In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of obedience to God's word. He points out the hypocrisy of those who claim to desire revival but fail to actively pursue unity and spiritual growth. The preacher highlights the lack of awareness of spiritual need in many churches today. He also emphasizes the need for confession and obedience as essential elements for experiencing revival.

Revelation 3, verse 13, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write. These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot, I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the vine, that thou mayest be rich and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. I wish I knew how to help some people believe there is shame connected with nakedness these days. In spite of man's approval of it, God is so displeased with it and declares there to be shame connected with it. And anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. Then over in the 85th psalm, I want to read some verses. Notice if you will, in the first few verses of this psalm, the acknowledgment that the psalmist is making. I think you may observe two in each of the first few verses of God's blessing and goodness. That's one secret of getting further help, we may well remember. Lord, thou hast been favorable unto thy land. Thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God, of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be anger with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Reading down through verse 6, would you please stand for prayer? There is a revival in it very many times, but it has some rich truths relative to this wonderful experience of a revival. In Psalm 138, in verse 7, we have the rich statement, Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. In Psalm 85 and 6, the pronoun is plural instead of singular, and the plea is, Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord, that thy people may rejoice in thee? In Habakkuk 3 and 2, we read, O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years make known, and in wrath remember mercy. Well, surely the beginning for a revival is with the personal pronoun. Revive me, not the other fellow but me. And notice that the psalmist had enough faith to believe for personal revival. He said, Thou wilt revive me. And then when the individual gets revived, he is so desirous that others shall have the benefit of it, and he is ready to join the pleading crowd that the Lord will pluralize the pronoun and make it us instead of me. But me is the beginning, and then if I get revived and if I can make a contribution toward the pluralizing of the pronoun until we together are revived, it won't be too difficult to have the work of the living God revived. So I'm interested in the threefold aspect of a revival, getting in on it myself, having others to have the benefit of it, and having the two to result in the reviving of the work of God. Now, it is very evident to me that many, many meetings are nothing more than protracted meetings though they be announced as revival. It seems reasonable to me for us to ask ourselves the simple question, Why are there no more revivals even among the wholeness folks than there are? To make it more specific, why is there such a lack of personal recognition of revival in the home church from whence you and I have come, even assembled here this morning? Why? And I'm persuaded that the Lord gave me three reasons why we do not have Holy Ghost revivals. I want to share them with you this morning, as I prayed it seemed that this was what the Lord would have me bring to you. The first reason for our not having real Holy Ghost revivals beyond those that we do have, I'm glad for all of the exceptions, wherever they may be, I'm glad for all of the exceptions, but many, many a meeting is nothing more than a protracted meeting though it be announced as a revival. Why is that? And the first reason, I declare, may seem a bit startling to you, but it is very true. I am altogether convinced and that's the first fact for our not having more Holy Ghost revivals is because there are too many people, preachers and lay members, who do not realize they need a revival. Now, I wish I could say that word realize until it would say everything I mean when I use it here. I certainly do not mean that the people don't go through the motion of having a meeting. I do not mean that they don't sometimes say, well, it would be good if we had a revival over our church. I don't mean that. I mean a keen inner consciousness of the desperateness of the need of a revival. In fact, I'm fully convinced that it's impossible for the one that's trying to speak to you now to realize the need of a revival. I am persuaded that my dear brother French, as precious as he is in my estimation, is unable to realize the need of a revival. And that none of the preachers here can realize the need of a revival. And none of you lay members can realize the need of a revival, except as the Holy Ghost does help me, or help him, or help you. We need the Holy Spirit to help us to have a keen inner consciousness that we don't just need, we desperately need a Holy Ghost revival. Maybe what I'm trying to say to you with this word realize could be illustrated and made clearer. Some time ago I understood a certain woman came to her pastor and expressed a desire that they might have a revival in their church. And the pastor paid little or no attention and they didn't have a revival. The same woman came back sometime later and expressed further a desire that they might have a revival in the church. But the pastor did little or nothing about it and no revival was had. And sometime later the same woman came back, but she had a different message this time. She