January, 1933
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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T he K orean R evival How did the great revival in Korea begin? Years ago, I listened to Dr. Underwood, who has since gone to glory, as he told something o f the beginning of the work of God in that land. Many hundred Koreans had gathered together to pray for revival and blessing upon the people o f God and upon the people of Korea, and as the prayer meeting went on, an elder o f the church got to his feet and said, with a broken voice, “ My friends, let me interrupt the prayer meeting. I have something I must say. God has been speaking to me. I did something the other day that is troubling me, and I feel if I do not confess it, I am going to hinder this work. I feel like Achan in the camp. I have the unclean thing hidden away, and the people o f God can never triumph over their foes until this is made right. I have to confess that I am a thief.” They looked in amazement, and then he said, “ On a cer tain occasion, I was passing the home of such and such a brother; I saw lying out in front of his home an ax. I wanted one very badly. I knew this one wasn’t mine; but it was his. As nobody was around, I slipped over and car ried it home. It is back in my woodshed, and it is like Achan’s wedge o f gold ; I am here to confess and apologize to my brother and I will return the ax.” Dr. Underwood said another and another stood up, with burdened hearts and tears streaming down their faces,
what the Christian dispensation will close. I do not find any prophecy that has to do particularly with the Christian dispensation as such. Prophecy has to do largely with God’s dealings with His earthly people, Israel, and with the great Gentile nations; but the church does not belong to the ages; it does not belong to time; it is a thing of eternity; it is the mystery that was hid in God from before the foun dation o f the world, and that has now been made manifest. God is taking out o f Jew and Gentile those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and is bringing them into one new Man, the Body o f Christ, and prophecy does not have to do particularly with the experiences of the church of God as such. All we know is that the church is taught to be con stantly waiting for the coming o f the Lord. There never was a century since apostolic days when the church could be absolutely certain that the Lord Jesus Christ would not return in that day; and while we have no absolute assurance that He will return in our day or in the day of our chil dren, yet we are taught to look for His coming, so that whether He return at midnight or at cock crowing or at noon, we will be ready. In the meantime, He says, “ Occupy till I come.” We are set here to glorify Him, and it is only as a revived, quickened people that we can glorify Him as we should. How A R evival B egins What would be the evidences o f revival? If God were working in some large way, one o f the first evidences would be great humiliation before God because o f our past sins and failures, because of our unbelief, because of our slow ness to send out the gospel to the heathen world, because o f the way we have hoarded our money and made ourselves comfortable and forgetten the needs of those sitting in darkness and in the shadow o f death. In other words, the first evidences would be deep and sincere repentance on the part o f the people o f God. Often we hear people singing the chorus, When I hear them singing that, I say to myself, “ I won der now what they really mean!” When one and another says, “ Lord, send a revival, and let it begin in me,” do they mean, “ Lord, strike me down in some strange sort o f way; give me some very vivid emotional experience in order that I may feel wonderfully «exalted and wrought up, and I shall consider I am being revived” ? I think that is why wild-fire emotionalism o f the most unscriptural character prevails in many places today, and people call it the reviv ing work o f the Spirit o f God. If revival is going to begin in me, if it is going to begin in you, it is going to lead us to self-judgment in the pres ence o f G od ; it is going to lead us back over our lives, to examine conditions, to ask ourselves and to honestly answer the questions in the presence o f God, “ Have I really been living a yielded life ? Have I truly been holding all that I possess as that which belongs to the One who has re deemed me? And have I been so speaking and so acting from day to day that my words and my life have been a testimony for Christ?” And wherein conscience convicts me of failure, wherein the Spirit of God shows me that I have not been manifesting the Spirit o f Christ as I should, it will lead to contrition, to repentance, to confession,t and to humiliation. As long as the people o f God can sit calmly and sing, “ O Lord, send a revival,” and nobody gets down before the Lord to confess his failure and put things right that have been wrong, revival will never begin in them. Singing hymns is not going to bring revival, but do ing faithfully that which the Spirit o f God puts before one will bring it. O Lord, send a revival, Lord, send a revival; O Lord, send a revival, And let it begin in me.
and confessed their sins. That thing went on for hours, and by and by the heathen outside heard what was going on among the Christians, and then a great work o f grace began, which brought hundreds and thousands into the flock o f the Lord Jesus Christ. T he B ackward L ook If there is going to be a re vival now or at any time, we must judge ourselves in His presence. I am afraid that our consciences are terribly dull; we have become used to so many things that we take for granted they are all right and never stop to think how they look in the sight o f our blessed Lord. Glance back over one week o f your life, you who are Christians. Just imagine as you do so that at any hour of that week the Lord had sud denly come upon you, had be held what you were engaged in, had heard what you were saying, and had given you to know that He was taking note o f all that you were doing. Are you quite sure you would have been well satisfied with your self and with your life, even for one week? Then let me ask another question. Have you been definitely to God during this past week, and have you been facing these things from day to day? You say, “ Well, I kneel in prayer at night.” What do you pray for? To ask the Lord to take
Begin the Year with Prayer I n these critical days, “ God has placed the key o f victory in the hands of His people. This key is the call for united prayer fo r re vival." It is highly befitting that the new year which begins on the Lord’s day should be ushered in by a preparatory night of prayer and inter cession. During the past year, the lamentable conditions in the thurch and the world have been set before us by pulpit, press, radio, and other means. W e are aware that condi tions have not noticeably improved. These conditions constitute a compelling chal lenge to all Christian leaders to gather God’s people to pray more effectually than at other times. Left to our selves, conditions moral and spiritual, economic and so cial, industrial and political, will not improve. The forces surrounding us today are more cunning, daring, and determined than ever before. It is obvious that, if there is to be any change for the bet ter, help must be obtained from God. Has not He en couraged us to draw nigh to Him? Has not God given us exceeding great and pre cious promises to encourage prayer? But has H e not said also, " / will yet for this be inquired o f . . . to do it for them" ( Esek. 36:37)? Why not pray?
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