In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of revival and its importance in the church. He references several scriptures, including Psalm 138:7 and Psalm 85:5, to highlight the possibility of personal and corporate revival. The speaker also shares a definition of revival given by Reverend Ossilius, emphasizing that revival is an ongoing principle in the church. He then provides examples of past revivals, such as the Welsh revival, where the power of God transformed communities and even impacted the liquor trade.

And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and I honored him that liveth forever. Notice this phrase, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. So God's word says all six billion of them are nothing. That includes me then. And he doeth, that is our God, doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, in charge of all of the angels, and among the inhabitants of the earth. Now notice the phrase, he doeth according to his will among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him what doest thou. Let's pause in another word of prayer. Father, thank you indeed for the privilege of freely assembling together. We thank you for the profit of our souls that we've experienced already. We beg you that you'll make this a profitable time as well, and for that which thou dost do, we'll give you glory, we'll give you praise, and we'll say together, it is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in our eyes. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now this year, in our thinking, as this matter of revival comes to mind, we're really celebrating two revivals. The most recent one is the 1904-1905 Welsh Revival, and probably was the last real extensive awakening in America, and we're going to deal with that more tomorrow night, God helping us. But I want to back up to 250 years ago, to the time of the Great Awakening, and I particularly want to look at the aspect of the Great Awakening that influenced the Baptist. And let me remind you, by way of introduction as well, that history is simply his story. And we see in the book of Acts a divine recording of church history, don't we? But there has been other pages written of church history since the book of Acts. Of course they're not divine and inspired recordings of it, as we have in the 28 chapters of Acts, but nevertheless it's God doing according to his will among the inhabitants of the earth. And we have a glorious history as Baptist in America. And let me introduce this by defining and just pointing out four scriptures that have to do with this matter of revival. I'll get to a definition of revival in just a moment. Let me give you Psalm 138, verse number 7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. You notice that personal pronoun, me. So there is a possibility of personal revival. In Psalm number 85 and verse number 5, we have a corporate or a church revival mentioned. Will thou be angry with us forever? Will thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Will thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Well, two of us get revived. Not good English, but we have us. Amen. But beloved, that's a corporate or a church. And I believe, and you can look at the brother Richard Cole's book, he has a very good argument for revival now, revival today, and even these days of declension. But you have corporate or church revival. Thirdly, we find in Habakkuk 3.2, the revival of God's work. And I'm delighted as we read the histories of revival, we see that the histories of revival certainly overlap the boundaries of denominationalism. We have to be humbled sometimes as we look at the histories of revival to see those paedo-baptists have had the movings of God. We wouldn't agree with their theology about infant baptism, but God many times is more interested in their hearts than in their head and understanding. Amen. Now, I believe we ought to be interested in both. But again, God is interested in his work. And Habakkuk 3.2 says, O Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid. O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of years. And then the fourth scripture you're well acquainted with, and I would call that national revival, where there's a more extensive moving of God and outpouring of the Spirit of God than just a personal area or a church area or even the work of God. But the whole nation is made alive with an outpouring of the Spirit of God. And just to use a quick illustration that I may use again tomorrow night, the 1904-1905 revival in Wales, there were approximately 100,000 people, and some would put it higher, some a little bit lower, and it converted in six months in the Principality of Wales. That movement changed the whole character of Wales. For example, two or three years after the awakening, they presented white gloves to the magistrates because there were no court cases to try. Soccer football teams were disbanded. The sports god of Europe is soccer football. Now, we have about a dozen sports gods in America, and yet their soccer football players were not interested in playing. The people were not interested in going to a soccer match because they could go to the church house and meet the living God. There was such a movement there that the liquor trade in Wales almost went bankrupt. Many of the publicans, the tavern owners, were converted, and they put a sign on the tavern, Owner Converted, Closed Forever. Now, that's a national awakening, amen, that has infected and affected, amen, the whole of the Principality of Wales. One little side story that always blesses me, the police had