SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : Devotional Thoughts : The Wrath of God

Print Thread (PDF)

Goto page ( 1 | 2 Next Page )
PosterThread
AbideinHim
Member



Joined: 2006/11/26
Posts: 5185
Louisiana

 The Wrath of God


Today is day 17 of the 40-day AS ONE national appeal to heaven.
Day 17: God's Wrath

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” –Romans 1:18

Do you suppose that the above verse, speaking of the wrath of God, is true for every nation except the United States? Is there some way that we are somehow exempt from the wrath of God? We don’t like to think about this, but the truth of the matter is that there is no exempt nation. Godlessness and wickedness will attract the wrath of God, both for individuals as well as for a nation. When godlessness and wickedness are embraced by a nation, then the wrath of God will be directed against that nation.

Repent on behalf of our nation because we have allowed the suppression of God’s truth.

Pray that God’s wrath on the wicked will bring about repentance.

Father, I tremble as I read Your Word today. I fear for my nation as I see godlessness and wickedness on the rise and the increased suppression of truth. I pray for mercy in the midst of Your wrath. Pour out a spirit of repentance upon the ungodly. Turn their hearts to You. As Your church sees Your wrath poured out, I pray that we will be those who tremble at Your Word and draw near to You in intimacy. Give us boldness to stand for truth and not to shrink back.


Adapted from Desperate for Change by Dr. David Butts,


_________________
Mike

 2016/4/12 9:43Profile









 Re: The Wrath of God

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;” –Romans 1:18


What that verse tells me is that Paul is talking about MEN not nations, and uses the word ALL, so no one who employs their energies in ungodliness and unrighteousness are exempt.

I hope you don't mind if I substituted the KJV. Many people tend to think they are not godless or wicked, yet God's measure is His righteousness, which is Christ and many "good" people that we know and bump into everyday are "holding" the truth in unrighteousness, and nevertheless are appointed unto wrath unless they embrace the righteousness of Christ by receiving the Person of Christ.

 2016/4/12 9:52
TMK
Member



Joined: 2012/2/8
Posts: 6650
NC, USA

 Re: The Wrath of God

One point of clarification- is the wrath of God today directed at nations or individuals? Is there a difference?

Is Gods wrath directed toward believers? Or unbelievers only?

Just some thoughts for discussion.

EDIT: sorry Julius it appears we posted at the same time.


_________________
Todd

 2016/4/12 9:53Profile
AbideinHim
Member



Joined: 2006/11/26
Posts: 5185
Louisiana

 Re:


"What that verse tells me is that Paul is talking about MEN not nations, and uses the word ALL, so no one who employs their energies in ungodliness and unrighteousness are exempt."

Julius, God is indeed talking about men,
but what men do will also affect the nation
that they are in. The wrath of God will
fall on a nation whose people are given
over to homosexuality and abortion.
This will not happen in a nation where the
Church is being the salt and the light that
God has called us to be. When men and
women come under the conviction of the
Holy Spirit, repent, and turn from
unrighteousness to righteousness, this
will have a tremendous influence on the
society that they live in. This is what revival
is all about. A revived Church will greatly
affect and influence the whole culture.
This is what happened in the Great.
Awakenings, and in great revivals, such
as the one that took place in Wales in the
early 1900's.


_________________
Mike

 2016/4/12 11:29Profile
TMK
Member



Joined: 2012/2/8
Posts: 6650
NC, USA

 Re:

Mike-

Where does revival come from?

There has been an awful lot of praying for the type of revival you are talking about for years.

Again not arguing at all just trying to define terms.


_________________
Todd

 2016/4/12 11:53Profile
AbideinHim
Member



Joined: 2006/11/26
Posts: 5185
Louisiana

 Re:

"There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer."
J. Edwin Orr

Dr A. T. Pierson once said, 'There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer."


_________________
Mike

 2016/4/12 12:14Profile









 Re:

Quote:
The wrath of God will fall on a nation whose people are given over to homosexuality and abortion.



The wrath of God is already on the ungodly.

Quote:
This will not happen in a nation where the Church is being the salt and the light that God has called us to be.



Not true, even in China, with a revived Church, the wrath of God remains on millions. The Church is salt and light, yet abortion is still rampant, and female babies are thrown into rivers because of the one child policy which I understand is now being relaxed to 2 children. Yet, boys are still desired and girls will still be thrown in rivers or buried alive.

