David Guzik 01 — David Guzik

David Buzik is a church, or a revivalist historian, is that the correct way to put it? Historian and revivalist. Now many of you who go on to Survey Index, I'm sure, have seen the videos by J .L. Law, the father of some of these teachings, a man who has passed into the presence of his saviour, but a noted church historian.

And it's interesting to know that David comes here with the full support of the J .L. Law family, that he is allowed to use J .L. Law's material, to put it on his webpage, as an archivist, in a sense, of the J .L. Law material.

And I think he'll speak a little bit about that on the webpage later. He's also president of Seaton Bible College, which is a journey somewhere in the pathway between Cologne and Frankfurt, and so we're delighted to have him here.

He's come from Germany to be with us, and this is his first time for our conference, and David, we welcome you, pretty much. So before you go on, we'll ask David Ledley of Ireland to come and offer an opening prayer.

David Ledley, oh my goodness, I did it again. I do it deliberately, I'm a Welshman, he's an Irishman, so it's alright. David. Let us pray.

Holy Father, we still ourselves in the consciousness and presence, realizing also that our saviour and master, our lord, redeemer, and friend, has promised us to be here where two are gathered in his name, at least.

We thank you for this great company, gathered in nothing other than the name of the lord Jesus Christ. Oh lord, our souls hunt after thee, as the deer hunts after water brooks, so hunts my soul after thee, oh God.

Our souls follow hard after thee, oh God. We long to apprehend our God and to be apprehended of our God, as we search for thee and seek for thee with all our hearts. Lord, we want to find thee. Oh God, we want all sham and falseness to be gone.

We want reality, Lord. Amen. We want to come face to face through the Holy Spirit and the written page with the living word for a divine encounter. ...to meet thee. Bless your servant, David. Remember the psalmist and I pray so often myself, remember David in all his infirmity.

We thank you for him, for his work, for his knowledge, for the heritage that is the ministry he's involved in. And yet, Lord, he has present need, just not. Give him not function to function in the power of God, for the glory of Christ we pray.

Amen. It's a pleasure to be here. As I was so kindly introduced, my name is David Uzick and I'm the director of Calvary Chapel Bible College. You can see it in Germany, it is about halfway between Frankfurt and Cologne.

And I want to thank the organizers of the conference for allowing me the opportunity to come and speak to you this morning. My own interest in revival of the subject was kindled through meeting the ministry of the late Dr. J. Edmund Orr.

I want to be careful and not exaggerate my relationship with Dr. Orr or his family. I was never an associate of the late Dr. Orr, nor did I have a personal relationship with him. My own relationship with him has come after his graduation to glory in heaven.

But some years ago I was just so deeply touched by his ministry and his writings and his speaking. And I just sort of looked around for his resources on the internet and found very little that was available, at least in any one coherent place.

And so, with the very kind permission of Dr. Orr's family, I started the website www .jedmundorr .com. And I recommend it to you heartily. It has audio and video and text resources by Dr. Orr. And I think it's an invaluable resource for those of us who have a real interest in revival.

Confession of Sin as the Focus of Revival

I stand before you thinking that when we consider this topic of revival this morning, there's so many different aspects that we could profitably spend time considering. We can talk about prayer, we can talk about repentance, we can talk about preaching, we can talk about the social effects of revival, we can talk about the global spread of revival.

All of these are profitable, but I am quite impressed with the Holy Spirit this morning to address you specifically on the topic of the role of confession of sin in revival. And I trust that that's what the Holy Spirit would have to speak to us this morning.

So, would you please open your Bibles to the book of Joshua, chapter 7, is where I'd like to begin with you this morning. Joshua, chapter 7. It's a pleasure to speak before a vividly literate people. And you know the flow of the book of Joshua and how in chapter 7 they were smarted very much from their defeat from the people of Ai.

And they suffered this crushing defeat after the miraculous and glorious victory over the city of Jericho. They fought the much smaller and much less substantial city of Ai and they were defeated shamefully.

