The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in the book of Joshua, in the fourth chapter, verses 21 to 24. Verses 21 to 24 in the fourth chapter of the book of Joshua. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over. That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever. Now I'm calling attention to this incident here recorded in this book of Joshua because it seems to me to provide us with a parallel and indeed at the same time with a great deal of instruction with regard to the whole question of revival which we are trying to consider together these Sunday mornings. And we are doing that, let me explain again, because this happens to be 1959 and is the 100th anniversary of a great movement of the Spirit of God in revival in different countries a hundred years ago. in America, in Northern Ireland, in Wales, in Scotland, Sweden, and in various other places. And here it seems to me we have something which helps us to consider this. This year, 1959, makes us think of 1859. Well, in exactly the same way, we find that God had commended Moses to do something which was going to be a kind of reminder to the children of Israel of what God had done for them. Here were the children of Israel passing over the Jordan, rather through the Jordan, in order to enter into the promised land of Canaan. God worked a miracle. And he commends these people to take up twelve stones from the very spot where the priests had been standing in the river of Jordan in order that they may set them up as a memorial outside a town, so that in ages to come, when the descendants of that generation of the children of Israel should happen to be passing in that direction and should see these stones, they should be provoked to ask the question, what mean these stones? And then they would be able to give them the answer, and they would remind them of how God had done this wonderful thing. and that enabled them to walk through the Jordan, as he had done a similar thing in enabling them to walk through the Red Sea on dry land. What mean these stones? And we are considering the answer. Now, that is the position in which we find ourselves this year. Books are written, articles are written on this great revival of a hundred years ago. Meetings of celebration are held and are to be held, and so on. But the question is, What does it all mean? What is it all telling us? What is the purpose of this? Why do we thus turn aside and spend a number of Sunday mornings on this particular thing? Well, now we've already started answering that question. The first thing of which we are reminded is a fact, something that literally has happened. What happened a hundred years ago found its way into the newspapers. on the front pages. It was hot news. This isn't theory, therefore. This isn't just a matter of thought. This is literally something that has taken place, as these events have taken place in the history of the children of Israel. And we've furthermore been trying to consider the general character of what is called a revival. We're not confined to 1858 and 59. It's one of a series, as I was showing you, and I was indicating that there are certain general characteristics which you all must invariably find in a revival. We've been looking at some of them. How the Spirit of God comes upon a people. The first thing they're aware of is the glory and the majesty and the greatness of God, and are humbled beneath it, silent, convicted. conscious of sin, and they cry out unto God, and then become aware of God's way and God's provision in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they begin to be filled with praise and joy and thanksgiving. Then they feel a burden for the soul of others, and so they spend all their time in talking about this, praying about it. And thus this movement spreads, and large numbers who are outside the church become influenced and affected, drawn and attracted and converted, and join the Christian Church. Now, I ended by saying this, and it is a very vital part of the description of a revival, that always in a time of revival, the Holy Spirit seems to be presiding and is in charge. The Holy Spirit, if one may use such an expression, seems to be in the very atmosphere The whole district or country seems to be charged with the power of the Spirit. Thus you will find people converted on their way to a meeting, even before they get to the meeting, suddenly awakened in the midst of the night and convicted of sin. This presidency of the Holy Spirit over everything and the life of the whole community. Well, now there are some of the general characteristics which we've already considered, but we must proceed to emphasize certain special points which seem to me to be of very great significance and of great importance. Here's one. It is characteristic of revival that all classes are affected by it. People of all classes, people of all ages, people of all temperaments, people of all intellectual types. That's a point that's well worthy of elaboration. We haven't the time to do so. But I'm emphasizing it to the extent I am for this reason. That here is one of the final answers to those who would dismiss evangelical conversion in terms of psychology. It is not confined to special types, to the so-called religious type. Nothing is more striking in the story of revivals how you get a cross-section of every conceivable type and group in society, irrespective of classes, ages, intellect, temperament, and everything else. A most astonishing feature, but which is found with strange regularity in the story of all revivals. And then another