn't recognize God coming to them in the message of John, whether God himself came to them in the joyful presence of Jesus. They didn't recognize God's nearness there. They rejected both messages, and both messengers because they rejected the presence and the nearness of God. Now notice the things that are emphasized may differ, but John the baptist never denied God's love or God's grace. He proclaimed that too, but he proclaimed more of the sterner part of the message. And certainly Jesus did not deny God's judgment. He spoke of hell very clearly, very sternly, he warned of God's wrath, and yet the predominant tone of his ministry was one where people experienced love, joy, and celebration. And so different spokesmen in different areas throughout history have also differed. Here's an example Jonathan Edwards is known for his sermon centers in the hands of an angry God. 

Now he could also preach beautiful sermons on heaven, and on many other wonders of God's love. So I don't want to over emphasize this point. But nonetheless, Edwards and certain ministers during that great awakening, were especially powerful in their preaching of wrath, and so have been some other pastors. A men like Dwight Moody, preached predominantly an emphasis on God's love. And yet both were God's instruments. Moody had himself a tremendous experience of God's love. And the Lord had laid it on his heart that that was the great need for many in his audiences to hear from him. But just as in the case of Jesus, and John, you shouldn't just say, well, one was different than the other. So one has to be wrong. You don't say, well, those preachers who emphasized fire and brimstone and wrath, those guys were just nasty and grumpy and ornery. No, they were preaching absolute truth, sin is terrible, and God's wrath against it is terrible. And sometimes that message is what's needed to wake people up. Moody certainly believed in how he preached about it too. But the predominant tone of his ministry was the love and the reconciling power of God.

But as Jesus once said, In discussing this matter of John the baptist, and his own ministry said, Hey, when you're like kids, who say, oh, when we played music for a funeral, you wouldn't cry. When we pipe to the music for a dance, you wouldn't dance. You just won't go along with things that he's saying. When God comes in wrath, you won't listen, when God comes in love and mercy, you won't listen, you just are out of tune with God. And so let's realize that in these truths to there, sometimes one age, or one group of people may need part of the part of the message more than another. And sometimes the spokesman is just a little better suited to deliver one aspect of the message than other God uses different personalities. But those truths we've talked about are still foundational. And here's the fact converted people, people were touched by the Spirit when they hear of God's wrath against sin. They're moved by it, and they weep, and they hate their sin. When they hear the good news of God's love, they rejoice in God's love, their hearts are in tune, God hears the fact God is real to them. God is real to them. And so God's wrath is real to them, and they cry when God's love is real to them, and they rejoice when neither God's wrath nor God's love are real to you, then maybe God isn't real to you. And all these truths we've been talking about are kind of meaningless, because they're just specimens to be debated, not realities, to be responded to. 

So we've looked at these important rules, we're seeing that some emphases may vary. And now let's talk a little bit about how you can be someone who does care very much about truth, and yet go wrong. Because I want to emphasize this relationship between truth and revival between what the Holy Spirit reveals his doctrine, and then what that actual life is. Misguided orthodoxy one form of myth, misguided Orthodoxy is simply this facts, without fellowship. And what I mean by that is you focus more on having an accurate system of teachings than on a personal prayerful, loving relationship with God, and a loving relationship with other people, you want the definitions correct, you're willing to fight for the truth. And to make sure that everybody has an accurate system of teachings, you'll set up classes to teach those teachings. And as I've already emphasized, accurate teaching is very important. But, what if you have the teachings without the reality? What if you have all these facts lined up, but you never seek fellowship with God, the whole point of proclaiming the truth about Jesus is so people can meet Jesus, and accept his love for them and love him in return. The whole point of talking about sin is not to say, I have a better doctrine of original sin than you do, but rather, for people to be moved to repentance, by those accurate teachings about sin. And so one of the terrible realities that's very possible is to have an emphasis on facts and teachings and theological systems without fellowship. Now, I come from a background where doctrine is highly valued. And I'm glad it was highly valued and is highly valued. 

