Due to a fault on the original recording there is some disturbance during the early part of this sermon by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. We do apologize for this and trust that it will not spoil your enjoyment of the message too much. The doctor is preaching from the book of Genesis chapter 26 and verses 17 to 18. Unfortunately the very first few moments of this sermon have been lost due to the deterioration of the master tape. The doctor is looking at the light that these two verses shed on revival in the modern church. The great need of the Israelites at that time was for water. The need was so desperate that it sent them back to their old wells which they'd found to be filled with rubble. This left Isaac with the immediate problem of having to dig out the wells and clear them to make them suitable for use again. We join the doctor now as he compares this situation with the church as it is today. The trouble still, as it always has been at such times of decline, is due entirely to the work of the Philistines. And the immediate task of the Church, therefore, if she is genuinely and truly concerned about revival, is to understand this, and to get rid of this rubbish and earth which have been poured into the wells and which are choking the supply of water. The way to revival is not just to say, let's pray about it. Of course we've got to pray, and I hope to emphasize that, and emphasize it tremendously. But what I am saying is this, that there is something we have to do before we pray, because there are certain conditions attached to prayer. To go on our knees and to utter words is not of necessity prayer. The Bible, from beginning to end, makes it perfectly plain and clear. that God can only be approached in certain ways and on certain conditions. And if we don't observe those conditions, we are not praying, and there will be no value in our exercises. Prayer, I say, has to be made according to God's way, so that before we pray, there are these preliminary considerations. Or, if you prefer me to put it in another way, let me put it like this. The need, we say, is the need of an outpouring of the Spirit of God. But clearly, by definition, the Spirit of God can only be outpoured and can only honour his own truth. The Holy Spirit cannot honour a lie. He cannot honour a negation of the truth. It is the same Spirit who is poured out in revival who led these people, who wrote the books of the Bible. It is he who was given the truth, safeguarded its writing in an infallible manner. It's his own truth. This is the truth of the Spirit. So if we want the blessing of the Holy Spirit clearly, we must make sure that we are in a position in which we conform to his own truth. And we have no right to ask for nor to expect his blessing. unless we observe the conditions that he himself has laid down. And that is why I say the first task is to get rid of the rubbish of the Philistines. It's a painful process. I admit freely that I would prefer not to have to do this. It would be much simpler to say, let's pray and organize prayer meetings. But if we believe the Bible at full, we can't do that. It's a contradiction in terms. We have to follow the biblical order. And this comes first. Therefore, as we are considering this work of the Philistines, which we have to get rid of, we have put in the first place doubting or denying vital doctrines of the faith. Now, you notice how I put that. The first work of the Philistines, I say, is that they deny or cast doubt upon or neglect or ignore certain vital and essential doctrines. I'm not concerned about any other doctrines. There are doctrines and doctrines. There are doctrines which are absolutely essential to the Christian position. There are others which we believe to be right, but which we cannot say are essential. And I'm concerned only about those bare essentials. This is no time, I say, for refinements. It's a time of being concerned about fundamentals. So we have been looking at some of these doctrines. And we started with the doctrine of the transcendence and the sovereignty of God, the God who acts and who intervenes, not the God of the deists, driven away remotely into heaven, who no longer takes any active part in the life of his people or the life of the world, the transcendent, sovereign God. And then that led us on to some consideration of the authority of the Bible. Then, in turn, we came to the next great doctrine, which is sin—man in sin and under the wrath of God. Now, these, I say, are the doctrines which are always rediscovered at periods of revival. Now, that's a statement which I make without any hesitation. I would put it, if you like, in the form of a challenge. Go back and read the history of every revival that's ever been. and you will invariably find these are the truths that are first rediscovered. Man's utter dependence upon God, man waiting upon God and waiting for him to act in his own time and in his own way. But now that brings us on to another of the most crucial and essential doctrines, and that, of course, is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is central. He is crucial. You read your Bible, and you find that he's everywhere. He's in the Old Testament. It's all looking forward to him. It's a book of promises concerning him and his coming, and what he's going to do when he comes. A man who doesn't find the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is spiritually blind. It's a book about him, pointing to him, waiting for him. And the New Testament, of course, is nothing but an exposition and a delineation of him. Your Gospels, the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, they're all about this blessed person. He is at the center. The book is a book about him in the last analysis. Because it is in and through him that God visits and redeems his people and provides this great salvation. And then take the work of the Holy Spirit. Where lies