April 30, 2012

In this collection of sermons, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones discusses the theme of revival from his prestigious Westminster pulpit. 1 For more than twenty-five years D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones served as minister to the Westminster Chapel in London. Prior to his ministry in London he left a profitable medical practice to serve in a poor Welsh mining town. Lloyd-Jones was a prolific author with an excess of twenty books to his credit in print today as well as an expositor of the scripture (v). His great desire was to bring balance to the religious thought of the church of his day. This desire is evident in the theme of his ministry and writing: “the inadequacy of a religion of heart without head, or head without heart, or words without deeds, or outward form without inward change” (vi).

From six pericopes of scripture, Lloyd-Jones argues for the church’s need for, and God’s sovereignty in providing, a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit: revival begins by applying the lesson of Mark 9:28-29 to the modern church’s situation. He compares the ineffectiveness of the apostles in casting out “this kind” (10) of demon to the church’s inability to assuage the British culture. He asserts that the church is up against a different kind of foe than has previously been overcome. “This kind can come forth by nothing but” (15) something different from what has been attempted in the past. The method needed is actually no method at all but rather what has been done by God’s people throughout history each time need became urgent to appeal to God for his miracle-working power (18).

Lolyd-Jones goes on to focus his attention on the obstacles preventing the church from experiencing revival citing Genesis 26:17-18 he compares the church’s modern situation with that of Isaac’s sojourn after being asked to leave the land by Abimelech. He and his household had a very urgent need for water. Lolyd-Jones points out that this essential need for water compares to the church’s need of “the Spirit itself” (22). He makes much of the point that “Isaac digged again the wells of water . . . of Abraham” (23). According to Lolyd-Jones we are guilty today of discounting the past and believing that “our position in the twentieth century is essentially different from any position that has ever been known before” (25). In doing this Christians cut themselves off from one of their greatest reservoirs of knowledge, the experiences of those who have gone before. Isaac does not seek “men who are experts in . . . discovering fresh supplies of water” (23) but instead digs again the wells of Abraham.

There exists between man and the supply of water he needs rubbish put in place by enemies who do not want him to tap into this life-giving supply. This “nefarious work of the Philistines” (37) is the greatest hindrance to experiencing true revival. The Philistines’ work has lead to man’s declension and is marked by the denial or concealment of vital truths. Revival will not come as long as these vital truths are denied. The primary truth concealed by the Philistines that must be rediscovered by the church is the transcendence and sovereignty of God. “This is the foundation of all doctrine”(37). Other vital truths which must be rediscovered and taught and believed are “the authority of the Bible” (39), that man is “in sin . . . under the wrath of God” (40), the doctrines of the Person and work of Christ (44), the Holy Spirit (49), justification by faith (55), and regeneration (56). Lloyd-Jones believes these doctrines have all been denied in one form or another and have resulted in an impurity of doctrine which is preventing man from reaching his spiritual water supply.

He warns, however, against simply enthroning orthodox doctrines to subvert the work of the Philistines. Special care must be taken to not place the doctrine about God, Christ, the Spirit in place of the actual person the doctrine is supposed to teach us (58). This leads to an imbalance in reaching true scriptural proportion of these doctrines (59) leading to what Lloyd-Jones calls defective orthodoxy (67).

In the remainder of this work Lloyd-Jones explores scriptural insights he has discovered and lessons from persons who have experienced revival throughout church history. He encourages the reader to seek revival and discourages attitudes, beliefs and practices which he believes are suppressing revival. In particular, he is troubled by the practice and spirit of some who consider themselves orthodox. He is disturbed by “the element of entertainment” (62) he sees in worship, as well as the separation of evangelism from the auspices of the church (61). Lloyd-Jones denounces those who are “wrong in spirit” (64) who with pride in their position, and understanding of God find faults with any and all in the church who are earnestly seeking God. This condition is manifested in an attitude of “smug contentment” (68) and dislike for enthusiasm (72) which reveals a lack of true concern for the glory of God (88).

From the text of Joshua 4:21-24, Lloyd-Jones elaborates further on the general characteristics and purpose of revival. Just as the children of Israel built an altar of stones taken from the Jordan river to remind them of God’s deliverance, revival is how God reminds his people of his work in their lives. In times of revival, spiritual things become clearly understood realities (101). Those who are revived have a profound understanding of God’s holiness (101) and their own sin and guilt (101), a clear view of God’s love and Jesus’ death on the cross (102), as well as a great concern for those outside the church such that the revived reach out to them and they become converted (103). The purpose of revival is first and foremost to glorify God “that all may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty” (119) and “that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever” (122).

The phenomenal effects of revival are dealt with most thoroughly in his consideration of Acts 2:12-13. By “phenomena” he means that which occurs “over and above the fact that large numbers of people are awakened and converted” (133). The true explanation of phenomena is that the Spirit himself works this way and has worked in this manner throughout the pages of Scripture (143). Furthermore, these phenomena are the means through which God calls attention to himself and his own work (145). It is foolish for man not to expect phenomena when the Spirit comes because the Spirit affects the whole person, body, soul and spirit.