declared, I feel as though I'll die if we don't have a revival. Well, you don't have to ask, they had one. And one of the reasons they had one was somebody realized they needed one. I didn't read this scripture in the third chapter of Revelation about the Laodicean church, just to have some scripture to read. I want you to notice that to me we have a part of the picture of what I want to share with you presented to us by the Holy Ghost in this third chapter of Revelation. For here we have a picture of the Laodicean church. And of course, since we are living in the Laodicean church age, it ought to have particular interest to us. And here notice, if you will, that these Laodiceans estimated themselves. They made a self-evaluation, and it was pretty bright according to their measuring stick. In fact, they declared that they were rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing. Brother, that's a way, a way up there where I never have gotten yet. I never have gotten to the place where I didn't have any need. If you have, I want you to tell me how you got there. I'd like to, I'd like to, I'd like to mount up and to grow and to find higher planes. I want to make spiritual progress to the glory and the praise of God. But here they were declaring that they had need of nothing. That is one of the tragedies of our days. Over there at that church and over there at that church and out there at that other church, there is a lack of a conscious knowledge of need, of spiritual need. In fact, if you want to know how churches are getting along, I tell you what you do. You just make a little survey. Go ask the pastor or ask some of the lay members, how is your church getting along? And see if you don't get an answer something to this effect. Well, it's getting along pretty well. We had a 30 percent gain in Sunday school last year. And we have the parsonage debt liquidated and the church is paid off and we raise the pastors out. Now, if you don't believe that, go try it yourself and see. Now, lest the devil lie on the preacher and try to distort the truth, let me say this. There isn't a Sunday school anywhere that I know of that should have had more than they did have. I was in one some time ago where the register showed over 700 for that day, but they should have had more. And it certainly is good if the church debt is liquidated and it is good if the parsonage is paid off. And it is commendable if the pastor is so taken care of that he can devote his time and energy to the cause of the Lord and doesn't have to hang wallpaper or do something else and use up his time and energy there. But if that's the only measuring stick that you're using to find out how the Pilgrim or the Westland or the Nazarene or the Free or any other church is getting along, you have a mighty poor measuring stick. If you really want to know how the church is getting along, ask yourself questions like these. How long has it been since God came? Until God came in such a way that the saints were blessed and the sinners were convicted. How long has it been since there were some groans in the meeting house? Groans for souls. How long has it been since there were individuals called of God right out of your midst to the mission field or to the pastor? Now, if you can give a positive, honest answer, an honest, positive answer to those kind of questions, you have reason for deep, heartfelt gratitude to God that he's doing something in your midst. Numbers of people, even in holiness circles, are carrying on religiously and could continue to carry on religiously as they now are if the Holy Ghost were to lead the world. For you don't have to have the Holy Ghost to help you to increase the numbers or increase the dollars. But, brother, you have to have the Holy Ghost for there to be real Holy Ghost demonstration in the meeting. You have to have the blessed Holy Ghost if there's real, genuine conviction in the meeting. You have to have the third person of the Godhead moving in your midst if you want individuals to be called of God. Somebody has to be moved on by the Spirit of God if they're called of the living God. Oh, the Lord, stir our hearts and help us to see that we desperately need Holy Ghost revival meetings in these days. I say different people don't realize they need revival, but I know we do. I know we do because of sin that is prevalent on every hand. When I see the Sabbath desecration with laundry mats overflowing out there on the Lord's Day, people out there doing their washing on the Lord's Day, and individuals mowing their lawn and building their house, and individuals running to the grocery store, and individuals running to the same factory jobs on the Lord's Day that they do other days of the week, and other means of desecrating God's holy day, I know we need God the Holy Ghost to come and make sin seem exceedingly sinful, and individuals get sin sick until they'll seek after the living God. When I see all of the gambling that is prevalent, it tells me we need a Holy Ghost revival. When I see how immoral, and base, and degenerate, and vile, and wicked, and unclean individuals are, again and again with their opposite sex, and then again and again with their own sex, it tells me that we need God the Holy Ghost to come and make sin seem black and hell-hot, and the judgments of God a reality, and the love of God rich, until people will have its benefits through the mirth of the blood of His Son. When I see all of the near nudity that is prevalent among men, and women, and teenagers, it tells me that we need a divine visitation in a Holy Ghost revival meeting. But not only do these conditions outside out there testify to the fact that we need a revival, but I know we need a revival because of a lack of love right among