Atonement — J. Edwin Orr

The Substitutionary Atonement and Forgiveness

Thirty years ago in the Hollywood Christian group, Roy Rogers brought one of his cowboy friends who said to me, how does God forgive sins? A verse of scripture came to my mind and I said, in Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of his grace.

He said, what you're trying to tell me is that Jesus died for me. I said, that's right. Well, he said, how could that happen? What do you mean? How could anyone die for me? Look, he said, the Los Angeles police are holding a man for murder.

If I go to the chief of police and say, look, I'm sorry for this fellow, let me take his place. Would they let me take his place? They would not. They would say, you didn't commit the crime and you will not take the punishment.

It wouldn't be right. Well, I said, you have raised a difficult doctrine, the doctrine of the atonement. It's not an easy doctrine to explain. In fact, in theological seminary, we study 13 major theories of the atonement.

For instance, there's the moral influence theory, where the whole realm of nature mind that were an offering far too small, love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all. That's moral influence, but it's not the whole truth, not even a great deal of the truth.

There are all sorts of theories of the atonement. The one that's most popular among evangelicals is what we call the substitutionary view, that Christ died for me. I said, now, maybe I could illustrate rather than explain.

Forgiveness Requires a Substitute to Bear the Cost

When I was a boy of seven, I used to play ball out the back. Diagonally across the lot from our house was the house of a fellow called Albert Mann on Burma Street. But his house was in the way. Every time we hit the ball hard, we should have bricked one of his windows.

One day he rushed out and shook his fist. He says, the next one of you brats breaks my window, I'll break your ear. Who do you think was the next brat to break his window? I didn't stop running until I got home, but my longer-legged sister got home ahead of me and she told mother what I had done.

I didn't mind that. Most seven-year-old boys have learned how to manage mama. But for some reason or other, my father was in the kitchen. I didn't even stop to ask him why he was there, not at work.

I decided under the circumstances what I needed was fresh air. So I headed for the back door. My father grabbed me by the wrist. He said, you're coming with me, young man. But I said, daddy, that man will hit me, that man.

He said, you're coming with me. I went most reluctantly. My father knocked the door. Mr. Mann came to the door, still looking upset. My father said, this is the boy that broke your window. Now, Mr. Mann didn't waste any time with my father, with me.

He turned to my father and he said, now look here, or I know that boys can't help breaking windows. I broke windows when I was a boy. But why is it that every time there's a window broken in this neighborhood, it has to be my window?

Now, I thought I could explain. His house was just in the wrong place. But I kept my counsel. I was a little scared of what might happen. The man went on scolding. He said, I am willing to forgive the kids.

But he said, somebody has to pay for it. Somebody has to pay for it. Somebody has to pay for it. My father paid for it, and I was forgiven. I learned the first principle of forgiveness. When you're forgiven, somebody must pay.

I made that statement once in the mayor's parlor in Los Angeles City Hall. An attorney came to me after and said, but is that always the case? I said, what do you mean? He said, well, does somebody have to pay for it?

And he wanted to argue. He said, supposing, for instance, you slander me and I forgive you, do I have to pay? I said, I think you as a lawyer ought to understand that one, because you could sue me for so much damage.

That's what you forgive me. Because I said to my friend, the cowboy, 20 years after that broken window incident, my sister's husband borrowed some money from me. I think it was $500. I said to him, and by the way, there are different marriage customs in different countries.

In South Africa, a Zulu will save up enough money to buy a wife. In India, the girl's family will pay you for taking one of the girls away. But in Ireland, where I was born, as soon as a man marries your sister, he feels entitled to apply for a loan.

Now, he offered to pay back $5 a week for two years. He never paid me a penny. I bore him a grudge for a couple of years. Then when I saw it was hopeless, I finally forgave him. But which of the two of us suffered, the sinner or the sinned against?

Not the sinner. He went free. I could have taken him to court. I could have seized his furniture by injunction, and then he would have suffered. But the moment I forgave him, I suffered. That taught me the second principle of forgiveness.

The one that forgives is the one that suffers. Moses couldn't have died for me, nor Joshua, nor Peter, nor Paul. It had to be Christ, because God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. In a Presbyterian church, a man came to me and said, I don't follow this.