the need of the power of the Spirit? The church should be praying for a visitation of the Spirit. But what is the supreme work of the Holy Spirit? Well, our Lord himself has told us that it is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, He shall glorify me and bring to your remembrance all things that I have said unto you. He shall not speak of himself out of himself. No, no. He shall glorify me. So the supreme work of the Holy Spirit is to focus attention on, and to point to, and to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, if you go back again to your historical evidence, Go back and read the accounts of all the revivals that have ever been known in the long history of the Church, and you will find invariably that the very center of the life of the Church at that time has been the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Look at it like this, if you like. Take the great hymns that were written and became so popular two hundred years ago. so many of them written by Charles Wesley, so many of them written by Doddridge, and by Isaac Watts, and by William Williams, and many another. What's the great theme of these hymns? Well, the theme of them all is the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing more typical of the eighteenth-century revival and awakening than, Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly. You see, into the midst of all that deism, all that philosophical preaching that had characterized the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, came this warm, devotional, vital, spiritual preaching about the Lord Jesus Christ and people's personal knowledge of him. Your hymns are full of it. And you will find that it's exactly the same in every other period of movement and of revival. All is concentrated on him. You get it in every revival. The favorite hymns that were sung a hundred years ago in all the countries that were visited by revival were just these hymns about the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And it's been the same in every revival that has been experienced everywhere in this present Very well. Is it not clear that for all these reasons, that if the Lord Jesus Christ is not crucial, central, vital, occupying the very center of our meditation and our living and our thinking and our prayers, that we really have no right to look for revival? And yet, what is the position? Well, I've been reminding you that there are certain so-called sections of the Christian Church that have never experienced revival. I was reminding you last Sunday morning that you've never really heard of a revival in the Roman Catholic Church. Is it surprising? You see, they hide him. The Lord Jesus Christ is hidden very largely by the Virgin Mary. He is hidden by the Church herself. He is hidden by the priests and the priesthood. He is in the background somewhere, of course they believe in him. Yes, but you have to go beyond all these to come to him. You're confronted by the Virgin, you're confronted by the Church, you're confronted by the priesthood and all that they do. And the Lord himself is hidden somewhere in the background. That's why you don't get revival in such a church. But this is not only true, alas, of them. This is true of many people today. The Lord Jesus Christ is ignored completely by so many. You go and talk to many people even in the church about religion and you'll find that they'll talk to you at great length and they'll never even mention the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm never tired of putting it like this because it's something that I I'm so familiar within my experience as a pastor. People come and talk to me about these things, and I put my question to them. I say, well, now, if you're unhappy about yourself, this is the way to decide. What if you had to die tonight? How would you feel? No, they say. I believe in God. Well, I say, all right. Well, now, what would you say to God? What will you say when you stand in the presence of God? What are you relying on? Well, they say, I've always tried to live a good life, I've done my best, I've tried to do good, I've tried to avoid sin. Yes, I see, that's very good. But nevertheless, you have sinned, haven't you? Oh yes, I have sinned. Well, I say, what you do about your sin? What will you say to God in the presence of God about your sin? Well, they say, I believe God's a God of love. Well, how does that help you? Well, they say, I believe that If I acknowledge my sin to God and ask him to forgive me, that he does forgive me, and I'm relying upon that, and I press them, and I go on with my questions and cross-examination, and on they go giving the same sort of answer. The point I'm making is this. They don't even mention the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe in forgiveness, and they see the need of it, and they want it, but they seem to think they can get forgiveness from God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't really see the meaning of this bread and wine, his death, his blood-shedding. They don't seem to understand it. They seem to think they can go to God directly without the Lord Jesus Christ at all. There's a great deal of so-called Christianity which is quite Christless. He doesn't seem to be essential at all. He doesn't seem to come in. He doesn't seem to be absolutely vital, so that if you blotted him out of history, these people would be in exactly the same position. They seem to be living very much on the level of the Old Testament saints, and not even that at times, because they were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, whereas these people don't seem to see any need for him at all. Well, clearly, this is the work of the Philistines. Anything that in any way conceals the Lord Jesus Christ, anything that in any way takes him out of the center and puts him anywhere else, is the work of the Philistines. And oh, how busy and