Corruption, sex trade and homosexuality are rampant in China along with many other sins.

A revived church is greatly affecting individual men's lives, but it does not turn away wrath from the those who continue practice ungodliness and unrighteousness except by preaching an uncompromising gospel. It only turns away wrath from men when they come to Jesus Christ. Anyone who does not come to Christ still abides under the wrath of God to come. The Church is not appointed to wrath, but they preach a message of fleeing from the wrath to come by turning to Christ. That is how one escapes wrath.

Quote:
A revived Church will greatly affect and influence the whole culture.



Of course, a revived people affect the culture and the evidence that the Church is revived is when they begin to experience great persecution as our Chinese brethren are experiencing. The religious system will not be revived, only the people of God who are commanded to come out of it.

The early church were also a revived people. The evidence is that they were intensely persecuted just like our Chinese brethren. They turned the world upside down, yet Jerusalem was destroyed. They did not turn away the wrath of God upon their nation. But, they did turn away God's wrath from men who came to Christ.

You have this Old Testament view that revival will turn the entire nation back to God, but that is not going to happen. Jesus said, "Narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it". Looking at the history of man the last 2,000 years, I believe Him. God has relationships with men not nations, anymore.

Should we stop preaching the gospel? Of course not! God is in the business of saving men, one at a time, but He will not save any nation, except His holy nation, the Church. We are here to rescue men from the wrath to come. If it influences a nation, then great, but if not, like in China where sin flourishes, we are still to be lights in "in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, being blameless and harmless".

Our message should not be, "turn to Christ so that our nation will be blessed again and life will be good again for us."

And our message should not be that revival "influences society", so that life is better for all. We don't want people "influenced" we want people saved.

Life will not be better externally for the Church when they are revived. More often than not a revived Church is a persecuted Church and sin will continue to be rampant in the nation.

Dominionists believe altogether differently on this subject. They believe they are to prepare the earth (nations) for Jesus Christ's return.

Today, many Christians may be on the brink of buying into a plan that will ultimately create a global religion and global government.

The apostle Paul was very clear that we are not to entangle ourselves with those who say they are of the faith but preach “another gospel” (Romans 16:17, Titus 3:10, 2 Corinthians 11: 13-15).

"The Gospel of Salvation [according to dominionism] is achieved by setting up the “Kingdom of God” as a literal and physical kingdom to be “advanced” on Earth in the present age. Some dominionists liken the New Testament Kingdom to the Old Testament Israel in ways that justify taking up the sword, or other methods of punitive judgment, to war against enemies of their kingdom. Dominionists teach that men can be coerced or compelled to enter the kingdom. They assign to the Church duties and rights that belong scripturally only to Jesus Christ.

Dominionism shares some of the same ideologies as the emerging church, the primary similarity being the belief that a utopian “kingdom of God” will be set up on earth prior to the return of Jesus Christ.

It is vital for the Church to know that a number of dominionist groups are rallying the support of conservative Christians under the guise of “restoring America” back to its “Christian roots.” A look at a couple of these groups is important."

You may want to read more about "Dominionism".
http://amos37.com/the-gospel-according-to-dominionism/










 2016/4/12 12:17
AbideinHim
Member



Joined: 2006/11/26
Posts: 5185
Louisiana

 Re:

Julius,
I am not referring to dominionism.
I am talking about a heaven sent
revival that comes as a result of prayer
that affects nations. Obviously you have
not studied much about revival history
or awakenings.

There are many good teachings on this
subject right here on Sermon Index. Many
Of them or BR Dr. Orr.

Prayer and Revival

A Compilation taken from materials found on the web, arranged and edited.

J. Edwin Orr


Dr J. Edwin Orr was a leading scholar of revivals who published detailed books about evangelical awakenings. His research discovered major spiritual awakenings about every fifty years following the great awakening from the mid-eighteenth century in which John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards featured prominently. This article, based on one of Edwin Orr's messages, is adapted from articles reproduced in the National Fellowship for Revival newsletters in New Zealand and Australia.

There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.

Dr A. T. Pierson once said, 'There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.' Let me recount what God has done through concerted, united, sustained prayer.

Not many people realize that in the wake of the American Revolution (following 17761781) there was a moral slump. Drunkenness became epidemic. Out of a population of five million, 300,000 were confirmed drunkards; they were burying fifteen thousand of them each year. Profanity was of the most shocking kind. For the first time in the history of the American settlement, women were afraid to go out at night for fear of assault. Bank robberies were a daily occurrence.

