Hey everybody, it's Pastor Thomas Buher. I wanted to do a little video on the Asbury revival, as it's being called, and speak biblically of revival from the scriptures. and also explain my own personal revival or my own personal experience with what you would call biblical revival. Now, if you've seen my posts recently concerning the Asbury revival, I've taken a pretty strong position on it that If reports that I am seeing and hearing are true, this would not be a revival according to Scripture. Now, does that mean that there aren't sincere people there that genuinely want to please the Lord? Does that mean that there aren't Christians there that are going to, in some way, shape, or form, be benefited by something that is happening there? Well, I think it's possible, certainly, that some are benefited. If you saw the Samuel Say article, I believe from a few days ago now, he said he was converted, I believe, at a sort of revival-like situation with a female pastor. But he recognizes, of course, that just because God can use very distorted means to bring his people to faith in himself, that does not justify those means. I'm not even sure exactly every direction I'm going to go in this conversation on this, but I want to begin with a good basis in scripture here on what is revival, right? When we say revival, what are we even talking about? if we need to be revived, then that would indicate that we need new life or we need refreshing. So revival is usually seen biblically, understood as being born again, being converted, being saved, being regenerated, or and or you are converted but you need refreshing right you need reviving you're spiritually in a slump you are backslidden etc those types of terms are thrown around as a revival can be considered in both of those capacities that I was personally revived, or as many of us who came to faith in Christ and the Spirit worked mightily in our hearts to bring us to that point of salvation, or I've been a Christian but have become stale and the Spirit was poured out and now I am refreshed and reinvigorated, revived to serve the Lord once again. And in a broad sense, depending on precisely what we mean by that, of course, that is a good biblical understanding of what happens when the Spirit comes upon a person. Or usually when we think of revival, it's not just one individual person, but several or many people. So let's go to Acts chapter 2. when the day of Pentecost has come. You remember, Christ tells his disciples to wait in the city in Jerusalem until they receive the promised gift. After Christ ascends on high, he receives from the Father the Spirit to pour out upon his people. And here's that time and that day. Now, let's keep two things, at least two things in mind from the outset. The apostles were given the spirit to fulfill their apostolic calling, to go forth to the ends of the earth preaching and proclaiming the gospel, having seen Christ and been with him in his earthly ministry. He was handpicked, or they were handpicked for that great work. And so they're being equipped for ministry by this outpouring of the Spirit. But yet we see it falls on others and we see that as you go through the Book of Acts, the Spirit's going to fall on the Jewish converts and then the Samaritans who were basically, you know, Jews mixed with Gentiles and to the Gentiles, to the ends of the earth, to the nation, so that what was promised to Abraham, that he would be the father of many nations, is now being realized as Christ has been given authority in heaven on earth, as he ascends back into heaven, and so the Great Commission go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing and teaching them all that i have commanded you that's how you make disciples baptizing them and teaching them all that i have commanded you and of course right away we see the apostles doing what christ was doing preaching repent for the kingdom of god is at hand and now repent this lord jesus whom you have crucified is the christ and it goes from there so let me read next chapter two When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language. And so we see there that the tongue speaking is not some sort of gibberish, but everybody understanding in this instance, everybody understanding each other in their own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born? There's a miracle of hearing going on. Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya, adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean? Others mocking said, they are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the 11, so notice the apostles now are standing up and they're filled with the Spirit and this is the commission that Christ has given them. Now notice what Peter says here. What Peter says is, by the inspiration of the Spirit, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, This should be the final authority for what revival looks like, for what the content, the preaching, the word of revival is. Peter, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words for these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. And it's not that people were acting drunk, right? It was that the confusion about what they're hearing and so on. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my menservants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my spirit. in those days. And they shall prophesy, I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And he goes on. This is a quote from Joel, and now he's speaking to the men of Israel here. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death. whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face. For he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Aedes, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath To him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear. It's a sign of Christ's resurrection and outpouring of the Spirit as the Messiah. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. So there's the content of the sermon. It's preaching repentance. Well, it's going to get to that in just a moment, but it's, it's calling one to repentance by saying, you crucified the Lord of glory. You, the one that thought this was not the Messiah is the Messiah. He's at the right hand of the father. And this is what has happened. This is what. has been done, and lawless hands have crucified and put to death Jesus, God Almighty, that he has been risen, given the name above all names. So when they hear this, verse 37, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? They were cut to the heart by the preaching of the word and seeing their sins and crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ. What does Peter say? Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are afar off as many as the Lord our God will call. So that's the essence of what took place and what the content of the message was. And it goes on, it says in verse 40, And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. Sounds like revival. How did the revival mature and continue? And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. And then there's gonna be more sermons and more repentance, repentance mixed with persecution. Already by chapter four, Peter and John are arrested. There's lying to the Holy Spirit by Ananias and Sapphira and God strikes them down. There's a commotion and then already you're starting to see the New Testament church growing up and out of its embryonic stage, where everybody's there in Jerusalem having everything in common, and the first falling of the Spirit is attested to with signs and wonders, to the established Church built on the apostles, prophets and apostles, with Christ Jesus being the cornerstone, as Ephesians 2.20 says. Already in Acts chapter 6, for example, there's a dispute among the Christians, among the Hebrews, There's a complaint against them by the Hellenist widows because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. And so seven men full of the Holy Spirit and so on are chosen to see to that matter. The apostles say it is not good for us to leave the ministry of the word. We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. but the diaconal needs are met. And so you have sort of a prototype of the deacons there. Of course, later on, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy and Titus also speaks of appointing elders in every city where the gospel has gone forth to be the leaders in the church there. Ephesians 4 talks about pastors and elders given for the work to equip the saints and to be leaders in the work of ministry and so on and so forth. And so There's a development, there's a progression through the Book of Acts, through the New Testament here from that embryonic stage right there at the day of Pentecost where it makes sense for everybody to have everything in common because churches literally haven't been formed yet. Eventually they're going to be persecuted and spread and they're going to take the gospel with them as they go about. And eventually of course, you know Peter or Paul Because the Jews reject the gospel they say we now turn to the Gentiles and it's gonna go out But what did Jesus say you're gonna preach the gospel first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles? Okay, so we have to keep all of that in view and because a lot of people, and frankly it can be young and older people, but especially a lot of young people and their enthusiasm go back to Acts chapter 2 and think everybody's going to be speaking in tongues again today, that everybody's going to be having everything in common, and staying in one place as if we're back at this embryonic stage of the church. And that, of course, is not where we are today. There's churches on every corner here, it seems, you know, almost literally in the South here in the United States, and so on. So we have to go through the whole scriptures and see the appointment of elders in every city and the building up of the churches. Now that we are already built on that dry foundation of the prophets and apostles and the close of the scriptures and the canon of the New Testament, all the scriptures are complete. And so we do not expect and it would actually be contrary to scripture to say, I have new teachings and revelations. No, we have the completed word of God. So putting all of that out there out front, even if one is to disagree on some of those things that I said, you cannot disagree or deny that what Peter preached in Acts chapter 2 was repentance of sins, trust in Christ, No, we did not literally live at the time when Christ was crucified and called out for his crucifixion, but we all need the blood that was shed because apart from saving grace, apart from God working in our hearts, we are sinful, dead in our sins, and as it were, Christ, as He died on the cross, we should see our sin, our sinfulness on Him, because He had to die for us to take away our sin. So we too, apart from Christ redeeming us and giving us the Holy Spirit and salvation, would have, like the Israelites, like the Jewish people of old, cry out for His crucifixion. And so it was a message of repentance Message calling and doctrine calling to that and then the church grows 3,000 is added in a single day there and they continue in the Apostles doctrine and Fellowship and of course later on we know the Apostle Paul tells Timothy young Timothy to continue in his doctrine because even Paul had a special appearance of Christ, but all the other Apostles were with Christ in his entire earthly ministry and And they knew his doctrine. In fact, at the end of the Gospel of Luke, which is Luke and Acts are one, one work, one continuous work. Um, it's just broken up in our Bibles. But at the end of Luke, Jesus opens the eyes of his apostles so that all the scriptures they did have at that time, which is the Old Testament, uh, he opened their eyes to understand it and to see how it all spoke about him. And so you think about all that Christ taught his disciples who became his apostles. They are now taking that with eyes opened by the work of the Spirit to teach and to proclaim all of the scriptures, all that Christ himself taught. And so you get towards the end of the book of Acts, and now the church is in more and more of its established state that we know it as in today, and he calls the elders of the church to himself in Ephesus. And here's what he says, Paul says in Acts chapter 20, verse 18. And when they, the elders, had come to him, he calls for the elders of the church, they come to him, he says to them, you know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord of all humility with many tears and trials, which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews, how I kept back nothing. that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And see, now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God," again, preaching the kingdom of God, just like Christ did, just like John the Baptist did, preparing for Christ to come. Among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God will see my face no more therefore unless it is very important therefore I testified to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men why for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God The full counsel of all of God's Word therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock He's speaking to the elders here Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And these would be false teachers, false prophets claiming this, that, and the other, leading people astray with sinful lifestyles connected to sinful teaching, et cetera. You already see that in the New Testament scriptures and so on. Also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch and remember that for three years, I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. Even Christ's ministry was about three years and Paul's was here as well. So now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. He said he commends you to God and to the word of his grace. I have coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities. He worked as a tent maker. And so on. And for those who were with me, I've shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And they're moved by this. They love him. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. Danel wept freely and fell on Paul's deck and kissed them, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship." So you have Peter at the beginning. You've got Paul further along here. And then you have Peter's epistles, but so many of the epistles are also written by Paul himself and his exhortations to Timothy and Titus, establishing the church there to continue in the faith and sound doctrine. And all of that is laid out. Just going to Titus, for example. Let's see. So chapter, you know, you get qualifications for elders, the elders' task to speak the truth. They hold fast to the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict. Because there are insubordinate ones, idle talkers and deceivers, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain, et cetera, et cetera. And then he says, as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the old men be sober, reverent, temperate. sound in faith and love and patience, the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given of much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works and doctrine, showing integrity, reverence and corruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, That one who is an opponent may be ashamed having nothing evil to say of you and it goes on so What have all this to do with Reformation and Revival? Well, it has everything to do with Revival and Reformation Paul called for Peter called for repentance Paul called for repentance Christ called for repentance and You see qualities of a sound church in Titus. You see the exhortations Paul gave in Acts chapter 20 and said he was innocent of the blood of all men precisely because he gave the full counsel of God's word. You go to 2 Timothy 3, 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And Ephesians 2 tells us we were created in Christ Jesus to do every good work, that God prepared for us to do that. When you have a revival, a work of the Spirit, and remember, elders are appointed by the Spirit, as even Paul said, and so on there, it's going to look like a bunch of people repenting of their sins, confessing their faith in Christ, and then living a godly, holy life as plainly revealed in Scripture. And I just read to you some exhortations to men and women, young and old, Now, all the reports I have seen, not all, but many of the reports I've seen from the Asbury revival, if they're having true revival, some of the very things they are doing, they're going to repent of. One, in God's order of things, men are to be preachers and teachers, not the women I've seen and heard. I've heard women are leading some of these so-called revivals and these services at Asbury, but it's not even just that. What is the content? I've also seen posts where it says, you know, we don't need any preaching of the word here. We just need love or an outpouring of the Spirit. I've heard of some of the songs, and some are okay old-timey hymns. Others are just literally repeating what's supposed to be the name of God, Yeshua, over and over again, with different emphases on different syllables. Do you see anything like that in Acts chapter 2, right? You don't. You know, you may say, well, it says old men, young women shall dream dreams and prophesy and so on. Well, we can put that aside if you want for a moment. That was part of what was happening in the early church there until the church came into its full maturity. But even putting that aside, where is the call to repentance and repentance of actual sin not repentance of you know something some bad feeling or some victim mentality or you know where are people growing in wisdom and knowledge of the lord from the scriptures and having their eyes open to the majesty of christ a conviction of their sin a desire for godliness Now, you may say, well, there are reports of that coming out from there. And if they are, then praise God. And to the extent that that is the case, then obviously, if that is a heartfelt desire brought by the Spirit, then we can say, in a loose sense, that the work of the Spirit is there. And praise God for that. When you look, and you can see the live stream and the reports coming out of Asbury, the leader, for example, of, well, the one who was speaking when the revival broke out from reports I have seen, speaks of things like, you know, educating and correcting the white church, right? So, What does that mean? If you are, you know, kind of unaware of some of the, I don't know how you are at this point, all the racial so-called tensions in our nation and stuff, somebody who's there to, you know, correct or rebuke the white church, re-discipling the white church, doesn't sound like something you would find in scripture. I've seen other posts about allowances made in some way, shape, or form for LGBTQ Christians. Evidently, there's not unanimity on calling those who call themselves gay Christians to repentance, and perhaps not even calling them to repent over homosexual lust and desires. How can this be a work of the Spirit, then, if this is what's taking place at this Asbury University? One of the first things that you're gonna repent of is what Romans 1 calls a vile passion of homosexuality. You're not gonna identify yourself as a homosexual Christian. You're not gonna pander this white guilt theology if there's a true work of the Spirit being poured out. And there's other examples that I've seen, those are the ones that come to mind, and if somebody else has any that they want to add to the comment section, please do. Now, I also realized when I was listening to, what is it, Illicit Shouters, apparently it was there briefly, early in the morning, and there's only like 20 or 30 people there. And so people say there's this continuous revival, and I'm sitting there thinking, Sounds like it's a rotation of people coming in, and there's maybe a few people there through the night so that you can call it a continuous revival. Okay, whatever, that's fine. But... We see, in Hex 2, the people continuing together. We don't see them sitting in one place and having this rotation, and then people flocking in, flying into this thing to kind of... I don't know, get a spark of the spirit or whatever. And then you have copycat revivals supposedly going on. Um, a friend of mine was just talking about one at a church that he knows of. And, um, again, someone, it all depends on the eyes in which you're looking through this, right? Oh, revival broke out here. Revival's breaking out here. And you're going to say, praise God. Look, it's the work of the spirit. And if you question it well, like I'm doing here, you're going to be accused of questioning God, questioning the work of the Spirit. Are you blaspheming the Spirit here? Are you attributing a work of the Spirit and saying it's really a work of ignorance, or even worse, a trick of Satan? Don't you know better than that? How dare you say that? Well, you can take the line in Scripture that says, test the Spirits to see whether they are of God. And I think that's obviously appropriate here, and one thing that I'm trying to do. But I'm simply trying to point as to what Scripture says we use the word revival what it would look like right i mean the word revival isn't some word that's like just thrown through the bible to begin with but as a concept you go to acts chapter 2 for example what's taking taking place and what's in acts chapter 2 there may be a little overlap but but there's a lot of discontinuity there. I have not really heard a whole lot of actual preaching. I've heard denigrating and downgraded preaching. I've heard a lot of repetitious singing that doesn't