During the past couple weeks I have been focusing here on the need for us to pray for Biblical preaching to be restored to the Church:
During that time, the main Scripture text I have had us focus on has been the first portion of Nehemiah 8:
Nehemiah 8:1 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. 3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. 4 And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. 6 And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. 7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. 8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.
For too long Biblical preaching has been jettisoned by many in the Church all in the name of growing the Church. There is a desire to attract people to the Church, but we know that the message of the cross, the message of the helplessness and sinfulness of man is not an attractive message. The cross is an offense and Christ is the stumbling stone. We are never to make growing the Church our primary goal. The only thing that will truly attract people to the Church and to Jesus Christ Himself is the work of the Spirit of God Himself in the human heart, to bring brokenness, a spirit of repentance, poverty of spirit and the soul hunger for the salvation found in Jesus Christ alone. If we faithfully pray and lift up Christ and Him crucified, we can trust that the Holy Spirit will draw those whom He is calling to Himself.
Let us never compromise, minimize or dumb down the preaching the Word of God in the name of Church growth or for expediency, popularity, trendiness or to gain favor with men. We are dealing with the eternal fate of the souls of men and women and boys and girls here! We're to be making disciples, not merely adding to the church rolls. The Church is not a business and must never be run based on surveys or what people say they want. God has made it clear what He wants: His Gospel to be preached to the ends of the earth to His glory! And, let us be clear about this: the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation! Yes, it's true that we may very well grow the Church in numbers through many, many other means, but how deep and lasting can such growth be if it is not rightly and solidly rooted in the right preaching of the Word of God? We need to beware of building on the sand and not on the Rock. We may very well have many souls come in through our church doors, but we must ask how many of those have truly entered into the straight and narrow gate and come into the Kingdom of God by grace through faith through the work of the Holy Spirit?
I still intend this site to be a springboard to prayer for revival. Because of that I've primarily posted prayers based on Scripture to help lead you (and me) in prayer for revival, but I have broken with that a few times, including a couple times as of late. On occasion (including today), I have brought you some exhortations and some accounts of God's past workings in Church history because I have come to see that besides reading the Bible and seeing God's hand working powerfully among His people there to revive them (including in this account in Nehemiah), another great impetus to prayer for revival is for us to look back at the history of revival in the Church. As the apostle Paul wrote about the Old Testament history of the Church, the same thing is true of all the history of the church: that these things are written as examples for us.
With that in mind, today I ask you to read a couple accounts of revival in 18th century Virginia. (The following excerpts are from Iain Murray's "Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858," Banner of Truth Trust (Edinburgh: 1994, reprinted 1996).) My hope and prayer is that as you read and prayerfully consider these and reflect on them, the Holy Spirit will spur you on to pray for revival, and specifically to pray that God would awaken a hunger for Biblical preaching in the Church and the Word of God would be given its rightful place again in the Church all to God's praise, honor and glory. (Please note: since tent of meeting is a site I would like to keep devoted to prayer for revival, if you do wish to discuss these things further, I do invite you to message me and/or check out my other blogs here and here, where I do post on some of these things from time to time. Thank you.)
Devereux Jarratt went to England for episcopal ordination in 1762 and on his return the following year became the rector of Bath parish in Dinwiddie County. In that position he stood alone 'not knowing of one clergyman in Virginia like minded with myself . . . I was called an enthusiast, fanatic, visionary, dissenter, Presbyterian, madman, and what not.' To his own hearers his evangelical preaching was 'strange and wonderful'. He summarizes their conversation about his preaching as follows: 'We have had many ministers and have heard many before this man, but we never heard any thing, till now, of conversion, the new birth, &c. – we never heard that men are so totally lost and helpless, that they could not save themselves, by their own power and good deeds; – if our good works will not save us, what will?' In his uncompromising preaching of the law and the gospel Jarratt proved to be the successor to Samuel Davies, and by 1765 there was the same evidence of concern among his people as had marked the work at Hanover County sixteen years earlier. His hearers multiplied and strangers began to attend from 'far and near'.