If God makes the rules, why can't God just break the rules and forgive you? And that's the common impression, that God will be generous, he'll forgive you. But you see, God is a God of justice, as well as a God of love.

And that's why the atonement was necessary, as an expression of God's love, yet meeting God's justice. Now, this is only preliminarily what I want to talk about. I want to talk to you about forgiveness and confession.

Confession of Sin in Revival

My real object in talking to you is the place of confession in revival, because if revival breaks out anywhere, there will be confession of sin. Do any of you remember reading about the Asbury College revival of 1970?

Well, what did the students do? At first, the chapel was filled night and day with students confessing their sins. This always happens in revival, yet confession is a very delicate subject, and some movements have gone astray at this very point.

So, I'm going to ask a series of questions. I'll use the overhead projector, and I'm asking questions, not rhetorically, I want you to make suggestions. Just raise your hand to get my attention before you speak.

And if you want to ask a question, if it deals with a subject, you raise your hand and get my attention. And if I know the answer, I'll give it to you. If not, maybe you'll help me to find the answer.

So, I'll put this, first of all, on the screen. What basis does God forgive the sins of a sinner? One word would do. Would you raise your hand? Now, remember what the word basis means. It means on what grounds.

Ah, you hit the nail right in the head. I'll use one word. I'm sure you'll accept it. On the basis of the cross. In Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins. That man who said, God makes the rules, why can't God just break the rules and forgive us?

He missed the significant doctrine of the Christian faith. It was necessary for Christ to die. If Christ had not died on the cross, we couldn't be forgiven, because God wouldn't be God if he just broke the rules and forgave us.

So, the answer is the word cross. I think I'll put it on the screen right away. I told you that Mickey Cohen attended one of our meetings at the Hollywood Christian Group. Supposing he were here, he's dead and gone now, and he were to raise his hand and say, how can God forgive my sins?

I'd say, on the basis of the cross. Then if he said, well, how much do I have to pay to be forgiven? Well, I have $350 ,000 stashed away where the government can't get it, and if you can arrange for me to be forgiven, I'll make quite a substantial contribution.

How much does a sinner pay to be forgiven? Anyone. Nothing. I preached all over Latin America, and I liked the answer, nada. Nada. That sounds like nothing, doesn't it? Then Mickey Cohen says, is there any catch to this?

What do you mean? Well, is there anything I'm supposed to do? I don't follow you. Well, can I go on shooting police and robbing banks and running my rackets when you say there's nothing to pay? Is there any condition of forgiveness?

Yes. Repent, but it's a special repentance. Repent and be converted. Now, in plain English, I wish we had it in plain English, it means change and turn. Not only to change, but change and turn. Repentance expressed in conversion.

You turn right around. Mickey Cohen never did that. He wouldn't change. He wouldn't turn. He just wanted God to forgive him, that was all. So, the condition of forgiveness, I'll put down as the word conversion.

Remember, it's repent and be converted. Now, what's the object of all this? What do you want to be forgiven for? You might be saved. The object is salvation. Now, let's examine this carefully. The sinner is forgiven on the basis of the cross.

The price is nothing. You don't buy it. You don't earn it. You don't bargain for it. It's free. But there is a condition attached. Repent and be converted, without which you will not be forgiven. And what's the object?

The object is salvation. Now, this is elementary doctrine. This is basic Baptist doctrine, Methodist doctrine, Presbyterian doctrine, Pentecostal doctrine, Roman Catholic doctrine. It's basic, but it's not my purpose in talking to you.

Forgiveness of Believers and Fellowship With God

I'm setting up a framework so we can analyze forgiveness of believers. How does God forgive the sins of believers who are already converted? Most Christians haven't the foggiest idea. I was speaking at Mount Hermon when an inter-varsity girl came to me and said, I don't understand your teaching.

She said, I was converted 10 years ago and all my sins, past, present, and future, were forgiven. Now, said she, I cheated at the last examinations at Berkeley, but I'm not going to let a little thing like that worry me.

She said, that was forgiven 10 years ago. I said to her, are you going to cheat in the next examinations? She was nothing if not frank, so she said, well, I hope it won't be necessary. I said, you mean if you get behind with your work or you do too much dating instead of study, you're prepared to cheat again?

Well, she said, are my sins forgiven or are they not forgiven? I said, young lady, you're in great darkness. You're suggesting to me that a Christian is free to sin, is assured of automatic forgiveness.