Fully one third of Revival deals with the passage from Exodus 33:4;7-23. From this story of Moses and Israel in the wilderness, Lloyd-Jones balances developing a methodology for revival while continuing to assert God’s sovereignty over its actual occurrence. From Moses’ experience Lloyd-Jones discovers stages of revival (153-161), steps of prayer for revival (161-172) and the pattern of revival (203-207). He then spends considerable time discussing and comparing the glory of God revealed to Moses in this wilderness setting with the revelation given to the church during times of revival. He does so because he wants man “to realize that these things are possible and that these things are meant for us”(220). Man is to enjoy “foretastes of heaven here in this world”(222). The precise way God reveals himself is seen in the two principles of “revealing and concealing; blessing and protecting” (238). God will reveal himself in his own way (241), and Jesus is his chosen way of revealing himself to man (243).

Lloyd-Jones concludes this book on revival by considering four passages from Isaiah. Once more he draws comparisons from the Old Testament life of the children of Israel and the modern church. He finds parallels between the prophets’ call for watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem and the need for intercessory prayer for revival. Our intercession must not give God or ourselves rest. We must “bombard heaven until the answer comes” (261). Just as Isaiah’s intercession led him to a vision of a conqueror coming up from Edom wearing blood-spattered garments so our intercessory prayer for revival will cause us to view Christ as our deliverer who comes with righteousness (270), in anger and fury (270), alone (272), to vanquish the enemies of God enabling us to have “times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord” (274). Our plea, as Isaiah’s, must start with worship, asking God as little children to look again to us (294) and soften our hearts so we can again be taught by his Spirit.

Lloyd-Jones’ purpose in writing and giving the sermons that make up this book is to use the centennial anniversary of the British revival of 1859 as a point from which he might promote revival in the Church of God (7). Revival is a sovereign act of Gods that man cannot produce, explain or control. In fact, “not only can men not produce a revival, they cannot explain it . . . I would lay this down as a part of the definition. If you can explain what is happening in a church, apart from this sovereign act of God, it is not revival”(112). While his ultimate purpose was not successful on a cooperate level in the Church in Great Britain, this book certainly serves as a means God can use to stir and renew individual hearts. He consistently applies biblical revival principles to his readers’ personal Christian lives throughout the book. He even states that “somebody reading this book, whom I do not know, may be the person that God is going to use” (163-64) to bring revival. This emphasis is so prominent that it is a real strength of this work. Lloyd-Jones’ continual exhorting for personal application to be made of the principles discovered engages his reader making the reader think about his own spiritual condition and need for renewal.

According to the foreword, Martyn Lloyd-Jones had experienced a “touch of this” (vi), referring to revival in his South Wales congregation. This early experience may have given him a bias toward affirming the experiential in revival. Although in this regard, having some first-hand experience with the subject must be regarded, at the very least affirmatively. Another possible bias is the seeming equivalence he recognizes between biographies of those who have experienced revival first-hand through his reading of church history (24) and the Scripture. While he uses Paul’s statement referring to the children of Israel in 1 Corinthians 10, “These things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (281), to explain his application of Old Testament experiences to the church in the twentieth century, he does not differentiate satisfactorily between biblical principles and practical observations made during revival times.

His definition of revival is not stated definitively but is applied as he progresses throughout the work. Initially he defines revival as “an outpouring of the Spirit of God; the Spirit of God coming in power upon a person or a number of persons at the same time” (50). As he further seeks to distinguish between revival and evangelistic campaigns and wishes to emphasize the importance of the church, he writes “We can define it, . . . it happens primarily in the Church of God, and amongst believing people and it is only secondly something that affects those outside also” (99). Again when he emphasizes the need to pray for something more than we currently experience, he says that “revival by definition is something quite out of the ordinary, something special, unusual, exceptional”(175).

Lloyd-Jones, book on the subject of revival is filled with strengths. Following are three of the more important. First, and the most crucial, is his strong insistence on God’s sovereignty in revival, as well as what he calls “the presidency of the Holy Spirit” (105). Second, is his emphasis on the need for and power of intercessory prayer in revival. Third, are the strong words of condemnation he has for those who have failed to recognize the “nefarious work of the Philistines” (37) in sowing unbelief and causing vital truths to be denied.

He understands the sovereignty of God, and he applies it also to the Holy Spirit’s role in the church and Christian life. Of the sovereignty of God he states “It is the foundation of all doctrines” (37). God did not condescend to Moses or Isaiah, but each time he has revealed himself to anyone he has done it “in his own way” (241). Revival is the act of the sovereign God stirring his people for the purpose of glorifying himself (119) and causing fear of God (122) to fall upon mankind. This congruity of Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ understanding of salvation and revival with his understanding of the sovereignty of God and the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit is consistent with his not placing arbitrary limits on the work of the Holy Spirit. He sees many in the church defining the normal operations of the Holy Spirit by what occurs during times of declension. This is a mistake because it is during times of revival when the Spirit is “descending upon” (53) us that his normal operations occur. The doctrine, as well as the potential for future visitations from the Spirit, can be damaged in this way since “the longing for the exhibition of his glory” (91) is an essential forerunner to revival. He writes that “in a time of revival people are aware of the presidency of the Holy Spirit over everything” (105). Evangelicals, through reactionary doctrines which de-emphasize the Spirit, have become guilty of quenching the Spirit. Either they “forget him or ignore him altogether” (49) or regard him as an influence only and “do not believe in him as a person” (50). Lloyd-Jones notes that the Spirit is a person not merely an influence, and should be referred to as “He” and not “it”, and that the Lord spoke “about the Holy Spirit as ‘He’, as a blessed person”(50). With regard to outpourings of the Spirit during times of revival, some are guilty of either dismissing them as “hysteria” (50) or, through their doctrine, discounting the experiential aspects of the work of the Spirit.