Jarratt's scattered parish was served by several buildings at different locations. One of these – the Butterwood church – had to be twice enlarged. Then, in 1770-71, he record, 'we had a more considerable outpouring of the Spirit at a place in my parish called White Oak'. This proved to be the beginning of a revival period:
In the year 1772, the revival was more considerable, and extended itself in some places, for fifty or sixty miles around. It increased still more in the following year, and several sinners were truly converted to God. In Spring, 1774, it was more remarkable than ever. The word preached was attended with such energy, that many were pierced to the heart. Tears fell plentifully from the eyes of the hearers, and some were constrained to cry out. A goodly number were gathered in this year, both in my parish and in many of the neighbouring counties. I formed several societies out of those which were convinced or converted; and I found it a happy means of building to those that had believed, and preventing the rest from losing their convictions....
(p.64)
David Thomas ... became 'the first Baptist preacher that ever proclaimed the Gospel of Peace in the counties of Orange and Culpepper. His preaching was in power and demonstration of the Spirit.' Although he belonged to the Regular Baptists, Thomas was working with Samuel Harris and other Separates by 1765.
These baptist preachers' ... evangelistic preaching was the same in content to that of Whitefield and the other leaders of the 1740s....The substance of their evangelical and Calvinistic message offered no novelties. When Anglican clergy attacked Baptists as 'false prophets', they replied that they believed their opponents' 'own Articles – at least the leading ones – and charged them with denying them, a charge which they could easily substantiate.
The new movement, however, reached further than the people in whom a hunger for biblical preaching had already been awakened; it soon extended to multitudes who had never heard the gospel before. At first regarded with suspicion and ridicule, then, for a season, exposed to persecution from the authorities, Baptists preachers pressed on with their work. No one could doubt that they believed men must be converted to God if they were to be saved. The old charge that Christians 'turned the world upside down' (Acts 17.6) was heard again. A lawyer prosecuting them in court complained, 'These men are great disturbers of the peace; they cannot meet a man upon the road but they must ram a text of Scripture down his throat'. Another complainant alleged that in Loundoun County these men were 'quite destroying pleasure'. Yet their message continued to spread, in Semple's words, 'Like the spread of a fire . . .it does not in all cases advance regularly; but a spark being struck, flies off and begins a new flame at a distance'. One writer estimates that in 1772 'as many as forty thousand Virginians may have heard the gospel from the Baptists'. The growth int he Separate Baptist churches bears out the effects of this evangelism. In 1770, according to Semple, the Separates possessed only two congregations north of the James River and about four on the south side; two years later their number appears to have grown to twenty, with twenty-one branches. In 1774 they had thirty churches south of the James and twenty-four to the north.
(pp.65-67)
Lord God,
Awaken a hunger for Biblical preaching in Your people!
Awaken a hunger to preach Biblically in Your servants!
We praise You for men such as Devereux Jarratt and David Thomas. We pray You would raise up men like these, men who would be willing to stand alone and preach Your Word without compromise. O, to have such enthusiasts, fanatics, visionaries, dissenters, madmen and what not! These are the men of whom the world is not worthy! Men who count their own reputations and their own lives as nothing but who have an unending passion and fire to preach Your Word in season and out of season. To have evangelical preaching, strange and wonderful preaching, filling our churches! How blessed! How glorious! To have the helplessness of man so clearly preached that complacent sinners and unregenerate church-goers who hear would be convicted and pierced to the heart and cry out, "What must I do to be saved?!" and come into the sheepfold of Christ. O, that the law and the Gospel would be preached in such uncompromising ways. May we not give people what they want to hear but what they need to hear to save their souls.
Awaken a hunger for Biblical preaching in Your people!
Awaken a hunger to preach Biblically in Your servants!