nothing to do. So one of the commissioners called and said, well, what do you police do? We don't have any crime. We don't have this and this going on. We don't have folk doing this or that. What do you do? They said, well, we help the churches. So what do you mean you help the churches? You direct traffic? How do you help the churches? Well, finally, the policeman confessed up. He said, well, sir, we have four quartets in the police station. The churches call, and we help them in their meetings. Would that be a blessing, that we're paying our police officials to go and sing in meetings for revival? That would certainly be a transformation for what they're having to do today, isn't it? Well, let me give you a definition of revival. Now, these texts that we've looked at, of course, are Old Testament texts. But Brother LaCelius had a good definition that I've repeated many times, and I want to repeat it again tonight. The principle of revival continues throughout this age of the church. God has advanced his church through outpourings of the Holy Spirit. So there is an outpouring of the blessed Holy Spirit. This was manifested clearly from the history of the first centuries of Christianity. It is also quite evident since the Reformation, which gave birth to the age of revivals. Historians have noted the evangelical awakenings that have moved like waves of power to advance the gospel farther and farther. Everyone has been increasingly worldwide, and they've been variously designated and dated. Another definition of revival is simply a people saturated with God. Now, that would be so in a personal revival, wouldn't it? Would simply to be filled with the Spirit of God. Ephesians 6 gives you the personal marks of being filled with the Spirit of God. Ephesians 5 gives you the family marks of being filled with the Spirit of God. Ephesians 5 gives you the marks of one filled with the Spirit of God in relationship to their employer. And then Ephesians 6 gives you the marks of one being filled with the Spirit of God in relationship to the warfare. Now, whether we'll have it or not, we are in a warfare, and the demons of hell that they see so readily in the New Testament are not on vacation. And it's interesting to me as you read through the New Testament, the unconverted understood demonic powers. Most of our society wants to give it a medical term and not deal with it, and the church certainly doesn't want to deal with it, but we get into a warfare when we're filled with the Spirit of God. And, of course, the illustration I've already used in Wales. Here was a community saturated with the presence of God. For example, men would go into public houses, order a drink, and turn around and run out without even touching the drink because of the presence of God. The presence of God down in the coal mines affected the whole of principality. Again, amazing as there was a community saturated with the presence of Almighty God. Now, why would some consider this revival that I want to deal with, probably the greatest Baptist revival in America, and it was taking place among a group of Baptists called at that time the Separatist Baptists. Now, there are still a few churches that are connected with the Separatist Baptist movement. I found that recently, but why would folk consider that? Let me tell you, there are two great books that you might want to put into your library if you have any interest in Baptist history. One is a new book just published here in 2004. Here's the dust cover with it. America in Crimson Red, written by a fellow across the river from you here, James Beller, over in Arnold, Missouri. And this is a very helpful book that goes up through the beginning of 1900. And he makes this statement. One is by George Paschal, and I quote, George Washington Paschal was a historian of Baptist history in North Carolina. And he said this, the hearts of the people being touched by a heavenly flame could no longer release the dry parry service conducted for the most part, as they thought, by a set of graceless mercenaries. I'm sorry, that wasn't George Washington Paschal, that was Robert Simple, who wrote a history of the Baptists in Virginia. But then George Washington Paschal said, I make bold to say that these Separatist Baptists have proved to be the most remarkable body of Christians America has ever known. And then Brother Beller himself says here, a great revival was about to begin in the South. It was clearly the greatest revival in American history. No one could have foreseen the scope of it. No one could have possibly predicted that it would involve the hated, hunted Baptists. And James Mosteller, who wrote a history of the Keokee Baptist Church, which was the first Baptist church in Georgia, has this to say about that awakening. It was the greatest religious movement in America. Now, let me say why I personally believe it was one of possibly the greatest Baptist revival in America. Number one was the tremendous numerical church growth. Now, my wife can't bear numbers, but maybe you women will get past that, if I can give you a story later on. For example, in 1700, there were only 14 Baptist churches in all of America. Now, when you compared that to the Congregationalist, the Anglican churches, and the Presbyterian churches, it was an insignificant number. By 1707, we had the first Baptist association founded in America. And by the way, the title of the association was the Philadelphia Particular Baptist Association. Now, most folk, even when they quote it today in our Baptist history books, conveniently leave out the word particular, because they'd have to explain