communicate much of anything. I've seen a lot of people's, like the student body lady girl that leads on the campus there, Like, I don't even know what language she used now, but it was almost like this idea of just feeling the Spirit's presence. But you don't find that in scripture where people are just feeling the Spirit's presence. That is not biblical. That is not true. You don't just go somewhere and feel the Spirit's presence as if it's this sort of mystical experience. The Spirit worked in Acts chapter 2 through the content of the preached word of Peter who was full of the Spirit. and anointed to preach. And so the preaching of the Word was blessed by the Spirit to cut the people to the heart, to draw them to repentance, and to continue in the teaching of the apostles, which was the teaching of all that Christ had commanded them in His multi-year ministry with them. And He even opens their minds and eyes and understanding to go through all the Old Testament scriptures and see how they all speak of Him. And so any true revival is going to bring us into good old church, real church, where they preach the Bible still, and they praise the Lord for that, and they raise up their families according to God's word, and the women are reverent, and the husbands are godly and sound in doctrine, and there's homemaking and children, and there's order according to God's word. right? It doesn't seem like whatever repentance is going on, by and large, is even remotely in that mold. To lament or repent of, oh, the white church, the white this, the white that, well, why would it not spill out to every ethnicity in their sins, right? So that is my, it's not even a caution. I wanna even say it's something closer to a condemnation of this mentality of revival fever when we just throw out what the Bible actually says. And because somebody says I'm on fire for Jesus, that that equates to an actual work of the spirit. Perhaps we, you guys, are closer to attributing to the Spirit something that is actually the work and a trick of Satan. Unintentionally, I trust, but just the same. Our nation has been founded on, in many ways, within the context of religious fervors, revivals, great awakenings. to varying extents biblical and unbiblical. And I think of the Billy Graham crusades and the sort of revivalistic streak that has always been part of our nation and our country and our heritage. There is a problem There's a fundamental problem with that, and I sit here saying that, knowing that I'm speaking, I'm hoping to reach some Christians that are in our nation, in North America, etc., and basically saying that The whoop and wharf, the fabric of American Christianity when it pertains to revivalistic fever and fervor is fundamentally, at best, a sign of weakness because if we constantly need reviving, there's a problem here. and at worst, just a delusion, a deception, a trick of Satan, keeping us on this treadmill of what Hebrew six says, what we need to move on from, from just laying again, this foundation of repentance towards God. And we need the meat of the word, but instead we keep falling into a pattern of, oh, I need reviving, reviving, reviving. And even then the revivals, the revivings isn't, by and large biblical, which is to say they aren't by and large of the Spirit. That is a hard thing to say, to kind of, what many are going to see is me just throwing water on the fire of the Spirit by questioning it. But I am urging you to break free of this cycle and discover biblical Christianity in which the Spirit works. And so now I'm going to pivot to my experience, personal experience with revival. If you want to talk about revival, I'll tell you revival that I have had and experienced. I went to a Christian school which was very much in this mold of, you know, pressure for decisions for Jesus. And again, I think it's well-meaning and sincere that they want to see people saved. But that was my Christian schooling background, K through 12. And basically, by the time I was a senior in high school, For sure, by then, my eyes were starting to really open up increasingly to this and realize this is emotionalism, this is manipulation, manipulative. This is trying to play the Holy Spirit, trying to fabricate the Holy Spirit, trying to do things to be the Holy Spirit, as if we can be the Spirit. Not that anybody was putting it in those terms, of course. But what else are we doing when we're playing mood music for the altar calls or making naked emotional appeals? There's a right place to appeal to the emotions. But, you know, divorced from biblical content, divorced from knowing the truth, divorced from seeing your sin clearly sometimes, right? Not that there wasn't any gospel in there. I'm not saying that but the emotionalism the Decisionalism the revivalism That was running through all of this by the time I was a senior I was beginning to catch catch on to this and see some of my same friends, you know be saved multiple times and All the way again or feel like they need to be revived again that whole you know, being tossed about on the waves but never making a lot of progress was already wearying to me. And I didn't grow up in a church that taught that. I was in a Presbyterian church. And so I had a little bit of an outside perspective, even though the five days in school outweighed the, you know, the hour or two during the week I got at church. A real eye opener to me was our senior missions trip, which was in the Dominican Republic. And it just really, Astonished me to see that we we would give them bags of rice in these villages, which is great, you know good We did not take any Bibles in their language to give to them. We did through a translator ask who wants to go to heaven and if you do raise your hand and then say this prayer and then Boom, if you said this prayer and really meant it you're saved and of course like whole villages in that case We're doing so And so why would we not say that was revival breaking out? And we saved hundreds of people while we were there. But obviously, that wasn't the case. We hardly gave them the content of the gospel. There was never a call to repent of their sins unless it was, let's put it like this. There was never an explanation of what it meant to be a sinner. So maybe in the prayer, it said, Lord Jesus, I give my life to you. I want to follow you. I'm sorry, forgive me of my sins. Maybe that was in there, but there was no preaching of Christ hung on a cross because of your sinfulness and you need to repent of how you've rebelled against him, the almighty God in your life, and serve him in your life here in your village, in the Dominican Republic or whatever. We didn't do that. But we did lead villages in a prayer and declared to them, if you meant this prayer, You're saved. Well, if you meant this prayer, how could they even know if they meant it or not? Cause they don't even know what the prayer meant. There was no explanation. There's no content to it. It would be as if you went to Acts chapter two and just Peter didn't have a sermon. It just jumped at the end and said, repent, be baptized, you know, be forgiven. Right? So, all right, I'm repenting of what, right? Like there was never any content that was given. Um, so that was really frustrating to me to see that. And I just realized, man, this