thing that's characteristic is this, that a revival is something that thus comes, as I've said, it lasts for a while, And then it passes. Nothing is more interesting than that. Emphasizing, you see, that it is this definite action of God. Comes suddenly or gradually, works to some great climax, and then it ends, perhaps suddenly, perhaps gradually. There's something discreet about it. Sometimes you can give the very date of its beginning and the date at which it ended. That, I think, again, is a matter of the greatest possible significance. Establishing once more that it is the work of God, and that it is not something which belongs to the realm of mere psychological experiences. Because with them, as long as you have the stimulus and the factors, you continue to get your result. But here, that is not the case. And that brings me to say a word about the results. The results of revival. And here are the points that need to be emphasized of these. The results of revival are abiding. I mean by that, that in contradistinction to what is so generally true in evangelistic campaigns, the people who profess conversion and give indications of conversion continue. There are exceptions. There are some who fall back. But this is the great feature of revival, that the men and women who are converted by this power that has entered into the life of the Church continue. It isn't that they come forward as the result of an appeal, and you imagine that great things are happening, but that you find afterwards that perhaps only 10% of them hold, which is the figure that is expected to hold by most evangelists. That's not the case in revival. In a revival it's a very exceptional thing for people not to hold, but they abide and they continue. Now you will find that the literature is full of this. I've been reminding myself of it again this week. I've been reading descriptions given by a number of ministers a hundred years ago, and every one of them volunteers this self-same point, that the people were standing and were holding. It wasn't something that only lasted an evening. Of course, they didn't test their meetings. They didn't call people to come forward. There again is an interesting point of difference between an evangelistic campaign and a revival, that in an evangelistic campaign you have to plead with people to come forward. In a revival you don't. They come without your asking them. That was put very well by a man who was in the revival that has happened in the Congo in these recent years. You may have read that little book called Something Happened, and the man puts it there very eloquently. He said, there I'd been preaching for twenty years in that area, and pleading with people to decide for Christ at the end of the meetings, trying to persuade them to come forward. And I wasn't succeeding. But then he said, this came, this happened. And now, he said, there was no need to ask them to come forward. The difficulty was, in a sense, to deal with the numbers who did come forward. They'd even come forward while he was still preaching. He couldn't stop them. Now that is the kind of thing, I say, that you get in a revival. And the results are abiding. There are certain concrete facts that can be given. I'm going to give you some figures. I've hesitated to do so because figures have, by now, become rather unrealistic. in this age which attaches such significance to figures and doesn't wait to see whether they're true figures, but is so anxious to proclaim them immediately. Nevertheless, the figures are interesting. I'm emphasizing not that a given number came forward at the end of a meeting. I am going to give you figures of people who joined the Christian Church and who continue to be active and zealous members. It is said that from 1730 to 1745 in the United States, when that great awakening took place under Jonathan Edwards and the tenants and Whitfield and others, that some 50,000 people joined the Christian churches. In 1858, in 1857 to 1859, in that great revival that then swept the United States, it is computed that half a million people joined the Christian Church. Notice my emphasis. Joined the Christian Church. And they were not admitted immediately, they were tested, they were examined, they were instructed as catechumens, and they were trained. I'm not talking about decisions. We've become so accustomed to that they didn't do that sort of thing in those days. Let's get that right out of our minds. I am referring to people. who having given such true evidence of their conversion and their regeneration, were admitted into the full membership of the Christian Church. Half a million a hundred years ago in the United States. One hundred thousand in Ulster alone joined the Churches. And in Wales, fifty thousand. And when you remember the population figures, you see the significance of these striking facts. And this is a thing to be emphasized also. that a great zeal for God and for holiness becomes manifest in the members of the Church and in these converts, invariably. The meetings are crowded, the people are anxious to work, every enterprise in connection with the Church is given a mighty stimulus. You can read, if you like, Edwin Orr's book on the Second Evangelical Awakening, which will give you striking facts in that respect. It will show you the number of things that came out of that revival of a hundred years ago. Not some passing emotion, but something so deep and so profound that people are consumed with a zeal for God and for His name and for His cause. And new churches were built in large numbers. Not only did the existing churches become too small, they had to bring to build new churches all together. You see, when you get a revival, as I was emphasizing last Sunday, it is the church, it starts in the church, and the church is built up. But so often you have evangelistic campaigns and the churches are left exactly where they were. But a hundred years ago, in that short time, the churches all became filled to overflowing and they had to build these fresh churches. Ministerial candidates, men called to the ministry, The numbers were enormously increased, and this is something I say that always happens in a period of revival. And then, speaking still more generally, in a time of revival you will find that the moral tone and the moral level, not only of the Church but of the world outside the Church, is visibly affected and raised. You can read statistics. provided by the public authorities with respect to prosecutions in police courts and other courts for drunkenness and various other things, and the figures are simply staggering. And how practices, evil practices, that had characterized the life of a district or a town suddenly disappear. There's a famous instance of this. There was a great and famous preacher in North Wales about a hundred and fifty years ago, the name of John Elias. And that man preached one sermon at a famous fair, at a place called Rithlin, a fair that was famous for its debauchery and vice and evil and sin and wrongdoing. That man, by preaching one sermon, put an end to that fair once and forever. He killed it and it was never revived. Now that's the sort of thing you see that you get in a time of revival. But you can have great evangelistic campaigns and then you're given the figures for vice and crime and you see that they're going up instead of coming down. You might think from the reports you read that the whole country has become religious, but when you read the figures of vice and crime, I say, you find it steadily going up. That's never true in a revival. Even people who are not converted are influenced and affected. A sobriety enters into the life of the whole community, and the general effects of revival will last for quite a number of years after the revival. Well, there are some interesting facts. Well, now hitherto we've been looking at the phenomenon of revival in general, but I do want to say just a word about particular variations which take place in different revivals in different places and in different times. While they all share certain general characteristics, you do find these most interesting and, to me, fascinating variations. Take, for instance, the way in which a revival starts, and what can be of greater interest to us than that? Now here, as I've said, it may be sudden, or it may be gradual. A revival may come quite unexpectedly. Or it may be the case that a number of people had been burdened and had been concerned and had been praying, perhaps over months and perhaps even over years. Have you read these stories? I do plead with you to do so. Read either of these two books that's been written on the revival in Ulster a hundred years ago. If we can help you to get them, we'll be delighted to do so. But I plead with you to read the facts. And you will see some of these points illustrated. Sometimes it's just a handful of people who have been concerned and burdened, and God answers them. Well, there are those variations. And again, it may come in different types of meeting. Sometimes a revival breaks out in a prayer meeting. Not some great crowded meeting, but just a little prayer meeting with a handful of people. You see, in Northern Ireland it was three men, really, who met together regularly to pray. Just three men. It's sometimes been just two. Doesn't matter, in New York a hundred years ago it was one man who prayed alone for some time in that famous midday prayer meeting. So it may come in a prayer meeting, or it may happen in a preaching service. It may even happen when an evangelist is holding a series of regular meetings. He started to have an evangelistic campaign, but suddenly it becomes a revival, something quite different. There is no limit, therefore, to the ways in which it may start. Jonathan Edwards tells us that he has no doubt at all but that the sudden, tragic death of a person in the town of Northampton in which he ministered was probably the thing that rarely proved to be the factor that God used. A calamity, some strange happening, something that alarms people or astonishes them, something that makes them realize the fleeting character of life in this world, these are the things that God has often used. Sometimes a revival starts in a great city. Sometimes it starts in a village. Sometimes it starts in a hamlet. I'm emphasizing these things because they are to me the most glorious things of all. You see, when man does something, he likes to do it in the big cities, doesn't he? And he does it in a big way. And he feels that that's essential to success. Do you know, my friends, this is the wonderful thing. The next revival may break out in a little hamlet that you and I have never heard of. And it's a burden upon my heart and upon my mind. I'm afraid in this respect. lest we here in this great city of London and in this big building may be passed by and God will bring us to naught and to nothing and do this mighty thing in a little unknown hamlet with a little group of people. That's what happens in revival. It can happen anywhere. Thank God. That's what makes this life so hopeful and so romantic at the same time. There is no limit. And then it may happen with a very small number, as I've been saying, or it may happen in a great crowd. God isn't confined to numbers or to anything else. The Bible's full of that. God's greatest things have been done with small numbers, with remnants. But it can equally happen with a great crowd. And that is why people who try to lay down rules and regulations, and who think because it happened once in this way, it's going to happen again in the same way, are showing a complete misunderstanding of the laws of the spiritual realm. There are endless variations in the way in which it begins. And then consider the variations in the type of men that God uses in revival. Another most fascinating theme Sometimes God has used in revival very great men. Look at a man like Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest philosophers of all time, certainly the greatest philosopher that the United States of America has ever produced. Everybody's agreed about that. That's why they're reprinting his works now, even men who are not primarily interested religiously. He was such an outstanding philosopher. He was the man that God used, above all others, two hundred years ago in the New England states. Whitefield, by any assessment, was a great man, possibly the greatest orator that the English-speaking world has ever produced. John Wesley, by any showing, was a great man, a genius of an organizer, and the most able intellectual man. All these men of the 18th century were undoubtedly outstanding men of ability, yet they were the men who God used in bringing this great revival amongst the masses of the common people. But here is the interesting thing. God doesn't always use men like that. He does sometimes That seems to have been the general rule, because Luther again was a great natural man, and so was Calvin, so was John Knox, so were all these men. But you see, he doesn't always do that. When you come to a hundred years ago, you find something very different. You find God now using simple, ignorant, unknown, most ordinary men. He did that in the United States. He did that in Ulster. How many of you have ever heard of the name of James McQuilkin? Well, he was the man who was used in Northern Ireland a hundred years ago. James McQuilkin, a most ordinary man. But God laid hold on him and began to use him. It was exactly the same in Wales. The name of the man most used there was David Morgan. He was actually a minister of the gospel, but a very ordinary minister, an unknown minister, a man of no gifts whatsoever. God took hold of that man and used him like a lion for nearly two years. A most ordinary man. Isn't this something that is worthy of our careful contemplation? Shouldn't we reflect upon this? God taketh hold of the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. That's it. It's a part of the principle. It may be a great man, it may be a very little man, it doesn't matter. Then think of the area in which a revival takes place and the spread of revival. It may be very local, it may remain local, it may involve a whole district, it may involve a whole country, or as you see a hundred years ago and two hundred years ago, several countries at the same time. All these facts are full of significance, especially when you think of these attacks of the psychologists. who think that they can explain away religious phenomena in terms of psychology. I'm hoping to deal with that later. But let me hurry now to a next question. The question of the so-called phenomena that are in evidence sometimes during a revival. Now, again, there is great variation here. Sometimes a revival may be very powerful and yet more or less quiet. There may be a very deep and a very profound emotion. Large numbers are converted, but quietly. But it isn't always like that. Indeed, it comes nearer to being the rule in revival that certain phenomena begin to manifest themselves, such as these. That men and women are not only convicted of sin, but they are convicted by an agony with respect to sin. It isn't merely that they see that they are sinners and that they must believe in the Saviour. It comes to them with such overwhelming force that they become even physically ill. They are in a literal agony of soul. You remember the story of John Bunyan, don't you? He tells it in grace abounding how he had such an agony of conviction for nearly eighteen months that on one occasion he even felt envious of beasts that were grazing in a field, wished that he hadn't been a man at all. This agony, this terrible conviction, well, you get that in revival. People are in an agony of soul and groan audibly. They may cry and sob and agonize audibly. But it doesn't even stop at that. Sometimes people are so convicted and so feel the power of the Spirit that they literally faint and fall to the ground. Sometimes there are even convulsions, literal convulsions, physical convulsions. And sometimes people seem to fall into a state of unconsciousness, into a kind of trance, and may remain like that for hours. Now, all I'm anxious to do this morning is to remind you of the facts. These are not invariable. These are variable. They may be present, they may not be present. But generally in revival you will get something along this line. I am hoping later to come back to this and to deal with this point as it becomes the focus point of the criticism that is generally leveled against the whole notion of revival. I'm simply acquainting you with the facts for the time being. Well now then, what meaneth these stones? What are they telling us? Well, I've been answering the question. That's the sort of thing that happened