A Great Light In The Midst of Darkness - Part 1

We've looked at the New Testament Christian and we noticed that we're going to see revival First of all, we must all get on the altar. There's a desperate need now for Christians to consecrate themselves so that they become a living sacrifice. No longer conformed to this ugly world but transformed by the renewing of our minds. If we are going to really see revival, we must have New Testament homes. That means marriages that are in the Lord and of the Lord. And in those New Testament homes, there should be a family altar. And if I may use biblical language, where the alabaster box of ointment is broken down. Now this is the sad thing. For the first 30 years when I was in the Lord's service, nearly every family where I went had a family altar. But now, in the last 30 years, only a very few families have a family altar. Now you see, that must be rectified. One sister said to me, if I saw my husband reading the Bible and praying, I would laugh. The state that we're in. Then from the New Testament home, we need to build a New Testament church. And what constitutes a New Testament church? Being the house of God, the manifested presence of God. That's the first thing. Secondly, the total presidency of the Holy Spirit. He must take the helm. Thirdly, the demonstrated power of God. So that when you are in that place, you know that you are in the house of God where his power is manifested. Very few local churches have that manifestation. Then from the New Testament church, we must have New Testament evangelism. We looked at the essence of evangelism. We looked at the supreme importance. And then we looked at the way in which we evangelized. And we came to this conclusion that in Britain, in general, about 30 people are in the normal gospel meeting. And they're all saved except one. And it takes us one hour to preach the gospel to one. If they carried out that practice in the book of the Acts, they would have died within six months. And therefore, we searched the scriptures and we could see that they went everywhere preaching the word, both men and women. In other words, they were so full of the gospel, although they were being persecuted, they couldn't keep quiet. Now, that's the way. From you sounded out the word of the Lord. And then we noticed that when they were all gossiping the word, God raised up those preachers that could put the silver trumpet to their lips and preach Christ. And then we noticed that we had to preach him, not with 19th century language. We had to preach the gospel with the language that the people can understand. Now, that is vital. We must get back to the Roman epistle. We must understand it and then put that message in modern language so that people can understand it. Now, that's vital. And then lastly, we've looked at the way back. We've noticed the ugliness of false revival. Where they get all the externals right, but they're sin covered, completely covered. They go out to battle with the Philistines, the enemy within the land. And there's a mighty shout and the scripture says the earth rang, but 37,000 were slaughtered. And the ark was stolen. Beware of an emotional revival. And I think we have been seeing that for years. But then we looked at 1 Samuel 7 and we noticed that first of all, they lamented after the Lord. And that meant they didn't want to live until the presence and the power of God was back among them. That's the initial stage. Then Samuel comes on the scene. He had been silent for 20 years. But immediately there was repentance among the people of God. He comes on the scene and he says, right, if you're going to get right with God and there's a big if, then you must put away the strange gods that are among you. You must wash and then the Lord will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines. And then they came to that place called Gilgal, the place of watching. They weren't being watched by their brethren. They certainly were not being watched by the Philistines there. But they were being watched by God. That's where we must come, before God. And Samuel took a great cruise of water and poured it out before the Lord, showing that they had been cleansed and how we need that cleansing. Then after that cleansing, what happens? He confesses the sin. We have sinned against the Lord. And then immediately there's genuine repentance that comes right from the heart. Then came the Lord of the Philistines. And be sure of this. If there's a real movement of repentance among the people of God, it will stir up Satan in a way like you've never seen it before. And in the presence of the Lord of the Philistines, would you believe it? He takes a little suckling lamb. A lamb that hadn't learned yet to chew the cud. Totally and absolutely dependent upon the mother. And he offers that for a burnt offering. What is he saying? Our strength is not in our moral muscles. Our strength is in the Lord. And when God's people feel their weakness, they really start praying. You see, his strength is made perfect in weakness. It's wrong to think that thousands of us must get together and have a great earth-wringing time and revival will come. We've seen that. What we need now is for God's people to get low before the God of God and then be cleansed by the washing of the water by the word and then devote themselves to the Lord. A suckling lamb. And as he was offering up this suckling lamb, you'll remember there was a roar in the heavens the like they've never heard before. Not the ringing that came from the earth. We've seen that for years. But a roar that came from heaven. And obviously, in that roar of thunder, there was a flash of lightning that melted all the steel of the Philistine. And they were totally defeated. And even the five cities, the seasides.