it. It means particularly, of course, in redemption, that great truth of God's particular work of redemption. And there were six churches that formed that association in 1707. Well, by 1740, there were only six Baptist churches that existed in New England. There had been some of the churches lost. And so a downward movement. In 1775, the New England churches had grown to a total of 78 churches. You say, well, what happened? Well, Mr. Jonathan Edwards started preaching and had an awakening in 1735. By the way, the doctrine that he was preaching was the doctrine of justification. And week after week, he hammered that truth of justification by the free grace of God in that church there in Northampton, Massachusetts. And then, of course, George Whitefield came in 1740. God mightily used him and gave him the ear of the New England states. And at first, the Baptists wanted nothing to do with this movement. Number one, because it was hosted by the Congregationalists and the Anglicans and the Presbyterians who had persecuted them. That's why Brother Beller's book is so significant. He calls it America in Crimson Red. And the Baptists were persecuted by the Congregationalists. Isn't it amazing? They came to escape religious persecution from England, and then they established religious persecution in New England. And many Baptists were jailed, incarcerated, beaten by the Congregationalists, by the Anglicans, even by the Presbyterians, and even some Methodists persecuted the Baptists in those early days. But here in the South, well, we're in the Midwest, but in the South where I'm from, which would include Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, in 1755, there were only 22 Baptist churches. Georgia had zero Baptist churches in 1755. South Carolina had four Baptist churches, and they belonged to the Charleston Association that was founded in 1751. There were six—I'm sorry, I left out Virginia—there were six in Virginia, and they had no association. In North Carolina, there were 12, maybe 13, and they didn't have any association, so a total of 22. But by the year 1792, there were over 892 Baptist churches in America. There were, in the South, 410 Baptist churches. You say, well, what happened? It was the Southern experience of the Great Awakening. And there was a mighty moving of the Spirit of God. Now, the context, to just give you the context before we get into God using this one particular man, of course, in New England, you had from 1725 to 1745, Jonathan Edwards, I've already mentioned, he was preaching on justification, and he had a move of God in 1734. I had a move a little bit later on in that same time period. George Whitfield came in 1740, preached for Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards said, all we could do was sit in the church and weep as he preached. The presence of God was so awesome and so real in that congregation. In the middle colonies of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, you had Gilbert Tennant, the Presbyterian, who had caught fire under Whitfield. You also had another fellow called Fralin Husen, who was a Dutch Reform fellow. In fact, he was a pietist and was preaching the new birth, and they actually wrote to Holland and asked him if they could give them a new preacher. They didn't like this preacher that was demanding a spiritual experience of the new birth. Well, thank God they didn't get a new preacher, and finally God broke in on those Dutch Reform congregations, and many of them were converted. In the south, you had Samuel Davies, particularly as you think about perhaps even Virginia, and he's the one that gave us that famous statement that he sought to preach as a dying man to dying men, and is never sure to preach again. But there's the man that I want to consider who became a Baptist, and his name is Shubal Stearns. How many of you have heard of his name? All right, Dr. LaCelius. Anybody else? Just one person. Now, let me tell you why we have a problem with Baptist history in America since 1900s. Most of us have gone to fundamentalist schools, which are interdenominational, and there has not been a real emphasis on Baptist history. Shubal Stearns, and of course I love to tell our folk in North Carolina who are so anti-Northern, we still wave the flag down there and still battle over the Civil War, that the man that God used to bring such a blessing among the Baptists was a Northerner. Came out of Connecticut of all places, Poland, Connecticut. He was converted through the ministry of George Whitefield in 1745. He was a member of a congregational church. The congregational churches in those days were in bad estate because of the Saber platform, which was a congregational ruling that children whose parents were not professing Christians and had no evidence of regeneration could be baptized. Joined with Solomon Starters opening up the communion table for the unconverted to come to the communion table. So what you had formally before the Saber platform and formally before Stoddardism, as they call it, is that you had for the most part pure churches in the congregational. Oh, they baptized the infants, but before that you could join the church, you had to give an evidence of your conversion. You had to give an evidence of godly life before you could come to the Lord's table. That had to be evident or you couldn't come to the Lord's table. But in an effort to hold on to their church members, and by the way, there was also a political thing, I think that you had to be a member of a church or you couldn't vote in the elections. So that was playing into it as well in those congregational