That's a dangerous thing to say. Are you trying to tell me that my salvation depends upon my confessing? She said, isn't that a Roman Catholic doctrine? Oh, I said, now I see why you're in darkness. I said, what do you make of the verse that says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins, which that's the unbeliever, obviously.

Oh, I said, quite the contrary. The first epistle of John was written to believers. You can prove it from salutations alone, my little children. See what love the Father bestowed on us, we should be called sons of God.

It uses the pronoun we. By the way, Campbell Morgan said a very true word, a text without the context is only a pretext. The first epistle of John was written to believers. And it's not written about salvation, it's written to people who are saved.

Or if there's a Methodist here, to people who are being saved. Oh yes, let's be fair, the word occurs in all three tenses. We have been saved, we are being saved, we shall be saved. It's in all three tenses.

But it's not an instruction on how to be saved. Not at all. If the pastor were to ask me to speak to the teenagers on love, courtship, and marriage, I think I could give a fair talk. But if he asked me to speak to the young marrieds, I wouldn't speak on love, courtship, and marriage.

I might speak facetiously on how to be happy though married or something like that. You don't speak to married people on courtship in the teenage sense of the word, do you? Now, the first epistle of John was not written to tell people how to be saved, but was written to people who are saved.

So the girl said, then what was it written about? The key word is fellowship. It's how to maintain fellowship with God. You'll find the word fellowship occurring again and again. All right then, I'm going to quote some verses for you and then I'm going to ask you four parallel questions.

God Is Light and Confession Restores Fellowship

This is the message we have heard from Christ and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we're telling lies and not living according to the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one or the other and the blood of Jesus Christ his son continues to cleanse us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar and his word is not in us. Now, those verses, 1 John 1, 5 to 10, are well known.

Now, with those six verses in your mind, first question is, on what basis does God forgive the sins of a believer? Ah, that is what we're required to do, but how is God able to do it? On what grounds?

On the basis of the cross. When you pray that God will forgive you, you say, for Jesus' sake. You don't say, because I'm a member in good standing or because I tithe or because I'm willing to go to the mission field or whatever.

No, no. You just simply say, for Jesus' sake. You plead the blood of the cross every time you say, Lord, forgive me. Now, how much do we pay to be forgiven? The answer again is nothing. I will heal your backsliding.

I will love you. Really. We don't earn it. We don't buy it. We don't bargain for it. We don't plea bargain for it. It's free. Now, our Roman Catholic friends have a doctrine called the Doctrine of Indulgences.

I'm not sure that I understand it fully. I think the idea is this, that the death of Jesus Christ and the merits of the saints are built up in a great treasury for us. And because of their merits, we can draw on that bank to shorten our time in purgatory or something of that nature.

It's wonderful that since John XXIII and the Catholic charismatic movement, you hear very little about this anymore. I hope they'll change the doctrine officially, because it's not a scriptural doctrine.

But having masses said doesn't make a bit of difference. God forgives his child freely. Ah, but is there any catch to it? Any condition? What is a believer supposed to do to be forgiven? Yes, walk in the light.

But how does he get into the light in the first place if he's walking in darkness? But how does he do that? Confession. If we confess, now that's pretty straight. If we do not confess, he withholds forgiveness.

Some people say, what then, you mean my soul is lost? I told you, it's written to people who are saved. And it's in reference to fellowship, not salvation. Now let's, yes, explain what? All that I've said?

No, I say, the scripture says, if we confess our sins, he is just, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If we confess, he forgives. But if we do not confess, he withholds forgiveness and we remain out of fellowship.

For instance, supposing God speaks to you and says, you must put that right and you don't do it. You'll find it hard to pray. You'll find it hard to, in fact, you lose your desire to testify. I'm trying to put it this way.

If we confess, he has promised to forgive us. Now, keep this clearly in mind. We're dealing with a believer. We're dealing with a person who is saved, but we're talking about his fellowship. Now, let's look at this verse, what it says.

If we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, continues to cleanse us from all sin. But it says before that, if we say we're in fellowship, we're telling lies. I illustrate in a very simple way.

My son, David, when he was a little fellow about five, was rude to his mother at table. I said to him sharply, David, go to the bedroom. Don't come back until you're ready to say you're sorry to your mother.