active the Philistines have been during this present century in particular. There are certain things, my dear friends, about which there should be no discussion of Paul, and the first is his unique deity, his eternity. Did you notice those descriptions given of him by the Apostle Paul in the first chapter of that epistle to the Colossians? He is before all. It is by him that all things consist. He is eternal, co-equal with the Father. There must be no discussion about this. There is no time to waste in arguing with people who deny the unique deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, His eternity, His equality with God, and His incarnation, and the blessed truth about Him with His two natures in one person. Now, you go back, I say, to every period of revival, and there's no dispute about this. This is the thing in which they glory. This is the thing which makes their very life. And so I say that these things are absolute essentials. To me, it is equally essential. I just don't understand the man who can say he believes all that about Him and not believe in His virgin birth, and not believe in His miracles, and not believe in His literal, physical resurrection. You see, the Apostle Paul doesn't argue about this. He says, if Christ be not risen from the dead, Then he says, is our preaching vain and your faith is vain? You are yet in your sins. Now that's the literal, physical resurrection that he's talking about in 1 Corinthians 15. He isn't talking about the persistence of the Spirit of Christ. He isn't merely arguing that though dead he's still able to help us. No, no. He is talking about the literal, physical resurrection. And he says, if this isn't true, then all I've preached is wrong. And yet, you see, there are people calling themselves Christians and Christian preachers today, who deny the physical, literal, physical resurrection of our Lord, and say it doesn't matter. I say that as long as you're in that position, you have no right to pray for revival, nor to expect it, because the Holy Ghost is one of the witnesses of the resurrection. You remember how the Apostle Peter put it? He says, and we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Ghost which God hath given to them that obey him. The Holy Ghost is a witness to these things, witness to his incarnation, witness to his ministry, his teaching, his miracles, witness to his death, witness to his glorious literal, physical resurrection, witness to His ascension. We are witnesses, so is the Holy Ghost. Well, how can you ask the Holy Ghost to bless you and to come down in power when you deny the very thing that He's given to witness, the very person whom He is sent to glorify? My dear friends, what's the use of saying, let's pray, If we are not clear about these things, you'll never get out of that water until you've cleared out the rubbish of the Pharistines. Revival, above everything else, is a glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is the restoration of Him to the center of the life of the Church. You get this warm personal devotion to Him. It leads to your hymns, your anthems of praise. the centre of the life of the Church. Don't you see the necessity for getting rid of this work of the Philistines in this respect? There is no value in a so-called Christianity which doesn't exalt him, and live for him, and live to testify to him. But that in turn leads me on, and I'm rushing through these things. Every one of them is important, but we must press on. That brings us to his work, his person, yes, but his work. What do I mean by his work? Well, I want to emphasize particularly his atonement, his death upon the cross, his broken body, his shed blood. Now, I again am quoting to you the pure fact which you can check for yourselves. You will find that in every period of revival, always, without exception, there has been a tremendous emphasis upon the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ. Those have been the hymns that have been sung most of all in periods of revival, the hymns about the blood. I could quote them to you in several languages. There is nothing more characteristic than this. Well, the Apostle has put it again there for us in that first chapter of the epistle to the Colossians, having made peace. How did he make peace? By the blood of his cross. But of course, I know perfectly well, when I say a thing like that, I'm saying something that is unusual and highly unpopular at the present time. There are Christian preachers who think they're being clever in pouring ridicule upon this theology of blood. They dismiss it with scorn. That Old Testament religion, they say, wallowing in blood, the blood of bulls and of goats, and all this materializing and talking about the blood of Christ. Of course they say that, and that is why the church is as she is. But in periods of revival, she glories in the cross. She makes her boast in the blood. Because, as the author of the epistle to the Hebrews puts it, There is only one way in which we can enter with boldness into the holiest of all, and that is by the blood of Jesus. This is the thing that the Holy Ghost honors, this is the thing to which he bears witness, that the Son of God came into this world and was made a little lower than the angels. What for? For the suffering of death, that he might taste death. For every man, the very nerve and center and heart of the Christian gospel is this, that God hath set him forth publicly as the propitiation for our sins. What for? Well, that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus, in whom we have redemption through his blood. the forgiveness of sins. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. The very heart of our gospel is that God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Listen to what the greatest preacher the Church has ever known liked to say about himself God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. That's the thing in which he makes his burst and his glory. Then again he says to the Corinthians, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And yet men say that his death on the cross was but an accident, or just the death of a pacifist, or something like that. They don't see its cruciality, they don't see its centrality, they don't see that it was by dying there that he achieves our salvation, that it was because God hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, that we are forgiven and are free. Ah, they say, it's mechanical, it's almost merchandise, you're making of this thing something which is almost material, they say. No, no, that's just a great display of the love of God, but it isn't. The cross is the point at which the holy, everlasting, and eternally just and righteous God is making a way of salvation by visiting the punishment of our sins upon his only begotten, dearly beloved Son. I say no hope for revival, while men and women are denying the blood of the cross and are pouring scorn upon that in which we should make our birth. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my riches gained, my comfort lost, and poor contempt on all my pride. They've thrown the refuse and the earth and all the rubbish upon this blessed fact of the death and the blood and the cross. And it's not surprising that the church is as she is. It's not surprising that the world is as it is. When our central message is being hidden, what have we? There is no hope, I say, until we get rid of this work of the Philistines and clear out the rubbish that is concealing the most precious truth of all. And that, in turn, brings me to the next doctrine, which is this one. The person and the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, here, in many ways, is the most practical of all the doctrines that I've been dealing with hitherto. And here, alas, I shall feel compelled to say things which not only apply to the people who hitherto have been chiefly in our minds, those who deny the authority of the Scripture, and those who dismiss the doctrine of sin and of atonement Here, alas, we shall have to say things in which, as it seems to me, there are many evangelicals who are also equally guilty. I say this, therefore, with profound regret, but if we are concerned about revival, it has got to be said. The Philistines are always concerned about concealing the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. If you like it in other terminology, they are guilty in various ways of quenching the Spirit. How do they do so? Well, here are some of the ways. One is to forget him and to ignore him altogether. And there are many people who ignore him and forget him altogether. Of course, if you ask them, they say they believe in Him, but in practice they ignore Him. They forget Him altogether. I don't stop with that. There are others who, while they don't forget Him altogether, regard Him only as an influence. They don't believe in Him as a person. Oh, they say there's an influence of God's Spirit, but they don't talk about the person of the Holy Spirit. And that must grieve him terribly, because our Lord talks about sending him. He says, I will send you another Comforter. I will not leave you alone. I will send him, and he will lead you into all truth. He talks about him. Yes, we are Trinitarians. We believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And how can we expect him to visit us and to bless us if we talk about it? Would you like to be talked about as it? Would you like to be thought of as just an agency or a power? Of course you wouldn't. There's nothing more insulting to a person than in any way to cast doubt upon the personality. And that is what men and women are doing with the Holy Spirit. They're talking about it. An influence. No, no. He's a blessed person. Or let me put it to you like this. He is not given the place that is indicated in our Lord's teaching in chapters 14 to 16 of the Gospel according to sin. John, read those again, chapters 14, 15, and 16, and not only does he speak about the Holy Spirit as he, as a blessed person, but he describes there the functions of the Holy Spirit. He tells us what he's going to do, how he's standing at our side, how he speaks to us, how he prompts us, how he brings back to us the truth and makes truth known to us, how he enlightens us and gives us understanding, how he shall convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. There are those who have suggested that the book which we call the Book of the Acts of the Apostles should be called the Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, and there's a great deal of truth in that. But you see, all this is being denied to them. He's not being given this place which is so clearly indicated in the teaching of the Scripture. But I hurry to what is, of course, the most crucial point of all in connection with the doctrine of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit in this matter, and that is the question of outpourings of the Holy Spirit, or, if you prefer, baptisms of the Holy Spirit. And this is obviously the crucial point with regard to this whole question of revival, because I take it by definition that what a revival means is an outpouring of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God coming in power upon a person or a number of persons at the same time. Read the stories of revivals and that is what you'll find. But now, the work of the Philistines, of course, is to deny that and to dispute that. And it is being done by many people in many ways. Some people dispute that by just dismissing it as hysteria. Ah, they say your revivals, what you call revivals, they're nothing but mass hysteria. Simple people getting worked up. You see, they say that's why you get accounts now of revivals sometimes in the Belgian Congo, or perhaps in certain islands of the northwest of Scotland, but you don't get them in a country