churches, even Presbyterian churches. But Stoddard wrestled, Shubal Stearns wrestled after his conversion with the fact that you couldn't have a pure church with the present state of congregationalism. So he became a separatist or a New Light congregationalist. They actually left the old dead congregational church and started a new congregational church. Well, as he continued to read the scriptures, he found that still there was something lacking and perceived that the only way you could ensure a pure church was to cease practicing infant baptism and have only believers baptism. That way you didn't get a lot of folk into the congregations by sprinkling some water on their head who were actually unregenerate. And so he then became a separatist Baptist in the Tolland, Connecticut area. But he felt like God had more for him to do after he was ordained and baptized in 1751, and he thought that God had a bigger purpose than he was realizing there in Connecticut. So in 1755, at the age of 49 years of age, he started to the South. Felt like God had something for him to do in the South. He came down to near Winchester, and there at Winchester, they had a meeting, and that particular church, I think it was called Mill Creek Baptist Church, was at that time one of the churches in the Philadelphia Association. Now, the separatists had a reputation of being a little bit more noisy, a little bit more enthusiastic than the old-like Congregationalists. And so they had a good meeting there near Winchester at O'Peckin, and some of the folk in the church thought they were a little bit too rowdy, and they sent up to the Philadelphia Association to get somebody to come down. The fellow came down. He fell in love with the Baptists, said, no, they were just genuine folk, heartfelt, warm folk, and their enthusiasm ought not to be dampened. In fact, we needed more of it in some of our churches, he said. Well, there at O'Peckin, Brother Shuble Stearns was joined by his brother-in-law. His name was Daniel Marshall. Now, Daniel had also been a Congregationalist, had actually preached Baptist doctrine in a Congregational church, had been a deacon in a Congregational church for 20 years. His first wife died. He went to the funeral, and the entire congregation would not help him bury his wife. He had to proceed to bury his wife by himself because of his even being a new-like Congregationalist, and then having leanings toward the Baptists. He felt like God had something for him to do, and he was thrilled with the opportunity of being involved in mission work, so he went to Pennsylvania with a new wife and two or three children after that incident with the Congregational church, labored amongst the Mohawks, and then there was Indian wars commencing, and he felt like the better place would be to leave the Indians because they were getting divided among themselves and a lot of infighting. So in the providence of God, he came down and came to O'Peckin, there he was baptized, as also was another man by the name of Joseph Breed. So they had a total of 16 people, and not too far after that, there was a letter, and there's not much extant documents. Brother Shuble Stearns didn't keep a diary like Brother Whitfield did, and there are not too many other things, but he received a letter from somebody in North Carolina, and here's the substance of the letter, June 13th. The work of God was great in preaching to an ignorant people who had little or no preaching for a hundred miles and no established meeting, but now the people were so eager to hear that they would come 40 miles each way when they had an opportunity to hear a sermon. Well, Shuble Stearns said, perhaps this is where God wants me. So he set off with these 16. They came on through the Blue Ridge down to what is now south of Greensboro, North Carolina, to a place where three trails crossed, a place called Sandy Creek. First thing they did, they arrived in November, 250 years ago, built a meeting house, and then built their houses. They organized the Sandy Creek Baptist Church with 16 people, and Shuble Stearns, of course, was chosen pastor. Daniel Marshall and Joseph Reed were chosen exhorters or assistants, as we would call them today, and of course it was a very significant place because all the folk who were pioneering going from north to south would go through Sandy Creek. Those who were going from east to west, from Norfolk over to part of what is now part of western Carolina would go through there, and there's another trail going up into Virginia from there as well. And you say, well, what did they believe? What did these folk believe? Well, we find, and there's another significant book entitled Baptist Foundations in the South, written by a fellow called Lumpkin, William L. Lumpkin, and this has been pirated by a couple fellows and come out in different names. I finally bought original copy for 25 bucks the other day just to make sure it was the same one, and it was the same one. And there, as Brother Lumpkin gives what they believed, and this, again, since there was nothing in the handwriting by Shuble Stearns, he mentions this. He says, Shuble Stearns, too, must be classified as a Calvinist if the preamble to the Sandy Creek Church Covenant written around 1757 be his. Here's the covenant. Holding believers' baptism, the laying on of hands, particular election of grace by the predestination of God in Christ, effectual calling by the Holy Ghost, free justification through the imputed righteousness of Christ, possessing sanctification through God's grace and truth, the final perseverance or continuance of the saints in grace, the