Off he went, a little too cheerfully, I thought. He came back five minutes later and he looked up and he says, well, everybody, I'm sorry now. I said, all right, David, if you're sorry, tell your mommy.

But he wouldn't. I said, if you're sorry, tell your mama. He wouldn't. I said, David, did you hear what I said? Now, you know how stubborn a little five-year-old can get sometimes. I said, go back to the bedroom.

You're not sorry. You're just hungry. So he went back to the bedroom, but it doesn't take a five-year-old long to repent. He came straight back and he went straight to his mother. He says, mama, I'm sorry I was a naughty boy.

I said, now you can go on with your dinner. Instead of climbing on his stool, he climbed on her lap. She reached for his plate and they yet turn about the way mothers and children sometimes do. Fellowship was restored.

But here's the point, and I hope it answers what's in your mind. While he was in the bedroom, he was still my son. He was still in my house. He was still in my care. But if during his rebellion in the bedroom he'd come to me and said, daddy, what are you going to give me for Christmas?

I would have said, get out of my sight. I wasn't speaking to him. Now, God cannot approve of sin. And if we defy him, if we do things against our light, he has to withdraw fellowship. That doesn't mean he won't take care of us, that he won't show providential grace.

He may protect us in an accident, yet still be grieved at the hardness of our hearts. So there's that first verse. Let's take it. This is the message we've heard from Christ and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

What does that really mean? Our God is a holy God. He cannot approve of sin anywhere. If Leonid Brezhnev tells a lie in Moscow, that's abhorrent to the holiness of God. But if a member of a Baptist church in Pasadena tells a lie, God doesn't like that any better, even though it's told by one of his children.

God does not approve of sin. Then the next verse, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie. We're not living according to the truth. When a believer does something that he knows to be wrong, he breaks fellowship with God.

But then the next verse says, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, what light? Well, I would say the light of conscience, the light of scripture, the light of prayer, the light of godly counsel.

If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other. Our fellowship is in the light. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, continues to cleanse us from all sin. Then the three verses, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And then if we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar. Now we can answer the third question. What's the condition of forgiveness for the believer?

It's confession. And the object is fellowship. Now this is elementary. I don't want to, in this particular hour, to get into an involved discussion of the security of the believer and the security of the regenerate.

And I'm a Baptist, by the way. And if somebody asks me, do you believe in the eternal security of the believer? I have to say, well, the Lord Jesus himself said, these are they that believe for a while.

Obviously, you can be a temporary believer. But the word born again is a different word. I'm inclined to believe in the security of the regenerate. But who am I to say that so-and-so is regenerate? I don't know.

I could have said last night, the only evidence of the new birth is a new life. I believe that strongly. Now, I have heard of cases where a man facing the issue of salvation said, well, I'm willing to accept Christ as my savior, but I'll never, never, never forgive so-and-so.

And that hardness of heart kept him from becoming a Christian. So, I can't quite answer your question. I will say this, certainly, if you refuse to forgive your brother and bear him a grudge after God has forgiven you so much, you're certainly going to grieve God and break fellowship with him.

I'll say that, at least. You had a question. Well, I'm coming to that in just a moment. You've anticipated me. But let's deal with these four points, first of all. Do you see the parallel? The unbeliever is forgiven on the basis of the cross.

The price is nothing. The condition is conversion. The object is salvation. The believer is forgiven on the basis of the cross. We're forgiven on exactly the same basis. If Christ hadn't died on the cross, we couldn't be forgiven.

The price is nothing. The condition is confession. Why is it not conversion? Because we are already converted. We've turned. We're still headed in the right direction. But we've offended God. So, it's confession.

And the object is fellowship, to walk in fellowship with him. Now, I want to establish those parallels because I'm coming to your question in a moment. Here's where the important thing comes in. The unbeliever can do nothing about the cross.

Christ has already died. He can't establish his own system of forgiveness. This is ordained of God. He can't change the price. He can't buy it, can't bargain for it. But there's one thing he can do. He can repent and be converted.

That's something God expects him to do. Now, in the same way, the believer can do nothing about the cross. He can't establish some new system of forgiveness. He can't change the price. He can't say, Lord, if I tithe, will you forgive me?