the professed followers of God. Some time ago I was in Holmes Avenue, Free Methodist Church in Indianapolis. God came and gave us a revival. Three different services. I didn't need to preach at all. The Holy Ghost just moved in and took over. And we didn't have that because Adcock was there. I know we didn't because I've been different places and didn't see much accomplished. But I could tell you one of the reasons why we had it. I know one reason. I don't know when I've been in anybody's church where I detected as much love among the people as I did. And the lack of love tells me we need God to come. And the lack of burden for lost souls tells me that we need a divine visitation, even a Holy Ghost revival. Yes, in spite of the fact that molecules do not realize that it is needed. The conditions around about us in the world tell us that we do need a revival. And conditions in the church testify the same solemn fact. But there's another reason why we don't have more Holy Ghost revivals. And that is because there are too many people, preachers and lay members, who actually do not want revival. Did you hear what I said? I said what I meant. And surely somebody feels now like saying, Preacher, I know you're off of a beam. You mean to tell us, Preacher, that there are preachers and lay members that do not want revivals? That's exactly the truth. Oh, different people would be willing to have some religious entertainment and a display of talent, but they don't want a Holy Ghost revival. Preacher, why do you say that? I say that because it is true, and I declare it is true on at least two outstanding counts. One reason why people don't want a Holy Ghost revival meeting is they're afraid they would lose their religious job. I was in a wholeness church in Illinois some time ago, and the Holy Spirit moved in our midst in a gracious way on a Friday night. The pastor turned the service over to me, and there was so much conviction. I didn't need to preach at all. I gave the altar call, and numbers were at the altar. After there was shouting and rejoicing and victories, then conviction still lingered. I gave the second altar call. I didn't need to preach. We had two altar services, two or three seasons of shouting and rejoicing, and got out about 10, 15 that night. God moved in our midst. But do you suppose everybody was jubilant over what God was doing? Oh, no, not everybody. Somebody came to the pastor. He didn't accuse him of failing to preach against worldliness. He didn't say, You haven't preached on wholeness. He didn't say, You're a compromiser. But what he did say was, You're going to split the church. Over what, preacher? Oh, getting in some many new people here, and these older folk are going to lose their job, and you're going to split the church. Brother, they ought to have been shouting, rejoicing, happy, that God Almighty was adding to the numbers. I pastored a church in southern Indiana going on eight years, and in that time the Lord met us graciously on one occasion and another. And He gave us some good victories. A sister-in-law was a mother of four children who had never been saved, 30 or so years of age, got a wonderful experience, and then came back to get sanctified and to see the shine on her face and to hear the ring in her testimony would surely help you to see, well, anybody with an individual like that in their church is blessed of the Lord. And then her husband got a wonderful experience of salvation after quite a fight against God and his wife are the Lord's cause. And then he was put on the official board, and one of my men stopped coming to the church. I went over to see why. He didn't say I wasn't preaching the truth. He didn't accuse me of being a compromiser, but he seemed to think somebody hadn't had a fair deal here. This young fellow had been put on the official board. Brothers, I ought to have been shouting, rejoicing, happy, that God Almighty was helping us and giving us some new recruits. But somebody doesn't want a Holy Ghost revival meeting. They might not get to be the church boss and the bell sheep and the ringleader anymore. Somebody doesn't want a Holy Ghost revival meeting. They might not get to be the superintendent where they've been for 14 years in a row. They might elect somebody else. Somebody doesn't want a Holy Ghost revival meeting. They're afraid they wouldn't get to teach that particular Sunday school class that they seem to think nobody else can teach if they weren't there. Wait a minute. There's another reason why people don't want Holy Ghost revival meetings, and that is because they know enough about a Holy Ghost revival meeting to know that when the Holy Ghost comes, He uncovers sin and locates sin and makes individuals to see themselves as they are. And some people have covered up and professed over and compromised so long that they don't propose for God or man to uncover. Brother, when the Holy Ghost comes, He may locate a doctor right in the midst of the holiness meeting. And when the Holy Ghost comes, He may uncover hatred and malice and grudges that have been covered up for 13 years. When the Holy Ghost comes, brother, He locates sin. And some people know enough about Holy Ghost revival meetings to know that, and they don't propose to be uncovered. They don't want a Holy Ghost revival. And some people don't want a Holy Ghost revival meeting if they couldn't carry out their little dead, dry, human-made program like that. Well, you don't get the Holy Spirit to operate in your little straitjacket or mine, brother. If you want Him to come and to have free right-of-way, you'll need to be sure that you don't try to circumscribe and prescribe all the details of His coming and moving. Are you keeping up? Well, there's another reason why we