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‘Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy’. Psalm 126:5.

There is no room for pride as we seek God for revival. All we can do is humble ourselves before the Mighty One and cry out for His mercy.

Great names mean nothing in prayer for revival. Look at Evan Roberts, he was a no-body by mans standards, yet he was the only one God could find who was ready to be used in revival.

It is up to us now, as individuals, small groups or churches, to seek the Lord while He may be found. The promise is sure, if we sow in tears as we pray for revival, later we shall reap in joy as we see His Spirit poured out on all flesh.

Now is the time for us to put our words into actions. We have talked about prayer for revival for decades, now let us be true to everything we have said.

May eternity and church historians judge our generation as faithful to our calling to pray for and embrace revival?

One of the major problems of the church today is phony repentance. Multitudes have walked down the aisle, mouthed the right words, and joined the church, only to become what is delicately called inactive members.

All kinds of explanations have been offered for this sad state of affairs. Some attribute the problem to ineptness in follow-up. They argue that these inactive members came to church really wanting to serve the Lord, but no one told them how to go about it, and so they became discouraged and dropped out.

Others say the problem is due to failing to teach new converts about a second level of Christian living. Often people are told to accept Jesus as Savior but never taught that they must also accept Him as Lord. Many, therefore, have settled down in something of a halfway house. They are not lost, but neither are they living for the Lord. They are, the argument goes, carnal Christians saved but living as unbelievers live.

The common assumption in both of these explanations is that those who have made a profession of faith are genuinely saved. However, very few seem willing to allow the possibility that many of our inactive members may have never truly come to know God at all, that their repentance was superficial and incomplete, and that, therefore, they remain in their sins.

Ours is a time in which people seem to come lightly and easily to Christ. Deep knowledge of sin and sincere sorrow over it are increasingly rare. Churches and preachers are so anxious to gain a following that they willingly accept all professions of faith at face value.

God doesn’t want anybody seeking glory for themselves as they serve Him. It could be that when all of this excitement arose and all the people were worshipping God, that the sons of Aaron suddenly distracted people from what God was doing and drew the attention of the people to themselves by stepping out and offering their incense at an inappropriate time. At a time when people’s hearts and attention were centered on God and God was ministering to His people, these two men with their false offering were an interruption. They sought only to glorify themselves by reminding the people that they were God’s priests. God does not want anything or anybody to distract attention from Him. God will not share His glory with any man!

I realize that I have the awesome responsibility of properly representing God to you so that you don’t get a false concept of God. I pray that you will also recognize your responsibility, because you represent God to the world and you can’t let people get the wrong concept of Him. In everything you do for God, take care that your motivations are pure and that it is only God’s fire that you are offering unto the Lord – and not the fire of your own enthusiasm or your personality. Make sure you have a clear mind and full knowledge of what you are doing. Make sure you have a willing heart and that you do your service to Him in a way that won’t distract from the One that we have come to represent. Make sure that you don’t take attention from God and call it to yourself, but that people see Christ through you.

May God help you be a true and faithful representative. God loves the world and He wants the world to know that. He has chosen you as His instrument. And you can walk in fellowship with Him and He can bless your life so completely that you will be filled with His joy, His power and His love and the needy world around you will see the benefits of walking in fellowship with God.

“George Fox alone has, without human learning, done more than any other reformer in Protestant Christendom towards the restoration of real, primitive, unadulterated Christianity and the destruction of priest craft, superstition, and ridiculous, unavailing rites and ceremonies.” – Leonard Ravenhill

As an earthquake shakes the earth bringing keen awareness to its activity so our subject George Fox quaked with such force that the england was made aware of this young firebrand in the hand of the Lord. With not man as his teacher but God; he brought messages upon common folk and priests alike, with prophetic force and unction this mans voice shattered the religous status quo of the day. As Leonard Ravenhill remarks of this man, “”Though he made others shake, no man could make him shake.” Clothed in an leather suit, boots and hat, he appeared much like a John the Baptist character to the church of England professors of religion.

In the beginning of the Journal of George Fox he intails the reason of writing the accounts of his life: “That all may know the dealings of the Lord with me… to prepare and fit me for the work unto which he had appointed me.” George Fox was an God appointed, His calling was from the spirit of God, His life was wholly given to Christ the saviour of mens souls. He took no heed to professors, books, men, but being numb to the things of earth he desired earnestly for reality and truth in God.