And as they were defeated shamefully at Ai, God spoke to Joshua and the leadership for the reasons why. It was because they were prayerless. It was because they were overconfident. It was because there was sin in the midst of Israel.

And all of this conspired to bring, especially the leader, Joshua himself, into great discouragement. It's sort of a reflection for our time, how many pastors and Christian leaders there are who are under tremendous discouragement today because of the prayerlessness of their congregations, because of the overconfidence and arrogance of the people of God, or because of sin in their midst.

It's very much a picture of many ways how the church is today. Well, the real problem, of course, the real problem had nothing to do with military technology or strategy or anything like that. The problem was that there was sin in the midst of Israel.

And this sin was confronted very dramatically by the way that God exposed the sin. And we can go through and recount it. It's really a dramatic passage, isn't it? How God singled it down to one tribe, to one family, to one group, and then finally to one man, to one household in Israel that was responsible for that sin.

And it was the man, Achan. Then God, after exposing the sin, confronted Achan in this very dramatic way. Joshua 7, verse 19 is the verse I want to call your attention to. Joshua said to Achan, My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to Him.

And tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it. I wonder if that's not what our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, would not say to us today. Now, we are people, I trust, and after being with us in these meetings over these days, I know that your people have a concern for the glory of God.

Do you not? You want to see God glorified. You say, God, glorify yourself. But have you thought of it before that God is glorified by the confession of sin? Isn't that exactly what Joshua told Achan? Now, Joshua said to Achan, My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to Him.

We don't often think of it that way, do we? But the confession of sin is an important way that we give glory to God. I don't know about you, but often I would rather glorify God in any other way than that.

I'd rather glorify God with a song, with any sort of thing I could do. There's many ways that I would prefer to give glory to God. But there are times when God speaks to us very poignantly and He says, I want you to give glory to Me by confessing your sin.

He called upon Achan to make an open confession of his sin and in so doing to give glory to the Lord God of Israel. Now, there are several other places in the Scriptures where this idea of the confession of sin is linked to the idea of the glory of God and giving glory to God.

But I just want you to consider that for a moment. That when we confess our sins, we give glory to God. We glorify His omniscience, do we not? We recognize, God, You know my sin. I feel like I don't want anybody else to know.

I even feel sometimes that I'm hiding it from God. But when we confess our sin, we glorify the omniscience of God. He knows it all. And we're simply recognizing it. When we confess our sin, we glorify the authority of God.

Lord, You're my master. I'm Your servant. I have an obligation before You. I am under Your authority. And just as it's proper for a servant to confess to his master his misdeeds, You are my authority.

I will confess my sin before You. Not only that, we glorify God when we confess our sin because we recognize His righteousness. You are a righteous God. It is wrong for me to sin against You. There is no such thing as a small sin against such a great God.

And so we give Him glory in that way. We glorify God because we recognize His judgment. We glorify God because when we confess our sin, we declare that we want to be in fellowship with Him. I think it's important for us to back up just a little bit and understand something of the theology of the confession of sin in the Scriptures.

General and Specific Confession

There is a sense in which a general confession of sin is absolutely necessary for salvation. Is that not true? That you have to confess sin in general. That you have to confess, might I say, that you are a sinner.

And you have to come before God as a guilty sinner needing salvation. This is essential for salvation. An essential component to receiving the grace of Jesus Christ. To confess that you are a sinner, to confess that you are a needy.

Then there is another aspect of confession that goes beyond the general unto the specific. More than saying I confess in general that I am a sinner, which any one of us could do right now, right? But yet it's a very different thing for us to confess a specific sin.

And when it comes to confessing sin in a specific sense, it is not so much done as unto salvation. Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you, brothers and sisters, God does not require that we specifically confess every sin we commit before we can be forgiven that particular specific sin.

If that were the case, then we would all be destined for hell. Think of it, of all the ways that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It's innumerable, isn't it? You can't count the ways just this morning that you've fallen short of the glory of God.