don't have more revivals. There's another reason. I'm convinced the Lord gave me these riding down the highway in a car. I never read them in anybody's book. But He so burned them on my heart. The third reason why we don't have more Holy Ghost revival meetings is because too many people are not willing to pay the price to get them. They may in some measure realize that they need them. In some small measure or to some minor degree, they may desire them and still they don't have them. And they don't have them because they're not willing to pay the price to get them. I believe if somebody could exhaust those three, they could cover the whole scope of the problem of our not having revivals. But, Peter, what do you mean by the price of a revival? Well, I don't know enough to know what all is included. But I know some things that are included in the price of a revival. And the very head of the list is confession. As my years of experience increase, I have been made more and more conscious of the fact that if we have a real revival, there'll have to be some confession. And again and again, it needs to start with the best of God's people. Confessing, confessing. Some people ought never to get up in the meeting house and make some confession. They ought to make them in the fence corner or in the hayloft or in the corn crib or down in the basement or in the bedroom, somewhere along with God. But wait a minute, look at the other side. Some people can confess in every fence corner on the farm and in the hayloft and the corn crib and in the basement and the upstairs. And it never will be fixed up until they got right up in the meeting house. For it involves people there, and they need to make it publicly and give us individuals that will make all of the secret confessions they need to make and all of the public confessions that they need to make. And you won't have to wonder whether or not God will come, brother. He'll be there. I was in Muncie, Indiana some time ago in a meeting at the First Pilgrim Wholeness Church and the Lord gave us a gracious revival. I understood they hadn't had anything like it for 20 years or so. And I repeat myself and say it was not because I was there. I know it wasn't because I've been different places and didn't see much accomplished. But I could tell you one reason why we had it. It was because there was so much... And brother, if we have all the confessing done around here that God says needs to be done, you won't have to wonder whether we'll have a Holy Ghost revival or not. But preacher, what do you need to confess? Well, some people need to confess their sins, their actual sins, their outbroken sins. Some people need to confess their sins of omission. Some people need to confess their sins of commission. Some people need to confess their lukewarms. I was in a meeting at Logan's Port, Indiana some time ago and the Holy Ghost came on a Sunday morning until I didn't do any preaching. The singer didn't sing in his special number. And they didn't take any offering that morning. The Holy Spirit moved in such a marvelous way, I never did know how many people got to God. But one of the things that was outstanding to me was the fact that over to my left, a woman got up right up at the front and confessed her lukewarmness. And when she began to confess out her lukewarmness and make her confession, her teenage daughter from way back on the other side got out and came. We could see some more people step out and come if we could have some people confess their lukewarmness. And some people need to confess their indifference, and some people need to confess their cold heart, and some people need to confess one thing, and some people need to confess another. The Lord help me and help you to do all the confessing that we need to do to have God come as He wants to come and as we need to have Him come. And then a second part of the price of a revival is obedience. Obedience. Oh, no wonder God doesn't do any more for us than He does when you see how individuals are disobedient. We need obedience to the Word of the living God. We need obedience to what God says. Look over there at that man down on his knees, praying and pretending that he wants a revival meeting. And the Holy Ghost reminds him that over here in Ephesians, the 4th chapter and the 3rd verse, that he's to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and watch him as he talks back to God by actions, if not by words, and says, Oh, yes, Lord, I know that's in there, but I'm not about to do it. You know I'm not doing a thing to help the unity of the Spirit. In fact, Lord, I've been sowing discord and trying to get this one and ounce with that one and hinder the cause. No wonder God doesn't do any more for us. Look at that woman over there on her knees, playing like she wants a revival, pretending to pray for a revival. And the Holy Ghost reminds her of Ephesians 4 and 32. Be ye kind one to another. Oh, yes, Lord, I know that's in there, but you know how far from being kind I was to my husband before he left for work this morning. And furthermore, Lord, I'm not about to be kind. I'm going to have my own way about it. Oh, I'll pretend I want a revival. Brother, no wonder God doesn't move any more than He does when individuals read the faith of the living God and go right out and do nothing about putting it into practice. If we'll obey God, He'll move in our midst. Look at that woman over there on her knees, playing like she wants a revival, pretending to pray for a revival meeting. And with her blue jeans and her paddle pushers and her slacks. Oh, yes, it's still written over here in Deuteronomy 22 and 5, A woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment. Lord, I know it's in there, but I'm not about to