is, um, perhaps well intentioned, but a horrible, horrible. model a model that's going to lead people sure enough to think they're saved when they've never even understood their own sinfulness or repentance or and have never even really been taught and instructed how to walk and live by the spirit according to the words that word of god to put the death the deeds of the flesh that scripture reveals there's it's very thin on on preaching the word and very thick on decisionalism and emotionalism and uh you know then you have the whole charismatic Pentecostal type church and and and their worship kind of melding in more and more and you have Hillsong worship and elevation worship And it's all about a feeling a high a rush, but it's still built around Ignorance look at the lyrics of the song the same few words repeated over and over again Jesus is love or might you know literally chanting the name saying Yeshua over and over again and I don't want to go down this road too much, but pagans would worship their gods by reciting mantras and trying to release their minds to work themselves up. So we have to realize the shallowness at absolute best of this understanding of the spirit and his work upon his people. And at worst, and as often it is, it is just another spirit at work. So, you say, well, that wasn't a revival for you, was it? No, it wasn't. I do want to share, though, that there was somebody in my class there, about 30 of us, maybe, or so, that was on the senior missions trip, who was really impacted by that. And he's a pastor now, and I believe him to be a very sound and good pastor, even if he's still a Baptist. No, yeah, that's okay. Someday maybe you can be a Presbyterian. But he, I see him post and what he's, teaches and preaches is good. And I'm very thankful for that. And he was very impacted, I believe, because I remember there's some kid there that we walked this trail, this path, whatever, each day or evening, wherever we were going at the time. And this guy, Nathan, was able to talk to this kid and talk with him, minister to him. And I think just seeing the poverty of the people, the needs of the people, Convicted him the Lord used that to convict him perhaps of his Taking things for granted of living in ease, etc, etc, etc Well, I know that's also the mentality of a lot of churches in this revivalistic mold, you know Hey We'll take all these kids spend all this money to fly them out here to do work for maybe a week a work that a minister an actual minister of the gospel could have probably used all that money and serve there for a year or whatever and But it's worth it because if just one person, you know, repents in the village, or if just one of our students has their eyes open and becomes saved or wants to serve in the ministry like this man did, then that justifies all of it. The ends always justify the means. And again, I simply would submit to you that's not the case and Let's count the score the way it actually ought to be there's offense and there's defense here. Okay, so Let's say This this this man that was in our class senior class Became a pastor from that so there's one point for us What about all the people who saw this and said this is just silly ridiculous manipulation? What about all the village tribal people who? think they're going to heaven because they said a prayer, but they're still not living with any knowledge of God. They still don't have the Bible in their hand, et cetera, et cetera. Those count as points against you on the scoreboard. So you're down like 100 points to two in a basketball game here. Lord isn't going to come back and say, well done, because of that, because we got a few genuine converts, but we, you know, as Jesus says of the Pharisees, you made many twice the sons of hell that you yourself are, right? So I'm not saying that everybody in this that's doing this is a bunch of hypocritical Pharisees that are just on their way to hell, but I am saying You have to count correctly here. You can't just say, well, if it gets a crowd, we'll do entertaining, fun, flashy fog machine worship and then sneak a little gospel in there and then get a decision made and call it a day and say, the Lord revival has come because someone made a decision and got baptized. Yeah, it's true. Tons of our people that we get baptized end up leaving the church, but hey, these stay and they're still here. You know, what are you doing? You have a tiny church or congregation. You don't have people coming in. We're seeing souls saved here. Why aren't you seeing souls saved here? Well, I would say because, one, what did Paul say? There's a reason he wasn't guilty of the blood of all men. It's because he declared the full counsel of God's word. Are you declaring the full counsel of God's word to these people? Are you even giving the essence of the gospel to many of these people? And if not, do you ever fear that perhaps the blood of all of these people that reject and leave is actually on your hands, sir? who's appointed as a minister of the gospel, and James 3 says that there's going to be a stricter judgment for you because of this error. Causing a little one to stumble is better to have a millstone hung around your neck. Do you not see that these methodologies are going to cause many to stumble? I have a friend also who would laugh with me about this now, but says he felt really convicted of sin initially just listening. I think it was like Joel Osteen or somebody who never convicts of sin. He's a health, wealth, and prosperity preacher. Somebody can hear Stephen Furtick, and he might be quoting a piece of scripture or something, and perhaps the Spirit might, strangely, bless that to such a person. But they're not going to stay around that, and they're going to rightly, ultimately denounce Stephen Furtick as a false teacher. Paul, yes, Paul, right? Paul even says that even those who preach the truth under false pretenses who are greedy for gain, I rejoice that the truth is being preached. But that isn't exactly what we have here. We have people who think they're preaching the truth, maybe for good motives, but actually aren't. And at best are giving little shallow bits and pieces of that. This isn't about being snooty. This isn't about being tribal or denominational. This is about bare bones, basic Christianity. What is the gospel? What is repentance? What is faith towards God? What is the spirit working through the word of God? And how does that come about, right? Acts 2, I just read it. When you take all that into calculation, how can it be that the by and large reality of what is going on in Asbury is actually a genuine work of the Spirit? It cannot be. There is no need to wait to see the fruit of it, to make a general declaration, assuming the reports are true. And just what I myself have seen in the two minutes of live stream that I've watched, maybe more than two minutes, but at different places, they're just singing mostly empty songs. And I've seen the argument too, you know, well, would you rather than being out at the bars or getting drunk or having premarital sex and all this stuff? No, no, I wouldn't want them to be doing that. But you know what I also don't want is to be on this endless cycle and treadmill of revivalism. Will you never progress? Will you never press on into holiness? And