No, no. He can't bargain at all. He must do what the scripture says, repent and confess. I'll stroke out these two. If the unbeliever wants to be saved, he must repent and be converted. If he refuses to, he will not be saved.

If the believer wants to be restored to fellowship, he must repent and confess. Otherwise, his fellowship will be either limited or restricted. Some people walk in darkness the rest of their days, in a kind of Christian twilight, because they've refused to obey God.

Conversion, Confession, Evangelism, and Revival

Now, let me put something else to you. Conversion is the key to salvation. Confession is the key to fellowship. Conversion is the climax of evangelism. We heard fine talk this morning on homiletics. And Brother Van Cleave stressed, you've got to get to the point in your message.

Could you imagine Billy Graham preaching on salvation and never getting to the point? No. Billy preaches with the object in mind of getting people to repent and become converted. That's his objective.

So, you could say that conversion is the climax of evangelism. But in the same way, confession is the climax of revival. Then, why don't pastors preach to this end? Well, some of them are too scared. Some pastors have told me, I'm glad it's you that's saying this, because I wouldn't dare tell my congregation these things.

Because a pastor sometimes, you know, he knows too much of what's going on in the congregation, and he's afraid if he says something, someone will come and say, you said that because so-and-so, and then he's involved in some kind of discussion or controversy.

But I would say this, if you want to see revival, a reviving of the work of God, a renewal of fellowship with the Spirit of God in your congregation, you've got to remember that there will be confession.

And you better remember that's an objective, that anyone who is not right with God must come to the place of confession to God. Now, we're going to turn to the practical questions. One was raised already.

Restitution and Confession to Those We Have Wronged

I was speaking at Forrest's home when a girl came to me and said, I've confessed and I just don't feel forgiven. What can you say to that? I said, the scripture says, if we confess, he is faithful and just forgive.

I said, I'm more sure of God doing his part than you doing your part. Well, she says, I've confessed, but I still don't feel forgiven. That was baffling, stymied there. Well, I said, God says he'll forgive if you confess.

I said, look, I don't mean to pry, but I said, I do want to help you, but what was the circumstance? Well, she says, I told a lie about my roommate. And you've confessed? Yes. But you don't feel forgiven?

No. I said, what did you say when you told her? Oh, she says, I didn't tell her. She says, I confessed to the Lord. But I said, you told the lie about the girl, not about the Lord. Why didn't you confess to her?

She says, I don't want her to hold it against me. Now, can you understand why she didn't feel forgiven? The scripture teaches pretty plainly the necessity of putting things right with one another. And that's something we've got to deal with.

But before we deal with it, let's, first of all, tackle an even more important practical issue. What does it mean to confess? Now, the Greek word for confess is three elements, ek homo logos. And that's literally, out of the same word.

Isn't that a strange thing? To confess is out of the same word. What does that mean? Well, I can illustrate. When the Lord Jesus said to his disciples, who do men say that I am? One said, some say you're a prophet.

Another said, some say you're the prophet Elijah. But who do you say I am? And Peter spoke up and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And the Lord Jesus immediately commanded him. He said, flesh and blood.

Human beings didn't tell you that. That was revealed to you. In other words, Peter expressed outwardly what the Holy Spirit had shown him inwardly about the deity of Christ. And we call that the confession of Peter.

I don't know how you use the word in Calvary Chapel, but I've often heard people say so-and-so confessed Christ in baptism. We confess outwardly what we feel inwardly. I don't know what formula you use in Calvary Chapel, but where I've been used to say, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?

Or do you confess your faith in Christ as your Savior? If you say I do, then I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We call that confession. We say outwardly what the Holy Spirit shows us inwardly about the deity of Christ, about the way of salvation.

Now, in the same way, negatively, confession of sin means to express outwardly what the Spirit shows us inwardly about our sin. This is very important. In other words, it's what he convinces us. It's not just something we say to go along with people, or I'll agree with you just to make peace.

No, no. We've got to confess. Ec homo logos. Now, it's seldom I mention a book or an author. I don't need to mention the author. I mention the book, the little book published some years ago called Love Is Now, published by Zonderman.

Excellent, but one chapter disturbed me. I like the title of the chapter. It was called Obsession with Confession. I expected treaties on movements like the moral rearmament and other movements that make a psychological use of confession.