And if God expected you to name every way that you have sinned and fallen short of His glory, there would not be enough minutes in the day for us to make all the confession that we needed to make. So no, when it comes down to the specific, the idea of confession is not so much for the salvation of our soul, but when it comes to the specific, the idea of confession is essential for fellowship with God.

We remember that great verse from 1 John 1, 9, do we not? Many of you can just read it with me from memory. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And the clear context of that statement in 1 John is in the context of fellowship with God. There is sin, specific sin, that the Holy Spirit will shine His searchlight upon our life and say, you must confess this.

You must clear this out of the way. This particular sin, for whatever reason, it is hindering my fellowship with you, God will say to us. And then we have a solemn, a sacred responsibility before God to confess that sin and to put it away.

Therefore, we see that this type of confession of sin is vital to maintain relationship with God. And as God convinced us of these sins that are hindering our fellowship with Him, we must put this away.

Now, isn't it more clear than ever why confession of sin is an essential component of revival? Is not revival God's people drawing closer to Him in a way that they've never drawn before? It's fellowship and relationship with God to the fullest, unhindered.

And therefore, confession of sin is essential. There's really nothing unusual about the phenomenon of unusual, dramatic confession of sin during a revival. In North China, in the revivals that happened under Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth in the beginning of the 20th century, I trust that you've read something of those.

I trust that you've read that great book, By My Spirit. If you haven't read that book, please, make it a priority of your life to read that book by Jonathan Goforth, By My Spirit. And in describing that great work of God that was done in that part of the world, a man named William Newton Blair wrote a book, Calling to Remembrance, and this is what he said about the work of confession of sin during those revivals.

He said, we may have our theories about the desirability or undesirability of public confession of sin. I've had mine. But I know that when the spirit of God falls upon guilty souls, there will be confession and no power on earth can stop it.

This is true. Phineas said something that was much the same. Charles Phineas said that a revival of religion can be expected when Christians begin to confess their sins to one another. At other times, they confess in a general manner, as if they're only half in earnest.

And they may do it in eloquent language, but it does not mean anything. But when there is a sincere breaking down and a pouring out of the heart of confession of sin, the floodgates will burst open and salvation will flow over the place.

It's true. We should expect it. We should expect that when the spirit of God moves in revival, we will see the phenomenon of confession of sin. By the way, isn't this a helpful yardstick or measuring line for us to see sometimes that what in the world today is called or claimed to be revival falls short of God's standard?

It may be some legitimate spiritual excitement. There's a place for that. Listen, any real revival, any real awakening of God's people will be accompanied by the confession of sin. I remember reading something from a Scottish officer speaking in that great revival that happened in the middle of the 19th century.

This is what he said. He said, Those of you who are at ease have little conception of how terrifying a sight it is when the Holy Spirit is pleased to open a man's eyes to see his real state of heart. Men who were thought to be and who thought themselves to be good, religious people, have been led to search into the foundation upon which they were resting and have found all round that they were self-satisfied, resting on their own goodness and not upon Christ.

Many turn from open sin to lives of holiness, some weeping for joy, for sins forgiven. So this is a very important concept, is it not? We see it repeated over and over again. But I think it's worth it for us to consider this morning how confession of sin should be made.

Public Confession and Spiritual Discernment

Because I believe it's true that carnal or unwise confession of sin can actually quench the work of the Spirit of God in revival. And so it's a subject worthy of our consideration here this morning. First of all, I would say that confession of sin should often be public.

Now does not James, in chapter 5, verse 16, relate this principle to us? Again, it's a familiar verse to many of us, so I'll just read it to you. He says this simply, Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

A .T. Roth, that great Greek scholar, says that in James 5, 16, the odd tense of the Greek verb confess in that verse, it implies group confession rather than private confession. It is confession, as A .T. Robertson said, ones to another, not one to another.

And this is giving voice. This is giving hope to the public confession of sin. My friends, we're not talking about giving out the confessional booth. We're not talking about making a ceremony out of something.

We're talking about recognizing that when the Spirit of God is poured out, it will convict God's people in certain cases and in certain times of their own need to confess this. And so, we also find from James another indication important to consider this confession.