What about the churches? The Methodists were losing more members than they were gaining. The Baptists said that they had their most wintry season. The Presbyterians in general assembly deplored the nation's ungodliness. In a typical Congregational church, the Rev. Samuel Shepherd of Lennos, Massachusetts, in sixteen years had not taken one young person into fellowship. The Lutherans were so languishing that they discussed uniting with Episcopalians who were even worse off. The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York, Bishop Samuel Provost, quit functioning; he had confirmed no one for so long that he decided he was out of work, so he took up other employment.

The Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, wrote to the Bishop of Virginia, James Madison, that the Church 'was too far gone ever to be redeemed.' Voltaire averred and Tom Paine echoed, 'Christianity will be forgotten in thirty years.

Take the liberal arts colleges at that time. A poll taken at Harvard had discovered not one believer in the whole student body. They took a poll at Princeton, a much more evangelical place, where they discovered only two believers in the student body, and only five that did not belong to the filthy speech movement of that day. Students rioted. They held a mock communion at Williams College, and they put on antiChristian plays at Dartmouth. They burned down the Nassau Hall at Princeton. They forced the resignation of the president of Harvard. They took a Bible out of a local Presbyterian church in New Jersey, and they burnt it in a public bonfire. Christians were so few on campus in the 1790's that they met in secret, like a communist cell, and kept their minutes in code so that no one would know.

How did the situation change? It came through a concert of prayer.

There was a Scottish Presbyterian minister in Edinburgh named John Erskine, who published a Memorial (as he called it) pleading with the people of Scotland and elsewhere to unite in prayer for the revival of religion. He sent one copy of this little book to Jonathan Edwards in New England. The great theologian was so moved he wrote a response which grew longer than a letter, so that finally he published it is a book entitled 'A Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of all God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies...'

Is not this what is missing so much from all our evangelistic efforts: explicit agreement, visible unity, unusual prayer?

1792-1800

This movement had started in Britain through William Carey, Andrew Fuller and John Sutcliffe and other leaders who began what the British called the Union of Prayer. Hence, the year after John Wesley died (he died in 1791), the second great awakening began and swept Great Britain.

In New England, there was a man of prayer named Isaac Backus, a Baptist pastor, who in 1794, when conditions were at their worst, addressed an urgent plea for prayer for revival to pastors of every Christian denomination in the United States.

Churches knew that their backs were to the wall. All the churches adopted the plan until America, like Britain was interlaced with a network of prayer meetings, which set aside the first Monday of each month to pray. It was not long before revival came.

When the revival reached the frontier in Kentucky, it encountered a people really wild and irreligious. Congress had discovered that in Kentucky there had not been more than one court of justice held in five years. Peter Cartwright, Methodist evangelist, wrote that when his father had settled in Logan County, it was known as Rogue's Harbour. The decent people in Kentucky formed regiments of vigilantes to fight for law and order, then fought a pitched battle with outlaws and lost.

There was a ScotchIrish Presbyterian minister named James McGready whose chief claim to fame was that he was so ugly that he attracted attention. McGready settled in Logan County, pastor of three little churches. He wrote in his diary that the winter of 1799 for the most part was 'weeping and mourning with the people of God.' Lawlessness prevailed everywhere.

McGready was such a man of prayer that not only did he promote the concert of prayer every first Monday of the month, but he got his people to pray for him at sunset on Saturday evening and sunrise Sunday morning. Then in the summer of 1800 come the great Kentucky revival. Eleven thousand people came to a communion service. McGready hollered for help, regardless of denomination.

Out of that second great awakening, came the whole modern missionary movement and it's societies. Out of it came the abolition of slavery, popular education, Bible Societies, Sunday Schools, and many social benefits accompanying the evangelistic drive.

1858-1860

Following the second great awakening, which began in 1792 just after the death of John Wesley and continued into the turn of the century, conditions again deteriorated. This is illustrated from the United States.

The country was seriously divided over the issue of slavery, and second, people were making money lavishly.

In September 1857, a man of prayer, Jeremiah Lanphier, started a businessmen's prayer meeting in the upper room of the Dutch Reformed Church Consistory Building in Manhattan. In response to his advertisement, only six people out of a population of a million showed up. But the following week there were fourteen, and then twentythree when it was decided to meet everyday for prayer. By late winter they were filling the Dutch Reformed Church, then the Methodist Church on John Street, then Trinity Episcopal Church on Broadway at Wall Street. In February and March of 1858, every church and public hall in down town New York was filled.