It becomes almost an exhibitionism. I've known of people who wake up in the morning and think, now, what should I start to confess? I've known of evangelists have gone to a congregation and tried to trigger revival by confessing something themselves.

I remember when I was in India, a lady getting up, not in my meeting, but getting up and saying, I would like to confess that I committed adultery with the meeting was an Englishman. He stood up and he spluttered.

He could hardly speak. He said, I would like to. He said, I would like to assure this congregation I have never been alone with this lady in my life. And she got up again. She said, oh, it's just adultery in thought, she said.

But what misconceptions. Now, I expected this book to deal with abuses like that. There are people, for instance, who just love to go around confessing. I knew a missionary who used to make tape recordings of people's confessions.

I was shocked. I thought when the things confessed and under the blood, we ought to forget about it as quickly as we can, knowing that God's forgotten about it. But this chapter took a different attitude.

He said the word confess means to agree. And you just agree that it's wrong, you're forgiven. That's all. I said, no, you can't mean this. And I read his illustration. He said he was driving from Ann Arbor to Toledo.

And the word he used was feasting his mind on wrong thoughts. I don't know what the wrong thoughts were. The word feasting, it could have been gluttony, could have been impurity. But he said, then it suddenly struck him, isn't it wonderful to be a Christian?

All you need do is admit that it's wrong, and you're forgiven automatically. A young people's group in Covina got a hold of this and thought, isn't this great? You can shack up for the weekend so long as you admit that it's wrong.

This is the sheerest antinomianism. Confessing means to repent as well as confess. You've got to hate the thing. No good saying, well, I'm going to confess and I'm going to do it tomorrow. No, no. So the word confess means to express outwardly what the Holy Spirit has shown you inwardly about your sin.

But that doesn't mean you tell everybody everything. I've always given this as a maxim. For instance, we saw a great revival throughout Brazil in 1952. And to my knowledge, I became fairly proficient in Portuguese, I never heard an improper confession in public.

One reason was because we taught the scripture in a series of Bible teaching conferences before these revivals broke out. And I always gave a maxim. Let the circle of the sin be the circle of the confession.

If you have sinned secretly, only God knows about it. You tell God about it. But if you've sinned privately and hurt somebody else by word or example or any other way, put it right with the person concerned.

And if you've sinned openly, put it right with as many as know about it. I give that as a maxim. Now, some of you may say, well, that's just a maxim. Do you have any scriptural authority? Well, I think I'll give you some verses from the scripture dealing with the subject of confession.

Specific Confession and Forsaking Sin

Leviticus 5 and 5, he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. In Old Testament days, when a believer wanted to get right with God, he brought a lamb or a dove as his offering. He laid his hand upon the head of the offering.

This was a type of Christ. And then it says, he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. In other words, we commit specific sins and we must make specific confessions. Now, it's true in a public service, for instance, in the Episcopal Church, in the Lutheran Church, there's what we call the general confession.

It's a beautiful prayer. You know it, don't you? Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We've followed too much of the devices and desires of our own hearts.

We've offended against thy holy laws. We have done those things we ought not to have done. We have not done the things we ought to have done. There's no health in us. A beautiful prayer, but it's not enough.

We've got to be specific. We should name what we know to be wrong when we confess to God. During that revival movement in Brazil, we used to see churches packed at six o 'clock in the morning for prayer.

You say, what went on? It was a free meeting. A man would stand up and say, in Portuguese, of course, I've just had a telegram from Goiânia in the interior saying that revival has broken out in six of the seven churches of Goiânia, and my own brother-in-law that I thought was too hard ever to be converted has just been converted to God.

Graças a Deus. And people would give thanks, and then somebody would get up and say, oh God, I have a brother-in-law that I thought was too hard to be saved. Now perhaps you can save him. People would pray.

Then a woman would get up and say, oh Lord, my son, ever since he's gone to Rio, he hasn't written to me. He keeps such bad company. I'm afraid when there's a knock at the door, it's the police. Then somebody would pray for her son.

Then a woman got up and said, very sweetly, please pray for me. I need to love people more. I said to her as gently as I could in Portuguese, Irma, no é confessão. Sister, that's not a confession. Who doesn't need to love people more?

John XXIII needs to love people more, and Billy Graham needs to love people more. Who doesn't need to love people more? When you say, I need to love people more, are you saying anything? No. The lady sat down again, and I said it gently to her.