George Fox was born in 1624, and was raised in an religious home in the shoemaker trade. Being keenly aware of the spiritual he had many experiences of God in his heart as the spirt of God was whooing this young man to Himself. At the age of 19 he had familiarity with some puritans who at peradventure one day at a tavern had him to drink, so much so their wordly actions grieved George Fox to a point of leaving and not being able to sleep that entire night. As He sought the Lord with tears the Lord spoke to his servant saying: “Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all, young and old, keep out of all, and be as a stranger to all.” And this he did! Obeying the voice of the Lord he left his town, his family, his life, without any notice or farewell’s this desperate young men left as Abraham of old left ‘and he went out, not knowing whither he went.’ Passing from town to town professors of religion where keen to speak to this unusual young man but as he confess’s in his journal, “but I was afraid of them: for I was sensible they did not possess what they professed.”

For the next few years his time was spent in agony of body and soul, being grieved at the state of religion and man’s hearts, even so much that at points in time he wished in his own words: “I had never been born.” Then came a voice to him as clear as the one that called him from his home: “There is one, even Jesus Christ, that can speak to thy condition.’ and he says ‘When I heart it, my heart did leap for joy.

David Smithers an contemprary revival historian shares some great insight into this remarkable life: “Soon after George Fox began to preach, he had a remarkable spiritual experience that lasted fourteen days. A certain Mr. Brown, while on his death bed prophesied many great things concerning Fox. “When this man was buried,” says Fox, “a great work of the Lord fell on me.” During this mighty baptism of the Spirit, Fox received a remarkable gift of discernment. “He seemed to be able to read the character of men by looking at them.” Miraculous healings also accompanied his ministry. Through prayer and the laying on of hands, the sick were often healed and devils were cast out to the glory of Christ. When George Fox preached men would shake and tremble. “The name Quaker was given to Fox and his followers because of the quaking of the men who came to scoff but stayed to pray.” This remarkable power seemed to accompany the preaching of Fox wherever he went. Fox preached that Jesus Christ is the author of a faith which purifies and gives victory over sin. He fervently exhorted men to pursue complete holiness rather than empty religious ceremonies. As a result, he was often beaten, stoned and driven out of town. It is estimated that perhaps no other man since the time of the Reformation was persecuted and imprisoned as often as George Fox. He usually went about the country on foot, dressed in his famous suit of leather clothes, which it is believed he made himself. He often slept outside under a tree or in some haystack. Fox also often pointed out that what was commonly called the Church was only a building. He boldly declared that only the fervent believers of Christ were the living stones of the true Church.”

The calling out of hirelings in the church was something that George Fox did regularly, he had a peculiar spiritual gifting of being able to discern true and spurious profession. He seemed to trumpet this message against the selling of Christ and religion with a burdened jealous heart, much in the likes of Christ Himself toppling the moneychangers tables. The wordly spirit of the priests made him suffer: and when he heard the bells ring to call worshippers to the steeplehouses, it struck him to the heart, ‘for it was just like a market-bell to gather people together that the priest might set forth his ware to sale. Oh, the vast sums of money that are gotten by trade they make of selling the Scriptures, and by their preaching… notwithstanding the Scriptures were given forth freely, and Christ commanded his ministers to preach freely.”

Another point that touches at the very heart of George Fox’s ministry was the telling people that God has come to teach them Himself. It is brought out clearly in his journal when he said: “These things I did not see by the help of man, nor by the letter, though they are written in the letter, but I saw them in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his immediate Spirit and power, as did the holy men of God, by whom the Holy Scriptures were written.”

He further illustrates this important truth of not just having the scriptures for teaching but the Holy Spirit Himself who is the one that the scriptures came from and He is the one that leads into all truth. He gives this truth to a congregation in 1649: “And when I came there, all the people looked like fallow ground, and the priest, like a great lump of earth, stood in his pulpit above. He took for his text these words of Peter, ‘We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts.’ And he told the people that hte Scriptures were the touchstone and judge by which they were to try all doctrines, religions, and opinions… I…. was made to cry out and say, ‘Oh, no, it is not the Scriptures,’ … But I told them what it was, namely, the Holy Spirit, by which the holy men of God gave forth the Scriptures… for it led into all Truth, and so gave the knowledge of all Truth. For the Jews had the Scriptures, and yet resisted the Holy Ghost, and rejected Christ… and took upon them to try their doctrines by the Scriptures, but erred in judgement, and did not try them aright, because they tried without the Holy Ghost. Now as I spoke thus amongst them, the officers came and took me away and put me into prison, a pitful stinking place.”

