There are many reasons people come into the church today without entering by the highway of holiness. Many seek a feeling rather than the Lord God Himself. Charles Finney, the great American revivalist, said:

Many excitements which are taken for revivals of religion, after all result in very little substantial piety, simply because excitement is too great. Appeals are made too much on feelings….a tornado of excitement results, but not intelligent action of the heart. The will is swept along by a tempest of feeling. The intelligence is rather, for the time, being stultified and confounded than possessed with clear views of truth. Now this certainly can never result in good.

Two young people at the Communist Youth World Festival were converted instantly when they made this statement: "Ich glaube an Jesus" (I believe in Jesus). These two young lives were completely transformed when they made that statement. However, many people in Western Europe and the United States will say, "I believe in Jesus," but very little change, if any, is seen in their lives. What is the difference?

When those two East German you said, "I believe in Jesus," they knew they could lose their educational and economic opportunities in life. But they really believed in Jesus. They believed in His life, death, burial, and resurrection so much that they were willing to forsake all opportunities in this life in order to know Him and follow Him.

When someone in the West says, "I believe in Jesus, ' it can mean very little. It is usually socially and culturally acceptable to make the statement. But too often there is no repentance, no forsaking of the old life to follow the New-Life Giver, Jesus Christ.

The need in Western civilization is for holy men to proclaim Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior. We need men who will not compromise but will call the nations to repentance. George Whitefield in 1739 said, "I love those that thunder out the word! The Christian world is in that deep sleep. Nothing but a loud voice can waken them out of it!" We need the courage, the commitment, and the message of the 18th century to again permeate the 20th-century church.

Historian J.C. Ryle listed seven characteristics of the messengers during the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century:

1. They taught the supremacy of Holy Scripture.
2. They preached the total corruption of human nature.
3. They taught that Chris's death upon the cross was the only satisfaction for man's sin.
4. They preached the doctrine of justification by faith.
5. They taught the universal necessity of heart conversion and new creation by the Holy Spirit.
6. They spoke of God's eternal hatred against sin and of God's love for sinners.
7. They preached that there was an inseparable connection between true faith and personal holiness. They never allowed for a moment that any church membership or religious profession was the least proof of a man being a Christian if he lived an ungodly life.

An insight into the holiness of God will always produce a life-style of repentance. When one enters upon this highway called holiness, it does not mean that he is perfect. It does mean that he is walking down a road of change. Repentance means a change of heart or a change of mind. Throughout the Christian life we should be continually changed, or conformed, into the image of Jesus Christ.

The revival in parts of Eastern Europe is not a paradise where Christians have now struggle with sin. Revival makes the child of God more aware of the holiness of God, but it does not eliminate the sin problem.

Early in my Christian life a godly minister reached toward me and asked, "Do you se the blemishes on my hand?"

I told him that I could not.

He placed his had under a light and repeated the question. This time I could see them. Then as he began to move closer to the light, the blemishes became even more evident.

What a perfect example of the true nature of revival! As the light of the manifest glory of God shines in out hearts, we can see more clearly our blemishes. There is only one thing we can do. Repent.