I'm a person myself, who is kind of wired to want to think and to study and to like teachings and truth. But it's a danger to be a person is more interested in a system of ideas, than in a way of relating the point of those ideas is to help you to know God truly, and to relate to him rightly. And so, if you love truth, then make sure you're loving the God of truth, and that you're seeking a personal prayerful, interactive, loving relationship with Him that overflows in the way you relate to other people, I hate to say it, but the fact is, there are some people who are very, very hard to get along with who pride themselves on the accuracy of their doctrinal system. Never take pride in your doctrinal system, you can have a sense of gratitude in it. If it's accurate, you can defend it if it's accurate, but it is meant to foster a love for God and others. Related somewhat to that is majoring in minors. And this is not having a sense of proportion of thinking that all doctrines are exactly the same in importance. If somebody is wrong about whether Jesus comes before the tribulation, or after the tribulation, that is a error that will possibly destroy them, just as it would be as if they rejected the blood of Jesus itself. No, no, no, no, no, get a grip. Some people specialize on Bible prophecy, to the degree that they love all those details. And I'm not saying we shouldn't study those, I teach those in another course as a matter of fact.

But let us get real. It is more important to believe in the real, physical, world changing return of Jesus Christ that you'll come again to judge the living in the data and to make a new creation, believe that. And then your exact scenario of what you think the Bible is teaching about that is of secondary importance, it may still be important, but not as important. The things that we emphasize, can be mistaken. You might be teaching truth all the time every week, but always be teaching truth that's on the margins, and on the borders, and not as central and sell them these speak about just Jesus and who he is as God and man, and His glories seldom do you speak about the love, because you have the 17 sermon series on what exactly is going to happen in the last year before the Rapture. These can be the problems that happen when we major in minors, or you have a whole doctrine of whether women can wear pants or must wear skirts. When that is not the heart of the Christian faith. There may be teachings about modesty or appropriate apparel. And I'm not saying we should never speak about those if you become a specialist in that you will likely be grieving the Spirit because the spirit has bigger matters on his mind. The other things may matter, teach them accurately when you must talk about them. But keep going back again and again to the clear and central truths of the faith. If your are orthodox, if you have a good clear system of doctrine, and one that is tested by time and you think it's accurate, there's a great danger of having a spirit of smugness of feeling superior to those who know less and feeling satisfied with business as usual in a lifeless church. 

Jesus spoke to the church at Sardis in the book of Revelation, and he didn't criticize their doctrine all that much. He just said you have a name for being alive but you are dead. He spoke to the church in Laodicea, and He said, you think you're rich, and you're well clothed, you're poor, and you're naked, you need me, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in to him, and he with him and have fellowship with Him. So, Jesus is trying to break through this spirit of smugness, if you've got a theological system, that is not the same thing, as having a living, vital relationship with God, and having the power of God upon you, in your relationship to other people, there are people who maybe have the wrong theological system, I don't mean they're wrong in everything. They may be right in those eight things I spoke of earlier, but wrong on a number of other things, and yet be much closer to God than I am or than you are. And we ought not to be looking down on others because we maybe have a better system or just because we were blessed with a somewhat better education than they had. They may not have all the correct ideas, but if they're being moved and taught by the Spirit, he may be very well at work in them and putting more life into them than he is into those of us who boast in our orthodoxy. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not unsaying what I said at the beginning of the talk, without those vital trues revival is very unlikely to ever come. But even with those trues We must not have a spirit of smugness. Instead we must constantly be seeking the spirit. Another form of misguided Orthodoxy is talk without walk, having those correct ideas but living without holiness, living a wicked life, not living in obedience, not living in love grieving the Holy Spirit of the Living God.

It's a terrible fact of sin, that you can have the right principles and the right ideas. And still be violating them and fooling yourself into just kind of ignoring the ways in which you're violating them. So an ungodly, unholy life and disobedient life is something that I know again, from experience from interaction with others, it is very possible in churches that talk a big show, about doctrine, to have all sorts of wickedness, and strife and bitterness, and adultery and loss. And you name it. Talk without lock is a form of misguided orthodoxy. Another one may be subtler is structure without spirit, you can get really fixated on order, and organization. You want things to be mapped out well, you want them to be well planned. You don't want the church to turn into a circus, you don't want things to get too wild or out of control. And you can fear excessive enthusiasm, too much energy, maybe just even by temperament. 