We pray You would clearly call and ordain and send out men to preach the good news of great joy, the Gospel of peace through Jesus Christ. How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim peace and preach Your good news! There is no peace and no good news for men apart from the Gospel of Christ. Anoint Your servants with Your Spirit, give them a double portion of Your Spirit. May they not succumb to the temptation to rely on their own power and wisdom but wholly rely on Your power and wisdom, to Your glory alone. May Your Word be effectual to grow Your Church in Your way and in Your time as it is preached by Your chosen instruments with boldness and assurance and authority.
Awaken a hunger for Biblical preaching in Your people!
Awaken a hunger to preach Biblically in Your servants!
I pray You would raise up men like these who are willing to be mocked for Biblical preaching. We know that many in the existing Church and denominational structures will balk against such preaching. Strengthen Your servants by Your Spirit so they might stand strong in the power of Your might despite the opposition they will certainly receive. May they never bow to the pressure of men but continue to be constrained by Your love and live and preach for You and not look to their own interests. May they not to count their lives as dear to themselves but be willing to do all that is necessary to preach Your Word without compromise. May they bow to You alone. May they seek to please You and not men. May they seek to serve You alone and not the world's mammon. May they fear You and not men. Keep them steadfast, immovable and abounding in Your work as You remind them that their labor in You is never in vain. The preaching of Your Word is never in vain for You have promised that in due time we will reap with joy. Raise up men who will seek first Your Kingdom rather than worldly kingdoms and acclaim. Strengthen them to go outside the camp to You, Jesus Christ, bearing Your reproach, for the sake of the elect. Keep them ever-mindful that we have no continuing city here but we seek the one to come.
Awaken a hunger for Biblical preaching in Your people!
Awaken a hunger to preach Biblically in Your servants!
I pray You would take this hunger for Biblical preaching and put it into those who are now outside the existing Church. Draw all Your people from every nation, every tribe and every tongue to Mt. Zion to hear the Word of the Lord. We know Your sheep will hear Your voice, but too often what is heard in many congregations is nothing close to Your voice. No wonder why so many are left in darkness and despair. We see so many sheep who are harassed and helpless and remain so because they do not have shepherds who care for them and love them enough to preach the cross to them. The preaching of the cross alone will lead them to everlasting peace, joy and hope. We thank You for the assurance that Your sheep will not listen to strangers, but that Your irresistible grace will draw them to You as Jesus Christ is lifted up in our preaching. May we be once again be known as people who turn the world upside down. Would that we disturb the peace by preaching Christ. Many today cry out "Peace, Peace," but they are dupes of the devil. Many, many souls may feel happy and content, but they are deceived and heading for hell. They are under condemnation but they do not know of their need. They do not see the true state of their souls. How can they know of their sin if they do not hear the law preached? How can they know the way of salvation if they do not hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ clearly preached? May Your Word be preached clearly so it might awaken the dull of hearing out of their sleep and lethargy. May Your Word be preached clearly so the dead would be raised to life. May we not cater to itching ears, but steadfastly proclaim Your Word without apology. May we faithfully proclaim Your Word and trust that when that spark is lit, Your Spirit will carry it where You will to enlighten many who are now in the darkness and blinded by the prince of this age. We are sorely in need to such fire and light today, Lord! The world is cold to You and their eyes are blinded. Even many in our churches are lukewarm and have their vision clouded. We can trust that as we remain true to the preaching of Your Word, hearers will be multiplied and strangers will come from far and near.
Awaken a hunger for Biblical preaching in Your people!
Awaken a hunger to preach Biblically in Your servants!
Isaiah 2:2: It shall come to pass in the latter daysthat the mountain of the house of the LORDshall be established as the highest of the mountains,and shall be lifted up above the hills;and all the nations shall flow to it,Isaiah 2:3: and many peoples shall come, and say:“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,to the house of the God of Jacob,that he may teach us his waysand that we may walk in his paths.”For out of Zion shall go the law,and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Awaken a hunger for Biblical preaching in Your people!
Awaken a hunger to preach Biblically in Your servants!
Please add your prayers as His Holy Spirit leads you.
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