从天上赐下的复兴
混合的经验
经文
彼得后书三10-18
10但主的日子要像贼来到一样。那日，天必大有响声废去，有形质的都要被烈火销化，地和其上的物都要烧尽了。
11这一切既然都要如此销化，你们为人该当怎样圣洁，怎样敬虔，
12切切仰望神的日子来到。在那日，天被火烧就销化了，有形质的都要被烈火镕化。
13但我们照他的应许，盼望新天新地，有义居在其中。
14亲爱的弟兄阿，你们既盼望这些事，就当殷勤，使自己没有玷污，无可指摘，安然见主；
15并且要以我主长久忍耐为得救的因由，就如我们所亲爱的兄弟保罗，照着所赐给他的智慧写了信给你们。
16他一切的信上也都是讲论这事。信中有些难明白的，那无学问、不坚固的人强解，如强解别的经书一样，就自取沉沦。
17亲爱的弟兄阿，你们既然预先知道这事，就当防备，恐怕被恶人的错谬诱惑，就从自己坚固的地步上坠落。
18你们却要在我们主─救主耶稣基督的恩典和知识上有长进。愿荣耀归给他，从今直到永远。阿们！
信息分享
我们之前曾说，有很多人认为复兴是多余的和无关痛痒的，今天我们会谈论引致他们有这种想法的另一个原因──在复兴中被激起的感情并非纯粹的属灵经验。有批评指出复兴不单将人性属灵的一面引发出来，同时也显露出人性的卑劣和欲念的一面。
我们在尝试回应这个问题以前，需要再听清楚这个批评背后的真正意思。在复兴中，属灵的事情的确是与属肉体的事情混合在一起。英国作曲家威廉斯（William Williams）这样说：「当我们的灵魂尝到天上的筵席时，肉体亦要争取分一杯羹，以致由恩典所唤醒的本能都喧闹起来了。」在循道公会的复兴正处于高峰的时候，没有人能否认圣灵有力的工作，但是复兴并不能一次过除下肉体的欲念或本性上的缺憾。
在五旬节圣灵大大浇灌以后的数年间，有明显的证据显示人的欲念很活跃，保罗的书信亦劝告信徒要抵抗欲念、克制情欲。伟大的复兴领袖爱德华滋（Jonathan Edwards）曾说，在使徒时代，尽管圣灵明显地在哥林多教会作工，使徒又称他们为「神的教会……蒙召作圣徒的」（林前一2）；但如果让他们自行处理问题的话，教会肯定还是会支离破碎。
我们不能明白复兴是怎么回事，除非能够先理解它的主要目的。那是甚么呢？复兴的目的不是要使圣徒在一夜之间变得完美，而是要唤醒沉睡的人。
「复兴是要唤醒沉睡的人」
进深研究
罗八1-17；加五25，六8
1. 对于圣灵和肉体，保罗有甚么教导？
2. 他谈及甚么新的律法？
祈祷
天父，感谢您提醒我，复兴好像信主一样，并不能产生「即时」的圣徒。求您帮助我明白，虽然品格可以从危机中显出，但它往往是一个渐变的过程。奉基督的名字祈求，阿们。
Heaven-Sent Revival
Mixed experiences
Bible reading:
2 Peter 3:10-18
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.[a]
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives
12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.[b] That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.
15 Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Message
We examine one more reason why some people regard revival as unnecessary and irrelevant - the fact that emotions kindled in revival are not unmixed spiritual experiences. Critics point out that revival brings to the fore not only the spiritual side of human nature but the baser and more carnal side too.
Here again we must listen to the truth in this criticism before attempting to answer it. It is true that in revival the spiritual is often mixed with the carnal. Williams put it like this: "When our soul came to taste the feasts of heaven, the flesh also insisted on having its share, and all the passions of nature aroused by grace were rioting tumultuously." And this was at the high point of the Methodist revival when none can deny that the Holy Spirit was mightily at work. Revival does not abolish in one fell swoop human carnality or the defects of our nature.
In the years immediately following the great outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost there were clear evidences of carnality at work. Paul's letters are full of exhortations to resist carnality and subdue the works of the flesh. The great revivalist Jonathan Edwards said that if the Corinthian Church had been left to themselves they would have torn themselves to pieces - yet clearly the Spirit was at work in their midst. The apostle greets them as "the church of God...called to be saints" (1 Cor. 1:2, AV).
We will never understand revival until we understand its primary purpose. And what is that? It is not to bring saints to perfection in a day, but to wake up the drowsy.
"Revival is to wake up the drowsy"
Prayer
Father, thank You for reminding me that revival, like conversion, does not produce "instant" saints. Help me understand that although character may come out of a crisis, more often than not it is the result of a process. In Christ's Name I ask it. Amen.
Further study
Romans 8:1-17
Galatians 5:25; 6:8
1. What does Paul teach about the Spirit and the flesh?
2. What new law does he talk about?
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