You'd like to have your hair neatly combed, your tie neatly tied, your clothing spick and span, the oil in your car changed every 3000 miles you like everything planned and scheduled and on target. Well, that's okay. There's value in order, and the Holy Spirit is a spirit of order, but not just of order, and organization. There are churches which are so busy with their schedules, with their committees, with their ways of doing things that the Holy Spirit would be an unwelcome interruption. And he doesn't interrupt, he lets the schedule and the organization roll on, you want to have it your way you want to organize it. Let's see what your organization can produce. And we quench the spirit. So beware of structure without spirit, don't be anti structure or anti organizational but don't be so in love with it, that you're not open to surprises, and you're not ready and seeking desperately for the Lord to do things. There are great enterprises. Again, my own country, the United States is great at that we're great at building businesses, starting organizations. Some men are great at raising up large corporations and some of could have started large corporations start a church instead. And it is a well organized smoothly run machine. And they're the chief executive officer. And just about the only thing missing, is the Holy Spirit. So we must be aware of structure without spirit. And just in principle of excluding the extraordinary. There is no doctrinal way of doing this, of saying that because unbelievers already have the spirit, it would be wrong to seek greater personal filling, or miraculous revival in the church. Now I understand a bit of the motivation for this, I think. We don't want several different classes of Christians and say, Oh, I had the filling of the spirit and that person hasn't. It's a little risky even to talk about the filling of the Spirit. 

Just because the Holy Spirit is come on you at some time in especially powerful way does not now mean you've had it. If you read the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit would fill the apostles again. And then again on another occasion when they needed his power again. And so let's not just say that a person either has it this filling or doesn't, there are everybody who's a Christian at all, has the holy spirit that's clear from the Scripture. If you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you don't belong to Christ, that's about as clear as you can get. And yet, the danger of that doctrine of trying to just make sure that all Christians review themselves as equal as having the Spirit living in them, if they're a Christian at all is this, you're taught to say, well, you know, I've heard of revival. I've heard of people experiencing much greater empowerment than I have. But I don't want to feel inferior. And I don't want to make anybody else feel inferior. So I'm going to teach as doctrine, that everybody's got all of the Holy Spirit that they're going to get that the church that's teaching soundly and doing things shouldn't be praying for this weird, miraculous stuff all the time, it can just get burned out on that, well, there are dangers, to always seeking more experiences for oneself are always seeking the extraordinary in the church. 

But, there is terrible danger, if you exclude the extraordinary, and you say, Lord, I have all that I want. Again, it's that same syndrome, that I spoke a moment earlier, Laodicea, I'm already rich, I've already got everything, and you're poor, and wretched, and blind and naked, you may have the spirit in such a small measure when you could have the Holy Spirit's work and so much greater measure, and you could experience him so much more fully. I know that for myself, I never want to be satisfied on this side of glory, with the degree of personal feeling that I might already have, I want more, and more, and more. I don't ever want to be satisfied with a church that's anything less than glorified, and mighty, and powerful and say, oh, you know, that church, I like it. The people, you know, we're pretty kind to each other. We love each other overall, things are going fairly well, while I'm very grateful to God, when that's the case. But, to be satisfied with that, to stop there and say, and nothing more is to be expected. No, don't exclude the extraordinary. So those are some of the ways that a misguided form of Orthodoxy can actually stifle or quench or grieve the Holy Spirit and prevent revival even on those who overall would be sound in their doctrines and in their teachings. Having said all that, I do want to close by again, reminding you of truths that are foundational for revival because the Spirit of Truth is going to bless truth. And when we keep these truths are at the forefront of our own thinking of our own worship of the lord of our proclamation, then we're in a much better position to see the Lord ignite those truths to light them on fire. The Living God reigns and he gets involved and let's, let's act like it, and talk like it, and proclaiming it. Let's live in relation to him and introduce others to him not to just our system but to him. 

Second, the Bible, take that Bible as God's authoritative message don't second guess it. Don't try to debunk it, just obey it, believe it. Human sin, we need to keep facing that reality and proclaiming it, and Jesus honor Him, He is God. He's man, he embodies all that God is for us. His blood is what saves us. His Spirit is the one who in embraces and enlivens and enables us. And it's going to be by grace, not by something we earn, not by something we achieved by our power, it's going to be by His grace as he justifies us makes us right with God, through faith. And the life that he implants in us is God's own life. And in revival, that life comes in great, overflowing and great power. And so this too, is a great truth to proclaim, friend, keep a sense of proportion. These are the most vital realities that God reveals to us. And these are what we must keep Central and at the forefront in our thinking, and in our sharing of the living God with other people. And as we do that, then we don't say well, and now we've got all the basic truths, right, we're satisfied. We say no Lord, come, and set these shoes on fire. We want to be people who are proclaiming truth that's on fire that's filled with the life of God without grieving the Holy Spirit, but instead having the Spirit Of Truth, anoint this truth and bless it and bring revival through it.