Horace Greeley, the famous editor, sent a reporter with horse and buggy racing round the prayer meetings to see how many men were praying. In one hour he could get to only twelve meetings, but he counted 6,100 men attending.

Then a landslide of prayer began, which overflowed to the churches in the evenings. People began to be converted, ten thousand a week in New York City alone. The movement spread throughout New England, the church bells bringing people to prayer at eight in the morning, twelve noon, and six in the evening. The revival raced up the Hudson and down the Mohawk, where the Baptists, for example, had so many people to baptise that they went down to the river, cut a big hole in the ice, and baptised them in the cold water. When Baptists do that they are really on fire!

When the revival reached Chicago, a young shoe salesman went to the superintendent of the Plymouth Congregational Church, and asked if he might teach Sunday School. The superintendent said, 'I am sorry, young fellow. I have sixteen teachers too many, but I will put you on the waiting list.'

The young man insisted, 'I want to do something just now.'

'Well, start a class.'

'How do I start a class?'

'Get some boys off the street but don't bring them here. Take them out into the country and after a month you will have control of them, so bring them in. They will be your class.'

He took them to a beach on Lake Michigan and he taught them Bible verses and Bible games. Then he took them to the Plymouth Congregational Church. The name of that young man was Dwight Lyman Moody, and that was the beginning of a ministry that lasted forty years.

Trinity Episcopal Church in Chicago had a hundred and twenty-one members in 1857; fourteen hundred in 1860. That was typical of the churches. More than a million people were converted to God in one year out of a population of thirty million.

Then that same revival jumped the Atlantic, appeared in Ulster, Scotland and Wales, then England, parts of Europe, South Africa and South India anywhere there was an evangelical cause. It sent mission pioneers to many countries. Effects were felt for forty years. Having begun in a movement of prayer, it was sustained by a movement of prayer.

1904-1905

That movement lasted for a generation, but at the turn of the century there was need of awakening again. A general movement of prayer began, with special prayer meetings at Moody Bible Institute, at Keswick Conventions in England, and places as far apart as Melbourne, Wonsan in Korea, and the Nilgiri Hills of India. So all around the world believers were praying that there might be another great awakening in the twentieth century.

* * *

In the revival of 1905, I read of a young man who became a famous professor, Kenneth Scott Latourette. He reported that, at Yale in 1905, 25% of the student body were enrolled in prayer meetings and in Bible study.

As far as churches were concerned, the ministers of Atlantic City reported that of a population of fifty thousand there were only fifty adults left unconverted.

Take Portland in Oregon: two hundred and forty major stores closed from 11 to 2 each day to enable people to attend prayer meetings, signing an agreement so that no one would cheat and stay open.

Take First Baptist Church of Paducah in Kentucky: the pastor, an old man, Dr J. J. Cheek, took a thousand members in two months and died of overwork, the Southern Baptists saying, 'a glorious ending to a devoted ministry.'

That is what was happening in the United States in 1905. But how did it begin?

* * *

Most people have heard of the Welsh Revival which started in 1904. It began as a movement of prayer. Seth Joshua, the Presbyterian evangelist, came to Newcastle Emlyn College where a former coal miner, Evan Roberts aged 26, was studying for the ministry. The students were so moved that they asked if they could attend Joshua's next campaign nearby. So they cancelled classes to go to Blaenanerch where Seth Joshua prayed publicly, 'O God, bend us.'

Evan Roberts went forward where he prayed with great agony, 'O God, bend me.'

Upon his return he could not concentrate on his studies. He went to the principal of his college and explained, 'I keep hearing a voice that tells me I must go home and speak to our young people in my home church. Principal Phillips, is that the voice of the devil or the voice of the Spirit?'

Principal Phillips answered wisely, 'The devil never gives orders like that. You can have a week off.' So he went back home to Loughor and announced to the pastor, 'I've come to preach.'

The pastor was not at all convinced, but asked, 'How about speaking at the prayer meeting on Monday?' He did not even let him speak to the prayer meeting, but told the praying people, 'Our young brother, Evan Roberts, feels he has a message for you if you care to wait.' Seventeen people waited behind, and were impressed with the directness of the young man's words.