many aren't even converted to begin with. And those that are become frustrated. because of the endless treadmill and cycle. I mean, members in our little church who finally, by God's grace, were able to get off that treadmill and that cycle and have been richly blessed for it. And so for me, my revival came through the Word of God at the Baptist Student Union in college at UNC Pembroke. Well, a roommate of mine I went to Christian school with was sadly kind of going in the other direction, getting drunk and sleeping with women. I went to the Baptist Student Union. I wanted to get plugged into a Bible study while I was there, and I met a man named Lars, who was a senior, I was a freshman, and he was heading up the Bible studies for all those, he was the leader of the leaders of the Bible studies there, and asked me some questions, you know, and said, you know, what's your church background and stuff? I said, oh, I'm Presbyterian. He said, oh, so, you know, does that mean that you are reformed? Now, if you know me now, you know I'm a fire-breathing Reformed Presbyterian at the time. Despite growing up in the Reformed church there, which we have our problems for sure, I didn't really know what Reformed meant. So I was like, I've heard the word before, don't know what that means. I'm like, yeah, Reformed. Yes, I'm Reformed. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So he appreciated that. He was not a Presbyterian, but he was sort of a John MacArthur Baptist. John MacArthur is a Calvinist. He's friendly to Reform Presbyterians. He's a good friend of R.C. Sproul and so on. So, you know, my friend Lars, we're having some conversations and I kind of explained a bit of my experience at the Christian school I went to and the lack of repentance there. And he agreed with all that. He says, you know, you really need to watch this video on YouTube. He said it's by someone named Paul Washer. You ever heard of Paul Washer? I'd never heard of Paul Washer. It's called The Shocking Youth Message. Why don't you go check that out? And friends, my life changed forever when I watched that video. It was, the only way I could describe it then and now is being born again, again. Everything changed for me in the watching of that video. Everything, everything I am today began at that point. That was the ultimate watershed that changed absolutely everything in my life. Apart from that, I would not be anything that I am now. family, children. I mean, I'd be a Christian. I may have a family with kids, but far less kids than the seven that I have, and far less holy and sanctified. Everything changed in that moment. Well, that hour video or whatever it is that Paul watched, you can still find it. And what it did was just confirm everything that I was starting to pick up on in this culture of revivalism and emotionalism. And Paul Washer's a Baptist preacher. And what basically he did, and he was a missionary, and he wasn't fooling around. He's a real missionary. He was there for 10 years, I think, in Peru. I think that's where it was. And he has the HeartCry Missionary Society and all that stuff. And he's speaking. I think to like 5,000 young folk at one of these Christian youth camps that is basically built around the revivalistic model, and he drops an atomic bomb on that whole system. He blows it up. And it blew up everything that I saw in my 12, 13 years of going to Grace Christian School. And it was just so high opening and so transformative. And of course, you just have to watch the video. I can't give the exact play by play, but at one point, you know, he's like, we're called not to be like Britney Spears. Cause of course, early two thousands is when he did this video and I was watching it in 2008, I think. Um, but to be like Jesus Christ and it was this buildup to this and everybody's clapping and he's like, I don't know what you're clapping for. I'm talking about you. He's like, I'm talking about you. And. There's like this, you know stunned silence because you know, we're just all taught to clap like seals of these revival things and just yeah, yeah and Why did Paul Washer say that well you can find other videos where he said, you know, the reason I said that it's not like he just flies off the rails and says stuff like that all the time he said I've been with them like this whole week and in this camp and just saw the ungodliness and worldliness of of the young people there basically is the upshot of what he was saying and so he was saying preaching to them in light of what he had just seen with them, and the two-facedness that is so common in, I'll just say churches and places like this, where you act real holy for church or for revival, but the rest of the week you just live kind of unholy until you get to another revival season. this is the protestant evangelical version of of penance of the confessional box in the roman catholic church that's that's what this is and i'm saying we need to repent of that um yeah commit a lot of sins but i'll go to the priest i commit a lot of sins but i'll have a great experience of revival or refreshing or make a decision for christ again later on that's what it is it's just a evangelical version of it And so, Paul Washer is just laying this out, and he's preaching from Luke, or is it Luke? I think it's in Luke, where it says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven, you will know a tree by its fruit. A good tree does not bear bad fruit, etc. And like those basic, basic, basic teachings that are so basic that you should be able to look at a fruit tree and understand it. I didn't understand. I didn't understand. I thought If a person claimed to be a Christian, they're a Christian, right? Because that's the mentality, that's the teaching that is impressed upon you in schools and places like this. And thankfully, I only got it with the one barrel, not the double barrel. I only got it at the school. I didn't get it from the church that a lot of people go to. And I'm speaking not just to this particular school that I went to or the particular church, but this is the evangelistic air that we breathe in many ways still. And the Asbury thing, just as a reminder of that, is still alive and well. And I know there's a lot of well-meaning people that are highly offended and upset by what I'm saying, but would you just listen to what I'm saying and just judge it by whether it's biblical or not, not whether you consider me to be a jerk in saying it or not. If you think I'm a jerk, that's fine, but come to the truth of God's word in this and see that there's much to change and much to repent of in this. So yeah, just the shocking youth message transformed me. I listened to it once. I believe then I called up my friend who was like, oh yeah, I remember seeing this. And it was one of the times that I got saved or something like that. He sadly was already becoming an agnostic atheist, and to my knowledge still is. And then I watched it a third time with my father, calling these people from school and the following, you got to watch this. You got to see this. The Spirit fell afresh upon me. I was revived. I reached heights I was utterly ignorant of Christianity. I never understood it as I wasn't saved until then. I always understood this as I lacked so severely my understanding of salvation and