Thomas Ellwood a fellow ‘friend’ speaks of George Fox: “This Holy man was raised up by God in an extraordinary manner, for an extraordinary work, even to awaken the sleeping world. He was valiant for truth, bold in asserting it, patient in suffering for it, unwearied in labouring in it, steady in his testimony to it; immovable as a rock.”

William Penn one of the early leaders of the Quaker movement wrote of Fox: “His ministry and writings show they are from one that was not taught of man… Nor were they notional or speculative, but sensible and practical truths, tending to conversion and regeneration and the setting up of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men… He had an extraordinary gift in opening the Scriptures. He would go to the marrow of things… But above all he excelled in prayer.”

The impact of his life can be hardly measured, his name carries along with it the life that was burnt out for God for on his tombstone reads simply: “Here lies George Fox!”

Web Blog closing….

It has been decided to close the web blog on xanga for SermonIndex. I do encourage anyone that is viewing this web blog to join the SermonIndex Webring here:
http://www.xanga.com/groups/group.aspx?id=958905

There are many great blogs on that ring that you can follow and be blessed with. For great messages on surrender and the victorious chrisitan life go to this blog:
http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=More_of_Him

To continue to read the series on Hell and Everlasting Punishment it will continue to be posted on http://www.sermonindex.net

Here is the direct link to the thread with all the parts of the series numbering “5″ so far:
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6203&forum=45

God bless and thank you.

Hell and Everlasting Punishment
Part 3: Crying

“there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” (Luke 13:28). It was said of the rich man in Hell “he cried” (Luke 16:24).

Imagine the times you have cried, lamented and weeped over sins and small problems in this life. Imagine that contrasted to an eternal seperation with God, an eternal punishment! Hell is a reality that we must not ignore, it would be better to weep over sin now before sin becomes death and swallows you up.

John Bunyan wrote an article concerning this crying entitled “A Sigh from Hell”:

He was laughing, jesting, jeering, drinking, mocking, swearing, cursing, prating, persecuting the godly in his prosperity, among his filthy companions. But now the case is otherwise, now he is in another frame, now his proud, stout, currish carriage is come down; “And he cried<." The laughter of the ungodly will not last always, but will be sure to end in a cry<: "The triumphing of the wicked is short." (Job 20:5).

Consider, you must have a change either here or in Hell. If you be not new creatures, regenerate persons, and newborn babes, in this world, before you go hence, your note will be changed, your conditions will be changed; for if you come into Hell, you must cry…

O what an alteration will there be among the ungodly when they go out of this world! It may be a fortnight, or a month before their departure, they were light, stout, surly, drinking themselves drunk, slighting God’s people, mocking at goodness, and delighting in sin, following the world, seeking after riches, faring deliciously, keeping company with the wickedest; but now they are dropped down into Hell, they cry.

Little while ago they were painting their faces, feeding their lusts, following their whores, robbing thir neibours, telling their lies, following plays and sports, to pass away the time; but now they are in Hell, they do cry.

It may be last year they heard some good sermons, were invited to recieve Heaven, were told their sins should be pardoned if they closed in with Jesus; but, refusing His proffers, and slighting the grace that was once tendered, they are now in Hell, and do cry.

Before, they had so much time, they thought that they could not tell how to spend it, unless it were in hunting and whoring, in dancing and playing, and spending whole hours, yea days, yea weeks, in the lusts of the flesh; but when they depart into another place, they begin to lift up their eyes in Hell, and consider their miserable and irrecoverable condition, they cry.

O! consider, I say, consider betimes, and put not off the tenders of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, lest you lift up your eyes in Hell, and cry for anguish of spirit.

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For more articles like this and old vintage audio sermons go to:
http://www.sermonindex.net

Hell and Everlasting Punishment
Part 2: Blackness of Darkness Forever

“Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” (Jude 13). God says in 1 Samuel 2:9: “the wicked shall be silent in darkness.” They will be so stunned and dumbfounded with the condition in which they find thmeselves that they will be speechless. Psalm 49:19 says, “they shall never see light.” Peter speaks concerning the wicked: “to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.” (2 Peter 2:17).

Think of a place without the sun, moon, stars: without an electric light, lamp light, or candlelight but forever darkness. Think also of people being like “wandering stars,” going round and round stumbling in the darkness, totally alone, forever and ever. Groping blindly for anything and finding nothing. This is the reservation of the wicked. Thinking of this is so awful the mind cannot dwell upon it very long.