Evan Roberts told his fellow members, 'I have a message for you from God.

* You must confess any known sin to God and put any wrong done to others right.

* Second, you must put away any doubtful habit.

* Third, you must obey the Spirit promptly.

* Finally, you must confess your faith in Christ publicly.'

By ten o'clock all seventeen had responded. The pastor was so pleased that he asked, 'How about your speaking at the mission service tomorrow night? Midweek service Wednesday night?'

He preached all week, and was asked to stay another week. Then the break came. Suddenly the dull ecclesiastical columns in the Welsh papers changed:

'Great crowds of people drawn to Loughor.'

The main road between Llanelly and Swansea on which the church was situated was packed with people trying to get into the church. Shopkeepers closed early to find a place in the big church.

Now the news was out. A reporter was sent down and he described vividly what he saw: a strange meeting which closed at 4.25 in the morning, and even then people did not seem willing to go home. There was a very British summary: 'I felt that this was no ordinary gathering.' Next day, every grocery shop in that industrial valley was emptied of groceries by people attending the meetings, and on Sunday every church was filled.

The movement went like a tidal wave over Wales, in five months there being a hundred thousand people converted throughout the country. Five years later, Dr J. V. Morgan wrote a book to debunk the revival, his main criticism being that, of a hundred thousand joining the churches in five months of excitement, after five years only seventy-five thousand still stood in the membership of those churches!

The social impact was astounding. For example, judges were presented with white gloves, not a case to try; no robberies, no burglaries, no rapes, no murders, and no embezzlements, nothing. District councils held emergency meetings to discuss what to do with the police now that they were unemployed.

In one place the sergeant of police was sent for and asked, 'What do you do with your time?' He replied, 'Before the revival, we had two main jobs, to prevent crime and to control crowds, as at football games. Since the revival started there is practically no crime. So we just go with the crowds.'

A councillor asked, 'What does that mean?'

The sergeant replied, 'You know where the crowds are. They are packing out the churches.'

'But how does that affect the police?'

He was told, 'We have seventeen police in our station, but we have three quartets, and if any church wants a quartet to sing, they simply call the police station.'

As the revival swept Wales, drunkenness was cut in half. There was a wave of bankruptcies, but nearly all taverns. There was even a slowdown in the mines, for so many Welsh coal miners were converted and stopped using bad language that the horses that dragged the coal trucks in the mines could not understand what was being said to them.

That revival also affected sexual moral standards. I had discovered through the figures given by British government experts that in Radnorshire and Merionethshire the illegitimate birth rate had dropped 44% within a year of the beginning of the revival.

The revival swept Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, North America, Australasia, Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Chile.

As always, it began through a movement of prayer.

What do we mean by extraordinary prayer? We share ordinary prayer in regular worship services, before meals, and the like. But when people are found getting up at six in the morning to pray, or having a half night of prayer until midnight, or giving up their lunch time to pray at noonday prayer meetings, that is extraordinary prayer. It must be united and concerted.


(c) Renewal Journal #1 (93:1), Brisbane, Australia, pp. 1318.

http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/

Reproduction is allowed as long as the copyright remains intact with the text.


_________________
Mike

 2016/4/12 12:50Profile
AbideinHim
Member



Joined: 2006/11/26
Posts: 5185
Louisiana

 Re:

"Out of that second great awakening, came the whole modern missionary movement and it's societies. Out of it came the abolition of slavery, popular education, Bible Societies, Sunday Schools, and many social benefits accompanying the evangelistic drive." J. Edwin Orr


"As the revival swept Wales, drunkenness was cut in half. There was a wave of bankruptcies, but nearly all taverns. There was even a slowdown in the mines, for so many Welsh coal miners were converted and stopped using bad language that the horses that dragged the coal trucks in the mines could not understand what was being said to them."

"That revival also affected sexual moral standards. I had discovered through the figures given by British government experts that in Radnorshire and Merionethshire the illegitimate birth rate had dropped 44% within a year of the beginning of the revival." Dr.Orr

This doesn't sound like dominionism to me.
It sounds like a heaven sent revival that
changes men's hearts, turning them from
sin to righteousness, and even having
a great affect on the society.


_________________
Mike

 2016/4/12 13:02Profile









 Re:

Yeah, I wasn't equating the Great Awakening to Dominionism. Just alerting you to it.

The Great Awakening lasted for about 50 years (1790-1840)

 2016/4/12 13:14





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy