Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 18:2 (Summer 2014)
Article: George Whitefield Sermon: “The Indwelling Of The Spirit The Common Privilege Of All Believers”
Author: Anonymous

SBTJ 18:2 (Summer 2014) p. 89

George Whitefield Sermon: “The Indwelling Of The Spirit The Common Privilege Of All Believers”

Michael A. G. Haykin

Introduced and edited by Michael A. G. Haykin

Michael A. G. Haykin is Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also Adjunct Professor of Church History and Spirituality at Toronto Baptist Seminary in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Haykin is the author of many books, including “At the Pure Fountain of Thy Word”: Andrew Fuller As an Apologist (Paternoster Press, 2004), Jonathan Edwards: The Holy Spirit in Revival (Evangelical Press, 2005), and The God Who Draws Near: An Introduction to Biblical Spirituality (Evangelical Press, 2007), and Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church (Crossway, 2011).

George Whitefield first preached this sermon on John 7:37-39 at St. Mary the Virgin, the parish church of Bexley, Kent, on Pentecost Sunday, 1739.1 It was later published at the request of the church’s minister, Henry Piers. This sermon reveals Whitefield the devoted Anglican who sincerely sought the reformation of the Church of England and was scandalized at the nominalism of far too many of her ministers. It also well reveals Whitefield the lover of sinners, who gave up so much to trumpet forth the mercy and grace of his Master. Finally, the focus on the gift of the Spirit is typical of the sort of Christianity produced by the revivals of the eighteenth century: profoundly convinced that the Holy Spirit is absolutely vital for the existence and flourishing of New Testament Christianity.

SBTJ 18:2 (Summer 2014) p. 90

Nothing has rendered the cross of Christ of less effect, nothing has been a greater stumbling-block and rock of offence to weak minds, than a supposition now current among us, that most of what is contained in the gospel of Jesus Christ was designed only for our Lord’s first and immediate followers, and consequently calculated for one or two hundred years. Accordingly, many now read the life, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in the same manner as learned men read Caesar’s Commentaries, or the conquests of Alexander—as things rather intended to afford matter for speculation than to be acted over again in and by us. As this is true of the doctrine of the gospel in general, so it is in particular of the operations of God’s Spirit upon the hearts of believers; for we no sooner mention the necessity of our receiving the Holy Ghost in these last days, as well as formerly, but we are looked upon by some as enthusiasts ...