The second strength of the work is its emphasis on the need for and power of intercessory prayer in revival. Using Moses as an example Lloyd-Jones points out that the proper motives for intercession are first and foremost God’s glory, he states that “the reputation and the glory of God” (188) was the motive of Moses that moved God to allow his presence to return. Also, there is Moses’ concern for the people of God. He shows this quality of intercession when directly before God Moses says “if thou wilt not forgive their sin blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book” (191). Intercessors are to be motivated by their concern for the “heathen outside” (193). If the motive for our prayer is only to fill the church it is doomed. “Evangelism and everything else must begin with God and his glory” (192). Often the problem with intercession is wrong motives: sinful man begins with himself in mind and his own purposes and forget God.

The third strength of this work is Lloyd-Jones’ recognition of the causes of the declension facing the church as different in kind than previous declensions. The problem is deeper and is spiritual in nature, not methodological. Previously apathy had been the problem and “all you had to do was to awaken them and arouse them” (13). However, this time he asserts from the beginning of the book that apathy alone is not the problem but a complete denial of the spiritual altogether. Lloyd-Jones credits Finney’s blunder in teaching “that you can have a revival whenever you like if you only do certain things” (235), and the new attitude of some toward the Scriptures that “men decided that they knew much more about the character of God than what was revealed in” (232) the Bible with leading the church in the direction of promoting methods and form criticism of Scripture respectively over God. He makes clear that the church leaders are responsible because, on the one hand, “We allow the ideas of big business to govern our thinking and our strategy, rather than the teaching of the New Testament” (62), and, on the other hand, we “began to criticize this book . . . to deny certain aspects of the teaching”(286). The church has rebelled in doctrine and belief and has “set up the wisdom of men in the place of the wisdom of God” (287).

While there is great value in this book there are three areas where clarification is needed. First, and foremost are the statements which equate “the baptism of the Holy Ghost . . . on Pentecost” (200) with “every revival” (200). Second, there are problems in the exegetical treatment of Scripture and comparison with historical testimonials concerning revival(116) (206-207). Third, is the inconsistency between insisting that God is sovereign in revival and then delineating stages of revival.

A definite weakness is Lloyd-Jones’ apparent incongruity between his views on being filled with the Spirit versus being baptized by the Spirit. As he has presented it in this book, it appears that he believes in a second work of grace, desirable for renewal. It is clear that he believes that the outpouring of God’s Spirit in times of revival is not the “filling” of the Holy Spirit which is “talked of in Ephesians 5:18, which is commanded . . . that is something you and I do, but this is something that is done to us “(201) in a revival. His defense against Pentecost being a one-time experience is, “There is not a word in scripture to say that. Indeed, as I have shown you, the scripture shows quite clearly and explicitly the exact opposite: ‘The Spirit fell on them even as on us at the beginning.’ Let us be careful that we do not quench the Spirit in the interest of some theory or in fear of certain freak religious bodies” (201).

Lloyd-Jones also gives the appearance of an expositional practice while not dealing expositionally with the text. Much is made of the history of revival and little of the main supposition of the text he selects. His practice is to use the text as a spring board into his predetermined topic. While it is certain he would never equate the churches history with God’s Word his practice causes one to raise the question. While learning from others experience is profitable, there must be a definite line drawn between lessons learned from the Scripture regarding how God has dealt with His children in times past and lessons learned from great men and women of faith whose experiences are profitable but not Holy Scripture.

Finally, there is an inconsistency between insisting that God is sovereign in revival and then delineating stages of revival. For example, it is contradictory to assume on the one hand that revival cannot be produced (111-12), explained (112-13) or controlled (115) because God is sovereignly in charge and will do as he pleases and to, on the other hand, it is at least implied in pages dedicated to discussing the general characteristics (101-03) and stages of revival (154) that knowing this information can in some way improve the opportunity for revival.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, it is clear, has a passion for God. He is disturbed greatly by the lack of passion he observes in the church and in society at large. This work is his attempt to clarify the urgent need for God’s empowerment for his work. This is a profound treatment of the subject of revival. Particularly helpful is the holistic approach that Lloyd-Jones brings to the fore by not allowing himself to become lost in the details and methods of revival and forget the ultimate end of revival: glorifying God.

End Notes

1. Lloyd-Jones, Martyn. Revival. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books. 1987. 316 pp.