a hundred years ago. That's the sort of thing that always happens in revival. These general features, these variable features. It is clear, therefore, that we are being asked to consider this phenomenon which takes place from time to time in the history of the Christian Church. But come, let me emphasize the second thing. If those are the facts, what is the real character of the facts? What is the nature of the facts? Well, let's go back to our text. Here are people suddenly walking past Gilgal, and they see these stones set up, and they say, what mean these stones? And this is the answer that is to be given. The Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us until we were gone over. You are to tell them that these are set up, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty. These stones remind us of facts. What sort of facts? miraculous facts. And as that was true of these tongues, it is equally true of every revival that has ever taken place. A revival is a miracle. It is a miraculous, exceptional phenomenon. It is the hand of the Lord, and it is mighty. What do I mean by this? Well, I mean that a revival is something that can only be explained by the direct action and intervention of God. It is God alone that could divide the Red Sea. It is God alone that can divide the waters of the River of Jordan. These were miracles, hence the reminder, God's unique exceptional action, the mighty acts of God. And revivals belong to that category. Let me examine this. These events belong to the order of things that men cannot produce. Men cannot produce them. Men can produce evangelistic campaigns. Men cannot and never have produced a revival. Oh, they've tried to many times, and they're still trying to. Alas, Phinney has led the whole church astray at this point by teaching that if you only do certain things, you can have a revival whenever you want it. The answer is an eternal no. And that isn't my opinion. This is a question of fact. Haven't we all known and watched and seen men who've been trying to produce revivals? They've introduced all Phinney's methods. They've read his book, they know it by heart, and they've tried to do it, they've tried to make people confess their sins, they've tried to make them come forward, they've done everything that Finney says should be done, and if you do it, you get a revival. They've done it all, and they've brought great pressure to bear. But there has been no revival. A revival, by definition, is the mighty act of God. And it is a sovereign act of God. It is as independent as that. Men can do nothing. God, and God alone does it, set up these stones. Why? Well, to say that it is the hand of the Lord and that it is mighty. The sovereign act of God, apart from men. And all the details I've just been giving you, you see, fit into this and illustrate this. But not only can men not produce a revival, they can't even explain it. And that is again most important. I would lay this down as a part of the definition. If you can explain what is happening in a church, it isn't revival. If you can possibly explain it, it isn't revival. You see, that's true of miracles, isn't it? If you can explain a miracle, it's no longer a miracle. That's why it's rather pathetic to see people becoming excited when a man publishes a book with the title, The Bible is True. He's going to prove to us now that the miracles of the Old Testament have literally happened. And what does he proceed to say? Well, he proceeds, you see, to say this sort of thing happens quite often. Did you read that book? There was one illustration. I mention it in order to show my point. You remember when Moses struck the rocks, the water came gushing out. Ah, says this man, we are now in a very happy position. We can really believe this. On what grounds? Well, he said, during the last war, a number of soldiers in charge of a sergeant were doing a bit of work in a given place and the men were not doing the work to the satisfaction of the sergeant. He said, let me have that pick. And he just took hold of it and accidentally just happened to remove a bit of shale from the side of the hedge and water began to trickle out. He says, you know, we can believe that when Moses struck the rock that the water gushed out. See, it happened when the sergeant, who wasn't a Christian at all, just happened accidentally to touch that bit of earth, a little bit of water trickled out. And so we can believe in miracles. Isn't it rather pathetic? If you can explain a thing, it isn't a miracle. A miracle is the direct, sovereign, immediate, supernatural action of God, and it cannot be explained. And that is the essential truth about a revival. No, no, you can't explain a revival. There are no methods used in a revival. If methods are used, well, you can understand the result, can't you? You do certain things, you'll get certain results. The advertisers know all about that, don't they? You use your methods correctly, you'll get your results all right. People are very gullible, you can make them do almost anything you like. And we're living in an age of propaganda, an age which is Suggestible. But there are no methods used in revival at all. None. You read the stories. No great crowds, no band, no choir, nothing whatsoever, no preliminary advertising, none of these things at all. And yet the thing happens. So you can't explain it in terms of the methods used, because there are no methods used. And then I say again, look at the men who are used. How often has it been the case in revivals that you had the sort of reproduction of the kind of thing that