resurrection of those bodies after death at the day which God has appointed to judge the quick and the dead by Jesus Christ, by the power of God, and by the resurrection of Christ and life everlasting. Oh, so if that was written by Stearns, at least by 1758, three years later, that was the preamble to the Constitution. Well, God breathed on their preaching. Within one year, that church of 16 had grown to 606 members. Now, these folk were very interesting because many times, if a person made a profession, they would not open the doors of the church to them. You know, we have a concept among most Baptist churches, if a person makes a profession and is baptized, then they ought to immediately come on to the church. They didn't believe that in those Baptist churches. And we still have some pastors down the south that don't do that. They talk about opening the doors of the church. Just because someone wants to join, they don't want joiners. They want folk God puts in the church, amen, which is a prohibition to that joining mentality that we've got. But by 1778, they had three churches and well over a thousand members, and they formed the third Baptist association in America, which is the Sandy Creek Association. Now, most of us have a bad attitude toward associations. They were voluntary associations, and they could join them, be a part of them. Those associations did not dictate to the local churches. They cooperated together for missions, for fellowship, and then when they had some problems in some local churches, they could get some input from fellow pastors, etc. But they founded the Sandy Creek Association. There was a church founded over at Abbots Creek, it's actually a nucleus of folk to the west on the Yadkin River. And in 1776, Daniel Marshall was ordained and became the pastor of that church. Interesting, they had difficulty getting him ordained because there was a regular Baptist not too far away, but he didn't want to have anything to do with the separatists. And by the way, in the reading, the Baptists were called particular Baptists, but then when the separatists came on the scene, some of the particular Baptists took the name of regular Baptists. They didn't want to be associated with the separatist Baptists, because they were a little bit more noisy, a little bit more emotional. Then there was another church founded up in Virginia at Grassy Creek. Then there was a what you get had already existed. And by 1771, there were 42 churches and 125 men surrendered to preach. I came across how they dealt with this matter of having produced so many preachers. After a man was converted, one of the first things, after there was evidence it was a new life, the pastor would say, is God calling you to preach? They asked him that. And here's their reasoning about it. I came across this in a historical novel in John Asplund, I think it's John. And you have no right to consider another calling until you have first considered this one. Consider it, is God calling you to preach? Well, amazing that these churches not only were established, but they immediately established branch churches. They would go into a community, they would preach, they would get a nucleus together, and they had what they called sitters. From the church at Sandy Creek, there might be 10 people go over and sit at the Abbots Creek Church. And they would not have the same sitters go over every time they had services over there, they'd rotate that around. They'd send a nucleus from one of the founded churches. And some of the churches had five and six branches. You know, we've got a problem in our grace movement, haven't we? We don't have a vision really to plant churches. You know, we're just trying to hold on. Maybe we just need some zest for real evangelism again, amen? And not just try to get our little holy huddle up to a goodly number, amen? But keep reaching out in evangelism. Well, the consequences, of course, were phenomenal about what God had done among them. But let me give you some considerations in the time. First of all, they had a tremendous zeal. Now, we're lacking that among our Baptist movement, amen? Just some old-fashioned zeal. For example, I said this about Whitefield. Whitefield believed, of course, mightily in the new birth and an assurance concerning the new birth. And he made this statement, this was his statement to ponder, knowledge of salvation comes through the heart rather than the mind, and grew out of participation in the life of God. Since any man may have this knowledge once he had heard the truth, Whitefield drove himself to declare the truth to as many men as he could possibly reach. For example, in 75 consecutive days, Whitefield preached 175 times. We don't have any evangelists like that among the Baptists today. Seventy-five days preach 175 times? Well, those Separatist Baptists had that same zeal. Let me back up again to Lumpkin here and quote him again on another section. And he said this, speaking about the Separatists around 1750, the urgency of the missionary task and the readiness of men to accept the truth, if only they can hear it. My brother did well, didn't he? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. They believe that, and they believe that simply they need to get folk to hear that. They'd preach at a sale, they'd preach at a wedding, they'd preach at a barn raising, they'd preach at a harvest, they'd preach at the drop of the hat and drop the hat. They were preachers. The Spirit seemed to be saying that time was short. If men were going to hear the gospel at all, they must hear it at once. And since all kinds of men were savable, as many as possible must be given the opportunity to be saved. A frantic urgency filled the missionary enterprise. We need that zeal, don't we? Thank God those early Baptists had that zeal. Well, another thing, it was amazing that they had the power of God upon them. Again, our brother was, someone was speaking about this matter. I think Brother Bush was talking about that from the gospel of Luke and looking at the power over the demons that were given the 70. I've been pondering that verse that you referred back to brother there in Luke 10 or Luke 9. It says, and he gave them authority and power. The one Greek word is exosia. Every time you see a police car, you'll slam on your brakes. Isn't that about right? Because they got authority to pull you over. Isn't that right? Every time you see a blue light, that blue light's got authority. Amen. Now they may not do anything to you, but they sure got the authority to pull you over and give you a $100 or $200 ticket. Man, you folks, they shell out at these, you folks shell out here at these work sites, $375. Don't let North Carolina hear about that. They'll up it over there. But, but they had power. Dunamis. And I do know this brother, Acts 1, 8 says, and ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be, not might be, hope you, hope you might be, hope we can be. You shall be witnesses unto me. Amen. They have the power of God upon them. You say illustrated. Well, I'm glad you asked. There was one fellow called L. Nathan Davis, and he'd heard about these separatist preachers. And he decided he was going to go over to a baptismal service. And, um, when he, uh, got over to the, uh, uh, the site where, uh, Shubel Stearns was going to baptize this, uh, big man, evidently he was quite of some size. Um, he, uh, uh, he got over there and Shubel Stearns was, uh, instructing some people under a peach tree. He said he rode up on his horse and said, Shubel Stearns looked up at him and he said, I felt so uncomfortable. And he said, he continued to instruct. And he said, I was trying to get, shake off this uncomfortable feeling I had. He said, I thought if I go over and shake his hand, maybe he'd leave. And I went over and he was still, and I shook his hand and thought maybe, he said, no, he's still under conviction to sin. And, uh, it wasn't long as he listened to the instruction that Shubel Stearns was giving, he fell under deep Holy Ghost conviction was converted. The power, the power of almighty God. Well, let me give another illustration because I believe if there's any truth that we need to emphasize in these desperate dark days we're in, we need the power of God. Amen. Stearns preaching was prophetic and personal, but it was character, uh, but, uh, but it's characteristic quality was most notable. The preacher evidence, complete dependence upon the Holy Ghost and his auditors could not fail to be aware of this. Scarcely a person attended their early Sandy Creek meetings without being conscious of the spiritual influence that pervaded the place. New converts would immediately join in the work of exhortation. Women and children, as well as men were called upon to testify and all joined with perfect freedom in obeying the impulses of the spirit. They experienced fear and trembling, shouting and acclamation, weeping and rejoicing much noise often prevailed. There was an intense religious excitement and there, of course, Lumpkin, he doesn't find everything well with the scepter of Baptist and he says, or uncontrolled, if not a controlled conduct. But below there was the power of God evident. I was reading some Baptist history on among the Indians before the removal of the Cherokee Indians from North Carolina. They had a mighty move of God, about 71 converted in valley towns. And Indians who could not understand English fell under conviction because of God saturating the community. See, they were teaching them English because they thought they couldn't give them the gospel of Cherokee. Well, they found out they could give them the gospel of Cherokee and God would honor that as well. But these Cherokees were falling under conviction and could not understand English. And so, again, there was the power of God. Well, let me go on to another thing. There was a tremendous organizational abilities that Shubel Stearns had. I had the branch churches, they had the association, they had a missionary vision. Daniel Marshall, you remember I mentioned him, he had gone to the Indians, the Mohawks, first of all? Well, Daniel Marshall, when he was 65 years of age, had gone to, had come down to Georgia and founded the first Baptist church in Georgia, out of this group of Separatist Baptists. He founded six Baptist churches in South Carolina. And then after he was 65, he founded six more Baptist churches. Thank God for many who don't believe in retiring. Amen. They stayed on the firing line. Tremendous missionary, but let me mention their sacrifices. In, I guess, reaction to the Anglicans who taxed the population to pay for the preachers, these Separatist Baptist preachers didn't take any money. In fact, they, I think, erred in that area. Some of the families were almost destitute, but they had a motto, a free church and a free gospel. And one Baptist preacher received $12 from an Anglican woman for performing a wedding. And he said, I feel like a hireling to take this $12 for performing that wedding. They made tremendous sacrifices to preach the gospel. Oh, they were persecuted. And by the way, one of the thrilling things about the Separatist Baptist is the Baptist had no influence. They were nobodies in America until God moved