He says, confess your trespasses ones to another and pray for one another. It often shows that the confession needs to be no more than what is necessary to enlist prayer on behalf of the person who makes the confession.

It can be enough to say this. Pray for me. I need victory over my besetting sin. Oftentimes, it would be wrong to go into more detail, but saying at least that much is important. It keeps us from being, let's pretend Christians, who act as if everything is fine when in fact it is not.

Might I say that almost all sexual transgressions are either secret or private and they should be so confessed either secretly or privately. Do we not remember that the Scripture discourages even the naming of certain kinds of immorality among believers?

And so while we recognize that sexual sin among the body of Christ is a grave problem and needs to be addressed by the Spirit of God and from pulpits, we do not deny that event. When it comes to the public confession of sin, either it should be shared privately or in the general.

And direction can be given at this point. Public confession can be made, but be appropriately specific. A man can stand up and say, I'm burdened by my sins of immorality. Will you please pray for me? And he doesn't need to be necessarily more specific than that.

And there can be direction given for this by the leader of the meeting or by spiritually wise and founded people within the group. Dr. J. Edwin Orr gives a good principle on this point. He says this. If you sin secretly, confess secretly, admitting publicly that you need the victory but keeping the details to yourself.

If you sin openly, confess openly to remove stumbling blocks from those with whom you have hindered. If you sin spiritually, such as prayerlessness, lovelessness, and unbelief, as well as their offspring, criticism, and so forth, then confess to the church that you have been in hindrance.

Examples of Specific Public Confession

Now again, to many of this, this sounds like something very foreign. It sounds like something very strange. So let me give you some examples of public confession. Again, Dr. J. Edwin Orr in his book All Your Need describes the great work of God at the Easter camp in New Zealand where they saw a remarkable outpouring of the Spirit of God in the 1930s.

And that outpouring of the Spirit of God resulted in public confession of sin of the following sort. These are some of the things that people said. They said, I too am a good Christian on Sunday and a miserable failure for the rest of the week.

I have secret sin as well. Another person stood up and they said, I am a failure all the week and on Sunday as well I'm a hopeless hypocrite. Please pray for me. Another student said, My sin is the lust of the eyes and evil thoughts.

Another one stood and said, I too have secret sin and I'm ashamed of Christ. To my friend, do you get the attitude, the spirit of such a meeting? And then the young man at the back of the room stood up and he interrupted.

He said this, Dr. Orr, before you go on I want to get something off my mind for I've been a hindrance here. He said, There are two men in this camp with whom I am not on speaking terms and I want that removed.

I have confessed to God the sin of criticism and lovelessness but I want to ask these fellows forgiveness if they forgive me will they please shake hands publicly? And then he named those men and they came together in a beautiful reconciliation.

Now friends, let me ask you, when's the last time you saw that in a man? When's the last time you saw somebody stand up and confess the sin of criticism? The sin of gossip? The sin of bitterness or lovelessness among the body of Christ?

Is it because these sins do not exist among us? No, it's because either we have not responded to the move of the Spirit of God or that Christians are so ill-educated about this idea of the public confession of sin that it's such a thoughtful to enter it in their mind they would think it came from Satan instead of the Spirit.

And I believe that these are the sins in particular that need to be addressed most pointedly in the public confession of sin. Those sins that have hindered and harmed the body of Christ. Now it is true that on one level every sin harms the body of Christ, does it not?

We remember that back from the story of Achan in Joshua chapter 7. What did Joshua say to the people of Israel? Actually, I should change that. What did the Lord say to Joshua about the sin? He said, Israel has sinned against him.

He didn't say Achan. Oh, he got to Achan in due time. But it was Israel that had sinned against him. And is it true with us that this presence of sin in our midst speaks to the need for the body of Christ to confess its sin and to give life to God?

So there needs to be a true confession of sins ones to another. And I'm not even talking about primarily confession to God. One of the things I notice about this phenomenon of the confession of sin so often in the history of revival is that the confession isn't made so much directly to God.