Jesus spoke of those who “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19), and since they hate the light and do not come into the light, they get darkness forever. Jesus also spoke of those who “shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:12).

“The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungoldy has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.”
-A.W. Tozer

“The most dreadful torment of the lost, in fact that which constitutes their state of torment, will be this coming to themselves, when too late for repentance.”
-H. Alford

The true light is shining right now, may God help us all come to it before the day is spent.

“You and I can never imagine all the depths of hell. Shut out from us by a black veil of darkness, we cannot tell the horrors of that dismal dungeon of lost souls. Happily, the wailings of the damned have never startled us, for a thousand tempests were but a maiden’s whisper, compared with one wail of a damned spirit. It is not possible for us to see the tortures of those souls who dwell eternally within an anguish that knows no alleviation. These eyes would become sightless balls of darkness, if they were permitted for an instant to look into that ghastly shrine of torment. Hell is horrible, for we may say of it, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the horrors which God hath prepared for them that hate him.”
-C.H. Spurgeon

“We have underestimated the total war to which the devil has committed his horde of demons and men alike? Is it not true that cataracts have formed over our eyes (maybe with watching too much T.V.) so that we have completely misjudged the horror of that eternal hell to which at this moment millions of souls are marching? Does such a picture stir your soul and stab your conscience? Are you sleeping at the price of another’s peril? Recently, when a hunting dog ferreted into a pile of rocks and was trapped, men fought with cold, rain, and fatigue for two days and nights to find the entombed dog. Are not men more than dogs? Will men be entombed in hell forever because you were playing instead of praying?”
-Leonard Ravenhill

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For more articles like this and old vintage audio sermons go to:
http://www.sermonindex.net

Hell and Everlasting Punishment
Part 1: Abiding Wrath

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth no the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). This verse says that the wrath of God abides on the sinner right now and if he dies unsaved God’s wrath will abide on him forever. “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God; But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.” (Romans 2:5,8).

“Let this awful word Wrath, settle into the conscience of every soul; for God hath spoken it!” And every Preacher, and every prophet of God has warned of it: Enoch, Noah, Moses, the Psalmists, Isaiah, John the Bapist with his ‘flee from the wrath to come;’ the Apostles – from Romans to Revelation; and the great Preachers and Evangelists of the Christian centuries, – the men who have won souls – the Reformers, the Puritans, the Wesleys, Whitefields, Edwardses, Finneys, Spurgeons, Moodys, – all have told of man’s guilt and danger, of the coming judgment, and of the wrath of God upon the impenitent and unbelieving.”
-William R. Newell

“There are the black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays His rough wind. Otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor. The wrath of Godis like great waters that are damned for the present. They increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given. The longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose…

And consider here more paticularly whose wrath it is. It is the wrath of an infinite God… It is the fierceness of His wrath that you are exposed to. Thus we read of ‘the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.’ (Rev 19:15). The words are exceedingly terrible, if only it had been said, ‘the wrath of God’, the wrod would have implied that which is infinitly dreadful. But it is said, ‘the fierceness and wrath of God’. The fury of God! The fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful that be! It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it for all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite, horrible misery…

How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul that has not been born again. however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh, that you would consider it, whether you are young or old! Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ now awake and flee fromt he wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over every unregenerate sinner.”
-Jonathan Edwards

Hearing such solemn admonitions about the reality of an abiding wrath must make us stop and consider how we are living our lives, the soul that God has given us to be accountable for. How short is time, how long is eternity! May we do violence to our normal thinking and actions and place our thoughts firmly on these eternal subjects that will be life to us if we allow them to be.

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For more articles like this and old vintage audio sermons go to:
http://www.sermonindex.net

I have found it very important of late to dwell on some main subjects and themes in the Scriptures, those of: Eternity, Hell, Heaven, and Judgement. I am praying that by going through many different facets of the topic of hell that this much neglected theme will bring about a renewed passion for the lost, and also a renewed sense of the holiness of God and our being holy in light of it.

George Whitefield (1714-1770): “It is an undoubted truth that every doctrine that comes from God, leads to God; and that which doth not tend to promote holiness is not of God.”

So may these series of articles make us dwell upon eternal things and if we hold to these truths we will not be the same in this life

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For more articles like this and old vintage audio sermons go to:
http://www.sermonindex.net