we were reading about in the fourth chapter of the book of Acts at the beginning. Here was the problem to the religious authorities in Jerusalem. Here is a man who was known to everybody, who used to sit every day at the beautiful gate of the temple asking alms of the people, a man of forty years of age who'd never walked at all. But suddenly this man has been walking and leaping and running into the temple and praising God and everybody knew it. And who'd done this? Well, Peter and John. Who are these? Here's the problem for the authorities. Ignorant and unlearned men. And yet they said, we can't deny but that a notable miracle has happened and everybody knows it. And here's the enigma, here's the problem. Ignorant and unlearned men? Fissioning? Is it possible? Can they have done this? They've no learning, they've no training, they've nothing, and yet it's happened, what can we do? Ah, you see, men can't understand it, they can't explain it. The results are not commensurate with the powers implied. The answer is it's God who's using these men. Now I've reminded you that it was like that in 1858 and 59. And it was like that in 1904 and 5. the last major revival in the British Isles. The man whom God used was a man whose name was Evan Roberts. He was a very ordinary man indeed. But he was the man whom God used. And you can't explain that revival in terms of the man. Totally inadequate. And then take another argument. Look at the change in the men. Look at these apostles of whom we've been reading. Look at them before Pentecost. Weak, helpless. Look at them after Pentecost. Held with a blazing power and with a courage, the Peter who denies his Lord is now facing the hostile crowd and the authorities that have power to put him to death, and he is not afraid of them. Look at John Wesley before May 24, 1738. A complete failure in the ministry. Absolute failure. Look at him afterwards. The same man with the same abilities, the same powers, the same everything. How do you explain that? You can't explain it in terms of Wesley. What is it? Oh, it's the Spirit of God that has come upon him. It's a miracle you can't understand these things. And so I say it was a hundred years ago in Northern Ireland and in Wales, I've mentioned a man called David Morgan, a very ordinary minister. Oh, just carrying on, as it were. Nobody had heard of him. Did nothing at all that was worthy of note. Suddenly this power comes upon him, and for two years, I say, he preaches like a lion. And then it goes, and he reverts to David Morgan again, the same man you see. You can't explain it in terms of men. There's only one explanation. The hand of the Lord, that it is mighty. It can take the things that are not and confound the things that are, and ridicule them. Then I say, consider the places where it happens. May I use the expression, the divine humour? Where did the revival break out a hundred years ago? It wasn't in the capital city of Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was in a village you've never heard of called Conor. That's how God does things. When he sent his Son into this world, he wasn't born in Jerusalem, he was born in Bethlehem, the very least of the cities of Judah. Thus God, you see, to keep the honor and the glory to himself, makes it impossible that you can explain it in terms of men. It's in your Bethlehems, your Connors, your little villages that people have never heard of, that the mighty thing happens. And it was exactly the same 200 years ago. It was in that little town of Northampton in New England that the revival broke out. It was in a little hamlet called Trevecca in Wales that Howell Harris was suddenly laid hold of, and in another similar small village that Daniel Rowland was laid hold of. Places you've never heard of. That's how God does it, not in London, not in the capital cities, but in these unknown places. Why? Well, the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty. You can't explain it. Neither can men in the third place control it. You get your sudden beginning, you get your sudden ending, you get your variations during the revival, and men seem to be utterly helpless. While it is perfectly true to say that we can quench the spirit and be a hindrance, It is never true to say that if we observe all the rules and the conditions that we can get revival. No, no. God keeps it in his own hands, beginning, course, end, everything. You're dependent upon the Holy Spirit and his power. But lastly, think of its overwhelming character. What mean these stones? These stones are there to tell us of the hand of the Lord that it is mighty. What is revival? Well, it's something that happens that leads people to say what was said by the townspeople of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. What is this? What is it? It is something that comes almost like a tornado. It's almost like an overflowing tide. It's like a flood. Astounding things happened and of such a magnitude that men are left amazed, astonished, astounded. Let me give you but one illustration, one of the most lyrical and one of the most wonderful. There was a preacher in Scotland three hundred years ago of the name of John Livingstone, of Kilsyth. There was a marvellous day in the life of John Livingstone. He tells us himself in his autobiography that he was a very ordinary preacher. And writing at the end of his life, he looks back and he says, you know, there was a day, I shall never forget it, in June 1630. He was at a communion service at a place called Schatz. Have you ever read of the revival at the Kirk or Schatz? Read it, my