in this Sandy Creek meeting in North Carolina. They established then the first Baptist church in Georgia. They established the first Baptist church in Tennessee. They established the first Baptist church in Kentucky. And then as a westward movement, they were riding on the crest of the westward movement and preaching and establishing Baptist churches. They had some problems. We mentioned the problems. The association that was supposed to be a voluntary association got dictatorial. In 1771, the year of Shubal Stern's death, they assembled. And by the way, they are the first ones who had a camp meeting. We thought all along it was the Presbyterians out here in Kentucky. It did so at McGrady and that group of Presbyterians. Oh, no. They called it a camp meeting when they had their annual association there meeting there in Sandy Creek. And they always used to work on the attitude of unanimity. That year in 1771, they could not agree on anything. They could not even agree on who the moderator of the association was to be to moderate the meeting that year. I mean, they were in bad shape. What they used to do was they would pray. They would fast. They would talk. They would argue and try to get to a place and talk it out and work through it. But that year, they could not do it. And one of the reasons is because the association became dictatorial to the churches. What happened that year is the association split into three associations, one in Virginia, one in South Carolina, and of course, the one in North Carolina. They also had a problem that they had some unscriptural practices that they included. And of course, one of them was women preachers. They had the women who got to exhorting in the congregation in those early days. And so that became a problem. And laterally, because they rejected and were not, because they were afraid of creeds, their theological groundwork was not as good as it should have been. And they weren't as clear. But let me mention this in conclusion. That group of Separatist Baptists then took the gospel back into Virginia. Now remember, up until that time, the Baptists were insignificant nobodies. There were two men who came down to the Philadelphia Association, started preaching and founding churches in the north of Virginia. But these Separatist Baptists went up from the south. And so when they got to the time of ratifying the Constitution, the Baptists held the majority of whether that Constitution would be ratified in Virginia. A Baptist preacher by the name of John Leland said, no, we're not going to ratify the Constitution because it does not guarantee religious liberty. Well, Mr. Mason heard that. He met with John Leland and there is a Leland Madison Park in Virginia, outside of Culpeper, Virginia. He met with Mr. Madison and he said, I understand that you Baptists don't want to ratify this Constitution. He said, no, it doesn't guarantee us any religious liberty. He said, but you know, I've fought for religious liberty in Virginia. He said, but yeah, but you'll be dead. If it's not in black and white, we won't have it. Madison said, I see where you're coming from. He said, you ratified this Constitution. And he said, and help me get elected. And he said, I guarantee you that I will give you a bill of rights. They did. And he did. And we have that great religious liberty we enjoy in America. It was again, the result of this revival because of the numerous Baptists who were converted in Virginia. The Baptist churches that were planted throughout Virginia in those days made a significant input. Well, I think it was one of the most mighty movings of God among the Baptists in the Americas, but not long after that, God did it again because in the year of 1800 and 1802, the Baptist moved at that time. And there was a, such a moving of God in that time by 1812, there were 2,164 Baptist churches in America, and there were over 172,000 members. Thank God for some of these early Baptists. Boy, Shubel Stearns, every time we Baptists speak, we ought to speak about Shubel Stearns. But here we're talking about an Anglican, George Whitefield, our Congregationalist, Jonathan Edwards. We've got some heroes, amen, that we need to know about and we need to honor and our children need to know about for the glory of God. Well, thank God he's still the God of revival. Aren't you glad that even though we're destitute and we're in dark times, he could still break through the revival blessing once again. And would the God, he'd be pleased to do so. Amen. Revival is not twisting God's arm. It's a sovereign work of God. But again, we can't make the breeze blow, but boy, we can set our sails, amen, by prayer, by belief, by holy living, by desiring, amen, and that God might visit us once again. Jonathan Edwards said, whenever God's going to do something, he always puts his people to prayer. Father, thank you that you have moved in our beloved republic in days of yore. And oh God, you've blessed us again and again and again, and we're certainly not worthy of the least of your favors. But oh God, we're in a desperate plight in our beloved republic again. We're still killing the babies and we acknowledge that for all that we've accomplished, not one abortion clinic's been closed. Oh God, we acknowledge our wickedness and our worldliness. And oh Father, would you cleanse us afresh. Would you fill us afresh with the Holy Ghost, our Father. We might do like our Savior who said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Oh Father, grant a moving of the Spirit of God one more time in our beloved republic. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.