From the Journal of George Whitefield…One Day During “The Great Awakening”

 

One Day During ‘The Great Awakening’ . . .

   Quoting George Whitefield . . .

Journal entry from Sunday, March 4, 1739 - - Arose much refreshed in spirit and gave my early attendants a warm exhortation as usual. Went to Newgate and preached with power to an exceedingly thronged congregation. Then hastened to Hanham Mount, three miles from the city, where the miners live altogether. God favoured us in the weather. Over four thousand were ready to hear me, and God enabled me to preach with the demonstration of the Spirit. The ground not being high enough, I stood upon a table and the sight of the people covering the green fields, and their deep attention, pleased me much. I hope that same Lord, who fed so many thousands with bodily bread, will feed all their souls with the Bread which cometh down from Heaven, for many came from far. At four in the afternoon, I went to the mount on Rose Green and preached to over fourteen thousand souls. God was so good to allow all to be able to hear me.I think it was worth while to come many miles to see such a sight. I spoke with great freedom, but thought all the while, as I do continually, when I ascend the mount, that hereafter I shall suffer, as well as speak, for my Master’s sake. Lord, strengthen me for that hour. Lord, I believe (O help my unbelief!) that Thy grace will be more sufficient for me. In the evening I expounded [the Word of God] at Baldwin Street Society, but could not get up to the room without the utmost difficulty, as the entry and court were much filled with people. Blessed be God, the number of hearers much increases and as my day is, so is my strength. Tonight I returned home much more refreshed in joy and longed to be dissolved and to be with Jesus Christ. This has been a sabbath indeed to my soul!”

No Formula for Making Revival Happen!

 

There is No Formula For Making Revival Happen

When does the timing of revival come? The answer is, “in God’s own time”, and never at any other time. That of course was the tragic blunder of Charles Finney, in his lectures on revival. He teaches that you can have a revival whenever you want, if you only do certain things and fulfill certain conditions. But that is a complete denial of the sovereignty of God. Not only that, but it is proven by history to be wrong.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that in his lifetime, he had known ministers who had taken Finney’s lectures on revival and had honestly put them into practice in their preaching and in their churches and have persuaded their people to do them, and yet haven’t had a revival. Thank God they haven’t! You’ll never organize a revival. It’s God who gives revival, and He does it in His own time. He does it when you least expect it; when you think it’s coming, it generally doesn’t come. He keeps it in His own hands. …

Revival is God’s. He chooses the place as well as the time, and you never know where it’s going to be, you can’t find any rules for it. People have been trying to do this; they read the history of revivals in the past. Now they say “I notice that before that revival a number of people had been praying right through the night“, so they decide to pray right through the night. But the revival doesn’t come. Well of course not; if it had, they could say that “it was our night of prayer that did it“, and so the glory would be taken from God.

Those are some of the remarks that you’ll hear in this 5 minute audio excerpt from a Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon on revival. You can also download the entire sermon (MLJ.RV18mp3) for a nominal fee, from the website of the Martyn Lloyd-Jones recording trust. My friend Chad V. who you occasionally see in the comments here on Old Truth referred me to their website a few weeks ago. I’ve since downloaded a number of his sermons, and they are excellent (thanks Chad). Also be sure to read their bio page on Lloyd-Jones. Now here’s the audio link:

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