friends. This is what happened. They'd had their services. They'd gone on over the weekend. John Livingstone and a number of others had been spending Sunday night after the services in prayer and in conference, as they called it, talking to one another about these things. And Monday morning came and John Livingstone had been asked to preach. And he was out in the fields meditating and suddenly he felt that he couldn't preach, that the thing was beyond him, that he was inadequate. And he felt like running away. But suddenly the voice of God seemed to speak to him, not in audible language, but in his spirit. telling him that he mustn't do this, that God didn't work in that way. And he felt he must go back, and he preaches. He preached, he tells us, on Ezekiel 36. And he said, I preached for about an hour and a half. And then he said, I began to apply my message. And as he was beginning to apply it, suddenly the Spirit of God came upon him. And he went on for another hour in this application. And as he did so, people were literally falling to the ground. In that one service, 500 people were converted. Oh, modern people, I've got to say this. Unfortunately, he didn't test the meeting. I'm not saying that 500 came forward at the end. They didn't do that sort of thing. 500 were convicted, some falling to the ground, having to be carried out. Others went out groaning in agony and were in this agony for days. But as the result of that one sermon, 500 people were added to the churches, truly, permanently, soundly converted. That's the sort of thing that happens in a revival. And poor John Livingstone says that that kind of thing only happened to him on one other occasion in a long life, just these two days. But what days? Not John Livingstone, but the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty working in and through John Livingstone. I've told you before the story of a man preaching in a little town called Llanidloes in Wales who preached in one sermon. And during the next six months, a thousand people were added to the churches in the district round about that little town. What is this? This is the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty. At Pentecost you had miracles, speaking with tongues and many other things. They are variable. They don't always happen. You don't get accounts of these in subsequent revivals. But mighty things happen. Miraculous things happen. Things that are beyond the explanation and the wit of men. And indeed, if you consult the men whom God has used on such occasions, they will all tell you the same thing. They suddenly, like John Livingstone, became conscious of a power coming upon them, not themselves, taken up, taken out of themselves, given liberty, given authority, given fearlessness, speaking as men of God with the boldness of the original apostles. They knew when the power came, They knew when the power went. You will read it in the journals of Whitfield and of Wesley and all the rest. This is the hand of the Lord, I say. This is the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. It was because he knew so much about this sort of thing that the Apostle Paul says, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, through the pulling down of strongholds. casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's it. Or, finally, listen to it like this. Here are the apostles meeting together for prayer in the upper room. They'd been doing it for ten days. Suddenly, there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. That's it. Not always the sound, but always the consciousness. of the mighty wind of God, the Spirit of God, descending upon preachers, prayers, praying persons, those meeting in conference, the sound of a rushing, mighty wind, the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty. Do we know anything about that, my friend? Do you believe this? Do you believe the facts? Do you believe the explanation? Do we who claim to believe in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ still believe in miracles, in the possibility of miracles, in God coming in and doing things that we can not only not do, but cannot even understand, nor control, nor explain? Yea, I ask you, do you long to know such things, to see such things happening again today? Are you praying for such a visitation? For believe me, when God hears our prayers and does this thing again, it will be such that not only will the church be astounded and amazed, but even those who are outside will be compelled to listen and to pay attention in a way that they're not doing at the present time, and in a way that men left to themselves can never persuade them to do. That's the meaning of the stones. That's why I'm calling your attention to revival. This is what God can do. This is what God has done. Let us together decide to beseech Him, to plead with Him, to do this again. Not that we may have the experience or the excitement, but that His mighty hand may be known, and His great name may be glorified and magnified amongst the people. We do hope that you've been helped by the preaching of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. The MLJ Trust retains exclusive copyright ownership to all audio files of Dr. Lloyd-Jones sermons, including all derivatives, such as translations, modifications, or edited versions of the files. You must gain written permission to license, distribute, or broadcast the audio files. And under no circumstance may the files be offered for sale to or by a third party. You can find our contact information on our website at mljtrust.org. Thank you.