I'm certainly not saying that's prohibited, but I'm just declaring to you a pattern. The confession isn't so much God, will you forgive me for my sin of criticism. No, it's much more the attitude, please forgive me.

It's much more the attitude of confessing ones to others as James 5 tells us. So the confession would say, I have criticized you, would you please forgive me. I've been bitter against you, would you please forgive me.

I've held the church back, would you please forgive me. I've been in gossip, my prayerlessness has hindered the church. These are the deep searching sins that the Holy Spirit of God exposes in a great time of outpouring.

Revival, Restitution, and Restoration in China

If we think back to this great man Jonathan Goforth, think about another story. He gives a remarkable account in his book, By My Spirit. It happened in the year 1907, 101 years ago. Jonathan Goforth was this great Canadian missionary to China.

He traveled to Korea because he heard that God was doing amazing things in Korea. It was actually an effect of the great work that happened in Wales in 1904. I hope you know that, don't you? That great revival work in Wales spread all over the world.

That it splashed abroad. That there was a great dropping of a stone, if you will, into the pond at Wales. But the reverberations, the waves of that work, it splashed as far as Korea. And God did a great work of God in Korea in the year 1907.

Goforth visited that work and he was deeply impressed. He began to pray for a similar work of God to happen in China because that's where he was serving God. So on his way back through China, he stopped in a city called Mukden.

And he told a group of missionaries there of what he'd seen in Korea about the great work of revival that he was a part of. Well, they were deeply impressed. And they asked Goforth to come back in February for a week of meetings.

So he came back in February to conduct a week of meetings with great anticipation. But when he came, it didn't look good at all. There was a tangible atmosphere of criticism among the missionaries. They had not organized prayer meetings like Goforth had asked them to.

He said, before I come for this week of meetings, will you please organize special prayer? They had not done it. ...meeting on the evening that he arrived, and he went to bed feeling that he was wasting his time with a group of people who didn't even want to seem to be blessed.

I think you know the feeling, don't you? But God spoke to Jonathan Goforth powerfully, assuring him that he could still do a great work despite the deadness he felt that first evening. The next morning, one of the elders in the church came to see Goforth before the scheduled morning meeting, and along with Jonathan Goforth, the elder started weeping uncontrollably, and he told this story.

He related how that he was the treasurer of the church, and that when that church in China was attacked during that horrific Boxer Rebellion, that he knew that he could take money from the church treasury, and no one would notice because of the great commotion and disarray of everything.

So he did. The church treasurer stole money from the church, and he used it to advance his own business. But during the meeting, the night before, the meeting that Goforth thought was so absolutely dead, the Holy Spirit was speaking to the heart of this man who was an elder and a church treasurer, and he felt a fire of conviction of sin, and he couldn't sleep all night.

And it was plain to him that the only way that he could find relief was to confess his sin to the church and to make full restitution. And after the morning's message, that's exactly what the elder did.

And as he confessed his sin, there was a piercing cry from the back of the room, and other people began to weep, and some people began to pray and to confess their sin. On the fourth day that he was with them during that week of meetings, Goforth ended his meeting in the usual way that he ended his meeting.

He invited people to come forth and to pray as God led them, and in response to that invitation, a man came forward who was another elder of the church. He was the one who had let out that piercing cry two days before.

And for two days, he was under intense conviction of sin, but he was resisting confessing his sin. Finally, he faced the congregation in this place and said, I committed adultery, and I've tried to poison my wife three times.

He took out his elder's card, he tore it up in pieces, and he told the people, you have my elder's cards in your homes. Please tear them up. I hereby resign my eldership. I've disgraced the holy office.

Several other leaders of the church confessed their sins, and they resigned from their offices. And then the pastor resigned. He said, I'm the leader of this congregation. I'm responsible more than anybody.

And as the meeting went on, and as other people prayed, the congregation began to express their renewed confidence in their pastor. And before the night was over, they restored the repentant pastor to his office.

Well then, you might say, even more remarkably, the womb of God began to affect people.