do anything about it. I'll pretend I want a revival. Brother, no wonder God doesn't. If we could get everybody on this side and everybody down through there and everybody on this side and everybody here to fully obey what God says, brother, you wouldn't have to wonder whether God would move in our midst or Holy Ghost revival would be forthcoming. And we could convince a gainsaying world that God still lives and revival fires still burn and that the Most High God is still making saints out of sinners in these days as much as in the gospel years. Bless His name forever. We don't only need obedience to the Word, we need obedience to the Holy Ghost. It wouldn't do the Holy Ghost one bit of good to tell some people I'm satisfied, some people right here in this meeting house, to raise their hand when they're saying amazing grace. Why, no, I'm not about to. You think I'm going to make a fool out of myself? Nobody is not doing such. Do you know how to get the victor over the devil? If the devil sits on you while the Lord says, raise your hand, do you know how to get the victor over him? Just put up both of them. Preacher, are you trying to tell us that so little a thing as raising your hand would do any good toward having God come? It will if that's what the Holy Ghost is telling you. Amanda Smith, that colored woman evangelist was in white folks' meeting and the Spirit prompted her to raise her hand and she didn't do it. And the Spirit further prompted her and finally that black hand went up. When that black hand went up, the glory of God came down. Oh, the Lord gave us some individuals that will stay on their knees all the time. My co-laborers preach if the Lord tells them to do that or run the aisles if that's what the Holy Ghost tells them to do or keep still. If anything the Holy Ghost says is in order, if you've never heard of anybody doing it, it's alright if He says do it, go right ahead. A strange practice in all the years of church history but when they had the great Welsh revival, they had some people stationed outside the door and they would ask the people who came, will you obey the Lord if we'll let you in? And if they wouldn't agree to obey the Lord, they wouldn't let them in. I wonder how many we would have at home town if we'd station somebody outside these doors and ask if everybody would obey the Lord if we'd let them come in. And not a letter one. I don't know how many we'd have brother, but I know one thing, if every last individual would do it. A third part of the price of a revival is prayer, prayer, prayer. Notice I didn't put prayer first here. You know some people can't do a very good job praying, they haven't done all the confession. And some people can't do a very good job praying, they haven't done all the obeying they should. But brother, if you confess enough, well the smile of God can rest upon that and then if you will obey in obedience to the word of the Holy Ghost, you can get up there somewhere where prayer will begin to take hold and you can have an audience with the living. And it's still written in the book, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in getting drunk. No. In murdering. No. In ceasing to pray. Or you or this people. I wonder how many sinners we have down through here on that count. How many sinners are there over here in God's sight on that scripture. And then if we want a revival, there's something else we'll need to do and that is we will need to have some good work. There's something to do. Somebody needs to be invited. Tracts need to be passed. An extra prayer meeting needs to be had. Some fasting needs to be done. There's something to be done besides being thumb twiddlers and bench warming. The same Bible, the same second chapter of Ephesians that says that we are saved by grace through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast, didn't stop there. He said for we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. And then if we're going to have revival, there's one other thing to do and that is to believe God. And if we will confess as much as we ought and if we will obey in obedience to the Word and the Holy Ghost and if we will pray as we ought and work as we ought, we can get up here somewhere where faith operates and we can get the assurance. I was in a meeting out from Hanover, Pennsylvania. I was praying in the hay mow and the Lord drew near and helped my heart in prayer. The congregation was small, at least part of the time. Once I had three or four to preach to besides the ones that came from the preacher's house. And this particular day I had prayed until I had gotten some soul help in prayer and stepped out of the door to go on my way to the meeting and the Holy Ghost checked and impressed upon me the need of oppressing my claims. And I stepped back into the hay mow and the Spirit drew near and helped my heart in prayer all the way through until I got assurance. I knew we were going to have victory before I left the hay mow. Oh, I don't just mean I got blessed, I mean I got the assurance. The Holy Ghost gave me the assurance. And did anything happen, preacher? Of course something happened. God came. The crowd increased. We had a number at the altar. The Lord graciously moved. I think one is in the congregation now that was at the altar that night. Oh, the Lord helped us. Did you hear my text in Psalm 85 and 6, Will thou not revive us again? Did you hear God's answer? Yes, I will if you realize you need it and if you really desire it and if you will pay the full price to get it. It's left up to you and to me as to whether we will or will not have a revival spirit in the camp meeting. If we don't have, we might as well. But God has already kindled a fire and He wants to add fuel to it and to increase.