like this. simple people, mass hysteria. You're familiar with that teaching, I take it. That's purely the work of the Philistines. And there are people who call themselves Christians who don't hesitate to say that the so-called great revivals of history are nothing but evidences of mass hysteria. Is there anything that can be more grieving to the spirit than that? They say, you know, we shouldn't expect that kind of thing in a country like this with educated, sophisticated people. You only get that amongst primitive people. I know of nothing which comes nearer to blasphemy against the Holy Ghost than that. And may I solemnly warn you that our Lord himself taught that whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, that's to say against himself, shall be forgiven. But whosoever blasphemeth, he says, against the Holy Ghost, shall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in that world which is to come. Let us be careful, my beloved friends, lest we become guilty of this terrible blasphemy of attributing the work of the Holy Spirit of God to something psychological, to some hysterical manifestation. Let us be careful as we speak about these things. But then there are others who, not dismissing it like that as hysteria, seem to me to be equally guilty of quenching the Spirit, because they argue like this. They say baptism of the Holy Spirit is something which is non-experimental. They say the baptism of the Spirit is that which happens to every man when he is born again, when he is regenerated. So we are all baptized with the Spirit. We've all received this baptism, they say. Now remember, they are talking about the thing which is described in the second chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. And they say, yes, that was the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but we all get that now. And it's unconscious, we are not aware of it, it happens to us the moment we believe and we are regenerated. It is just that act of God which incorporates us into the body of Christ. They say, that's the baptism of the Spirit. So it's no use your praying for some other baptism of the Spirit, or asking God to pour out His Spirit upon the church, or to baptize the church afresh with His Holy Spirit, a baptism of power. No, no, this is non-experimental, and as it's happened to all of us, we mustn't ask for it. Or another way in which it's done is this. It is thought that what happened on the day of Pentecost happened once and forever. that it cannot be repeated, and that therefore it is wrong for us to pray that the Holy Spirit may be poured forth. They say God on the day of Pentecost did pour forth His Spirit upon the church, and the Holy Spirit has been in the church ever since. So they say it is actually wrong to pray for an outpouring of God's Spirit. Now, this has been a very definite teaching. It was taught by a certain group and section which is very well known and familiar in the Christian Church in the middle of last century, and it has persisted ever since, especially in that particular group and body, and it has spread and infected various other bodies also. Now, there is the teaching. The Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church on the day of Pentecost. Therefore, you must never pray to God to pour out His Spirit or to shed forth His Spirit. upon the church. This is wrong, and they have prohibited such praying. Well, thus, you see, it is not surprising that there has been no revival, that you don't get revival in the history of that particular group and section in the Christian church. It is not surprising that as that kind of teaching has gained currency, that people have stopped praying for revival, and the church is as she is today. Then there are others, it seems to me, who are guilty of the same thing in this way. They speak only of being filled with the Spirit. You see, that's the thing you should concentrate on. Surely all that is demanded of Christian people and of church members is that they should go on being filled with the Spirit. And as long as they're filled with the Spirit, what more is necessary? You see, there's no need to pray for these baptisms or visitations that you're talking about. Why not simply tell the people to go on being filled with the Spirit. And so, you see, we have arrived at a position something like this, that all that is necessary is that we should evangelize on the one hand, and then we should teach the converts about the importance of going on being filled with the Spirit. And as long as we do these two things, nothing more is necessary. And I am suggesting very seriously to you that that is the main explanation why people have not been praying for revival. They don't see the necessity of revival. They say if you do those two, evangelize and go on being filled with the Spirit, nothing more is necessary. They never think in terms of the Spirit suddenly coming down upon the church, for instance, as it did not only on the day of Pentecost, but as it did the next day or so. You'll find it recorded in the fourth chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. There were the church members all met together, they were praying to God, and we are told that suddenly, while they were praying, the Holy Ghost came down upon them, and the very building, the walls of the building in which they were met, were shaken. There was a further baptism, outpouring of the Spirit, as it happened to Cornelius and his household, and as it happened in other places. But all that is left out, it's forgotten. You see, the idea now is that you don't need that sort of thing. Evangelize, and then give this other teaching about being filled with the Spirit. And there is no room left for an outpouring of the Spirit. It is not expected, and it doesn't happen. And then there is a pathetic group of people, and in a way these are the most pathetic of all. Who say not only that you shouldn't pray for a visitation of the Spirit like this, you shouldn't pray for revival at all. Why not? Well, they say prophetic teaching makes it quite wrong. What prophetic teaching? Well, they say we're living in the last days. The advent of Christ is at the door. The Holy Spirit has been withdrawn. And that if God is withdrawing the Holy Spirit, what right have you to pray for a coming and an outpouring of the Spirit? This is, you know, prophecy. should make it perfectly plain to you that there never can be another revival, because Christ is coming, and coming so quickly, there's no time for revival, and you shouldn't even be praying for it. Why do I say that that is the most pathetic of all? Well, for this reason. That that whole argument and position is based upon an attempt to interpret one chapter only in the Scripture, the second chapter of the second epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, It is based on the assumption that that is the only possible explanation of that. And on the most doubtful exposition conceivable of an exceedingly difficult and doubtful passage, such benighted people say positively, actively, and imagine their being very scriptural in saying it, that you therefore should positively not pray for revival. They have fixed the times and the seasons, you see. The Scriptures tell us not to be concerned about times and seasons. The Scriptures tell us that even the Lord Jesus Christ himself doesn't know the day of his second coming. Not only God knows it, but these people have arrived at it, and they're so certain of it that they say, you mustn't pray for revival, and that the Holy Spirit is being withdrawn. Thus, on a highly doubtful exposition of a very difficult and doubtful passage, Such persons, it seems to me, are guilty of this terrible sin of quenching the spirit, and are partly responsible, therefore, for the terrible drought and the whole condition of the Christian Church at the present time. In other words, I would put it to you like this, that what so many are disputing and denying and ignoring is what I would call the immediate and direct action of the Holy Spirit. Oh no, they say, the Spirit only works through the Word, and you mustn't expect anything from the Spirit apart from that which comes immediately through the Word. And so it seems to me they are quenching the Spirit, because what I read in the book of the Acts of the Apostles is this, in chapter 13, the Holy Ghost said unto the church at Antioch, separate unto me Paul and Barnabas. And I read in chapter 15 that counsel in Jerusalem says it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and unto us. I read in chapter 16 that Paul was anxious to preach the gospel in Asia, but the Spirit suffered him not. He wanted to preach in Bithynia, and the Holy Spirit restrained him and stopped him. the living, powerful activity of the Spirit, the Spirit coming directly, as it were, and controlling and leading and guiding and giving orders and indicating what was to be done, the Spirit descending upon you. That's what you've always got in revival. But that is the thing that seems to have gone entirely out of the minds of men and women. As I close, I would end with putting a fact to you again. To me, it's a very striking and significant fact. Check what I'm going to say for yourselves. Look at any book which has been written on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in this present century, and try and find for me a paragraph or a section or a chapter on revival. Now, here are books, you see, written on the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. And they don't mention revival. They don't mention a visitation of God's Spirit, an outpouring of God's Spirit. They don't even mention it. I could give you the authors. Not a word about revival. Why not? Well, it's because of the teaching I've been describing. They don't believe in revivals, really. No, no, it's not necessary. All you've got to do is to go on being filled with the Spirit. and you exhort the whole church to do that. There is no idea in their minds of the Spirit suddenly coming upon people, such as he always does in Revival, and doing his wonderful works. Now, if you go back and read books which were written on the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, say, around about 1860, there's this book by Smeaton and others, there you will find sections on religious awakenings, religious revivals. They deal with it specifically. In the past they always did, but during the last seventy to eighty years, this whole notion of a visitation, of baptism, of God's Spirit upon the Church, it's gone. It's not in the books. Evangelical writers, I'm referring to them particularly, they don't mention revival. They don't even think of it. And surely this is to quench the Holy Spirit of God. Because the Holy Spirit not only has what we may call His ordinary work, He has His extraordinary work, and that is revival. Of course we must evangelize. Of course we must preach about God being filled with the Spirit. Yes, but over and above that, we must cry unto God to pour out His Spirit upon the whole church. And that is revival, the descent, the outpouring. of the Spirit, over and above His usual, ordinary work, this amazing, unusual, extraordinary thing which God, in His sovereignty and infinite grace, has done to the Church from time to time during the long centuries of our history. Beloved people, examine again your doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and in the name of God, I say, be careful. lest in your neat and trimmed doctrine you are excluding and putting out this most remarkable thing, which God, I say, does periodically through the Holy Spirit in sending Him upon us, in visiting, in baptizing us again, in reviving the whole church in a miraculous and astonishing manner. Well, may God give us grace to do so. Amen. 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.