repentance and faith until then. And that just led on this whole path of understanding the faith better, the sovereignty of God and salvation, election, what's sometimes called as Calvinism, it's just scripture, it's the doctrines of grace. So I was skipping class to just study the Bible, learn from ministers online on YouTube, and doing this all hours of the night. I would miss my meals. I would be sleeping at odd hours. I'd have to go to the place, I didn't have a car, so I had to walk there and get some wings to eat. And I loved every second of it. It was just turning me upside down. And going to the Baptist Student Union, they actually let me lead a study, lead one of the studies, even though I was a freshman, which is a highly unusual thing apparently. They were even, after Lars had graduated, going to appoint me as the head of this whole thing, my second semester. But I said, no, no, no. I can't leave this. I'm not ready for this. I gotta study and gotta learn. I'm not ready for this. And so I dropped out of college after the first semester and just came home and spent like six, nine months just studying the Bible. Thank God my parents didn't think I was faking it and just trying to get out of doing things and become a bum, right? I just studied the scriptures. And that semester while I was in college, people I was talking to, just talking to them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. So concerned about those that I went to school with. their salvation because my eyes were open just because they call themselves a christian doesn't mean they are christian by your fruits you will know them concern for their soul now this was coming out in sort of the cage stage of calvinistic fervor and studying the word and so it wasn't always the most eloquently or gently put. If you think I'm enthusiastic now and pointed now, you know, just picture typing in caps locks, cap locks, and that's pretty much what it was like back then. So I did not perfectly by any stretch Approach these things with others taught talk to some of the pastors at the christian school I went to that the church is associated with I had a good conversation there I was very surprised to see one of the pastors there in his office have a john mcarthur bible on his desk and thinking I'm just trying to say what he says because he wouldn't agree with any of this stuff that you're doing uh, but You know, that was my Fire my reviving my refreshing um But it doesn't, you don't stay on that cycle and pretty quickly I began even then to realize that I wasn't looking for this fresh sudden rush the Spirit like a mighty wind. It just happened every couple months. The men that I was finding online were pointing me to the local church and the doctrines of grace, but the means of grace, word, prayer, sacrament, daily growing, building your spiritual muscles, learning from the full counsel of God's Word, Going from milk of the word to the meat of the word Expositional book by book verse a chapter by chapter verse by verse preaching through the word and so on and so forth and so I was Fed steadily wasn't getting a sugar-high rush every couple of months and then crashing You know a few days or weeks after that and living like like a demon until I could bust into this next high and But that up and down flow is like what we certainly have devolved into for several generations of American evangelical Christianity now. And Asbury, sadly, from everything I've seen and read and heard reported, is by and large, maybe not exclusively, but by and large, just that. It's a sugar high. It's a sugar rush. And we're all falling for it. And we're all going to be disappointed again. I'm glad that we want to see the Spirit fall and work in hearts, but we need preaching that cuts the heart. They were cut to the heart by hard preaching, preaching the truth, calling for repentance and faith in Christ, and then building up one another and standing and fellowshipping together. The church was forming, the New Testament church there. I'll close with these thoughts that this is what we need today for real revival and reformation. Paul Washer's preaching was hard preaching, but it cut to the heart. And I've seen testimonies of others who were there. When Paul Washer was speaking to 5,000 plus people, and they were all cut to the heart. I'm not saying all of them were, I'm just saying that some of them there had cut, had got through. I'm sure a lot of the kids were mad, and they weren't converted, and they wanted to keep their Britney Spears stuff during the week, and wanted to fornicate and all that, and so they were just hardened by it, but that's... Friends, the truth of God's word hardens hearts. It doesn't just soften hearts, it hardens it to those who are not being called to salvation. And so if you give, I mean, what does Paul say? He does not want the offense of the cross to cease. The cross is offensive because it says you're so wicked and bad. The only way you can get out of hell and into God's good graces in heaven is not even through your works, but through the bloody cross of Jesus Christ and his righteousness applied to you in union with him. Christ is to be preached in the truth, in the fullness of He is, in the full counsel of God's word. Every scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for growing in wisdom and knowledge and holiness and love and service to the Lord. So we say we want to love like Jesus, and I just want to say, what does it mean? What does it look like to love like Jesus if we're not teaching the full counsel of God's word? Yes, I want to love like Jesus. We all want to love like Jesus. we have to know God's Word to do that. Yes, I want to see souls saved, but they actually have to be saved according to God's Word, which means they're actually going to repent and confess sins. You know, I've heard pastors, even one of the former pastors of the church associated with the school that I went to, actually say that, and this is just part of the, it's necessary doctrine, false doctrine, in this revivalistic culture, Said he said you could receive christ as savior, but not lord and that's not ideal, but it's it's It's doable, you know, like He said he himself received christ as savior and it was only a few months later before he received him as lord And that's the whole idea of the carnal Christian. That's the whole idea that you can have your sins forgiven, but still basically be unwashed. It's like saying you're an unbaptized Christian. You're not washed of your sins, but you're forgiven of your sins. You're not being inwardly renewed by the spirit, but you still have the forgiveness of Christ. Friends, God doesn't do that. God has no interest in doing that. He saves people for his namesake, for his glory. He's not gonna tarnish his name by saving sinners, by leaving them in their sin. He's going to wash you with the water of his word. He's going to bring you into the fold. He's going to present you spotless to Christ at the wedding feast of the lamb in heaven without the spot or wrinkle, without any sin. That's what the Lord is interested in. And so there's so many things that you have to have red pill moments here. where were the spirits really working? To realize that the Lord, there's no question in my mind, if you asked me, is the Lord more concerned about quantity of Christians or quality of Christians? The answer is not even that it's an either or, it's a both and. No, the answer is God cares about holiness, quality, sanctification. If he cared about quantity, he would have saved everybody. If he cared about numbers and not holiness, he would have put a premium on numbers and not holiness. That is NOT what the scriptures put the emphasis and the focus on. And I hope you can see that even from just a few things that I said there, but if you just go through the scriptures, you'll see that. And in fact, you will see that holiness, godliness, sanctification, growing as a Christian, that is actually what equips you to effectively, more effectively, be salt and light, obviously. You can't be salt and light if you're tarnished with sin. You're just a hypocrite. And so that's, again, you have churches say, oh, we're all hypocrites here, basically, like it's a badge of honor. We're non-judgmental churches here. We're not gonna be those Christians who say you gotta be holy or something. Churches that say that aren't churches. Ministers who say that aren't ministers. Christians who say that aren't Christians, by and large. They might be saying that very early on in severe ignorance, but they're quickly gonna repent of that. Heaven is full of holy people. live their whole lives being sanctified and it's a holiness that all the glory goes to God because it was his work in his people and not self-boasting. There's no place to boast but that doesn't mean that there's no place for holiness because God grants the increase, the holiness. And so as churches we need to Get the gospel right. We need to understand revival and revivalism correct. We need to repent of False emotions and trying to literally drum up the Holy Spirit the Spirit blows where he wills but How can I put this if the Spirit is like lightning striking we can't cause the lightning to strike but we can by God's grace bring the dark clouds over a certain area, right? How? Well, by the preaching of the word, right? We can't be the spirit, but that doesn't mean the spirit is striking out of a clear blue sky, which I don't have out here today. No, lightning strikes where clouds, dark clouds form. Preach the word, the law, the gospel properly. Preach faith and repentance. Preach the severity and the goodness of God, as Paul says in Romans. Preach the full counsel of God. And that is how the dark clouds are there informing. And trust the Lord as he wills to bring the lightning strike of the Spirit into his chosen people to save them from their sins. And apply that to your own children, as we understand them to be covenant children. Teach, preach the word, call them to faith and repentance. Give them that nourishment, that seed of the Word and water it as best you can and trust the Lord to till up the hard-heartedness in them and make soft soil so that the fruit of the Spirit flowing forth from the Word of God comes forth. But flash in the pan enthusiastic moments of excitement not even in those moments hardly rooted in true preaching of God's Word or true knowledge of God, will only yield what Christ says at one point, that these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. So depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. You shall know them by their fruits. But Lord, did we not cast out many demons in your name and do this and that in your name? jesus says depart from me i never knew you you workers of iniquity and so even those who claim uh to have you know miraculous signs and healings and driving out demons jesus explicitly says doesn't mean a thing if you're practicing wellnessness you're going to go to hell anyways um Now if I had more time we could talk again more about how these signs are just not even for the church in this age in this day, but even if you're not fully persuaded of that, yeah, that's trumped up signs and wonders aren't a litmus test anyways of even having the Holy Spirit according to God's Word. So I can't urge enough how much I want to see revivalism die in this nation. Even though I know evangelical Christianity, revivalism was here before the founding of this nation. This is part of the bloodstream of American evangelical Christianity since before the founding of our nation. And so when I realize, when I'm saying, hey, we have long needed some chemotherapy here because these aspects of it are unhelpful and unhealthy, that that's highly offensive when the very cancer that can be eating away at your fruit fruitfulness as a servant of the lord or even preventing you from becoming a christian at all uh when you think that's actually the nutrients and the sustenance that you need and i'm coming in here and saying no this is the stuff that's killing us or robbing you of your fruitfulness as a christian that that's hard to hear um kind of like a doctor having to give the bad news but the good news is There's the true remedy of the gospel. There is the goodness and the fullness of God's Word, the full counsel of God. And that is the soil in which the Spirit will work and sanctify and build up His people and give an actual true reviving to individuals and churches collectively. And so that is what I urge you to seek out. Test everything I'm saying by the Scriptures. Go to the Scriptures. for yourself, but don't fall into a delusion that simply because there's external excitement or somebody says, oh, I've been changed here and I want to serve the Lord here, that that is actually so, because people have been saying that from time immemorial, and it isn't always so. And we have biblical tests to know if it's true or not. First John is even a whole book on these things as well. you know, being sure that you are converted by your fruit, you will know them, as we've already talked about, as Jesus himself said. So I'm not going to ramble any longer. I pray that you will take this in the spirit that I intend it, which is in part as a rebuke, but in love, a rebuke to remind us that There is true revival, but often what we see today sadly isn't it. And until we open our eyes and are having a true red pill moment on these things and go to the full counsel of God's Word, we're just going to keep going through cycles of emotionalism devoid of the actual Spirit who sustains us with the daily bread of God's Word and the fellowship of the saints coming together in corporate worship in the Lord's Day week in and week out. That is what strengthens and sustains us, and real revivals do break out when there's faithful preaching and praying within the context of the church especially. And that is what I desire to see, and that is what I pray for, and that is what Week in and week out, we strive to do at Heritage Reform Presbyterian Church here in Sanford. And so if you'd like to jump off of the treadmill, if you realize, yeah, this is this emotionalism, revivalism has just burnt me out and I'm not growing as a Christian because I'm not being fed the word of God, but I'm being spiritually malnourished. Come talk to me. Come talk to the elders at our church. Come check us out. And I pray that you'll find the Word of God is being faithfully proclaimed the full counsel and that the Spirit will bless you in and through His Word in your life and in your family and in your home. Thanks and God bless.